Martial Arts
Thanks to Martin Stirling's martial arts background, WPW has made much of its links with New Zealand's martial arts scene. Many of their early shows featured demonstrations of fighting styles such as karate and kickboxing. Shows have also been co-promoted with major Sumo events such as the 2005 Oceania Sumo Championships and the 2006 New Zealand Open Sumo Championships.
Also in 2006, WPW co-sponsored sumo wrestlers Sio Sakaria and Mark Tanu to attend the Junior World Championships in Estonia, where they won silver and bronze medals respectively.
In 2009 WPW wrestlers Travis Banks and Tykade both won gold medals at the Oceania Sumo championships in Australia.
This was backed up in 2010 when numerous WPW wrestlers took part in the Oceania Sumo Championships (this time held in Lower Hutt, Wellington, New Zealand). With Tykade once again taking out the open and heavyweight divisions, Rufguts and Ben Mana were also in the medals in the heavyweight and open divisions.
Travis Banks, Tykade and Rufguts went on to compete at the World Combat Games in China in August 2010
Read more about this topic: New Zealand Wide Pro Wrestling
Famous quotes containing the words martial and/or arts:
“Let the martial songs be written, let the dirges disappear. Let a
race of men now rise and take control!”
—Margaret Abigail Walker (b. 1915)
“Hardly any human being is capable of pursuing two professions or two arts rightly.”
—Plato (c. 427–347 B.C.)