Spot Light From The Indies: Troy Brown, From Grease Monkey to Grappler!

Hello everyone. As always, I would like to thank you for spending a few minutes with me today.

I am here to talk to you about a grappler no one has most likely heard of. He is grappler that has risked all odds to follow his dreams. The man I am referring to today is a grappler named Troy Long.

If you were saying to yourself “who the hell is this guy”, you wouldn’t be the only one. His tale is very extraordinary one though.

He is a 36-year-old man who decided to follow his dream to be a pro wrestler.

He hales from New River Valley in Virginia, he was a sergeant in the army and former mechanic for Volvo. His new career is a far cry from his old one, now he wears tights and travels around the Indy circuit as a pro wrestler.

It was about one year ago when this grappler was a mechanic for Volvo. Like in parts of the country hard times would hit his part of the woods. He would go from being a company guy making 60.000 a year, to an unemployed go with no income.

Like most wrestlers that venture in the business he would forgo the comfort of a steady paycheck to follow his dreams. Also like many other Indy workers he would find that to leave your dreams, you sometimes have to sacrifice.

While he aspires to make it big in the wrestling world, until that happens he finds himself having to work multiple odd jobs to keep the bills at bay. It is a sacrifice that he knows that he must make in order to survive.

"A year ago, I was clearing about $1,000 a week, there wasn't nothing I couldn't do. If I saw something I wanted to buy, hey I didn't worry about it, I just bought it. And now I've learned how to rethink how to spend my money, what's most important. And right now, other than my son, being a wrestler is the most important thing in my life."

Like most others in this business he has no regrets with his choice. "This is about somebody going after what they've always wanted to be, I'm living my dream. And I don't care if I'm dirt poor in the process, it doesn't matter to me. Because I don't base my life on material stuff," he says.

He is currently works under the ring name “Sergeant Long”, and plays a good guy. It was his time in the military that would be the inspiration for his gimmick.  He gets to experience a high us as fan will never experience.

Whether or not he ever makes the big time is a question that no one can answer right now. Unlike most others that enter the business, he is starting at the age of 36. In a young mans sport he certainly has the odds stacked against him.

He is at least trying to follow his dreams though. For that reason alone I give this man a ton of credit. I wish him nothing but the best of luck in his new ventures.

If you happen to see an add for a local show and he is on the card, do the guy a favor and check out the show. It is our job as fans to support the local guys. With out the local guys the wrestling business would cease to exist.

Thanks again for spending some time with me.

As always, have a great day and god bless.

(info and qoutes from ABC.com)