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Getting Schooled About Pro Wrestling
Professional wrestling was in vogue in the mid-1980s. My group of college friends qualified as “pencil-neck geeks” and we harbored no illusions of ever facing off in the squared circle. We imitated the simplest greco roman grappling holds and mimicked the colorful promos (monologues challenging other performers) and watched the weekly programs and quarterly pay-per-view events.
In 1986, WrestleMania 2 attracted throngs of people to the college’s Student Union, where the video club illegally ran a VHS tape of the PPV on its monitor in the lobby on the Monday after the broadcast.
My crew was acquainted with Harvey, a 6-foot-3, 255-pound power lifter. With his crewcut and black horn-rimmed glasses, Harvey cut a curious, intimidating presence as he crossed the college campus. For comic effect, he liked to speak in a high-pitched squeaking voice, then switch to an evil growl in a split-second, just to freak out strangers and amuse himself.
That afternoon, Harvey surveyed the crowd, listened to their reactions to the matches, assessed the outlandish caricatures on the TV screen, turned to us and declared, “I know what I’m going to do for a living.”
Power lifting is different than bodybuilding. While a bodybuilder has a head-to-toe chiseled physique, a traditional power lifter concerns himself with his core and…
