In this corner, from Akron, weighing 235 pounds, stands Moto … Machina!
And in this corner, from Akron, weighing 190 pounds, is Electric Jake … Ely!
The metal music stops, the bell rings, and for the first time in their lives, Moto Machina and Electric Jake Ely have a crowd in front of them ready to see a good old-fashioned beat-down.
They were two of four students from the first class of SpineBuster University who made their professional wrestling debuts at the Ohio Championship Wrestling facility in Akron on April 22.
The wrestlers trained for six months leading up to the match, but they’d dreamed about it for a lifetime.
“For me, this is like a final test,” said Tony “Moto Machina” Nihart before heading into the ring. “No one’s gonna stop me now.”
SpineBuster University is a wrestling training facility run by Ohio Championship Wrestling (OCW), a wrestling promotion organization based in Akron. The “university” started last year to train hopefuls how to hone basic moves, character development and trash-talking skills.
Out of the 15 who started the class, only four who remained were ready for a match — Nihart, 30, of Newton Falls; Anthony Ely, or “Electric” Jake Ely, 19, of Akron; Grant Metz, or Grant Andrews, 21, of Uniontown; and Chuck Lennon, or Chuck “The Truck” Morris, 26, of Canton.
Land of dreams
Despite the physical strain for the four young hopefuls, the decision to stay was simple. It’s the first step to realizing a lifelong dream they all share: going pro in the world of wrestling.
That dream started at a young age for each of the guys — “since I popped out [of] the womb,” said Ely — when they watched the likes of Hulk Hogan and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson body-slam one another on TV.
“It’s always been there. As a kid, I loved just the pure entertainment of it,” Ely said. “As I got older, I learned to respect it for more than entertainment on TV.”
They exhausted other options first. Most tried out college. Lennon worked an office job, and Nihart served in the U.S. Army for nine years.
But the bright lights and fog machines of the professional wrestling world kept calling each of them.
“This is one thing I always knew I wanted to do,” Metz said.
When grade-school teachers asked Metz what he wanted to be when he grew up, it was always the same thing. He persisted even through bullying from his peers.
“I want to prove those people wrong who gave me a hard time,” Metz said.
Face vs. Heel
The Firefly? No. The Flying Bull? Closer, but still no.
One of a new wrestler’s first tasks is to develop a persona to take to the ring, conjuring up everything from a stage name and attitude to a costume and look.
“Bouncing ideas off of one another is where you get most of it,” said Ely, who, after tossing around several animal-based names, settled on a play off the electric eel.
Pro wrestlers can either be a “face,” a good guy, or a “heel,” a bad guy. Both roles have their perks, but a wrestler’s fate always lies in the boos or cheers of his audience.
“If the crowd doesn’t like the way you wrestle, they’ll let you know,” said Glenn Smith, who helps out at OCW. “The crowd will dictate whether they’re into your character or not.”
The choice of characters tends to reveal the true personalities behind each wrestler. Nihart, for example, based his character on his favorite comic-book villain, The Punisher, while the mask symbolically veils the post-traumatic stress disorder from his years in the Army.
“I’m not a big social guy,” Nihart said. “That’s why I have the mask.”
Road to success
The feuds between wrestlers are scripted. Characters are just that, and the winners are determined before the match even starts.
But the spit flying from wrestlers’ mouths when they get hit in the face is very real, and there is palpable passion behind each punch.
Pro wrestling treads the line between theater and sport, and rehearsal brings a tinge of control over what otherwise feels like a runaway train.
During training, new wrestlers learn moves through repetition: quick feet, slam to the ground, catapult your body from the ropes straight into a punching bag. Repeat.
“It’s not for everybody. It’s taxing physically and mentally,” Nihart said. “It’s not for the faint of heart.”
Aspiring wrestlers also have to learn how to talk the talk, taking time out of practice to rehearse how to brew a feud with another wrestler.
“What we do in here, it’s an art form,” Ely said. “Whether it’s scripted or choreographed or fake or whatever you want to call it, it’s still something.”
Nihart, Ely, Metz and Lennon all started at SpineBuster University in November. They’ll continue training for another few months until they can fight in real matches, but the road to the WWE is still far off.
Many try, but few wrestlers actually go pro. Sherman Tank, the school’s trainer, was one of many who fell just short of the national spotlight in his 22 years of wrestling.
Wrestlers work their way up by wrestling for different local promotions until they generate interest from larger national organizations, like WWE.
“The main goal would’ve been WWE, but that doesn’t always happen. They have a certain kind of person they’re looking for, but I just wasn’t it,” Tank said. “It’s very difficult in that people don’t really realize what it takes … To do it at a certain level, whether its WWE or OCW, there’s a lot of nuances that you have to put together.”
There are other challenges, too, like having the right face for fame, getting multiple promotions on your side and confessing to your family that you want to wear spandex for a living.
Lennon said before the match, his family didn’t even know he wanted to wrestle. He told them the next day.
“Once I get out there, it’s done. There’s no turning back,” Lennon said minutes before stepping into the ring for his first match. “That’s who I am, and that’s who I want to be.”
Grand debut
Things were quiet down in the dressing room before the Tradition 14 show where the Spine U students had their exhibition matches.
But the ring was a zoo filled with tassels and shiny spandex.
Wrestlers flung themselves from the ropes into one another, their slams amplified by the moving floor of the ring. Some matches spilled out of the ring and onto the gym floor, where wrestlers grappled behind a flimsy barrier shielding the crowd.
“This show is going horribly,” Smith said after someone in the front row nearly took a foot to the face.
But in the stands, the crowd went wild. A group of little boys grabbed their faces in sheer excitement and screamed, “Oh my God!”
In the first match, Lennon twisted Metz’s arm and threw him to the ground. Metz responded with a swift kick in the face and emerged victorious. Afterward, kids ran up to get each of their autographs.
“It was like the blink of an eye,” Metz said. “I feel like the man now. I feel great.”
Things got even rowdier during the second half when Ely took on Nihart. After a match filled with flips and dives, Ely, the underdog, came out on top.
The young boys in the stands watched the final matches with delight, as some saw for the very first time the world of wrestling and the shiny surface of what it takes to go pro.
Theresa Cottom can be reached at 330-996-3216 or tcottom@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter @Theresa_Cottom .