Amazing full circle moment as Longford wrestler to perform before home crowd

It will be very much a homecoming for a Longford wrestler when Over The Top Wrestling presents its ‘Live In Longford’ event in September.

Matthew ‘Bullett’ Smyth is a native of Longford, coming from near Ferefad, just between Longford town and Ardagh. He will share the bill with Renzo Rose and The Weirdos on Sunday, September 13 in the Temperance Hall.

It has been quite the journey to get into pro-wrestling, coming from the Irish midlands.

Matthew found his way into wrestling through his own family, as his step-dad was involved ‘back in the early days, when it was really raw, groundroots, back in the early 2000s’.

“He brought me and my brother to shows and I instantly fell in love,” he explained.

He then watched WWE shows and the odd show that would be run in Longford. “I remember I went to a show in the Temperance Hall and one or two in the Longford Arms Hotel, as a young lad growing up, so I have always had a love for it,” Matthew said.

“In my teenage years, I always wanted to pursue it. So when I went to Dublin for college I said I would give it a go and pursue it. I had just turned 18 and a school opened up in Dublin that I was able to go to. I went there and gave it a go and instantly fell in love with wrestling.”

“Funnily enough, after school I met a lad that was from Granard as well who had started it in about 2017. It was funny for a small county like Longford that two of us were pursuing it up in Dublin,” Matthew recalls.

The other Longford wrestler was Conor Brady-Lee, who fights as CBL, and uses Longford as his character or gimmick.

“When I started out I was a posh D4 lad, I played a bad guy. So I kind of had to hide the fact I was from Longford for a while and this is one of the first times that I get to say I am from Longford,” Matthew said of his upcoming event in his home county.

After studying Bio-Science for three years in college, Matthew made his debut in 2022, having started training in 2019. The Covid pandemic put the brakes on his plans for a time before he returned to training in 2021, with his first match in 2022.

“Since then I have experienced insane things for a lad who grew up in Longford. I got to wrestle in front of 2,200 people multiple times in the National Stadium in Dublin. It’s amazing. It’s a rush that very few things can compare to. You are going out there and you only have 15 or 20 minutes to perform in front of these people but you are locked at the same time so you don’t really have a chance to drink it in,” he said.

In 2024, at their 10th year anniversary show, Matthew got to wrestle two WWE contracted wrestlers, Finn Bálor and JD McDonagh. “That was an insane moment for myself, headlining it, which was a dream come through,” he said.

He also appeared on Netflix for a show broadcast around the world when the WWE came to the 3 Arena.

“As much as it is an athletic performance, there is also crowd interaction. We feed off what the crowd are feeling. We can go out there with a plan in mind of what we want to do, but if you do one thing and the crowd really reacts to it, and they don’t react to another thing, then you change it up out there…”

“The crowd are almost telling the story themselves, without realising it,” the Longford wrestler said.

When you are physically tired, Matthew said the roar of the crowd can give you an adrenaline rush and gives you energy. “It creates a really nice emotional connection between the fans and the wrestlers. It can create magic at times,” he explained.

Looking forward to the upcoming event in the Temperance Hall, Matthew said: “I am hoping it will be a really good atmosphere. For me, it’s going to be a really unique experience getting to wrestle in front of my home town and in a hall in which I saw wrestling when I was small.”

“So it is really a full circle moment for me - which is amazing for me, having my family there. And for those who haven’t been able to see me wrestle before and having my mates there, that will be amazing.

“We are hoping it will end up being a good turnout and a really good crowd. Longford is a town which really draws a crowd and loves wrestling, so we are really hoping for a good atmosphere. Being able to bring not just Ireland’s best promotion, but one of the best promotions in Europe to my hometown is a massive honour and it will be a really emotional night for myself, personally”.

Matthew admits that he is “buzzing” about the event in Longford. “It’s the stuff that five-year-old me watching it on the telly with my mam and brother could never have dreamed of. I never would have in a million years thought I would be able to bring it to my home town, and hopefully have a massive part to play,” he said.

He doesn’t yet know where he will be placed on the match card but hopes he will be the main event - “I think that’s where I deserve to be”.

In the meantime, Matthew hopes to get more experience and said opportunities can open up to go to Japan amongst other countries. “The goal for me is to end up in WWE and bring Longford to the WWE,” he said.

“For athletes, the WWE is the pinnacle - it’s the NFL, the World Cup - that’s what the biggest attraction in pro-wrestling is,” Matthew added.

He also hopes he can inspire other youngsters in Longford. “Growing up, I wasn’t always super into Gaelic Football, even though I did play it and I enjoyed it. But my passion was for other things. I did theatre and I loved performing so it was about finding the blend of that. And now I can show that a lad from a small town in Ireland can make it big. So you can chase your dreams,” he said.

Having made sacrifices and being away from his family for long periods, Matthew says it will be all worth it when he brings the promotion to Longford.

“The goal is to pay for my life full-time through wrestling whether that be on the independent circuit or a contract - it could be the big promotions in American and Japan,” he said.

At the moment, he has an office job during the week and wrestles at the weekend. He has had to take time off work to fly out to places like Barcelona, Belgium or France for events which he is flown out to.

But his mind is firmly focused on his next big event in Longford. Tickets for the event are available from www.OTTwrestling.com