In 1984 when I was 14 years old, I had a dream to run my very own
professional wrestling league. Starting out with nothing but
four bed mattresses, by 1986 we were promoting live venues all
across the Twin Cities metro area and were also producing a
weekly cable wrestling show all across the nation, I was 16 years
old.
For five years during my teenage life, I was involved in a pro
wrestling league for kids between the ages of 10 – 16. The league
was known as the NWF (National Wrestling Federation). It was a
dream come true for me, as I was doing what I loved as a kid,
running my very own wrestling league. And in doing so, I learned
a lot of valuable lessons in life, both personally and business
wise. It was quite an experience to say the least, and it was a
time I will never forget.
Sometime in 1989 when I was 19 years old, I hooked up with local
promoter Eddie Sharkey and thought I was ready to go big time in
the world of professional wrestling. I still had the dream in
me, and the love for the sport. I thought that perhaps I really
could make it to the big time. But in 1990, after a falling out
with Eddie over the politics behind the scenes of professional
wrestling, my career in wrestling came to a sudden halt.
For several years, I wanted nothing to do with professional
wrestling. The incident I had with Eddie took the dreams I had
for my future in wrestling and destroyed them. Seeing how the
real world of professional wrestling operated made me realize
that it was not what my dreams were all about as a kid. And
watching wrestling on TV reminded me of this, so I just distanced
myself from the whole thing.
But over time, I would think back to the days of the league that
I used to run as a kid and watch some of the shows we produced
back in the 1980’s, and the memories of what I did as a kid
started to come back to me. Looking back, I realized that we had
something special in those days that has never been duplicated
since, and perhaps never will be.
In the mid 1990s, a new type of wrestling started to surface as
well, and they called it “backyard wrestling”. But unlike the
shows we did, this stuff was completely different. These kids
weren’t trying to work together like we did to put on a good
show, they were trying to hurt one another. It was about pain
and how much one kid could inflict onto the other. It was
nothing close to what professional wrestling was really all
about.
Watching that stuff made me think back to what we did in the
1980’s, and made me once again realize that we did something that
was very unique at the time. And so the idea of writing a book
about our story soon hit me. But where do I begin? I had no
clue as to how to do this. So several years went by with me just
me having this story in my head.
Then in recent years, self-publishing had become very popular and
reasonable to do. And last year I did some Internet searching
and found that writing a book and publishing it is something that
can be done quite easily. So after figuring that out, I went to
work on writing my story. I spent about six months writing my
story that explained how I ran my very own professional wrestling
league as a kid, and had great success in doing so. My main
objective with the story was that I wanted kids to learn that
they really can accomplish anything if they want it bad enough.
And finally in January of 2005, “Pro Wrestling Kids’ Style – The
Most Amazing Untold Story In Professional Wrestling History” was
a published book. It was a life long accomplishment that took me
years to get to, but it was finally a finished product. In
addition to the book, I also released four special DVD titles
that showcase some of our big events we held in 1986 and 1987
that drew hundreds and hundreds of fans. The purpose of this was
to show the wrestling world how a group of kids performed
professional wrestling in a safe and fun environment, unlike the
“backyard wrestling” as it exists today.
Today, I run my own business in a architectural design service.
But in my spare time, I manage my website at
http://www.nwfwrestling.net, which showcases our “NWF Kids Pro
Wrestling” league that we had back in the 1980’s. It’s basically
a historical site that explains our past. With the release of my
book and DVDS, I have done several radio interviews all across
the country, including ESPN Radio and Fox Sports Net.
Since I put the NWF website up about a year ago, I have received
hundreds of emails from kids of all ages all around the country
wanting to know more about the NWF. They ask questions like:
“How can I start my own league?”, “How did you produce your own
cable show?” , “How did you make your title belts?” But the most
popular question I get is “Can you start the NWF back up again
for kids?” And that is always a tough one to answer.
Will I ever start the NWF up again for kids? Who knows for sure?
Who would have ever thought I would have done what I did back in
1984? But we have talked about doing a “NWF Kids Pro Wrestling”
reunion show back at the Anoka Armory this fall in Minnesota.
And if that happens, besides some of us old timers getting back
in the ring, it would only be fitting to have a few “kid” matches
again as well. As for the kids that would take part, the most
important thing is to keep it safe and fun, because once you
cross that line, it just isn’t worth it.
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