Bryan Danielson has compared the feeling of wrestling in Arena Mexico to wrestling in Butlins.
We’ve previously written about Bryan Danielson’s tale from Butlins. He said that he would have wrestled there for the rest of his life, if the money was still in British wrestling.
Sadly, he was forced to go back to the US to become the greatest wrestler of all time.
It was clear that he loved Butlins. However, nobody expected him to compare the dour holiday camp to the rabid fans at Arena Mexico.
Bryan Danielson spoke with Gorilla Position, and the topic of his time in England came up.
The American Dragon revealed that Arena Mexico crowd had a similar vibe to the Butlins crowd, but on a larger scale. I’m not sure if comparing the iconic Mexican arena to a ballroom full of families is a compliment or an insult, but Bryan Danielson seems to love them both.
“Arena Mexico was unlike anything I’ve ever—it’s um, I talk a lot about how much I love wrestling at Butlin’s, right? You know, I was actually—the guy who picked me up from the airport, he was a wrestling fan, and he asked me if I’d ever been to the UK or how much time I’d spent there or whatever.”
“I said, ‘Oh, I spent a lot of time there just doing the Butlin’s loops for six months in 2003,’ and all that kind of stuff.”
“But it’s crazy because the Butlin’s fans, they were great, so into it. And Arena Mexico—not that it was a Butlin’s crowd—but it felt like, ‘Oh man, this is that energy but sold out.’ You know?”
“The first one we did, I did two at Arena Mexico, and the first one was sold out. The next one was just shy of a sellout. But it was a singles match against Blue Panther, who’s my favorite luchador, and it was just kind of a dream come true. You know, the whole thing just felt surreal.”
Bryan Danielson: British Holiday Camps Got Me Comfortable In Spandex
Bryan Danielson continued. He spoke about how the format of the show holiday camp shows, booked by Brian Dixon, would go. They would wrestle for whatever time was allotted, which could mean he wrestled for an hour and a half in front of a largely apathetic crowd of children and parents.
“We did a holiday camp near Bognor Regis called Selsey. They started the wrestling run before many people would get to Selsey, so the first couple of weeks, there were only four people in the crowd, just kind of watching like, ‘What am I doing here?’
They booked it for time, so they told Brian Dixon that it had to fill up an hour and a half, even if there were only two matches on the show. You had to go out there and wrestle in front of four people for a long time.
It was a lot of fun and a really good learning experience. It gets you more comfortable being in spandex underwear in front of strangers.”
