| Why Me, Lord? The Eric Watts
Story
The Greensboro Coliseum's wrestling days were
numbered by 1990. I think it got down to a crowd of 1,800 to 2,000 a show
and that wasn't good business. WCW was getting ready to pull the plug
and sadly we all knew it. You can't have that much red ink for too long
so the good old Front Row started to have fun stirring up the mix.
Bill Watts
was now running the company; he was in a very tough spot because his job
was to cut costs and contracts. Watts had a reputation
of being a smart booker but asking wrestlers to take less money is not
a good job to have. And bringing in his son as a top star wrestler was
a really stupid idea. Eric Watts was a tall thin quarterback from
Louisville who didn't know how to
wrestle and he was pushed down everyone's throat like he was the second
coming.
He sucked
and everyone knew it.
Word got out that Watts, would
was on a big winning streak, was going to wrestle and defeat Arn Anderson
in Greensboro. This was
kind of like Michael Jordan being soundly defeated one on one by Ray Charles.
And, for the record, Ray Charles is both blind and dead.
Anyway, that really pissed everybody off and I decided
Arn was not going to lose to Eric Watts. There was no way this was going
to happen. I began to make plans to stop this insanity. I went up to a
friend of mine named Tarron Coleson who wrestled on the independents and
hired him to do a run in during the match. I told him that when
Watts was going for his finishing hold the STF, he would then
jump into the ring and stop the match. I was willing to pay Coleson two
hundred bucks and post his bail if he got thrown in the jail over night.
And he
said he would do it.
Now Tarron was a big boy that was about six two and
about 380 pounds so I figured that he could take the beating he was going
to get by diving into the ring that night. But then, if you can't take
advantage of your friends, who can you take advantage of?
So
word got out that Arn doing the job to Watts was
not acceptable and people got talking. In the Pro Wrestling Torch it was
reported that if Arn lost to Watts that there
would be a riot. Then we all began to hear reports that Arn Anderson was
hurt and would not wrestle in Greensboro
that night. That was fine with me but as the matches neared
it was on and off again about Arn appearing.
The big
night came and out walked Watts to the biggest
blasting of all time. He strolled out with David
Crockett and four Greensboro Policemen ready to rumble. It was a very
surreal moment, but then who walks out to face Watts
but Stunning Steve Austin!
Yeah, it
was that Steve Austin in the curtain jerker no less.
As
Austin began his walk to the ring
we all began to chant, "We Want Arn!"
And that didn't go over very well with him.
Austin started yelling at the Front Row and pushed
the steel barricade at us!
Just as quickly we all pushed the barricade right back
at him! It was not the best thing to do because the cops began to walk
towards us and Crockett said, "Go on! I always wanted to throw your ass
in jail!" Then, as if by magic, Austin
defused the situation by climbing into the ring. The match
was on and poor Austin
did not look happy having to lose to this over rated punching bag Eric
Watts.
This match went about ten minutes when, near the end,
Austin was trapped in the
STF finisher and made the ropes. Watts put the
hold on again and believe it or not the time expired and the match was
a draw. As Austin left
the ring, we all began to Chant, "Austin Rules!" Steve looked over at
us and smiled a huge sigh of relief. Austin
gained everyone's respect that night and Watts
looked like a real chump standing there in the ring dumbfounded without
his hand raised.
We found
out later that Steve Austin got into big trouble for not doing the job
to Eric Watts. Bill Watts called him in to his
office in Atlanta and asked
why. Austin said that he
couldn't lay down for his untalented son in front of such knowledgeable
fans. That would make him look stupid.
You know
the truth hurts.
We were
not rid of Eric Watts that easily, he returned a few more times to punish
us with his idiotic push. One night, I made a sign on typewriter paper
that said, Eric the Weenie on one side and a hot dog on the other. I took
this ugly thing down to Kinko's and printed up about three hundred of
them. When I got to the Coliseum, I started giving them out to everyone.
A couple of young kids asked me why I was doing this to Watts,
I looked them right in the face and said, "Didn't you hear? Eric Watts
turned on Sting and beat his ass in Raleigh!"
That was a lie but it worked!
Those kids took a handful and gave them out to everybody. When
Watts came out that night, he got the Weenie chant
from all two thousand fans in attendance. And man was that funny!
During
his match, Watts was being hammered by all of
us on the Front Row. Bruce Mitchell stood up and said, "Hey
Watts! Is it true you threw four interceptions in that bowl
game?"
Suddenly, Watts was thrown
out of the ring and was right in front of us. I really thought he was
going to start swinging at us by this time. But to his
credit he slyly looked right at us both and said, "For your information,
that was five interceptions!"
And he winked at us.
So I guess he wasn't all that bad a guy. But he sucked
as a wrestler.
Next :
The World Famous Squeegee Story
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