On March 29, the ANO “Poddubny Wrestling League” was officially founded — a professional wrestling league bringing together the world’s top athletes and offering a record prize fund. The initiative was supported by the Russian Wrestling Federation. The first tournament will take place in Moscow on May 19–20, featuring the best wrestlers from Russia, Belarus, and other countries around the world. Some details were shared by WRESTRUS.RU.
“The creation of a professional wrestling league has been discussed for a long time because wrestling is a spectacular and audience-friendly sport that deserves such events. Under current sanction conditions, we accelerated the launch of the league, as competitions are extremely important for our athletes. I am confident that the first Poddubny Wrestling League event will generate genuine global interest among both wrestlers and fans,” said the President of the Russian Wrestling Federation, Mikhail Mamiashvili.
Disciplines
The competition will feature all Olympic wrestling styles (freestyle, Greco-Roman, and women’s wrestling), as well as grappling and pankration.
Format and Prize Pool
The tournament will follow an individual format across all weight categories, with an overall team ranking. Cash prizes will be awarded to the winners of each weight class, as well as to the top three teams (countries) in the general standings. A record-breaking prize fund is set to attract the world’s leading wrestlers.
Poddubny Wrestling League is a global-scale project uniting elite athletes from around the world. The maximum number of participants per weight category is 16 wrestlers, with over 10 countries expected to take part.
Venue, Broadcast, and Tickets
The preliminary rounds and bronze medal matches will be held on May 19 at the CSKA Football Arena, where more than 1,000 athletes will compete simultaneously on 18 mats. The final bouts will take place on a single mat on May 20 in the 12,000-seat multipurpose VTB Arena. The entire competition will be streamed live on the official platform of the Russian Wrestling Federation — WRESTLINGTV.RU. Ticket requests can be sent to tickets@wrestrus.ru.
