AUSTIN, Texas — It’s a school where toughness rules. The classroom is the ring. The subject is professional wrestling.

America’s Academy of Pro Wrestling in Austin is the place. A venue that, for years, has been changing lives like Samantha Seibold’s.

“You work your asses off together and then when you put on a show and you do a good job, it's just insanely rewarding,” said Seibold.

Seibold joined AAPW for a challenge. She said she’s already hooked on its benefits after about six months of learning the basics of professional wrestling.

“I’m stronger than I ever thought I could be. I’ve really tested my fears, broken a lot of fears here,” said Seibold, whose stage name is Lady Bird Monroe. “I found a lot of confidence in myself, my body, my attitude, how I view myself. This is a game changer in my life completely.”

Trevor De Sano also knows what it’s like to have a life-changing experience.

“There's some days where I get nervous,” said De Sano. “What if I fall this way and what if I fall that way? What if I screw myself up forever, because the pain is just starting to go away.”

De Sano was run over by a truck in Austin in August 2019. Broken vertebrae, collapsed lungs, internal bleeding and a shattered pelvis were nearly too much to overcome.

“The doctor who put my pelvis back together waited a day because he said, 'He’s not gonna make it,'” De Sano said.

De Sano was out of the hospital in three weeks. Less than two years later, he came to AAPW not knowing how his body would respond.

“What if I get slammed and my nerve damage pops back up? What if my lungs start messing up? What if I mess up my pelvis again? What if I'm not good enough to take these bumps?” De Sano said.

De Sano has worked at AAPW for a little over a month. He’s not at performance level yet, but being able to make it through practice is already an accomplishment.

“I want to get better for myself and better for these people, but I never think about quitting,” De Sano said. “So far, I feel like I’ve been beating the odds.”

The man responsible for AAPW’s positive but demanding atmosphere is Ray Campos.

“It's like a father and a child,” said Campos about his relationship with the students. “That's the best I can describe it to you.”

Campos has been in professional wrestling longer than most of his students have been alive. He bought AAPW in 2017, turning his attention to training after performing on the mat for almost 20 years.

“I knew that I could bring something to the table,” Campos said. “Wrestling made me be confident in who I was, because I was able to realize if I can do this in the ring, physically, mentally, emotionally, then there's nothing I can't do out there.”

He now uses wrestling to change people’s lives, just like the sport changed his — a message he constantly drills into his students.

“Getting told that I see something in you, please don’t quit,” De Sano said, “it makes me feel good. It makes me feel like I’m needed here.”

He said it's sense of belonging no matter the circumstances that bring them through the curtains and into the ring.

“It's that support system that we all need and we all desire,” Campos said. “Some people don't have it. Here at AAPW they have it.”

AAPW is a school where dreams and reality come together.

“My mind just went blank. I was just fully in the moment,” Seibold said. “Nothing hurts when you're out there. You care about the applause and the show that you're putting on. It really is something special that they put on here.”

The experience is an education you’ll never forget, filled with a sense of accomplishment every time you hear the bell ring.

“There's no words that I can describe it, but I mean just pure joy to me. These guys have really worked hard,” Campos said. “Wrestling makes champions. And AAPW produces champions, not only in the ring, but also in life.”