Can you really do wrestling as a hobby?

[Burst]

Building off of that respecting the business post, and just based off of my own thoughts/fantasies/observations, is it really even possible to get trained as a wrestler and just wrestle a handful of indy matches a year just for the fun of it, assuming you're financially stable otherwise and just doing it because you like wrestling?

I can't think of too many examples of that other than a handful of local indy guys who seemingly only ever do the two or three Remix Pro shows a year, while still being visibly trained at it.

I just don't know why it seems to have to be a lifetime commitment. Even a lot of bigger name (eg PWG, Chikara, etc) indy guys seem to be doing it just for fun and being sane and sensible otherwise. I wonder how much of it is just the lifer indy guys' contempt for the people that -don't- have to scrap up money to live or contempt from the has-beens or never-weres guys who made it in like ECW or whatever that had to suffer all that they did.

Because I feel like even if you wrestled like six matches a year spaced decently enough it wouldn't really be horrible for you unless they were like, deathmatches or ladder matches. But then again I've never been through wrestling training.

[Deleted]

I don't believe wrestling could be done as a hobby. I think the closest you could get would be to take some courses in stage fighting at your local post-secondary education, which I suspect would scratch the itch more than enough for a hobbyist.

[Deleted]

Lance Storm said that, though it'd be strange, he would train someone who just wanted the training without any real aspirations to wrestle for a living.

[Mayonnaise]

That is pretty much what MsChif and I think Hallowicked do from what I understand. Granted they wrestle far more than just 4 or 5 matches a year but they have great jobs outside the ring and only wrestle for fun.

[Apricots And A Pear Tree]

While its not wrestling,I think Toom E Guci pretty much manages as a hobby.

[Bob Schlapowitz]

Aug 14, 2012 20:26:25 GMT -5 Mayonnaise said:

That is pretty much what MsChif and I think Hallowicked do from what I understand. Granted they wrestle far more than just 4 or 5 matches a year but they have great jobs outside the ring and only wrestle for fun.

I don't know who Hallowicked is, but I was about to mention MsChif.

[triplethreatmark]

Brandon Bonham, a guy who was active first in the midwest and then out in the So Cal scene basically did wrestling for fun once he got to California. He doesn't wrestle anymore since he has a band and a pretty lucrative graphic design job, but he still shows up to most PWG shows just to hang out.

[sensi]

How about Justin Credible and Shane Douglas. They both have careers and only wrestle at weekends.

[oniloco]

Allegedly Sandman has a very successful construction business, and only continued to be in WWECW for fun.

[Steveweiser]

Hallowicked should be a massive star, and has the talent to be one, but from what I understand, he gets paid really well in his regular job, so only wrestles on weekends. Hero talked about him in his shoot.

[Deleted]

I have a good friend who wrestles local indy shows as a hobby. It's a shame he doesn't do more because he's naturally athletic, into things like parkour, and is a really little guy who can sell like nobody's business.

[J.O.B. Squad]

If some one can more power to them if that makes them happy then so be it,I am sure we all see fame in pro wrestling in different ways.

[notasmark]

I think most of your average indy guys who aren't established do it as a hobby. Come out once a month wrestle a show maybe your dream throughout it all is to wrestle 1 name wrestler or win your fed's belt. That's a hobby wrestler to me.

Guys in CHIKARA, PWG, ROH etc i don't think many of them are hobby wrestlers. Most of them can make a decent enough living working indies if they want too due to the exposure from those feds.