WAL Europe Series Launches Nov. 28
November 13th 2015
After the World Armwrestling League’s blockbuster 2015 season on ESPN, which introduced more than 9 million viewers to pro pulling, the WAL is going across the pond this month with the WAL Europe series.
A series of qualifying events will be held in U.K., The Netherlands, France, Norway and Sweden on Nov. 28, with winners earning a spot in a massive European qualifier early next year in London. Winners there will win a spot in the Regionals stage of the WAL 2016 season. They’ll be featured on ESPN and have their chance to win the more than $500,000 that will be up for grabs next year.
The WAL Europe qualifiers will feature standard WAL rules, with competition across four men’s weight classes on the left and right arms. Women will also join the action as they begin their own hunt for titles and prizes in 2016. The top six right and left arm pullers in each weight class will advance to the London qualifier.
Click here to contact event organizers and to get more info. The 2016 European qualifiers represent the next step in WAL’s unprecedented expansion and unification of the world’s great professional armwrestlers as interest in the age-old sport heats up on both continents.
“We’ve been contacted continuously by other countries calling us and asking us to start competitions,” WAL Commissioner Steve Kaplan said. “We’re answering that call. WAL is truly global in uniting and celebrating the uniqueness and the amazing expertise of these competitors.”
Events will be held the U.K., Norway, The Netherlands, France and Stockholm, Sweden, where pullers from Denmark and Greenland will be able to come throw down.
The European effort is helmed by Neil Pickup, known to many as the voice of WAL through his play-by-play commentary on the WAL on ESPN, but a multiple-time world champion competitor himself who is also a pillar of Europe’s armwrestling scene. And Europeans take the sport just as seriously as their North American counterparts, Pickup said.
“It’s more a way of life than a hobby,” he said.
The cream of the European armwrestling crop is anxious to join the WAL’s ranks and fight for their share of the 2016 season’s massive cash payouts, he said. North America’s best pullers will need to watch the eastern horizon for names like Niklas “The Steel Giraffe” Nannestad out of Sweden, Norway’s “Relentless” Frode Haugland, the U.K.’s Craig “The Birmingham Bullet” Sanders. Also likely to grapple for a shot at a date in Vegas are “Mighty” Paul Maiden, “The Thing” Meindert Nentjes of Holland, Germany’s Matthias “Hell Boy” Schlitte, and Josef “Tough” Lovei and “Handsome” Aymeric Pradines out of France.
“The best athletes from Western Europe have been watching the development of the WAL with great interest and are excited to get involved,” Pickup said. “There is definitely the quality within Western Europe to make an immediate impact in the finals.”
The U.K qualifier will be held at noon at The Crofters Hotel, on the A6 at Cabus in Garstang, Lancashire, PR3 1PH.
The Netherlands qualifier will start at 1:30 p.m. and will be held at Mfc De Ducdalf, Westerrand 38, 8311 AN, Espel. Flevoland.
The Paris event will kick off at 1 p.m. and will be held at the Gymnase Jean Mace, Rue du Sergeant de Neve, 78140 Velizy Villacoubly, Paris.
Norway’s competition will kick off at 11 a.m. at the Skien Fritidspark in Skien.
And in Sweden, the action will start at 11 a.m. at the Fitnessfestivalen in Stockholm, Mässvägen 1; 125 30 Älvsjö, Stockholms Län.
For more information on this, click here or email info@walunderground.com.
A series of qualifying events will be held in U.K., The Netherlands, France, Norway and Sweden on Nov. 28, with winners earning a spot in a massive European qualifier early next year in London. Winners there will win a spot in the Regionals stage of the WAL 2016 season. They’ll be featured on ESPN and have their chance to win the more than $500,000 that will be up for grabs next year.
The WAL Europe qualifiers will feature standard WAL rules, with competition across four men’s weight classes on the left and right arms. Women will also join the action as they begin their own hunt for titles and prizes in 2016. The top six right and left arm pullers in each weight class will advance to the London qualifier.
Click here to contact event organizers and to get more info. The 2016 European qualifiers represent the next step in WAL’s unprecedented expansion and unification of the world’s great professional armwrestlers as interest in the age-old sport heats up on both continents.
“We’ve been contacted continuously by other countries calling us and asking us to start competitions,” WAL Commissioner Steve Kaplan said. “We’re answering that call. WAL is truly global in uniting and celebrating the uniqueness and the amazing expertise of these competitors.”
Events will be held the U.K., Norway, The Netherlands, France and Stockholm, Sweden, where pullers from Denmark and Greenland will be able to come throw down.
The European effort is helmed by Neil Pickup, known to many as the voice of WAL through his play-by-play commentary on the WAL on ESPN, but a multiple-time world champion competitor himself who is also a pillar of Europe’s armwrestling scene. And Europeans take the sport just as seriously as their North American counterparts, Pickup said.
“It’s more a way of life than a hobby,” he said.
The cream of the European armwrestling crop is anxious to join the WAL’s ranks and fight for their share of the 2016 season’s massive cash payouts, he said. North America’s best pullers will need to watch the eastern horizon for names like Niklas “The Steel Giraffe” Nannestad out of Sweden, Norway’s “Relentless” Frode Haugland, the U.K.’s Craig “The Birmingham Bullet” Sanders. Also likely to grapple for a shot at a date in Vegas are “Mighty” Paul Maiden, “The Thing” Meindert Nentjes of Holland, Germany’s Matthias “Hell Boy” Schlitte, and Josef “Tough” Lovei and “Handsome” Aymeric Pradines out of France.
“The best athletes from Western Europe have been watching the development of the WAL with great interest and are excited to get involved,” Pickup said. “There is definitely the quality within Western Europe to make an immediate impact in the finals.”
The U.K qualifier will be held at noon at The Crofters Hotel, on the A6 at Cabus in Garstang, Lancashire, PR3 1PH.
The Netherlands qualifier will start at 1:30 p.m. and will be held at Mfc De Ducdalf, Westerrand 38, 8311 AN, Espel. Flevoland.
The Paris event will kick off at 1 p.m. and will be held at the Gymnase Jean Mace, Rue du Sergeant de Neve, 78140 Velizy Villacoubly, Paris.
Norway’s competition will kick off at 11 a.m. at the Skien Fritidspark in Skien.
And in Sweden, the action will start at 11 a.m. at the Fitnessfestivalen in Stockholm, Mässvägen 1; 125 30 Älvsjö, Stockholms Län.
For more information on this, click here or email info@walunderground.com.
