Roberts to headline HIW show

High Impact Wrestling rumbles back into the Legion Hall in Yorkton next Friday (Dec. 16), and heel Rex Roberts will be among the headliners.

The branding iron-brandishing Roberts, born and raised in Regina, said wrestling has long intrigued him because "it's been good to me."

"It's the action, the interaction with the fans the physicality and the challenge," he told Yorkton This Week. "I went to a wrestling school in Regina in 1996. The school had a lot of problems and closed quickly. It taught me the very basics and a small group of us kept at it. I learned the rest on the job, in the ring. One of the other guys from that school, Charles Pichette, went on to open HIW and the two of us opened the promotions school and trained dozens of wrestlers from not only Canada but Europe as well."

When asked what the hardest part of wrestling was, Roberts had an interesting take on the question.

"Wrestling is easy, it's everything else that is hard, getting bookings, traveling town to town; sometimes 800 km between shows, keeping in ring shape while on the road and finding a decent meal," he said.

Roberts is a veteran of HIW, supporting the local promotion, but he also wrestles in other locales.

"I take bookings with other promotions across Canada but HIW has always been my home promotion," he said.

While Roberts loves the action in the ring, he said fans are attracted to wrestling for different reasons.

"The nice thing about wrestling is there is something for everyone," he said. "Some come for the frustration release, some come to interact with the wrestlers, some come for the sport of it and others for the storylines.

"Yet others come to see big strong burly muscle-men like me."

And while HIW may be a smaller, provincial promotion, Roberts said it has given him many highlights in his career.

"Three heavyweight titles, five-time provincial championship and a tag title, it's nice to know the promotion thinks enough of you to carry those titles or put you in big matches like the first cage match in Saskatchewan in over 20-years (vs. Principal Pound)," he said, "Or working with wrestlers who have been there and done that like Gangrel, Brutus Beefcake, Bad News Brown, Kamala, Honkytonk Man, Cuban Assassin, Bushwackers, Billy Gunn and tons more."

And now that action comes to Yorkton, said Roberts.

"All the people of Yorkton can come and see my next highlight, save up your 15 bucks and plop it down on Friday December 16th and watch me drive that chicken &$%#@%, Bull Bodnar out of wrestling for good."

Advance tickets for the Yorkton show are available at the Legion office.