SLOATSBURG - Paul Fuchs, known to fans of professional wrestling as "Paul E. Normous," died yesterday at his parents' home in the village.
The 33-year-old wrestler presented a threatening persona on his Web site, and in the illuminated rings of theatrical combat up and down the East Coast, but to his family and friends he was "Teddy Bear," a sensitive soul who studied art and physical therapy.
Ramapo police were called to the Laurel Road house at 5:20 a.m. after the 6-foot, 5-inch Fuchs was found "unresponsive" inside the house, Detective Lt. Brad Weidel said yesterday.
He said family members were performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation when emergency personnel arrived, but Fuchs was pronounced dead at 6:18 a.m. at Good Samaritan Hospital.
An autopsy was to be performed by the Rockland County Medical Examiner's Office.
"We don't see anything suspicious," Weidel said of the death of Fuchs, a graduate of Suffern High School. "It's being handled like a medically related death."
Fuchs' parents, Paul and Adrienne, and his only sibling, Justin, were preparing late yesterday afternoon to make funeral arrangements.
They said Fuchs, who played lacrosse at Suffern High School, began working out with weights while in high school, and entered a body-building competition while attending SUNY Cortland.
At Cortland, Fuchs initially studied physical therapy, then switched his major to art. He graduated in 1998.
"Art came naturally to him," Adrienne Fuchs said. "He drew since he was 4 years old. Caricatures. Cartoons. I don't know if he lost interest in physical therapy, but I know he liked art."
Fuchs' dream was to get a contract with World Wrestling Entertainment, the big leagues of theatrical wrestling.
On the day he died, "The Wrestler," a film starring Mickey Rourke, was released, with Fuchs having a small role.
"He was wrestling in New Jersey and he got a phone call from one of the casting directors who had been at the match," Adrienne Fuchs recalled. "He said he wanted to consider him for a part. He's very visible in the movie, but he didn't have any lines or anything."
Scott Wright who wrestles as "Scotty Charisma," said he and Fuchs enrolled in 2001 at the East Coast Professional Wrestling School in Lake Hiawatha, N.J., and Fuchs had worked for a variety of independent wrestling federations.
"He was a big, muscular guy," recalled Wright, whose father is Mayor Carl Wright, "but he wouldn't hurt a fly. People who knew him, loved him. It's very sad. Thirty-three years old. You think you have your whole life ahead of you."
