He has two herniated discs, damaged knees, a bad right shoulder and is unable to chew hard food because of a permanently cracked jaw.

All at the age of 32.

But while these injuries helped lead to the premature end of his full-time grappling career, Mikey Whipwreck said he has no regrets thanks to what he accomplished while performing for now-defunct Extreme Championship Wrestling.

"I stopped soon enough so that I'm not completely a mess," said Whipwreck, who is now a trainer for the New York Wrestling Connection school in Deer Park, N.Y. "I'm still banged up and everything hurts, but I can still move and play with my daughter. Twenty years from now, it might catch up with me, but right now, I'm hanging in there."

At only 5-8 and 180 pounds, Whipwreck overcame size limitations to become one of the most unlikely superstars in ECW history.

Although he held a full-time job as a K-Mart garden shop manager, Whipwreck had such passion for wrestling that he was part of the ring assembly crew for ECW matches in the early 1990s. Whipwreck then caught the eye of ECW matchmaker Paul Heyman while taking practice falls in the ring before shows, leading to a spot as a low-level performer whose ring entrance music was fittingly Beck's "Loser."

Whipwreck, though, began to develop a cult following thanks to his outrageous bumps and a series of fluke victories. An improving Whipwreck eventually won all three of ECW's main championships and even scored a pinfall victory over Steve Austin before "Stone Cold" joined World Wrestling Entertainment in 1996.

"As Paul and the guys started letting me do more and more offensive stuff in my matches, I would still sell (moves) to make guys look good," said Whipwreck, whose real name is James Watson. "Everybody had a lot of fun. It was cool. Nobody cared who was making money. We just wanted the company to do well."

Whipwreck couldn't resist the allure of a major pay raise when World Championship Wrestling offered him a contract in late 1998. Whipwreck, though, didn't hit it off with WCW matchmakers and worked less than a dozen bouts in one year before being released and returning to ECW.

"The positive was I got paid almost $3,000 a week for what was pretty much a paid vacation," Whipwreck said. "It paid for my wedding, I bought a nice house and I invested well. Working there was terrible, but I didn't mind the cash."

The financial windfall allowed a beaten-up Whipwreck to begin winding down his career after ECW folded in February 2001.

"I'm just teaching guys at the school and that's pretty much it," said Whipwreck, who did appear as Yoshihiro Tajiri's second on last June's ECW: One Night Stand reunion pay-per-view show. "I'm trying to stay un-busy."

Whipwreck will make a rare grappling appearance against fellow ECW alumnus C.W. Anderson on the Wrestling Underground: Origin of Mayhem pay-per-view show that will air throughout this month on InDemand. Other notable grapplers on the pre-taped card are Diamond Dallas Page, Justin Credible (with "Queen of Extreme" Francine), Nu Jack and Rodney Mack (with former WWE women's champion Jazz).

For information on Origin of Mayhem, visit www.thewrestlingunderground.com. For information on Whipwreck's school, visit www.nywcwrestling.com.

Questions and answers

Q: Why is Bill Goldberg not wrestling? _ Chad Booth, Clarksville, Tenn.

A: Discouraged after a one-year stint in WWE, Goldberg spurned wrestling in 2004 for an acting career. Goldberg has starred in one horror movie (Santa's Slay) and is host of the Automaniac car show on the History Channel.

Goldberg also will be appearing on the show Pros vs. Joes, which matches fans against retired pro athletes in sporting contests, that debuts at 10 p.m. Saturday on Spike TV.

Even with these endeavors, Goldberg is currently contemplating a return to the ring with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (11 p.m. Saturdays and midnight Mondays on Spike).

More of the Mikey Whipwreck interview can be found at www.wrestlingobserver.com. Questions can be sent to Alex Marvez c/o the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, 200 E. Las Olas Blvd., Fort Lauderdale, Fla. 33301, or e-mailed to amarvez(at)sun-sentinel.com. Please include your full name and city of residence. Because of volume, no phone calls will be accepted and letters will not receive a written reply.

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service)