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Lebanon — Dean Roll has an alter-ego and wears a mask.

He doesn't fight crime. Instead, Roll entertains an adoring public as "Shark Boy," a professional wrestler on the Total Nonstop Action circuit.

Roll, a Lebanon High School graduate, has been wrestling for more than a decade. He got his start when he was a junior at the University of Cincinnati and became a referee for the Heartland Wrestling Association in 1995. Two years later, he invented Shark Boy.

"The idea was inspired by a song, the Toadies' 'I come from the water,' " Roll said. "I had to wear a mask because sometimes I would referee the same event — not the same match — that I was wrestling, so I went with a comic book idea of a masked marvel. It started out as 'The Piranha' and evolved into 'Shark Boy.' "

After winning a tournament (the Brian Pillman Memorial Show, in memory of the former Cincinnati Bengal) in 1999, Roll was signed by the WCW. In 2002, he moved on to TNA, and has since traveled around the world, wrestling in Canada, England, India and most of the continental United States.

"The best trip was India," Roll said. "That was unreal. We spent two weeks there, touring seven different cities and the people went nuts. They had giant billboards for us and there was near-rioting in the stands. It was like The Beatles had come to town. I'd never seen anything like it."

At 5-foot, 10-inches (including the fin on his mask) and 175 pounds, Roll is small by professional

wrestling standards, but he uses the wisdom of all 32 years to survive in the ring.

"I go up to a guy and show him pictures of my kids before a match that I know I'm going to get thumped in," Roll explained. "It's always good to make friends with those guys and let them know that I have a family that I want to go home to in one piece."

Roll has met all the wrestling stars — McMahon, Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, Hulk Hogan and The Undertaker, to name a few. He has wrestled against John Cena and Eddie Guerrero and done "backstage vignettes" with Ric Flair, Kurt Angle and Triple H.

"I've met a lot of people and done a lot of things I never would have done without wrestling," Roll said. "I don't know how much longer I can do it, but as long as I'm physically able, Shark Boy will swim the wrestling waters."

Roll is wrestling the feature match against Cody Hawk on Aug. 19 at Coconuts in Middletown. For more information, visit www. buckeyeprowrestling.com.

Contact this reporter at (513) 696-4526 or shayes@coxohio.com.