We set up a time for my first training session, which would take place at the Polama Settlement, the same place where they ran their house shows and did their TV tapings. My first training session was scheduled one day after I got off work. I made the 30-minute drive across the Like Like Highway and showed up about 15 minutes early, walking up the stairs to the room where the training was scheduled to take place. I was expecting to find a room with a wrestling ring in it. Instead, I found room with a very thin mat on a concrete floor. In the room with Lars, was a guy named Ritchie Magnett (a protege of Rocky Johnson), and someone named Rutger Rose. We introduced ourselves, and the training began.

The first thing I did was learn to fall backwards. I don't know how many times but I do know that they all hurt like hell. Then, Ritchie got on all fours and I would flip over landing on my back, after which he would body slam me, suplex me, and power slam me, again I don't know how many times. In between, we would do amateur wrestling for conditioning. After that, I had to take clotheslines. By the end of that first day, my back hurt like hell. Not only was my back aching, but Ritchie and Rutger were "stretching" me from pillar to post.

Thank goodness, that first day mercifully came to an end. At the time, I only weighed 180-lbs (Rocky Johnson thought I had cancer). In any case, here I was in training with the guy who was the Polynesian Pro Wrestling Rookie of the year. I trained for about a month, but then since I was still in Marine Corps, I got called to mess duty. The mess duty lasted 30 days, and was a 16 to 17 hours a day work duty…. because of this, I had to postpone my training until my tour of mess duty was completed.