Real pain and real community are shown inside Tom Ringsby’s wrestling photozine

“Wrestling is real!” is something you will often hear from professional wrestling fans. While WWE – the largest export of wrestling entertainment in the world – has passed its furious, bloody, pop cultural peak, the high-energy entertainment remains punching and kicking. When Oslo and London-based photographer Tom Ringsby had a gig cancelled, he happened upon a poster for an event happening in Canterbury: a British pro wrestling event happening on a tenth of the scale of the average WWE bout. That’s when he did what he knows best, locked and loaded 35mm into his Contax G2 and flashgun, started shooting and created a zine titled Rumble.

“I very quickly discovered all the stereotypes I’d learned from old school American wrestling did not apply here,” says Tom. “I met the most wonderful and inviting people.” Naturally, the machismo of wrestling is a prevailing stereotype – with behemothic men named ‘Haystack’ bringing down chairs, bats and hammers down upon the titanium plated heads of anyone crazy enough to step into the ring. Over the years, wrestling has made efforts to become more inclusive and wrestlers and fans alike have contributed to repairing its media image. As well as that, wrestling has become privy to its own seriousness and thus some pockets of communities choose a very British flavoured irony and self-awareness to it. “I like to describe it as Jackass does pantomime with Jim Carrey in the mix,” adds Tom.

“Much of the audience keeps coming back and developing a rapport with the wrestlers, heckling or shouting advice to them mid-match. It’s basically an interactive play with an expertly choreographed fight scene as the climax,” says Tom. That interactivity made it easy for Tom to jump in on the mix with his camera. Due to general British friendliness, sometimes he was allowed in the ring, getting up and personal as bones were crushed. “One time Sha, one of my favourite wrestlers, walked a guy in a headlock across the room mid-fight to pose for a picture for me,” says Tom. “So it’s a mix of candid spontaneous scenes and moments we created together.”

Ultimately, Tom hopes that Rumble inspires people to go check out UK pro wrestling. With a lot of wrestlers transitioning to Hollywood and Friday night smackdowns depending on clippable moments, the more independent wrestling scenes are here to inject pure adrenaline into the overlooked sport – with real performers, real pain, real stakes and real heart. “It’s an underrated art form by the most multi-talented performers you’ll ever witness,” promises Tom. “Forget about WWE and the machismo of the 90’s and 00’s – this is completely different. It’s much more sincere and emotional.”