On one hand, you've witnessed an Eddie Kingston promo that'll make you tear up more than the opening scene of Up.
On the other hand, going to the wrestling subreddit will definitely have you questioning humanity as a whole and the fact that living in an area where a wrestling presence pretty much doesn't exist like a Vince Russo-written storyline that is, you know, GOOD!?
Luckily, the latter retracted my con as a fan because I'm talking about Wrestlefest DXB and their latest joint, "971 Fahrenheit".
Martin Bushby of now Post Wrestling Alumni brought the event to my attention because like a wrestler on an episode of RAW I get distracted all the time.
So, I decided to take a short journey to a taxi then a bus then a train then a 30-minute walk to the show itself and I know I'm going to sound biased as f**k but I legit had a blast.
Like every NXT Takeover show, the crowd was the highlight of the night along with some fantastic matches in a 2-hour show.
And you best believe I interviewed the performers and other talents that took part in "971 Fahrenheit".
Savage Sam aka Sexy Sam knows a thing or two about the sheer unpredictable nature of pro wrestling, especially in an open challenge. I asked him about the feeling of stepping into that environment:
"I've had many years of experience doing this, so I wrestled for all kinds of crowds, you know? So it's already a surprise. I'm just really having fun out here. You know, I'm always ready to perform in front of the, you know, my fans, people that, you know, love and respect our business, you know? So, yeah, that's that."
Sam interacted with Johnny Evers after the open challenge encounter.
As a person that legit had the crowd on the palm of his hands for real (and wasn't shocked that he's Dutch because he's, like Sean Ross Sapp, tall), I asked him the importance of live interaction with the crowd:
"It's everything. It's literally everything for me. Like I feed off that. Like if the people were hot, you know, they were going for it. And for me, it's like it makes my job ten times easier because all they do is just wrestle with and entertain the people. And then if they go, I can go even, you know, my energy is already pretty high. If they go hard, like I can go even, even higher."
Evers, on top of his wrestling advice of getting into the business to just *Shia Leabeouf voice* DO IT, revealed the one thing that made him a fan:
"It's not a simple answer. Maybe. Yeah, it was like I'm from Holland and there was no wrestling on TV. It was, but like not when I was around.
So that was like in 2000. So I wasn't wrestling. So I would go after judo class. And I remember I seen the Dudleys beating up Spike Dudley basically with a chair when he was the chair.
But I liked it, but I wasn't like, "Oh, this is my life, I'm afraid, because there's no consistency in watching it." And then my brother and I, we found out like at home, like a DVD.
It's like, "Oh, Darby wrestling". And then we got hooked and then we started following it. And then we went to a live event which was like Rey Mysterio was champions, it was like an event in Germany. And then I was like, This would be pretty cool. Yeah, I think that was what it sparked.
But still doesn't dawn on me like this is a possible possibility because there's no "I didn't know there was wrestling in Europe" necessarily, you know, it wasn't in it.
And then when we found out that in 2009, I found out like, "hey, it's actually pro wrestling in Holland." Yeah, I started the seminar and basically the champion at the time, Vito Tuscany.
Yeah, he ran the seminar and he said, "okay, you should do this more often. That goes, you're talented. You've got an eye for it, you got physique for it. So let's go".
Yeah. And that's the exact moment, I think,"okay, this could go somewhere". Yeah. And then I went training and then it went, you know, then it started rolling. No, you make your debut, you go, you know, you go over the world, you travel, you train."
Evers faced James Hatchet in a losing effort. I asked James about his MMA journey as well as how he handles the West Asian heat:
"I've been teaching jujitsu out here for eight years and I've been wrestling for the last couple of years and you know, it's a good opportunity to test myself with some of these guys doing something similar to jiu jitsu and MMA that I've been doing for almost 20 years.
So it's another challenge for myself and I've been out here long enough that he doesn't bother me anymore. It's a good opportunity to test my skill that I've picked up over a year. The last 20 years of doing jiu jitsu and MMA and kickboxing and taking that into another avenue."
UAE's own Shaheen claimed the Dubai World Championship by taking down the Oi Bruf Dan Moloney. The champ mentioned how it's a team effort for the entire Wrestlefest crew as well as taking the wrestling world by storm:
"It's a team effort. It's not just me, it's every single person who was involved in this. Wrestlefest has to make this happen to make this possible, all of us put in our blood, the sweat, the tears just to make the wrestling scene.
I live in Dubai and without these guys I don't think we would have introduced the official 1st. The recognised Dubai World Championship that is accredited by the Dubai Sports Council.
We're aiming for America, Japan, UK, the entire planet."
Giovanni Giorgio. A ring announcer that worked with the likes of UK's progress and NJPW has mentioned in my discussion how ring announcing plays a vital role in interacting with the crowd:
"I really think a ring announcer is an often underrated part of the show because there's a saying amongst myself and if you have a ring announcer, which is if you have a good ring announcer, you probably won't notice it. If you have a bad ring announcer, you'll definitely notice it.
You know we control the flow of the show. If the vibe isn't there it's up to us to bring it up sometimes, but you know, if you put your rule into it and you're passionate about it then it always makes for a good show."
Like #sexysam, Fayez Al Emirati took part in a WWE tryout back in April of 2017 (the same class that featured WWE's Yo You Honey Singh, Shanky). I asked him what was like participating in the tryout and how that didn't stop him from grinding out in the business:
"Basically it was a very, very different experience from what I'm used to, especially being an Emirati.
And starting out as like one of the first Emiratis in the school. To get our calls from WWE out of like thousands of people, yeah they only picked 40 people and that was the one of two inmates picked.
And the only Emirati who had actually a wrestling background, and I've been wrestling at that time for about three years or no… even a year, two years, I would say give or take.
You had to relearn everything like it was very different compared to what we were taught in the sense where so many things like Matt Bloom was our trainer *me saying shout out to Albert*.
*Fayez laughs* Prince Albert so it was good. But it was very tough to relearn stuff. It's like when your brain is programmed to go one way and then you relearn it and the one thing I'll take away from that is what he told me when I was 21 back then.
So he told me you're still young. You still have a lot to go, but just keep keep keep doing it.
Don't just because we called you and they said no, that doesn't mean it's the end of your journey."
I asked Nova Nox (who won the gold medals for a championship opportunity) about his inspiration for his entrance gear and my man was like, "what inspiration":
"I appreciate the praise, but there is no character. There is no inspiration. That is me 100% being myself, so I'm coming out there. Getting the damn thing done. Coming back as a winner and that's what everyone falls in love with. So sorry to say there's no secret and I'm just being authentic me".
Nox also wants all the aspiring wrestlers to *Shia Lebeouf's voice* JUST DO IT!
And finally, I spoke to Dan Moloney who's widely known in the UK wrestling scene (No sh*t, bruf).
Like Fayez and #sexysam, Moloney did participate in WWE 5 years ago but not in a tryout.
Instead, it was a tournament specifically for the WWE UK championship. I spoke to him about not only the difference he's seen between the UK crowd and the crowd in DXB but also describing what the British crowd really is:
“Well, it was a huge surprise at first. So I'm coming here in May. I didn't know what to expect crowd-wise, culture-wise, wrestling-wise. But this place is lively and the people are always up for a good time. So it's been a real, real nice shock to come here and see that there are so many people that want to come out and support it and have a good time.”
Moloney also mentioned how Will Ospreay and the rest of the UK performers made that scene what it is today (hmmm):
“He walked the floor with those boys, man. So yeah, someone like Will is like, I'm sure there's a planet somewhere that just breeds alien wrestlers and they come and drop off like a Will Ospreay every 50 years or something. But yeah, guys like that are guys that took the leap of faith for the British scene. And, you know, when a lot of people try to hold stuff down or tried to maybe change the direction that things were going, they trusted themselves and they went with their vision. And now we have people like him and a real good handful of others to thank for the way our scene's kicking in the UK.”
And that's it. So, Be gone and get mad at a billionaire hugging a wrestler or something.
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