My Future in the World Wrestling Federation

My Future in the World Wrestling Federation

Before I even entered the double doors, I could hear the power saw inside. My warm breath turned to fog in the cold, January night, and I took the step that would change my life. Entering into a large room, the smell of sawdust almost made me sneeze, and I saw the wrestling ring in the far right corner. I passed the men cutting the 2 x 4s, and making my way towards the ring, was greeted by a stranger.

"Are you Jesse?," a 350-pound man asked.

"Yea, are you Ray?," I inquired back, figuring that this was the man whom I had spoken with on the phone the previous evening.

He was Ray, and he was the man who would be training me over the next several months. He ran this particular professional wrestling school, and by the time the night was over, I couldn't turn my head sideways and had two gigantic purple and yellow bruises on my back. I then drove the hour and a half back to my house, relishing the fact that I was on my way to fulfilling my dream of becoming a professional wrestler. I continued this training routine three times a week for three months, paying 20 dollars for every session I attended.

Yes, wrestling is fake. Fake, however, is a misrepresntation. "Rigged" would be a better term, because wrestling is not competition--it is entertainment. The popular term coined in the 1980's is "Sports Entertainment." Endings of matches are predetermined, but it is the road to that ending that is the real action. Wrestling is not a sport, but wrestlers are athletes. The ring has padding, but it is not soft. Wrestlers are taught how to fall, but there is only so much one can do to combat gravity. Most people think the ring ropes are soft and springy, but those people are incorrect. The ropes are made of steel cable with a thin vinyl covering, and they leave welts and bruises until a wrestler's skin is conditioned to take it. It would be unfair of me to expect everyone to enjoy professional wrestling, but anyone who doesn't respect the effort that goes into it probably doesn't know much about it.

I, like every other professional wrestler, attended a wrestling "school," which is less like a school and more like sports camp. This school is designed to teach athletes the uniform method of wrestling so that they can wrestle any opponent and still be on the same page.