by Carrie Dunn
O’Reilly has a pragmatic attitude to choosing where she works, meaning that she has amassed some impressive credits already. “I shouldn’t have done all the wrestling I’ve already done this short into my wrestling career. I’ve been with Pro Wrestling EVE from the get-go, I’m one of four people that’s been on all their shows, WAWW, UKW and stuff like that, I’ve worked abroad, gone to SHIMMER, Femmes Fatales...
“When I started, anything you throw at me, I’ll take it. A lot of the guys I trained with, they’d get bookings before I would, I’d travel with them to wherever they were going, show I was helping out, and get bookings that way. But now, wrestling for me is not my job, but it’s more than a hobby, it’s somewhere in between – but I want to enjoy it and I do it because I enjoy it, I don’t think you can be wrestling in this country and not enjoy it. So I only go somewhere where I think I’m going to have some fun and going to enjoy myself.”
After a time when men’s wrestling was a priority and women’s wrestling was there for titillation or a toilet break between the real action, there’s also a re-emergence of inter-gender action – where men and women face off against each other. Kay Lee Ray feuded with CJ Banks at PCW, and that was swiftly followed by Mad Man Manson taking on Carmel Jacob – and at the end of 2012, north-east-based RAD:PRO launched an inter-gender tag-team tournament.
RAD:PRO founder Georgie Leggett began wrestling training in 2005 at a school in South Shields, following in his brother’s footsteps: “It was stupid that it even took me that long to give it a shot.” The following year, the school’s trainer started a company intending to stage shows in the area, and Leggett became involved in the organisation and creating matches before he set up his own promotion in 2010.
“I realised my vision was a lot more wide-range than his, so my brother and I, with a lad we’d trained for over a year, walked away and agreed to make sure we create something far more positive, productive and enjoyable. So RAD:PRO was born in July 2010 with nothing more than a crash mat in an old church hall, a handful of loyal trainees and a huge idea to create a company based on the slogan ‘Old School 2.0’ which basically meant bringing back the heyday of gimmicks and angles while taking the actual wrestling to a modern level. We also like to refer to ourselves as ‘sports pantomime’ due to the characters we focus on.”
Leggett’s idea for an inter-gender tournament germinated in early 2012, and stemmed from his appreciation of the work of wrestlers such as Sara Del Rey and Daizee Haze, both of whom regularly wrestle men in promotions like Chikara.
“I thought trying to erase the line between men and women wrestling would be a great challenge and good for the business all round,” he says. “It didn’t take long at all to arrange because I already had a good idea of who I wanted to use and with it being such a unique event everyone was extremely excited to be a part of it.”
He admits that there has historically been a question mark over the plausibility and quality of inter-gender matches. “Up until a few years ago I could never have done this because it’s only recently that women’s wrestling over here has become so strong,” he says. “The quality of females coming out of schools up and down Britain these days is so exciting – the likes of April Davids and Nikki Storm putting on matches that are essentially stealing shows. That wouldn’t even have been dreamed of five or ten years ago.”
Storm herself admits to her own doubts about inter-gender matches in the past. “It’s funny, I used to despise it as some people I worked with at the start kind of treated girls in the match like a nuisance or ignored us, but now I love it, it’s so much fun,” she says. “I am more confident now and speak up; maybe that was my mistake at the start, I wouldn’t speak up as I didn’t feel it was my place as I was so new.”
Storm suggests, however, that inter-gender matches or tournaments should be assessed on their own merits rather than as an overall concept.
“I don’t tend to like wrestling guys one on one,” she admits. “I got to wrestle [Rockstar] Spud and that was great fun, but that was more like a segment and Spud is awesome to learn from. But apart from some exceptions, I’m not interested in working with males one on one. Personally I feel a guy hitting a girl too much can be offensive on family shows and sends the wrong message. Inter-gender matches can be so much fun, I think it has to be carefully planned to make sure there is not too much heavy hitting between boys and girls. If there is a huge size difference between the girls and the boys that needs to be considered.”
One of the interesting elements of RAD:PRO’s shows is their use of new, young, local talent, such as teenager Freya Frenzy. Leggett has every faith in his training school graduates.
“Freya is one of the best products to come out of our school so far. My trainees know that when they’re on these shows it’s to learn. It’s for the experience and I make sure anyone they work with knows this too. [At the time of the inter-gender tournament launch] Freya has had approximately six matches so far and she’s worked with some of the best guys and gals in the scene already, and every time she and all my other trainees do me proud. It’s my favourite part of the whole thing. Seeing the girl I trained hanging with an ex-TNA worker in Jonny Storm, an ex-FCW guy in Sam Adonis and a current SHIMMER regular in Rhia O’Reilly is the type of thing that makes all the hard work worthwhile.”
Freya herself is very excited about the opportunities she has had in her first year of performing on shows. Specifically, she’s really enjoyed the inter-gender challenge. “Most women train with mostly men, so why not wrestle them?” she asks rhetorically. “Part of what made me love people like Sara Del Rey was how well they wrestled not just against women, but men too. Smaller women beat bigger women all the time, so why shouldn’t women wrestle men if they can make it look good?”
Dann Read of Pro Wrestling EVE has had inter-gender matches on his cards, but acknowledges that some men in the business are still horrified at the idea that they might ‘lose to a girl’. Happily, that’s not the case with all the men on the circuit, including (as Nikki Storm pointed out) some of the bigger names such as Rockstar Spud, one of the four wrestlers handpicked for TNA’s British Boot Camp in 2013.
“At my EVE Special Edition show which included three guest matches from male promotions in the UK, Rockstar Spud competed against Alpha Female,” says Read, referring to one of the stars of the European women’s circuit, a muscular, towering bleached blonde. “Now, most guys don’t want to work the girls let alone put a girl over. Spud lost what was effectively a squash match to Alpha because he understood his role in this play. Rockstar Spud comes out and just s***s on women’s wrestling the way that only Spud can do, and out comes this giant behemoth of a woman who looks like a superstar and whom the entire crowd are begging to see murder this obnoxious and arrogant wannabe rockstar – and she does! The crowd have been highly entertained, they now love Alpha even more, and Rockstar Spud is such an antagonist that it would take a long time for a crowd to tire of seeing him getting his arse handed to him after one of his verbal onslaughts.”
Read sees this, though, as a simple extension of how he theorises the importance of winning and losing, and returns to the metaphor of the theatre. “In short, in the casting of the night’s theatre production entitled ‘WRESTLING!’, the role of the evening’s villain – ‘Rockstar Spud’ – was played by James Curtin, the role of the evening’s hero – ‘Alpha Female’ – was played by Jazzy Gabert. In the evening’s play, Rockstar Spud lost a wrestling match to Alpha Female. James Curtin didn’t lose a match and Jazzy Gabert didn’t win a match – because they didn’t actually wrestle!”
Even if the contest’s outcome is predetermined and the wrestlers are actors playing a part, they also need an official to keep an eye on the action, ostensibly to enforce the rules, to ensure that the play unfolds correctly – and to take on a role himself. This is the job of the referee.
Chapter 5:
The referees
THE men in the black-and-white striped shirts are v
ital to the enjoyment of any wrestling match. If they get distracted and miss something, if one of the wrestlers lays hands on him, if they accidentally take a bump – he can change the course of what we’re seeing in the ring.
Just as in park kickabouts the referee is the one who has not made it into either team. A lot of referees are frustrated wrestlers at heart, who haven’t made it due to injury or illness or age or simply an acknowledged lack of ability – but the best referees are the ones who put that aside and concentrate on being the best they can be at running a match.
“I’ve been interested in wrestling since I was a kid,” says Marc Parry, a regular referee for Extreme World Wrestling. “My grandad was a World of Sport fan, the sort of fan that wanted to get in the ring and ‘have words’ with the heels!
“I first got involved in wrestling when I was being tattooed by one of my friends: we were having a back and forth about WWE in the 1990s, and Ring of Honor, then he mentioned he was a worker and suggested I should come along and train with the company he worked for.
“So I did. I trained for 18 months then decided I wasn’t cut out to be a wrestler. I was finding it hard to remember spots, sequences and other bits: I can bump, I can chain wrestle – hell, I can even hit a moonsault! How many refs can do that?”
Despite Parry’s in-ring skills, the company needed someone to act as a referee, so rather than competing, he agreed to take on the responsibility.
“I’ve been doing it for nearly five years now. Watching wrestling from a young age, I kind of knew 90 per cent of the rules, plus I normally reffed any matches that took place at training so I was already practising the role.
“I did receive help from a guy I consider my mentor, Mark Raoul: he refs for CSF [based in the south-west of England]. Any questions I had, he answered, and he even appeared on shows with me and helped me improve with constructive criticism.”
Parry takes his job seriously, and suggests that more companies ought to respect the referee to a greater degree than is evident at the moment.
“I love my role as a referee, and feel more promotions should be prepared to pay for a quality referee rather than throwing a trainee or some friend of the booker in a striped shirt and asking them to ref when they don’t know half the rules, just because it saves you 20 or 30 quid. It makes the product look inferior in my opinion; you could have two top guys in a ring putting on a five-star match but if the ref doesn’t know what he’s doing it makes the match look bad.
“One of my favourite quotes comes from the Iron Sheik. He said: ‘To have a great match you need three things – a good babyface who gets the fans to love him, a bastard heel who fans want to kill, and a good ref. The ref is important; without a good ref the match is nothing.’”
So what constitutes a good referee, then?
“A ref has to look like a ref,” he says. “If you had a guy the size of Mason Ryan [the WWE giant formerly known as Goliath on Sky One’s Gladiators] as a ref he’ll make the wrestlers look small, so a ref should ideally be smaller than the wrestlers to make them look bigger by comparison.
“And a good ref is there to do a job, not to get themselves over! I’ve been to shows in the past, not naming any companies, where the ref tries to steal the spotlight away from the wrestlers – not cool. A ref should be present but not seen, if that makes sense; they should be there when they need to make a count or enforce something, but other than that they should seem invisible and observant of what’s going on. The last thing the workers want to worry about is: ‘Is the ref in the way?’
“Lastly in my opinion what makes a good ref is facial expressions and body language. If you watch some refs when a worker hits a big move, they just stand there not looking bothered at all. It’s the same with near falls; they just count one-two with nothing on their face! I know this is all predetermined but kids still believe it’s real, and if the ref isn’t making things look convincing it looks bad.”
Like Parry, Des Robinson, from Liverpool, initially fancied himself as a wrestler. He got into the business with the Runcorn Wrestling Academy in 2009, but soon found his training taking him down a different path.
“I initially wanted to be a wrestler but soon found it wasn’t as easy and as pain-free as it looked. The wrestling training involved every aspect of wrestling – from learning how to perform and receive moves safely, understanding match structure, to crowd interaction and doing promos.
“I was a dedicated trainee wrestler for around four months before I decided to concentrate on becoming a referee at the suggestion of Andy Baker, the owner and trainer of the school – although while training to become a ref I still found myself taking part in less impact taking drills. Then over time I became used to taking impact moves, so while taking part in referee training I was also doing wrestling training too – I still continue to do both to this day, which has helped me a lot when taking ref bumps in matches.
“I think anyone who is involved within the wrestling industry has a desire to become a wrestler; it’s usually what draws them in. Unfortunately not everyone will make it but most will go on to a role that they find just as rewarding.
“I think that’s what has happened to me: I realised early on that being a full-time wrestler wasn’t for me, but I was able to find something I enjoyed doing and still enabled me to be involved in wrestling. I don’t rule out that some day I will have a wrestling match as I still have that desire, but for the moment I’m enjoying every moment as a referee.”
Robinson is incredibly grateful to be doing something he loves, and pays handsome tribute to Andy Baker at the RWA, Steve Saxon at BWP and Steven Fludder of PCW for their faith in him.
“Becoming a referee involves being able to follow and react to what is happening in the ring, not getting in the way and also communicating between wrestlers. It takes a lot of concentration to not become distracted by the fans or even the wrestlers themselves. It’s generally all about timing and listening: if the referee is not in the correct position to count a pin, it is possible to lose the pace and flow of the match.
“To become a referee I think it’s important to remain professional at all times: treat everyone with respect, be a good listener to take and follow instructions, and having a good memory is a bonus! Being able to use your own initiative also helps in unexpected situations. And you have to accept it’s the wrestlers the fans have paid to see. Referees are an important part of the match but they are not the star attraction.”
Chris Roberts is one of the most recognisable referees on the UK scene, working around the country for most of the biggest British promotions. Even though he is based in South Wales – “I’ve never moved away,” he says proudly – he finds himself travelling to the south-east often to IPW:UK. He never found himself wanting to be a wrestler himself – he started as a referee and has continued his in-ring career in that fashion.
“I’ve always been a US wrestling fan – WWF, WWE. I started going to UK shows in 2003, I think, maybe 2002, and that was how I got my interest in the British scene going. Then in 2004, I started making enquiries to get into the business myself,” he says.
“When I was 21, I really wanted to be in the business – I wasn’t just content being a fan anymore. But I was very realistic – I realised I wasn’t cut out to be a wrestler.” (As anyone who has seen Roberts will know, he is a moderately tall, lanky kind of guy – the black-and-white stripes don’t flatter him.) “At the time, the FWA [Frontier Wrestling Alliance] were running a Star Search, which was basically looking for non-wrestling talent; they were looking for referees, ring announcers, backstage crew, that type of thing. I went into that looking to be a referee.
“I don’t know why refereeing stood out. That was the thing that caught my eye.”
The Star Search is something that occasionally happens within British promotions, and sometimes involves a couple of promotions working together to do all the legwork and admin. In Roberts’s case, he turned up and he paid £10 to be interviewed by a panel
of people including some UK promoters and in-ring talent.
“It didn’t come to anything for me. They always say they’ll contact you later on,” he scoffs. “I think more than anything it’s a money-making thing.”
Although Roberts’s association with the FWA was short-lived, he stuck to the idea of refereeing, working with other companies. “I started with a small promotion, and started working my way up from there,” he says.
His breezy account makes it all sound so simple – but this is a man who works for most of the UK’s best promotions as well as international companies such as DragonGate when they visit the country. “That was something different,” he says with understatement. “Those shows are very high profile, and on those shows you’re in front of very, very smart fans, who demand everything being perfect. There’s a lot of pressure to perform – a lot of pressure on me to be as good as I can be, to keep up my end of the bargain so that the wrestlers don’t have to worry about what I’m doing.”
So how did he go about learning to become a referee? He chuckles. “Like a lot of things in wrestling, things seem to just happen. There was a small promotion in South Wales, where I live, that started running a show about 20 minutes from my home town. I contacted the number on the poster, which was the promoter’s number, and I offered to help advertise the show locally, because I was based closer than he was.
“We became friends, and by the time that first show came around, he asked if I wanted to be involved in some way, whether it be ring announcing or taking tickets – and I asked if I could try refereeing.”
Making one’s debut as a referee in an actual show, rather than in a training session, sounds a nerve-wracking experience. “I was thrown in the deep end,” Roberts agrees. “I refereed three matches on that first night.”