· Portions of the following narrative are based on a series of separate conversations in the early ‘90s with Sean Waltman and Eddie Sharkey, as well as a formal interview with Sean Waltman for a wrestling magazine article about The Lightening Kid, his wrestling name in the early years of his career. Information was also derived from a formal interview with Eddie Sharkey for a wrestling newspaper article about himself and his promotion Pro Wrestling America during that same time period.
ACT 1 – PRO WRESTLING AMERICA, 1990, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Eddie Sharkey peered out into the audience from the door of the locker room, as he waited for his ring announcer to introduce the wrestlers for the next match. It was another sold out crowd for his independent promotion, Pro Wrestling America, which had been running local shows for a number of years and doing good business.
Despite no television, and no formal advertising, instead relying on word of mouth of local fans, the promotion was thriving in Minneapolis and surrounding areas, and had a growing reputation as a place for talented wrestlers to get noticed and gain work in larger promotions both domestically and internationally, at a time when opportunities in general were diminishing for wrestlers to make a full-time living from the business.
The wrestling world was a place in transition from within the business itself. The territory system, the regional promotions of the ’60s, ‘70s, and early ‘80s, had undergone a somewhat rapid demise beginning in the mid-80s and coinciding with the WWF expanding into a national touring promotion with national cable television shows. Crowds fell off for the local promotions, as many of the top stars of the more prominent territories left for WWF.
By 1990, the regional concept of wrestling was essentially gone, with only scattered remnants remaining. Even the AWA, a national promotion and mid-80s competitor to WWF in those wrestling boom days, was struggling and would soon be out of business too.
The concept of an independent promotion was relatively new, and as Sharkey surveyed the crowd at his show, he pondered how there were not as many places for newer wrestlers to get experience. Hence, Sharkey received a lot of inquiries from wrestlers looking to come wrestle in Pro Wrestling America to better learn the craft with hopes of garnering the attention of the WWF or WCW.
Sharkey knew lots of people in the wrestling world, having started in the business first as a wrestler in the 1950s. He also had an outstanding reputation as a trainer with an unusually high success rate of his pupils becoming superstars in major promotions. Sharkey was the person who trained The Road Warriors, Rick Rude and Demolition Smash, among other big names in the ‘80s wrestling world.
Sharkey was known for having the consistent ability to recognize greatness in a young wrestler, and to help them harness it through positive reinforcement, constructive criticism, general guidance, and the wrestlers knowing he genuinely cared about them find success and maximizing their potential.
The latest talent he was predicting stardom for was standing just to his right about to be announced for his first match in Pro Wrestling America.
The wrestler was something of a prodigy skill wise, just 18 years old and recently arrived in Minnesota after having started wrestling in Florida on the struggling independent scene there in 1988 in the wake of regional stalwart Championship Wrestling from Florida ceasing operations.
Unlike many breaking into wrestling in the late ‘80s, recruited by someone else because of the way they looked, the young man had been a fan for many years prior to wrestling his first match, and a fan who knew from the first time he watched a match many years prior that it was his destiny to become a pro wrestler and be a recognized name at the upper realms of the business.
It was a necessary self-confidence, not at all cockiness, when he shared that vision for himself with others, many of whom dismissed him immediately as not fitting the mold of what they perceived a professional wrestler to be, solely basing their opinions on surface level physical appearance and not actual ability or immense inner drive to succeed.
The young wrestler needed to believe in himself first to have a chance to succeed, and it was that immense believe in himself that willed him to take the initiative to strategically plan his entry into wrestling while still in high school.
After having attended the local matches every week for quite some time, he was a familiar enough face that the local promoter let him set up the ring. Being this close to the action, only further intensified the young man and his vision to become a wrestler and fulfill his self-anointed destiny.
So, he approached Boris Malenko, a well-known and successful wrestler during the 50s through the end of the ‘70s, for help getting started as a pro wrestler. Malenko was one of the veterans of the Florida wrestling scene and had seen a lot of aspiring wrestlers come and go.
He must have recognized something special in the young man, something that separated him from others who just said they wanted to become professional wrestlers. He must have recognized the genuine passion and dedication present within to learn and excel at being a pro wrestler.
Malenko agreed to train the young man, putting him through a rigorous program, at which he exceeded all expectations and impressed Malenko to the utmost.
And so, after spending some time in Florida gaining experience, the young wrestler made the bold decision to relocate to Minneapolis to work for Eddie Sharkey and his Pro Wrestling America to gain experience in one of the few thriving local promotions that garnered attention from national and international promoters. The young man knew he had the talent to succeed, believing the decision to move to Minnesota would bring him national attention before he was out of his teens.
It was known that it was common for a talent scout from the big leagues, as well as Japan, to come to Sharkey’s shows. People respected Sharkey’s opinion, and his genuine friendliness built good will with whomever he encountered, and these people knew he had an uncanny ability for picking out future greats. Yes, there was no better place for the young man to be to expedite achieving his long-term goals, but first he would have to prove himself in Minnesota.
The ring announcer introduced the young wrestler, and Sharkey watch closely as he made his way down the aisle. It seemed like the fans were not quite sure how to react to him.
The wrestler before them was both younger and smaller than all the wrestlers who had ever been in PWA and in the area in general, and for that matter the era as well. It was the age of large musclemen, and that was the standard expectation for most fans of what a wrestler should look like to be considered credible in calling himself a professional wrestler.
The young man knew he could beat the odds, and despite his size, become a television wrestling star one day, and had told Sharkey just that when they first met. Sharkey liked his confidence, and sensed greatness in him from the first moment he had met him.
As the young man made his way to the ring, it was mostly quiet. Then, slowly but steadily, the murmurs became audible, followed by heckling. He was much younger and skinnier than the hecklers perception of what they thought a professional wrestler should look like, and they were letting it be known. Undeterred, he strode forward with confidence, knowing he was about to change their perception.
As he circled his opponent in the ring, the heckling continued. Sharkey was waiting patiently and watching closely, knowing, sensing, that in an instant that things were going to change, and they did.
The young man did his first significant offensive move, and the crowd got somewhat hushed, loudest hecklers included. Then he did another move, and another. Now the heckling had ceased completely, and there was just silence.
In wrestling, usually silence is the worst reaction a wrestler can get. However, this was no normal kind of silence. This was stunned silence. As the match progressed, and the young man unveiled an increasing array of aerial maneuvers with seamless precision, flowing them together with technical holds, a change was overcoming the Pro Wrestling America faithful. The attitude had undergone a full-on shift by the end of the match.
As the young left the ring, the people who had been taunting him the loudest were now standing and cheering him. These people were the early believers, the early believers in a wrestler named The Lightening Kid.
ACT 2 – GLOBAL WRESTLING FEDERATION, 1991, DALLAS, TEXAS
The news of the formation of the GWF in early 1991 created a buzz in the wrestling business. The new wrestling promotion would be based out of Dallas, a renowned wrestling city known in the ‘80s for its vibrant and passionate fans and the epicenter of World Class Championship Wrestling, and the Von Erichs, who became wildly popular in both Texas and throughout the world.
World Class, although not a national touring operation, was widely considered a major promotion. As 1991 began, though, those days were over, and like many once thriving promotions of the ‘80s, World Class was extinct.
The wrestling scene in the U.S. had shrunk severely over the last several years in terms of the number of promotions. On the national landscape, the WWF reigned supreme, and its competitor WCW was a somewhat distant second.
Independent wrestling largely consisted of random shows versed organized promotions that ran regular events with solid fan bases, as the scene would develop into as the decade progressed.
The popularity of professional wrestling in general was visibly waning in the U.S., and yet the general idea was, held over from the prior decade, that in order to be a professional wrestler one needed to be a very large man with big muscles, with solid ring skills secondary if at all.
A change was needed for the wrestling business, but what?
GWF had secured a deal with ESPN, guaranteeing a wide audience would have access to the new promotion and provided a platform that it was hoped would enable them to become a viable third national promotion and competitor to WWF, or at very least a credible alternative viewing option for fans and a stable place for wrestlers to earn a full time living in the U.S.
Joe Pedicino was the man in charge of the GWF. He had most recently been running a promotion called Georgia All-Star Wrestling and had also been executive producer and host of an innovative syndicated program that had begun in the mid-80s, Superstars of Wrestling, that featured matches from different promotions around the world.
For his new promotion, Pedicino would be using well known stars like Terry Gordy and Stan Lane as well as many wrestlers associated with Texas wrestling scene, and World Class Championship Wrestling in particular, like Iceman King Parsons, Rod Price and John Tatum.
However, Pedicino wanted to differentiate his promotion further by featuring somewhat unknown talent who he thought had tremendous potential, and he would essentially develop some of his own stars branded to GWF, by providing the newcomers as credible high-level talent, right from the start.
To that end, he reached out to his various wrestling contacts across the country and put the word out he was looking for fresh talent, and he would be giving them a national platform if he decided to bring them into his new promotion.
From the local Maryland wrestling scene, came the 6’8” and muscular Rasta The Voodoo Mon, who would go on to not find fame as a wrestler in WWF or WCW but as an actor in a notable Super Bowl commercial.
From Pedicino’s own recent independent promotion in Georgia, came the superbly built The Handsome Stranger, who would shortly rise to fame in WCW as Marcus Bagwell.
From the Texas wrestling circuit, came a young real-life brother tag team, with a strong-looking appearance and lots of charisma, that Pedinco dubbed The Ebony Experience. Like The Handsome Stranger, Booker T and Stevie Ray would soon find success in WCW too.
Perhaps most intriguing of the prospect tapes Pedicino received was the one from Minnesota from Eddie Sharkey. The tape gave Pedicino pause and an idea that would further differentiate his new promotion.
On the tape, was a young wrestler, a mere 19 years old, doing an impressive array of aerial and technical moves that just weren’t done in the U.S., and he was doing it all with a smoothness and exciting energy about him that resonated with viewers and commanded attention.
Pedicino decided that the wrestler on the tape, The Lightning Kid, would be the perfect person to build a GWF light heavyweight division around.
The Lightning Kid debuted in June of 1991 in the GWF and was presented as a cocky heel. His new persona blended well with his fast paced, exciting wrestling style.
Wrestling fans knew indeed they were seeing a special talent, but nobody could have fully grasped at the time that The Lightening Kid’s performances during his six months in GWF was the root that would ignite a systematic shift for the better in the wrestling scene in the U.S., allowing highly skilled smaller wrestlers opportunities in the three decades to follow to find success on the highest levels and in the process presenting a more diverse array of wrestlers for fans to enjoy, playing a key role in boosting the entire popularity of pro wrestling in U.S. to unimagined levels as time marched on.
The Lightening Kid’s GWF tenure was both pivotal and necessary to initiating a change in the narrow perception of what it meant to be a wrestler. It was the defined beginning of making in-ring ability and repeated strong match performance an essential component to connecting with the audience on a large scale and finding high level sustained success.
Yet, back in December 1991 when he left the GWF a national star he still had a lot of skeptics in the U.S., both fans and those working in the business alike, acknowledging his immense ability and ring presence yet at the same time dismissing him as not big enough to succeed any further, that the GWF was his pinnacle in the U.S. wrestling scene.
Post GWF, The Lightening Kid spent time wrestling in Japan and Mexico, did well in both places, and remained resolute and focused in achieving his ultimate goal of landing a contract with either WWF or WCW. He knew he belonged there and would thrive in either promotion when given a fair chance.
ACT 3 – WORLD WRESTLING FEDERATION, 1993, NEW YORK, NEW YORK
Sean Waltman walked to the WWF ring in Manhattan Center in New York City on Raw to face Razor Ramon. Wrestling as The Kid, no Lightening in his name, he had no fanfare or attention bestowed on him by the commentators or visibly the fans in attendance either.
To the average viewer, who did not watch or even follow wrestling outside the WWF, this appeared to simply be a matter of a big name facing an unknown for a quick win, a mere time filler.
The match was one-sided throughout, as was expected, with Razor Ramon on offense. Watching closely, though, a viewer would note a masterful in-ring story being subtly told by The Kid, a story of resilience. The Kid’s physical selling of the moves, and facial reactions, were artfully guiding the viewers to an ending that would never be forgotten by those watching in attendance and on TV.
Ramon whipped The Kid into the corner and The Kid came out flying. He landed on top of Razor and shockingly got the pin in what is still one of the biggest upsets in wrestling storyline context.
Waltman, building on what he accomplished in the GWF, now on the biggest wrestling platform possible, solidified further himself as the point person responsible for changing the perception that the physical size of a wrestler was not the most important factor in being giving an opportunity in a major promotion.
This was only the beginning of Sean Waltman’s journey in the WWF, as he would go on to rise much higher and establish himself as one of the major wrestling stars of the ‘90s and a legend in the business, delivering many great match and memorable moments for wrestling fans, performing on the biggest wrestling shows.
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