Larry Sharpe

Larry Weil (June 26, 1951 – April 10, 2017) was an Irish-American professional wrestler, manager and trainer who fought as "Pretty Boy" Larry Sharpe. He founded the Monster Factory professional wrestling school, and trained many well-known wrestlers including Kevin Von Erich.

Professional wrestling career Larry Sharpe was a successful wrestler at Paulsboro High School in New Jersey. He had a record 13–1–1 and was ranked fourth in the NCAA national rankings. In 1974, he was scouted by Red Berry and Gorilla Monsoon who trained him for a life in professional wrestling and later that year Larry made his pro wrestling debut in the WWF. Larry then toured Japan and various territories including Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico, and the Mid Atlantic.

Sharpe headed to Canada, where he won his first championship while working for Stampede Wrestling in Calgary, Alberta. Forming a tag team with Ripper Collins, he won the Stampede Wrestling International Tag Team Championship on September 24, 1976. The team held the title for less than one month, dropping it to Ed and Jerry Morrow on October 15. After a brief stint in the mid-Atlantic, he returned to the WWF in 1979. He was given a small push by Vince McMahon Sr, but ended up leaving to wrestle independently and open his training school.

The World Famous Monster Factory The World Famous Monster Factory was a professional wrestling school in Paulsboro, New Jersey from 1983 to 2025. It is considered to have been the first publicly available professional wrestling school. Sharpe opened the wrestling school with "Nature Boy" Buddy Rogers in 1983 and wrestled part-time until retiring in August 1991. Though Sharpe had trained wrestlers prior to officially opening the school that had significant renown, the school's first famous pupil was Scott "Bam Bam" Bigelow, whose success brought a lot of attention to the school.

In February 2008, the school was threatened by a fire that had started at the building adjacent to the school, ANA Laboratories, and the building was evacuated by the school trainers. The fire was confined to the laboratory until its roof collapsed however, according to Camden County Chief Fire Marshal Paul Hartstein, only a firewall prevented the fire from reaching the school. The school had been in the middle of drills when the fire broke out although all the students were safely evacuated to the outside parking lot.

Sharpe died of liver disease in New Jersey at age 65 on April 10, 2017.

Sharpe's wrestling students have included: Tony Atlas Big Show Bam Bam Bigelow D'Lo Brown Chris Candido Cliff Compton Sonjay Dutt Giant Silva Barry Hardy Chris Harris The Headbangers Debbie Jeffrey / Bad Karma King Kong Bundy Balls Mahoney Ray Odyssey The Pitbulls Raven Tony Ricca Rocco Rock Sheamus J. T. Southern Tony Stetson Bill Irwin Dirty Dennis Allen Tatanka Tank Toland Virgil Kevin Von Erich The Godfather Mike Gola

Championships and accomplishments 50th State Big Time Wrestling NWA Hawaii Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Northeast Championship Wrestling (Tom Janette) NCW Heavyweight Championship (2 times) World Wrestling Council WWC North American Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Jack Evans