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Ten Years Later: Breaking In

Posted: Sep 21st 2011 By: CMBurnham

To this day, if you tell someone in Tulsa that you are a local pro wrestler, they will say something to the effect of "Do you wrestle down there at the bowling alley?" Its been 9 years since any wrestling took place at Riverlanes. That speaks volumes about what happened there. I was lucky enough to have been a part of OPW for the last year of its existence.

Ten years ago, on September 22, 2001, I made my pro wrestling in ring debut against Dexter "Hard Times" Hardaway for the OPW light heavyweight championship. It was a weird time. I had just turned 19 and a week earlier some guys flew a couple planes into some towers. People were afraid to go to any public gathering, including wrestling shows. And yes I won the belt in my debut in a good match with Dexter. Not because I was so good. It was because the division had 5 people. Me, Kenny "Outcast" Campbell, Rick "Grenade" Styles (Who was clearly no longer a light heavyweight), Dexter, and Tarantula. Tarantula was going to Puerto Rico in a few weeks and Dexter was moving to go train with Harley Race. Due to lack of options, I won a belt in my debut. I really liked Dexter and he was one of the few guys at that time who would have anything to do with us. He had a lot of desire and was willing to pick up and move if he felt it would get him to the next level. I thought that once I got trained enough in Oklahoma I might ask him if I could join him at Harley's. Fortunately, I did not make that decision. I would still love to have had a 10 year anniversary match against Dexter this month, but when I checked with him, he is still mostly retired and his weekend are pretty full.


I took a strange journey to get into he business. When I was 15, me and a few friends wrestled around a on a trampoline and called our backyard fed the "Innovative Combat Federation." I made a website to post pictures of us wrestling. Over the next 3 years, this small group play fighting in a backyard turned into a full blown show in front of 50 or more fans in a home made wrestling ring once a month with a roster of 20 plus guys. We were selling dozens of videos online and getting featured on local news, radio, and even Maxim magazine. OPW had a ring announcer, Rick Vyper, who heard about us he got the idea that if he invited all these backyard marks to come check out the OPW training school we might stick around and buy some tickets to a show or even sign up for the training school. This was summer time and the crowds were down. Rocco Valentino was the sole owner of OPW by this point. I'm sure when Vyper asked him about letting these marks in for a free training session, the only reason he said yes was for the potential income of a few guys maybe joining the school. And I doubt he expected 30 backyard wrestlers to show up to the free night of training. Honestly, after being best friends with the guy for the last 7 or 8 years, he has never told me what he thought that night he met me. I am sure he was at least a little impressed that I had 30 teenagers listening to me like I was their leader. Some of the guys there that night include Kenny Campbell, Mitch Carter, Boss Campbell, Shane Morbid, X-Cal, and Cold Blooded Chris. Rocco embarrassed a few of us marks that night and made us all feel like we were not fit to lace his boots. I remember one kid thought he could wear sunglasses in the ring and Rocco promptly told him he was the only one in the room cool enough to wear sunglasses and he better take those off right this second. When one dumb mark decided to stiff Rocco on an overhand wrist lock demonstration, Rocco quickly reversed it and dropped the kid to the floor and shouted something at him along the lines of how Rocco doesn't like guys trying to hurt him and he will hurt them back. All I could think the whole time was "Please don't do anything stupid in front of this guy!"

Afterward Rocco pulled me aside and asked me if I was going to sign up for the school. I didn't know what to say. In my mind, I had always dreamed of being a pro wrestler. I was completely ignorant to how the business worked. For all I knew, Rocco was making 6 figures as a wrestling promoter and was living in a "R" Shaped mansion. I figured I would have to sign a contact and quit my day job. But I would be getting lots of money, fame, and ring rats. So I stupidly took the money I was going to use for junior college and instead signed up for pro wrestling school. Rocco asked me if I thought I could handle having a spot in the show that first weekend. At this point I thought I was like a cancer patient getting his dying wish. "Hey mark with no professional training, how would you like to be on a wrestling show doing a run in spot in the main event?" He wanted to have me and all my ICF guys sitting ringside (of course we had to buy our tickets). During the main event, he was going to have OPW champion Splash Jackson (who was wrestling Dexter Hardaway in a tables match) call me into the ring to help him set up a table to put a guy through. And when Splash turned his back, I attacked him with my backyard wrestling belt which of course didn't phase him. He promptly turned around and put me through a table with a pumphandle slam. I got carried out by security. I couldn't have been more excited