The Boogie Knights - Class Acts

Angry Young Man - Matt Dawg

It's times like this that really make you think. You see, I am going to tell you a little story about two people who reached out when they didn't have to. People who if it wasn't for them, I may not be wrestling today. One of those men retired from actively competing in professional wrestling on Friday August 29, 2003. The man, Danny Drake.

What many people don't know is that I have known Danny for quite sometime. Not to say that Danny and I were close or hanging buddies, cause we weren't. But Danny and I went to the same high school together in the Bronx. He graduated a few years before I did. Seeing him around school and in the locker room, you just knew that Danny would make it big. He was always joking around, imitating wrestlers and cutting promos. He reminded me of, well, me, since I did the same things.

So anyway, we fast forward to 1999. I managed to film a home video with a friend of mine who now is AWOL and wrestles under the name Poppalishus. We had a literal street fight and filmed it for our viewing pleasure as most wrestling fans do. We showed it to a friend of ours who has a public access TV show in the Bronx and he asked if we would mind doing that in a studio for him. We said sure, what the hell, it is TV right? So we did it. Anyway, after it's airing, we got a call from a man by the name of Ralph who told the producer of the show that we should get training so we wouldn't hurt ourselves and work for his promotion at the time known as Real Deal Wrestling. We said cool.

In October of 1999, Poppalishus and I went to work our very first show in the Bronx against each other. Mind you, we had no formal in ring training at the time, were nervous as well and had to learn on the job. Once getting to the gym, we were being shown how to run the ropes properly and take back bumps. As this was going on, Danny Drake and Mike Tobin walk into the gym, grab both Poppalishus and myself and explain to us that we are going to break our spines taking bumps the way we do. Danny and Mike then showed us how to bump properly and M-Tizzle even showed us how to take one off the second rope. Needless to say, the match went on as scheduled and Pop and I didn't do as bad as we thought we were going to do. We kept it short and sweet, 4 minutes I think and Pop won as I took a brutal chair shot to the head from his manager. But Drake and Tobin managed to calm us down and keep us from being nervous. To be honest, I don't even think they know how much that meant and if you ask them, they probably don't even remember it since most people try to block out ever working for RDW.

Did Danny and Mike have to do this? Absolutely not. Did they do this cause Danny remembered me from high school? Probably not. Did Mike decide to help us cause he saw us on TV? Maybe. But my take on this situation is, they did it because that is just the kind of people they are. Mike Tobin and Danny Drake are two cool, down to earth fun individuals who deserve everything they get in life. I know this should be more of an editorial and I should try to remain unbiased but I have to say, I am not only saddened by Drake retirement, I am heartbroken. Heartbroken because I will never be able to step into the ring with one of the best tag teams in independent wrestling today. Danny, good luck and god speed. I wish you could continue on but I understand your reasoning. MT, the future is yours brother. Sky's the limit. So knock em dead and show the world what you are made of. Cause the bottom line is, both of you guys have tremendous talent. You guys have done a lot and will always be one of the best in my book. All the best Drake.

Ad Astra per Aspera.

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