Advice on becoming a Professional Wrestler

Ekerot

Has anyone here ever tried becoming a professional wrestler or trained at a wrestling school? I could use any advice you can give me.

With the lockdowns over now and me not being much of a young man anymore at 21, I've decided I want to give it a shot.

Are any of the Irish wrestling schools good? The only athletic experience I have is some amateur boxing and running for the first few years of Secondary School.

AEW or NJPW would be my long-term goal. I don't think I'd want to work for WWE - sounds very cult-like every time I watch a shoot interview with old pros.

B.A._Baracus

Forget where you want to be - there's no harm having a dream of going to aew, njpw or wwe but walk before you run. There's two schools in Dublin. Fight Factory (Dublin 3) and The School of irish Wrestling (ott, Tallaght) contact either school and go down for a session.

Many a person has tried wrestling and realised its not for them. So try it out first. But no harm buying kneepads. You don't need elbow pads but buy kneepads if you want to train. If you don't already have a pair buy some athletic shoes also.

Lastly best advice anyone can get at the start is have an attitude of you know nothing and you want to learn. Many people think they know so much about wrestling going in but after a year or two they will realise they knew nothing. So don't be that guy who thinks he's great after 3 sessions. Its infuriating to be around a person like that.

hynesie08

Start stretching: you won't save your knees and back but you can help them, you'll thank me when you're in your mid 30s.

Save: The lads at the top of the cards now have pro gear, a gym membership and travel to the UK regularly for seminars, if you're not in a position to do that put away a fiver a week and you'll at least have gear if and when the time comes.

Good kneepads: see point 1

Attitude: dreams are great, but a million lads have come and gone who were going to do whatever it takes to make it (spoiler, they didn't), you know nothing, and even when you learn something you still know nothing.

The most important thing is get your ass to a school, you might last a class, you might be the next devitt, never going to find out on boards.

LineOfBeauty

Watch tape. Particularly modern tape. Japan being the most primary given that traditionally it's always been at least 5 years ahead of the curve.

Wrestling is an aesthetic business so gym and eating right is important. Getting into ring shape so cardio massive too.

Keep it simple early, nothing worse than seeing young wrestlers try things they have no right trying and dangerous to both you and whoever you're in the ring with.

Eventually if you get put onto shows keep your look in mind. Gear, a memorable appearance that fits the gimmick.

21 isn't that old so don't think it is.

JP Liz V1

Was it in Bray, Finn and Becky got started and trained?

B.A._Baracus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119029365#Comment_119029365

Yeah. NWA Ireland. Finn went over to NWA Hammerlock in UK along with someone else to train back in the day then came back and they opened up NWA Ireland in Bray. That's when Becky started to train.

ThePott

I definitely don't have the level of experience that some lads on here have but I'll throw my hat in the ring so to speak as someone who trained briefly and think I had a similiar mindset to you.

Firstly as far as schools go outside of Dublin (not sure where you're coming from), there is Fight Factory and School of Irish Wrestling (as mentioned although believe they need to secure a new venue currently). If you're closer to the North, I believe Titanic have a school and maybe that new promotion CAW. Phoenix train in Limerick.

Don't be worried about age, I was older than you and there's older lads that have started too and suceeded, it's all about commitment. It can be a massive undertaking, from training to spending time promoting or setting up for shows etc. It can be a lot of time and one of many reasons wrestling has such a high turnover.

Flexibility helps as people have said. As far as fitness I found that having stamina in bursts was important, sprints etc are a good start. Don't be self concious, you'll be expected to do promos and character work so feel comfortable in yourself and know what you're signing up for.

A lot of people approach it from thinking they know how it works and try go faster than they should, approach it from total ignorance. There's a lot to learn and taking it all in can be tough. Personally I had a notebook that I wrote in after with things I learned and moves or ideas etc. I found it helped me not that I made it far as a wrestler anyway haha. It did help me in remembering what I learned if I had to try put together a match or remembering terms, etc.

Outside of that, the advice I gave myself and I say it to anyone cause I found it useful is this; Would you rather spend your whole life not knowing? I know so many people who say they'd love to try wrestling but... There's always be a reason not to do it. In my experience people know quick if it's for them or not and a lot of people scratch one part of the itch and are happy enough. Seen people that were done after a match in front of a crowd and people who once they'd got an insight into it, stopped. Take the first step and see how it goes. I've seen plenty of people return after leaving too.

While I never got anywhere in wrestling and hated it for a time afterwards, it changed me for the better. Gave me more confidence and lead me to creating content online, which I never had the balls to do previously. Met some cool people, got a few good stories and am still involved today as a ring announcer. It was a rewarding experience even if I didn't get far. I would definitely say get out there and give it a go if you have an interest, worse comes to worst you can say you tried.

JP Liz V1

Follow your Dream lads and lassies

Ekerot

Alright, I found my hand wraps again from my amateur boxing days and my old boxing boots, and I'm starting to make my moves now.

I think have the first beats of my character/gimmick. A wandering Nomad type, but in truth an alien/being from a higher plane of existence, taking the appearance of a professional wrestler to hide his true form. A supernatural babyface, but more cheerful and childlike than someone like Undertaker or Sting. Hijinks ensure in the locker room as he tries to understand how the whole human thing works.

Does anyone know the best place to buy good quality kneepads? I tried Amazon UK, but I'm wary of all the cheap tat that's on there these days. And I don't want to cheap out if I want to keep my knees intact.

B.A._Baracus

Dude, forget all that gimmick stuff. You are trying to run before you walk.

If you started to train tomorrow, your future self in 3 years will laugh at you. Start at the beginning by starting to train.

Trace and McDavid kneepads are standard.

Ekerot

It's the best I can do till Fight Factory starts their beginner course up again in June - I tried messaging Titantic Wrestling on Facebook but I got no word back on their FB page. Messaged Phoenix Limerick next and might have better luck with them.

In the meantime, I've started up my amateur boxing training again. 2 Mile run each morning and 120 pushups every day while going back 3 nights to my old gym. Feels like I'm purging a sickness within my body as I start this up again.

brianregan09

Keep us updated

JP Liz V1

Best of Luck @Ekerot

Ekerot

I'm keeping a workout log at the moment, tracking my steady gains and I slowly put on the pressure to get myself bigger.

Legs feel like tree stumps from all these squats I'm doing every morning when I get up, since the local boxing gym is closed i have to make do with throwing logs around as weights.

Figuring out the logistics of trying to get down to FFPW Wrestling for training. Renting within Dublin is out of the question at the moment considering my paltry wage, though commuting from outside of it could work. If I had a work from home job this would make things a whole lot easier.

Need to get rid of all this crap around me though that I could turn into Cex for money, it would help to travel light once I start this training stuff.