From Canada To Arkansas: A 1995 Wrestling Loop

The wrestling business doesn’t happen in highlight reels. It happens in the miles between towns, the pay envelopes that barely cover gas, and the quiet lessons you get from veterans when you’re still green and trying to prove you belong.

We’re back in my 1995 journal, bouncing from a Canadian debut in LaSalle, Ontario to Arkansas spot towns where my name shifts to Christian Devereaux and the payoff can be $40 if you’re lucky. I talk through what those loops really looked like: driving instead of flying, washing gear at home between runs, and learning how quickly a gimmick like Doink can open doors while also boxing you in if promoters only want one version of you.

The best part is the people. I tell stories about Bert Prentice and the moment he tested my loyalty, why Rip Rogers respected a kid who could name his exact match count, how Bull Payne taught me to look stiff without hurting anyone, and how Brickhouse Brown showed me the difference between knowing moves and knowing how to feel like a star. I also dig into something I think modern wrestling misses: repetition. Running an angle on TV and touring it through multiple towns made the work tighter, the psychology stronger, and the performers better.

If you love territory wrestling history, indie wrestling road stories, OVW and WWE era training wisdom, or just want real talk about what builds a career, this one’s for you. Subscribe, share it with a wrestling fan, and leave a review telling me which road story hit closest to home.

Transcript

Cold Open And Catchphrases

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.

Sponsor Spot For W Energy

SPEAKER_00 0:36

This is episode seven, and we just want to welcome you back. It is a great day for wrestling. We hope your week went well. My week went very well. Getting things done, taking care of business, and uh gonna get into all that today. We have a full, full show today. Lots to get into. But first of all, today's show is brought to you by our new sponsor, W Energy Drinks. You want to use promo code YOURCHAMPION at checkout. Now let me tell you a little bit about W Energy Drinks. If you're somebody like me who lives off of energy drinks, when we would go to wrestling conventions, my assistants would always have to have me an energy drink ready to go when I got up out of bed and to get myself in motion and get myself ready for the day. Ashley has to keep me stocked in energy drinks, and I just love this new W energy drink. And I'm gonna tell you a little bit about it real quick. It has zero sugar, zero artificial flavors or colors, no secret formulas, no hidden ingredients, and it's gluten-free. And the best part about this is that it costs about equals out about a dollar per drink compared to other drinks that you could get on the market, which I have used for years, but I'm done using them. I'm I'm a dubby man now. But uh it's all made in the USA, but let me tell you what it does have: it has ingredients for clean, smooth energy, sharper mental focus, no added sugar, like we said before, and very unique flavors. The flavors are what really makes this thing pop because they have all kinds of flavors, and it is built for anyone and ready to mix anywhere, anytime, with about 150 milligrams of caffeine per serving, and best of all, they will ship to you worldwide. But listen to some of these flavors: cherry lime, which is my favorite, retro rainbow sherbet, sour gummy bear, sweet and sour blue raspberry, Japanese Yuza, and Japanese soda, s'moors. I know that's very, very popular. A lot of you people out there love the taste of s'moors. Well, this is great as an energy drink, lunar strawberry margarita, push and punch, beach and peach, and many, many more. I'm telling you, this is a new, it is a godsend. You know, I used to during the day when I'm working with the puppies, we will we got to be there at 7:30 in the morning and get all these puppies out and get them, you know, watered and to the bathroom to do their business and everything, and then we break for lunch, and it's a two-hour lunch so that the puppies can take a nap. Well, I always end up eating lunch and then it settles on my stomach, and that being up for so long, I start getting tired and need a nap, and I don't have time to take a nap. And what I liked about dubbies is that there's no jitteriness, so I can just shake me up one of these drinks and take a take it real quick, and it's ready to roll. And I miss that two o'clock drop-off or that three o'clock drop-off, and it really gets me through into the end of the shift. So we are very excited to partner with them and for them to sponsor us here. Again, that's your champion promo code at checkout. They have all kinds of uh sales going on that, and plus they've got merchandise there, they've got shaker cups, they've got sampler packs if you're not sure what flavor you want. They also have hats, all kinds of stuff that will come in bundles, and you can get all kinds of free stuff. I know they're running a sale now. I think for $39.99 you get like $150 worth of stuff totally free with the with the with the bundle. So check it out. Wys.gg is the website w.gg, and use promo code YORCHION at the checkout man. Check this out, it is worth it. It is absolutely worth your time and effort if you are a caffeine junkie and an energy drink aficionado, like I consider myself. This is the this is where the hip cats are at, and you're gonna want to check that out. That's W.g. Promo code Your Champion at checkout. So please go over there and check all that out and try a little something. You'll you'll thank me for it in the end.

YouTube Channel And Free Documentaries

SPEAKER_00 5:40

But next up, I want to thank everybody that is subscribed to the YouTube channel. Of course, if you haven't subscribed, please, please, please go over there right now and hit the subscription button. If you don't want to be notified all the time, you don't have to hit the the notification button. You can if you want to find out everything we're putting up. We're putting up stuff daily. And we've just got so many subscribers this week, and it just has meant the world to me. And that's the thing, is probably it won't mean much to you to subscribe, but it means the world to me because we're trying to get as many subscribers as we can because when I go to these live events, I want to do some live streaming onto the YouTube, and you have to have so many subscribers to do that, and I'm gonna need your help for all that. But we want to thank to everybody, thank you to everybody who has been subscribing this week. I'm so happy with you guys with your comments. The comments are great. The the documentaries are up. Tony Anthony, Life is the Dirty White Boy, Wildcat Wendell Cooley, and Escaping Addiction, the Whoopee D story, as well as Worker the Movie, and The Patriot Dale Wilkes, the man behind the masks, are the ones that are up there now. We're going to be putting up more in the future. And we just we've been getting a great response. Everybody is loving the documentaries, especially the dirty white boy. So if you like documentaries, you're a fan of Southern Wrestling or a fan of Tony Anthony himself, we've just gotten great reviews from this documentary, and we're just tickle pink over here that uh everybody likes it. It's been up on Amazon for a while, for a couple years, and you know, you just don't get the the feedback of the fans through Amazon. And that's unfortunately one of the things that you have to do when you're marketing a movie of some sort. I mean, you gotta you put all the money into it, you've got to kind of recoup some of the costs. So that's why we went the Amazon route. But now, with this new YouTube channel, we're putting out everything for free for everybody. No more paywalls. We're not doing the paywalls anymore, and everybody seems to be loving it, and they seem to be loving the documentaries. And today, what I said we're putting up stuff almost every day. Today is we're gonna put up Evolution Championship Wrestling Luck of the Draw. We are currently adding it as I am recording, it is uploading to YouTube right now. It is the complete and total event, all the matches. So you'll have me versus Jeff Storm. We're gonna have David Anthony versus Murphy Costigan and so many more bouts, and it's just Jeff Baker's on there, and just a lot, just a really good event that we had a few years ago, and like I said, that's totally free on YouTube. That is I Am Your Champion exclamation point for the YouTube. Also, if you get a chance, please visit I AmYourChampion.com. We'll I'm gonna give you all the socials at the end of this episode. But if you're looking for a one-stop shop, a one place to go for everything, Brian Logan, you don't want to worry about trying to get the individual addresses for the social media. You can go to IamYourCampion.com right there on the front page. It has all the links to all the social media: the Instagram, the TikTok, the Facebook pages, the YouTube, everything. Also, that promo code for W is on there. So just go over there and check that out.

Rare Gear And Ring Used Merch

SPEAKER_00 9:34

But I had said a couple of episodes ago that I was going to be putting some really cool items on sale. Well, those items are up, and I want to take a minute to talk about all that, and then we'll get into the meat and potatoes of the show here. But way back in 1994, Smoky Mountain Wrestling, uh, the office got these jackets made, and they would only the office got them in black. Mostly they came in reds and blues and whites and all that. But the office got a couple guys got white. I think me and Cornette and Tim got white, but this one is black with the white Sunky Mountain logo. It is the last one, and when I say last one, I mean the last one. You cannot find this anywhere. This is a one-of-a-type one-of-a-kind item, and it is up for sale right now on the shop section at IamYourchampion.com. Just go to the shop, click on the shop now button, and it'll take you there. Once you're in the store, make sure you click on shop all. That way you'll get to see all of the items. But this Smoky Mountain jacket, if you're a fan of uh memorabilia, and I have worn this to the ring also. So this is ring used and a part of Smoky Mountain history, a part of wrestling history, a part of history just itself. Also, the World Fighting Showcase Championship belt is listed on there for sale. Also, the Southern Championship used in WFS and also on APW has been is listed up there. And another one-of-a-kind item is a silver jacket. Jimmy Valiant in the 70s had this jacket. It was it was black with trimmed in silver that said a star is born on the back. Well, when I got in the wrestling business, I got this ring jacket and it's silver trimmed in black, the reverse colors of Jimmy Valiant. I always called it the Jimmy Valiant Tribute jacket, and it is on there up for sale. The price is very reasonable on the jacket. Just go in there, like I said, take a look at it on the shop. Also, the Evolution Championship belt is available there. So we got a lot of cool stuff, but this is what I want to talk about mostly about this shop and this ring use stuff. When I was in WWE and OVW, Disciple Damien had a very distinct look. And I am selling in a bundle the Damien boots that have had hundreds of matches. These are 15-inch high patent leather red boots. They have been worn, like I said, in hundreds of matches and matches with Batista against John Cena, against The Big Show, against just all this Randy Orton, all these guys, and it was also the boots worn that I wore on SmackDown. Now, this comes with the butcher top, which is the singlet top, that I wore as well. And I will be able to provide pictures to you if you want to purchase this to show you that this is a the legit item. And it comes with a lot of free stuff, some DVDs, some t-shirts, a lot of cool things in this bundle. Like I said, it's one of a kind. If you're interested and you collect ring worn things, this is something that is history also, because it's something that I wore countless nights against the likes of John Cena, Randy Orton, some of the major stars of today. But enough of that. Let's get down to business.

Journal Start Canadian Debut

SPEAKER_00 13:36

This is making the towns, and what I've done is over 30 plus years in professional wrestling, I kept a journal. And we are going back through these journals to cover the matches, the money, the miles, the opponents, and the bumps. And we left off. We are now on 52695, and I'm making my Canadian debut in LaSalle, Ontario, Canada. And if you remember in the last episode, I had told you that Scott Damore had called me and said that if I would get a joint costume, he could get me some bookings. Well, this was for Border Cities Wrestling back in 95. This was Scott Damore's territory. And he brought me in and I wrestled Terry Richards, and you all might remember him as Rhino, another ECW guy. I made $150 Canadian and I won that match. So my Canadian debut was really cool. Plus, I sold merchandise and got to do the uh pictures. We talked about that. Did the fans with all or did the pictures with all the fans up there? And it was it was really cool to go to Canada and uh go across that border. Now, Border Cities was just across from Detroit. So it wasn't too far into Ontario, so it was a lot like the United States. Of course, the prices were different, the things, everything was in leaders. The the fans were were great fans. And I did the I did the doink uh shtick, and we had a good little match, and I would continue to go on and and wrestle for him more on that later.

Arkansas Towns And Bert Prentice

SPEAKER_00 15:28

On 6195, I would make my debut in Jonesboro, Arkansas, working for Bert Prentice. I've told you in past episodes that uh Bert was one of my favorite guys, and he was uh a really good promoter, very good to me. But we were in Jonesboro, Arkansas, and uh I wrestled Ron McLattery's brother, which was a gimmick. He it was Ron and his brother, and I won and I made 40 bucks, but my name was changed again to Christian Devereaux. So I now have a new a new deal. I was using uh the the Christian Devereaux in Mississippi and now it was being used in Arkansas because Bo just Bert, I'm sorry, Bert just loved the Christian Devereaux name. He thought that that was really cool and fit really well and was really different. Then on 623, I was back in Canada in LaSalle, Ontario, Canada, and I wrestled very hardy and lost and made 115 bucks Canadian. And again, I'm driving, I'm not flying, they're not flying me in. So I'm literally doing the shows in Arkansas, getting in the car and driving back to Morristown, doing my laundry, changing everything out, and going right back up to Canada. And the next day, 6245, I would wrestle Rico of the Lost Rudos as Doink. I lost to made 75, and we were in Taylor, Michigan, right across the border, working our way back home. And then on 626-95, I would be back in Jonesboro, Arkansas as Christian Deboreau. Verse me and Anthony Michaels were there as the lost generation, and we tagged against Motley Crew and the Lynch Mob. If you guys are familiar with Memphis Wrestling and Arkansas Outlaw Wrestling, then you know these two guys. The the Lynch Mob and Motley Crue had been there for years. Uh it was a double count out. I made 40 bucks. One of the things that Bert did is he

Trust Tests And Wrestling Friendships

SPEAKER_00 18:03

came to me and he was in, we were in an armory, and he was sitting in the back where they keep the chairs, and he called me in for a meeting. It was just him and me and the door shut and there was nobody back there but me and him. And he said, Hey, uh, I got a I got a f I need a favor. And I said, Okay, what? And he said, The house is a little light tonight. Can I pay you on the next show? And I said, Sure. No problem, but I definitely need the money because, you know, I I worked hard and I you know I need to get paid. And he said, Oh no problem. What he was doing was is he was testing my loyalty. He had the money because he ended up giving it to me right after that. But he wanted to see what my answer was. He wanted to see if I was gonna be one of his guys, if I was strictly business and didn't care about the product, or if I was gonna be his friend and work with him instead of for him. And I did, and it all worked out pretty well, and Bert never the money was always there, it was never in question, he never asked anything like that ever again, and it was a non-issue. So I just miss Bert every day. I love Bert to death, and man, I just I miss calling him up, man. It's just one of those things that it's funny how two people who come from different backgrounds and have different lifestyles and different things in their in their being, in their world, and their existence can bond and come together over wrestling and kindle a friendship. And I just I love Bert, and I want to say that every single time that I get a chance. On 719, 1995, I was in Asheville, North Carolina. Me and Ricky Rocket, who I'm not I believe that was the local Ricky Rocket, not Chris Michaels, and we wrestled the headbangers and we lost and made 50 bucks. And it was just a typical show. Just run over and do it and get paid and come back. Then on 722 95, I was in Kingsport, Tennessee, and the Hornet and the War Machine versus Bo James and the Boogie Woogie Man Jimmy Valiant, and we lost that match, and I made 20 bucks, and that was the first time that I wrestled Boogie in an actual match. And if anybody that knows me knows how much I love Boogie and how good of a friendship we've had over the years, and I met him before I got into wrestling. I've talked about that on past episodes,

Doink Bookings Ring Time And Burnout

SPEAKER_00 20:55

but that night it was great, and I got to work him. On 72395, I was in Moundsville, West Virginia, wrestling as Doink in the first match against the Metal Maniac, and I won that match. Metal Maniac is a guy who you broke into the business with Jimmy Snooker and traveled everywhere he could. Basically, he was the driver for Jimmy Snooker. And Jimmy would get him booked on you know on the card and he would work the opening match. But I liked Metal Maniac. A lot of people don't like him. A lot of people think he's a goof. I I always got along with him very well. I can't say a bad thing about him. But I know other people have different opinions, and that's okay. They're entitled to him. I believe in treating people and judging people based on how they treat me, not on what other people say. And so later that night, the Hornet and Lord Zoltan, Kenny Jugan, versus the Heartbreakers. And we lost, and the pay was $125. So that was a pretty good night. And then on $728.95, I was in Uniontown PA. Me and the Russian Assassin versus Austin Steele. And he had a partner there. And I lost that match. And then later on, I wrote Doink as Doink and Demolition Acts versus Zoltan and a local guy called The Godfather. This is not the WWE Godfather. I won and made $125 for the whole night. And my family had come up. Some of my cousins and my dad had drove up. Basically, they came to help me do some of the driving because I'd been traveling so much. And it was cool to have them there, and it was cool to wrestle in Pennsylvania. That was probably a Bobby Fulton fair show, if I had to guess. It was definitely a fair show for somebody because I remember that there was a lot of times you wrestle in the rodeo arena. But this time there were cedar chips in the rodeo arena instead of dirt or mulch or whatever you usually come up with, and there was nothing but waterwall cedar, and it just smelled so good for once to be out there wrestling. On 728 95, I was but still in Uniontown. It was continued, and I ended up wrestling Lord Zoltan to a DQ. So I wrestled three times on that card. Sorry, I had to turn the page. So I ended up working three times and made 125, which was great because I was looking to get some more ring time. And I was getting those matches, and it seemed to be two things were happening. I was getting a lot of ring time by working multiple matches. And also I was unfortunately doing Doink a lot. And uh I don't I believe I said this in previous interviews that you know doink almost ruined my career because everybody wanted Doink because I was doing it so well, and they didn't want to book myself or some of the other characters. They wanted Doink. And it got to a point where I just didn't want to do Doink anymore. But we were in Harrigott, Tennessee on 729.95, and I wrestled as Doink the Clown and The Dark Age versus Killer Kyle and Eight Ball Jones. We lost and I made 60 bucks. So this was a this was a pretty good weekend as far as money went. It looks here that that yeah, I ended up wrestling a couple days, made a couple hundred bucks, and that doesn't count merchandise. And the Harrogate Show was a Tim Horner show. And then I was right back at it five days later on 8495.

Rip Rogers And Learning Craft

SPEAKER_00 25:07

I was back in Jonesboro, Arkansas again. Christian Devereaux and I wrestled Rip Rogers for the first time, and I won and I made 40 bucks. I had never met Rip, of course. I grew up watching Rip and definitely reading about Rip, especially his Portland deal, because I remember when I was getting the magazines that he was his Portland Pacific Northwest run was being publicized in the magazine. So I had read a lot about that. But Bert said, I want to get you a win over a star. And I was just, I thought, man, that's great. This is gonna be huge. So we go to the ring and Rip, first thing we lock up, and he says, How many matches have you had, kid? And I I told him, I think it was 150 or 160 or whatever many I had, but it was a specific number. And he said, Okay, kid, that's great. I'll put you over. I didn't say I'd been working for five years or two years or a year. I had said a specific number so he knew that I was taking account of my matches and that I knew exactly where I was and what I was doing, so it showed that I cared about my craft. And he realized that I knew how to work a little bit. And of course he asked who trained me, and I said, you know, Tim Horner. And he he we had a great match, and I remember the finish being he goes for the pile driver, and I backdrop him, and he holds on like a sunset flip, and I end up falling down with my knees on his shoulder, one, two, three. So it's always good to work with with Rip and Steve Rip. And I again I love him to death, and he's one of the guys that have taught me a lot, and just a character, just great. And you know, I spent a lot of time with him when I got to OVW wrestling because he was you know the head trainer under Danny up there, and just can't say enough good things about Rip. Shout out to Rip. If you hear this or anybody sees him, tell him that Damien says hello. On 8 11, 1995, I was back at Falls Branch, Tennessee, the Hornet with Justin St. James versus Bo James and Ricky Morton. And I lost that match and made $25. And, you know, it was again, we were building a product at Falls Ranch. We were building up the town, and we were coming there on a regular basis, and we were we were establishing Southern States Wrestling of and we've talked about how 30-some years later that you know it's still going strong, and it's going strong because of guys like Ricky Morton who came in and then the hard work of Bo James and you know some of the work that I did helping get this established. And we're getting ready to move into Alabama with Southern States Wrestling. The TV airs this weekend at 9:30 on the CW there in Huntsville. So if you're in the Huntsville area, check out Southern States Wrestling. Also, to get the exact times and dates for everything, go to the Southern States page on Facebook and it has the uh commercial and all the time slots and everything for you right there. Next episode, I will make sure that I have all that written down in front of me. Bo's gonna kill me that I didn't, but you can always go to the Southern States Facebook page and check all that out. On 819, 1995, I was in Elizabethan, Tennessee, and the Hornet with Ricky Harrison wrestled, it just says two guys here, and we lost to two guys for 25 bucks, and I have no idea who the two guys were. It was one of those things where they came in, never saw them, never saw them again. You know, I saw them that night, met them that night, wrestled them that night, and then never, never got to see them again. And I'm sure it was of all the matches I had there, that was one of them. On 825-95, I was back in Minelo, Arkansas, Christian Debereau against Slick Rick Burton, and I won and made 40 bucks. On the 26th of 95, I may I went to Paragold, Arkansas, which is more up into the state. It's up about midway into Arkansas. Wrestled as Christian Debereaux versus Ron McClary, not his brother this time. I won and made 40 bucks. And then we had a day off. And on 828.95, I was we were back in Jonesboro, Arkansas, wrestling as Christian Devereaux against Shane Hurt, and I won and made 40 bucks there. So what we're doing is establishing a territory there. So Bird is getting his Ozark Mountain wrestling off the ground by running his TVs and running spot towns, and we're doing that. And then we're doing the southern same thing on the other end of the state with Bo James with southern states. And you have to travel from Kingsport to Arkansas, which is Jonesboro and West Memphis is right across the border from Memphis. You have to really travel

Travel Miles And The Real Toll

SPEAKER_00 31:03

that road to appreciate how long it is. It is actually easier to drive from Knoxville to Florida than it is to drive from one side of the state to the other because Tennessee is a long, flat state. And at that time there was nothing on the sides of the road. I mean, you would have your occasional exits where there would be gas stations and stuff, but then you would get to Jackson, Tennessee, and Bucksnort and all of that, and you wouldn't see anything for an hour or so heading towards Memphis. And it is just a long trek. I love being in the Memphis, Arkansas area, but it's just is such a haul to go there, and you know, especially nowadays with uh the condition of my back's in and sitting in the car. And I don't know if I've said this before or not, but the the wrestling is not what gets me. The wrestling is is actually fine. The physical toll comes from sitting in the car. You sit in the car so long and you get stiff, then you get out and you get in the ring and you you you take a few bumps and it loosens you up a little bit. And of course, you're you're still feeling the bumps because you're falling on, you know, mat and you're falling on boards, but it's you get back in the car and then you have to sit there all that time, and then you get cramped up twice as bad. So for me now, it was it's the car rides, and we were traveling so much. I know this has been said as a and it's a cliche at this point, but you know, if I wasn't in my pre-twenties, it would have killed me going back and forth all this, sitting in cars and you know, doing all this stuff, and still still going out every night and trying to meet uh new friends in the uh clubs, if you will.

D Lo Match And Main Event Gear

SPEAKER_00 33:03

On uh 9-295, I was in Ashland, Kentucky, as Doink. This was a Bobby Blaze show versus D Lo Brown. I won that match and made $75, and we had a great match, and it was probably my version of Doink's best match he ever had. Because me and uh D Lo really went out there and was in the main event and was able to show them that we could work. So I we did all the Doink stuff, then he takes over, and then it gets a little heat, and then bing bang boom, we start the false finishes, and then now we're really wrestling and having matches. I remember I did a moonsault, he did a moonsault. A lot of stuff was going on in this match, but it was one of my favorite matches that I've ever had. And you know, last time I saw D Lo, which was a few years back at the Cheetah, he was working there, and we were out in Vegas for Cauliflower Alley, and uh he was telling everybody about this match and how good it was and how much fun we had. So it was nice to know that that D Lo still remembers

Brickhouse Brown And Being A Star

SPEAKER_00 34:16

this match. On 9-4, 1995, I'm back in Jonesboro, Arkansas. Christian Devereaux versus Brick House Brown, won by DQ, but we did a gimmick where Brick House puts me in the figure four and breaks my leg and won't let go. And this is what started me working with Brick House and another guy that I have the utmost respect for. I had learned to this point how to wrestle. I had learned how to be a main event, less is more. I had learned how to do high spots with the thrill seekers, but I didn't know how to be a star. I didn't know how to portray myself as somebody who was larger than life. And this is what Brick House taught me. And just before he passed, I got to see him at Cauliflower Alley, and I got to sit there and talk to him again, and I thanked him. And I said, you know, you really showed me how an aspect of my career that was priceless. That, you know, a lot of guys know how to do all this stuff, but they're but they don't know how to be larger than life, and that's the it factor. And you can't teach the it factor, you either have it or you don't, but what Brick House was able to do was bring it out of me and said, you know, when you do this, kid, do it bigger, do it a lot bigger, you know, and I remember that on the TV taping he hurt my leg, and then I would come out the next next part of the TV, the next episode, and I'd be limping. And then he we get in a fight, and then it just progressed on telling the story about him hurting my leg and then us working into us working again. And it was just tremendous what Brick House did for me, and he didn't have to do that. He could have gobbled me up, he could have just worked the matches with me, he didn't have to teach me anything, but he did because that's the kind of guy he was. He wanted to better his opponents, he wanted to better the sport of professional wrestling, and he did. And sadly he's passed on, but I'm very grateful that we got to have our little talk before he passed on. On 9795, we were in West Memphis, Arkansas. I wrestled as Christian Devereaux and we wrestled aga I wrestled against Bull Payne and lost and made 40 bucks. Bull Payne is another one of those guys that is an unsung hero. If you are a a guy that follows or girl that follows wrestling, I'm sure you've heard of Bull Payne or the Texas Hangman. He's his real name is Rick Gantner, and he started in AWA for Vern doing jobs on TV like so many of us do. And then he progressed, he moved down to Memphis. He's been in ECW, he's been in Mexico, Japan, everywhere. And I was living with him and staying with him and his wife at the time, Samantha, who is now Bill Dundee's

Repetition Missing From Modern Wrestling

SPEAKER_00 37:57

wife. But at the time he was married to Samantha and he had a house in Memphis, and they were letting me stay there. And it's kind of funny. They I you know everybody knows I love animals, and they loved animals too. They had two Sharpe puppies, two iguanas, very large iguanas, and two parrots. And they would let them roam the house freely. And there I was watching TV, was watching one of the first nitros that they had taped, and uh we were watching it back, and it was Bull had gone to the gym and Sam was doing something. And here I was sitting on the couch watching videotape of wrestling with a Sharpe on each side of me, a parrot on their backs, and two iguanas in my lap, and we were all eating crackers, and just sitting there watching TV, and I'd feed each of the babies. We each took turns eating crackers, so I'm forever thankful for them letting me stay there and uh letting a green kid hang out with them and learn. Bull taught me a lot in the ring. He taught me a lot about how to lay things in, and I'm not talking about being stiff, I'm talking about how to look stiff but not be stiff. He, you know, he's a tough competitor. A tough, tough competitor. And he he's in there, he's a little snug, but he doesn't hurt you. And he taught me how to do that, how to fight back. And the funny thing is, I one time was wrestling him, I don't know if it was this match or or one of the other matches we wrestled in, but he he called a leapfrog, and I I didn't leapfrog, and he got madder in hell. And he said, Well, I'm gonna teach you how to do the leapfrog, and every single spot from then on to the end of the match had two leapfrogs in it. It was incredible. So by the time I did these 20-some leapfrogs, and I do mean 20-some leapfrogs, I sure knew how to leapfrog after that because I wasn't dare gonna miss it because he blew my ass up as I was jumping around and getting making sure he got under me. So I just I love bull pain, I love Samantha. Now I haven't seen any of them in years, I haven't seen Samantha in a long, long time, but she was very good to me. And I haven't seen Bill Bull Pain in years also. So I hope you guys are doing well. On 9895, I was in Savannah, Tennessee, and I wrestled as Doink versus Steve Hart, who was Mike John, Mike Lanham, sorry. My buddy Mike Lanham, Steve Hart, and we won. I won as Doink and made a hundred bucks. I know I stumbled there a little bit. Please be with me. I went to high school with Mike Lanham, and uh I know he's a listener, and I want to shout out to Mike. Mike, a great guy, great competitor. He actually had his first matches in WCW. He came down to train with Tim Horner, and like I said, I went to high school with him, and we grew up watching wrestling, and he decided to come to the school, and that was he came to the school after Tim had left and went to WCW. So he had his first matches in WCW. And we are in Savannah, Tennessee, and he wrestled Doink, and I won, made a hundred bucks, and would end up wrestling him a few times after that. He he unfortunately didn't have a long career. I'm not really sure why. It was very promising, but I do want to state how good Steve Hart was. No relation, obviously, to any of the Hart's family. But yeah, Mike Landham, I love you, brother. If you're listening, give me a shout out on the socials. On 9-11, 1995, I was in Jonesboro, Arkansas. And Christian Debereo versus Brickhouse Brown, I lost and made 40 bucks just doing the house show off of the TV, working the leg. The on 9145, a few days later, we're in West Memphis, Arkansas, and we did it again. Christian Debereaux versus Brickhouse Brown and lost and made 40 bucks. On 9155 in Manila, Arkansas, I wrestled Brick House Brown. And this time I won. And then on the 16th, I'm in Paragold, Arkansas, and I'm wrestling Brickhouse Brown and lost and made $40. And I'm running through this because it's the same match. Jonesboro, Arkansas, on the 18th of 95, and I wrestled Brickhouse Brown, and I lost that too. Made 40 bucks. So you see, that's the way it was done back then. Was you you did an angle on TV and then you tore it to the towns, as we talked about in the first episode of the podcast. That's something that is lost nowadays. And you know, I had so many learning sessions by being able to work brickhouse so many times in a row there, just right off the get-go. And it's just something that's lacking in the business now because it seems that promoters, for whether it's cost or location or whatever, don't put together these big loops. And they don't they shoot one-off angles. So it's like you shoot an angle, you have a match on YouTube, and that's like your pay-per-view, or that's that. And I really think these guys are missing out on the repetition. You know, I had a lot of guys that worked for me when we we did it this way in WFS. We toured the product, and they were like, Well, we've already wrestled this guy. Well, yeah, and you're gonna wrestle this guy continuously until we're done selling this in every town. We've talked about that, and I just really hope that that that's one of the Things that I hope changes back that uh we can get the repetition down because the matches are so much better and it's so much more fun when you can do it like that and you're working a program with the guys. You know, I'm not one of those guys that says, Oh, it's gotta go all the way back to old school and we gotta quit doing the high spots and the flying things. No, I think all that's great. I think the high spots are great. I think all the athleticism and the tumbling is great. I think it's good for the kids and it's exciting. But there's also fundamentals that you should have, and fundamentals that you should observe and certain things that you should do, and it just you have better matches. You know, that's one of the things when I just wrestled Onyx last week, we picked right off, picked right up off of where we left off. So it was a lot, even though it's been several, several years, it was like we were just working our match that we had worked previously so many times in a row. And this is an example of that with Brick House. On 9215, I come into West Memphis, Arkansas, and I wrestled as Christian Devereaux versus the Inferno, and I won and made 40 bucks.

Inferno Experiment That Flopped

SPEAKER_00 45:25

Now, this is very interesting on how this happened. They Burt Prentice, his protege, was the Colorado kid. And Kid had never really worked heel. And he aggravated Bert and begged Bert to work heel and work me. And Bert was like, look, if you do this and you like this, you're not gonna be the number one babyface anymore. Brian's gonna be the number one baby face. Because it was slated that I was the number two baby face right behind Colorado Kid, who was Bert's protege. And I love Kid to death. He is a good guy, great guy, and he's also a tremendous worker. Mike Rapotta, former NWA world champion, wasn't a champion at this time. But I was always slotted in that second spot, and he decided to get under the hood as the inferno and wrestle me as Christian Debreau, and Bert let him do it. And it was a disaster. He had no idea whatsoever on how to be a heel. He just had he had no idea whatsoever on how to do it. So we got through the match. It wasn't the greatest of matches. It wasn't a bad match. I don't think the fans actually knew how bad it was. I do. One of the things that I personally messed up was trying to do a moonsault from the middle rope in West Memphis, Arkansas in '95 when they had one of the old Memphis rings, and the ropes were barely hanging, much less strong enough for me to do a back flip-off, and it was a disaster. So basically, it was me and kid out there experimenting, and Bert was madder in hell that we were experimenting and tried new things, and it didn't look up the snuff, and it was just showing how green both of us were, because we shouldn't have been in a match together unless it was a tag with each other, and we should have just accepted our role and our spot and moved on. But it was one of those things where it was a one-off deal, and he never, you know, he never wrestled as a heel again, as far as I know. But he also took the inferno outfit. So after that, I wasn't the inferno ever again because he took the the inferno gimmick. Alright, real quick before we wrap

Sportatorium Milestone And A Rough Night

SPEAKER_00 47:58

it up, I've got one more story for you here. 922 1995, Dallas, Texas, the Sportatorium. I got Bull Pain booked us down there in the Sportatorium for Confederate Championship Wrestling, which was one of the last entities in the sportatorium. And Skandor Akbar was the booker at the time, and he and me really kicked it off. He actually would later on when we were in Louisiana would ride with me and uh teach me all kinds of stuff about the Louisiana, terri Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas area, terror, Oklahoma area. But I wrestled as Christian Debereau versus Wild Bill Irwin. I lost and made 75 bucks. And what a what a night I got to wrestle in one of the most famous wrestling arenas, and I you know, I found out over the years that not everybody has got to work the sportatorium. So it was it was a definitely a treat to get to work in the sportatorium. Now, my experience with Bill Irwin, who I grew up watching, again, my I talk all the time about playing with my action figures, and I had a Bill Irwin action figure, and he was always on my figure-fed card, and he was always figured in on that. And so I was very excited to wrestle one of my heroes. Unfortunately, he was drunk, and he would call an arm drag and not take it, and I would be laying out to throw an arm drag, and he would just pull his arm out, and I would take the bump. And it was it was not good, and that ring was so hard because it's permanent, it was permanently placed in the in the sportatorium, it was cemented into the ground. But I got to work the sportatorium, I got to work Bill Irwin. I would end up coming back later more on that in another episode. But I got to work the sportatorium and I was just so happy. And the only bad thing was is that I didn't get to spend any time in Dallas. That bull wanted to. We drove. We drove from Memphis all the way to the sportatorium, worked, turned around and came back to Memphis and went on about our business. So I didn't get to spend any any quality fun time in Texas, but I I did get to see the sportatorium and see that what a dump it was. But to me, it was a palace because I had just it was another milestone that I got to work in my career, uh and I just loved it. So alright, we're gonna

Socials Sponsor Reminder And Shop Wrap

SPEAKER_00 50:52

stop right there. Let me get give you some more information again here. You can follow me on social media at making the towns on Facebook or Brian Logan underscore making the towns on Instagram. I am your champion exclamation point on YouTube. Like I said before, subscribe and hit hit that bell. And if you don't want to get the notifications, you don't have to hit the bell, but the subscription would mean the world to me. I am your champion on TikTok and on X3 Crows Entertainment at Logan Your Champ. All the social links are on IAMYourChampion.com. And you can check everything out there. It's a lot easier to just go one place. It's a one-stop shop for everything, Brian Logan. Again, this episode has been brought to you by W Energy Drinks. Use promo code YOURCHAPING at checkout. Zero sugar, zero artificial colors and flavors, zero secret formulas, no hidden ingredients. Gluten free equals out to about one dollar a drink compared to other drinks, and it is made in the USA. What it does have is clean, smooth energy, sharper mental focus, no added sugar, unique flavors, and it is built for anyone ready to mix anywhere at any time. And it has about 150 milligrams of caffeine per serving, and they ship worldwide. Again, use promo code YOURCHAMPION and check out Cherry Limer. That again that's my favorite. Sour gummy bear, sweet and sour blue ras, Japanese Yuzu, Japanese soda, s'amours, lunar strawberry margarita, push and punch, beach and peach, and much, much more at W.g. I know that's a weird uh address, but W.g. Use promo code YOURCHAPING at the checkout and receive 10% off. And they have all kinds of stuff. Also, please, please, if you are a Smoky Mountain Wrestling fan, even if you're you're not interested in buying, please go over and take a look at this jacket that's on sale in the shop. Like I said, it is the last one. It is it is one of a kind, rare, rare, rare. So this thing's not gonna last long. Somebody is gonna take this thing, and uh it's a piece of history that you just can't get every day. This is the last one. Also, we're selling several championship belts. The official WFS Championship, the Southern Heavyweight Championship, the Evolution Championship, and I didn't mention this earlier, but my official AWA World Heavyweight Championship belt that I wore and defended so many times is on sale there. And also check out the A Star Is Born silver jacket with the uh black trim that is my tribute to Jimmy Valiant on there. Please take a look at that. And again, the big one the Damien outfit, Damien's boots and the butcher, along with some special extra added treats. I wore that on SmackDown. I wore it in hundreds of matches against guys like John Cena, Batista, Big Show, Ron Waterman, just Randy Orton, just all kinds of guys in OVW and also on SmackDown. And if you are interested in any of these products and you you want to see pictures to prove that they were ring-worn, just message me on I Am Your Champion and give me an email address, and I will send you pictures to prove that these are legitimate items. Again, most of these are one of a kind. And also, you can get slam buddies on there, those are not one of a kind. Anybody can get the slam buddies. I just went up to Cerrito, West Virginia, and they were very popular. They were going like hotcakes. They probably won't be any more ordered after this run. We're working on some cool other stuff in the ilk of a slam buddy, so we probably will not be re-upping. So when they're gone, they're gone. But there are plenty in stock. Check that out if you've got a little one or you collect plushies, or if you ladies just want somebody to cut it with at night. The Brian Logan plushie slam buddy. Also, we've got t-shirts on there as low as $10. And my book, The Congregation, is there. So check out our store. Again, this is on Pirate Flag Radio, part of the Radio King app, always Fridays at 8 o'clock. And if you're listening to this on there, thank you for listening. Shout out to everybody at Pirate Flag Radio. We love you over there. And uh, if you're listening to this on your favorite podcast app, that's cool too. If you want to check out some really good alternative music and just different formats of any kind of genre you can think of on the Radio King app Pirate Flag Radio. This is coming to you from Morristown, Tennessee. It's been a production of Three Crows Entertainment. I'm your host, Brian Logan, 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.