Michael Cunningham talks about his wrestling career and podcast – Beaumont Enterprise

“(The organizers) were like, ‘oh my god, we need somebody to kind of go in and interfere in this match. We can’t use anybody else because they were already like, in a match or just involved in the storyline. That wouldn’t make sense. Michael, you’re a big fan of wrestling and you used to wrestle in high school,'” Cunningham said. “They said, ‘We just need you to go in there and clothesline him or kick him or something and immediately run out.’ We had three minutes to go over it and I was in the ring.”

After that, Cunningham started to train, wrestle in more shows and develop his stage character as “Mikey Sparkles.”

In addition to his wrestling career, Cunningham, started a podcast at the end of 2019 called “My GBF with Mikey Sparkles.” 

The Enterprise sat down with Cunningham to learn more about his wrestling career and podcast.

Q: What is entertainment wrestling?

A: More people are probably used to what I call ‘collegiate wrestling,’ which is kind of more of like the Olympic style of wrestling. The best way I can describe (entertainment wrestling) is that you’re taking on a character, and really it’s basically like man theater. We’re basically actors who are doing their own stunts. The point of entertainment wrestling is to tell a story — you’re creating a foundation of why these two people are fighting. There’s got to be a beginning, a middle and end.

Definitely putting on a show and telling a story is basically the main concept of it. If you do it right, if your characters are good and there’s good chemistry, the crowd will get behind you and get into it,  get invested. That’s really what you want. You want reactions from the crowd, whether it be them booing, them cheering for you or them getting angry when their favorite wrestler loses or is behind. People get really invested into the story lines.

Q: How did you get into doing entertainment wrestling?

A: When I came backstage after the first show, one of the guys asked “Do you work out?” and I (responded with) “Yeah, I work out. I don’t really do any running.”  They we’re like “We could tell.”  I was like, “What does that mean?” They said, “When you ran to and out of that ring there was definitely no question that you’re definitely on the sweet side.”  And I was like, “Wait, what are you trying to say?” He’s like, “I’m telling you if anybody had any doubts of your sexuality. I’m just going to say the way you ran, I’m not trying to be rude or funny or anything like that, but My God the way you ran to that ring. I think you thought you were more manly than you were. But girl, you were just putting on the runway show.” I was like, “Okay, I’m sorry.” But he’s like, “No, that works perfectly.”

So fast forward to maybe two weekends after the match. My friend told me that they really loved me and they wanted me to come back for training and to be part of the show. I was like, “Wait, did I not just screw this up?” They were like “No, they love you and your personality is great, you have energy. They want to like take you under their wing and help you train be a wrestler.” I was like, “Okay, cool. That’s fun.” Obviously, as a kid and being a fan, I always wanted to be a wrestler, but I felt like, you know, it was just a pipe dream. That would never happen. Especially at that time I was extremely heavy. So I was like, “No, I was like, I don’t know if I can do this.” But, I started training and lost a lot of weight.

Then it was time for our first match. They’re like, “Alright, cool. We need to come up with a gimmick and a name for you.” Someone jokingly said, “Let’s do like a super gay gimmick and we’ll call him “Mikey Sparkles.” I’m like, “Who’s going to take me seriously with the last name sparkles? What about Mike Creed? I think that’s better.” They’re like, “Look like some people, can make a gimmick and it’s it’s either completely different from who you really are or it’s an amplified version of who you are. Your energy is very like charismatic and people are really drawn to you, like the life of the party and you have a good time. Like when people are in a bad mood or whatever, Mikey Sparkles. I think he brings really high energy and a certain fun-ness to wrestling. I’m telling you, Mikey Sparkles if going to be great. I was like, “Okay, I’ll go with it.”

So the first match was coming and I didn’t have any wrestling gear, I didn’t have an outfit. So, I go buy this really tacky blue wig, a pink shirt that has sparkles on it, pink petticoat tulle skirt and some lime green socks that were like all the way up to my knees and some DC slip on shoes. That was my first like wrestling outfit. It was quite embarrassing.

Q: Is it hard to portray a very flamboyant character while at wrestling events?

A: Definitely, especially in the indie scene. I’m one of the few openly gay wrestlers who also does a gay gimmick. In Lucha wrestling, that’s a big thing. They call it exótico wrestlers, whether they be drag queen wrestlers or just doing a super flamboyant gimmick. There’s a lot of transgender wrestlers, you know, especially in the Lucha scene.

But, it’s definitely been tricky. Especially because the way I was the way I was raised and grew up. I definitely tried to be more masculine, and not really be super flamboyant and a lot of times when I go to like wrestling companies or service companies, they’re like, “Oh, hey, like, I really need you to be more flamboyant. I need to be more gay.” Sometimes I’m a little uncomfortable because I’m just like “I am gay. This is who I am. I’m not always super flamboyant. I’m not always super masculine. Sometimes I’m kind of in that middle zone.” Sometimes it takes a little bit of going inside myself and having to be that overdramatic version of myself, who I’m really not in real life. In real life I’m very funny, calm, cool and like to make jokes, but I’m very tamed.

Depending on the storyline, or what I have to do, sometimes the promoter would be like, “Hey, I need more gay. Your gayness is kind of turned down.” I was like, “What do you mean?” A lot of times they want me to like, kiss a guy, and I’m just like, “First of all, COVID is a thing and I have a husband, and I can’t be out here kissing no men, But yeah, a lot of times they’ll ask me to kiss a guy for storyline purposes? Or to shake and rub my backside on the guy or just be touchy feely and I’m just like, let me do the smile wave. So, sometimes it can be a little difficult because they kind of want you to be that stereotypical gay. 

Q: Can you talk more about your podcast?

A: My podcast is called “My GBF with Mikey Sparkles” and you can listen to it pretty much everywhere podcasts are available. I started this podcast because first of all, I was I was inspired by this actress who is also a podcaster, Nicole Byer.  She does this podcast “Why don’t you date me?” where she provides interviews with celebrities, friends and other comedians. She tries to get like dating advice like “Why am I single?” or “Why won’t you date me?” So that kind of inspired me. 

I kind of wanted a podcast where I interview wrestlers, but not just wrestlers, just people that I think are doing interesting things. A lot of my friends have their own businesses or they’re just doing cool things and I feel like people need to hear it. It was also a fun way to just kind of interact with my friends on different levels and for us to get closer. A lot of my podcast episodes are with friends or people that I know. A few of them are with people in the Beaumont community who have their own businesses, whether it be personal training, I’ve interviewed a few friends who are teachers, an aesthetician, a lot of wrestlers, a few salon owners, restaurant owners, just people who are who I think are just doing fun things.

I’ve started that just to have a different voice out there. I think it’s really important to have representation, that’s one of the main main reasons why I started my podcast.

Q: What sort of acting have you done? 

A: Me and my friend did this music video back in 2011 or 2012, which was my first time getting into “acting.” They were a local band, Jenny & the Reincarnation, and I want to say it was a Boomtown Music Festival thing that was going and we had to shoot a music video. The song was called “The Witch Doctor” and I played like the mad scientist type guy or whatever. We were shooting it in this really cool house. So, I did the music video. Then I’ve kind of done like a few little background things on like some little indie commercials and TV shows and stuff like that.

My most recent one was the Rare Lumber commercial, which I think we did maybe about six or seven months ago at this point. That one really, really helped kind of motivate me and be like “okay, maybe I’m in the right space for this.”

I really got inspired by my friend Lela Elam, who is a theatre actress, but she’s also been on Suits and a few Netflix shows and I think she’s been on a few shows on the Oprah Winfrey Network as well. I met her when she was living down here in Texas and immediately just connected with her. She was like, “Hey, have you ever tried to act?” I was like, “oh, my friends and I did little like background things for film festivals and music videos, just little things like that. Nothing like serious.”  She was like, “I’m telling you, get some headshots, subscribe to backstage, even just with some voice acting. Just get out there and do it. I’m telling you like you have the energy for it. Some people just don’t have it, but you have something.” I was like, “Okay, I’ve always wanted to do something in the entertainment business.” Working a 9 to 5 is great and all, but I don’t see myself doing it forever, it’s kind of like the means to an end.

Q: What is it like trying to come up as a wrestler, podcaster and actor in Southeast Texas?

A: It’s not easy. I definitely will say there is a lot of local talent here. I won’t say it’s impossible to do, but it’s very hard to do because mostly auditions are bigger things are going to be in bigger cities like Austin, Houston, Dallas, and New Orleans. There’s a lot of, you know, casting auditions in those areas and it’s the same thing with wrestling. Sometimes you have to travel quite a bit in order to just even get a shot. But it is definitely hard, because I have to work with my work schedule. I have to be willing to make sacrifices. Sometimes I have to be able to miss work to maybe get a shot at a commercial or maybe be able to make it to the final rounds an audition. It’s not guaranteed and that’s the scary part because you’re just like, “Well, look. I feel like I could do this if I didn’t have to worry about working two jobs and making sure the house is good, making sure my dogs are good, making sure my husband’s good, making sure my parents are okay.” That’s why I feel like it’s taking me a while to even get started, especially with my wrestling career because I put that on hold for for quite a while to work and make sure that the house is okay.

Back in 2021, my husband got hit by a car and he couldn’t walk for five or six months, and I still had to work, but I couldn’t work as much because someone had to be be with him at all times. He’s just getting to the point where he can be alone and he’s walking again, thank God, but that’s a lot of time away for me to do anything. I couldn’t wrestle. I couldn’t go out of town. I couldn’t do anything. And I would do it all over again because that’s my husband and I love him. But again, something always came up to where I couldn’t give my full focus to pursue this and deal with acting and wrestling.

To be in the entertainment business you have to you have to be able to really pursue things and really be available. So, I feel like I’ve missed out on a lot of opportunities just because I chose work ot I’ve just chosen to sacrifice certain things. Recently this past year, I definitely took a little more time for myself to pursue entertainment and stuff like that and it really paid off especially with my wrestling. I ended up going from being booked to maybe one or two shows every other month to working almost every weekend and that was amazing. It’s definitely a grind, definitely a sacrifice. I feel like it’s going to be worth it in the end, but I’m still in that phase of like trying to make it work.

Q: What would you tell kids, high schoolers and even adults in Southeast Texas who are struggling to pursue their dreams?

A: I would definitely say you want a support system. No matter what your dream is, you definitely want to know your support system going to be behind you. If someone’s not around you to support you, sometimes that is a big hindrance and that will stop people from even trying.

Also, journaling (is important). I know that sounds really weird, but I journal every day, especially when I’m having those low days of self doubt, or low confidence. I journal and put all my negative thoughts on paper. Once I get all out, I break that page off, I tear it up and throw it in a trash can and then I write something really nice to myself, or I write something that I want to achieve like a short term goal that I know I can achieve. Sometimes achieving those short little goals helps me stay motivated.

courtney.pedersen@beaumontenterprise.com

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