Steve's View #104
By Steve
The war with Iraq has begun, but
there is another war right here in SoCal. In San Bernardino County
to be exact.
In what has become a quasi-promotional
battle between the Empire Wrestling Federation and Threat and
his upstart United World Wrestling, started out as just a person
leaving a promotion, and has turned into such an ugly fight that
law enforcement has become involved, and restraining orders have
been issued.
Threat by most accounts was never
a popular wrestler in the EWF locker room. A lot of it more than
likely stems from jealousy of his being pushed at or near the
top of the promotion despite being considered by most fairly green.
Multiple times his opponents decided to work ultra stiff with
him due to their dislike, most notoriously the Havana Pitbulls
(then called Los Cubanitos), who actually sent Threat to the hospital.
In Threat's defense while his in
ring ability left a lot to be desired, he had a unique look and
was one of the few wrestlers in the EWF at the time that actually
looked like a pro-wrestler, which more than likely had a lot to
do with his push.
During Threat's time in the EWF
was involved in several backstage altercations, and wrestlers
were starting to complain that Threat was no longer a welcome
part of the EWF locker room, and a disruption. Then it all came
to a boil when Threat was involved in a backstage fight with one
of the EWF referees and ended up biting him in the back.
After that, depending on who you
want to believe, Threat was either fired or quit the EWF.
Now, for those who have been around
the SoCal scene for some time, what came next was no surprise.
It seems any time over the years a wrestler has left the EWF,
no matter what the circumstances, anonymous posters (and sometimes
not so anonymous) show up on the SCU message board to trash said
wrestlers, and if they really upset people, they might get trashed
on EWF's site. Within hours of Threat leaving the EWF posts appeared
calling Threat "an abortion from the EWF family" among
other things.
Threat then responded by writing
a commentary on his website slamming Jeff Hanula (better known
to message board users as EWF Jeff) and his wife Michelle Hanula
(who also runs the EWF website). Of course no one could let that
go without retaliation, and anti-Threat related info was quickly
put on EWF's website, and Threat was ordered to remove all EWF
related info from his website.
While all this was going on, Threat
had teamed up with Joe Cantrell, who used to train with EWF to
become a wrestler, and later helped EWF in various aspects of
running the promotion, including helping to find venues on occasion,
to start up their own wrestling promotion in San Bernardino County,
United World Wrestling.
From the start UWW had been taking
subtle shots at EWF, such as stating "finally pro-wrestling
has come to the Inland Empire", and of course anti-UWW posts
began to appear on the message boards, including photos of signs
that were put up near EWF's School of Hard Knocks (their training
center) insulting the EWF, that people associated with EWF claim
Threat or others involved with UWW were responsible for.
Also building code violations were
called in on the School of Hard Knocks, and even more serious
a anonymous call was made to child protective services stating
that Jesse Hernandez and his wife beats their grandchildren. After
investigation it was realized this was just a prank that someone
had pulled.
UWW had previously announced that
their debut show would be taking place May 3rd at Rialto High
School in Rialto. On March 13th UWW announced that the show was
being canceled as a result of Jesse Hernandez calling the school
and complaining to them until they pulled the plug.
That claim in itself was very believable
due to EWF being associated with those types of tactics throughout
their history, whether they happened or not. In 2000 the IWC (who
EWF also had a really heated war with, but that would cover so
much space it will be saved for some future column) was unable
to run a show due to complaints about the restrooms at their venue,
that Jeff Hanula privately (and later publicly) took credit for.
In early 2001 Revolution Pro was set to begin the opening round
of their Spirit of the Revolution tournament, but someone had
tipped off the fire marshals and the show was canceled hours before
it was set to begin. With the EWF running a show that same day
there was much speculation that someone associated with them was
behind it, though there has never been any real evidence found
to support that.
However, the next day the school
was contacted about the show, and most of the administration knew
nothing about any wrestling show that had been canceled, or that
there ever was a wrestling show. Finally, talking to coach Dan
Williams he admitted that he had talked to Joe Cantrell about
running a show, but nothing was ever agreed upon or finalized.
He also stated that he was upset that UWW began selling tickets
for a show, that had never been approved. He also stated that
show was flat out rejected by the administration, and he told
Joe Cantrell that. When asked about any involvement Jesse Hernandez
or the EWF may have had in the cancellation, or getting the show
rejected by administration, he stated "I have had no contact
with Jesse, only his wife who came by here earlier while I was
away, and I called her back".
Once it appeared that show hadn't
been canceled due to the reasons that UWW had stated, I made a
post in response to their allegations on the SCU message board
stating what I had learned. I also had contacted Jesse Hernandez
who offered to pay the rates of every wrestler on that card if
they could provide any evidence that supports the fact that he
had anything to do with the show being canceled
The next morning after my post the
UWW made a post denying the claims that I made about the show
never being approved, and continuing the "Jesse Hernandez
had it canceled" excuse, despite independent verification
by other parties. I responded to those posts by calling them "full
of shit" which was met with a threatening letter in my e-mail
from Threat. Also about this time, workers who were booked on
UWW's debut show began pulling out, including Adam Pearce who
released a statement saying:
"I withdraw my name from
anything having to do with UWW. Somebody, and I am not completely
sold on who that somebody is, needs to get their bullshit straight.
Learn a lesson before it's too late."
And workers in WCWA, which is currently
the only promotion in SoCal that has Threat booked for an upcoming
show, began lobbying to have Threat pulled from the card (which
I don't believe he has been at this point).
On March 15th EWF ran a show at
Arroyo Valley High School. During the show a Papa John's pizza
delivery man showed up with about $125.00 in pizza, which apparently
had been ordered to the show as part of a prank. The delivery
was addressed to Jeff, and the number on the order was Jesse Hernandez'
pager number. Papa John's decided to then donate the pizza to
the show in exchange for a plug on the show. The crowd reportedly
enjoyed their free pizza.
When Bobby Bradley, a wrestler with
the EWF and former tag-team partner of Rob Van Dam, returned home,
he returned to discover that someone had come over during the
show and left flyers everywhere talking trash about various EWF
wrestlers, and mentioning the UWW. When the police arrived, a
witness, one of Bobby Bradley's neighbors gave descriptions to
the police of two of the vandals that matched a description of
Threat, and another former EWF wrestler, Paranoia. Jesse Hernandez
discovered the same thing when he arrived home.
On the answering machine at the
School of Hard Knocks, the tape had been filled up with various
messages from Threat that were talking trash about the EWF, Jesse,
and various other members of the promotion. Paranoia can also
be heard on the tapes. In one of the messages it appears Threat
forgets to hang up the phone and can be heard talking to Paranoia
and stating "it's all backfiring, it's all fucking backfired".
Because of all the drama that was
unfolding, Jesse Hernandez filed restraining orders against Threat
and Joe Cantrell, with Threat being served his restraining order
on March 19th. By all reports, Threat was told to leave the court
by the judge, and then punching out the window of his Jeep in
the parking lot. Threat says he will fight the order on the grounds
that he claims Jesse perjured the restraining order, saying he
"is a mental patient at Kaiser" and even putting on
a fake name to maybe make it untraceable, and the judge did not
give him the chance of defending himself, just telling him "to
leave Jesse alone" and for Jesse "to leave Threat alone".
Threat also says he never signed anything, but that wouldn't hold
up in any court if he violates the restraining order.
Joe Cantrell was delivered his summons
to appear in court on March 20th, for an April 8th court date.
When Joe received the summons, reportedly he first called Jesse
Hernandez and told him he would "do everything in his power
to get him fired from his job", but then later Joe's mother
called Jesse and it was explained to her what was going on, which
promoted Joe to call back and apologize to Jesse for everything
and claim that he "was brainwashed by Threat". Jesse's
response was that "the two phone calls are in violation of
the restraining order" and "to stop calling".
While I doubt this is over, hopefully
Threat and Joe Cantrell will realize the irreparable harm they've
done to their reputations, and the chances of having any sort
of success as a wrestling promotion, and the harm both the UWW
and EWF group have done to themselves with petty bickering. All
it would have took is for one party just to stop at the beginning
for this feud not to get to the point where retraining orders
have been filed, and lawsuits are being worked on.
A promotion war, or any kind of
wrestling feud, is only beneficial when all the action is in the
ring, and not on someone's doorstep.
--
UPW, which is now running monthly
in Laughlin, NV needs to do a good job of using both SoCal, and
Laughlin to advance their storylines and keep both groups informed
of what is going on. Checking out UPW.com there is only a small
link towards the bottom with Laughlin results, despite what sounds
like major events taking place on the shows. I'm glad however
that UPW is using the Laughlin shows to advance storylines, as
to have a chance to succeed in an area you probably wont get away
with running what would essentialy be house shows for long. It's
the same reason WWE TV tapings draw so much better than the house
shows, people keyed in along time ago that house shows are important
in the grand scheme of things, and since UPW is running monthly
in the area, the fans in that area would quickly key in on that.
So in that sense UPW is doing a very good job, but people will
get confused if something happens in SoCal, and it isn't somehow
known in Laughlin.
The only real solution is to hype
the website like crazy, and make sure that important developments
really are put over on the web.
That being said, UPW has begun to
announce more matches for the April 25th SoCal return at the Grove
in Anaheim. Including Frankie Kazarian defending the UPW Lightweight
title verus Mikey Henderson, and the match to decide the UPW Women's
Championship with Savvy against Erica Porter (the former Jungle
Grrl from WOW) for the vacant title.
And of course the already announced
revival of the annual Los Angeles battle royal.
A more complete card will be up
on the front page of SCU (as well as other April shows) after
this weekend's shows.
--
On a side note if anyone is reading
this in the Laughlin area and can send in UPW notes that would
be greatly appreciated. I'm curious as to how the crowds are there
compared to SoCal (size and attitude). I hope to possibly make
the next Laughlin show.
--
B-Boy will be taking part in the
Jeff Peterson Memorial Cup tournament, which will be a two night
cruiserweight tournament being put on by IPW in St. Petersburg,
FL on May 16th and 17th. Also taking part in the tournament will
be C.M. Punk, Naphtali, Colt Cabana, Sedrick Strong, Sonjay Dutt,
Justice, Jason Cross, Roderick Strong, Tony Mamaluke, Mike Quackenbush,
Jerrelle Clark, Reckless Youth, Phil Latio, Ruckus and Bug.
--
I want to throw three plugs in this
week. First for "Parts Unknown", which is a weekly internet
radio show hosted by the SoCal Franchize Josh Waldrop and Francis.
They cover the world of wrestling, but a big focus of their show
is SoCal. The show is broadcast from Cal State Fullerton and can
be found at http://tir.fullerton.edu
every Thursday night at 10:30 PM (of course I plug this on Friday
morning so everyone forgets in one week).
I'd also like to plug the Brutal
Butcher Shoppe, who also can be reached via the banner on
the front page of SCU. If you want the B-Boy or Messiah t-shirts,
and won't be at a show where either are at in the near future,
you can buy them there. I haven't seen the B-Boy shirts yet, but
the Messiah shirts are real nice quality.
And lastly, with women's wrestling
really starting to pick up in SoCal (a year or two ago there was
none at all, now there are women that are doing better than some
of the guys) check out socalwow.com
which is dedicated to the women of SoCal.
--
God bless America.
