This is a mish mash of various things, many different things at thrown together, which seems to be a format of mine now.
My friend Dave Barker, who I've talked about many many times in articles, I always had 'set him up' when we were in Sousa's and in WWA New England. I'd set him up so that way he'd be on the same level as I was in conversations(as he was getting educated in the business, or 'smartened up' take your choice, lol). so after setting him up over and over so that way he could be on the same level and given the same kind/level of respect I was getting, how does he pay me back for it? You're about to find out.
We (as in me, him, Kevin and his son Matt) go to a WWF house show in durham, nh. we get there early and Dave gets to meet Tammy Sytch. got his picture taken with her, yak yak...we had ringside near ring side seats and got to see the debut of the new blackjacks before they debuted on raw a few days later. same show had farooq vs dirty white boy from Smokey Mountain doing the plumber deal.
After the show we hang around to see who we can get pics with I shot a question at tammy asking if Chris Candido was enjoying ECW, she shot me a look like "you're not supposed to know that", but answered he was having a great time. Now I was wearing my Smokey Mountain shirt and hoping to meet tony anthony(DWB), who comes out instead? Tracey Smothers...who was doing the freddie joe floyd gimmick.
Dave knew, and anyone who had read my columns back then knew, I was NO FAN, of tracey smothers.if you asked me to name one good thing about him and I'd tell you, "one good thing? the one good thing is he doesn't wrestle for sousa". Charmiing guy aren't I...lol...
So what does dave, my ol good buddy do? He says to Smothers, "You wrestled in Smokey Mountain Wrestling didn't you"? Tracey turns and says "Yeah, I did, How'd you know that"? Dave, the great 'buddy' that he is said "well, my friend Bill has tapes of Smokey Mountain Wrestling"...So hence...I have a conversation going with Smothers I wasn't at all prepared for. In the end I get a picture taken with Tracey, a guy I've slammed over and over..I wound up having it printed in the Wrestling Edge newsletter along with a caption that read "If Tracey only knew what our own Bill W really thought of him we bet this picture never would've been taken".
So Dave got a good laugh out of 'setting me up". He laughed about that alot and I said "Be glad we didn't come in my car". "Why"!? Asked dave, "Cause you'd be walking back to Rochester, which made Kevin and dave crack up laughing.
That story leads up to this...The day I met the tag team, the damned.
I believe it was Farnington, Maine for an EWA show. I think I was 3 or 4 shows in as amember of the company. Dave and I got there early. I set up my table and then started to scout out the gym for areas where yelling stuff might be best. Before they let fans in I saw Slick Wagner Brown sitting on the bottom row of the bleachers, along with acouple others that weren't on the show as far as I knew, I think they came to see if they could get booked on as last minute guys or in case someone didn't show up, etc. amoung the guys sitting there with Slick Wagner were the damned, mad dog and draven(yes, I know their real names).
I didn't go up to them as I was getting my vantage points scouted and then some of the guys in the company started venturing by my tape table to see which ones(besides EWA ones) I brought this time. It was my first trip to Farmington Maine so I brought alot of New England indy stuff I had had. Century Wrestling Aliance, Sousa's AWF, WWA New England w/the WWF training dojo. Those always sold well in a 'new' town, even if it was just 'new' for me.
Fans pile in, and when the show starts I go up to near the top row of the bleachers...Alexander Worthington III came out to do a promo, running down how bad farmington maine is(it isn't boston or Chicago, that's for sure). So when a lull comes I did the old "You don't like it, leave it". line I've always used since I did it to Jim Cote in Sousa's group. Worthington looked up knowing I yelled it and said, "Shut up up there, stay in the cheap seats where you belong". I then started a 'worthless turd' chant, and after acouple failed tries, it caught and here you have a few hundred people chanting "Worthless turd, worthless turd' so loud, at least to me, it sounded like there were a few thousand there.
during intermission I go out to the food concession and grab a rotten flat tasdting piece of pizza and a mountain dew, on the way back, Both mad dog and draven walk by me and Matt says, "Hey Bill how ya doing". I go back in with Dave and Dave's asking me if I know em, I'm like, "um...no, have no idea who they are". I go over to Josh Shea and ask him about the 'two long haired guys I never seen before". Josh told me who they are and said "They're debuting tonight, how'd you know about them"? I told Josh, "I don't know anything about em, they just said hi to me back there and I've never met them". Josh of course instead of giving me a straight answer said "Well you seem to have many admirers of your column". I was like "oooooo--kk".
They debut in the ring and I had moved up to a seat at ringside. One of the security guys gave me his chair, he knew why I was up there(chants, yelling, if you didn't already know). black trenchcoats, dark music and I look at Draven and yell "You ain't no crow, you're no Brandon Lee". Mad Dog heard it and says "WHAT!? What you say and they both came out and right in my face, that same security guy and another who wasn't 'clued in' runs over. The security guy I knew was doing his usual step between me and the wrestlers, the one I didn't know, was threatening have me ejected. he seriously, wasn't clued in at all and after the damned went back in the ring, the security guy I knew smartened the other one up to the fact I am supposed to be yelling shit at them and telling them to come do something about it. I think I tried to get a "mad dog has rabies chant' but I don't remember.
After the show I gather my stuff and go put it in the car. I come back in and find the damned. I asked them how they knew me when I never met them before. Draven goes "We saw that pic of you and Tracey Smothers in one of them newsletters the guys had in the back, so we heard some things about you". Me being a smart ass says, "Heard what? I'm a jerk, prick, cranky, bitter, sarcastic, stuff like that"? Draven chuckled and said "Yeah basicly all of the above". Mad Dog adds "I agree, it all fits". I shook my head and said "I see you guys are gonna be fun to be around". Thankfully they noticed I was, just being sarcastic.
I'm watching my 5 disc set of wrestling gold and since I'm writing this, this would be as good a spot as any..To ask certain questions I've never found any answers on, if anyone can link me to a webpage that has some answers I'd appreciate it. So here we go.
Adrian Adonis defeated Bob Orton Jr. in Southwest Championship Wrestling to become the 'world heavyweight champion'. Lou Thez was the one who awarded the belt to adonis. My question is, what happened to have this 'world title' disappear? What lead up to this tournament? I never saw any other footage about this period in southwest, just this one match.
Memphis Wrestling had an "International' Champion, how come they never defended that outside the memphis territory? Does 'international' there mean going from burger king to taco bell to the pizza joint, then over to the chinese resteraunt? same question goes for the international tag titles the memphis area had as well.
The reason I ask is because I know for a fact the AWA world champion, be it bockwinkel or zybysko, they appeared as champions out of their area, in memphis, toronto canada as well as southwest championship wrestling. So the questions are obvious ones that a long time old school fan should have. I hope someone can provide an answer so it can further my knowledge.
Some armchair critics have said that when Bret Hart was in WCW he wasn't 'pushed' correctly. Hmm, did they forget the build up for his match against Ric Flair? I haven't especially since I have a Best of Bret Hart in WCW tape someone made for me. I watched it from when Bret Debuted on Nitro to be a special ref in a match between Larry Zybysko and Eric Bischoff thru the ric flair match to when he faced Chris Benoit.
Bret being in WCW was 'fresh' and especially the build up with promos with Flair in the ring, it was one of the best hype jobs WCW actually did. Since WCW was garnering to the older fan anyway, this was absolutely perfect to keep an old fan that WWE forgot about(and still does) interested. Just look at how TNA now has Flair, Hogan, Sting's been an MVP there, for anyone who says there isn't a call for that, I have one word for you. WRONG!
Until next time I'll just say to all I've ever seen or met. Thanks for the memories.
