I have been doing ring announcing and color commentary in the world of professional wrestling for almost seven years now. In that time, I have ring announced at local shows in Brooklyn, been backstage at 1998 and 1999’s Summerslam – and even did ring announcing and commentary on live television in Hilton Head, South Carolina. But of all the things I have done in professional wrestling – nothing comes close to Ring Fever.

Since the first time I saw a wrestling match, I have always wanted to be involved in professional wrestling in some way. Considering the fact that I have never weighed over 175 pounds in my life, I knew that I would never become WWF Champion. So instead of pursuing a career in the ring, I pursued a career behind the microphone.

When I started in this business, I only did local shows for the first few years and it wasn’t until I applied for a job as a ring announcer and/or commentator with – as the add in Variety Magazine called them – “a major sports and entertainment company in Stamford, Connecticut” in 1995. The hundreds of applicants were narrowed down to four people and myself – but I didn’t get the job (Todd Pettengill did). Although I did not get the job, I did however, start getting involved with the WWF and began to cover their shows on a frequent basis. I began to do backstage interviews at MSG shows, cover press conferences and Fan Fests of the major pay-per-views – I even did a Monday Night Raw voiceover with Howard Finkel. So I may not have gotten the job I applied for, but to me, I got more than I could ever dream of.

One day in 1996, I was approached by my good friend Robert Santa. He told me about a show he was working on called Hole In The Wall. He asked if I would like to do a weekly segment on the show called “This Week In Brooklyn” where I would show the viewers different things to do in and around the borough. I loved the idea and accepted. After filming a few segments for “This Week In Brooklyn” which consisted of me feeding the dolphins and penguins at Coney Island’s Aquarium For Wildlife Conservation and hosting a chess tournament between two junior high school chess teams, the other creative genius behind the show – known only a “C” asked if I would like to incorporate wrestling into Hole In The Wall.

If there is one thing I love to do, it is to combine all the things I love together. I was thrilled about putting wrestling on Hole In The Wall. In my opinion, Brooklyn needed its own show about wrestling – because demographically – the largest fan base for professional wrestling is in Brooklyn, New York. So two weeks after “C’s” idea – an episode of Hole In The Wall was filmed at a wrestling show I was commentating at South Shore High School. Suddenly, wrestlers such as Captain Lou Albano, Afa The Wild Samoan, King Kong Bundy, Doink The Clown, and The Samoan Gangsters were now on Brooklyn Cable – and the viewers loved it.

Rob and “C” told me that the response to the wrestling segment was incredible. Hundreds of people were thrilled to see it and requested more wrestling segments for future episodes. So two weeks later, I arranged for Hole In The Wall to film some backstage interviews I conducted at Madison Square Garden. Now, since the viewers loved Albano, Afa, Bundy and Doink on the show, how would they feel about Owen Hart, Brian Pillman, the Legion of Doom – and the most electrifying man in sports entertainment today – the Rock – on Brooklyn’s own Hole In The Wall? Over the next year, more wrestling segments appeared on Hole In The Wall and the more we put on, the more they asked for. So Rob, “C” and I began talking about spinning the wrestling segments off into its own show. We had several meetings about what the show would contain and what it would be called. As for what the show would contain, we thought the show should focus on the fans of wrestling rather than myself or the wrestling superstars – because say what you want – but the fans of wrestling are the biggest superstars of all. So the show would include fan segments as well as weekly interviews with superstars, coverage of local appearances and shows, and footage from local WWF house shows.

So now we had a show – but no name. I had decided on The Squared Circle, but that was already copyrighted. So we all racked our brains trying to come up with a name for the show. One day, “C” calls and tells me that he has an idea for a name – Ring Fever.

As soon as I heard the name I knew it was perfect. There is both a power and a presence to a name like Ring Fever. So we called the show Ring Fever and shot our first episode on August 1st at Fun Time U.S.A. From that very first taping, people knew us from Hole In The Wall and were very excited when they heard about Ring Fever and said they would watch it when it aired.

I must confess that while I knew the show would be a success, I was not at all prepared for the way Ring Fever spread so quickly. After the first episode aired, we received hundreds of calls and hits on our website from people all over who loved the show and were looking forward to future episodes. Rob, “C” and I were ecstatic that the fans loved it and hoped the show and website would gain in popularity – but none of us were prepared for what was to come.

The show and website have been on for five months and so far, we have reached a status of popularity that I could not even dream of. Our message boards on our website are loaded with people who regularly post their thoughts, and the fans know and love our show so much that when we filmed Paul “The Big Show” Wight at Fun Time U.S.A., I wound up signing almost as many autographs as he did.

And who do we have to thank for the success of Ring Fever? Do we credit the success to Rob’s excellent video production work? Do we give the accolades to “C” for his tremendous work with the website? Do we attribute Ring Fever’s popularity to my job as host? – or do we thank the people who are truly responsible for the success of Ring Fever – the people who without them, we would have no show and no website – the real stars of the show – the fans.

So as we enter the new millennium, we will continue to spread throughout the world of wrestling like a plague, infecting each new wrestling fan we encounter with the most incurable plague of the 21st Century – Ring Fever.