Fun fact about me: I attended the very first WrestleMania.
My Dad, brother and I were all wrestling fanatics. And our time obsessing about the squared circle pre-dates the glossy, high-end production that wrestling has become in the past 35 years.
When I was still in my single digits, I was allowed to stay up late on Friday nights and tuned into “The Spanish Station” which was on channel UHF47 (I realize anyone under 35 has no idea what I am talking about here but televisions used to have one dial for network television and a second dial for public access and foreign language stations) for “Lucha Libre” which was a broadcast of WWF matches.
Two or three times per year we’d trek into Madison Square Garden to see guys like Stan “The Lariat” Hanson, Killer Khan, “Quick Draw” Rick McGraw and perennial ginger-haired champion Bob Backlund duke it out.
Nothing would make us happier than, 2 hours into the night, having announcer Howard Finkle enter the ring and announce that, “due to a few matches going over, tonight’s 11PM curfew has been waived!”
The crowd would go absolutely apeshit knowing that we’d get approximately 12 more minutes of wrestling than we paid for.
Fast forward 2 or 3 years and wrestling had become a national phenomenon. It was broadcast on network television. Pop culture figures of the day such as Mr. T, Cyndi Lauper, Liberace and Muhammed Ali all made guest appearances. You could buy HulkaMania t-shirts at Macy’s.
Our underground obsession had gone mainstream.
So when wrestling svengali Vince McMahon announced that there would be a wrestling “super show” at our beloved Madison Square Garden, we sure-as-shit were gonna go.
You have to remember that this was 1985, I was 12 years old and my Dad was not exactly going to proactively get tickets. What we failed to realize was that we were not the only ones obsessed with the biggest event in wrestling history and even scalped tickets were almost impossible to get.
With the event starting and our hope dwindling we were about to take a remarkably disappointing ride home when a bearded, beer-bellied angel, having just grabbed his tickets from Will-Call, announced that he had three extras. The crowd swarmed around him but given that my Dad was the only one with actual children in tow, the man took pity on us and sold my Dad the tickets at the face-value of $20 each.
We were in!
At this time, the hero of the WWF was Hulk Hogan.
One of the things that differentiated this era of wrestling from all that came before it was the reliance on out-of-the-ring drama and set pieces.
Before, everything was about what happened within the ropes. But in a genius move to turn the organization into a soap-opera for boys, backstage interviews, contract signings and locker room antics all became just as important as who was ultimately holding the championship belt at the end of the night.
Hogan was extraordinary at this. His over-the-top, hyper-intense interviews with commentator “Mean” Gene Okerlund became legendary. In fact, I still see them pop up on Instagram and YouTube from time to time.
I remember one particular rant on the lead up to WrestleMania where a very emotional Hulkster, strutting in front of the backstage curtain, told the audience that there was a lot going against him this time. But he was going to gather all the Hulkamaniacs from across the country, put them on his back, swim them across the East River to Madison Square Garden and deliver a victory for all the loyal faithful who, as he put it, “say their prayers and take their vitamins”.
And this very neatly and accurately sums up what I feel my role in the world of training is these days.
(Jesus Christ! Did I just make you read 600 words on my childhood love of professional wrestling just to make a questionable-at-best allegory between a forgotten Hulk Hogan speech and my dedication to bringing meaningful training to the masses?!?!? Yes. Yes, I did.)
Contrary to popular belief, I have nothing against other gyms, training facilities, exercises, trainers or modalities. I always feel great stepping into a new gym.
Have I questioned their methodologies and integrity from time to time? Yes, yes I have.
But it is not because I think we are the best and no one else is doing anything of value out here. Quite the contrary. Every day I am surrounded by trainers and members who share our vision. I'm fortunate enough to be connected to a network of fitness pros, nutrition experts, physical therapists and health and wellness professionals that all understand and adhere to evidence-based principles that are actually designed to help people.
And that is the unbelievably wonderful best-part-of-the-job. We have the ability to meaningfully impact people's lives. There aren't too many professions were that is true.
So will I continue to warn you and call out modalities that are out to make a quick buck by defrauding the public? It's likely. I feel like it's my obligation and, let's face it, I can be salty at times.
But today I just want to salute my staff and members and colleagues who are all out there fighting the good fight.
We are all Hulk Hogan. Taking our devoted public and anyone else who wants to get involved, putting them on our backs and swimming them over to the fitness promised land.
After 3 plus hours of non-stop action Hulk Hogan had his hand raised and the championship belt strapped around his waist at the end of the main event. We all knew it was coming but I couldn’t help but get a bit emotional at the time.
Things don’t always go the way you want, but it does feel satisfying when the good guy wins.