The REAL Suplex City

Host: Adora Nwofor 

Starring: Raj Singh, Anna Fuchshuber, Dallas Hart, Mo Jabari, Scorpious

Production House: FOREIGNERZ @sansfuccs

Director: Eman Safadi

Producers: Eman Safadi, CONTRA

First Camera: Jevan Bailey

Second Camera: Shardul Sharnagat

Editor: Benjamin San Martin 

Assistant Editor: Eman Safadi, CONTRA

Colourist:  Benjamin San Martin 

Sound Design: Benjamin San Martin, CONTRA, Eman Safadi

Location Sound Mixer: Jevan Bailey

Title Sequence: Cole Edwards 

Archival Footage

Raj Singh 

Anna Fuchshuber

Mo Jabari

Dungeon Wrestling

Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA)

Maple Leaf Wrestling 

CFCN Archival Footage

ClassicsWWC 

SlamZone

Nik Bali

WWE 

Stampede Wrestling 

Kort Woycheshin (@flamesgrain)

Astrid Rose (@ringsiderose)

Sharla Morrison (@sharsphotography2016)

jon (@filmedbyjon) 

Music

Coldest Watr – Finesse

Tell Me Something New (Tigerblood Jewel Remix) (Instrumental Version) – Wellmess

WHAT U MEAN – Stoic

Profit Margins – Lwvis

Can You Please Hand Me a Beer – Daniel Fridell

Night Service Cowboy (Instrumental Version) – Badskum

GRABBLA – Wayne Tee

Search Friendly – Chris Shards

The Ridge – Johan Glossner

Funk up the Magic – Andreas Dahlback

DUMMY! – David Arcade Beats

BRASS – David Arcade Beats

Munraj Sahota: If I were to talk to somebody that knew nothing about wrestling, I wouldn’t tell them it is two men in their underwear fighting over a belt (laughs).

You have to get into that character mode a bit when you’re holding the ropes, like you’re running away and you don’t want to lock up with him, you don’t want to lock up with him. Finally, you get back in, he gets you again. Right.

My name is Munraj Ricardo Singh Sahota, also known as Raj Singh, Champagne Singh, Campaign Singh, The Stamina Papi, you know, I got a bunch of names. I am also a professional wrestler and a now professional wrestling coach at Stampede City Wrestling Academy.

(Speaker):  What has transpired as of late means a great deal to him and his family he admires…

Adora Nwofor:  We’re in Calgary.

Munraj: Yes.

Adora: And so we are known for some stuffs. And so you have a thing called Stampede City Wrestling Academy?

Munraj: Yes I do. Yeah.

Adora: Thank you so much for taking it back to the old school wrestling that is founded here in Calgary. It seems like you’re doing it with a twist. Tell me some more about your school.

Munraj: Yeah, so I called it Stampede City Wrestling Academy because obviously we’re in the Stampede city and people always are associating Stampede Wrestling and Stampede city together, so it’s kind of like a callback, you know?

But at the same time, I get to, with our students, teach that foundation of wrestling, and I want to teach everybody the fundamentals, but the new way of doing things, because I’ve also been fortunate enough to wrestle with the old school style, and then with my time on TV, I learned everything, what needs to be done now for that, like fast, fast pace, that action, the attention-grabbing wrestling style.

So I’m doing both and we’re doing our best to also help the students with their character work and the way they present themselves without doing moves, like, how are you getting the fans attention with your character? Are you doing a little dance or are you doing a little shimmy? Are you maybe telling a joke while you’re beating somebody up? Or how are you expressing yourself through your body in the way that you sell the injuries?

So we’re teaching all that character work and stuff that I guess, I’ve had a lifetime of experience through. And so I’m just sharing that.

I think what makes now the right time for me to, I guess, transition into more of a player/coach type role before I get into full time coaching was the fact that I know that I’ve been doing this for a long time, and I’ve got to be realistic with myself. I’m more on the back nine of my career for in-ring. I obviously do want to stay connected to the professional wrestling. You know, it’s been in my life since I was born, and I’ve always had a desire to, like, make professional wrestling like, as good as it possibly can be from my opinion.

If someone contacts myself to, you know, get trained at Stampede City Wrestling Academy, what’s going to set us apart from other places is the fact that we want to really teach that traditional old-school style of wrestling and blend it in with the new-age style.

We want to teach the fundamentals, and we also want to teach, I guess, hardcore conditioning, really learning the hard-hitting style and then finding a way to like, get that athleticism and the showmanship involved.

(Wrestling commentator): Coming in, double act, oh! Taken out…

Mo Jabari: Both roles are very, very important to me because one, as a wrestler, it’s a passion and a career for me right now. But coaching brings a whole different dynamic to everything because, one, you’re helping young, up-and-coming wrestlers, much like myself at one point, but also you’re kind of staying in shape and you’re training yourself and it’s like an ongoing thing, it just feeds itself. Obviously, you can’t be a professional athlete and not train.

Anna Fuchshuber: I mean, I think it’s given me a lot more confidence. When I first started moving from my backyard promotion to the independent scene, I worked for a few months without any training, and I was just, it was sink or swim, thrown to the wolves. So now having access to a training school has built my confidence up tenfold.

Today I want you to beat me up a little bit.

Adora: Okay!

Anna: So the first thing I would like to show you is maybe a clothesline. You’re going to have your bicep come across my chest, and then your forearm is kind of going to go up on my collarbone here, and your fist is going to land above my shoulder. Would you like to give it a shot?

Adora: I would love to give it a shot.

Anna: Okay. Give me one-half, like 50 per cent speed and I won’t bump on it.

Adora: Okay.

Anna: But we’ll just see the connection. Okay. Ready? I’ll hit the ropes on this way. Okay.

Yeah, yeah?

Adora: Okay, that was moving 25 per cent. I didn’t know how fast you were coming, but I’m ready now.

Anna: Okay, give me a 50.

Adora: I’ll give you a 50.

Anna: Okay. Yeah.

Adora: Okay.

Anna: Yeah.

Adora: Okay. I’m ready.

Anna: Want to do a full speed one? Okay. Maybe stand right about here.

Adora: Ha! I don’t think so!

Anna: Got some oomph on it!

Adora: I did! I did! I felt that. Thank you for allowing. I felt you right there. Little bit here. I’m happy that my fist didn’t get you in the face because beautiful face. And listen, for me, anybody get me in the face, they don’t make it till tomorrow, so…

Anna: That’s the moneymaker.

Adora: Yeah. We’re both making it till tomorrow.

Why did you start doing wrestling?

Anna: I, so I was never, like, a wrestling fan growing up. I was always playing soccer or rugby or volleyball or doing sports. And so I went to art school, and then I really missed sports. And then I, one day was in a class with a professor that I hope isn’t watching this, that I didn’t really like very much, and one of her assignments that she gave me was to create an alter ego. So me not liking her very much, I was like, well, good luck critiquing a pro wrestler alter ego that’s funny. And then for the next assignment, I was like, well, I already have a wrestling character, I might as well put on a wrestling match. And I looked up a bunch of YouTube videos and thought, I guess that’s how you wrestle. And I got some of my friends to get in on it with me. I had a ref, I had a wrestler that I worked with, one my other art school friends who didn’t know what he was doing either, I had a DJ and a commentator and a ring girl and then it was so much fun and my friends at art school wanted to try it too, and it kind of just blossomed from there.

So it was never something that I wanted to do growing up, but I think it just happened to kind of combine two things that I love so much, just like art and then, you know, sports and being physical.

Mo: You should respect art, you should respect wrestling, especially something where you put your body through a lot. You shouldn’t take it lightly and you should always respect it and take it very seriously.

Because at the end of the day, you are beating up your body and you are putting yourself through a lot. So the best thing you can do and the least you can do is respect it.

Anna: Grab. Ready?

Adora: Heave ho.

Anna: Down.

Adora: Yeah, that one was even better!

Anna: Down! And then if you hold me there for two seconds, if we were in a match, I would take my elbow and I’d go, ahh, ahh, and then pop down. Beat you up.

Just because you can lift me doesn’t mean I can’t beat you up.

Adora: Like I already feel the adrenaline in my chest.

Anna: Right?

Adora: And I’m like, I want to do more.

Anna: It’s so exciting. It is genuinely, yeah. Being able to use your body and have a person that you get to work with and a whole crowd yelling at you while you’re doing it. Oh my God, the adrenaline is crazy.

Adora: Thank you for trusting me because we don’t know if you’re going to go down, right? And you didn’t.

Tell me why you started, is it Alberta Arts World Professional? No? Wrestling Foundation?

Anna: Alberta Arts Professional Wrestling.

Adora: Alberta Arts Professional Wrestling

Anna: AAPW.

Adora: AAPW!

Anna: That’s the one. So I graduated a year ago, and since then we’ve put on shows mainly at Whiskey Rose on 17th Avenue, but I would love to see it, you know, continue. I think something that the AAPW has that we do a lot more kind of, character heavy, gimmick heavy, it’s a little more performance art.

Munraj: Okay Adora. I’m going to teach you one of my secret signature holds. Not many people know this one.

Adora: Okay.

Munraj: I don’t even have a real name for it. It’s just one of those moves that separates the bicep and the shoulder away from the rest of the body.

Adora: Okay.

Munraj: So Big Damage is what I call it. All right, we’re going to take the individual’s left arm. Our left arm goes over the top, underneath. We’re going to grab our own bicep. And then with our free hand we’re bringing it over to the nice space right over here on the chin, but then not hard just for show, we’re going to go that way and separate

Adora: Here?

Munraj: Perfect.

Adora: Grab this one.

Munraj: Lock on the bicep. Yep. Grab the chin, perfect.

Adora: Grab the chin.

Munraj: Okay, when you’re ready, shoulder and chin together and then separate them.

Adora: And then separate ‘em. For extra (grunts).

Munraj: And then if you flex, you get to show everybody you got muscle at the same time. There you go!

I got to spend time in, like, the locker room with all my dad’s friends. I’ve seen them as you know, Uncle Tommy, Uncle Mike, Uncle Gerry, Uncle Alan. And then when they’re in the ring, it’s Bad News Brown, or Champagne Gerry Morrow, Dynamite Kid. So I got to see the character cartoon world and the real raw individuals and how we get to marry it all together.

So I kind of just was obsessed with it.

Adora: I mean, it sounds like fun.

Munraj: The most fun you’ll ever have.

Adora: Why is wrestling so important to you?

Munraj: I think my story is a little bit different than everyone else’s. I was born into a wrestling family, and you know, for those that have heard it, you know, my dad was a wrestler, my mom grew up loving wrestling. That’s how she met my dad. And my brothers are wrestling fans. So we just fought around the house all year long, every day. And I knew I was going to be a wrestler from when I was two years old.

Stampede Wrestling legend, Gama Singh, my dad is a pioneer for the culture. You know, I call him dad or I call him Bobby, actually. He was somebody that wore a turban on TV, played the villain in a very, very difficult time in Canada and North America, he was a hero in other parts of the world, but whenever he was here, he actually had to fight a lot of racism and he persevered, and he motivated a lot of people, because I know a lot of people that are in the industry and out of the industry that actually like, they view them as like a hero. He was a villain on TV, but he was a hero for them. And, you know, like, for me, he was, he was dad, but he’s also a motivating factor. And he was strict on my development.

Let me bring out my special guest, my father, Gama Singh.

(Wrestling commentator): Chelsea Green, two great Canadian wrestlers showing their support for the Singh family. And this is very, very important to the family tonight. Singh tucks underneath (inaudible), Singh tripped up Harlan Abbott. The referee didn’t see it. Hey, look at this. Some old habits die hard. Here’s the cover. Raj Sing wins.

Dallas Hart: I tried wrestling when I was, when I was 20, when I was much younger, and it just wasn’t there for me, I wasn’t really passionate about the wrestling part, but in my family, you know, wrestling is kind of an everyday thing. So it was just a matter of time before I got involved one way or another. But, you know, I’m happier to go this route, and it’s been a lot of fun so far and excited about where it’s going to go from here.

My name is Dallas Hart and I am the owner, creator of Dungeon Wrestling. So we started Dungeon Wrestling in 2022, but we actually did our first event before, kind of right before COVID started. So Dungeon Wrestling, so the Hart House, my grandpa’s house, was infamously known for having the dungeon in the basement, and lots of lots of wrestlers and lots of big names came out of there.

And, you know, it’s very, it’s a very well-known place in the wrestling community, the dungeon. So it was a pretty easy, easy name to use. And the biggest advantage that we have is being able to bring back some of the names that Stampede Wrestling used to be able to bring, lots of nostalgia with my cousin Tom Billington in there and my cousin Harry, you have Raj, who is, his great grandpa Gama Singh was a part of Stampede Wrestling.

So, you know, we have those kind of guys and those kind of guys are helping us build the brand.

When I started training at Stampede, or when I’d train with you (Munraj) when I was 17 years old, I’d look up to the Dungeon wrestlers and, you know, showing and helping me improve at Stampede City Wrestling. And just continuously giving me more opportunities and learning from the likes of you, Chris Knight.

Dallas: It’s been growing a lot faster than we thought it was. I mean, when we did our first show, it was kind of just for fun, and then it ended up turning into to a whole different thing. So we’re just trying to expand, like, you know, we’re pretty big around the city, but we have lots of interests outside of Calgary now.

We’ve got a lot of a lot of support coming from like, Edmonton and Red Deer, lots of places around Alberta. So I mean, it would be nice if we could start expanding outside of Calgary and start running tours and kind of doing what Stampede Wrestling used to do back in the day. I don’t know if we’d ever be able to exceed Stampede Wrestling, but, you know, we’d always pay our tribute to them and, you know, they were, they’re the reason why we’re able to do a re-do today.

Anna: Boom. You can also do a back elbow. So yeah, for a back elbow, you want to hit me with this part of your arm here. So you don’t want to be like this because that’ll hurt a lot, flat, flat here. Ready? Do you want to do one?

Adora: I’m doing it.

Anna: Okay. I’m gonna hit the ropes.

Adora: Hitting the ropes, the whole thing. The whole thing. Ha ha! That was perfect. That was perfect right there. I did it. Damn! I love it, I love it. That was great.

Munraj: We got a good crop of students. They’re all doing their thing. And I can say that I have a lot of proud moments when I get to see them on stage and the evolution, you know, even if it’s just like within a three-week range, and then I look back, it’s like maybe six weeks or 12 weeks, and I look back and say, wow, like, look how far you’ve come. It’s like a proud moment because I get to see that progress. I get to see how much happier they get, how much better they’re getting, and, you know, one day I have a feeling that a lot of these students are going to see, like the big lights, I really do.

Mo: I think what excites me is that there’s a lot of hunger in girls and guys that just want to learn and want to keep moving on, and I think Wrestling Calgary is in good hands with all these kids coming up. And I’m very, very looking forward to seeing where that goes.

Anna: Well, well, well, a little birdie told moi, the heiress, Bridgette Hearst, that there’s a new opponent in town, the Full Moon Killer? Really? My father, the inventor of the moon phases, would have a little something to say about you infringing on his copyright. So if you step in the ring with me, the only thing you’re going to be howling about is when I pin you for one, two, three.

Adora: It’s Full Moon Killer! And you said a little birdie, I would never have said that. I don’t know why you would listen to that. Because I’m as big as the moon.

You, I, Hearst, big, Betty Hearst, the Brittany, the heiress, Brittany Hearst. I want to make sure I get your name right so you know that I’m talking to you, okay? I’m a goddess. So your daddy is at my feet, and you will be begging to prove to me that I shouldn’t take you down, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten times.

Let me know. I’m ready for the show.

Munraj: One, two, three!

Adora: Full Moon Killer! (laughing)

Munraj: That was awesome.

Adora: Full Moon Killer!

Munraj: Call me. Sign up, please. No, I’ll get your real answer.

Adora: Thank you for being on Living a Creative Life.

Anna: Thank you for having me.