There are just some things from my youth that will always conjure up a given associated image. Call it the lure of nostalgia, but time has a way of creating visions that remain permanently etched somewhere in my memory, quickly plucked for rapid recall when something or someone taps into my thoughts of days gone by.

Long before the glitz, glamour and over-the-top sensationalism of the WWE, I recall a different kind of professional wrestling circuit, one that seemed to captivate an entire New Sudbury neighbourhood of children.

No sooner had we finished watching the weekly exploits of Edouard Carpentier, Gino Brito, Dino Bravo, Gilles “The Fish” Poisson, Andre the Giant, Killer Kawalski and countless others that we convened on the nearest set of dry grass, showcasing our feeble attempts at a flying drop kick among other aerial acrobatics.

That is why the opportunity to chat a little with Mark Bartolucci (El Tornado, on the BSE circuit) makes it easy to be carried away to a long-lost land, one where the heroes and villains of the squared circle cared about they audience to which they catered.

A Sudbury resident who played high-school football both at St Charles College and with the Paris Street Blues in his youth, Bartolucci (no relation to Cardinals’ long-time coach Chris Bartolucci) is now a 14 year veteran of the professional wrestling circuits, a part-time career that included a four year stint in “talent enhancement” with the WWE.

“It came to be because I was an athlete my entire life, and when I graduated high-school, there weren’t a lot of choices in staying physically active and earning a living”, reflected Bartolucci.

In fact, it was a chance encounter with a few professional wrestlers in the mid 1990s that led “El Tornado” to attend a wrestling school, spending months working on many of the finer details of his craft.

Despite maintaining his home in Sudbury and pursuing his love of grappling on a part-time basis, Bartolucci was still exposed to countless aspects of both the sport and entertainment business, a combination which eventually led him to teaming with “BSE Pro” (Blood, Sweat & Ears) in more recent years.

That, and a love for the purer form of the sport, where wrestlers had the ability to tell a story to the assembled crowd for 30-45 minutes, drawing in young and old alike into the emotion that makes events like this so much fun for the entire family.

Bartolucci is certainly not the only professional wrestler to draw on a football background when first entering the ring. “They’re both physical sports – you’re going to hurt the day you go in, and you’re going to hurt the day it’s over”, laughs the talkative son of a plumber.

“If you can hit a tackling dummy, you can throw a good clotheline.” Yet it was a merging of his two athletic passions that has led him to his current project, a return of the hometown wrestling show in support of a very good cause.

With a nephew who had joined an emerging high-school football program at Lively Secondary, Bartolucci soon found himself drawn into helping out head coach Reg Bonin and the crew involved with the Lively Hawks football team.

The BSE Pro group, most noticeably in the Timmins area, had enjoyed a great deal of success in attempting to partner their product with organizations looking to undertake some additional fundraising. Enter councilor Jacques Barbeau, equally as well-known in Walden circles for his countless hours of minor sport volunteerism (and a huge supporter of Hawks football), and the seed was planted for an afternoon of “Redemption”.

A lengthy feud between Sudbury’s own El Tornado and Pierre Shadows of Ottawa will be put to rest once and for all in the main feature – the “Lively Lumber Jack Match”. With all other wrestlers surrounding the ring, an opponent seeking refuge outside the ring (as Shadows did in their most recent encounter, scampering to safety with manager Kat Powers) will be tossed back into action.

The format, word has it, owes its background to the lumberjack camps of decades ago, when men would settle their differences without the benefit of simply walking (or running) away from the competition.

The feature bout is one of seven on the card which is set for Sunday, May 3rd at the Tom Davies Community Arena, with all proceeds from the event going to the Lively Hawks football team and other athletic programs at the vibrant Walden Secondary School.

Tickets are $ 15 on the floor, $ 10 in the stands and can be purchased at Lively IDA Pharmacy, Walden Home Hardware, Rock Topic (Lasalle Blvd) and the CD Plus outlet in the Southridge Mall.

With a little luck, maybe, just maybe, some other young fan will walk away with a memory to last a lifetime.