The Vanderhoff Chronicles Part 4

This is where writing a series of articles like this gets sticky for me. I don't like to hurt people's feelings but hey this is my story, these are my opinions and if anyone gets offended hey feel free to hate me for the right reasons. But I put it out there because from here on I'm probably going to say some not-so-nice things to say about certain people. And no Jason Hutto this is not directly aimed at you but yeah there might be stuff in there that you won't like either. So to anyone reading this, if your name is mentioned then I say grin and bear it because mistakes I've made are in or will be in these articles, too.

I arrived at the building in Batesburg in July 2001 not knowing what to expect. Somehow I got into the back but had yet to meet the promoter. I saw Jess Bradley who I hadn't seen in nearly a year, shook his hand and proceded to catch up on old times. Velvet walked up and we were talking when suddenly I was like, uh guys what are we doing tonight. Oh, oops they hadn't let the promoter know I was coming. Great, I thought, good way to get started with a new promotion by pissing off the promoter right away. Jason Hutto came in the back later and I introduced myself and basically said I manage Jess, could I go out to the ring with him. I remember Jason saying go ahead but don't get too involved. Well I didn't really plan to but Tommi Feathers, Velvet's tag team partner and one of the opponents for the evening, would take care of that later.

I got dressed in a blue shirt and tie, dress shoes and kakais. Jess was in his biker gear, the last time he would wear such a gimmick and looked at me and was like "What the hell, Reggie. We're going to clash out there." I said, "Well sorry I left my Village People gear at home, what are you worried about? I'm dressed like a manager for crying out loud, I'm not supposed to look like your tag team partner!" I don't think Jess was convinced by hey it was his first time back and I would learn later on he had a lot more to worry about than just me dressing like I would at a local bank branch.

The match was a four corners match for the CCW cruiserweight belt. Xavier Night (then Pinnacle Dragon) with Darin Fate (then Sadie Grimm) in his corner vs Tommi Feathers vs, Velvet vs Jess with me in his corner. I keep thinking Darin was supposed to be in this match, too but he got to the building late and literally walked out with Xavier as his name was being introduced.

The match was going pretty well. Jess despite being out of the ring for four months was holding his own. Feathers and Velvet were pretty much the same as always with Xavier being the guy that really turned it up a notch being the most skilled guy in the ring. I did my best to distract the ref, interfered when I could and tried to raise as much crowd heat as I could. Everything seemed fine until Feathers started chasing me around the ring and Darin cut him off.

Feathers circled in the opposite direction, backed me down into the aisle and wham hit me with a punch that was so stiff it knocked me off balance. I never saw it coming so I didn't even have time to take a proper floor bump, I just kind of sprawled onto the floor. What was that, I thought. Did I tick him off? Because he in no way protected me, there is a safe place on the side of the neck that you can hit someone. It makes good noise and it stings but this wasn't it. This was right on the point of the jaw and it hurt like hell. Despite being about 50 pounds lighter he had a pretty good right cross. Now my first reaction was to jump right back up and beat the piss out of him but as I was on the floor two things went through my head. One was that Feathers was my friend so what did I do to make him angry and two was Hutto's instructions not to get too involved.

My "friend" had other ideas. He put a steel chair on my chest and dropped an elbow. Which would have been fine except my right arm was on top of my body. A real veteran would have known if a guy was new to taking this sort of punishment to simply kick my arm out of the way then put the chair on me. Instead he dropped his elbow with my arm pinned against my body. I'm lucky he didn't break my arm. He then stomped on the chair for good measure and walked away.

Ok decent crowd reaction but it really took away from the match in the ring. And I guess I should mention that the finish of the match was to be when Jess got eliminated he and I were supposed to leave Feathers laying. Well with me on the floor that seemed like a mute point. I stayed on the floor for a long time to keep Feathers from looking like a complete chump then joined Jess in the supposed beatdown that never happened because Tommi Feathers has superhuman powers and recovered so fast he had time to grab a chair and chase us away. But I had enough of chairs for that evening so I got the hell out of there.

Oh by the way Velvet won the match by pinning Xavier and won the cruiserweight belt, and I know that the only reason he won was simply...well he brought the belt with him. Now Hutto can dispute me on this but this has been Velvet's modus operendi since the day I met him: I supply the belt, I get to be the champ. I'll say some nice things about Velvet, too as in I thought he could work his gimmick to a tee and wasn't a bad performer but I KNOW I will say a lot more negative things about him later.

Later we went to our post match meal at the Waffle House, why do we always seem to end up there? As it is the butt of jokes for about a hundred workers but yet we eat there anyway. Maybe it's the hash browns which covered in cheese is really good. Feathers came up to me and asked if I was ok and I told him I thought he got a little rough on me. He DID apologize and said he was just rying to get some heat. I accepted the apology and figured I'd let it go at that. Unfortunately it wouldn't be the last time he stiffed me...more on that later, too.

Hutto called me later that month about his next show and asked if I could ref. He wasn't really thrilled about the guy he was using...some guy named Mike who somehow got a lot of work with George South. Well I can't blame Hutto, I knew Mike from Eagle's and he is a hell of a nice guy but as a ref...did I mention Mike was a nice guy. Ok, I'll say it, Mike sucks. So George South if you want to put me in the ring and compare notes with your guy I would like a shot because South tours with some guys I'd love to ref.

Anyway back to the matter of reffing for Jason. I asked him don't you think the people would be confused if I'm a ref at the next show when they just saw me manage Jess at the previous one? He said oh it's a month later, they won't remember. Ok, I know wrestling fans have short memories but was this guy counting on not having repeat customers? I tried to tell Jason it didn't make any sense (I'd find out I was right later) and we started working on a compromise. I would come out with Jess who was in the opening match, act like I was unhappy with him and then ref from then on. But I wasn't ready to give up being a manager just yet nor was I going to abandon my wrestler after just one show. I argued why can't we tease a break up then make it look like we tried to screw Feathers. Then i could ref as a heel the rest of the night. This seemed completely foreign to Jason but hell Nick Patrick did it. As a matter of fact, Scott Grady was doing it for months for Talon at ECPW. Scott's a nice guy but I always felt anything he could do, I could do better. And my girlfriend Deni had been saying for months that an evil ref gimmick was what I needed. So I figure here's my shot. Jason agreed.

I arrive at the building in August and Jess and Feathers are going over the finish of the match. Suddenly Hutto walks up and says something like "Ok here's what I want. Feathers will hit you with a chair three times and lay you out. Then he'll nail Jess and get the pin."

Needless to say, I wasn't thrilled. If anyone has to hit me with a chair three times it sure as hell won't be Tommi Feathers.

"What am I supposed to do for the rest of the night" I asked. "Do you have another referee?"

Of course Jason said no and I thought great here's a guy that's watched way too much ECW or backyard wrestling. I pulled Feathers aside and instead of trying to make sense I played to his ego.

"If you hit me with a chair three times and I come back out and ref for the rest of the night, you'll look like a complete chump, gay gimmick or not. He's not listening to me. Go talk to him."

Jess and Velvet by this time started to get involved and we explained to Jason if a referee or manager get nailed that many times by a wrestler then he should be laid out the rest of the evening. I think Velvet through in the classic line, "You're going to make Reggie look like the toughest guy here. You might as well hand him every belt in the promotion and put a big "S" on his chest". Hutto finally started to come around to what we were talking about and we changed the finish. I tried to screw Feathers but it backfired and then he hit me with a punch that thankfully didn't hurt, placed me in a chair then drop kicked me out of it. Then he nailed Jess with it and we ran like scared rabbits. When I say we it was Jess, me and Skip Cook, the Zebra Kid or TZK for short because there are at least three other guys using that gimmick. Skip was in the process of becoming Jess' tag team partner in Georgia and I guess he thought he could convince Hutto to bring the act to CCW. Jason never did but if I were a promoter trying to deal with TZK well then I'd probably veto every idea he came up with, too.

This guy was constantly trying to get himself over at the expense of less experienced guys (guys that were more skilled, usually). Since he was a supposed "11 year veteran" he demanded he go over in every match if the guy in the ring had less experience. Can you imagine Norton or Cruiser Lewis acting this way? Ric Flair would have been champion for life if this was the case! Needless to say I had reservations about having Skip in our group. The heat with he and I started when he was supposed to bump me after a tag match in which he turned on his partner and gave me a clothesline ACROSS MY JAW at Eagle's a couple of months prior. Accidents are one thing but this fucker never even checked to see if I was ok and seemed oblivious to the fact he'd done anything wrong. This time instead of being quiet I chewed him out in the locker room and told him the next time he pulled that again I was going to beat his ass. Skip was REAL nice to me after that. Unfortunately as was the case with Tommi Feathers, it wasn't the last time he'd stiff me.

Jason's problems seemed to continue when a guy named Earl working as Christopher Dream somehow felt he was too experienced to put over Mack Truck. I thought that guy is freakin' huge so what is Earl's problem? I knew him as he was Bob's tag team partner for years. I couldn't believe he was acting that way. So Earl ended up working Big Money. Funny how egos work in this business, even mine has gotten me into trouble at times.

That CCW show in August led to one of my greatest moments in the ring. Cruizer Lewis was working heel and came out and worked Black Angel. He kept ordering me around and told me to get out of his way. He knew I was playing heel and took full advantage. I'd go for a ten count outside the ring, pretend to get distracted and start the count over. At one point Cruizer told me to get my ass back in the ring. I said well what do you want we to do. He said I don't care just don't get in my way. SO I started running the ropes. And doing jumping jacks. The fans were pissed. I was TOTALLY not doing my job and Angel was paying for it. But Angel made his comeback and I made the reluctant 3 count. I started to walk away but Cruiser called me back to the ring. He grabbed me and threatened to beat my ass for counting him out. I said wait a minute your Cruizer Lewis why are listening to these people? He whispered to me "What did you say" and I repeated it. He said "say it loud so the people can hear." So I screamed it. Cruizer appeared to be buying it as the fans screamed for him to beat my ass. So we made it look like I talked my way out of a beating. Cruizer left with great heat and we screwed the people. Later, Big Money would give the fans what they wanted by shoving his backside into my face at the end of the night which the people loved. TZK made the save and we got out of there. It was a real cool deal.

We were supposed to do a show in Augusta, GA in September which was the same night as the CCW show. But the show got cancelled two days before so Hutto called and asked if I could show up. I had every intention on going but developed a sinus infection Saturday morning and was throwing up so I tried to call Jason to cancel. All I got was was his voice mail. So I lef him a message. I think Hutto got pissed because I no-showed then I found out Velvet and Jess no-showed, too.

So he didn't book Jess or I for October. As a matter of fact he wouldn't book Jess again until the following March. Velvet was supposed to be there but when he found out he was going to have to drop the cruiserweight belt to Xavier Night, he no-showed. That's the way Velvet was. He had pulled the same crap in the EWF and eventually this 145 lb. guy ended up holding the heavyweight and cruiserweight belts simultaneously. When he found out he had to drop both straps, he bolted the promotion. Ok so the guys he had to lose to both sucked ass and at the time I was on Velvet's side. However, this not wanting to lose the title thing was becoming a pattern with him. It happened at Eagles, too with the hardcore belt. Hutto eventually smartened up and had his own cruiserweight belt made.

I figured I'd go up and at least talk to the guy. If I was not going to be booked anymore I needed to know. Jason wasn't returning my phone calls or e-mails at that point.

Thomas Swafford was the referee Hutto got to take my place and he made a good choice because Thomas is damn good. But there was one thing Hutto didn't count on and that was his friends at the South Carolina State Athletic Commission. Let's call them the SCAC for short. Hell, I'd like to call them pieces of shit for getting into Jason's show for free and drinking up all of Merlin's good liquor.

The rules in 2001 were different than they are today. Back then if you were a referee, you had to purchase a referee's license. I never knew what I was doing for one show to the next most times so I got a wrestler's and a referee's license. Funny thing, I could get by managing with the wrestler's license but damn it the SCAC demanded it's referees had a referee's license.

Well I knew this but I guess Swafford and Hutto didn't. Or maybe they just thought they could get away without it. In any case, the SCAC guys made their license checks and Swafford didn't have a ref's license.

I did and I just happened to be sitting at ringside.

Now I'm going to let my ego overrun me here and state the following: Holding all the cards I could have held Hutto and CCW for ransom. I could have demanded 100 bucks or maybe even 125 instead of the normal 25 he usually paid me because I was the only licensed official on the premises. The SCAC was going to shut the show down because of this (which in truth would have been ridiculous) and all of those guys in the locker room would have had to go home. So Jason what saved you was that I had friends in that locker room specifically Xavier Night and Darin Fate. You can thank them, because at that point in my career a promoter who doesn't return my phone calls doesn't deserve any favors. So when you came to me and asked me if I could work I had every intention of telling you where to stick your show. Only Xavier and Fate had gotten to me first. Your welcome.

Jason gave me my ticket money back and gave me 25 to boot. I just didn't have it in me to stick it to him. He DID come up to me later and thanked me and said hell I'm just going to use you from now on. Form then on Jason started to grow on me. Heck, he was green but he was trying his best and his shows were pretty good. Eventually the crowds would pick up and CCW would turn into a pretty darn good place to work. In November Jason booked Bobby Eaton (another childhood fave) and I got to ref him against Black Angel which was a lot of fun for me.

Meanwhile, Velvet decided that he was going to start running shows in Charleston. He said I want you managing Skip and Jess and we're going to add a big guy to the group by the name of Mike Nova who was trained at the WCW Power Plant to the mix to be your "enforcer". This is great, I thought. I get to be a manager and I get to stay at home!

Ladies and gentlemen, JBE was getting ready to hit the stage.

Next: More with CCW and the rise and fall of American Classic Wrestling version 2.