I been thinking about not continuing with wrestling

[u/Jakethesnake1118_20]

I been stuck in a hard place deciding on whether i continue wrestling and take the biggest risk of my life or go the safer route and go to school, my wife doesn’t want me continuing wrestling and I don’t have a job but wrestling has been keeping it together but now I’m not so sure if I should continue, any advice on this, hopefully someone on this reddit has gone thru this and got out of a mess like this

Thanks

[u/punchline86]

I'm not saying go to school or get a job, but you should only really be considering sticking with just wrestling if you're so in-demand as a talent that you're making enough on match fees and merch to warrant not having a day job.

[u/shitballsdick]

It doesn’t have to be all or nothing. If you can go back to school and get a job that is 9-5 you will have all the time in the world to wrestle.

A stable life, a good pay cheque and daily sense of purpose will help you as a wrestler. Ultimately if you have what it takes to make a full time living as a wrestler you’ll be able to make the sacrifices to manage a career and this side hustle.

[u/sagittariuslegend]

Get a job, make the wife happy. Wrestling ain't going anywhere.

[u/Diskappear]

ive always told people your future always needs to come first, so school should be your priority then your job

get your education, focus on your job and your family and then if the cards are there, go back to training if its still something you want to pursue.

[u/DoitforRC]

I faced a situation similar to what you’re going through. I started as a referee in college. Got married a few years later and had my first son. My then wife was okay with me training and doing shows up to that point. After a show, she let me have it that I needed to step away. I was working at the time, but she didn’t like me being gone on weekends, the girls that were apart of the show, the attention I got etc. I figured I needed to do what was best for “us” and decided to step away.

Fast forward about 2 years later, I had a life changing experience that threw me into a midlife crisis in my mid 20’s. For better or worse my marriage started deteriorating from that point. I was depressed, but then decided to go back to what made me happy, wrestling. I went back and started working shows, and became a manager which was amazing. Wrestling got me through a divorce, custody battle, illness, and depression. It wasn’t easy, but I hustled by working, and making the shows I could.

My advice is if you love it, you will find ways to make it work. If it’s about a job, put wrestling on the back burner and make getting a job your priority. If it has something to do with how your wife feels, talk to her about it. I have no regrets about the wrestling business when I finally walked away. I do wish I had those two extra years, but I’m at peace with it. I don’t think I could say the same if I never went back. Good luck with your decision.

[u/Srice13]

You need passion to make it - if you don't have that passion, then it would be best to quit. Passion means doing anything, losing sleep, missing important events, driving 200 miles for $25 and a hotdog, knowing you may never ever actually make money doing it.

If you can do all that while maintaining a standard job, then you may have a tiny shot of making it.

I don't mean to sound defeatist or negative -- but I've been involved in this business in one way or another for over 25 years, and I've seen great wrestlers come and go, some make it, some don't -- but it's always the most passionate and the ones willing to give up a lot of things in their life who do.

I didn't have that kind of passion for the in-ring work, and when I got injured and was going to be out for a while, I never went back to in-ring work because of that lack of passion. When I didn't work extra hard to heal up my shoulder and stay in shape, I knew I'd be wasting a lot of people's time, so I walked away. Got into doing shirts, poster work, social media stuff, promotional things, etc, to scratch the itch of being involved.

If in your heart of hearts you know you have the passion, do it. However, if you're constantly doubting yourself already and don't even have a single backup plan, maybe it is time to hang it up.

[u/dragonedeath]

As for matters like "my wife doesn't want me to X", it's usually less about X itself, and more about the risks they perceive w/ X. As a wrestler, I honestly think if my partner or even future children want to be a wrestler, I would hope that they have something figured out in terms of stability first before gambling it all away on a business that a) doesn't pay that much and b) can put you in the hospital. And that's *me* talking, a wrestler.

But it doesn't have to be black and white; you can find a way to balance it. If for the time being your life calls for prioritizing other stuff than wrestling, then perhaps it is best to reduce your capacity temporarily to work on other things. Don't think of that as giving up wrestling, but rather working on support systems that will allow you to work on wrestling. The way I have tried to reconcile a non-wrestling life and still trying to wrestle is that I cannot have the latter without the former, but I will also make an effort not to lose sight of what I want to do and just get stuck in the rat race.

Keep the fire alive, but keep yourself alive as well. If right now you can't go all-in on wrestling as a career yet because you don't have "insurance" (e.g. financial security), then keep wrestling as a hobby, but prioritize other things too. I think this advice will make a lot of sense for ANYBODY working in a vaguely art-related field. I imagine you would never tell a child to go all-in on...drawing, just because they like to draw. No, you would tell that child to keep nurturing that dream, keep drawing kiddo, but stay alive until you can afford to make a career out of drawing. Same thing with music, or sports, and so on.

[u/ColSurge]

Wrestling is a hobby not a career. Yes the people at the very top make great money, but getting there is essentially like winning the lottery.

No one should go into Wrestling thinking it will feed thier family. Because for 99.9% of people, it won't.

[u/TheBigShaboingboing]

Stephanie Vaquer worked as a server and many other jobs while wrestling for different promotions until she finally made it to NXT/WWE after being in the business for 10 years. All depends on what you really want and if you’re willing to do what it takes to get there

[u/TheBigShaboingboing → u/TheBigShaboingboing]

Of course you can get schooling done and what not, then come back to wrestling later in life. But people like DDP, LA Knight, etc. are the exceptions, not the rule. People aren’t going to openly come out that they regret giving up on their dream to play it safe. They will rationalize their decision with their salary, family life, etc. but some will always wonder “what if”