I have a weekly column for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review every Monday and Friday. This week I also have a special Sunday feature on Pittsburgh’s own Elias Samson who is currently an NXT Superstar. Here’s a excerpt of the column & the video interview:
Jeff Sciullo said he was a fan of WWE as far back as he can remember while growing up in Plum. In 2005, at age 18, he attended his first independent professional wrestling show.
It turned out to be a life-changing day.
“I always had in the back of my mind to be a WWE Superstar,” Sciullo told the Tribune-Review earlier this month, “but I never knew how to go about it.”
That first wrestling show led to an introduction to trainers who ran the Iron City Wrestling Academy, a school in Pittsburgh that offers the first step to those who aspire to be professional wrestlers. The school, owned by the International Wrestling Cartel, helped Sciullo work his way into the WWE’s developmental system.
Today, Sciullo, at age 28, continues to learn the ropes as a professional wrestler at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, but it has not been an easy or short journey.
Sciullo’s athletic background in high school was limited to playing baseball at Plum. He eventually would pay to go to pro wrestling school, where he learned the basics of being a professional wrestler.
He began matches on the independent wrestling circuit, where thousands of wrestlers are working to get noticed and signed by WWE.
“You could not find a more dedicated and passionate man in the locker room at such a young age,” said Chuck Kuzniewski, owner and promoter of IWC Wrestling during Sciullo’s time there. “(Sciullo) carried himself as a professional inside and out of the ring and went above and beyond to prove himself worthy of having main-event matches with top-name opponents.”
Sciullo got his first look from WWE in 2012 in a tryout match at a sold-out arena in Hershey against Dean Ambrose, now one of WWE’s biggest stars.
CLICK HERE for what happen next, who was instrumental in eventually getting him signed and more.
