I see a parallel in the business of wrestling and the business of acting (I'm not comparing pro-wrestling as "fake" to acting as "fake" I'm talking real business aspects here). There is a stage, an audience, and a performance. I actually know a bit about the business of professional wrestling as I trained in it for about a year. It was my original career choice but I learned a lot in that year even whilst never having a single match. In some ways, I carry my wrestling knowledge with me in the audition room, stage, and sets.
Long story short, my wife saw my practice session and saw how the sessions were often stopped because I was selling my hurt so well. On the way home, she asked "Have you ever thought about acting?" and it snowballed from there.
The business of professional wrestling can be a very difficult one; challenging, depressing, glorious, fruitful, income-less, happy, creative, exciting, and then you hate it and then love it all at once just like acting.
Wrestlers often start at a young age, some drop out of school to follow this path. A wrestler's journey starts in a wrestling school or gym. They practice, memorize, work muscles and body parts they never knew existed. Before they work their actual practice of moves, they start by doing warm up drills. This is they place where they discover their limitations and their strengths. Learn how to fall and then get back up. Sound like acting class? Yeah, it does. Acting class is our gym. This is where we learn our move set, learn what we are capable of, we make mistakes and learn from them. Before we delve into our scenes with our partners we start with theater games for warm-up.
From here a wrestler will start having matches. Usually their first matches are in front of a crowd of 10-15 fans in a hall or a high school gym and usually payed $0. They are working for the guy who has the aspiration of having his promotion become the next WWE. They get hurt, the ring is not in the best shape, they are nervous, they forget what they learned and miss a step. Things go wrong. They do this in the hope that they made something watchable for those few fans in attendance. and continue to do so to, now, here is the the correlation, build a resume and a name for themselves. Actors do this with student films or web-series, etc. I'm not discounting the quality of some of these things as I have been apart of some really good student films and some really horrible ones but its where you learn outside of school. It's the start of your "real world" experience. You build your resume as best you can so you have something to show an agent or casting director.
There are those that think they will be the star of the next big budget flick straight out of acting school or the next WWE Champion right out of wrestling school. NOT LIKELY! Over night success is not a tangible goal however there are some that are lucky. I remember I was half way through my year of wrestling school. I was actually one of the better wrestlers but by no means had the physic needed. I was technically short for the wrestler type. I didn't have the wrestler "look." A new guy walks in looking like he could be young Arnold Schwarzenegger's double. He could barely keep up in class, didn't know many moves. Nice guy and all, but just wasn't getting it. Two weeks in, he was put in a professional match because he had "the look". It was probably a 2 minute match of him running back and forth really He had "the look" but very little experience. Me, I hadn't even been considered for a high school gym match yet. We as actors often here about the "look" or "it-factor." That's why, unfortunately, you see bad actors on T.V. before you, the experienced and well learned one, is. It's the nature of the two business but that doesn't mean for a second you should stop and drop your schooling and learning to concentrate on your "look". That is the probably the second or third thing you should worry about if you want to be taken as a serious and talented actor. Yes, a look does help and eventually you will need to figure out your look but the profession is looking for talent and ultimately talent and training will oversee "look".
The man pictured above is named Daniel Bryan. At Wrestlemania 30, he became the WWE Champion facing the odds stack against him. The storyline was that he was being held down by the authority of the company, no matter how talented or loved by the fans he was. The company didn't see him as championship material. That was the storyline, but mirrored the real life going-ons of that business. A lot of talented wrestlers are held down for someone who the company thinks should be champion, no matter the amount of talent. They see who can make them the most money. Daniel Bryan, in real life, persevered by his individuality, character, talent, and showing in every match that he was better than anyone they put him up against despite his lack of a wrestler's "look". It took him years of people telling him "no"but he continued to say "YES!" In fact, that has now become his in ring chant and has caught on world wide with fans. He said "YES!" to himself and to what he knew he could do in his career. After being told "no", there he stood as the WWE Champion and number one guy in that business and it wasn't overnight. It took him about 15 years of a long hard road of ups and downs, just like in acting.
Say "YES!" to yourself. Say "YES!" to your career. "YES!" In both businesses, it is proven that talent, individuality, persistence, and perseverance, ultimately, wins!
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