Wrestler back in hometown for Turmoil
The last time Shane Sinclair was at the TSB Showplace, he was performing in the music competition Rockquest.
This time, he will be trying to take down a vicious brawler.
Sinclair, 31, is a professional wrestler known as ‘‘The Shooter’’ which he says is not a fictional character – it is himself ‘‘times 10’’.
Sinclair, who is now based in Wellington, said he had come ‘‘full circle’’ since his Rockquest days and is coming back to his hometown of New Plymouth for an annual event known as Taranaki Turmoil.
‘‘I am looking forward to it heaps,’’ he said. ‘‘I like showing people what I do and what I am so passionate about.’’
At the event the wrestler, who is a construction worker by day, will take on the man he has been wrestling up and down the country for years – ‘‘The Hooligan’’ Marcus Kool. ‘‘He has called me out in my hometown.’’
But, Sinclair is convinced he has got the match in the bag. The 31-year-old’s wrestling career started in a backyard in Spotswood.
‘‘Like most boys, when I was wanted to be a pro wrestler.’’
He said he and his friends would drop on to cardboard boxes in their backyards – as a wrestler would his opponent – and at the age of 12 he joined the New Plymouth Wrestling Club. After spending his high school years at Francis Douglas Memorial College, Sinclair moved to Wellington and joined a professional wrestling club.
‘‘I went along for a laugh. I never looked back.’’
Eleven years on, he goes away to wrestling competitions about once every four weeks. Last month he won the Southern Pro Wrestling Belt, against the arch-rival he will face off with at Taranaki Turmoil. little
ITaranaki Turmoil starts at 7pm on November 23 at the TSB Showplace. Sinclair will be joined by fellow former Taranaki wrestlers Danny Jacobs and Dal Knox.