By: Jim Hall
1/14/2002 12:42:00 PM
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Talking with an Indie Worker – A Viewer’s Perspective
Back in November I wrote a column expressing my
concerns with Tough Enough II (TE2) using workers from independent promotions.
I received a ton of e-mail in response to that column.
Perhaps the most articulate, well thought out, and informative response
came from Mark Mattis (“The Omega”) an indie worker who was a semi-finalist
for a spot on the show.
Mark and I continued our e-mail dialogue, as I
grew more interested in finding an alternative to the WWF. Mark sent me a promotional video, featuring him in two
matches for FIW and IWA. Finally,
we ended up in a phone conversation. I
wanted to pick his brain about the world of indie wrestling. We had a great conversation, and he agreed that I could use
highlights from our conversation as fodder for a column.
Before I dive into the meat of this column I do
have to make a note for the sake of journalistic integrity.
Mark was a little nervous about the potential of this column to have a
negative impact on his career. Since
we are talking about his career and my hobby, I agreed that he could read this
before I submitted it to 1wrestling. If
he had concerns, then I would simply drop the column. I did not make any changes to what I wanted to say – the
column you are reading is exactly the one I wanted to write. I simply gave him the right to stop the entire column.
I would guess that Mark is not a typical indie
worker. He is generally older than
most of the wrestlers he works with, and has a degree from Ohio University.
He works a day job in the IT sector, and has a family to support.
He also writes a regular column on www.wrestlingplanet.com.
Since I don’t know any other professional wrestlers, I cannot say how
typical any of that is, but he certainly is intelligent and articulate – more
so than many of my friends with “normal” gigs.
Mark initially studied with the Fire and Ice
Wrestling school. He worked with
them for about a year before moving on. His
first professional match occurred on 11/30/99 – some three and a half weeks
after he started training. He is
continuing his “formal” wrestling training on an occasional basis with
Harley Race and World League Wrestling, making the 10 hour drive from his home
to Missouri.
Mark’s workout schedule consists of about 8
hours a week at the gym and a couple of hours per week in the ring as well as
working a show nearly every weekend (he makes appearances in a dozen different
promotions). He of course also has
to monitor his diet carefully, monitoring his caloric intake and quaffing
protein shakes after workouts and maintaining about 160 grams of protein (mostly
chicken breasts) daily. He did
confess to the occasional junk food junket.
I and for that matter most wrestling fans, have
sat on the couch munching junk food and said, “I could do that.” I asked Mark how he got up off the couch and actually did it.
He talked about growing up as a kid, being 8 years old and following NWA,
the Four Horsemen, Magnum T.A. and others – imagining himself in the squared
circle. Then, over time he forgot about it, grew up, graduated from
college and got a job – just like the rest of us. Of course, unlike most of us, Mark did keep up with his
physical fitness. Then one night
his buddies dragged him into watching a Monday Nitro and he caught the bug
again. He started looking into
wrestling schools, and the rest may someday become history.
His tale of the hours and sacrifices for the
business sounds like every other one you or I have ever heard.
Long drives, long hours – including setting up and taking down rings,
small paydays, and the whole ball of wax. Mark
did tell an amusing tale of being at the TE2 casting session.
Al Snow had asked him a question about the commitment required to be an
indie worker. This in comparison to
the commitment required by TE2 – namely 10 weeks away from his wife, son, job,
and paycheck. It does make you
wonder about the lives of the folks that participate in the show.
From there we got into a meaty discussion of
wrestling. I asked Mark about his
matches. He said, “I’m a real
perfectionist. I’ve had 55
matches and only one I really liked.” He
described a good match as being “chain wrestling” like Jerry Lynn or RVD. “A good match consists of sequences of move, counter, move.
Starting out, a good match meant no blown spots, now I look for a good
story and getting the fans to care about the story.
I want to make them pop for advances in the story, not just for high
spots. I want my matches to be about story telling and psychology,
not just about the risks. I don’t
want to die in the indies.” While
he admits to being a “regular” WWF viewer, he doesn’t pattern himself
after anybody in particular.
We got deeper into the topic of “good
matches” and advanced onto “great matches.”
He described a great match as “making sense.”
He gave, as an example, any of the hundreds of Ric Flair matches where
Flair picks a body part, like a knee, and works on it for 15 or 20 minutes.
Then, when he finally applies the Figure 4 everybody in the place pops.
The fans knew that the logical culmination of the match was to take
advantage of the weakened knee – and for Flair that meant the Figure 4.
You know it is coming, and the drama is built from the question of did
Flair weaken the knee enough for the Figure 4 to finish him off?
Mark brought up one of my favorite matches of all
time, the Eddy Guerrero/Dean Malenko ECW farewell match.
He described how well both performers sold the damage, the real physical
tension, the flexing and fighting, the details of pulling at fingers to prevent
a fist from closing to lock in a hold. The
little details that make the struggle and the story seem real.
He also described a college drinking game – one
that I’m glad we didn’t know about way back in my college drinking days.
He applied the phrase “wrestling doesn’t always apply to what we see
on TV,” describing the game as “chugging whenever a real wrestling move
appears on TV.”
He describes the interaction with the fans as the
“lifeblood” of the business. “Working
in front of 50 fans may not seem like a big crowd, but the fans in general and
the kids in particular seem to have a great time. With 50 people in the crowd you have to give it your all, or
the next time in that town it will only be 15 people. Triple H’s return may have been positively electric, and
the MSG crowd must have been something to experience.
But how many of the fans in attendance got to talk with him and get an
autograph after the show?”
We had a good time discussing the difference
between working face and heel, and the importance of working with a good partner
in the ring. Mark put over the work
of Al B. Damm with whom he has had several matches.
Mark described a good card has “everybody has a story and every
character develops.” Personally,
I wish every writer for the WWF understood that basic concept.
We talked about how hard it is to get over as an
indie worker. Mark described his
website (www.markmattis.com), doing
interviews, sending out promo tapes, and taking bookings “all over God’s
green creation.” All in all, he
seems to be putting a tremendous amount of effort into wrestling. So of course I had to ask if it was worth it?
His response “At this point it is, at some point…
I could wake up one day and say this just isn’t worth it anymore.
Some nights when there are 10 family and friends making up the whole
crowd it is easy to get down. Some
guys suffer for 10 years in the indies before making it.
I’ve enjoyed watching wrestling since I was 8 years old and as long as
I’m having a good time and it motivates me to stay in shape I’ll keep
going.”
As to Mark’s goals in the business “My goal
is the WWF. A better way to say it
is when I started off I just enjoyed it and wanted to do it and be able to look
back on it later and see that I did it and tried it.
As I’ve done more and become more addicted I don’t want to look back
and say maybe if I had done more I could have made it to a full time promotion
or go to Japan or work a dark match for the WWF or whoever.
My new goal is to make it as far as I can and know that I tried
everything that I could.”
We wrapped up our conversation with Mark stating
“I wish more fans were aware of indie wrestling.
My parting wish is that folks reading this column become aware of indy
wrestling – go check out one show. If
you hate it then you can choose to stay away, but there are a lot of guys
working hard and they have earned a chance to have you check them out.”
As I stated earlier in this column, I have no
idea how typical Mark is. But after
this conversation I got a sense of a guy who likes the same things about the
business that I do, and moreover is working hard to deliver them.
I don't know how it feels live and in person, but if Vince won’t give
me what I want maybe I can get it in some high school gym in Nowheresville,
Ohio. If Mark and all of the other
workers out there can get off their sofas and work this hard then it must be
time for me to get off my sofa and go check it out.
At some point in the near future I’ll be off to see what is happening
at the grass roots of the business. And
you can be sure that I’ll gladly share my perspective on that as well.
Jim Hall is
an IT consultant in the warehousing/distribution industry with over 30 years of
faithful wrestling TV viewing. He
can be reached at jehingr@hotmail.com
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