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| Scott D'Amore. |
Windsor's Scott D'Amore is
on the verge of bigger things. He just has to get his papers in order.
He was trained by Doug Chevalier in 1991, and
has a winning debut June 14, 1992 in Amherstburg, Ontario against Otis Apollo.
In June 1993, he started with WCW --
a gig that lasted until early 1996 when he "got kicked out the United States" because his working visa was never put in place.
"I was just TV talent for them, or enhancement personnel as they call it," said D'Amore in an interview with SLAM!
Wrestling. He jobbed to many of the big stars. His biggest win was against Diamond Dallas Page: "It sounds big now, wasn't
that big back then."
D'Amore tutored under WCW Power Plant main guy Jody Hamilton, and learned tons about "corporate
wrestling." He booked other jobbers, and helped them out where he could.
"At the time when I started with them, I
was 18 years old," said D'Amore. "I wanted to get my fingers into as much as I could, especially at that young age."
During
his WCW days, he also did spot shows for Teen Pro Wrestling in Ontario, Border City Wrestling in southern Ontario, and indies
in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana.
But that all came to a "screetching halt" when he couldn't work in the U.S. anymore.
So
D'Amore went to Japan for WAR, did eight weeks in England with the English Wrestling Federation and in September- October
1995, he was in Germany for the World Cup of Wrestling. He has also done shows for Tony Condello in Winnipeg, and
Emile Dupre in Atlantic Grand Prix.
In early 1998, he had a tryout with ECW, but is wary of talking it up too much. "I now know
the deal. I won't wrestle in the U.S. without papers."
He was leery of ECW at first.
"I wasn't even going
to go to the tryout when [ECW] called because I just could not see my style AT ALL with anything I'd ever heard of them doing.
I had never followed it. When I got asked to go there I had really no interest. When I heard of ECW I thought of blood and
guts and getting choke-slammed through 11 tables, hitting each other with all types of furniture. And Al Snow, actually, I
called him because he played a big part in breaking me into the business. .. I talked with him about it.
'Look', he
said, 'they don't force anybody to do any style they don't like to do. They have their guys that brawl, they have their guys
that do all the crazy stuff, they have the guys who are high-flyers, and if you're a wrestler, they'll let you wrestle.'"
At the tryout, he wrestled Chris Chetti, and didn't touch the ropes for seven to eight minutes, doing "reversals,
takeovers, doing everything you could that nobody does anymore."
That fit in well with his style, which he describes
as "kind of a straight-ahead, technically sound style. I can, and do, incorporate high-flying or high spots here or there.
But I prefer to stick to the mat. I think I'm as thorough on the mat as just about any wrestler out there. I would guess,
I won't put myself on par with them, but I would say there are a couple of guys out there who's style I try to emulate, which
would be the Bret Hart, Chris Benoit, Dean Malenko mold. I think Dean has one of the nicest styles out there. I love to chain
wrestle and I'm pretty confident I know as many moves and reversals as just about anybody out there."
Despite his
affection for the technical wrestling, he has had two forays into gimmick wrestling.
In late 1995, he created Gross
Misconduct -- "a hockey tag team." He was Scott Hunter, and his partner was Dave Clark. A short time later, the WWF came out
with The Goon, Bill Irwin dressed in hockey gear as a pro wrestler. "It was very short-lived, which I was disappointed at,"
said D'Amore. "As soon as they established it, I had a lawsuit ready ... Once I saw they put it on Bill Irwin, I knew it wouldn't
[take off]"
In 1997, he took a different sport into the ring, and Chip Birdy, "a golfing wrestler," came and went.
D'Amore, who trains wrestlers at the Border City Wrestling school in Windsor, is quick to credit those who helped
him.
"Doug Chevalier trained me, [Irish] Mickey Doyle broke me in. Because Mickey's the one who took me around to
different cards in Michigan, Ohio and Indiana and all these places and got me booked wrestling. He's the guy who set me up
to go to the WWF [where he did a few TVs]. He's the guy who got me the connection to WCW.
"If Doug trained me, Mickey
broke me in, Al [Snow] taught me a lot of the wrestling that I know. I wrestled him a ton when I started, which was a great
opportunity. Long before anyone knew who Al Snow was, he was one of the best out there ... He taught me when to do what. And
how to listen to the crowd. How to get more out of less."
D'Amore also learned a lot from Jody Hamilton down at WCW,
and learned how to produce a TV show. That came in handy in Border City Wrestling, where he produced their TV show for three
years.
For the last couple of years, D'Amore has been a regular on the Windsor Lancers CIAU football team as a noseguard
and long snapper. If the CFL or NFL came calling, he said that he would investigate, but that wrestling is his "first love".
By
GREG OLIVER, SLAM! Sports
