Cherry Mania

[Guest Doyo]

wrestlingobserver.com

"A show called Cherry Mania 2003 takes place on 7/5 in Traverse City, MI features Jim Duggan, Warlord, Barbarian, Rock & Roll Express, Kamala, Larry Zbyszko, Jimmy Valiant, Bobby Eaton and Dan Severn"

 

With a name like Cherry Mania taking place in a town named Traverse City and with those

wrestlers, this must be another sign of the apocolypse.

[Guest ShooterJay]

You know, I've always had a dream to book a show with nothing but the absolute shittiest "big name" wrestlers still active, and see what it would draw, and if the tapes would sell.

 

Looks like somebody beat me to it.

[Guest Doyo]

Me want tape! Actually, I bet the Rock N' Rolls and Eaton can still wrestle better than

a lot of the WWE guys.

[Guest nl5xsk1]

Me want tape! Actually, I bet the Rock N' Rolls and Eaton can still wrestle better than

a lot of the WWE guys.

Eaton wouldn't surprise me, but there's no way Morton and Gibson are any good. They were bad when Vince let Cornette do that NWA reprise like 6 years ago, so can't see them having improved with age.

[Guest Rob Edwards]

Heroes of Wrestling 2 anyone?

[Guest Dynamite Kido]

Heroes of Wrestling 2 anyone?

don't you mean Anti-heroes of Wrestling???

[Guest Rob Edwards]

nah they were heroes to other workers for making everyone elses shows look good

[Guest Doyo]

The show turned out even weirder than expected:

 

 

 

INDY PROMOTER FOUND DEAD FOLLOWING FIRST SHOW

by Jim Hall, 1wrestling.com

 

Cadillac, MI - Independent wrestling promoter Darlene 'Jersey' Brown was found dead at her home in Mesick, MI on Saturday from a gunshot wound. Brown ran her first show under the Global Professional Wrestling Entertainment banner near Traverse City on Saturday, July 5th. She had previously worked with Bill Sextons UWF in marketing his show in Mesick on May 10th of this year.

 

The show Saturday, Cherrymania, was marked by controversy. Nearly everybody, from talent to the fairgrounds to the ring crew to the t-shirt supplier were paid by check. Wexford County sheriffs deputies confiscated as many of the check as they could locate on Sunday morning. Ms. Brown was found at her home later that morning following a call to local officials. No further details on the shooting are available at this time.

 

Many vendors, who paid between $200 and $1,000 for spots at the event based on promised ticket sales between 3,400 and 7,500, were upset. The show drew fewer than 120 fans for a nostalgia based legends of wrestling card. It was learned during the event that Brown's check to the fairgrounds was not legitimate. This led to a number of the workers questioning Brown about their pay.

 

Many workers had their travel arrangements changed by Brown, reportedly due to poor pre-sales figures. This was a red flag to many as tickets were only available through the Tickets Plus service which does not pay out to the promoter until after the event.

[Guest Markingout]

Somebody shot her because the show sucked cock.

[Guest ShooterJay]

I was looking through Colt Cabana's website today, and he did a commentary on this event:

 

It’s obvious by now that my commentaries are few and far between. A lot of great things have happened to me since my last writings, yet I was too lazy to write about them. I won some belts, I started w/ a very promising promotion, and made a lot of new friends. This column though isn’t to put myself over(this specific one I mean!!)

 

The day I got back from Florida, wrestling for Ron Niemi’s IPW, I got an email from a woman in Traverse City, Michigan. Later that week I gave her a call and the basis of the whole meeting was that she had a show on July 5th in Traverse City and would like me to be a part of it. Her name was Darlene “Jersey” Brown. She told me the show was going to be at the biggest summer fair in Michigan. It was going to be a legends show (why I was on, I had no clue), and that the place was going to be packed. Did I care? Nah, I just wanted to be paid and have a good time.

 

When the business side came about, she promised me A LOT more than I usually get, a plane ticket, two nights in a hotel, I was to be a judge for some talent show!!!!, and free food. GOD DAMN, this sounded great. I just wanted to make sure it went off.

 

I would talk to Darlene about once a week from this point, just making sure that everything was going well and reminding her my name and address on where to send that plane ticket. Honestly, I had a feeling it might be horrible, but I know Traverse City was a great place in the summer and the Cherry Fest was one of the biggest things in the State of Michigan. If I could get that plane ticket and just hang out and meet some girls or something and have the show canceled, I would’ve been happy.

 

Darlene seemed to be an older woman who just wanted to be part of pro wrestling. She talked my ear off and seemed so happy just to be able to talk to a wrestler. She would tell me how she had conversations with Kamala, Dusty Rhodes, Barbarian, THE STRO, Rock & Roll. She was an obvious mark and would be the first to tell you. She was going to be a part of pro wrestling and she was loving every minute of it.

 

As time went on, she went on to tell me that she couldn’t afford a plane ticket at the moment and asked me to drive in. A few emails before that she asked for some help with the promotional side because she had absolutely ZERO presold. The clever guy that I am, I used my “ghost writer” thinking skills to figure out that if she can’t afford the plane tickets and has NO presold, this means that she’s banking on the house to have this show with about a $20,000 budget.

 

After some attitude on my behalf, I told her I’d be happy to drive as long as she got me a rental car. I’d be damned if I put those miles on my car and spent money on gas knowing there was an 8% chance of this show actually happening. I’d be happy renting a car and driving up w/ Chuck Smooth just to hang out in T.C., Michigan. Well, last minute she didn’t bother even calling me telling me that she couldn’t get one, so I decided to stay home and have fun in Chicago for my 4th of July weekend.

 

Well, as I’m sure you read, Darlene Brown killed herself. I’ve heard many stories and they all kind of sound the same. She paid everyone in bad checks. The boys came looking after her and she knew she had screwed up big time. SO, she killed herself. The point to me is that this woman wanted to be a part of wrestling more than anything. Due to this dream, she’s now dead. I remember being an outsider looking in, especially when I was 16, 17, 18 and my whole world revolved around waiting to be able to go to wrestling school to be a wrestler. I wanted to be in wrestling more than anything. WWF, ECW, Indy’s, the guy that took pictures...it didn’t matter. If you were somehow a part of it, you were cooler than me.

 

It’s sad how untrue this is. Don’t get me wrong, I still love what I do every weekend. I know what being a part of wrestling is and it isn’t worth a bullet to your head. None of the boys really cared about this woman. They just wanted the ridiculous payday she was giving everyone. To her though, it was being accepted by all these wrestlers. The few indy guys she liked, so she booked them and all the “names” she loved over the years. Her show went down the shitter, she made a lot of empty promises. It was too much for her to handle. She was way over her head in becoming a part of pro wrestling. Darlene “Jersey” Brown killed to be a part of pro wrestling. How Fucking Sad.