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by Les
Honig
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.
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