Now that my time as a Crash Test Dummy was over, I finally had a chance to breathe…
and then jump in a car the next week for another debut match – this time in Lethbridge, Alberta, with Pure Power Wrestling (PPW).
In just my fifth match, I was already wrestling for three different companies in three different cities. A trend that would definitely continue…
(Stay tuned.)
This match was against Jumpin’ Josh, a younger wrestler I’d met at my first mini-camp. I was pumped when I saw we’d be working together. He’s smaller and more high-flying, and I figured that mix with my more “technical”, power-based style could make for a fun match.
The trip down was a different experience from my drive to CWC in Red Deer. Instead of traveling solo, I piled into a vehicle with Kato, Psycho Sawyer, and Chris Perish. Being the new guy – and pretty shy – I kept to myself while they talked shop. Thankfully the car had a DVD player, and since Sawyer had a cage match that night, we threw on a “best of WWE cage matches” compilation to kill the time.
The drive itself felt bittersweet. Months earlier, I’d made that same trip when I decided to take the leap into wrestling. It felt like I’d traded one big part of my life for another. I had wrestling now, but not the girlfriend.
When we pulled up to the German Canadian Club of Lethbridge, the nerves started to kick in hard. We were running late, which meant Josh and I had barely any time to go over what we wanted to do. The match was billed as a “Young Lion” match – a term borrowed from Japanese wrestling for newer wrestlers breaking in. At 28, I didn’t feel that young, but looking back, I might as well have been a teenager.
Despite the jitters, the match went well. The crowd was behind Josh – he was the hometown kid with family in the audience – but this was my first time wrestling someone smaller than me, which opened the door for new ideas. One of my favorite moments was hitting a fallaway slam on him – basically tossing your opponent over your head in a controlled way. It was fun, for me at least.
The match was short, maybe ten minutes tops, but getting through it was another confidence booster.
It proved again that even without much rehearsal time, I could put together a solid match.
Where I still struggled was the social side of things. You spend a lot of time backstage at a wrestling show. When your match is ten minutes in a two- or three-hour card, there’s a lot of downtime. I knew a few faces – Kato, Perish, Shaun Martens, Jude Dawkins, Sydney Steele – but I wasn’t close with anyone yet. Luckily there was a good view of the ring, and a steel cage match that night to keep me entertained.
This show had an afterparty too, and we ended up crashing at someone’s house. The bed was nice, but I definitely wished it was my own. On the bright side, I got to bond a bit with Kato, one of the trainers at MPW, while watching older wrestling matches.
And what classic matches were we studying?
Bret vs. Shawn?
Macho vs. Steamboat?
Nope.
Honestly, it’s one of the most entertaining matches you could show someone who knows nothing about wrestling. You can’t watch it without smiling. I owe Kato for that introduction.
It wasn’t the last time we watched matches together, either. Late nights after training, we’d throw on a match and break it down step by step, recreating spots and learning the flow. It was one of the best ways I learned how to structure a match. Sadly, we never recreated Wee-LC.
The drive home was uneventful, but it reminded me just how far Lethbridge is from Edmonton — and what indie wrestling really looks like. I definitely lost money on the trip after food and booze, but it wasn’t about the paycheck. It was about the experience.
And the next one would be a whole new experience:
my first-ever triple threat match.
Upcoming Schedule:
Nov 29 – Edmonton, AB – Real Canadian Wrestling
Dec 6 – Saskatoon, SK – Prairie Prowrestling
Rich,
Owner, RK Athletics
2024 Top Personal Trainer In Canada
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