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Sunday July 28 2019 - Old fashioned personals	Anecdotes
A good friend of mine told me that back in his time, before the era of the Internet, he had to use those weekly or monthly magazines/digests or special newspapers that contains a small personals section to try to find wrestlers. Even there, the proportion of wrestlers seeking wrestlers was infinitely small. Once you find one, your heart beat would rise: this is your once in a lifetime chance to get a match. It would takes months of correspondence through snail mail until you could get to finally meet someone. Been excited for the match, my friend couldn't sleep the previous day. He drove a couple of hours to meet this guy and when he arrived at his destination, he walked up to the door. As he was going to knock on it, the excitement got the most out of him and he.. uh.. creamed his pants. Just the thought that he was going to wrestle someone was enough to put him out of control. Feeling embarrassed, my friend went back into his car and drove back home. The wrestler on the other end was pretty angry at this "no show", but since there's only a handful of wrestlers back in the time... and considering that being gay was still quite a taboo back then (yet alone, being a gay wrestler), his opponent eventually forgave this mishap and they ended up setting up another meet up a few months later. Today, we don't hear much of these stories anymore. We have the luxury of instant responses through messaging, social media, dating apps and of course, the convenience of personal sites adapted to our niche. There is a consequence that it affects the overall behavior of the community: people expect you to reply faster, they won't be as forgiving if you cancel an appointment, the rate of no-shows increases and people cherry-pick wrestlers that come out straight from a magazine cover. Nevertheless, with some luck, you can still meet great people that puts aside these traits and behaviors. They are people out there that embrace wrestling as a sport that should include anyone who wishes to try it. They are actually what I would call the Ambassadors of Wrestling. When you meet a wrestler that wishes to try the sport for the first time, you will determine if they are going to join the community and like it forever. Inversely, you will also determine if you've scorched them for life and make them hate wrestling forever. It's actually a pretty tough responsibility. When I met one of these ambassadors that seek to transfer the fun of wrestling to the world (or at least to new wrestlers), they showed me how great is wrestling by having a good and fair match, by teaching me how to become a better wrestler and by sharing their life experience and their wrestling stories. Later on, you'll be carrying the torch and you'll do the same to new wrestlers that you meet. For every good match that you get, you become a better wrestler, but you also become a better storyteller.
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