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Current World of Sport Champion and NGW Undisputed Champion Justin Sysum is a warrior. Having trained in American Football and hammer throwing, Sysum is a warrior - not just in the ring. He suffers from a severe medical condition which he overcomes every single night while competing in the squared circle.
Justin joined me on Dropkick DiSKussion to speak about his battles with ulcerative colitis, being the face of the UK's most iconic promotion, and how he recently ended up performing in a bank advert!
Hello, everyone. Welcome to Dropkick DiSKussions. Today, I'm joined by World of Sport Champion and current NGW Undisputed Champion - Justin Sysum! How's it going today, Justin?
I'm doing good, Gary, how are you?
Yeah, man, can't complain.
You're the current WOS Champion, it's a promotion synonymous with wrestling in the UK having run on television here from 1965-1985 before its revival in 2016. You're the fourth champion, defeating Rampage last year. How much of an honor is it to essentially be the face of such an iconic promotion?
It's a huge honor.
I was born in 1985, so I never actually got a chance to kind of watch, as a spectator, growing up. I obviously saw footage of it, but, to be trusted to hold the championship is a real big privilege and an honor, and it's not just one person's decision. There's a number of people that made the decision to push me and I have to thank those people just for having faith in and knowing that I was going to do a good job and represent the company well.
I think I have and hopefully will do in the future if things continue - which, at the moment, it's all up in the air, really. We're kind of working on trying to get a second season and a second live tour because the live tour actually was probably my favorite part of everything.
Being able to see the people that watch it on telly for those ten weeks that summer and have then come out to watch us and realize that the show we put on live is actually ten times better than what you will see on telly.
NEXT: Justin discusses bodyslamming Crater!
COMING UP: Justin Sysum reveals his dream opponent and which former WWE Champion he was a stunt double for
That was going to be my next question. Do you think a next season is on the horizon or is it just a waiting game?
I honestly don't know. Every time I phone and someone gives us information from ITV or another investor, it's always that discussions are still taking place, so it's definitely....there is still potential there but at the moment, nothing is in the cards. I know just as much as probably everyone else, really. I'm waiting for the phone call.
Here's hoping so we can see some more incredible moments - like my favorite WOS moment - your bodyslam on Crater! Of course, I wasn't alive from 1965-1985 either, but that moment would take a lot of beating from any promotion.
Is that the most difficult thing you've had to do, physically, in wrestling?
It was one of my favorite moments, too. It's actually my pinned tweet on Twitter.
It's, like, the best thing I think I've done. You know, I can flip around, I can do some cool stuff myself but that's just me - so when you can combine someone who weighs 36 stone and, after doing a load of flips, show a feat of strength as well, because that's actually my background, is strength training.
I was a hammer thrower for a long period, trying to sort of make it professionally. That involved a lot of powerlifting, Olympic lifting, squats, deadlifts, and ridiculous weights - so, given the opportunity to have a go at picking him up, I was never going to shy away from that.
Yeah, and it looks impressive. It definitely looks... I say it looks easier than what it felt, because it didn't feel easy, but when I watch the video back, I'm like, "I got him over."
Then the reaction, I love just watching the people behind me in the crowd just being like, "What the hell just happened?" It was wicked.
My favorite thing about it is actually your reaction. Just the two seconds after you got implanted, your reaction is amazing.
You just mentioned the hammer throwing - for anyone unfamiliar with your ring attire, you're somewhere between Superman and Roman Gladiator. Was it the hammer throwing that inspired that?
It's like a gentle progression. When I first started, I wore a singlet, had long hair, then I moved to trunks and long hair, and a big red cape.
I was kind of just pretending to be Thor, is what was happening. Then he had his hair cut, I had my hair cut at the same sort of time, so I thought, "Why don't we just continue this and kind of keep the superhero thing going? But maybe with a little bit away from copying someone like Thor and just call myself The Superhuman, so it's like a generic superhero just standing up for what is right. And I can move well.
So that cape was actually something that the costume department at ITV developed. They originally had a kind of gladiator look in mind and I try to steal away from it, because a friend of mine, Eddie Ryan, he has that sort of... The Lionheart, he has that gimmick already and I didn't want to step on anyone's toes, so I said, "I like the leather but let's go for a more superhero cape than like a Roman gladiator cloak," so I pushed them towards that direction.
Then I was just trying to match up my move set to a superhero, so plenty of diving, a big spear from the outside in, the Super Spear, a nice flippy move, what used to be called the Thor-50 Splash, a 450 splash.
Yeah, it's just trying to be a superhero. It's every kid's dream.
NEXT: Justin discusses starring in the Barclaycard advert!
COMING UP: Justin Sysum reveals his dream opponent and which former WWE Champion he was a stunt double for
You just mentioned that you used to have long hair, but you had some recently in the new Barclaycard advert! How did that come about?!
That was great. So, I'm trying to kind of weasel my way into acting and stunts as well as professional wrestling, so I have an acting agent and he gave me a call about a month ago and he was like, "I've got you an audition, it's as a wrestler, so just bring your kit with you." I was on tour with NGW, so I couldn't make the audition, so instead I sent a self taped through, just what we are doing now, but introducing myself and doing the lines or whatever.
A few days later, I got the call back, so I had to skip out on one of the NGW shows to go down to London and audition, the director was in the room and I had loads of guys I knew from the circuit, and it was just basically, "Show us what you've got."
I ended up sticking around and helping them out with the actresses that had come in for the audition, just to sort of run them through some choreography to see how they'd do it, if they could handle it because, as you will see in the advert, the woman, Lucy, who plays 'The Karen', she actually was amazing, she was unbelievable.
Greg Burridge, who was there as the fight coordinator, stunt coordinator role, he runs which Lucha Britannia, he couldn't believe how good she was and how easily she picked stuff up, so it was great for me. The other wrestler involved was Ed Gamester, who is a real good friend of mine and a strongman athlete as well as a wrestler.
So, we had so much fun in Serbia for a week, which is an absolute hidden gem. I've never been, never had anything about it really and it was a great country, beautiful people, great people and it was really cheap, too, so it was great when we were eating out and having a blast. It was really cool.
It's on telly at the moment and it's amazing, really cool to see it - and I had the wig on, which is what you're alluding to.
Now, the most impressive thing about yourself - you're the WOS Champion, NGW Undisputed Champion, but let's forget championships for a minute, it was a major achievement for you just to step in the ring as you suffer from ulcerative colitis.
How much of a challenge is it being a wrestler, keeping your body in shape, and suffering from such a condition?
Yeah, it's really hard to judge things as being good and bad because time always changes.
Something that initially is a terrible thing, like ulcerative colitis, a real hard thing to manage, it turns out to actually be a blessing in disguise over time because, in terms of my physique, I have to be very careful with what I eat because it can affect my symptoms pretty badly - so actually, it's led me down a pretty good part of being healthy, which I definitely was not before, part of the reason why I probably got diagnosed with it when the symptoms started.
As much as it's a pain in the backside, literally and figuratively, it's actually pretty good for physique. It can impact a lot of things. Travel... You know we travel a lot with wrestling, what I ended up doing was building an off-grid campervan with a shower and a toilet in.
So wherever I go, especially with touring, I can pull over anywhere, I can use the toilet wherever I need to on the journey and also stay overnight in places if I'm tired. Colitis, I don't want to go into too much detail, if viewers want to, they can google it and find out what it is, but it is frequency and urgency of bowel movements and that is just hard to live with - but I don't think it should stop anyone from being able to live the life they want to live.
You've just got to maybe go about it differently, like build a campervan, which means you've always got a toilet with you. Or let your staff at the venue know that, "Hey, if I don't come out during my entrance music, the reason is on the toilet, so get someone out to cut a promo."
That's just one of those things, Dave Mastiff done it once for me and in one of the Haven holiday resorts back in the day. He knew where I was, so he just started cutting a promo on the mic. Another guy - Sam, Buzzsaw Bronson - did the same for me at another event. The guys are always good.
I used to keep it a secret, but honestly telling people is the best thing. Everybody knows, everyone asks if I need the loo before they go and use it, you know, it's great. The people have been wonderful and, yeah, so far, it hasn't stopped me doing anything I want to do, it's just made it a little bit more difficult.
NEXT: Justin discusses living with ulcerative colitis
COMING UP: Justin Sysum reveals his dream opponent and which former WWE Champion he was a stunt double for
There are certain things that transcend the importance of wrestling that wrestlers can be the ultimate role model for.
For you, you said it was maybe difficult to speak out about it at the start, but obviously it's made everything a whole lot better. Do you feel like that's maybe a pressure that - not just with conditions like ulcerative colitis, but with anything - speaking out about things seems to just make them better, and a problem halved as a problem shared?
Was there a pressure on you to speak out to begin with or do you have to just be like, "If I reach one person with ulcerative colitis as a kid, even not a wrestling fan, maybe they will learn to be more open about their condition?"
Honestly, the reason why I don't think I wanted to speak about it earlier was because of career opportunities.
Like, obviously I was going for WWE tryouts and things like that and honestly I just didn't want them to know that I had it because I didn't want them to think, "You know, he's good but he's a liability." I didn't know whether or not they would look at it as a positive or a negative because they may also look at it like, "Hey, he's a spokesperson. It would be good to have him and good for people to know that you can live with these conditions and just get on with it."
That was the real reason at the start and then I kind of just thought, "Do you know what? Screw this. Just let people know. It's important that people know that there are people like me out there who just have a disability but it's not visible," and I think it is an important thing for people to understand, in all walks of life, you just don't know, from looking at someone, what they've gone through that day or that week, or that month, or their entire life.
I think more people need to give everybody the benefit of the doubt and just kind of accept people for who they are and what they are. I'm going on and bridging out but what I mean is, I think it is important just to let people know if there's something wrong or if your day's not going great - but also there's a lot to be said for just picking yourself up and getting on with it, too.
So, two sides to each coin, everybody should meditate more, that my advice.
What's next for Justin Sysum, and what's your ambition?
I really, really wish that we could get WOS back on the air. I really would like to be an integral part of a new... I know it's not new in terms of the original World Of Sport but WOS Wrestling as it stands now, I want to be a big part of that new thing starting.
I'm very settled here in the UK, I have no aspirations of going out to America at the moment.
Obviously if opportunities arise, then I would have a think about those but at the moment, there is nothing on the horizon other than WOS, NGW, and trying to break a little bit into acting. I definitely still love wrestling but I've got a few projects were behind the camera, too, that we are working on at the moment.
It's just a really cool industry that I like to be part of for the long run, so that's where I'm at the moment. Sticking with NGW, doing all the Butlins holiday resorts, WOS if we can get it going, and then acting.
NEXT: Justin Sysum reveals his dream opponent and which former WWE Champion he was a stunt double for
Apart from yourself, tell us what top talent we should be looking our for on WOS. Who's the next big thing?
See, the trouble is that a lot of those guys are big things right now. You've got Rampage and Grado, they are the guys that are the top names in promotions, but if you look for someone who is going to be the next big thing...
Honestly, from talking with people who have watched the show, especially my nephews, they don't stop talking about one person, and that is Crater. Always.
I know Crater's been around a fair bit, but the same as myself, you just sit there in the British scene and don't really go any further. WOS could be opportunity, for him especially, to just break out and be huge. I think it needs a couple more seasons but all the kids just ask about Crater, over and over and over again. Still now to this day.
Finally, you've wrestled everyone from Grado to Keith Lee - you can get in the ring with any wrestler on the planet. Who are you picking?
Oh, man... Shawn Michaels.
I haven't wrestled him. I've worked with Shawn Michaels on Marine 6, where I stunt-doubled for Miz on that. So, I was on set with Shawn Michaels and he was a super cool dude - and, yeah, it would be cool. He will walk around like he's, you know, he's had a hard time wrestling and then the moment it was time to go, and do some fighting, he was like a teenager again. It was incredible. Yeah, him.
Thanks to Justin Sysum for chatting with us. You can follow Justin on Twitter here, on Facebook here, and Instagram here - or check out his official site here.
You can check out World Of Sport here and NGW here, and learn more about ulcerative colitis here.
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