So by turning it into a stage show he admits he is doing the "least original thing" he possibly could.
But it is a concept that has been floating around in his mind for a while probably the result of being a massive fan of the athletic theatre sport when he was a child — loving the fighting, pranks and bad guy versus good guy storylines.
Then at university a few friends decided to get together and watch it once a month.
"It sort of reignited my passion for it.
"I really do appreciate the athleticism of it and also the fact that hundreds of thousands of people go to these live shows to see people perform what is basically just the most athletic soap opera that’s ever existed.
"I think its beautiful and that it allows people to really care about these characters and these stories."
In the 1980s, pro-wrestling became incredibly popular in the United States with the WWF and characters like Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair becoming hugely popular and a major money spinner.
It is also a genre that has come under controversy over the years due to criticism about creative legitimacy and exploitation of participants.
"There’s been, historically throughout, pro-wrestling through the 1900s and particularly in the last 50 or 60 years, there’s been a lot of exploitation within wrestling.
"Because it’s been an industry that’s grown so rapidly."
But Tipa, who studied theatre at the University of Otago and at 16th Street Actors Studio in Melbourne, is looking to focus on the positives of the theatrical sport using it as a vehicle to tell a story about a young boy growing up in rural New Zealand.
"I would say it’s informed by my experience of growing up in a small town. But it’s not autobiographical."
Tipa spent part of his childhood in Middlemarch when his family moved there in 2005 when he was 9. He lived there until he went to high school at Otago Boys, as a hostel student.
Music was always present in family life and it was seen as being important.
He picked up his mother’s guitar aged 11 but it was not until at the hostel and roomed with a good guitarist he really got interested and he started playing in bands at 15.
"From a pretty young age I was just like oh yeah I like being on stage, oh this is fun, this is good I like singing."
It is a time he often thinks about. The move resulted in him making the transition from child to adolescent as he navigated making new friends in a new place.
"In Middlemarch, you just kind of go roaming around, and your parents are like, oh, come back when it’s getting dark. Instead of just hanging around the block, you can go like five kilometres down the road, and your parents are kind of like, oh, they’ll be fine."
Those memories have come to the fore more since he began watching a lot of American film-maker David Lynch’s work and last year re-watched his Twin Peaks series.
"I only watched it for the first time maybe two years ago, and I ended up just bingeing the whole three seasons and the film with it, and also just got started working through all of his films."
Tipa found he connected with Lynch’s re-occurring themes of an idyllic American dream society with white picket fences but with a darkness that lurks beneath.
"That kind of idea of these layers of, it’s almost like a mask in a way.
"And I thought about that in relation to my experience of growing up in a small town, and in that particular small town I grew up in, there were things that I knew as a kid, and then there were things that I kind of heard rumours of as a kid."
"I had no idea that was going on.
"And that kind of resonated, so it’s that kind of Lynchian thing, but that also resonated with me with the idea of wrestling, how you have the story that the wrestlers are telling in the ring, but then you have what’s going on backstage as well."
Many of the storylines, which are not always good, he admits, are influenced by what is going on behind the scenes and the relationships between wrestlers.
"Whether it be that a couple of wrestlers are dating, and then one of them cheats on another one with another wrestler, and then suddenly that becomes the storyline that’s played.
"Or when one wrestler accidentally, seriously injures another wrestler, as happened between Owen Hart and Steve Austin in the ’90s, and then that gets put into merch [merchandise].
"So there was a T-shirt that was made after that. Owen Hart broke Steve Austin’s neck.
"So they made this accident that happened that was horrible, and he spent two years in rehab recovering, they made it like he meant to do it."
It all combined to encourage Tipa to put pen to paper.
"I just find it really interesting how these two worlds are playing in wrestling, and then there’s these two worlds at play as a child, I guess a child in any adult environment.
"Just noticing the ways things kind of would bleed together in both those environments, and then honestly I think it’s just watching too much David Lynch has made me think about those things."
Babyface is the first full-length play he has written since his University of Otago theatre studies days and took the deadline of a Fringe Festival commitment to get him to finish it.
"I think everything I’ve previously written was just kind of like, just get it down on paper, string of consciousness, put some funny jokes in, make other people perform it."
As it is a solo show which he is to star in, Tipa decided to take the piece more seriously.
He also wanted to create a show he could tour to other Fringe festivals if he decides to travel or move abroad, that did not require a huge set.
"I just want to feel like I’m working with a good piece of writing to begin with, so that I’m, like, setting myself up well."
The first draft of the show was binned after consulting with dramaturg Bronwyn Wallace (Late Bloomers).
"We got to the point where like, we like this new idea way better. And I was like, OK, I’ll go write that.
"I feel like we’ve already kind of stretched and pulled and there’s an interesting story to tell in this and where the story feels sort of like personal and authentic to me to be telling."
Describing himself more as a performer than a writer — Tipa won outstanding performance for his role as Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Dunedin’s theatre awards — the piece gives him plenty of scope to improvise along the way.
He admits there is a challenge to be on stage for 50 minutes by yourself with no other actors to bounce off.
But with the help of Wallace who has worked on other solo shows, and director Sara Georgie, an experienced actor herself, he feels well prepared.
There is also support from old friends from university who are helping out with set and props and Zac Nicholls (Koizilla, Space Bats, Attack!) who is making original music for the show.
"I feel very much in safe hands.
"I just need to focus on my part of this which was the writing, the bulk of which is done and now I can just focus on my job as a performer and to try and tell the story in the best way that we can.
"I feel lucky to have great friends."
Tipa will be portraying the characters through physicality and lighting, rather than costume changes, while keeping it fast-paced.
"My goal is people will laugh, that they’ll cry and there’ll be moments where they go, oh my god, he actually did that.
"Oh my goodness."
When not performing in Summer Shakespeare — he credits doing the Complete Works of Shakespeare with Lara McGregor as being a highlight — Tipa, who is also a guitarist, and his band Laney Blue released an album in December and recently toured New Zealand.
Over the past few years he has also been learning Te Reo and spending at lot of time at Moeraki where his family are from.
"I feel very grateful that I’ve managed to that.
"It was a relatively easy route for me to re-engage through my grandparents and that I’m able to go and spend time up there and connect with my whanau and the wider hapū and write some songs and do some kapa haka and get to learn about my tupuna (ancestors) on that side."
He has been enjoying working with young people who whakapapa to Moeraki, sharing knowledge and time together in an effort to encourage more to engage with their marae.
"That’s been pretty big and important for me the last couple of years and that’s probably where a lot of my focus is still going to be going into the future as well and for me."
Tipa ideally would like to somehow mix his interest in his heritage with performance and storytelling through theatre.
In music it had been easier as he had been composing waiata.
"I don’t know the answers yet but it’s like how can I use some of my skills that I’ve managed to acquire over the years to provide some value to a hapū and its young people."
To see
Babyface, New Athenaeum Theatre, March 17-19
