Saddest/Sleaziest Indy Stories.

[SOR]

We all have one (Or many)stories about a bad indy show. Maybe you attended a bad show. Maybe you saw a former legend or a future superstar wrestling in front of 5 people in a gas station parking lot. I want to hear your saddest/sleaziest LIVE indy stories.

Here's mine:

1. I used to be friends with a few workers who lived locally to me however I lived 3 hours from the closest wrestling school so what I would do is ride along and either be a referee or work the merchandise stand on their friends indy cards. My pay off would be the fact I got some training before the shows usually for a few hours. Anyway one day I get called and invited to a show it's about 4 hours away but it was a weekend and I was riding with my friends I figured why not. The promoter didn't often promote running maybe 4 shows a year so he didn't have a solid regular fan base. We get there on the day, help set up the ring and it's time for the doors to open. Nobody is at the door waiting to get in. Music is playing and about 10 minutes after the doors open one fan pays to get in. We wait another 20 minutes and nobody else turns up.

Promoter has clearly lost his ass on this card and is backstage almost crying. Long story short he tells us anyone who wants to work can work so I referee a 5 minute match between 3 guys for 1 paying customer and the 5 indy guys who didn't want to work in front of 1 person.

2. I remember attending a card where me and 15 other people paid to see Raven wrestle some Japanese Wrestler. Raven won in like 7 minutes or something. Raven was so desperate to make a buck that he was trying to shill his merchandise to all of us. I think he made like 1 picture sale that night. It was surreal watching a guy who at the time was wrestling in TNA working in front of 20 fans max for a small indy promotion.

3. There was this promoter who ran successful cards here in like 2005 with Jeff Jarrett wrestling Rhino those cards drew thousands. The promoter returns 2 years later and I go to the return show. This time he has Bryan Danielson, Nigel McGuiness, Austin Aries, Billy Kidman and Kid Kash. 2 fresh out of WWE guys. One fresh out of TNA and 2 Indy Darlings. I get there about 10 minutes after doors open and it's me and about 30 hardcore wrestling fans. Eventually another 50 or so come in but the promoter had at least 500 seats out. I still cringe at the thought of how much money that card must have lost

I'm sure everyone has an awesome story or two. I look forward to reading them all.

[TGM]

In about 2007, I saw Gangrel wrestle a show two towns over from where I live, in England. He looked bloated and slow but was still decked out in leather pants and heavy shirt. He beat a regional indy hero (Deano Xtremo) via cheating and on his way to the back, my friend gave him a congratulatory slap on the back, for his hand to get covered in sweat.

Indy wrestling can be quite depressing when you see a former WWE guy on the card.

[wrestlinggod13]

Back in the summer of '96, we were having some people over to my parents' house for a pool party. We were short on a few supplies, so my dad and I rode to the local Wal-Mart outside Charlotte, NC to grab a few items before party started. As soon as we walked in, there was a table with stack of 8x10s and a sign reading "autographs". Sitting behind the table, pen in hand, was none other than Nikita Koloff. I didn't know who he was at the time, but my dad walked over and struck up a conversation with him. They probably chatted for a solid seven or eight minutes. During that time, no one else went up to his table. After we grabbed our supplies, we passed him on the way out to say goodbye. Still no one near his table. He looked so depressed. Poor guy. Thinking back on it, I guess Nikita was the original "Virgil - Wrestling Superstar".

[jason1980s]

I think Nikita would have drawn a crowd, especially if advertised.
Sure it wasn't Vladimir Koloff? He is an indy wrestler using the Koloff gimmick and would set up at the Wal Marts around the late 90s. Both my grandmother and aunt wound up buying me 8x10 photos figuring he was somebody. He could probably do well selling to relatives shopping whose kids like wrestling and they don't know that he isn't a star.

[SOR]

Apr 24, 2013 18:20:24 GMT -5 jason1980s said:

I think Nikita would have drawn a crowd, especially if advertised.
Sure it wasn't Vladimir Koloff? He is an indy wrestler using the Koloff gimmick and would set up at the Wal Marts around the late 90s. Both my grandmother and aunt wound up buying me 8x10 photos figuring he was somebody. He could probably do well selling to relatives shopping whose kids like wrestling and they don't know that he isn't a star.

His story seems plausible I mean if it was 1996 Koloff had been out of the big time for a long long time. I know he was in WCW for like 9 months in the early 90's but he hadn't been regularly working since 88-89

He also had an injury which would of cost a lot of money to work on I assume. Indies weren't that huge back then so maybe Koloff sold autographs at Wal-Mart between indy dates

[wrestlinggod13]

Apr 24, 2013 18:20:24 GMT -5 jason1980s said:

I think Nikita would have drawn a crowd, especially if advertised.
Sure it wasn't Vladimir Koloff? He is an indy wrestler using the Koloff gimmick and would set up at the Wal Marts around the late 90s. Both my grandmother and aunt wound up buying me 8x10 photos figuring he was somebody. He could probably do well selling to relatives shopping whose kids like wrestling and they don't know that he isn't a star.

Yes, I'm sure it was Nikita. There weren't any advertisements to draw attention to him being there, so it could have been a matter of bad/no promotion. We just walked through the entrance, and there he was at his table to our left. I have a very vivid mental picture of it. He had the bald head and goatee and looked pretty much the same as he had during his WCW run in 92. There's also the possibility he could have set up his table just before we went in.

[jason1980s]

Iron Sheik and Salvatore Sincere did wal mart signings (through MCW I think) back to back days in fall 1997. They had a pretty good turn out though.

Don't really have any sad indy stories other than going to one and being told "you're in our premium seats." I've gotten to go backstage to a few shows since then in 1992 so I've done pretty well since then. I think we even went backstage since my dad had done some comic book deals with Adrian Hall who was doing a Adrian Street or Adonis gimmick.

Saddest story in general is a convention in Maryland in 2006. It was in an outside area of Baltimore County which had no relation to wrestling whatsoever so it shouldn't have been expected to draw a crowd like New Jersey conventions. It was an awesome lineup though with 20 or so wrestlers from the 1980s. When we got to the show later in the day there were very few people getting autographs. We heard the entire day was like that with wrestlers excited they had someone coming to them, in me. Several also wondered where I found out about the show since there were so few fans throughout the day.

[Ultimo Gallos]

Went to an indy show in my town last year in August. They had a great set up with two video screens for entrance videos for each wrestler. Well the promoter made 2 huge mistakes. First off he didn't promote the show that much. Second he ran a show on a Friday night when all the local schools had home football games. When the show started there was about 80 people there. But they had set up close to 300 chairs. The show started off with a 45 minute Royal Rumble style battle royal. Well at 10pm there was still 3 matches to go. And since over half the crowd was kids under the age of ten,most of them were getting sleepy. So the kids and their parents left. By the time the main event started,at about 20 minutes to midnight,there was maybe 20 people left in the crowd. Frankie Superkick Williams was in the ring waiting on his opponent. Out come The Faroh of Funk,who is a pretty big face in this area. He stands outside the ring and attempts to whisper the following to Frankie. "We have to be out of here by midnight, So we have to cut this match short." But his whisper is so loud everyone in the crowd hears him. Also all but one of the belts on the show was cheap TNA and NWA replica belts. The one original belt,The Extreme title,was an old weight lifters belt that they had applied auto decals too. To be honest the belt looked pretty nice.

["Playboy" Don Douglas]

A few years ago, a local convention that mostly booked sci-fi and comic guests suddenly booked a card from a local indie as part of the weekend activities. (As a side note, it was funny hearing sci-fi fans complain about something being "fake.") They started out with a decent crowd. They had a mini nWO reunion (B-team mostly) as part of the con, and Scott Norton actually came over to watch some of the matches. Most of the show was solid if unspectacular (One heel threatening to "slap the black off" of Billy Dee Williams was funny in a "Did he really say that?" way. Billy Dee was not at his table at the time the guy said it, by the way. Another local heel, "Wildman" Jeff Anderson, was great at antagonizing the crowd. But, with so much going on, the crowd started to drift away to make sure they got their money's worth and met all the celebrities they wanted. By the time the main event, Ricky Morton vs Bobby Eaton, made it to the ring, most of the fans had wandered away and most of those still around were busy checking out their purchases from the many vendor tables.

Ricky Morton tried to get the crowd fired up to no avail. I was one of the few people who approached the ring, and after realizing it was a lost cause, Ricky looked at me and said, "If you think it looks bad from down there, try being where I'm standing." They did a quick match, which Bobby won by cheating, and got out of there.

The funnest part of the show was just starting. Bobby Eaton got on the house mic and ran down everyone there, calling them a bunch of nerds who lived in their mothers' basement. He then called over a guy in Jedi robes who was carrying a lightsaber. This was no Wal-Mart special, either; the guy had clearly dropped some serious money on this thing. Somehow, Bobby convinced the guy to let him have it. Bobby starts wildly swinging it around like he's dueling with 3 or 4 opponents. The Jedi dude looks like he's about to fall over. Finally, Bobby hands it back to him, takes the mic again, and says, "He was telling me earlier that he was going to attach one of these to his (looks off to one side) What? I can't say penis? But that's what he said. He said he was going to attach one of these to his penis....I can't say penis. Okay, well anyway, he said he was going to attach one of these to himself."

There was more, but I can't remember. It was just so surprising seeing Bobby Eaton do so much mic work and be so bizarrely entertaining at it.

[celticjobber]

Apr 24, 2013 18:20:24 GMT -5 jason1980s said:

Sure it wasn't Vladimir Koloff? He is an indy wrestler using the Koloff gimmick and would set up at the Wal Marts around the late 90s. Both my grandmother and aunt wound up buying me 8x10 photos figuring he was somebody. He could probably do well selling to relatives shopping whose kids like wrestling and they don't know that he isn't a star.

I remember seeing Vladimir at a Walmart in MS in 1998 or 1999. He was charging $10 for an autographed photo, and a bit more ($20?) for a Polaroid if you posed with him. I had been a fan for over a decade at that point, and had never heard of him. And I didn't see anyone else lining up for his autograph either.

[turkeysandwich]

Apr 24, 2013 18:39:46 GMT -5 wrestlinggod13 said:

Apr 24, 2013 18:20:24 GMT -5 jason1980s said:

I think Nikita would have drawn a crowd, especially if advertised.
Sure it wasn't Vladimir Koloff? He is an indy wrestler using the Koloff gimmick and would set up at the Wal Marts around the late 90s. Both my grandmother and aunt wound up buying me 8x10 photos figuring he was somebody. He could probably do well selling to relatives shopping whose kids like wrestling and they don't know that he isn't a star.

Yes, I'm sure it was Nikita. There weren't any advertisements to draw attention to him being there, so it could have been a matter of bad/no promotion. We just walked through the entrance, and there he was at his table to our left. I have a very vivid mental picture of it. He had the bald head and goatee and looked pretty much the same as he had during his WCW run in 92. There's also the possibility he could have set up his table just before we went in.

I'm not saying you are wrong, but Vladimir Koloff had a very similar look to Nikita:

[wrestlinggod13]

Apr 26, 2013 15:00:13 GMT -5 turkeysandwich said:

Apr 24, 2013 18:39:46 GMT -5 wrestlinggod13 said:

Yes, I'm sure it was Nikita. There weren't any advertisements to draw attention to him being there, so it could have been a matter of bad/no promotion. We just walked through the entrance, and there he was at his table to our left. I have a very vivid mental picture of it. He had the bald head and goatee and looked pretty much the same as he had during his WCW run in 92. There's also the possibility he could have set up his table just before we went in.

I'm not saying you are wrong, but Vladimir Koloff had a very similar look to Nikita:

Oh. I didn't realize they looked so similar. On second thought, it may have been Vladimir after all. My bad.

[jason1980s]

Yeah, the Wal Mart signings was Vladimir's thing. Interestingly I haven't thought about him in years until this thread and the other night I got Ivan Koloff's book and he has a little bit about him in there.

[Ron Woodsman aka Shempaholic]

I got my picture taken with Ivan Koloff at a Wal-Mart in Blacksburg, VA in the early 90's. Those Koloff's must love Wal-Mart.

[jason1980s]

Ivan did/or does wal mart signings for Children's Miracle Network and did so back in the day with Vladimir who he worked with for a indy promotion. Vladimir probably kept up with it when they were done wrestling together but Vladimir probably didn't do it for CMN, just a guess.

Here are some reports of people seeing him at wal mart. wrestlingclassics.com/.ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=106942

["Playboy" Don Douglas]

I wish I could remember who it was, but there was a story about some indie show, signing, etc. where Vladimir introduced himself to an established old school name as "Vladimir Koloff, Ivan's nephew," and the guy went off on him for trying to kayfabe him.

[SOR]

Apr 27, 2013 8:31:27 GMT -5 "Playboy" Don Douglas said:

I wish I could remember who it was, but there was a story about some indie show, signing, etc. where Vladimir introduced himself to an established old school name as "Vladimir Koloff, Ivan's nephew," and the guy went off on him for trying to kayfabe him.

From that thread that Jason posted

"The late Darren Westbrooks (Carolina indie worker and trainer) told me a story once about Vladimir introducing himself to Ronnie Garvin as "Ivan's nephew." Apparently Garvin just paused, said "You stupid mark sonofa*****" and just walked away."

What's surprising though is I expected this Vladmir to be just an indy guy but he's actually associated with the Koloffs and worked a few big shows (ECW, SMW, WING)

[Blindkarevik]

I've always wanted to go to an autograph signing for a russian wrestler (real or kayfabe), and before he says anything, I hand him a piece of paper with my name on it. Because "In Soviet Russia, Autograph is given to you!"

[mysterious]

I've heard quite a few sad and sleazy stories about Lita, Missy Hyatt, and Tammy Sytch.

[Chainsaw]

Apr 24, 2013 17:05:28 GMT -5 TGM said:

In about 2007, I saw Gangrel wrestle a show two towns over from where I live, in England. He looked bloated and slow but was still decked out in leather pants and heavy shirt. He beat a regional indy hero (Deano Xtremo) via cheating and on his way to the back, my friend gave him a congratulatory slap on the back, for his hand to get covered in sweat.

Indy wrestling can be quite depressing when you see a former WWE guy on the card.

Speaking of Gangrel, I saw him at a Chiller Theatre convention a couple years ago selling autographs. The problem was, he wasn't there as a guest or a vendor. He just showed up, sat in the lobby of the hotel, and was selling his gimmicks to whoever noticed he was Gangrel. It was surreal. Rightly so, he was thrown out by security after a spell.

As far as recent stories I've heard, the one Feinstein told about Marty Jannetty was a doozy, if true.