0:00

Music.

0:51

Hello everyone, Craig here. Welcome to another edition of the podcast, Tell Craig Your Story.

0:55

I've had an absolutely amazing time during my two-week vacation for Chinese New Year.

1:03

I was lucky enough to go to Japan and see Queen with Adam Lambert.

1:09

And my dad always tells me about how Freddie Mercury and Queen was one of his

1:14

favorite shows of all time. They just played hit after hit. Then I was

1:19

lucky enough to go on tour with The Rock

1:22

Band Journey And what an unbelievable experience it

1:25

was to be able to be a guest I

1:28

was lucky enough to meet the famous boxing promoter Don King And hopefully I

1:34

can get back there in the summertime and do some interviews Today we'll be speaking

1:39

with Big Sam Now this was recorded live in Shenzhen the day after the MKW Bash at the Bay.

1:48

And Big Sam was in one of the main event matches on that card.

1:52

Now, Big Sam is an international wrestler who has wrestled in many countries

1:57

and tells an amazing story about his time in Nepal.

2:01

And we take a deep dive into Big Sam's wrestling career.

2:05

But before we go, please go to our website. We're at Podbean.

2:08

Tell Craig your story at podbean.com. We have a link tree there which tells

2:13

you where Tell Craig Your Story podcast is streaming.

2:15

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2:18

We also have a YouTube account. Make sure you're subscribing and liking to get

2:22

all the latest updates at Tell Craig Your Story.

2:25

All right, here we go. This is my chat with English-born wrestler Big Sam on

2:31

Tell Craig Your Story podcast. Music.

2:43

Hi big sam how you doing today well hello

2:46

and thank you for having me on your uh interview podcast no

2:50

i'm doing okay as of uh

2:52

yesterday i'm now feeling better

2:55

from wrestling my match last night in shenzhen yes and you

2:58

were saying before that you got a bit of a sore throat

3:01

yeah so sorry if you have to listen to my horrible voice today

3:04

but yeah it's very croaky i was shouting shouting it

3:07

was very vocal last night in my wrestling match having to

3:10

shout at the fans shout at my opponent just giving

3:13

out verbal abuse to everybody and not

3:17

just you it was yeah so yes lovely marie

3:21

my russian volley my cheerleader my inspiration

3:24

when i get in the ring that's that's the lady yes always

3:28

cheering and chanting my name as everybody's booing me

3:31

and we're trying to tell them

3:34

that we're the good guys but no no they try and go

3:37

and support everybody i wrestle against mkw it's

3:41

like they're wrestlemania so tell us about how it all come about and how do

3:46

you prepare for a big event like this so with mkw they've changed their strategy

3:52

since covid and now they're running less shows but bigger shows well in the

3:57

past they ran more more frequent shows, but not as big.

4:00

So this was one of the bigger shows of the year that they were running.

4:04

And usually in the past, as you know, they did it in Shanghai.

4:07

This time they're doing it in Shenzhen because Shenzhen usually get a good crowd.

4:11

It's an easier audience to work actually in Shenzhen generally.

4:14

The problem this time was the time of the year.

4:17

Now, as you know, Chinese new year's beginning and Shenzhen is a migrant city.

4:22

So many people leave the city. They all come from different provinces.

4:26

Including hunan and jansu uh

4:30

janshi and so in the

4:33

past couple of days many of them have been heading towards the train stations

4:35

and the airports and flying back home yes so who's ever's

4:39

left i mean we look out this window now this hotel you see

4:42

the streets are quite empty in traffic usually in shenzhen

4:45

you couldn't be driving down the streets without hitting

4:48

traffic every every 200 yards yeah very

4:52

different so the problem is we couldn't do as much sales

4:55

with the tickets as we had hoped but we did

4:58

better than we expected at the beginning we you know we got a little bit panicky

5:01

because the ticket sales were pretty low but last night you saw there we are

5:06

we are kind of a decent yeah it's a good crowd yeah good i'm very vocal which

5:09

i like yeah sometimes you could have a crowd of 200 people who are very loud

5:13

than better than a crowd of a thousand who are quiet yes yes it was a really

5:17

good crowd i really enjoyed it yeah and how this Okay,

5:20

how this show all came about and why.

5:24

Well, one thing we're doing is looking for sponsors. And so as you see,

5:27

we've got sponsors. You see advertisements on the walls and that.

5:30

And so they all come together and they agree on dates, agree what's going to be done.

5:34

Many little things go on that a lot of people from the outside do not see.

5:39

I mean, there was a meet and greet for VIPs where they got to meet some of the wrestlers and that.

5:43

And there's also, you have to go and do production, interviews. Yes.

5:47

I mean, I was on camera being interviewed about, I don't know.

5:49

They told me it was a documentary or mockumentary or something that was being

5:52

interviewed with many questions as well.

5:55

And I mean, that was part of me last minute as well when I got to the show. Yeah, right.

5:58

I was kind of caught off guard. Usually I mentally prepare myself and I try

6:01

and look a bit decent when I'm going on camera. Right.

6:04

But yeah, so they had me there in a pair of sweatpants and a tee.

6:09

So when it comes to preparing for this show, luckily there was quite a lot of

6:12

time. Because I also wrestle in other promotions in China.

6:15

Yes. It was kind of about one and a half months.

6:18

And I actually turned down a wrestling show a week before this show.

6:22

It was nowhere near as big as this show. It was mostly in like an exhibition.

6:26

It wasn't going to be a proper professional wrestling. It was going to be more

6:29

in a kickboxing room, which is a hard war. And I didn't want to risk hurting myself, bruising myself.

6:36

So I canceled that. And it was good money, to be honest, they were offering me.

6:40

Because I kind of got desperate because I kept saying no, no,

6:43

no. And I told them, I said, I'd only do it for this figure.

6:45

And they came back and said, we'll do it for that figure. And then I thought,

6:48

I've really put my foot in it now. If I've got to bite the bullet and do it. But luckily, when there was someone

6:53

out, the flight ticket got cancelled. Right. So that was a bit of a blessing in disguise. Because I didn't want to,

6:59

I hate, for a guy who travels a lot, I hate flying.

7:02

Yes. I absolutely hate flying. And not fear or anything like that.

7:06

I just feel we get shoved into planes like cows going to slaughter.

7:10

As humans, we create this fantastic thing of flying. And then we make the whole experience terrible.

7:15

We go into the airport. security checks overpriced crap

7:18

food it's just a horrible experience and yeah

7:21

i get wound up when i see people posting pictures of

7:23

them at the airport like how excited they are to fly and i hated absolute despise

7:28

flyers i drive in china right and i will drive rather than fly if it's possible

7:34

interesting yeah i mean i've driven all the way into changsha i've driven all

7:39

the way like up to the near Sichuan province,

7:43

driven over to that direction. Yeah.

7:46

Rather than flying. Yeah. Yeah. Because when I'm in my car, I,

7:51

you know, pack sandwiches. I can drive. I've got music. Got it. I've got my own comfort.

7:55

I have a big SUV, so I've got the room.

7:58

Flying, I just do not enjoy it. And I can take as much luggage as I want.

8:01

This show, Shenzhen Preparing, we got a training facility in Foshan,

8:05

which is near Guangzhou. Mm. Yeah.

8:08

And that's with, again, with another promotion. A lot of the wrestlers you saw

8:10

last night train and wrestle for KOPW.

8:13

That ring that broke last night was the ring I trained for. Right. Yeah.

8:17

So that ring, that was a bit of a headache. We had a bit of a...

8:20

Now that you've talked about it, how did that happen?

8:23

Was it in the first match or was it just wear and tear?

8:26

I'm not totally sure, but okay, I'm going to upset a lot of hardcore wrestling

8:31

fans who believe in kayfabe and that. But for people who want to know, a wrestling ring is a metal frame.

8:38

Yes, and on top of that is wood, planks of wood, okay?

8:44

And on top of that is maybe an inch of foam, and that's your ring with a mat over the top.

8:50

So you are landing on foam, but supporting that foam are wooden planks.

8:54

And depending where people land in the ring, generally we work to the center of the ring.

8:58

Like, think of it as theater. You play to the center of the stage.

9:01

All dramatic stuff happens in the center. I can hear people now screaming, Sam, stop telling the truth.

9:07

So the ring breaks because the planks of wood underneath which support everything

9:12

on the metal frame and divide the foam in the metal frame, they break.

9:17

And they do break generally after wear and tear.

9:20

I think this was the straw that broke the camel's back. Right.

9:24

And today they've bounced too much on those wooden planks and they just gave in today.

9:29

And the problem is then the support then transfers to another plank of wood.

9:34

And all the the stress goes got it and it

9:37

starts so it's gradually breaking throughout the show

9:40

and by the time i got to my match and i was second to

9:43

last match yeah the ring half the

9:46

ring had been damaged i mean they were coming back at the time like we had

9:49

almost like a map on the wall whereabouts of the ring yeah

9:51

don't do the big drops and when you're running in

9:54

the ring obviously it's better to run on a flat surface it was

9:57

like running on sand at some point yeah just sinking in

10:00

because of whether the planks of wood's gone down you

10:02

could see that looked like a jumping castle like when

10:05

you were going when i got into the ring i walked around the

10:08

ring right it was using our feet to measure where not to do the moves yeah so

10:15

we me and my opponent is absolutely professional we changed we called the match

10:20

in the ring that means we planned little bits and then start speaking to each

10:25

other in the ring saying what to do because we had to adjust so so much.

10:28

And my, my opponent, Yoshi Tatsu, he's a professional wrestler.

10:33

This is his career, his life. Yeah. Japanese. Coming over here to wrestle this smoshu in middle kingdom wrestling.

10:40

I'll make this comparison. For me, it was an honor.

10:43

Imagine you're a school soccer team and you get to play your favorite club.

10:47

You get to play a big club like Manchester city, for example.

10:51

Yeah. My football team, just for everybody out there.

10:54

Don't say I'm a glory hunter. My dad is from Manchester, Lancashire.

10:58

Come on. So that's why we go that direction. Okay.

11:01

That's where I'm a man. Otherwise I would have ended up Sheffield Wednesday

11:03

because of my mother. Yeah. So for him, he came in over here. It was like a learning experience for me.

11:12

And you see the difference when you work with someone like that professional.

11:15

And I'm not just saying that like a cliche. I woke up this morning with no bruises, no marks. After this interview podcast,

11:22

I'm going to go to the gym and go swimming at the hotel. Yeah, right.

11:25

Usually after a show, I'm lying on the sofa, tending to my bruises and wounds

11:31

and aching back, neck's a bit twisted.

11:33

No, I'm really well. I'm really good.

11:37

I'm a big guy. So I was worried about my cardio because he wanted to do quite

11:41

a bit in the mat. Yeah, yeah. And I was like, I told him honestly, as I said, my cardio is,

11:48

I was going to use a different word there, but not so good. Let's put it that way. Yeah, not so good.

11:54

And then I thought, God, I need to work on that. But I surprised myself in that match.

11:59

And some of the stuff didn't look pretty sloppy because we adjusted and we were calling stuff.

12:04

If we had a proper solid ring and we went for the original plan.

12:10

I think it would have been easily my best match ever.

12:14

So that would have been my best match if we didn't everything originally

12:17

planned yeah right there was a few hiccups on both

12:20

sides which were both a mitt but then again we gotta

12:23

you gotta work with what you got a broken ring that's

12:26

that's the stage that's what we're working with yeah anyway

12:30

back to the original question of how about preparing usually we train

12:33

when we can we haven't been training so much because

12:35

we are christmas and the western january 1st

12:39

new year and a lot of the times

12:42

i just go to the gym and work out the bigger

12:44

guy so sometimes it's

12:47

just easier just to just be a brick just be

12:52

the wall just be be the tank

12:55

yeah yeah just be the tank of the thing and

12:58

half the battle one is on appearance i come

13:00

out and it's like e64 265 270

13:04

pounds for the metric electric system 194 centimeters

13:07

tall and about 120 kg give

13:11

or take that's half the battle one hence the name yeah because

13:14

well actually the story was i was going to have to play on my

13:16

uh my ancestry is just viking right yeah so my mom when she retired started

13:23

playing around did all the dna tests and that we found out we're mostly norwegian

13:27

right we settled in york which is where my mom's from interesting yeah because

13:31

that was the the viking capital of the united kingdom Right. It was York, yeah.

13:35

But before I start a history lesson on this, I'll skip that.

13:38

But basically, yeah, my Viking accessory. So I went with the wrestling name Von Odin. Oh, right.

13:44

But in Asia, that was very hard for them to pronounce. So when I first,

13:48

I was psyching myself for my first wrestling show. You know, I got the music playing.

13:52

I said, here we go. Are they going to say it? And I mean, four guys in the ring.

13:56

And everyone just kept calling me by my nickname, Big Sam. Right. And what, what?

14:03

Big Sam. Big Sam. And I thought, I'm just. That'll do.

14:06

That's going to be the name. That's going to be the name. And I thought,

14:09

God, it doesn't even sound fantastic. It's just like my nickname. name everyone's been calling me that but it's stuck

14:16

and what i found is everyone can say it yeah i can meet people who are not native

14:20

english because they don't even know english, and they can say big sam wherever you go in

14:25

asia yeah anywhere anywhere it's like

14:28

the easiest two things to say for them when i think oh that's

14:31

perfect now now people know it and they remember and

14:34

yes like you just said to remember like von odin maybe

14:37

if you don't understanding of that type

14:40

of viking mythology culture you'd be

14:43

oh was it old old old war yeah yeah you know

14:46

they wouldn't understand or remember it probably as easy big sam yeah that's

14:51

really interesting i wanted to get back to it and you said before kayfabe and

14:56

i know some hardcore wrestlers fans don't like this but how much it last night

15:00

oh yeah there were some very hardcore wrestling fans Well,

15:05

when I walk backstage, you saw me last night.

15:08

For those who don't saw me, when I go out there, you think I'm one of the worst people ever.

15:13

You think I'm some type of everything that people despise. In Western society,

15:18

I'm slapped and I just took it. I come out as this arrogant, you could almost say a far right,

15:25

maybe a poster boy for white supremacy type of character.

15:28

And people are booing and I can shout whatever.

15:32

I can be derogatory towards them i can insult them

15:35

and you know some people take it very seriously i can see some

15:38

fans like back by what they say to me i mean

15:41

they'll say stuff like you suck and i'll say yeah your

15:44

mother showed me yeah and i

15:50

can play with them and that type of thing and you know

15:52

i'm british we're colonizers this is why everything's better

15:55

over here i'm the king of china i'm your

15:59

king my opponent was japanese and obviously china and japan having a very sensitive

16:04

history it was easy for me to say he's japanese i should be your hero i'm your

16:09

hero and you know there's uh there were these group of white guys who were booing

16:13

me and i said i'm the only white wrestler on this show i'm your savior.

16:21

You know i know with the scalps of culture but again with

16:23

wrestling it's like acting you can kind of get away with it you

16:26

could play that that line but then when

16:29

i walk backstage you get more of the

16:31

the character you're seeing now the real me like right but

16:35

some people are not like that in wrestling and they will

16:38

stay in character all the way through japanese are

16:40

very serious about it afterwards yoshi my

16:44

opponent won't go near me even outside right the

16:48

fans see him talking to me got it yeah distance

16:52

and he's very strict about it and i respect it

16:55

so i kept my distance i didn't need to be told because i

16:58

saw it because i was talking to somebody outside

17:01

and he came out saw me and just turned around and walked off and

17:04

i thought have i upset him no that's

17:07

just he's just the way afterwards we had

17:11

dinner together and you know best friends yeah the fans there

17:14

no very kept your distance oh

17:17

but i like that but that's the old school wrestling there

17:19

was a female japanese wrestler last night hibiscus

17:23

me and she played like a silent pill oh my god wow like a nerd that was she

17:30

had the bandage around the faces and maybe it was a patient a nurse i couldn't

17:34

yeah and backstage she's crawling around and really i'm.

17:40

Like me, I'm joking about like when my music's played, I'm doing a little dance

17:45

before I walk out through the doors. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm like psyching myself up and I'm like, I tell the guys,

17:50

I said, okay, time to be a prick. And then I walk out through the curtains and just be the prick. Yeah, yeah.

17:55

But no, they're doing it all backstage. And, you know, and her character doesn't

18:00

talk, not vocal. So she won't talk to you.

18:02

And I'm like, wow, wow, you really take this. Yeah, serious.

18:06

Method actor. Yeah, that's the one. Where you're in the character all the time. Yes.

18:10

That's what they were like. That's really old school. It is very, very old school.

18:16

You've got to respect it. Yeah. But sometimes it could be a little bit,

18:19

especially with someone like me, it could be a little bit awkward.

18:22

No, you're all right. And this girl is looking at me and she's trying to intimidate me.

18:28

And I'm like, you know, shall I do one of my one-liners about this?

18:32

Yeah. You know what? No, no. You're a guest here. I'll be nice.

18:36

Yeah. If this is you, do it. So have you been to Japan to wrestle?

18:41

I've been to Japan to wrestle. Did you have to do the same thing? Like stay in character?

18:45

No. People like to talk to me. And I like talking to people.

18:50

I can't be a complete prick almost. I'm a paid prick. You'd have your slashed tires and you'd be waiting for you

19:00

at the car park. You know, we have this joke they say.

19:03

The guys who play the bad guys in wrestling are the nicest guys in real life.

19:07

Interesting i mean nepal and wrestled

19:10

in nepal i i went against a hero and i was the champion of china representing

19:14

the company so i went to nepal we had a great stadium and about probably one

19:19

of the biggest live audiences i've ever worked in front of most 2 000 people

19:22

and i hit my finishing move the tombstone which is like a vert i dropped them

19:28

on the head in a vert from a vertical position, And I pin him one, two, three. Now, I've been cheating throughout this match. I have been despicable.

19:36

I have been, and I have been that arrogant bugger.

19:39

Absolute horrible man. Yeah. You know, I make Trump look weak in comparison.

19:45

I mean, I was over the top there.

19:48

Yeah. And at the end of it, now in Nepal, they have a red spot on their head.

19:54

I mean, it's like their connection to God. Well, this big white guy called Big Sam.

20:01

After pinning him, got his thumb, I swiped it on his head, and then I put it

20:05

on myself, and the whole place erupted.

20:10

We had, now, my manager was Chairman Al, the Hong Kong guy you saw. Right, right.

20:15

They were throwing bottles of water at us.

20:19

We had stools, plastic stools, that is, and a motorbike helmet was caught on camera. Oh, my God.

20:25

They couldn't reach us because we had quite a distance from the orders,

20:27

but they were throwing and shouting, and I was like, Like, oh my God,

20:31

I think I've just collapsed. Wow. Yeah.

20:34

But I had that 1980s real wrestling vibe. We had to be escorted out. Wow.

20:40

The thing is, don't touch the women. What do I do when I'm walking out the ring?

20:44

And I said, this gorgeous Nepalese woman. I said, take a bow and a hand. It's time for you to come with a real man like

20:49

this. I said, not like these midgets, these little brown midgets.

20:53

Just rub it in a little bit more. Rub it in. I thought, well, I'm already in it. I'm just going to throw the fuel in the fire.

20:59

There's no way of fixing this i'm just going to go all out we

21:03

went backstage and that and they had to keep me separate and so there was one

21:07

point maybe about 10 50 minutes after getting backstage and my opponent hadn't

21:13

come backstage yet and then he apparently he was in the next room then some

21:17

guy comes through the curtain to me and says hey sam yeah.

21:21

You might want to come and uh check this out what says

21:24

uh his mum and dad are with him my opponent and

21:27

he's backstage in the next room i said oh yeah you know usually in wrestling

21:32

you go backstage hey how was it i was all right you okay yeah yeah how was it

21:36

yeah you could work on this but yeah everything's good what my head around the

21:40

corner and his mom is belling crying like screaming almost I almost cried. No.

21:45

Hearing it. And I was like, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, what have I done?

21:52

And my opponent sees me, like, with my head around the corner.

21:56

And he says, oh, Sam, come, come, come, come. Really nice guy.

21:59

Really down to type of people I like. Yeah. Come over. I said, are you okay?

22:04

And his mom is hugging him around the way. Tears. Oh, no.

22:09

And stuff. You know, she thought I actually hurt him. Yeah. And he had to kind

22:14

of show his mom that we're okay in real life.

22:16

We're not like, I don't really hate him. I never said that about his wife or anything like that.

22:21

Yeah. I never said those messages I claimed I did at the promo to his wife and stuff like that.

22:29

And I shake his hand and his wife shake his hand and she wouldn't let go of my hand.

22:34

Wow. I'm like, I figured to myself, she can let go now. Yeah.

22:38

I'm like trying to walk away. She's holding on tight. and i'm

22:41

like what do i do from here god damn

22:44

wow a friend whispered in my ear

22:47

you still got the red spot you still got the red spot on your head and that's

22:55

what the red spot she gave him and it's sticking up my head you know me trying

23:01

to break the mood i thought another joke maybe she She sees me as her deuce.

23:07

No, that did not go down well. That went down like a lead balloon.

23:12

So my next question is, did they invite you back? So they all found me on Facebook.

23:17

Right. All the crowd. And they legit, due to restrictions of Facebook in China,

23:23

I can't answer all these messages. Oh, right.

23:26

So they went and found my mom. Oh.

23:28

And they started messaging. Wow. Yeah. My mom said, Sam, yeah? What is going on? What happened in Nepal? I said, what's going on?

23:39

I've got all these people, I can't even pronounce their names, adding me on Facebook.

23:45

They're saying, you know, about you being a very bad lad and I raised you wrong

23:49

and that you're this, you're that and, you know, you're a terrible person.

23:57

That's all I had to explain everything. Yeah. God, you're going to cause an

24:01

internet incident. It's probably collapsed for these trade relations.

24:08

Yeah wow what a story but

24:11

then turned around so when i

24:14

did get on facebook like a couple of months later a few

24:16

months later you know so under all my pictures there'll be pictures of me they'll

24:21

be like this man is a bad man this guy is cheats in wrestling he is dishonest

24:26

right there was an instance where i saved a dog in china you know there's lots

24:30

of strays in that yeah right yeah so So I saved a dog and I've posted a picture seeing if anybody,

24:36

after I've got the dog fixed and ready to go, would anybody like to adopt it?

24:41

They saw that and it was just like 180.

24:44

You are now a good man, my sir. You're a very kind man, yes.

24:49

We got you all wrong. Yeah, they started working it all out. Yeah. Yeah, so.

24:54

Wow. Yeah. What an amazing story. Just 180 flip.

24:57

I saw that, just posted now. That's it? I went on then, I came back and I,

25:01

my social media said you got all these notifications and i went on then i could

25:06

see half these people i don't even know the names looks like someone's banged the keyboard,

25:11

and i looked at the

25:14

comments i looked at what they've written about you know and they were like

25:17

oh positive and thanking me and i'm like well there it is there it is so yeah

25:23

would they invite me back there's interest because they want the revenge right

25:26

yes yeah so maybe over time a A lot of it died off, especially during COVID. Right.

25:33

Interested in me. But there's a few people keeping contact with me.

25:36

Yeah. And they're very nice. Now, when I was in Nepal, one of my good friends who I went to university is from Nepal.

25:43

And he knew all about pro wrestling. Yeah. And the people and the fans,

25:49

it's like here you have people who are kind of like very well educated.

25:54

Who are open-minded, open to the world. And then you've got more of the closed-minded people and that.

25:59

That in this case it was a closed-minded people weren't after me yeah

26:02

who didn't have a fully understanding what was

26:05

going on in pro wrestling and they did basically what they

26:08

see is what they believed right yeah well so when my friend picked me up and

26:13

took me out he was like oh telling me all the stories of what fans were saying

26:16

around him about me yeah yeah and he's like he remembers me from university

26:21

being this like a completely different character yes yes who i am yeah yeah

26:25

Yeah, not the character you see in the ring. Right. And people say to me, maybe you could change your character and stuff like that.

26:31

They remember the character. Yeah, that's right. They sometimes remember more

26:35

what I've said than what I did in the ring.

26:39

I was the same. I couldn't remember your name, but the first time I saw you

26:44

in Shanghai, I remembered you.

26:47

And then when I saw you just after the lockdown at the Mao Life House in Shanghai.

26:53

And I saw you again, Big Sam, that's the one.

26:58

I remember when I wrestled in Shanghai as well, but again, very vocal.

27:03

Oh, yes. That was a good match. That was a good match. That match went with great flow.

27:07

That that was a really good show i would say that was probably my favorite show of last year,

27:12

i came out a bit of a difficult time because i had the news

27:15

that my father was in hospital my morale

27:18

was a bit down but after doing that shanghai show that was like a positive for

27:22

me yeah and i could really uh brought out the better person in me during the

27:26

sad times i was going through the difficult times i was going through yeah and

27:30

one thing i love about the pro wrestling shanghai a a lot of people who were

27:34

involved in that show i'm friends with and they're very likable people,

27:38

so it makes everything easy yes what would you say there was no real egos there

27:43

and that was the first time we got to wrestle yoshi who i wrestled last night

27:47

right yeah so that was my first introduction to him and he was impressed with

27:53

me which obviously strokes my ego and when When he wanted to come back to China,

27:58

his agent requested Big Sam.

28:01

Yeah, right. Different match last night.

28:04

You saw there was a four versus four match.

28:06

Originally, that was going to be five versus five. And I was going to be the

28:11

captain of the evil foreigners. Your stable.

28:14

That's it. The stable. Right. Actually, the real name now is the Regnant Stable.

28:19

Right. Yeah. Regnant means ruling for anybody who's asking what that means.

28:24

Yeah. because it gives more the direct translation of what we say in chinese

28:27

of it but yeah we call ourselves the regnant stable but at the beginning we

28:30

just call ourselves a stable right but we're on a wrestling website and they

28:34

told me the stable is too basically how would i say generic,

28:38

and it interferes with their database or give me a thought of a word i thought

28:44

i thought like kingdoms because i think of power yes i'm into that type of history

28:48

and i was like a ruling ruling kingdom, the ruling stable,

28:51

and I was like, I read this line, the regnant king.

28:55

And I thought, yes, that's the word.

28:59

Yes. The regnant stable. So yeah, the regnant stable, so it wasn't,

29:04

I thought of what can make something very,

29:08

very top heel-ish and I thought put foreigners in there. Yes.

29:11

I thought make it worse for Hong Kong manager.

29:15

He's had to go overseas to import foreign talent.

29:20

And also Alan sometimes goes to Japan and he's involved with those two Japanese

29:25

wrestlers. Right. And they're a group in Japan.

29:28

Right. It's like a family almost. Yes.

29:31

Yeah. But yeah, I was meant to lead that team. And I was going to go against

29:34

another former WWE guy, a Chinese wrestler called Wang Bing.

29:40

Yes, Wang Bing. His WWE name, I believe, was Tian Bin.

29:44

He mostly stayed on the NXT show. Oh, okay. Yeah.

29:49

He's got a Wikipedia page, so I don't know how much that matters,

29:53

but you can check him up on there. And he's been released by WWE now. He's doing something with Japanese wrestling.

29:59

But he was going to work that show and he was going to be captain of the Chinese

30:02

team and I was the evil foreign team. Right. Yeah. And he's about my size. not

30:07

as heavy but he's almost eye level with

30:10

me right wow yeah yeah he's a big boy he's big

30:13

yeah he's he's very tall yeah i think

30:16

he's like 190 so that's about six three with yoshi

30:19

how much did you talk before the match and and how much well this is amazing

30:25

with someone who's a professional he came to show and usually when he is someone

30:30

of his expertise he should direct the match and i I said to Yoshi,

30:34

do you have any ideas? And he's like, no ideas. I'm very busy. I'm tired. Because he wrestles a lot in Japan.

30:40

And I said, well, I've got a couple of ideas. And he said, tell me them.

30:44

I told him. And he says, especially the ending, he goes, I like it. Stick with it.

30:49

Because he's a big boy, too. I didn't realize how big he was. Put on a lot of weight.

30:54

He's 100 kg, 220 pounds. Yeah. But he wasn't always like that. No, no, no.

31:00

It's after he broke his neck. Oh, got it. You put the weight on.

31:03

Got it. yeah and he's in his 40s now

31:06

i think he's 44 45 sorry yoshi if

31:09

you're not 45 but i remember hearing that somewhere yeah

31:12

and so when you get older it's not so easy

31:15

to shift the weight yes yeah and when you've got a broken neck he's very he's

31:20

very careful with everything well obviously if you break your neck you probably

31:22

are going to be a bit more cautious especially doing pro wrestling yes and with

31:26

you speaking as well you haven't it's almost like a natural way of speaking

31:30

has Has that always been the case ever since you started wrestling?

31:35

Doing a promo is very important in wrestling and being able to speak to the

31:40

crowd when they're shouting out insults. Have you always had that ability to

31:44

sort of do that? So I take it as a compliment what you just said.

31:48

No, no. It's kind of shy at first. Right. But what it is, is like a feeling.

31:53

So when I go out through those curtains, I change. Yes. Total change.

31:59

You know, as I said before, I'll say to the guys, okay, when my music hits,

32:03

I'll tell them something, say, you know, it's time for me to be a prick.

32:05

And I'll go out there and like this. And I said, you know, I say,

32:08

I see how many people I can upset today. And I walk out there and I transform.

32:13

And I always joke. I said, like the way I am with women, when I go to a crowd,

32:17

I'm like, this is a real man you know like this you know they'll

32:20

be sitting next to her boyfriend i said don't

32:24

worry mate you can watch you know say stuff like this you

32:27

know like sometimes i go backstage how on earth

32:30

have i just yeah like i jokingly said

32:33

like i said to maria i said sometimes i wish i had the confidence of big sam

32:36

yeah in real life i wish i sometimes i wish i could be that guy in real life

32:41

yeah just throw you know speak to people like that sometimes you know when i

32:45

come when someone upsets me and stuff like this yeah i think when i can go out

32:49

there i come i come backstage i'm like. Mellowed out and stuff but do you plan what

32:54

you're gonna say no no it just comes all about feeling right all

32:57

about how i am but that's a talent that

33:00

that is a talent like a lot of what you saw last night

33:04

i'm not exaggerating i'm gonna

33:07

say it now from the speaking and what you saw in the ring i'm gonna

33:10

say about 80 was called on the spot in call

33:13

that was it that was it the beginning

33:16

was so slow of my match did you see yeah i get outside

33:18

too many because the crowd are making noise as long

33:21

as the crowd's making noise keep it they'll keep it going yeah

33:24

keep it going when the crowd dips down you stop yes so

33:27

i follow the crowd and when they're speaking and shouting at me you know like

33:31

the referee the first what i do is i have a few things in my head remember so

33:35

i said to referees first time work with this referee and he's come from overseas

33:38

i say where are you from where are you from i've not seen you before and he's

33:42

like i'm from italy oh yes You're the reason I voted Brexit.

33:47

And because of the way everything's portrayed in the media, Brexit's seen as like,

33:52

some type of e not evil but very you

33:55

know conservative and yes very old

33:58

school viewing and if you're a brexit

34:02

supporter you're seen as kind

34:05

of a a more extreme right

34:08

type of person yes politically whatever so

34:11

you just play to that got it yeah and you can see the audiences

34:14

and you can just kind of work out where they are

34:17

on the spectrum i mean a lot of young people today who think they're very politically

34:21

active by sharing an article for a guardian article on facebook and thinking

34:26

that's them done politically yes about actually knowing what's going on there

34:30

so they're the easiest people to wind up yes yeah you know they're xyz but don't

34:34

know their abcs yeah japan.

34:37

Taiwan yeah you've got the whole the whole

34:40

fuel yeah yeah here but you know the foreigners will

34:43

be the ones want to shout at me right and a lot of

34:45

them want it because they know i'll shout back got it yeah

34:49

yeah so let's go

34:52

back to where you were born correct me if i'm wrong chester england

34:55

i was born in chester england there you go so for our

34:58

australian listeners international where abouts is

35:01

that in england whereabouts in england okay so you

35:04

have the country of wales oh yes it's on the welsh border just below liverpool

35:09

manchester oh there you go yeah okay daniel craig the james bond oh yes he's

35:14

from chester oh there you go there you go wow yeah that's a big And were your

35:19

parents involved in wrestling? Were they involved in entertainment? Not at all.

35:23

So my mom is from Barnsley in Yorkshire. Right.

35:26

She was from a proper working class background.

35:29

Right. Yeah, the eldest of, I think, five kids. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

35:33

So was it sports or was it just- Well, if you've got to show this.

35:35

So my dad, he's from Lancashire. Yep, near Manchester.

35:40

Failsworth, for those who know any geography of the UK.

35:44

My parents met overseas. seas. So my dad, he went to South Africa in the seventies. He was a policeman.

35:51

Then he got a job in Australia. Oh, wow. Brisbane.

35:55

Come on. Yeah. He went to Brisbane with his best friend who settled in Brisbane, Australia.

36:02

Yeah. I got relatives in Australia and New Zealand, by the way.

36:05

Oh, there you go. Yeah. During the 70s, a lot of my family migrated because

36:08

England was going through a rough time economically.

36:11

And there was that big immigration policy that Australia was promoting at that time. Right.

36:16

And a lot of our family took the opportunity and went there.

36:19

So I have family in Australia. Oh, there you go. But my mum and dad met in New Zealand.

36:23

Wow. Yeah. That's a story as well. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

36:27

Don't know how that'll be taken. Back in the day, they were seen as heroes today.

36:30

I don't know, because it involved Maoris. But anyway, they were in the police force.

36:34

Now, my mum is brown belt judo before she damaged her back. Yeah,

36:38

she's a tough cookie, my mum. You know what? She's been stabbed.

36:41

Yeah, straight through the hand as well. Knife went straight through it by an

36:45

Irish woman in New Zealand during the 70s. What are the odds?

36:50

When she came back to england she didn't when she

36:53

met my father in new zealand they came back to england before we'll sell

36:56

back in england a bit of peace and quiet then the minor strike began in

37:00

england which was very big in the 80s for people who who are

37:03

young and want to know about that you don't have to be political to

37:06

know about that story and it's very interesting if you ever get

37:08

to read about it but yes he came back

37:11

during the minor strike my dad's a policeman policeman and my

37:14

mom she was how she's a mother she's a

37:17

house she became a housewife and she never went back into police force after

37:20

that instead my mom went on to achieve two master degrees and went into the

37:24

government wow yeah what a change very big change smart cookie oh yeah she became

37:29

the breadwinner right but my dad he was very much frontline police force yeah so was the.

37:37

Firearms officer, if anybody's wondering. Right. He was in firearms and traffic.

37:40

That's interesting. So growing up near Manchester then, obviously he'd be playing football.

37:46

I was a big soccer player. Yeah. Football, but yeah, soccer.

37:50

So for you, where does wrestling and... When I was seven years old,

37:55

I went around to my friend's house. Him and his dad...

38:00

Doing these wrestling quotes, but I didn't know at the time,

38:02

Hulk Hogan and Macho Man. And, you know, I questioned where it came from. And they put it on the TV and

38:08

I watched it and we just basically got hooked from there.

38:10

That was like, that was it. That was like the first blast of heroin,

38:14

you know, I'd be addicted afterwards. And I just got more access to, and I just kept watching it and watching it and

38:20

doing backyard wrestling with my friends and putting the cat in a headlock and all sorts of stuff.

38:26

It just grew on me. I went into amateur wrestling like

38:29

the Olympic style yeah because i couldn't find any pro wrestling

38:32

school because it's not so big in the united kingdom right like it is

38:34

in the usa so i was doing wrestling and the

38:37

amateur wrestling the united kingdom and i was good at it like i'm not blowing

38:42

my own trumpet i was good at it yeah i'm a strong kid bit of a country boy actually

38:47

yeah you know we were raised with animals and stuff like that so that natural

38:51

strength my mom and dad are strong people right like when i was i remember being in about 14,

38:57

15 and like grabbing my mum and putting her in a headlock.

39:01

Jokingly. She probably would have turned you around, spun you around.

39:04

I was watching TV and I'm lying on the floor and she came behind me,

39:09

sneaked up and she put me in a choke hold and I'm not lying.

39:13

I've been a bouncer later on in my life and I've been in conflicts.

39:16

It felt like a man doing it, like a big man doing it.

39:19

That was, it was such a tight lock and I, now I might be able to fight out of it.

39:25

I got size, but back then I thought, God, you know, my eyes went in the back

39:28

of my head. Tapping it out. Tapping it out. I didn't know about tapping it out. Then I was like, what?

39:33

And she looked. I remember that. I remember that. God. And when I turned around, it was my mum.

39:39

Jesus. Jesus. Because I hear the stories about her.

39:44

Don't mess with me. But as a kid, I never got that. My mum worshipped the ground I walked on.

39:49

Worshipped it. Whatever you want, Sammy. You know, whatever.

39:52

You know, I would wake her up and she'd make me breakfast and she'd do all my

39:56

washing without even a second. The bloody could almost choke me out when I was in my teens. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

40:02

You got a degree, didn't you? I got my degree. One at home and one in China.

40:07

Yes, yes. Correct, yeah. Yeah. That's what brought me to China. Right. Well, that was going to be one of my next.

40:13

So after I went to wrestling, I ended up doing it occasionally.

40:16

I wasn't going into shows, sorry, shows, tournaments anymore then.

40:20

Right. I can't, when I got older, I didn't want to do traveling,

40:23

getting up super early, going to somewhere.

40:27

And you have to make weight and stuff like that. So your diet was all over the place. Right.

40:33

Yeah. Yeah, but when I found pro wrestling, and I went into that,

40:37

again, sorry, guys, I'm going to upset quite a few wrestlers out there.

40:40

When you do Greco-Roman wrestling or freestyle wrestling, you work with the right arm and right leg.

40:46

In pro wrestling, you work left leg.

40:50

Interesting. Yeah. Why is it? I knew you that was going to be a question,

40:53

and I've already got the answer for you. Most people are right-handed, so if you damage your hand in pro wrestling,

41:00

at least you can still write with your right hand. Got it. You can still do

41:04

more stuff with your right side. Because most people are naturally right-handed. Right.

41:08

And I've heard some interviews before how you were saying that,

41:12

and you just said that pro wrestling wasn't really popular in England. It is now.

41:17

There's a whole NXT. As I said, it's sod's law.

41:21

So when I left the wrestling scene in the UK, when I got into pro wrestling,

41:26

I was not in it that long, to be honest. Give or take a year and a half. Right.

41:31

But does that give you enough of the basic training? They say,

41:35

you know, the first time you take a bump in the ring, whether or not you want to continue doing this.

41:39

And I saw people take one bump in the ring and they got up and said, no, this isn't for me.

41:43

How was your first match? Can you remember? Absolutely awful.

41:47

And I just got in character works and it was a Royal Rumble. Oh yeah, at a Royal.

41:53

So we all came into the ring. We all just start off. So what they do usually,

41:57

the more expertise guys, we'll try and pick on the newer guys.

42:00

Right. Pin them down and chop them and take beats.

42:02

So they hit them a little bit harder, the rookies or whatever they're called?

42:05

Yeah. A bit of introduction. Yeah. But me being got size and an amateur wrestling background,

42:12

they were a little bit weird.

42:14

Right. Which I would have taken it.

42:16

But I don't think I would have been an idiot and gone and shoot,

42:21

actually legit gone and wrestled them and that.

42:24

But they always put it across their mind that I could embarrass them.

42:27

Well, they thought I could probably embarrass them.

42:30

They're trying to be these big stars, and then this new guy comes in and takes

42:33

their leg from under them. So where does coming into China fit in?

42:41

Because it's not every day that you decide you go from England to China.

42:46

You've stayed here for so long now. So what was the main reason to start off with?

42:51

So the university I was at, they were building a special partnership with the Chinese university.

42:57

And i heard about it and i

43:00

didn't really care about it if you want the truth trying i was never too much

43:04

interested in asia honestly speaking i was more interested in europe and africa

43:10

no you're right yeah i got a letter through the post and my dad opened it and

43:14

it's my university you know and i was like oh god have i done that you know you know i'm i'm,

43:20

And I was one of those guys you could say I was an in-betweener in school, like a TV series.

43:24

I wasn't the popular, but I wasn't the unpopular person. I was always in between.

43:30

And the university letter said, oh, because of my attendance and grades,

43:34

that I could be invited to take part in this delegation in China.

43:39

I'd have to go for an interview, but would I be interested? I could be selected.

43:43

Well, I said, oh, that's interesting. He says, that's a different part of the world, isn't it?

43:47

You know, China. you know no no i don't think none of our family have ever been

43:51

that far i think the closest from granddad during the second world war when

43:54

he went into burma fight the japanese right yeah,

43:59

and so my dad says why don't you try it you know they're going to pay for everything

44:03

all right applied sent it and then the university contacted me and said hey

44:08

sam come in for a quick interview and i went in there with uh two i think it

44:12

was one or two other people with me, and they're going to choose one of us to be part of the delegation.

44:17

And so we gave the interview and then they said afterwards, I can't remember

44:21

if it was a couple of days later, they said, Sam, we want you to come to China with us. Oh dear.

44:26

So I was like, oh, now I've done it. I've seen these long flights. Yeah.

44:32

And i'm getting on that plane and people like oh when you're on this delegation

44:36

in the mornings you're going to have classes learn about chinese learn about business.

44:40

Learn about culture all these different classes and then in the

44:43

afternoon they want us to go around talking with the students you'll be

44:46

put with groups of students of four and you

44:49

will talk for like 40 50 minutes i

44:52

think i could be totally wrong could be half an hour each but we

44:56

had to talk with four or five different groups in the afternoon about

44:59

anything like an an english corner almost you

45:02

could say right and so i got on that plane

45:05

and i was saying we're going to learn chinese and you know we all like ni

45:08

hao ni hao that's what you've learned from google translator

45:11

but then ash jeev maybe and so we're

45:15

all the plane and then you know they enlisted to us chinese couple

45:18

next to be and i looked and i said i would are

45:21

we gonna learn it sounded nothing

45:24

like you know we're learning like french and german like yeah high school

45:27

that what brought me and that was to the city of Hangzhou Hangzhou

45:31

yeah so what was your first impression of China honestly we

45:35

arrived in Hangzhou and it was murky skies

45:38

a lot more dull than what it is and this is 2007 right I want to say October

45:46

November time in Hangzhou so it was cooling down yeah but I just felt I felt

45:51

it was dirty honestly yeah if that was my only impression of China after that trip I did,

45:56

and I never came back to China, I'd probably be giving people a very full impression

46:01

of China with what I saw. Yes. Yeah.

46:04

And we were shown around, but we're only shown around local places.

46:07

And we got to spend a weekend in Shanghai. Now, Shanghai changed me a little bit. Yeah, right. Yeah.

46:12

And I remember like a lot of us had food poisoning from, we had some dodgy seafoods

46:17

that the school supplied. And we started to recover and they're like, what do you guys want to eat?

46:23

I remember them saying on the bus. And I stood up and I saw Hooters. I said, let's go to Hooters.

46:29

And I think it's the one in Pudong. Right, right, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I went, Hooters. And we saw,

46:34

they're asking the Chinese stuff. They're like, we could take you for a nice meal where we have good,

46:38

right? And we're like, no, Hooters. And, you know, we had this kind of like very wholesome Chinese lady showing

46:45

our school around. And we're like, we want to go to Hooters.

46:48

And they took us to the bus stop and took us into Hooters.

46:51

And this wholesome Chinese lady who's paying for everything and that

46:54

yeah like all we were getting burgers and fries

46:57

most of us we struggled with

47:01

the canteen food i mean we yeah because we were

47:03

eating at the school of the the university and you

47:06

know they're getting on metal trays we're like god this is like prison yeah

47:09

yeah yeah and they're dumping on rice and all

47:13

and everything's in oil base and some of

47:15

the girls with us were um vegetarians or

47:18

vegans you know that that was starting to come in you don't

47:21

know where it's going they're asking about what type

47:24

of oil it is and obviously none of us knows and you

47:28

got these chefs who's just like yeah i don't

47:32

care yeah but while we're in shanghai yeah

47:35

we we went to who's like no this is our

47:38

favorite place yeah we felt better when we went out by

47:41

the bund yes and uh nanjing road right

47:44

we came into our element right really it was

47:47

a savior then really so on the last

47:50

day the school's like giving us like kind of certificates for thank

47:53

you for coming this is what you've achieved chinese culture class

47:56

stage one or whatever it was and then they said oh we got

47:58

other certificates and what they've done they asked the students who we've been

48:01

talking with who was their favorite person to talk with well i was number one

48:05

oh so yeah they enjoyed chatting to me came on the school said oh if you ever

48:09

want to come back over here you could get like sponsorship scholarship i think

48:13

it was like a semester or a year something like that and I thought I still had

48:17

to finish my degree back in the UK. So I thought yeah put that in the back pocket and you know they get on the plane

48:23

and people are like would you go back again I said I'm not sure I'm not sure I'm not sure,

48:28

I am very westernized. I'm a creature of comforts these days.

48:32

I don't, you know, I was like, oh, let's try to be wild and experimental.

48:36

I've done all that. Yes. And a lot of time I end up on the bad end of stuff. Right.

48:41

When I go overseas, I always find it safe with the wrestling.

48:45

Find something like an Irish bar and have bangers and mash.

48:48

What I also find in there, I'll find if I'm looking for company,

48:52

that the people in that place usually in an expat bar or an Irish bar or American.

48:58

Fast food diner or something like that tgi's i

49:01

remember i used to go to that in korea you'd find people who speak english there

49:04

got it and i can communicate with even

49:08

like the locals who go there who speak english they're more

49:11

willing to talk to you right yeah but so

49:14

when i came back to england after being in china uh i

49:18

was like finished my degree and i was thinking of all these different things to

49:21

do as my dad said what do you want to do i said

49:24

i'm not honestly don't know he says have a year in

49:27

china you got that scholarship i said i

49:30

don't know there's things i enjoy and the

49:33

things i didn't enjoy and he says well what did

49:36

you see where were you and he's like you know it's a

49:39

big country sir he says have you go to

49:41

great wall yeah see there beijing how far is

49:44

that to our flight he says i'll pay it must be cheap

49:47

you know it must be cheap is it domestic flights yeah

49:50

and i told him yeah yeah yeah and i went back

49:53

to china i thought i'll give it a go he says you know

49:55

that give yourself something to think about went over

49:58

there and while i was over there europe hit europe the

50:01

west sorry was struck by the economic and

50:05

so when my fast force when this

50:08

year the scholarship was coming up i was like oh god there's no uh what am i

50:12

going to do going back home now i like my friends who i graduate with some of

50:15

them were being let off after one year because they were suffering and like

50:19

there was one scary situation where a friend I'd just bought a house and then

50:23

the job had to let him go and you know he was.

50:27

Just trying to find a work, yeah. Trying to find work, trying to borrow some

50:30

money to keep it. Yeah, yeah. And I was talking to my dad about it and that. And he says, have you applied

50:35

for a job in China? I said, never thought about it. I don't know where to start.

50:40

Yeah. And I sent out a bunch of CVs and I got a call.

50:44

How often if I want to do an internship, paid internship. And so I took it.

50:50

And that then led to opening doors to other jobs. Yeah. And that led me to coming down to Shenzhen.

50:57

Right and i worked and i found what i'd say is my

51:00

real proper job in shenzhen where i had a a

51:03

good livable wage yes that was being taxed

51:06

i was legit i had the real paperwork i was

51:09

had the proper visa and i was

51:12

here for many years yeah then i

51:15

moved to juhai again change of

51:18

job better living environment bought myself

51:22

a car nice yeah so i got my i

51:25

really settled in i was going to marry a woman actually and

51:28

we've settled down but she ran off

51:31

to this country that's cursing me called australia oh really

51:34

well her father wanted to migrate to australia right yes she went out there

51:40

melbourne and she went out there to melbourne she went originally to help her

51:43

father and she ended up having to stay out there because part of the migration

51:47

process they had to invest in a business and run the business and she was the

51:51

only one who spoke english because she had lived in england. Fantastic english but we grew

51:57

apart because i was still in china working and well

52:01

that ended and then did you continue just like i could just stay in juhai yeah

52:05

yeah i went on the dating scene and i did so well yeah so well blonde hair blue

52:12

eyes six four blonde hair blue eyes yeah right proper poster boy yeah 1930s germany.

52:23

I was, oh, they both did really well. So where does wrestling fit into that

52:28

then? Okay. Comedy show is how wrestling began, believe it or not.

52:32

With my ex in Shenzhen. I heard about this. Yeah. So I went into a comedy show

52:36

in Shenzhen. I was with my ex-girlfriend, the one who ran off to Australia.

52:42

I went to a comedy show and there was an Indian guy who lived in Hong Kong.

52:47

He was one of the acts. And we sit there. And he's going around the crowd and, you know, he's making comments about different

52:51

people in the crowd. And he's like, oh, whoa, whoa. He says,

52:54

Hulk Hogan's in the crowd. I'm pointing at myself.

52:58

And he carried on. And during the set, I went to the bathroom.

53:03

And as I came out, I could hear the room going silent and everyone's staring at me.

53:09

And I overheard him talking to my girlfriend, like in the crowd.

53:13

And she was shouting back something and he was shooting her down with some jokes.

53:17

And I came out of the bathroom. and I looked at my vases and I just shook my

53:20

head like, I went back to the bathroom and the whole place started laughing.

53:24

Yeah, right. Yeah, yeah. Maybe that was a sign. Yes. I didn't play to the crowd anyway.

53:28

After the show, the comedians are saying goodbye to everybody and I shook his

53:32

hand. I said, yeah, yeah, you made that Hulk Hogan reference.

53:35

He says, yeah. I said, I said, oh, I said, I love the wrestling.

53:38

I said, I'd love to find the wrestling. He says, yeah, why aren't you involved

53:41

with the Hong Kong wrestling scene? I was like, I don't know anything about that. Yeah. He says,

53:46

oh, sometimes i do ring announcing for them i said i'm gonna

53:49

ask you straight i said i'm not gonna like sweet talk

53:52

i said please put me in contact like could you

53:55

give me the contact and he gave me the contact of the wrestler hoho lun

53:58

and i spoke to hoho learn he

54:01

came over to shenzhen across the border and we met and we got talking and

54:05

then he put me through to the slam who won the championship last

54:09

night yes the slam was one of the guys who got the first ever wrestling ring

54:11

in china right and the slam at first didn't

54:14

believe i was a foreigner when i messaged him because i messaged in chinese right

54:17

oh told me he doesn't have great english and so

54:21

like you know even when i sent a picture he said i could have got off the internet anyway

54:26

when i finally met ho ho oh sorry the

54:29

slam later it was a month later out at a hong kong wf show he's

54:32

like oh now i've seen you i could put the you know a

54:35

face to the name yes and then he invited me to go and

54:37

train in dongguan in champing area where he

54:40

had the ring set up in a gym and so i went there to do

54:43

wrestling and that's where because i had a year

54:46

i did a year and a half in england but i had a few years of

54:49

doing no wrestling right i just came to china and then

54:52

i got settled back in so you know they say shake off the ring yes getting back

54:57

into it learning the steps and then i learned that he's learned wrestling very

55:01

different from the rest of that right and he didn't know my style of wrestling

55:06

and I didn't know his and he kept telling me I was wrong doing something and

55:09

I'm thinking to myself, am I wrong? Have I been doing it wrong all this years? Yes, yes.

55:13

And then I found out from a Taiwanese wrestler who was there who took me aside

55:17

and says, no, no, they just learned a different style.

55:20

Right. And he says, the style you did is more the American, the more common

55:24

style that's been that way. Yeah. Bit of a clash. It was because he was telling me what I was doing was wrong.

55:30

Right. And I remember like every training session back in the UK,

55:34

we'd start by doing 10 front, sorry, 10 back bumps, 10 front bumps,

55:39

10 flip bumps and stuff like that. All right. And then every one I'm doing, he's like, wrong, wrong,

55:44

wrong. And I'm thinking to myself, really?

55:47

But then obviously you went through with that.

55:51

You kept with it. So obviously something that you really wanted to do.

55:54

So everything started growing from there. But, I mean, this was amateurish. Right.

55:58

At the lowest scale. This was almost a step up from backyard wrestling almost.

56:02

So where was Chinese wrestling at that stage when you started to come back?

56:06

It was like the baby's head's just popping out. Right. Yeah. Right. Yeah.

56:11

So there wasn't too many promotions. Was MKW at that stage? No.

56:15

No. MKW came later. So this was like 2012, 2013.

56:19

But they would have had, the slam was involved with another promotion,

56:23

right? Well, in 2013, a wealthy Chinese guy said he's going to invest a lot

56:28

of money. Now, this is a big thing in China. They don't start small and grow like MKW did. A lot of promotions throw all

56:35

their money in at first, make a big spectacular, then lose everything.

56:38

And go smaller, smaller, then disappear. They still do that, don't they?

56:42

Not just in wrestling, but in everything. Yeah, that's everything.

56:45

And so this Chinese guy came along and he made up a promotion, CNWWE, Chinese WWE.

56:54

And he hired a bunch of guys but it was an absolute he promised you the everything,

57:02

delivered nothing and it just you wait just wait i mean this is this was a lie

57:10

that i couldn't stop laughing about this guy they nicknamed him the drunken

57:13

boss because he used to drink all the. He used to always say the show must go on he

57:21

must have learned that expression yeah but all the

57:24

wrestlers have walked out of him at once and he says

57:27

the show must go on i'm thinking i

57:30

like to see how he's gonna run a wrestling show with no wrestling is he gonna

57:33

hire somebody yeah the crowd it was like the crowd did with wrestling with nobody

57:38

backstage nobody no preparation or anything yeah wow i'm glad that's changed

57:44

for the so he disappeared right and apparently he passed away.

57:49

When people were trying to get money from him right so he

57:52

wasn't paying wrestlers he was just like the turning

57:55

up it was like basically how you would the modern

57:59

day of scamming people yeah no no i'll get

58:01

this mate first time and then you've built the trust so he

58:04

pays you the first time looks after you the first couple of

58:07

days and you think oh this guy's treating me very

58:10

well you know he's paying the hotel giving

58:13

me food taking me out paying me for my wrestling

58:16

and then after a few days i'll get

58:19

you next week and you think well this guy has looked after

58:21

me in the first few days he seems very genuine and then it slowly gets pushed

58:26

back and pushed back and pushed back yeah yeah like you more deal with somebody

58:32

who is more straight to your face and just give you the cash for an order even

58:35

if you disagree on stuff or whatever at least you're getting paid and the man of their word. Yeah.

58:40

Yeah, it wasn't like that with this guy. And then some of the wrestlers,

58:44

I wasn't there at this time, did videos of them going into his office and.

58:48

Fight because he really screwed over these

58:51

foreign wrestlers yeah right i'm stuck in china with no

58:55

payment and no flight ticket no good

58:58

it was some of them went on to be in nxt

59:01

in the uk oh yeah right yeah yeah wow and then

59:04

adrian and then the slam put me in contact with agent says this american

59:07

guy's contacting me see if he's legit so

59:11

i spoke with agent that's when agent told

59:14

me about his vision of mkw now i just had surgery

59:17

as you for the people who are not seeing this i've

59:20

got this huge scar oh surgical scar across

59:23

my chest now i had just had surgery on

59:26

that now you're probably wondering where that came from i used to bench very

59:32

heavy bench press and i bench press over 400 pounds so about 180 something kg

59:38

and one day it didn't go well very bad that is the worst pain I've ever experienced in my life.

59:44

So I was injured and Adrian says, well, I asked Adrian, can I still be part of the show?

59:48

When I was wrestling, I was wrestling hungry. Taste for it. I said,

59:51

put me in there. And he put me in like a bodyguard role for a Chinese wrestler.

59:55

That would have given you some, a chance to do your talking to the crowd and doing your promos.

1:00:02

And as well is the crowd we had was all Chinese.

1:00:05

Right. And none of them were wrestling fans. Right.

1:00:08

And I didn't think their English was that strong either. so i

1:00:12

could there were a lot of new guys and so

1:00:15

i could call the match on the outside as a

1:00:18

bodyguard i could bang them out like

1:00:21

come on do a suplex come on yeah like this and we

1:00:24

worked it off that way and i helped the chinese

1:00:27

wrestler i was working with who he was

1:00:29

with mkw until it wasn't

1:00:33

that last last night's show actually i think he

1:00:36

got married so that kind of takes all these wrestlers away

1:00:39

from it and then they have to get like proper jobs and bring in real money and

1:00:42

that kind of kills a lot of their hobbies and no no black man but the rest right

1:00:46

right yeah you've stayed with mkw for so long and you but you're still able

1:00:52

to wrestle with other promotions as well how does that work are you under contract

1:00:57

with mkw or am i getting a little bit freelance okay freelance.

1:01:02

I've built up trust with promoters yeah i'm old

1:01:05

school in the way like when i deal with these people i said

1:01:08

if you're fair with me i'm fair with you i'll be honest with

1:01:11

you you be honest with me yeah i said tell me what you

1:01:14

can do for me and i'll tell you what i'll say here this is

1:01:16

what i want tell me if that's possible i mean i was i'm going to shanghai in

1:01:22

march and the promoter came back to me he says this is running my first show

1:01:26

up in shanghai and he says straight says i don't have much money sam really

1:01:30

on budget i said i'll work with you on it you're a friend Let's see what we can do.

1:01:36

And he came up with a fee and he came up with the expenses.

1:01:41

And I said, I'll take it. For you, I'll take it.

1:01:44

And it's his first show. And hopefully I feel like if I help this show become

1:01:49

a success, then later on, hopefully, that hasn't happened much to me, to be honest.

1:01:55

Actually, I don't get that joy. But yeah, I like to think that maybe one day,

1:02:02

if you throw enough mud at the wall, somebody will stick.

1:02:05

But a new promotion is always good.

1:02:09

They actually ran a promotion before in Shenzhen.

1:02:13

Right. But now they've rebranded and they only ran one show in 2021 in the thick

1:02:19

of COVID. Oh, right. Yeah, that's tough. It did well with the crowd, to be fair to them.

1:02:24

But now they're doing this one in Shanghai and they're working with another

1:02:28

promotion. And I think it's a direct 50-50 split.

1:02:32

It's interesting. It is interesting. What's the best piece of advice you've

1:02:36

ever been given? Good question. Like the guy who used to give me a lot of good advice was my father.

1:02:40

He was the guy I used to always go to. sometimes you tell

1:02:43

the things i didn't want to hear obviously it was never never

1:02:47

when you're especially a young man you're making every single mistake in your life

1:02:49

or you think you know the world and then you absolutely know nothing something

1:02:54

i do take on board is i look after

1:02:57

myself first now well i'm not i

1:03:00

don't have a wife or kids at the moment maybe that my priorities are changed

1:03:02

but i take care of myself first before i can take care of other people yeah

1:03:06

so as i say be good to yourself treat yourself

1:03:10

right i keep myself healthy and also the best

1:03:13

one i like is and i know this is the biggest cliche is

1:03:17

treat people how you want to be treated and i

1:03:20

know some people probably roll their eyes and god i've been hearing that since

1:03:23

you know whatever but when you as an expat i travel around the world and people

1:03:27

like oh how are there people in that country other people in that country generally

1:03:30

the genuine people i meet outside of tourist areas where where you might come

1:03:36

across scammers, who might give you a bad impression of the place.

1:03:39

And if you're good with people, they're very good with you. Yeah.

1:03:42

And that's what I found when I've traveled around.

1:03:47

That's a great quote. So the problem is when you're a wrestler who plays an

1:03:51

absolutely terrible person and I'm shouting insults at the crowd and giving abuse,

1:03:56

sometimes off the show when I do see them and they say, oh, you're not the guy

1:04:00

out there. That's a character. That's a character.

1:04:04

Sometimes the fans. But people don't know that. Yes, but sometimes there's wrestlers

1:04:09

who also stay in character for too long. So, yes. That's true.

1:04:12

And social media, Sam, where can we find you for our international Okay,

1:04:17

this is perfect for everybody because as a marketing manager,

1:04:21

one thing I like to do is keep everything consistent. So my Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, I'm not going to talk too much on Facebook.

1:04:28

That's more for family, but Instagram, Twitter, I'm very active on.

1:04:32

You'll find me at sjd and

1:04:36

my family name is burgess so sjd b-u-r-g-e-s-s samuel

1:04:42

john david burgess is my original full name so i use

1:04:45

sjd and then burgess all together

1:04:48

so as of today who are your top two

1:04:51

or three favorite bands of all time in the

1:04:55

90s i got my friends started playing the guitar and

1:04:58

then we started getting the cds and we got

1:05:01

the black album i think it's called by metallica the actual album is

1:05:03

just called metallica but they call it the black album yes three

1:05:07

movies all time american

1:05:10

history x definitely my top that's a good one yeah

1:05:13

okay if it means something to me jurassic park

1:05:16

interesting because i watched that as a kid in 1993 my parents

1:05:19

took me to the cinema and when i left the cinema i was really upset

1:05:22

and my parents said why and i said because that thing that place will.

1:05:25

Never exist in real life yeah like most

1:05:28

young boys did got it yeah i love dinosaurs jurassic park

1:05:31

training day with denzel walker oh yes it

1:05:34

was all yes i used when i was a

1:05:37

teenager i used to make a lot of those references in the movie yes late

1:05:40

teens it would have been yeah but

1:05:44

i don't think that's a good choice american history i think

1:05:46

is a strong selection yes yeah training day

1:05:50

that's very more I won't say that

1:05:52

was cult level but I mean that you got to

1:05:55

know your movies to like that I mean short sham redemption was classic to the

1:06:00

heart yeah my dad passed away last year and they had some of the music from

1:06:04

that movie yeah who's your greatest influence slash hero and why okay so I've

1:06:12

just been sent the signed shirt of this guy.

1:06:15

Growing up, he was an idol of mine, and I think he's become a good ambassador.

1:06:19

And when I've mentioned his name, when people ask where I'm from in the world,

1:06:23

and they talk about this guy, and when I say I'm either from this country or

1:06:27

whatever, they jump to this man. It's David Beckham.

1:06:30

Now, older generations might be like, oh, that bloody guy.

1:06:34

He's a show-off and that. I think he's become such a good representative of the United Kingdom.

1:06:39

He promoted as well for the Olympics in 2012 for England. I was in Macau at

1:06:44

the Londoner Casino and they have the David Beckham suite. Did you say the Netflix?

1:06:50

Did I say the Netflix? Yeah. So Marie, the manager, we do that scene where Victoria

1:06:57

Beckham's sitting saying, I'm from a working class family. Right.

1:07:00

And David Beckham says, now I do that with Marie when I see her over-exaggerating

1:07:05

stuff. Right. I'll say, no. Tell of the truth. Did you do that at a role? And then she gives the answer.

1:07:11

I do the Beckham for you. He goes, thank you.

1:07:16

I think that Netflix was really, really good. I enjoyed it. It changed my opinion on him.

1:07:22

I think it changed the opinion of a lot of people, David Beckham.

1:07:25

I think he is such a good ambassador.

1:07:28

And like he has, okay, when he was younger, we talked about it.

1:07:31

You all think you're Superman invincible, but it's how you become when you're

1:07:34

older as well. And I think he's a good father.

1:07:36

Very much loves his kids. Very much a strong family man. And he's,

1:07:40

I think he has conservative values. Mm. I, I, so when you say a role model, I would, I'm not ashamed to say Beckham.

1:07:47

Yeah. Yeah. So I'd say David Beckham. I thought I would always be number one

1:07:50

because I knew him. He gave me life advice. He helped me some of the toughest times in my life. You probably wouldn't be

1:07:56

in China if it wasn't for your dad, right? Exactly. Yeah.

1:07:59

Some advice people have, sorry, a lot of people came to me for advice,

1:08:03

like a bit of an agony aunt. And the advice I give, I sometimes think, God, I'm just like my daddy.

1:08:09

To you, you know, some of the advice I'd say, you know, I'll say stuff like

1:08:13

my dad, you say, Sam, you made this mistake. He says, I'll stand with you, but I'm not going to stand in front of you.

1:08:18

You know, I use that line. I forgot that's my dad's the only person who ever said that line to me.

1:08:24

You know, I'll stand with you. I'm not going to stand. Big Sam. Thank you very much.