Scott Oberman: Professionally wrestling since age fourteen.

Scott's character online was dark and mysterious, shielded by a mask of blonde hair and heavy metal music. I was surprised when greeted with a smiling (visible) face and colourful clothing, without a single ounce of hostility. We talked a lot in the car on the way to the studio, although we really got into the nitty gritty details after the shoot. 

I asked Scott if he would like to be interviewed in character, although he declined as he stated his character is a bit weird, emotionally unstable. 

We first chatted about the process of his character coming to life, he said he drew on his own experiences to portray his anger effectively although described his character as outwardly emotionless but was actually dealing with a lot on the inside. “Hes a guy who went through hardships and then uses that to define and drive him. He tries to make it out like he's overcome it.. But you can tell he’s not quite gotten over everything… The best stuff comes from genuine feelings and genuine people, because that's where it's the most authentic, and that's where people are the most hooked in.” 

He compares his characteristics to Chris Jericho and Raven, two household names of the professional wrestling industry, predominantly seen in WWE and ECW. Chris Jericho is famous for his charisma and mic skills as well as versatility and reinventing himself; successfully playing both heel and face roles. Whereas Raven is known for grunge-era angst, and is a staple of extreme wrestling, known for deep layered feuds and a cult leader vibe, often surrounded by ‘ravens flock.’

“In terms of fleshing out the character, it has been over the last year and a half… Nobody else has really done this, and at first I didn’t want to be the first to take the punt… The backstory hyperbole speaking, is me living a bit off my own past, and trying to put that into a wrestling character. The story has always been there.” Scott explained that the audience has started to give him a lot more of a reaction recently due to his slow entrance into the ring. Originally getting booed, but now getting the occasional cheer, “which is a bit dangerous because I don’t want to be seen as a good guy.”

As you’re drawing on real-life scenarios, do you ever worry that lines will be blurred between your professional and personal life?

“I did a promo for Catch Pro Wrestling… that was in 2023, it was a terrible year for me. I had eight pretty big blows in the space of a few months. And I did mean a lot of it all, everything that I mentioned in that promo did happen, but then obviously the super personal stuff I didn't mention, because, the stuff in relationships, like my mom and my dad, that stuff doesn't matter. But, I don't think there's an issue doing it (utilising real-life experiences) as long as you kind of draw it back a little bit. So within moderation, it can be all right, but maybe that's not a healthy way to look at it.”

The biggest turning point in Scott's career so far was when he took a break, allowing him to take a step back and develop his character further. He's been through plenty of other characters and personas, even at one point being encouraged to play a “model” by promoters, but has always wanted to develop the character he is now, even when he had just started at age 14. “The young person didn't want to take a punt on something and fail.” Originally being introduced to wrestling through ‘SmackDown vs Raw 08’, where he originally thought wrestling was “dead fake,” but when his mate would show him videos of Jeff Hardy doing swanton bombs, he was fully convinced these extreme matches were completely legit. After becoming a full-time fan, he convinced his parents to buy him Sky Sports so he could stay updated with every match.

Scott ended up taking the dive into his new persona and it ended up paying off and kick-starting a new era of his career. “In wrestling, the safe option (especially when it comes to gimmicks), you can’t really afford to do it.”

Did you find it helpful having a community of wrestlers behind you when taking this jump into a new chapter? 

 “Yeah, I think it helps you in more ways than one, if you’ve got people that will bat for you, that's how a lot of doors open, not just in wrestling but in life, to be honest.”

We went on to talk about Scott's notorious hair, being such a statement piece of all of his in-person and promo work, you would often find Scott's hair covering his face, masking his eyes. “One thing I picked up on was that a lot of celebrities, you can decipher from the hair, and hence why I wanted a specific hairstyle, so that people could put me apart.” He went on to comment on how Chappel Rowen was one of his main influences when he was establishing his signature style, and he used her striking hairstyle as a framework for his own character development.

I wondered if there were many other correlations between pop culture and wrestling, “one thing I'm seeing a lot of nowadays, everyone's basing things off TikTok's… so it will be the latest craze, and then they try and do a spoof of that or basically just copy it.” He also commented on how one of the most popular wrestling franchises, WWE has had to modernise, moving over to Netflix.

Focusing more on the ring. I wondered about doing the stunts that are required in professional wrestling. Had he ever had any serious injuries? 

“I've been quite lucky… just head injuries, if anything I've had a fair few of them, usually from simple things… You can take the simplest of things, like a body slam, and end up rattling your head on the way down.” 

Do you think it's because you get too comfortable doing it, because it feels so simple?

“Yeah I think that's a good shout to be fair, but also as well, I think because of the nature of it, everything's a little bit dangerous in it.”

Do you take any precautions to reduce the risks when it comes to injuries?

“I do a lot of yoga, especially in the last few weeks… I realise especially as I get to this age, I might not be immortal like I thought I was when I was a teenager.”  Scott praised Epsom salts when it came to aftercare and how good they are for muscle therapy. He went on to comment how he prefers baths over showers, which plays into the juxtaposition of his relaxed nature outside of the ring.

Professional wrestling over the years has been targeted at a range of ages from young children all the way up to middle-aged men. I wondered what Scott's average demographic was across all of his shows. “I think it's a mix (of ages,) there's two old fellas I see at every single show, and they've been going to shows for 30 or 40 years, but then again you do get a lot of young people that follow every single thing you do.”

Do you get a lot of children coming up to you thinking it's all genuine?

“Yeah, the kids still do, because I do a bit of a stone cold killer sometimes, with like, my face and stuff, they can get a bit upset which, yeah, isn't nice. I don't really like that side of things, because I want to say at heart, I'm a big softie. So then when the parents come up to me and they're like, Oh, he's terrified of you, I'm like, oh, man, that sucks.”

We went on to talk about the politics of shows and how you have to be tolerant with storylines for your career to pay off, Scott even went on a seven-match losing streak, before a seven-match winning streak. He also commented on how he's helped to film over nineteen promos this year already.

“You've got to want to help the show. And the reason that I think I've got so many titles and opportunities at the minute is because I'm helping out a lot. I'm doing promos for most companies, I'm doing it to try and help shows. Because the one thing that really clicked for me recently is that, at the end of the day, all wrestling really is, is ticket sales ultimately. So you want to constantly be selling something, whether that's yourself online, or a promo to try to get one more person through the door.”

You've used words like fake and pretend a lot today (during our prior shoot.) I was under the impression that wrestlers would usually get upset with that kind of language. How come you're so comfortable with it?

“I just think it's too far gone. And people can believe to an extent, but I think there's only so far you can really push it without it coming across as condescending. People get more into the stuff that they do think is real. So I think that's kind of the challenge is to try and even not meet their expectations, because they've seen a lot of stuff nowadays. So you want to try and move away from cliche, or it's actually making people believe that it's genuine. But those two things are hard to pull off…

And I don't mean to say fake in a condescending way. Because it does hurt, it does mess you up… Bray Wyatt used to do this dead, spooky character, but I never forget the picture of him, with Stephanie McMahon and another girl, all twerking together, even though he's supposed to be a killer. Like, I said, that's everywhere. And I don't even think that's necessarily a bad thing. People kind of know that the curtains have been lifted, people are interested now to see the people behind the characters. So I think it's just kind of leaning into that and moving with the times a bit.”

I found it interesting that Scott used people's interest and almost invasive nature to further develop storylines, by encouraging people to believe they knew the “person behind the character” allowing him to develop even deeper storylines and blurring the lines between reality and story for the audience. Leaving you thinking, “Is this real?”

If you're interested in following Scott along on his journey, and going to any of his upcoming shows, you can follow him on @thescottoberman on Instagram!