\n Chris Royals, 40, became a professional wrestler at 23 and now runs regular wrestling shows across the county.\n<\/p>\n
\n Coming from a Romany Gypsy family, he said boxing has always been part of his culture.\n<\/p>\n
\n His grandfather was a professional fighter who worked on the Boxing and Wrestling Booth for Ron Taylor.\n<\/p>\n
\n Chris Said: \u201cHe was no longer competing by the time I was born, but he still refed a little and gave a helping hand to local shows and clubs.”\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cI remember him and my father taking me to the Boxing and Wrestling Booth at Gloucester Fair.\n<\/p>\n
\n “It was the very first show I saw live, and I suppose the dream was installed in me then.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n Chris’ grandfather was called Byrom Royles and boxed professionally as Sammy Royals (Image: Chris Royals)\n<\/p>\n
\n His father was an amateur boxer, and there is a photograph of his great aunt sparring in the hop fields in the 1950s.\n<\/p>\n
\n Chris’ great aunt Alice (left), she wasn’t a boxer but it shows the culture of it in the family (Image: Chris Royals)\n<\/p>\n
Chasing the Dream<\/p>\n
\n Raised in Sutton St Nicholas and a former Aylestone School pupil, Chris said that although wrestling was what he loved most, there was no wrestling scene in Hereford at the time.\n<\/p>\n
\n He said: \u201cIt came to the Shire Hall once a year growing up. I went every time.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cAt 23 I decided to stop dreaming and start chasing my dream.”\n<\/p>\n
\n To do that, he travelled three hours by train to a weekend bootcamp in Swindon.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cOver three days I was put through it in the wrestling ring and frankly, I was terrible.\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cBut I still wanted it.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n Chris went on to wrestle across the UK, sharing the ring with major names and childhood heroes, appearing on television and radio and even featuring in a short film that premiered at a German film festival.\n<\/p>\n
Bringing Wrestling Home<\/p>\n
\n Chris’ next event is Saturday March 21 at the Richmond Club in Hereford (Image: Chris Royals)\n<\/p>\n
\n Eventually, he wanted to bring wrestling back to Hereford.\n<\/p>\n
\n After a modest show in the city, he aimed to build something bigger.\n<\/p>\n
\n He said: \u201cI learned to book shows there\u2019s an art and skill to it.\n<\/p>\n
\n “You can\u2019t just put two people in the ring and tell them to wrestle.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n Now, in 2026, his company PRIZE Wrestling runs sell\u2011out shows in Hereford, Leominster, Ledbury, Bromyard and Evesham, featuring a mix of local talent and top UK performers.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cI\u2019m not a millionaire and I\u2019ll never headline Wembley.\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cBut I get to wrestle in my hometown and train the next generation.\n<\/p>\n
\n “As far as I\u2019m concerned, I\u2019m living the dream.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chris Royals, 40, became a professional wrestler at 23 and now runs regular wrestling shows across the county.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":461029,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-461028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=461028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461028\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/461029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}