WRESTLE FAN FEST

PRO WRESTLING HERO OF THE WEEK
BRYAN DANIELSON




IDIOT OF THE WEEK or "A for EFFORT??


WrestleFanFest
This weekend was a roller coaster of emotions for me attending the WrestleFanFest. For those that know me, you know I can be a human emotional roller coaster. I can laugh, I can be happy, I can be angry and I can cry. I think I did a little of each this weekend and I'll explain them to you as well as the APW involvement with WrestleFanFest.

BEGINNING
Our Involvement with WrestleFan Fest
From the very beginning (back in March or April), we were asked to get involved with this show and help out with the wrestling and the production. There were behind-the-scenes stuff that just didn't permit us to commit to any of it. First off, without talking to us first, they put our logo up on their website and declared us as a sponsor. We had them remove the sponsor. Black Pants Production produced a nice, clean website for them and they chose not to utilize the services. It was done out of good faith to show we were on board. Many of us were very skeptical. I was not happy after being told I had made a prank phone call to Chris's uncle to say something about Kirk White. Shades of Jasmin St. Clair and the BTW outdoor show and my problems with her and Blue Meanie and Kirk. NEVER HAPPENED! Neither incident!

Several months later, we were asked to visit the Cow Palace and check out the venue and talk about the setup and production. As you well know, the production at APW shows has been awesome at all of our live events whether it was Kezar, King City, one of the many fund-raisers, King of Indies and Gym Wars. I think you get the picture. We were told Friday evening would host an MMA PPV event and on Saturday a pro major pro wrestling show. We were hoping somewhere during the 3 days, we could do another King of Indies or even a ChickFight. There was an $80,000 budget for production. At this point, I thought they were in over their heads but Chris Salisbury indicated he had financial partners and lots of marketing and sponsors. My guess is they might have had a $250k to $300k budget. Even with sponsors, it would be tough to produce enough ticket revenue because the San Francisco Bay Area has not been supportive of pro wrestling since the Roy Shire days although WWE still can draw in San Jose but they are weak in S.F. and Oakland and have not done the major venues in those cities for quite some time now. I thought it would have been costly just to produce a production budget. Several weeks prior to the event, we were asked to handle the locker room. If individuals from APW wanted to do that, they were welcome but I personally did not want to go near the locker room. Too many egos and I had a fear that if payoffs could not be produced for the boys, lots of the heat would go on us. They made other arrangements with someone else to man the locker room and I feel they did an outstanding job considering the turmoil. Chris called a week prior to the event and asked if we were going to take advantage of having a FREE vendor booth for Boot Camp and told us CAC would be there with a booth. I figured we might as well set up a booth for Boot Camp literature. We wanted to wait and see. Heck, even a proposal for production can be a very costly thing that Black Pants Production decided against going forward with. A couple of weeks prior to the event, even though we had decided not to be a sponsor and not handle anything, they were asking if we were at least going to take advantage of the FREE OFFER to have a VENDOR BOOTH. Heck, we weren't even sure we wanted to do that and advertise Boot Camp. You can never get enough marketing but the Boot Camp had been on a very nice 9 month run with sign-ups and it wasn't mandatory we be there but what if this event was a huge success, we could miss the boat. I personally, didn't commit to anything during that weekend. We purposely didn't schedule Gym Wars that weekend. I told all the APW wrestlers it would be smart not to make plans that weekend in case the opportunity came up to be on one of the many wrestling shows they were planning. This would be a great opportunity to showcase a wrestler's ability. Still, I hesitated on taking the FREE BOOTH because of all the negative comments on the IDIOT BOARD. As the weekend came upon us, it looked like they might pull this event off without having to cancel it.

WEEK OF BIG EVENT
As I said earlier, the week prior to the event, we were offered to run the locker room. I have enough problems dealing with the egos that exist at an Indy level. The last thing I want is booking a MUTA vs. ULTIMO DRAGON match. We turned it down. Heck, I sure wouldn't want to be the booker giving everyone their pay or NOT! Who knows if money would even be there. Even if a handsome fee was involved, I think I would have passed. Even though it never got to the money stage, I can guess there wasn't much pay involved for the position. Heck, King of Indies was a huge success other than financially and it was very well organized throughout and we found that to be a huge undertaking. Jason and Gabe were on top of everything leading up to the show and during the actual weekend because I wanted to spend as much time with the Legends. I sure didn't want the Legend wrestlers hating on me. There seemed to be at least 50 of them, maybe more. I seem to have enough people hating me (only on stupid IDIOT message boards though) At the last minute I put together whatever was needed to do the FREE BOOTH. Melissa Anderson was booked to wrestle TNA's Womens Champion, Gail Kim and Tracy Brooks. What an opportunity and I wanted to be there to witness it. I didn't care much for the legends matches other than Muta and Dragon because it involved older wrestlers who have seen their best days in the wrestling business and I didn't want to see them at this stage. Besides, that era was not my favorite pro wrestling era - from 1984 on. I have great respect for everyone that was involved but not my cup of tea. I really wasn't excited to see the AWA show but I was very much looking forward to seeing the ROH show. I had no intentions of attending the MMA show.

THE EVENT - THE WEEKEND
When we got there Friday afternoon, I was impressed. We had a booth with tables and nice blue drapes for the tables. There were many vendors there selling anything from t-shirts to DVD's to memorabilia. They had a wrestling ring and a six sided octagon set up in the exhibition hall. There was also an autograph/picture section that went across the entire back of the building. The ring looked good in the Cow Palace arena and there was a huge stage just the way we had recommended with huge sponsor signage from an energy drink company. When Roy Shire ran the Cow Palace from 1961 to 1980, there was a huge platform riser that the wrestling ring sat on. Not only was the ring on this riser but the first two rows of VIP Ringside was on the riser although the side closest to the dressing rooms had a press table in front of their row of chairs right up against the ring while the other 3 sides had some space between the ring and the 1st row so wrestlers could land. The ring announcer, time keeper, doctor and the print press and television press sat there along with special guests from the wrestlers. Yes, I sat there from time to time because I used to babysit the Rock and that was the least Rocky Johnson could do for me. (yeah I know, here goes the Rock story again - you'll hear it till I die) I don't know if Roy Shire built that platform or if it belonged to the Cow Palace but that was missing for this weekend events. I looked up and noticed a huge grid of lights that did their job of only lighting up the ring and the first two rows. All footage shot at this event should not have any fans visible or rows of empty seats visible past row 3. There was roughly 500 for the Friday Legends show and around 350 for the ROH show. The MMA show was cancelled but might have had even less fans than any of the wrestling shows. That I don't understand.

FRIDAY NIGHT LEGEND SHOW
The show was very well organized and everything was smooth sailing with the exception of lack of fans and lack of money to pay those promised to be paid. Jay Cohen was the #1 assistant for Chris Salisbury. He approached me in the locker room and told me there was an AWA Legends reunion on Sunday in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and that is the reason only 2 AWA wrestlers showed up. He tried to tell me if I knew how to run the wrestling business and make stars, I would bring APW wrestlers on Saturday and Sunday and have them in the booth because that is how you build names. He said they could then wrestle on Sunday. He said the budget was tight and there was no budget! I laughed and told him wrestlers names are built through television. Only because I knew the reason there was no AWA wrestlers was because of lack of pay in advance or lack of flights. The two guys who were there were really good dudes and could work. I liked them. I was against the APW guys wrestling on Sunday but Gabe made a great point and said no everyone has an opportunity to wrestle in the Internationally famous Cow Palace and you never know who might be watching. Gabe made a great decision because the wrestlers were happy to do it and everyone had good matches and Jeckles and Dylan Drake might have been the show stealer although I tend to be partial, LOL.

APW BOOT CAMP BOOTH
The APW BOOT CAMP booth went well. We had many fans come up and say hello. Many recognized me from Beyond the Mat. I always get the same question at these types of events - "What ever happened to the 2 guys in the movie with you, did they ever make it". I don't give them details but I explain a little to them about what they have each done since the movie. Many talk about the great APW live shows and ask when we are returning to Kezar or Terra Nova High School in Pacifica. Some tell me they attend GYM WARS in Hayward on a regular basis. I recognize some and others not. For those that have never been, I try to recruit them to attend but tell them to be prepared to be hooked. The fun part about these things is saying hello to everyone you haven't seen in ages or avoiding the ones you dislike. Okay here goes:

THE GOOD

1. BLUE MEANIE - Yes, we talk. We made up at a UPW show years ago. He is no longer with Jasmine St. Clair but tells me he now knows I had nothing to do with her getting pulled at the BTW show. As good as he looked at one time, the Blue Meanie that was over in ECW is the Blue Meanie you see now. He had a funny entertaining match with Al Snow as his partner. I never knew this but Al Snow actually trained Blue Meanie. You see, you never stop learning in this business. Yes, HEAD was in attendance and he was over like a million dollars!

2. CHAVO GUERRERRO SR. - It took a while for him to recognize me but when he finally did, we shared a nice hug and smile. When I was young, we used to round up the arena rats and get the boys and have a huge party at my house on Cow Palace weekend. I'd always figure out a way to get the house to myself. Chavo was drawing huge money at the time in L.A. with Roddy Piper. We are standing around drinking beer at one of these parties before any of the girls had gotten there and he turns to me and my friend and says, "I know why you guys invite the boys to these parties. You wouldn't be able to get with the girls without us". My response was "Chavo, I know you draw big money in L.A. with Piper wrestling for Mike LaBelle but this is Roy Shire territory and you are still working your way up here and if you look around the room, you'll notice you ain't drawing shit so we must have invited the wrong wrestlers". He laughed although inside, he might have been pissed but he was cool because he depended on me to get him to the airport. He actually remembered that story this weekend because I had to get up with only 2 hours sleep and get him to the airport for a 7 am flight to L.A By the way, what a thrill it had to be for APW's Chicano Flame to be in the Indy Battle Royal with him. I am glad that took place because Chicano Flame is a good guy and Chavo had to be a childhood idol of his.

3. DAWNA MARIE: I had met her in 1999 at a PCW Blaine DeSantis promotion in Philadelphia. Christopher Daniels, Michael Modest and Tony Jones were booked on the card. That was the night I first took my shirt off and challenged Lou Albano. Hell, I stole the gimmick of taking the shirt off from Lou - he was the originator. Even if his belly isn't bigger than mine, it is certainly older! Anyhow, Marie was a sweetheart and was dating Lance Diamond at the time in Phily. That was the night BilJim kept avoiding me because I kept acting like I was gonna punch his lights out. I would have never done such a thing on another promoters show although I felt like it this past weekend. Marie is no longer with Diamond but they are still very close friends. She has a beautiful child age 2 and is doing very well for herself. She wants to get involved again with pro wrestling and has some modeling thing going on as well and has an agent. I wished her well. I hadn't run into her in 8 years.

MORE FAMILIAR FACES
Of course, in 2002 when we had to start from scratch, I have met many great young wrestlers who have made their way through APW and I have Gabe Ramirez and Jason Deadrich to thank for that because I may have not ever booked these guys but they are very talented and I hope they someday make some money in the business and I hope to someday see them again in APW. Many of them came up to the booth to give me a hug and shake my hand. I hope I don't forget any of them:

T. J. Perkins - Really good kid who I hope succeeds. He is one tremendous technical wrestler. I wish he had more size. This kid can flat-out wrestle and is very good!

Rocky Romero - Another good kid we have used for some time now. We debuted him in King City. He has toured Japan and wrestles for NWA PRO. I hope he someday makes some money in the game. I keep harping on King of Indies but many of those guys have made money and earned a living. It is always nice, even if we don't train them it is nice to know we had the eye for their talent and used them and it is so much fun when you get to see them make it.

Chris Hero - When we brought him into Kezar for a 3 way with MPT and JJ Perez, I was disappointed in his match and ability but Jason was very high on Chris. I can see how after the Sunday ROH show. Hero is very good and is a tremendous athlete and can work and entertain a crowd. He has a new look, a better body and better wrestling wear and has a manager who fits well with what he does. His match was very entertaining and my favorite match other than the Bryan Danielson match.

Delirious: It was nice to have him recognize me in the lobby and shake my hand. I hardly had a chance to talk to him or watch his match when he appeared in Kezar. The guy is full of energy and seems to be an athlete but something is missing and I can't figure out what. Nice guy who if he continues to work hard might go far.

Claudio (I won't try to spell his last name) - He also had a very impressive match. My 3rd favorite match. I already knew he could wrestle. In his match at Gym Wars with MPT, it seemed like he could work and I was impressed but I saw so much more last night. Some fans are complaining that he cut his hair. I can go either way and actually think the short hair gives him a good look. I really like the way the fans react to him and his interaction with them. I'd like to bring him in again but the ROH fans are so much more educated to what he does than the APW fans that he will probably always be more entertaining to the ROH fans.

Brent Albright - Another guy that this money hungry carny taught for FREE. He came recommended by Modest and Morgan because of his physique. He was from Oklahoma and had relocated to train with APW. He was then having some girlfriend problems and relocated back to Oklahoma. He called later looking to get booked in Pro Wrestling Noah but Modest didn't feel he would fit in with Noah and I didn't either. Looks like ROH might give him a push. For those that don't know, this 1999 APW BOOT CAMP graduate briefly appeared in WWE as Gunner Scott on Smackdown.

The most enjoyable to see:

4. BRYAN DANIELSON: We talked the longest at the booth and then again after the ROH show. He was our Head Trainer for 8 months back in 2002. He lived with me for the entire 8 months and as much as I hated to lose him as a trainer, I recommended he go to the Inoki Dojo because I felt it would open doors for him. I remember him as a simple guy. I am glad I was able to provide him the opportunity to train our students and learn the APW methods while putting some money away and enabling him to make that relocation to Los Angeles happen. He truly isn't in this business for the money because between Steven Regal and the guy who trained him, Shawn Michaels, I am sure he can go to WWE anytime he is ready to make serious money. Bryan wants to have fun while he can and he loves to wrestle and wrestle he did Sunday night. Him and Airies had a match that was one of the better I have seen in a very long time. I was also very impressed with Airies. They had chemistry. Sometimes we all get so busy, we lose touch and I had lost touch with Dragon. I even had a fear there might be some heat as sometimes the heat comes out of nowhere but I don't think that is the case. He smiled the whole time we talked. He was the one that brought a tear to my eye after his match. I didn't even train the guy but I lived with him and he was our trainer with Robert Thompson for 8 months and I watched him closely. He is a serious student of the game and that is why he is on top and will always be on top. The guy eats right, lifts right, does his cardio and watches tons of footage. I remember one time him asking me into his bedroom to watch some footage and I swear, he must have had 200 VHS tapes stacked against the walls. He told me to say hello to Robert Thompson and they were good together and people don't realize how special they had it during the time period in 2002 when they were both Co-Head Trainers. They got along really well. Gabe Ramirez has wanted to bring him in for the longest time now but we just can't get the schedules to mesh and I am sure finding him a very good opponent is important since J. J. Perez is still on the injured list. I wouldn't even be against bringing him into a Gym Wars but if we did that, we'd never announce it. It would be a total surprise like A.J. Styles a few years ago. I whispered in his ear last night after his match that he was the Karl Gotch of this modern era and it brought a smile to his face. Great to see him again and hasn't lost a beat in the ring and has actually improved his game.

THE BAD
There was some sissy there that I tried to avoid because this guy posted more crap on message boards about APW and after all these years, I still have some anger in me about him. The more I saw him during the weekend, the more I wanted to beat his ass. I had to somehow get it out of my system but I know better than to deck a lawyer or wrestle a lawyer to the ground. Therefore, I went up to him respectfully and shook his hand and told him what an honor it was to see him again and how I wanted to beat his ass. I kept hoping he'd hit me or at least squeeze my hand back stiffly. I'm glad I did it and it is now out of my system and I have probably put some closure on it. If I were to have a SUPER IDIOT AWARD, he would win it in a landslide!

I even ran into someone who still owed me for an $80 ring bell going back to 1999. I think he finally realized what getting stiffed is all about because I don't think he got paid for his services of renting the ring to WrestleFanFest. Can you imagine, they wanted to rent my ring and I almost choked at the offer. I would have really choked when I got the stiffola (is that a word?)

Overall, I am glad I enjoyed the weekend. It was very tiring but it was well worthwhile. I know there has to be many angry vendors. I know there has to be many angry fans. I know there has to be many angry wrestlers. For those wrestlers that are a big enough name to demand their pay up-front, they made out and they went out of their way to please the fans. For those that aren't a big enough name but demand half up-front and the other half on arrival, they might have gotten stiffed and they still went out of their way to please the fans and you have to tip your hats to them. I know some were saying TNA all got paid but that isn't necessarily true. Some are under lucrative contracts that keep them booked on the weekend doing Indies as well as the TNA bookings and TNA gets their fees up-front and gives the wrestlers a small piece of the booking. There are other TNA wrestlers that are not under any such contract and book themselves out and keep all the money and TNA doesn't get any, they might have gotten the stiffola (I love that word right now). The vendors couldn't sell enough because of lack of fans and many fans paid some steep prices for some nice VIP packages and some of those were not delivered and I feel for them.


THE UGLY
Shane Kody and I spoke for the first time in 16 years. We actually had a conversation that lasted over 10 minutes and I have to say it made me feel good. I never knew the guy talked. Can you imagine him being a local Indy Icon and us never speaking. I used to fear he disliked me and would wack me with his chain or cowbell so I never go around this guy. His dad Woody Farmer wrestled for Roy Shire in the 70's and was known as a Strongman. Actually, Shane is much uglier in his wrestling gear than he is wheeling his father around in a wheelchair.

MORE GOOD
I personally can't say anything bad about the promotion or Chris Salisbury because APW never got the stiffola. But, they sure tried to give us the ole stiffola. APW got a free booth. I got to again see some old acquaintances. Melissa Anderson got in the ring with some great TNA talent and to the best of my knowledge got paid. Lastly, some APW wrestlers got to wrestle in the Cow Palace, an arena with great pro wrestling history. For the AWA show, they were short on some talent because the AWA was having a huge reunion in Milwaukee on Sunday or was that the Jay Cohen story so the APW wrestlers could make a name for themselves, LOL. APW had Chicano Flame in the 2nd match which was a decent match. The semi-main event might have stolen the show when the rookies Dylan Drake and Jeckles the Jester tangled in the squared circle and it was a match that impressed the likes of Larry Zabysco (sp). I thought it was Dylan Drakes best match to date and one of Jeckles top 3 as he has only had one bad match since making his pro debut. I thought the Main Event tag-team match was very good that included Tito Aquino and Brian Cage vs EGO with Nathan Rulez and Derek Sanders. You can thank the people at www.ClickWrestle.com and www.Onestopwrestleshop.com who were kind enough and fast enough to already have a link up for the Jeckles match on our message boards. Thanks to Shannon Ramirez and one of our students Jody Kristofferson for their help in the booth. Jody also helped put the ring back up Saturday night after they had torn down the Octagon. Speaking of the ring, I understand Highspots did some sort of barter for their ring in return for booth space and sponsorship but that ring was not in good shape and I can only be thankful that none of the wrestlers got hurt. That seems the second time I have seen a problem with their rings. Their rings seem great because they go up so fast and tear down so fast but the craftsmanship might leave something to be desired. I know some welding on a pole had to be done before an APW show in Bakersfield and OneStop got stuck with the bill. Thanks to Marcus Mac for his help as ring announcer for the Friday night Legends show. He did a very good job in the house that Ray Stevens built. I understand Melissa was very popular at the autograph table as well and we thank her for her appearances. Thanks to Gabe Ramirez for his help on Sunday booking the APW matches.

THE FINISH
In closing one has to wonder what would have happened had APW been more involved with this event. It still may have been a financial disaster but one thing for sure, it would have been a much more organized event from autograph sessions to photos, to the wrestling although Dave Marquez from NWA Pro did an outstanding job with the legends show and I can't begin to tell you how rough a job that had to have been in a locker room that had angry wrestlers not being paid.

QUESTIONS
What will WrestleFanFest have done to Northern California Pro Wrestling? What will have it done to Pro Wrestling in general. Why aren't wrestling fans more supportive in California of pro wrestling? California fans were very supportive in the 60's and 70's. There were commercials, there were posters, there were sponsors. Did they still make money because of budget cutbacks? Did they lose money? Will the authorities come down on the promoters? Will this enhance the chances of pro wrestling being once again regulated? When you combine, the drug and alcohol problems that exist and have caused many deaths with shady promoters, what will this do to the industry? What will it do to the autograph business. There are still some very reputable Fan Fest promoters that make money and do it honorably with good intentions and are very organized. Kirk White always does a great job with his Fan Fests and he doesn't bit off more than he can chew. Was this an innocent mistake or was there intent to fraud? Only time will tell.

THANKS
I personally thank Chris for the opportunities presented to APW whether we took advantage of them or not. I don't know whether we should be flattered by the opportunities presented to us or be offended that maybe we would have been taken advantage of had we participated more than we did. I hope everything turns out for the best for everyone that was hurt by this event.