Stories from the Deep South

In my profile, I make mention that I am the former ring announcer for the now defunct WWE developmental territory, Deep South Wrestling. Anyone who is a wrestling fan will recognize some of the names that I have worked with in that territory that made it to Raw and Smackdown. Just to name a few guys:

Former WCW U.S. Champion, Tag Champion, WWE Superstar and Trainer Bill DeMott
Former U.S. Champion and current Intercontinental Champion Kofi Kingston
Former U.S. and Tag Team Champion M.V.P.
Former World Champion and former WWECW Champion Jack Swagger
Former World Champion The Great Kahli
S.E.S. member Luke Gallows
Nexus members Heath Slater and Skip Sheffield
Unified Tag Team Champions Tyson Kid and D.H. Smith, and Diva Natalya Neidhart

And there are more, but I don't want this to be a whole "hey look at me, I used to hang around with soon to be famous people" post. I am proud to have, at one time, been associated with a number of great talents, and there are a few of them I keep in touch with, though not as regularly as I'd like, but that's my fault.

Anyways, I thought that every now and then, I'd post a story from back in the day. So I started thinking about which story to lead off with, should it be the Paul Heyman story, the fair trade story, or one of many other stories.

My first story is about my first back to back shows. We taped our shows at the DSW Arena on Thursday nights, which would go to air on Sunday. It was the night before our first big house show at Six Flags over Georgia, where the main event was King Booker (Booker T) vs. Bobby Lashley for the U.S. Championship. The Thursday before the show, Booker was there to help promote it. About an hour before show time, I get called in to Joe's office, and it's Joe, Booker and I think Bill, and Joe tells me that Booker is going to come out and cut a promo for the show, when to introduce him, and all that good stuff. I asked Joe "Should I stay in the ring or duck out while he's doing his promo?" Joe said "Nah kid, just stand in the corner and wait till he's done."

After that, I went back into the common area to talk to someone about something that was coming up in the show, and wait for the countdown for 7:20, when I would go out and warm up the crowd for 10 minutes. So 7:20 comes, I go out and start warming up the crowd, running down the highlights on the card, then started promoting the Six Flags Show when Booker's music hit. He gets in the ring, and as I go to hand him the mic, I must have accidently hit the power switch, so when he starts to talk, there is nothing from the mic. He turned and stared at me with his big Booker T "Tell me he didn't give me a dead mic" look, and I quickly turned it on.

So he starts his promo, his wife (Queen) Sharmell standing by his side, and he talks about Bobby Lashley, how he's going to fall to him like every peasant in the arena. Then he turns to me again, and grabs my suit jacket and pushes me into the turnbuckles. I'm trapped in the corner, Booker's eyes were bugging out, and he starts saying that he could make an example out of a peasant like me. Ok, I didn't know that part was coming, and in the heat of the moment, I legit thought that he was going to beat the snot out of me. Finally, he let's go, ends the promo and starts walking toward the back, all the while I have to say the "All hail, King Booker" gimmick.

I found out after the show that Joe set that up as a little rib on me, and I got a kick out if it. Anyways, after the show, I drove to a hotel near Six Flags, and got a room with our TV announcer Nigel, and after a small bottle of Jack Daniels, went to sleep (By myself, you pervs!)

Next day, I got up and dressed (all in black) and drove the short distance to the park. We all gathered in the place we were hanging out until show time, went over a few things, got our talent pass (which I still have hanging on my rear view mirror), and then began walking the park, handing out flyers promoting the show. At this point, it's about 95 degrees with 70% humidity. And I am wearing black. Needless to say, a very dumb thing on my part to do. Flash forward to the show, I do the usual warm up schtick, and it's apparent that I am not 100%. I made a few mistakes during my annoucements, and when I was sent backstage to deliver a message to someone, I couldn't get the damn words out of my mouth.

Yes, there it is. My first really big show, and I got heat exaustion. I was dehydrated really bad, and was making stupid mistakes. So after announcing one match, I sat down next to Bill. He asked me what the hell was wrong with me, and I told him that I wasn't doing so well, but I wasn't giving up. He asked if I needed something to drink, and handed me a cup of coke. I drank it down, ate the ice, and started feeling a little better, but then, he decided that I needed to be punished for being stupid. He told me I had to wear the cup on my hand for the entire match. So there I am, sitting ringside, wearing a suit and sitting there with a paper cup on my hand. I made it seem like it was the most embarrassing thing I've ever gone through so he wouldn't come up with something more creative, but in reality, I got a kick out of it.

So that's my first DSW story, I'll post more as they come to me.