84 - DON'T DO BACK YARD WRESTLING ! TV Wrestlers are super athletes.
They have been super well trained.
They have practiced every move hundreds of times.
Even a true "Super Man" such as, Robby Rage who can bench 550 lbs.
got badly hurt just by falling wrong. Not only did it keep him out of wrestling for over a year.
But it deprived him, and his partner Kaos, from becoming World Tag
Team Champions, which they were well on their way to becoming.
The injury also deprived them of movie contracts, merchandising contracts, modeling contracts and sponsorships which might have made them millions.
Robby got back into wrestling and he was still a super talent.
But the injury cost him at least two years, and a ton of money.
As a back yard wrestler, you have no training, or the wrong training, the wrong equipment, and you are subject to serious injury or worse. Just don't do it.
85 - NEVER BE LATE for an appointment.
Lots of young people are late.
They seem to think it’s OK.
Well it’s NOT OK!
Being late shows DISRESPECT.
Being late shows you DON’T give a crap about the person you kept waiting.
The most valuable thing we have in LIFE isTIME. When you make people wait for you, you are saying to them, "I can waste your time because you are a piece of crap and your time isn’t important and your life isn’t important. And my time is a lot more important than your time.
But, If you make me wait for you, it pisses me off.
If you are late for an appointment with WWE or TNA or any big job you will
probably never get another invitation.
Yeah, but you had an excuse, Traffic was bad.
That’s no excuse. Traffic is always bad. You should leave early enough to get there early even if traffic is terrible.
The alarm was broken, my clothes were still in the drier, I had to eat, I ran out of gas, my friend phoned, the cat ate my home work, the weather was bad, I stayed out late, etc. are not acceptable excuses.
You should have everything ready the night before, you should check traffic on the internet and TV and you should leave very early to avoid slow downs.
86 - DO IT TODAY:
When I first worked at Procter & Gamble, my boss Bob Kelly asked me to do a project.
It was pretty complicated so I said I'd get it to him TOMORROW.
He said, "IF I WANTED IT TOMORROW, I WOULD HAVE ASKED YOU
TOMORROW".
As I was leaving his office, he said, " AND IF I DON’T GET IT TODAY DON’T
BOTHER TO COME TO WORK TOMORROW".
Sounds tough ? It is tough. But ... companies & other people have their own schedules and they do not operate at YOUR convenience. Especially if you are a Newbee.
Life will move on with you or without you.
As a kid you made your Mother wait, and even if she was angry she didn't toss you out.
But mark my words, your work-boss will toss you right out on your butt.
At WWA4, we have a target. Our target is to get wrestlers into the big leagues.
We might succeed or we might fail.
But we are darn sure not going to fail because YOU were late.
To tell you the truth, neither we nor life care whether you succeed or somebody else succeeds.
Life is like a train. It leaves at 10 AM.
If you get there at 10:01.. Tough luck!
My friend worked for the New York Times. He was in charge of keeping all the Mac computers working right. The Macs are used for all the pictures in the newspaper.
If one picture was late, it would hold up the presses to wait for the
picture. They told me that for every one minute late it cost the Times $9,000 in additional Labor Cost. So, one hour late would cost $540,000.
QUESTION: Can you ever be late for work at the Times ? yes ( ) no ( )
QUESTION: Should you ever be late ? yes ( ) no ( )
87 - NEVER CHEAT, LIE, OR STEAL: Some guys who worked for me turned out to be dishonest, cheating, stealing, lying crooks.
It is usually more obvious to a mamager's subordinates than to his boss. so you may be totally screwed before you find out the truth.
Some of the most talented liars are sociopaths
INSTRUCTION: Define Sociopath, and use it in some sentences.
They are universally hated and disrespected by those who have come to know them
DEFINE CON MAN and use it in some sentences:
This con man thinks he is very clever. He is not. He is a piece of CRAP.
Is CRAP the same as EXCREMENT ? YES ( ) NO ( ) 88 - HOW MANY PAGES have you read so far in the book, WORD POWER
MADE EASY? ___________.
INSTRUCTION: list ten new words that you learned and their meanings:
89 - WRESTLING IS REAL: Don't be put down by snobs who say wrestling is not real and who act like they're superior because they watch Football.
Wrestling is more real than 99% of the shows you see on TV, and at least as real as football.
Yes, they will say, but, some wrestling moves are planned.
So what; every single NFL football play is planned. NFL players wear helmets and pads. Wrestlers don't have any protection.
Some say wrestlers pull a lot of their punches.
So what? 95% of the punches thrown by boxers are not knockout punches. They are feints and moves and dancing around to tire or divert or unbalance or open up the opponent while waiting for the right opportunities to land a heavy punch.
Even HARDBODY ( Fox Broadcasting’s World Champion Tough Man) missed a lot of punches. Just don’t be there when he lands one.
90 - HOCKEY has a lot of "real" fighting. But there are also a lot of rules like no high sticking which are intended to protect the players from serious injury.
91 - EVERY SPORT HAS RULES The rules are designed to prevent serious harm. You can't high stick in Hockey. You can't late hit in football. You can't hit below the belt in Boxing.
Wrestling is the same. The rules are designed to prevent serious harm. Wrestlers are not supposed to cripple or kill each other.
92 - GO TO SCHOOL: There are only a few ways to get into to pro wrestling. If your Dad is Vince McMahon or another insider. That method works!
If you are an Olympic Champ like Kurt Angle. That works!
If you are the strongest man in the World. That works!
If you are a super star in another sport. That works!
But the usual way is to join a Wrestling School .. the way it is done by 99.99%
93 - YOUR MOTHER IS RIGHT: OK, you love wrestling. You want to be the
next Rock or Stone Cold, or Hulk, or Batista, or Nash or Molly Holly.
But Mom and Dad tell you that you should study hard in high school and go to College or a trade school if you can.
Your Mother is right. The fact is, if you can go to college, you ought to give it your best shot.
We would love to receive your tuition for training you to wrestle, but not if it prevents you from attending college. If you still want to wrestle you can do it in the evening after school or after you graduate.
So, go to college, and after you get there, if you still want to learn to wrestle, email us and we will send you a "Home Schooling Course" to study while you wait to enroll in Wrestling School.
Or you can go to College in Atlanta, and train to be a wrestler with WWA4.
The straight fact is, that in all but the rarest exceptions, if you can go to College, it will advance your success far more than a career without college.
Of course, if you love wrestling, a good solution might be to wrestle and go to college too.
Here’s a good plan.
a) Finish this book.
b) Do the home schooling course.
c) Get our other books
d) Do all your schoolwork too, and do it well.
e) This will help you immensely. Whether you wrestle, or go to College or both.
f ) You can make your final choice later.
94 - COLLEGE IN GEORGIA Of course you could go to college in Atlanta Georgia and wrestle with us too.
To find out about colleges in Georgia go to the web site www.wwa4.com and go to the "Colleges" tab.
They are the most helpful people I ever met and will tell you everything you need to know about enrolling in college in Georgia and about scholarships too.
95 - STOP FOOLING AROUND: Oh, but you think you won't have time to go to school and wrestle too? That's nonsense.
You have plenty of time. Just do less fooling around, and less chasing girls (or boys) and less driving fast, and less going to parties.
I went to Rutgers University, and worked 30 hours a week as a tree trimmer, and went out for sports, and was President of my Fraternity, and wrestled amateur and pro as well.
It's a matter of setting priorities. Any college kid wastes a ton of time. If you use your time efficiently you can do it all.
96 - YOU SUCK, AND YOU DON'T KNOW CRAP:
But do you know what? Hulk sucked, Triple H sucked, Rick Flair sucked, Babe Ruth sucked. Even Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods sucked.
Every superstar in NFL, NBA, WCW, and WWE and PGA sucked when he first started.
FACT # 1 Every one in the entire world sucks when he first starts anything.
FACT # 2 The more you practice, the less you will suck,
FACT # 3 And one day if you get really good you won't suck anymore.
FACT # 4 But only if you work hard and pay your dues.
If you enroll in school with WWA4, we will try our hardest to turn you into the best wrestler that you can possibly be. Your job will be to listen attentively, try to do what we tell you, and do it over and over until you can do it in your sleep.
97 - PRACTICE: World Champion, Paul Orndorf (MrWonderful) Who ran WCW training, told me a wrestler has to practice a move 500 times until he does it automatically. It also depends on your innate ability
DEFINE: Innate:
__________________________________________________________
USE "INATE" IN SOME SENTENCES
__________________________________________________
98 - MIND YOUR MANNERS: In 1998 we started training seven junior cruiser weighs at about the same time . Four of them always paid attention. They asked the pros how to do this move and how to do that move. They showed appreciation. And they always paid attention and said Thank you, yes sir, no sir, and please.
They did everything we told them. All the lifting, running, moves, spots, studying, watching videos etc. They did more than we told them.
One of the other trainees was a smart aleck and two trainees were lazy.
When we first met the smart aleck, it was clear he had huge potential. But he hardly learned anything because he spent his time showing off and running his mouth rather than learning.
After 12 months we show cased the 4 "good learners" and they were all offered jobs with WCW and with WWF.
Meanwhile "Lazy", "Lazy" and "Smart aleck" are still working at their day jobs.
And Smart Aleck is still running his mouth.
FACT: Professional wrestlers who have put in their dues may be glad to help you.
But none of them will help you if you run your mouth or are lazy.
So if you are a braggart, or lazy or a smart alec do yourself a favor and leave it at home when you enter a wrestling school or any other business.
99 - KING KONG BUNDY says "SHUT YOUR MOUTH"
Talking and ranting and raving and bragging and showing off to practice your gimmick is great and should be practiced as much as possible.
But shooting your mouth off with the other wrestlers to show off and to pretend you are a bigger deal than you are is dumb.
One night we were doing a show at a big club. Rocky King, the famous wrestler, was the promoter and told one of our students to do something. The student gave Rocky an argument. So Rocky threw him out of the club and told him NEVER COME BACK. That's exactly what will happen to you if you give too much lip.
As a student, there are four times to talk.
1) When you are asking a question,
2) When you are practicing your role,
3) When you are discussing Wrestling business,
4) When we are all relaxing (and then you can talk a lot.)
The point is that learning is about listening, and you can't listen with you mouth open.
A while back three WWF wrestlers were working with some of our trainees. If the trainees started telling the pros how they, the trainees, do it, the pros would have lost interest and worked alone.
King Kong Bundy summarized it succinctly. He said "SHUT YOUR MOUTH".
INSTRUCTION: DEFINE: Succinctly. and use it in a few sentences.
100 - LOOK AT TV AND TAPES AND YOU TUBES: But don't ever do a move based on what you see in tapes or TV or You-tubes. And don't ever do backyard wrestling. And never practice any moves unless you are at a real pro wrestling school, with good equipment and a certified trainer.
WWA4 has the best training videos. It's called Home School. You can get them at www.wwa4.com
If (for example) you are shown a belly to belly suplex and 5 other moves. Go
through the WWA4 CDs. Study how our pros do each move.
Try to observe and understand the differences. See which looks best. Which would get a pop from the audience. Which might be best for you.
101- DON'T BE PART OF THE RUMOR MILL: Don't listen to rumors.
Don't pass them on. As you know, almost everybody likes to pass along "inside information" about important people. It gives the "rumor passer" an impression that the other people think he is more important than he really is. It is a natural thing to do.
But, if you give in to this urge it can destroy your career.
Brad is a really talented guy. A journalism major, an announcer, a musician,
a body builder, who really looks great and he is a serious and dependable worker.
Brad was hired as an announcer intern by WCW. That was his life's ambition, and if you live 1,000 years you will never see a happier guy than Brad was with WCW.
But WCW was a rumor mill just like every other company. And Brad heard a
rumor that a famous WCW wrestler you had seen every week on TV had been beaten up by a less famous wrestler in a bar brawl.
Maybe it happened and maybe it didn't. It doesn't matter.
What does matter is that Brad passed the rumor on and within 24 hours it got back to Mr. Big. The following day Brad was fired and told not to let the door hit him in the butt on the way out.
Poor, Brad. He wanted to be in WCW so bad. He had worked so hard to get there.
He got there, and then he got dumped.
ASSIGNMENT --- THINK: How bad you will feel if YOU GET DUMPED for a stupid little thing like a rumor?
----
ASSIGNMENT: LIE DOWN ON YOUR BED. HUG YOUR PILLOW TIGHTLY
BETWEEN YOUR ARMS AND YOUR LEGS ... I MEAN REALLY TIGHTLY
... AND CRY... THINK OF THINGS IN YOUR PAST THAT HAVE MADE
YOU REALLY CRY. NOW BRING UP THAT TERRIBLE FEELING ... AND
CRY ... CRY YOUR EYES OUT ... AND KEEP CRYING FOR 5 MINUTES.
CAN'T THINK OF ANYTHING to feel bad about? How about your first pet that
died? How about when you were dumped by someone you really cared for? How about something that happened to you or a family member or a friend.
NOW, IMAGINE YOU HAVE JUST BEEN FIRED BY WWE
IMAGINE you have WORKED 6 YEARS to get there.
ALL YOU DID WAS PASS ALONG ONE TINY LITTLE INSIGNIFICANT
RUMOR. AND ... BAM! ... YOU'RE OUTTA THERE! ... YOU'RE DONE! ...
YOU'RE GONE! ... YOU'RE HISTORY! ... YOU'RE OUT THE DOOR !
YOU DO NOT GET A CHANCE TO EXPLAIN ... YOU DO NOT GET A
CHANCE TO SAY I'M ... SORRY ... YOU DO NOT GET A CHANCE TO SAY
MY THIRD BABY IS ON THE WAY ... YOU DO NOT GET A CHANCE TO
SAY YOU JUST TOOK ALL THE MONEY YOU EVER HAD AND PUT IT
DOWN ON A HOUSE.
YOU JUST GOT FIRED ... YOUR WIFE IS PREGNANT ... YOU HAVE TWO
TINY BABIES ... YOU ARE ABOUT TO LOSE YOUR HOUSE ... AND THEY
WON'T EVEN LISTEN TO YOUR EXCUSES. OH SHIT ! OH SHIT ! OH SHIT!
OK ... TIME OUT ... LISTEN UP:
QUESTION: DID you feel terrible ? YES ___________ NO _________
QUESTION: We put you through that emotion for 2 reasons. Can guess you what they are?:
1)
__________________________________________________________________
2)
__________________________________________________________________
QUESTION: Are you sure? yes ________ no _________
HERE ARE THE ANSWERS:
1st Answer) We are trying to save you the agony of losing your job in wrestling or any other job for doing something that is totally stupid (like spreading a rumor) and totally in your control (you did not have to do it). You just did it to "look good for ten seconds" and you totally blew away ten years of work.
2nd Answer) We are trying to teach you to be an ACTOR. But we'll talk about that later.
RULE 1: Don't ever say anything bad about important people. They might fire you.
RULE 2; Don't say anything bad about unimportant people. Their friends might fire you.
RULE 3: Don't even say anything bad about an unimportant person who has no friends. Some day he might get to be important and fire you.
Just don't say anything bad about anybody. You will get the reputation of a bad mouth and a gossip and nobody will hire you. EVEN IF YOU HATE THEM, DO NOT SAY ANYTHING BAD OR PASS A RUMOR or agree with some one who does.
102 - DO NOT USE DIRTY LANGUAGE OR ANGER OR SHOW IMPATIENCE
Everybody gets frustrated. But if you show it by cussing and being angry you are likely to get passed over or dumped by your school , and your girl friend, and your job, and by life in general.
We all have problems. Maybe our problems are with each other. But more often they are in our imagination. We can help each other by discussing them calmly.
But any time you use a swear word it raises the level of conflict.
And there is another thing it causes that is far more harmful to your whole life.
When you swear a lot you avoid using the English language to make your point.
And if you don’t use it you will never master it, and if you never master it you will never ever get a decent job.
Did you watch the Final Monday Nitro on TNT on March 26, 2001? Rick Flair
gave one of the greatest speeches of his life. It lasted SIX MINUTES and it did
NOT CONTAIN ONE SINGLE SWEAR WORD. NOT ONE!
You don’t need swear words, you don’t want swear words, they show you up for an illiterate and they hurt your chances for a job or for promotion.
I’m not a goody goody. Some of the world’s nicest people swear.
And some times I do it myself. But I know its not a good idea.
And, why do something that you don’t have to do if it can hurt you?
LOOK UP "ILLITERATE"
PRACTICE:
Don’t say, "I lost my F---ing watch. Do say, "I lost my watch"
Don’t say, "J---S C-T, where’s my G—D—N watch." Do say " Have you seen
my watch"
Don’t say, "B—L S—T!. Do say, "That’s not true."
ASSIGNMENT: Try to remember the last five sentences you spoke that included a swearword. Write them here and then write what you could have said without using a swearword.
103 - BE FRIENDLY AND SMILE
If you want to do any job well, and get a raise, and get a promotion. If you want to move up the ladder in WWE or GM or AT&T YOU HAVE TO BECOME AN ACTOR.
Think of a WAITRESS. If she is friendly and smiles she will get bigger tips. If she is friendly and smiles she will be given the better stations, If she is friendly and smiles she may get promoted. If she is friendly and smiles she will generally do much better than a waitress who is a grouch.
She might even wind up owning her own restaurant.
But if she is a grouch, her tips will be worse. She will get the worst stations in the restaurant and she will most likely get fired as soon as the boss finds a smiley replacement.
But what if she has headaches ?
or doesn't like the boss,
or doesn't like the customers,
or just wants to be "honest" and let people know what she thinks about them?
DOESN'T SHE HAVE A RIGHT TO BE A GROUCH ?
Yes, of course, she has an absolute right to be a grouch.
BUT THE CUSTOMER HAS AN ABSOLUTE RIGHT TO NOT TIP,
AND HER BOSS HAS AN ABSOLUTE RIGHT TO FIRE HER.
104 - BECOME AN ACTOR
Suppose you are working for WWE and arrive for a match and suppose they tell you to be a BABY (That's the Good guy) And you arrive that day with a tooth ache, and the worst headache you ever had, and after four arguments with your girl friend, and your parents, and your teacher and your sister, and even your Dog has pissed on your wrestling boots. What are you supposed to do?
If you want to get ahead, or even stay even, you are going to have to ACT
like none of that stuff happened. You are going to have to leave your problems
at home, and you are going to put on the best show of your life.
THE LESSON IS: Learn to become an ACTOR.. In your Wrestling, in your other
jobs, and in your Life.
We'll give you some lessons in various places throughout this manual and a lot more if and when you get to WWA4's school.
105. METHOD ACTING: As part of their training some of the most famous
actors in the World have used a method of acting called "THE STANISLAVSKI
METHOD." ACTORS and WRESTLERS are required to assume the roles of lots of
people who they've never met and wouldn't be if their life depended on it.
But their JOB does depend on their faking it. So you have to learn how to act
like a person who is totally alien to yourself.
Method acting is the solution.
106 - YOU'VE GOTTA’ FEEL IT Acting is no good if the fans don't "FEEL IT" .
It's almost impossible to make the fans "Feel it" if you don't feel it yourself.
You can't just string the words together and go through the actions.
When they had Hacksaw Jim Duggan play a Canadian it was totally unbelievable.
If you don’t feel it yourself, it just won't be believable.
ASSIGNMENT: Make a list of THREE wrestlers who are Totally Believable to
you in a particular part and Name the part.
1)
__________________________________________________________________
2)
__________________________________________________________________
3)
__________________________________________________________________
ASSIGNMENT: Make a list of THREE wrestlers who are NOT Believable to you
in a particular part and Name the part. They may be totally believable in another
part but you just name the unbelievable parts.
1)
__________________________________________________________________
2)
__________________________________________________________________
3)
__________________________________________________________________
ASSIGNMENT: Now try to figure out what they are doing or saying that makes
some believable and others not believable. IT’S NOT EASY IS IT?
HOW TO BECOME BELIEVABLE: One purpose of the Method Acting System is
to teach you how to become believable.
If you can BECOME THE CHARACTOR you are playing, and if you can be in his mind and him in yours then you can become believable.
When Stone Cold first started calling out Mr. McMahon it seemed real.
Now you and I both know that McMahon owns the Company and could fire Stone Cold in a New York Minute. He certainly couldn't get away giving McMahon the Stone Cold Stunner.
Stone Cold knows that too. And so does the audience. So how could he make
himself so believable?
I don't know how he does it. He didn't tell me.
But I'll tell you how you can do it yourself.
The steps are these.
1) Figure out exactly what is Stone Cold's GIMMICK.
a) It's not that he hates McMahon
b) It's not that he wants to be Champ ... heck, everybody wants to be Champ.
c) It's not that he wanted to take over the Company. That's impossible, and
everybody including 10 year old fans know it.
107 - STONE COLD’S GIMMICK WAS "TAKE THIS JOB AND SHOVE IT" And that is a feeling that everybody has experienced. And that's one reason it works so well.
Every person in the World has had that feeling.
Kids feel it about their brothers and sisters and parents and teachers.
Workers feel it about their bosses.
Bosses feel it about their bosses.
The president of the Company feels it about the board of directors.
Even President feel it about Congress.
108 - VINCE McMahon SOLD IT The second reason is that Vince McMahon
SOLD IT very well. SELLING it ( in wrestling ) means reacting to it to make it
believable.
109 - BEING BELIEVABLE OR UNBELIEVABLE
If you give an opponent a "Ball Shot" he can’t just smile and hit you back.. That would be unbelievable.
He has to roll around and writhe in pain.
In a real fight, if the other guy is writhing in pain, you would move in for the kill. If you didn’t move in for the kill it wouldn’t be believable.
If you just stood there and let him recover it wouldn’t be believable either. But
suppose it’s not yet time to end the match. In this case you have to be diverted or distracted or be showing off by letting him recover so you can clobber him again or be doing something else to keep it believable.
Some of the ways it’s done in wrestling is:
1) The ref.. holds you back
2) A manager interrupts, either violently or by attracting your attention.
3) A valet interrupts, either violently or by attracting your attention.
4) Another wrestler intervenes by jumping into the ring
5) Or tripping you from outside the ring
6) Or coming on the microphone
7) You look to the audience for approval, or prance around showing how smart you are..
8) Or to rub it into the Fans’ noses.
There are lots of ways. But too often a wrestler picks the wrong way and it makes it even less believable.
Here are some techniques you see a lot on TV that makes it look less believable:
1) A little ref. puts his arms around a monster like TAKER and pushes
him back. That’s totally unbelievable. First of all there is no rule that permits the ref.. to do that. Secondly, if TAKER wanted to, he could toss the ref.. aside like a rag doll, and walk over him.
If the ref. was another huge wrestler maybe they could be in a shoving match But most refs. are small guys.
QUESTION: Do you know why refs.. are small?
ANSWER: It makes the wrestlers look bigger.
2) The winning wrestler turns his back on the action and stands there as though he somehow forgot that his opponent is behind him.
ASSIGNMENT You name some techniques you see a lot on TV that makes it look WORSE, not better.
ASSIGNMENT You name some techniques you see a lot on TV that makes it look BETTER.
110 - SO IN USING THE METHOD ACTING approach:
1) First figure out what feeling you are supposed to project. If the Promotion has a good writer or booker he might tell you. But most don’t know or don’t care. And even if they did, they have to worry about the whole show and all the people and everything. So they don’t have time to baby anybody (except a top star or two)
2) Then try to remember a personal experience where you had such a feeling
3) And work on projecting that feeling into your reactions in the match.
Here is an example.
1) Say you are supposed to be very fond of your Valet (The girl who comes to the ring with you)
2) Suppose the Rock took her away from you after he beat you with a people's elbow.
3) She's not really your girlfriend, and you don't really give a hoot. But if you have no feeling about her how are you supposed to make it believable to the audience?
4) The way to do it is this: a) Think back to a time that you were really dumped.
b) Remember how bad it felt. How did you feel? Angry? Sad? Devastated? Used?
Did you want her back? Did you want her to drop dead? Did you want to clobber her new boyfriend? Did you feel embarrassed? Did you try to figure out how to win her back. Maybe you had all of these feelings. People often do.
5) a) First tell your Mom or Room mate you are going to be rehearsing some
exercises so they don't think you are nuts. b) Sit down on your bed, or lie down. c) Go back in your mind to those bad feelings.
d) Try to feel them again. Experience them again. Work on it really seriously. If
you were really sad , try to experience that same sadness again. If you were really angry, experience the same anger again.
e) Keep practicing until you can bring those feeling back instantly. Even if you have to keep trying for days or weeks. It is really important. You can not skip it !
f) Once you get it right. Do it every day for FIVE or more days.
g) Do it until you can bring it up instantly, at any time.. If you are shopping in the market, or walking your dog or watching TV, bring it up.
6) Now that you can bring up that feeling AUTOMATICALLY and INSTANTLY
a) go back in your mind to the exercise withthe Rock.
b) And imagine he takes your girl away from you after he beats you with a people's elbow.
c) And bring up the same emotions you were practicing.
7) When you can do that, and when you can master a wide range of emotions, then you will have increased your chances of success a 1000 times.
Of course you can’t stop to practice during a match. You have to have all those
emotions internalized so you can trigger them instantly and automatically.
111 - WORK WORK WORK
It is really important to work on a match before you do it on TV.
After Mark Jindrak and Chuck Palumbo and Kwee Wee and Elix Skipper and all those guys got into WCW, Paul Orndorf (Mr. Wonderful) used to send them back to us to work matches in front of our crowd in our ring before they took it to TV.
Paul explained if they are going to make an error it is better to do it in front of 500 fans at WWA4 than to screw up on live TV before 5 million fans.
When you are in our gym you can make 100s of mistakes. But on TV you should make none.
That’s why you should practice the same moves and spots and matches over and over until they are automatic. If you do this over and over in school it will become easier in the real thing.
112 - WHAT IF I DO MAKE MISTAKES?
Everybody makes mistakes. Even the world’s greatest wrestlers make mistakes.
But one of the things that differentiate the greatest like Rick Flair is that he has
trained himself to be able to recover immediately and to work the mistake into the match .
And he’s so good no one will ever know it except his partner or the ref.
113 - A MISSED PUNCH OR DROP KICK
Lately you’ve seen workers throw a punch or a drop kick and they miss by a mile.
That’s bad.
But worse is when the guy he didn’t hit sells it just as though he really got hurt.
That’s Terrible!
If you don’t get hit and it’s obvious, don’t pretend you did get hit.
What you should do is have a lot of instant reactions ready for when this happens.
And you should practice them just as much or more than your regular moves.
If you throw a punch at Rick Flair and totally miss him he’s not going to act like
you hit him.
He might laugh at you and point his finger to his head and prance around to show the audience how smart he is for having anticipated and ducked the punch.
In other words knowing how to react to mistakes is just as important as knowing what you were supposed to do in the first place. I personally think it’s much more important.
114 - LOOSE LIPS SINK SHIPS: During World War 2, the US dispatched
thousands of ships and 100s of thousands of men and millions of tons of supplies to Europe , Africa and the Far East. The Germans and Japanese had thousands of U Boats (submarines) lurking under water off our shores and in the supply routes. Their job was to locate our ships and sink them and kill our boys (your fathers and grand fathers) and if they had accomplished their mission they would have conquered the US and killed and tortured and enslaved your parents and grand parents and you would not be here today because your parents would have been killed before they ever met each other.
The Germans and Japanese did it in Poland and Czechoslovakia and China and Burma and every place they conquered and they came within three aircraft carriers of enslaving America.
Admiral Yamamoto was going to bomb California with bombers from their aircraft Carriers. They were going to do this right after they invaded and beat us at Midway Island.
But fortunately for your Mom and Dad and for you and your kids, your grand
fathers had secretly cracked the Imperial Code and we were waiting for them and blew them away before they knew what hit them.
Nobody had radar in those days and a supply ship could hide from the enemy in a cloud bank. And so the Germans and Japanese had spies all over our East and West and Gulf coasts. The spies hung around bars and ports and talked to sailors and port workers and to sailors’ families. They were trying to find out when our ships were leaving port and where they were going. Then they would radio the submarines who waited in the sea lanes. And when our ships would get there they sunk and killed thousands of our boys who would have left the service and gotten married and been Fathers and Grandfathers of friends you never ever got to know because the people who would have been their Dads got killed at every chance the enemy got.
And so to warn everybody not to give away American Secrets the Americans
coined the saying, "LOOSE LIPS SINK SHIPS"
How does this apply to you? Here’s how. One of the funniest and most entertaining wrestlers I know had a great gimmick. He didn’t have it legally protected. When he got into WCW, one of the Top wrestlers simply took it for his own.
So if you have a great gimmick ( which you probably don’t) don’t share it.
And so whether it's WW2, or WWE or Procter and Gamble, always remember
"Loose Lips sink ships" ... and careers and your future.. Remember Brad ? He is just one of thousands of ex wrestlers who are not doing what they really want to do because they couldn't keep their mouths shut.
115 - EVEN SUPER STARS GO BROKE If you follow our advice and practice
very hard, and are very lucky too, one of these days you might make a lot of
money.
But, it is a sad fact of the human condition that people who start out as regular
blokes like you and me, and who struggle all our lives to become rich are apt to become very conceited and short sighted when we do get rich.
And when that happens we usually shut out the good advice of accountants and agents and Fathers and Mothers and Clark Howard and Frank Aldridge.
IF YOU GET RICH you will want to tell us all to BUG OFF !
And so now (when you don't yet have a pot to piss in) is the best time to give
you this advice... and to hope you remember it when the con men and con women try to take it from you.
A few years ago I consulted with Anna Beth Goodman, the wife of super star actor, John Goodman. Some acquaintances talked her into a business, and by the time I arrived, Anna Beth and John had sunk around $700,000 into the business which had run through it like juice through a goose.
Anna Beth's partners were trying to convince her and John to come up with
another $700,000. and they hired my services to help them persuade the
Goodmans.
I didn't know that was their plan on the day I took the assignment.
After checking out the business for a few weeks I concluded that the Goodman were about to be screwed out of a second $700,000. And I was not going to be a part of it.
Another of their other consultants had told me that the business was a stupid
venture that could never succeed. "If it's so bad", I asked, " why don't you tell the Goodmans to quit the business?" and he said, "I'm not going to tell them to quit. They pay me $3,000 a month which I won't get if they shut it down."
I told him he stole his last $3,000 and I phoned Anna Beth.
She said she was glad I called because she was about to sign another big check.
I told her how bad the business was and asked her to please not sign any more checks. I also asked her to get a lock smith to pad lock the doors to the office and warehouse ... AND to drive to the banks and close all bank accounts ... AND to immediately get a lawyer... and have him call me immediately.
I told her that if she signed the check, I would fly to LA and break her pen . But
it wasn't a laughing matter, and it was full of risk of more losses, as well as the
possibility of being sued for millions by her "partners".
She got a very capable lawyer ( Ron Lyster) and Ron and I ran off the "Bad guys" and bailed the Goodmans out. We may have shielded the Goodmans from a $10,000,000 court suit. These events made me wonder, how many super stars lose money in bogus or badly planned deals.
So I worked with William Andrews (The Falcons famous running back) and
discovered the most amazing fact, namely the vast majority of retired NFL super stars and MLB stars and NBA stars were broke because they invested in business scams of one sort or another.
116 - SO HERE'S LESSON MONEY-ONE FOR AFTER YOU SUCCEED: If you become a rich wrestler your new found wealth is going to be the target of every trial lawyer and other con man in a ten state area. Here's the pattern. And please, for the sake of your future, fix it firmly in you brain ... now ... before your head is so swelled with success you won't listen to me or anybody.
One day, if and when you are successful, you're going to have a lot of money.
You're going to be on TV and in wrestling magazines.
When you look into the mirror you will see someone who seems a lot handsomer and more desirable than the image that used to look back at you before you had all that money.
You may still have some of your old friends and your wrestling friends.
But, when you look around, you will notice scores of new people who weren't with you before you became rich. And they are experts at squeezing out your real friends.
And, basking in your new found glory, you will believe that they are your new
friends. It will be a lot of fun and very exciting. That will be a huge mistake. Because, while you are filling your wallet in the ring, your new (friends) are going to be emptying your wallet outside the ring.
This is what will happen:
Chicks will try to get you into bed to get themselves pregnant and get your money in a divorce or palimony law suit.
Others will try to get you into bed so they can say you raped them, and get your money in court.
Guys will start fights with you in bars and in the arena so they can sue you..
And there will be thousands of trial lawyers salivating to sue you.
117 - NEW JACK AND NOTORIOUS DOG fell out of my ring during a match
and were pounding each other at one of my shows. When all of a sudden a man attacked Newjack from the back. New Jack, who is not a guy you should attack, tossed the man off like a rag doll and was immediately jumped by the man's 90 pound wife … she just slid off Newjack's back..
A few days later a scum bag lawyer brought a suit against Newjack and me and my company. Fortunately for us the wrestler, Nemesis, had recorded the entire episode on video tape and it showed clearly that the attackers were at fault.
118 - AMBULANCE CHASING LAWYERS We sent a copy of the tape to the
ambulance chasing scumbag lawyer who sent us the law suit, assuming that when he saw that his clients had initiated the attack and were lying, he would be honest and back off. But the lawyer wouldn't back off. Vulture Lawyers figure that even though they are wrong, and have no case, that if they keep up the pressure you will pay them to save the even higher cost of hiring your own lawyer and engaging in litigation. That's extortion in my book. But since almost all governments are run by lawyers they encourage extortion as it is the way they and their friends earn (extort) millions of dollars.
So even though we didn't lose the lawsuit, it cost us and our insurance company tens of thousands of dollars. Get ready. If you become rich it WILL happen to you.
Unless, and this is my hope, Congress outlaws dishonesty by lawyers.
Fat chance ! The majority of Congress are dishonest lawyers.
119 - REPORTERS will shove cameras in your wife's or girl's face to get you to
push them away so they can sue you.
120 CON ARTISTS will tell you that you are making big money now but how
will you survive if you break your leg or lose your job? And lucky for you, these silver tongued hustlers will tell you they have an incredible ground floor
opportunity where their talent and your money will guarantee your future.
DON'T SWALLOW THEIR CRAP!
121 - YOUR LAWYER - YOUR CURSE? Somebody will recommend that you hire a lawyer to protect your interest. And you will. But, mark my words, while some lawyers, especially if he’s a successful agent who works well with the industry are good, your own lawyer may become your worst nightmare.
Always remember your lawyer makes money by keeping you in trouble, and so he is always richer when you are in trouble.
One of the first things you learn in law school is that the best client is a frightened millionaire. And, lawyers will do their best to frighten you silly.
122 - WHEN THEY GET YOU INTO A LAWSUIT you may notice that your
lawyer and the opposing lawyer go out together, have meetings, write each other a lot of letters. So why are they so "Buddy Buddy"? Because the two of them are sucking tons of money out of your account and into theirs.
There is an old saying that if there is only one lawyer in a town he lives near the railroad tracks. But, if there are two lawyers they both live on the hill.
The truth is that your lawyer and the opposing lawyer don't make as much money if they dispose of a suit quickly. The longer they drag it out the more you pay them. THEY ARE NOT ON YOUR SIDE !
123 - THE IRS will write to you and tell you that you owe them $700,000 in back
taxes. How come? Because most wrestlers are paid as INDEPENDENT CONTRACTORS, OR STATUTORY CONTRACTORS.
Which, among other things, means that you will be responsible for paying your own taxes. If you are like some of the people I have heard about, you'll just deposit your money in the bank and buy a house and new cars and forget about the taxes.
But the IRS is worse than a Elephant. Like an elephant, it never forgets, and then it tramples you. And then you are as broke as you were before you started wrestling. But now you also have Alimony and Child Support and no education to fall back on.
124 - WHEN YOU LOSE YOUR MONEY , though you will not believe it until
it's too late, your lawyer will dump you, and your new girlfriend will dump you,
and your hundreds of new friends will disappear, and your golden goose and
golden eggs will all be gone.
125 - RICH LOSERS Ringo Star was suckered into putting up $2 million for a
restaurant on the 7th floor of an Office building in downtown Atlanta which is a
downtown that never does any night time restaurant business.
Any waitress could have told Ringo that nobody in his right mind would go there at night. So Ringo lost it all.
Mickey Mantle got into businesses that left him broke and drunk and dead.
William Andrews the famous Falcons back, who is one of the nicest gentleman you will ever meet, rushed & caught passes for 5132 yards in 3 seasons in the NFL. William put $2,000,000 into a "can't fail deal" in order to insure his future. The scam artist got the 2 million ... William got cleaned out.
Otis Nixon, famous Atlanta baseball player was suckered into opening OZONE an electronics business outside Atlanta that was doomed for failure the day the idea was born.
Sam Troncolli, one of Atlanta's richest, smartest, and most successful Automobile dealers paid $160,000 for a condo in Savannah that never got finished.
My wife and Mother in law bought four of these condos as a tax shelter
(without telling me) and lost their entire $640,000 investment.
After being clobbered by this scam, Sam and my wife and 13 other Atlanta
Millionaires paid a fortune to very expensive lawyers who accomplished nothing but enormous fees for themselves. So they were screwed twice, 1st by the scam artist who was their stock broker and 2nd by their own attorneys.
I'm so smart! Right? After my partners and I sold a company to Kellogg, Jimmy Carter talked us into going into the Coal business. We figured we were genius businessmen who just made a fortune, and we'd make another fortune. NOT SO FAST, TONTO! We lost our shirts. WHY? Because no matter how smart you may think you are, going into a business you don't know is like walking in a minefield.
Is all of this rare? No, it’s par for the course. The business and sports world is full of vultures waiting to feed off your carcass.
A sports millionaire who manages to keep his money is the rarity.
And you are no exception. Unless you follow You will get screwed with the rest of us.
126 - TODAY'S LIFESTYLE IS WHY CHARLIE IS FAT
If Charlie were born in 1935 he would be in College in 1955 and he would be thin and muscular today.
But Charlie was born in the 1980s and he is FAT
Why? What happened in those 50 years?
In the good old days people were in much better shape than they are today because:
a) 99% of food was fresh.
b) Cereal was cereal ... not sugar coated candy.
Soup was Soup. Now it is soup flavored SALT.
c) There were no convenience stores filled to the roof with cookies and chips.
d) People walked to get places.
e) Women stayed home and cooked real food which tasted much better than
today’s crap.
f) People didn’t have all these allergies and attention deficit disorders.
g) There were no TVs or Nintendos or Internet to get fat sitting in front of.
h) There were no fast food restaurants.
i ) We PLAYED baseball, football and basketball. We didn't WATCH it.
j ) It was hot in the summer, and there was no air conditioning, and you sweated off the weight.
k) It was cold in the winter and your body burned off fat to keep you warm.
l ) Schools had recess and gym and we were encouraged to run and win!
m) They were not run by the PC crowd who wants to neuter boys and men.
All of these factors have conspired to create a fatter, softer, more out of shape
American society.
As a result. hardly anybody was overweight before 1955.
And most are overweight now.
127 - 1955 COLLEGE YEARBOOK If you look at a college year book from the
early 50s you won’t see any fat students. And only a few fat professors.
Now nearly everybody is FAT.
128 - THEY’RE FAT BECAUSE: They can hardly find anything that is not
loaded with sugar or salt or Fat. Do you know why?
129 - SUGAR, SALT & FAT ARE VIRTUALLY ADDICTIVE People, since
youth, have become so accustomed to the taste of sugar and salt & fat. And food
that has less often tastes bland and tasteless.
130 - SUGAR, SALT & FAT ARE AMONG THE MOST PROFITABLE ingredients for food manufacturers. Except for water, if a manufacturer replaces any other ingredient with salt or sugar he will make a greater profit. I know. I did that when I was in the food manufacturing business. I didn't think that I was evil. I thought that I was clever. Now that I see how my cleverness helped create a nation of blubber I know I did wrong. I hope to help undo the problem. Our WWA4 Nutrition program is helping to achieve that in a small way.
One of our students lost 220 lbs and is now down to 220 lbs.
Mr Hughes dropped from 400 lbs to 250 of solid muscle and is totally cut.
131 - BACTERIA WILL NOT EAT SALT OR SUGAR which proves that,
while Bacteria may not be as smart as people, they're not as dumb either.
In fact sugar and salt are used to inhibit bacteria in food.
132 - The FAT CONSPIRACY All of these factors have conspired to create a
fatter, softer, more out of shape society.
133 - SO WHAT CAN YOU DO TO KEEP IN SHAPE ? If you are already a
body builder, or weight lifter, or if you are already under the supervision of a
certified trainer, great! But if not you should read our Exercise and Nutrition courses in our Wrestling Home School CDs which you can find on the home page of wwa4.com.
134 - IS IT IMPORTANT TO GET IN SHAPE FOR WRESTLING ? YEAH MAN!
Getting in shape is a good idea for anybody. You'll live longer, feel better, be more desirable, get better jobs, need less sleep, smell better, not get sick as much, have a nicer personality, be less grouchy, etc. There is hardly anything in your life that you can't improve by improving your health.
In wrestling , you can be a manager, announcer, owner, promoter, writer, back
office person, accountant, chiropractor, etc. without being in top shape.
Also, you can be out of shape. and still wrestle for lots of Independents.
But if you want to go to WWE, TNA, ECW, or be a big star on the Indy Circuit you better get in shape. and you better get strong.
If you don't get in shape and you don't get very strong you won't get near the door.
"In shape" doesn't mean you have to be cut like Mark or Elix or Kwee Wee
Bam Bam is not cut. Rikishi is not cut. Meng is not cut. But every one of them can leg press a Volkswagen. So, if you want to be with WWE ECW, etc. you better get into the best shape you can.
135 - LOOK AT YOUR FUTURE COMPETITION Just look at your future
competition. Most of them, Heath Slater, Triple H, The Rock, Kurt Angle, Mark Jindrak, Elix Skipper, Kwee Wee and at others who were wrestling at WWA4 when they got their contracts ( Palumbo, Johnny the Bull, Jimmy Wang Yang, Jamie Noble, the Wall, and dozens of others.) Each of them is a young Adonis.
Check our web pages at wwa4.com to see them all ) And
they're even bigger and stronger now.
Now look in the mirror. Are you a powerhouse? How do you compare to Mark or Elix. If you compare well, put this book down, and go to your computer and e-mail me and prepare to come to our school and trained fast so you can go pro before they change all the rules again.
136 - AEROBICS, ANEROBICS, WEIGHT LIFTING, AND DIET
If you don't compare well, let’s get you on aerobics and on the weights and on the right diet. The purpose will be to build your strength, take off fat if you have too much, build a more muscular body and improve your look. All of this will increase your attractiveness to wrestling promotions as well and to the opposite sex and to business in general.
I don't care what business you are in. If you look and feel healthy you will sell more than if you are less attractive.
137 - FAT and ENERGY.
Think of your body as a car again.
A car will just sit there and rust unless it has gasoline to run the motor. The gas
tank is where you store the gas until you need it.
Your body is the car; your muscles are the motor, your fat (along with "glucose" from carbohydrates) is the gas, and your belly, butt, hips, etc. are the gas tank. Fat is natures way of storing fuel to be used by the muscles when they need to produce energy.
But, you are not a polar bear. You do not have to store two hundred pounds of fat.
138 - EXERCISE: AEROBIC (with oxygen) VS ANEROBIC (without oxygen)
are two different ways energy is produced during exercise.
AEROBIC is when you breath and your lungs pass oxygen into your blood which in turn is pumped by your heart through your arteries and capillaries. Since it takes energy to do the exercise, the stored fat in your body is released into your blood stream where it is combined with glucose and "burned up" by the oxygen in your system. However, if you run too fast, or too long, or exercise too much, or lift weights to your limit, your body gets to a point where it can’t deliver enough oxygen to keep up with the demand.
That’s what you are experiencing when you are out of breath. In wrestling we call it "blowing up"
ANEROBIC: When the body can’t pump enough oxygen, the body shifts to the
ANEROBIC system which just burns glucose (not fat) and produces lactic acid
which causes a burning sensation and cramps.
By doing aerobic exercise at least three times a week you will continually build
your cardio vascular system. This is critically important for wrestling. If you don’t do it you will "Blow Up" which means you will become too tired or exhausted in a match. And at that point you are no good to yourself or anybody else.
You can jog or go to aerobic class in a gym or you can do it all yourself at home in front of the TV or with a video.
IMPORTANT ! ! ! Don’t be snacking while you do it. For every snack you eat you have to do a couple of extra hours of exercise just to break even.
139- WEIGHT LIFTING is the most efficient way to build muscle mass and
power. You can go to a gym or you can do it at home. If you live in a new apartment complex many of them have exercise rooms which are fine.
140 - ADVANTAGES OF A GYM. Many body builders prefer a gym because
they encourage each other and admire each other and spot each other and, for some, it is the center of their life. But a gym is not for everybody.
141 - GYM RIP OFFS
If you go to a gym, watch out for the sales people. They are experts at talking you out of your money.
They can take a guy who is out of work and sell him a six thousand dollar plan.
Then when he can't pay they send the Collection agents and Lawyers, and Marshals, and take you to Court, and ruin your credit, and do every horrible thing they can get away with.
Because they make a huge commission an have no apparent morality, they will use any tactic to take all your money. They will embarrass you, lie to you, pretend you can get your money back, praise you ... whatever it takes.
IGNORE THEIR BULL and go right to the bottom line. And don’t sign anything.
NOTHING! They’ll say it’s just a standard form that everybody signs. BS, its a
CONTRACT which can destroy your life.
In todays market gyms will give any kind of deal to get you in.
142 - BUT SUPPOSE YOU BUY THEIR RIP OFF DEAL Suppose you give
them six thousand dollars cash, or check They can close their doors next week, and keep your money and you are tough out of luck. And there is nothing you can do about it and nobody will care, and you will still owe the money.
143 - HERE ARE THINGS YOU SHOULD NEVER DO WHEN JOINING A GYM Don't buy their Platinum, Gold, Bronze, VP or any other contract. Don't even buy their toilet paper plan. To start, let them give you a few free days to try it out.
Or just pay them $5 a visit to start.
If it turns out that you love it and you want to go all the time then do it on a
monthly basis. That’s where you sign up for only 30 days at a time. Before you actually go, talk to every friend and find out where they go and the cost.
144 - IF YOU CAN WORK OUT AT HOME that beats a gym every time.
Traveling to and from a gym and changing clothes wastes a ½ hour to an hour and a ½ every day. It is a terrible waste of time. And all that fancy shiny white
equipment does you no good.
145 - GET YOUR OWN WEIGHTS: You can buy a set of weights. They are
inexpensive at Wal-Mart or you can get good used sets at "Play it again Sports or other outlets" Just get a bar bell and two dumbbells. And if you can afford it get an adjustable bench. Wal-Mart now sells an AB-ROLLER for $14. Get it too. Along with some exercises you can do without equipment, it’s all your abs will ever need.
All of the junk you see on TV, is just high priced junk which will make your wallet thin and leave your belly fat.
146 -YOUR BASIC HOME GYM How To assemble an inexpensive home gym.
You first need room. A porch, patio, garage, basement or small area in your
bedroom suitable for lifting. It can be as small as seven-by-seven feet, but try for a 12-by-12-foot space. This gives you more freedom of movement and extra space for additional equipment later on. Carpet and/or rubber flooring is optional, but it helps keep equipment scuffs and floor dings to a minimum and also reduces the noise.
Next, you'll need a good, basic 110-pound barbell and dumbbell set. The best type to buy is either a metal or a rubber-coated metal set. Don't bother with the thick, cement-filled, plastic variety. While they cost less initially, they'll soon crumble, whereas a better quality set will last a lifetime.
In addition to your basic set, you'll want to buy some extra plates. Add four 25s to begin with. This will give you a total of 210 pounds, enough for just about any exercise-at least until your strength begins to skyrocket.
Bench: You'll need a good, sturdy, adjustable bench - one that inclines and has uprights. You don't need the uprights if you spring for a power rack, but that's usually too costly for the beginning home trainee.
Your bench should be sturdy enough so that it doesn't topple when loaded with a heavy poundage. You'll also want a leg extension/leg curl attachment for the bench.
Calf block. A high calf block for doing heel raises is also useful. You can make
one out of an 18-inch four-by-four and an 18-inch one-by-eight, which forms the base. Simply nail the four-by-four to the center of the one-by-eight, leaving two inches of one-by-eight on each side
Chinning bar. One other useful piece of equipment is a chinning bar. If you don't have a pull down apparatus, chins are an effective way to work your upper back from the overhead position. Many sporting goods stores carry a chinning bar that you can wedge in a doorway.
Accessories. Your list should also include a lifting belt for back support on heavy
exercises, lifting gloves to protect your hands and a weight belt that straps around your waist for adding extra poundage to chins, dips and calf raises.
Home Gym Checklist
* 12' x 12' area (or at least 7' x 7')
* 110-pound metal barbell/dumbbell set (rubber-coated, if possible)
* Extra weight (four 25s)
* A comfortable, adjustable bench with uprights and leg extension/leg curl
attachment
* Calf block
* Lifting belt
* Lifting gloves
* Weight belt
* Ab Roller. Emson has a good one named Powertek XL. It sells AT WAL MART
for about $14.
You may think that all this equipment will wreck your bank account, but once you price each piece, you'll see that it's not all that costly to put together a basic, home gym.
In fact, you'll be surprised at how inexpensive equipping your gym can be,
especially when you compare it to the cost of commercial-gym memberships. and gas and time to get there."
Or you don't need any equipment to start. If you are really serious.
147 - THE BEGINNING WRESTLER'S LIBRARY should include:
While you’re trying to decide whether to get your own weights or join a Gym
make sure you are still working with these books.
1) this PRO WRESTLERS TRAINING MANUAL & WORKBOOK by WWA4
2) A good dictionary.
3) A good thesaurus.
4) Word Power Made Easy by Norman Lewis.
5) Various issues of Marvel Comics especially Spider Man.
6) Issues of Iron Man Magazine, Men’s Health, Muscle & Fitness. You don’t need all of these. Just browse these magazines at your super market and pick issues that have things of interest.
148 - HOW DO YOU GET IN CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING SHAPE?
Most of you will have to get in better shape. But don't worry, you too can look like the super stars. It takes time and dedication. But not as much as you may think.
As you can see from TV, in addition to the super bodies there are a wide variety of BODY TYPES. The common denominator is that a wrestler should be as strong ,
and fast and flexible and maneuverable as his body type will allow, and have
enough stamina to last several matches without wearing himself out.
That’s where the aerobics, and stretching, and weight lifting come in.
With the possible exception of sumo wrestlers, and occasional phenoms like
Rakishi, Bam Bam Biggalow and Van Vader, in most cases the higher your
proportion of muscle to fat the stronger and more athletic you will generally be.
With the arrival of new equipment and new body building regimens, and of TV,
strength and muscle mass have become more and more important to professional wrestling. We have photos of professional wrestlers dating back a hundred years, and while the old guys were magnificent in their day, body-wise and power wise they couldn't carry the sneakers of our modern super stars.
And so, while you will see wrestlers of every size & shape, conditioning, which is diet and exercise is important to all.
So while you are waiting to be old enough to wrestle or to save money to go to school it is wise to get in shape. And, guess what, even if you never get into wrestling, you will still be a 1,000 times better off than you are today
149 - HOW DO YOUR MUSCLES COMPARE TO TRIPLE H, OR AJ STYLES, OR HEATH SLATER OR ANY OF THE SUCCESSFUL WRESTLERS?
ASSIGNMENT: Get one of your wrestling magazines. Now take off your shirt and look in a full length mirror. Look at each wrestler and yourself in the mirror, one at a time. How do you compare to each?
How will you look when you are standing next to them on TV ?
Will you look muscular? Will you look ripped? Will you look strong?
Will you look weak?
Flabby? Taller? Shorter? Thinner? Wider? BE ABSOLUTELY HONEST
If your answer will be, "I WON’T COMPARE TOO WELL", which will be most
people's answer, then you should start immediately to get in great shape. Don't wait until you get to school. ..... START NOW!
150 - ALSO, DON’T BE DISCOURAGED BECAUSE:
a) There are a lot of body types.
b) The super bodies in WWE weren't born that way.
c) They got that way by exercise and nutrition.
d) And you can too.
e) And you can do it a lot sooner than you think
151 - CERTIFIED TRAINERS If you can afford it, consulting a Certified trainer
is often a good route to a better body. But they are very expensive and their
primary objective is to get paid by you, not to get you into a wrestling career. Also most of them focus on developing Beach Muscles, not on Wrestling Muscles which are quite different. You don't really need one.
152 - WRESTLING MUSCLES ARE DIFFERENT: If you want to look good,
& wrestle too, your approach has to be a little different from other sports.
For example wrestlers, swimmers and runners all have a different approach to body building. Your muscles can be trained to be beach muscles, or power muscles, or stamina muscles, or speed muscles.
While it is not universal, Olympic swimmers often have wide powerful shoulders, long muscles, narrow hips, and a body that tapers from shoulders to feet. The object is for powerful shoulders and a strong kick to propel a narrow streamlined body through the water using an explosive burst of energy in a short time.
Marathon runners are generally slim with a narrow upper body. Look at the
Kenyans. As a nationality, these skinny little guys blow away most of the
competition.
Running backs have powerful legs to drive that extra yard through tons of
defenders.
NBA centers are tall,
Gymnasts are limber.
And all of them are very strong compared to the average guy.
But what about wrestlers? Wrestlers have to train ALL these muscles.
You want to be cut, like a body builder, because it looks better.
Limber like a gymnast, in order to fly.
Powerful like a football player in order to throw big guys around.
Have stamina like a runner, in order to do it over and over again.
Have fast reflexes like a boxer, in order to duck under a clothes line.
Jump high like a basket ball player to leap over a charging wrestler.
Now, isn’t it clear that you have to build more than just beach muscles?
If you want to be a wrestler some of your most important muscles are in your
Lower Back and Hips which do much of the work and a strong broad neck which is the most vulnerable part of your body.
153 - CERTIFIED TRAINER WHO WRESTLED FOR WCW or WWE. You
are better off if you retain a certified trainer who was also a WWE or WCW wrestler.
We’re not talking about a wrestling instructor or body building trainer. We are
talking about a Weight Lifting, Body building and Nutrition instructor who also
happens to have been trained by Sarge at WCW & WWA4 or Mr. Hughes at WWA4 .
So our advice in this manual is for an average person.
But it will help anybody better than no exercise.
154 - WEIGHT LIFTING WORKS because putting pressure on a muscle group
by lifting, rowing, biking or mountain climbing or skipping rope or whatever,
expands, stretches, and tears at that muscle group.
Then when you give those muscles a rest, and the proper nutrition, the body
delivers nutrition to them and removes waste from them, and over a period of time adapts them to the new environment.
The reason weight lifting is a most effective system is that you can selectively
work whichever muscle groups you choose.
Many prefer bar bells and dumb bells for most purposes. Free weights demand
more of your body and allow your joints and limbs to move in their natural planes
and not just along the lines dictated by the design of a machine. And, they give you the freedom to isolate certain muscles and to work the body in many creative ways.
155 - HOW MANY DAYS PER WEEK SHOULD YOU WORK OUT ?
Professional and advanced athletes often work out six days a week with one day off for rest. For beginners and intermediates who are in reasonable shape, working out three or four days works well.
As you advance you can increase your frequency. If you are out of shape, which many people are these days, it is better start off by lifting one day, then take two rest days to allow for muscle repair.
As you progress you will be able to increase frequency.
In any case, you should always allow two to four days between exercising a
particular muscle group. This is required for the muscles to repair themselves and grow.
156 - FAST AND SLOW DEVELOPERS Your genetic make up will determine
how fast you body will respond to training. Do not try to RUSH your development. Working steadily over a longer term will give you the greatest and best lasting gains.
157 - A TRAINING DIARY will be one of your most important tools. Use your
loose leaf book to write everything such as training routines, sets and reps, your diet plan, and everything you did and ate that day. You should also write your thoughts about the training you are doing. Get a cloth tape measure to measure and record your progress at least once a month. Measure your Neck, Shoulders width, Biceps, Forearms, Wrist, Chest, Waist, Hips, Thighs, Calves, and Ankles. Also measure your height and weight. Also take photographs of yourself at the time you do the other measurements. This is the best way to keep track of your progress.
158 - the BASIC MUSCLES Your body has more than 600 separate muscles. But in learning the basics of building a quality physique you can focus on the following areas:
Shoulder area: Deltoids and Traps
Chest area: Pectorals, Rib cage
Back area: Lats, Spinal erectors
Abs: Upper, middle and lower abdominals and obliques. Do the same day as back.
Arms: Biceps, Triceps, Fore arms
Leg Area: Butt, Quadriceps, Calves, Ankle.
If your initial training includes these groups you will be off to a good start. You
can get more sophisticated later.
159 WARM UP FIRST Warming up is always the very first thing to do. If you go
from a cold start to strenuous exercise without an adequate warm up you risk
tearing or straining, or spraining or breaking something.
This is how your body works: Warming up pumps fresh oxygenated blood to the aqrea you are exercising. It raises your blood pressure and increases your heart rate.
Calisthenics and other light exercises are a very good way to start. So always start with stretching exercises and then lots of repetitions using weights you can easily handle.
QUESTION: Should you always warm up, or can you skip it when you are in a
rush ?
160 STRETCHING is the next thing you must do. When Elix Skipper, Mark
Jindrak, Kwee Wee or NewJack came to our gym they spent a lot of time
stretching.
You should do what they do.
Start with your largest muscles first, Thighs, Hamstrings, Butt muscles, calves,
chest, shoulders, back, arms, neck and lower back. Hold each stretch for 10 to 30 seconds.
Do not bounce to try to stretch father, and do not exceed your limitations. Every day you stretch you will get a little more limber. By the end of the year you will amaze yourself.
Wrestlers have amazing flexibility. They have to in order to do the things they do, and to avoid injury as well.
161 SETS & REPS: Lifting exercise is done in sets and repetitions. There are
three schools of thought. School A says it is better to select a single weight and use it with all the sets and reps of a particular exercise. School B says it is better to start the first set with many reps of a light weight and in each following set to increase the weight and reduce the number of repetitions.
School C says do just one long set for each exercise.
Examples of the three approaches follow:
Example School A:
1) Do a set of 15 repetitions with a weight that you can do 10 reps without
straining too hard.
2) Repeat the set three more times. Then switch to the next exercise
Example School B:
1) Do about 15 repetitions with a light weight that you can handle easily.
2) Next do a set of 10 reps with a heavier weigh that you can just do 10 reps
3) Next do a set of 8 reps with a heavier weigh that you can just do 8 reps
4) Next do a set of 6 reps with the heaviest weight that you can just do 6 reps
Then switch to the next exercise.
Example School C:
1) Do one set of 12 repetitions with one weight that you can do 8 easily and where reps 9 to 12 get successively harder. Then switch to the next exercise.
We don’t know which is better, and there are new claims every day. But they all
seem to work.
It depends on how much time you have to devote to exercise. Obviously, if
you don’t have much time doing one set will be the fastest.
The key in all is that your last reps in a set are almost impossible so it will put max pressure on your muscles.
162 - HOW MUCH WEIGHT TO USE Start off by using light weights so that
you can concentrate on the proper techniques. When you have the right technique, increase the amount of the load to an amount that you can do for only 6 to 8 repetitions. When it gets to where you can do 12 - that is the time to increase the weight.
It is very important for beginners to use weights you can easily handle. This is
NOT a test of strength. It is an exercise to improve your body.
Do not ever use an amount of weight that you have to swing or bounce to get it lifted.
163 - WEIGHT LIFTING CAN BE DANGEROUS and requires extreme care
and caution. For example, some of the most dangerous situations are:
a) If you are doing a bench press and lose your grip, the weight could fall on you and kill you or cause permanent injury.
b) Any other lifting where the weight is above you and can fall on you.
c) Any situation where equipment can function improperly.
d) Any medical condition. Have your parents had a heart attack? Do you have high blood pressure or high cholesterol? Are you physically inactive? Are you 20 pounds overweight. Ask your doctor for the best advice.
164 - A PARTNER - SPOTTER Though you can exercise alone and many people do, it is a good idea to have a partner.
He can be a spotter and you can guard each other against injury.
In gymnastics it’s a person who stands ready to catch you so you don’t land wrong.
In weightlifting it’s the person that stands ready to help you support the weight in case you can’t finish the lift or to prevent it from falling. A weight falling can happen because your sweat makes it slippery, or you lose energy, or you lose balance. It’s especially a good idea to have some one to spot you during the last set. Another reason for a partner is to encourage each other.
165 - SAFETY PROCEDURES
a) Keep the area clear of obstacles that can cause you to trip.
b) Keep the area dry to prevent a slip.
c) When done lifting put weights under bed or in a closet or corner or on a rack where nobody can possibly trip on them. You do not want to trip over one
dumbbell and smash your head on another. It sounds stupid but it’s easy to happen at night, or when you or your Mom are carrying a package, or backing up, or paying attention to something else, or your dog or brother bumps into you and you step out of the way and trip.
d) Always check the bench or "furniture" you will be using to make sure it is
sturdy, properly positioned, and can not slip, or break, or fall over.
e) Always have the safety screws or locks or springs on tight so the weights can’t slip off the bar.
f) Do not attempt to bench press the maximum weight you can handle without a spotter.
g) Never lift if you are under the influence of alcohol, or a drug, or if you are tired.
h) Wear lifting gloves.
i) Use rosin
j) Wear a lifting belt.
k) If you have a trick knee or elbow or any muscle or joint that can pop out, or slip wear the appropriate brace.
l) Make absolutely sure you have no physical problems which could be aggravated by the exercise.
166 AVOID CATCHING OR SPREADING DISEASES: Thousands of people
use public gyms. You have no idea what they may be carrying. So while you have no reason to panic, you should use reasonable caution to avoid catching or spreading germs.
a) Bring sandals to avoid ring worm and other grunge in the locker room or shower room.
b) Don’t walk barefooted in the locker room or gym. You don’t know what disease
came in on someone's foot (or dog dropping) on some one’s shoe .
c) Always wear a shirt.
d) Always sit on a dry towel in the locker room.
d) Towel off any bench or equipment you will touch before and after you use it.
e) Clean and cover toilet seats.
167 - DEVELOP A LONG TERM LIFTING PLAN: Building mass involves
nutrition & exercise in the proper mix.
Your objective is a body weight and build that looks and feels good to you and is best for your wrestling gimmick.
For almost everybody it will generally involve increasing muscle while you
decrease fat.
STEP ONE is to develop a long term lifting plan.
Most people can gain 1 to 2 pounds in two weeks. But you can't go from 160
pounds to 220 pounds in one jump. Or from 320 to 260 in one jump.
So STEP TWO is to set intermediate targets that you can achieve in one to two
month intervals. For example: 180, 190, 200, 210, 220
If you break your long term goal into short term goals you will see progress & feel good about it.
Also the essence of a good mass building program is to first convert FAT to
MUSCLE, so you might not gain any weight during the beginning. And that’s OK.
168 - BREATHING Breath in through your nose and out through your mouth..
Breath in before your first lift. Then expel your breath as you lift. Then breath in as you lower the weight. Do not hold your breath.
169 - A SIMPLE WEIGHT LIFTING PROGRAM
There are many different body building programs.
Weight lifting, body and health magazines give different variations every issue.
And every body builder has developed variations that work for him.
After you have worked at it long enough you will begin to understand your body and your needs and you will make up your own routines.
But there are certain routines that are standard to all lifting:
Carbs - Have some Carbs before you start to lift. These will supply the energy you need for your workout. If you lift on an empty stomach you will burn the protein in your muscles and reduce their size rather than build them.
Liquid - Drink plenty of liquid so you do not dehydrate during your work outs.
Sports drinks are fine. You will learn all the details in our nutrition books.
Always warm up with light weights before moving to heavy weights.
A good routine is to do your first set of each exercise with light weights and
the next 3 sets with heavier loads.
Within10 minutes to two hours after your workout you should eat to begin
rebuilding the muscles you have worked.
Work out with a spotter especially when you have weights above you.
Use gloves to prevent sweaty hands from causing the weights to slip.
Refer to all our safety rules starting at Paragraph 163 through 169 and FOLLOW them at all times.
The workout below is good for beginning wrestlers. It focuses on the needs of pro wrestlers.
Do all the exercises shown in black.
Alternate the exercises shown in blue and red ( do the blues one day and the reds another day)
WORKOUT # 1
Have some carbs before you start. Warm up your body first. For each
exercise do one light set first and then do three heavy sets of 8 to 10 reps.
If you get up to 11 or 12 reps you should go up on your weight. Work your abs
twice a week. In between each set you should have 1 to 1 1/2 minutes rest, then start the next set. You should workout 2 days and take 1 day off. The day you have off you should do some kind of physical activity (basketball, tennis, etc.) Have your carbs and protein as soon as you can after your workout .. but within one or two hours at most.
Day 1: Chest and Triceps
Warm up and stretch the muscles you are about to exercise by using a light weight for the first set of each exercise
Incline press 3 sets 8 to 10 reps
Flat press 3 sets 8 to 10 reps
Decline press 3 sets 8 to 10 reps
Dumbbell Fly's on flat bench 3 sets 8 to 10 reps
Dumbbell Fly's on incline bench 3 sets 8 to 10 reps
Day 2: Back and Abs
Warm up and stretch the muscles you are about to exercise with light weights for the first set of each exercise
Front Lat Pull down 3 sets 8 to 10 reps
Close grip Pull down 3 sets 8 to 10 reps
Reverse grip Pull down 3 sets 8 to 10 reps
Behind neck pull down 3 sets 8 to 10 reps
Bent over rows 3 sets 8 to 10 reps
Lat Push downs 3 sets 8 to 10 reps
Alternating sit ups 3 sets 20 reps
In between sit ups 3 sets 20 reps
Leg lifts 3 sets 20 reps
Jack knifes 3 sets 20 reps
Day 3 is a day off from the weights. But do some kind of activity, Jog, Bike,
Tennis, basketball, whatever you like.
Day 4 Shoulders and Legs
Warm up and stretch the muscles you are about to exercise with light weights for the first set of each exercise
Front Lateral Raises 3 sets 8 to 10 reps
Side Lateral Raises 3 sets 8 to 10 reps
Upright Rows 3 sets 8 to 10 reps
Bent over Lateral Raises 3 sets 8 to 10 reps
Sit down military press 3 sets 8 to 10 reps
Shoulder shrugs 3 sets 8 to 10 reps
Leg extension 3 sets 8 to 10 reps
Leg Curl 3 sets 8 to 10 reps
Leg Press 3 sets 8 to 10 reps
Squats 50 reps
Alternate lunges 3 sets 8 to 10 reps
Calf raises 3 sets 8 to 10 reps
Day 5 Arms and abs
Warm up and stretch the muscles you are about to exercise
Seated alternate dumbbell curls 3 sets 8 to 10 reps
Straight bar curls 3 sets 8 to 10 reps
Bent over lateral raises 3 sets 8 to 10 reps
Upright rows 3 sets 8 to 10 reps
Hammer curls 3 sets 8 to 10 reps
Concentration curls 3 sets 8 to 10 reps
Preacher curls 3 sets 8 to 10 reps
Dumb bell preacher curls 3 sets 8 to 10 reps
Triceps pushdown 3 sets 8 to 10 reps
Nose breakers 3 sets 8 to 10 reps
Triceps bench press 3 sets 8 to 10 reps
Reverse grip pushdown 3 sets 8 to 10 reps
Day 6 is a day off from the weights. But do some kind of activity, Jog, Bike,
Tennis, basketball, whatever you like.
REPEAT THE ABOVE CYCLES STARTING AGAIN WITH DAY 1
EXERCISES
MORE TOMORROW
