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THE BIG NINE! Asylum Championship Wrestling... Recollections Part One (The Birth of Insanity)

Posted: Aug 21st 2012 By: mikeiles

Sitting in a small confined musky dank tool room side stage to the concert stage at The Asylum Concert club in Lawton, Oklahoma. The sounds of the warm up band for the outdoor Bad Company concert, "Shackleford Brown" rattles the aluminum wall behind me as I crouch over in my steel folding chair lacing up the boots I just received in the mail days prior from some internet wrestlng gear company. Tonight it just an exhibition, our first true show is slated 9 days from now, INSIDE the Asylum, but this is the actual FIRST time the ACW ring had been set up under the ACW name. I'm not-so-professionally geared up in a new ACW T-Shirt and Black Dickies Shorts, of course with my new black shiny boots with white soles. Got a loose idea of what my opponent Se7en and I are doing out there, but not really. Have a few spots worked out which all include me dying on some kind of hardcore weapon. But at this point in my career, there wasn't such a thing as TOO MUCH, or moderation for that matter. 9 Years later I see dumb kids like myself all over every circuit doing just TOO MUCH and working their camcorders and boys in the back, as opposed to working crowds, but that's another story.

Just three matches for this exhibition, Ty Magnus vs. Julian Wolfenbarger, A Battle Royale featuring a large group of barely trained misfots including mostly my bar staff, security guys, me and club personnel. and then Myself and Se7en

I respected Se7en quite a bit, because he was one of the few guys we had that had been wrestling prior ro that exhibition. For 90% of the roster, it was all their first match. I had a few warmer uppers over the previous years, but nothing really steady either. ACW was actually concieved in early 2001 when I was still in The Army, but time, and talent issues amongst other things kept us from running actual live events until August 2002. We trained like crazy, several times a week. Putting up the ring, breaking down the ring, etc etc. We got new wood, new "Carpet" padding, fixed up the ropes and turnbuckles, still had the original ugly green stinky canvas for years before we bought a new one, but it was certainly brought up to code.

Originally I never even thought about running a true wrestling promotion, certainly never imagined that the Asylum Wrestling Federation would have evolved into what ACW is today 9 years later. I just wanted to fill Monday nights at the Asylum by showing Monday Night RAW and doing little "Wrestling style" skits in between commercial breaks and then maybe afterwards do a "Match" or something. I was a club manager, not a wrestling promoter.

I built the Asylum Concert Club in my image, I put all my time into that place and adored it. I had been a wrestling fan since my earliest years, I really just wanted to bridge the two in SOME manner, and this AWF idea was how I'd do it.

I started exploring option on how to actually MAKE a wrestling ring type thing in the club for Monday night and really had no idea what I was doing. Maybe Mattresses? Maybe a Trampoline? Tie some loose ropes around some cement buckets with poles in them... No idea what I was doing... Eventually I ran into a toothless bleach blonde skinny guy that drove around a limo that looked like it should have been on Dynasty in the 80's. Due to the missing teeth he had a major speech issue which made it hard to understand him at times, but I did gather the knowledge that he had an old rusty wrestling ring in his back yard which needed some work, but could be fixed into operating status. So I checked it out and immediately my dreams were crushed. It was the biggest piece of garbage I've ever seen. The wood, (Sheet of plywood) was so warped it curled up at each corner, the ropes looked horrible with ragged tape and torn turnbuckles, the canvas was an Army green that looked like a torn up World War II parachute, No ring aprons, and the ring posts were thin, rusted blue towers of crap. BUT! At this point I was still JUST LOOKING to JUST have a bullshit mock show on Monday nights, so I thought PERFECT! These days I wouldn't have taken a shit in that ring upon first sight. Jeff DeGeorge was the guy's name, and he boasted about being a 12 year wrestling vet, but by looking at him you'd guess those 12 years started in 1960 and ended in 1972. Not exactly the kind of wrestler you see on TV now or then, unless you rent those "Bum Fights" DVD's. He let us use the ring, insisting on he be a part of the shows, and as ridiculous as he may have been, if he had ANY wrestling knowledge, AND a ring we could fix up and use, it was better than mattresses and Me and my sound guy rolling around and cutting promos Monday nights. So we loaded it up and heading to The Asylum.

The ring stood outside, pieced together behind the Asylum for months. I learned that if we turned the wood around, making the pointy edges face downward, and placed some of the clubs foam laced sound barriers down, we could at least start bumping outside, or what we CALLED bumping back then. Often at night I'd hear the sounds of club goers drunkingly taking bumps on the warped wood, i'd run out to stop them, but they were already bloodied up nicely. Dumbasses... Eventually we cleaned the canvas and sewed the major holes, bought cheap ring aprons that looke horrible, but still better than nothing, we painted the ring posts, then eventually had new ones MADE that are stronger than anything you'll see in wrestling period, bought all new wood, retaped the ropes nicely and brought the beast inside. I'd spend hours at The Asylum fantasizing about The AWF, hung lights, started booking stories in my head (Without a roster), put chairs around the ring and suddenly realized that we could be doing much more than just a simple MOCK bar show during commercials.

Jeff started making calls to local Indy wrestlers he knew. The first one I met was a handsome muscular Black fellow named Todd French, but with Jeff's awesome slurring of the English language, I thought he said "Ty". So I called him Ty for months before I learned his true name, Maybe Todd thought I had the same speech impediment. "Ty" taught me how to bump, seeing me do this prompted others within the bar to start training as well. Sound guy, Security guards, bartenders, just about everyone got interested and started training up. My Army buddies James Smith, Scott Monson, and others all put their name in the hat and we'd train several times a week under Ty and Jeff's supervision. Not sure they really knew what they were doing looking back on things NOW, but I didn't care, I was in a wrestling ring and taking bumps and learning something I'd dream daily and nightly of learning. We'd do 100 bump drills, run the ropes until we couldn't walk, and do drills until we couldn't breathe. All these years later, I rarely kill my students like that, I don't see the plus side in not being able to move the next day. I'd head to Oklahoma City every Wednesday and train at The Tom Jones training school, where I was there mostly scouting for future AWF talent, but picked up a FEW things froma FEW people, I liked Tom, but rarely saw him in the ring training people, if EVER. I learned mostly from guys like Se7en, Chris Matthews, John O'Malley, The Blonde Bomber, Tyler Bateman and a host of others. Really all I learned was lock ups and hip tosses (Of which I blew out my knee from taking my first one). I started networking a bit, ended up with the numbers for Se7en and Jef Tiger, who seemed interested. Others gave me the same look I give these kids today when they talk about starting new promotions, more of a "Show me and I'll think about it" type look. With a new promotion starting up almost daily in Colorado, and another one folding up every other day, 99% of them a garbage with zero production, horrid bland storylines and barely trained kids dressed like me in my first match. But anyways...

Se7en was a Death Metal version of a wrestler, The king of Oklahoma Hardcore, but at the same time seemed like someone I could seriously get along with. Outside of his sexy latin darker skin and his being bigger than me, we were practically the same person, same sick humor and same ideals in wrestling. Tiger on the other hand, we had ZERO in common. Easily upon first impression, one of the most intimidating people you'll ever come across. A Blackfoot Indian (I think..Sorry if I'm wrong Jef) Long jet black hair, menacing size and look, ripped jeans, worn out clothes, basically looked like someone that could kill you at any moment just for shits and giggles. But under all that was one of the most creative, unique, funny people I've ever met not only in wrestling, but anywhere. At first I didn't want to be near the guy, shortly after I couldn't wait to see the weird bastard. even to this day on the FB, I catch some strange posting by Tiger and it drains me of attention for anything else. But anyways, they started coming down and joining in on the training as well. At this point we had a full roster of people training at what was the Initial ACW University. TY kept bumping us to death, when he couldn't make it we'd just go over what we knew and bumped ourselves to death on our own. We did an open casting call for trainees in early 2002, and for the most part it was pretty successful. We gained about 5-6 new trainees that would eventually get into those Lawton ACW shows. But the three most prominent were sitting against a wall, watching, and seemingly critiquing everything we did. Later I was contacted by them, a set of brothers and a large round black man. The Wolfenbarger Brothers seemed a tad cocky, but I could easily tell they loved wrestling as much as I did. Kool Ade was just a large man with great mic skills, some athleticism and just a great person to be around. I found out quickly that Jeff (Later Julian) Wolfenbarger had trained in OVW for a time, and did some local work, as far as we were concerned, he was a blessing. Really? a guy that trained in the bigger leagues, here in ACW? NICE! He ended up being exremely helpful and I personally learned quite a bit from him. His brother John, (Later John Zorthos) didn't really have the talent that his brother did right off the bat, but he trained in our ring and slowly bump by bump started getting it. He had eye surgery that set him back a few months, but he always showed up, helped out, and shared his passion for wrestling. Kool Ade picked up the game pretty quickly, sloppy as hell by today;s standards in ACW, but his personality was infectious and very marketable. So there we had it.. A full roster training and preparing for an eventual event. During this time I figured the name Asylum Championship Wrestling was a lot easier to spit out than AWF. And I had shirts printed, a title belt ordered, Advertising and a full roster just about ready to go before I even had one show under my belt.

We had a few scheduling issues, and a couple cold feet issues with the first several attempts at booking a date for ACW to Debut at The Asylum, BUT... Finally we landed on August 19th, 2002 and dubbed the event, "The Inaugural bash". 9 days prior though we had an outdoor Bad Company concert behind The Asylum. So, being the promotional genius I am, I worked up a quick exhibition with three matches between bands to raise a little hype for the 19th. originally I was only slated to be in the Battle Royale, but Tiger cancelled at the VERY last minute and I replaced him in his match against Se7en with myself... My partner in training James Smith (J. K. Machina) also cancelled due to work, and I was wondering if being a wrestling promoter was ALWAYS going to be such an annoying pain in the ass (Yes, It WAS!). So Todd French (Who I named The Magnificent Ty Magnus because of Jeff's speech issues and the fact that TODD always said two things "Outstanding!" and "Magnificent") started off the show against "The Attorney"Julian Wolfenbarger. He's an attorney because I thought it would be an easy gimmick to hate, and it WAS... I figured my best two in ring guys should set the pace before us untrained assholes killed the rest of the show. During the night BAD COMPANY'S tour manager wanted to change up the schedule, probably in order to get out of Lawton as fast as possible, but it endangered my entire little exhibition. So we managed to sneak in the JULIAN/TY match, but had to run the Royale and my match with Se7en after the BAD COMPANY concert. Local DJ Steve O was slated to be our ring announcer, and immediately after the band was finished he nicely twarted everyone to surround the ring and we must have had at least 400-500 people wrapped around place. It had a surreal feel to it, Tiki torches lined up around the ring, lowly lit stage lights brought out to surround the ring, and I come out to the ring to a decent applause even though I was trying to be heel, due to everyone at the venue knowing me personally. I cut a promo on Se7en about how he disrespected wrestling with all the hardcore circus garbage, turned away, then back into one of the hardest punches i've taken to this very day. BOOM! Then another! I saw stars, like literately small flashes of light for several seconds. It was hot outside, even though the sun went down, I saw fire from the torches, the lowly set lighting rigs blinded me, the fans were yelling shit I couldn't understand, for a second I wondered if I was over my head, if Se7en was told by some asshole promoter in OKC to kick the new guy's ass, but then he called a spot that gave me the upper hand briefly, and we got into the routine. In that match I took chairshots, ladder shots, trash cans shots, and most famously a flaming tiki torch shot on the outside of the ring that wedged a decent sized chunk of thin wood into my nose. In the end, Se7en got the pinfall, we got positive feeback from the crowd, the guys and girls had fun, and I was proud of what it took almost a full year to make happen, and in just 9 days on August 19th 2002, the actual journey would begin...

I remember being the first person in the building on August 19th. I watched in amazement as wrestler after wrestler showed up, all except Ty Magnus, My trainer and the guy scheduled to take home the ACW Championship in the tournament tonight. He called the night BEFORE and said work (In the Army) held him hostage and he wouldn't be able to make it. UGH! I thought about J. K. Machina, but he wasn't ready just yet, I thought about Kool Ade, but he was even less ready to carry the promotion at that point, so I called Se7en.. He was down and it was history. I played the owner of ACW in the shows, reluctant to join the tournament, but talked into it. I beat my friend and training partner J. K. Machina by cheating in the first round, Beat Jeff (Now named Perfection Jeffrey Parker, with his wife Betty Ray< playing a not-so-far-from the truth WHITE TRASH gimmick,, Poor DONNA.. Haha) in the second round by sicking my new Inmates on him (Himm-James The Sound Guy - Cookie Man - Rob the Janitor and Bitch The Clown -Autumn the Bartender at the Asylum) and in the finals I faced Se7en in another brutal contest and lost with a steel trash can on my head laying on a pile of chairs I had just been slammed upon. Se7en was the new ACW Champion, and ACW was rolling every other Monday during RAW commercial and immediately after.

After about a month, the fans got tired of the RAW deal and just wanted to see us, so we moved the gimmick to Tuesday and just ran straight ACW shows. That felt nice as I asked the 50 people in attendence if they'd rather watch ACW or RAW and they erupted in an ACW chant. Though I was a heel owner, I faced out for a segment and made that desicion in the ring.
At this point things ran smoothly, everyone seemed happy and seemed like they were having fun, would it always be this way I wondered... Yeah right... Cage wars was right around the corner October 15th... My first taste of how shitty it can be to be a wrestling promoter... (CON'T!)