It's 7:30pm in Engadine and a small but lively audience is lining up outside the local tavern.
They know what they want to see.
"We're hoping to see a few people get a little bit beat up - a few punches thrown," one says.
"Action, athleticism, agility, strength, stamina, sport - just everything that wrestling is all about."
Over the next two hours, that's exactly what they get - grown men throwing each other into the air, into the ropes, and sometimes right into the crowd.
A crowd watching a wrestling match at Engadine tavern. Source: The Feed
But how did they end up in the ring?
At a handful of wrestling schools around Australia, budding athletes are turning their childhood WWE fantasies into reality.
At the Pro Wrestling Academy in south-western Sydney, aspiring wrestlers are trained from the ground up, learning everything from how to wrestle safely to how to build a character fans will invest in.
Australian wrestling veteran and head coach Mick Moretti is training some of their more experienced students.
"When I first started wrestling, we were basically told by the trainers: do this because you love it - don't really expect to get anywhere," Moretti tells The Feed.
"We had shows in front of about five or six people, and we've had shows at basketball courts where the ring's been set up over here and there's been a game of basketball or soccer going on over here."
These days, it's a completely different story, with some of the Academy's wrestlers even going on to star in the WWE.
"Now, there is a demand for women's wrestling just as professional wrestling."
Starting out at the other end of her career is Tara Bannister, an up and coming wrestler better known as Kinsgley.
"My nan was the only person in the family who had Foxtel and we would watch Smackdown Raw together. She would weirdly get into Batista, so now I have a nice little connection with Batista, and because he's Fillipino and I'm Fillipino," she said.
"My mum is a strict Filipino lady who prays daily and my dad is a 60-something-year-old man who goes by the book and makes sure my little girl doesn't get hurt. So when I heard there was a tryout, I was just like 'I can't tell my parents'."
Tara Bannister sitting near the wrestling ring. Source: The Feed
Bannister kept her wrestling life a secret for six months, not spilling the beans until her parents asked her how she met her new boyfriend.
Now, she's one of a growing number of female wrestlers breaking into the once heavily male-dominated industry.
"What we watched on television ten years ago was the norm - bras and panties matches, pillow fights, pole matches, and that's what women were sold for, they did matches because it was sexy," Bannister said.
"Now, there is a demand for women's wrestling just as professional wrestling."
Tara Bannister wrestling an opponent in the ring. Source: The Feed
With crowd numbers increasing, Moretti says the goal is always to take the audience on a journey.
"It's a kind of escapism, a chance to forget the real world, forget your job, enter the room and think 'Okay, this is my world now'," he said.
"The atmosphere is something else. It's like going to a music venue to watch a gig - it's just 'electrifying', to quote The Rock."
Back at the small tavern in Engadine, International Wrestling Australia director Robert Oxley is getting ready to open the doors for the evening.
He believes wrestling culture is once again starting to shift into the mainstream.
"Some venues would have trouble drawing 50 people maybe back two years ago, but as we get into 2019 and now into 2020, we're getting closer to four figures of fan attendance," Mr Oxley said.
"Coming out and seeing a show, it's less attractive to wrestling fans now and more attractive to people who enjoy a night out - it's the nightlife that draws people."
