This month I had planned on writing about some of the names and personalities from the New England area that made an impact not only in International Championship Wrestling, but the entire wrestling world as well. However, when I started writing about the man the main focus of my article was to be about, I realized it would just not be possible to write about anyone else. Therefore, in this month's ICW article I will focus on one individual who made quite an impact in ICW for nearly 10 years and also went on to entertain the hearts and souls of wrestling fans throughout the Northeast until his untimely death. I am speaking of my dear friend, the late "Boston Bad Boy" Tony Rumble.

I will never forget the dark and dreary evening of November 13, 1999. I was sitting at home enduring a seemingly never-ending battle with gout when my phone rang around 5PM. It was Jeff Katz, the former host of the NWA New England "Mass Madness" television program. It was not abnormal to hear from any member of the NWA New England team on a weekend when we didn't have a show as we were a tight-knit group under Tony's leadership. What Jeff called to tell me sends chills down my spine to this very day as he had told me that Tony had a heart-attack earlier in the day.

"Oh my God! Is he OK?" was my response.

"No, Tony passed away, Rich." Jeff told me. We spoke for a couple minutes and I hung up the phone and am not ashamed to say that I had myself a good cry. For, you see, I have loved this business for over twenty years and had it not been for Tony Rumble, I would not have had the pleasure of working in it for the last eight years.