A crowd of die-hard fans gathers around a four-sided wrestling ring at the Parow Civic Centre in Cape Town. Many of the fans wear branded T-shirts and replica championship belts. There is nothing else like what they’re about to see.
It is 8pm on Tuesday, 2 December. The Africa Wrestling Alliance (AWA) is hosting its final event of the year. After several matches, the evening will conclude with the “Coca-Cola Royal Rumble”, a match in which more than 20 professional wrestlers, each a unique character, will enter the ring and battle one another, testing their physical resolve. One by one, they will be thrown over the ring ropes by their opponents and be eliminated. The last remaining wrestler will win.
“It’s like a soap opera with bodyslams”, says Nathan Alexander. His wrestling character is Mike Xander, the current AWA Heavyweight Champion. Alexander describes his character as a bad guy that the crowd loves to hate.
Professional wrestling combines theatrical performance, athleticism and exaggerated storytelling. It is often scripted and choreographed, but the wrestlers risk serious injury due to the high-impact moves and staged physical stunts.
Alexander’s day job is in auditing. He says life as a professional wrestler can be chaotic.
“My home life away from wrestling is a lot more relaxing and very simple,” he says. “But when it comes to wrestling, you have to put on a brave face, and then you’re ready to go.”
The AWA is a professional wrestling promotion based in Cape Town. Promotions are companies that run the business of the sport, including organising and producing live shows, developing storylines, managing talent and directing matches.
Jay Cooper has been wrestling for 11 years. Out of the ring, his real name is Joel Daniels, and he is a business developer for a stainless steel company. It’s taken a while for him to define his in-ring character.
“Jay Cooper didn’t know who Jay Cooper was,” says Daniels. “He was a basketball player, an animé character … for three years, I didn’t know what I was doing.” But Cooper has now developed a trademark style: he is a high-flying wrestler who blends jumping from and over the top rope with hard-hitting strikes.
As a child, Daniels was often teased because of his weight. Professional wrestling became an escape. “A lot of nay-sayers turn around and say ‘Wow’, and that made me feel like I was doing something right, through what I love,” Daniels says.
Wesley Solomon, also known as Mad Jack Maverick, says more fans are taking notice. Maverick is a six-time AWA cruiserweight champion – the most reigns since the promotion was founded in 1994 – who describes himself or his character as “everybody’s devil on their shoulder”.
“Whenever somebody swerves in front of you in traffic, you know what you wanna do to that person? I get to do that in the ring,” he says. “A little bit unhinged, but I am a good guy at heart.”
Veteran AWA wrestler, Johnny Palazzio, whose real name is JP Gargiulo, coaches the next generation of professional wrestlers from their late teenage years and older at the Jan Burger Sports Fields in Parow. All his students fell in love with professional wrestling as fans and started training.
Palazzio says the sport is increasing in popularity. He is the most decorated pro wrestler in South Africa. It is a family affair for him: his teenage son took part in the main event last week, and his daughter is training to join one day.
Palazzio’s decorated career is nearing its end, and he says there would be no better way for it to end than being retired by his son. As a coach, his greatest joy is watching his students become the best wrestlers in Africa.
“Watching my youngsters do what they do and knowing that I had a hand in it, and seeing them wrestling in the ring means more to me than any title I ever won,” he says.
The Royal Rumble ends with Mark Davies crowned the winner. For the wrestlers, their passion and love for the sport make the injuries – torn meniscus, torn biceps and the rest – worth the sacrifice.
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