PCW Part 2

Aside from Arlington, Texas being in the hub of the Dallas / Ft. Worth area, it is host city to not only the Rangers stadium and the Cowboys’ football stadium being built not far from the PCW Arena.

Six Flags Over Texas is also a neighbor to the twice-weekly array of talent that draws some real seasoned wrestling fans to overflow capacity nearly all year long.

The Busseys, even though they are not well liked for their in-ring attitudes, are tremendous attention getters to the PCW promotion they own. They have their own bunch of followers who are not well liked by the fans either.

Wrestlers like Action Jackson, Mace Malone, Wally Darkmon and James Johnson constantly are put into some pretty strange situations by the Bussey Boys, but they usually have all the fan support they need to win matches, for the most part.

Saturday afternoon, I was picked up at my hotel by Rob Moore and his lady friend, Tonya Martin. I was treated to a tour of some of the sights of Arlington, almost the same as I had the night before by Kody Kox. The only difference was that we went in a few different directions off the southbound route that Kody took me on.

I was shown Six Flags from a different angle, and then we came up on Rangers Stadium, where they play baseball at. Almost directly across the street is where the new Cowboys Stadium is under construction. By the way, it will be the site of Super Bowl XLV in 2011. I can only tell you that it is a huge complex that dwarfs the stadium across the street.

Shortly thereafter, we stopped at a Mexican Buffet called, simply, "Pancho's." We enjoyed a hearty meal that included many items on the menu. A lot of them were a little more than spicy to my delicate stomach, but I survived and even had some fried bread dipped in honey and butter. It was mighty tasty and filled me to a capacity that I would not be able to tell my doctor that I did.

Arriving at the arena, we were met by some fans parked not far from where we stopped. Rob stopped to speak as he always does and kept a smile on his face the entire time. We entered the arena from the gym side and went to the dressing room area for the better liked athletes.

Wally Darkmon was the first to come over and say hi to me again. He spoke about a tough night ahead facing J.T. LaMotta. He said that he needed to go and start his warm up training for the night, and he shook my hand and left.

One by one, all the athletes in the room began to come over and introduce themselves to me and welcome me to PCW. This is a tradition we used to do in the old days of the territories whenever we had a guest in the building.

It wasn't too much later that we were all called into the hallway between the two dressing rooms and were linked up by hands by two referees. No matter what their professional differences were, total respect was the rule, and a prayer was offered by the chaplain of PCW.

Following that, we were all led out to the arena and surrounded the ring in groups so as not to cause any fighting between foes. The house lights were dimmed, and the huge monitors in the rear of the arena had the picture of Bronko Lubich on them. The announcer, Travis Baxter, began by paying tribute to Bronko and then to Brian "Crush" Adams, and then Dewey Robertson, "The Missing Link." The entire building joined us by standing in total silence as the ten bells were tolled off.

Many of the guys and gals at ringside knew these men and shed tears as the bells rang also.

As I started to walk away, Travis grabbed me by the arm and told the capacity crowd who I was and who I managed. He asked Arlington, Texas to welcome me. I was overcome by the standing ovation and proceeded to thank not only the board of directors of PCW but also publicly thanked Rob Moore for getting me to Arlington for the event.

Going to my VIP seating directly behind Rob, the TV play-by-play announcer, I shook a lot of hands and took pictures with the fans.

PCW owners Thomas and Chris Bussey, along with brother and personal assistant Steven Bussey, came to the ring. Thomas and Chris threatened the fans with their flip-flops and announced that Sick 'N' Twisted will take place in two weeks. They also continued their torment of PCW Television Champion Jiggle-O James Johnson by forcing him to defend his belt tonight against the Angel of Sinn from Mike Foxx's Faithful.

The opening match saw champion Johnson beat the Angel of Sinn, who was accompanied by the "Angel of Mercy," Claudia, and retain the belt. Johnson was able to effectively counter Sinn's size, power and constant interference by Claudia. She is a very active young lady that not only is smart but good looking as well.

Johnson was overpowering his foe with speed and quickness when, after delivering a Climax Kick, he climbed to the top rope for the O-Face when Mike Foxx and the 7-foot-2 Colossus charged the ring, causing a disqualification. The Faithful proceeded to beat the living heck out of the much smaller Johnson and were doing pretty good until Action Jackson and Mace Malone ran out to even things out.

Jackson wanted Foxx to fight right then, but Foxx had his own ideas about a match and challenged Jackson and Johnson to a tag match later in the evening against Colossus and Sinn. It was then that Foxx dropped a bombshell by announcing that he would face Mace Malone in the Main Event. In addition, he challenged A.J. to a Last Man Standing Match at Sick 'N' Twisted in two weeks. Jackson rubbed his hands together and looked at the fans and proudly said, "I can't wait to knock you down until you can't get up anymore." The fans were screaming at the top of their lungs for A.J. and his decision.

Tim Storm of the Dark Circle was next and showed the capacity crowd why he was one of the PCW World Tag Champions. He faced Gregory Symonds in a drawn out battle that nearly saw the much larger Storm almost pinned more than once. Symonds tried to wear down Storm by use of many technical moves, but the power from the champ was overwhelming, and he broke out of every attempt to beat him. It was not an easy battle as Greg grabbed counter after counter wrestling hold but was eventually beaten by what Storm called “The Perfect Storm.”

Wally Darkmon faced J.T. LaMotta next, and it started out very fast paced, almost resembling a Lucha match from Mexico. If you have ever seen any of the wrestling from south of our border, you know what I am talking about. LaMotta thought he had Darkmon where he wanted him with a barrage of wrestling holds, but Darkmon overcame the assault with a move he calls "The Mood Swing."

"The Texas Legend" Action Jackson & Jiggle-O James Johnson came to the ring following a brief break in the action. They faced the Angel of Sinn and Colossus, and it was quite evident that Claudia was not with her charges. It was figured that she was being held back to come out with Foxx in the main event.

The match began with Johnson starting for his team and not being able to tag out to Jackson when he was in trouble. The Faithful held him in their corner for the better part of 15 minutes until he finally tagged A.J. The top of the arena nearly came off as Jackson came through the ropes and began to even things up in the battle.

Jackson gave Sinn the Big Booyah and pinned him while Johnson held the 7-footer at bay. The fans were very happy and were getting ready for the confrontation between Mike Foxx and Mace Malone.

The bell rang for the event to begin, and Mike Foxx, "The Dark Messiah," was led to the ring by Claudia, "The Angel of Mercy." She began to gloat to the crowd that this would be the final time they would see Malone in a match at PCW.

Malone had some personal things to settle with Foxx from throwing fire at both Malone and his mentor Action Jackson. I then found out that the reason Jackson was wearing a cast on his arm was due to the Faithful breaking it a few weeks earlier.

As the match progressed, Claudia blew the "Kiss of Death" into Malone's face. It was a red mist that has blinded many opponents like the mist that the Great Kabuki used to spew out when he got into trouble. Foxx then used Malone's own feature move, The Detonator, to try and beat him with. That didn't work.

Claudia was about to blow another Kiss of Death when referee Travis Trueborne shoved her from the ring apron and ordered her removed from the arena floor. Foxx grabbed Malone in the Career Killer and held it a long time until Malone broke out using his extraordinarily strong legs.

Malone then tried to springboard off the second rope, but Foxx caught him and pinned him right in the middle of the ring. The match was over, but the action was not, as A.J. hit the ring to even things between Foxx and himself. Angel of Sinn and Colossus made it apparent they didn't enjoy the loss they encountered earlier and joined with Foxx in trying to beat the living heck out of A.J.

As I looked up the ramp leading to the ring, I saw a blur come running down and finally realized that it was Wally Darkmon and Jiggle-O Johnson coming to help their friend Jackson out.

I can only imagine what the matches will be like at Sick 'N' Twisted. (EDITOR’S NOTE: For results of Sick ‘N’ Twisted, go to the PCW website and visit the message board.)

I had a wonderful time in Arlington and have been invited down to enjoy the best in wrestling again. Thank you, PCW, and thank you, Rob and Tonya, for a great time.

Percival A. Friend, Retired
The Epitome of Wrestling Managers

2003 BWC Hall of Fame Inductee
2004 CAC Hall of Fame Inductee
2006 LWA Hall of Fame Inductee
2007 TCCW Hall of Fame Honoree