In a statement last May which a lot of football fans received as a late April Fool's Day joke, Grant Holt announced his ambitious intention to leave his football boots behind in order to move into the ring as a professional wrestler. After a few short months, he's burst onto the scene with a debut to remember, taking down forty opponents in a sensational Royal Rumble win for the former football league striker.
Best known for his time at Norwich City between 2009 and 2013, Grant Holt was a talisman for The Canaries as they found promotion to the Premier League in the 2011/12 season. Although he was unbeatable while at Carrow Road, he couldn't find the same sort of form at the eight clubs he played for after Norwich, eventually leading him to the conclusion that he was set for a future in WAW (the World Association of Wrestling).
Despite it being perceived by some as a bizarre form of publicity stunt, Holt proved his determination to be successful as a wrestler, making his debut on Saturday evening, where he defeated forty opposing fighters. As if it wasn't a bizarre enough story, the former Canaries number 9 played out his debut in a shirt, a jumper and jeans, rather than the traditionally outlandish outfits which come with being a wrestler.
As much as the entire situation completely baffles us, we wish Grant the best of luck in his new, if not slightly questionable, career path!
Watch Holt's debut wrestling win here: (video courtesy of @BBCNorfolk)
After stints at an array of different football clubs across the country, Grant Holt was most successful at Norwich City, where he played a key part in the side's promotion to the Premier League, and scored sixty-eight goals in 154 appearances. He left the club in 2013, where he enjoyed a three-year spell at Wigan Athletic, before spending the next two years moving between seven different clubs in a variety of short-term contracts and loan deals.
His debut in the world of British Wrestling has prompted a follow-up fight, which has already been announced as a tag-team match. The WAW is situated in Norwich, as are all of the fights he's set to be involved in, which ties in perfectly with his part-time coaching role at Norwich City, where he remains close to a club he has fond memories of and arguably spent the best years of his playing career.
