 [dramatic choral music]
 - We're in San Antonio,
I'm about to check out my first
Valhalla wrestling match.
 They're expecting about 100,
 150 people,
and say many of which
could be vets.
 I'm excited to see the show.
 It makes me think back
 to some of the improv shows
 I did to begin with.
You do it because
you want the stage time.
Uh, they do it because
they're getting over PTSD.
Equally valid.
 ♪ ♪
Gentlemen,
what am I expecting tonight?
- So, tonight,
I'm being a heel.
See how many people
I can offend
and see if I can get people
to throw stuff at me.
 [spirited orchestral music]
 - The show
 is physically impressive,
 and at times it deals
 with serious subject matter.
 Like when
 a character named Pizza Man
 throws pizza dough
 into his opponents face,
 which we all know
 really hurts.
 Because pro wrestling is
 all about basic storytelling.
 A good guy or "the face"
 versus a bad guy,
 aka "the heel.'
 Today,
 Eddie is playing the heel.
 He gets the job done
 by humiliating veterans
 in front of the crowd,
 and everyone boos.
- Where are all
the veterans at?
Air Force, sit down.
You don't count.
 - Now it's the good guy's turn
 to work the crowd.
 He does things
 like chant "USA,"
 and everyone cheers.
 all: USA! USA!
 - You're going
 to be surprised.
 The winner was
 the good guy chanting USA
 who's going down on a veteran.
 [rock music]
 Welcome home, boys.
- I've talked to veterans
that come to the shows.
They're like,
"Man, I get aggression out
"by yelling at y'all,
by screaming at y'all.
I get all--like,
I just get it out."
- Wrestling's, like,
a comfort zone.
- Is wrestling your pill?
- Oh, yeah.
Wrestling's--that's my medicine
right there.
The PTSD will go away as long
as I'm watching wrestling,
and maybe one day
I can get in there.
- Yeah. What would be
your character name?
- I don't know.
Uh...
Handsome Stranger?
Something like that.
[laughing]
- Handsome Stranger.
Oh, there's a little bit
of mystery there,
it's sexy, but there's
a little bit of danger.
 [chill music]
 The desire for community
 also stems
 from vets feeling isolated
 at home.
 Jan experienced that firsthand
 when he came back from Iraq
 in 2006.
 It took him several years
 to reconnect
 with his daughter, Aslynn.
 Tragically, the same can't be
 said about his cooking skills.
[both laugh]
Is this how you cook bacon
in Texas?
You kill it twice?
Who was on bacon duty?
- Him.
- She was.
- What was it like...
coming home?
- It was very difficult,
and then I was very,
uh, standoffish,
um, and, uh, had anger issues
and stuff like that,
and I was just overwhelmed
and I wasn't processing stuff
as I should.
- My dad, he just looked
really out of it,
and he seemed, like--
he just seemed kind of spaced
and everything,
and he looked,
like, devastated.
- What--what
don't civilians get about
the transition
that vets have
coming from overseas,
coming back home?
- There isn't, like,
a single right answer.
I can try to tell somebody what
it was like
to have a car bomb go off
not too far from you,
but if you haven't
been through a similar thing,
it's really hard
to fully grasp really
why that changes somebody
on a permanent level.
I have a few photographs.
I took a lot
when I was out there
just because
I never wanted to forget.
This is, like,
one of Saddam's palaces.
- Oh, wow.
- And that was kind of
a surreal experience,
and then this one--
this is that car bomb.
Some days you sit there
and you're like,
"How am I still alive?"
So I look at this often
to look at myself and be like,
"Okay, now I gotta take this
Valhalla Club to the next level.
I gotta try
to help somebody else."
You know?
 - Wrestling is just one form
 of alternative therapy
 these guys are using for PTSD.
 Eddie craves adrenaline.
 He's a seven-time
 jiujitsu world champ,
 and recently
 started doing stand-up
 because there's nothing like
 telling grizzly war stories
 to drunk tourists
 looking at their phones.
- I'm a little bit nervous,
but nervous and excited.
I'm used to getting up there
in my underwears
and beating the shit
out of somebody.
It's a lot different than going
up there and saying,
"Hey, you guys, look at me.
I'm funny.
- The funny thing
with stand-up is,
it's based on expectations...
- Right.
- And subverting
those expectations.
He's a meathead
who went off to war, right?
- Right.
- But I gotten to spend
a little bit of time with you,
you are
a remarkably likable guy.
Like, the ability
to see who you are
and project that
in a way that they can digest,
like, that's an exciting thing.
- I try to joke with them
about me...
- Yeah.
- Because if--I feel like,
if I can be self-deprecating,
that can get the point across
that I'm okay.
- You guys, we gotta wrap it up.
- We gotta wrap up.
- We gotta wrap this thing up.
All right, Eddie.
Break a leg, man.
- Thank you.
[cheers and applause]
I know, like, right off the bat,
half of you are wondering,
like, "Ah, man,
all we're gonna hear are some
fucking stupid army jokes."
When I tell an army joke,
it's usually about
how I got blown up
and shit myself, so...
That deployment
was not as much fun for me
as it was for some
of the other people.
I appreciate it.
Thank you, guys, very much
for hearing me fail.
[cheers and applause]
Have a good night.
- Eddie Wittern, everybody.
- Hey...
[no audible dialogue]
So I'm coming down here
to do a piece with you guys...
- Right.
- And we're a show,
we're on Comedy Central,
so we have to find
some humor in this.
It is hard trying to find humor
in stories about PTSD.
How do you deal
with something like that?
- You put it
in the fuck it box,
and you deal with it
when you can.
That's it.
For me, my PTSD came
mostly from survivor guilt.
All my friends died
where I couldn't save 'em.
I was a combat medic
and my job was to save people
and to make sure that my
friends came home in one piece.
- Your job isn't
to save everybody.
- Your job is to save the
people you care about, right?
- Your job is to save
the people you can save.
- Rationally, that makes sense.
However, PTSD is no respecter
of rationality of whatever.
Think about all the bad shit
that happened to you
in your life
as jumping into a 20-foot pool
when you can't swim,
sinking all the way to
the bottom and standing there,
counting to 25
and swimming back to the top.
Because why?
If you calm down and you relax,
you will get back to the top
and you will continue on
what you have to do.
- Where are you in that pool?
Are you swimming up?
- I'm trying.
I'm trying.
Right now?
I'm wondering where the fuck
other Jack and Coke is at.
- [laughs]
Well, that's something
we can fix.
- Here's to brothers,
you and me.
Here's to brothers
we'll never see.
Here's to brothers
they'll never be.
Here's to brothers.
- Salud.
- [grunts]
- Oh, this just gives you
the warm fuzzies
all the way down, doesn't it?
 [country music]
 - I like the Valhalla guys.
 They aren't afraid
 to wear their emotions
 on their sleeves.
 They're remarkably open about
 their every day struggles.
 Also, their anecdote game
 is strong.
Sniper tried
to take your dick off.
- Yeah, kinda, yeah.
- Yikes.
 In the ring,
 they fight each other,
 but in the battle
 against PTSD,
 they need to body slam
 the impediments
 that get in the way
 of them coping day-to-day.
 They need
 the ultimate bad guy,
 and I knew
 just where to find him.
