Ivar the breakable beating heart of ‘Big Little Brawlers’

Arin De Castro

Ivar lifting weights during 'Big Little Brawlers.' Photo courtesy Discovery Channel
Ivar lifting weights during 'Big Little Brawlers.' Photo courtesy Discovery Channel

Driving around in his toy car designed for kids, Ivar the Micro immediately stands out in the small world featured on the new Discovery reality series, Big Little Brawlers. He parks beside the ring and makes his way to the center and begins to hype the upcoming card for the fans at the Microtorium in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.

Standing 3-foot-4, Ivar is the micro of all the micros, with an Undertaker-Viking hybrid look, and microphone work that would make The Rock proud.

Despite his skills as the shill for Micro Wrestling, he has a bigger dream.

Ivar wants to enter the ring as a wrestler. Cue “The Impossible Dream” and follow along on the six-show run of Big Little Brawlers.

You see, Ivar (Dylan Highley) was born with brittle bone disease, meaning exactly what you’d think — his bones fracture easily.

Always a wrestling fan, Ivar never thought it was in the cards for him until he found Micro Wrestling, which calls Pigeon Forge home, just down the road from Dollywood.

Wanting to stand out, he needed a look. Ivar took inspiration from the character Ivar the Boneless from the TV show Vikings.

“He was kind of a vicious, tyrannical leader, but he got a lot done and he was inspiring to his own people,” Ivar told SlamWrestling.net. “Now I’m a lot nicer than Ivar, but he broke bones and had polio. When he fell, he’d break bones. So I became Ivar the Micro because I’m the smallest of all the other Micro cast.”

Before he was the hype man for Micro Wrestling, Ivar was in a band called Three and a Half Men. When a show fell through at the last minute, Ivar considered other options.

One day, on his lunch break from Target, Ivar decided to call Jack Darrell, the owner of Micro Wrestling. He left a voice mail saying, “I don’t know if you remember who I am, but I am a singer, an entertainer, I love wrestling and I think I could do something for you here.”

Darrell got back to him and gave him a chance. Ivar had 12 shows to prove himself, making $100 a show.

He wasn’t Ivar yet.

“What do I do? I don’t have a character,” he asked Darrell, who responded. “I don’t care. We’ll wing it.”

From there, Ivar ran with it.

Ivar the Micro (Dylan Highley)
Ivar the Micro

In the coming episodes of Big Little Brawlers, viewers will witness the hardships of pursuing his dream of getting in the ring.

In episode one, he brought the idea of wrestling to both his boss, Darrell, and his wife, Melissa.

“It was a very scary thing because I didn’t know how I was going to explain things to my wife and Jack, plus having brittle bone, everything’s gotta be careful.” Ivar said. “You don’t know how you’re gonna break it down to them because you know how crazy it sounds.”

Ivar said that he hopes through his life and journey, people will be inspired and won’t give up.

“I hope that whatever they’re facing in their life, the grind of life, that they can persevere,” Ivar said. “And I hope that everybody that’s my fan knows that if you need one person to believe in you, it’s Ivar the Micro.”

It is yet to be seen whether Ivar has checked wrestling off from his bucket list. Viewers can watch the outcome through the Big Little Brawlers episodes on Discovery, starting Tuesday, January 9, at 10 p.m. ET.

TOP PHOTO: Ivar lifting weights during Big Little Brawlers. Photo courtesy Discovery Channel

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