A secondary school hall in Strovolos will be turned into a professional wrestling ring on Saturday, decades after a 1938 bout in Nicosia was advertised with extra train services for spectators.
Pro Wrestling Cyprus is staging ‘Gods of Wrestling: Wrath of Athena’ at Stavrou secondary school from 5.30pm to 9pm, as a small local community tries to build an audience for professional wrestling in Cyprus. Tickets range from 16.50 euros to 52 euros for VIP seats, and the event is listed in Strovolos municipality’s official events calendar.
The main bout is a ‘Tables Match’ between LA Taylor and Melissa Fierce for the Pro Wrestling Cyprus women’s championship, in which each aims to put her opponent through a table, breaking it. Hunter Maul and Donny Ravarro will also appear, among other matches.
Professional wrestling is not the wrestling of the Olympic Games. It combines spectacle with physical effort, and the bouts are scripted, but the holds, falls and acrobatics require training, as the risk of injury is real.
A small scene
Paris Charalambous, who organises Pro Wrestling Cyprus, told philenews that about 50 people are actively involved in the sport on the island and that shows can draw audiences of 400 to 500. There are two professional wrestling organisations in Cyprus.
Charalambous has about 25 years’ experience in wrestling in London. Things are quite different in Cyprus, he said, where it is not easy to attract people to a spectacle many know only from television.
“The main thing for us is for people to know there is wrestling in Cyprus,” he said.
No one on the island can make a living from the sport alone, he said. Those who step into the ring do it more out of love, putting in time and effort, than as a profession.
Asked why the event is in a school, Charalambous said finding a suitable venue was the biggest problem, mainly because of cost. Large halls cost thousands of euros per event, sums a small organisation can hardly cover.
Wrestling in 1938
Archive material collected by Pro Wrestling Cyprus contains references to professional wrestling bouts on the island from the 1930s.
The 1938 bout, between English wrestler Dick Bishop and Cypriot wrestler Mantralis, was scheduled for 30 October at the old GSP stadium in Nicosia. The advertisement announcing the extra trains appeared in the newspaper ‘Eleftheria’.
