Lucas, 21, who lives in the North of France, is a die-hard wrestling fan since he discovered the discipline at age 7. “What appealed to me most about wrestling were all these stories and characters that we didn’t see elsewhere. It really captured my imagination as a child,” he says. Today, this is what “happens in the ring” who interests him most: the quality of the shots but also the atmosphere in the public during the matches. This is why he traveled to Lyon on Friday May 3 and Saturday May 4 for “WWE Backlash France”. “Every fan in the world agrees that what happened this weekend was unique. We had perhaps one of the best wrestling crowds in history.”
“NT1 Generation”
For Amale, the first French wrestler to have signed with WWE, this event is proof of the renewed popularity of the discipline. “It’s becoming more and more cool to be a wrestling fan. A lot of influencers are also helping to spread this movement,” she explains. The 30-year-old professional claims to be “NT1 generation”. In the mid-2000s, the TNT channel, now TFX, was the first to broadcast meetings for free. “It was the good old days when it was broadcast in prime time, we all waited in front of the television. That’s how many fans today knew wrestling,” she remembers. “This weekend, there were a lot of wrestlers from the NT1 generation and the fans recognized themselves in them, it was cool.”
This revival of popularity of wrestling is partly explained by a certain nostalgia but also by the fact that the “plots” between the different wrestlers are even more elaborate than a few years ago. Some leagues even have former screenwriters on their teams to develop them.
A still confidential practice
Although there are many French fans, the practice still remains confidential even if it is growing.. “There are around ten professional wrestling structures in France which have between 300 and 500 members who are often young adults”, says Jérémy Grand, vice-president of the French professional wrestling federation since 2017. After this weekend organized by WWE in Lyon, which is a real “publicity stunt for wrestling in France” according to him, he received a lot of “requests for information about different wrestling schools”. The discipline therefore seems to have a bright future ahead of it in France.
