Most people who get into wrestling as kids grow up, get a real job, and let the dream quietly go. Callum Aslantepe did the opposite. The 29-year-old from Swindon spent years building his own estate agency, Aslan Real Estate, then wound the business down this past January to wrestle full-time in Mexico, per a BBC News profile by Jonathan Holmes.
Aslantepe wrestles under the name Prince Phoenix, and the career switch was not a spontaneous leap. He fell in love with wrestling as a child and trained between the ages of nine and 15 at a Swindon school run by 4FW, now known as British Kingdom Pro Wrestling. He stepped away for a decade before coming back to tour the UK’s south west and Wales, working what he called “gruelling” Friday-through-Sunday weekends on the British independent scene.
Thousands of Fans Instead of Hundreds
The move to Mexico followed a successful 2025 tour, and the scale of the audience is what changed everything. “For an average show in the UK we’d get maybe 300 people on a good night, in Mexico we’re talking thousands of fans,” Aslantepe told the BBC. He now wrestles regularly for DTU Lucha Libre, one of Mexico’s touring promotions, crisscrossing the country for shows.
He also described just how deep lucha libre runs in Mexican culture, a legacy of stars from the 1960s and 70s who became genuine national celebrities. “Whether you’re a técnico or a rudo, you get mobbed by fans and it sometimes takes me 30 minutes to get to the locker room,” he said.
Playing the Villain
In the ring, Prince Phoenix is a rudo, the rule-bending heel archetype who squares off against the high-flying técnico babyfaces that lucha libre is famous for. “I keep Phoenix close to myself but turn it up by 1,000, so everything’s a bit more flamboyant,” Aslantepe said. “I grew up watching wrestling and always favoured the bad guys, and it’s a lot easier to get somebody to not like you. Prince Phoenix is a cool guy, but I wouldn’t get on his bad side.”
Here he is working a UK date before the move, defending the Junior Heavyweight Championship against Yu Owada.
“There Will Always Be a Place for Him Here”
Nadia Sapphire, a promoter with British Kingdom Pro Wrestling, has known Aslantepe since he was a teenager showing up to the Swindon school obsessed with the business. “He had all the figures and was just like a little brother to me,” she told the BBC. “The estate agent business was going well and he’s betting on wrestling, but I’m happy for him because he’s living in a beautiful country. I miss him loads, but whenever Callum is back visiting there will always be a place for him here.”
It is a genuine gamble, trading a working real estate business for a wrestling career built one Mexican town at a time. But for Aslantepe, the math is simple. “Wherever I’m wrestling, I’m happy,” he said.
