THE GREATER GOOD
Michelle Good meets wrestling entertainment on the mat
SULPHUR SPRINGS, Texas—At 22 years old, 5-foot5-inches with a petite frame, Michelle Good is fighting her way to local wrestling entertainment fame.
The Hopkins County native grew up watching professional wrestling with her family and friends. After being away from it during her teen years, she's not just watching it now, she's living it.
"At the time, I wasn't interested in the whole show. If the people who were wrestling were people I wanted to see. I was sitting there watching," Good said. "I used to idolize it. It's being out there, doing something."
In 2017, she was approached by trainer Steve Cox out of Oklahoma.
"The child in me was so excited," she told the Sulphur Springs NewsTelegram. "Growing up, it's what I wanted to do; I always wanted to do it. But life happens. Getting in there, I said, 'I like this; I can do this.'"
And get in there, she did.
Her first training session consisted of running back and forth across the wrestling mat and hitting her back to the ropes.
"It's not as soft as most people would think. It's just those ropes—I had three rows of marks on my back just from bruises where the ropes were hitting me," she explained. "I did that for about two hours. I was, 'All right, I'll be back—if I can move in the morning and I don't change my mind because I don't know about this.' The very first training, I hated it. I wanted to give up right then and there, never set foot in a ring."
But once the bruises healed, Good went back again and again.
For her, wrestling as a physical sport is appealing. Each time, she said, it became easier as she became accustomed to the feel of the ropes and the mat.
"It still hurts, but you're used to it," she said.
With training in Oklahoma, she has often worked a night shift until 5 a.m. and was on the road by 7 a.m. for the four-hour drive to hit the mat again.
"Probably what hooked me is because it reminds me of friends and family, no phones, just watching TV," she said. "I felt like it was my childhood coming back to me."
Good's family were big wrestling fans, and her mother was particularly a fan of the Texas-born Von Erich family during their reign in the 1970s and '80s. Good said that her three older brothers are named for the Von Erichs, and when she was born, her mother expected to be naming her for Michael Von Erich.
So, it didn't come as a surprise to her family or friends that she is now involved in OASIS Wrestling, a wrestling entertainment troupe that travels out of Arkansas across multiple states with one venue in Sulphur Springs.
"My oldest brother was in the military. I was in first grade at the time, and I was in there with him, doing push-ups, getting ready for it. I've always been fighting with my brothers just proving that I may be a girl, but I'm going to kick your butt," Good said.
"My old basketball coach said, 'I heard you're into wrestling now. Good. I remember when you used to do it on the basketball court.' I don't get in trouble for it now," she laughed. "It's not that big a surprise to most people that I'm doing such a physical activity."
The hardest part for her isn't the physical activity, though. It's building her character and staying true to herself at the same time. That kind of development is also included in her training.
"How (do I) work (me) into wresting? You want to do something, but how do you do it?" she asked. "The greatest piece of advice I was given for it is take one small piece of you—it can be anything—and multiply it by a thousand. That's how you're going to get yourself across. This is who I am, and this is what I'm going to do."
Portraying her character, she said, means that she amplifies a portion of personality, like a single trait, to offer up to a crowd for entertainment. Sometimes, she said, that means looking to the past of professional wrestling.
"I look at those characters, those outfits, see how they came across, go out and see what the trend is and just find something I like. 'I kind of like that. Let's alter it to make it fit me. Even though it is me, do I see myself wearing that? Is that something I want everybody else to see?' It's the hardest part of trying to figure out who I am; I'm still trying to figure out who I am in the ring," Good said.
That includes her costumes. Good said that she is modest. When not in the wrestling ring, she may be dressed in jeans and a T-shirt and sporting a baseball cap. In the ring, she wants to maintain some modesty while still being able to move around to entertain the crowd.
"Most females will wear shorter shorts. I'm not comfortable with that," she said. "It's not how in public (I want to present myself). I won't wear something really short."
Instead, Good opts for biker shorts and a top, despite suggestions that she should wear a singlet. But, she said, that is not who she is.
"How to make it look, as some would say, like the cute female but also dominant with it," is her goal. "I stick to the two pieces. There are so many different design ways you can go with it."
Aesthetics aside, Good said she pushes herself in the ring to show to everyone watching who she is through what she can do. To that end, she said that WWE's female wrestler Lita is a role model.
"She put her body to the test doing stuff that not a lot of women did at the time," Good said. "That was me growing up with three brothers, and I'm the baby of my siblings. I was always fighting with my brothers, doing stuff a normal girl wouldn't do. That's how my character is. I'm going to try something new each time, do something you really wouldn't' see a female do. That's who I am. My character is me. It's not someone I want to be or this is my alter ego—this is me."
The crowd helps her do that, as well. Because each crowd reacts differently, she said it allows her to try new things in the ring both with the act of wrestling and bantering with her opponent.
"If they seem interested or not, you try to draw them in. If they're fighting you with it, you try to bring (your personality) out more," she explained. "It equals out at times. It depends, as much as you don't want it to, on how your day has gone too, how much effort you're going to put into doing what you're doing. That's a hard part about it, is separating it."
Despite the challenge, Good said the other wrestlers help, guide and treat her like family.
"On the mat, it can be (that the opponent) can hate your guts and make it known that they really don't like you. Behind the curtain, it's just a family. I wasn't expecting that. OASIS is one place I wrestle constantly, and it really is a family. It's so family-oriented. If one person is trying to mess with you from somewhere else, you have family that's going to protect you. You don't mess with family."
She said wrestling gives her an outlet for aggression and frustration. She just takes it to the mat.
"You can release anger, and it's not frowned upon," Good explained. "So much can build and build and build, and then just let it out. It makes for a better show and shows that you're into it."
One of the biggest physical challenges is her size. With a petite frame, Good is often matched against women who are taller and stronger than she.
"All but one or two of my matches, I've been the small one. My first match in Oklahoma, this girl was 6-foot, and here's me, 5-5," she said. "All around, most people are bigger than me, because I am really small compared to most. A lot of times it doesn't work for me, but I try to get them off balance. That's where it comes into my favor. I'll give it to them—strength-wise, sizewise, they've got me."
But then, she does have an advantage.
"The disadvantages become my advantages. I'm able to move around a lot better, so I try to use that. I always try to keep moving, so it keeps them from just holding onto me and taking me out."
And it's not just Good and the other wrestlers who can really get into a match. She enjoys the opportunities to entertain and interact with the children who have become a vocal part of her fan base.
"They become so involved with it. They look up to you, especially here in my hometown. Just seeing the kids in public, 'Hey, Michelle, how are you?' That just overfills me with joy," she said. "Trying to bring a positive influence to these kids— now, some people may frown upon it with wrestling—but it gives these kids someone to look up to, someone who is going to show them right and wrong, that's not going to lead them down the wrong path."
And to answer the ever-present question of whether or not wrestling entertainment is fake?
"If it's fake, why are people getting hurt? It's scripted, and sometimes it's not. When they say it's fake, I say, 'You're wrong, because you're going to take a chance that you are going to get hurt.' It's entertainment," she explained.
Last month at a local match, Good experienced an injury to her knee.
"I was going over the ropes, my foot got caught and I went knee-first onto the mat," she said. "Luckily, I ended up not having a match, so I was able to rest for the most part, except for getting up and walking around."
It's not that it is fake or isn't, she said, because some of is. But.
"If you're taking a steel chair, it's going to hurt," Good said. "You may know the safest way to take it, but it's not 100 percent fake."