“Hau Kola” Hello my friends and welcome again to “Tatanka’s Pow Wow”! First of all I would like to thank all the fans for their great response last week to my first weekly commentary at WrestlingPlanet.Com. It has and will always be a pleasure to reach out to you, the fans and give you a piece of The Native American Tatanka’s thoughts. Speaking of thoughts, I would love to have your thoughts on some new and recent business endeavors I am looking at with Tribal members of The Seminole Tribe of Florida. We are looking at a new design and look for jeans, jean jackets, vests, any type of clothing and many other items we use every day of our lives. The Seminoles have their own way of doing handmade patchwork that is just simply beautiful and dated back into the 1800’s. It is unique, one of a kind, and only made by Seminoles and we are looking to put this patchwork at the bottom of jeans and on hip pockets, on jean jackets, vests made entirely of patchwork, and many other every day items with over 741 different patchwork designs that we own. We all know how the Native look and western look has taken off over the years so we want to offer to the public worldwide our own unique designs on the items I have just mentioned. Go to NativeTatanka.com to see recent pictures of my family and I modeling the different items and please give me your thoughts and suggestions in my message board inside of the Patchwork Section. I thank you in advance for your time and thoughts on this matter.
Well it’s time to get to the matter at hand so let’s camp around the fire for words of wisdom at “Tatanka’s Pow Wow”. Even after being in the business since 1990 but actually only wrestling 9 out of the 11 years I still today receive above all the same question, Is Wrestling Real? Then the second question a lot of the times is How Do I Get In? Well let’s face those 2 questions head on to the mass market and answer it for the public since many times most wrestlers either avoid the question or either never tell the complete truth. Let’s attack is Wrestling Real First. I will start off by telling you I played High School Football on a State Championship Team, played College Ball, and even had try-outs for The Miami Dolphins, which I made and had an opportunity to play for them but chose not to for several reasons, which is explained in my Bio/Stats area under NFL Career at NativeTatanka.com I was a serious hitter in football and won awards for being a head hunter and getting the most tackles in a game but after all that contact and play over all those years I was never hurt as much as I have been with Pro Wrestling. Thank God, I have never had major injuries in Pro Wrestling because mainly of my intense workout sessions every day that prevents injuries. But let’s face it; we have had many injury’s over the last few years that have either retired wrestler’s or side lined them for 4-6 months at a time with now current stars side lined with major injury’s such as Triple HHH with a major thigh tear, Benoit a neck injury, DDP recovering from injuries and the list goes on. This is not staged events to make you believe they are hurt or to give them time off but real injuries. What we do when the bell rings is for real. How does a 300 lb. man come off the top ropes and land on you without you feeling it; it’s impossible or do the moves we do day in and day out without your opponent feeling it. What makes wrestling such a draw today and even when I was at WWF is that you have true athletes in the squared circle that are conditioned for this type of thing.
The best way of putting it is if an average man or woman falls today most end up in the hospital or chiropractor with whiplash. Why is a wrestler any different, we fall some times 10 or more times a match per night with at least 16 day a month schedules. We just do not play football on Sunday’s but we do it 4-5 times per week every week. The only reason we do not get hurt more and why people do not understand is because you have guys that are bigger and have trained themselves and their body’s to withstand more of a pain level. How do football players do what they do, how do boxers do what they do, and how do wrestler’s do what they do. We have all conditioned our body’s for the sport but also many of us are made for wrestling and that is our calling in the business world where an average man or woman it would destroy them after the first slam. The biggest mistake is people put themselves in the ring and know they would be hurt after a move like that and just do not believe that the wrestlers today are really doing what they do and feeling the pain because they associate it to themselves instead of a trained athlete that has learned his Profession and also trains for it daily by going to a gym and putting the hours in at a gym. What we do in the ring is very real and we take it serious because it is your body that you are taking risks with and you only have one. That is why Vince McMahon calls it Sports Entertainment; the sport is the stuff we do in the ring because it is for real and it takes athletes to do it while on the other hand the entertainment part is the story lines and hype between two character’s and wrestlers. The true reality of things is that most wrestlers always have some kind of small nagging injury with them at all times but they still perform night after night because the show must go on!
Second question; How Do I Get In? With the great success of wrestling today, it seems that everyone wants to become a Pro Wrestler or teach how to become a Pro Wrestler. My first wisdom of advice to you is to make sure you know who you are dealing with and do not take their advice they know wrestling. The only trainers who should really be training you are people that have been or working with people that have been at the top of Professional Wrestling. How am I going to tell you to get to the top of the wrestling world at WWF if I haven’t even done it myself? The biggest thing with wrestling schools is to get the greatest thing which is knowing what to do and when in the ring. You can learn all the highflying moves you want but if you do not have wisdom or what we call psychology it will not get you to the top. Let’s prove it; the top wrestler and talent in the world today is The Rock. He does not come off the top rope, he does not do any special or spectator high flying move but what he does he does great and also he knows when to do it and also how to play it which is all called psychology. There are definite better high flyers but they are not the man and in comparison the pay is 150 to 1. So psychology is the key along with learning how to do moves. Most schools only show you how to do moves but the better ones will teach you psychology in the ring and also on the interviews. Get yourself a character or image that you can portray and most of the time the best image to portray is what you feel comfortable with or who you really are. Like myself, I am 100% Native American from The Lumbee Nation so when I step out into the arena I am being who I really am and that shows through your work how it just flows in the squared circle. You must have something people believe in and relate to because a lot of the times they are living through you because they believe in whom you portray and that is the key also for crowd support. Like the old school taught; it has to be like a Rocky Movie (Stallone Boxing Movie). You have the hero or the underdog who the people get behind and he gets the sympathy of the people as he is getting whipped or beat and then all of a sudden he get’s tired of it and here he comes like a ball of fire to defeat the bad guy and explode the people with victory! You have just learned Psychology 101.
I would like to end with some important information that will help you if you are serious about pursuing a wrestling career. My good friend Brian Blair of The Killer Bee Tag Team formally of The WWF has granted me some of his information just released in his brand new book called “Smarten Up! Say It Right”. I made a statement on the back cover of his book along with Wade Boggs famous baseball player and friends of Brian and myself. This is a must have book if you are serious about becoming a Pro Wrestler. Just go to my web site at NativeTatanka.com and scroll on the left hand side menu on my home page and click onto links then scroll down until you see the cover of his book I just mentioned by title “Smarten Up! Say It Right”. Brian has also allowed me to give you the web site addresses or e-mail of most of the schools throughout the nation and also Canada that he recommends but get his book for the full info on each school with details of who is running it and where. Below my article will be all this information for your viewing choices and I would like to thank Brian Blair for his addition to “Tatanka’s Pow Wow”. Once again it has been an honor to share this time with you and please e-mail WrestlingPlanet.Com or where ever you are viewing this and give them your appreciation of bringing this to the fans first hand by the wrestler’s themselves. Once again, do not forget to visit me at NativeTatanka.com to get the latest news of my return to TV and also to view the new section in my site, which will be coming soon. Actual matches of me and Superstars of the WWF Live on real video during my career at the WWF. Well it’s time to put the fire out and close this session at “Tatanka’s Pow Wow”.
“Pilamia Yelo” Thank you and God bless you,
Tatanka
Wrestling schools
1. Steve Keirn skeirn@gte.net
2. Dory Funk Jr. fuanku@dory-funk.com and www.dory-funk.com
3. Harley Race www.harleyrace.com
4. Dusty Rhodes www.dustyrhodes.net
5. Danny Davis www.ovwrestling.com and ovwrestling@aol.com
6. Sam DeCero www.windycityprowrestling.com and info@windycityprowrestling.com
7. Jimmy Valiant www.jimmyvaliant.com and boogie@usit.net
8. Ken Spence wwp@angelfire.com
9. Moondog Spot moondogwrestling@arkansas.net
10. Colt Steel www.midatlanticwrestling.com and macwpromo@midatlanticwrestling.com
11. Larry Sharpe www.monsterfactory.com and monsterfactory@crosswinds.net
12. Afa The Wild Samoan www.wildsamoan.com and Samoan1@aol.com
13. Michelle Star www.eccw.com/hop and school@eccw.com
14. Waldo Von Erich www.allcanadianwrestling.com
15. Keith Hart swilde@iul.net
16. Black Bart nicric96@yahoo.com
17. Tom Jones newmidsouth@iname.com
18. Gene Ligon www.yourgym.com and gligon@vnet.net
19. Bill Anderson www.iwc-wrestling.com and billanderson2000@aol.com
20. Zane Morris nwa_sw@hotmail.com
21. Steve Simpson texaschampionshipwrestling@yahoo.com
22. Johnny Mantell wallace@wwa.nu
23. Paul Diamond www.cwfwrestling.com
24. Verne Langdon www.slammers.com
25. Mike Miller mean_mike1@yahoo.com
26. Steve Gatorwolf gatorwolf@hotmail.com
27. Les Thatcher school@mainevent.net
Plus Many More In The Book!