Debut
By: Matt Hyson
The wrestling business has blessed me with many memorable moments. I’ve met and worked with some of the greatest of all time. However, any matches, PPV’s, titles and money just can’t compare to the pride I felt this past weekend. I’ll get to the source of that down the line. Allow me to start from the beginning.
Last Thursday Top-Rope promotion’s school, The Lock-Up, held a wrestling seminar taught by Simond Diamond. Simond currently is TNA agent. That means he pretty much runs the locker room, assists with production, vignettes, writing, promo’s---just about everything. Agents in any company must have a great mind for the business. I worked with Simond in the original ECW days from the late 90’s until its demise. We saw each other over the years at some indies, but it wasn’t until I started at TNA that we really worked again. Simond was a natural choice as a guest instructor.
The seminars the Lock-Up run are a great tool for local wrestlers. Not only is the instruction great, but it gives the wrestlers a chance to be seen by people within the business. Wrestling is all about networking, and there are just too few opportunities for young wrestlers to be seen. Well let me tell you, Simond Diamond gave one heck of a seminar. For five and a half hours he poured out any knowledge, advice, critique, criticism, etc., that he had. Everyone walked away a better wrestler. Everyone left feeling they were one step closer to the next level. So I really wanted to send props out to Simond for being unselfish and willing to give back to the wrestling community. He was truly professional and classy, until Friday night.
Friday,
Top-Rope ran a show at the
Let me tell you about Lea. She’s 18 years old and has been training at the Lock-Up for about six months. When she first came in I thought to myself, “There’s no way this shy, timid, young teenager is going to last more than a month.” As the head instructor I’m very aware of the rigors a young wrestler must go through and she had very little physicality in her background. But no matter how hard we pushed her, no matter how much she hurt, she was at every practice. There is absolutely no quit in her and she started progressing at a very nice rate. A few months later, with her confidence up a little, she started tossing around some of the guys like a little tiger. She really studies the sport and has a lot of fire. Because of her hard work and dedication we have a debut date for her coming up very soon (keep your eyes open). But we thought it would be nice to introduce her to the local crowd and let her get a feel for what it’s like to in front of a live audience.
After the first match our ring announcer introduced Lea as our first graduate and just as she stepped into the ring Simond Diamond and Gregory Edwards interrupted the proceeding. They went on to really get into Lea’s face and Simond flat out said she was the least impressive wrestler at the seminar. It got much uglier than that, and I really didn’t see the point of two men trying to bully around a young woman who hasn’t even had a match. But bullies will be bullies. To Lea’s credit, she acted like a true pro; in fact she didn’t say a word. She simply turned to leave the ring like a lady. And that’s when Simond decided to super-kick her in the face.
The audience was stunned, the wrestlers were stunned, and I was stunned. It took me a second to snap out and Vain (my tag partner for the night) and I ran in to chase them off and check in on Lea. I was really scared, but I should have known better. She’s a tough chick. Yeah, she probably will eat soup for the next couple of days but she was alright.
Think it ends there? Well check this out. Vain and I were fortunate enough to be scheduled against Simond and Edwards a few matches later. We kicked the crap out of them. I mean we took them all over around and through out that building. Just as we were doing great, they of course, pulled some really dirty stuff out and Edwards had me literally tied to the guard rail. Vain then got double teamed and left to be stomped at their leisure. Well, Simond pulled a chair out of the ring. Just as he was about to crack Vain, Lea ran down, smacked the living “you-know-what” out of Simond, hit the ropes and gave a beautiful tilt-a-whirl head scissors to him and Vain rolled him up for the win!
Now granted, we might have had outside interference for the win, but so what? They would have taken it if they could have. But as I crawled back into the ring I heard the crowd chanting, “Lea, Lea, Lea!” Want to feel pride? Have your first student debut to a standing chant. Man my heart swelled. As head instructor it really felt great to see one of your students do well. She didn’t back down to a guy with 16 years experience, she held her own and the crowd loved her. It was a really great night. Look out for this girl down the road, she has a great future.