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Ten Years Later: The Bowling Alley Years

Posted: Sep 28th 2011 By: CMBurnham

Two days after I made my debut through a table, Kenny Campbell and I showed up to our first real training class. Rocco told me he was going to put Kenny and I together as the backyard team trying to invade the pros. He paired us up with a female in the training class named Vanessa. Together, we were team ICF. One night John Collins and Curt Hennig visited an OPW show. They were looking to build a new major company and saw Oklahoma as a territory they would explore. Curt Hennig passed by Kenny and I in our tiny spot outside the locker room and looked at us and asked "What does ICF on your shirts mean?" I tried to explain the story line, but he just looked at me with a blank expression. Of course all the ICF guys loved it and kept coming back to the shows and buying tickets. Rocco figured if he put these two marks in his show, he could sell an extra 20 tickets a night. A lot of the boys in the back hated us. We had no training, looked like we hadn't seen the gym a day in our lives, and had yet to pay our dues. But who else in that locker room could guarantee 30 tickets sold just by being on the card? Business was down before we got there and Rocco is a smart business man. When Kenny and I went to training, Rocco was still very stand offish towards us. We definitely knew we were still jabronies, even if we had a spot in the show. Students would show up and sit in the bleachers on one side of the arena. Rocco would show up with his taco bueno and eat by himself before the class on the other side of the arena. Rocco really never said anything non wrestling related to me until he overheard a conversation Kenny and I were having with Beau Dalton. Beau was giving me a hard time and said I should get an old school nice expensive velvet bag to keep my crappy looking backyard belt in. I promptly replied "What, like your mom." Rocco started to choke on his taco bueno across the room as he was laughing. I feel like that was the moment Rocco decided I was worth his time.

There was one guy in OPW who stood out above everyone. Brent Albright, aka Vinnie Valentino. For reasons I will never understand, he took personal interest in me and Kenny. He decided that after our twice a week class with Rocco, he was going to take and additional 2-3 hours a night to train us. Brent had a passion for the art of wrestling like I had never seen before. He was a great athlete. He took us move by move and taught us proper technique and execution. He taught us how to build a spot. He would make us perform the same spot 100 times in one night. We bumped until our body gave out. Where Rocco was teaching me and Kenny basic fundamentals, Brent was breaking down the more advanced techniques. I probably logged 200 hours of in ring training in my first 6 months in the business. Brent was a machine. He would get in and do the drills with us. When I finally couldn't go anymore, he would pull Kenny in the ring and continue to the drill with him. He may not be what CM Punk is on the mic, but he is every bit as good as CM Punk in the ring. After a few months, Kenny and I were known as really good bumpers. We were willing to take almost any move and put a lot of effort and energy into all of our matches. But I always wanted to get better. I had that wrestling bug. In 2001, YouTube was not what it is today. So I would often buy tapes from tape traders online. I loved anything super j-cup, new japan, all japan, and tournaments. I would watch spots that I know American fans had never scene and then go to training class and describe the spots to Brent. He would then teach them to me and Kenny.

Up til this point Kenny and I were learning from anyone who would show us anything. We were too ignorant to know who we should or should not be listening to. There was this referee there by the name of Weezer (aka Das Karnage). When we first started in OPW, Kenny and I would talk to him because nobody else really wanted to talk to us. Hell, we weren't even allowed in the tiny locker room. We had to change in the small area outside the locker room just before the curtain. It was around this same time Rocco pulled me and Kenny aside and gave me some of the best advice ever.

Rocco: Do you think I'm a star?
Justin: Yes.
Rocco: Do you see me wear a hardy boyz t-shirt or steve austin t-shirt and talk to no name referees about what happened on RAW? Do you see me going out after the show with jabronies to get a beer or hang out?
Justin: No.
Rocco: If you act like a mark, I'll treat you like one. If you act like a star, people will treat you like one. If you don't believe you are a star, then why should anyone else?

Then he pointed to a piece of paper on the wall with the header "Rocco's Rules"
I don't remember all of them or the exact wording or order, but the rocco rules went something like this:

1) Always follow the book. The booker is always right.
2) Always preserve kayfabe.
3) A big guy will beat a little guy, but little guys with a belt can beat big guys without a belt..
4) A singles wrestler will beat a tag team wrestler in a singles match.
5) An established tag team will beat two singles wrestlers in a tag match.
6) Heels should cheat to win.
7) Act like a star, people will treat you like a star, and then you will be a star.

And that was when I slowly became a douche bag. Rocco told me to act cocky in and out of the ring. So I did. This did not earn me a great reputation. Also around this time someone from the Tulsa World came and did a story on me. Now I really thought I was making it. I'm 3 months into my career, I have a belt, the Tulsa World is doing stories on me and I thought I was going to make it to the big time.