Town welcomes the SKY cameras and a, as yet unnamed, celebrity ex-player on Saturday (more on that tomorrow) but today (Thursday), the village club six miles down the road has confirmed that it is in the early stages of negotiations with WWE wrestling superstar Mason Ryan (pictured)!

 

The link has been made through striker-cum-wingback Gaz Jones who was Mason's roommate during his Cardiff college days when he was known as Barri Griffiths from Porthmadog.

 

Fate has taken the sports mad North Walian across the Atlantic where last year he signed a moneybags five-year deal to become Mason Ryan in the WWE. He has since become a phenomenon and a global star.

 

“I have contacted Barri (aka Mason) and I think he will sign for us,” said school teacher Gaz. “He is back in the UK in April with the tour so we have sent off the forms and hopefully he will sign for us.”

 

Welshpool’s incredible relationship with SKY Sports – which started after manager Dave Jones complained about Jeff Stelling ridiculing them following a 10-1 defeat to Waterloo – has got other clubs checking their connections.

 

“We got chatting about trying to get a famous signing and I just dropped his name into conversation and some of the lads recognised it and said they had seen him on WWE,” explained Gaz. “Then it escalated into saying how funny it would be to have him starting at centre half and the look on the opposition faces!”

 

Barri (Mason), 30, played centre-back for Porthmadog before a knee injury cut his career short but it turned his focus to wrestling after he watched a local bout in 2005. A year later he turned professional and following a stint on Gladiators, he moved to the USA before securing his lucrative contract with the WWE.

 

He studied construction management at UWIC where Gaz says the two became “good mates and drinking buddies”.

 

“I lived with him for the second year before he returned home to work in his family business,” said Gaz. “Then I lost contact for a while before he contacted me saying that he was wrestling in the local scene and they were in Welshpool. After that he was signed up for Gladiators before moving to the states.
 

“I haven't seen him since uni, but will definitely be meeting  up when he heads over to Britain for the tour in April when I will try to twist his arm to turn out for us!”

 

Crosses manager Nick Popyk said, after seeing photos online of the giant, that the club may have to “invest in a bigger shirt for him” should he sign.

 

This Saturday, Welshpool play Rhayader with the match filmed by SKY Sports for a special feature to appear the following week.