‘Bulletproof’ Ben McCoy surviving and thriving
By Mike Pankow
April 1, 2021
August 25, 2011 was the day life changed forever for Ben McCoy.
It was the day he nearly died in Afghanistan. It was also the day he earned the moniker “Bulletproof.”
“Bulletproof” Ben McCoy cuts a promo during a Frontline Pro event in Oak Lawn, Ill., on July 20, 2019. (Photo by Mike Pankow)
McCoy, 37, a native of Spencer, Wisconsin, took a bullet the face during combat and yet survived to tell the tale.
The scene was like out of a military movie, only it was a real experience for McCoy.
“We were on a mission in a district called Shalk where nobody had been for four years,” McCoy said. “We had the unenviable task of pushing through to a new operating area that no one had ever reached. We ended up taking contact from the enemy at 5 o’clock in the afternoon. While taking cover and looking for the rest of my guys, I was shot in the face by a bullet that wound up tumbling end-over-end like a field-goal kick and hit me in the mouth (just below the left side of his lip) backwards and stopped in the back of my jaw.
“I blacked out for a half-second, woke back up, crawled/ran my way down the side of a mountain 400 yards, watch the enemy be eliminated by jet fighters, and then was flown to FOB Shank to receive medical treatment. Then the next thing I knew I woke up in Germany and then the next thing I knew I woke up in San Antonio, Texas at Brooke Army Medical Center. It was hell of a trip to say the least.”
After 17 procedures that stretched across 1,900 days, McCoy is wrestling, promoting, and booking wrestling in Wisconsin. He is the owner of Frontline Pro, along with his wife, Kristal.
This Saturday night, a match two years in the making finally will take place as “Bulletproof” Ben McCoy steps into the ring for a dream match against Class of 2021 WWE Hall of Famer Rob Van Dam at Frontline Pro’s “Honor Bound” at the Holiday Inn in Stevens Point, Wis. RVD will be joined at the show by his girlfriend, Katie Forbes, and his former manager in ECW, Bill Alfonso.
“Honor Bound” will be Frontline’s 26th show since starting in 2018, which includes shows in Wisconsin and Illinois during that time.
If one person can understand adversity, it’s McCoy. While the last two years have been extremely difficult, it can’t compare to the weeks and months of rehabilitation following his time in Afghanistan, battling depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, and trying to figure what to do with his life.
“I was struggling with PTSD really bad,” McCoy said. “I didn’t leave my house in six weeks. I didn’t get the mail. I didn’t let my dogs out. I just stayed in my house for six straight weeks. My wife, Kristal, saw that I was struggling and could tell I was in a really bad headspace.”
While talking with Windy City Slam in July 2019, McCoy was excited for his match with RVD, which originally was supposed to take place in the fall of that year. However, McCoy broke his leg during a match just five weeks before the RVD contest was supposed to occur.
“I was diving to the outside doing a top-rope elbow through a table,” McCoy said. “The table didn’t break, my leg jammed into the ground and I shattered my tibia.”
He endured another surgery a had a plate and five screws put into his leg. The match was delayed until 2020, then in March, the coronavirus pandemic struck, shuttering independent wrestling companies for months, further delaying the dream bout.
“Hopefully on the third try, we’ll get it done,” McCoy said.
Finally, with vaccines available and coronavirus positivity numbers decreasing all around, shows are starting to run again and McCoy was able to secure a date for the RVD match.
He wrestled briefly before joining the United States Army. McCoy was trained by Milwaukee-area native Beer City Bruiser (now part of Ring of Honor) in 2005.
After a few “dead-end jobs” as McCoy called them, he said his wife encouraged him to join the army after seeing one of those famous “Be All You Can Be” ad spots while watching television.
“He likes to be a leader,” Kristal said. “He comes up with great things. It seemed like a great fit.”
And it was Kristal who also pushed McCoy back toward one of his truest passions.
“She kind of encouraged me to get back into wrestling, so I bought a wrestling ring,” McCoy said. “I figured I wouldn’t be wrestling anymore, so I figured I would rent out my ring and I’d see my buddies and it would be good. That’s kind of what happened for a while.”
That, of course, was until his longtime friend and fellow wrestler, Sadist, kept prodding him to come back.
After doctors cleared McCoy and said it could be “cathartic” for him to return to the ring, Kristal basically said, “Get out of the house. Do something.”
McCoy wrestled Sadist at Great Lakes Championship Wrestling’s “Blizzard Brawl” on a star-studded card for promoter David Herro in 2014. After stepping away for another sabbatical, Sadist pushed McCoy to make another comeback.
Ben McCoy sells after a splash from the son of Melanie Cruise and Ruff Crossing as Backwoods Brown looks on following a 10-person tag team match at Frontline Pro #12 in Oak Lawn, Ill. on July 20, 2021. (Photo by Mike Pankow)
In 2018, Ben and Kristal started Frontline Pro with proceeds from every show going toward veteran causes or toward a specific veteran or a veteran’s family.
“We did Frontline Pro because I lost 15 of my brothers to suicide since Afghanistan,” McCoy said. “When my buddy, Brady Oberg, died, it hit me hard. … He was my brother, my friend. When he passed away, it one of those things I didn’t want to talk about anymore, I wanted to do something.”
Frontline Pro provides a family-friendly show with a variety of storylines and matches that aim to please fans of all ages.
“We want the battle and combat of wrestling to bring in the older viewers and the epic storytelling or good vs. evil for the younger viewers,” McCoy said.
McCoy’s match with RVD was cultivated during the planning stages of an upcoming documentary on McCoy’s life called “Still Here.” A friend of McCoy and fellow veteran, Eric Beach, who is producing the film, is friends with actor Tim Abell, who starred in a movie with RVD. Beach helped to facilitate a relationship between McCoy and RVD. Abell and RVD are co-executive producers for the film.
McCoy is banking on the documentary helping those who are fighting the same battle with depression, PTSD after serving in the military.
“As long as this film raises awareness, then we’ve won,” McCoy said.
Limited tickets are available for “Honor Bound” as the venue’s capacity has been capped at 500 attendees. Check out Frontline Pro’s page on Facebook for more information.
Interviews from July 20, 2019 at Frontline Pro and Episode 59 of Windy City Slam Podcast were used in compiling this story.
Windy City Slam Podcast (Episode 59) with Ben & Kristal McCoy: https://apple.co/3d0vemg.
Also, check out our “lost” interview from 2019 below:
Frontline Pro wrestler and promoter "Bulletproof" Ben McCoy, who survived getting in the face during combat in Afghanistan in 2011, talks to Windy City Slam, following Frontline Pro #12 in Oak Lawn, Ill., on July 20, 2019.
Catch Windy City Slam editor Mike Pankow talking local and national pro wrestling every week with Chris Lanuti on The Windy City Slam Podcast. Episodes drop early Tuesday morning wherever you download podcasts or at https://windycityslam.podbean.com/.
We are looking for guests to appear on future episodes of the Windy City Slam Podcast as well as sponsors for the show! Please contact Mike at mikepankow@windycityslam.com, message him on Facebook or DM him on Twitter.
