If you love something and you need it in your life 24 / 7 then you might have an inkling as to what wrestling means to local wrestling buff Anthony Graham.  Graham was already keeping up to date on his favorite subject so he decided to go ahead and tell the world about it, in his podcast that is featured on the Win Column Sports network called Westlesode.  As you might have guessed, it has everything to do with the wild world of wrestling.  Graham spills on what he will cover. "So I cover everything literally from what you would call independent wrestling here in Alberta, through some of the smallest promotion to cover from New Japan Pro Wrestling to WWE to All Elite Wrestling. I'll pretty much do reviews of anything as long as it's got cool and interesting concepts."

Alberta has a rich history of wrestling stretching back decades and with the fame and success of the Hart family and even The Rock playing for the Calgary Stampeders, it is surprising that the scene is not as big as it once was.  That is not to say big show won't be back, Graham talks about some little big shows in the pipeline, "Unfortunately, Stampede wrestling has been closed for a little over ten years, but that doesn't mean independent wrestling in Alberta has died off it just means we have lost our biggest promotion, but even smaller promotions in and around Alberta have done monumental things as of late. Prairie Wrestling Alliance just wrestled in the saddledome and they were the first promotion to do so since WWE and Stampede Wrestling.  We have Real Canadian Wrestling who will be having an event in Calgary on January third, bringing some big independent wrestlers from across North America."

Wrestling has always had an interesting status within our society.  Being promoted as an actual contest and such, but the use of trickery and gimmicks marred the sport's reputation, Graham says it is a new day for the sport, "There have of course been a lot of different scandals over the history of wrestling with things like steroids. All of these things are banned these days . There is regular drug testing that goes on. Trainers are always working as hard as they can to protect their opponents. Wrestling still hurts. People might say it is fake. I say it is predetermined, but inside the ring, they are still hitting each other and they are still doing everything they can to protect one and another and put on a good show. Their biggest goal is to get their opponent to the next match."

You can catch Wrestlesode twice a week on the Wincolumnsports.ca