Doom: Seeing the world through green tinted glasses

[SWF Fan]

My name is Dewey Cartwright, for those of you unfamiliar with my work I was the man who ghost wrote such books as Professor Nero’s “School Of Wrestling”; “Staying Strong” The Sam Strong Story and The Idaho Punisher’s much appreciated book (and no I’m not gonna reveal what makes them be punished so much, you’re gonna have to read ahead).

 

However it was at the time my latest legend who brought me to where I am today, to writing this for all of you, because when meeting this legend and bringing up the history he was a part of, things unravelled and became known that started a chain of events that pushed the wrestling world back to a golden age almost.

 

My latest project, “The World According to Doom” started back at a USPW live event back in summer 2009, a man I would eternally refer to as Mr Doom out of pure respect sat down with me and began to pass out random thoughts on the world of wrestling, how its changed and how he remembers it. From there; well a book was bound to happen, Mr Doom has a thing about him, a tough working class upbringing which followed on to a rather successful career which stalled in the 80’s, the Corporal was the man you loved to hate, a sympathizer of countries the US should never be with, Doom was a man who if he wasn’t so intimidating would have been chased from buildings and threatened with death.

 

But it was that intimidation that made him such a worthy champion, a reign as Supreme Wrestling Federation’s champion beating one of its prime talents in Micky Starr was recognition of just how much of a badass the man was in the ring. What’s more was that Doom became a champion at the age of just 21 in the SWF, a couple of years after his debut and was one of the brightest sparks in the business, insane size, awesome power, an ability to crush skulls.

 

Where did Doom learn to be such a badass? Try Boston. Try being the final ever champion in a company where being bad, was being good. When people like Wild Man Sullivan, Iron Mike Mulligan, Ed Henson and English Bill Reginald were having arena wild brawls; Doom was being taught to be just as wild, just as vicious.

 

Boston was the thing Doom most fondly remembered, the road stories he told of his short time there, having to fill the gap after the death of Mulligan and so on were touching, a joy to hear but you could see from the glint in his eye that there was something in his mind. His views on the risqué of Supreme and the pure competition aspect of Total were also interesting. He felt that entertainment was needed, with a desire to see a guy win or lose, but to not have to break the barrel in decency to get it.

 

For the next few months we worked the book together, writing down all his old stories, having a laugh with other legends working at USPW at the time like Starr and Sam Strong (still a close personal friend) and despite being a good 10 years younger, I felt like one of the pack. When Doom pulled me aside and asked me to call him John, his real name, for the first time I felt honoured, privileged, appreciated.

 

When he asked me to be on board with a next project of his, I felt inclined to say yes, I’d love to be a part of anything a man like John has done in the business.

 

When he revealed that he was bringing back wrestling to Boston, that Sam liked the idea and saw it as an unofficial development for any stars he may want to use and was willing to help fund some of it; well three things went through my head:

 

1) Running next door to Richard Eisen would not be pretty

2) Running next door to Professor Nero would be pretty

3) It’s time to create a new career of legends

 

BOSTON SHALL RISE AGAIN

 

Dewey Cartwright