“I can be this Shakespearean scholar, and I can also be this person from very, very small beginnings. I think that’s what great wrestlers do. They allow their real influences to become who they are.”
Professional wrestling is a unique artifice: equal parts physical chess and pageantry. It rewards both the intelligent application of skill and more nebulous qualities, like charisma. At the highest level, the sport demands that its athletes have a stage presence.
Darian Bengston walks that fine line with brilliant precision. An actor and student of the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London, England, Bengston studied Shakespeare for his master’s program.
In the squared circle, the 30-year-old has emerged as one of the world’s premier technicians and one of independent wrestling’s hottest commodities.
Don’t just take my word for it, either: Pro Wrestling Illustrated concurs. In July, the publication named Bengston the number one-ranked independent wrestler in the world. In effect, the distinction made him the number one contender for the Undisputed IWTV Independent Wrestling Championship.
While a match with the current champion, Mance Warner, hasn’t been made, Bengston is no uncrowned king. The “People’s Prince” captured ACTION Wrestling’s singles championship last December.
In the intervening months, Bengston has traveled the world defending his title against all-comers, notching notable victories over the likes of Timothy Thatcher, Nicole Matthews, and Lee Johnson.
This Sunday, Bengston will stage yet another defense against legendary masked technician and trainer, Skayde, at “ACTION / PRODUCE DEAN-!!! Sunday School.”
For wrestling fans in the know, the fight will be appointment viewing. As of late, that’s been a common occurrence for Bengston.
There are no overnight successes in professional wrestling, though, and Bengston’s journey has been far from conventional.
“I’m from Waterloo, Iowa, which is a wrestling city. It’s home to not only the amateur, but the pro wrestling Hall of Fame. Everyone in the Waterloo metropolitan area is exposed to wrestling at a young age. It’s just a part of our culture. Interestingly for me, I grew up in a household where my Dad was a wrestler — a very accomplished amateur wrestler, but they didn’t think the [pro-wrestling content] at the time was necessarily appropriate for children. So, I was kept away from it.”
While Bengston’s earliest exposure to wrestling was peripheral, he didn’t become a fan until he was in college. From there, Bengston emigrated to London—where he furthered his education at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.
“When I was in college, my roommate, Chance Nichols, who is the producer for Caleb Hearon, was very much into wrestling. And our friend was very into wrestling, and would watch it all the time when I was in college. I ended up going off to England and getting my master’s in Shakespeare. While I’m there, I had this whole situation happen where I’m doing a play and the director cut all my hair off without my permission. It was obviously not a great situation, so my agents at the time were like, ‘OK, maybe take a break, and get your mind right.’”
A chance encounter with Olympic boxer and future All Elite Wrestling star, Anthony Ogogo, helped Bengston pivot into a new profession.
“There was a woman on the show who did lights, and she was like, ‘I’m really sorry this happened to you. If you want to just get away for a little bit, I do lights and sound for a wrestling show in London.’ It was Lucha Britannia and also [Pro-Wrestling EVE]. I told my agents about it, and they said they had a wrestler on their books who’s signed to their agency, named Anthony Ogogo. I didn’t know Anthony at the time, but that’s who it was. I went to my first day of training, and he was there, and I’m not English, so I wasn’t familiar, and we met and took a liking to each other. Then, we found out later that we were signed to the same agency. He moved to America to sign with AEW.
“I had a really surreal start to my career. My first singles match on the books was Callum Newman, when he was 16 or 17. Then the pandemic hit, and England got locked down, and I had to leave the country. I moved to America; I’m not doing anything for a little while. Then Anthony said he was in Atlanta and he didn’t know anybody, so if you want to move out here, let’s make something happen. Then wrestling just takes off from there, and it’s been such an unexpected journey that’s taken me in so many directions and changed who I am as a person.”
Like most prodigies, Bengston acclimated to the subtleties of the mat sport intuitively. He believes much of that can be attributed to his background in Shakespeare.
“I find the bridge between Shakespeare and wrestling is so adjacent[…] If you look at the entertainment of the time, they still had things like bear-baiting, and things that were pseudo-coliseum adjacent in nature. Obviously, wrestling is seen as like modern-day gladiators. But there’s something about the appeal and the connection that a wrestler or Shakespearean actor has with an audience, to which you have to radiate and get people to understand your intention.
“In Shakespeare, “Romeo and Juliet” is the most famous example, because at the very beginning of “Romeo and Juliet” they tell you that Romeo and Juliet are going to die. ‘This is a story of sorrow, misery, and tragedy.’ But there’s still all of these questions. In Shakespeare, there’s always tons of questions, where the actor has to soliloquize with the audience, and the way this would have been performed at the time is that it would have been a genuine conversation between the actor and the audience, or a call-and-response, rather. Like, in “Hamlet,” to be or not to be, right? There would have been people in the audience like, ‘No! To be Hamlet, to be! You gotta stay!’ Or telling Juliet that Romeo’s not right for her, because they would’ve been so emotionally synchronized with the performer, or the subject of attention, that they believe their emotional energy can change the trajectory of the performance. Even though we’re told at the beginning of the performance that Romeo and Juliet are going to die at the end of this, we still want to believe in our hearts that maybe that doesn’t have to be the way that this goes.
“In the same way, if we see a Rey Mysterio fight, I dunno, Brock Lesnar, and we know how that fight will probably go — we want to believe in our hearts that this isn’t how it will go. ”We can will Rey to victory, and there is energy that’s built on that[…]
“There’s an inner strength that you can tap into when you’re really listening and working with the audience.”
Bengston’s greatest quality is the joy he wrestles with. He exudes a lust for life, and his love for his craft is evident in the way he celebrates every small triumph. It’s akin to youthful exuberance. Bengston himself likens it to the cat-and-mouse games of Tom & Jerry or Looney Tunes.
“I already know my fundamentals are clean, so you have to see me in a battle of charisma. We’re almost cartoon characters, and buddy, you’re Tom; I’m sorry, but I’m Jerry. I hate to break it to you, but you are Daffy and I am Bugs, and I refuse to be Daffy. That’s all it really is.”
That confidence stems from Bengston’s aforementioned intuitiveness. It’s a staple of his self-styled discipline, “Catch Flow.”
A technical wrestler is a catch-all term to describe a style rooted in professional wrestling’s catch-as-catch-can traditions. It’s often referred to as a thinking wrestler’s game, relying on the strategic application of holds. Bengston is an adept technical wrestler.
Like all great technicians, Bengston isn’t afraid to improvise.
“I go in, truly, connection first. I know how to wrestle. I know how to do the stuff. I know how to pull the things off, but that’s not really what we’re doing. We all know we can do it. You can all post training clips all day, buddy; that ain’t what we’re doing out here. You can’t even begin to engage in any sort of physical or mental chess if you’re already predisposed to thinking what you’re already going to do.
“If Shakespeare isn’t what we’re closest too, it’s improvisational jazz. Hey, we all know how to practice. This isn’t about hitting my riff or my solo; it’s what you’re bringing to the table, and how can I alley oop you, so you can alley oop me[…] If you were to be so insular in your indulgence and enjoyment of what you do, it limits your creative capacity for what you can really pull off.”
That mentality stems from Bengston’s coaching, dating back to his time at the London School of Lucha Libre.
“I watched a lot of the people who trained me. Greg Burridge is my original trainer. I watched tons, and tons, and tons of his tape, and saw what were the qualities of his that I absorbed the most. And what were his influences? His trainer was the very recently passed Tony Scarlo. So I watched Tony Scarlo, and these World of Sport matches, and there is something a little more fluid, a little more swaggy, a little bit more whatever… That resonated with me. There is something from this formula that is potent, that it traveled from Tony Scarlo, to Greg, to me; and I never met Tony Scarlo.
“So, starting to define what “Catch Flow” is, is inherently that British, almost muscle memory flowing from holds and escapes. Johnny Saint called it escapology. It’s that same kind of familiar slickness[…]
“I’m going to meet you on the field of grappling. I’m going to meet you in the traditional British context of pro-wrestling, and I have to go into an arsenal outside of that; it’s going to be borrowed from [Daniel Makabe].”
Bengston has succeeded where most fail. In an age where wrestling has largely become homogeneous, the “People’s Prince” has become a cottage industry.
“Mouse, Billie Starkz’ father, says all the time: ‘So many people are obsessed with being a swiss-army knife, but, when have you used the swiss-army knife when you had the actual tool at your disposal? You’re not going to use the knife’s screwdriver if you have a power drill. You’re not going to use the knife’s saw if you have a chainsaw. So many of us, form my generation, we’re trying to be Swiss Army knives; jacks of all trades, and masters of none. I think it, across the board, made us more bland[…] You’re seeing shows where you’re seeing lots of the same stuff.
“I’ve really poured into being the best technical wrestler that I can be.”
For decades, there’s been an ongoing dialogue within professional wrestling regarding the relationship between sports and art. There was a time in the 20th century when that notion was widely maligned. Stan Hansen and Danny Hodge weren’t artists; they were athletes: collegiate football players and national champion collegiate wrestlers.
As the sport has become further removed from its foundation in catch wrestling, its evolution in the 21st century has triggered a shift in perspective. Today, professional wrestling’s status as an art form has never been more widely accepted.
Adam Abdalla has explored that relationship with his magazine: Orange Crush: The Journal of Art & Wrestling. In an interview with R. Emmet Sweeny, Abdalla described the magazine’s conceit:
“The thesis of Orange Crush since the beginning was to give the talent primacy and show how these performers are masters of one of America’s oldest folk traditions. To give fans insight into the layers within them: their talents, their creativity.”
Earlier this year, Abdalla launched his own independent wrestling promotion, PRODUCE Wrestling, carrying the ethos of the Orange Crush magazine. Each show boasts a collaborator and co-curator, carrying with him or her a unique vision for the show.
The promotion’s first event was curated by former Ring of Honor World Champion, Jonathan Gresham, dubbed “PRODUCE Wrestling Vol. 1: The Octopus.”
Abdalla and Gresham chose Bengston to compete in PRODUCE Wrestling’s inaugural match against world-travelled warrior Zack Sabre Jr.
Sabre Jr. is widely considered to be the greatest technical wrestler in the world today. Moreover, he’s a two-time IWGP World Heavyweight Champion.
While Bengston wasn’t victorious, the sheer magnitude of the occasion wasn’t lost on him.
“When I wrestled Zack, I did not feel like I was drowning. I did not feel like I was out of my depth. Obviously, I didn’t walk away with the victory, but I feel as though I held my own. I got him[…] To have the most prestigious British technical wrestler in the world be that gotten to, and I wouldn’t consider myself a troll or anything like that, but to be that gotten to because of the acumen that I’ve poured into my craft. He felt, if not just threatened, he felt a little less alone in the ocean as one of its biggest sharks. That was a very validating moment of mine. I’m here; whether or not people feel like I’m here, he feels like I’m here. I know that there’s a seat at the table.”
The fight wasn’t the second veritable dream match for Bengston in 2026. Earlier this year, Bengston squared off against another premier technician in the aforementioned Jonathan Gresham, at the “Jersey J-Cup.”
Abdalla was the matchmaker for that bout as well.
Bengston holds Gresham in similar regard to Sabre Jr., an assertion that has been reinforced by their time spent training in the Southeast.
“People talk about Sabre being the number one all time. I don’t know that it is that clear. To a lot of people, [Gresham] and Sabre are 1A and 1B.
“Obviously, it’s very public information, but he suffered those two strokes, so I got to be there and see him put himself back together again. And kind of reminding himself who he was. To be in the passenger seat for that, and build upon those blocks and grow, and be included into the process was such a… I couldn’t put a value on that experience. It was definitely a point in time where the ring experience in Atlanta was very scarce, so he could only meet us like two hours away from my house. I was like, ‘Man, am I really going to drive four hours on a Wednesday to come see this guy?’ But that’s maybe the greatest wrestler in the world. I would be out of my mind not to sacrifice that, you know, sit through Atlanta traffic to be around him. I don’t think there’s anyone as sharp or as forward-thinking as him, so being around him for the past two years has elevated me to a whole other level of thinking.”
Bengston and Gresham have an opportunity to share the squared circle again next weekend in Tennessee, for the “Pez Whatley Invitational.”
The show will be a co-production between PRODUCE Wrestling, ACTION Wrestling, and ASÉ; honoring the life and career of African-American journeyman Pez Whatley.
“Scott Hensley is a ring announcer here in the Southeast; he was the one who originally formulated the idea. He always loved the work of Pez Whatley. Scott is retiring at the end of the year, so he wanted to do something that mattered on his way out. So, he came to me with the idea. He wanted to get in touch with the family, which we did—we got expressed consent from Pez Jr., as well as the daughter of Pez Whatley, who will be in attendance at the show.
“To be able to honor the chess players in the game who never got the respect or opportunity that they deserved, or the honors and the accolades; people who trailblazed for people like me, people like Jonathan Gresham… Any Southeastern wrestler, like Adam Priest, especially in the Bud Higdon TWE Arena, which has been home for my entire career. It’s an unbelievable opportunity. Eel O’Neal, who is in the tournament; Pez Whatley is his favorite wrestler of all time. It means tons to him too, to be in the first Pez Whatley Invitational.”
Darian Bengston’s upcoming schedule
- ACTION / PRODUCE DEAN-!!! Sunday School – Sep. 13, 2026
- ACTION / ASE / PRODUCE Pez Whatley Invitational – Sep. 19, 2026
- PRODUCE Vol. 5: SKODEN – Oct. 12, 2026
- PRODUCE Black Friday – Nov. 27, 2026 (w/ Darius Lockhart)
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