It’s difficult to peer through the low blue lighting, but after walking into the Baratta’s Forte ballroom, the presence is unmistakable.

“You suck!” comes a voice from the crowd.

“Let’s ‘rassle!” in reply.

As the announcer introduces the match, not a single statement goes without rapport from the crowd. There’s only one place like this: It’s the 3XW Wold Wrestling Championship.

The Des Moines-based wrestling franchise 3XW hosted the championship Friday that featured several former ISU students.

Cody Severaid, an ISU alum, is one of the co-owners of the 3XW franchise. He is known as “Midnight Guthrie” in the wrestling business and announces the play-by-play for each of the matches. He also writes the story lines and does the pre-match interviews with the wrestlers.

“I’ve loved wrestling my whole life,” he said. “But it’s a lot of work to put on a wrestling show.”

Severaid graduated from Iowa State with a degree in journalism and currently works as an activities coordinator for people with dementia. He has worked “up through the bug business” and is leading the 3XW franchise.

The lights go down and the theme song kicks in as the aptly named “Cassanova” steps from behind the curtain. His theme song plays as he stomps down the runway and thrusts his crotch at the audience. He’s about 5 feet 6 inches tall, hairy, wearing only zebra-skinned briefs. He doesn’t let his “sexy guy” attitude affect his presence in the ring. He finished the night with a victory in his tag-team match with teammate Gage Octane.

“I still get a thrill out of going out there entertaining somebody. It feels good to have their attention, and you get to lead their emotions,” said Matt Erickson, the alter ego of Cassanova and ISU alumnus, backstage after the match. He’s back in his street clothes and sips a beer while he watches the next match on a screen in a hoodie and jeans.

He stands with several of his colleagues and discusses everything from Star Wars to South American animals to the planning the details of their next match. Despite their overtly aggressive personas in the ring, they are rather different in person. Erickson describes himself as a “quiet dude” who works as an annuities analyst at ING in Des Moines. For him, he says wrestling is a release from the monotony of the cubicle life.

However, he admitted that his personality does come out in the ring.

“Most of what you see out there really is me,” Erickson said. “But you have to tone it down in the professional world.”

Erickson started his wrestling career in high school after meeting up with some of the professional wrestlers after a match. He was soon engaged in the wrestling business and was on his way to his first match.

“I was nervous as hell that day,” he said. “I wrestled a guy that day, I don’t remember a lot of it, but I went up there and got through it.”

He later attended Iowa State and studied marketing. Despite his full schedule, he continued his wrestling career in college, regularly traveling the state to perform nearly every weekend.

Another character in the ring, “Delicious” Devin Carter waits in the green room before his match and is already suited up in his white leotard donning his “DC” logo. In the real world, he is known as Terry Sindelar, who graduated from Iowa State in 2007 and currently works at ADP in the payroll department.

“I like to entertain,” Sindelar said. “Part of it is we all like to be the center of attention.”

He laughs as he recounts an experience in which his co-workers discovered his hidden talent. They saw his face on a poster and secretly got a group together and surprised him at the match. Now they know and they see even more of his personality come out in his character, he said.

“They go, ‘OK, I can understand why he is the way he is,'” Sindelar said referring to his co-workers’ reactions.

Sindelar’s wrestling career started after high school when he played hockey and football but had always thought about theater. He was worried about what the other guys would think, but after he attended several local shows, he started looking into wrestling schools. He’s now one of the vets of the business, but still looks forward to wrestling.

“It took me a long time to really learn how to tell a story,” he said. “It takes a lot of mistakes until you get it right.”

It’s a unique atmosphere backstage, where men and women who were just trying to kick, throw and suplex one another into submission stand gathered around a television drinking beer and eating fruit salad.

“Here in Des Moines, there is one of the best group of guys I’ve wrestled with,” Erickson said.

Erickson and Wyatt feel strong ties with their friends at the ring. Sindelar said that it’s different from the relationships with his other friends, especially because they often have one another’s lives in their hands.

“It’s a pretty close-knit fraternity sort of thing,” he said. “It takes dedication to get through this.”

Now that they’re seasoned veterans, Erickson and Sindelar get to spend more energy working on playing the crowd and developing their own characters. Along with his colleague, Erickson is also taking on the responsibility of teaching the younger wrestlers. He loves doing it though, he said.

“I get to go out and to what I love with my friends,” Erickson said. “You can’t beat that.”