Suplexes and slams for city wrestling fans

Around 1,000 people watch UK’s top grapplers at Caird Hall event

Some of the UK’s top wrestling talent thrilled Tayside grapple fans at Dundee’s Caird Hall on Saturday.

Around 1,000 people watched newlysigned World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) stars go up against homegrown talent during a two-hour show.

Kirriemuir band Emerald Sunday kicked off the night with a live performance inside the squared circle at Scottish Wrestling Entertainment’s Hell for Lycra XIV.

Punches, kicks, bodyslams, suplexes and piledrivers quickly followed at the “Best of British” event in which WWE UK tournament competitor Sam Gradwell was making his SWE debut.

Worldwide names Zack Sabre Jr and “the Musclecat” Saxon Huxley were among the big names billed at what has become SWE’s annual extravaganza.

But the promotion was struck a blow at the last minute as Sabre Jr was unable to attend due to flight delays.

The 30-year-old, who is one of the best-regarded technical wrestlers of modern times, vowed to make it next year.

He said: “Sincere apologies to everyone at SWE but I’ll be missing tonight’s event due to a proper bad flight delay and missed connection.

“It’s now impossible to get to Dundee in time. I’ll be working with SWE to make this up to everyone as soon as possible in 2018.

Gradwell said he had “a great night wrestling in Dundee” and Huxley hailed a “fantastic crowd”.

Dundee-based SWE has previously brought big names to the city including Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase, Rowdy Roddy Piper and Hacksaw Jim Duggan.

Picture: Steve MacDougall. CJ Banks, left, in his match up with Ian Ambrose.