This first appeared in the Sept. 12, 2012 issue of the Interlake Enterprise…
by Teresa Carey
Variously known as “Chip the Kid Fletcher,””Chip Fletcher, the Hornet,” and most recently “Chip Hardcore Fletcher,” Arborg’s Roland Sutyla says he will be retiring from the ring very soon.
About 10 matches ago Sutyla made the decision that his 100th Steeltown Pro Wrestling(SPW) fight would probably be his last, and that number is scheduled to come up this November.
“It’s going to be hard to leave, but you’ve got to go when your body tells you. The body is not what it used to be, time is catching up, it’s getting older. When you wake up in the morning it’s creaking and cracking,” he said.
Sutlya, now 40, has wrestled for four pro wrestling companies since he was about 19, with the bulk of his wrestling done with Steel Town Pro. In 2009, he started putting a lot more time in the ring, after moving from his position as referee to being “just a regular wrestler”.
“I wasn’t the best, but I wasn’t the worst. I always tried to put on a good show for the people whether I won or lost,” he said.
Sutyla took the moniker, “Chip Hardcore Fletcher” within the last year, when he traded in regular wrestling to fight in Hardcore matches. He has won the Hardcore belt numerous times since then, the first on Apr. 12 in a “Twelve Man Battle Royal,” and most recently at the Steel Town Pro Wrestling fight at Arborg Hall on Aug. 28.
Sutyla currently ranks third in the Power 20, with 36 per cent of the public vote for “Best Current Champion,” a number which changes daily as new votes come in.
The kind-hearted, likeable Sutyla who works at the Chicken Chef in Arborg, says he prefers wrestling Hardcore, which he describes as “one of the more violent types of matches.”
“In hardcore matches there are no rules to speak of. Weapons are allowed–chairs, tables, garbage cans, cookie sheets, pool cues, candle sticks, bats laced with barbed wire–anything you can find. It is very hard on the body, that’s for sure.”
“I actually enjoy Hardcore more because it’s more ‘just go and do it,” he said. “There’s no finesse to it. You just go and you just ‘bring it’. You don’t have to be fancy, you just go there to fight.”
Sutyla said he was drawn to pro wrestling in the first place because “It was a place where you could be somebody and you didn’t have to be smart, you just had to be good.”
” I find it’s like having a family. I respect the guys there and they respect me. It just feels like home. That’s why I’m still with them.”
Sutyla plans to stay connected with Steel Town Pro after hanging up his championship belt. The next time he appears in Arborg for a fight, it will not be as a wrestler but could be as a referee or manager, he promised.
“I know a lot of (my fans) are going to be upset. The few who know are not happy about it, but they understand.
Sutyla has fans “all over the place,” locally and in Europe. There is even a German language web page devoted solely to him. Sutyla said he has stayed in the ring, despite the wear and tear, because of his fans, a lot of whom who are adoring children, thrilled to get their pictures taken with him at any opportunity.
“That’s why I do it–Just to see the smile on the kids’ faces,” he said.
But Sutyla also admits to enjoying the big rush that comes with being in the ring, and it is an aspect that he will surely miss.
“Being in that ring. Having all the eyes on you–the feeling, the energy in the air. There is no drug that can put you that high when you have a couple hundred–a couple thousand–people cheering your name, rallying behind you–there’s no other feeling.”
A lot of people assume that wrestling is all show. However, Sutyla can confirm beyond a doubt that it is all very real.
Fellow wrestler, Manson, ended up with 15 staples in his head after the Aug. 25 fight in Selkirk, and “Big Rig” Shawn Northstar recently received a minor concussion and a broken orbital bone. Last year Sutyla received a fork to the forehead, which did draw blood, and recent fights have left him bruised and “really, really sore.”
During the Aug. 28 fight in Arborg he was tossed out of the ring, thrown onto the floor and onto chairs, then hit hard by the ring bell.
“The bell didn’t break and something had to give, and it was me…It’s time to go before anything serious happens.”
“We don’t try to kill each other but we definitely push the limits,” he said.
“I’ve been lucky. Other than a few stitches and black and blue, I’ve never broken a bone. I’ve never gotten seriously hurt.”
