The FFW logo appears on the screen before “Focus” by Ariana Grande begins to play. Then we see the studio being set up, the glass table sat in the center being cleaned, two cups sat on opposite sides of the table. Next we see Zack Hudson tying his shoes and checking himself in the mirror before he heads out to the set as a producer puts a microphone on his shirt before sitting down. When he looks across, we next see the various women who make up FFW and Future Shock flash by in images from their careers until it finally stops on Sheffield’s own Lilly Arthur. Then we cut live inside the Focus studio and find her sitting across the table from Zack Hudson.
Zack: Hi, everyone. Welcome to the latest edition of Focus exclusively here on FFW All Access. This is the eleventh episode since we started the show, and today I’m joined by the reigning FFW No Surrender Champion since July 24, 2021. I’m referring, of course, to none other than Lilly Arthur. Welcome to Focus, Lilly!
The brunette gave the camera a wave and a broad smile.
Lilly: Hi guys. Hi Zack. Very pleased to be here and to get this chance to set the record straight after the ridiculous, outlandish claims that my idiotic, lying weasel of a brother has decided to spread about me and our family history. For anyone who continues to believe him and every fallacy that drips out of his mouth.
Zack: Yeah, we’ll get into all that. Many of our fans who were also fans of SVW will remember that there was no shortage of half-truths..and even that may be generous…that were spread about you by your brother. And that’s part of why I invited you here to help you set that record straight as well as just help people get to know you better as a person. That’s what this whole show has been about, and I like to think it’s accomplished that in the last 10 episodes.
Lilly: Half truths is being very generous. I think just about the only true things he ever said was that we are brother and sister and that we are both from Sheffield, England. The rest was just him trying to babyface himself… or turn himself into a low budget Liam Neeson wannabe.
Zack: Let’s start right from the top, and tell everyone about your parents. I believe he said your mom ran off to be a stripper somewhere and you had an absentee father and all sorts of things of that nature. Why don’t you tell us about them instead?
Lilly: It’d be my pleasure. My mum was what they called a district nurse. Basically she spent her days travelling around to see housebound patients and do things that you’d expect a nurse to do - change dressings, take bloods, do some medical assessments. All that sort of thing. My dad he started off working in a steel mill for a while but the world was changing, Sheffield wasn’t the ideal place to make steel anymore - plenty of knowledge but the sourcing of raw materials had changed. And by the time I was born, he’d had a complete career change and was working in local government in their IT department - he remembered when it was still the large tape reels and joked about punch cards like you see in the old movies. They worked hard to make sure that we were comfortable and could live out in the suburbs and made sure they had the money in order to treat us from time to time.
Zack: A very different story from what your brother would have people believe. Were you and Ryan close as siblings? Or did you find you had few common interests as you grew up together? It’s clear those interests couldn’t be more different today.
Lilly: We were about as close as you’d expect given the age difference between us. We mostly had different interests but sometimes he’d be the best big brother you could have ever wished for - I’ve already mentioned about how he did put on a dress to attend one of my tea parties, which I’m sure he won’t thank me for repeating here. Sometimes I tried to share his interests too so that I could tag along. Like when he started getting big into sports - all sports, football, ice hockey, cricket, rugby, wrestling - I’d be watching along too, though I never got the chance to go to Bramall Lane regularly with my dad and Ryan because by the time I was old enough to be in a football crowd, it hadn’t gotten a little too expensive and Ryan was getting more into other things. I’m getting off topic aren’t I? So…anyway…where was I? Oh yeah, then there were times when I was the typical bratty lil sister and would embarrass him in front of his friends or the few times he brought a girl home. Like I said, we were what you’d expect from a brother and sister.
Zack: What were your biggest obsessions as a little girl? Maybe obsession sounds strong, what I mean is what fascinated you most. Was it reading, movies, a show on TV? What was your passion growing up?
Lilly: Oh, I loved to read as a kid. That and watching some of the … I guess you’d describe them as kinda the more minor Disney movies. The Rescuers. The Sword in the Stone. I had a thing for the fantasy genre. I grew up and as a teenager I discovered Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series and still regularly read them all - in fact if you stop me in an airport, you’ll probably find at least one of physical copy of a Discworld book in my hand luggage just in case the battery dies on my Kindle.
Zack: Good stuff, I do a fair bit of reading myself. I’m working my way through the Jack Reacher books, and there’s plenty of those, to say the least. I recommend them if you haven’t given them a read.
Lilly: I saw the first series of that on Amazon and the two Tom Cruise movies. I Keep meaning to watching the second series but Colin and I haven’t gotten around to it yet. I’ll check out the books too.
Zack: You mentioned how you would tag along when your dad and Ryan went to see sports, and obviously you got into sports as your career. Before the wrestling bug bit you, was there a sport you participated in growing up? Tell me about that if there was.
Lilly: Mostly the sports that I ended up doing where the ones I was forced into doing at school, so Netball, Field Hockey, Rounders and some athletics. Though occasionally I tried to play football with Ryan and my dad and I thought I was pretty good, but maybe that was just my dad and Ryan being kind to me. When Ryan started going to the boxing gym, I tried to join in but that wasn’t an idea that thrilled my mum and dad, at least not when I was that age, no matter how much I protested that it was completely and totally safe.
Zack: So what was it about this particular sport that ultimately became what you pursued? And given that your mom wasn’t keen on trying to box, how did it go telling her ‘Hey, I think I’ll become a pro wrestler!’? I’m sure that went over like a lead balloon.
There was a slight hesitation.
Lilly: Well, it didn’t go down well bbbbbuuuuutttttt by then I was a few years older and Ryan had already started out and I think there was a pretty stern talking to given to him about looking after me and making sure I was okay. At least in my early days starting out. And I think the fact that I sort of eased into it as Cody’s PA and then into Future Shock to start doing it professionally. Once they’d met Claire and Serafina too, they were pretty much…not ecstatically happy about it and pretending is what they’d always dreamed of me doing but not putting up any argument against me doing it full time any more. And I still have to call home after every match to tell them I’m okay because they still refuse to actually watch me wrestle.
Zack: That doesn’t surprise me. If I had a daughter especially, having her want to get into any career that’s going to ensure she ends up banged up and bruised up wouldn’t be the best day ever for me…even I would still support her regardless. So you tell them, you start the training process. What was the biggest shellshock from watching it on TV to actually learning the craft? What I hear a lot is hitting the ropes. Fans at home don’t realize that doesn’t feel good.
She let out a short laugh.
Lilly: You know what, Zack? I wasn’t really shellshocked by any of it. Like I said, Ryan got a talk from mum and dad and told to look after me and how well do you think that went down? A guy in his twenties, in phenomenal shape, wrestling in different towns and not being at home and told he has to look after his younger sister. He did everything he could to try and dissuade me from starting to train and from wanting to do this so he wouldn’t get his style cramped at all. He told me all the old school horror stories he’d heard, you know the ones about getting run until you throw up and then made to run some more; about waiting till you’re out on your feet before they stretch out a limb to breaking point, torture you for hours to try and make sure that you don’t ever come back again. So, by the time I stepped in the ring and got knocked on my ass for the first time, it wasn’t quite as bad as he led me to expect.
Zack: In a way by telling you all that, it almost sounds like he made it sound much worse. So by the time you were deep into it, it might have felt like “Wow, this is much easier than Ryan made it sound.”
Lilly: Yeah, when I finished my first day and everything was still intact, nothing had gone pop and all I was only exhausted, I was pretty confident that I could make it in this business. After all, he’d told me it was going to be a living Hell and if I’d survived that and it wasn’t likely to get much worse…Of course, then you step into the ring with someone like Ignis or Cassandra Sheffield who really will hurt you if they get the chance.
Zack: I have no doubt. How many matches do you think you had before you got contacted by Cody? And when you heard from him, I’m guessing being his personal assistant wasn’t the job you were hoping he’d offer you at first.
Lilly: It was a foot in the door. He was one of the most powerful guys in wrestling, it helped me get some time working out in the Future Shock gyms with other hopefuls and vets so I got to see what was required to make it up close and personal as it were. And the way I figured it was that even if I didn’t get the chance to show what I could in Future Shock then maybe, maybe I could get a couple of matches in some local places to show what I could do. And if it didn’t happen, then I at least had a career even if it was an office job and who knows where that might have gone eventually.
Zack: And we know how that went, you would begin a journey that saw you have tremendous success, to say the least. But FFW would provide something more than just a lucrative career for you. Many of our fans when they see you on shows find Colin with you, your husband who I feel we can safely describe as a film buff. Tell everyone about meeting Colin.
Lilly: Colin is a very special guy. He has magical fingers - that’s his day job, sports physical therapist, FFW employ him to give massages to talent when they are rehabbing injuries. That’s how I met him and I’d just never met anyone like him. He was sweet and kind and kinda crazy in a good way. Quirky - which is why you see all these film tributes that give legal heart palpitations. I think just the words ‘A Colin Arthur Production’ is enough for them to know they’re gonna need someone to auth some overtime to deal with Mickey and Donald and Goofy. I fell for him and asked him out and dominoes fell as you’d expect them too.
Zack: He’s certainly your biggest supporter, no question there. I know the answer to this next question but some of our newer fans may not. During your career before you were married, you wrestled as Lilly Sheffield, much like your brother continues to do. Would you like to tell people why you didn’t compete under Lilly Steele, which is your maiden name?
A very small smile appeared at the corners of her lips.
Lilly: How can I be polite about this? Ummm…look, you all know Diamond…Kate Steele…Kath-Lyn Elizabeth Steele…Whatever name she’s picked out of the hat to call herself this week. She’s a little much on her best of days and back in the early days of my career her antics even more…than they are today. Ryan is a serious wrestler. I’m a serious wrestler. He didn’t want to be tarred by the same brush and associated with someone who was being ridiculous like Kate - even though we’re not related in any way, shape or form; even if you go back centuries. So he decided to be Ryan Sheffield. Everyone knew I was his sister, so I chose the same surname and then I got married and became Lilly Arthur and I didn’t need to be associated with the clown Ryan was becoming.
Zack: Sounds like you couldn’t wait to take Colin’s name just to shed off all of that with the Sheffield name, not to mention the Steele name. Like you said, there’s no relation at all ever between you and Kate’s family. The only thing you share in common is the country you’re both from, and that’s where it ends and begins. Looking back on the journey so far now, is there anything you’d do differently? Would you still make all the same life choices you’ve made?
There was a nod of her head.
Lilly: Knowing what I know now, I wouldn’t change a thin–well, maybe I’d have considered going by a different name right from the start of my career and not used Ryan’s name at all. Apart from that, though, I couldn’t have asked for a much better career so far. I’m an FFW Hall of Famer, I’ve arguably become synonymous with the No Surrender Championship at this point. I’ve main evented huge shows. I think the only thing that’s left on the bucket list is to be in the main event of Unstoppable. And in a perfect absolute dream world, I’d love to be able to repeat what Missy did and have that it be an Unstoppable at Wembley…but that would be…that’s the sort of thing that would happen if I were writing it as a script for a movie.
Zack: I could see that happening actually. I’m glad you mentioned Missy, because that brings up one more question. Since you were there last on a full time basis, I think you’d agree that Future Shock has changed quite a bit. Missy went back there because she felt like she had unfinished business and didn’t get to achieve as much as she’d have liked. Do you ever have any similar thoughts?
There was a shake of her head.
Lilly: At the moment, no. Right now, I’m still focused on the No Surrender Championship; I’m still focused on improving as a wrestler - Missy, Kelly, Shaw, Vivi, Savannah, are all hugely talented and have a lot of different ways they can beat you, so I know I need to keep improving my lesser demonstrated talents. Like I said, I’d still like to get into the Main Event of Unstoppable sometime too. But never say never. Once I’ve ticked off that Unstoppable Main Event, maybe I’ll find myself drawn to the Pure Championship or to the Future Shock Championship…or maybe I’ll step out of my comfort zone even further and go after the Anarchy - and I might just have caused Colin’s heart to skip a beat by even suggesting that.
Zack: Or inspired him to make some kind of horror movie tribute to you. Either way! Lilly, I want to thank you for joining me today. I think we’ve done a very good job of setting the record straight on a few things as well as helping people get to know you on a deeper level than the submission expert they see in the ring defending your title.
Zack reaches across the table to shake hands with her before looking towards the camera.
Zack: I’ve got quite a guest list coming up on upcoming episodes of Focus. Stay tuned to FFW’s social media to find out more about that, and I’ll see you all back here on All Access for the next edition of Focus.
He thanks her again before the credits roll and the show fades to black on FFW All Access.
