Tindle Wrestler, Fighting for A Dream
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By Dave Taylor
Finally, nobody likes Justin Tindle.
After months of training, the 2013 Hancock County High School graduate is now The Kentucky Blueblood Justin Savage, a professional wrestler and a heel in USA Championship Wrestling, where he’s living his childhood dream and proving his doubters wrong.
“Basically I’m a high-maintenance redneck,” Tindle said of his wrestling persona. “I live in a two-story trailer and I drink my bourbon, my beer, and all of that.”
Just last year Tindle was living in Hancock County and not having much fun.
“I worked in a factory right out of high school. I hated it,” he said.
He’d done some backyard wrestling growing up and he’d always considered trying to get into the business for real someday.
One day he was online and saw a story that Glenn Jacobs, a former WWE superstar most know as Kane, and a respected trainer named Dr. Tom Prichard, who’d trained The Rock and other famous stars, had opened a wrestling school in Knoxville, where Jacobs is mayor of Knox County.
“I was like I need to go to that school. I want to learn from two of the best,” Tindle said.
He sent in a resume and application and was accepted and began training last August and graduated on October 25.
“When I first got here I was super excited,” he said. “It may look easy on TV but it’s not as easy as it looks. It’s a little complicated at first, and then by week probably six or seven you’re like hey, it starts clicking and it gets easier for you.”
In the beginning the students are all learning the same things and the same basic moves, but toward the end they follow disparate paths as they fine-tune who they want to become.
Tindle got some help from Jacobs, who knows something about personas, having starred as Kane, the 7-foot-tall half-brother of The Undertaker.
Tindle would become The Kentucky Blueblood Justin Savage.
“Actually Glenn Jacobs helped me come up with that at the night of our graduation,” he said. Dr. Tom came to me and said hey, Glenn came up with a great name for you.”
It was a perfect fit for a guy from rural Kentucky, and especially one who grew up idolizing “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, the brash, beer chugging superstar in the WWE.
“He was my favorite and I kind of take some of his moves and make it my own,” he said.
He continues to train in Knoxville, but he’s been appearing in matches in USA Championship Wrestling since his graduation, appearing in his first on regional TV in Tennessee, Mississippi and Kentucky.
“After the match I was like man, I’ve felt it, I love it,” he said. “Right then I was like yes, I know exactly what I’m going to do the rest of my life. This is for me.”
He’s embraced the role of the bad guy after trying it in an early match.
“After that match I was like, I’m a heel from here on out,” he said. “I get the fans not to like me and it’s fun being a heel.”
“I’m here in Tennessee, so I come out saying I’m the Kentucky Blueblood Justin Savage, Kentucky’s better than Tennessee,” he said. “If there’s some kids there smack talking you talk smack back to them.”
He played football and basketball growing up, but wrestling is a whole other ballgame.
“I’m in the gym five to six days a week for about two hours a day,” he said. “I’m in good shape right now but I’m trying to get in better shape. There’s always room for improvement. I’m wanting to build more muscle, I’m wanting to get leaner and more cut so I get the attention of a bigger promotion eventually.”
Taking care of his body is a must in a career where it’s all about punishing bodies.
“It can be grueling at times, yes, but if you love it you get through it,” he said. “A lot of people think it’s fake. It’s not. The bumps and everything are real. It hurts. After a couple of weeks you get used to it.”
His family and friends in Hancock County have been supportive, watching his matches as they’re posted to YouTube and social media.
“They didn’t want to see me go, but they wanted me to go and achieve something that I’ve always wanted to do,” he said.
“Me being down here so far away from them, you know it’s hard, but in this business you’ve got to make certain sacrifices,” he said, “and right now that’s the sacrifice I’m making being so far away
