Professional Wrestling: the How

A question on the tongue of every testosterone dripping fan, a question every wrestler must receive repeatedly: How can I(or my son, or my nephew, or my friend of a friend) become a wrassler.

Thanks to the wonders of the web this question can now be asked in brand-spankin-new ways! even better, it can be answered in those same new ways!

So on to the begining...

My name is Ric "The Kick" King and i have been in the wild world or professional wrestling for 7 years. i am based out of Atlanta, GA and have wrestled from Houston to Miami, Atlanta to Toronto, Memphis to New York, and everywhere in between. i have several large adventures on the horizon, any one of which could be that ellusive 'big break' we look for as wrestlers. The funny thing about said 'big break' is that no three successful wrestlers have the same story. there is no guaranteed path, no matter what some trainers would have you believe, and whats worse is about 80% of the training facilities out there ARE scams even if they don't know it themselves.

Let me explain that last comment. a scam, by most known definitions, involves a person knowingly screwing you out of your hard earned money. however, i consider it a scam as well when a trainer is willing to take your money to train you to the best of his ability... and he is not a good wrestler himself!? that would be like paying an elementary Phys.Ed teacher to take you to the olympics for gymnastics, it would be a waste of money.

now if you have paid attention so far through my scattered ramblings, you would have noticed i said 'no three successful wrestlers have the same story'. well if that is true then how can i possibly tell you where to train? well... i can't. whats most important when taking that first step of findind a school of professional wrestling is to know where NOT to go and why. a little detective work from the start will save you a lot of money. had i known what to look for when i started, i would be about $15,000 richer, no joke.

TRAINER: knowing who the trainer will be is a must when looking for a Wrestling School. a million dollar facility is nearly worthless if Joe Blow is the trainer. DO THE RESEARCH!! just because a school doesn't have a trainer you have heard of, don't quit just yet. Use google, youtube, and whatever else you have at your disposal to find out the trainers credentials. where he has been, what he has done, and how long he has been doing it.

the opposite side of that coin is FAMOUS trainers. the best thing you can do is talk to a student of the school you are looking into. most of them will shoot straight with you but to be sure, talk to more then one. most wrestling schools with FAMOUS trainers are extremely expensive, and whats worse, they don't actually run the training. in the end, you are spending $3000-$7000 to be trained by the FAMOUS owners' best friend. 

SCAM ALERT- there are a handful of 'old time' wrestlers, who will take your money and disappear. its a sad fact, but some of them have names you know...

FACILITY: there is so much to know about the school itself, ill just cover the basics. for starters how many rings to train in does the school have? this is important, because most schools don't limit the number of students they will take, and why would they? they want the money. now imagine your entire highschool gym class trying to play tennis on one court, someone is going to get balls in their face. now picture the same number of people training in one ring... someone is going to get balls in their face again!

if a facility has only one ring, and maybe 20 students. those student get brought in to train 2 at a time so that makes 10 sets. if the building is open for say 2 hours... that means you paid to train 20 minutes a night, however many days a week. YOU GOT ROBBED.

you want to find a facility with at least 2 or 3 rings, i personally went to a school that had 5, and the advantage is that you get to work on things you are bad at, while other people train in the main ring with the trainer.

SCAM ALERT- an owner is not afraid to tell you he has 5 or 7 or 10 rings, but NOT TELL you that 4 or 6 or 9 of them are 'in storage'. Storage for what!? so we all have a place to wrestle after the machines rise against us?? (and they will rise against us)

TUITON/DURATION: This part gets people all the time, mainly because we all want to be stars right now. School A offers 8 months for $1000 and you will be ready to wrestle, they promise. School B offers 12 months for $1000 and you will be ready to go... they also promise.

Here is the common mistake, same price, so ill take the shorter one and be ready faster! WRONG.

the best wrestlers on the planet are Japanese (its in the bible, look it up) and do you know why? they NEVER stop training. they dont graduate and then just wrestle, they train with the company they work for and are always getting better. so back in the USA, you want to be a wrestler in 6-8 months? not going to happen. if you really want to be great, look for a facility that either has a lifetime deal, or at the least, a 2 year program. there will always be more to learn, more to work on, more things to try... you will want to keep training.

In conclusion, the head trainer will become your best friend. This is the guy with the connections to get you wrestling shows, a little ass kissing might be the least you'll be asked to do in this business. Try to avoid a school with only one ring, there are exceptions, but thats a needle in a haystack situation. and finally, DON'T overpay for a short program. Wrestling takes a long time to master, the best thing you can do for yourself is dont show up to school out of shape.

AND, DO THE RESEARCH!!!

thanks for reading,

Ric King