Sunday the 6th of April saw a real celebration of wrestling sub culture in Belfast. Various events were running throughout the city to coincide with the 30th instalment of the biggest event in the wrestling calendar,WWE’s Wrestlemania. The Strand Arts Centre presented Wrestlefest, showing some of the great matches in wrestling history. Some of the bars in the city stayed open late to allow fans to enjoy a late night drink while watching the big show with like minded members of the wrasslin’ fraternity and local wrestling promotion Pro Wrestling Ulster ran a show at the Holiday Inn on Ormeau Ave.
The PWU show took place in front of around 200 rabid fans in the hotel’s events room and was a great way to precede the big event taking place later that night. The wrestlers put on a satisfying show with enough intrigue and athleticism to keep even the most sceptical in attendance interested. There was enough going on to keep casual fans up to date with running story lines as well as playing to their more loyal following. Having attended previous shows run by these guys under their former guise they seem to have ironed out some of the previous problems such as shows running way too long and have eliminated the energy sapping of overly long intermissions, as well as having much more fluid in ring action.
There was very little of the garbage or hardcore style wrestling that I had seen on previous shows and it was much better for it. We got to see new tag team champions in the form of the Wild Stallions who took the titles in a slightly convoluted and oddly booked series of matches. The match of the night for me went to the talented local favourite Tucker against Joe Henry, who would go on later in the show to get himself involved with PWU’s current champion JDP. The champion defended his title in the main event in a solid triple threat match. My only criticism was that an unprotected head shot was used which has no place in today’s version of professional wrestling. The chair shot was made even less purposeful after the champions quick recovery and eventual successful defence. Joe Henry then confronted the champ JDP to set up a match at a future event.
All in all this was an enjoyable show and well worth the price of admission (£5). The wrestlers seemed to be enjoying themselves in front of a good crowd and were taking pictures with some of the younger fans during the intermission. The older fans had fun with some chanting and those of us old enough were able to a have a few drinks while taking it all in. For those interested the Pro Wrestling Ulster promotion run regular events with the next one scheduled for the Marine hotel in Ballycastle on the 18th of April. For more info check out their website.
