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Ten Years Later: Starbird Shows And An Angry Indian

Posted: Oct 5th 2011 By: CMBurnham

Back in 2000 Oklahoma was divided into two territories. Rick Garrett ran his promotion in OKC and Rocco owned Tulsa wrestling. Throughout his years running OPW, many organizations tried to come to Tulsa and all of them failed. Rocco took it personal when people tried to take over his territory. He took it even more personal when people he trained and made into stars would leave him to go work for someone else trying to put him out of business in Tulsa. At the end of 2001, the bowling alleys corporate structure decided they did not want to have the insurance liability of wrestling in their venue anymore, so OPW was kicked out leaving a lot of history behind in that building. Many people thought this was the end of OPW. Rocco, who was being sued by his former business partner Pete Maguire, was beginning to get tired of the business. Creatively, he was a little burned out as well. When you run 4 shows a month in the same venue, there were only so many times you can recycle storylines and characters like Canada and Texas Outlaws (which oddly enough are still being used and recycled today). The OPW school was not really producing any stars to take the place of the old ones. Another reason Rocco wanted out was that he had a pretty successful side business with his mobile DJ company and he wanted to free his weekends up to work on that more.

So when a mark named John Crow offered to buy OPW, Rocco said yes. The first time I met John, he put on a good performance. He behaved mysteriously. He had these 3 business partners, but he was majority owner. One of his partners quit week 2. We were told John owned a restaurant and that is where he had all this money to buy OPW. John Crow told us all he had big plans for OPW. He told us his goal was to make us the 3rd largest wrestling company in the United States. He told me and Kenny that we would be part of the foundation for that, and it sounded good to us. At this time I had no idea that this guy had no money and absolutely no credentials. He even paid Rocco to stay on with the company as his booker and consultant. Good for me, because Rocco and I were becoming pretty good buddies. Rocco even brought me on to his DJing company. Of course John?s first act of business was to put on a mask and make himself part of the show as the ?mysterious? new owner. He paid some big busty gal to walk out to the ring with him. I?m sure she made more money than I did and didn?t say two words to anyone in the back. Early on I asked Crow what ideas he had and he wanted to strip the tag titles off Texas and have a tournament where he and his brother (neither of them wrestlers) would win the belts against two giant men in confederate flag masks after Rocco and Vinny gave them a little help. Luckily this never happened, but this conversation is where I started to smarten up about what was about to happen to OPW.

Around this time, Kenny and I got to take our first wrestling road trip. Every year Rocco got OPW booked at the Darryl Starbyrd car shows in OKC. We wrestled about 4 shows over 3 days and Rocco put us up in a pretty decent hotel. This weekend was the first time I hung out with a student named Russ aka "Romero". His official duties were setting up and tearing down rings and working security. His unofficial duties were babysitting drunk OPW wrestlers, including Justin and Kenny. This is also where I learned just what a low tolerance for alcohol Vinny (Brent Albright) had. He smelt a beer and he got tipsy.

One of the legendary guys around at this time was a large Native American wrestler named Chief Red Eagle. Chief had been around for many years and was loved by everyone. But he was also a very scary looking man who looked like he could crush anyone easily. Chief had a daughter about my age. A few weeks earlier she and her friend were hanging around after an OPW show and Kenny and I were talking to them. So one night after a Oklahoma City Darryl Starbyrd show, all the OPW boys are in a hotel conference area drinking around a table. Chief turns to Kenny and says "That was a nice moonsault you did, ICF." Kenny did not do a moonsault, I did. But Kenny still said thanks because he wasn?t about to correct Chief. A few minutes later, a very drunk Chief then asks "Which one of you ICF was talking to my daughter." Kenny froze as I jumped back from the table and pointed at him. I knew there was a chance my friend was about to die, but better him than me. Chief got this crazy look on his face. Kenny's face was filled with terror and he could not get a word out of his mouth. But all Chief did was say "It?s okay, I like you ICF" and he went back to drinking. Later that night, after many beers, Russ loaded Kenny and I over each shoulder and carried us back to our hotel room. We did stop by this one room where a couple of fans were staying. Kenny and I both tried to hit on the girl in the room. My drunk line was ?You aren?t half bad looking for a fat chick. Wanna come back to my room and split some Gatorade?? Russ immediately put me back on his shoulder and took me to my room. Kenny on the other hand, stuck around long enough to vomit twice on her carpet before Russ was able to make it back for him. The next afternoon ICF wrestled Brent in a handicap match. Brent knocked off part of my tooth, as well as made me bite off a sliver of my tongue on a stiff European uppercut. I didn't complain though because the match itself was entertaining and it was the first time I ever main evented. Plus we got paid really well that night. It was a compliment that Rocco trusted ICF to main event one of his shows.