by Carrie Dunn
“The camera crew literally left him on my doorstep, knocked on my door, and said: ‘He’s outside, we’re going to get him to knock on the door and then you answer it.’ Then that was it. We sat down and he said: ‘Oh, by the way, I’m a ballet dancer.’ It wasn’t a massive shock, it was kind of what we’d come to expect. You think about the way your body mechanics are – they wouldn’t have given us a painter and decorator, they would have given us someone from that kind of field.”
“I was a bit nervous just before meeting Dave and Andre,” admits Cornish now, with what must surely be understatement. “I think I probably wanted to make sure that, even though this was going to be tough, we could also have a good time.”
Cornish spent a month and a half living with Stewart, and training with the rest of the Hammerlock roster. Ryan has already admitted he employs some rather harsh tactics with his students, and Cornish was no different.
“It was quite funny for the first week or so as Andre was adamant that Kasper needed to have respect for what we do before we let him in fully, so for the first week we didn’t even let on that it was a work – we had him shoot wrestling for a whole week, and me, Jon Ritchie, John Hall, Johnny Moss, Danny Garnell and others scurfed him,” says Ryan.
“To be honest, Hammerlock was very strong on making sure all of our trainees at least had some knowledge of legit submission wrestling which I think is a massive contributor to the number of successful guys that came out of the gym.”
Cornish knew they were pushing him to see how committed he was, but was determined to prove himself. “There is a photo floating around somewhere – it shows us all circuit training on the field behind the gym,” he recalls. “The wrestlers are collapsed, doubled over and looking like they are about to throw up. I can’t remember how I felt inside at the time – but I’m still going.”
Cornish was honest that aggression didn’t come naturally to him, but he wanted to succeed and conquer the challenge. His bruises were documented throughout the show, as was his new-found habit of guzzling protein shakes to help him build up his muscle and look more like a genuine professional wrestler. His dedication and application won the respect of even the hard-to-please Ryan.
“Kasper was a great guy and we ended up becoming close friends throughout the four weeks we filmed the series. We basically trained every day and it was good fun. He wasn’t very strong to start with but you could see by the end of it that he had better muscle definition and size in that short period of time. The problem he had was going back to ballet afterwards – he was too muscular for dancing!”
Cornish was pragmatic about the possibility of injury and the inevitability of his physique changing, which he saw as just the same as putting on or losing weight to perform a particular role. “I didn’t have any long-term dance contracts coming up at the time and I had already achieved a lot of the things I set out to do as a dancer, so even though there was a high risk of injury, I felt it was important not to let the element of risk get in the way of the experience,” he says.
Stewart confirms that Cornish was utterly committed to becoming a convincing wrestler.
“Even the programme doesn’t sometimes do it justice,” he says. “There was only two days where he didn’t stay overnight, because he had prior appointments; he trained virtually every day of some kind. Being a ballet dancer, he was heavily into stretching and yoga, I believe, and also massage, so he introduced us to a few things. What you see on television – he had natural ability to move. He was a phenomenal person, they couldn’t have picked a better person to do it.”
Cornish settled in well among his new colleagues, who, far from mocking ballet, admired his achievements in dancing. “He was committed [to succeeding as a wrestler] because he understood what it took,” says Stewart. “He was a very, very good ballet dancer. At that point as well – I think he was about 26, 27 – he was also teaching. Not only that, he was doing other forms of dancing and getting work in choruses and ensembles, and so he threw himself in – fully.”
Cornish, Stewart and Ryan spent a lot of time together during the filming, in and out of the ring, and became close friends; the clips on the documentary of them watching television, having an impromptu jamming session with keyboard and guitar, and playing pool down the pub weren’t just for show.
“Hammerlock was a fantastic environment for the people there at that time,” recalls Stewart. “Jon and I would sit at my house and watch Alec Guinness films, or some subtitled nonsense from Switzerland or Sweden, so we were quite rounded, we weren’t just like thick wrestlers who wanted to bash each other up. And Kasper was a rounded individual, a well-travelled fella, so there was absolutely no issue [with him fitting in]. It was a really good period of our lives.
“Me, him and Jon were really tight the whole time. Jon lived not far from me, and we would go to the gym together every day, so we were really tight, and Jon spent a lot of time at my house during that period too, where we tried to educate Kasper by giving him all sorts of videos and DVDs and stuff to watch.”
After the weeks of training, Cornish’s progress and the work of his trainers was put to the test, when he and three other novice wrestlers faced off in a show against Gary Steele, formerly Hammerlock’s heavyweight champion. Steve Ganfield, deputy editor of World of Wrestling magazine, Martin Clarke, world over-50 judo champion, and former professional wrestler Paul Tyrone comprised the expert panel – and not a single one of them picked out ‘The Highwayman’, Cornish’s new flamboyant, Adam Ant-esque alter ego, as a fake.
“I don’t get nervous before a performance but it felt like there was a tremendous amount riding on whether I succeeded or failed,” says Cornish. “So many people had worked tirelessly towards that one moment for such a long time I felt a huge responsibility not to let them down.”
“Kasper did brilliantly which I like to think was tantamount to the amount of effort and the teaching skills of everyone involved,” says Ryan. “I think we furnished him with a move-set that complemented his size and frame and his abilities, so we basically honed his best assets, but to be quite honest we taught him to think and work like a wrestler and he could actually work a decent and entertaining match by the end of it – we didn’t just teach him a choreographed routine match.”
“Kasper genuinely looked really good in that final,” says Stewart. “There was genuine warmth and we were all chuffed to pieces.”
At the end of the documentary, the Hammerlock team headed off to the train station to bid farewell to Cornish, who returned to his normal career. According to Stewart, the affection and emotion on display wasn’t staged for the camera; even as Jon Ryan refused the hugs on offer, it was obvious to the viewers that he was putting on a macho act, and would miss his new friend.
“I remember that being quite a genuinely sad time because we weren’t going to mix any more,” says Stewart. “The hugs and kisses you see – with the exception of Jon playing hard-to-get – they were genuine.”
“Kasper was a real star,” says Dean Champion, who has been with Hammerlock for its entire 20-year history. “He walked in with an open mind and showed the business so much respect that all the guys took to him quickly and we all thought he had a real shot to make a go of wrestling full-time if he so wanted.”
The debuts
Cornish returned to ballet, and continues a successful career dancing, choreographing and teaching, but for those whose ambition it is to wrestle, stepping up to perform on shows in front of a paying audience – rather than just in front of your fellow trainees in your gym – can be terrifying.
“If we went back in time, before I’d had my first match, I’d probably just puke at the thought of even doing shows,” says Freya Frenzy. After just one year of training, she had already wrestled on shows against major UK stars such as Nikki Storm and Rhia O’Reilly.
Her match against Storm, in fact, was only her second. Ever. It is rather a big stage for a novice – who had only just sat her GCSEs at the time – to
work on. “I didn’t actually know that I’d be working with her beforehand,” admits Freya. “My trainers and I went up to Scotland for a gala day, and we thought that I’d just wrestle one of my trainers. But when we got there, Nikki was the only other girl so we were put in a mixed tag match. I was a little intimidated because it was only my second match, but she was really cool and kept things simple for me. Despite the fact that it was raining and I came out of the ring with grass stuck to my stomach, it was still a great experience.”
Freya confesses that she still feels nervous prior to her matches, but the benefits of working on a show outweigh the butterflies.
“Despite the fact that I still get nervous before my matches, I really appreciate the shows and what they do for me,” she says. “They give me experience in front of a crowd and, of course, the chance to work with some great people. I still go to training but I think that if I didn’t do shows, I’d be at a lower level than I am now.
“I really feel like I’ve grown – metaphorically, of course – since I started doing shows,” she adds with a rueful nod to her height – just over five feet one in her wrestling boots. “I think it was Rhia who said that some things can only be learned by working shows in front of a crowd and it really is true. It makes me feel much more confident in what I can do when I watch them back and realise: ‘Hey, I’m not completely terrible!’”
Having the ability to film matches has changed the way that wrestlers reflect on their performances and develop as athletes and as actors. All Freya’s matches are recorded, and she watches them back afterwards – not for the sake of her ego, but to spot what’s working and what’s not.
“I try and watch them all back,” she says. “I cringe a little watching myself, but I think it’s something I should do. My trainer usually points out anything I need to work on, like needing to show more aggression when throwing forearms or little things that I need to improve on, or stuff that was good, like my chain/technical work, which seems to be what I’m best at – it is a good thing because I tend to be over-critical of myself.
“Working with people like Rhia and Nikki has been so great and I’m very lucky to have wrestled them so early on. I always take something away with me after working with someone, and it’s also great to be able to work people who are at the standard that I myself aim to be at. For example, Rhia’s worked for SHIMMER [the major US women-only promotion], something I would love to do.”
Debuts in front of audiences vary according to trainers’ attitudes. For example, Ashe trained with Hammerlock and although he had a little experience in martial arts before, it was a big step for him to move from training sessions to working in front of an audience. Hammerlock graduates traditionally only got the chance to step up to working shows when they had proved their commitment and passion, and you need to be passionate when you’ve got a tough first match on the cards. Hammerlock’s chosen method of graduation from the training school tended to be through a rumble, a match in which multiple wrestlers have staggered entry times into the ring, duke it out and attempt to eliminate everyone else – it’s a last man standing battle.
“It’s the safest way,” says Ashe. “You’ve got a lot of guys in there so you’re not going to do anything silly, you haven’t got a lot of pressure on you, and it’s a good way of getting you out in front of a crowd. The first three shows were the only three shows I did for Hammerlock, and they were all rumbles, with one singles match.
“I’ll never forget the first time we went out, we didn’t have any gear. Both myself and Phil [also known as Curve, his tag-team partner in the New Breed] used to do karate at the time, and all we had was our karate gis. Andre said: ‘Yeah, that’ll do, that’ll be fine, but you can’t wear the top, you’ve got to go topless – karate bottoms and bare feet.’ So you’ve got these two guys who weigh about nine stone soaking wet in these baggy white bottoms and a karate belt – and I had a mullet as well at the time, beautiful – and we looked horrendous.
“The main thing I can remember is about 30 seconds before we were about to go out there, I was just dancing on the spot, panicking so, so much: ‘I’m going to go out in front of a crowd! I’m going to be a wrestler! I’m going to get stamped on!’
“It was terrifying, but it was good fun. The boys looked after us, we had a good laugh – it broke the fear quite well.”
Character and clothing
Developing an in-ring persona isn’t as simple as deciding whether you’re going to be a heel or a face. Characters take time, thought and effort – and if you’re going to get to the top, you need to have personality and something that makes you catch the eye and stand out from the crowd, as well as costumes that fit your style of wrestling and the persona you’re trying to portray – plus you need a repertoire of moves that make sense for your character to perform. Freya Frenzy admits that her focus at the moment has been on her in-ring work, with her character developing as she progresses. Even her ring name has been invented on the fly.
“Before I had my first match, the first name [my trainer] came up with was CK Skyler, I think. I didn’t mind that name but for some reason, it got changed to Felicia Frenzy, which I didn’t like. I told my trainer I didn’t like it so it changed to Freya Frenzy, which I preferred.”
Someone as petite as Freya is never going to be a scary monstrous heel, so she is left with playing the heroine, something she is practising. In several of her first few matches she found herself in inter-gender tag teams, meaning that she was in the tricky position of ‘damsel in distress’, needing to be saved by her more experienced male tag-team partner, while still presenting herself as a credible wrestler.
“We do talk about being a face-in-peril, and what I should do to get the crowd on my side – for instance, always looking at someone in the crowd whenever you’re being beaten up on,” she says.
It also means dressing appropriately – pastel colours and shininess are the only plausible options for a female face just starting out in her career.
“My trainer asked me to find gear that I’d be comfortable wearing, so I found some pictures online of other female wrestlers wearing the type of gear I wouldn’t mind wearing and then I got some made,” she says. “I’ve only really worn the blue and pink gear but I’m getting some orange gear made that is brighter than the sun and leaves a trail of glitter wherever I go, so I’ll be impossible to miss.”
Nikki Storm, one of the hottest and fastest-rising talents in the UK, began her wrestling career as an 18-year-old, scouring the internet for a training school near her home in Scotland. She loves the theatrical side of in-ring work and sees her job as a storyteller.
“I suppose I got into wrestling because it was the perfect mix of athleticism and acting. When people ask me to describe wrestling, I describe it as like going to the theatre or watching a play. When I’m in the ring, I want to tell a story. I want the fans to be entertained. That’s what attracted me to wrestling, I think; the storylines.”
Her character has a certain amount of swagger and arrogance, but it’s the storytelling she focuses on.
“In the last couple of years, it’s the big characters I love watching. Triple H versus the Undertaker from WrestleMania 28 was terrific, a beautiful story, I watched those guys that night in envy. I love cheering the good guy and booing the bad guy. I love rooting for the good guy, and I always want the bad guy to get their comeuppance eventually. I enjoy the way wrestling can make you feel like a kid. I like that it takes you on a rollercoaster and when it’s done right, you suspend your disbelief. I want people to watch me and be taken on a rollercoaster.”
Rhia O’Reilly – who picked up the World Association of Women’s Wrestling (WAWW) Championship at the end of 2012, just as they changed their name to Bellatrix – thinks becoming a heel is something that develops, and she learnt how to do it the very first time she wrestled for the promotion.
“You’re always a babyface when you start because you don’t know what to do so I automatically went by that
rule. Then I had this really crazy weekend where I went down to Hastings to wrestle for AWW, and the next day I was running a half-marathon, and that night I was going up to watch a WAWW show. I do not remember why I was going up to that show, I can’t recall, but then they were like: ‘Can you wrestle on this show?’ I was like ‘yes’, because I’d never wrestled for them before.
“My friend picked me up, drove me to my house, picked up my gear, drove up. By the time we got up to wherever it was I could barely move my legs out of the car. The show had already started. I got backstage, I was changing into my gear in this room with everybody else, they were talking about the match [that I was in] – it was a mixed tag. I was listening, and I was like ‘uh huh, uh huh’, and I was pulling my boots on, and then I was like: ‘Wait a minute. I’m a heel in this match! I’ve never done heel before!’ They were like: ‘It’ll be fine, it’ll be fine.’ I proper had a proper freaked-out face. I was just like: ‘You MUST be kidding me, there’s no way I can do this.’ The guy I was in the mixed tag with was just like: ‘Just do what I do!’
“So I went out and a heel was born. I probably wasn’t great at it that night, but I got a lot of heat, people did not like me, and that was the main thing. Then I got used on an [Pro Wrestling] EVE [one of the two major women-only promotions in the UK] trainee show, I did heel on that, and they were like: ‘Maybe we’ve got something here.’ Ever since that, I’ve always been booked as a heel. It’s been fun. I like to be a bit gobby, entertaining but a bit annoying, but not too annoying; I like to p*** people off a little bit but have fun with it.”