Welcome 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.

Our first guest is ‘The Street Rat of Source Wrestling’ Manlon.

What drew you into professional wrestling?

As a child I was obsessed with comic books & superheroes and I remember one day I came by wrestling on TV, I think it was WCW and it was almost like a live action comic book. The entrances, the characters, the outfits I was hooked straight away. I’ll still stand by that wrestling is a very underrated story telling medium since I remember being enthralled with “Who ran over Stone Cold?” and “Mick Foley’s last stand” they were the two story-lines that really cemented my love for wrestling.

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

My favourite wrestlers are always the ones who stand out, due to looks, gimmicks or character. I was obsessed with Undertaker and Kane as a kid due to their looks and huge back story since they looked like real comic book characters. Now a days I still have a similar view on things but guys like Terry Funk, Mick Foley, Undertaker, Stevie Richards and Daniel Bryan are my all time favourites.

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

I’ve struggled with mental health for a long time, and was at my lowest when I was 19. I remember one day I was listening to Sami Callihan being interviewed on The Art of Wrestling and he mentioned that he used to be pretty big and I found it insane that a wrestler I looked up to made such a change. Since I was extremely underweight I seen it as a inspiration since if he could do it, then nothing is stopping me doing it. Now I understand that wrestling is for all shapes and sizes but back then I was worried about my size, all I needed was that inspiration to get started. I walked into the Source Wrestling School in August 2012, having never done a push up or a squat before, having never done a sport in my life and it killed me. But it lit a fire under me that I had never had. I now had a hobby, and a goal, and I wasn’t letting my health, physical and mental, stop me.

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

As a fan, the Mick Foley and Daniel Bryan stories are my biggest influences since they both were guys who aren’t the blueprint of a wrestler but made it to the big time I’m not ashamed to admit that I cried at Bryan winning at WM30. As a wrestler I’ve got many influences Jam, Damo, Nikki, Dunbar all helping me in the door and pushing me to be the best Manlon I can be. But my biggest influences are Timothy Thatcher and Mikey Whiplash. Thatcher opened my mind to different styles and not being afraid to step outside my comfort zone. Mikey isn’t only my trainer, he’s helped me through some awful times in my life, and helped me come through some dark times a better person. Without Mikey I probably wouldn’t be here. I really can’t thank him enough.

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

As far as my favourite opponents go, two (well three technically) really come to mind. As a tag team with my partner Daihlan Hendry I felt that The Forgotten (Glen Dunbar & Alex Cavanagh) always pushed us to our limits and got the best out of us. Another is Luke Matthews, we knocked the piss out of each other in our match from last year and I felt as if our styles gelled together really well. Just ask him about the chop/kick battle next time.

Oh and shout out to Scott McManus as well. He’s the most underrated wrestler in Scotland IMO and deserves to be wrestling all over the place!!!

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

Highlights? Wow that’s a tough one. Technically I view every match I have ever had as a highlight in my mind. As every time I’m able to do a rassle I’m living out a fantasy or a dream, like I’m extremely lucky to be able to do this so I make sure that I don’t take it for granted.

But going face to face with Papa Shango and throwing him out a battle royale (with some help) was a huge highlight because Hogan never beat Shango did he? NAW!!! All of Scotland would be in a voodoo apocalyse if it wasn’t for me!!!! (and others)

Who would be your dream opponent, past or present?

My dream match? That’s a tough one. There are plenty of people I would had loved to wrestle; The Undertaker, Andre The Giant, Jerry Lawler, Onita in a no ropes barbed wire match, even teaming with Stevie Richards as Right To Censor 2.0 but in my mind my absolute dream match would to be against Terry Funk. In my mind he is the greatest pro wrestler ever, he can do more a less any style and shit, he’s still wrestling. So maybe it can still be a reality!!!

Where do you see yourself in 5 years time?

Where do I see myself in 5 years? Hopefully not dead. But as far as wrestling goes, wrestling is a hobby for me. I’d love the chance to work elsewhere in Scotland and maybe in Britain but honestly I’ve got no interest going much further than that (not that Japan or WWE will be too disappointed that I’m not taking bookings). If I wrestle once a month or every weekend it’s cool. As long as I still get to do it.

Where can we find you on social media?

You can find your local wrestling street rat on my Facebook page “Manlon”

You can also follow my dangerous and usually dirty escapades on twitter under @OhLookItsManlon

And finally, why do you do what you do?

Here’s the big one….why do I do what I do? Why do I put myself through hell? It’s a deep and multilayered answer but honestly that only way I can explain it is like this. I’ve had mental health issues my whole life, I’ve struggled with anxiety and depression as long as I can remember, I was made fun of and bullied in school. But when I came back home, wrestling was always there for me. No matter how bad a day I had, wrestling was always there to help me escape my own problems even for an hour or so. Even now when I go training or to do a rassle I have this form of escapism which has given me a new lease on life. The ring is basically my happy place, and now getting to preform is amazing because now knowing that someone came to see me preform or get my arse booted is wonderful. Knowing that I’m helping someone who may need that same escapism that I did really is priceless. So to anyone who has seen me wrestle, thank you.

Drew Galloway asked me why I did wrestling during a seminar and it boiled down to this. Wrestling makes me happy, I’ve now got the chance to make other people happy. I’m the luckiest Manlon in the world.

Thank you to Billy for giving me this chance to talk about this and thank you for reading this.

Manlon xoxoxo

Thank you to Manlon for answering our ‘Starter For 10’.

 

 

Photo by David J Wilson