Pete Pappas
Posted: November 13, 2022
Author: Jeff Docherty
The Beginning is a Great Place to Start...
When you hear Pete Pappas' story, you might think that he was destined to become the ring announcer for the Midget Wrestling Warriors...and you'd be correct.
You see, Pete has technically been with the Midget Wrestling Warriors since, well...before there even really was a Midget Wrestling Warriors.
Confused yet? Allow me to let Pete himself explain:
"The reason I'm ring announcing is because I was the ring announcer for Short Sleeve Sampson's second match ever back at the start of his wrestling career." said Pappas from his home in sunny Florida.
For those who don't already know, Short Sleeve Sampson is the owner of Midget Wrestling Warriors and is the driving force behind one of the fastest growing independent wrestling companies touring today.
"I started in the wrestling business in 1996. That's when I started. I went to a show for Northeast Wrestling, a company out of the New York/Connecticut area and in the program they had an ad that said they were hiring. So I sent them an email. Like, I was a kid...so when the promoter actually called me, I had my hand over the mouthpiece of the phone and mouthing 'Oh My God! I'm gonna work in wrestling!' This was before it became mainstream common knowledge that it was 'sports entertainment'. Back when kayfabe was alive and well and the secrets of the business were still successfully hidden away from the fans. My first jobs were putting show flyers on cars, setting up chairs, that sort of stuff. They did NOT let me in the locker room that first year. It was still very much protected. I remember the first night they told me to go into the locker room to get something and I was like 'are you sure?' They decided it was time for me."
Pete got to work with and befriend many legendary wrestlers during that time.
"I got to work with King Kong Bundy, Ahmed Johnson, Jake The Snake, Sid, Moolah and May Young. I got to drive Moolah and May around for years and got to be close friends with them before they passed. The promoter ran mostly during the school year and not during the summer. And that's how I met Short Sleeve Sampson!"
"About a year and a half in, we were doing a show in Upstate New York, probably Albany or somewhere up there, we had about 20 or 30 people in the crowd and George "The Animal" Steele was there and I was standing at the curtain with George, who was not particularly happy that he was working in front of only 20 or 30 people. He asked what I did for the company and I told him I did errands and did this and that for them. He asked what I want to do in the wrestling business. I told him I want to be an announcer. He asked if I had a suit. I replied 'no'. I wasn't scheduled to be an announcer so I didn't bring a suit. His exact words to me were 'Let this be the last wrestling show you ever come to without a suit because you will someday come to a wrestling show and the ring announcer won't be there and they will literally ask who has a suit? You will raise your hand and you will be the ring announcer. It's not about voice, it's about who's ready to go.' Two weeks later, I went to another show in Upstate New York. A snowstorm occurred, the ring announcer didn't show up. They asked who had their suit? I said 'Holy ****! That was easy!' I started that night and I started getting bookings in New York and New Jersey. That's how I met Short Sleeve Sampson about a month after his first match."
In 1998, Pete did his summer internship with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in Stamford, Connecticut.
"While at WWF, I worked for Shane McMahon in Digital Media, which was a lot of fun. I worked with Shane and a bit with (Vince) Russo and Bill Banks. I was there three days per week. I ran the AOL Chat Rooms during Monday Night Raw. I started the Monday after Summerslam: Highway To Hell. Working for Shane was awesome. He was a great guy and he is the nicest person!"
So...did he ever get to meet the Chairman of the World Wrestling Federation...Mr. McMahon, himself?
"They did have an intern event so I got to meet Vince. Then one other night...it was, as you would expect, office hours were 9-5 but we wouldn't leave until 7 or 7:30 some nights. One night I was in my director's office and was working late on a project. I was trying to rush to get it finished and I turned around to walk quickly back to my office and, as I turned around, my nose went directly into Vince's chest. At that point I was like 'Oh crap!' and I slowly looked up..because he's freakin' huge...and I'm like 'I am SO sorry!' and he looks at his watch and goes '7 o'clock at night and you're working that hard? You don't have a problem with me! I'm in YOUR way!' It was awesome."
FUN FACT: Pete was one of the main creative minds behind the infamous 1999 "Heroes of Wrestling" pay-per-view!
Pete worked with ECW in the latter years of the promotion, as well, when they were doing the New York City pay per views. He then moved out of New York and down to Virginia where he loosely did wrestling shows.
"I did maybe one show per year, if that, and I was there for about 10 years but I kept in touch with everybody in the wrestling business. Then, I moved down to Florida and I've been here about 10 years. I know so many wrestling friends in Tampa that I would often get invited to the shows in the area and it got to the point where I was working 1 or 2 shows per week and it got to be too much. I was leaving work early to drive 2 or 3 hours across the state of Florida to make next to no money and then drive home. It got to the point where I wasn't having fun and it wasn't worth it."
Pete was, once again, "out of wrestling" by his own choice. He kept in touch with Short Sleeve Sampson and last year, before one of the Midget Wrestling Warriors' shows in Indianapolis, Sampson called Pete up.
"He called me and said he needed some help. He said he needed a ring announcer for a couple of shows. I was just about to have back surgery so I wasn't sure. So I thought about it for a day or two and I told him that I would do it because the doctor told me that I should be ready three weeks before that show and it would give me the motivation I needed to put in the work to be ready to go...and I was. Since then, I've done about 15 shows with the Midget Wrestling Warriors and it's been a blast!"
Pete speaks fluent Spanish, as well as his native English, which comes in handy when working with the Midget Wrestling Warriors.
"We have some great Mexican wrestlers and they find it very helpful that I speak English and Spanish and I can help them translate and better communicate with some of our English-speaking wrestlers. It works out very well."
Pete is, once again, having fun in the wrestling business as a member of the Midget Wrestling Warriors and he injects his fun personality into every show. He takes great pride in ensuring that every fan has the best time possible every time they come out to a Midget Wrestling Warriors show.
Be sure to catch Pete and all of the Midget Wrestling Warriors when we come to your area for our colossal "No Retreat...No Surrender" Tour 2023. Visit our Tour Dates page often to be the first to know where we'll be appearing!
IT'S MIDGET TIME!
