REMEMBERING LARRY SWEENEY
By Justin Henry

“Many native traditions held clowns and tricksters as essential to any contact with the sacred. People could not pray until they had laughed, because laughter opens and frees from rigid preconception. Humans had to have tricksters within the most sacred ceremonies lest they forget the sacred comes through upset, reversal, surprise. The trickster in most native traditions is essential to creation, to birth.”
-Professor Byrd Gibbens, University of Arkansas-Little Rock, in a letter to comedian George Carlin.


If his spirit is conscious enough to sense what’s happening on earth, “Sweet and Sour” Larry Sweeney might be amused at the thought being a trending topic on Twitter. Not just any independent wrestling personality becomes such a widespread conversation piece, you know, and Sweeney, delightfully obnoxious as he could work to be, would have appreciated the global attention.

Of course, it’s the sad truth that what Sweeney did to achieve said attention isn’t worth laughing about. On Monday morning, April 11, 2011, Larry Sweeney, the professional name of Alex Whybrow, was found to have hanged himself at the age of 30.

Although personal issues, most notably a reputed case of bi-polarism, will be the cause of sadness to many that enjoyed Sweeney’s villainous showmanship, I’d like to focus on that villainous showmanship that made Sweeney special.

Wrestling is full of folks from all walks of life. At worst, someone will get a push due to their size, appearance, and willingness to enhance their body via illegal means. Many of those individuals have little to no passion for wrestling itself, but rather understand that there’s plenty of reward in pretending to care.

On the other hand, wrestling has produced many superstars who are still marks for the business. Chris Jericho, Edge, Christian, The Miz, Mr. Anderson, The Hardy Boyz, and Mick Foley are among those who grew up loving the Hell out of wrestling, and always manage to show their zeal with very little effort. These men are the type who would just as soon hype up their own over-the-top personas as they would demonstrate wistfulness over a match they watched as a teenager.

Sweeney’s appearances in Ring of Honor, his most notable run in the sport, demonstrate that same zeal. Not the biggest dog in the fight, standing 5’9 with stubby arms and a little paunch, capped off literally with a mop of shaggy blonde hair, Sweeney was never going to engage in an epic staredown with The Undertaker or The Rock.

What he did do, however, was carve out a niche for himself in the most entertaining ways imaginable.

Sweeney’s extensive independent run began almost seven years ago, after a whirlwind tour of training from the likes of Col. DeBeers, Buddy Rose, Chris Hero, and Mike Quackenbush. Sweeney was even a trained amateur wrestler before his professional days, receiving his schooling halfway across the globe in Delhi, India.

The first brush with significance that Sweeney received in independents stateside was with the eclectic CHIKARA, heading up his notable Sweet n Sour International, a play on Eddie Gilbert’s “Hot Stuff International”. It was in this role that Sweeney brought back to life a lost art: the whiny, petulant, obnoxious manager/wrestler that was the spokesman for the easily led and feeble.

While most independent hopefuls are either developing a “TV-friendly” look in order to get noticed by WWE, or are innovating daredevil dives and spots to try and outdo the other “spot monkeys” that rattle their spines in high school gyms, Sweeney was committed to carrying on the legacy left behind by Bobby Heenan, Jimmy Hart, and Jim Cornette. With wrestling managers going the way of the dodo, there was an opportunity, rife with potential, for someone to make good on a forgotten role.

Enter Larry Sweeney.

He hosted his own interview segment, The Winners’ Circle. He lost matches where he had to wear a diaper or be somebody’s servant. His Sweet n Sour International group acquired members at a quickening pace, all with the intent of fulfilling his Machiavellian desire to complete a hostile takeover and rule the promotion.

Of course, in the end, Sweeney would always have the egg on his face. A great heel, and a comedic one at that, never goes over in the climax, and Sweeney’s best laid plans always failed in the clutch.

It’s significant in today’s independent promotions that emphasize pure wrestling and jaw-dropping innovation that Sweeney, not exactly a slouch in the wrestling department, got to bring his bag of tricks to Ring of Honor.

In ROH, Sweet n Sour International boasted such indy standouts as Chris Hero, Davey Richards, Brent Albright, and Sara Del Ray, as well as WWE superstar Evan Bourne (then Matt Sydal) for a brief period. However, nothing of Sweeney’s schtick changed, as he remained the antagonistic schemer that had seemingly forever been.

“Sweet n Sour” took home Wrestling Observer’s “Best Non-Wrestler” award for 2007 and 2008, just for resurrecting a lost art in the business.

Who else but a wrestling fan could have done any of this?

To watch Larry Sweeney perform was to, as the adage goes, boo him with a smile. While he played an undesirable character that you wanted to see fail, hoping that all of his dastardly deeds would blow up in his face, it was yet impossible to hate him. If any of us had even a fraction of Sweeney’s charisma and personality, we’d be thrilled to have the role that he had.

It’s a shame that Sweeney’s biggest acknowledgements come now, at the time of his passing, when a continued career with, hopefully, many more ups, could have earned him a higher profile among a wider legion of fans.

But the true Sweeney fans were a smaller den, and maybe it was appropriate. Sweeney appreciated wrestling in a way that a decided minority enjoyed it, and that minority will always appreciate what he did in, and out, of the ring.

Rest in peace, Larry Sweeney. Your legacy is preserved forever in our appreciative hearts.

(Justin Henry is a freelance writer whose interests are rooted in NFL, MLB, NBA, wrestling, MMA, and entertainment. He can be found on Twitter at https://twitter.com/cynicjrh and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/notoriousjrh so check him out)