Memorial Day Weekend quick news tidbits
Hello everyone! After taking the long holiday weekend (Memorial Day, USA) off, we’re doing our best to catch up with the wide world of international pro wrestling today! Instead of firing out multiple posts, in an attempt to catch up to the fast moving world of pro wrestling, we’ve consolidated some smaller news stories into one post! Moving forward, we’ll go back to the old style of one article = one story for the most part. But in order to get up to date on things quickly, here are some interesting news tidbits from around the world of pro wrestling that we wanted to make mention of!
El Salvador’s Arena Gladiadores plans to go back to the roots of Salvadoran pro wrestling
Vintage photo of Salvadoran luchadors. Image courtesy of Arena Gladiadores Facebook page.
This month, El Salvador’s Arena Gladiadores plans to take pro wrestling in El Salvador back to its roots by honoring some of its most famous competitors. A posthumous tribute is planned for Tony Jackson, one of the top stars in the history of the sport in El Salvador, for an event being held in June by the company. No official date has been given yet. The show is also set to honor the first promoter of Salvadoran wrestling, Don Salvador Guandique. In order to do so, the company is leaving its basement arena home to hold an event in a cinema, just as the first pro wrestling event in El Salvador was held. Gladiadores is promising an “unprecedented” show “full of surprises.” The only wrestlers announced for the planned event in June so far are the luchador Madness and Everly Rivera.
Ukraine’s best wrestlers return to action
Ukrainian Wrestling Arena in action at the Odessa Beer Festival in Odessa, Ukraine. Photo courtesy of a.direwolf on Instagram.
Over the course of May 29th and 30th, Ukrainian Wrestling Arena returned to action for a two day show as part of the Odessa Beer Festival in Dyukovsky Park in Odessa, Ukraine. Wrestlers from Ukraine’s other wrestling promotion, Ukrainian Wrestling Zone, were also advertised as being in action at the event. While this wasn’t the UWA’s first event of the year, it was their first opportunity to perform in front of a large crowd that was not subject to indoor social distancing rules and limited attendance capacities in 2021. Full results have yet to be released by the UWA but the company’s top title belt was advertised as being on the line at Something Bigger, as the two day wrestling portion of the festival was titled.. So far, we haven’t been able to track down much footage of the action, besides this power bomb into a lake. But otherwise, it’s great to see the wrestlers from the Ukraine having a chance to perform in front of a crowd again.
World Wrestling Congo update and African champion of catch fetiche’s involvement
World Wrestling Congo, the new Congolese promotion looking to make a big dent in the Congolese wrestling scene, has provided some new updates as of late regarding a myriad of things. First, on the question of wrestling style, the new organization has stated that they won’t be sticking to one specific style (traditional pro wrestling, catch fetiche style, etc.) but instead will be doing their best to entertain the fans using a mixture of styles. In a country where voodoo wrestling is just as popular, if not more popular, than traditional pro wrestling, that’s a smart move. If the WWC as a group can put together the best pro wrestling matches in the country, along with the best catch fetiche matches in the country, fans will definitely be drawn in to attending and paying to attend their events which is the company’s ultimate goal.
Secondly, the WWC has announced that the group’s title will be put in play soon. The inaugural champion, Champion Dix-Francs, has announced his intention to put the title on the line. No opponent has been selected as the first to challenge for the title, but now that training for the group is underway, a challenger is sure to emerge soon. Dix-Francs has also indicated that the quest for sponsorship has begun and has asked that fans of Congolese wrestling put their trust in this new group and to give them time because they’re planning to hold the best wrestling events the DRC has seen.
Lastly, the group has announced that they have made contact with the Champion of Africa (as recognized by the BYWS of Belgium and previously covered on this site), Zombie De Kibambi. This Sunday, June 6th, Zombie De Kibambi is expected to join the WWC for training and as of now, is also scheduled to go toe to toe with Dix-Francs in an exhibition match.
We’ll keep you posted with more information on the WWC and Zombie De Kibambi as soon as we have it!
New champion of Tasmania? Not so fast!
We’ve said it on this site before and we’ll say it again. Australian wrestling is blowing up right now! While one of the country’s more well known promotions, Melbourne City Wrestling and other Melbourne-based promotions, were forced to cancel events planned for this past weekend due to Covid-19 outbreaks, the weekend before that saw a successful show put on by Tasmanian Championship Wrestling. Counter Attack seems to have been an immense success with some of the wrestlers involved praising the event. Tasmania may very well be the best kept secret of Australian wrestling.
As for the action of Counter Attack, it appeared as if a new TCW Champion had been crowned. Challenger Liam Lacy was able to defeat the champion Adrian Alexander, seemingly winning the title. However, Lacy won with the help of some outside interference, causing TCW management to overturn the decision later on in the show and return the title to Alexander via disqualification. After having his newly won title stripped, Lacy was advised that he would get another opportunity to challenge for the title….if he could win a battle royal. You can view highlights of the event here and catch the whole event on TCW’s streaming site.
Austria’s World Underground Wrestling planning show with live music
Last but not least, Austria’s unique World Underground Wrestling will be leaving their usual home of the stage at Weberknecht in Wien, Austria for a new stage at Arena Wien. But this time, they’ll be joined by Austrian rock band Go! Go! Gorillo. The WUW is a unique promotion that provides a very entertaining live show and contests all of its matches on a stage rather than in a wrestling ring. Matches are never won by pinfall but instead can be won by submission or knockout. The group currently has partners in several countries around the world including Japan, the United States, the Philippines and more and their reigning champion is Ice Ribbon regular and current Triangle Ribbon Champion, Thekla. If the livestreams that the company puts out of their live shows are any indication of the real thing, this is one you won’t want to miss if you’re in the area. Trying to catch the live stream isn’t a bad idea either!
