Before They Were "Entertainers"

[IrishCanadian25]

In my opinion, the best professional wrestlers from the perspective of "in-ring work" are those who had a successful amateur wrestling career and parlayed it into the professional world, learning how to be an "entertainer" and to "draw money." Some make the transition better than others. This thread is dedicated to discussing the amateur careers of several legends of the ring.

For a little background, I was an amateur wrestler for 3 years in high school and 1 year in college. I always find myself cheering for the names below a little harder, because I know what they've gone through and because I empathize with them.

Kurt Angle is obvious. For this reason, Kurt's autobiography was thus far my absolute favortie. Kurt first stepped on the mats at age 6, and never looked back. From the steel-worker rich streets of Pittsburgh, PA, Kurt went undefeated as a Frosh at Mt. Lebanon HS, and won his first State Championship as a senior in 1987. For those who don't know, Pennsylvania is perrenially one of the top-5 High School Wrestling states in the US (PA, NY, NJ, OH, Minn.) and wrestling at Pennsylvania High Schools is akin to HS football in Texas. Read a great book called "Wrestling Sturbridge" to learn more.

Angle went on to Clarion University, and became a 3-time All-American, winning 2 National NCAA Titles and taking 2nd place once. I canot underscore just how hard that truly is. To learn more about it, watch the film "Vision Quest."

While everyone focuses on Angle's 1996 Gold Medal win in the Olympics, Angle won the Wrestling World Championship in 1995 as well, which is just as hard as olympic gold. Angle trained under the great Dave Schultz, who would shortly thereafter be murdered by one of Angle's school mates in a wrestling tragedy that is still felt today.

When Kurt talks about winning the Olympics "with a broken freakin' neck," he is referrng to an injury he suffered at the Olympic Trials. 2 fractured cervical vertabrae, 2 herniated discs, four pulled neck muscles. The pain must have been unbearable, and this is the type of injury that ends NFL careers. Kurt rested and rehabbed 5 months - and then won an officials's decision ater an 8-minute, one-to-one tie over Iranian favorite Abbas Jadidi. For those who don't know, 8 minutes in a wrestling match of this level is harder than 30-minutes of pro, 16 minutes of MMA, etc. It's pure hell.

Feel free to use this thread to discuss Kurt's amateur background, as wel as the amateur backgrounds of other pro wrestlers. I will post one every other day or so. Do you feel an amateur background gives a pro wrestler an advantage in the ring? Who are your favorite amateurs-turned-pros, and why?

 

[Lee]

In my opinion, the best professional wrestlers from the perspective of "in-ring work" are those who had a successful amateur wrestling career and parlayed it into the professional world, learning how to be an "entertainer" and to "draw money."

Some yes, some no. Shelton Benjamin being the one who springs to mind according to what I could find on the internet;

While in high school, he achieved a 122–10 win-loss record and was a two-time South Carolina state high school heavyweight wrestling champion, earning the title in both 1993 and 1994. He was then accepted to attend the University of Minnesota, where he achieved a 36–6 win-loss record.

Whilst Benjamin had a pretty good start to the ring in both OVW and WWE, he sort of fizzled. Despite being the current WWE US champion, I've not really seen him flourish recently as we all know he did back when he started. Why is that?

Apparently in the year 2000 Benjamin decided not to go to the Olympic trials and instead opted to become an 'entertainer' and this I think is the clincher. Whilst Angle went to the Olympics and came back with an Olympic gold medal...Benjamin opted not too. Being against the best in the world on the biggest amateur stage of them all, would have been what he needed in order to keep those levels up and maybe not muck up as many pushes as he's had in WWE.

 

[TheOneBigWill]

While I'm not as keen to liking him anymore with how his attitude toward the Professional Wrestling world went.. I'd have to say I was (during the time) a bigger Brock Lesnar fan, than a Kurt Angle fan.

Brock Lesnar, as most would know, is similar to Kurt Angle. Only without the Olympics. According to Wiki, these are Lesnar's Amateur stats..

Lesnar attended Webster High School in Webster, South Dakota where he managed to have a 33-0 record in his senior year. Lesnar later attended the University of Minnesota on a full wrestling scholarship for his junior and senior years of college; his roommate was fellow professional wrestler Shelton Benjamin who also served as Lesnar's assistant coach.

Lesnar won the 2000 NCAA wrestling championship as a heavyweight after placing second in 1999. Prior to joining the Minnesota Golden Gophers, Lesnar also wrestled at Bismarck State College in Bismarck, North Dakota.

Lesnar finished his amateur career as a two-time NJCAA All-American, two-time NCAA All-American, two-time Big Ten Conference Champion, and the 2000 NCAA heavyweight champion with a record of 106-5 overall in four years of college.

I, myself, while in school tried out for wrestling but never fully got into it. I didn't have near enough strength to be anything big or important in it to begin with, but I knew I loved the sport so I wanted to try my hand at it.

In complete honesty, I've never fully enjoyed amateur wrestling. I just can't get into it at all. But I greatly respect some of those who have. And once again, I would have to side personally with Brock Lesnar over Kurt Angle.

The one thing I do realize the most about amateur wrestling is how easy it is to lose. For that, compiling a record as good as what Kurt Angle and Brock Lesnar have, is a feat within itself.

 

[Mr. TM]

Another wrestler who I thought had an interesting beginning athletically before coming to the WWE was the great talent, Elijah Burke. Before coming to the WWE, he was apparently an amateur boxer in Jacksonville Florida. While there it is claimed he never lost a fight, except by disqualification once. His actual record is not known as far as I know, some record say he was 90-1, WWE claims he was 103-1. He also apparently won 102 of those fights by knockout.

Even though using boxing elements would not have worked well in the WWE, Elijah could have been a much better talent than how he was used. Boxers are in incredible shape, and Elijah was just that, while being impressive athletically. I really hope the WWE brings him back, because I saw great talent in this young wrestler.