True story. It was 2001. I had just wrestled a show about 3 hours from home. I gave everything I had in that ring. Left it all out there. The crowd was into it. The boys in the back said I did good work. Then I got my payoff. Twenty bucks. I hadn't eaten all day. I was running on fumes. Literally. My gas tank was almost empty and I still had a 3 hour drive home. I pulled into a gas station somewhere in the middle of nowhere Ohio and I had to make a choice. Do I eat or do I put gas in the car. I couldn't do both. I put the gas in. Drove home hungry. Got home after midnight. My wife Terrie was already asleep. I sat in the driveway for a minute and thought about quitting. Not because I didn't love wrestling. I loved it more than anything. But love doesn't pay bills. Love doesn't fill your gas tank. Love doesn't put food on the table for your family. A year later I walked away. My body was breaking down. We were broke. We had a family to raise. I chose survival. But here's the thing nobody tells you. It didn't have to be that way. I wasn't broke because I was a bad wrestler. I was broke because nobody taught me the business side. Nobody taught me how to build a brand. Nobody taught me how to create income outside of match payoffs. Nobody taught me that I was a business and not just a performer. I had to learn all of that on my own. Years later. The hard way. Through trial and error and a whole lot of expensive mistakes. When I came back to wrestling in 2015 and started New Ohio Wrestling, I promised myself I would never let another wrestler go through what I went through without at least knowing there was a better way. I spent years figuring this out the hard way. Now I'm putting it all in one place. More soon.