Say goodnight to the bad guy

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This article was published 29/05/2023 (1072 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Thirty years of taking body slams, powerbombs and piledrivers has finally caught up with Westman-raised professional wrestler Vern May, who has decided to officially retire his in-ring persona Vance Nevada later this year.

But before May hangs up his wrestling boots for good, he’s looking to perform in front of Canadian audiences one more time on a farewell tour, which includes a string of shows in Manitoba that wraps up in his hometown of Souris on June 10.

Talking to the Sun on Friday, the 47-year-old athlete said he has made peace with his decision to end his career as an active wrestler, especially since compounding injuries have really taken their toll.

“About six years ago, I had to get a lower back spinal fusion surgery in Brandon,” May said over the phone from New Brunswick.

“Then I’ve had a fully torn ACL in my left knee. And my neck is just not right. It’s keyed off to the left and we can’t get it back to the proper alignment.”

Despite the nagging pain, May isn’t bitter about his chosen profession.

He remains proud of his steady work between the ropes over the last three decades, which has led to more than 40 championships and a recurring spot on Pro Wrestling Illustrated’s annual list of the 500 best wrestlers.

May thinks these accolades are particularly noteworthy given his upbringing in rural Westman, where no one expected his love of professional wrestling to turn into a legitimate career.

“It doesn’t seem like something that a farm kid from Souris is allowed to do,” he said.

“It’s completely realistic if you want to play in the NHL … but when I told people I wanted to be a professional wrestler, I might as well have told them I wanted to fly to Mars.”

However, May’s circumstances changed one day in school when a classmate mentioned that his cousin was Chi Chi Cruz, a wrestler who made a significant mark in the industry despite growing up in the nearby rural community of Hartney.

With this in mind, a teenage May began to actively seek out volunteer opportunities at local wrestling shows, which put him into contact with Chi Chi Cruz’s trainer, Ernest Rheault.

After showing May the tricks of the trade in a backyard ring, Rheault introduced the rookie to the wrestling scene in Winnipeg, with his first official match taking place at the city’s Chalmers Community Club in May 1993.

From there, May secured gigs at various promotions all over the country once he managed to fine-tune his bad guy character, who was an expert at riling up the crowd with his villainous antics.

“They knew if they booked Vance Nevada that it’s going to sell tickets, and they’re going to get the reaction from the people that they need to make them come back again,” May said.

While May never managed to break into the United States wrestling circuit due to travel issues, he continued to thrive here at home, getting more and more involved with the behind-the-scenes aspect of the business.

His presence in the industry was particularly meaningful to fellow Manitoba wrestlers like “Hotshot” Danny Duggan, who founded his own promotion, Canadian Wrestling’s Elite (CWE), in 2009 and cites May as a major influence.

“Just seeing how Vern handled talent and booked events over the years, it was definitely a blueprint for promoters like myself to get into the industry and have a launching pad,” Duggan said on Sunday.

Despite all this success, May encountered some major hurdles when he left the wrestling business in the early 2010s and attempted to find a job that didn’t involve putting his co-workers in a headlock.

May describes this transition as one of the most difficult periods in his life, with a lot of employers viewing his professional wrestling career as a 20-year gap in his resume.

But in 2014, May was able to successfully start over in his hometown by becoming the Souris-Glenwood Community Development Corporation’s new economic development officer.

He used the media skills he picked up as a wrestling promoter to trumpet the town’s recovery following a disastrous 2011 flood.

“It was about telling a new story and communicating to the community at large and the rest of Manitoba that Souris didn’t wash away with the flood,” he said.

“So we did more tourism, marketing and special events. We had big-name concerts with Aaron Pritchett and Doc Walker over the summer and gave people a reason to celebrate Souris again.”

While May would fulfil similar roles in Minnedosa and Portage la Prairie, a seemingly one-off appearance in Duggan’s CWE led to his official return to the ring in 2018.

Even though the last five years have included large periods of inactivity due to the COVID-19 pandemic, May has enjoyed his late-period run as a performer, particularly when it comes to steering a new generation of independent Canadian talent in the right direction.

“A lot of their influences are strictly from ‘Monday Night Raw,’ and that’s not always directly relevant to how you perform,” he said, referencing the flagship television program of World Wrestling Entertainment.

“How you perform for television cameras is different from how you perform for a live audience.”

May also used the down time brought about by the pandemic to complete his latest book titled “(Un)Controlled Chaos,” which provides a snapshot of unforgettable moments in Canadian wrestling history.

This book serves as a followup to his 2009 work “Wrestling in the Canadian West,” which earned him a historian award from the well-respected non-profit organization known as the Cauliflower Alley Club.

To Duggan, May’s work as an author might be his longest-lasting contribution to the industry, since his knowledge of statistics and general wrestling history is completely unmatched in the country.

“Because as a performer myself who’s competed for over 20 years and has over 1,000 matches, I couldn’t begin to tell you where they were and who they were with,” Duggan said.

“But [May] has a record of that somewhere, and that’s something all of us, when we leave the business, we would love to have … something to look back on in our older years.”

May told the Sun that once he officially retires from his in-ring career, he wants to continue working in the wrestling business in a strictly behind-the-scenes capacity, while also leaving some room for additional writing projects on the side.

But for right now, May’s main focus is getting physically and mentally ready for his final set of shows in Manitoba, where he’s looking to pop the crowd one last time and inspire his fans to pursue their dreams, whether that involves the wrestling business or not.

“The most important thing … is you need to dream big and don’t be discouraged by anyone who didn’t really have the guts to pursue what they wanted,” he said.

“So as long as you’re opened to possibilities and are still doing what you love to do, then keep going.”

May’s final matches in Manitoba will be as a member of the CWE roster. CWE is making stops in Neepawa (June 7), Morden (June 8), Winnipeg (June 9) and finally Souris (June 10).

As of this weekend, May believes that his last official match will take place sometime in November.

» kdarbyson@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @KyleDarbyson