Professional Wrestling is Serious
A young boy’s excitement travels through his face as he sees a wrestling ring for the first time in person. He cannot believe his dad bought him tickets to the event. He has his favorite WWE T-shirt on, even though it is not a World Wrestling Entertainment event. When the opening music hits to start the show, he jumps with joy spilling the extra popcorn that was on his shirt to the ground. He gets jittery with joy as one wrestler comes out to the ring. He is ready for a show of a lifetime.
Anytime a person gets hurts in the sport of professional wrestling, it leaves a mark on everyone else. Shawn Nautilus Gator prepares for every match the same way with a prayer and wrapping a bandana around his head. Gator’s music hits and he slowly walks around the curtain to head to the ring.
Before he walks out, his manager pats him on the chest. The hairs on Gator’s neck stand up from the crowd’s reaction and he begins to sweat. The sweat begins to leave imprints on his bandanna. Gator the squeezes the water bottle he is carrying and water splashes everywhere as he heads to the ring.
Gator is 6-foot-7 inches tall and weighs 300 pounds. When he is slammed to the ground, injuries are prone to happen. Gator has suffered many concussions in his short seven-year career in professional wrestling.
Professional wrestling, classified as fake fighting by the news, gets a tremendous amount of viewership. People of all ages, sizes and backgrounds tune in on Monday and Tuesday nights to the USA network to watch professional wrestling. There is more independent wrestling companies or leagues around the world that more people watch besides WWE. Other big companies in the United States are Ring of Honor and Impact Wrestling. There are also big international wrestling companies as New Japan Pro Wrestling, Lucha Underground, Insane Championship Wrestling and Northern Championship Wrestling.
A lot goes into a professional wrestling match most fans don’t know. All the training such as practicing, weightlifting, and performance on a microphone in front of an audience behind the scenes. These activities settle some nerves the wrestlers have. Still, some cannot even stand in front of a packed crowd and talk.
During training and practice, freak accidents do occur. Some wrestlers may not be on their “A game” for the night and spots are botched. This can cause injuries to the wrestlers.
The most notable injury for professional wrestlers is concussions and the toll that it takes to a wrestler both mentally and physically. Chris Benoit, a wrestler who once wrestled for WWE, killed his family and then himself. Benoit’s brain showed severe amounts of damage from concussions. This can be linked back to his patented head butt off the top rope or just his head butts in general. Benoit tried hiding his pain through the use of steroids and painkillers that he took throughout his career.
Most professional wrestlers do not tell doctors when they have concussions symptoms because most of them do not have the money or insurance to pay for a doctor.
The most notable wrestler, still around today whose career ended shortly, is Bryan Danielson. Danielson is not medically cleared to perform due to the severity of his concussions that now cause seizures. In Danielson’s first five months of professional wrestling, he suffered three concussions. Danielson remembers having 10 concussions total, but there is no way to document nearly every concussion a performer has had.
All wrestlers in every promotion have training, no matter how popular and well-liked they are. All still strive to be better and perform their moves with precision accuracy. Jason Paul, or better known as JTG in the WWE, trained for four years before joining the WWE.
“I like to go over certain moves with my opponent’s before a match. Only to make sure they know how to bump and land from my moves,” JTG said.
Jaysin Strife, a wrestler who has been around the independent scene, is most noted as being a part of NWA. Strife started training for three months at a local school in Council Bluffs Iowa. From there he continued to travel and train with many of the biggest names in the wrestling business. Still today, Strife continues to learn and train every day even though he has already been a professional wrestler for 14 years.
“Just be smart and safe. Make sure you are in there with guys or gals who know what they are doing,” Strife said, “Never step into a ring unless you are properly trained and your opponent is as well.”
The safest part about wrestling is the trust of your opponent and making sure both of the competitors know each other’s moves in and out of the ring so everything goes smoothly. This will cause fewer injuries and fewer concussions.
Trent Berretta has been all over the world. He has wrestled in the WWE and from there went to New Japan Pro Wrestling. Berretta is currently in Ring of Honor and still takes wrestling serious even though he portrays a heel character.
“We are all trained how to do most basic moves, but some dangerous moves no matter what I’m always trying to protect my opponent because that is just the professional way to do things,” Berretta said.
Berretta has done it all in wrestling. He is most notable for his high-flying ability. His acrobatic moves like jumping out of the ring onto the floor is an injury waiting to happen, but with his training, he is well protected.
From the ground of the arena to the ring is four and a half feet high and from the ring to the top rope is five feet high. Some wrestlers jump from the top rope on to the ground and that is a total of nine and a half feet. Doing moves like that is an injury waiting to happen. If anyone’s head hits the ground from that height, major injury or even death may occur.
Every wrestling promotion has a concussion protocol system. This system is to ensure the safety of the wrestlers so a lawsuit against the company does not happen.
The WWE issues the ImPACT Concussion Management Program for all wrestlers in their entire company. An ImPACT test is a computerized neurocognitive assessment tool that measures the effects of a concussion through cognitive testing. Once wrestlers have signed a contract for a baseline reading, they continue to take the test annually.
“If a WWE Talent shows symptoms of a concussion or has suffered a concussion, then that WWE Talent will not be cleared to return to wrestling until he/she passes an ImPACT test and is clinically cleared by a certified physician,” Dr. Mark Lovell said.
About every wrestler has suffered some degree of a concussion inside the ring.
“There are many different degrees of concussions. I think a lot of people don’t realize that getting hit and seeing a little white flash, then feeling completely fine after is a sign of a concussion,” Berretta said.
“On the independent scene, there is not much in the way of a company paying for any kind of impact test or anything of that nature, but when and if a concussion happens, the only real treatment is to take the time off the road, let it heal, and then after your doctor give you an all clear, that is when you work your back in,” professional wrestler Duke Cornell said.
Cornell point to Gator would make it hard for Gator to make it back if he was diagnosed with a concussion.
“Never went to the doctor to get my concussion looked at, didn’t want to miss any ring time and didn’t have the money to pay for a doctor or have health insurance,” Gator said.
Some wrestlers have been lucky to where they have never suffered a concussion or any type of injury while wrestling. Some of those wrestlers who have never suffered from a concussion include JTG, Blaine Meeks from NWL, and Kody Rice.
“I have never been officially diagnosed with a concussion,” Rice said.
Meeks is another wrestler who uses his high-flying capabilities during matches. Any move that Meeks does in the ring he keeps practicing it until he perfects the move. So many wrestlers adopt this training method today.
“I have been fortunate in the fact that I have never had a concussion,” Meeks said.
Gator is not the only wrestler without health insurance. With all the wrestlers in the world, about half do not have health insurance. Wrestlers need the money from their promotions to put food on the table not to pay for doctors. Fortunately, some wrestlers make it to big companies who offer health insurance.
“Sometimes accidents happen, sometimes everything can go completely right and can get one all we can do is make sure we do everything in our power to make sure we stay safe,” Cornell said.
Gator stands over his opponent after the match with his hand raised high. He has used his finisher the fireman’s carry DDT to win or called the “F-5” in the WWE. Gator then walks up the ramp he came down on looking into the crowd. He sees the little boy waving at Gator with the thumbs up hand gesture.
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