My own summer

My decision to start training to be a pro wrestler was a rather easy one to make.

I saw this summer break as possibly the last one of my life, so I wanted to make a serious attempt towards fulfilling a lifetime dream of mine.

This dream started when I was just two years old when I attended my first wrestling show at the old Buffalo Memorial Auditorium with my mother, my father before he became sick, and our family friends. We saw the likes of Hulk Hogan, the Iron Sheik and George "The Animal" Steele amongst others.

I would continue watching pro wrestling for most of my life. I witnessed the "Monday night wars" between the former World Wrestling Federation and World Championship Wrestling in middle school and got up at 8 a.m. every Saturday morning to watch Extreme Championship Wrestling.

It wasn't until two summers ago that I began to realize that my dream was much closer to reality then I ever thought. Mike, my friend since high school, got me to start going to local independent wrestling shows. I saw that a lot of the wrestlers were around my age, and they were doing things in the ring that I knew, with time and proper training, I would be able to master as well.

Then last May Mike asked me to join the wrestling school where he had been training. I looked at the circumstances at hand and concluded that this was a golden opportunity for me to seize. I'm still relatively young, in good health and in decent physical shape. I would also be right alongside a fabulous friend and learning from the best wrestling trainer in the area.

The first day of training at the Buffalo Pro Wrestling Gym was spent watching matches. In that one afternoon, I learned more about the wrestling industry from our trainer, Mark "Killer" Kumpf, then at any other moment in my life. One of the first things I was taught was that nearly everything you see a wrestler do, wear or say, is specifically designed to leave some sort of an impression on the audience. This applies to even the smallest things that usually go unnoticed. Even how you walk around the ring can be subliminally crucial in how you are presented.

My pro-wrestling education didn't stop there. I learned the fundamentals like falling, locking up and running off the ropes. As I mastered each level, I was pushed on to something more advanced.

I eventually reached the point where I could have short chain wrestling matches. Chain wrestling involves grapplers performing a series of moves and counters without stopping. An example of this would be if one person starts with a headlock or hammerlock (an arm lock behind your opponents back) out of a lockup and then the other person counters with another move, whether it is the same move, drop toehold (a type of leg sweep) or something else. This cycle can continue on until a person calls for some maneuver or hold to break the series and move the match along to its next phase.

Kumpf also had me start refereeing matches at practices between him and Mike. This helped me gain a better feel and perspective on how things worked inside the squared circle. I was, and still am, willing to get as much experience from just being in between the ropes as much as possible.

At the end of August, I had to put my dream on hold. School, my job and writing here at The Spectrum were on the horizon. I knew that I wouldn't have the time or energy necessary to continue on with my training.

Careers in wrestling are not always the most stable and prosperous, and I've realized that I needed to secure a good education and less volatile career opportunity for myself. So once the semester started, I hung up my wrestling shoes.

Soon enough, I will be lacing them back up again. Next weekend I anticipate making my debut as a referee in Ontario, Canada for the Great Canadian Wrestling Expo. Although I'm not actually wrestling in the show, I will be getting the feel of being in front of a crowd and meeting a lot of new people. It's just another step in hopefully achieving my dream.