CAC 2009 Part Two

Monday was spent getting ready for the Cribbage tournament and being reunited with a lot of good people and having the pleasure of meeting new ones too. This year’s tournament included both Vachon Brothers, Maurice and Paul, returning champ Dave Bodell, Bill White, Wes Daniel, Chris Ostrovansky, The Sensational Intelligent Masked Destroyer, Ricki Ataki, Jeff Sharkey, Chad Kelly, Skye Castellucci, Terry Funk, Richie Rotten, Andrew Carmichael, Enrico Ventola and myself.

As we were approaching the 4 p.m. cutoff hour for registration, Wes Daniel came to Bill and me and invited us to be a part of the matches held in conjunction with the CAC gathering. Since I had my laptop and a bunch of Cribbage boards in my briefcase, we decided to go back to our condo and drop off things and return to the Gold Coast ASAP.

Returning at 5:30, we went to the dressing room area to see who we were teamed up with. As I passed by the food prep area for the Casino, I stopped to listen to a promo being cut by current NWA Champ Ryan Taylor. I was very impressed with his verbiage and control of the situation. I had no idea that he would be teamed with me later on the card. I began running into all the legends in attendance and starting to tell war stories. It was a great feeling to be in a dressing room again with friends that I shared my early life together with.

The matches began with a huge Battle Royal that was won by Derek Sanders. Next on the card was Bao Nguyen, with Akio Sato, who won a three way over Brian Breaker and GQ Gallo. Then, the night got even better as a six-man tag was next. Melissa Coates led Billy Blade, Funny Bone and Tekniq to the ring and scored a victory over Legacy, Scotty Ice and Iron Lion. Melissa has a website at www.melissacoates.com ; please drop by and tell her I sent you.

Alofa won a big match against three opponents, Chris Ciaro, Chris Cadillac and Dylan Drake. If you get a chance to see Alofa, you will never forget him; he has the look of Abdullah The Butcher and the size of Yokozuna ... But, he moves very gracefully in the ring. Polyester Express & Michelle Star won their match with Jeckles the Jester and Pirate Calico, along with Calico Wasp. Next, Bill White led his newest charge to the ring ... Blackstone was the largest pure athlete on the card, easily beating a super young man by the name of Nick Turner. I say easily won because of the tremendous size difference between the two men.

Robbie Ellis, the sexy sexagenarian superstud, as he refers to himself, won a hard battle against Nick Turner. There were many times during the match that I thought Nick was going to get a W notched into his belt of victories. Mr. Wrestling IV and Ric Thompson, with J.J.Dillon, defeated Rik Luxury & Zack Reeb, with Rock Riddle in their corner. J.J. made it known early on that he did not like the "Monkey Suit” that Rock Riddle was wearing. They had a battle of words, and J.J. showed the overflow crowd why he is called "The Godfather of the Four Horsemen".

Next, we were treated to the Ladies of Pro Wrestling. They showed the crowd what the meaning of the word WRESTLING was on the leader board as you entered the arena. Jamie D came out first and had a stare-down with the 2009 honoree, Luna Vachon. Luna responded by getting up and grabbing her chair and threatening Jaime. Common sense prevailed, and Jaime quickly exited the area and went to the ring. Next came Awesome Kong, who also stopped to stare at some of the Legends in the audience. She also nearly got into an altercation with Luna. I have been there one time before, and, trust me, it is not a good feeling, feeling the wrath of a Vachon.

The huge doors opened at the rear of the arena, and out came Cheerleader Melissa to a big ovation from the crowd. Lastly came the lady the crowd had waited for all night long, ODB ... the star from TNA wrestling. She set the room on fire with her antics but never let that deter from her wrestling skills inside those ropes. Cheerleader and ODB fought for over 10 minutes and had the crowd eating out of their hands. They ended up with the winning edge over Jaime D and Kong. The ladies stole the show as far as the crowd was concerned and gave us a rough time to follow in the Main Event.

The bell rang for the Main Event, and Oliver John went into the arena, followed by Jason Dupress. Dr. Ken Ramey led his charge, Chris Hero, to the ring with all the grace and opulence one could muster. Both doors opened as they announced my name, and a thunderous echo of boos came from the audience as I led the Champ, Ryan Taylor, to the squared circle. Of course, I had to stop and size up the crowd and look at our opponents in the ring before letting Ryan enter the ropes. It was billed as a four-way for the NWA Belt, and I have never been involved in such a match and wondered how it was going to affect the outcome of the evening.

Back and forth it went for nearly 20 solid minutes while I was in constant communication with the referee, who could neither count to three nor give a judgment call. I sometimes wondered where all the referees came from that have been in matches I have been involved with. You just never knew. The first to be eliminated was Oliver John, and then it was a little fairer … I thought. These two other guys, Chris Hero and Jason Dupress, tried to double team Ryan, and that's when I set the briefcase aside to grab onto somebody and give them a wrestling lesson. Since the referee was admonishing Chris Hero, I decided to drape Jason's neck over the bottom rope and cut his wind off. The crowd went ballistic on me and started to throw stuff at me.

I let go of him and explained to the referee that I was only trying to get the guy upright to be able to wrestle my superior champion. In a turn of fate for us, Chris Hero hit Ryan from behind and drove him face first to the mat, and the referee finally learned how to count to three, and they crowned a new heritage champ in Las Vegas. I led Ryan back to the dressing room where he went off on me and fired me. He stated that I didn't do my job and that he was going to seek a new manager somewhere in the NWA Heritage . I wish him success from the best manager wrestling has ever had.

Following the matches, Bill White and I enjoyed a fun time together with the lady stars at TGIF's inside the Gold Coast Casino. We had the time of our lives until nearly 5 in the morning, when we finally drug our tired old carcasses back to the condo for some much needed rest.

Three hours later, we started al over again. I have never enjoyed a better time in Vegas so far.

To be continued…

Percival A. Friend, Retired
The Epitome of Wrestling Managers