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"I OWE IT ALL TO WRESTLING"
by Tom Howard
As I mentioned in last weeks column, this is the story of my love affair with wrestling. I have been a pro wrestler for nearly 10 years and have been lucky enough to have worked all over the world. Every time I get on a plane to go wrestle, I think to myself that of all the millions of people in the world, I am being flown to the other side of the earth and being paid to perform in front of people and make them happy. This is what I do for a living and I trip out on it all the time. It is an awesome and humbling thought and I am thoroughly enjoying going through the process of retracing my journey and writing this column. This is chapter 2, you may ring the bell:
In last weeks column, I was telling the story of how I finally wormed my way into the wrestling business and started working in my first ever gimmick “KGB”, yes, a BAD impersonation of Ivan Drago from Rocky 5.
My coach, Jesse Hernandez, always had his hands into most everything related to wrestling. He stored the ring for the WWF at the time (before they brought the ring across country for every show) so we would go early to all of the shows in Southern California, set up the ring and get to hang out back stage and in the locker room. This was a huge learning experience for a green wrestling student like me because you got to truly learn about the business of wrestling while you were learning to wrestle. I remember watching the different wrestlers and learning from the way they handled themselves in the locker room. It really helped me to realize that all of these guys that I saw on TV and thought of as superstars were guys just like me who had a dream and rose above adversity and achieved it.
My coach, Jesse, was and is a good hearted man who always went out of his way to not only teach me the business of wrestling but also help me to network with other people who may be able to help me out. He would invite me to meetings whenever possible, make introductions and put me over like a million bucks as an up and coming talent. One such meeting was with a man named Herb Abrams(RIP), a promoter who had a reputation as a real hustler. Herb issued rubber coated checks and could talk his way into, and out of, almost any situation. He had swindled some money marks and put together a huge, pay-per view show with some of the top unsigned talent at the time and was holding it at the MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas. It was the first time that they ever held wrestling at the MGM so this was quite a feat. At the end of the meeting Herb booked me to work the show. He wasn’t sure how he was going to use me but liked my look and wanted to do it as a favor to Jesse.
I drove the 5 hours out to Las Vegas and got to the show early to help set up the ring and was impressed and a little overwhelmed with the arena. I was getting nervous as it was getting close to show time because I had no idea what I would be doing and was surrounded by stars like Psycho Sid Vicious, Steve Williams, Cactus Jack, Superfly Snuka and Tito Santana. As we got close to show time, I was informed that one of the stars was MIA and that I would need to substitute for him in one of the semi-main events if they couldn’t find him (apparently Herb had been partying HARD with the some of the wrestlers the night before the show and one of them just never stopped).
I nervously contemplated my match, one of only a handful at the time, with a star who would undoubtedly have to carry me through it. I was never afraid of getting hurt or of a match getting too physical because I knew in my heart I was more than prepared for that. What I was afraid of was letting my trainer, the promoter and my opponent down and just stinking up the show with a bad match.
As I sat in the locker room trying to look confident but knowing damn well I was in over my head, in walked the missing wrestler. His hair was a mess and he had apparently come straight from the party to do his match. I breathed a sigh of relief and then felt like a giant pussy for not mentally being able to appreciate the opportunity and overcome my fear.
That night, I ended up being one of the wrestlers at ringside for a lumberjack match between Cactus Jack and Superfly Snuka. I remember chasing Cactus up the bleachers and trying to physically carry him back down to the ring as I felt that was my job as a lumberjack in a lumberjack match. As crazy as he looked, Cactus quietly and intelligently told me “please let me go, your blowing the spot”… oops, an overzealous green wrestler with more muscle than sense. I apologized after the match and Cactus said he didn’t even remember… but I sure did. It was a lesson. I don’t like to make mistakes and I take them very seriously. The one thing that I have learned is to keep everything in perspective in your head and realize the importance and potential importance of everything without dwelling or beating yourself up over anything (this lesson would later be of particular importance to me when I had a tryout match for WCW and fell from the top rope onto my face and had the whole crowd of 10,000 people laughing at me). Another day, another lesson.
Around this time, I was primarily wrestling for a promotion out of Las Vegas called the NWC that ran regular shows at a dump of a casino called the Silver Nugget. They had a local TV show and brought in a lot of name talent as well as developing a few homegrown guys. The promoter, T.C. Martin, apparently looked past the bad Russian accent (or had been drinking) and saw something in me, because I was informed that they wanted to give me a singles push (i.e.: promote me). However, they felt it was time that I changed my gimmick. I could not have been happier to do so and was soon faced with the age old question that every wrestler asks himself at one point or another… what should my gimmick be? I talked with my coach, and the promoter about what character would make the most the sense.
I don’t exactly recall who came up with it and I wouldn’t admit it if it was in fact me, but my next gimmick would be “Zuma”, a surfer from Zuma Beach, California (wherever that is) who carried his board to the ring and used it as a weapon when needed. Let the bad gimmicks continue. Retrospect is a funny thing isn’t it? What the hell was I thinking? The way I have come to view life is that everything that happens to me, whether it initially appears to be good or bad becomes a learning opportunity. Every lesson and hurdle becomes a stepping stone on the path of life’s journey, and every one was necessary for me to be where I am today. These bad gimmicks were no different because lets face it… if you can walk out in front of thousands of people wearing tights and put on a fight as a fake Russian or gay looking surfer… what can’t you do?
When I wrestled in Las Vegas we stayed at this dump of a motel that was like $20 a night and the promoter always put us 2 wrestlers per room. I was fortunate enough to usually room with a couple of guys that I greatly respected and learned a lot from, Sabu and Rob Van Dam. I remember walking into the hotel room after the 5 hour drive from Los Angeles. I was loading my luggage and surf board into the room and my room mate for this particular shot, Sabu, asked me “what the hell does a Russian need a surf board in Las Vegas for?” Now that’s a very legitimate question. I told him about the gimmick change and got the response that I least wanted “I liked you as a Russian; I think the surfer thing is gay.” Oh well, you can’t please all the people all the time.
After working for a while as Zuma, I got a call from my coach, Jesse Hernandez, about a promotion out of Chicago that was interested in booking me. The promoters name was Paul Alperstein and he was a gentleman who I was told, made quite a bit of money in the credit card business and wanted to take his shot at the wrestling business. He apparently saw me at a NWC show in Las Vegas and wanted me to be the groups token Russian (throughout history every wrestling group had to have their token Russian). They called the promotion AWF, and they had a ring made from some friends of my coach, Jesse, in LA. Someone at the AWF had this brilliant idea that if they made the ropes lower it would make the wrestlers look bigger… this turned out to be a particularly bad idea as every wrestler over 6’tall had to practically sit down when they hit the ropes or they would fly over the top rope.
My coach, several other students and I embarked on a cross country journey in a makeshift ring truck (u-haul) and rental van. We had to haul the ring ¾’s of the way across the country from LA to Chicago. As we took turns driving the van, one of the other students continued to make a particular nuisance of himself by falling asleep and then passing gas that would make everyone’s eyes water and hair curl. We woke him up and informed him that he wasn’t allowed to sleep for the rest of the trip or he would get his head shaved and face drawn on with permanent markers. At the next truck stop, he went inside and bought some mini-thins (ephedrine: legal speed for truck drivers). He walked out with three packets and asked us how many to take to stay awake. We told him 3 and assumed that he would take 3 pills. He thought we meant 3 packets so he took all 3 packets of 6 pills each… THAT’S 18 PILLS!!! Of course he didn’t tell us he had taken all three packets until we were out in the middle of nowhere and he began to shake like he was having a seizure. We rode it out for the next 2 hours until we got back to civilization and saw a truck stop that had a pay phone. We wanted to get him some medical help but he swore he was feeling better and went into the truck stop. When he came out he had opened a package of medicine that he purchased and had already taken several pills. I asked him what he had taken and he told me sleeping pills to counter the speed. Brilliant!!! Wrestler’s logic at it’s finest. He quickly fell asleep (passed out) and passed gas for the next 16 hours of our long drive. At one point we propped his corpse up with his ass facing the open window so the smell would be directed outside even though it was freezing and there was snow on the ground. That was the longest drive of my life.
When we arrived at the TV taping we found that the promotion had opted for a small arena where they would film matches all day long and actually pay extras to sit in as the audience (this may have been the only reason I actually got applause as the crowd was paid to clap). I had a couple of horrid matches and ended up getting drop kicked in the neck. My throat shut down so I could only breathe in small gasps. I didn’t want to make a big deal of it and get taken to the hospital so I snuck off into a corner. I laid down and gasped for air for the next hour until Sid Vicious found me hiding out and grabbed the promoter and made them get me some help. I had the mentality that as a new wrestler I was lucky to even be invited and the last thing I was going to do is burden anyone. I wouldn’t recommend this mentality to anyone as it has almost got me killed several times over the years. The sad part is that to this day I still find myself hiding out in a corner away from everyone when I get hurt… not toughness or courage, simple stupidity! The day after we were done taping we got in the van and embarked on our long drive back home. I was breathing a little better by this time but I remember being angry at myself for performing less than optimally and getting hurt. I knew that I would not be invited back and felt that I had let everyone who believed in me down. I used that as fuel to train harder in the gym and at wrestling practice and then released it. Learn the lesson that the mistake was meant to teach you and then move forward. Sometimes this is easier said than done.
That does it for this week. For this weeks training and supplement segment I want to talk about 2 products that I would highly recommend. The first is Glutamine: “Glutamine is the single most abundant amino acid found in skeletal muscle and is widely believed to help with muscle cell volumization. A recent study showed up to a 400% increase in growth-hormone levels when as little as 2 grams of free-form L-glutamine supplement was consumed.” The brand I use is Prolab, as it is the most reasonably priced at $20 for 400 grams (almost 2 month supply).
The second product is the protein powder I use, Optimum Nutrition’s 100% Whey Protein. It has the lowest carbs and fat to protein ratio going and it carries 5 grams of Glutamine per serving. It is also 1/3 the price per serving of comparable brands such as Nitro-tech and Muscle Drive. The taste is also exceptionally good. I would recommend using the following site for your supplements as the pricing is the best you will find, delivery is free and they have product reviews and price comparisons so you know that you are getting exactly what you want. Here is the link:
http://www.musclesurf.com/?AID=8351159&PID=1367623
As a final thought for this column I will quote W. Mitchell: “...what I focus on in life is what I get. And if I concentrate on how bad I am or how wrong I am or how inadequate I am, if I concentrate on what I can't do and how there's not enough time in which to do it, isn't that what I get every time? And when I think about how powerful I am, and when I think about what I have left to contribute, and when I think about the difference I can make on this planet, then that's what I get. You see, I recognize that it's not what happens to you; it's what you do about it.”
-- Tom Howard
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