Pro wrestlers bringing the good fight to Navan

All eyes may be on hockey with the NHL 100 Classic dominating the weekend in Ottawa, but there's another sporting event that will heat things up during the bitter cold.

Navan isn't the place you would expect to host a wrestling competition, but Denis Racine and Richard Leron are trying to make the rough-and-tumble sport a family affair Sunday in the city's east end.

Leron told CBC Radio's In Town and Out that other facilities in the city weren't suitable for the type of event he wanted to organize, so he settled on the Navan Memorial Centre and Arena, not far from where he grew up.

"I've been wrestling for the past seven years and I looked around and I thought it would be a great thing to do for the area where it's close to home and the kids can go and check it out and have a little bit of a good time, family fun," Leron said.

Racine will be competing in the event through his alter ago "Lance Law." Leron goes by the name "Magic Mario" and is promoting the event.

'Professional wrestling in Ottawa is just getting bigger'

Racine said Ottawa has a pretty active wrestling community and it seems to be growing, with similar events happening in Vanier, Ottawa South and Greely.

"Professional wrestling in Ottawa is just getting bigger, bigger, and bigger," he said, adding that he hopes to bring this event back in the New Year.

The sport is not gentle on the human body. And despite rumours that the fighting is largely fake, Leron said he has injuries to prove otherwise.

"My shattered heel, my dislocated jaw, my concussions — that can probably attest to some of the reality of what people think is 'fake,'" he said, during a visit at the Hostyle Conditioning and Fitness Warehouse in Orleans.

Racine likes to think of it as ballet, "but throwing people around."

The wrestling competition starts at 4 p.m. at 1295 Colonial Rd. Tickets at the door cost $20 for adults and $10 for kids.