Heavyweight championship belt changes hands twice at Nepal Ring Wrestling 1st Heritage National Championship

The Nepal Ring Wrestling Association took to the ring from the world heritage site of Basantapur Durbar Square in Kathmandu, Nepal on Saturday, April 2nd 2022 for a very well attended event called the 1st Heritage National Championship.

Nuwakote Tiger takes flight in the opening match of the event as Chattan lies unresponsive on the mat below.

As usual, the NRWA drew a great crowd for this show. There were undoubtedly a few thousand people on hand to watch a show that saw some big changes at the top of the card for the NRWA and some emotional moments for the fans on hand.

Chattan greets fans while making his entrance to the ring.

That first change came in the first match of the night, a rematch between Chattan and Nuwakote Tiger with the Ring Wrestling Heabyweight Championship belt on the line. Chattan came into the match as the champion, having originally defeated Nuwakote Tiger to earn the belt. The outcome of this match would not be the same for Chattan though as Nuwakote Tiger was able to score a pin fall victory after hitting his signature top rope elbow drop for the win. With the win, Nuwakote Tiger was awarded with the Ring Wrestling Heavyweight Championship belt and a cash bonus of 85,000 Nepali Rs.

The second contest of the matinee event was a tag team match that took place between the team of Young Shady and CJ World taking on a duo of wrestlers dressed as Spider-Man.

The tag team of Young Shady and CJ World take on the Spider-Man Team. Image courtesy of the NRWA event live stream.

Prior to this match, we hadn’t seen the Spider-Man team before. It’s unsure if this was a debut for the duo or a return after some time away from the ring. However, the team of Young Shady and CJ World spoiled the Spider-Man Team’s fun, dominating much of this match and eventually winning the match by pin fall despite some acrobatic talent shown off by the Spider-Man team. With the win, the duo of Young Shady and CJ World won the winner’s purse of 95,000 Rs.

Aakriti accepts her winners purse after her victory over Tanu

Up next was women’s division action as NRWA veteran Tanu took on Aakriti. Aakriti is another talent that we haven’t seen wrestle for NRWA in the past year or so. We can’t say for certain that this was her debut with the promotion but compared to Tanu, who has wrestled at every single NRWA show that we have covered to date, she is much more of an unknown commodity.

Both women showed early on that they are very proficient technical wrestlers and that they have a good handle on the basics of mat wrestling. Tanu began to pull ahead as the match advanced, using her experience to switch up her style and overwhelm the newcomer. Tables turned, however, after Tanu missed a top rope splash and Aakriti was able to surprise Tanu with a roll up reversal following an Irish whip. Tanu appeared to be shocked and disappointed after the match while Aakriti celebrated. She was rewarded for her victory with a winner’s purse of 65,000 Rs.

Despite his show-opening loss, Chattan was able to get back into the winner’s circle later on in the afternoon.

Up next, Chattan would get another opportunity to get a win at the Heritage National Championship. In his second match of the show, he was set to square off with Shine. However, Shine was unable to compete in the match and Chattan was granted the victory by forfeit. Despite the forfeit win, Chattan still seemed to be a little on edge and that can likely be attributed to his disappointment in losing his heavyweight championship belt to start out the show.

David launches himself at Nuwakote Tiger in the First Heritage National Championship main event.

In the main event, Nuwakote Tiger was in action again, this time defending the NRWA Heavyweight Championship belt that he had won for the second time in the first match of the show. This defense would come against David, a fan favorite and a skilled in-ring competitor who was at just a slight size disadvantage in this match.

There was palpable excitement coming from the fans as this match got started. While Nuwakote Tiger did have a slight size advantage, David possessed a speed advantage that was apparent early in the match. Tiger used his size and strength advantage to counteract David’s speed, doing his best to keep David pinned to the mat with submission holds and mat grappling.

This was an intensely physical match with a lot of strikes and a lot of stiff shots. The wrestlers even used a plastic chair to wail on each other, leaving Nuwakote Tiger instantly covered in bruises and welts. David endured a lot of punishment but was able to hang on just barely as Nuwakote Tiger continued to wear him down. David had an opening after moving out of the way of Nuwakote’s signature elbow drop. But the advantage wouldn’t last long as David would then miss his frog splash finisher, allowing Nuwakote Tiger to gain control again.

David is greeted by adoring fans on the entrance ramp.

The crowd didn’t lose interest in this match at all as the excitement kept growing and the fans let their voices be heard throughout.

As he continued to endure punishment, David was able to hit a desperation jumping kick off of a reversal that stunned Nuwakote Tiger and then followed it up with a punishing spine buster. From there, David scaled to the top rope and hit a picture perfect frog splash, his finishing maneuver, and was able to cover Nuwakote Tiger for the 1-2-3 becoming the new NRWA Heavyweight Champion.

The crowd instantly broke out into a celebration as fans waving banners supporting David were kept from rushing the ring by security. Fans were visibly crying tears of joy as David was presented with the championship belt. He joined them in celebration to close out the event and was then presented with his winner’s purse.

David shows off his new championship belt as he’s presented with his winner’s purse of 105,000 Rs.

Once again, the NRWA has put on a spectacular event. The fans in attendance all seemed to enjoy themselves, especially with the result of the main event. That main event was a good one too, one that I would call a Nepali classic and one that WrestleMap readers who are interested in Nepal’s pro wrestling scene should check out. You can check out that match and the entire event for free on the NRWA’s Facebook page or by following this link.