CARA’s STORY
““Some call him a Prima Dona, his management call him the UK’s only ‘Arts Council funded’ wrestler.”
ACT ONE
A former ballet boy and real life Billy Eliot, Cara Noir’s greatest ambition in life was to grace the stage of the Sadler’s Wells; but disaster struck when he was prematurely kicked out of the Royal Ballet School and his prestigious scholarship abruptly ended due to ‘anger management issues’.
This early life rejection at the hands of the establishment, and ensuing emotional fragility resulted in a shattered ego and dashed dreams. No longer ‘the special one’ in his family, the performer was left in an unstable state with the highly evolved soul of an artist trapped inside the muscle-bound body of an Essex boy brute.
ACT TWO
At home in Hornchurch, Cara found himself condemned to a life of unfulfilled ambition. In an attempt to ‘man up’ and readjust to his less salubrious surroundings, Cara swapped Swan Lake for Sleeper Holds by grappling his way through MMA training 7 days a week at the Galaxy Gym in Seven Kings - ultimately gaining his first Black Belt in Ren-Shin-Kai Karate at the age of 17.
What followed was a series of illegal ‘under age’ smoker fights in Barking, Ilford & Dagenham. Winning 7/8 bouts Cara reigned supreme for over a year - before being KO’ed in his eighth fight. The unexpected defeat and subsequent humiliation lead to his shock decision to retire from ‘proper’ fighting and instead (despite derision from family & friends) take up the ‘pretend’ stuff he’d loved as a child.
In his new guise as a Professional Wrestler, Cara initially performed to tiny crowds of undiscerning fans in badly carpeted working men’s clubs and poorly lit church halls. Influenced by his love of silent movies, increasingly Cara drew inspiration from his former passion for Tchaikovsky and his comedy heroes; Chaplin, Laurel & Hardy and The League of Gentlemen. Sadly for Cara, these classic cultural references were lost on the low-grade wrestling fans, causing him to gain a ‘reputation as ‘the misunderstood weirdo in make-up.
ACT THREE
Frustration grew and Cara slowly learnt to come to terms with the fact that he was neither brave enough to be a ‘real fighter’, nor ‘cultured’ enough to work in theatre. Disappointment and self-loathing continued to fester, and low self esteem had him wrestle on a weekly basis for improper wage levels, until finally the disdain levelled at him by the wider wrestling community drove him to seek solace among the ‘freaks and queens’ of London’s performance art scene.
Once schooled in queer politics and feminist critiques of heteronormativity, Cara’s confidence grew; and in early 2018, after 9 years on the sidelines - the wrestler formerly known as Tom ‘Blackbelt’ Dawkins emerged from the shadows of middle-card mediocrity to blaze a trail through the heart of the British Wrestling scene… leaving a trail of glitter and broken bones behind him. By ignoring the haters and learning how to become himself, ‘the Black Swan’ of British wrestling advanced match by match to steal the show and hurtle towards inevitable stardom.
