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by
Les Honig
Many of our blue ribbon UPW trainees have traveled far to get the opportunity to hone their skills here at So Cal’s premiere wrestling facility but few have made a bigger move than the up-and-coming Kevin Martenson, who seven months ago packed up his car and made the cross-country drive 3000 miles from Northeast Pennsylvania, just to attempt the fulfillment of his mat dream.
Now 22, Kevin pinpoints his earliest memories of sports entertainment to Wrestlemania 4, when at 6 years old he first saw his icon, Brett Hart. “It was a battle royal and it got down to him and Bad News Brown and then Bad News turned on him. Brett’s skills immediately won me over and from that moment on I was a huge fan of his and of the sport in general.”
Growing up in Clark Summit, just outside of Scranton, the youngster was so smitten that he was excited when his folks enrolled him in a kid’s amateur wrestling program, but his love of the pro world made these efforts pale in comparison.
First speaking of wanting to actually become a pro grappler himself when, as a high school senior, he attended another famous WM in Philly, Wrestlemania 15, where Rock battled Steve Austin for the title, (“Just being part of that atmosphere and seeing all the fans go crazy really made me want to do it,”), Martenson became more and more of a diehard follower, as he was bitten also by the WCW and ECW bugs, but it was a decision to attend college that delayed his actual commitment to start learning the ropes himself.
“I went to Penn State but I was just so obsessed with wanting to become a wrestler that I really couldn’t focus on any one field of study completely”, he admits now. “Instead I spent a lot of my time working to save money for wrestling school tuition and spending a lot of time in the gym to improve my look.”
Trying to remain true to his parents’ original desire that he receive a B.A. before striking out in more uncharted wrestling career waters, Martenson nearly completed his studies, but after four years, with a sociology major and still another semester or so left before graduation, the wait proved just too much, and he decided to throw caution to the wind and make the big life-changing move right there and then. “I felt I was starting to get too old to do this and felt if I waited much longer I wouldn’t be able to make it.”
At first visiting Wild Samoan Afa’s wrestling camp for a one-day workshop, he recalled the Learning Channel’s lauded UPW documentary and decided to check out our fed’s website for himself. Convinced that this was just the right place to begin his mat education, he quit college, took all his belongings and headed out to California. “Those three days on the road were just a blur,” remembers Martenson, “All I remember was just how determined I was to make it to the West Coast.”
With savings from a job back East as a dishwasher helping him to afford a Hollywood apartment and the initial UPW tuition, Kevin was soon in contact with promoter Rick Bassman and arranging for his first visit to the
R1 Center to check the action out.
“The first time I visited it was Hardkore Kidd teaching and it looked like everyone was being killed. I remember people were sweating, hunched over, hands on their knees, breathing hard. If I hadn’t just driven across the country I might have backed out and headed home but this was something I had decided to do and I wasn’t about to quit before even trying it.”
Now very glad he made that decision to fully commit to a mat education, the talented rookie slowly found his way although there were still occasional frustrations.
“I remember my first session with the Ballards. The only thing that came naturally to me was the jumping because I had played a lot of basketball over the years. Everything else was totally new and pretty tough. Shane was teaching basic holds like headlocks and arm-ringers and it probably took me 50 times before I got them right. My footing was always off and my hands were in the wrong spots.”
Still he hung in there and gradually has seen progress increasing as he has attended sessions usually two or three times a week. Now overcoming the earlier frustrations of not being able to meet his own personal-best goals, Kevin has seen progress become steadier and his mastery of the sport improve quite a bit. Still he admits he has a long way to go.
Very instrumental in his own progress, he cites classmates Tony Stradlin and Nate Nickerson who he feels are typical of the giving attitude that epitomizes Ultimate University.
“They are amazing. It seems like they just know everything and are willing to share it with the rest of the students. When you do something in the ring, even a drill, you might think you did everything perfectly. But afterwards they’ll come up to you. It could be the smallest thing in the world but they’ll say that you need to do the move better and then they’ll show you how. It’s often just a little thing you wouldn’t even think about but it can make all the difference in making that move work.”
Originally questioning the claims of UU on our website as being one of the country’s best wrestling schools, this Pennsylvania-born trainee now is one of it’s greatest proponents and feels totally satisfied that he made just the right move by becoming part of Ultimate Pro Wrestling’s proven training regime.
His prospects, as with others giving their all here, seem extremely bright and his dream-chasing “never accept mediocrity” attitude is certainly reason enough to name Kevin Martenson our February Student of the Month.
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