As promised, I’m gonna be taking a look at the first EVER barbed wire match in the history of Polish wrestling. This is from the Warsaw based promotion PpW and it took place in Warsaw February 15th of this year at a show called Brawl For The Puppies

The name Brawl For The Puppies comes from the fact that this particular show was a fundraiser for an animal rescue. Which I find very interesting as there’s a great juxtaposition between helping dogs and getting beaten and bloody in a barbed wire match

Just a quick little note about PpW. They call themselves a backyard promotion. In this situation, I think this traces back to the fact that they are all self trained and started in the backyard. However, they are running shows out of buildings

Not only are they running shows in buildings, they’re drawing crowds and HOT crowds at that. I’ve gotten some questions here and there about promotions considered to be “backyard” being on the map and I do have a stance on it...

For the most part, I will not include backyard wrestling on the map. Not that I have a problem with backyard at all. But in countries like the United States where there’s already thousands of wrestling promotions, I don’t think it’s worth listing backyard promotions

But internationally, my stance on that is different. A lot of the promotions that are considered “backyard” that I’ve encountered outside of major wrestling countries come about as a result of there not being wrestling training available

These promotions still acquire or build a ring, train themselves and put on shows that draw crowds. These promotions embody the spirit of pro wrestling in their country and although they aren’t formally trained, they deserve a spot on the map. PpW falls into that category to me

Anyway, on to the match. Johnny Blade, from Warsaw, dropkicks Viking, from Prague, onto some barbed wire for the first big barbed wire spot of the match. The crowd starts up an early “holy shit!” Chant