Half Pint Brawlers will fight in Bartlett

In a battle of large and small, the little guy won.

Bannerman's Sports Grill was awarded the prize in a match its owner has been fighting in for weeks: a special use permit to host the midget wrestling troupe, the Half Pint Brawlers.

After several Bartlett village meetings filled with petitions, pleas and promises, Bartlett trustees approved a special use permit allowing the November 23 event to take place, but not without restrictions. The permit prohibits anyone from performing any “lewd act or behavior offensive to an average person” including stripteases, pole dancing, lap dances, mud wrestling, Jell-O wrestling or wrestling while covered in a “foreign substance or oil,” the ordinance states.

Other restrictions specify that the live events covered in the ordinance limited to 12 per year cannot include any live mixed martial arts fighting, which is something Bannerman's owner Murray Friedman was denied from hosting a year ago after resident complaints that the violence reflected poorly on the community.

At its last meeting, Steve Richardson, a 4-foot, 4-inch tall wrestler who goes by the name of “Puppet the Psycho Dwarf,” appeared before trustees in the hopes to help Friedman get approval for the event. “Puppet didn't understand why people would question his company,” Friedman said, noting that they do events for kids, too.

“I try to do things the right way. I respect every one of the board members; they have a tough job and they have a lot of battles to fight,” Friedman said, grateful for the village's approval.

Friedman, who will now focus on selling out the event, said he never intended to put pressure on the village to approve the event or to put the village in a bad light, but, he added, “I'm glad it's over.”

Event tickets for the three-hour show are still available at Bannerman's, located off Route 59 and Stearns Road, priced at $90 for a table for four or $12 for a general admission ticket. A camera crew from the cable network Spike TV is expected to be there to record the night's events.