He was the 'daftie' grapple fan made into a cult hero by documentaries on Vice and BBC1. Now, the Scotsman with the leotard and the bumbag is being baked on cakes

East Kilbride’s Ballerup Hall is tucked under a 1960s civic centre made of enough concrete to give even noted brutalist fan Jonathan Meades pause. Slightly careworn, it feels like a school assembly hall, especially when packed with a couple of hundred kids and their equally excitable guardians. They’re here for a night of British Championship Wrestling, and they are seriously psyched.



There’s a misconception that British wrestling simply ceased to exist when World Of Sport stuck a fork in Giant Haystacks in the mid-80s. But it’s not only endured, it’s undergoing a Spandex-clad renaissance, powered by a zealous generation of young UK talent weaned on the hammy hubris of WWE but adding their own local flavour. Promotions such as Insane Championship Wrestling – a madcap, booze-friendly experience staged in darkened Scottish nightclubs – combine over-the-top personalities with down-and-dirty scrapping. The ICW is a turbosoap powered by Buckfast and banter. Tonight’s BCW show is family-friendly, so there’s no blood and no booze, though the tuck shop is doing brisk business. Fans both young and old shriek when ICW giant Jack Jester walks out for his bout with the implacable stride of a goth Terminator and a giant iguana perched on his shoulder. But the biggest roar of the night comes when a slightly wonky version of Like A Prayer starts up over the PA, and a doughy guy in a leotard with “GRADO” on the front begins a surprisingly twinkle-toed walk-up.

“IT’S YERSEL!” shouts the crowd. “IT’S YER-SEL! IT’S YER-SEL!” The delirious reaction is business-as-usual for Grado, a self-proclaimed “daftie” who in just three years has risen from grappling megafan to UK wrestling’s lucky mascot. Despite not looking much like the ripped WWE stereotype, Grado became a cult star after being featured in Vice’s 2012 documentary The British Wrestler. “I thought Vice were going to be taking the piss,” he tells me later. “But they came along to ICW and were blown away. They realised this was actually pretty cool.”

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Earlier this year, Grado and Jack Jester starred in BBC1 documentary Insane Fight Club, which exposed the eccentric world of ICW to a bewildered audience of wrestling newbies. Promotions across the country reaped the benefit of wrestling’s biggest TV exposure in years, while Grado’s patter and in-ring gift for physical comedy make him the closest thing the scene has to a genuine crossover star.

He’s also relatable, the fan who conquered the ring on his own terms. “I got into wrestling quite late, just when I was going to secondary school,” he says. “It wasn’t really the physical side I was into; it was mainly the music, the lights, the smoke. My favourite wrestlers were never the technical guys. I was into The Rock, the larger-than-life characters.” While “Grado” may essentially be an exaggerated version of 26-year-old Graeme Stevely – “I like a laugh and a carry-on, it’s just an amplified version of me” – the character has certain signifiers: a personalised baseball cap, a faithful bumbag. But his rallying call overshadows everything else.

In his earliest promos for the ICW, Grado would say “it’s yersel!” in an attempt to ingratiate himself with other wrestlers. Now it follows him everywhere. Fans shout it at him in the street, at petrol stations, in nightclubs. “It was never even meant to be a catchphrase, it was just something I would say.” He realised how big it had become when he started seeing it daubed on manky white vans. “I obviously think it’s cool but a wrestler pal of mine hates it. He was in a pub the other day and asked what the Wi-Fi password was and the guy was like, ‘I-T-S-Y-E-R-S...’”

In the Ballerup Hall, Grado’s BCW opponent is Noam Dar, a cocksure heartthrob in tiny trunks. Their bout is a frantic series of slaps, pratfalls and low blows. At one point, Grado squeezes himself into the front row of the audience. “Just need to catch my breath,” he says. “My hayfever’s bad the night.” The fight ends with Dar being disqualified, and he bites Grado on the shoulder in protest. There are screams of “SUAREZ!” as Grado pulls down the strap of his leotard to display the evidence.



Afterwards, he breaks things down for me. “Me and Noam have wrestled a good few times so we know each other’s style and can do a lot of things on the fly,” he says. Obviously the fights are storylined, but it’s up to the wrestlers to make them sing, selling every body blow and turnbuckle hit. Grado works off the crowd. “All I’m doing is listening to them,” he says. “You can be in a choke-hold ready for your fire-up, your comeback, but if the crowd are no there with you, if they’re not chanting your name, it’s not worth it. You have to wait for the crowd to want it.”

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Hurricane Grado continues after the show. A line of excited punters wait to have posters signed by Grado and Jester. Someone gifts him a box of cream cakes. There are a lot of smartphone pics – it’s yerselfies – and perhaps a surprising amount of women. Are there many wrestling groupies? Grado shakes his head. “Someone tweeted me a picture of a birthday cake with a picture of me on it for some 23-year-old girl and my bird was like: ‘Do you know this lassie?’ I tried to explain…” So Grado has become part of pop culture, the equivalent of getting a Ninja Turtles cake? “Mebbe more like Mr Blobby.”

He’s kept up his day job in a call centre, but even before the success of Insane Fight Club, Grado was getting bookings all over the UK, wrestling every weekend. He’s also guest-starred in a couple of TV pilots. Is acting something he would properly pursue? “Mate, it would be great to be the Hulk Hogan of British wrestling and do Mr Nanny or something like that. Or just Grado: The Movie.” What would the plot be? “Something to do with my bumbag. I lose it and have to find it again.”

The ICW is gearing up for an ambitious series of shows in Edinburgh during the fringe, but before that Grado has his own Pro Wrestling Elite headlining event: Gradomania. It’s close enough to his hometown of Stevenston to be considered a triumphant homecoming. “It’s my first big title show outside ICW,” he says. “It’s pretty cool, man. But the guy I’m wrestling is about 20 stone and a big scary bastard. That’s actually his nickname: ‘The Bastard’ Dave Mastiff.” So what’s the plan? “I’m going to the gym tomorrow,” says Grado. “I’m working on my cardio cos I’ll need to be able to run away from him.”

Gradomania is at the Town Hall, Ayr on 19 Jul; the ICW: Everything’s Coming Up Milhouse series is at Studio 24, Edinburgh on 3, 10, 17 & 24 Aug