Live Television

This is where you get only one take. There is zero room for error. Mistakes are for the entire world to see. You don't have an edit button. You can't rewind. When you're on LIVE television, whatever happens... just happens. There's no turning back. Trust me when I tell you, anything can happen on LIVE television.

If you've never been on a live television broadcast before, you may not see the severity of what I'm talking about. So, imagine this: You put on your speedos, if you're a guy. If you're a girl, put on a very revealing bikini (have you watched wrestling lately?). Anyway, you're nearly in the nude for the entire world to see. Put on your boots and pads and head out to the ring. Lights are blinding you the second you walk through the curtain. You have a camera man shoving a huge lens in your face to capture your "close-up". A few hundred fans cheer you or boo you, but you finally realize that the entire world is also making an opinion of you, at that very moment.

Not so bad, yet? Well, when you're walking to the ring... what if you trip? The entire world sees this. I've seen it happen. What if you actually trip over the rope while climbing in the ring? I've seen this happen, as well. Even worse than that, what if your ring attire is ripped? Maybe you don't have anything on underneath your gear? Well, the entire world will see this, too. I've seen all this happen and more!

The best are the interviews. Many times, you'll have a company put a guy on the microphone and maybe he's just a little nervous about it. Well, you go out there and turn to the camera and try to speak... but nothing comes out. Imagine this happening to you. You forget everything you're supposed to say... you stutter... and then, they pull the plug on the interview after only a few seconds. Fans are laughing at you not only while they're watching at home on television, but the fans in attendance are the ones you can actually hear. It will ruin your entire match because you'll be thinking about it the entire time.

Here's a good one that happened to me personally. I was being crowned the Heavyweight Champion of a company in Rector, AR. I had won a tournament and the following week, I was to be crowned the Champion. I went to the ring (as the bad guy) and was going to snatch the belt out of the commissioner's hand like a tough guy, right? Well, if you've ever held one of those championship belts, than you know they weigh about ten pounds. So, anyway... I snatch the belt from the commissioner, but little did I know that he was going to let it go so softly. As I jerked the belt, it flung out of my hands... through the ropes and outside the ring... and yes, it hit a little girl right in the head! Now, you talk about embarrassing! What could I do? Well, I did the only thing that any of us would do. I hopped out of the ring, picked up my belt... and told the girl to stop trying to steal my belt! Luckily, she was not hurt and I was not sued.

One more before I go. I'm sure most of you are familiar with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA). Well, I wrestled several shows for them a few years back. I was actually wrestling their secondary television show called Xplosion. I was trying to earn a contract with the company and get a full time gig with them. I was wrestling Sonni Siaki this night and I had a few very impressive things planned that would help me reach my goal of attaining a job with them. Siaki was very cool and was 100% behind what I wanted to do that night.

Everything went great... until the end of the match. I tried a springboard dive that I had done a hundred times before. For those of you who are not familiar with a springboard: it's when you leap from the mat to the top rope in one jump, then spring off that top rope and onto your opponent. Well, the ring ropes were made of cable with a hose around it. When my feet hit the top rope, the hose twisted. Yeah, I know. Not good for me. I went head-first into the mat. So much for impressing them. Siaki pinned me right after and won the match. Oh, and worst of all... the fans laughed and chanted "You Messed Up". (only without using the word "messed")

I know there are several wrestlers that read this blog every week. I would like to see if you would be brave enough to post your most embarrassing television moments that have happened to you. Or better yet, even if you're not a wrestler, post some comments and see if you can compete with mine. I'm not ashamed... I learned a lot from messing up.

Let's see what you got.