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So I am uh, starting pro-wrestling school today.
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What he really means is that he's on a new TV show where he's in the same class at school as Hulk Hogan, The Iron Sheik, Bob Backlund, Who, Hacksaw Jim Duggan and Nathan Jones.
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@9 to 5 --The New England Academy of Pro-Wrestling which used to be Killer Kowalski's.
I've always really wanted to get into a ring. As you might have guessed from the fact that I've been posting on a wrestling board for over ten years, I love pro-wrestling. When I was a kid, winter in Maine was my favorite time because my brother Dean and I could use the deep snow to powerbomb each other and hit superplexes off our post and beam fences without fear of serious injury. We set up our dad's old VHS tape recorder on a tripod in 4 feet of snow and had some of the worst matches in history. In our heads though, we were on our way to being our generations Steiners or Hardys -- the great brother and brother tag team, brother.
We had big designs on getting into wrestling while we were in college but life threw us some curve balls. Long time posters will know that during our last couple of years of school our kid sister got cancer which lead to Dean joining the army and me dropping out of college to get a job and help pay for her chemo. When she finally pulled through and Dean got out of the army and we started talking about wrestling again, my brother Dean unexpectedly passed away.
That really fucked with me. Most of my hard drinking stories and travelling happened in the years that followed and my body took a bit of beating as a result. I kind of came unmoored and while I was doing well professionally I let myself go quite a bit and closed off emotionally. Then a funny thing happened. April 6th, 2014. Wrestlemania 30. I didn't realize it until the event was over, but it had taken place exactly 4 years to the day that Dean died. I was overwhelmed with a lot of feelings -- mostly one of guilt. While I had done well for myself professionally, and traveled far and wide trying to live a big enough life for the both of us, I had ballooned up in weight and spent most of my time day dreaming about what could have been. All those, feelings of "will I look back and wonder what could have been" came creeping in and I felt like I was letting both Deano and myself down.
In a lot of ways, that was the moment that set me on the path to today. I set a goal to drop from 240lbs to 180lbs and hit it. Then started working on my wind and building my mass back up to the 200lbs I sit at today. All the while, somewhere in the back of my head, even though I never said it out loud or shared it with anyone, making myself and Dean a promise that if I could get to 200lbs at 15% body fat that I'd at least get in a ring and see if I could make a go of it. For the first time in my life, my body is in the condition to give this a respectable shot and I am free of any obligations that would prevent me from giving this a try. I have two months off before my next job and enough of a bonus from my last campaign win to be able to make the two hour commute to attend every class they offer for the next two months.
Now, I have no illusions. My experience with sports in college and with fitness have taught me the importance of being realistic and setting incremental goals. From night one, I am probably the oldest member of the class. From here, just showing up for every class and keeping up is success. If I never wrestle a match -- so be it. But I am going to soak in the experience over the next two months and make the most of it.-
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You might not know me, but I tend to be overly respectful of those here that I consider to be my betters (for a lack of proper terminology.) and as such I've held you in some regard for basically being the Tom Waits of EWB.
Now, you may not wish to discuss it here, and you may have already opened a "GRIFT'S Adventures in Wrestling That Make Skummy's Adventures Sad They Can't Be That Adventurous." thread that I've neglected to notice.
But I have to admit a serious interest in finding out how things go for you, sir. I do hope updates occur.