KEVIN KNIGHT-CAMP IWF IN NUTLEY SUN NEWSPAPER
- 07/08/2005 (1:34:24 am)
- Georgiann Makropoulos
From Emcee to Businessman, Nutleyite Trains Wrestlers for Big Time
Part-time Job Leads to Career as Wrestler, Wrestling School Founder for Nutleyite
Independent Wrestling Federation
www.WrestlingIWF.com
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www.WrestlingIWF.com
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Nutley Sun Newspaper, Thursday, July 7, 2005
From Emcee to Businessman, Nutleyite Trains Wrestlers for Big Time
Part-time Job Leads to Career as Wrestler, Wrestling School Founder for Nutleyite
By Brian Smith
of Nutley Sun
(NUTLEY, NJ)- While the moves in wrestling leagues such as the WWE are staged and the outcomes predetermined, the effort and training a wrestler must put in to arrive on wrestling's biggest stage are anything but easy.
With approximately 100 wrestlers on the WWE's roster, professional wrestling is one of the hardest "sports" to break into, real or fake. One place a wrestler can cut his teeth with the hopes of making it to the big-time is Nutley native Kevin Knight's Camp IWF Pro Wrestling Training Program in West Paterson, NJ.
Knight, 31, has operated the program for six years and in addition to training wrestlers, he is also the owner of the Independent Wrestling Federation that has events in its home center in West Paterson and other high schools and recreation centers in the state. The IWF has belt holders within its federation and holds from 28 to 30 events each year.
Knight got into wrestling 10 years ago and like many people, used one job as a springboard into another. Knight was a radio and television major at William Paterson University and while there he did sports and news for WGHT 1500 AM in the mornings. The station was given tickets to wrestling events similar to the ones his IWF now holds and it was Knight's job to "hype up the crowd" before the events. While Knight enjoyed watching wrestling, he never thought it would lead to a career in it.
"The promoters saw the enthusiasm I had in getting the crowd involved, saw I was relatively tall and asked me if I wanted to get involved," Knight said. "I said 'sure' and there is where it all started."
Knight trained briefly and started organizing and wrestling in several events at Nutley High School and the Nutley Recreation Center. While signing autographs after the matches, children, young adults and even adults would ask Knight how to get involved in wrestling. Knight was intrigued by the numbers of inquiries and began planning and saving.
"People would ask me how to get started and most of the schools I knew of were dirty and run by sleazy characters so I started planning to open up a school," Knight said. "It took about four years of saving money but wrestling was popular when we opened and we are still doing well now."
Wrestlers are enrolled in a 10-month program with four session each week and aren't required to attend each session but the ones that are serious will take full advantage. The first stage of training includes basic moves and falls but after that, Knight and his students focus on building characters and their personalities.
"Wrestling is 50 percent athleticism and 50 percent personality and character development," Knight said. "You also have to have a positive attitude towards what you are doing or you aren't going to go anywhere."
The characters in wrestling today area based more in reality because of the boom of reality television shows on the air today. In the past, larger-than-life figures like Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant in the 80s were the lifeblood in the WWE and the trend continued into the 90s with wrestlers like Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock.
While wrestlers today are still immense in physique, their names and personalties appeal more to the reality-based viewing audience with names like John Cena and Shawn Michaels. The WWE itself is down in popularity but Knight knows wrestling follows trends like any other sport.
"There is no new big star like The Rock or Hulk in wrestling right now but it is cyclical," Knight said. "The NBA is going through the same thing with Shaq (O'Neal) getting older and Kobe Bryant running into legal problems, but all it takes is someone like LeBron James to become the next superstar and basketball will be fine. Wrestling is looking for that new star too."
Even with the WWE's popularity down, Knight's training programs are still flourishing. He runs clinics for teenagers, and has events at the IWF's home arena this summer and will have two on the road at towns like Aberdeen and Medford in New Jersey next month. The IWF's motto is "Quality Entertainment in a Family Atmosphere" and a lot of what goes into the word family is keeping down the costs.
"We are going to make sure a family will have a good time at our events but also be able to afford it," Knight said. "That is a big draw for us and what makes what we do appealing."
A big appeal for prospective wrestlers to enter the IWF training program is a chance to wrestle in the WWE. Of the 250 wrestlers that have trained in the program, 14 including Knight himself (and Roman, Fred Sampson, Biggie Biggs, Hadrian, Dawn Marie, Shawn Donavan, Travis Blake, Aaron Stride, Shane O'Brien, Damian Adams, Josh Daniels, Rob Eckos and Brandon Young) have appeared in some capacity in the WWE. Knight wrestled in a six minute bout at Madison Square Garden with A-Train in 2003 and other wrestlers from IWF have appeared in WrestleMania XX and events like Raw and SmackDown!
"Any time the WWE is filming on the East Coast they contact us for wrestlers to wrestle or use us as actors in skits," Knight said. "They know the product they are getting when they call one of our wrestlers and it's also great for my training program because it gives us the publicity of wrestling or performing at the highest level of professional wrestling."
With six years under his belt (currently the IWF Tag Team Champion), Knight will continue the program as long as it is successful.
"I never would have thought I'd be doing this 10 or 11 years ago," Knight said. "But I'm always excited to see which direction wrestling will take me and it's been great so far!
From Emcee to Businessman, Nutleyite Trains Wrestlers for Big Time
Part-time Job Leads to Career as Wrestler, Wrestling School Founder for Nutleyite
By Brian Smith
of Nutley Sun
(NUTLEY, NJ)- While the moves in wrestling leagues such as the WWE are staged and the outcomes predetermined, the effort and training a wrestler must put in to arrive on wrestling's biggest stage are anything but easy.
With approximately 100 wrestlers on the WWE's roster, professional wrestling is one of the hardest "sports" to break into, real or fake. One place a wrestler can cut his teeth with the hopes of making it to the big-time is Nutley native Kevin Knight's Camp IWF Pro Wrestling Training Program in West Paterson, NJ.
Knight, 31, has operated the program for six years and in addition to training wrestlers, he is also the owner of the Independent Wrestling Federation that has events in its home center in West Paterson and other high schools and recreation centers in the state. The IWF has belt holders within its federation and holds from 28 to 30 events each year.
Knight got into wrestling 10 years ago and like many people, used one job as a springboard into another. Knight was a radio and television major at William Paterson University and while there he did sports and news for WGHT 1500 AM in the mornings. The station was given tickets to wrestling events similar to the ones his IWF now holds and it was Knight's job to "hype up the crowd" before the events. While Knight enjoyed watching wrestling, he never thought it would lead to a career in it.
"The promoters saw the enthusiasm I had in getting the crowd involved, saw I was relatively tall and asked me if I wanted to get involved," Knight said. "I said 'sure' and there is where it all started."
Knight trained briefly and started organizing and wrestling in several events at Nutley High School and the Nutley Recreation Center. While signing autographs after the matches, children, young adults and even adults would ask Knight how to get involved in wrestling. Knight was intrigued by the numbers of inquiries and began planning and saving.
"People would ask me how to get started and most of the schools I knew of were dirty and run by sleazy characters so I started planning to open up a school," Knight said. "It took about four years of saving money but wrestling was popular when we opened and we are still doing well now."
Wrestlers are enrolled in a 10-month program with four session each week and aren't required to attend each session but the ones that are serious will take full advantage. The first stage of training includes basic moves and falls but after that, Knight and his students focus on building characters and their personalities.
"Wrestling is 50 percent athleticism and 50 percent personality and character development," Knight said. "You also have to have a positive attitude towards what you are doing or you aren't going to go anywhere."
The characters in wrestling today area based more in reality because of the boom of reality television shows on the air today. In the past, larger-than-life figures like Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant in the 80s were the lifeblood in the WWE and the trend continued into the 90s with wrestlers like Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock.
While wrestlers today are still immense in physique, their names and personalties appeal more to the reality-based viewing audience with names like John Cena and Shawn Michaels. The WWE itself is down in popularity but Knight knows wrestling follows trends like any other sport.
"There is no new big star like The Rock or Hulk in wrestling right now but it is cyclical," Knight said. "The NBA is going through the same thing with Shaq (O'Neal) getting older and Kobe Bryant running into legal problems, but all it takes is someone like LeBron James to become the next superstar and basketball will be fine. Wrestling is looking for that new star too."
Even with the WWE's popularity down, Knight's training programs are still flourishing. He runs clinics for teenagers, and has events at the IWF's home arena this summer and will have two on the road at towns like Aberdeen and Medford in New Jersey next month. The IWF's motto is "Quality Entertainment in a Family Atmosphere" and a lot of what goes into the word family is keeping down the costs.
"We are going to make sure a family will have a good time at our events but also be able to afford it," Knight said. "That is a big draw for us and what makes what we do appealing."
A big appeal for prospective wrestlers to enter the IWF training program is a chance to wrestle in the WWE. Of the 250 wrestlers that have trained in the program, 14 including Knight himself (and Roman, Fred Sampson, Biggie Biggs, Hadrian, Dawn Marie, Shawn Donavan, Travis Blake, Aaron Stride, Shane O'Brien, Damian Adams, Josh Daniels, Rob Eckos and Brandon Young) have appeared in some capacity in the WWE. Knight wrestled in a six minute bout at Madison Square Garden with A-Train in 2003 and other wrestlers from IWF have appeared in WrestleMania XX and events like Raw and SmackDown!
"Any time the WWE is filming on the East Coast they contact us for wrestlers to wrestle or use us as actors in skits," Knight said. "They know the product they are getting when they call one of our wrestlers and it's also great for my training program because it gives us the publicity of wrestling or performing at the highest level of professional wrestling."
With six years under his belt (currently the IWF Tag Team Champion), Knight will continue the program as long as it is successful.
"I never would have thought I'd be doing this 10 or 11 years ago," Knight said. "But I'm always excited to see which direction wrestling will take me and it's been great so far!
For more Independent Wrestling Federation or Camp IWF wrestling school information, call 973-345-7745 or visit www.WrestlingIWF.com.
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