WWE: Jake Roberts helped start my wrestling career, says Wolfgang
Wolfgang on British wrestling - and a poorly-timed bath!
Friday 24 February 2017 11:23, UK
Scottish star Wolfgang told Gorilla Position that Jake "The Snake" Roberts was pivotal in him launching a wrestling career.
The Glasgow-born powerhouse impressed during WWE's inaugural United Kingdom Championship Tournament in Blackpool in January, reaching the semi-finals before being beaten by eventual winner Tyler Bate.
And the 30-year-old revealed a chat with Roberts, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2014, set him on the path to WWE.
"I actually got to meet Jake "The Snake" one time," said Wolfgang, who will be part of WWE's live-event tour of the UK and Ireland in May.
"My father brought home a newspaper article which said Jake was attending a wrestling school near where I lived, so at 14 years old I got to speak to a Hall of Famer and one of my all-time heroes.
"I got to the school the following weekend and started training and it has eventually led to me getting into the WWE spotlight."
Wolfgang believes he "turned a lot of heads" with his performances at The Empress Ballroom - after learning he would be competing in the event as he was about to take a dip in his bathtub!
"A lot of folk maybe hadn't seen me wrestle before but after the first day my Twitter was lighting up and my Instagram was going crazy," said the former Insane Championship Wrestling Heavyweight Champion.
"I think I turned a lot of heads - there was such a support for me going into the next day and I think that helped a lot, I had a lot of confidence.
"The only thing that could have been better would have been making the final but that's on me to put in more training and be a bit better next time.
"I got a call from William Regal as I was about to get in the bath so I hopped out and he told me I was going to be involved in the tournament - it was the best thing to happen to me after a 15-year career in wrestling.
"It was unbelievable to hear I would be representing Scotland and [the event] was an unbelievable experience. I wish I could go back and do it all again."
Wolfgang, who has since wrestled a non-televised match at NXT, is now aiming to join the likes of compatriot Noam Dar and Ireland's former Universal Champion Finn Balor on WWE's main roster.
"If you'd have told me at 14 I would go on to be part of something WWE are producing in your home country, it would have been a dream come true," he added.
"Now that I have done that, everything else is a bonus but I hope to be in Noam Dar's position or Jack Gallagher's position and if you want to go all the way to the top, Balor's position.
"[British and Irish wrestlers] are ready to take over the world - I want to be at the forefront of that."
To hear more from Wolfgang, including on how good the "inspirational" Bate really is, and re-watching Ken Shamrock beat up the Nation of Domination in 1997, listen to the Gorilla Position podcast.
