Keeping Up With The Indies is an on-going series that explores the reality, challenges and triumphs of independent wrestling through in-depth interviews.
Over 1,870 matches. More than 100 different promotions. Across nine countries. A career spanning 18 years, the highs and lows of British wrestling and the trials and tribulations of life as a pro-wrestler.
Nathan Cruz’s story is one of ups-and-downs, ebbs and flows. From wrestling on holiday camps to performing in front of hundreds of thousands on national television for World of Sport. From failing a WWE medical to training the new crop of talent.
If one thing is for sure, it hasn’t all been plain sailing for one of Britain’s wrestling stalwarts.
“It’s my identity, it’s been my life since I started at 15.”
Speaking exclusively to Wrestle Inn’s Jamie Johnson, Nathan Cruz said: “A lot has changed, good things and bad things. Overall, British wrestling has become far more professional in its approach and presentation.”
Nathan described the difference between the “really bad place” that the British scene was in during his early career, during the Noughties, and the high-end product that shines in the modern-day.
Cruz has enjoyed several highlights across his near two decade career, from being PROGRESS Wrestling’s inaugural world champion to headlining in front of more than 1,000 people in his hometown of Hull.
Firstly, Cruz summed up his life in British wrestling: “It’s everything I’ve hoped for and more.”
The scene has grown massively since Nathan’s debut in 2006.
He said: “The state that wrestling was in, in 2006, outside of the odd two or three promotions in British wrestling, the rest of it was really bad. To see that now there are so many good places that put on a well presented product, it’s refreshing. It’s taken huge steps forward.”
He described it as “almost amusing” that back when he started 100 people would be regarded as a good turnout.
Wrestling Camps
Cruz has made a name for himself as one of the biggest names in British wrestling’s holiday camp scene.
“Wrestling on camps is my favourite. Some people have this misconception that work on camps is hokey; that’s not been the case since the mid-2000s.”
Cruz added: “You always have a good atmosphere, people want to be entertained. A lot of the people there are the parents who have been dragged there because their kids like wrestling, and you’ve got to make it interesting for them, and you’ve got to convince them that what we’re doing is a little bit more legitimate than they thought.”
Cruz believes that working on holiday camp shows helps you grow as a wrestler, echoing the thoughts of Ace Matthews in a previous iteration of Keeping Up With The Indies. It makes sure your work is aggressive and looks legitimate to “punters”, not just wrestling fans who are invested in your work.
The “Hardest Thing”
“I was offered a WWE contract in 2016 as part of the NXT UK tour and I had high blood pressure, which I didn’t know about. So, I failed the medical” Cruz explained.
The antithesis of the holiday camp joy, the crushing disappointment of a dream born in childhood being dashed by high blood pressure.
“That will always be the hardest thing I’ll ever have to deal with in my professional career. Everything else I’ve enjoyed, that’s always going to be the thing I’ll struggle with the most.”
Cruz’s story is the classic tale of a childhood filled with watching wrestling on TV. He described the moment that led him to a career in the world of pro-wrestling.
“I remember watching WrestleMania 17, when I was 10 years old, and it was the pivotal moment in The Undertaker and Triple H match. That was the moment I can pinpoint as I didn’t want to just be a fan of this, I wanted to be involved in pro-wrestling. I made my mind up that I had to be a pro-wrestler,” he recalled.
Failing his WWE medical in 2016 was a complete disappointment. Cruz said: “[WWE] was the end goal. I’d had this pathway laid out in my mind. It took me ten years to do and something out of my control ended it.”
It forced Nathan to reconsider his life as a pro-wrestler. A dream-crushing moment that killed a decades-long ambition. “In 2017, I was thinking ‘Do I still want to wrestle?’, because there are other options out there and I had to figure that out.”
Ebbs and Flows
Cruz was offered a New Generation Wrestling (NGW) full time contract in 2018, providing him “financial security” without having to move away from his hometown of Hull.
He said: “I look back on that now and think that it was probably the best time of my life, I just didn’t realise it at the time that it was everything I had dreamed of.”
The COVID-19 pandemic provided Nathan the break that he was looking for, but brought a sad end to his contract with NGW. The “reality started setting in” that he wasn’t earning money, forcing him to dwell on his failed WWE medical and retrain away from his dream.
“I’d started wrestling again in 2021, but not as a full-time wrestler. I was doing other jobs, I became a painter-decorator…that wasn’t what I was drawing on a piece of paper at 10 years old, dreaming of doing,” he said.
Adding: “I knew that if I hadn’t failed that [WWE] medical, I’d still be alright now. That was a big thing to deal with. You never want to let it go.
In 2022, one of his closest friends invited him out to the United States to do some DIY on his properties in North Carolina. That friend was FTR’s Cash Wheeler, who he had worked with in 2012 for All Star Wrestling.
Cruz said that it “saved me”, as it helped turn his life around from a downward spiral from the pandemic.
“You have to want it to be able to put your body through it. You have to enjoy it and love it, and it becomes this thing that you just love to do,” he said.
Nathan described what keeps him going during the moments in his career where he’s thought of quitting: “When it’s an aspiration from being a child, you just never want to let it go.”
World of Sport
One of Nathan Cruz’s career highlights was wrestling in ITV’s rebooted World of Sport. He wrestled alongside tag team partner and former Love Islander, Adam Maxted, before breaking up the team and coming out on the wrong end of a ‘Loser Leaves WOS’ match.
“I loved doing it, everyone was working as a team. Everyone wanted the whole product to succeed, but unfortunately ITV was just a bit too stubborn,” Cruz detailed. “They were adamant that they were going to edit it, and our guys from NGW had offered to at least be in the cutting room because we had edited wrestling for TV and we could help.”
He went on: “We got the premiere, they invited me and Adam Maxted, and they put on our match against Doug Williams and HD Drake. Afterwards the guy that edited it came to me and asked me what I thought, and I was like, ‘do you want me to be honest with you, or do you want me to lie?’ Alex Shane wasn’t happy with me for saying that.”
Cruz described the failure of WOS as a “disappointment”, pinning it on a number of factors including the editing of the show.
He added: “They just butchered it and I explained to them why. It was just such a shame because ultimately that was the show’s biggest criticism.”
The BritWres Boom
“It was a blast. I remember my schedule being so busy at that time. I was still working full-time at All Star, and I was working across Europe a lot,” Cruz recalled.
Nathan recalled a weekend he had wrestling in Northallerton (in the North East of England) on a Friday, flying over to Italy the day after for a show and then flying back to London with Mark Haskins for a PROGRESS event on the Sunday.
It paints the picture of a hectic time, where wrestling was in demand across Britain and Continental Europe.
During the boom, Cruz was PROGRESS Wrestling’s World Champion, winning the title in a one-night tournament at Chapter One. He remembered realising how big the promotion was going to be after wrestling just one match for them.
“You just knew instantly that it was going to be something. I really wanted to bring my A game,” he said.
He’s one of a rare few to have competed on day one that can still be seen electrifying the Camden crowds today.
Cruz added: “That’s one thing that can never be taken away from me, I was the first champion of that company, that went on to go such great things.”
Training The Future
In a career change, Nathan Cruz has cemented himself as one of the more well-known trainers in British wrestling, working with the likes of Scotty Rawk and Ace Matthews over recent years.
“It’s one of the most rewarding things.”
Cruz transitioned from assistant to head coach at NGW, before moving to British Wrestling Revolution (BWR), in Grimsby, once the pandemic brought with it the closure of Hull’s training school.
“It definitely makes you a better wrestler, because you are constantly analysing and thinking of psychology while you’re watching stuff back,” he added.
Pro-wrestling is not a world of constant highlights; British wrestling is no different. Nathan Cruz is a living testament of the good that can present itself from overcoming adversity with a bright outlook.
The Hull-born man chasing a childhood dream, willing to fight through the soul-crushing failure of his WWE medical and shape himself as one of the country’s most prominent trainers of the next generation.
You can follow Nathan Cruz on Twitter/X @Nathan_Cruz90
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