The first time I walked into the gym in Moline, IL was one of the most unforgettable moments of my life. My childhood dream was actually happening. I was going to be a professional wrestler, but not only that, I was going to be training under the guy who was on top of the wrestling world at the moment. A guy who had recently beaten the Beast Incarnate, Brock Lesnar, and WWE’s top babyface, Roman Reigns, at WrestleMania, to become the WWE Champion. I was about to learn how to wrestle from Seth freakin’ Rollins.

That’s not where this journey began though. This journey started at around the age of 9. I remember sitting in front of the TV on a Monday night and flipping through the channels looking for something to watch. Then something caught my eye that would change my life forever… but it wasn’t exactly wrestling.

I Never Loved Wrestling for the Wrestling!

It was a wrestling show. In fact, it was THE wrestling show. WWF Monday Night RAW during the attitude era. The thing I saw wasn’t wrestling though. My first introduction to this new world was through a guy playing a pimp and walking to the ring with his “hos”.

I fell in love with the theatrics and the storylines. The love for the actual wrestling didn’t come until much later.

When I said I want to grow up to be a wrestler, what I actually meant was I want to grow up to tell stories. I want to be in the ring giving a promo, telling why I was the good guy and why what the other guy did was wrong. I want to express to you that this man hurt me in ways that no man should ever have to go through, and I am not standing by any longer. It is time to get my revenge?

What did the other guy do? Maybe he stole my girlfriend, maybe he cheated in what was supposed to be a competitive match, maybe he even stole my title by cheating. The story didn’t matter as long as it was intriguing and the fans loved it.

Now as I got older, and I think a lot of wrestling fans go through this phase, I started to want to be the bad guy. I wanted to be the guy who takes what he wants at any cost.

Who was my favorite wrestler?

This is a question I get asked a lot. Who inspires me to wrestle the style I do? Who did I love growing up? Who is my favorite wrestler?

My all time favorite wrestler is the Heartbreak Kid, Shawn Michaels! I have no idea how he become my favorite either. I’m pretty sure when I started watching was after he had retired for the first time. The DX Army was taking over wrestling. The Rock and Stone Cold were fighting over the WWF Championship. The Undertaker was burying the entire roster alive. Mick Foley was having an identity crisis, but I don’t remember Shawn Michaels being on TV.

Maybe he was in a commissioner role, or a spokesperson role, or maybe I just saw a lot of flashbacks. I have no idea why I loved him so much, but I know that the moment he returned as a member of the nWo, I was so far beyond excited that I didn’t know what to do!

I loved watching him from that moment, through beating his best friend in the Elimination Chamber to win the World Heavyweight Championship, his feuds with Y2J, the DX reunion, his match with Ric Flair, his matches with The Undertaker which lead to his retirement, and all the other magical moments during his second run.

Now thanks to the WWE Network I can relive all those moments from his second run, and also watch the moments I didn’t get to see live from his first run.

Finding Love in Wrestling After HBKs Retirement

This was actually a very hard part of my life. My idol was gone from weekly programming, and I didn’t find a lot of enjoyment from anything else on the show. I didn’t have a favorite wrestler anymore. I didn’t have anything to look forward to. Luckily, that changed with the return of Extreme Championship Wrestling!

If you are wondering why the ECW return was such a big moment in my wrestling fandom, but I didn’t bother to mention a single thing about it earlier, that you would be rightfully confused.

I didn’t watch the original ECW, and I’m not one of those huge ECW fans who thinks it’s the greatest thing that ever happened.

So why was the return of ECW so huge for me? Well, it was an indirect effect of ECW. The brand meant little to me as far as nostalgia goes. The matches were cool, but that isn’t the reason my love for wrestling was rejuvenated. ECW wasn’t what it used to be, and that’s why a lot of fans didn’t enjoy it.

The one thing it did that was as good as the old days was taking people that nobody else believed in, and making something out of them. It was Paul Heyman seeing potential in guys that the WWE said would never make it. You might know where I’m going with this by now.

Paul Heyman believed in a wrestler who was about to be released. He pleaded with the WWE to give him a chance, and when he got his chance, he took over the wrestling world.

I loved him because I had a lot in common with him. He doesn’t drink. He doesn’t smoke. He doesn’t do drugs. His only addiction is wrestling! He is CM PUNK!

I didn’t know straightedge was a thing before CM Punk was on TV. I didn’t have a title for what I was. I only knew that my friends liked to go out and get drunk. A lot of them smoked. A lot of them did drugs. I wasn’t interested in any of those things though. I just wanted to watch wrestling and play my wrestling video games.

CM Punk was the version of me who did what it took to achieve his dream, and I’ve never been more inspired by another wreslter.

THEN HE WALKED AWAY FROM THE BUSINESS!

Yep.. Here we go again. CM Punk had become a very very close second to my favorite wrestler of sometime, and I still to this day am not sure if I like him or HBK more… and he walked out of wrestling in the middle of a random RAW after the Royal Rumble.

I honestly thought he would be back after a few months, but he never did.

So once again I had no favorite wrestler. I am a guy who needs a favorite and I need a reason to watch wrestling. CM Punk is gone, and I didn’t know who would be my next favorite.

I watched every week. I enjoyed a lot of people’s work. I loved the Dean Ambrose, I loved Finn Balor, and I loved Dolph Ziggler. Surely one of those three would become my next favorite, right?

Nope. I could never decide which of the three I enjoyed more than the other, but what I did realize was that there was one man I looked forward to watching every single week. I waited and anticipated every week to see what he would do on the following Monday.

I realized that my new favorite wrestler was in fact, Seth Rollins!

The coolest part? He has a wrestling school. You know the next part of the story already, but I’ll go more in depth about my experiences at the Black and Brave Wrestling Academy in a future post.

Thanks for reading!
Bryan Austin Night
#BANwagon