ELDON, Mo. - If dreams grow on sweat, the students at Harley Race's World Wrestling Academy are on their way to fame and fortune.

That's exactly the plan of Wade Chism, a 37-year-old factory worker from Versailles, near Eldon in the Lake of the Ozarks area. Chism paid $3,000 for the six-month course at Race's school and now wrestles with Race's World League Wrestling.

For Chism, the ring is nothing more -- or less -- than a chance. Chism paints electric motors on an assembly line at an Eldon manufacturing plant. He has a 3-year-old daughter.

"You know, I sat and thought about all the opportunities I'd passed up in my life. I decided I didn't want to pass this one up," he said.

If physical fitness is any measure, Chism will be a success. Recently, he led five other wrestlers at the school through a 30-minute, gut-busting set of calisthenics as the temperature outside hovered around 80 degrees. Add another 10 degrees inside the gym.

"I've been watching professional wrestling all of my life, and I've always kept myself in shape. Diamond Dallas Page (a top pro wrestler) didn't start until he was 35. If he can do it, I can at least try," Chism said.

Race has been running this school for about two years, mainly to feed wrestlers into his World League Wrestling.

Within the past few weeks, two wrestlers - "All That" Matt Murphy and B.J. Whitmer - left Eldon for the pro circuit in Japan, a country that loves wrestlers, sumo and otherwise. Race's league just signed a long-term deal to supply wrestlers to the Japanese circuit. To get ready for that trip, Race's wrestlers competed for 10 hours in one day.

Race said critics of wrestling like to think that any out-of-shape person can hop into the ring and waltz through a match. "I ask them to come on down and get in the ring. Anyone who thinks that constant motion for 30 minutes, with constant stress and opposition from another person, is easy, give it a whirl," Race said.

Soon to be leaving for the Far East is "Superstar Steve" Fender. The chiseled Fender lives in Jefferson City and is a construction worker. He is almost 22, single and ready to tour the world as a pro wrestler.

Fender laughed when asked how he got into this game.

"Probably a case of me watching too much wrestling as a kid, but when I was 6 or 7, I watched Hulk Hogan. It got me hooked," Fender said.

Joining the school was no overnight whim. Fender said he researched the profession on the Internet.

"I worked out for four months before I even tried out, hitting the weight room and running eight miles a week," along with working construction, he said. "The guys who think they can just waltz in here and make it through one workout are the ones outside puking in a half hour."

Trevor Rhodes, 22, comes from wrestling. His father, Dusty Rhodes, was the Southern States champion in the 1970s and wrestled in St. Louis and on "Wrestling at the Chase."

Trevor's daytime job is building docks at the Lake of the Ozarks. He was the World League Wrestling's champion for a time.

"I wouldn't want to wrestle for anyone but Harley. He's old school, where you actually wrestle and not just talk in the ring," Rhodes said.

Roger Thompson, 25, is the neophyte in the class this particular evening. The painfully quiet Thompson lives in nearby Richland and was just laid off from his factory job.

Getting Thompson to talk was a chore. Thompson said he was having fun learning the ropes and "hopefully, I'll be wrestling in matches pretty soon."

Race said Thompson was extremely reclusive when he started.

"We'd try to get him to scream, or groan, or yell, and he just couldn't," Race said. "He'd get slapped in the face or thrown to the mat, and he'd barely make a whisper."

Thompson, obviously, has become more vocal and managed to let out several wrestling-style bellows as Chism slammed him to the canvas.

For Chism and the other wrestlers, this whole adventure is about paying attention to voices.

"When you have a dream," Chism said, "you have to listen to it."



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