April 7, 1972 Part Two

This is from an e-mail that I received yesterday.....

Sent: Saturday, November 27, 2004 5:10 PM
Subject: Another bell tolls

It is with deep regret I let you know that this morning in a accident at a construction site that he was having a crew work that Dandy Jack Donavan was killed. Dandy Jack was a long time CAC member and a honoree at our first Newton Iowa reunion. A member of the gulf Coast Reunion and a friend to so many.

Jack had fought and defeated the big C in the last few years and just turned 76. He had gone to the mall construction site where he had a crew from his painting company working. Shirley his wife was not clear why he climbed a ladder but a freak accident he fell and was killed instantly.

Those of you who know Jack and Shirley Donavant, keep her in your prayers and let her know how much Jack meant to you-- Percival

As I left you last, I had gone to St. Joe, Missouri for a fantastic wrestling card at the city auditorium. Gust Karras and Heart of America Promotions had outdone themselves by lining up some of the greatest matches to be held in the Midwest.

This card was so great that it had a double main event featuring the current tag champions, Chati Yokouchi & Yasu Fuji, meeting Danny Little bear & The Stomper. It also had a handicap match with Angus and me facing "Mr. Excitement" Omar Atlas.

I was not very happy having to share the main event bookings with somebody and even more unhappy to be sharing the money with them. I vowed on St. Joe television that I would get my revenge.

The third match between Bob Orton and Steve Bolus had just ended and had riot police involved in the end result as the Viking, a tag partner and friend of Orton, came to ringside to simply voice his opinion and got involved with the match as Bolus jumped from the ring, and the two proceeded to fight among each other.

As Gust Karras passed my dressing room on the way to his office in the rear of the city auditorium, I called out to him and said, "Why not put those two blowhards on last and let them follow the handicap match?" I was certain that he didn't have a clue as to what I had up my sleeve.

In less than a heartbeat, Gust Karras agreed with me and said that he wanted the tag match on last anyways, as he thought that a title would change hands in the outcome. He said, “You guys just go ahead, and I will let the referee Moody know of the change.”

Ten minutes later, after the intermission, we were ready to go and do combat. I had gone through another few sets of push ups and sit ups and deep knee bends to get my body into the best shape it had been in a while.

The bell began to ring, calling us to the ring. I slipped on my beautiful Yellow robe with the red lettering on the back. In front of Angus, I led the way to the ring. Amidst the cups of beer thrown at us and the cussing by Mertie and Gertie Hite, we finally made it to ringside. I turned to Karras and said, "You’re going to regret the day you let us go first."

The crowd went ballistic as Omar made his way to the ring. He had a jacket on that was made by designers Karl and Hildeguard of Cincinnati. At the time, they were the top designers of wrestling wear in the business. Of course, they couldn't hold a candle to my garment maker in Detroit.

Following the announcements and the referee instructions, Omar got into a heated argument with Angus, and the referee was trying to pull them apart. I had turned to go back to my corner, and there stood the Old Pro, Ronnie Etchison. He had a big smile on his face and was holding what was left of his ring jacket that had been destroyed in the opening match.

He dropped the coat, and my eyes made the mistake of watching it and not him as he grabbed me by the lapels and threw me over his shoulders, and I hit the mat with a big thud. I felt the seam letting loose on the center of the robe, and, suddenly, it was being torn from my body and then ripped into shreds by this mad man.

Angus suddenly saw what was happening and threw Omar over the top rope onto the arena floor and came towards Etchison. He grabbed at him and started to beat the pulp out of him for what he had done to me and my beautiful ring robe. Even the referee was getting in his licks as he missed a huge push intended for Angus, and it connected with me and shoved me into a corner occupied by Omar Atlas.

As I began to physically go at it with him, the referee came between us as if to save Omar from the beating I was going to give him. I swung wildly and accidentally hit Moody with a well intended right. Moody was no slouch and just stood there as if a feather had hit him. Those Texans are pretty tough when it comes to heads up with someone.

By then, Frank Diamond came to the ring and sort of evened things out, and the match got underway. Angus started the match and beat Omar within an inch of his life and finally tagged me in. My first instinct was to just cover this guy and get it over with, but I wanted to show him why it was not a good thing to be in the ring with The Epitome.

I began to kick Omar about the back and shoulders and turn to the fans and pose with both arms bulged out with biceps. I then turned to him again, and he had gotten up on his knees and hands. I then kicked him in the stomach and the butt and was just plain making a mockery of him.

Fans were trying to get into the roped off area, and it was all the local doughnut eaters could do to keep them out. I rolled Omar on his back and then took a flying run into the ropes and came off in full flight towards him and his chest. Suddenly, he rolled out of the way, and I crashed against the rough mat cover. Omar picked me up and began to spin me out of control in his patented Airplane Spin.

I had been in this same spin once before, and the only way that you can stop it is when he wanted to let you down. Angus reached out for my hand as I came around, and he missed and caught my boot in the process. Omar saw what happened and stumbled against the ropes and threw me over the top onto the arena floor.

I landed near a pair of shoes that looked mighty friendly. They belonged to Black Jack Black, the other man I had under my control in the Midwest. He gently picked me up and tried to get me back into the ring. I was almost retching from the spinning and tried to hold my composure.

I made it back into the ring and caught Omar with a huge drop kick as he came up off the mat. Quickly, I tagged in Angus, and he began to slam Omar from turnbuckle to turnbuckle. Then, he began to suplex him and just wear him down. He brought him near our corner and tagged me in.

I jumped on Omar, and the count began, 1-2- and Omar threw me off his shoulders. The crowd was screaming for him to beat me, and I reached down from the body slam he was going to give me and grabbed the little guy in a small package and pinned him, 1-2-3.

Just as I looked up, there was Etchison again in my face. He tried for a piledriver on me, but Blackie and Angus stopped him. We fought our way back to the dressing room with at least 15 policemen surrounding us.

Gust Karras came to my dressing room and told me that, because of all the involvement with my men in the match, the main event next week would be a tag match between Omar & Etchison against Blackie & Angus and that I would be put into a cage and suspended above the ring.

My door slammed, and I just looked at Angus and Blackie and said, "I didn't start all this ... It was Etchison's fault."

With the final intermission over, the last match started towards the ring. Chati & Yasu were in the ring, waiting on their opponents. Littlebear entered and was met with a barrage of karate chops and punches. His partner, The Stomper, stumbled thru the ropes and got the stuffing kicked out of him by the karate expert Yasu Fuji.

As it ended up, Chati pinned Littlebear to retain their belts after almost 20 minutes. They just were not enthralled by the antics in the ring trying to follow what we had given the fans. Even poor Littlebear couldn't get the fans to help him out.

I have always said "Don't come to a battle of wits … if you’re unarmed."

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