The Story of the USWA Christmas Creature

 

Wrestling’s had it’s fair share of holiday themed characters. The New Years Baby, the Easter Bunny, the Gobbledy Gooker and more. We’ve even had several Christmas characters, from good santa to bad santa to jaywalking santa to the baby Jesus himself. In 1992, Memphis based USWA might have booked the most fearsome, or the most hilarious one of all, with a famous face under the hood. Introducing the Christmas Creature.



The monster was actually created by Jerry Lawler’s son Kevin, who was a wrestler in his own right through the 1990’s, and he also promoted USWA shows in smaller towns for Jerry. According to his own social media, he’s still involved in wrestling to this day, working for Tommy Rich’s Wild Fire Wrestling.


The man under the mask has become a bit of a recurring character on this channel, but in this video we’ll be looking at the very early career of Glenn Jacobs, way before he became Kane. In his 2019 autobiography, Glenn Jacobs goes into more detail about how the Christmas Creature came about, and really puts into perspective how early in his career he was. He got into Memphis based USWA through training with Jeff Jarrett, who was running a class on Saturday mornings in Nashville at the time. He says he “drove the five hours to Nashville every weekend to train with around fifthteen others in the class.” “Getting in front of Jeff did help me establish a relationship with USWA management, which led to my first appearance on TV.” The management he’s referring to are USWA co-owners Jerry Jarrett, Jeff’s dad, and Jerry “The King” Lawler.


To give you an idea of what was going on in Memphis at the time, at the start of December ‘92 Jerry was in a feud with Koko B. Ware, who was defending the honour of the WWE. Koko would even defeat Lawler for his USWA unified world heavyweight title on December 7th, but the King would regain it one week later. If you’re thinking that sounds odd, between December 1988 and August 1997, Jerry would have twenty seven separate reigns as Unified World champion, with some lasting seven of those lasting less than a month. He’s also credited as a fifty one time AWA Southern Heavyweight champion, with many of those being very short reigns too.


Of the origins of the Christmas Creature gimmick, Glenn Jacobs is his book says “One afternoon after work, I arrived home to a message from Jerry Lawler, asking that I call him. Butterflies filled my stomach. I anxiously thought this is the break I’ve waited for. Well not quite. This big break was as generic and bland as it gets.” You see, the call Glenn got wasn’t to be the Christmas Creature, a dentist or any other of Glenn’s more famous gimmicks. “Jerry told me that he wanted me to don a mask, and team with another big guy from southern Missouri , and portray Russian wrestling champions, complete with gold medals.” That’s right, Kane’s first gimmick of note was a masked Russian. He is referring to the Russian Unified Team, consisting of two unnamed wrestlers who appeared to have wrestled a handful of matches in August 1992.


While this gimmick went nowhere in itself, it did lead to him getting a phone call later in ‘92 from Kevin Lawler. “Like his father, Kevin was a talented artist. He sent me a rendering, the picture looked like a cross between a christmas tree and a swamp thing.” Looking at the costume, it kind of reminds me of the swamp monster who was around in Chikara back in the day. According to Chikara roster member Chuck Taylor, many different people put that costume on over the years, but as best I can tell there’s only one dressed up for Christmas. In an episode of Table for Three produced for the WWE Network in 2022, Kane notes that he did the Christmas gimmick because he was doing nothing else at the time, but there was an important other reason to play along with Kevin’s creation. “It was all kinds of ridiculous, but it gave me the chance to wrestle against Jerry Lawler, which I knew was a big step in the right direction.”


On the December 19th ‘92 episode of USWA television, the show would begin with Santa Claus greeting the children in the TV studio when he would be interrupted by Bert Prentice. Bert would chase Santa away even attacking him, leading Jerry Lawler to come to his aid. The King would stare down the Christmas Creature, who would get into the ring for his match. In a very one-sided contest, the Creature would destroy his opponent Trey Keller. As Kane would note in an episode of table for three on the WWE network, he wasn't that good a wrestler at this time, moving awkwardly around the ring, and at one point trying and failing to lift Keller up. The creature would finish Keller off with a familiar move, lifting him up for a choke slam much like he would as Kane for many years.


A few days later on December 21st at the Mid-South Coliseum, early on the card Santa Claus would defeat Bert Prentice, getting his revenge for what happened on the previous Saturday. Also on the card, Jerry Lawler would defeat the Christmas Creature. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any footage of this match, but the it is listed on sites such as cagematch and wrestling data, and it was also advertised at the end of the December 19th TV show for the Mid-South Coliseum card on the following Monday. These events weren’t typically televised, though highlights would air on the Saturday television show, the idea being that the television show was meant to draw fans to the Coliseum on Monday. On the next TV episode, they would show the end of a six-man tag main event that also took place on the 21st involving the Moondogs and Lawler fighting the Harris Twins and Mike Miller. Mid match the Christmas creature returns to attack Lawler, along with what looks like a thousand other wrestlers in what becomes a wild brawl.


You might think then that this might be the end of the Christmas Creature, but you'd be mistaken. On the December 26th episode of Memphis wrestling television, the Christmas creature accompanied by Bert Prentice would get back in the ring against Ricky Hays. Much like in his previous match, the creature would quickly destroy Hays, finishing things with a chokeslam. Later on the same broadcast, the creature would be part of a drawing to determine entry numbers Royal Rumble style, for the Moondog battle royal which was taking place at the Coliseum on Monday December 28th. It's a fairly odd site to see the wrestlers all pulling out their numbers, especially the Christmas Creature politely waiting in line for his turn.


At the end of this show, we see another absolute brawl with all the participants in the battle royal. The Creature runs in and goes straight after Lawler, while the commentator's note that the two have an upcoming match where the Creature's mask will be on the line against Lawlers USWA world title. Lawler would win this title versus mask match which took place on December 28th, and presumably unmasking the Creature, maybe even revealing a Russian’s mask underneath. Sadly, again there appears to be no footage of this match available, and it also seems to be the last appearance of the Russian Unified Christmas Creature.


Speaking of masks, Jerry did actually manage to tie the Christmas Creature into the feud I mentioned earlier with Koko B. Ware and the WWE. On the December 19th show, Jerry talked about wanting to unmask the creature, because he thought an invading WWE star was under it. He even guessed that Sid was the man sent to go after Lawler. While Sid was a good guess considering the Creatures size, and arguably wrestling ability, he wouldn’t be in USWA yet. He would later become the Unified World Champion though, holding the title twice between 1994 and ‘96.


In the Table for Three episode that I mentioned earlier and in his book, Kane noted that his Mother made the Christmas Creature suit for him, which makes me think of Homer Simpson dressing Lisa up like Florida. Glenn said “it was extremely high tech because she integrated Christmas lights into it. We had a battery pack, so it was way ahead of it’s time.” Whether the lights don’t show up on TV of if they just didn’t work I don’t know, but they aren’t obvious in the two televised matches he had. If you’ve ever seen WWE’s Most Wanted Treasures, you’ll have seen that its sometimes remarkable what items collectors have gotten hold of over the years. With that in mind I wondered what might have become of the Christmas Creature costume. According to an interview Glenn did with WBIR news in 2019, he thinks it’s in his parents attic. Not the investigative swerve I was hoping for but you can’t always find them.


This of course wouldn’t be the last horrible gimmick that Glenn Jacobs would portray. He would return to USWA nearly a year later as Doomsday, the name he would also use in Puerto Rico wrestling for Dutch Mantell. Around this time in late 1993 there was a chance for Glenn to be brought up to WWE, and much like the Undertaker, his debut would have taken place at Survivor Series. According to Bruce Prichard on a 2018 episode of Something to Wrestle, Glenn was considered for the role of one of Shawn Michaels’ masked knights, in his elimination match against the Hart family, Bret, Owen, Bruce and Keith. Unfortunately Kane didn’t make the cut, as ultimately the knights would be Greg Valentine, Barry Horrowitz and fellow USWA wrestler Jeff Gaylord. Prichard noted that Glenn lost out because he was too young and quote, “greener than the Christmas tree outfit he wore.” He also noted that one of USWA’s owners, Jerry Jarrett was very positive on Glenn, and compared him to a young Sid. Maybe that’s why Lawler suggested that Sid was under the hood on screen during their brief feud. One other interesting this that Prichard said, was later on when Glenn was in WWE, any time a picture of the Christmas Creature costume might resurface, it would be posted up all over the locker rooms as a rib. As ribs stories from the attitude era go, thats at least a pretty tame one. From there he would be Unabom for Jim Cornette in Smokey Mountain Wrestling, while the real unabomber was still at large mind. Then we had Dr. Isaac Yanken DDS, the original wrestling dentist, and the fake Diesel. As you can likely tell, I’m no Tennessee resident, so I wouldn’t be the one to tell you if his current gimmick, mayor of Knox County is any better.




Sources:


Table for Three: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eF_t1gOTRPU

Mayor Kane: My life in wrestling and politics, 2019,

Memphis wrestling December 5th, 1992, Koko picks a fight with Lawler

Memphis wrestling December 19th, 1992, Christmas creature debuts

Where the costume is: https://411mania.com/wrestling/wwe-news-kane-recalls-christmas-creature-gimmick-identity-of-santa-on-raw/ Knights: https://www.wrestlinginc.com/news/2019/12/kane-recalls-his-christmas-creature-gimmick-in-uswa-664012/

Who is Xanta Klaus? The Story of WWE's Bad Santa

This is a script for a video on my YouTube channel. The list of sources is below and the video can be found here: https://youtu.be/z4MPKA29OZQ

At In Your House 5 on December 17th 1995, one of the stranger WWE debuts in history occurred. As you can imagine, that covers a lot of ground. We start at ringside where Savio Vega and Santa Clause are throwing out presents to children in the crowd. Already in the ring though is the Million Dollar Man Ted Dibiase, who goes on a rant about Christmas, and how anybody can be bought. When DiBiase specifically mentions Savio, he jumps into the ring bringing Santa with him. Ted gets Savio to tell us all that he believes in Santa, which turns out to be St. Nick’s que to attack Savio, ending with Santa and DiBiase putting the boots to him. The point of this was apparently to prove that everybody has a price for the Million Dollar Man.

If you were to go to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter from that week expecting a trashing of this segment as I was, you might be in for a surprise, a Christmas miracle even. In the Observer, Dave Meltzer actually praised the segment largely because quote “You could see this coming a mile away but for some reason I always enjoy Santa Claus angles.” Further proof that this mans opinions cannot be trusted.

On Raw the next night, Ted Dibiase would be interviewed by Brother Love. He would explain that the man who attacked Savio Vega wasn’t actually Santa, but Xanta Klaus. DiBiase claims that Xanta was from the South pole, and that instead of giving presents, he quote “takes everything he can get his hands on”, and that he is officially part of the Million Dollar Corporation, one of the less popular groups in WWE history even by mid-90’s standards. On the very same night, WWE would tape three more episodes of Raw including the January 15th ‘96 airing show, which would feature another new member to DiBiase’s group, Steve Austin making his WWE debut as the Ringmaster. The fact that DiBiase announced Xanta’s membership implies that there were more plans for him, which is an ambitious thought just one week before Christmas. Ted even tells us that Xanta “would claim victory after victory” over the other superstars, but that would mean he would have to have more than one match.

On the December 23rd edition of Superstars, which was taped on December 19th, days after the pay per view appearance. Xanta came through the curtain with a unique look you could say. Gone was the red and white, in favour of black and red jocks to further announce his heeldom. His Heeldom? His heelness? I dunno… On the back of his new costume was the name ‘Xanta Klaus’, spelled with an X, for some reason. If you know why please let me know in the comments because I couldn’t find anything. At these tapings Xanta would compete and be victorious in a one and a half minute long match with Scott Taylor, who was enhancement talent at the time, but would go on to become known as Scotty 2 Hotty. Xanta would win the almost entirely one sided match with a very high angle suplex, followed by a Camel Clutch for the submission victory. This would be Xanta’s only televised match, and he would not appear again on screen, not in this persona at least. He also wouldn’t appear on any of the Christmas to New Year house shows WWE held, with Savio Vega wrestling Triple H on those, not even a Million Dollar Corporation member.

On the episode of Ted DiBiase’s excellently titled Everybody’s got a Pod podcast that was released on December 22nd 2023, Ted and his co-host Marcus D’Angelo cover In Your House 5. When speaking about Xanta turning on Savio, Ted doesn’t offer much insight beyond saying “it wasn’t the greatest thing that the Million Dollar Man was involved with”, which is a bold claim given that he once hired an evil twin referee to end Hulk Hogan’s four year WWE title reign at The Main Event. Ted elaborates saying “I was just rolling my eyes. Not with the guys, but with the guy who was going to be producing that segment. I said whose Idea was this anyway and they would say well, Vince. And I said okay, you’re not gonna argue with the boss.”

But who was the man behind the white wig and beard as WWE’s bad Santa? He was played by a wrestler who had previously wrestled for WWE using his real name, John Rechner. Rechner had appeared a few years earlier on episodes of Superstars, in enhancement matches against the likes of Marty Jannetty, Papa Shango and the Nasty Boys. More recently than that he had been working in Jim Cornette’s promotion, Smokey Mountain Wrestling, there using the name Boo Bradley. Around the mid-90’s many talents came through SMW and made it onto WWE television. Most famously Kane who wrestled for Cornette as Unabomb, but other future WWE stars also such as Al Snow, Bob Holly, D’Lo Brown and the Headbangers among others. So many wrestlers came through SMW and appeared in WWE that according to the Observer wrestlers had to be told that Cornette was not involved in booking for WWE. He would be later, more notably in the attitude era where he would clash with Vince Russo, but not yet while SMW was still going. Before I move on from Smokey Mountain Wrestling, I have to show you this rather weird storyline, and take another chance to show you how much Jim Cornette loves his old school serious wrasslin. Boo was a simple character to put it delicately, and he was being bribed for his services by Sunny to help Chris Candido. At some point Candido apparently killed the cat in the ring the way Earthquake killed Damian Cactus Jack and Damian would hold a funeral for the cat on television, apparently burying it in a field somewhere. Aye, Jim Cornette’s booking there.

Speaking in an interview in 2002, Rechner noted that he got the gig through working for Jim Cornette in Smokey Mountain Wrestling. He spent a year there and described it as the “biggest turning point of his career”, because it “developed him into a complete worker.” According to Rechner, he was working at a gas station when he got a call from Bruce Prichard who had a gimmick in mind for him and wanted a meeting. He said Bruce told him “We’re gonna sign you for two years, we’re gonna give you this Christmas-like gimmick. It might last anywhere from three days (which it did) to three months. Maybe we’ll blow you off at Wrestlemania, then we’ll keep you under contract and keep you under a gimmick.” On the Xanta gimmick he says “They give me three dates, I see the outfit.” “Then three days before Christmas I get a phone call from JJ Dillon, ah well the character’s not working blah blah blah.” JJ goes on to tell John that they will keep him under contract, and he can work indies, but only if he uses the Xanta gimmick, which basically puts him out of work since nobody was going to want to book a Christmas character through the rest of the year. Because there was no guarantee of any work, Rechner requested and was granted his release with no ill feelings on either side.

So what happened after his very brief WWE stint? Where else might you have seen Xanta Klaus for the rest of the year? Throughout 1996 John Rechner would wrestle using one of his earliest gimmicks, Abbudah Singh. It was in fact, a very different time. According to Rechner speaking in 2002, “Larry Sharpe didn’t know what to do with me, but I learned how to breathe fire in college.” Sharpe then came up with the rest of the gimmick from there. Larry Sharpe was Rechners trainer at The Monster Factory, the same school that graduated wrestlers like The Big Show and Bam Bam Bigelow. John also describes the outfit he wore as “like Sabu’s outfit before Sabu.” Rechner would get a break in his career by the end of ‘96, ironically in December, where he would adopt a new name and persona. John Rechner would join ECW and become known as the hardcore chair swinging freak, Balls Mahoney.

Balls would debut in ECW on December 7th 1996 at Holiday Hell, where he would be victorious against Devon Storm, the wrestler later known in WCW as Crowbar. He would first appear on ECW television on the Christmas Eve episode, taking part in a seventeen man battle royal the would be won by Sabu. From here Balls Mahoney would become a mainstay in ECW until the bitter end, wrestling on 89 of ECW’s 94 shows in 1997. In ECW Balls would become a three time tag team champion, once with Masato Tanaka, twice with Little Spike Dudley, but never with his regular tag team partner, Axl Rotten. His theme song, a cover of Big Balls by AC/DC would always get the crowd hyped up as they sang along loudly.

The next time John Rechner would appear on WWE television would be on the June 6th 2005 episode of Raw. As Balls Mahoney, he would disrupt the show along with a crew of ECW originals in the build up to the ECW One Night Stand pay per view. On the night Balls wouldn’t have a match, but he and Axl Rotten would with many others run in during the main event of the show, attacking the Blue World Order. Balls and Axel would receive tryout matches with WWE at Raw tapings in July 2005, wrestling two dark matches but ultimately not being hired.

Balls would be brought back to WWE in 2006 for the build up to not just One Night Stand 2006, but the launch of ECW on Scifi. He would have his first televised WWE match since appearing as Xanta Klaus on the one off special show WWE vs ECW Head to Head, in a battle royal consisting of members of the Raw, Smackdown and ECW rosters. This match would be won by Raw’s Big Show, who would turn on his brand, relieving that he had joined ECW, a massive red flag for any fans of the ECW originals. Balls would have a near two year run with WWE, being released in April 2008, by way of the words every WWE wrestler dreaded seeing on the home page of WWE.com.

Had Balls not joined ECW in the following year, who knows if Xanta Klaus could have made an annual appearance, much like the Boogeyman still does at Halloween. Xanta Klaus went on to a very memorable rest of his career. Wrestling not just for WWE, but also for TNA, and all over the indie scene after ECW folded. While Xanta might have been short lived and forgettable, Balls Mahoney was certainly not.

Sources:

Wrestling Observer December 26th 1995 - In Your House 5 review: https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/dec-26-1995-observer-newsletter-madusa-throws-belt-trash-dan-severn/

PW Torch December 23rd 1995 - In Your House 5 review: https://members.pwtorch.com/torchbackissues95/torch366/Torch366.shtml

DiBiase Pod Episode 33: https://open.spotify.com/episode/661tbD7a4emr3o4grsZ6C3

Superstars December 23rd 1995 - Xanta vs Scott Taylor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVwQd3k4Oos (1:41:42)

ECW Holiday Hell 1996: https://archive.org/details/ecw-dec-17th-1996

ECW December 24th 1996 - TV debut: https://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=47377

WWE release: https://www.wwe.com/inside/news/ballsmahoneyreleased Balls shoot interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8m5TkS6az4

A (Brief) History of Wrestling at the 2300 Arena - Source List

A script and list of sources I used for my ECW Arena video. You can find the full video here: https://youtu.be/yHzAffKqNGY

On the corner of Swanson and Ritner street, over thirty years of wrestling history exists. The venue now known as the 2300 arena, but historically as the ECW arena, Viking hall and the New Alhambra, has hosted many, many, many promotions since 1993. On November 6th 2024, NXT became the latest, how much do you know about the famous venues history? In this video, we’re mostly going to look at it’s time known as Viking Hall, thats the ECW years and the immediate follow up to that promotion’s closure. If you learn anything new from this video, please consider leaving a like, or letting me know with a comment.


It’s history with pro wrestling begins with ECW’s first event there on May 14th 1993, when their former venue, the gym of Cabrini College didn’t want professional wrestling anymore after just two shows. ECW wasn’t even close to being extreme by then, officially changing it’s name in late 1994, but can you imagine if latter day ECW had run in a Catholic school? ECW’s founder Tod Gordon, who also ran a pawn shop in the area day to day, said in an interview with Kayfabe Commentaries filmed inside the actual building, that Johnny Hotbody, a wrestler on his roster knew a guy who owned the building and suggested it for shows. He then described reaching the main office by balancing on a plank of wood, describing is as “like tight rope walking”. Generally, he describes the place as a shit hole. When Sean Oliver asks Tod what changes he had to make, Tod’s first answer is “we had to put the buckets down when rain came in”, and he also notes that as long as they paid for it, they had permission to break anything they wanted.


ECW’s first show at Viking Hall, the TV taping on May 14th 93 was first aired on television on June 8th ‘93. The show starts with hosts Jay Sulli and Paul Heyman welcoming us to what he calls “the new ECW arena in the heart of South Philadelphia”. The show would feature a handicap match with Road Warrior Hawk against the Samoan Warrior and Don E. Allen, and a sixteen man battle royal to crown the first holder of the short lived ECW Pennsylvania State championship. In the main event of the first episode, a rather different looking Sandman would fail to defeat Don Muracco for the ECW Heavyweight title. Speaking of Sandman, here’s a trivia note for you, the Sandman wasn’t just in the first televised main event from the ECW arena. He was also a part of the final ECW match to take place in the ECW arena. At Holiday Hell on December 23rd 2000, Steve Corino would retain the ECW World title, against Sandman, and also Justin Credible. Though a different physical belt, thats the same title that Sandman fought for in both matches.


Throughout the time that ECW ran in the building, it was more known outside wrestling as Viking Hall. This is because the building was also used by the South Philadelphia Vikings Club. They are a group of Mummers, and not as I had assumed some kind of sports team. According to Bob Magee of Pro Wrestling Between the Sheets, a frequent attendee of the ECW arena while the promotion ran, the Viking club “did “late night bingo” there to fund their group”, which is where the venue gets it’s sometimes derogatory name as a bingo hall. Another wrestling connection comes later in the 90’s, where Al Snow, frustrated with his career and looking for a new gimmick, would find a styrofoam head on a Mummers Day parade float that was being stored in the ECW arena, and this would become the initial inspiration for Head. It says here in my script *plug video*, err, okay.


Almost all of early ECW’s most memorable moments occurred in the ECW arena, but by the time the promotion folded, it had other notable venues like Elks lodge in Queens New York, and the Hammerstein Ballroom. In 2000 ECW ran at least one show in twenty different states, and even visited Canada. Unfortunately Lance Storm had left for WCW by that point, or maybe fortunately, as the shows were in Mississagua, and not his beloved Calgary, dramatic pause, Alberta.


Among many of ECW’s biggest moments in Viking Hall, Barely Legal, their first pay per view occurred there. On that night the generator for the building only just lasted through the event, and moments after the pay per view broadcast ended with Terry Funk celebrating his ECW title victory, the power for the whole building went out. Fortunately since the buildings renovations years later this hasn’t happened since, and many more pay per view events have been held there.


Other noteworthy events from the ECW arena include the 1994 NWA World title tournament, which ended with new champion Shane Douglas throwing the belt down and proclaiming himself the new Extreme Championship Wrestling World champion. The building hosted all kinds of wrestling, as lucha libre was introduced in late 1995, with the likes of Rey Mysterio Jr, Juventud Guerrera and Psicosis among others, and then later on in 1997, the infamously gory barbed wire ropes match between Terry Funk and Sabu.


From May 1993 for six years, ECW was the only promotion that ran in Viking Hall, but on May 15th ‘99, a show featuring talent representing thirteen indie companies was held. The event was called ‘Break the Barrier’, and had talent representing among many others, ECW, CZW, and NWA New Jersey. The idea of an NWA promotion being represented in the ECW arena is pretty funny given that it’s the same building where Shane Douglas threw down the NWA World title in August 1994. According to the Wrestling Observer in the week after the event, Dave Meltzer reported that there were “approximately 400 fans and about 300 paid” at the show.


The event was put on by Al Isaacs, of the website Scoops Wrestling, and it took place just 24 hours before ECW’s Hardcore Heaven pay per view. Despite ECW’s show taking place in Poughkeepsie New York, the indie show ended up having serious ramifications for the next night. On Break the Barrier Shane Douglas, who as I mentioned before was no stranger to controversy in that building, cut a scathing shoot promo on ECW, in which he essentially quit the company, and would no-show the pay per view.


As far as the matches on the card, out of the thirteen on the night, eight of which went under ten minutes, and ten were for championships. In the opening match on the card presented by Steel City Wrestling, Mike Quackenbush would defeat Don Montoya and Lou Marconi to be crowned the inaugural, and what would turn out to be only ever SCW Lord of the Dance champion. I couldn’t find a ton of information about this championship, other than Mike held it until the promotion closed in the following year, and that he seemed to only have defended it once. While the name sounds a bit odd, it seems the title was designed to only be defended in ‘three way dance’ matches. How fitting then that the only champion was crowned in the ECW arena, the match type made famous in that building. A three way dance is not to be confused with the more famously named Triple Threat match by the way, as the latter is one fall to a finish, whereas the ECW version was usually held under elimination rules. Mike Quackenbush was fairly young in his career, having debuted in 1995. He would go on to wrestle all over the world, and also found his own promotion and school, Chikara Pro and the Wrestle Factory respectively.


Later in the night, Combat Zone Wrestling’s offering would be Nick Gage defeating his brother Justice Pain for another newly created championship, the CZW Interpromotional hardcore title. This title, again has little information about it online, however Nick held it for two weeks before losing to Lobo, who was the only other champion.


Other notable names that wrestled on the show that night include Stevie Richards, who won the Allied Powers Wrestling Federation Heavyweight title. According to Richards in a 2013 interview with Wrestlecrap, he was at the time considering hanging up his wrestling boots, having had a run in WCW, and a brief return to ECW. Not long after this event he would get the call to join WWE, prolonging his career by several more years. Also of note an active WWE star appeared on the card. Get ready, it was… Headbanger Mosh. Despite still being signed to WWE as best as I can tell, he wrestled for a few different indies throughout early 99, and a few NWA promotions. He worked as a singles wrestler as Thrasher was out with an injury. At Break The Barrier he would defend his Maryland Championship Wrestling Heavyweight title, and a couple of weeks later he would resurface on the May 25th ‘99 Raw as Beaver Cleavage. Less said about that the better…


Before I get to life for the building after ECW, there was one more very different promotion that ran the Viking Hall before Break the Barrier did. In 1998, Lenwood Hamilton, a former football player and wrestler under the name Hard Rock Hamilton, started a promotion called Soul City Wrestling. Perhaps as a direct response to the attitude era, Hamilton promoted his show as family friendly, even in the house of hardcore. According to an article from the Philadelphia Inquirer after the event, “His idea was to establish what he calls the first minority-owned wrestling federation in the country, and bring back the golden age of wrestling, rather than staging bloody contests where guys use foul language and bang each other over the head with chairs.” There isn’t a lot of information out there about Soul City Wrestling, not Hamilton’s in ring career, however he is slightly more famous for suing the makers of Gears of War, claiming that their character Augustus Cole beared striking resemblance to him and his background as in football and wrestling.


Post-ECW, other local companies such as Jersey All Pro Wrestling and CZW would run the venue. In 2002, 3PW, Pro-Pain Pro Wrestling would be founded by ECW alumni the Blue Meanie and Jasmine St Clair, and they would run there too until an outside force would take over. XPW, owned by Rob Black, a company formed in short because of bad blood between he and Paul Heyman, saw an opportunity to stake their claim on ECW’s most famous venue. On October 5th 2002, XPW signed an exclusive lease to the building the would have began in 2003 and run for three years. This meant that no other wrestling companies could run there, however they were open to booking other events in the space. According to the press release that was put out at the time that you’re seeing on the screen, XPW even brought in their own people to run the venue, and renamed it officially the XPW arena, which can’t have gone down well with the ECW faithful. In March 2003, the buildings owners would end the lease due to XPW not paying the rent. Their exclusive lease ended up lasting two months, with CZW being the first promotion allowed back into Viking Hall.


The 2300 arena of today is very much a different place within the same walls of the world's most famous bingo hall. Since it’s ECW days, many, many promotions have run in the building for house shows, dvd releases and even pay per view’s. Most recently, NWA held it’s 76th anniversary event there, and next it’s NXT’s turn.


Venue search: https://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&view=results&name=&Day=&Month=&Year=2001&promotion=&showtype=&location=&arena=Viking+Hall&region=&minRating=&maxRating=&minVotes=&maxVotes=

Tod Gordon KC Interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLFGu6fr1E8

ECW June 8th 1993, 1st in Viking Hall: https://network.wwe.com/video/73403?seasonId=15446

Mummers: http://www.pwbts.com/columns/2008/b051208.html

Break the barrier: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrEo3anLnn0

Cageside Seats article on Break the Barrier: Cageside Seats article: https://www.cagesideseats.com/2014/5/13/5714090/break-the-barrier-the-untold-story-of-the-night-the-iwc-put-on-a

Wrestling Observer May 24th 1999, Break the Barrier 1: https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/may-24-1999-wrestling-observer-newsletter-ecw-hardcore-heavenwwf-no/

WrestleCrap, Stevie Richards on possible 99 retirement: https://archive.ph/20150203062115/http://www.wrestlecrap.com/rants/stevie-richards-answers-the-count-of-10/

Soul City Wrestling: https://web.archive.org/web/20140103205236/http://articles.philly.com/1998-05-25/news/25739679_1_wrestlers-clean-fun-foul-language

Hamilton GOW lawsuit: https://www.afslaw.com/perspectives/the-fine-print/court-body-slams-wrestlers-claim-gears-war-video-game-character

XPW Press release https://web.archive.org/web/20061119214629/http://www.wrestling-news.com/nm/publish/news_1653.html

XPW kicked out: http://www.pwbts.com/columns/b030403.html




Instagram accounts of Soul City Wrestling and Al Snow

Shawn Michaels 3 sources

 Shawn Lawler USWA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMmgiBM-q6E

Shawn SMW: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wndocZ7K35Y

Slam Sports, Diamond in TWA: https://archive.ph/20130101051432/http://www.canoe.ca/SlamWrestlingBios/diamond.html#selection-1913.1-1913.133  

Paul Diamond interview about Shawn: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=380290190740539 

Wrestling Observer Jan 26th 98 - Review of Casket Match: https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/jan-26-1998-wrestling-observer-newsletter-austintyson-angleroyal/

TWA Total Impact 1, Feb 27th 2000 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLuBBz64714

TWA Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEOa_BIa76YaZMzhp-HDm0nnPp8aqPQ0D

Wrestling Observer Feb 2nd 98 - First mention of back injury: https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/feb-2-1998-wrestling-observer-newsletter-more-tysonaustin-angle-wcwnwo/

Wrestling Observer Feb 23rd 98 - Suspicion about injury: https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/february-23-1998-wrestling-observer-newsletter-death-louie-spicolli/

Wrestling Observer March 2nd 98 - Suspicion in industry re back injury: https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/march-2-1998-wrestling-observer-newsletter-more-spicolli-death-vince/

Wrestling Observer March 9th 98 - Fan Letter: https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/march-9-1998-wrestling-observer-newsletter-tyson-joins-dx-record/

Wrestling Observer February 14th 2000, HBK meets with JR https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/february-14-2000-wrestling-observer-newsletter-vince-mcmahon-announces/

Wrestling Observer April 3rd 2000, Match final build and advertising: https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/april-3-2000-wrestling-observer-newsletter-eric-bischoff-and-vince/

TCW March 25th, Justin vs Venom match: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjlfeYH1_jA&list=PLEOa_BIa76YaZMzhp-HDm0nnPp8aqPQ0D&index=6

Wrestling Observer March 13th, Note about Justin Credible and Shawn possibly going to ECW https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/march-13-2000-wrestling-observer-newsletter-beyond-mat-controversy-new/

Wrestling Observer April 10th 1000, Match review: https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/april-10-2000-wrestling-observer-newsletter-wrestlemania-16-reviewed/

Wrestling Observer May 1st 2000, Sandman in TCW https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/may-1-2000-wrestling-observer-newsletter-justin-credible-wins-ecw/

Wrestling Observer May 15th, WWF talent unhappy with TCW https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/may-15-2000-wrestling-observer-newsletter-wcw-slamboree-review-drug/

Shawn Michaels 2017 Church testimony: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsquMO7QreU 

Shawn Michaels on Impaulsive, October 2022: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEsiGdXTigg

What happened to Trytan? TNA's giant prospect

 

He was seemingly gone as quickly as he arrived, but what happened to Trytan, TNA’s prospect in the early days of Impact?

Real name Ryan Wilson, the six foot nine tall Trytan, billed as six eleven began his career in 2001. 

Around the time TNA was getting off the ground, Wilson was wrestling mostly for Nashville based

USA Pro Wrestling, as well as managing a chain of Golds Gym’s in the area. While injured he got to know some

of TNA’s wrestlers who would come to the gym, and that was his way in.

Wilson would serve as a member of Red Shirt security, hired guns working for Jeff Jarrett in a power struggle

with Erik Watt’s and his black shirt security. If you didn’t know already, early TNA was a bit weird sometimes.

After the dissolution of the red shirts, Wilson would disappear off screens in late 2003 following a loss to Raven,

the Sandman and Erik Watts. This would take place in Raven’s own gimmick match, the clockwork Orange House

of Fun.

In 2004 Wilson would wrestle a few dark matches for TNA under a new name, Titus. It seemed though, that

TNA might have big plans for Wilson, under yet another new name. For several weeks in early 2005, TNA aired

cryptic hype videos filled with stock footage and colour gradients. The videos claimed that a man with “superhuman

power from a distant beyond” was coming, which turned out to be a far cry from what we got.

Trytan’s first and only real feud would be with the Alpha Male of TNA, Monty Brown, who was coming off being

a main event level World title challenger in previous months. At Destination X the two would have their only singles

match, in which Wilson didn’t exactly look like a star. At one point he lifted Brown for a press slam, and almost

dropped him at a scary angle, despite just managing to help him land on his back. After about five minutes, as

Monty was going to attempt his Pounce finisher, the lights went out in the Impact zone. When they came back on,

a completely different bloke dressed all in black with a mask on was attacking Brown, who would promptly hit the

pounce on him. Despite this man clearly not being Trytan, Monty would pin him anyway, but the official decision

would be a no contest, as Trytan would be seen skulking up the ramp.

Trytan’s TNA career wouldn’t get too much more impressive from there. He would gain his one and only singles

victory on the following weeks Impact, a two minute victory over Buck Quartermain. While he would begin to

successfully team with Simon Diamond towards the end, Trytan would wrestle just seven matches, and would quietly

disappear by June.

After leaving TNA, Wilson would sign a developmental deal with WWE, which back then meant being shipped off

to Ohio Valley Wrestling. Wrestling this time as Jacob Duncan, Wilson would achieve some success in OVW, even

holding the OVW heavyweight title for fifty days. That same title had not long before him been held by CM Punk in

his stint in WWE developmental.

At times it looked like Wilson might get a chance on the main WWE roster, as he would wrestle a tour of house

shows on the Smackdown brand in Summer 2006, and another for the Raw brand in 2007, but as best I can tell he

never had a televised WWE match. Wilson would continue to wrestle in OVW through 2008, before seemingly

leaving wrestling.

What happened to Ryan Wilson once he left WWE in late 2008? Now Father of three and a manager of a in his

words ‘motorsports place’. He also noted that he had a proper job in medical sales from around 2010 until the

Covid pandemic hit, and that his last involvement in wrestling was around 2008, which is also when he left OVW.

Ryan says he left the wrestling business because despite spending time with Undertaker and Kane who he credits

as positive influences on him, he never got his big break, and so he chose to start a family with his wife when his

contract ended.

Sources:

Two man power trip podcast, February 2024 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pqxy8Cli_Do

TNA teaser video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqtBB1MCiE8

Trytan vs Monty Brown: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kLSizUE6IM

Cagematch profile https://www.cagematch.net/?id=2&nr=1776

Words a new Wrestling fan should know

 

In my previous video about the rules of a pro wrestling match, I tried to not use too many inside or wrestling only terms, but here are a few that might be helpful. This isn't going to be a definitive glossary as there's a really good one on wikipedia for that, just some words that are commonly used that a new fan might not know. If you're not a new fan let me know in the comments what words or phrases I've missed that should be in a future part.

Babyface/Heel - A babyface, or face for short refers to a good guy, and a heel is the bad guy. This is similar to the old Westerns clearly defining their heroes and villains by the wearing of white hats and black hats. It's usually easy to tell who the good guy wrestler is, because the adult male fans will hate them just because and for no better reason. ***Admit it lads, we've all boo'ed the top babyface because he wins too much, or because he somehow looks good in jorts, or because you girlfriend has a massive crush on-ahem. Moving on...

The unofficial record for most turns between heel and babyface belongs top the Big Show, who over a thirty year in ring career, turned thirty six times. Them's some pretty worrying mood swings.

Booker - Less common but still around these days, a booker is the person in charge of the creative direction of a wrestling show or promotion, from what actually happens on shows to who is booked on them. Nowadays bigger companies have either a committee or a writing team, but the final say still usually falls with one person in charge, often the wrong person but more on that another day. The creative direction of a promotion is still often referred to by fans as 'booking'. It's even more often referred to as 'bad booking' whether it actually is or not.

Kayfabe - a term that comes from carny speak, kayfabe is an odd word to define. A similar word might be 'canon' as in kayfabe refers to what is being done in storyline or canon terms, rather than backstage or real life. You might use it in such a way as "in kayfabe, Ricochet was badly enough injured that we might never see him again, but in real life he's probably going to the other company for a shitload of money."

Blading - This is one of a few words used to describe the act of a wrestler cutting themselves, usually on the forehead, to draw blood. Other words you might hear include juicing, gigging, getting colour, bashing the bishop, spanking the monkey or choking the chicken. Wait, what were we talking about again? Blood is typically used to add more drama to a wrestling match, though some wrestlers clearly have a kink for it. As the old and slightly cynical adage goes, red equals green, meaning that a blood feud will always draw a paying crowd back to the arenas. Wrestlers will often hide a sharp object or 'blade' somewhere on them, or will be handed it by a referee, and will use it at the opportune time, or if you're reffing a Jon Moxley match, whenever he damn well asks for it so it seems.

Dirt sheet - This used to refer to specific newsletters, which were the primary source for fans to get behind the scenes information, mixed with ridiculous rumours, from inside the business. Nowadays this is a catch all term for the many, many websites that report on inside information usually behind a paywall, the aggregate sites that report on those reports, and the twitter accounts that clickbait the lot of it. Basically, always consider the source, and if they look shifty don't believe them...

Outlaw mudshow - a fairly modern term used by more negative fans and wrestling personalities, often to dismiss anything unusual, comedic or quirky, that doesn't fit traditional standards. While I at first included this to be a sarcastic, there is a serious point to be made here. Please please please, like what you like, and don't hate on other fans for liking what they like. There's too much of that these days, and it just makes everyone dislike each other more than they naturally would. As you delve deeper into wrestling quite frankly, you'll see some mad shit. Some good, some bad, but thats all subjective. Well, nearly all subjective. Some things are universally mocked.

A beginners guide to the rules of Pro Wrestling

This video was inspired by two things. Firstly, my girlfriend (yes, I have one), who recently watched an episode of Smackdown with me and has since become a fan of Cody Rh- I mean wrestling. She knows nothing about it though, and so this was made with her in mind, but if you're not a new fan I've also peppered it with a ton of sarcasm, so I hope you also get something out of it. The other inspiration is that last month marked twenty five years since the first time I saw wrestling and became a fan instantly. So yes, these are the ramblings of an old fan, aimed at a new one, sort of.

The rules of a wrestling match

There are many, many different types of wrestling match with different rules. Some are more traditional while others seem to come from the minds of absolute maniacs. Here are the standard rules of a wrestling match on top of which everything is based.

- The two main ways to win a standard pro wrestling match are pinfall or submission. A pin fall occurs when your opponents shoulders are held down on the ring mat until the referee counts to three. Seemingly, it is also an unwritten rule that wrestlers aren't allowed to break a pin at a one count, as it only seems to happen every time the groundhog see's its shadow.

Pinfalls can be broken by lifting a shoulder off the mat, sometimes helped by a wrestler kicking their legs up, which is where the phrase 'kick out' comes from. A wrestler can also break the count by touching or reaching under the ring ropes, known as a 'rope break'. This can be done with any body part, hand, foot or otherwise, but much like in sex, the tongue is usually more impressive.

The other key way to win, submission, occurs when a wrestler, usually in a hold of some kind, either verbally gives up or repeatedly taps the mat as a sign or surrender, known for short as a 'tap out'. It's most commonly thought that while tap outs existed in other sports, the ECW wrestler Taz innovated them in wrestling. His claim to this is that his finishing hold the katahajime, or the Tazmission, involves him wrapping his arm around the opponents jaw, thus disabling a verbal submission, so there had to be another way of wrestlers admitting defeat. Knowing Taz's reputation for being not the most pleasant man back in his wrestling days, its equally likely that no wrestler wanted to give him the satisfaction that comes from a verbal submission, and so would rather tap.

- Another way to win a wrestling match is by count out. This occurs when a wrestler is outside the ring for longer than the referees count of ten, and is declared the loser. When outside the ring, the referees count can be broken if a wrestler re-enters, and exits the ring again. In most companies the referee will count to ten, but some promotions particularly outside the US, the count can go up to twenty. In Europe this is so that the crowd can have a siesta part way through and not miss anything, because twenty counts feel like a fucking long time.

- The final way a match can end is by disqualification. This typically follows some kind of rule breaking. There are many, many things that a wrestler can be disqualified for, most of which are fairly obvious like low blows, joint manipulation or fish hooking. None of which are as kinky as they sound by the way. A DQ can also happen if a wrestler uses a weapon, sometimes referred to as a 'foreign object', or as we're supposed to say these days, 'international items'. Damn woke brigade.

Outside interference by anyone not officially part of the match will also cause the person on whose behalf they are interfering for to be DQ'd. The last thing to note about DQ's is that if a defending champion gets disqualified, they usually don't lose their title. This is in storyline, a way of ensuring that championships are won and lost fairly, but behind the scenes this is a way of letting a champion loose for whatever reason without taking the belt off them.

This is as the title says, a beginners guide, but if you are a long term fan like me I'd love to know what you think is relevant that I haven't talked about, so please let me know in the comments.