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Learning The Ropes Starts In Tampa

Posted: Mar 24th 2008 By: CMBurnham

Imagine your reaction if someone told you they were giving up a steady job in finance to try and become a professional wrestler.

Does it sound logical? Or has this person lost their mind?

Jake Hager did it, and he seems perfectly sane. He sits inside the new offices of Florida Championship Wrestling for a quick breather from body slams and arm locks. As the only WWE developmental territory, FCW is the place to be if you want to make it to the big time.

About 70 wrestlers train here, hoping for that one shot at superstardom. Not many will make it. But it is worth all the practice and pain for an opportunity that might never come.

"It would be a dream because I have wrestled all my life," said Hager, an All-America amateur wrestler at Oklahoma. "I have developed a passion and intensity for this. To perform in front of 15,000 people . . . I just want to hear that roar from the crowd."

So do all the other men and women at FCW as they compete against each other to make themselves stand out. Steve Keirn founded FCW about 17 years ago, but it was reorganized and revamped late last year and officially became affiliated with WWE in February after the organization ended its ties with Ohio Valley Wrestling.

Every wrestler at the FCW developmental school is under contract to WWE and paid to work full-time, making enough money where they don't need second jobs. Kofi Kingston, Maryse and Drew McIntyre are some of those who have graduated to some level of success in the WWE.

Wrestlers are recruited to the school from smaller wrestling organizations around the world. Generally, Keirn is looking for wrestlers under the age of 30, who have good bodies, good personalities and know a few wrestling moves.

They practice five days a week up to six hours a day, learning how to become a bona fide wrestler. Keirn also has plans to open a wrestling school for people interested in learning the business, but rather than being paid they have to pay anywhere from $1,000-$1,500 to join the school. They would train at night, and the school would be separate from the WWE talent.

"I'm trying to predict the future, and wondering what the audience is going to be like," said Keirn, who was a longtime wrestler in Championship Wrestling from Florida, WWE and WCW. "We are looking for younger people who are hungry. I want people that want to be pro wrestlers and see a vision of grandeur."

Those visions are important because it helps everyone stay motivated. Though their chances of becoming the next Edge or Undertaker are slim, every person at FCW believes they are going to be the next WWE superstar.

That goes for a former football player learning the ropes, to third-generation wrestlers, to former models and reality television stars.

"I've never had that mind-set of not being able to get something I want," said Ryan Bishop, who spent parts of three years as a reserve tight end with the Buffalo Bills and New York Giants. "If you have a weak mind-set, you're not going to get very far."

The building where they train, on the south side of Tampa, is a converted warehouse that was recently renovated. But not everything is in its place. The building does not have running water yet. Sewer lines sit in front of dug-up trenches outside the front and side of the building, waiting to be installed. Inside, there are two big rooms where the wrestlers train.

The first has a ring in the middle, wall-sized WWE posters hanging and chairs set up all around. This room will eventually serve as the stage for televised shows, which FCW plans on airing on a local Tampa station.

The main training room has three rings. They are all used at once, with a handful of wrestlers inside the ropes working on moves with each other. The others sit and watch, looking for pointers and paying attention to instruction.

Keirn, 57, and his staff teach them an average of 300 wrestling moves. The wrestlers also have to learn how to ad lib their moves inside the ring, and to develop entertaining personalities. For some, that is the most difficult part. Most of the people here have an athletic background but have no idea how to entertain.

"You have to exaggerate everything, make it larger than life," Hager said. "You have to learn how to do that, and it takes time. But this sport is like any other sport. You don't become a Pro Bowler your first day in the NFL. It takes time to become the best."

Keirn said it takes an average of three to five years to properly train wrestlers for the big time. In addition to giving them the tools to try and be successful, most important is learning how to perform in front of a live audience.

Once a week, FCW holds live events at a sports bar in New Port Richey, outside of Tampa. About a couple of hundred people attend the shows.

Just like NBA and NFL players, the FCW wrestlers also study tapes of current and former pro wrestlers to pick up tips. Sometimes, WWE wrestlers will come by the school. Edge and Rey Mysterio have made appearances in Tampa, among others.

"Being in a minor-league system, you want to progress as fast as you can so you can be with those guys in the spotlight," Bishop said. "I can only imagine what it's like. You look at certain guys who had the longevity. It would be great to move up and be there for a long time."

Many won't ever make it that far. So why put the body through all the pain, playing in front of small groups for a shot that might never come?

Well, why does anyone dream of becoming a professional athlete? They love it, for one, and there is a chance to make some serious money and set yourself up for life. For third-generation wrestlers, this is all they know.

"Growing up, it was always a dream of mine because I wanted to be like my dad," said Ted DiBiase Jr., 25, whose father was known as the "Million-dollar Man" and whose grandfather was "Iron" Mike DiBiase. "Now that I'm older it's become even more special to carry on the name DiBiase in the wrestling business. It's like I'm being initiated into a big family."

His younger brother is going to start training with him in Tampa, and his older brother has plans to come in for a tryout after he recovers from an injury.

DiBiase has been hampered because of a sprained knee. In the last two years, he has had sciatica, a fractured left knee, bruised sternum, separated ribs, broken finger, black eyes and bone spurs in his elbow.

But to him, it's all worth it.

Just like it's worth it to Natalie "Nattie" Neidhart, whose family line includes father Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart, grandfather Stu Hart and uncles Bret and Owen Hart.

Though Owen Hart tragically died during a WWE event in 1999, Neidhart proudly talks about her family's association with pro wrestling and WWE.

"This is a very special industry, and not everybody is cut out for this," Neidhart said. "This is just something I have always wanted to do, to be the first diva in our family would mean so much. It would fulfill my wildest dreams."

The same goes for identical twins Brianna and Nicole Garcia, known as the Bella Twins. The former models and reality show contestants on Meet My Folks signed with FCW last June and got their first taste of wrestling really early.

"I started hurting places I didn't realize I could hurt," Brianna said.

"The first week I laid on ice packs on my bed."

But if being in pain is part of the training, everyone at the wrestling school will take the broken bones and sprained ligaments. All for that chance at superstardom.

Tags: Jake Hager