People Embrace The Squared Circle At Stride Place

It was a wild night at Stride Place in Portage la Prairie as fans cheered, booed, and laughed at Pro Wrestling in support of Recreation Opportunities for Kids.

The event ran about three hours with hundreds in attendance to see the show. The main event was a battle royal for the Canadian Heavyweight Championship, and Portage la Prairie city councillor Ryan Espey was the surprise winner. He entered the contest looking for an arm wrestle against Brody Steele but after a cheap eye poke during the match, Espey returned in the main event to capture the championship by flipping Steele over the top rope.

"I have never been involved directly with professional wrestling before," says Espey. "I've been a fan since I was a kid and if I were to say this was a bucket list item, that would be a great way to describe it. It's something I've always wanted to do, I had an opportunity so I took it. I had a blast. The best part of the event was the crowd, they were nuts! I was sitting back stage in the dressing room and the stands were vibrating, you knew something big happened because the crowd went ballistic."

The event was all in support of ROK, who received over 500$ from the 50/50 alone.

"There were a lot of people," says ROK recreation supervisor Lynne Parker. "It was just a steady stream of people coming through the door so that was great. The community time-after-time keeps stepping up and supporting ROK, and to me that makes me feel like they are agreeing that we're doing something right and they'd like to see it continue."

"I think the event was hugely successful," adds Espey. "I swore to people that were coming. No matter what happens, you won't leave here and say you didn't have fun and I really think we accomplished that."

Portage Regional Economic Development executive director Vern May announced the wrestlers as they entered and played emcee. He feels the event was a total success as well and hopes everyone had a great time.