PpW Ewenement
Table of contents
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Name
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History
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2010: The backyard years
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2019: Going pro
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2023: Prime Time Transfers, professional ring
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Lost lore
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Restored!
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Botchamania
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Biesiad vs Osamu
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Goblin vs MBM
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Critical 420 Ladder Match
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Mainstream media
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Championships
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Internet presence
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References
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Events
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All-time roster
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Gallery
PpW is a wrestling promotion from Warsaw. It styles itself as a fully independent, self-sufficient organization with no commercial affiliations.
Their wrestling style used to rely heavily on hardcore and deathmatches, but it has since been toned down and other styles of wrestling are prominently featured. However, no-DQ is assumed for most matches, and its main events are still often hardcore bouts. Only the rare Classic Wrestling Match stipulation prohibits any weapons and interventions.
Name
There was no canonical meaning of the PpW acronym, however recently it was repurposed to match "Piwo Przyjacielem Wrestlingu" (Beer is Wrestling's Friend).
The official name is just "PpW Ewenement". The word ewenement means something unique, special and not easily replicated, and could be translated as "phenomenon" or "anomaly".
History
2010: The backyard years
PpW dates its origins back to 2010, when a group of teenage friends and classmates started emulating their favourite wrestlers. The original arena for their matches was a public playground, and later a common yard which gave the organization its first name: Polski Podwórkowy Wrestling (Polish Yard Wrestling - note that backyards, in the Anglo-Saxon world defined as private enclosed outdoor areas behind terraced houses, are not common in Poland).
Until about 2014 the primary location was placed next to the intersection of Kuratowski and Arbuzowa streets in Warsaw. The name for this venue was Placyk PPW, and it had no proper ring.
According to Biesiad, at the same time there was also Polski Szkolny Wrestling (Polish School Wrestling), where shoot-style fights between classmates were held in their school, complete with a ranking of sorts. That class had significant overlap with the roster of PPW. Later this organization of sorts was renamed to PPW (second P standing for Poszkolny or After-School), and later yet renamed to PPPW to distinguish the two. Ultimately, the two merged to create the current incarnation of PpW.
The group made some attempts to build a proper ring, despite having no money or experience. The first structure to be recognized as one was created out of discarded mattresses, rugs, tires, floor mats and other junk. Later, another one was built from wooden pallets and some metal pillars in the corners.
An actual ring, though undersized, was created in 2017, designed by Rob Scaffold. The group pooled their money together and ordered the metal structure at a local welding shop. According to Johnny Blade, the craftsman was intrigued and amused at the project, and gave the group a significant discount because of that. It was used as the primary ring until 2023, when PpW purchased a full-sized professional ring. The old ring was then relegated to their wrestling school, although it still sees some use in smaller venues like 2KOŁA.
Uniquely for the Polish wrestling scene, PpW shares no ancestry with other promotions, many of which can be traced back to DDW.
2019: Going pro
Probably the first event that PpW held for an open audience (as opposed to just friends and insiders to the backyard scene) was 2019's 2Koła to my nie zarobimy, followed by Brawl For The Puppies.
The latter event began PpW's pro era. It was the first one to invite foreign guests, and PpW's wrestlers started receiving professional training: first from Jacob Crane and later also by the invited guests who would hold training sessions.
After establishing themselves as a serious organization and building a network of contacts, PpW talent started appearing abroad: in Sweden, Austria and later Hungary.
2021 saw them invite several MZW wrestlers for a show held during a craft beer festival in Poznań, with a reprise two years later.
In 2023 PpW was recognized by Cagematch, and most of its events and wrestlers have been added to their database. WrestleMap features news about PpW since 2021.
2023: Prime Time Transfers, professional ring
In 2023, due to tensions in PTW, a number of its wrestlers appeared on PpW shows, quitting their promotion openly and criticizing its owner on social media. This further boosted PpW's image on the Polish scene as a place dedicated to the joy of wrestling and not commercial endeavors. Later, PpW named this event and the wrestlers "Prime Time Transfers". The first one to appear was Rafi, followed by Samson, Gabriel Queen and later his tag team partner Vic Golden.
Over the weekend of March 6-8 2024, PpW wrestlers Biesiad Strong, Gustav Gryffin and Mister Z posted stories on Instagram, which featured them in a ring that was slightly larger than PpW's regular one. Three days later, on March 11th, Mister Z, the kayfabe executive producer and booker and in real-life also the co-owner of PpW, posted a photo of himself and Andrzej Supron on Instagram. The photo showed them shaking hands and was captioned "Two [guys] happy that the deal went through. Thank you Mr Supron".
The involvement of Supron suggest that this may be the very same ring he bought in 2010 for Total Blast Wrestling. Hashtags used in the post seem to confirm this.
(Scroll down to the gallery to view screenshots of the stories mentioned.)
Lost lore
PpW used to have a Wikia page with detailed internal lore and history, including storied feuds, rankings, character backgrounds, past events and videos from the backyard era. This went defunct in 2023. The Internet Archive's Wayback Machine only had an incomplete version available. Snippets could be found in cached results on Google when searching for certain related terms, but most of it was lost.
That wiki was located at ppwofficial.fandom.com (and ppwofficial.wikia.com earlier before the renaming).
Restored!
In March 2024 it has been restored from a backup, in a text-only form, and can be found at ppw-fandom.tpwres.pl. It's preserved as-is, with no editing capability, using a basic Wikipedia-like template. While a part of Teczki, since both share a domain, it's treated as an archived publication, made available on the Internet once again.
Botchamania
Biesiad vs Osamu
During a match on Ledwo Legalne II on May 21, 2022, Biesiad Strong set Osamu on a table in the middle of the ring, and climbed on support beams outside the ring to perform a jump onto the opponent. He connected very lightly, landing on his legs instead, and the table failed to break, although one set of legs did collapse. This was featured in Botchamania 455, at the 8:05 mark.
Goblin vs MBM
The second botch to make it was the table spot from Miasto Bezprawia, from the El Paso Outlaw Match between Goblin and Belgian wrestler MBM.
With Goblin lying on a table, MBM climbed the second turnbuckle, put on a pink cowboy hat, straddled a toy hobby horse and jumped onto the table, which failed to break.
After the fight, both agreed to redo the spot, to the audience's great applause.
This failed spot, and the second attempt were featured in Botchamania 489, at the 8:36 mark.
Critical 420 Ladder Match
PpW's third Botchamania entry was from Ewenement Haze. In the four-man ladder match, just after the opening sequence, Benny Bachhus accidentally grabs the trophy as he falls to the ground when his ladder was knocked. The faces then signal the referee to hang it up again and the match is restarted.
This was featured in Botchamania 493, at the 12:10 mark. In another botch, this time on Botchamania's end, this clip was labeled as "Total Blast Wrestling", with Maffew probably confusing it with PTW's similarly-named event.
Mainstream media
On Sunday, Sep 29, 2024, breakfast TV programme "Halo tu Polsat" featured a brief segment with PpW's wrestlers Biesiad, Jacob Crane and Gustav Gryffin. Gustav brought his custom PpW Championship belt, which was prominently displayed on a coffee table, with PpW's logo clearly legible.
The hosts asked the wrestlers several questions, including about the nature of kayfabe and their roles and characters. Biesiad was portrayed as a pure fighter, while Gustav promoted himself as a man of culture and means, deserving the championship he carried. Crane was referred to mostly as "coach".
The segment ended with Gustav standing up and getting into Biesiad's face, at which point Biesiad removed his T-shirt and threw his opponent across the studio couch. They then ran out into the studio, brawled for a short while, while Crane was trying to separate them.
Finally, Biesiad managed to German suplex Gryffin on the studio floor, while the show host explained to the camera that it's all a show, and there's no need to be alarmed.
Championships
Internet presence
References
Events
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2024
2023
2022
2021
2020
2019
2017
2016
2015
All-time roster
Gallery
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Mister Z (left) and Gustav Gryffin in front of presumably the new ring. Text: "Today Mister Z showed me his roots"
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Biesiad testing the new ring by diving into some foam padding. Text: What a backyard, oh fuuuck.
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Andrzej Supron and Mister Zet shaking hands.
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PpW's main title belt from the backyard era (2012 design pictured)
Official PpW Wikia, via Ville Paananen
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Backyard-era wrestler Dark Black Skull with his hand-made Skull's Belt (Pas Skulla) .
Official PpW Wikia, via Ville Paananen