Pete Watson looks like the biggest

Pete Watson looks like the biggest , sweetest teddy bear you ever saw.It is only when be opens his mounth that you notice the missing front
teeth.Watson is a three – time world champion wrestler turned author.He was adored by fans because he was different:while other wrestlers were
supreme athletes , he was just a hulk who knew how to take a hit.You could throw as many chairs as you liked at Pete Watson , you could
smack  him repeatedly , but he wouldn’t go down.
After two autobiographyes and a series of children’s stories , he has just written a brilliant first novel : a work of immense power and
subtlety,likely to gain a wide readership.At its  simplest , it is about a boy and his dad getting together after a lifetime apart , through there is far
more to  it than  that.Was he inspired by anyone he knew? The father , he says, is based  on guys he met on the road , wrestlers, friends  of
his , who appeared to be leading exciting lives, but deep down were pretty miserable.
 Watson  does not come from traditional wrestling stock.He grew up in Long Island , New York . His father was an athletics director with a
PhD, his mother a physical education teacher with two master’s degrees – one in literature ,the other in Russian history.He was a big boy,bullied
for his size.One day his neighbour  had a go at him , and for the first time Watson realized he could use his weight and size instead of feeling
awkward about it.It was a turning point.
At college , he did a degree in communication studies .Meanwhile, he was learning the ropes of professional  wrestling .Did his parents try to
dissuade him? ‘No .They were just really insistent that I finished college. I am pretty sure they trought I’d get hurt and quit wrestling’. But he
didn’t.
He looks in remarkably good condition for someone who spent 20 years in the ring. His skin is smooth and firm ; there are few visible scars.
‘It’s  amazing  what retirement can do for you. I looked really rough five he says. People  are surprised by the softness of his handshake. ‘
Yeah, that’s the wrestler ‘s handshake  , he  says.
Do you have to be a good actor to be a good wrestler ?
‘I used  to really resent the acting label , but  it is acting.When it’s  really good , when you’re feeling it and letting that real emotion fly , it
comes closer  to being real ‘ .What did his children think when they saw him getting hurt ? ‘ Well , they used to think I never got hurt because
that’s what I told them.When they got old enough to realise I did , they stopped  enjoying it. That was , in part , what led  to my decision to get
out.’
Nowadays , his time is dedicated to family and books – his next nevel is about boy wrestlters living on the same block , and he is also writing
more children’s stories. He does not think this life is go different from wrestling.’Wrestling is all about characters , ‘ he says . ‘ So when my fans
hear I’ve written a novel , I don’t get the sense that they feel I’ve abandoned them’.