Wrestling event: a soap opera for men
New european championship wrestling, NEW for short, the wrestling league founded by former wrestling pro and coach alex wright, held another fight night in hebdorf on saturday. Family-friendly, that is the main credo of the ex-WCW-star, despite all the action. The concept works.
Markus lanz crossed
Wrestling is considered in the vernacular as a show, as "taking the piss", where everything is a game anyway and every shot goes nowhere. That this is not true, as the spectators were able to see for themselves once again on saturday. When the reigning champion "adrian severe" is in the ring landing from two meters high with his full body weight on his opponent "big steve" when he lands his full body weight on his opponent "big steve", everyone in the audience knows: that has to hurt! "Big steve, by the way, this is the young man who appeared on "wetten, dass" in january…?" Already markus lanz with a wrestling action sent to the boards.
Alex wright, founder of the league and himself coach of most of the talents on this evening, puts it in a nutshell. Wrestling is not a sport that is about victory or defeat in the classical sense. "It's a gripping mix of high-performance sport and entertainment." And indeed, to hurt the opponent with the reckless actions in the ring only apparently, requires probably more strength and body control, as if one really wanted to hurt him. Either way: what the partly very young wrestlers deliver in the ring is impressive.
Good and bose in the ring
Melanie, 22 years old, has traveled from hof to the event with numerous friends. It's not her first visit to the "N.E.W. Hotspot", as wright has christened germany's only pure wrestling hall to date. They are drawn to the regular events in hebdorf almost every month. "Wrestling of this quality can be seen in germany actually only on television. You rarely get as close as here, my place is just five meters away from the ring." Also the next event on 5. October is already scheduled for them.
In general, the audience, which is very mixed in terms of gender and age, is surprisingly loud in its cheering for its heroes. "Wrestling is basically like a soap opera. There are the good and the bad, the popular and the annoying. And stories are told that are sometimes exciting and sometimes just plain funny", explains 41-year-old daniel from munich the fascination for "sports entertainment.
The good ones are, for example, the original french "georg schorschi gwarch" from zirndorf or champion "adrian severe. The 23-year-old sudtirolean is considered by fans to be one of the roughest talents in the NEW and was trained by wright in his own pro wrestling school. The bad guys, they are guys like "V.I.P" – arrogant, snobbish, conceited. A villain so charismatic that fans love to hate him.
Suitcase-wrestling
But whether good or bad, champion or villain, wrestling's stars presented nearly every facet of the entertaining sport on saturday: qualifying matches with excitingly tight time limits, technically first-class action and a spectacular finale in which nine wrestlers do everything they can to catch a suitcase hanging four meters above the ring. It got a bit gloomy during the first "sarg-match" a german promotion, in which fan favorite "tommy blue eyes and the sinister "kratos" tried to put each other in a coffin.
This was surprisingly exciting and far less macabre than it might read, because alex wright is primarily concerned with inspiring rough and small and creating a feel-good atmosphere. The sold-out hall thanked him and the wrestling stars of new european championship wrestling after a high-class, four-hour wrestling evening with standing ovations and choruses of speech.
