Kingdom Wrestling

Always up for a new experience, I went to a pro-wrestling event held in my church. It was organised by Kingdom Wrestling: 'the UK's first faith-based pro-wrestling charity, using sports entertainment to transform lives and communities'. They have just moved into a room in our extensive church halls, from where they run groups for children and young people, women's self-defence classes, adult wrestling training and a support group for mens' mental health. It's a way of connecting with and providing community for people who would never normally come into a church. 

It seems to be working! There were well over 100 people in the audience, a lot of families. Our vicar welcomed people with a short sermon and prayer, so the faith element is forefront. It was all very noisy, partisan and exciting! I used to watch wrestling on TV with my dad but that's years ago and I'd largely forgotten all about it. It's a kind of athletic, performance 'theatre'. Each wrestler is a 'character' and there are 'goodies' and 'baddies' and associated storylines. There were bouts between pairs and foursomes, the teams including a few enviably fit young women, and then an ongoing contest between about 20 different wrestlers, who kept swapping in and out of the ring. There's music and lights, and lots of parading around and high-fiving the kids. The wrestling itself looked fearsome but you could see that the holds, kicks, punches and slams were all carefully controlled so, although they writhed about dramatically, I think little harm was done beyond perhaps a few bruises. The body-slams from height made a tremendous thud and really made the ring bounce! It was certainly entertaining. (See HERE for a proper explanation of the sport.)

'Pray, Eat, Wrestle, Repeat' was the logo on the club T-shirts. The top photo features Gareth Angel (the club's main organiser and heavyweight wrestling champion) and Jimmy Jackson, with referee Katie Crosby. My second and third pictures are Leonie Rose (women's champion) and Kiara; last one is Jack Johnson and - ooh, not sure, Andy Poole possibly?

I wasn't sure whether it would be possible to take photos, so I didn't take my camera. As you can see, it was pretty dark so my phone was struggling and most of the action shots were far too blurred to be useable. (Not sure my camera would have coped either.) These are the best of a bad lot! There were two TV crews there (French and Japanese, apparently). It's been getting a lot of publicity lately, even mentioned on 'Have I Got News For You' (a satirical/comedy TV quiz show) last week. 

There's a short YouTube video that explains it all brilliantly, HERE, and is worth watching. 

I'm glad I went, as I was very curious to see what went on. I'd go again, though perhaps not regularly... but I'm assuredly not the target audience!