Matt XStatic can remember his debut match like it was yesterday. First to the ring was XStatic’s opponent “The Architect” Mark Anthony who cut a promo riling up the crowd. As the crowd was shouting and yelling at Anthony the music hit and XStatic sprinted to the ring.
“There are no words for my debut match; I’d been waiting so long to have that one match,” XStatic told SLAM! Wrestling, recalling the bout at the Cloverdale, BC Fairgrounds, on July 22, 2011. “I’ve heard that so many legends and so many debut matches have happened there. There was a lot of emotion. I felt kind of sick because I was nervous and then the nerves of going out there and seeing how people would react to me.
A flying Matt XStatic is a familiar sight.
“I think it was just overall excitement as well because you’re in the back thinking, ‘Oh my God,’ this is the debut match, this is the big one. Then your music hits and once the music hits there’s an adrenalin rush; then you just go out there and you’re pumped up. So it was a mixture of emotions.”
The match started with several high-flying maneuvers and intricate spots in the ring. The pace was quick, but very polished. Slowly but surely the crowd got behind the newcomer XStatic and started to cheer him on. When XStatic pinned Anthony the crowd erupted into applause. “We [Anthony and XStatic] didn’t discuss the match beforehand. We had different schedules. We just quickly said let’s just go out there and do this, this and this.”
One person who was present the night of XStatic’s debut match was veteran referee Kevin Jefferies. “The performance that Matt put on that evening was superb,” Jefferies said. “It was very hard for me or Vance [Nevada] to say anything bad about that match. My impressions of this young man, and how much he loves what he is doing is great. Matt listens very well and if he keeps up with working hard and working out to gain weight he could make a name for himself in the wrestling business. To make the big times, well today that is one in a million question, but as an independent wrestler, yes he can as long as he keeps a good head on his shoulders.”
For XStatic, Jefferies is someone who has been a huge influence on him and has been there for him since he became a professional wrestler a little more than a year ago. From Jefferies he has learned about not only wrestling, but also business.
“I’m very thankful to him and I’ve learned so much from him, such as whom you want to be and what you want to do, dealing with others, and overall respect,” said XStatic.
One of the areas that Jefferies has been giving the 19-year-old XStatic advice in is saving money for the future. “I’m really bad with it. I tend to spend it. When I’m wrestling I have to spend money to eat and I tend to overeat. I buy stuff I shouldn’t be buying. For example we go to a Tim Horton’s and everyone is getting a salad and I’m getting a foot-long sandwich and then spending $15 instead of spending $5. That’s my main problem, spending money on food.”
Matt XStatic in full flight.
While the 5-foot-10, 175-pound XStatic has been a fan of professional wrestling since the age of two, he first started looking to be trained in the business at the age of 16. He didn’t find a suitable professional wrestling school until he came across the All-Star Wrestling school on Facebook, run by Michelle Starr and Disco Fury. “So I jumped right on that opportunity. They were my head trainers.”
Starr and Fury started off by teaching XStatic how to work on his cardio. “When you’re in the ring it’s not like running a marathon. It’s such a small area that you’re getting blown up fast so they train you in cardio. Once they train you in cardio they go into the basic wrestling such as the wristlocks and the armbars, little holds, and then every day you progress to something higher until you’re at the junior advanced stuff.”
When asked by SLAM! Wrestling for his impressions on XStatic, Disco Fury (Nathan Burke) said simply that XStatic is “poetry in motion” and eager to learn.
His other trainer, Starr (Mark Vellious), considers XStatic one of the hardest working trainees that they’re ever had. “He has tremendous respect for the people who paved the way for him and others,” Starr relayed to SLAM! Wrestling. “I love travelling the road with him as we just got back from another Oregon trip. I am sure three to five years you will see this kid making an impact in the business.”
Matt XStatic, center, with his trainers Disco Fury and Michelle Starr.
When looking back on his training XStatic felt that the high-flying style of wrestling is much more difficult to learn due to the need for caution with respect to where you would be landing, what you’re doing and how you’re positioning. “As a small guy it kind of struck me that if I can’t be the big wrestler maybe I should be the more high-flying attraction wrestler. I always wanted to do some the moves like the moonsault, but they [Starr and Fury] showed me better ways to do it. I was doing it on my own, but they showed me how to execute it and make it look way better. During training I got hurt a few times because it’s the first time you do a move and you never know what’s going to happen, but eventually once I got it down I figured out this is how I’m supposed to do it without hurting myself.”
While XStatic is in the early days of his career, he has already taken part in a Hardcore Falls Count Anywhere WCWC Tag-Team Championship match, while wrestling for the West Coast Wrestling Connection (WCWC) promotion. For the match he was partnered with Dillon Devine against Erik Baeden and Moose Morrow.
“It was my first exposure to any weapon [in a match] at any time. I’ve never been hit with an object before. [Prior to the match] I was behind the curtain shaking. I was scared, because I didn’t know what was going to happen, but then my music hit I was like, ‘Let’s go do this, let’s go make this happen.’ That was it.”
During the match XStatic was chokeslammed into thumbtacks which he described as feeling like a thousand bees stinging him. “I guess that counts as blood because I was bleeding in the back, but you couldn’t really tell because I was wearing a shirt. I came into the back after that and all full of tacks. After some time when the adrenalin rush went down I felt it, especially since during the match I was hit with steel chairs and shopping carts. It felt awful afterwards. It took two to three days to heal up from it, which isn’t bad, but I had to stay on one side.”
Matt XStatic grounds an opponent.
To the surprise of many in the crowd that night Devine and XStatic won the match in the ring. “To me just because it was a Hardcore match doesn’t mean I have to use a weapon,” said XStatic. “I kind of wanted to finish the match in the ring so that’s what we did. I guess it kind of shocked the fans as well because they felt well you have Falls Count Anywhere in the building, you can go pin them in the back, but we did it in the ring so I guess it’s kind of cool.”
Presently, XStatic is involved in a feud with The Great Kasaki over the All-Star Wrestling (ASW) Cruiserweight Title, which is currently held by Disco Fury. When the feud started The Great Kasaki was the ASW Cruiserweight Champion. “I had a Cruiserweight Title shot and then he [The Great Kasaki] sprayed green mist in my face to win the match. That’s what started it and it just kept going on like that every match. A weird twist, in Abbotsford, BC, we became the ASW Tag Team Champions because we got eliminated in order of a Battle Royal. That lasted about a month or two. I was still fighting for the ASW Cruiserweight Title and I earned a shot in Cloverdale, BC, against Disco Fury and during the match he [The Great Kasaki] kind of screwed me over distracting the referee. Then in Abbotsford BC the next day he turned on me by using the green mist on me and we lost the ASW Tag Team Titles there. We lost them to Lone Wolf Billy McCoy and Azeem The Dream.”
Considering that XStatic has only been wrestling professionally for a little over a year the fact he has worked for so many promotions is very impressive. During the past year XStatic has wrestled for ASW, Elite Canadian Championship Wrestling, ICW Wrestling, Monster Pro Wrestling, CNWA Wrestling (a combination of a few promotions such as Pure Pro Wrestling, and Gold Dragon Wrestling), Big West Wrestling, Thrash Wrestling, West Coast Wrestling Connection, and he’s taken part in the Tony Condello’s Northern Manitoba Hell Tour.
One person that has been taking a keen interest in the development of XStatic’s career is wrestling veteran and author Vance Nevada. “This kid has a natural athletic ability and finesse in his movements that I have seen only three times before — Ryan Wood, Kenny Omega, and Kyle O’Reilly,” Nevada replied when asked for his impressions of XStatic. “The key to this kid realizing his full potential though is to get out on the road and test his skills against the best among his peers. The longer that he stays in one place, he risks becoming the next ‘big fish in a small pond.’ He has certainly had a lot of input from people who know their stuff. It will be very interesting to see where his career path takes him over the next two to five years.”
XStatic has certainly been listening to all of the advice that he has been given and expressed a desire to move to Edmonton in order to take advantage of the wrestling opportunities offered there and to improve his craft. He expressed interest in working for Canadian Wrestling’s Elite in Manitoba, and if the opportunity ever arose to go work in Mexico, Japan, Europe and the United Kingdom. XStatic’s short terms and long term goals are also very ambitious.
“One of my little goals is to become rookie of the year in the PWI [Pro Wrestling Illustrated] or runner-up rookie of the year and also to be featured in the Top 500. Another one would be winning Future Legend Award at the Cauliflower Alley Club. I want to travel the world. My main goal is to work for the WWE. I think that’s everyone’s main goal. I’m going to jump on any opportunity I can to get more experience and to learn because you never know who you’re going to run into.”
He has thought about what it might take to make WWE. “I think I definitely have to be an individual, to be something they don’t have, which is I don’t know what that is yet. They have so many different talents; the door is so small, that you kind of have to force it open with your own idea. I’m only a year in. I just wrestle and try to learn as much as I can every single match I’m in.”
ADAM FIRESTORM MEMORIAL SHOW
Matt XStatic is part of the massive interpromotional crew taking part in the Adam Firestorm Memorial Show III Friday night, at Ridge Meadows Seniors Centre, 12150 224th St., Maple Ridge, BC. Profits from the event go towards Adam’s son, Thomas. For more on Adam Firestorm (Adam Dykes) see the obituary and related stories from 2009: Friends remember Adam Firestorm.
The main event is the Adam Firestorm Memorial Rumble, with the winner getting the Adam Firestorm Memorial Belt for the next year. The current holder is Disco Fury.
Other matches include a mother versus daughter bout, with Raven Lake vs Sammi Hall; Disco Fury vs The Great Kasaki vs Matt XStatic; The Breakers vs Artemis Spencer & Tony Baroni; Ravenous Randy Myers vs Nasty Nate Daniels; The WolfKnives vs Mantasia & Hellion
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