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September 20, 2005 marks the three year anniversary of the passing of Ted Petty, best known inside the ring as Flyboy Rocco Rock. Petty was one of the truly nice guys in wrestling, in that he always went out of his way to be nice to the fans and never forgot his roots as a struggling wrestler. After spending years in the business under a mask as the Cheetah Kid working the Northeastern independent scene, doing moves like moonsaults that would later be popularized by others, Petty never forgot the years of trying to make it when he finally clicked and found his niche as one half of Public Enemy in Extreme Championship Wrestling alongside Johnny Grunge.
A former boxer, Petty worked several gimmicks early in his career, first as Leopard Mask. When a fan asked him about being a takeoff of Tiger Mask when getting an autograph, Petty changed the name of his character to Cheetah Kid. As Cheetah Kid, he did a New Japan Pro Wrestling tour, working against Jushin Liger and others. Another little seen Petty character was the masked Kimodo Dragon, which he used briefly in 1992-1993. When Paul Heyman and Jim Crockett did their initial World Wrestling Network taping in Fort Hood, Texas, Petty was to be one half of a masked Kimodo Dragons tag team with Dean Malenko. The team performed once that I am aware, that one show in Fort Hood which was taped but never seen.
At the very first Monday Night Raw taping in January 1993, Petty worked the second match of the taping under his mask billed simply as Cheetah, doing a dark bout against another Northeastern independent worker– Johnny Rotten, who would later grow his hair out, wear a goatee, add some weight (OK, a lot of weight later on) and transform into Johnny Grunge, Petty's close friend and partner. The match was OK but Petty's work was off as it was obvious he wasn't used to the WWF ring.
After seeing Petty and Grunge two work together during an international tour put together by former wrestling radio show host John Arezzi, Paul Heyman (who used Petty when booking the old Mario Savoldi ICW company) decided their chemistry would be perfect for a tag team, tapping into an urban gimmick and christening them, "The Public Enemy." Petty initially refused the idea, not wanting to work without a mask and feeling the fans would see through his age. When Heyman explained the characters and insisted that the only way he would use Grunge was as Petty's partner, Petty finally agreed. A tag team was born. The Rocco Rock name was actually a takeoff on rapper Snoop Doggy Dogg, later Snoop Dogg.
Once Petty, already in his late thirties, started playing the role of Hoodie and waving his arms as one half of the tag team "More Afraid of Living Than Dying", his career took off as he began to get recognition among the fans as he worked regularly for Extreme Championship Wrestling, becoming one half of the core tag team of the promotion. The first true homegrown ECW creation to take off with a life of it's own, The Public Enemy helped ECW turn the corner in 1995 when they became babyfaces. While ECW had several veterans and names that had independent mystique, like Terry Funk, Kevin Sullivan, and Sabu, TPE were ECW from infancy and as they grew and evolved, so did the ECW audience in Philadelphia.
While many of the matches do not hold up to the test of time on video, if you were attending Extreme Championship Wrestling during that era, there were many a night that no matter how good or bad the show was, The Public Enemy coming out declaring they were the "Mack Daddies of Violence", brawling, bleeding, and bringing the fans into the ring for a "House Party" to the tune of "Here Comes the Hotstepper" sent you home happy and ready to come back for more.
The Public Enemy was a unique entity in those days. Here was a man in his late thirties and a heavy Cajun white guy playing hoodies who grew up on the streets, using wrestling to make sure they didn't go back. Their promos ranged from heavy and violent (Petty destroying glass bottles with a baseball bat as he declared the team would defeat Cactus Jack and Mikey Whipwreck since he had seen "the fear in Cactus' eyes") to silly and comedic (breaking into Tod Gordon's office to find out who had a contract for the next Tag Title shot), as the pair would often end promos with Petty slapping Grunge with his hat and proclaiming, "Oh Johnny!" The mixture and texture of the duo's work off each other was a hit, and the crowd bought them as both entertaining goofballs and badasses at the same time, no easy feat to accomplish before jaded hardcore fans.
In early 1995, after being screwed out of their ECW World Tag Team championships in storyline, the ECW fans turned The Public Enemy babyface, and from that point on, the formula for the team was simple: Petty danced while Grunge (who had absolutely NO coordination) marched around the ring high fiving the fans. Grunge (who was a really good talker) would do some mic work promising blood and mayhem, and the pair would then deliver. Petty, the stronger worker of the two by far, would always do the majority of the in-ring wrestling while Grunge brawled and bled. Always looking to protect Grunge, Petty was likely the one taking the pinfall losses when the team did lose.
Although many credit the likes of Sabu and Terry Funk for putting ECW on the map, TPE was the first homegrown creation to truly draw for the promotion. For whatever reason, the booking, the work, and the hype all created magic that ECW fans bought, and they loved Public Enemy. Feuds and matches against The Funk Brothers, Ian & Axl Rotten, Sabu and Taz, The Pitbulls, The Gangstas, and Dean Malenko & Chris Benoit remain favorites for old school ECW fans of that era.
Petty was involved in many of the early crazy spots that became synonymous with ECW - being buried under a mountain of chairs thrown into the ring in that famous scene that played at the open of every ECW TV episode for years, being hogtied and hung upside down from the ECW Arena's Eagle's Nest, winning the first-ever no ropes barbed wire match in ECW history against Terry and Dory Funk Jr., moonsaulting Stevie Richards through a pair of stacked tables including one set on fire, and diving off the top of a steel cage with 2 Cold Scorpio through three tables, among other stunts.
When Sabu no-showed the promotion in April 1995 at what was then the promotion's largest ever event, the Three-Way Dance, TPE turned up the level of violence and began using more and more tables in their matches, sometimes even lighting them on fire before Petty would moonsault through them. While there was a time Sabu was considered the nucleus of ECW, The Public Enemy more than filled that void and proved that ECW was about greater than just one performer. Their popularity within ECW continued to skyrocket. With that popularity came the notice of the larger promotions, and for the first time, a homegrown ECW talent was courted by the national promotions.
The WWF came calling in November 1995, but TPE didn't sign with the promotion after a dark match at Survivor Series that year. WCW began bidding with promises of a huge push which never materialized and huge money, more than Petty had made in the wrestling business. The ECW fans that popularized Petty's career cooled to him, with some claiming TPE had sold out. Of course, none were truly aware of Petty's actual age and in the same position, many if not all would have drawn the same conclusion- after so many years in the business for little money, it was time to go.
The decision was an easy one to make, but Petty paid tribute to the ECW fans that made his career on his last night in the promotion in January.
"You people are the greatest wrestling fans in the world," Petty said after the team's final bout in the ECW Arena. "Whether you know it or you don't, and you probably don't, Just the energy you people create make us guys do things we normally wouldn't do. There ain't no way I'm jumping off a ledge, 12 feet in the air, through two tables, unless you people made me do it...and you did. Me and Johnny Love You."
After leaving Extreme Championship Wrestling for WCW, The Public Enemy never recaptured that magic feeling they provided every few weeks in that Bingo Hall in South Philly, but after years of killing himself on independents and Japan, Petty got the chance to work nationally and make good money. A forgettable WCW Tag Title reign was the highlight of their WCW career which featured feuds with Harlem Heat and the Nasty Boys. The duo bounced back to ECW several years later for a sobering return that sadly showed that one can never go home again – The Public Enemy of 1995 wasn't going to return in 1999. The team wasn't over and if anything, the Dudley Boyz were the babyfaces in the scenario.
After a brief fling in the WWF where they are most remembered for being absolutely decimated by the Acolytes, TPE was back in WCW, although with a very reduced push where they were basically extras as part of a cast of dozens and dozens of wrestlers. Petty and Grunge had also worked for the fledgling XWF managed by Jasmin St. Clair, making the odd occasional independent appearance, around the time of his passing.
On 9/20/02, Petty worked an indy show against Crowbar in Jersey City, New Jersey. Before they got in the ring, Petty commented, "Let's make this a fun match. Wrestling hasn't been much fun lately." After the bout, Petty and his girlfriend began driving down the New Jersey Turnpike to make a doubleshot at 3PW in Philadelphia. Petty, who's family had a history of cardiac issues, began to feel sick with chest pains. Although they called ahead via cell phone and an ambulance was waiting for them at the next Turnpike exit, it was already too late. Ted Petty was only 49 years old at the time of his passing, having celebrated his birthday just a few weeks before.
Petty's passing was a tremendous blow to a number of his fellow ECW alumni, especially since Petty was never part of the heavy party scene that often came hand in hand with being an ECW star during the glory era. If anything, Petty should have been least likely to go young, but fate sadly told a different story.
To this day, when Petty's name is brought up among those in the business, the first comment you'll often hear is, "I miss Teddy." For many fans and dreaming wrestlers, Ted Petty was the epitome of a journeyman wrestler who finally made good. After years of toiling, he hit upon a persona that fans loved and had the chance to live his dream as a wrestler nationally. Even when he could have gotten away with it, he never had that "wrestler ego" of being the star or of being better than others. Petty was happy to be one of the boys and was always especially happy to be good to his fans.
In his honor, Ian Rotten's IWA Mid-South promotion renamed their annual Junior Heavyweight tournament the "Ted Petty Invitational." The latest edition will take place in several weeks in Indiana.
Personally, I'll never forget the many matches I watched live and the fact that Petty, as a member of The Public Enemy, helped me as a fan fall in love with Extreme Championship Wrestling. There was a special magic in those times that can only be truly understood if you lived through them.
Although he wasn't alive to be there, partner Johnny Grunge paid tribute to him at last June's Hardcore Homecoming event in the the old TPE stomping grounds, the ECW Arena, and did so this past weekend as well. When ECW One Night Stand featured a series of historical packages, Public Enemy was right in the center of it all, as well they should have been.
Unfortunately, many forget to mention Public Enemy in the same breath as Sabu, Taz, Tommy Dreamer, and many others who helped put ECW on the map but the fact is, as said many times on the mic, "This house that sits on the corner of Swanson and Ritner is the House that Public Enemy built."
Here's to you Ted Petty. You are deeply missed. Hey Champ!
Mike Johnson can be reached at Mike@PWInsider.com.
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