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Donald Bucci, professionally known as "Donnie B" during his time in the Northeastern independent scene, was one of the original trainees at the Iron Mike Sharpe School of Wrestling before becoming one of the top promoters and bookers in New Jersey in the late 1990s and early 200s. Now working in law enforcement, he sent along the following tribute to Sharpe, who passed away over the weekend at the age of 64.
In the Fall of 1990, my brother Mike Bucci (who will be referenced as Nova for the rest of this story as there are FAR too many Mikes) and I, along with our good friend (and diehard Seahawks fan) Rich Lahm walked into a building that would forever change our lives. Richie wanted to be a wrester for as long as we could remember and when we heard the news that a new “Rasslin” school was opening in Bricktown NJ we couldn't wait to check it out. On the very first night we walked in we saw Iron Mike Sharpe standing in the back corner along with his then-partner Tom Rumsby.
It was definitely intimidating to be that close to “a big star” in Mike Sharpe. In our eyes, Sharpe was a “star” because we had seen him hundreds of times on TV growing up and now he was right in front of us. That night Richie joined up and began training just like the other student that was already in the ring. Yes, Sharpe already had a student on his first day, his name was Chris Ford, and you know him as either Crowbar Devon Storm.
Now truth be told, Richie wasn’t 100% committed to what it took so he talked Nova into joining him. At the time Nova said “maybe” and looked at it like joining a gym, a different way to get in shape. He joined and we began going to the school 3-4 times a week. Sharpe and Rumsby tried numerous times to get me to join but I wasn’t interested in getting in the ring. I knew from day one my money and path would never be in a ring.....but outside maybe.
Along this journey (and I apologize if I have missed anyone or get the timelines wrong) we ran across quite the ensemble of characters from Biker Joe Steel, The Psycho Sailors, Bobby Who (Robert Aide), Johnny Handsome (Dan Dubeil) and his brother Spike, Nasty Angie, Hank Cender, Nomad (Sean Boyce), Paul Jones (The Ripper and Strangler), Billy and Todd Mata, Lady Asia (Sue Connelly), Mr. Lucifer, Mike Taris, and Mike Maraldo (Ace Darling). I also met the man I consider to be the best heel manager I ever saw on the indies, Rocco Mazza (aka The Master). On a regular basis, a young wrestler named Jerry Tuite started to train there as well. You may know him better as The Wall. Yes that Wall, from WCW. RIP Jerry.
There was so much talent that came through those doors, it would take hours to do them all justice. I remember one night seeing a young woman with a camcorder filming a young stocky wrestler with a blond flat top who was creating a highlight tape to send to Smoky Mountain Wrestling. His name? Chris Candido and the girl was Tammy Sytch. Like I said, everyone came through those doors.
As we continued our journey, Richie’s came to an end as he quit after realizing it just wasn’t for him. Nova, however, didn’t. In large part, due to Mike Sharpe. He was the driving force behind all of the guys sticking with it. Now, make no mistake. If you did something wrong, Mike would tell you. I can remember him in the ring, night after night locking up with the students and showing them “hands on” the correct way to do things.
At the beginning of each week, Mike would walk around with his receipt book collecting dues from those who owed. It was funny watching some guys scatter like roaches in the light whenever Mike came looking for his tuition money. Truth be told, Mike never really hounded anyone. If you owed, then you paid when you had it. If Mike had one downfall, it was his business sense. Sometimes he was simply too nice and guys took advantage of his kindness. In the end, those guys didn't last long.
As Sharpe's name started to grow as an instructor, more and more people made their way to the infamous school located in the back right corner of the old shopping plaza. A new crop of students came aboard including Matt Storm, Ernest Dade (Ghetto Blaster), Skin Head Steve Hess, Magic, Biggie Biggs, Theodore Eacher (Rick O’Brien), Harry Dyson Jr. (Juggs), Danny Gimondo (The Inferno kid) as well as some unforgettable folks....anyone remember the guy who dressed as a werewolf? Rudy and his hypnotic lullaby? How about seven foot tall Futureshock Neil? Nightmare Eric Walker anyone?
Sharpe would also be responsible for us meeting the group that we consider the true “Brick Clique” even to this day (including Maraldo and Inferno). That group consisted of Rocko Dorsey, Kent "Lupus" Porter, Bobby Milancewich, Mark Melaccio and the one and only Rik Ratchet. I’ll never forget the look on Sharpe's face the night Ratchet came out from the back wearing his “$1,000 robe" that looked like a three year old made it, and started to laugh. It was awesome. Obviously my relationships with some of the above mentioned go far beyond what we had back then and to this day I consider them among my inner circle. I owe that to Mike Sharpe. All of it.
It’s hard to describe the feeling or the atmosphere back then in Sharpe's building. Imagine a place where you could go and be anything you wanted for a few hours. Imagine a place where everyone was working to achieve stardom doing the thing they all grew up watching. Imagine a place where everyone was a brotherhood and we never wanted to be anywhere else but there. If you had a "Sharpe coat", you were somebody. At least in our world.
Eventually, Mike started to run school shows. He knew that in order for the students to get better they needed to perform in front of a live crowd. Every two weeks, Mike started running his shows that drew anywhere from 2-200. Yes I said TWO. There was actually one weekend where we only had two paying customers. ...Biggie Biggs' mom and dad showed up and were the only two in the crowd.
At that time I had started to help Sharpe book the shows along with Bobby Piper and remember some of the guys complaining about the lack of fans that night. Mike looked at them and said, “Well those two paid, so we have to give them a good show” and we did. I never forgot that.
I do have to laugh thinking back to the week before each school show. It would never, ever fail. Everyone would strut around with the attitude of, "I don't care if I win or lose on the show, I just want to work" but come the night of the shows they would be lined up waiting to petition Mike too see if they "were going over" or not. I used to get a real kick out of that. One guy who never complained about what he did whenever he came to work on our shows. Stevie Richards. Imagine that. He drove from Philly and worked whoever and did whatever and never complained. I wonder why he was successful?
Every year we had our big "GSWA Star Wars" show, which to us was our Wrestlemania. There was real sense of accomplishment leading up to and after those shows as the school was packed and everyone had "their working boots on". Few things were as awesome to us as looking out that blue tarp (our curtain) and seeing a full house including the 7-11 ladies in their usual front row seats. The 7-11 ladies were two older woman, who ironically enough, worked at a 7-11, and came to almost every show. They were real life "stunt grannies" who fed the heels heat and cheered the babyfaces. They were outstanding. Perfect fans.
This was the time that “Donnie B. Deviously” was born, again thanks to Sharpe. We had a regular referee who was unable to make it on the night of one of our shows so Sharpe came to me. He said, "If you ref the shows, I’ll let you train here for free." I said "no" to the wrestling part but asked if I could manage instead. He said yes and the rest is what we call history.
On a personal level, the things I learned about working with people, public interaction, public speaking, etc. all came because Mike gave me a chance. I’m forever grateful. As the school progressed, Mike started to put a word in for various promoters around the area as a group of young green horns started to wet their beaks out in the “real world” of paid shows.
It was a much different time then. The business, even on the independent scene, was far more closed off than it would be today. Just by mentioning you were trained by Iron Mike Sharpe would open a lot of doors that would otherwise remain closed. One of the first people we ever worked for as a group was Dino Sanna and I remember Dino saying, "if you guys come from Mike, I use you, you all very good then." Dino had (and still has) a heavy Italian accent.
Mike was also responsible for all the boys getting those TV paydays doing TV whenever WWF came around and needed extras for "enhancement talent." Although these were just "squash matches", everyone that did them did not see them that way. To them , it was huge and it was also a way for Mike to take care of his students and get them a nice payday for the date. I've heard horror stories of guys taking a little off the top from each guy they were responsible for getting booked at WWF TV tapings. Not Mike Sharpe. He never even considered it.
As we branched out on the independent wrestling level business, we all still went to Mike's school as much as we could, but now our weekends were filled with making towns in Rik Ratchet's Ford Probe (racking up those Dino Miles, brother) with Nova forever dreading that, "We'd be late and Dino will fire us!". Ha! Ratchet and I used to purposely get lost just to drive him nuts.
We continued on and Mike did what he could to keep the school going but eventually had to close it in Brick. A few weeks after it closed a group of us, with Mr. Lucifer, retrieved the ring and equipment and relaunched the school in Asbury Park. To me it was never the same as Brick, but Mike did what he could to keep it going. Asbury was also the place where we befriended and got to know "The Power Child" Eric Justice, who stands to this day as one of the nicest, most positive people I've ever been around. That said, I always viewed that time as the "beginning of the end" as about the only good thing to come out of that time was when Rocko Dorsey brought a young Charlie Haas in to check the school out. You can figure out what happened there. He and Russ became superstars.
As I noted earlier, it's impossible to ever duplicate the times we had there. The time when Nova smashed Bobby Who in the head with electronic football game during a hardcore match. The time Cannon, Nova, Nomad and Rocko Dorsey used a piece of gutter and a stop sign (a real one) during a street fight which promoted Sharpe to say afterwards, "Mike this isn't the EC F***ING W!" as he yelled at Nova. The time Nomad came to the ring on a Big Wheel. The time Juggs broke one of the large windows on the store front with Ratchet's ratchet. Yes, that happened. The time we actually built a real life sized Steel cage. That thing was bad ass. The time Skin Head Steve Hess worked Ghetto Blaster in a tar and feather match and was CHEERED during the match. That was odd. Wrestling fans! The time Rik Ratchet and Inferno bumped heads during a match and "switched personalities".... You had to see it live to appreciate it. The time Sharpe did an impromptu run-in on Bobby Who and the crowd went INSANE when he started to light up Who.
Honestly, every day, night, week, there was something memorable going on whether it be in the ring or afterwards at Denny's or the Ocean Queen. Boy did we put down some lemonade at Denny's...free refills!
While others chose different ways to live their lives in their early twenties, we all came together and in a way helped to raise each other. We all answered the same call of this insane wacky business called pro wrestling in which we were lucky enough that our Coach was a man named Iron Mike Sharpe.
To Mike, I will say thanks. Thanks for taking a bunch of untalented, wet behind the ears wannabes and helping to mold them into not only great wrestlers but even better people. I'm proud to say I'm a graduate of Iron Mike Sharpe's School of professional wrestling and more importantly proud to say that I was friends with the man whose name was on the banner.
Iron Mike Sharpe. My friend, my mentor, my family.
Thanks Mike, for everything.
Till I see you again
Donnie B. Deviously
P.S. save me a stick of gum.
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