Matt Young's Pro Wrestling Training Diary

[Matt Young 0]

I'm resuming wrestling training with New Midwest tonight, and I plan on keeping a weekly diary where I'll weigh myself once a week to track my physical progress (I hope to put together a decent workout schedule) as well as what I learn each night. I'll have pics soon to show what I look like now, and I'll have new ones taken periodically for comparison.

 

Would anyone be interested in reading this? I'll be keeping a pesonal account of all this for myself, but I thought maybe you guys might enjoy reading about it as well.

[Guest JohnnySwift]

As an aspiring indy wrestler myself I'd be interested in reading this. Good luck with your training, and keep us posted.

[MillenniumMan831 0]

Yeah, it should be pretty interesting.

[JST 0]

Yeah, go for it Matt.

[Guest PhantMan]

ok, but only if you include tales of ribs, showers with bradshaw wanna-bes and the likes.

[Matt Young 0]

Alright, here goes. First, here is some information about the school/wrestling promotion as well as my personal bio/stats.

 

School/Promotion: New Midwest Wrestling

Location: Springfield, Illinois, USA

Website: http://www.newmidwest.com

 

My Name: Matt Young

My Age: 19 (born 7/30/84)

My Height: 5'8"

 

I'll be keeping track of my weight on a weekly basis. I'll weigh myself each weekend since that's how I've been doing things for months now.

 

My Weight (as of 1/11/04): 125 pounds

 

I'll refer to all the trainers/wrestlers, referees, and managers/valets by their gimmick names rather than their real names since it'll make more sense to you guys and so that you may check out their profile(s) on the site if you wish.

 

Day 1- Wednesday, January 14th, 2004

 

I walked through the back doors of the USA Sports Center at approximately 6:30 P.M. CST alongside my friend Nick. Nick's a guy that I met at a party in October 2002 when I first trained with NMW (which lasted maybe a month) and after discovering that he was a wrestling fan, I got him to start attending shows. He just began training in late December and has about 4 sessions under his belt.

 

I was very nervous that night. Although I am friends with nearly everyone in the promotion, I hadn't been in the ring for over a year. I got myself in far better shape this time around compared to what I was back then (I was 168 pounds last time around), but I would essentially be starting over again from scratch, so I was very worried about my performance and how my back problems (2 bulging discs) would affect me.

 

After making my initial payment and filling out the required forms and waiver, I sat down and started lacing up my wrestling shoes. There were very few people there that night, all guys that I knew- Rip Mystic, who has been unable to compete due to a back injury, and Michael Shard, who lost a loser leaves town match in November and will be leaving for Canada soon, were the only trainers present. Rip had recently gotten clearance to do ring work, but nothing high risk such as flying maneuvers. Other wrestlers who were present were Jason Wells, Bradley Stephens, Steven Bishop, Eric Logan, "Tricky" Dick Moore, JJ Tank (who incidentally started his training the same day I signed up the last time) and finally, Ricky the ref.

 

First, they had me get in the ring and do some back bumps. I was a little rusty, but I pulled them off well enough. After the first couple tries, I had them down. I was making a good, even noise that was fairly loud considering my (lack of) weight. My forearms are pretty bruised up though from slapping against the mat to make that noise.

 

Shard's a bump nazi, so he took great pleasure in making me do back bump after back bump, getting up quickly and facing a different side of the ring each time. I didn't mind, because they don't hurt too badly, but the force with which I was doing them had me winded after a few minutes. I need to get in better shape. I did even more back bumps until they finally had me take a short break.

 

Next up were some simple somersaults. Well, simple for anyone else... I, on the other hand, was always the fat kid and never learned those in kindergarten. I could do one just fine, but the 2 in a row (a'la RVD's rolling thunder) gave me problems. Those shouldn't be too hard to get down, though. Next, I tried a "no hands" somersault, kind of like a rolling dive. My hands/wrists kept hitting the mat as I tried them, even though I tried to keep them from doing so. My wrists are still sore as hell. After a few more back bumps thrown in for good measure, I was sent out to the crash pad to practice front flip bumps.

 

I was nervous because last time around, the front flip bumps were what hurt my back. However, I pulled them off reasonably well on the crash pad and then went to try a couple in the ring. Thankfully, I didn't land on my head, but I couldn't get a complete flip going and as a result, my feet didn't hit at the same time as my back, which I need to work on.

 

Following that, everyone left the ring so that Tricky Dick and Bradley Stephens could have a practice match. We all watched to study their movements and the way they bumped, and it was pretty entertaining as well as educational. The match finished with Moore hitting a "Roll the Dice/Test Drive/Last Rites" variation on Stephens for the 1-2-3. Rip commented that they "need to find some way to do that off the top rope". He's fucking crazy, but he knows what he's doing, so maybe we'll see that soon.

 

After the practice match, Rip noted that they had messed up a back body drop attempt and that they should practice the move on the crash pad. He showed everyone the proper method for executing the move- the victim runs up, does a little hop when he reaches the man performing the move, and then the recipient posts his hands on the giver's shoulders, leaps as he is lifted up at the knees, pushes up off the other guy's shoulders, and then tucks his head and takes the bump. We all took turns trying them, and even though Rip said that the move was way ahead of where Nick and I were at in our training, he let us try taking a few. Nick couldn't get it down, but I managed to do pretty well. Since we were on the crash pad, it didn't hurt and was actually quite fun.

 

After all that, we sat around and talked for a bit. It was approaching 8:30 and most of the guys were getting ready to leave, so Nick, Ricky, and I headed to the weight room where Michael Shard was already finishing his routine. I hadn't worked out in a year with the exception of 1 or 2 times in Canada, so I couldn't lift much. I did 2 sets each on the bench press, standing curls, leg extensions, and the squat machine. I felt pretty good afterwards. With our workout completed, Nick and I headed back to his house where we got something to eat and watched Survivor Series 2001 on DVD (my first time seeing it) before crashing.

 

Thus concludes day 1 of my diary. Sorry it took me a couple days to put up. I should have part 2 later today or tomorrow, and it will be shorter. Today (Friday) is my day off, so after that I'll be all caught up.

 

Feel free to offer feedback regarding my experiences, format, or anything else.

[HollywoodSpikeJenkins 0]

I've always wondered, does it give you an advantage to be a smark, then it would be for any mark that tries to get into wrestling?

[MillenniumMan831 0]

Interesting stuff, sorry I can't add anything more insightful but I'll be reading.

[Guest JohnnySwift]

Funny thing is Matt, you and I are about the same size (i've got 10 lbs on you) and I trained at a place called NMW...are you my younger alter ego? lol

[HarleyQuinn 0]

I'll be reading, it'll be cool to hear from somebody how the training goes(Considering what's shown on TV is only a fraction of what they really go through)

[JST 0]

Nice. Best advice I can offer is patience, patience, and a hell of a lot of patience.

 

I've seen some of our trainees totally lose hope when they couldn't get a certain bump down.

 

Tell me, what size ring do ya'll have? Ours is 16 square feet, inside the ropes; 18 outside.

[Garth 0]

Interesting stuff, looking forward to reading more about it, as i will start training in around 6 months to a year once i'm driving and can get to where the training centre is closest to me.

[Guest JumpinJackFlash]

Cool. I'm thinking about going into pro wrestling training soon, and your diary has helped me to expect and prepare for what is to come.