- [Danny Cage] Yeah there's no excuse.
You don't have a job right now, right?
Yeah, so that should be your fucking job.
It should be eight hours of promos.
Next.
(slapping sounds)
- Almost a year.
It's been almost year and
I've been training here
at the MF Pro Academy.
And for the past year,
all I've been doing is standing
at that merchandise stand,
selling people hot dogs,
selling people pizza,
maybe sneaking a Pepsi or few.
(slow music)
And while I made progress,
it seems that I lost a lot of it.
I got the muscle tone of a baby cow.
Most days I can't even stand the two faces
I see in the fucking mirror every morning.
All right?
I don't have washboard
abs like Cody Vance.
I don't have brute strength
like the freak beast, Nick Comoroto.
But you know what?
Despite all that, I know
I'm going to be a star
in this business, all right?
Because in seventh grade,
when I was about to blow
my fucking brains out,
CM Punk dropped the pipe
bomb and that saved my life.
(birds chirping)
See, there's one thing I am good at
and that's surviving.
No matter how many times you hit me,
no matter how many times you kick me,
no matter how many
times you knock me down,
I'm just gonna get right
back up even stronger.
And when that blood and dirt
is still fresh in my mouth,
I'm just going to spit
it right in your face.
Because my name is Lucas "Twitch" Disangro
and I'm here to stay.
(crowd clapping)
- [Danny] Stop stealing my Pepsi's, veal!
(crowd laughing)
(soft music)
- [Danny] Up!
Set!
Up!
Set!
Up!
You give me effort, I will
not give you a hard time.
If you're laying on your
asses, I will bury you.
Set!
- [trainees together]
8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13...
- [Danny] Yeah, asses down, folks.
I started training to be
a professional wrestler
in the 90s and it didn't work out for me,
got injured,
- [Trainees] 36, 37, 38, 39...
- [Instructor] And all that
time training I was like,
man, I wish I owned a
professional wrestling school
'cause I would run it this way.
In 2011, I got that opportunity
and now we're running it our way.
- [Trainees] 48,49, 50!
- Quitter.
- [Danny] Girls, just the girls.
(footsteps pounding)
What the fuck is that, Gabby, you cheater!
1, 2, 3...
See, now that leads me to believe
that you can always do them
and you're just half-assing it.
'Cause you did them real easy.
Why do you sell yourself short?
- I don't know, I always
feel like I'm fucking up.
- [Danny] Am I yelling at you
or do I tell you just to give me effort?
- Give you effort.
- [Danny] So, give me effort.
Let me see two more.
(crowd talking)
(footsteps pounding)
(intense drum music)
- [Danny] The students we have here,
I mean, we have a diverse group.
We have from 17 years old to, I believe,
37 years old right now training here.
To see some of the hurdles
these kids go through...
One girl who has to
take buses to get here,
she lives in Camden.
Someone who went to the
police academy for six months.
We have actors, actresses.
We have a married couple training here.
Our biggest guy here is 6'5", 275 lbs,
he's a fucking accountant.
We have this one kid, Cody Vance,
big strong kid, never wrestled before.
All he did was play hockey in Detroit.
And he called me, and he says,
"You have this camp going on".
And I said, "Yeah, it's
Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
You should get here."
And he goes, "Well, I
graduate on Saturday."
- [Cody] I told him I can't
make it 'cause of that
and he's like, "Well is this
what you've always wanted?"
And I said yeah.
And he said, "Well if someone said
they had tickets to the
Super Bowl that weekend,
would you skip your college graduation?"
I said yeah, probably.
- [Danny] So, he calls
me back and he's like,
I'm not walking at my graduation.
I'm coming there.
Three weeks later, he moved here.
He was staying with one of our
wrestlers for a couple months
and then he got a place of his own
and he's one of the best students we have.
But if he didn't take that leap,
if I didn't have that
conversation with him,
he's not living his dream.
- [Danny] What do you say?
Never give up!
Hustle!
Loyalty!
Respect!
(footsteps pounding)
- [Danny] We will
definitely be doing promos.
You got a promo, Dijon?
Maybe?
You got one, Burke?
- Nope.
- [Danny] Awesome, way to be prepared.
You're going to cut a promo,
then you're going to cut a promo.
It's not on each other,
this isn't 8 Mile shit.
Even, you know... I
know, he was just waiting
to use the whole
spaghetti thing right now.
(trainees laugh)
- Knees weak, arms spaghetti.
There's vomit on his sweater...
- [Danny] All right, chill, chill.
Some people never believed
I'd be where I was right now.
Nobody believed that I'd
be where I am right now.
Growing up, I wasn't the
freak beast you see today.
Growing up, I was the fat
kid you all made fun of.
Dammit, let me restart.
Fuck, why can't I fucking think?
See, when you talk to me,
you get this whole vibe that
I'm not a normal person,
that I'm weird.
When I turn away, when my back's turned,
I can hear you talk about me.
I'm referred to as a freak.
So...
(frustrated groan)
Why am I...
(trainees laughing)
- [Danny] Come here, brother. Come here.
I'm not disappointed in you
and I'm not angry at you.
It's a promo, bro. Come here.
You did good, relax.
One of my biggest things is
watching people do promos.
The douche chills that go through
your body when someone's cutting a promo
not on themselves, it's unheard of.
But if someone was just themselves
and had some heart in it,
that's what grabs people.
- [Fuji] My name is Fuji Brown.
All that other shit that
people talk about, cool.
What I've gone through is real.
- They say one ring to rule them all.
Well, this is my ring,
and I'm going to rule.
- My Irish legacy dates
back hundreds of years.
Warriors, conquerors, kings.
- I bet you all would like
to see the high-top fitted,
hip-hop ridden Anthony Bennett.
- He told me to eat my
vitamins, say my prayers.
I'm studying the Hooked on Phonics.
And I can even imitate an American accent
very well if I really try.
- Next time, I'm a break your jaw
and make you realize that you never touch
a girl from Camden.
- Everyone seems to be caught up
in the hype that size matters.
To that, I say let 'em.
Because the only hype I'm
interested in is my hype.
- [Nick] Hey, Nick. You
seem to be kind of funny.
A little weird.
Perhaps you should be
mean, straightforward.
Be that same exact bruting big guy
that we've seen generically non-stop
for the past 40 years on TV.
You know everything's special about you?
You shouldn't do it.
I am both a freak and a beast.
That's why I call myself the freak beast.
I'm the weirdo you can all laugh at.
(yells)
Everybody get away from the freak beast.
Mr. Oh-Everybody-Was-Looking-At-Me.
Seeing I don't have big muscles.
Well I got some news for you.
They weren't looking at you,
they were looking at your wife.
(laughing)
- [Trainee] Worldstar! Worldstar!
(laughing)
- You all got to remember
that this guy you laughed at,
he's going to be the success.
Free basing in Colorado.
(laughing and clapping)
- [Danny] That was fun.
All right, all right everybody. Let's go!
(hand claps)
- [Trainee] Yeah, how 'bout that?
(upbeat acapella music)
- [Danny] Walk 'em by...
Boom, there you go.
(upbeat acapella music)
(thumping noises)
- Fuck.
(footsteps pounding)
(upbeat acapella music)
(yelling)
(laughing and cheering)
(yelling)
(flapping bird wings)
(radio rock music)
- Look at his face. He's a fucking infant.
(mumbling conversations)
- [Danny] This one, five dollars.
Then we send the seat down (mumbles).
- [Wrestler] So, from the beginning,
you guys attack us, opposite corners.
Shoot us, we reverse you guys.
- Cody crawls between his legs.
- I like that, drop kick
him out to the floor.
All I got to do is give you an arm.
Just take that (mumbles) right there..
- Boom!
- [Announcer] Come on back
here to the concession area
signed autographs--
(crowd talking interrupts)
- Boom!
- [Cody] I'll go back
to my corner (grunts)
you'll turn around,
you'll (punching and grunting sounds)
- Yeah, how long 'til we're up?
- [Nick] Uh, one more match.
- [Wrestler] This'll be pretty good
if we pull this all off.
It seems like a lot,
but it's a lot more than you think.
Just talk to each other.
(crowd chanting) Cody! Cody!
(electronic music)
- [Cody] Supreme!
(music grows louder)
- [Cody] If this is a
career you want to do,
then just do it.
I would much rather do this and fail
than not do it and then be like,
80 on my death bed and be like,
wow, when I was, you
know, in my mid-twenties
I wish I would've done this.
- [Danny] If you're doing this as a hobby,
get the fuck out.
It's the worst fucking hobby to have.
But if this is your passion,
it's the greatest payoff in the world
to be able to do what we do,
be somebody's superhero,
be somebody's villain.
It's a cool fucking thing and
the payoff is unbelievable.
I want people to see
professional wrestling
for what it is, which is an art form.
When people see everything
that goes into it
and the production,
then they start respecting it more.
Like, holy shit, I thought
it was you guys got together
and you practiced some moves
and like, that was your match.
That's an art form.
To be able to do that and not
get hurt and to walk away,
and do it 360 days a year
for little, if no, money
until they make it there.
And even then, there's only 60, 70 jobs.
Those odds suck.
(doors creaking)
(wrestlers chatting)
- [Cody] Chaz, you know
who's better than you?
(laughing)
- [Wrestler] See the spine
buster Nick hit Cody with?
- [Wrestler] No, I was just worried about
my match and how (mumbles).
- [Wrestler] Watch that main
event? I am the main event!
- [Wrestler] You should
watch the main event,
'cause you're like...
- [Nick] Paid in full.
It's all about paid in full.
- [Wrestler] All right,
let's go (mumbles).
- [Nick] How bout we flip
heads or tails (mumbles).
- [Cody] Philly Diner?
- [Nick] Hey, that works with me!
- [Cody] Philly Diner? Philly Diner, boys.
(guys chatting)
- [Nick] Hey, let this midget
car go past real quick.
Watch out guys.
- [Nick] Watch out for this midget car.
(horn honks)
(wrestlers laughing)
(ambient music)
- At a school called the Monster Factory,
there aren't any report cards,
but there are some pretty tough tests.
- It's in an old airplane
hanger in New Jersey,
and it's called the Monster Factory.
- You really have to
throw your weight around
if you want to graduate from
this school of hard knocks.
