I guess I'll drop a few lines about Tom.
I actually met Tom back in MuscleMayhem. He was a moderator there and I honestly felt that he was a bit of a fucking asshole at the time. He would drop very long replies and be pretty condescending to members, while also banning people he just didn't like. We bumped heads and I told him to go fuck himself a few times on the open forum. He didn't like me on MuscleMayhem, because we had a number of mutual friends on the pro circuit, which made it difficult to just ban me without people hearing about how much of a sensitive Prince'ss he was. Of course, the fact that we both had tempers didn't help the cause.
Then, some time later, Craig Titus and I started bumping heads on that very forum. Titus would pass himself off as a "tough" guy that would beat the shit out of someone if they got in his face. Well, I offered to publicly fight him at Victor Martinez's gym in NYC (this was back around 2002-2003). I gave Craig dates and times and Victor offered to make it happen for the two of us (Titus was well aware). Craig backed out (publicly - with Victor confirming it). After this issue with Titus, Tom sent me a message on MuscleMayhem stating how much he hated Titus as a person and felt that Titus was the scum of the earth for a multitude of reasons. As a result of that, Tom extended his respect and said that any enemy of that asshole was a friend to him. Following that point, Tom and I got along just fine.
I then bumped into him here on GetBig and we were cool, but I did tell him that I would troll him a bit for taking random shit WAY too seriously. So, of course, like many other heroes here on the forum, I made fun of his nude COLT picture in which he appeared to be hung like that of a light switch. He took it well and sent me a private message on here saying that I was an asshole, but that it was all fair given that he did allow "pictures of his jewels for the price of cheap silver".
Years later, after he suffered from renal failure and stepped away from the industry, I never heard from him again. Yes, I later saw the pictures of him looking as if he weighed 110 pounds, but I knew the reasons why and laid off the bullshit, as I knew the circumstances that led him to that end was a part of his life he never wanted to revisit.
I wish his family well as these will be difficult times. He was one of our own and certainly brought laughter to the forum in his own way.
Rest In Peace Tom "Trap Monster" Prince.
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