I.W.R.: God Bless Texas ( My Recap)

             

  This is my quick(ish) recap of my son and I's first visit to an Imperial Wrestling Revolution promotion. I purchased my son and me ringside tickets as a Christmas present. With our ticket were able to get into the show at five o'clock for a meet and greet with the wrestlers. We arrive at the Gas Monkey Live in Dallas around 4:15pm and get in line to go in at five. The line wasn't too bad. There were maybe 20 people in front of us. But the closer it got to five o'clock cars would pull into the parking lot and the people would get in line with the people who they knew. Essentially cutting in front of the people who have been waiting there the entire time. It was about 10 till five and they (People with the venue I assume) came out and to tell the people with ringside tickets to get in another line. So my son and I do just that. It's getting closer to five o'clock, and we are ready to go in. Five passes and there we stand. Five fifteen comes along and we're still outside. Someone finally comes out and says "five more minutes. They are setting up the tables" Five more minutes turns into fifteen. We were allowed to go in at 5:30.    

As we were walking through the doors and approaching the wrestler’s tables, there was just a convoluted mess of people everywhere. There was no roped off lines for each table. Just people gathering around pushing and cutting in front of everyone. I had four that I had to see. The first being "Iceman" King Parsons. Growing up a wrestling fan in Dallas in the 80's, it was WCCW. And obviously I had my favorites. Of course the Von Erich family were on top of my favorites list. But so was "Iceman". "Like mama says, it bees that ways sometimes, have mercy" It had been since I was a kid since I had last seen Iceman. I met him at a World Class show that was at the Mesquite Rodeo. So I fought through the crowd and made my way to him. As I approached him all my childhood memories came flooding back. I extended my hand out to shake his and to express how much of a fan I was. I had pre-purchased an autograph and photo op. He immediately expressed his apologies that he had severe arthritis in his hand so his signature wasn't what it once was. He dedicated the photo to me and it didn't really look like it with his handwriting. But I was ok with that. We spoke for a few minutes and I took a photo with him and thanked him for his time. My day has been made.

After we speak to Iceman, we walk over to Ross and Marshall's table to say hello. It had been a while since we had seen them. As always, it was good to see them. We said our hellos and wished them a good match. We left because we didn't want to take up too much of their time. We were looking for Chavo Guerrero Jr's table. We couldn’t find it. So we searched for someone who actually represented the promotion. All I could find were the venue employees. Asking them anything was like asking the wall. Actually I would have got a better response from the wall. Finally someone pointed me to someone who "maybe" could help me. I walk over and ask her and she tells me "Oh yea, he had to cancel. He had a family emergency". I understand that. I hope that everything is ok. So I went ahead and headed over to the last person I wanted an autograph from. And that was Lisa Marie Varon. WWE fans would know her as Victoria. TNA fans would know her as Tara. Years ago I went to a WWE show here in Dallas and purchased one of the programs. I've been trying to get the wrestlers in the book to sign their pages over the years. So I had Lisa sign her page as well as an 8x10 of her own. She also took a couple photos with me and thanked me for stopping by. 

My son and I decided not to walk around the autograph room anymore. Simply because it was just too chaotic to walk around. If we weren’t inadvertently running into someone, someone was running into us. So we walk over to check out our seats and see about getting something to eat. We go to the first ticket checkpoint and the young lady tells me to go to a guy down closer to the ring and he will tell me where my seats were. So we approached the guy and I show him our tickets on my phone and he proceeds to tell me "Oh you can sit anywhere in the first five rows". Huh? So I tell him, "No, I bought specific seats." He gave me the I don't give a crap attitude back and long story short, I had to demand to speak to someone about this. He got on his walkie talkie thing and mumbled something into it. We went to double check our seats and they were occupied. So I went back to him and he pointed in the opposite direction and said “Ask her” then turned around. I spoke to a person with the promotion and she helped me get everything situated.  Come to find out the guy was telling everyone to sit anywhere. We noticed that a lot of people that was seated in the front rows around the ring had to move because it wasn't their seats. Once we got settled we were able to enjoy the show with the people that were in ours and others seats mad at us for making them move when they were told they could sit there. So yea, that was fun.
          Once the show started, it was really cool. Most of the wrestlers were really good. There were a few that might need a little more sharpening of their wrestling skills. But I know I couldn’t do what they do. So props to them. We still had a great time. It was cool to see Sting. I just wish he did a little more than what he did. But still cool regardless. But everyone did put on a really good show. I hope that wrestler Barrett Brown is ok. He took a hit to the head with a ladder almost as soon as he came to the ring and was gashed open pretty deep. I'm not 100% if it was or wasn't part of the show. But it looked pretty real from our seats. And they got him out of there pretty quickly.
          When Sting came out to address the crowd he was interrupted by the Spirit Squad. They started talking about Sting and Dallas and Texas etc. And tried to get Sting to join the “SWO” aka the Spirit World Order. What is this the 90’s? Sting asked them. Then in true fashion, Sting stated that he had been given the power to schedule any match. So he informed the squad that the three of them will be going up against the Marshall and Ross Von Erich. But that’s only two people against the three of them they said. No problem they said. Oh no, there will be a third opponent with the Von Erichs. But it will be announced later.
When it was time for the Six Man tag team match with the Spirit Squad and the Von Erichs, the Spirit Squad came out running their mouths. They were doing a tag match with Marshall and Ross Von Erich. But since the Spirit Squad was three, Marsh and Ross were one short. Marshall and Ross came out and took control of the ring and ran the Spirit Squad outside of the ring. Then BOOM Sister Sledge "We are Family" starts playing on the loud speaker. Any WCCW fan in Texas knows whose music that was. Yes, none other than the legendary "Iceman" King Parsons. Iceman comes walking out and into the ring. I was instantly transported back to my childhood. It was awesome to see him and the third generation of the Von Erich family in the ring together. Well after Iceman addressed the crowd he introduced their third man. None other than the Australian Freebird Hunter Hayes. His persona is the "son" of WCCW alumni Michael P.S. Hayes of The Fabulous Freebirds. So the match went on and ended with a Von Erich win with the boys each doing the claw on two of the Spirit Squad for the one, two, three count.
               So despite the problems we had at the beginning of the show, my son and I had a great time. Do things go right 100% of the time? Uh no, no they don’t. I know that there are some wrestling snobs out there that just snub their noses at the independent circuit. Some believe that if it’s not WWE, then it’s obviously garbage. I have to disagree with that. Now I don’t really watch wrestling that much anymore. We have only been to two of these independent shows. Both of them were different promotions. I will say that we were thoroughly entertained. So I highly recommend them. They were a lot of fun to watch and sometimes you have the opportunity to meet current and former big name wrestlers. Now every match wasn’t detailed here. Believe me, this would have been so much longer if they were. So hopefully my son and I can attend another one of their shows someday without any of the issues we experienced this time around.