Total Blast Wrestling

Table of contents
  1. History
    1. Before 2006: PPWF
    2. 2009: split from DDW
    3. 2010: Successful events
    4. 2011: Eventual demise
  2. References
  3. Events
  4. All-time roster
  5. Gallery

Total Blast Wrestling was a short-lived organization created by Andrzej Supron and Paweł Borkowski, after they split from Do or Die Wrestling due to its poor ticket sales and no funds to invite bigger wrestling stars. The organization managed to hold two successful events before folding.

History

Before 2006: PPWF

Back in 1993, Andrzej Supron was instrumental in bringing the independent American "World Wrestling Superstars" tour to Poland. This was the first professional wrestling event in the country since the interwar period. Some years later, likely in the early 2000s, Paweł Borkowski came to Supron with a plan to create the first pro wrestling federation in the country. The name for this was simply "Polish Pro-Wrestling Federation", or PPWF. However, the results were much more modest than expected: unable to secure foreign names, the organization had to rely only on home-grown talent. They did manage to secure sponsorship and a deal to buy a professional wrestling ring. Due to poor ticket sales, no events were actually held. A second attempt in 2003 secured support from Belgian wrestler and promoter Bernard Vandamme, but once again, the event was cancelled just 3 weeks before the scheduled date. The main sponsor withdrew, reportedly because market research found out that Polish viewers cared little about wrestling.

This marked the end of PPWF. In 2006, Borkowski tried to revive interest by offering to hold a wrestling school using the ring purchased for the organization. However, it was discovered to be too costly to repair.

Years later, in 2024, PpW purchased this ring in order to upgrade from their undersized ring they had used before.

Also in 2024, in a pre-show interview with Pawłowski during PTW #6, Borkowski claimed that PPWF came about in 1999, and that they struggled to gain sponsorship.

2009: split from DDW

In 2008, American wrestler Don Roid settled in Poland, and finding no pro wrestling organizations, opened his own. He also managed to acquire Borkowski and Supron's support. The newly created DDW had ambitious plans, which included holding an event in Warsaw's Stodoła klub. However, ticket prices for this event proved to be too high, and public interest in pro wrestling too low, ultimately leading to its cancellation. After that, Supron and Borkowski ended their collaboration with DDW, and set off with their own plan.

According to them, basing the events on only Polish wrestlers, at that time few and unknown, made no sense. Neither did they want to organize a wrestling school to train their own stars first. And lastly, they could not afford hiring top American superstars, when the European independent scene would suffice. Thus did Borkowski and Supron again contact Bernard Vandamme, whose wrestling promotion, Eurostars, was holding events in Belgium and France at that time, and had a solid roster of experienced, if unknown to Polish fans, workers. With Bernard's help, they also contacted Fight Club Finland, European Wrestling Association from Austria, and the German Wrestling Federation.

2010: Successful events

Supron, who financed the new organization's ring himself, chose the name Total Blast Wrestling. The duo soon announced their first event, to be held in February 2010 in Radom. From the get go, they put in serious effort and money. The event was to be highly produced, with pyro, professional lightning and sound. Extreme Sports Channel, which the duo worked for as Polish-language wrestling commentators, was to re-broadcast the event in several episodes. To promote their event, they appeared on TV, including the popular breakfast-TV program "Dzień Dobry TVN", with Vandamme and Cybernic Machine.

The event was held in the Strefa G2 Radom music club, with an attendance of around 300.

A followup event was to be held in the first half of 2010, but was rescheduled due to the 2010 Smoleńsk plane crash. This suggests that the original date was set between April 10 and 18th. The actual event was held on June 5th, this time in Zawiercie. The venue was a multipurpose sports hall in the city. TBW planned to introduce their own championship belt at this event, as hinted in a promo by MMA fighter Kamil Bazelak during the show. That ultimately did not happen, and the title they used was the Eurostars European Heavyweight Championship that Bernard Vandamme held at the time. Interestingly, the title did change hands in Zawiercie, in the main event between Vandamme and Cybernic Machine.

2011: Eventual demise

Despite plans to hold another event in 2011, however, the organization folded. While the events were well received, they were not commercially successful due to lack of sponsors. The ticket prices alone weren't enough to cover both production costs and inviting the high-profile European wrestlers that the organization aimed for.

On MyWrestling's MyCast podcast, Borkowski later revealed the organization's unfulfilled plans: signing a deal with Orange Sport, which was a general sports-themed TV channel whose programming also included wrestling. The channel was to sponsor and broadcast future events. Nothing came out of this, because the deal fell through due to the channel changing hands. Orange Sport went defunct in 2016.

References

Events

All-time roster
  • Ahmed Chaer
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  • Bjørn Sem
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  • Chris The Bambikiller
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  • Chris Colen
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  • Colossos
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  • Cybernic Machine
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  • Damon Brix
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  • Flying Dragon
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  • Erik Isaksen
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  • Heimo Ukonselkä
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  • Ivan Kiev
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  • Michael Kovac
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  • Makoto Morimitsu
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  • Mert Kaloglu
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  • Mexx
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  • Crazy Sexy Mike
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  • Scott Rider
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  • Starbuck
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  • Ultimo Chingon
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  • Bernard Vandamme wearing the Eurostars European Heavyweight Championship
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