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My travels with Mr. Saturday Night and The Jet Setters

Posted: Aug 1st 2009 By: mikeiles

Every year the Kentucky based Southern Independent Wrestling Federation holds its annual "Legends of Wrestling" event at the Pulaski County Fairgrounds during the fair. Every year they bring in some wrestling legends. Last year it was Greg Valentine, Bob Orton, Disco Inferno, Jim Neidhart, and Bushwacker Luke. This year they would bring us Koko B. Ware, Haku, Larry Zbyszko, Ronnie Garvin, Jerry Lynn, and Al Snow. Several wrestling talents from this area were booked for the show, myself being one of them.

At last year's show The Old School Express (Jake Boulder & Jason Jones) won the vacant Southern Tag Team Titles by defeating War Party. This year, they would be defending the titles against one of their arch rivals, The Jet Setters (Dustin Heritage & Jack Legacy). Jack Legacy and I have been friends for a few years and we are frequent travel partners to and from wrestling shows. So when we both were booked for the show we mapped out the route and figured out our travel plans. When it was decided that we would spend the night in Memphis and tour Graceland, Michael Barry and Dustin Heritage hopped on board as well. Also booked on the show was Gary Gram and The Canadian Red Devil. They rode with Jake and J. J.

Day 1 (Tuesday, July 21st):
I had it all planned out. I would pick Jack up at his house at about 10:00am, we would go to the airport and pick up the rental car then drop off my truck at my house and hit the road by noon. We would meet Michael Barry and Dustin Heritage in Roland, OK, where Barry's mom lives, at about 2:00pm. I reserved the car online through Priceline.com as I have done so many times before. I got to Jack's house at 10:00 as planned, got to the airport on time as planned, and Hertz was out of cars. What? It reminded me of that episode of "Seinfeld" where the same thing happened when Jerry tried to rent a car:

Jerry: I don't understand, I made a reservation, do you have my reservation?

Agent: Yes, we do, unfortunately we ran out of cars.

Jerry: But the reservation keeps the car here. That's why you have the reservation.

Agent: I know why we have reservations.

Jerry: I don't think you do. If you did, I'd have a car. See, you know how to take the reservation, you just don't know how to *hold* the reservation and that's really the most important part of the reservation, the holding. Anybody can just take them.

Hertz told me it would be 20-30 minutes wait. OK no big deal right? I had extra time built in. As long as I was in Roland by 2:00 everything would be OK.

Well, it ended up being an hour and 23 minutes to get the car. Now there was no way I would be in Roland by 2:00. The manager did make it up to me by giving me a $25 credit on my next rental. Jack and I hit the road at about 1:15 and arrive in Roland at 3:15. OK, we are behind by and hour and 15 minutes, nobody hurt.

It rained most of the way to Memphis so we didn't make as good of time as I had hoped but we arrived at our hotel at 9:15. We all changed clothes and called a cab to head out to Beale Street. If you haven't been to Beale Street it is quite an experience. Unfortunately it was raining so there weren't many people out that night, and it was a Tuesday. But the street is blocked off for traffic and there are bars, restaurants, gift shops, and blues clubs down there. Some of the establishments include the Hard Rock Cafe, Hooters, Coyote Ugly Saloon, B. B. King's Blues Bar, and the FedEx Forum, home of the NBA's Memphis Grizzlies. Some of the bars have walk up windows where you can order a beer then continue down the street. There were a few homeless people out there asking for money. One said he needed money for beer. We appreciated the honesty. One said he would be our personal security for the night. One was offered a dollar by Michael Barry to punch another guy in the face. He took the dollar but didn't punch the guy. We spent a few hours down there then headed back. Neither one of our cab drivers knew where Jerry Lawler lived and the first cab driver answered with a resounding "NO!" when we asked if he was going to vote for Lawler in the upcoming mayoral election. We also asked the cab drivers if they knew where Bill Dundee's nightclub was. Neither one did. The second cab driver looked like Santa Claus and let's just say I will never look at Father Christmas the same way every again. I got the "privilege" of rooming with Michael Barry and good grief. I thought I snored. Barry puts me to shame when it is a "night of drinking" snore.

Day 2 (Wednesday, July 22nd):
I was up by 7:45 but it took me until 8:15 to get Barry awake. Jack and Dustin were up by 8:00. All of us were pretty tired but I had booked the four of us on the first tour of Graceland on Wednesday. The tour was at 9:00 and we arrived at the Graceland parking lot at 8:57. Tickets to tour just the mansion were $28 apiece not to mention $10 to park. Pretty nice racket they going on there. As I was in line for the "will call" window to get the tickets, I noticed the instructions about the mansion tour about no video or audio recording and no flash photography inside the mansion itself. I also noticed the same instructions in Spanish and Chinese. It made me wonder which house has more visitors annually, Graceland or the White House. We found out later that Graceland has 600,000 to 700,000 visitors annually whereas the White House only has 500,000 to 600,00. Take that J. J. Anyway, when touring Graceland you only tour the first floor and the basement of the mansion itself. Graceland was just as I expected. Very ornate, extravagant, and over the top. The stain glass peacock in the living room was a bit much. At the top of the staircase we thought we heard the door open and a 73 year old man stick his head out the door and say "Thank ya very much" but we can't be sure. In the TV room there were three TVs running at the same time. Apparently Elvis began watching all three TVs at once when he found out that President Lyndon Baines Johnson watched all three network news casts every night. When we went through the trophy room there were all the gold records and costumes from his movies. Jack began taking pictures of the gold records and then decided to stop, until I pointed out "Don't Be Cruel" and he started snapping pics again. I think he ended up taking pics of all them. The people that were behind him in line probably didn't appreciate that very much but I doubt he cared. Speaking of "Don't Be Cruel", it was the A side of the record and "Hound Dog" was the B side. That fascinated me because usually a B side song of a record is usually a "throwaway" song, but "Hound Dog" was a huge hit as well. Elvis liked racquetball so much that he had a racquetball building constructed on the grounds. It was there that all of the jumpsuits were on display. The last stop was the Meditation Gardens where Elvis, his parents, and his grandmother were laid to rest. As you know, some people think that Elvis faked his death and that rumor is fueled by his gravestone that has his middle name misspelled. After the tour we went to the stone wall that surrounds the grounds of Graceland and signed it. It was then off to Somerset, KY. We weren't in a big hurry so we took our time driving and having lunch in Memphis and dinner in Bowling Green, KY. By the way if you are ever in Bowling Green, you need to eat at the Montana Grille. I highly recommend the Wyoming Salad. We arrived at the hotel in Somerset at about 10:00 eastern (we had changed timezones). We found out that Jason Jones, Jake Boulder, Gary Gram, and The Canadian Red Devil were in one room and the four of us were in another room. Jack and I decided that we would get our own room. We socialized for a while but then we went back to our room. I fell asleep pretty quick.

Day 3 (Thursday, July 23rd):
Got up about 9:30 and Jack and I went out to get some breakfast. Somerset has about 30 stop lights in a town of about 12,000 people. They also have more fast food restaurants than any smaller town I have been to. I counted two McDonald's, 2 Burger Kings, 2 Hardee's, 2 Arby's, 2 Pizza Huts, a Krystal Burger, a White Castle, a Dairy Queen, and some local places. And they were all on one street. After breakfast we went back to the hotel and relaxed at the pool. We went to the show at about 4:30 and when we walked in the locker room, Larry Zbyszko saw us walking in and said "You must be the 'and many more'" meaning at the bottom of all wrestling posters they usually say "and many more". Very clever from the "Living Legend". Haku was trying to nap on top of a table. Later, when Ronnie Garvin arrived, he and Haku and Zbyszko started sharing road trip stories. I heard the name Rufus R. Jones mentioned in one of them. When Jerry Lynn arrived he went around and introduced himself to everyone including Garvin and Haku. Al Snow did the same. When I was getting hometowns for announcing their entrance, Al Snow told me it was Lima as in a bean. He also said that he weighs in one pound heavier than his opponent no matter who he wrestles. I asked why not a pound and a half and he said that would be overkill. Al Snow's wife, professional wrestler Bobcat, stopped into the locker room to talk with Al. With all the rain they had recently, I was sitting rather far from the ring. But the show drew about 3000 people so I guess the recent bad weather didn't drive them away. Gary Gram told me he had a lengthy conversation with Larry Zbyszko and they really hit it off. I got my picture taken with all the legends in attendance except for Al Snow, who had left before the show was over. I also got my Larry Zbyszko book autographed. He said I really need to read the book because he wrote it himself and he talked about how he wanted to be a pro wrestler like his hero (Bruno Sammartino) and how he made it wrestling and eventually saved WCW from the nWo. I mentioned that I had been watching some of the "WCW Monday Nitro" episodes on WWE 24/7. Zbyszko said that with WWE 24/7 showing those "Nitro" episodes and ESPN Classic airing AWA wrestling, he is on TV more than some of the TNA guys. I mentioned he is also seen on TV doing the Morphoplex commercials. He laughed and agreed. We walked the midway and I spoke to one of the wrestlers who was talking to one of the carneys. When I was asked where I was from I said Tulsa and the carney said he used to wrestle for OCW in Tulsa as Bulldozer. He also said he was good friends with Vinnie (Valentino) and talks to him "all the time" which I found funny he didn't call him Brent Albright. We headed back to the hotel to hang by the pool for awhile before heading to bed. By the way, The Canadian Red Devil competed as The French Canadian Red Devil for one night only using my newsboy hat as a beret.

Day 4 (Friday, July 24th):
Not much happened on this day. All we did was stop for breakfast in Bowling Green and dinner in Memphis and drive home. I got home and in bed at 3:00am. We were supposed to wrestle at the Compound show on Saturday but Barry had a family issue to take care of and Jack had other commitments.

The trip started off on the wrong foot, but all in all it was a blast. We logged over 1700 miles on that trip. Let me tell you, traveling with Jack Legacy, Dustin Heritage, and Michael Barry is an experience in itself.

Tags: Mike Iles, Michael Barry, Jet Setters, Dustin Heritage, Jack Legacy, Greg Valentine, Jim Neidhart, Bushwacker Luke, Koko B. Ware, Ronnie Garvin, Al Snow, Old School Express, Jake Boulder, Jason Jones, Gary Gram, Canadian Devil, Jerry Lawler, Bill Dundee,