Renowned wrestling trainer and coordinator at the Brussels Young Wrestling Style (BYWS), Coach Nsimba Bafuka has advocated for collaboration among African countries in the upliftment of Pro Wrestling in the continent.
Coach Bafuka, also known as “Shaolin Master” for his mixed martial art expertise, gave the advice at a one day international seminar on”The way forward for African Pro Wrestling”, organised by Pro Wrestling Africa (PWA) on Friday, July 18th 2025 in Lagos, Nigeria.
Speaking at the seminar which featured several wrestlers from Nigeria and other neighbouring countries as well as pro wrestling stakeholders, the multi-talented Belgium-based coach of Congolese descent, said that having travelled to several African countries to observe the practice and administration of professional wrestling, there is need for African countries to work together and reinvigorate the sport.
Bafuka noted that though Africa is blessed with raw talented wrestler waiting to be tapped into, lack of finance and corporate supports, as well as poor administration have been the snag in the wheel of progress
“I’m impressed with what I have seen so far about pro wrestling in Nigeria and other African countries. They have the talent; very encouraging but finance is the major snag hampering its upliftment. It’s disturbing, however, I believe that if the various wrestling federations in Africa are able to collaborate the sport will be better off.
“On our part and other partners Africans we are doing all we can to give pro wrestling the right attention for its development in Africa.
“I want assure that soon we tend to organise a big wrestling show in Nigeria and congo where some wrestlers will be selected to embark on a training tour in Belgium. We are working on it,” he said.
While appealing to the various governments in Africa to support pro wrestling in their respective countries, Bafuka charged the wrestlers to develop the attitude of competing in other countries.
“With what I saw in Togo and Benin Republic, now we have to work on the professional side but it demands money. However, once awhile government has to support pro wrestling and my advise to you wrestlers develope the attitude of competing outside your countries because it gives you international exposure confidence which wrestlers need to be great,” he added.
PWA’s Secretary-General, Olusesan Olukoya, who also spoke at the seminar, described the partnership between Brussels Young Wrestling Style (BYWS) and Pro Wrestling Africa as an important move at taking pro wrestling in Nigeria and other African countries to the next level and making it more attractive.
”This partnership has come because last year I was in Belgium and we signed an agreement that henceforth we’ll be bringing in wrestlers from other countries to be trained. He has been there for a while, it’s already established, so a lot can be done together, all in an effort to take the game forward.
”We have a lot of talent to focus on in our part of the world, and it’s not what we can do alone on our own. If we have talent and we’re not showcasing them, then we’re not really doing anything. We want to participate in international events. I was in the US early in the year for a wrestling event , it featured two Cameroonians, Nigerians not available. So we don’t want that, we want to really showcase, we have a lot of talent here in our part of the world, I want to showcase them to the world. I think that the partnership will really help us enhance what we are doing, because of our talent to the world,” he said.
”We need to step up after doing this seminar on what we have discussed today, more collaboration, it’s very, very important. If we take a bold step now and show them what we can do together, how we can partner to take the game to the next level.
”We ‘ll reach out to government again, to see what we can do together, in terms of support, in terms of sponsorship, likewise, corporate bodies too, because before now, they were supportive, but all those ended some years back,” the PWA Secretary General added.
In his remarks, President of Nigeria Pro Wrestling Federation (NPWF), John Uche assured that the federation is not leaving any stone unturned to the reposition the pro wrestling in the country.
”So, we will make sure that what we see today will continue to grow from strength to strength and we will work until we get our destination and house ready. And make sure that the wrestling youths on the streets are gathered and put to the wrestling professional event and work. So that they will be useful to themselves, to Nigeria and the rest of Africa,” he said.
Highlight of the day was the presentation of award of recognition to Bafuka for his immense support to pro wrestling in Africa.
