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    California's dwarf community wants to KO the 'M-word.' These wrestlers are pushing back

    by Sonja Sharp, Los Angeles Times Aug 31, 2023 7 minutes
    Midget Wrestling Warriors' promoter and star Short-Sleeve Sampson, aka Daniel DiLucchio, fights Jessie "the Rock" Salazar, a fellow dwarf performer, at a sold out show at the Sonoma County Fair on Aug. 3, 2023, while the referee looks on.

    LOS ANGELES — Eight-year-old Willow Lopez stood on tiptoe, her chin hooked over the 4-foot steel fence and her heart doing atomic drops as the aging wrestler climbed into the ring at the Sonoma County Fair.

    "He kind of looks like a tiny version of the Rock," gushed the elementary schooler, referring to bald, buff actor Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. Willow had dragged an entourage from El Sobrante, an east San Francisco Bay suburb 60 miles from the fairgrounds, to see the contentious bout.

    "It's cool and fun seeing them get beat up."

    Willow and her retinue were among hundreds of spectators who turned out to cheer the Midget Wrestling Warriors, a troupe of short-statured performers whose opening-day showcase drew fiery condemnation from California's tightknit dwarf community and disability rights groups.

    Critics say midget wrestling is an exploitative and dangerous spectacle that fuels public harassment and glorifies a derogatory slur.

    Promoter Daniel DiLucchio says he doesn't care. He is 4 feet 1 and pushing 50. But his "babyface" wrestling persona, Short Sleeve Sampson, is a pugnacious underdog whose fortunes have only brightened as his warriors' nom de guerre has grown taboo.

    "What's going on, Sonoma County!" the wrestler yelled into the microphone, his gravely voice

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