Dallas Championship Wrestling’s War of the Genders Pits Men Against Women

Some of the toughest men and women in North Texas recently fought in the ring when Dallas Championship Wrestling hosted War of the Genders III, held at the former Southern Junction in Irving on Saturday, Jan. 5.

Dallas Championship Wrestling (DCW) started about a year and a half ago in Grapevine and recently relocated to Irving. “Mean” Mike Tatum, owner and promoter of DCW, aims to bring all the excitement and action of professional wrestling back to the DFW area.

“I want to be able to bring good old-fashioned Texas wrestling back to North Texas,” Tatum said. “It’s been gone so long. I wrestled for 30 years here with the WCCW and USWA years ago. We want to be the gold standard for professional wrestling in North Texas, the sanctioning body for pro wrestling entertainment and training.”

Tatum is already working to plug into the Irving community and plans to partner with several local organizations.

“I think Irving is more suited for what we do,” Tatum said. “I want to impact the community, so we’ll be working with the Irving Police Athletic League and the City of Irving and some other potential sponsors.”

War of the Genders is a unique competition, because it is not technically split up into a men’s bracket and a women’s bracket. It is an inter-gender competition, meaning men and women fight against each other. The DCW is the biggest inter-gender wrestling federation in the state of Texas, and Tatum said inter-gender matches are becoming more and more popular in pro wrestling.

“These days, it’s becoming more and more common that men are fighting women, and women are fighting men,” Tatum said. “But it’s not so much one-on-one. It’s like a man wrestler and a female wrestler tag teaming against another male and female team. Sometimes before one can tag out, it’s a man versus a woman.”

Randy Wayne, one of the night’s top contenders, has no qualms about facing a female opponent.

“If you step in there, you’re stepping in there to fight,” Wayne said. “I’m not giving anybody any quarter. I’m going to hit the girls just as hard as I’m going to hit the guys. The ladies that are in this match with us tonight, they can hit just as hard as I can. That’s why I say I’m not going to give any quarter, because I know they’re not going to give me any quarter either.”

Miranda Gordy, Wayne’s manager and a fellow wrestler, said women are now being taken more seriously as contenders in pro wrestling.

“Nowadays in wrestling, women are seen as athletes, instead of just ‘divas,’” Gordy said. “These days, you are stepping into a war zone.”

Wrestling is literately in Gordy’s blood. She is the daughter of Terry “Bam Bam” Gordy, a world-famous professional wrestler who performed in World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in the 1980s, and was one of the founding members of the wrestling tag team “The Fabulous Freebirds.”

“That’s why I’m here,” Gordy said of her famous father. “I want to carry on the legacy. I want to be badass like my dad.”

DCW’s owner Mike Tatum believes the fans want to see top-tier pro wrestling entertainment brought to the local level.

“I think [wrestling] is becoming more and more relatable,” Tatum said. “It’s not just big stars wrestling. We’re local, the guys are a lot more approachable, and the fans can keep up with what’s going on match to match, show to show, because they know what’s happening in this show might affect what’s going to happen next month.”

The DCW will begin their new season in Irving this April and will host shows every month through October.