Getting Stiffed In Wrestling

A promoter doesn’t pay the locker room, a legend tries to make it right, and suddenly you learn the hard way what “the business” actually means. That’s the energy we’re bringing today as I go from a bizarre sun poisoning tanning bed story to real road details for Rumble in the Dome 2 in Kenova, West Virginia. I’m stepping back in the ring with Onyx, and for the first time my buddy Ben Lester is coming out as Mr. Downtown to manage me, which is going to be a blast.

Then we get into something wrestling fans argue about nonstop: what makes a world title legitimate. I answer a listener question about why I once called the AWA title the only real world title at the time, and I lay it out plainly. For me, legitimacy isn’t a logo or a TV slot, it’s defending the belt anywhere, against anyone, with no geographic or company limits.

From there, I flip open my 30-plus-year match journal and keep making towns through late 1994 and early 1995. We hit the Doug Gibson pay fiasco, Road Warrior Hawk’s role in it, the infamous Waynesboro shoot angle I didn’t know was a shoot, early Southern States Wrestling paydays, and the grind of working tags, TV tapings, and long loops that jump from Knoxville to Mississippi to St. Louis. Along the way: WCW enhancement work, meeting Jerry Lawler, wrestling Abdullah the Butcher, and the unexpected business lesson of becoming Doink the Clown and actually making money on merchandise.

If you’re into independent wrestling stories, Smoky Mountain Wrestling-era road life, and how a career gets built one booking at a time, hit play. Subscribe, share it with a wrestling buddy, and leave a review. What’s your definition of a “real” world champion?

Transcript

Cold Open And Catchphrase

SPEAKER_00 0:01

I am your champion. Oh man, that's classic. I love it. I'm gonna climb that ladder of success all the way to the top. Hello

Tanning Bed Poisoning Story

SPEAKER_00 0:22

everybody and welcome back. I hope everybody had a good week. I had a really weird week. I decided that I needed to get back in the tanning bed, and the tanning beds are a lot more advanced than I remember. It's been about a I don't know, a couple years since I've been in a tanning bed. And the last tanning bed I actually owned and had in my house. And uh when we moved from Dandridge to Morristown, I didn't have room for my tanning bed, so I sold my tanning bed. And uh this go-around, I was going to the gym, Planet Fitness, and got in their bed and their big stand-up bed, and I didn't realize that they were a lot more strong, I guess stronger and powerful, and I ended up getting some poisoning. So I had that for a few days, which made me extremely sick, and I had to pretty much lay around and uh, you know, just try not to be sick everywhere, and it was a mess, just a huge, huge mess. And uh, but I got over it, and I've got one hell of a tan now. So

Rumble Match Announcement

SPEAKER_00 1:45

I'm Brian Logan. This is Making the Towns with Brian Logan. We are back and in action, and I missed everybody. We got a full episode today. We're gonna cover a lot of ground. Before we start, I am recording this Friday morning tomorrow, April 4th. I will be in Canova, West Virginia for Rumble in the Dome 2, and I will be wrestling Onyx, guy that I had a feud with about 10 years ago or more, in up in Parkersburg. And we had some pretty good matches, and they're gonna put it put me back in the ring with him at the uh Rumble in the Dome 2 in Canova, West Virginia. So I'm looking forward to that. But my buddy Ben Lester, who has just recently got into the wrestling business, Mr. Downtown, to all you people, has will be managing me for the first time. And I'm pretty excited about that. Shout out to Ben, of course, you know that is the son of Eric Lester, one of my best friends in the whole wide world. And so I'm looking forward to working with Ben. Mr. Downtown will be guiding my career in the Rumble in the Dome 2 at Canova, West Virginia this Saturday, April 4th. So looking forward to that. So I got a lot going on, and like I said, I got a hell of a tan going on for that. But

Where To Follow Me Online

SPEAKER_00 3:15

real quick, let's follow me on Facebook at Making the Towns. Also, Brian Logan Making the Towns on Instagram. You can find me there. I am your champion, exclamation point on YouTube. Uh more on YouTube here in a minute. I am your champion on TikTok and Three Crows Entertainment at LoganYourChamp on X. So follow me there. But if you guys want a central hub, just go to IamYourChion.com. And all the socials are right there on the front page. There are links to everything, so you don't have to worry about memorizing all that. Just go to IamYourChamp.com and you can follow me, find me, and all that stuff right there.

Documentaries Released Free On YouTube

SPEAKER_00 4:02

But one of the things that we did was I I made a couple of documentary films. I always wanted to be a film director, and we made four documentary films, and they were previously released on Amazon, and we have decided this week that we were going to release them for for free on YouTube. So that has had a great response. Right now, there are three of those up right now. We have Wildcat Wendell Cooley, World Worker, sorry, worker, the movie, based on my book, Worker, Last of a Dying Breed, and Tony Anthony, Life as the Dirty White Boy, and we're getting a tremendous response, a lot of views from all this. But also, you can go to IamYourChampion.com, go to the movie section, and there are links right there, and you can watch it right there on the website. And again, the website I Am Your Champion is the central hub for all things, Brian Logan. We're going to be getting the fourth video up soon, hopefully this week, which is about Whoopie D's career and uh his struggle with addiction called Escaping Addiction. And uh that's one of our best documentaries we ever did, and uh has gotten a real good response on Amazon, and I'm very, very excited to get that out there for free for everybody. And also on the YouTube channel, I know I'm kind of bouncing around a little bit. The Rumble in the Dome 2 match against Onyx should be up there by the first of the week. So we're gonna record that match. And if you are not in the uh Canova, West Virginia area and cannot attend, you can still see my match there on YouTube. I know I had a few people asking if the match was gonna be on YouTube. It is absolutely going to be on YouTube. We're gonna put as many of these matches up as we can for free. We are done with paywalls, as we had stated on the ride home. We are trying to give give back to the fans and just celebrate what's left of this wonderful, tremendous career.

AWA Title Legitimacy Explained

SPEAKER_00 6:30

Real quick before we start, I want to give a big shout out to my buddy Noah Wingfield. He is overseas right now with the military. Thank you for your service. He's originally from Elkins, West Virginia, and I believe he's stationed in the Arab Emirates. Now, don't quote me on that, but I'm pretty sure that's where he is at. He sent me a couple of messages over the week, this past week, and it's just really it really made my day to hear from him and to communicate with him. But he had a question based on worker the movie. So if I could read this to you, he said in his message, you said that you realized the AWA was the only legitimate world title. Could you elaborate on that? I get that the WWF title was only for that promotion, but since the NWA champion also toured the globe and defended the title in different territories, why do you consider the AWA title to be more legitimate? Well, at that time, the NWA title was in TNA, and they were pretty much just using it on TV and where they were going. Now, yes, the NWA champion did defend the bell, but it wasn't a regular defense in other markets. They would defend it in other markets, but it wasn't on a regular basis. And then of course the the WWF title was just, or WWE title, was only for that promotion. You know, that's an argument that Lawler had made years ago when he won the unified world title, and that it was just for the the promotion that it was in. And I felt that uh the AWA, with me being the champion at the time, and this is this is about 2009, 2010-ish, I held the belt for about 18 months, that the I was gonna defend it against anybody that booked me. And and I did, and I went to a lot of small markets and defended the belt, and got had a lot of really good matches with a lot of local competitors, and that was just something that uh TNA and WWE and some of these other promotions that claimed their their world championships, quote unquote, just weren't really willing to do. So that's why I considered the AWA title the only real world title was because I was defending it against all comers, against anybody who would book the championship, book me as the champion, and was going everywhere with it with no limitations on companies or geographical areas. So no, I hope that answers your question, buddy. Hang in there. Big shout out to you again. You made my week by talking to you, stay in touch, and just hang in there, buddy. Hang in there, you're doing a wonderful job over there. So,

Match Journal Begins In 1994

SPEAKER_00 9:42

all right, so making the towns, what we do here is I keep I've kept a let a journal for 30 plus years of all my matches, and we're going through them one by one. We're going match by match, we're doing talking about the money, the miles, and the bumps. And we last left off. We're gonna start up, it was in October of 1994, so we're gonna start up here in October 13th, 1994. We're in Waynesboro, Virginia. And me and Roger Anderson were the Mid-Atlantic tag team champions versus Doug Gibson and Road Warrior Hawk. And we lost by DQ. And I was supposed to get 50 bucks for that match. More on that here in just a minute. But what it ended up happening was is this guy, Doug Gibson, came pretty much out of nowhere and showed up for a sh wrestling event in Knoxville, and somehow hoodooed everybody into thinking that he was a big time promoter. And he ended up booking some of the Smoky Mountain guys and booking Road Warrior Hawk to be on this little teeny show in Waynesboro. So I ended up getting booked and put with Hawk, which was great because I got to work Hawk. And uh, we had a really good match. Of course, that match can be seen on YouTube at I Am Your Champion, exclamation Mark. So what we're talking about here is is on the YouTube for you to see. I'm gonna explain a little bit more about this, but let's go into the next day on the 14th. I wrestled as as myself against Anthony Michaels. It was a Smoky Mountain Grudge match, and we did a fifteen minute time limit draw, and I was supposed to make eighty bucks, but I did not. And what ended up happening was the next day we went to Steubensville, Standardsville, Virginia. It's hard for me to read the the the writing on there. It looks like Stansville, Virginia. Anyway, on the 15th, and me and Anderson wrestled Tim Horner and Hawk again. I was supposed we lost that match. I was supposed to make eighty bucks, and then came back in the main event and wrestled as Kendo the Samurai and the Crow, who was Kid Cash, who had just started out, against Lady Killer and the Black Ninja, and we won that match. Now, what had happened was what I'm getting here on the story, and why I say I should have got paid for that was, is that Doug Gibson didn't pay anybody.

Doug Gibson Stiffs The Locker Room

SPEAKER_00 12:51

He just absolutely just said he didn't have the money and wasn't gonna pay, he was gonna pay Road Warrior Hawk, and that was about it, and Hawk actually said, No, there's a chance that I might not beat your ass, but there's a pretty good chance all of those one of those guys will beat your ass, so go ahead and pay them. So Hawk forfeited his money and worked for free so that we could all get paid. However, Doug Gibson, being the businessman that he is and slash was, because he's still in the business, didn't pay us. Just screwed us out of our pay, hundreds of dollars. And that was one of the first times that I didn't get paid. I got stiffed on my pay. And it was it was not cool. More on this story as it unfolds on a later date here in the episode. On October 29th, 1994, we went into Greenville, Tennessee. I wrestled as myself with Mr. X against Eddie Golden and Stan Lee, and we lost and I made $75. What a great, great team, Eddie Golden and Stan Lee. Two of my good friends. I just saw Stan at the uh Southern States anniversary show where we inducted some people in the Hall of Fame. And uh I believe I believe Stan went in the Hall of Fame. I'm not sure if he went in that night or if he was already in it. But anyway, Stan was there and uh Eddie Golden. Eddie Golden, one of my favorite people, just hilarious. Both of those guys are just great athletes, great workers, and I've had hundreds of matches with these guys over the years. So these are two guys you're gonna hear their names over and over and over again throughout this podcast. But just two of my favorite people, two of my favorite opponents. On November 4th, 1994, I come rolling into Falls Branch, Tennessee for Bo James. That was the first time that I wrestled for Southern States Wrestling, was in November of 1994, and you think here we are some 30, some 33, 34 years later, 32 years later, still wrestling for Southern States Wrestling, and still doing business with them. And so the Hornet teamed with Bo James against Dan against the Christian brothers, and we were billed as the tag team champions, and of course we won, and I made $25. We talked about that, the the deal with Bo and him offering me that, but I felt that it was to my advantage to work for less money, and it paid off because I've gotten way more back from Bo and Southern States Wrestling than just monetarily. Just my brothers, my my family, my career, just everything was touched by being part of Southern States Wrestling. On November 12th, 1994, we went to Gap Creek, Tennessee, Brian Logan and Anthony Michaels versus the troublemakers, and we won and made $75. I'm not sure who the troublemakers were. It's not denoted in the in the notebook here, so I'm not sure who they were or anything like that. But I'm sure it was a great match, and it was just one of those times where you roll into town and you wrestle a couple guys and you may or may not see them again. And so I I don't really know who the troublemakers were at that time. If anybody out there remembers this match or was in the match, let me know and uh we'll correct it on on air about whether, you know, who who these guys were. On November 13th, 1994, we can go to Kingwood, West Virginia, and the Inferno wrestled Anthony Michaels and won. And then I came back as myself and wrestled The Mummy and won. And then the Inferno and Lord Zoltan wrestled Bobby Fulton and Anthony Michaels, and we lost, and I got paid $125. Now this was a Bobby Fulton show, which is why I worked three times. So I came out in the opening match, which was a captain's match, and uh whoever won got to pick the uh stipulation for the later tag, and then the second match would be Zoltan and Bobby Fulton, and then we would bring it back in a tag. But in that second match, we re I wrestled the mummy, and the mummy was Rob Maisie, a really big guy. He was about seven foot tall, and he was the Smoky Mountain Prince Karis, the mummy, and he got uh booked on this Bobby Fulton show. Part of the deal with Smokey Mountain Wrestling was that Rick Rubin wanted us to have a mummy, so that was part of the deal with getting the the financing for Smoky Mountain Wrestling, that we had to have a mummy. And Rob Maisie was that guy. Now Rob's had a had an interesting day job. He was a ticket scalper. So he would sell all these tickets to all these concert venues, concerts, live events, and everything, and that's how he made his money so he could go off and and wrestle. But later on that night wrestled Bobby Fulton and Anthony Michaels, and it was a good night, and we made $125. On November 18th, I was back in Pauls Branch, Tennessee. Me and Bo James wrestled the Christian brothers again, and we were the Southern States tag team champions, and I made $25. Again, the next night in the 19th, I was in Gap Creek, Tennessee. Again, Logan and Michaels, me and Anthony, versus the troublemakers, and we won. And I don't think I got paid for that match because it the pay here doesn't have oh no, here we go. We come back, I'm sorry. We re we wrestled at a first tag, and then we came back as the Infernos against Stan and Eddie for the APW tag team titles, and we lost that match, and we made 50 bucks for both total of both matches. So that's that's how that works. I worked twice on that, worked two tag matches, which was good, you know, getting out there and working a lot of tags. I know early on in my career I wrestled in a lot of lot of tags. On 1126,

The Waynesboro Shoot Invasion

SPEAKER_00 19:51

1994, was back in Waynesboro, and this was the conclusion of the Doug Gibson story. He had a business partner, Preston Michaels, and they had had a falling out over various stuff, probably the way that Doug did business because he's a shady crook. And they ended up paying me $150 to come ride in a limo and go to the show. Now at the show, the live event, I thought they had it worked out. This was part of the show. I would have never done this had I known that this was a straight-up shoot. They bought tickets, and we sat at ringside like a bunch of marks, and was kind of doing like a horseman ripoff thing, and was ending up challenging Doug Gibson's promotion. So it was like an invasion, except the whole thing was a was a shoot invasion, but I thought it was a work. I didn't know that it that it wasn't, you know, that nobody knew this was going on. Well, at one point I'm told that I'm supposed to jump the rail, get in the ring, and go at it with Doug Gibson. So I do that as such, and we're working in the ring, and I see my opportunity. Now I'm not proud of this, I'm just telling the way the story goes. Things were a lot different back then than they are now. A lot, a lot different. He had sh had screwed me out of that money, and he had gave me an Irish whip and bent over, and I had cowboy boots on, and I co-cocked him right in the head with those cowboy boots on, and proceeded to put the boots to him, and the money that he owed me, I took out of his ass, and I ended up sending him to the hospital. He ended up with a six hundred dollar hospital bill, which was way more expensive than if he'd have just paid me the money that he owed me. So that was his receipt for screwing me out of my pay. So So, you know, again, I'm not proud that that happened. It's just the way the story goes. I'm sure the Statue of Limitations is way, way over that since it's been so many years ago. But, you know, he got what he deserved. He should have paid us. So, you know, I I haven't really dealt with him since then or seen him since then. I I I've seen him on Facebook. I know he works some shows around here. As far as I'm concerned, he still owes me money and he's still a crook. So if you're doing business with Doug Gibson, be sure to pay attention and make sure you get all your money from him. So

Indie Pay Reality Check

SPEAKER_00 22:38

on the next event was Falls Branch, Tennessee, December 2nd, 1994. The Hornet and Bo James, as the Southern States tag team champions, wrestled Alex Shane and one half of the Young Guns, and we won, and I made $25. And of course, the next night was December 3rd. We were in Gap Creek, Tennessee again. And it was a benefit show for it says Cameron on here. I'm not sure who Cameron was, but it says it was a benefit show. And me and Anthony Michaels wrestled Stan Lee and Keith Hart and lost, and I made ten whole dollars. I couldn't believe that. Ten bucks. So we're wrestling more, but the money is going down because we're working these independent shots. You know, some some nights are good, some nights are not good, and that's just the way the wrestling business is. But

Keith Hart And Early Lessons

SPEAKER_00 23:37

I want to talk a minute about Keith Hart. Keith was a local guy from Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. His mom was actually the seamstress that made the Hornet outpits, the original trunks and tights for the Hornet. Now, later on, Adrian Street managed to uh make the the singlets and the masks and stuff like that. But the original trunks came from his mom. Now Keith, Keith was a different cat, man. He was weird. He would I'm not I'm I'm speaking a little out of school here. I my guess is that he was autistic before we knew what autistic was, but an incredible athlete and an incredible wrestler. You probably remember him from doing jobs on WCW. Now, of course, he the Hart name is just a name that he took. No relation to the Hart family whatsoever, of course, being here in the South. But he he was just at first glance, you wouldn't think that this guy was the athlete that he was. But he was one of those guys that when that bell rang could just go. And I really, really enjoy wrestling Keith Hart. I enjoyed being around him. I haven't seen him for decades. I believe that they just over there's a group over in Alcoa, Tennessee, and I'm not even I think it's East Tennessee Wrestling, E E T C W, maybe. Don't quote me on that, but they just put Keith in their Hall of Fame over there, and it's well deserved. Well deserved. But that was my first year in the wrestling business. And I had had 108 matches in my first year going from the Rock and Roll Express all the way up to this match with Stan and Keith. On December 9th, 1994, we were in Wayne, West Virginia, and I wrestled as myself against Bobby Blaze and lost and made $65. And of course, this was a show promoted by Bobby Blaze, and it was one of his shows, a little spot town. He started by doing Spot Towns for Smoky Mountain and then ended up just running shows on his own. And of course, I wrestled him in the main event there. On December 16th, 1994, we were back in Greenville, Tennessee. Me and Mr. X again wrestled in a rematch, Stan Lee and Eddie Golden. I made $75 and we won that match. On the next day, on the 17th, we go to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, the Infernos versus the Wolf Man and Tim Horner, and we lost and I made a hundred bucks. And I believe that that was for an independent shot as well, but the independent promoter took the Smoky Mountain guys. So took some of the undercard of the Smoky Mountain guys and put on the show so that you know the get a little extra work, get a little extra payday, and use the TB stars to help the draw there. Also on the 17th, I wrestled as Kendo versus the Dirty White Boy, and I lost that match. So I was in the opening match and the main event, both. So I I was taking two two big positions there. On December twenty-sixth, nineteen ninety-four, I was in Oneida, Tennessee, and I wrestled the commando and won. It was a TV taping for what says here is the CWC. I have no idea what that championship wrestling council may be. I don't know. Anyway, I made $10. But I was happy to get the TV time. I always wanted to be on TV. That was the name of the game back then, was get on as many TV programs as possible. You know, nowadays the kids don't even seem to care. I guess with YouTube and taping, you know, you can tape your match and put it on YouTube and everybody can see it. But back then they didn't have any of that. And they you wanted to be on TV and seen by as many eyeballs as possible to build your your stake, your commodity in in the business. So I even though I only made ten bucks, I was happy to be on local TV there in ONIDA. And I and we talked about ONIDA before. It was a fun little area. You know, I met I met Robin Kurtz there, and she's one of my really, really good friends. I love her to death. Shout out to her. That's where I met her and some of some of the other boys there that I'm still friends with. On January 6th, 1995, I was back in Falls Branch, Tennessee, the Hornet and Bo James versus the Young Guns, and we won and I got paid $25. Moving

WCW Debut And Getting Paid Off

SPEAKER_00 29:08

right along, going into January 8th, I would make my first match for WCW in Atlanta, Georgia. So I wrestled with Mike Quinn versus the Harlem Heat, and we of course it was as enhancement talent jobbers doing the job on TV. We lost and I made $150. The next night was in Columbus, Georgia on the 9th, and I didn't work, but I got paid $150. Now I want to talk about that. A lot of times back in the day, you would get booked on some of these bigger shows, and they would pay you even if you didn't work, and it was a night off. And it was much appreciated when you got the night off. Because you were you were tired, you were in the hustle and bustle. And yes, you wanted to be seen. Yes, you wanted to be seen on TV, but you wanted to be smart about it too. You didn't want to be doing jobs every single time you were seen on TV, which was a hard balance. So when you got a night off and you made $150 for doing nothing, signing the pay sheet, that was great. Nowadays, I know we had an incident a few years ago when I was running WFS, where I brought a couple of guys in and they were under contract to us, and they we didn't have a spot for them, but I wanted to make sure they got paid and knew that they were part of the the company. So I brought a couple of these guys in and said, Hey, you're just you got a night off, you know, here's your pay, enjoy it, hang out with the boys and all that. Well, they got mad. They they they were got pissed off that it was a waste of their time, that you know the they were almost insulted that they got the night off when it was an actual compliment and a favor to them. And I just thought to myself, wow, how times have changed that they all fought me and you know thought that I was being insulting to them because they didn't get a match. You know, one of the guys said, Well, I could have stayed at home. Well, yeah, but that's not the whole that's not the point of the whole thing. I mean, okay, so WWE has hundreds of guys on a taping. Do you think they all get on Raw or SmackDown? No, they do not. But they all get paid. And that was one of the things we were trying to do was was run things like a bigger promotion. So anyway, long story longer, the guys nowadays they need to understand that sometimes you get paid for a night off, and it's a compliment, and you know, just enjoy it. So, let's see, let's flip on over here. On January 23rd, 1995, we were back in Oneida, Tennessee. The Hornet wrestled Stonewall Jackson. Now, I don't know, I don't think this was the original president Stonewall Jackson, but it was on TV for the W the CWC. I won, made 10 bucks. Couldn't tell you who Stonewall Jackson was. It's a heck of a name. It's a cool name. I played his golf course in West Virginia before, but yeah, I don't know who this guy was. I have no idea. I don't remember anything really standing out about the match, but but it was there. Of all the matches I had in Oina, that was one of them. On the 27th, we went into Waynesboro, Virginia. Got paid for the show just to show up. I made 50 bucks, ended up not working. I think my opponent didn't show up. And then on February 4th, 1995, I was in Morristown, Tennessee for the UAW, United Atlantic Wrestling. And this

New Towns And TV Taping Workload

SPEAKER_00 33:11

was one of Tim Horner's ventures after Smoky Mountain. He had found a money guy who was actually armless and had had a big settlement. I think it was from one of the mines. He had a mining accident or something like that. But he he had a bunch of money and he wanted to promote. And so me and Anthony Michaels wrestled the Nighthawks, and we won and we made 50 bucks. The Nighthawks were two guys named Billy and Ronnie, and they went to Tim Horner's school, and that was their first match. And they did pretty good. These Nighthawks were pretty big guys. They weren't Road Warrior size, but they were of the Road Warrior ilk. Still big power lifters, bodybuilding guys. They wore face paint. It got over pretty well. And you know, anytime I got to team with Anthony was a good night, and uh we had a very good match with them, and that was the uh first matches of this new promotion that we thought might actually, you know, kind of go somewhere. On the 6th, we were in Morganton, North Carolina for Smoky Mountain TV taping. The Infernos wrestled Scott Armstrong and Tracy Smothers. What a great, great two-pair of guys to be in there with. It was really, really cool to work those guys. Also, the Inferno, I wrestled as the Inferno against Boo Bradley, who was Ball's Mahoney. And then later on that night, I wrestled as myself versus the dirty white boy, and then also against Billy Black, and I lost both of those matches. So I wrestled four times on this TV taping. This was one of those tapings I was talking about before where, you know, you had a lot of enhancement talent when I first broke in, and then you looked around a few months later, and it was me, Anthony, and Sean Casey, and that was it. And we had to do every match on the TV. And uh, this was one of them, and of course I made a hundred bucks for that, which was was not bad, and they were good, solid matches against good opponents. More on Billy Black later on in down the line when I ended up wrestling him in the WWF. This is way, way down the line, a little foreshadowing there. On February 11th, we go to Kings Mountain, North Carolina, and I wrestled as myself against the Thunderfoot, the legendary Thunderfoot, and I lost. I think he kicked me with the boot, and I made $75. On February 25th, 95, we went back to Waynesboro, Virginia, me and the Crow versus TNT and the cannonball. And we ended up having a double GQ. I made a hundred bucks. This time it was for Preston Michaels, the guy I was telling you about that that booked me in the limo. He had ran the show and was now taken over from Doug. They had had a split. Doug was taking some time off. Couldn't figure out why he was taking some time off, but I understand there was a hospital visit involved. I'm terrible. I'm terrible. I can't I shouldn't be gloating about that. But yeah, we wrestled TNT and Cannonball. I I can't I don't know who those two guys were, but again, of all the matches I've had in Waynesboro, those that was one of them. On

D’Lo Match And Meeting Lawler

SPEAKER_00 36:51

February 26, 1995, I ended up getting a call and going to Knoxville, Tennessee at the Civic Auditorio. The Civic Coliseum. And I wrestled D Lo Brown and lost, and it was a really good match. That match is on the YouTube at I Am Your Champion exclamation point. I made 50 bucks, and I was also in a Royal Rumble that was won by Ricky Morton. But in that Royal Rumble, I got to work with Jerry Lawler for the first time. My hero, my guy, the guy that I grew up watching on tape or reading about and then watching on tapes when I got in the business. So I got to wrestle D Lo in a in a very good match. Again, that match is on YouTube, and the Royal Rumble clip is on YouTube as well. We

Abdullah The Butcher Road Story

SPEAKER_00 37:47

are all over the place because on 3295 we ended up going to Port Gibson, Mississippi. The Infernos wrestled Abdullah the Butcher and his his partner and we lost and made a hundred bucks. Now the gimmick with Abdullah is on independent shows, he teams with the local promoter guy or the local promoter's protege. And they have a tag match, and then Abdullah turns on that guy, and then when they bring the match back, Abdullah wrestles the that that guy. So that's exactly what happened here. And I loved wrestling Abdullah the Butcher. Now, when I met him, I was taken aback by his voice to begin with, because the voice doesn't match the body. And I I grew up watching Abdullah the Butcher. I grew up with my action figures, with my wrestling figures, and Abdullah the Butcher was one of my favorite figures. He was in every card that I ever had. I had him and Carlos Cologne as the action figures, and they they had hundreds of bouts in my figure fed as a kid. And here I was grown up in Mississippi, probably one of the furthest places I had ever been away from home. And I was wrestling Abdullah the Butcher, and it was so nice and so easy. You know, I'm gonna break Kfabe a little bit here, and you can't put the toothpaste back in the tube. But he would be like, Here, take this, take this row of chairs out for me, please. And then he would throw me, hip toss me, and I'd take out the chairs, you know, and he'd be like, Okay, I'm gonna hit you with the bell now, watch out for that. And he would hit me with the bell, and it would be great. And I would end up wrestling Abdullah the Butcher a few times over my career, and I just absolutely love Abby. I love working with Abby. He he's such a pro. I know there's he's got a lot of he's got a bad reputation, there's a lot of stuff out there, but as far as the way he treated me, is he treated me great, treated me tremendous. And the next night, get this loop. The next night on the third, I was in St. Louis, Missouri, wrestling as Doink the Clown versus Ron Simmons, and I lost that match and made a hundred bucks. So I went from Knoxville to Port Gibson, Mississippi, to St. Louis, Missouri. On the fourth, I went to was back in St. Louis, Missouri, and wrestled Ron Simmons again. So I wrestled him two days in a row and lost both and made a hundred bucks. So I made three hundred dollars and traveled all that way in in a matter of three days. It was it was really, really cool. And I was back in Steubenville, Ohio on the 11th the following week, and I wrestled the Sheik and one, and the Sic was actually Bobby Fulton under a hood. And then the Infernos wrestled Anthony Michaels and Ron Cumberledge, and we lost that match, made a hundred bucks. So

Mid-South Push As Lost Generation

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we were back on the 14th in Meridian, Mississippi, and I debuted as Christian Devereaux with Anthony Michaels, and we were the lost generation. And this was a promotion, mid-south wrestling, that had taken that had started up and was was going to be it was they they treated us tremendously. It was going to be a good little promotion. We ended up wrestling for them for a while, and that that was the first time they gave me an Anthony as a push and gave us a name. And of course they changed my name to Christian Devereaux to sound more regional for down in the Mississippi area, kind of a Cajun name, even though I wasn't playing a Cajun guy, just a name that resonated on the poster. And we wrestled Tracy Smothers and The Jagged Edge, and we won on TV and made a hundred bucks. So they decided they were going to put us over, and that was that was great that we were we were going to get a push. And that take and those matches are on YouTube as well. Trying to get as many matches as possible from my personal collection up there on YouTube so everybody can see. So definitely go over and give me a follow and a subscription and ring that bell on YouTube so you can see all these matches. But they treated us tremendously down there. They brought us down, they put us up in nice hotels with gyms and restaurants and paid our travel expenses and put us over on TV and just treated us like stars. And it just I'm forever indebted to that promotion and for giving us that experience and giving us another aspect to our career. The NAWA, the North American Wrestling Alliance, on the thr on 331 took us to Shinston, West Virginia, and I wrestled as Doink the Clown versus Blue Thunder and won, made $50. Also, I wrestled as the Infernos versus the Rock and Roll Express and lost, and I made $50 for that match as well. So I made a hundred bucks for the for the day and wrestled two matches.

Filling In As Doink The Clown

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And the d the deal with Doink was that Matt Bourne had recently gotten arrested for beating up his ex wife. his girlfriend and he had a bunch of dates booked and they had nobody to fill in and I got a call from Scott Damore of all people who said if you get an outfit I can get you some bookings. So I I got Doink the Clown outfit made and started doing the Doink gaming. Now that would later on become my Waterloo because everybody wanted to to book Doink and not wanted to book myself. So just as I was getting everything started and getting going as myself and getting a name for myself without a hood or or or you know as Kendo or an Inferno or whatever I had to put on the paint and become Doink the Clown. But it it added another character to what I was doing. And I had fun with Doink. And what I did was is I went out and I had pictures made of me as Doink in the poses from the magazines with Doink in them. So when you looked at the pictures on the table it was me. So they thought I was the Doink. You know a lot of people made that did doink and there was so many people that did doink they they would just take the pictures and get them made and it would be you know Matt Bourne or Steve Kurt or Tony Apollo or who whoever it was in the picture and you could tell it wasn't the same guy. So I made a lot of merchandising money with Doynton Clown. Back then we took Polaroids and we charged 10 bucks for a Polaroid picture, sometimes five and we you know take pictures in the ring with the kids and then the the we had signed pictures eight by tens or five by sevens or what what whatever they were and I was making a lot of money doing the Doink the Clown deal. On 4195 I wrestled in Elkins West Virginia as Doint the Clown versus Mark Curtis and one and made 50 bucks. This was all for NAWA and NAWA was Rob Maisie's group. So he had decided that he was going to run some of these West Virginia towns and turned out turned out pretty good he he ran a good show and he paid pretty well also on the first on April first or April 1st of 95 I wrestled the Infernos as the Infernos versus the Rock and Roll Express and lost that match and made 50 bucks so I made a hundred bucks wrestling that day wrestling two matches. Now

Remembering Mark Curtis

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Mark Curtis backing up just a step was the referee from Smoky Mountain Wrestling and he had trained with me from the the get go and it so getting to wrestle him was a real pleasure. Of course he passed away of cancer a few years later we all loved Mark Curtis. I just recently saw his widow Pam at the Southern States Anniversary show and it was so I hadn't seen her in decades. And it was so good to see her and giving her a big hug around her neck and we just reminisced about everything and talked about how the business had changed and stuff. So it was it was it was great seeing her again. So big shout out to her on the second we were in Morgantown West Virginia and again it's the same thing I wrestled as Doink against Mark Curtis and won and then wrestled as the Infernos against the Rock and Roll Express and lost. So I made $200 in two days that was good. And then on the 6th I was in Cartersville Georgia which is down there by Alabama, Mississippi that hilarious I guess it's not by Mississippi there it's landlocked by it's by Alabama. Sorry I got confused here for a minute and we were back wrestling as the lost generation me and Anthony against Nightmare Ted Allen and Lee Thomas and we lost that match and made 50 bucks on the 11th we were in Greenville Mississippi for a TV taping for Mid-South the Lost Generation versus Doug Summers and Willie Charisma and we won got paid 50 bucks now that match is on on the YouTube as well and you can take a look at all those Mid-South matches on there and Willie Charisma man he was full of charisma as Cactus Jack who was doing commentary so kept saying during the match that you know you've got the milky white texture of the suntan of Doug Prettyboy Summers mixed with the charisma and stylings of Willie Charisma can he beat the lost generation and it was just fun man it was just a good match and again getting to wrestle Doug Summers was huge for me because I had his action figure and he was one of my favorite action figures. So I used him and and Buddy Rose in my little figure fed as a kid and here I was grown up wrestling the guys that that I had played with as a kid and that was so cool. It's always very very very cool when that happened on the 11th of ninety five we were in Greenville Mississippi and the lost generation wrestled Doink and Darkstorm then but it wasn't darkstorm that we know this was a different darkstorm and we won and made 50 bucks and uh that was wild that I got to wrestle Doink the Clown who was I don't know who did Doink the Clown it was one of the many incarnations that was their Doink and I didn't have to do the Doink. But the Lost Generation did pretty well and we were just moving right along on TV at this point into 95 we were I had a hundred and forty two matches at that point.

How Social Media Would’ve Changed It

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That was a lot a lot of wrestling and as you can tell we were all over the place we were doing all kinds of stuff making different towns St. Louis Missouri Georgia we were just running them roads and just burning burning the gas and making these towns and making that money where everything is is you know real it the only thing real is the money in the miles so you know that's that's what's incredible about this time period is that we were we were really branching out on our own we were really getting out there and getting our name out there and you know again this is pre-internet can you imagine if we'd had social media I know me and Anthony Michaels talk about this all the time every time we get together is could you imagine if we had social media back then and YouTube and access to cameras 247 it would have been just a wild ride and you know I we we liken it to something that that like Mike Cardona did where he got himself over. I think that we were almost at a miss because we were so early and we were ahead of the time doing these things as young kids and making these these indie shots that the kids today would call super indies you know making all these these towns and and having all these matches with all these stars and I just wish we we'd have had social media back then it would have been tremendous and would have made things just a lot more historic I believe. But

Waffle House Plans And Final Plugs

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all right we're coming to an end here let me go back again uh tomorrow April 4th Saturday I'll be in Canova West Virginia for Rumble in the Dome 2 versus Onyx one of my old opponents going to rekindle the feud maybe but uh belltime is 8 p.m doors open at 7 p.m and my man I will be appearing with my manager Mr. Downtown and that should be very exciting I'm looking very forward to going back to Kenova I haven't been back to West Virginia and gosh maybe I don't know several several years it's been a it's been a long time so going up there for promoter Freddie Cornell and I love Freddie and I can't wait to see him and his family and Chris Miles and the whole the whole bunch of guys up there so I'm really looking forward to this weekend. I'm looking forward to the road trip but most importantly I'm looking forward to that Waffle House after the the show we have been Mr Downtown has stated that it's his he wants to go to the Waffle House there in Barbersville so we have made plans that after the event's over I'm gonna take him to the Waffle House and we're gonna get some steak and eggs. So but again the documentaries Wildcat Wendell Cooley Worker the movie and Tony Anthony Life as the Dirty White Boy are now available on YouTube and the website I am your champion also if you will follow Making the Towns on Facebook Brian Logan Making the Towns on Instagram you can find me there. I am your champion exclamation point on YouTube subscribe and hit the bell I am your champion on TikTok and also three Crows Entertainment at LoganYourCamp on X. Again all the links all in one place at IamYourchampion.com as always we are on Pirate Flag Radio on the Radio King app. Also tune in for the ride home with Dallas Danger is now free behind no paywall whatsoever so we will have a QA format following up the making the towns the making the towns as if you're going to the town and the ride home is where you get in the car and you're coming home obviously and we're rebooking the territory right there. So this has been a production of Three Crows Entertainment. I am your host Brian Logan thank you for tuning in we will talk to you in about seven days and remember I am your champion I am your champion oh man that's classic I love it I'm gonna climb that ladder of success all the way to the top