“Spyder” Nate Webb Announces Departure From Wrestling “Indefinitely”

Sad news from the world of the U.S. independents, as longtime veteran of the scene “Spyder” Nate Webb announced on Twitter that he was stepping away from active wrestling “indefinitely”, effectively ending a 22-year in-ring career that began in 1999. “My body, mind, and soul are beaten down to an extreme extent,” he stated early in the morning on Saturday on his Twitter. “I am stepping away from active wrestling indefinitely. Thank you to everyone that has kept me going for so long! I love you all and hope to get back to normal. Much love and bless you all!”

My body, mind, and soul are beaten down to an extreme extent. I am stepping away from active wrestling indefinitely. Thank you to everyone that has kept me going for so long! I love you all and hope to get back to normal. Much love and bless you all!

— Spyder Nate Webb (@SpyderNateWebb) May 1, 2021

Nate Webb began his career in 1999 with Indianapolis indie federation Wild Championship Wrestling Outlaws (WCWO), where he was trained by Don Basher, but it was in 2001 that he began to break out when he began working with IWA Mid-South. He initially began as a frequent tag team partner with Mad Man Pondo and entered the hardcore lifestyle against the likes of Necro Butcher, 2 Tuff Tony, and others. During his early days in IWA Mid-South, he was also much more than just another hardcore wrestler – he also had matches against the likes of Chris Hero, CM Punk, Tracy Smothers, Matt Cross, and others, winning the IWA Mid-South Junior Heavyweight Championship twice in his first few years with the company. In 2003 and 2004, he also found himself working several tapings for Total Nonstop Action (TNA), primarily for TNA Xplosion, where he faced the likes of Jerry Lynn, AJ Styles, Sonjay Dutt, Monty Brown, and Abyss.

In 2003, he also began to work with Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW), and a year later would win CZW World Tag Team gold as part of Team Cash with Chris Cash, JC Bailey, and Sexxxy Eddy. He would make his Japanese debut in 2004 with Big Japan Wrestling, where he would compete under the name El Drunko. In 2o06, he would join the short-lived Wrestling Society X (WSX) series on MTV, where he was part of the tag team The Trailer Park Boyz with Josh Raymond (who is better known in the U.S. indies as Josh Abercrombie). That same year, he made his Ring of Honor debut as part of Team CZW during the CZW-ROH invasion angle, as part of the CZW team that featured Eddie Kingston, Chris Hero, Claudio Castagnoli (WWE‘s Cesaro), Necro Butcher, and Super Dragon. In 2007, he made his debut with Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG), with a reunited Trailer Park Boyz – the duo also competed in Mexico with AAA Lucha Libre, where the two were part of Konnan‘s La Legion Extranjera briefly.

After 2007, Nate Webb began to slow down on his professional wrestling. He would still perform sporadically with IWA Mid-South, ROH, Absolute Intense Wrestling (AIW), and others off and on, but his schedule was usually only a handful of shows each year, a far cry from the near full-time schedule he’d been grinding for years prior. In 2018, he appeared for Game Changer Wrestling (GCW) at Joey Janela’s Spring Break 2 in New Orleans, as part of the Clusterf**k event. He returned to GCW the following month, defeating Jimmy Lloyd at GCW The Untouchables in Chicago, and from there, Webb began to seemingly regain the passion for the industry, becoming an integral part of GCW over the next few years.

Since then, he’d become a Tommy Dreamer-esque presence in GCW, working with young stars coming in, the mid-carders ready to ascend to the main event, and the biggest stars as well. Behind the scenes, he was a key player in helping set things up and keep the show rolling, and it was never more prevalent than last year during the pandemic when Webb was instrumental in turning his hometown of Indianapolis into indie wrestling’s true mecca during the Covid year of 2020 – GCW held eight of their 2020 events, including their Collective Weekend, in Indiana, thanks to a lot of hard work behind the scenes from Nate Webb. His last in-ring appearances were this past WrestleMania Week for GCW, competing first in the Acid Cup 3, before uniting with EFFY and Mance Warner to defeat the 44.OH crew of Atticus Cogar, Bobby Beverly, and Gregory Irons at GCW Planet Death on April 10.

Hopefully, this isn’t the last we’ve seen of Nate Webb in any capacity in pro wrestling. While his in-ring days may be behind him, he’s proven to be an invaluable asset to any company he’s worked with behind the scenes, as well as showing he has the charisma to do more than just wrestle – he was an announcer for the show Half Pint Brawlers and recently had a cooking show on IWTV called Nate Webb’s Dirtbag Kitchen.

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Jamie Greer

Jamie Greer joined LWOPW in 2015 and was the site's Managing Editor from 2016 through 2020. After handing over ME duties to Alex Richards, he remains a frequent contributor to the site. He's also written for Pro Wrestling Illustrated, WrestleZone, The Windsor Star, and other publications. He lives in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, with his wife and son.