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WRESTLING SCHOOL DIARIES: THE NEW ENGLAND PRO WRESTLING ACADEMY

By Paul Crockett on 2016-09-20 10:53:00
As the sun sets on the entrance at the Academy, the day is just beginning inside.

It was the hottest day of the year.  Or at least it felt that way.

Stifling heat radiated through the air as the thermometer hit 102 degrees.  Condensation still covered the concrete walls despite the fact that it was already six thirty at night. Eight years after his death, Walter “Killer” Kowalski could rest easy knowing that eighteen students remained in a class that he began decades earlier, working through the swelter and honing their craft in their journey toward success in the cut-throat business of professional wrestling.

Located in North Andover, Massachusetts, the New England Pro Wrestling Academy is the linear successor to the legendary Killer Kowalski School of Professional Wrestling that adorned the city of Malden, Massachusetts for four decades. The purple and yellow color scheme surrounding the two full-size training rings is in his honor matching his old wrestling tights. It is just one of the ways the school – run by pro wrestler Brian Fury – honors its roots.

“For me, I focus on foundation and the little things that I think a lot of the other schools don’t teach,” said Fury, who is the owner and head trainer at the Academy. “The little things make the biggest difference, and that’s what separated Walter’s school from a lot of the other places.”

Sitting in a makeshift tape study room, Fury is surrounded by posters from past shows for the local Chaotic Wrestling promotion featuring names such as Tommy Penmanship and Fred “Bonecrusher” Sampson.  You might know them now as Tomasso Ciampa and Darren Young.  He is wearing a dark colored Under Armour shirt, gray sweatshorts (yes, sweatshorts) and a look of contentment and confidence that is usually reserved for men who have lived an entire life full of enriching experiences.  In the case of Brian, he has done all of that and more.

After a seventeen year career that has seen him become a stalwart in the New England independent wrestling scene, Fury will call it a wrap in December.  Staring down the end of a career may rattle some, but for him, having travelled to more places than he can remember, the transition to a new part of his life seems to bring comfort.

“My goal when I’m done with my in-ring career in December is to settle down for a month or so and recharge my batteries,” Fury said.  “Then the school is 100% my focus.”

When asked to reflect on his career, there was a slight pause.  There was no look of mourning, no sense of bitterness or disdain, nor was there a feeling of regret.  It sounded like a new beginning.

“I have no issues with anything I did or didn’t accomplish,” he told me.  “My career and the peak of my career was at a different time then it is now.  I feel like if my career had been what it was six or seven years earlier or five or six years later, I could have done a lot more. Hanging it up at the end of the year would be a lot harder if I didn’t have the school.  It definitely helps with feeling like I wouldn’t be around or that I didn’t accomplish something.  So I’m very happy with what I did.”

Everything ends and begins again in December for Brian.  For his trainees, however, the road to hard work begins with even harder work on the apex of summer.

Brian Fury hard at work at his desk

.Students start the day’s training session by climbing a small set of stairs off to the left and then entering Fury’s office. They make sure to shake hands with everyone who is in the room - proper wrestling etiquette states that you look a person in the eye and greet them with respect, even if it is a stranger such as myself.  This represents a simple, but very important lesson in locker room etiquette, and is the first subject Fury teaches. He greets his students - generally in a positive manner - but his ire is raised when addressing a student who showed up late for last week’s show.

“Ummm, ummm, I don’t ummm…” responded the student, who was ready to finish the sentence with an excuse.

Fury cut him off with a sharp look. He reminded the student that excuses were unacceptable and questioned his desire to progress as a professional. The response from the student was meek, and while Fury remained serious, he also gave the student encouragement.

“Wrestling is something I always wanted to do as soon as I got the chance to,” said Fury. “Whatever I could do, changing my schedule around to make it happen because this is something that I wanted rather than the other way around. I don’t know. If you want something, you do whatever you can to make it happen.”

As students file into the main room, they are greeted with two functioning training rings. On the left is the beginner’s ring, with the advanced students heading to the ring on the right. There is a smell of sweat and dust in the air that covers up the many years of hope, success, failure and broken dreams that perforate through the soul of the room. Some of the students stretch half-heartedly while they stand around and talk about what they saw on Monday Night Raw this past week, and a couple others work on their technique for an Irish Whip into the ropes. One sits in the corner with a look on his face like he is about to enter guerrilla warfare. While they all know they’re about to put in a few hours of hard work, the odor left from years gone by are not enough to put a damper on the positive attitude radiating in this training ground.

Before Fury steps foot in the room, it is the supporting staff that enters and makes sure things are in line before the kickoff. First, it’s John Vitale – who the students know as “The Fabulous” Johnny Vegas.  One of the more colorful showmen on the New England independent scene for the past twenty years, Vitale prepares for the training session by strapping on his trusty knee-high white boots colored by wear, tear and a little bit of dirt. Carrying nothing but a smirk on his face and an upbeat enthusiastic energy in his movements, Vitale prepares to hold court in the beginner’s ring. He teaches the basics of professional wrestling. He is joined by Amado Figueroa, aka Sethoran, another longtime veteran of New England independent rings.  Figueroa is the ying to Vitale’s yang. Dressed in a dark cut-off shirt with black boots and long dark hair in a ponytail, Amado carries a hard, tough look on his face as he enters the room, yet it’s offset with an undertone of commitment and an eagerness to help train the next generation.

“Vegas and Amado do a wonderful job with the beginners,” said Ring of Honor star and Academy graduate Donovan Dijak.  “They create a strong fundamental foundation for all new students.”

The praise for the beginner’s ring isn’t limited to graduates, either.

“Johnny V will go very in depth and explain the ins and outs and the whys of things, where Amado is much more straight-forward and direct,” said Brett Vicidomino, 19, a Sophomore at nearby Merrimack College and a student at the Academy for over a year.  “Amado will make you do things over and over and over and make sure you’re doing them right, whereas Johnny is there to explain things in-depth and answer all your questions. They mesh really well when they’re together.”

Amado overlooking students in the beginner’s ring.
Amado overlooking students in the beginner’s ring.

The vibe of the room remains casual as the instructors make their way to individual students to make small talk. Behind them enters Kevin Quinn. The former bodybuilder-turned-referee, standing at 5’7” on a good day, commands the room with his cheery disposition and wiry build that could put him in the running for the most physically fit person in the building. Despite entering the business in November of 2011 at the age of 45, Quinn has turned his passion for the business into an endless pursuit of learning and transitioned into the role of mentor. He has refereed for some of the biggest names in the business, including Kurt Angle, Jushin “Thunder” Liger and Cody Rhodes, yet he carries himself with the class, grace and enthusiasm of a bright-eyed newcomer.

“As far as referees go, whenever we do a match scenario, he's in there,” said Fury. “It’s great for him to be able to talk to some of the newer kids because he’s been around and can kind of guide them through things.”

Unlike in a match, there is no opening bell for class. Sometimes Vitale or Amado will start the class. Most days, like today, it is Fury. He walks in the room staring down at his trusty iPhone. Without looking up, his voice echoes.

“Alright, line up!” he barks.

The students make a single file line across the back wall of the school, with the beginning of the line being the steel steps that lead into the advanced ring. They partner up and begin “Fives,” as one will perform five straight Irish Whips into the ropes while not letting go of the other and then they will switch while still holding onto each other.  The drills are just beginning – next, one student runs the ropes back and forth while the other does a drop down and a leap frog five times in a row, and then they switch. Finally, each student takes a turn running back and forth between two corners while the other student does an up-and-over five times. Some students get in the ring and execute the drills flawlessly. Some students get in there and get it mostly right, with Fury occasionally yelling out critiques sprinkled with colorful language. There are always the handful of students who constantly appear to be on the verge of tripping over their own shadows. That is when the sprinkles of colorful language turn into chunks.

“I try to be a little more of a fatherly figure more than just a wrestling trainer,” Fury shared. “But I’m very intense. I’m very loud and in your face with certain things. When people aren’t getting things or paying attention, I don’t deal well with that. I try to run this very regimented and very sternly.”

While it may be a tight ship when training starts, his work never goes unnoticed by students past or present.

“I've trained with elite trainers across the globe, and Brian is legitimately one of the best,” Dijak said.  “Easily the most underrated trainer today.  He will go down as an all-time great when all is said and done.  His strengths are definitely attention to detail. Brian pays specific attention to the little things that often go unnoticed.  And the most important thing I've learned there is how to be a better person.  Life lessons are the most important lessons of all.”

Some days “Fives” are the only in-ring cardio drills.  Fury intensifies the warmup cardio drills as the week extends and tests students physical abilities as well as their mental toughness. After these are done, Fury gives them a few minutes of recovery before sitting them down in a small series of seats in front of the advanced ring. He looks around at all of his disciples, stroking his beard a few times before pointing at which students he wants in the beginners ring and which students he wants in the advanced ring. It is a process that comes naturally to the veteran.

“I am generally a pretty good judge of work ethic,” said Fury.  “People that are on the edge of that one way or the other, I think I try to motivate them to see what they need to do to really take that extra step. I can usually tell pretty quickly how badly a person wants it. From an e-mail to if and when someone comes and visits the school before I even train them at all, I can tell a lot about a person because I’ve been around it for 17-plus years.”

From current WWE superstar Sasha Banks (who Fury still refers to as “Mercedes,” her independent name in the New England circuit), to Dijak – all the way down to the 5’7” tattooed female student that looks like a punk rock version of Rosie the Riveter and the 5’5”, 125 pound student who is a Charles Manson lookalike – Fury has seen all shapes, sizes and personalities walk through the doors of the school.  As they break off into their groups, this day is no different.

Fury gets ready to split the class between rings.

In the beginner's ring, Vitale and Amado go over things as simple as how to properly lock up to start a match or how to properly take a hip toss. As a wrestling fan, seeing moves like that seem as easy as taking your next breath when, in reality, the things that look the easiest sometimes take the longest to perfect.

In the advanced ring, Fury instructs two students do a training match that has to include an O’Connor roll, a backslide, and a roll-up. He emphasizes that he doesn’t want to see the same thing over and over, nor does he need to see anything overly athletic or full of high risk. After doing their match for almost five minutes, they sit on the apron while Fury critiques what he just witnessed.

“If you don’t believe in everything you’re doing in that ring, why should I as a paying customer believe anything you’re doing?” Fury lamented. “Believe in your character because you ARE your character!”

During the review, Fury will never glow and will rarely give an overly positive piece of feedback beyond saying “that was good.” It’s not coming from a harsh place, rather, it comes from the perspective of trying to correct mistakes rather than ignoring them in favor of positives.

“What I noticed the most about this school, because I’ve been to a few other schools, is that the staff is very hard on you and won’t tell you anything you're doing right,” said Vicidomino. “It’s a ‘Growth Mindset,’ which is what I’ve learned in college.  It’s making sure you have the mindset of always wanting to improve. Never getting this ego and thinking, ‘Oh, I’m good enough, I don’t need to train anymore.’  They instill that you always need to get better and you can get better and to always better your skills. They also don’t focus on the things you're doing right, necessarily, they focus on what you can get better on and improve those.”

After everyone finishes their matches, Fury gets everyone together in an informal huddle to go over the night of training and asks what they think they did wrong and what they need to improve rather than telling them. It is something Fury constantly does from the second training starts to when he walks out the door.

“If you mess up he’ll give you his two cents,” said Joshua Bruns, 23, a 6’5” former standout Offensive Lineman at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. “He lets you evaluate yourself and I think that’s one of the most important things in competitive sports. Then he’ll pick up where you left off if you miss anything. He’ll make sure that once you leave here you know what you did wrong and what you need to improve on.”

As the class concludes, some students stick around to work on things. Some stick around just to chat. Others leave quickly, but always remember to shake everyone’s hand before they leave. It was just one of three training sessions that are run each week at the school. As Fury’s in-ring career comes to an end this December, he plans on making the Academy his focus.

Fury shares a lighter moment with Vicidomino and Bruns.

“I think I’ve done a good job so far with the school not being one-hundred percent my focus, and now I’m ready for the school to grow a lot,” he said. “I have a million and one different ideas in my head, and once I start fleshing them out, it might whittle down to three or four good ones from there.”

For this session, however, any heat that may have left the atmosphere with the setting of the sun hours earlier wasn’t able to diminish the passion or the positive vibes that still remained in the room with the conclusion of class.  Or at least it felt that way.

Important notes for students to remember.
The school’s Wall of Fame in the front entrance.
Fury overlooks training in the advanced ring.
Vicidomino connects with an elbow on Fury.

 

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