Dreams of professional wrestling begin in small Kansas town

In a nondescript metal building off of K-96, Lance Chaffin screams at a young trainee in his 20-foot wrestling ring.

“You said you were doing 150 pushups a day, and you can’t give me 10?” he yells at the tired trainee, who slumps over and gives a muffled reply. “You lying to me?”

Soon, other aspiring wrestlers come to the teen’s aid, literally pulling him up and pushing him down until the required pushups are complete.

Then the smacking sounds of bodies being thrown onto the mat – only lightly padded above a wood-and-steel frame – fill the cavernous building.

Chaffin, 26, trained to be a professional wrestler, and he knows that if any of these young people want to be like him, they have be tremendously tough – physically and mentally.

The Mount Hope native returned to Kansas in 2012 after training with the likes of Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair, intending to bring professional wrestling to Kansas.

Now his school in Mount Hope, Mid-West Entertainment Wrestling, trains young aspiring wrestlers who want to make a career of it.

“The group is slowly dwindling, because this really takes a toll on your mind, body and spirit,” Chaffin said. “If you’re not mentally tough, then it’s going to break you.”

On Saturday, the school is putting on a professional wrestling show featuring Chaffin (otherwise known as The Mangler) versus Lennie Thompson (known in wrestling circles as Lunatic Lennie). The show will bring attention to Chaffin’s school and, he hopes, draw more interest in the school.

“We’re training people how to do everything safe,” Chaffin said. “We’re training people how to protect themselves as well as the other person they’re in the ring with.”

Once, Chaffin was like the students he’s currently training – “glued” to the television for Monday Night “Raw” and “SmackDown” on Friday nights. He had a dream to be a professional wrestler and followed it – training with Hulk Hogan in Florida and appearing on the A&E documentary “Finding Hulk Hogan.”

An injury eventually sidelined him, and precipitated the move back to Mount Hope.

Now Chaffin wants to train others who have the wrestling dream, as crazy as it may seem.

“As far as end goal … I hope everybody has the goal to one day headline WrestleMania,” he said. “With the right training, passion, desire and drive to do that, I believe that anybody is capable of that.

“If your goal is to be a hobbyist wrestler – if this is just something you want to do for fun – then I’m not the right school for you. What I want is people who want to pursue a career in professional wrestling.”

Anyone interested in the wrestling school can attend the event Saturday, as well as visit www.facebook.com/midwestentertainmentwrestling.

This story was originally published March 23, 2017 at 1:38 PM with the headline "Dreams of professional wrestling begin in small Kansas town."