Daleville native living his dream as a pro wrestler

Daleville’s own Rex Andrews has been living his dream as a pro wrestler, based in Texas, and later this month he will make his return to the Wiregrass for an event in Midland City.

Andrews, who was born in Ozark, and his family moved to California shortly after his birth before moving back to the Wiregrass at the age of nine.

“I spent the first nine years of my childhood in California,” Andrews said. “So, when I came back I was kind of a stranger to the area even though I was from here. It was kind of a weird experience.”

Andrews bounced between Ozark and Daleville growing up but one thing was constant for him, wresting.

Andrews was introduced to wrestling at a young age by an uncle but it wasn’t until he saw the massive WWE World Champion and former UFC star Brock Lesnar destroying the legendary Hulk Hogan on an episode of WWE’s “Smackdown” that made him truly fall in love with wrestling.

“I was like ‘This is crazy,’ and just thinking that I’m going to watch this all the time,” he said remembered the moment he fell in love with wrestling. “Ever since then it’s been all about wrestling.”

Andrews said that he told his father that he wanted to be a wrestler.

“I turned to my dad while watching a Shawn Michaels match and told him that I was going to be a wrestler,” Andrews recalled. “He promptly told me, ‘No, you’re not,” which meant I was going to do anything in my power to be a wrestler.”

As a wrestling obsessed 15-year old, Andrews scoured the internet for wrestling information and stumbled across the Myspace page local wrestling promotion Lower Alabama Wrestling (LAW) based out of Hartford.

“So, I went to one of their shows and honestly I wasn’t blown away but I just wanted to be a part of it,” he said. “I went up to the guys running the show and told them I wanted to be a wrestler.”

Andrews began training at LAW’s school and focusing more-and-more time on his love. Andrews said that he missed homecoming so that he could make a show and even though he called his training “terrible,” he loved it.

Andrews began wrestling all around the Gulf Coast and became one of the better young wrestlers, despite not even being 18 yet.

“I never gave it a second thought,” Andrews said about wrestling despite being under-aged. “No one asked. It’s terrible and I shouldn’t have been doing it but the only thing I was worried about was getting in that ring.”

Then, one day he looked around the locker room he was in and knew he had to make a change to get where he wanted to be.

“I looked around and saw guys that were 35-40 years old wrestling in t-shirts in front of 40 people and I knew I didn’t want to end up like that,” he said. “I’ve always been a student of wrestling and there were a few guys locally that I could learn from that I attached myself to.”

Andrews pointed to local stars like Scotty and Billy Rayz, Hoss “BTY” Bryant and Cameron Frost as guys that he attached himself to.

“Riding with those guys who were so passionate about the business was great for me,” Andrews said. “They really cared and they would travel far off for bookings.”

Andrews also said that that they introduced him to the world of international and independent wrestling outside of the Gulf Coast which gave him a chance to study other types of wrestling.

Learning is something Andrews has made sure he’s always focused on.

“If you’re trying to be a doctor, you study medicine,” Andrews said matter-of-factly. “I was trying to be a wrestler, so I studied wrestling.”

Eventually, Andrews discovered the wrestling school of WWE Hall of Famer Booker T and contacted the school about joining.

“I just made it happen,” Andrew said. “I was living in a hotel down there for awhile and I just did whatever I had to do to make it work.”

Booker’s school, which eventually became the Reality of Wrestling Training School, helped develop Andrews into one of the better young wrestlers on the independent wrestling school.

“The experience there has been incredible,” Andrews said. “Booker is a guy that has made a really good living in wrestling for 30 years and understands how to make money in this business. So, with him it’s more than just showing you how to do a headlock or a headscissors. It’s showing why you do it or what you can do to make it look better.”

Andrews quickly became a top star for Booker’s ROW wrestling promotion as well, winning both the ROW Television Championship and ROW Texas Heavyweight Championship. Eventually Andrews became a trainer himself at ROW and eventually was tasked to head to India as a head guest trainer for the new wrestling school owned by former WWE Champion The Great Khali.

“India was a huge experience for me maturity-wise in my life,” Andrews said. “I lived there for four months and I saw how a lot of people live there and the difficult lives they live. My job was to train their students for seven hours and sleep. That was pretty much it.

“There was a lot of time to reflect and grow as a person. It made me a better person and a wrestler at the end of the day.”

Back in the states, Andrews began to branch out from the ROW promotion defending his titles at other promotions across the country including House of Hardcore (HOH). HOH is owned by former ECW and WWE star Tommy Dreamer and at that event Andrews not only got to get in the ring with the WWE’s own Tony Nese, but defeated him in defense of his ROW TV Championship.

“That was a really cool experience,” Andrews said of the match with Nese. “We got a lot of praise for that match and showed that I wasn’t just ‘one of Booker’s guys.’

“That’s been one of the best things about these other opportunities. People would look at us from ROW just as guys from Booker’s school, but the by the time we left that knew me and knew I was more than that. People are starting to take notice that we’re good wrestlers and a good promotion.”

One of Andrews’ favorite memories was his last match on the Gulf-Coast, against former Ring of Honor star Kyle Matthews.

“I don’t think (my parents) were super excited to see me wrestling in flea markets in Dothan or at an old train depot in Hartford (when I first started) but when I moved to Houston I think they realized I was really serious about this,” Andrews said. “One of my last shows on the Gulf Coast against Kyle Matthews, my dad took the flyer from that show and was taking it around showing all of his buddies and bragging about me being a pro wrestler. It was a really great feeling because that was the last time he ever got to see me live before he died. It was a great moment to know he was proud of me.”

Recently, ROW landed a broadcast deal with the Fite app, which also airs combat sports shows from MMA promotions like UFC and wrestling promotions like Ring of Honor.

ROW’s weekly television show can be seen on the Fite app as well as on Youtube but December will mark the first big internet pay-per-view ROW will broadcast exclusively on the Fite app. That show will also be the in-ring debut of Jason David Frank, the Green Ranger from the Power Rangers television show.

“I was pushing hard for that spot, I was like ‘I’ll fight the Green Ranger, I’ll do it right now,’ but he’ll be in a different match,” Andrews said. “Now, my goal is to steal the show from the Green Rangers.”

Before he tries to steal the show from a childhood super hero, Andrews will look to steal the show on Oct. 28 in Midland City.

Andrews will be facing off against Gulf Coast veteran Street Bandit at SWA’s “Hallow-Scream” event in Midland City.

“It’s very cool for me,” Andrews said about returning home to the Wiregrass. “I got the call to come home and to be the draw for the show is really nice. I’m exited bout being home. I’ve been traveling everywhere, so to finally get home and work is very nice.

“I can guarantee you it’s going to be quality wrestling. I haven’t faced Bandit since I was around 18-years old and I’m a student of the game, so you’re going to see an even better Rex Andrews.”

In the past year Andrews has worked as an extra for the WWE and received a try-out from the wrestling world’s biggest promotion. 2017 has been a big year for the Wiregrass-native but he expects 2018 to be even bigger.

“I expect to travel international and appear on even bigger shows,” Andrews said. “Japan is definitely a goal. 2017 has been a big year for me and I think 2018 is going to be even bigger.”