New Jersey beach set to host massive indie wrestling event

Professional wrestling is generally known for story-driven entertainment as well as hard-hitting, high-flying action that leads to a crescendo in the ring that makes fans feel some sort of emotion. Every major company is trying to get to that moment.

Sometimes a unique venue adds to the excitement of the show, especially for smaller independent professional wrestling companies trying to attract audiences for a few hours. On July 14, Fight Factory Wrestling returns to the beach for The War on the Shore 3.

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The event will take place near Martell’s Tiki Bar in Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey, and will bring professional wrestling to the beach. Joey Janela, Ben Bishop, Jack Vaughn, Richard Holliday, Steve Maclin, Jay Lethal, Sent 2 Slauter, Lady Frost, Allie Katch, Steph De Lander and others are among those who will participate in matches at the event.

Dave Sturchio, one of the minds behind Fight Factory Wrestling alongside Chris Payne, spoke to Fox News Digital about getting started in the sport. He said he and Payne first started wrestling in 2012, but as time went on, the two went their separate ways. The two reunited in 2024 to produce the “Fight Factory Podcast.” He said Payne had dreams of putting on a wrestling show similar to the World Championship Wrestling Bash on the beach.

Sturchio said he sought out Payne to continue producing the beach show despite some concerns about getting involved in the creative side of the sport. Sturchio said he was a little hesitant when he first came to the venue about the event, but when he came back with a plan, the venue accepted it.

“When the excitement around the show prep started to build and intensify, I said to Payne, ‘I don’t know if this is a one-time thing. I think there’s something here,'” Sturchio said. “And Payne and I, we’ve been in the industry since 2012, we’re lifelong fans, I’m already an entrepreneur at heart, so how do I take my entrepreneurial gigs, being my own boss for the last three or four years, how do I parlay that into being a professional wrestling promoter?”

Sturchio said working with Payne allowed the stars to align and give each other a chance to build something great. He said the response from the first Littoral War in 2024 was “overwhelming.”

Fight Factory Wrestling’s Dave Sturchio is on the mic at The War on the Shore 2. (Provided to Fox News Digital)

“We were like, it’s actually kind of crazy. People actually jockey for wrestling in the summer. Typically, when you go to a VFW or your gyms, the independent wrestling kind of starts and they don’t run as much in the summer because it’s hot. So I said, if anything, no one’s going to run against us, and unfortunately for us, we were booked on a Tuesday night, and we were like, ‘God, there’s no way anyone’s going to do that. I’ll show up on Tuesday.’

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“Apparently, no one’s really doing anything on Tuesday. It was very easy to set the wrestlers up for it because no one had an incident. … The first year was great. I think the best evidence we had was when we booked Matt Cardona as one of our featured guests on the first one, and that’s when he tore his pectoral muscle. So he was out for a while, but he promised us he’d still come.”

Sturchio said Cardona was very surprised and thought he and Payne had been running stunts for a while.

“If you’re going to blow up Matt Cardona, I think we’ve got something. It’s off to the races, man,” he added.

Now Sturchio and Payne are set to fight their third Battle on the Beach in New Jersey, and the card couldn’t be more interesting.

“We really stacked the deck this year,” he told Fox News Digital. “Some of the professional wrestling shows you go to on the independents, there are lulls like that. There are matches where you think, ‘Oh, they’re going to give this guy a chance here, and they’re going to give this guy a chance there.’

“This year, I said to Payne, look, based on everyone we’ve booked so far for me and some of the independent wrestlers don’t want to hear about it, we’re trying to build a roster, we’re trying to build a core roster. So, if we’ve used you before and you’ve done well, we’ll use you again. Instead of saying, hey, random guy here, I don’t know who you are, but let’s give you a chance. So we’re trying to do this: build storylines, and there’s a lot of storylines that culminate.”

Sturchio highlighted a number of matches that fans should look forward to watching. One of these in particular is the restructuring of The Heavenly Bodies tag team with Justin and Mark Corino.

Professional wrestling fans are rooting for Point Pleasant, New Jersey for The War on the Shore 2. (Provided to Fox News Digital)

“These guys are back together for the first time in seven years,” he said. “They are my friends, I found them. They were my first rivals on the team and I have known these guys for a long time and they are near and dear to me.”

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Lady Frost will take action against De Lander and Katch. Bishop defends the Fight Factory Premier Championship against Holliday and Vaughn. Janela will face Jay Lethal for the first time, and the event will feature a roar and a tiki totem on a pole that will act as Fight Factory Wrestling’s “Money in the Bank” style gimmick.

“The cards are full. I’m more excited than anything. There’s not a single gap,” Sturchio said. “We’re going to go right ahead and I think this will be one of those nights we remember for a long, long time.”