THE prospect of competing at the Hydro Arena in Glasgow is, admits Kimberly Benson, “pretty terrifying”. But the fact that the wrestler from Ayrshire is being given the opportunity to perform in Scotland’s biggest arena illustrates the remarkable progress that the 25-year-old has made in recent years.

On Sunday, November 20, Benson, whose wrestling name is ‘Viper’, is taking part in the ICW Insane Championship Wrestling event in Glasgow, one of the biggest wrestling shows ever to be staged in Europe.

Benson is part of the only female match on the card and will be up against Carmel and Kay Lee Ray.

“I can’t wait. It’s going to be the biggest show that ICW has ever done so I’m really excited about it,” she says. “I’m looking forward to it not only as a wrestler but also as a fan.

“This will be the first time I’ve ever competed at the Hydro so it’ll be great but it’s definitely nerve-wracking. In every show you get butterflies but I think there’ll be a few extra nerves at this one.”

Benson’s excitement is well justified when you consider the quality of wrestlers on the match card.

Top of the bill is Kurt Angle versus Joe Coffey and with Angle being one of the biggest names in the sport, the significance of him competing in Scotland cannot be overstated.

Angle was one of the wrestlers whom Benson grew up watching and admits she may be somewhat star-struck when she meets the American.

“It’s brilliant to be on the same show as Kurt Angle. The 10-year-old me would be losing her mind at the prospect of meeting him,” she laughs. “It was guys like him who got me into wrestling so to now be sharing a show with him is the best feeling ever.

“I think I’ll be a little taken aback when I first meet him – I’ll try to be completely professional but the kid inside of me will be screaming.”

Benson’s interest in wrestling was first piqued when she was nine; when the cartoons finished on the television, she would go through the channels in the hope of finding something interesting to watch.

“I remember flicking through the channels and seeing some guy choke-slamming another guy,” she recalls. “Straight away, I was like – what’s this, this looks fantastic? I watched it once and that was me completely hooked.”

However, Benson fell away from the sport in her teenage years because, she says, it wasn’t really the done thing for girls to like wrestling. But when her young nephew began watching the sport, Benson’s interest was immediately rekindled.

When her friend suggested they try it she thought, why not?

“One Sunday afternoon, I went to a club near me – that was eight years ago and I’ve not stopped since,” she says. “It was mental, but I loved it.

“The next day, I woke up and felt like I’d been hit by a bus because I was so sore, but I remember thinking that it was the best thing I’d ever done in my life. I knew I had to go back.”

From that day forward, Benson’s career has gone from strength-to-strength, a fact best illustrated by her latest career move.

It was recently announced that later this year, ITV is to bring back its World of Sport Wrestling programme, which was such a huge hit between 1965 and 1985. Benson has been signed up as one of the wrestlers and she can barely contain her excitement at the prospect of appearing on prime-time television.

“This is huge. The show will be going into households across Britain and hopefully we’ll go back to families watching wrestling together,” she says.

“And this year is going to be the first all-female match ever on the show, so it’s making history.”

Benson is making a real name for herself but as a female wrestler, she remains in the minority.

Encouragingly though, her gender has never been an issue and while some people in her ‘normal life’ are surprised when they find out what she does, Benson is proud to forge a path for other female wrestlers.

“I’m at the point where gender isn’t an issue for me anymore and because I can’t see it, I feel like it doesn’t exist,” she says.

“I really feel that in the past couple of years, doors have opened for girls and not just within wrestling.

“I think that within pop culture in general girls are so much more adventurous and willing to try different things and that’s brilliant.

“Wrestling has been so great for me – when I started the sport, I wasn’t confident at all, I’d barely even say boo to a fly. I’ve totally changed now, though, wrestling has taught me how to be more confident in general.”

She adds: “That’s the message I like to send out: You can do anything you want whether you’re a boy or a girl, just go and try it.”