Coming full circle

Dr. Don Moore is back where he belongs, and doing what he loves. After a brief, chaotic but professionally successful stint as a chiropractor in the Philippines, the gentle giant is back to his ironic loves: healing backs in his own clinic, and “breaking” them in the wrestling ring.

Twenty-six years ago, a five-year old Don Juan Moore Jr. was lying on the living room floor of their home in New York as his father, Don Sr., was flipping through the channels. He caught a glimpse of a balding blonde giant in yellow tights, and asked his father to change back to that station. It was Hulk Hogan. Since then, all Don could think about was becoming a professional wrestler. That lit the fire.

At the time, the elder Don Moore was a limousine driver, ferrying celebrities and business people around New York. On one occasion, who would step into his limousine but “The Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase. Don Sr. couldn’t pass up the opportunity, and asked for his autograph. Needless to say, his young son was thrilled, and that fed the lifelong dream to make it as a professional wrestler.

“When I was a kid my Dad drove Ted and asked for his autograph for me. I still have it on the back of a business card. That was what set the tone for me beginning to get more interested and involved,” recalls Moore, now 6’6” and over 250 pounds.

In his senior year of high school, his mother was found to have breast cancer, with his aunt at a far more advanced stage of the disease. Seeing her deteriorate and watching his father wear himself out holding down six jobs to pay for their medical and household expenses, Don could not bear to add a large college tuition to their burden. Though he had passed the entrance exam to Cornell, he formulated a ruse that the university allowed him two years off so he could stay close to home. In reality, he turned Cornell down. After a long, arduous, circuitous journey, Moore graduated from New York Chiropractic College and finally became a doctor. Along the way, he had learned martial arts and became quite competitive.

Never giving up on his dream, Moore survived several frustrating tryouts all over the US, the WWE training camp, a torn bicep, knee and ankle surgery, and an abbreviated stint in the WWE as ‘Cable Jones’. While subbing for other chiropractors in clinics in the New York City area, he met a Filipina physical therapist who got him interested in trying his luck in the Philippines.

Overcoming a morbid fear of traveling to an unknown country, Moore became a hit with patients in the Philippines. His warmth, sense of humor and friendliness endeared him to Filipinos, and the media took to him. This exposure brought much-needed income to the fledgling clinic, and things were starting to look up. Moore was enjoying what he was doing, and even treated world-class athletes like Jethro Dionisio and several media personalities. More than that, he opened the eyes and minds of the public to chiropractic treatment, and debunked many myths about it. He successfully treated pregnant women, the elderly, and those troubled by pain for years. He found great fulfillment in helping people get out of wheelchairs and dispose of crutches. In many of those cases, the symptoms had simply been misdiagnosed, and the patients resigned themselves to living with pain and medication unnecessarily.

Sadly, Moore and the management started developing an irreconcilable disagreement. He felt constrained and unfairly treated, and was concerned that, as a foreigner living alone in the Philippines, he had no personal or professional security. He decided to go back home.

“I got back in the gym and back into practice, covering offices all over Long Island,” Moore told The Star. I was actually interviewed at a wrestling convention in New Jersey for Completely Damaged Television. They wanted to hear about my experience in the Philippines and my comeback to wrestling. They asked me to write about my story and it’s been posted on the Completely Damaged TV website.”

Moore also set up his own clinic in his hometown of Coram, New York, and found the same satisfaction healing people of long-time pain. He also returned to wrestling via East Coast Professional Wrestling as “Dr. Lamar Braxton Porter”. Eerily, his costume includes a white lab coat and a replica of a human spine draped around his neck like a trophy collected by the extraterrestrials in the “Predator” movies. His showmanship and skill have earned him many new fans. He’s also met several wrestling legends like his boyhood idol Hulk Hogan, and has treated several of them, surprising them with his ability.

Just this week, Moore got the thrill of a lifetime when his inspiration, Ted DiBiase, did a book signing at the gym where he works out. He offered to treat DiBiase, and the latter accepted, and was pleased.

“And now after everything, the dreaming, the chasing, the obtaining, the build up, the let down, the pick up, and the overcoming. I had the opportunity to help the man that started my journey when I was 5,” a satisfied Moore told this writer in an e-mail, coming full circle in his wrestling quest.

Moore hopes to return to the Philippines someday, having made close friends in his short stay. For now, e s living his dream, and still looks forward to getting back into the WWE. Frankly, I wouldn’t bet against him doing just that.