It’s a lot of sacrifices, you hardly see your family, kids, your only friends are the ones in the locker room but you can only really count on a hand full of them, you live with pain everyday of your life. Sometimes you can’t even get out of bed, the pay is horrible unless you make it to the big time, there is no health insurance and no life insurance will take you, people look at you as if you were a clown and a loser unless they are fans, and the fans think they know you and are your friends.
You bleed, break bones, and constantly have to compete in a popularity contest, all while maintaining in shape and trying not to get injured or injuring someone else.
but when you’re in the ring, it’s intoxicating. It’s the strongest drug you will ever know, the adrenaline, the cheers the boos, every night for 5 mins to an hour you are larger than life, you are a superhero or a super villain, you are some kids favorite wrestler and some ring rats (groupie) fantasy. You are a rockstar for the little while you’re at the show, the road trips with your buddies are amazing and the after parties are legendary. But then you go home, you’re bored, you start needed that rush, you need your fix, and when you pack your bag and head out the next day, you feel the rush coming, you step in the building and it’s like shaking hands with a drug dealer. Then you step through that curtain and it’s euphoria again. It’s that rush, that high. And that’s when you realize you are hooked. That is why you see so many old timers still hanging around.