News

A Magical Interview With Malaysia Pro Wrestling (MyPW)

Learn more about Malaysia Pro Wrestling (MyPW)!

Published

5 years ago

March 20, 2019

This evening was a special event for me, as I was working on my next article. I was in the mist of researching one of the rising stars in Asia, Malaysia Professional Wrestling (MyPW) and the promotion’s representative quickly replied to my initial contact over Facebook. It is important to understand the story of such promotions and with the gracious opportunity before me, I seized the moment to conduct the following interview. I can not thank Malaysia Pro Wrestling enough for taking time out of their schedule and agree to this with no prior warning. I will always be in their debt.

SC: Thank you for spending time to speak with me.

MYP: It is a pleasure, we are truly grateful for any feedback we can receive from our fanbase. It is very important to MYPW to maintain strong relations with our fans.

SC: Since most fans in the United States are unfamiliar with your promotion, please tell us about how Malaysian Pro Wrestling began.

MYP: Professional wrestling has always been popular in Malaysia, beginning in the 1980s with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) and World Class Wrestling (WCW). Fans in the country couldn’t attend live events, so we established fan clubs which became a tight community. Our founder, Mr. Ayez Shaukat Fonseka grew up being a fan, but believed our fans deserved a promotion of our own. In April 2014, Malaysian Pro Wrestling was born.

SC: The fanbase sounds remarkable.

MYP: It is true, we didn’t just meet to watch events on television. We also coordinated with each other for other activities. We became more than friends, we became family.

SC: What were some of the challenges MYPW faced during those early years?

MYP: Malaysia didn’t have a wrestling school or a professional trainer in the beginning. One of our volunteers, Mr. Shaukat took a three week course under Rick Drasin (trained by WWE HoF Mae Young) and he found a mentor in form of Dr. Tom Prichard. Mr. Shaukat became our head trainer and we began as a wrestling school. It took two years before we were able to hold our first event in 2016 MyPW Uprising.

SC: Malaysian Pro Wrestling has grown quickly over such a short time, is there one thing you can attribute to the rapid growth?

MYP: There are many factors involved, first the local wrestlers constantly trained together at the beginning and everyone has become a close family that works together to build each other up. Secondly, the amazing fanbase which has supported us since the beginning. Finally, we are gaining the interest of other wrestlers from all over Asia wanting to participate in our shows. The non-local talent has been amazing in providing our wrestlers with exposure to different skill levels and techniques.

SC: What are some of the biggest challenges MYPW faces today and how do you overcome these?

MYP: The biggest challenge has always been our financial limitations. We literally practice the word “independent” or “indie” for short. We are unable to attract sponsors as well. The promotion is single handedly funded by our co-director, merchandise sales, and tickets to cover the show venue. As for the developmental center, the running cost is covered by the monthly fees.

SC: What do you see as your greatest accomplishments?

MYP: I humbly am not sure, however our talent has worked extremely hard to provide top level entertainment at every performance and our fans demonstrate their appreciation by filling our shows most of the time. This success has provided us opportunities to appear on local news stations and several talk shows. We have also been able to expand our fan base across the Asian and Pacific regions including Australia and the United States.

SC: In the past three years the independent wrestling scene throughout Asia has grown tremendously, does MYPW currently partner with other promotions?

MYP: MyPW has collaborate with some of the South East Asian wrestling promotions, but mostly it’s outside talent being booked. We encourage cross bookings to gain experience for both us and the respective talent. It has worked wonders and enable not just the talent, but the MyPW branding.

NOTE: At this point MyPW representitive sent me a flyer for their 30 March 19 event. On the flyer, women’s wrestling legend Emi Sakura (also owns Ghato Move Pro Wrestling in Singapore) was being billed for a match against Nor Phoenix.

SC: Emi Sakura, that is impressive, there are only a few promotions in Asia that seriously promote women’s wrestling. I noticed you also advertise free wrestling try outs for women. Who is MYPW’s female trainer?

MYP: Yes, women’s wrestling is as important to us as men’s. We have Nor Phoenix as our women’s trainer. Emi is very special to us and Phoenix has taken her on as a mentor. They both met during Ghato Move’s all women’s event in Singapore. Both do an excellent job with out young wrestlers.

SC: How does MYPW wish to grow into within the next 5 years?

MYP: The next 5 years will be important to us, we are looking to break into the media networks (iflix, amazon, etc). We believe we have the potential to break into the mainstream media, both local and internationally through these platforms. We also hope to be endorsed by the government as we wish to be looked as a national treasure.

SC: Can you share your schedule of events, so I can pass this onto the fanbase?

MYP: Our next show is March 30th, a rookie event is being planned for April, and a show in July. We respect the Muslim holiday of Ramadhan and do not schedule shows for May or June.

SC: Once again, thank you for taking the time to share with us, the story of Malaysian Pro Wrestling. We wish you luck and success in the future.

MYP: We truly grateful for such feedback. We do the best we can to bring the industry to greater heights in the region.

Let us know what you think on social media @ChairshotMedia and always remember to use the hashtag #UseYourHead!

Related Topics:Asian Pacific Featured Featured Big Malaysia Pro Wrestling

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AEW Coverage

Mitchell’s AEW Continental Classic Update! (11/27/23)

What a start to the tournament!

Published

5 months ago

November 27, 2023

Steven Mitchell

Did your picks win points?

The AEW Continental Classic is underway, with almost everyone competing. Check in here if you haven’t seen the winners and losers of week 1!

Here are your Gold League standings!

Jon Moxley: 1-0, 3 points
Swerve Strickland: 1-0, 3 points
Jay White: 1-0, 3 points
Rush: 0-1, 0 points
Mark Briscoe: 0-1, 0 points.
Jay Lethal: 0-1, 0 points

Here are your Blue League standings!

Brody King: 1-0, 3 points
Claudio Castagnoli: 1-0, 3 points
Daniel Garcia: 0-1, 0 points
Eddie Kingston: 0-1, 0 points
Bryan Danielson: Yet to Compete
Andrade El Idolo: Yet to Compete

My Thoughts:

Nothing too crazy, nothing too wild, this tournament only just got started. The only disappointing point is that they could not get Bryan “cleared to compete” Saturday night. Not sure how much of that is shoot given the bad eye, but this was kinda the problem of wanting him in the tournament over tons of other choices. Bryan wants to face Okada for WrestleKingdom 18, how is Bryan supposed to do that at his best if he’s also gonna be in a round robin, doing five top level matches in about as many weeks? And it takes away from Andrade being able to do something. Also a little surprised we didn’t even hear from Andrade on Saturday.

Now as we heard on Saturday, round two’s matches are set. Gold League will see Mark Briscoe VS Rush, White VS Swerve, and of course, Moxley VS Lethal. Nice variety there, a couple 0-1 guys facing off, as well as two 1-0 guys, and then 1-0 VS 0-1. No offense to Lethal, but he feels like an 0-2 going up against Moxley. Hard to call the other ones but that’s the fun of it. Meanwhile, Blue League sees Brody VS Claudio in a showdown to be 2-0, then Bryan and Andrade finally jump in, Bryan against Eddie and Andrade against Garcia. Sadly, feels like Eddie and Garcia are going 0-2, no way Tony Khan is booking Bryan and Andrade to lose their first shots.

In fact, that could be half the reason they did wait on those two, that’s almost too good for just a first round opener. But I still would’ve done it, same as NJPW does stuff like that for round robins, which this is all modeled after anyway.

Let us know what you think on social media @ChairshotMedia and always remember to use the hashtag #UseYourHead!

AEW Coverage

AEW announces Continental Classic entrants

The C2 is set!

Published

5 months ago

November 22, 2023

Steven Mitchell

Tony Khan Reveals the Blue and Gold “Leagues!”

Originally livestreamed, Tony Khan and Tony Schiavone officially announced the twelve total entrants and divided them into the two round robin blocks known as the “Blue League” and “Gold League.” If you don’t feel like sifting through the almost 30 minute video, the groups are:

Blue League

Bryan Danielson
Andrade El Idolo
Brody King
Claudio Castagnoli
Daniel Garcia
Eddie Kingston

Gold League

Jon Moxley
Swerve Strickland
Rush
Mark Briscoe
Jay Lethal
Jay White

Tony Khan also explains the rules for the Continental Classic:

Every match has a 20 minute time limit
The winner of each match earns 3 points, losers earn 0, 1 point for a draw
EVERYONE ELSE is banned from ringside for true 1v1 action

Eddie Kingston also joined the selection special as his “life’s work” is on the line in this tournament, both the ROH World Championship and NJPW Strong Openweight Championship on the line as part of the modern day North American Triple Crown Eddie, Tony Khan, AEW, ROH and NJPW are looking to create together. Gold League competes tonight on Dynamite while Blue League will have their start this Saturday on Collision. Look for more articles like this one to keep up with the Continental Classic standings over the next six weeks of tournament action!

Let us know what you think on social media @ChairshotMedia and always remember to use the hashtag #UseYourHead!