Professional wrestler Robert Anthony was at a Fourth of July parade in Joliet when he heard news of the mass shooting at Highland Park’s parade. The first thing he did was reach out to his friend Billy Corgan.
“I sent him a message as soon as I heard the news to find out if he was OK,” Anthony said.
Corgan, the lead singer and primary songwriter for The Smashing Pumpkins, as well as the president of the National Wrestling Alliance, moved to Highland Park nearly 20 years ago and became more and more involved in his adopted community over the years.
When a gunman killed seven people and wounded dozens more last Fourth of July, Corgan used his talent and celebrity to help the community heal with a special emphasis on Cooper Roberts, the youngest wounded with life-altering injuries.
The National Wrestling Alliance will hold HP Cares for Cooper, featuring professional wrestling matches, at 2 p.m. July 8 at the Highland Park Recreation Center to raise money as well as awareness to help defray the mounting expenses of Cooper’s care and needs.
Along with that event, a live taping of two sessions of National Wrestling Alliance matches will take place at 2 and 6 p.m. July 9 at the Studio 1 on Green Bay Road in downtown Highland Park.
For both Corgan and Anthony, raising money to help the Roberts family is important but their focus is also on bringing the community together and helping Cooper through his injuries, both physically and emotionally.
Professional wrestling is about entertaining people, and 90% of the fans are children, they said. Anthony said the most important thing to him at the HP Cares for Cooper event is helping the feelings of the young boy.
“If we can lift his spirits for two to three hours entertaining him, then I will feel the whole thing is worth it,” he said. “I want to give him time to have fun, and just be a young kid.”
Though two sponsorships for the event are available for $5,000, six for $1,000 and an unlimited number for $500, Cogan said the event is free, with donations requested. He wants the day to be inclusive for the community to help everyone heal.
“I thought that was the better way to get the community to rally around the event, and not make people excluded if they couldn’t afford to come,” he said. “I try to put the emphasis in charity that caring ultimately is the greater act.”
Like Anthony wanting to make Cooper feel good for a few hours at the wrestling matches, Corgan said more important than the money is the young boy feeling wide community support because, “he and his (twin) brother are in this community.”
“He needs to know this whole community has his back, not just a few people who can show up every once in awhile and say we care,” Corgan said. “He needs to feel this whole community is with him. That’s the point of emphasis for me.”
Besides wishing to give Cooper and the rest of the crowd an afternoon of entertainment, Anthony — a professional wrestler for 23 years — said he will be making his National Wrestling debut. For him, the sport is about storytelling and he has one to share.
“I’ll be wrestling Magic Jake, and that’s a story to tell,” Anthony said. “This is the story of someone wrestling for 23 years who’s coming to a new place to show people what he is about.”
While HP Cares for Cooper is a free event with donations requested, the taped events the next day are not. Tickets start at $24.95. Corgan said they will give fans an inside glimpse into the sport.
“People like to see behind the scenes, how the television show is made.” Corgan said. “The cool thing is even though it’s such a small space, we bring in 60 to 70 wrestlers so you get to see a lot of great talent in one day.”
