Akron, Ohio, Part Two

When last I left you, I had been sent to Akron, Ohio to referee a difficult match. The Love Brothers had met Chief White Owl and Cowboy Frankie Laine a number of times, and both teams could not be contained in the ring.

Promoter Walter Moore had gotten fed up with the previous referees. He contacted Promoter Francis Fleser of the Detroit Wrestling Office and asked for me to come to Akron to be a special referee.

As the Love Brothers entered the ring area, jackets and feathered headgear were flying everywhere. Frankie and the Chief were not in a very good mood. Fans were screaming for blood or broken bones. It seemed that anything physical that would send the Love Brothers to the hospital would give them some satisfaction.

The bell rang for this two-out-of-three-fall match. Hartford started, as did Frankie for his team. The Love Brothers were noted for double-teaming and keeping a foe at bay in their corner, and I spent about 15 minutes trying to keep Chief White Owl out of the ring. Everything the Loves did was legal, according to the rulebook, but I didn't like their tactics. They had poor Frankie in the worst spot of his life. They used the tag ropes as weapons, they double-teamed, and, of course, they tagged in and out and kept a fresh man in the ring at all times. They knew all the tricks for keeping a referee busy.

They would lure Chief into the ring with antics you couldn't imagine. At one point, I was ready to throw the match out, as it was getting too wild, even for me, but I didn't. The Love Brothers won the first fall in about 18 minutes of bone crunching, nerve rattling action that saw one fan ejected from the arena for jumping into the ring to try and help Frankie Laine.

Chief tried to start the second fall. I had to get him out, as the rules state that the two men who were in the first fall had to start the second. Frankie was in pretty bad shape, as the Loves had beaten his spirits up pretty badly, not to mention his body. After about two minutes, Reginald accidentally hit Frankie with a right hand that would have sent a mule to the Promised Land and knocked him right into his own corner, where the Chief tagged in. The top of the capacity-crowded arena nearly came off. The sound was deafening.

Finally, White Owl could get into the ring and do some justice and right some wrongs. Fists were flying and chops were landing on both Love Brothers. White Owl was a machine letting off the steam that had been held back the whole night. I retreated to a neutral corner on purpose and just stood there. I guess I turned into a fan for a couple of minutes and really wanted to see those guys get theirs. I was quite fed up with them as well.

Chief won the second fall in about 10 minutes with a Bow and Arrow hold that had been made famous by the great Chief Don Eagle of years before. The fans were overjoyed and to the point where they were ready to start climbing into the ring again.

The third and final fall was a hard fought battle, as both teams were now at full strength. Back and forth it went, with hold after hold being broken. Finally, out of nowhere, White Owl tags in Frankie Laine, and he puts an Octopus Twist on Hartford. I hadn't seen that hold since the days of Jim Hady using it in Detroit to beat opponents. Hartford had no choice. He was beyond breaking out of the hold and had to give up.

Fans surrounded the ring for nearly five minutes after the match and wouldn't let anybody out of the ring. I never had anything like that ever happen to me before, and I shudder to think what might have happened if the Love Brothers would have won the match.

Percival A. Friend, Retired
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