The Wrestler

Justin Lee Collins told Soccer AM how trying to become a Mexican wrestler nearly broke him!

The comedian's new series on Sky 1 sees him attempt to master ballroom dancing, wrestling and West End musicals, however he revealed it was in the ring that he faced his toughest test:

"I had to fight a transvestite," he said. "He was my mentor and he was sensational, he also had very similar hair to mine.

"They said to me 'who do you want as your mentor?' and I said 'get me a transvestite or a dwarf' and he was both! He was wonderful.

"His legs were like tree trunks. He was squat, but for his size he was so incredibly strong."

Scary

If facing a transvestite dwarf in a ring wasn't scary enough, Collins first had to take part in an initiation which he will never forget:

"You have to be baptised if you're going to become a Luchador, like a Mexican wrestler," he explained. "You have to go through this initiation and I had a choice of three things.

"The first one was a rake along my back and buttocks! Or, if I didn't fancy that it was a sopping wet sandal also across my buttocks and the third choice was a really massive slap across my chest which would draw blood!

"I thought it was a windup at first. I looked across at my producer - whose voice you hear off screen - and I said 'is this a windup' and he said 'no, you have to choose one of those three things!'"

Red

As well putting his body on the line in the name of entertainment, Collins is a huge fan of the beautiful game.

Born in Bristol, he had a choice of supporting either Bristol City or Rovers, but as he explained, the decision had already been made for him:

"I was always going to be a Red," he said. "My Dad was Red and my mum's side of the family are all Reds, so I was brought up in a Red house."

Two season's ago City almost gained promotion to the Premier League, however they were denied a place in England's top flight after losing to Hull City in the Championship play-off final.

Collin's recalled the buzz in the city in the week's leading up to that game and admitted he was surprised how well Hull have done since being promoted.

"In the week leading up to that play-off final against Hull we were all living the dream," he said.

"It was brilliant and it would have been wonderful for the city. It was a bigger than football."

"A lot of us thought that if we went up that we would have come straight back down," he added. "And that's exactly what I thought would happen with Hull and I'm amazed that they've managed to stay up.

"But I think it's wonderful that they're still in the Premier League this season."