"I Remember the Day" by "The Golden Boy" Greg Anthony

You've seen me mention before my lack of enthusiasm for the recruiting practices in our business today. Hiring guys in their early twenties and telling them who and how they should be, in my opinion, just doesn't work. We are all works in progress, it takes years to find our niche. To find out who you are and what works for you. A worker should have many influences but for someone to wake up one day and say I'm gonna be Steve Austin, Shawn Michaels or Ric Flair will leave them chasing a holy grail that doesn't exist. Plus if it was that easy wouldn't all just do that? Here are a few stories of how I became "The Golden Boy" Greg Anthony.

The Golden Boy was born out of my respect for Ric Flair. My original intention for The Golden Boy was robes, limousines and Armani suits. Sounds great, except I was 18years old,  worked in retail and drove a Hyundai Elantra. I couldn't even afford to see Space Mountain let alone try to convince the ladies I was the only ride they needed. So I downgraded and The Golden Boy became this brash, I'm a better "wrestler" than you character.

I wrestled several years as just The Golden Boy before I added Greg Anthony. I knew I always wanted a name to go with it but just couldn't find the right sound. Before I had got into the business I had toyed with "The Golden Boy" Anthony Howard but that didn't feel right. I wanted something that felt apart of me. I didn't want something ridiculous. I remembered that Shawn Michaels was actually Micheal Shawn Hickenbottom. So I thought if I took my first and middle name and switched it around.. "The Golden Boy" Greg Anthony. It worked and felt real to me. Then one week, I just said it in a promo. No build, no reintroducing... I was in the ring with "All That" Alan Steele and I said "Tonight its gonna be All That vs The Golden Boy, Alan Steele vs Greg Anthony" and it stuck.

When TLCW, was going strong we had one of the best rosters I had ever seen. Flash Flanagan, Derrick King, Stan Lee, Chris O'Neal, Dustin Starr, Seth Knight, Tim Grind, Picture Perfect. Everyone was at that point to where we had been working long enough to know what we were doing and young enough that no one was burned out. It seemed I was hitting a weird part in the business, I would go out there and talk about how good I was but I wasn't working the main events. Some here and there but I wasn't in "THE" program until Picture Perfect turned heel by hitting Stan Lee with their finisher and I pinned Stan to become TLCW Champion. I had a group of guys that supported me and I had a group of guys that hated that I was the champion. So I went to the ring the next week told the people that TLCW was the best company, TLCW had the best talent and I was TLCW Champion so that makes me The Best of the Best! With one sentence I put over the company, every wrestler and myself. That one sentence was what I needed to work off of and it worked.

All of these things have contributed to who I am today. I couldn't have started out day one as "The Best of the Best". No one would have bought it, but the way it worked out was a natural progression. I was able to grow and flourish at my own rate. I didn't learn everything from one source. I listened to guys like Derrick King, Flash Flanagan, Tom Pritchard, Bobby Eaton. All four of those guys know how to work but all four guys work differently. They also were allowed to learn and become their own wrestlers. Its just another one of those circles of life in the business.. maybe even The Golden Circle of life.