Edinburgh wrestler headlines Southside Community Centre event in Edinburgh for all the family to enjoy

Edinburgh family-friendly event during Easter holidays

American-style wrestling is coming to Edinburgh next week when a Capital wrestler will compete for the world title, with the Evening News giving out five pairs of free tickets to the event.

The World Wide Wrestling League is set to bring lights, cameras and plenty of action to Edinburgh with matches to be taped for W3L’s video on demand service. The main event will see Edinburgh wrestler ‘The Original’ Craig Stephens attempt to complete his collection of championships by challenging W3L World Champion Taylor Bryden.

Speaking about the title fight, Craig said: “I’ve proved all my doubters wrong one by one by collecting every championship W3L has to offer. In my home city of Edinburgh I’ll finish my journey and become W3L World Champion! Like me or not, after this event in Edinburgh no one can deny I’m the best pro wrestler in Europe.”

Some of the wrestling stars due to appear in Edinburgh on April 13. Clockwise from top left: Swedish wrestler Seb Silvers, Edinburgh hero Craig Stephens, title challenger Nicole Jasmin, champ Taylor Bryden, the Copenhagen Hangman and Mike Musso.

The W3L Womens Championship will also be on the line as Nicole Jasmin challenges ‘Dynamite’ Brodie Adler. Other top stars will perform, including Mike Musso, the Copenhagen Hangman and Swedish star Seb Silbers. And you can see all the action for free thanks to the Evening News. All you have to do is email your name and email address to [email protected]. The first five people to do so will be sent a free pair of tickets to the event.

Promoter Mike Musgrave from W3L is looking forward to his company’s first Edinburgh event since lockdown, promising a bigger and better experience for fans.

He said: “Our Edinburgh events were always previously very successful and it’s usually sold out with about 200-250 fans. This is our first time back in Edinburgh since the pandemic, as the centre we always use is council-run so it was tied up with regulations. We didn’t want to move to another venue as we really like to go there.

"We hope to hit the ground running with this event and we have a host of international wrestlers, so there’s some different wrestlers for fans to enjoy. And we have invested a lot into the production side of things, so people will see a difference. We have a projection screen and different production improvements like lighting. So it’s a lot of bells and whistles to go with it.

"If fans have been to our events at Brunton Hall it’s more like what we have there, as bigger venues like that have more equipment. But most of our events are in town halls or community centres, so it’s very hard to replicate that experience in those venues, so this extra equipment will make a big difference.

"We have been touring the country with this new set-up and the reviews and feedback have been very positive. I think fans will be quite pleased with the improvements we have made. And thanks to this we can entice new talent to our events. It’s family friendly, that’s our biggest audience, parents with kids, but older wrestling fans enjoy it too. Fan interaction is a huge thing for us also and the fans love it.”

Doors Open at 6.15pm with the first match set to take to the ring at 6.45pm. Tickets: Ringside front row £16, general admission £14, concession £12, family of four £46.