Mark Andrews finds himself at a fascinating crossroads.
The Welsh star, who will turn 35 in January, is about to celebrate 20 years in the wresting business just weeks after his band Junior has dropped Choir Eternal, their first album since Beautiful Lie in 2019.
Speaking exclusively to Alistair McGeorge for Soundsphere, Mark admitted that his ready to wind down his in-ring days and put the focus on other areas.
“I need to think about balance more because I have been surrounded by pro wrestling for the last 20 years,” he said.
From his work for Attack! Pro Wrestling and running his own South Wales Pro Wrestling training school right him to his and Flash Morgan Webster’s appearance for Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling in Canada, Mark is all over every area of the UK scene.
“I am at the point now in my life where I do think, to be honest, the wrestling has got to slow down,’ he admitted.
“I guess this is the most kind of condensed I’ve ever felt in terms of the scene. I’m all over it.”
Now, he wants to find a balance, and the father-of-one noted that being a dad is the root of all his decisions nowadays.
“I want to take a step back from in ring performing myself, which is hard because I love it so much, but I feel it a lot more now,” he confessed.
“There are wrestlers that go into their 40s and 50s, and they seem healthy as ever. I’m not one of those wrestlers.
“I think I went too hard too young probably, and I’m feeling it now.”
Mark’s focused on the future
For Mark, he wants to “find new ventures”, including revisiting his presenting days after running the My Love Letter To Wrestling podcast on BBC Sounds until 2023, and continuing to be active on the grassroots level.
‘Most importantly, in between all of that, the high one is being a dad in between all of it,” he added.
“I think the biggest thing in my head right now is I’m trying to think of really like my lifestyle first, and what I mean by that is my health really.”
Junior and Choir Eternal
Amongst all that, Mark and his Junior bandmates have dropped a new album drawing on influences like Jimmy Eat World, Blink-182’s 2003 self titled LP, and countrymen Funeral For A Friend.
“This feels like our more mature album, but in the same way that self-titled for Blink 182 was in a slightly darker, different direction,” Mark explained.
As the band have grown into their 30s, with families and responsibilities, their songwriting has shifted.
“I mean in the grand scheme of things, it’s not Sleep Token,” he laughed. “But you know what I mean. Just that slightly broodier and more emotional songwriting.”
As well as splitting vocals with Matt Attard, the duo – who complete the lineup with drummer Si Martin – work together nicely with two sides of the creative coin.
“Matt literally, for his job, co-writes for tons of really big artists, including Jin from BTS,” Mark explained.
“He worked on his album over the last few years, and he’s constantly flying around the world to do writing at a very, very high level.
“And then I’m someone who picks up my guitar a few times a year and decides to kind of just write whatever comes to mind.”
The pair complement each other well, with Matt’s producer work meaning he’s “incredible at you know accommodating other ideas”.
Wrestling with imposter syndrome
For all of Mark’s success in the wrestling world, which included a spell with WWE under the NXT UK banner and appearance on shows like Raw, he’s “always felt like a bit of an imposter” in the music world.
That’s been helped through his friendships with rock star wrestling fans like Sean Smith, Ryan Richards and Dan ‘Soupy’ Campbell, who is desperate to get involved in an Attack! show in the future.
“He’s such a creative guy and then for him to then almost give it credit where it’s due, it’s quite nice in a way to be like, ‘Well, actually, this person who a lot of people see so highly in an art space is agreeing that wrestling is a higher art than people think,’” Mark added.
“It’s not it’s not just guys in tights hitting each other with chairs, although that is some of it.”
Mark’s future in wrestling
Junior have gigs in London and Cardiff coming up on 8 and 10 December respectively, and Mark is still active as a wrestling, but he’s thinking about things in a different way.
“I’ve had a really, really good career, and I’m almost seeing everything after this point as just a bonus,” he smiled.
“I’ve had my kind of moment in the sun. I spent the last three years along with Flash, knocking on the doors of bigger companies.
“We worked with TNA, obviously with Maple Leaf, done a tiny bit of work for AEW, and we’ve pestered them enough about trying to get our foot in the door there.”
Mark’s had a couple of appearances for AEW as an extra of sorts, but attempts to get more work haven’t led anywhere.
“I think they they’ve got their hands full with a lot of so much talent. I think that’s what it is. I don’t think it was necessarily a ‘Hey, we’re not interested,’” he pondered.
“It was more a, ‘We don’t have time to read your messages, which is humbling in itself.’”
He added: “I think I’m past that period of my life, where I’m not looking for the big break now.”
Mark’s time in NXT UK
A lot has been said and written about NXT UK, which was closed down in 2023 with plans to replace it with NXT Europe, with no signs of that coming to fruition.
For all the criticism NXT UK faced, Mark described the WWE brand’s pre-Covid days as a career high.
“I’d say maybe the best time of my career,” he smiled. “Those last four years before Covid, they were incredible. British wrestling was just so hot, and whether we were flying out for PWG or flying out to do NXT, or WrestleMania Axxess, it was just so fun.”
He’s also keen to point out that NXT UK was a rare chance for wrestlers not named Will Ospreay or Zack Sabre Jr to actually sign a major contract.
“Everyone kind of gives the wrestlers a bit of, ‘Oh, you signed these lowball contracts,’” he said. “I almost just wish that people knew the the actual details behind it because they weren’t as lowball as people think.”
Reuniting with Adam ‘Edge’ Copeland
Adam Copeland, known to WWE fans as Edge, is retiring in 2027, and Mark was lucky enough to cross paths in Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling at a recent show.
“Don’t get me wrong, we hardly saw him that day because he was so busy off his feet in terms of a lot of media and stuff like that,” he laughed.
“But the brief moments we did spend with him, he’s just the man.”
They first met at WrestleMania 35, when talent not needed for the second half of the show had a choice between leaving after Kofi Kingston’s win to beat traffic, or staying until an hour after the end of the event.
Mark and others went to the hotel for the afterparty, where they bumped into Edge and Christian.
“People say don’t meat your heroes, but with them, it was like, ‘okay, you guys are awesome’. You know, not egotistical at all,” he beamed.
“We were sat there just talking about Weezer and bands we like to go and watch.
“Ever since, he’s kind of kept in touch and always been someone we can message and chat to.”
A future in producing?
While Mark is holding the fort in Wales, his best friend Pete Dunne is still working for WWE, acting as a producer for matches in AAA, answering to The Undertaker.
“He’s obviously smashing it. I say this all the time, you can see the similarities from some of the stuff up there that you see at the end of an Attack! main event,” Mark laughed.
“Just because of how great an in ring talent he is, people should never underestimate how good he is as just a brain in wrestling.”
While there are ‘rumours’ Pete and his teammate Tyler Bate are currently under masks as Los Americanos, Mark couldn’t help but laugh.
**”**Surely not! I’ve seen those men under masks before at Attack! Pro Wrestling,” he said, tongue in cheek. “I would recognise it if they were.”
So, would Mark go into producing himself?
He’d “love the opportunity”, but there’s one dealbreaker.
“I’m at a stage in my life, unlike a few years ago, where I don’t really want to move country,” he admitted.
“I don’t really want to move to America or Canada or anywhere else. And unfortunately, in this country, even though we have so much talent in wrestling in the UK, we don’t have that platform which is on TV.”
Will that chance ever come in the UK?
While WWE is all over Netflix and AEW has time-delayed broadcasts on ITV4, the UK doesn’t have its own bona fide show.
NXT UK and World of Sport have tried to fill the gap, and Mark can’t believe the chance isn’t being taken by broadcasters.
“I know there’s a lot of people, including myself, behind the scenes trying to get some form of British wrestling on TV,” he revealed.
“I’m so hopeful for it, but at the same time, it’s not like there’s been any big ‘hope spots’ for it. ”
Speaking to Metro recently, John Cena revealed he spotted WWE’s Mason Rook wrestling as Will Kroos on The Extreme Channel, which shows the appeal is there.
Mark raved: “If John Cena is finding Will Kroos on the Extreme Channel in a hotel in Europe, why isn’t the biggest channel taking on wrestling? I feel that’s proof enough.”
Junior’s Choir Eternal is out now. For more information, head to Facebook.com/musicofjunior