Recently, a well known wrestling manager, Sinister Minister, Jim Mitchell thought he had a “try-out” scheduled at FCW. Jim has pretty good experience having worked in ECW, WCW (as James Vandenberg), TNA and even in my NWA Wildside. He is pretty well known, as is his promo skill, and he has a unique look, so he’s a tough guy to forget. He stands out in a crowd. Jim had communicated with a friend in WWE who suggested he should contact Steve Keirn & Dusty Rhodes at FCW and see if he could “try-out” there, which might encourage WWE to hire him. So he wrote Steve Keirn & Dusty Rhodes and asked about a try-out. Jim sent basic career info to Steve, plus links to a few interviews he had done which were on you tube. Of course Dusty knew him as he worked with him in ECW & TNA., but it was Steve who responded writing “tryout May 1 at FCW”. Jim asked for details. Steve wrote “you are trying out for WWE what else?” So Jim believed he had a try-out scheduled, and no suggestion that he needed to pay a fee was made. To be safe Jim then wrote asking if the $1000 fee, and 4 days applied to him. Steve replied “if you want to try-out that is the time”. Jim had not mentioned time in his e-mail, just asked about the fee. You see Jim had no desire to pay a fee to try-out, and believed he was at least somewhat known by the industry, maybe even WWE, and possibly even Mr. Keirn with whom he had he had shared a ride at least once. Jim showed up on May 1. He dressed in his full gimmick, the one that makes him stand out in a crowd. When he got to the FCW building he was relatively ignored. Folk were busy folding t-shirts. He approached Mr. Keirn and asked him about the try-out he had scheduled. Steve asked if he had filled out the forms for the try out camp, the one that cost $1000. Jim reminded him that they had exchanged e-mails, and he had asked about the fee, etc. He was there to try-out, not pay a fee, nor hang around for 4 days like the others. He has a regular non-wrestling job he had taken off to drive to Tampa from Orlando. Steve then told him the announcer and manager try-outs had been in January. Jim left. No try-out. Nothing.

What is the moral of this story. Well, honestly I’m not 100% sure. What I do know is that Mr. Keirn, may not have ever intended to give a WWE try-out to Jim Mitchell regardless of their communications and Jim’s reasonable expectations from them, and that his focus was the try-out camp with the $1000 fee, a money making business for him and FCW. Maybe wrestlers can or should learn from this to lower expectations when they pay the fee and not deceive themselves into thinking it will lead to a job.

I recommend wrestlers do their best to “master your craft” as Les Thatcher frequently writes. Get to as many promotions as you can. Try to wrestle folk better than you as much as possible. Send DVD’s, pics, bios to Terry Taylor at TNA & Ty Bailey at WWE, but only when you are really ready. Don’t think that the money you spent at a training session influences them as it doesn’t. What will impress them is your ring work, your personality, your “big league” look, your talent.

You really do need to be “good enough”, not just drink the kool aid of a daily affirmation, and no amount of training session nor try-out money you pay will ever be enough to make that less true.