I’m the Man- Roger Ruffen & The Northern Wrestling Federation (NWF)

I had been sent a link the other day to this video and asked to offer my thoughts about the subjects: The Northern Wrestling Federation (NWF) & Roger Ruffen. For the uninitiated (which I was recently), the NWF is a promotion based in Cincinnati, Ohio and operates in Southern Ohio & Northern Kentucky. The guy who opened the doors & still has the key is a Cincinnati native who goes by the name of Roger Ruffen; a man who came from a normal childhood to fall in love with the same business this website covers. Nowadays, while anyone can buy a ring, a license (when required), & call themselves a wrestling promoter for a week or two, Ruffen could be considered one of the élite because his promotion has operated regularly for about 20 years!

In this documentary (nowhere in here will I refer to this as a shoot since it really isn’t one) the rest of the world is being introduced to a guy that many of us didn’t know existed. The video tells the story of a young man who was a lifelong fan that caught the ear of a local promoter & paid his dues in the late 1970s/early 1980s working in the Midwest territories as well as working for the former World Wrestling Federation (remember Bret Hart/Roddy Piper at Wrestlemania? Ruffen was the 3rd man) before deciding to venture out on his own in a promotion many of us had never heard of. Sounds impossible? Apparently not: it just takes someone with a ton of passion & zero ego plus a lot of patience & sweat.  Well, that & a product that attracts fans.

This documentary does not reinvent the wheel, if you’ve seen one documentary, you’ve pretty much seen them all; it’s a story about a piece of someone’s life & if it’s not broke, why fix it? The documentary tells Ruffen’s story through not only his eyes, but those with whom he has shared most of his life which producer/director Sean McMurray captures rather well with a great deal of humility. What differentiates this documentary from many others is that this isn’t what we have come accustomed to in wrestling videos: he doesn’t bury anyone and there’s not a lot of controversy. So if you want a DVD full of dirt, this isn’t it.

I do not know Roger Ruffen, I have neither met the man nor have I been to an NWF show, so I cannot base anything I say about him on my experiences & can only base my judgment on what I have seen on this video. My personal observation is that while Ruffen bridges the gap between the old & the new schools, he has been a successful wrestler, referee, & promoter, but his true strength is being a trainer where those trains of thought seems to merge. He has trained people who became both stars & champions of companies like WWE, TNA, NWA, AIW, & NJPW as well as other places. Now from what I have seen from his students that I have seen in action is that not only do they know the ins & outs of wrestling, but they also have respect for both the business (yes I know–what does some mark know about the business? You don’t need to be one of the boys to know what respect is), and for the man who instilled those traits in them. That’s a true test of someone, especially someone who relishes in the role of teacher.

I know that they plan to sell the DVD at NWF events & I’m uncertain whether it’ll be sold online or not. What I do know is that when I used to do write ups for a local promotion that sadly closed last December, I used to sign off with that very tacky line “Go check out a local show.”; promotions like the NWF are those hidden gems you could discover if you would just take the chance.