The art of true living in this world is more like a wrestler’s than a dancer’s practice.
Marcus Aurelius
Hello and welcome to the about page of Pompeu, founder of Against the Ropes!
On this page, you will know who Pompeu is, his motivations for creating this website, and his goals for Against the Ropes.
About Page Of Pompeu – Who’s Pompeu
Pompeu, born and raised in Lisbon, has been a big fan of pro wrestling since a young age.
The professional wrestling industry is not too big in Portugal, so growing up, he did not always have the chance to attend live events, access to television content, and the most variety of merchandise.
That never kept him following his favorite wrestlers and promotions. With time he got a closer in-depth about the product and its dynamics. Now he wants to share all his passion and knowledge with you!
PS – Referring to yourself in the 3rd person isn’t so that cool when you’re not Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. : )
When everything started
In the early 90s, I was nine years old. After watching the cartoons on that warm and sunny Saturday morning, I was expecting the usual wildlife documentary that was aired at noon, but instead that they aired on professional wrestling!
I still remember the first match I watched, Repo Man vs. Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka (Repo Man, I know, lucky me!).
In the beginning, I must admit I was shocked with all that violence as I took it as a legit fight. Still, after the first impact, I started to pay attention to wrestlers’ colorful, even goofy outfits, all the show off from wrestlers to commentators, and the theatrical way they were “beating” each other.
After realizing I wasn’t assisting to a brutal no holds bare fight, but to a form of art that evolved theatrical antics and athletic abilities, I was instead mesmerized.
In that first moment exposed to professional wrestling, I knew I had found one of my biggest passions in life!
My Motivations To Create Against The Ropes
I always enjoy discussing and watching professional wrestling. However, being born in Portugal and residing in Brussels means that most of my friends are fans of other forms of entertainment, so when sometimes I spend time with a friend watching pro wrestling, I must explain what makes me love it so much.
To do that, I often found myself educating my friends on the matter, and a common point among them is that I love pro wrestling, know one or two things about it, and am a good storyteller.
Hence, I always thought of having a blog, though I never pulled the trigger, mainly by a lack of confidence.
One of the good things about getting older is that you not only start to realize that you will not be around indefinitely, but you start to pay less attention to all the noise around you.
With stoic determination, I finally pulled the trigger and decided to create my blog to share my passion for professional wrestling with all of you!
What Against the Ropes Is All About
Against the Ropes is a website where you will primarily find educational and entertaining posts about professional wrestling, so expect more set-in-stone stories than gossips and daily news.
However, professional wrestling will not be the only thing we will be talking about here. Since I am interested in having a healthy lifestyle and I do sport regularly (calisthenics, kettlebell training, boxing, running, Wim Hof Method practitioner), I decided to merge all of that with what this site primarily is about, professional wrestling.
The best way to merge my passion for pro wrestling with an active and healthy lifestyle is by creating a series of posts on which I share with you thoughtful and accurate advice about food, forms of exercise, and helpful words to help you work a positive, resilient, and powerful mindset.
I will create content for people who want to become a better and improved version of themselves or even dream of becoming a professional wrestler.
And suppose your dream is to become a professional wrestler. In that case, I think you will be happy to know that I will do my utmost to interview professional wrestlers, managers, trainers – or other well-known internauts within the pro wrestling niche – to share with you their experience. After all, they’re the ones you should be listening to if you want to make a living of professional wrestling.
I will also review products related to professional wrestling and a healthy lifestyle in the hope of helping you make the right choices when you decide to expend your hard-earned bucks on the referred products.
Last but not least, I’d like Against the Ropes to be a place where everyone can comment and share their own opinions, experiences – pretty much anything you want that adds value to our community – with the same being respected and accepted despite your overall knowledge or passion for pro wrestling. After all, I’m just another mark! : )
If you ever have any questions or want to leave me some words of encouragement, feel free to superkick me in the comment section below, and I will be more than happy to chop you back! Woooo!
You can check some of my content here, and if you like it, please consider following me everywhere (but not in the street, that’s weird :)), and I’ll catch you around!
Stay strong and keep loving pro wrestling! Amor Fati!
Pompeu Pedrosa,
Founder of Against the Ropes.