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Ten Years Later: The 2002 Oklahoma Stampede (AKA The Night Everything Went To Hell)

Posted: Dec 9th 2011 By: CMBurnham

I use the words ?Play Fighting? when I refer to indy wrestling in Oklahoma. A lot of people find it disrespectful. The truth is quite the opposite. I have too much respect for ?the business? to call what goes on around at most shows here real ?Pro Wrestling.? I have been backstage at a WWE event. That is ?the business? now. While being on the road 3-5 nights a week, those WWE guys work out nearly every day and live off a very specific diet to maintain a body building physique. And they aren?t afraid to inject themselves with anything they can to get beyond regular genetic limitations. They dedicate themselves to looking like professional athletes. Most guys in Oklahoma either have a beer gut or are so skinny that the wind might blow them over. Most don?t even have a gym membership. Even fewer actually use those memberships. WWE performers wear custom made gear that fits their gimmick. Most Oklahoma locker rooms are littered with t-shirt and shorts. And when they do have custom gear, they still don?t have the body to make it look good. Most WWE matches are five fast and paced minutes. Everyone in Oklahoma seems thinks they have the talent to go for ten minutes (which leads to two blown up guys half assing their way to the finish). If I were booking a fed in Oklahoma, every match except the main event would be 5 minutes or less.

At the end of the day, anyone saying this thing in Oklahoma is a business is like saying the guy in the bar doing karaoke is the same as when Bon Jovi performs. It?s nothing more than us imitating what we have seen on TV. We are pretending to be like them. Thus, instead of calling it ?the business? I call it play fighting. That is not to say that there aren?t talented guys in Oklahoma, or feds like IZW presenting a high quality presentation. I personally wrestle for Maximum Wrestling Alliance in Spavinaw. It?s a great venue and usually a great show. Although the booking throughout the years can be hit and miss in MWA, the people running it have always been very respectful to me and that is why I will continue to work there as long as they will have me. I remember the first show I worked there; I was given free food and drinks, and a hand written thank you note in my pay day envelope. That left quite an impression on me that has made me consider MWA my home fed.

I try to keep in mind that no matter where I worked, somebody had money on the line. More often than not, somebody was probably losing money. Promoter?s licenses and permits cost money. Renting a venue can be anywhere from $100 to $1000. The money to pay the workers has to come out of someone?s pocket when you only sell 20 tickets. Somebody has to pay for the uhaul and gas to transport the ring. Somebody is hanging out fo an hour after the show tearing down the ring. So in that regards, play fighting is also a business. But some people still take it too seriously.

In 2002, I was working for Oklahoma Championship Wrestling. It was owned by a mark named John Crow. I liked John Crow in the beginning. He thought a lot of me as a wrestler and planned to make me into a star. But as time went by, I realized John Crow was not destined for success as a wrestling promoter. It was one bad decision after another. By the end of 2002, the whole locker room couldn?t stand him. The only reason most of them stayed was out of loyalty to Rocco Valentino, who had also stayed.

In December of 2002, OCW found a new venue at a skating rink in Tulsa. The venue was great. It was nice and spacious and just had a cool atmosphere. As usual with wrestling venues, the locker room wasn?t much more than a storage closet. And it didn?t take long for someone to decide to pee in there and make it stink.

The big storyline at the time had Rocco Valentino mad that the fans had stopped cheering (while he was a babyface), so he was going to be the meanest bad guy he could just to prove a point to all of them. He would hide a spike in his boot (ala the sheik) and use it in matches any chance he got. He was now the heavyweight champion. I had just turned baby face and the crowd loved me. I saved my former partner Kenny ?Outcast? Campbell from the wrath of Rocco?s spike one night and ICF was (temporarily) reunited. But the last show of the year in Oklahoma back then was always ?The Oklahoma Stampede?, a battle royal to name the #1 contender for the next year.

The Stampede was also taking place as the first show in the new building. Although I wanted to win, I knew that would look bad since I was the booker. Rocco and I agreed to keep building to our big match, but to keep us apart for a little longer. At that time in Oklahoma, there was this guy named Brandon Groom. Brandon Groom was a gifted amateur wrestler when he decided he wanted to be a pro wrestler like his wrestling coach from Bristow, Big Daddy Moore. He spent several years in OPW and ended up moving to Florida for a while to train with Dory Funk in hopes of getting signed by the WWE. Brandon was kind of skinny when he first started. By the end of 2002, he was massively big. I think he was probably about 275 pounds of thick muscle. When he came back from Florida, his body was awesome, but his mind wasn?t right. A lot of people backstage didn?t want to work him anymore. He had started to get a reputation for changing up matches in the middle and being kind of difficult to work with. He would call certain suplexes that could be dangerous and just give them to you. He was so strong that he could toss you even if you were dead weight. Rocco didn?t want to give up on Brandon Groom. So his idea was to have Brandon win the stampede and work a small program with him. Ultimately Rocco would beat Brandon, making my eventual win over Rocco that much bigger. I was booking at the time (with my one year of experience in the business) and I agreed this was the right plan. Well, out of nowhere, Vinnie Valentino (aka Brent Albright) decided he would like to come back to OCW. Brent is so talented, of course we wanted him back. We decided to have him be the latest entrant into the Battle Royal, and the only person to get his music played. It was going to come down to Rocco, Brent, and Brandon, with Brandon getting the win when Rocco got too focused on beating up on his returning cousin.

So the night of the Stampede (and our debut night in the new building) was a packed house. Most of the matches were great. It was my first stampede and I was pumped for it. Well while I was out there, I was doing my own thing when I noticed Rocco slid under the bottom rope and left during the stampede. I had no idea why. Eventually Kenny and I got tossed over the rope and when I got backstage, I saw a very pissed off Rocco. He had taken his boots off and was just wearing his yellow trunks and some socks. He was cursing and screaming and saying how he was done with Groom. Apparently during the stampede, Rocco told Brandon to take a beat down and just die so that when he came back to win the match, it would be more of surprise. Instead, Brandon decided to shoot wrestle with Rocco and pulled Rocco?s spike out and tried to use it on him. I asked Rocco if we needed to pull an audible and tell Brent (the last man left in the ring with Brandon) that he was now going to be winning the rumble instead of Brandon. He agreed, so we sent a referee out there. Brent and Brandon didn?t quite understand the referees instructions. So Rocco sent the biggest guys in the locker room, including Butch Dalton, Sonny C, and Karl Davis out to the ring. Some of these guys were babies, and some were heels. Butch, a sheriff?s deputy, ended up just taking down a confused Brandon and holding him in place like someone he just arrested. Rocco, in a rage like I had never seen, came out to the ring wearing just his yellow trunks and some socks. He yelled at Brandon that he was finished in OCW and also dropped an ?F? bomb loud enough for the whole arena to hear. The crowd was in shock at what they were seeing. Everyone got the sense that this was not part of the show. John Crow ran backstage and gathered all of Brandon?s belongings and took them to his wife, Summer Rain. He didn?t want Brandon coming backstage and a fight break out. The police were even called to escort him from the building. Brandon stayed in the ring a few more minutes screaming at Rocco before finally leaving. The crowd cleared out in a state of confusion, but excited as well.

Looking back, things probably could have been handled better. I know later that night Rocco was mad at himself for cursing in front of a crowd. Years later, Rocco and Brandon were cool again and even worked with each other when Rocco started another fed called Tornado Pro Wrestling. That night was quite a debut for Oklahoma Championship Wrestling in the skating rink, but the most controversial night was still to come.