Features
Memories of the IWA North Coast tour
Published December 28, 2011 at 10:02 pm by Marek Indyka
Written by Jason Helton
This week I was going to write about a new Hall of Fame entry but then a friend of mine mentioned the IWA North Coast tour next month and thought I just had to write about the tour.The North Coast tour is about as close to working for an actually wrestling company as you can get in Australia. Working everyday traveling training and socializing. It was quite the experience.
The first time I went on the tour was a one off when Mark Mercedes called me up and wanted me to wrestle Phil Picasso for the IWA heavyweight title in Warchope. I had only seen Phil work and never had worked with him before. I drove over to Warchope and was quite excited. It was a great crowd and very vocal. Before the match Phil was showing me his finish and apparently his finish was a straight right hand to the chin. He was saying how his hand was starting to hurt giving his finish. So I kindly showed him how to throw a punch like the wrestlers do and hopefully keep my teeth inside my head. Phil is a great entertainer in wrestling and he is fairly safe but as I found out wrestling him he is quite unorthodox. I laid out a 15 minute match that I thought would be quite simple and easy. When I came out for the main event the crowd was pretty hot. I hopped into the ring listened to the introductions and then was fairly bemused and rather confused as Phil went through all the spots for the match in about a minute. Its one of the few times in my wrestling career that I had no idea what was going on. At one point I was thrown from the ring and while lying on the floor found a chair under the ring. Phil had been kicking my ass for about 5 minutes so I grabbed the chair and when Phil jumped out of the ring I was going to waffle him with it so I hid the chair as well as I could and crouched down and waited for Phil. And waited.... and waited.....I waited some more and the crowd was cheering for something so I thought I would look and see what was going on. To my surprise and amusement Phil was up on the stage beating up Tyrone Townsend. I figured now was a good time as any to get in my chair shot so I ran through the crowd up the stairs onto the stage and Wham!! I blasted Phil with a mighty chairshot. Phil turned around and asked what I was going and picked up a large metal plate from where he found it I will never know and smacked it across my head. I fell off the stage and Phil dragged me back to the ring, chopped the snot out of me and then then gave me a bulldog and set up for the big knockout punch. Against my better judgement I got up turned around tucked my chin in gritted my teeth and closed my eyes and waited for Phil to punch my lights out. Surprisingly Phil hit me as light as could be and I went down for the 3 count. The crowd popped and I had survived the craziest man in Aussie wrestling.
I enjoyed the North Coast tour because it was one of the only places I got to wrestle as a good guy in Australia. I was honored to go up and down the coast and have Trans Tasman title matches with Billy Cole managed by the lovely and talented Nixxon. Its a shame I don't have any copies of those matches because they were fantastic. The matches were fun and intense and always ended with Mark Mercedes coming in and beating me up just as I was about to win the Trans Tasman title off of Billy. The three of them would beat me up until someone came from the back to save me and we would have a main event tag team match. We would win and send the crowd home happy. Then we would do autograph sessions after the show take down the ring and go and try and find some food before the nights festivities. Usually it was pizza and poker with some bourbon to boot.
The IWA to me had the best group of guys to hang out with after a show. No egos no heroes Just a good group of guys going out to entertain a few paying customers and have a good time doing it. We did have a good time doing it too. Traveling with the IWA was fantastic and so many fun and entertaining things happened. The guys and girls of IWA have such a good sense of humor. Too many people in Aussie wrestling are so uptight and cant enjoy themselves or only can laugh at somebody else s expense. The IWA guys laughed all the time. They are some of the funniest people I know. Craig Matty Tyson Mark Kala Drago Tyrone Rob Billy Angus Phil I could write articles on each of them on how much they made me laugh. Really though the stories would contain bad language and some aren't exactly PG so the stories will have to remain in my head where they make me smile all the time. I thank them for that. I get so much joy out of hotels now that they started putting TVs in them. Everything I eat has a taste of creamy goodness to it. I find a lot more things have to be painted International Orange and "Why would you do that? You're a Jerk!" may just have to be the phrase I put on my tombstone.
After Billy Cole stopped going on the tour I suddenly started getting Heavyweight title shots. It was great fun. I would win the title on the first day of the tour defend it once or twice and then lose it on the Gold coast at Seagulls. Usually I would win it as a good guy and then lose it as a bad guy. I really enjoyed being a champion and carrying around the belt. For fun I would wear it everywhere I went underneath my shirt and then flash it at the restaurant and try and get a championship discount. I will forever be grateful to the woman in Tamworth who gave me 10% off my lunch and justified the 30 other failed attempt with a success. The IWA was the first place I got to do some booking as well. I really enjoyed that part of the wrestling as well. I think I have a bit of an aptitude for it. It was nice to see some of my ideas play out in the ring and go over successfully. One day maybe I will be able to do it again.
I also had great fun traveling up and down the coast with good ol Tyson Gibbs. I played Booker T to his HHH up and down the coast. We had some fantastic matches. Tyson was unlucky enough to be my regular opponent when I was coming back from my surgery. I first wrestled him at about 280 pounds and I worked my way back down to about 238 mostly on the back of Tyson Gibbs. We had so much fun. Well I did at least Tyson had to but up with my blown up backside hanging off his back and breathing like a hurricane in his ear. We had great matches but there was always something goofy happening. My forgetting the name of his finish and calling give me "the thing" only for him to look at me with a confused look on his face and drive his shoulder into my chin. We traded the Trans-Tasman and Heavyweight titles up and down the coast. Tyson became a better and better wrestler every time we wrestled and became a good friend on those trips. I will always remember making him hit the floor laughing doing a live radio interview with a wildly inappropriate remark. I miss that goofy little man.
The night life on those North Coast tours were fun as well. Just hanging around with the guys playing poker having a few drinks and just shooting the breeze. Usually there were some great conversations and jokes played during the night. Sometimes there were some arguments but they were all patched up by the morning. One night I was the champion for the day and at about 1 in the morning the guys come into my room and tell me I should go out and see whats going on. So I go out and there's one of the IWA guys running around outside wearing the IWA belt and nothing else. It was a little disturbing to say the least. All I could think was that I had to wear that belt tomorrow. I also miss my pokie playing buddy the Flea. We were unbeatable on those things. I miss Franky Valentyne and the way he laughed at me and told me I was funny after my matches. The way he would accompany me on the piano as I sang my own ring music and the switch over to Blame Canada halfway through and if you ever get to see the Fountain of the Opera its well worth the price of admission.
The North Coast tour is where I made my comeback to wrestling after my brain surgery. Rob Matrixs opponent didn't show up so I volunteered as I was there to visit. I was very out of shape and ring rusted but Rob being the superb wrestler he is got me through. I thank him for that and will always be grateful for his faith.
I think I wrestled most of the roster of IWA and they were all fun matches but the most fun I had was working with Mark Mercedes. The Big Cheese The Head Honcho The Grand Poobah. Wrestling him was always such a breeze. He was physical but safe and he matched up well with my style and I with his. We had possibly my best wrestling match in Ballina I think it was. The roof was really low so there weren't any high bumps and we just wrestled and counter wrestled for about 15 minutes and the fans really got into it. For all those who say the business has changed I say Phooey! No weapons no blood no risky bumps we just told a story with our wrestling and the fans bought it. The weapons and crazy bumps is usually just a cover for a lack of working ability. After a few years of working against each other Mark and I became partners. I have had so much fun in my wrestling career but I don't think I have had any more fun than being Mark Mercedes tag partner. Mark catches lots of heat and puts up with a lot of B.S but he is a top guy when you get to know him and a fantastic wrestler. When we were tag partners a few roles were changed but the pattern was the same. I would be defending my title and just as I was about to lose Mark would come and save me and then we would beat on my opponent until someone come out and saved him and there was a main event tag team match at the end of the show, I'm proud to say that as a tag team Mark and I have a perfect record. 0 for about 30. We always managed to finish the match with one of us headbutting the other in the hoo hoo and getting pinned sending the fans home happy. Mark was always a pleasure to work for as a partner opponent or boss. If I could do the next 5 years of North Coast tours I would. I had some of the best times of my life on those tours. I cant thank everyone on those those enough. Thanks to Mark and Uncle Ty for having me on them and letting me have fun. Where else do they let me sing my own entrance music? Where else do they let me wrestle midgets? Where else do they let me rename the title the Super Dooper Good Looking championship? Where else do I get to wrestle more than once a moth and actually get well paid for it? Where else do they have respect and act like men and don't whine about who's going over? Where else is there no agenda but putting on a great show and having fun afterwards?
The IWA North Coast tour
Here are the dates for the 2012 tour You will have a great night
Wednesday 4th - Mounties Mt Pritchard
Thursday 5th - Club Forster -
Friday 6th - C.Ex Coffs
Saturday 7th - Port Panthers
Sunday 8th - Club Lemon Tree
