People have been asking me, why Wrexham? In 2005, the UFC started a reality show called The Ultimate Fighter. Two teams of fighters face off in an elimination tournament where the last man standing gets a contract, money and all the glory. To me, the fighters were just, as Rob McElhenney so eloquently put it when he spoke about sports “characters on a screen.” Getting to watch them train, seeing how they act, hearing their stories and learning about them as people helped me to connect with them on a human level. It was at that point, the fighters were no longer characters on the screen to me. They were people with real lives, real struggles, and real families. I had my favorites and this connection made me want to cheer for them and see them win.
The Welcome to Wrexham documentary series did the same thing for me. I got to follow the journey of two guys, that would normally have no business owning a football club, as they go through the process of purchasing, restructuring and rebuilding that football club. I got to see how they transform from being fans and complaining that the team should trade players, to owners having to make those very hard decisions that affect the lives of these people who make up the football club. Getting to see how they struggle emotionally while they make life altering decisions shows how much they really care about each and every one of these players.
The show does a great job giving you glimpses into the personal lives of several of the players, helping you to feel for the owners and the decisions they have to make. It also goes on to introduce you to people in the town, giving you a look into their lives and into the community.
I found myself relating to and feeling for several people in the community and what they were going through. For example, I want to see that Scoot is still cancer free and living a great life, that Shaun Winter and his boys are happy and doing well, Mark Griffith is still smashing it as the voice of Wrexham, that Steve Jones learns how to use TikTok and Sam Hamilton eventually gets his much sought after shirt from Paul Mullin.
Ryan Reynolds said that sports is story telling and it is. However, so is the documentary. It’s a beautiful story of not just a club, but a town and community rising from the ashes. Perhaps not all the stories had a happy ending, season one may not have ended the way everyone wished for it to, but it was full of hope. Now that I follow the team both on and off season, I know that season two of the documentary will deliver that happy ending. I, for one, can’t wait to watch it. Up the town!
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