Introduction

On the morning of August 19, 1983 at 5 am Jerry and Viola Bean welcomed a new child into the world. That child was I, Gregory Allen Bean. I was born at St. Lukes hospital in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. I am the youngest of seven children. My brothers include: Michael Bean, Michael Forde, and Jerry Jr. My sisters include: Tina, Samantha, and Sabrina.

In school I was very successful and was known as being the "smart kid". My grades and attendance were excellent and I took pride in always doing my best and outshining others. From early on, I learned that the harder you work, the easier life is because you get rewarded for your efforts much more.

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I have always enjoyed being involved with athletics, however my sport of choice was always football. I started playing football in the 5th grade at the age of 10 for an excellent local youth football program called Metro Youth Football Association (MYFA). MYFA was a great organization that really did a nice job of teaching kids the fundamentals of the game, while letting the kids have a great time as well. I was just an average player back then but the passion for the sport grew on me. I ended up playing football for the next 7 years until I graduated from high school. Each year I continued to grow physically and mentally and I got better every year. Some of my fondest memories have come from the days of being on the gridiron.

In 1997, my freshman year of football at Thomas Jefferson High School was simply remarkable. The final game of the season pitted two undefeated teams against each other to determine who would be conference champs. The game was us vs. Iowa City High (which has always been known as a talented athletic school). So on a chilly late October Saturday morning, we loaded up the bus and made the half hour journey to Iowa City to determine who was the best freshman team in the Conference. To make a long story short, in the fourth quarter we were behind 13-0 with about 6 minutes left to play. The J-Hawks don't give up though; we gave it our all till the final whistle. We ended up driving down the field, and scored a touchdown to make it 13-7 with only a few minutes left. We kicked the onside kick and recovered the ball. With time running out, we marched the ball downfield again to score the victorious touchdown and we won the game and finished the season undefeated and became CRANDIC (Cedar Rapids and Iowa City) champs.

Now lets fast forward to 2000, my senior football season. First I want to give you a little background on varsity football for the J-Hawks. In 1997, Jefferson J-Hawk football was at an all-time low. Leading up to the 1997 season they had lost over 20 consecutive games. So a new coach by the name of Dave Jacobson was brought in to re-build the football team. My senior year was Coach Jacobsons 4th season as the head coach and coming into the 2000 season everyone had high hopes for this talented group of kids. Needless to say, we didn't disappoint. From day one of football camp and two-a-days we were on a mission and focused on our goal. Week 7 of the season brought us to our first undefeated vs. undefeated contest of the year. Our opponent was Prarie High School at their field. When we came out of the locker room and onto the field, I couldnt believe my eyes. The stands were completely full with standing room only and people were scattered all over the place to catch a glimpse of this epic battle as an estimated 8,000 people came to watch this spectacular game. After a hard fought battle, we walked away victorious to improve to 7-0 on the season.

Two weeks later, in the final game of the regular season we were scheduled to play Iowa City City High to once again determine who would be conference champs. This game was another undefeated vs. undefeated match up. It was the 8-0 third ranked J-Hawks vs. the 8-0 number one ranked team in the state City High. Once again I couldn't believe my eyes when I ran out of the tunnel and saw an estimated 8,500 people fill the stands at Kingston Stadium. It was the largest crowd that Ive ever played in front of, and the largest I've ever witnessed at Kingston for a high school football game. This was a very close game that came down to the end, however the Jefferson J-Hawks did the impossible and knocked off the number one team in the state and won the MVC (Mississippi Valley Conference) Championship to advance to the playoffs for the first time since 1993 with a very impressive 9-0 record. It marked the first division championship for the varsity J-Hawk football team since 1973.

We had less than five days to recuperate and be prepared for our next big battle, the first round of the state playoffs, which fell on a Wednesday night. Our opponent in the first round was Cedar Falls, which was yet another undefeated team. So this game marked our third undefeated vs. undefeated match up in less than a four-week time span. I'm not sure if it was lack of focus, or if the J-Hawks were just physically beaten up from the previous contest with City High, but we ended up losing to Cedar Falls on that Wednesday night. Which marked the end of my terrific football career. At the end of the season I was named to the MVC All-Academic team and was also honored with the Most Improved Player award voted on by the coaches. I would like to thank all of my coaches along the way. From my MYFA coach Freddy Northern, all the way up to my high school football coaches which include: Brian Erbe, Steve Reed, Al Chism, Steve Rathje, Chad Szabo, and most of all thanks to you coach Dave Jacobson. All of you are great men and terrific coaches. Thanks again for your efforts.

Troubled Times for the Bean Family

The year 2000 turned out to be a very tragic year for the Bean family as we lost two members of the family. My sister Tina was living with Lupus for an extended period of time. Around April of 2000 Tina started to get real sick and when she went to the doctors to get it checked they just assumed her Lupus was acting up, so they gave her medicine to help get her strong once again. As time passed the medicine wasnt working as it normally did, and her doctors couldn't figure out what was wrong. So Tina was sent to the Mayo Clinic in Minneapolis, MN to figure out what was wrong. They discovered the inevitable; she had lymph node cancer, and was sent in for radiation immediately. Her Lupus masked the cancer for so long, that it was too late. On May 8th I received a call from my parents, who were staying with Tina at her bedside, who informed me that the radiation wasn't helping, and soon her vital organs started to fail. They informed me that if I wanted to see Tina one last time I'd better make the trip up to Minneapolis quickly, while they kept her on life support. Seeing Tina lying on that hospital bed, hooked up to all of those tubes was tough. Tina could no longer speak, but she let me know that she was listening to what I said by squeezing my hand. The next day the family decided to cut off the life support and end the suffering. On May 10th, 2000 at the age of 32, Tina Marie Bean stopped suffering and went to a better place.

Seven months to the day that Tina passed away, tragedy struck again. On the night of December 8th and the early morning of the 9th provided horrible driving conditions, as a snow/ice storm took place causing the roads to be glazed with ice. In the early morning of December 9th, 2001 a police officer knocked on our door and gave my dad the horrific news. He informed my dad that my brother Michael Bean had been involved in a deadly car crash. As he was driving in the early morning of the 9th, he lost control of his car, slid across the median, and was hit by an oncoming car right on the drivers door. Thank God the family in the oncoming car wasn't hurt, however Mike was pronounced dead on the scene at the age of 34.

Being the Paul Bearer and carrying two of my siblings to their final resting spot gave me a new outlook on life. Everyone has heard the saying live each day as if it were you last, but how many people actually live by that saying? After having both my brother and sister die at such a young age I realized that I havent been living each day as if it were my last. This soon changed, I realized that this isnt a test run that I'm living, this is the real deal. This life that I'm living is the one chance that I have to make an impact. I now live without regrets; I seize any opportunity that comes along my way. I now set my eyes on something and go balls out, till I've accomplished my goals and dreams. If I could give you one piece of advice it would be this: take a look at your life and decide whether you live each day like its your last. Set goals for yourself and do everything in your power to make these goals and dreams a reality. Stay focused and work hard because dreams do come true.

Destiny

If it werent for my dad, I probably would have never gotten into wrestling. I was about four or five years old when I first saw professional wrestling on TV and became hooked instantly. I can remember back when wrestling was on basic TV being televised by one of the major networks like NBC or ABC the shows included Saturday Night Main Event, and WWF Superstars. Back in those days it was always a WWF superstar taking on a superstar enhancer (somebody that youve never heard of before, a jobber) and the Superstar of course would always win. Watching wrestling became a weekly family tradition. One of the ways my brother used to wake me up on Saturday mornings was to come running into the bedroom and say..."Greg, wake up, wrestling is on". Of course sometimes I would pop out of bed only to be disappointed that in fact wrestling wasn't on TV, and he was just playing a joke on me! I can recall pops always taking my brother Jerry and I to the wrestling events when they came to town and performed at our local sports venue, the Five Seasons Center (currently the US Cellular Center). Ive seen all the legendary wrestlers and heroes from yester-year and today in person: Hulk Hogan, Ultimate Warrior, Andre the Giant, Macho Man Randy Savage, and list goes on and on and on. As I got older and got a drivers license, I would gather up some friends and we would go on a road trip traveling to see WWF Wrestling anytime they would come to a neighboring state to Iowa. I always thought highly of the wrestlers. Not only did I view the wrestlers as great athletes, but I also saw them as tremendous entertainers and they just seemed larger than life. As I got older wrestling continued to grow on me. One day I said to myself, thats what I'm going to do with my life, Im going to be a wrestler. From that point on, everything that I did was to get me one step closer to reaching my dream of being a professional wrestler. I began training hard and pushing myself further than I ever imagined was possible to get myself into great shape. I have this burning desire to do whatever it takes to succeed in the wrestling business, and Im willing to make whatever sacrifices it takes to make this dream a reality. That's why I'm here in Louisville, Kentucky. To train at the best wrestling facility that exists, Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW). OVW is the only developmental school for the WWE. So its kind of like how Triple A baseball works, once a player is needed from their respective farm team, then they will get called up to play pro ball with the big boys. Thats how this works, if your good enough, hopefully WWE will call you up to work for them full-time. That's the ultimate dream. Wrestling is in my blood, and I wont back down till I succeed.