Firpo-McKenzie Part Two

As I left you last...

The action was in the beautiful, air conditioned Cobo Arena in Detroit. Pampero Firpo had come to the ring from the opposite side of the ring with a huge roar of “OHHHHHHHH YEAHHHHHHH!” He began to beat up the helpless opponent by the name of The Medic, a veteran of many mat wars.

Promoter Francis Fleser, looking from the tunnel area of the dressing room under the reserved seats, sent 10 guys out from Lou Klein's Gym to try and restore order and contain the Wild Bull Of The Pampas. Pampero grabbed a wrench from under the ring and busted open the mask and head of the Medic. Blood flowed from a huge gash like the waters of the mighty Niagara Falls of New York.

Firpo was in no mood for these intruders and sent six of the 10 to the hospital. He definitely wanted to be recognized as the greatest wrestler and the strongest brawler in the world.

Tex McKenzie, watching from the tunnel, had taken just about as much of this carnage as he could stand and charged the ring to restore law and order. Firpo suddenly caught the huge figure out of the corner of his eye and dropped his helpless victim and began to charge at Tex. Tex had gotten as far as the ring apron when Firpo grabbed him by the ruffles of his hand made shirt. A fan had given it to him, but it was no match for the strong hands of Pampero, and it gave way.

The battle was on … Tex began to beat on Firpo with that long bullwhip style of forearm blows. He kicked at him with those size 15 cowboy boots. He threw everything at Firpo that he could, but it seemed like nothing was going to stop the battle that was in gear.

Suddenly, as quickly as it began, Firpo let go of Tex and dashed to the dressing room. What had happened to the crazed bull of the pampas? Did the thought of losing to Tex McKenzie in front of a sold out Cobo arena send a message to Firpo?

Sounds emitting from the dressing rooms were attesting a different theory to that story as Firpo was completely destroying the interior and all its furnishings. Promoter Fleser had stopped at the doorway of Firpo's dressing room, backed up by eight of the largest men on the Detroit Police Force.

He begged the Wild Bull to calm down long enough to listen to him. Firpo agreed, and they began to talk … or at least Mr. Fleser did … Firpo was screaming that this big drink of water had injected his big nose into his business, and he wanted a match with him in the worst way. Promoter Fleser said to calm down, and he would have the papers drawn up and delivered to the TV station the following morning.

A hand was stuck out in a gesture of friendship to Firpo, and, without any reservation, it was knocked aside. Firpo turned to the showers and growled out, “OOOOOOHHHHHHHHHH YEAHHHHHHHHH!”

The following morning, before a packed TV studio at WXON in Walled Lake, Michigan, Firpo came to the interview area. His bushy long beard flowed in the air, and the long jungle style hairdo was bouncing as he strode to the microphone. Lord Athol Layton was the commentator for World Wide Sports, and he began by saying that Firpo's actions were not something that was condoned by the National Wrestling Alliance.

He further went on to call Firpo a rather barbaric monster. Firpo went into the side of his wrestling tights and brought out a small shrunken head and began to rub it. He looked over at Layton and said that he would like to add more heads to his collection. It looked as if Pampero was going to pursue his thoughts when Layton started talking about the upcoming matches at Cobo in two weeks.

Firpo had been given his shot at Tex McKenzie and was very vibrant about it. He called out into the microphone, "OHHHHHH YEAHHHH ... THEESE BEEGG OAK TREE WILL COME TUMBLING DOWN WHEN I CHOP HIM WITH MY MIGHTY HANDS … AND ALL YOU WEEEEEEL HEAR IS ... TEEEEMMMMMBERRRRRRRRR!"

The crowd went crazy, and so did Tex. He came from the dressing room, and the battle was on again between the two foes. It wasn't long before the entire dressing room piled out to break the battle up again. It was Bobo Brazil who calmed down Tex and reasoned with him to do his battling where he could please all of the fans ... in the ring.

During the next two weeks, Tex and Firpo crossed paths in a lot of big cities like Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Toronto, Dayton and Mansfield, as well as Flint, Lansing and Saginaw. Riot squads had to be called out to contain these two.

Finally came Saturday and Cobo Hall, Detroit. The largest crowd ever was on hand to see a huge double main event. The U.S. Champ Bobo Brazil taking on the Sheik, and Firpo was against Tex McKenzie.

The undercard began with Cowboy Frankie Laine taking on Native American Chief White Owl. The second match was a bout that could have been a main event on any card in the entire territory. It matched Bull Curry against Danny Miller. The third match had the world famous midgets in a tag team match, Sky Lo Lo and Irish Jackie against Little Beaver and the Haiti Kid.

The ladies were also on the card as Mary Jane Mull went against longtime enemy Lucille Dupree. The semi-main event had Killer Tim Brooks facing Tony Marino in a lumberjack match. Bobo Brazil was lucky enough to get a win by disqualification against The Sheik after outside interference by Abdullah Farook, the nefarious manager at ringside.

The bell rang for the last of the main events, and Big Tex hit the ring first, wearing a beautiful new tan leather jacket with western style fringe hanging from all over it. It had been presented to him by his fan club earlier in the day at the Sheraton Cadillac Hotel. Fans were clambering to get autographs and pictures with the huge 6-foot, 9-inch giant.

From the dressing room tunnel came the low guttural chant of "OHHHHHHHH YEAHHHHHHHH" and Firpo was on his way to the ring. He was surrounded by10 policemen that were as big as he was. As he approached the ring, Firpo stopped and looked up at where Tex was waiting. He called out, "TEEEEEEEEEMMMMMMBERRRRRRRRR," and the battle was on...

To be continued...

Percival A. Friend, Retired
The Epitome of Wrestling Managers
2004 CAC Honoree