Comic-Con @Home kicked into full swing today, and the panel I was most looking forward to was Heels. How it could not be? Hello, it’s a series about professional wrestlers! And it stars Arrow and experienced pro wrestler himself, Stephen Amell, along with Alexander Ludwig. The two were on hand joined by Alison Luff, Mary McCormack, Kelli Berglund, James Harrison, Allen Maldonado, Chris Bauer, and executive producers Michael Waldron and Mike O’Malley.
Amell, who knows a thing or two about getting slammed after his time in the WWE (where he was fucking brilliant), talked about the bumps and bruises of shooting the show and how it’s just like in the squared circle for real…
“It’s not jumping off your couch onto cushions,” he shared. “It’s a wooden board and it gives a little in the middle and not so much at the edge—ask my back.”
Harrison, the former Pittsburgh Steeler and Super Bowl champion, added…
“We had to go through a little bit of training, but I think it was a little bit easier for me because I played professional football for 15 or 16 years. The thing about wrestling is that a lot of people want to say it’s fake but the actual physical nature of hitting the mat then getting up and hitting that mat again and making sure you don’t land the wrong way. The physical nature of it is 100 percent real because you’re putting your body on the line. If you do something wrong, something happens.”
Heels will finally take the ring on August 15th on Starz.
