Wrestling's 'Welsh Wonder Woman' brings contest home

Nadia Ageli made her first wrestling debut at the age 16

She's been hailed wrestling's Welsh Wonder Woman and has travelled around the world competing.

But this weekend, Nadia Ageli has brought a few of her fighter friends to her hometown of Cardiff.

The 32-year-old is the co-owner of British Kingdom Pro Wrestling, who promote shows across Wales and the south-west of England.

Sunday's event will welcome stars from a Japanese wrestling team.

Nadia's passion for wrestling started from regularly watching it when she was eight years old.

"I thought I have to do that," she said.

"That's what I want to do. So I went searching for wrestling schools. I found a wrestling school at the age of 14 and just went from there.

Nadia made her first wrestling debut at the age 16 after training at a club in Swindon - and that was she met British Kingdom Pro Wrestling's co-owner David Sharp.

"For me, it was the storylines that drew me in," she said.

"The wrestler were larger than life, they didn't care about the rules and I loved it.

After an injury, which left her unable to take part in the sport for two years, Nadia lost her interest for wrestling until an old friend convince her to come back.

"I remember Dave Sharp kept saying to me, 'Come back, come back to us.' I went back when I was 21 and since then I've not looked back," she said.

Over the next ten years, Nadia travelled across the globe to compete in competitions.

"I'm very lucky I've got to wrestle in lots of places," she recalled.

"I've wrestled all over Europe, America and Israel. I'm just back from my forth tour in America and it was really fun."

During this tour, Nadia was dubbed the 'Welsh Wonder Woman' and that's a nickname she has proudly taken on.

Kota Minora, of Dragon Gate, will also take part in Sunday's event

WWE wrestling coming to her home city in 2022 when 60,000 wrestling fans visited Cardiff's Principality Stadium for "Clash at the Castle".

She hopes events like that will inspire more fans and people looking to take part.

"When I first started wrestling, it was very rare that other girls took part," she said.

"Ultimately the dream was to always wrestle. But since I started running events I have felt empowered.

"So it'd be nice to inspire women to do that as well. We started having a few women open up wrestling training schools which is really inspiring. So it'd be great if they start running events too."

Mochizuki Jr will defend the British Kingdom Pro Wrestling Junior Heavyweight Championship against Wales’ Nico Angelo

After forming a new partnership with Dragon Gate, Nadia's organisation will take Welsh wrestlers to shows in Japan while Japanese wrestlers come here - like at Sunday's event.

Home favourite Tiger Ali, a multiple time heavyweight champion, will compete against Kota Minora in one of the headline contests at Dragon Kingdom 2024 at Cardiff's Walkabout.