Financial advice for Top Flight’s new riches.
WORDS BY ROSS PFUND
One of the biggest recent moments in Minnesota wrestling came on the national stage, as homegrown stars Top Flight—brothers Darius and Dante Martin—teamed with respected veteran AR Fox to win All Elite Wrestling’s $300,000 Three Kings Christmas Casino Trios Royale on national television in late December 2022.
They’re no strangers to success—Darius, as Air Wolf, was F1rst Wrestling’s Wrestlepalooza Champion before he was even old enough to attend the 21+ event. (Who knew the secret to circumventing First Ave’s age restrictions was to hide your identity, and your baby face, behind a lucha-style mask?) Even so, the royale victory, which saw them eliminate major stars like Jon Moxley and Claudio Castagnoli, was the biggest win of Top Flight’s young career, and almost certainly the biggest purse they’ve ever walked away with. That’s a lot of cash for a couple of guys who aren’t even 25 years old yet, even if they let Fox take home a third of it.
In case they didn’t spend it all on Christmas gifts, we’ve got a few suggestions for how to best put those winnings to use:
Pay for flight school tuition! Pro wrestling history is full of wrestlers who were lying about their day jobs. Jacques Rougeau was not a real Mountie; I.R.S. did not work for the IRS; and Isaac Yankem, despite his fortuitous name, was not a practicing dentist. The Martins have an opportunity here to change that trend. Sure, the “Top Flight” moniker is more about high-flying moves than presenting themselves as commercial airline pilots, but just imagine the possibilities: Making your ring entrance in a single-engine Cessna at outdoor shows; telling the ring announcer to say you hail from the Delta Sky Lounge; selling those little wings at the merch table—there’s a lot of potential here. Plus, unfortunate injuries can strike at any time, so it’s just sensible to have a backup career.
Put in a bid on WWE! With the rival promotion for sale, the least the Martins can do is drive up the price for the rumored foreign buyers.
Resurrect Bar Luchador! The now-legendary Stadium Village tacos-and-graps spot has been shuttered since the early days of the pandemic, and the world is worse for its absence. I know I’m not the only person who feels that way. Last week, a bartender up in Crystal literally tried to get me to divulge the secret of the Luch margarita. I don’t know it, but even if I did, you’d have to try to figure-four leglock it out of me.
Invest it! Or start a Roth IRA. Or put it in a high-yield savings account. Anything but crypto. We don’t need another $MJF Coin on our hands.