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Originally Posted by Trolly McTrollson
Wow I had no idea there's an actual wresting school, that's funnier than I could have imagined.
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Originally Posted by Trolly McTrollson
This must mean there are wrestling professors? And classes where you learn to cut promos? Netflix should do a documentary on wrestling school, this is amazing stuff.
These are probably some of the more reputable schools:
http://www.ovwrestling.com/beginner.html
https://www.neprowrestling.com/info
A lot of scams and stuff out there though.
Getting to your question about cutting promos: the schools exist largely to round out a personality, not make one. I'm gonna sound like a veteran of the industry (I'm not) but as I said, most people who make it to the top promotions like the WWE were already huge dudes with a background in athletics or body building, and some measure of charisma or understanding of the business anyway. Hulk Hogan was an accomplished baseball player and a professional musician before he got into wrestling. Randy Savage was a minor league baseball player and the son of a wrestler. The Rock was a football star at Miami and a 3rd or 4th generation wrestler. John Cena and The Ultimate Warrior came from professional body building. Brock Lesner and Kurt Angle came amateur/Olympic wrestling. All of them were naturally huge or got that way outside of professional wrestling and brought with them a knowledge of the industry or at least showed commitment to excel at athletics or whatever.
Point is: 95% of the bums off of the street would get nothing out of wrestling school because they aren't going to make you sit in a gym and get yoooge, they aren't going to make you 6'5, how to be a top tier athlete, and they won't teach you much how to be compelling on camera. The schooling is really just to teach the kayfabe stuff (e.g., how to do the physical moves and stunts and not kill each other). It won't teach guys to be huge, interesting to watch, funny/charismatic, etc. Most of the superstars that make millions are already naturally talented or have a stage presence or a history or some stuff that make them unique.
That said, the cutting promos stuff -- the schools I think work on that, and work on putting the guys on a microphone in front of people. Even at the top end of the market, there's still some guys who are largely boring/bad and much of what separates the greats from the rest are the guys who are simply naturally gifted at gab and cutting promos on their own without much direction.
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Are there any good memoirs from ppl in the wrestling industry? I'm fascinated by this whole enterprise of pro wrestling.
Maybe, but you're better off listening to shoot interviews on YouTube imo (search "wrestling shoot interview"). That's usually better than an edited memoir that are sometimes just promotional vehicles rather than sharing genuine behind the scenes stories. A lot of washed up wrestlers will do anything for $50 and tell you whatever you want to know, so it's a popular/cheap YouTube video to find washed up stars, give them pocket change and let them talk.
Having said that, I like this:
The Squared Circle: Life, Death, and Professional Wrestling
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Grantland and Deadspin correspondent presents a breakthrough examination of the professional wrestling, its history, its fans, and its wider cultural impact that does for the sport what Chuck Klosterman did for heavy metal.
Not a memoir but a good read for amateur fans.
Last edited by DVaut1; 07-24-2017 at 09:47 AM.