Nicole Bass was a professional bodybuilder and part-time professional wrestler. She had an incredibly sculpted body that came from years of dedication and training.
Unfortunately, her time in professional wrestling was marred by people accusing her of being a man. The comments were hurtful and repulsive. And this was at a time when pro wrestling featured plenty of curvy women ALMOST wearing outfits, with leering announcers acting like 14-year-old boys who discovered their first issue of Penthouse. Ugh.
I tell this story to tell another one.
It’s 2008, and I’m freelancing articles for a toy collector’s magazine. I had pitched an article on wrestling action figures, and the toy magazine liked the idea. So I needed to interview wrestlers and sports entertainers who had their own action figures, and what better place for that than at a wrestling convention. I found one in Long Island, and drove down there.
I had fun at the convention – many of the wrestlers talked about their action figures, their first reaction upon seeing their super-deformed miniature selves, all of that. But I can tell you this – whoever set up the location for the convention did NOT figure the popularity of the event. That hotel ballroom was packed. Stuffed. Sardines in a can have more room to move.
There was an area in the ballroom where some wrestlers could sit at tables and sign autographs and pose for photos with the fans. And at the time, I’m walking along that row of tables, my tape recorder in hand, interviewing each and every sports entertainer willing to give me a few minutes of chat.
Oh, there’s Ted DiBiase. Let’s talk to him.
Hey, is that Tammy Sytch? She’s good for a few words.
And the thing was – some of the wrestlers tried to stay in character, whether they were acting as babyfaces or as heels. Heck, Luna Vachon looked like she was about to rip my face off. But when I told her about the magazine article, she smiled like a Cheshire cat and even posed for a photo with her action figure. Swank.
Wait, that’s Nicole Bass. I should talk to her.
At the time, Nicole was sitting at a table. There were a stack of promo photos of her, along with a couple of Sharpie markers. She looked down at the table.
“Excuse me, Ms. Bass, I have an article for Toy Collector magazine and I’d like to ask you a couple of questions, if you don’t mind.”
“I don’t want to talk. Go away.”
Okay, maybe she’s just keeping kayfabe. I stepped back for a second. But then I noticed that two wrestling fans who also walked up to Nicole Bass’s table also got very sharp responses from the former bodybuilder.
Wait, that’s not good. And I thought to myself … this might not be kayfabe.
And mind you, the ballroom was bumper-to-bumper like traffic on Storrow Drive in Boston. The temperature inside the ballroom kept rising. I mean, people could manage this with some water and maybe a bite to eat …
Then it dawned on me. Nicole Bass is a bodybuilder, and bodybuilders have specific dietary needs and requirements. They need a high caloric intake to maintain their muscles and their body definitions. And I’ll bet you … she didn’t have a chance to get lunch or any other nutrition when the convention began, and the room was too packed for her to leave for food.
Okay. If I’m wrong … then so be it. I left the convention floor, and went over to the hotel restaurant. I quickly ordered a turkey sandwich and an orange juice. Not for me, of course. But if I’m wrong, I’m only out a few dollars.
I went back to the ballroom. A security guard stood at the door. “You can’t go in.”
I showed him my hand stamp that guaranteed admission.
“No, you can’t go in. We have too many people inside the ballroom now. You have to wait until someone leaves.”
I thought fast. Then I pointed into the ballroom. “You see Nicole Bass over there?”
“I do.”
“Nicole Bass is having a low blood sugar crisis. This food is for her. If I don’t get it to her and she has a medical emergency, the ambulance is going to come in here, the paramedics are going to interrupt your fan convention, and every person in this ballroom is going to know it’s YOU who didn’t allow a suffering person to eat. You want that?”
The security guard looked at me. Then he looked at the food. “Get in there,” he said.
Okay. Back in the ballroom.
I returned to Nicole Bass’ autograph table. “Here,” I said to her, as I placed the sandwich and the beverage on the table. “I think you could use this.”
She looked up. “Thanks,” she said, and unwrapped the sandwich. A few bites later …
“I needed that,” she said to me. “How much do I owe you for the food?”
“Just give me a couple of quotes for my magazine article and we’ll be square.”
I got the quotations, and the article was successfully published in Toy Collector a few months later.
This was exactly the right thing to do. Not everybody who is in trouble will reach out. At the worst, Nicole Bass could have easily told me to take that turkey sandwich and shove it up my ass. But I had a feeling that she was in a bad situation at the time … and a turkey sandwich helped get her past that struggle.
Chuck The Writer 