WSO tag-teams with wrasslin’ to win championship belt Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra scores the smackdowns in first-of-its-kind wrestling crossover By: Holly Harris Posted: 12:00 PM CST Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026 Last Modified: 3:28 PM CST Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026 Updates

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 05/02/2026 (193 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra raised the roof Wednesday night as it presented its unprecedented Brawl at the Hall, which saw the Centennial Concert Hall morphed into a wrestling ring to the delight of 2,140 gleefully shrieking fans.

The loud ’n’ proud, 132-minute (including intermission) spectacle — touted as the first of its kind in the world — featured 12 professional wrestlers from Winnipeg Professional Wrestling (WPW), each battling tooth and nail for championship titles during a series of five individual matches.

It also welcomed back to the ring, er, podium, guest maestro — and self-confessed die-hard wrestling fan — Daniel Bartholomew-Poyser, who last appeared here in November 2024 for the WSO’s Music and Fashion with Thorgy Thor, featuring the inimitable NYC-based drag queen and violinist.

Kudos to the conductor for his carefully curated playlist of high-octane hits ranging from Beethoven to Bizet — even pop artists Stevie Wonder, Styx and Bruno Mars made cameo appearances. Each lively excerpt served as dramatic entrance music for the wrestlers, and underpinned their tightly scripted, precisely timed, choreographed bouts, evoking a kind of violent ballet.

The Toronto-based Bartholomew-Poyser is also a terrific sport himself, frequently turning around to egg on audience members to clap, cheer (no encouragement needed), as well as reacting in mock horror when wrestlers snapped his baton (a “flute” and “violin” also met their match, ending in splinters) and even leaping into the ring himself after intermission, stripping off his tuxedo jacket for his own, mercifully brief battle.

These latter touches effectively integrated the two art forms as per the time-honoured adage, “The whole is greater than the sum of parts,” with the hybrid show otherwise risking becoming a tag-team of strange bedfellows.

A special trophy must also be given to the WSO players themselves — many appearing gobsmacked, while others looked mortally terrified — as they valiantly waged their own war to follow the conductor’s crisp baton cues, despite being obliterated at times by the mixed-ages audience’s rafter-raising whoops and cheers.

The wrestling crowd, untethered by customarily genteel “concert etiquette” and dropping loud F-bombs, offered a fascinating study of group dynamics.

Audience members collectively latched on to the orchestra’s biggest, brassiest backbencher, the tuba, frequently breaking into singsong chants “Tuba is the best” and “We want tuba,” as guest artist Maxime Lepage gamely played along, even hoisting his gleaming instrument over his head like a strongman.

After a quick intro by announcer Alec Carlos, and a particularly zesty opener of the finale from Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4 in F minor — Bartholomew-Poyser conducting the first number with gusto from inside the ring — the wrestlers got down to business.

A few fan favourites quickly emerged, including Sammy Peppers (declared winner) sparring with Tommy Lee Curtis in the first match, as well as (Sweet) Bobby Schink, later facing off with (Chizzled) Chad Daniels (winner) for the WPW Championship right after intermission, the latter greeted by thunderous boos and loud cries of “Chad’s a wiener.”

In addition to being supreme athletes, tossing off adrenaline-pumping lifts and throwing each other down like 10-pin bowling balls, these guys are also showmen to the nth degree, leering, sneering and grimacing in “pain” (and truthfully, these moves must hurt) worthy of an Academy Award.

Other boos — a badge of honour — belonged to reigning WPW Tag Team Championship titleholder Nu Money (winner), vying with another hands-down favourite, James Roth and Big Merv, as well as two of the “strongest and baddest in Canada,” BRAX going head to head with Tyler Colton (winner).

The night capped off with the main event: (wild child) Jody Threat — greeted with elated shouts and applause — taking on (hellion) Ava Lawless for the WPW Women’s Championship. Their no-holds-barred showdown, following their last matchup at the Manitoba Museum in April, proved that girls also just want to have fun in this equal-opportunity sport.

Powered by Mussorgsky, Dvorak and Shostakovich, and further goosed on by the crowd’s “Hit her with a cymbal!” the two women fought like tigresses with fierce intensity in an archetypal battle of sheer brawn and bravery.

Threat’s triumph at the end received another roaring standing ovation, leading to a final curtain call by the maestro and wrestlers, and yes, Lepage taking his own bow, grinning like an A-list contender.

Despite tricky sightlines at times — especially during pins, falls and takedowns by the wrestlers, with the ring positioned upstage flanked by the musicians — the WSO’s brave new venture into the world of wrestling shows indomitable spirit, ready to stare down ongoing challengers of ever-evolving audience tastes and times.

That — along with a packed house — is worth a championship belt alone, as the mid-week crowd let loose with one more bellowing cry while filing out: “That was awesome!”

winnipegfreepress.com/hollyharris