1/11/2024 0 Comments Spike dudley 2016“Everybody remembers the throw, but nobody remembers that I beat the monstrous Bam Bam Bigelow,” he said. And while the image of Dudley crowd surfing around the arena may endure, that’s not the lasting memory in Hyson’s mind. Unwilling to see one of their heroes decimated, the fans passed Spike around on their hands. Bigelow’s aim was off by a few feet, and Dudley went flying into the ECW faithful. Bam Bam pressed Spike over his head and ran toward the ropes, looking as though he was going to hurl his tiny foe to the arena floor. ![]() The Beast from the East tossed Dudley around with ease, resulting in one of the most iconic moments in the promotion’s history. Spike’s first test in ECW came in the form of Bam Bam Bigelow. Thrust into The Land of the Extreme as the runt of Big Daddy Dudley’s diverse litter of children, Spike Dudley refused to be bullied by anyone, from his own brothers, Bubba and D-Von, to the giants who roamed around ECW. “I was supposed to be a little maniac who wouldn’t back down from anyone,” he said. It wasn’t before long that he was stepping through the curtain into the famed ECW Arena in Philadelphia as the character that defined his career, Spike Dudley.Ĭrediting Tazz, Tommy Dreamer and Paul Heyman with conjuring up the Spike persona, Hyson knew what he was charged to do when he hit the ring. ![]() “I packed up into a little Toyota Tercel and drove cross country in less than 48 hours,” he said.Īfter settling down in Long Island, N.Y., in 1996, Hyson began studying his craft at the House of Hardcore. Tazz, head of ECW’s House of Hardcore training school, saw something in Hyson’s reel and asked Hyson if he was willing to head back east and join ECW. While WWE or WCW didn’t come calling, the outlaws of sports-entertainment did. He assembled a highlight reel of his best work and sent it off to every major promotion in the United States and Japan, hoping to catch on somewhere. Goliath” aspect quickly became his hook in an industry that was short on small competitors. Hyson competed as himself on the California independent scene for several years, taking on much larger opponents. I guess I did well and after a few months, the head trainer said ‘We’re going to make a wrestler out of you.’ ” “I managed to hang with the big guys and excel,” he said. The advertisement was for what would become the APW wrestling school, also featured in "Beyond The Mat." Though he thought someone of his stature would be best used as a referee or manager, Hyson’s ability in the ring convinced his trainers otherwise. “So I said ‘What the hell? I’ll give it a shot.’ ” “I didn’t have any friends, I didn’t know anyone, I had no social life,” Hyson remembered. Hyson quickly jotted down the training center’s information, making a hasty decision to start working toward his dream. “I was watching Saturday morning wrestling when a commercial came on, asking ‘Do you want to be a pro wrestler?’ ” he recalled. ![]() There, he saw a commercial that altered the course of his career. Hyson packed up and left Rhode Island, settling in San Francisco, Calif., around 1992. That habit began soon after his graduation. It became a day job to support my wrestling habit.” “I was a third grade teacher’s aide,” Hyson explained. The film portrayed him as a teacher-turned-grappler, which wasn’t exactly the case. Movie buffs recognize him as the crimson-covered combatant from "Beyond the Mat," quoting Shakespeare after a brutal bout. “I thought my chances were slim.”Īfter graduating from college, Hyson entered a much different environment from the ring: the classroom. “I was a buck forty, a buck fifty, never seemed to be a possibility,” he admitted. ![]() However, as he grew older, he realized his size might work against him. Like many children, Hyson grew up dreaming of someday stepping into the squared circle. “He’d just won the title, he was the all-American boy and an amazing scientific wrestler,” Hyson said. The man who would find success as Spike Dudley described Bob Backlund as his earliest hero. “I just fell in love with it,” he told WWE.com. Hyson grew up in Providence, R.I., watching WWE every Saturday morning and going to shows at Boston Garden. ( CLASSIC PHOTOS | CURRENT PHOTOS | VIDEO PLAYLIST) It’s quite representative of the uphill climb the undersized Matt Hyson had to weather to reach the top of sports-entertainment. Spike Dudley’s in-ring career consistently saw the pint-sized competitor overcome the odds, toppling opponents twice his size.
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