These are the Views of Cru Jones and only he, for he is I,
and I is he. The following views are mine and do not reflect anyone else’s
opinion, even though after reading them, I am sure a lot will agree with them.
I was sidelined at the beginning of the year, unable to do
anything physical. (a quick side note, who would have thought that the Beastie
Boys mashed-up with the Grateful Dead would sound unreal; listening to it as I
type this). Back to being sidelined. I
have pretty much done everything inside the ring. Now I found myself unable to
do anything physical. Personally I have always prided myself on my brains, not
just the muscles. Actually a lot of people are shocked at how good I am when I
spank them at jeopardy or any other trivia venture. I have been involved behind
the scenes in various roles for most places I have wrestled. I camouflaged all of
the off the wall ideas at RPW for the last 5 plus years. I guess you could say
I got my ”Masters” degree in taking a
totally ridiculous idea for a match or storyline , then molding, twisting, and
polishing it into something that makes sense. I was able to work with a lot of bookers,
Jodie & Nick, Micah, Jimmy, Bill, Jason & AJ, and M1. I learned what
works and what does not work. When it comes to being creative and risky I am
way ahead of the curve. I am proud that a lot of the stuff I pitched was shot
down for the fear of it being too risky and fear of backlash. I have never
half-assed anything; I always go all out in everything. If someone is scared to
go for something I pitched, I do not look down or hold a grudge. I save that
idea for the future.
I was faced with sitting on my butt and doing nothing, or
getting involved in something. That something was NWA-Atlanta. NWA-Atlanta has
pretty much let me do whatever I have wanted. I had creative control of
whatever I did when wrestling for them. As time went on they would ask for more
advice. I never interjected myself on them. I was happy just showing up and
doing my own thing. As time went on I was asked to review matches by some of
the guys. Next thing you know they asked me to start training their guys, in
which I refused. To NWA- Atlanta’s credit they were persistent and finally got
me to agree to training, which is good some days, but other days it totally
pisses me off, but that will be another “View” to write in the future.
NWA- Atlanta had been looked down in the wrestling community
in this area for most of their existence. This is when I came up with a question. How
many people can say they have helped turn a wrestling organization around?
Sure, Football coaches have done it with programs or teams. I started thinking
to myself and could not come up with a “yes” answer. Have people propelled
certain organizations to another level, of course, but turn around a place with
a bad rep? I approached the powers that
be of what I wanted to do. I wanted to help in any way possible to pull this
off. It took exactly 6 months to do it.
The following are things that I did, but not limited to, and
remember I been in this for 13 years for all those that think they are above it.
I papered cars, doors, and windows with flyers. I trained anyone I could
threaten to show up, including trying to walk out myself several times for lack
of effort or dedication. I pretty much made 85% of the people attempting to
train rethink themselves, nothing would be given by me, so they quit. I helped
with creative, making every damn gimmick known to mankind, getting talent,
confirming talent, dealing with marks in the crowd and behind the curtain,
dealing with facebook bookers, concessions, all media outlets, teaching
security guards about the importance of B.O.,write ups, flirting with ugly
fans, promoting, even cleaning the nasty ass bathrooms in Locust Grove. The number
one thing I did not want to do was be in front of the crowd and take away from
the wrestlers. I hate that, when someone in a non-wrestling role tries to be
the star of the show. It is Pro Wrestling, not Pro Announcing, not Pro
Commentating, and Not Pro General Managing. Things happen and people do not
show up, and of course things get totally screwed up like referees looking dead
at cheating and still not making the correct call, so I had to interject myself
at times, which I hated. For the most part I was able to help run things behind
the curtain. I do not view myself as a “Booker”. I would say I am closer to an
Adviser. I am going to let the cat out of the bag, Andy Anderson is the booker.
All the praise that the booking gets needs to go to him. He bounces ideas off
of me to make sure they make sense, but the majority of creative stuff is his
ideas, so all of the haters out there can go chew on some crow! I have been
hearing it for years, he (Andy Anderson) is a mark, he has not been around long
enough to run a fed, he is not trained right, he is a belt mark, he is a sting
mark, he killed Jimmy Hoffa, he was the third gunman on the grassy knoll, he is
a white-latino like Zimmerman, and on and on. Here is the truth about Andy. He
got in the business and got screwed over by some pieces of shit. Old school
turds like Jeff White, you may know him as “Vision Warrior” or “Rampage”. If
you do not, then do not worry, be thankful, you are not missing anything. He is
a perfect example of someone who has been in the biz for 20 years and they
still f@#king suck. Pretty much these guys promised the world and took the
money and ran. Andy being Andy said “F” this and decided he could run his own
show, since these guys pretty much had Andy doing all the work and stiffed him.
This is a trend for Andy. If you know him outside of the ring, then you would
know he is an entrepreneur. He owns several businesses, all of which he got
pissed off and decided he could do it better, and did. Most, correction,
everyone that talks shit on him does not know that. They just run their mouth
off of bullshit they have heard from Jack Meoff or the local Mark Kayfaberson.
His wrestling fed has been at it for 4 plus years now. How many guys would sit
back, see, and admit to their flaws, and asked to get re-trained? Only one, and
that was Andy Anderson. Not another person would set their pride aside and try
to restart, at least not up to this point. That is what Andy did. It started
with training, and then morphed into re-vamping the entire show and roster.
As for people running their mouth about stuff they have
heard, here is another example. In the mythical Top 10 that came out recently
there was a term mentioned “PCW Guy”.
This is also known as a “Platinum guy”. I am here to tell you, outside
of PCW, it is not a good thing. Anyone who is not a “PCW Guy” knows what I am
talking about. If you are a “PCW Guy” you automatically get labeled with the
image of a cartoony spot-monkey who does not know psychology from his or her
a$$hole. Is it fair? Of course not, but it is reality. Are all PCW Guys like that? No, but there are
some who are high on spots. It is not fair because these guys have to work hard
to prove they can go. Marko Polo works out with me. I knew where he was from,
but I just observed him. I did not get all into the “he said she said”. Marko
is nothing like that. In fact when Marko speaks of Stephen training he tells
stories of Stephen preaching on psychology for hours. The point, get the info first hand.
My goal was to get NWA-Atlanta turned around. I interjected
all kinds of ideas and opinions on things that needed to be changed to get
things going into the other direction quicker. Honestly, I thought the biggest
success was the War Games show in the spring. That show was a home run. The
thing that was missing was exposure. It got rave reviews, but certain people
did not see it. In a Top 10 that came out recently the comment was “ if Larry
has never come to one of your shows, you ain’t shit”, this statement is so
true. I do not agree with all of said Top 10, but some points I do. The
assessment of the importance of Larry Goodman was dead on. At the Bash at the
Bridge show Larry Goodman showed up unannounced. I was told midway thru the
show in between trips of me running to my car in east bumble (a distant parking
lot) for everything from masks, boots, and gear. My first response was “Is
Anarchy not running tonight”? The fact that Goodman showed up was shocking
considering NWA-Atlanta runs on the same nights as Anarchy. I don’t care what anyone one says, Anarchy is
Goodman’s first love, well maybe second to some good Vodka…lol..Take that
Larry! Now that I think about it, 3 others from the mythical Top 10 were on
hand also, only 1 booked to wrestle. So, that would make 3 on their own, not to
mention that there were 6 other promoters attending the show.
The infamous Goodman report came out. I had warned the
powers that be in NWA- Atlanta of the infamous day that when it does come out
it will be an eye opener. I was right. Honestly I thought it would be a lot
more brutal. I saw a lot more than the report had, but then again I pick the
show apart every 2 weeks NWA- Atlanta has a show. Funny thing is Murder One and
I was discussing a while back about loving how Goodman rips apart shows. It
gives guys something to strive for, to improve. In corporate America, giant
corporations pay people to come in and analyze & evaluate their company’s
and tell them everything wrong with it and it cost big bucks. Larry is doing
the exact same thing for free.
When asked about Goodman’s report, I replied that he pretty
much was dead on. The next thing I said was now use it to improve. It is the
same in training, don’t give me an excuse, tell me how you intend to resolve
the problem, give me a solution, not an excuse.
Next on the horizon is trying to help organize a 32 man
tournament over the course of the next 15 weeks or as I like to call it,
Mission Impossible. Indy Wrestlers are the most irresponsible people I have
ever met. After the last 6 months I see why the majority of them are unemployed
or stuck in dead end jobs. If it was not for Andy a lot of people would have
already been gone from NWA- Atlanta, but then again a lot of new guys are
getting a shot to show what they can do in this tournament, so come
October 26th the roster could
look a lot different. On to improving….
