PHYLLIS LEE–REST IN PEACE. A LOVING TRIBUTE
BY BRIAN “BLUE MEANIE ” HEFFRON
Wednesday, January 21, 2015
Pancrase
Newswire
Denver,
Broomfield, CO
by1Wrestling
News Team
Ladies and Gentleman. My name is Brian Heffron and I
am here to tell you that I am……a Phyllis Lee Guy.
Yes I am Brian Heffron. Yes I am The Blue Meanie.
Yes I was trained by the man who went on to not only
be my trainer but my big brother and best friend in
Al Snow. Yes I have been wrestling for the better
part of 20 going on 21 years. Yes I got to wrestle
for ECW during their hottest period. Yes I got to be
a part of ECW’s best known factions in the BLUE
World Order. Yes I got to wrestle in the WWE during
the Attitude Era. Yes I got to be in a WrestleMania.
Yes I am one of the coaches at the WORLD FAMOUS
Monster Factory. Yes I got to do SO MANY great and
wonderful things in the wrestling business.
BUT…….BUT…..there is no way I get to do these things
if not for the help, guidance and love of Phyllis
Lee.
Unfortunately the world lost Phyllis January 18,
2015 on a Sunday afternoon from a severe case of
pneumonia. Her family has told me that her last days
were peaceful. Though her last days were peaceful
it’s still hard to fathom how many lives may have
been if not for this wonderful woman. Phyllis Lee in
many ways has been an unsung hero to many in the
world of professional wrestling. Phyllis who was a
tough female wrestler went onto work closely with
Boris Malenko and his wrestling camp in Florida. She
went on to help and guide many aspiring wrestlers
and seasoned wrestlers who needed advice over the
past several decades. She even made the cross over
to MMA to advice and guide several Mix Martial
Artists. Wrestlers and MMA fighters she has helped
like Sean Waltman, Bobby Blaze, Willie Wilkins,
Scott Levy, Al Snow, Sabu,
Shane Carwin, Nate Marquardt, Carlos Condit, Ron
Waterman, Geza Kalman, Dan Severn and myself. That
is just a small percentage of people she has helped.
To those names I missed I apologize.
I grew up wanting to be a professional wrestler. I
NEEDED to be a professional wrestler. All my life I
watched wrestling. Lived wrestling. Breathed
wrestling. Ate wrestling. I was wrestling junkie. I
would scour the tv dial for ANYTHING pro wrestling.
Anything from WWF. To NWA.To AWA. To World Class. To
UWF. I even found and watch pro wrestling from
Hawaii in Polynesian Pro Wrestling. I bought all the
magazines. Later I would add on to Dave Meltzer’s
“Wrestling Observer” and Wade Keller’s “Pro
Wrestling Torch” News Letters. It’s in that era I
started learning and finding the world of pro
wrestling schools. I mean I KNEW of The Monster
Factory an hour away in New Jersey but I wasn’t well
informed in anything other than there.
Through Dave Meltzer I learned of of A) The Monster
Factory try outs and B) Boris Malenko had a
wrestling school. To be honest those would have been
my choices. I tried out at the Monster Factory the
day after WrestleMania 8 and was put through the try
out by none other Glenn Ruth of the Headbangers.
Larry Sharpe and legendary New Jersey promoter
Dennis Coraluzzo oversaw the tryouts as well. I
would have loved to gone to the Monster Factory. How
could I not? They produced (and still do) some of
the best BIG men in the business. Guys from King
Kong Bundy and Bam Bam Bigelow were his best know
“Big Men” at that time and being a big guy myself
that would be the obvious choice. After the try out
Larry Sharpe brought myself and only 2 others of the
8-9 people that tried out. Larry went over all the
particulars of what would entail training there. We
shook hands and I went home seriously considering
going to The Monster Factory.
Now there was also the Malenko wrestling school
based out of Tampa, Florida. I had recently
discovered Joe and Dean Malenko through tape trading
and saw a spectacular match they had with one of my
ALL TIME favorite tag teams in The British Bulldogs
from All Japan Pro Wrestling. Through the Observer
Newsletter I got the mailing address for the Malenko
school and sent off a letter asking for whatever
info they could give me. Now just as much as Bam Bam
Bigelow was a factor in me possibly choosing The
Monster Factory. I considered the Malenko camp
because of my admiration of not only Joe and Dean
Malenko but I also know that’s where The Lightening
Kid (Sean Waltman) had trained. I had become a HUGE
fan of Sean’s work through his work in The Global
Wrestling Federation and again through tape trading.
I loved his matches with Jerry Lynn, in Minnesota
with Sabu and strong style match I saw him have with
Willie Wilkins (Beef Wellington).
I sent out a letter of inquiry to the Malenko school
and with in a month to a month and a half I get a
letter from……….W. Unity, Ohio? Who do I know in WEST
Unity Ohio?! The name above the address written in
beautifully written script read Phyllis Lee. Who is
Phyllis Lee? I opened the letter to read a letter
from Phyllis telling me that the Malekno’s had
received my letter and had her correspond with me.
The letter put 2 and 2 together on why someone from
Ohio was corresponding with a kid who sent a letter
of inquiry from New Jersey to Tampa, Florida as she
told me she worked with the Malenko’s for a VERY
LONG time.
This was 1993 with month unknown but I do remember
Phyllis and I corresponding via letter a lot. This
was before the days before email, text, Myspace,
Facebook and Twitter. In this day and age if you
wanted to talk to someone you had to pick up a phone
and call or hand write your thoughts to paper, buy
an envelope, buy a stamp (which were 24 cents at
THAT time) put the letter IN the envelope, WALK to a
mailbox and drop the letter in. Phyllis talked to me
about the cost of Malenko’s camp, the cost of living
in Tampa and all the students that had gone through
there. She would talk GLOWINGLY of Sean Waltman and
you could tell how proud she had been of him. Very
motherly in a way. It was in the way I heard her not
only talk about the wrestlers at Malenko’s but the
way she seemed to genuinely care about the wrestlers
that sold me on going to Tampa.
So I worked and worked and worked at a job as a
security guard at Trump Plaza in Atlantic City.
Thankfully my grandparents who had raised me along
with my mother allowed me to save and save and save
all the money I needed to for not only the tuition
for wrestling school but seed money for living
expenses once I got moved and got settled in.
Phyllis and I had gone from writing to talking on
the phone. If her letters had come across as warm
and motherly then talking to her on the phone was
even more so. We talked about life. We talked about
family. We talked about wrestling. I learned so much
from simply talking to Phyllis on the phone that I
felt like I had a mental jump start for wrestling
before I put in mile one and took my first bump in
the ring.
If the Makeno school was going to be my wrestling
school then Phyllis Lee was my preparatory school
teacher. She was knowledgeable and more importantly
brutally honest. As time went on she started pushing
for me to get the ball rolling. Crap or get off the
pot so to speak. I had already sent her my tuition
for Malenko’s and if I was going to do this I had to
SOON. Every call started with “So when are you
leaving?”. “I know. I know” would be my retort. I
wanted to be a wrestler. I know wanted to go to the
Great Malenko’s wrestling school. The one thing that
kept me stutter stepping out the door to follow
through was the then cost of living down in Tampa. I
was fairly young and wasn’t wise to what was/wasn’t
reasonable to rent a place to live but at that time
and for what it cost to live in what was essentially
a efficiency seemed like a lot.
To put it into perspective I now live in a 3 bedroom
house and the rent for my house is only a few
dollars more then what they wanted for a broom
closet in Tampa. I addressed this as a concern to
Phyllis and she understood. To Phyllis’ credit she
gave it much thought and helped come up with an
alternative. This is how awesome Phyllis Lee is. I
was 19 when she started talking to me. I was 20 when
I sent her THOUSANDS of dollars to pursue my dream
of being a professional wrestler. Here I was talking
about my concern about moving because of the cost of
living. Some people would have kept my money and
told me to take off or kept my money and totally no
sold me and left me hanging.
Phyllis Lee didn’t. Phyllis was an honest and
trusting person. Phyllis had MY best interest at
heart. So knowing my concerns Phyllis came back to
me and said “Well there’s Al Snow’s school here in
Ohio….”. Those words were not only SO out of no
where but in hind site would turn out to be one of
the best decision I would ultimately make. She told
me Al Snow had a school in Lima, Ohio. Al’s school
was the same price as Malenko’s but not only was the
cost of living a fraction of what it was in Tampa
but I could live IN the actual school in Lima. Plus,
I could finally get to meet Phyllis who I had only
known through email and phone calls.
At that time I had sparingly heard of Al through
reading the newsletters and reading results. At the
time his feud with Sabu had started heating up.
Having only heard Al Snow’s name and having Phyllis
endorse Al. I had never seen Al wrestle nor did I
know anyone who he had trained at that time. I knew
the Monster Factory because of guys like King Kong
Bundy and Bam Bam Bigelow. I knew the Malenko school
because of Joe and Dean Malenko and Sean Waltman. I
knew who they were and what wrestler produced.
Today ironically I am a coach at the same Monster
Factory I tried out at in Paulsboro, NJ. The now
owner Danny Cage asked me “why didn’t you train at
the Monster Factory?”. Which is a great question. I
lived in NJ. I lived an hour away. Why not? It has
nothing to do with what I saw and experienced at The
Monster Factory that was the deciding factor of
going elsewhere. It was the fact that I really need
to fly away from the nest. If I had stayed in NJ and
trained NJ. Once my mother and grandmother would
have seen the bruises. Seen the lumps. Heard my
moans of pain. They would have tried their hardest
to get me to quit. I was their blond haired, blue
eyed baby boy. In hind site I was leaving my actual
mom and grand mom who didn’t under stand wrestling
and pursuing my dream under the guidance of the
woman who essentially became my wrestling mom. A
“mom” who understood and knew the wrestling
business.
On the word of a woman who I had never met. A woman
I had only talked to through letter and email. A
woman I trustingly sent thousands of dollars. A
woman who did not take advantage of my naivety like
most others would. On the word of Phyllis Lee I
chose to go to Al Snow’s Bodyslammer’s Wrestling Gym
in Lima, Ohio. On March 4, 1994 I walked with my
mother as we walked to work at the casinos. On the
corner of Morris and Arctic Avenue I had the
epiphany to turn to mom and say. “I have to start
wrestling. I’m gonna leave in 2 weeks”. I later told
my grandparents and then put in my 2 weeks notice at
work. On Monday morning March 21, 1994. The day
after Wrestlemania 10 I drove from Atlantic City, NJ
to Lima, Ohio. All on the blind faith I put into
Phyllis Lee.
Once I met Phyllis that blind faith I put into
Phyllis simply became “FAITH”. I would not have made
it if not for Phyllis Lee. As many wrestler’s would
tell you they owe THEIR careers and success to
Phyllis Lee. All those letters, all those phone
calls, all those countless car rides, all those
countless shows I did with Al Snow and Phyllis would
turn out to be a huge learning experience and worth
their weight in not only gold….but platinum. Thank
you Phyllis Lee. I love you. I will miss you. And
like most others. I owe you.
Rest In Peace,
Brian
aka
A Phyllis Lee Guy
