Kombat Pro Wrestling
Table of contents
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History
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2015: The end of DDW
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2020: COVID and losing talent to PTW
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2023 TV deal and FightBox
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2024
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Foreign relations
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Polish wrestling scene
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Championships
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References
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Events
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All-time roster
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Gallery
History
2015: The end of DDW
Kombat Pro Wrestling launched in 2015, after the founder of DDW, Don Roid, closed down his organization.
At the end of 2014, DDW's operations moved from Rzeszów, where Roid lived with his family, to Gdańsk.
The two cities are more than 600 km apart, and the team in Gdańsk began to run things without Roid's input. Finally, he sold the ring, closed DDW and retired from wrestling entirely.
That team, consisting of several DDW alumni, bought the ring and - after some deliberations regarding the name, with "White Eagle Wrestling" also being considered - relaunched themselves as Kombat Pro Wrestling. Their first event, KPW vs the World, was held in the exact same venue as DDW's final event proper (not counting their appearance at a convention two months later). Thus KPW is the direct descendant of Do Or Die Wrestling.
In 2016 they would relocate to Gdynia, holding their shows in a recently reopened music club. That year, KPW held the first Godzina Zero, which would later become their annual supershow, where all championships were defended. 2017 saw them move to a bigger venue in the Gdynia Sports Center, securing support from the city.
2020: COVID and losing talent to PTW
In 2020 the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and Poland implemented severe restrictions. This caused KPW to go on an 18-month hiatus between February 2020 and August 2021, during which their future was uncertain. 2022 saw them resume regular shows, moving back to a previous venue.
Prime Time Wrestling launched in 2021, headed by the controversial Arkadiusz Pawłowski.
Pawłowski was also part of the team of DDW veterans that founded KPW, and later served as their host and ring announcer until 2019.
During and after the hiatus KPW lost several of their headliners who chose to join the new organization: Robert Star, Peter Pannache, Sawicki and Gracjan Korpo, as well as the newcomer Diana.
2023 TV deal and FightBox
During the opening moments of Arena 23, Chairman Malinowski announced that from this moment on KPW's events would be broadcast on cable TV, on an MMA and wrestling-focused channel FightBox. This was finally realized in April 2024, when FightBox aired Arena 23. On April 2, 2024 Piękny Kawaler, KPW's owner, booker and head trainer, posted a photo of himself watching the event on TV, captioning it "the day has come". According to his replies under that post, KPW supplied FightBox with two versions: one with Polish commentary track and one without, so that an English commentary could be recorded for broadcast outside of Poland. The version aired by FightBox in April 2024 had no commentary.
2024
In 2024 the organization continued to hold successful events, often selling out their usual venue Nowy Harem.
That year's Godzina Zero show was, unusually, held in a school gymnastics hall instead, trading the club for a bigger venue. It also returned to a Saturday date.
Promo shot posted by KPW after Godzina Zero 2024 on Facebook, used as their cover image.
Back row: Flexos with a German flag, then Leon Lato and Chairman Malinowski with a Polish flag.
Next to him are members of the Gregorian Branch: Chemik, Greg and Eryk Lesak.
To their right are Zefir and Piękny Kawaler.
Middle row: Hans Schulte, David Oliwa, Jack Jester presumably with a Scottish flag, then
Michał and Filip Fux, then Rosetti.
In the front row: Reece Alexios with a Greek flag, Carlos Zamora with a Spanish one, ring announcer Kinga Miotke.
Red Scorpion with the KPW Championship belt and an Italian flag stands in the middle.
Next, holding an English flag is "Multiversal" Alexander Roth, standing next to his tag-team partner "Big Wavy" Roy Johnson.
Finally, Darius is holding an Iranian flag, followed by Referee Krystian Czekaj and Ron Corvus with a Hungarian flag.
Source: Facebook @kpwrestling.
Foreign relations
KPW regularly invites talent from the European independent scene to their events, especially the yearly supershow Godzina Zero. Initially they invited wrestlers from Hungary, with whom DDW had had good relations. Later, most of the talent came from Germany and Austria. Several wrestlers from the British scene also appeared on KPW's shows. The hottest guest appearance among them were Primate and Wild Boar, by that time a tag team seen in NXT UK, and Mark Haskins, a veteran of the British scene. KPW's own wrestlers occassionally appeared abroad, mostly in Austria and Germany. KPW does not try to draw attendance by relying on foreign stars and, with only a few rare exceptions, almost always puts them against their own talent.
Polish wrestling scene
KPW does not participate in the Polish wrestling scene; they do not share people with other organizations, nor do they invite other Polish performers to their shows. It is speculated to be inherited from Don Roid's way of running DDW, although there was no Polish scene back then. Some Polish-speaking characters did appear on their shows, but all of them were wrestlers of some Polish ancestry performing abroad, such as Ron Corvus or Fynn Freyhart.
The Polish Internet wrestling community reported one incident when fans wearing T-shirts of another Polish organization (specifically PTW) were asked by security to either remove them or wear them inside-out, so as not to show PTW's logo on their own video streaming. They had no issue with merchandise of international provenance, such as AEW or nWo T-shirts.
On 14.10.2024 Legacy of Wrestling announced that Filip Fux would make an appearance at their first show in a fight with Marco Hammers. This is the first time a KPW wrestler was allowed to compete in another Polish federation.
Championships
As of 2024, KPW has one tag team championship and two singles championships. The main title, KPW Championship, was created in 2016 and won at the first Godzina Zero event. KPW OldTown Championship was created and won at the OldTown Festival 2017, which was a post-apocalyptic themed LARP event to which KPW was invited to perform. This belt had an unique look befitting its origin, until 2023 when it was replaced with a more conventional style belt.
The Tag Team Championship was created in 2018 and the first champions crowned in 2018, at Arena 11.
References
Events
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2025
2024
2023
2022
2021
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
All-time roster
Gallery
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Screenshot from a video by Piękny Kawaler showing the mock-up logo for the rejected White Eagle Wrestling name
Official KPW YouTube channel