1) Scotty Mac is a 36-year-old wrestler and current champion of Elite Canadian Championship Wrestling (ECCW) who thrives on being booed and disliked by fans as a "heel" character. 2) Mac has been involved in pro wrestling since childhood and began training at 18, having his first match just 6 months later. He now owns and operates ECCW. 3) As a wrestler, Mac's style is reminiscent of Shawn Michaels and involves high-flying moves, technical grappling, and finishing moves like Michaels' superkick. 4) Pro wrestling has become more accepting of reality outside the ring, with fans aware it is predetermined but

1. From the Top Rope
The physical, violent and very real theatre of pro wrestling
Carlo Javier // Executive Lifestyle Editor
Scotty Mac is spiteful.
The current Elite Canadian Championship Wrestling (ECCW) champion isn’t satisfied
with his title. He wants more. Every time he cuts a promo in the ring, he demands the
adoration of the crowd. He’s been with the company for a long time and he’s done a lot
for the people who follow it. In his mind, the crowd owes him respect, gratitude and
appreciation, but they have other plans. They boo and they heckle, and despite being the
champion, much of the ECCW fan base hates Scotty Mac. But it doesn’t matter — in
fact, he loves it. In the world of pro wrestling, some people thrive under the chorus of
boos and hate. Several of the most enduring icons in the business have been “heel”
characters, including the Iron Sheik, Jake “the Snake” Roberts and Triple H, to name just
a few.
Born Scott Schnurr, the 36-year-old, 5-9, 179-pound wrestler has been surrounded
by pro wrestling since he was child. He would collect action figures and magazines. He
made it a mission to never miss a single episode of WWE Raw or Smackdown, and if he
knew he was going to miss a show, he always had it recorded. Simply put, it was his
favourite thing in the world.
After high school, Mac immediately began his pursuit of becoming a pro wrestler.
He trained with Can-Am Wrestling in Alberta and continued his training once he returned
to BC and joined the ECCW. His first match came with just under six months of training
under his belt. “I had already gotten into good shape. I know that I had a marketable look
right off the bat so [the ECCW] got me in the ring relatively quickly,” he said.
Mac’s first bout was against his own trainer, Chance Beckett, a man who, to this
day, he labels as among the most talented wrestlers he’s ever been in the ring with —
high praise considering Mac has worked with one of World Wrestling Entertainment’s
(WWE) biggest stars today, Daniel Bryan. Though Mac treasures his first match
experience, saying that it was probably better than the first matches of most wrestlers, it
didn’t necessarily go without a hitch. “It was a little bit scary though because I had

2. broken my wrist six weeks earlier,” he recalled. His cast was taken off just two days prior
to the bout.
Nearly 16 years later, Mac remains with the ECCW, and not only as its current
champion but also as part owner of the company. In 2010, ECCW founder and then-
owner, Dave Republic, decided to step away from the helm of Canada’s longest-running
pro wrestling promotion, selling the company to a group led by Mac. Mac has done well
for the ECCW – the company thrives in training and producing Canadian wrestlers, as
opposed to booking shows headlined by former WWE stars. He’s run the promotion for
the last year and has been an owner for the last five years. He takes pride in the fact that
the ECCW has provided a professional wrestling product that Vancouver can call its own.
“We have built up a fan base on homegrown talent, as opposed to relying on bringing in
former WWE stars in order to grow our fan base. We do bring in stars occasionally but
for the most part, our wresting shows, they involve wresters who are from here or they’ve
trained with us,” he said.
In the ring, Mac’s work is reminiscent of WWE legend Shawn Michaels. He’s
worked to be able to adapt his style to whomever his working with. He’s able to keep up
with the speedy and high-flying types, he can stand his ground with mat-based wrestlers
and he can compete with the most technical and savviest grapplers, mixing in a healthy
amount of suplexes, slams and top rope activity. He even shares the same finisher as
Michaels and resents the fact that it’s become an overused move in the arsenals of many
wrestlers. “I idolized Shawn Michaels growing up,” he said.
“Shawn Michaels’ finisher was the superkick and I was in martial arts growing up as
well, so my kicks were always pretty decent. I find these days in wrestling, a lot of times
the superkick is overdone. When Shawn Michaels was doing it, it was a finishing move.
Nowadays when you watch WWE, there are several guys that do it as part of their regular
offence. It’s unfortunate because it’s not looked at as the finisher as it once was.”
As a whole, the world of pro wrestling has undoubtedly been polarizing to the
mainstream. Fan support for the WWE has fluctuated over the years, with the commonly-
accepted golden age happening somewhere around the late 90’s and early 2000’s, during
the peak of ultra-popular stars like “Stone Cold” Steve Austin and The Rock. The
“Attitude Era,” as its labelled by many including the WWE itself, has come and gone.

3. While the rise of the Internet and blogspots has provided extra coverage for pro
wrestling, it’s also been a double-edged sword. Finding the pre-determined results of an
upcoming match is easier than it’s ever been. Information on returning and debuting
wrestlers is also relatively easy to find online. Even hints, speculations and rumours from
backstage aren’t safe from the reach of the Internet.
Due to that, the WWE has adapted its ways. Save for arguably its most iconic
figure, The Undertaker, the WWE no longer keeps its stars’ off-screen personas out of the
public eye. In fact, the lives of its biggest stars have never been as accessible to the public
as they are now. Xavier Woods, one of the WWE’s up-and-coming stars hosts
UpUpDownDown, a YouTube channel dedicated to gaming. The video series depicts him
and several members of the roster playing video games – completely off character.
This acceptance of reality, from both the promotion and fans, isn’t exclusive to
the WWE. Even smaller companies understand that the fans know, and have mostly come
to terms with the fact that at the end of the day, pro wrestling is a matter of suspending
belief. “Most of our fan base is very much aware of my position in the company now.
I’ve been around and they now that I have a lot of influence in the company,” said Mac.
“In promos, I’ve started demanding respect, appreciation and gratitude for everything
I’ve done for everyone, and it’s in a way where hopefully it comes off as very unlikeable
and that the people don’t want to be told that they should appreciate me.”
The conflict with the word “fake” has also steadily faded in recent years. Fans
will remain fans as long as they enjoy the craft. The issue has always been with non-fans,
who Mac described as people who don’t like wrestling because they believe the people
who like wrestling think it’s real. For Mac, he said that the general public is finally
getting to the point where they’ve come to accept wrestling for what it is, “It seems like
the mainstream public is accepting that a wrestling fan doesn’t care that they know who
wins beforehand — they’re watching it to enjoy, suspend their belief and to be taken on a
rollercoaster ride and told a great story.”
Nearly two years ago, the ECCW did their first show at Vancouver’s storied
Commodore Ballroom. The show sold out and was dedicated to Mac’s grandmother, who
had passed away just weeks before the night. As he always strives to do each and every
night he’s in the squared circle, Mac put on a great match. At the end of the night, he

4. came out to address the crowd.
This was an emotional moment for Mac, a monumental one too. This time
however, he wasn’t being booed. He wasn’t demanding the respect, appreciation and
gratitude that he often would on any other night. He was grateful, and so were they, as a
loud “Thank You Scotty” filled the ballroom. This was pro wrestling at it’s finest, when
fragments of reality and character are blurred and everything comes together as one.