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My Story

Posted: Jul 11th 2012 By: mikeiles

How can a 10 year old boy know and decide what he wants to do as a career at such a young age? I wish I could answer that question; I've been trying to for that last 16 years.

Before I got into wrestling, I had my many detractors: friends, family, co-workers, acquaintances. However, I used their negativity to drive me to achieve the one goal I set for myself (becoming a Pro Wrestler, not Sports Entertainer) in the Fall of 1996. Everything that I did was geared to help me get to where I needed to go.

If blame gets placed on any one person for making and helping me become obsessed with wrestling, it would be Kyle. He was a fan before I was and helped me understand who was who and what was what. All day at school, we would talk wrestling. After school, we would watch wrestling. All weekend, we would put on matches in the backyard and with our figures (yes, I was and still am a nerd). It was nothing but wrestling.

We always talked about breaking in as a tag team. Unfortunately, life likes to throw its weight around sometimes. We chose different (but respectable) paths. The only difference is my path never wavered from becoming a wrestler.

When I was a sophomore in high school, I started lifting with Robbie, who is solely responsible for instilling good weightlifting values in me. While the others in the class would goof around, we would pound the weights. To this day, I turn to him for weightlifting advice; he's a certified personal trainer.

My first taste of being in a wrestling ring came in September 2005 (a year and a half when I graduated from high school) when I attended the Harley Race Wrestling Camp; it was a very surreal feeling and eye-opening experience, one that intensified my desire. Unfortunately, I wouldn't get a taste of the wrestling business for an entire year after that.

In October 2006, I got to get another taste of the business. I met Barry Linduff, AKA "Mr. Saturday Night" Michael Barry, and my world was changed forever. He agreed to help me do the one thing that I had set my sights on for the last decade: wrestle. For that, I am in a debt of gratitude that I can never fully repay, and I hope he knows this. Every so often, I thank him.

Without his training and guidance, I'm not sure what my "career" would look like; probably (if I had to guess) a lot less impressive. I try to make him proud by not messing up as his trainee. I've held this belief since day one.

For six months, I trained, yearning for my first match. On February 24, 2007, my wish was granted. Hindsight is 20/20, and I'm happy with the way I started and think every person should start out the same way. However, at the time I didn't want to wrestle the way the promoter wanted me to: as a masked character named El Matador Dos. They knew what they were doing, and that was getting my feet wet. Quite frankly, as long as I was getting a match, I was happy to do whatever.

Doing the Dos character for about six months, I finally started to wrestle as myself. And not just in my "home" promotion. It was starting to feel like I was doing something. Fast forward to now, and I've amassed quite a "resume."

One of the things that I promised myself I would do is keep a journal of all the matches that I would have. I'm very happy to report I've kept true to that promise to this day (it's why this section of the site exists). The journal helps me look back at moments that I've enjoyed throughout the last five and a half years.

Along the way, there have been many people in and out of wrestling (both good and bad; mainly good, hardly any bad) that have helped me achieve my goals. The three I give most credit to (chronologically) is Kyle, Robbie, and Barry. They all each played an intrical part in and out of the ring, and to these three men I can't thank enough. I hope I have made each of you proud and will continue to do so.

That's my story for now. Is it over? Not by a long shot.

Yeah, there's plenty more story to come. In fact, I need to do a "thank you" section for my story. But that's for another day.