THE TWO SHEDS REVIEW by Julian Radbourne
E-mail: twosheds316@aol.com
Websites: www.twoshedsreview.com & www.myspace.com/twosheds316
It was in April 2001 that I first took notice of Roy Bevis, the Zebra Kid. Since then I’ve followed his career with great interest, both at close range and long distance, and his career hit the heights and then the lows following two prison sentences. Which is why I was eager to see the latest in the World Association of Wrestling Shoot Interview series – Zebra Kid: Stiff as F**k.
Filmed shortly after the King of Europe tournament in Liverpool, Roy was more than willing to give his views on a wide range of subjects, how he got started in the business, who his early influences were, and his early days in the business.
He then skips forward a few years and talks at length about his time with the now-defunct Frontier Wrestling Alliance, who at the time were the biggest and most publicised wrestling promotion in Britain. Roy tells of how he wasn’t accepted by the FWA faithful at first, but soon earned their praises on his ring performances alone.
Roy also discuss other topics during his time in the wrestling business, such as working for promoters such as All-Star’s Brian Dixon, Scott Conway’s The Wrestling Alliance, as well as Jake the Fake’s infamous tribute shows. He also discusses the perceived problems he was meant to have had with Doug Williams and Chris Hero, as well as what really happened when he first met Davey Richards at the King of Europe tournament.
But it is the discussion about his personal problems which most fans will probably be interested in. Although he doesn’t talk about events in accurate detail, he is more than willing to admit that he had a drink problem, which led to the other personal problems in his life, and the crimes that saw him serve two prison sentences, one of which he’s still serving.
Roy Bevis comes across as the charming individual everyone who’s met him knows him to be, and it’s a joy to see him trying to put his personal problems behind him as he first tries to straighten out his personal life, before moving on to his professional life. It’s a joy to see Roy talk about the wrestling business again with passion, and with a smile on his face.
However, although this interview makes for good viewing, I couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed with certain aspects.
Firstly, the interviewer. The man posing the questions was none other than Roy’s father, “Rowdy” Ricky Knight, and while he is without a doubt the foremost expert on the career of the Zebra Kid, I feel that it would have made for a more enjoyable interview if an impartial interviewer had been asking the questions, instead of a member of the family. In almost all of the other shoot interviews I’ve seen, the interviewers haven’t been afraid to ask more searching and sometimes controversial questions.
While the interview itself was fine, it just didn’t seem to have any sort of flow to it. Most of the shoot interviews I’ve watched start with the beginning of the interviewee’s career, moving along to the present day. Although Ricky’s questions began with the early part of Roy’s career, he quickly jumped to questions about his FWA career and his XPW appearance, leaving out what I would have considered important questions such as his title wins in WAW. Indeed, questions about his ladder match with Jody Fleisch at the first Fightmare show in 2001 are left to the very end.
Lastly, the interview doesn’t actually last that long, clocking in at just over an hour. A little disappointing when you consider others are happy to talk about their careers for up to four hours.
But despite these disappointments, this interview is well presented, and it’s good to see that Roy Bevis, the Zebra Kid, is finally back on the road that will lead to where he truly belongs.
With thanks to Ricky Knight for supplying a copy of this release. To order your copy, log onto the WAW website at www.waw-uk.com.
