High Impact Wrestling hits the city again Thursday, Feb. 23, and it will offer something special as midget wrestlers will be part of the card.
Headlining the match will be Short Sleeve Sampson from Syracuse, NY.
Sampson said he became involved in the sport later than most, at age 24.
"There was a midget wrestler named Tiny the Terrible, who also lived in my home state. He basically only worked the local independent companies. One night I received a call from him. He had gotten my phone number through a mutual friend. He asked me if I would be interested in wrestling," he told Yorkton This Week via email interview. "I told him that I always thought it would be cool, but I didn't really know how to get into it. Well, after being on the phone with him for what only seemed to be a few minutes, I hung up the phone realizing I just committed to doing a midget tag match with him and two others for a local independent federation which was less than a week and a half away! I didn't have any prior training, I had never been in a ring, and I didn't have any wrestling gear to wear or even a wrestling name."
So Sampson winged it in terms of his first match.
"Before the day of the show I had put together something to wear in the match; a tank top and a pair of jean shorts and with the help of Tiny and my then girlfriend (now wife), we came up with a wrestling name, I would be called Short Sleeve Sampson."
As for the match itself, it sold Sampson on the sport.
"We had the match in front of a sold-out crowd and I can remember feeling the adrenaline throughout my whole body," he said. "It was insane!
"After the show I thanked the promoter for allowing me to be on his show and Tiny for allowing me to work with him. I also told them both that if they ever needed me, I would love to do another show.
"A month later I received a call from Tiny. He said there was another wrestling show coming up. It was for the same promoter and wanted to know if I would want to wrestle him on it. I said 'yes' but I had still not received any training! Well, this show was in front of another sold out crowd and it was just as exciting as the first.
"This second show was on a Saturday night. Sunday night at 10:45 p.m. my phone rang and it was the talent coordinator from WWF. They asked if I would be interested in doing a skit the following night on their WWF Monday Night Raw! So, as anyone else would I said 'yes', hung up the phone, and then changed my underwear."
What followed was a huge thrill, said Sampson.
"So, there I was at their Continental Airlines Arena in the Meadowlands in New Jersey on Monday Night Raw," he said. "The show started and we were right in the beginning. In the ring was Triple H, The Big Show, Shane and Stephanie McMahon and they were having a feud with The Rock, setting up bogus matches for him that would lead them into WrestleMania. So Stephanie announces that they have a handicap match for the Rock to wrestle against at WrestleMania and she announces myself and Tiny! All I can say is Wow! To be on Raw, on live TV, standing in the ring with the wrestlers that I would watch on TV every week; and now I'm here!
"I remember driving home after the show that night with my wife saying 'if I am going to wrestle in this business, then I have to get trained.' That is how I got into wrestling and how Short Sleeve Sampson was created."
That was more than a decade ago now.
"I have been wrestling now for 14 years," said Sampson, adding he always been a fan. "Most of my earliest childhood memories were about wrestling, I was basically raised with wrestling all around me. My grandfather, on my mom's side used to wrestle back in the '60's by the name of Diamond Jim Brady. I can remember going to live wrestling shows when I was really young with my family. Even my grandmother on my dad's side would yell at the TV when watching wrestling telling the 'good guy' to 'do that again (to the bad guy) so I can feel it!'
"Wrestling was all around me and I was a huge fan of wrestling."
Sampson said it has been a challenge to be taken seriously as a wrestler.
"The most difficult aspect for me in this business was as I started to wrestle on more shows and meet more workers, especially more midget workers, I realized that there were a lot of guys that had never been trained and were only in this business because they were a gimmick," he said, adding he had been getting trained and was still training.
"So, I knew that if I was going to make myself and my character stand out from everyone else then I did not want to be recognized as a 'midget wrestler' but rather a 'wrestler who happens to be a midget.'"
Of course fans make the sport the thrill it is for performers like Sampson.
"Fans have always loved wrestling," he said. "The competitiveness of the sport, the hand-to-hand combat; the opportunity to cheer for your hero and boo your villain.
"Even if you go back to the times of the old Roman coliseum when gladiators would fight against other people, animals, or even in chariots, people were drawn to it. They enjoy seeing who will come out as the alpha male or female. If they hate you they will come to see you lose and if they love you they will come to see your hand raised in victory."
Sampson said he is now carving out a solid career in the business.
"I have been blessed to have had many great career highlights in this business," he said. "My most recent was to have been on 'Hulk Hogan's Micro Championship Wrestling' TV show.
"I have also worked for both WWE and TNA where I have done several parodies of popular superstars such as The Rock, The Undertaker, Kurt Angle, and the Motor City Machine Guns. I have also had the opportunity to work for many other great promotions in the U.S. and Canada."
And now the list will include a stop at the Royal Canadian Legion Hall in Yorkton.
"I have had the opportunity to work with HIW several times over the last few years," he said. " I am definitely excited about this tour and it will be a great opportunity for fans to come out and see a great night of live professional wrestling."
