Picture it. It’s a hot August afternoon inside the Exposition Center at the Jeffery Scott Activity Stage, and the heat is accentuated by the smell of human sweat and a whiff of violence. It’s a double header of Brew City Wrestling shows at the Wisconsin State Fair and in the ring local pro wrestling tag team, the Brew City Bruisers, are competing before hundreds of cream puff and food-on-a-stick enthusiasts.

On the other side of the ring we have Rhino, who grew to fame in the late ’90s and early 2000s wrestling in the now-defunct Extreme Championship Wrestling and, later, in the global juggernaut that is known as WWE. His big money making days are likely over, but he still looks exactly the same and his devastating Gore (!) looks just as deadly as it did when he met opponents like Kane, Chris Jericho, and Jeff Hardy within the ropes back in the day. His tag team partner today is a chubby guy in a sleveless t-shirt and gym shorts. He has an unkempt beard, spiky hair and doesn’t really have the showy muscles you expect from a professional wrestler. His name is Kevin Steen and, despite the appearance, he’s one of the best wrestlers in the entire world.

Flash forward two years and WWE is coming to you live from Corpus Christi, Texas for a WWE Network live special event. The biggest star in professional wrestling over the past 10 years, John Cena, is taking on a pudgy guy in a t-shirt and gym shorts named Kevin Owens. The match they have is excellent, one of the very best WWE matches of the year and, somehow, Owens grabs the win cleanly in the center of the ring. Against all odds, the man formerly known as Kevin Steen has made it from the Wisconsin State Fair to defeating the biggest star of the biggest wrestling company in the world.

Thursday, Brew City Wrestling will return to the Jeffery Scott Activity Stage for two shows in the afternoon at the Wisconsin State Fair. While Steen has obviously moved on to bigger things, the show still promises to be entertaining. Rhino is back, along with fellow ECW alum Steve Corino, WWE Hall of Famer Tito Santana, late ’70s and early ’80s AWA stars Jim Brunzell and Greg Gagne, as well as the “One Legged Wonder”-slash-former Brock Lesnar rival Zach Gowen.

While Santana, Gowen, Gagne and Brunzell may have enjoyed more success on the larger stage of WWE, Corino is perhaps the most interesting performer on the show. He’s arguably the best wrestler never to have a WWE run and quite possibly the only guy in history to be hit in the head with a chair at a Limp Bizkit show and have that video play on MTV News.

BCW runs a family friendly event and this show should personify that (meaning the good guys will win and everyone will get a high five) and this will be one of their larger crowds of the year. Fans will be able to meet and greet wrestlers an hour before both shows, so if you ever wanted to get that ultra rare Tito Santana swag autographed, this is your chance. Tell him you always knew Hogan was a racist after seeing his portrayal on the Hulk Hogan’s Rock N Wrestling cartoon. ¡Arriba!

Shows begin at noon and 2:30 p.m. and tickets are free to all State Fair attendees. The next Kevin Owens might not be on this show, but people were probably saying that about Kevin Owens two years ago, too. Could The Ice Cream Man Taylor Sundae be the future WWE champion? Stranger things have happened.

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Vince Morales is a freelance writer and recovering Miller Park Drunk. He lives in Bay View and spends way too much time worrying about Hangman Page.