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Downey Doesn't Let Family Stand In The Way Of Business

Posted: Jan 14th 2009 By: CMBurnham

The pairing of TAP Oklahoma Heritage Champion Tim Rockwell and his manager Stevie Caballero have run roughshod over MWA since the federation's inception last year. And the readdition of Rockwell's uncle Bernard Funk only served to up the threat to anyone wanting to challenge for Rockwell's MWA Title. It seemed like every month, Rockwell or Caballero found some way to retain his belt through devious means. But MWA officials had a surprise in store for Texas, Inc. And when that surprise was revealed, it hit Rockwell a little too close to home.

After Bernard Funk had disposed of El Matador Uno, MWA ring announcer Mike Iles told Texas, Inc. to hang around because he believed they wanted to hear the announcement of the new MWA Director of Operations. But when Mike read the paper with the announcement on it, the look of shock was visable all the way to the back rows. With disgust in his voice, Iles announced that Raymon Downey was the new MWA D.O.O. And when Downey made his way to the ring, Iles pointedly asked him "How the hell did you get this job?" Iles then filled in the crowd on Downey's background, as many of them would not be familiar with him. Downey and Bernard Funk had been friends since they were 12 years old. Like Funk, Downey is also an uncle of Tim Rockwell. And the smiles on the faces of the Texas, Inc. members clearly said that they were sure that Downey was going to cement their control of MWA and the Heavyweight Title. Iles even went so far as to accuse him of "stacking the deck" against any challengers to the MWA Title. But Downey insisted that he was there for the fans. He pointed out how Bernard Funk had interfered in matches as the Longhorn Assassin and said that would not happen this night. He then brought in Spavinaw Law Marshalls to arrest, handcuff and escort Funk to jail! Downey went on to warn Stevie Caballero that if he interfered in the Triple Threat Bullrope Match for the MWA Title that night, he'd be joining Funk in the holding cell. By this point, Rockwell was irate and began to yell at his uncle, saying he'd turned his back on the family. Never one to be intimidated, Downey ordered Rockwell to leave the ring and said if he didn't get out by the count of 10, he'd be stripped of the MWA Title. By the count of 8, Rockwell realized Downey was serious and jumped out of the ring before Downey could follow through on his threat.

When it came time for that MWA Title defence, Downey had one more ace up his sleeve. He brought out the contract that he said he had forgotten to have Stevie Caballero sign. Stevie quickly grabbed it and scribbled his signature on the bottom. Downey then handed the paper to Mike Iles, who announced to the crowd that the contract clearly stated that, if Rockwell lost the match, he would not receive a rematch against whoever won the belt. Sweat began to pour from the brow of Stevie Caballero as he knew he had lost any chance to cover his charge's butt. With no outside distraction from Bernard Funk and no promise of a rematch, Rockwell's nerves began to fray. Meanwhile, both his opponents remained very calm. Blake Albright focused on everything he had learned from his brother as well as every match he'd had against Rockwell. MSWA Mid-South Tag Team Champion Max McGuirk thought about the Battle Royal he'd won to earn a title shot in December. He'd come close to victory, but hadn't been able to capture the gold. Perhaps this would be the break he needed.

Downey stationed himself at ringside to watch the procedings and the 3 men were all attached to the Bullrope (although Rockwell was the last to submit to being strapped in). All 3 men knew that there would be no release until one of them had touched all 4 corners in succession. At various points during the match, intense fights broke out between 2 of the 3 men in the ring. No matter who began to beat up on Rockwell, the fans cheered that, but when McGuirk and Albright turned their attention on each other, the crowd fell silent, fearing that if the challengers beat each other too much, Rockwell would be able to retain the title. After a grueling match that saw all 3 men exhausted and beaten by the cowbell, Rockwell tied up his challengers and began to march around the ring. He touched 3 of the corners, but as he did so and then moved on, both of his challengers did the same thing, unbeknownst to Rockwell. As he approached the fourth turnbuckle, Albright & McGuirk untangled themselves and began a tug of war with Rockwell. As all 3 men tugged simultaneously, the momentum catapulted Albright between Rockwell and McGuirk and into the 4th turnbuckle, giving him the victory and his first wrestling title ever!

The locker room emptied to congratulate the new champion and Rockwell and Caballero had no choice but to hang their heads and walk up the entrance ramp in shame, having lost the heavyweight title he won back in September.

Downey's "no tolerance" attitude stems from his long history in wrestling. While the name Raymon Downey may not be familiar to many wrestling fans, he might be a bit more familiar under his alter ego of Flamon Raymon. Downey began his tenure in Oklahoma as the co-owner of the Central States Wrestling Alliance, which later became World Wrestling Empire. He ran that federation from 1990 until 1995 and many stars of the 1990s and very early 2000s passed through the ropes in WWEmp. He reemerged in 2004 managing the New Texas Outlaws in SRPW and would stay until 2005 when he once again retreated behind the scenes. He turned up again in NWA-U, where he masterminded the theft of the NWA-U Oklahoma Tag Team Titles (a ploy he had also pulled off in SRPW), but again retreated from the spotlight shortly after that. He made one last comeback as Bernard Funk's manager towards the end of TPW's existence, helping Funk in his feud with Rocco Valentino, before leaving the sport again. During his time away from the ring, Downey remained involved with wrestling as he could be seen filming wrestling events for TV and DVD release. He performed these duties for OCW, SRPW, NWA-OK, NWA-U and MWA.

While most of Downey's efforts this show were focused towards Texas, Inc. and the MWA Title, the D.O.O. also dealt with an issue that has plagued MWA since last month. During the opening contest between Shane Morbid and Jake Boulder, Cast-Iron Cothern interfered and delivered a beat-down on Morbid, then announced that he would be introducing a new member of the Gentlemen Thugs later in the show. That member was X-Cal and Cothern also saw fit to interfere in the match between X-Cal and El Super Colibri until Morbid came to Colibri's rescue. Seeing the commotion, Downey arrived at the top of the ramp and said that he'd had enough. At the next show, he ordered a tag team event to be held pitting Cothern & X-Cal against Morbid & Colibri. The losing team would be suspended from MWA for 90 days.

Tags: TAP, Tim Rockwell, Stevie Caballero, MWA, Bernard Funk, Texas, Inc., Mike Iles, Ramon Downey, Blake Albright, MSWA, Max McGuirk, Flamon Raymon, WWEmp, MCW, New Texas Outlaws, SRPW, NWA-U, Rocco Valentino, TPW, OCW, NWA-OK, Shane Morbid, Jake Boulder, Cast