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Student of the Month, December 2004 Derek Greser |
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by Les Honig As
with many new Ultimate University standouts, the story of 22 year-old
Derek Greser is one that has been heading slowly but inextricably
towards a certain finale in the squared circle.
While other events have occurred along the way, lurking in the
background has always existed the deepest love of a sport that would
eventually lead him through the doors of the Raw Center towards a
hoped for encounter with his life’s mat career destiny. Growing
up a quiet but well-adjusted kid in a small Buffalo, New York suburb a
young Derek began sports competition at the age of 12 when he enrolled
in a martial arts dojo while also playing football and wrestling in
local youth leagues. Still, his love of the latter sport generated
four years earlier when he came upon the WWF one Saturday morning on
TV and saw the man who was to become his childhood idol, Hulk Hogan,
demolishing another opponent. He recalls feeling devastated when the Hulkster lost to
Ultimate Warrior in Wrestlemania 6 but also experiencing great
satisfaction as he saw other youthful icons like Mr. Perfect and Brett
Hart dominating the scene. “While
I still loved the sport I wandered away a bit when the federation
began introducing gimmicks like Doink the Clown,” Greser now
recalls. But this
deviation from a previous passion was soon to be rekindled as the now
14 year-old discovered a whole new wrestling obsession: ECW. “I
used to go into wrestling chat rooms a lot, and one day someone asked
if I had ever seen their shows. Frankly
I was kind of naïve and had only seen WWF but when I turned on their
program on a local Buffalo channel I was hooked immediately.
I loved the hardcore attitude so much and this was not garbage
wrestling at all. The
guys were really talented too.” With
his parents going through a very unsettling divorce, Derek could
relate to the anger expressed by some of the fed’s biggest names,
like Terry Funk, RVD, Taz and Raven.
“The first ECW show I ever saw was their own first
pay-per-view, Barely Legal, and I immediately was enthralled. Raven
became one of my instant favorites too as he played a character who
was tortured as a child, kind of what I was feeling with the breakup
at home. He was an
alternative rocker and as someone who loved to play guitar and had
been in a few groups here and there, I loved alternative rock also.” While
subsequently attending 10 or 11 Extreme Wrestling Federation shows,
Derek continued and intensified his own formal and informal future mat
training as he became a very successful 150- pound member of his own
Williamsville High School team, as well as a frequent hardcore fan;
attending many shows where he’d be sure to cheer the heels and
setting up his own home trampoline and testing the pro moves out with
his buddies. “Wrestling
was becoming cool again,” he explains, and I started meeting other
friends who were also into it. We’d
watch the weekly shows together, both Raw and Nitro, and would always
be trying to beat each other down.
We particularly loved to see the NWO with Hollywood Hogan and
the Outsiders as well as Austin and the Nation on WWF.
We’d mimic the hardcore ECW style too, particularly doing
shoots, attempting to choke each other out.
We also did backyard wrestling using whatever we could find.
We’d do all kinds of crazy stunts like diving off roofs. We’d be
wrestling nearly all night long.” With
the home scene becoming ever uglier, as Derek was now living with his
mom and sister, he was forced to move out and fend largely for
himself. Now 18 and graduating high school, he brought his childhood
love of video games and electronics to a successful job at Circuit
City but at the same time his burning passion to become a sports
entertainer was becoming stronger than ever. Moving to Las Vegas to live with his brother and investigate the pro wrestling scene there, Greser found his way into a new electronic sales job and into a training facility he admits was terrible. Seeing
one of the now-famous UPW documentaries then showing on the Learning
Channel, he was compelled to contact us and find out what his chances
were to become a new Ultimate U student. “I
was all set to move back East and go to OVW’s school but my many
calls to them didn’t really produce success so I settled on Ultimate
University instead. By this time my sister Shaina had moved to
Southern California where she was pursuing a singing career and so I
had a place I could stay while I learned the ropes.” Being
told by Bassman to come watch a training session, the rest became
personal history as Derek enrolled back in September and immediately
became a top trainee. “My amateur wrestling background definitely helped with my
moves and my agility but it also brought a few handicaps. In that sport your goal in a lockup is to keep your head
down, quickly bring your opponent to the mat and pin him, not to move
slowly and sell your moves to the crowd watching.
So while there are some similarities, there are many more big
differences you have to learn as well.” Loving
the training he has received and admiring the Ballards and Tom Howard
for each of their respective strengths, Derek Greser seems poised for
success if he continues to work as hard as he currently has been
toiling in the mat trenches during his short but outstanding three
month tenure. Having
developed a particular affinity for the heel personas he has
encountered as a fan, Derek hopes he can eventually become a
successful bad guy too. “I
would love to go to Japan someday because those guys really wrestle
stiff and that is close to the hardcore style I most enjoy watching
and to portray. I think I
have a natural inclination to come across as an arrogant pretty boy if
necessary but also can tap the dark side of my personality like Raven
and Mankind do and take on the world as an evil guy with a screw
loose.” Whatever
path his current intense education leads him to as a sports
entertainer, Derek has also been working hard to build up his body to
meet the requirements set by major feds that prefer bigger guys. To
that end he has gone on a relentless training and diet regimen, hoping
to increase his size and power. We applaud Derek Greser for becoming a new Ultimate University name-to-be-watched and believe he epitomizes the best that our federation stands for: determination, superior skills and the precisely correct attitude to make it in this very competitive business. |
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Previous Ultimate University Students of the Month: November 2004 - Hector Canales June 2004 - Thomas Scholdtfeldt February 2004 - Kevin Martenson January 2004 - Jason Sanfilippo December 2003 - Dmitry Masarky September 2003 - Tony Stradlin February 2003 - Nate Nickerson |
