WRESTLING DREAMS
PHOTOS & FILM
ELIAS MARKKULA
Life & dreams inside the Finnish show wrestling scene.
“Show wrestling is a cartoon for adults. It's the ultimate theatre in the world.”
King Kong Karhula
“In the early 2000's when they started broadcasting show wrestling in the Finnish TV, we were totally into it right from the start. Since then and to this day, I've been totally hooked.”
King Kong Karhula
“I was too old when I started this... Other wrestlers my age have been doing this for ten or fifteen years longer than me. I'm afraid that my body is giving up on me every time I step in to the ring.
I hope that when I'm sixty I could still be able to wrestle and say that it's cool to do this.”
Shemeikka
“I got to a point in my life that it was possible to move in Helsinki and just because of the wrestling I moved here. My dream was to wrestle just one match and move back so I could say that I was a show wrestler. “
“It was so much more than I could have ever imagined so I haven't looked back since.”
Ioni
“If I describe to someone what is 'Show Wrestling' they laugh first if they know it already. If they don't then it's amazing! When you come to our event without any preconceptions because at first you'd think that it's some kind of a redneck sport, which it isn't.”
“It's art. It's a specific kind of performance art which combines many aspects from many different things.”
Shemeikka
“I think especially nowadays it's underestimating the intelligence of the crowd if you say that it's a totally legit martial art. Which it is not. It's the same as when you go to see a movie and say that it's real.
No.”
King Kong Karhula
“The point is not that is something planned or not. The point is how it makes you feel.”
King Kong Karhula
Elias Markkula
