by Carrie Dunn
Japanese wrestling crowds are much more intent – and intense – than the more rowdy UK fans. As a fan of Japan’s scene, that didn’t come as a surprise to Sabre. “It’s probably much more of a shock to people that haven’t been a fan of Japanese wrestling and have gone over there to tour. Sometimes in the small rural places they’ll be more rabid than the big Tokyo shows. It completely varies. For the most part, Japanese people are much shyer than their Western counterparts anyway, so it does take them a while to get warmed up. They have a different approach, they’re watching, and when the match is in its final moments, they really come alive.
“It’s different. Every region has fans that behave differently, so you just learn to adapt. If that puts you off, you’re going to struggle; when you travel around the world, everywhere is different. But wrestling fans are wrestling fans. They’re there to enjoy themselves – you just have to make sure you enable them to do that.
“The relationship and how the fans take you in and the other wrestlers in the company is more than if I’d done six tours – spending the time there and being part of the company and the way they treat you. To me, that was just as important as anything else. The fans can tell that you’re enjoying yourself over there. I did a little promo in Japanese at the end of my last match and even though it was full of mistakes and I probably sounded like an eight-year-old child, that I was even trying won them over as well.”
That doesn’t mean that he’ll be moving out there full-time – but he does intend to spend much more time out there. “My priority is Japan, definitely. I’m an English boy. I do like getting to come home and see my family and my friends. I would be over the moon with a situation like Fergal has with New Japan – he’s there for a lot but he comes home and wrestles. That would be my dream, to be on as many NOAH tours as possible, then I can come home and do some UK shows – that would be great. In an ideal world I’d get to wrestle as much as possible in Japan and see if there’s time for anything else.”
So what is the appeal of training and working overseas to these British talents?
“I think a lot of wrestlers see the USA, Japan, Mexico and the UK as the main wrestling areas worldwide and each bring unique styles in the ring and cultures outside of it,” muses Lion Kid.
“Some of the most renowned grapplers in history have come from, trained in or toured extensively in Japan. I also think what attracts a lot of people to Japan is a more realistic style of pro wrestling not found anywhere else in the world.”
Still, that doesn’t mean that Japan is the only or the “best” place to learn your trade, as far as he is concerned.
“I believe it is important to gain experience competing in as many different places as possible to learn how to be a complete wrestler. When you compare the wrestlers that were signed to a major group straight from a wrestling school to the ones that have worldwide wrestling experience, the difference shows. That is how I would like to develop myself as a competitor.”
British wrestlers have also been moving over the Atlantic and working the American independent circuit for years. Despite having been wrestling professionally for a very short space of time, Rhia O’Reilly has already wrestled for the US-based SHIMMER – as she terms it, “the gold standard” for women’s wrestling globally.
“There are a bunch of Brits who go over to SHIMMER for every taping, and I got to know them a little bit,” she says. “They were talking about a SHIMMER trip, and I said ‘wow, I’d love to do that’, and they said: ‘Well, next time, why don’t you come with us?’
“So we booked these holidays, we were going to go to SHIMMER and then go down to Vegas for five days, I was super-excited, I wanted to go to Vegas so much my whole life, so to get to go to SHIMMER and then go to Vegas – amazing. I was so excited to go. Then it was coming around to the tickets going on sale for the tapings, and they said to me: ‘Why don’t you try and get booked on the show?’ I was like: ‘No way! Do you know how long people wrestle before they’re on SHIMMER? These people are like wrestling gods to me!’
“So I very tentatively sent an email to Dave Prazak [the promoter], and said, ‘Hi, I’m coming over to watch the show, but someone said you might put me on Sparkle, the pre-show,’ and he was like: ‘Yeah, of course, if you’re going to be over, you’ve come all this way, sure, we’ll put you on.’
“I could barely sleep the night before, I was so nervous, but I got there, and I was on Sparkle. The thing was there were six of us [booked on the pre-show], I think there was a tag match and a singles on Sparkle that time, and I was talking to them all, they’d all been wrestling for a minimum of five years, and I’d been wrestling for a year and a bit. That made me feel even more nervous.
“‘How long have you been wrestling?’ ‘Five seconds.’
“So I went out, did my thing, did my match, and then sat in that locker room and watched the whole show for the rest of the day. Watching the show on the monitors and then seeing them coming straight back, seeing that reaction, hearing how they plan matches, taking notes, picking that up, I was just buzzing. It was really awesome.”
After that success, O’Reilly employed the same tactic to get booked on the next show – which was to be recorded for broadcast and distribution.
“Yep, tentatively again: ‘Hi Dave! Wondering if you’d consider me as a possibility for the March taping?’
“‘Oh, you wanted to come back?’
“‘Yes! Of course I want to come back!’
“‘Yeah, OK, fine, we’ll book you.’
“It was that easy.”
And then, after a little nudging from her friends, she did the same thing to get booked at Femmes Fatales, before flying to SHIMMER for St Patrick’s Day. “I came out as a heel and hated everyone for being pretend Irish, it was really fun. It was an amazing experience.
“I thought I was the most nervous I’d ever be for Sparkle, but going out, my first SHIMMER match, it was the opener, was with Courtney Rush, who I completely respect and love, and I adore her work, so it was like ‘wow, it’s Courtney Rush!’ – that’s the most nervous I’ve ever been in my life.
“Going out there, knowing it was going to be taped, it was going to be there forever, and if it was rotten I had to be there all weekend. It was such a simple match, but I was like: ‘What if I forget it?’ She was like ‘it’s going to be fine’, and it was.
“Going out there was so cool. On my [entrance] music, before the music hits, it’s got me going: ‘Oh really? O’Reilly!’ By the third time they put my music on, it went ‘oh really?’ and the whole place just went ‘O’REILLY!’ I was like: ‘I’m over! I’m over! Even if I’m not very good at wrestling, I’m over!’ It was the biggest pop ever, as soon as I went out for that third match.”
Self-deprecating as O’Reilly might be, that can’t change the fact that she has already achieved her dream to wrestle for SHIMMER, just a couple of years into her career.
“The fact I’ve been there already is ridiculous to me,” she admits.
So British wrestlers don’t necessarily have to relocate in order to work for international promotions. In fact, there are plenty of European promotions that love having UK workers on their cards.
Jon Ryan, for example, has carved out a niche for himself in Germany, where the fans of the epically tough wXw promotion love (to hate) the ‘bad boy of British wrestling’.
“I started working in Germany for CWN [Catch Wrestling Nord-Deutschland] in 2008 and worked solely for them doing more traditional family-style shows,” he says. He thinks this link-up came courtesy of his former protégé Zack Sabre Jr, who he had trained at Hammerlock some years before.
“I think it was probably a combination of Zack pestering wXw to book me and Tas [the wXw promoter] refereeing some of my matches in CWN that meant wXw were willing to try me.
“I did a double-header where I did a show for CWN where I won the Nord-Deutschland Cup going over Erick Stevens and then drove down with the CWN promoter Marcus to wXw in
Troisdorf where I had my first experience of the wXw crowd. I had a s***load of ‘who are you’ chants but the match with Zack got over OK and the eight-man tag we did – me, The Kartel and Big Van Walter vs Zack, Tommy End, Erick Stevens and Martin Stone – was so much fun I went back for wXw to the point where I became a regular.”
His character at that point was invariably that of a bad guy.
“I’ve always really worked as a heel and find it comes much more easily to me, and was getting over as such with wXw. I wasn’t really being given a massive direction in wXw as a heel when they decided to first put on the Ambition show which suited me down to the ground. I love submission-style wrestling and I’m not averse to a few solid knocks, so I went out there and enjoyed the s*** out of myself.”
It is not just submission wrestling, though; like Havoc, he’s a master of the deathmatches.
“wXw also decided after a lot of guys stopped doing the hardcore stuff that they would try me out at the deathmatches, and I did the initial Tournament of Death vs Gorefest show where I went over Jimmy Havoc and then went out to Nick Gage.
“After these two shows, they put me on against Davey Richards at 16 Carat which started to get a bit of hype, and by the time it came around I went to the ring still as a heel but to chants of ‘under-rated’, which was nice to hear.
“From that point, the fans at wXw pretty much turned me face without me trying which was odd but massively humbling to know that I am getting that kind of respect from a very smart crowd based on my work. I’ve since had some really fun high-card matches with Big Van Walter, Nigel McGuinness, Johnny Moss and Jun Kasai and seem to still have the crowd behind me.”
Stepping up to the big leagues
Despite the resurgence of the UK scene, it’s still tacit that anyone with ambition is looking to get signed by one of the big American promotions. The UK wrestling scene is incredibly proud of William Regal, a stalwart of WWE for the best part of two decades; while Wade Barrett, Drew McIntyre and Mason Ryan have been representing Britain’s next generation of talent on television for some years. More recently it has been interesting to see the biggest wrestling company in the world snap up Saraya-Jade Bevis, aka Britani Knight, who Rhia O’Reilly praises as “probably the best female wrestler that we’ve had in Britain”, and Joel Redman, featured in WWE’s development show NXT as Oliver Grey.
WWE keep a close eye on the British scene, and hold regular try-outs to see whether anyone is worth signing up. Iestyn Rees has tried out for the company himself, and describes it as “the biggest job interview you could ever have”.
“I never thought when I started wrestling that I’d ever get anywhere near a WWE try-out,” he confesses. “It was a surreal experience – but a really positive one.
“You turn up, you’re suited and booted, there’s ten to 12 guys there – usually half of them or a bit more than that are British, and then some guys from Europe. You say hello to the head of talent, and then when the ring is set up and you’re ready to go, you stand around the ring in full show gear, and you take it in turns. It’s: ‘You, get in there, go!’ They watch you wrestle, and work, and go from there, basically.”
Not only that, but you’re being observed by some big names – “not the top tier, but most of the rest of the roster” says Rees – which adds to the pressure. “It’s like having a football trial with the whole of the Manchester United team watching.”
After his first try-out, Rees knew what to expect the next time round. “Well, then you’ve been there and done it – although you are still very, very nervous.”
There is also no set way that you’ll get your feedback from this particular job interview. “It’s different with different people, to be honest,” says Rees. “We all knew who they were definitely interested in, and they went off to meet with some executives, some contracts were put on the table, then they came back and we congratulated them.
“I was there for Saraya-Jade’s first try-out – they were interested in her then but they were a little bit worried about her age as she’d only just turned 18. I think the deal was put on the table then as a possibility, and then to see what she was like in six months’ time. It can work out different ways. I’ve seen people walk through the door – there was a 7ft 8in guy there and he didn’t get in the ring for two days, but because he was 7ft 8in he got a contract.”
Ashe got his WWE try-out in the UK through his work on US promotions where he trained with William Regal and American stars such as Bryan Danielson. “Dave Taylor [a former WWE star and trainer] managed to secure the WWE try-out for us – he spoke to Dave Finlay [another former WWE wrestler and now agent] and said: ‘Next time you’re over, can you give the boys a shot?’
“They were coming over to Newcastle, so Finlay contacted Taylor and said: ‘Get them up to Newcastle – we won’t do it in front of a live audience, we’ll do the in-ring try-out. We’ll assess them, and we’ll go from there.’ It was a case of ‘have an in-ring session – if we like you, we’ll give you a shot; if we don’t, we’ll say to come back when you’re ready’.
“I went there with no false impressions. I didn’t think I was going to walk away with a contract. For me, it was the opportunity of a lifetime; I decided to grasp it and go for it. As it turned out, as I was the most experienced, I had to work the three others who were trying out, one after the other, which was brutal.”
Ashe too found himself performing in front of some big names – “the entire RAW roster”, to be exact. “I’m doing three try-outs with – and here’s a who’s who for you – Chris Jericho, Steve Austin, Ric Flair, Shawn Michaels, Kevin Nash, Kane was there as well, these guys were all around the ring, watching us, and it was horrible. By the time I’d finished the third match I was gasping for air. But it was fun, we did our best, did our matches, thanked the guys, thanked everybody. Finlay said to us afterwards: ‘You’ve all got a lot of heart, but you all need a lot more work – keep at it, keep going, and see how you go in a few years.’”
TNA too boast a couple of British favourites who regularly make appearances back in the UK indies – Doug Williams, most frequently; and Magnus, aka Nick Aldis, has more recently been involved in some big television storylines. Part of the British Invasion group, he is better known to the casual UK television viewer as Oblivion, the loud-mouthed villain from Sky One’s Gladiators, and as such he is very used to having a high media profile.
“I have freedom now,” he says. “I’m not encouraged to be controversial – but I don’t have anyone breathing down my neck! It’s a relaxed environment here.”
Indeed, it was that particular showcase that got him signed to TNA – but he came very close to not getting that role at all.
“I went to the auditions for Gladiators with no intention of getting it – I almost didn’t even go,” he says. “I didn’t think I’d be big enough, actually. I was only 21, and I just didn’t think I was filled out enough.”
When he arrived at the audition, he found he was competing against lots of faces he recognised from muscle magazines, and lots of alpha males trying to grab the producers’ attention. “It was testosterone central, and I’m not good with that,” he admits. “I’m quite competitive, but I’ve never enjoyed that kind of grr, grr, showing off – and all the producers there were female. So of course that made it ten times worse. There was so much posturing and gesturing all day. It was tiresome. After about 20 minutes I thought: ‘I’m so over this, I just want to go.’”
But once the cameras were switched on, it was a different story. “All these guys who were so full of bravado and had so much personality, as soon as they had a camera on them just turned into five-year-old kids at the nativity play. I thought: ‘I actually have a chance now.’ So then I took it more seriously!”
He filmed two series of Gladiators, and in between them he signed for TNA, but he hadn’t done any serious wrestling in a year. “I wasn’t really allowed to [wrestle while on Gladiators] – although I did do a few. Well, you kn
ow, I had a load of foam hands to sell, and action figures! I made sure that I knew who I was working with, that it was safe and it was a controlled environment – where the action was minimal.”
Once he finished panto season at Christmas 2008, it was straight into a TNA schedule, but even while he was treading the boards he had promotional work to do. “They flew me out to Nashville for one day, because that was the one day I had free [between filming Gladiators and panto] – and then I had to go straight back to London. I literally did not have a day off,” he recalls.
“There are these vignettes where I’m running the stairs, and I look like hell. I flew in that day, I had no idea what I was supposed to be doing, I wasn’t tan, I was tired, I was in a hoodie and trackies. And that was that. They started airing through December, and the first thing I did was that tour. I’d only been in the business for a couple of years anyway, but my first match was at the MEN Arena! I was not good. I didn’t have time to be nervous.”
Doug Williams also featured on that tour, but there were no plans to tag them together at that point. “Wrestling’s weird,” he grins. “If something’s been done before, people are inclined to see it again. I know a lot of people had the same suggestion, including fans – when they saw us on the tour, they were like: ‘Are they going to tag you guys together? That’d be great!’ I don’t know if that influenced the office, but I’m sure it had something to do with it.”
So Magnus, Williams and Wales’s Rob Terry combined to form the British Invasion, and instantly became characters the American crowds loved to hate – and they think that is largely because of their nationality. “American people’s perception of British people is that we’re hoity-toity, chicken s***, not good athletes,” says Magnus.
“They think American people are best at everything. To have Doug, who’s such a great wrestler, me, who’s a great character, and Rob, who’s so jacked…I’m one of the bigger guys, but Rob is mind-blowing. If nobody knew where we were from, and we just walked out there in jeans and sunglasses, and they said we were from New York City or LA, people would have believed it. I think that’s why we got so much heat, they looked at us and thought: ‘Well, that’s not fair! They’re not American! How can they be better?’ We played off that. The perception is the hardest thing to overcome and we’re still battling that.”