From WWE wrestler to healer in Phl

(Part 2)

In the midst of his family’s financial struggles as his mother recovered from breast cancer, Don Moore Jr. had his own health issues. His wrestling training was also taking its toll. He had to battle back from surgery on his left shoulder and various sprains and broken fingers. He had traveled to WWE tryouts without success. In 2001, he broke his right leg while training.

Watching TV while recovering with his leg in a cast, Don received a call from the then-WWF. They had seen a previous tape of him, and wanted him to try out in New York in two weeks. Don said he would be there. His father Don Sr. was in shock.

“I went out into the backyard, took my father’s shears, cut off the cast and wrapped my leg up, and went,” Moore recalls, shaking his head. “I was 19 years old. I thought it was my only chance. You don’t think things through at that age.”

After more unsuccessful tryouts including exhausting trips to Kentucky and California over the next few years, Don was getting frustrated. He had also been studying, pursuing his chiropractic while training, and was actually making a good living covering for other chiropractors in the New York area. But all the while, he firmly believed that something this hard to get had to have a positive, and he still considered himself lucky, as if a guardian angel was watchfully perched on his shoulder. In March of 2009 came his fifth tryout in Connecticut. It was snowing so hard, the trip from the ferry landing from Boston to the arena which normally took an hour, took seven hours.

At the arena, Don spotted WWE champion John Cena at ringside, and walked up to him. Through a chance encounter caused by a flat tire a year before, Don had come into contact with the uncle of a college football teammate of the wrestling superstar. This made a terrific conversation starter.

“It was really cool. Here were all these guys I had grown up watching and were on television and here I am having conversations with them. It was a surreal feeling. I felt like I was in a dream the whole time,” Moore says.

The workout didn’t go well because the wrestler Moore was paired with didn’t seem to have any rapport with him. Then Don took a chance and asked the champ Cena a favor. After all his sacrifice, Moore needed to know if he was in or out.

Cena walked over to WWE owner Vince McMahon’s assistant, and a few minutes later, they nodded to Moore. They told him to get into the ring with another wrestler. He had five minutes to make it or lose his last chance. When they said that, all his nervousness disappeared. As Moore was wrestling, pros from the federation’s regular roster started filtering in, and were getting excited. Trainers were yelling advice, other wrestlers shouted encouragement At the end of what he called an “insane” five minutes, Don Moore was called into the dressing room to sign a contract. He had finally made it.

Thus began a wild year of finding his identity and constant travel. He was learning so much, and having the greatest time. He was also building a close friendship with Mick Foley, who still wrestled part-time and supports charities in the Philippines. But WWE management couldn’t decide what to do with Moore. Initially, he was cast as an Arab villain to ride on anti-Middle East sentiment. Then he took on the identity of “Cable Jones”, all the while building his repertoire of moves and, amusingly enough, treating the back problems of more popular wrestlers like “The Big Show” before matches.

Moore unfortunately had torn his right bicep, though he didn’t realize it at the time. The WWE paid for the surgery, with incisions inside his elbow at one end and between his shoulder and chest at the other. Knowing he had fulfilled his dream, Don mulled the next step of his career. He had already passed the board exam to be a chiropractor, a fallback position none of the other wrestlers had. One of the physical therapists he had worked with, Michelle Natividad, asked him if he wanted to start up a practice called NY Theraspine in the Philippines, even though he had never been outside the US. With building anxiety, Don decided against it. Then his mentor Foley stepped in.

“Mick called me a minute before he was about to get into a meeting,” Moore remembers. “He kept asking me why wasn’t I going, why wasn’t I going. Finally, I admitted that I was afraid. He told me to overcome my fear and do it. He didn’t want me to have this as a “what if”.

In the first five months since NY Theraspine penned for business, Moore has had a very fulfilling journey, healing ordinary people’s aches and pains. With his spot-on diagnosis and gentle spinal manipulation, the gigantic former wrestler has made patients capable of getting out of wheelchairs, stop using canes to walk. He’s even helped world-champion athletes like shooter Jet Dionisio recover faster. Dr. Don has been generous with his time, energy and advice, and the returns have been priceless.

“The business is not about keeping people coming back,” he says. “The business is about making people better, and teaching them small things they can do to be pain-free and live full lives.”

The next chapter of Don Juan Moore’s journey continues in this most unlikely setting.

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NY Theraspine is at 73-G Dr. Lazcano St., near Tomas Morato in Quezon City. For inquiries, call 921-9831 or 375-1035 or e-mail [email protected].