"Old
School"
Oliver John
Birthdate:
March 13, 1973
Height:
6'0"
Weight:
225 lbs
Hometown:
Sacremento, CA
Finishing Move:
Piledriver
Comments:
Tom
Howard often says it takes time and maturity to really
be ready for pro wrestling success in the major leagues.
If that is truly the case, and history often shows it
is, then new UPW face but longtime competitor Oliver
John should soon be on the verge of mega-stardom. Having
paid his dues big time over the past decade, he now
seems poised to achieve his mat destiny at last.
A Sacramento kid who first became a Hulkamaniac at the
age of 12 while watching the mid 80s WWF, his interest
soon peaked and he was searching out not only the
nation’s top promotion but many others as well,
watching the old WCW, UWF and AWA, as well as a host of
other indies with total intensity and devotion. Raised
by his mom and always a gregarious youngster, Oliver
later began participating in high school sports
including amateur wrestling, but his efforts soon turned
to weight training; which he began at an early age,
quickly excelled in and which indirectly led to a future
in our sport.
Becoming devoted to powerlifting during his regular
teenage gym workouts, his other passion in pro grappling
continued, nonetheless, and it was to find first
fruition through a chance meeting at the gym with a then
retired past wrestling performer, Paul DeMarco, (a star
of numerous national 60s and 70s promotions).
Still fascinated by the sport of wrestling, the 17
year-old high school senior would find himself in many
conversations with DeMarco, who soon began to take him
under his wing and eventually would begin showing him
wrestling holds and moves. “He didn’t have his own
training facility yet so we would just go down to a
nearby racquetball court where he’d teach me different
holds. He showed me how to take a bump on the court; the
hard way.”
Joining Rich Frisk, a local referee who wanted to start
his own school; DeMarco and his now assistant and
student John all began the new enterprise and soon they
were attracting students. Yet, when failing health
forced his teacher to back off, Ollie was compelled to
become an ever more active instructor, still learning
while he taught his younger recruits.
Using the “old school” approach that his veteran mat
coach had learned in his earlier indy matches, John was
tending too to a more basic formula; favoring what he
described as “Georgia-style wrestling” with fewer
“high spots”. But a new interest was soon to
confront the now developing matman and powerlifter: a
burgeoning interest in shootfighting. With various
Japanese promotions now starting to feature mixed
martial arts, and with the American start of the
Ultimate Fighting Championship, Ollie began to become
intrigued with this new style of ring combat and was
soon trying to incorporate it into his school curriculum
and into his own wrestling style to create a unique,
realistic and fresh mix.
“I started bringing down college wrestlers to learn
more basic amateur moves and studied Brazilian jiu-jitsu
and I was blending the two together. What resulted was a
more hard-edged believable style of competition.”
A major turn in young Oliver’s life was then to occur
as he performed this new style in a mixed martial arts
show in late 1998, a professional wrestling match in the
midst of other shootfighting encounters.
“I put a really good mix in there and ended up getting
one of the biggest pops of the night,” he recalls now.
“I did a missile drop kick off the top rope and the
place just exploded. We got the crowd’s respect
because we were doing armbars and amateur moves at the
beginning. Some judges even believed it was a shoot; not
a planned match.”
What made this contest even more eventful, was the
presence of Bob Shamrock, the father of famed
shootfighter turned WWF megatalent, Ken Shamrock. The
elder Shamrock was so impressed with Ollie’s
performance that he soon was contacting him with the
hope of booking him into future pro wrestling matches.
Expressing the feeling, however, that he now preferred
to try his hand more at mixed martial arts, John was
allowed to train for two weeks with the pair and was
soon booked at a show in L.A. where he scored a
surprisingly easy victory.
“At the time mixed martial arts was going through a
lot of difficulties trying to gain official recognition
so they got me on the card at some underground fighting
club. My match didn’t last long as I knee-barred my
opponent within a minute and it was all over for him
immediately.”
A recurring eye problem, (he had torn his retina five
years earlier), forced John to sideline his promising
fighting future; and he was at another crossroads in his
life, until another unexpected contact came; this time
from the Shamrocks who had now moved south to San Diego
and had opened up a new Lion’s Den there, which now
included a wrestling school. Sharing the same
hard-edged, old school approach, Ken was soon offering a
teaching position to Ollie and he was hired to teach a
whole host of new hopefuls, including UPW's own Tommy
Wilson, who he remembers as extremely talented from the
beginning, and experienced mat-men like UPW's Murphy
McDermott, prior to his career-ending neck injuries.
Having made his initial contacts with Rick Bassman in
2001 and soon appearing in a live promo with some of his
students at a memorable El Rey Theatre show, things
seemed very promising for John. However, an ever more
serious illness afflicting his mom along with the
unfortunate news that Ken’s wrestling school was about
to close down caused Ollie to move back north, where he
stayed, once again pondering his future career moves.
On a visit down to San Diego late last year to speak
with Ken and Bob about possible projects, his passion
for squared circle competition was once again rekindled
when he had lunch with Wilson.
“Tommy told me about how he was helping out with a new
promotion in Chula Vista and as we talked and reminisced
those juices started flowing again and I realized how
much I was really itching to get back into
competition.”
Feeling it would be to his advantage to wear down his
ever-increasing ring rust, he offered to appear on some
of Tommy’s local cards and a number of outstanding
encounters ensued, including a favorite for him, a
hard-fought battle against UPW star Andrew Hellman.
Summoned once again by Rick Bassman to use his unique
talents to help our federation, he willingly agreed to
teach a number of Saturday Ultimate University training
classes, and before long he was given the amazing
opportunity to fulfill one of his longtime dreams; to
compete in Japan, courtesy of Zero One.
Now appearing in a variety of So-Cal Ultimate Pro Mat
Wars and major venue shows, Ollie John is finally
putting his arsenal of sensational talents to maximum
use, and it is therefore only a matter of time until
this heavy-lifting, hard-fighting, charisma-filled ring
master will reach his ultimate nation-wide potential
