I could not be further removed from the world of amateur wrestling. When my friend “John” (not his real name) told me he was going to appear in the ring on Friday night at an event at the Saugus High School gymnasium, I knew I had to be there to witness the spectacle.
At first I thought I was the victim of an early April Fool’s prank. John is a mild-mannered advertising executive. He’s smart and funny – a great person to bounce ideas off. He’s a Monday-through-Friday suit-and-tie kind of guy. He’s the last person you would think to end up in the flamboyant arena of costumed wrestling.
The night of the event, a group of us arrived at the high school to purchase tickets and look for seats on the bleachers. John told us to sit on the left side of the gym to get the best view of the action. One of the wrestlers, Jerry Gunns, was talking to a woman sitting in front of us. Jerry Gunns looked like a younger version of Mickey Rourke in the film, The Wrestler. His appearance was deceiving – terrifying to look at, but warm and genuine at heart. I told him we were friends of John. Jerry told us John was fitting in perfectly with the group backstage. He said the other wrestlers were trying to persuade John to join their traveling troop of testosterone titans.
John came out to say hello before the show started. He was dressed in a suit, tie and black sunglasses – a regular Vince McMahon in the making. The expression on John’s face was priceless as he told us the plan for his first time in the ring. I never saw him look happier or more proud. He was positively glowing with the inner light of future stardom. Clearly, he was bitten by the entertainment bug and he was succumbing to the fever. It’s in his blood now. There’s no turning back.
He left to prepare to for his match. I turned to his girlfriend who was sitting behind me.
“John is ecstatic,” I said. “This could be the beginning of a whole new career.”
“Oh no,” his girlfriend said. “This is a one shot deal.”
We’ll see about that, I thought.
The event opened with a Battle Royale. Twelve costumed wrestlers entered the ring and began to toss each other out. The last man standing would be crowned the winner. The muffled sound system made it impossible to decipher what the announcer was saying, but the crowd got the general idea. Lots of commotion ensued. Elbows to the face. Drop kicks to the stomach. Knees to the groin. Muscle-bound men in garish costumes were flung out of the ring like rag dolls. A skinny, hooded Spiderman creature thumped to the floor and was dragged away by a medical team. It was Kabuki theatre with street credibility. It was rampaging mimes pumped up on steroids. The kids in the audience loved it as they cheered and booed. The wrestlers loved it too.
John’s match began with him parading into the ring, waving and smiling. He told the crowd about the large sum of money the event raised for Saugus Youth Hockey. The crowd cheered. Then he said he was confiscating the money and taking it all home with him. The crowd booed. Jerry Gunns grabbed John and spun him over the ropes and onto the floor. John stood on the sidelines while a four-person tag-team match unfolded in the ring. He traded insults with youngsters in the audience who stood behind the metal barriers. Some of the kids really believed he was going to steal the money that was raised. He ended up in the ring once more at the end of the match, unveiling a wrestling belt beneath his suit. He used the heavy belt as a weapon to pummel the winner of the match amid loud “boos” from the crowd. Down but not out, Jerry Gunns had a miraculous resurgence of energy and tossed John out of the ring again. John flew over the ropes and hit the wooden floor with a loud thud. The crowd cheered as John was dragged away by the medical team.
Whether or not John’s fifteen minutes of fame leads to a new career, only time will tell. These rag-tag groups of wrestlers make up a strange underground faction of the entertainment world. Some of them want to break into the big leagues, others are just there to have fun. John would be a huge asset to their entourage. There were seventeen people sitting in our section who paid to just to see John’s performance. Some came to support him, others came out of morbid curiosity.
The debate surrounding the reality of the sport of wrestling continues. The tournament seemed very real to the wrestlers involved. They exist in a world that blurs the line between fantasy and reality. Now that John has had a taste of that world, he might be ready to pack his gym bag and move there permanently, leaving his Monday through Friday suit-and-tie life behind.
