Chris Brown #1 Page 2
When I first started working with the company, they didn’t pair me up with those guys immediately, I had to work my way up to “the chain of command” (so as to speak). They were some of the top talent in the company at that time, along with Jerry “The King” Lawler, Bill Dundee, Brian Christopher, Spellbinder, PG-13, etc. So I started off managing here and there, with guys like Gorgeous George (he is now called The Stro… and had a pretty successful run in WCW a couple of years ago as the Maestro), the Moondogs, Skull Von Krush (who also had a good run in WCW as Big Vito in a tag team), and over time, Eddie and Doug expressed an interest in having me manage them, as well as Tommy Rich, and I’ve got to say those three guys had a big influence on my time with the USWA.
As most of you know, anything
good in life usually comes not from luck but who you know, timing, and usually a
combination of the two. For me, I was very fortunate to live in St. Petersburg,
Florida, because a big wrestling school was just across the bay in Tampa, owned
by Dean Malenko’s dad, so I was formally trained by “Professor” Larry
Malenko, who has since passed away. God rest his soul . . . he was such a good
man.
I got my break in the USWA
through Lanny “The Genius” Poffo; he is the one that got me up there. After
cutting some promo tapes and sending them up, I finally got the chance to show
them what I could do. I was so excited, when I first went up; it was only for a
month and I knew I was hooked. After my first month with the company, I quickly
came back to Florida, dropped everything I was doing and came back to tour with
the company. I spent a good year there between the middle of '94 and the middle
of '95. The only reason I didn’t stay was because of injuries. I had broken my
wrist and also torn some cartilage in my left knee. The wrist thing happened at
a TV taping in Memphis, and yes, I’ll write about that too in a future column.
The knee thing happened in a match at the Louisville Gardens in a Manager vs.
Women Wrestler, and guess who that was? You know Jacqueline in the WWF? Well,
that’s her, but in the USWA she was known as Ms. Jackie. I’ll also tell you
more about her in a future column.
One of the Moondogs, Larry, who
was wrestling as Moondog Spot (now keep in mind there has been many Moondogs),
told me back in the locker room at the Mid-South Coliseum on a Monday night,
“Big Business, there are two things that are going to happen to you in
professional wrestling: Your either going to hate it, walk away and never have
anything to do with it again; or you will love it, and spend all your time
either in the business or trying to get back in it.” He was right; I fell in
love with it. If I could do it full time for the WWF, I would . . . in a heart
beat, but yes, "Big Business" also has a day job - I know, surprise,
surprise! J
And besides wrestling, I have a love for traveling. I’m doing that now and
making good money at it, too, so it’s hard to break away from that to try to
make a run for the WWF.
Let me tell you a little bit of
“today” as well as "yesterday." Besides getting good training, it
takes YEARS of paying your dues, running up and down the road, making little
money (and today, that is if you're lucky). I’m glad to say that at
least when I was in the USWA, I was making money; not great money, but it was
enough to stay on the road. If I had stuck through it, I might be in the WWF
today. I’ve seen many of the guys go on to bigger and better and you know
what, it’s a hard road out there; if you don’t believe me, just have a look
at Mick Foley’s first book as he talks about some of the hard life the road
has to offer.
Anyway, the USWA was a good way
to get the TV exposure and work in the business and we had a lot of competition
at the time. The WWF and WCW, ECW were just getting started, and then on the
other side of the state was Smoky Mountain Wrestling, who also had a good TV
show and ran a good little territory.
My first USWA memory was just
getting up there and finding out the logistics of how the company was run. TV
tapings were at WMC TV Studios (an NBC affiliate) in Memphis. TV was at 10:00
a.m., on Saturday, with a live studio audience. The boys had to be there by 8 or
8:30 a.m., and besides the shock of knowing that I had finally made it to a
major wrestling company, I was very nervous.
I’ve got to say, though, all
the guys were great. Besides taking some minor “ribbing” from being the new
manager, they really helped me out. The first person I met was Randy Hales, and
yes, Randy is still actively involved with wrestling in Tennessee. Randy was
responsible for the bookings, and we got our booking sheet every Saturday for
where we had to be. The next guy I met was Eddie Marlin, who had a bunch of
paperwork for me to sign. Eddie was also one of the road guys who handled some
operational things like the arenas, the ring, promotions, etc. The third guy I
met was Jerry Lawler. Jerry explained that we had a territory and we did the
following route: Saturday mornings was TV in Memphis; Saturday night was the
Nashville Sports Arena; Sunday was our one day off; Monday was the Mid-South
Coliseum in Memphis and that place is HUGE. It holds over 8,000 people, and back
then it was hard to draw more than 1,000 on Mondays, but we did . . . sometimes,
up to 1,500 or 2,000 but that was the high point. We could fill the lower level
and we would usually joke in the back about all the people who showed up dressed
as empty seats.
Tuesday was the Louisville
Gardens in Kentucky, Wednesday was the Evansville arena in Evansville, Indiana.
Now if you chart that route on a map, it looks like a big semi-circle. So on
Thursday and Friday nights, we usually ran what are called house or spot shows,
typically at a high school gym or National Guard Armory. These shows would be
located in cities that completed that semi circle, so Arkansas, Tennessee,
Mississippi were some of the states. Jonesboro was a big town that we ran and
I’ve seen it many times on the highway between Memphis and Jonesboro. I still
remember the National Guard Armory there. Saturday mornings, we were back in
Memphis.
Once I knew the territory, and
got to know the main “players” in the company, as well as the guys in the
locker room, it was about time to do my first few TV shots or promos . . . , and
that is going to lead me into next month’s column which I’m going to title
“The Angle.” I also want to tell you about some of the first guys I managed,
that will probably be the next month or two worth of stories. A majority of the
whole column next month is going to be about, not only the USWA, but also Doug
& Eddie Gilbert and Tommy “Wildfire” Rich.
So stay tuned, and watch for my
column next month as we walk a little further down memory lane.
"Big Business" Brown
PS <insert shameless plug here> If you’d like to see who I’m currently work with, check out www.thenewfwf.com