Post by ipwgreg on Aug 28, 2010 14:01:49 GMT -5
When you have a lot of fond memories it is easy to put them down for others to read. You may never know if anyone is reading them, or if they even enjoy them. For me, writing this has been fun. Re-living good times and feeling young again. Think about it, at the early days of IPW I was in my mid 20’s and the core group of guys were in their late teens. 18 for most of them. I was the adult so to speak. But none of us were acting very adult like. Many a night before the shows, we would set up the ring and play around. Splitting up into groups and wrestling to a capacity crowd of whoever’s girlfriend happened to be there.
Hey! I had a girlfriend there once… once. That is a story best left untold.
We had some really good shows at the Indy Sports complex, and for a number of years my favorite match of all time in IPW happened there. Nigel Mcguinness vs. Apollo Starr. It was just a great match. Financially we were dying though. Let me put it to you this way, if a budget show costs $1500.00 to run, and you draw 80 fans, then you have just lost $700 . That means you are sending boys home without pay, or cutting costs somewhere else. Thats two car payments, or a mortgage payment or worse. We had to change something. Change it fast !!
At this time, we had a really good working relationship with New Era Wrestling based out of Shelbyville IN and they were drawing really well , about 400 fans on a slow night. This got Mike and I thinking that maybe we needed to leave Indianapolis and find a small town and try running there. The basic thought was that if we ran somewhere that didn’t have a big nightlife so to speak, then it might help us draw more. Less competition so to speak. E.Z. Cruz said he knew the place. In the town of Centerton there is a drive in theater that also has several baseball diamonds and an indoor basketball court and small sports bar. It was old and a bit rundown, but we thought it just might be home. So at the Knights of Columbus , when thingy loc was wrestling Bo Bo Brazil Jr. it was nothing but comedy gold…. Oh right, you want to know what happened at Centerton. We didn’t really talk much with the owners, Cruz was our go between there. Mike and I were under the impression that it would be run this way. They were going to get 100% of concessions and beer sales, and would get the door. Seemed like a good deal. We ran the first show , and we did ok… maybe 90 people. Maybe I am dreaming too. I honestly can’t remember. After that show, Cruz and Al and myself set up a table at a Bike show they had there. We had a television and showed tapes of our past shows , and the bikers really liked it. Hell we had a show there the very next week, so they seemed willing to come check it out. This was a fun day for me, I love bikes even though I am terrified to ride one. I was even a judge for their bike contest, I voted for an old Harley KnuckleHead. I had a guy explain to me and show me the difference between a Knucklehead, Panhead, and Shovelhead engine.. I like the Knucklehead purely from an aesthetic standpoint. I believe we ran four , maybe five shows at Centerton… and we were getting our groove back. I remember right before one show we did a meeting, we had Necro and Corporal Robinson on that show, and I listened as Cruz told the boys he had a television deal lined up for us to do a one hour show right before SmackDown … I think Mike actually spit milk out his nostrils and he wasn’t drinking any milk at the time !!! I do know that Corp. actually did laugh out loud. This may have been where we realized that Cruz was a bit delusional. That was the night that Corp. hit me so hard with a chair I had my first and only menstrual cycle. Thanks Joe. Also it was the night I was almost attacked by a drunken fan, Devil Beard !!! The sad thing was we all knew the guy, and I thought he and I were cool. Thanks Seth !! Things just seemed to go down hill from there. Necro Butcher and E.Z. Cruz had a wild brawl and at one point they were swinging chairs. I still maintain that NO chairs were harmed during this match. But the owner of the building went nuts, took the cash box ( this show actually drew too, about 120) and walked out . She then locked the cash box up in her office, and said it was her money, and that we owed her rent for the last 3 shows. WTF!!! The boys went berserk, and we managed to pull some cash out of our wallets to pay Necro and Corp. It took me a couple months to make things right with the boys. This was such a major setback, that I really didn’t think we could go on. The shows were building steam, intensity was high and people were getting into what we were doing. We were ready to start running multiple shows a month there. We parted ways with Cruz for the first time then, and to be honest things have never been the same between us.
We did not give up. To be honest things were just about to get interesting, and we were about to start bringing in some faces that you will all recognize, and some were about to go away…. But that my friends is a story for another day.
Hey! I had a girlfriend there once… once. That is a story best left untold.
We had some really good shows at the Indy Sports complex, and for a number of years my favorite match of all time in IPW happened there. Nigel Mcguinness vs. Apollo Starr. It was just a great match. Financially we were dying though. Let me put it to you this way, if a budget show costs $1500.00 to run, and you draw 80 fans, then you have just lost $700 . That means you are sending boys home without pay, or cutting costs somewhere else. Thats two car payments, or a mortgage payment or worse. We had to change something. Change it fast !!
At this time, we had a really good working relationship with New Era Wrestling based out of Shelbyville IN and they were drawing really well , about 400 fans on a slow night. This got Mike and I thinking that maybe we needed to leave Indianapolis and find a small town and try running there. The basic thought was that if we ran somewhere that didn’t have a big nightlife so to speak, then it might help us draw more. Less competition so to speak. E.Z. Cruz said he knew the place. In the town of Centerton there is a drive in theater that also has several baseball diamonds and an indoor basketball court and small sports bar. It was old and a bit rundown, but we thought it just might be home. So at the Knights of Columbus , when thingy loc was wrestling Bo Bo Brazil Jr. it was nothing but comedy gold…. Oh right, you want to know what happened at Centerton. We didn’t really talk much with the owners, Cruz was our go between there. Mike and I were under the impression that it would be run this way. They were going to get 100% of concessions and beer sales, and would get the door. Seemed like a good deal. We ran the first show , and we did ok… maybe 90 people. Maybe I am dreaming too. I honestly can’t remember. After that show, Cruz and Al and myself set up a table at a Bike show they had there. We had a television and showed tapes of our past shows , and the bikers really liked it. Hell we had a show there the very next week, so they seemed willing to come check it out. This was a fun day for me, I love bikes even though I am terrified to ride one. I was even a judge for their bike contest, I voted for an old Harley KnuckleHead. I had a guy explain to me and show me the difference between a Knucklehead, Panhead, and Shovelhead engine.. I like the Knucklehead purely from an aesthetic standpoint. I believe we ran four , maybe five shows at Centerton… and we were getting our groove back. I remember right before one show we did a meeting, we had Necro and Corporal Robinson on that show, and I listened as Cruz told the boys he had a television deal lined up for us to do a one hour show right before SmackDown … I think Mike actually spit milk out his nostrils and he wasn’t drinking any milk at the time !!! I do know that Corp. actually did laugh out loud. This may have been where we realized that Cruz was a bit delusional. That was the night that Corp. hit me so hard with a chair I had my first and only menstrual cycle. Thanks Joe. Also it was the night I was almost attacked by a drunken fan, Devil Beard !!! The sad thing was we all knew the guy, and I thought he and I were cool. Thanks Seth !! Things just seemed to go down hill from there. Necro Butcher and E.Z. Cruz had a wild brawl and at one point they were swinging chairs. I still maintain that NO chairs were harmed during this match. But the owner of the building went nuts, took the cash box ( this show actually drew too, about 120) and walked out . She then locked the cash box up in her office, and said it was her money, and that we owed her rent for the last 3 shows. WTF!!! The boys went berserk, and we managed to pull some cash out of our wallets to pay Necro and Corp. It took me a couple months to make things right with the boys. This was such a major setback, that I really didn’t think we could go on. The shows were building steam, intensity was high and people were getting into what we were doing. We were ready to start running multiple shows a month there. We parted ways with Cruz for the first time then, and to be honest things have never been the same between us.
We did not give up. To be honest things were just about to get interesting, and we were about to start bringing in some faces that you will all recognize, and some were about to go away…. But that my friends is a story for another day.
