SO YOU WANT TO WORK IN WRESTLING?

8/13/2019 SO YOU WANT TO WORK IN WRESTLING?

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FORWARD BY VINCE RUSSO

WARNING!!!

(The views expressed in the introduction to this book are not in any way,shape, or for, the views and opinions, of the author, or the any otherswho contributed As a atter of fact, the views and the opinions are of onean, and one an on"y, e # $ince Russo%

So you want to get in the professional wrestling business?

Wait a minute . . . let me get you a valium.

Its been well over fifteen years since I sacrificed my life to the business ofsports-entertainment. Yup, thats what I call itsports-entertainment. If you

purists dont li!e it . . . then you can complain all you want about it to your localdirt sheets.

"rom the first time I saw such greats as the #aliant $rothers, %ou &lbano, the $ig'at (rnie %add, the )rand Wi*ard of Wrestling and $runo Sammartino, Iembraced the business for what it wasone of the greatest forms ofentertainment that I had ever seen. +he characters were larger than life, and thestories . . . the stories were so magnificent that they could only ta!e place on astage !nown as the suared circle. +here wasnt one single day where I thoughtwrestling was real, or I actually cared about how many stars a fau/ wrestlingmatch achieved. It was the theatre of the absurd . . . and, as 0aven would say, It

was tremendous.

So when my two video stores were getting their brains bashed in by the new !idon the bloc!, $loc!buster #ideo, in the very early 12sI reali*ed that I had tofind myself a new line of wor!. +he truthit wasnt my dream to get intoprofessional wrestlingI had a wife and two !ids and I needed a 34$.

&nd to be honest, after 56 years, at the end of the day thats all it is . . . a 7ob--nothing more . . . nothing less. +here is no dream, there is no s!ittle-coloredrainbow and there are no unicornsonly hard wor!, sweat, headaches,heartache and e/hausting hours. 8ow, where as that may sound harsh . . . itsthe brutal truth. +he glit*, the glamour and the pageantry of sports-entertainmentisnt all its crac!ed up to be.

I can go on, and on, and on, about the psychology herewhy the wrestlingbusiness is the way it isbut Ill spare you. In due time, if youre luc!y enoughto get where you want to goyoull find out for yourself. $ut, I will say thisthereis a 9:)( part of me that wished I would have 7ust stayed a fan. (n7oyed it fromthe confines of my dungeon ;my finished basement that I never leave< never


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'onnecticut. I split my days between college and wor!. $ased on my 7ournalismbac!ground ;my ma7or


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So, if youre serious about becoming a pro wrestler or getting a 7ob in thewrestling business, this is a realistic loo! at what you need to do to achieve it.

0ART 1 2 &' ') WANT T' 3+ A 0R' WR+&T+R-

G+T ')R +.)/ATI'N 4IR&T5

By first piece of advice to fans that as! me how to become a professionalwrestler is this E )(+ Y4:0 (A:'&+I48 "I0S+=

Ive met numerous wrestlers on the independent scene that either left high schoolearly or went into wrestling shortly thereafter. +hey wrestle for a few years andend up never ma!ing it or getting in7ured. 8ot only does the reality hit them thatthey will never achieve their dream, but they dont have anything else to fall bac!on. If you have any shot at going to college, do it. Wrestling will still be there foryou when youre done.

Bany youngsters want to capture that dream of becoming a wrestling star assoon as possible, but its important to get the rest of your life in order first. +8&star Scott A&more E who also runs the 'an-&m Wrestling School in Windsor,4ntario, 'anada E tal!s about (dge and 'hristian 'age concentrating on collegeearly onH

&cott .6AoreG The example I always cite is Edge and Christian Cage.They started training right after they finished high school and while theywere in college. They would work shows here and there on the weekends,but college always came first with them. For me, wrestling came first and if

there was any time for college I did it.

They both graduated and got their degrees I!m still a few credits short.They could ha"e ne"er imagined they would one day be millionaires andtop stars in the business. #t the time they were two skinny $% year&oldguys who weren!t guaranteed anything in the business. They did it the rightway. If they would ha"e blown out a knee or had their wrestling career cutshort by in'ury, they had their degree to fall back on.

A&more continues with the story of how he bro!e in prior to college and some ofwhat he missed out on in his early adulthoodG

(ince the age of nine I told e"eryone I wanted to be a pro wrestler when Igrew up. )hen my fourth grade teacher went around the class and askede"eryone what they wanted to be, I told him I wanted to be a wrestler. *etold me to stop being stupid and to pick something else. )ho tells a nine&year&old kid they can!t be what they want to when they grow up+

#nyway, when I was - years old my brother!s hockey coach was a local


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pro wrestler. *e had a wrestling school and he placed an ad in one of thenewspapers. I talked to my brother about him and picked up the phone tocall him. I!m lucky there wasn!t caller I back then because I probablydialed / times and kept hanging up when he answered. I was scared totalk to him. #fter I got the ner"e to finally talk to him, I started my training.

For the first year I was interested in chasing girls, so I was a bad student.0ut I kept at it. I don!t regret in any way how I did it, but now I don!t usuallytake students into my school until they!re 1 or done with high school. It!scompletely hypocritical of me because I wrestled for two years during highschool, but looking back now there was no reason for it. I should ha"e

probably concentrated more on school and football and 'ust been ateenager. 2y senior year of high school, I missed out on a lot by wrestlingon the weekends. I missed parties and dances to go out on the road sittingin a car going from show to show with guys twice my age.3

&s far as my own personal e/perience, en7oy your college years as much as youcan. $ecause I was so driven to get a full-time 7ob with the WW", I missed out ona lot of the college e/perience. When I wasnt ta!ing classes, I was wor!ing atthe WW". When I wasnt wor!ing at the WW", I was doing college wor!. +hatwas my life for almost three years. I bro!e down my daily schedule into hoursand stuc! to it. 8ow, I wish I could have en7oyed college a little more.

IN$+&T T7+ TI8+5

If you thin! any ma7or promotion li!e the WW( or +8& hires wrestlers off thestreet E youre wrong. Sure, promoters are sometimes guilty of trying to ma!e no-talent, !nuc!le-draggers into stars, but in 11 of those cases their staying powerin the sport is minimal. If you really want to succeed, you need to live, breath andeat it E and most importantly, you have to have a passion for it. In other words,you need to put in the time to learn it.

You will be reuired to spend long hours training, often under punishingconditions. You will be e/pected to spend long hours in the gym training. Saygoodbye to 7un! food, because your diet is one of the most important aspects tostaying in top shape.

&fter si/ months of training, you might get luc!y enough to wrestle on anindependent show ;by the way, probably for no money


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get.

$ut before you dive headfirst into your dream, ma!e sure its really for you. +al!to your family first and get their thoughts. Its going to be a big step for you andone youll have to devote a lot of time to.

4IN. A R+0)TA3+ WR+&TING &/7''5

+heres a reason why bac!yard wrestlers never ma!e it to the big time E becauseyou wont learn a thing by doing it ;in my opinion


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today run by guys that ha"e no more credentials to train you than mymother does. They will take your money and use you. There!s no guaranteeof any 'obs e"en though they claim it. There are so many guys who ha"ewrestling schools that ha"e no business training students. They sendthese kids out there with the potential of getting them seriously in'ured. I

think a lot of them are shysters and it!s despicable what they do.

If you go to a wrestling school, make sure they ha"e the credentials to betraining you and take their promises of stardom with a grain of salt. Iremember how badly I wanted to make it in the business and I can see howa lot of these kids today will fall for anything. The tell&tale sign that you!reat a bad school is that these trainers and owners will 'ust blow smoke upyour ass about what they can do for you.3

+8& star %ance 9oyt also stresses the importance of choosing wisely, based onhis own personal e/perienceH

ance 7oytG The guy who owned the school asked me to come out for atryout. I had no clue what professional wrestling was really all about. I hadbeen watching it on tele"ision for a few years and en'oyed it, but I reallyhad no idea what to look for in a school I 'ust took the first offer.

2y first day of wrestling training, they had me taking bumps and droppingelbows and things like that. 8ooking back there!s no way I should ha"ebeen doing that on the first day, but they didn!t know any better or didn!tcare. The next day e"erything was sore on my body and I almost didn!t goback.

The guy who trained me didn!t own the school. *e had a little bit of trainingfrom I"an 4utski, so what I would learn was the little he knew from 4utski. Itwas as :uick as he could throw it at me and if I got it he would mo"e ontosomething else. *e didn!t e"en care if I was mastering what I was doing orexecuting the mo"e the right way.

The owner had no credentials. *e was one of the most extreme marks inthe world that decided he wanted a wrestling school to rip people off. #tthe time I didn!t know it. #ll I knew is he had a nice facility with photos onthe wall of him with different wrestling stars. It 'ust sounded great. *etalked about all the promotions he!d worked with and all the wrestlers he!dmet.

8ow and behold he was 'ust a mark who would show up at the right placeat the right time and get pictures of himself with stars. *e played it off likehe knew these guys personally, but I didn!t know any better. (o when hesaid 'ump I 'umped. I more or less started to reali;e that what he wassaying was a total con. It was a great con when you first heard it. The


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problem was I heard it o"er and o"er again and after a while you start toread between the lines and understand the 0( that is being said. #t that

point I decided to go to another school.3

So what !ind of ualifications does it ta!e to open a wrestling school? 8one.

&nyone could open a wrestling school if they wanted to. You dont even need aring E 7ust a mat, a sign out front and someone stupid enough to pay you.

'ase in point E while conducting an interview with a +8& wrestler for ourwebsite, he shared a story about a student he bro!e in with at a wrestling school.+he student completed the si/-month training course, but didnt get along withthe trainer. So to stic! it to the trainer, the student opened his 4W8 wrestlingschool after his initial training. Yes, you read that right E he opened his ownwrestling school si/ months after learning the basics. &nd yes, some people weredumb enough to pay him to train them.

Scott A&more shares a fairly common e/ample of how students can get rippedoffH

&cott .6Aore< I had one student who came to my school after he hadtrained at another. The owner offered to train the kid for =$%%% and fed himall kinds of stuff like he was going to be a star and he knew >ince2c2ahon personally and would call >ince after his training to get him a 'obwith the ))F.

(o the kid ga"e him the money and shows up for class on the first day andthere!s no ring. )here!s the ring+3 he asked. The guy tells the studentThere is no ring I!m going to train you in my backyard 'ust like Ilearned.3 (o he trained him for two days, taught him a few mo"es and thenga"e him the phone number for the ))F. *e told him to call up and tell>ince he was ready to wrestle. 9b"iously, he ne"er made it through to>ince 2c2ahon and no one returned his calls.

)restling schools open and close all the time. I tell people to make surethey find a reputable school before they agree to anything. ?uys will 'usttake their money and run. I heard one guy was able to con"ince fi"estudents to gi"e him =/%% each as a down payment to train and then didn!tshow up for the first class. *e 'ust sole =$/%% from them and took off.3

+here are several well-!nown schools throughout the :nited States run by someof the best in the business. +heir schooling may cost more, but youll have amuch better opportunity of succeeding long term if youre serious. You can easilyfind information on the internet about schools run by the following reputabletrainersG Scott A&more, 9arley 0ace, &fa +he Samoan, Shar! $oy, $rother 0untand Aory "un! 3r. +he 0ing of 9onor promotion also offers schooling.


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+hese schools are 7ust a few of the reputable facilities out there. You can e/pectto pay upwards of JC222 or more 7ust to attend, so its uite an investment andone you shouldnt ta!e lightly. I would also suggest going to several ma7orindependent wrestling shows in your area and as!ing around. When I say ma7orindependent shows, I dont mean the events that draw 52 people in some guys

bac!yard. I mean events run by longstanding promoters who have a proven andsuccessful trac! record in your area.

4nce you are accepted into a school, youll be taught the basics. You will learnthe proper way to run the ropes, how to absorb the punishment of beingslammed in the ring, how to loc! up with an opponent, throwing punches,applying headloc!s and so on.

Your dream of delivering a Snu!a Splash off the top rope is a long way off untilyou learn the proper mechanics and master them. Youll be e/pected to studyhours of video of yourself screwing up while training E learning what you did

wrong and how to correct it.

9ow important are the basics and mechanics? #ery important. When wrestlersmail tapes to ma7or promotions hoping for a spot on the roster, the first thingmanagement loo!s at is if the wrestler has his or her basics down. We arentwatching to see you pull off a cool double-flip suple/ from the top E we want tosee that you !now how to wrestle properly.

+8& star Shar! $oy runs his own school in 4hio called +he Shar! +an! andshares another story about students who come to his school with previoustrainingH

&hark 3oy5?enerally speaking, be careful who you trust. 2ake sureyou!"e heard of this person who you!re about to hand =$%%% to train you. Ifyou!"e ne"er heard of them make sure they ha"e references you can talkto. Try to find out who has graduated from the school and talk to them. I!"ealso gotten stories such as @*ey can you gi"e me a discount on yourclasses because I!"e already had six months of training with Aoe 0low.! Iask, @)ell, who!s Aoe 0low+!

@9h, he!s this promoter down in 6owhere"ille, Bentucky!

@9k, what did you learn+!

@# lot!

@)ell, show me!

Then they lock up and take the headlock on the wrong side and ob"iouslythe guy has pissed away =$%%% to learn nothing. (o I would say not to let


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that happen to you.3

4ne good thing about attending a well-!nown wrestling school is that many tendto hold their own independent events as well. 0ather than hit the road right out oftraining and suffer the hardships that come with it, your best bet is to remain a

part of the school and compete on their events. +hey also have connections toma7or promotions li!e the WW( and +8&, which youll read more about later.

&/'TT .6A8'R+ 'N 7I& &/7'' 2 :T7+ /AN#A8 WR+&TING&/7'';5

I run the 'an-&m Wrestling School in Windsor, 4ntario, 'anada. We train threedays a wee!.

&s far as help, I have &le/ Shelley who wor!s with more advanced students,teaching them %ucha %ibre and different styles. +he two main guys who help me

with classes are +yson Au/, who was trained by myself and 3oe %egend, as wellas a graduate student of mine named )utter.

We have three regularly scheduled classes during the wee! and Im usually therefor one of them, sometimes two. $asically there is a program in place at myschool. Its a system I was taught that Ive modified along the way. I thin!everyone has their own system and thats fine. +heres a million different ways todo the same thing. $ut we have our system they have to learn.

If they want to branch out along the way and learn different styles thats fine, butmy guys have a good grasp of my system and how we do things. I evaluate theirprogress once a wee!. +yson Au/ and )utter handle a lot of the hands-ontraining and &le/ Shelley is there to go over other fine points with the students.

&fter being around for 5D years, we have the system down to a science.

We dont put a set time limit on the course. We dont say its three or si/ monthsor a year or C2 classes. +heres a set fee that you pay and you continue untilcompletion. What we consider completion is when the instructors and myselfma!e the decision that youre ready, then we put you in your first match.

What I have that I thin! sets us apart from everyone else is what I call our&ftercare >rogram. & lot of wrestling schools out there get you in, ta!e yourmoney, teach you what they want to teach you and then send you out and sayK8ow go get yourself boo!ed somewhere.

With our &ftercare >rogram we have guys that graduated seven or eight yearsago that still come in to train. +heres a two-fold affect to that E one, this businessis always changing and revolutioni*ing, so theyve got a chance to come bac!and !eep their s!ills sharp and up-to-date and learn new things. +he other thingis if you come bac!, the deal is you have to wor! with everyone. You might have


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to help out a guy who has been there for three wee!s or you might wor! withsomeone whos been on television for five years. So, everyone gets the benefit ofwor!ing with different styles and different people with different e/periences.

It also helps the students coming up because they get the benefit of being able to

get in the ring with pros such as 0hino, who still stops by the school to train.When he trains, he might get in there with someone whos only ta!en fourclasses or he might get in there with 'hris Sabin. 9e !nows that andunderstands the importance of that, both for him and to the other students. In thisbusiness, you have to learn to lead in the ring, so it helps a guy li!e 0hino or'hris Sabin to re-educate themselves. Its one thing to learn something and !nowhow to do it. Its another to learn enough to be able to properly teach it tosomeone else.

I usually tell guys before they sign up to come in and chec! it out and see if itsthe school for you. Were a no-frills school. Weve got a clean warehouse, but its

not anything fancy. Weve got a nice ring E its one of the old W'W touring rings.So youre in a good ring in a good building. Its not air conditioned, so in thesummer its hot. In the winter it can get drafty and damn cold. So youll sweat inthe summer and free*e your ass off in the winter.

+here are no frills and no wor!out euipment E do that on your own time. Wevegot people who help with training and nutrition programs. $ut Im not there tobabysit you in the weight room E Im there to teach you how to wrestle.

& student may come in and loo! at my school and thin! its not for them. +hatsfine. I tell people to loo! at as many schools as you can before you ma!e adecision. When I first opened I would refer students to &l Snows school and hewould refer people to me. +here are a handful of good schools across the :nitedStates and 'anada. +ry to chec! them out and see what fits you E its 7ust li!epic!ing a college.

.'R 4)N* 'N 7I& &/7'' 2 :T7+ 4)N*ING /'N&+R$AT'R;5

+he school is located in 4cala, "lorida. We have a ring setup and a small arenafor a capacity of L22 people. We have applications on the website E www.dory-fun!.com. $efore they can become a part of the "un!ing 'onservatory we needa personal interview.

We loo! for students that have a passion for the business and want to be a partof professional wrestling. We understand ahead of time that every student whocomes to the school isnt going to ma!e it as a professional wrestler.

9owever, if they love the business and want to participate in it, we see to it theyare able to ta!e part in the three-wee! program and a spot on our $&8)=+elevision show. Its uite an advantage because if their video is on the internet
http://www.dory-funk.com/http://www.dory-funk.com/http://www.dory-funk.com/http://www.dory-funk.com/


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they can call any promoter and have them loo! at their s!ills. +he first day isabout the basics E we thin! thats the most important thing in professionalwrestling. We start off with the most basics moves first so they are comfortablewith going forward in the training.

&7AR* 3' 'N 7I& &/7'' 2 :T7+ &7AR* TAN*;5

By KShar! +an! school is located in 4hio. Im using the 9eartland Wrestlingfacility and Ive got 5L guys signed up right now. +hey can sign up atShar!boy.net. +he course I teach right now is 5C classes for J622 and I as! forJC22 up front and they pay the rest throughout the course. (ach class is threehours long. I have some students who ta!e the course multiple times to sharpenup on their s!ills and things of that sort.

4n the first day, I generally will show them the basic two bumps E the bac! bumpand the front bump. We dont get too much farther than that on the first day

because I dont want to get anyone hurt. &lso on the first day well wor! onloc!ing up and some very basic chain wrestling. :sually by the second practice Ita!e the bumping to the ne/t level when I show them how to ta!e a bac! bumpfrom a tac!le or a snap-mare or hip-toss for the front bump. +heres also plenty ofreview those first few days E we review constantly.

"rom training with %es +hatcher and then at the former W'W >ower >lant, Ilearned a lot of how tos and also some how not tos. &s far as the how tos Ethe same basic bumps that I cover I was taught by %es on the first day.

9owever, I dont focus too much on cardio or weight training. &t the >ower >lantthey would beat the cardio into your head. With %es, he would stress the weighttraining. In my case, I leave the guys to do that on their own time. I do tal! aboutthe importance of it but we dont ta!e class time for weight training or blow-updrills.

If I do incorporate the cardio drills, its with something Im trying to teach them."or e/ample, in one recent class we had what I call mon!ey in the middlewhere one guy is in the middle and the other students feed in for a bump, butthey call it on the fly. So you really have to thin! fast. +hat gets a lot of the guysreally blown up and tired, but its important to thin! on your feet in the ring.

+he first couple of wee!s I 7ust hammer home the basics. I try to build a verysolid foundation for them. Its important for safety sa!e. &fter that, we start to addmoves here and there. "or e/ample, after they master a snap-mare I will showthem a hip-toss. +hen Ill teach them dropdowns and how to reverse hip-tosses.

&fter that well move onto proper punching and !ic!ing. Its a slow, gradualprocess but they need that foundation in order to learn how to wrestle properlyand not in7ure themselves.


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I really dont push students as hard as other schools. When I went to the >ower>lant, they pushed us hard every single day. I always saw guys throwing up,wal!ing out or uitting. I treat it more li!e a college course E they are paying meto instruct them.

"or e/ample, in a recent class I had a student who claimed he was sic! andwanted to sit out the rest of the session, but I thin! he was 7ust blown up from thedrill we did. I didnt argue with him. When you go to college, no one yells at youfor missing class E they dont care whether youre there or not. +hats myapproach. If they want to waste their money and time, they can. Its not my 7ob toma!e sure they attend and ta!e part. $ut, Im going to do my best to ma!e eachand every one of them improve. +hey have to meet me half way to do that.

T7+ W/W 0'W+R 0ANT5

$efore the promotion ended, W'W had its own training school called +he >ower

>lant, which was based at the W'W 9eaduarters in Smyrna, )eorgia. It wasrun by wrestling greats 3ody 9amilton and >aul 4rndorff, along with fellow trainerAwayne Sarge $ruce.

+he >ower >lant was one of the most successful wrestling schools in the countryduring its heyday before W'W folded in C225. It also gained uite a reputation asone of the toughest schools as well. In fact, the estimated dropout rate was M2percent.

It turned out a laundry list of stars who went on to become ma7or stars in thesport, including $ill )oldberg, +riple 9, $ig Show, Shane 9elms, Aiamond Aallas>age, @anyon, (li/ S!ipper, &le/ Wright and many others.

Auring my time in W'W, 4rndorff and $ruce handled the bul! of the training.$oth veterans demanded obedience and respect from their students. I spo!ealmost daily with the trainees, who always complained that 4rndorff and $rucewere pushing them too hard. +hey claimed they werent learning as much as theycould and were often frustrated and disheartened they hadnt made it ontelevision yet.

I spo!e with 4rndorff on a few occasions and as!ed him one day to e/plain histraining philosophy to me. 4rndorff was a no-nonsense !ind of guy and told it li!eit was. &ccording to 4rndorff, he acted the part of the drill instructor because inorder to create a star that will do whatever the promoter as!s, you need to brea!them down first and ma!e them reali*e the importance of authority and respect inthe wrestling business.

&ccording to 4rndorff, the trainees needed to learn to wal! before they couldrun which e/plained their frustration with the training style. 4rndorff firmlybelieved that hardcore and high-flying wrestling styles had a negative effect on


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youngsters, who would rather hit each other with chairs and land a top ropemoonsault than learn the necessary basics of the sport.

4rndorff was right. Some of the students at the >ower >lant could do some verycool 7umps and flips, but they were e/tremely sloppy when it came to basic

wrestling holds and psychology. +he reason why 4rndorff continued to houndthem on the little things is because they werent paying enough attention toperfect them.

+he >ower >lant held semi-regular auditions, where potential candidates wouldpay a non-refundable JC62 fee for a three-day tryout session. If the candidatessurvived 4rndorffs trial by fire and impressed, they could continue on with thesi/-month training program at a cost of JD,222.

&ccording to a sign 4rndorff proudly hung on the wall, the motto of the >ower>lant was N>ain Is +emporary, >ride Is "orever.N

+erry +aylor, a member of W'Ws +alent 0elations department during the >ower>lants e/istence, had this ta!e on the schoolG

Terry Tay"or< #s far as the 4ower 4lant, and this goes with any otherwrestling school, you can!t learn e"erything in training. E"entually youha"e to learn by being out in front of the people. 7ou ha"e to feel the timingand work off the reaction of the people. Those guys at the 4ower 4lant hadit rough. They would go to the school 2onday through Friday from amuntil /pm, then get in a car and dri"e like speed demons up to 6ash"ille towrestle that Friday night as well as (aturday and (unday night, then getback in the car and dri"e back to #tlanta, get back at Dam and then ha"e tobe back at the 4ower 4lant at am on 2onday.

The 4ower 4lant was much more about traditional wrestling and how tobecome a pure wrestler. The ))F!s training program was about that, butteaching them how to be stars as well. The ))F placed more of animportance on getting the young wrestlers out there in front of the fans sothey could react and get their timing down. They had deals withde"elopmental territories to get their young guys out there and working.The guys at the 4ower 4lant would sometimes be there for a year or morebefore they wrestled in front of any fans.3

7ITTING T7+ G8 AN. .I+TING5

In addition to the constant traveling and training, youll also be e/pected todedicate time to the gym to !eep your body in pee! performance. )one are thedays of beer-bellied, fat wrestlers.

Aespite what the average 3oe thin!s, wrestling is a full-contact sport. +he training


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is intense and painful. It will hurt to get out of bed each and every day Esomething you had better get used to. Ice pac!s will become a necessity in yourlife. (very day you will hurt in a new place on your body. With proper dieting andhitting the gym, you can condition your body to deal with the punishment you willta!e. %ance 9oyt echoes that statement with his own adviceH

ance 7oyt< ?etting physically fit early on is "ery important in my opinion.It!s going to protect your body because of the damage wrestlers putthemsel"es through each time they step in the ring. 7our e"eryday Aoethinks wrestling is fake but it!s far from that. I!m a legit -! and if I picksomeone up o"er my head, they!re se"en feet off the ground. )hen I throwthem down, there!s no faking gra"ity. 7ou hit hard. If you can figure outhow to beat gra"ity then you!ll re"olutioni;e this business.3

+his doesnt mean spending hours lifting weights and bul!ing up, rather, yourcardiovascular training is the most important aspect of ma!ing it in the ring. You

can have the physiue of an &donis, but if you run out of gas during a matchyoure doomed. "ans can recogni*e when wrestlers have nothing left in the tan!and promoters hate boring matches.

If you want to ma!e it to the big time in wrestling, youll also need to be mindfulof your diet. %i!e every other sport, you will need to eat healthy and avoid carbsand fatty foods.

9owever, in a sport where long hours on the road is the norm and you wontleave the arena until late at night, healthy dining options are sometimes limited.+oday, many ma7or fast-food restaurants now offer healthier eating options. &lltoo often, wrestlers ma!e the mista!e of disregarding their diet on the road, butthey will always pay for it in the ring.

Say goodbye to fried foods, including french-fries and onion rings. Soda will bereplaced by water or other non-sugar drin!s. You can order a hamburger orchic!en sandwich, but youll have to toss the bread. If you cant stand fruits orvegetables, learn to love them.

Bany wrestling stars have their own strict diet, which differs with the individual.Its also not uncommon to see protein sha!es throughout any bac!stage area ata wrestling event.

/7+/* ')R ATTIT).+ AT T7+ .''R5

If you enter the wrestling business with a bad attitude, with rare e/ceptions, youwont last long. You will uic!ly learn to shut up, listen and learn, or else you willbe cast aside in favor of another student who is more eager.

Terry Tay"orG I was "ery selfish when I first started out. I had a loud mouth


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and I was always popping off. There was a wrestler named ?ordon 6elson,who was probably /% years old, /!% with a big barrel chest. I had to lose tohim and I remember thinking @)hy should I lose to this guy+ I can beathim.! 0ut I kept my mouth shut and learned a lot from him. Come to findout, he had trained with guys o"er in England who were legit shoot fighters

that could break both your arms in a second. If I had whined like a lot ofthese young wrestlers do now he probably would ha"e hurt me bad.3

&cott .6Aore< I!"e had some bad apples, but I 'ust throw them out. I ha"eno reason to deal with anyone who doesn!t want to be there. I threw a guyout who was a 2r. (# bodybuilding champion. I threw him out of theschool because I didn!t like his attitude. I also threw out an #llmericancollege linebacker who I thought had more potential than anyone I e"ersaw walk through my door. I!d rather ha"e a guy who is /!3 and %

pounds who I know is going to work his ass off in the ring, try to learn andbe respectful and then go to the gym on his free time and do his cardio

than a guy who is an elite athlete with a bad attitude.

I don!t run the school to support myself. It doesn!t pay my mortgage and itdoesn!t buy me a car. There are not a lot of wrestling schools that ha"ebeen around for 5 years. There are not a lot of wrestling schools thatconsistently put out a good crop of talent like we ha"e consistently done. Ifsomeone has a bad attitude, I won!t deal with it. )e!ll beat you up a little bitand we!ll stretch you a little bit to try and change your attitude, but if thatdoesn!t work then there!s the door ha"e fun training with someone else. Ifthey go somewhere else to train and become a big star, then good forthem. I!ll still think their attitude sucks.3

Shane Aouglas bro!e in under Aominic Ae8ucci, a former WWW" star in theO2s and F2s and a man who too! training very seriouslyH

&hane .ou9"asG ominic would train the hell out of us. There were three ofus at the time training under him that ended up making it me, 2ick Foleyand Cody 2ichaels. Training would start at se"en in the morning and hewould keep us there until se"en at night. There was no air conditioning andwe would pour sweat all day in that gym. It was an old elementary schoolgym and I remember during the summer months it would 'ust be ungodlyhot, while during the winter it was bitterly cold.

)e would start the day with stretching and running around the gym towarm&up. Then we would get in the ring and train. I remember it was threeor four months before we were e"en allowed to hit the ropes. )hen you!rea kid the first thing you want to do when you get in the ring and run theropes or climb them ominic forbade that. *e taught us chain wrestlingfirst. ominic was an 9lympic trials sil"er medalist for Italy in /-, so hewas one hell of a shooter. To say he would stretch us is an


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understatement.

uring the old school days of training in wrestling, during your first orsecond session they would intentionally break your arm or leg 'ust to seehow committed you were and if you would come back. # lot of guys would

'ust :uit, but the ones that would come back would get beaten on more.That would continue for months until they would slowly be allowed to learnthe insides of the business. ominic ne"er in'ured us but he sure beat thehell out of us. *e would put his elbow down on your 'aw and push yourface into the mat and things like that. *e wanted to see how committed wewere.3

Auring my time with the WW( and W'W, Ive seen many athletes from othersports attempt to enter wrestling with the attitude of 9ow hard can it be? 3ustbecause they have the physiue and a bac!ground in sports they usually thin!they are better than other students. +hey uic!ly learn a harsh lesson at the

hands of their instructors.

In the sport of professional wrestling, youll be as!ed E or ordered E to do manythings that you might hate. $ut remember, another wrestler can always replaceyou. 3ust li!e any other line of wor!, there are always people you wont li!e. Youwill need to put aside your own personal differences to do business with them orsomeone else will be given the opportunity.

Ive wor!ed with many wrestlers with bad attitudes during my time in the sport.9owever, unless youre a top ratings draw or a friend of the promoter, they oftenpay for their poor attitude down the road. >romoters have little time forcomplainers and anyone seen as a bad apple will often be sent home to rethin!their outloo! on life.

Sometimes those with bad attitudes will be ribbed unmercifully by their fellowwrestlers if they cause problems. 0ibbing is the term used in wrestling forplaying a 7o!e or a stunt on a fellow star. +hey can be good-natured fun forentertainment purposes, or in the case of a wrestler who needs an attitudechec!, they can be malicious. If the victim doesnt change their ways it will onlycontinue and get worse.

"or e/ample, during my tenure in the WW( there was a certain star who got onthe bad side of several veterans for continually tal!ing down to and ridiculingyounger wrestlers. While that star was out in the ring, the other wrestlers openedthe contents of his luggage and cut up his clothes with scissors. 8e/t, they cra*y-glued his shoes to the ceiling and hid the !eys to his rental car. +his is 7ust abasic e/ample of ribbing in the sport. It can get much worse.

W+/'8+ T' 3+ING .IRT 0''R


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Bany trainees go bro!e 7ust paying for wrestling school, but thats 7ust the start ofyour poverty while chasing your dream of being a wrestling star.

4nce you complete wrestling school, theres no guarantee youre going to be ontelevision the following wee!. In fact, the odds of that are slim to none. What you

will be doing, however, is spending many hours on the road driving to small,independent shows. You will wrestle in towns youve probably never heard of andyoull be luc!y to get gas money for the trip home. $y the way, youll alsoprobably be sleeping in that car uite often.

"or e/ample, before Steve &ustin was ever Stone 'old, he spent years drivinghis car all over +e/as wor!ing independent shows, living off potatoes, bread andyesHbeer.

Shane Aouglas offers a realistic loo! at ma!ing money in the wrestling businesstodayG

&hane .ou9"asG Today, kids who want to be wrestlers hear stories like 0ill?oldberg, who goes from being a bouncer to a wrestling star and makingwho knows how many millions of dollars. 0ill ?oldberg is by far a rareanomaly in wrestling. For e"ery ?oldberg there are 5%,%%% kids out therethat want to be a pro wrestler and think they!re going to be rich from thebeginning.

It!s especially tough today to make good money in the wrestling businessbecause there are "ery few contracts now like the ones we saw in )C)and ))F during the boom period in the %s. There are probably fi"eguys making great money in the business right now with the rest of us

plugging away and making a decent li"ing. (o for any kid out there whothinks they!re going to break in and become an instant millionaire, thosedays are long gone.3

Wrestling has no medical benefits and you only get paid when you wrestle.Independent promoters dont offer contracts, let alone medical insurance. If youget hurt, you have to pay for your hospital bills. 4n the road, you pay for yourown gas and food. 8obody fresh out of wrestling school gets put up in hotels andyou wont be ta!ing any private 7ets. You will struggle to survive financially, youllbe sore from wrestling every night to ma!e ends meet and you can say goodbyeto any social life you may have had.

In others words, unless you have great connections or are the ne/t coming of+he 0oc!, the first years of wrestling will be miserable. )et used to it.

.+4INING ')R 0+R&'NA5

Wrestling is made up of colorful characters and outrageous personalities. Youll


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need to create one of your own.

&s previously stated, its important for wrestlers to connect with the fans. Youwant to entertain the fans and hope they remember you and will pay to see youagain.

4ne tip is to come up with a persona or character that is uniue and different. Ifyoure luc!y enough, a promoter will let you run with it. 9owever, a promoter willoften give you a persona to portray if youre new to the business. "or e/ample,one of the greatest wrestlers today E &3 Styles E began his career under a mas!!nown as Br. 4lympia. (ven if you dont li!e it or are uncomfortable with it, tryyour best. "igure out how to play it to the best of your abilities. If the promotersees that you arent doing it to the best of your ability, you may not get anotheropportunity.

+here are also numerous wrestlers on the independent scene that wrestle under

their given name with no outright persona. +heres a reason why they stay in theindependents for years - because they never connect with fans and give themlittle reason to remember them. >ersonality is !ey, a notion longtime veteran and+8& agent Simon Aiamond believes is vitally important.

&ion .iaondG Today a lot of guys are lacking personality. # lot of theseyoung guys don!t reali;e that it!s still show business. 6o matter how muchsome people want to legitimi;e wrestling or turn it into an 9lympic sport it will always be entertainment. 4ersonality is such a big key because 'ustlike any other entertainment field that!s what links the fans to that

performer. The personality you ha"e draws the fans in and makes themoney. 7ou can pull off e"ery cool mo"e under the sun, but if you can!tcon"ey your personality in that ring then you will ne"er reali;e your full

potential. It!s how you get people to buy tickets and merchandise. Thewrestling business is built on characteri;ation and personality, notnecessarily the mo"es.3

4ne tip, as odd as it may sound, is to as! friends or family for suggestions if youare unsure. Your friends and family !now you better than anyone. 4ften, it canbe as easy as incorporating something from your bac!ground, such as sports,the military or anything else you might have been involved in. 4ften, the bestpersonas or characters come from simply turning up the volume on who youalready are.

Auring my time with the WW(, the process went li!e thisG 4nce we were giventhe green light from the trainers that the prospect was ready to move up totelevision, we sat them down for a one-on-one interview. #ince 0usso would as!them a series of real-life uestions about their up-bringing, family and lifee/periences. It was from these interviews that a persona was generated for theprospect. 4nce you got to !now the trainee and their bac!ground, you could get


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a feel for what they would be good at portraying on television.

In addition, good wrestlers will find ways to ma!e their personas or characterscome across in the ring, whether it be the way you dress or your wrestling style."or e/ample, )eorge +he &nimal Steele was indeed an animal in the ring E

with the green tongue, hairy bac! and pension for eating turnbuc!les. 0avishing0ic! 0ude was in love with his own physiue and often too! time during thematch to admire his own muscles.

&lso allow for your persona to develop over time. 8ever !eep your persona thesame and always try to evolve it in new ways. & perfect e/ample of this is Sting,who went from a bleach-blonde colorful character to a dar!, brooding star benton revenge in the 5112s. (volution of your persona is important so it wontbecome stale over the years.

&lso, its advisable to incorporate several speciali*ed moves into your arsenal as

well. In other words, a set of moves that you use in every match that the fans willcome to e/pect. Wrestlers such as 0ic "lair, 9ul! 9ogan, +he 0oc! and $ret9art are some of the biggest stars in the history of the sport, and they also haveset moves that fans have come to en7oy.

9ul! 9ogan has the big boot. 0ic "lair has the chop. +he 0oc! has the >eoples(lbow and so on. When is the last time you went to a wrestling event and didnthear fans yell Whoo= when someone landed a chop? +hats because 0ic "lairspent years using the move. &fter a while, the fans caught on and its been astaple of pro wrestling since.

0egardless of whether you are a good guy ;babyface< or a bad guy ;heel


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In the late F2s, wrestlers such as 0ic "lair and Austy 0hodes introducedseuined robes to their attire. +heir flashy robes made them stand out. Whenwrestling hit the big time on cable television in the 51M2s, wrestlers made it apoint to be as colorful as possible.

+hat all changed with the popularity of hardcore wrestling in the 5112s. +hesport too! on a grittier and more violent feel and many wrestlers incorporated thisinto their dress. 'ut-off shorts, 7eans, baggy pants, sports 7erseys and gangemblems were in style. In other words, wrestlers started dressing li!e they werebac! in high school.

9owever, the style became too widespread and before long every wrestlerloo!ed li!e someone who had 7ust wal!ed off the street for a match. +oday, thetrend is starting to reverse itself, but there are still way too many independentwrestlers out there who dress li!e bums in the ring.

So, if you have any hope of becoming a wrestling star, chances are you wont getfar wearing 7ean shorts and a t-shirt in the ring. Investing money in slic!-loo!ingring gear isnt necessary at first, but it is something youll have to invest in if youwant to get noticed. If you ever get to wrestle on television, you need to wal!, tal!and dress li!e a star. 0obes, trun!s, !neepads and boots are all important. &lterthe color and design to fit your persona as much as you can. 0emember, theob7ect is to be flashy and stand out.

+erry +aylor, %ance 9oyt and Shar! $oy discuss the evolution of their own ringattireG

Terry Tay"or5 2ost of the stuff I got to wear early on was hand&me&downs.For example, the first robe I wore was made by a lady named 9li"ia, whowas the wife of 2r. )restling II, and she made Gic Flair!s robes. )hen I wasmaking no money, I scraped up =$/%% for the robe because I wanted tolook like a star. I in"ested in my character and the attire because I knew itwas important.3

ance 7oyt5 p until I started working for T6# I pretty much wore thesame pair of leather pants. I bought them at )ilsons 8eather 9utlet for =5/.I was painting my own designs on them. I would go to the *obby 8obbyand places like that to buy different kinds of metallic paint pens. I 'ustcouldn!t afford nice ring attire. 6ow I help out with a wrestling school inallas and one of the girls that came to the school was a seamstress whoknew how to sew and things like that. (o, part of her bargain to get into theschool was that she wouldn!t pay the tuition fee but she could insteadmake gear for the guys who were teaching her. (he started making somereally professional looking gear for me. I drew up the designs and then shewould create them.3


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&hark 3oyG I got my ring attire through a company in Columbus, 9hio thatspeciali;ed in wrestling gear. They go way back. They!"e been designinggear for guys for years. I pulled something off the discount shelf it lookedlike the fish character I wanted to portray. 9riginally I wanted to be a

piranha but they had a shark outfit instead, so I went with that.3

In addition, treat your ring gear as if it is special to you. &fter over D2 years inwrestling, 0ic "lair still ta!es care in folding his robe and handing it to the ringattendant before each match. Bany young wrestlers could learn from "lair.+hese days, I cant tell you how many newcomers Ive seen get in the ring, ta!eoff their attire and simply throw it to the ground or toss it over the ropes to thefloor. If you dont believe what you wear is special, why should the fans?

When you first begin training to become a wrestler, you can wear whatever ismost comfortable. $ut when the time comes to compete in front of an audience,

ma!e sure you loo! your best.

+odays wrestling stars usually have local seamstresses that design their gear forthem. +here are also a handful of wrestlers who design gear for their fellowgrapplers. :nless you wor! for the WW(, there is no promotion that will ma!eyour gear for you E thats something that will come out of your own poc!et.

Your best bet is to search the internet for designers that speciali*e inprofessional wrestling, or as! wrestlers at local independent events who theymight recommend.

&s far as how to design your ring attire, thats up to you. +here are do*ens ofgeneric designs available for beginners but remember E you want to stand out Eso be as creative as possible.

T7+ ART '4 T7+ 0R'8'5

Shawn Bichaels once said that fifty percent of being successful in wrestling iswhat you do in the ring, with the other fifty percent what you say on themicrophone. :nfortunately, many wrestling schools dont teach you how to becharismatic or develop your persona E they teach you to wrestle. Bost of thetime, the rest is up to you.

4ne important reason to learn how to do interviews is that it will lead to moremoney and possibly other entertainment opportunities. &s a wrestler, you arealso an entertainer and businessman. $y being great tal!ers, some of the besthave been able to branch out into 9ollywood, ala +he 0oc!, 9ul! 9ogan, Bic!"oley, @evin 8ash and others.

%earning how to entertain the fans with your mouth is 7ust as important as being a


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great wrestler. With a few e/ceptions, gone are the days of big brutish wrestlersscreaming into the camera. +oday, you need to be able to tell a story ande/press emotion.

In the 51O2s and F2s, interviews with wrestlers were done at ringside

immediately before or after a match. In the M2s, the WW" brought interviews toanother level with wee!ly tal!-show segments li!e >ipers >it. Bore of anemphasis was placed on the entertainment value and other ma7or promotionsfollowed the trend.

+here are two schools of thought when it comes to a wrestler who can cut agreat promo. Some people thin! that good tal!ers are born that way and theyhave it in them. In other words, it comes naturally. You either have the gift of gabor you dont. In my opinion, thats true to an e/tent. 4bviously, not everyone canbe as charismatic as 0ic "lair, +he 0oc! or 9ul! 9ogan, but there are ways toimprove yourself.

"irst, study from the best. Whenever I visited wrestlers training in the WW" orW'W, I always told them to go out and find tapes of interviews from 0ic "lair,3a!e 0oberts and &rn &nderson. +hey are considered to be some of the besttal!ers and for good reason. $ut, this doesnt mean you should outright copythem. Instead, it will help you understand how to develop your own style.

Second E practice= 4ne piece of advice I often give is to videotape yourselfpracticing in front of a mirror. Wor! on ways to improve your facial e/pressions.:se body language. >ractice in the shower or while shaving in the morning.>ractice during the many hours youll be driving in your car from town to town.>ractice before you go to bed at night.

$ut one bit of advice E be different. Aont be that wrestler who thin!s theyre thebaddest man on the planet and tal!s that way, because its not believable andhas been done to death. I cant tell you how many interviews Ive seen bywrestlers five-feet tall who thin! theyre unstoppable when I could probably !ic!their ass. Aont be the tough guy, unless that is, youre seven feet tall and builtli!e a tan! E instead, be creative and be uniue.

Shane Aouglas has always been considered an e/tremely gifted tal!er. 9ispromos will go down as some of the most controversial E and entertaining E inthe history of the sport.

&hane .ou9"asG In our business the promo is keenly important. The oldgeneration, guys like 0runo (ammartino and ominic e6ucci, few of themcould do good promos. They more or less 'ust spoke3 to the fans like youand I were ha"ing a con"ersation. In our business today, because theentertainment "alue has o"ercome the athletic "alue, it!s become muchmore important to speak. 0eing able to get in the ring and do a promo and


24/81

pro'ect your character is "itally important and something that, in myopinion, is becoming a lost art. I see so few kids in the business today thattruly ha"e that gift for gab.

I!m not from that school of thought that you either ha"e it or you don!t. I

firmly belie"e like the mo"es you do in the ring, you ha"e to work to betteryourself when it comes to inter"iews and promos. Today, a lot of kids lookto the greats on the microphone and try to copy guys like Gic Flair. 7oucan!t emulate Flair because he!s already done it to perfection.

If there!s fi"e wrestling personalities you really like, take pieces from eachand mold them together with your own personality so it fits you. I see kidstoday go out there and they think you ha"e to scream through wrestling

promos. 7ou should only raise your "oice when the emotion calls for it.9thers times you should 'ust speak calmly.

I agree with (hawn 2ichaels! statement that it!s /%H/% what you do in thering and your mouth, but I would go e"en farther and say sometimestalking is e"en more important for some wrestlers who aren!t greattechnicians. For example, 2ichael *ayes was ne"er a great wrestler but hecould talk with the best of them and he always made money in thebusiness because of it. 0eing able to pro'ect your character in the ring issometimes more important than the mo"es.

Today a lot of these kids breaking in think doing $ high&flying mo"es in arow is going to get you somewhere. In my opinion, if they can!t talk, thenthey!re limiting themsel"es to the amount of money they can make.3

Auring my time with the WW" and W'W, #ince 0usso, (d "errara and myselfhandled the bul! of producing promos and interviews with talent. Some wrestlerswho were s!illed at promos only needed bullet points written for them. 4thersneeded more coaching.

0usso placed great importance on wrestlers perfecting their interviews orpromos. If the interview wasnt to his li!ing, we would ma!e the talent do it overand over again until they got it right. We would even stay after the event hadended to complete interviews, which frustrated the producers, cameramen andwrestlers, but it was for the good of the overall product.

Bany of the wrestlers in the WW" and W'W relied e/clusively on 0usso to helpthem with their promos. 4ne e/ample was )oldust ;Austin 0hodes


25/81

+he stars who typically shined with their promos and interviews were uic!-wittedand good at improvisation. +he best I ever wor!ed with was +he 0oc!, followedBic! "oley. $oth !new how to tell a story and be entertaining at the same time.+hey mastered facial e/pressions and could go from one emotion to another withease.

By personal favorite was &rn &nderson, who I had the pleasure of wor!ing withduring W'W. $y that time, &rn was retired from the sport and was serving as abac!stage agent, but on a few occasions he was featured on-camera forinterviews. I always made sure I was there when &rn did an interview becausehe, in my opinion, was tremendous at telling a story, conveying his emotion andmade it believable. You couldnt help but listen to him.

Some of the best technical wrestlers in the business were never great atinterviews, preferring to let their ama*ing abilities do their tal!ing in the ring. Starsli!e $ret 9art and 'hris $enoit never had the gift of gab, but I en7oyed wor!ing

with them to produce their interviews and promos. #eteran wrestlers often helpedyounger or ine/perienced talent with their interviews, such as Shane Aouglasand 9ugh Borrus.

In W'W and +8&, Aouglas would routinely shadow interviews with young talent.If he saw something they could improve on, he spo!e up. Some producersfrowned on this as they didnt li!e other talent ta!ing over their shoot, but I alwayswelcomed such help. (very time Aouglas offered advice to wrestlers for aninterview, it always turned out much better.

7ITTING T7+ R'A.5

+here are few wrestling stars that go from training to television. +he ma7ority willspend years traveling the road from one small event to another, gaininge/perience and recognition. Its common for newcomers to have to drive C22 toD22 miles every wee!end. +his is part of paying your dues in the sport. Bost ofthe time, you will only ma!e enough money to pay for your gas bac! home, ifyoure that luc!y.

"irst off, ma!e sure your car is reliable. >romoters are only going to use you ifyou ma!e the show, so if your car brea!s down on the side of the highway, yourreliability will come into uestion. 'ar problems are your problem. #eterans li!e+erry +aylor, Shane Aouglas and Simon Aiamond can attest to the long hours onthe roadH

Terry Tay"or5 I made /% dollars a match and I spent e"ery penny of it beingin the wrestling business for the first three or four years. I slept in my car, Isplit rooms and I didn!t eat much. I wanted to be a wrestler more thananything.3


26/81

&ion .iaondG The farthest I e"er dro"e for a wrestling e"ent was from6ew Aersey to etroit. It was around D hours. I left on Thursday night andgot there Friday morning. I wrestled that night then got in the car and dro"eright back home.3

Its not uncommon to sleep in your car and live off fast-food restaurants. >ac! apillow, blan!ets, fresh clothes and food E youre going to need it.

&hane .ou9"asG 2ick Foley and I used to tra"el around in his old clunkercar, hoping and praying it wouldn!t break down on the side of the road.(e"eral times it did and we would get to shows late because of it. ominicwould ream us for it. )e would sa"e money by stuffing six guys into a carto help pay for gas and split the cost of motel rooms.

#s far as food goes, I remember working for the )F ni"ersal )restlingFederationJ and it was infamous for the long dri"es sometimes eight to

twel"e hours a day in the car. )e would sit with our bags on our laps 'ustto make room for each other. The rare times we would stop at a restaurant,you wouldn!t look at the left side of the page to see what you would eat,you would order by looking at the prices on the right side of the page. 9nmost days, we would do the )restler!s ?ourmet3 which was a loaf ofbread and a pound of baloney and someone in the car would slap togethersandwiches and pass them around. That!s how we ate.

#s far as hotel rooms, back in those days for the )F in 8ouisiana,2ississippi, 9klahoma and Texas you could get a room for =5/ a night. (ofour or fi"e of us would pile in these rooms. )e would take the mattress offthe bed so some of us would sleep on the mattress, some got the boxspring, some got the floor. )e would always rotate. If you wanted to getsome personal time you would take a pillow into the bathroom and sleep inthe bathtub. Those are the ways we would sa"e money on the road. 7ouhad to. )e weren!t making enough money to sur"i"e and e"en then youwere barely making ends meet.

The first time I e"er made real money in the business was with )C) aspart of the @ynamic udes! tag team. 0ack then I was making =5,%%% aweek. )hen I signed that contract I thought I was a millionaire. (o it tookme eight years before I started making real money in the sport. Finally Icould get a hotel room by myself and I could order a steak if I wanted one.0ut I!m glad I had that experience and perspecti"e because it makes meappreciate what I ha"e today.3

When you have completed your initial wrestling training and it is time to ventureout, the smartest thing to do is concentrate on competing on local independentshows in your area. @eep your travel locali*ed and try to ma!e a name foryourself.


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Ba!ing friends with the students you went through training with is also !ey tosurvival on the road. +hey will li!ely be competing on the same local events asyou, and will have to go through the same hardships early on. &nytime you cantravel with someone to split costs, it will benefit both of you. Its not uncommon

for up to si/ wrestlers to pac! a car on the road 7ust to save on costs. 3ust as!Scott A&moreH

&cott .6Aore5 In the summer of , myself, Edge, Christian, a guynamed ?len Bulka and another guy named Godney 0lackbeard would 'ust

pack into my 'eep. That was fi"e big guys packed into my small 'eep, withsometimes a sixth guy in the luggage space in the back. )e would get onehotel room, always on the ground floor so we could sneak the rest of theguys in through the outside patio.

Then we would take the mattress off the box spring two guys on the

mattress, two guys on the box spring and maybe another guy under thedesk or in the bathroom. I think our record was ele"en guys sleeping in onehotel room.

I used to fake a knee in'ury and pretend my mother worked at whate"erhotel chain we were at 'ust to get the discount rates. I would wrap my kneeand fake an in'ury and tell the people at the front desk that I had 'ust comefrom the hospital and that I was on pain medication. I would then dump myentire fanny pack on the front desk looking for my mother!s employee card.2ore often than not they took pity on me. If that wasn!t working, I would

pretend to accidentally put weight on my bad knee and I would fall in themiddle of the lobby. It was pathetic. Edge and Christian used to tell me allthe time I deser"ed an #cademy #ward because I would keep going untilthey ga"e me the discount.3

4r, in the case of %ance 9oyt, he was able to learn more by traveling with otherstudentsG

ance 7oytG It was "ery beneficial for me when I was tra"eling from the(an #ntonioH#ustin area to #rlington for a promotion called 4C)4rofessional Championship )restlingJ. I would tra"el with guys who hadgone to (hawn 2ichaels! school and two or three of the guys actuallytrained directly with (hawn. 2ichaels also had trainers that really knewwhat they were doing as far as proper training and psychology.

uring those trips, a lot of what I learned was by asking them :uestions.They went through full training for fi"e or six months before they wereallowed to do student matches or work on the shows that (hawn was

promoting in the area. E"en though they were still young and green, incomparison their training was much more extensi"e than mine. I was "ery


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recepti"e to it because I wanted to learn. I wanted to know what I was doingwrong and how I should correct it. I knew my height and my look would beto my benefit, but I knew if I couldn!t do what I was supposed to do in thering I wouldn!t be worth much.3

+erry +aylor offered the following story about his travel schedule early on in hiscareerG

Terry Tay"orG I dro"e 5,%%% miles a week when I was working for 0ill )attsin 8ouisianna with the )F. I was based out of #lexandria. 2onday was ashow in 6ew 9rleans, which was $$% miles each way for me. Tuesday was0aton Gouge, which was another $% miles down and back. Then I wouldwake up at -am to dri"e to (hre"eport to cut tele"ision promos all day.)ednesday night I wrestled in (hre"eport or somewhere nearby. Thursdaywas 0iloxi, which was $/% miles each way. Friday was *ouston, which was/%% miles from 0iloxi. I did that e"ery week. (aturday was $/ miles to

8ittle Gock and back. I would get home from 8ittle Gock 'ust to wake up thenext day to catch a am flight to do a double&shot in 9klahoma #6 I hadto pay for my own flight. I did that for three years straight.3

0R'8'T+R&5

+he most important thing to !now about wrestling promoters is that the ma7orityare 7ust in the business to ma!e money. &s a newcomer, you will get little to norespect from promoters, as they are only interested in a warm body to put in thering against their local up-and-coming star. You will uic!ly learn that thewrestling business is made up of people who will stab you in the bac!, use you orlie to you to get what they want. You have to be smart and e/pect to be burned.+he important thing is not to let it !ill your passion and !eep going.

Terry Tay"orG 2ost promoters try to make as much as they can. There!stwo ways to do that draw a big house or not pay the talent much. Iworked tele"ised matches for years and ne"er got paid. The deal was that ifyou were on T>, that exposure allowed you to do other things. 0eing ontele"ision )#( your pay. For the ))F tapings they used to do years ago,I!d be in the last match of the night at pm. I!d make =/%. 2y hotel roomwas =%%. 2y rental car was another =/%. Food was probably =5%. (o myexposure was losing in the ring and then losing another =$%% onnecessities, but I did it to be a star.3

"or e/ample, you may drive C22 miles to compete on a small independent showonly to learn the promoter has cancelled your match. 4r, you might be promiseda small payday for competing on the event, only to be told afterward that thepromoter didnt ma!e enough to pay all the wrestlers. +his is common in thesport, and you should never turn to anger in these cases. >romoters tal! witheach other and the last thing you want is a bad reputation.


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In other words, swallow your pride and move on.

&hane .ou9"asG ominic e6ucci ne"er taught us the bad, political side ofthe business. I learned it by the seat of my pants and got taken ad"antage

of do;ens of times. I remember early on we dro"e all the way out to theother side of 9hio for a show. )e wrestled the first match but later on weall had to come back for a battle royal at the end. )e all went to the ring forthe battle royal, but when we came back through the curtain the promoterwas gone. I can!t tell you how many times I got taken like that.

#t that stage of the game when you!re young and don!t ha"e any le"erageyou ha"e to take promoters at their word. 6ow after being in the businessso long I don!t lea"e the house unless I ha"e half the money in my hand.That!s to protect my family. #s a wrestler I can!t afford to go on the road forthree days and spend money on food and hotel and transportation to get

screwed in the end.3

(stablished stars can E and will E get screwed even today. 8o one is safe frombad promoters, as A&more can spea! toH

&cott .6AoreG 6ot that long ago myself, 4etey )illiams and Chris (abinall did a show in Columbus, 9hio, and the promoter stiffed e"eryone ontheir pay. The promoter 'ust took the gate and ran. )e were half theschmucks for not getting him to pay up front before the show. # lot of theguys were pissed and talked about lea"ing well, you can do that or youcan go out and gi"e the $%% fans that showed up a good night. They paidgood money to come to see us. )e!re getting screwed no matter what. owe want the promoter to screw the fans too+ 6o. (o we all talked anddecided to go out there and wrestle.3

&s stated previously, you should always use your schooling as an anchor pointwhen you first hit the road. Spend as much time competing on the eventspromoted by your school, but once you branch out, tal! to your trainer orinstructor about what other promotions they might recommend. Bany of the morewell !nown wrestling schools have established ties with promoters who runshows throughout the country and have a proven trac! record.

.+AING WIT7 T7+ 0AIN5

+he longer you compete in the ring, the more in7uries youll get in your career Eand that can lead to a lifetime of dealing with pain.

(ver year, wrestlers have to go under the !nife for a variety of in7uries E tornligaments and muscles in the !nees and arms, bro!en bones and noses,cartilage and nerve damage. If you are able to go a year without suffering an


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in7ury, consider yourself luc!y.

4lder wrestlers who have been around tend to suffer more. +he younger you are,the uic!er you are able to recover from in7uries. 9owever, the many slams anddrops you will ta!e in the ring throughout your career add up and your body will

suffer the conseuences. &s the years go on, you might face ma7or surgery suchas !nee or hip replacement, bac! surgery or in worst-case scenarios, fusion ofnec! vertebrae.

:nfortunately, as wrestling styles become more high-ris! and daredevil, manyyounger stars will face the same surgeries as their older peers. +his will lead to alifetime of pain for most, and dealing with the pain is important not only for yourcareer but also your long-term health and well-being.

Its no secret that li!e most ma7or sports, pain pills have found their way intowrestling. When some wrestlers ma!e it to the big time and are on a nonstop

road schedule, they turn to prescription pills to ma!e it through the pain. "ormany wrestlers, pain pills are simply a fact of life E the important thing is to neverlet them control your life.

"rom the first day you begin your training until the day you retire from the sport,you will li!ely wa!e up each day in pain. +he more punishment you put your bodythrough, the more youll feel it. 'hiropractics, massage therapy, constant icingand even yoga can help alleviate some of the aches, but there is really no way tobe pain free in the wrestling business. You learn to live with it and hope that itwont affect your health as you get older.

IT WI 3+ A W7I+ 3+4'R+ ')6R+ WR+&TING AT 8A.I&'N &


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Bany independent events hold bouts at high school gyms, community centers oreven in outdoor par!s. When it comes to independent events, showers andloc!er rooms are often a rare lu/ury. In some cases, the loc!er rooms may be nobigger than your typical living room E and youve got 56-C2 wrestlers crammed in

a place that small.

+he biggest loc!er room Ive been in would have to be when I was with the WW"for the 511F 0oyal 0umble at the &lamodome in San &ntonio, +e/as, which islarger than a football field. +he loc!er room was the si*e of a large movie theater.In fact, we had to drive golf carts 7ust to get to different locations. &nother largefacility was the &strodome in 9ouston, which W'W appeared at when I wasthere.

+he smallest loc!er room? +hat would probably be the 8W& Wildside arena in'ornelia, )eorgia. +he place barely fit 522 people ;if that< and the loc!er room

was the si*e of a large wal!-in closet. When W'W signed a developmentcontract with 8W& Wildside in C222, I drove there from &tlanta during the winterto see a show. $ac!stage were probably thirty wrestlers in a room no larger than56 feet by 56 feet all huddled around a space heater. $ut, the modest confinesdidnt hurt the competition E after all, that night I got to see two relativenewcomers named &3 Styles and 0on @illings compete for the first time.

ance 7oyt< # guy who I know was promoting his own show and calledme up and asked me if I!d wrestle on it. )hen I got to the address Iremember pulling down a dirt road that led into a parking lot. The lot wasso old that big mounds of grass were growing through the asphalt.

)hen we walked in, it was the shoddiest wrestling ring I!d e"er seen. It hada plastic mat on top of it, not e"en a real wrestling can"as. I think he had nomore than / chairs around the ring. The e"ent was being held inside somekind of auto warehouse. E"erything was dusty and it was easily %degrees. I think about se"en people showed up that night.3

4n +8&s StingG 0eturn 4f &n Icon A#A, the star told a funny story aboutwrestling one of his first professional matches at a county fair. In order to get tothe shower area, the wrestlers had to snea! through the bleachers under thefans. While Sting was ma!ing his way under wearing nothing but a towel, a fansaw him and yelled out his name. Boments later, he was surrounded by fansunder the bleachers as!ing for his autograph. Sting finally made it to theshowers, only to find there was no handle on the door, only a hole where the!nob should be so anyone could loo! inside. Sting was finally able to shower onlyafter one of the security guards promised to stand in front of the door.

So, long story short, e/pect to wrestle in some interesting arenas early on inyour career.


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T7+ 0IT4A& '4 IN. 0R'8'TI'N&5

&ll too often Ive seen wrestlers come into the big time from independentpromotions with the attitude theyve already learned everything there is to !now.

+rust me, you dont.

+odays independent promotions can be a great place for young wrestlers tohone their craft, but theyre also a place to learn many bad habits.

$efore the era of the WW(, wrestling was bro!en up into various territoriesacross the :nited States. & handful of promoters carved up the country andestablished their own promotions. If a territory was to be successful, it had tohave a roster of talented wresters along with local television clearance. &longwith wee!ly or monthly television tapings, these territories also held non-televisedlive events. +he wrestlers that competed for these territories were e/pected to

be dedicated to their craft and ready to pay their dues 7ust to be a part of thesport. )etting a spot on any roster bac! then was e/tremely tough.

:nfortunately, due the many shoddy independent promotions currently inoperation, almost anyone can wal! off the street and appear as a wrestler onthese shows. %i!e the promoters running them, most are untrained and !nowlittle about having a good wrestling match. (ach year, many independentwrestlers are hurt E often severely E attempting a maneuver they have nobusiness trying or have even practiced before.

With such little emphasis placed on teaching these wanna-be wrestlers thebasics and proper techniues of wrestling, its no wonder why the ma7ority ofindependent wrestlers go nowhere in the sport. >roper wrestling is often replacedwith hardcore bloodshed and cra*y moves 7ust to wow the fans.

9owever, I am still contacted by do*ens of wrestlers each year who thin! theyare ready for the big time after a few months competing in an independentpromotion. In the videos they mail out, they wear cut-off shorts and t-shirts, loo!about 562 pounds soa!ing wet and their highlight match is a hardcore brawl withchairs and tables. Ive seen hundreds of tapes li!e this and not one of them haveever received a call bac! for any 7ob openings.

In addition to a real lac! of proper techniue, independent promotions can alsohave a fishbowl effect on wrestlers who compete for them. & wrestler will oftencompete in front of the same 522 fans each wee!, sometimes becoming personalfriends with those same fans outside of the ring. +hey never adapt or changetheir style and wrestle the same way wee! in and out.

In order to gain e/perience as a wrestler and ply your trade, you will need asmuch ring time as possible against opponents with different styles. $ranching out


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and wrestling for different promotions is the best way to do this.

T+RR TA'R 'N T7+ I80'RTAN/+ '4 +ARNING T7+4)N.+8+NTA&5

What most wrestlers today lac! are the basic fundamentals. "or e/ample, myson wanted to learn how to play drums so I too! him for lessons. +hey start offteaching you the basics of drumming first. $ut he wanted to start out doing whatthe drummer for 0ush did, the fast stuff. 9e didnt want to learn the basics. Youcant do that.

Its the same with wrestling. )uys want to get in there and do moonsaults andhurricanranas, but they dont want to !now the actual nuts and bolts that ma!ethose moves mean something. +hey dont respect the business. +hey want to bestars but they dont want to embrace what ma!es them stars. +hey thin! thebusiness is here to ma!e them stars. 8o, its not. +heyre the vehicle that ma!es

the business better so that everyone can ma!e a living.

When I teach at wrestling seminars, I try to e/plain to students the fundamentalsof why we do what we do inside the ring. I as!ed the :nderta!er once E andnothing against him because hes one of the greatest ever E but I as!ed himWhy do you circle your opponent when your match starts?. 9e told meeveryone did it. $ut I as!ed him, specifically, why he did it. 9e couldnt answer.

Buhammad &li would circle left or right depending if his opponent had a betterleft or right hand. 9e circled away from his opponents strong side to allowhimself an opening to get a good 7ab in. Wrestlers circle their opponents to getthem to put their weight on their front foot or to get them off balance so you canta!e them down or get a better angle for a move, but no one reali*es that orthin!s of it anymore when they do it. +hey 7ust get in the ring and circle theiropponent and they dont !now why. +oday, guys 7ust get in there and dive andflip and theres no reason behind it. +heres no foundation built to where it meanssomething.

I tell these guys they need to set the foundation in a match and then tell a story,which none of them want to hear today. +he story is based upon how you dowhat you do, not the moves you do. Some of them get it, most of them dont.

&n old-time wrestler once told me to thin! shoot - thin! realism - but wor! it.9ow many times have you seen a wrestling match where two guys bloody eachother up and then the ne/t wee! they come out and wave at the people and doposes for the camera? Well, if it was real, wouldnt you come out andimmediately go after the guy that bloodied you the wee! before? If you gotpunched in the face, what would really happen ne/t? You would chec! to ma!esure you still had all your teeth.


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8ot today E these young guys 7ust go onto the ne/t flip or moonsault. +hey donttreat it li!es its real and they dont wor! li!e its real. +hats why I thin! the fanbase has soured to wrestling over the last decade or so. +he ob7ect is to get aguy on his bac! and pin him, not do one cra*y move after another. Ive seen guysslam an opponent on their bac! only to pull him bac! up to hit another big move.

You got the guy on his bac! E so pin him= Its against everything that ma!eswrestling ma!e sense and they wonder why people dont get with it.

In my seminars, I tell them if you start it off right and lay the groundwor! and youhave the basics down, then you can do your big stuff. +he foundation of thebusiness was built by the basic moves and the proper fundamentals. "or close to522 years, every wrestler sold a bodyslam the same way. Wrestlers conditionedpeople that a slam was supposed to hurt you and when you got hit with abodyslam, your bac! had to hurt. In the last 52 years, these young guys haveundone a 522 years of what the fans were conditioned to believe andunderstand. +hey get bodyslammed and pop right up li!e it doesnt hurt. I see

guys get hit with a piledriver and then !ic! out of the pin a few seconds later.

It too! 522 years for wrestlers to ma!e fans thin! a certain way and in the last 52years its all be undone. Bany newcomers today dont respect the moves andthey dont respect the fan conditioning that wrestlers spent generationsperfecting. +oday its all about the fast-paced television match and getting yourhigh-flying moves in.

&nother problem is the lac! of emphasis on wrestlers bettering themselves in thering. +oday, everyone gets guaranteed deals and theres no incentive forimprovement. $ac! when I was coming up I was ma!ing JC62 a show while0oddy >iper and 0ic "lair were in the main event ma!ing J5222. Well, why? Whywere they ma!ing more money than I was? I was the same si*e as they were, sowhat was it? I learned that I had to ma!e myself a better wrestler to get to thatmain event. +he guys today have no incentive to do that. Whether you have agood match or a bad match the guys today still ma!e the same amount.

When I get into the ring with students at a seminar, I show them what a holdreally feels li!e. I show them the importance of positioning in the ring.0ealistically, if I throw you into the ropes and go for a bac! elbow, but I give youmore than one step, then you should be able to duc! it or see it coming andavoid it. +oday, a guy standing in the middle of the ring will whip his opponentinto the ropes and give them three steps before he hits them with something. Itsignorant and doesnt ma!e sense. +he proper way to do it is to whip him into theropes and follow him so its less than a step before you hit him. You want theropes to loo! li!e it forced your opponent into your move with more velocity.

+hey also play to the camera and the fans before they hit a big move. Why? +heob7ect is to beat the guy. I see wrestlers throw their opponent into the corner,then spin around for the camera before running at the guy. Why? 0ealistically,


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you should throw that guy into the turnbuc!le and be right behind him when hehits. +he whole thing is E if it was real, what would you do? +he young guystoday have forgotten about that and they dont want to learn it or be told about it.

+wenty years ago, I might wrestle you every Bonday night for si/ months in the

same territory. We had to do something to ma!e sure the people wanted to seeus every wee!. We had to be able to listen to the fans while we were out in thering. 8o wrestlers tal!ed to each other before the matches.

I wrestled 0ic "lair at the Superdome for LM minutes and I didnt !now what theend of the match was going to be. We were the main event. I didnt !now howlong we were going or anything. We went out there and wrestled as we went. $utit was that way for everyone who wrestled bac! then. & lot of wrestlers todaycouldnt even fathom wor!ing li!e that in front of people.

+he biggest difference between my generation and todays generation is that

bac! then, we gave. If I wrestled you, I would as! what moves you wanted to hitin order to ma!e you loo! better. What could we do to ma!e the match better?

8ow guys get together and tell each other what moves they want to hit. Well,then the other guy is thin!ing he has to get two or three e/tra moves in 7ust toloo! better than the other guy. It ends up being a tug-of-war who gets the mostmoves in. Instead of it being about giving, today its all about ta!ing. Its moreabout the individual now than the company and thats wrong.

&/'TT .6A8'R+ 'N W7AT WR+&T+R& T'.A AR+ A/*ING5

I could give the same rant that the veterans do about guys today doing movesthat dont mean anything or they dont have the proper transitions to go frommove-to-move or theyve 7ust out there going highspot to highspot - and thats allvery accurate.

I thin! a big problem is some wrestling schools 7ust teach you how to do themoves and dont e/plain the psychology behind doing the moves or how toproperly go from one move to another. What we do at my school is ta!e eachmove and brea! it down and e/plain why youre doing it. What you learn on daythree branches off of what you learned on day two and so on. I dont thin! theresenough proper guidance out there after training for newcomers. You can comeup through a good school and learn respect and the rules of the game, but onceyou get out into the independents theres no proper guidance to assist with yourlearning process, because you can never stop learning in this business.

&lso, guys today dont !now how to chain wrestle. +hey do a few chain wrestlingmoves 7ust so they can run their ne/t spot. With my new students, when they firstget in the ring theyre not allowed to punch, !ic!, chop, 7ump off the top rope ordo any fancy moves. "irst and foremost they learn how to wrestle, period. )uys


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in my school will log 522 hours of chain wrestling before they log 52 hours of spotwrestling. I dont let newcomers in my school come off the top rope. +he moreadvanced guys can and we have crash pads for that. $ut not for new trainees,never.

&7AR* 3' 'N W7AT WR+&T+R& T'.A AR+ A/*ING5

Its a lot of the same stuff I heard when I first bro!e in. In my opinion, newcomerstoday need to learn to slow down. & lot of guys are in such a hurry and dontfocus on the little things li!e how you wal! to the ring, how you get in the ring andhow you carry yourself in the ring. I !now that sounds simple but a lot of theyoung guys today were never taught how to act li!e stars when they come outthrough that entrance. +heyre usually too worried about remembering a series ofmoves.

I also thin! the young guys today complain way too much about stupid things,

such as Why am I being eliminated third from a battle royal while that guy getsto stay until the end?, guys who uestion why they are doing 7obs or why theyrein a certain spot on the card. I try to e/plain to them that Ive been doing this forten years and 7ust last wee! I put over &byss in the ring in two minutes. I doesntmatter how long youve been doing it or who you !now or where youre at,sometimes youre as!ed to play a small role and sometimes youre as!ed to playa bigger role. Sometimes it ta!es a lot of time for the newcomers to learn thatreality.

&7AN+ .')GA& 'N W7AT WR+&T+R& T'.A AR+ A/*ING5

0espect for the business and the history of the business. When I bro!e intowrestling I could tell you who everyone was and what angle they were involvedin. +his was before the days of wrestling on cable. $ut I would religiously buy thewrestling maga*ines every month and study all the promotions and wrestlers.+hats how I became such a huge fan of 0ic "lair, by reading about him firstbefore I even saw him on television.

+hese !ids today dont understand how political the business was for mygeneration brea!ing in. We had to scratch and claw our way past the establishednames that didnt want to give up the spotlight. $efore my time it was always atradition for the wrestlers to eventually step aside and hand the torch to theyoung lions. &fter a while, many established stars stopped doing that, so it wastough for some of us to brea! through. Bic! "oley basically had to cripple himselfto get the spotlight on him. I had to go out and say things that were so outlandishthat burned so many bridges for me 7ust to get noticed.

7'W T' G+T N'TI/+. 3 T7+ 8A='R 0R'8'TI'N&5

&fter youve paid your dues in the sport and have a firm grasp of your career,


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youll obviously want to !eep chasing that dream of being in a >ay->er-#iewmain event.

So now begins your mission to get a 7ob with the big promotionsHand becauseyou shelled out the cash for this, Im going to give you some great pointers on

how to do itH

"irstly, theres a big reason I told you to go to a well !nown wrestling school Ethats because many of the people who run those schools have an in with thema7or promotions. When the WW( or +8& hold television tapings, they often relyon these schools and their trainers to supply them with students to serve as on-air security, or if youre luc!y, meat for one of their top stars to annihilate.

$ut dont ma!e the mista!e of trying to introduce yourself to #ince BcBahon or3eff 3arrett E they are busy enough, and its also disrespectful. @eep your mouthshut, dont attract attention to yourself and do what youre told. If your trainer is

confident he can ta!e you bac!stage at a m

SO YOU WANT TO WORK IN WRESTLING?

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