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Friday, September 29, 2006
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How to do... wrestling
Duncan Hall feels the force of wrestlers James Mason, Drew Galloway and Wildcat Robbie Brookside. (6AL0920317) Picture: ANDY LAITHWAITE
“IF I were you I wouldn’t look over your shoulder now.”
When you’re talking to Scottish wrestler Drew Galloway, who is no small man himself, and he gives you that sort of warning, you should heed it.
Unfortunately I didn’t, and found myself facing 7ft of muscle in the shape of The American Disaster Brody Steele – one of the literal giants of the American wrestling scene, and one of the US team who will be going head to head against a team of British wrestlers when All Star Wrestling comes to The Broadway Theatre, in Broadway, Peterborough, next Friday.
I was at the Broadway to meet some of the stars set to come to the city as part of their national tour, and find out a little bit more about what it took to become a wrestler.
The 21-year-old Drew, who was later to squeeze a good part of the breath out of my body with a pretty tough headlock for The Guide cameraman, first got into wrestling when he was 14, and started performing as an 18-year-old.
Now he is finishing his final year studying criminology at university before going into wrestling full-time.
Any question of whether wrestling wasn’t really as tough as it looked in the ring was discarded by Drew, who had taken a rather nasty thump to the head the night before, which he was still feeling that afternoon.
He said: “I went to a wrestling school and learned how to fall. When I’m on the road and participating in the matches I will be with one of the more experienced guys who can control the flow of the match.
“I’m still learning the timing of when things should be done in a certain way. In a typical good guy/bad guy match you want the good guy to look good and the bad guy to get the crowd going.”
A lot of the skill in wrestling was learning how to control and entertain the crowd.
Drew said: “You’re telling a story with your actions. You can control the crowd’s emotions with one action – the flick of your head can make the crowd cheer.”
He confessed that the wrestlers themselves never knew how a match was going to go – putting the lie to the idea that wrestling was fixed.
Drew is currently part of All Star Wrestling, which is run by Merseyside-based promoter Brian Dixon and is the UK’s biggest touring group.
When he turns full-time professional after leaving university he is hoping to carry on with Brian before eventually moving on to the huge multi-million pound world of American WWE wrestling.
To do that he needed to create his own distinctive character, which he hoped to do by drawing on his Scottish heritage.
Drew trained under Scottish wrestler Spinner McKenzie and at the FWA Academy, but city wrestling fans who dream of a life in the ring could make their first steps into the world of wrestling next Friday afternoon.
Wrestling promoter Brian Dixon, who has been in the game now for more than 30 years, has his own wrestling training school in Birkenhead, which holds all-star training sessions at the weekend.
But he encouraged anyone who wanted to find out more about the sport to pop down to the theatre before the show.
He said: “The facilities will be there between 4pm and 5pm. Anyone interested should just turn up on Friday afternoon and we’ll give them a pull around the ring.
“Friday’s show itself will have five or six American stars against five or six British all stars. They will be doing single matches, tag teams and the battle to find the King of the Ring.
“It’s a real family night out. We’re hoping it will be the start of many more shows at the Broadway.”