Believe in People
Believe in People explores the realities of addiction, recovery, and stigma through conversations with those who’ve lived it.
Featuring voices from across the recovery community - individuals with lived experience, frontline professionals, public figures, and policymakers - offering unfiltered insight into the personal and societal challenges surrounding substance use.
Hosted by Matthew Butler and produced by Robbie Lawson, this award-winning series is a trusted platform for dialogue, empathy, and change.
🎙 2024 British Podcast Award Winner - Best Interview
🎙 2025 Radio Academy Award Nominee - Best Speech & Entertainment
🎙 2024 Radio Academy Award Nominee - Best New Podcast
Believe in People
#23 - Connor Gregory: Mental Health, Anxiety, Depression, Alcohol, Recovery, Trauma & How Wrestling Saved His Life
Matt is joined by Connor Gregory, commonly known as British Wrestling stand out and current BWR Cruiserweight Champion, Scotty Rawk.
Connor’s journey as an indie wrestler is not just about his physical abilities as a high-flying, risk-taking daredevil of an entertainer, but also his mental fortitude and how he has overcome personal struggles with alcohol, anxiety, suicide attempts and depression.
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🎵 Music: “Jonathan Tortoise” by Christopher Tait (Belle Ghoul / Electric Six)
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🎙️ Facilitator: Matthew Butler
🎛️ Producer: Robbie Lawson
🏢 Network: ReNew
Hello and welcome to the Believing People Podcast. My name is Matthew Butler and I'm your host, or as I like to say, your facilitator. Today we have Conor Gregory, or more commonly known as British wrestling standout, Scotty Rourke. Conor's journey as an indie wrestler is not just about his physical abilities as a high-flying, risk-taking, daredevil of an entertainer, but also about his mental fortitude and how he has overcome personal struggles with alcohol, anxiety and depression. Today, he shares his story with Renew.
SPEAKER_00:I'm Conor Gregory. I am a professional wrestler working the UK independent wrestling circuit as Scotty Rourke. I have delivered a TED Talk in regards to professional wrestling and its correlation with specifically my mental health. From that, I went and worked with BBC Radio 1 and we did a three-part documentary podcast in regards to, I think, how wrestling saved my life. And yeah, from that, I've sort of gone through my own journey and gone through my own steps to to where I am today which is to sort of promote good mental health and tell my stories. professional wrestling has allowed me to do that.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely. No, well, that's honestly part of the reason why we've got you on here. We've seen the TED Talk, we've listened to what you've been doing with BBC. Do you prefer to be Connor or Scotty? You can call me whatever you want. Do you find it weird when somebody calls you your real name or is it still quite that 50-50 balance with it both?
SPEAKER_00:If you know me from wrestling, Scotty's fine, but when I get people that are like, oh, you're a wrestler? What's your wrestling name? I'm just
SPEAKER_02:like, what?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, you just found it really embarrassing, don't you? You've talked a little bit about your mental health and stuff there. And again, this is the reason why we're here today. What were some of the, I suppose, early signs and symptoms of anxiety and the depression that you'd had experienced?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so I wasn't actually... officially diagnosed with depression and GAD, which is Generalised Anxiety Disorder, until I was around about 19, 20 years old. But I'd been suffering with what I thought were the symptoms and the warning signs of depression without a diagnosis from being about 17. So it was college, it was... the anxiety of going to college it was leaving lessons to go and be sick like being throwing up because of anxiety became part of my daily routine which was quite odd
SPEAKER_01:was you aware it was your anxiety when you was being sick or did you actually think you was ill at the time that you'd come down with a stomach bug or was you aware it was was you aware I'm being sick because I'm feeling anxious sort
SPEAKER_00:of thing I don't think I'd put two and two together until I was sat there and I was like this stomach bug's lasted a while you know what I mean and it was sort of it's been a year
SPEAKER_01:I've had this stomach bug for 12 months now
SPEAKER_00:it was like it was two or three weeks in and I was like well why am I being sick why am I having to leave lessons and why am i having to sort of be late to college or not turn up to college at all because i'm spewing my guts up you know what i mean and it was it was the realization of like getting worked up um in regards to like you know my own feelings and my own anxieties and things like that that were leading me to as i say spewing and that becoming part of my my daily routine
SPEAKER_01:was there a specific thing that was triggering it when you was at like college and stuff or was it a build-up of things
SPEAKER_00:um i think it's difficult to say in regards to if there was like a specific trigger
SPEAKER_01:event um
SPEAKER_00:i think when you are sort of 17 18 years old and there's a hell of a lot of change in um your life, whether it's the pressure of you've got your A-levels or you've got your uni choices, you've got deadlines, you've got to think about UCAS points, and then you've got to think about, oh, okay, well, if I get into this university, I'm moving to the other side of the country and things like that. But then it's also things like, I don't know, I've always had quite a close relationship with my mum. And I think it's that like coming of age thing where it's like, you know, you're 17, 18 years old, you don't really want to be knocking about with your mum all the time. And like the breakdown of... early friendships or early relationships that may have followed you through school and then you get to college and it's an entire new world. I think it's that whole thing of being like, you know, when you're in year 11 and you're a big fish in a small pond and then you go to college and it's the entire reversal and you're this tiny little... I don't think I've ever really thought
SPEAKER_01:about it so much, but you're absolutely right, the amount of changes that's going on.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:At that sort of, you know, 17, 18, Matt, because... well to be fair I mean in terms of my own experience I remember feeling a lot of depression when I turned 18 and when I left college because it was almost like the way I described it was I felt like I had a footpath from the moment I was born all the way up to this point where I've been guarded I've been told what to do and then I felt like I just came to the end of this footpath and now it was just like an open field and you can go anywhere and do anything but not in that way of oh you can be whatever you want you can do whatever you want there's now this very realistic oh god i'm yeah an adult now
SPEAKER_00:but it's not it's not it's not just that though either is it it's like i feel like if you were presented with a big wide open field and you were that makes it sound
SPEAKER_01:nice
SPEAKER_00:doesn't it yeah yeah and you were you were allowed to take it at your own leisure yeah and sort of take that moment to sit back and be like right okay this is the first step of the rest of my life but you've got and you've got people behind you that are like, well, don't stop moving forward. People are still behind you pushing. But rather than holding your hand and leading you and being like, this is the way to go, they've kind of switched and they're behind you, giving you the shove into... The unknown, I guess.
SPEAKER_01:So how did your anxiety and depression impact your daily life? And you said about you losing some friendships there, and that's just a natural thing as you get older, isn't it? But how did it impact your daily life and your relationships with others?
SPEAKER_00:I think I became a little bit more secluded. And I think at the time... a lot of people were like, oh, that's just the aesthetic. Like, he's a moody, emo, teenage goth. You know what I mean? Playing a character. Yeah, and it just kind of added to the sort of the fact that I was, you know, wearing skinny jeans and combat boots and going to college in a cannibal corpse hoodie and things. And people thought, oh, you know, he's just like the emo kid and he wants to be sultry. He wants to be on his own. When in reality, that it was kind of almost... asking for people to like to reach out I feel like if someone would have reached out in those sort of early days if we'd have known more about mental health and there wasn't that stigma around it then I do think things could have changed I do think that it wouldn't have taken like the downward spiral that it took
SPEAKER_01:yeah I think because there's only been that emphasis on mental health for maybe the past five years now, I'd say. There's been a lot more to do with mental health than there ever had been before. I mean, my own experience is when I was a kid at school, I used to get a lot of anxiety and I had to go to the doctor sometimes. I had a night in the hospital because of these stomach aches I was getting. And then I remember the penny drop for me when my mum said, don't you think it's funny that you never have your bellyache when it's a weekend and you only have it when you go to school? And I was like, Basically, she was kind of saying, are you lying? I was like, no, that is funny. Why doesn't it affect me on the weekend? Why is that happening? And then that's when I started to make the correlation of school being a big cause of my anxiety. But nobody really knew that then. And when people said, oh, it's just all in your head, I don't think they understood the... Yes, it's in my head, but there's also the physical elements that come with it. People didn't understand.
SPEAKER_00:That's exactly what I was going to say. It comes down to mental health. It's all in your head, but there are so many... Just stop being that way. There are so many physical signs. As you say, stomach ache. I was throwing up and having to leave lessons to go and throw up, and it was two, three, four times a day when my anxiety was really, really bad. Yeah. And yeah, it was a case of like, you have those conversations of being like, oh, well, it's all in your head. And it's like, well, it's clearly not, is it?
SPEAKER_01:No, absolutely. What other misconceptions do you think there is then about depression and anxiety? I
SPEAKER_00:think the term attention seeking gets thrown around a lot. And it's a term that I don't agree with in that sense because... What you might construe or write off as attention-seeking could be someone's cry for help. And if someone is genuinely seeking help and seeking attention because something is wrong, why are we sweeping that under the rug? Yeah,
SPEAKER_02:dismissing
SPEAKER_01:it. When did you decide then? Obviously, you said you're a little bit older when you realised it in terms of being 17. How old was you when you did it? reached out for help yourself then?
SPEAKER_00:I think it was pretty much at the point of where I became suicidal. I became suicidally depressed and I had intrusive thoughts of suicide every day and they became quite overwhelming. So I think If you talk about sort of like a pinnacle moment, yeah, I think it's kind of that time when I was like 18, 19, 20 years old. I think I was more, I think it was my second year at uni when I was sort of really poorly with suicidal thoughts and my depression, things like that. It was a case of my lectures were all in the afternoon. So it was, I didn't have the energy. to get up in the morning and go through like a daily routine of like, you know, get up in the morning, go into town, get some breakfast, meet your mates. It was wake up at half 12, be at uni for one, be at uni one till four, come home, have a nap from five till eight, then not be able to sleep till two, three, four in the morning and then sleep from four in the morning till after 12. It's not like
SPEAKER_01:this, is it? It's not like you're in a lane, is it? You're still getting your eight hours sleep.
SPEAKER_00:You just go into bed a lot later. It's just broken. A hell of a lot of things. It's just broken. And yeah, it was the fact that I felt like I knew that that wasn't normal. And then the hours that I was awake, it was, oh my God, why can't I just be asleep? And then it was... well, why can't I just be asleep forever? And then it was, well, I should probably just kill myself. And I think that was a little bit of a pinnacle point for me because then I realised that also, not only with the upheaval of moving to the other side of the country, so I'm from Grimsby, grew up in Grimsby and moved to Liverpool for university, so I was 220 miles away. And Very isolated, very on my own. And then it was a case of like, I wasn't reaching out. I wasn't talking to people. In fact, I was actually distancing myself because I was like, if I'm not present in people's lives, then they won't mind if I'm not there at all. So it wasn't necessarily like doing things to specifically like piss people off or upset people to create that narrative of, well, if they hate me, they won't miss me. It was more just a case of like, if they've forgotten about me, then it'll be easier to digest when I'm no longer here. So I did, I shut myself off. I lived in a box room. I didn't come home for months at a time. And yeah, I think it was telling my best friend And telling my mum that I was suicidal, that was kind of the turning point. Because that's not an easy thing to talk about in general, let
SPEAKER_01:alone to your mum. And you're aware of the own stigma yourself, aren't you? In the sense of, I guess, when you are feeling that way, in terms of vocalising it. There is that worry of, yes, I need help, but I'm worried people are thinking I'm just going to be wanting attention or that I'm not genuine here. And people are just going to think it's a cry for help. But as you said, obviously the importance of that attention seeking, it could be a cry for help as well. How did your mum take it then? You said, obviously, I'm interviewing, I'm getting, well, I know... Bit of a mummy's boy in that sense. Yeah, yeah, yeah, completely. And as a parent myself, I can't think of anything more heartbreak than hearing my child say
SPEAKER_00:that they want to end it. I think she was quite diplomatic in the sense of she was like, right, okay, this is how you're feeling. We need to sort things out. But then there was also that almost guilt that wasn't necessarily like, my fault that i'd put this on her because i can't help how i was feeling but it was we had conversations where she felt like my mental health was her responsibility she felt like she'd failed me as a parent and that my suicidal thoughts, my depression, my anxiety, my negative mental illness or mental health condition was because of her. And it couldn't be any further from the truth because my mum is a loving, supporting, caring woman that has single-handedly raised me from the age of two years old. So yeah, reaching out to her and talking to her about it was super difficult because she is a sensitive woman. And I think talking to her my best friend about it helped in the sense of it was someone that's obviously still connected to me, but it wasn't someone that was like directly like has raised me and like knew that this wasn't their fault. It was someone that sort of understood mental health and understood like the avenues that we could take from that point on, I guess. And I guess that's kind of where wrestling, came into it quite a lot because it was that conversation of, I don't know if he knows this or not, but it was that conversation that kind of talked me down from a ledge at one point where he was like, do you want to be a professional wrestler? Do you want to take this seriously? And I was like, well, yeah, otherwise, why would I bother? Why would I bother training? Why would I bother pushing myself to wrestle on shows and things like that if I didn't want to make this? And he said, right, okay. Well, you can't give 100% if you're not feeling 100% yourself.
SPEAKER_01:Of course, yeah. And to be fair, it could apply to anything, I guess, that way of thinking. We've spoke about this off camera before, but in terms of your childhood experiences and the relationships that your mother had had in the past and domestic abuse being present in your home... Mm-hmm. what was that like growing up and do you do you think that could be related to anxiety and depression growing up or do you think there was two separate things
SPEAKER_00:i think it's definitely linked i think it's definitely linked in the sense of uh i didn't really have a good relationship with my dad um and yeah growing up in a domestically abusive household was something that sort of like stayed with me and like it basically taught me how not to raise a family how not to treat a partner how not to act around your loved ones so there's a lot of valuable lessons that I got from my dad but not in
SPEAKER_01:a positive
SPEAKER_00:way
SPEAKER_01:but that is interesting though because I mean I remember there was adverts before around sort of like children seeing children do and part of that was around domestic abuse and I think there's a scene where the man's shouting at his wife who was like on the kitchen floor and the young kid who was like two or three next to him is also shouting it's kind of like showing that behaviour and But it's interesting how it can go the other way. Yeah. And, like, obviously, knowing you personally as well, you're so far from that.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:But, yeah, like, that being the exact opposite of your parent as well, that's a possibility in itself. But I also think that's kind of balanced out with the type of woman that your mother is as well. Yeah, definitely. How you're more like your mum than you are
SPEAKER_00:your dad, actually. I think it's quite interesting because rather than... as you say, monkey see, monkey do, and copying. I spent a lot of my early years scared, so I think that has potentially travelled through with me. Into anxiety. Yeah, it's manifested as anxiety, as worry, as a gut feeling of if a situation doesn't feel right, then is it going to take a turn for the worse? But yeah, I also think that not having a good relationship with my dad... has manifested into almost like not quite abandonment issues but definitely some kind of like attachment issues and the fact that like it was growing up it was well why doesn't my dad want to see me why doesn't my dad want to spend time with me why isn't my dad here why would he put us through this if he loved us, because it's not how you demonstrate love, is
SPEAKER_01:it? No, and it's not, especially as a kid, when you see depictions of love in TV, film, movies, complete opposite to what you're experiencing from your dad. Completely. Is your dad still in your life? No. When was the last time
SPEAKER_00:you saw him? We had a big falling out again around this time when I was about 19. So again, I had all the upheaval of childhood trauma coming through. in regards to, like, I guess, daddy issues. And I haven't really spoken to him since, so that's six years ago. I think I've seen him at two funerals, which was funerals on my dad's side of the family. Was there any
SPEAKER_01:attempt made to talk to you at all? It was that
SPEAKER_00:stereotypical narrative of... Dad's had a few beers. Oh, come on, son. It just goes to show life's too short. We should build this bridge and make this bond because there's no bond like a father and son. And I'm sat there like, this is emotional blackmail. You are looking at genuinely trying to use my granddad or my uncle's passing to try and guilt me into a relationship with you that I have no interest in pursuing because you have demonstrated time after time that you are... a very toxic part of my life.
SPEAKER_01:And you said about, obviously, last time you saw him being around 19, that kind of links into this time when you're at university and experiencing this depression. Was that going through your mind and stuff when you were having the suicidal thoughts? Was anything about your dad involved
SPEAKER_00:in that? Oh, yeah, completely. I feel like as a chronic overthinker, there's nothing that doesn't go through my mind or wasn't going through my mind in those moments. It was a lot of, as I say... those issues up, like, coming back to the surface of, like, well, even my dad doesn't want anything to do with me. Even my dad, like, showed that he didn't love me because that's not how you show love to a wife, to a child, to a family. Lee, like, sort of, not, I used to see him sort of twice a week and every other weekend when I was a kid and it was, pick me up, go for a Maccies and then go to his friend's house. So, he could hang out with his friend and I'd be left to play with his friend's kid, which was one of my best mates growing up. But anytime I'd try and go into the living room where him and his friend were, it was, no, no, no, we're talking about adult things. And I was sort of shooed to one side. So even then it was like, was he just picking me up and seeing me out of obligation
SPEAKER_02:or
SPEAKER_00:did he actually want to spend time with me? And then it was like, well, what about the times that He didn't turn up for me and I was just left sitting on the garden wall. And then my mum would come out and be like, dad's not coming. And then I'd come home and be inconsolable and things like that. So yeah, when I was 19, 20 and thinking about ending my own life, you do think about it's like, well, this person literally brought me into this world and has no interest in me still being here. So why should I still be here? Yeah, there was a lot of things going through my mind.
SPEAKER_01:After you reached out to your mum then, what sort of help did you get? Did you go into counselling? Was there medication involved? What was going on there? So
SPEAKER_00:I spoke to the counsellor at uni, or the student relations manager, officer, whatever the campus called it, because it wasn't specifically a counsellor. And... There was a couple of instances where they allowed me to extend my deadlines and things like that. But I started traveling home a lot more. So rather than isolating myself and being the other side of the country where I would sit and rot in my bedroom and not shower for four or five days, maybe drag myself to two lectures a week and then come home and go to bed and just like not exist or pretend like I didn't exist. I started coming home a lot more on weekends and I started speaking to my friends and speaking to my family, but then also it's around that age where because I'm home a lot more, my friends are 18, 19, 20, we go out drinking. Yeah. So that's when it started to take a bit of a turn into an alcohol dependency. And yeah, I was really, really fucking bad. Like in regards to my drinking, I, at 19 years old, gave myself a stomach ulcer and drank through that. And it wasn't until I actually like went to the doctors and they gave me some, like, I can't remember what, what, they prescribed me, but it was some kind of tablet that helped build a stomach lining back that I was like, oh, okay, maybe I, maybe I am taking this drinking too far. But I think in that moment, it was a case of like, I didn't give a shit about myself. I didn't give a shit about what happened to me or where I ended up sort of thing that almost made me realize that this was like reckless behavior. And it was almost like, well, if I drank myself to illness, maybe that's a more, maybe that's easier to accept than taking my own life. And then suicide always felt like a valid option for me. I almost felt a little bit like a superhero in a way, because it was like, I could go out and do whatever I want. I could drink myself silly. I could make a tit of myself. I could go and embarrass myself and be the life and soul of the party. And if I ever took things too far, then I'd just kill myself. So I'd never have to deal with the consequences, I guess. And yeah, it was around... that time that actually we ended up going on like a family trip to Cornwall for like my cousin's wedding or something I think the day before I'd been to Slam Dunk Festival so like a day festival and I tried to drink through it I tried to have a couple of pints and it was just agony like I was in pain it was burning my stomach and it was like almost like you know when you can feel vomit coming up to your throat and then nothing comes out but you swallow it and it's just nasty um so we went to cornwall and obviously i'd spoken to my mum about uh my mental health about my um suicidal thoughts but i don't think i'd spoken to her about my drinking at that point i don't think she realized how bad it was i don't think she knew that i would when i was going to uni Like I wasn't stopping drinking. It wasn't just a case of, oh, Connor's going out with his mates at the weekend on a Friday and Saturday night. It was, I was drinking myself in my box room to the point where I was throwing up in my sink. Just because of those like few moments where you've got nothing else on your mind. And it's almost like, well, I guess it's like being on holiday. It's like, I can turn my phone off and no one can contact me. If there's any problems, I'm out of the country. So I can just deal with it when I'm back home. It was almost like, well, I'm leathered. So I'm in no fit state to deal with any problems. And I could almost revisit it when I'm sober.
SPEAKER_01:It's being able to put something off, isn't it? And I guess it's that, like you were saying, the ability to forget. Yeah. That's kind of what alcohol can do is that, I've heard it described as a bit of a comfort blanket at a time when you're going through a bit of a rough time, having that comfort blanket there. It's helping you forget all of life's problems. It's escapism. It is, it's escapism. The problem with it is that when you come back down to feeling sober again... It's the crushing reality. It is the crushing reality. It's all still there. And I think that's where... the repetitive behaviour comes from.
SPEAKER_00:Because then it becomes, well, I'll just have a drink to take the edge off. I'm hungover. I've got all this to deal with. I've got people that are messaging me. I've got people that are worried about me. I've got uni that are contacting me because my essay's late. I'll just have a couple of beers to take the edge off. And then a couple of beers becomes four, five, six. And then before you know it again, I'm blackout drunk on my own in my bedroom. It's quite a sad state to be in. So yeah, this trip to Cornwall, it was almost like I'd... Spoke to my mum about being in pain with my stomach and my mum basically said, she was like, oh well, drinking's not going to help you. So maybe take it easy whilst we're away. And I didn't drink at all whilst we were away, apart from the wedding day itself. So we were down there for a week and it wasn't until the wedding day that I actually had a proper drink at all when before that it had been almost every day. I say almost every day because I almost nearly kept one day free because I knew of my dad's relationship with alcohol. And his relationship was, I'm not an alcoholic even though I drink every day. because I can still go to work and I don't wake up thinking about a drink. It's when I get home from work that I'll smash in a 24 crate of Stella. And that became like an everyday thing. So I was like, as long as I keep one day where I'm not drinking. I'm not an alcoholic.
SPEAKER_01:I always love the term when people do see the term function alcoholic as if there's almost like a tier system where being a function alcoholic isn't as bad as if I was just an alcoholic. I'm going to work and everything, but you're still an alcoholic regardless. You're still relying on substances. I always found the term problematic drinking to be funny because there's people who maybe drink once or twice a year. but get absolutely battered, get in trouble with the police. But they don't see it as problematic drinking because... You only drink twice a year. However, I would argue that, yes, you only drink twice a year, but the two times you did drink, you got in trouble with the police. It's therefore problematic drinking. But there is this tier system, I suppose, of how people view others. Like, oh, yeah, I'm an alcoholic, but at least I'm not that guy on a park bench drinking a bottle of Frosted Jacks and I've got a job to go to tomorrow morning. But regardless, alcoholism is still alcoholism, isn't it? Yeah, completely.
SPEAKER_00:And I think I had two ends of the spectrum. I had... my dad's brother my uncle who was the guy that used to sit on the park with his mates and a bottle of frosty jack and some cordial and he'd sit there all day and like was unemployed and then i had my dad who was probably drinking more than my uncle but was still going to work And that made him a better person. And it was almost like that God complex that he gave himself.
SPEAKER_01:Actually, a quick question for you then. When he was going through this phase of binge drinking, like you said, almost to the point of dependency, did you feel like it was inherited from your family in terms of your uncle or your dad? Was there some blame that you were putting towards them or didn't you make that connection until afterwards?
SPEAKER_00:I don't think I ever really connected it, to be honest. I think I knew what I was doing and I kind of knew why I was doing it. So I didn't really blame anyone but myself for putting myself in that situation, which then made the self-hatred and the suicidal thoughts and the depression... Even worse. Because alcohol in its purest form is a depressant. So at that point I wasn't on any medication. So it wasn't even like I was taking antidepressants and then cancelling them out. It was just I was depressed and unwell. just poisoning my body every day with depressants. So yeah, it was just not a very fun part of my life.
SPEAKER_01:It talks a little bit about escapism there. I think that's a nice segue into professional wrestling because how old are you now? 25 25 obviously university at 19 you started uh training to be a wrestler uh obviously well actually he was doing it a lot um even younger than that wasn't it for your teenage years yeah
SPEAKER_00:i was uh so i was doing uh martial arts from the age of about nine or ten i actually got my black belt in freestyle martial arts when i was 16 and then moved into professional wrestling at the age of about 17. So it was like that little crossover period. So I started training when I was 17 and absolutely loved it. Like with all my heart. I've always been a wrestling fan. Wrestling for me was my comfort as a kid. It was when my dad left home, me and my mum would watch wrestling, which... It sounds nuts, but it was like, it was Cartoon Network till 10 o'clock. Then it was WCW. It was wrestling. I remember those days. And it was, as a child, it kind of consumed my entire life. It was wrestling posters in my bedroom. It was wrestling figures. It was PlayStation games. It was the be all and end all of my eight, nine year old existence. So when I started training, it was like, almost living that childhood dream. It was like, as a kid, I'd always dreamt that, you know, I'd jump off the top rope and then I was at training and I was in a wrestling ring and I can jump off the top rope, you know what I mean? So yeah, there was that like brief period where I started training at 17 and found what I would say is a healthy coping mechanism and a healthy form of escapism that kind of disappeared when I went to uni. So there was a wrestling school in Grimsby that I trained with for maybe a year. And then at a similar time to me moving to university, that training facility and promotion closed completely. So I know for a fact that there were a lot of guys from my hometown that had been training and were training with the academy that were kind of left like twiddling their thumbs.
UNKNOWN:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:meanwhile i was in liverpool drinking myself silly trying to come to terms with who i was what i was dealing with what i was feeling and i didn't have that healthy coping mechanism yeah so it wasn't until uh that conversation that i had with my best friend when he was like do you want to take this seriously and do you want to be a professional wrestler that we kind of kick-started um everything into gear of the kick up the ass that i needed that was well there's not a training school in my hometown anymore but there is a training school in liverpool and when i am home there is a training school in hull so like i started to regularly train again and i started to wrestle on shows and perform and do the thing that i loved because i've always been a bit of a natural performer like i've always played guitar, sung. I've been in bands since I was sort of 12, 13 years old, playing little youth centres and skate park open days and stuff. And obviously with the martial arts background, it was turning combat into a performance. And then growing up, loving the characters, the costumes, the colours. Wrestlers were real-life superheroes because it's a live-action stunt show. And yeah, it was just like I wanted that to be So yeah, at that sort of time when I felt like I had nothing, I didn't even have wrestling. And I don't think I've ever really thought of it like that before. So yeah, I think when I was at peak suicidal level, thoughts it was it was a case of because i felt like i had nothing and had no one and even if i did have someone would they understand would they take me seriously am i just attention seeking uh so yeah i turned to things that would help me escape in less healthy ways i started smoking around that time as well because i found that as a nice physical escape in regards to if i was in a crowded room and I felt anxious, I could take myself away and have a cigarette. Not the healthiest coping mechanism at all, but in those few moments or a couple of minutes it takes to smoke a cigarette, I was concentrating on my breathing and those grounding techniques of like, well, what can you smell? What can you taste? And it's always like regulating your breathing in a way, because it's inhale, breathe in, exhale, breathe out. Then it was those sort of moments where it was like, if I ever felt overwhelmed, I'd just, go for a smoke. So yeah, smoking and drinking were really kind of like a crutch to me in that instance.
SPEAKER_01:So it's one of the things where when people are experiencing poor mental health that doctors and people that are in social prescribing will talk about activities and go for a run, go to the gym, you'll feel better. And that's often met with quite negative criticism. However, for you, that's kind of been the case because when you're going for what you're going for at university, you've had this conversation with your friend, you start training again in Liverpool with, well now with WWE, Zach Gibson, James Drake at the Fighting Spirit School that used to be there. Was that a big turning point for you then when you started training with those guys over there in terms of that depression and how you was feeling?
SPEAKER_00:100% because instead of... Having nothing to look forward to, I had training twice a week where it was like, okay, well, no matter how bad I feel today, I've got to drag my ass up. I can't drink the night before because I don't want to go hungover. I don't want to embarrass myself. You know what I mean? But I do think that it's easier said than done in regards to like, well, just go and exercise because you'll release endorphins and you'll feel better. Because... lot of the time when you are depressed and suicidally depressed like you are running on empty so you've got no energy like i read an analogy somewhere that like getting out of bed and making a cup of tea isn't just getting out of bed and making a cup of tea it's well i've got to take the quilt off and then i'll be hit with cold air and then i've got to stand up And then I've got to regulate my balance. And what if I stand up too quick and the blood goes to my head? Then I've got to walk to the kitchen. And then I've got to open the drawer and get a mug out. But what if there's no clean mugs? Then I've got to wash a mug. And then I've got to turn the kettle on. And then I've got to wait a minute. But a minute for me isn't a minute. A minute feels like all afternoon. And then what if the water splashes onto my skin and I scold myself? Then I've got to wait for the tea to cool down so I can drink it. You sort of start to... pick apart menial tasks. And make them into much bigger tasks. Yeah, because you've got no energy
SPEAKER_01:to do so. Yeah, I get that, yeah. So when you started wrestling, how did, obviously when you started back training, sorry, fighting spirit, how did that sort of have an impact on your drinking then? You know, you said obviously you wouldn't drink on those days. Was there a general change in your drinking behaviours when you got back into wrestling? Because naturally with wrestling, there's a lot of fitness that is required to go into it. So if you're taking this seriously, it can't just be one drink for a day. I'm guessing there was massive lifestyle changes that had to go with it then at that time.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it then just became a case of like social drinking, which was a weekend at uni or a weekend when I was back home. But even then it was a case of like, socially drink to get to a level and then I take it too far because that's kind of all I've known. I don't, I've always had like, I don't know. I've always had like a little bit of an unhealthy relationship with a lot of things. I'm very much an all or nothing person. Like if I'm drinking, I'm not just having a couple of drinks with my friends to get jolly. I'm drinking to get fucked up. And it's the same with wrestling. It's, it's, if I'm training, I'm either training hard, or I'm not training at all. I've always been the person that you need to give everything to something to... uh receive maximum reward maximum success otherwise what's the point in trying
SPEAKER_01:i can see that today i mean obviously just before we started i had a mcdonald's they offered you one and you said no so and then our producer was saying he's probably healthy and i was like no he'll want a mcdonald's he's probably just he's probably just had his dinner or something like that but here we are now you actually said no to the mcdonald's and you are you you're really healthy and so it obviously it requires a level of dedication i think what's interesting with the with the link between mental health and wrestling is, I guess from an outside perspective, how can you have anxiety and then go out and perform in front of anywhere between 100 to 1,000 people in tight spandex shorts, pants, in little pants, whilst you've got anxiety? Explain that one to people who maybe don't understand it.
SPEAKER_00:Again, I think it comes down to just the term escapism.
SPEAKER_01:Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_00:It's allowing yourself to not be yourself for a brief period of time. Because you're
SPEAKER_01:playing a character, aren't you, I suppose? So I guess that comes into it massively, doesn't it? When you come out of the curtain, you're no longer Conor Gregory in a pair of small tight pants and you are instead Scotty Rourke with the wet hair and Scotty Rourke on the other way is small tight pants. That's a normal outfit for
SPEAKER_00:Scotty Rourke, isn't it? Yeah, it is. It's that... allowing yourself to be someone else or, in my case, allowing yourself to be the best version of yourself because I don't see a lot of difference between myself and my character, I guess. My character is just all of my good traits amped up to 11. Yeah,
SPEAKER_01:it's an extension of you, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and when you step out of that curtain, it's like you've got no other worries. My friend who had never seen me perform before saw me perform for the first time sort of when I was on the road to recovery, I guess. And she said to me, she knew because I started to open up to a lot more people and create that conversation. But she said that she would never have put two and two together, that the person that is... or was the anxious, depressed piece of shit, was able to go out and perform that. She was literally watching you step out of that curtain. You can almost see the weight lift off your shoulders and a genuine smile appear on your face. And that was so lovely to see. So yeah, I guess it is a little bit of that performance aspect of things.
SPEAKER_01:I think as well, with any performance, any sort of... thing of this nature you're putting yourself out there and you're opening yourself up to to criticism and i know the the wrestling industry uh specifically has a very critical fan base and a very vocal and critical fan base how do you protect your mental health around your own anxiety and your own depression when when there is the possibility of criticisms coming towards you from I suppose social media and a live audience as
SPEAKER_00:well. No one can say anything worse than what I've said to myself. I am my own worst critic. I am a suicide survivor. So I attempted to take my own life when I was 19, 20 years old. No one... on this planet can say anything to me that is worse than things that I have said to myself or thought to myself. I know I am a better version of myself than what I was five years ago. And I know the journey that I have been on to be and become the person that I am today. So when it comes down to a few Twitter comments or Instagram comments or things like that, Yeah. Like I read everything. I see everything. I watch every match that I have back. I watch the highlights over and over again, just to try and pick apart things to make me better, but also to pick apart things that I'm like, well, if someone pulls me up on this, I kind of already know.
SPEAKER_01:that's it I suppose I guess if you don't have a bad match you know when you've had a bad match don't you you're never going to come back from a bad match and think it was good and then be surprised when someone's been vocal online about you having a bad match but I still think obviously just any sort of criticism can be quite hard in the sense of there's no way you're not going to take it personally at some point because you're passionate about it obviously you're passionate about it I guess how do you stay so motivated and how do you stay so focused with it then because I mean you're still struggling with anxiety and you still struggling with mental health issues I know you've been very open about that it's not the thing is with mental health it's kind of like it can go into remission can't it in the sense of it's maybe not as bad as it was a few years ago but you're still going to have those moments and those setbacks and knowing you the way I've known you over the years as well I've seen you have those setbacks even when you have been in a positive place with other areas of your life so how do you stay motivated and focused then with all that going on
SPEAKER_00:I think it's learning to live with it like mental health will always be a part of my life my depression my anxiety and things like that they will always be a part of my life and I spent so long trying to cover it up that I sort of as I say nearly ended up not being here so using that platform now and being able to have these conversations and talk so openly like it's nice because it breaks down the stigma around mental health and anything that i can say or like anything that i put out there i like to feel it feel is authentic and genuine i've always worn my heart on my sleeve because you never know when something you say might resonate with someone but it's also very therapeutic so it's nice to have these conversations because i almost feel clean yeah i almost feel like
SPEAKER_01:It's like therapy,
SPEAKER_00:isn't it? Unburdening myself. Yeah, unburdening yourself. But how do I stay motivated in the sense of training and on top of eating well? I mean, to
SPEAKER_01:turn down a McDonald's today, a free McDonald's. Oh, it could have gone on business expenses. Exactly, yeah. Yeah, because that's always been my problem. I can't... When I've done diets and things, I've tried, but if someone says... I could be on my best day, but if someone said I should get a Domino's tonight, I'd be like, I'm not going to say no to a Domino's.
SPEAKER_00:Life's too short to say no to a Domino's. I go through fits and starts, man. I do. I do go through fits and starts where there's part of me that's like, you know what? I've got a roof over my head. There's money in my bank. Life's too short to turn down a pizza. And then I go through other phases where I think these phases happen more than sort of the fuck it mentality where I'm like, this isn't my hobby. like this is no longer just what I do with my friends on a weekend like professional wrestling is my life it brings me a substantial wage helps clothe me helps feed me helps house me and my partner and yeah I think just that turning point between like your weekend warriors so to speak and the people that want to do this for a living and want this to be their full-time job and want to, you know, sign that big contract one day and have this as their life. I think that that's, that's what keeps me motivated. The fact that people are like, people will say like, Oh, like it's your hobby. It's great that you get paid for your hobby. I'm like, it's not my hobby. Like I was, I was saying just before we turned the cameras on. So my, my partner, Lucy is a, veterinary nurse student and she does four days a week, eight to ten hour shifts in a veterinary practice. One day a week she has college and then she spends umpteen hours doing coursework and assignments and things like that. And she says to me things like, how come you're never at home? The washing's not been done. The washing up's not been done. I haven't done the over. Yeah, why don't you sort the bins out? Things like that. And I'm like, well, I've not been at home. I've been at the gym. And she's like, well, you've got time to go to the gym. And I'm like, that is my coursework. That is essential to my job. My job is going out and performing or coaching or anything like that in regards to wrestling. My coursework and my assignments that I need to perform are working out regularly and eating clean. So they're the things that, as I say, keep me motivated because... I don't just want this to be my hobby. I want this to be my life. I want this to eventually take me to Florida and I'll have a poolside like home that I can then live there with my girlfriend and have a life over there. You know what I mean? Cause it is a valid option. It is a valid route. Like professional wrestling has taken some of my friends all over the world. So why can't it happen to me? And it's down to that true grit and dedication, I guess. I'm
SPEAKER_01:just going to pause you there. Do you want to quickly do all the cameras and then we'll go to it? So while we're on topic, I'm just going to go into talking about the food. I'm going to quickly talk about the 36-week physique. I also did the 36-week physique, as you know. Our results were a little bit different because I struggled with the cut. So there was like 10 weeks of maintenance, a 16-week bulk. I really enjoyed that bulk. And it was the first time I'd felt happy with how I was looking. So when we had to do that 10-week cut, I didn't want to do the cut because I was kind of happy with the progress I'd made up at 26 weeks. If I'd finished at 26 weeks, I'd be really happy. You did the cut. You lost quite a lot of weight in those last 10 weeks. And you was very, very trimmed. I thought you looked ill, personally, at one point. But this is the thing with fitness. It's that... I get it, I got why you did it, but the amount of dedication needed for the last 10 weeks of this fitness program, what you can eat, what you can't eat, the temptations, I mean, I probably couldn't have even done a week on that. I'd have been sniffing like cheese in the fridge and things like that.
SPEAKER_00:It's funny you say that. Okay, go on. During that 10-week cut, I was actually, because it was during COVID, I was actually a delivery driver for, for a desserts parlor no so i was sitting with hot brownies and milkshakes and waffles like next to me in my car and i was driving around not even phased really genuinely no i think it comes it genuinely comes down to i guess my addictive personality
SPEAKER_01:that all or nothing like mentality so there's some benefits to it I guess yeah not many my broken little brain has got some there's some of that you said that kind of I mean you said just before we started filming today but how the impact of that 36 week programme I mean obviously you said it was a lifetime of education in terms of your relationship with food and I learnt so much on it as well How has that impacted your relationship with food since
SPEAKER_00:then? It's been difficult. I'm not going to lie to you. It's been a difficult transition into, I guess, normal life, especially coming out of COVID and coming out of lockdown where things open up and people are like, oh, do you want to come for a meal and shit like that? But yeah, it was very beneficial in the sense of it was very educational and I learned what my body needed, what I'd been neglecting to put in my body, and the benefits of eating well, training hard. It's just a
SPEAKER_01:massive step
SPEAKER_00:from
SPEAKER_01:binge drinking, isn't it? That's what I've just thought about. I'm going from that, not even being faced by desserts and stuff. But that last 10 weeks in that cut, to go from your binge drinking, and I've seen the before and after pictures of just the program. of what it was like before he started the 36 weeks and what it was afterwards but then I've also seen Ewan binge drinking when he was like 19, 20 so it was
SPEAKER_00:it was mad because when I was 16, 17 I was like 14 and a half stone and that might not sound like a lot to some people but I am quite short so I look like a fridge freezer I like that one go on sorry go on
SPEAKER_01:I just thought of you like a little fish in your head, just on the top of it. Go
SPEAKER_00:on. So yeah, so I was 16, 17 and 14 and a half stone. And then I started to struggle. So in a very short space of time with anxiety and throwing up every day and not wanting to eat and putting things off, I went from like 14 and a half stone to about 11. maybe 11 and a half stone in about two months. And obviously like we know that sort of spotting the signs of depression are things like rapid weight fluctuation, whether that is rapid weight gain or rapid weight loss. But I kind of sat at about 11 and a half stone for my college years. And everyone just thought, oh, you know, puberty's done this kid well. Like, he's coming into himself, he's growing up, he's dropped his puppy fat. When in actual fact, the reality was I was that anxious and that depressed that I was not eating and throwing up multiple times a day. I dropped even more weight when I was binge drinking. Like, I went to uni in September, and I think... By the time I came home for Christmas, I'd dropped from 11 and a half to just over 10. And it was my mom that like gave me a hug and she was like, where have you gone? She was like, you've lost a stone. And I stepped on the scales and I'd lost about a stone and two pounds. Like she was bang on. But yeah, so I think being a former fat kid, I'd never in my wildest dreams dreamed that I'd have abs or be ripped or lean or anything like that. And I think that came down to my education around training and nutrition. Because everyone always says abs are made in the kitchen. And I was like, well, I don't know what to put in my body. So as long as I'm eating something, I guess I'm fueling it in some ways. But yeah, it was the education around macros and nutrition and what amount of protein you should be putting in your body and things like that. But then it also came down to my obsessive nature in regards to all or nothing because I would almost punish myself if I'd gone over on my calories. So I would almost over-exercise if I had gone over my calories on one day. There was one instance where I was delivery driving where the dude who ran the company had like... mis-poured a milkshake. He'd made like a Bueno milkshake when he should have made a Caramac milkshake or something. You know what I mean? The heartbreak. And he gave me it and I thoroughly enjoyed this Bueno milkshake because it's the first... bit of chocolate or anything that I'd
SPEAKER_01:had for months that would have probably been your daily calories wouldn't it in that chocolate shake at that time
SPEAKER_00:but then I got home from delivery driving at like 11 o'clock at night and did 60 minutes on my exercise bike because I was like I shouldn't have done that and I was almost punishing myself
SPEAKER_01:that's the thing about exercise bikes and cross trainers you can go in the fridge and you look down and it's like Ben 43 calories that's not even a pack of watsits it's awful isn't it the amount of punishment you have to do just
SPEAKER_00:for it so I think modern day now like I say some days I struggle with what I'm eating some days I'm like fuck it I've earned this I try and stick to because wrestling is my job and I want it to be my full time job and nutrition and training comes down to that i the way i view it is six days for business one day for pleasure so like i have a day off so that's what people refer to as cheat days and things like that but like yeah six days for business and one day for pleasure
SPEAKER_01:what what is the training regime like then for professional wrestler and i know you can only say if i mean everyone's going to be different but what okay what's your personal training regime like to be a professional wrestler
SPEAKER_00:uh i do four weight sessions a week um and it's basically kind of like bodybuilder training i guess because it's like progressive overload and it's um Very intense, like time under tension with very heavy weights and things like that. So four weight sessions a week. I am in a wrestling ring three times a week. Once is a three-hour session that I am a student and I am being coached and I am the one that is doing all the drills and receiving constructive criticism. And then there's a session... that I am coaching. So again, I'm in the ring sort of two, three times a week. And then I try and get my 10,000 steps in a day. I'm not overly harsh on myself when it comes to doing cardio at the gym because I know as long as I get my 10,000 steps in and those three wrestling training sessions a week. You're making up for it, aren't you? Yeah, because wrestling is... Intense. You know that. Wrestling is intense. It's intense, stop-start, interval cardio.
SPEAKER_01:There's no real way to prepare for it or train for it other than doing it. You can't prepare and train for wrestling in a gym.
SPEAKER_00:I can't turn around and say, go and do an hour on a treadmill and you'll be ready for a match because it's completely different. Fifteen minutes in a wrestling ring. is more beneficial to me than going and doing 60 minutes on a treadmill.
SPEAKER_01:I remember someone before had ran the London Marathon about a week before their first ever wrestling training session and they was done within 10-15 minutes of the warm up at the beginning of the session and I remember thinking you ran the London Marathon two weeks ago I thought this would be a doddle and that's when I learnt Again, this has gone back years now. This is a different type of cardio. Yeah. So the only way you can prepare for this is by doing this. Yeah. Speaking of wrestling, obviously, how long have you been doing it then? Because I think, obviously, you were doing it when you were younger, but when would you say your career officially kicked off? Would you say probably about maybe five years ago, six years ago now?
SPEAKER_00:So my local promotion, BWR, Cleethorpes and Grimsby, is... Coming up for its six-year anniversary in July. So I would say that first BWR show, I was still relatively green. I was still relatively new and not untrained, but hadn't had the experience. So I was still a trainee, but I feel like BWR gave me my first professional platform. Yeah. i started to earn my first wage whereas before i'd so i was six years ago 19 so i've been training for on and off for two years um before that but yeah i think uh professional wrestling for me became more than just a hobby coming out of lockdown because of the amount of things that i have found through professional wrestling So my escape, my hobby allowed me to, as I say, go to Newcastle College and deliver a TED talk. And that was about life finds a way and healthy coping mechanisms. And that was quite an odd experience because it was like, let's put this 19 year old kid who has anxiety on a stage in front of 400 people and
SPEAKER_01:just go. talk because then you're not you're not doing when we're talking about earlier with wrestling like you go out there and you'd be somebody else you go out there in front of the 400 000 people how many ever you people you uh you know perform in front of as scotty rock whereas with this you're there as connor yeah i went out there that's the that's the there's a big difference which a lot of people won't necessarily realize
SPEAKER_00:no i made a i made a powerpoint presentation thanks um I had a little clicker to flick through the slides. But yeah, that was me going out there and being 100% genuine. And the response that I got from that was people came up to me afterwards because I was the only person there that wasn't a published author or... a well-known radio personality or had a degree or doctorate in mental health or psychology because I was what people deemed as a real person. People came up to me and said they were very grateful and that me talking had impacted on a lot more people than someone that just went up there and threw some statistics at people. And from that, I was able to go and work with the BBC. And that was quite a surreal experience. From that, I was then asked to go and work on a wrestling show that was a charity show that was raising money for Papyrus, which is prevention of young suicide, and Manchester Mind. Unintentionally, that was organised and run by my current partner. So... I went and worked that show. She'd seen my work with Ted, with BBC, and ran a mental health charity wrestling show. And she was like, well, this guy has done a lot of mental health work. We'll bring him in. Fast forward three and a half, four years later, I've now got a mortgage with her. We live together. So wrestling...
SPEAKER_01:I reckon
SPEAKER_00:she knew what she was doing. So it's professional. I was always taught from... my early stages of training as a professional wrestler that professional wrestling owes you nothing. And it's quite bittersweet because you can graft your ass off and not get to where you want to be. Everyone's got dreams. You're
SPEAKER_01:not the only person to train and want to be part of a big
SPEAKER_00:organisation. Professional wrestling was there before me and it will outlive me when I hang up my boots and no longer step in a ring it'll still be there there'll be the new generation there'll be more people that are chomping at the bit to be the next big thing to be the next you know larger than life character the next Undertaker the next John Cena the next The Rock
SPEAKER_01:and you will slowly be phased out yeah you guys
SPEAKER_00:come in but professional
SPEAKER_01:I am aware of but
SPEAKER_00:yeah but professional wrestling owes me nothing but I feel I owe a lot to professional wrestling it's got a hell of a lot to answer for
SPEAKER_02:absolutely
SPEAKER_00:I'd describe wrestling as my part-time job. I work part-time job in a bar and I'm actually now a fully qualified mental health first aid instructor. So I've delivered three courses of mental health first aid. And I think maybe 15 to 17 people have got their level three qualifications in mental health first aid with me as their instructor. So that's been like, a really big 180, I guess. It's literally gone from depressed piece of shit that wants to end his own life to now giving back into the community and helping other people to help other people through my personal experience and obviously through training and qualifications and qualifications in teaching and things like that. It's been a slow process and I think... If it hadn't have been for lockdown, I don't think I'd have knuckled down and done it. But as I say, it comes down to that all or nothing mentality of like, right, okay, well, I've been in this position. I don't want other people to feel like they've got no one when they are in the same position as me. So it's all about educating others and putting back into... The world, what I guess I've taken out of it or what I've learned from it, helping other people break that stigma around mental health and just the power of conversation, the power of reaching out to a loved one, the power of asking someone if they're OK twice because the first time doesn't really register. How many times have we walked down the street and been like, you all right? And that's a greeting. It's a
SPEAKER_01:greeting, isn't it? All right, it's a hello, isn't it? Like, you all right? Where are you? Not, are you actually? But if you take that... It's a different question, isn't
SPEAKER_00:it? Take that moment to ask a second time and it makes someone think and someone that may not be okay, may not feel comfortable saying that they're not okay the first time, but if you're persistent, then someone might feel comfortable enough to open up. Like, the best case scenario... is you ask someone if they're okay more than once and they open up to you and you save their life. The worst case scenario is you just come across like someone that's concerned. Like... It's a win-win, I guess.
SPEAKER_01:You have been an absolute delight today. I've got 10 questions that I'd like to finish my podcast on. I asked all my guests these questions, completely irrelevant to what we've spoken about so far. So my first question for you, Connor, forward slash Scotty Rock, is what is your favourite word?
SPEAKER_00:Forward slash Scotty
SPEAKER_01:Rock.
SPEAKER_00:My favourite word?
SPEAKER_01:Yes. Bollocks. Nice, that's good. What's your least favourite word?
SPEAKER_00:Ooh, yes. Yeast.
SPEAKER_01:Tell me something that excites you.
SPEAKER_00:Professional wrestling.
SPEAKER_01:Tell me something that doesn't excite you.
SPEAKER_00:Office jobs.
SPEAKER_01:What sound or noise do you love?
SPEAKER_00:You know when you melt cheese and it starts to bubble?
SPEAKER_01:What sound or noise do you hate?
SPEAKER_00:The sound of an emery board on someone's fingernails. It's like nails on a chalkboard. It goes through me.
SPEAKER_01:um what's your favorite curse word i
SPEAKER_00:can't have bollocks again can i
SPEAKER_01:if you want to bollocks again you can bollocks is a good curse word without
SPEAKER_00:dropping a hard c
SPEAKER_01:if you wasn't a professional wrestler uh what other profession would you like to attempt
SPEAKER_00:so i'm actually through university i know we spoke about my uni years i i I did get my qualification, and I am a fully qualified audio engineer, sound engineer. I
SPEAKER_01:didn't even ask what you did at university, to
SPEAKER_00:be fair. I did audio production, so I spent years in bands and studying music. Went to university, did audio production, and yeah, I'm now a fully qualified sound engineer. So if I wasn't on the stage wrestling or on the stage... playing music, I'd be behind the scenes doing something creative.
SPEAKER_01:If you do get old and facedown in wrestling, I can imagine you just plugging the amps in and watching all the young
SPEAKER_00:guys. Just an old school roadie, you know
SPEAKER_01:what I mean? Old school roadie, I like it. And then what profession would you not like to do? So not disrespect anyone that does it, but something that just completely isn't for you.
SPEAKER_00:I think, yeah, I couldn't see myself doing office work. I've worked in bars for... six years which as someone who's had alcohol issues may be a bit of a red flag yeah i'm actually sober
SPEAKER_01:i'm
SPEAKER_00:actually sober i don't like to claim straight edge or anything like that because i think you just open yourself up to unnecessary criticism um but yeah i stopped drinking or i made a conscious effort to stop drinking as soon as lockdown hit um and i think since lockdown I may have had a drink four times in the last three years. No.
SPEAKER_01:And then my last question for you is, if heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the pearly gates?
SPEAKER_00:What would I like God to say? Hello, motherfucker.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you very much for coming on. Cheers, mate. That was wonderful. Thank you. And if you enjoyed this episode of the Believe in People podcast, don't forget to check out our other episodes and hit that subscribe button. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok. Our name is CGL Hull. That's C-G-L-H-U-L-L. We're on iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, and Google Music. So please like and subscribe to receive regular updates. You can also search for Believe in People podcast on your favorite listening device. And if you could leave us a review, that will really help us with getting our message out there and rising up the daily podcast charts.
