Fife footballer who became a Japanese wrestling champion

Enter wrestling. Morris had been a fan since he was five years old, growing up idolising the WWE’s Kane character, he decided to begin training at a wrestling school in West Lothian.

His background in football, combined with 11 years as part of the Carnegie Spartans gymnastics display team, gave him the “ideal background” to pursue it as a career.

“Coming from football, I was always in good shape,” he said.

“Slamming yourself down on a wooden board is not something you do every day and running the ropes, I was going about with rope burns on my side.

“But it wasn’t a deterrent, I felt quite comfortable being in the ring and throwing myself around was exciting.”

He began emailing promotions across Scotland, competing for Glasgow-based Insane Championship Wrestling, but also targeted those further afield.

NOAH, Japan’s second-biggest men’s promoters behind New Japan Pro Wrestling, were among those to respond, inviting him to compete in their annual N-1 tournament in 2022.

Morris has since become a fixture in the company, winning the Global Honoured Crown (GHC) tag team champion alongside American Anthony Greene in September, before adding the GHC National Championship a month later.

He also earned a place on the card for the retirement show of Japanese legend Keiji Mutoh, better known as The Great Muta at the Dome.