A TikTok star's dream will come true this weekend when he takes to the ring to wrestle alongside his hero. David McCallum, who became obsessed with wrestling when he was just four, met grappling star Grado at a show a few years ago, when he was working as a welder.
David, of Glasgow, told Grado that one day they would be tag team partners, and took up the sport as a hobby the following day. He worked his way up the ranks, while turning his back on his welding career to focus on his hobby full time.
He has wrestled at shows at Glasgow’s Barrowlands Ballroom, the OVO Hydro, O2 ABC and O2 Academy, as well as grappling in England, Ireland, Northern Ireland and Wales. And this weekend David - who goes by the name Ravie Davie online and in the ring, and has over 100,000 followers on TikTok - will see his dream come true as he teams up with Grado in Glasgow.
Social media star David, 28, and Two Doors Down and Scot Squad actor Grado, real name Graeme Stevely, 34, are set to take to the ring at the O2 Academy on Friday and Saturday night. They take on rivals The Cabinet as part of Insane Championship Wrestling's (ICW) Shug's Hoose Party event.
The pair will wrestle under the name D-Generation Greggs - a play on D-Generation X, the name given to an American wrestling group in the 1990s. David, who is now a professional wrestler who owns his own wrestling company, said: “I’ve been into wrestling since I was four.
“It became my escape from reality after my mother passed away when she committed suicide and it was all I ever wanted to do. I saw Insane Fight Club on the television and it was Grado that inspired me.
“I thought to myself, ‘I can do that’. I saw Grado and thought, ‘he’s the best at it but he’s fatter than me and I’m funnier than him, I can do that’. Now I know him I know he is much funnier than me and we’re both about the same size.
“When I first met him it was at a wrestling show and I paid £5 to get my picture with him. I said to him, ‘I’m starting wrestling training tomorrow and one day me and you are going to team together, we’re going to be a tag team and we’re going to be called D-Generation Greggs’.
“A few years later and that’s exactly what’s happening, we are teaming up this weekend and taking on pro-Tory wrestlers The Cabinet.”
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