As professional wrestling grows in popularity, Daniel Ellul steps into the ring with some of the most terrifying personas.

Laura Krasuckaite always wanted to become a professional wrestler but there were no opportunities for her dream in Lithuania, so she moved to Malta.

“In Lithuania, or any nearby countries, we don’t have professional wrestling, so I had to find a country that had it,” said the 25-year-old. “I moved to Malta purely for wrestling.”

After training for seven months, she will make her debut tonight under the alias ‘Loraleen’ as one of the wrestlers taking part in Pro Wrestling Malta’s Carnival Clash event at Monte Kristo.

In the garage of a Safi field with an inbuilt wrestling ring, Times of Malta spoke to the wrestlers as they prepared for the event.

PWM, founded by Wayne Pace, or ‘The Maltese Warrior Gianni De La Valette’, held its first show in 2015.

It now has 13 professional wrestlers who perform for the public in a show every three months. They are coy about pay levels, saying it depends on experience but most balance wrestling with other jobs.

According to Germain Zammit, who has been with the academy from the start, an average of 250 spectators attend each show, with 300 tickets already sold for tonight’s performance.

Zammit, who performs as ‘Jack Quinn’, says the sport can sometimes be misunderstood.

It’s very tough on our bodies. The slams are real

Those who think professional wrestling is “fake” should “come train for a day” and reveals that most people who do  find it so difficult they don’t return.

“It’s very tough on our bodies. The slams are real, there’s no way around that, and we get injured,” he said.

“It’s harder than MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) because we are not trying to hurt each other but we have to make it look like we are.”

He says that the company often hosts wrestlers from across the world including from the US and Japan. Because all wrestlers use the same techniques, there is no need to choreograph anything before they step into the ring, meaning most of the fights are improvised.

The wrestlers must all come up with their own characters and storylines: Zammit’s alter ego is a magician who uses his magical abilities in the ring.

He said crowd interaction is crucial in making a show as entertaining as possible.

“You have to be good at acting as well if you want to make people invested,” Zammit, who is also an assistant trainer, said.

Adam Envy (top) will be defending his championship title today. Photo: Matthew Mirabelli

Tonight, Maltese professional wrestling will see a royal rumble, a type of match where wrestlers throw each other over the top rope of the wrestling ring until one wrestler remains.

The PWM championship title will also be up for grabs, with reigning champion ‘Adam Envy’ (Sean Caruana) defending the championship belt against Japanese wrestler Shigeriho Irie.

Describing his wrestling persona, the 27-year-old said that Adam Envy is somewhat of a villain.

“Adam Envy is your flamboyant viral obsession; he’s out there. He loves life but hates everyone at the same time.”