Becoming an AEW Wrestler might be the greatest goal of any aspiring pro-Wrestler.
To join AEW, start with a small wrestling school and start learning your fundamentals. Keep yourself motivated and train regularly. After improving, try joining local wrestling shows to gain experience. If you’re experienced enough, enroll in a bigger school and try your luck on AEW wrestling camps.
Are you ready to start your AEW wrestling journey? I’ve prepared an outline of the steps you need to follow below.
Table of Contents
Step 1: Enroll in a small wrestling School
Opportunity’s not going to knock on your door. You have to take the initiative and begin your progress. Enrolling in a local small wrestling school is the first move.
Take this chance to learn the basic fundamentals of professional wrestling. You will know how to fall properly on the ring, correct partner handling, and more.
It’s essential to enroll in a small school first. These schools tend to have cheaper tuition fees than the more famous ones.
The quality of the school is a significant factor to look at. Before committing to an academy, be sure you like the team you surround yourself with.
It’s important to choose the right team. These people will be the ones who’ll mold your foundation as a Pro Wrestler.
Step 2: Train regularly
Being a beginner is boring, especially if you want to be on the advanced level fast. Learning the fundamentals will require countless repetitions. Be persistent and persevere to your goal.
Following a good training schedule is a great way to succeed. This will increase your improvement phase, putting you closer to your big-stage dream.
Training regularly is different from over-training. Be sure not to over-work yourself as it may cause you injuries.
These injuries might be short-term or long-term. Either way, it will surely delay your progress as an athlete for weeks.
Stay motivated
A great way to push yourself to train is to stay inspired. Think of the reason why you’re pursuing your pro wrestling career. Keep the fire burning.
Have a training buddy
Having a training buddy is also an excellent way to visit the wrestling gym regularly. In this way, you’ll have someone to push you more and return the favor to them.
Step 3: Get booked in local wrestling events
After months of continuous wrestling training, it’s time for you to make a name for yourself. You can do this by joining local wrestling events.
Joining events like this will give you a lot of experience in performing in front of a live audience. It also pays money for you to continue your training.
There are countless independent wrestling promotions you can sign up with.
Wrestling events are an excellent opportunity to attract the attention of AEW agents.
They tend to watch events like these to scout potential prospects. So be sure to perform well for every appearance.
Being a part of a wrestling event will give you more knowledge about your craft. You will learn more moves and some dos and don’ts that you won’t acquire in regular training.
Local wrestling events will give you more connection to the wrestling business. These connections will get you closer to your dream of AEW wrestling.
Step 4: Go to a bigger wrestling School
After gaining experience on local shows, why not enroll to a bigger wrestling school? More prominent and more famous schools have better coaches and equipment.
Having these coaches on your side will significantly help you to level up your wrestling game.
More famous wrestling academies usually get more attention from pro-wrestling organization agents. This will give you a greater chance of being signed.
Being a part of a larger wrestling school will introduce you to more aspiring Wrestlers. Being surrounded by people with the same goal help you be motivated.
More prominent schools have more expensive tuition fees. But that shouldn’t be a problem at this stage if you’re being booked for local shows regularly.
Step 5: Attend wrestling workshops
A great way to improve your wrestling resume is to attend wrestling workshops. These workshops will also help you step up your game.
Try to focus and perform well during drills and exercises. You’ll never know if an agent is scouting around the vicinity of the workshop.
Aside from joining local wrestling events, workshops are also a great way to make a name. If you’re a regular participant, big-time coaches might notice your potential.
If a wrestling team appreciates your potential, they might invite you to train with them. Being a part of a wrestling team will again put you one step closer to an AEW wrestling contract.
Step 6: Assess yourself
After all the progress that you’ve made, it’s time for you to assess yourself. Watch videos of your matches and look for any flaws in your overall game style.
Take these flaws and polish them one by one. This might take weeks or months of drill repetitions, so it’s like going back to step 2.
The key to this step is to be objective. If you see that your move needs improvement, then admit it to yourself.
Don’t be an overconfident jerk who doesn’t accept any form of criticism.
A great athlete knows how to correct their own mistakes and use them for further improvement.
Step 7: Join AEW wrestling camps
The final step is to join AEW wrestling boot camps. These boot camps are also tryouts for new aspiring pro-Wrestlers. WWE and UFC also conduct tryouts like these.
Do your best to get the attention of the AEW president Tony Khan. If he likes your fighting style, it’s a guaranteed pro-wrestling contract.
Take this opportunity to show all the moves you’ve learned in your wrestling career. Exhibit your own personality and style of wrestling.
Everything boils down to this part of your wrestling journey. When you’ve come this far, quitting is not an option anymore. Keep going, keep showing up, and eventually, you’ll catch the eye of the promotion.
What to do if you didn’t get signed?
If fortune doesn’t come your way, pat yourself on the back. Rest, get back up, improve and try again. It’s not the end of the world, champ.
There’s nothing wrong with failing. What’s important is you don’t quit on your goals. Go back to step 2 and train regularly, learn new moves, and acquire new styles.
While waiting for the next AEW boot camp to start again, join local to national wrestling events. This will sharpen your skills further until your next tryout.
Learn martial arts
Learning martial arts like Judo, wrestling, and grappling is great. It will give you more ideas on how to execute moves properly.
If you’re short, you should spend some time learning wrestling moves for short wrestlers and even try learning Judo throws for short guys. This will make your moves more versatile and visual in the ring.
To adapt to this setup, you must learn how to take down bigger wrestling opponents.
Take, for example, Rey Mysterio. He’s small but can take on 7-foot wrestlers like The Big Show. And it makes for a hugely entertaining matchup for the fans!