The following interview is part of an exclusive interview series courtesy of CWN Contributor Steven O’Neil. Steven has been a fan of Pro-Wrestling for the past 30+ years and on top of his love for the business, he has also lent his voice to several podcasts over the past year.
What do you do in your spare time when you aren’t wrestling, or training?
A lot of meal prepping, a lot of eating. Other than that I like to play video games here and there, catch a nap, and of course I’m always looking for new types wrestling to watch, lately I’m into British rounds wrestling thanks to a recommendation from a friend.
What is your favourite wrestling themed podcast or YouTube channel?
I loved the Edge and Christian podcast when that was around, I’m a big fan of banter… As for YouTube channels, the first that comes to mind is Wrestling With Wregret. I find the host isn’t jaded or comes across as a smart mark like a lot of other wrestling based YouTube channels do. He’s pretty knowledgeable about the history of wrestling and isn’t too pushy with his own opinion pieces.
What was the moment that made you decide to pursue wrestling as a career?
I decided to start training right after high school, but I feel like I really decided to pursue it as more than just a hobby in the past few years.
How do your friends/family feel about your wrestling?
Overall pretty supportive, my parents are my biggest fans, they’re actually the ones who introduced me to wrestling in the first place. Most of my friends nowadays are other wrestlers, but the handful of normal friends I have are cool about it, they’ll even pick up some merch every now and again.
How do you balance family/relationships while pursuing your wrestling career?
Honestly I don’t anymore. I’m all in with wrestling and my family knows it. Like I mentioned earlier, I’m incredibly lucky to have a super supportive family and they understand that sometimes I have to miss birthdays and holidays and that’s okay with them. As for relationships, I just try my best to make time for my partner in between all the training and travelling. It’s all about communication if you ask me, wrestling is gonna bring up a lot of issues and a lot of relationships won’t make it out the other side, so there needs to be a constant stream of communication between both parties if it’s going to work out.
What does a typical training day look like for you?
Wake up, morning cardio, meal 1, ring time would be around here if possible, meal 2, workout, meal 3 and meal 4. If I have ring time; warm up, rolls, takedowns, pins, strikes, sequences, and free time to come up and try whatever.
What does the diet of a pro-wrestler look like?
In a nut shell, chicken breast, ground turkey, salmon, shrimp, egg whites, a LOT of rice and potatoes, cup of veggies with every meal, a lot of water.
What do you think is a common misconception about wrestling that people have?
That everyone ends up on TV overnight haha. Everyone has a different path, whether it’s to get scooped up and thrown into NXT or AEW or to travel to Europe and make a name for yourself there. There’s wrestling all over the world and there is literally hundreds of thousands of paths to take and they don’t all lead to TV anymore.
If you had to wear a WARNING label, what would it say?
Grumpy.
In an alternate universe where wrestling doesn’t exist – what are you doing instead?
Probably pursuing a job with my theatre degree.
Follow Gabriel Fuerza on Social Media & More
The mastermind behind Sluggin’ with Steven O’Neil