A 'lil HooHaa

Messing with the blogging world since 2005

indy pro wrestling

Bumps and tosses: Training for pro-wrestling isn’t easy

Chuck Szili demonstrates a hip toss to an aspiring professional wrestler at a training seminar led by Szili and tag-team partner Sean Carr.

For those who watch pro wrestling beyond WWE, you know it can be a zany world.

From large crowds at smaller venues or smaller crowds at the same venue — sometimes being fewer than 100 in the crowd — the life of a wrestler on the independent circuit can be hard.

In recent weeks and months I’ve talked to several independent wrestlers and personalities with the hope of working on a series for the blog. The idea is to tell the stories of these wrestlers, the life on the road and the good and the bad.

The great thing about wrestlers? They all have a story to tell and, usually, it’s a different story. My hope is to take these stories and add on and have longer versions and turn those into an e-Book, but the series and/or book won’t be finished for at least a few months as I’m just starting to get into it.

It’s a crazy life these wrestlers live. This series of stories should even be compelling to non-wrestling fans because  there are things you’ll read that will make you wonder why any sane person would get involved with this profession.

Chuck Szili locks up with a wrestling student as tag-team partner Sean Carr (bottom left) and other trainees look on in this long-exposure shot.

I know what many people will say — “Come on, wrestling’s fake…”

When describing professional wrestling, one thing I despise is the word “fake.”

You want fake? Ask indy wrestler Charade if it’s fake. Check out this YouTube video. Be warned — this is kind of crazy and I firmly believe Charade should feel lucky he’s alive today. There’s no blood in this video, but what happens will make most people cringe. Note that the wrestler did live and apparently is better off than many might be in this situation.

So, the word “fake” is the wrong one to use.

Maybe planned? Choreographed? Worked? It’s entertainment. This isn’t the 50s or 70s or something like that anymore where the public didn’t — or acted like they didn’t — know what was going on.

These guys, after all, are still athletes and do some insanely crazy things.

When watching, you just hope they are trained correctly, can put on a good show and don’t get seriously maimed doing it.

This past Saturday, I had a really cool opportunity to join Binghamton-area wrestlers Sean Carr and Chuck Szili, who competes as Kage in the wrestling world, on a road trip to the Scranton area and see a training seminar. Carr, an acrobatic wrestler, is a relative newcomer to the sport, competing for about four or five years. Szili is the veteran, entering his 13th year. He’s traveled throughout the world to wrestle, even getting a proverbial cup of coffee with the WWE, wrestling on the Smackdown show a few years ago.

The two also form the tag team “CK,” and compete in 2CW (Squared Circle Wrestling), a top-level independent federation based out of Syracuse. Like many indy wrestlers, they also compete in other federations throughout the Northeast, but 2CW is their main spot.

Over the past few months, I’ve had to chat with these two at cards and such and have really been impressed with them. Not just as athletes, but how they look at this profession, realistically. They see it more than doing 15 high-risk moves and not doing anything beyond it. They think about telling a story, saving the big spots for when needed and being able to connect with the crowd.

Sean Carr slaps a headlock on a trainee at the Back Breaker Training Center.

That’s refreshing.

As a fan, I appreciate that. When I go to a wrestling event — whether it be the best of the best or the worst of the worst — I just want to believe for a few hours. I still enjoy heroes and villains, cheering and booing and going along with being part of the show. After all, the crowd is a major part of wrestling. But if a wrestler is poorly trained, it becomes less believable.

In the dozen or so 2CW cards I’ve seen, the believability is there. The villains are villains. The heroes are heroes. Does that line sometime get skewed? Sure. But for the most part, the good vs. bad is present.

Many federations don’t seem to be able to do this well — thus taking away believability. I once went to a card where one of the guys yelled to the crowd “we’re supposed to be the good guys.”

Here’s a bit of advice — if you are having to tell people if you are the villain or the hero? You haven’t done your job.

Beyond that, the action has to be believable. I want to watch a show, be entertained and know the people put everything into it. Federations like 2CW are like that. Others are the complete opposite. It might be about being “hardcore” or doing a ton of crazy things that could send one to the hospital.

It’s not worth it when you are getting $20 or $30 a night — if you are lucky.

Saturday’s trip took Szili and Carr to Back Breakers Training Center. Szili had trained there some 10 years ago and has a good relationship with the head of the school, Justyn Glory.

What followed was an impressive 3 1/2 hour session full of hip tosses, slams, running of the ropes, stories and advice.

I walked away with a new appreciation of what these guys do.

Here’s a bit of history. When I was in high school, one of my dreams was to be a professional wrestler. I’ll touch more on this when I run the full series of these stories, but I dreamed of one day being the (then) WWF champion. I actually researched wrestling schools and was pretty close to attempting it.

I’m not sure what stopped me (money, most likely), but watching this training session made me realize I likely never would have made it to mid-card status on an independent show, let alone the WWF champion.

Chuck Szili — Kage — discusses techniques during a training seminar.

Wrestling is a lot different than when I was in high school, too.

Back then, there was a fine line between giving away “secrets.” Wrestling was still “real.” These days, the majority of wrestling fans realize what it is — entertainment. These are highly athletic people who put on one hell of a show. Whether it’s a 50-minute endurance match or a 5-minute quickie, they entertain.

If what they did was fully real, there’d be many more injuries and, likely, deaths.

Still, when you step foot into these rings, you have to know what you are doing. From taking a bump to delivering basic moves, you are not only working to keep yourself safe, but to also keep your opponent safe. You are also telling a story to the fans in the crowd and giving them the chance to forget the real world for a few hours, taking them on a journey of believability.

Alas, this isn’t a backyard wrestling thing — just like anything else, you have to train to become a professional wrestler.

The harsh reality is probably 99 percent of all these guys who train to wrestle or wrestle on the independent scene won’t ever make it to the WWE, or even TNA. That’s not to say that there’s not a lot of places an indy wrestler could do well — such as Ring of Honor, Chikara or a place like 2CW.

Students work during a training seminar headed by Chuck Szili and Sean Carr.

It depends on what one is looking for.

One of the people at the training session even noted to Carr and Szili that he doesn’t have the goal of getting to the WWE. To that, Szili made sure to point out to give everyone one has at whatever level they are on.

The two made some great points to the students — from noting to have fun to making sure the youngsters stay out of politics and drama.

The best part was watching everything unfold. The students who attended were really focused. They listened and asked questions. They seemed to hang on the words of Carr and Kage. During the workout, they took additional bumps to better techniques. They listened. One guy even took his first hip tosses. Pretty cool to watch.

They told stories of the road — about how promoters can swindle you out of the small payday. Or how some promoters will treat you like gold, no matter who you are. There are the stories on the road — such as Carr missing the birth of his child because he got into an accident on the way home from a show.

The life isn’t glamorous — and it’s something Carr and Szili made sure to show these new wrestlers.

One thing I really saw was how good Szili was with these students. I have no doubt that one day in the future, when the days of in-ring work are over, Szili could have a calling as a trainer. His experience as well as his demeanor in the ring worked really well in this environment.

Partners Kage (orange) and Sean Carr demonstrate the art of pro wrestling to aspiring students at the Back Breakers Training Center in Scranton.

For those who only watch wrestling on television, it’s usually a polished product. The independent scene is anything but. Though you’ll have the chance to see some amazing people, there’s a reason not everybody makes it to the “big leagues.”

That’s what makes it so wonderful, though. It’s not perfect.

And not many people get the opportunity I got with Szili and Carr — having the chance to watch a training session up-close and personal.

The business has changed over the years, that’s for sure. There will always be good and bad people in the business. There will always be good and bad workers, promoters and anything else.

In the end, the business continues. At the lowest levels and at the highest levels. The dreams will always be there, too. To be the next big thing or whatever else. But with wresting — as it is with nearly everything else in life — one needs to be grounded and realistic to truly succeed.

With the way Carr and Szili carried themselves this weekend, it shows why they have been successful in their careers. Hopefully, that will rub off on these newer wrestlers, allowing them to also find success in their careers.

You can see all the photos from this day at this Flickr set.

Submitting as part of Dude Write’s weekly challenge. 

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

For better or worse, old-school pro wrestling is still around

ECPW at an old roller rink in Sidney — felt like the 50s!

If you are a fan of independent professional wrestling — no matter the skill level — this area of Central New York is pretty spoiled.

There’s the best — 2CW (Squared Circle Wrestling, based in Syracuse), a group voted by readers of PWInsider.com as the top independent wrestling federation in the country. Several of us watch this as often as we can because it’s always an incredible form of entertainment. And never seems to disappoint.

Then you have some promotions that are not quite to that level — 3DW (which, apparently, has undergone some restructuring and is coming back in March with a card that looks quite solid). There’s also ECPW, a New Jersey-based federation that holds cards in New York and appears to use more localish workers for the bulk of the card.

When you deal with lower federations — such as the ECPW — you really get an interesting look at the world of professional wrestling.

I’ve seen ECPW twice — this is from the first and was one of the best matches of the night.

I’m a fan of pro wrestling, overall. I like really good shows and I like the bad ones. It’s two different worlds, but inside the zany world of the wrestling ring, there are so many story lines, either between wrestlers or federations or promoters or whatever else.

I’ve had the chance recently to watch ECPW twice. The cards were very different from one another, but enough the make you realize that this level of pro wrestling is quite different.

And interesting.

Being out of full “reporter” mode at this point, I forgot a pen both times and a forgot a notebook a second time. Thankfully, I had the phone and took notes that way — so I could accurately describe some of the things I witnessed.

Again — the two shows were night and day — so keep that in mind.

The first show was at a Legion hall in Binghamton. It’s a place where all these federations seem to use. But this was different. The back door was left open so people could go in and out to smoke. That got annoying after a while because nobody seemed to care. People came in later in the night who hadn’t been in there all night.

The ring is old school. It’s definitely a wood-based ring and really has a great sound. The turnbuckles that looked like they were towels (with electric tape) gave the feel of some old-school wrestling. The sag in the middle also gives that low-level independent feel. The odd part was the four gallon-sized water jugs hanging in each corner. But that was probably for the advertised flaming tables (which, apparently, is a bit illegal in New York. More on that later).

I love this stuff. I really do. It’s old school. It’s entertainment. But, there’s something I need when I pay to watch professional wrestling. I need a level of belief. Not that it’s not “scripted” or however you want to refer to it, but I need to be able to believe the stories being told. I need to believe in the performers.

The eliminated would later become a referee!

This wasn’t the most successful card at doing that.

Referees were out of place, had no idea what was going on and were all dressed different (outside of the striped shirts). One had wind pants on. Another had black jeans. They had regular sneakers, and not even black. The one ref, 10 minutes into the first match, was sweating more than the wrestlers and was having problems getting to the mat to count a pin. By the time he got to the mat to make the count, it had already been a five count. Even the crowd was making their distaste known.

And it seemed like they didn’t know what they were supposed to do.

That makes the pace of the match work slower. Close kickouts don’t have the same “feel” as they should.

Take this video I shot for an example — does this ref seem to know what’s going on? (Let me set this up, the heel [bad guy — smaller guy] set up the chair in the opposite corner and then walks into the picture.) This is what unfolds.

See what I am saying?

And the part that tweaked me was in the middle of matches, referees (and some wrestlers) were out talking to their friends and such. It’s hard to believe in the product when they aren’t “selling” it to the fans.

I realize wrestling, too, isn’t necessarily cheap to do. The reality is some of these guys might not even get paid to perform (though I don’t know with this fed… it happens that way in some places). Talking to people who have promoted, some of these smaller federations actually have a certain thing where performers have to sell a certain amount of tickets or “pay to wrestle” sort of thing. I don’t know if that’s true here, but I imagine it’s possible.

Former ECW champion Justin Credible made a surprise appearance at the second show.

Some of these guys just used normal sneakers to wrestle in. Ripped sweats. Maybe that’s the “persona” they play, but it doesn’t always show.

Then it’s just silly things.

A no disqualification match that ends in a countout. The video guy standing in front of the crowd and acting as clueless as can be (and he was using one of those plug and play recorders) when he never moves and people in the front rows try to ask him to move around and not always block the same people. The ring announcer never stood still and announced someone from somewhere in New Jersey (I can’t remember if it was Charlotte or something like that, where it was evident it was supposed to be North Carolina) and mis-pronounced things. The best of that, though? At the end of intermission when he announced for all wrestlers to report to the locker room.

It felt more like a high school wrestling tournament.

Then you had a lumberjack match with six lumberjacks and only two of them were wrestlers.

The thing that easily irked me more than anything? The swearing. Kids were there. There’s no need for an in-ring promo to have F-bombs flying all over. One wrestler was spitting beer in the crowd — again filled with kids. And in the end, all of this helped create a couple skirmishes with the crowd, which is never a good thing.

Seriously, if you can’t get over in a promo without swearing, you’re not going to get over anyway. Now, if it’s an adult-only crowd and there’s swearing, so be it. But this ECPW, on its website, note it’s a family friendly form of entertainment. A low-level bit of swearing (ass, damn etc.) I can deal. But if it’s F-bomb after F-bomb, it’s a total turnoff.

And one thing I got a kick of is when a wrestler called out the state athletic commission guy who stopped them from setting a table — in the ring — on fire. Now, that could have made for cool photos. Especially because I was near a fire exit. But I can’t see calling out the state commission when the guy was doing his job and you were preparing to do something you weren’t supposed to do. Especially IN THE RING. (I would have seen the issue if it was in a safe spot with some fire extinguishers and people nearby — then hey, it’s part of the show. But in the ring with only the wrestlers and some gallon bottles of water? No way!)

Now, it wasn’t all bad.

It’s just that the bad things are easier to point out and stand out in my mind more.

Some of the matches were pretty solid. There were some good workers. I wasn’t upset that I paid the money — remember, I am a fan of any level of this because it is always entertaining — but I would have liked to have seen a little more work on making the product crisp and not look like a backyard wrestling federation. Make me believe, even if just for a few hours (or charge me less money). Tell a story without profanity-laced promos and things like that. The best about the top independent promotions is they can tell a story in the ring by doing their thing, not acting as if people understand everything going on. Remember that this isn’t on TV every week and people “outside” the circle have no clue what has been going on elsewhere.

The same group was then coming to Sidney. A short drive for me. And at a roller rink. So a small place, dark — 50s style wrestling. My kind of show.

To quote Harry from Dumb and Dumber…

“Just when I thought you couldn’t possibly be any dumber, you go and do something like this… and totally redeem yourself!”

The second card was much better… and worked out well.

Not that this show was perfect. It wasn’t close to 2CW quality. But oh what an improvement. (It probably helped that the big cheese of the federation was here and on the card).

The matches were stronger.

The swearing was much less. In fact the one person I expected to have many, only had a few F-bombs (which I still think weren’t needed) and the whole card was pretty solid.

Don’t get me wrong, there were still some things that made us laugh. Such as…

  • The announcer proclaiming a fatal four-way match… and then only giving three people.
  • An advertised 20-man battle royal becomes a nine-man battle royal.
  • Silent chest chops.
  • A little over-selling on some missed moves.
  • Someone who participated in the battle royal who then reffed a match.
  • A punch to the shoulder was the finisher in a match between two big guys.

Overall, however, it was a better show. And an unannounced appearance by a “bigger name” in the world of pro wrestling (Justin Credible) was nice, too. He was booked late for the show, hence no advertising. But still cool to see him.

And, as I said, overall the show was much better.

So yes, I’d go see this crew again. I’m not sure how far I’d travel to do so, but I would see them again for sure. It’s a throwback to the old dusty halls and such from an era no longer seen in professional wrestling.

In the end, I can’t complain.

The prices were decent. The crowds were fun to watch (this really is the best with independent pro wrestling… fans can get wicked crazy), and, despite some of the things I pointed out earlier, it was some good entertainment. What I liked the most about it was that when you go to a pro wrestling show, you never know what you’ll get. You have an idea, but you never know.

Hit up something like 2CW and know you’ll see amazing action, a crisp show, a few “big names” and some stars who could easily be on your television with the big guns in a few years.

See something lower than that — such as an ECPW — and never know what you’ll see. Some good, some bad, some wacky and some crazy. All mixed into one show.

In the end, it all depends on what you are seeking.

For me? I like zany. And I like good. I’ll choose 2CW over anything for the most part.

But if nothing else is going on and I’m looking for some entertainment? I’d gladly return to watch federations such as this. As I said, we’re a bit spoiled around here when it comes to wrestling. That’s not a bad thing, though. And it makes for some excellent photos!

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook by clicking the button on the right side of the page!