img_2592Welcome to Starter For 10. We ask professional wrestlers 10 questions so that you can find out a bit more about your favourite real life superheroes.

On this edition, Robbie Wishart (you may also know him as Solar) answers our questions.

What drew you into professional wrestling?

My family have watched wrestling for as long as I can remember, my grandfather loved watching wrestling when Big Daddy and Giant Haystacks were around, but it was my older brothers that watched RAW and Smackdown every week religiously that was my first real experience of it.

Who were your favourite wrestlers growing up and who are your favourites now?

As a child I loved the high flyers and the cruiserweights of the 90s and early 2000s, Rey Mysterio, Tajiri, Ultimo Dragon and Jericho we’re just some of my favourites as a kid, but as a grew up and got more involved with wrestling I started to fall in love with guys like Eddie Guerrero, Dean Malenko and Fit Finlay. Personally I became a huge fan of Atushi Aoki San before his untimely passing, and I don’t think there is a British wrestler alive that hasn’t learned to respect how incredible William Regal actually was when he was an active competitor. I still watch the cruiserweights and 205 Live as they the standard bearers for a professional wrestler my size and build and what is expected of them when they compete.

What made you decide to start training to be a wrestler and where did you start?

The truth is sadly I was just a bored teenager. I was a standout in gymnastics and Tae Kwon Do for several years and I wasn’t being pushed or really even challenged in any way, apologies for the arrogance of that statement but it was true at the time. I was just looking for my next challenge to pass the time, and I happened across a SWA poster for Paisley, and I figured I would give that a try. I searched local training schools and picked the first one I saw which was the Source Wrestling School which was ran by Damian O’Connor, now WWE’s Killian Dain. I went along and for once I wasn’t a standout, the likes of Joe Coffey, Mark Coffey Jackie Polo, Dickie Divers, Glen Dunbar and Lewis Girvan where in that class and I have been hooked ever since.

Who are your biggest influences in professional wrestling, as a fan and as a wrestler?

As a wrestler my biggest influences come from my background, the gymnastics and the Tae Kwon Do pretty much form my style of wrestling, and then the character and personality of “the best you have ever seen” comes from the silly arrogant egotistical reputation I gained from my youth in wrestling, unfortunately things like a reputation are hard to get rid off.

In terms of as a fan, I try not to look at how other wrestlers present themselves, if there is already a Flash Morgan Webster why would I try and get booked doing a pretty similar act and probably nowhere near as good, you know? I try to draw influence from movies, television, Netflix things like that to try and look for mannerisms or something in the way a character carries themselves and see if I can incorporate into my own character, that’s how I do it anyway.

Who has been your favourite opponent(s) and do you have a favourite match?

Favourite opponents is so difficult, I love different matches for different reasons like I love my matches with Wolfgang and Mark Coffey from back in ICW days, I had a brilliant match with Wild Boar for SWA years ago that always has a sweet spot in my heart. the one thing that all my best matches have in common recently is they all have a real fight feel to them, my matches with Dean Ford, Taylor Vite and Ian Skinner have all had that feel, but the best one for that exact feeling was my last outing in Source Wrestling as Solar against ‘Speedball’ Mike Bailey, nothing like wrestling one of the best in world and proving you can hang with them.

What has been your career highlight(s) so far?

What my career highlights are is a easy question. For me, my career is my highlight, I’ve consistently wrestled at a high level (I personally feel anyway haha) for almost a decade now, and people still talk about me in quite high regard in terms of ability and performance, again apologies if that comes across as arrogant but it’s how I feel.

Who would be your dream opponent, past or present?

My dream opponent would be Eddie Guerrero absolutely definitely without a shadow of a doubt it would have been Eddie, right now there are three people I want to wrestle and I wouldn’t necessarily say they are dream opponents, just people I really want to wrestle:

1st – Stevie Boy/Xavier (whatever he prefers to be called)
2nd – BT Gunn
3rd- and the match I want the most, I……. want…. Ospreay.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years time?

If I’m lucky I would like to be able to make wrestling my full time living and provide for my girlfriend and my child. I’ll still be involved in wrestling if that doesn’t happen, I’ll only be 30 years old in five years time haha. I have a small hope to one day, either start my own wrestling school or takeover as the head trainer of the Source Wrestling School and help train the future talents, like Damo and Mikey Whiplash did with me and so many others, but that’s probably closer too 10 years time than 5.

Where can we find you on social media?

You can follow me on Twitter @WishartSolar94
On Instagram @calumwishart2018
Or on Facebook as either Robbie Solar or Robert Wishart depending which persona of mine you prefer.

And finally, why do you do what you do?

It’s simple I love professional wrestling, there is nothing else like and yet it’s similar to so many things. It can divide people and it can unit them, it is a sport to some, others is a art, some even think of it as television show it literally is up to the person watching to see how you can perceive it, it’s just a wonderful thing, how can you not love it.

Thank you to Robbie for answering our questions.

 

Photo credit Robert Wishart on Facebook.