Ben Smith concludes with the third and final part of his interview with professional wrestler Greg Burridge, whose film directorial debut ‘London Rampage’ is due to be released soon.
Catch up with parts one and two.
So when people walk through your door, as a beginner without any in-ring or performing experience, how do you go about moulding them into the perfect person for this particular promotion?
It’s not about moulding them into the perfect person for this promotion. It’s literally about making them have self-belief and confidence, and the rest will follow. That’s what we do better than anyone else in wrestling. I like to think we’re more like a life coach.
We get people that just come here for fun, or just want to do a workout. Perhaps they want to lose a bit of weight, perhaps they’re socially awkward. They come here, and not only do they lose weight and get more socially adept with people; by training – and without realising – six months down the line, they’re on a show. And sometimes they can’t believe it.
A lot of wrestling trainers think they can go in and bully wrestlers: ‘do this’ and ‘do that’. ‘You must do a hundred press-ups, because that’s what I had to do.’ That’s not how we train people.
People become awesome wrestlers as a side product of having fun, and conquering their personal demons. And that’s what we’re good at. We’re good at seeing what flaws or things people have to overcome, and subliminally wiping them off the plate. And, as a side product, they become luchadores.
If guys come in and you just say, ‘Start taking bumps now,’ are they less likely to continue with it and think of pro wrestling as the amazing thing that it can be?
If someone came tonight for the first time, and they never came back, and they left with 10% more confidence than they had before, to go into their normal day jobs, then we’ve done a good thing.
Not everyone wants to be a professional wrestler, and they know that. They want to come here because it literally does so much. It should be taught in school. I want to go into Google headquarters, and give a speech, and train people to basically understand the psychology of wrestling, because it will do so much for people.
People just think we are oiled-up musclemen, but there’s so much that goes into being a professional wrestler, and that’s what they realise when they come here.
How many new faces do you get coming in here, and how many regulars have you got?
We’ve got about 30 students that regularly come, and we’ve probably got about 100, overall. We pretty much get new faces every week.
Do you think that those people come here because they feel it’s the only place they can be accepted, and can explore their personalities?
We live in a very multicultural part of London. There’s a high gay and lesbian population, and – being at the Resistance Gallery – we do quite a lot of gay and lesbian events.
My business partner Garry is very good at bringing in the gay and lesbian community into the training. So part of our success is due to the fact that this is a hub for gay and lesbian club nights.
You can get more of a cult following that way, not just the die-hard wrestling fans.
A huge number of our students are gay and lesbian, which is great. I think professional wrestling needs that representation.
We’ve got a student, and she’s bisexual. You’d look at her and think: “There’s no way you could be a professional wrestler,’ when she first came in. She had her first match with us the other day; she was awesome. Even Cassandro pulled her aside and said: ‘You’re going to be massive,’ and she is.
But six months ago, you would never have believed, and she would never have believed in herself. When people see this girl out in her social circles, and they see the transformation that’s happened to her – and other people – they think: ‘Well, we’ll go to that.’ It’s not about being socially accepted, it’s more about: ‘That looks like fun.’
Maybe as a kid they never wanted to be a wrestler, because they never thought the opportunity would arise. But we’re giving them the opportunities that they wouldn’t have had 10 years ago.
We give people – gay, lesbian, straight, black, white, whatever – opportunities to open new doors that they would never have thought would have been opened. We’re all humans at the end of the day.
For you, personally, what’s it like performing as Metallico – rather than Greg Burridge? Does it bring more out of you?
Yeah, the psychology is that I’m half man, half robot. I always believe that to get a performance as a wrestler, you need to have dimension. Mine is that I can’t be attacked by water, because I malfunction. And, at the minute, I’m controlled by a Speak & Spell. So, I become ‘Dark Metallico’, because my circuitry is the same as a Texas Instruments Speak & Spell.
Straight away, there, you’ve got 110 different ways to do the match. When I was ‘The Cockney Crusader’, I just basically had furry dice on my trunks, and that was it.
It’s just a different kind of performance. Here I can have more fun, but I’m in a mask so I can’t be as verbal. I have to watch what I say as well, because I’m not a cockney, I’m just a robot.
But, for me now, I do get more buzz out of wrestling on Lucha Britannia shows than I do on normal shows around Britain – to the point where I don’t want to do them anymore. I just don’t enjoy it; I don’t get [the same] adrenaline rush as I do here in the Resistance Gallery.
Do you think you’ll gradually slow down the appearances as ‘Greg Burridge’ and completely focus on this?
Definitely, I’m in the process of doing it now. I’m even thinking of having my last match as ‘The Cockney Crusader’.
I’m getting older and I’ve got a daughter as well. I got back in touch with my daughter, after four years, and it made me realise a lot of things. I’ve got nothing to prove in wrestling any more as a performer. I can do more for wrestling by not being in the ring.
And I’ve got the fear. The minute you get the fear of hurting yourself, you have to quit.
So the knee injury was a big turning point?
Massive. Once you injure yourself, you know how to work, because you work around the injury. Before then, you just do whatever.
I learnt how to be more charismatic. Do less, but make it mean more. Now I’ve got to the point where I want to move into stunt work and acting. I’ve got nothing to prove in wrestling, I’m just doing my body more damage in every match, so what’s the point?
But you’d still love to stay in the business of wrestling, training people, for as long as you can?
All the time. I’m very good at training people, I know that. And the fact that we’ve done the school now for four years – and it’s going from strength to strength – is a pat on the back for me and Garry. I’ll always train people, but I don’t need to be in the ring now. If I’m in the ring, it’s to put them over.
What comparisons would you draw between putting together a wrestling show and putting together a film?
I wouldn’t have been able to make the movie had I not been a wrestler. I’ve come at it with a wrestling background, so I understand it.
Wrestlers make movies in every match, they just don’t realise it. Every wrestling match has a start, middle, and end. It has a ‘goody’ and a ‘baddy’, and it tells a story. So you’re making a short movie.
If you look at it like that, I’ve probably directed thousands of short movies in my life. I used that as a template to make my movie – and it worked. It is working.
Sometimes I just feel like wrestlers are stupid, and they take themselves for granted. I see the stuff they do in the ring, and the crazy moves that they do, and I think: ‘You’re doing it in front of 40 people that don’t care.’ If I captured that right, did it 25 frames a second, colourised it, and put it in a movie – it’s the talk of the town.
Wrestlers really undersell themselves. In my opinion, any wrestler can be a director, and any wrestler can be an actor. They just have to realise it, and basically fine-tune and slightly change their wrestling style and psychology. But they’ve got the understanding to make a movie.
It is just one big movie – a wrestling match – and it’s the same with a show. If you understand the structure, it’s the same for music albums; they run on the same structure, as well. Just give it a go.
The similarities are amazing, especially when I was learning to act. There were all these techniques and they say: ‘This is called kinesiology,’ where you’re working off of each other. And they said: ‘Oh, you’re really good at it.’ In my world, that’s called showing out. You show out if that guy’s calling out the crowd that side, then go to this crowd, he would start making the crowd boo this side, I’ll go make them cheer this side. We just call it different things, so I understood that very quickly.
I think it was another telltale sign for me, to realise that it’s the same thing, just with different names. Yes, I sell talk with everything, but I have had 15 years of training, that’s how I look at it.
Even with editing, when I started editing – it’s called ‘killing your babies’; ‘I don’t need that bit in the scene, take it away’ – it’s the same in a wrestling match. I adapted, and used that for my movie.
It’s the same energy. All of the entertainment industry is the same. It all runs along the same basis.
Which gives you more of a buzz these days: making a film or putting together a match?
Making a film. We’ll see what the reaction is to this movie.
I’ve got two movies coming out next year. The first thing I ever auditioned for was a main role, and I got it. It’s a movie with Russell Brand: a zombie movie called ‘Welcome To Essex’; London Rampage, as well. It looks like they’re both going to come out at the same time. So it’s good momentum for me.
People might hate me, people might say I’m the s**ts. It’s pretty scary really, but it is a lot of fun. I’ve had a lot of fun making the movie. So time will tell.
What do you think is achievable for you as a person in the film industry?
Everything. I set no limit for myself in wrestling, and I made it. If you set yourself limits, you’re only going to go that far. I said: ‘The sky is the limit and no matter what it takes I’m going to make it.’ I didn’t have a safety net, and I made it by pushing myself hard.
I’m very confident that I will make it in this industry – because I’ve got the same mentality to push myself.
And I’m not one of these f**king X Factor singers, who goes on and says: ‘I’m the next f**king Mariah Carey,’ and can’t sing a note. I know my skills, I know what I’m offering, and I know what I can offer that’s different, and I know where I’m going.
There aren’t a lot of people that can direct, produce, act, and stunt-choreograph their own movie. I’ve done all of these things, so I know I have something to offer the world, and hopefully the world will see it soon.
Visit http://londonrampage.com to see the trailer for London Rampage.