By: John Pollock & Brandon Thurston
Questions are being asked about the state of the Berwyn Eagles Club after a report that its entertainment license has not been revoked.
This weekend marks the final wrestling events at the venue in Berwyn as AAW hosts ‘Crash & Destroy’ tonight, followed by a lucha event on Saturday.
The club hosted the Ruthless Pro Wrestling show on March 28, which ended with an incident involving wrestler Krule and a fan. Video emerged of the fan being attacked by wrestlers and attendees and escorted out of the building. The next day, it was stated that two wrestlers claimed that the fan had stabbed Krule, although others disputed that in attendance, and the Berwyn Police Department concluded that no stabbing occurred.
The club informed promoters it would no longer host wrestling events, forcing Game Changer Wrestling to find a new location for a June 20 event, and promoter Brett Lauderdale stated he had additional events planned for Berwyn.
A GoFundMe was launched with the blessing of Chuck Marose Sr., who runs the Berwyn Eagles Club as a trustee and its secretary. The campaign claimed the venue “lost its license and is no longer allowed to host wrestling shows” and led to event cancellations and left the club “without its primary source of income”.
As noted in our April 11 story by Neal Flanagan: “It is not yet clear from public information which specific license the fundraiser is referring to. However, Berwyn’s code requires a local license for paid amusements and entertainment, a category that expressly includes professional wrestling, and the city’s liquor code has separate entertainment-and-amusement classifications for establishments serving alcohol”.
The Chicago Sun Times reported on Friday, “Exactly why the club is ceasing all wrestling events remains unclear. Berwyn’s city attorney and chief of police confirmed with a reporter that the venue’s entertainment license — necessary for hosting wrestling shows — has not been revoked as a result of the events on March 28. Berwyn Chief of police Michael Fellows said that the Berwyn Eagles Club pays for one officer during wrestling events. After the brawl, the department recommended increasing the total number of on-site officers to four”.
Chuck Marose Sr. declined an interview with the Chicago Sun-Times, but POST Wrestling has reached out to Jon Craft, who launched the GoFundMe.
On April 9, Brandon Thurston, on behalf of POST Wrestling, spoke by phone with a person at the Berwyn Eagles Club who identified himself as Paul McFeely and as an officer of the club. McFeely attributed the end of wrestling at the venue to concerns raised by the police and the town. When asked how the police and town have the authority to prevent the club from holding wrestling events, McFeely brought up the venue’s liquor license. He did not say the club had lost its liquor license but indicated that incidents like the one involving Krule and the intoxicated fan could jeopardize it. Before ending the call, McFeely asked for Thurston’s name and asked for its spelling, sounding as if McFeely was writing the name down. When we called back roughly an hour later to ask further questions, seemingly the same person, who identified himself as McFeely, claimed to have no memory of the earlier conversation and quickly ended the call.
Because McFeely effectively denied his earlier statements to us, we did not include these details in our April 9 written report about the Eagles Club. We’ve decided to include these details now because the Sun-Times’ confirmation that the entertainment license was not revoked is consistent with McFeely’s account that no formal action had been taken but that the club’s liquor license was at risk. His denial of the conversation and Marose’s unwillingness to speak with the Sun-Times to fully explain the situation fit a pattern of unclear and conflicting information surrounding wrestling at the venue.
Phone calls placed today, on Friday, to the club went to voicemail. We left a voice message, which was not immediately returned.
The Chicago Sun Times spoke with a fan in attendance at the Ruthless Pro Wrestling show and stated that the “fan” who approached Krule after the show was a “known problem” in the local wrestling scene and cited an instance when the person was “obviously inebriated” and yelled a homophobic slur at a queer wrestler.
The Berwyn Eagles Club has hosted pro wrestling shows for over two decades and was the long-time home venue for AAW and SHIMMER.