Kennebec Journal columnist Dave Dyer (right) recently celebrated his five-year anniversary as a professional wrestler. Contributed photo by WillowPix.net
Five years ago, I made my debut as a professional wrestler in the middle of the Speedway 95 race track in Hermon.
The goal was simple. I joined the Limitless Dojo in Brewer in December 2018. At 33 years old, I wanted to train just long enough to have a wrestling match, document it in a column, and call it my career. As a lifelong fan, I was completely at peace with my one-time accomplishment.
And then the virus got me.
“Wrestling bug” is an unofficial term in the industry, meaning you’ve become addicted. My one match – a battle royal for the North Atlantic Wrestling Association at the time – just wasn’t enough. I had to be in a tag team match. I had to have a one-on-one match. It wasn’t long before I was creating dream matches in my head that I would love to be in the ring with.
I kept training. I kept working. Despite the bumps, bruises and sore muscles, I couldn’t give up. And five years flew by.
Professional wrestling has given me a lot over the last five years and I could talk about my experiences here but it would take days. Instead, I will share three key takeaways from my time in the ring.
There is nothing wrong with that
Go ahead and read that again. Yes, professional wrestling is preordained, and we as wrestlers are responsible for coming up with a fight together that will lead us to that preordained end. And that’s where it ends.
I’ve said this before, but the beatings in and out of a ring are very real. The floor of a ring is made of wood covered with a thin mat, which is covered with canvas. I’ve taken hundreds of hits. It hurts and the body never gets used to it. I’ve also been hit on the back with a steel chair, hit on the head with a broken piece of a wooden table, and thrown against an aluminum trash can. That hurts too.
The “F” word is still used by people who don’t understand it or don’t want to understand it. Professional wrestling is the ultimate form of physical theater, for your entertainment. People have to take real physical beatings to provide that entertainment.
The stories outside the ring are just as entertaining as the stories in the ring.
Thanks to wrestling, I’ve been booked all over Maine and a few times outside of Maine. I’ve wrestled in a park in my hometown of Waterboro. I’ve performed in a high school gym in Calais and at a community center in Machias.
It’s quite normal to share these long roads with other wrestlers and spend hours in the car. You quickly make friends and start talking about many different topics. The conversation almost always revolves around favorite fights, favorite wrestlers or favorite places to perform.
It’s almost like being part of a fraternity. Many friendships are formed over the years at shows that simply share the same thing: a love of professional wrestling.
The fun keeps you going
Pro wrestling is just fun. I’m a bad guy, which is to say, a bad guy in wrestling. I get to make fun of kids and the elderly on the way to the ring – actions that would normally get you in trouble with the law. It’s my job to make people mad at me. And I love it. The same kids I make fun of at a show come up to me afterward and ask for my autograph. Name me another gig where that happens.
“The Belfast Bulldog” Dave Dyer (right) had his first match in June 2019 at Speedway 95 in Hermon. Morning Sentinel archive photo by Michael G. Seamans
I’ll be 39 in September. Age is not my friend. I don’t know how many years of competing in the ring I have left. I have a lot of goals in my mind that I want to accomplish before I’m done. There are a lot of wrestlers I can compete against, cities I can perform in, organizations I can wrestle for. I haven’t won a championship belt in pro wrestling yet; I’d definitely like to accomplish that before I’m done.
Wrestling in Maine is also too good to leave right now. It’s a boom time in the state, led by Limitless Wrestling and sister organization Let’s Wrestle. Limitless, led by promoter Randy Carver, is hosting one of its biggest shows since its inception in 2016 on Saturday at The Colisée in Lewiston. The “Vacationland Cup” is the organization’s biggest show of the year and will be headlined by a one-on-one match between former World Wrestling Entertainment stars Dirty Dango and Scotty 2 Hotty, both Maine natives. Also on the card will be WWE Hall of Fame member Tony Atlas, who I had the pleasure of wrestling at a NAWA show in Massachusetts in 2022.
I will never give up wrestling. Whether it’s mentoring younger wrestlers or just helping out, I’ll always be involved. It’s too much a part of me now.
The virus infected me. And I’m glad it happened that way.
Copy the story link
