Photo credit: @stepstoolsarahx
Anakin Murphy has been turning heads with his unique look and matches in the past year and is sure to be someone to keep an eye on in 2022. Anakin has been making a name for himself in the Midwest in promotions like ZOWA, Anna Fight Underground, New Wave Pro and Zero 1 USA. He is someone who will step in the ring with anyone and can exchange holds or strike with any opponent. I asked Anakin about his career so far and what may be next for him.
Anakin started off doing a lot of backyard wrestling. About the beginning of his wrestling career and his training he says. “It started out with just my nephew doing stuff until my dad took us to a local indie show and I realized that local wrestling existed. So I invited more friends to do backyard wrestling and when I turned 16 I went right to a wrestling school. I credit a lot of my training to Roy Lewis. He’s a wrestler out of Hannibal, MO. Roy was always there right by my side in every drill and always took the time to teach. I credit literally 90% of any credibility I have in wrestling to him.” He says that his biggest influences growing up were CM Punk and Jeff Hardy, but whenever he started wrestling it was Connelly and Victor Analog that he really looked up to.
Anakin’s look and demeaner in the ring is very emo and he says that that has always been the only look or gimmick that he has ever had. When I asked him about his style he said, “I like emo culture a lot. So, a lot stems from that in terms of my look and demeanor.” In regards to some influences of his style he said, “I love strike based wrestlers so I try to emulate a lot of them. Sami Callihan probably being the one I study the most for in-ring stuff and Jimmy Jacobs for everything else.” Whenever you watch Anakin wrestle you can definitely see an influence of those 2 wrestlers, but he takes a little bit of each of them and then combines it with his own personality to make what you see in the ring. He has a phrase that he goes by, “there is no hope” and said that he feels that is exactly what goes through people’s heads whenever a match of his starts, largely due to his size, so he says that he just carries that phrase with him.
Anakin had a great year in 2021 and I would recommend checking out some of his matches if you have not yet. I asked him about some of his favorite matches and his favorite place to wrestle and he said, “I think the match that things really clicked for me at was myself VS. Gary Jay at Anna Fight Underground in February. Almost all of my matches in AFU are some of my favorites. Also, myself VS. Victor Analog at St. Louis Anarchy is also really fun to look back on. My favorite crowd to wrestle in front of is undoubtedly St. Louis Anarchy.” In regards to what was the biggest change for himself since he started he states that his confidence is the biggest difference. He states that he is a lot more confidence in pretty much everything wrestling related now.
As Anakin Murphy as been getting more attention and getting bigger matches, I asked him what the difference is between him and the character he portrays. He stated, “Anakin Murphy is really sad and angry all the time. Joseph is a lot more calm and generally happy. I have a really sick life with some really sick people in it.” While Anakin is enjoying his rise and all they great matches that he has had he doesn’t really have any specific goals and is going with the “whatever happens, happens” mentality, as he knows he is going to love 2022 whenever he looks back at it a year from now.
Anakin is starting the year at New Wave Pro with a very big match against Ace Perry. This has been a very heated rivalry that has lasted 6 months. Anakin says that he wants to take out Ace and take his spot. To do this Anakin says that he will need to do things that he has never done before, so this match will be a hardcore match. Anakin had been obsessed with getting a singles match with Ace and that match came at Off the Grid in September. In this match Anakin may have been a little too obsessed with hurting Ace instead of winning the match. He took the fight to Ace, but once Ace got the advantage Anakin got frustrated and hit him with a steel chair, causing himself to be disqualified. He then handcuffed Ace to the ropes and tried to use a spike on him. Then at November Reign, Ace was fighting Aaron Williams and Anakin was suspended, but Anakin found a way in the building and distracted Ace long enough for Aaron to get the win. Their next match will be on January 22 at New Wave Pro’s 10th Anniversary show, which should be one of, if not their best, shows to date and NWP is definitely a company to keep an eye on if you have not seen their shows before.
You can find Anakin Murphy on Twitter at @anakinsadmurphy
Also, check out his matches from Anna Fight, New Wave Pro, ZOWA, Zero1 USA and more at IWTV.