![]() “I packed up into a little Toyota Tercel and drove cross country in less than 48 hours,” he said.Īfter settling down in Long Island, N.Y., in 1996, Hyson began studying his craft at the House of Hardcore. Tazz, head of ECW’s House of Hardcore training school, saw something in Hyson’s reel and asked Hyson if he was willing to head back east and join ECW. While WWE or WCW didn’t come calling, the outlaws of sports-entertainment did. ![]() He assembled a highlight reel of his best work and sent it off to every major promotion in the United States and Japan, hoping to catch on somewhere. Goliath” aspect quickly became his hook in an industry that was short on small competitors. Hyson competed as himself on the California independent scene for several years, taking on much larger opponents. I guess I did well and after a few months, the head trainer said ‘We’re going to make a wrestler out of you.’ ” “I managed to hang with the big guys and excel,” he said. The advertisement was for what would become the APW wrestling school, also featured in "Beyond The Mat." Though he thought someone of his stature would be best used as a referee or manager, Hyson’s ability in the ring convinced his trainers otherwise. “So I said ‘What the hell? I’ll give it a shot.’ ” “I didn’t have any friends, I didn’t know anyone, I had no social life,” Hyson remembered. Hyson quickly jotted down the training center’s information, making a hasty decision to start working toward his dream. “I was watching Saturday morning wrestling when a commercial came on, asking ‘Do you want to be a pro wrestler?’ ” he recalled. There, he saw a commercial that altered the course of his career. Hyson packed up and left Rhode Island, settling in San Francisco, Calif., around 1992. That habit began soon after his graduation. It became a day job to support my wrestling habit.” “I was a third grade teacher’s aide,” Hyson explained. The film portrayed him as a teacher-turned-grappler, which wasn’t exactly the case. Movie buffs recognize him as the crimson-covered combatant from "Beyond the Mat," quoting Shakespeare after a brutal bout. “I thought my chances were slim.”Īfter graduating from college, Hyson entered a much different environment from the ring: the classroom. “I was a buck forty, a buck fifty, never seemed to be a possibility,” he admitted. However, as he grew older, he realized his size might work against him. Like many children, Hyson grew up dreaming of someday stepping into the squared circle. “He’d just won the title, he was the all-American boy and an amazing scientific wrestler,” Hyson said. The man who would find success as Spike Dudley described Bob Backlund as his earliest hero. ![]() “I just fell in love with it,” he told WWE.com. Hyson grew up in Providence, R.I., watching WWE every Saturday morning and going to shows at Boston Garden. ( CLASSIC PHOTOS | CURRENT PHOTOS | VIDEO PLAYLIST) It’s quite representative of the uphill climb the undersized Matt Hyson had to weather to reach the top of sports-entertainment. ![]() Or you could have us tag up! Plus I think it’s good for James because he sees how everyone is hungry in that locker room and that drives you.Spike Dudley’s in-ring career consistently saw the pint-sized competitor overcome the odds, toppling opponents twice his size. Here’s what he had to say: “That would be fun. – Speaking of James Storm, Rhyno was recently asked in an interview about facing James Storm in NXT. I get so many people all the time saying, “We want to see you and Bray Wyatt go at it on the microphone.” I always say that you never know what’s going to happen in wrestling. And it’s up to what we call “the suits” to make the decision of whether to bring me back to NXT or the WWE main roster. My job is to go out and get myself over, as they say. Below is what he noted: “That’s the million-dollar question. – During an exclusive interview with WWE.com, former TNA World Heavyweight Champion James Storm talked about his NXT debut and when he’s going to wrestle his next match. “If we ever needed Spike, if we ever needed our little brother, if we ever needed the runt of the litter, like I said, he’s no more than a phone call away, and he’d be right there by our side, and I think the WWE Universe would go absolutely crazy to see Bubba, Devon and Spike standing together in the same ring again.”
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