Photo: Video screenshot. The Kinneys have been members of St. Their faith also has moved the couple to make a difference in the lives of others in the Minnesota wrestling community, making themselves available to offer a prayer, a friendly word or even a place to sleep. Nick and other local wrestlers are professionals and get paid for their matches, though most need to keep their day jobs.
They are booked through some of the 13 local wrestling companies within a four-hour drive of Minneapolis. One thing many have in common, she said, is having been burned by a church. Sometimes that means listening over a cup of coffee or cat-sitting when someone is on the road. The guest room in their new house became a place where people could stay for a few nights. Jayne, who grew up the daughter of a Methodist pastor, said it was an ironic contrast between the wrestler with a name boasting about the deadly sins and the man in the locker room willing to listen to people for hours after a show.
Photo: Courtesy Nick Kinney. As a young adult, he started to study wrestling and discovered the power of storytelling that takes place. In , Nick decided to give wrestling a try β at 28 he felt it was then or never β and started studying and training with The Academy of Pro Wrestling in St.
Paul, Minnesota. They taught him wrestling basics, including what Nick called the most important one β how to fall and not break anything. Wrestlers fall all the time, he said, and it hurts, but they learn how to minimize injuries. But importantly, he also learned how to make it a show. He had studied karate, where moves are compact, so he had some things to unlearn. He thought he was doing well in that role until a local wrestling promoter came up to him after a match.
The bad Nick took off, and eventually, the companies that arrange wrestling events and hire wrestlers for matches only wanted to book him as a heel. He now wrestles almost every weekend, and sometimes more than one match a day. When asked about the contradiction of an active churchgoer adopting a persona based on the deadly sins, he said it is rather humorous. When that happens, it helps both him and his opponent become more popular.
