It’s not surprising to find out that Canadian comedian and wrestling superfan Tegan Verheul has been touring her confessional hour of comedy and storytelling for a few years now. ‘Chokeslam’, part giddy exploration of global wrestling and its fanbase, part soul-baring autobiography, is as chiselled, sculpted, and gleaming as Bret ‘The Hitman’ Hart’s pectorals.

Tegan takes us on a Wrestling for Dummies 101 crash course, introducing the format, the various arcane terms from the sport (‘Kayfabe’, ‘Heel’, ‘Face’ etc),  and expanding on her favourite wrestlers and some of their most famous matches. Slowly she reveals more of herself as she delves further into her subject. Her passion for wrestling is inextricably linked to her relationship with her ex-husband, whose own fervour gradually sucked her into its clutches. As such, there’s an inherent pathos and sadness in her celebration, one only deepened by further revelations later in the show.

Verheul weaves her tales from the mat into her life story in a way that brings to mind Marjolein Robertson, who marries similarly candid, confessional comedy with the myths and folklore of her native Shetland. When it’s done well, as it is here, it’s incredibly compelling as there’s a rich wellspring of references, metaphors, and callbacks from which an agile storyteller can draw. During the course of the hour, you find yourself nodding your head in appreciation at its structure, laughing at loud her seduction via a ‘Boston Crab’ (not nearly as filthy as it sounds), and sighing at a marriage falling apart, all tinted through the kaleidoscopic prism of the world of wrestling.

Like the best documentaries, ‘Chokeslam’ can draw an audience into a narrative without any prior affiliation for its subject. For this reviewer, there is a nostalgic charge from childhood – One doubts that the name of Koko B. Ware has ever been such a trigger for a Proustian rush before, or will again – but such is Verheul’s charisma, stage presence, and joyful enthusiasm for her subject that it would be utterly infectious with practically no knowledge. The way she talks about the 1998 ‘Hell in a Cell‘ match between The Undertaker and Mankind is up there with the best sporting journalism in how evocatively she paints the picture, and makes you feel the excitement. You can practically smell the sweat and Deep Heat.

At times incredibly funny, informative, and heartbreaking (apart from Verheul’s own story, her telling of the appalling treatment suffered by the late Chyna at the hands of the WWE that she took by storm is especially poignant), ‘Chokeslam’ is a brilliant hour of comedic storytelling whether you’re an enthusast of the sport or not. There’s also a simultaneously pleasing and melancholy circularity to its narrative in the way that wrestling becomes a port of solace after the breakup of a relationship in which it was a central bond. Above all, Tegan Verheul gives a performance that vibrates with cathartic energy, and as long as she is willing to excavate her soul as she does here, ‘Chokeslam’ should find a receptive audience for a long time to come.

‘Chokeslam‘ is at Underbelly, Bristo Square – Daisy until Mon 25 Aug 2025 at 20:45