The real estate boom was amazing and I was riding high. My Dad and I own The Herro Company a Real Estate Development Company. We would purchase the vacant land and develop it into a subdivision or as my Dad would say a "neighborhood". At this time we had four different developments going on and I was also selling insurance. It was a great combo. We sell the land, build the home, sell them the homeowners insurance, and then the life insurance to cover the mortgage. Did I mention that my cousin was an appraiser and my brother is an attorney?? Talk about a One Stop Shop. We had you covered ... #Tremendous!
So like I said, Blizzard Brawl was done and so was I. Then the phone rang. It was Jeff Lynn...... He asked, "Well, do you want to do it again?" I didn't know what to say, so we decided to meet for lunch at this Chinese place called Chins. I gotta admit I was happy to be done with wrestling, BUT I still had the itch for the business. Gonna get off track for a second and name drop for a minute.... About six months ago (January 2011) I was talking with Armando Estrada current WWE Superstar and GLCW Champion. Armando has become one of my closest friends, we have some really cool discussions about life and wrestling and I have to admit, I sometimes steal his thoughts and use them on PWR Show Radio and TV....... so when I asked him if he still had the itch to get back in the ring he told me, he told me,"the itch never goes away, it just gets bigger". Of course I mentioned they have different creams and powders ....Ha! So yeah, once you are in, you are in. Needless to say Jeff did not have to twist my arm and in March of 2006 I am now planning for Blizzard Brawl 2 in December.
Jeff Lynn and The Brew were once again going to be my media sponsors for the event and I knew that with the power of The Brew that the show would be a huge success. It was also at this time I was starting to build my new home. Like I said the Real Estate business was booming and I was gonna build my Fortress of Solitude.
Ego is a funny thing, it really does get in the way at times. I admit I have an ego, we all do. So when I started to build our new home I picked out the best lot we had in our "neighborhood” and started building. My wife and I agreed on a beautiful 2500 square foot two story home that also allowed for me to build a theater room under our garage, a real life Bat Cave for this Super Herro. Of course a room like that does not come without compromise, so the wife got her dressing room sized walk in closet and fireplace above the Jacuzzi bathtub. Now before anyone thinks I am "rich", keep in mind I am building my own house with our own sub contractors who did lots of favors for me to keep the price down as we were building about 20 homes a year. I was NOT paying RETAIL if you smell what the Rock is cooking. I am not sure how it happened but the 2500 square foot home somehow Hulkasized into a 4700 square foot home. I had no idea all those little inches on the blue prints could be so big.
I am sure some of you are wondering why I am talking about this in a wrestling blog. Well I decided that if I am going to tell my story about GLCW and Blizzard Brawl so I might as well give you the real journey. This "Fortress of Solitude" plays a big part of the future of GLCW. So please be patient.....
For some reason I felt this Blizzard Brawl should be a double shot so I contacted my old High School and met with the wrestling coach to see if they would be interested in doing a fund raiser for the team. There were a few hoops to jump thru but at the end of the day we agreed to do a show to help raise some money for the Grafton High School Wrestling Team. I was excited because I was bringing my show home to the place where I grew up.
Blizzard Brawl 2 was to be a Legends type theme so I booked King Kong Bundy, Sherri Martel, Kamala, Demolition Ax, Tito Santana, Baron Von Raschke, and Bobby "The Brain" Heenan. Did I mention Doink the Clown was booked?? Well he was and NO he was not Steve Lombardi, Matt Bourne, or Phil Apollo. He was an indy wrestler from Michigan who did a great job. I also contacted NBC Sports Anchor and good friend Lance "The GunShow" Allan and asked him if he wanted to fulfill his childhood dream and get in the ring. After clearing with the wife "The Gun Show" was ready to make his in ring debut against Doink at the Milwaukee Blizzard Brawl. I still had to book the Grafton Blizzard Brawl, so I used the same idea, GHS Wrestling Coach, Mike Dodge vs Doink and I would get back in the ring again and team with King Kong Bundy against the GLCW Tag Champs, The Militia. Yeah, what was I thinking getting back in the ring, oooh yeah EGO!! Ha Ha..... I did not know when I would have the chance again to get in the ring and I knew that Kal would be excited.
Everything was running smooth, it was September and I was on my way to take my wife to Las Vegas for her 30th birthday. It was tremendous. Good food, good gambling, good shows, good saki. One of my favorite trips of all time. Because I feel there is no need to mention her by name I will use the initials SBL when talking about my now ex wife. Let me just say that SBL is a beautiful woman, I would definitely say that I gave fat guys hope when I married her. She was my best friend and wish things would have worked out between us. We were a blended family and as some people know, blended families can be very straining and difficult. Her son was very trying for me at times, who am I kidding MOST times. We did not click because of his "special needs". Anyone with a child of ADHD knows what I am talking about, it is so hard for the child and so stressful for the parents, and step parents really don’t have a chance. Let’s just say that at times I would rather pound my head thru the wall then have to argue with her about how to handle "blended" situations. Needless to say that two weeks after we got back from Vegas the stress and frustration levels were back again and SBL told me she was going to leave. EGO..... I could not believe it. She told me that she saw how happy and relaxed I was in Vegas and that in the two weeks back that guy was gone. So SBL moved out of the house we just built and back into the old house that we did not sell yet. Did I mention this is six weeks before Blizzard Brawl 2???
Now I have the task of promoting two Blizzard Brawls and trying to save my marriage. I honestly did not know what to do. I hated life. I was looking for balance that I could not find. One of the first calls I made was to Jeff Lynn. I told him what was going on and assured him everything would go forward as planned. I wanted to let him know that if I seemed stressed out it was because I was and that he just had to know everything would be fine. He must have been thinking that these wrestling people are crazy. First Crusher's Family was gonna sue over last years show and now I was having a marriage crisis. Ahhh the wrestling business.
To help promote the Grafton Blizzard Brawl I brought Baron down to be apart of the Grafton Christmas Parade and it was so amazing to see The Baron in that convertible throwing up The Claw to all the fans along the parade route. Baron got a bigger pop than Santa that day..... Did I mention Jeff Lynn requested to be Baron's driver for the parade... Talk about a kid in the candy store... :)
After the parade I had to focus on family stuff, SBL and I agreed that Kal would float back and forth between the two houses and obviously her son would stay with her. Let me just say that that Fortress of Solitude got mighty quiet and lonely when Kal was not there and it was just me and the two labs Mick and Hogan.... Yes named after Mick Foley and Hulk Hogan #ButYouAlreadyKnewThat. By the Grace of God, SBL and I agreed to make it work and she moved back in about 10 days before the shows were to take place. Little did I know that this would happen three more times over the next three years. #NoThanksPal.
Blizzard Brawl 2 and Two went off with a huge turnout. The Milwaukee show drew over 1,200 people and Lance Allan was triumphant in his in ring debut. But not without my heart stopping. For some reason Doink decided to start suplexing The Gun Show all over the ring and doing spots we never talked about. Thank God that Lance had Baron Von Raschke as his manager that night as the Baron dropped "The Claw" on Doink which allowed Lance the opportunity school boy Doink for the three count.
The Grafton show was also a blast we had a crowd of almost 900 people in the GHS Gymnasium. This was when I realized that I do not need to book myself on the show especially when I have to book the other matches. I only need one hat and that to promote the shows. Any ways I had my last match that night and wow did I suck. Within the first minute of the match I somehow got my chin stuck on the top rope and wrenched my neck something terrible. Now considering I already have three fractured vertebras, I was rather concerned and in a ton of pain. Bundy and I came up short thanks to a Doink the Clown interference and the doctor was not able to help me with my neck because of the swelling. It took two days for the swelling to go down before I could get any treatment. Of course the family was not pleased that I would take that chance....um did I mention EGO??? BTW Kal loved it :)
After the shows Bobby Heenan pulled me aside and told me that the two shows were the most well run indy shows that he had ever been apart of and that if I ever needed to use him as a reference to book future talent to give that person his number. He also said that if Bobby Heenan's word was good enough then “fawk um”.... Anyone that knows Bobby knows he does not say something unless he means it. I was honored and flattered that Bobby said those kind words and I looked forward to working with him again.
Needless to say I survived not one Blizzard Brawl that year but two and dodged a bullet to The Super Herro family....at least for the time being. My life from here on out takes many different crazy hills and valleys but the one constant besides Kal has always been wrestling, so of course, the obvious question was how will Blizzard Brawl 3 top this?? Well looks like you will have to wait and check back next week to find out.... #ButYouAlreadyKnewThat.
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