Former world champ trains rookies at local wrestling school

Want to be a pro-wrestling superstar? Awesome Wrestling Entertainment wants to help you get there.

“Our goal here is to produce the next crop of AWE superstars,” said AWE Founder Marvin Ward, a former pro wrestler who is directing classes at the new AWE Training Center, which operates out of Augusta Expoland in Fishersville, Va.

Ward and a group of veteran wrestlers provide hands-on instruction at the Training Center. Recently, former WWE and WCW World Champ Kevin Nash lent his help to the rookies at the Training Center.

“Some people forget where they started from, where it all began. If you want to be a pro wrestler, you’ve got to learn how to do the craft,” Nash said after his session at the Training Center, which included a few minutes of him working in-ring to show a group of wrestlers the finer points of taking a bump.

“It’s nice to see hunger in a young boy’s eyes, hunger in a young woman’s eyes, wanting to get into a business that has been so lucrative to myself,” Nash said.

The AWE Training Center features two rings and a full ringside area. “It’s the only one of its kind on the East Coast,” said Ward.

The instruction includes the finer points of in-ring and ringside action and the development of characters and interviewing techniques.

“I’ve wanted to be a professional wrestler my entire life. I saw that AWE was opening up a school, and I said, Hey, man, look, this is what I’ve always wanted to do, so why not move down here, try it out? So far, I’ve loved everything I’ve done,” said Stephen Grepps, a student in the first class at the Training Center, who relocated from Pennsylvania to Virginia to enroll in the class.

Spots are still open in the AWE Training Center. Contact the AWE at [email protected].

More information on Awesome Wrestling Entertainment is available online at AwesomeWrestlingEntertainment.com.

“I invite everybody down. If it’s something that’s always been your dream, to be a professional wrestler, if it’s something that you’ve always wanted to do, come on out, check it out, see what you think, and let us show you how to be an AWE Superstar,” Ward said.