Post by DK Almighty on Aug 10, 2008 11:59:03 GMT -5
hey all I saw a post asking about how one becomes a pro wrestling ref so I decided to share my story ok im not sure its going to be the same for you as it was for me but here is my story....
"How I became a ref" By Derek Sinclaire
In May of last year I found a local company that had a show in a few weeks and added them on my myspace page. I asked about helping out with passing out fliers and helping out in any way I could. That was my way of getting in on the ground level. No indy fed is not going to say no to some one who is willing to help set up or pass out fliers. There is always some odd job like take money or run the merch table or some other small job. anyway from there I was asked to help set up the ring and offered my website services to help make and run a website for them. after some time they started a class new guys to train and i said "why not" by this time i became pretty close with the group in charge and told them that i wanted to ref so training was just to prove to myself that i could get threw it and still walk lol.
After training we ran some outdoor flea market shows on the weekend so that the other guys that trained could get use to working in front of people. during this time I had a match vs. our head trainer Eric which i really didn't want but eric felt that i when threw enough of the training that i should have a match, so I figured why not, that and some guy no showed so I was in.after the summer was over and the flea market shows were over I had 34 matches under my belt and had also ref in North Carlina and had been to Texas to train at HBK old school in San Antonio.
By November I was reffing not only for Platinum Pro Wrestling (home fed) but also for NWA Underground and EVO Wrestling. At my first NWA show i worked the main event Heavyweight Title match of Josh Abercrombine vs Trick Davis.
My first tastes of what its like to work a match with semi named guys. After that I worked a few more show and on December we had are big PPW show were I reffed another match with Josh Abercrombine who took on my other trainer "The Natural" Colin Troy
O and I main evented again this time it was Erico vs Steve Corino for the PPW Title talk about a way to end the year out.
43 matches from 7-19-07 to 12-14-07
4 feds and 3 states
2008 has been a busy year so far
Total Matches Reffed -156
Title Matches-13
Promotions-10
States-IN, IL, MI,TX,NC
Big Name Stars - Greg The Hammer, Steve Corino, Josh Raymond/Abercrombine- ( x 5 ) Zach Gowen (x 2) Billy Roc, CJ Otis,Trick Davis.
Steve Corino and I after the 12-14-07 Platinum Pro Wrestling Show
Heidenreich and I After the 11-30-07 TWE "Star Wars" Show
Kriby Mack and I after the 12-14-07 Platinum Pro Wrestling show
Becky Bayless and I after the TWE "Star Wars" show
Zach Gowen and I after PPW "Live The Dream" 3-1-08
Greg The Hammer , Me and the other ref Steve PPW Unleashed II 6-20-08
Daffney and I
all in all not to bad like i said this is the way i got in to this ref thing. There are school out there which will charge anywhere from 3,000 or more to learn to ref. I feel very lucky to have cough a break and found a group of guys that were kool that and they needed a ref lol. I have small goals like working more states and more new feds.Working main events with guys i watched on tv like Corino and Greg The Hammer got to me a bit.
I never though when i got in to this I would get to ref matches with guys I grew up on. My long team goal is not to work for wwe or tna but ring of honor. Also intill your good enough your not going to get paid much if you do get paid at all ,and will spend more money on trips then its worth. As far as injuries I have takeing a few moves a few weekends ago i got superkicked (sweet chin music) i havent got hurt to bad besides some major headache's. as far as "calling matches" that really doesn't happen i dont tell him anything in the ring , I have helped pass messages from the back to end the match because the match was going to long and the time was up. but thats about it. Like I said there are many ways to get in to this. this just so happens to be my story
if you have any question Please feel free to pm me or reply here I will try to help as much as I can
Thanks for checking this out - Derek
"How I became a ref" By Derek Sinclaire
In May of last year I found a local company that had a show in a few weeks and added them on my myspace page. I asked about helping out with passing out fliers and helping out in any way I could. That was my way of getting in on the ground level. No indy fed is not going to say no to some one who is willing to help set up or pass out fliers. There is always some odd job like take money or run the merch table or some other small job. anyway from there I was asked to help set up the ring and offered my website services to help make and run a website for them. after some time they started a class new guys to train and i said "why not" by this time i became pretty close with the group in charge and told them that i wanted to ref so training was just to prove to myself that i could get threw it and still walk lol.
After training we ran some outdoor flea market shows on the weekend so that the other guys that trained could get use to working in front of people. during this time I had a match vs. our head trainer Eric which i really didn't want but eric felt that i when threw enough of the training that i should have a match, so I figured why not, that and some guy no showed so I was in.after the summer was over and the flea market shows were over I had 34 matches under my belt and had also ref in North Carlina and had been to Texas to train at HBK old school in San Antonio.
By November I was reffing not only for Platinum Pro Wrestling (home fed) but also for NWA Underground and EVO Wrestling. At my first NWA show i worked the main event Heavyweight Title match of Josh Abercrombine vs Trick Davis.
My first tastes of what its like to work a match with semi named guys. After that I worked a few more show and on December we had are big PPW show were I reffed another match with Josh Abercrombine who took on my other trainer "The Natural" Colin Troy
O and I main evented again this time it was Erico vs Steve Corino for the PPW Title talk about a way to end the year out.
43 matches from 7-19-07 to 12-14-07
4 feds and 3 states
2008 has been a busy year so far
Total Matches Reffed -156
Title Matches-13
Promotions-10
States-IN, IL, MI,TX,NC
Big Name Stars - Greg The Hammer, Steve Corino, Josh Raymond/Abercrombine- ( x 5 ) Zach Gowen (x 2) Billy Roc, CJ Otis,Trick Davis.
Steve Corino and I after the 12-14-07 Platinum Pro Wrestling Show
Heidenreich and I After the 11-30-07 TWE "Star Wars" Show
Kriby Mack and I after the 12-14-07 Platinum Pro Wrestling show
Becky Bayless and I after the TWE "Star Wars" show
Zach Gowen and I after PPW "Live The Dream" 3-1-08
Greg The Hammer , Me and the other ref Steve PPW Unleashed II 6-20-08
Daffney and I
all in all not to bad like i said this is the way i got in to this ref thing. There are school out there which will charge anywhere from 3,000 or more to learn to ref. I feel very lucky to have cough a break and found a group of guys that were kool that and they needed a ref lol. I have small goals like working more states and more new feds.Working main events with guys i watched on tv like Corino and Greg The Hammer got to me a bit.
I never though when i got in to this I would get to ref matches with guys I grew up on. My long team goal is not to work for wwe or tna but ring of honor. Also intill your good enough your not going to get paid much if you do get paid at all ,and will spend more money on trips then its worth. As far as injuries I have takeing a few moves a few weekends ago i got superkicked (sweet chin music) i havent got hurt to bad besides some major headache's. as far as "calling matches" that really doesn't happen i dont tell him anything in the ring , I have helped pass messages from the back to end the match because the match was going to long and the time was up. but thats about it. Like I said there are many ways to get in to this. this just so happens to be my story
if you have any question Please feel free to pm me or reply here I will try to help as much as I can
Thanks for checking this out - Derek