My Worst Nightmare

When I started refereeing full time I was 18 years old. I had been a fan all my life and was very much in awe of the wrestlers and anyone else in the business. Think about it. I went from admiring these guys from afar to all of a sudden being accepted by them as one of their own. Anyone who has ever been in the business will never forget the first night they walked into an arena as one of the boys. Dropping a suitcase on the floor of a locker room where until that moment you had been considered an outsider.

What a rush!!!!

The only person I ever met in the business that I was truly afraid of was Larry Hamilton. you may know him better as "The Missouri Mauler". Larry was a wonderful person and was never anything but nice to me. He helped me in many ways instructing me in where to place myself as a referee to be most effective and stay out of trouble. He warned me about not traveling with certain people as you would be adversely looked upon by the company you keep. I will always have fond memories of The Mauler and the help he gave me.

Larry was very outspoken and he said exactly what was on his mind. I was sitting in the dressing room at Atlanta TV one Saturday when he came into the dressing room in a real snit. It seemed that on this particular Saturday they were having a Rock Festival at Atlanta Stadium and he had gotten caught in a huge traffic jam. They had recognized him and had given him a real hard time.  He was ranting and raving about punks with long hair. About how he would like to give all of them a crew cut and on and on...

And if we were to drop a bomb on the stadium we would rid the world of a major nuisance.

He was real emphatic about the long hair.

I had a head full of hair. Not stringy or overly long but I felt like a long tail cat in a room full of rocking chairs. I was lucky that day and managed to avoid him. He would not have said anything to me, but I was a little uncomfortable.

The next week we worked in a little town called Statesboro. We worked in a small arena and the crowd was not very big. I normally dress in the heels dressing room, but I dressed with the baby faces that night as I was still staying clear of The Mauler. We went to the ring for the match and the finish called for The Mauler to hit the referee. The first fall is taken by The Mauler, no problems.  More...