DC Drake

Every once in a while you need a little more than 10 questions to ask a legend everything you want to. Thus I bring you 11 Questions with DC Drake!!

1. How did you get started in professional wrestling? When was your first match? Who was it against?

I began in professional wrestling in the late 1970s when I enrolled in a professional wrestling school in Jersey City, NJ. The trainer there was Tito Torres who was working as a ‘job boy’ for the WWWF at the time. However, Tito ran his own independent organization at the time called the American Wrestling Federation.

Tito was a very talented and excellent wrestler. The only thing that I feel kept him from advancing in the major organizations was his lack of size. IN my first training session with him, he tied me in knots. This was something I did not expect given my size at the time (255 lbs. And bench pressing 535 lbs.). He taught me a lesson about the sport of professional wrestling and respect for those who participated in it.

2. You had matches with both Jules Strongbow as well as Bruiser Brody. What are some of your memories of those two opponents?

Well, Jules was a great wrestler. When we crossed paths in the National Wrestling Federation in the mid 1980s, it was a feud waiting to happen. He and I wrestled throughout the United States during the heyday of the NWF including multiple cage and dog collar matches. The bloodiest match I had with Jules was in Brick Township, NJ where we were taping the NWF television product.

As far as Bruiser Brody, he was one of the strongest wrestlers I ever faced. When he hit you, he rattled your bones from head to toe. Yet, for all he ferocity in the ring, he was a very classy individual outside of the squared circle. His death occurred when he was embroiled in a feud in NWF rings with his old time nemesis Abdullah the Butcher.

I also had a two year feud with Sgt. Slaughter during the heyday of the NWF. I held the belt there for almost 2 years and faced a great many stars from Jerry Lawler to David Schultz.

3. How did you get involved with the Tri-State Wrestling Alliance? Did you ever think it would grow into something as phenomenal as ECW eventually did?

I had retired from active wrestling after my NWF experience. There were many things that happened there that left a bitter taste in my mouth for professional wrestling. I also was very tired. During my NWF days, I was the booker, writer, and television producer. I spent my off time in studios in New York, Philadelphia and Los Angeles editing tapes to be broadcast on SportsChannels and commercial television in the United States and abroad. I just wanted to return to my counseling profession.

When Tri-State opened, I received a call from Joel Goodhart and asked if I wanted to work some shows. I told him I would but only locally given my disgust with being on the road. As it happened, my first match with them was in Philadelphia with Larry Winters. As our match progressed, we ended up on the balcony level and Larry tossed me from there onto the cement floor. I remember reading in Bill Apter’s column the following month that professional wrestling would be forever changed due to this escalated level of violence.

After this, Larry and I continued our series of wild matches all over the East Coast. Eventually, other wrestlers on Joel’s cards started following our level of intensity and ECW was born. At that time, I was gone due to an injury to my shoulder and back.

Although I am not egotistical enough to believe that it was Larry and I who were responsible for ECW, I am quite confident in saying we inspired it’s creation.

4. On February 25, 1995, you participated in a match that led to one of the greatest angles in ECW history, "The Return of the Funker". How did you feel going into that match? What did you think of the match itself as well as the crowd reaction?

Well, Brett, I had been out of wrestling for at least 3 years when I called the agent for ECW. I wanted to work on some shows but nothing major. At that time I had relocated to New England and was working in the mental health field.

When I entered the ECW arena, it was quite a place. It was electric to walk into and very different from what I had experienced in my career. Going against Foley in my first match back was not something I relished but accepted. I had worked with him many years before that when Domenic DeNucci brought him to a NWF show in northwest Pennsylvania. At that time, he was just getting started in wrestling but it was easy to tell he had a quality unlike anyone else.

Anyway, I started training for that show and then I suffered food poisoning about 6 weeks out and was very ill for about 2 weeks. I then started experiencing severe dizziness and bouts of vomiting every time I stood up. I was later diagnosed with a condition called Meniere’s Disease, which could have been caused by the food poisoning or the many concussions I had in the ring.

To make a long story short, I was not at my best for that event but it was enjoyable none the less.

One thing that I did truly enjoy was the fans. In the front row was a guy who came to be called “the hat guy”. It was back during the TriState days that Larry and I would take his hat and stomp on it and toss it into the crowd. It later became an ECW tradition.

5. What do you consider to be some of the lowest points of your wrestling career?

The death of the NWF. I put a lot of hard work into that organization as a wrestler, booker, writer and television producer. It was difficult for me to wear all these hats, direct wrestlers from Sgt. Slaughter to Bam Bam Bigelow, and climb into the ring. When it closed, it was one of the lowest points of my career.

6. On the other end, what do you feel were some of your highlights or greatest acheivements in the sport?

I think the highlights include winning the NWF title and holding that for 2 years, winning the TriState Title and defending that for over a year, and presenting drug and alcohol awareness programs to kids in schools from Maine to California during my title reign with the NWF.

Interesting enough, I received a note from a gentleman who is a minister now at a church in Pennsylvania who attended one of the school assemblies I did. He sent me a book to autograph for him. It was very gratifying. It is those things that made all the sweat, blood and injuries worth it.

7. What do you think of the current state of professional wrestling? Any thoughts to the WWE's attempt (and a lame one in my opinion) of bringing back ECW?

Well, I must tell you that I am a wrestling purist and I think that what WWE is doing with the females, religion and prejudice will be the death of this organization. It is certainly a far cry from the family sport I participated in during my career. In fact, there was a time when a wrestler would be fined for swearing in the ring, today it is embraced.

I am working with a group right now named Top Rope Promotions. They are a very classy outfit and have put the family aspect back into the sport of professional wrestling.

8. If you could do it all over again, is there anything you would change or do differently?

If anything, I would have spent more time honing my wrestling skills rather than being involved in all aspects of the sport. As I have matured in life, I came to understand that you can’t give 100% to one thing if you have your eggs in many baskets. In the end, everything suffers and I came to realize that.

9. How did you end up working in the counseling field and with addictions?

I have worked in the human service field for 30 years, starting out working as a corrections officer in New Jersey for 10 years, then operating a program in Philadelphia for delinquent adolescent males before moving to New England and working here since 1991. Although I have been involved in the mental health field for most of my career, I found addictions fascinating on many levels and made this my specialty. It is also important to mention that I had a beloved grandmother who died of alcoholism when I was young. This was my motivation to getting into the field.

10. What can you tell the readers about your two upcoming events in Fall River?

In August, we have a 5K walk to raise funds for the homeless. The agency I work for, Steppingstone, Inc., where I am the Director of Supportive Services, operates a coed shelter for the homeless in the area. What I find disturbing is the fact that we are now seeing homeless veterans who are returning from Iraq after fighting for our country. This is not acceptable.

To follow up on this, I am doing a special event in September for the veterans and to highlight the importance of getting them into treatment for drug and alcohol disorders that can be tied to the horrors of combat.

If your readers can send $1, $2, or $5.00 to the walk fund, it would help us in providing the services these men and women need. The agency is a non-profit and receipts can be provided for tax deductions if needed. If anyone is willing to help this worthwhile cause, please send contributions to:

Steppingstone, Inc. 5K Walk
Attn: Don Drake
542 North Main Street
Fall River, MA 02720

11. Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

Doing what I do now. I do have a dream of opening a summer camp for kids who have parents involved in drugs. This summer, I am doing a Camp Steppingstone project that is a one week camp. But my goal is a summer program for kids. It’s only a dream but so was becoming a professional wrestler.

Please donate what you can to this 5K walk as it is for a great cause. Also check out www.steppingstoneinc.org for further information. I would like to thank DC Drake for taking time to do this interview. I was always a fan of his work in ECW and it was an honor to interview him for WrestlingClothesline.com.

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