INNISFAIL – From the moment Hayden Avery was introduced to a packed wrestling crowd the chanting of his name started.
“Hayden, Hayden, Hayden,” was the chant, escalating in volume as fans jumped and waved with pure joy and excitement.
The veteran six foot tall and 236 pound grappler has rapidly become one of Innisfail’s very own.
On Jan. 17 he was teamed up with Wes Barker, known in the ring as The Prospector, to go against “Mr. Beefy Goodness" Vance Nevada and "God of Thunder" Andy Anderson for the CanAm World Tag Team Championship.
The CanAm Wrestling match at the Royal Canadian Legion Branch #104 in Innisfail was just Avery’s second since the 41-year-old came back from a 13-year retirement on Nov. 29 to fight wrestler Shaun Martens.
“I was pretty nervous going in,” said Avery, whose legal name outside the ring is Stefan Kolanko. “I had a game plan. What eased the nerves was all the support that came out there. There was 363 people, and a lot of them were here to see Hayden Avery, so that was awesome.”
And the crowd went wild as he won his first match in 13 years in just under 14 minutes.
Less than two months later in Olds on Jan. 18 Avery bested Martens again, this time in just 12 minutes.
Avery’s prior wrestling career was back in southwestern Ontario, and in Michigan, Ohio, New York, West Virginia and Pennsylvania.
He did his grappling under the NEO Pro Wrestling and Great Canadian Wrestling banners, and he put in a lot of hours and days with both circuits.
“The hours and the time you put into it is a full time job with the travel, training, getting to the shows, helping get set up, and getting prepared,” he said, adding he had to leave wrestling after 11 years.
“I hung it up because the wrestling had taken its toll on my body, and I was working to get into a new career path and I was starting a family.”
Avery eventually came to Alberta, and now has a good life in the region, including a manager’s position at the Bowden Institution.
However, there was a “burning ember” inside to get back in the ring.
“I've had a little burning ember that's been kind of sitting there. I didn't leave the way that I wanted to leave off. I felt I still had more gas in the tank,” said Avery.
“And now I'm at the age where it's do or die. I'm either going to do it and feel good, or I'm not going to do it and I'm going to have some regrets.”
What he enjoys most about wrestling is the fan interaction, which is no problem for proud Innisfail grappling fans.
“It's getting people who weren't prepared to come to the show to feel, to bring them up to their highest highs and bring them down to their lowest lows and everything else in between,” said Avery.
“That gives me the drive. It’s that fan interaction, especially with the younger crowd, the kids and watching their eyes light up.”
“For that two or three hours my job is to suspend their disbelief. I'm a hero to these kids when I show up, and that's a cool feeling. And you try to make that lasting impact on them, where they’ll look back 10, 15, 20 years from now, and be like, ‘oh, yeah, I remember I went to a wrestling show when I was little, and this wrestler Hayden Avery was awesome.”
Avery’s tag team match before a record crowd of more than 365 grappling fans in Innisfail on Jan. 17 was not the result he wanted.
He and The Prospector lost the match.
But the fans cheered him wildly anyways.
And CanAm Wrestling can’t wait to get him back into the ring in Innisfail on Feb. 14.
“As a local boy he's doing a great job, getting the crowd going. He sells tickets,” said Ed Anderson, CanAm's chief financial officer. “He hasn't lost nothing. He's going to go far in this business.
“I could see him winning the title down the road here pretty quick.”
