Wrestling Blogs - Martin Floreani

This week in Fresno and the central valley was awesome. Its like a little New Jersey without the accents and pizanos but with agriculture and mexicans. Wrestling is intense there. They have about half of the top ten teams in California in that Valley. Remember there are over 27,000 wrestlers with 800 teams in one division in California. The next highest state is Illinois which has just over 17k participants and is moving to 3 divisions next year.

Stan Greene a former wrestler from Fresno State was my sponsor, he let me and Joe crash at his place and use his truck to drive to all these different schools and people that we had to film. He and his wife and two young kids were awesome!

Stan had a whole schedule and itinerary lined up for us because if we werent organized we wouldnt see a fraction of what we needed to see. Being in Fresno I could see that the power of wrestling is building in an underground movement. This movement can be seen not only in California but the whole US on other trips I have taken. You can just feel it on these trips. Its getting stronger, really potent. We visited all these different places, met all these characters, then did filming and went back home and edited and posted videos for a week. By Saturday we were at a point where a day off couldnt hurt. So we took the day to chilax at Stans.

Stan was playing online poker and I would egg him on about how the decisions he made were wrong, half joking and half just wanting him to go for the kill. I hate losing and so I was looking at every hand like it was a game. If you lost a hand in my mind you lost a game which is a big deal to my ego! After a while he got tired of me being the back seat driver and handed over the mouse. I took it eagerly ready to make an immediate impact. On the second hand I got dealt a hand that wasnt that good but I was ready to win...well I went all in and the rush was great because I wasnt going to let anyone push me around, well I got put out in the only second hand of the game.

I was all in and completely committed, but the problem was that my goals werent realistic or viable. I was trying to go for a grand slam but all i needed was to take a pitch and better align my position in the game. It reminded me a lot of what some of the wrestling leadership do. They put everything they have into getting into the mainstream media. It would be their dream to get on the cover of CNN only for a day and have their eyes set on that. The problem is that they are going "all in" on something that really isnt viable.

The wrestling establishment is zeroed in on being mainstream and going for that elusive grand slam with initiatives that are diluting our sport. NWCA Initiatives like: Trying to market wrestling as an activity not a sport that can be a tool to fight the obesity epidemic in this country....is an absurd attempt to be mainstream. It is their answer to a game of cards that they dont really know how to play. Wrestling is a sport...just go to a wrestling practice and tell me it is an activity. Yeah right an activity just like basket weaving but with singlets and a headgear. Wrestling is an extreme sport that takes extreme dedication.

Selling wrestling out to ESPNU, CSTV is another act of desperation. This is absurd because the correct cable package that has these channels is a very rare breed, furthermore those entities (ESPNU, CSTV) could NOT care less about wrestling and thus the time those wrestling programs air are two weeks later and happen to be on a tuesday night at 3am. Another bold and foolish act of "Im all in".

The wrestling cult is growing and gaining strength underground. We have the most exciting sport in the world and dont need to be going "all in" to be mainstream. Wrestling might never be mainstream but
that doesnt mean we havent won the poker game. In fact it could mean we rule the poker game.

We are an underground sport. Everything that is good started as an underground movement. The U.S. of A. started in an underground movement. What wrestling has is a great product....check that: the best product. We need to grow the underground: that 16 year old kid who is on a wrestling team. This 16 year old kid needs to be better connected to wrestling as a sport and the background and personalities behind the sport he is doing. Furthermore he has to see the next level and the level after that and understand where he or she fits in all of that.

It is an easy and doable task. Its kinda like having the patience to fold on a hand to better position yourself 3 hands down the line. What we dont need is to be put on TV at some odd time that no one sees and giving up our soul to just be on the boob tube, or making wild initiatives that dilute our sport.