It is incredibly difficult to sum up the life of someone who managed to delight so many people in just a few paragraphs, but I’m going to try and do Kurtis Chapman, or Mad Kurt, justice here.
I had planned to write this earlier today before I saw that Kurtis’ mother wrote that she had explicitly told Rev Pro Wrestling on Facebook not to go public with the news.
What I don’t want to do here is simply try and get something out there for clicks, engagement or clout, because there are several people in British Wrestling that I love, admire and knew Kurtis well…so this is almost more for them than it is for anyone else.
This is in no way a full outline of his incredible life and career, just some of my thoughts about someone who was kind to me on more than one occasion all whilst he was popping all of us on Twitter.
*Massive thank you to Robyn Goding of Beyond Gorilla for the use of the Featured Image on this post.
Mad Kurt Kurtis Chapman – The Lovable ‘D*ckhead’
From all of the sentiments I have seen regarding Mad Kurt, the one from Zoe Lucas seems to have struck a chord with most: “You were a dickhead but you were our dickhead.”
In terms of somebody who could irritate and exacerbate, there was arguably no one better than the ‘Keyboard Warrior’ Mad Kurt. But there was a reason that he appeared for wrestling promotions across the UK…he made you love to hate him, and more importantly, he made you want to see him get his comeuppance, which meant paying for the pleasure to do so.
When the world shut down in early 2020 the world of Britwres was a pretty bleak one, save for the constant stream of entertainment that we all had from Kurtis and his god-tier trolling abilities. “Ok Boomer” became more than a meme in his hands, it became an incendiary grenade for some of the most controversial wrestlers at that time (Joe Mama…).
But behind that was a kind individual who was beyond well-respected by his peers, fans and the companies that he worked for. I only spoke to him via DM a few times, and he was incredibly kind and understanding, a far cry from the character that he entertained us all with on a near daily basis.
Reach beyond what he probably even knew
When a tragedy like this happens you tend to see an outpouring of love from colleagues, friends and fans. But, seeing just how far the reach of this news has gotten is pretty incredible, and probably something that the best ‘troll’ (in the most loving way) I’ve ever seen would’ve probably really enjoyed.
Seeing Kurtis on NBC News, The Mirror, Radio Times, TMZ and Metro is…well…Mad. Even though the comments section of some of those outlets is pretty much what you’d expect it to be in a post-pandemic world when a young athlete dies, I’m fairly confident in saying that Chapman would be laughing his arse off if he saw it, and probably forwarding screenshots to Austin Aries.
Unfortunately, we all learned the lesson again today that we should not wait to appreciate someone until it is too late. Kurtis entertained tons of us, he trolled like an absolute king and his targets were always the ones we hoped they would be. Did we appreciate it then? Of course, we all did, but if we knew then what today would bring, we’d of appreciated it just that little bit more.
What’s cruel is that if this was all an elaborate joke and he was trolling us once again, we’d forgive him almost instantly…but it’s not. A 26-year-old with his entire life ahead of him is no longer with us.
Rest in peace, Kurtis Chapman, you made us laugh (a lot).
