solar |

Sweeney’s a frightening man. My first glimpse of him in a wrestling ring involved him diving over the top rope in the Square Go and eliminating himself just so he could batter Rob Mackai. As poor as that is strategy wise, it shows a dedication to leathering cunts that not many can match. Things have been a wee bit different for Sweeney recently though. Dare I say it, showing a bit of a softer side since the birth of his second daughter. God love any poor bastard the lassie brings home when she’s older right enough, but maybe Sweeneys days of smashin jaws and bootin baws are behind him. Or maybe not. Thats why you interview folk. To find such things out. Have a swatch, or else what the fuck else did you open the link for? Exactly mate.

Do it.

So tell us how you got started in the life of cri…I mean wrestling. The wrestling business is what I mean. No other kind of business that may or may not be legal.

There’s no real way of answering this without sounding like everyone else. One thing I have heard in a lot of interviews is people saying they watched it as a kid then fell away from it or grew out of it. Then as they get older they re-discover it. In my case I never grew out of it or fell away I stuck with it through the good times and the bad times I still watched every week through the dark days of 1995 and then watched it become the in thing again through the attitude era.
The thing is when I was young there was no Scottish wrestling scene so my teenage years were spent getting drunk experimenting with drugs and girls along with getting into fights and being arrested. But to answer your question I found out about the Scottish Wrestling Alliance through Adam Shame. He was a friend of a friend and after contacting him he told me to come along to training. I was 25 at this point and came into wrestling already having a family. So when I see the youngsters coming up now and see the opportunities available to them I hope they realise how good they have it.

You seem to be a bit less…..how can I put it without you leathering me……a bit less vicious these days. Since Mark Dallas announced to the world that you had become a father on the day of Fear and Loathing. Was that something you knew he was going to do?

To answer the first part of your question yes over the last 2 months something has changed I no longer want to look for trouble or get into fights i’m looking to settle down and watch the youngsters do their thing. In regards to the Barrowlands no I did not know Mark was going to mention me becoming a father again. (I already have a 12 year old daughter) but that was the night where everything changed to stand there and have near 2000 people chanting my daughters name was beautiful and made me question what I have to be angry about. That day was the strangest weirdest and best day all rolled into one. I started the day in a hospital delivery room watching my daughter be born a few hours later I was standing in the Barrowlands in front of the best fans in the world bar none and finished the day rocking my daughter to sleep. How can you get a better day than that?

You simply cannot. Unless it involves cake, and hauf bottle, but even then, thats just a wee added bonus.

You left the last Spacebaws show under a cloud of uncertainty. Speaking of your eye being off the ball, and maybe accepting a backstage role at ICW. So I suppose the question is, is there any backstage role that needs a guy who can punch through bulletproof glass?

No there isn’t and that’s exactly my point that guys gone he’s no longer around and I don’t know if he will ever be back or if the fans would even want him back.

Seriously though, what’s the score? Are you done with ICW? Will we not get to see you heider folk over the top rope at the Square Go this year? Say it aint so.

When I was brought in it was as a bit of a problem solver. Mark Dallas had a problem he would call me I would sort it its that simple, one of Marks biggest problems was Jackie Polo who was trying to take the company from him I sorted that and he went away and so did I. Then he came back so I came back I’ve been hounding him for the better part of 2 years but after going one on one with him (and beating him) in Edinburgh during ICW’s fringe run I feel there’s not much else for me to do to him I guess you could say in a way he’s earned my respect. So no you won’t see me in the Square Go.

Spose we’ll settle for an old photo of Sweeney battering Jester then eh.

Its awrite ref, I’m just checkin his pulse

You and Renfrew are having a cracking time as Street Justice over at Pride. Tell us a wee bit about Pride, and how the Street Justice thing came about?

Street Justice is mine and Renfrew’s way of letting off some steam and having fun. ICW is the big time and is the biggest company in Europe I don’t care what anyone else says that’s the way it is and that’s all business. So we use Street Justice as a little experiment and have a lot of fun doing it. It actually started as a drunken conversation between me and Renfrew that just kept cropping up (Renfrew was one of the first people I met in SWA and we have been good friends ever since) then Pride Wrestling got in touch and the rest is history. In regards to Pride the last year has been a great one for the company and its growing each show. I have personally suggested to the booker that he may have to look for bigger venues.

You’ve had a rivalry with Jackie Polo since you first came back to ICW 2 years ago, and it continues to be as bitter as ever. How much fun has it been getting to batter him, considering he’s a pal? Is it even possible to be Jackie Polos pal actually? I imagine he’s just Jackie Polo 24/7.

Whoah whoah whoah! hang on I didn’t say we were pals I said he’s earned my respect there’s a big difference. Next Question …..

Jackie Polo will always be an enigma eh? Here’s Sweeney leathering Polo. One picture is from 2010, the other from 2014. Can you guess which one is which? I’ll give ye a clue, the one where both wrestlers look like younger versions of their current selves is the old one.

Aye ah fuckin know the Hollyoaks after dark hing’s on the night, I’m taping it. Wantae shut up n let me batter this dick

Speaking of Polo. He claims to be Scotlands BEEEEEEEEEST wrestler. Is that something you’d agree with, and if not, who is the best in the country right now in your opinion?

That’s a tough one as the talent is so good at the moment. When I broke in Scottish Wrestling was on its arse we were wrestling in front of sometimes 30 people but we still went out there and put in a shift. There are a lot of people who have been weeded out over the years and deservedly so. Jackie gets it and he had to earn his spot the hard way he was written off by a lot of people because of his attitude but that didn’t put him off. One of the reasons he has my respect is because he doesn’t change for anyone he does his own thing and you can’t fault that. Other talent on the scene at the moment who I enjoy watching are guys like Mark and Joe Coffey, Lewis Girvan, my little buddy Solar ( who had a cracking match with DCT at Fear and Lothian II) and Kenny Williams.

Kiss the fuckin ring.

Favourite wrestling/wrestling personality of all time?

Ultimate Warrior was the guy who got me interested but Shawn Micheals was the guy that made me stick around and keep watching then came Steve Austin who made it cool again to be a wrestling fan.

Favourite match of all time if you have one?

Steve Austin Vs Bret Hart Wrestlemania 13 hands down closely followed by Mark Sweeney vs Chris Renfrew in KWA December 2008. You can ask Chris about that one Haha.

I shall. I interview the cunt once a week these days anyway, in the meantime, here’s some photos of the aforementioned match (Sweeney vs Renfrew, not Bret vs Austin)(although that bit in brackets was probably pointless, you’ll see the photos)(thats them below)(have a look)

Worlds Greatest Tie-Up

“Knock knock?” “Who’s there?” “Sweeney” “Sweeney who?” “Sweeneys gonnae jab you. At least 10 times” “Sounds unpleasant” “Aye mate…will be. Sorry”

Here ref, ye noticed we’re wearing similar jerseys? Maybe after all this madness is over wae, we’ll become a tag team. Could even say we’d take Pride in it.

Tag team ma fuckin arse. Tag this elbow ya prick

Last but not least, anything you want to tell us about (like the new range of Sweeney name branded cowboy hats you have coming out…etc) feel free to do that here.

I could sit here and talk all day about things that I enjoy in wrestling and probably even more so about things that annoy me but we will save that for another day as that would be better suited for a podcast as there’s not enough of them around . Thanks for the chat Mertin and remember ………Patter!!

Patter indeed big yin. Hopefully the Snapmare Necks podcast is a rousing success and we’ll have the big man on for a proper chat soon. Not to ruin his hard man image or that, but he sourced out all these photos tae. I may or may not have captioned them right enough. Need to shoehorn my shite patter in anywhere I can eh. Big thank you to Sweeney for doing this, giving us a wee insight to his career/life, and keeping the Jackie Polo enigma strong.

Follow Sweeney on that twitter if you so wish, by going here

A wee picture of an imminent powerbomb to round us off. Polo’s going up hiiiigh.

Gonnae poweomb this nugget tae fuck, then I'm going to pish oan uhm.

Gonnae poweromb this nugget tae fuck, then I’m going to pish oan uhm.

Photo credits as always to the bold David J Wilson, and of course Chelsea Cochrane. And whoever took the ones of Sweeney vs Renfrew anaw. Cheers for the polaroids ma man.

Red Lightning sung the Big Shows theme at the end of this show btw. I forgot to put that in first time cause I’m a fuckin idiot, but it was AMAZIN. Anyway…aye…read the review.

ICW probably dont have a main roster do they? I mean, that’s WWE patter man. There’s nae main roster. Nae B-shows. Nae sports entertainment. None of it. Wrestling is all there is. Sure, theres a core group of senior wrestlers (and yes, by senior, I do mean “auld”) who are carrying the company forward. Performing up and down the UK, and getting wrist deep in each and every one of yer sisters, but that doesn’t mean the next generation don’t matter. That doesn’t mean you can just patch a Spacebaws show cause you wont miss anything anyway. See even if you’re not arsed about any of the wrestlers and the stellar work they do, that’s on you. You’re an idiot, but even then, you should still come to these shows regardless, because these shows have Red Lightning doing the thing he does better than anyone in this country still. Nae offence to Renfrew, who has been brilliant this year. Or Jackie Polo, who has his character down to a tee, but they’re both villains. They both hate us. Its nae fun being hated. Even if you can admire the promos for their content and delivery, naecunt likes being told they’re a dick. Continue reading →