‘No matter what, he doesn’t quit’: disabled wrestlers draw strength from ring alter egos | Derry

The music thumped, the lights blazed and from the ring the announcer did a countdown. “Who is ready to rumble?” he roared. The bellows and cheers indicated that the crowd at St Columb’s Hall in Derry on Saturday night was more than ready for the Foyle Rumble, and so began a wrestling extravaganza of heroes and villains in leotards, masks and kneepads.

The blend of athleticism and scripted storytelling would have been familiar to fans of WrestleMania, but this Northern Irish version came with a twist: many of the performers have learning or physical disabilities, and the characters they play in the ring do not quite stay in the ring.

They are part of an initiative that aims to sow confidence and resilience by teaching them to wrestle and to create stage personae – personae whose feats in the ring, it turns out, inspire them in real life.

“I’ve been slagged and made fun of because I was overweight and went to a special school but I’ve proved that I’m somebody,” said Keelan O’Hagan, 24, who has an alter ego called Kellio, before the show.

“He doesn’t step away from any challenge, he always accepts the mission. No matter what, he doesn’t quit,” said O’Hagan, who transformed his diet and fitness to play Kellio. “To anybody who has tried to bring me down, I’ve been able to get back on my feet and come back stronger.”

Brian Walsh, 44, who is blind, plays a character called Brian Brogue who vanquishes opponents with wrist locks and head locks and by pinning them to the floor. “Before, I wouldn’t have had the strength,” he said. “The training was scary at the start, then I got the hang of it. To be a blind person who does wrestling is the best thing ever.”

The Foyle Rumble is a joint initiative of the Tuned In Project, a Derry-based NGO that creates opportunities for disabled adults, and Complete Anarchy Wrestling (CAW), an event promoter based across the border in County Donegal.

The goal is to give disabled people more independence and agency, said Phil Conn, the Tuned In Project’s programme manager. “We challenge them to be the best they can be. It gives them purpose and a support community. It’s a reason to get out of bed in the morning.”

Participants train for months and know there is an element of real risk and danger, said Conn. “It’s a choreographed performance – if this was an actual fight, we couldn’t do it – but we’ve had students bruised and battered. The throws and hits have an impact.”

The inaugural rumble was in 2024, and Saturday was the third and most ambitious show, with hundreds of spectators and dozens of performers, including some without disabilities. There were smoke machines, dramatic entrances, elaborate stunts and a storyline that pitted the heroic characters against a black-clad entity called The Fault.

“It’s mad how far it has come,” said Sean Curran, of the Tuned In Project. “Wrestling is great. It’s basically your personality pushed up to 11. We’ve seen them grow in confidence and sort of become the characters.”

The idea originated when Curran, as best man at a friend’s wedding, hired Stephen Campbell, a gymnastics teacher and wrestling coach with CAW, to choreograph a stunt at the reception.

Campbell started to coach the Tuned In Project students, instructing them in moves, and discovered they had the ability and desire to create characters and to perform. “They got more talented and one thing led to another,” he said.

On Saturday, Campbell fired up the performers with a rousing speech before they entered the hall. “Tonight is your night,” he told them. “Fuck WrestleMania. They never had a blind wrestler.”

Kiernan McLaughlin, 27, who played a benign monarch known as King Kiernan, gave a shy smile. “I’m spearing somebody tonight,” he said.

SJ Murray, 25, who has a learning disability, admitted to nerves. “I’m petrified,” she said. However, her character, Siren, is fearless. “She’s a badass that is brave and protects the one that she loves.”

Murray has learned combat moves and studied wrestling theory and strategy. “You need stamina and to know what you’re doing,” she said. “My family think I’m mad but support me no matter what.”

On stage, Siren grappled foes who eventually fled the ring, only for their nemesis to fly over the ropes and topple them to the ground.