Brad Cashew, whose real name is Brad Lewis (CAS’14), makes his grand entrance during the main event at the Heavyweight Championship at Northern Essex Community College in Haverhill, Mass., March 17, 2023. The event, run by Chaotic Wrestling, is the biggest show of the year and Cashew’s fans turned out in droves.

Sports

Meet Brad Cashew: Pro Wrestler and Local Legend Fans Go Nuts Over

BU alum and former Terrier wrestler Brad Lewis has made a name for himself in the sport—literally

“Cashew! Cashew! Cashew!” 

If you haven’t been to a professional wrestling match in New England in the last several years, you might think the roaring crowds gathered at venues scattered across the region on any given Saturday night were filled with rabid fans of the snacking nut.

The truth is, if these fans are nuts about anything, it’s the sometimes-villainous, sometimes-heroic (but always entertaining) antics of Brad Cashew, the former Chaotic Wrestling heavyweight champion.

Cashew goes up against Mecca, aka Brian Johnson, during the main event, and is crowned the heavyweight champion after a tough battle. Cashew’s moniker was never meant to stick, but after his first match, fans latched on to it, and his character has grown along with them.

At a recent match, Cashew soaked up the crowd’s energy, cupping his ear and signaling to the enthusiastic crowd for more. Then, with a mischievous grin, he emerged from a cloud of smoke, slapping outstretched hands as he made his way to the ring. 

The beloved Cashew is a character created by Brad Lewis (CAS’14) at the start of his professional wrestling career in 2019. Cashew is the result of years of matches and storytelling, thrilling victories and agonizing defeats in the ring, witnessed by a dedicated group of fans who’ve been there through thick and thin. 

“Brad Cashew didn’t come in right away as the No. 1 guy,” Lewis says of his alter ego. “He worked from the bottom up. And for the fans, it all started out like, ‘Oh, here’s this funny guy, let’s chant his silly name.’ And then there was a period where I would actually eat cashews during the match. And that was silly. And then I had a rivalry with a veteran [wrestler] that led me to kind of grow a little bit more as a wrestler and a performer.”

Lewis working with members of the high school wrestling team at Excel Charter School in East Boston, where he started the wrestling program in 2016. “I’d wanted to help introduce and grow wrestling for public school kids in Boston since my time at BU,” he says. “I built the wrestling team with the intention of it being an intervention for at-risk youth and we have enjoyed a lot of success. I’m super proud of my kids, and my work there is one of my biggest motivators in my life.”

But before Cashew’s success, before his meteoric rise in the New England pro wrestling scene, there was Lewis—a childhood fan who would tune into WWE wrestling on the weekends before becoming a high-school wrestler and later a walk-on athlete for Boston University’s wrestling team. 

“I was good in high school,” Lewis says of his wrestling years at Nashoba Regional High School in Bolton, Mass. “I wasn’t quite division-one-recruit good, but I placed sixth at states.” 

Lewis, who grew up in Stow (the next town over), decided that while he loved wrestling, his relatively late start in the sport meant that he wasn’t likely to go pro. Instead, he pursued a neuroscience degree at Boston University with the goal of teaching and kept in wrestling shape so that he could eventually coach a high school team. He connected with legendary wrestling coach—and former BU wrestling assistant coach—Sean Harrington for extra workouts and training in the off-season at Harrington’s (now-closed) gym, Brickhouse Wrestling and Fitness, LLC. Lewis aspired to train with the BU team to develop his skill, and Harrington encouraged him to go all-in to earn a place with the Terriers. 

“To be able to learn from [BU head coach Carl Adams] and Coach Harrington was a truly once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. So I thought, well, I’m here. I’ll do it. I’ll go to every workout, I’ll be at every practice, I will train as hard as I can,” Lewis says.

Lewis invokes a lot of his past at BU into his performances. He sometimes plays a villainous, egocentric character and dons his BU colors. “I’ll do things like intentionally have the ring announcer list off my academic credentials, tell the crowd I’m smarter than everyone because I’m more educated, and so on. I’ll dress in my BU colors and use the school fight song as my entrance music. I have a lot of fun playing the role of the bad guy when I get the chance.” He can morph his persona to play the villain or the hero—either way, it’s bound to entertain.

The work paid off, and he joined the BU team junior year. The neuroscience major secured a spot just before the program ended in 2014. 

He graduated and embarked on what he thought would be the rest of his life: teaching, coaching a high school wrestling team, house-hunting, the whole nine yards. But a chance encounter with the athletic director at his school—a former longtime pro wrestler in England—got Lewis thinking again about his dream. 

He was 26 by then, and still in fighting shape, or close to it. So, he gave it a go. He signed up at the New England Pro Wrestling Academy and started training. He understood the performance side of pro wrestling instinctively—that entertainment is as important as athleticism. (Lewis says a good way to think about it is this: pro wrestling is to Olympic wrestling what the Harlem Globetrotters are to NBA basketball.)

As is typical in professional wrestling, his first match was against a much more renowned performer, a wrestler now known and quite famous as Carmelo Hayes. In this match, Lewis was considered a jobber—a wrestler whose relatively unknown status makes his or her more famous counterpart shine all the brighter. Many jobbers choose silly names for their first match, knowing it’s unlikely they’ll return as the same character again. Lewis chose Cashew. 

And thus a legend was born. 

“It just became super popular, and the people really liked chanting it,” he says. “So it’s become a nickname for me from there. It was meant to be a throwaway, a one-time joke thing for a laugh, but it’s caught on. And that’s awesome. Now it’s who I am.”

Through the years, Lewis has honed his character, and his gear. Wrestling gear is notoriously expensive, and in a sport where the look is as important as the fit, the constant churn of upgrading one’s costume can spell financial ruin.

Wrestling gear is notoriously expensive, so Lewis bought a sewing machine as soon as he made his professional debut in 2019. He taught himself how to sew, and soon started a wrestling gear business called Bump and Stitch (the name comes from the term “bump” in wrestling, which is a fall or impact with the mat).

Lewis took matters into his own hands, though. Early on, he bought a sewing machine and taught himself how to use it. He sourced fabrics—tried and tested them for the appropriate level of stretch and coverage—and began making his own gear. 

“Everything I’ve worn throughout my career I’ve made myself,” he says. His designs, and attention to detail, soon caught the eye of several other wrestlers and before long, he was taking orders from peers for alterations and wholesale costume design. He started a business, Bump and Stitch, and estimates he’s made more than 300 pieces for himself and others.

In addition to wrestling, Lewis is coaching high schoolers at Excel Academy Charter High School, in East Boston. He joined Excel Academy as a chemistry teacher, then switched to teaching computer science. Right away, however, he started a wrestling program at the school, roughly seven years ago. It was a scrappy, upstart team at first, with Lewis searching the commonwealth for matches. He petitioned the district to get the team recognized as part of the state athletic association so his athletes could compete at the state championship. Last year, the team won its first tournament.

Lewis with fellow wrestlers before working out at the New England Pro Wrestling Academy in North Andover, one of the most well-regarded pro wrestling training centers in the country, with many successful alumni who’ve become worldwide superstars.

“I take so much pride in that program and coaching because I’ve had to put so much of myself into it,” says Lewis, who no longer teaches, but still coaches at Excel Academy. (He now works at the Boys & Girls Club.) 

“It’s something where, in the past year or so, we started to finally see some really impressive success [with the wrestling team],” he says. “But it didn’t come easy, and it took years of a lot of learning and struggles and matches not going well. But we made it.” 

For more information about Brad Cashew, Chaotic Wrestling, or the New England Pro Wrestling Academy, follow their social media accounts below.

Brad Cashew on Instagram and X
Chaotic Wrestling on Facebook, Instagram, and X
New England Pro Wrestling Academy on Facebook, Instagram, and X