Akron, Ohio, Part One

I had been asked by promoter Francis Fleser of the Detroit Wrestling offices of World Wide Sports to go and help out the Matchmaker/Promoter in Akron, Ohio, Walter Moore.

He had a situation where the Love Brothers (Reginald and Hartford) were to meet Cowboy Frankie Laine and Chief White Owl. Tempers had been stirred up two weeks before, as this same team had met for the fifth time. It seemed that no referee could contain the four of them in the ring.

I had agreed to be a ref but never really realized what I had gotten myself into until I arrived that Saturday night. For many years, Walter Moore had been a common household name for wrestling in Akron. He had brought the greatest names to Akron to do battle, men like Johnny Powers, Louis Martinez, The Sheik, Bobo Brazil, Abdullah The Butcher, Big Ernie Ladd, Eric The Red, the Brunnetti Brothers, the Gallagher Brothers, and a lot of other top talent.

Most of the guys that came to Akron were under the tight fist of the Ohio Boxing and Wrestling Commission and obeyed most of the rules. However, there were a few guys that just couldn't be contained in the ring area, and they were the ones that special referees were brought in to handle.

I had wrestled as the Green Hornet all over the Eastern Ohio-Pennsylvania-Western New York Area for promoter Pedro Martinez and had great success. Besides wrestling, I had developed an uncanny knack for being a law and order type of referee. Promoters enjoyed the way I handled guys who were sometimes 100 pounds and almost a head bigger then me with just plain reasoning. If that didn't work, then I would challenge them to a match the following time the town ran wrestling matches, and I did very well for holding up my end of the bargain.

I left the Detroit office in my new red Lincoln and started south towards the Ohio Turnpike. I had two other guys from Lou Klein's Gym with me that were on the card. Gary Fulton and Mickey Doyle were great traveling companions, as were most of the guys from the Detroit area. The five-hour trip was a good one, as I recall. Just a slight overcast and a little humidity in Cleveland were all that affected the trip.

We arrived at about 6 p.m. and had a little extra time to unwind and do some warming up. I was in the process of loosening up when Reginald Love stuck his head in the door and saw me. He asked what I was here for, since I was not dressed in wrestling gear and mask. I said, "I am here to ref your match tonight, and please get out of my dressing room." He barked back with, "Oh … did Mr. Moore hire you or did Pedro tip over a big rock and you came out from under it?" He let the door close with a big bang, and I knew it wasn't going be just another day at the office.

The undercard had some great matches---Lil' Abner met Gary Fulton, Mickey Doyle wrestled Eric The Red, and Johnny Powers had met Bulldog Dick Brower. I had watched most of the matches from the back of the auditorium and was impressed with the talent on the card. The Main Event was yet to come, and I had butterflies in my stomach for the first time in many years.

I was the first to enter the ring and was followed by Chief White Owl and Cowboy Frankie Laine. There were plenty of fans in their corner anxiously waiting in line to get autographs and take pictures. The cowboy and Indian team was a little bit unique in that most of the time, in all the films I had ever watched on the silver screen growing up, the duo was facing each other, not together. I also took into thought that this was not the movies, and I might have bitten off more than I could chew.

As the Love Brothers entered the arena area, they were met with boos and catcalls and were hit with paper cups, pop, and just about anything that wasn't nailed to the floor. I glanced over at White Owl and Frankie, and they were getting out of their ring outfits in a hurry. Tempers were at an all-time high, and an explosion of a magnitude was about to happen.

To be continued…

Percival A. Friend, Retired
The Epitome of Wrestling Managers