BREWER, Maine — The Limitless Wrestling school, occupying a single room in a nondescript business park not far from the Penobscot River, is a no-frills operation. There’s a ring, posters on the walls, a few folding chairs. Several times a month Dave Dyer drives here from his home in Belfast to attend classes on how to be a professional wrestler.
Known in the ring as the Belfast Bulldog, Dyer is a ham, one who relishes his villainous wrestling persona. “Being a bad guy is a lot of fun,” he says with a big smile. “You get to make fun of the crowd a lot, which is probably the most fun you could possibly have when doing this.”
The school, part of the Limitless Wrestling business founded and run by Randy Carver, offers classes five days a week and has about 25 students. (Its official name is the Limitless Wrestling Dojo.) Most of the students have been wrestling fans since they were kids, and while they all have their own reasons for being here, a common thread runs through most of their stories.
“It’s a lifelong dream—entertaining people,” Carver says. “They can look back and show people, hey, this is something I’ve been a fan of forever, and I finally did it.”
Dyer is an unlikely performer in this colorful world because in his day job he covers legitimate athletics. He’s a sports reporter and copy editor for the Kennebec Journal newspaper, for which he’s written several articles about his foray into wrestling. What do his journalist colleagues think of his hobby? “They love it,” he says. “My boss, my editor, he wants video, he’s always checking up on stuff. He loves it.”
Dyer’s enthusiasm and commitment over the last two years have impressed Carver, who’s worked with hundreds of wrestlers and watched thousands of them. “He makes time for this. He puts in the effort. And I didn’t think he was going to make it,” Carver says. “I thought it was going to be a one-time story, it was going to be a little blurb on his website or whatever, it was just going to be a one-time thing. And he’s still here.”