Qualifications

Qualifications

You like wrestling, you've spent hundreds of hours of the last year watching it, and now you want to do it? None of that really matters.

The wrestling world takes "It's who you know, not what you know" to a whole new level. Here's how you get to know the right people. First, be over eighteen and have graduated high school. No one will take you seriously otherwise (and you're going to need that high school diploma when your wrestling plans go sour).

Next, you need to find a wrestling school. Yeah, yeah. School. Yuck. Too bad. If you're serious, expect to devote four days a week, three hours a day, and well over a $100 per session. So get your money's worth and find one in your local area that's run by a former wrestler and that's produced students who have gone on to fight in the WWE or TNA (source). The "Ring of Honor" school occasionally gets name-dropped.

You've also got to find someone willing to promote you. For local independent promotions (you'll start locally at first), you can try scouring the Internet for listings.

 
"Home sweet home" for the next decade. (source)

And then, after you've sunk thousands of dollars and years of your life (if you can call living out of your car a "life") into your dream, all you can do is cross your fingers and hope you're scouted. Nice, huh?