Lebanon native Jarred Murray set for first pro wrestling event

Jarred Murray isn’t a professional wrestler, but he plays one on TV.

Ok, so it’s not actually happening on TV. Minor detail, really.

Jarred Murray isn’t really a heel, or the more simplistic description, “bad guy,” in real life but he can do a pretty fair imitation of one in the ring.

Murray also isn’t a full-fledged performer, but he can pretty much hold his own in the squared circle, as he’ll prove this Saturday evening at Eagles Hall on North 8th Street, when he makes his in-ring debut as part of a Classic Championship Wrestling pro wrestling event, Hardcore Hangover, in downtown Lebanon. The event, a joint project of CCW and Tom Kline of Lebanon’s Greektown Pizza, is set to begin at 6 p.m.

A former Lebanon Catholic basketball player in the early to mid-2000s and current Annville-Cleona girls hoops assistant coach, Murray made his initial appearance with CCW on Black Friday in Lebanon when he made his debut as a bodyguard of sorts for Kline, the owner of Greektown Pizza in Lebanon, who has made a niche for himself as an outside-the-ring antagonist of the CCW hierarchy and its leader, Rob Noxious.

On Saturday, he will take on a still-to-be-determined opponent as part of what is being billed as the Greektown Championship Challenge.

Also on the card will be the CCW Traditional Championship featuring Aaron Truth vs. Kore, D-Licious vs. Jeminez the Menace, En Bush vs. Xeno, and King Rahkim vs. Pretty Boy Jay.

And because it is a hardcore event there are some rather wild rules in place, most notably that falls count anywhere in Lebanon, meaning a wrestler can pin his opponent on Cumberland Street if he wants and fans bring the “weapons.”

Murray fared well enough in his Black Friday appearance to earn another shot with the organization Saturday, when he makes his in-ring debut at the Eagles, in front of his fellow city residents and close friends, some of whom helped him create his villainous alter-ego, “The Main Character,” during a group chat online recently.

“I’m here at the barber shop, and Tom, the owner of Greektown, Tom Kline, has been dealing with the wrestling promotion, CCW, for a while now,” said Murray, whose shop, Himmy’s, is across the street from Greektown at 543 Walnut St. “And he’s been going every Black Friday and being part of the show, and this year he asked me to be, like, his ‘muscle.’ And I was like, ‘Ah, this is something from my childhood that I wouldn’t mind trying out.’ So that’s kinda how it all started.”

Murray fared well enough in his first appearance, though he did not actually have a match, to convince CCW to bring him back for the January card. And since becoming a full-time, albeit likely temporary pro wrestler, Murray has learned what he essentially knew as a youngster growing up a pro wrestling fan, that what you see wrestlers going through in the ring is all quite real, even if it is driven by scripted action and character development in the storylines.

“Oh, it’s fun,” Murray said. “And it’s real. There’s definitely a story that you have to follow, but it’s real. I took a chair shot my first time in the ring (in the Black Friday event). And I was in a cage match with Tom, trying to protect him, and I ended up getting my butt kicked then, too. It’s something.”

The true butt-kickings, though have been received during training, though as Murray has worked out side-by-side with CCW veterans to learn the tricks of the trade. But again, many of those tricks are not tricks at all, instead giving new performers like Murray as many, if not more bumps and bruises, than he accumulated growing up playing sports.

“Being a wrestling fan since I’ve been a kid – growing up in the ’90s, it’s pretty much impossible not to be,” said Murray. “You kinda know what to expect when you’re training, because I did have to train for this match. But when you see the reality of it, it’s totally different than what you expected. The ring is unforgiving. I played all kinds of sports growing up, that was probably the toughest thing I had to train for. I’d rather run 20 suicides than do some of the stuff I did up there.”

But as noted, Murray must also develop an identity for the Main Character, when he hits the ring Saturday.

“He was derived in my group chat with a bunch of my friends,” Murray said with a chuckle. “We have a group that likes to talk about sports, and I’m the one usually giving everyone a hard time. I kinda became a heel amongst my friends. It’s a lot easier being bad than good.”

It’s also, as Murray has discovered, it’s a lot easier imagining yourself being in the wrestling ring than actually training for and participating in events.

“I’m extremely excited,” Murray said. “I never thought actually being in a wrestling match was ever going to be in the cards in my life. “It’s been a pretty fun experience, just getting to see the back stage of it all and get a different perspective on what these guys are actually sacrificing, doing what they do.”

And in the process, Murray has developed even more respect for those who make their living in the ring while helping him prepare for his time in the spotlight.

“The gentleman who runs it, Rob Noxious, has a training facility in his house and he trains 30 or 40 guys,” Murray said. “And they’re just doing it for fun and for their opportunities. Some of those guys have been doing it for years. It’s like playing basketball against someone who’s been playing for years. The things that they know and can do is really, really impressive. It’s a lot different when you’re doing it on the mat or on your couch.”

Murray doesn’t have any designs on building a training facility in his home, which he shares with wife Samantha and their two young children. He’s realistic enough to know that this dream-come-true would work better as a one-shot deal than as a career to pursue.

“It’s a lot different when you’re doing it on a mattress or on the couch,” Murray said of the grind of wrestling. “I just want to give credit to Rob Noxious and the CCW family for being so accepting. This match for me is probably my premiere and my retirement on the same night. Maybe if I was still in my 20s, but with kids and a wife I don’t think this is something that’s going to continue.”