Early on in his career, he wrestled in a tag team along with Big Pappa Chill, known as The Mack Daddies. Since then "The Wiggatti Wiggatti Wacked Mack Daddie of Wrestling" Has stepped it up a pace, and transformed himself into a cocky rule breaker, calling himself "THE INDEPENDENT ICON" ...Has held both the Eastern States Wrestling and World of Hurt ProWrestling Cruiserweight Titles simultaneously, as well as the USWF Lightweight Title ,which he has held for over two years ,after defeating The Reckless Youth in a tournament final.....Former NBW Cruiserweight Champion and Tag Team Champion...Trained with Dory Funk. ...Long time member of The Hardcore Society with DANGER & JOHNNY KAIN.

Accomplished high flyer as well as sound mat technician...Finishing maneuvers include a deadly FIREMAN's CUTTER and "THE BUDWEISER-FROG-SPLASH"...Impressive victories over Greg Valentine, Doink The Clown, TC Reynolds (as if) & FBI's Little Guido. 

NOW...AS SEEN ON TV...IN ECW...

Hopes to very soon make a name for himself in his new home, Extreme Championship Wrestling, where he is now known as "The Extreme Official" -HC LoC. Has been know to officiate his own matches, where he slaps the mat for himself. Not a bad position to be in. Seems tough for him to lose!

HC LOC SHOOT INTERVIEW

In this day of exorbitant salaries and massive egos, it is refreshing to listen to someone who genuinely cares about his craft as participant and has that "dream" of being the best at it.

Recently, I came across a young man in the #prowrestling chat room who fits the bill and is pursuing that dream, performing in front of a huge crowd in a massive arena in a major metropolitan area, and perhaps on a regular basis on the TV shows of the two major franchises, the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) and World Championship Wrestling

(WCW). He has indeed performed on a WWF TV show under his real name, but by doing it not only learned a lot, had to take a little ribbing. But more on that later.

Matt Knowles of the central New York town of Elmira, got his start in mid-1995 at the young age of 21. "I saw an ad one day in PWI (Pro Wrestling Illustrated) for Bodyslammers Gym in Ohio (run by current WWF star Al Snow)." But he saw his size (5'9", 195) as a disadvantage. "I really wanted to go but at the time there weren't a lot of small guys wrestling on TV, so I didn't think I would make it."

Then, by chance, there was a segment on a local TV station about a wrestling school opening up in Elmira. Matt, to say the least, was excited.

"I called that night and went down the next week and became their first student," Knowles exhorted. He enrolled at what is known as Crunchers Gym, run by the United States Wrestling Federation (an indy federation in the Northeast). "I was trained by T.C. Reynolds, who was trained by an old legend named Bepo Mongol, who teamed with well known wrestler Nicolai Volkoff (then Geeto Mongol)."

Knowles speaks highly of Reynolds. "He is a fine wrestler who never really went too far, but he was and is for that matter good at what he does," Knowles observed. "The school was supposed to be every Saturday and Sunday but since it was so close to my house, I went six days a week for 15 months. I learned a lot of ring psychology with him." How long before his first match? "Eight months…and my first match was with Steve Corino, a great indy lightweight." (Corino was part of an angle when Crush - Brian Adams - beat up a fan. The fan was Corino.)

You would expect in that first match for him to do the "job" (take the fall), but he won that match with a move called the "Fireman's cutter" (a move similar to Marvelous Marc Mero's TKO). "Mero's is somewhat different in that he and the other guy end up landing on their hips whereas with mine, I'm on my back and he's on his chest. It drives the guy's neck harder." (Or so it appears.)

Now with him getting his feet wet, the WWF was coming to Albany, NY - and Matt wanted to be on the program in some way. He called his good friend Tony DeVito to try and find out who he should contact. That person turned out to be none other than the WWF's famous ring announcer, Howard Finkel. And so Knowles hit the phone…ten times. And, like a salesman selling his product, Matt sent "The Fink" his promo stuff and tried to be very business-like and polite. "And he ended up hiring me. Not for Albany, but for Syracuse the next night."

Finkel, at the time, was in charge of the "Enhancement Talent Personnel", or the extra talent or jobbers (Note: Jim Cornette now handles that area). And as a good professional in any field would hear, "They told me to come and be ready for whatever." And "whatever" was an interesting one: "I was approached about 20 minutes before I was to go by Tony Garea (many time WWF-tag-team champ). He told us what to do." As it turned out, his opponent turned out to be the Canadian madwoman, Luna Vachon.

Vachon "called the match", but at the end with the top rope finisher, a mistake was made. "That's the funny thing," Knowles observed. "It was supposed to be a splash, but she actually told me to stay in the wrong spot and ended up being a head butt…'Dangerously low' as Jim Ross (WWF TV announcer) called it. Actually, to me it was more believable with the low blow and it made sense for a woman who's a heel to do that."

Garea observed that Knowles did well in that first appearance. "He (Garea) mentioned that my bumps and selling were real good." And what of his jobbing to a woman? "Cactus Jack (Mankind, Dude Love) said it was cool. Not much ribbing there though." But at the indy level? "Forgetaboutit (a takeoff on WWF boss Vince McMahon's famous saying). I didn't think I'd ever live it down."

Knowles met a lot of the WWF Superstars that day at Syracuse. "I talked with Severn (Dan) about his shoot stuff." And of the man of many personalities, Cactus Jack (Mick Foley): "Cactus must be one of the nicest people in the business." And of the talent in general? "Everyone at least said 'hello'", Knowles said.

Now that he has been at it for a while, Matt continues to move up and gain valuable experience. When asked who he liked to work with the most, the answer was quick: "Reckless Youth. I learned a lot from him and I guess we work a lot alike now. He really is great." And who did he look up to while coming up through the ranks? "I always like guys who bump and sell real well like HBK (Shawn Michaels) and Chris Candido. And I watched guys like that and (Dean) Malenko, (Chris) Jericho and (Eddie) Guerrero - guys who can fly, yet still get technical and tell a great story with their match."

And like any good athlete, he is his own worst critic. "I tape my own matches. Sometimes I noticed that I maybe rushed a little bit for the most part. I put a lot of thought in my matches before I go out there so I know what I'm doing will work (hopefully). I would say my best match was with Reckless Youth in Delhi, NY. We both did our high spots but at points where they made sense."

Now to bring you up to date on what Matt is doing nowadays. He wrestles in federations in New York as HC Loc. "It's kinda hard to explain," offered Knowles, "I (Loc) am a guy from NY who is very proud of my street background. The HC stands for Hard Core, but not in the trendy way that term is used in wrestling today - but more in a hard core attitude way." And that "Hard Core" name comes from something else….a band. "I got the name because I used to sing for a hard core style band and I wanted my name to have the same energy. An attitude you might imagine someone singing heavy music on stage in front of a big crowd." Knowles currently is involved with a band called "5th Man Out" as a drummer.

And yes, Knowles has the experience of "wearing the Gold." "I won the USWF lightheavyweight title from Youth in Elmira, NY. It was my first title in the sport. I have also won the NBW Cruiserweight title and tagteam title, ESW lightweight…a bunch of others."

Who else has the Empire State worker been in the ring with? Greg "The Hammer" Valentine, Tom Brandi and Doink (Ray Apollo). Knowles had high praise for Valentine: "It was a lot of fun. It's easy working with a guy like him and to give him credit, I didn't think he would let me do much but he said I could do whatever moves I wanted. At his suggestion, I got dq'd. He told me he was 'just visiting' and that he saw no reason to kill me off by pinning me. Cool guy."

The affable Knowles speaks highly of his craft. "I tell people this ain't no hobby," Knowles joked. "The indies are where a guy can gain experience and learn their craft in hopes one day to move up. There is truly no substitute for experience, though." But doesn't he maintain a day job? "I'm a carpenter with my father. It's a perfect job for a wrestler, because I can make my own hours. For instance next week, I have a tour of North Carolina and it won't be a problem for me to take the time off. It's worth driving the 15 hours for the $75 and watching hours of tapes to study my craft."

And of course, the bumps and sells have led to injuries. "TC tried to bring me in the hard way and I dislocated my shoulder. Since (then) it's popped out a dozen times. Also, I've cracked a rib, broken my nose, pinched a nerve in my lower back, tore a muscle in my back twice and got split open by the first chair shot I ever took and it needs five stitches. The shoulder injury came from the old move where one guy is on the apron holding on to the ropes and the other guy pulls the ropes and the guy on the outside flips in. Actually, I let go with one hand and not the other and when my body twisted, my shoulder popped." Ouch. "Tell me about it," Knowles quipped.

Earlier we mentioned the Luna match in Syracuse. Knowles has a refreshing attitude toward this first crack at the big time. "Luna didn't do much to me. Goldust (Dustin Runnels) sneak attacked me and gave me some pretty big moves so that Luna could pin me. Goldust is about 9" taller than me - so it doesn't really kill me off to have him beat the hell out of me and let someone else pin me." Knowles, when asked if it would inhibit his career, noted "I wouldn't want to be a total joke, at least in that sense, because if they did that with me for a couple of months and then dumped me it could keep me from being worth anything somewhere else. I am proud of what I did on RAW but I don't intend on being known for that forever."

You know, I have a suspicion that in the near future, you are going to see a lot of this young man. For those that live in New York and see HC Loc, you are getting your money's worth. You are observing a young man who has spent many hours fine-tuning what he does and he truly enjoys his profession. He has kept himself in top physical condition so that he can perform his craft for you, the viewing public. But like other superstars, like Steve (Williams) Austin, who started in the old World Class promotion and was trained by Chris Adams, and Shawn Michaels who got his feet wet in the old Texas All-Star. Mid-South, Central States and AWA promotions, you will be seeing a man who is hell-bent on becoming a wrestling superstar. And doing it the right way.