His interest in becoming a wrestler started after he attended a show produced by Portland Wrestling in 2004. “Just watching people do it live right in front of me, I had the thought, I could do this right now. That ring is right there. I can be in that.”
Born in Corvallis, Gibson was interested in web design in high school, and he used this skill to get his foot in the door. Reaching out to various people associated with professional wrestling, he offered to build free websites. One of these connections put him in contact with a trainer.
In the years since he has made wrestling his full-time job. He has wrestled coast to coast as well as in Canada and Costa Rica. In the last eight years alone, he’s put in over 300,000 miles on his car. And all along his journey, he’s picked up advice from everyone he could, which he now passes on to the next generation the way it was passed on to him.
“Rowdy Roddy Piper told me that everything is in your eyes. The crowd buys into your facial expression, but more importantly, your eyes. And that is one of the biggest takeaways I’ve had.”
The school itself started in June 2021. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Gibson, who had previously worked as an instructor at a now-defunct school in Salem, found himself with nowhere to keep his skills sharp. So he bought a ring and planned to set it up in a storage unit, giving him a place to train. He figured that if he had the space and the ring, he decided he might as well offer lessons, with no expectation of anyone wanting to join him. “On the first day 15 people showed up. And right now there are about 40 students.”
Many of that first class have stayed with the school, now helping to teach the next generation of grapplers while also taking bookings for various wrestling groups. The school’s second-ever student, Amira Lurkens, who has made appearances for national promotions Ring of Honor and All-Elite Wrestling, is one of the fastest-rising stars in the Pacific Northwest. She was just named Wrestler of the Year by local promotion DOA and was ranked #470 on the prestigious list of the top 500 wrestlers in the world by industry magazine “Pro Wrestling Illustrated.”
The success of wrestlers like Amira continues to bring fresh talent from around the region to the school. Evan Hamatake, who lives in Vancouver, has been training for five months and came to the school when he learned that many of the wrestlers from his favorite local shows were all trained at Oregon Pro Wrestling School. A lifelong fan of wrestling (he even named one of his children after 16-time world champion John Cena), Hamatake says the learning experience has been great and everything he expected it to be, though he does wake up incredibly sore every morning.
And while the school also includes instruction on the pageantry that makes professional wrestling so distinct, along with how to promote yourself on social media, how to design merchandise, and other key skills for breaking into a famously difficult industry, it is the physical lessons that are the most important. In wrestling, your safety and well-being aren’t just dependent on how good you are, but also on how good those around you are. Eliza True, a 20-year-old business marketing student at Portland State, who dreams of wrestling around the world, sums it up plainly.
“This is a dangerous sport. The lives of each other are in our hands. We take that very seriously.”
And even with expert training and dedication, things can still go wrong. Gunnar Thorson, who has been training at Oregon Pro Wrestling School for two years, recalls suffering two concussions during his first-ever match. “It was bad enough to where I didn’t remember I was in the middle of a match until I started getting up and I saw the crowd around me.”
At the end of the day, for the fresh-faced students taking their first steps into the world of professional wrestling, Ricky Gibson says the most important thing he sees is the change that takes place not just inside the ring but also inside people.
“To see them go from knowing nothing and not having faith in themselves to being on shows and absolutely crushing it is the most rewarding experience.”
https://www.oregonprowrestling.com/
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