If you ask them, they will come. That’s what Michele Emslie learned when the Yukon Arts Centre invited the Canadian Wrestling Federation (CWF) to town this year.
“They go everywhere,” says Emslie, director of programming at YAC. “They’re on the road constantly.”
In fact, the only Canadian road the CWF hasn’t taken is the one that leads to the Yukon. That’s why CWF owner Frank Ryckman jumped at the chance to stage a Rumble at Takhini Arena on May 16.
“The Yukon is the only province or territory we haven’t performed in,” he says. It’s late April and Ryckman is speaking over the phone from St. Catharines, Ontario, where he just finished loading the CWF’s 16×16-foot wrestling ring into a van he’s about to drive across the country with his crew and stable of wrestlers. He’s a bit down that he can’t bring “the big ring,” which measures 20 x 20. “But this is the only ring we have that can fit on a plane,” he says. And a flight up to Old Crow is on the CWF’s itinerary once he’s made the cross-Canada drive.
Just because they’re bringing the smaller ring doesn’t mean the Rumble will be pint-sized though. This is not, he says, the kind of middling performance where someone duct tapes a curtain to a doorway for the fighters’ entrances.
“We’re gonna bring the show,” says Ryckman, who’s been involved in professional wrestling for 27 years (after his band, Mother’s Worry, broke up in the 90s, he attended a wrestling school run by Bret “The Hitman” Hart). “There’s no ifs ands or buts about it.”
These wrestlers, they’re bigger than life when you get to meet them and when they turn your attention on you, that has a profound impact for a lot of kids.”
To ensure this, the Rumble will feature wrestlers including luchador-inspired El Reverso; CWF heavyweight champion Jesse Bieber; Taylor Rising; Gisele Shaw; and WWE Hall of Famer, Bushwhacker Luke, who’s still throwing down at the age of 87.
It’s not your standard YAC fare, but Emslie says that’s why YAC was drawn to it. Not only will it be an interesting technical challenge (YAC has never put on an indoor show for 1,800), it seemed like a good way to reach Yukoners who might not be YAC regulars. It’s something the centre has been trying to do more and more.
“Artists and arts communities are always looking at what’s out there in the ether that is interesting to look at,” says Emslie. “And there’s a lot of people looking at wrestling right now.”
She points to Winnipeg, which hosted the Brawl in the Hall this February, an event that saw pro wrestlers fighting to a live soundtrack provided by the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra. Wrestling is art and sport in one. It’s physical and creative. It has it all—performance, drama, spectacle, choreography and storytelling.
In addition to the Whitehorse Rumble, CWF will do week-long wrestling bootcamps for kids in Old Crow, Dawson City, Carmacks, Watson Lake and Whitehorse (ticket sales from the Whitehorse event help fund the community tour). At the end of each bootcamp there will be a show for the community. There’s also an anti-bullying message in this outreach, which is important to YAC and the CWF.
“These wrestlers, they’re bigger than life when you get to meet them and when they turn your attention on you, that has a profound impact for a lot of kids,” says Emslie. It’s inspirational to have one of them teach you the value of having confidence in being who you are. And it especially hits home when they share their own backstories.
Some of the wrestlers have been through tough stuff, including Ryckman. When his band broke up, it was partly because one of their members (Ryckman’s brother) had drug and alcohol addictions. Ryckman and his colleagues have seen similar addictions and attendant bullying in some of the smaller communities the CWF has visited. That’s how the anti-bullying component of their camps was developed. Because the wrestlers don’t just perform, they connect with community members through camps and workshops, they feel a responsibility to leave something positive behind that went beyond memories of an entertaining experience.
“We feel like we’re part of communities,” he says. “And we want people to feel like they’re part of us.”
The May 16 show in Whitehorse begins at 4 p.m. Tickets are $30 and can be purchased here.
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