Daltons drawing plenty of heat in the AWF

By Jay Felsberg

Correspondent

“Drawing heat” in wrestling terms, basically means two individuals or groups raising a fuss with one another. Nobody draws more heat from the fans of the American Wrestling Federation than the Dirty Daltons.

Jesse and Steve Dalton, and valet Renee are the new AWF Tag-Team Champions after defeating Chief Little Bear and a young replacement June 21 in Chipley. For the Daltons the win made it worth all of their efforts in the AWF.

“The AWF Tag-Team Championship is the one and only reason we are here”, said Jesse Dalton. “We wanted those belts”!

The Daltons lost their first attempt at the tag title in Chipley on June 7, but to hear the Daltons tell the story, it was the result of cheating by Little Bear and Quapone.

“They cheated on us and hit us with our own cowbell”, Steve said.

“I slipped and was hit with our own cowbell”, Jesse said.

True, some fans may be confused by seeing the Daltons use their regular stalling tactics to begin a match, or their constantly distracting one opponent to gang up on another, or attacking their opponents (with Renee’s help) while they lie helpless outside the ring, or using their cowbell and rope on an opponent, and think that the Daltons are “cheating”. Not so, according to Jesse and Steve, it is merely great tag-team wrestling.

Whether the fans hate the Daltons for cheating, the fact is that the Daltons are an accomplished tag team that demonstrates smooth, skilled teamwork. Both are professional wrestling veterans. Jesse has about 15 years of experience and Steve has 12 years as a professional. Both are well known to local wrestling fans.

“I came up through Continental Wrestling when David Woods owned it”, Jesse said. Jesse wrestled in Continental through its various names, in USA Wrestling (formerly carried on Channel 18), and in WCW, WWF and many other independent promotions. Fans will remember Jesse as the Rock-N’-Roll Rebel and as Aracnaman in Brand A in the WCW. Steve grew up watching wrestling and got into the sport through friends.

The present team started about eight months ago with XW-2000 in Pensacola. “This is the new, improved Daltons”, Steve said.

The “new, improved” Daltons maintain that they have no need to cheat, because they are among the most brilliant wrestling teams. In fact, they said they demand total silence from the fans when they come to the ring to allow their incredible minds to work as they prepare their master plan for a match.

“We are wrestling geniuses”, Jesse Dalton said, “and we don’t need the booin’, bellerin’ and bitchin’ of a bunch of ignorant, dirt farmin’ South Alabama and North Florida rednecks to interrupt us while we think. The fans just need to shut up and watch the greatest tag team in the world”.

“Heck, they ought to be proud just to be around us”, said Steve Dalton.