feature
'the only thing fake is the in the wrestling ring Taking falls with professional restlers
A professional wrestling practice match is about to start, and I smile, thinking it will look fake. I prepare myself to stifle any laughs so I won't get beaten up; the ring owner, Larry Barber, warned me the wrestlers don't like their sport to be smirked at. They might throw me in the ring for insinuating anything, he says.
The match starts. The wrestlers, Jeremy Wyatt and Mike Sydal, grab each other by the necks and bare their teeth at each other. They circle like bulls with locked horns. With a deep grunt, Wyatt throws Sydal against the ropes. Sydal bounces back and Wyatt clotheslines him; Sydal hits the ring floor with a boom.
None of this looks fake like I thought it would.
Wyatt picks up Sydal by his hair. He knees him in the stomach and Sydal roars out in pain. Wyatt saunters around the ring, triumphant. Then he goes in for the kill, pushing Sydal against the ropes.
The referee begins the count to three. I hear Wyatt whisper; "Catch my leg when I kick you."
Wyatt releases Sydal and kicks him; Sydal catches his leg and spins them both to the floor.
The referee, Barber, counts to three. Sydal wins. Because this is only practice, Wyatt compliments Sydal. And then they're back to wrestling.
The wrestlers wrestle for Dynamo Pro
Wrestling, which Barber owns. It's in Ottawa in the back of a video rental store.
Barber calls professional wrestling "sports entertainment." He says there's a definite athletic aspect to professional wrestling and it takes a strong person to do it.
"This is something not everyone can do," Barber says.
To be a wrestler at Dynamo Pro, you have to pass a cardiovascular workout test. Your body has to be in top shape, or "ring shape," says wrestler Tyler Cook, a 24-year-old 2008 graduate. He says he works out three hours a day.
Wyatt, who's been wrestling for seven years, says you "learn wrestling through repetition, a
lot of it's instinctual." Wyatt says your body callouses from the falls and eventually falls don't hurt as much.
However, Wyatt says he's still sore every morning after he wrestles. As a wrestler, you have to be ready for pain.
"People do get hurt," Wyatt says. "You got to fight through it."
Perhaps the most exciting thing about wrestling is when things go wrong. Wyatt says he ripped his nipple open in a match where the ropes of the wrestling ring were replaced with barbed wire for a special match. When I ask him why he would wrestle in such a ring, Wyatt shrugs. Now Wyatt's nipple looks like an exclamation point.
From left, Andrew Gindlesberger, Ariel Melin, Mike Sydal and Mark Sterling stretch before a practice session at Dynamo Pro Wrestling gym in Ottawa in February. Gindlesberger and Melin, who were both relatively new to the sport, were trying out to become part of the Dynamo Pro company that evening. Larry Barber, owner of the gym, explained that although these men practice here, most of them wrestle for numerous other groups in addition to Dynamo Pro.