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By Les Honig
They jokingly announced him on light shows as “The New Guy” when Tommy Wilson first arrived at Ultimate University but after nearly two years of persistent effort and tireless training, this young fiery San Diego native is anything but a novice. Still pursuing his dream of ring excellence and eventual fame, Wilson now is respected by his peers and has begun to make waves in UPW top circles.
Now 21, Wilson started loving wrestling young, as he recalls first seeing Hulk Hogan beat Ultimate Warrior at Wrestlemania and continued over the years as his own dream was given birth.
“I was always the fat little kid in school,” he recalls with amusement, “By 5th grade I already weighed 180 pounds. I wasn’t at all flamboyant looking more like Eric Cartman in South Park.” Yet, his frame began to become more defined as he started competing in a variety of sports, most notably wrestling, where he began in 7th grade in kids clubs and entered high school immediately joining the freshman, then the j.v. and finally varsity
teams, ultimately making it to state finals his senior year only to get knocked out for injured ribs.
At the same time, however, Wilson excelled on the football and springboard diving teams with the latter providing him valuable skills he now uses in the ring.. “I got my aerial awareness down there where I’m not afraid to be 20 feet in the air.” And when he entered college he joined their gymnastics program as well where he learned to do handsprings, cartwheels, back somersaults, all these adding to his current wrestling agility.
For Tommy, however, his real life-changing moment came as he decided to take the plunge and try out the pro mat ranks for himself. “I was sitting in my freshman college class and one of my psychology tests came back and it wasn’t very good. I had heard about the Power Plant in Georgia and that it was free if you could pass the tryouts. But when I looked at my body I thought, ‘Hey, there’s no way you’re gonna get in there.’”
Instead he wisely opted to seek out Ken Shamrock’s Lion’s Den, which also featured a respected wrestling school as part of its program. Knowing of Ken’s already established success as a WWE superstar, Wilson decided to give this locally located but internationally known center a try and the result was quite positive as he trained with some famous fighters, including Ken himself, learning many good wrestling skills he now uses in the ring as well as shootfighting, karate and kick boxing.
What was lacking, however, was the one element he has relished particularly here at Ultimate U: ring psychology. Doing mostly mat wrestling, Wilson became proficient at the technical side to some degree, but even that was to end as the wrestling school shut down nine months after he had entered.
Seeking to continue and expand his pro wrestling training, he first threw in his lot with a local talent but felt the experience was more like “glorified backyard.” “There were lots of teens that didn’t care about anybody else,” he recalls. “They just wanted to do insane moves. I got hurt so many times. I just wasn’t happy there.”
All that was about to change, however, when he ran into Off Da Hook’s Scott Young who suggested he come down to the then-Gold’s Gym UU training center and check out the program. Before look he was hooked and has been attending class ever since.
“Spanky actually did a lot of my training,” Tommy remembers, “and that was a really great experience. I also was one of Tom Howard’s students and his feeling that matches must tell stories was also invaluable to my in-ring development.”
Starting out as the “new guy” doing assorted light shows at Gold’s and then eventually expanding to some major arena cards, Tommy has continued to perform and was just featured in our most recent Galaxy super-event in a three way encounter against Mikey Henderson and Shawn Riddick.
Working quite successfully to put muscle mass on his large but heretofore thin frame, Tommy is finally gaining just the right appearance he needs to make it to the big time, along with perfecting his already unique and extremely versatile ring repertoire. It seems only a matter of time that this new Wrestler of the Month will step forward to grab that brass ring of ultimate sports entertainment success.
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