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Robert Martyr has been in professional wrestling for over a decade, and on Saturday he hopes to add a win against a “legitimate legend” in Bárbaro Cavernario.
Martyr and Cavernario’s match is one of the fights on a stacked card that will take place at Pandemonium: Pro Wrestling’s Dismantling Summer event in Portland, Oregon. Martyr told PK Press Club Digital that he was a little worried about winning the match before going into it.
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Robert Martyr prepares for his next match. (Provided to PK Press Club Digital)
“I’ve gone back and forth on this,” he said in a recent interview. “I was going back and forth about the match when it was presented to me. You always have ideas in your head. You always have that level of imposter syndrome. But then I realized, man, I’ve been doing this for 11 years. It’s time to stop sulking. I’ve been doing this for 11 years. I’m good at what I do. I’m truly one of the best in indies. It doesn’t matter how often I wrestle. but every time I get on the ring, I do magic.
“I’m very excited. I know a lot about Bárbaro. He’s one of the best in the world. He’s legitimately been one of the best in the world for maybe 10 years. I’m no stranger to Lucha. I was born and raised in Lucha. I studied it. It was my first style when I learned to do professional wrestling. So, I’m very, very excited. I’m going to be on a big show with Pandemonium – at this time. The thing about Barbaro is he legit wrestled at Arena Mexico. He fought everything. I’m going to say I have to get in the ring with a legit legend and I’m not going to lose.
Martyr made his professional wrestling debut when he was just a teenager. He said he became hooked on the sport while watching old Lucha Libre tapes that his grandmother recorded.
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While others grew up watching WWE (then World Wrestling Federation) and World Championship Wrestling, Martyr said he became hooked on Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide (AAA) and Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL).
“I started doing professional wrestling when I was 14. I got into it because my grandmother was a huge wrestling fan. She was always taping wrestling. She had tapes of AAA and CMLL,” he told PK Press Club Digital. “Funny enough, I didn’t grow up on WWE at all. I grew up on Lucha Libre. That’s all I watched since maybe I was 3 or 4 years old.
Professional wrestler Robert Martyr nails his opponent in the back of the head. (Provided to PK Press Club Digital)
“Eventually, you know, I got ADHD, I’m like, man, I can’t sit still, and my mom was trying to find a sport and nothing was working. And I said, why don’t I just try wrestling. I don’t know if that’s possible. I found a school. They made us sign a waiver and the rest is history. So, that’s pretty much what I did. I wrestled in high school. I did boxing, Muy Thai. I do a lot of things.
Martyr said his hope was to bring out some emotion in those watching. He wants to make people feel all kinds of emotions when he presents his performance in the ring.
Like most professional wrestlers, it took a while to get there and the task wouldn’t be as much as it was if there weren’t some crazy stories along the way.
Martyr shared his own story about being booked for his first show outside of his home state of Florida.
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“Probably the craziest thing was when I drove 20 hours to Chicago to wrestle for three minutes. That was really something. The professional wrestler, she’s amazing, Janai Kai, was in that car. EK Prosper from NXT was in that car too. We were all together,” he explained. “I started with these guys. We got this booking and we were like, you know what, this is our first out-of-state booking (Florida-based), we’re going to make it. We’re going to go. We’re going to put all our money together, drive there. So, we drive there and it’s just a mess. It’s like the worst show you’ve ever seen in your life.
“Nobody knows what’s going on. The promoter doesn’t know what’s going on. He almost forgot that he booked me specifically. He forgot that I was there as well. So when I showed up, he was like, ‘Wait, did I book you?’ from Orlando, Florida, to Chicago, Illinois, and back. So really 40 hours for a two-minute squash match.
Independent wrestler Robert Martyr watches the professional wrestling ring. (Provided to PK Press Club Digital)
Martyr admitted that he had taken the loss on this trip and may not have even been paid for his troubles.
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Looking ahead, he said he hopes to win gold in the near future. If he does, it would be the first championship he would win in his professional wrestling career.
