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The World According to Dutch: Crazy Things That Happen During Wrestling Shows

Posted: Dec 22nd 2009 By: mikeiles

Once in Kansas City, a man and his wife were longtime fans and didn't miss the Thursday night Kansas City cards held at the Memorial Hall. The woman even came to the matches when she was 9 months pregnant and almost to the day she had the child. Soon after though, when the baby was a month or so old, the man and woman, returned to the matches...with a month old baby in their arms!!! Local legend has it though that during a Main Event match, the man was holding the baby in his arms as he wildly cheered on the good guy in the match. When the good guy finally won, the man was so elated, he threw the baby into the air to celebrate and in so doing, he forgot to catch the baby on its way down. The baby went flying and from all accounts ended up fine but from what I understand, he was barred from ever attending another card in the building if he came with his child. Me thinks, he should have been barred from ever siring another offspring.

On May 24, 1976, in Greenville, South Carolina during a match, Ole Anderson, after a brutal match with Mr. Wrestling Tim Woods and Dino Bravo, was attacked by fans on his way back from the ring with one of them pulling a knife and cutting Ole so badly across his chest and arms that he had to undergo an emergency 4 hour surgery to close wounds. He received close to 100 stitches to close the wound.

The attacker ended up being an elderly senior citizen who was 82 years old at the time and had long harbored a dislike for Ole. The man was arrested and charged with aggravated assault. The old man was sentenced to jail for 6 months suspended, due to his age likely, and given 5 years probation. But his most severe punishment was being permanently banned from attending matches at the Greenville Memorial Auditorium FOR LIFE. The man was quoted as saying later, that he could have put up with the jail term but what really hurt him was the lifelong ban from attending the matches. He died a few years later and at his funeral, his family quoted the judge's decision as the catalyst that hastened the man's death. Ironically, the old man died on Monday night which for many years had always been the traditional night for wrestling in Greenville. RIP old timer.

Once, in Memphis, during one of my wild brawls with Jerry Lawler, a fan stood up in the balcony section of the Mid-South Coliseum as Lawler and I fought each other on the main floor of the arena. As he stood up to see the fight more clearly, he fell completely out of the balcony section of the Mid-South which resulted in a fall of about 15 feet. He ended up with a broken neck. I never found out if the guy was OK after than but I did find out that there was a big legal battle over who was responsible for the incident.

The building was sued, the beer vendor was sued and even the wrestling company got sued. How the wrestling company had anything to do with the guy falling out of the balcony didn't make sense to me but they got sued too.

Once, here's a story that you might have trouble downloading in your conscious memory. There was an incident involving Curt Henning years ago where he was 'banned' from the arena for a particular match. But he was scheduled to make an 'appearance' later that night by coming out from under the ring at precisely the right time. He was placed under the ring before the matches started, which meant, he would be under the ring for at least 4 to 5 hours. He had a monitor to watch the matches that night but he had no way to speak to anyone.

4 hours is a long time for bodily functions to cease to exist. Of course, Curt couldn't leave during that time because it was to be a surprise therefore he couldn't go to the bathroom so he was stuck under that ring for the duration. About two hours in, Curt felt the need for a number two. He fought back as best he could but as the old saying has it, when you have to go, you have to go. Finally, Curt had to go. He did a number two right on the concrete floor underneath the ring. From all accounts, it was a pungent odor. Don't ask me what amenities Curt had to clean himself but he probably didn't have much. The smell didn't stop there...as it floated up into the ring above. Curt completed his task that night and never told anyone what he had done under the ring. But the word made the rounds the following day as the ring crew found the 'crime' scene as they were dismantling the ring after the match. People who know Curt doubt the realness of the story for several reasons. They don't think he had to go so much as he wanted to go and pull a rib on everybody. Curt was a master ribber and Ugh!!!

Here's a story that was told to me directly by Jerry Lawler. Once every month, on a Saturday night, the Memphis promotion would run matches in Jonesboro, Arkansas which was about 70 miles from Memphis. One Saturday night, when Jerry Lawler was probably the most hated asshole in west Tennessee, he wrestled in the main event on the Jonesboro card. As he was leaving the building, he was confronted by a group of 50 fans who were heckling him and giving him a hard time as he made his way to his car. In these days, security was almost zero to nothing.

Lawler told me that he didn't think he really needed to have security with him until he saw this one kid who had a brick in his hand. When Lawler got close to his car, the kid made a movement indicating that he might possibly throw the brick through Lawler's windshield. The crowd saw the kid's 'perceived' line of action and started urging him on. Lawler's attention then went totally on the guy holding the brick and as Lawler opened the door to his car, he warned the kid that if he threw the brick, Lawler guaranteed that he would run him over.

As Lawler started his car, the young man came and stood right in front of Lawler's car with the brick still firmly in his grasp. Lawler couldn't move his car and he yelled at the kid to stop f'ing around. The kid starting playing to the crowd by threatening to crash Lawler's windshield and they started responding to him. Lawler, again warned the kid, not to even think about throwing the brick.

Lawler is a great storyteller and he knows when to pause and to start. He's a very entertaining talker and I always liked to listen to his Bullshit. So what happened?

Lawler continued the story by saying the crowd now was solidly behind the kid because most of them really hated Lawler because he was a true asshole to these people. He acted like a heel and he was good at it possibly because it was close to Lawler's real personality.
Lawler warned the kid again not to throw the brick and as the kid turned away as if to leave, he suddenly turned around and hurled the brick right into Lawler's windshield.

The crowd exploded and the kid turned and started to run away. Lawler pulled his car into drive and started jammed on the accelerator to try to run the kid over as he promised he would do.

Lawler drove about 30 feet and then heard some thumping sounds from underneath his car. He slammed the car to a stop and quickly got out and looked at what had caused the noise and the bumpy ride. One look gave Lawler all he needed to know. He had four flat tires.

The Mighty King had been humbled by a lowly servant. Thus it was in the early days of wrestling and the lowly peasants who had waited at the gate for the King's departure, all left and went home but a little happier than when they came.

Tags: Dutch Mantell, Tim Woods, Jerry Lawler