Rhio remembers Mad Kurt.
In December of last year, the wrestling world lost one of its brightest lights as Kurtis "Mad Kurt" Kurtis Chapman passed away. In the wake of his tragic death, the British wrestling scene came together to celebrate the life of Kurt with Mad Kurt Forever, with all proceeds from the event going to the family of Mad Kurt.
Speaking to Fightful's Corey Brennan in a recent interview, Rhio was asked about a fond memory she has of working with Kurt.
"I think working with Kurt was a fond memory just because of how he was. He was the best class clown that you could ever wish to see on a show. Every day you saw him, he kind of reminded me of like, you know, like any, any dog lovers will understand what I'm going to say. Like no matter what day you have in, you come home and your dog is happy to see you and they just make your day. You can have the worst day in the world, but you see them and you within two minutes of being around the dog, you're like, it's fine. Everything's fine. I'm happy now. Kurt was like that. Like you could have had the worst travel day or you maybe had a worst week ever. You'd see Kurt and he'd do something to make you laugh or, he'd just cheer you up no end. He'd have some mad words to say that you're just like, well, that just doesn't make sense. I don't know what you're talking about. Whether he disorientated you enough with what he's saying to just make you forget what you're writing about. But he was just always one of those, like, he was just funny. He was just naturally funny. He made sure that he'd, like, you know, take the mick out of himself to cheer someone else up and take the mick out of everybody else, to cheer everybody else up as well or cheer himself up, you know. I think just when you just look at him and you just think, like, you used to see him go in the ring with people like Luke or Dan Maloney and he'd be there chatting all sorts to their face and covering them. I thought, oh, come on, Kurt, they're going to kill you, and he would inevitably get, like, chopped until he felt like his chest was bleeding and whatever. But, yeah, like... I don't have any in particular, every memory with Kurt was a fun one, but yeah."
Rhio continued, reflecting on working on Mad Kurt Forever in memory of Kurt, noting that it was a show she wanted to be on more than any other this year.
"I was going to be on it whether or not, there was no one stopping me being on that show, but to get the message to say we've got this together and we'd really like you to be a part of it just honestly that was probably, if I could pick a show to be a part of, that was the one I wanted to do this year. Oh, cause like, there's just, there's nothing like it. It was a show where you really, as much as we all showed our love for Kurt and I hope he felt it, like it was a gratitude moment as well as everyone around me was like, look, with friendship and life is so, so precious in it. I was lucky to be there. We've actually one of like my best mates as well. And it's one of them when you're like, you just realize like, I don't ever, want to have to do this for my mate and I don't want to really like think of living without them, you know, like these are people you don't realize I think at the time and maybe this is like where the gratitude comes in as well as you you don't realize with your best friends and things like how much you actually you know how much you need them in your life, like you know, you see them and you go, I'll see you at the weekend or I'll see you on Wednesday or whenever you meet up and stuff and then just to think that that would be a thing taken away from you. You wouldn't be able to go for a coffee or go to the beach. For me, have girls' chats and stuff like that, that wouldn't do me any favours because my girls, the circle I've got is small and it's a very tight circle. It's an honest circle, which sometimes I think, all right, all right. A little too honest sometimes. What are you thinking? God, it's a good job you're my best mate. You frigging hurt my feelings. But it is, it's a, you know, it is a strong, strong circle and I really couldn't imagine it. So it definitely brought a lot of gratitude and I'll be forever grateful to be able to do that show and, you know, hopefully show Kurt that he was so loved by everyone. So, and he had so much to offer. Whether it's dabbing in people's faces, you know, there's only so many people who dab at Minoru Suzuki in this show."
Elsewhere in Rhio's interview with Fightful, she discussed a possible Super Strong Style 16 tournament being held for women. You can read more about that here.
