From the cheap seats, being a professional wrestler probably looks like a pretty good job. Just about every night wrestlers get to step in the ring and do something they love to do, all while crowds of thousands are cheering or jeering for them. They get to travel the world and they get paid for it. What more could anyone ask for?
Well, that’s a rather simplified version of what life is like for a professional wrestler, and it takes a lot to get to the point where you’re performing in front of crowds of thousands. If you think professional wrestling is all about jumping inside the ropes, throwing a few fake punches and tossing your opponent from one side of the ring to the other, then you have another thing coming to you. Sit back, relax and read on as we explore a little bit of what life is like as a professional wrestler.
In the United States alone, there are upwards of 5,000 professional wrestlers. Of those, World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) employs roughly 150. Out of these 150, around 50 of them are stuck in developmental programs like Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW), which they will probably never leave because they are not big enough or charismatic enough or good-looking enough. Rarely is it a question of talent. Some of the most talented wrestlers in the world have been stuck in developmental territories because of the above reasons, and more than one have retired because of being placed there.
No matter where you go, though, you can count on some of your coworkers beating the living hell out of you for the first few months, just because they can.
As a professional wrestler at the WWE level, you are on the road for 250 to 300 days a year. You have, if you’re lucky, eight days at home every month. That doesn’t leave a lot of time to spend with your family. Chances are, you’ll miss seeing your kid take their first steps or speak their first word because the promoter – your boss – wants you to perform somewhere like Sheboygan, Wis. or Peoria, Ill. You’ll probably miss out on a family reunion or seeing your kids in the school play because that same promoter wants you to be in Plant City, Fla., promoting the house show that will roll through the town next month. Spending two-thirds of the year on the road isn’t exactly a barrel of laughs, and there are several talented wrestlers who have quit the business because they just couldn’t handle it. The WWE is, however, sometimes willing to work with their talent on making it easier for them – especially if that talent brings in money from ticket and merchandise sales. WWE superstar, Jeff Hardy, is a prime example. He has been very vocal about the fact that eight days at home is not enough, and the WWE responded by allowing him to have every other weekend free. Generous, aren’t they?
When you spend as much time on the road as professional wrestlers, you are bound to be exposed to the not-so-straitlaced side of life. From the sidelines it’s easy to say that you would be strong and never give in to the vices that so many other wrestlers have given into. Then, one morning, you wake up in a tremendous amount of pain from a bump (a fall) you took too hard the night before. Someone in the dressing room always has painkillers and you can’t afford to take the night off to let your back settle down, so you give in and take a pill. Only, the next morning, your back still hurts and you still can’t afford to take time off, so you take another pill. It becomes a vicious cycle and before you know it, you’re addicted to painkillers.
Alcohol is every bit as detrimental to the life of a professional wrestler as it is to a regular Joe – though there tends to be the thought among the wrestlers that they are untouchable. Most wrestlers drink, that’s a plain and simple fact. When you’re 3,000 miles from familiarity, the hotel bar starts to look more inviting than another night sitting in your hotel room wishing you were home instead. So, you drink and you drink and then you drink more, and you don’t even realize that you might have a problem with alcohol until you get home and decide it might not be a good idea to drink while you’re there. But, that’s when reality starts to bite because your spouse is having a hard time dealing with you being away as much as you are. Pretty soon you’re drinking at home, too, because everything on the road looks better through a booze haze, so maybe that will work at home. Only it doesn’t, and it doesn’t take long for your marriage to end because not only can’t your spouse deal with you being away so much, but they also can’t deal with your drinking anymore. Scott Hall, a former WWE and WCW standout, is the poster boy for this example. Ten years ago he was one of the best wrestlers in the world. He was at the top of his game and had the world at his feet. Since then, he has been fired from two promotions, been in court a number of times, lost, regained, then lost again the custody of his children and been divorced twice, all because of his alcohol abuse.
It might be worth all the risk, though, because think of all the money that professional wrestlers make.
I hate to burst anyone’s little bubble of delusion, but professional wrestlers are not rock stars. The majority of professional wrestlers will be stuck in the independent circuit for the entirety of their careers. Do you know what independent promotions pay? Somewhere around $40 a night is about the average. Forty dollars a night isn’t actually that bad for a couple hours of work, until you realize that the $40 has to cover your travel costs, your hotel bills, your food and your ring attire. Not to mention that you have to somehow maintain a normal life on top of that – paying your rent, your bills, clothing and feeding your children and yourself. The way most promotions work is to pay wrestlers on commission – meaning, wrestlers make a percentage of what the promotion makes at the event. Usually, it’s not much, and you can only hope that the promoter is honest with you when he hands you your share and tells you that business was slow. Oh, and if you get injured, there won’t be any money at all.
But you will get injured – there’s no way around that. Most professional wrestlers spend the majority of their careers waiting for injuries to heal. There is always the risk that you will take a bump the wrong way and permanently injure yourself, but that’s the risk you take when you step between the ropes. You’ll wake up every day stiff with muscle aches and tendon pulls, and you’ll wonder how it is your body has lasted as long as it has. Then you’ll take another pain pill and you’ll head off to the venue, hoping that tonight isn’t the night that your body decides to quit. WWE superstar Shawn Michaels was arguably the best wrestler in the world when he was forced to quit at age 36 because a routine bump left him with his spine fused into one solid lump. A steel bar was placed in his back and a steel plate was welded over the top of it to prevent re-injury, but even those precautions weren’t enough to get any promoter in the world to give him a chance. It was only recently that the WWE decided its revenues were suffering enough to take a chance on rehiring him.
What if, because of you, someone else’s career ends? When you step into the ring, you take your opponent’s life into your hands. For the most part, wrestlers treat each opponent’s body as they would want theirs to be treated – meaning they’re very careful with every move they make. Still, accidents happen, and irreparable injuries do occur. A few years ago, a wrestler named Droz was paralyzed from the neck down. He was on the receiving end of a move called a running powerbomb, performed by D’Lo Brown, who had performed the move a thousand times. This was one of a hundred times Droz had taken the move, but this time he didn’t get up. This time he left the ring on a stretcher, unable to walk, and likely unable to for the rest of his life.
Permanent paralysis doesn’t happen often in professional wrestling, but what if it happened to you? You might be good enou
gh to think that nothing you do would ever cause someone else permanent harm, but what about your opponent, the guy you’re trusting with your body and your life? Or you could be like D’Lo Brown, and, in the blink of an eye, have your confidence shattered and your career in ruins. Watching an opponent you considered a good friend taken out of the arena on a stretcher to begin life in a wheelchair, all because you miscalculated by a fraction of an inch a move you had done a thousand times. Could you handle that kind of guilt?
Still think professional wrestling is a piece-of-cake career? It’s not, and it would behoove you to have something to fall back on when it doesn’t work out. For those would-be wrestlers out there, let me paraphrase a little advice a wise former WWE superstar, Mick Foley, gives in his book, “Have a Nice Day:” stay in school. There is nothing more important than your education and a number of WWE superstars have their degrees. In fact, many have degrees that have absolutely nothing to do with wrestling. D’Lo Brown is a certified public accountant and Chris Jericho has his degree in journalism, just to name a couple. If, when you graduate, you still have your heart set on being a professional wrestler, get yourself into a good wrestling school. Unless you’ve been through a good school, the WWE probably won’t touch you. There are a few exceptions but that is the general rule.
Perhaps one percent of wrestlers actually make it to the level of a Stone Cold Steve Austin or the Rock. To be honest, it’s just not very likely to happen.
Emilie Duggan-Hicks is a Collegian Columnist.
