Celebrating and looking back on one year of WrestleMap
Today (July 4th) marks the official one year anniversary of WrestleMap! They say that time flies when you’re having fun and that has surely been the case for this endeavor. Today, I’m writing to you not as “WrestleMap Staff” as I usually do when reporting pro wrestling news from around the world on behalf of WrestleMap, but instead as Bryan, the guy who launched this website a year ago.
It’s hard to believe that a year has gone by already. Well, sometimes it’s hard to believe and other times, some of the things that we’ve done on WrestleMap feel like they happened years ago instead of within just the last year. There’s so much I want to talk about here, from the beginning of WrestleMap to now, to the things we’ve achieved that I’m proud of, to the places where I know we can still do better. I hope you’ll stick with me through this piece as we take a look at the last year and what we still would love to accomplish here on WrestleMap.com!
I’ve been asked quite often how this whole project got started, what triggered the start and where the idea came from. The truth is, I’m not sure I fully know. I’ve been a pro wrestling fan for the majority of my life. It seems almost unbelievable to say, but I feel like one of my first memories was watching Hogan slam Andre at WrestleMania III. I got introduced to pro wrestling through my family. As a young kid, my dad was a fan, as was my grandpa and even my great grandma. I remember my dad ordering WWF pay-per views in the late 80’s and early 90’s that I, and eventually my brother, would watch along with him. My dad’s fandom waxed and waned and by the early 2000’s it was pretty much non-existent. Throughout this time period, though, my brother and I were die-hard fans.
WrestleMap’s own Olusesan Olukoya and Alexandra The Queen celebrate WrestleMap’s anniversary at National Stadium in Lagos, Nigeria along with NPWF wrestlers and staff
I had determined at a pretty young age that my goal in life was to become a pro wrestler. It was that goal that led me to create a living room wrestling promotion with my brother, my sister and a friend. From there, my desire to be a wrestler grew, as I would become involved in a local backyard wrestling promotion and even started one of my own. It was that same goal that led me to pursue amateur wrestling in middle school and early high school (I remember skipping practice and team photos my freshman year so I could watch a Flair/Steamboat match on a new VHS I had just bought). But as I progressed through high school, a few factors helped bring my goal of becoming a pro wrestler to a screeching halt.
From left, Nigerian pro wrestlers Mighty Man, Eagle De Great Nail, Zion Lion, Alexandra The Queen, Mr. Sharpman and Flying Danko
The first major blow was the dissolution of WCW and ECW. This caused a major hit to my pro wrestling fandom. As a huge pro wrestling fan, I watched all of “The Big Three” but leaned more toward WCW and ECW than WWF at the time. When both companies closed and without any real major access to any independent or international wrestling at that time, and WWF as the only option, I began to lose interest. That, combined with a back injury that brought my amateur wrestling career to an early end, pretty much ended my dream of someday being able to compete in the squared circle. As my disinterest grew, so did my interest in doing other teenage boy things and being a die-hard wrestling fan got put on the back burner for ten years or so.
In the meantime, I dipped my toes into many different forms of entertainment. I began blogging and writing, I played and sang in a couple bands, I created comedy videos and eventually became a stand up comic. At some point in the early to mid 2010’s I became all in on pro wrestling again. I even had a chance to perform with one of my bands during the intermission of an independent pro wrestling show and serve as the guest ring announcer for the night, which at the time felt like the coolest thing I had ever done in my life. My band broke up and while I continued forward with comedy, I couldn’t help but shake this thought: if I get really good at stand up comedy, maybe I can use that success to somehow become involved in pro wrestling permanently.
The Wolf NDA poses with his son in front of a WrestleMap banner following a successful PWA Middleweight Championship defense at Battle of Yaoundé 2021 at the Palais Des Sports
When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, stand-up comedy got put on hold. With a ton of free time, I spent even more of it on wrestling. Playing Total Extreme Wrestling for hours at a time and watching whatever documentary I could find on the pro wrestling scenes in other countries started to change the way I looked at pro wrestling. I started to think more of where pro wrestling had spread, what countries had pro wrestling and how long it had been there. I developed much more of an interest in pro wrestling around the world than I ever had before. But as I started to do more research on this topic, the more I realized I needed a space that I could record this information so that I could come back to it.
Since I was focused on international pro wrestling, and since I’ve always had an interest in geography and travel, the idea came to me that I could create a pro wrestling world map. That way, I could easily store the wrestling I came across in the locations that I had found it and return to it at a later time. I started off using a program called Simple Maps to build the map. It was very limited but worked for what I wanted to do at the time (big thanks to The Daily Smark for suggesting a move to Google Maps). Building the map soon became my favorite hobby and Covid-19 lockdown gave me plenty of time to do it.
The more I compiled on the map, the more I thought that this type of database could be helpful to other people. I thought if wrestlers and fans had one location to come to where they could find literally all of the pro wrestling in the world that it could be useful for so many things. It could help fans find local promotions and attend shows or help people who often travel find wrestling shows near them. Wrestlers could have contact information at their fingertips for anywhere in the world they would like to wrestle. Promoters could use it to build relationships with other promoters around the world, giving talent the chance to travel internationally more easily. It could help prospective wrestlers find a promotion or school to train with near them and it could help international wrestling as a whole just by getting more eyes on pro wrestling in locations where fans weren’t aware it existed.
One year in and the map seems to be doing some of all of that, which is great to hear. One of the coolest things is hearing from someone that used the map successfully for one of the purposes I believed it could really come in handy for. For example, in the first quarter of 2022, Pakistan’s Revolution Eastern Wrestling and Turkey’s Turkish Wrestling Alliance are planning a joint show after coming into contact with each other using the resources available on WrestleMap. Wrestling is at its best when everyone is working together and if WrestleMap can help make that happen, we are honored to do so.
Aside from the map, we’ve been covering pro wrestling news from around the world for close to the last year. We started with our Hot Tag interview series which takes a look at the pro wrestling scene in different countries from around the world with an expert guest. Our Spotlight On series started not too long after where we take a closer look at something interesting from the world of pro wrestling. We started our World Wrestling News section in February and since then have covered pro wrestling news from around the world, mainly focusing on international wrestling scenes that don’t receive much mainstream coverage elsewhere. Our news section couldn’t have launched without the encouragement and contributions from Olusesan Olukoya, who has brought a wealth of knowledge about Nigerian and African pro wrestling to WrestleMap. Along with Olusesan, Hoje Falo Eu Wrestling joined us to help report on the wrestling scene in Portugal and has helped us immensely. We’ve also served as a second home for The Kurt Johansson Show and their international pro wrestling interviews. Just Pro Wrestling News has been another valuable addition to our site as they helped to provide all of the mainstream pro wrestling stories to our visitors that we weren’t able to focus on as much.
We’ve covered a countless number of stories and topics over the past year. It’s hard to say that we enjoyed covering one more than the other but some of the topics have proven to be some of our most popular content or have just stuck with me for one reason or another. Since we’re looking back on the first year of our site, I feel like it’s only right to share some of those stories here. Some of our favorite, most memorable or stories that we’re the most proud of include the following:
Turkey’s first female champion and the DIY indie scene in the country
Poland’s first barbed wire match (and their recent comeback event. Really great stuff happening in Warsaw!)
Rancor Fighters becomes first announced wrestling company in South Indian state of Kerala
Kerala Championship Wrestling becomes first active wrestling company in South Indian state of Kerala
Our coverage of April’s Pro Wrestling Africa show and helping to bring a live stream of the event to a larger audience (most of the stream links have since been removed)
Our coverage of the Nigeria Pro Wrestling Federation and their events from late March, June and the upcoming event planned to celebrate the 97th birthday of the Nigerian king, the Asagba of Asaba
Following the creation, growth and expansion of Pakistani pro wrestling, in particular this year’s exploits of Revolution Eastern Wrestling (Pakistan’s first female wrestler, outlining the governmental and judicial support for REW, REW traveling to Nepal, REW title belt changes hands during lockdown)
The creation and development of Egypt’s PWO as they approach their goal to hold an October debut
Olusesan Olukoya, left, presents the president of Cameroon’s FECACATCH and Vice President of Pro Wrestling Africa, Captain Emmanuel Ndo, with a WrestleMap t-shirt
I also had the pleasure of going on a couple of really amazing podcasts on behalf of WrestleMap. The Nation Show had me on the show for close to an hour, where we went on a tour of the map and had a lot of fun. They had us back on for their anniversary episode where we had the chance to be on the same podcast with some of the hosts of Busted Open and Mark Henry, which was truly mind blowing. We’re forever appreciative of The Nation Show’s generosity and support and interest in our project and the opportunity they gave to us to show it off!
We also had the opportunity to go on The Business of The Business and talk in depth about pro wrestling news around the world, WrestleMap’s goals and intentions, and a whole bunch more. The support that the show and its hosts have continued to show toward our project is amazing and truly appreciated. I also personally enjoy their show very much and recommend that you check it out.
We’ve also received some recognition that we are very proud of over the last year. One of our favorite Facebook groups, Revue Du Catch Belge/Africain recognized us with one of their year end awards which we are very proud of. Immense thanks to them and their continued support for WrestleMap.
The Nigeria Pro Wrestling Federation presented WrestleMap with a Certificate of Appreciation for our contributions to the development of professional wrestling in Africa and worldwide on June 13. This was a huge honor for us to receive, especially coming from one of the institutions of African pro wrestling, a company that is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year!
Personally, I was able to receive quite possibly the biggest honor of my life for the work I’ve done with WrestleMap. At Pro Wrestling Africa’s Battle of Yaoundé 2021, I was presented with an International Royal Award For Pro Wrestling Excellence. Pro Wrestling Africa presented this award to four people. Two of them went to African wrestling legends, Power Lee and Michel Noudem. The only two that were presented to non-wrestlers went to myself…and the president of the nation of Cameroon! I’m not exaggerating when I say that this is the biggest honor I’ve received in my life and words cannot do justice to the appreciation I feel toward Pro Wrestling Africa for this humbling recognition.
Over the next year, I hope we’ll be able to continue to do much of the same that we’ve done over the past year but at the same time, find ways to do it better. We’ll continue to add to the map and update it regularly. Everyone’s submissions have been so helpful and have helped it to grow much faster than it could have if I was on my own. Our coverage of world pro wrestling news is here to stay.
Another thing that we’ll hope to do more of is deliver exclusive pro wrestling video from around the world. We’re very excited to finally release a full pro wrestling show, which will be happening relatively soon. We’ll have more extensive details on that as time gets closer.
Lastly, I just want to thank everyone so much who has shown interest in WrestleMap and has found our site either helpful or interesting. Your support and encouragement is what keeps us going.
Thanks for reading and thank you for helping us to celebrate one year of WrestleMap!
Bryan
