By Bill Zeeble, KERA 90.1 Reporter
Plano, TX – [BAM!] Agghh; not bad.
Bill Zeeble, KERA 90.1 reporter: Chris Nash, A/K/A Chris Chronic, is teaching 19 year-old Justin Williams some professional wrestling basics in the Slam Shack ring at the back of a recreation center in Plano.
Chris Nash, professional wrestler and teacher: You going to hit? You're going to have your arms out. [Slap!] Make it pop. Make it hurt. [BAM!] Give it a reason. Don't have your arms out there for nothing. Or they'll get hurt. Awright?
Zeeble: Chris Nash's student, Justin Williams, says he's always wanted to be a wrestler, then heard about the school. So he signed up for the $1500 course. As wrestlers Sparky and The Beast practice bouncing off the ropes and slamming the ring in the background, Williams says he'll pay for class over time, from his job selling spas, pools, and pool tables.
Justin Williams, professional wrestling student: I like it; it's fun. [BAM!] You're really, really popular. If you make it into the WWF, you're world-wide known. I like watching it; I like being trained; I hope I can become big time some day.
Zeeble: Nash tells Williams he'll need fancy physical moves, plus the ability to make a no- contact punch look close to real. Eventually, he'll learn pre-match interview techniques, including how to grab the announcer's microphone. In the meantime, Justin Williams will need a name.
Williams: I'm kinda tossed in between two names right now. I kinda wanna be Justin Sane, or The Man.
Zeeble: What about Justin Sane?
Williams: I'm pretty partial to that name now. I'll probably end up taking that one.
Zeeble: Only about a year old, the Slam Shack and Texas Championship Wrestling (TCW) are too new to boast any big names, let alone star graduates. Collin County Community College Political Science professor Tom Caiazzo created it after helping to put on a fundraiser wrestling match for his school's athletic department. Caiazzo loves professional wrestling.
Tom Caiazzo, founder of Texas Championship Wrestling and college professor: People are ignorant of it and say, one: why is someone with higher education doing that? They need to understand the scope of it, that it's mainly to have fun for the kids. But it's a hobby. Some play darts, some go bowling. I attend professional wrestling.
Zeeble: Still, darts and bowling at least have a better name than professional wrestling, which is almost universally recognized as fake, a joke. Just ask Cheryl Woolnough. The mother of two young amateur wrestlers, she's Secretary of USA Wrestling in Texas, and was involved with the recent U.S. Olympic wrestling trials held in Dallas.
Cheryl Woolnough, Secretary of USA Wrestling, Texas: The moves are orchestrated; it's decided ahead of time who's going to win, what's going to happen. There's violence and sleaze in pro wrestling. In the Olympics, it's not decided ahead of time.
Zeeble: No argument there. The Slam Shack teaches pre-scripting techniques. TCW wrestlers routinely review the action backstage.
John T. Bender A/K/A Johnnie T, TCW Announcer: You're going to put a bear hug on Hawkeye and drop him, right? Then, you and Nero are going to start. Unidentified wrestler: I get to smack him one before he drops Nero.
Bender: Okay, that's cool. Then Nero and Big Johnson, you start fighting each other after you put Hawkeye out. You guys get into it a bit, then I'll step in, break it up.
Zeeble: That's John T. Bender, an actuary who enters the TCW ring as announcer Johnnie T.
Johnnie T, in the ring: Awright fans, thanks for coming out. Welcome to Texas Championship Wrestling!
Bender: Johnnie T, the hardest working man in show business. Coast to coast, open 24 hours, prime time; I'm the kind that lives on the edge of a lightning bolt. I have more fun on accident than most people have on purpose. And I'm TCW's announcer, Johnnie T. Basically, I try to make sure people know what they need to know; maintain energy level between matches; and communicate relevant information to the audience, and probably some irrelevant information, as I tend to be rather long-winded, as you might notice while you're doing this interview, and I can go on and on about stuff that really has nothing to do with wrestling.
Zeeble: TCW founder and promoter Tom Caiazzo knows professional wrestling is much less sport and a lot more show when compared to the Olympics.
Caiazzo: Where you have to talk to the crowd; where you have to have a persona, a gimmick, a shtick. That's not required in amateur wrestling. Here we're doing more to cater to the fan, bringing fans back week to week. Doing angles, where that doesn't exist in amateur wresting. Angles as in, week to week, having a story line. Like a male soap opera, because you can only see so many head locks; you can only see so many arm drags. You have to have a story line so people want to come back and keep up.
Zeeble: At tonight's match, TCW favorite Chris Chronic is getting ready to face the bull-sized Tyler outsider, Sparky. Other wrestlers, in the ring as bad guys, taunt the champion.
Unidentified wrestler, from the ring: There was this little guy there when I got there named Chris Nash. He wasn't about money; he was about wrestling. Now he wants to be Chris Chronic and be about money and leave his friends, like Billy and me. Well, if you want to be about money and leave friends, hop up in here and let's go right now.
Zeeble: As the match begins, we already know who's likely to win.
Ambient sounds of ring action: Agghh! Come on, Chris! [BAM! THUD!] Come on, Chris! Chronic! Chronic! Chronic!
Zeeble: After 15 or 20 minutes of close calls, Chronic beats his opponent, then staggers breathless around the ring as if he'd just singlehandedly and simultaneously defeated Hitler, Darth Vader, Slobodan Milosovic, and the New Jersey Devils Hockey Team. Behind the scenes, they're all pals.
Nash: When you go against a buddy of yours, you want to take care of each other. At the same time, you want to come out here and put a good show. So I don't have a problem just beating the hell out of some of my friends. He's really taking hits. I'm hurting him. I'm trying to. A little bit. Now, if I got to work with him tonight, next week, I don't want to cripple him.
Zeeble: This is just pure, part raw, dramatic entertainment. It's no surprise Nash moved to wrestling from a college theater background.
Nash: I love Shakespeare. I'm an avid Shakespeare fan. I believe that's some of the talent I bring here.
Zeeble: In the Slam Shack class, wrestling teacher Nash stresses the power of an identifiable character audiences will react strongly to, whether they love him or hate him.
Nash: When I'm here in the ring alone, hitting or getting hit, and I hear that crowd cheer or boo, doesn't matter. I know they're making noise for me. Makes a big difference. I know I'm giving them the show. I don't have to rely on anyone else. It's me out here for them. I prefer much more direct feedback from the audience. It's the lifeblood of this industry.
Zeeble: Slam Shack student Justin Sane is still getting there. His wrestling model is Stone Cold Steve Austin.
Williams: ?Cause he don't give a crap about anybody, don't follow anybody's rules.
Zeeble: For Justin Sane to reach the pros, he'll need to master a character and look, dramatic timing, and clothes and hair that scream out his persona. By pro wrestling standards, he should also probably stand another foot taller on legs like rough-bark tree trunks. Texas Championship Wrestling matches take over the ring in Plano every Saturday evening. Next month, TCW celebrates its anniversary. For KERA 90.1, I'm Bill Zeeble.