I'd rather be dead than average.
It sounds morbid, I know. Trust me, it isn’t a call for help or anything like that. The simple fact of the matter is that I can relate to this. I believe this quote is from the late Mike Bell, featured in the documentary Bigger Stronger Faster. Somebody else might have said it at some other point in time, but that’s where I remember it from, so that’s what I’m sticking to.
From time to time, I find myself wondering why we do what we do. Why does "average" represent everything that so many of us don't want to be? If you are on this website, chances are you want to be the biggest, the strongest, the most ripped, or the most fuckin' awesome motherfucker on the planet. If not, I would be willing to wager that you, at the very least, want to be really big, really strong, really ripped, or really fuckin' awesome and motherfuckerly.
I’ve personally always wanted that “freak factor.” I want people to do a double-take when they see me. It’s not a vanity thing at all, at least I think it's not. It’s more of a “what the fuck?” thing—in the sense that I want people to look at me and say, “what the fuck?!?”
That’s probably why professional wrestling always appealed to me, as it did to a lot of people in my generation. I grew up watching Hogan, Macho Man, and Mr. Perfect. That transitioned to the Rock, Stone Cold, and Triple H, and in more recent years, John Cena and Batista. These guys were big, badass, and larger than life—exactly what I wanted to be.
When I was 18 years old, I decided to make it happen. I found a professional wrestling school, learned the basics, and then traveled the country on my own dime, trying to build a career just like the guys I looked up to. So I traveled, trained, wrestled, ate, slept, and then pressed repeat. Somewhere early on, my love of training really began to take over. I spent time training as a bodybuilder, as a powerlifter, and even tried my hand in strongman training. It was all in the pursuit of being big, badass, and larger than life. All in the pursuit of that “What the Fuck” Factor.
My wrestling and my training not only opened doors for me within the professional wrestling industry, but also within the fitness industry as well. I worked as a personal trainer, wrote diets, sold gym memberships, managed gyms, and even found my way into the VP of Sales position for one of the country's top sports nutrition companies. And all the while, I was learning—not just about wrestling, but about training.
In 2011, I finally got my contract with WWE. I made it to the top of the mountain and will always look back on the experience fondly. Only a handful of people in the world make it to the level I did, and having achieved that, I will always look upon everything I did in the wrestling industry leading up to that as a job well done. However, not everything has a storybook ending, and earlier this year I parted ways with the company. Terms were good, bridges were not burned, and I know I kicked some fuckin' ass.
I don’t know what the future will bring as it pertains to professional wrestling, but as it pertains to me, well...I'm just getting started.
My love of training is at an all-time high. I finally have the time to seriously invest in my physique, and after 10 years of striving to learn something new about training/nutrition every day, my knowledge is right alongside my passion. In simpler terms, I'm ready to fuck shit up. I intend to be the first professional wrestler to transition into professional bodybuilding: from the WWE to the IFBB.
So, what is my "WTF" Factor? Why do I do this? What makes me train with the intensity I do and makes me obsess over gathering information? Why is my idea of a "retirement plan" being 280 pounds with a giant, white Santa Clause beard, living in a log cabin in the mountains, collecting guns for the zombie apocalypse, and hunting wild bison for sustenance? I don't know the "whys." I only know the "whats." That is "what" I do—I train. I eat. I recover.
So, now I ask you: What do you do? What is your WTF Factor? Why are you here?
For the next year and beyond, I will rant philosophically about training. I will go into detail about my views on nutrition and the ins-and-outs of everything we do. I will also log my journey and transitions (what will hopefully be both informative and entertaining). I tend to do things a bit differently, as you might have already gathered from my last column. For instance, I’m not a brown rice and tilapia guy. Some of you will love it, and some of you will hate it. But either way, I’m a complete dipshit, and it’ll be an entertaining read. Once I get a little more comfortable here, I’ll probably curse a lot more too. I mean, I curse a lot already, but once I get rolling here, chances are I'll blow your mind with f-bombs. There’s an added incentive for those of you who enjoy reading gratuitous profanity.
I’ll have photos and videos and shitty wrestling-esque promos as well. Oh, and I’ll set up a P.O. box for death threats and hate mail, just don’t clog my email accounts with it. I need those for regular spam and porn ads.