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No Homo!

Posted: Nov 24th 2012 By: CMBurnham

No one ever accused Rick Garrett of being a bastion of political correctness.

He's old school. He's a legend in Oklahoma City. And he's a funny guy.

Sometimes that humour translates in strange ways. For instance, at the last SWCW event, Garrett accused SWCW Tag Team Champions The Franchise Players of being, in his words, "homos". Actually, he may have used an even more derogatory word, but no Oklafan personnel were present, so that remains unconfirmed.

The Players were upset. And rightly so. There's nothing to suggest that they do engage on that type of lifestyle. But that didn't matter to Garrett, as he knew he had their number and decided that the joke had to continue at the November 18th event.

Garrett was not scheduled for a match on November 18th, but came to the ring nonetheless. He brought with him some small signs which he placed on the apron of the ring and then addressed the crowd, saying that he had come out to apologise to the Tag Team Champions. If they would come out and face him in the ring, he would deliver a personal apolgy to them. Shortly after, Rick Russo & Shane Sanchez arrived. Garrett told them that he had lost sleep over his actions and wanted to apologise, but he knew that they wouldn't think he was being serious. So after much consideration, he decided to take a big risk. After his apology, he was going to turn his back on them. If they wanted to attack him, they could. But he hoped they would realise that he meant what he said. At that point, Garrett turned away from Russo & Sanchez. It was a daring move and confused the tag team champions, but, in something of an uncharacteristic action, they did not attack Garrett from behind.

Garrett then turned back and asked them to return the favour. If they did, he knew that everything would be forgiven and they could go on with their business. After a bit of a discussion, Russo and Sanchez faced away from Garrett. And that's when Garrett's plan went into full motion. While they were arguing with the crowd, Garrett went and got the signs he had left on the ring apron. Each had some tape and the word "homo" on it. Garrett came up behind each member and slapped that sign on their back, pretending to give them a big pat on the back to congratulate them for being stand-up guys.

Garrett then stood back to admire his work as the chants of "Homo!" resounded through the Underground Arena. Russo & Sanchez vehemently denied being homos and had no idea of why the crowd was being so vocal about this. Manager Stevie Caballero, who had accompanied his tag team champions to ringside, caught sight of what Garrett had done and tried to explain through gestures, but Russo and Sanchez completely misinterpreted his actions and gesticulations. Finally, Sanchez saw what was on Russo's back and vice-versa, but Garrett wasn't done. He had one more trick up his sleeve as he blamed the entire incident on referee Richard Fitzwell, who was standing at ringside the whole time. The tag team champions chased Fitzwell off and then reentered the ring, trying to double team Garrett. That didn't work out too well for them as they ended up clotheslining each other when Garrett moved to avoid their double team move, not once, but twice.

Sadly, Richard Fitzwell suffered more of the brunt of the Players' actions later in the show, after the Hardcore Tag Team Match between the Players and the Brother of Hardcore was over. It appears at this time that the injuries suffered by Fitzwell during this attack may be career-threatening. SWCW Commissioner Chris Kuhn posted a statement on the SWCW Facebook Group that said: "The Franchise Players are hereby ordered to meet me face to face in the ring on December 1st, to receive their administrative punishment in writing as determined by the SWCW Executive committee for their recent actions against Commissioner Kuhn and SWCW Official Richard Fitzwell." Oklafan will have full coverage of that meeting and all the action at the final SWCW event of the year on December 1st.