BANGKOK —
A fighter bursts through a flimsy tarpaulin curtain and bounds into the ring
wearing a helmet and the unmistakable bright orange jacket of a Bangkok
motorbike-taxi rider — it’s Thailand’s take on
WWE wrestling.
اضافة اعلان
The 25-year-old
wrestler with the stage name “P’Suchart” was one of almost 20 individuals
slapping, slamming and smacking one another at SETUP Thailand Pro Wrestling.
The part-sport,
part-show has been slowly gaining popularity in the country and co-founder Pumi
Boonyatud hopes to carve out a space for local wrestlers using distinctively
Thai characters.
A crowd of about
250 in Bangkok suggests it could take off.
“We try to put
some of the Thai fighting background ... together with professional wrestler
training,” the 32-year-old said, in order to create “what we call the real Thai
version of wrestling”.
“P’Suchart”, real
name Tanapol Mahavong, was first captivated by wrestling when he played video
games as a child.
He believes that
“character-building is more important than wrestling skills”.
“Wrestling skills
you can train for, build them up, if you put enough energy into it then you
could become a good wrestler,” he told AFP.
“But to have a
good character is a whole different story,” he said, adding his motorbike-taxi
wrestling persona was inspired by a character in the Thai film “Heart Attack”.
Like many on the
stage Saturday evening, he trains and performs around his nine-to-five job as
an editor.
“When I train hard
and my body gets beaten and bruised up, the manager of my office would tell me
to go home and rest,” Tanapol said.
And although he
ultimately lost his bout, the spectacle in the ring definitely struck a chord
with the crowd.
“They won me as a
fan,” said American tourist Jerry Massey, who had stumbled across promotions of
the show and pitched up to see how it measured up.
“This is something
different for me,” said the 45-year-old, a fan of pro wrestling in the US.
“We saw chairs
shattered tonight, we saw paint shots tonight, you could really feel it in your
body being so close to the action,” Massey added.
“I was absolutely
impressed.”
As Tanapol puts it:
“Anyone can become a good wrestler, but not everyone can be an entertaining
wrestler.”
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