Short wrestler: Call a midget a midget

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, April 29 (UPI) -- A 4-foot-2 U.S. professional wrestler touring Canada's eastern provinces says he doesn't like politically correct names -- he's a midget.

Dan DiLucchio, 35, known as "Short-Sleeve Sampson" told The Chronicle-Herald newspaper in Halifax, Nova Scotia, such terms as "little people" and dwarf do nothing for ticket sales in the wrestling circuit.

"We can say dwarf or short-statured or vertically challenged. But in this business, to call it anything else, we're going to lose the meaning behind it," he said. "People would be scratching their heads and not knowing what the hell you're talking about."

The resident of Syracuse, N.Y., said his current tour has been plagued by activists who don't like the term "midget" and got two shows canceled, the newspaper said.

"That's what I oppose more than anything else," he said. "I chose this -- this is my job. If you're going to sit there and you're going to start advocating for me and you're going to start taking a pay check away from me, then you need to start mailing me money so I can pay my bills."

Part of the tour includes matches involving 7-foot-tall, 325-pound David Scott, known as Grimez, but there have been no complaints about his appearances, the report said.