I taped a 2 hour long podcast with “Mean” Mitch Page and Nick Maniwa this week.  The podcast was all about my 12 years in IWA Mid-South and some of Mitch’s and my favorite memories from our careers.  The podcast got me to thinking about things and I felt like putting out a blog detailing my favorite guys to manage from my career.  Later on, I will attempt to write a blog that details my favorite MOMENTS from my career after I try to obtain some footage of the moments to include with the blog so people can actually see what I am referencing.

1.) “Mean” Mitch Page/Rollin Hard – Mean and Hard.  I think I am most synonymous with Mean and Hard during my career.  After managing Ian Rotten and JProdigy on my “learn on the job” phase of my managing career, Mean and Hard was my first managing gig out on my own.  I managed Mitch a lot more than Rollin because Rollin eventually became a babyface and Mitch and I had a great feud against Rollin.  With Mitch, I had free reign to do whatever the hell I wanted to do.  Interfere whenever.  Get involved however I wanted.  I never had to worry about Mitch getting upset that I was too involved in his matches.  I knew that every time I was going to the ring with Mitch that I would play a role, have something to do and would have fun doing it.  The same stood true for when Rollin was involved and it was a team effort.  Even though, I am almost 100% certain that Mean and Hard lost EVERY SINGLE DAMN TIME that I managed them lol, we had a great time and a lot of fun together.  Especially the days that it was just Mitch and me over in the heel dressing room in Clarksville, I loved managing Mitch.  Prank phone calls.  Naps.  We would fall asleep on the nights that shows lasted until midnight and we’d wake up when Mitch’s music was playing.  “Oh shit, I hear COLORS!”  We would run out of the curtain and start kicking over chairs and raising a ruckus before getting into the ring because we were trying to wake ourselves up!

Favorite moment managing Mitch – Mitch vs. Rollin.  Sherry, Shaina (my girlfriend at the time) and Patti start yelling at us, upset about the way we were acting and treating our friend Rollin.  Mitch starts talking tough and telling the women to get back into the kitchen/concession stand, I try to do the same and get put in my place by the ladies.  It was these kind of things that we did to amuse ourselves and that were funny to us that made managing Mitch so enjoyable.

2.) Chris Candido – What can I say about “No Gimmicks Needed?”  He was so much fun to be around on the shows.  He was even more fun on the car rides to the show.  I didn’t get into too many Candido stories during the podcast because we kept it mostly to timeframes that Mitch was around for as well.  Chris had such a great mind for the business that it was always a great learning experience every time I went to the ring with him.  He gave me direction on when the best times to get involved were.  He gave me direction on the “weak hit during brawls on the floor and let the guys decide whether to sell it or not” theory that I took from that point forward.  It is foolish to sit around and watch your guy get pummeled on the floor but you don’t want to interfere if they have something big planned.  So I would go and give the babyface a weak forearm if I felt it was to the point that I SHOULD do something.  He could shake it off and keep the advantage if need be or he could turn his attention to me and allow Chris and whoever I was managing to regain the upper hand.  It was the little things like that that I took away from working with Candido and I felt it made me better.  Chris loved being a teacher and imparting his wisdom.  It was impossible to not learn from him unless you were just not trying.

Favorite memory with Chris Candido – Most people would assume the 8 man tag at the 2004 Revolution Strong Style Tournament.  While that was such a great time and definitely one of my favorite in ring moments during my career (look for that blog later), as I mentioned, the car rides to the shows with Chris were even more fun.  This memory comes from a weekend where we had a show in Terre Haute, Indiana and were on the way to the next town (can’t even remember destination now.)  The trailer broke on the way and we had to stop in the middle of nowhere in Indiana.  Between Vince Jones, Ian, Patti, John Calvin, Nick Maniwa, Big Sweaty Mike, Mickie Knuckles and Chris Candido and whoever else happened to be along, there were quite a few of us needing a hotel.  Normally Chris had a room all to himself.  He agreed to share a room as long as I was in his room, no one slept in his bed with him and we didn’t touch the thermostat so that Ian could just get 2 rooms.  So I had a bed…Candido had a bed…everyone else was on the floor.  Candido was always HOT.  AC was always blasting.  I think it might have had to do with how tanned he was…his burnt skin made him 20 degrees warmer than everyone else haha.  This was not dead winter but it was COLD outside.  Everyone was freezing, sleeping on the floor.  Someone tried to just turn the AC off and Candido woke up from a sound sleep and threatened to kill whoever touched the thermostat.  He went back to bed and I snuck over and turned the heat on so we could warm up before going out into the cold to fix the trailer tire/axle.  No one turned off the heat as we left.  When we finally got back to the hotel room after getting the trailer fixed, Candido was livid.  He cut a 10 minute promo in his agitated rushed style about how he was going to kill everyone for trying to cook him like a Thanksgiving turkey and how that is why no one is allowed to room with him.  He then asked who the hell turned on the heat and everyone immediately pointed to either Big Sweaty Mike or maybe it was Tommy Thompson (memory on that is a little shaky) but it was just hilarious how everyone knew to blame the trainee haha!

3.) BJ Whitmer – If people don’t think of Mitch Page when they think “who did Jim Fannin manage?” (not that anyone has ever thought that BUT IF they did…), then it would be BJ Whitmer.  I managed BJ more than I did anyone else (Mitch took a lot of breaks, was fired a million times) and it was always a good pairing.  BJ was with me for my first stable, The Superheroes.  He was with me for Super Mean.  He was with me for The Fannin Family.  He was with me on his own after I returned from retirement after War Games and had the blood feud with Jimmy Jacobs.  One could say that BJ was my most loyal soldier.  He also had the most success out of any of my guys.  Together, we won the IWA Mid-South heavyweight title and the 2003 Revolution Strong Style Tournament.  BJ was so technically sound and open to allowing me to be a manager.  It very easily could have been like managing Chris Hero.  Chris was a great guy.  He was an incredible talent.  Probably the best technical wrestler I ever managed.  However, Chris didn’t like utilizing me and having me run interference in his matches.  I was more a cheerleader which Nadia Nyce was much better at being than I was.  BJ Whitmer was almost as technically sound and definitely could have had fantastic matches without using me at all but he let me add my skillset into his matches to make them better (or at least I hope they were made even better by my involvement.) I think we had great matches against Jimmy Jacobs, Danny Daniels and I loved the BJ Whitmer/Eddie Kingston tag team.  I always thought they deserved to be IWA Mid-South tag champs and given a great run with the straps.

Favorite moment with BJ – Lots of great matches to choose from.  I’m going with a promo though.  Our little tribute to Top Gun on the first show after Chris Candido passed away.  We broke out the comedy as a tribute to our fallen comrade that loved comedy himself.  BJ Whitmer and myself, complete with sunglasses, serenade Mickie Knuckles with “You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling” in Valparaiso, IN as I try to woo her into joining the Fannin Family.  The whole angle with me falling in love with Mickie and trying to woo her was the first time in my entire career where I showed real human emotions and weakness.  It actually started to win over some in the crowd and became the first time that I really started getting some cheers because I finally had a redeeming quality.  BJ was great in his role as Goose and being my wingman.

4.) Danny Daniels – Yes I said it.  But we made a great team.  That is why it upset me as much as it did when he waited until Ian Rotten was out of town and I was running things to quit the company and then upset me even more when he paid Jimmy Jacobs to trash the IWA title.  It could even be argued that my run with Danny Daniels was even more successful than with BJ.  We had the IWA Mid-South title a lot longer than when BJ had it and I led Danny Daniels to the 2003 TPI title.  Like BJ, Danny was very liberal in allowing my involvement in his matches and I felt like we meshed very well together.

Favorite match with Danny Daniels – Loser Leaves Town Cage Match vs. Chris Hero.  I think that was my best performance as a manager in my career.  It was filmed by Dark Mark Video instead of Smart Mark Video so the footage sucks and it will forever go unnoticed but I thought it was great.  I spent the entire match looking for ways into the cage.  I had pliers.  I had screwdrivers.  I spent the whole match working on popping wires on the cage so that it could peel back enough to allow entrance.  In the end, it was as simple as turning a folded up chair sideways and going over the ring post through the small gap in the corner of the cage and several in the front row that had been watching and noticed everything voiced approval.  I think everything clicked that match and was just perfect.  Even down to me going to the commentary table as Hero’s entrance music played and hijacking the microphone and telling everyone on commentary to enjoy this moment while they could because it would be the last they see of Chris Hero.  Afterwards, Allison Danger said she got goose bumps from that moment because she thought it was so good.

5.) Bull Pain – One of my biggest regrets is that I didn’t get to manage Bull more often or earlier in the scope of IWA.  I kept trying to revive the BMFers because of how much fun it was to work with Bull.  If for no other reason than it sucked so badly to be against Bull.  Bull wore my ass out when I was first breaking into IWA.  Suplexes on the floor every damn week as a security guard.  He knocked my block off with the baseball bat when I was ring announcing in Indianapolis one night.  It was great to finally get onto his good side.  I loved wearing the weight belt and swinging the bat.  I don’t think it is a stretch to say that the moment that I will be remembered for, if anyone ever remembers me at all, will be the barbed wire bat shot on Jimmy Jacobs.  That defining moment of my career wouldn’t have happened without Bull.  Bull taught me a ton about respect, dressing properly for the role I was playing and for keeping kayfabe.  I tell several Bull stories during the podcast about how important keeping kayfabe was with Bull and how that stuck with me over the years.  I owe a lot to Bull for teaching me things and molding my views and opinions on what it means to be in the wrestling business.  Thank you sir.

Favorite memory with Bull – pick any of the Bull Pain and Jim Fannin beat downs on Jimmy Jacobs.  They were all fantastic.

While he didn’t make the list…namely because I was green as hell and learning on the job and thus making a ton of mistakes and because we worked against each other a helluva lot more than we ever worked together, I can’t leave Ian Rotten out of this blog.  Without him, there are no IWA stories for me to write about.  Without him, I don’t get an opportunity to live out a dream and be involved in pro wrestling for 12 years of my life.  There are a lot of negative things that can be said about the man but no one can deny that he gave a lot of people their big break and that he gave a lot of people an opportunity to get involved in pro wrestling and live out a dream.  I was one of those people and I will never forget where I came from and the opportunities I was given.