After having that happen one or two times, I became known as the “after show” drinker. Many of the guys could drink all the beer they wanted to and still remember every move, every detail, but me, well, I had to limit my drinking to after the show and then I could remember all my spots. 

[Insert a shameless disclaimer to the boys I’m currently working with in Florida and Georgia: “Big Business” has gotten much better at this now, so no worries.]  

OK, let me tell you about the ice fields. Tennessee and Kentucky can be near unbearable when some of those winter storms come through, and I have to tell you that in all my years of road travel with wrestling and my day job, I’ve NEVER, EVER seen ice storms as bad as I’ve seen in Tennessee and Kentucky. I’m not talking about a little ice frosting on the trees that you might see in some cute Christmas card, I’m talking about everything in sight that is frozen solid.   

It was either the winter of ‘94 or ’95, but I distinctively remember driving down the interstate from Nashville to Memphis and being a nervous wreck because all of the trees were bowed over due to the weight of the ice, and it was like driving down a huge hallway with this ceiling of trees overhead. You could literally look down the interstate and see falling projectiles of ice that would break away from the trees and crash on the road.   

Not good! It’s amazing that I never got the car hit by one of those. Every three or four miles you’d come to a dead stop because a tree would have fallen in the road.   

All the boys knew that “Big Business” was from Florida and didn’t drive so well in snow and ice. I’ve gotten better at it now but it’s still a bit intimidating.  

It was typical that the run from Nashville to Memphis took about 3.5 – 4 hours, and due to the weather we knew that if we didn’t leave Sunday we wouldn’t make it for the Monday night show at the Mid-South Coliseum. So I had Eddie Gilbert sitting up front with me, he was on the passenger side. Doug Gilbert and Tommy Rich were sitting in the back seat. 

It took us seven hours to make half the trip and around 3:00 or 4:00 p.m., Sunday afternoon we finally had to get off the interstate and head for a hotel; all the roads were backed up and Eddie just couldn’t take it anymore. Every time I would stop the car, it would slide about two or three feet. I think that Nissan Altima still has his nail prints embedded in the dashboard. He would keep saying, “Business,” damn, will you please let me drive!” Doug and Tommy just laughed because they knew he was scared to death. 

I was getting just as scared. I didn’t like that little two or three foot sliding gimmick at every stop, so we all stopped about 20 miles outside of Jackson, TN and checked into a Days Inn. Now here is where you know it’s bad. Around 7:00 p.m., the cable at the hotel goes off - not a good sign. Around 9:00 p.m., the electricity goes off - and you know what: it NEVER came back on, not during the night, not even the next morning. In fact, I think we might have gotten our hotel rooms for free because there was no way to check out. I think that is the coldest shower I ever took - in the dark too! 

I remember meeting the boys down in the parking lot around 11:00 a.m., Monday, and there was a solid layer of ice about three inches thick in the parking lot and ice had totally covered the car. Well, we hopped right back in the car and made it into Memphis around 6:00 p.m., just in time to get to the locker room, get dressed and do the show. 

And that is just one story, there are many more like them. It wasn’t uncommon to have shows cancelled because the ring couldn’t make it due to weather conditions. Even when some of the shows did go, some of the guys didn’t make it. 

Oooooh, here is another good little story. I’m driving a Cadillac rental car and was right behind Brian Christopher. We were leaving a hotel near Evansville on another cold and blustery day. He thought he’d pull a little rib on me my stopping his car, getting out and motioning like he was going to throw a styrofoam cup full of tomato juice at the car. Well, he wasn’t planning on it, but the styrofoam slipped from his hand and landed right on my windshield. He just kept saying over and over, “Biz,” I’m so sorry, damn, I’m sorry.” Well, the cup exploded when it hit the windshield but the tomato juice froze on contact, and it’s pretty embarrassing to be driving a nice new Cadillac with the windshield looking like red frozen ice, but that’s what we did that day. Ahhhhhhhhh, those fond memories of life on the road.

Well, I can see I wrote WAY too much this month. I think I’m 1.5 pages over my limit, so we’ll save some stories for next month. I want to tell you about the dome lights while driving at night, and exactly how do you stay awake during nighttime drives when you have six or seven hours in the car and everyone is asleep but you? 

In February, I have to tell you about some of my breaks and bruises, which ultimately required surgery to fix. Alas, at least “Big Biz” knows what NOT to do in the future and now I try to be a little safer in anything I do by ringside. 

Until next month, I hope you have a great Holiday Season, and I wish a hearty Merry Christmas to all.