FAQ
*Preface*
Young wrestlers ask me for advice at an increasingly frequent rate, so, I thought I would spend the next few articles exploring those questions. In the process, hopefully I, and those who wish to learn with me, will get a better understanding about the answers that aspiring wrestlepros want to help them grow. Without further ado:
I: How So Creative?
How do you come up with so many creative moves?
Stock answer: When comedians used to ask one of my favorite stand-up acts, Mitch Hedberg, “How do you come up with so many one liners?” He would reply, “When I think of something funny, I write it down. When you think of something funny, don’t be lazy, write it down.”
When I think of a crazy wrestling move idea, I take my phone out, open Google Docs and write it down. If you think of something that could be cool, don’t be lazy, write it down.
Next, at training, or before doors have opened at an event, I ask a brave and eager-faced, youthful wrestler, “Heyyy, ya mind if I try something with you?” To which they typically reply, “Uh, suuure.” In the past, if they said, “Uh, no.” I would cuss them out in front of everyone and accuse them of having no heart (Sorry, again, Elliott.). Now, I tend to shrug my shoulder and ask someone else.
An essential side-point: most of the time my ideas don’t work, at all. So, I erase them from Docs and move on. No worries, I got many more where that came from, because I’m not lazy and write down every-damn-idea (Most of the time, anyway.*looks down guiltily*).
A possible additional question: But what if I don’t ever think of any move ideas to begin with?
Additional question reply: I’d imagine that one or both of these is true of you; 1.) You don’t watch enough wrestling to be inspired. 2.) You’re not bored enough.
1a.) Watch more wrestling! Not just TV wrestling! Weird, obscure sh**! Sh** you don’t even necessarily like! Watch to learn, you f***! Study! Be f***ing inspired, you little sh**!
2a.) Turn that sh** off, shut the f*** up, and space out! Don’t always be distracted; turn your phone off for a while and let your brain have some space to roam and get some exercise, every once in a while. I frequently drive hundreds of miles with no one in the car to keep me company, not listening to sh**, just daydreaming about wrestling. I thought of that suicide dive flipping stunner you may have seen on Ring Of Honor television, while I was driving to that event; I literally came up with, and did, one of the moves that helped put me on the map, the same damn day. Don’t take long drives? Take long walks (Did I say “don’t be lazy”, yet?)
*Note: if I’m driving I use voice to text software. Don’t be an assh***, stay off your phone while you’re driving! Keep your eyes on the road, your hands at 10-&-2, and “Hey, Siri.” that sh**, brothers and sisters.
The in-depth answer: I don’t know: no one actually knows where creativity/inspiration comes from.
Have you ever been doing something completely unrelated to a problem that you may be dealing with, then, all of a sudden, a solution hits you with an R-K-Oh-duhhh outta who-knows-where? Assuming you’re a human being, I will also assume that you have. Where did that sudden “Aha!” come from?
Back-in-the-day, they may have said that the Muses (gods of inspiration) visited you. Now-a-days, you might hear something that I will translate as, “Your powerful-as-f*** subconscious mind was working on that sh** in the background, while your distracted-as-f*** conscious mind was unaware and, maybe most importantly, out of the way.” Some have even played around with the thought that creativity doesn’t come from the individual brain, at all, but, rather, our brains are like compatible devices that can connect to the outside-us, free-to-All Collective Wi-Fi of Creativity.
Regardless, it’s an undetectable-to-the-senses, therefore unknowable, yet undeniable, process where an idea-baby just shows up at the doorstep of your headspace, with no stork in sight, and through no noticeable fault of your own.
So, how do I come up with all these crazy moves? Well, I don’t; at least not the I that I think I am. The part of me that I refer to as me hasn’t the faintest hue of a blue clue where in the blue hell the Slingshot Blue Thunder Driver I just innovated while writing this sentence came from. It just came. Maybe it came because of my intelligence, maybe because of my open receptiveness. Doesn’t matter, I just hope it works.
The question you should really be asking is: How can I become more creative?
How can you be more creative, you ask?
Ahem.
Step 1.) Start by wanting to be more creative. Whether it’s some supernatural force bestowing you with creativeness, or your subconscious mind working through things that your conscious mind doesn’t have the computing power for, or some idea that has always existed outside of space and time that you fish out of the Ocean Of Our-imagination, you have asked whichever one of those that fits your personality best to help you out. Want help from the gods? Pray, motherf***er. Subconscious? Think, motherf***er. Collective Creativity? Dream, motherf***er. If you really want to be creative, why not hedge your bets and do all them sh**s, friends?
Step 2.) Do work, son or daughter. Even if you don’t have anything to put in it, yet, create a document on your phone for creative ideas. Even if it’s not the best, write the first idea that comes to you down, then the second, and so on; that’s how you build momentum and positive habits.
Sit your ass down and think-on-purpose, keep your mind focused for a while, your brain will appreciate the attention and reward you, even if it’s later when the you-you-think-you-are has forgotten about it, so; no worries if nothing good seems to come, at first.
Want to know the (somehow) secret cure for writer’s block? To stop being a scared-lazy f*** and to sit your ass down and write! Don’t ask “what am I going to write”, knowing what we just discussed about creativity, just how in the f*** would “you” know what “you” are going to write. Just write, damnit, What will figure Itself out. That advice applies to most any endeavor and will surely be revisited in this series.
Step 3.) Wait. You have tilled the land and planted seeds. Now, it’s time for the Sun and rain to do its job. Your job is to leave them the hell alone. If you think pouring bucket after bucket of water, or keeping maxed-out heat lamps on your crops all-day-everyday, is going to yield a fruitful harvest, then you suck fibrous scarecrow sh** at farming, fam.
***
Well, there you have it, that’s my process for being the guy that does sh** you have never seen before. Please, give me feedback; if this helped you, I would like to know. Also, possibly think of sharing it with others: we’re all in this together; let’s all improve together. Do you have a creative process that differs from mine? Consider sharing it, as well. I know you may be stuck in the the culturally well-trained famine-thinking of fear that the next person may surpass you and take away your thing you want, or want to keep, because you helped them improve, but please try to remember that we live in an infinitely-creative planet in an infinite Universe, governed by infinite math; so, you, too, have the potential to be infinitely creative if you had but the respective reproductive organs the size of a couple mustard seeds.
That being said: tried everything I said and still struggling to be creative? Then be my guest and borrow from me, my friends, because if you don’t think that I still got creative juices spraying out my man-nips like f**ks spraying out of my dad’s mouth when he’s working on a car, then be prepared to be stunned like the RAW roster in the late ‘90s.
Oh.
Hell.
Yeah.
In all seriousness, though, don’t be lazy and come up with your own stuff. (Did I already say don’t be lazy?)
