Today we’d like to introduce you to Dylan Frymyer.
Dylan, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Since I was three years old, my life revolved around professional wrestling. I grew up during a time where professional wrestling was larger than life. They were in my eyes as a little boy, real-life superheroes. My family would tell you I was obsessed.
My story really starts with the love and support of both my parents. My parents divorced at a young age and my mother had primary care. She embraced my passion for pro wrestling by taking me to events and put in a position to meet a lot of my childhood heroes. We would wait in lines together for hours and I even remember waiting outside of arenas for hours just to get a glimpse of the guys walking into the building. By her embracing my love for the wrestling, really ended up changing my life forever.
Growing up, I was always pretty overweight. At the age of 15, I was 292 lbs. Just starting high school, that’s a lot of weight to carry around physically but also mentally. I can’t say I got bullied too much, but looking back, that was because I usually made fun of my self first so that I couldn’t give someone else the opportunity too.
It was coming up on my 16th birthday and I asked my mom to take me to an autograph signing in New Jersey. She agreed. I was searching online for some pictures of the wrestlers I was going to meet and one of them was Diamond Dallas Page. During my google search, I saw that he was now teaching his own form of yoga called DDP Yoga (YRG at the time). It was very new and not many success stories out there yet. I was interested it because it was a weight loss program created by a wrestler. I asked my mom when she got home for work one night if I could try it. She ordered me the program and received an email by Dallas himself saying thank you for purchasing the DVDs. She wrote a heartfelt email back to him telling him about her son. I thought she was wasting her time. No way DDP had time to write to us, it had to be an automatic email or something. What I didn’t know is that email would change the course of my life forever. They would exchange several more emails and Dallas would ask for my phone number. He invited us down to New Jersey early to work out with him. I would go on to lose 100 lbs. doing his program over the next 10 months.
During this time, finally being in shape, I started doing things that I would never pursue before and one of them is chasing my dream to be a wrestler. I found a local wrestling school and started training. It was literally a dream come true.
Over the next few months, I kind of went back to the way I was eating before, got into a relationship, lost my grandfather who was my best friend, lost an uncle who lived with us for eight years and was really battling an undiagnosed depression. Life was changing so fast and I didn’t know how to keep up mentally. I fell back into my old stress eating habits and all of sudden, over a fast five years, I had gained 160 lbs back.
Dallas would call and check on me, but I was really ashamed of gaining so much weight. I was 360 lbs. and really was in a bad spot mentally. At this time, he just moved Jake The Snake Roberts into his house. Jake was one of the biggest names in wrestling history at one point, but he had fallen to his own Demons, drugs, and alcohol. Dallas took him into his home to try and get him back on his feet. After a few months of doing well, Dallas and Jake lent a hand out to another friend Scott Hall aka Razor Ramon. Again, one of the biggest names in wrestling history who had fallen to his own Demons.
Scott was one of my favorite wrestlers growing up, so by him making such a huge leap on trying to get sober, that inspired me to reach out to Dallas. I let him know where I was physically and mentally but that what he was doing with Jake and Scott was truly inspiring on so many levels. He said to me that he needed a video editor and if I could lose 20 lbs. in a month and show hard work, that he would move me to Atlanta to join the journey.
I was scared and nervous, but my mother assured me that this was the right life move and if I didn’t take it, I would regret it for the rest of my life. Man, was she right! Over that year, we helped Jake and Scott both go from being drunk and high every day to clean and sober, and being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in New Orleans in 2014. This whole journey was filmed and produced into a movie called “The Resurrection of Jake The Snake.” I was one of the main editors on this film and from all the hours I put in with those guys when the cameras were off, to the time I put in actually editing the film, that chapter in my life was truly the greatest accomplishment I could ever imagine for myself.
Fast forward to the end of 2018. I have been wrestling for ten years now. I have had a lot of fun and done a lot of things I dreamed of for instance running my own wrestling shows in my hometown of Lewistown, PA. Since moving to Atlanta, I have had the itch to run shows again but I have kind of been afraid to. My fear was that Atlanta is so big, and there is so much to do here, that it would be hard to draw enough attention to my product, to where I would make enough money to pay for the cost of putting on the shows. It just seemed like a big risk.
Well, after five years of living here, the stars started to align when I met Rich Ward, a member of the band Fozzy. He told me that there was a guy who had a building and he wanted to run wrestling shows out of it. He put me in touch with the owner Gary lamb. He and I met and really hit it off. He showed me the building and it was beautiful. There were video screens, sound systems, space, a stage, it really had everything you would need to put on a great show. Gary brought a nice venue to the table as well as years of promoting events. What I brought to the table was my knowledge of the wrestling business but also the ability to edit videos, posters and just an overall big production feel to the shows. We took our time, planed a strategy and set a date for our first show on October 5th, 2018.
I remember that day of our first show, seeing 300+ people pile into that place… there were five seconds till the show… 4.3.2.1 and I hit the button for the starting video and the place erupted. I had tears in my eyes and Goosebumps on my arms. It was a feeling of living a dream on a whole other level. I love stepping in to the ring and performing, it’s an escape… but being the person who’s putting on the show with your team around you, and then hearing 300+ people that you don’t know, who paid there hard earn money for a ticket and then hear them cheering and booing… there is no other feeling like that. After two successful shows, we are really creating a buzz on the local independent wrestling scene. I couldn’t be more proud of what my self and Gary along with our other partner Nathan Mowery of Kind punk Productions and the rest of the people of DDPY productions have created.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
I went into a lot of detail answering the first question, and there was a lot of personal struggles that I had to overcome over the years. A few years ago, I finally had a falling out with my depression to where I asked for help. That was the best decision in my life. I won’t get into much detail about that, but I will say if you battle with depression and anxiety, there is help out there and you are not alone.
When it comes to the wrestling business, there is a lot of struggles. First, as a wrestler. I’ve been wrestling for ten years now and it wasn’t until recently when I developed a character, that I finically got “it.” I learned by creating a character I can do so much more than just being a wrestler. There are different ways to leave impressions on the fans, but im also able to click into the character and let out frustrations and escape the real world for a little bit so that I can perform.
Starting a wrestling promotion and being the booker is very hard. My title is technical “the booker.” The booker pretty much makes the matches, gets in contact with wrestlers, negotiates with them, creates stores, etc. Sometimes, you deal with egos, but I’ve gotten a really good group of guys that have been in our locker room. I believe they see our passion for production and the business, which sets us apart from a lot of companies in Georgia that don’t have the type of production we do. The other struggle is dealing with rumors or other promotions being against you for a bunch of their own reasonings. It’s sports entertainment but it’s a business, so I guess that all comes with the territory.
On the production side of things, I think the bigger struggle would be time. I work full time at DDP Yoga as a video editor and then come home and edit for Southern Honor Wrestling. It’s a lot of sitting in front of a computer. Finding a balance for different things like my health or going to PA to see my family has been a little difficult to do.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Southern Honor Wrestling story. Tell us more about the business.
Independent wrestling in a whole is on a rise right now. There is so much talent in professional wrestling, it would blow you away. I think what sets us apart is that we bring the production side of things to our product. We give the wrestlers music videos, we play hype videos, we have smoke and great lighting, etc. When you walk into the Action Building in Canton, GA, you can just sense you are in for a big-time feel show. The other thing we are proud of is that we only book the best. There’s so much talent around, but that doesn’t mean it’s all great talent. So, when I’m booking a show, I’m really thinking about matchups and stories. What are one guy’s talent and abilities? How will it match up with this guys? If I can look at two guys and say “I want to see that match”… then, I’m pretty confident that I can convince the crowd they want to see that match too.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
We have had a lot of good luck when it comes to Southern Honor. We are very fortunate to have a building that we can use whenever we want too. That building is equipped with all the production that we need as well. So, those two things in themselves, are two overhead costs that we don’t need to worry about. The other thing we have on our side is the connections we have to the wrestling world. Diamond Dallas Page, Scott Hall, and Jake The Snake Roberts all have publically endorsed us already, but also with our connection with Rich Ward, Wrestler Chris Jericho has gone on record to publically endorse us… you could call that the Luck Of Jericho. (Only wrestling fans will get that, lol.)
Pricing:
- Front Row Seating $12
- general admission seating $10
- Kids 10 years old and younger, free for general admission with a paying adult
Contact Info:
- Address: The action building – 261 Marietta Rd, Canton, GA 30114
- Website: Www.Southernhonorwrestling.com
- Email: info@southernhonorwrestling.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/southernhonorwrestling?utm_source=ig_profile_share&igshid=vri6uctax6op
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/southernhonorwrestling/
Image Credit:
Wrestling SnapShots, Cory Tatum
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