Family Fun Meets Divine Battles! Guardians' Legacy professional wrestling offers fans of Bay County unforgettable nights of faith, strength, and pure excitement!

In today's world of professional wrestling, backstabbing, teaching children bad habits, and hatred are all commonplace. One local Bay County wrestling organization is doing its best to offer the glitz and glamour of professional wrestling, but also share love, joy, grace, and peace instead. I recently got to have a conversation with the promoter of Guardians' Legacy, Skip Bondur. He shared his vision and focus, challenges faced, rewards gained, and even who he would book in a dream match.

During our discussion, it was easy to see that Skip has an incredible passion for the wrestling business. Also, his passion for spreading the love of God is at the heart of Guardians' Legacy. Giving the fans in attendance a place to go to escape the troubles of today's world is the company's vision and focus. "We want to create a wrestling show where every kid, of every age, can come to our show and enjoy the time away," stated Skip. He added, "What makes our promotion unique is we want to provide kids and adults with a retreat from the chaos going on in the world today." However, this does not happen without challenges.

“It isn't the criticism that is challenging, but being a part of the scene, constantly getting bombarded by messages from people wanting the show to go one way or another. It can be difficult to provide the fan base with the entertainment they deserve, but also negotiating in and out of the other promotions that run locally and to stay out of each other's way as much as possible, and just be courteous to one another." The challenges are far outweighed by the rewards.

“We run a local non-profit in Bay County.", referring to Outreach Ministries and their Stuff the Bus campaign during the holiday season. "In December, we park our bus on 23rd Street at Walmart and live on the roof of it for 10 days, without our feet touching the ground. Over those 10 days, we will collect 10,000 toys for Bay County children." The leader of the Guardians adds, "Over the entire year, we collect around 20,000 toys for the children."

The storyline of the shows is also a great reward. Skip shares, "Sometimes people look at me crazy and say what are you doing, but we were trying to establish from the beginning, these interconnected relationships from these participants called wrestlers," He adds, "How do they interact and engage with one another?" "We brought back the Gator, current Guardians' Legacy Champion, at our second show to tell the story of this character who isn't a normal type of baby-face, good guy; but he relented and is now a crowd favorite. How does he engage with some of the heels, bad guys, that come in that want to take his throne?"

On the ladies' side, T-Gainz, the current Guardians' Legacy Women's Champion, leads the way. Skip adds, "We temper very aggressive heels against T-Gainz, which is kind of like our Hulk Hogan, in a way. She is in many ways that likable, lovable face that the fans just adore." He continues, "Emily Locke, who has wrestled in Bay County a long time, continues her quest to dethrone T-Gainz and get revenge for her first pin-fall loss ever in Bay County."

All of these talented wrestlers with Guardians' Legacy help keep the focus on the kids as well. At a Guardians' Legacy show, you will not hear any profanity, and the wrestler's cooperation helps make things special for the children. Skip said, "We spend countless hours making sure no parent will ever call me and be upset with me for something that I subjected their child to." Letting potential wrestlers know this is a kid-friendly environment also helps those wrestlers decide if this is somewhere they want to wrestle as well.

One last question before we ended our conversation revealed who Skip would book in a dream match scenario. "Hulk Hogan versus James "Gator" Grimm in the Rosenwald Gym." "I would want to just see the stare-down before the match, then I would probably take my hat off, set the microphone down, and, for once, actually sit down at the announcer's table and watch the match."

The next show, which you do not want to miss, will be called the War of the Guardians and will take place November 4, 2023 at the Rosenwald High School Gymnasium, 924 Bay Avenue in Panama City. The doors will open at 6 PM. and bell time is 7 PM. General Admission is only $10 and ringside seating is $15. Of course, children 6-12 are only $8, while Kids under five are free. You can purchase tickets and more at www.theguardianslegacy.com