» the Weekly Arts & Entertainment Guide of the Charleston Gazette in Charleston, West Virginia
		EVENT: Danny Boyd, local filmmaker, is also Prof. Danger, big-time wrestler?

Is Boyd bonkers? Trying to get the scoop on Danny Boyd's wrestling by Rudy Panucci for the Gazette For a related story, click here.

I have to be honest. I've known Danny Boyd for almost 25 years. I was one of his first students back when he began teaching at what was then West Virginia State College. He was not only a teacher. He's a friend. And I'm worried. I just don't get this wrestling thing. Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan. I enjoy watching wrestling, but I've never been tempted to climb into the ring, especially at my age, and Danny's older than I am. He's not just helping promote Friday's "September To Dismember," he's also wrestling in the main event. This is a 50-year-old man getting in the ring with athletes half his age. His transformation into Professor Danger has been alarming. I don't know if it's a midlife crisis or a full-blown psychosis. A year ago, when I saw "In The Ringer," Amy Trent's documentary about Boyd's adventures in the professional wrestling world, I thought it might have been a healthy diversion. Since then, he seems to have taken things to unhealthy extremes. He's become what wrestling fans know as a "heel," a bad guy. I've been hearing that this behavior has spilled over into his out-of-the ring life. I felt the need to ask around to try to figure out what was going on with my old friend. Evidently, something happened in Africa. In January 2004 Boyd was wrapping up work on the film "Makutano" (meeting "point" in Swahili), when he had a near-death experience. He wrestled his first match later that month. "Ever since Danny climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, he just hasn't been the same. It's like the altitude got to his head. He went up the mountain as Danny Boyd and came off the mountain as 'Professor Danger,'" says Boyd's wife, Robin, a fellow WVSU professor. "I wake up sometimes at 3 or 4 o'clock in the morning, and I find Danny in our den playing opera music and watching old Canadian wrestling videos," she continues. "One night I found him watching an old Bret Hart video. He was standing in front of the TV, saluting the screen, with his belt over his shoulder!" This wasn't making me feel any better. I was starting to worry that my research for this article would end up with me testifying at a mental hygiene hearing. I'd heard that Boyd was only wrestling so he could write a book about the experience, but when I asked him point-blank if this were the case (and it would have been a huge relief if it had been) he snapped at me, saying it was none of my business. A few minutes later, he started rocking back and forth in his seat and quietly said, "It started out that way -- the wrestling -- but it became much bigger than any book." At this point, I still wasn't sure if he had really gone off the deep end. His department head at State and longtime friend, David Wohl, said, "He's not the same person that I have known and worked closely with for 25 years. We hope to get the old Danny back once this is all over. If he survives, that is." Dick Wolfe, another of Boyd's colleagues, told me, "In theater we sometimes notice, as the show nears, performers exhibit traits offstage of the characters they portray onstage. With Professor Danger, I'm scared." Even Dale Gagne, the president and CEO of the American Wrestling Association, chimed in, "I don't want to give credibility to this event based solely on a whacked-out Professor." That's not good. Sure, when you decide to take on a new challenge it's no shock when your oldest friends are taken by surprise, but when the new people you're working with question your sanity ... well, where there's smoke, there's fire. I had one last glimmer of hope that Boyd was going to be OK. His tag-team partner, Death Falcon, was gracious enough to answer a few questions for me. I asked him if he thought Boyd was crazy. He replied, "He's far and away the craziest. Would you get in the ring at his age, with that physique? "But you say crazy like it's a bad thing. I love the fact that's he's crazy. We're talking here about a man who will do anything -- anything -- to win a match. He has no regard, hell, he has no concept of consequences for himself or anyone else. "He just doesn't care. A man who doesn't care is the most dangerous person in the world. Danny's attitude matches the Death Falcon's perfectly. That's why we work so well together and have been so successful as a tag team." And that made sense to me. Not immediately, but a few days later when I asked Boyd about his chances at winning the tag team belts at the upcoming show. That's when he told me, "I either walk out that night with the belt, or I don't walk out. I have nothing to lose. I've done it all. This is all that is left. ..." I could tell that, crazy or not, this was his dream. How can you blame somebody for chasing his dream? Maybe it's a brutally insane dream, and at his age, perhaps it's foolhardy for him to put his body on the line for that dream, but whether it's a bright, shining moment, or a car wreck, it'll be hard to look away. "In The Ringer" is available on DVD from The Paradise Film Institute, www.paradisefilminstitute.com/onlineorder.html. To contact Rudy Panucci, e-mail rudypan@charter.net. If you go WHAT: AWA-APEX “September To Dismember” WHEN: Bell time, 7:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 8 WHERE: Davis Fine Arts Building, West Virginia State University. TICKETS: $7. INFO: Call 766-3288.