00:00My name is Leon Slater. I'm from Bradford, England, and I'm 20 years old.
00:07I've wanted to be a wrestler for as long as I can remember.
00:14There's not a single moment in my life, a single period, where I can remember not wanting to be a wrestler.
00:20It all started from when my cousin, like everyone does, had kind of grown out of wrestling,
00:25and I managed to get his hand-me-downs.
00:27That was the video games, it was the action figures, it was the DVDs, and ever since then I fell in love.
00:34Being from the UK especially, right, I was a TNA kid.
00:39It was almost a bit punk rock, you know what I'm saying?
00:41It was almost like a bit of that edgy alternative, and I feel like coming from England and coming from the UK,
00:47that's quite close to how we identify as a country, and that's why I'm so proud to be from England.
00:54I don't think if I was American, I would be sat here in front of you.
00:57I don't think if I talk like this, that I would be sat here in front of you right now.
01:00I think it's because I talk like this, and I have a queen, I have a king, I have a Union Jack.
01:05I think that's why I'm sat right here, and I think that is the same reason why TNA Wrestling has been held strong for the past 23 years now.
01:13So I started training at 9 years old, and ever since then it's been 11 years now.
01:19I've been keeping my head down, I've been working hard, and you know what, I kind of sacrificed my teenage years for this,
01:24which I go back and forth on, like, do I wish I was invited to these house parties?
01:28Do I wish I went out drinking in the fields like we do at home?
01:32Part of me kind of wishes that I did, but then the other part of me flips on.
01:37The youngest in charge part of me, and I'm so, so glad that I sacrificed that.
01:43I don't even know if I want to call it a sacrifice, because it never really felt like work.
01:47Wrestling has felt like I've been living my dream ever since I stepped in the ring for the first time,
01:52and, like, people tell me that I earned it, and I don't feel like I have, because none of this has really felt like hard work.
01:58Because I'm well and truly living my dream, and I can tell you right now,
02:02there's not many 20-year-olds from Bradford that can say that.
02:11And it's all led to this point in my journey right now, where I am a TNA wrestler.
02:15And if there's one thing that kind of spurred me on, or one thing that I always keep in the back of my mind,
02:21it's the moment that my dad left us.
02:29I don't have too many memories of him.
02:31I definitely have way more memories of wrestling when I was younger than I do of him.
02:35But I'll never forget that day that I saw him for the last time.
02:42And it was a couple years after that, a couple years of being just me and my mum,
02:45that my little sister joined us. And ever since that day, it's been me, my mum and my sister.
02:51As much as I do this to prove my dad wrong, I do it just as much, probably even more, to prove my mum right.
02:59Because if it wasn't for her, I most certainly wouldn't be sitting, talking to this camera right now.
03:05If it wasn't for her, I wouldn't have started training at nine years old.
03:08And maybe you could argue that probably wasn't the smartest thing to do.
03:11But there's pros and cons to it, right? And that's why I'm here.
03:14I remember her dropping me off at independent shows in the UK at 3am,
03:19picking me up from training every Saturday at 10am to 1pm.
03:23I remember it all, man. And mum, I know you're going to be watching this.
03:26I just want to say thank you because truly you are the MVP.
03:29And if it wasn't for you, I wouldn't be doing any of this.
03:32Having to be in these positions has made me mature in a sense to where I don't feel like a kid.
03:39Yes, my age is young and it's something I take massive pride in.
03:44It really does fuel everything I do.
03:47The reason for me trying to be the youngest in charge, trying to live forever, trying to be remembered,
03:52is so I won't have that feeling of being forgotten again.
03:55So that's why I jump off things 20 feet in the air and crash to the ground.
04:00That's why I jump over the corner.
04:02That is why I do everything I do.
04:04And that is why I'm going to become the youngest X Division champion of all time.
04:08Because after Slammiversary, after July 20th, there's not going to be a single person
04:12that can ever, ever forget me again.
04:15Because my name is going to be in their record books for as long as I live and far, far past that.
