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| Shark Boy has bite in his wrestling arsenal |
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| Shark Boy of the Total Nonstop Action (TNA) family was a winner over Andrew Davis during last Thursday night’s Great Canadian Wrestling (GCW) show at the Oshawa Legion Hall. |
By Wally Donaldson The Oshawa Express The entertainment that is professional wrestling can at times be interrupted by a heavy dose of reality as Dean Roll unceremoniously discovered almost three months ago. While captivating a crowd in Orlando, Florida, Roll - coined as Shark Boy in Total Nonstop Action (TNA) wrestling - realized the apartment he calls home in Middletown, Ohio was up in flames.“I just got back to the dressing room and I noticed on my cell phone there was voicemail for me,” the 34- year-old native of Austin, Texas recalls.“It was a friend informing me that my apartment and seven others in this complex were on fire. I knew this was nothing to joke about, so it had to be true. I mean, this was actually going on while I was in the ring. “It was an electrical fire and mine got the worst of it because it started above my place. I lost a lot but, thankfully, I had insurance. TNA tried to switch my travel, but it wasn’t a convenient flight. I wound up having to wait until the next morning. It was a long trip home, I can tell ya.” Roll’s flight to success has also been a steady climb from his beginnings under the tutorship of Les Thatcher in the Heartland Wrestling Association to World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and certainly TNA where he enjoys most of his good fortune.“It really has been an interesting ride for me,” beamed Roll during Thursday’s Great Canadian Wrestling (GCW) show at the Oshawa Legion Hall.“It’s kind of feast or famine. I’m always on the go or there is a lengthy layoff. I’m actually coming off a layoff and my schedule is picking up again. That’s the nature of the business.” Roll did hear at one point from the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), but it was at a time when the upstart TNA was flexing its wings six years ago. A healthy contract was offered to him by TNA, which prohibited him from performing anytime with the WWE. From his beginnings as the masked El Piranha to his registered trademark as Shark Boy, Roll has been able to live out a dream. “I like the small venues, especially like GCW, because you get an opportunity to meet people. That’s not the way it is in the big shows. You’re back stage the whole time, you go out, do your match and you go right back. You really don’t get to interact with the people. |
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Being here (with GCW) is really cool,”
he says.
Roll was at one point looking for a shtick
he could call his very own during the mid-
90s and a tune swam right into his living
room.“I heard a song called ‘I Come From The
Water’ by the Toadies. It made me think it
would be cool to be a super hero wrestler
that comes from the water to fight the bad
guy. The song inspired the whole thing,”
recalls Roll.
Roll used his Shark Boy persona to its
ultimate, especially during the late ‘90s
when featured on ABC’s 20/20, hihglighting
professional wrestling and on the Discovery
Channel as part of the annual Shark Week. |
©2009 Dowellman Publishing Corp, All Rights Reserved
