Wrestling

Dmitri Young: 1998 Cincinnati Reds Locker Room Was Split Down The Middle Between NWO and NWO Wolfpac

The following has been paid for by the Cincinnati Reds World Order.

In the summer of 1998, Baseball was hot, with Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa on the chase for Roger Maris’s Home Run record. During that same summer, part of the Cincinnati Reds Locker Room was part of a team separated because of their love for their love of Pro Wrestling.

This week an original returned home to The Wrestling Perspective, former co-host, and MLB All-Star Dmitri Young. Young returned as Dennis Farrell’s co-host this week; since regular Lars Frederiksen was in Germany. While interviewing NWA National Heavyweight Champion, Young was asked to share a story about how Pro Wrestling played a role during his career with the Cincinnati Reds.

Young would recall his time being a member of the Cincinnati Reds NWO Wolfpac.

“Yeah, we had it split down the middle. We had NWO Hollywood [side] that consisted of Barry Larkin, Aaron Boone, Sean Casey, and I were part of the Wolfpac;  Pokey Reese was Wolfpac, and Eddie Thin [Eddie Taubenese], was Hollywood.” Young said.

The Hollywood side also consisted of Brett Tomko and Brook Fordyce. While the Wolfpac also had Willie Greene, Danny Graves, Melvin Nieves, and Gabe White.

Dmitri would explain what being part of the NWO Wolfpac squad meant.

Dmitri said, “We had a dead split, and it got to a point where I would wear an NWO T-shirt on the road, and when getting off the bus, the autograph seekers. They [would be] right in front of the bus giving me the too-sweet [hand-gesture] way back when. They knew that we were big wrestling fans, and that’s how the clubhouse was run. We talked shit to each other and will compare stats throughout the game. Whoever had the better stats, the loser, had to buy dinner.”

EC3 asked if anyone ever turned their back on the Wolfpac and joined NWO Hollywood. There was one player, Danny Graves; Young would elaborate on what happened.

“We did have one case, Danny Graves; he actually did. That’s funny that you say that because it was dirty too, it was real dirty. He got the save, and of course, we’re over there celebrating, and he took off the shirt, and he had on the NWO Hollywood under it, and I was like, “You son of a bitch.” Young said.

The WWE still owns the trademark for the NWO, and the NWO name is no longer being used in a ring capacity. However, the WWE recently brought back the LWO as a stable, known as the Latino World Order. The stable wrestles on WWE’s SmackDown brand, Fightful, provides live coverage of WWE SmackDown every Friday and the coverage can be found by clicking here.

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