Sportskeeda's own Gary Cassidy talks about WWE, music, writing about wrestling, ICW, tattoos and more (Exclusive)

Gary Cassidy talks about writing and having his pictures used in a fake Tinder profile

Gary Cassidy has had his pictures stolen for Tinder more than once

AB: How did you end up writing about wrestling?

GC: “I think around about 12 – 13 years ago, I used to do a bit of unpaid work experience for a newspaper in Scotland. That was after I had gotten a degree from my University. Journalism and writing was the one thing that I wanted to do. It was the career that I wanted all my life. One week in, I decided that I do not want to do that. There is too much negativity in the world and it wasn’t my kind of thing. So I moved away from that, and then two things have always gone hand in hand for me – wrestling and music."

"Music… it’s a lot easier to write about music just at a starting point, maybe there’s so much of music out there especially all kinds of rock music. So I managed to get a little gig doing reviews, live gig reviews, album reviews. That lasted a good long while, I did quite a bit of that but it wasn’t really going anywhere. I wasn’t doing many interviews, which wasn’t what I expected either. Then three years ago now, I saw Sportskeeda was looking for writers. I was like, ‘that may be cool. I’ve watched wrestling all my life, I like writing. Put those two together, why not try it?’ I tried it and I feel like I’m quite an ambitious person anyway, but writing about wrestling has lit a fire under me and I really want to keep going with it - Interview as much as possible, write as much as possible. It might never become the one thing I do, because I love my job subtitling as well, but even if this continues as a hobby or as a side gig to the broadcast stuff – writing about wrestling has been one of the most fun things that I do.”

AB: Anyone who follows you know three things. Your pictures are regularly used by fake Tinder profiles, your love for the Download festival, and finally, your lovely cat. Would you like to talk about these three things and elaborate your feelings about them?

GC: "(Laughs) The first one I can say really quickly. It was surprising to me because I’ve never used a dating profile in my life. It’s a little bit of a compliment because someone is using your photos. But every day in my life I go about with a fear that someone could come up to me and punch me in the face right now, not know that I am not that person (laughs). I don’t know what the person using these photos could be saying to these people and that makes me feel like I could get punched in the face at any time! But I try not to think about that. Hopefully it doesn’t happen. (laughs nervously)"

"Download festival for me, well I used to go to a festival in Sweden called Sweden Rock Festival which was incredible. I love music, bands like Kiss, Motley Crew all that playing. Download Festival is a little bit closer to home down in England. I’m in Scotland so that’s 4 hours drive. The festival – not only does it have the music and the bands that you want to see playing every year – they also have wrestling events, like NXT and more recently, NXT UK. I mean, what more could you want? A weekend of music, wrestling, a little bit of beer for me."

Gary with his famous cat

"As a kid, I’ve never really had a pet. I’ve had a bird, and I think everyone in the UK has a goldfish – the pets that you have that you don’t really do much with and they don’t really do much, but mind their own business. When I became a teenager, the thing that made me get a cat – WWE was coming to town. They were coming to do a Live Event just outside of Glasgow. We couldn’t get tickets for that. As a trade-off with my parents, we got a cat! It’s funny how things work out! We couldn’t go to the WWE event but I got a cat and we had that cat for close to 20 years – which is a good many years for a cat, but he passed away. So, when I moved out to my own place, I had grown used to living with a cat, so I had to get one. The one that I got is the most affectionate cat – a little bit annoying sometimes as well. I don’t want to insult my cat by saying she’s really annoying (laughs), but a little bit. I would encourage everyone to get a cat."

In case it was not obvious, Gary Cassidy really likes cats... and face paint

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Continue reading to find out more as Gary talks about Dropkick DiSKussions, talking with some famous wrestlers, and more.