Sky’s the limit for Kean’s Down Boyz: cousins making an impact in the world of pro wrestling

By Ryan Norton | Posted October 22, 2015

When you’re a kid, you have a pretty good idea of what type of job you’d like to have one day.

“I want to be a movie star! I want to be a football player!”

As you begin to get older, outside influences like your parents, your teachers, etc., tell you that it’s impractical to have such aspirations, since the odds of you “making it” are slim to none.

Before you know it, you’re sitting behind a desk, working the typical 9-5, all the while; you continue to daydream about the job you wished you pursued when you were a kid.

While many have abandoned those types of dreams a long time ago, 20-year-old Stephen Gibki and 21-year-old Anthony Scorese continue to pursue their lifelong dreams of becoming successful professional wrestlers.

When they’re not spending their days as full-time students at Kean, Gibki and his cousin Scorese are using their weekends to travel all across the Eastern Seaboard as a tag team known as “The Down Boyz.”

“It’s awesome to be able to team with him,” Gibki said about his cousin. “It makes it more fun. A lot of guys in the business travel to shows by themselves, but having family along side me makes it so much easier and more enjoyable.”

The duo’s dreams of wanting to make it in the wrestling business began at a very early age. Gibki recalls watching an episode of WWE’s late-night Saturday show called “Velocity” when he was about five years old, and being captivated ever since.

When the two got a little older, the tandem took their first steps in the pro wrestling world, by attending their first classes at wrestling school out on Long Island. After spending a year there, Gibki and Scorese discovered the D2W Wrestling School in Wharton, NJ, and were trained under the tutelage of Damian Adams.

“Damian Adams was an OVW (Ohio Valley Wrestling) alumni, and OVW is where guys like John Cena, Brock Lesnar, and Randy Orton were trained,” Gibki said. “So my trainer’s trainer learned from the guy who trained three world champions, so we got very good training.”

As The Down Boyz, Gibki and Scorese have wrestled for 15 different wrestling promotions, and have traveled to states such as North Carolina, Ohio, and Kentucky. On October 3, the cousins wrestled internationally for the first time, wrestling for Destiny Wrestling in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada.

“Wrestling in front of that Canadian crowd was awesome,” an ecstatic Gibki said. “There were over 500 people there. Definitely the rowdiest crowd we’ve ever wrestled in front of.”

Entertaining fans around North America and earning their degrees aren’t the only responsibilities Gibki and Scorese have. While the hectic schedule of going to school, wrestling, going to the gym, and working part-time jobs sounds like a tall order for most, it’s one the cousins have no problem doing week in and week out.

“We’ve been on this schedule for the past two years,” Gibki said. “This past year was the biggest struggle, but now that we’ve overcome it, it’s definitely a lot easier to do.”

As they continue to enjoy being successful in the promotions they work for, Gibki admits that he isn’t opposed to one day down the line splitting up from his cousin, and gaining experience as a singles competitor. However, Gibki’s ultimate goal is to make it to WWE with Scorese right by his side.

“We want to make it together,” Gibki said. “Our biggest dream is to make it to WrestleMania. That’s the showcase of the immortals. We hope to make it there together, then once we go on our separate paths, somehow cross again at WrestleMania.”

Until that day comes, Gibki and Scorese are happy to be able to live out their childhood dreams of getting to wrestle and entertain their adoring fans.

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