Hello Wrestling fans;

Yesterday I made another small 3h1/2 hour trip south of the border, this time to Hacksaw Jim Duggan’s hometown, Glens Falls NY. As usual, the purpose was some wrestling action.

The trip went real well and we got to the building at 5:59 sharp, with the doors opening at 6. There was already a long line as you can see on the first photo, and this time they really let the people in at six as scheduled, a rarity in wrestling. We spent a foul hour in line for the meet & greet, as I wanted my Ric Flair picture from august to get autographed. Staff keep telling us to change line if we wanted to meet anyone else than Flair to save time, but obviously 95% of the fans were there for him and stayed.

Time went by quickly as I chatted with two guys who obviously were knowledgeable fans and interesting persons from the area. They broke the ice saying my Kerry Von Erich ‘Modern day Warrior’ shirt was sick, and from there the conversation was on. The guy had a World Championship belt already signed by Hogan and Sting, and he was looking forward to add up Flair and Nash to it.

Once we got to Flair it went real quick. The person collecting his  money also went wild on my shirt, saying it was the first time he saw it, and said I should go to Mania in Dallas this year so I can get 300 bucks for it. Well, maybe some day. Actually I always dreamed of going to Dallas and set foot into the legendary Sportatorium, but now it’s too late. Actually earlier, before getting to the building, the guy at the gas station also told me I had the coolest shirt and knew about Kerry. You can see it on me on the pictures below as I’m standing with the Patriot.

Anyway, I got Nature Boy to sign my picture, and at first he thought it was from a car dealership event. I reminded him of the N.E.W stadium show from Wappingers Falls, and he recalled the event as the week-end Piper passed away. He thanked me for coming and was cordial, although with so many people waiting with show time approaching, we couldn’t chat that much.

After that we went straight to the wrestler who had drawn us to this show, the master of the worm, Scotty 2 Hotty ! (I know, he never was the biggest star, but I always liked him too, because he was a good wrestler who worked hard, but most importantly genuinely seemed to enjoy his work, which to me is very important.)

He had a 25$ combo so my son had his picture taken and his autograph book signed. He was friendly as well, and I used the opportunity to remind him of the WWF Light Heavyweight tournament that he was a part of as Scott Taylor; In that tournament he wrestler Eric Shelly, I guy a wrestler with for a few years in Québec. Much to my surprise, Scotty remembered that because the first thing he said was ‘’That was in Ottawa isn’t it ?’’ Well, yes it was ! I thought it was great since it was more than 15 years ago! He told me he never heard from him again, and I responded Eric quit the business a few years after that, but that I saw him in the crowd at a ROH show 5-6 years ago and he was still in great shape.

Sometimes I don’t see much stuff interesting enough to buy at those indy events, but this time I found a few nice items. I bought Kamala’s book (autographed), the 2001 movie the Wrestler about Frank Bass with James Blears, along with a loose Jakks figure  of Andre the Giant I didn’t know existed.

Thereafter we met with Kevin Nash, who signed my book and too a picture with my son. He asked me how long a ride it was from Montreal (the running question of the night) and told me of a Montreal-Burlington trip amidst a snow storm he remembered from his WWF days. Just as his gimmick, the best way to describe him his…cool.

Next we met the Patriot, who had a merchandise table but didn’t charge for a picture with him, so I took one. I know it couldn’t be Del Wilkes since he been injured and out of the business for years, so I assume it was Tom Brandi, and the shape of the guy suggested that, but I don’t know for sure. He was nice though, and had a lots of kid coming to him.

The last guy we went to see was the greatest IC champion of all time, the Honky Tonk Man ! As usual, he was very friendly and funny, and I had him sign my friend’s Floyd picture from a TOW show in 2009.

All of this left us with just a little time to eat before show time. When we came back to the arena, someone was being wheeled inside an ambulance. It was the first of a of several non-wrestling related incidents to follow.

The show started at 8:10, not too bad considering how many people were still waiting for Flair at 7:45. The Glens Falls Civic center is a great venue for Wrestling, as they had put all the fans with bleachers tickets on the same side, as I assume it would look better for the camera. I would estimate the crowd at around 1200 people, a good crowd for an indy show.

But the P.A system was horrible at floor level that’s why unfortunately I couldn’t get the names of the BTW wrestlers, and there was no line- up sheet to help me out. Our tickets were on the sixth and last row of ringside, so it was hard to see when they were working on the mat, but at least we could stand without blocking anyone’s view.

Ric Flair opened the show. He debuted his speech asking where Jim Duggan was. He put over BTW and said how he will be in Houston to see his daughter Charlotte ‘’kick some ass’’. The crowd was whoooing left and right and loving every word he said. He concluded saying that 20 years ago, that chick (the NY beauty queen who came out with him) would have been all w*t by now.

First match was a 3 way, and as far as we were concerned, the best match of the show from a pure wrestling action standpoint. The winner was a luchador announced from ‘Tokyo, Mexico’ which I thought was hilarious. Lots of action in this match, and it’s too bad I couldn’t get any names because all 3 were good workers.

Third match was with a guy who looked eerily like George McFly from Back to the future; I really liked his old school style, as he reminded me of a Danny Hodge type of wrestler, complete with the black trunks and the jacket. He wasn’t big, but real cut. The problem was his opponent, who was a babyface but almost completely ignored the crowd, who wanted to get behind him but the guy showed no emotions. The Babyface won with a cool-looking legdrop from the second rope while his opponent was standing in the ring.

The contrast between the last two matches was stunning; The lady beside me was screaming all along the Scotty 2 Hotty match, and playing with her cell phone during the last. Most of the time, those small things are a good indicators.

Right after that match a fight broke down between 2 fans for a reason I didn’t figure out. One of the guy was really out of it, and after the event staff couldn’t control him, two cops came out and finally threw him out. It’s been years since I’ve seen a fight in the crowd and it’s hard to believe it’s still happening in 2015. It was the first time for my sons, who has been to countless shows in the last 12 years.

Match number 4 was a comedy match with nostalgia thrown in. Honky Tonk Man teamed up with the Patriot and defeated an blond guy who was teaming up with a small guy with a farmer gimmick. HTM lip-synched his song before the match and got a good reaction. Match was what you would expect. HTM did a botched shake rattle & roll to pin his opponent. He gained a lot of weight and clearly cannot take any bump anymore. But he still can get a strong reaction from the fans by his mannerisms.

the next match was a hardcore match, won by a guy named Mr. T.A, who I remembered from a past BTW event in Springfield, and his opponent who was a muscular guy with a funny haircut and wearing make-up. Two other incidents emanated from this one. First as they hoped the railing to fight in the crowd, T.A grabbed a beer a threw it in his opponent’s face. In doing so, he completely splashed a kid seated right behind the hockey boards, but worst, drenched his autographed photos (man, I would have been p*ssed). They brawled in the bleachers’ stairs, before coming back to ringside. At that point, the babyface took a sign from a fan to hit Mr. T.A (yeah, a sign) and then seemed mad it looked bad, so he threw the sign away, and sure enough, it hit somebody in the face. Nothing serious seemingly came out of it, but he could have been hit in the eye. It ended when the babyface was thrown into a garbage can he had set-up himself and was pinned.

The 6^th match was for the BTW championship, as Flex Armstrong successfully defended against a guy in a tank top and blues jeans. Both were good and it was a hard-hitting, solid match. Armstrong has a great physique, and won with a stiff spear from the second rope. By the way, all the turnbuckles were loose all night long, and it could have been dangerous in that match as the guy in bluejeans dropped Flex back first on the top rope, but with the turnbuckle down, he seemed to hit the steel real hard. Solid match.

The main event was pretty bad for the sole reason it was a main event. Had that match been on the undercard, It would have been fine, but obviously was there only because of Kevin Nash star power. It was a 6-men tag. The five other wrestlers worked hard but did nothing special. The crowd kept chanting for Nash, who cleaned house when he got the hot tag. It was followed by a hard chokeslam. Then with the crowd chanting power bomb, Nash obliged. He then tagged one of his partner in, who did a nice swanton from Nash’s shoulder for the pin. Average match, but the important thing is the crowd was happy.

They announced that you could get you picture taken in the ring with Nash for 30$, but we had to leave as it was closing on 11 o’clock and were heading back home.

I had another great evening of indy wrestling in Glens Falls and I think BTW did a fantastic job as far as organization went. A line up sheet would have been really useful not just for me, but for most people since it was their first Glens Falls event according to their website. The quality of the matches can be improved for sure, but I’ve seen a lot worse. The only negative about the show was the dangerous behaviour of some wrestlers. I’ll admit it is a rare occurrence, but they would gain in being more conscious of the consequences. And congratulations to BTW who did this event as a benefit for the Nassau county Police medic association.

On a side note, as we were waiting to cross the border on our way back home, we saw the WWE production truck, coming back from the Montreal house show! Obviously I couldn’t go, but was told 5000 were in attendance in the Bell center, and main event was a good match between Kevin Owens, who made his Bell center debut against Cesaro.

That’s all for now!

Thanks fort reading,

Frank