Flip Gordon credits his time in the military for helping him prepare for the life of a professional wrestler.
Former Ring of Honor star Flip Gordon was a guest on The 3 Count to discuss a wide variety of subjects. When asked how the military prepared him for professional wrestling, Gordon pointed to the “hurry up and wait” mentality as something that really helped him in the business.
“The hurry up and wait is big. The discipline to be on the road, be alone, have the integrity, do the right thing,” Flip Gordon said. “Like a lot of that, the work ethic. I don’t know if I would be as far as I am in wrestling if it wasn’t for my time in the military. Because I was very immature before I went in, and it definitely matured me and helped me grow up, and it helped me realize that there’s so much more to the world than just a job or just this. Because when you’re in the military, you’re training for war. You’re training to possibly not come home, and they’re putting that in your head. You look at the world a little bit differently.”
When asked how he got started in the world of professional wrestling, Gordon told a story about packing up everything he had and moving to Boston with $500 in his pocket to chase his dreams.
“So I’d always wanted to be a pro wrestler ever since I was a little kid, and so I was in college at the time,” Flip Gordon began. “And I was like, do I keep talking about this? Or do I finally chase it? So I literally packed up everything I owned. I found a pro wrestling school just north of Boston, Massachusetts, and I literally drove for four days across the country.
“First place I went was the pro wrestling school, asked how much it was to sign up, and I didn’t think it was gonna start right away because I didn’t have much money saved up, but I was like, alright, well I have this like $500 that’s supposed to be for my truck payment. I could put it towards pro wrestling school and start; I think that covered a quarter, so it covered three months. And I was like, within those three months, hopefully, I can come up with another $500 to pay for the next three months.
“So I started right away, and within six months, I had my first pro wrestling match, and after that, I was wrestling almost every single weekend. So it kind of happened fast. I didn’t plan on it happening so quick. Because I had no idea what the independents were, I didn’t know what Ring of Honor was. I kind of knew what IMPACT pro wrestling was.
“But like, in my mind, I was like, oh, I’m gonna go this pro wrestling school. I’m gonna pay for some training. And then I’m gonna pay for a tryout at WWE. That’s how I thought it worked. And then I discovered this wonderful thing called independent professional wrestling, and I fell in love. I absolutely love traveling the world. I love doing little shows because you get so much more personal interaction with the fans. And for the fans with the superstars.
“For me being on the independents, I love that I can be a good guy here. I can be a bad guy there. I can be funny over here. I can be serious over there. And I really get to experiment and figure out what works, what doesn’t because me going to TV right away; It was sink or swim. Even our house shows that Ring of Honor were televised or not televised, but they were online. So it was like you botch, you mess up, everybody’s gonna see it. So it was a lot of pressure.”
READ MORE: Flip Gordon Discusses How He Developed His Conspiracy Theory Gimmick
What do you make of Flip Gordon’s comments? Do you hope to see him sign with a big wrestling company in 2023? Let us know your thoughts by sounding off in the comments section below.
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