Gregg Jones fulfils dreams of wrestling 

After growing up watching the Undertaker and other Superstars of Wrestling, Barbados’ Gregg Jones has been able to fulfil one of his childhood dreams of being able to participate in something similar. The 32-year-old Jones got the opportunity to try professional wrestling while in the USA to further his studies.

The WWE style wrestling, which has been a childhood love of his, never left him as he got older and when the opportunity came up he was happy to accept the challenge and was able to cross it off his ‘Bucket list’. “It was all that I expected and a bit more,” said Jones when The Barbados Advocate caught up with him.  

“You would think that there isn’t much that goes into what people call a ‘fake fight’ but there is so much psychology behind it… the athleticism is a major part of it,” he added.

He hopes to be able to bring it to Barbados to get people that might potentially be interested in that type of wrestling to get a chance to experience it live. With a background in Karate, Jones was able to train in the sport for six months, where he learnt that cardio is completely underrated.

“When I attempted what I thought was going to be easy for me – it just blew me right up. So that experience alone gave me tons of respect for the current athletes, it taught me discipline, it taught me self-control because you are literally trying to show people that are watching that this is a real fight and get them to buy in to it; both from the athletic side of it and the storyline side of it,” Jones said.

His martial arts background helped him a lot in grasping the combat element of the sport, in making a punch or a kick look real.

After his experience, he says that an invitation for him to return to the training has been extended and he hopes that someone from an unlikely place like Barbados can be pushed to see how far they can go. Now he is back home he is hoping to expose people to it and hopefully open an academy for training to build the sport on the island.

“It is not as inaccessible as people may think it is and anyone can do the sport, which is driven on people’s personalities and characters which are unique to people and there are a lot of characters and athletic people in Barbados that may like the chance to show the world what they can do,” Jones said.

He hopes he can open the door for others here and hopes that they can go on and do better. Currently there are no dedicated facilities for training but he is in the process of getting some wrestling rings built and is interesting in joining forces with boxing, mixed martial arts and other combat disciplines to form an academy of combat sports that everyone can come together and get involved in it – in the Caribbean or worldwide. Jones remarked,

“No matter how unbelievable or far-fetched your dreams may be just go after it… just go after your goals and go after your dreams!”