Wrestling Career
Matyushenko is an accomplished freestyle wrestling athlete and utilized his wrestling background extensively in his fights. He was a Soviet National Wrestling Champion.
His nickname of "The Janitor" was coined by Dave Schultz as a joke to the U.S. wrestling team after Matyushenko beat members of their formidable squad (including Olympian Kevin Jackson) during a meet in Siberia. Their first impression of him had been when he was cleaning the mats in poor-looking clothing.
He became a two-time National Junior College champion at Lassen College, winning the 177–184 lb weight class in 1996 and the HWT weight class in 1997, before moving on to the University of Nevada, graduating with a degree in Health Science in 1999.
Read more about this topic: Vladimir Matyushenko
Famous quotes containing the words wrestling and/or career:
“There are people who think that wrestling is an ignoble sport. Wrestling is not sport, it is a spectacle, and it is no more ignoble to attend a wrestled performance of suffering than a performance of the sorrows of Arnolphe or Andromaque.”
—Roland Barthes (1915–1980)
“The 19-year-old Diana ... decided to make her career that of wife. Today that can be a very, very iffy line of work.... And what sometimes happens to the women who pursue it is the best argument imaginable for teaching girls that they should always be able to take care of themselves.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)