With my debut match for CWC under my belt I returned to Edmonton with a daunting task ahead. My first “official” match on the Monster Prowrestling roster was against Shaun Martens, the guy who was heading into the main storyline and would later become top champion that year.
While Martens would become an influential figure in my prowrestling career, and help me quite a bit, it certainly didn’t begin on the most positive note.
The first interaction I remember having with him was at a practice where we went through a mini drill where the heel (bad guy) would beat up a babyface (good guy) in the corner of the ring. Martens and I were paired up, he pushed me back, and slapped the shit out of my face. It took me every bit of restraint I had not to retaliate, which would have most certainly caused a fight. I was new, and I knew I was bound to get a lump or two, but I wasn’t going to thank him and ask him for another
From there, I had a bad taste in my mouth about the guy. I dreaded seeing him at training. He was very boisterous, took things too seriously (which in retrospect, wasn’t a bad thing), very stand-offish, and he was a dick to almost everyone (at least to most of us newbies).
So, it was just pure luck when I was told by Massive that I’d matched up against Martens in my second match in the company.
With my match against Blake, we had ample time to put everything together to make a (relatively) smooth match. Since we had a month until our match together, I messaged Martens to see when he’d be in town to go over some of the match, and see what we could come up with. To my dismay, he had no desire to put things together ahead of the time, and pulled the classic “We’ll call it in the ring, kid”.
With this being my third match, and only 3 months into my prowrestling career, I thought it was a dick move on his behalf and set us up for failure.
Even now, I don’t think calling it in the ring is a great way to put together a match unless you have a great rapport with someone. Prowrestling has evolved a lot since the old days where people would just do suplexes, headlocks, and end things off with a leg drop. Prowrestling has become more much more athletic, and being able to walk through things ahead of time gives everyone an understanding of what to expect, where to be, and how to make everything connect better.
I do think it’s important for people to be able to develop the confidence to go out there, be in the moment, and call things on the fly. You never know when you’re going to have to pivot things, especially when shit hits the fan. I do, however, think it’s something to be developed over time. Not something you do 3 matches in when you’re still figuring out what the fuck you’re doing.
Coming back from the CWC show, I felt slightly more confident in the ability to put things together in a short enough time, but I was still nervous and unsure of how things would go. When show day rolled around, I was extremely nervous. Seeing Martens that day, I was very intimidated and unsure of what to expect.
To his credit, he walked through almost everything I should expect to happen in the ring. Since I was new, and he was near the main event, he was just going to squash me and move on.
And boy, did he squash me… which was too bad as it was the first match I had invited people to come watch me wrestle for the first time. Regardless of how the match was, it was pretty surreal to see people with a sign for me in the crowd, even if they were my friends…
In that match, I might as well have been a crash test dummy. At one point, he suplexed me into the corner with my leg bouncing off the turnbuckle so hard had to skip leg day for a week (the humanity!).
While the match was mostly him throwing me around, he did give me some ideas for new moves to do, including a really cool move called The Acid Drop, which I’ve redubbed The Gold Rush. It’s a move I’ve done for years now, but not as much as I should…
Unfortunately I couldn’t find any video of the match, but after the match I vividly remember Martens telling people about all the different moves he did to me in the match. It was the most excited I’d seen him up to that point.
While I can’t say that we were best friends after the match, it did start to move things in the right direction. I didn’t have such a sour taste about him, and he seemed to be a little less of a dick to me when I did see him. It’s a good thing too, as I’d have many more encounters with him in the ring early in my career, and he’s given me a ton of advice/pointers over the year.
While he’s still a bit of a dick (or blunt as some people would say), I’d consider him a friend and I’m always good to chat with the guy when he’s in town.
I was glad to have the match over and in the rearview mirror, but I would be looking forward to another road trip, and another debut, just a week later.
Not a bad start to the prowrestling career, right?
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Rich,
Owner, RK Athletics
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