What’s been the biggest change in women’s wrestling since you started?
It’s gone from years ago when big girls used to just beat on little girls and it was all very suggestive. These big, big girls would do the Big Daddy sort of stuff. I started training out learning more technical wrestling and submissions, but there was not really any place for it in female wrestling. As I started getting better at the job, I started introducing a British tech influence into it and it kind of progressed. Now with the women, some are better than the men and they can do anything that a man can do. Years ago there was a set distinction: there was women’s wrestling and men’s wrestling but nowadays it blurs and women are doing the moves just as good, if not better, than the men, so the transition has been absolutely amazing.
The only difference [between the sexes] is tits and ass. We have to wear skimpies and the blokes have to wear a one-piece. There is no difference except that I’d say the women are more violent! There are so many women now cajoling for places, which is something the men have had for years — there’s so many male wrestlers and only so many jobs and it’s partly gone that way now that there’s more female wrestlers than there is work out there. Look at how many female wrestling companies there are now. There’s so many female wrestlers out there now that it’s like with the blokes: you get the good, the bad and the ugly. The women have really had to step up to the plate: given the choice between going to a male show and a female show, I’d go to the female show every day of the week because the girls hit harder!
Should there be any difference in the mechanics of training men and women?
I train men and women in exactly the same way. In fact I take it harder on the women because I like the women to definitely be able to suck it up. When I was brought into the business I was trained by Ricky Knight, Jimmy Ocean, Crusher Mason and odds and sods with Fit Finlay, so I had a predominately male team surrounding me. They taught me how to look after myself, they taught me how to shootfight, they really gave me a fantastic grounding, something women in those days could never have given me because they weren’t capable of doing it. That’s why when I started in the business I didn’t really fit in that way because the girls couldn’t work round me because I didn’t do the “girl’s stuff”. Nowadays the girls and the men are trained together and there’s absolutely no difference. I don’t think there should be any difference: the whole aspect of wrestling is to learn the job. Not just learn part of the job, what fits whether you are masculine or feminine. If you want to learn how to wrestle, learn the job. When you’re a builder, a carpenter, an electrician, you don’t learn half the job to what suits you because you’re female, you learn the whole of the job, and wrestling should be the same. I really believe there should be no difference whatsoever in the training.
What should new female wrestlers do to overcome any stigma or lack of respect from male wrestlers?
It doesn’t exist any more. You’re talking Noah’s Ark stuff when women were classed as jokes. Maybe over the pond there might be a legitimate argument there, but over here it isn’t. There’s no difference between a male and a female wrestler: they both have to respect themselves. If anything the difference is that if somebody is male, they have less opportunity to get to the big time, whereas the girls, if your face fits and you’re a perfect 10, it doesn’t matter how you wrestle. With the men, you’ve got to be able to wrestle to get in there. So I think the only [hostility is] the jealously part that the women wrestlers can climb the ladder quicker than the blokes. But you’ve still got to put the work in: when I turn up to shows I get the same respect as anybody else that goes in there.
Should you work any differently when you’re in the only women’s match on a mainly male show compared with working an all-female show?
I don’t think there should be a difference working before 10 people or a thousand people, between a male show or a female show. If you’re an ultimate professional you shouldn’t change your style. You should be able to understand the crowd you’re before and give them what they require. You’ve got different crowds: the cowboys and indians crowds, the theatrical crowd, the “ooh ahh” crowd which is all the so-called smart marks. You read the crowd and you work things accordingly. I wouldn’t change the way I work between a mainly-male show and an all-female show. I’ve been booked because of my product. Everyone should have the same attitude I have: you go there, you do the job and you work your bloody arse off. To be a professional you’ve got to act professional. It’s not a case of male or female shows, it’s a case of a specific audience.
What was the first piece of advice you gave to another wrestler?
I don’t remember because a lot of the times if somebody asked what you thought of the match and you told them, they’d get all up their own arse because they expected you to praise them for it. When people come to me and they ask me stuff I find it very difficult to turn round and give advice if it’s not the advice they wanted anyway, and I won’t not be straight with them just for their ego. What I would say to anybody getting in the business is to make sure the people you are training with are reputable, they’ve had more than two matches in 10 years. Make sure you go to as many different schools as possible to find the style that fits you and learn as many different styles as possible. Keep your head down, keep your ears open, act in a respectful way, learn locker room etiquette and make sure to read a crowd. Study your profession and make it an artform.
What’s the biggest mistake trainees make?
Trying to go from A to Z without all the other letters of the alphabet. They start off in January and they want to be in WWE by December. There’s no easy route, no short cuts. So instead of wanting the world in two weeks, how about you learn your craft, you go to school? Don’t try to run before you can walk, don’t try to do big moves before you’re capable of doing them and put somebody else’s body in jeopardy. They don’t seem to want to put the graft in any more, these young ones. They think “I’m a professional wrestler, I want to go to the top” and they don’t realise that you do your home company, then you get more bookings in the UK, then you go to Europe, then you go to America, Canada, Australia or wherever. I feel deeply that a wrestler should take between eight and twelve years to be out of their circuit. It takes eight to twelve years before you even know this job. People think they’re old and done by the time they’ve been in eight years, but how can you know a craft unless you perfect it? Slow and steady wins the race.
How can young wrestlers get the most out of a training camp or guest seminar?
Write everything down in a book. I’ve got a book with me that I call my Bible and I’d want a lot of money for it. It’s got my life’s work in it — it’s all in code obviously, but one day I’ll publish it. Wrestlers forget more than they remember. So if you get to 100 percent of moves and you only remember one percent of that, then you’ve wasted your time and money on the other 99 percent. Write everything down, every seminar, every little thing. If you go to shows and see a move you like, then write it down. Put everything in a book and then you won’t forget any of it.
