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03/02/2016 07:30 AMWrestling has been a part of Steve Tracey’s life for almost as long as he can remember. In the 9th grade, he left school to pursue his dream of becoming a professional wrestler. He spent about five years as a professional WWE wrestler before retiring from wrestling in 1985, but he has continued to stay involved with his former fellow wrestlers and the business.
After retiring from wrestling, Steve was a bounty hunter before he opened Victory Towing in West Haven, which grew into a successful business with seven trucks. After more than a decade in that business, Steve joined his uncle as a bondsman at DiAdamo & Tracey Bailbonds on Main Street nearly 17 years ago.
“Wrestling was an interesting job—I had a lot of fun and it was great that there were thousands of people watching, plus people watching on TV,” says Steve. “I had a lot of fun and met some really nice people, which helped me through my other businesses.”
DiAdamo & Tracey Bailbonds is truly a family business as Steve, who is known to many in town as “Big Steve,” also works with one of his sons and his wife, Jackie.
“I love working with my uncle and I love the business,” says Steve. “You get to help people. There are a lot of nice people out there who make a mistake, so we try to help them and try to get them back on the right track.”
A year and a half ago, Steve and two of his former wrestling colleagues—Mario Mancini and Paul Roma—opened Paradise Alley Wrestling School on Coe Avenue. In addition to training those who aspire to be professional wrestlers, the school also runs wrestling shows.
Steve has been working with Lou Pane, the town’s recreation director and the coach of the East Haven High School hockey team, on creating the shows to benefit the East Haven FaceOff Club. The next show is Saturday, March 12 at Melillo Middle School. The last show attracted about 280 people.
“Once you’re a wrestler, you never forget about it—it’s always in your head and you want to go back,” says Steve. “These shows are great and it’s a nice way to help the community. Every show gets bigger and bigger.”
Steve is happy to find ways to give back to the town of East Haven where he has lived for many years. He and his wife, Jackie, have raised their five daughters and one son in town with their youngest daughter now at school at St. Vincent de Paul.
He has served on St. Vincent de Paul’s finance board for several years and, after discovering the state of St. Vincent de Paul School’s finances, he also joined the school board.
“It’s such a shame the school will be closing at the end of the year because they have such an unbelievable staff of beautiful people,” says Steve. “They took my daughter in and treat her like she’s their own. I got involved to see if there was anything I could do to help make it work.”
In addition to organizing the wrestling show fundraisers to benefit the hockey team’s booster club and his work with his church and his daughter’s school, Steve has also recently ventured into politics, serving on the Recreation and Athletic Complex Commission and the Republican Town Committee.
“I like to help and I like to do things for other people,” says Steve. “I have worked a lot over the years and now I’m fortunate I have a good business. I try to do as much as I can for my community. I’m blessed and I’m a very fortunate man that people make my businesses successful and my family happy.”
For tickets ($15 for floor and $12 for bleachers) to the “Thrill-o at Melillo” wrestling show on Saturday, March 12, call 203-410-5152 or visit Paradise Alley Wrestling School between 10:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. on Saturdays.