An Ambitious Pro Wrestling Tour of the Soviet Union in 1990

Olympic medalist Andrzej Supron gives the Soviet Union its first taste of American style pro wrestling.

As discussed in the article about the NJPW-USSR connection, professional wrestling was gone from the Soviet Union for about two decades until the end of 1989 when NJPW put on a show in Moscow. However, that was just a one-off event in a single city. It was the following year that pro wrestling arrived in the Soviet Union on a larger scale thanks to a guy by the name of Andrzej Supron. In this article we'll take a look at the big tour across the USSR that Supron and his troupe embarked on in 1990.

I want to preface this by saying that, from what I could tell, coverage of these events in the Soviet press was limited. There were certain details that I wanted to know and tried to find out, but it simply wasn't possible. For example, often the reports from the shows would talk about the show overall and their impressions of it, but they wouldn't mention most of the wrestlers by name, which is very annoying from a researcher's perspective. It is what it is, nothing I can do about it. 

Photos from one of Andrzej Supron's shows in the Soviet Union in 1990

Andrzej Supron's Ambitious Tour of the Soviet Union in 1990

Before talking about the Soviet Union we need to make a quick detour to its neighboring Poland. Just like in several other Central and Eastern European countries that also became socialist states after World War II  (Czechia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria), pro wrestling disappeared from Poland in the late 1940s. I'm not sure if it was officially banned by the new political regime or it just went away naturally, but either way there was no pro wrestling in Poland for four decades. Then Andrzej Supron entered the picture. Supron is an Olympic silver medalist, World champion and two-time European champion in amateur Greco-Roman wrestling. He was a well-known sports and television figure in his native Poland back then.

The next part of the story gets a bit murky, because Supron himself has mentioned different versions of the story in interviews. In all versions, he discovered pro wrestling for the first time while in the United States. He saw it on television there, was intrigued by it and was really impressed by the size of the audiences it was attracting. Then his claims start to contradict each other. In one version, Supron claimed to have connected with Killer Kowalski (who was of Polish descent) and it was Kowalski who suggested to Supron to introduce the American style of pro wrestling to Poland. Kowalski supposedly also taught him the business a little bit. In another version of the story, it wasn't Kowalski, but rather "The Polish Hammer" Ivan Putski who Supron had reached out to. And in a third version, it was neither Kowalski, nor Putski - Supron had come up with the idea himself. I have no clue which of the versions he told over the years is true.

Ultimately what ended up happening is Supron got his hands on, in his own words, "some tapes from America that contained the ABCs of professional wrestling" and used those tapes to learn as much as he could and put together a training program. He then recruited about 20 Polish athletes from various backgrounds (amateur wrestling, body building, rugby, acting, juggling) and began training them based on what he had learned from the tapes. That was how Poland's first pro wrestling promotion of the modern era was formed. Supron branded his new promotion SupronStars. The earliest show by Supron that I could find took place in October 1989 in the city of Włocławek, but in a prior interview he indicated his troupe was doing shows around Poland as early as July 1989. Supron's most notable recruit was the Olympic gold medalist in shot put turned actor Władysław Komar (who was 49 years old at the time). Eventually SupronStars also featured, among others, Jerzy Choromański (a multi-time Polish amateur wrestling champion) and Edyta Górniak (later a popular singer).

As early as October 1989 there was talk of Supron trying to arrange a tour of the Soviet Union and in March 1990 it finally came to fruition. Supron partnered up with the Moscow Concert Association "Estrada" and with the "Divertissement" Association to put on the tour. They would typically also have a local promotional partner as well. "Estrada" was a division of "Mosconcert", i.e. the primary state-run concert and entertainment organization in the Soviet Union. "Divertissement" was another similar organization with experience in the entertainment business. In short, Supron's tour was arranged through official Soviet channels and through people who had a lot of experience organizing musical and entertainment tours across the USSR. And when I say across the USSR I really do mean across the USSR. Supron and his wrestlers went all over the Soviet Union. From March through September 1990 they, reportedly, had shows in more than 20 cities. In some of those cities they did multiple shows in the span of a few days, sometimes two shows a day (in the same arena), so I would guesstimate the whole six-month tour was probably more than 50 events altogether. This is likely not the complete list, but it's known that they visited the following Soviet republics (in no particular order): Russia, Belarus, Georgia, Lithuania, Latvia, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. To give you an idea of the massive distance this tour covered, if you drive from the eastern end of the tour (Tomsk) to the western end (Riga) that's about 4,500 kilometers (roughly 2,800 miles), which is about the same distance as driving from New York City to Los Angeles, and then from the northern end of the tour to the southern one we're looking at another 3,100 kilometers (roughly 1,900 miles). The tour was a major undertaking in that sense. "Catch (American freestyle wrestling) for the first time in the USSR", was how they were typically billing the events. And with the exception of their shows in Moscow, where there had already been the aforementioned NJPW show a few months prior, everywhere else the Supron shows were indeed the first pro wrestling show (of the modern type) in those countries and the respective cities.

So, what were the shows like? First, let's start with the crew. Despite not being too old for it, 38, Supron himself wasn't wrestling, as far as I can tell. He was the director of the show (i.e. the booker) behind the scenes and in the ring he would serve as referee. The shows were always promoted as having wrestlers from the USA, Sweden, the German Democratic Republic, Poland and the USSR, but I very much doubt that. I don't know who everyone on the roster was, but I would venture a confident guess they were all Poles and Soviets. In fact, one report made an amusing note about how a supposed American from the show was overheard speaking Russian... The two key headline names on the tour were the aforementioned Polish Olympic gold medalist Władysław Komar and the Russian Evgeny Artyukhin (World champion in amateur Greco-Roman wrestling, who also did some matches for NJPW). Sergey Golubovich (Junior European champion in amateur Greco-Roman wrestling) was another headline name, although to a lesser extent. I'm not sure if they were part of it from the start, but eventually the roster also featured the Russians Vadim Pankov, Anatoly Nesterov and Alexander Suhanov.

Andrzej Supron, Władysław Komar, Evgeny Artyukhin

As for the actual shows, they were definitely a sports and entertainment presentation. In fact, one report that I saw used that exact wording to describe the show: a sports-entertainment show. First of all, because there were no wrestling rings in the USSR (or Poland) back then, the matches were in a boxing ring. Secondly, it's difficult to get a thorough understanding of the in-ring product without footage, but I'll say that it reads like a typical Western style pro wrestling show. There were whitemeat babyfaces, villainous heels, heel managers, female valets, choking, cheating behind the referee's back, interference in matches, some moves off the top rope, occasional bleeding, etc. Yes, there were several athletes involved who had very legitimate sports backgrounds, but this was not a RINGS style or even a NJPW style product. This was American sports entertainment with a Polish-Soviet twist to it. Now here comes the extra twist or few. Wrestling was not the only attraction on the cards. It was the main one, but far from the only one. The other thing that they were pushing hard was, and I quote, "Erotic Show Ballet". Yes, the shows would feature several scantily clad women, who would dance for the audience. They would also escort the wrestlers to and back from the ring. Furthermore, there was also a stripper act - a woman named "Barbara" would come out to dance and would strip off her clothes until there was nothing left (to the delight and/or confusion of some of the teenage boys in the audience). At different points the tour featured other acts too - singers, clowns, jugglers, acrobats, etc. They also had women's boxing fights, surely worked ones. And last, but not least, there was also something that had gone away from the Soviet Union way back in the 1920s - women's wrestling matches. Two Polish women, Anka and Katarzyna, both former judo competitors and both dating male wrestlers from the tour, were the main female wrestlers on the tour. To summarize, the shows were an all-around entertainment event with pro wrestling at the core.

That's all fine and good, but how did the shows draw? Was there interest from the public? I don't have enough information to confirm one way or another so here's what I'll say. In later interviews Supron himself claimed that there was a lot of interest and big audiences. He specifically mentioned that in Tbilisi, Georgia, they drew 14,000 people. He also claimed his very first show in the USSR drew 20,000 people (in said interview he didn't mention where that show was). Obviously though, that's a promoter saying this so you can't take him at his word. Maybe they did, maybe they didn't. I don't know. Probably not though. What I do know is that they definitely weren't running small arenas and they even ran some big stadiums. I don't have the complete list of arenas, but here are the ones I've been able to confirm that they had shows in:

- Sports Palace in Vilnius, Lithuania (approximate capacity: 5,400 people)
- Yubileiny Sports Palace in Tashkent, Uzbekistan (probable capacity: 6,000 people)
- Sports Palace in Almaty, Kazakhstan (approximately 5,000 seats)
- Frunze Stadium in Dushanbe, Tajikistan (approximately 21,400 seats)
- Palace of Spectacles and Sports in Tomsk, Russia (approximate capacity: 5,000 people)
- Sports Palace in Kuybyshev (now Samara), Russia (approximately 5,000 seats)
- Dinamo Stadium in Minsk, Belarus (approximately 50,000 seats)
- Green Theater in Gorky Park in Moscow, Russia (approximate capacity: 20,000 people)
- Dynamo Sports Palace in Moscow, Russia (approximate capacity: 5,000 people)

In the case of Frunze Stadium it was mentioned in the papers that the three shows there were going to be in the south part of the stadium so they didn't use the full stadium. It was most likely the same deal for the huge Dinamo Stadium as well. In 1990 Dinamo Stadium was transitioning from a purely football (soccer) stadium into a large entertainment hub so the stadium was hosting a lot of new attractions it had never hosted before - pro wrestling, American football, baseball, rock concerts, etc. That explains why Supron and his guys got to wrestle at such a huge stadium.

In terms of attendance, the arena for the first show in Tashkent was reportedly 2/3 full so we're probably looking at 3,000 to 4,000 people. The Sports Palace in Almaty was an interesting one, because originally they were scheduled to perform there for three consecutive days (six shows in total), but according to the local press demand was so high that they extended the run two more days. The local press wrote: "Packed stands are the best barometer of demand. In recent years, one can count on one hand the number of times sports fans have so enthusiastically filled the Palace: at international matches of SKA basketball players, ADK volleyball players… Now, catch." Keep in mind, the Sports Palace in Almaty could hold up to 5,000 people so this suggests a good deal of interest in the shows. The attendance for the Kuybyshev show was described as "several thousand spectators". The tour wrapped up on 30 September with a show at Dynamo Sports Palace in Moscow. One report indicated that the line at the box office for that show was quite long. So overall, it seems like the tour drew well in certain places.

How were the Supron shows received in the Soviet Union? That's a separate matter. Obviously, I can only judge it based on the opinions expressed in the press and those were not favorable. There were a few positive reports that I saw, but the majority were definitely not and some were quite critical of the shows and what they were promoting (especially the skimpily dressed women). A couple of reports mentioned people walking out and leaving in the middle of the show. An article from Moscow talked about the crowd in Tbilisi being unhappy and throwing stuff in the ring. Of course, every crowd is different, and I'm sure some crowds enjoyed the shows, but the press sure wasn't impressed at all. One common theme in the press reports was about how people went to the shows not knowing what to expect and that makes perfect sense. The only way you could've watched pro wrestling in the Soviet Union back then was either via the rare VHS tape or if you had a satellite dish, which I believe not many did yet, and you therefore watched wrestling on foreign TV channels. The NJPW show from Moscow had aired on national TV, but that was a one-off and style-wise that was a very different show than what Supron was presenting. I think it's safe to assume that a significant portion of the crowds went to the Supron shows, because pro wrestling was a novel attraction they had never seen before, without fully realizing exactly what they were about to watch. Personally, I could definitely see the Soviet crowds back then not liking Supron's style of pro wrestling entertainment, more so than I can see them enjoying it. That style of wrestling was something too Western for those crowds to accept, I think. Different people, different mentality, and I don't think the Soviet mentality back then meshed well with Supron's vision for pro wrestling. I don't know, I may be wrong, but that's my best guess. In short, I think likely the tour drew well overall as a first of its kind attraction, but the general feedback was probably not good and that was one of the main reasons why there was no second tour.

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Newspaper advert: the three shows in Dushanbe, Tajikistan

Newspaper advert: the shows in Tashkent, Uzbekistan

Newspaper advert: the six shows in Tomsk, Russia

Photos: one of the two shows in Vilnius, Lithuania

Photos: one or two of the ten shows in Almaty, Kazakhstan

Photos: the show at Dynamo Sports Palace in Moscow, Russia
Source of the photos: sport-express.ru

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As late as October 1991 Supron was talking about how he might do another Soviet tour, but that never happened. He also claimed to have had a tour of U.S. military bases in Germany and Italy lined up that had fallen through due to the Gulf War. With no foreign shows on the horizon, Supron stuck to doing occasional shows in Poland in 1991 and 1992, and then SupronStars went away. While it didn't last long it definitely does have a notable place in European pro wrestling history as the first Polish pro wrestling promotion of the modern era and the first company to do pro wrestling shows in many of the Soviet countries.

His SupronStars promotion may have closed down, but that wasn't the end of Andrzej Supron's involvement in pro wrestling. Far from it. In 1993 there was a touring promotion called WWS (World Wrestling Superstars) that promoted tours of Germany, Austria and Spain based around ex-WWF stars. The biggest name to work for them was The Ultimate Warrior, who did one of the tours. Supron worked out a deal to bring the WWS crew to Poland as well. And so on 14 December 1993 in Warsaw American wrestling TV stars wrestled in Poland for the first time. "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan, The Iron Sheik, Tito Santana, Greg "The Hammer" Valentine, "Cowboy" Bob Orton, Kobo B. Ware, and some others were on the card. The show was a big flop, however, as it drew only 500 to 600 fans in an arena that could hold up to 6,000. In the lead-up to the show, matches from earlier WWS events actually aired on the Polish TV channel Polsat, which may have been the first time pro wrestling ever aired on Polish TV. It's the earliest instance that I know of, at least.

The Ultimate Warrior vs. Hercules Hernandez
(WWS match from Vienna, aired on Polish TV in 1993):

Since then, on and off, Supron has continued being involved in pro wrestling. He co-founded two Polish indie promotions (both no longer exist) and was involved, albeit in smaller roles, in another two. Plus, for a number of years he did commentary for WWE, and also TNA, for Polish television. Long story short, he's had a long run in European/Polish pro wrestling and his tour of the Soviet Union was for sure the peak of it.


Acknowledgements: Thank you to the Polish pro wrestling websites https://mywrestling.com.pl and https://tpwres.pl (an English-language site), which provided me with some useful information on Supron's contributions to pro wrestling.