Chase Stevens on Being a Pro Wrestler

From Larry Goodman: The following is a Facebook post by Chase Stevens... Quite a bit has been going on in wrestling lately. A lot o...

From Larry Goodman:

The following is a Facebook post by Chase Stevens...

Quite a bit has been going on in wrestling lately. A lot of talk behind the scenes about tough guys in wrestling. Here is my take on the situations. This is WRESTLING!! It's not entertainment to a wrestler. It's entertainment to the fans. When I was trained I got my ass handed to me many many times. It sucked, but it was my learning experience. Because of those ass beatings I respect the business side of wrestling today. Over the past 15-20 years I have watched many so called "wrestlers" walk in the dressing rooms that 100% did not belong. They had, not one bit of athletic ability in them yet they walk around calling themselves a professional wrestler.

Let's explain how business works. When you get trained you have to get a job. Doesn't matter what job or where. Fact is for you to get that job, someone else has to lose a job. There are more than 1,000 wrestling shows a weekend in the United States, more than 10,000 so called "professional wrestlers". Only a hand full actually belong in the sport and the rest are either learning or taking up space but at some point there has to come a weeding out. The fans pay to see larger then life men and women working hard in an art form in the ring. They don't pay to see the kids down the street. They want grown men fighting it out. I wasn't always a big guy. It took 22 years of hard work to get to a heavyweight. The ones before us had their asses handed to them as did the ones before them. That's why the business was so kayfabed and respected years ago. Because they worked their asses off to be in the ring. It wasn't handed to them.

Now let's say you do get roughed up in the ring and do not/can not defend yourself... Then why in the hell are you in a wrestling ring?? Join the Chess Team!!! These people paid their hard money to watch a two grown men fight. If you just got whipped like a small child, then why in the world would they want to come back and pay to watch you again?? The ring is not about the wrestlers. It's about the fans and entertaining them. Not the other way around.

This is why the top trainers in the sport have said numerous times. Get trained by a proper trainer. Someone with a resume to be a trainer. If you're in the sport and you realize you weren't trained correctly then seek out better training or ask someone of a veteran status what, or where to go.

This isn't ping pong. This is PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING!!! Two well trained tough guys locking horns in the squared circle to entertain an audience.

Bottom line, learn the craft, get trained correctly, and protect yourself at all times. If that isn't who you are inside as a person then start buying a ticket and watch the show and be entertained. There's nothing wrong with just being a fan and loving the sport from a seated position.