By JOHN LETASKY
Of The Gazette Staff
Sidney native Brandon Eggum is still a player in the national wrestling scene, although he is looking forward to retirement and a future in business and as a wrestling coach.
Since Eggum finished his wrestling career at the University of Minnesota in 2000 as a three-time All-American – including a runner-up finish at 184 pounds in 1999 to the invincible Cael Sanderson – he has been competing on the international scene. One of his finer moments came in 2001 when he was the silver medalist and top U.S. finisher at the World Championships.
Because of various injuries over the past two years, Eggum said it’s been hard for him to train as hard as he needs to for him to do as well as he wishes in competition. However, that didn’t stop him from lacing up the wrestling shoes and competing in the inaugural season of Real Pro Wrestling, which can be seen Sundays through May 15 on PAX at 2 p.m. Mountain time and Wednesdays on Fox Sports Network at 1 p.m. through May 25.
Eggum said he appeared in one episode of the show in a tournament at 184 pounds, where he was ranked third. He won one contest and lost his semifinals match to finish 1-1. It was a single-elimination tournament.
“Personally, myself, I’m planning on retiring, but I’ll keep on doing Real Pro Wrestling as long as they do it, “said Eggum in a recent phone interview. “They plan on doing it next season, too. They are going to change it up a little bit. Their plans are to travel and do duals around the country. And then they see how you do in a dual tournament and that sets you up for the national tournament.”
The basic purpose and plan of Real Pro Wrestling is to showcase freestyle wrestling in a way to where a sports fan will turn it on, view it, enjoy the sport and be entertained. The goal is to gather more momentum for the sport and find more fans and potential wrestlers for the future.
“I know for sure it’s a good thing, “said Eggum. “It gets wrestling on TV a little more. So hopefully you spark more interest between fans who haven’t followed wrestling before. They do a good job of doing bios on each guy and that’s a big part of it. They get to know the person competing.
“It’s real good entertainment. It’s not like professional wrestling and stuff where you have all the cussing and things you see on TV. It’s good, hard-nosed people going out there and working hard.”
Many times it is hard for someone who wants to compete in amateur wrestling and possibly the Olympics to keep on living the dream. They have to have somewhere to sleep, food to eat and money to support themselves and their loved ones. Sometimes they may also want to enjoy some of the extras a job can provide. Sponsorships, savings and coaching positions or clinics can only provide so much. Eggum said the staff of Real Pro Wrestling paid him and treated the wrestlers really well, like a “superstar.”
“As far as pay in wrestling, if this thing works out some of these guys could make a living on wrestling and help them pay for their training and then they could make their dreams of competing on the World Team.
“To make a living wrestling, that would be the ultimate goal. Because right now a lot of guys are doing a ton of side things to make a living. Guys are doing jobs and working and training and some are still going to school. This would be a benefit to help guys take off.”
While he is done with Real Pro Wrestling for the season, Eggum, 29, is busy with his duties as a paid assistant wrestling coach at Minnesota. He also coaches various clubs. In the summer he does camps and clinics. But, his days as an active wrestler are winding down and he knows it.
“Last year I was getting banged up a little bit and not recovering as quickly as I wanted, so it was making it hard to compete, “said Eggum. “This year I’m taking off from competing. I had thoughts of competing next year for the U.S. Team and World Team, but more than likely I’ll continue to coach and do Real Pro Wrestling.”
Although wrestling is very important to Eggum, he has also started to diversify himself. Currently he is busy buying houses and rental property in Minneapolis. To date, he owns three rental houses and a fourth that he lives in.
“The prices for rent are crazy, “said Eggum. “I bought a house and lived there and some of my friends rented from me. And the equity of the houses went up and that helped.
“I’m learning. I didn’t have a clue about fixing a leaky faucet or anything before I bought my first house. A lot of the houses are old houses. You learn to fix things yourself and save some money. It’s something you learn in time how to do more and more. Guys on the team, their dad did linoleum and flooring or their dad did sheetrock. Some of the kids are handy; they come out on the weekends and help you out.”
Between his time moonlighting for Real Pro Wrestling, coaching the Gophers and youth of Minnesota and keeping tabs on his property, Eggum is staying busy – just the way he likes it.
John Letasky can be reached at [email protected]
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