Pro wrestlers help teach character

LAFAYETTE — As the special guest referee of a tag team match that pitted Rocky Jones and Joey Simone against Mac McIntosh and Nunzio, Lafayette School Vice Principal Jerry Fazzio reversed his original decision that Nunzio and McIntosh were the winners of the match. What triggered his change of mind? He received word that Nunzio had cheated — by putting his feet on the ropes to gain leverage — to win the match.

“Cheaters never win!” Vice Principal Fazzio exclaimed as he raised the new victors’ hands in salute. The disqualified team threw what can only be described as a tantrum and stormed out of the ring.

To the students at Lafayette School, Fazzio’s decision came as no surprise. They see Fazzio make those sorts of character based decisions every day. The six pillars of character — trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring and citizenship — are ingrained in their curriculum and enforced by their vice principal.

The wrestling match, performed during a fundraiser at the school, was another opportunity for the vice principal to reinforce the messages of those six pillars. And it was an especially apt one, as the administrator is no stranger to the ring.

Some of the wrestlers from this past Friday night’s performance had even given an assembly on the importance of those pillars earlier that day. It was these same six pillars of character that helped Fazzio though his own professional wrestling career and helped lay the groundwork for a career he was even more passionate about: education.

Administrator has a history in the ring

Fazzio, better known to wrestling fans as “The Executioner,” has been a part of the professional wrestling industry for 32 years. Together with his tag team partner, Fazzio made up one half of the well-known Executioners tag team that competed full time in the WWF, now WWE, from 1980 to 1985.

No matter how much Fazzio felt he was living his dream during that time, however, a nagging question haunted him: “What happens if I get hurt?” So, Fazzio took the history degree he earned from Montclair State University in 1981 and began teaching the subject at DePaul Catholic High School in Wayne, where he stayed for 27 years. During this time, Fazzio wrestled part-time — on weekends and during the summer — at independent wrestling circuits to stay “in the flow of wrestling.” In this period, the Executioners won tag team titles six times in six different federations — a feat almost unheard of for part-timers.

Now 53, Fazzio has moved on to a school administration position. Earning a master’s degree in education administration from Caldwell College in 2007, Fazzio took a job as principal at Morris Plains before finding a job closer to home and becoming vice principal at Lafayette Township School in 2011. His favorite part of his professional wrestling career was the world travel, he said. He completed tours in Dubai, Japan and Trinidad, among many other countries, but he says “it was his calling” to end up at Lafayette School and he already feels “embedded in the school.”

Fazzio still wrestles about 15 times a year with East Coast Professional Wrestling — an independent organization run by his long-time friend Gino Caruso. Fazzio is a member of the organization's hall of fame; he was inducted alongside “Superfly” Jimmy Snuka in 2005. The wrestlers who visited the school this past week are members of this organization. The fundraiser helped out the student council.

“It’s about balance,” Fazzio said about his very different current passions. “I can’t be the executioner in school, so the parents are OK with it.”

While Fazzio didn’t have an actual match in this event, his presence was felt in his capacity as special guest referee. “Dealing with discipline in education works the same way,” Fazzio said, referring again to the six pillars of character and the values they represent.

While he may have to reverse a decision based on cheating in the classroom from time to time, it isn’t likely that those reversals will have the same outcome as his match decision reversal Friday night: he was challenged to a “lumberjack” style tag team grudge match against Nunzio and Mac McIntosh at an ECPW event scheduled for October at High Point Regional High School.