Ex-WWE star Ayesha ‘The Amazon’ Raymond and veteran competitor Boo Lemont have opened a new wrestling school where they will train the next generation of professional wrestlers.

We sent along superfan reporter Joe Crossley to find out more.

Rick Flair, Hulk Hogan, Shawn Michaels, The Rock, and John Cena all are Hall of Fame superstars and household names. But now there's a new kid on the block…

Hailing from the fighting town of Sittingbourne, Kent, weighing in at 183 pounds and standing at 5ft and 9 inches tall, Joe ‘The breaker’ Crossley.

This was my moment, my time. I had dreams, hopes and aspirations to be able to compete with the pros and prove I was the latest up-and-coming star.

But after 90 minutes, I realised I was more Joe ‘Picasso’ Crossley than ‘breaker’. Why ‘Picasso’ I hear you ask.

Because I spent most of the time on the canvas.

As a kid, I loved watching the colourful characters like HHH, Shawn Micheals and Edge engage in verbal feuds before they started knocking the daylights out of each other in feats of athleticism which you couldn’t, and still cannot, see in any other place.

So when the chance to go and enact my childhood dream came up, I grabbed the brass ring and made the two-hour trip by train from Sittingbourne to Tunbridge Wells to find Pro Wrestling Royale Academy whose social media you can access by clicking here.

I went down the stairs of the Camden Centre into an eight-by-five-meter black room on the lower ground floor.

I was greeted by Boo and Ayseha who along with trainee Tom were putting the ring together which looked like a workout in itself.

It had to be built from its different components, with the turnbuckles being attached to the large metal posts which hold the ring together. A large wooden base was layered with two layers of one-inch padding covered by a canvas.

Then came the orange and black ropes which were screwed to the posts and then with lots of cracking levers were tightened.

Once it was altogether Boo and Ayseha came and sat with me to tell me more about the industry and their newly-opened academy before we got in the ring to do some wrestling.

Ayseha fell in love with the sport when All-Star Wrestling shows came to Tunbridge Wells when she was a child, as well as watching the likes of Chris Jericho, her favourite wrestler, and The Rock duke it out.

She hopes the academy will rebuild the wrestling community in the area with it putting on its own shows in the near future.

She said: “People can get out of wrestling what they want to get out of it. It’s a combination of art, fitness and performance.

“If you just want to improve your physical fitness then there is nothing like wrestling cardio but if you want to perfect your performance skills then we can do that two or if you genuinely want to become a pro-wrestler then you can do that as well.

“The best thing about wrestling is the community that it allows you to have. I wouldn’t have the friendship and family circles that I have now without pro-wrestling so it gives you somewhat of an identity.”

The London-born wrestler went on to great success with championship wins in the UK International Pro Wrestling single title and tag team titles as well as single titles in other UK promotions - Reckless Intent Wrestling, WrestleForce and a tag-team championship in Premier Promotions.

‘The Amazon’ also saw success abroad where she had singles success in Germany and tag team success in Japan.

In 2017 Ayshea signed with the WWE to compete in the Mae Mae Young Classic, a 32-woman tournament attempting to find the next generation of female talent.

Now the 31-year-old runs a wrestling school in Glasgow as well.

Ayshea and Boo trained together back in 2007 under influential coach Justin Richards and have managed to keep in contact for more than 15 years.

The ‘Brutal Bad Boy’ Boo told me how the industry in the UK was back in the mainstream in a big way after being huge in the ‘70s and ‘80s with wrestlers like the Dynamite Kid and the British Bulldog making waves in the WWE.

However, the British wrestlers were often the token UK performers that WWE liked to have on screen and only a few ever made it to work in the States.

“The banter and laughs as well as trying to perfect the moves made the whole experience something that I would recommend to anyone”

But now the global promotion giant WWE is stepping up its NXT UK brand soaring in popularity and showcasing British wrestling on a worldwide stage.

This is only great news for those in the business like Boo, who has recently celebrated his 20th year in the industry.

The Tunbridge Wells’ resident said the hardest thing when getting an academy up and running was to purchase a ring and then get people to come along.

He said: “Me and Ayseha have been trying to get this off to the ground for around 10 years so it’s been difficult but I am so happy to finally be doing what I love; coaching and watching them grow and wrestlers and human beings.

“Because there are only a few reputable ring venders in the country the ring is the most costly thing as they usually cost between £5,000 and £6,000 but when we saw this ring up for sale we jumped at the opportunity.

“Professional wrestling is quite a niche hobby when it comes to people getting in a ring even though loads of people watch it so numbers are small at the moment but we believe that more people will come along.

“The sport is really accessible whether you're tall or small, large or skinny we welcome everyone.”

This accessibility is something I can now testify to.

Boo got us all stretched out and warmed up before going through some of the basic rolls and bumps that every wrestler needs to master for their matches.

Firstly was a front roll and then a back roll which weren't too hard to do as they were sort of rollie pollies.

Then came the bumps which look incredibly painful.

For the uninitiated, these are where you throw yourself to the mat and are used when the wrestler is knocked down and are infamous in the wrestling world because a wrestler can take hundreds of these in just one match.

Boo showed how to do these safely and for effect by smashing the mat as hard as you can on the way down to create lots of noise.

I thought this was going to be really painful but in reality, once you get over the fear that it’s going hurt it was absolutely fine.

Tom is one of the trainees at the school who had just two hours of wrestling under his belt when I met him.

The 17-year-old echoed this sense of getting over the fear of pain.

He said: “Ever since I was four, me and dad would watch wrestling together and I fell in love with wrestlers like The Rock.

“I am coming to the end of my life at school so it’s the perfect time for me to learn as it has always been an aspiration of mine to become a pro-wrestler.

“Last week we were taught how to take bumps and I was hesitant at first to throw myself to the ground and once I did a few times I realised it was fine and got used to some of the pain.”

After becoming familiar with front bumps, hip tosses, rolls and how to run the ropes Boo and Ayseha showed us a little sequence to put together.

This was incredibly fun and felt almost like a brutal but beautiful sort of dance, with you and your partner working in tandem to blend the routine together.

After throwing myself for the best part of an hour and a half I had to drag myself away from the fun in the ring to catch a train.

It wasn’t just the physical part of the wrestling that I enjoyed but also the spending time with those who were training I can see how these close-knit wrestling communities feel more like families even after a short time in the ring together.

The banter and laughs as well as trying to perfect the moves under the watchful eyes of Boo and Ayshea made the whole experience something that I would recommend to anyone who loves wrestling or just sports generally.

If you would like to try out pro wrestling you can contact them by emailing prowrestlingroyale@outlook.com