Third Draft

WWE But It’s Real and Nothing Like The WWE

As much as I detested it at times, there was one sport that I participated in that was an integral part of my life for a few years during middle and high school. As I was growing up, my parents always made sure that I was involved in one sport or another. Their reasoning behind this was fairly sound, as they wanted to ensure that I was involved in something that would help me stay in shape and also allow me to bond and develop friendships with other kids my age. Because of this, while I was growing up I played just about every sport you can think of,  including but not limited to, Baseball, basketball, football, swimming, and many more. However, one of the many sports that I played while growing up stands out amongst the multitudes. What makes this sport stand out for me is all of the trials and tribulations I went through, both physical and emotional, as well as the friendships and connections that I developed while I was participating in the sport. The sport that I look back on taking part in both fondly and not so fondly is wrestling.

For those who haven't taken part in competitive wrestling, it is considered by many to be the most physically demanding sport that one can take part in. The reason behind why it is considered to be so physically taxing is quite simple really, since it involves two men (or women) competing against each other in a contest of pure will, strength, and skill. Not only is the sport of wrestling physically demanding, it is also extremely mentally taxing as well. When you’re in the ring with another opponent, you both measure each other up, considering all the different techniques that have been drilled into you through countless hours of practice that you could potentially use against your opponent. So long story short, wrestling is really freaking hard both physically and mentally.

As I mentioned earlier, I participated in the sport of wrestling from seventh grade up through my freshman year of highschool. During this time I made some great friends that I still touch base with today, and procured many memories and stories. Outside of competitions, all of my time while I was wrestling was spent in our practice room located in the main building of our high school. This was a fairly innocuous room, since there's a good chance you wouldn't realize it was a wrestling room unless you knew beforehand or if you happened to be walking by it while we were practicing. Once you were in the room you would realize two things; firstly, it was a startingly small place to be cramming some fifty guys of varying ages for two hours to wrestle. The room itself couldn't have been larger than thirty by ten foot space, with the floor being comprised of three wrestling mats put side by side. Second, it was a remarkably bland space. The mats that made up the floor where a dull blue, with the white lines that outlined the center being worn almost to the point of non existence. The walls were made of large grey cinder blocks, with some blue pads covering the back wall with our high schools symbol on it. As plain as this room may have been, it had a certain quality to it that made you feel almost like you were at your home away from home, surrounded by your close friends and the ever-present tang of sweat and body odor.

Some of the fondest memories that I created in that small, dull room occured in the hour or so of free time we had between when school got out and when practice started. When I was in wrestling in high school, my final class of the day was located right next to the wrestling room, so I would always be one of the first guys in there. The first portion of our free time would be spent changing into our workout clothes and slipping on our wrestling shoes. We would also spend some time chatting amongst ourselves, cracking jokes and talking about which girls we thought were hot and so on, once more guys began to file in is when the real fun began. Even though we knew that in just a few short minutes we would be locked into a grueling two hour practice which would wear us down to the bone, that didn't stop us from rough housing and having practice matches: a sort of warm up before the actual warm up. I remember one time before a practice, as I was standing there talking to one of my friends two of the lighter weights on the team, Ben and Jacob, tackled me out of nowhere and engaged a two on one match. Now in a one-on one situation, I was more than a match for either of these guys, unfortunately for me two was just too much to handle and I ended up getting out-maneuvered and pinned. Another fond memory I have from these pre-practice shenanigans does not directly involve me, but rather two other wrestlers: Jackson and Brennan. Now Jackson was in the 220+ weight class and Brennan was a mere 140, but he was considerably more skilled and therefore decided to wrestle Jackson as a challenge because of the size difference. So after a short bit Brennan had Jackson on the ground in a choke hold, and as we all watched while jackson's face turned steadily darker shades of purple, waiting for him to tap out, we were completely caught off guard when instead he decides to bite Brennan's arm. While us spectators thought this to be hilarious and we couldn't stop laughing, Brennan was understandably pissed and had to be talked down from beating Jackson to a pulp. These kinds of hijinks that occured before practice will always be dear to me, and I still get a laugh whenever I think of Jackson’s face as he chomps down on Brennan’s arm, and Brennan almost murdering Jackson afterwords.

I remember how whenever we would start a practice I would always look forward to my favorite part, which was taking a shower after hours of a grueling workout. Just the feeling of relief when being done with practice was always so rewarding, and getting to wind down underneath the steaming hot showers of the small showers located in the locker rooms behind the wrestling room was always euphoric. This feeling of relief was amplified whenever Friday rolled around, as you knew that the next two days you could rest and relax before the cycle began anew. (Unless we had a wrestling tournament that weekend, then you would have that to look forward to instead of some free time.) There is however, one instance in those showers after practice that I remember most fondly. It was after a particularly grueling practice , and as we peeled off the clothes now stuck to our sweaty bodies, for some reason that I can't remember we started discussing our favorite old PlayStation 2 games. This conversation immediately became a heated debate over which was better, War of the Monsters or Hulk: Ultimate Destruction, and the conversation continued even when we had gone into our separate shower stalls. As we reminisced about the good old days back in elementary school when all we had to stress about was learning our multiplication tables and who was going to be on whose team for kickball, we also began to inexplicably discuss our favorite songs to sing along to. This discussion quickly devolved into us singing, What’s Up By 4 non blondes. However, we knew the song from the the Youtube video HEYEAYEAYEA where the song is “sung” by He-Man. As we screamed the lyrics underneath the almost too- hot showers, I was able to understand what true companionship felt like, as we had all worked so hard during practices, but really came together in moments such as these were we had some time to relax and be guys.

While I may not have Wrestled for the entirety of my High School Career, I'll never forget those moments I shared in that small, hot, and sweaty room. During my time as a wrestler I made friends that I still touch base with to this day, and have memories that I'll always be able to look back on fondly, knowing that while it may not have appeared like much, for a time that little room tucked away in the back of the school was a second home to me.