{"id":7299,"date":"2015-11-15T13:01:08","date_gmt":"2015-11-15T13:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/?p=7299"},"modified":"2015-11-15T13:01:08","modified_gmt":"2015-11-15T13:01:08","slug":"speak-sleep-show-repeat-welsh-tna-wrestlers-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2015\/11\/15\/speak-sleep-show-repeat-welsh-tna-wrestlers-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Speak, sleep, show, repeat: a Welsh TNA wrestler\u2019s life"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Mark

This Cardiff-born talent\u2019s<\/span> debut ring name, Lightning Kid, was spot on. Just as lightning never strikes the same spot twice, Andrews is forever on his way to new places, new experiences since his days at the Newport wrestling school.<\/p>\n

Take last weekend for example.\u00a0On Saturday he was flown to Canada, where he did two shows and two seminars before returning to the UK to kick off his punk band Junior\u2019s tour on November 9. How does he juggle wrestling and music? \u201cIf there\u2019s ever a time to burn the candle at both ends, it\u2019s now \u2013 in our sit-com years,\u201d he says. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, the time when you start acting like Friends<\/i>,\u201d Andrews laughingly explains. \u201cHonestly, it\u2019s weird. Half my friends are off getting married and I\u2019m sort of like, oh should I be settling down and not just swiping right on Tinder?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Mark

\u201cLuckily I landed on my feet, otherwise I might have just carried on simmering,\u201d he adds.<\/span><\/p>\n

While thousands of worldwide fans (and a blue tick on Twitter) might typically inflate an ego, fame has \u2013 if anything \u2013 humbled this young talent. Andrews talks of how much he looked up to wrestlers whose shows he saw early on, but as for his own TV appearances he says: \u201cThat\u2019s a larger-than-life thing. Little do [fans] know that on the weekends I still just go out on my skateboard and play in a band\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWrestling has taught me to take everybody off the pedestal. I realised \u2013\u00a0it sounds a bit crude \u2013\u00a0but Hulk Hogan, the biggest name in wrestling ever, right? He still shits, you know what I mean?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

This down-to-earth approach may well stem from Andrews\u2019 trips to wrestling camp as a teenager. It was a maturing time for him, he recalls: \u201cI was 14 years old, living in one-star B&Bs for a week with all these older dudes, going out and getting trashed.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

\"Mark

And yet, as inevitable, the darker side of fame creeps out now and again. \u201cI try to ignore it but I do get a few trolls. It sounds terrible and guilty but I\u2019ll let you into it \u2013\u00a0I do name search as well,\u201d Andrews says. \u201cSo if I\u2019ve just been on TV I\u2019ll type in #wrestling just to see what people think, you know?\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Though he acknowledges social media has been vital for boosting his career, Andrews isn\u2019t totally convinced by its merits: \u201cIf it wasn\u2019t for my work, I\u2019d delete Facebook. As much as I like having the memories there and keeping in touch, I\u2019m really against people hiding behind their online profiles.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He aims for a Twittery middle ground between self-promotion and normality, but admits this is a struggle in what is essentially a vain industry: \u201cIt\u2019s all about image, it\u2019s all about pushing yourself.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Andrews becomes contagiously animated as we get onto the subject of wrestling psychology and match structures. \u201cOften on a surface level it\u2019s hard to appreciate how much depth there is to it when it just looks like two grown men play-fighting,\u201d he says.<\/span><\/p>\n

Wrestlers\u2019 approaches vary between pre-planning and improvisation but Andrews tries to blend the two: \u201cYou talk in the ring in clever ways that no one notices. That\u2019s why you train for so long, you\u2019re learning the code essentially \u2013 the language of wrestling.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The UK\u2019s communal atmosphere is, according to Andrews, another factor behind his success. \u201cBritain is currently the best-kept secret on the planet for pro-wrestling,\u201d he says.\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cWe have so much talent in such a small place. I think it\u2019s because we\u2019re such an intimate scene, we learn from each other.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Mark

\u201cI\u2019ve never been as nervous as I was for my first match. I still get nervous. I wish I didn\u2019t but at the same time I\u2019m kind of grateful. There have been times when I haven\u2019t been nervous and it hasn\u2019t gone so well.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Nostalgia soon turns to talk of the future. For Andrews, the wrestling world has a shelf life: \u201cEvery bump is kind of like a mini car crash. There are only so many bumps you can have on your body.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had a really good career so far and I\u2019d rather keep it open-ended. A different venture.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

And there, in that one line, is a nutshell of Mark Andrews: appreciative, ambitious, and always always active. We part ways as he heads to a band session with Junior and I\u2019m left with zero doubt that this is a guy who pulls no punches in any life goals. It\u2019s just a question of where Lightning Kid will strike next.<\/span><\/p>\n

Follow Mark Andrews at @MandrewsTNA and visit @musicofjunior for details of the pop punk band\u2019s tour this week.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mark Andrews, the professional wrestler who won TNA British Boot Camp 2014, zipped into Coffee#1 like a guitar-swinging bolt of energy. This Cardiff-born talent\u2019s debut ring name, Lightning Kid, was spot on. Just as lightning never strikes the same spot twice, Andrews is forever on his way to new places, new experiences since his days at the Newport wrestling school. Take last weekend for example.\u00a0On Saturday he was flown to Canada, where he did two shows and two seminars before […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":248,"featured_media":7300,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1291,160,74,3243,1607],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-7299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport","tag-cardiff-2","tag-music-2","tag-sport-2","tag-tna","tag-wrestling"],"yoast_head":"\nCardiff born TNA wrestler Mark Andrews talks about the sport<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Cardiff's TNA wrestling star Mark Andrews discusses his life as a wrestler and music star\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, 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