Wrestlers Are Warriors (WAW) is a pre- and post-event destination for fans and athletes of amateur wrestling and professional MMA. WAW features photography and analysis from award-winning sports photographer Tony Rotundo and a team of contributing sports photographers and writers. The WAW website includes professional photography, interviews, articles, and on-site blog reports from wrestling events around the world. The site includes social media links, yearly calendars, and high-resolution files that can be made into posters.
Why “Warriors?“ WAW is not affiliated with the military or a military website, though we do honor and appreciate the services of our armed forces. WAW was named for the commitment, dedication, work ethic, pain tolerance, and desire to excel in a combat sport, from youth through world level competition. The name is an expression of that fortitude: Wrestlers (and MMA fighters) truly are warriors.
WAW has a companion photography web site for all other sports called Athletes Are Warriors (AAW) (athletesarewarriors.com). Please check it out if you’re a fan of all sports photography.
The website Intermat Wrestling recently published an article about Mr. Rotundo, you can read it here: Photographers Sachs, Rotundo chase passion
Funds for WAW come out of our own pocket as a labor of love. If you would like to make a donation for travel expenses that would be greatly appreciated!
Contact
Please contact the editors by emailing them here.
Phone: 415 902 8346
AWARDS
NWMA Photographer of the Year – Tony Rotundo, wrestlersarewarriors.com
Rotundo, who lives in Oakland, Calif., has been a photographer for five years for the award winning Tech-Fall.com website, which posts quality images from all levels of wrestling. In addition, Rotundo’s pictures have appeared in national publications such as USA Wrestler, W.I.N. Magazine, Wrestling USA and Amateur Wrestling News. His work is also used by numerous Div. I wrestling programs to promote their teams. Rotundo, the son of a successful wrestling coach in upstate New York, started wrestling at the age of five. While at Clarence High School, he took sports photography of his teammates and friends for the yearbook. While attending the Univ. of Buffalo, where he was a wrestler, Rotundo also took photography classes. He moved to the West Coast and was out of both wrestling and photography for awhile. He then served four years as wrestling coach at Berkeley High School in California. It was at a high school event where he met John Sachs of Tech-Fall.com and decided to photograph wrestling once again. He has shot many of the major events including the World Championships, the Olympic Trials, the World Team Trials, the NCAA Championships and the California State High School Championships. Rotundo takes special interest in photographing college wrestling, working events such as the Big Ten and Pac-10 championships. He has a background in graphic arts, which assists in his ability to edit and process his pictures into spectacular images. Rotundo currently works as a producer for MX, which makes DVD and Blu-ray discs. He uses his vacation time to travel to wrestling events and provide quality photography to the entire wrestling community.
See our ad in Amateur Wrestling News starting Feb '12.
The story behind the WAW principle photo
The photo that was used on all of the initial WAW marketing material is of Steve Luke (University of Michigan, 174 pounds), taken in the finals of the Cliff Keen Invitational, November 11, 2007, in Las Vegas, NV. The match was a “bloodbath” between Luke and Keith Gavin of Pitt. Gavin, that year’s eventual national champion, won the match on points, but not without and epic battle that lasted almost 20 minutes due to both wrestlers having to take multiple injury and blood timeouts. The photo was taken just as a trainer was about to mop blood off Luke’s face, and for one instant the refs, coaches, and trainers cleared the way for a clean shot of a very calm Steve Luke getting attended to. That one photo inspired this site.
You are welcome to the content here, but if you plan to use any photos for promotional purpose, in advertising, or other marketing vehicles you are prohibited from doing so without the express written permission of Tony Rotundo. All photos © Tony Rotundo and WrestlersAreWarriors.com.
