Episode 6: Mitch and Pro Wrestling

Meet Mitch — Brisbane-based real estate pro by day, pro wrestler by night. In this week's episode, Mel sits down with the man who goes by "One Shot Ryder" to find out what it's actually like to lead a double life in the squared circle.

Mitch walks us through everything: how a childhood trip to Times Square and a chance encounter with a WWE billboard lit a spark that never quite went out; what training really looks like (spoiler: a lot of learning how to fall over, and building up a "callous" to pain); and why he describes pro wrestling as equal parts athletics, acting, and improv. He also gets refreshingly honest about the politics of the industry, the financial realities of wrestling in Australia ("a hot dog and a handshake" is the industry phrase), and why he gave up a steady career to work as a removalist and landscaper — all so he could fund tours of Japan and America.

There are some brilliant behind-the-scenes moments too: from storyline chaos when a wrestler pulls out the afternoon of a show, to the unexpected perks of the job (Disneyland in Japan, anyone?). Mitch also shares how his family reacted when they came to his very first show — an experience he now freely admits he wishes they'd skipped — and why wrestling in Japan is an entirely different experience to wrestling in front of a Queensland crowd on the beers.

Whether you're a lifelong wrestling fan or someone who's always wondered what really goes on behind the curtain, this one's a ripper. And if you've ever thought about giving it a go yourself, Mitch has some very practical advice for exactly that.

Follow Mitch on Instagram @oneshotryder

Mel Loy is a storyteller, community enthusiast, and host of this insightful exploration into the power of individual passions. She’s dedicated to highlighting stories that connect people and inspire action.

You can connect with Mel on LinkedIn and Instagram.

Do you have a weird or wonderful hobby, or do you know someone who does? Then get in touch! Email hello@cuttlefish.group.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Welcome to Wait, you do what? The show where we unearth some of the weird and wonderful hobbies of the people in our communities. I'm your host, Mel Loy. I'm recording this on the lands of the Yavera and Terrible People here in the Engine Brisbane. And I love sharing stories. So sit back, relax, enjoy, and laugh, and maybe be a bit inspired by some of the hobbies our guests share with us on this show. Let's get into it. Mitch, welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_00 0:32

Thanks. 29, um I have lived in Brisbane the last six years, originally born in Toomba. Um, grew up my whole life there, a bit of a country boy out just outside Toowoomba. And now I have a family of my own. My daughter will be two in like two days, which is pretty crazy. I feel like that's happy birthday. Yeah, thank you. I I feel like um like everyone says that just went so fast. Um and yeah, just I wish I could kind of slow it down a little bit. But honestly, outside of that, um I I'm uh yeah, I'm a pro wrestler and I also work in real estate, so I kind of have this weird little double life, which is one.

SPEAKER_01 1:16

Yeah, it sounds amazing. So tell us about your pro wrestling hobby.

SPEAKER_00 1:22

Yeah, so it sort of it stemmed from I I guess I loved it when I was a kid, um, as a lot of young boys do when they're sort of six, seven, eight, nine, ten. They they see it on TV, and they're like, what is going on here? And that's exactly the same thing that happened to me. Um tacked onto that. I my family and I, when I was when I was eight or so, we went on a family trip to the US. Um, and I'd just discovered what wrestling was probably like a week or two before we did that, and then all of a sudden we're in New York and in Times Square, and oh my god, there's the wrestling again on this big billboard though. What's going on here? Um, and so I think that was sort of just I had this this wild intrigue about it. Um, and then that grew and grew and till I was probably 12, 13. I kind of grew out of it when I hit when I went to high school, started getting into other sports, things like that, and then came back around when I was 17, 18, uh for the love of it, just just pure the love of all of the elements of it, the entertainment side of things, the athletic side of things, and found somewhere to train, figured out how to do it, and then went on a nearly 10-year journey up until now, which just take me all over the world.

SPEAKER_01 2:30

Yeah, tell me about that. What does uh training look like for a pro wrestler?

SPEAKER_00 2:36

Um I guess in the in the early stages it's it's you gotta learn how to take care of yourself, and a lot of that means like you've got to learn how to protect yourself from injury. Most of the time that's you've got to learn how to fall over, which is pretty pretty weird. Uh very, very unnatural kind of feeling is learning how to fall flat from your back or on top of your head or getting kicked in the head and having it not hurt or hurt less. Um, so a lot of that really, a lot of like enormous amounts of body control. Um, and then you you you know, you learn all those things, you learn the holds, you learn the moves, um, you learn how to take them all, you learn how to stay safe. But then the element of you know, I I guess acting for lack of a better word is is thrown in there because you've got to learn how to make all of those things look like they hurt a lot, even if they don't necessarily and sometimes they do, so sometimes there's not that much acting involved, but um yeah, it is it's a big melting pot of of all things, I guess theatrical and athletic.

SPEAKER_01 3:34

And um when how often do you train during the week?

SPEAKER_00 3:38

Yeah, so now it's a little different now. Back back when you first start, it's it's much more consistent. Um I actually coach at a school, so from a from a beginner's perspective, now beginners are in the ring kind of they I guess they have the opportunity to be in the ring probably four times a week, uh, which is pretty full on your body. From my perspective now, I'm only in the ring probably twice a week. Um that's that's usually the most I'm in there, and then a lot of it is just training in the gym and things like that. Uh, because it's such a muscle and every thing, right? Like when you when you learn how to do it, obviously, you know, you can always be better and get better at it, but when you first start out, there's a lot of repetition that needs to be drilled into you, um, which and with that comes a lot of pain because it's quite painful. Um, so you you sort of build up we we like to call it a callus, you build up a callus to a lot of the pain. Um, and so once you've been doing it a while, reps actually in front of crowds, in front of audiences, that's that's really more important. It's less important about you know, falling over a hundred times every session and protecting yourself because you kind of know how to do that at a certain time.

unknown 4:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:43

So yeah, so I think for me it's probably two times a week, and then I like to be in the in the actual gym three to four times a week, usually.

SPEAKER_01 4:51

And I may have even seen you perform somewhere uh I can't remember the club, but it's it's it's next to Termside Westfield.

SPEAKER_00 4:59

Um you've a hundred percent seen me then.

SPEAKER_01 5:01

The name Kedrian Wavel. That's the one, Kajrum Wavel. I've been to a couple of shows there. Hilarious.

SPEAKER_00 5:05

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 5:06

Actually, some of the best nights of my life. Um and talking about the theatricality, um, you know, there was Outback Adam with his blown-up um crocodile. Crocodile.

SPEAKER_02 5:18

I'm wondering where you're going with that.

SPEAKER_01 5:20

Yes, and there was the uh whole bunch of Lego chucked onto the tupped onto the mat for somebody to fall on as well.

SPEAKER_00 5:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:27

How do you come up with your characters? Like, where does one shot writer come from?

SPEAKER_00 5:31

Yeah, so for me, I I'm probably, I mean, you've used a great example of a character wrestler when it comes to Adam. Um, he is very much character first. Um wrestling, I don't say wrestling second, but he's you know, he he is his character before he's recognized as a wrestler, I suppose. Whereas I'm probably a bit different to that. Um I'm very much character second. Um, I'm also myself a lot of the time, and and I rely heavily on my technical ability and my actual in-ring wrestling. So in some in some spheres, I I I guess I'm probably more of a wrestling purist. Um, and so then to to what we would consider people to be like a casual fan, someone that that you know comes for rather than the in-ring stuff comes for the more theatral side of things, I'm probably a little bit boring. Um to to some of those people, like because I'm not um, you know, I'm not the guy that gets I I wouldn't necessarily say I'm a crowd favourite, I'm more of a wrestling purist and I get in and and and where I am most um efficient and effective is actually by having good wrestling matches. Um and so for me the name in particular One Shot Rider um has a bit of a backstory to it. So for a long time I wrestled just as Mitch Rider. Um my my real first name is Mitch. Um the rider bit came because the thing that I was doing before I started as a wrestler was I actually used to race BMX. And so they were like, well, it came time to yeah, for me to have my first match, and um I I jumped in and they were like, What are you gonna call yourself? I was like, I haven't even thought about that, which is probably unusual because I think a lot of people mould that for years leading into it. Um I hadn't even thought about it, and they're like, What'd you do before this? I used to ride bikes, they're like, Oh, okay, you can be that then. And so uh I started out as that, and um I'd sort of done a little bit under that name, nothing crazy. And then I went on a tour of Japan and America in 2023, and I wasn't getting bookings in America, and I was like, what's going on? Like, I've had a really good year, I've wrestled some of the best people in the whole world this year. Like, why does no one here want to touch me? And it was because at the well, well, I didn't know, but at I found out at the time that there was a wrestler in America named Mitch Ryder, and he'd actually passed away. Oh yeah, so people were like, Well, we can't book this guy, that would be you know, that wouldn't be insensitive, yeah, yeah. Insensitive, that's right, exactly. And so, yeah, I I just found out just before leaving on that trip that I was gonna be a dad for the first time, and I kind of felt like that was that trip was like my one shot. I was like, this is my one crack at the at the big tongue. It wasn't, but at the time that's what they thought, yeah, yeah. And um, yeah, that's where the name was born. I was like, what am I gonna call myself? I need a name quickly. Let's just go with this, and it's sort of stuck, which is great.

SPEAKER_01 8:17

Yeah, okay, great. And you say you're a bit of a purist, but I've seen these shows. Are you often painted more as the villain or the hero in the scenarios?

SPEAKER_00 8:27

Yeah, great, great question. Um was the last time you went to Orling?

SPEAKER_01 8:32

Or maybe a year ago.

SPEAKER_00 8:34

Okay, at the time I was probably a bad guy. Um and so it changes. I've since yeah, not often, but it it changes. Um and it honestly really depends on where I am. Like I wrestled in Melbourne two weeks ago, and I was very much the bad guy there, but locally here in in Queensland, I'm I've become one of the one of the good guys now. So so it really, it really depends, and it depends what's going on in terms of storyline and things at the time and where you kind of fit in the mould. Um, and that's that's really the truth of it. It's just kind of where you're at, location-wise. Like if I'm traveling somewhere and and I'm new to an audience, chances are probably gonna be the bad guy. Um, but it really just depends.

SPEAKER_01 9:13

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 9:14

It's kind of the fun of it, really.

SPEAKER_01 9:15

How do you prepare as a as a cohort for a show? So, where do you actually even start going, okay, here's the story we're gonna tell um for this particular show that we're coming up to?

SPEAKER_00 9:26

Yeah, um, usually that a lot of that comes from the promoter. Um so the people that promote the shows, they have a general idea on where things are going for each individual wrestler. Um if they didn't, they probably wouldn't use that wrestler because they they don't have any long-term need for them. And so usually it comes down to the person that books and promotes the show. Um, they normally have an end goal in mind, and it might be an end goal for that night, it might be an end goal in a year's time, and it really just you know it they kind of I guess give you the um the blueprint, and it's sort of our job to basically fill it in. They go, we want you you're starting here and we want you to get to this point, you kind of work that out, and that's your c your creative freedom as a wrestler. It's up to you to kind of figure that out, and then it's really just a collaboration. Um the way that I like to use or the way the thing that I like to compare it to is dancing almost. Like you kind of work with your opponent um a lot more than people probably realise. Uh, it is really a big collaborative effort, even down to live as it's happening. There's lots and lots of communication between you, the referee, the wrestler, talking about what's gonna happen next. It's right.

SPEAKER_01 10:38

I think making decisions as you go.

SPEAKER_00 10:41

Correct. A lot of improvisation, um, and that's where a lot of the fun comes as an audience member and and as a wrestler is you might say something, someone in the crowd might yell something, and all of a sudden you're like, Well, that's actually a good idea. And if we do it now, because they said it, they're gonna love it even more. And so the the ability to adapt and move on the fly is is is something that I think a lot of people don't realise how much of that goes into at every show.

SPEAKER_01 11:07

So it sounds like it's a mixture of rehearsals but as well as improv, is that right?

SPEAKER_00 11:11

100%, yeah. A big color a big mix of both.

SPEAKER_01 11:14

Yeah, okay. Um, and when you're at the show, run us through what does that normally look like from start to finish?

unknown 11:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:22

What's again, it kind of depends. Um on a more local level, it's a much longer day than days where I'm overseas wrestling. Um, for example, let's use Kedram Wivel as an example. It shows there, like as a whole cohort, like you mentioned before, we we would get there to you, we'd probably get there at like one o'clock in the afternoon. So it's a big day. Um, so we're there early. There's a crew that sets the ring up, but it's usually everyone that jumps in and does that. Um, setting everything up. I mean, certain people have certain specialities, like I couldn't tell you how to set the lighting or the music or any of that stuff. I've never understood any of that. Um, but I can put the ring together, so that's cool. So we do that, and yeah, then you know, you I mean, generally speaking, you know what's you know who you're working with before that day. Uh, but sometimes you don't, things change all the time. Um, we had it, we had it recently where one of the guys that was supposed to be on the show got injured that afternoon, and we had to change two or three matches because of that. Um, and so all of a sudden, you know, what you're doing that night changes completely. And that happens, that actually happens a lot. Not so much that someone gets injured, but someone might have to pull it out, or all of a sudden, you know, the whole card changes because of one or two pieces. So yeah, you basically get with who you're working with, figure out what story that we need to tell is, what we're gonna do, and then the best part of wrestling is when you can match your puzzle pieces to other people's puzzle pieces, and that's the cool and interesting part every single time it's different.

SPEAKER_01 12:52

How do you know when you've nailed it?

SPEAKER_00 12:55

I don't know if you ever nail it, to be honest. Like it's I there's probably there's been matches that I've had where I'm like, wow, that was really good, and then look back six months later and I want to change this and this and this and this, and uh so I don't know. I don't know, I think the perfect match, I don't know if it ever really exists. And and that's that's a pretty universal thing. I think people at the very the very best that ever do it say that and you know people at other levels say it as well.

SPEAKER_01 13:22

Is it a very competitive industry?

SPEAKER_00 13:25

It is, super competitive, but it's something and this is something that I get really frustrated with, is it's hard for it to be competitive because it's n not real, if that makes sense. Like if I if I'm the best rugby league player in the world, I could be the worst bloke. Like I could be a terrible guy, but the best rugby league player, it's not gonna matter. None of my external factors are gonna matter, I'd be picked for the Morones in the state of Origin. Yeah, yeah. Wrestling's not like that. It's there's a lot of politics that goes on, there's a lot of you know net networking, which is great, networking is important in all walks of life, but there's a lot of like, oh I'll help my mate because he's this and whatever, whereas it's not necessarily based on merit or skill, or you know, a lot of the time it could be based on this person has more followers than the other person, and that yeah, I find that quite frustrating, um, especially coming from a real sport background where it's you know you control everything at the end of the day to then come into that environment, it's very which is very competitive, but it's not necessarily one that you can control.

SPEAKER_01 14:29

Yeah, and it sounds like you then also need to promote yourself to the promoters, like you need to market yourself to these promoters too.

SPEAKER_00 14:37

Yeah, absolutely. It's it's an unselfish business. It's a very selfish business, but it's an unselfish business in the way that it you have to think about the overall show before you think about how you know what is going on for you. Like you need to know what am I contributing to this. Fortunately for me, my contribution is if someone books me, they know that they're gonna get a pretty good wrestling match, and they need that. Um in the same way that you know, if they book an Outback Adam that you've seen, they know that they're gonna have a fan favourite. People are already they're gonna be drawn to this guy, and that's important too. You're gonna put him on the poster, they're like, Wow, I saw this you know, Steve Irwin looking guy. I wanna go see him again, he was fine. Yeah, um, and yeah, that's so you kind of need to look at it from that perspective, and and that's how you get you get brought back and brought back and brought back.

SPEAKER_01 15:28

Yeah, okay. And just on the economics of it you obviously have a full-time day job as well, and so I'm guessing it doesn't pay a lot, and maybe you have to pay a fair bit to do the travel. How does it all work?

SPEAKER_00 15:42

Yeah, yeah, I'm in I'm actually in a fun position at the moment where it's I've done it for nearly a decade now. And I've done it probably for like five, six years. That's that's the real truth of it. Like I probably really tore my head in and started working really hard at it during COVID. Um but I was training before that, but it was very much a second, it was very much a hobby at that point. Um whereas since then it's been really my number one focus. Um and there was a period of time.

SPEAKER_01 16:15

Don't tell your boss, don't worry.

SPEAKER_00 16:17

That's right. I think I think they know. I think they know there was a time between sort of 2020, probably from 2023 up until late last year, that it was like my number one. It was all I it was all I did, and I worked little odd jobs, and I gave up my whole other this career now. I gave this up to pursue it full-time, essentially, and worked whatever job I could just to basically travel and make that a reality. So I worked as a removalist and landscaper and pool installer, and I literally did everything I could to try and fund that goal of traveling and wrestling and stuff like that, which is good, and it's led to the point that I'm in now where I'm finally in a position that there are places that will fly me to wrestle there and pay for me to wrestle there and pay for me to be there, and all of those things, which is a a great position to be in and not one that is common in this country. Uh, Australia is not a popular wrestling country at all. Like you know, a really good wrestling show in Australia might draw 450, 500 fans. The best wrestling shows in Australia will draw just over a thousand, and that'll be once or twice a year. So it's you know, in comparison to what you see on TV and things like that, it's it's not a a a wealthy industry in Australia, like it is in uh Australia, uh sorry, in America or Japan or places like that. Yeah, exactly. So it's a lot of self-funding and self-investing and a lot of you know, breaking your body for a hot dog and a handshake is what we say in wrestling.

SPEAKER_01 17:45

Let's pause here for a second to take a little trip back through time to where pro wrestling all began. What we now know as pro-wrestling has its roots in the modern world in 1830s France, where wrestlers were given colourful nicknames and challenged the public to fight them. And there was good money in it for those who could beat them. A 500 franc reward, in fact. That's about 14,000 Australian dollars today, so very good coin. The American version of pro wrestling really started to take off after the Civil War, where it became a form of entertainment, particularly at carnivals and traveling shows. The wrestlers were often college students who wanted to make a quick buck. By the 1920s, there was an official formal split between the Pro Wrestling for Entertainment and the genuine competitive sport. Fast forward to 1953, which is when WWE was born. It was January 7 of that year when the first show was produced by the Capital Wrestling Corporation, founded by the McMahon family. In 1982, the founder's grandson, Vic McMahon, bought the company, and a new era began with WrestleMania launching in 1985 and stars like Hulk Hogan coming on board. Since then, Pro Wrestling has gone gangbusters. WWE generated about $1.7 billion in total revenue in 2025 alone. Over 1 billion of that came from media rights deals, including deals with Netflix and ESPN. WWE now produces more than 300 live events every year and shows like War, SmackDown, and NXT Air every week. So they are creating and delivering original content 52 weeks a year, with TV programming available in more than 1 billion households worldwide in more than 20 languages. Now Australia is on a periphery of this extent. A 2024 Elimination Chamber event was held in Perth at Octopus Stadium, drawing a huge crowd of more than 52,000 people. In October 2025, a show was also held in Perth at a smaller arena, with more than 13,000 people in attendance to see John Cena's final WWE appearance in Australia as part of the Spare World Tour. Now John Cena is just one of several pro wrestlers who have become a household name around the world and managed to make the move from pro-wrestling to television and movies. The Rock, aka Dwayne Johnson, is a fellow WWE alumni. Johnson also came from a family of pro wrestlers with his father Rocky Johnson being a successful pro-wrestler himself, and his grandfather being a Samoan wrestler. The Rock is now known for its string of successful movies and TV shows. Another household name was Andre the Giant, whom many of you might remember from the classic movie The Princess Bride. Andre had a condition called acromaculate, which caused an excessive amount of growth hormones, meaning by the age of 15, he was already 200 centimetres tall or 6'7 in the old style. And he would go on to stand at about 2.2 meters high or around 7 foot 4. Over his 27-year career, he competed in more than 5,000 matches across six continents. Sadly, the condition that made him go so big, and King's career would also cost dearly as he died at just 46 years old. These days, new ambitious count is up to 20. WWE runs tryouts continuously throughout the year across the USA, Latin America, Europe and the Middle East, China and Australia. Each tryout session only brings in about 30 to 50 athletes, including everyone from university athletes for NFL football, basketball, cheer, dance, through two rugby and soccer players, martial islands and boxes. All in all, it really is a fun sport full of very fun characters. And on that note, that's me.

SPEAKER_00 21:53

That's what we use.

SPEAKER_01 21:58

That's why we do it. It's not for the money, it's For the love and for the love of the game. That's it. And speaking of it of the love of it, what do you love about it? What's the best part of it?

SPEAKER_00 22:07

Yeah, I I mean I feel like it's changed over time. Um, the last few years, one of the biggest things I've loved about it is the people that I've met when I've been in, you know, living in dojos in Japan and you know, going to America, meeting people backstage at some of the biggest shows. Like those are the things that I've loved about it since the fact that you know I've gone and done, I keep coming back to Japan, but I've done a lot of tours there, and you know, the fact that I've been able to be there, and my family's been able to come watch me do it at a a really high level over there. And while we're there, we've been able to go to Disneyland and just like those things are really cool. So almost like not wrestling at all. Um I mean, I absolutely love wrestling, and the best part of wrestling is probab is just the feedback that you get, the instant feedback that you get from an audience. If something's gone well, they're gonna tell you, if something's gone bad, they're gonna tell you. If they hate something, they're gonna tell you that too. And it's an instantaneous feedback, um, which is pretty addictive. Just getting any attention from a crowd is you know, is is uh scarily addictive. But um, when you really control them, uh like you do in wrestling, because you control what's going on, that's probably the best part of actually wrestling. But yeah, the the best part of what I've gotten from it is is yeah, the people that I've met along the way.

SPEAKER_01 23:26

Yeah, that's awesome. And tell me a bit about that community. What you know, where do people come from? How do they get into pro wrestling?

SPEAKER_00 23:34

Yeah, there's so many different avenues that people come into pro wrestling from. I mean, everyone comes to it from the same, well, not everyone, but the 99% of people come to it from the same original love that we all had when we were kids, usually. Um, you get the odd person, not so much in Australia because it's not very financially viable, but you get people in the States and stuff like that that come to it from other athletic backgrounds that think it's a good way to make money or a stepping stone to their next whatever they're gonna do. Um, but those people, because it is quite a tough business physically and and you know, from a dues-paying perspective, uh, those people don't tend to last a great deal of time. You really have to love it. Um, so yeah, so people come from all walks of life, from wealthy backgrounds, from you know, very poor, you know, multiple foster home kind of background. Like it's really a mixture of people. Um, but because we all come together from a common love of it, it can be quite an encouraging community. And and it's far different to when I first started. Like when I first started, it was a pretty rubbish community. Um, it wasn't a nice place to be. I did, I didn't enjoy it, which is probably why I came in and out of it so often. Uh, just because it was just not not a great group of people um to be around, and people that to be quite honest weren't going anywhere. Um, and so now it's become a much more supportive and and you know, encouraging community where everyone kind of gets behind each other. The training is a lot more professional, um, it's a lot more structured, and it's you know, it has a lot more goals driven, it's a it's a lot more goal-centric, so it's easier to sort of foresight when you're actually gonna be a wrestler rather than just a trainee setting up a ring at every show. So I think it's a lot more encouraging and structured now.

SPEAKER_01 25:20

More pathways by the sounds of it. Exactly. Yeah. Um, and what's the weirdest thing, almost out there thing that's ever happened at a show?

SPEAKER_00 25:30

There's honestly countless. Um, I mean, just like I did a show less than a month ago, and this is random. So this is certainly not the weirdest thing that's ever happened, but I mean it's it's hard to define weird because we're already basically now underwear just wrestling each other in front of people, right? So, like that's already as a general thing, pretty unusual, right? Like me and all my buddies get together all oiled up and we just do things for in for a crowd, right? It's weird. Um, so wrestling in general is strange, but I don't know, it's things that would probably be considered really weird aren't even that weird anymore. Like I had, like I said, I was at a show a couple weeks ago, and this mum, she's like, Oh, could my daughter get a picture with you? I'm like, Yeah, absolutely. No dramas. I got a picture with her probably you might have somewhere between 16 and 18-year-old daughter. Got a photo with the daughter, and the daughter was like, Oh, it's actually no mum that really wants a photo. I'm like, Okay, cool, no drones. Anyway, took a photo with the mum, and then the entire time I'm taking a photo with this mum, the daughter is taking the mum is just groping me. Like full, like handful of oh my yeah, crazy. So stuff like that. Which is weird, you know, like and dad's there too, like husband's right there. Which is things like that is you know, odd. I've had people get in the ring while we're wrestling, like fans try and jump in the ring, and then that never goes well for them. Um I don't know, like there's just so like so many things. Like you backstage at a wrestling show is is quite eclectic as well. So just within all of the the boys and girls, like foods people eat, especially when you go overseas, like seeing how other cultures do wrestling and you know what they're doing behind the scenes, it's it's it's yeah, it's it's strange, but it's cool.

SPEAKER_01 27:19

And I what I loved um the couple of shows I've been to is just watching the reactions of people in the crowd, because I'm one of those people who get a lot of enjoyment on watching how I've been reacting.

SPEAKER_02 27:28

Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_01 27:29

Um and you've got people who make the signs and hold them up and buy the merchants thing.

unknown 27:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:34

Uh, but I remember noticing this group of kids, and some of them were just terrified. They were just like, they're hitting each other, and these others were just loving every second of it, going, Yeah, hit him, hit him. Yeah, but that's not the kind of reaction you find, especially from kids like they're not too sure whether to take it seriously or not.

SPEAKER_00 27:50

Yeah, I think there's like a it gets to a certain age, it it's actually it's strange because it gets to a certain age, I think, where there's there's that like fear and things like that, and then it hits like I don't know, 10, 11, 12, and then the stuff that is actually real, because there is a lot of realism to wrestling, like there's a lot of strikes that really land, and there's a lot of things that really hurt, and then you get that like probably like like I said, 10-11, where those kids like nothing will satisfy those kids, like even the most dangerous stuff that actually sucks, they're like, oh, that was fake. And so it's just like I don't know, it yeah, it's it's sort of it and and different I I touched on different cultures and different things, like different countries react differently to wrestling too. Um like this is probably gonna sound really bad, but I one of the least favourite places I like to wrestle is Australia. I the I think Australian wrestling fans are not really fans, they're just there to you know get on the piss and have a laugh. Um, and as I said before, like I'm not very character-driven. I'm much more of a purist. I like to do the art of and the craft of wrestling. Um, and so a lot of the time they're not there to see that. They're there to see, you know, characters and drink some drinks and yell at people. Whereas, you know, I love wrestling in Japan because they love it. They love the art of it and they're very respectful of it and they treat it very seriously. Um, and that's yeah, it's like a crowd in Japan reacts significantly differently to a crowd in other parts of the world. They're very quiet, and to get noise and reaction out of them takes a lot. But when you get it, it's much more rewarding because they're very subdued.

SPEAKER_01 29:37

Yeah, and and look, I think we find that across all sorts of things, right? Not just sports and and theatre, but business as well. You know, th those the cultural differences are so obvious a lot of the time, too, that's it can just feel outside of your comfort zone to begin with. But like you say, start to work with it and you realise actually there's there's a lot of merit to different ways of being.

SPEAKER_00 29:58

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 30:00

How do people typically react when you tell them about your hobby?

SPEAKER_00 30:07

Usually they they're quite interested. Like they they they and and I think for the most part, people don't necessarily understand it, so I have to show them. Um and then when I show them clips or videos, things like that, they're like right into it. Well, well, at least they they're they're interested in it. Uh, I think a lot of the time people think I'm talking about mixed martial arts or boxing or or you know, things like that. That's usually but but for the most part, people react quite positively to it, really, which is which is great because it's something that I actually did hide for a long time. But probably when I say hide, I didn't owe I wasn't openly talking about it like I do now. Um probably for like two or three years. I it was something that I kept very, very private. Um, whereas now it's like the biggest part of my life, really, other than my family. So it's sort of like it's very I'm very open about it, and I've I've been very fortunate to do some really, really cool things and have some really great opportunities from it. So I'm very proud of it now.

SPEAKER_01 31:02

And speaking of your family, when you first started out, what did they think? Were they worried about you, your safety?

SPEAKER_00 31:09

My mum, my mum, my whole family came out to my very first one, and I kind of wish they did it because it wasn't very good. Um and it wasn't so much my performance wasn't very good. I mean it wasn't, but it was more just there, it was one of those shows where there was probably more people backstage than there was in the crowd. It was quite violent, like there was a lot of like external elements that that made it quite violent, and you know, I it was something that I wish they probably didn't come to and they could have said something else first. Um, because it was significantly different to the presentation that you see on TV at the time, which is all they they could compare it to. Yeah. Um, and so I think like that was that was sort of I don't know everyone was okay with my mum was very put off by it and was put off by it for years. Like would was happy that I was following something that I was passionate about, but definitely wasn't gonna come watch. Um and it wasn't until I I had some you know some moderate like I I'd gotten some really, really big opportunities just kind of out of nowhere, and I think that was when my mum kind of decided to get on board, dipotes back in and go, okay. And then and then she's been to numerous ones since and she still you know cringes, she's still like is he alright? Um but yeah, she's she's she's back on board now, which is cool.

SPEAKER_01 32:30

Well, I don't blame it because I've seen the chairs being smacked over the head, a ladder being pulled out from under the stage, bits of fly, like as I said, the Lego, people fall into the Lego. Oh man. We had no fun. When as soon as they tossed that on, I was like, oh, that's gonna hurt.

SPEAKER_02 32:46

Yeah, but the ladder is not like that sort of stuff.

SPEAKER_01 32:48

Yeah, but a Lego, you're easy. Um now speaking of those opportunities, what's your goals at the moment with your wrestling?

SPEAKER_00 32:56

Yeah, um they're sort of they've changed probably a bit over the last couple of years, I want to say. Like when I was growing up, the only the only um pathway to make any money was was the WWE, WWF that everyone kind of knows. Um, and at when I was a kid, like there's no Aussies in that, there's some more Australians in it now, which is great, but at the time there was no Australians in it. And to to you know, to get an American working visa for anything is difficult, let alone an entertainment working visa, it's incredibly hard. Um, and so that that sort of pivoted from my goal. Like it's still an overarching goal that you know, love to love to get there. But when I started wrestling in Japan and I could see that that was a really viable option career-wise, significantly closer to Australia, same time zone as Australia, so it makes communication with extended family and things like that a lot easier. Um, and I absolutely love the style there. So a big goal for me now is to get a more, I guess, locked-in contract with the Japanese wrestling company. There's a there's probably three or four of them that are really good and you can earn a good living there. Cool. That's um, that's a really big one. I've had some real I've been fortunate to have some really cool opportunities from a film and television perspective as well through wrestling, um, with a couple of different roles and things like that, where I've I've I've been in some some shows, and that's a that's that's sort of a little side haven't you that I want to keep exploring. I um with a wrestling background and essentially wrestling, a lot of it is fight, choreography, and stunt work. So I've been lucky to sort of work a little bit in that field as well, and and it's something that I really enjoyed. Um, I love being on set, hearing the director call action. So, like those sorts of things are really cool, and and it's something that I've also I'd also like to explore. So, basically, those two avenues is sort of continue to tour Japan and explore film and TV just because we live in a great hub for it here in Southeast Queensland.

SPEAKER_01 34:54

So Yeah, that's cool. And uh what skills have you learned from this that you've been able to apply to other areas of your life, do you think?

SPEAKER_00 35:04

I think a big one is like just doing the work regardless of like doing the work regardless of an outcome almost. Um wrestling is one of those things where you can be consistent and you can really put in the hard yards for years and have nothing happen, and then all of a sudden something will just happen. Things will just pop up out of nowhere, and that's happened numerous times in my career. Um, and it's something that I think I've carried over into more of a corporate work life. Just that, you know, if you just continue to do the actions every day that you know you're supposed to to have success in that field, it's almost like the universe just rewards you with opportunity, um, which I know is a bit like spiritual, and I'm not really like that, but I do kind of believe that to a degree where it's like, and I've certainly seen it, where it's like if I stop doing the activity I need to, all of a sudden the opportunities that just used to fall on my life will also stop. So, and if you don't ever stop doing the work, you'll never not be prepared for when those opportunities happen too.

SPEAKER_01 36:01

Yeah, that's very true. I would probably believe it in that too. Like what you put out is what you get back, and big time. If you're not consistent, then nobody's gonna know you're there. So I just have to be consistent. Um last question. If somebody's listening to this and they are like, oh, I want to give this a go. I want to I've something I've been thinking about, but I've never had the courage to do it. Or, you know, I've got a son or a daughter who's keen to give it a go. Where would they start? What would you say?

SPEAKER_00 36:27

Yeah, I I dropped it earlier in the in the um in the conversation that I I coach at a school. Um and the school's in it's there's only I think there's only two schools in Southeast Queensland, I think. Yeah, right. Um, and it's I'm not gonna say it's the better one. I don't necessarily coach at the better one, but I probably coach at the more connected one. Um we the school that I coach at, the the the trainers and the coaches that are there and the people that are involved in that school are the ones that are on all of the big touring promotions in Australia and things like that. So it's sort of one of those ones that has a pathway to go to places that we've been, which is great. Um but yeah, I would say reach out to me on Instagram, like I I can certainly point you in the right direction and I would certainly encourage it. Like it's something that I undenied about whether I would do for a really long time, basically based off of other people's opinions. I'm like, oh, what will other people think of this? And then I thought, well, bugger that like I'm not gonna get to I I'm gonna be 70 and be like, oh, what if what if I had done that? And if if I never did this, I would have majority of the coolest things that I've ever done in my life have been because of this. Um, not everything, like obviously I'm a dad, and that has its own whole you know, vault of cool stuff, but the majority of the cool opportunities that I've had in my life I wouldn't have done if I didn't take that leap and just say bugger what everyone else thinks, I'm just gonna do this for me and try it out and yeah, love it.

SPEAKER_01 37:58

Yeah, like pull a Nike and just do it. Um and uh, you know, if Nike's looking to sponsor Mitch, I can put you in touch.

SPEAKER_00 38:05

Um, let's go.

SPEAKER_01 38:07

So it when's your next show? Where can people find you in the next couple of months if they wanted to come check out your work?

SPEAKER_00 38:13

June 20th, I'm at Kedron Wavel, um which is awesome. June 27th, I'm at the Melbourne Pavilion, Melbourne, uh for a big company down there. God, July. I think I might be in Japan. So it might be a bit harder for you there. And then we're on the rest of the year.

SPEAKER_01 38:29

Australia is in Japan at the moment anyway. So what?

SPEAKER_00 38:31

If you're going to be able to do this, it must be a dead idea long enough to me.

SPEAKER_01 38:34

You can go see Mitch while you're there. Yeah, fantastic. Exactly. We'll put the link to your Instagram in our show notes so people can hop on and follow and get in touch with you. Mitch, thank you so much for sharing your weird and wonderful hop with us today.

SPEAKER_00 38:47

No dramas, thank you for having me. It's been a pleasure.