Wrestling school will soon be in class in Worcester, at none other than the city’s independent wrestling home — The White Eagle — at 116-120 Green St.
Each week, a couple of hundred people pack the White Eagle’s banquet room to watch an open mic night of sorts for wrestling known as Wrestling Open.
The wrestlers, who are graduates of wrestling schools and professionals, sign up ahead of time and plan their matches. Many trained elsewhere in the state — Lowell or Fall River — but soon, wrestling fans in Worcester will be able to enroll in wrestling school at the White Eagle.
In an interview with MassLive, Beyond Wrestling co-founder Drew Cordeiro said after working to build the independent wrestling scene in Worcester over the past 15 years, he’s excited to launch the wrestling school — the Beyond Institute of Professional Wrestling.
The wrestling school is planned to launch the first week of January.
“We’ll be able to work with people that have no wrestling experience whatsoever,” said Cordeiro. “We can train them in Worcester, give them their first matches at Wrestling Open. At that point, they can graduate to some of the Beyond Wrestling supershow events that we do all over New England.”
Cordeiro recruited Southbridge native Kenn Doane, who wrestled professionally as Kenny Dykstra and was formerly signed to World Wrestling Entertainment, as a trainer. Thomas Santell, a professional wrestling veteran, also wants to be training wrestlers.
The Beyond Institute of Professional Wrestling is scheduled to begin the first week of January 2023 in Worcester at the White Eagle. (Photo: Beyond Wrestling)
The school will run on Tuesday and Wednesday nights in addition to the weekly Wrestling Open on Thursday nights, which continues to grow in audience size, according to Cordeiro. The weekly average attendance is around 200 people, he said. The largest crowd size, to date, is 300.
Cordeiro brought Wrestling Open to Worcester in 2016. The matches were hosted at Electric Haze on Millbury Street, but the crowd eventually outgrew the space and Cordeiro made the move to the White Eagle’s banquet hall.
“The White Eagle is perfect for what we do week to week,” Cordeiro said. “It’s home.”
Beginning on Dec. 29, Beyond Wrestling, in partnership with several other independent wrestling companies, will host nine shows in three days — dubbed the WRESTIVAL — at the White Eagle. You can find more details on the matches here. Or just show up to the White Eagle, where you might be influenced to enroll in wrestling school.
However, not everyone who signs up for the wrestling school will go on to be a professional wrestler. Some, may be guided to other roles within the wrestling industry, however, being trained as a wrestler is important, said Cordeiro.
“I’ve always had a lot of people say they want to be a pro wrestling manager,” said Cordeiro. “Well, in order to be a manager, you also need to train to be a wrestler, even if you’re not going to be actively wrestling, you need to be on the same page as the wrestlers … there are so many timing elements that make the performance safe. Not everybody will land as a professional wrestler.”
However, if you don’t want to hop in the ring and test your abilities, there are plenty of fans in the crowd to join at the White Eagle on Thursday nights.