Jon Pepperell Interview

This is the first interview for the CWA website and we are not starting with the World Champion, the B.C.M, Johnny Storm or Johnny Kidd, we are starting with a cameraman. Jon Pepperell was joint promoter for the White Collar Fight Club, web manager and cameraman for White Collar Fight Club and Cage Amateurs UK. Jon has worked with CWA as a cameraman and conducted interviews for his website CAUK with both myself and Grant Mitchell.

Hi Jon, thanks for joining me.

Hey Karl this is a bit odd I’m used to having the boot on the other foot and doing this from the side you are now. Thank you for asking me there are some great names in the CWA so to be asked to kick things off is an honour. I will try not to waffle on too much.

How did WCFC & CAUK get started?

That was all down to my friend and Cage Amateurs UK partner Dan Towers. I had done some filming of professional pantomimes for my brother so had messed around with video and had a camera. I knew Dan was interested in MMA as he had previously invited me to a local show which I had declined but what I didn’t know was he had started writing a few pieces for a couple of websites. The next thing I know we had done some interviews at Combat Sports Academy in Strood been to a tournament and had decided to have a website. This alone was going to cause some problems as we had never done one before.  In fact we had no experience or training in any part of what we were about to embark on. Not ones to be put off by such things Cage Amateurs UK was born back in March 2012. Initially it was to be a website about would you believe Cage Fighting but I had been involved with martial arts in my youth, Dan was a big wrestling fan so we decided not to restrict ourselves to one thing but to cover combat sport in general. Had we decided that sooner then I very much doubt the name Cage Amateurs would exist but as we had already started to get things moving the name had to stay. We decided Dan was going to be taking care of the people side of things and I would take care of the ‘technical’ side. We were flat out every weekend as Dan kept the interviews and show reviews coming thick and fast. The White Collar Fight Club came about as a fund raiser when a local guy was murdered on his way home on New Year’s Eve. Promoting a boxing show was totally new to us but the first show was held in May 2013 and went really well. Now WCFC is five shows old and each one has got better and better. As you know yourself a lot of work goes in to these shows and Dan has worked hard to keep things improving but also not leaving us broke. Both of these things he has done brilliantly. The downside is there is only so much time in a day that is spare after work and family and both ventures take a massive amount of time.  This had meant us drifting in different directions, Dan with WCFC and me with CAUK.

There are a lot of similarities between Wrestling and MMA. How would you compare promoting an MMA show to a Wrestling show?

Personally I think any show is trying to achieve the same thing ultimately. Two obvious ones being a happy audience and covering the costs. MMA promotions are like boxing in that fighters sell tickets. The problem is how many times are you able to sell tickets to family and friends. I don’t see what else they can do really advertising is not cheap and can add a big lump to the costs. Wrestling show tickets are cheap compared to other types of event which doesn’t help the situation. That’s before you add promoters being let down by fighters/wrestlers. I would say they are more similar than they are different.

You have written articles for and filmed the last two CWA shows for CAUK. How did you make the move into filming wrestling?

Dan is a massive fan of wrestling. I was a little sceptical to be honest at first and was not sure how well it would be received on a combat sport website. But I am totally converted now. We did a few audio interviews and written ones and went off to the wrestler’s reunion and grabbed some film there. We got too know the guys from Dropkixx and the rest is history so to speak. The wrestling section of the site was being neglected and if it hadn’t been for two excellent bloggers, The Infamous Informer WWE and The Jobber Blogger TNA both very different in style but excellent at what they do we would have had no updates in the wrestling section of the site for far too long. Without them allowing us to use their work it would have probably fizzled out. These guys have been with us from very early on and are as much a part of CAUK as Dan and I. It was your show though that the filming side of it went up a level. I had never done two camera video pretty much because I have only got one camera and we wasn’t really ever geared up to do that sort of thing. Your show was being filmed by your cam op Daniel Fox so I ended up speaking to him about using his footage and mixing it in with mine. That also allows Daniel to get his footage out before mine while I try and get the two lots of video put together. I can’t say it has been perfect but has certainly made things more fluid as unlike other shows I film the fighters don’t usually come flying over the ropes leaving the camera in totally the wrong place. Dan’s a decent guy and easy to work with so it makes sense to help each other out. That was a long way of saying that we got into filming wrestling ‘Because we love it.’

What made you choose CWA to re-launch the wrestling section of your website?

In all honesty it was down to sheer good luck on my part. I saw the CWA were doing a show to raise much needed funds for The British Heart Foundation and although you guys were only on your second promotion you were not cutting any corners in your efforts to put on a great show. If I remember correctly I contacted you for an email interview, we ended up speaking on the phone and were chatting for ages. I asked if there was any chance of coming on the night and grabbing some footage. You completed the interview which I loved and I just knew at that point I had been really lucky and now it was down to me too give something back to the CWA team and the guys fighting on the evening.

Are there any particular moments or matches from a CWA show that stick in your mind?

Yes indeed there is. To answer this as best I can I would like to comment on the actual show. It is second to none everyone involved is busting a gut to make sure the crowd have a good time. You can’t fault the ability of the wrestlers every move was believable and it was obvious the CWA management had not just thrown this together.  When you are filming something you don’t really see things as you would if you were in the audience. But one thing that has stuck in my mind is how loud Jezabeth is for someone so petite.

I also have to stop myself laughing constantly as there is always something going on when certain people are in the ring. During the last show there was an 8 man tag. Panthrax was in the ring and there was a bit of verbal going on between him and Tony Kemp who was standing on the apron waiting to be tagged. I believe his team mate was in the BCM’s corner being looked after and he was protesting about the situation. Panthrax walked over to him and poked him in the eye and just turned and walked off. He was mightily pissed off. Total comedy gold it killed me I even had to use different audio as I was chuckling away to myself.  There is so much going on you never know what is going to happen next.

Do you have any favorite wrestlers?

I saw this question before I answered the last one and had to leave this person out of the last answer. Due to everyone being so good at what they do it’s difficult so I will pick only one from the current wrestlers available. In years gone by there were people like ‘The Bushwackers’ from the WWF, ‘Kendo Nagasaki’ and ‘Catweazle’ from the ‘World of Sport’ era. From the new wave of wrestlers I have to say Freddie Cornell. He is a genius. In the beatings are us times Jon ‘The Don’ Richie, Honest Ernest Sterling, Eddie and Freddie were totally brilliant. But Freddie stands out if you watch him carefully. He is always doing something be that arguing with someone ring side or trying to take something off of a child in the audience. He can engage a lump of the audience even while the wrestling is going on in the ring and it enhances what’s happening around him. He’s a good wrestler as well so he is convincing in the ring, but it is the things he does ‘off camera’ that add depth to his character and make him even more believable when he is going off on a tangent while he is supposed to be helping his tag partner.

In the past we have talked about the perception of women’s wrestling. What is the MMA world like for female fighters?

Ah there is a subject that could get me lynched if you know my views on women’s sport.  Views that are fast being proven wrong. August 2012 we were lucky enough to be involved in supporting a show that consisted of the fight card being all female. Women Fight Back was raising funds to help a domestic violence charity to continue their work in a much needed service. I had been impressed previously with some female cage fights I had seen but wasn’t sure if this was a one off. After the WFB show I would argue with anyone that the girls are as good to watch matching the guys on a skill level and gutsy determination not often seen in other female sport. As far as how they are treated by promotions I could not say but I hope they are treated as equals to the male fighters and shame on anyone who does otherwise.

What do your plans for the future hold for CAUK and WCFC?

Tricky one that myself and Dan have gone our own ways pretty much. Dan likes to do the promotion side of things where as I am not really interested. I can’t speak for Dan but I will get Christmas over then access the situation as far as how I move forward with CAUK, obviously it is not the easiest of things to do on your own especially as we have always got our own content and not copy and pasted it from elsewhere. We are still friends and I would like to say I am so glad he asked me to go and do those interviews at Combat Sports Academy or I would have missed out on a great experience and not met so many excellent people.

It’s been an absolute pleasure talking to you as always Jon. Thank you for speaking with us, it’s been very interesting to hear your perspective and Thank you for the support you have given CWA,

I hope you can be with us at our next show.

Thank you for involving me and I can’t wait for the next one. If I could just say to your readers please pop over if you have a few minutes and see what I get up too at Cage Amateurs UK and if you are ever at a wrestling show and the urge to write about it overcomes you I would be happy to put it on site.

If you like WWE Wrestling or TNA I am sure The Infamous Informer and The Jobber Blogger, Michael Grant and Dan Wilkinson respectively would appreciate you taking a look at what they do. Finally thank you too everyone who has allowed to be part of the combat sport world by doing interviews for us or allowing us to attend their shows.

Please check out the CAUK website and You Tube Wrestling, MMA channels, also follow them on Twitter @CageAmateurs  and visit the facebook page.