Mat War Pro Wrestling, which is about to celebrate its third anniversary, runs a recurring Fort Worth show that’s become a draw for fans and wrestlers alike.

FORT WORTH, Texas — Some say professional wrestling is a poison. 

Everyone from wrestling promoters to the wrestlers themselves all have it running through their veins.

For Jason Keenan, along with Josh Neimand and Derek Abramson, it’s a poison that’s been running through their veins for decades. First, as fans, and now for the past several years, as professional wrestling promoters. 

“You have to be a little bit crazy,” Abramson said about being in the wrestling industry. “These guys in the ring? They’re bitten.”

Keenan is the main promoter and booker behind Mat War Pro Wrestling in Fort Worth, but he gets plenty of assistance from Neimand and Abramson when running the shows. And it takes plenty of work, too. This Friday, Mat War Pro will celebrate the third anniversary of its inception. Over the course of that run, the North Texas independent wrestling promotion has proven itself as a forum for exciting wrestling talent from around the region and the state, as well as a few big names known across the country. 

For Mat War Pro, all of the set-up — the ring itself, the lights, the chairs — begins at about noon the day before the show. This week’s upcoming show, just like many of its previous shows, is being held at Southside Preservation Hall. The building, which used to host the local Boys and Girls Club, has a history of hosting wrestling shows going back decades.


Two of the biggest names on the Mat War Pro roster are Dante Leon and 1 Called Manders. Leon, a Dallas native, moved to the Midwest for more opportunities. Manders, on the other hand, recently moved to Fort Worth from Iowa. Both of them have wrestled all over the U.S., and in faraway countries like Japan.

Wrestlers like Leon and Manders arrive hours before the start time of each show and start working in the ring by themselves and with each other, planning out their match and also getting familiar with the ring they’ll be inside — things like testing the tightness of the ropes, figuring out where the cameras are placed and so on.

“It’s more like a band,” Abramson said about putting on a show. “Like, you play the drums, I play the guitar. I have this idea. It’s like a checklist. We want this, this and this to happen.”

Before the show, the wrestlers will also cut promos — videos meant to promote their matches — and set up their merch stands, where fans can buy T-shirts and other goods from them after shows. As the night comes to its close, wrestlers will work with interviewers to discuss the event and to further promote upcoming matches to be held in future events. Then the breakdown of the ring area begins. 

Keenan and Neimand both spent time in New York more than 20 years ago, although they didn’t know each other at the time. Keenan was briefly a wrestler, but he soon fell under the wing of Dennis Coralluzzo, who promoted shows in New Jersey and around the northeast for the National Wrestling Alliance throughout the ’90s. Neimand, meanwhile, was an early, massive fan of the legendary indie promotion Ring of Honor, and after befriending some of the wrestlers on that roster, he began helping out backstage for ROH booker Gabe Sapolsky.


Along with promoting wrestling, Keenan also has a background in throwing concerts — punk rock shows, mainly. The community ethos of punk rock and hardcore shows, Keenan said, is something he tries to translate to his own pro wrestling events. 

“Wrestling is a distraction, it’s a pleasure, it’s something that’s an escape,” Keenan said. “The biggest portion of what we do is entertainment for the people who come here, and that’s kind of been our benchmark. If we’re in service to each other and we’re in service to the crowd, then we win.”

Every wrestling promotion does things a little differently. Some are focused on providing the biggest matches with the biggest names they can. Others place more focus on telling a clear, month-to-month story. Mat War Pro, Keenan said, offers a continual story arc throughout its events.

“I believe that’s what kind of resonates with an audience locally,” Keenan said. “Because what we do is, while it’s not a grand production like WWE or anything else, it has its own place in the art form that people tend to enjoy.”

When it comes to putting together a wrestling show and making the matches, Keenan said he finds talent that he enjoys working with from Texas and other nearby states who have the same passion and care for the sport that he and the rest of Mat War Pro have. That means caring about how wrestling is presented and projected. 

“From there, we look at their strengths, we look at their goals, and I think that, when we’re in service to one another, all the other parts come very easily,” Keenan said. “It’s very easy for me to service them within the stories and within their opponents and challengers, and that resonates with the crowd also, because we’re all invested. We all have a mutual buy-in.”

Keenan said he’s always keeping an eye out for new talent, too. Mainly, he eyes athletes who take unique bookings or who present themselves well, or who have some unique attribute to themselves. There also has to be a balance between how much local talent is being used compared to the amount of national talent.

“It’s mainly a lot of local people that we’re building value and stock in, and the way we build value and stock is through the emotional exchange of telling the stories,” Keenan said. “And then that’s the only thing that separates someone from being a national to being a local, opening doors.”


Leon has wrestled for Mat War since 2023, and said he tries to get to his wrestling bookings as early as possible, so he can begin stretching and warming up for the show.

“Travel does more damage to the body, and sometimes the ring does,” he said. “So that’s number one, and then I just get into a mental mindset of being ready.”

At Mat War Pro’s last show in July, Leon wrestled Jay Davis — someone he’s worked with before, but not in a few years.

“Every time, it evolves when the person learns more or becomes more confident in themselves as a performer,” Leon said about working with other wrestlers more than once.

Manders, though an experienced in-ring veteran, is a new name to Mat War, having just debuted at their July show.

Trained by WWE’s Seth Rollins, the self-proclaimed “Boss of the Plains” has been wrestling for almost a decade now. He recently had a tour wrestling in Japan, and he also wrestles for Westside Xtreme Wrestling in Germany, where he’s previously held the Unified World Wrestling Championship.

He’s a journeyman in the sport, and wholly dependent on promotions like Mat War Pro to keep his career going. To him, events like the ones Keenan, Neimand and Abramson throw mean everything.

“I’m trying to enjoy it all because I’m never gonna have this — maybe ever again — so it’s just trying to enjoy the process,” Manders said. “This is all the s**t you dream about, you know? All the long miles and the drives and the low budgets, and people telling you. ‘Why would you do pro wrestling? It’s fake and weird!’ Or whatever. So y’know, I get to live the dream. I get to see the world.”

And, sometimes, you see it through the lens of the Southside Preservation Hall in Fort Worth.

Tickets for Mat War Pro’s third anniversary show this Friday are on sale here.