When I first walked in to the International Wrestling Syndicate (IWS) event Praise the Violence the
night of Saturday, January 21, 2023, I was prepared for the worst. I imagined a den of toxic masculinity:
sexist dudebros who abuse women behind closed doors all gathered in one place to fuel their excessive
need for violence as muscle-bound costumed men pretended to beat each other bloody for their
delight.
What a found wasn’t that at all. The audience was as varied in gender as it was in age, and when the
fighters or performers- how they prefer to be known depends on the wrestler – gathered around the
merch table to schmooze with their fans they were friendly and congenial, eager to hear feedback about
their performances.
“The IWS tends to bring in all sorts of people,” says wrestler Sonny Solay, The Rockn’ Roll General, who
speaks on behalf of his own experience, not the IWS. “Wrestling was generally marketed towards young
men, and as they got older they have their families and it’s more of a family show. The best way to
understand professional wrestling is we are the three ring circus: if you’re there for the lion tamer, you’ll
like the lion tamer; if you don’t like the lion tamer, you’ll like the clowns, if you don’t like the clowns,
you’ll like the guy who gets shot out of a cannon…There’s somebody for everyone at our shows.”
As for the concerns of women regarding toxic masculinity and sexism, there was at least one women’s
wrestling match at the event. Solay encourages women to give IWS events a shot, saying that the
perception of professional wrestling as an area where women were objectified may have been justified
in past wrestling eras, but since the women’s revolution in wrestling, that’s all changed.
“There’s a lot more women-forward promotions and the work that they’ve been doing in Japan, women
have shown that they can hang with the men and even surpass a lot of us as far as skill and intensity
goes. So I say give it a chance and you’d be pleasantly surprised,”
The IWS –initially named the World Wrestling Syndicate – is the biggest wrestling promotion in Canada.
It was founded in Montreal in nineteen-ninety-eight by pro-wrestler SeXXXy Eddy, with Manny
Elefthriou and Nic Paterson. In the year two thousand, the professional wrestling promotion was
renamed the Internet Wrestling Syndicate when one of the founders partnered with Wild Rose
Productions, an adult entertainment company. In 2004, following tons of pro wrestling matches
including tag-team bouts, No-Rope Barbed Wire matches, and Tag-Team Championships, the promotion
was renamed the International Wrestling Syndicate or IWS. The promotion group based out of Montreal
has helped launch the careers of such World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE, formerly the WWF) stars
as Sami Zayne and Kevin Owens, as well as IWS legends like The Green Phantom, who fought an
intense table match last Saturday, wresting the belt from The Maniacal Maredes. The IWS women’s
championship match pitted Dani Leo, Melanie Havok, Jessika Black, and Katrina Creed against one
another, with Havok emerging victorious.
The matches were everything one could hope for from pro-wrestling: blaring high energy intros,
breathtaking stunts, snazzy costumes, and performers with their ring personas on full display. As a
martial artist and self-defense instructor, it was obvious to me when hits did not connect, and the faking
of injuries rivaled what one would see in any FIFA match. The ring, according Sonny Solay, who spells his
second name phonetically after the French spelling was butchered by one-too-many announcers outside
of Quebec, is designed to maximize sound, thus giving the crowd a better show. As to whether fights are
actually real, they are not, though whether the outcomes are set in advance varies.
“It’s not a matter of it being a real fight, but there are certain beats that need to be hit. I can’t really go
into it too much without getting to specifics…It’s not a real fight, but the outcome is usually pre-
determined. And when I say ‘usually pre-determined’ I mean sometimes things happen, sometimes
there are surprises, that’s the magic of professional wrestling, that’s why people love going to the
shows,”
In terms of the violence of the shows, Solay reminds me that shows are still a three-ring circus, and that
sometimes things happen that wrestlers weren’t aware of beforehand. The show I saw involved a table
match or two, in which an opponent could only be beaten when their bodies made contact with a
wooden table hard enough for the table to break. Other times fluorescent light tubes are broken on the
backs of wrestlers and both carry the risk of bloody but minor wounds. That said, Solay points out that
any contact sport comes with risks, and more common injuries include cuts, bruises, and ankle and wrist
injuries.
“Technically all injuries are possible, but we train to make sure that they happen as little as possible,”
Now let’s say someone wants to become a pro-wrestler. Solay says that every wrestler has a different
road they travelled to get to the IWS. He initially started as an athletic wrestler, only to stop due to
injury. He got into the IWS via a friend, but ultimately joined the IWS Dojo which puts the emphasis on
getting people in the ring, teaching them the basics and allowing them to explore the type of wrestler
they want to be. He recommends the IWS Dojo as a way of making sure someone can be the best
wrestler they can, speaking highly of the mentoring and training offered by Super Star Shayne Hawke,
Matt “Daddy Magic” and “Cool Hand” Angelo. Those eighteen or over (or sixteen and have parental
consent) who are interested in becoming pro wrestlers are welcome to message the IWS Dojo’s
Facebook page. They are more than willing to offer a one-time trial to see if it’s a good fit.
Featured image by Sebastien Jette
The IWS has monthly shows in Montreal that are entertaining and fun. Check em out and follow your
favorite wrestlers on social media.
