Greece’s ZMAK planning “marathon match” featuring descendants of ancient olympians

Greece’s ZMAK is planning a return to the ring on October 23rd for their event Big Deal which is set to take place from their home arena, The ZMAK Dungeon. One match in particular that has been scheduled for Big Deal has been getting some buzz due to the stipulations and participants involved.

When it comes to sports and sporting tradition, one thing that the country of Greece is synonymous with is the Olympic Games. The games originated in Ancient Greece with the modern incarnation of the games being reborn in Greece as well in the late 19th century. To draw on the Greek tradition of the Olympic Games and the marathon race, which also originated in Greece both in name and at the 1896 Olympic Games, ZMAK will be holding the first known Marathon Match. The match will feature two descendants of Greek Olympic competitors from the early days of the Games.

ZMAK recently released an article describing the historic match to their website. They have reached out to WrestleMap with an explanation of the match in English which is as follows.

The once in a lifetime Marathon Match in the history of global wrestling is on its way. On the 23rd of October at ZMAK.

2 descendants of the first Olympian champions of the Marathon since 1896, Spiros Louis (the great-grandson of the Olympic Gold Medalist Louis) and Apollo (the great-grandson of the Olympic Silver Medalist Vasilakou), will compete in this match!

The rules of the Marathon match:

The two performers will start running from Marathon, from the point where the historical, and classical, Marathon race of 42 klm begins. Their goal is to reach the ring in the “Dungeon”.

There, whoever finishes first, will have the appropriate time to rest until the second arrives. Then, the wrestling match begins immediately! The exhaustion of a Marathon race cannot be compared with ANYTHING on this planet, so the match will be determined quickly and without a great deal of effort!

The audience at ZMAK “BIG DEAL” (23rd of October) will enjoy the final result of the Marathon match in front of them, but also during the show where there will be live transmissions of the performers running its course!

As far as we’re aware, this would be the first ever marathon match in pro wrestling history. It would most certainly be the first ever marathon match that launches from Marathon, Greece at the site of the traditional marathon.

Elsewhere on the Big Deal card, Gedeon will challenge the new Greek Champion Achilleas Sabbath for his championship belt. A tag team match between Skendernation and Viral! has also been announced thus far, as well as a triple threat match between Markellos Komninos, Kostikas Gonatidis and Hermes.

ZMAK has recently announced that limited tickets are remaining for the event. If you’re in Piraeus, Greece, or will be on October 23rd, you may want to snatch up your ticket now. ZMAK usually sells out The Dungeon and this event will likely follow that trend. If you’re not in the area but are interested in checking out video of this show or the historic marathon race, keep an eye on ZMAK’s Facebook page. To date, they have shared nearly every match and event that has taken place in ZMAK on their YouTube page eventually. Chances are video of the event will be available in the not so distant future.