Kidd Bandit’s origin story is told from the protagonist himself.
In the world of professional wrestling, inspiration is always drawn from mainstream media and pop culture. Sting, for the last 26 years, has portrayed a character based on the movie “The Crow.” Staying would later portray a character directly inspired by Heath Ledger's Joker from the 2008 film “The Dark Knight.”
Rey Mysterio used to design his WrestleMania costume every year with the inspiration of a blockbuster movie such as Avatar, Daredevil, or, again, Heath Ledger's Joker from the 2008 film “The Dark Knight.”
New wrestlers are looking for inspiration every day and in an era where being authentic means more than ever, they are looking to their own hobbies and interests in order to create a larger-than-life character worthy of being at the top of the wrestling industry.
Kidd Bandit, a wrestler that is rapidly rising through the ranks of the independent wrestling industry draws a lot of inspiration from the world of anime, specifically Shonen Jump anime.
Explaining why anime is a great source of inspiration, Kidd Bandit tells Fightful Overbooked’s Lillie, that it all comes down to the age-old battle of protagonist vs. villains.
"It might come off as naïve, but I like to believe that good always triumphs over evil and I think that’s what makes anime great, Shonen anime, specifically," said Bandit. "Because if you look at the plots of Dragon Ball Z, Naruto, My Hero Academia. These coming-of-age young adult animes, it’s always about someone from meager means overcoming so many obstacles to save the world, more or less. It’s funny because that relates to so many people. The ‘I’m nobody, and I can become somebody and save the world in the process.’ That’s the basic JRPG plot, right? You’re playing a game, you live in some minor village, suddenly something happens and then you end up with the magic sword from a cave or something. It’s a tale that’s been told multiple times. That’s what wrestling does. If you think about it, the greatest wrestling storylines have that pay off of good beating evil. As naïve as it sounds, I like that. Yeah, I’ve gone through hardships in life that made me kind of jaded about certain things, but I like to think that good winning over evil, or good beating bad, that still holds weight to people struggling with things."
Kidd Bandit, who trained at the nightmare factory with Cody Rhodes and QT Marshall, credits Cody Rhodes with giving him his gimmick and starting him on his “JRPG journey.”
"I made a post about it on Twitter, but it might come off different when I say it out loud. It might hit me different to say it out loud. But Cody gave me Kidd Bandit. I didn’t come up with it on my own. He gave me that. He gave me a platform to do good to the world," Bandit explained. "In a weird way, he started my anime or JRPG journey, more accurately. Because before Kidd Bandit, I was a nobody. I was some person living a life of no direction and now here I am with a platform I can use to help people. The LGBT community, the people who didn’t really have a role model like me. Man, I hate to say that because I don’t see myself as a role model. I barely tolerate myself half the time."
Bandit also explains that the gimmick is helping them be a better person and in truth, the character is who they aspire to be. Bandit would even compare that to some of the memes and criticisms that Cody Rhodes faces.
"I like to think being Kidd Bandit is helping me be a better person, too. I can’t preach all the stuff I say and not live those ideals. That’s hypocritical. I’ll admit, I don’t get to do that often. I’m a flawed human being. But to try to aspire to become that person. The meme is Cody’s trying to end racism. ‘Oh, yeah. Cody ended racism.’ Okay, everybody makes fun of that. But if you look at what they’re trying to do, that’s such a cool thing. Why wouldn’t you want to end racism? Yeah, it’s weenie because of the way people oversimplify everything, but man," Bandit said.
Elsewhere in the interview, Bandit recalls wrestling Cody Rhodes on AEW Dark. Read more here.
To continue following the journey of Professional Wrestling’s Protagonist, Kidd Bandit, follow Bandit on social media, including Twitter, and Instagram.
