NWA Legends Fanfest 2009
Hilton University Place Hotel, Charlotte,
NC
Back on
March 29, 2009 Rood, Jay, & I went to Webster, MA to Big Time
Wrestling to finally meet the “Nature Boy” Ric Flair. We got autographs from him and pictures taken
with him. It was a fantastic day! Jay had Flair sign a program from the phantom
NWA title switch that happened back in 1984.
March 20, 1984 in Wellington, New Zealand Harley Race pinned Ric Flair
to win the championship then on March 23, 1984 Flair regained the championship
from Race in Kallang, Singapore. Neither
title change was ever officially recognized by the NWA. The program Jay had was from the New Zealand
show and the center fold was of Flair and Race both pictured with the NWA World
Championship around their waists. When
Flair saw it he excitedly called over his son and told him that this was the
title change that he was just telling him about. Needless to say Jay was very excited and on
the way home told me that he HAD to find Harley Race and get him to sign the
other side.
A couple
days later the website I was following about the NWA Legends Fanfest announced
Harley Race. I told Jay and he made the
command decision that we were going and in a matter of minutes booked the
hotel, flights, and bought the VIP and Hall of Heroes Tickets. We had no idea of knowing at the time we
purchased them that the event would turn into the greatest NWA Legends Fanfest
convention ever.
The VIP
packages we bought included the 2 Thursday Night Q&A’s, two autographs from
everyone appearing, entry into the matches on Saturday & Sunday, a VIP
pass, and a t-shirt. We also bought the
Hall of Heroes banquet ticket and several photo ops. The Photo ops were cool because they would
take the photo, print it later and you could get the person or persons to sign
it! After the event they even mail you a
digital copy of the photo, sweet deal!
I’ve never seen a better photo op deal at any convention or fan fest
I’ve been too since.
Charlotte
was basically the home of the NWA and Jim Crockett Promotions and the greatest
wrestling faction ever came out of JCP and ran roughshod over the NWA and they
were the Four Horsemen! NWA Legends
Fanfest 2009 became a Four horsemen reunion and there has never been one like
it before or since. Jim Crockett
Promotions and the NWA of the Mid to late 80’s is my favorite time of wrestling
to watch. I feel fortunate that I was
able to be there and I cannot thank Jay enough for paying the way for that to
happen.
Thursday August 6, 2009
We flew into
Charlotte Douglas International Airport from Portland after a stop-over in New
York. The flight landed on time and we
didn’t have to wait too long for our ride.
Jay had met someone on the forum willing to shuttle people for 1/3 of
the price of a taxi cab. As this event
was taking place entirely at the Hilton University Place hotel we had no need
to rent a car and the hotel didn’t provide a shuttle.
We got to
the hotel and check in was easy as could be, we got everything right up to the
room. In the lobby of the hotel were a
set of escalators that went downstairs to the banquet rooms where the convention
was taking place. On the other side of
the escalators was the small bar and to the left of that the restaurant.
Checking
into the hotel was a no issue, getting our passes for the weekend was another
matter all-together. The line was
tremendously huge and we got in it straight away. There was concern about missing the Thursday
night Q&A’s as they were scheduled to begin at 7 & 10pm.
Luckily for
us we managed to get out passes and get in and seated just as the first one
began, and I definitely didn’t want to miss it.
25 Years After Starrcade discussion and Q&A with Harley Race &
“Nature Boy” Ric Flair hosted by Chris Cruise.
These two legends discussed their historic main event match at the first
ever Starrcade where Flair defeated Race for the NWA Championship inside a
steel cage. They took questions from the
audience as well and they ranged from excellent to just the dumbest
questions.
There was
this drunk guy near me who wouldn’t stop talking, he had a comment for every
answer that Flair or Race had that he would say to himself, loudly. I got so mad I finally told him, “I didn’t
travel all this way to listen to you I came to listen to them.” And when he didn’t get the hint, “Hey pal,
shut the fuck the up.” I’m not one to
threaten someone, but this guy needed it.
I got some verbal appreciation from those around me, and the drunk guy
tried to smooth things over but I wasn’t having it.
Directly
after this Q&A was a photo op with Flair, Race, & the actual NWA
Championship belt that was held by both and used from 1981 – 1987. This photo op was so cool and surprisingly I
wasn’t nervous at all! I think it’s a
great photo!
It was going
to take longer that they though to get all the photo ops done and we were
pretty beat. We got the hotel shuttle to
take us to a local grocery store to buy some snacks and supplies for the
room. Then we walked over to the
Chick-Fil-A across the parking lot. We
figured we would be eating here to save money, little did we know we wouldn’t
need to!
We decided to
skip the Conversation with Cornette Q&A as we were both pretty tired. Once we go to the room though I decided I
didn’t want to miss anything, not to mention I had thought up a good question
to ask Cornette. I headed back down
alone and I had only missed about 20 minutes of it. I’m so glad I did as it was fantastic. Cornette even brought up my interaction with
the drunk guy as he was sitting in the back; of course his version contained
several more expletives. I asked
Cornette my question and he loved it!
On the way
back up in the elevator I rode with Chris Cruise, former commentator for WCW,
and he showed me his license that he was from Portland, Maine. That was cool and we talked about it
variously though-out the weekend.
Friday August 7, 2009
I got up
early because I wanted to get down there as VIP’s got in at 9am while others
got in at 10am. The convention took
place in two rooms, the primary large ballroom where the Q&A’s happened
last night and a secondary vendor room where all the gimmicks were for sale and
all the vendor guests were located. The
main ballroom was where all the photo ops, Hall of Heroes, and Wrestling
Matches would take place.
Today was a
big photo op day with the photos with The Horsemen and Tully Blanchard
scheduled for me and with such big turn-out it was going to take some
time. We were issued passes that had our
number on them and that would be the order with which we would be called for
photo ops, signings, and more. So you
didn’t have to stand in line for long periods of time, just come get in the
line when they call your section of numbers.
There were a
lot of wrestlers that were not part of the convention that were there for other
reasons or just to hang out that I got photos with or autographs from through-out
the weekend including; Gene Ligon, Stro, and George South. Also a lot of the wrestlers that were there
for the VIP or Vendors would take photos or sign autographs for free outside
the hours of the convention. I got my
picture taken this way with Bob Caudle, Lance Russell, Chris Cruise, and The
Midnight Express. I got a few autographs
as well from Ole Anderson, Jim Brunzell and I personally gave Jim Cornette a
hand cramp.
Today was
also the first day of autograph signings for the VIP’s and I can’t recall
exactly who was signing what day, however I made this poster to look like an
old school event poster that had a photo of every VIP guest and listed the
known events happening. I printed one
for Jay and I and I got them all to sign it making one fantastic
collectible! A lot of the wrestlers
really liked it themselves and asked me to email it to them if I could, which I
did!
Unadvertised
and thrown together last minute that was a panel hosted by Scott Bowden dubbed
the Memphis Wrestling Roundtable Discussion featuring Jerry Jarrett, Lance
Russell, and Dave Brown. For 90 minutes,
the same length as the Saturday morning Memphis Wrestling tv show, the legends
of Memphis Wrestling talked about the history of Memphis Wrestling and some of
their fondest memories. It was supposed
to be a Q&A but they ran out of time and no one was complaining, it was
simply awesome to hear their stories.
Coolest part was Lance Russell and Dave Brown opening the panel and
signing off with their signature TV catchphrases from back in the day.
The Vendor
room had everything you could want from wrestling; books, dvd’s, figures,
photos, posters, unique collectibles, masks, just everything wrestling. There were a couple guys that were selling
bootleg events or TV shows on DVD’s that they burned themselves and they could
literally make you anything that you wanted and burn it right then, it was
amazing!
In the
courtyard downstairs of the hotel the restaurant set up a few grills and tables
and were selling hamburgers, hot dogs, water and the like at a really good
price. It was very smart of them because
when I checked the menu at the restaurant there was no way we could eat every
meal there, it was just too expensive. I
started talking to the cook, who turned out to be the head chef and ran the
restaurant, which was setting up and ordered a burger. He was from Boston and really didn’t know
what was going on so I explained everything, showed him my binder of awesome
that contained my tickets, photos, cards, and I showed him my poster. He thought it was all cool and really liked
it. I don’t why he didn’t what he did,
maybe it was because I talked to him like he was human, or it was a Red Sox
things, but he comped Jay and I all weekend at the grill, told his staff
whatever we wanted all weekend give it to us!
That was amazing, we didn’t take advantage, but I made sure to eat lunch
and dinner while it was open!
Friday night
was the Hall of Heroes Banquet which is much like a Hall of Fame ceremony. It included an awesome buffet meal and you
got to sit with a wrestler, they also came around and took a group photo that
they printed out for you. When they
announced the list you had to email them at a certain time with who you wanted
to sit with and it was first come first serve based on when the emails time
stamp was. Our first choice was Ric
Flair followed by Tully Blanchard. I
didn’t think we would get either, and we didn’t as it was only 6 fans per table. Our third choice was The Perfect 10 Baby Doll
and we got her! She was one of the best
valets and seconded Ric Flair, Tully Blanchard, Dusty Rhodes and others to the
ring over her career so we were so excited to be seated with Baby Doll.
We head into
the banquet hall to find our table and Jay said “I wonder where we are sitting.” I replied, “Well not the corner, because
nobody puts baby in the corner.” To
which we laughed and high-fived and lost a bit of our man card for quoting
Dirty Dancing. Sure enough we were
sitting in the corner! Jay and I chose
our seats next to the two that were already taken not because any other seat
would have put us back to, to the stage.
As luck would have it I ended up sitting next to Baby Doll and Jay next
to her daughter. I pushed in her seat
for her when she came to sit down because you have to treat Baby Doll like the
lady that she is.
The buffet
was fantastic and I later found out that the deserts were superb as well. Our friend the Chef found us, asked us how we
liked the meal and gave me two passes for free breakfast buffet! Baby Doll was so nice and said that she knew
she wasn’t anyone’s first choice but wanted to know who we had chosen first, I
told her Flair and Tully and she agreed, but she was surprised that we chose
her third, everyone else had her as fifth.
The Hall of
Heroes was wonderful, Jim Cornette was the host, the speeches were excellent
and people got emotional. Zach McDaniel,
the son of Wahoo McDaniel, could barely speak when talking about his deceased
dad as he accepted his entry plaque.
Here were the honorees and who inducted them;
Nelson Royal
by Paul Jones, Tommy Angel, David Isley, & Brad Anderson
“Fabulous”
Jackie & “Roughhouse” Sonny & Donny Fargo by Jerry Jarrett & Steve
Keirn
“Playboy”
Gary Hart by Sir Oliver Humperdink
Lance
Russell by Dave Brown
Chief Wahoo
McDaniel by Tully Blanchard
Black Jack
Mulligan by “Nature Boy” Ric Flair
I had a
wonderful time chatting it up with Baby Doll, we talked about the kids, and I
showed her pictures I had on my camera at her request. She showed me a bunch of pictures on her
camera from recent events. She is still
such a huge fan of wrestling it is amazing.
She had this piece of chocolate cake, said it was delicious and I had to
try a bite and then The Perfect 10 proceeded to feed me cake. That is a highlight of my life and always
will be!
After the
banquet I wanted to go to the bar for a beer and while we were there but who
would show up, none other than the Nature Boy!
But he promptly left when this douche started imitating Flair and it got
beyond awkward, can’t say I blame Flair, and boy were people pissed at that
guy. The bar got pretty hectic that
night with wrestlers everywhere from the Nasty Boys, Lacey Von Erich, Dennis
Condrey, Bobby Eaton, Jim Cornette, Zach McDaniel, more guys than I can mention
or remember.
Lacey was
super drunk and fell down, Knobs gave me big sweaty drunken hugs, some random
guy started vomiting all over the floor, it was crazy and a lot of fun! I’m sure if this was all random people and
not wrestlers I grew up watching on TV I would feel differently.
Saturday August 8, 2009
Saturday
started with our free breakfast buffet and was followed by a free morning
show. Bob Backlund was there as a vendor
guest and the day before had proven quite hysterical in the Vendor room when
Jim Cornette ringing a bell to get people’s attention to come to his
table. This apparently exacerbated Mr.
Backlund who used his large vocabulary and loud yelling voice to tell Cornette
this from across the room, multiple times.
This morning Mr. Backlund continued his routine by high stepping up the
up escalator and then supporting himself with his arms only while holding up
his feet going down the down escalator, repeatedly, all the while explaining
the virtues of what he was doing and how it benefited him.
Yesterday
was the big Four Horsemen photo op where I got my picture taken with Ric Flair,
Arn Anderson, JJ Dillion, Tully Blanchard, Ole Anderson and Barry Windham all
in one photo all holding up the Four Horsemen salute! Today was the Four Horsemen autograph
signing, which took a long time, and this is when I got that photo signed by
those legendary wrestlers. This was also
the day that Harley Race was signing, the whole reason we came down here. While we were in line Harley had left for a
smoke. So we had to go and stand on the
other side of the rope as a staff member handed Mr. Race our stuff after he
came back to get signed while he signed items of those people still in
line. He had to leave early because he had
to catch a flight to Boston of all places for another appearance. The last thing he signed before leaving was
Jay’s program. How horrible would have
it of been for Jay to not have gotten that signed when that was the original
reason we came down.
Earlier in
the day Jay had been outside smoking and I was waiting with him when Mr. Race
came over to have a smoke. He sat and
talked to use for quite a long time.
Honestly until then I was intimidated by him and his reputation. However, he couldn’t have been nicer and a
lot of his mannerism reminded me of my Grandfather who had passed away 17 years
ago. I was quite the experience just
sitting and listening to him tell stories.
After he left Jay said he almost asked him to sign his program to make
sure he got it signed, but decided not to because he didn’t want to disturb the
moment.
During the
day Ole Anderson would sit in the lobby and hold court. He would sit and tell stories, sign
autographs and be grumpy the whole time.
It was a playful grumpy, I think?
Again though to sit there and hear the stories he shared was just
amazing.
I had some
photo ops today with Lacey Von Erich, Daffney, Molly Holly, and Magnum TA.
I made sure
to eat my free lunch and dinner at the grill in the courtyard. Damn good burgers and they used small diced
tomatoes which was really good on the burgers!
Tonight was
the first of two live wrestling shows which featured a few national names and
some locals as well as some legends of wrestling. For me it was so cool to experience two
wrestling shows in the heart of Mid Atlantic Wrestling territory and experience
the closest that I will ever be to experiencing Jim Crockett Promotions. The room was packed with both convention
goers and locals alike who were welcome to come and buy a ticket. I saw people with coolers of beer, babies,
strollers with babies and beer stored in the bottom. Welcome to the south!
George South
is a living link to the past as he worked as a job guy on the old TV tapings
wrestling all the big names of the day, Ric Flair, Rhodes, Andersons,
Blanchard, Koloffs, and the names just go on and on. Brad Anderson is the son of Gene Anderson and
wrestles just like and Anderson, awesome!
“Action” Mike Jackson is a local guy who started wrestling in 1978 and
is insanely good! He flies around the
ring and does stuff no one his age should.
Saturday Night Matches
Charlie
Dreamer pinned George South; during the match South got in the face of the
“Russian Bear” Ivan Koloff who was sitting in the front row, he clobbered South
teaching him respect.
Brad
Anderson pinned “The Man Scout” Jake Manning with a small package.
Chick
Donovan submitted Jimmy Jack Funk Jr with the figure four leg lock.
Rhett Titus
pinned “Garden State God” Mike Quest.
Mr. Hughes
pinned Jason Jones.
Extreme
Rules: “Mr. Wrestling 3, The King of Old School” Steve Corino with Bill
Alphonso pinned Zack McDaniel in a bloody and stiff match.
“Action”
Mike Jackson pinned “The Obsession” David Conley
2 Cold
Scorpio pinned NWA National Champion: Phil Shatter to win the Championship.
After the
main even for $15 you could have your photo taken in the ring with 2 Cold and
the NWA National Title, I jumped at the chance was the first one in! Years later while this photo is hanging in a
frame on my wall with other photos of me with wrestlers Addison asked why that
black man was choking me. In 2012 when I
met 2 Cold Scorpio again I told him this story and he thought it was
hilarious.
In the
hallway after the matches the wrestlers were milling around for photos and
autographs and selling their merchandise.
I got photos with Zack McDaniel, Steve Corino, & Mr. Hughes. Not much action at the bar that night, and it
was a long night so I was ready to go to bed.
Sunday August 9, 2009
The last day
of the convention and boy could you tell!
There were a lot less people there with only a few signings and photo
ops. I managed to get all my photo ops
printed and signed by the wrestles even my Hall of Heroes by Baby Doll and her
daughter who is managing on the independent scene. I bought some merchandise over the
weekend. The Highspots table was there
and they were and for $30 you could pre-order the 6 DVD set of the whole
Fanfest weekend. They were on hand to
film the Thursday Night Q & A’s, Hall of Heroes banquet, and both nights of
wrestling with commentary. They even set
up and filmed the Memphis roundtable.
It’s an awesome set that I have watched and re-watched, especially the
part where I ask Corny my question.
Through-out
the weekend they were selling raffle tickets for this custom very nice belt
that was made featuring the 2009 Hall of Heroes inductees with the center plate
being the official image of the weekend, a shot from the famous Starrcade 83 steel
cage Match featuring Ric Flair vs. Harley Race. I bought 10 raffle tickets, Jay bought the 1
ticket after mine, he won the fuckin belt.
It was a pretty awesome belt and he was the envy of all the belt
collectors there.
The
convention closed up about 2pm with the Sunday Matches not starting for 4 hours
there was time to kill. I got my free
lunch at the grill, but of course dinner would have to be someplace else, I
can’t complain only paying for two meals.
Jay had been
good all weekend, staying true to his word of not drinking to excess, but with
so much downtime he planted himself at the bar and stayed until they closed
never making it to the matches that night.
I went up to
the room and packed and organized my stuff, we had an early departure tomorrow
with a car service picking us up at 6am to take us to the airport. I then went down to the bar and got a chicken
finger basket for dinner. I wanted to go
to Chick-Fil-A but they were closed because it’s Sunday and they are a southern
chain and it was my first bible belt experience.
I went to
the matches and sat with some people I met over the weekend that were from the
Northeast as well, in particular a belt dealer named Dan. I managed to get front row Sunday because
there were far, far fewer people at this show.
The title match from last night was overturned at the NWA never
sanctioned the match so Phil Shatter was still champion. However, the NWA Board of Directors did
sanction a match tonight as Phil Shatter will defend against 2 Cold
Scorpio. I also witnessed some massive
racism. Mr. Hughes is a veteran wrestler
of 21 years at the time of this show, he’s always played a bad guy, and he’s
black. Before his match he was jaw
jacking with some 10 year old kid at ringside who told Mr. Hughes “You better
watch what you say or I’ll slap the black off your face!” And did this child’s parent admonish them for
what they said, no, he was encouraged with a “good one son!” Dan turned to me just as appalled and said
“Welcome to the south.”
Sunday Night Matches
“Action”
Mike Jackson pinned El Mexicano with a neck breaker.
Jason Jones
pinned Malachi.
Zac McDaniel
& Lumbee Warrior defeated Rhett Titus & “The Man Scout” Jake Manning.
Mr. Hughes
pinned “Garden State God” Mike Quest
2 Cold
Scorpion defeated NWA National Champion: Phil Shatter by count-out.
I met some
really good people and save the drunk guy Thursday, didn’t have a negative
interaction with anyone. People came
from far a wide for the same reason, Professional Wrestling. It was an unbelievable atmosphere and this
was an event like no other, I doubt I’ll ever go to a wrestling convention that
will top this one.
After the
matches I had one beer at the bar and retired for the night.
Monday August 10, 2009
Jay rolled
in well past midnight knowing we had an early alarm. I got up at 5am and jumped in the
shower. I heard Jay leave when the room
door closed. Moments later I heard a
frantic pounding on the door. Thankfully
I was out of the shower but I only had a towel on when I answered it. Jay stood there looking dumbfounded at
me. He couldn’t formulate the words but
I could smell what had happened and yelled at Jay to get in here and get in the
bathroom.
I was all
packed and ready to go and told him I was heading to the lobby. I got the elevators and when they opened I
discovered where Jay had his accident and took the stairs instead.
The car
picked us up on time and Jay asked him if we could hit a drive thru on the way,
the driver said no problem. Literally on
the way to the airport we stopped at the McDonalds drive thru so Jay could eat
McDonalds in North Carolina. He has this
thing about eating at McDonalds in every state.
The car ride was supposed to cost $20, the dude charged us $40 because
it was an additional $20 to stop at McDonalds, which was on the way, and didn’t
delay us, and only deviated us from our route the distance around the building.
This guy didn’t get a tip.
One of the
cool things was going through the airport Jay took his belt as a carry on and
of course he had to take it out for security to look at it. Similar to stories we’ve heard or read about
WWE wrestlers who’ve had the same thing happen to them.
This is one
of the greatest weekends of my life, and thanks to the DVD set one that I can
watch and re-watch for years to come!
Later
Readers!
