"Welcome everyone! It's the Let's Talk Wrestling Podcast where we do what it says on the tin and we talk wrestling. Sometimes we talk about what's happening in wrestling in 2019, sometimes we'll take a look back and talk about a show from the days gone by and sometimes, like today, we are lucky enough to bring a wrestler in and we, well, talk wrestling.
Today I'm joined in the studio by a man who has won many championships and competed in many companies. Representing Sin City Wrestling or SCW: Stephen Callaway"
"Hello"
"Shouldn't that be Stephen Callaway Wrestling"
"I've asked but they seem stuck on Sin City."
"A wise woman once said 'let's start at the very begining' so let's do that. How did you get your start in the business?"
"There was a local indie company not far from where I used to live out in California called SML. I started out cleaning the trash out of the stands and selling merch. I started wrestling training at 16 and made my debut two years later"
"How did it feel to get in the ring?"
"Some wrestlers will talk about fear but I just wanted to get out there. I mean, I'd been training and it was all leading to going out there in a match on a card so I wanted to go out there."
"Tell me how that first year went."
"Within six months I had won the Prestige Title which is the mid card, secondary title. By the end of my first year I had won the SML Title."
"Damn that's fast!"
"A little."
"Did you feel rushed? Do you feel it looking back?"
"At the time SML was begining to grow and expand. It went from a California indie when I started training to expanding by the time I passed. SML was moving out to Oregon and Nevada and Arizona. They would eventually move to the whole of the US and most of the UK. The boss at SML took a chance and I ended up in a match with the champion and I won it.
There were times that it felt like I was thrown in at the deep end. But there were also times that it felt like an amazing learning experience. I mean, I was in there with all the top guys in SML. I was in the ring with them, I was travelling with them so I was getting a hell of a lot of 'on the job' training from the best in the company."
"These days you still have one foot in SML and yet you move around the wrestling scene having been in UWL, PWF, Skyfire and SCW. Why do you have that need to move around?"
"It's a two part thing. One is that I've been in SML for a long time and I got to know a lot of the people in the company to the point I had a friendship with the boss of the company. When I won a title, at the time I think it was my fifth, I was lucky Twitter and the rest of social media wasn't a big thing but still it was called 'a fix'. So I move around the other companies because I want to show that I am more than a fix.
The second is the fact I learn so much when I face all the opponents in all the companies. I learn various styles. I've become a more all-rounded wrestler than I would be had I not competed for them."
"What are you up to right now?"
"This week, ironically enough, I'm in a Triple Threat Match."
"Ironically?"
"Yeah. There's an indie company based in New York that I watch and they're having a big show this weekend and their Tag Titles are in a Triple Threat Match, same for their Woman's Title, same for their Mid-Card Title. There's even some non-title Triple Threat Matches. So I find it Ironic that on this week of all weeks I'm in one."
"Jake Raab and Anthrax. Those are two top talents in SCW. Can you beat them? I don't mean to offend but you've not really been on a great run of form recently."
"I have a theory, and this can apply to UWL, EWC, SCW and pretty much every other company and wrestler in the entire world, I think every wrestler is about three or four good results from being a top contender for titles. But at the same time I think every wrestler is about three or four bad results from being on the bottom end of the company. Yes I've started bad but I get a couple of good wins and I could be at the top of SCW by the start of the new year.
Looking at how I've started in SCW, I wouldn't really say I've done much wrong."
"You've had a few losses in your time, how do you see that as doing nothing wrong?"
"I say I've done nothing wrong because the losses haven't come from me being poor in the ring. They have come from my opponents being good. Wrestling these days is at a point where anyone in a match can win it. I don't mean that as a knock on my opponents or to put myself over. I just think that everyone in the match is on a similar level. It's like the saying about unstoppable objects and immoveable forces. This week in the Microsoft Theater someone is going to move, someone is going to be stopped and someone is going to be standing over them both. There is every chance the one standing could be me and I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure that's me."
"And with that, this is where we leave you for this week. I want to thank my guest Stephen Callaway for coming in and talking to us. Also want to say, good luck in your match this weekend. I'd also hype all the places you can hear this podcast but you're listening to it so you already know where to find us. So until the next show, fair winds."
