Thirty Bucks And A High-Speed Escape

One bad line as a heel can get a laugh, or it can get a riot. We start the 1998 entries of my wrestling road journal and the memories hit fast: tiny payoffs, long drives, and the constant balancing act of trying to get over while still getting out of town in one piece. I walk through early stops in Georgia and Alabama, including the night in White, Georgia when cheap heat crossed a line and turned into a real-world chase that still makes my stomach drop thinking about it. 

From there we jump into a time capsule of early internet wrestling tapings, back when “airing on the internet” didn’t mean streaming and nobody really understood what was coming. I talk about working with Lee Thomas, Ken Timms, and the relationships that kept you sane on the road. Then it’s down to West Palm Beach for a beach-side match that includes Gangrel as Vampire Warrior and Hack Myers, plus the first time I met Madman Pondo and why hardcore wrestling and straight-up wrestling often stay in separate lanes. 

We also hit Nashville for Music City TV with Bert Prentice and the behind-the-scenes reality of tryouts, reps, and even getting saddled with a throwaway name on TV while you prove yourself. West Virginia becomes the big focus after that: territory building, papered crowds, promoter math, winning the MSWA title, and the main-event formulas we used to connect towns without social media. And yes, I tell the story of the first time I ever had a true shoot with an opponent because he could not do the basics. 

If you like pro wrestling history, independent wrestling stories, and a straight talk look at kayfabe, money, and survival on the road, hit subscribe, share this with a wrestling fan, and leave a review so more people can find “Making the Towns.” What’s the wildest live wrestling moment you’ve ever witnessed?

Transcript

Welcome Sponsor And Updates

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. I am your host, Brian Logan, and this is episode 11. How is everybody? I hope you had a great week. We put up a lot of content this week. We we got behind a little bit on the ride homes, but we did it. We got that out Monday, as long as also with a special bonus episode we're gonna talk about here in just a minute. And uh the week went well with the puppies, everything went great with that. And uh looking real forward to this episode. We got a lot of meat on the bones here with some of these matches, and just want to start out with today. This show is brought to you by W Energy Drinks. W Energy Drinks has zero sugar, artificial, no artificial colors and flavors, no secret formulas, no hidden ingredients, and gluten-free. They don't hide nothing. Everything is what you see, it's what you get. Everything is made in the USA for clean, smooth energy, sharper mental focus, no added sugar, unique flavors. Built for anyone, ready to mix anywhere. You just put a couple of scoops inside your little shaker there, shake it up and drink it. It equals out to about a dollar per drink compared to some of these other energy drinks. About 150 milligrams of caffeine per serving, shipped worldwide with flavors like cherry lima, retro rainbow sherbet, sour gummy bear, sweet and sour, blue ras, s'moors, lunar strawberry margarita, beach and peach, and much, much more. We are really excited about W sponsoring us. Be sure to use promo code YOURCHAMPION at checkout for 10% off. That's W.g. is the website address. Your champions, the promo code for 10% off at checkout. So we always love W sponsoring us. I'm use the product, I really like it. It helps me out in the afternoons and just really gets me, keeps me going, I guess, is the right term when I'm working with the dogs, and it gets a little tired after lunch. I know I say the same thing every week, but I say it because it works. It's a really, really good product, and I'm happy to have them sponsoring us.

Live Dates And Channel Plugs

SPEAKER_00 2:56

So tomorrow I will be in Hi Hat, Kentucky for Wildfire Championship Wrestling. If you're up there in that area, come out and see us. It's gonna be a good event. Very, very good event. I have negotiated and going to stay up there with Wildfire Championship Wrestling. And looking forward to it. Get the the exact things here. It'll be at the South Floyd Elementary School. Doors open at 6 p.m. Bell time 7 p.m. So this is going to be a fun night. Looking forward to it. We've got some other things going on with Wildfire Championship Wrestling. Like I said, I'm now on the roster full time, so I will be on these events and looking forward to it. They're treating me pretty good up there, and I'm excited to be a part of the family. And uh, you know, for somebody who thought I was out of wrestling completely, it's a blessing to have a promotion that not only wants to have me, but wants me to put put me in the thick of things at age 51. So I'm excited about what the future holds with Wildfire Championship Wrestling. And speaking of wrestling, go to YouTube.com. I am your champion. Exclamation point is our YouTube channel, and we have all kinds of videos on there. We're almost up to 300. So there's tons of stuff on there. There is the complete Apex run, the complete WFS run. Some OBW stuff is Damien, Smoky Mountain. A lot of independent shots on there, and I'm just excited about the way the uh YouTube channel is shaping up. I appreciate appreciate everybody who has subscribed lately. We've gotten a lot of subscribers. But if you have not subscribed, please, please go over and subscribe. Would mean the world to me if you would do that. We're going to be doing some live video. We're almost to where our goal is with these. We just need a few more subscribers. And hit the notification bell if you want to be notified when we put up a video, which we've been putting up videos daily. But if you don't want the notifications, I get that. Nobody likes the bells going off on their phones all the time. You don't have to click that, just click it if you want to get everything that I'm putting out there. Again, the YouTube channel is just a celebration of everything that I've done in my career. Well, this is making the towns, and the premise of this show is I've been in professional wrestling for 30 plus years. I kept a journal during these 30 plus years about the towns, the opponents, the money, the bumps, the miles, and we're going through them one at a time and going over the matches and the opponents and the money made and the stories behind it. And uh, this is like going getting in the car and going to the uh wrestling show, and I'm telling you about my career, but also we have a sister podcast, The Ride Home, that comes out on Mondays. That is me and Dallas Danger, and it's like the ride home from the show where we talk about what we've already talked about on this show. He he asks questions and I give answers. We read emails and comments and stuff like that, and we just discuss everything and we rebook the territory and go from there and try to get a little more in-depth on these stories, and that's the ride home, comes out on Mondays. You can get it wherever you listen to your favorite podcast or on the YouTube. I found out most people go to the YouTube, and that's cool. I love it that the YouTube is a one-stop shop for everything, and that you can get both podcasts there, and you can get all the videos and stuff all in one place. I think that's really, really cool. Also, if you get a chance, go over to IamYourChion.com. That is a one-stop shop for all the stuff, Brian Logan. We got our shop on there. We'll talk about that later. And the schedule is on there, and links to everything we do is on that. So IamYourChamp.com. So without further ado, we talked about the journals. Let's get started.

Kicking Off The 1998 Journal

SPEAKER_00 7:32

We last ended up at the end of 1997, and we're gonna start and we're gonna talk about 1998, and we are in January 8th, 1998, Conyers, Georgia. I wrestled as Brian Logan with my manager, the professor, versus Dusty Dotson. I lost that match and made 30 bucks. And I don't remember this match. So I can't tell you a single thing about Dusty or the professor or anything about Conyers, Georgia, at that point. I just got back from Christmas and spent some time at the house. I was getting ready to get married. I don't remember the exact date I got married, but it was I might have already been married to my second wife at that point. Jennifer, I ironically, I don't like to get into personal things, but my first two wives were both named Jennifer, and they both had dark hair, and the marriages did not work out. So that's funny that I mention it. But me and the first Jennifer are friends, and Ashley's friends with her, and we talk with her all the time, and she's a really cool lady, and I still love her to death, and she is a good friend, and I appreciate her. Now, the second wife, and the reason I'm talking about this, she's gonna come up later on in the podcast. That didn't work out at all. At all. It was completely disastrous, and it was completely my fault because I was a wrestler and on the road, and all the things you can imagine that goes on went on, and she didn't like it, and she took off, and probably for good reason. And I always apologize when I bring her up. Sorry, Jennifer. Sorry uh that it that I did what I did and it worked out the way it did. But I'm sure you're having a great life wherever you are. I'm having an awesome life. So let's move on to one January 17, 1998.

The White Georgia Riot Story

SPEAKER_00 9:33

I'm in White, Georgia, and I wrestle as myself, Brian Logan, with Brian Dunn versus Lee Thomas and Jason Prater. I lost and made $25. Now, this was the first time I was at White, Georgia. And remember, this is a different time frame, and this is a different way of culture in America, a different thinking of the way things are. We were just everybody wasn't as sensitive as they were or are now. So you could get heat as a heel. And we went out there in White Georgia, it was a good house, and there was a lady sitting in the front row, and she had the cutest, most adorable little black baby, and she was white. And I'm trying to get heat. Again, this would never fly today, and I would never do this today. But I I was trying to get heat and telling people to shut up and sit down and that they were fat and ugly and all this stuff that heels did back in the 90s. And I looked at that lady and I said, What happened? Something went wrong in the battery. And as soon as I said that, she hit the ring. Now the security got her, thank God. We wrestled our match, and thank God we lost, because had we won, it would have been ten times worse. There was a riot that broke out. Everybody was trying to get to me and Brian Dunn. And we finally made it back to the dressing room, and David Young is standing there, and he's like, You started a riot. And I was like, I didn't mean to. And he's like, Well, we're gonna sneak you out into your car. So the police snuck me out to the car and I took off, but because I did I lived in Aquorth, Georgia, at this point, and White was just down the road, and maybe I don't know, 30 miles at most, maybe a little bit more, but not much more. And I'm being chased down the interstate by rednecks in trucks, and they're mannering hell. And if they get me, they're they're gonna get me. And, you know, I didn't mean anything bad will. I was playing a character, and I just said the wrong thing, and the lady took it wrong, and the all of white Georgia defended her to the point of actually chasing me down the road. I managed to get off of a side road and make it to my house without them finding out where I lived or getting me. But it was very touch and go there for a minute because once I got out of the the police area, police care, I was on my own. So if these guys chasing me would have caught me, man, it would have been something. It would have really, really been something. Because I would have been in trouble. They probably would have killed me. And I'm glad they didn't. And you know, that was many years ago, and I hope goodwill to that family and to all of white Georgia. So if you're listening to me in White Georgia, I'm sorry for starting a ride. I was just playing a character trying to get heat.

Internet Tapings And Old Friends

SPEAKER_00 12:48

On February 7th, 1998, I go to Temple, Georgia, and I lost and made 50 bucks, and I wrestled Lee Thomas again for the Internet United States title. Now, what they did was is they had these live shows. This was in the very beginning of the internet. There was no streaming, they could just put the video up, there was no YouTube. And uh they did these tapings, and they had a crowd, and it was a good crowd. And they had a regular wrestling show, like like you normally would. And you they would just it wouldn't air anywhere. It'd be TV, but it just would it would air on the internet, and at the time we didn't understand what that meant. We just were like, well, it's a payday and it's close and not a big you know, it's it's an easy, easy in, easy out. I always liked working Lee Thomas. Lee Thomas was a class act, and I mean I guess he still is a class act, and we worked several, several times over the years and always had really good matches. On February 14th, 1998, I'm in Aniston, Alabama for another internet taping. I made a hundred bucks and lost, and I wrestled as myself versus Ken Tim's. Now we talked about Ken and his wife Juanita making my gear, and I loved Ken. Me and him really got along very well. We would later become tag team partners. We started out here working each other. I'd go over to the house, and he has a bunch of kids, and they're all they're all grown now and adults, and I can't remember any of their names except for Wolfgang, who was the baby at the time. He's on my Facebook, so shout out to Wolfgang. I love your family, I miss your dad, and I wish I could talk to your mom. I know she's doing her thing, but I haven't talked to her in forever. They would always make spaghetti for me when I would come over. So I would go over to the house and hang out with Ken and we'd talk shop and we'd eat all kinds of spaghetti, and Juanita would be in the back making my tights for the month. So she would be back there hustling, putting four pairs of Brian Logan tights together while the rest of us was out there having fun. So God bless her for the hard work that she put in.

Florida Beach Shows And Pondo

SPEAKER_00 15:20

Now, on February 21st, 1998, I venture into a new area, West Palm Beach, Florida, and I wrestled as myself with a guy named Joe versus Vampire Warrior, which is Gangrell, and Hack Myers. It was a double count out, and I made 60 bucks. And we went down there to Florida and started working there for Bill Brown, and I really like him a lot. I used to see him at Cauliflower Alley and just what a great, gracious guy, a very good man and very smart in the business, and he treated us very well. And at about this time, he he would talk to me about getting a job, and I told him the experience that I had with WWF and WCW, and he said, Look, if WWF said that you know they're going to take a look at you, they don't hire people, and this was back in the 90s, I don't know about today, until they're around 27 years old because they're not responsible enough on the road. And I thought, wow, okay, that gives me some time. And he said he assured me, don't panic, don't freak out. That's where people lose it. They start getting paranoid. If they're looking at you, they may look at you for two or three years. And then they will give you a spot when you w reach more maturity. So that was that was always good news. And Gangrell, man, him and Hack, what a team. What a team they are, or were. Hack has passed someone, of course, you might remember him from ECW. And Gangrell wrestled as Vampire Warrior. He had just come back to the States, and he had wrestled in WCW a little bit, and we never met there. And I think he was doing jobs under the hood of the Blackhearts, yeah, in WCW, but also WWF right prior to this. So we wrestled right there on the beach and had a great time and one of my favorite matches, but also I met Pondo that night. Madman Pondo. And if you guys know him, me and him have had an interesting relationship, and I like Pondo. Now, we've I've said this over the years. Pondo is a master at what he does. He is the best at his style, the hardcore style, the bloodlust style. That was a style that I never really got into. I don't think I was that good at that kind of stuff. I've had street fights, which I'm decent at. I've had Texas death matches, which I'm really good at. It's not about the blood, it's about the objects. I don't know how to manipulate the objects as well, but he does. He's a master at it. But here's the thing. I'm a pretty good wrestler. And Pondo keeps away from the wrestling and does his deal, and I keep away from the hardcore and I do my deal. And that has kept us from working each other ever. But we've been good friends. And we would see each other at conventions and we always say hello, especially when we're at uh live events. I just saw him in Canova about a month ago. And you know, never say never, you never know. We may cross paths down the line, but Pondo, a great, great competitor and a good friend, and stick with the hardcore, pal, and I'll do the headlocks and we will be great.

Music City TV And Steve Gregory

SPEAKER_00 19:12

But yeah, the on February 26, 1998, I move into we go to Nashville, Tennessee for a new promotion, Music City TV. And it is ran by Bert Prentice. Bert had left Arkansas at this point, moved to Jackson, Tennessee, and then was promoting Nashville. And the way I got involved was I had met Bill Barens in Georgia. And Bill Barrens is the agent for the Hardy Boys at the time. And some of the Omega guys from that from that promotion. And he took care of them. Most famously for AJ Styles. He was his shoot manager and agent to get him all the jobs and everything. So I was discussing with Bill about res representation and he took some interest in me and he ended up getting me mu get me booked for Music City. Music City had two promotions. They had the the Nashville Inn and the Georgia Inn, which is where Bill would run shows and Bert would run shows. But the TV would be taped in Nashville, but it would air in Atlanta. And that's how that worked. So that night I wrestled under a new name. For some reason, I came in just to try out, and they had me do two job matches, and he called me Steve Gregory. Stephen Gregory. He said it was a rib and that I was going to get a spot. He was going to change everything. But for these two tapings, just go out there. So I went out there with the hillbilly. Of course, everybody, every promotion has a hillbilly. So me and the hillbilly, we wrestled the Tennessee Balls, Steve Dahl and Reno Riggins, and we lost on TV and put them over. And we actually worked them twice. And the next match, I'm gonna because I'm gonna run these two together. We worked back-to-back weeks on the TV, so we worked the same match twice. The second time I wrestled as Steve Gregory with a jar jobber named Charlie. I have no idea who he was against the Tennessee Balls, and we lost both matches, and I made a whopping $25 for that because it was TV. But I knew Steve Dahl from Smokey Mountain was a real good friend of mine, and I had loosely known Re Reno a little bit, but I got to know him more as I was doing all this stuff up there. With Bert. And I just love working with Steve. It was great. They pinned my opponents, which was good for me. And it was done at the fairgrounds, which still had a crowd. And then later over at the uh flea market, this huge flea market. I want I I want to say it's the I-40 flea market. It might be I something else, but I think it's I-40 flea market. But anyway, it's a huge flea market. And they had like an open area convention center type deal in it. And that's where they put the ring up for TV and we would tape. And it looked like Memphis. It looked like Memphis TV. It looked like a Burt Prentice promotion because that's what it was. A lot of good talent there. Flash Flanagan from Smoky Mountain was there. Wolfie D was there. That's where I reacquainted myself with him. Of course, I had met him in Memphis when we had the short stint there. Now I was seeing him again. And he was him and Flash were teaming each other with each other. Had a good little tag team there called the Black Sheeps. They had a hell of a run as the Black Sheps. And Whoopi would later have such an impact on my career and when we got teamed together in OBW, so we'll talk about that soon. But yeah, I worked the Tennessee Balls there, Reno Riggins and Steve Dahl, and it was it was very good. On February 28th, two days later, 1998, I go back to Aniston, Alabama, and I'm Brian Logan, and I'm wrestling Brian Dunn, my buddy, from uh White, Georgia, and one made $75. Now, Brian Dunn, there's three brines. One of the brines was the one I talked about in the power plant that blew his knee out that worked as the new Mr. Olympia. Big kid. This one, this other one, Brian Dunn, was a little bit smaller, a little bit shorter, very funny guy. Me and him became really good friends. He would actually come over and hang out the house, and we'd go have dinner to suffer and go out in Atlanta on our off nights. And was probably they were my only two friends in Atlanta, other than a guy that I'd went to high school with who had moved down there to go to school. And that was Stephen Gravely. He's a chiropractor now. I don't know if he listens to the show, but if he does, shout out to you. What's up? But Brian Dunn was a real good friend, and we were Ken Timms was running Aniston, Alabama at this point. And we were considered his guys, so we went over and we worked worked that

West Virginia Territory And Promoter Math

SPEAKER_00 24:45

show. On 3498, I'm in Morgantown, West Virginia for Atlantic Coast Championship Wrestling. Jim Hawkins, who would become the third partner of the Croy Streml, Eddie Edmonds, and myself promotion. Jim Hawkins was a lawyer from up in northern West Virginia. Grew up watching wrestling and wanted to do something exciting, and it was his actual idea to run every county twice because him being a lawyer, he had connections to get in buildings and all these places. Again, great idea if they would have just smartened me up to it, but they never they never smartened me up to it at all about the the plan for that. But he would run the Kingwood, Morgantown, Shinstons, those areas up there, and Nutterfort and some of that stuff that we've talked about. Troy would run the middle, and then later on, I would run the bottom of West Virginia, and we would cover the whole state. That was the plan, that was my plan. They had other things in mind, which is, you know, we could have gone a lot further, but but in the beginning, it was great to pick up Jim. And Jim was a good businessman. He his paydays were not good. They were not good at all. That was one of the problems I had with Jim, is he would have 500 people in there and then try to pay us. Well, what I'm going to tell you, he paid me here in a minute. And he would say, Well, I papered the town. I gave away tickets. And that's why we got 500 people here. Nobody paid to get in. Well, I'd rather have 10 people paying that want to be there versus 500 and nobody gets nothing, and he's hoping to make money off of hot dog sales. So that night in Morgantown, West Virginia, I wrestled as Brian Logan versus Eddie Edmonds, and I lost and made $30. And again, you know, there was probably 500 people there that night, at least. That's the 400 on a bad night, 500 average, sometimes more than that. But they were all giveaway tickets, and I got paid 30 bucks, which wasn't did not make me happy. And that was the start of where I went, was going from in 98. I'd been working for about five years. And at this point, I was starting to pay attention to money and realized that it was a job as well as ring time. Now, ring time was important, and you know, getting your name out there. But I had started getting my name out there. I had found these group of promoters that I was working for on a regular basis. I was wrestling up and down the entire East Coast, and I wanted to get paid for it. And the crowds were good, and these promoters were just typical promoters. They, you know, they're gonna take all the money, they're gonna take it all. But the next night, well, two days later, 3798, it was the same loop.

Winning The MSWA Title

SPEAKER_00 28:05

We're in Clay, West Virginia, and this time it is for Eddie Edmonds. Clay was one of the big towns that we ran, ran it often, did very well for us. And I wrestled Eddie Edmonds that night for the MSWA title. Now he was the champion because Scotty Blaze, as I talked about before, was the champion. They just appointed him champion. Well, this was one of those times that he quit because he had issues. He would wrestle and then quit, wrestle and quit. So Eddie Edmonds made himself the champion and then dropped the belt to me. I won the belt there that night and I bled, and I got $75 and became the new MSWA heavyweight champion. On the next night, $3898, I went into Huntington, West Virginia, and I wrestled as a heel actually in Huntington as Brian Logan with Eddie Edmonds versus RJ Stomper and Mr. USA. Now, RJ Stomper was our hillbilly gimmick. Good guy. He actually he's your typical hillbilly. He's he was about, I don't know, maybe 5'11, probably 400 pounds, country boy, been grrown and raised and fed in the country, just pure good old boy. He married a girl that was so beautiful she could have been a model or a porn star. And I to this day have no idea how he got that girl or if they stayed together or whatever, but kudos, brother. Everybody was impressed by your lady. And his partner, Mr. USA, was Mike Crosby under a hood. And they wrestled me and Eddie, and this was one of those deals. Huntington was not that far from the regular towns we were running, but it was far enough over two and a half hours. So they didn't know that we were fighting each other in Morgantown and Charleston. You know, and Charleston's about an hour and a half from Huntington. But again, no internet, no sheets, no anything. Nobody knew. So the people in Huntington were isolated in a bubble, and so were the other people in the other towns. So we were able to have me work heel that one night and team with Eddie Edmonds and wrestle the baby faces. And again, this was in that bar, that red dog saloon that we talked about. He uh Eddie had uh Troy had gotten taken over promotions of events in that bar, and it was it was gonna do well for us. And it was one of those deals that we were this was the first time we were in there as working under MSWA. On 313, 1998, I'm in Kingwood, West Virginia as myself versus

The Night I Shot An Opponent

SPEAKER_00 31:18

Mr. Attitude. Now, this was a first as well. I won this match and made $30. And I'm gonna break Kfabe a lot when I tell this story. I ended up having a shoot with Mr. Attitude, and it was the first time I ever had a real live shoot on an opponent. I had shot earlier and stiffed and roughed up Doug Gibson for the money, but it wasn't a complete shoot. It was it was just business, but this this guy, Mr. Attitude, was one of the top three worst guys I've ever wrestled. And the if you're wondering who the other two are, ask us on the ride home and we'll tell you who who the top three worst guys that I've ever wrestled out of all my matches in 30-some years. But we go to lock up and I tell him tackle drop down hip toss, and he messes up the spot. So I grab a hold again and I said, tackle, drop down, hip toss, and he misses it again. Now at that point, I should have not tried it, but I tried it a third time, tackle, drop down, hip toss, and he fucks it up again. And I just started it on him because there was nothing that could be done with him. So me and him got in a fire, I started laying the boots to him, I started punching him, and I ended up sugaring him and stretching him, and then I pinned him after I beat his ass with one finger. It was the first time I was disgusted enough to embarrass somebody. He was absolutely the shit. He was terrible. He was a terrible human being, he was a terrible wrestler, and he should have never been on that those shows whatsoever. And of course, Jim Hawkins was was pissed, and so was Troy, because they had never seen anything, but they accepted, and they, you know, Jim Hawkins was like, well, he got in there with all them shooters down in Atlanta and Smoky Mountain. No, no, it's not that. I was just trained properly, and when you put somebody in the ring and they can't do one single thing, you remember we were talking about how if on the ride home, if if I if somebody can do one thing, we can I can have a match with them. But if you can't do anything at all and have no business being in there, I can't do anything with you, no matter how much knowledge or training I have. You've got to be able to do at least one single thing, and this cat could not do it. On 314, 1998, I'm in New Martinsville, West Virginia, wrestling as myself against Eddie Edmonds again for the MSWA title, and I lost and made 30 bucks. And uh New Martinsville was another one of those towns we were establishing for the new territory that we would go into regularly, and me and Eddie Edmonds would have our match, a good little solid match. I talked a little bit about that in other podcasts that the only trouble I had with Troy at the time was he didn't have a lot of steam when it came to the heat. And what I mean by that is he he had problems beating me down and keeping me down and allowing me to sell. He didn't have a huge offensive repertoire. It was it was very limited on what he could do and what I could take bumps to to try to get him over. And but we were just starting out and we would work and we would have great matches. I just wish they could have been a lot better. And I think that would have come if there would have been a little more seasoning and a little more ring time. The next day on 3 15, 1998, we are in Lost Creek, West Virginia, and I wrestled Eddie Edmonds, lost, and made 30 bucks again. And we had a guy named Major Payne and a gatekeeper, which was a guy under the mask, they ran in and caused me to lose, and then the three of them beat me down, and that's what started the formula of me coming out at the beginning of the show and saying, you know, hey, welcome to the show, but there's this guy I've been fighting all over the state, and I want another match. Eddie Edmonds would come out, we'd have words, we would set up the main event. Then in the main event, something would happen, they would end up pinning me, and then I would get beat up, and we'd go on and do it for another show. And this was this would go on and be the formula for quite a while. On 4398, we are in Bell, West Virginia. Scotty Blaze is back. He's decided to come back to the business, so here I am wrestling him again. I won by DQ, made 50 bucks. But I had told you a few minutes ago that I had gotten married, and that my wife Jennifer. Well, I told you about her. Well, this was her first night as a valet. So she was the bad girl with Eddie Edmonds versus who who he wrestled Mr. USA, which was Mike Crosby under a hood. So she became his valet, and what we were working towards was Eddie and my wife together as a team, and went working me, and that way I could grab her and kiss her and give her bumps and do all these things, and she'd be my wife, and nobody would know, and it would work out, and it was somebody that we could trust, someone that looked good on the show, somebody that had a great attitude, wanted to be there, and somebody we didn't have to pay. And this was all this was going on right at the beginning of the Monday Night Wars, and where the formula of Raw with the interview segment set up the main event, the beat down and the pretty girls. And we were one of the first to hit this formula because we watched all these shows regularly, and we didn't copy the angles 100% like they do nowadays, where they go out and do move for move the exact same thing. We just took the elements from it and put them together and then had our own show, had our own angles, had our own developments with it all. And and it worked. And Jennifer did a great job, and that might be the only time that we used her. If we did, we only used her a couple more times because she ended up going. We lived in Atlanta, so she would go down to Atlanta, she got a job, and she wouldn't go on the road with me, which was part of the problem because I was gone and she was working a job in Atlanta at a little store called Ballyhoos, if anybody remembers that in the Marietta Mall. And so she didn't have the access to working the rest the wrestling in the West Virginia shows. On 4498, we are in Clarksburg, West Virginia. I wrestle as myself with the Rough Rider as my tag team partner versus the gatekeeper and Eddie Edmonds. And I lost that match. I made $30. And if you remember, the gatekeeper had ran in in the other town and beat me down. Now, all this would make sense if we had a website or, you know, somewhere that showed all this. But the fans, we didn't tape it because it was analog back then. And we were working towards TV, and there was no word of mouth other than there were a few fans that showed up every night, everywhere we went. So, because West Virginia is a small enough area to where you could make all the towns and see all the shows, no matter where you really lived, as long as you didn't live in the panhandle. And uh so we we would go, I'd have to go out at the beginning of the show, and I would have to explain. Well, we were in such and such town, and this happened there, and it wasn't right, and blah, blah, blah. And then, like I said, Eddie would come out, and then we would end up putting it all together. So we were really drawing stick figures back then as far as entertainment. The entertainment was good, it was good solid wrestling all through the card. But they didn't have the TV to watch. There was no social media, there was nothing like that whatsoever. And we just did the best we could, but it did

Kayfabe Angles And Wrestling Cycles

SPEAKER_00 40:42

well. I mean, wrestling was so hot back then, and there was just so much going on in '97 with the economy and everything, and it the business was hot and it had come back around. And that's the thing is the business goes in cycles. All entertainment goes in cycles, but the wrestling business definitely goes in cycles. And I had seen it up in the beginning of Smoky Mountain, and then about 94 and 95, it well, about 95, it started tapering down. So I had about a year of the last cycle, and then we went through a couple of years, three, to of it being down, and I took advantage of that and would just work as much as possible. But now we were in an upswing. And, you know, that was time to make money, and it was time to take everything up a notch, and that's why we were working so hard, and we all worked hard, no matter who they were, maybe not Mr. Attitude, but you know, Troy worked hard, Mike Crosby worked hard, Scotty Blaze even worked hard. He was lazy, but he he he he did the best he could. And uh all the guys, RJ Stomper and all those guys that worked with us, they worked really hard to establish what we were doing, putting West Virginia together. And we were hitting all these towns, trying to get them, you know, just getting them up and getting them going, getting them running, getting them used to wrestling. And, you know, now they're hotbeds. They are established areas that you can go and run wrestling in West Virginia, and you know, anywhere from Buchanan to Morgantown to Canova and down. It's the southern part that's washed out a little bit, and we'll talk about why that happened and how that happened in later episodes when we start running down there and having shows down there on a regular basis. But, you know, these towns that run other places are were originally established by me and Troy and Jim Hawkins going in there and running all these shows and everything. And at this point, I had had 300 matches. As of 4498, I had wrestled my 300th match at that point, and I think I was twenty-two years old or something like that, somewhere in that ballpark. So it's really just amazing that everything that that I got accomplished and you know, all that stuff that was going on, and and everywhere I was heading and traveling and I mean I had been wrestling from West Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, and Alabama and Florida. St. Louis, Mississippi, all through there. That's a lot of air area to cover in, you know, five years to get booked Stay booked and become a regular and we're all talking without TV. Now I know I I did a lot of TV pilots, but most of those didn't get picked up. Now Music City with Burt did get, you know, it was already designed to be on air, so it got picked up from moment one. And you know, it was harder to do these towns and get them up and get them going and with there being so many of them so far apart without TV. But it was also kind of easier too because the the fans wanted to be there and they felt that the wrestling right there in their area that night was all the wrestling that matters. Now, of course they watched WCW and WWF, but their wrestling was the locals and the local stars that they got to see every 30 days live. And we took pride in that. We took a lot of pride in the fact that, you know, we were their their wrestlers. And that's a great thing, and that's something that will never happen again because all the towns have been ran. And with the social media, you know, somebody in, well, let's take example. We have people in Canada and England that are listening to our show that may or may not have been to wet to West Virginia or the United States, may be familiar with some of these towns, but not all of them. And they know about it, and they can go on YouTube and they can watch some of these things and see me and Eddie Edmonds and stuff like that. And you know, that's really cool. So social media is is is a blessing and a curse at the same time. It's it's a blessing because wow, we could get over so much more than we did back in the day. I mean, I wish that we had social media back when I was doing all this to where I could update everybody from the road, do live videos and streams from the road, and just let them see all this in real time. But when we were building things, it was nice that kayfabe was alive on these independent shows. And we did kayfabe. We kayfabed the heels and the baby faces, we kayfabed the storylines, we kayfabed our family on storylines and injuries. We we did it the right way, and uh the way it should have been. And that's why these towns got built, and that's why these towns were were doing so well, and and that you can still run them today. Again, it's a shame they don't know their history as well as they should, and know who their forefathers were that you know set up this whole system, but that's okay, that's fine. But you know, Troy and Jim Hawkins always deserve credit for what they did. If the if they didn't have the money and want to put forth the effort, then who knows what would be going on in West Virginia now with wrestling? Who knows who would be the the startup because it everything bounces off of everybody. Freddie Cornell called me the other night. He's the promoter in uh big time wrestling Lords of the Ring in Canova, where I talked to about wrestling a few shows ago, one of the towns when I came back, and he's got a lot of events coming up this summer that I'm gonna be on, and a lot of good events going into Kentucky and Canova, West Virginia, and all that. But he was talking about how he met me at a Bobby Blaise show, and we were talking about you know how young we were and all that stuff, but but he had came to a live event and just breaking in the business and didn't work the show, but met me, and we became friends for so long, and I'm you know very, very blessed to have him as a friend and a promoter. He's he's a good one. He is a good one. A lot of people give him shit about stuff, and they're wrong. I'm here to tell you they're wrong. But there's you know, he's a good guy and he treats me well and he pays well, and just a class act, but you know, he can trace his roots back to the Bobby Blazes and the Troy Streml's, Eddie Edmonds, and Jim Hawkins. I don't know if he ever did business with Jim Hawkins, but he can trans he can connect the dots between the beginning and where he is now. And that's that's cool. That's really, really cool that it's still going and everything. And that it's adapted and he has a a newer style and new guys. And you know, I knew a lot of the guys when I was in Canova last month, and but there were a lot of new guys I didn't know, a lot of good looking talent that could wrestle. You know, I wrestled Onyx, if you remember that night, wrote a blog about it, it's on IamYourchampion.com and talked about coming back, wrestling my first singles match, and all that. But there's a lot of lot of young talent, and I'm gonna be wrestling on those events as well through the

Summer Schedule Plus Store Items

SPEAKER_00 49:27

summer. So between wildfire championship wrestling and big time wrestling, Lords of the Ring, I will have a pretty busy schedule for the uh summer starting this Saturday and going all the way, I think we're all the way up to October with the bookings at this point. But uh yeah, let me let me give you that information again for Saturday. It's High Hat, Kentucky Wildfire Championship Wrestling, South Floyd Elementary School, sponsored by the South Floyd eighth grade class. Doors open at 6 p.m. Bell time 7 p.m. Summer break 2026, general mission $15, ringside 20, and uh gonna be a lot of a talent on that show, and we're gonna have a lot of fun. Some of the locals there are gonna be wrestling, and then we're gonna have the Russians in there. We're gonna have all kinds of stuff going on there, and it's gonna be a real fun event. And the other dates you can see that are coming up, the Carlitos is coming in for big time wrestling, Lords of the Ring for a three-day deal in the end of July, beginning of August. And he'll be we'll be going to Moorhead, Kentucky, and then we'll be in man, West Virginia, which I can't believe I'm going back to man, West Virginia. I'm getting ahead of myself a lot, but I went to man one time, and I'll tell that story when we get to it in the book, which is coming up really, really soon. And I said I would never go back to man, West Virginia, and uh I'm going back. So I'm going back, and the reason I'm going back is because Freddie has asked me to come back, and also I'm interested to see Carlitos. Because I don't know if you know, I wrestled for the World Wrestling Council in Puerto Rico. We're going to talk about that when we get to it in the book. And Carly was a kid at that point. Well, he's a grown man now, and he's a wrestling legend. And this is going to be the first time that I'm going to be able to see him at an event. And I just want to see what he's all about, and I want to see what goes on in his head. And we're going to see what happens at uh Moorhead, Kentucky, and Man, West Virginia coming up this end of July, into August. And it's going to be fun. It's going to be real fun. And uh more on those dates when we get closer and more on Man West Virginia. But all right, let's again, this show has been brought to you by Dubby Energy Drink, Zero Sugar, Zero Artificial Colors and Flavors, no secret formulas, no hidden ingredients. What you see is what you get in gluten, sugar-free, clean, smooth energy, sharper mental focus, no added sugar, unique flavors, and this is built for anyone. Really, it's very easy, ready to mix, anywhere, anytime. All you have to do is put a scoop into your shaker, add some water, shake it up, and drink it about 150 milligrams per serving. Shipped worldwide, but made in the USA, baby. That's right. You can't go wrong with a product made in the USA. You don't have to wait a long time for it to come because it's coming from China or Philippines or somewhere like that. You is made in the good old USA, which makes the shipping quicker. And the product better, in my opinion. Just my opinion. Nothing wrong with those other products, but I'm a W man. So please use promo code YOURCHAMPION at checkout to receive 10% off. Also, you can follow Making the Towns on Facebook as well as myself, Brian Logan. I am your champion exclamation point on YouTube. Hit that subscribe button and hit that bell if you will, please. I am your champion on TikTok. Three Crows Entertainment at LoganYourChamp on X, and we uh we put videos up there, and and every day that I go to work with the puppies, I pick a puppy, and I have puppy of the day. So if you are interested in seeing some cute, adorable babies, and you're one of those that can't get enough. I know I can't get enough dog pictures. That's half of what I do on Facebook is look at dogs and dogs with blogs and dogs with podcasts and all that kind of stuff. But the dog of the day is pupper of the day, is a mainstay, and I'm gonna continue to do that. People seem to like that. All the social links are on I'myourchampion.com and just go there to the front page and all you gotta do is scroll down, and the buttons are labeled, and they're right there, and it'll take you directly to YouTube and TikTok and Instagram and Facebook, and you can subscribe, find, and do all that stuff right there from those links. Please, very important to me that you guys follow me and uh sign up and be my friend and all that because social media matters, and we're trying to get as big as an audience as we can. So if you'll if you'll go in there and subscribe on all that, I would greatly, greatly appreciate it. Please go over to the store and take a chance, chance. Take a chance. Go to the store and take a chance. Take a look at the store. We got some great items up there. We got slam buddies, which are little miniature plushies of myself, and they are really cool. They got the tattoos and everything. They did a great job when they made them by putting the tattoos. They're literally identical tattoos. They took the pictures and of the tattoos and somehow got them on this plushie, and it they it looks great. I I use one as a back pillow. Rex keeps one to sleep with, Ashley sleeps with one. But when they're gone, they're gone. We are not doing any more of the slam buddies. There are plenty in stock, but if you are interested in getting one, go over there now. Now is the time to get it while supplies last. As well as if you like a good read and you like monsters and drugs and vampires and just good versus evil. I have a book called The Congregation on there, and I think it's the best thing I've ever written. And I've written a lot of stuff in my lifetime. Some people say it's a good read. I'm biased and think it's the best thing I've ever written. But we've got a few of those on there, and if you are interested in a good read, I would suggest that the congregation is available, as well as long-sleeve t-shirts, and we're gonna put the short sleeves up. I just haven't put them. We've got plenty of shirts, and I gotta get the short sleeved ones in there, the troublemaker ones online. I need to do that this week. But the long-sleeved I am your champion with the smoking skull and the crows and the lightning and the crosses and the girls, they're only 10 bucks, folks. 10 bucks. Everybody loves a $10 shirt, and these shirts are awesome. I actually have about six of these things, and I get so cold. Ashley is she burns up and she keeps the air on, the windows open, and the fans, and it is like an iceberg in this house. And I double up with a t-shirt and these long sleeve shirts almost daily to stay warm. And I just love mine. They're good quality shirts, they look cool, they feel cool, and they're only 10 bucks. And you can't beat 10 bucks for a t-shirt. Where are you gonna find a nice t-shirt anywhere for any less than 10 bucks? So go over there and check that out. Also, we have ring-worn items. We have championship belts that have been in the ring. There are a bunch of them over there. A WFS Evolution, the World Heavyweight Championship from the AWA. As well as we have ring jackets, the last Smoky Mountain ring jacket, the office jacket with black with white Smoky Mountain logo on there. The last one in captivity that the office people got. The office was the only ones that got the black ones. That is available in there. That is very rare. It will be sold and it will go soon. Please take a look at that. And as well as my ring used Jimmy Valiant Tribute Jacket, silver with the A Star Is Born trimmed in black. That's available there. As well as Damien's wrestling boots and singlet that I wrestled John Cena and with Batista and Randy Orton and all these guys, all these stars, all the mini matches. If you are a collector of ring-used memorabilia, you might want to check out the Damien boots. They're really, really cool. So all right, guys. Thank you for tuning in. This has been the Three Crows Entertainment Production. We're doing this on Pirate Flag Radio on the Radio King app as usual. We love you guys over there. Thank you for having us so much. It means the world to me to be a part of you guys' stuff over there. We are in Morristown, Tennessee at the Three Crows Entertainment Studio. 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.