MORE than 200 people attended the first ever public professional wrestling event on Friday night in Bahrain since 1997.
Kingdom Pro Wrestling’s (KPW) first public match was held at El Mercado in Janabiya where wrestling fans gathered in droves to cheer the local athletes who put on an exciting show and showcased their skills in the squared circle.
Kicking off the event, Rudy Ruyal and the other members of the Ruyal Alliance, Ahmed Dragon and Khalid Kombat, took to the stage to address why they attacked one of KPW’s most dominant wrestlers Jabbar in one of KPW’s private shows, as well as to insult the announcer Bara Abdulla and the crowd for good measure.
That set up the main event of the night between Rudy Ruyal vs Jabbar. However, there were two other matches to go before that with the opening match of the night featuring fan favourite The Great Zubari and Hamad the Lion.
The match started off with some chain wrestling and escalated into a very hard hitting duel with both competitors hitting body slams, exchanging elbows and chops. Zubari even landed an elbow drop from the turnbuckle after hitting the Lion with a stunner while Hamad had to resort to a rope break to stop the pin attempt.
The match ended with Hamad scoring an upset victory over Bahrain’s first professional wrestler.
The two shook hands after the match and Zubari raised Hamad’s hand in a show of respect which had the crowd on their feet for the next matchup between The “Black Sheep” Carnatux and Madrex The Entertainer.
While the first match was a more grounded affair, this one featured two of the most athletic wrestlers on the roster which meant plenty of impressive high impact moves such as Carnatux’s double foot stomp onto Madrex’s back as he was hung over the ropes.
The match came to an end when Madrex hit his “Spoon Full of Madness” a drive by ‘hurricanrana’ which he followed up with his signature face buster the “Mad Buster” for the three count, after which the Entertainer celebrated his victory with a poem where he teased a possible rematch.
The main event came next as Rudy Ruyal made his way to the ring with the Ruyal Alliance close behind to face Jabbar and his manager Hamada, and right away Jabbar went after Rudy barely giving him time to escape the ring.
Control
Rudy was in control of the match until Jabbar got his second wind and started mounting an offence. However, when Rudy pulled referee Aziz Toorani in the way of one of Jabbar’s kicks which put him down for a while and turned the match into a brawl.
The two brawled amongst the crowd before going back to the ring. At this point Khalid Kombat and Ahmed Dragon joined in the fight and a chair was introduced to KPW’s resident monster in an attempt to put him down.
However as the alliance gloated, posing to the crowd, Jabbar once more took control of the match dispatching the other members of the alliance with his brutal strength. He used their numbers against them to turn the tide as the referee was being revived.
After two choke slams, Ruyal stayed down as the referee slid back into the ring for the pinfall and the alliance slunk away in defeat leaving Jabbar and Hamada to celebrate their victory in the ring as the crowd cheered them on.
With that the show came to an end, setting the stage for possible rematches and new challenges for the wrestlers up ahead.
KPW is the the brainchild of Bahraini Mohammed Talaq who founded the league in 2017 with an aim to promote local athletes in a small ring in an industrial area which exploded into a full-fledged weekly league.
The group now has 10 Bahraini athletes who have their own style and charisma, with some already becoming fan favourites.
Talaq told the GDN that the event was a success which was evident by the great turnout. He hopes to put together another show soon as well grow the roster in the future.