I trained with WWE wrestlers – you don’t need to be slammed to know it hurts
Share:
British tag team Pretty Deadly guide Alex Pattle through an intense workout in London, giving an insight into what it takes to be a professional wrestler. Let’s get the obvious myth out the way, quickly: it does hurt to be a professional wrestler. From spending a morning training with two of them, I can confirm this. And that’s without even being body-slammed, piledriven, or chopped to the chest.
![[Kit Wilson (left) and Elton Prince ‘encourage’ The Independent’s Alex Pattle]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/15/17/newFile.jpg)
Full disclosure: I did politely request (beg) to sign a waiver, allowing me to be slammed or at least picked up by the WWE tag team Pretty Deadly. No dice. And in all honesty, when one half of the duo leans towards me later in the day, pointing to a collarbone jutting gruesomely from where it should be, I accept it’s probably right that I was limited to an intense workout, under their supervision.
![[An awestruck Alex watches as Wilson shows off his strength and stamina]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/15/17/newFile-4.jpg)
It’s on-screen villains Kit Wilson and Elton Prince (with his malformed shoulder) leading me through a circuit of squats, sprints and weight-lifting. I say “leading’”... The flamboyant pair, often decked out in pink spandex in the ring, are largely screaming at me. At one point, as I force myself through another lung-bursting sprint on the vindictive Assault treadmill, their ‘encouragement’ has me fearing I’ll crash facefirst into the console. Thankfully, Wilson offers to tag himself in. Phew.
![[Pretty Deadly limber up before helping Alex through his workout]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/15/17/newFile-7.jpg)
There are a few “phew”s this early morning, as Wilson and Prince oversee a workout at the Eight Club gym in Shoreditch. When the session ends, the tag team – presented as a pair of obnoxious male models – are gracious enough to grant The Independent an interview. We get into what it takes to be a WWE Superstar, physically and mentally: from arduous exercise to strict diets and the travails of travel.
