NEW ENGLAND PRO WRESTLING HALL OF FAME
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Bert Centeno / El Mascarado
Gary Apollo
Gary Apollo was trained by Walter "Killer" Kowalski and turned pro in February, 1984. He wrestled for many independents. Apollo was a good tag team wrestler. Gary would challenged for the International Wrestling Federation tag team titles with Phil Apollo. He wrestled Harley Race, Larry Zbyszko, Butcher Vachon, David Sammartino, and Charlie Fullton. Apollo had an ongoing feud with Bob Vanwinkle and the Universal Soldier. He did a TV dark match for WWF (E) . His toughest matches were against Harley Race and Larry Zbyszko.
"American Eagle" Shane Simons
Shane Simons made his pro debut on January 15, 1994 for Coastal Pro Wrestling in Taunton,MA. He was trained by “Lethal" Paul Lauzon and Nick Steel. Simons has wrestled for Coastal Pro Wrestling, New England Pro Wrestling, Ringside Wrestling, AWA(NH),Power League Wrestling, Massachusetts Championship Wrestling, Lou Bordeau's UCW, Anthony Rufo's UCW, IIW, Yankee Pro Wrestling, South Coast Championship Wrestling, Green Mountain Wrestling, Chaotic Wrestling, Showcase Pro Wrestling, Lethal Pro Wrestling and many others. Shane Simons held many titles. Some include; Power League Wrestling Tag Team Champion, Power League Wrestling New England Champion, Power League Wrestling Heavyweight Champion, South Coast Championship Wrestling Tag Team Champion, and others. Simons most memorable matches are his pro debut match, Power-Fest 2000 vs. Little Guido, Tagging w/Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart vs. The Damned(November 2001). His favorite opponents to wrestle against are Derek Molhan, Paul Lauzon, TJ Richter, Little Guido, and Gary Apollo.
Maniacal Mark
"The Ripper" Rip Morrison
Robbie Ellis
Robbie Ellis works today primarily for NWA on Fire and New England Championship Wrestling in the United States and Innovative Hybrid Wrestling in Nova Scotia. He also wrestles when time allows for Chikara out of Philadelphia and Italian Championship Wrestling in northern Italy. He has been the lightweight or junior heavyweight champion of several of the best independent promotions throughout New England. Recently he was invited to wrestle at the opening night wrestling show of the Cauliflower Alley Club convention on April 13, 2009 in Las Vegas promoted under Gabriel Ramirez's Revolution Pro out of California. In his career, Robbie has wrestled such legends and current stars as Bob Orton, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, Raven, and many others. He has also worked alongside such current superstars on the indie circuit as Mitch Ryder, Ellis is probably most proud of his experience with Chikara. It was voted one of the top ten promotions in the world for the year 2008 by the readers of The Wrestling Observer, a prestigious honor in pro wrestling. On the rare occasions Ellis has been able to work on a Chikara card since the first time – one in Framingham, Massachusetts this year and several in Pennsylvania – the houses have been full and wildly enthusiastic. Those few occasions produced receptions by fans that bordered on shocking but have given Ellis credibility in the pro wrestling world he says he had never enjoyed before: He says, “Trust me: my talent is not at their level. I've been accused of false modesty in this regard. Trust me again: it isn't false. Although the promoter of the show wouldn't know it, Chikara is in retrospect one of the reasons, perhaps the most important reason, that I was invited to participate in the 2009 wrestling show on April 13, 2009 open to the public held each year during the Cauliflower Alley Club convention for pro wrestlers and fans in Las Vegas.”
"Sensational" Sandy Starr
"Mr.TA" Terry Allen
Rich Palladino
Derek Molhan
Sandy Starr started in 1972. She had been watching wrestling as far back as she could remember. It was on at midnight on Saturdays, filmed in a studio in Detroit with wrestlers such as Bobo Brazil, Lord Layton, The Sheik, Tex Mackenzie, and more. After attending a few matches, Sandy got to meet with the RI promoter who worked with Abe Ford, who ran the Boston Garden. Starr started working and learning the business from the bottom up, every aspect from setting up the ring, running the concession stand, making ring attire and accessories and advertising to promoting. All during this time she was training, four years in total. It was comprehensive yet sporadic due to the fact that Sandy was still in school, working full time in a factory and working at the shows. The training was universal, meaning she could work in many styles, collegiate, technical and hard-core along with Lucha and Japanese formats. She worked for an alphabet soup of organizations, so many had the same initials. The major ones were the Santos promotions, WWWF, ICCW (the Savoldi's), IWA (Johnny Powers, who now has an MMA league), and NWA. Some of her favorites have been Hardcore Joe's Wrestling Federation, Primal Conflict, Universal Wrestling Alliance, Empire Pro Wrestling, and Yankee Pro Wrestling.
Tommy Degnan
Bill Hardy
Rich Palladino made his debut as the ring announcer for the late, "Boston Bad Boy" Tony Rumble's Century Wrestling Alliance on October 23, 1993 at Wakefield High School in Wakefield, MA on a card that featured The Iron Sheik, Tony Atlas, Tommy Dreamer, Vic Steamboat and Taz. He also served as play-by-play announcer with Damian Demento on that same card. He worked for the CWA and then NWA New England (also promoted by Rumble) until shortly after Tony's passing in November of 1999. On February 3, 1996, Rich was invited to ring announce the Eddie Gilbert Memorial Brawl in Cherry Hill, NJ, a card held to honor the late "Hot Stuff" Eddie Gilbert that featured such greats as Dory Funk, Jr., Jerry "The King" Lawler, Tommy "Wildfire" Rich, Jim Cornette, Al Snow, Dan Severn, Tommy Gilbert (Eddie's father) and Doug Gilbert (Eddie's brother). Palladino worked as ring announcer for the original ECW (Extreme Championship Wrestling) from November 1996 through January 1999 for all of their New England events. Rich had the opportunity to announce two World Tag Team title changes when The Dudley defeated The Eliminators on June 20, 1997 and when Doug Furnas & Philip LaFon defeated the FBI on Dec. 5, 1997. In his 15+ years, Rich has had the opportunity to work for several promotions including the aforementioned as well as NECW, WWA, IIW, Yankee Pro, MWF, EWA, NWW, Pro Wrestling World-1, Powerhouse Wrestling, PWF NE, UWF, PCW, WSW, UCW and many others.
Derek Molhan first trainer was Brad Rheingans in Hamel, MN. Molhan fell ill and returned to RI. Then finished his training with Paul Lauzon and Nick Steel. Derek’s first match was a battle royal for Coastal Pro Wrestling, then followed by a tag match. He was under a cowboy gimmick called Derek Duke, and his partner was The Beast. They teamed against Shane Simmons & Randy Blaze. Molhan was pinned by Shane Simmons. This took place Jan 15, 1994. Promotions Worked For: Power League Wrestling, Coastal Pro Wrestling, Showcase Pro Wrestling, Eastern Wrestling Alliance, Ringside Wrestling, AWA Wrestling out of NH for Bruiser Costa, South Coast Championship Wrestling, New England Pro Wrestling, Top Rope Promotions, Commonwealth Championship Wrestling.
Tommy Degnan was the promoter of Power League Wrestling, a independent wrestling group that only holds events to benefit charities. Since 1994, PLW has helped over 50 groups and families. Tommy has been a ring announcer since 1993. As well as announcing for PLW, announces currently for Eastern Wrestling Alliance, Showcase Pro Wrestling and Lethal Pro Wrestling. He has also announced for various New England promotions, including Top Rope Promotions, Ringside Wrestling (of New Hampshire), Premiere Wrestling Federation Northeast, Bob Evans' Renegade Wrestling, Northeast Championship Wrestling and Hardcore Wrestling Federation.
"The Heart Throb" Danny Cama
Iceburg Sonny Dee
"The Reverend" Chain Branagan
Chief Dave Foxx
Nature boy Gary Gold
Cody Boyns
"East Coast Intensity" Jose Perez
Travis Funk
Brickhouse Baker
Sweet Scott Ashworth
Tony Rumble
Walter "Killer" Kowalski
"Mr. Troubleman" Anthony Rufo
Anthony Rufo highlightmatch of his wrestling career was for Chaotic Wrestling and the King of Chaos Tournament Title Match in Worcester Ma. It was a 37 minute Four-way hard-core match, barbed wire took the place of the ring ropes, and four wrestler wrestled in a hardcore elimination style match the ring was filled with weapons, tables, chairs, glass bottles, barbed wire baseball bats, fluorescent bulbs, thumbtacks and a culminating with a huge fireball. His first actual appearance was a Battle Royal for The New England Wrestling Alliance, at the Warwick VetsHigh school, in 1993. He made his pro wrestlingdebut was as Dambulla a 327lb witch Doctor. Then it was numerous matches. It got to a point where Rufo knew if he were really going to take this sport serious he would need to be trained properly. From there Anthony took in some training at Killer'sSchool in Malden Ma. Then moved on from there andtraveled to and worked for various wrestling promotionsthroughout New Englandand the East Coast.
