Jimmo's Angle Special: Interview: Iestyn Rees

In the last six months, I have been lucky enough to go 'behind-the-scenes' of some local wrestling shows. This has given me the chance to see how things are set up and the amount of work that goes into each one. It has also given me the chance to meet the wrestlers and in some cases get a good rapport with them. I still consider myself an outsider to a certain degree; always trying to be respectful and using the rule that I should 'speak-when-I'm-spoken-to'.

Iestyn Rees

In the last couple of shows that I've been to, I have been very grateful that Iestyn Rees - one of the wrestlers on the show - has been very welcoming and has even asked my opinion of his matches. I felt a little under-qualified, but definitely very honoured that an experienced worker would like to know my thoughts. If I'm honest, it impressed me that a guy that's been wrestling several years would take advice from the unlikeliest of sources; it showed me that he is always looking to improve and that can only be a good thing for fans that come to see the shows. It must be a nice thing to know if you're a Promoter booking Iestyn for a show, too - you know that you're going to get something new and potentially great for the show you're putting on.

I spoke with Iestyn recently and he answered some of my questions:


Jimmo's Angle: Hi Iestyn, how did you go about becoming a wrestler? Where did you train? Did anyone of note train you?
Iestyn Rees: I was a massive WWF fan when I was a kid. My cousin used to tape the PPVs and occasionally Superstars (TV show), and would send them to me. Then he stopped watching wrestling so I wasn't able to watch anything. In 2000, the Royal Rumble was on channel 4; I recorded it and I was hooked again. I followed WWF on TV and the Internet all through University. After I finished Uni, I was searching on the Internet and thought “what the hell?” so I searched for wrestling schools. There were three close to me - 4FW (based in Swindon) looked the most professional by far, so one Sunday I bit the bullet and travelled down there. The ring wasn't there as they had a ring-job so we completed drills on mats for the session. I loved it and couldn't wait to go back the next Sunday. Soon, that became my Sunday routine; get up, drive to Swindon and train from 10am until 6pm.

The trainer was Dave Sharp and he was assisted by The Saint. I started training in July and after a few losses wearing a mask (doing a Mexican gimmick), I debuted in May the following year. I was really lucky as my debut was in a tag team match vs The Kartel (Sha Samuels and Terry Frazier). Over the next 6-9 months I was lucky enough to wrestle The Kartel, Martin Stone and Dave Mastiff; they all gave me loads of advice and really helped me develop in the ring.

JA: Who do you look up to? Who do you feel you have learnt the most from? Who do you admire/respect?
IR: The guys I look up to in the business are really good friends of mine as well - Dave Mastiff, Sha Samuels and Joel Redman (NXT's Oliver Grey). These guys, along with Al Snow have taught me the most. Gilligan Gordon, Chris Roberts and Dave Mastiff and I were lucky enough to spend an entire week with Al which was an incredible learning experience.

JA: I've seen you at three different shows (NBWA, Welsh Wrestling (for James Mason) and Pro EVW) - which promotions do you enjoy working for? Do you see any differences between promotions you work for?
IR: I really enjoy working for Welsh Wrestling, Pro EVW and IPW along with others. I feel these promotions make it easy for you to do your job as all aspects of the show are well organised and run effectively.

Obviously, there are differences between all the companies I work for, mainly with the audience they cater to and this causes slight changes to the style of the shows. IPW run a regular venue for the most part so the crowd become very invested in the wrestlers and their feuds. Pro EVW run regular venues in an expanded area but with a regular roster plus various different wrestlers from across the country. The shows include feuds and rivalries as well as top exhibition matches.

Welsh Wrestling run a touring schedule, therefore shows will be in venues one or two times a year. This will allow maximal advertising and usually the biggest house possible. There have been some venues that we've run more regularly including Welshpool where there was an ongoing storyline between myself, Kade Callous and Lembit Opik (MP), which lead to a match that was covered in ten national newspapers and reported on ITN and BBC news.

JA: What is your view of British Wrestling? What improvements do you think need to happen to get to the next level?
IR: British wrestling is doing very well in some areas of the country and there are some excellent talents here in the UK. This is plain to see by the number of guys signed to WWE and TNA contracts. In the areas that are doing well for themselves, I would say that the promoters of those promotions are working hard and understand their business model, ensuring their product is seen by as many people as possible.

The main improvements that need to be made, need to be made by both the wrestlers and promoters; working together. Promoters need to realise that to be successful and fill venues they need to advertise, advertise, advertise. This means posters, flyers, banners and newspaper ads – any way of getting the product across to as many fans as possible.

The Promoters then need to work to a realistic budget for their venue and use the best talent they can afford. If the budget can't stretch to getting respected pros then the Promoter shouldn't just throw any old talent out there; they should go back to the drawing board, look at their venue choice, advertising process and talent choices. If they still can't put on a decent show then they really shouldn't be promoting.

JA: At the last Pro EVW show you spoke with me briefly about your matches with Nick Riley (of The Magnums) - do you feel you guys have good chemistry? Who else do you think you click with in the ring?
IR: Recently, Nick is one of the guys I've worked with the most; I feel that our matches are always entertaining and hard hitting. We had a great one-on-one match at a recent show at the Wotton Hall Club in Gloucester for Pro EVW (see video below).

Other guys that I always have a great scrap with are Sha Samuels (most underrated wrestler in the UK) and Kade Callous, who I feuded with for the first half of this year for the Welsh Wrestling Heavyweight Title.

JA: I believe that you and Charlie Garrett have started to team as 'The Alpha Males' - how's that going? Have you got any bookings as a team yet? How did this team come about?
IR: I was working at the Pro EVW Training Centre in Gloucester where myself and Gilligan Gordon are part of the training staff. Gilligan commented on how me and Charlie looked a bit alike and also that there is a big gap in the British wrestling scene for a tag team that combines both power (me) and high flying/speed (Charlie).

Gilligan Gordon; a good friend of Iestyn's

So Charlie and I had a chat and we decided we could work well together. So we've put in some serious time at the Training Centre and I feel we're now ready to take British Tag Team wrestling by storm! So far we are booked (as a team) on the following shows:

• Sat 28th Sept at Pro EVW in Dursley, Gloucestershire
  
• Sat 5th Oct at Pro EVW in Ross on Wye, Herefordshire
  
• Sat 12th Oct at Pro EVW in Gloucester
  
• Sat 19th Oct at DWA Barnstaple, Devon (vs The Magnums in a TLC Match)
  
• Sun 28th Oct at DCW Crediton, Devon (vs Pretty Marvellous)
  
• Sat 2nd Nov at Pro EVW in Cinderford, Gloucestershire
  
• Sat 7th Dec at Pro EVW in Gloucester
  
• Sat 14th Dec at DWA Tiverton, Devon
  

The Alpha Males (with Charlie Garrett, left)

PLUG: Promoters interested in booking The Alpha Males - Check out their twitter page @The_Alpha_Males or search for 'The Alpha Males' on Facebook. Both of which have the dates that they are available.

JA: Tell me about your ambitions in wrestling?
IR: I'd love to travel the world working for as many top promotions as possible. I am also always looking at ways to improve my matches and come up with new and interesting ways to entertain the audiences that come to see the shows that I'm on.

JA: As Iestyn mentioned in this interview, he is part of the training team for Pro EVW. Some of the trainees there gave their thoughts on Iestyn's efforts:

Katy Lees:

“I would say that Iestyn has brought the spark back at Pro EVW and made everyone way more focused. He's also starting to help us all with gimmicks, our own move-sets and promo/acting work which we haven't done a lot of before. If we want to talk about wrestling outside of training he's made a page for us all to talk on. He also posts helpful videos for us to learn from. He's given us a lot more help than we've had before. When I first saw him I just thought “eeeek scary, evil training man!”... but now I realise that his training sessions are brilliant and help loads!”

Tom Carr:

“Katy summed him up perfectly. Iestyn is going to a great effort to help polish up the advanced trainees to a strong show standard and show the inexperienced guys the basics. It's great to have someone like Iestyn who wants us to do well and gives us the means to do so.”

David Stone:

"We've been really fortunate to have trained with many of the UK's top wrestlers at the Pro Evolution Wrestling Academy. Iestyn's a great example of that - his knowledge, confidence and ability to lead a class make him a fantastic mentor for us.

He shows a genuine interest in helping us improve our skills and attain our goals, and we're all genuinely thankful for the time he puts in to the academy."

 JA: If you'd like to book Iestyn then you can find him on Facebook or on Twitter (@Iestyn_Rees)

Support British Wrestling
@jimmosangle