The book Life as an Art: Paint Your Picture with Your Passion, released in 2022, tells the story of a young boy from a poor family that lived in the Niagara region of Ontario. A boy who would grow up to have his dreams realized and so much more.
The journey that got him there is one of resilience and unrelenting will.
Meet 45-year-old Jeremy Elliott. Martial artist, author, and professional wrestler. He stands at 5-foot-6 and weighs 190 pounds but his passion for life and for what he does goes far beyond his physical stature.
Elliott was asked a few years ago to contribute to a Sport Karate History book. After that was published with a one-page contribution from him, the North Carolina-based publishers asked him if he’d want to write a book of his own. He had no idea how to start but wanted to give a “big shout out to Jesse Bowen and Elite Publications for helping it become a reality.”
Life as an Art: Paint Your Picture with Your Passion is heart-felt, real, and filled with personal stories designed to inform and inspire in its 122 pages.
Athletics has always been a big part of life for Elliott. From his early teens, he recognized the value of fitness and exercise and he still believes in its importance, arguably more now than ever. His grandparents lived in front of the Fighting Griffin Martial Arts dojo and Elliott was enrolled as soon as he told his mom that he wanted to join in 1985.
The intro to the self-published book suggests all grade schools should implement a strength and conditioning class along with the already-in-place gym class — which is more an introduction to sports. It’s a thought with real merit. Think about it this way: Why teach the intro to sports without teaching the proper way to use your body and the ways to control your body?
“And if you look at the US, some of these universities now. I know it’s a whole different story because you have these new NIL [NCAA’s Name, Image, and Likeness] deals and they’re making a lot of money. But if a school can build a $28 million weight room, and they’re phenomenal, well then. Okay, so now what are their high schools doing?” mused Elliott. “My boy and I were in Houston, Texas, just last year, and driving by the high schools. Man, so what are we doing? What do we need to do? We need to get some of that going on, just even introducing it, because that’s a good thing for kids. I have a bunch of teenagers that hang out here on a Friday night, and I always say this is one of my happiest moments. I get to have kids who all they want to do is lift weights and do Jiu Jitsu on a Friday night, and they’re hanging with each other. What an environment, what a culture that we’re building. I just think that the earlier we get that introduced, the better.”
Soon after making a name for himself through southern Ontario, Elliott’s talent was recognized by coaches and his sensei. He was encouraged to compete in karate tournaments further out. But there was one understandable obstacle.
“I think the farthest I traveled was Rochester, New York, which I had a great relationship with some of the coaches down there. I can remember one time after an event, they were talking to me, and I was doing pretty well. I was very successful on the local surrogate. They said, ‘Well, why don’t you travel? Why don’t you get out there, you could probably win on the big stage.’ And I said ‘That’s great, but I got no money.'”
His mother would never let their finances be the reason he couldn’t chase his dream with everything he had. Despite being a single parent, she never let her son be limited. From having her take him part-way to a “drop point”, to sleeping on the floors of hotel rooms, Elliott always had a way to get to where he needed to be. His mom would never let their lack of finances be the reason he couldn’t chase his dream.
It wasn’t just karate in Elliott’s life. His love of pro wrestling came from his mother and “gammy.”
“I still have an 8×10 autograph that was given to my mother from Sweet Daddy Siki, and she had worked at a local karaoke bar here in Niagara Falls and and Sweet Daddy would visit it and everything from even, I guess my grandma would occasionally feed him. So one of the autographs was, ‘Can’t wait to have your grandma’s cooking again,'” Elliott told SlamWrestling.net in an interview.
He, his mother, and his grandmother would make it a point to watch pro wrestling together every Saturday. Their relationship was only strengthened by the time they spent together in front of the television watching people throw themselves at each other in a squared circle.
The family connections continued.
Elliott introduced his godson William to athletics. William was born with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD), but he has not let that limit him. Elliott took him in when he was 10 months old and put him in a gi (karate uniform). It was an immediate connection that would only grow stronger as the boy did. Then came pro wrestling.
The Canadian Wrestling Federation’s (CWF) Kryss Thorn trained the now-17 year-old William and the 6-foot-5, 340-pound teenager left football to follow his dream. If you’re wondering, yes, the duo have shared the ring, both as a tag team (twice) and in two one-on-one matches at NEO Pro Wrestling. Their tag team matches were especially notable, as they faced Thorn and his son.
Plus William and Jeremy have wrestled each other twice, both being “one-on-one matches that were just very small shows but had a blast,” recalled Elliott.
Thorn’s endorsement of Elliott sheds more light on what kind of person he is. “Jeremy has been wrestling for CWF for many years now, and he always fires the crowd up whether he is face or heel. The fans believe everything he does. Jeremy truly can tell a story in his work in the ring,” said Thorn in an email. “Recently myself and my son Jesse Bieber worked a match with Jeremy and his boy. The story we told was nothing short of magic. It was a privilege to share the ring with him and would do it anytime.”
Elliott and Thorn are close outside the ring too. Elliott’s work within his community does not go unnoticed by those privileged to be around him. “I genuinely love working with Jeremy, his son Will, and all the kids from homes, schools, community centers, and First Nation communities,” praised Thorn. “Jeremy always prioritizes the youth, and it’s a true honor to call him my friend.”
Another wrestling influence on Elliott was Terry Funk.
“With the Sport Karate Museum [in Houston], I had the unbelievable opportunity to talk with The Funker. Originally asked by Prof Gary Lee of Houston if I’d be interested in coming to Texas and honoring Terry.” Elliott agreed, was given Funk’s cell phone number, and thus began a friendship that still resonates with Elliott, with weekly phone calls where Funk and him would share stories. Elliott would absorb it all like a sponge.
“As he entered his last year of life our talks were less and some days he was on fire talking and other days sadly he would not remember too much,” Elliott revealed. Funk died in August 2023.
“Last year, when William received his black belt, he performed at The Living Legends event in front of 400 black belt dignitaries including Bill Wallace and Chuck Norris,” recalled Elliott. “When William went up he put his Terry Funk hat down at the head table to honor Terry as we performed. The Funker, William, and I all having the same certificates is something I’ll always truly cherish.”
The passion Elliott has for athletics and fitness is infectious, and goes beyond his godson. Elliott runs United Family Martial Arts on Main Street in Niagara Falls, Ontario. The dojo trains kids from age three, all the way up, offering adult martial arts and fitness, supplements and a clothing line.
For Elliott, there is a reward to knowing that his teenage students would rather be training on a Friday night instead of doing anything else.
Life often provides many potential reasons to not want to do something. For Elliott, it’s up to people how they respond to the obstacles and speed bumps put in their way. “I cannot control the ocean, but I can learn to surf. And that has been something I think [about] the more this world is changing,” is the way Elliott explained it.
And according to Elliott, the oceans of life can often make people feel as if their ship has capsized and they’re drowning. But there’s a way out — adapting. “Even if it’s an inch, if I just gain an inch today, I’ll take that action step to get me moving forward. And once I do that, what’s my next action step that I could take forward? And then I keep doing that, doing that, until I’m out of that problem.”
Further, little by little, steps can add up. That’s how you gain momentum and move forward. Incremental progress is progress regardless, however small it may be. But it can be tough. Impatience is unfortunately too common in the 21st Century. “You have to sometimes be patient, which isn’t comfortable either, because we want everything on our own time, but being patient and just taking steps,” Elliott explained, can be the difficult-but-effective key to finding success in life. Especially in the 21st Century where everything is on-demand, patience is often seen as a limitation or a drawback.
“I think the only way we learn that patience and that adaptability comes from the struggle,” he said. “We gain strength in the struggle. When you’re doing a push-up, or you’re doing the bench press and that bar comes down, now you’re really struggling to push it back up. That’s where you’re gaining your strength. So as humans, and I think we all like comfort, we would all rather obviously it be a perfect world and us just get everything we want, but it’s not ever going to happen. That’s not how life works.”
In conversation, Elliott inspires. It begs the question/mantra, If you’re going to chase your dream, why not throw everything you have into it?
Elliott has done exactly that. It’s led to a life that’s seen him travel the world and spend time in the ring with some of the biggest names in wrestling. He made his professional wrestling debut for Neo Spirit Pro Wrestling in Niagara Falls at the historic Polish Hall.
Arguably the biggest moment was in a CWF ring against Minoru Suzuki. “Being the King of Pancrase as well as fighting my catch wrestling coach in Japan back in the ’90s, it was a surreal experience.”
Elliott is doing the same for youth in his hometown. Giving back to the community that he came out of so that kids now can realize and chase their dreams at an early age, as he did.
“I think my passion is exactly that. It’s the coaching and mentoring. I started helping out in the dojo because my mom would send me there every single day. I started assisting in classes as well. I was teaching, I think by the time I was 15. I had a key to the dojo before I even had a key to a car,” he revealed.
Also this year, Elliott shared the ring with former NXT UK wrestler Eddie Dennis — currently a writer and producer for WWE — for German promotion Westside Xtreme Wrestling. Elliott still wrestles, now more than ever. “With my boy wrestling I’ve become active where he goes which also included a couple CWF Northern shows.”
Elliott has been coaching for almost 40 years and the vision he had for his life has led to something special and lasting.
From being called into a spot in the self-defense segment of a competition — his only experiences at the time were individual events — to tagging with Jake “the Snake” Roberts at the Dunnville Agricultural Fair in Ontario, Jeremy Elliott’s lived quite the artistic life so far.
The subhead to the book is the perfect motto for anyone looking to chase their dreams: Paint your picture with your passion.
RELATED LINKS
- United Family Martial Arts website
- Buy at Amazon.com or Amazon.ca
- SlamWrestling Master Book List
