Casket Match Highlights CWA's "Buried Alive" Show

 Most of the time, a steel cage match is brutal and hellish enough to settle any feud in professional wrestling. For Salem Sinner Sixx and John Skyler, the steel cage wasn't hell.. It was practice.

In fact, it was merely the setup to an epic follow-up crescendo, which will take the form of a casket match during CWA's "Buried Alive" show this Saturday in Orangeburg, SC.

Based primarily out of Orangeburg, CWA has become a sustaining force in the South Carolina independent wrestling scene by raising the bar in terms of talent and presentation. The set design for the arena alone is on par with the presentation put on by TNA; even so far as to creating ornate entrance videos when the wrestlers appear.

The multimedia aspect of CWA also bears mentioning because the videos on their website provide fitting previews to upcoming bouts. (The Jake Roberts promo alone is classic storytelling gold.)

With the look, intention, and feel of CWA, the promotion certainly upholds a consistency with the present day direction of professional wrestling. The "Buried Alive" show will originate from the Orangeburg National Armory and start at 7:30pm with doors opening at 6:30pm. Ticket prices for children ages 3 and up are $5, floor seats are $10, ringside seats in advance are $15 ($18 at the door). Visit CWA's website at http://championswithattitude.webs.com/ for more information or call 803-533-1111 or 803-707-4072.

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.

OSCW Brings Classic Wrestling To Fans Old And New

The history of professional wrestling in Charleston, South Carolina reads like a Hemingway novel versed with a rich mix of romanticism and competitive spirit. Growing up in Charleston, it was the highlight of the week to find Mike Mooneyham’s wrestling column on Sundays which would provide countless accounts of legendary contests between superstars like Wahoo McDaniel and Ric Flair, which took place long before the current wrestling product I was enjoying at the moment.

Mooneyham’s recounts of their classic bouts at the “Mecca of Lowcountry Wrestling,” the County Hall, made every youngster that wore a Hulk Rules t-shirt, or even later an Austin 3:16 shirt, feel humbled to know that the history of wrestling on even a local scale ran as deep as the history of major sports such as football, baseball, and basketball.

Although the pop culture scene has continuously shifted around professional wrestling, the fidelity of die-hard fans in local markets has never changed.

 I found this evident when I stepped into the Hanahan Recreational Center in May and witnessed my first independent wrestling show in four years. The promotion was Old School Championship Wrestling, a group that has come to define independent wrestling in the Charleston area.

Their head promoter Joe Blumenfeld, known to the fans as the American hero character Solitude, is a man I’m familiar with. I took my first wrestling bumps with Blumenfeld back in 2004, and I have taken his signature-finishing move, “the Spear”, on occasion. I’ve also had the honor of delivering my “Director’s Cut” super kick to him in the past as well.

But now I speak to Blumenfeld as the promoter he is for OSCW, and inquire about how he’s brought a mix of classic wrestling booking with a new school attitude to the business Lowcountry fans have come to love.

“A few years back, we were coming back from a show we all had worked, and one of my friends and I were complaining about all kinds of things we thought were bad about the promotion. Finally, my other friend in the backseat speaks up and basically calls us out. He tells us we should either do something about it or shut up. And that was something I really took to heart.”

Blumenfeld immediately began jotting down ideas and drafting a mission statement for what would become his own promotion. “The first thing I did was make a list of all of the crap I had been through with other promotions. By the end of it, I knew exactly what I DID NOT want to do if I was the guy running it.”

The vision Blumenfeld had was clear. In a world of wrestling that had become defined by the blurred line between faces and heels in the post-Attitude era, Blumenfeld wanted a return to the days of classic wrestling characters. And furthermore, he wanted to make his wrestling promotion one that the entire family could enjoy.

“We’re about the wrestling, but we’re also about family. We wanted to give a family friendly show that gives the fans back their heroes and villains. Clearly defined heroes and villains.”

The moniker of Old School Championship Wrestling was a perfect fit for Blumenfeld’s promotion, and with a healthy group of talent he knew in the area, he next needed a location for his wrestling shows.

After a couple of false starts, he found an opportunity with an outdoor wrestling event at Weekend’s Pub in Goose Creek.

“Before the show, the owner came up to me and showed me the empty back room behind the bar. He said to me ‘you give me something I won’t see on television, and I’ll give you the back room.’ We went out there, and my guys gave it everything they had. By the end of the night, we earned that back room.”

The first few shows were small in attendance; maybe ten or fifteen in the crowd. But the momentum was growing, and by the third year of their stint at Weekend’s, the crowds were reaching three hundred for OSCW. “Weekend’s was definitely a smaller venue. But I loved it because it was so gritty and so intimate in a way that it reminded me of the classic ECW days.”

But as fate would have it, the closing of Weekend’s Pub during OSCW’s third year would force Blumenfeld to pull up stake and search for another venue to fit his product.

A move to Mt. Pleasant seemed great on paper, with the opportunity to pull from the wrestling fans of the downtown Charleston area along with moving into the larger Omar Shrine Temple. But the actual result was anything but fruitful for OSCW.

“For whatever reason, and I still don’t understand it, but that little bit of a drive over that bridge just killed our attendance.”

The drop was significant. A third, in fact.

Blumenfeld knew the fit was not great and a change was needed.

Again, OSCW was on the move, and relocated back to where it’s fan base was located in the days of their Weekend’s Pub shows…. And the fans were waiting.

“When we did our first show in Hanahan, Cage Carnage, the fans were like ‘we’re so glad you’re back.’ It was a great feeling. And that’s why I’m all about fan input now when it comes to our shows.”

And Blumenfeld lives up to that promise. Frequently, even in character as Solitude, he will greet the fans and genuinely ask for their input about what they liked and what they want to see.

That same careful attention goes into booking the “name” talent for each of OSCW’s shows as well. “Our goal when we bring in a big name is one, for advertising value, but also it serves the purpose of getting our guys some exposure and possible opportunities with the bigger promotions.”

One of the names that come to mind is Al Snow, who Blumenfeld sings multiple praises for, not only as a competitor but also as a teacher and mentor to younger talent. “Al is awesome. We love bringing him in because he gives great feedback about what we’re doing and what the guys are doing. He is an encyclopedia of wrestling.”

With events now running about once a month, Blumenfeld’s turnaround time between shows is a small window that demands a lot of help behind the scenes to get everything prepared. “One thing people don’t realize is that the people behind the scenes are busting their butts to get these shows off of the ground. Besides the creative stuff (the fun stuff), we’re getting together insurance, and permits and even more so, the advertising. Before these shows, we’re passing out something like 5000 flyers and posting on Facebook and the internet every day. Whatever it takes.”

And at his back is a roster that is extremely dedicated and loyal to the OSCW product. “These guys give us 100% because we care about them and we appreciate them. And that can go a lot further than bigger paydays.”

Blumenfeld’s reward to his roster’s loyalty is laced in his plans for OSCW’s future as well. “We do not plan on being just another Indy fed. We want to eventually get on television so these guys can be seen because they are very talented and deserve as much attention from the national promotions as they can get.”

OSCW’s next show is coming up on Sunday, October 16^th, when they will put on the aptly titled Insane Sunday for the Hanahan Recreational Center crowd.

The show starts at six o’clock, and the venue is located behind Trident Technical College on Maybelline Road.

To catch up on OSCW’s greatest matches from all of its superstars, visit http://www.x-media.tv.

Plenty Left In The Tank For Lewis

I will never forget when I first stepped into a wrestling ring with Adrian Lewis. It was 2004, and the amount of meat on my body could have fit into a can of tuna sold at a grocery store. Lewis stood before me, a man easily twice my size.

The show was set in the backroom of a bowling alley in Mt. Pleasant. A crowd of maybe fifty were in attendance. The promotion's World Title was on the line. Lewis, the defending champion, known in the ring as "Tank," was also my trainer. We had wrestled numerous times in the backyard, but never in front of a live audience. 

For all intents and purposes, I should have been a squash victim for Lewis. Instead, he made me look like a viable contender. The finish was a clean job on my part. I would be taking Lewis' finisher, a torture rack turned into a Boss Man slam and laying dormant for a three count victory. It was a move that at full speed could have broken me in my half. Instead it felt like being dropped onto a mattress; like being handled by a professional.  

A fourteen year veteran of the southeast circuit, Lewis found his roots in professional wrestling at the young age of four when he and his brothers would crowd around the family television on Saturday mornings to watch their favorite wrestling superstars.

“We would watch wrestling for about an hour, and then we would have to go outside or upstairs because we would want to wrestle each other, we loved it so much” Lewis, 34, says of his Lowcountry roots. “I loved watching the heels, especially the REAL Nature Boy, Buddy Rodgers.”

Lewis started mat wrestling in seventh grade and carried that into high school. But it was in 1996 that the professional wrestling bug bit Lewis on a fateful trip to Georgia. “We went to a show in Atlanta, and afterwards Ric Flair was signing autographs. But behind him was his agent or someone close to him within WCW. He took me aside and started talking to me about getting into the business.”

World Championship Wrestling was known for its wrestling school, The Power Plant, where ambitious athletes could try their hand at becoming a professional wrestler in WCW. More than a few future stars emerged from the Power Plant in the 90’s including future World Champion Diamond Dallas Page.

Lewis, however, only spent a short time at the Power Plant in 1997 and found working independent promotions more to his liking and nurturing.  “I was homesick when I was at the Power Plant. So I eventually came home to Charleston to be close to my family. Sometimes I wish I had stayed, but what I found with ACW was just as good for me as a wrestler.”

Under the tutelage of “Wildcat” Lee Scott, Lewis began to learn the true fundamentals of being a professional wrestler. One of those essential fundamentals was taking “bumps” and learning how to fall correctly to protect himself. As Lewis recalls it was much easier said than done and almost ended his career before it ever got started. “I thought I was out of my mind when I stood in that ring and took that first back bump. All I remember was that the ring was rock hard. Not like the rings today with the extra padding under the canvas. This was stiff. I remember hitting that back bump and all of the air leaving my body. It took me three months to get comfortable with the basic training.”

By the time the fall of 1997 rolled around, Lewis was traveling with ACW to shows all along the southeast, from North Carolina to Alabama, with most of the shows hosted in Georgia and South Carolina. Like all wrestlers, Lewis was beginning to develop his own character or gimmick.

“I was working with Bob Keller, and I give him this shoulder block. And then he gets up and is like ‘Man, I feel like I just got hit by a tank.’ As soon as he said that, everyone agreed that’s what my name should be."

Wrestling under the name “Tank Adams”, Lewis began to embody the ultimate face character: the American flag-clad hero. When asked about his first match as “Tank,” Lewis jokingly pulls out a logbook. “Yes, us older guys keep log books for this kind of thing.” He turns to a page and begins talking about that evening in Summerville.

“I wrestled Big Jack Spurr that night. Jack was one of my trainers along with Lee. He was a huge heel in the territory. The crowd was instantly giving him heat. Then they started the USA chant for me, and that’s when the adrenaline started pumping. I had no doubt that night, that’s what I wanted to do with my life. I didn’t even worry about the match after that. I just wanted to entertain.”

Lewis continued wrestling with independent promotions throughout the end of the 90’s and into the new millennium.  But in 2004, he took another step forward by starting his own promotion based out of Charleston. “Wrestling is huge in Charleston and has a long history in the area. But by that time a lot of promotions were folding. With all of the wrestlers in Charleston, I wanted to give us an opportunity not to have to travel four hours just to be in a show when we could have one right here.”

Taking on the role of promoter/wrestler, Lewis instantly found the hardships that others faced when trying to run a wrestling organization. “You really have to love the business, and you have to expect to sacrifice your personal life with a whole lot of money and not expect to get anything in return.”

Lewis admits he couldn’t pay all of his wrestlers. ”I was up front about it, and they knew I couldn’t always pay them. But it wasn’t about the money for us. Not then. We all got together because we loved wrestling.”

But as a new decade and new era preside over the national wrestling scene, a lot of the scruples changed in the business. The “old school” style of wrestling evolved in the post-Attitude era to high-risk stunts to please the crowd. Lewis admits seeing the changes first hand. “In my training, you worked on an arm bar. Everything about it. The technique, where you stood, how you maneuvered your opponent. Nowadays, it’s about the ‘big spot’ in the match and having creative move sets and, basically, risking your life for the crowd.”

Even some of the time honored wrestling traditions are being phased out, according to Lewis. The ‘two finger’ handshake, for example. A great sign of respect among old school wrestlers was to shake with only their index and middle fingers along with their thumb. Nowadays, it’s looked down upon as being a part of the old guard of wrestling and can find some independent workers out of jobs.

“It’s just so different now with the New Wrestling mentality. But the truth is, you can make it look like you’re killing somebody in the ring, but you’re really not. Hurting your opponent is not the mark of good wrestling.”

Despite Lewis’ criticisms, though, he is still very much a fan of professional wrestling, and very much active in continuing to work the independent scene. With his recovery nearly complete from a recent diabetes scare about a month ago, he is on the verge of moving back to South Carolina and hopefully returning to the OSCW promotion to resume his character as Tank.

“I’ve wrestled a lot of great guys in my career. A lot of guys that are great wrestlers that just have not had the opportunity to get to one of the national promotions. And a lot of people will look at independent wrestling as a joke. But we’re still lacing up our boots, and we’re still going out there to entertain just the same as the guys in the WWE and TNA do.”

Like a true professional...