In case you missed Wilcox Over The Top: Jack Youngblood, Ric Flair, & The Dead, you can read it here.

Jay, here.

Every superhero has a beginning. In the comic book world, they’re called origin stories. And you’ve seen them play out on the big screen in “Superman: The Movie”, “Batman Begins”, and “Blankman”.

I don’t think “Sea Bass” was ever a superhero. Although, he did fly a couple of times. And I don’t know if he was ever in a comic. But I know Josh Wilcox has been accused of being a comic on several occasions.

This is Sea Bass’s origin story.

Wilcox Over The Top, Part Deux: Sea Bass Begins

By Josh Wilcox
DSN Contributor

Unlike many, my passion for Pro Wrestling never faded into the background. In fact, it actually got stronger once I got to college. I finally had cable, could buy the PPV’s, and I became more educated on the business without my mom thinking it was a phase. I would wager a case of Lucky Lager that she would still bet that I am not out of that phase.

Starting with my sophomore year, the Rose Bowl year, I started to get a little press. However, the thing that ended up coming up most in a lot of these interviews was my passion for Metallica and Pro Wrestling. I don’t know, but I guess it helped some guys write more than a paragraph about me, because really I am not that interesting. There was actually a WWF show down in L.A. during the Rose Bowl week, but we had some event we had to attend. Needless to say, that was a burr in my saddle. Maybe I took it out on Penn State.

My junior year I named Oregon’s tight ends Chris Anderson, Blake Spence, Jed Weaver, and myself, the “4 Horsemen”. We were a pack. If you messed with one of us, you got all of us, just like the original 4 Horsemen from the NWA (Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard, and Ole Anderson). Spence didn’t really get it, but the other three did. Then again, Blake was probably thinking about surfing or something else. Once during daily doubles the training staff took an ad from USA today promoting Hulk Hogan vs. Ric Flair and put my picture over Ric Flair and pasted it up around the treatment facility. So the poster was me vs. Hogan. It was a good rib. For the record, I would have beat the Hulkster, because I was saying my prayers and eating my vitamins.

After I wrapped up my playing career at the U of O and my Minnesota Vikings linebacker experiment did not work out, what was I to do? How about what I always wanted to do? What I told coaches at the NFL combine what I wanted to do. I was going to attempt wrestling. I was young and hungry. And why the hell not? I told everyone I wanted to do it. Now I had to back up my big mouth.

Before I signed with Minnesota in 1997, I met Matt Borne who was the first “Doink the Clown” in the WWF, now WWE. He is the son of Northwest Legend Tough Tony Borne and was helping with the revival of Portland Wrestling in the state of Oregon. So, we decided that it would get done. My debut match was on November 1, 1997 in a flea market in Portland. Luckily, or because of my planning, take your pick, there was no Oregon game on that day. That gave ample time for my friends and family to come watch. Over 800 people showed up and saw me defeat Bruiser Brian Cox with a Flying Body Press off of the top turnbuckle, for the 1-2-3! I recently saw a tape of this and in terms of wrestling standards, I would give this a rating of -1 on a 10 point scale. I did not really know what I was doing, but it ended up looking okay for what it was. Wrestling purists agreed and mentioned that for something that received so much press, it should have been better. But it put butts in the seats! And that equals a bigger paycheck!

But what name to use? Joshquatch? The NW Duck? The All-American? I needed a name. For that, I had help from the media. It seems this quest to name me struck a chord with a short round news caster who I happen to know, and had a good relationship with. So his suggestion of “Sea Bass”, based on the character in the movie ‘Dumb and Dumber”, a scruffy guy sitting in the back of a diner with a mesh hat took off like a wild fire in southern California. “The Duck Homer”, Joe Giansante, deserves credit for starting the “Sea Bass” name, which has stuck to me like groupies at a Molly Hatchet/Bad Company concert. I have yet to put it on my business cards though.

After the show in Portland, we had shows in Roseburg, La Pine, Bend, Coos Bay, and Eugene. The one in Eugene was great and so much fun. My outfit: bad acid wash jeans I stole from my dad’s work clothes pile, a yellow Oregon football belt, hiking boots, and cut-off sleeved Oregon t-shirt fit perfectly with the “Sea Bass” moniker. I ended up teaming with Brian Cox, the guy I defeated in my first match, and we won the Tag Team Titles. But then he turned on me, hit me with the belt, and power bombed me! They had to stretcher me out. I did not know if I would survive.

Due to my concussions and neck problems, I was scared I would need a neckeoctomy, a complex neck surgery which could have put me out for months. Luckily, ice and free beers cured it. Also, a fan entered the ring trying to help me from an attack early in the show, which I was grateful for. But one of the guys punted his skull with his size 13. So, I would suggest never trying to jump the rail and entering the ring. I won the heavyweight title in La Pine in a tournament, but lost it a few weeks later when I got hit with a trash-can behind the ref’s back in Roseburg. I can say now I do not have the fondest of memories of the Roseburg county fairgrounds, but mainly because I was staring at the lights flat on my back, not because of a bad experience at the Monster Truck Shows.

I can tell you that the people in this profession do not get the credit they deserve. If you like it, if you hate it, if you think it’s fake, whatever, just know these people are out there putting their bodies on the line for entertainment, and they do get hurt. If you do not like it, turn the channel; don’t comment on it. It would be like me commenting on American Idol. It is not my up of tea and I don’t watch it, but I won’t call it stupid or anything like that. I just turn the channel, or let the wife watch it. Enjoy things for what they are. And wrestling to me is fun and entertaining! I guess I still am a kid at heart.

In the end I was a Pacific Northwest Tag Team Champion and the Heavyweight champion. Granted, I have never been in a Wrestlemaina. But I got to follow through on a dream and this helped pave the way for me to appear on ECW, train with Dory Funk Jr, and eventually get a WWE contract. I am pretty sure that the visions of me jumping off a turnbuckle in a flea market are not stuck in the minds of my parents like the Rose Bowl; they were always supportive unless I did something real stupid, and often times talked about not using the Wilcox name. Guess “Sea Bass” will have to do. I don’t know maybe I should be “Lucky”.

Hold on I have to go, somebody just bought “Sea Bass” and the fellas a round of boiler makers…

Tags: Josh Wilcox, Sea Bass