Post by ssjb on May 9, 2009 7:48:07 GMT -5
[The words “KWF.com Exclusive Video” are displayed across the screen before fading, replaced by Jack Dimdell, stood, wearing a black suit and a blue shirt, without a tie.]
JD: Hi, I’m Jack Dimdell, welcome to this excluse KWF.com interview! Today we talk candidly to a well travelled young man who’s wrestling career, and his life, has been dogged by tragedy, controversy and incident! He has been dubbed by many on his journey through the rocky road of the wrestling business as the ultimate underdog, it is my pleasure to welcome, just days before his KWF debut, “Six Star” James Bailey! James, Welcome.
[The camera pans round to James who is wearing blue and red tracksuit training bottoms and a KWF t-shirt which tightly hugs his small yet muscular frame.]
JB: Thanks Jack.
JD: So, you are approaching your debut here in the KWF but your road here had been anything but smooth, I would like to start at the beginning, if I may, with your childhood?
JB: Sure.
JD: Okay. Well, you were born in a small town, just outside of Manchester in the UK, your childhood, was it a fairly normal childhood?
JB: Yeah, there was the four of us in the family, My mum, my dad, Carly and myself.
JD: Carly? This would be your sister?
JB: Yeah, she’s about 18 months younger than I am. Childhood in Bolton was fairly normal, I was a normal kid into all the usual stuff that a kid would be involved in. I watched wrestling and watched and played a lot of football, soccer to you Americans, and went watching my local team, Bolton Wanderers, supporting them for all of my life, things were good, great in fact.
JD: Until the accident?
JB: Well yeah, at that moment, my whole life changed in an instant you know, its one of those instances where you know instantly that nothing will ever be the same again, no matter how much you want it to be, nothing will ever be the way it was. . . Carly and myself were suddenly without our parents at the age of 13 and 15, respectively, and why? So some drunken idiot could get home from the boozer quicker? Insanity, absolute insanity, that one person could cause so much pain, pain I still feel to this day, to loose two people who were everything to you in an instant like that, it’s a feeling that never really dies, you know, there isn’t a day goes by when they don’t enter my thoughts at some stage.
JD: What happened to the two of you then?
JB: Well we were taken in by our grandmother who was our mum’s mum, and she did what she could you know, I mean she was dealing with the loss too, she had just buried her daughter, something no parent should ever have to do, and she had these two kids, hurt and confused, to look after, A girl who felt totally lost anf alone in the world and a boy who was blaming the world for his loss, we didn’t make the process any easier, especially myself you know, I was a little terror, I was forever getting into fights and into trouble here and there, with school, with the police, to the extent of nearly being put into juvenile detention!
JD: What for?
JB: Repeated offences y’know fighting, shoplifting, vandalism but luckily, the judge took into account the emotional rollercoaster I had been on and went easy on me, making me take part in a compulsory community sports project, like a workshop for troubled teens who were going off the rails. It was a great thing really because it gave people, like me, with no path or goal in life something to construct, something to work at, to channel that aggression through sports, as well as getting you off the streets into a safe environment where you couldn’t go out causing trouble. I spent a lot of time there, even at times I didn’t have to be there, it became a place of solace to me, I could go and unwind, play some soccer or cricket, some tennis or rugby, hit the pool or do some weights, but one sport really seemed to connect with me, something I could do well.
JD: Wrestling?
JB: Yeah, wrestling, and the instructor, a Scottish bloke by the name of Terry McNuttley, happened to be involved in the coaching of the Olympic wrestling team, and we connected, he saw in me things I could have never seen.
JD: So this led to your inclusion in the squad for the Sydney Olympics?
JB: It did yes, I mean it was so surreal, I mean to go from the brink of going to prison, being seen as the scum of society, to being seen as an Olympian, somebody at the pinnacle of humanity, it was nuts! I went from a troubled teen that society looked down upon, to being in the same Olympic team as Sir Steve Redgrave! In two years? That is just madness when you think about it! Especially at such a young age!
JD: So, you were how old at the time?
JB: I was 16, seems like a very long time ago right now.
[James laughs lightly, issuing a rye smile as his mind recounts back the 9 years since then.]
JD: Very young for such a lot of pressure, the weight of the nation on your shoulders.
JB: Well, to be fair, there wasn’t as much as you’d think, we weren’t expected to come home with all that many medals, and wrestling isn’t anywhere near as big a deal, in the UK, as it is in the states.
JD: Still, you became somewhat of a celebrity, not only in your home country, but around the world?
JB: Well, in a very minor way, it was more the image of me in tears, determined to get back onto the mat and compete, which in the scheme of things was stupid really, because I could have done more damage, it was probably a good thing I was stopped, but I couldn’t appreciate that at the time.
JD: Yeah, I remember the image, this young British kid in tears, the Olympic spirit burning brightly within him, that was the message, it became almost iconic. It was an injury that killed your gold medal dreams?
JB: Well, kind of yeah, I was injured and that did cause me to retire from the match, and the competition, resigning me to one of the two bronze medal slots, but in fairness to my opponent that day, I wasn’t necessarily going to win that match, let alone the final. Winning any type of medal was seen as a massive over achievment, I was frustrated that I didn’t get to see fully where the ride was going to take me, I would have been happier to be defeated because I wasn’t good enough than because my knee decided to fall apart, but I look back on it now and I see that that image and that fame was probably a good thing in the scheme of things because, like you said it got me in the US papers, so when I did start on the road to the wrestling business, I already had a profile as this guy with a hell of a lot of heart and a decent amount of tallent you know?
JD: Yeah, I know what your saying, but what was it that made you make that decision? The one to make the jump to the professional wrestling world?
JB: When I got back from Sydney, and my injury had healed, Carly’s boyfriend, Alister Montgomery (HiWF’s Alister Joseph) had been training for a while and suggested I give it a go, seeing as I had always been a fan I figured it would be a good idea to give it a go. Alister then got picked up by a small time fed over here called IWWF and once they found out how close he was to the kid who cried in Sydney, the Olympic spirit kid, they signed my up in a flash, made sure I finished my training there and then there I was! But in all honesty, the place was a total shambles, we didn’t get paid, the place was falling apart, the guy that ran it was a total looser! But it was all experience and it was all good fun, me and Ally wrestled as a tag team, “The Loop” which is where I got my finisher name from. I won my first title while I was there too.
JD: Oh? What title was that?
JB: The IWWF Hardkore title. I beat a guy called Psycho for it and never lost it, well never defended it, until the place closed a few weeks later. Interestingly, the guy who I beat later had a career ending injury, where his leg fell off in the ring!
JD: No!?
JB: I shit you not JD, I shit you not, he got caught in the ropes, then there it was on the floor! He was not a very happy man, I can tell you that!
JD: So, after that place folded, the HiWF came calling?
JB: Yeah, they picked me up, then they picked Ally up a few weeks later, it worked out well, but then we had a little bust up and ended up feuding, but what a feude it was! Peaking at the Reebok stadium in our home town of Bolton, the place I went as a boy to watch the football team I love play each week!
JD: And this is where your career really took off?
JB: Yeah, under the leadership of a guy called Michael Wilkins, a hell of an owner, loved the WCW nitro card game! I had some decent success picking up a few titles along my way, ally’s career really took of two and ended up as part of the XB inc faction, which was a shoot off from the defunct XBWL Federation.
JD: your career has never quite hit the heights it did in the HiWF again. Would you say that was a fair assessment?
JB: Yeah, your probably spot on to be honest with you. Although it was probably a knock on effect from the HiWF days, as may career grew to levels I’d never dreamed of, and the money rolled in, My personal life fell apart. My girl left me and the recreational drug use kicked in. The drugs were something that would grow to become a serious problem. Things weren’t all bad, I ended up with Kellie (Former manager Miss Holland) but that in time was destroyed. I even retired once between my first HiWF stint and now. But that’s the way it can go sometimes. A bit of fame and money to a kid like me, who was still fairly young, in my late teens and early 20’s and the drink and the drugs are readily available, the NCW gig was a lifeline I threw away because of the drug use too, and that’s a path ill never be welcome down again. But NMW didn’t really seem to have a problem with it to be honest.
JD: New Millennium Wrestling, a company now defunct, you got out before it imploded?
JB: Yeah, I did, for once, that place was insane to be honest with you. The money they offered me to come out of retirement was madness, and only sought to fuel my problems. They were giving me miles more than, in fairness to myself, I was worth paying. Especially seeing as I didn’t get given a fair chance to prove myself . So the drugs just got worse, out of boredom really, and it really began to effect Kellie and I, who were now married and eventually that fell apart and now I’m 25, a recovering drug addict and a divorcee, not the greatest of CV’s! I had to get out and so I sat being paid for a while after an injury, just taking coke, then got the release I was asking for before it all went bottom up for the promotion.
JD: You crossed path’s with former NMW Wrestler Davey Boone whilst there? Davey has just signed here for KWF.
JB: Yeah, a little, I mean by the time Davey signed, I was on the blacklist and he was the star rally. So I didn’t spend any time with him, or get into the ring with him, but what I did see I didn’t really like. He was granted Hall of fame status in NMW despite only wrestling a handful of matches. His signing here did come as a surprise to be honest, as the last thing I remember from him was being shot dead on live TV, can dead men wrestle? All I really remember him for is problems he caused backstage, but hey, everyone can be a dick sometimes, I know full well what life can become like and what certain things, cocaine for me, can turn you into.
JD: Quite an opinion? Davey is a fan favourite though and so are you, don’t you think these comments may effect that?
JB: no, not really J.D. man, its like I’m fed up of the bullshit you know, the fans know me as an honest guy, I tell it like it it and I want to be cheered for the right reasons, out of respect for my mind and my abilities and my heart, not because I kiss the asses of the guys above. I want to be a big success in KWF and, in turn, Help KWF be successful, I’m not here for a payday, I’m here because I’m hungry, and I hope that the fans will appreciate that.
JD: Well, James, thank you for your honestly, your openness and your time, and I wish you well in your first match this coming weekend!
[Jack turns back to the camera on his own]
JD: Thanks for watching, I’ve been Jack Dimmel for KWF.com
[The scene fades back to black as the video ends.]
JD: Hi, I’m Jack Dimdell, welcome to this excluse KWF.com interview! Today we talk candidly to a well travelled young man who’s wrestling career, and his life, has been dogged by tragedy, controversy and incident! He has been dubbed by many on his journey through the rocky road of the wrestling business as the ultimate underdog, it is my pleasure to welcome, just days before his KWF debut, “Six Star” James Bailey! James, Welcome.
[The camera pans round to James who is wearing blue and red tracksuit training bottoms and a KWF t-shirt which tightly hugs his small yet muscular frame.]
JB: Thanks Jack.
JD: So, you are approaching your debut here in the KWF but your road here had been anything but smooth, I would like to start at the beginning, if I may, with your childhood?
JB: Sure.
JD: Okay. Well, you were born in a small town, just outside of Manchester in the UK, your childhood, was it a fairly normal childhood?
JB: Yeah, there was the four of us in the family, My mum, my dad, Carly and myself.
JD: Carly? This would be your sister?
JB: Yeah, she’s about 18 months younger than I am. Childhood in Bolton was fairly normal, I was a normal kid into all the usual stuff that a kid would be involved in. I watched wrestling and watched and played a lot of football, soccer to you Americans, and went watching my local team, Bolton Wanderers, supporting them for all of my life, things were good, great in fact.
JD: Until the accident?
JB: Well yeah, at that moment, my whole life changed in an instant you know, its one of those instances where you know instantly that nothing will ever be the same again, no matter how much you want it to be, nothing will ever be the way it was. . . Carly and myself were suddenly without our parents at the age of 13 and 15, respectively, and why? So some drunken idiot could get home from the boozer quicker? Insanity, absolute insanity, that one person could cause so much pain, pain I still feel to this day, to loose two people who were everything to you in an instant like that, it’s a feeling that never really dies, you know, there isn’t a day goes by when they don’t enter my thoughts at some stage.
JD: What happened to the two of you then?
JB: Well we were taken in by our grandmother who was our mum’s mum, and she did what she could you know, I mean she was dealing with the loss too, she had just buried her daughter, something no parent should ever have to do, and she had these two kids, hurt and confused, to look after, A girl who felt totally lost anf alone in the world and a boy who was blaming the world for his loss, we didn’t make the process any easier, especially myself you know, I was a little terror, I was forever getting into fights and into trouble here and there, with school, with the police, to the extent of nearly being put into juvenile detention!
JD: What for?
JB: Repeated offences y’know fighting, shoplifting, vandalism but luckily, the judge took into account the emotional rollercoaster I had been on and went easy on me, making me take part in a compulsory community sports project, like a workshop for troubled teens who were going off the rails. It was a great thing really because it gave people, like me, with no path or goal in life something to construct, something to work at, to channel that aggression through sports, as well as getting you off the streets into a safe environment where you couldn’t go out causing trouble. I spent a lot of time there, even at times I didn’t have to be there, it became a place of solace to me, I could go and unwind, play some soccer or cricket, some tennis or rugby, hit the pool or do some weights, but one sport really seemed to connect with me, something I could do well.
JD: Wrestling?
JB: Yeah, wrestling, and the instructor, a Scottish bloke by the name of Terry McNuttley, happened to be involved in the coaching of the Olympic wrestling team, and we connected, he saw in me things I could have never seen.
JD: So this led to your inclusion in the squad for the Sydney Olympics?
JB: It did yes, I mean it was so surreal, I mean to go from the brink of going to prison, being seen as the scum of society, to being seen as an Olympian, somebody at the pinnacle of humanity, it was nuts! I went from a troubled teen that society looked down upon, to being in the same Olympic team as Sir Steve Redgrave! In two years? That is just madness when you think about it! Especially at such a young age!
JD: So, you were how old at the time?
JB: I was 16, seems like a very long time ago right now.
[James laughs lightly, issuing a rye smile as his mind recounts back the 9 years since then.]
JD: Very young for such a lot of pressure, the weight of the nation on your shoulders.
JB: Well, to be fair, there wasn’t as much as you’d think, we weren’t expected to come home with all that many medals, and wrestling isn’t anywhere near as big a deal, in the UK, as it is in the states.
JD: Still, you became somewhat of a celebrity, not only in your home country, but around the world?
JB: Well, in a very minor way, it was more the image of me in tears, determined to get back onto the mat and compete, which in the scheme of things was stupid really, because I could have done more damage, it was probably a good thing I was stopped, but I couldn’t appreciate that at the time.
JD: Yeah, I remember the image, this young British kid in tears, the Olympic spirit burning brightly within him, that was the message, it became almost iconic. It was an injury that killed your gold medal dreams?
JB: Well, kind of yeah, I was injured and that did cause me to retire from the match, and the competition, resigning me to one of the two bronze medal slots, but in fairness to my opponent that day, I wasn’t necessarily going to win that match, let alone the final. Winning any type of medal was seen as a massive over achievment, I was frustrated that I didn’t get to see fully where the ride was going to take me, I would have been happier to be defeated because I wasn’t good enough than because my knee decided to fall apart, but I look back on it now and I see that that image and that fame was probably a good thing in the scheme of things because, like you said it got me in the US papers, so when I did start on the road to the wrestling business, I already had a profile as this guy with a hell of a lot of heart and a decent amount of tallent you know?
JD: Yeah, I know what your saying, but what was it that made you make that decision? The one to make the jump to the professional wrestling world?
JB: When I got back from Sydney, and my injury had healed, Carly’s boyfriend, Alister Montgomery (HiWF’s Alister Joseph) had been training for a while and suggested I give it a go, seeing as I had always been a fan I figured it would be a good idea to give it a go. Alister then got picked up by a small time fed over here called IWWF and once they found out how close he was to the kid who cried in Sydney, the Olympic spirit kid, they signed my up in a flash, made sure I finished my training there and then there I was! But in all honesty, the place was a total shambles, we didn’t get paid, the place was falling apart, the guy that ran it was a total looser! But it was all experience and it was all good fun, me and Ally wrestled as a tag team, “The Loop” which is where I got my finisher name from. I won my first title while I was there too.
JD: Oh? What title was that?
JB: The IWWF Hardkore title. I beat a guy called Psycho for it and never lost it, well never defended it, until the place closed a few weeks later. Interestingly, the guy who I beat later had a career ending injury, where his leg fell off in the ring!
JD: No!?
JB: I shit you not JD, I shit you not, he got caught in the ropes, then there it was on the floor! He was not a very happy man, I can tell you that!
JD: So, after that place folded, the HiWF came calling?
JB: Yeah, they picked me up, then they picked Ally up a few weeks later, it worked out well, but then we had a little bust up and ended up feuding, but what a feude it was! Peaking at the Reebok stadium in our home town of Bolton, the place I went as a boy to watch the football team I love play each week!
JD: And this is where your career really took off?
JB: Yeah, under the leadership of a guy called Michael Wilkins, a hell of an owner, loved the WCW nitro card game! I had some decent success picking up a few titles along my way, ally’s career really took of two and ended up as part of the XB inc faction, which was a shoot off from the defunct XBWL Federation.
JD: your career has never quite hit the heights it did in the HiWF again. Would you say that was a fair assessment?
JB: Yeah, your probably spot on to be honest with you. Although it was probably a knock on effect from the HiWF days, as may career grew to levels I’d never dreamed of, and the money rolled in, My personal life fell apart. My girl left me and the recreational drug use kicked in. The drugs were something that would grow to become a serious problem. Things weren’t all bad, I ended up with Kellie (Former manager Miss Holland) but that in time was destroyed. I even retired once between my first HiWF stint and now. But that’s the way it can go sometimes. A bit of fame and money to a kid like me, who was still fairly young, in my late teens and early 20’s and the drink and the drugs are readily available, the NCW gig was a lifeline I threw away because of the drug use too, and that’s a path ill never be welcome down again. But NMW didn’t really seem to have a problem with it to be honest.
JD: New Millennium Wrestling, a company now defunct, you got out before it imploded?
JB: Yeah, I did, for once, that place was insane to be honest with you. The money they offered me to come out of retirement was madness, and only sought to fuel my problems. They were giving me miles more than, in fairness to myself, I was worth paying. Especially seeing as I didn’t get given a fair chance to prove myself . So the drugs just got worse, out of boredom really, and it really began to effect Kellie and I, who were now married and eventually that fell apart and now I’m 25, a recovering drug addict and a divorcee, not the greatest of CV’s! I had to get out and so I sat being paid for a while after an injury, just taking coke, then got the release I was asking for before it all went bottom up for the promotion.
JD: You crossed path’s with former NMW Wrestler Davey Boone whilst there? Davey has just signed here for KWF.
JB: Yeah, a little, I mean by the time Davey signed, I was on the blacklist and he was the star rally. So I didn’t spend any time with him, or get into the ring with him, but what I did see I didn’t really like. He was granted Hall of fame status in NMW despite only wrestling a handful of matches. His signing here did come as a surprise to be honest, as the last thing I remember from him was being shot dead on live TV, can dead men wrestle? All I really remember him for is problems he caused backstage, but hey, everyone can be a dick sometimes, I know full well what life can become like and what certain things, cocaine for me, can turn you into.
JD: Quite an opinion? Davey is a fan favourite though and so are you, don’t you think these comments may effect that?
JB: no, not really J.D. man, its like I’m fed up of the bullshit you know, the fans know me as an honest guy, I tell it like it it and I want to be cheered for the right reasons, out of respect for my mind and my abilities and my heart, not because I kiss the asses of the guys above. I want to be a big success in KWF and, in turn, Help KWF be successful, I’m not here for a payday, I’m here because I’m hungry, and I hope that the fans will appreciate that.
JD: Well, James, thank you for your honestly, your openness and your time, and I wish you well in your first match this coming weekend!
[Jack turns back to the camera on his own]
JD: Thanks for watching, I’ve been Jack Dimmel for KWF.com
[The scene fades back to black as the video ends.]