ARGUS reporter Luke Jarmyn is put through his paces at Gwent's pro-wrestling academy.

HIDDEN away on a small industrial estate near Blackwood is Gwent's new sporting gem.

Arriving at the Knockout Pro Wrestling Academy on a cold frosty morning, I am a bag of nerves.

People say US-style pro-wrestling isn’t ‘real,’ and in terms of it being a true tussle then that would be correct, but it is an incredibly dangerous sport.

I remember being young in the late nineties and watching The Rock, Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Undertaker on the then-WWF, now WWE at 10pm on a Friday night.

Thoughts of bodies going through tables, acrobatics from the top rope and sledgehammers being used as weapons all came to mind, let alone the one on one action, its safe to say I’m no fighter.

What I found surprised and impressed me when owner of the academy, Andrew James, greeted me and showed me round the place.

Instantly my eyes light up as I see the 18-foot pro-standard ring, which is amazingly bigger in reality than on the TV.

Elsewhere there are two smaller rooms, one doubling up as changing room, the other is in the middle of a make over to be a media room.

Mr James has only set up the academy for a month and whilst we run through his programme for me, I see proudly placed on the wall in the academy is his certificate from graduating at the late great Boris Malenko’s academy in Florida.

Rather than using the ring for anything acrobatic, I am put through my physical paces with press ups, quick sprint jogging around the ring and sit-ups.

I’m lucky that unlike their usual elite program, I’m not asked to do 500 press-ups, as after 40 I am puffing heavily for air.

Whilst I’m getting ready, Andrew’s son Luke is doing a few demonstrations in the ring.

Twenty year-old Luke James spent three months last year at the Florida Pro Wrestling Academy working one-to-one with top level trainer Frank Reyes.

Frank Reyes is himself a former WWF, WCW and ECW referee who was taught by the Malenko family – Joe, Dean and the legendary Boris.

Well known moves like a suplex, a chop and a sharpshooter are being performed. When you see them up close, they’re daunting enough that I feel better outside the ropes rather than in.

Immediately I am looking away from the action and instead ask about the ring itself. It’s quite sturdy and from the naked eye does not look like something you want to land on.

In fact, it’s soft enough to resemble a sturdy trampoline. Underneath the top sheet is a few layers of foam and some thin boards of wood whilst the ring itself is designed to be loose, almost giving the ring its own in-built suspension. It flexes when needed.

When I do get in, Luke James points out some crucial aspects of it as with each move you see when watching a pro-wrestling match, it is designed to be dramatic to the eye but relatively pain free.

Of the handful of moves Luke shows me, they are all some of the very basics, yet they are heavily complicated.

Each move is designed in a way to stop you getting injured, but they have to be performed correctly. This results in knowing how fall to the ring, how to move your body when getting hit and knowing where to place yourself with any ground-work on the floor.

All of this turns out to be a lot harder than you think. They are showing me the various techniques and it takes several times before I can even fall correctly.

Being able to fall correctly is a crucial skill. When it looks like your getting picked up, in fact you have to be able to jump and let your self fall on your back.

As Luke tells me: "You can’t land on your bum or without your back being straight as that’s how you’ll get an injury, but its hard as it goes against your natural reactions."

The moves we are running through are merely the basics, and yet I’m struggling.

But until you learn the basics, you can’t learn anything else, wrestling is all about respect, training and confidence. Until there is a faith between a pair of fighters then you are unable to progress, with health and safety being paramount.

As we run through some of the moves, I am amazed at the detail in something that you would assume when seeing it to be basic.

And this comes to the fore when myself and Luke James run over the bodyslam move.

This involves me having complete confidence in him, putting my body in his hands. As he picks me up, I jump and have to use my right hand to grip his thigh whilst ensuring my left hand doesn’t fall before my body as he drops me to the floor.

I am told how very painful that would be.

There I am, helpless and completely in someone else’s hand, thinking this is going to a painful nightmare. Yet I am pleasantly surprised, the foam takes most of the impact, whilst having a firm grip on Luke means that my body hits the deck a lot firmer than it otherwise would.

He shows me that in every element of the move, different parts of my body have to be at a certain angle for it to be executed both correctly and safely. Chin movement, to keep your back straight, is crucial.

The more we run through different moves, the more you realise that pro-wrestling, physical and brutal in appearance, actually centre’s on a finesse closer to that of a gymnast or a figure ice-skater.

As we come to the end of the session, Andrew gives me a rundown of how wrestling has changed over the years with more acrobatics coming to the fore.

He shows me that in every element of the move, different parts of my body have to be at a certain angle for it to be executed both correctly and safety.

By the end of my session, my chat with Andrew as he tells me about their different classes with children and adults, makes me realise that I am not cut out for pro-wrestling, but it was worth having a go.

To find out more about the Knock-out Pro Wrestling academy, email kpwa@hotmail.com or visit https://www.facebook.com/knockoutgym/?pnref=lhc.