I didn't hit the computer this morning as I had the opportunity to listen to a speaker today that -- although speaking from a different perspective -- touched on topics that are near and dear to me. This morning, I attended a recruiting presentation for a local University and the President of the school talked about the importance of not only competetence, but also character. It reminded me of something that I have said to promoters on a number of occasions ...
Until landing in All Star Wrestling six months ago, I spent a great deal of time without a home base promotion. As a bit of a wrestling nomad, I would find myself in locker rooms hours before an event and the promoter might ask me: "Who would you like to wrestle tonight?" While it is flattering to have that much input into an assignment on any given night, the fact is (in most cases) I don't have enough familiarity with the roster to request someone by name. Instead I will tell the promoter: "Give me the guy that has the most heart. I don't care if he CAN work, but if he WANTS to work - that's the guy I want."
In any business, you could walk through an office and find a lot of solid employees who are capable workers. Inevitably, you'll find the braggarts and blowhards, you'll find the slackers that are trying to fly below the radar, you'll find the guys who rest on their own accolades from PAST achievements, the ass kissers, and then you'll find those guys who have their nose to the grindstone - for whom its not about the acknowledgement and rewards, but their commitment to their work and their product. Wrestling isn't exempt from this, in fact, it might even be more pronounced than most work places.
Walking into a locker room, you quickly get the lay of the land - the first people that you'll find are the braggarts. You don't have to look for them, you'll hear them. They'll tell you about this great thing they have done, or what outrageous potential they have in this business. You'll hear about all the great crowds they have drawn, how thunderous the ovations were for their last match, and how great the reviews were for their matches on message boards.
Slackers - there aren't too many of those guys in the locker room due to the nature of our business. But you will see the slacker tendency in the new guys to our business when it comes to elements of paying dues. You'll see which guys pull the George Costanza at ring duty time and strut around the building, always on some apparent phantom errand that never seems to get resolved.
There are no shortage of heroes in the wrestling business, and never is that more apparent than when you walk into a locker room and see some guy that you've never heard of before holding court before a group of guys with less experience than himself celebrating his successes. This guy is a little different than the braggart who is loud before all audiences. The "rest on his laurels" guy is often quiet and awkward around guys with legitimate experience and accolades, but is certain to keep to his group of minions and their ass-kissing loyalty.
Oh, the ass kissers. In any business, you deal with these people by the dozen. They're not always easy to spot, as sometimes it's hard to tell if they are genuine or not. I have most frequently spotted this disparity between terms that I have spent as a booker for any promotion. When you hold the pencil, guys are always calling you up, wanting to hang out, inviting you out to the night club, etc. However, as soon as you step down from that position, you see the distinct line between the folks that are really your friends and the folks that give you the time of day because it benefits themselves directly. The one good thing about ass kissers, is they generally become the best conduit to stir up bullshit -- they can't help but convey the latest juicy gossip back to the top, with hopes that this show of "loyalty" will curry favor with the decision makers. They might be on to something, in some locker rooms, this is working. Good for you ... but your lips are still gonna smell like ass!
Get past all of these guys and you will find the people in your business whose passion for their work and for the craft is evident. You see it in the focus that they have, the manner in which they carry themselves, and the way that they approach their assignments on a nightly basis. What I have found about this group by comparison to the mass population of the industry, is that the people among this group have the most to be cocky about comparatively, but are generally the most down to earth guys that you'll meet. They base their accomplishments on a larger scale and rarely find time to celebrate the small successes that they achieve on route to their long term goal.
In the independent wrestling locker room, these focused hard working guys often find themselves overshadowed by the squeaky wheels that are seeking all the attention, often undeserved. It is these guys, the competent wrestlers with outstanding character that I want to see on the cards that I have the good fortune to be booked on. When given the choice of who I would travel with (I'm very selective, especially on long drives), I enjoy their company, but it's a reciprocal situation - they might be able to glean tips from my rambling, but for me I am reminded of the enthusiasm and focus that I had at that stage in the game and that enthusiasm rubs off. With all of the frustrations that we face in independent wrestling, these guys maybe don't realize what a profound influence that they have had on me and where I am going with my ring career.
For those of you coming up in the business, consider your short and long term goals. It is very easy to get frustrated when you see bad behaviour and shockingly bad habits get rewarded in the environments that you're working. Don't allow yourself to be influenced by these folks - their vision and career goals are different than yours. As Stan Saxon told me early in my career: If you hang out with nine assholes, you're likely to become the tenth. Keep working hard, stay true to the ambitions that you have laid out for yourself and eventually that hard work DOES pay off. The people whose opinions matter in our industry are keeping an eye out on who's doing what and in the end, I firmly believe that it's not just about what you can do bell to bell, it's about the person that you are when the arena lights go down and you're back in the "real world".
The business does need wrestlers with talent, but more importantly, the industry requires more people with character.
Vance Nevada