My friend Dave and I arrived really early at the WWF show in Baltimore because we were hoping to catch a glimpse of some of the wrestlers. As we were hanging around the ring truck pulled up and some of the ring crew guys started talking to us. A little while later a face I recognised showed up, Mel Phillips, the ring announcer. I knew who he was because Terry Funk had just beat the hell out of him in an angle on TV. I shouted over, Hey, youre the ring announcer, the guy Terry Funk beat up! Mel started laughing and walked over. Thats right, he said, Hey, what are you kids doing here so early? I told him we wanted to meet some of the wrestlers and Mel said, Well come on in, and took us backstage. There were already another three or four boys with him all about my age. I remember thinking to myself, Wow, what a real nice guy Mel is, letting all these kids meet the wrestlers. Little did I realise what was really going on. When we got to the locker room Dave and I were kind of standing back a little, just taking it all in, then Mel started wrestling around on the floor with these kids, pulling their socks off and playing with their feet. I thought it was a little strange but didn't think anything of it because I figured they were just playing and having fun. It was the kind of fun I wasn't interested in having though, so I asked Mel if it would be okay for Dave and I to go out by the ring. He told us we could, so we went out and met Joey Marella the son of Gorilla Monsoon and the head of the ring crew and started carrying a few boards in from the truck to help the crew set the ring up. This became a routine which went on for months. We would show up early and Mel would always let us into the arena to hang out or help out when needed. I thought it was the greatest thing in the world getting to meet the wrestlers and hanging out with them prior to the show, but as time went by my Grandma Knighton started getting suspicious. She would ask, Why are these grown men wanting to hang out with you kids all the time? It just doesn't seem right, theres something wrong there. I assured her, No, no, theres nothing wrong. We just hang out, get to meet the wrestlers, get them food, help with the ring, stuff like that. I was totally oblivious to the sinister underbelly of child abuse that was occurring in the WWF right under my nose. It later became public knowledge, but I witnessed it firsthand and had no clue what it was. I didn't know these kids were being abused, I thought they were just playing and having fun. The one time it finally struck me that my grandma was right was when instead of going to the locker room and hanging out, Mel said, Hey, lets just go across the street to my hotel room at the Days Inn. We all went over there and Mel grabbed Dave and threw him on the bed, then starting pulling his socks off and playing with his feet, acting like he was wrestling. What the f**k is going on? I wondered, and hurriedly said to Dave, Come on, we have to go and meet your brother. We have to get out of here. He realised something wasn't right too and replied, Oh yeah, yeah, come on. When we left Mels room I turned to Dave and said, Buddy, there is something going on here. Something isn't right. Mel actually drove us home that night, which was very strange. As we were getting out of the car he said to us, Everythings fine, right guys? Ill see you next month? I muttered something along the lines of, Yeah, sure, no problem, but as soon as I got through the door I told my grandma about it and she said she was going to call the police. I convinced her not to because I was worried about getting banned from WWF shows, but it was now obvious to me that there was something very wrong about what Mel was doing. He clearly had a problem. The next months event was a house show in a high school gym with the WWFs B crew in a small town in northeast Maryland. There were only 2,500 in the building and the card was full of job guys. I decided to confront Mel about what he had been doing and I told him, Mel, my gran was kind of upset when I told her about whats going on as far as what happened with Dave. He said, Wait a minute. You told someone? I said, Yeah, I just wanted to talk to you about it to make sure everything is cool. He immediately went on the defensive, and what he said next broke my heart; Well, you guys cant come here anymore or go backstage, because there are people here like Pat Patterson that wouldn't understand those type of allegations. I cant have you guys coming around here anymore if you are gonna tell people what you see. I was distraught. I had gone from being the guy tying the tag ropes onto the ring during the show and sweeping up the turnbuckle after George The Animal Steele ripped it off and pretended to eat it, to being exiled because I had asked a question about certain guys and the kids that were always around.
The author of the highly acclaimed 'Titan' book series, James Dixon has been involved in the wrestling business for 25 years as a fan, wrestler, promoter, agent, and writer. James spent several years wrestling on the British independent circuit, but now prefers to write about the bumps and bruises rather than take any of them. His past in-ring experience does however give a uniquely more "insider" perspective on things, though he readily admits to still being a "mark" at heart.
James is the Chief Editor and writer at historyofwrestling.co.uk and is responsible for the best-selling titles Titan Sinking, Titan Shattered, and Titan Screwed, as well as the Complete WWF Video Guide series, and the Raw Files series.
