The Vanderhoff Chronicles Part 10

In May 2004 CPW held its last show at Sterett Hall. All of a sudden the crowds were down from the 300-400 we used to draw to about 100. The video wall was gone as the guy that used to run the sound and video just up and disappeared. I brought guys in to run the web site but pretty soon they wanted to be involved in the shows. Now if had been me I would have said look web site guys are what I need, take it or leave. But instead these guys wanted to and were allowed to train.

These guys are my all out friends but I would be lying if I said they weren't horrible. Danny couldn't even take a bump without landing ass first or hitting his head and he already had this elaborate character and storyline worked out for himself. Are you shitting me? You can't take a bump and now you have a character? I'm sure my mother had me crawling before she tried to have me walk.

Brian somehow became a referee. CPW wanted me to train Brian. I said no, I'm no trainer...if they couldn't train referees they needed to take him to Keller or Susan Green or somebody besides me. CPW kept pushing me so finally I said I would try to help. I show up for training and Brian and Danny show up and nobody else did. Now when I was trained Bob and Glen always put me through match scenarios. Without guys there to work a match, what could I really show him? This happened a second time where no one showed and I said screw this and gave up. They threw Brian out there anyway, just like the EWF did to me. I felt bad but what else could I do? They were trading off the web site as payment for training. If that was the case, they were already beyond my help. I didn't get my training for free and I didn't ask to trade off setting up the ring.

Surprisingly they had guys that showed real potential. But on the other side of the coin they had guys that had no business in the ring. One guy started as an announcer and should have stayed there because he was decent on the mic. Put him in the ring, however, and it was beyond horrible. He had a gimmick but wouldn't even dress the part. He'd blow off training and they still let him work. They gave him an interview segment like Jericho's. I thought my head would explode. Another guy they brought in won the tag belts with his partner and wanted to take the belts home. Not only that they were booked in another promotion and wanted to wear them there. Would anybody really give a damn that they were champions of a promotion they never heard of?

They started running in a spare room of a bowling alley on Sunday nights. Originally the idea was that this would be a smaller show that would support our "main" show. Unfortunately it became our main show. The first couple of shows drew OK, people wer lured by getting to watch the WWE PPV afterward. But it started to go downhill as we drew less and less each show.

In July, Solitude stopped booking. There was some disagreement, I don't know all the details. What I do know is payoffs stopped. Mack Truck and Mike Nova left. Krazy K and Dex were gone. You couldn't replace those guys when they left. The new guys they had that were decent the fans didn't know them.

One of the bigger mistakes that was made is that The Armed Forces were broken up. Tank became the top heel in the promotion for no other reason than a few of his friends that came to the shows thought it would be cool if he turned heel. WOW! We're listening to marks now on how to run the show?

So here is Tank, a guy that is always smiling and is a pretty nice guy in real life and he's supposed to be a heel? It just didn't make sense. He was just too well known in Mt. Pleasant and Charleston. Everytime I'd seen him in his career when he tried to work heel it failed. Kids looked up to him. Michael Devine and Bob back in SWF sent Tank out with the American flag and told him to walk out to the crowd. A dozen kids with flags of their own bought at the gimmick table followed him around the building. Why throw that away? Then he says he wants to be a solo but then forms a group of four.

Tank's friends must have thought it would be cool if I had less involvement, too because once Nova and Truck left they didn't have a clue what to do with me. One show I interfered in two matches. The next I did nothing. Then I was back with Malachi. Then Malachi and I were going to split and we were going to feud. Then I was the general manager. Then I was the ring announcer. Then I was back to being the GM.

Tank would have meetings where he would ask for help. But he would never really say what exactly he wanted you to do. I took it as hey I need financial help. How could I throw money into something where I didn't have a say as to how my money was going to be used? I wasn't even happy with my character direction at this point. I had a one-on-one with him and told him I'd like to be a manager again but if you don't have anything for me then I'd like to ref again. At least that way I knew I could be an asset to the company. I didn't feel like the GM role was even necessary in CPW; it was just another case of trying to copy something WWE already had I threw ideas at him just because I wanted to be of some use to the show. I even suggested putting the CPW title on me for two shows just to see if it would generate any interest, but I have the feeling he didn't want to lose to anyone especially me. It was probably a dumb idea anyways but at least it would have been different. He kept saying he didn't care if he had the title or not but kept booking himself to win.

In one of the meetings Tank said he didn't want to book anymore. I know Deni and I probably pissed Tank off in that meeting. Something got said about me having good ideas and that I should book. I said no because if booked the show there would be a lot of guys that wouldn't work for this company anymore. He called me out and wanted me to name names. I did and he took this all in. And I threw in one more thing. If I was booking Tank would no longer be champion. I don't think he liked that. We had a show coming up at the Music Farm and I pushed for Paul Phoenix to win the title. You could tell he didn't what I was saying and my girlfriend was sitting right there and said something like if you don't like what he has to say don't ask for his opinion. She was long fed up with things and just didn't care whose feelings she hurt.

What was sad is that it CPW should have been something really good. We limped along from summer of 2004 to the beginning of 2005. Then we were booked for the Music Farm again in March 2005.

The day of the show Malachi calls me and says they are a table short for their match, a tag team tables match. He asked could I drive to Home Depot to pick up the table and that Shadow Stalker would meet me there to pay for the table. Turns out the only table they had was damaged on a corner. We were going to destroy it anyway so Deni asks what kind of deal could we get on it. So we got the table for half price. So not only do I deliver but I manage to save the company money. I was still trying to do my part to help despite not being happy with the way I was being treated.

We got the place on a Saturday night and the college crowd we were hoping for showed up. I mean it was nothing short of amazing how well that show came off because Tank stayed tied up with his Domino's pizza sponsors so nobody had a clue what was going on.

Tank finally gets free 15 minutes or so before the show is going to start and they have a girl named Ashley there who is to sing the national anthem and they wanted her to ring announce. So we were trying to get stuff written down on index cards for her; Tank walks away to do something else and the girl just breaks down. She is to the point of tears. She is so nervous and doesn't want to announce. Another guy was there, I think his name was Shawn and he volunteered. I wasn't sure what I was doing; I figured I had something to do with the GM thing.

I take one look at Shawn and he's in a T-shirt and jeans and I say here you can borrow one of my sports jackets because you need to look somewhat professional out there. I would have loaned him a shirt and tie too but I didn't have extras in my bag. So now I'm trying to get Shawn prepared and then Tank comes back. I tell him what is going on and he says no if Ashley can't announce then I have to do it. He told me later that Shawn blows off too many practices and then shows up at shows wanting to do something. Ok, that makes sense to me. But at the time I was annoyed and I tell Tank I'm going to the ring at 8:00 PM. I'm starting the show on time for once so match 1 better be ready.

Along with the tag team tables match there was a ladder match booked, the first time we had ever tried such a thing. Both matches came off really well and the crowd was into it all night. Those guys worked their butts off.

Tank then said he would push for a once a month spot at the Farm which I would have been cool with no matter what my role. But that deal didn't pan out either. In a twist of irony the last CPW show was held in the same building where I started with the EWF five years ago. I think maybe 20 fans showed up. I had come full circle. CPW as far as I know is officially dead as the school is closed and the website has been taken down.

Tank may or may not read these words and I really didn't mean this as a knock on him. I don't think CPW failed because of a lack of effort on his part. I like Adrian Lewis the person. I'm not crazy about Tank Lewis the promoter. He made some bad business decisions and ultimately got in over his head. He should have trusted his partners instead of cutting them out of the picture.

I've accepted life as a ring announcer for CWA. It's a good gig and I have no complaints. And it's a hell of a lot of fun working with Bob again, that nut. Reginald Vanderhoff is taking a long vacation. I never say never, though and all it would take is the right situation to bring him back again. But right now he deserves a break. Now I'm going to give my computer a break as well.