My Everton #155: WWE, The Toffees & Raw Passion

I was born on Oxford Street in 1966. There were no scans or anything like that. The midwife turned to my Dad and said, “Oh, you've got a little…”

My dad interrupted, “I’ve got an Evertonian.” And that was it, you know?

I lived in Kirkdale so I used to walk down Wykeham Street and up Orwell Road to get to Goodison. In fact, if you put a midpoint between Hill Dickinson Stadium and Goodison Park, that's where I was brought up.

We went to the new ground for the Arsenal game over Christmas and walked down Regent Road, where I used to go running as a kid.

At that time, the late-70s and early-80s, that was just neglected. I never dreamed that Everton would put such a remarkable stadium there, and the way they've done it by keeping all the historical monuments in place… it’s still a bit of a dream now.

Just to go there and experience it, and that tifo the 1878s produced, that's something that will live inside me for a long time.

I think most of my match-going mates never understood the wrestling side of my life, but that was how I paid the bills.

I used to hate it on a Saturday because I'd be going to the game and I'd be checking my date sheet. Next thing the phone would go and it'd be my boss, saying something like, ‘What are you doing? We’re going to a show in Mansfield!”

I never really had a Season Ticket because it wasn't worth getting one with the amount of games I had to miss. I do remember going shopping with my mum one morning in December 1974. We were walking back down Westminster Road and there was a pound note on the floor. I slot it, go round to my mate Tommy's and tell him, ‘We’re going on the Gwladys Street’.

We were playing Carlisle United, and it haunts me, this game. I bought this programme for 10 pence. We were 2-0 up and Carlisle came back and won, beat us 3-2, then they won the away game at Brunton Park as well, which cost us the league.

That 1974/75 season was probably one of my favourites because we had Martin Dobson, who never really gets the accolades he should, because he was so elegant, and Gary Jones, a local lad who had lots of potential.

You can't just be false and do it with Everton. You're either in it 100 per cent or it just shows a mile off. I guess that's the same as the business that I'm in. When you've got passion, you just stick out.

With Everton, it is a passion.

By Robbie Brookside, WWE Coach and Evertonian