Breaking Kayfabe, January 8, 2005!

[Ace309 0]

Happy New Year.

 

I spent much of 2004 hanging with a great bunch of people, and one of them, for a while, was a guy by the name of Mak Francis.

 

Mak was a great guy to travel with. Ejiro, Bill and I used to drive with him quite a bit, especially when we were swinging through the northeast corridor. Being a Floridian, Ejiro never much appreciated driving through the snow, but whenever we were going through Michigan, New York or Pennsylvania, one of us would always be pointing out some damn thing that he remembered from back home. One of the best was when we were going from Buffalo to New York City on the New York Thruway and pulled off about midway through to pay a visit to one of my exes. As it was, she wasn't home, but her older brother was just thrilled to see four of the Magnificent Seven on his doorstep.

 

We were planning to just hassle Kristen for a while, but you wouldn't believe how well a family will feed you just because you're famous and schtupped their little girl a couple of times.

 

But I digress.

 

Mak and I had a running joke. Back when I was looking at law schools (yes, believe it or not, I had my retirement planned out almost a year in advance - I knew I wouldn't be able to handle the road schedule when I was trying to get my JD taken care of), I took a gander at a few places in Philadelphia. Around that time, Mak was off the road for a few weeks, and I was always threatening to drive by and toss a brick through his picture window. That developed the way things always do, and soon enough we were exchanging bricks in the worst ways. Sometimes he'd find one in his locker, or I'd find one tied to my singlet when I got back from the showers. Hell, Alli found one in her purse one night, which was just fascinating, because Mak wasn't working for us at the time. (Turns out he talked Ryan Dustin into it.)

 

At the height of it, though, it got pretty bad. I was driving for a while, and I had a beautiful blue Suburban that I'd rented for the trip. We'd had Mak doing a few house show matches and working dark at the tapings to help get Bryan Levy trained (he was green then, he's green now - the kid's never going to get past the 'grass' stage of his development). Mak was going to take some time off the road, though, so we were dropping him off in Philly on the way down to Flair Country for a couple of house shows. He'd stayed up front with me while Ejiro and Bill slept in the middle and back seats, respectively. Since we had some extra time, Mak asked us if we wanted to stay the night. He had a pretty nice guest room, and, well, let's put it this way. After spending some time with Allison, you learn real fast to be content to crash in the living room. WIthin an hour, we were all done for the day, and slept like logs.

 

The next morning, we thanked Mak and headed out. We started motoring down to the Carolinas for the shows, and a few hours later we got there just in time to get warmed up and talk to the agents. I was a face at the time, and we were testing crowd reactions to the Survivor match that main-evented the fall PPV last year, so I was working the main event with Wild & Dangerous against Craven and Justice & Rule for a bunch of house shows. We chatted things out with King, who was a great road agent (by which I mean he let me call the whole match in the ring), and then went back to get ready.

 

That night, and for a few days until we could get ahold of Mak and get our gear overnighted out to us, I worked in an SWF t-shirt and a pair of stretch jeans I picked up at Casual Male Big & Tall. Ejiro and Judge, thank god, scammed a couple of J&R hoodies off the merch crew and worked in gym shorts. I'll bet the fans were confused about why I didn't have the World Title with me.

 

Do I even need to tell you what our bags were full of?

 

Mak's a bastard. It's good to see him back. 2005's starting off great, with him back and a show in my old hometown. I might have to fly up from New York and see if they'll comp me a seat at HSBC to watch this thing go down.

 

I don't know, though. It's just never as fun watching from behind the railing.

[Secret Agent 0]

Another cool promo to keep the tradition of 'Breaking kayfabe' alive. Not only did you mention Wild & Dangerous, but it was a cool look back at some of the superstars who left far too early.

[muzz 0]

Mak smells!

 

This is where I mention Wild & Dangerous to keep them going for another few hours or so.

[Mr. S£im Citrus 0]

Leave me out of this...

 

Nice article, Tom.

[Toxxic 0]

I know I will have made it when Tom mentions me in one of these. I love 'em though, they just have that ring of reality. Nice one Taamo.

[Above Average 0]

Bricks are SO passe now, Flesher. And no mention of Ejiro and Judge hating us blasting 'East Coast, Fuck You!'. The green as grass comment must have been inspired by Z.

 

One last thing, though. You need a finishing quote like Mark's 'keep swinging for the fences'. I'll think something up for you.

[Ace309 0]

I don't recall indicating that you were welcome in this thread, Mak.

[Justice 0]

Bricks are SO passe now, Flesher. And no mention of Ejiro and Judge hating us blasting 'East Coast, Fuck You!'. The green as grass comment must have been inspired by Z.

 

One last thing, though. You need a finishing quote like Mark's 'keep swinging for the fences'. I'll think something up for you.

If you remember correctly, I had headphones to listen to the Brandenburg Concertos Fugue gave me. Feel the power of Bach!

[Ace309 0]

Was that for Kingmas 2003?