Jon Arenson's "Learning the Ropes" # 1: October 12th 2009

Jon Arenson is currently training at Lance Storm's Wrestling Academy in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. He will be chronicling his journey to wrestling stardom with the highs, lows, and in betweens, exclusively for MainEventRadio.com.

They say a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. Although this may just be an old cliché, it contains a timeless wisdom, which is why the line is still used today. A much shorter distance measures my own personal journey; a mere 20 feet. However, I have given myself five years to travel those 20 feet. The next logical question would seem to be, "why should it take that long to travel only 20 feet?" To answer that question, I will start where any good story should start, at the beginning. For as long as I remember, I've been a fan of pro-wrestling. In fact, I do not even remember beginning to watch it, I just always had. Almost every other hobby or pastime I've enjoyed, I can remember at what age I was introduced to them. However, wrestling was always there.

Every Saturday morning, I would get up early to watch wrestling on television. I wasn't sure what I liked about it then. I don't think I ever questioned it. What I did know was that I was hooked. Looking back, there were many reasons why my five-year-old self would have been drawn to it. These guys were larger than life. Real life comic book characters, come to life, doing battle every week. It was good versus evil: Those who obeyed the rules, and those who openly ignored them.

I ate it up.

I can remember being eight-years-old, watching an event on Pay-Per-View, when, towards the end of the event, my father let slip that the outcomes are predetermined, or in his words "this stuff is fake". I do not think he realized what he had done. In my little head, my world came crashing down around me. However, the trauma was short-lived when I came to the same realization that many wrestling fans come to; I still loved it anyhow. To me, it didn't matter. These guys were rock stars with muscles. With that being the case, I did not grow up dreaming of being a hockey player, or prime minister. I grew up dreaming of achieving one thing in my life, being a pro-wrestler. I developed an obsession, bordering on addiction, with wrestling. I went to all the live events. At one event I got to sit close enough to actually tag the wrestlers' hands. Much to my parents' chagrin, you better believe that hand wasn't washed for a good while after. Pro-wrestling did fade from my life for a few years. As I entered my late teens, high school football, parties, and girls seemed to capture my attention at the time. Now the story jumps ahead to April of 2009. I flew from Toronto to Houson to attend WrestleMania 25. A childhood friend from Winnipeg met me down in Houston. My friend and I had sat in his basement watching WrestleMania 10 on Pay-Per-View, so, to be attending the event life, 15 years later, was definitely surreal.  

My friend is visually impaired, and although he had made efforts to make sure he'd be able to see the ring, once we got to our seats, he couldn't. In fact, I couldn't see the ring that well either. So, we tracked down someone from WWE to see if there was anything they could do to help us. Eventually the WWE employee returned with two tickets for us. We took them over to an usher and he informed us that the tickets were 4th row, ring side. My friend and I looked at each other in complete shock. These tickets were a lot more expensive than our original seats. As we got closer and closer to out new seats, the years started to slowing melt away and I reverted back to the five-year-old kid who would watch these real life super heroes every week on television. I stood in awe, taking in the whole scene, which included almost 80,000 boisterous fans.

Heading into the trip to Houston, I couldn’t shake the feeling that this event would be something special. I knew that my life needed to be headed in a new direction. It was during the event, standing a mere 20 feet from the ring, that I made, what will no doubt prove to be, a life-changing decision. Being a wrestler was what I had to do, what I needed to do. I have a five year goal, and while it may be too optimistic for some, I don't see any point in aiming low. At the age of 24, I was sitting 20 feet from the ring at the biggest wrestling event of the year. Hopefully, at the age of 29, with a lot of discipline and determination, I will have traveled that 20 feet and be in the ring at WrestleMania 30.

However, first there is a hell of a lot of hard work and effort that needs to take place. For myself, it will all start September 7th, when I began 3 months of training with Lance Storm in Calgary. I had the chance to meet Lance a couple weeks ago while visiting Calgary to find a place to live. The ring in his training facility looks amazing. And Lance appears to be in as good shape as ever. I started off by saying that a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. Well, here comes step one; training with Lance in Calgary. Let the journey begin.