10-Falls with Diehard Dustin Lee

10-Falls with Diehard Dustin Lee

1) How long have you been in the business and where do you receive your wrestling training?

DDL: I've been wrestling seriously for about 3 1/2 years though I've been "around" the business since I
graduated from Ben Davis High School in 2000. I did alot of art stuff, played sports, & co-hosted a radio
show...so that's why wrestling seemed like a perfect fit...it had everything I liked mixed into one.

When we first started coming around...the only decent workers around were "WildCat" Chris Harris and Prince Justice aka Abyss...but they were light and often had ghost punches. They wanted nothing to do with helping us out with training. Other than them, the local scene was the absolute shits so we thought we were good in comparison and we knew it all...until we met Ace "The Wicked Jester" Craft who promotes "Bloody Midgets" & Micro Wrestling Federation, Nate "The Spyder" Webb, & EZ Cruz. They saw that we had desire and potential, it was just a matter of honing that and pointing us in the right direction. Ace introduced us to American Kickboxer & MadMan Pondo at a show called Fresh Fest. I ended up finding out about IWA Mid-South through them. Then my girlfriend at the time and my cousin, who is now in prison, went with me to watch the 2001 King Of The Death Matches and thats when I talked to Ian Rotten
and worked out a weekly weekend training gimmick with him. "Nadia Nyce" & myself drove to Charlestown, Indiana every weekend for quite a while. Then we broke up and I quit IWA. I later began to train with American Kickboxer's RAAGE Dojo & work for IPW. It all went uphill from there. I feel that where I'm at now is where I wanted to be about 5 years ago and I'm very happy with the direction of my career right now.

Training:
-IWA Mid-South House Of Hardcore late 2001/early 2002, Ongoing...Ian Rotten, Mark Wolf, Chris Hero.

-RAAGE Dojo, Ongoing...American Kickboxer aka Izzy High.

-'06 Ring Of Honor Seminar...KENTA & Brian Danielson.

-Training is never over...if you think it is...then so is your career.

2) What organizations have you worked for and which ones are you currently associated with?

DDL: I have worked for Insanity Pro Wrestling, Coliseum Championship Wrestling out of Evansville, New Era
Wrestling out of Shelbyville, Chaos Pro Wrestling out of Illinois, Heartland Wrestling Association, Mad Pro
Wrestling out of Chillicothe, Ohio, and I'm currently working for IWA Mid-South & IWA Deep South (Alabama) on a regular basis and sometimes I work for Full Throttle Wrestling out of Alabama. I hope to debut on the East Coast sooner than later...right now it might be American Kickboxer vs DieHard at the ECW Arena...this month! Not totally confirmed YET. I make my Texas & Wisonsin debuts in April.

3) What titles have you held during your wrestling career?

DDL: First TWA Junior Heavyweight Title crowned in a 3 Way vs Drake Younger & Vortekz. This is the match that caught Nate, Ace, & Mike Williams' eye. The belt was the first of it's kind in Indy...it was also the pre-cursor to the current IPW Junior Heavyweight Title...I dropped it when IPW took over TWA back at the Knights Of Columbus Hall Days.

-2004 IPW Most Improved Wrestler of the Year

-New Era Wrestling Cruiserweight Championship

-Coliseum Championship Wrestling Heavyweight Championship

-Full Throttle Wrestling Tag Team Championships as "The Naptown Dragons" w/"Psycho Shooter" Drake Younger

4) Which match over your career has been your favorite and why?

DDL: There are three matches that I consider my favorite matches so far. I'll name 3 death matches because they meant the most....

One is against Brandon Prophet at the IWA Deep South King Of The Death Matches '05, now known as "The Carnage Cup." It was our chance to prove that we deserved to be in the IWA family. My collar bone/shoulder area was jookst really bad with a broken light tube but I still managed to finish the
match. I recieved 10 stitches inside and 10 outside the wound and a $1,300 medical bill. That match got
the tournament shut down because it was too real and violent. Apparently the weapons sitting in the ring
for a half hour before the show started said to the fans "Extreme Makeover" rather than "Extreme Death
Match." I really don't know why people stayed to watch and then complained. Leave if you don't like
it. Don't ruin the show for the people who paid their hard earned money to be entertained.

My other favorite match was against Drake Younger at the IWA Mid-South King Of The Death Matches '06. It was the opening match, in our home town, in a steel cage full of chairs and light tubes! We had to prove
to the IWA fans and the boys in the back that we were legit. We had just left IPW to pursue a career on the
indies...and this was our chance to solidify our names as rising stars. We gave it our all and the fans responded in kind. The first ever vertabreaker off the tope rope onto steel chairs and light tubes was
the scarriest thing I've ever taken.

Last but not least, the match from The Double Death Tournament where I teamed with fellow RAAGE Dojo
member & brother-from-another-mother Scotty Vortekz to take on my "other" brother-from-another-mother &
tag/training partner Drake Younger & one of my trainers Ian Rotten in an Hardcore Cage Match. After
all the insanity...Ian Rotten grabbed the microphone and welcomed me to the IWA family. Many people do not know that I had been trying to get back into IWA since I left in 2002 after "Nadia Nyce" & I broke up...so it was like all my hard work paid off. Plus it was special because I told my cousin I would make it one
day and he would have been proud if he could have seen it. I have alot of people to thank for
that...everyone at my family, my friends, Kickboxer, IPW, & all the fans that helped me get there. I hope you stick with me...it's just getting started!

5) What injuries have you suffered through your career?

DDL: Dude, way too many to remember and not enough to complain about. But if I had to name a few I guess the worst ones would be the "shoulder jookzins,"broken big toes, dislocated shoulders, pinched nerve
in my hip joint/groin area, & bone bruises on my heels where I did a stupid summersault senton off the top to the concrete and my heels "clacked" the concrete (in front of no cameras & a crowd that didn't care.)
Luckily I didn't break my back. When you are wrestling you have to either try to work around them
or just simply suck it up. Injuries are apart of this sport and though I hope to stay injury free for
the most part, I do realize that this is a contact sport and injuries are apart of the game.

6) What is the toughest thing about being a professional wrestler?

DDL: Thanks to a million goof tards trying to play Vince McMahon, there are very little real promotions where you can learn from good vets & eventually make money. All these marks and shit shows take away from the business. They are killing it. For one, they use untrained retards & local friends instead of using a
trained worker who could use the payday to feed his family. When a fan sees a shit show they never want
to spend money on a legit show like IWA or IPW. When you see guys ghost punching, swinging chairs like bitches, and stinking up the joint, it kills the show FOR EVERYONE. Not to mention corny ass
booking and the refusal to book guys who know what their doing simply because the promotion fears
criticism and reality. I won't name names but the real fans know whats up. So I suppose the toughest
thing is making a living in the business while trying to stand out and above all the copycats & goofs and change the mind of the average fan into respecting wrestling...not just laughing at it.

7) Any good road stories that you can pass along (keep it clean LOL)?

DDL: I already slipped in some shoot shit...sure...I guess I can give you a funny story from back in the day....

The RAAGE Dojo was coming back from Evansville...Kick, Apollo Starr, Cliff Crunk, OMG, & me were in the van. OMG fell asleep. When you ride with Kick...you don't fall asleep because he sees it as disrespectful to the driver. So he reached back and took my empty Snapple Rain bottle...you know,
those metal ones. He winded up and BLASTED OMG IN THE FOREHEAD WITH IT!!! OMG woke up saying "My hair's on fire, my hair's on fire!" It was probably the funniest/meaniest thing I had ever seen up to the that point in wrestling.

8) Are there things that you would like to achieve during your pro wrestling career? Short term and long term goals?

DDL: Yes, there are many things I would like to achieve. My short term goals are to get back into the wrestling shape I was before I took a couple months off after IWA Deep South's Carnage Cup last November to rest some nagging injuries. I've had about 4 matches since then so I'm on my way plus I just got that Chuck Norris Total Gym and it rocks. My long term goals are to continue to become a more technically sound wrestler and to continue to get better and better and hopefully never have to work a "real" job ever again. I would very much like to travel the world via wrestling and I would love to be able to support my family by having a prosperous wrestling career. Drake Younger is in Germany as we speak...so it's within arm's reach.

9) Have you received any important advice from other more famous names in the pro wrestling business and
what was that?

DDL: Yes. "Keep your mouth shut and listen", "Always be critical of yourself", and "Never stop learning" is
probably the best advice I've been given. Also I was told "Don't do hardcore" but that wouldn't be fun now would it?

10) What is the BEST thing and the WORST thing about being a professional wrestler, maybe something that you didn't realize would be that way when you started?

DDL: The best thing is the friendships you make. The worst thing is the time away from your family. Time away makes you appreciate family that much more. Other than that the worst thing is too many "internet" wrestlers. They steal finishers & buy clothes from internet wrestling sites...and never have time to train...but they have time to get on a show. The business would be so much more mysterious and prosperous without these goofs stealing money from those who deserve it & making a mockery of the gift that vets of yester-year killed themselves to create. I see some guys with desire and heart just no money or guidance to training...but then I see tards who don't work out or train or anything...they steal moves, gimmicks, & fan money...and they give wrestling a bad name while at the same time taking food out of a wrestler's mouth. Arg, I'm a dick aye? I guess you have to be protective of the things you love.

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