From Willis To Vanderhoff: A Manager's Legacy

Jason Willis stands behind the curtain of the makeshift entrance set up for the show.  He's dressed in his typical attire: suit jacket, slacks, sunglasses, and most importantly, he has his tennis racket in hand.

The man who stands next to him is a titan in comparison. He could put Willis through a wall like a hulking juggernaut if he wanted to. They exchange words, running through the game plan again.
The music hits, and they emerge through the curtain.

The chorus of boos Willis receives is something he is accustomed to as he works the mic and chastises the local fans for their allegiance to the opposing hero.

The wrestler he accompanies stands by with arms crossed, statuesque. It's not Willis who gets him all of the heat he needs from the crowd. It's his alter ego, Reginald Vanderhoff.

I remember being on the receiving end of a Vanderhoff rant, being referred to as a Donnie Brasco rip-off as I stood across from him in the ring. I chuckled then, and I chuckle now, catching up with him years later.

Although Willis' career as a manager has spanned eleven years, his experiences in wrestling span much further back into the days of classic wrestling lore, where he draws upon anecdotes with legends as if they were straws in hand.

"I was dying to get involved in the business. I'd volunteer with Henry Marcus' shows doing various things. Whatever they needed. One time, I was supposed to watch the back door. All of a sudden, Ole Anderson pops his head out, and we strike up a conversation. In the middle of our conversation, he realizes he has to do a run-in on the Hector Guerrero-Tully Blanchard match. The next thing I know, Ole tosses Hector through the door he popped out of and continues this beating he started in the ring. And then when he's done, we pick up with our conversation right where we left off."

Willis would continue to find occasional volunteer work with shows at local venues. But as more and more of the big stars were getting national attention, the less and less they would be coming to the smaller markets for shows. One of the last shows Willis would work at Goose Creek High School would be foretelling of what was to come.

"I ended up working security for the show and had a great time. But afterwards the guy running the crew told us (Ted) Turner had bought out the company, and we would all pretty much be out of jobs because he would be bringing in his own crew for the shows. That meant the volunteering would be done too."

And the crewman was right.

They would be out of a job.

And Willis would be on the sidelines of the wrestling business for the next ten years...

It was a chance meeting while working a construction job that found Willis back on the track to being apart of the wrestling scene again. Funny enough, he would find himself thrust into the role of being a referee before finding his way to managing.

"I really cut my teeth as a referee while training and working with Bob Keller. I sucked at first. But over time I got the hang of it and became a go-to guy for Bob when he had shows on the road."

Willis' horizons would broaden with other independent promotions in South Carolina and so also would his opportunities to move beyond wearing the stripes in the ring.

"I got a call about coming up to a show in Batesburg. The thing was, yeah I wanted to see the show, but I also wanted to work it in some capacity. So I convince the guy I'm talking to, Jess Bradley, to let me manage one match."

One match and not get involved. Those were Willis' orders.

He started putting together his costume: the dress slacks, the sports coat, the sunglasses. Reginald Vanderhoff was born.

Willis debuted his character during a Fatal Four Way match that featured Xavier Knight, Tommy Feathers, Dynamite Dave, and Jess Bradley. Bradley would be the wrestler he accompanied to the ring.

"Of course I was going to get involved," Willis jokes. "I interfered with Feathers. Nothing drastic. Just distracted him, got in his way while he was battling Jess."

Although Willis drew his heat for Bradley, his interference with Feathers did have its consequences.

"He clocked me so hard my jaw was bruised. It was part of the show, but it was stiff as hell. Not to mention, my $150 sunglasses went flying. That's when I learned never wear anything of expense in the wrestling business because it will get ruined."

Regardless, with Vanderhoff, Willis found his new place in the wrestling business, and over the next eleven years perfected his bourgeois heel character as a mouthpiece for wrestlers looking to get over with the fans. (There is an interesting footnote to Willis' feud with Feathers that involves a cane shot to the head, a locker room bracing for a backstage brawl, and a big hug.)

The most notable addition to Willis' character over the years was his trademark accoutrement tennis racket, the signature weapon of legendary manager Jim Cornette.

"At that point I needed a weapon that had great acoustics when I hit somebody. The tennis racket was awesome because it sounded like a gunshot when it connected. I was already getting the Cornette comparisons, so I figured I might as well go all the way with it."

Playing such a polarizing character doesn't mean the show always ends in the ring with some wrestling fans. Over the years, Willis has had more than a few close calls.

"We did a show at Sterrett Hall, and I was working with Mack Truck. The guy he's wrestling goes to the outside, and I hit him with a milk carton. Milk goes everywhere, including into the crowd. So when the show is done, my wife comes backstage and tells me that three to four women are waiting to kill me outside because they got hit with milk. I had to go out the back door."

Many a times, Willis confesses that he has had to come to a show in one car and leave in another to avoid confrontations with fans after shows. But there is a flip side to the fan reactions to Willis. In fact, he gushes as he tells the story of a kid who recovered his tennis racket when it was thrown into the crowd.

"Joe (Blumenfeld) had run into the kid's father, and he told him the kid had kept the racket and now wanted to be like Reggie because he was smart and had other people wrestle for him. I loved it."

The truth is, as is the case with the best wrestling personas, the character of Reggie is not far from the man Willis. Granted, Willis is not spewing negative rhetoric at everyone he converses with, but the gregarious nature he exudes is consistent with his in-ring performance.

"The best advice I ever got was from Al Snow, and he told me my job, whether its as a manager or wrestler, is to make people want to come back and see more. Forget getting yourself over with the fans. Make them want to come back. That's what I aim to do now."

Recently, Willis has made waves with OSCW fans with a Youtube video as Reggie proclaiming that his new stable L.E.G.I.T. will be running opposition to the typical OSCW standards and practices. Reggie and L.E.G.I.T. will be a part of the upcoming OSCW show, Sunday, October 16th, at the Hanahan Recreational Gym. Bell time, 6pm. Appearing will be former WWE star Luke Gallows.