Tasmanian Championship Wrestling (TCW) was established in 2011 by Leigh Barber – a long tenured QLD wrestler who brought professional wrestling to Tasmania starting a training school and running wrestling events. Beau Sayer and Daniel Hawes took over TCW eight years ago, running the shows and wres­tling too. Daniel gave us the lowdown on where wrestling is at in Tassie right now.

What have been the joys and chal­lenges of building a wrestling pro­motion in Tasmania? The joys have to be the legitimate happiness it brings so many. We have watched some kids grow up now with TCW and watch their local heroes go through triumph and victory, and through defeat and betrayal. Behind the curtain we have watched people who have been interested in wrestling live out those dreams of becoming pro wrestlers and now we have some of the greatest pro wrestlers in Australia.

It’s not been an easy road though, build­ing something local and staying local is really hard without support. It’s never been harder to run independent events in Tassie – advertising, insurance and red tape makes providing the shows a lot harder than it should be. I’d love to say that getting established was the hard part but I’d actually say it’s harder now to run events than ever.

What do you love about wrestling? The storytelling and the reactions from the crowd. There is nothing more satis­fying than getting your character across to a wider audience, whether you’re the wise cracking good guy (the babyface) or the sour-mouthed bad guy (the heel), both sides are so rewarding when you are able to get it right. Being able to tell a story and keep an audience invested by watching you compete and perform is something very special and hard to explain.

What’s something you wish more peo­ple knew about wrestling? It’s hard. It’s not fake like so many love to say. I have left with bruises and cuts, I have blown my knees up and been unable to bend them for days. It’s an act of love often done for the crowd to witness something special.

What are the current storylines going on? Being 13 years in, we have a lot of new talent taking over and maybe forcing the torch over from the original TCW stars. At the moment that’s the main story across most of TCW, but done in various ways.

What is the crowd and energy like at a live event? There’s no crowd like a pro­fessional wrestling crowd, from chanting “you suck” to “this is awesome” and everything in-between the energy has to be felt to be believed.

At this year’s Second Coming you held the first ever All Women’s main event. Are women’s participation and interest in the sport growing? I think across Australia you’re seeing a very clear rise in women’s wrestling, I think international names like Rhea Ripley and Toni Storm have really helped pave more of a path for the woman here to be seen as more legit than ever. We have had less interest than we would like here in Tassie but Charlie Rose and Allie Gal­vin are two home grown TCW stars that are recognisable in Australian wrestling and that means a lot to us.

What are your upcoming shows? We tend to run 6-7 shows a year with our main attraction being Annihilation (during February). We are trying to run at least one Hobart/Sorell and one Devonport/Burnie show a year, and with support we’d love to run them more fre­quently. Our next show is 13 December and then our big show Annihilation 13 on 28 February. Readers can find out more at www.tasmanianchampionship­wrestling.com.au.