Source: The Daily Record
WAYNE — Bryan Bombay said he’s mentally preparing for the pain he’ll endure Saturday during the ladder match at the East Coast Professional Wrestling Arena in the Lake Hiawatha section of Parsippany.
“Especially for the ladder match, you’ve got to prepare for the pain,” Bombay said at Cheeseburger in Paradise on Route 46 before a news conference there Sunday afternoon. “Bombay” is his wrestling name. He said most who know him only know his wrestling name, anyway.
Preston Montgomery, a wrestling manager, said during the news conference the ladder match is “one of the most brutal wrestling matches ever conceived.”
The premise is this: six wrestlers attempt to climb a ladder to get a suitcase dangling above the ring. The suitcase contains a check for $10,000.
“A lot of chaos can happen with that ladder,” said Joe Milone, an ECPW broadcaster who emceed the news conference.
The arena off North Beverwyck Road doubles as a professional wrestling school, owned and run by Gino Caruso, a former professional wrestler. Almost all of the wrestlers in the league graduated from the school, which has been around for more than 14 years, according to the school’s Web site.
Montgomery, in a suit with a purple shirt, purple tie and dark sunglasses, talking loudly into the microphone, said the match will “usher in a new era” for the East Coast Professional Wrestling Showcase.
“If you want to witness history,” he said, “you will get there.”
Victoria Camp, a senior art major and sociology minor at Drew University, was at the conference with her boyfriend, Rickey Page, 24, of Union, who wrestles as Christian Faith.
The couple met at a wrestling show in which Page was wrestling two years ago, she said.
Being a professional wrestler’s girlfriend is “not easy,” Camp said.
She said she travels with him and tells herself he knows what he’s doing, so she doesn’t go crazy with worry that he’ll get seriously injured.
But sometimes she does worry.
“He got lit on fire one time. That made me upset,” she said.
The fire incident happened during a show in Ohio, when his opponents lit a table on fire and threw Page on it, causing Page’s shirt and hair to ignite.
Another time, he was smashed onto his car, which caused his windshield to break, she said.
She also makes his spandex costumes.
“I make the patterns, buy the spandex, cut it out and sew it all together,” she said.
Corvis Fear, a wrestler facing Archadia in one of the several matches on Saturday, said Page’s back has been bothering him. He said that under Page’s green hooded sweatshirt his arms are badly torn up.
“The love that a wrestler has for wrestling is unparalleled,” Fear said.
Fear then pulled up the left sleeve of his dress shirt to reveal a white scar from surgery to insert plates in his arm after he snapped it in multiple places during a match.
He said people say wrestling is fake, but the pain feels real to him. Even the most careful wrestlers damage their bodies over time, he said.
Those who came for the news conference were mostly working with the independent professional wrestling league. Diners seemed entertained by the spectacle of wrestlers taunting their opponents and sometimes threatening them with extreme violence. Some diners clapped. Some yelled out.
Dave Logan, the defending champion, set up a small digital camera on a tripod to film the conference. He was wearing a white shirt and tight, black leather pants.
“The shirt you’re wearing looks like my mother’s curtains,” said Mo Sexton, who is competing in the Showcase championship against Logan. “And those pleather pants — they’re just not working.”
The conference took a turn toward the macabre when Logan called Sexton to the podium and, to his face, threatened to put him in the Canadian-Maple-Lock, his signature move, during Saturday’s match, further damaging Sexton’s ACL, which was apparently injured during a recent match.
“I will rip that ACL out of your knee and wear it around my neck,” he said.
After the conference, he showed a picture explaining what the Canadian-Maple-Lock entails.
“Basically, I get the guy’s leg so he can’t go nowhere, and I wrench back on his neck,” he said.
Giovanny Orozco, 32, of North Caldwell was pleasantly surprised by the press conference. He took his family, all wrestling fans, to Cheeseburger in Paradise for lunch and they ended up watching the press conference.
“I’ve never seen the whole confrontation thing,” he said. “On TV, but never behind the scenes like that.”
Orozco said now that they know about the match this weekend, they might go.
“I love wrestling,” his 9-year-old daughter Karina said, noting that Torrie Wilson and the Undertaker are her favorite wrestlers.
His 15-year-old son Jonathan said he roots for Steve Austin.
Giovanny Orozco said he’s a fan of old-school wrestlers, including Hulk Hogan.
After the conference, Mo Sexton introduced himself to the Orozcos.
“He seemed like a cool guy,” Orozco said.
Milone said the show is meant for all ages and food is available. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.
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