Blog of the fan-turned-pro wrestler Ben Monaco

Wednesday 20 March 2013

Becoming Ben Monaco (Part 3)

Kid Leopard agreed with marcwrestler, I was BG material. We chatted back and forth on GF and Yahoo! Messenger which I had discovered to be a preferred, albeit dated chat system that the wrestling community had adopted. He liked the pictures; he thought I had a good look. He was interested in having me go down to the US for a shoot they were going to have in early February, more specifically in their Florida location.

Two emotions took over my life from that point on: excitement and fear. Excitement was the obvious one; I was, after all, going to forevermore be labelled a BG East wrestler and meet others who already were. Fear was also present in my mind though. I was going to do something that was greatly unknown to me. What if I wasn’t that good on camera? I mean I had acted on camera before, but this was not the same thing. What if I wasn’t hot enough?

Nevertheless, KL had given me the green light. I was all clear for arrival on their end. I still wasn’t sure I was going to do it though. I still felt unsure and unready on many levels. How could all this have happened so quickly for me? From unknown and inexperienced to pro and paid in a matter of months? I needed advice before I gave BG East my green light.

I needed an outside ear. I went out to supper with my best friend and planned on telling him all about this. He would be the first “outsider” to get a glimpse into this part of my life. I waited until he came back to my place after the meal to tell him. He was staying over at my place that wintery night. We crashed on my bed and chatted for a while before I made a big coming-out style announcement to him. I blurted it out and waited.

“That’s so cool” was his enthused reply. He told me I had nothing to be nervous about when it came to this. Sure he didn’t quite understand it all, he wasn’t in any way turned on by it, but he was supportive. Like he said, I was passionate about it; I loved it, so that was good enough for him. As long as I was happy, he was happy for me. That’s all that mattered. And as for filiming, he told me he would hate me if I didn't go!

That conversation took a load off of my mind. It made me feel less worried, but I still needed to know if technically I was ready for what was going to come. KL kept in touch and was asking me for updates on whether or not I was going to go down. I told him I was still thinking about it and getting some things in order up here in Montreal (mainly time off of work).

Marcwrestler caught wind of my hesitations and decided to call me one afternoon. We talked a lot about the whole thing. I shared my fears, my anxieties about the whole process and my worries about my training. He told me everything I needed to hear. He comforted me, calmed my nerves and actually got me really over the edge. The fear ceded and excitement won in the end. I was sold. I was going. I confirmed with KL that same afternoon that it was a go on my part.

Still, there was work to do.

I met up with marcwrestler as often as my work cycles would allow me to for more training. I insisted on learning as many new moves as I could so that I wouldn’t look like a complete novice on my first venture with the company. It was intense, it was a lot of information, but after a few weeks of meeting with him, I had mastered a fair amount of moves and was well on my way to feeling confident enough for BG’s taping.

I hit the gym harder than ever and worked not only on my routine, but corrected certain problems with my nutrition. I laid off the fast food and liquor while focussing on slimming down, something that KL had requested I do as much as I could before my visit southward. I also placed my request for time off from work which was promptly accepted.

With the appropriate arrangements made, I finished my last work cycle, booked my tickets and flew down to Florida to have my first adventures in this new aspect of my life. Things were about to get very, very interesting…

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