SLAM SCHOOL: We try out Wrestling training in Kent
Rockstars, hardcore heroes and families – all are welcome at the Genesis Pro Wrestling Academy
Words by Samuel Wood / Images by Dave Martin Photography
Taking your first ‘bump’ hurts. Instead of handling it like a pro – like those I was surrounded by as I lay on the ring canvas in Langley Village Hall near Maidstone – I didn’t and it hurt.
However, taking a bump (pro wrestling jargon for landing hard on the canvas) also feels pretty cool.
And that’s why there are 30 young men and women in this community hall on the outskirts of Maidstone for ring-training with Genesis Pro Wrestling Academy making their way through 300 squats.
I’m helped to my feet by a smiling Alex, lead trainer and experienced pro who makes a bump look convincing.
“That was cool!” says Jon Moores, founder of the academy, watching from the side of the ring. “Now try landing on your face!”
Jon is a coach and owner of Genesis Pro Wrestling, having been a mainstay of the Kent wrestling scene since the 90s.
Jon has been slick playboy wrestling character Johnny Love, followed by the devilish and ash-covered Cinders. That was years ago and a world championship or two (including tag-team titles with an adult film actor – together known as Hard Love), through which Jon learned how to help those looking to get started.
But how do you become a ‘professional wrestler’?
“Now try landing on your face!”
To begin, you’ll need fitness, dedication and a willingness to perform before crowds and smartphone cameras to deliver promos (the staged storylines) and to become accustomed to the bumps and the dangers that come with this showmanship. But the graft doesn’t finish on the canvas.
Taking the ring down after the show is a team effort. Occasionally, for adult shows, it may require being hit over the head with a metal baking tray or brooms, so trips to the pound shop for “equipment” prior to hardcore events are common.
That’s what it takes to make it in this form of artistic athleticism that encompasses a mix of pantomime, adrenaline, local heroes and national champions, rock stars and show-offs, and performers like William.
William introduced himself within minutes of my arrival:
“Hello Sam, my name is William and I am the Autistic Titan.”
William is a young man with autism, and is equally a titan, judging by the cheers he receives from his co-trainees as he sticks the landing when suplexed on to a crash mat.
This is a perfect example of what Genesis provides the Kent wrestling scene, something appreciated by the wealth of local talent eager for their opportunity.
In addition to Jon’s focus on technical safety, the academy epitomises camaraderie and William is at the centre. At William’s 25th birthday, most of the academy came along to celebrate.
William’s mum Beverly is delighted with what pro wrestling does for her son, saying: “School was a struggle, but we were so proud to see him motivate himself to getting a job and now pursuing his goals in wrestling. There’s nothing else like this for autistic adults around here. Believe me – I’ve looked. Genesis has been fantastic.”
Lucy, a former pro and member of Jon’s wrestling group The League of Love, agrees. Before beginning ring training, she’d handed me a safety waiver and said: “If it wasn’t safe, I wouldn’t have my boys here.”
Lucy has her three boys present. One in the academy’s junior class (8-16 years old) and two in the adults’ class.
Following the warm-up, Jon barks at the trainees to begin chain-wrestling – pairing up to improvise routines and deliver a symphonic gallery of grunts and grimaces thanks to wristlocks, armbars and full nelsons that really do hurt. Lucy tells me of her time wrestling.
“I was a freestyle wrestler, like in the Olympics, and loved it, but when I first saw pro wrestling on the TV I knew this was a chance to be the two things I wanted most.”
What else did she want to be? “A rock star, and I was.”
When she wrestled, Lucy’s dad would taxi the fledgling performer as far north as Manchester and back to Kent in a night – all for the love of the show.
The nature of the show marketing and exuberance of the characters means that the line between real and storyline (‘kayfabe’) does occasionally cause problems locally. In his other career, Jon is a personal trainer in Maidstone.
“I kayfabe fired a friend of mine in the ring and we put it on the academy’s socials. Suddenly I stopped hearing from a client and I later discovered she’d seen the kayfabe firing and decided I was a horrible b*stard and didn’t want anything to do with me! Compliment, really.”
Kent wrestling is profoundly local. An example of the home-grown talent is Garry, known in the ring as Big Bully Briggs – a headline draw for the recent show at Snodland Community Centre – shortly before dislodging his patella from where it ought to be.
This happened months ago, just before a match. Despite years of bumps and training, it was Garry’s simple ring-walk that caused his tendon to pop and for him to crash to the mat before the bell had rung.
“Did it hurt?” I asked feebly. “Yes,” he replies and leaves it at that, revealing himself to be both a man of few words and of disdain for inane questions.
At this point, students have finished chain-wrestling and begun performing for the scenes of combat they’ve quickly scripted with a final finishing move, to feedback and applause from the class.
During this, Garry breaks away into the ring to entertain two of the children who remain from the earlier juniors’ training session. They slam his head off the turnbuckle, deliver stiff gut-kicks and whip him into the corner at high speed. They love it and Garry hobbles on one knee, ever a showman.
Garry’s usual bully-boy character encourages the boos and jeers from the crowd, but personally he’s calm and quiet – something he notes comes across in his promos to-camera in which he is a brooding presence while his ‘manager’ speaks for him.
“I don’t like promos, no,” he says. “I’ve gotten a lot better, but I’m not confident with speaking generally. I was told I was stupid at school because I’m dyslexic, and that knocked me hard. Doing a promo now and then is good, but performing has helped me overcome that quite a bit over the six years I’ve done it.”
Safety is paramount at Genesis – but to do well as a performer you’ll need an artistic flair that not everybody can do and not everybody understands.
Head trainer Alex emphasises this: “Professional wrestling is our art form. We as wrestlers are artists and the ring is our canvas. It can bring so many different emotions from the audience on a live show. We have the power to make you boo, cheer and in some cases cry with excitement or even frustration. There really isn't any other entertainment like it.”
Founder Jon knows this, which is why he’s overseeing the academy and ensuring there are shows for his graduated performers.
Doing this, the work for Jon remains as intense as when he wrestled. He hires local camera guys for the shows, edits the footage himself for social media and works with a former student to commentate over the video, in addition to marketing, booking and logistics.
There’s a reality to the job of wrestling that isn’t glamorous. It’s a 9am-1am day, for many who are working other jobs away from this vocation. A show-day includes the travel to and from venues, late nights and long hours, squeezing in training around work and family, hard-to-explain bruises and remuneration that only seems worth it once you become a headline act.
Till then, these men and women are wrestling for the love it, despite the hardships, the bumps and the danger.
As the training session ends, there’s a jubilation in the air that comes with passion, friends and a hope that the trainees are acquiring the skills with which to go forward.
Genesis Pro Wrestling Academy gives them this chance to learn the ropes, gain the confidence and head out on to the scene as a paid performer in an industry few people realise is flourishing in Kent.
Some students might become successes locally, some might go stateside, some might remain rockstars. We’ll see.
They say pro wrestling is scripted... but my back still hurts.
