My First Time

Been a while. Almost five months in fact. 

Truth be told, life has been rough lately. I won't go into details, but my mental health has been suffering. I couldn't find any motivation to write. Every word I typed felt like a chore and I even started feeling some kind of impostor syndrome kicking in. What business do I have reviewing wrestling content when I've never done it myself? I'm no content creator. Most of what I do now is share pieces of other people's content on Instagram. At times I felt like a bit of a fraud.

I used to watch videos as a form of escape, but when that escapism started to feel more like a cage, it was hard to keep up. I mainly used Instagram to browse, maybe upload a reel once a week. I felt like I was drifting away from the space altogether. However, I did occasionally get to speak to a few content creators. One such creator is Sir Dark.

We'd exchange messages every so often. Have a short conversation maybe once every couple of weeks, nothing much. I've generally been pretty distant from the community as a whole, so I was especially wary of crossing that boundary between creator and fan.

One weekend not too long ago I was travelling up north in the UK for a weekend for a sporting event. Turns out Sir Dark was in the same city as the same time! I messaged him, thinking the coincidence was amusing. Turns out we actually both live in London, too. That's when he offered to meet for a coffee and a chat, face-to-face.

I'm generally quite a shy person. I don't know how to take a decent selfie for the life of me, which is pretty surprising for someone who is either a Millennial or Gen Z (depending on who you ask). Suffice to say, I was slightly terrified. I said yes to the meeting. Considering how life had been getting me down lately, I figured there wasn't any outcome that would make things worse.

The day of the meet finally arrived and I was very nervous. My mind was racing on the Tube, but if there's one thing I am, it's punctual. I met Sir Dark outside the station and was immediately greeted with a hug that settled most of my nerves. We had a lovely chat on our way to his favourite coffee shop, and continued our conversation inside. I was really surprised how easy it was to talk to him, which is more a comment on how nervous I thought I was going to be.

We spoke about how our interests in wrestling came about, the content creation scene, WrestleFest, and some other life titbits. It was a really nice chat and I was enjoying myself. Then he asked if I'd ever wrestled before. I'm not one to lie, so I admitted that I hadn't, but was looking to get some experience at some point in the near future (I'd recently set up a MeetFighters account). 

Sir Dark suggested we have a match, right then. Needless to say, I was shocked. But I was already in a good mood, so I jumped at the opportunity. He took me to his place, where I got to see the famous "white room", which would serve as our battleground.

The "white room", as seen in "Sir Dark vs Dj Alex" (via WatchFighters)

I wasn't expecting anything more than a coffee and a chat, so I didn't have any gear on me. He lent me one of his Speedos to wear, which were a snug fit. After I put them on in the bathroom and returned to the mats, I was greeted by Sir Dark clad in his own Speedos, lying on the mat, gesturing for me to come on.

I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. I'm also four months post-knee surgery, so I had to take it relatively easy. We engaged, but my cluelessness was showing. He egged me on, encouraging me to rely more on my instincts. As I got more comfortable, a sense of realisation hit me: for the first time I could feel why people enjoy wrestling so much.

That feels like a silly thing to say given how much I enjoy it, but I've only ever watched until now. The intimacy of body contact and contest of wills really started to take over. We worked up a sweat pretty early on as we rolled across the mat together. At one point Sir Dark trapped me in a rear naked choke, but the sweat allowed me to escape (with much difficulty). There was another moment where he had me pinned and forced me to look at myself in the mirror. He also had me in a lengthy bodyscissors. I should've tapped, but I'm a stubborn bastard and instead decided to tough it out.

I got a few holds in myself, namely some bodyscissors and bearhugs, the latter of which Sir Dark was very complimentary of. He tapped, eventually. I was exhausted, and we were both very sweaty afterwards. I somehow won, and I was feeling pretty proud of myself for vanquishing the great Sir Dark. He was definitely going easy on me, but I'll take the win.

Some match details I've left out, so they're up to your imagination. We had another great chat afterwards, and he showed me some of his upcoming content (no spoilers here!). Both of us had plans later that evening so it was time for me to go, but not before a goodbye and promise we'd meet up again at some point.

It's been a few days since that meeting and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. It was rough, safe, hot as hell, and exhilarating. It's genuinely the most fun I've had in years. I've got some lovely bruises to serve as reminders of my first ever wrestling match. This experience has helped me developed an even deeper love of the sport and community I've been standing on the outskirts of for so long, and I'm really looking forward to whatever lies ahead.

Thank you, Sir Dark.