Welsh nans befriend pro wrestler on Vegas flight after royal rumble over seats

A group of grandmothers formed an unlikely friendship with a pro wrestler during an emotional trip to Las Vegas to scatter a late husband's ashes.

The four women - Lynn Crawford, 71, Susie Matthews, 73, Rose Sulley, 74, and Christine Goodwin, 80 - who have been close friends for more than 40 years, were travelling to the city to scatter the ashes of Rose's late husband, Pete.

But their journey began with confusion.

Upon boarding the flight from London Heathrow, the women discovered a stranger in one of the seats they believed they had booked - professional wrestler DeReiss Gordon, known in the ring as Man Like DeReiss.

The group were travelling with Rose's daughter and her partner, who had accidentally "messed up" the seating, Susie said.

DeReiss described the nans as "fuming" at first, but the situation quickly softened. After asking for help adjusting her seat, Susie struck up a conversation with him, and he told them he was heading to Las Vegas for WrestleMania week.

He invited the women to his show, and they promised they would attend.

During their week in Vegas, Rose and her daughter fulfilled their plan, scattering her husband Pete's ashes at the MGM Hotel. The following day, the four friends kept their promise and went to the wrestling event.

"We didn't know what was going on," Susie said. "We were all dressed up like Sex and the City, and there were thousands of people walking around with long beards down to their bellies and baseball caps... and there's us, all dolled up.

"We were watching it and we were traumatised. We were like, 'what on earth is going on here?' They were flying out of the ring."

Determined to let him know they had come, the group asked a female wrestler they met in the toilet to pass on a message backstage: "Can you tell him that the girls from Wales on the plane are here?"

DeReiss said: "I was at the merch table when someone told me, 'You know those nans from the plane, they're here'."

"I couldn't believe it. Someone went to get them, we had a chat, and then they carried on watching the show."

Susie said they took photos together and gave him a "big cwtch" before returning to their seats. "It was just such a lovely moment," she said. "We'd promised we'd go, and we did."

Although her grandchildren are big wrestling fans, it was Susie and the group's first time seeing a live match.

"It was the best day, we absolutely loved it," Susie added. "It was so special that we kept our promise, and he was so excited to see us."

The encounter might have ended there, but after returning home, the group discovered that DeReiss had taken to social media to try to track them down after losing contact.

Now, plans are being made to reunite the nans with him at a wrestling show in London, where they will also meet some of his fellow wrestlers.