Kevin Kleinrock

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Kevin Kleinrock is the former producer of Xtreme Pro Wrestling^[1] and the co-creator, producer and co-booker^[2] of Big Vision Entertainment's wrestling promotion Wrestling Society X which is currently airing on MTV in the United States, Australia, the UK, and France.

Kleinrock's career in wrestling began at the age of 16 when he went to work for Slammers Wrestling Federation based out of Sun Valley, CA. Kleinrock performed various roles with the SWF including time keeper, ring announcer, program writer, and even brought Slammers to his high school for a fundraiser wrestling show. While working at Slammers, Kevin became friends with Darren McMillan who wrestled as Dynamite D. In 1996, Kevin and Slammers parted ways when he headed off to college at UCLA. Shortly thereafter, McMillan and a number of other wrestlers who had left Slammers over the years formed an NWO inspired DWO (Dynamite World Order) and after a "shoot" angle on an SWF show, the Slammers roster split. McMillan, along with former Slammers ref Patrick Hernandez and Kleinrock, would go on to form Southern California Championship Wrestling (SCCW).

SCCW promoted mostly fundraiser events throughout Los Angeles including "SlamFest '98" which was held at UCLA in conjunction with the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity (which Kleinrock was a member of) with proceeds going to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. In the main event, SCCW's Sheriff Jess Hansen teamed with former WWE Champion Yokozuna as they battled Cincinnati Red and WWE legend The Honkeytonk Man.

SCCW was an extremely grassroots promotion. Shows were generally promoted by the wrestlers and staff handing out flyers themselves at local wrestling events. At one local WWE event, a flyer was handed to the CEO of Extreme Associates, Rob Black. Black's interest was perked by the flyer having been in negotiations with Paul Heyman and ECW to co-promote West Coast shows and distribute ECW DVDs in Brazil (where Black co-owned a distribution company). He called McMillan (who's number was on the flyer) and requested a meeting to discuss the Los Angeles wrestling scene and what SCCW was doing. The outcome of the meeting was that SCCW would fold and McMillan, Hernandez, and Kleinrock would work with Black to form a new wrestling company. Their venture would become Xtreme Professional Wrestling (XPW).

Kleinrock was the vice president of XPW, as well as taking on the role of an on-screen antagonist where he played right hand man to XPW CEO Rob Black. He was affiliated with Black's Black Army, and was nicknamed "Dork-o Dude" by XPW commentator Kris Kloss.

After the closure of XPW Kleinrock worked for Houston Curtis' Big Vision Entertainment company. As a former MTV employee, Curtis was able to obtain an interview with the broadcaster for discussions as to creating a show. At the meeting Kleinrock put over a vision of a programme combining music and professional wrestling in a format to appeal to the 18 to 24 male demographic^[3] as well as MTV's existing audience^[4] and the pilot show for the newly-dubbed Wrestling Society X was filmed in February 2006 and accepted by MTV.^[5]

Although involved in plans for a "one night" reunion XPW show during early 2007, his responsibilities with Wrestling Society X have kept him in an advisory role working with executives from Big Vision Entertainment. ^[6]

[edit] Further reading

• "Costumed players duke it out in Battle Royal". UCLA Daily Bruin. 02 Jun 1998
• "'Deathmatch' attracts fans with blood". UCLA Daily Bruin. 24 Sept 2001
• "Wrestling: In For The Kill; `Fight Club' is now a reality for US teenagers". The Independent. 31 Mar 2001
• "New action group with underground feel". Miami Herald. 25 Jan 2007

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Kevin Kleinrock at the Internet Movie Database
• Kevin Kleinrock interview by Steven Bryant
• Wrestling Observer: Alex Marvez interviews WSX producer Kevin Kleinrock
• Pro Wrestling Torch: WSX producer Kevin Kleinrock talks about new MTV wrsetling show
• Xtreme Longshot by Luke Y. Thompson