TNA Superstar Magnus See's Bright Future for British Brawlers

Nick Aldis is one of a handful of British wrestlers currently plying his trade in one of the top two professional wrestling companies in the world.

Nick better known Magnus is one of the rising stars in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling  (TNA), and although TNA are behind the world leader in sports entertainment World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) around the globe, in the UK TNA are beating their rivals in war for television ratings week-in, week-out.

The 24-year-old is also enjoying some success himself, winning the recent Xplosion Championship Challenge enabling him to challenge for any title he likes.

Sportsvibe.co.uk caught up with the Norfolk grappler to talk about the company’s rise and his route into the business.

Q. First of all, coming from Norfolk, how did you first get into the sport of wrestling?

People assume being from a small area in Norfolk [Kings Lynn], that it’s hard to get into wrestling. Truthfully I knew from a young age I wanted to do wrestling and I actually started at a training camp in Norwich when I was 17 or 18 while still doing my A-Levels, and had my first match at Hunstanton Town Hall.

After a while I started to attend Drop Kicks wrestling school in Purfleet, London. They ran on a more regular basis so me and a few mates started to share a car down to London and were training a few times a week. Because the school was based in London there was a greater influx of styles and trainers. 

When I turned 19, I started to do wrestling on a full time basis and the only time I really took anytime off from wrestling was when I did the TV show Gladiators.

Q. Who were some of the wrestlers that influenced you when you were growing up?

I grew up wanting to be in the WWE, and the same can be said for anybody in my generation, that’s what captivated my imagination. It’s what was on TV when I was growing up and it’s what I wanted to do anyway. The likes of Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, Stone Cold Steve Austin and Triple H are the guys that I remember seeing and thinking ‘I want to be like these guys.’

Q. You are one of the new generation of British wrestlers doing well in America – when you use to watch the WWE did the British Bulldog, William Regal etc. captivate you?

I was a big Bulldog fan; when you’re a kid and you appreciate the entertainment aspect more than anything else, you don’t necessarily appreciate the quality of guys like Dynamite Kid, Fit Finlay and other guys like that. You enjoy watching it but you don’t know why, but with guys like Finlay and Regal, their role in the business is to generate heat and to tell this compelling story where you forget what your supposed to be feeling and are just like ‘wow’.

Q. Did seeing the British guys on TV make you think you could achieve the same goal?

I don’t know if I ever thought to myself, Regal, Finlay, and Dynamite could do it so I could it, I believed I could do it anyway. As I’ve got more and more into the business I’ve found out being British can be a bit of a hurdle particularly when you are trying to be perceived as a potential top guy. 

Q. In both TNA and WWE at the moment there is an influx of British talent, do you think it’ll be long before we see a British Heavyweight Champion in TNA?

I think it will happen one day, and obviously I would love it to be me. Certainly Shamus has broken the mould in the WWE, he’s not British, he’s Irish but to Americans the perception is kind of the same. He’s got an incredible gimmick, character and he’s a great performer. Then you have Wade Barrett also doing well in the WWE along with Rob (Terry) and Doug (Williams) in TNA and we’re all happy for each other. There’s very few of us at the top of the game in America and you have to remember where you came from.

Q. You have just won the Xplosion Championship Challenge, which enables you to challenge for any title – could we see you challenging for a title on the new Maximum Impact tour of the UK in January?

That is true, I hadn’t really thought about that but you make a good point. It could be quite a significant thing to challenge for a title on the UK leg of our European tour particularly at one of the feature shows like Manchester or Wembley. 

The tour is always my favourite time of the year and I’m looking forward to it, the people are always good to me and it’s tremendous fun.

Q. Whenever TNA comes over to the UK the shows always sell-out and you’re even beating WWE in the TV ratings over here – do you think we’ll see an episode of flagship show Impact or even a PPV filmed in the UK?

If it were up to me, I would do that tomorrow. I feel like you’ve got to make the most out of your best markets and the UK is TNA’s best market. If they want to accept that or not it’s up to them. The crowds over here are bigger, better, louder than over in America and it reflects when highlights of the tours are shown on TV. The company is growing over here and I feel us British wrestlers are a big part of that. 

Q. Are there any young British wrestlers we should be looking out for who are on the cusp of making it with either TNA or WWE?

I would say for certain there are people who either should be or could be in the next year or two – I would straight away say Marty Scurll, he’s a great performer with a great look and charisma. He’s a very unique performer and he gets it, he knows how to work the camera and the crowd, he could be a star. Another guy to keep a look out for is Dave Mastiff.

There lots of great talent all over this country and I would encourage people to go out and see more UK Indy shows. I was in a match once in Skegness teaming up with Drew McIntyre and Wade Barrett taking on Shamus, Gangrel and Rene Dupree before any of us had made it big  - at the time people would have thought it was just a bunch of wrestlers, if people who were there think back about that match now, they saw six guys who made it to the top.

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