Jason Carrion: The Reality Star Wrestler

Jason Carrion married his wife Courtney without ever meeting her before.

No dates, no conversations, no Facebook stalking. He didn’t even know her name until he said ‘I do.’

It was the payoff to the first season of Married at First Sight—a reality television series on FYI, formerly known as The Biography Channel. Three men and three women agreed to take a bunch of psychological tests including hours and hours of personality quizzes and hundreds of slideshows to determine what physical features they’re attracted to. A group of experts consisting of a clinical psychologist, sociologist, humanist chaplain and sexologist then sorted the data to assemble the perfect matches.

Carrion thought it was ridiculous—he turned it down. But when he woke up the next day, he says there was a pit in his stomach.

“I felt like I ruined my entire life,” Carrion said. “It’s crazy because I didn’t want to be married—I just became single. I was having the time of my life. But I also didn’t want to spend the rest of my life regretting not doing this.”

So he called back, agreed to the show, and met Courtney at the altar. (“She was beautiful, so that was good.”) They spent their honeymoon at the Poconos and then lived together for the next six weeks, all while being filmed.

“Maybe all that head trauma from professional wrestling made me do it,” Carrion laughed.

Training at Johnny Rodz’ wrestling school, Carrion broke into the business in 2006. Inspired by Bret Hart, the Brooklyn native realized his purpose was to entertain ever since laying eyes on pro wrestling when he was 3 years old. While working in emergency medical services for the fire department in downtown Manhattan, he honed his craft on the Northeast independent scene and now plans to reach the top of Warriors of Wrestling in Staten Island.

On Friday, August 19, Carrion teams with his childhood best friend and fellow Married at First Sight star JustNeph to battle “All Good” Anthony Greene and American Grit star Cam Zagami at Pro Wrestling BAM.

It will hopefully be much different than the first time Courtney watched her husband wrestle.

“I was in a tag match with Vader and he really kicked the shit out of me,” Carrion said. “She was like, ‘Oh my God, they really beat the hell out of you!’”

They’ve been married for two years now and have gone on to star in several spinoffs of Married at First Sight. “She accepts my wrestling. She accepts who I am. That’s all I can ask for,” Carrion said.

Even though his road to fame was the reverse of The Miz, who entered the squared circle after his run on MTV’s Real World, Carrion admires the WWE Superstar for carving his own niche in wrestling after his 15 minutes ran out.

“I want to make it on my own,” Carrion said. “I don’t want to be put in the ring because I was on a television show. I know there’s a lot of politics in professional wrestling and it’s not really how good you are but who you know, but I’d really like to be there based on my value.”

You can follow Jason Carrion on and .

takes place August 19 at 138 Bay 20th St., Brooklyn, NY.

Show starts at 5:30 p.m. Admission: $5