WRESTLING IN EVANSVILLE
It's back to the basics, on Wendesday nights!
When I am not in Japan, I try to stay at home as much as possible. I still accept bookings from independent promoters, but my time at home is limited so I try not to do to much. However, no matter what, when I am at home, I still go to Evansville Indiana every Wednesday night to wrestle in the EVANSVILLE COLISEUM, the building where I had my very first match for the USWA.
In 1990, I called, then booker of the USWA, EDDIE GILBERT and ask him for some work. I didn't really expect to get it, but I thought that I had to try. It just so happened that the very next Wednesday night, the USWA was running a big special event in Memphis, at the Mid-South Coliseum, with a big card (they ran the Mid-South Coliseum every Monday night in those days) and they needed most of their guys in Memphis, and needed some fill-ins for the regular Wednesday night town of Evansville Indiana.
Evansville is about a 2 and 1/2 hour drive from my house, which in wrestling terms is a very short trip. I was so excited the whole trip that it seemed like it lasted only a few minutes. Since most of their guys were in Memphis that night, we had a small card. Bill Dundee was there. Dirty White Boy Tony Anthony was there. Doug Gilbert was there, and then they had three fill-in guys. I was there, along with two other "unknowns" from the Nashville area. That's seven guys total and they needed six matches. We all wrestled in single matches and came back in tag matches and I think that there was even a battle royal at the end of the show. Not the biggest and best beginning, but it sure was a start.
Of course, the USWA is no longer in business, and they actually stopped running the Evansville Coliseum several years ago. Since then, many promoters have tried, and usually failed, to run this town every week. The people of Evansville are very lucky that wrestling has been able to stay there, for the last couple of years, eventhough it has had it's ups and downs.
A promoter by the name of SHELBY ADCOCK runs the building now, every Wednesday. Shelby is an old-timer that still believes in wrestling and still believes that if you give the audience a good show, they will come back every week. Most of the time it works. I have been going there for a couple of years and some weeks, you think that you are not coming back, no matter how much you get paid. But this past week was such a pleasant change, it really helped my attitude.
I am only in for a copuple of weeks (I return to Japan right away) and I didn't really even want to go to Evansville, but they needed me, so I half-heartedly went. This week, it was much improved. My tag partner was TRACY SMOTHERS. Also on the card was STEVEN DUNN & RENO RIGGINS. Add these guys to the regulars like, Vic "the bruiser" Lewis, and The Phantoms and suddenly the locker room wasn't filled with trainees and guys that should be buying tickets, rather than driving fans away with their lack of ability, now, IT WAS FUN!!! Don't get me wrong, there are some good young trainees there, but they are a long way from truly being "smart" to the wrestling business, and it was such a pleasure to talk with guys like Tracy and Steve and Reno.
The matches were pretty good this night. Even the young trainees worked at the limit of their abilities (and some of these young guys can really fly). My whole attitude changed a lot. The ride home, with the Phantoms and Vic the Bruiser was even better, because we had all been in a real wrestling locker room for a change.
I guess that I am spoiled by going to Japan. All of the Japanese wrestlers are true professionals, They don't run around talking about "what move they saw on t.v. this week", or showing off their latest homemade "championship belt". These guys are real wrestlers. I remember being in the SMOKY MTN. locker room and what fun it was with guys like Ricky Morton and Tom Prichard, Buddy Landell, Tommy Rich, Diry White Boy, Tracy Smothers, and the list goes on. They were true professionals. Same in the ECW locker room, and of course the old USWA locker room was good. But, on so many of the independent shows you go to, the back room is filled with wrestlers that are bigger "marks" than the fans are. It really is bad. Now, I am not trying to say anything bad about the fans, it's the guys in the back that show their inexperience that is so bad in a lot of cases. I mean, when you are just a small time independent wrestler, working for gas money (or less) you really don't need to have a NAME for YOUR finishing move. Get with it.
But back to the story. Thank you Tracy Smothers and Steven Dunn and Reno Riggins for reminding me that there are still true professionals here in the states, on the independent scene. Hell, next week, I might even do an arm drag!
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