No pain, no gain: Chinese pro wrestlers fight for recognition – and a way to make a living
Hard-core enthusiasts face low incomes, family disapproval to persist with the sport but are sure brighter days are ahead as popularity grows
When Wang Tao ran away from home aged 17 to become a professional wrestler, he knew it would be a hard slog to succeed in China’s passionate but underdeveloped scene.
Years later, he has endured family disapproval, countless side gigs and thousands of hours of brutal training to become China’s “Belt and Road Champion” – but the struggle is far from over.
Despite a promising potential domestic market, the Chinese pro wrestling community has been battling for recognition and financial stability for decades.
“I have done all kinds of jobs [on the side] … because in the end, it is very difficult to earn enough money to live on just through wrestling,” the 23-year-old Wang said.
“I have never given up my dream, which is to make more and more people know China has wrestling.”
Part sport and part entertainment, wrestling is best known globally as a stereotypically American spectacle, embodied by the juggernaut World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE).
