Making the Towns
Brian Logan has spent over thirty years in the business of professional wrestling. Though the history of his journals, he retells the stories about his experiences.
Making the Towns
A Fake Hiring Letter Accidentally Gets A Wrestler On WCW TV
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A fake WCW hiring letter. A masked gimmick built for double shots. A bar match so bad and so unsafe I walked out in the middle of it. Episode 12 of Making The Towns is one of those road-journal entries that starts as “here are the towns and the payoffs” and turns into a snapshot of how independent wrestling in the late 1990s actually worked.
We bounce from Buchanan, West Virginia, a town that keeps drawing because of where it sits on the map, to Augusta, Georgia where I’m pulling double duty as myself and the Pink Panther, a Tiger Mask-inspired character I created so I could put talent over without wrecking my main spot. Then we hit Aniston, Alabama for a low-budget “TV taping” and the story everyone asks about: the rib that convinces a guy called Mark Goldberg to show up at WCW, letter in hand, looking like a bargain Stone Cold. Somehow, it turns into real TV time and real pay.
From there, it’s the hard truth side of the road: tiny crowds, wild personalities, promoters stretching a dollar, and the moment I decide I’m done and leave mid match. We also talk Clay’s “Fans You Bring It We’ll Use It” weapons night, the pushback on bleeding, and why I’m so outspoken about wrestlers getting paid. If you care about pro wrestling history, indie wrestling economics, and the realities behind the curtain, this one’s for you.
Subscribe, share this with a wrestling fan, and leave a review with the craziest road story you’ve ever heard.
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.
Welcome Back And The Show Setup
And we are back for another episode. And I'm excited to be here. I hope everybody had a great week. I know I did. We got a lot of good stuff to get into today. But before we get started, I just want to thank everybody for being with me. And the premise of this show, if you're just joining us for the first time, this is episode 12, by the way. But I was in sports entertainment and the entertainment business in pro wrestling for over 30 some years. And during those years, I kept a journal. And of all the matches, the towns, the money, the bumps, finishes, etc. And we've been reviewing these one by one and going through all the towns and talking about the stories and the opponents and everything. And that's what we're doing here today. And also I want to remind everybody that we have a sister show, a sister podcast, that comes out each week based on this show, where me and Dallas Danger sit down in a QA format and we he asks questions based on this podcast. And we also sometimes read the the listener comments or emails or anything we get like that and expand more on this topic. So if you enjoyed this show, the ride home is something that I'm sure you're gonna enjoy, and that comes out every week right after these Making the Towns. But this is Making the Towns episode 12. So just want to thank everybody for subscribing to the YouTube channel. We've been talking about the YouTube channel since the inception of this podcast, and we put up a lot of videos, and we ask that you guys go over there and subscribe and help us out and ring that bell if you want to get notifications. But if you don't want notifications, please go over and subscribe and help us out because we got a lot of cool things planned that we can only do after we have so many subscribers. But the YouTube is doing very well, and that is because of you guys. And I just want to thank you so much for what you guys have have done so far and showing interest. The listeners are growing every week, and I'm just very thankful that you guys are taking these rides with us, making the towns and the ride home. But that YouTube channel is I AmYour Champion exclamation point on YouTube.com. So if you get a chance, go over there and subscribe. If you have not, and if you have, keep looking for great content. We're putting up content as fast as we can. There are Apex Wrestling is on there, World Fighting Showcase, OBW, the stuff with Damien, Smoky Mountain Wrestling's in there, a lot of independent shots, WCW, some other videos that I've made, as well as the documentary films that I have written, directed, and produced, they are on there too. And just check them out. I think there's a lot of good stuff, a lot of people like it, and I'm very pleased with all that. Also, your one-stop shop for everything, Brian Logan, I amyourchampion.com. If you want to expand more, see some pictures, links to all the social medias, as well as links to the podcast. If you are listening on Pirate Flag Radio and this is new to you, go over to IamYourChamp.com for all things Brian Logan. We've got our store over there, more on that later. But where I'm going to be appearing and just all kinds of cool stuff. All things I amyourchampion.com. But uh, we last left off. We it was we're on 411.98, and we were on 410.98 when
Buchanan WV The Pivotal Town
we last left off. So we're gonna start today at 411.98, and we are in Buchanan, West Virginia. I wrestled as myself versus JT Nightmare and made 50 bucks. Buchanan is almost in the middle of West Virginia, it's almost dead center, and it has been a pivotal town for West Virginia wrestling, and a lot of the promoters over the years have ran Buchanan, and it is in an ideal spot to run because not only is it in the middle, but it's not that far off the interstate, but it's far enough off the interstate to where it's isolated a little bit. So the crowd there I guess is to its own. And it has always drawn so well there. And I we started running it, of course. This would be one of the first, well, this is probably the first time we ran it. Eddie Edmonds and myself and Jim Hawkins would run Buchanan on a regular basis. I ran it myself. Mike Howard ran it. A lot of promoters have ran that. It's it's the middle point that connects Northern and Southern West Virginia together. So it was such a good, good little town for us. But this night I wrestled JT Nightmare. I won that match, and I don't really remember that much about it. I don't even remember who really JT Nightmare is. One of the long list of guys that would just come in, I would meet, I would wrestle, and then we'd part ways, and I may or may not ever see him again. But, you know, that's the way it was back then. You know, a lot of guys breaking in, a lot of guys just coming through. But Buchanan is a town that you're gonna hear over and over again on this podcast.
The Pink Panther Masked Double Duty
On 4178, I was back in Augusta, Georgia, and I wrestled as myself versus CW Justice, and I lost that match and made 50 bucks. Also, that night I wrestled as the Panther, and I'll get into that in just a second, versus Johnny Blitz, and we wrestled to a time limit draw. The the Panther was an opportunity was a character that I came up with based off of Tiger Mask. And I was smaller then. Nowadays, the guys are a lot smaller than they used to be. And back in the days, I was I was pretty much a cruiserweight starting out in the 90s. And even though I was about 230, 240, that was around cruiserweight weight. And so a lot of times these promoters had me wrestling twice on the show. Well, I no longer had the outfits for the Infernos or Kendo or any of that stuff. So I came up with the Pink Panther, and it's basically Tiger Mask that's pink, and it was a luchador gimmick, and it was something that I was able to go out on the card and put somebody over and have a match with them and not really have to, you know, worry about me doing a job or anything like that. This this character was made specifically for that opportunity to put people over and further them up the card. But yeah, I made 50 bucks for wrestling twice in Augusta. I always loved Augusta. The promoters down there, they always treated me well. I would go there a lot during this time period. Great town. I would hang out there and go, you know, stay over and go out. Again, this is one of those trips where I was by myself and could hang out and do whatever I wanted to do after the show. So I could go get dinner and go to a club, get some beers, and see if I could meet a nice girl and just hang out. And it was kind of like a little mini vacation for me, and I just loved going to southeastern Georgia.
Aniston TV Taping And The WCW Rib
The next town is Aniston, Alabama. And I don't have a date on here, so it was sometime between 417 and 424. So it close to that same week. We did a TV taping for Ken Timms was running Aniston, Alabama, and booking a flea market there. And I ended up we ended up doing, we were doing it for TV. Not sure where the TV was going to air, but he filmed it. As everybody was sort of doing back then. Everybody was kind of filming everything that they could if they had the opportunity to. Of course, again, this is not with full TV production. This was done with little camcorders, and you know, I'm not even sure if he even got it edited. I know, I don't think it even aired anywhere. But he was filming it as TV, and he had a bunch of his guys, and I ended up wrestling three times on this show in Aniston, and I made $70. The first match was against my friend Brian, who wrestled as Mr. Olympia. And if you remember, Brian is the guy from the power plant that had the knee injury. So he he was still injured with his knees, but trying to work a little bit and trying to make a comeback, and it just it didn't it didn't pan out for him because of the injury that that he sustained from trying out for the power plant and being in there and doing all those squats. Also on that card, I wrestled with the judge versus Mr. Olympia and a guy named Travis. Again, I don't know if that's his first name or his last name. I don't know who the judge was, but it was a tag match, and I went over on both of those matches, the Logan versus Olympia, and also the tag match. But the third match has an interesting story. I wrestled as myself against a guy that we called Mark Goldberg. Now, this guy was a nice guy, and you might remember him as the Goldberg, little Goldberg that was brought out by Jericho on WCW. And we played a rib, and that is what got him in WCW. So Ken Times had a piece of paper that was letterhead from the WCW office. And he had been saving this for a big rib. And he found this guy, and his actual name was Mark, even though that fit perfectly. So we fashioned this letter, and we were very nondescript, and we were trying to describe Stone Cold Steve Austin, who had just started taking off. So we said that this is from the office, and that we we've got a spot for you, we've got a job for you, and we want you to get black shave your head, get a goatee, get black tights, black boots, short black boots, and that it was gonna be a major position on television. So we we fill this letter out in great detail and all this stuff, and we mail it from the post office at CNN Center. Well, Ken mails it. And this guy gets this and he assumes he's gonna be Goldberg, a little Goldberg. So he shows up at a WCW TV taping, which was in the letter of when to show up and all this. And he goes in and they're like, Who are you? And he he's like, I'm you know, I'm Mark, whatever his real name was, and you know, I just got hired by the company, and nobody obviously knew who he was. And so a couple of the agents get together and he shows them the letter. Well, the letter looked legit. It was mailed from the office, it was typed out, I forget who signed it, who you know, I don't even know if anybody if we signed anybody's name to it. I I doubt that we even did that. And finally they end up getting Terry Taylor to come over. Well, Terry takes a look at the letter and looks at him and is just confused because it just he doesn't have the WCW look. He's not big enough. And you know, he at this point he had shaved his head and he had the goatee and he had all the stuff as as the letter said. And Terry's like, well, I mean, you have this letter, I I guess we've hired you. I mean, that just goes to show you how nobody at WCW during this time period knew what was going on, that the right hand had no idea about the left hand and just accepted that this guy was hired. So they had him getting his gimmick and all this, and he had the the the MMA gloves and all this. He looked like a little Goldberg. I'm sure there's somewhere on YouTube you can Google, you know, Lil Goldberg or Goldberg Imposter or Mark Goldberg. But anyway, the he ends up getting a job and getting on TV and getting paid. So the rib was kind of on us because he he made money off of our rib. But this night in Aniston, Alabama, was his, you know, he wanted to try the gimmick out, so I worked with him. I ended up beating him. And, you know, we thought it was funny that night in Aniston, but it wasn't so funny after he got a job and started getting paid. And good for him. You know, I mean it wasn't his fault. It was kind of a cruel rib, and it's funny, but it's, you know, it it wouldn't be funny nowadays. I don't know if any company would fall for it nowadays, but you know, no harm was done in this rib. WCW got some good TV out of it, and Mark made some money off of the situation, and no harm was done, and a good time was had by all. So on 424.98, I am back in Augusta, Georgia. The Panther went against the Desert Warrior, and I lost, and I made $70. Also, I wrestled with Johnny Blitz in a tag team match versus wreaking havoc, which was Eddie Edmonds and Scotty Blaze, and it was a double count out. So they the two of them had made a road trip and came on down to Augusta. I got them booked, and they they got out of West Virginia for a little bit, and we had a good time and had a had a good little match and had a double count out. So it was good that they got out and got some seasoning and all that, but it was it was just a typical house show there in Augusta, Georgia. On 4258, we were in
Bad Bar Match And Walking Out
Butner, North Carolina. I made $20 and I wrestled as myself versus Otto Schwanz. Now you might remember him as one of the Dupp brothers from TNA, and I love Schwantzig. He is so funny. He's one of those guys that's just one of the boys through and through. He was very talented in the ring. He did this German gimmick that was kind of special needs, German, half special needs, half German kind of thing. You had to kind of see it to understand it. It was a it was a comedy character, but a character that wrestled, it was very serious. And me and him always had good matches over the years. And at one point he said that uh he would only wrestle two guys. He got to a point in his career where he was like, I'm either wrestling Logan or Frank Parker, and I'm not wrestling anybody else. And I don't know if he he ever wrestled anybody else after he said that. But on 429-98, I was in Carrollton, Georgia, and me and Primetime Brian, which was the other Brian, wrestled Notorious Dog and Homicide. Now, this match is interesting in itself because this match was the shit. It was terrible. It was absolutely horrible. And I ended up walking out in the middle of the match. I didn't get paid. These two guys started they they started a match with Brian and immediately locked up and started suplexing him and doing all these big moves. And then Dog and Homicide had a shoot argument amongst themselves in the middle of the show. I'm watching this thing, they're uh almost ready to hurt Brian, and th they're about to get into it with each other, and it was just too much. And this was the only time I've ever walked out of a match in the middle of a match. And I just decided it wasn't worth it. There was no storyline in this match. There was probably maybe, I don't know, 30 people in the crowd. It was a little bar in Carrollton, and it was just, it was absolutely horrible. But Notorious Dog, some people in the music industry might know him. He was a roadie for Confederate Railroad. So he was uh very known. I think he worked also as a roadie for Molly Hatchett for a little bit, but his main deal was he was a roadie for Confederate Railroad. But for whatever happened that night, him him and this homicide, and it's not the TNA homicide. This was a different homicide, different era, a local guy. And they uh they just they had some issue, and I thought they were gonna come to blows. But I ended up walking out and uh went to the back, grabbed my stuff, and went to the car, and they actually came outside trying to work the match with me outside. There was no people. The people were inside, and they thought it was part of the gimmick that I walked outside with my bag. And boy, were they shocked when I got in the car and drove off, and I drove off and never came back. So I don't know what happened the rest of that night, but it was it was one of the worst nights in the business that I've ever had.
Northern WV Characters And Locker Room Changes
On 430 98, I was in Raleigh, North Carolina, wrestled as myself, versus Juice. I won that match and made 20 bucks. I have no idea who Juice was. Don't know anything about this match. It was just another in those long list of matches that, again, like I said, I meet the guy and move on. On 5'298, we were in Clarksburg, West Virginia, and I wrestled as myself against Buddy Rose, lost, and made 50 bucks. Now, this is not Playboy Buddy Rose. This is a guy from up in the northern West Virginia area who worked for Jim Hawkins, who was free bird Buddy Rose. He actually legitimately thought he was a free bird. And he would talk about in the back about calling Terry Gordy or Buddy Roberts or Michael Hayes, and that he was one he tried to tell the young boys that he was one of the original free birds. And we were like, it's Buddy Roberts, not Buddy Rose. So Buddy Rose is a Totally different guy. But this goof was a complete goofball. And he just ran his mouth constantly, and he was constantly brushing his hair, and he did the Michael Hayes strut all the time. And they thought Jim Hawkins thought it was funny to put me in there with him all the time. And it just it was not funny. And it it they were not good matches. And I had to deal with him. And he always brought his daughter. And you know, you couldn't explain anything to him because his daughter was right there. She was in the locker room with him, which was the first time that I had seen a family member in the locker room like it was nothing. And that right there was the beginning of the business changing. Because before that, something like that would have never been thought of. That only the boys were allowed in the locker room. But he had his daughter, and she was she was of age. She was, you know, 18, 19, 20, somewhere around in there. But he always had her with him, and you know, used that as a crutch of you can't you can't tell me anything because you're not going to talk to me in front of my daughter like that. So that was that was one of those nights, man. I I I really just did not like this Buddy Rose guy. He he was a piece of work. But if you really look back on a 30-year career, he's an interesting character because he really believed that he was a free bird. I mean, through and through believed he was a free bird. And told everybody, and and I mean, he was mentally ill. And he just, you know, he wore pink tights and white boots, long blonde hair, completely out of shape, not even a dad bod, just looked horrible and just couldn't wrestle, couldn't do anything. But he was he was a free bird. On 51698, I was in Clay, West Virginia,
Fans Bring Weapons And The Blood Debate
and I first wrestled as the Panther versus a kid that we called he did the Austin gimmick, and I can't remember his first name here. I don't have his first name, but he did the he looked like Austin. He looked like a little Austin. I lost that match as the Panther. But he, I want to say Brian Austin, but that's not right. That's I think that's an actor off of 90210. Joey Austin, that's his name. Stone Cold Joey Austin. And he was an okay worker. He was just small. He had been in a car accident and went through the windshield. And his head had been cut up and scarred up, and he had all these cuts and scars on his head from where the stitches were. And he would talk to himself since the car wreck. And he kind of hummed when he wasn't talking. So he and it wasn't like he was schizophrenic or anything, he just talked to himself. And he would, you know, you could hear the ongoing conversation he was having, and then in between it him. But he was a good kid, and you could have a match with him, and it was perfect for the Panther. So I would later on end up working him in like the second match on a lot of these shows, and be able to put him over and give him a win. Because you gotta think this was when Stone Cold was first starting out, and it was a parody. Now it was a bad parody. I don't know if it was a parody that should have been done, but we did it, and that was the way it went. And the Panther versus Austin was a good little second match. Later that night, on 516-98, and I'm repeating the date because I wrestled Eddie Edmonds. I won that match, made $60 for the whole night, but it was the first ever in West Virginia, fans you bring it, will use it. And I came up with that match after watching a videotape of Al Snow arriving at ECW. Someone had given me a VHS copy of Al Snow's debut at the ECW arena, and I was sitting there and I was watching it, and I called up Troy and I said, let's do a weapons deal. Let's this is gonna this ECW thing's gonna kick off. Let's do a fans you bring it. They'll use it. And then we put on the poster exactly that. And of course, we also put no knives or firearms, and they will not be accepted in there. But all the fans brought everything. They brought chairs, they brought sinks, they brought trash can, trash can lids, a bowl whip, they crutches, just anything you can, tires, anything you can imagine, they brought. And we did, we used it, and the house that night was pretty good. This is also, we talked about this, I think on one of the ride homes, where I started doing the personal appearances at the Go Mart in clay, because there was nothing there to do in clay. So you had the Go Mart and you had the school, and that was about it. So I would come in and I would do a personal appearance and hype the show at Gomart and my tights and everything, and then we'd go have the show. So we uh I'm not it wasn't a sellout, but it was a near sellout. So there was there was a couple hundred people there that night for the fans, you bring it and we'll use it. And of course that was Falls Anywhere, and it went it went very good. And uh I remember the one thing was though we had all these weapons, and with the weapons, I needed to bleed and be to make it believable. And Chrissy, Troy's wife, was totally 100% against me bleeding. And I was like, well, this is gonna look phony if I'm hit with all of these items, because God knows Troy wasn't gonna be hit with any of these items. So I got hit with everything, and at the very end, I forget what uh object he hit me with, it was probably a chair or a trash can. I roll out to the floor and end up bleeding. And he came out and did a couple moves to me, and then I somehow get a quick win on him. And she complained. She complained about that because, you know, she didn't want any blood in the ring, or she thought it was too violent and too too embarrassing to her to have people bloodied from a chair or a trash can. So that started more issues with that whole situation. On 522 98, we were in Kingwood, West Virginia.
Building Opponents With Lance Malinowski
I wrestled as myself against Lance Malinowski, and I lost and made 50 bucks. Lance was a guy that I believe he was from up there in Morgantown, Kingwood area, Clarksburg, maybe, might have been from Clarksburg. But that whole area, that northern West Virginia area, real good guy, couldn't wrestle very well at all. But he was a good guy to be around and a funny guy, and Jim Hawkins really liked him. And he put him in a program with me, and at least it gave me another opponent. And we were trying to find as many opponents as we could up there. Again, we're trying to get this promotion off and running, get some legs underneath it, trying to find guys, training guys, using guys, trying to see what formulas would work. And so Lance became one of the top heels, which got me away from Troy a little bit and kind of split the card up a little bit so he could he could wrestle in a tag match, which gave a good tag match, and then I could wrestle Lance. On 523 the next night in 98, we were in New Martinsville, West Virginia, and again it's another match, the same as that as Kingwood. I wrestled Lance Malinowski. I lost and made 50 bucks. And pretty much the same match, same everything. On 6698, I was in Clarksburg, West Virginia, wrestled Lance Malinowski again, lost this time and made 50 bucks. So we had they wanted me to put him over in Clarksburg, so they wanted the heel to go over in Clarksburg, which made no sense because there was nothing on the line there, so we should have let him go home with everything. On 6138, we should have let him go home happy, is what I was trying to say. On 6138, we were back in Buchanan, West Virginia, and I wrestled Eddie Edmonds, made 50 bucks, won by count out, and that night Troy hurt his shoulder.
Long Drives Short Pay And Indie Lessons
I ended up drop kicking him and he took a bad bump. We did tackle drop down, hip toss, dropkick, and he was hurt. And that was it. And he ended up stopping the match because he got hurt. He didn't want to continue. He didn't try to tough it out. He just stopped. So if you see during this time, we're trying to get this promotion going, but there's so many factors going on. There's so many things that are happening. And they're just throwing monkey wrenches into everything. And it was just so trying. Because this was the birth of the Indies. You know, before this, I had pretty much worked in territories or places aspiring to be a territory with wrestlers that were professional and professionally trained. This was the time period where we were getting the first generation of copies. So these guys were either trained by us or trained by God knows who. So the ones trained by us could have a match. Not all of them, but they could mostly have a match. But they would Jim Hawkins would find these guys and bring them in. And who knows what their background was? Who knew who their trainer were or was? You know, they could they said they could have a match, so he threw them in there. And I was the measuring stick on whether to have a have a match with them or not. And it was just it was just a lot of things. But I was very disappointed in Eddie Edmonds that night because we could have worked around his shoulder. We could have worked holds. Because that was back in the day where you could sit in a hold. Nowadays you you can't sit in a hold, they'll chant boring. But back then you could have got grabbed a hold, a chin lock or a headlock or something, and we could have worked out of that whole thing and got, you know, did five minutes, but he didn't want to do that. On 6198, the Panther with Sir Alfred wrestled RJ Stomper in Mann, West Virginia. Now, this was the first time that I had gone to Man, and the last time I had gone to Mann, and I came from Atlanta, and it is actually closer to go to Cuba from Atlanta than it is to go to Atlanta to Man, West Virginia. And incidentally on this trip, I'm starting out and I'm getting it's probably about 60 miles from where I lived to the Tennessee border, and I'm driving up the interstate and the rain is just pouring down. And lightning strikes right beside my car in the median of the uh highway. Right by it. So close that my face was burnt a little bit from the heat. You know, not burnt like blistered or anything like that, but you could tell something had had came close to me, and it was, you know, like a suntan type thing. So I my nerves were shot immediately, and then it took like eight hours to get to this town. But the Panther wrestled with Sir Alfred, who is J.R. Earl's, who is a good friend of mine, who was an incredible artist, against RJ Stomper, who we talked about, I believe, in one of the podcasts. He was our version of the hillbelly. And very good, about a 400-pound guy, could work uh really well and did the gimmick very well. And then later that night, I wrestled Roger Anderson and won by DQ, and I defended the MSWA title against Roger Anderson, and I made 50 bucks for the whole night. So you see what they're doing here is they're my pay is not increasing, but they're making me work twice. So they're getting two guys for the price of one, two matches. And that was always something that I had a problem with with Jim Hawkins, is he never paid more than 50 bucks. And I was coming from Atlanta, Georgia. And he'd be like, well, none of these other guys are making any money. Yeah, but I'm the guy on the marquee. I'm the guy that that were putting the asses in the seats, because back then that's what it was about was putting asses in the seats. It was my name on the poster. There were no TV commercials, there were no radio commercials, so to speak. I mean, they did use some local radio at different times, but they basically it was me, and they would have, you know, three or four hundred people sometimes, and I get 50 bucks and have to work twice. And then, God forbid, I would complain about it because they would say that it was unfair. So Jim Hawkins is a cheap bastard, and I just want that to be known for the record. And at one point, the reason I say it that way that strongly, later on down the line, when I finally end up not working with those guys anymore, he told me something that I thought was one of the rudest things I've ever heard in my career. He said, if I was working in an industry and I had been working for years and was only making minimum wage, I'd quit and find something else to do. And I thought, you know what? Fuck you. You jock sniffer. He was never an athlete. He was just trying to live a dream, and how dare he say something like that to me, who was drawing him and making him these money this money. So me and me and Jim had a love-hate relationship based upon that. But I like Jim. Jim's an okay guy, but he's a cheap bastard. And it would show over the years, and that would hurt this West Virginia promotion. And I think ultimately would hurt this the state of the industry over the years, because it in West Virginia, because it would become okay to not pay guys and get a watered-down product, to where it almost became commonplace, to where if you get there to today, guys are working for free because they don't know any better. Because the promoters that are left from back then are like, well, hot dog and a handshake, I that's what I got when I broke in. Well, it's not then. It's not 20 some years ago, it's not 30 some years ago, it's different now. And my advice to everybody if you're if you're a young guy in the business, don't work for free. That's not paying your dues. Paying your dues is putting up the ring, taking the ring down, you know, making the long drives. Working for free is not paying your dues. You're it's a job and you're working, and you need to be paid for what you're worth. Now, I'm not saying go out there and charge $500 and you've had 10 matches. What I'm saying is, is don't constantly go to a show and the promoter says, Well, I'll put you on the card, but I don't have anything to pay you. And you want to wrestle so bad that you just allow it to happen. Don't do that, guys. Don't do that. Don't let these promoters get away with all that. But on that night in May in West Virginia, I got to wrestle Roger Anderson and great buddy of mine that we know from Southern States Wrestling. I wrestled him many times over the years. We've already talked a lot about him on the podcast, but this was starting the many matches we would have as singles over the year, years. And it was a great match. And I love working Roger Anderson. Shout out to Roger. I love you, brother.
Iron Sheik Stories And The Boot Plan
On 7398, we were back in Clarksburg, West Virginia. The Panther wrestled Scotty Blaze and lost. And I made $50 again. And I came back, and it was of course the 4th of July weekend. So who does Brian Logan wrestle? The Iron Sheik with Eddie Edmonds and Lance Malinowski in his corner. And I am such a huge fan of the Iron Sheik. I love Sheiky. I miss him. He was such a great dude. And we had such a good match that night. We did the clubs, and then he attacks me. And we end up having the match. And of course I won that match because it, you know, put the baby face over. But the funny thing on that rib was I was so there's two stories, two ribs that was going down. One was I'll tell the last one first, and then the the first one. But we basically I was so excited for working the iron chic that I thought the crowd was really into it, and I just marked out, just marked out for wrestling. Because I had had, you know, the Iron Chic was like the second wrestling doll I ever had as a kid. You know, I grew up watching him on WWF. It was Fourth of July weekend. I had red, white, and blue tights. It was just really, really cool. And I was so excited. I remember getting out of the ring, and I went back to Troy and I was thanking him for the match, and he's like, What'd you think? I said, Man, I loved it. And I went out and I noticed that the people weren't leaving. And I was like, man, they loved it so much, they're not going home. They're not going home at all. They're just so into this. There's so much heat. Because they all attacked me after it, all the three heels. And I was just so pumped and everything. But like an idiot, Troy looks at me and goes, There's a battle royal. And I was like, oh. So I thought that I was so over. But and it really wasn't. But okay, so here's the rib. We then this is terrible. And I'm glad it didn't work out because it was this is a terrible rib, but it's a great story. So the sheik has these iconic boots with the pointy toes, and the you know, he's synonymous for his boot and his loaded boot and his Arab-looking boots with the the camel on the side and everything. So me and Troy decide we're gonna steal the Iron Sheik's boots as a rib. And we were like, if he catches us, he's gonna kill us. If he get catches us and gets his hands on us, he's gonna hurt us. So we devised this plan that we were going to how we were gonna get the boots when he took them off, whether if he was in the shower or somehow, somebody was gonna distract him, we were gonna grab the boot, the boots was gonna get handed to the next guy, the next guy was gonna rush it out to the car, and the person in the car was gonna take off and drive the boots away. Nobody none for the wiser, we get these boots out. And we planned this thing for weeks, and we laughed about it and all this, but we were very cautious because we did realize that this was something very dangerous that we were about to do. And the rib was on us because the Iron Sheik never took his boots off. He showed up with the boots, those iconic Persian shorts that he wore, and a sweatshirt or a workout shirt, t T shirt, workout t shirt. And that that's all he had. So he took his shirt off to wrestle and he took his shorts off, he had his tights on underneath, and he never took the boots off. Not before Before the match, not after the match. He just I guess the deal was is he could only get him laced because he wasn't in the greatest shape at that point. This is well past his WCW run. He was just doing the Indies. But yeah, we we were gonna steal them, but he never took them off. And and honestly, I'm glad we didn't do it because that's that's a shitty rib. And that's that's a that's not a good rib. And it's it it w shows how green we were. It's it's it's a funny idea, but it wouldn't have been funny in application of it. I mean, that's stealing somebody's boots. That's not cool. And I don't I don't recommend that. That was just something that we came up with as a rib, and it just turns out it wasn't funny. So, you know, you have that a lot, that uh things, you know, seemed funny at the time, but just aren't really that funny to, you know, in reality.
Lance Erickson In Nashville And More Towns
On 7898, I'm back in Nashville, Tennessee for Music City Wrestling TV. This time I have another new name, Lance Erickson versus Dusty Dotson. And I won that match and I made 40 bucks. And you're thinking, well, we've heard that name before, Lance Ericsson. Well, yes, the Lance Erickson in West Virginia got his name because I had used his name used the name Lance Erickson in Nashville, and it was part of the angle. And we'll tell that story when we get to him being a part of the book and a part of the overall story. But when I came back from or came back to Nashville, you know, Bert said, I'll give you come in and do a couple matches, and when we bring you back, we'll give you a gimmick. Well, that gimmick was Lance Erickson. He liked that name, and that's the new name that he gave me. This time I was figured in and was part of the whole deal. And I worked Dusty Dotson, who was there a lot. I can't really remember much about Dusty, but I know he was there and was one of the guys that was featured on TV every week, and he basically put me over on TV. So it it's wild. But yeah, Lance Erickson from West Virginia got his name because I was given the name Lance Erickson in Nashville, Tennessee when we did the big angle with me and Rocky Blankenship, which is Lance Erickson's real name, where he was trying to become me. And we'll more on that in the future. On 71098, we were back in Kingwood, West Virginia. The Panther wrestled Scotty Blaze and lost, and then I wrestled Eddie Edmonds again and won in the main event and made, guess what? 50 bucks. So, you know, typical Kingwood, three or four hundred people, and and it was what it was, but we mean me and Eddie had a good match, me and Scotty had a good match. But I stand corrected. I said I had not been back to man, but on 71798, we did go back to man, West Virginia. So I've been there more than once. And I wrestled as myself with Mike Crosby, my buddy, who is the baseball coach. Shout out to Mike. How you doing, brother? And we wrestled Frank and Roger, Death and Destruction, to a double count out, and I made nothing for that show. They didn't pay me nothing to go all the way to man. And you know, we had a good little match. And I wanna I think that that match is on YouTube. There I think m Mike went as Mike Montana or Mike Montgomery. I think it was Mike Montana. But I'm pretty sure that match is on YouTube. If so, I will post the links to the Facebook page so everybody can see it. And it was a good little match, a long match. We got our time in. And it was good. It was very good. But yeah, I I I had gone back to man. I bring up man because I will be going back to man in July for the Street Festival, the fair that they have there every year, and I will be going this July. So I haven't been to Man in well 20 years. So at least, and that's just guesstimating. But I will be back in Mann and coming up in this July. Alright, the next contest was on 7188. I was in Lewisburg, West Virginia. I wrestled as myself versus Steve Ramsey. I won, made 50 bucks. It was an MSWA title match. And Steve was another guy that came in that we were trying to do some stuff with. Good kid, good guy. An athlete. His body wasn't the greatest, but he he looked like a man. He didn't look like a kid, but he could have a good match with you. So we we used that. Troy put him with me. And it was just another opponent to challenge. I wish we could have filmed all these. Because there's a there's a story that goes along with all of these different contenders and the MSWA title and trying to make it and all that. And we were really just trying, again, just trying to build the area, trying to get the territory up and going and running as much as humanly possible. So all right, well, we're gonna stop right there for right now.
Sponsor Plug Merch Drops And Live Dates
But this show was brought to you by W Energy Drinks. Use promo code YOURCHAMPIN at checkout for 10% off. W Energy Drinks has zero sugar, zero artificial colors or flavors, no secret formulas, no hidden ingredients, gluten-free. Equals out to about a dollar a drink compared to other drinks. It's made in the USA. What it does do is promote clean, smooth energy, sharper mental focus, again, no added sugars, and has very unique flavors. And this is built for anyone. All you have to do is put a scoop in your shaker bottle, add some water, and shake it up, and you're ready to go. Flavors include cherry lime, which is my favorite, retro rainbow sherbet, sour gummy bear, sweet and sour blue ras, Japanese yuzu, Japanese soda, s'mores, lunar strawberry margarita, push and punch, beach and peach, and much more. It's about 150 milligrams of caffeine per serving. They ship worldwide, ready to mix anywhere that you you want to do this. And it's made for anyone. So I try this stuff out. It is a godsend. It really gets me past the uh afternoon where I get really tired from being up so early and dealing with the puppies and working, and it really gives me a boost in the afternoon. Be sure to check out all of our social medias. It is making the towns on Facebook. Follow me there, as well as Brian Logan on Facebook. Also Brian Logan Making the Towns on Instagram, find me there. We talked about the YouTube I Am Your Champion exclamation point on YouTube. Please subscribe and hit the bell. I am your champion on TikTok and on X or Twitter, whatever you call it. Three Crows Entertainment at LoganYourChamp. But all the socials are on IAMYourChampion.com. So if you want to if you don't want to remember all these handles, but you want to stay up to date with everything we're doing, then go to IamYourChampion.com and right there on the front page down at the bottom, it has links to all the social media as well as W. W, I don't think I gave you the address before, W.g. Be sure to put in the promo code Your Champion at checkout for 10%. I know I'm all over the place, but just go to I amyourchampion.com on the home page. They have right there all the social media links. Just click on the button as well as a way to get to check out Dubby. But also go over and check out our store. We have a lot of cool stuff on the store. We've been talking about the slam buddies, and they are really cool. They're little plushies that look like me. They did a great job making these things, especially the tattoos. The tattoos are on point. I don't know how they got the tattoos on these plushies, but they are identical to my tattoos. But we've been saying if you want them, get them. Well, there are four left. One, two, three, four. So if you want a plushie, now is the time to get it. We will not be ordering any more of these plushies. We are retiring this item. So these are the last four in captivity. If you want them, then you know now's your time to go get it. These will not last. I have a couple of live shows coming up, and I guarantee they will be gone. So if you're hearing this and you want one of the Brian Logan plushies, go immediately to the store and order you one because there will not be any more after. Like I'm gonna be doing the Bash and Beckley here in a couple weeks, and I guarantee they will not make it past the Bash and Beckley. So if you want them, now's now is your time to get that. Speaking of the Bash and Beckley, let's go over my schedule real quick. Well, let me finish telling you about the store store first. I'm all over the place today. It's it's a weird day. I got a lot going on, but also we have pictures, we have the congregation book, which I think is the best thing I've ever written there. But we have ring used memorabilia. Some of the Damien boots and Damien outfits are there, some of the ring-used belts are there, a ring jacket that I wore that is a tribute to Jimmy Valiant. That's all on there for sale. Even if you're not interested in buying, go over and take a look at them. They're really cool merchandise, ring-used items, and they're kind of cool to look at. But if you are a collector, these are some one-of-the-kind things that are they're not gonna last very long. Some of them are gonna be gone soon. The Smoky Mountain jacket, which is a black jacket with white lettering, that the only the office got the blacks. This is the last one in captivity. This is the last known Smoky Mountain jacket. It's for sale. It will go soon. I've already had some inquiries about it. If if you're looking for an item like this, now is the time to get it. Like I said, it is the last one, and when it is gone, it is like the plushies. It is gone for forever. So go over and check out the shop at IamYourChampion.com. Alright, now let's talk about where I will be. Coming up in June, on June 12th, I will be in Sawyersville, Kentucky for Wildfire Championship Wrestling. And on June 13th, I will be at the Bash in Beckley for the big event there for All-Star Wrestling. Huge card at the Bash in Beckley coming up next month. Lots of stars, just tons of stars. You go over to All-Star Wrestling on Facebook and take a look at all the stars that are going to be there. Just tons and tons of people. Huge, huge card. It is the biggest event every year in West Virginia history. And I know that it gets banned around a lot, but Gary Damron and C M P. New do a wonderful job of promoting. And they are they're bringing in everybody, just everybody to be on this thing. And as they do every year. And it's shaping up to be wonderful. And I will be there signing at the meet and greet and uh during the event. And I'm looking so forward to seeing all my buddies there, seeing Gary and seeing Stephen again. But yeah, the Bash and Beckley, Saturday, June 13th at the Raleigh County Convention Center in Beckley, West Virginia. The night before, we will be at the Lloyd M. Hall Community Center on the 12th in Sawyersville, Kentucky, for wildfire championship wrestling. So that's where you'll see me coming up in the next couple of weeks. And looking forward to everything. So as usual, we are in Pirate Flag Radio in the Radio King app. And again, we have our sister show, The Ride Home with Dallas Danger. There's no paywall for this podcast now. It was on Patreon before. It is now free to everybody. And check it out. It's an interesting concept. If you enjoy this show, Dallas asks a lot of questions, and we go through and really expand on some of the stories. And we just have a few laughs and just sit down and talk with each other. And it's a good, it's a good little sister show. So I just want to thank you for tuning in. And I'm Brian Logan, and we'll see you next week. 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.
