Five Starr Wrestling Academy

Many of you probably have never heard of the Academy. It's not world-renowned by any means. The Academy isn't an advertised wrestling school... it's a very sacred club that not many people graduate from. Actually, there has only been ONE person to graduate from the Five Starr Wrestling Academy. Could there possibly be another?

Let me give you a little information about the Five Starr Wrestling Academy before I go into another possible graduate. The Five Starr Wrestling Academy is a wrestling school, so to speak, that I train guys to wrestle. Not only do I train men to wrestle, but I can actually work out with guys who have already trained to try and polish them up a little bit. I don't do this very often because many times you open up a huge can of worms, when you get into this.

I hate the idea of training anyone to wrestle because you put your name on that person's career forever. If they're an awful wrestler for whatever reason, they're linked to you. Every single time a rookie is introduced to a promoter, the first thing the promoter asks is, "Who trained ya, kid?" Well, of course, the rookie would reply with, "Dustin Starr." Well, generally anyone in the area would respond is a positive manner when given this answer. They would expect that this rookie has learned how to wrestle fairly well and would be a good person to book. Now, if they go out there and perform horribly, guess who that falls back on? ME, whether it's my fault or not.

Many times, when setting up a workout with a new prospect, I will not give any promises of training them. I will agree to workout a few sessions and then judge their progress from there. I have worked out with several students who quit after the first session because it's too hard. I've worked out with students who will go for a few months and realize that it's not an overnight process and they'll quit. Many guys find out that it's a lot harder than it looks.

This is a business, so yes, I do get paid to workout with these guys. But the one and only graduate of the Five Starr Wrestling Academy, I never even received a single penny from. A company was training this kid incorrectly and I just noticed what was going on. The kid was good. He could move around, he could bump great and most of all, he had a great attitude. So, I just merely invited him to workout with my guys... free of charge. All the others that were paying didn't pan out... this one guy did.

The latest edition to The Academy is a guy named Vic DeMise. And if you're wondering, of course that's his REAL NAME! ;) This guy is 6'5" and over 350 pounds. He's HUGE. He hasn't done a whole lot of bumping around the ring or running the ropes. He's actually had very limited experience, thus far. But, he is actually training to be in a manager / body guard's role. In a role like that, there isn't a whole lot of contact... just psychology aspects of the business.

His first performance was last Saturday in Union City, Tennessee. He learned first-hand about the horrible drives that wrestlers have to endure. For us, it was almost three hours one-way. He knew there was a chance that he would be working when we got there, but once he was told... you could see the nervousness in his face.

Vic did pretty well... but you KNOW I had to put a rib in there somewhere! My partner, Derrick King, was out cold after receiving a devastating finishing maneuver. So, we needed a way to wake Derrick up. I ordered Vic in the ring to fan him off with his vest. That didn't work. I ordered Vic to use his SHIRT instead. Vic's a big dude... and had no intention of wrestling or performing without his shirt. But in the line of fire and the call of duty, Vic took that shirt off and heard the crowd yelp, "OOOOH! NOOO!" I stopped Vic with, "Please, put it back on!" The crowd laughed and had a very entertaining time at our expense. Vic took it well and completely understood the reason why we were there... to entertain.

Great job by all that night. Vic had fun and learned a few very helpful lessons in wrestling. He left with a knot on his forehead from a Five Starr punch... and an experience of a lifetime.