Leo Sparrow had a full-time job offer from WWE and turned it down to keep training as a wrestler.
Sparrow told the story on Busted Open After Dark, where he appeared as the first guest of Tommy Dreamer’s revived Indie Spotlight segment. Dreamer said he picks the wrestlers himself and only features talent he considers TV ready. Dreamer said, “You, sir, are ready.”
Sparrow grew up a fan on Long Island, and said the first show he saw live was a SmackDown and ECW taping at the Nassau Coliseum. He wanted to wrestle, but said he started listening to what people told him about his chances.
“You know, you’re not athletic. You know, you’re too small. All the typical stuff that people hear. So I wanted to work for WWE and more of the business aspect. So I went to business school.”
He earned a bachelor’s degree in operations management and landed an internship with WWE’s community relations department. Then the pandemic hit.
“So I got a bachelor’s degree in operations management, and I got an internship with WWE in their community relations department, and then COVID happened. So WWE called me and they said, ‘Hey, maybe not now on the internship program. We’re going to get rid of that for the summer, and we’ll reach out to you after the world opens up again with COVID, whatever that looks like.’ So when COVID kind of got through, I want to say February the next year, I met that recruiter face to face, and she said, ‘You know, we really didn’t forget about you. We really liked your enthusiasm and your knowledge of the industry, and we’re thinking about, you know, skip the internship program, just invite you on full time.’ And at that point, I had already signed up for Create a Pro. I was six months into my pro wrestling training, and even though I knew I had a long way to go, I decided that that was what I really wanted to do. And the world was ending, so I just decided to kind of bet on myself. So I said thank you, but no thank you. I’ve got other stuff going on now, and that was six years ago. And here I am now, sitting talking to you.”
Sparrow trained at the Create A Pro Wrestling Academy in Long Island under Brian Myers, Max Caster and Pat Buck. He said choosing the school was its own hurdle.
“One of the most nervous times in my life was just googling wrestling schools around me because it was me taking that next step to do something that scared me. But that was exciting.”
In January 2022, Sparrow appeared on WWE and AEW television in the same week, working WWE Raw as Nick Sanders in a loss to Omos and turning up on AEW Rampage during The Acclaimed’s music video segment.
The following year, AEW World Champion MJF made a surprise return to Create A Pro and Sparrow found himself across the ring from him.
“So I did have a match very early on in my career that kind of really set the light bulb off for me, and that was when I found myself in the ring with MJF, who was in his first reign as the AEW World Champion, and it was a total surprise on the fly thing for the crowd that was there at the show. This was in 2023, and I feel like everything before that was like preparing me for that, and that is what taught me how to really wrestle. Now you have this in your mind, go use that for the rest of your career.”
Sparrow works a plant-based gimmick built around his real-life diet. He is billed as the King of Kale and the Son of the Sun, and he throws kale and spinach into the crowd, sometimes firing it out of a T-shirt cannon. He said the cannon spot started at an ACW show in Poughkeepsie after he became the promotion’s first cruiserweight champion.
“So, my lawyer and I, Mark Sterling, being the nice people that we are, we decided to give out one of our free T-shirts with our T-shirt cannon. But we like money more, so we decided they can go buy it at the merch stand, and I’m just going to share my kale and spinach with the rest of the crowd.”
He also addressed the physical change that has drawn attention over the past year, describing it as the final piece rather than the starting point.
“I feel like my body was kind of the last layer here to make people take notice, because once you go out there and you look ready, they go, ‘Oh, damn! Where’s this guy been this whole time?'”
Asked what the routine looks like, Sparrow said it comes down to consistency. He said he trains Monday through Friday and wrestles Saturday and Sunday, aiming to get “1% better every day.” He said eating plant-based has become simple, pointing to substitutes, frozen entrees and protein powder.
Sparrow named Drew Gulak among the opponents who gave him nerves.
“I’ve heard things about like he’s a tough guy. He wants to really bring it out of you. So getting in there is like, oh, I don’t know, what am I gonna get? And then you get in there and it’s like chain wrestling, and you get beat up a little bit. And it’s fun.”
He also wrestled Enzo Amore at ACW, and said Amore called the match on the fly.
Sparrow closed by plugging his own action figure, a micro brawler available through PPro Wrestling Tees, and pointed fans to his website. He can be found on social media at @NoSteakAllSizzl.
“I am the king of kale, the son of the sun, the one to save everyone. Leo Sparrow, and I was born a star, baby.”
Dreamer ended the segment by telling Sparrow he hopes he gets a break, calling him excellent in the ring.
More on Leo Sparrow can be found at LeoSparrow.com.
