Beatdowns and bravado in the UK’s pro-wrestling scene

Tom Ringsby’s journey into the UK’s pro wrestling scene happened almost by accident. After some work fell through in 2024, the London-based photographer came across a poster on a lamp-post for a ​‘tables, ladders, chairs’ event in Coventry. 

Until then, the photographer’s wrestling knowledge was limited to the WWE he watched on his nan’s TV growing up in Oslo – so, gig cancelled and desperate to shoot something, he grabbed his camera and jumped straight on a train.

“It was just in this town hall, super wholesome, completely opposite to what you’d imagine from the negative stereotypes associated with wrestling,” he says. ​“From that first event, I was hooked.”

Afterwards, Ringsby spent a year travelling the UK’s wrestling circuit, photographing the sport’s farcical drama in all its rowdy, rambunctious, pantomime-esque glory.

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The result is Rumble: a photo-zine that follows the spandex-clad warriors as they fight tooth, nail and toilet brush (literally), while peeling back the façade of aggressive machismo to reveal a community of slapstick, standup, and scene-superstardom. He captures the wrestlers in the ring and behind the scenes, both at their most performative and most intimate.

“They’re very self-aware,” Ringsby says of the scene’s stars. ​“They’re playing with the obvious homoeroticism – and there are a lot of queer people, a lot of drag involved, which makes so much sense when you think about it. It’s all about creating larger-than-life characters, costumes, performances.”

The physicality of the combat is real – wrestlers end up bruised and battered, and Ringsby himself narrowly avoided damage more than once while photographing the fights, at one point being flung into the wall by a rope. But their matches also rely on a form of collaborative choreography, with the fighters working together to put on the most entertaining performance.

“There’s a language between them, the same way that dancers have – backstage they’d be gesturing with their arms, reminding each other what they’re doing, and then they’d go out and actually throw each other across the room.”

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Comedy is also central to the performers’ characters and routines: ​“At one point this guy comes out and he’s got a doghouse with him and puts the other guy on the leash and puts him in the doghouse and makes him wear a toilet seat,” Ringsby says.

While London events – taking place in venues such as Camden’s historic Electric Ballroom – can draw in crowds of 500, from regular fans to one-off match-goers looking for a novelty night out, it’s the smaller scenes in places like Kent and Coventry with only 30-odd hardcore attendees where the atmosphere really comes alive. 

“A lot of the ones I went to, I’d be amazed if there’s a penny left over at the end of the day,” Ringsby admits. ​“But I think the effort they put into it is significant. Most of them are doing it purely for the love and passion.”

Though the community is small, the photographer says that he can see the UK’s wrestling industry starting to grow. ​“It went from being this thing for a small subculture, it was really ramshackle and DIY, and then there was a heyday where it was really popular, and then it went down again. And now it’s coming to its own and having a second wind.” 

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Certain players like Sha Samuels – a veteran wrestler who’s been in the game for over 20 years – have gained celebrity status in their own right within the community. ​“When he started, there was no way to make a living out of it in the UK, and that was his dream,” Ringsby explains. ​“The goal was always to end up in America. That’s still the goal for a lot of people, but you can do it here now too; it’s actually become its own industry and entertainment culture in the UK.” 

To maintain momentum, the wrestlers carry their characters into the digital world, keeping the fantasy alive for their dedicated audience. They appear on podcasts and social platforms still in character, extending their feuds and alliances into a universe of ongoing storylines and relationships.

“They’re like the cool drama kids at school. They grew up, but just kept doing cool shit.”

Away from the performativity of the ring, Rumble also explores the more intimate moments backstage. The photographer followed his subjects to the dressing rooms, capturing the contrast between the audience-fuelled spectacles and the highly personal embodiment of the characters. 

“That was really fun; to see these guys using their phones as cameras to put on eyeliner,” he recalls. ​“These big buff dudes applying glitter or baby oil.”

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Women wrestlers are also integral to the scene, often going head-to-head with men as well as other women, playing with stereotypes imposed on them, either leaning in or subverting the expected.

“The female wrestlers were often the most fun because they had a different element to their character to play. It’s like a video game. Even though a guy can be massive, and it can be a tiny little girl he’s wrestling, in the logic of wrestling, she can still kick his ass because she has different moves.”

Ringsby hopes the project will open people’s eyes to the art form, and even encourage people to attend the events themselves.

“It’s a big rumble, and it’s just like a ball of chaos and testosterone and sweat and blood. It’s a reminder that this is a big, beautiful, meaningless, important world, and people bashing each other senseless on stage is a really cool escape, and a way to engage our hearts and our minds for a moment.”

To purchase a copy of Rumble, contact Tom Ringsby directly. Follow him on Instagram.

Isabelle Blakeney is a freelance journalist.

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