RWL at Fusion - Youth Group Demo

RWL Goes to Youth Group

Calling this one an RWL “show” might be stretching the definition slightly.

Officially recorded in RWL history simply as the Youth Group Demo, the event took place at Fusion, a Christian youth group that CorZ attended at the time.

Somehow, RWL managed to find its way onto the programme.

The exact circumstances have become slightly hazy with time. It would be nice to say RWL was formally invited to put on a wrestling demonstration.

In reality, there is every possibility that CorZ simply pestered everyone until they eventually agreed to let it happen.

Either way, RWL was going to youth group.

A Slightly Different Venue

The setting was The Redeemer C of E Primary School, where Fusion held its meetings.

There was obviously no wrestling ring waiting for RWL when they arrived.

Instead, school gym mats were laid out in the library area, creating what would generously be described as the wrestling area for the evening.

After the cardboard ring and shopping-trolley ropes of Turning Medieval, wrestling on actual gym mats could almost be considered an upgrade.

Almost.

One Match Only

There was no tournament, no Watson’s Lounge, no visiting promotions and no elaborate entrance-way made from plasterboard.

There was one match.

RWL Champion Jayyy vs CorZ.

Once again, the two RWL founders found themselves opposite one another with the RWL Championship at stake, although this time they were wrestling in the library area of a primary school in front of a Christian youth group.

Early RWL could take its championship almost anywhere.

Hardcore Soft Play

Somehow, even the surroundings became involved.

A collection of large soft-play blocks found their way into the match, with Jayyy and CorZ taking bumps onto them during the action.

In hindsight, throwing yourselves around on children’s soft-play equipment during a wrestling match probably wasn’t the cleverest idea either of them had ever had.

At the time, though?

It was brilliant.

For a group still in the earliest stages of figuring out what RWL actually was, simply being given the opportunity to put on a wrestling match somewhere different felt like a big deal.

There was no ring, no proper venue and barely even a show.

But somebody had allowed RWL to wrestle inside a building that wasn’t secretly being borrowed from another wrestling promotion.

That alone represented progress.

Barely a Show, Still Part of the Story

RWL at Fusion would never be remembered as one of the promotion’s major events.

It was a single match on some gym mats in a primary-school library.

But that’s precisely why it belongs in RWL’s history.

The backyard era wasn’t built entirely around major shows, championships and interfeds. Sometimes RWL was simply a group of young wrestlers taking whatever opportunity appeared in front of them, however small or unusual it might have been.

And sometimes that opportunity involved soft-play blocks at a Christian youth group.

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One championship match, some school gym mats and a pile of soft-play blocks. Whether RWL was invited or CorZ simply annoyed everyone until they gave in has been lost to history. Either way, the Youth Group Demo happened.