With more than 200 matches and 11 years of experience, Joey Slade has already had a notable pro wrestling career despite being just 20 years old.
After discovering pro wrestling through his friends in primary school, Slade found his way to House of Pain Wrestling Academy in Nottingham. Along with shows close to home, the 20-year-old has performed for promotions such as True Grit, Megaslam and Fight Factory Wrestling, where he has challenged for the top title twice. Previously known as Joey Cement, Slade brought his old persona to a memorable end when he lost to Flex Buffington, who won the match wearing a bull outfit and hit the “Moo-Sault” for the win.
On May 23, Slade will return to Lincoln to once again challenge for the FFW Heavyweight Championship, this time against reigning champion Rogan. Sitting down with Features of Wrestling at the school where it all began, the Nottingham-based wrestler admitted that there was some luck into his success at such a young age:
“I think a lot of it is so much luck. I’m so lucky to have started at a good school, and also to have had good people around me that have looked after me. I think another thing that wrestling has more now that it didn’t back then was kids’ classes, whereas I just started with the adults. So I think kind of looking back on 10 years, wrestling has been the thing that has grown me, because I’ve had a lot of adults around me, I’ve kind of had people telling me what to do, what not to do. I think I’m very lucky in terms of that, like, because it’s kids classes now, there’s so many safe spaces for kids to train with other kids, whereas for me I kind of had to learn with the rest of them, and because of that, a lot of them kind of taught me in terms of going outside of Nottingham, wait until you’re older, wait until you’re 16. So in terms of looking at wrestling as a whole, I think the first few years was just staying here, staying at my school, but I think also what that did was because I had that year’s experience here when I did turn 16 and I was like, right, okay, I want to start looking at other places in the UK that I want to wrestle at. I already had more experience, I didn’t look like a rookie because I’d had the years at House of Pain, and yeah, because of that I was very fortunate for kind of a few promotions to kind of already from the get go book me. I think in wrestling it’s always that like who you know not what you know, and I think I had a little bit of both there.”
While most kids discover wrestling at around 10 years old, fans who watched WWE back in 2016 will admit that it wasn’t exactly on fire at that point. First hearing about wrestling through his friends, Joey Slade looked to stop motion videos to first see the reason behind the buzz. From there, Slade discovered that he could train close to home at the House of Pain Pro Wrestling Academy. In 2015, Slade began his journey at just 9 years old.
From COVID To Comeback
Although Slade found a pro wrestling school, was competing at shows and making a name for himself, things came to a grinding halt in 2020. Much like a lot of local sports and entertainment shows, wrestling was put on pause in the UK until further notice. Very much prepared for what was to come, House of Pain batch recorded some TV in advance, expecting things to retrun to normal after a few weeks. Unfortunately, the school and the rest of the world would soon face the harsh reality of how long COVID would disrupt everyday life. Although the world started to open up a couple of years later, there was a catch. With only over-16s able to participate when restrictions were gradually lifted, Slade was forced to stay home while others got back into training. Reflecting on that time, Slade admitted that it was the lowest point of his career to date:
“I remember, so we kind of prepared for it as a school a lot more. I think we kind of thought, right, we’re going to lose a lot of revenue. There was a lot of talks that House of Pain as a school was going to close. We kind of thought, right, we’re going to need to do something. So I remember what we did, I think it was January 2020, so obviously a few months before Covid, we thought, right, let’s film some TV tapings. So then even when the whole world’s on lockdown, I mean, we only thought it was going to be a couple of weeks, right? So we filmed kind of one series of House of Pain TV, and yeah, it was weird being told that I wouldn’t be able to wrestle again. I think they did film a second series, but my dad was vulnerable. We both kind of suffer with asthma, and his is a little worse than mine, so he kind of said to me, you can do this first series, but you know all the vulnerable people have been told to stop working now, and yeah, it was so heartbreaking at the time. I think obviously wrestling at the time, when I was younger, was such a passion of mine. I mean, it was my whole life, kids go football training Monday to Friday, and then play a game on Sunday. That’s kind of how it was with me in wrestling. I trained five times a week, doing beginners classes, intermediate classes, and yeah, I remember the first thing that my parents said is, right, we need to buy you a trampoline, otherwise you’re going to go insane, you’re going to absolutely lose your mind, and yeah, that certainly helped, because obviously being a kid, you’ve still got a lot of imagination, and I can imagine a lot of adults kind of in covid when it hit was like, right, I can’t do it, and I just have to sit at home doing nothing, whereas, because I was still a teenager, I was able to have a trampoline, and I was able to have a cuddly toy that thought, right, this is my opponent, and I’m going to practice hitting my moves and bumping and feeding, and yeah, that’s kind of how I spent most of my lockdown.
I’ve never actually said this in an interview before, but Stixx, who is the trainer of House of Pain, and Laura, who’s actually outside today reading a book, they found a loophole for me. So when everyone came back from Covid, it was originally that sporting and musical, like drama events, were strictly over 16, and, like I said, at the time, I was still a kid, and that was probably the lowest point, probably in my whole career, because it’s not like I’m injured. It’s not like I’m struggling to get booked. It was just that I couldn’t due to law, and everyone was kind of coming back, and you know, I was watching on Facebook people coming back to training and being like, oh my god, we’re back, and I was just kind of stuck at home, but they found a thing where actually it was if you are training for a performance or training for a sporting event, you can actually come back under 16, and I remember Stixx kind of texting my dad, because I was still young, he had my dad’s number and not not me on anything, and he kind of said, like, look, every day we are looking for something, some sort of loophole, or some sort of thing, where it’s like, right, Hadley can come back, and I’ll never be more grateful for that, because, yeah, he was able to create the essentially the first draft of the kids class, it was all the people that were under 16, and he kind of said, right, you guys come as a group of four, because everything in wrestling was bubbles at the time in Covid, and you know, everyone had their family bubble or their friend bubble, and it was the same with kind of wrestling training coming back after Covid. It was, you’ve got this class, only you four can attend every week until the rules change. So, yeah, it was a weird time.”
Joey Cement “Killed Off” By A Buff Bull To Make Way For Joey Slade
For those unfamiliar with Joey Slade’s work, the House of Pain mainstay began his career as Joey Cement, who regularly accompanied Johnny Concrete to the ring. Describing himself as a Mini Me to Concrete, Slade was forced to go it alone when Concrete stopped wrestling after the pandemic. Admitting that Joey Cement was not the best name, Slade retired the name at the FFW May the 4th Be With You special in 2024. Looking for that definitive ending, Slade saw an opportunity when facing off against Flex Buffington:
“Yeah, so fun fact, Fight Factory, who’s obviously how we’ve met today, shout out to that school. They kind of gave me my last ever match as Joey Cement, and I’m a big sucker for a bookmark. I like a bookmark ending; if something starts, it has to end the same. For years, Flex Buffington, who was the champ at the time, Fight Factory Heavyweight Champ, he trained at House of Pain, and he came from House of Pain, and then he moved to Lincoln and trained there, if you’ve not seen him, he’s this guy with drawn on abs, he’s called Sexy Flexy, and he’s just amazing. I knew straight away, if I was to have a last match as Joey Cement, if there was any comedy acts that I needed to tick off my bucket list, it was him. I was at that point, it was only 2024, I was getting older. I was like 16-17, years old, and I was trying to wrestle a lot more seriously now after Covid. What I found is some of these big opportunities that I was getting, people weren’t talking about my wrestling or my character or anything, they were talking about my name, and they were like, ‘Joey Cement’s a ridiculous name.’ I thought, right, something needs to change here. Once again, I need to evolve, especially because I was turning 16-17, I thought, right, I’m about to go into my adulthood. At what point does Joey Cement need to die, and at what point do I need to bring in a new name? And yeah, there births Joey Slade. So I haven’t overly changed anything about what I do in the ring. It was more just now I’ve got a name that people will stop making fun of, and they’ll actually go, ‘Right, he’s a wrestler, let’s judge him on his wrestling. And yeah, that’s what I find nice about this kind of evolution there.”
Fight Factory has since uploaded the whole match on their YouTube channel:
With multiple appearances for the Lincoln promotion Fight Factory Wrestling, Slade has become lovingly despised by the Lincoln fans. From winning the FFW Anarchy Championship to interrupting owner Rebecca Loeve’s speech at Bodyslams to Cancer, Slade has not exactly made friends on his trips to Lincoln. However, while there is animosity on camera and in the ring, Slade is very grateful for the opportunities Rebecca and her husband Hayden have given him:
“Yeah, they’ve done so much. Early on in my career, when I was Joey Cement, they actually saw me wrestle a lot. They used to do the ring hire for House of Pain a lot. So I feel like, as much as I wasn’t on their shows when I was younger, they have also very much seen me grow up just the same as Stixx has, and they were kind of one of the first people to kind of trust me with some pretty big stories. They made me appear on Bodyslams to Cancer, which I know they hold very dear in their heart. It’s an amazing, amazing show for charity, raising support and awareness for different types of cancer, and every year they pick a wrestler or their family to kind of tribute the show to. From there, they’ve constantly given me people that I want to wrestle. I look at the Fight Factory wrestling roster and I think, right, I want to wrestle Flex Buffington, I want to wrestle Lenny, I want to wrestle all of the best that they have to offer. Your Jack Maxwells, your Rogans. They’ve always given me the opportunity to do that, but I think they also know that I’m more happy to be a team player as well, and I think that that’s what they’ve also allowed me to do. They’ve also allowed me to kind of come in, and those that maybe aren’t too confident with a character, maybe those that aren’t too confident of finding their voice, they put me in matches against them in hopes that I can kind of rub off on them, and I kind of love that side of wrestling. I love, obviously, gaining what I can and having really cool matches, but I also love teaching as well, which Fight Factory gave me the perfect blend of the both. So, I really appreciate them for that.”
With a background in drama and music, Slade has been known to use his voice to his advantage. Never short on words or volume, the Nottingham wrestler has always made his voice heard, even if it results in his commuppance.
Send In The Clowns
Although Joey Slade has looked to be more serious, he is also not afraid of tapping into the comedic side. A huge fan of the circus and holiday park entertainment, clowning around is something that comes naturally to Slade. From dressing up as a cow to getting thrown into fairground games and attempting to threaten his opponent with a toy gun, Slade has no issue with being the comedic relief as well as the villain. A fan of the circus and holiday park entertainment, Slade elaborated on not always wanting to be the ultra-serious character in wrestling:
“I think a big part of it was obviously how I started as this comedy act. So, a lot of my earlier experience was comedic timing, and how to get a character over. I kind of realised that I may not be the best technical wrestler in the world, but the one thing I can do is entertain, and I think a lot of it came from when I was younger. As much as I used to go around and watch wrestling shows, before that I used to love the circus, big fan of the circus, and I also loved to kind of go into holiday parks like Haven Holidays or Butlins, and seeing the entertainment there. A lot of my life I wanted to be a clown, so I learned how to juggle, I learned how to plate spin. There was a clown at Russell Circus called Alex, who did this genius thing where the ringmaster told him to not break the plates, and obviously he did everything he could to break every single one. I used to find that so entertaining. Ever since then, I’ve kind of been like, right, I want to do more of this. There was a time, kind of once again, a few years ago, when Joey Slade came in, where I said, right, I want to change this now, I want to be a lot more serious, I want to be taken more seriously. I joined a team called Hellbound, which were three of my best mates in wrestling, just so good – Alton Thorne, Harley Harris, and David Grant – and they kind of taught me how to be a little bit more hardcore and a little bit more gritty with everything, but I kind of realized that as much as that’s brilliant and I can have that side of it, I don’t have to neglect making a fool of myself. I don’t have to neglect the comedy side that I’m so good at. It’s almost like if a singer started changing their genre, even though they’ve got number one best-selling albums in that genre, it doesn’t make sense to change. So I kind of like that some shows I’m a little bit more serious, but then you’ve got your Fight Factory and your True Grits, where I can really have fun, and I think, weirdly, I think a lot of the fans prefer me that version of myself, and I think that’s kind of how I’ve been so lucky to have some great opportunities in wrestling, was because a lot of people, like you said, don’t want to be making fun of, and they want to be the top guy, they want to be the scary guy, they want to be the Stone Colds, The Rocks, the John Cena’s. Whereas I’ve always been happy to be the Dolph Ziggler, the Hornswoggle. I’m happy to be anything.”
With the wrestling landscape vastly changing in the modern era compared to just a few years ago, there are more opportunities than ever before for those in the UK to make it big around the world. In the past few years, Zack Sabre Jr. and Callum Newman have held the top title in New Japan, Will Ospreay is one of AEW’s top stars, and the former Will Kroos has made a major impact on WWE as Mason Rook. Additionally, stars from New Japan and AEW have regularly competed for UK promotions such as RevPro. When it comes to his ultimate dream match, Slade named another wrestler from Nottingham who has found international success:
“So many, it’s so hard, because when you put me on the spot, it’s hard to think, but I think there’s just so many great talents out there. I think even in True Grit, you’ve had people like Leon Slater, you’ve had Nathan Black, you’ve had Liam Slater, all the Pursuit guys are very talented, and then I used to be a huge fan, so a lot of my kind of early wrestling is I used to watch a show called Southside that was just an indie show in Nottingham, and they traveled all over the UK, so I was huge fans of wrestlers like Joseph Connors and Flash Morgan Webster. I’ve been looking for them to teach me, but teaching and being in the ring with them are two different things. But the number one dream opponent is Gabe Kidd. It’s so hard now that he’s everywhere. But I was insanely lucky that the week before he fought Kenny Omega, he came to the school and had a little roll around with me. When I started here, he wasn’t at WhatCulture, he wasn’t at New Japan, he wasn’t at AEW, he was just here, and a few other promotions. I’ve kind of seen him start from a guy that lives in Nottingham, that went to the same secondary school as me, went to the same areas that I’ve been to, and to see where he is now, I’d absolutely love the chance to wrestle him in any capacity, anywhere, definitely.”
Joey Slade can be found on Instagram here.
Special thanks to House of Pain Wrestling Academy for the use of the venue to conduct the interview. Tickets for Fight Factory Wrestling: Mayhem can be purchased here.
