Growing up, I spent many a Saturday at my Mamaw’s house watching Mid-South Wrestling. It was an odd thing, as my Mamaw was so grandmotherly, you’d never imagine that she truly enjoyed watching grown men climb into a ring and fight. It was a side of Mamaw I was surprised to see, but came to love, as she cheered for her favorites and booed for the villains.
Perhaps that’s one of the reasons I found myself watching the WWF growing up.
After breaking away from the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), Vince McMahon Sr. founded the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) in 1963, with Buddy Rogers as its first champion. The early years of the WWWF were focused on the Northeastern US, and were defined by Italian strongman Bruno Sammartino’s historic, long-lasting title reigns.
The company transitioned to the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1979. Three years later, Vince McMahon Jr. bought the company from his father and launched a national expansion strategy that broke the regional territory system that had existed since the 1950s. This became known as the “Golden Era” of American professional wrestling.
To gain market share, McMahon broke all the rules. He stole promoters’ talent, bought out their airtime, signed exclusive agreements with their arenas, and scheduled shows at the same time as his competitors. The introduction of entrance music, pyrotechnics, laser light shows, and scripted theatrics in and out of the ring brought the WWF out of smoke-filled regional arenas into the national conscience as a new form of family entertainment.
In 1985, the birth of WrestleMania thrust wrestling into mainstream “sports entertainment.” Hulk Hogan became the face of this era, along with other well-known wrestlers, including Randy “Macho Man” Savage, Andre the Giant, “Rowdy” Roddy Piper, Ted Dibiase, Dusty Rhodes, the Ultimate Warrior, and Ric Flair.
The “Monday Night Wars” of the late 1990s brought the WWF head-to-head with WCW, and brought us the next generation of wrestling superstars like “Stone Cold” Steve Austin and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. The WCW lost the TV ratings battle and was folded into the WWF in 2001.
After a lawsuit from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the company became World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) in 2002. WWE has since expanded into a global media brand. The shift to PG-rated, family-friendly content in 2008 firmly established the brand as a national pastime with a raving fanbase filling stadiums across the country.
One of the signature events of professional wrestling was the “Last Man Standing” bouts. These were brutal, no-disqualification matches that continued until one competitor was unable to continue. These bouts were characterized by the use of weapons, fighting outside the ring, and the use of unconventional tactics. Often, multiple wrestlers would start in the ring and it became a free-for-all at the bell until all competitors, but one, were eliminated.
The last man standing won the match.
The “Last Man Standing” competition isn’t limited to professional wrestling. The NFL has the Superbowl. The NBA has the NBA Finals. The NHL has the Stanley Cup. The PGA has the Tour Championship. The MLB has the World Series. Through a process of elimination, one team after another is eliminated until there is only one champion.
After all, “There can be only one.” (To borrow a phrase from “The Highlander.”)
So, what does it take to become the “Last Man Standing”? What are the steps necessary to go from being one of many contenders in the ring to becoming the Champion?
In keeping with the wrestling theme, let’s talk about how you survive five rounds in the ring to exit as the “Last Man (or Woman) Standing.”
In Round One, you’ll discover that your talent is the entry fee, but that alone is no guarantee of success. Why? Everyone else who’s in the ring, staring you down, also has talent. That’s what got them invited to compete as well. Right now, you’re one of many who are vying for an opportunity to put your talent to the test and come out on top.
For example, more than one million students play high school football in the United States, making it the most popular boys’ sport. Some level of talent is required to make the team, and not everyone who applies makes the cut. Those who make the team have talent, and that got them the invitation to join the team.
Yet out of these one million high school athletes, only 7% will go on to play football in college across all divisions (DI, DII, and DIII). Division I is the most competitive, and less than 2% of all high school athletes will compete at this level. Yet less than 2% of those who play Division I football will get the opportunity to make it to the NFL, and less than half of those who are drafted make the 53-man final roster.
The overall probability of a high school player reaching the NFL is 0.023%. That’s a mere 2.3 out of every 10,000.
Raw talent may get you in the ring, but it won’t keep you there. What separates the last one standing is not talent, but trained skill.
Talent is what you’re born with. It’s your natural ability. Skill is what you build. It is learned.
In Round Two, you learn that skill is developed through repetition and consistency beats intensity. During my years as a martial arts school owner, I learned an important truth: White belts chase excitement, but black belts chase refinement.
If you want to survive Round Two, you’ve got to practice when no one is watching, focus on the fundamentals repeatedly, and keep showing up even when the excitement fades. To make it to the third round, it’s all about being consistent, because consistency compounds.
Don’t believe me? Ask Stephen Curry, who’s known for his extremely intense, focused practice routine. “Chef” (as he’s affectionately known) focuses on high-volume shooting (500+ shot attempts daily), advanced ball-handling with weighted balls, and neurocognitive training to improve decision making under pressure.
He’s continually refining his craft, and so should you if you want to make it to Round Three.
Persistence under pressure is the theme of Round Three. In this round, you’re learning how to take a hit, recover, and keep moving forward. In the ring, every “Last Man Standing” bout involves knockdowns, distractions, weapons, and chaos. No rules, no discrimination, it’s every man for himself.
Guess what? Life does this too.
Businesses fail, deals collapse, relationships strain, and unexpected challenges show up all the time. The question isn’t whether or not you’re going to get knocked down, but whether we’re going to get back up before the referee counts to ten.
Because at some point, we may all find ourselves on our backs looking up at the ceiling, or find ourselves face down, staring at the canvas or the floor. In that moment, do you go deep within, believe in yourself enough to get back up, and get back to business?
Or, do we simply give up and let the Ref count us out?
If we get back up, we move on to Round Four. This is the first of the Championship Rounds where the Winner’s Mindset comes into play. In this round, it’s all about confidence and humility. Confidence says, “I can.” Humility says, “I can learn.” Persistence, which you honed in the prior round, says, “I will.” This is a winning combination.
To advance to the final round, you’ve got to have an open mind, remain open to learning and adapting, as the fight evolves. As more and more competitors get eliminated, what worked in the past may not work in the future. Those who remain have seen what you’ve already done, and they’ve formulated countermeasures to your tactics.
Remember, the Last Man Standing has confidence, remains coachable, studies opponents, and adapts strategy mid-match. In the fourth round, it’s your opportunity to powerfully demonstrate to the competitors remaining your willingness to learn, your open-mindedness to adapt, and the emotional control that keeps you focused on the mission.
Don’t forget that a closed mind gets eliminated. Open minds evolve and move on to the final round of the Rumble.
It’s now Round Five. Most of the competitors who started have been eliminated. It’s now down to you and perhaps one or two other fighters. Everything you’ve learned in the prior four rounds now comes into play, as this is the Money Round. It’s either go home on a stretcher or go home with the belt held high.
Round Five is the relentless pursuit of Black Belt Excellence, as you strive to show up as the very best version of you. In the prior four rounds, you’ve demonstrated you’re committed to continuous personal improvement. Now it’s time to pull it all together and rise to the occasion, because you’re not defending yesterday’s wins; you’ve been preparing all along for today’s final challenge.
Just as Sir Edmund Hillary Jr had to overcome a 40-foot vertical rock face to summit Mt. Everest, you too have to overcome one final obstacle, the fighter staring you down from the other side of the ring. You dig deep, you focus yourself, you take a deep breath, and you engage. It’s the final battle to determine who’s the one left standing.
You don’t have time to think, “I’ve arrived,” because your opponent won’t wait. It’s now time to apply everything you’ve learned from the prior rounds, all the months of training in the gym, and all of the mental preparation you’ve gone through, and take your opponent to the mat.
As you’re engaging, your mind is feverishly reviewing your performance, analyzing feedback, and evaluating options to exploit the weaknesses of your competitor. This is where your training shows up, the countless hours you’ve spent in the early mornings putting in the miles, grappling with your teammates, reviewing footage of your opponent, and working with your coaches to formulate a winning strategy.
Round Five is about discipline, because excellence is not an event; it is a disciplined practice of continuous improvement. It’s about continually raising the standard and striving to exceed it. That’s what Black Belt Leaders in Life do.
The “Last Man Standing” understands the Four C’s of Staying Power.
The first is Capability. This is where talent is refined into skill. The second is Capacity. This is the emotional endurance to withstand setbacks. The third is Coachability. This is having an open mind and a willingness to learn and evolve. The fourth is Commitment. This is a lifelong pursuit of excellence.
These four C’s take your natural talent and infuse it with skill, multiplying its impact. When you infuse consistency, resilience, coachability, and relentless improvement to your natural talent and ability, the end result is staying power that keeps you in the ring, taking down your challengers one by one.
It’s not flash, nor hype, nor shortcuts. Staying power is the differentiator, and the formula is simple. Capability + Capacity + Coachability + Commitment.
You emerge as the “Last Man Standing.”
In 1912, Theodore Roosevelt was shot in the chest before delivering a campaign speech in Milwaukee. The bullet lodged near his ribs. Doctors urged him to go to the hospital. Instead, Roosevelt stepped onto the stage, opened his blood-stained speech, and spoke for 90 minutes.
He began by saying, “It takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose.” In the moment, he modeled resilience under fire, composure under pressure, courage in the arena, and staying power when others would have allowed themselves to be counted out.
Roosevelt understood something many never do. The crowd doesn’t remember the comfortable, nor does history remember the curious. People remember the one who stayed in the fight, the ones who kept getting up when knocked down. They remember the one who refuses to say, “I surrender,” and keeps fighting the good fight.
Teddy Roosevelt understood that the last man standing isn’t the one who simply steps into the arena. The last man standing is the one who refuses to leave the arena, even when the odds are against him.
In every arena, whether it’s business, leadership, athletics, or relationships, the crowd cheers talent. But history doesn’t remember the cheers or the excitement of the crowd. It remembers the commitment, the persistence, and the dedication to keep fighting the good fight. History remembers those who endure until the end, the “Last Man Standing.”
Let me close with this…
History teaches us that the “Last Man Standing” isn’t always the most gifted or the most talented.
He is the most developed.
So, that leads me to this question?
What will you do to develop yourself so when the time comes, you can step into the ring, take on all challengers, and exit the ring with your hand held high?
What must you do to prepare yourself to be the “Last Man Standing”?
