True Confessions of a Pro Wrestling Junkie by Don Laible

I've been around the world of professional wrestling long before it became the darling of cable TV.

I can tell you from my own experiences with wrestlers, promoters, and fans, the closer I was able to reach within the often secretive wall surrounding the wrestling business, the further I wanted to be from it. In December 2000, I frighteningly ran away from the wrestling for good, and the perils that are sadly frequently associated with it.

In the grand scheme of professional wrestling, I was a nobody. I was more often than not around some the biggest names the business produced and was "in the know" of more inside information than most, including before performers and promoters had the same knowledge. I was a hustler that hustled from 1972  to  an absolutely life-changing altercation in December 2000 at a motel in Malden, MA, while with Extreme Championship Wrestling.

I literally lived out every fantasy I ever had in wrestling, from the first Sunday morning in 1971, when I watched on a Zenith 12-inch black & white TV. By accident, I came across channel 47 from New Jersey at 11 a.m.  I was hooked at first sight. The magical, anything you can think is possible the world was taking place in a "squared circle" encompassed by three ring ropes.

The first match I watched on the World Wide Wrestling Federation program hosted by Bill Cardell (soon to be replace by a very young Vincent Kennedy McMahon), "Handsome" Jimmy Valiant and "Beautiful" Bobby Harmon in tag team competition, managed at ringside by the ever-cheating, turban wearing manager The Grand Wizard.  Years later while I was fully "hooked" on the business, one of my greatest joys was the forge an acquaintance with the Wizard (Ernie Roth).

While attending a WWF in the old Boston Garden in 1976, celebrating my 16th birthday at the historic venue, my growing number of "insider friends" brought the Wizard to the area where a birthday cake was presented to me, to wish me well. What a thrill for me as a teenager.

What have been my accomplishments as a fan and a performer in wrestling?

Let's see - I wrote for virtually all the newsstand magazines. More than 500 articles and as many photographs I shot from ringside, in dressing rooms, hotel rooms, and airports. I loved every minute of walking by book stores, newsstands in subway stations, at kiosks in malls, and thumbing through magazines and seeing my name as author of the article wrestling fans everywhere were reading. Looking at photographs I shot appear on pages was incredibly gratifying.

You name the magazine publisher, and I'm confident to say my work appeared in their products - Ring Wrestling, Wrestling Revue, Wrestling Today, Superstars of Wrestling, ECW Magazine. My journalistic interests in wrestling were in print in Europe, North America, and I even had some photographs appear in Japanese publications.

In all, I earned $100,000.  I told you, I hustled while the demand was there.

In 1989, I began my Walter Mitty chapter with professional wrestling. I spent much of my time conducting interviews throughout New England (and later Philadelphia) because independent promoters craved publicity. I was the guy who had the contacts to deliver.  Retire wrestling icon Walter "Killer" Kowalski (based in Boston) became my dear friend. Rarely in life do idols turn out to be as decent and majestic as is the case that I experienced with Kowalski.

When not shooting with my camera from ringside, I would become The Bug - manager extraordinaire. That initiation from fan, to journalist, to in-ring performer happened on a Friday night in October, at a sold-out show in a high school gymnasium in Andover, MA.

There were maybe 2,000 fans , and I was so thankful that my character wore a mask. I was beyond scared when being escorted to the ring by local police, with my "protege" Nicolai Volkoff steps behind me.  That walk to ring I did hundreds of times in my mind, as I fantasized about being the next Grand Wizard. Now, it was coming true. The long walk to the ring included unsupervised teens throwing objects at me and threatening to physically attack me.

But, when the ring announcer Mel Simons introduced me to the heated crowd...and now, from parts unknown and manager of champions - The Bug, the euphoria I felt is beyond accurate description.  For the next seven years I was The Bug, and briefly Shazam, on dozens of shows including when I was booked for a match in Caracas, Venezuela where I also refereed my first match, as well.

I attended live wrestling matches in 15 of the United States, and at a time once amassed a sizable collection of programs, photographs, posters, autographs, masks, and the like. Appearances on The Pro Wrestling Spotlight weekly radio show hosted by John Arezzi were on my schedule for several years running. I was interviewed on TV stations, newspapers came to me for background information on stories they considered running, and best of all, wrestlers themselves contacted me to confirm or deny stories that were circulation in their business.

M\y closet friends were Big John Studd, King Kong Bundy, Lou Thesz, Volkoff, Rick Martel, Perry Saturn,Tito Santana, and The Honky Tonk Man.  However, some friendships later on, long after I was off the road, proved to be superficial. The wrestlers were hustling me, as I was hustling them.  Every time I went to the ring, I was always treated professionally - except once.

Only one Dudley Boy at the time in the 1990s, when with ECW, attempted to legitimately injure me. He failed, and was forced to apologize for his unprofessionalism.

Now, for why I ran away from wrestling.

A week or so before Christmas, I was in New England, as usual, for the ECW shows. My friends Paul and Mike were the regional promoters for the promotion. I was their photographer, and was able to gather plenty of material for magazine articles, at the same time.  While at the show in Worcester,MA, just finished a nice conversation with heel performer Sid Eudy, better known as Sycho Sid and Sid Justice.

As I walked away from Sid, a former National Wrestling Alliance heavyweight champion walks up to me, and punches me in the chest. Instantly, besides struggling to force air into my lungs, freight took over quickly.  What just happened and why, my thoughts were.  He demonstrated his anger at me for supposedly not informing my promoter friends where the party was the night before, after the matches.

I had been around the business long enough to know how to react - don't react. My goal was after returning to the motel, to lock the door and keep the lights off. My promoter friends went out to the room where the party was going on.  Then our room's phone began ringing - and ringing. The person on the other line was asking for Paul. I said Paul isn't here, each time I picked up. The wrestler on the other phone was mixed up, thinking he was calling ECW Promoter Pa

Don Laible is a freelance sportswriter from the Mohawk Valley, now living in Florida. He has reported on professional baseball and hockey for print, radio, and on the web since the 1980's. His columns are featured weekly at WIBX950.com. Don can be contacted via email at Don@icechipsdiamonddust.com.