If you’ve missed the previous entries in this series click here to catch up on the story
In February of 2018, after almost two decades of dreaming about stepping foot in a wrestling ring, it was finally time to do it.
And after all the dreaming, all the times I had visualized myself making a debut as a prowrestler, and it was…
Kind of underwhelming.
I was nervous on that first day of the mini-camp, not really knowing what to expect. As I pulled up to the location of the school nervous and anxious. I was totally unsure of what I was getting myself into
At the time Monster Prowrestling was sharing a space with an automotive shop. It wasn’t a surprise to me as prior to the camp, I came in to see the facility and meet the head trainer, Massive Damage. When I first came in for that meeting, I wondered to myself… “what did I just sign up for”.
The shop reeked like vehicle fumes and oil, there was dusty everywhere, but right inside the doors there was the beautiful sight of a real-life wrestling ring. Sure, there were some stains on the mat, and it looked like it was very well used, but it was a wrestling ring I had dreamed of stepping foot in since I was a kid watching Steve Austin’s Beer Bash.
(As a quick aside – As I recall my favourite moments from wrestling as a kid, very few of them were actually in-ring moments. Fun fact.)
That day I watched a for a few minutes as a colourful cast of characters rolled, bumped, and slammed each other around the ring in preparation for the upcoming show. I had a short chat with Massive about what to expect, pay the mini-camp fee’s, and view a bit of training before I moved on for the day.
I left feeling excited, yet skeptical.
In meeting Massive, I could tell he had been through the wringer in wrestling. He seemed pretty beat up at the time, but you could tell that this was his life’s passion. He seemed like he wasn’t a guy I wanted to piss off or meet in a back alley, but he was nice enough, and allowed me to opportunity to attend the mini-camp.
So, as I pulled up that day to the training center/automotive shop, I sat in my car for almost 10 minutes just getting myself mentally psyched up to do this.
Despite performing in front of hundreds of people in basically my underwear regularly, I’m still a fairly shy guy to this day. This was a new, unfamiliar circumstance, and something I knew nothing about so I was as nervous as Stan talking to Wendy.
Fortunately, there wasn’t any vomit.
When I did build up the nerve to finally walk into the camp, there was another random assortment of people. Some older, some younger. Some in shape, some not so much. My class of wrestlers included such Alberta wrestling icons like Jen-nergy, Ajax, a man who I only remember as Wubs (more on him in another story), and Blake Kannon, who is the only other one who still wrestles to this day.
Through the camp the trainers took us through most of the basics. How to lock up, some basic holds/transitions, running the ropes, and hitting the canvas. Pretty simple stuff, however I found myself struggling with many different aspects of it, including the footwork and remembering the right directions for everything.
It was extremely frustrating, as I felt I was the most athletic guy there, but couldn’t figure out what foot went in front of the other. It was especially frustrating having to learn from younger people who have been doing it longer than I had (shout out Josh Kirby). What can I say, I had a bit of an ego at the time…
I realize now that I had way too high of expectations for myself, thinking that since I was a twenty-year fan who “knew” wrestling that I could just pick this up like I’ve done it my whole life.
As I drove home that first day I was irritated, exhausted, and sore. I was debating with myself if I would even go back. I was so disappointed that it wasn’t what I thought it would be…but then again, I don’t know what I was expecting.
I woke up the next morning and felt as if my neck was made of cement. It was so jacked up and tight I almost couldn’t turn my head.
Another reason not to go back…
But I did.
I promised myself I would give it a good, honest try to see how I liked it.
Fortunately, I did, because the second day was much better. After going home the day before and visualizing/walking through some of the movements in my living room, I started to get the hang of things. It certainly wasn’t perfect, but it was still better. As I got better at it, it became more fun (weird I know, this is now what I teach a lot of my training clients).
By the end of the second day I felt good enough about it that I decided to sign up and keep coming back. I was officially committed to the process.
Now, the countdown was on for my debut match.
I didn’t have to wait long to debut at all though, as MPW was running a special show at Knoxville’s Tavern in downtown Edmonton (a place I may have overindulged in alcohol quite frequently as a younger man) exactly one month from when I started training.
With my sights set on my first match, it was time to come up with some of the finer details, like my gear, and what I’d be called.
For gear, I started very simple, and very cheap. A pair of wrestling shoes, some long under armour socks, knee pads, and a pair of swim shorts. Doesn’t get much more indy than that hey? The reality was, I still wasn’t sure this was something I really wanted to pursue – so keeping my initial investment low was the best bet I had.
When it came to the name, it was a more difficult process. This was made even more difficult, as I was given the heads up that if I didn’t pick a name myself, one would be bestowed upon me… which didn’t always have a history of being the greatest names out there.
After a great amount of procrastinating, before making my debut, I came up with some absolute banger names like:
Tyson Tyr
Jaxon Glass
Jaxon Parker
RS Hill
Skyler Richardson
And my personal favourite, Max Xavier Jaxon aka Triple X
(can you tell I was a 90’s kid?)
One name stood out to me personally though. Admittingly, it’s a pretty corny ass name, but it would allow me to use my real first name, be extremely simple, and use names no one else in the province was using (yet…), so I chose the name Rich King.
I had no idea what my character would look like, evolve to, or again, if I would even stick around, but it was a name I could get behind. I confidently said my name would be Rich King, and my coach only added one extra part, so I became “Rugged” Rich King, a moniker I still run away from to this day… but isn’t as bad as it could have been…
As a fun aside here are some other monikers that I had come up with but either got shut down, or I scrapped them myself:
- The Northern Nightmare
- The Canadian King
- The Northern Lion
- The Canadian Sensation
And Character Ideas:
- Short Fuse – Spazzy with short-man syndrome
- Gym-Bro – based loosely on Dom Mazzetti + Dolph Ziggler
- The Uber Canadian – Everywhere is to Americanized and not Canadian enough
(Arguably you can say I combined the top two of those…)
Anyways…
The month flew by, I was feeling more confident in the ring, and finally it was show day.
My confidence was almost instantly rattled when I got confused for another new student from MPW almost immediately from another wrestler. Thanks Dylon.
I was extremely nervous going in for my debut, and I really didn’t know or have a good rapport with any one that was on the show with me. Being 28 at the time, while most the newer wrestlers were around 20ish, we didn’t have much to bond over… and again, I was a bit shy. The veteran wrestlers weren’t exactly the most approachable either, so I spent most of the time by myself prior to the match.
Being in a battle royal at MPW One Night Stand meant a big group of us would essentially walk out there all together then it was a free for all once the bell rung. As we made our entrance, I felt like a piece of meat walking out there in essentially underwear. I had never felt so venerable, exposed, and self-conscious than that moment.
As the bell rang, and I officially made my debut – everything started extremely fast and furious. I felt lost and didn’t know what to do, until one of the veteran guys came and grabbed me. The match was relatively uneventful for me, although getting chopped on the chest and on the back (I haven’t forgotten Nate) certainly didn’t feel great. I even took a chokeslam during the match, and while I was landed a bit high on my shoulders knocking the wind out of me.
Fairly quickly afterwards I was thrown over the top and eliminated. Before I was able to leave though, I had to catch another fellow trainee to had been military pressed out of the ring.
While I was in a rush to get to the back and hide myself in a weirdly satisfying adrenaline filled shame, I heard a big commotion near the ring. Ajax, a tall young man who had choke slammed me, was now getting punched in the head (for real, but part of the show) by a smaller bald wrestler named Marky, who I had never seen before, and didn’t see again for years after.
Apparently, Ajax didn’t “sell enough” so he got stiffed. Wrestling lessons!
As I came to the back, having finally stepped foot into a wrestling ring in front of real people, I soaked in the moment. I had finally made my wrestling debut. Sure, it wasn’t wrestlemania, in fact I was mere steps away from where I had thrown up in recent years, but I had lived out a dream I had since I was 8 years old regardless.
But being in a battle royal wasn’t enough, I needed to be in a real match, where I would actually get a chance to wrestle in front of the crowd.
I wound down, changed into my civilian wear, and waited for the show to finish. While I did, I met an injured wrestler who had come to support the rest of the guys. He had an infectious personality, and was almost overly nice to the point it was comical, but after not really talking to anyone all day it was good to finally chat with someone. I didn’t know it at the time but the guy ended up becoming one of my best friends and future tag team partner, Lumberjack Larry.
(To Be Continued)
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Rich,
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