Prolific wrestler comes to Irvine for the last time

Nov 2 2012 by Ross Dunn, Irvine Herald

One of Scotland’s greatest wrestlers will retire at the end of this year, and an upcoming fight in Irvine will be one of his last battles.

Twenty-nine-year-old Adrian McCallum, or Lionheart as he’s known, has had a prolific career, culminating in shows with both American wrestling franchises WWE and TNA.

But everything must come to an end and Lionheart has decided it’s his time to step out of the ring.

“I turn 30 in a couple of months, and I guess I’m just realistic of where my career can go at this stage.

“I’ve had some great opportunities in my career and have accomplished a lot, as far as British Wrestling is concerned. But lately I’ve seen opportunities pass me by and now I think it’s time to let go.”

It seems the lion is finally tamed and ready to settle down.

“I’ve been promoting my own events on a semi regular basis for just over a year now, so I’ll move my focus to that.

“Obviously in my personal life I’d maybe like to think about starting a family and settling down.”

Adrian, who’s from Cumnock and is a manager for an outsourcing company in Irvine, has broken boundaries as far as British wrestling is concerned, being the first Scottish wrestler to compete in TNA.

“In January 2011 I competed for TNA in Glasgow Braehead Arena against Jeff Jarrett.

“No Scottish wrestler had ever been in TNA so that was a big deal for me and Scottish Wrestling as a whole.

“Later that same year I wrestled for WWE on their Smackdown tapings in Liverpool.”

Adrian was relatively late to wrestling, attending wrestling school at 19. But he confesses that the name Lionheart stems from another discipline.

“I trained in Karate for 13 years from a very young age and achieved everything I wanted to, making it to a 2nd degree Black belt and competing in the European Championships when I was 17.

“My favourite Martial Arts star was jean Claude Van Damme and my favourite movie of his was AWOL where he played a fighter called Lionheart.

“The name is one I’ve had for the whole time I’ve been wrestling and it means a lot to me that I’ve made it a household name in Scottish and British Wrestling.”

Speaking about one of his last big shows at the Magnum, Adrian admits it will be a rather emotional night.

“The Premier British Wrestling shows at the Magnum have been arguably the biggest Scottish shows of the calendar year for the past five years.

“With it being one of my very final appearances in Scottish Wrestling, it’s going to be a pretty emotional night.

“I just hope I do everyone there to support me proud.”

Lionheart’s last big fight will be at the Magnum this weekend on Saturday, November 3 for PBW Maximum Impact.

See www.pbwwrestling.com for tickets and more details.