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DENTON, N.C. -- Wrestlers may wear masks, but they don’t wear hoods. That’s why a group of semi-professional wrestlers were angry when a local promoter waved off black wrestlers and fans from a bout scheduled June 23 at a Denton, North Carolina Elementary School after a veiled threat in the form of a text message purportedly from the KKK.

“I was told I couldn’t go because they didn’t want any black athletes in Denton,” said James Brody, an African American wrestler from Hudson.

Brody’s been thrown in the ring, thrown out of the ring, but he’s never been thrown out of a bout because of his race.

“I was pretty angry at first but, you know, I prayed about it and thought about it and I thought they don't want me there that's their loss not mine,” said Brody.

Wrestlers said the promoter gathered them a few days before the match in the dressing room and told them, “More or less any black wrestlers and even black fans weren't welcome in the show,” said Chris Rogers, who wrestles with his brother from Monroe.

“You could have cut the tension in the locker room with a knife because we felt like why are we even here to put on a show for these people if we can't have our brothers of another race or nationality,” said Rogers.

David Ridenhour, a Lutheran pastor who plays the role of a “mafia” wrestling manager under the name “Giovani Fino,” says the promoter told them he had tried to report the text warning to law enforcement.

“I was told they contacted police and they said, ‘You’d better pay attention. Those boys mean business,’” said Ridenhour.

“We haven’t received a complaint,” said Denton Police Chief Mark Hicks. “If we knew anything about the event we would have had an officer there. I have never heard of that group.”

Denton is a town of 1,636 residents east of Salisbury and High Rock Lake in Davidson County. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the town has 1,610 residents identified as “white” compared to “black or African American” residents–two.

“We welcome anyone here in this town,” said Chief Hicks.

“Tell them I said, ‘Shut the hell up and leave it alone,’” said the promoter, who asked that his name not be used. “I was warned by a text message from an unknown number,” said the promoter.

He quoted the text message as saying, “Do not bring no blacks into Denton. You have been warned. The White Knights.”

“I think it’s a terrible mistake to cave in to these kinds of apparent threats,” said Mark Potok, Senior Fellow at the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist groups.

Potok said the SPLC knows of 28 active Klan groups, including five with the name “White Knights,” but none of those are in the Carolinas.

“The rest of the radical right very much looks down its noses at the Klan,” said Potok.

If you’re unfamiliar with the long and storied tradition of wrestling (pronounced ‘rasslin’) in the southern U.S., it carries a rich cast of characters, many based on crude racial or ethnic stereotypes.

This ain’t the Olympics. In the midst of an oil embargo, expect an Arab sheik. In the first gulf war, an Iraqi. At a recent match in Lexington, a “Mexican” wrestler waved the Mexican flag and grunted rudimentary Spanish.

At the Lexington match staged outside between thunderstorms at Tumble Tots gym, a white wrestler wearing a prominent confederate flag on his t-shirt fights a shirtless black wrestler. This night, the white guy wins and the two exit the ring arm in arm. Better luck next week.

The show went on in Denton but Pastor Ridenhour quoted the promoter as saying, “’Well we’re going to go along with it and just not come back to this town.’”

Neither Denton Mayor Scott Morris nor Town Manager Victor Pizzurro nor Police Chief Mark Hicks would speak on camera about the wrestling match, saying they had received no formal complaint.

Pizzurro only recently joined the town of Denton as manager. He asked NewsChannel 36 how to pitch the town for more positive stories to attract visitors.

Perhaps he could start by reaching out to James Brody and telling him he’s welcome in Denton.

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If this happened anywhere else I would call bullshit. But being from NC I know that Denton and basically that entire county is notorious for being total racists. I wrestled in high school and whenever we had to play at South Davidson our coach always told us to look out for our black team mates and makes sure that if they wanted to go anywhere that two or three white guys went with him. I also remember that one time we beat them at their home and I swear to god people were throwing trash at the mat and the fans wanted to fight our whole team. We had to go to the locker room and just grab our stuff and leave because it was so crazy. So yea I totally buy that this was a legit thing.

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IMO it's very scary that people still have this mentality. What fucking year is this anyway?

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Well, in Davidson county it's whatever year Jesus was still cool with slavery.

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Yeah, still some towns here in Texas with that same theory.

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You should tell them that Jesus was from Isreal, and therefore not white. He also wasn't into the whole hate thing.

To me hate it's all the same, i got beat up alot when i was a kid growing up in Baltimore City, just because i was white. It didnt matter that my father was part African American, or that his family was mostly African American, it matterd that i was white, and i got the crap kicked out of me for it. There are places in Baltimore you don't go if your white, and there are places you dont go in NC apparently if your black. I always hope that the more educated our society gets, the less hatred there will be, but i could just be dreaming. There are people in this world who hate you because your color, or your sexual preference, or your faith. Some people will call you names, or beat you up, or make snarky little comments all the time on a message boards or social media. Its really all the same, hate is hate.

I have a scar on my head, from a beating i took for my skin. It matches the one on my body, that i got for a reason, only those lucky enough to be in the IYH chatroom one night when i was talking up a storm know about I dont know what the solution is. I just try to love everyone.

You stay classy North Carolina

Instead of threatening black people maybe they should use their pillows to sleep at night, maybe get a more comfortable nights sleep and not hate darkies as much.

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I only hate people based on how the act if they happen to be colored so be it but I don't hate people based on their skin