Wes Brisco could have taken the easy road, especially since his father, Jerry, and uncle, Jack, made a huge name for themselves in the pro wrestling industry.

The Brisco Brothers are WWE Hall of Famers, but Wes Brisco decided to make his own name and what a name he made in wakeboarding.

An extreme sport professional, Brisco earned a major sponsor (Hyperlite) by age 15. Ranked sixth in the world, he traveled the world and even had a wakeboard line named after him. That was quick. It took his father and uncle high school and college wrestling, before turning pro and eventually reaching star status.

“I kind of fell in love with wakeboarding,” said Brisco, who spent eight years competing. “I had opportunities to go see the world and get paid at a pretty young age. So I figured I might as well take that opportunity because you never know if that will ever come up again.”

Pro wrestling’s structure is different from wakeboarding.

Wakeboarding is a young man’s sport. Pro wrestling…well.

Brisco, 28, recently turned his attention to the family business, not the Brisco Brothers Body Shop (4315 N Hubert Ave., Tampa).

“No, I never worked there,” he said, “but I definitely know you can get your car fixed there for a very good price.”

(Spoken like a true Brisco)

So Brisco transitioned from wakeboarding to pro wrestling, probably the first pro wakeboarder to attempt pro wrestling.

“It was crazy,” he said. “It was a tough transition, different, but I kind of got the wrestling in my blood, so it worked out pretty good.

“My dad doesn’t want me to ever do anything that I’m not going to go 100 percent. So he wanted to make sure I was going to put everything I had into it, which I did, and it turned out good.”

Thanks to wrestlers/teachers Steve Keirn, Dusty Rhodes, Norman Smiley and Dr. Tom Prichard at Florida Championship Wrestling, WWE’s developmental program in Tampa.

“I rolled around with my dad on the mat before,” he said, “but never got into the ring with him.”

A number of today’s WWE divas and superstars are FCW alums, and things were starting to progress for Wes, but then he tore his ACL just before working some dark (tryout) matches in WWE.

Brisco won the FCW tag team titles with Xavier Woods, just before the injury.

Brisco starred in amateur wrestling at Sickles High School in Tampa.

Brisco’s memories of his dad on television stemmed from the WWF days when “dad” was a member of Vince McMahon’s stooges (Gerald Brisco and Pat Patterson).

“When he was in the stooges, it always made me upset because I was young when that was going on,” he said. “I would say, ‘Why are you wearing a dress? Why are you going out there?’ Now I understand everything.”

Did you get razzed at school?

“All the time. All the time”

His father, Jerry, said: “It was tough for both of my boys. I’ve got a younger son, Joseph, who’s now getting his master’s degree in Architect at the University of South Florida, and [back then, when he was a kid], he couldn’t understand why the stooges were getting booed all the time. When he came to the matches, the fans booed my really bad and started chants. It was rough on them at school, but they could handle themselves.”