Forget your average Saturday at the town hall, Eccles is about to get cowboys, baseball players, NFL stars and a wrestling villain inspired by Alladin’s Jafar.
Top Rope Wrestling is bringing its family-friendly live show to Eccles Town Hall on Saturday October 10, after signing a deal which the promotion hopes will make the venue its new home.
Hayche Haidry, founder of Top Rope Wrestling has wrestled all over the world and founded the club eight years ago.
He said the promotion is aiming to make Eccles a regular stop, with ambitions to run at the venue at least twice a year.
“We specifically targeted our family audience, and it’s not just wrestling fans.
“It’s all sorts of families that are looking in the afternoon for entertainment.”
The move comes as Salford City Council continue a long-term regeneration project in Eccles. The aim is to create a town centre where people have more reasons to “eat, meet, play and work”.
The council has also highlighted the importance of bringing more activity, culture and events into the town as part of its plans.
Hayche said: “I’ve been in wrestling for 14 years now and I’ve wrestled absolutely everywhere, all over the UK and abroad and I’ve never ever wrestled in Eccles. It’s something I’m really looking forward to having there and having the support of Eccles Town Hall and the council has been absolutely phenomenal.”
“Eccles Town Hall is absolutely beautiful, it’s a beautiful venue, a wonderful location. We’ve never run in that area before. I don’t think anybody’s ever run in that area before.”
The arrival of professional wrestling adds another event to the town’s programme, with Top Rope Wrestling expecting families and wrestling fans from the town and the surrounding area to attend.
The move also comes as professional wrestling continues to reach large audiences in the UK.
WWE’s flagship weekly show Raw moved to Netflix in January 2025, bringing the programme to a wider streaming audience, while All Elite Wrestling has staged three All In London events at Wembley Stadium since 2023.
For Eccles, the Top Rope Wrestling deal brings the wider wrestling interest to Salford as well as giving residents the opportunity to watch live wrestling in their own town.
The company stages more than 70 shows a year across its own events, festivals, comic conventions, holiday parks and charity events.
Hayche said the promotion has deliberately moved away from the more violent side of wrestling, describing its shows as an “action panto”.
“We want to give people larger than life characters,” he added.
The roster includes American football character Jaden Lynch, baseball player Bryce Henning, a creatively-named Lumberjack character, Jack Lumber and cheerleader Savannah, known as the “Nation’s Sweetheart”.
Hayche also believes the timing is right for bringing live wrestling to more local audiences, and that increased exposure had already made a difference to his own business.
“100%,” he said when asked whether WWE’s move to Netflix and AEW’s major UK shows had affected Top Rope Wrestling.
But he also said how there was a gap between watching wrestling on television and being able to take a family to a live show.
“The comparison to having that experience live with your family” was important to the promotion, he said, particularly as tickets for major wrestling events can be expensive.
“It’s like going to the cinema and watching a film,” he said. “Going to watch the Avengers and believing that there’s characters and superheroes and supervillains that exist”, he said.
Top Rope has already reached out to schools and clubs in Eccles and is giving some complimentary tickets to allow local families to experience the show for the first time.
Hayche laughs, explaining his vision for the show and explaining his own character.
He said: “I love being a villain! Being the ‘heel’, purely because there’s nothing that makes me happier than seeing those children go home happy when I lose. I love to get booed! How much they cheer when I lose is absolutely fantastic.”
Hayche is currently wrestling on tour in India but has promised his roster back home that he will deliver great wrestling matches alongside entertainment and opportunities for meet and greet’s.
Tickets for the show, Power Cut, are currently on sale here.
