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Tampa flavors prove tempting for wrestling superstars

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By JEFF HOUCK | The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 7, 2011

Updated: 06/07/2011 12:12 pm

Wade Barrett, a Tampa-based WWE Superstar who enjoys cooking.

Jen Hagopian keeps hundreds of traveling crew members fed and happy on the WWE tour.

Christian, a Tampa-based WWE star who enjoys cooking.

Wednesdays are cheat days for WWE superstar Christian.

That's the day he and other Tampa-based WWE stars fly home to Tampa from performing on the SmackDown tour.

The Bay area has been a haven for wrestling's elite for more than four decades. The Canadian-born sports entertainer (the term "wrestler" is out of vogue, we're told) lives in Westchase. To celebrate his homecoming each week, he strays from his strict low-fat, high-protein "clean eating" diet and grabs a little comfort food at Wright's Gourmet Deli in South Tampa.

A five-time world champion, Christian can deploy an inverted double-underhook facebusting killswitch to win a 20-man battle royale, but he can't resist the California Reuben.

"It's my favorite sandwich," he says. "It's the best I've ever had."

The legendary Wright's cakes? The ones big enough to fill up Christian's fellow entertainer, the 485-pound behemoth called Big Show?

"I just don't look at the cakes. I put my hand up next to my face as I walk past the cooler."

Instead, Christian (whose name out of the ring is Jay Reso) and his wife visit D'Lites Emporium on Dale Mabry Highway to grab a low-fat, reduced-sugar ice cream, with carob chips substituted for chocolate chips. For dinner, there are occasional trips to Maloney's in Westchase for some high-end Irish pub grub.

"Of course, you have to get a pint of Guinness," he says.

Whatever the regimen, it doesn't appear to stick to the 37-year-old former hockey player from Toronto. An adherence to egg whites, low-fat proteins and silver-needle tea has kept his body chiseled and championship belts around his waist

"Fans ask me a lot," he says. "They'll come up and say, 'What do you eat to stay in shape?'"

The answer to that question depends on which Superstars (men) or Divas (women) you speak with.

Before a recent WWE SmackDown show at the Forum in Tampa, a handful of local sports entertainers sat down to talk about what they eat, where they eat and how their food contributes to their success in the ring.

WADE BARRETT

The 30-year-old British-born WWE Intercontinental Champion stands 6-feet 6-inches tall and weighs in at 250 pounds. Still, Barrett has to fight to keep weight on. Ten years ago, he pushed the scale to only 170 pounds.

"I'm actually naturally a very skinny guy," he says. "I've got a high metabolism, so I've got to eat to keep the size on me."

That means packing on high-protein, low-fat calories at least seven times a day. He's not much of a cook beyond throwing steaks and chicken on a George Foreman grill at home, so he frequents Ranch House Grill near his Gandy Boulevard home. If he's straying from the diet, he'll go next door to Hooters.

"The waitresses are very nice there, too," he says.

Barrett moved to Tampa in 2008 to train with Florida Championship Wrestling, one of the WWE's developmental schools. Now that he's graduated to the big-time, he can live wherever he wants, but chooses Tampa.

His diet includes six or seven small meals a day with about 40 grams of protein at each sitting. Protein shakes help keep the weight on. A lifelong athlete who grew up in Preston near Manchester in the United Kingdom, Barrett said he realized early that diet was important.

"The thing about sports entertainment is that how we look is very important," he says. "For things like baseball or football, it's about performance. In WWE, it's purely about aesthetics. We've got to make sure we look good at all times for the part we play in the show."

On show days, he avoids what he calls "blow-up foods" that make him feel heavy and slow.

"Things like junk food," he says. "Sometimes when I'm on road, though, I'm forced to eat it because it's 3 a.m. and nowhere else is open."

NATALYA

Natalie Neidhart, known better by her WWE Diva stage name Natalya, got her advice on eating from her grandfather while growing up in Canada.

"He always said, 'Anything that swims, runs or grows out of the Earth is fine to eat," she says.

Her grandfather was Canadian wrestling legend Stu Hart, who founded the notorious training cellar called "The Dungeon" that produced such stars as "Superstar" Billy Graham, Chris Benoit and Chris Jericho. Natalya is the first female third-generation wrestler in the world and the only woman ever to train in the Dungeon at Hart House in Calgary.

"If you're a holy person, you go to the Vatican," she says. "For us, you go to the Dungeon."

The 28-year-old WWE Divas champion moved to Tampa four years ago and recently bought a house. "I want to make this my home. It's a great place to live."

After starting her training at 19, she began focusing on her diet to fuel her career in the ring, where appearance for women is everything, as well as power-lifting and marathon running.

"You can't be here doing this in the WWE without making nutrition important," she says. "My body is my vessel. It's my tool. It's my ability to make money and to be the best I can be. You can't just do that eating chips and cake. I have to be very careful."

An avid cook, she's best known for a Greek salad she makes with cucumbers, tomatoes, pitted kalamata olives, avocados, cottage cheese, a little feta, red onions and red bell peppers with some kosher salt..

"I almost mash it so that it's all one color, avocadoes and olive oils and tomatoes are the dressing," she says. "It's absolutely amazing."

Water is vital as well.

"If I didn't drink as much water as I do," she says, going into Diva mode. "I wouldn't have the luscious, beautiful skin I do now."

SANTINO MARELLA

After moving to the United States in 2005, the Italian-born Anthony Carelli had to reduce his carbohydrate-rich diet of bread and pasta.

A two-time Intercontinental Champion, Marella enjoys cooking at his apartment in Tampa's Old Hyde Park neighborhood. His specialty: a meat sauce that starts with pork shoulder, pureed tomatoes, onions and garlic. He stews it for at least five hours to get it "to just the right consistency."

Cooking, which he learned from his parents and grandmother is, "an excellent tool to win over the ladies. They really enjoy this skill."

Home meals include lots of grilling, including chicken and steak. He makes salads with baby spinach and different types of lettuce, nuts, tomatoes, feta cheese, goat cheese. A glass of wine sometimes accompanies the meal.

"On the road, the most important restaurants for us are diners," he says. "There, you can get eggs any time of day. That's the kind of protein we need."

At 33 years old, the 5-foot-10, 233-pound Marella is more careful about what he eats than when his career began. He starts most mornings with oatmeal and a protein shake, followed by several meals throughout the day.

Aaron Reed, a trainer at Powerhouse Gym in Tampa created a diet for him that allows him to eat carbohydrates and fats, just not at the same time. Sugars are usually consumed earlier in the day, while fats are for later dining.

On the road, he gets creative. When the tour bus stops in the middle of nowhere, you have to be flexible and make the best of natural almonds, jerky, peanuts, and water.

"We call it Tthe Gas Station Meal," he says.

Since coming to the States, Marella developed a taste for barbecue while visiting places like St. Louis, Memphis, Kansas City and North Carolina. He also loves southern-style turnip, spinach and collard greens.

"My genetics are such that I have to eat very clean to be lean," he says. "If I eat junk food, it shows. I have to be more strict than I ever have before."

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