The Soviet/Russian Pro Wrestling Promotions of the Early 1990s

Details about the USSR Professional Wrestling Association and RAMB'S.

Professional wrestling made its way back to the Soviet Union in 1989 when Antonio Inoki's NJPW formed a working relationship with the USSR to bring a number of Soviet athletes to Japan and at the end of the year NJPW had a show in Moscow. The following year the Polish Olympic silver medalist and World champion in Greco-Roman wrestling Andrzej Supron put together a tour that went all over the Soviet Union, presenting American style pro wrestling for the first time in the USSR. In the case of both Inoki and Supron, that was foreigners bringing pro wrestling to the Soviet Union. Back then the Soviet Union didn't have a pro wrestling organization of its own. That changed in August 1990.

The USSR Professional Wrestling Association is Formed

On 25 August 1990 the Russian press announced that there had been a founding conference in Moscow to establish the USSR Professional Wrestling Association. The name in Russian was Ассоциации профессиональной борьбы СССР - the literal translation is Association of Professional Wrestling of the USSR, but USSR Professional Wrestling Association is a more natural translation so I'm using that instead. The goal behind this new organization was to develop professional wrestling in the Soviet Union and to give former amateur athletes the ability to earn money by performing as professionals. This was not a pro wrestling promotion in the traditional sense. While it did organize events too, this was an umbrella organization of sorts that was meant to oversee and promote professional wrestling in the USSR, and also help Soviet pro wrestlers go abroad. There was also a charitable aspect to the organization as well.

The founders of the USSR Professional Wrestling Association were:

- Vitaly Tulupov: USSR champion in Greco-Roman wrestling, highly-respected amateur wrestling coach and international wrestling referee.
- Mikhail Mamiashvili: Olympic gold medalist, 3-time World champion and 3-time European champion in Greco-Roman wrestling. It's also worth noting that later in life he became the president of the Russian Wrestling Federation (amateur) and has held that position for more than 25 years as of 2026.
- Vladimir Berkovich: Greco-Roman wrestler, who was one of the first three Russians to wrestle for NJPW in Japan in 1989.
- Evgeny Artyukhin: World champion in Greco-Roman wrestling. Wrestled some matches for NJPW and was also one of the headliners for Surpon's USSR tour in 1990.
- Boris Karginov: High-level freestyle wrestling coach.
- Igor Rozhnovsky: Belarusian boxer.
- Yuri Melnichuk: The general director of the Agency for Cultural and Business Cooperation "Hermes", which was the initial sponsor of the USSR Professional Wrestling Association.  

Tulupov was named president of the newly formed USSR Professional Wrestling Association and the other men mentioned above were part of its executive committee. As for the sponsoring company, I couldn't find much about it other than that it published a one-off book the following year (a book that had nothing to do with wrestling or sports) so it seems there was a publishing house component to "Hermes".

Evgeny Artyukhin, Mikhail Mamiashvili, Vladimir Berkovich
(three of the founders of the USSR Professional Wrestling Association)

Moscow, Yekaterinburg and Minsk were the key cities for the new pro wrestling organization. In Moscow a professional wrestling club was founded (i.e. a place for people to train). Former NJPW wrestler Vladimir Berkovich became the president of the club. And in Yekaterinburg eventually a guy by the name of Oleg Suvorov was the one running things locally.

Sidenote: One little detail that caught my eye about the formation of the USSR Professional Wrestling Association was its name. I may be reading too much into it, but I find it curious that they used the term "профессиональной борьбы" (professional wrestling) in the name. Back then in the Soviet Union pro wrestling was most commonly referred to as "кетч" (catch) and "рестлинг" (the literal phonetic transcription of the English word "wrestling"). In other words, pro wrestling had its own distinct terminology to clearly separate it from amateur wrestling. Having the word "борьбы" (the Russian word for wrestling) in the name and seeing the men involved in the organization suggests to me that the USSR Professional Wrestling Association was perhaps aiming to present a version of pro wrestling that would have a strong amateur influence. They definitely weren't looking to do an American style product like the Andrzej Supron shows.

To that last point, here's how Vitaly Tulupov, the president of the USSR Professional Wrestling Association, critiqued the aforementioned wrestling tour by Andrzej Supron in a September 1990 interview: "Catch is, first and foremost, high professionalism, creativity, and dedication. A hastily assembled troupe, peppered with girls in provocative clothing - it's a pure gamble, a gamble on the idea that the audience is still falling for the foreign word 'catch'. We will not allow such performances." As you can tell from that quote, Tulupov was not a fan of Supron's presentation.

And here's how the Olympic gold medalist Mikhail Mamiashvili explained pro wrestling and the USSR Professional Wrestling Association's goal in a January 1991 interview: "I flew to Japan as an observer to see for myself how long this whole idea of professional wrestling would last. Actually, this whole thing was started by Gennady Sapunov and Nikolai Parkhomenko, and they were supported by Anatoly Kolesov [Sidenote from Phil: These were some of the guys negotiating the NJPW-USSR deal with Inoki]. And so the USSR Professional Wrestling Association was formed, headed by the energetic Vitaly Tulupov, an Honored Coach of the RSFSR. The employment of former athletes is perhaps the most pressing issue. Society has turned its back on them, offering them neither material, nor social protection. We are already creating an insurance fund and a pension fund within the association. By organizing professional troupes, the association is thereby snatching athletes from the jaws of unemployment. How should we feel about pro wrestling, which allegedly contains elements of violence and cruelty? I believe that in the West, in America, and Japan, people are no more stupid than us. If they, like little children, are desperately rooting for, worrying about, and believing in everything that happens in the ring, then it means they need it. I realized that all these representations are rooted in the eternal debate between Good and Evil, which is why there are 'black masks', frightening horns, screams, and grimaces. But in the end, the kind, strong athlete-actor almost always wins. And the audience is touched by this. I've attended catch championships in America, too. There used to always be a monster from the "evil empire" present, who, as a rule, lost miserably. Nowadays, Americans don't want to see "Russian bears", they applaud wildly the Russian epic heroes from the Soviet Union. I'll be honest: our guys stand out with their slender figures and excellent technique. And, of course, with their world title - we've been the strongest in [amateur] wrestling for many years!"

The Debut USSR Professional Wrestling Association Show in Minsk

Right from the get-go the organization announced its intention to have a big show on 31 December 1990 in Moscow at the Luzhniki Small Sports Arena (the same arena that had hosted the NJPW show exactly one year prior). The idea was to feature Soviet, Japanese and American wrestlers on it. The show was still being talked about as of late September 1990, but ultimately it didn't take place. A bit later there was also some talk of them doing pro wrestling matches in the circus (just like in the old days of the Soviet Union), specifically at Yuri Nikulin's Moscow Circus on Tsvetnoy Boulevard, but that didn't happen either.

Having said that, the USSR Professional Wrestling Association did have its first event in December 1990. It happened in late December at the 3,311-seat Sports Palace in Minsk, Belarus. According to the report, the arena was filled to capacity. The event was backed by several different sponsoring organizations, and proceeds from it were donated to the Chernobyl Fund. The details are scarce, but the event was essentially two one-night tournaments - one for wrestlers under 95 kg and one for wrestlers over 95 kg (95 kg = 209 lbs). Oleg Suvorov won the under 95 kg tournament and Igor Metlitsky won the over 95 kg tournament, each winner receiving 1,000 rubles. I couldn't find any background on Suvorov. Metlitsky on the other hand, I can confirm was European sambo champion in 1989. All the participants in the tournament were Soviet amateur athletes who were now turning professional. The two tournaments in Minsk were part of a bigger USSR-wide ranking competition that was meant to continue in other Soviet cities and determine the top Soviet professionals. I haven't been able to confirm any additional ranking events, other than the Moscow one mentioned below, but surely there must have been others held too.

Soviet Union vs. South Africa in Moscow

The first major event under the umbrella of the USSR Professional Wrestling Association, and the first and only one to get a decent amount of national press coverage, took place on 1 August 1991 in Moscow at the Luzhniki Small Sports Arena. The event had an unexpected theme that no one could have conceivably predicted: the USSR vs. the Republic of South Africa. After a 21-year ban due to its apartheid policies, in July 1991 South Africa was readmitted to the International Olympic Committee, opening the door for South African athletes to compete at the Olympics the following year. As that was going on negotiations were happening at a high level to bring South African pro wrestlers to Russia, and to send Soviet pro wrestlers and amateur freestyle wrestlers to South Africa. The key guy putting the deal together on the South African side was Johan du Plessis (the Secretary General of the South African Olympic Committee) and on the Soviet side it was a rather notorious name - Otari Kvantrishvili.

The Georgian Otari Kvantrishvili was a promising young Greco-Roman wrestler in the 1960s until a rape conviction in 1966, followed by a 9-year imprisonment and a temporary psychiatric confinement, ended his aspirations as a wrestler. After he got out of prison he became a high-level amateur wrestling coach. While still coaching, Kvantrishvili created a Moscow-based criminal group that was involved in different forms of illegal gambling. Over time his criminal organization expanded greatly and by the early 1990s Kvantrishvili was considered to be one of the major crime bosses in Moscow. He was known to recruit former athletes to work for him in his illegal activities. In 1990-1991 Kvantrishvili founded the Lev Yashin Foundation for the Social Protection of Athletes. This was a legitimate charitable organization that provided social and financial assistance to former athletes who had fallen on hard times. While the foundation did genuinely do a lot of good, it also helped Kvantrishvili gain influence and continue to grow his criminal network. As Kvantrishvili himself allegedly once told his protégé former NJPW wrestler Andrey Slushaev: "People should see us as masters of art rather than gangsters". And being involved in pro wrestling fit that philosophy.
 

Otari Kvantrishvili

Sidenote: Otari Kvantrishvili was shot and killed by a sniper in April 1994.

It was Kvantrishvili and his Lev Yashin Foundation who worked out the deal for three South African pro wrestlers to come to Moscow to participate in what was billed as an "International Festival of Professional Wrestling", USSR vs. RSA. Kvantrishvili financed the event and was the official promoter. The South Africans who came to Moscow were "The Hulk of Africa" Danie Voges, "The Pink Panther" Paul Lloyd (the father of ex-WWE star Justin Gabriel) and the masked Tornado II (Steve Debbes). In other words, three of the top South African pro wrestlers at the time. The event also featured musical performances by Russian pop stars (the main one being Oleg Gazmanov) and the heavyweight Alexey Tyurin (3-time European champion and 3-time USSR champion in judo) taking on several lighter karatekas in an exhibition bout. The popular Russian radio and television presenter Viktor Balashov, who famously announced Yuri Gagarin's historic spaceflight on Soviet television in 1961, served as the host for the show. The former IWGP Heavyweight champion Salman Hasimikov was in attendance, but did not wrestle on the card. Also in attendance were some celebrities, most notably Iosif Kobzon (a very popular singer and a close associate of Kvantrishvili's) and Makhmud Esambayev (one of the most popular Soviet dancers). The results from the event:

1 August 1991
Moscow, Russia
Luzhniki Small Sports Arena
1. Soviet Ranking Competition: Marshal (Oleg Suvorov) def. The Siberian Beast (Andrei Kopylov)
2. Soviet Ranking Competition: Fighting Bull (Igor Brylevsky) def. Superman (Aleksandr Zalutsky)
3. Soviet Ranking Competition: Viking (Mikhail Cherkasov) def. Sergeant (Oleg Batsulo)
- Pop stars performed at intermission
4. Exhibition: the judoka Aleksey Tyurin vs. karatekas
5. USSR vs. RSA: Andrey Slushaev def. The Pink Panther
6. USSR vs. RSA: Tornado II def. Vadim Pankov
7. USSR vs. RSA: Vladimir Berkovich def. Danie Voges

Vladimir Berkovich vs. Danie Voges

Oleg Suvorov vs. Andrei Kopylov, Tornado II vs. Vadim Pankov, and another photo from the show

Igor Brylevsky vs. Aleksandr Zalutsky (Zalutsky is the one upside down)

As you can see from the results, a lot of the Soviet wrestlers were billed with Western style monikers. And yes, that was the same Andrei Kopylov, who would start wrestling for RINGS in Japan the following year. Vladimir Berkovich of NJPW fame was in the main event and won the USSR vs. RSA competition for the Soviet team. The first three matches were part of that national ranking competition that started in Minsk the year prior. The matches were for a spot in the semifinals of the tournament, which were to take place at some point in December. While earlier USSR Professional Wrestling Association events may have potentially been more amateur-like, this one doesn't read like it - Kopylov lost after a move off the ropes, Zalutsky was hung upside down in the corner, Tornado II was a masked wrestler doing high-flying moves, Voges did a blade job, etc.

I actually spoke to Tornado II (Steve Debbes) about this event and he was kind enough to share some details with me. From what he could recall, the South Africans spent about two weeks in Moscow, training with the Soviets. In case you're wondering if the South Africans were aware of Kvantrishvili, who Steve described as their host, and his underworld connections - yes, they were. According to Steve, the arena for the event was full (the arena has 8,700 seats). I haven't been able to find information on the attendance in the Soviet press so I can't say whether this was really the case. Steve was very complimentary of his opponent Vadim Pankov and his in-ring abilities. Pankov was part of the Supron tour in 1990 so like Slushaev and Berkovich he already had some pro wrestling experience under his belt. One particularly interesting tidbit that Steve shared with me was that back then the South Africans weren't allowed to be paid in foreign currency so instead as payment the Soviets printed 4,000 promo pictures for each wrestler for them to sell as merch back home in South Africa.

Steve did not remember whether the show was filmed or not, but I think it was. I found Russian TV listings advertising that a "sports show-catch" was to be aired on the Programme Two channel on 21 August and then again on 10 September, just a few weeks after the big USSR vs. South Africa event. The first broadcast was scheduled to be 35 minutes, duration wasn't listed for the second. I can't imagine these national TV broadcasts being anything else but footage from the show in question. That said, despite being on the second most-watched Soviet TV channel at the time, I doubt many people saw these broadcasts, because the first one was at 1:10 am and the second one at 1:35 am. For comparison: in January 1990 there was a 60-minute broadcast of the NJPW Moscow show on the same TV channel and that broadcast was at 7 pm, i.e. a much better time slot.

As alluded to earlier, Soviet wrestlers going to South Africa was also part of the deal. That tour happened in November 1991. Same as the show in Moscow, Kvantrishvili sponsored the trip. The popular singer Iosif Kobzon came along with the group and had concerts in South Africa at the same time. The Soviet pro wrestlers who went over to South Africa were Salman Hasimikov, Vladimir Berkovich, Andrey Slushaev, Vadim Pankov and Mikhail Cherkasov. They wrestled in Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Port Elizabeth. According to Steve, the shows with the Soviets drew packed houses. There was talk of another tour, but it didn't happen. In a 2021 interview Berkovich claimed the Soviets weren't paid in full for the first tour by the South African side so, if that was indeed true, a second tour not happening may have had something to do with that. His exact claim was that they were paid a daily allowance, but weren't paid in full for the matches. Berkovich also claimed the Soviet group traveled to South Africa with about 100,000 promo pictures to sell as merch, but later the South African promoter told them the pictures weren't selling well and didn't give them any of their merch money. Other than that, Berkovich really liked his time in South Africa.

The Shows in Yekaterinburg

The Soviet Union officially disbanded in December 1991, but that did not put an end to the USSR Professional Wrestling Association's activities right away, particularly in the city of Yekaterinburg where Oleg Suvorov now headed a troupe of wrestlers and promoted some events there. In the first half of January 1992 there were a pair of shows at the local Sports Palace (now known as KRK Uralets), which could hold about 6,000 people. According to the report I saw, the arena was packed on both nights. The shows featured Vladimir Sobadyrev (3-time World champion, European champion and 5-time USSR champion in sambo, and also a high-level judoka), Vladislav Ratov (2-time World Cup winner, European champion and 3-time USSR champion in sambo), Vladimir Emelyanov (World champion and USSR champion in sambo), Aleksandr Tarasov (3-time RSFSR champion in sambo), the Greco-Roman wrestler Aleksandr Zalussky, Andrei Kopylov, Oleg Batsulo, and Igor Brylevsky. There was a women's match too. The women went by the pseudonyms Bagheera and Kroshka. And finally, there was also a performance by Vyacheslav Maltsev, who played the accordion and bent iron bars with his hands. Vitaly Tulupov (the president of the USSR Professional Wrestling Association) was the referee for the matches. Part of the proceeds from the events were donated to a local orphanage.

I haven't been able to confirm them, but supposedly there were another pair of events in Yekaterinburg in the spring of 1992. Those featured Oleg Suvorov, Vladimir Sobadyrev, Evgeny Artyukhin, Vladislav Ratov and another four men. Proceeds from those events also went to local orphanages. This information comes from an interview with Sobadyrev later in the year. There's a possibility he may have been referring to the January events, even though he specifically said spring 1992. Tough to say for sure.

I believe more or less that was the end of the USSR Professional Wrestling Association. I doubt the shows mentioned above were the only shows under its umbrella, but those were the only ones that I could find information on.

RAMB'S and its USA vs. Russia Show

As the USSR Professional Wrestling Association was going away, another new company emerged. First of all, the associated Moscow professional wrestling club continued on, now as a completely private entity. Its official name was Club "Professional" and it was registered as a business - Professional LLC. A brand new private company entered the picture too - RAMB'S / Rambis LLC. Actually, it's possible RAMB'S may have been formed in 1991, but 1992 is the first mention I've seen of it. It was a company created specifically for the purpose of organizing amateur and professional wrestling events. The name RAMB'S, reportedly, came from the last name initials of its founders: Grigory Rabinovich, Georgy Arevadze (a Moscow-based businessman), Mikhail Mamiashvili (who at this point was the head coach of the Russian national Greco-Roman wrestling team), Vladimir Berkovich, and Andrey Slushaev. Berkovich was said to be the head of the company, with Slushaev as his right-hand man.

Two of the founders of RAMB'S - Vladimir Berkovich and Andrey Slushaev

In June 1992 RAMB'S and Club "Professional" put on a big wrestling event in Moscow. They had some additional partners as well - the management of the Luzhniki Olympic Sports Complex (which is where the event was held), LIS'S (a major Russian production company) and as presenting sponsor they had Elegant Logic Inc. (a company founded in the United States by someone of Soviet descent, which did business with various Russian companies). The results from the event:

6 June 1992
Moscow, Russia
Luzhniki Olympic Sports Complex
1. Victor Zangiev def. ?
2. Andrey Slushaev def. Tony St. Clair
3. Vadim Pankov lost to ?
4. Mikhail Cherkasov lost to ?
5. Vladimir Berkovich def. Bam Bam Bigelow

Newspaper advert for the RAMB'S show in Moscow

Tony St. Clair vs. Andrey Slushaev

It's not clear which one of the several arenas within the Olympic Complex they used for the event. The best bet would be the Luzhniki Small Sports Arena. The show had a USA vs. Russia theme, including Russian and "American" cheerleaders escorting the wrestlers to the ring. Sadly, most of the foreign wrestlers weren't mentioned by name in the reports that I found - only Bam Bam Bigelow was. Based on a photo published in the Russian press, I could also figure out that Tony St. Clair was on the card too. The main event of the show saw Berkovich avenge his loss to Bigelow from the NJPW show in Moscow in 1989. As was the case with previous big shows in Moscow, there was a musical performance as well - the pop and rap star Bogdan Titomir performed his hit single "Секс машина" (Sex Machine). There was also a lottery with various prizes. Salman Hasimikov was in attendance, but was not on the card. Among the other celebrities in attendance was the popular hockey player Valeri Vasiliev. Other than this one, I'm not aware of any other pro wrestling events by RAMB'S, but it's certainly possible that there were more.

Speaking of RAMB'S, there's one additional thing that needs to be acknowledged. Years later there were allegations that the company was partially a front for the racketeering activities of its founders, and that the company was sending large deposits to banks in Switzerland. The Russian source of these allegations doesn't have the best of track records so I have no idea if the allegations are true or not, but given the well-known connections of some of the RAMB'S founders to the aforementioned crime boss Kvantrishvili, RAMB'S being involved in shady activities would not be surprising. Especially given that Slushaev was very close to Kvantrishvili and was in fact with him when Kvantrishvili was shot. Plus, another one of the company's founders, Grigory Rabinovich, was known as one of the leaders of a Moscow criminal group.

So there you have it. That's the short-lived history of the Soviet/Russian pro wrestling organizations of the early 1990s. While there were a few big events, pro wrestling never really took off on a significant level in the 1990s in Russia or any of the other former Soviet republics.

Sidenote: In June 1995 someone in Moscow registered "USSR Professional Wrestling Association" as an organization. I don't know who or why, but there's a record of the registration. I don't believe this new reincarnation of the association put on any events.

Pro Wrestling in Russia Post-1992

And while we're on the topic of pro wrestling in Russia in the 1990s, let's also mention these additional facts.

- In August 1994 Atsushi Onita's Japanese hardcore wrestling promotion FMW randomly did three shows in the city of Khabarovsk at the local Lenin Stadium. At the time the stadium had over 18,000 seats. The FMW shows bombed at the box office, the biggest one of the three drawing barely over 1,000 people, and the other two doing much less than that. The World and 4-time European judo champion Grigory Verichev and the 2-time European judo champion Svetlana Goundarenko, both of whom had wrestled for FMW in Japan in the past, were on the poster for the events, but for whatever reason they did not wrestle on the shows. It was an entirely Japanese crew of wrestlers.

FMW in Khabarovsk

- From 1991 onward a number of Russian athletes started competing for Akira Maeda's Fighting Network RINGS promotion in Japan, which began as a pro wrestling company and eventually morphed into a MMA company. Right around the same time three top Russian sambists (Nikolai Zouev, World & European champion Aleksandr Fyodorov and European champion Sergey Vorobyov) founded a sambo club in Yekaterinburg, which would eventually become the "RINGS-Yekaterinburg" club. And that's the important thing to understand about RINGS and Russia - RINGS was not particularly well-known in Russia as a whole, it was popular mainly in the city of Yekaterinburg (the 4th biggest city in Russia). That's where the RINGS club was and that's where Nikolai Zouev and Andrei Kopylov, two of the main Russian RINGS stars, lived. Another RINGS stronghold, although to a much lesser extent, was the city of Tula where Volk Han and Mikhail Ilyukhin were based. With Zouev as the local promoter, RINGS had five events in Yekaterinburg over the years (in 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000 and 2001), packing the local Sports Palace to capacity for most of them with about 6,000 fans in attendance each time. There were also RINGS events in Tula in 2000 and 2001. Obviously though, most of those events were MMA. I can't confirm about the rest of the events, but the 1996 one was broadcast in Russia on the regional TV network Sverdlovsk State Television (i.e. you could watch the show on TV only in the Yekaterinburg area).

The cover of the official event program for the first RINGS show in Yekaterinburg (1994)

Other than FMW and RINGS, there were no other pro wrestling events in Russia in the 1993-2000 period, I believe.

- For a brief while at the end of 1996 the Moscow-area TV channel M49 started airing pro wrestling on a weekly basis. That was the first instance of wrestling airing weekly on Russian television, albeit not on national TV. However, it seems like no one remembers those broadcasts so it's unclear what was actually airing back then. In the TV listings the shows were simply listed as "Титаны Рестлинга" (Wrestling Titans), which was the same branding that would later be used for WCW on Russian TV. That has led people to believe it was WCW on Russian TV in 1996. However, I've seen one random Russian guy online claim that he used to watch it and it was in fact the American Wrestling Federation. To me AWF makes a lot more sense than WCW for a small regional channel like M49, but either way I can't confirm which one it was.

- In 1999 pro wrestling did arrive on Russian national television when WCW Nitro started airing on a new Russian TV channel called TNT (no relation whatsoever to its American namesake). As mentioned, for the Russian market WCW Nitro was instead branded as "Wrestling Titans", similar to how at various points WWF/E TV was branded as "Pressing Catch" in Spain and "Catch Attack" in France.

- In 2000 TNT started airing WOW (Women of Wrestling) as well.

- 2000 was also when WWF Smackdown arrived on Russian national television on a channel called STS. That TV run lasted only a couple of years and then WWE RAW aired on TNT for a year in 2002-2003. WWE was then off Russian TV until 2011 when both RAW and Smackdown started airing on the 2x2 channel. Ultimately that led to WWE having its first ever live event in Russia - on 11 April 2012 in Moscow at the Luzhniki Small Sports Arena (the same arena as the NJPW and USSR Professional Wrestling Association shows). The show was headlined by CM Punk vs. Dolph Ziggler, and also featured John Cena vs. Kane. About 6,500 fans were in attendance. WWE returned the following year for a pair of live events in St. Petersburg and Moscow. That was the last time a foreign wrestling promotion had shows in Russia.

- TNA Wrestling and Lucha Underground had brief runs on Russian TV as well. 

- At various points the Japanese promotion UWFi, branded as "Bushido" for the European market, aired on different Russian TV channels, and also on a Ukrainian one. This was in the 2000s, i.e. years after the promotion had closed down.

- Russia's first pro wrestling promotion of the 20th century was created in 2002 - Независимая федерации реслинга (Independent Wrestling Federation). It's still active to this day and over the years the promotion has aired on a couple of different Russian TV channels, most notably on 7TV. Former NWA World Women's champion Natalia Markova started her career in НФР, several well-known foreign wrestlers have wrestled for them in the past (Raven, El Generico, Sonday Dutt, Samuray Del Sol, Zema Ion, Matt Cross, etc.), Victor Zangiev (of NJPW and UWFi fame) has also made a couple of non-wrestling appearances for them and, randomly, Shane McMahon appeared on a НФР show in 2006 too.

Shane McMahon's appearance in the Russian pro wrestling promotion НФР in 2006:

There have been several other Russian indie promotions since then, but the Moscow-based НФР is the best-known one.