Hunley: Wrestler fights for a new cause

It took autism to make Jimmy Cicero a good guy.

Cicero is the professional wrestling alter-ego of Manassas resident Matt Bowman.

And while Bowman seems like a nice enough Northern Virginia character (works for a defense contractor, roots for the Redskins), Cicero made his reputation as a bad guy.

He’s billed as “Wiseguy,” and for almost two decades, he thrived on the boos of the crowd — and was successful doing so. About 10 years ago, he even competed in what’s now known as World Wrestling Entertainment.

But about five months ago, Bowman’s 2½-year-old son, Nicholas, was diagnosed with autism.

That’s meant lots of stress for the Bowman household, but it also necessitated a change in Cicero’s world:

He began using wrestling to raise awareness of autism.

And because it wouldn’t make any sense for a bad guy (a “heel” in wrestling parlance) to support children’s health, Cicero became a good guy, or “babyface.”

That may seem like a small step to you, but it can be a giant leap in the world of a grappler.

“It may sound hokey,” Bowman’s wife, Windra, told me Friday night, “but it made me fall in love with him even more.”

We were talking at the Prince William County Fair, where Cicero came to wrestle in a tag-team match with superstar “Big Sexy” Kevin Nash for the local promotion KYDA Pro Wrestling.

Nash was the big name KYDA promoter Jimmy Zaveski got to draw a crowd, but it was Cicero who defeated the team of Bazooka Joe and Q-Sic with a piledriver.

And, after all, Nash said later in the dressing room, it was really Matt Bowman’s night.

Nash has wrestled all over the world, won championships and worked for the biggest wrestling promotions around. These days, he’s on Spike TV, body-slamming folks for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling.

But he understood where Bowman was coming from. He said that he’s supported causes including the American Heart Association and research on breast cancer and pediatric AIDS.

“I think giving a hand to anybody that needs it is pretty important,” he said after Friday’s show.

Also important was the way the 40-year-old Bowman handled the news of his son’s diagnosis.

Windra Bowman said she used to describe her husband’s wrestling persona as a “big, bald, angry-looking white guy.”

But she rightly pointed out that lots of men, machismo or no, can’t deal with a child with a health problem.

Not so her man. The Stonewall Jackson High School graduate has calmly moved through the process of learning about a condition that has robbed his son of 37 words.

Nicholas used to be able to say 40 words. Now, it’s only three B’s: ball, baby, bye.

The toddler is learning sign language, though, and his mom said there’s a 25 percent chance that his language skills will return fully.

Regardless, there’s a 100 percent chance that his family will continue to support him.

His dad had special wrestling knee pads made that bear the trademark puzzle piece logo of the group Autism Speaks, and the bad-guy-turned-good with the thin goatee signed autographs Friday in exchange for donations to the cause.

“Every little bit helps,” Matt Bowman said.

Exactly. And appropriate, too, that he was wrestling for KYDA, which stands for “Keep Your Dreams Alive.”

Indeed, though Cicero has been a good guy for only a few months, it seems that Bowman has been a good father for quite some time.

Jonathan Hunley is a staff writer at the News & Messenger. Contact him at 703-369-5738 or at jhunley@insidenova.com.