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Former Pro-Wrestler Makes Move To The Pulpit

Cheryl Bentley/SUNCOAST NEWS

The Rev. Dave Tristani, pastor of Dockside Community Church in Dunedin, stands next to a photo of Tristani and wrestling star Hulk Hogan.

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By Cheryl  Bentley | The Suncoast News

Published: October 6, 2007

Casually dressed in jeans, the Rev. Dave Tristani stands amidst boxes of food his church has collected to give to people in need.

Tristani seems far away from his alter ego, Devin Nash, champion wrestler, of blonde waist-length hair and tight wrestling togs.

As Nash, Tristani was on the wrestling circuit from 1998 to 2002. He made wrestling's big time, appearing at the since-closed Houston Astrodome for television's "WCW Monday Nitro," a weekly program produced by World Championship Wrestling, and on the pilot television show "WXO Wrestling."

But these days, Nash's wrestling career is mostly dormant. He has yielded the stage to Tristani's new life as the pastor of Dockside Community Church, in Dunedin. The Pentecostal church was formerly called New Life Church of God.

Tristani's efforts during the first year of his pastorship at the church will be honored tomorrow. Officials from the Church of God Florida state office will attend the service to recognize and dedicate the church under its new name.

Under Tristani's hand, a church that was in danger of being shut down by the state Church of God office a year ago now bustles with life.

Since taking over a year ago, Tristani has seen its membership grow from 4 to about 50.

Fresh Start

In keeping with the church's fresh start, he changed its name to Dockside Community Church in honor of its location, a mile and half from the Dunedin Marina.

An ashtray near the door sets the tone for the church. "We accept people as they are," says Tristani. He explains: Although his church frowns on smoking, the ash tray is a nonjudgmental acknowledgment on his part of the habits of many of his parishioners.

The tone is an informal one, with the Sunday best not required. Even the pastor goes tieless.

Dockside appears to brim with activities, from offering an all-you-can-eat weekly buffet breakfast open to the community, to finishing up a kitchen remodel donated by a supporter, to distributing bags of food to the homes of low income and senior residents in a program called Adopt-A-Block.

People respond in various ways during Adopt-A-Block deliveries. Some have burst into tears because they had no money for food.

Others have accepted food but refused offers of prayer.

All reactions are fine with church participants, says Tristani. "It's not a sales pitch."

Touches All

The project touches all those who distribute the food, he notes. "Anyone who goes out on Adopt-A-Block is either crying when they come back or smiling so hard their face hurts."

On an occasional first Friday of the month, the wrestler Devin Nash is reincarnated.

That's when the church holds its family-friendly professional wrestling nights.

On one such occasion, Devin returned to play the good guy, known in wrestling parlance as a "face," as in babyface. With great fanfare, Tristani as pastor discovered one of the bad guys – in wrestling villains are known as "heels" – had stolen his 15-pound championship wrestling belt.

Milking the situation for all it was worth, he kept coming out of his office all evening long to berate the thief for taking his belt.

Finally, he appeared in his wrestling attire, reborn as Devin, wrestled the bad guy to defeat and claimed both his belt and a win for the faces.

"Everybody went crazy," he remembers.

Devin Nash is only one of many elements of Tristani's life of spiritual seeking that seems to have found a comfortable resting place in the church.

The man who is now a Pentecostal minister grew up as a Roman Catholic and served as an altar boy in Dunbar, Pennsylvania. As a child, he pretended to be a priest giving communion to his playmates.

Sickly Child

He was sickly as a child and spent time in and out of hospitals. His frail health taught him to endure pain, Tristani recalls, an ability that would serve him well when he became a wrestler.

An early marriage and divorce changed his relationship with the Catholic church. "It just didn't work," he remembers.
After starting out selling insurance, then rising to management, Tristani met Cindy, his second wife.

The couple moved to St. Petersburg and opened a fitness station, the Pumping Station, there.

Tristani became a professional wrestler while at the same time continued to work at his fitness center with Cindy.

He took his professional name, Devin Nash, because of his resemblance to Kevin Nash, a world-famous wrestler.

According to Kevin Nash's Web site, he has appeared in the films "The Longest Yard," with Adam Sandler, and "The Punisher," with John Travolta and Thomas Jane.

Looks Count

His resemblance to Kevin helped get Tristani on the television shows. "Looks will get you a long way," he says of the wrestling world.

Although his television career was short lived, it gave him a leg up in the area circuit, where he worked every weekend and won some championships.

He kept a grueling schedule. "I would work till 6, then train for wrestling for three hours, then get up at 4 in the morning and start all over again," he explains.
He could take a lot of moves that other wrestlers could not because of the childhood experience of enduring pain.

Still, Tristani had a daily appointment with a chiropractor to work on his pain-ridden neck.

Through the chiropractor, he learned about Praise Cathedral Church of God, in Pinellas Park. Upon their first visit there, the Tristanis told each other, "It feels like home."

He became what he terms "saved" in the church, "believing in your heart and confessing with your mouth that Jesus Christ is lord and savior."

Felt the Call

Three months later, Tristani felt called to become a minister.
He enrolled in a one-year correspondence course at the Institute of Theology and Ministry Training, a distance- learning Bible college in Orlando, and got certificates in Biblical studies and evangelism.

Tristani wanted to continue studying for the ministry. But that old divorce became an obstacle.

Under the Church of God's rules at the time, divorced persons could not become ministers.

The Rev. Michael Thomas, pastor of Praise Cathedral, set up his own program to ordain people who did not qualify under the Church of God's formal rules. He was allowed to do so under state law, says Tristani.

Under Thomas' tutelage, Tristani became an ordained minister at Praise and worked there for two years after closing his health club.

In the meantime, the Church of God changed its rules and allowed divorced individuals to become ministers.

Seeks Ordination

Tristani decided he wanted to be ordained through the Church of God as well as Praise Cathedral.

In 2006, with the completion of part of the church's ministerial program, Tristani became a licensed Church of God minister. He expects to be ordained by the middle of next year, when he finishes the program.

"I got that God feeling this was where I wanted to be," he remembers about his first visit to Dockside.

He has continued working outside of the church to support his family. The Tristanis have two adopted children, daughter Sara, 1, and son Ryan, 2.

His is now job hunting because his position as counselor to men with addiction at Clearwater Dream Center's Center of Hope recently was eliminated because of lack of funding.

But the story of his own joblessness is a mere footnote in his account of his life these days. Most of his conversation concerns the growing number of ministries of his church. All are concerned with improving the health and well being of the community.

"We reach out to people who are hurting," he says. "There is no hellfire and brimstone here. We take the word of God and show you how to use it."

For more information on the church, go to its www.docksidecommunitychurch.com> Web site or call 727-733-2480.

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