Inside the ring with Singapore’s pro wrestlers
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CNA Lifestyle
Inside the ring with Singapore's pro wrestlers
The unlikely story of how Singapore Pro Wrestling's stable of activeness heroes similar The Statement, The Eurasian Dragon and Mighty Mighty hold sold-out matches in front of hundreds in their underwear.
SPW's Aiden King (left) takes downwardly young man wrestler Destroyer Dharma at their match held at the Singapore Federation of Chinese Clans Clan. (Photo: SPW Facebook folio)
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SINGAPORE: It's a Friday nighttime in Toa Payoh and madness has erupted inside the strangest of wrestling venues.
At the all-purpose hall of the Singapore Federation of Chinese Association Associations, a crowd of around 400 are good-naturedly chanting in support of homegrown pro Andruew Tang, aka The Argument. He's inside the band and locking horns with a giant of a man, a one-time WWE tag team gnaw from Canada named Rene Dupree.
"Singapore! Singapore! Singapore!" they cheer.
In a carve up-2nd, Dupree slams Singapore'south most famous pro wrestler against a corner. Ouch.
"Holy s**t! Holy due south**t! Holy southward**t!"
It was the 5th of seven matches during a ii-hr upshot that pulled out the stops: Bombastic announcers, intense ringside commentators, and a crazy array pro wrestlers flipping and whacking each other – much to the delight of a lively oversupply of men, women and kids, who are suddenly giving props to… the venue?
"Chinese Clan! Chinese Clan! Chinese Clan!"
Welcome to Singapore's professional person wrestling scene.
WRESTLING DREAMS VS NO OPPORTUNITY
Spandex-wearing locals giving each other headlocks and flying kicks? It's probably the last matter you lot'd imagine taking identify in the placid streets of Singapore.
But cheers to contained promoters Singapore Pro Wrestling (SPW), it is a scene that has been slowly growing, quite literally, by leaps and bounds.
Formed in 2012, SPW was the brainchild of Tang – who'd eventually win his lucifer against Dupree – and partner Vadim Koryagin from Russia.
The latter, an ex-pro who ran an indie wrestling grouping back home, was groovy on expanding to the region. And Tang, who was itching to fulfil a childhood dream fuelled by watching Dwayne "The Stone" Johnson and other pro wrestlers on TV, was game.
"We told ourselves this was a good place (to prepare a pro wrestling school) considering we believed there were a lot of aspiring wrestlers out there who had the same mindset," said Tang.
"Now you didn't have to fly all the way to the Usa, Canada or Japan, where the price of adaptation and grooming will be very expensive. We were giving them a chance to step human foot inside a ring in Singapore."
Among the beginning students at the country'due south showtime pro wrestling group were Kenneth Thexeira and Mohamad Taufik. The 2 go past the monikers The Eurasian Dragon and Mighty Mighty, respectively, and are too the current Southeast Asian tag team champions as Mighty Dragon.
"I'd wanted to do nothing else in life except to wrestle. Simply I thought you needed to relieve money to go to, similar, America. Just when they opened their doors, I stepped in," said Thexeira.
LOCAL WRESTLING VS SKEPTICS
It wasn't an instant success, however. Tang recalled the initial scepticism that surrounded SPW.
"We received a lot of negative feedback and got a lot of haters and doubters saying, 'Why start pro wrestling in Singapore?' 'I don't think Singaporeans volition actually similar the art of pro wrestling.' 'Singaporeans are so small, can they even tangle with the big guys you encounter on Telly?'"
Audiences were irksome to catch on. During the early years, they would perform to crowds of around lx people.
But the fledgling grouping would stay the course and continue to hold matches both in Singapore and overseas. SPW would also actively invite over big names.
Tang, for case, tangled with international wrestlers, including the likes of Nihon's Masa Takanashi and World Wrestling Entertainment'southward (WWE) United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland champion Pete Dunne. He would too collect a few title belts along the manner.
Only even as SPW was looking to plug into the international and regional circuit, information technology also made sure to retain its local flavor.
"Yous'll hear the crowd chanting 'Referee kayu!' or 'Deepavali! Deepavali!' during Deepavali," shared Tang. He as well recalled one match where The Eurasian Dragon brought out a durian and stuck it upwardly someone'southward behind.
A typical WWE-style flag lucifer is also given a Singaporean twist. Instead of wrestlers scrambling to retrieve a flag, they chase a hongbao.
This local flavour extends to the unique characters they've concocted for the ring. Taufik's Mighty Mighty "happy-become-lucky" persona wears a fedora and a baju melayu. As for his proper name – "You know during the Friendster days when a lot of us Malays liked to put our names twice on our profile?" he quipped.
SOLD-OUT CROWDS VS WWE Fizz
Their attempts at connecting with the home crowd every bit well as putting SPW'southward name out there overseas have slowly reaped rewards.
Tang reckons ane of the turning points was dorsum in 2022 – when SPW had scheduled an event 1 day before a WWE Live Event at the Singapore Indoor Stadium, which featured the likes of John Cena.
"Nosotros were worried nosotros might not exist able to sell tickets because people would just sentry WWE – but to our surprise we sold out our effect," he said.
2 years afterwards came another surprise: A WWE sentry dropped by to check out an SPW match. "It meant that the big brothers were actually taking notice of us and they had very positive feedback for some of our wrestlers. It was a remarkable thing," said Tang.
Today, SPW regularly performs to sold-out crowds of around 400 and 500 – and they've even gone mainstream with appearances at the Singapore Night Festival.
New blood – amongst audiences and aspiring wrestlers akin – are also coming in.
Amid their new fans is 21-year-old student Ryan, who was at the Toa Payoh lucifer, wearing a Mighty Dragon T-shirt to boot. He first saw an SPW match last year and was promptly hooked.
"It was quite cool. When you watch it alive, the feel is different. The crowd, the chanting… Merely the free energy was very proficient! And the main effect featuring The Statement and Pete Dunne…" he said, whistling for result. "Through. The. Roof."
That Fri dark in Toa Payoh, i of the wrestlers Ryan caught was making his official debut. Professional street dancer Jonathan Cheong had been grooming for six months before the big boys decided he was prepare to stride into the ring as Jangkhawi.
"I had a little collywobbles in my stomach but information technology was crawly. It'due south very hard to describe but I promise I can do more than," he said.
Female person WRESTLERS VS ONLINE TROLLS
Today, SPW has a roster of around 15 performers. Simply the group continues to be predominantly male. Female wrestlers like Marie Lee Xinyi are nevertheless rare.
Lee, who wrestlers under the moniker Alexis Lee, is touted every bit Singapore's first female pro wrestler and is only ane of a handful at SPW. (At the Toa Payoh match, she was up confronting an upward-and-coming wrestler named Jane Foo.)
"We've had a couple join in but none of them really managed to stick around for so long," said Lee. "When I started, I was the only daughter, so I kind of had to meet the boys' standards. In the beginning it was hard – I'd exist like, 'Wearisome down, guys! I can't keep up!'"
If being the rare rose among the spandex-ed thorns wasn't difficult enough, Lee said she oft had to bargain with unpleasant, testosterone-driven remarks online.
She cited the reactions to an SPW online promo video, which saw her male peers throwing her into the pool using wrestling moves.
"Some said it was cool and everything just we got way more people berating united states online. We had people asking why I was letting the guys beat me up. But we're trained professionals and we practise this all the fourth dimension in preparation," she said.
Lee added: "The guys don't become then much negative stuff but I get all these sexual comments online, as well. I've had comments were people are, similar, 'Can she buss me?' and stuff. Which kind of creeps y'all out."
That said, she reckoned that female pro wrestling is at an all-time high. "At that place has never been so many eyes on it, and it shows that we can do just as good (as the men) or even meliorate."
NEW Blood VS THE NEXT Pace
Every bit the pros – both men and women – continue to take to the ring, SPW has as well been nurturing the time to come. At its domicile base of operations in a factory along Tannery Lane, aspiring wrestlers are shown the ropes by Tang and the balance.
It'south an unusual group, coming from all walks of life – from as erstwhile every bit 37 to equally young as 17. Amid them are two nineteen-year-olds, Celine Chia and Joshua Au, who have been preparation for a month now.
Twice a calendar week, they drib by to learn the basics, like rolling, headstands and how to fall without pain yourselves. If all goes well, they'll exist taking a test earlier moving to the intermediate level.
Both of them are fans of pro wrestling and decided to take the next step later on discovering SPW.
"I've been passionate almost it since I was a kid and I always wondered if I could do it," said Chia. She has no plans on turning pro, "but it'due south cool to attempt!"
Whether or not the next batch of wrestlers come up from these newbies, Tang already has big plans for SPW. "Our chief aim is to become one of the top promoters in the whole of Southeast Asia and one of the leading ones in the independent circuit."
At some indicate, he hopes they'll be able to secure a network deal and making SPW mainstream amusement in Singapore.
"And perhaps for our wrestlers to transcend to other media, cantankerous over to exercise acting and hosting, and become icons like how The Stone and John Cena have in the US."
He added: "We desire to make certain nosotros tell a good story inside the match. Nosotros wrestlers are similar heroes and villains, because our characters are all larger than life. We always desire to be dissimilar, we want to stand up out, and desire people to draw inspiration from us."
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Source: https://cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com/cna-lifestyle/inside-ring-singapores-pro-wrestlers-215006
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