By Tom Humphreys
Twitter

Welcome back to Future Shock, where we take a deep dive into the prospects of the Scottish wrestling’s independent scene and analyse why they are not only the big future stars of Scotland, but they’ll take over the entire industry. Their potential will shock you!

Ever since the debut of Ken Shamrock in the WWF in 1989 the influence of the likes of the UFC and Mixed Martial Arts has been prevalent within the sports entertainment world. Even going back to Inokism in the early 90s in japan, with the blended shoot/work philosophy of the acclaimed Japanese legend, hard hitting strikes and a focus on grappling has been prevalent in the development of modern wrestling. One of Scotland’s most promising prospects has more than his fair share of combat sports experience, and he’s out to prove why he’s the best in yet another combat sport discipline, ‘Grapzilla’ Bradley Poole.

Starting his pro wrestling journey under the tutelage of TJ Rage and the Pro Wrestling Scotland Academy at the start of 2018, as you would imagine, he picked up the sport like a duck to water, with the same type of natural athletic ability and transitional skills, similar to that of Ronda Rousey. Wrestling out of Elgin, Poole makes a dedicated 3-hour journey to Airdrie every Sunday to train, so the young mans dedication isn’t in question. Having trained boxing from the tender age of 10, Poole had started training not only his body, but his mind to be a combat athlete. At 16 he started to expand his skills into Mixed Martial Arts and has been the training and sparring partner of Cage Warriors fighter, Aiden Stephen and current Bellator fighter Ross Houston. This translates into Poole having a plethora of precise strikes and technical ability, complimented well with a hell of a lot of strength for his size. He can throw opponents three times his size about like it’s nothing. A complete all rounder of a wrestler, and a man who possesses a lot of charisma and charm, Poole is the definition of a wrestling prodigy. Standing at 6 foot and weighing 200 pounds, Poole has a very impressive physique, looking like a cheese grater with skin, he has more than enough size, strength, and cardio to back up his in ring technical skill. It’s safe to say he has a PHD in kicking your ass!

Having debuted just over a year later from when he started training, on the 5^th of July 2019, after an impressive debut, from this point out he was out to prove to everyone why he is one of the biggest prospects that Scotland has to offer. Having a wealth of grappling experience and skill, Grapzilla believes he’s the best pure wrestler there is and he’s out to prove it to the rest of the world, starting with Scotland.

Although he’s only been in the industry a short while, Poole has already made a huge splash. Having wrestled and beaten one half of the ICW Tag Team Champions, and one of Scotland’s biggest rising stars, in Krieger, alongside making an appearance in the Scottish Wrestling Alliance rumble, mixing it up with the likes of Kieran Kelly and Rudo Lightning, and although he didn’t win the match, for me he more than proved his worth.

Whilst in lockdown, Poole has been working on his strength and conditioning and is recently back into his sponsored gym Fitison in Elgin alongside his other sponsor in Illustrach who’ve helped promote him and helped him get to the level of prominence he’s at today for a short tenure within the industry. Alongside this, keep an eye out for Grapzilla merchandise coming out soon.

In summary, Grapzilla is someone you should be petrified of if you’re standing opposite the ring from him. He can, and will, take you down from anywhere and everywhere. Toss you about like a rag doll, and break your arm as the cherry on top of the bloody sundae.

You can keep up to date with the grappling extraordinaire’s activities at his Twitter here