Post by Quinn Castillo on Jul 28, 2022 1:53:55 GMT
Two months back I made the decision to go pro.
I've been wrestling a while now in Barnstable County Wrestling- a tiny indy that paid us in Cumberland Farms's giftcards and 'experience'. When active we ran shows out of every high school gym up and down the Cape. We were local and seasonal- never made a town over the bridge and you can be sure we shuttered up once Memorial Day Weekend came around and the talent did what everyone else living in a tourist's economy was forced to do: worked our asses off to make enough money to get us through the rough Northeast winters.
I was luckier than most- I did Gee Cee scut work. Once the pandemic was over and people had nearly two years of renovations they could now get done- my bank account was fine. I don't want to dwell on the sociology of it too much but there is a definite caste system where I'm from- the cost of living is high so you either make a shit ton of cash now or you're family goes back long enough so that you're literally grandfathered in and can afford to stay. Lots of the people I grew up with; they're gone. They might still work on the Cape but what they do doesn't provide them with a living wage. They got to the cross the bridge in order to make a living.
Now, I'm going the other way.
I had a moment of realization in my last match in BCW. I figured that I could go bigger, and do better. So I decided to commit. Left the construction job and started training full time. Sent feelers out, looking for promotions, looking for contacts, looking for an opportunity to make wrestling my bread and butter.
That search led me to WrestleVerse.
Double You Vee is a long way from Cape Cod. If you believe the owner, it's going to be going even further. He's talking running shows out of venues that no one has ever set foot in. Don't know if he's being literal or not when he says he's taking this company to outer space but that doesn't really matter. It's the idea, the ethos, that he's putting forward that caught my eye, because when I made up my mind that wrestling was going to become more than a way to let off steam, it was going to be my profession, I couldn't just dip my toe in. No half measures here. Just me finding somewhere that was well out of comfort zone but still provided a reasonable chance of success.
WrestleVerse does that. Eternal One does that. The first show for this new brand has as its main event a twenty plus person Battle Royal to crown the company's Champion.
This should be every wrestler's dream. You want to be the champion. You want to be a pillar of your promotion. I was both in BCW and while that felt good and I learned from it I know the stakes are higher here. I'm not facing day trippers and diletentes at Eternal One. I recognize a couple names on the card, and even those I haven't heard of likely have motives like mine: to elevate themselves in one night and one match. To ride out the chaos that a Battle Royal is and be one wrestler with the skill, cunning, and luck to leave that ring voluntarily while wearing the title belt around their waist.
And I know I can never be described as polished in the ring, and maybe I don't yet have the savvy that comes from years upon years over being put through the gravel crusher that is this sport at an elite level and surviving, and you never know if fortune is going to smile on you during one of these top rope clusterfucks- I do recognize I got one advantage going in: I'm the biggest, strongest guy booked for this match. And while its not always the biggest, strongest guy who's the last one standing in that ring, power does help.
So that's what I'm going to rely on at Eternal One. I'll dance with the one that's brung me here- what likely got me hired here on the first place. I'll be looking for every chance to herk whoever up and over that top cable. And I'll tell the field something else. To all my opponents Friday night- I'm coming for you. I didn't leave my comfort zone in BCW to lay back and do what you see a ton of big men and women do in these kind of matches- to wait for their opponents to rush them, to gang up on them, to try and remove what in theory is the biggest threat from the match. Nah, at Eternal One I'm looking to stack bodies. Out of the ring obviously.
I won't guarantee victory, I won't call my shot. Things can get too nutty in these kind of matches to claim you're a stone cold lock. But what I will say is that if I lose it isn't because I didn't take a chance. I'm lookiing to make a statement at Eternal One, to show up in my first professional match and be a factor. I want everybody to realize despite my not having a pedigree, my presence means something here.
After Eternal One, Quinn Castillo will be a name recognized across the WrestleVerse, and beyond.
I've been wrestling a while now in Barnstable County Wrestling- a tiny indy that paid us in Cumberland Farms's giftcards and 'experience'. When active we ran shows out of every high school gym up and down the Cape. We were local and seasonal- never made a town over the bridge and you can be sure we shuttered up once Memorial Day Weekend came around and the talent did what everyone else living in a tourist's economy was forced to do: worked our asses off to make enough money to get us through the rough Northeast winters.
I was luckier than most- I did Gee Cee scut work. Once the pandemic was over and people had nearly two years of renovations they could now get done- my bank account was fine. I don't want to dwell on the sociology of it too much but there is a definite caste system where I'm from- the cost of living is high so you either make a shit ton of cash now or you're family goes back long enough so that you're literally grandfathered in and can afford to stay. Lots of the people I grew up with; they're gone. They might still work on the Cape but what they do doesn't provide them with a living wage. They got to the cross the bridge in order to make a living.
Now, I'm going the other way.
I had a moment of realization in my last match in BCW. I figured that I could go bigger, and do better. So I decided to commit. Left the construction job and started training full time. Sent feelers out, looking for promotions, looking for contacts, looking for an opportunity to make wrestling my bread and butter.
That search led me to WrestleVerse.
Double You Vee is a long way from Cape Cod. If you believe the owner, it's going to be going even further. He's talking running shows out of venues that no one has ever set foot in. Don't know if he's being literal or not when he says he's taking this company to outer space but that doesn't really matter. It's the idea, the ethos, that he's putting forward that caught my eye, because when I made up my mind that wrestling was going to become more than a way to let off steam, it was going to be my profession, I couldn't just dip my toe in. No half measures here. Just me finding somewhere that was well out of comfort zone but still provided a reasonable chance of success.
WrestleVerse does that. Eternal One does that. The first show for this new brand has as its main event a twenty plus person Battle Royal to crown the company's Champion.
This should be every wrestler's dream. You want to be the champion. You want to be a pillar of your promotion. I was both in BCW and while that felt good and I learned from it I know the stakes are higher here. I'm not facing day trippers and diletentes at Eternal One. I recognize a couple names on the card, and even those I haven't heard of likely have motives like mine: to elevate themselves in one night and one match. To ride out the chaos that a Battle Royal is and be one wrestler with the skill, cunning, and luck to leave that ring voluntarily while wearing the title belt around their waist.
And I know I can never be described as polished in the ring, and maybe I don't yet have the savvy that comes from years upon years over being put through the gravel crusher that is this sport at an elite level and surviving, and you never know if fortune is going to smile on you during one of these top rope clusterfucks- I do recognize I got one advantage going in: I'm the biggest, strongest guy booked for this match. And while its not always the biggest, strongest guy who's the last one standing in that ring, power does help.
So that's what I'm going to rely on at Eternal One. I'll dance with the one that's brung me here- what likely got me hired here on the first place. I'll be looking for every chance to herk whoever up and over that top cable. And I'll tell the field something else. To all my opponents Friday night- I'm coming for you. I didn't leave my comfort zone in BCW to lay back and do what you see a ton of big men and women do in these kind of matches- to wait for their opponents to rush them, to gang up on them, to try and remove what in theory is the biggest threat from the match. Nah, at Eternal One I'm looking to stack bodies. Out of the ring obviously.
I won't guarantee victory, I won't call my shot. Things can get too nutty in these kind of matches to claim you're a stone cold lock. But what I will say is that if I lose it isn't because I didn't take a chance. I'm lookiing to make a statement at Eternal One, to show up in my first professional match and be a factor. I want everybody to realize despite my not having a pedigree, my presence means something here.
After Eternal One, Quinn Castillo will be a name recognized across the WrestleVerse, and beyond.