Slimmed down, pumped up
Meets Wilbur McDougall, star of a new documentary about gastric band surgery and wrestling.
Hamish McNeilly
Wilbur McDougall is a shadow of his former self, and he couldn’t be happier. In the past year he has bought a house, wrestled, fronted a band, and starred in a documentary where he confessed he was excited about seeing his entire penis.
His new view on life came thanks to a dramatic weight loss following gastric sleeve surgery in July 2016.
At his peak, the Dunedin man tipped the scales at 197kg. Now he’s 85kg lighter. Does he feel better?
‘‘My life has changed so much, it is ridiculous.’’
Now the 30-year-old is also the undisputed heavyweight star of new documentary: Wilbur: The King in the Ring.
Not bad for someone euphemistically described as a ’’chubby’’ kid by his mother (another star of the film), and much worse by strangers when he dared venture into town.
McDougall says he once read a quote from a fellow obese person who said he stopped getting drive-by heckles once his weight dropped to 160kg. ’’It’s like a barometer, I was exactly the same’’.
Now he doesn’t even get a second glance from hecklers, whom he used to report to police for ‘‘bad driving’’ to exact his revenge.
His weight ballooned once he left his family home and his mother’s cooking, and he spent years ‘‘eating crap food’’. It left him hating his own body and cost him his confidence around women.
But McDougall insists any attempts by the filmmaker to show him as the ‘‘sad, really depressed guy who stayed in his room’’ was met with a swift rebuke rather than a trademark wrestling piledriver or dropkick.
Some of the best moments of the documentary is the tension between McDougall’s best friend and director, J Ollie Lucks, who increasingly blurs the line between fact and fiction.
McDougall says he was in a vulnerable position at times, with those feelings amplified by the constant presence of cameras during the days he wasn’t at work.
A scene of him emerging from a swimming pool with ’’whale carcass’’ body complete with loose skin was one of those moments, he says.
McDougall admits he threatened to walk out on the documentary, after he caught Lucks planting junk food waste to make it look like his subject had relapsed.
‘‘I refused to go ahead with the filming until he admitted he did that.’’
And Lucks did admit it, with that omission and subsequent tension all caught on film.
The blurred lines between their friendship and the desire to make the documentary ’’wasn’t awesome, and it wasn’t fun’’.
‘‘I p...ed him off, and he p...ed me off.’’
And now, with a new lease of life does he feel the same way? ‘‘He is still in my top-10 friend list.‘‘ The pair have known each other since 2005 when they were in the same Theatre 101 class at the University of Otago, and McDougall relishes the chance to deliver a very accurate impersonation of Lucks’ German accent.
The tension between Wilbur McDougall and J Ollie Lucks is played out in several surreal scenes when they battle each other in a wrestling match with a picturesque backdrop of an Otago landscape.
McDougall turned down Lucks’ first approach to film a documentary, but reconsidered a year later when the wrestling angle was suggested.
The tension between the pair is played out in several surreal scenes when they battle each other in a wrestling match with a picturesque backdrop of an Otago landscape.
That’s a far cry from the venues where McDougall once wrestled under the moniker King Wilbur.
But King Wilbur was laid to rest after his operation – the King is dead, long live the King, and a new persona sought.
McDougall says he had always loved the spectacle of wrestling, the athleticism combined with showmanship, with the documentary including home video of the selfconfessed ‘‘chubby kid’’ demonstrating his own wrestling moves.
Favourite wrestler? ‘’Without a doubt ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin: his character was amazing.’’
McDougall’s operation on July 14, 2016, meant he couldn’t wrestle for eight months due to concerns over his stomach lining, and he also remained conscious of his excess skin.
He hoped one day to get his weight down to 100kg, and perhaps have an operation to remove some of the skin he is in.
A fighting fit McDougall meant the creation of his new slimmed down alter ego, Dr Feelgood, a nod to his love of music: ‘‘I love wrestling and rock ‘n roll.’’
Dr Feelgood, who comes out to the crowd playing outrageous guitar licks, no longer ‘‘gets gassed’’ in the ring. That’s in stark contrast to King Wilbur who would be exhausted just from his approach to the ring.
McDougall first got into wrestling, albeit as a commentator, in 2009 and began to wrestle a year later.
The film gives a glimpse behind the show-boating, with he and an opponent discussing their moves before a bout.
That included him launching a spinning heel kick at his opponent, moments after whispering into his ear that he was planning the move. ’’I had never done that before.’’
That brief chat, combined with some improvisation, was a feature of wrestling, and wasn’t a million miles from the documentary itself, he says. ’’It’s a wee bit like the film, there are moments of improvisation and moments of surprise, not knowing what is real and what is not.’’
But he insists the film, planted junk food rubbish or not, ‘‘is pretty close to realism’’. The viewer is there when McDougall is high-fived by kids on his way out of the wrestling ring, and when he moves into his new house. So what does he eat? Well, for breakfast and lunch he eats a pita bread with chicken, lettuce and tomato, for dinner fish or steak with a salad.
And snacks? Crispbread, carrots, hummus. That goal of 100kg can’t be to far away.
And with that weight loss, McDougall says he is enjoying life more than ever, and is ‘‘definitely hyped’’ about the film coming out.
‘‘I’m excited about people seeing this great Kiwi film.
‘‘I have no regrets, I just love the end product,’’ says McDougall who could just as well be talking about himself.
Cut.
plays the Doc Edge Festival in Auckland and Wellington before releasing nationwide via Demand.Film.
Wilbur – King In the Ring