Before entering the ring at the Registry Theatre in April for Off The Ropes Studio’s “The Masters of the Registry” event, “Roughhouse” Jeff Black took the microphone to vent his frustrations about the young students of his wrestling school refusing to take his mentorship seriously. After hearing this verbal onslaught, Poppa Squatz leapt into the ring to defend the kids against Black’s comments. Black would go on to win the match, but would not get the last laugh — the students he took shots at would storm the ring while he was celebrating.
This chaos was my introduction to Off The Ropes Studio, a woman-owned, independent professional wrestling school located at 40 Lancaster St. W. in Kitchener. They host shows monthly and have booked venues such as the Legion, Registry Theatre and The Museum as well as being present at Canada Day festivities and Oktoberfest.
Like many, I used to be a diehard wrestling fan, falling out of love with the sport around the time I entered high school. Fortunately, I have found my passion for professional wrestling re-ignited over the past two years. However, my exposure to professional wrestling had been exclusively through major companies like the WWE, where there are massive budgets for costumes, pyrotechnics and overall pageantry. Delving into the independent scene was new to me. Despite not having the same level of theatrics, Off The Ropes Studio created an intimate atmosphere; wrestlers would respond directly to the heckling by some of the audience members, change their behavior in response to a chant that the crowd made up and found creative uses for props that kids in the stands gave them.
One thing I found myself drawn to is the different body types that were framed as powerful at Off The Ropes Studio. When watching wrestling on television, while many of the performers have different aesthetics and builds, there is an overall archetype of professional wrestler. That is, someone who is over six-foot tall, unbelievably ripped and lean. The reasoning for this makes sense to a degree — studios are selling sports as entertainment so they may gravitate to athletes who look as if they could credibly beat you up and who are attractive enough to be a television star.
However, this can be reductive — there are many unbelievably talented athletes who do not fit this mold who would benefit from getting opportunities in wrestling. . Off The Ropes Studio showcases talents that fit within a wide range of heights and weights and they are having fantastic matches. This is important to me, as I am someone who has faced significant weight bias — I am quite fat, and it is difficult to confidently navigate the world when the social expectation is that I should be ashamed of my body and how I look. Many would say that my appearance is indicative of my own personal failing (ignoring credible research that much of people’s weight gain is genetic) and proof of a fundamental lack of athleticism on my behalf. To be able to see people of all body types be strong and imposing in the ring, not in-spite of their differences in body type, but because they were able to leverage their differences in height or weight and use that to their advantage to try and win the match is inspiring.
I find this relationship uniquely empowering because the nature of professional wrestling is one where the performer is always framed as someone who is a credible fighter. To authentically engage in wrestling, you have to believe that a wrestler who doesn’t have the appearance of your preconception of an athlete can win — whichforces the viewer to challenge their perceptionds and understand how the performer is presenting themselves to see where their strength comes from. This createsa validating and welcoming environment for those on the margins and forces people to reconsider their understandings of power — inside and outside the ring
