The Secret Life of a Pro Wrestler—Personal Experience, Pt. 5: The Match

The Secret Life of a pro-wrestler takes you inside the world of a pro-wrestler. It will tell you things that you just don't think about. You find out the good and the bad, the happy and sad.

If you want to follow this installment, because it may have things in it you are not familiar with yet. please check out Part 4 or all of them:

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/145971-the-secret-life-of-a-pro-wrestler-personal-experience-part-4-the-image

Here is Part 5

So there I was left wondering. Who would I face in my first match? It was coming up, and I really needed to meet up with the guy and get started.

I mean we can't just show up and wrestle, we have to know who will win and what moves we will do.

So I asked the booker, he said the show was Thursday and I would face my good friend Eric Escobar.

Now I was very happy to hear this, because new wrestlers do not normally wrestle the best of the best in FCW in their first match. The booker said that Eric told him he wanted to wrestle me because he wanted my first match to be good.

I guess he didn't trust anyone to wrestle me other than him at first. And since he has significant pull in FCW, he is the man there. He is the guy you want on your side. And usually if he wants something, he gets it.

Needless to say I was nervous, but also excited. Eric told me that he would win the match. He was not being selfish of course, that was on the writers. And who can blame them?

I was wrestling my first match, and Eric has been in development for 3 years. He was in FCW since it started and is a FCW World Champion in his time there.

So I knew I wouldn't win, but I had to be good. Eric just turned heel previously, so I would wrestle as a face in the match. Which was good because I could use my gimmick in my first match.

Escobar wanted me to do a promo before the match, he mentioned that he knew my mic skills had improved and I was really good at this point. So with that said I had to agree to do one.

He wanted me to come up with it and pitch it to the writers to see what they would think. Eric told me that you can get called up if you can write well.

I never thought about this, as there are writers who have a job to do.

See Vince McMahon loves it when wrestlers are creative, and if I were to get hurt he could still use me in the writing or creative team. So of course I got right on it. Who better to do a promo with my image than me?

I was not going to argue with a guy like Escobar. He had become a good friend and mentor to me.

And it was an honor to wrestle him.

Now we just needed to choreograph it. He was going to win, so my finisher was not going to be used. Which made sense. My finisher had to be good and look great so that fans would like me.

But I had to do some moves they would like. They told me I was a technical wrestler, so I should do moves that were high impact but would not win the match.

We were going to be on in the middle part of the show for about 7 or 8 minutes. So we had to make sure we choreographed it and timed it at the same time.

I just hope I remember all the moves.

Later that week it was show time. We went on at 9 and it was the most exciting part of my life.

I pitched the idea to the writers earlier in the week about my promo. They seemed to like it and decided to let me do it, with a little encouragement from Escobar.

My promo would be earlier in the night, probably around 8:30. It was just about that time, and I was about to go on live for the promo.

Here is the promo I said that night:

"I have seen people go in and out of the WWE for years. People like The Rock, Stone Cold, Bret Hart, and others come through the WWE.

Of course I loved seeing today's superstars like John Cena, Triple H, Randy Orton, and The Phenom The Undertaker.

But I have seen someone come through FCW who has made the history and present of wrestling look horrible, and he is Eric Escobar!

Unlike you Escobar, I am not going to say I am better than all of these fans,  I will embrace them. You need to learn that, and I am willing to teach you.

And tonight Escobar you will see why I am less than a God but more than a man!"

I was sort of happy with the promo, but I was not a big time wrestling writer....yet

I knew that fans would be on my side because of the fact that I was going after the top heel in FCW, Eric Escobar.

Eric was of course different from his character in wrestling, and he told me that with my gimmick I had to dress well.

He mentioned that I should do something similar to AJ Styles. Come out with a hood on, but reveal my face towards the end. He said I  should also wear white too. Because of the sort of Savior gimmick.

I agreed to it.

The match was a success, and the fans loved it. Eric sold my moves very well, and he cheated to win with his leg on the ropes.

He had to do it to sell his heel character and show that he could not beat me without cheating.

I was happy with what happened. But were the fans?

Later that night, other wrestlers came up to me and said I did very well. Escobar was happy with the match too.

People in the audience were said to be happy with the match we did. And that was good news.

The bookers said that they loved the match and wondered if I wanted to get into a title hunt, possibly for the tag gold. I was really wanting to go for it.

But the problem was that I didn't have a partner. So who could I find to be a tag partner?