Kevin Nash Recalls His Wrestling Tryout, Trainers Trying To Break Him

On the latest episode of Kliq This, Kevin Nash talked about the harsh realities of breaking into the wrestling business. Nash recalled his experiences with trainers like Matt Borne and Jody Hamilton, and the grueling old-school tryout process. Nash detailed the expensive “tryout” that was designed entirely to weed people out and take their money. You can check out some highlights below:

On How the Tryouts Went:

“No, that’s — exactly [the point was] to break you. What it was — they would have these tryouts and back then, people didn’t remember that it was $1,500 for the Saturday tryout. So you paid $1,500. And then you went in there, and they Hindu squatted you, step up f**king — then they put you in the f**king ring with two f**king shooters. By that time, you could barely f**king stand. They’d f**king sugar you. Then you’d f**king go and run around the outside of the Quonset Hut. Then you’d f**king run the ropes. And then f**king — they wouldn’t smarten you up. They wouldn’t tell you there was a f**king work. And they say, ‘Okay, Monday at f**king 6, 7 o’clock,’ whatever the time was, ‘is the next [time]. F**king nobody would ever come back.

“And they would f**king take those 10 guys and take their 1,500 bucks. I remember I f**king showed up on Monday. And there was a paid telephone out front, and I called the f**king number I had. I think it was Mike Atkins who answered it, and he was one of the refs at WCW. He basically said, ‘You’re not gonna believe this, but one of the f**king guys came back.’ And Jody said, ‘Which one?’ He goes, ‘The big one.'”

On being smartened up:

“Jody drove down. And we went in, and there was a f**king — he had, a little office. And he f**king — because I showed back up, he immediately smarted me up. We talked about psychology and s**t like that. Before I could even f**king could do three moves, he started immediately smartening me up. He’s just like, ‘Okay, if this big f**ker wants to do this, if you’re not smart, you ain’t gonna get shit.'”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Kliq This with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.