The 10th Anniversary Column
I am posting this column on the 10th anniversary (to the day) that I taped my very first Indy show. After that day I stumbled in and around the Indys in 1995 with my move to Wisconsin the following year completely taking me out of the scene entirely until '98. That was when I hooked up with Chris Plano and started trying to get my foot in the door and when that ran it's course, a chance email to Jeff Rudd in late 2000 would change my life. But this column isn't about trying to recap the last 3,653 days. It's about taking a look back at that fateful night of June 24, 1995 as I met the Southern Indys face to face for the first time ever.Sometime prior to that day I had passed a poster in Burlington plugging a random local Indy show that even proclaimed itself to be a "TV taping". Intrigued, and already obsessed with the sport since 1987, I gave the phone number on the poster a call. Already working in television at the time, it wasn't exactly a tough sell to let a local indy promoter to grant me permission to tape the show. Pretty much the same thing would happen 5 years later with Jeff. The man that allowed me to enter the "hallowed halls" for the first time was Brian Bruise, who I would come to find out was 1/2 of the Heartbreak Express; one of the "premiere" tag teams of the time. He had a show coming up at the National Guard Armory in Roxboro which I was welcome to attend and tape. The name of the promotion: none other than ACW. Outside of just a crazed desire to get going, I had absolutely NO clue what the heck I was getting myself into and despite my extensive video background, I was a true fish out of water in this setting. I got to Roxboro insanely early (a tradition I still try and maintain to this day which drives any traveling companion insane). I even beat the ring there and spent much of my time hanging out outside yakking with, among others, Sgt. Max Rhodes. I had not perfected the technique of "more listen, lessen talk" and was just so spazzed to be standing in an empty parking lot where a by god RING was gonna be arriving anytime in the next three hours that I was rambling on about anything and everything. That's the first time I ever heard the term "kayfabe". I read some of the sheets, and knew most of the lingo, but I have NEVER EVER heard this bizarro word "Kayfabe". After me hitting him with a million questions and trying to drag out a discussion of the King of the Ring PPV the next night, Sarge hit me with "You think you know it all kid? Have you ever heard of kayfabe?". Which was pretty much his double entranda for "You're not as smart as you think you are" and "Shut the fuck up". I think my response was "Kay what?", followed by a much quieter wait for the ring.
Well the ring finally got there which brings me to heading to the videotape library to recount the rest of the show. The ring itself would go onto more notoriety as the famed NDW ring that for once special weekend in 1999 resided in my backyard. The first person I see is this long haired hippy looking guy messing around with a PA and at times laughing uncontrollably. Yes indeed, 10 years ago, my very first Indy show and who else was there running sound and doing the announcing than Randy "Randolph" Hedrick. I honestly hadn't even gone back and looked at this tape in years and was stunned to see Hedd right there on my TV. Boy, the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Very nice crowd filled up the NGA this night, looks to be in that 100 range and they're an extremely hot crowd, even towards the questionable workrate. I scanned to crowd to see if I could spot any "Before they were stars" but the only recognizable face would be Ken Spence (fellow wrestling promoter and trainer back in the day that I still have serious heat with, but that's a different story). Your referee for the evening is Buster Cranford, who according to Hedd, would quit the sport after LA Wild One pantsed him during a show for fucking up too many times.
1. Lumbee Warrior and the Rock N' Roll Rebel defeated "Wild" Bill Armstrong and the Russian Assassin 2 in 12:01 - Wowzers, what an opener this was. This would be Lumbee's rookie year and he would develop into one of the area's top workers in the late '90s before finally disappearing in 2002. Despite being very competent, he will probably be best remembered as Ric Converse's original tag team partner. On the completely other end of the spectrum, "Wild" Bill will best be remembered for hijacking the NDW van and hightailing it to Florida as the cops tried to track him down for child molestation chargers. Seriously. As for the match itself, Lumbee is still too green to actually make it watchable and pretty much just takes an extended heat sequence devoid of any psychology whatsoever for a painful first half of the match while the babys get no shine at all. But everyone gets clotheslines. Lotsa clotheslines. As Indy as it gets and not in the good sense. DUD, and that's being generous.
2. Sgt. Max Rhodes and Mad Dog Davidson defeated Future Shock (Hot Stuff and Hammer Man) in 8:03 when Davidson pinned Hot Stuff. Future shock has good charisma and look as a genuine tag team which is pretty tough to find in the Indys, especially back then. Hot Stuff claimed to have played for the Atlanta Falcons but would go on to greater fame for accidentally breaking Tim Blaze's leg in two places. The match itself was by no means a classic, but still a vast improvement on the opener. 1/2*
Tim Blaze does an interview segment in which he brings out former manager Dr. Lee Luv, who brings out his new tutelage, Bonecrusher, which sets up...
3. "Red Hot" Tim Blaze battled ACW Heavyweight champion Bonecrusher Curtis to a double-countout in 6:48. Bonecrusher also has a valet in his corner named Destiny, who believe it or not, is the SAME Destiny currently appearing with Scar Stevens 10 years later. It's crazy to think that the only 3 people that would be involved on this ACW show 10 years ago that are still active with CWF today are Destiny, Hedd, and myself. Match itself is basic big baby bumping around the chickenshit heel until it goes to the outside, leading to a very lame double-countout. *1/2
4. The Terminators defeated the Heartbreak Express (Brian Bruise and L.A. Wild One) in 14:49 of a no-disqualification, lights out street fight to win the ACW tag team titles. This was actually a matchup between the two main Indy tag teams of the area back then. The Terminators look like total generic masked jobbers (ala Rock N' Roll Rebel from earlier), but somehow got majorly over with the fans to the extent that 7 years later, we were still dealing with that blasted "We want the Terminators!" chant at NEW shows in Thomasville. On the other hand, Bruise and LA totally look the part as a legitimate championship Indy tag team. The match starts with the babys over strong before it totally breaks down under the no DQ stips. LA attempts to backdrop a Terminator on a table, who neither jumps or flips and comes down head-first on the table. Really started to fall apart towards the finish with a blown finish sequence. Not a bad little match early on, but if the psychology had been a little stronger with the heels being more dastardly, the crowd would have been going apeshit. **
5. ACW Heavyweight champion Bonecrusher Curtis won a 13-man $10,000 battle royal in 6:02. Order of elimination: Armstrong by Bonecrusher, Lumbee by Bruise, Terminator 2 by Bruise, Red Scorpion by Blaze (Scorpion only worked the battle royal and was a running joke for years as this rather rotund larger man that never finished training would just show up at shows gimmick in hand), Terminator 1 by Bruise, Rhodes by Hammer Man, Davidson by Hammer Man, Hammer Man by LA, Hot Stuff by Blaze (leaving the 3 heels on the one babyface with expected results), LA by Bonecrusher, Bruise by Bonecrusher, Blaze by Bonecrusher. It should be noted that just before Blaze got tossed, Bonecrushed attempted a powerbomb that was almost unintentionally Tiger Driver-like as Blaze never gets up and comes down on the back of his head. Not too murdersome, but I still popped for it live. Acceptable by battle royal standards, *.
Overall thoughts - Not even close to the standard that's been set from OMEGA to present CWF day to what's capable in an Indy show, but rather than dwell on the bad, let's hit the good:
-THREE legitimate looking tag teams on the same show. That's darn hard to come by as I've alluded to before and major props for that.
-The strong booking of Bonecrusher Curtis who is very limited in the ring but all the proper steps were taken to utilize him as a monster.
-The show didn't drag on to 7-8 matches and to a painfully long 3+ hour length like so many shows do.
All in all, a passable show but more for personal nostalgia value than anything else. I'm very thankful to Brian Bruise for letting me partake in the festivities, much like I would be to Chris Plano a few years later. If I had never had those moments, it probably wouldn't have changed the course of history much as I would have still sent the email to Jeff and probably still have been with CWF since the start but it was still a cool experience back in the day. And, as they say, you never forget your first.
GRANT "STATMARK" SAWYER
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