Anthony Ogogo is still suffering after getting frost bite during gruelling filming for Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins.
The retired boxer and former Strictly star – who is contracted to All Elite Wrestling and appeared on screen for the first time in a year in the preshow for the company’s Stadium event on Sunday – is set to be part of the 2024 series of the gruelling Channel 4 challenge show and he’s admitted the experience was a difficult one.
Speaking just before AEW’s huge All In show, he exclusively told Metro.co.uk: ‘It was fun, it was just very hard! On telly, it’s just someone lifting a boat and you see them grimacing and you’re like, “That looks hard! That looks heavy!”
‘You can’t feel the weight of it. When you feel the weight of it – and then we were in New Zealand in their winter! I got frost bite, my two big toes are still numb from the experience. I’m sitting there, I’m shuddering!’
While former Olympian Ogogo – whether that’s emotionally or physically – he was taken aback by the way he and his fellow cast members were put through their paces.
‘I feel like emotionally, physically, I’m a tough dude! I’ve done a lot in my life, I’ve gone through a lot in my life, I’m hardened. I’ve got thick skin,’ he smiled. ‘It genuinely was one of the hardest things I’ve done in my entire life.’
The 34-year-old star thinks he put a target on his own back by ‘drawing attention’ to himself when he should have been embracing the idea of a ‘grey man’, which is needed to be a top spy.
‘You’ll see I highlighted myself early doors which made it harder because the DS kind of picked on me a little bit,’ he admitted. ‘Spies aren’t drawing attention to themselves, they’re just going about their day, go in, do a very dangerous job, get out again – don’t make a racket.’
He laughed: ‘Now… I’m a peacock! I can’t be the grey man! I just can’t! I tried! On day two, I had quite an argument with somebody, and I was basically saying to DS, “Get him! he’s emotional! He’ll make good TV!” ‘
Ogogo hasn’t really been able to make a splash in AEW, after visa issues – his passport ‘went missing’ in transit as he sent it back to the UK to get renewed – but he’s physically fit and ready to go.
‘It’s frustrating, but I make the best of it,’ he candidly admitted, noting he is taking on other projects – including SAS: Who Dares Wins, his own fitness app and a few film roles – to help his wrestling career.
‘I’m doing different things to build my brand so when I do get the phone call to come back, I’m going back bigger, better, the prestige behind me,’ he said. ‘All you can do is control things you can control, and I’m doing what I can do.’
Following recent reports he has signed an extension with AEW to keep him there until at least 2025, Ogogo is setting his sights on lofty goals, particularly when it comes to.
‘I wanna be world champion, I wanna be the first British world champion, the first black world champion, this and that. I’m gonna leave my mark. I chose wrestling because it ticks other boxes,’ he explained.
‘I really wanna just have a good time and enjoy what happens. I would love to wrestle at Wembley, see my name – I wanna be one of the headliners, a total ego thing.
‘I wanna take a picture of the poster, a picture of me in front of it, wrestle, and I can sail into the sunset in 10 years time being very, very proud of everything I achieved.’
Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins returns to Channel 4 next month, with Ogogo’s series following in 2024. AEW All In London returns to Wembley Stadium on August 25, 2024.
