To judge what kind of job was done by the 19 American Championship Wrestling (ACW) performers that entered the ring at the National Guard Armory in Laurinburg on Saturday night, you didn't need to watch any of the actual wrestling action.

Keeping an eye on the spectators themselves was all that would be needed.

Grown men and children alike, standing and yelling as they were verbally engaged by heels such as Rusty Rhodes, Chris Steele or Cham-Pain. Fans seeking autographs as wrestling icon Ivan Koloff posed for pictures with others in the ring during an intermission period. One fan, a woman, probably in her 50s, yelled out, "That's my preacher, don't tell anybody!" as a pair of masked bandits slipped into the ring with a surprise attack on Koloff.

The same woman stood up at one point and folded her chair, half-jokingly, at the sight of another bad guy entering the ring.

Actually, there might have been more characters in the crowd than there were in the ring on this particular Saturday night.

Bill Graves, co-owner of the ACW, wrestles under the name of Ethan Storm, and he and his partner, Cham-Pain, relish the role of heel tag-team partners.

"We love that," Graves said. "It makes my job a whole lot easier. Making them as mad as I can make them — that's my job."

Graves is bad as can be when he's Ethan Storm, but he, along with the other wrestlers of the ACW, are good guys, no matter what their role on the night of a match might be.

"The thing about the guys we use is they're all real good guys," said Graves. "They'll do whatever we ask them to do.

"Things are really relaxed in the dressing room. It makes it a whole lot easier."

Storm and Cham-Pain successfully defended their ACW tag-team title against the Lumbee Warrior and Jack Hammer. Scott Powers won an ACW title match against Alex Adonis; Storm, Cham-Pain and Chris Steele aided Powers in his win, and the four united and unviled themselves as “The Enforcers” after the match.

Chief Red Thunder defended his title against Futonga, who stole the belt after being disqualified. Dalton Adams and Max Stevens were victorious in a tag-team match with Rusty Rhodes and Old School; Rhodes, a typical wrestling heel, cost his team the match when he mistakenly cracked his partner in the back with a folding chair from outside the ring.

Steele won two out of three falls against Dylan Kage in what was a tremendous match. Kage, the good guy in this match, performed perhaps the most dangerous move of the night when he did a flip off the side of the ring and into Steele. If Kage misses with this move, he lands either head first or on his back on the unforgiving floor of the National Guard Armory.

Red Dragon forced Jackie Williams to tap out in the first match of the night.

Koloff, who was involved in a "Russian chain match" that he won via disqualification, walks with a severe limp and is slumped over after spending decades as a championship-winning wrestler. Koloff, who was born under the name of James Perras in 1942, wrestled under the nickname of "The Russian Bear", even though he is Canadian.

It says a lot about the love for wrestling Koloff must have to continue participating in his current physical condition. Koloff spoke to the crowd early on at Saturday's match, telling them, "I only missed two wrestling matches in my entire career, and I was in the hospital both times."

Koloff's body is now failing him, much in the same way old veterans of the National Football League have their bodies turn on them after years of physical abuse.

"Most of the older guys, they still love the business, they love to perform for people," said Graves. "People just don't understand what they put their bodies through."

Chief Red Thunder, a Pembroke native whose real name is William Locklear, is understanding that part of wrestling more with age. Locklear has gone though "a couple of broken noses, one concussion that I know of for sure, ligament and cartilage damage in my knee in the mid 90's requiring surgery," and that's not all.

"A month ago, during a show in McColl, I got a severe laceration and needed stitches on the side of my head after I hit the ring post and snagged my face on the hooks that connect the ropes in the ring," Locklear said. "I didn't know where I was for several seconds."

Locklear trained for more than a year under Koloff at a wrestling school in Charlotte, and broke into wrestling with the help of former Laurinburg Police officer Mitch Goude, who was a promoter for the ACW when Locklear got started 14 years ago.

When asked if he thinks about getting out of wrestling before his body deteriorates in a similar way to his mentor Koloff, Locklear said, "I think about it all the time."

Maybe Red Thunder was speaking for Locklear when he added, "You know though, wrestling is like a drug. You know you need to be home on the weekend, but you're going to end up wrestling in a show somewhere because you love it so much."

Many of the wrestlers of the ACW are from this area. The shows are always well received in Laurinburg (Saturday's show was a near sellout), and it works out well for local talent to have the chance to wrestle close to home, a convenience Graves didn't always have when he first started out.

"We help guys get an opportunity to work on their craft," Graves said. "We had to drive a long way to get ring time when I first started out.

"The more ring time you get, the better you get."

The ACW wrestlers seem to be in agreement that Laurinburg is an ideal venue for their matches.

"To be honest with you, we have a better following here than anywhere else," said Graves.

"I've been doing this all these years, wrestling up and down the East coast," said Locklear. "I've been treated better in Laurinburg than anywhere else, probably even my hometown, and I mean no disrespect to my hometown when I say that."