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From Dubbo to Wrestling Stardom: The Tuckman's Rise in Australian Wrestling | Pario Magazine
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Oct 6, 2024
When it comes to rising stars in Australian wrestling, few have made as quick an impact as The Tuckman. A country boy turned Sydney resident, The Tuckman’s story is one of passion, dedication, & an unwavering love for the sport. In a recent interview with Pario, he opened up about his path to wrestling, the challenges he's faced, & what lies ahead for him & his tag team, The Dropouts. FOLLOW THE TUCKMAN ON SOCIAL MEDIA: - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ooothetuckman/ - Twitter/X: https://x.com/TuckmanThe WATCH THE TUCKMAN IN PWA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOro7jsmsJk&t=5932s&pp=ygUOcHdhIGF1c3RyYWxpYSA%3D PURCHASE A PRINT EDITION OF PARIO MAGAZINE HERE: https://pariomagazine.com.au/store Check out more great content from Pario Magazine on our website: https://pariomagazine.com.au/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SUPPORT PARIO MAGAZINE & THE COMMENTARY BOOTH - PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/jamieappsmedia - AMAZON PRIME VIDEO AFFILIATE: https://amzn.to/3vOzqQm - TUBEBUDDY AFFILIATE: https://www.tubebuddy.com/ParioMag - COMPLETE PAID SURVEYS WITH OCTOPUS GROUP: https://my.octopusgroup.com.au/register/7eeb286e-9619-436b-abf3-4c2dd814beb5 - COMPLETE PAID SURVEYS WITH PUREPROFILE: https://referral.pureprofile.com/referrer/TXpjME5qRTVNREUxT0RZNiMyMw==
View Video Transcript
0:00
Welcome to Pario Magazine where I chat with individuals who have a desire to create
0:13
Today I'm joined by an Australian wrestler who has had perhaps the best first two years of a wrestling career anyone has ever had in Australia
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He is a former IWA Trans Tasman and Soul of PWA champion, and more recently is one hard
0:29
of one of the fastest rising tag teams in New South Wales, the dropouts
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Welcome to Parryo magazine, The Tuckman. Thanks for having me, Jamie. Very excited to be here
0:42
My pleasure. So we're here today to chat about your journey through the world of pro wrestling so
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far, even though it is very early in your career. Before we dive into that, do you want to give our audience a little intro as to who
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the Tuckman is away from the wrestling scene? The tuckman away from the wrestling scene
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Well, I guess I'm a country boy. So I'm currently living in Sydney
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Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to make this all work at the moment. So moved from Dubbo, New South Wales
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Country town out west, you've probably heard of it before. It's not that small. Born and bred, country boy
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Lived out there my whole life. and yeah, now I'm a Sydney resident at the moment
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I just, I'm just a kid who loved footy, loved wrestling growing up
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and now I'm here pretty much. It's been a fun journey so far and, yeah
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So growing up in Dubbo, having lived in parks myself for a little while
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there isn't a lot of wrestling that comes out that way. How did you discover the passion for wrestling
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Obviously, like everybody else, dad bought Fox Hell one day, and we flicked on Fox 8, and I don't know who I saw. Actually, I do know who I saw. It was, you're all going to laugh at this, all right? But it's a great story. I was watching Smackdown, and you wouldn't believe it, but the Funkasaurus Brodus Clay came out. And I'll tell you what, little baby tuckman was absolutely captivated
2:28
When that dinosaur came on the stage and started dancing, I couldn't believe my eyes
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And he was my favorite wrestler for about two weeks. And then I discovered John Sandra and the Rock and the rest was history
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But aside from obviously the same story of everyone else watching WWE on the TV
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I soon discovered that we got local wrestling shows once a year in Dubbo
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So IWA used to come out and do the Wild West tour when I was younger
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which is actually this weekend, which I'm going to be a part of, which is super cool
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And yeah, they would come out around the same time that they are this year
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And it was just like the best weekend of the year because we never got wrestling or anything like that
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And to see it live and in person was really what made me go, this is what I want to do
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It wasn't until I think it was 2021. I went back home and I had this little booklet that I used to write all the matches in and all the events in
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And I had to flick through a couple of the wrestlers that I saw when I was a kid and I written on all these names
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And I noticed a few of them wrestled together and trained at the same place. So that's how I ended up starting at the Pro Wrestling Academy
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So those shows that happened eight, nine, 10 years ago, ended up evolving into what my career is today
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Is that like a really special moment to now be going back there with IWA as one of the
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wrestlers on those shows? Yeah, it's huge. It means more than anything to me
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I don't think anyone understands, like, especially because I had such a driving force in
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my career, like knowing that I get to be possibly an inspiration for a country kid who doesn't
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get to see wrestling ever, it's amazing. And I think that's probably one of the most unique things about wrestling too
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It can go to all of these random places. Like you don't need, like a musical theatre show can't really go out to a place like that
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and do these big grand productions because they don't have the venues
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But a wrestling show, as long as you've got a wrestling ring, it can really run anywhere
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Yeah, that's right. Some good lighting and a wrestling ring, you can really do it well
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I mean, the production, like, for me, when I was a kid
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it seemed like it was top notch at the time, and I just, you know, fell in love with it
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And, yeah, it's probably the same for the kids there. And before you then decided to begin training
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and go from being a fan to a wrestler yourself, did you have, like, a sporty background apart
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like just playing footy out in Dubbo? Pretty much just footy. Yeah, I played league in
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dabble with a bit of union. I'll be real honest with you, everyone. I wasn't too good
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But I did play and I did train, so didn't go too far or anything like that. I knew it wasn't
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exactly going to be a career for me. But I did play sport my whole life, but that was never the
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passion or the dream. Did that help then in the transition to wrestling training
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so having a little bit of a sporty background Yeah big time I think that I probably would have struggled a lot more if I hadn had played any sport or anything like that I wouldn say I a super athlete and I don say
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that I picked up wrestling super quick. Like my training process wasn't, I walked in the door and I
6:00
just picked it all up. The reason that I was able to progress so rapidly was just because I
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turned up every single day. Like I became obsessed with it and every single opportunity that I got to
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learn, just nailing the basics and the fundamentals and just hammering it alongside a semi-athletic background
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I think that were the two things that made it happen. And that part of like turning up every day, you moved from Dubbo to go to uni and then
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where the tag team name, the dropouts comes from, dropped out of uni to focus on wrestling
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was that because you wanted to give it everything and go 100%
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training every day? Yeah, definitely. I started out in the beginners course, so core we call it at the Pro Wrestling Academy
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And it was only two days a week at that time. So when I was at uni, it was kind of manageable
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And then once I progressed into the next class, I was at a bit of a turning point
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where I'm like, I can either give this my all, turn up four to five times a week
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which is what the people who are really good are telling me to do. Or I can stay at uni and try and juggle both
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And to me, wrestling was just taken over my life in the best way possible
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I was falling in love with it and not giving it everything I had seemed like a wasted opportunity
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And I had people around me like Ricky South and Jimmy Townsend who were at the Pro Wrestling Academy every single day
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And that were the people that I were looking up to at the time. And I knew that if I put in the same effort that they were, that I would reap the rewards of it
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And did you also have, like the other side of wrestling is not just the athletic side
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it's the performance side. Did you have any background on that side as well
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Yeah, I was a big drama kid growing up. So I like always was in drama class participating in like drama competitions
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They call it a stead for down in Dubbo. I don't know if that's a thing like in Sydney. I know it's a thing in regional towns and stuff
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but I was always, yeah, competing in a Stedford. I got nominated for a competition court on stage
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So drama kids would know that is, but in year 12, basically when you are, do your
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HSC final piece, the HSC markers pick, I think, like 50 to 100 that nominated the
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best ones to then go to a final performance the next year
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I wasn't actually selected, but to be a country kid nominated for that
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That was pretty special. So definitely like a big drama background that evolved into that
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Okay. Did that sort of? He's Scotty Green. Sorry, he's Scotty Green just popping in on the stream
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Scana, Jamie out. Hey, Scotty. Scana. Not too much you're feeling okay
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Sorry. My roommate tag partner, Scotty Green has decided to pop in for a quick
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Good day. Sorry for the introduction. Speaking of Scotty, having moved. from yourself, move from Dubbo, him from Parks
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How special is it to have someone that has had all of those experiences
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along the way of relocating your entire life to chase this crazy wrestling dream
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That's like the thing that brought us together. The fact that we had such similar backgrounds, like growing up in the Central West
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I remember we'd met before, but we hadn't had a proper conversation until there was
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the Hoose, which is Newcastle Pro Wrestling Training School. They had a show, and I was still just a training
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I hadn't started wrestling yet, and I had a conversation to Scotty. And we just realized that we had the same upbringing
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We'd played footy against each other. We'd actually cross paths so many times, but there were so many things that was so
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similar about each other. And it just came natural trust. We're like, we have to tag team at some point or do something to
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together because there are a lot of people in wrestling that grow up in Sydney and around
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these parts. And, you know, these guys are my best mates now. But there was nothing like
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that connection of someone that's got a similar background to you. Was that idea of like uprooting your entire life to come out to sort of this part of the state
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New South Wales, like Sydney, Wollongong area? Was that a difficult decision
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Yeah, 100%. I'm very connected to my family back home. They all still in love, live in Dubbo
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Every single one of my family members is out there. And I've got two younger siblings
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so I've got a 10-year-old brother and an 8-year-old sister. And I played a very big part of their lives growing up
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and to not be around them as much, and especially be away on weekends
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where I can't just drive back and go and see them whenever I want. It's pretty tough
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But that's just every wrestler's life story, I guess. It's just that little bit harder for me because I can't just, you know
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on a Sunday night after a show, drive 20 minutes and go and see the family
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You know, it's something that is more of an occasion for me now, which, you know
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it's sometimes a bit upsetting, but it just is the sacrifice that I've got to make
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And I guess it also makes those IWA out west tours even more special getting to see the family
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and them getting to see how far you come each year Yeah definitely especially because they don really get to see me wrestle all that much My dad did come to the Ringmaster PWA show earlier this year
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but other than that, my family doesn't really get to see it all that much
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So to be able to go out there annually and wrestle in front of them adds that extra icing on the cake of it being a really special time
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And since you sort of moved for uni, but then, ended up, I'm going to focus 100% of wrestling
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How was the family with that sort of decision as well? Super supportive
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My family has been great in terms of supporting wrestling as a passion
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They knew my whole life that it was something that I wanted to do. It was only around age like 18, 19, that I didn't focus on as much when I was studying
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at uni. But the second that I said it to my dad, I think he was actually happier for me because
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he knew that I was doing something that I was genuinely passionate. about. And yeah, everybody in my family has been so supportive of it. I mean, if you
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know, no one on you would be friends with my dad on Facebook, but he bloody posts about it
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20 times a day. He's a better promoter than you are sometimes. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. My dad should
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start an Instagram account and start putting promos up, I reckon, because he'd probably sell a few
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tickets himself. Does it help to sort of go to them and be like, look at these people
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that have come through the pro wrestling academy and are now overseas like grace and
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waller rhea rippley all of those sort of people like look they came from where i am right now
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this is a legitimate career path yeah it definitely helps the people have been signed and are
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overseas now to be able to show a product of what is possible um i definitely think that when
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i told people that i had made such a sacrifice and a commitment to this there was
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some skeptical, you know, replies from people that weren't too sure. But when I bring up that, you know, Grayson Muller was Maddie Warburg when I first started
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and he wasn't in the WWB yet. I was still there for just the end of his career
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And now he's on Friday night, Smackdown every single week. It makes people kind of turn their head and rethink that maybe this is a good idea
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because, you know, if I put my all into it, definitely is an option
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And I guess that's inspiring for you as well, like to see, oh, I can do something with this
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Yeah, well, Warburg, Grayson, whatever we're going to call him here, his last show was actually my first show that I ever attended as a rookie
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So he did the rumble and had a post-match speech that he gave to the live audience there
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And that was the moment that I really decided, like, this is it for me
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So I don't know if that, if that post-match speech hadn't have happened, whether I would have fully committed everything, but he really, really inspired me that day
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Like, this is something that I've definitely got to go after. He's definitely an inspiring dude
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He is one of those people that will have you ready to run through a wall after he gives a nice hype-up chat
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Oh, yeah. Ten brick walls and ten more after that. Yeah. I, whenever I'm feeling, if I ever feel like I'm losing passion, it's not going to happen
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any time soon. But if I'm feeling the fire starting to dim, I'll definitely be hitting him up because I
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know that he'll just put it right back into me. In terms of sort of like the passion sort of getting quashed a little bit, you had a recent
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run in with Robbie Eagles and a bit of a feud there over the soul of PWA championship
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that was very heated, very personal at times. Is that something that you've now sort of closed the book on
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Or is it just a matter of timing for when the next chapter begins
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At the moment, it's me and Scotty. I think that is the big thing that I'm focusing on solely at the moment
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If I get too caught up and stew on it too much
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I probably will get a little bit. I wouldn't say upset. I don't feel like sad about it
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I'm more get angry about it. It's something that definitely fires me up too much
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And I get a little bit too emotional when I start to go in the details of it. So I think for me right now, the best thing is to focus on me and Scott Green, the dropouts
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You know, we've recently just started wrestling at Slam and hopefully you're going to make a bit more of an impact around on the scene
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Because, yeah, we've got some real legs to us. We've obviously committed this together
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I mean, he just popped in on the stream earlier. He's cooking dinner in the kitchen at the moment where very intertwined to each other's lives
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We can't get enough of each other. So the dropouts right now is the sole focus of my career
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Yep. You've got the matching gear and everything now. It's all in on the dropouts at the moment
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Yeah, that's it, man. Yeah. In terms of the dropouts, the name coming from dropping out of uni to chase wrestling
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Yeah, yeah, so Scotty Green also dropped out of uni to chase this whole big thing
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Another reason why we just came together and another similarity that we had
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And he obviously started at Newcastle pro wrestling, so different to me
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But he wanted to make the leap to come down here to PWA because not to discredit anything
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Nui is fantastic and has world-class training as well. but PWA we obviously have Robbie Eagles Madison Eagles Mick Mariti Ricky Sia Jimmy Towns and all these amazing coaches that isn just the best in Australia
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but one of the best in the world. And I think anyone who anywhere in Australia wouldn't want to make the leap to go and do that
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would be crazy. Yeah, I think that's something that a lot of people internationally haven't quite grasped yet
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that there are wrestlers here in this country that are ready to be on TV
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It's just a matter of if and when the right people see them
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Yeah, it's just about getting seen as Mick would say, get noticed
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Oh, sorry, no, now we conquer. Yeah, the cool slogans that we say, I kind of watch that a little bit
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but yeah, it's definitely is a gem that's getting more discovered, and that's pretty obvious around to mean
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in WWA, AEW and New Japan, you can't get rid of the Aussies, and we're just firing on all cylinders at the moment and it's going to keep continuing
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Even I think PWA, like if you look at the live PWA shows
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the level of production, the level of professionalism that goes into those shows
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that you're a major part of, I feel like that could be on TV, like right now
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It doesn't need much done to it to put it on that sort of same level
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Yeah, no, definitely. And that's a big credit to the PWA production team, Ben Anderson, video boy Jack, Jordan Lees
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and that other people that you wouldn't even be able to know their name or like you wouldn't have heard them before that make this all happen
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And I guess that's where sometimes I feel a little bit too lucky in the sense that, you know
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I have worked very hard in my training and so many other people
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But we get to waltz in and be on these amazing. amazingly produced shows that could be on TV, as you said
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and we're just so fortunate for that. So then looking towards the end of the year
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what are the main goals for the remainder of 2024? Look, there isn't a clear definitive goal
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I'm not going to say that there's like a championship belt that I want to win or anything like that
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I think it's just me and Scotty Green getting some Ws around the joint. We really want to try and get our faces out there
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as much as we can. We're trying to pump the social media
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You probably see our faces everywhere at the moment. But yeah, we're just
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we're just going to try and hammer hard and, you know, get some Ws around the scene
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I am loving some of the TikToks. The one at World Series with the things wrestling fans say in the crowd
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but I thought that was a great little TikTok video. Oh, thank you
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Thank you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're just mucking around everyone, all right? Don't get too salty
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It's okay. It was pretty accurate. I will say it was accurate. Thank you
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Thank you. I appreciate your support on that. And then looking beyond 2024 in terms of long-term goals and dream opponents, what are the goals in wrestling
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I'm not going to beat around the bush. I want to get signed. I feel like everybody should say that
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Yeah, yeah. Look, some people will have dreams of just like, you know, being a making
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in Australian wrestling, which there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. And right now, I guess in the next couple years, that is my goal
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is to be one of the big names here in Australia. But yeah, long term down the track, getting sign would be nice
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Getting paid to be able to do this every single day would be pretty swell and fantastic
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Dream opponents, no one really comes to name, to be honest. I'm pretty open and happy to, you know, I get pretty
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chuff whenever I'm wrestling anyone so I'm just happy to be here. Have you and Scotty ever gone one-on-one
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We had a poll match at IWA St John's Park. It was for the food and catering commissionership
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However, we couldn't hit each other. We couldn't bear to actually like, you know
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laying in moves on each other. It was too much. It was too emotional. It was a really intense experience
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So what we decided is, you know what? why don't we both just be the food and catering commissioner
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And we actually tore off that contract together hand in hand. And we became the co-commissioners of food and catering of YWA, which was a very special moment
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Awesome. All righty. So finally, where is the best place for people to support you and track your creative journey moving forward
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Socials is definitely a big one. Ootha Tuckman there. But in terms of wrestling, pro wrestling Australia is going to be the biggest one here in Sydney
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um august 2nd shoots and ladders factory theater colosseum at the metro theater and pretty much any
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p w a show even if you're out you know um west of sydney southwest sydney we got mounies running
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places like that um also iwa runs pretty frequently which i'm based out of st john's park um the
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regional tours that we do there if you're in a state um melvin city wrestling i'm popping up there um
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And yeah, wherever else that the tuckman ends up. Awesome. All righty
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Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me. And good luck with everything
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Hopefully you and Scotty can start spreading the wings all over the country
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We're trying, brother. Let's go
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