Canadian Wrestling Elite tour making its way through Sask.

The Canadian Wrestling Elite’s (CWE) ‘Hostile Takeover Tour’ is making its way through Saskatchewan and will make its stop in Regina on the weekend.

“As a touring company that goes across this country, we use wrestlers throughout Canada and beyond. We have wrestlers from the United States that come here frequently. It gives you a unique, diverse show,” explained ‘Hotshot’ Danny Duggan, Canadian professional wrestler.

The nine day tour began in Rivers, Man. before heading across the border to communities such as Carnduff, Cote First Nation, and Gordon First Nation.

“I absolutely love it! The smaller centre like this [Gordon First Nation] is where they really latch on and you’re able to actually make a different in a kid’s life. Just seeing the smile and the twinkle in their eyes, that’s what it’s all about,” said ‘The Headline’ Shaun Martens.

Martens, who hails from Edmonton Alta., said he knew he wanted to be a professional wrestler since he was a child.

“We all grow up dreaming that we could do something with our lives and very few of us actually drive to make that a reality and I didn’t want to be that minority. So I strove to be the best that I could be and do what I wanted to do since I was a little kid and here I am,” he said.

Former IMPACT Wrestling World Champion, Tessa Blanchard, is the headliner for the tour in what is her official CWE debut and noted this is her first time coming to Saskatchewan in her wrestling career.

“I love it! Just even the drives from town to town have been so beautiful. One thing that I’ve really loved is I’ve gotten to know the locker room pretty well and working with Danny and them has just been so easy and it brings the fun back to wrestling,” Blanchard said.

Blanchard is a third generation of wrestling superstars. She is the daughter of Tully Blanchard of the original Four Horsemen, and the granddaughter of Texas legend Joe Blanchard.

She said when she was 18-years-old, she didn’t know what to do with her life, but that changed soon after.

“I was in college for business and something made me look up wrestling school and my dad had gotten inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2012. So that was my first real experience being submersed in wrestling and something attracted me to it and I found a school to train and I stuck with it,” explained Blanchard on how she got into the sport.

Among the group is Jimmy Jacobs known to wrestling fans as ‘Zombie Princess’ Jimmy Jacobs. The American professional wrestler has worked with IMPACT wrestling, Ring of Honour (ROH), and has spent time with the WWE.

“I love the CWE, this is what I love doing, and I would do this every single day of my life if I could,” he exclaimed.

Jacobs said CWE events are a party for the whole family, as it’s a family oriented product.

“You get to see pro wrestlers from all over Canada, all over the world in one place. It’s a fan interactive experience. There’s a symbiotic relationship between the performers and the audience. Everybody has a good time at a CWE event,” said Jacobs on what fans can expect when they come out to the show.

Duggan said a big part of what they’ve done for the last 14 years is build a bond in the communities.

“We go to because we’ve been going consistently that we’ve built this network of wrestling fans across Canada. So when we come to a town, especially the ones we’ve been to before it’s like coming to see a family each night,” Duggan said.

“Truthfully the small towns are usually a lot more fun and a lot more exciting than the big cities. A lot of small towns we go to, they don’t get major entertainment acts, so when we come to town, we’re the spectacle. You’d be hard pressed to find someone who comes to one of our events that didn’t leave satisfied and a wrestling fan,” he added.