The family-friendly show features top Canadian wrestling talent, including 24-year-old Bobby Sharp from Sherwood Park. He’s the current CNWA national champion.
“He’s on the fast track,” said May. Sharp recently returned from a free agent tournament in Los Angeles and was looked at by WWE talent recruiters earlier this year.
“We’ve had a lot of our wrestlers traveling internationally. One of our guys is currently in Japan,” May added.
Ladies champion Bambi Hall will also enter the ring to defend her title against Edmonton’s Sexy Samantha.
Another perk to CNWA’s shows is they’re different in every community. “It’s very personal on that evening.
“You’ll have six matches and that half hour of time that we haven’t allocated for matches is an opportunity for fans to meet the wrestlers and talk to them directly.” When kids meet the wrestlers and see the injuries they receive, they are deterred from trying out the moves on the playground.
“[They] realize that we are human beings and that did hurt because you can see this big welt on my shoulder now.”
With the aim of positively influencing youngsters, the CWNA has launched a program called Fight for Life. Massive Damage, one of the organization’s wrestlers, conceived the program.
“He goes into the school and talks from a personal spot about his struggles with addiction and overcoming addiction in a really candid way that doesn’t sound preachy.
“He’s a 6-foot, 250-pound, tattooed bruiser and to go into a classroom, right off the bat he’s a stark contrast to what the kids are used to seeing.”
Along with children, the wrestling shows can help communities, said May. “One hundred per cent of the money generated from this event stays in Jasper.”
Before 2010, CNWA had not broadcast live professional wrestling since 1991. “Wrestling has really struggled the last 20 years; when WWE shut down all the territorial operations by monopolizing the TV time and snapping up the best of the best.” Wrestling is gaining a foothold again because “people are starving for different types of entertainment.”
To learn more about the CNWA and the wrestlers coming to Jasper, visit their Facebook page at .
