by Kristen Wile

Adam Duke (left) and Matt Martin. Photo courtesy

When Adam Duke and Matt Martin launched Title Belt Frozen Desserts, they brought their shared love of wrestling into the business’s branding. Since launching Title Belt, they’ve been on hand at local wrestling shows to share their vegan ice cream with the talent there, as well as sharing samples with big-name wrestlers. The conversations and friendships spurred by Title Belt, specifically with Columbia-based indie wrestler Ethan Case, led the duo to the idea of launching a series of professional wrestling events in Charlotte. Title Belt Pro’s first event will take place on Saturday, Jan. 21 at Free Range Brewing in NoDa.

While there are promotions that come through Charlotte, Duke and Martin are hoping to create a regular series of wrestling events that take place only in Charlotte, with storylines that stretch from event to event.

“We have all these connections in town and Matt and I have hospitality experience and experience putting on events,” Duke says. “This really seems like a partnership that kind of makes sense. And over time, that just kind of happened, really.”

While both hope to eventually get involved in the entertainment side of the events, as they get Title Belt off the ground, both will be managing the business of the events, hoping to get a better idea of attendees and expectations. The upcoming event will feature a ring and stage in the back of Free Range Brewing, with mostly standing room as well as a small seating area. Tickets for the debut evening, Title Belt Pro presents Arrival, cost $20-$30 and are currently for sale on Eventbrite. The show card, or roster of matches, features a tag team main event featuring “Best of the Rest” Ethan Case and Chip Day vs. “The Workhorsemen” Anthony Henry and James Drake, several of whom have competed on the national level. Following Arrival, they plan to host an event every four to six weeks.

“I really expect us to be able to create this electrifying thing where if you’ve seen it once, if you’ve been a part of it once, you want to come back and you want to bring other people with you to share in that experience,” Martin says.

Title Belt Frozen Desserts, as well as concessions from both chefs, will be available for sale during the show, along with beer from Free Range Brewing; Duke says guests can expect the food and beverage offerings to be significantly better than what you’d find at your average local wrestling show.

Martin is the executive chef with local produce delivery service Freshlist; Duke is the owner of Dukes Bread. While two chefs launching a professional wrestling promotion seems like an odd mix, Duke and Martin see what wrestlers do as a form of hospitality.

“Wrestlers just want to take care of people and they want people to have a good time; they want people to come out, enjoy themselves, and just forget about their life for a little bit,” Duke says. “Chefs feel the same way. They want people coming to restaurants to enjoy themselves and have them come back. That sense of hospitality is exactly the same — going to a restaurant, going to a show for me — and it just made me feel a lot of different ways about trying to kind of almost combine those two into a new, different sort of community.”

“For me, the thing that really makes me feel as though the culinary world and the wrestling world have this weird sort of underground alignment is there’s that need and that want to just perform for others and to give something of yourself to other people so that they can, as Adam was saying, escape from the things that they’re in for just a little bit, and have that sense of entertainment and get out and feel something different.,” Martin adds.

All profits from Arrival will benefit Charlotte Rescue Mission. Both Duke and Martin say this is more a passion project than something meant to add to their business portfolios, with each show benefiting a different nonprofit. They also plan to involve local community groups to make the shows more inclusive.

“We’re trying to build something not just for wrestling fans, but for Charlotte in general,” Duke says. “We want this to be a Charlotte thing. We don’t want this to be just specifically a Charlotte wrestling fan thing, although our goal is to put out very good wrestling, so there’s definitely going to be room for that. But we have a lot of plans to include different communities within Charlotte to get them engaged and coming out.”