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Just in case you missed it:
This will be the page for previously posted commentaries.
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The State of Noble 
This is my very first attempt at a commentary, so if I ramble or seem incoherent, please look over me. Alot of people have been asking me why I don't wrestle as much as I use to and there are various reasons. So, I decided to use my first commentary to shed some light on why my wrestling career has slowed down. This first commentary, the State of Noble, should provide some insight on my state of mind as it relates to the sport ( damn right, I said sport, not business, but that is another commentary for another day) of Professional Wrestling. So, here goes:
I can't remember a time in my life when I didn't absolutely love pro wrestling. From my first exprience at age 4 up until recently, I have loved wrestling. In elementary school, high school, and even in college , I would imagine my music hitting right before I would enter the room. Of course, in my head, the crowd would go wild ( of course, I was the big "babyface" back then). I had dreamed of being a wrestler since I was a kid , but at 5'8 and 160 lbs, I didn't plan on ever having that opportunity. Regardless of that fact, I still loved the idea of becoming a professional wrestler.
Seven years ago, I finally got that opportunity to become what I have always dreamed of, a professsional wrestler. It was, then, that wrestling become more than something that I loved, it became something that consumed me. I eat, slept and breathed wrestling. To me, nothing came before wrestling. Not my job, not any type of relationship, not any hobby.
For the first 5 and 1/2 years, there was nothing that meant more to me. Working as a school teacher, I was able to manipulte my schedule to fit my wrestling life. If I needed a week off to go to Canada to wrestle, I took it. I did whatever I had to do to get to my bookings. For five years, my schedule consisted of leaving work on Friday and going to God knows where in KY/VA/WV/TN/OH/SC and wrestling on Friday night, then finding a cheap hotel to spend the night in. On Saturday, we would get up and find a cheap place to eat and take off to our next booking ( usually in another state ). Then, Sunday would come and that usually meant Bowling Green, KY. Sometimes, I would take a Sunday afternoon booking and then, head to Bowling Green. Of course, Bowling Green is an hour behind my hometown of Hazard, which resulted in me, Eddie Browning and whoever else would be with us, getting home around 4 - 4:30 on Monday morning and getting up at 6:00 a.m. to head to work.
I know you could have probably done without the full travel itinerary of John Noble, but I wanted you to get an idea of how much travel was involved. Honestly, making a 1000 mile round trip in a weekend wasn't unusual and I've got a 1998 Toyota Rav-4 with 188,000 miles on it to prove it.
Anyway, as I was saying, for 5 and 1/2 years, pro wrestling meant more to me than anything. I really couldn't imagine a time in my life that I would not be wrestling. I use to tell Eddie that I couldn't imagine anything that could ever be more important than wrestling.
One of the side effects of my wrestling passion was the inability to maintain anything that resembled a relationship with a woman. I tried, but in the end, it was either them or wrestling. So, it was a pretty simple decision for me, which is sad because some of them were decent people. Of course, alot of them were either neurotic, psychotic or schizophrenic, but that's neither here nor there. Usually, one would try to go to a booking with me, but it really didn't work out as most of them either hated wrestling, hated travelling or hated wrestling and travelling. I really didn't ever see me being able to maintain a relationship, but sometimes things happen when you least expect it.
I started dating Melanie Combs in April of 2002. We first went out on a Tuesday night and I have to say that I was hooked from the beginning. She was smart ( office manager for a vet clinic ), independent ( had her own place ), very pretty and had a body that only God could make. I remember thinking, this woman is completely out of my league and she was, but she was so well grounded that she was able to see past my flaws and she seemed to kind of dig me, too. I told her about the wrestling and of course, she laughed, but she did love to travel and she, actually, ended up making the trip with me, Kyle Maggard and Earl Fields the very next weekend and every weekend after that for the next several months.
To make a very long story, not quite as long, I'll skip ahead to our wedding on Sept. 7, 2002. I knew being married could have an impact on my travel schedule, as would my new job at my old high school, where I would be the athletic director, teacher and boy's high school basketball coach. So, I could see that my wrestling was going to have to be altered somewhat. Of course, there was one other new twist to my life, Melanie and I were going to have a baby. So, in the span of a few months, my life had changed dramatically.
With all these new changes going on in my life, you would think that my desire to wrestle would wane somewhat, but it didn't. I still wrestled pretty much every weekend when my team didn't have a game and Melanie still accompanied me even though she was pregnant. However, the farther along the pregnancy got, the more difficult it became for her to make the trips. So, in October of 2002, I stopped travelling every weekend to wrestle.
Haley Alexis Noble was born on February 2, 2003. She was absolutely gorgeous, which she gets from her mother, even though everyone says she looks like me. There is no way to describe the sight of your baby being born, so I won't even attempt it. I'm not an extremely emotional guy, but I did feel my eyes well up when she came into this world.
After Haley was born and my basketball season ended, we tried to get back on the road, but it was just too hard for me and Melanie both to be gone and leave Haley with her grandparents. So, in April 2003, I decided to come off of the road completely and just do local shows when I can fit them in. It is just too hard being away from my wife and daughter. With just my coaching job, it is hard to see them, sometimes. So, I figure something has to cut back and even though I make a fortune in the wrestling profession (sarcasm), I decided to slow down and pretty much, cut out any trips that are going to keep me away over night.
Looking back on it all, I guess there comes a point where every wrestler has to make a decision. To be a successful pro wrestler, you have to make sacrifices and usually, the people that suffer the most are the families of those wrestlers. I know alot of guys that have sacrificed their family lives to make it in the wrestling business and while I respect their sacrifices, I can't help but feel sorry for them ,also. As much as I have loved wrestling, it does not compare to the love that I have found with my wife and daughter.
Don't get me wrong, I still love wrestling and I still wrestle every opportunity that I get and I might even return to the road, occassionally. I will not, however, sacrifice my family life for a chance at something only a few people will ever be able to obtain.
Of course, I must admit that right before I enter my house every evening, I still hear music, but , these days, that music is the sound of my family waiting on their big "babyface" to make his appearance.
Sorry if I have bored you to tears. Thanks for your time.
JN
*This commentary will be updated weekly.
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Paying Dues
Having broke into the sport of professional wrestling only 7 years ago, I hardly qualify as an "old-timer" or a "grizzled veteran". However, the more locker rooms that I am in lately, the younger the guys seem to be getting. In Tennessee , recently, I was a member of a three man tag team with two guys whose combined age was barely greater than my own. So, as I seem to be getting older by the minute, I just wanted to blabber a little bit about something that I see less and less of in locker rooms around Kentucky and Tennessee and that is simply the lack of guys truly paying their dues.
Before, I begin on this subject, it is fair to mention that this may piss some people off, which is fine because wrestling, itself, is not a "heat free" business. I also want to mention that I don't want anyone to think that I have some kind of idea that I am a superstar or a wrestling genius or that I am better than anyone because that is not the intention, at all. This is just going to be the opinion of a guy who has had very marginal success in independent professional wrestling in the KY/TN/WV/OH area.
Paying dues is a part of any profession. Whether you are a preacher, teacher, politician, hooker or professional wrestler, you must pay your dues. Consequently, it is fair to say that I have met many a wrestler that could have made a living as a preacher, teacher, politician , hooker or a combination of them all. There is also a correlation that I could make between a few promoters and pimps, but I better keep that one to myself. Anyway, paying dues is something that we all must do and , usually, it is this paying of dues that will help contribute to building your character and helping you to be ready when your time comes.
In wrestling, dues are paid in several different forms. There are several that most of us are aware of and there are a few that are either overlooked or not considered important. It is those overlooked dues that I really want to elaborate on at another point in this commentary. In the meantime, let's look at the one thing that we all know is a part of paying your dues in wrestling and that is the long drives for the shit money. Yes, this is a big part of paying your dues and I've got tremendous respect for anyone who does it. However, let's face the truth, most guys know that when they break in , today, they aren't going to make crap. So, while it sucks, poor paydays are the reality in today's Ky. area independents and shouldn't really be considered paying dues because the paydays don't get much better as you get more experienced.
Another common type of due paying is having to put up with the ribbing from veterans. Usually, the ribbing can be harmless, but I've seen some pretty rotten ones, also. In all honesty, one of the good things that I notice in a lot of locker rooms lately is the cutting back of the really bad ribs. While these type of ribs are good to weed out the goofs, I've seen alot of things done to people that noone deserves to have done to them ( well, almost noone ).
Those are a couple of the most common dues people consider when they think about paying dues. These next few things are what I consider to truly mean paying your dues.
First of all, wrestling, like most professions, has what we'll call "entry level positions" or positions that are used to teach you the basic ins and outs of the sport. This is something that I really see a lack of in the guys breaking in, today. When I first started with Dale Mann, I had to help set up the ring and help take it down, which meant that I had to be one of the first ones to the building and one of the last ones to leave. It wasn't the greatest job in the world, but I got to learn and , usually, some of the veterans would come in and help me workout in the ring. It was this time that really helped me learn the psychological aspect of the sport as well as the physical aspect.
Another "entry level position" that helped me learn a great deal was refereeing. While I was not crazy about having to do it, at first, I was able to learn from it. If you think you can pull off a great match without a good ref, you are out of your mind and I think alot of promotions take the ref position for granted. I was at a show recently when a rookie was asked to officiate because our normal ref couldn't make it and this goof acted like he was offended by the suggestion. In my opinion, all rookies should have to ref at least one show in order to see the matches from the referees perspective because it will help them. Sometimes, I see new guys trying to ref, but they seem to be more interested in trying to "get over" as a ref instead of contributing to the effectiveness of the match. To me, this isn't trying to learn the sport, it's being a jack-ass and you should be put out in the concession stand to sell hot dogs or something.
Another part of paying dues is learning from the veterans around you. I know alot of times, early on, part of this learning means getting your ass whipped. God knows, I did. Several times, I was chopped til my chest bled. While I don't condone anyone beating the hell out of kid, I do miss this means of weeding out guys who don't truly belong. I do not, however, miss being the kid who is getting the hell beat out of him, but I am thankful for it because it taught me respect.
I really don't see the younger guys utilizing the veterans as much as we used to a few years ago, either. We were always told to watch every match on the card, if we had the chance. You can always learn something from a match, even if it is what not to do. I always made it a point to watch every match, especially the main event. I see it like this: if you desire to be in the main event, then it only make sense to watch the guys who are in the main event. How do you expect to get there, if you don't know what the guys who are there now are doing and how they do it? It's also a good idea to sit as close to the veterans as possible in the locker room. Use this time to listen to everything they have to say and if you get the chance, ask questions. Most veterans are always willing to help out the new guys, especially if you have exhibited a good attitude and have shown them the respect they deserve. I'll always be grateful to the veterans that I started with: Dale Mann, Cousin Junior, Doug Vines, Todd Morton, Hitman Tony, Wolfman, Outlaw West, The Batten Twins, Eddie Browning, Killer Kurt, Cousin Sambo, Vic the Bruiser, Mr. Breeze and countless others. All of these guys took the time to show me something in the ring and talk to me outside of the ring.
I realize that I got off track a little there. I just got to reminiscing a little bit. Sorry about that.
Anyway, I was talking about watching the matches. I see too many rookies leaving shows early, today. If they are on first, they don't even bother sticking around for the rest of the show. This is an absolute mistake. The more you can watch, the better. It will never hurt anyone to learn too much.
Now I know that some people may say , " Who the hell is John Noble to make these statements? He's never done anything in this business." To those people, I say "Kiss my ass. Now, I'll be the first to admit that I have not made it to my "childhood dream" and one of the reasons is simply because I have not made the sacrifices in my personal life that it takes, but I will be the first to tell you that I have paid the hell out of some dues. I've travelled more miles than I can count and visited more towns than I care to remember. I've spent my time in the care for countless hours at a time and stayed in some of the seediest places on Earth. Unfortunately, it takes more than paying dues to really make it big in wrestling. Am I saying that if I had been willing to forget my family life and teaching/coaching job that I would have made it? No, not at all, but, I am saying that I have never really just thrown it all out there and gone for it.
Honestly, I could go on all day about some of these things, but it is 11:35 in the p.m. and I'm ready for bed. To sum it up, to really make it in this sport, you have to be willing to make sacrifices and to pay dues and the sad truth is, even after you make it, you still have to make sacrifices and pay dues. Take advantage of being green and really learn the ins and outs of the athletic side of wrestling and the business side, as well. Like I said earlier, paying dues will help build the character you will need in the event that you ever truly get to "make it".
Now for the pic at the bottom of the page. This is a place in Bowling Green, where a few of us used to spend our Saturday nights after we would drive to BG for the Sunday show. A friend of ours, Chris Grace, owned the apartment, which had been previously rented by some crackheads whom he had to evict. He ended up having to completely take the place apart and we ended up spending a few nights in the apartment, which we affectionately dubbed "The Crack House." We all had to sleep in sleeping bags huddled around a small heater ( this was from Dec. 2001 - April 2002 ). The shower consisted of a small stream of cold water which barely dripped from the faucet. It was quite an establishment. In all honesty, though, it was very nice of Chris and his family to allow us to stay there and I'll never forget that.
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