Behind the Body Slams- Confessions of a Pro Wrestler (C-Verse 1975)

[Guest The Aussie]

September 12th, 2001.

 

Richard M. Brott- Hello home viewers and welcome to Behind the Bodyslams. My name is Richard Brott and I’m here with our special guest Sionne Tama Petera, better known to wrestling fans as Sionne the Mighty.

Sionne- Glad to be here.

 

Brott- Tell me, what made you decide to become a wrestler? Who were your influences?

Sionne- My cousin Alasi (Alasi Tua) got me into it when he introduced me to Master Kitozon when I was staying with him while he was working in Burning Hammer of the Wrestling Gods.

Brott- Well, I guess you couldn’t pick a better influence. I suppose he got you into the behind the scenes elements.

Sionne- Actually, Connor Thompson got me into it. When he took up the Head Booker position at Combat Fighting Arts, he offered for me to act as an understudy of sorts to him.

Brott- He took an inexperienced worker under his wing? That’s quite impressive.

Sionne- Tell me about it. Of course, one word of warning though is to never cross Kien Shih. He was in his early fifties and he still gave me, someone twice as wide and half his age, a beating that I’ve never forgotten. Suffice to say, I decided to take my chances and walk.

Brott- You pretty much disappeared for a few years after that. You took this time to train yourself, if I’m not mistaken.

Sionne- Yes. However, history has proven that a 250 pound Samoan who can fly like a Junior Heavyweight will face some difficulty cracking the American market.

Brott- Why didn’t you sign with a promotion in Japan?

Sionne- By 1984, Kitozon had moved on to owning 5 Star Supreme Wrestling so I couldn’t sign there due to my lack of internal genitalia. I couldn’t sign with CF Arts because I was still on the outs with Shih, so Thompson couldn’t bring me in. By now, Golden Canvas Grappling and Burning Hammer had gotten huge and already had established Jr. Heavyweight divisions.

Brott- And the American promotions?

Sionne- No such luck. I didn’t agree with how the Lamberts ran things in APWF, even though by then Franco Lambert had passed away and Professor Nero had become owner. Even then, the APWF was struggling to keep up with the Supreme Wrestling Federation.

Brott- This was when the SWF had pretty much exploded in popularity, correct?

Sionne- Yep. They were riding a wave of popularity when George DeColt became the booker. I don’t mean to kiss his ass but the guy is a genius when it comes to professional wrestling. He pretty much turned Luis Montero into what he is today as well as being able to lay some claim to how dominant Dread has become.

Brott- This was when you realized that the writing was on the wall.

Sionne- Oh yeah, I couldn’t crack into any promotion. It wasn’t until North of the Border Pro Wrestling came around that I made something out of myself.

Brott- You took up the head booker job and really got the ball rolling for them.

Sionne- It was actually pretty easy. The Canadian fans had been pretty much ignored for eight years following the CWF and CPW: A closing down in the mid 70’s.

All I really did was establish a talented base under Sheik Mustafa and build up some good young wrestlers.

Brott- And it was very impressive. Allow me to run through some of the names so you can give me your thoughts.

Sionne- Okay

Brott- Christian Faith…

Sionne- Incredibly charismatic. There’s a reason why he has won the world title so many times.

Brott- Warlord Pain…

Sionne- Limited brawler but he was great in tag matches.

Brott- Chance…

Sionne- Same as Warlord Pain. I decided to team them up as the Disciples and the rest is history. They just had something intangible when they teamed.

Brott- Dread.

Sionne- Scariest Mother****** I’ve ever worked with. Not in a bad way though, his size was so intimidating and his agility really shook me at times. I would constantly think ‘He is someone that no intelligent person would **** around with’.

Brott- You put that politely. Next up is Eric Tyler…

Sionne- Terrific wrestler but he had a huge opinion of himself.

Brott- Haruki Kudo

 

Sionne- My favorite person to work alongside. He possesses so much natural talent but he was so nice backstage. Hell, Sam Strong even put him over and that is saying something.

Brott- You had so many great young talents. Who would you say was your biggest success story.

Sionne- Sakurako Kagawa. She consistently put on great matches and would get some of the best pops. Interestingly enough, she is only second behind Brenda Martinez in Womens title reigns around the world of all time. Between JPWW, NOTBPW and GC:WW she held 17 championships. Martinez just beats her out with 18 championships.

Brott- You had such success from an early beginning, why did you leave after only five months?

Sionne- I seem to have the misfortune of having a prick as a boss. Creative differences led to me walking from the promotion. He didn’t agree with me having Sakurako face off against Sadako Red as the main event for one of our shows. He felt that the final match had to be something that was marquee or featuring someone from the upper reaches of the card.

Brott- Who walked when you left after this altercation?

Sionne- Amazingly enough only Sadako did. She got into a huge argument with Mustafa over it and actually spat in his face. Doing this blackballed her from any American promotion that did Woman’s wrestling. It didn’t affect her Japanese career which is a good thing. I’d never be able to pay her back if I ****** up her entire career because she stuck up for me.

Brott- This lead to another self-imposed exile for you….

Sionne- I wouldn’t say Exile, I just went on hiatus for three years.

Brott- And then you resurfaced in NYCW.

 

Sionne- Good times

 

 

TBC

[Guest The Aussie]

Brott- So then. Tell me about Ramon De Los Santos. You stated earlier that you have not had much luck with owners. What is your opinion on the owner?

 

Sionne- Very successful in Mexico and made an impact in AAFW. Bit arrogant as a result of that success but if you stroke his ego then he’ll be fine with you.

 

Brott- You faced a few problems in your first few years. Ramon was apparently quite insistent on bringing in trained wrestlers.

 

Sionne- I have a preference for younger, less established wrestlers. It’s an incredible feeling to make a wrestler who they are. I was peeved about this but I also found a loophole to exploit. You see, he couldn’t bitch about me signing guys if I initiated negotiations before he placed this restriction on me.

 

Brott-And he wasn’t mad about this?

 

Sionne- In fact, he actually respected me that I could find a loophole. You see, Ramon respected those who deserved respect and he felt like I did. He was still pissed about it but he got over it quickly.

 

Then let’s run down your initial roster.

 

 

-‘The Gambling Man’ Anthony Reed*

 

-‘The Enforcer’ Phil Roberts

 

-Black Hat Bailey

 

-Blackjack Terry Robbins

 

-Blackjack Tim Ryder, who at the time was working as E.Z Ryder.

 

-‘2 Tuff’ Cal Tufnel*

 

-Dark EAGLE

 

-Demon ANGER

 

-Dewey Libertine

 

-Disco Yoshi. Real name being Yoshimatsu Fujiwara*

 

-Dancing Oscar Backlund.*

 

-El Phoenix

 

-Ed Monton

 

-‘Clean Made’ Harry Turner

 

-Jason Azaria

 

-Lee Thesz*

 

-Peter Michaels

 

-‘Extremist’ Raul Hughes*

 

-Stanley Ross*

 

-Steve Flash

 

-‘100% Sex’ Tom Batch*

 

-‘The Preacher’ Travis Century

 

-‘The Innovator of Violence’ Wes Carpenter

 

Brott- It wasn’t a bad roster.

 

Sionne- I would have preferred to bring in some established people but NYCW was tiny. We would have been broke if I bought them in.

 

Brott- Well then, let us start on your career.

 

OOC:Next post is NYCW inaugural show. Also, Workers marked with a * is a randomly generated worker.

[Guest The Aussie]

NYCW Civil War

 

Coming to you from The Weston Gymnasium

 

‘The Extremist’ Raul Hughes v Sionne the Mighty

 

Results- To start off were myself and Raul Hughes in what can only be described as an ugly brawl. The end comes with a brutal looking lariat from Hughes that turns me inside out.

Fun Fact- Raul Hughes was trained in the Men of Steel Combat Training Camp and is a solid all rounder.

 

Rating- E+

Notes- Raul Hughes was completely blown up out there. He’ll need to do some work on his cardio before he gets a good push.

 

The Lords of the Dance boogie their way to the ring prior to the match. The fans hated this segment, probably because they didn’t know who they are.

 

Rating- F-

 

The Blackjacks (Blackjack Robbins & Blackjack Ryder) v The Lords of the Dance (Disco Yoshi & Dancing Oscar)

 

Results- The Blackjacks just overpower their opponents before putting both of them away with Stereo Spinebusters. After the pinfall, both Blackjacks exit the ring and ride their motorbikes out of the Gymnasium.

 

Fun Fact- ‘Dancing’ Oscar Backlund is another surprisingly talented graduate from the MOSC Training Camp, being that he is a very talented mat wrestler.

 

Rating- E+

 

 

 

Travis Century makes his way down to ringside with a microphone to cut a promo.

 

‘Heed me sinners. My name is Travis Century and I am the right hand of God. He doesn’t care for the lifestyles you all lead, he doesn’t believe in loving those who don’t deserve to be loved.

I am his weapon; I am the living embodiment of his anger. God demands that I direct my rage upon Wesley Carpenter, to show him the error of his ways. You shall fall so that I may rise.

 

I will return here soon. May you be prepared for your punishment’

 

Rating- F+

 

Steve Flash v Dark EAGLE

 

Results- In what I hoped would be a match that was exploitable for years actually came off as a real disappointment. Neither of them showed any chemistry in the ring, nearly blowing their timing on half of the high flying spots. The finish comes when Flash drops EAGLE with a Flash Bang (Quick Flapjack) that drops EAGLE throat first on the ropes. This leaves him open for the pinfall.

 

Fun Facts- This is Flash’s’ second career match. His first match was a terrible match against the LSD fueled Greg Timmons at an independent match earlier this year.

 

Rating- E+

 

‘Clean Made’ Harry Turner v ‘The Enforcer’ Phil Roberts

 

Results- And in our first major mismatch of styles is the high flying Harry Turner and the mat-based Enforcer. There was a decent story told during this match; Roberts was targeting the knees of Turner while Turner was using his pace to get the upper hand. Turner picked up the pinfall with an incredibly fast Wheel Kick before hitting a Standing Moonsault for the win.

 

Fun Facts- Phil Roberts once put a crowd to sleep during a promo.

 

Rating- D

 

Wes Carpenter v Travis Century

 

Results- Carpenter is the future of Pro Wrestling, there I said it. Perhaps he won’t be as big as a guy like Sam Strong or Rip Chord but he possesses so much talent that it would be criminal if he never cracked the big time. Travis Century is working an Evil Preacher gimmick and is savagely brawling with Carpenter. Carpenter has almost won the match when he drops Century with a twisting Belly to Belly suplex. Before the ref can make a three count, a massive man comes out of the crowd and drags the ref out of the ring and flings him to the side. The man then enters the ring and begins to pummel Carpenter.

 

Century then jumps Carpenter and DDTs him into the canvas. The ref, obviously not bright enough to realize that the person who ran out to the ring was the attacker, counts the pinfall.

 

Fun Facts- Carpenter teamed with the Boriken Love Machine in American Independent Circuit Wrestling but have only teamed 5 times.

 

Rating- E+

 

Century and the attacker throw Carpenter from the ring before taunting the crowd with religious style taunts.

 

Rating- F-

 

Overall Rating- D