By Marc Katz
Dayton Daily News
There is pro baseball and football and basketball and hockey and golf and tennis and volleyball and track and swimming and boxing and ice skating and soccer and lacrosse and, gee, soon in your neighborhood, maybe artistic gymnastics.
If it’s an athletic competition, it’s probably got some kind of pro spin to it after high school and college.
Wrestling had a spin to it, too. Bulk up, add some tatoos, cut your hair funny, wear a scowl and join the pro wrestling tour. It’s entertainment, for sure, but it sure isn’t real.
That changed a bit this year with the introduction of Real Pro Wrestling, of which former West Liberty resident Tim Dernlan was a participant.
Real Pro Wrestling (RPW) debuted in late March on PAX TV and Fox Sports Net and runs through May 25. There are three shows left ” Sunday on PAX (available locally on DirecTV or the Dish Network) from 4 to 5 p.m. and the next two Wednesdays (May 18 and 25) from 3 to 4 p.m. on Fox Sports Net.
“It has created a huge buzz in the wrestling community, “said Dernlan, who wrestled at Purdue and currently is an assistant coach at Penn State. “Guys I coach want to know all about it. It’s a great thing. This is a good time for wrestling.”
Nearly 60 wrestlers were involved in this year’s venture, and they were divided into eight teams from California to New York. They were teams in name only, as the entire schedule was filmed during a weekend Los Angeles shoot.
“I lost my first match, but you only had to wrestle about three times if you won, “Dernlan said. “Winners got about $20,000. We used local people for the audience in L.A., but this fall, I will be wrestling in Minnesota. They’re already setting up live events.”
Dernlan is part of the Minnesota Freeze team, so eventually the teams will catch up with the states they are named after.
“Because of the nature of it ” you train individually ” wrestling is not a team sport, “Dernlan said. “But it develops a loyal and cult-like following.”
The wrestling takes place on a circular elevated pad reached by ramps down which the competitors walk as the crowd erupts in cheers. If the wrestlers tumble off the mat, there are handlers below with large pads ” previously associated with football blocking drills ” to push them back up.
Rules for the meets are a combination of freestyle, Greco-Roman wrestling and American freestyle. The shows also feature the wrestlers out of the ring, and the first thing you’ll notice is that while the wrestlers are well-built, they all look normal-sized, unlike some other sports’ athletes.
Music, lights and breathless announcing make it not just a competition, but an entertainment event, which is where most of our sports are heading.
Dernlan ” who wrestled at 118 in college but 128 in Real Pro Wrestling ” and his three older brothers (Jeff, Steve and Matt), won a combined 10 state wrestling championships, with Tim winning as a freshman, sophomore and senior. He was an NCAA All-American in 1998 at Purdue.
“I’m kind of toward the end of my (participation) career, “Dernlan said. “But I’ll wrestle at least one more year in this. In a lot of people’s minds, something isn’t real unless it’s on TV.”
According to RPW, more than a million wrestlers compete at the collegiate and high school levels, and the National Federation of High Schools calls it the sixth largest participatory sport.
Dernlan, in addition to this new venture and his duties at Penn State, holds traveling wrestling camps. In June, he will hold one in Troy and another in Springfield. Check his website under timdernlan.tripod.com for details.
As for RPW, if you see one guy pull his opponent’s hair out, that’s real blood on the mat, not Heinz Ketchup.
Contact Marc Katz at (937) 225-2157 or [email protected]
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