T-R PHOTO BY NICK BAUR — Austin Fouts coaches Andee Martin (left) and Daniel Fiser (right) as they practice professional wrestling techniques at The Forge Wrestling Center in Marshalltown.

Tucked away on the outskirts of Marshalltown, a dedicated group of aspiring professional wrestlers are chasing their dreams as students at The Forge Wrestling Academy, a training center turning today’s wrestling fanatics into tomorrow’s sports entertainment superstars.

Established in 2022, The Forge now boasts over 30 trainees from across Iowa and the greater Midwest and has slowly become a mecca in Iowa for hopefuls planning to make their way into the industry.

A product of RUGGEDpro Wrestling, a local independent wrestling promotion series, founder of both RUGGEDpro and The Forge Austin Fouts says both the training center and wrestling series have found success in taking an individualized and inclusive approach to molding the next generation of wrestling sensations.

“We’ll find a place for everybody, whether it’s wrestling, commentating or anything of that nature,” he said. “We are a company that is making stars.”

For wrestlers Daniel Fiser and Andee Martin, who live in Marshalltown and train weekly at The Forge, the two grew up infatuated with WWE and professional wrestling, and when the opportunity to train locally in the state presented itself, they jumped at the chance to take part in something they have loved since their youth.

“I talked to [Fouts] about joining the school, he asked me, ‘What do you see out of this? What do you want?'” Martin said. “I said, ‘I just want to be a professional wrestler, I just want to be able to do this every single week. I want to be able to get to the point where I can go down part time from my job and do this for the majority of my life.'”

But the goal of making it into the professional wrestling business can sometimes be all consuming for the two, who sometimes might drive to three different states in a weekend for shows.

“It’s one of those (where) if you want it, you pour everything you have into it,” Fiser said. “You just give up everything else for a little bit.”

“It’s something you have to sacrifice a lot of stuff in your life,” Martin added. “It’s all the grind. If you want to go somewhere, you have to give up a lot of stuff like anything else.”

Yet, the path to becoming a professional wrestler is often as arduous and physically intensive as any other professional sport, with long hours spent in the ring and the gym strengthening their bodies to be able to handle everything that is thrown their way during a show.

“Cardio and endurance,” Fiser said, noting the key training areas they practice at The Forge. “You have to be able to be out of breath and still keep going. It doesn’t really replicate. You can run on a treadmill. You can run the stair stepper, (but) nothing really replicates running full force and then hitting the ropes. It’s like slamming into a wall.”

Though it is widely known the results of matches are predetermined and the brawls are largely for entertainment value, the activity within the ring is very much real, and like Martin says, it requires wrestlers to be in tip top shape when they step inside it.

“Sometimes we have to do an eight minute match, which is easy to do,” Martin said. “But then there’s times you have to do a 15 or 20 minute match. So you have to pace yourself with running the ropes. You have to pace yourself jumping off the stuff so it makes you have enough energy to pick another person up if you have to do it, like 10 minutes into the match.”

Much of the preparation to be a professional wrestler relies on physical prowess and mental fortitude, but it’s learning wrestling techniques, communication, and most importantly, how to improvise when the situation calls, which are paramount to becoming an effective performer.

“You don’t want it to look choreographed the whole time, because you want it to seem like it’s an actual fight going on,” Fiser said. “So if you’re planning every little thing they’re going to do, it just doesn’t look real.”

Still, as Fiser says, the time spent training, preparing, and laboring over how to put on different performances for each show becomes undoubtedly worth each time they walk into arenas full of roaring fans.

“It’s the little moments looking out, seeing people smile and having a good time,” he said. “For a lot of people, it’s their escape. You know, you go out, you have a lot going on in your life. You go out on a Saturday night, watch some wrestling, have some fun, you forget about everything that’s going on, even if it’s just for a little bit.”

RUGGEDpro and The Forge have been riding a surging wave of popularity for professional wrestling seen across the United States, and the Midwest in particular has seen significant growth in wrestling promotion series.

“It’s a really great time for wrestling right now,” Fiser said. “Especially in the Midwest, there’s a lot of new promotions popping up and a lot of places to go and there’s a lot of veterans out there, but there’s also a lot of new guys that are popping up and gaining steam really really quick.”

With the second class of wrestlers currently enrolled in The Forge, Fouts indicated that these first two groups of graduates are just the beginning for the fledgling school.

“It’s just exciting to see that we’re growing talent,” Fouts said. “Guys that are just starting out here in Marshalltown, Iowa, are now traveling across the country wrestling every weekend.”

Fresh off of RUGGEDmania, the landmark event for RUGGEDpro which took place in Marshalltown back in March and saw a standing room only crowd at the Midnight Ballroom, Fouts says RUGGEDpro and trainees at The Forge are positioned to make waves in the professional wrestling scene. At times, he finds it hard to believe how far they have come.

“It’s so crazy to believe almost five years ago, when I first started the idea of RUGGEDpro wrestling that now I have a school. Now we’re putting 450 plus people inside the Midnight Ballroom (and) 700 plus crowds out of state in towns we’ve never run before,” Fouts said. “We’re heading over to take over Des Moines, Boone, Ames, Cedar Rapids, everywhere. So it’s really like ‘Wow.'”

For more information about The Forge Wrestling Academy and how to enroll in the school, contact their Facebook page: www.facebook.com/RUGGEDproFORGE.

For more information about RUGGEDpro Wrestling, and their upcoming list of shows, see their Facebook page: www.facebook.com/RuggedProWrestling.

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Contact Nick Baur at 641-753-6611 or nbaur@timesrepublican.com.