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The New Breed

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... and more in John Hitchcock's
decades spanning look at
Mid-Atlantic Wrestling!  

We Got A live One!

There are many stories that I have told you so far but I wanted to tell you about some other times that fans went nuts and jumped into the ring. I guess that wrestling would naturally bring out the worst in people when they got too into it. I never wanted to jump on Stan Hansen in my life and for good reason. He would have killed me.

No doubt about it.

True Believers are a scary lot and in Rasslin, it never was a pretty sight but the following stories I found funny.

I was with Obin Johnson in Thomasville North Carolina for a night of independent Rasslin. That night was really odd right from the get go because in the second match a fan jumped up from the front row and hit the Assassin in the head. This guy got in about three good headshots when the one security guy walked over and told him to stop. The nutty guy told security that the Assassin had cheated and deserved the beating. And the security guy told him to sit down and stop.

 He didn't throw him out, he told him to stop.

Now, what message does that send the rest of the 85 people in attendance?

It says it is OK to hit the rasslers because nothing will happen to them.

The Assassin did not look to pleased by this but lets face it, he was now a marked man for every nut that wanted a piece of him for the rest of the night. Now this was not the real Assassin, Jody Hamilton but some fat short guy wearing a mask. I found out later he was a cop in real life and a really nice guy to talk to.

Later, the Assassin was in the main event against the Lumbee Warrior. The Warrior at this time was weighing in at about 177 pounds. The match was about eight minutes in when our pal the Assassin beat the Lumbee down, pulled out a pair of scissors and proceeded to stab the Lumbee Warrior in the head.

Blood was beginning to show and then the crowd lost it. About four teenage roughnecks hit the ring with vengeance wanting to kill the Assassin. The referee, Dave Routh tried to block as many fans as he could but it was next to impossible. The Assassin ran for his life and the fans were told to sit down and behave themselves.

That is when I think that Obin and I left. I am sure the Assassin died that night and I regret I missed it.

 The second time that comes to mind was the night when I was sitting on the Front Row in Greensboro and I felt a jab in my ribs. It was Mark Simpson known locally as Simp. Simp looked at me an said, "We got a live one."

I looked to his right and there was a guy that was about five foot eight and about 160 lbs soaking wet. And he had this weird wild look in his eye. He was problem on drugs or high or something. This guy looked at me and said, "I hate Russians!"

 I responded with, "Yeah, I know what you mean. I hate them too. These Russians should not even be in this country! You know what? I think you could take Nikita. He is real big but slow. He is full of hot air! You could take him."

Simp said, "Yeah, he is a real wussy. I think that you could handle him easy. You are young and wirery"

We both started working this guy real hard about jumping the rail and getting justice for the United States from those Commie Rats.

Now I doubt that you would fall for this but this guy did. He recognized us as the Front row fans and we would help him if he got into trouble.

Wrong.

I looked this guy right in the eyes and said that he should wait until we thought the coast was clear for him to jump Nikita. Simp and I looked around slowly and began to count.

One, twoŠTHREE!

I slapped him on his back and said, "Go! Get him!"

Man, that guy ran like a squirrel in heat and jumped the barricade and grabbed hold of Nikita Koloff's leg yelling at the top of his lungs,"'I got him! I got him!"

The 285-pound Nikita suddenly realized that he had a nut holding on his boot for dear life and swiftly kicked the guy in the head. The nutty guy would not stop. He stood there waving us on to help and challenging Nikita to fight.

We just stood and applauded.

And groups of Greensboro 's Finest drug the guy off to jail.

That's Entertainment.

Next:
The First Great American Bash

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