"Wayne's World" - Wrestle Or Die Tour 2013 and my secret weapon

Once upon a time, in a land far away, a group of wild rapscallions ran amuck from small towns to big cities….ok, ok it was actually a group of pro wrestlers in Wyoming and South Dakota in 2013. It was dubbed the “Wrestle Or Die Tour” and since the statue of limitations has expired I can quote our bus driver, Krunch(who looked like a relative from “Duck Dynasty”) that summed up the entire three and half week tour- “I’ve broken more laws out here than I have in my entire life”. But this story isn’t about any of the law breaking heathens we transformed in to while in the Wild West. A short backstory to this trip first- we were all assured that HUNDREDS of tickets were pre-sold six weeks before the date of our first event. We would be living and traveling on an old green school bus modified to accommodate the wrestling ring. The idea being we would setup and tear down 3-5 nights a week and travel town to town bringing back the true purist idea of pro wrestling. It would be 1980 all over again!! While we managed to create a lot of great memories, it was nothing like 1980. Here’s the story of one of my favorite moments from the whole tour.
I was scheduled to wrestle a masked big man named “Bulldozer” who canceled before we left for Wyoming. Since he canceled, now playing his part would be the Mid-West big man Bull Bronson. Bull is one of my best friends and took the month long trip on the same empty promise as all of us. But on this night, we were going to create the first of a few great memories. Earlier in the day, a few of us had a meet and greet at the Chamber of Commerce. Much like the events we wrestled out there, attendance was stellar. A family came in during this time with a young boy in a motorized wheel chair. The boy was no older than 12 and had muscular dystrophy but absolutely LOVED pro wrestling. His family spent over an hour with him while we all talked and took pictures during which I took the time to tell him about my opponent later that night. “This guy is over 400lbs and wears a mask. He’s been in a bad mood this whole trip too. I might need your help to beat him tonight. How fast does that thing go??” Him and his family laughed and we talked a little longer before they left. I made sure to get an answer from him before they left…I had a secret wheel-chaired partner if I needed him.
The night came and after my music played, I took the time to introduce Adrian- a young bull rider that we met at a rodeo the night before. It was Adrian's first ride back in a year after being thrown and stepped on by a bull. His return ended with a trip to the ER. But Adrian and his whole family came out to support the wrestlers the next night. After introducing him, I was promptly cut off when getting in the ring. The entire match became a story based less on moves and more on fighting to stay alive. Every time I would start to come back, Bull was there to cut me back off and continue beating on me. After ten minutes, the most I’d done was land some punches but the moment finally came when I knocked the big man down. Before I could capitalize, he rolled out of the ring. Of course, I followed and we ended up fighting in the bleachers. The count reached 8 and I rolled in to break it while Bull slowly stood up in the third row of bleachers. This was my moment. I climbed to the top rope and dove out, landing on him to a huge cheer from the fans.
This was short lived because as I got up, I was cut back off. Except this time, Bull would forget about me and turn his attention to the fans that had been cheering for me from the beginning. As he took his time yelling, I saw my secret weapon in the front row. Bull saw him too and berated him for cheering. As Bull would point his finger in this kid's face, I sat up in the bleachers and motioned for him to get him. The kid smiled like it was Christmas morning and bumped in to Bull's foot. Bull suddenly became terrified and jumped two feet in the air as the people laughed. My tag partner looked at me again as I encouraged him. He would hit Bull again until eventually Bull would try to run off with my wheel-chaired weapon in pursuit as the people went crazy cheering on this maniac chasing the 400lbs bad guy.

At the end of the night, I met this little boy’s family again and was thanked endlessly by everyone. I’ll never forget the look on his face and his mother telling me she hasn’t seen a smile like that from him in a long time. Although the entire trip out West was an economic disaster, we couldn’t be any richer in the memories we created, not just for ourselves but all the fans and families that came out to see us. Sometimes we all get caught up in the money we’re either making or missing out on and forget that if memories were dollars, we would all be millionaires. There are plenty of other Wrestle Or Die Tour stories(some I can’t tell due to the 5th amendment) but this one always sticks out as a moment that made that entire trip worthwhile. Not to mention, who would have ever guessed I would be a good babyface?!?

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Follow Eric Wayne on Twitter @MrWatchTheLeft and for booking information, contact BookEricNow@gmail.com