After wrestling in both WWE/NXT and AEW for a time, Bobby Fish has found a home in Major League Wrestling.
He is set to wrestle Alex Kane in a Fan’s Choice match on Thursday, December 5, in Queens, New York as part of Eric Bischoff‘s One-Shot.
There was a time in between leaving AEW and signing with MLW where he wasn’t part of a wrestling promotion.
“I did a lot of DDP Yoga, but I started teaching and coaching DDP Yoga, so that consumed a lot of my time getting my certification, but then also, like finding avenues to get back out to the public,” Fish said in a recent interview with SlamWrestling.net. He declined to speak on his departure from AEW.
Fish wasn’t as green as a coach as one might suspect. While playing football in college, he spent some time on the sideline helping out. But that experience was a challenge for him.
“I mean, if I’m being fair, through college, I played linebacker and I played strong safety, so I was on the defensive side of the ball,” he said about his time at Siena College. “The year that they had me coach, I was coaching the running backs. So it, it may have had something to do with with that, I’m not entirely sure, because I didn’t give it much of a chance. I only coached for one year, and then I had achieved my bachelor’s degree, so I wasn’t going to go back.”
That experience, although challenging, did give him some experience in coaching and sparked an interest in it.
It’s quite common for wrestlers to have an MMA background, whether it be Lola Vice with taekwondo, or Malakai Black with kickboxing, to countless others in any promotion. Mixed martial arts knowledge is still maybe not as common in wrestling but it’s in more wrestlers’ background than you might guess.
One wrestler with an MMA background, who Fish sees as one of his two main influences along with Samoa Joe (judo background), is MLW roster-mate KENTA.
“KENTA, I think, is the biggest influence in all of our generation of wrestling. Like he’s this generation’s Dynamite Kid. As far as I’m concerned, he was the person who really made the martial arts a thing in pro wrestling.”
Speaking of martial arts, Fish himself might know a thing or two himself: “I started out in taekwondo as an eight year old, and then as a teenager, I got into more freestyle type of karate, and that eventually brought me to kickboxing. A football coach of mine was getting into kickboxing. He had opened a martial arts school.”
He trained with that coach before leaving New York and continued training in Florida when wrestling presented itself as a career option to Fish. He was never comfortable with the idea of working a 9-to-5 office gig and instead chose to pursue a career in wrestling.
From Fish and Timothy Thatcher, to mainstays of Japanese wrestling like KENTA and Minoru Suzuki, Major League Wrestling has a talented roster that is sure to put on great shows every time out. The locker room is in a great place right now, according to Fish.
“You know how to get over and I would say majority of the people in that position, they’re not selfish with their knowledge or their time,” he explained.
Getting to share the locker room with people generous with their time has given Fish a positivity and a new appreciation for wrestling. He mentioned the “team feel” of the roster and that only aids the promotion in putting out a solid product.
“We’ve sold out every show, I believe, for the past year. So the talent level is pretty remarkable right now, and the product continues to get better. So all things look as far as the future is concerned, we just need to shoot high,” he concluded.
Tickets for the MLW Eric Bischoff show at the Melrose Ballroom Thursday can be purchased here.
TOP PHOTO: Bobby Fish at The Big Event fan fest on Saturday, November 11, 2023, at at the Suffolk Credit Union Arena in Brentwood, NY. Photo by George Tahinos, https://georgetahinos.smugmug.com
RELATED LINKS
- Sep. 1, 2022: Bobby Fish leaving AEW?
- Sep. 6, 2022: Source: AEW brawl results in suspensions, Fish invites Punk to a fight
- Nov. 11, 2021: MLW Fusion ALPHA: Davey Richards and Bobby Fish collide at The Opera Cup
- Feb. 28, 2013: Bobby Fish welcomes challenge of ROH-New Japan cards
- Oct. 2, 2012: Bobby Fish mixes MMA into his wrestling
