As you can see people have misspelled my name since the very beginning.
In early January 1994 I was asked by my trainer Sonny Blaze if I would do ring crew for a ring rental he had for Eastern Championship Wrestling (ECW) in Philadelphia on January 8th. I'd never heard of ECW but Sonny told me Terry Funk would be there so it was a definite yes from me. To be honest, I love pro wrestling so I'd have done it no matter what.
After the 3 hour drive to Philadelphia we spent the next 2 hours setting up the ring. Once the ring was up, we would usually start running the ropes, taking bumps and generally messing around to ensure the ring was ok. At one point I did a backflip off the top rope and landed on my feet. ECW announcer Joey Styles saw it and told head booker Paul Heyman about it and I heard after a few minutes of watching decided to ask me a question that would change my life. "Do you want to wrestle?" I told him it was my dream to wrestle but being 5'8" and 185 pounds it wasn't gonna happen. He said, "OK, you can wrestle Mr. Hughes" and walked away.
After a little while Mr. Hughes came up to me and said we were going to wrestle that night. Now, for those of you who don't know, Curtis Hughes is 6'5" and at least 350 pounds at the time. He asked me 3 question and all of them prompted the same petrified "dear in the headlights" look on my face and timid answer.
Mr. Hughes - You gonna sell for me?
Me - Yes sir.
Mr. Hughes - You take a sidewalk slam?
Me - Yes sir.
Mr. Hughes - You gonna jump real high?
Me - Yes sir.
Mr. Hughes - Good!
So the match was set but there was one problem, I didn't have any wrestling gear. I borrowed a pair of red shorts from wrestler Don E. Allen and since i was so small I decided to wear a Liquid Blue Dragon t-shirt i got for Christmas from my friend Stormin' Norman. No wrestling boots so I wore my sneakers. I looked ridiculous but it was what it was.
I heard Paul Heyman say "Mikey Whipwreck to go to the ring". He said it again louder and a little frustrated, and a 3rd time even louder and seemingly angry. At that point he came up to ME.
Paul - Are you going to go to the ring?
Me - Why?
Paul - You're Mikey Whipwreck
Me - Oh
I was already scared to death telling myself I better jump real high and now it's my first day in the wrestling business and I'm already in trouble and I need to jump real high. In the ring Mr. Hughes was awesome. The match short and went as planned. He basically tossed me around like a rag doll for a few minutes. Once he was done toying with me he called for the sidewalk slam and it was over. He threw me out of the ring but when he did my foot got caught on the rope and I ended up hitting my head on the floor. Wrestling concussion #1 but it was my own fault.
In the locker room Mr. Hughes thanked me for making him look so good and for "letting" him win. As if I could have stopped him even if I wanted too. I was on cloud 9 and was then told I'd have another match that night against the Tazmaniac & Kevin Sullivan. But that's a story for another blog post. Thanks for reading.
Oh yeah for that sidewalk slam... I jumped real high. 😉
-Mikey-
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