AUBURN — Auburn native Luke Robinson remembers his last interaction with Matt Cross:

“Front suplex, make a table.”

That was in 2011, early in Season 5 of WWE Tough enough on USA Network. The two pro wrestlers meet again Saturday in Lewiston as part of Limitless Wrestling’s 2024 Vacationland Cup event at The Colisee.

Robinson said it will be the first time the two have seen or spoken to one another since Cross’ elimination from Tough Enough, a reality TV competition show for World Wrestling Entertainment. Cross was the second competitor eliminated, while Robinson went on to finish second.

Robinson said his love for professional wrestling dates back to middle school, when he watched WWE’s Monday Night Raw and was drawn to the theatrical components of wrestling.

“I always, as a little boy, wanted to be a professional athlete, but I loved acting, I loved music, I loved marketing and advertising,” Robinson said. “Like, those are all different career paths that I was interested in. I’m like, wait, wrestling is everything. It’s a mixture of it all: you get to be an athlete, you get to be your own marketer, advertiser, you’re an actor.”

Robinson excelled athletically at Edward Little High School. He earned All-State honors while helping the Red Eddies win the 2003 boys hockey state championship, their first of two consecutive titles, and was a team captain for the soccer and baseball teams.

After graduating from Edward Little in 2003 and the University of Southern Maine in 2008, Robinson trained with WWE Hall of Famer Tony Atlas in Auburn. Robinson’s earliest shows at Veterans halls and small local shows. Atlas helped prepare him to enter rings with larger live audiences, and Robinson hasn’t wrestled in his hometown since a match at the former Club Texas on Center Street in Auburn.

“That building used to be a nightclub, and that’s the last time I ever wrestled in Lewiston-Auburn,” Robinson said. “I was in my early 20s, I was probably 22 and I’m 39 now, so it’s been like 17 years since I wrestled in the area.”

VILLAIN ORIGIN STORY

In 2010, when Robinson was 24 years old, a talent relations manager from WWE reached out to him and asked for an audition tape for the revival of Tough Enough, which hadn’t aired since 2004.

“I hung up,” Robinson said. “I thought it was a prank, and my friends were pranking me. Two weeks later, I’m on the WWE website, and I see a press release about WWE doing a reboot of Tough Enough, because they had done this show way back in the early (2000s) on MTV (and UPN).”

Following several rounds of auditions, Robinson was selected and tapped to play a villain — in wrestling terms, heel.

“I was able to keep playing that arrogant, lean into the stereotypes,” Robinson said. “I love doing that, because it’s easier to get someone to hate you than it is to like you.”

He laughed when describing his wrestling persona because of its contrast to his personality while growing up in Auburn — he said he was a total “mama’s boy” who wouldn’t order for himself at a restaurant until he was 13.

But, secretly, he always pictured himself growing up to be a famous athlete or actor.

“I would practice my autograph during class all the time, and so it was this duality of being quiet and shy, but also the other part of me, I really love that lifestyle, and I love that duality,” Robinson said.

On Tough Enough, Robinson and Cross were the first to face off in the ring. Cross was much more experienced, having wrestled for about 10 years, including internationally. But Robinson quickly showed his talent in the match.

“I said, ‘Front suplex, make a table,’” Robinson said. “In a front suplex, you pick them up in the air and then drop them on their stomach. So, I gave him a front suplex, and then he takes the bump and makes make a table, like on all fours, and I have this move where I jump off their back and give them an elbow drop.”

Robinson said his performance left the show’s producers stunned. That night, Tough Enough host Stone Cold Steve Austin eliminated Cross, and Luke Robinson the supervillain was born.

He continued competing on the show until the finale, when Andy Leavine was selected over Robinson as the winner of the WWE contract. Robinson said Leavine had “that classic reality show story,” with the storyline of having two kids and hoping to win to be able to support his family.

“I was playing the, ‘Hey, I want to be rich and famous party boy’ character, and they leaned into that, that’s what they wanted me to be,” Robinson said.

LIFE BEYOND THE RING

When nationwide wrestling opportunities slowed down, Robinson found himself back on the Androscoggin riverbanks where he grew up.

Professional wrestling required a strict regimen of bodybuilding and bulk eating, which he found unsustainable. With more time on his hands, Robinson developed a love for nutrition and holistic fitness, which led him to start his own fitness company, Wolfpack.

Wolfpack is a group fitness studio, run on his property, offering group fitness classes for all genders and ages, specifically curated to target beginners. Robinson said most of his clients are between 40-70 years old, which inspires him, because that’s often the age he sees individuals start to limit themselves.

“My self-assigned purpose, now, is to help as many other people feel like a star in our own little community as I can, because I got to do it more than anybody deserves,” Robinson said. “I get to evoke the same emotions that I did in wrestling, while sharing those feelings with other people who might not have had that growing up.”

Wolfpack specializes in themed group classes, consisting of costumes, loud music and dance parties on the self-made runway. The fitness component, for him, is secondary to the confidence building and character development. Wolfpack, he said, is “fitness for cool nerds.”

When asked if he would ever return to WWE, Robinson said he’d consider it only if he was able travel to and from show locations within a short time frame so he could quickly return to his little sanctuary in Auburn.

“Trust me, if it was easy, a snap of the fingers, and someone said, ‘Hey, we can put you on TV right now and then we can fly you home,’ I would do it,” Robinson said. “But I would never do it at the expense of losing this. I get to be where I love, on the river that I grew up on, creating the same emotions and moments and memories that I could from doing wrestling, but while teaching people to, in a weird way, fall in love with fitness.

He added that a trip is only a vacation if he’s able to escape something, which he feels no need to in Auburn. It’s been eight years since he’s left the area, and his community of fitness goers have become family.

SATURDAY’S FIGHT

It’s been five years since Robinson last wrestled. He said he’s kept himself in good shape, lifting weights, training and eating well, but has not prepared too much with wrestling-specific cardio.

On Saturday, the crowd at The Colisee will include more than 80 Wolfpack clients ready to cheer on “Coach” Robinson. He said that mixing his two worlds will be strange, since he no longer self-promotes his once-illustrious pro wrestling career.

“I’m very excited to show this part of my life to my friends or clients or family who never got to see it back then,” Robinson said. “A lot of my clients don’t even have a clue about this part of my life until I shared that.”

Matt Cross, meanwhile, has continued wrestling since WWE Tough Enough, including a prominent role in Lucha Underground and working for National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) since 2019.

Robinson said he remembers Cross having “crazy, high flying,” technique, which will require him to be fast on his feet and able to endure a high-paced battle.

“I hope, in a way, that this is one last big hurrah in front of my hometown and I go out on a bang, yeah, and call it good,” Robinson said.

“Again, if I could snap my fingers and travel every week with a private jet and still not miss a session here, I’d do it all, but I wouldn’t choose wrestling over the life I have now, here.”