Tag: warriors of wrestling

The Renaissance of Andros the Greek

Posted on by Tom Gerbasi

The Twitter bio of Aristidis Marousas, aka Andros the Greek, says it all.

“Corporate Analyst by day. Professional wrestler, aspiring actor/filmmaker/entrepreneur, blogger, bookworm, and overall renaissance man by night.”

That’s a lot to fit into 24 hours a day, but Andros, who returns to the ring this Saturday for the Warriors of Wrestling show in Staten Island, New York, makes it happen. It’s a tribute to parents who instilled in him the value of hard work, even if having a son pursuing a professional wrestling career wasn’t exactly top on their priority list.

In fact, it wasn’t on the list at all.

“Both of my parents are immigrants,” Marousas said. “My dad’s from Greece, my mom’s from Wales, and they never grew up with wrestling, football or any of that stuff. My dad was kind of strict when we were younger, where we could only watch educational programming. So things like wrestling weren’t really allowed.”

Fate had a way of making it all come together though, with the young Marousas accidentally finding a SmackDown event while flipping through channels.

“I still remember it,” he laughs. “It was a fatal four-way on SmackDown. We didn’t have cable, so all I had was UPN and it was Booker T, Undertaker, Eddie Guerrero, and I think JBL. It was the first time I had seen anything like it. I didn’t even know what it was but I was instantly hooked to it.”

From there, Marousas would MacGyver his way around an old television to find any wrestling he could at night, while days in biology class were often spent thinking about storylines and walking down the WWE ramp himself. That hasn’t happened yet, but the rest began taking form years later when, as a college student, he met Will Ferrara through a mutual friend on Facebook, with the Ring of Honor vet recommending the aspiring wrestler look up the Warriors of Wrestling training center.

It was 2012, and Marousas was on his way to fulfilling his dream, even if his parents didn’t know what he was up to.

“The first couple months, I didn’t tell anyone,” he said. “I told my mom first because she’s the most understanding. I don’t even remember how long it took me to finally break it to my dad what I was doing.”

And when he did?

“I think he was shocked,” Marousas said. “It wasn’t something that even registered on his mind. He didn’t even know I liked wrestling. (Laughs) He still isn’t a huge fan of the idea of me doing this, but at the same time, the few times he’s been able to come to the show, he’s always been one of the loudest ones. He gets sucked into it really quickly.”

It’s hard not to, whether you’re eight or 80. And despite school and his other interests, Marousas was determined to ride this until the wheels came off.

“I was the only student for a while and it was me and James (Rudeboy) Riley,” he said. “He really taught me the basics, taught me everything before I had to take a year and a half off (due to work and summer classes). When I came back, Jake (‘Logan Black’ Gomez) had more control of the school. J. George was teaching classes on Wednesday, Jake was teaching on Thursday, Riley was doing Tuesday. Jake has put so much time and effort into making Warriors the school it is today. We have so many students coming in to train now and Jake, (WOW founder) Joey (Bellini), and everybody involved really do a great job. For a school our size, we have such a great education program. It’s really a great environment.”

Yet while most who fall in love with wrestling are content to keep it to a level where they watch all the televised shows, go to matches and read whatever they can about it, there is that segment of the fan base that want to take it further like Marousas did. Why?

“Someone else said this, but I think anyone in this business, and not to get too deep, is broken on some level,” he said. “There’s something wrong with a person who wants to do what we’re doing, whatever it might be.”

“For me, I love storytelling and I always wanted to be a storyteller/entertainer, but it was always suppressed in the house because my parents didn’t come from that background. They came here with $150 between them, and they worked really hard. They had the whole immigrant mentality of you work hard, you go to school, you become a doctor, lawyer or businessman and you do what you can to make enough money that your children can do even better. So the arts were never really fully supported in the house, and I think there was a lot of suppression in myself because of that, but I was always drawn to it. So finally, when I had little glimpses of it, I would try my best to follow it as much as I could, and this avenue really opened for me once my family left down to Virginia.”

With his parents and brother in Virginia while Marousas stayed in New Jersey while attending Rutgers, it was the opportunity he needed to learn the ropes and pay his dues. Today, he’s a rising star in the WOW promotion, with much of his work coming in his tag team with Marcus Marquee, The Perfect Strangers. This avenue has allowed Marousas to stretch out his creative muscles in order to pull off that toughest of tasks — building a connection and creating storylines while not having weekly television spots to do so.

“We decided to make Facebook skits to try to get our characters over,” he said. “We’re serious in the ring but a bit comedic outside, just because of the way our characters interact. We do these sketches so that the Warriors fans and even beyond can get a glimpse of what we’re doing. Plus, you don’t really see that many guys taking advantage of social media in this way. I try to present content that fans will want to watch. And it’s slowly starting to work.”

So now, he’s that guy he wanted to be when he first saw SmackDown. Not bad, Mr. Marousas, not bad at all.

“When that music hits and we pop out of that curtain, it’s hard to believe sometimes,” he said. “I feel like all of us as wrestlers, we get to a point where we sort of take it for granted. But if 12-year-old me would see me right now, he’d slap the crap out of me. It’s a great feeling.”

From the classroom to the ring: Logan Black’s dual life

Posted on by Tom Gerbasi

It may be the biggest spoiler alert in all of professional wrestling. If Logan Black wears a hat on Monday morning, he probably had a rough weekend in the ring.

Then again, the folks that see Black with that hat on know him as Mr. Jake or Jake Gomez, middle school teacher, so they have the back of “The American Nightmare.” And thankfully for the Brooklyn teacher, it’s been that way from the start.

“When I first started out, it’s like anybody starting out with any job,” he said. “It can get scary and everybody’s walking on eggshells to make sure everything’s all right. So I played it real cool. But when I first started, I was doing a lot of hardcore matches, a lot of huge blow offs where everybody was getting color. And this was six or so years ago, before they really calmed a lot of that stuff down, especially in the independents. So I’d come in and I’d have a couple scars on my forehead, but to the credit of the people I work with and the principals, they’re actually pretty lax on dress code, so whenever I would come in with that, I’d have a hat on. So there are little ways to skirt around it or be less noticeable when it comes to that stuff.”

He can’t hide the limping that comes along with the back and knee injuries that are par for the course in the wrestling world, but his students, colleagues and school administrators don’t shy away from the realities of his “other” job. In fact, they embrace it.

“A bunch of the teachers at the school have known me a long time and they’ve come to shows that I’ve done that are local and they’ve worn my t-shirts around the school,” he said. “The dean at the school, whenever we have new kids come in, he’ll tell them I’m a wrestler, so they can’t be messing around. And then during their free time, they (the students) watch my matches and I’ll get hazed by them a little bit afterwards. So they’re very aware of it and they get a kick out of it too.”

Monday morning will likely be a limp around the school day for Black, as he will be wrestling both Friday and Saturday for the New York-based Warriors of Wrestling promotion. On Friday in Brooklyn, it’s a singles match against the Brooklyn Brawler, then on Saturday, it’s off to Staten Island for another night in the ring on a card that will feature former WWE stars Mr. Hughes, Adam Rose and El Torito.

It’s easy enough to describe it as a Jekyll and Hyde existence, and he would agree to an extent, but he also sees some similarities between teaching and wrestling.

“As a teacher, you have to be able to read a classroom, just like as a wrestler you have to be able to read a crowd,” he said. “So understanding how to manage things and also having the ability to switch gears so quickly in terms of a character, and my character specifically, is something any teacher is gonna need to use. But other than that, it’s a complete 180 from sitting down with kids and doing math problems to trying to gouge eyes out.”

He laughs, and it’s clear that when it comes to the squared circle, he’s a lifer. At 29, he’s been doing this for a decade, and since he began training at 19, the goal is the same as it is for anyone who puts on the boots — to make it to the big show. So any time he gets the chance to talk with the stars who come through the WOW promotion, he takes it, and he advises his ring students — who he works with at WOW’s training facility — to do the same.

“That’s the thing I personally make sure I do, and I encourage the younger guys to do it as well,” he said. “If you’re in there with a name, or even a name is there, ask him, ‘Hey, can you watch my match and give me any pointers?’ I wrestled Rhyno earlier this year, and he was so good in terms of every little aspect. He was excellent in terms of just understanding not only how to explain things, but to show me a better way to do things. And whenever I hear any kind of feedback, it’s one of the things I’m going to continue to drill that week in practice and even more weeks further, and I push it along to everybody else so that I’m teaching them that same thing so it’s reinforced in me. And I’ll do the same myself while watching students’ matches.”

And when Black is not in the ring, practicing or grading school work and preparing for the next day of classes, he’s watching wrestling.

“I’m watching everything — old, new — and I like to say that you need to be a sponge in order to anywhere in professional wrestling,” he said. “And there is no correct way to do anything in pro wrestling because what works for one guy doesn’t work for another. The wrong way is when somebody gets hurt, but there is no right way, so I don’t go in there saying, ‘No, this is the only way to do things; you have to do it this way.’ My only way is, protect yourself, protect your opponent and develop what you’re developing. Everybody learns differently and that’s something I use in the classroom as well. You need to work towards the strengths of everybody that you’re in the ring or in a classroom with. You have to be able to modify what you’re doing so that it’s effective for everybody. If you don’t do that, then you end up with people who aren’t going to get it as well as everybody else.”

Given everything going on in his professional life, Black has found that he has little time for a personal one. It’s the sacrifice one makes in this business, and he’s come to accept that to chase after the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, he can’t live what some would call a “normal” life.

“Where could I begin,” he says with a chuckle when asked the sacrifices he’s made to compete in pro wrestling. “Beyond the general health stuff — my knees are a mess, my back is kind of a mess, but that’s the way it’s going to be with any athlete. But girlfriends, friends, I lost a fiancée, everything like that. I’ve missed all types of family functions. I actually missed a wedding this past weekend and I’m kind of out of the loop with the general world and it’s one of those things where only other wrestlers can understand. And I guess it’s why I understand why so many wrestlers will date within the business because it’s people who understand that lifestyle, that nomadic lifestyle of finding out two days in advance that I need to be four states over this weekend, so it’s time to pack up and go. It’s really hard to have anything traditional with anybody in your life — friends, family, spouses — when it comes to independent wrestling, and professional wrestling in general, because it thrives on chaos. You need to be able to get up and go at any point.”

He isn’t complaining though. He knows it’s part of the gig, and when the last school bell rings for the weeks, he’s not Jake Gomez anymore. He’s “The American Nightmare,” Logan Black.

“That’s how I’ve modeled my life,” he said. “I’m living minute to minute. I’m waiting on other people to give me a heads up on what day this booking is or where I’m going for this or where there’s a seminar where I can up my game and make some contacts. I’ve modeled my life around it. And that’s where teaching really comes in handy, because I’m out of work at three o’clock on Friday. Anywhere I need to go, I can make that work. I’m very lucky and very privileged with every opportunity I’ve had and it only makes me want more opportunities to still make the most of everything that I’ve got.”

And bottom line, when his music hits and the curtain opens for him to make that walk, it’s all worth it.

“I think that’s what keeps a lot of guys in wrestling way longer than they physically should be — it’s that feeling,” Black said. “And if anybody can explain it to you, I would love for them to explain it to me as well. (Laughs) It’s a level of euphoria that you really can’t explain. I can only speak for myself when I say that when it comes to being that kid in the crowd, I never forget that. I never forget paying money to go to the Elk’s Lodge in Queens to go see ECW shows and getting beer spilled on me at 10 years old and the guys in front of me and in back of me are swinging at each other over me, my brother and my mother. I never forget that and these are fond memories and they only made me love wrestling that much more. I wrote essays in elementary school about doing this, so the dream certainly isn’t over for me.”

So it’s cool for his students to write the same essays?

He laughs.

“I’m okay with it as long as they’re not trying moves on each other.”

Warriors of Wrestling owner Joe Bellini on nine years in business

Posted on by Tom Gerbasi

Image: Sulaiman Larokko, ReviewFix

Columbus Day was a holiday for some. Not for Joe Bellini. The owner of the east coast’s Warriors of Wrestling was preparing for a hectic week that will see him put on shows this Friday and Saturday in Brooklyn and Staten Island, respectively, while also fitting in a trip to the Legends of the Ring fan fest in Monroe, New Jersey on Saturday morning.

Guess he couldn’t fit in something else for Sunday?

“Football’s on Sunday,” he laughs.

So what does the week hold for Bellini, who’s also been known to take part in the ring action himself as Joey B?

“This one’s gonna be a little different because it’s a Friday,” he said. “Normally on Friday I get everything prepped. I get my cameras ready, make sure my batteries are charged, I go to the bank and get everybody’s pay and all that stuff. Then I go to Costco and get the concessions. But this week is a little different. We’ve got the school that’s open on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, so today I’m kind of relaxing. I’m doing some minor stuff, getting everything ready for me to do during the week. Thursday we’re going to load up the truck because the Fun Station where we do our shows is a haunted house right now.”

Fun Station USA in Staten Island is the unofficial home base for Bellini’s promotion, which will celebrate its ninth year in operation this December. An arcade with rides for kids and a batting cage, it also houses the Warriors of Wrestling training facility, and several months a year, Bellini and company pushes the ring onto the basketball court and puts on action-packed shows that attract fans from around the New York City area.

Featuring talent home grown from their training program, as well as local indie wrestlers and a revolving array of “name” wrestlers that used to compete in WWE, TNA and other well-known promotions, WOW has carved out a niche by being consistent in its operation and by giving fans their money’s worth every time out.

“We care about the fans,” Bellini said. “We don’t like to insult them. First of all, I try to keep what I advertise, as far as matches or names, and I try to always make sure they show up. They don’t always do that, and we go out and apologize for it and we feel bad. We also try to keep storylines, so if a fan’s coming back to see what happens next, we want to make sure that we give them that.”

It’s not easy to keep it all running as smoothly as it appears to be running, and at this level there are usually more headaches than days of peace. Bellini says with pride that he’s only had to cancel one show over the last nine years, and that was due to Hurricane Sandy. But ask him why he still does it, and he laughs.

“I don’t even know anymore. I really don’t. I have a normal job, I work overnight in the city, and that’s what pays my bills.”

He pauses to ponder the question again, and he then finds his answer.

“This is fun for me.”

And it’s fun for the fans that come out to cheer on their local heroes and boo the villains. A night at the WOW events will see the wrestlers come out to meet and greet fans, the celebrity guests doing the same, and for those who want a deeper experience, videos on the promotion’s YouTube channel can follow along with the storyline’s centering on the show’s in house talent.

“We have a good following on there, and if you watch Raw that’s what it is [storyline driven],” he said. “WWE is the number one company and we kind of want to emulate what they’re doing.”

That can be difficult to do without a television presence every week, but Bellini and company do their best to make it work.

“You always need to have the guys be reliable to be there,” he said. “And especially if we’re going to put a belt on somebody, we want to make sure they’re going to make our shows. So we have that conversation with them, and I would like to think that at this stage of the game, everybody is smart enough to know that. I have a pretty good contingency with guys showing up regularly. And if they always choose somebody else over me, I don’t use them.”

Yet perhaps the biggest takeaway from seeing a WOW show is the looks on the faces of the kids in attendance. This is where they get hooked. Sure, it’s nice to see WWE or TNA on television, but to see wrestling in person, that’s a whole different animal. And maybe that’s the real reason Bellini does this. To see those looks.

“I do see it the night of, even though I’m running around,” he said. “But I also edit all the shows and I always watch the fans’ reaction. Jake [Gomez, aka Logan Black] is more in tune to what’s going on bell to bell, but the five to seven-year-old doesn’t care about that. I don’t want bad wrestling in my ring, but I want entertainment. And the five-year-old doesn’t care about a five star match. He cares about being entertained and I’ll always rewind over and over to see the faces of the kids, and the adults too.”

He tells the story of one loyal WOW fan.

“There’s one kid who’s been coming for years,” he said. “He used to come with his mom at first and he wouldn’t come in. He would hold his head because either the music or the banging of the mat was too loud, and he would stay out near the bathroom area and just look in. But as the months went on, he would slowly come in. Now he’s front row, he’s hugging everybody and slapping hands. So I’d like to think we contributed to maybe helping this kid out a little bit by helping him come out of his shell.”

Joe Bellini is as old school and no nonsense as they come. But he’s also got a heart, and it’s still a hundred percent in wrestling.