MesaMedia Takes Independent Wrestling By Storm—One Shot At A Time
Steve Mesa was mesmerized as he watched World Wrestling Entertainment personalities Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels grapple in an Iron Man match during WrestleMania XII in 1996.
The then 10-year-old watched the drama unfold from the comfort of his parent’s Hialeah living room thanks to a VHS recording.
After 61 minutes of action, Michaels pinned Hart in sudden death overtime.
“That was a great match,” Mesa said. “From then on, I’ve been hooked.”
Driven by that passion, he started MesaMedia in 2021 to spotlight the independent wrestling community. He shoots about 15 shows nationwide every year.
The 37-year-old entrepreneur has worked venues in Columbus, Ohio; Des Moines, Iowa; Richmond, Virginia; Raleigh, North Carolina and Orlando, Florida.
Content includes local wrestling fights, interviews, press conferences and best-of-the-year compilations posted on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. Most videos average a runtime of three minutes and some have thousands of views.
His latest project is a two-minute compilation of fights from All Elite Wrestling, an organization based in Jacksonville, that features Kenny Omega and the Massie brothers, Nicholas and Matthew.
Labor Of Love
Mesa recorded his first wrestling match in June of 2017.
After working as a food runner and personal driver for Fantasy Super Cosplay Wrestling for a year, Mesa expressed interest in shooting video at an event at the Broward College South Campus gymnasium.
Due to a staff shortage, he was allowed to record. Mesa was soon hooked, shooting matches all across the country using his Nikon D5100 digital camera.
Throughout the years, he has improved his situational awareness to avoid blocking other cameras and becoming a victim of the action.
“I’ve had a couple of occasions where I’ve almost gotten kicked in the face,” Mesa said.
Inspired by Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead trilogy, Mesa began incorporating Dutch and low angles into his cinematographic techniques to create a comic book aesthetic for his footage.
To edit, Mesa utilizes a combination of Adobe Premiere Pro and the iMovie app. It takes him about two hours to cut wrestling clips and match them to songs from artists like The Offspring, Sum 41 and Andrew W.K.
The most recent show Mesa shot was hosted by Mayhem on Mills—a Sanford, Florida-based wrestling promotion organization—on Aug. 6.
Since July, MesaMedia has partnered with Mayhem to create a YouTube channel playlist to allow fans access to wrestling fights he has recorded. It will be available next month.
“He loves it so much that you can feel it in the level of care and detail that he puts into it,” said Billy Donnelly, a friend who has attended wrestling events with Mesa such as WrestleMania 32 and AEW Revolution.
The Genesis
Mesa first delved into the entertainment industry at Miami Dade College. He served as the arts and entertainment editor at the now-defunct Falcon Times student newspaper at North Campus before graduating with an associate’s degree in journalism in 2008.
During his time at MDC, Mesa met former Miami Herald movie critic Rene Rodriguez at a film criticism panel at Wolfson Campus in 2006.
Rodriguez helped him form relationships with local publicists that allowed him to attend movie screenings and press conferences with actors like Andrew Garfield, Jackie Chan and Antonio Banderas.
After transferring to Florida International University to study communications, Mesa joined the school’s student newspaper, which at the time was called The Beacon, and produced a video journalism capstone project covering the Miami Film Festival.
“I think Steve is incredibly gifted,” said Rodriguez, who now manages the Bill Cosford Cinema at the University of Miami and is an adjunct film professor. “He reminds me a little bit of myself.”
After graduating from FIU in 2012, Mesa briefly worked as a security guard and assistant librarian at Hialeah-Miami Lakes Senior High School before becoming a paraprofessional at Hialeah Gardens Elementary.
But wrestling will always be in his heart.
“Wrestling to me means an escape,” Mesa said. “If you just get lost in the moment and enjoy what you’re watching with wrestling, reality just goes out the window for the next one to two hours.”
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