"I enjoyed playing baseball and loved wrestling, but never dreamt I would one day be a part of this game," reveals the 6 foot-2 inch tall Simon Diamond, who weighs 230 pounds. Simon is not just popular for the tricks he uses in the arena but also for being one of the good-looking wrestlers.

An English literature graduate, Simon likes to guide and direct new talent in the world of wrestling. "If I’d not been a wrestler, I would have been a teacher," he surprises you.

Similar qualities one finds in Shark Boy, who always remains masked. He has been in this field for over eight years and now runs his own wrestling school in Ohio called The Shark Tank. "The right guidance is important in this field, where nine out of 10 people end up being failures," he says. He advises youngsters smitten by the glamour of wrestling to first concentrate on their studies. A graduate in mass communication, the Finned Gladiator, as he is popularly called, had once dreamt of being a journalist but now loves the fun that wrestling has to offer.

He feels the game changes you physically, emotionally as well as socially. "Half the days in a month one is travelling. All activities, be it gymming, eating or anything else, are ultimately dedicated to wrestling. One is almost married to this profession." He loves his fan following, a majority of whom are kids and youngsters. Wrestling, Shark Boy maintains, takes a lot out of you and requires a sound mental balance. Simon chips in to say, "There is a lot of insecurity. Injuries could even leave you crippled."

But there is also fun attached to it. "One gets much in return. The celebrity status, the love, and also money," says Simon, adding that a successful wrestler could make over $6-8 million a year.

As they mostly have kids and teenagers as their fans, they feel they have a responsibility towards them and try not to misguide these viewers. "We tell them not to indulge in tricks we display as they could be risky," says Simon, who strongly feels that wrestling has nothing to do with violence. "It is just like any other game and as risky as the other ones."

Besides the youngsters, these wrestlers have a following among women too. " Women like the game too," Simon says, brushing aside the myth that people are scared of wrestlers.

Twentythree-year-old Indian-American Sonjay Dutt, who still cannot believe he is a part of this field, says he was reborn at the age of 20, when he took up wrestling. "There are over 110 registered wrestlers, and thousands who keep waiting to make it somewhere. Even the few who get a chance have very little probability of making it big, which is why I feel I am the privileged one," says Dutt, who made a big splash in TNA as part of Team NWA during America’s X Cup events.

Nicknamed the Original Playa from the Himalayas, Dutt thrills his fans with his high-flying aerial artistry. At the extravaganza in Ludhiana, the three wrestlers were an instant hit with the crowd that kept cheering them throughout the hour-and-a-half wrestling and dance performances, the latter, we learnt, they had a tough time preparing for.

Their dramatic entries had Simon Diamond breaking through a wall, Shark Boy wading through a laser wave and Sonjay Dutt breaking his shackles. This was followed by a performance with a Russian dance troupe, which the audience seemed to enjoy immensely.