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One really smooth move

Before the body slams and choke holds, a wrestler asks the "mark" of his dreams to create the ideal matchup.

ST. PETERSBURG - He had the ring for 21/2 years. The girlfriend, a bit longer. Yet hours before he proposed, Matt Laurain was all nerves.

"It's a big event," he said Friday morning.

"It's a once-in-a-lifetime thing. I don't want to screw it up."

He didn't.

Angela Moslek said yes.

Laurain popped the question Friday night, from a wrestling ring. Moslek, 21, was stunned by the proposal. She'd known for a while that they would marry, but Christmas had recently come and gone. Valentine's Day was coming up. Maybe then.

Instead, she got the diamond ring during a wrestling show at the State Theatre, in front of raucous fans, including dozens of family and friends.

To hear Laurain, 22, tell it, theirs is a love match in more ways than one. Like him, she's wild about wrestling. Their paths crossed irrevocably about four years ago at a wrestling show.

"She is a mirror image of me. She loves everything that I love," Laurain said weeks before the public proposal.

"It's awesome to have someone like that who you could love and also be your best friend."

His mother, Kay Laurain, approves of her future daughter-in-law.

"We are thrilled. My oldest son also married a girl we're thrilled with," she said.

Moslek is a St. Petersburg College student and works for the R'Club program at Tyrone Elementary School. She wants to become a teacher for special needs children. She also is what Mrs. Laurain describes as "the ultimate wrestling fan."

Like her fiance, Moslek surrounds herself with wrestling paraphernalia. Her Pinellas Park bedroom is a shrine to the sport, said Laurain, whose tiny home is practically papered with wrestling posters.

His living room, bedrooms and even bathroom scream of his interest. Laurain estimates he has about 800 poseable wrestling figures in the home he bought when he was just 18 years old. Most of the figures are displayed on shelves or in lilliputian wrestling rings. He also has stacks of wrestling magazines and DVDs.

The St. Petersburg High School graduate started wrestling as a junior. Now he wrestles for the Florida Professional Wrestling Association.

In a good month, he appears at five to six shows under the name of Mark Zout. A mark is a wrestling fan, said Laurain, who works full time for Sports Authority.

With his fiancee sharing his love for the sport, Laurain felt he couldn't go wrong proposing at a wrestling event. Nevertheless, he enlisted the help of family and friends.

"I talked to her best friend. I made her promise and swear she wasn't going to tell her anything."

He talked to Ken Ward, owner and promoter of the Florida Professional Wrestling Association. About 8 p.m., he would make a short speech thanking his loved ones for their support. He'd invite Angela into the ring for a special thank-you.

"When she comes up," he said several weeks ago, "I'm going to propose."

He did.

And she said yes.

"I feel like I'm dreaming right now," Moslek said as the audience cheered and family members surrounded her.