We here at LWOS are proud to share an interview with Gregory Iron. Iron is a professional wrestler, and his story of overcoming obstacles is a heartwarming and inspiring one. Akhilesh Gannavarapu from our friends at Sportskeeda recently had the chance to sit down and talk with “the Iron Man”, and Akhilesh and Iron have been kind enough to share that interview with us here at LWOS.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
They say heroes are made, and not born. Often times, inspiration comes from within, but there are those who not only defy odds, but in turn motivate others. There was one person in particular I have been reading about for the past couple of years, and I finally had the privilege to have a one – on – one conversation with him. Some call him “The Handicapped Hero”, while others call him “Iron Man”. Every true professional wrestling fan knows him as one of the most inspirational performers in the business today. He is none other than Gregory Allen Smith aka Gregory Iron.
About Gregory Iron: Diagnosed with cerebral palsy at a very young age, professional wrestling would’ve been a distant dream for anyone else, but not for Gregory Iron. A prominent figure in the independent scene, Gregory Iron is known as “The Handicapped Hero”, and has been praised by almost everyone who had the pleasure of meeting him and watch him wrestle. He has also been the subject of an amazing documentary titled “An Iron Will”, which won an Emmy for the Best Single Sports Story in June, 2012.
Being a huge professional wrestling fan, I was always amazed at his determination, and Gregory was gracious enough to have had a long conversation with me. In the end, I was awestruck at how easy going, down to earth he was, but that is what makes him special. Below is an excerpt from the interview, and all the professional wrestling fans need to hear his story. It was undoubtedly one of the most inspirational stories I’ve ever heard, and one of the best conversations I had till date. Click here to listen to the complete interview.
- First things first, why professional wrestling?
Well, I kind of grew up with professional wrestling. It’s something that I’ve known ever since I was a little kid. I started watching wrestling when I was about 3 or 4 years old; my first real memories of wrestling are right around WrestleMania 6. WrestleMania 6 in particular sticks out because it was my first real, major exposure to a big time wrestling event. It was Hulk Hogan versus The Ultimate Warrior. I watched the PPV at my grandma’s house and she was a big wrestling fan. So, she kind of passed that along to me, and after WrestleMania 6, seeing that match between two of the biggest professional wrestlers in the then WWF, and being introduced to all these larger than life characters; I just fell in love with it. I became obsessed with it. Everything that had to do with the then WWF, I needed it. I needed to see all the PPVs, and I needed to watch the shows and I needed to get all the toys and the magazines. A lot of kids had their Batmans and Supermans, and I was okay with those, but if it wasn’t about Ninja Turtles for me, it was about professional wrestlers, and I thought Hulk Hogan was a much cooler superhero than Batman anyways, and Hulk Hogan kind of inspired me to just have a more positive mindset as a kid. I didn’t have the best upbringing; when I was little, my mom and dad would constantly fight each other, not just verbally. They would get into physical altercations, and my mom did drugs, particularly crack cocaine. So growing up in an environment like that, it wasn’t an easy way to grow up. I went through a lot of evictions in my houses and moved around a lot. Me and my brother left home a lot alone. I didn’t have a lot of friends, especially with my disability. I got bullied a lot, so I wasn’t the happiest kid. I put on a smile when I had to go to school and stuff, but deep down, there was a lot of stuff at home that was really hurting me, and I felt that the one escape that I had, the one that made me forget about all that was my love for professional wrestling. Getting to watch wrestling for a couple of hours a week, that took me out of a world that I felt was very cruel, and brought me into this larger than life place, and it made me forget all the bad that was in my life and for a long time, wrestling was like a guiding light that kept me in a positive mindset. So if it wasn’t for wrestling, I don’t know where I’d be right now. So that’s how I got into wrestling basically.
- What was your idea behind “Iron” in your name?
Ah, it’s actually a horrible story! The way it originated is the lamest way possible! When I was younger; I think that everybody that becomes a wrestler, before they became a “wrestler”, they have the lamest name for themselves, and I came up with the wrestling name “Gregberg”, instead of Goldberg! It’s pretty horrific, right? So, I don’t ever tell that to people, I don’t know if I had ever mentioned that before. My wrestling name as a child, as a teenager was “Gregberg”. Me and my buddies used to ride bikes a lot, and one time we were on our bikes; I don’t know how it happened, I was beating everybody in the race and I started claiming that I was an “Iron Man”, because they had that “Iron Man Triathlon”, and so I was an Iron Man, and someone had brought it up at school, and it almost became like an ironic thing. It started at the end of my year in the 8th grade, and it kind of carried on into high school. Because again, I was a very skinny kid with a gimp hand, so Iron Man kind of caught on because it was ironic. It didn’t really make any sense, and it didn’t fit me. I was far from being an Iron Man, but it stuck and everybody kind of knew me like that in high school; they didn’t call me Greg, they called me “Iron Man”. So when I became a wrestler, in retrospect I wish I came up with something different, but from the get go when my trainer J. T. Lightning asked me “What’s your name going to be?” I said “Gregory Iron”. I figured I’ll just take out the Iron Man because it was generic. I really didn’t understand what my wrestling character would be for whatever reason; looking back it’s kind of funny I would even question it. But I didn’t know if I would be accepted as a good guy or a bad guy, and looking back at it, I don’t why I would even think that because someone with my story is such a natural good guy. But I figured if I’d just go by the name “Gregory”, if I’m a good guy or a bad guy, it would work both ways. I attached “Iron” as my last name because my last name is Smith, and Greg Smith is a very plain name. So, yeah, that’s how I came up with Gregory Iron, and that’s how it stuck. It’s actually funny because every time I have a show and if anybody calls me Gregory, I find it weird. But then I remember that’s my name, because no one calls me Greg. It’s always “How are you doing, Gregory?” and that’s really weird. But I guess that’s what I named myself, so whatever *Chuckles*.
- You have teamed up with Zach Gowen as “The Handicapped Heroes”. Zach has already been in the WWE, which is of course every wrestler’s dream. Do you see yourself being in the WWE someday?
Obviously, WWE is my dream, and I would like that more than anything in the world. Basically, I don’t want to discount it, because I don’t want to discount anything. But as I’m getting older, I try to think realistically, and even though I’ve had some great moments in wrestling – I shared a moment with CM Punk in ’11 that propelled my career to the next level, and then I got to team with Zach (Gowen). It’s still an uphill battle for a guy who is 5’5” with cerebral palsy to get signed to WWE. I’ve been in contact with some people and I’ve done some campaigns, but it’s still kind of at a standstill. I would like to be in the WWE more than anything, but I’m thinking of other avenues to have success. Professional wrestling is one; Colt Cabana is a great example for a guy who despite not being in the WWE still had a very successful wrestling career. He has his own podcast, travels all around the world, he’s got the five dollar wrestling thing and he does standup comedy. Not only is he successful in wrestling, but he branched out into other areas outside of wrestling. I think that’s what it comes down to as a wrestler. When you label yourself just as a wrestler, you really set yourself to be in a niche group. Wrestling has such a small audience compared to a lot of other things in the world. So, I’ve been working on a lot of different projects. I’ve done some motivational speaking and I’d like to do more motivational speaking. I’ve done it with and without Zach Gowen; I’d like to think that, because Zach has the ability to go places and say “I’m a former WWE superstar”, I think that goes a long way. I really don’t have that ability, so in my spare time, I’ve been working with an editor and I’ve been writing a book since June. So I’ve been writing a book, and it’s not just a wrestling story. It’s a story about a kid who had the odds stacked against him since the very beginning, and he overcame them to live his dream. It’s not exactly a wrestling story; I feel like wrestling is the backdrop to something much more. And I feel like once I get this book published, and I’m aiming to do so sometime next year, I feel like it could really help me break out from just being a professional wrestler. I’d really like to help others through motivational speaking and doing stuff for charities and things of that nature. I’d like to think that if I get some wide exposure doing stuff like that, maybe WWE would take notice, because I’m not the type of guy that could just get a try out in the WWE, and be treated like every other wrestler. I don’t want to be treated different, but at the same time, I’m a very different type of wrestler, and I don’t know if WWE really understands that. So I’m trying to break out of that shell just being a wrestler, and trying to show them just how marketable someone like me is, because I feel like people outside of wrestling can connect with my story, and I feel like that’s what WWE is all about. They are all about everything but wrestling, and you’d think that a story that transcends wrestling would be perfect for WWE, but you know, that moment hasn’t come yet. So I’m trying to pave my own path and I’m not going to wait for WWE to come knocking on my door. I’m going to be doing what I’ve been doing since day one, and that is breaking down walls and eventually, I’ll be knocking on their door and let them know that Gregory Iron is a very important professional wrestler, and I belong in the same category as guys like, I don’t know, John Cena and The Rock! I’m never going to be the WWE champion, but I’d like to think that I can create a larger than life persona that can be seen in the WWE and represent WWE in a very positive way.
- What is the one defining moment for Gregory Iron in professional wrestling?
I would say that the moment would be with CM Punk in 2011 in Chicago. I had to explain this in the past; basically the way it went down was, I was scheduled to wrestle in an independent event (AAW) in Illinois, and at that time, it was one week after CM Punk had left the WWE with the WWE championship. He was without a doubt the hottest thing in the industry, and I was fortunate enough to get to team with Colt Cabana. I thought it was really random because I never teamed with Colt up to that point, but I was looking forward to it because Colt was someone that I had looked up to so much. When I got to the show, Punk happened to be there, and I was completely nervous and all I was worried about was asking him for advice, and I was trying to figure out how I could do that. Well, he kind of gave me the opportunity because after my match, he and Colt had this premeditated plan to come out to the ring and say a bunch of kind stuff about me. When Punk came out with Colt at the end of our match, he told me that I was awesome. I broke down and cried, and it was a video that obviously went viral, and I’d like to think that the video went viral not because CM Punk made a random appearance on an independent show, but I think it was due to the fact that people could tell it was real when they saw, they could tell it was a real story. The emotion that came out of me was true, because for me, it wasn’t just a moment where I got endorsed by the WWE champion, the hottest wrestler in the world at that moment. For me, it was like, it was just the biggest moment of my career, and the biggest moment of my life. Everything that I had gone through, the 24 years of my life, led to that moment. Lot of times in life, you have those doubts about yourself, that feeling of wonderment and you think to yourself “Is someone going to notice how hard I’m working?” and for me, that was that moment. Colt Cabana and CM Punk told me what an inspiration I was, and that was the moment I’ve been waiting for my entire life. If it wasn’t for Punk and Cabana, I wouldn’t have had the level of success in wrestling that I have right now! So I owe it to those guys for shining a light on my career and taking me to the next level.
We had an in – depth conversation about a lot of different things – His inspiration while growing up, his experience in the wrestling business, and how the business has impacted his life personally. Greg also explained the CM Punk incident in AAW in 2011, and shed some light on his favorite matches and opponents in his career. We also had a brief discussion about the state of independent wrestling in the United States, and the recent “Macho Man” Randy Savage tribute show which drew 13 fans, and went on without a wrestling ring! Finally, Greg offered some advice to people who’re too scared or hesitant to chase their dreams, and about his chances of going to TNA wrestling.
“You’re awesome! You overcome more than I ever have just waking up every morning. The fact that you became a pro wrestler, I’m only assuming it’s because it was something you wanted to do. You didn’t let anybody tell you that you couldn’t do it … I saw something special watching you in this ring.” – CM Punk
“An Iron Will” is an appropriate tag for someone with his perseverance and persistence. I believe Punk’s words sum up Gregory’s life the best. It was an honor and a privilege to have had the chance to talk to Gregory Iron in person, and I’m sure I’ll talk to him soon again, but this time, with him in the WWE. Thank you Greg; you’re an inspiration to millions all around the world, and you make me proud to be a fan of the wrestling business.
