Honour Wrestling Association (HWA) is looking to bring the old era of wrestling heroes back to the community. Steve Eden, a twelve-time Springbok and the founder of HWA, came up with the idea last year and dreams of seeing wrestlers idolised in the same manner as Roodepoort legend Danie Voges was. To realise this dream, Eden is opening a wrestling, boxing and mixed-martial arts centre at the Roodepoort City Hall.
“Our main focus will be to have more wrestlers well taken care of, and to groom the best trainees on the continent.
In other sports, players start their own committees to take care of fellow players – why can’t we as wrestlers do the same?” he said.
HWA has partnered with the Johannesburg Council, and starting in January next year, members aged 16 years and older will receive specialised training, while those under 16 years of age will be trained in grappling, boxing and self defence. All of the classes will be free of charge.
Madeleine Middoux has been brought in as an event organiser, and wrestler Zizzou Middoux will be the head coach of the wrestling department.
“The head coach will work with the trainees, and when they are ready, they will have a dark match (a trial match) in front of a group of seniors. The seniors will then judge whether the trainees are ready to be in the main wrestling shows or not. What we do in the ring is still dangerous and if someone is not trained well enough, life-threatening injuries can occur.
We want people to come to our shows to be entertained and not lose fans because of the danger,” said Eden.
The association also plans to do more shows and make them affordable to the community. “All the money we make from our shows is injected directly into the association to assist in upgrades. We want to create the next big star,” he added.
Another ambitious project in the pipeline for the association is to work with and train local JMPD officers. Leading the training will be Eden himself, and the wrestler known as X-terminator.
“We are inviting sports coaches who are willing to help to come and join us and be involved in uplifting the community. We have the best wrestlers in Africa, among them 2Face, Gravity, Dirty Jackson and Terri Middoux. To see what these wrestlers have to offer, the community can come watch our Halloween Nightmare show, which will feature a number of special guests,” said Eden.
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