You might have heard that Timothy Thatcher is British, but it turns out that it’s just a story that took on a life of its own.
Thatcher spoke about the origins of his “gimmick” and how he leaned into it instead of dismissing it. Thatcher, a native of Sacramento, California, was given the nickname the “British Messiah” early on in his career. He’s been billed as being from England, and used a slight accent for a bit.
Thatcher recently spoke with WrestleZone Managing Editor Bill Pritchard about how he discovered his British “roots” and why he hasn’t exactly shut it down in the years since.
The British Messiah
“So, the story is this. When I first started wrestling, much like most people that started wrestling, you will listen to whatever the trainer says. And this was the idea of the trainers. Because when I was pursuing it, I enjoyed the European style of wrestling more. Because, straight-forward wrestling. Also, when I was training to wrestle, we only had a ring for two weeks and then we were kicked out of the building. So the majority of my wrestling training was on mats in my trainer’s garage. So therefore, you focus more on holds and strikes, and actual wrestling. Then you do of running the ropes and jumping off things, and doing what have you. So, that was the direction I was going in,” Thatcher explained.
Thatcher said he did his young boy training for three months in England, and his original coach, “Big Ugly” JD Bishop, gave him the moniker one day. Thatcher never had any grand ambitions of being a lifetime pro wrestler, but he’s happy with the way it worked out.
“He was like, ‘You are going to be the British Messiah.’ I’m like, ‘Oh! Okay!.’ Because once again, you do what your coach tells you to do. Because I had no interest… I never wanted to be a professional wrestler. I thought I was going to do it for a couple of years, ‘Oh that was fun,’ and move on with my life. And well, here we are today so… I’m glad it worked out. But there was that. So, that was the original schtick that I was given.
Lean into it
Timothy Thatcher takes pride in living off of the grid and even joked that people used to get in touch with him by sending a fax. He doesn’t have social media, so that helped lead people’s imaginations in a different direction.
“Then I found out, ‘If you have to do anything ridiculous in professional wrestling, if you lean into it as hard as you can, usually it works out a little better. So that was the original goal. I think then after that… The reason was, even though I stopped that very early in my career. I have no social media. No one has any contact with me unless they talk to me in person. I don’t do any of these interviews usually. So, it’s a very rare sort of thing so, people’s imagination goes with one little thing that they saw. Maybe in 2007 and has continued on to this.”
Thatcher guessed that fans seeing him spend so much time in Europe also gave people the impression he was an international wrestler.
“Also, the other thing is, I spent a lot of time in Europe. I lived in Germany for three years. I mainly just worked for WXW in Germany and then all the England companies as well at that time. So, I’ve been said, ‘Oh, we thought you were German too.’ Yeah, it just depends on the people they see and they go… I’m from Sacramento, California. My passport is blue. So, yeah… But once again, pro wrestling is a very interesting thing. Stories are built and I don’t even have to do anything. Everyone’s mind and their own imagination can go right ahead.”
Check out our full interview with Timothy Thatcher below:
