Bahrain’s professional wrestling promotion has signed on award-winning trainer Glen Holbrook to the team.
In a massive move, Kingdom Pro Wrestling (KPW) have acquired the services and knowledge of former wrestler and trainer from the US Hollbrook who comes with more than 30 years of experience and will take on the role of head trainer and senior adviser to KPW founder Mohammed Talaq.
Talaq told the GDN that Hollbrook’s joining them is a huge step forward to not only Bahrain but professional wrestling in the region.
KPW founder Mohammed Talaq
“There is no international professional trainer for wrestling for any wrestling school in the region except for Bahrain, this is considered a huge thing because it makes Bahrain a hub for wrestling in the region,” said Talaq.
“We can train wrestlers who can represent Bahrain abroad and in addition we can say that the training that he will provide will allow to get us real professional wresters who know everything about wrestling.
“From a technical point of view, the success or failure of a wrestler depends to a large extent on the coach, so this is a true wrestling revolution in the Middle East which started in Bahrain,” he said.
Hollbrook started wrestling in 1984 in the state of Georgia and wrestled all over the south-east US and wrestled in Japan from 1992 to 2005 during which he started training wrestlers and working in the gyms in addition to wrestling; this lead to him doing seminars in Australia, Europe, and dojos in Japan
“Before I came to Bahrain to start my contract I started looking at where there would be live wrestling shows in the Middle East and I was expecting to travel outside of Bahrain to see them but I was surprised to find KPW,” Hollbrook told the GDN.
“I got in touch with them and they told me to come on down, which was prior to Covid so I met the wrestlers and the owner and we seemed like a good fit. We’ve got some really good athletes, these guys are really creative, we just need to get in some really hard training so we can go out there and entertain the people of Bahrain.
“I have the blessing of being trained by Jerry Oates, which gave me that keen eye for what’s good wrestling and what isn’t, I can help teach them how to apply those moves correctly and safely which is the key to a long career in professional wrestling,” he said.
In January this year more than 200 people attended the first ever public professional wrestling event by KPW at El Mercado in Janabiya.
KPW is the brainchild of Bahraini 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.
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