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My life forever changed by Gen. Skandar Akbar!

Posted: Aug 23rd 2010 By: mikeiles

After 23 years in this business, I think it's time that the world knows how Al Farat came to be. Most of you know or have read about my career on www.princealfarat.4t.com or my myspace site but what you don't know is how and who were the folks responsible for who I am today. I was trained in NYC by my actual cousin, Bobby Bold Eagle and "The Unpredictable" Johnny Rodz. I was fortunate to have been trained and/or labored during my formative years alongside many great names who I consider to be my peers becuase we not only broke in the business around the same time but came out of the same school. Gleason's Gym on Front St. in Brooklyn, NY. Guys like Tommy Dreamer, Taz, The Dudley Boys, Nunzio, Vito, Damien Demento, Bill DeMott among others were all graduates of this famed wrestling school. Along the way I was influenced by many great names in the game. I was fortunate enough to have wrestled in all the major places that workers dream of working, Puerto Rico, Mexico and many other countries. Madison Square Garden, The Philadelphia Spectrum and many other venues across the U.S. The first "character" I portrayed was Al Bold Eagle, of a Native American in honor of my actulal roots, my mother is hispanic and Native American (Taino Arawak Nation) and my father is Hispanic and his mother was of Lebanese decent. My grandmother immigrated to this country from Lebanon, her family was in the textile business as were many Middle Eastern people at that time. As I was telling this story to one of my childhood heroes, he commented that I should "do that gimmick" because "you look the part kid!" That conversation took place in 1999 in Kilgore, TX and it was between Skandar Akbar (that childhood hero I mentioned above) and myself. And it was at that time that I decided to carve a niche for myself as and Arab performer. All I had done up to this point were Native American characters such as Dancing Wolf and Ky-ote Santos so I had no idea how to pull it off but as you can see, it's worked out for me very well. I had the honor of talking and befriending Eddie Farhat Jr. (son of Ed "The Original Shiek" Farhat) throughout the years and got his blessing to use a similar version of his dad's name in his honor of couse and similar to Ed Farhat, Al Farat minus the H was born. Fast forward...it's Sept. 2009, I get a call from my mentor and by this point my "official" manager Ak. You see, since we started to work together alot and I saw how his health had been declining, I made it a point to call him every week just to BS and check up on him but this time he called me! I thought wow he must be either not feeling well or he's got another gig for us as I was now part of the legendary "Devastation, Inc." I was hoping for the last since I couldn't bear knowing he wasn't feeling well. It turns out it was a bit of both, he started telling me about how he has begun to tell everyone that I was kin to him or as he put it, "You know Al, I tell everyone we're related Babe!" It was at that point that I realized, I have been blessed by the rabbi! As the weeks turned into months he continued to push the idea of a name change. I would often consult with close friends of mine in the business like Tim Storm, Apoc, Matt Riviera and others to see what they all thought about it and of course the general concensus was the same, why don't you just add Akbar to you name? I just couldn't do it! I felt as if I was not worthy enough. As a matter of fact on one of our last conversations just 2 weeks ago I expressed to my mentor that Akbar Al Farat didn't have a ring to it! He said sure it does Babe, it means "The Great" Al Farat! You know, no matter what I decide to do, the point is I will dearly miss this man and I want the world to know that he's responsible for the creation of Al Farat. Heck he gave me my first turban. The man became sorta like real family to me. Funny but true story, we'd give each other turbans every Christmas and would wish each other in Jewish custom, "Happy Chanukah" although we were Arab workers. In Lebanese I say to you my dear friend, Shokran Jazeelan (Thank you) Ak, you were the best and like you always said to me at the end of every single one of our calls...love ya Babe!

Tags: Al Farat, Skandar Akbar, Matt Riviera, Devatstation, Inc.