Punishment Martinez hitting his stride at the right time with Ring of Honor

The term "better late than never" is a cliché used somewhere in the world on a daily basis, but it is the best way to describe the career of Ring of Honor star Punishment Martinez.

Martinez is 34 years old and began his wrestling training at the Monster Factory in Paulsboro, N.J. back in 2003, but is just hitting his stride more than a decade later after signing with Ring of Honor in 2016.

Martinez may be late hitting his stride, but it is better than him never hitting his stride at all.

Martinez stands 6 feet 7 inches tall and has obvious athleticism, which begs the question: What took him so long to latch on to a promotion like Ring of Honor?

According to Martinez, it was a combination of things. Among them was a poor work ethic and a poor attitude toward the business of professional wrestling.

"I have been around for years, but I wasn't doing things the right way," he said during an interview with philly.com. "I wasn't giving it 100 [percent]. I wasn't giving it 100 in the gym, in training or putting myself out there. I was kind of coasting by with my size basically because the people I surrounded myself with in the past were basically telling me, 'Oh, you have a great look. You're going to be fine. You're going to be a big deal in this business.' Because I didn't know any better, that's all I needed to hear."

"Once I changed my whole life and dedicated myself 100 percent to professional wrestling, that's when opportunities started happening," he added

In order for Martinez to change his mindset, he had to receive a rude awakening. That awakening came in the form of a WWE tryout.

According to Martinez, he showed up to the tryout out of shape, unprepared and did not have a good showing. WWE even told him as much. Needless to say, he did not receive an offer to sign on with the promotion.

"It was kind of embarrassing, but I never wanted to feel that again," Martinez said.

Hearing that he was not good enough was foreign for Martinez. He played multiple sports growing up and was good at all of them.

The one he was best at was karate, where he won multiple national titles as a teenager using the Japanese martial art of Goju Ryu, which he learned from his father, who was trained by someone that learned the martial art in Japan.

But after that WWE tryout, Martinez was not destined for the same level of success in professional wrestling. In fact, he wasn't even close.

"It felt insulting, but they weren't insulting me," Martinez said of WWE. "They were pretty much putting me in my place. To me, it was insulting because I had never felt that before. It definitely motivated me."

The embarrassment spurred Martinez to go back to the drawing board and rededicate himself to professional wrestling. Once he did, things finally began to fall into place for him.

He began receiving more independent bookings and eventually received another tryout with WWE in 2014 at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Fla.

Martinez said he walked into the tryout in better shape and with a better mindset. The result was a much better showing. Although he did not come away from the tryout with a contract, Martinez said his progress did not go unnoticed by WWE.

He kept plugging away before finally landing with Ring of Honor after attending four tryout camps.

"The feeling I got from just being around the people in Ring of Honor, it became the place that I really wanted to be," Martinez said.

One of the aspects of Ring of Honor Martinez likes the most is the promotion's openness to him using his unique skill set. Traditionally, a man that stands 6 feet 7 inches would not be implementing karate kicks into his arsenal.

But since Martinez is well versed in Goju Ryu, he has been encouraged to do so in Ring of Honor, which is music to Martinez's ears.

"Ring of Honor is very encouraging," he said. "They want you to be the best you, your way. They don't want to force you to be something you're not. They might guide you a little bit to what they want, but just do it your way, which is awesome."

Doing things his way didn't get Martinez very far a decade ago, but after increasing his dedication to the craft of professional wrestling, his way has helped him hit his stride at just the right time.

Vaughn Johnson has a podcast with Nick Piccone called the Straight Shooters on WildfireRadio.com. Check it out here HERE.