Spotlight on Big Game Leroy w/ Don Halliwell

Big Game Leroy is one of those wrestlers who will put a smile on your face as soon as his music comes on. Whether you are a child at your first wrestling show or have been to hundreds of wrestling shows Leroy will always keep your attention and keep you entertained. He comes out with his Nintendo Switch in his hands and will continue to play it during his match until his opponent gets frustrated or he loses control of it.

Leroy was trained by The Amazing Red and began his wrestling career in 2015. In the beginning of his career, he was mostly working for House of Glory and CZW’s Dojo Wars shows, but in the past 3 years he has really broken out and made a name for himself. Leroy has been a regular in Invictus Pro, Pizza Party Wrestling and Wrestlers’ Laboratory. In Invictus he was the inaugural Social Media Champion and held on to that title for over a calendar year, defeating such names as Killian McMurphy, Mr. Grim, Kennedi Copeland and Danhausen.

During this time, he has not only kept busy with his matches, but he is also helping mold the future wrestlers in NYC by being one of the trainers at the T2T Academy, which has been putting out some of the most talented and entertaining young wrestlers in the Northeast. I had a chance to ask Big Game Leroy some questions about his career, video games and training.

I have mostly seen you as your current character, the fun-loving video game player. Has that always been your character or how has it evolved?

Yeah, I initially started off as the youngboy for Cashflow Ken Broadway so I followed in a lot of his direction early on when I broke in from 2015-2016, but pretty much after that I usually kept up a very down to earth nerdy fun loving energy. One of my first year iterations was me wearing adventure time legging’s for crying out loud haha. It’s continued to evolve since then but I think the overall feeling I’ve wanted people to have when they see me perform hasn’t changed much.

You started your career working for House of Glory and the CZW Dojo Wars shows. Can you tell us a little about your early years and what you learned from those experiences

Yeah it was hard grueling work. I used to train essentially all day especially those first 3 years when I was there literally every Tuesday and Thursday(and extra days if they’d let me sometimes). Beginner class would start at 4 and I would ask to stay longer to watch the advanced class so I could study and learn, once I was about 4/5 months in they started letting me do some more advanced stuff so then I was training from 4pm till whenever they wanted to close up (could vary from 8 or 9pm maybe later if the neighbors didn’t complain too much about the noise lol). Those days were pretty great even if I can note now how nuts it is on paper. But to a lot of us HOG students that’s just what we know/knew good training to be. Man as for the Dojo Wars shows that was essentially my feelings of paying dues. The crowds were usually not too huge, didn’t get paid, had to wrestle in the middle of the week, and I was wrestling other students or essentially people the same skill level as me. But it was consistent work and footage of it was always posted on YouTube within the next week so that was what mattered to me most. I met and bonded with so many cool people who I used to see like every week like Boom Harden, Gabe Skye, Dominic Denaro, the whole young Dumb n Broke crew and too many others to name. We all just wanted to do good and have the best matches and it was really helpful to be around such a positive young bunch.

You are one of the trainers at the T2T academy in NYC. How did you become a trainer and how do your methods of training differ from how you were taught?

Yes, crazy how fast it feels the full circle comes haha. I initially signed on with the idea of it being a temporary thing because some of the other trainers had to move and were no longer able to consistently teach but after about like 3 months I genuinely fell in love with teaching and helping mentor younger people. A lot of people talk about how to help wrestling and “fix” the business but to truly do that it takes work on the ground level with the next generation. I feel like I’m apart of that now. How it’s different? Haha well there’s no longer 6 hour training days. And the way we want to enforce more of the principles of old school wrestling philosophies is different. We’re not here to be demonstrative or put down people for not getting it. We’re just offering them the tools to be great and grow. What they do after that and who they be is on them. I think having the conversations as well and being direct with how you want them to behave and carry themselves is also big and I like that, that’s a focus on as well.

You are in a feud with Max Zero in Wrestlers’ Lab right now. What is the most annoying thing about Max?

He’s such a freaking narcissist, everything is about him and getting attention back on him. Feel like that’s the whole reason he started all this with me anyways. But I’ll keep it short and save the rest of what I wanna say for when I see him again next.

You are always carrying your Twitch to the ring with you, and you sometimes play it while you wrestle. What are your favorite games to play while you wrestle and has the Switch ever been broken during a match?

Sometimes feels like an understatement hahahaha, my go to’s are usually Mario Kart and Smash Ultimate. Very easy to slip into those games and have a good time while I’m in the ring. Sometimes if I wanna get in the zone and focus on a particular head space for a specific match I’ll play something more specific for the opponent. And definitely not from a lack of trying for some of my opponents, my switch has not been broken, it’s the same exact one I’ve had since 2017. Replaced a few joycons but that’s because of drift not necessarily anything from my matches.

You have wrestled in quite a few no ring matches. The one that I saw you wrestle in Pittsburgh was in the middle of a concert. Do you go into a match differently knowing that most of the people there are not there to see wrestling?

I most certainly have tons of fun with my no ring matches as I think it’s a different kinda vibe then a ringed match and show. I usually go into most matches with the energy of hey maybe not everyone here knows me and it’s my job to show them everything I’m about and give them a good time. Whether they’re a hardcore wrestling fan, or just a hipster at a bar trying to have a good time.

What would you say has been your favorite moment in your wrestling career so far and do you have any goals for the upcoming year?

Man there’s too many. Seriously I mean that to say I’m blessed with that. I think the moment with Low Ki playing Street Fighter with me in a wrestling match has to be up there(me winning of course please don’t tell him I said that though). Debuting for EVOLVE in 2019 and wrestling at La Boom were real cool for me on more personal career accomplishments ways because I’m a huge indie nerd and EVOLVE was one of the biggest indies period. Winning the INVICTUS social media title and beating Robert Martyr are also up there for sure and need to be mentioned as well. I’ve been blessed to have a lot of goals this year checked off but I think for next year it’s definitely wrestling in the west coast(if you’re reading this and want me over there tell the companies to reach out!) and also just continuing to have matches that aren’t just good but make people feel something. I feel like I accomplished a lot of that this year in small bursts and now I just want to make that the constant always. Oh and of course wrestle an entire match playing my switch has been the goal since day 1 but I still haven’t been able to do it ugh.

What is next for Big Game Leroy and are there any games that are coming out soon that you are excited to play?

What’s next is pretty fun! Lots of wrestling in NYC in November which is exciting as the scene was really messed up and in flux because the pandemic and has only recently really been getting better with more good shows running more consistently. I’m wrestling We Are Wrestling November 4th in the Bronx and then returning to the Bronx yet again for Invictus Pro Wrestlings Unconquered Cup on November 13th! You can also catch me on Project Codename November 11th representing team We Are Wrestling for The Escape from New York Tournament! Now onto the games! Super intrigued by the New Pokémon game, still gotta jump into Splatoon 3, definitely getting the new God of War on day one, and I’m very excited for Breath of the Wild 2 next year!!! Gaming inspires my wrestling so the more great games the bigger the game in “Big Game” you’re all gonna see!