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by
Les Honig
In a world where most wrestling trainees long to be the next Rock or Triple H, it is truly rare to run into someone who looks at his ring time as primarily an avocation, not a future life path. Sure, as 19-year old outstanding rookie Ryan Owen will admit, he would jump at the chance to join a national fed if given the chance; but that is not the driving force of his life. Rather, he has taken on his three-month old Ultimate University assignment as a personal challenge; one to master to the maximum of his potential; and as a natural complement to his present career goal: law enforcement.
Growing up in Tehachipi, near Bakersfield, Ryan describes himself as a normal, outgoing kid, who at the age of 9 was smitten with the wrestling bug; as he flipped through the TV channels one day and came upon a Raw Is War episode where The Undertaker chokeslammed Shawn Michaels and Brett Hart. While the intense action grabbed his interest immediately, it was another element that ultimately was to perpetuate his continuing interest.
“I loved the storylines in each show and back in the mid-90s they were really great,” explains the lean 5’10” 146-pounder. “Without those and the in-depth character developments, I would not have been nearly so affected.”
While not considering an actual wrestling career himself for a while afterward, the athletically-skilled youngster soon joined a group of his pre-teen friends to do their own style of backyard mat action, as a buddy installed a trampoline with a “big dog cage around it” behind his own home.
“We didn’t really do sophisticated moves,” explains Owen, “but we definitely weren’t violent like your typical backyarders. Instead we mostly just did finishing moves like chokeslams or did stuff like throwing each other against the cage.”
Moving to Long Beach where he attended high school, Ryan decided perhaps that the moment had arrived to join those ring superstars he had admired for a number of years already. “It was something spontaneous that just happened. I knew I liked to watch WWF and it looked like fun so I just decided to try it out for myself.”
Checking out what was available in the L.A. area, the then 16 year-old settled upon a leading, but rather distant, facility but soon found it wasn’t for him. “For one thing it was difficult to get there since I had to depend on other people for rides. Also, the ring setup wasn’t very appealing. The whole training room was not much larger than the size of a master bedroom and if you stood on the top turnbuckle your head would hit the ceiling. It just wasn’t what I had pictured.” Ryan left within several months.
Fortunately for him however, someone he knew in the business mentioned UPW and it wasn’t long before he was on his way to see an El Segundo training session. “It was great from the first moment I arrived,” he recalls now. “The atmosphere was such a change from the other school I had been at. People came up and shook my hand and welcomed me. Everyone was so helpful; so kind.”
The initial rush of enthusiasm as he worked with other newcomers and the then established core of established student wrestlers like Nate Nickerson, Sam Culver, Kevin Zacaula and Brandon Hill, was sadly to be interrupted as a family crisis forced his attention away and he soon had to drop his mat education to attend to personal matters.
Missing his time away, however, Owen finished high school and began college last fall but realized he must focus his efforts away from a personal funk that had entrapped him for a long time.
“It had been nearly three years and I knew I had to kick-start myself. I realized it was crucial to do something to reenergize my life.”
Returning to the R-1 Training Center, he immediately attracted the attention of his initial teachers, Shannon and Shane Ballard. “Perhaps it was the total dedication I show whenever I get involved with things. I feel that if it is something you really care about, you had better be really serious about it and that is particularly true in wrestling, where you must work with another person all the time in the ring; so mistakes you make can affect his or her success too.”
Now balancing college, where he is taking general core classes before concentrating on police science, (he hopes eventually to become either a private investigator or a member of L.A.’s gang unit), Ryan attributes much of his recent successes as a student to his main teachers, the Ballards and Ryan Sakota.
“Both have different approaches in a way, but they totally complement each other. With Ryan’s experience in WWF he concentrates a lot on what is necessary there to be successful along with the value of making a match tell a story. The Ballards do that too but they also focus a lot on the basic ring mechanics.”
With those mat mechanics taking up the majority of Ryan’s class concentration time at this point, he still hopes to branch out to develop his gimmick and character in months to come. For him, a true lover of the sport, merely being able to participate in future UPW matches and perhaps trying out other indies and maybe even a Japanese tour, would be the height of personal fulfillment.
One added bonus for this hungry ring lion is his chance, through his time at the R-1 Center, to begin boxing training as well, under the direction of one of the members there who is a policeman and personal trainer. “He has agreed to take me on as his boxing student and it has been great for my stamina and mental attitude,” admits this voracious learner.
Whatever path Ryan Owen chooses, however, for future fulfillment, he is already, in just his first few months as an Ultimate University standout, proving that dedication, skill and the desire to excel can produce a potent bursting-with-promise pro mat package.
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