Women’s pro wrestling is a niche sport in Singapore and Asia, but fans are inspired by these female warriors

On the surface, she seems like a typical hardworking young Singaporean woman working a full-time job as a restaurant host and part-time jobs as a trainer at two gyms. But once every two months, Alexis Lee transforms into her alter ego – a raging woman in a skeleton costume and makeup, ready to throw a flying kick at anyone who challenges her in the wrestling arena.

Professional wrestling is Lee’s side hustle. The 28-year-old is one of the few female professional wrestlers in Singapore, often taking on – and beating – men twice her size in the ring.

Lee also fights female wrestlers that Singapore Pro Wrestling (SPW), a professional wrestling company, flies in from abroad, such as Japanese bikini model-turned-professional wrestler Yuki Kamifuku. Three to four times a year, she wrestles overseas in countries such as China, the Philippines, the United States and India.

Of course, these eight to 10 matches a year are not enough to pay the bills. But Lee is driven by her passion – she started wrestling when she was 18 and has been in the sport for 10 years. 

Once a victim of bullying in primary and secondary school, Lee said that wrestling helped her to emerge from the shadow of her past. It also gives her an outlet to vent.

“When someone pisses you off, in your head you have this whole monologue of how you want to talk back to people. It is nice to release it and just put it out there in the ring,” she said.

AN ALTERNATE REALITY

Professional wrestling is not all that popular in Singapore – you might even call it an underground sport. In fact, SPW founder Andruew Tang lamented that “the pro wrestling culture is dying”.

“In the past, everybody loved WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment). Now, the kids don’t understand the art of pro wrestling. They think it’s very fake,” said the 34-year-old, who usually organises professional wrestling shows every two to three months, and is himself a professional wrestler.

Professional wrestling is indeed choreographed and rehearsed, but that is not without challenges, said Lee.

“It is not just a sport, but theatre. There is just one take in front of a live audience. There is no chance for a redo,” she explained.

“People are screaming and shouting. But you have to concentrate and get your moves done safely, act at the same time and project yourself so that the 400 people who are screaming and shouting know the story you are trying to tell,” she said.

“If you watch a match and it looks fake, it’s not good. Our job is to make you believe it is real,” added Tang.

For Lee, it feels extremely real, not just because of good acting. As a former victim of bullying, professional wrestling has allowed her to live out her inner reality.

“When I first started watching wrestling, it was because I wanted to get back at my bullies and protect myself. Once they found out I was teaching myself pro wrestling, they backed away a bit,” she recalled. She learnt by watching YouTube videos and from television shows, before training with SPW.

But wrestling gradually evolved to represent more than that for Lee.

“Everyone kept making fun of me for being skinny, so I decided to embrace the skeleton,” said Lee, who puts on skeleton face paint for her matches. “Slowly, I found more confidence and it became my persona. In the ring, I can act out the things that I usually can’t act out.”

Japanese professional wrestler Kamifuku reflected that this is one reason fans love professional wrestling in Japan.

“People have a lot of stress. [In the ring], we are allowed to hit and kick people because we are professional wrestlers. But the fans can’t do that because that’s illegal. So they watch wrestling to see people kicking and fighting back. It relieves the stress,” said Kamifuku.

“Or they follow a beginner who says she wants to be a champion, and watch the dream fulfilled,” added the 30-year-old former bikini model who defied haters to gain popularity as a professional wrestler in Japan.

Karina Soetama, 18, a fan of professional wrestling, echoed that sentiment. “I was introduced to wrestling through a match between Nikki Cross (a Scottish female professional wrestler) and Asuka (a Japanese female professional wrestler) in 2017. It was messy, chaotic, violent, but beautiful.

“Behind all the bombastic outfits and flashy lights, the stories told in the ring are human; about love, insecurity and self-doubt, about overcoming yourself and the obstacles that have followed you your whole life. It is very much a reflection of ourselves and our own battles in life,” Soetama said.

FEMALE REPRESENTATION IS IMPORTANT

Professional wrestling isn’t huge in Singapore. Women are extremely under-represented, with Lee being the only Singaporean female professional wrestler that SPW manages at the moment. It has a roster of 23 active wrestlers, including Lee.

Another Singapore wrestling promotion, Grapplemax, lists three female professional wrestlers on their roster of 22 wrestlers, on their website.

Across Southeast Asia and the rest of Asia, there are also significantly fewer female wrestlers compared with men.

“Pro wrestling is a sport where sometimes you give a lot, but you may not get a lot back in return. You only get big money when you get into the big leagues [in the US and Japan],” said Tang.

In Japan, Kamifuku said that full-time professional wrestlers make a good living and are also featured in TV shows, commercials and magazines. But in Singapore, Lee estimated that she only earns around S$3,000 a year from professional wrestling, and from the sale of merchandise such as T-shirts and photos. She relies on her full-time job for sustenance.

“It is also thought to be not as legit as martial arts,” noted Lee.

“Sure, it’s scripted and choreographed, but there’s nothing fake about hitting someone with your full body weight,” she added.

“We learn how to fall properly while making a very big sound by slapping our hands out to the side, making sure our back is straight and our neck is tucked in so you don’t have whiplash. But [for many of the moves], the initial impact is still going to feel like a car crash.

“It’s terrifying to force yourself to do things that you are not naturally inclined to do, like falling on your back. We do our best to fall as safely as we can. But as much as people think it’s fake, sometimes the bumps do hurt,” Lee added.

Injuries are also common. Kamifuku broke a finger during training and Lee cut her lower lip badly during rehearsals. “I had to literally pull out my lip from my teeth. It was bleeding so much that blood was pouring out with saliva,” she said.

Fans however, are glad to see female wrestlers persisting. Soetama felt that female professional wrestlers add diversity to professional wrestling beyond the stereotype of “big burly oiled up men smacking their big muscles against each other”.

Another fan, Shane Vergara, 24, added: “It’s cool to see the girls, especially those who are around the same height as me, pulling all the cool moves especially against larger opponents. I love seeing that the women can go against the men and win against them.”

This also reflects Kamifuku’s belief. “Many people think it is bad for a woman to be hitting, kicking and fighting. But I feel it is important to show a woman’s power, abilities and independence in the world now. Women are not weak,” she said.