By John Grupp
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Teague Moore needed his wrestling shoes again after all.
Moore, who vowed to retire from the sport after his heartbreaking third-place finish in the 2004 U.S. Olympic trials, has completed his inaugural season in the Real Pro Wrestling League.
Moore, a North Allegheny High School graduate and former NCAA champion at Oklahoma State, will meet rival Sammie Henson in the 121-pound finals at 4 p.m. today on PAX-TV.
The matches were taped in Los Angeles in October as part of a three-day shoot for the new league.
“More than anything, I wanted to be part of it, “Moore said Saturday afternoon from a cell phone outside Boston. “I think it has great potential to take off. Maybe someday my grand kids can see their grandfather was in the first season of Real Pro Wrestling.”
Moore, 29, of McCandless figured his wrestling days were over after a 6-3 loss to Henson in the 121-pound freestyle semifinals of the U.S. Olympic Team Trials in May 2004 at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis.
Moore, who blew a 3-0 lead in the final 30 seconds, limped off the mat with a torn ACL — his second in three years — and the crushing realization an Olympic dream that began as a pint-sized freshman at North Allegheny was finally over.
Moore underwent ACL surgery, rehabilitated his left knee and moved from Stillwater, Okla., to Boston with his wife, Mary. In September 2004, he received a call from the organizers of Real Pro Wrestling. They were starting an eight-team, 56-man league with a mixture of pro-active rules from the three forms of amateur wrestling — Freestyle, Folkstyle (college and high school) and Greco-Roman.
Moore, whose knee was healed, agreed to fly to Los Angeles the following month.
“I wasn’t concerned about winning, “he said. “My main concern was to have fun with it.”
The league was the first of its kind, a refreshing alternative to the soap-opera staged world of professional wrestling.
Real Pro Wrestling president Martin Fischer estimated the total viewership was about 400,000, equally split between the Sunday afternoon broadcast on PAX and the re-airing on Fox Sports on Wednesday afternoon.
“The response has been tremendous, “Fischer said. “PAX is the least obvious place for a wrestling enthusiast to find the show. But this was a way of showing the rules to the audience and introducing the concept of Real Pro Wrestling. …There will be a second season. What broadcaster and when it will hit television, I don’t know.””
In the meantime, Moore is living in Cambridge, Mass., with Mary and their three-month old daughter, Talen Josephina.
Moore works for a financial company in Boston, and this fall will begin his first season as an assistant wrestling coach at Harvard. Moore, who wrestles for the RPW’s Oklahoma Slam, fully intends to compete in the league’s second season. For sure, the money is good. The cash prizes this year ranged from $1,200 to $25,000 per wrestler.
Moore, without divulging who won the pre-taped finals with Henson, said he earned about $10,000 for wrestling three matches in two days. By comparison, he took home $3,000 for winning the 2002 U.S. National Freestyle Championships in Las Vegas.
“I didn’t know the pay scale, “Moore said. “I was hoping to have some fun with it. Afterward, I was sitting in my hotel room and looking at the check for doing something that I’ve done my whole life. It was the first time I really felt rewarded for the effort.”
John Grupp can be reached at [email protected] or (412) 320-7930.
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