Hebridean Hammerlock - Chip Watson the Disco Fry

Cal: Good evening everyone. Welcome back to Oakhurst. Tonight it's another episode of the Hebridean Hammerlock. Your regular wrestling series diving into the crazy fun world of wrestling. And tonight joining me, Kenny, how's it going?
Kenny: Not too bad.
Cal: It's Friday anyway, was chilly night. Talking about wrestling, what more do want Kenny?
Kenny: ⁓ how long have we got?
Cal: Yeah, there's a lot more you could want. But this will do anyway for the time being. I couldn't really find that much info on YouTube, just little bits and pieces everywhere. happy to announce the disco fry himself is here. Chip Watson, welcome to the Hebridean Hammerlock. How are doing?
Kenny: Yeah, not too bad. Thanks for having me. I checked out some of the stuff after you guys reached out. So I listened to the rumble episode. I heard know what I'm in for. I listened to it after the rumble though. So you've looked wrong on everything.
Cal: That's all of great internet critic, ahoy. So as always, ⁓ how did you get into this wrestling thing? Have you always been a big wrestling fan or was it later in life you caught the wrestling?
Kenny: I had it nice and easy. My dad really liked wrestling. So, you know, everyone always talks about, remember watching wrestling when I was six or eight or 10. As far as I'm aware, I was like five weeks old, sat on my dad's lap watching, you know, and I don't remember that, but it's just always been a thing. And I was pretty, you know, I would watch pretty consistently go round to my dad. He would have taped it on, on Sky. We'd watch Smackdown, Velocity Heat, watch a bit of everything. And then ⁓ got really into TNA then with, ⁓ Dave and the wrestling channel. ⁓ and then I had a break around fifth and sixth year of high school, just kind of fell out of it. So I missed some like strangely big events, like things like the shield. ⁓ you know, guys that have become massive in the industry. I think I came back after they had already split and had their, you know, their main feuds. And then got back into it with the launch of the network because it was ideal. I was at uni. I didn't go to classes. you know, skipping culinary school, skipping marketing classes, but we'd watch NXT and that's sort of like guys that I had seen on the Indies. Because like what I say, my dad's a wrestling fan, that my dad traded tapes. So like, yeah, like PWG tapes, Noah tapes. like, Not not not just your WWE. was he was properly into it. seeing guys like Steen, Sami Zayn, that got me back into it, seeing that they ⁓ they're actually doing well, but I can watch it on demand. I can watch it live and then didn't really stop watching it from there. And then I was on a treadmill in the gym and went, I could do wrestling. So I shot shot Joe Hendry a DM. and said, where can I do some wrestling? And he went, I've got a school, do you know, you should come along. And I went, you know what, I'm just going to do it to help me lose some weight. was playing five of sides at the time, but I was getting tired of getting my ankles snapped pretty consistently. So I wanted something else to channel the fitness into, started going along and just, it went from, I'm just going to do this as a casual thing to like, ⁓ I need to make this work within like, five minutes. Like it was it was infectious. A lot of that was the the community guys that I trained with and no doubt I will inadvertently put them over throughout this because I can't help but do that. But it was just one of those I walked in, I took my first know bump not even in a ring and the beginners trained it like a gym like gymnastics based park so it had soft padding and everything. And you earn your way to training on the mat. But just caught the bug right away. And that would have been three, three and half, maybe four years ago now. So it's been a, it's been a fast paced three, four years, but I need to remind myself sometimes I'm still in the grand scheme of wrestling, very new to the industry as a worker. ⁓
Cal: Yeah, long was it before that, your first actual ring appearance? Was it fairly fast or in tiny terms?
Kenny: My debut was in Peterhead ⁓ for a promotion called Community Pro Wrestling, which is a Ravey Davies promotion mainly based on the West Coast. But he was running a show in Peterhead. ⁓ One of the workers on that show, Big Strong Man, ⁓ I believe was away doing, he did something with Eddie Hall. So that opened a space. ⁓ He reached out to Joe. Joe asked me if I had My gear ready, did. So went up and did that on kind of three days, least, but I think by that point I had been training for pretty much 12 months, 12, 13 months. that had been, you know, I had a, Joe had me sussed very early on that I'm not a guy who does well being comfortable. If I get to the position with anything where I'm like, yeah, I can turn up and you know, I'll be fine. That I get bored, I switch off. It's probably some undiagnosed ADHD or something similar. So he put me into the way it was initially was Sundays was for beginners and then Tuesday was advanced. So he put me into the advanced fairly early, maybe after six weeks ⁓ and just went sink or swim. So after a year of that training with Joe, Ian Skinner, ⁓ great guy, works up and down Scotland, is wrestling on North, right now I believe. ⁓ And then DCT, who's now over in Australia, big ICW guy, and Emerson Jane, arguably the best female wrestler in the UK, one of the best Scotland's produced. Trained with them for a year, ⁓ got the opportunity, wrestled Ross Houser in a singles match, opened the show as well. Lots of things that like as as a fan before I got into wrestling, I was assumed when you debut, you'll be like in an eight man tag and you'll be one of seven people that are more experienced than you and you'll be on the pre show when it was like, Nope, this is our first time in Peterhead. It's important. And you're opening the show. Go. I'm always going to be grateful to Davey and the CPW team for giving me that opportunity. But it's a strange one because it was a very different version of me than now. This was pre Treble Chef. This was Charlie not Chip. ⁓ As I was stood to go out from the curtain, I expected like I'm a guy who gets, I get nervous. And I think people who say they don't get nervous are lying. I think that nervousness might express itself in a different way. But I was expecting to be stood behind that curtain with like heart racing or the calmest I've ever felt. My music was about to play. I was about to go out for my first time, perform front of a crowd that had no idea about me. I had no idea really what I was. I'd never, you know, I'd never done a student showcase or anything like that. know, lot of guys when they train will do shows in their training school, you know, in front of like casual crowds or the gala circuits a big way. Mine's was very much a, we think you're ready, just don't mess it up. And I've watched that match back semi recently. ⁓ It's very much a first match, but nothing goes awry. it's a, you know, it's pretty solid. And I've worked Ross two more times since then at various points, you know, see each other all the time. So it's a nice one to get in. And as a, as a football fan, being able to walk out from my debut into the Peter head changing rooms and see, ⁓ I always forget what they call the one of the little flags you give a team when you play them. had one from hearts, is yes. Yeah. They had one of them from, from Peter head versus hearts friendly. So that was really nice. I do now work for
Cal: Is it a pendant or something like ⁓
Kenny: ⁓ one of Peterhead's rivals in football. I should say boo Peterhead. They'll always have a special place in my heart for that debut.
Cal: Kennedy, do want to come in there?
Kenny: ⁓ like with me, I, I don't know much about your career. I literally just heard about you a few days ago. So for me tonight, I am literally just learning, you know, ⁓ so, ⁓ yeah, I, I'm just taking in everything and just, you know, like you say, it's, am. It's weird. I think when you're involved in wrestling, because you do so much like our guys at Discovery Academy and then the Discovery team, you're training twice a week, minimum in-ring. You're at the gym three to four days a week. You're doing seminars, you're doing your social stuff. You feel like, you know, four years is massive, but really I've been on shows for, properly for about two years. And sometimes it's what is quite good to have a reality check of. There are guys I train with that have been doing this longer than other people I train with have been born. So I think it's good to find the balance of being patient, but not being too patient. I think you do kind of have to grasp opportunities.
Cal: Yeah, you've got to have that in there as well.
Kenny: Yeah, absolutely. And I think you could sit and wait your turn too much. But at the same time, you don't want to think about, know, I should have this and I should have that. And why does this person get in? don't like it. I'm really lucky in that, obviously, because Joe was doing so well over in the WWE. I got Joe because he's doing so well. I've been afforded opportunities to like, I think like my eighth match ever. was in Germany. you know, there are people that, know, Germany is one of those prime when I was a wrestling fan, WXW, you know, watching guys like Gunther come through that scene, Lou grid Kaiser. ⁓ that's like a bucket list for a lot of people. And I got to do eight matches in, in front of like 800 people because Joe liked the character. ⁓ you know, got myself along with helping out and Joe rewards was rewarding hard work there. ⁓ and then also just through wait, For my money, think the Scottish wrestling scene is in a really fun place just now where you've kind of got wrestlers scattered all across. The main ones for me just now are WrestleZone, who are Aberdeen based. One of the best backstage environments I've ever been in. So organized, so professional, so relaxed, but in a good way. Fans that have been going to WrestleZone shows for 10, 15 years that are fully bought into. the characters, they've got a guy there, Scotty Swift, that at his peak, when I say he was like John Cena in Aberdeen, it's not even a hyperbole, like it's crazy. You've got Discovery in Edinburgh, you've got, and then around it, you've got Power Pro, Valor, Iron Gurgers in Glasgow, CPW in Glasgow, APW, like there's a lot of good places to work, FCW in Dundee, and ones that I will... Definitely just forgetting just because I'm not as close with guys on those shows. there's a real good core group of lads in Scotland just now. And I think it makes it this really good environment where everyone wants each other to do well, but also wants to do better than each other because you should. The prime example for that for me is Judas Gray. Judas Gray is a guy that I started a year after, year and a bit after. came through Discovery Academy as well is probably going to be the biggest name in Scottish wrestling. ⁓ He's on a path that, you know, could see him be bigger than McIntyre. Like he is wrestling North main events, TNT main events. wouldn't be surprised to see him pop up and progress, you know, he's the guy in Discovery. Him and Ronan King, team is vanity are probably the two. best wrestlers Scotland's produced in a while. and they are just ridiculous, but I watch them and I'm super happy for them as my friends, with a hint of right, what are you doing that I'm not? What can I look at and go? I've not been to the gym today. Bed Judas has. but at the same time we all push each other to the point where, know, ⁓ Ronan King's got catch fitness, a PT thing. work with him.
Cal: Yeah.
Kenny: We had a chat about what was going to work for me. And now if I don't go to the gym, he DMS me calling me fat. It's from a place of love, it works. Yeah. ⁓ it's, it's a real good environment. I think that sometimes wrestling tries to be too different to anything else. it's not football and it's not, you know, the theater it's somewhere in between. So it kind of needs to try and draw from both, but it is ultimately, you know, if the Scottish scene. is to get better. There needs to be some level of collaboration and improvement. And I think it's great to see, you know, people training at multiple schools, I think is always a good sign. you know, then people from Iron Gurders, Power Pro come over to this school, people from this school, get over to them over to up to wrestle zone, you know, just learning from everyone because you look at some of the coaches you've got in Scotland, you've got Aspen Faith, man who I always say has forgotten more about wrestling. than ⁓ anyone will ever forget. incredible. You go to him, I found this really crazy wrestling from Nepal, the wrestling in a ring and it's at the side of the Himalayan mountains. And he goes, ⁓ yes, it's this match from this show at this date. And I actually once wrestled psychosis in Mexico and broke his arm and was his left arm. It's incredible. Honestly, I sit down with Aspen and we'll just be having a chat and I'll drop something in like that. And he He introduced me to this thing called WrestleMap and it's an interactive map that just has every promotion in the world that they've got linked to and you just go, why is there a wrestling promotion in Micronesia? What do mean they've got a YouTube channel? And then all of a sudden you're 10 hours deep into that. You've got Aspen Faith, you've got BT Gun, Wolfgang, Emerson Jane, Ravey Davy. You've got the guys up at WrestleZone as well.
speaker-2: you
Kenny: There's just so much across all of the schools at Andy Wild. It's good place, isn't it?
Cal: Yeah, because I think it is showing in just the representation Scotland has on the bigger stage. We seem to be punching so above our weight in just the terms and names we have. Because yeah, we can't deny WWE is the pinnacle and just the amount of Scottish talent in there. It's like, this country, like we're really producing here.
Kenny: Yeah, it's incredible. I think it's representation is so important. And, you know, in the scale of representation, think seeing a Scottish person is maybe not as important as some of the other representation. But I think to look at someone like Drew and someone like Joe, I think are the two big ones just now, but that's not to take away from your Kayleigh Raich, your Piper Nivens and such, and your Noam Dars. But you look at those two and you go, they had very different paths to the WWE. Drew was kind of handpicked. was this really tall jacked Scottish guy that the guy picked was going to be this. He went away, kind of stayed in contact, but used the indies to kind of build the hype up again and got picked up. And then you had Joe who did the stuff with Rusev as an extra, did his route, but then it was becoming a viral meme and capitalizing on that and keeping that momentum going while still being a very good wrestler in his own right that took him there. He also got there a bit older. I think Joe was... mid to late thirties. So, you you sit and look at that and go, okay, well I'm 29. I started fairly late. You know, maybe there is a route for me in eight years to end up there. I think generally speaking, I think that most people you speak to on a independent wrestling show either want to wrestle for the WWE. They want to wrestle in Japan or they want to be king of the Indies. Those are kind of the three things. Obviously with the rise of AEW that kind of becomes a fourth option. But I think that kind of ties into the, king of the Indies where I think they still want to do those other ones. You know, most people just want to make a living doing this. but, and then WWE was seen as the way to do it. But I think there's so many ways now, you know, you look at guys like Matt Cardona who were doing signings every weekend, wrestling on any show that would pay their, pay their wage. Obviously they had that WWE exposure beforehand, but you know, you could look at various other examples of people doing that. ⁓ So it's good to see Scotland punch its way. Also the one that always surprises me and it shouldn't because they've got some phenomenal training down there. But Wales, some of the talent coming out of Wales, given the size of it is ridiculous. they've not necessarily had a Drew McIntyre level success story, but the quality of wrestlers, guys like Flash Morgan Webster, Noam Dar, not Noam Dar, sorry, Flash Morgan Webster. wild boar, guys like that coming out of there. It's just the talent level. Tegan Knox, was obviously in AWMWE, is just crazy. And it's also just one that every so often I'll watch someone wrestle and then find out they're Welsh and I go, ⁓ that makes so sense because their fundamentals are at such a level that it's just, you clearly came through this scene. Yeah. When you think about wrestler from the UK, you always think about England, Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland. Wales is kind of... You never think about Wales when you... It is good to see that the Welsh wrestlers are starting to show their stuff, starting to become more prominent. I didn't know that Wales had a big wrestling ⁓ you know community you know yeah it it's crazy they've got so they've got new wave which is ⁓ flashmog and webster wild boar ⁓ brendan white ⁓ and they've got a school in the the midlands but they've also got a school in wales and everyone i spoke to i've not gone down myself yet but guys have spoken to emerson or something like it's widely regarded as the best training in the uk ⁓ but i actually think it's when you look at it You would expect England with size and with routes to kind of be successful and it is, but Ireland's ridiculously successful. know, Finn Bather, Jordan Devlin over there. LG clearly, like on the Indies, know, you Seamus, Becky Lynch coming through that route, Lyra Valkyrie, Debbie Keitel in Japan. And again, you're going population wise, that's a great success rate if you consider, you know, how many people. And I think a lot of it is Now that people know that there's a route there because of guys like Seamus and Drew and you look at that and go, okay, I should, I should commit to this and just push. And there's so many different routes to get signed now. You know, you could be, you could be a freak athlete in America and get picked up on one of these, you know, uh, NIL deals where they don't care that you're not, you've not wrestled. just like the look of you. You could be a 30 year indie veteran that gets picked up to, you know, put people over and go and coach. Or you could be, you you look at like a Leon Slater prime example. It's now just, just go be the best wrestler in the world and you'll probably get signed. Easier said than done. But, you know, beforehand there were people of Leon's quality that just didn't get eyes on them. The one that immediately jumps out to me is Jody Fleisch. Jody Fleisch is a guy that 10, 15 years ago was doing proportionally as impressive stuff as Leon is now. And like he had opportunities eventually, but at his peak, those networks and those routes just weren't there. So it's great to see that just that accessibility is there. And I think a big part of that is the internet, social media. It's a lot easier to be, you know, we can sit and chat. It's someone who's not gone many matches online because of the internet. could, you know, the amount of viral clips we were talking about the carrying cross clip before going live, you know. something that millions of people have seen but pre-internet that just wouldn't have happened so it's it's one of the upsides of the internet and there's a lot of doubt but it's one of the upsides
Cal: Yeah, because Heather was saying that after the Carrion Cross incident, like she lives just outside of Detroit. said she was going to, she went to the mechanic the next week and they spotted her sale. They were just saying, you're the girl I got thrown into the ceiling a few weeks ago. She still gets that. said, you have you got to be thrown into the ceiling by Carrion Cross? I'll take that. ⁓
Kenny: Yeah That's me. That's it. It's interesting because I think you don't want to, you want to try and get those viral moments. You want to try and get those moments that you know are going to help. And I think it's so much better when it's something that you're like, we'll do this because it fits the match. And that fit the match. it wasn't something they had planned to throw into the roof, but you go, right, let's capitalize on it. Let's make the most out of this. And PPW, ⁓ Pursuit Pro Wrestling in Sheffield. ⁓ 55,000 followers on Instagram, something like that for a wrestling training school is ridiculous. And it's because they've got Nathan Black there who just understands social media so well. they put out great stuff, content that you just sit and consume. as a wrestler, it's great to watch and steal ideas from. The amount of stuff you see rock up in WWE that starts as a Will Cruz PPW reel is ridiculous. Yeah, social media has changed the game in so many ways.
Cal: You were on there about how Scotland, Wales, Ireland, do you also think just the size of these countries and then the communities a little bit tighter where it's like, you know, we're not putting England down, but it's a bit more dispersed. So that whole pooling and sharing of ideas and resources can't really come off as well.
Kenny: Yeah, it's really weird because like I'd be lying if it, if I said that like the Scottish wrestling scene didn't have its, its issues of like, this is my turf. This is your turf. This is like, it's always going to happen just because of the basis of it. And also because market shares are so fragile in Scottish wrestling that people are, you know, worried about what, it mean for them. And people got livelihoods and they get that. But it's yeah, it's the size of it means that it's without, without leaving England, you can. pretty easily as a good wrestler in England wrestle Friday, Saturday, Sunday, every weekend of the month, or at least there are shows that you could be trying to. In Scotland, there's across the kind of the six, seven main companies, you're maybe, you know, that might happen every so often, but it's not as much a guarantee. And then there's not many people that have, that work for all of those. lot of promotions in Scotland are linked with training schools. So they then got to prioritize their own guys just through the nature of that business model. You get people that break that mold. And I think that's where you start to see people that are onto something. I said this recently in another interview, so I won't spend too much on it. But when you look at last year, you've got Judas Gray, Ronan King, Priya Durie, Omar Mohammed, Nick Justice, Planet A. Those are the ones kind of off the top of my head at Casino Brital who bridge the gap between pretty much every promotion. They just kind of get used. And part of it is, think, don't be unlikable, be a nice guy, be genuine. Make people want to spend time with you. But also then those guys are just great, offer something very unique to each of them. know, Planet A and Casino Brutale are both tag teams. One is, you know, intergender, character driven, vegan anarchists, and the other is, know, much more of their in-ring work. but can still do, like Mikey Divine and Rabu's ability to do character stuff is phenomenal as well. So it's, when you look at that, I would imagine that the same would be true of Ireland as well. And I know that, for example, there's two big promotions in Northern Ireland, but they're not necessarily like a complete crossover of rosters. They've got their own guys from their own schools and things. I think just when you get to England, there's so many more promotions that aren't linked with schools. but also just there's just more. Again, it's quite similar to football. You could go and you could go and find a 37 year old English striker that's not particularly good and they'll have played for like 18 clubs in England and they still might have never played in the league that you watch. But if you find someone that's played for 18 clubs in Scotland, they've probably played in the Premier League, they probably played in every championship team, you know, there's just that smaller pool. But I I like where the Scottish scene is headed. Obviously British wrestling as a whole had quite a big reset in 2019 and 2020 for two vastly different reasons. And there was a little bit recovery coming out of that. know, before that as well, had kind of the NXT UAK impact, which whether or not people think that was good or bad, definitely had an impact. So it's kind of building back up. But I think you look at, you know, across the UK as a whole, you've got OTT in Ireland. who consistently put on phenomenal shows. Disco are drawing, know, Discovery and Edinburgh's now are just limited by the venue capacity. Joe's last show sold out in like four minutes and it oversold. You've got North, TNT, Progress, Revpro, you know, you've got AW running in the UK because they know it's such a hot market. WWE running in Cardiff, AW running in Cardiff. ⁓ It's, and then, know, Titanic. in Northern Ireland as well. It's a real good place to be just now, but it's still some growth to go.
Cal: And we haven't really talked about your own character, how did you come about or did you have an idea for a character when you started?
Kenny: ⁓ I wanted to be Kevin Owens. was a big beard. I've shaved the beard. I was a very large bearded, a little bit chubby, a little bit quite chubby guy. ⁓ like Kevin's team was one of my guys. I was a big PWG guy, big Kevin Owens and NXT guy. So was like, I'll just be Kevin Owens. ⁓ Not a great thing to do. Just try and be a BTEC version of someone else. In wrestling, there seems to be people that become the new BTEC. very popular. there was tons of Jeff Hardy clones of the early 2000s that now there's... Yeah, exactly. Every backyard wrestler with a look. I think you've got a little bit of with Osprey at the moment. There's a lot of guys trying to be Osprey just by dressing like Osprey rather than thinking about being one of the best in the world. ⁓ For a while, obviously, before that, had just... ⁓
speaker-2: So many people.
Kenny: that want to be the Undertaker or some big spooky... Mine was Kevin Owens, was not a lot of nuance to it. I was going to be the pint-sized powerhouse because I was fat and therefore that meant strong and I was like five foot eight so you pint-sized and I'll be like Danny Dyer, guy in the pub and I'll fight and then Joe Hendry went yeah I can put you on Discovery Wrestling if you do this character and the character is called Chips and I went What if the character is called Chip Watson? Because Charlie Watson was the name I was using. And to me, I'm not Cher, I need a surname. So there was a bit of a dialogue there that he had the skeleton of the idea of what he wanted with the disco fry and with chips. And I just tried to flesh it out. There's been a lot of ⁓ internal conversation with myself about how I frame the character to be something I love. because I think you've got to love what you're doing in wrestling, especially in wrestling. You're not making a lot of money. You're probably running at a loss. If you're not loving it now, you're not going to love it when you get paid. So it was that thing. Okay, this is very clearly not what I wanted to be in wrestling. I didn't want to do as much comedy. I didn't want to be, you know, super, you know, unserious. I wanted to be like mean, kind of throw people around. So it was okay. Maybe I'm better at doing this. And then I just started to look at guys that I consider the best of this, which would be like Chuck Taylor and the main one, Gene Money, UK based talent, has worked Discovery since the beginning, core pillar of Discovery Wrestling, but has done the transcendence of silly, goofy nipple tapes, zombie lumberjack matches to like Progress Atlas champion, Discovery Wide Division champion, North champion, but he's still Gene Money. He's still the daft lad, he's still got the nipple tapes and I've been lucky enough to share a locker room with Gene and to get advice from him that's kind of helped me realize that the character can be what I want to be now. I can rock up to Wrestle Zone, wrestle a sailor ⁓ and have the crowd chanting fishing ships. ⁓ And I can then go down and be a bit more serious if I need to. Just because I don't show all the time doesn't mean I need to do it. And it's still something that I've got to come to terms with. But yeah, effectively that was... Joe Henry telling me that he thinks this would be for me and that there would be an opportunity on Discovery if I did it. And all I could think about was any backstage interview ever with someone that had been in the WWE where they went, yeah, if you get asked to do something stupid, just say yes and try and work it out later. So it was very much that. was here's an opportunity to wrestle for one of the biggest companies in Scotland, but do this thing. And I went, Fandango got over, let's give it a go. ⁓ So we've been chipped for two years now. I think I debuted in Ring and Discovery about 12 months ago, 12, 18 months ago. I put something out recently about the exact timing on that. Are the characters evolving? It's still the same thing. I'm still the tribal chef, Hiroshi Skranahashi, the brothsman of British wrestling, all of the all of the schisms, of the kind of nicknames, but, you know, I can go a bit more in the ring. can show a bit more of that style that I like to do, which is I think what's important. There was only so long that the same thing would have lasted. ⁓ So I'm lucky that the Disco Faithful have really given me time and patience and have gone behind this character. It's honestly, it's the strangest feeling going back to. normal life after Discovery show. I get it after most shows, like Discovery, wrestling in front of 500, 600 people that are fully bought into what I'm doing. I'm behind the curtain, my music plays, they're up and they're clapping and making noise before I've even walked out. And then I've got to go and be, you know, boyfriend and dog dad and take the bins out the next day. And nobody's standing up and clapping me when I do that. It's a strange high to chase, but it's, It's phenomenal.
Cal: Yeah, Heather was saying exactly the same thing after a weekend. She's playing heel a lot as well. then having to be, I'm just a very quiet person. People always walk up to oh, you're so quiet and reserved. I my wrestling character is just basically me, I don't know, exploring myself a little bit, she says. It's a side she doesn't get to do. She's too nervous to do anywhere else.
Kenny: Those are the the wrestling characters I love and I say that with the full thing of like Chip at a show and you know Chip just now we're similar but there's a lot of differences but I think the best wrestlers are the ones that are just themselves turned up to 100. I think you need to be especially in the world of social media where you're constantly interacting with fans, you're constantly trying to make content. It's a lot easier if you can just do something organic. I think one of the best for that is ⁓ Omar Mohammed, TV's Omar Mohammed to be his full title, who, one of my best friends in wrestling, but he is so authentic in everything he does. And then he just comes up with these great ideas and you will see half of Scottish wrestling coffee in him within two weeks, including myself, because you go, why didn't I think of this? And it's because he's just going, ⁓ I would like to watch that. Let me do it. I'm going to ask wrestlers their favourite things on my air box. So it's It's good fun.
Cal: And yeah, and in a way you were quite like, cause he came up with like one of the most Scottish characters you could think of, the guy who works in a chip shop.
Kenny: Yeah, it's an easy sell. I'm making my debut for a promotion in Italy next month, IWA and Pro Wrestling Roma. ⁓
Cal: Please tell me you've said you're going to deep fry the pizzas.
Kenny: I'm waiting to see if they're going to boo me or tear me first, but it has been written down. It's the only thing that there's a whiteboard up here that just says deep fried pizza Italy question mark. But that was the case of those guys were looking for unique characters that could be explained in two or three sentences. And as you may have grasped from this interview, I'm not great at keeping things short and simple. I like my words, but this character was just super easy to go.
speaker-2: It's
Kenny: Yeah, I run a chip shop and a wrestle because I want my chip shop to be world famous. There you go. That's what you get. And if you want that to be super serious and you know, ⁓ I'm going to grease you up and beat you up. Sure. But most of the time it's just me coming out red polo shirt, checkered shorts that have cut off, have a little goofy fun and then like try to tell a story in between the ring. And I'm lucky enough to do it with one of my best mates, James Erdos. by my side. it's good fun. And again, I've been so lucky in disco with, ⁓ sharing the ring with guys like Caleb Valhalla, Asman Faith, ⁓ Casino Brutale, these big characters to then learn from. Timing in wrestling is such a big thing. You can do all the cool moves in the world, but it's the timing, it's the pacing. And that's the biggest thing I'm still learning. ⁓ So every time I get to go in with someone as experienced as them, it's just good fun.
Cal: And you find there a bit, have you met some who are very, like was like the other week, like I said, I've been watching a lot of documentary, like Macho Man was kind of quite famous. He would send his opponents like long sheets of saying, this is all, this is what we have to do and when, or are you, or are you bit more kind of, you've got ideas what you want to do, but a bit more.
Kenny: Yeah, I've not had much of an experience of the first one. think the closest to that is I've been helping out at Discovery Wrestling Academy, kind of with the beginners classes. you know, it was involved in a match that gave a couple of them the debut. And that was a bit more like that, you know, because it was a controlled environment. But most of the shows I'm on, it's, you know, turn up on the day, maybe being told who I'm wrestling. So I've maybe thought of some ideas of Well, they do this, I do this. How does that gel? But it's then, you know, what time do they turn up before doors? Let's put something together and then get out there. And even within that, you know, you're maybe going, we'll do something here that leads to this. And I think if you try and make wrestling painting by numbers and like super plan, you don't leave room for the crowd to react. And especially with a character like mine, there's so many good opportunities to get moments that you want to pay off with those that if you don't leave the room to breathe for those, just miss out a lot of the tables. So I've not had anything there yet. I'm a big over thinker, so I will run through a lot in my head, right? If this goes wrong, how can I recover it? If I want them to react like this, but they don't, how can we save it? A lot of guys that are super experienced will just go, this is the base, fill in what you need to know, and then let's go out there and they can put their boots on and go out. I've not got that level of comfortability with it yet, but I, I'm starting to learn what I do that gets reactions and, know, where I can place it and use it every time. ⁓ so that's, that's, that's been great. And that just comes with, with time and reps and you know, getting out in front of crowds. So, ⁓ but it wrestles a weird one wrestling in front of more people is less nerve wracking than wrestling in front of less. I think the most I've wrestled in front of is, you know, maybe 750. I've also wrestled in front of four people. I wrestled on a pre-show that they forgot to advertise and four people were there and you're sat going, we planned quite a fun match but there are four people there, let's just go out and do some stuff because there's four people there. ⁓
Cal: Yeah. Yeah, you might just go a bit wilder there and just say, ⁓ we'll just go with it. ⁓
Kenny: Yeah, I just always look at it as like if 10 % of the crowd love you and there's a thousand people in the crowd, that's a lot more people than if there's four. So it's just a game of percentages at that point. But I've been lucky that, know, rest was on. I got really positive reactions with, um, last time I was up against Captain Allen, um, they, they, they really bought to the character. They, they've really gone behind, you know, they were chanting fish and ships, which is just ridiculous at a wrestling show, but. That's what it's all about. But also, know, like the disco crowd that I've had a lot of exposure to have been there consistently. like some of the people that come along to this score, probably some of the most dedicated wrestling fans in the UK. Jessica is based in London. She travels up to Edinburgh for the show. She came across our show in Germany to show the support. ⁓ She shares all of the talent stuff. You know, she's super engaged, but there's also There's fans like Greg that have been there since, you know, 10 years ago, since year one, eight years ago, like since year one, and have seen the story of seeing people come and go, have seen guys like Joe go from, you know, just guys that were on Discovery to the champ, to the WWE, seen the evolution and, you know, would know more about the history of the company than I would. And I always feel it's very important that they're giving me lots. So I try and make sure that you know, as well as speaking to them and understanding them that, I make the time to sit and remember faces, remember names. That's quite an important thing for me. I was, and I am fundamentally a wrestling fan. had a wrestling podcast. had so many wrestling podcasts that I need to be the wrestler that I as a fan would have wanted to talk to. I want to be the person that will, you want to stop and ask me for a photo and chat 10 minutes. Let's go. don't mind. you want to buy my merch but you're a couple pounds short, I don't care, there you go, have the t-shirt. ⁓ I just want to be, I'm not the greatest wrestler in the world but I can be your favourite. That's the Chip Watson mentality.
Cal: Yeah, it's interesting what you're saying here, because before we went on, like I'm in a new job and we're doing online training. know it's funny you mentioned Wales because one of the guys on there as well, he's based in Wales. And just while we were talking in between sessions, I mentioned wrestling, do a podcast and he's a big wrestling fan as well. And he just said, it was interesting with it. He's got two kind of 12, 13 year old boys because of sort of prime age for taking. It is taking them to W W in Cardiff. then at the most weekends he's going to the local performances. when W W came up again, Oh no dad, let's go to the other one. He was asking, he just said, well, they seem really nice and they always come and speak to us like the wrestlers and they always have time for an autograph. And it's that connection. think that's, don't really, it's so good and handy like that. Yeah.
Kenny: think it's also like, it's an affordability thing, I think for me as well. I, there are, and not to consistently put over discovery because it's where I train, but a child's ticket at Discovery is five pound. For five pound, you can come and see four hours of some of the best wrestling in the country as a child. You can buy a family ticket for 30 quid. And you know, there's been, you know, should we raise the prices up? No, because it's a show for the people. It's a show for the families. want it to be. in a world where WWE rightfully so, charging the price that they can, they're charging insane amounts to then go and be in the 12th row of the seventh tier. It's cool, you get to watch your favorite wrestlers, but I think for me as a kid, when I say as a kid, when I was like 16, 17, getting the 10 hour mega bus down to watch progress, it's because I could go and stick my middle finger up at Spike Trevay and he would see it and he would call me. you know, some stuff that I probably can't say in a podcast. And, you know, you sit and go, oh, he insulted me. I feel part of the audience. Whereas like, there's just that level of separation in big productions. And I think it's the same with, you know, music. You go and see your favorite artists at Wembley in front of 50,000 people. That's a great experience. But also go and see a band you like in front of like 70 people where like they see you in the crowd and they can build that connection. And I think you can see that a lot in like, And you know, stuff Ravy Davey is doing in Glasgow, you know, they've been doing so much with the church wrestling and all the kind of the kids around Govan and everything. And they've built a proper community around that because they can engage with the wrestlers that they're there. So I think that's the main thing is indie wrestling needs to remember its roots. And I think it's good that you've got family friendly indie wrestling and then you've got just good wrestling because I think sometimes people think the kids just need the silly stuff. But Kids deserve good wrestling too. I think it's the same argument as films. There's points where you watch a really bad film and you go, this is a bad film. And people go, it's for kids. Kids deserve good things as well. We have Toy Story. We have Toy Story. Why are they getting Migration? Why are they getting a really bad film about animated ducks when we got this masterpiece? it's not just nostalgia. just, it is a better film. So I think it's important to
Cal: to you.
Kenny: You know, you can't just... There was a quote that was given to a friend of mine recently, is feedback, which is, not everyone understands Shakespeare, but everyone understands Mr. Bean. ⁓ And I think it's great, you know, and I think it serves a lot to Chip Watson. My gimmick is really easy to digest, prime Mr. Bean. But some kids love Shakespeare. So I think to deny them the opportunity to be exposed to it is a mistake.
Cal: Yeah. Kenny, you come in and do?
Kenny: I was going to ask about the character. Did you see it becoming, did you Chip Watson becoming Hale or did you maybe think, oh it might be a face? I think initially I thought this will be really easy to be a face because I think it's lovable underdog, it's Santino Marella, it's Fandango, it's Joe Henry, it's the people's character. I did think it would also be really easy to like just come out, be really greasy, know, throw food at people. You know, especially going to like other countries. When I wrestled in Germany, you know, I was a face, but I think it could have been really easy to just come out and talk about how British food is better because like, realistically, British food is not better than a lot of things. It's pretty low down the list. It's probably somewhere along like, you know, Micronesian Tongan food, I don't know what they serve, you know, we're no Italy. But so I think playing into that would be really easy because I also think it's important that you shouldn't have to change everything about your character to get booed or cheered. It's really the mannerisms, it's how you do it. I can come out and do a lot of the same stuff, just with a different attitude. I probably wouldn't come out to Lancashire hotpots if I wanted to get booed because that song is just too infectious. But yeah, I think it's one of those where I just look at kind of where... I tried to look at that level of wrestler where like the obvious one in Scotland has always been Grado. ⁓ And I've shared the locker room a couple times with Grado and he's great to watch and he's an enigma. ⁓ But I tried to look at how I could be somewhere between Grado and what I initially wanted to be with a know, PWG and the wrestler. So it's threading those lines and it's not a balance I've perfected yet. And it'll probably take me another two or three years before I'm close to that. But I'm very lucky with the network I've got around me to be able to draw on people much better than I am. You know, they always say that like you're the son of the five people you spend the most time you're around. And if that's the case, then I am super lucky because I've got, one of the best that Scotland's produced in Aspen faith, two of the best up and comers and, ⁓ Judas Gray and Ronan King. And then I've got Monstrom who we don't like him, but you know, he drives, so that's helpful to be around. and then, you know, guys like Omar Mohammed, Cornelius, Bruce Arad, like the list goes on. I am, I'm very lucky in terms of, ⁓ we, could get, get together to watch them wrestling with 10, 15 guys. And you've got different approaches coming from all over. It's a, it's good fun. And then there's people we started becoming friendly with throughout the scene that all of a sudden you're like, oh, I'm to a show in Glasgow. I know anyone on it? Oh, I do. I'm going down to this show in Newcastle. Do know anyone? Oh, here's four people I know. And that just makes it so much easier, especially so many of the drives, like driving back from Tarbert at like 2 in the morning, but you've got like three of your best mates in the car. It's a... Honestly, at this point, if you told me I would never get further in wrestling than I am now, but I got to do it with the people that I'm with now for another 10 years, at that point, I'm just happy to do it with my mates. That's the reality of it.
Cal: It was just when you were speaking, I'm just reminded of a story, I don't know if you watched the John Cena episode.
Kenny: I think I skimmed through it, yeah.
Cal: Yeah, it's where Grimm told his story, like a connection with Andy Ressling was, I think when he was 11, he grew up in Greenock and himself and his dad took him and his wee brother down to watch the He didn't say who it was, but he did say he remembers after the show they came out, the heel came out and his brother decided to just go and boot him in the arse.
Kenny: Let's go!
Cal: Very Scottish but very kind Andy Rasmussen
Kenny: Yeah. It's, it's some of the stories that you get within these are incredible. I've been at shows where, you know, the crowd have thrown drinks in the ring. you know, grown adults, grown adults in 2026 getting so invested in wrestling that they're throwing drinks at the heels. I've been on, you know, shows where like there's backstage locker room tension, but like the biggest one I always laugh about is, you know, we were talking about dark side of the ring and they talk about the locker rooms doing drugs and everyone injecting backstage. I was at a locker room that was the backstage was a pub and people were sat around the Nintendo Switch playing Mario Kart and Super Smash Bros. And honestly, I would much rather that, know, it's much nicer than what I imagine it used to be. And the best part is you still get some mad stories like, you know, the nights out and people hanging out and... You know, all the stuff that goes on and you know, people still like a good drink. The nights out after a show in Aberdeen are a constant ⁓ badness for my hangover limit. But yeah, it's at the same time, you just also just have people sat backstage just chilling, making content. It's good fun. It's the Indies are where I want to be. It's a combination of realism of like the character I've got, my ability, the age. Probably not going to get signed. But would love to be that Matt Cardona kind of style of wrestling anywhere and anywhere. Someone wants me to fly over to Sweden and wrestle in front of 20 people. Yeah, me up. I like traveling. I like wrestling. It's perfect combo.
Cal: Yeah, I had a question there that just escaped my mind. Sorry, Kenny, have you got something there? Well, I've kind of recovered my thought. I just had that one, it just went black there. No solicity to you.
Kenny: ⁓ I guess, ⁓ like. You've with with everywhere you've wrestled like in Scotland England or you know Europe Like is there one one place you absolutely love like in Scotland You know or across Europe like one place that when you when you get told we want you on the card You know, You know Definitely no, no bother. shall be there, you know Yeah, the main one for me is anytime Discovery is running Portobello Town Hall, which has become the kind of the home of the new era, I was a fan of Discovery. I got on it through this character that wasn't maybe meant to wrestle and now is. And that's like that crowd is my people. But also anytime I was desperate to get up to WrestleZone, I thought that the crowd in Aberdeen would be perfect for me, the backstage environment. So anytime that I've being afforded the opportunity to go wrestle for the wrestlers of guys is just phenomenal. And like there's a lot that want to take off. I wrestled for Iron Gurgers this year as part of Planet A's charity show and that was great. That was something I wanted to do. I really like a lot of the guys over there. I really wanted to get involved. I'm still really keen to maybe try and do something with Power Pro as well. I'd ⁓ love to get up to Combat League. up in the proper highlands of Scotland. They're so far away from everything that they're just doing their own thing. think it's great what they're doing up there. I'd love to go up there and express my own thing up there as well. I'd love to start getting involved more down in England. I've gone and trained down there. I've not had the chance to wrestle yet. I theoretically wrestled in Germany and Italy before England, which is strange, but it's the way that things have worked out. But England's got such a plethora of its own talent that to then be, you know, for a company to pay for the expenses to bring you down, probably put you in a hotel, you really need to be offering something. So it's just one of those, it's going to be a combination of the hard work that I need to put in, a bit of luck, because there is always a bit of luck, know, somebody can't make a show when they know about you or you know something. There's always going to be that bit of that, but I'm just going to keep putting in the hard work, showing up when I can. Doing my bits and bobs. I think like the pinnacle for anyone in the kind of the northern scene is to wrestle for North. So I'd love to do that. You know, they've got guys like keg stacker who's just retired but who has, you know, a very similar gimmick to mine and managed to really resonate over there. So I like to think I'd be able to do something similar with a bit more work. But also just I'd love to just go and wrestle. There's so many promotions that just do their own thing. and would just love to go and work for as many of them as possible across the world. Japan, China, Nepal, I don't care. Just let me wrestle.
Cal: The question I had was, it's come back to me, like, what's more rewarding to you? Getting a whole crowd booing you or a whole crowd cheering you? Which kind of, does either one give you more satisfaction when?
Kenny: I think I always wanted to be someone that got booed when I first started. And I think some of that was feeling like it was probably going to be easier to get people to boo me than cheer me, which is maybe something to with some self-confidence issues or whatnot. But I just felt like I could go out there and be very unlikable very easily. I tell you what, it's going out there and hearing a whole crowd chant Chip when you're getting in the ring. is like four way ahead of the last disco show, Omar Mohammed, Rabu, Aspen, some of the biggest names in Scotland. And as I'm in the ring and before I come out, the pop of the crowds great before the counter and they come out, I'm in the ring, they start chatting for Omar, they start chatting for Chip and I'm going, oh, this is good for the ego. This is good for the soul. You're sat listening to it back and it's never quite as loud on your, you know, what's on your phone is when you're in there and you're sat going. this is crazy what's going on here. I was on, I was literally on a treadmill and I was bored on the treadmill. So I thought, why don't I sign up for wrestling training? And now, you know, 600 people in Scotland are buying chippy t-shirts and chanting for Chip Watson and then coming up and asking for photos. And, know, I close my eyes to pre pre COVID or end of like just before COVID when I was traveling to chapter 99 for progress in Sheffield to go meet Chris Hero. And I'm going, I'm not Chris Hero. I have nowhere near Chris Hero. But there are people that are traveling in their own right, be it from London, from a different part of Edinburgh, who are coming and taking a photo with Chip Watson. I'm going, you know what? This feels pretty good. This is, I like, it's nice to be nice. It's nice to be liked.
Cal: And I suppose it's like when you get little kids coming up for you for photos and all that, that's got to be quite special as well. Is that where the biggest reward is? It's like when the kids are getting so invested as well.
Kenny: Yeah, it's a strange one because my character obviously does really well with young audiences because it's super bright and colourful. Mr. Bean Shakespeare kind of thing. I'll get comes a kid, they come up, they want you to sign their random WWE title belt that they've got. And you're like, yeah, sure why not, buddy? They want you to sign their t-shirt or a piece of paper they found and they got their notebooks. And I'm like, your parents might keep this. And in 15 years, when you're, you know, 22, 23 years old, they're gonna show you it and you're gonna go, who was Chip Watson? And you're gonna sit and think and maybe you go, ⁓ it's the current WWE champion. That'd be the dream, but realistically, you was the ⁓ chippy guy maybe? like, ⁓ I don't know, but you ask for his signature. think it's...
Cal: And you're so excited! ⁓
Kenny: Yeah, you know, it's just that thing of in that moment they're super excited and you know, in a year's time they might have forgotten who you are. But for that moment you've made a positive impact. And again, the other one I think I actually really enjoy is when very serious looking men come up and tell me that they enjoyed my character because it's the exact sort of people that Jim Cornette style people. come up to you and I'm like, you're about to tell me I'm killing the business here. And they go, didn't know what to think, but I loved your stuff. That was good fun. And I go, good, good. I came out, you saw the look and you went, I'm not gonna like this guy. And I've converted you. That's what I want. Again, I just think it's that thing of, ultimately, this is a depressing sentence, but ultimately we're all gonna die. like you know or be replaced by AI at this point one of the two and I just want to leave as much positive influence on this world as I can be that you know I'm not a head trainer at the disco school but I can help with individual people and I can be there I can be a support to them and I can help them in their journey to go be wrestlers if that's taking five minutes to go and chat to a fan who's you know super excited and wants to tell me about you know their favorite fish and chips order
Cal: Yeah.
Kenny: or, you know, ⁓ people that I've bumped into that you see them at the shoot through few shows and just taking the time to remember their face, remember their name, remember, you know, that the Gavin's, the Greg's, the Jessica's, the disco, you know, are just not being in our soul backstage. I'm just like, ultimately, if I decide to pack everything in tomorrow and the grand scheme of wrestling, I've made no difference. But to a few individual people here and there. Hopefully I've left some positivity which I think is the main thing you can do. Treat it like a job.
Cal: Yeah, it's so I've got a friend who's done stand-up comedy and he just says it's that feeling that for an hour I just had people I never met in my life never probably never meet again and they were just hysterical and laughter at what I was saying and just said yeah and he just said that feeling alone that You know all the money could be given but if that feeling wasn't there, it's not worth it
Kenny: Well, that's it. And it's even better in wrestling when it's something that's not planned and you've taken a risk. And like it can be an off cuff thing. I had a match, comedy tag match, lots of funny things planned. But at one point I just go, stop hitting him in the wiener. And I was just kind of saying it to respond to something that had been said, but I clearly said it loud enough that everyone heard it. And you just hear the simultaneous group of people that don't need each other, chuckling at a 29 year old man. in a chippy outfit saying the word wiener and you're sat going you know what this ain't all that bad this ain't all that bad
Cal: Alright, anything to finish off with? Kenny was coming up for that earlier.
Kenny: I think the biggest question and I would say. How many free chips have you gotten? You know what? Zero. And this is the big one. I have not capitalised enough on this. My partner works with someone whose parent owns a chip shop and I have not capitalised on, hey listen, you give me some stuff and I'll do it out. I have been... I have not...
Cal: Hahaha
Kenny: been given any free chip shop stuff to do. There are other restaurants in Scotland that don't have this gimmick that have done it before me. I'm missing a trick, which is a shame because I love a deep fried steak pie, or like a steak pie single. I'm not a big chip eater, it's cannibalism a bit. But deep fried black pudding, if I had, actually it's probably not good if my PT is listening to this. Even if I had unlimited, I would still have chicken and rice, don't worry. ⁓ but no, I not had anything like that, I will hopefully that or monster or the two. think every wrestler wants a monster sponsorship and I think they've missed it. They've missed the trick by not doing it with someone. I'm not saying it should be me. They could probably aim a lot higher, but you imagine someone coming out on like AWWE sponsored by Monster Ultra. Perfect target audience, wrestling fans and energy drinkers.
Cal: ⁓ yeah. Exactly. Yeah, it's very strange you say that. Heather was on about energy drinks as well.
Kenny: When I leave wrestling the two things I will always think about backstage is the smell of deep heat everywhere, just the amount of specifically white monsters because obviously they don't want the calories of a full sugar one and then just the fact that I have spent many weekends having my back rubbed down by another man because I forgot to tan or they forgot to tan and you sit there and go
speaker-2: It's-
Kenny: How have I got to the point of my life where I'm just rubbing down another guy? I'm not complaining. It's just, I didn't think this, when I went to university, I didn't think this was the route for doing a master's degree, rub a man's back. But yeah, that's the life we choose to live.
Cal: Yeah. I suppose like, without like one last question now, are you always surprised at some of the people that turn out to be wrestling fans? Cause I always am like, cause there's still maybe a little bit of that bias at wrestling to this kind of trashy, but you find like in the strangest places, you'll find the most hardcore wrestling fans like high up in academia and all these kinds of areas. Does that surprise you as well?
Kenny: So whenever someone tells me they're a wrestling fan, there's two ways that conversation's about to go, which is they talk about World of Sport and Big Daddy and I go, oh, you're not a wrestling fan. You watched wrestling in 1980 and you're trying to create conversation and that one's a bit awkward. Or they go, yeah, I'm a big Oba Femi fan. And I go, oh, you watched the current, you're actually a wrestling fan? Okay, this is interesting. And then you try and gauge what sort of founder they are. They like an angry internet fan or they like a more chill fan. Um, it's, but the one that actually surprises me more and there was a, I think I asked people, Mike to wait Bailey tweet about this a while ago. Some of the roots that people who become wrestlers come from is insane. But you'll be chatting to some guy backstage whose name's like Johnny Hot Wheels and he's got like slick back here. And like he's on a skateboard with fire and he's helping set up the ring and you go, Oh, how's your day? And he's going. Oh, not bad. I'm a surgeon. So I was just doing knee surgery. like an hour ago and you go, what? are you? You know, don't get me wrong. There's plenty of students and like people who work, you know, pretty simple, easy jobs so that they can focus on the passion. But yeah, you'll be like, you'll be sat in a six man tag and you'll have, you know, head of finance for a bank, an Abercrombie Finch model, a rocket scientist, a vet and you're sat going. This doesn't make sense. This should not be a mix of people. And it's the same with like, again, my homies, the disco boys, my best mates in wrestling. Like there's some crossover and interest, but like, I don't particularly think that like me, Charles Douglas, Judas Grey, Ronan King, Omar Mohammed, like there's no crossover for us elsewhere, but we've become such a tight knit. group of boys because of the wrestling and like just the way that we view it, that you're sat going, this is wild. It's, it's insane. And then every so often a celebrity will pop up as a wrestling fan as well. And again, it comes back to a writer. They're about to say that they liked the rock in 1990 or they are about to be like, Oh no. And again, it's that thing of we're not quite back at that peak popularity. But with Netflix and it being so accessible, accessible and like WW unreal, there's so many ways into it. I know people that like wrestling only because they play the games. They don't watch the show, they just play the games. because of that, their favourite wrestler is some random guy that was super overpowered in like, Smackdown vs Raw 2012. They're big couch Hamrock guys, which nobody is.
Cal: ⁓ there was, I remember it, ⁓ Okay, yeah, that's just, Grimes just messaged me, was actually on the ferry over to the city, it was awful, so he said he really wanted to listen. But he did have a question the other night, and it's the classic one. He's from the West Coast, you're an East Coast man, chip shops, you know what's coming, salt and vinegar, salt and sauce.
Kenny: I'm a I'm a traitor here. I will get so again, this comes back to I don't get chips. I'm like I will get if I'm going to a chip shop, I'll get maybe a half-fried pizza, some chicken nuggets and like a steak pie single, which again explains why I need a personal trainer. But I will get I will get salt and vinegar on like the nuggets and the steak pie. I if I'm getting chips, I can I can get behind salt and sauce. And you know what, I vigorously defend salt and sauce because it's ingrained in our culture. But yeah, because I don't get chips, I don't really get it. But yeah, I'm a salt and vinegar guy on my chip shop order. ⁓ But if anyone ever asked me that in public, I will deny that and talk about how everything's better on the East Coast. You get the 45 minute train over from Glasgow and your life expectancy increases 20 years. ⁓ But it's just one of those. I think a lot of comes down to I eat, I don't like eating with my hands. I don't like my hands being sticky or messy. So even if I have to eat with my hands, I then don't want sauce on it. ⁓ So salt and vinegar is the one for me. Although I am regularly told that salt and vinegar on chicken nuggets is weird, but try it. It just makes the batter a wee bit spicy.
Cal: Yeah, well, Grim's just replied their top man when he heard your answer. So with that, this is how we usually end, just some quickfire questions. No worries. Don't worry, it's not like, it's scary, it's not like that. It's not like my quizzes that I do for the convention. Just some fun quickfires. What's the one move that instantly says Chip Watson has arrived?
Kenny: Let's go. Yeah. ⁓ slingshot spear.
Cal: Okay, right, if the disco fry had an official entrance theme genre, what would it be?
Kenny: Polka. A polka dance. Something funky in a bit out there.
Cal: What's the most Chip Watson thing you've ever done in a match?
Kenny: I once gave someone a Crippler crossface with a battered sausage in their mouth.
Cal: Fantas
Kenny: Apologies to Jim Cronet for that one.
Cal: So this is a brutal truth here. Which Scottish wrestler hits the hardest?
Kenny: See, my default answer is Aspen Faith or a back club from Judas Grey but the one that sticks out just now, Raboo gave me some stomps in the corner at the last show and it was, I never want to get stomped in the corner again. was horrific but no, Aspen Faith and Judas Grey, they leave it all in the ring.
Cal: All right. What's the one match you'd book for yourself tomorrow if you had complete control?
Kenny: ⁓ me versus Gene Money or me versus Jack Ripley. Those are the two just now.
Cal: Right, what's your favourite bump to give and your least favourite to take?
Kenny: I like giving a good clothesline because I can control it and I think I've got a good one. Bump. This is again, this is going to be this thing of a and it's a wrestler cliche, cliche where it's like, ⁓ it's not the moves you expect. I went for a back sent on off the second, the guy moved out the way. So I was just hitting the mat. It's a low set ring. So there's not as much, you know, give and there's not a lot of give to begin there. Like it does suck, but I just didn't expect it to suck so much. ⁓ I basically just jumped landed on my back and went I'm never doing that again and then did it the next show so you know as you do
Cal: Yeah, it's like, there's another story Heather was telling us when she's wrestling in Ohio, said for some reason their top ropes are really loose compared to other circuits. And she was saying she found that out at her expense because she likes to do a good top rope move and said, I've had a few mishaps.
speaker-2: Yeah
Kenny: I've had somewhere I do or did the second rope springboard stunner and you turn up somewhere and maybe they use different ropes or they've not got as experienced people doing it and I would jump up and the rope would just drop under my feet and at that point I've worked it now I can style it I can slide out the ring from it and it looks like I did it on purpose but the first few times I am just falling and then you're going well there's no way I don't just look like an idiot here thanks guys
Cal: Okay, ⁓ this might be a controversial one. Which Scottish crowd is the loudest? Discovery, WrestleZone or someone else?
Kenny: Right now, when I'm there, it's Discovery. But let me tell you, you annoy the WrestleZone crowd the right way. they are passionate. They will queue up at 2 o'clock for a show where doors are at 6. It's crazy. Wrestling is still real in Aberdeen. I love it.
Cal: ⁓ Who's the most underrated wrestler in Scotland at the moment?
Kenny: ⁓ underrated in Scotland. Let's go for a... See, last year my answer would have been Omar Mohamed and it would have been straight to the point. Bush, Bash, Bosch. He's so good. He's so versatile. He's evolved so much. But everyone has given Omar his flowers recently, which means that he might not be underrated anymore. I think he still is. And I know he'll listen to this, so I'll say that bit. But let's go for Finlay Bane. That's going to be my new answer. guy that was from Airdrie training on the West Coast but started coming to train with us at Discovery and took the risk of taking himself off shows to become the wrestler he wanted to become. And I think what you're seeing now is the Lariat machine. You know, this guy is 6'6", 18 years old. ⁓ He could be rubbish for 10 years and still be younger than me and have all the time in front. Finlay Beane, He should be getting a lot more opportunities.
Cal: Okay, if the disco fry was a finish or what would it look like?
Kenny: ⁓ I'm picturing, you know, Team 3D did the waz up, I'm picturing that, but one after another. Double waz up. ⁓ no, no, no. ⁓ pity the poor guy who takes that. Exactly.
Cal: Nice roll. Cutting the fool base. So what's the perfect post-show meal and why is it probably fried?
Kenny: I'm sorry. ⁓ I mean, you're not wrong. It's lazy option is McDonald's and I will just get 20 nuggets, but that is the lazy option. If I've got if I've got my option, we're going to go wing stop. We're going to get some fried chicken and then we're going to go to German Doner kebab and we're going to merge them together. And it's going to be a heart attack, heart attack in a box. And again, if my PT is watching, I mean chicken and rice.
Cal: And final question we ask everyone would you ever consider coming up to Stornwell? I think we even talked about this pre-show.
Kenny: Yeah, absolutely. I so I guess I'd rest on my biggest passion is travel. I tried to you know, I've been to maybe 42 countries I'd love to wrestle in 42 countries. That'd be fun. But like I I'm one of those where people would ask Why are you going there? And my answer is just I've not been before so if I've not been there before I'm more than happy to go Unless it's Celtic Parker Ibrox. Happy to leave those
speaker-2: Bye!
Cal: think not. Total agreement there with you. But yeah, hopefully we never know if we can meet up one day if you're in the next one. We'd love to see you.
Kenny: I've heard some good stuff about the black poodle not that way so
Cal: When you said deep-fried black pudding, I think you can't go far wrong up here. you go to one chip shop, they do the most amazing milkshake to go. It sounds like a bit of black pudding supper with a milkshake, but it is.
Kenny: I've heard some good things. Oh, yeah. Yeah. That sounds good. That sounds good.
Cal: So I'd find if people want to find you, we can try to.
Kenny: at charliewatson.pw on everything, main one Instagram. ⁓ was big on on Twitter but then Twitter changed so Instagram now I post a load of nonsense on there but lots of good stuff as well.
Cal: ⁓ The Grimms just said hang on. I don't know what we're meant to hang on for but we are just kind of wrapping up. We could talk all night but I think we do have things to do. Kenny, final thought from you.
Kenny: ⁓ just it was great to have you on to hear your story about, you know, getting into wrestling, everything you've done, where you've been, you know, that's why we've been wanting to get, ⁓ you know, wrestlers, you know, from, Scotland, England, want, want to get as many as possible, you know, just to, just to hear the story basically, you know.
Cal: Yeah, because it's the one thing like we have someone else like his part of a podcast. He's not into wrestling, but he's always he's actually he's a PhD in Gaelic and languages. What he's saying is like, he's into his role playing games. And the thing is, I will really will move culture along his stories and characters and everything we had to do. Because when I've heard people all rest, I said, it's the stories that that's what keeps people coming. It's the stories like. You know, technically good matches don't keep you as long as like just the ones which had a good story and just interesting characters for you.
Kenny: Yeah. I think it's again, wrestling sits in this weird thing between sport and like drama. And I think, you know, even if you were to compare it to, to football, um, the things people talk about our moments and football, hand to God, um, know, Croatia's last minute, um, France's winner. I'm just choosing things that are all against England, which I promise you, you deliver. You know, you remember those 90th minute winners, those like,
speaker-2: Ultimately That definitely is.
Kenny: those four nil, five nil wins. You don't think about, ⁓ I remember this was, there was this really good game back and forth. You might as a neutral, but when it's your team and it's your people, you just remember those moments. So got some big stuff coming up in discovery. Number one contender to the tag titles. So let's hope that we make a moment there. ⁓
Cal: So and as always as we finish our wrestling shows Kenny, know what? always say go out and support indie wrestling if you can exactly it's like I said, I don't think we need to explain why you've listed a trip to rise made the case fantastic Yeah, as did Heather and I'm sure everyone else will and just to sign off there. So next wrestling show We've got the big rig coming on big rig Brian Colton and then after that a very interesting character in Mickey Knuckles. She's gonna be
Kenny: ⁓ amazing. You're going to have fun with that one.
Cal: Yeah, that's what Heather said. We said we all call her Aunt Mickey. We love her. Said she is such an interesting person to be around as well.
Kenny: I'm just in Scotland as well, so they'll have some stories from bleeding gums.
Cal: I think I'm the same age as her. just saying, my back feels funny if I sleep wrong and she's getting pounded every weekend and she's still, how does she still do it? I don't know. It's like incredible.
Kenny: Love of the game, love of the game, it's all it can be.
Cal: Yeah, so with that everyone, thanks for listening and we'll see everyone very soon. Goodnight everyone. Bye.