"So how did you get involved in wrestling?"
I get asked that question each time somebody meets me and they find out of my involvement in perhaps the goofiest business in the world. No not politics. Professional Wrestling!
Some of my earliest memories are watching TV in my Grandparents basement in Montreal, watching wrestling. For years I'd live for Saturday afternoons because that was when wrestling was on. As I grew older I realized I was different from most wrestling fans I met at school, or at arenas where I went to see the live events. For one, I didn't drool.
As the years went by I realized I had an appreciation for the wrestling industry, not just who won and lost. But who sounded good on the mic. Who did the best moves. Who got the fans most excited.
"Nature Boy" Ric Flair is the greatest wrestler to have ever worked in the "biz". With all due respect to Steve Austin, 'The Rock", Sting, Hulk Hogan, and everybody else who has made an impact in the wrestling industry, nobody combined all aspects of the 'sport' with better results than Ric Flair. His interviews were and are always the highlight of the show. His athletic ability allowed him to have classic matches with fantastic athletes as good as Ricky Steamboat and Barry Windham, and horrible wrestlers like Lex Luger and Dusty Rhodes. It didn't matter, Flair could carry anybody to a good match. Today, at the age of 50, he's still a better pure wrestler than three quarters of the guys out there.
His group of "bad guys", the 4 Horsemen, were the greatest 'family' or 'stable' in wrestling history as well. Everything you now see in wrestling, from Team Corporate in the WWF to the NWO in WCW, it's all a take off and version of what Ric Flair and his group were doing in the NWA in the mid-80's. Horsemen worth mentioning were Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard, Barry Windham, Ole Anderson and Lex Luger. Later "Horsemen" groupings included Sid Vicious, Brian Pillman, Sting, Paul Roma, Dean Melenko and Chris Benoit. Some have talent, some don't, but none compare to what went on when they were the baddest of bad in the biz.
During the wrestling boom of the 80's led by Hulkamania and the WWF, my Dad would tell me he's seen the wrestling industry go through booms followed by slumps his entire life. I too can now claim the same, as I've watched it be somewhat slumpy in the 70's, the big boom in the 80's, then the dead period from the late 80's until around 1993 when it picked up again into the huge boom it's in the middle of right now. After the period in the mid-80's, people said there'd never be as big a star as Hulk Hogan and the industry would never be as big again. Now both WCW and the WWF are doing business that makes the 80's boom look small, and Steve Austin is the superstar du jour.
I got into the biz because I had an appreciation for it. I love the feeling if you're in front of 50 people or 1050 people (and I've had both sensations), and you get them in the palm of your hand and make them love or hate you in a matter of 10 minutes.
I got my training, if you want to call it that, from Whipper Watson Jr. I only really trained for a couple months before being thrown on the road and I did a lot of my learning under fire. Watson was running his "Teen Pro Wrestling" summer tour and "Whipper Watson Memorial Cup". He didn't have enough guys, he knew I just wanted the experience and loved it, so he asked me to go on the road. In a funny turn of events, I ended up being awarded the Whipper Watson Memorial Cup the final night of the tour, despite the fact my good buddies Jake Steele and Firefox (Matt from Wales) had both wrestled on more shows, won more Battle royals, and quite frankly had earned the 'right' to be named winner more than me. I wrestled as Kevin The Kid MacKenzie for my time with TPW.
I've continued to wrestle off and on, with my greatest personal satisfaction coming from my work in and around Ottawa with OPW, a promotion run by my buddy Dave Dalton. I get to see friends like Jake, Dave, and Bill, from the old Teen Pro days where we all met, Dave saw fit to have me serve as one half of his tag team champions with two different partners, JT Fox (Matt from Wales again) and Wild Bill Skullion.
It was in Ottawa that I really launched the character "Kevin The Graduate
Luv". I had graduated from Seneca in 1994, was sick of "The Kid" character, I
wasn't no damned northern Alberta guy, and I hate horses and cowboy stuff. So I
came up with a character that was influenced by my years at college, the movie
"Animal House", and the wrestling group in the late 80's in the NWA named "The
Varsity Club". I have fun with the character and while I haven't wrestled since
the summer of 1997 and I actually sent out a semi retirement press release, I
will never fully leave the industry and as long as I have friends on the inside
willing to let me be involved, I imagine I'll always be around or open to
working within the industry. My tag team of "The Frat" and my own stable by the
same name could very well pop up in your home town, so watch out for it! Check
out my "Clique" section to see some photos of my illustrious wrestling career
thus far.
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The Grad
The Grad and JT Fox, OPW Tag Champs!