Messenger - Vol. 1, No. 1, Page 19 Fall 1991 Alumni Profile; Doing well by being bad Pro wrestler Scotty "The Body" Levy, Delaware '87, does not count modesty among his many virtues. "Perfection personified--that's the cross I bear," he says, grinning. "I'm probably the most popular, unpopular guy you'll ever see. Women just love me, and their boyfriends hate it." The former heavyweight champion of the Pacific Northwest (PNW) Wrestling Federation, Levy moved to Atlanta a few months ago to join the Georgia All-Star wrestling team. But as recently as the spring issue of Wrestling '91 magazine, he was rated fifth in the PNW region. "Scotty the Body," the magazine notes, "has been a PNW force for several years. Scotty, a fan favorite, recently started bringing a loaded boot to the ring for his matches against The Grappler. In our book, Scotty is simply a rulebreaker supported by the fans." "During the whole time I was the heavyweight champion, I fought a lot of big stars--Billy Jack Ames, Rip Oliver, The Crippler, The Grappler. I defeated them all and kept my title. Then I lost to some schmoe named Curtis Thompson. I didn't really lose it, though. He cheated. He didn't beat me; he pulled my tights off--something I would never resort to. That ain't my style. "I was the heavyweight champion for six months, which is the longest anyone's had it continuously in five or 10 years," Levy says. "Then, I became the television champion." Besides wrestling five to seven times a week, Levy also co-hosted a television wrestling show in Portland, Ore., on Saturday nights. "It was the highest-rated show in its time slot, and that's basically attributable to me," he says. "The minute I started co-hosting, it became the highest-rated show and it never slipped a point in the ratings." Along with co-hosting wrestling on television, Levy parlayed his celebrity status in Portland into a sideline as a spokesperson for local advertisers. "I did one for a mobile home dealer that was a good commercial," Levy says. "At the end, I throw some mealymouthed competitor through a door. Then I look at the camera and say, 'If you buy one of our mobile homes, I won't pile-drive your dog and I won't date your daughter.' A lot of parents are scared of that," he says, laughing. "My commercial got more response than any commercial ever aired on that station. It's all true." Although he won two Florida state wrestling championships in high school, Levy didn't wrestle as an undergraduate at Delaware. Instead he concentrated on body building--winning major body-building titles in Florida and New Jersey--while studying criminal justice at the University. During his summers off, Levy worked as a Chippendale's go-go dancer in New York. "I thought about becoming a private investigator or working for the FBI, DEA or maybe even the CIA down the line," Levy says. "But I was recruited to become a professional wrestler by Larry Sharpe at the Monster Factory in New Jersey. He saw me and thought I had a lot of potential, so we talked, and I forsook my criminal justice career for a life of pain, agony and the blues. Luckily, there's a lot more money than pain or agony." Levy says the next logical step in his career is to move from regional competition into one of the national wrestling circuits--the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) or the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). "I've done everything there is to do in wrestling, except for (winning titles in) the NWA and the WWF," Levy says. "No one has done what I've done in just two years in professional wrestling." And he'll get to the top of the wrestling heap, he says, without cleaning up his act. "Sure, I'm considered a bad guy," Levy acknowledges. "But it's more jealousy than anything. I'm rich, I'm good-looking and I'm built. It's a combination that's hard for people to like. Everybody wants to be like me."