The art of true living in this world is more like a wrestler’s than a dancer’s practice.
Marcus Aurelius
Are you ready to take the steps to become a pro wrestler? If you need help with the answer, you’re in the right place as in this post, we will paint you the scene so you can envision very clearly the path you will have to endure in the now and then, and if you have what it takes to take the arduous walk to become a professional wrestler!
This guide is inserted in our series of articles made to help you in your journey to becoming a pro wrestler. If in our first post, we learned what is the best food to build muscle, in this second one, we will learn how to prepare body and mind to endure the herculean task of becoming a pro wrestler.
Note that we are not trying by any means to provide you the “ultimate guide to become pro wrestler overnight by the comfort of your house.”
Instead, offer you helpful information to help you understand what you’ll have to go through in a pro wrestling school and later as a pro wrestler and which are the most efficient ways to prepare yourself both physically and mentally for that journey.
To this effect, we jumped in our silver board and surfed the entire internet searching for the best life stories, tips, and advice to help you in such a challenging and demanding task.
After a long trip, we came back and compiled the best and most accurate information concerning the steps to help you in your quest to become a pro wrestler.
So without wasting any time, let’s see the steps to become a pro wrestler that you will have to cope with to turn your dream into reality.
The Mindset
Suppose you are already someone that takes care of his body and has a generally healthy lifestyle. In that case, it can be easier for you to handle things, but imagine that despite your physical shape, your mind wasn’t prepared for what was coming and simply gave up?
You will doubt yourself, your physical skills, and in the end, it was your mindset that failed and not your body. Don’t forget that the mind says and the body goes, not the other way around!
With that said, and to help you to get the right mindset to thrive and succeed as a pro wrestler and in other areas of your life, we will start by providing you with some basics.
Remember we told you we would paint you the scene? Though we are already doing it, at this moment, I want to do the opposite. I want you to paint me the scene!
By that, I mean that I want you to visualize! Visualize what YOUR path to becoming a pro wrestler should look like. I highlighted the “your” because, for effect, you must focus on your own reality, meaning your personal circumstances (limitations, financial and moral support, opportunity, etc.) should be the factors that determine the way you envision your own path.
Will it be hard? How costly will it be? What are the risks? Are they high? Are they worth it? These are just a few questions that you should ask yourself. If for most of the questions, your answer is negative, then you should take some time and reflect on the subject.
We all want fame and fortune, but we are not always ready for the sacrifices, nor can we pay the price inherent to that same fame and fortune.
Being a pro wrestler sure hell sounds awesome, but are you ready for life on the road? The injuries? All the expenses? And they will be a lot, especially in the beginning!
Ask all those questions to yourself, try to answer them the most honestly as possible, and see if you have what it takes to become a pro wrestler and mostly if you are willing to endure all the sacrifices and pay the price.
If after you envision what your path as a pro wrestler should be, you still decide to follow it, the next natural step should be to build a solid and resilient mindset that will help you in the process.
For that, try to go out of your comfort zone when required or possible; only there will you allow yourself to learn and grow, and basically is where all the magic happens. Remember that discomfort and uncertainty are, in most cases, synonyms of growth and learning, and that will be a constant in the life of a successful pro wrestler.
Rather you got screwed with a payment; your gimmick isn’t connecting with the audience or any other giving reason; there will be plenty of times that failure and deception will come in.
In that moments, a sharped mindset will be the difference between taking that experience as a lesson and getting back up or taking it as a final statement and staying the f down.
And speaking of failures, you must accept something to evolve and thrive not only as a pro wrestler but as a person too. Failure will always be a constant in life. Due to failing, we improve and become better versions of ourselves, so don’t take it as something terrible. Take it as something educational, something you need to experience to grow!
As you see, there isn’t a magical formula to improve your mindset overnight. Instead, it’s an ongoing process, and everyone has their own timing, so work on it daily and never stop learning!
I could go for another two weeks writing about this topic in particular. Still, you already got my ideas, so to finalize this chapter, I just want to tell you that despite how good you’re doing and how promising things are, they can change in a heartbeat, so be always humble, remember who helped you, and don’t forget to share! The more you share, the more will be shared with you, and that’s the way to create abundance in everyone’s life.
The Body
Now that we moved from the mind towards the body, let’s see the best way to put/keep yourself in shape, mainly before giving it a go to a pro wrestling school.
The desire to become a pro wrestler tends to manifest at a young age, so, naturally, many of you young lads want to start putting on some work as soon as possible. That isn’t necessarily bad though it is essential to choose wisely which sports you’ll be doing.
Starting to do some weights in the gym, for example, could be a bad idea if you’re a young teen because only by the time you’re a young adult will your body stop growing and developing.
So, until that point in life, all the types of activities involving weights will eventually do you more harm than good.
On the other hand, activities like swimming, running, calisthenics, and martial arts could do wonders for you.
Swimming it’s one if not the most complete sport out there! It is recommended for people of all ages, so don’t hesitate to jump on it if you have the chance! Strength, endurance, and cardio are some of the countless improvements associated with swimming.
Created and practiced by the old Greeks, calisthenics is highly recommended by the simple fact that you are working exclusively with your body weight. Aside from strength, endurance, and cardio, you will gain stability and mobility, which are a must if you want to have a lengthy career as a pro wrestler.
The main benefits of practicing martial arts like karate, judo, or taekwondo are the discipline you’ll get eventually and the physical training. Though it might come by accident, you will learn how to notch some blows and test your endurance to pain; it can even influence your wrestling style by making it more unique.
Practicing amateur wrestling at school could be an excellent choice too. Not only you’ll be working on your shape but gaining a fundamental basis that could help you become a more refined pro wrestler, though I do know that if you live outside the US, that can be difficult as most of the schools don’t have amateur wrestling in their programs.
As an option, you can always aim for some collective sports or even have some acting classes.
Don’t forget that pro wrestling isn’t a solo dance. If you don’t work well with others, it will be hard to go far as a pro wrestler. So the sooner you learn to be a team player, the better, and doing collective sports at school can do wonders for you in that department.
If there’s a thing a pro wrestler is constantly doing in front of a crowd is acting! So long goes the time that a good pair of biceps and a yellow bandanna will do the work. If you don’t know how to engage with the audience – worst, if you cannot get a reaction from it – you might have to reconsider your life’s choice. With that said, work in your act!
The Pro Wrestling School
Eventually, it will come the day you take the leap of faith and do your tryout in a pro wrestling school, and if you have prepared yourself well, things might be less demanding but always expect the worse!
I never made a tryout, but I can guarantee you that you will be tested beyond your limits. After all, just after seeing how you handle the pressure and acting outside your comfort zone, someone can claim if you have what it takes or not to become a pro wrestler.
It would be best to find a pro wrestling school directed by someone who made it to the big leagues like WWE, NJPW, Triple-A, ROH, etc. Only someone that walked that walk can be in a position of telling others how to get there.
Here’s what King Dabada (a veteran pro wrestler that was trained by his cousin and former WWE star, the late Yokozuna) had to say in the matter in an interview conceded to the website “The Art of Manliness”:
“There are good schools out there, but you just have to be careful which school you go to. Some will rip you off! You have to really look into it and do your homework on the school and the trainers. Nowadays, they’ve got kids training kids, and that’s just plain stupid!
I really frown on that because we got a lot of that all over the states. I would rather listen to a guy who worked for the WWE and never got a push than to listen to a young kid giving me advice on wrestling in a ring. It just doesn’t make sense.”
Once again, this can be difficult if you don’t live in the US, Canada, Mexico, Japan, or the UK. Nevertheless, do your research, and who knows, maybe you have around a pro wrestling school directed by someone who wrestled in some of the industry’s big companies.
Do The Numbers!
Now it is time to talk about the numbers. At the beginning of your career, as mentioned before, the profit is little to none, and even your first matches will probably result in zero financial income.
Plus, to become a pro wrestler, you should remember that it will be a very costly journey with expenses – like a good RKO – coming out of nowhere and with large numbers on it.
Training in a good pro wrestling school can easily reach thousands of dollars, so you will need to have a satisfactory amount of money or get on a loan for effect, with the last one being a choice that you should consider thoughtfully before.
In addition, the distance you travel to and fro can have a massive impact on your expenses as well; in the worst-case scenario, you might have to buy a car or rent a place to live during that period, so keep an eye on that too.
Now let’s take a look into your gear.
For sure, you will not be walking to the ring in your first match with a robe displaying all your style and profile.
Nevertheless, you will need some initial money to invest in this manner. My advice? Try to don’t overspend on your pro wrestling gear when you’re launching your career unless it is super necessary.
If you have a gimmick that requires more add-ons – that can result in a couple of hundreds or even thousands of dollars worth of investment – you definitely need to consider it before investing.
The last thing you want is to invest in pricy gear just to find out that your gimmick isn’t working, or you simply got tired of it and want to change to something else.
Once you start to wrestle, you will try to gather the most considerable amount of experience possible before trying your luck in the big leagues, which means wrestling in different promotions, different states, and maybe in other countries.
Not only in the beginning but throughout your career that traveling expenses – in most cases – will be on you, so that’s another point to take into account.
My intent is not to scare you with the numbers, instead give you an honest and realistic vision of what awaits you as a professional wrestler.
My final advice and probably the most important in this chapter is: you must be financially literate!
Your personal opinion and relationship with money and how much you ambition it are not the point. The point is: if you don’t know how money works – hence, putting your money working hard for you – you will eventually find yourself working hard for money.
I’m far from being a financial genius. Therefore, instead of starting to play the guru, I will recommend you a place to begin to develop your financial genius.
My first option to help you become financially wise is to recommend you check one of my favorite places to learn, which is richdad.com.
Note that I don’t have any affiliation with the website founders, so if I recommend you is because I use the platform myself, I have books from one of the website co-founders, Robert Kiyosaki, and most of all, I did and still learn a lot with Robert’s work, so I highly recommend you.
Always Invest On You!
It’s because it can be so costly that sometimes choices and sacrifices must be taken to ensure your future as a professional wrestler yourself in the situations mentioned in the previous chapter.
One of the most common is young adults or even teenagers quitting their studies to finance their dreams. Although I believe that risks must be taken to collect certain rewards, quitting your studies – or should I say education – might be the worst decision to take.
In this dog-eat-dog world, who has one eye is king! So I can’t stress to you enough that you need to be financially literate!
Unlike a young entrepreneur who makes a living behind a keyboard, a young pro wrestler’s life isn’t so that safe. Sometimes all it takes is a small mistake to end a career.
Hence, it is wise to have a backup plan or ideally, to have other professional activities to assure that if things go south with your pro wrestler career, you will not find yourself in dire straits.
Another way to keep investing in you is by becoming your own brand. Once you start to get some name, that will become easier though you want to start to put your name out there as soon as possible.
Making good and responsible use of social networks by engaging with wrestling fans is always a good way to put your name out there.
Creating a sustainable and profitable merchandise campaign can determine your overall image and your finances, so invest in yourself in this matter too.
If you have issues doing it, try to reach for help and advice; often, listening to more intelligent and capable than us will result in answers and results.
Most importantly, never stop investing in yourself; rather doing a new training or reading a new book, never stop enriching yourself with knowledge and new experiences.
Pros And Cons
Next, I will basically sum up everything mentioned before and provide you with a list of the pros and cons of becoming a professional wrestler. I hope it will help you to settle your thoughts on the matter.
PROS:
- You will be living your dream! Unfortunately, not everyone could say that.
- You have the chance to travel the world and discover places, people, and cultures that otherwise will not be possible.
- Attending your professional success and media exposure, you will have your share of fans, which can be really cool as a great deal of support will come directly from them.
- For the better and the worse, you will be pretty aware of your body and mind, and most of the time, you will be eating correctly and exercising yourself, which is excellent.
- There’s a lot of toughness that comes with the pro wrestler’s life, but if well redirected, that same toughness will make you a better version of yourself over time.
CONS:
- Due to its physicality, pro wrestling can and eventually will harm your body. Chronic pains, injuries, and other types of pathologies will be felt, and despite how well you manage your career, pain is a constant in the life of a pro wrestler.
- Living life on the road can bring you plenty of adverse effects. It can drag you far away from family, friends, and with time, that lack of stability in your life could lead to substances abuses, depressions, and in some rare cases, to suicide, so be sure if you want a nomad’s life before getting into it.
- If new technologies can do wonders in terms of proximity with the fans, that can expose you more to harassment. Furthermore, people tend to act in distinct ways when they approach someone in person versus approaching someone online; cyberbullying, insults, and even death threats unfortunately happen. The reason why it is so important to build a strong mindset!
The Steps To Become A Pro Wrestler
As final words, I just want to remind you that being a pro wrestler is a high-risk profession, so prepare yourself mentally and physically for the task, don’t stop investing in yourself and your brand, and don’t put all your eggs on the same basket!
A backup plan is mandatory when you are choosing such a dangerous and demanding profession as your life.
And there you have it, the steps to become a pro wrestler in a nutshell.
As said before, our intention wasn’t to provide you the ultimate guide to becoming a pro wrestler overnight but rather try to help you envision how harsh and unfair the world of pro wrestling is, but how great the life of a pro wrestler can be too.
I hope you found this guide helpful, and it helped you envision the life of a pro wrestler and ultimately made you more conscious of what you should expect in your early days as a pro wrestler.
Did I miss something? Do you disagree or want to add something? I would love to hear your thoughts, so don’t hesitate to reach me with a superkick in the comments section below, and as usual, I will reply to you back with a good old chop! Wooooo!
And just before you go, I want to THANK YOU for your time reading another of our posts and giving us your feedback to help us improve our work continuously! It means a lot to me!
If you like our content, please consider following us everywhere (except on the street, that’s weird:)) and I will catch you in our next post; until then, stay strong and keep loving pro wrestling! Amor Fati! : )
Pompeu Pedrosa,
Founder of Against the Ropes.