BAW Show 2/Portland Trip
Ok, since ECW is on and I'm just sitting here and watching it, I have some time to post about me working the most recent BAW show.
I flew out of Sacramento, really really early Friday (1/26) morning. Before my flight, I saw this big Samoan guy who looked really familar. He was on my flight, I couldn't put my finger on it, but he looked really really familar. Anyways, I let it go and we flew out of California a little before 6:30 in the morning. I got into Portland a little after 8 and Portland's airport is FREAKING huge! I couldn't believe how big it was, I felt like I was in a mall. I waited outside for my shuttle under these space heaters the airport has and after half an hour of waiting, I went to my hotel. My hotel room was ok, nothing special about it, I tried taking a nap as I didn't get much sleep Thursday night. The problem was, the hotel was putting new carpet in the rooms...and they happen to be putting new carpet in the room across mine. So sleep was pretty much out of the question. So after waiting a little while, Helfyre called me up to let me know he was picking me up and we headed to BAW in McMinnville a little before 4 in the afternoon......and we hit traffic all the way there. What should have been about an hour drive, turned into a two hour and 10 minute drive, granted we had to make a sidestop due to Helfyre forgetting his music and had to get a cd for the show, but it still took a lot longer to get there than it should have and I thought California Bay Area traffic was horrible, I really shouldn't complain about Bay Area traffic again after sitting in Oregon traffic, that shit was insane.
Me and Helfyre got to the show a little after 6...and the show started at 7. As soon as I got in the building, I said hello to some of the BAW rookies and the booker and went right to the back to get changed quickly. I didn't know how soon they needed me, so I got changed quickly. Of course I said hello to those in the locker room before I got changed, that would have been rude if I didn't and as I was getting changed, the big samoan I saw that was on my flight that looked familar but I just couldn't put my finger on it, well he was there! Turns out, that guy is the Tonga Kid. The guy who teamed with Haku in the early 80's of the WWF and made the team of the Islanders. Really nice guy, I introduced myself and continued getting ready. He also showed up with "Count Black Pearl", which is a cousin of the Rock and Rikishi. More and more of the bigger names were showing up. Kamala showed up, along with D-Lo Brown. Both were really cool to meet. I didn't realize how tall Kamala and D-Lo actually are, both are really tall, espically Kamala.
The show started at 7 and I found out what matches I had. I had the first offical match of the night, which was a tag match between Kimo and Chico Navarro vs Cosmic River and "The Ideal Reflection" Christopher Ryseck. Kimo and Chico are actually workers from North Cal. They wrestle out of a promotion called BTW or Big Time Wrestling. Cosmic River is a maked hippie wrestler who believes in Peace and puts the peace sign of two fingers up a lot. Christopher Ryseck I met that night and I really don't know anything about his backround. His gimmick is the guy who is in love with himself gimmick. As I got into the ring before the wrestlers came out, I took a second to look at the crowd and the crowd had grown since the last show, it was at least double the size of the last show and they were loud...really loud. The tag match went well. I almost screwed up as I didn't see Cosmic's foot on the rope but I saw it as the last second and stopped my count...well ok I hesitated and slowly put my hand down to make it look like I didn't screw it up. The end of the match resulted with a double team as Kimo hit a back cracker on River and held him so Chico could hit a double stomp on River, then Kimo pinned River for the 3 count.
The 2nd match I had for the night was "Superstar" Shane Matthews vs JB Luce. I had met both these guys at the last show. This was Luce's debut match, not his debut with BAW but his first offical match altogether and Shane Matthews wrestled Micheal Blade on the last show and I got to Ref that match, so me and Shane worked together before. Shane had a lot of heat from the crowd, the crowd just hated him. The match went well for all 3 of us and the match ended up with Matthews rolling up Luce and according to the results, Shane Matthews used the ropes to help pin Luce...I didn't see it.
The was my last match for the night, which sucked because out of 9 matches and only using two Refs (me and another guy), I only got to do two matches. I was really hoping to Ref a few more matches but it happens, you learn that about wrestling. I stayed in Ref gear just in case they needed and I just stood near the enterance and watched the rest of the show on the moniters we had. I did come out for two more matches, I came out for L'Empereur vs Kamala match. I collected Emperuer's gear for him and got chased around the ring by Kamala...that was really cool for me and I also came out for the main event. The main event was a cage match, which was New Jack vs Terry Bull. I came out and set up the cage and I stood ringside, just in case anything bad was to happen. This match was crazy as all hell.
It started with Terry Bull attacking New Jack during Jack's enterance, which spilled out to the crowd. After a few minutes and after both men were busted open, Terry Bull and New Jack got into the cage and I locked the door so they couldn't get out. The match ended with New Jack pinning Terry Bull after hitting a suplex on him. Yeah I know what your thinking "A suplex?" and let me take a second to explain why it was off a suplex, both guys beat the living hell out of each other with weapons and in the cage, it wasn't a pretty sight, there was really nothing more they could have done to finish it, so thats how it ended. Besides NEW JACK DID A F'N SUPLEX! How often do you see Jack wrestle?
After the show was over, myself and Helfyre geared up and got ready to go. Oh and before I forget Helfyre had a match as well. He wrestled a triple threat agasint D-Lo Brown and Count Black Pearl. All 3 guys had a good match that the fans ate up. As me and Helfyre were getting ready to leave, Tonga Kid asked if we could give anyone a ride and then the game of musical passengers. First were two luchadores and ater a few minutes, it turned out the two luchadores had a ride, so they switched cars. The next two people were Rikishi and Count Black Pearl. Oh yeah! Rikishi was also on the show, I just didn't get to talk to him much but when I did talk to him, he was a nice guy. So after a few minutes later, we found out we actually weren't going to give Rikishi and Black Pearl a ride to the hotel. The game of musical passengers was pretty much over so Helfyre started backing out of the parking lot and as we were backing up we noticed New Jack and D-lo was in the parking lot, kinda walking around aimlessly. Helfyre asked if they needed a ride and they did. D-Lo had to get to the airport as he had a late flight and New Jack needed a ride to the hotel. So now D-Lo Brown and New Jack are in the same car as I am! I'm secretly marking out in my head.
The car ride to the airport in Portland was a lot of fun. D-Lo and New Jack told stories from Smokey Mountain and their time with TNA and we all joked with one another. At one point I got ribbed because the windows were fogging up in the back (5 people in a car can do that) and for some reason my window looked like some kind of Zebra pattern and everyone in the car ribbed me about how I was freaking them out making the window like that. We also stopped so D-Lo and New Jack could grab a beer. I got to share a beer with New Jack as drinking wasn't good for him that night as he lost a LOT of blood due to the cage match. After about an hour of driving, we dropped D-lo off at the airport in Portland, about half an hour before his flight was about to take off. It was funny watching D-lo speed walk into the airport as he was somewhat drunk off the 40oz he had bought and drank very quickly. As we were pulling away, New Jack rolled down the back window and started yelling to D-lo "D-LO YOU FORGOT YOUR BEER!" over and over again, it was great.
After dropping off D-lo, Helfyre and New Jack wanted to get something to eat, I asked Helfyre if he could drop me off as I had to get up early so I could catch my flight and wanted to get some sleep but New Jack wanted me to come and eat with them and I can't really say no to New Jack, so I went with them. When we got to the resturant, New Jack got a phone call and it went like this "Hey!"...."your kidding?"....*new Jack puts the phone down and a bit and looks at Helfyre* "Can you pick up D-lo, he missed his flight." So off Helfyre went to pick up D-lo as myself and New Jack got a table. As we waited, me and New Jack talked about wrestling and how it was a bit surreal for me to be hanging out with him and D-lo. He told me a story about him and Kamala and we discussed about how he was going to be running a school soon and invited me to come out and visit sometime. Yes New Jack is going to be running a pro wrestling school soon, and he actually plans on training on wrestling. Jack knows how to wrestle...he just doesn't use it very often in his matches. After a little bit, D-lo and Helfyre returned and joined us. Turns out D-lo had the wrong time for his flight and was actually 10 minutes late for his flight. So we all sat down and had dinner..well Breakfest for me as it was late enough to where it was time for a early morning/late night breakfest. After eating and talking some more, we all finished and left the restuarant and I got dropped off at my hotel and of course I said my good byes to D-lo, New Jack, and Helfyre.
As soon as I got back into my hotel, I took a quick shower to make sure all the blood was off of me and then went to sleep. I had to get up early to catch my flight back to CA as I had the CCW show still to do. Which will be told in my next blog, which I promise will be up in the next day or two.....at least before the weekend.
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