Looking back... Neu brings pro wrestling to Hartington

June 3, 2009

HARTINGTON — From the funloving Paul Neu in grade school to the high school football nose guard, to “Cannonball Grizzly” to “P.N. News” to Avalanche, to Big “O” Inc., it was not a surprise to some of Paul Neu’s classmates when he became a professional wrestler.

“I remember when we were in about the fifth grade and Paul came over to our house. We spent all afternoon in our basement wrestling,” said classmate Gayle Becker, Hartington. “Paul was always fun-loving, a good guy who never got upset about anything. He was a lot of fun to be around and always stuck up for you. When he played nose-guard in football (high school), he made it easy for those behind him.”

Little did Paul or his classmates know then where and what opportunity his enjoyment for wrestling would provide.

In his 23-year professional wrestling career, Paul has competed in over 4,300 professional wrestling matches as a big name wrestler, wrestled some of the most furious of professional wrestlers, lived and performed internationally and worked for major wrestling organizations such as the National Wrestling Alliance, World Wrestling Entertainment/ Extreme Championship Wrestling, International Wrestling Grand Prix (Japan), Catch Wrestling Association (Germany, Austria), All Star Promotions (England), European Wrestling Promotion, Italian Wrestling Association, Total Nonstop Action Wrestling on Spike television and more.

Paul has also been featured internationally in numerous newspapers, wrestling and health magazines and on television and radio.

Paul’s ability to make friends and be a well-known professional wrestler has taken him to 52 countries and back home to Nebraska.

Paul has been to or lived in India, all of the United Kingdom, South Africa, Austria, Germany, Japan, Egypt, and the Middle East extensively.

He currently resides in Omaha where he and a business partner have started Big O, Inc., as well as continuing his wrestling career.

Paul’s original dream and plans after graduating from Cedar Catholic in 1984 was to play college football.

He played football while he attended Kearney State College for one year. He was set up to be a walk-on player for the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers when he decided to move on.

“I walked away from my dream. I just wasn’t ready for it, so after attending UNL for one year I went to Madison, Wisc. to play for the Badgers.”

That is where Paul discovered his wrestling career while he was a bouncer at a bar.

“I tossed out four guys at once all throwing punches, then hopped over a car to break up a fight,” he said. “I didn’t realize until it was over that everybody in the bar was watching through the big windows. It must have been like watching a movie.”

One of the bar patrons, Minnesota State Treasurer Bob Mattson, approached him about considering a professional wrestling career.

“I had to think about it for a while but ended up calling him back and accepting his offer to sponsor my training,” he said.