Post Script to It Ain't the age........

Oh yeah, the icing on the cake to my knee deterioration had to be in 1997-1999 when, as a wife and business owner, I attended a professional wrestling school in Bentonville , Arkansas. As Jeff Foxworthy might say......You Might be A Redneck if Your Wife's Having A Midlife Crisis, and Decides to Become A Professional Wrestler!!!! I was 40 years old. It started when a promoter entered my tattoo shop and asked me to be a sponser for their wrestling school and all the shows they were doing. In the 70's in Georgia I was a fan of Georgia championship Wrestling with Gordon Solie, I loved Bob Armstrong, the Fabulous Freebirds, Dean Malenko, Dusty Rhodes, The Assassins 1 and 2, the Iron sheik, and Mr. Wrestling.A young new wrestler, Terry Taylor was one of my favorites and I had the pleasure of meeting and working with his Dad in Vero Beach, FL, his dad nicknamed me Seashell because of the seashell necklace I wore all the time....(Small World, huh?) So many more, it was the heyday for professional wrestling, before Vince McMahon went and ruined it for all of us, including the wrestlers. This promoter took me to the school which was just up the street from my shop at that time. I got to watch what most people never see, the training a wrestler goes through, mainly to avoid injuries, but this has caused the business to be labelled "fake". Trust me, there is nothing fake about it except maybe the soap opera story lines. Every kid I met and some not so young, paid for every match with their blood and guts. This is where the saga of my knees continues. As I watched the exercises and the practice I thought to myself, and maybe I may have mentioned it outloud, that "I can do that!!!". The Promoter said, come on up in the ring and try it. Now being the ham that I am, I bounded to the ring, climbed in and was introduced to Dexter Hardaway and Malice, stage names of course, and these 2 guys from Tulsa showed me how they teach what is known as a Back Bump. The final move is supposed to look like your feet are knocked out from under you and you end up on your back, simple huh! Nah. If a person can't do it themselves on the first try, a student gets against the back of your legs on their hands and knees and the instructor firmly pushes you backwards. The trick is to tuck your head forward and land squarely on the flat of your back with your legs in the air. Well I let them do this to me and everything went fine except I didn't tuck and I now knew what it meant to "see stars! " Well this should have discouraged any person with any Common Sense (see the thread?) but it only fueled the "center of attention" part of my makeup and I immediately enrolled in the school! I was faithful to school and I even practiced on days we didn't have class, of course it took me three weeks to learn new things where the young guys took 3 minutes to pick up the new stuff, They were very patient with me, I guess I was like "mom" to some of them and the other ones wanted tattoos, anyway I was accepted as one of the guys. One instructor groomed me for more advanced things for my debut match. It was in Fort smith, Arkansas and our promoter had Hector Guerrero, Jim, the Anvil, Niedhart (who never showed), Terry ,Bam Bam, Gordy of Fabulous Freebird Fame and Dan, the Beast, Severn. The midgets Bobby Love and Little Kato were on the ticket. Dino, the chick I wrestled, was a very good wrestler. Well The match went well, one minor problem was discovered after I was thrown around awhile....at age 40, a person should go pee before they are to be thrown around like a rag doll! The "crowning" glory of my match was when I took a headshot with a metal chair from The Assassin, to end the match! I have it all on really bad home video and it's cool everytime I watch it! Hector Guerrero even complemented me on my wrestling, he was surprised to learn it was my debut, he told me I should stick with it. The guys from class watching from behind the curtain were awed, in school no one was allowed chair shots until they were further along so I won their respect as the old lady who could wrestle!!!! I quit in 1999 after the 3rd time of being stiffed by a promoter. There is no money in wrestling and the guys and girls that do this do it for the love of the sport. Common Sense kicked in, weekends were the money making times of my business so wrestling sank quietly into the archives of my life, to be called upon when feeling low or just needing a chuckle when life was being difficult, I would still be doing it, I just couldn't make a living at it, I really loved the sport! Check out the photos from this time, Hi! to Malace and Dexter and RIP Terry, we miss you....