By SEAN B. PASTERNAK
Former Markham resident Sean Morley tosses people around and punches them for a living. For at least 250 days out of each year, he travels the world with co-workers that have colourful names like X-Pac, The Undertaker and Road Dog. Yet Morley loves being a part of the World Wrestling Federation, which recently stopped in Toronto and played to a capacity crowd at SkyDome.
"Oh, I love it," the 27 year-old Morley says. "It's the greatest form of entertainment in the world."
While all of the WWF wrestlers have interesting names and gimmicks, Morley's may be one of the most controversial. As the adult film star turned wrestler "Val Venis", Morley swivels his hips in front of international television audiences and comes to the ring saying his trademark "Hellllllo, ladies!".
Despite the controversy, Morley's new character has gone over so well with the fans that, while he started off as a villian just two short months ago, he is already playing a good guy. "Everyone's lovin' the gimmick," he says.
"It's just created a good following in the States, so I don't think it'll be any different up here."
As well, Morley credits former 'ladies man' characters such as Shawn Michaels and Ravishing Rick Rude for breaking ground for Val Venis. "They set the stage for bringing that type of persona to a certain level until people got used to it, and now I'm taking it to another level," he says, adding "It's a little more shocking."
So shocking, in fact, that The Sports Network (TSN) - which carries a bulk of the WWF's programming in Canada - has chosen to omit or edit out many of the segments which portray Val Venis as an adult film star.
"The gimmick is being taken to the next level, and I guess TSN feels - or maybe the CRTC feels - that the Canadian viewers aren't ready for that type of thing," explains Morley. "I guess you could say the CRTC is dictating to the Canadian public what they are and aren't allowed to see."
Morley, however, did not always have visions of bodyslams and dropkicks as a career goal. "Actually I wanted to become a helicopter pilot at the time," he says of his days at Markham District High School. The summer before he was to attend Colorado State University for Aeronautical Science, Morley started wrestling in England as a part-time job. "But what happened was I stayed (in England) for a year and I've kept wrestling every since."
Under the tutelage of Dewey Robertson (whom some wrestling fans will remember as The Missing Link), Morley travelled to Mexico and Japan before signing on with the World Wrestling Federation late last year.
Despite the theatrics associated with professional wrestling, Morley insists wrestlers still get hurt for real while in the 'squared circle'. "It's not really fake enough," jokes Morley, pointing to a black eye and several stitches he endured while performing at a recent pay-per-view wrestling show; one of many injuries he and other wrestlers suffer on an ongoing basis.
In addition, the World Wrestling Federation's touring schedule can be absoloutely grueling. "It's hard to deal with," he says. "You're on the road 250 days out of the year. It's hard to stay on a good solid diet and train every single day.
"You get it in, but you're usually very, very tired by the end of the day - the travelling, booking a hotel, getting the rental car, getting to the gym, getting to the tanning bed - and between all that, getting in all your meals as well. And then wrestling on top of that."
Still, Morley says he enjoys the spotlight, and looks forward to seeing to what happens next to Val Venis in the ongoing soap opera that is professional wrestling. "I can see it going in several different directions, but right now I'm just taking it one day at a time," he says.
"We didn't expect it to go in this direction - it was supposed to be a bad guy type of gimmick - and it's going over as a good guy type of gimmick. We're not gonna try and guess where it's going, just try to follow where it goes."
