Yaz's Journey In The Pro Wrestling Business

[Yaz]

So six months ago, I was in a bit of a rut and decided to reach out to a friend I went to school with who wrestles for a local promotion. I asked him how he got his start and told him I always had an interest in somehow working in the business and he told me if I wanted, he would talk to the owner of the promotion and get my foot in the door.

A couple of weeks later the owner invited me to a show and spoke with me after it was over and by the start of August I was working with them. I started off in a staff role to prove to them I was reliable. After a couple of shows, the owner invited me to train. I'm still nowhere near ring ready, but I've been doing it long enough that it hurts less after each training session and I've learned a few things I never knew as a fan.

Our promotion runs shows in Northwest Kentucky and Southwest Indiana, usually out of five cities in the area. We have shows most Saturdays, someone did the math once and ever since the promotion started to branch away from its "home city" they average 43 shows a year. At least once a month, we have shows we put on Youtube, Hysteria. We had our 100th episode of Hysteria in December and our 101st episode is set to release Tuesday.

We average about a hundred people per show at our Kentucky shows, and about one fifty at our Indiana shows, the city in Indiana simply has a bigger venue. I'm told the largest crowd the company has had since 2011 was just over 650 people. Since I joined our largest crowd was 406. We have over 10k Facebook fans as well.

On the flip side, I've experienced our version of the old "wrestling in front of 50 people in a bingo hall." Only difference was ours was in a National Guard armory and a Salvation Army rec center.

Most of our talent consists of guys who have been with the company since they were putting on shows in a ring in the backyard to entertain themselves over ten years ago, though once the owner got a promoter's license in 2011, they have brought in name talent. Before I got there, they have had names such as Matt Hardy, Carlito, James Storm, and Abyss to wrestle and names such as Vader and Tatanka for meet and greets. Since I started we have brought in names ranging from Tommy Dreamer to Joey Ryan to Corey Storm to Glacier (yes WCW Glacier) to wrestle and had names such as Bobby Eaton and Jimmy Hart for meet and greets, among others. While neither are mainstream names, Corey Storm and Myron Reed both trained and given some of their early breaks with the promotion.

I've also given a hand to a couple promotions that our guys have worked for, giving me the opportunity to meet a really diverse set of characters.

So by this point, you may be asking yourself what the point of this is? Well its partly to share some stories about my experiences as a staff member/trainee for an independent wrestling promotion, partly to answer questions you may have and share my somewhat unique perspective, and somewhat to just vent about the bad shit you see, and believe me you do see some bad carny shit.

So please feel free to ask anything you wish, and please allow me to indulge myself a little as I talk about my journey thus far and going forward.

Cheap plug for our Youtube channel.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCanpKirxwODq6w5gv_YuHZQ

[Slyfox696]

Good for you! Glad to see you pursuing an interest.

I see from your Facebook page, you all are promoting a show from Paducah. That's actually relatively close to me. Been there many times...decent enough place.

[SSJPhenom]

That's awesome dude. I hope everything works out for you.

What have you learned thus far?

[smarkmouth]

This is a pleasure to read dude. Proud to see you pursue this!

https://i.redd.it/o1u8uifygw821.gif

[#AbsoluteUnit]

Props Yaz, what's your wrestling name?

[Yaz]

Good for you! Glad to see you pursuing an interest.

I see from your Facebook page, you all are promoting a show from Paducah. That's actually relatively close to me. Been there many times...decent enough place.

We started running shows there just a few months ago. It's about a two and a half hour drive for most of us, far and away the further away of all the cities in our routine sites. Its not a bad place and the crowd is usually solid. Just driving that far home at 1am after a long day is terrible, especially when you go by yourself.


That's awesome dude. I hope everything works out for you.

What have you learned thus far?

There are four main bumps. Back bump, flat bump, flip bump, and ass bump. An overwhelming majority of impact moves end in one of those, so those were what I learned first. Flat bumps hurt the most because you are falling flat and forward.

Running the ropes was next and it's a lot more draining than I thought. Like its not uncommon to get blown up after about thirty seconds of back and forth. I was really surprised by just how much spring you can get on the ropes. Like our ring is 18x18, WWE ring is 20x20, and if you run at a moderate pace and hit properly your momentum from the rebound will carry you across the ring easily if you don't work to stop it.

Lock ups and basic holds were next and then onto learning the universal. It's the most basic sequence in North American wrestling. Lock up, headlock, shoot off the ropes, shoulder block, float over, leapfrog/clothesline, and then hip toss. The hip toss is the first actual impact move most of us learned. Then it was arm drags, body slams, back suplexes (which I'm told I'm damn good at), regular suplexes, DDTs, back body drops, drop toe holds, and school boys and small packages were all in the next moves we learned. So far the only strikes we have learned are front kicks and chops. Chops are far and away the most painful thing I have experienced outside of botches.

Outside of that it's mostly been some basic psychology stuff, like facial selling and selling to the hard cam. We also did a few crowd interaction things for singles and tag matches.


Props Yaz, what's your wrestling name?

I don't have one yet. Realistically I likely won't get serious ideas about gimmicks and such until May and then won't be ready for a debut until like July/August.

[SSJPhenom]

That's awesome. I've only ever been in a real wrestling ring twice and I called myself trying to take bumps. THEY HURT!!! Running ropes also hurts. I had what they called rope burn and welts on my back from it. So props to you for sticking with it and continuing the grind. It takes a lot of work and it's not for everyone.

[OYDK]

Cool man. I always thought about doing something like that but had no idea how to even begin going about it. Plus, I probably wouldn't have had the balls, so major respect to you.

Have you thought about what your end goal is or are you just going with the flow for now?

[Yaz]

That's awesome. I've only ever been in a real wrestling ring twice and I called myself trying to take bumps. THEY HURT!!! Running ropes also hurts. I had what they called rope burn and welts on my back from it. So props to you for sticking with it and continuing the grind. It takes a lot of work and it's not for everyone.

I've tore skin off my elbow a couple times from landing wrong on back bumps. That's really the worst I've hurt myself taking a solo bump, other than smashing my dick and balls on flat bumps. I have had rope burn a couple times from hitting at the wrong angle. Personally the worst part about that, and really most of the pain that you experience from bumps and such, is that it rarely hurts right away but once you stop and be done for the day, it really sets in.


Cool man. I always thought about doing something like that but had no idea how to even begin going about it. Plus, I probably wouldn't have had the balls, so major respect to you.

Have you thought about what your end goal is or are you just going with the flow for now?

Little of column A, little of column B.

My favorite wrestlers tend to be people who are characters and aren't overly serious all the time, so I don't really feel the need to be like a top champion. Like you always wanna strive for the best, but if that never happens I'm not gonna be upset. I won't feel like I've failed. Like my ultimate goal, I guess I want to be good enough one day to travel a little just to say I experienced that, but as of right now I'm just taking it one day at a time and seeing what doors open in the future. I have zero delusions about making it somewhere big, but being a guy who is a regional name would be amazing.

[Fallout]

It's really awesome to see someone not only get involved in the business, but actually take to the ring and get involved.

One thing I will ask though: How safe is it and how much is that emphasised in the process. One of the main things that stopped me seriously considering trying wrestling was the danger of permanent injury to the neck or head region, but I also know working a purely simple style without being a heel can be very boring to watch. How can you achieve the balance of being exciting in the ring whilst still prioritising the safety of yourself and the other worker?

[Yaz]

It's really awesome to see someone not only get involved in the business, but actually take to the ring and get involved.

One thing I will ask though: How safe is it and how much is that emphasised in the process. One of the main things that stopped me seriously considering trying wrestling was the danger of permanent injury to the neck or head region, but I also know working a purely simple style without being a heel can be very boring to watch. How can you achieve the balance of being exciting in the ring whilst still prioritising the safety of yourself and the other worker?

Safety is the number one priority, at least with my trainers. Anytime someone hits their head they give them a few moments to recover before they make them roll out and then get checked out. If someone is getting blown up while doing moves, they make them take a break. If you hurt something, you aren't judged for walking it off or sitting out if its a more serious one. We are always being reminded to tuck our chin to make sure we don't smack the back of the our heads. If someone is taking a bump or move wrong over and over, we simply move on and then them try again later.

Accidents will happen. I've been dropped on my head on a failed body slam. I tripped on a guy during a float over and slammed my chin into the mat while rolling out of the ring. I had a guy land full weight on my elbow during a back suplex. I skinned my forehead on a mistimed DDT. We had a girl two weeks ago who had someone land on her hip and pinch a nerve in it and shes out for a bit. So just like any physical activity there are risks, but we all do our best to minimize them.

As far as the balance goes, it isn't the moves that matter. If you work the crowd properly you can go out and excite the crowd with very simple moves. It's always about the story. While the level of athleticism in pro wrestling has never been higher, so many guys who can do those breathtaking moves can't use them in a way that makes sense. If you just bust out high spot after high spot and huge impact moves over and over, they lose their allure and on top of that the wrestlers will wear down quicker. So mostly, its simply about knowing when to to execute the riskier moves to get the biggest reaction. That said however sometimes you just have to bust out something crazy in a big match to really wow the crowd.

[Storm Trooper]

It seems like KB needs to do some Wrestling Reviews for a new company soon.

At least once you have your first match.


Seriously though that's awesome, and I wish you the best of luck.

[Jeff Deliverer of Mail]

If you're ever in my area Yaz and need somebody in your corner I can always grab a mask and act crazy for a night.

[klunderbunker]

It seems like KB needs to do some Wrestling Reviews for a new company soon.

At least once you have your first match.


Seriously though that's awesome, and I wish you the best of luck.

Barring anything major that night, I plan on being in the house for his debut, if it's ok with him of course.

[Yaz]

Barring anything major that night, I plan on being in the house for his debut, if it's ok with him of course.

Well it's getting closer. I have my gimmick and debut already planned out, we just don't have an ETA on it. It's super hard to keep it all under wraps.

What I can say is that my debut as a character will happen before my first match. Once that date is set though, I will let people know so anyone who is in the area who wants to try to come has a heads up.

[Yaz]

The last two weeks have been a big step in my journey to my in ring debut. I've wrestled two full practice matches, to mixed results from my trainers. The differences between doing moves in training and putting together a match are day and night.

[Yaz]

Over the weekend we had our first big show of the year, The War, which is our version of the Royal Rumble. The World Title is on the line in the match. In three weeks we will have another, Kentucky's Biggest Battle Royal, where our midcard title will be on the line. We brought in guys from other promotions around the state of Kentucky and Indiana, so there were 35 people in total.

Rene Dupree and The Boogeyman were brought in for the show as well. Dupree was completely random. Apparently he was in town for some reason and called our owner and asked if he could be booked. He was a fairly cool guy. He hung around and watched training, which was really intimidating to have someone who has been on WWE TV watch.

Boogeyman is in super good shape for someone who is 55. He is pretty creepy in real life. He has this dead stare that just pierces your soul. Seeing him up close in full gear is a trip. (The pics are huge so spoiler tags)

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/623950777152569415/680938815182995480/image0.jpg

I was on Boogey clean up duty, so I got a nice handful of these fellas.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/623950777152569415/680991957312340041/image0.jpg

For anyone who ever wondered, they are real worms that he buys from farms. He washes them in the sink before shows so they are clean. And yes, people really do get real worms put in their mouth.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/623950777152569415/681223560890548289/image0.jpg

During tear down after the show me and our World Champ, well he was going into the show but lost it in the War, realized we matched. This picture has zero to do with the actual show, but I'm down almost 50 pounds over the last seven months so I'm proud of myself.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/623950777152569415/681472503822155833/image0.png