UVM Basketball Star Turned Pro Wrestler Ben Crenca Gets in the Ring

Four years of playing college basketball at the University of Vermont taught Ben Crenca all sorts of lessons. From 2009 to 2013, the six-foot-nine man helped lead the Catamounts to two appearances in the NCAA tournament and two America East Conference titles. But one part of the experience that Crenca will never forget is the traveling.

“I remember those nights so well,” Crenca said by phone from his home outside Atlanta. “You’d play at Stony Brook [University], and the bus would get you back to campus around 3 a.m. and you’d be in class by 8. But they prepared me for this life really well.”

The life Crenca referred to is that of a professional wrestler, an occupation he took up in 2019, inspired by his childhood love of the sport. A chance meeting at a Maryland event gave Crenca the push he needed to get in the ring, where he now goes by Ben “Big Trouble” Bishop.

The 33-year-old has thrown himself head-on into wrestling, competing against childhood heroes such as “Diamond” Dallas Page. He’s even appeared on “Young Rock,” Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson’s television show about his own rise to wrestling fame.

Crenca returns to his self-described “second home” on Friday, April 14, when he joins World of Hurt Wrestling for a debut event at the Delta Hotel by Marriott in South Burlington, featuring former World Wrestling Entertainment star Fandango. WOH presents a second event at the Brandon Town Hall on Saturday, April 15. Seven Days caught up with Crenca before the big matches.

SEVEN DAYS: Welcome back to Vermont! Is this how you thought you’d make your return?

BEN CRENCA: [Laughing] Definitely not! It’ll be my first time back in Burlington in five years — 10 since I graduated, which is just crazy. But I can’t wait to wrestle in front of some of the people who watched me play basketball; I feel very fortunate that it’s a possibility.

SD: I imagine the first thing they’ll wonder is how you went from playing basketball to being a pro wrestler. It’s not exactly a normal transition for an athlete.

BC: You know, it’s funny, but wrestling was always sort of my first love. I remember being a kid, flipping through channels and seeing a World Championship Wrestling event on the TV with Kevin Nash. He was a big guy, six-foot-11, so that spoke to me. And I was immediately just so enamored with guys like Nash and Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall, “Diamond” Dallas Page and Randy “Macho Man” Savage. It was the coolest thing I’d ever seen — the story, the athleticism, how awesome everyone looked … I was into everything about it.

SD: But you ended up becoming a basketball player instead. Why?

BC: I didn’t know how to become a wrestler. As a kid, I’d go in the backyard and practice moves on a trampoline, but I didn’t know about wrestling schools or anything like that. They used to be much harder to find, and you really had to learn about that stuff through word of mouth.

So I started playing basketball in 2001 and focused on that and got a scholarship. Even as I was wrapping up my career at UVM, my coach, Matt O’Brien, said to me, “Why don’t you give this a shot? You love wrestling so much. What’s holding you back?” And at the time, I had so many excuses about injuries and that sort of thing, but really I was just nervous to put myself out there and try it. So I moved down to Maryland to get my master’s degree.

SD: What finally got you to try your luck in the ring?

BC: I went to this independent event in Maryland in 2019, and some of the wrestlers there asked me if I wanted to try it out. One of them, a guy named James Ellsworth who wrestled in the WWE for a few years — he took a liking to me and helped train me. That was almost four years ago. It’s wild, because if I hadn’t gone to that event, I never would have done all this.

SD: Was it a natural transition, going from basketball to wrestling?

BC: Not really. Wrestling is such a unique entity because it’s entertainment and it’s sport. You need to be athletic, obviously, but there’s more to it than that. In basketball, what matters is performing well, scoring points, pulling down boards, doing your task.

The hardest part of wrestling isn’t the physical side. It’s the psychological side. What story are you trying to tell? Who is the good guy, and who is the bad guy? And how do you get the crowd cheering for the good guy? At the end of the day, that’s pro wrestling: The heel helps the fans cheer for the baby face.

Here’s an example: I was wrestling in Lancaster, Pa. I knew I needed to let the crowd understand I was the villain. It’s as simple as going to give a kid a high five and then pulling your hand away. The kid starts crying, everyone hates me, and, just like that, they know I’m the bad guy.

One thing that basketball prepared me for is playing in front of a hostile crowd. I’m used to getting booed; none of that fazes me. I always feel a sense of calm in front of a crowd.

SD: Coming back to Vermont to perform for the first time since you were a basketball star seems like a good opportunity to take stock of your new career. How do you feel about being a pro wrestler, and what’s next for you?

BC: A friend of mine gave me some really good advice, which was basically to enjoy the ride. I get so fixated on the next step. Every wrestler’s goal is to get signed by a major company, and sometimes I get so focused on trying to achieve that goal that I don’t stop and appreciate what a cool life this is. My wife reminds me all the time: “You’re doing really fun stuff. This is cool, Ben.” So whatever comes next, I know I’m just going to try and enjoy it as it happens.

SD: Do you ever lace the old shoes up and play basketball?

BC: [Laughing] No! I love watching it, man. But I’m so done playing it. It’s crazy — wrestling hasn’t been that bad on my back or my knees, but when I play a pickup game of ball, everything hurts. I can go all day in the ring now, but after a shootaround, I’m exhausted. I’ve got my body trained for this now. I’m 33 and feel the best physically that I’ve ever felt. So I think I picked the right sport.

This interview was edited and condensed for clarity and length.

This article appears in Apr 12-18, 2023.

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