I remember it so vividly, it was around 1985, I was running around the house like a crazed child in need of downers, my mother was doing her usual cleaning, but of course I was in the way….. So my mother, frustrated with my ability to always get in the way, she picked me up and plopped me down in a chair in front of our small television set w/ “rabbit ears” filled with three fantastic local channels. What was about to happen was going to change my life forever and I had no idea. She turned on the Television and told me not to move until she was finished her cleaning…so there i sat… and there he was, a monster of a man dressed in Red and Yellow… tearing is shirt apart with ease to a packed house while the sounds of “Real American” blasted through my speakers….. I had found my hero… So I sat there, glued to the television….. here I am, over 24 years later…. Still glued to the Television…..
Wrestling has always been something that fascinated me, I know it’s not real (but i was devestated when i found out) , but it absolutely enthralls me into an almost stupor when it’s on. Wrestling is Action, Sports, Entertainment and Fantasy all rolled into one. I have surrounded myself with it for as long as I can remember, and anyone around me knows this. It’s the greatest art form I know and it is very rarely given its respect. These men and woman bust there a$$es of to entertain the crowds and tell fantastic stories in the mix…. So much goes through my mind when I think about wrestling… So many pivotol moments.
I remember the Rockers… who I wanted so badly to be, I remember Andre… A giant of a man who I thought was invincible… I remember Rick Rude painting Jake the Snakes Wife on his tights and how badly I wanted Jake to DDT him through the mat and cover him with Damien. But as a child… one thing changed the face of wrestling for me forever…. Hulk Hogan VS. The Ultimate Warrior…. I idolized both with all of my being and for the first time in my life…. I did not know who to root for….. In the end… I decided it didn’t matter….either way, my hero would win…. and from that day forward, as just a small child… I decided I wanted to be a Pro Wrestler.
For the next few years as a child.. I dreamed about being a wrestler, emulating what they did with my friends… eventually finishing them off with a legdrop on an old mattress. And the years passed…. There was HBK’s boyhood dream, The Montreal Screwjob, The NWO, The Rock, Steve Austin, DX….. So much all of it being a part of my life… there was always one constant, while everything in my life drifted away… and changed, Wrestling was always there….
Now.. step forward… in the early years of 2000, I was offered a chance to wrestle, to be trained by a guy they called “The Dice” (now known as “LumberJack” Johnson… he was a local guy who had said he was trained by someone in ontario) , But that didn’t matter to me… I seen a ring in front of me and seen the chance to live out the dream I had since my early years. Now I had a small background in Amateur Wrestling from my high school days so I figured I was off to a good start…
I started my training, learning to bump and protect myself in the ring… for a few weeks… unknown at this point in time I was hardly ring ready.. or maybe not even properly trained… But that did not turn me off, I wrestled almost weekly , as a fan favorite in a small “semi” pro wrestling group and loved every minuted of it…. I had not felt like this in my entire life… the first day I walked through those curtains.. to “MY” music… to a crowd … I felt like crying…But I was there… I walked out there… and I was terrible… they laughed… made fun of me… I had no idea what I was doing….. but I learned… and kept doing it…. a barely trained pencil necked geek. As time went on, I learned from my mistakes… and learned what the crowd liked…. I became an Entertainer… in that small little Hockey Ring every weekend… I wasn’t John Mackenzie… I was a wrestler………and they liked me… they really liked me..lol
That ensued for about 2 years…. I even went on to travel a bit for another wrestling promotion in another part of the province… I had learned from my mistakes… and considered myself as being an equal to the guys around me…. I had a rough start… but it wasn’t until my last match… In the North Sydney Forum against a good friend of mine. I felt like I finally knew what I was doing…. and that… was the last day of my wrestling career….
That was four years ago… “The Dice” is now a fully trained pro wrestler and excels at what he does and I respect the hell out of him…… and I work as a tech support agent …. …. I feel the need for a repeat… to become legitimate … I know I’m grown up… and I should be out of that by now…. But even tho that was a long time ago…. It still eats at me….and I say this… again…. 28 years old…. Sitting in the living room waiting for a TNA Wrestling PPV….My name is John Mackenzie and I WANT TO BE A WRESTLER……and I always will….
