My name's Gavin Watkins, but you might know me as Flash Morgan Webster.
I'd worked my entire life for this moment.
It was a qualifying match for the WWE's Cruiserweight Classic.
When I was in there, we were one of the best in the world.
It quickly turned into one of the worst days of my life.
I come from a small Welsh town called Bramow.
There used to be loads of mines there, loads of steelworks, but they kind of closed in
the 1980s and 1990s, and nothing kind of really took its place from there.
I was brought mainly by my mum and my grandparents, never went without, never knew that we were
as poor as we were.
I remember getting a fine when I was around about 14 for dropping a litter, I didn't
need only £25, but I know that my mum had to lend the money off my grandparents and
I think that was the first time I really realised how not well off we were, but she never ever
let us know that.
She kind of sheltered us from that part of the world really.
As a child, I was probably a bit of an awful, I was really bubbly, really excitable, just
wanted to be the centre of attention, and I think that probably shows why I went into
pro wrestling, but I was always a good kid, I did well in school, and wasn't that naughty.
I always loved to perform, I can remember going to Butlins with my mum and just loved
being on stage and messing around and playing.
We used to go for two weeks with my nan and grandad, and I had no problem getting up on
the stage or dressing up or being a part of any of the games or the shows that the red
coach used to put on.
Yes, you always liked dressing up as a youngster, we used to enter into competitions.
Won loads of trophies for coming first, so you've always liked dressing up, very flamboyant.
I come from the same town as Adrian Street, so growing up, Evan would mention Adrian
Street as this wrestler from the 70s, 80s that got out of my town, and they always loved
talking about that, so it always had wrestling around me, but as I got older, I remember
seeing Stone Cold Steve Austin and just having my mind blown by this.
What I loved about wrestling as a kid was the theatrics of it, I just loved all these
different characters and how big and how exotic it was, and it was like nothing I'd ever
seen before.
So I remember my friend Dan coming up to me in year 9 or 10 and saying, you like wrestling,
well my friend Mike Hitchman has a ring in his back garden, I remember being so excited
about this and being like, 100% come down.
When I first met Mike Hitchman, I think he'll tell you that I was something like anyone
he'd ever met.
I was crazy, he was mad, he was just a ball of energy running around.
Let's get on with the first match, the first match is the Troll Threat, the internet championship.
Every Saturday around 10, 11 o'clock, there'd be phone calls going round, oh, wrestling
the day, wrestling the day, yeah, great, and we'd just try, you know, I watched his music
video yesterday, I want to try this move, I want to try this flip, see if I can do this.
He was really easy to throw around, which made everyone want to wrestle him because
he could take all our moves, you know.
He always wanted to be creative and do different things and he was the high flyer then.
One of the pillars, well, for Flash, Gav, that was the top rope, that's where all the
boys were learning to flip if they wanted to flip, I never did, but they all wanted
to flip off it, and that's where Gav learned to 450 off that.
Like I love being in the back yard, I absolutely, like, I adored it.
Wrestling kind of became my life for the next three or four years, I just wanted to wrestle
everywhere, that was from social clubs to carnivals to bingo halls everywhere, and it was just
me kind of trying to get those opportunities and trying to learn as much as I possibly
could.
I was just a clean cut high flyer, I just tried to be your average good guy really with some
creativity and some style and class thrown in.
So I looked at myself, I looked at the clothes I liked to wear, I looked at the music I liked
to listen to, and I thought I really need to start incorporating that into Morgan Webster,
the wrestler.
I think developing the character of the Mord Father kind of really helped, because I wasn't
just a high flyer, I wasn't just another wrestler, the Mord scene gave me an identity, it was
something that really engaged with the fans, and I realised that I was really starting
to build up momentum and pick up a fan base, and that's kind of where the Mord Father came
from, it's me and as corny as it sounds, with the volume turned right up.
I've been wrestling for about 6 years, had some opportunities, wrestled in America, wrestled
in Italy, wrestled everywhere really, it's kind of thinking what's next, where do I
go from here.
My phone just started going crazy, and I remember looking down and seeing that WWE had tagged
me in something, and it was that they'd announced that I was going to be a part of one of the
Cruiserweight Classic qualifier matches.
I'd kind of pivoted my whole life around wrestling, at this point it just kind of made it all
worth it, just that one of the biggest companies in the world not only knew who I was but wanted
me involved in one of their first ever Cruiserweight Classic qualifier matches, it really just
made the world of me.
The following contest is a WWE Global Cruiserweight Series British Qualifier!
The match started off better than it ever could, we exchanged some tie ups and lock ups,
a bit of mat wrestling, they were showcasing him but also showcasing me at the same time.
Then I jumped to the second rope and took a kick off Sabre, as he kicked my ankle, he
must have just caught a sweet spot, and as I point my ankle just went completely numb.
Thought that it was maybe just a twist or maybe I just, I don't know, kind of hurt it
a little bit, I just felt like I had to carry on.
There's a point in the match then where I do three dives, one through the bottom, one
through the middle, one over the top.
I don't know which one it was but one of them, I hit the crunch again and that was the second
fracture of my ankle.
Unfortunately the ankle wasn't going to be the end of that story, there's a part where
I take a tiger suplex of Zack Sabre Jr. A couple seconds later then I attempted a shooting
star press because I couldn't push off that left ankle, I landed on my shoulder and that's
what completely innately popped it up the socket.
I think at this point with my ankle and my shoulder completely shot, I just went into
water pilot.
I just thought I need to get through this match, I need to finish this match.
When the match finally ended, I remember just being really like disappointed in myself
because I got hurt but at the same time I felt like I hadn't been able to live up to
the expectations of myself and also the expectations of what I knew the fans wanted from me and
just kind of being led on the floor, feeling completely deflated because it was the biggest
match of my career and I let everybody down and let myself down.
I also kind of knew that I was probably going to be the last time and the long time that
I was ever going to step inside the professional wrestling ring.
Being injured kind of takes away your independence.
I went from being really active to not being able to dress myself or cook for myself after
eating meals that were pre-made for me, it was just really hard.
To go from wrestling three or four times a week and being in the gym five times a week
to just sitting in my house doing nothing with my only outlet being social media was
probably more painful than the actual injury itself but after seeing the doctor I kind
of quickly realised that I needed an MRI and an half a gram to find out what was really
going on inside the shoulder and potentially the shoulder was going to be a bigger problem
than the ankle ever was.
When I first arrived at Stuck Hospital they were fantastic, they turned what was a really
scary day into as comforting as possible and met with a physician and he explained what
the half a gram entailed and what the MRI was going to do.
So an half a gram is where they pop you in a gown, they inject into the back of your
shoulder with some dye and then they x-ray so they're able to see then where the dye
goes and if there's any breaks or any leaks in cartilage and ligaments.
After that then I went and had an MRI which was probably more painful than the half a
gram just because I had to sit still for what felt like an eternity and anyone who knows
me will tell you I don't like sitting still at all.
I was hoping that I'd probably get some cloudy on the day but unfortunately it's not as
simple as that so it was just a waiting game then to get the results and find out what the
next step was.
While I was waiting for those results it was important for me not just to keep busy and
stay relevant but also stay in touch and connect with the fans so that's where I came up with
the idea of putting together a DVD bundle with some of my best matches and exclusive
goodies that I could sell onto the fans, keep in touch with them and also help myself financially
while I was unable to wrestle.
The amount of things he's had to do in his time off like his podcast, his promo work
and just still making an effort to show up to shows, to show his face to everyone and
to be a name in wrestling without actually being in a ring that's a harder lesson to
learn than how to learn how to wrestle.
So although at first it seems like a travesty that he got injured it might actually be a
blessing in disguise and I know that his comeback is going to be huge and I know that when he
does come back he's going to be bigger than ever and the fans are going to be so much
more excited to see him than they ever were before.
So I got the call from Stafford Hospital they wanted me to come in and see the surgeon.
From there I found out that I had a partially torn rotator cuff and a full tear of the labrum
and it meant that I was going to have to have to show the surgery.
To be honest I was trying to talk myself out of surgery up until the moment they put the
gas and air on my face but deep down I knew that all I've ever wanted to be was a wrestler
and without the surgery I wasn't going to be able to be a wrestler anymore.
So I knew it was something I had to have done and that was that.
Had surgery yesterday, I feel a bit drowsy but pain's in the control, I finally got some
feeling back in my hand.
It was no more last night but yeah I just spoke to the physio and the doctors, didn't
have to repay my rotator cuff which is great, just labrum so that means that recovery time
cuts in half because of that which is great but yeah I feel so a bit drowsy but the road
back to Malus starts you excited.
With the surgery being a success the next step then was the rehabilitation of my shoulder
and little did I know that this was probably going to be the hardest step of all.
So initially there wasn't a huge amount that we could do with Gavin because the surgeon
wanted him to be in a sling for six weeks just to let things heal and let things settle
but when we could get moving we were able to get Gavin actively moving his shoulder
and improving his range of movement.
Gavin tells you physio is going to be hard but trying to lift your shoulder above 90
degrees and it just stop in or you're not able to do it, it's just really tough.
Once his range of movement improved we were then able to work on his proprioception and
stability using water bottles just to counteract the muscle balance and get his muscles activating.
When asked to pick up a little bottle and try to lift it above your heads there's something
I thought I was going to be able to do as easy as pie but then you quickly kind of
realise how little strength you have in that shoulder and how far you still have yet to
go.
Now throughout the whole of the rehabilitation stage Gavin has been so disciplined and he's
been great at working away on those exercises which has made my job very easy and has helped
us to move smoothly on to the next stage of rehabilitation.
From being able to pick up little bottles then you move on to resistant bands where
you're working against your own body and try to build up the strength in that shoulder
really and then from there then you're able to do press ups.
You don't know it at the time but these baby steps are moving you closer and closer and
closer to finally being able to get back to where you belong.
After we introduced the bands we then progressed Gavin on to working in the gym.
When I was giving the old cleat to get back in the gym I was like a kid in the candy shop
I just wanted to do everything.
I thought that I kind of needed someone there to kind of rein me in a little bit and make
sure that I was doing everything properly so of course I got hitched to jump in the gym
with me and having hitched there to motivate and push me but also watch over me was great.
Every day is baby steps and eventually then you're told that you can start lifting properly
again and you can start doing your compound lifts and your workouts and that's when things
really get interesting because you really just want to see how much strength you've
lost in that shoulder.
You also kind of want to see how far you can push it and how strong you can make it again.
Gavin has worked so hard at getting to this stage and his shoulder is strong, he's feeling
confident and the program has been successful so fantastic that Gavin is now ready to get
back into the ring.
Caroline my physio tell me I could finally get back in the ring.
It was just really really exciting but also quite terrifying because I kind of wrapped
my shoulder up and caught a mole for the last 10 months but deep down I really couldn't
wait.
You don't want to run before you can walk, you don't want to be doing too much so again
I kind of made sure that I had hitched there and I had others that were around me to make
sure that I wasn't pushing myself too hard or I wasn't trying things that could potentially
hurt me again because I wasn't 100% at that point.
First step was getting in the ring and just running those ropes and I'll say right from
the start they're a lot harder than I ever remembered just like it just hurt in.
I think that's because I built up a resistance to it probably.
And then I took my first bump and I'm not afraid to say that it knocked the hell out
of me.
I didn't expect it to do so but again I think it's just I've been wrestling for the last
six years and those 10 months off completely just caught me off guard but as much as it
hurt I really, I loved it really.
It was great to finally get in the ring and run those ropes and bump but if I'm honest
this time out kind of realised that I want to kind of change a few things and shake it
up so one of the most exciting parts was being able to add a new move and try to try that
move out so I was really excited to finally hit the eating rifle.
The eating rifle kind of relies on me being able to push my body weight up and Hitch also
being able to control my body weight and come around and hit a reverse DDT so it was that
point when I finally hit that eating rifle and I hit it well that I knew that I really
wasn't that far away from being back in the ring.
Just getting there you know.
I'll be honest with you, I was stood behind the curtain and, of course, I didn't think
the curtain, and I was petrified, I was actually terrified because I was stood
behind the curtain, I was scared, I was afraid that nobody was really going to
care and my music was going to hit and it would get a few cheers but those last
ten months what I'd built up in my head wasn't going to be what was going to happen that night.
And then the first few bars within the city hits.
I've got goosebumps now talking about this except before it was amazing.
I walk through that curtain and just seeing the sea of people just kind of made those
last ten months totally worth it.
On that night Mark Haskins also made his return.
To stand on that stage with one of my good friends and look at that sea of people
to come back to what we absolutely love to do was amazing and the fact as well
that we were only doing that but we were coming to confront one of the biggest
groups of progress was completely magic.
I think I might have been up there 10-15 minutes remark but they felt like seconds.
And that'd be ten months of a build-up and the reaction from the crowd was utterly amazing.
They were absolutely incredible and I can't thank them enough for that.
And I just looked around and thought I'm back.
We just came through the curtain and I must have just hugged Mark about 10 or 12 times
because I was on just such a high and I was glad I got to share that experience
with one of my good friends and I never expected to get that reaction off the fans
and I was just so grateful for them fans not just remembering me
but just making that a moment I'll never ever forget.
I feel like since my journey began 10 months ago the British wrestling scene has changed.
The Cruiserick Classic was just the start.
It went from being that we were one of the best kept secrets in wrestling
to having the whole eyes of the world now on the British wrestling scene.
I feel that there's now opportunities to be a British wrestler without having to move abroad
or there's opportunities now to be a British wrestler and go and conquer the world.
So the question people ask me is what's next for Flash Mobile Webster?
I can't really give you a concise answer but I can tell you that now that the eyes of the world are on us
now the eyes of the world are on me no matter where I go or what I do next.
I'm going to tear it apart.
I'm going to tear it apart.
