The Full Nelson: The Retirement Edition
by classychrisnelson on January 29th, 2011, 11:46 pm

Hello to all,

It has been about a month since I have written anything about the wrestling business due to holidays and family gatherings and whatnot. I have been pretty busy dealing with and living my “Real Life” as of late so I have not given wrestling too much of a thought as of recent.

I know that the word has spread that Vito and myself are officially retired from Professional Wrestling as active wrestlers. This piece of information is 100% true. Vito and I have been kicking around the idea of an actual retirement for quite a while now. We had both decided that 2010 would be our final year no matter what. When you attempt to get out of wrestling that is when wrestling pulls you back in and won’t let you go. Once wrestling is in your bolld, you are addicted, period, bottom line. There is no escape….or is there?

Even though we planned on being done by December 2010, as usual, something cool and good paying came our way and that deterred us from pulling the plug once again. We had about 5 matches planned between January and May for extremely great pay and hotels for each event. That is what is in our “Contract” for us to get in the ring. Good pay and a hotel. Nothing more, nothing less. Much to our surprise, each promoter met our price and our hotel agreement, so we decided to go ahead and wrestle these upcoming matches. The shoot of the matter is that neither one of us should be anywhere near a ring let alone actually wrestling in one. Both Vito and myself have missing disks in out back, disk herniations, spondeolesthesis’, and our list of injuries goes on and on and on. However, we adjusted out plans once again and changed our date of departure from wrestling until 2012. Little did we know that about 1 week after that the decision was made to continue, we would be done for good. Done I tell you, done!

2011 was going to be a year of doing shows we wanted to do and making the money we wanted to make. everything was going as planned until our pasts caught up with us (Me Especially). Long story short, last Tuesday I had a grand mal seizure which put me in the hospital via ambulance from my house. One minute I was fine, having dinner with my wife and discussing our days at work. The next thing I remember was waking up to 4 Paramedics standing over me attempting to put me in a neck brace and on a backboard. I was having no part of that so I walked to the ambulance and went to the hospital. After many hours and many tests it was determined that my seizure was caused by a “Perfect Storm” of bad events and bad choices on my behalf.

First off, I was extremely dehydrated for some reason. Due to my work schedule last week, I was also exhausted and had not had much sleep. When those things were combined with the head trauma I have received from 20 years of professional wrestling, everything created a massive seizure that could have ended me for good. Thank God my dear friend Chuck, former wrestling manager “The Candieman”, was at my house along with my wife. She called 911 and Chuck, who is a retired Paramedic, kept me down and calm until 911 arrived. Needless to say, it scared the shit out of me, my wife and Chuck. When I called Vito the next morning we both agreed that this was the final straw in my / our career. It’s time to put our career’s out to pasture to graze and eventually die away. Wednesday morning it finally hit me for real that I was never going to step into a ring again as a wrestler. Honestly, I am ok with that now, I really am!

I accomplished everything that I wanted to in pro wrestling. All I have left to do now is to write the book Vito and I have been discussing writing for the last 2 or 3 years. The interest in there from the publishing company, so I think it is time to start rolling with it. Personally, I worked for World Championship Wrestling, WWF and the AWF. I wrestled on every island from the Bahamas to South America and all over the United States. I was also fortunate enough to hold the National Wrestling Alliance World Tag Straps 3 times. I wrestled some of the best wrestlers in the World and had the respect from the World Championship Wrestling and WWF offices. They knew if they put me in a match, I would get the job done the way they wanted it done. For me, that was the ultimate compliment. I worked for the “Big 2″ from 1993-2002 as a regular “Jobber”. I wrestled the best of the best from HHH, Terry Funk, The British Bulldog, Vader, Rick Rude, The Steiner Brothers, The Nasty Boys, The Honky Tonk Man, Kamala, Kevin Sullivan, Alex Wright, Lex Luger….the list is endless, it really is. Point being, I had a great career!

I would like to thank a few people who were instrumental in helping me achieve my goals in wrestling. Since I was 7 years old, all I wanted to be was a pro wrestler. Look Mom, I made it, had a great career and I am still alive!!!!! Seriously and in no particular order, The Cuban Assassin, Frankie Reyes, Al Hardimon, Cliff Anderson, Howard Brody, Bill Brown, Bill Behrens, Kevin Kelly, Dennis Allen, Ron Neimi, The Candieman, Frenchy Martin, Jimmy Del Ray, Bob Cook, Shane and Angela Shank and many more! There are too many people to thank for me to name here, but you know who you are and I love and appreciate you all and what you have done for me / us over our career.

A very special thank you goes to Randy Hogan and Buddy Valentine. These men trained me how to work and got my foot in the door for me in World Championship Wrestling which started the ball rolling in my career. Randy bought me my first pair of boots (Which I still wear today) and my first ring attire. Randy taught me the moves and how to be a babyface, Buddy taught me how to be the top heel in Florida and how to work like a mother fucker! To both of these men, I am forever greatful. I love you both so very much. You were both like Dads to me over the years!

Finally I would like to thank Jimmy Del Ray, Frankie Reyes, Howard Brody and Vito DeNucci for the best couple of years of my life. Howard lobbied for us to get the National Wrestling Alliance Straps, as did Frankie. Jimmy taught Vito and myself how to be a unit and work like a tag team should work. Frankie, Howard and Jimmy changed my life forever and for that I am 1000% thankful. As for Vito DeNucci, words cannot express how I feel about Vito. The man literally saved my life in several different ways. Vito never gave up on me, even when I was at my lowest point and didn’t care anymore because I was heartbroken. I will never be able to repay you, Vito, but you know that I am there for you at the drop of a hat, my friend!

I will be writing more in the next couple of days because I have more people to thank as well as some advise for the up and comers in this business. If they listen, I can help. Until then, Thank you and I love you all~

Chris Nelson