The lets all point and laugh at Fin Martin thread

[beyondtheMATT]

Hi, this is my first post on the site, although I am a long time lurker.

The Alex Shane podcast talks about an incident where some fans were slapped backstage at a Hammerlock Show. I was one of those fans, and this is what happened...

 

Me and my friends Dave and Adam had been wrestling fans since around 1990 and had been to a few live WWF shows including Summerslam 92, and also met some stars like Bulldog and Big Daddy on the British circuit. It was the mid nineties when we heard from an acquaintance of Adam's named Mike White that The Anvil was appearing at a Hammerlock show. Mike was working the show as a referee and could get us some good tickets. Anvil was also doing a photo op, so we opted for the works and waited for the big day to arrive.

 

At this point I should mention that we had been to one other Hammerlock show before this where we were vocal members of the crowd. We hadn't long left school, so we were just cocky kids really. We thought it would be funny to boo the faces and cheer the heels. I must point out that we never swore. We were sensible enough to realise that in a crowd of eighty people, made up of many kids and old folks, that bad language would have got us thrown out and rightly so. We just tried to be clever, in a way that my middle aged self now looks back and thinks "what a dick". One example was Andre being involved in a weapons match and us repeatedly calling for such instruments of destruction as the spatula to be thrown into the mix.

 

Something about this first trip to Hammerlock should have set the alarm bells ringing. During one of our banter sessions, Andre, who was wrestling in a tag match, decided to completely pause the action, lean on the ropes and shout abuse at us. He called us little shits, and said that he had wrestled hard men, like Dan Severn in an Iron Man match, and that he would jump the barrier and sort us out. Please bear in mind he was playing a face (albeit miscast) up until this point. Needless to say, we were shocked, but laughed it off as we were the crowd and could express our opinion how we liked within the boundaries of decency and good taste.

 

On to the infamous night. We did indeed get good seats, not front row, but nice central ones a couple of rows back. Mike White had come through for us and really was a good bloke. Or so we thought. More on that later. It was just the three of us in our group and we were all around nineteen years old, immature for our age, just got our first proper jobs, all stood at about 5ft 7in tall and weighed about 10 stones apiece. I mention this so you can imagine how we looked a bit later in the story kneeling down crying in front of an entire dressing room of big tough wrestlers.

 

The show started well enough, the first couple of matches came and went with us supporting the heels and booing the favourites. We did get noticed by the crowd and crew alike as we were very passionate in our musings. I think The Anvil had his match just before the interval. Possibly a tag match teaming with, or against Andre Baker, I can't quite remember. Andre did look a bit pee'd off during proceedings, but to be fair he had one of those faces. Then we had our picture taken with the Anvil. I still have it somewhere and may be able to dig it out.

 

After we got our Polaroid we were approached by Mike White. He seemed a bit nervous as he told us we'd been invited up to meet the guys including the Anvil. We honestly didn't think anything was amiss. We were friends of Mike and believed that all wrestlers love the fans, especially ones who had shelled out a tenner for a bad photograph. We followed Mike up some stairs, where he paused to open the door and let us go in first. I remember Andre was sitting with his back to us, like how you see Marseilles Wallace in Pulp Fiction when talking to Bruce Willis, only still in his gear with a towel around his neck. All around the room were wrestlers in various states of undress, pre and post match. "Are these the ones?" he said, getting up, turning, and immediately slapping each of us really hard across the cheek.

 

I'm not saying he hit us as hard as he could, but he certainly hit harder than anyone had hit me before, open handed or otherwise. He then threatened us. He said he knew lots of bad people. He said that he hadn't got where he was in life without dealing with lots of bad people. He told us to get on our knees where he again slapped each of us around the face. We were snivelling and were told to be quiet. I actually felt the old sphincter muscle give way a bit, I'm not proud to say. I still didn't exactly know what we had done wrong.

 

He told us that we were confusing the fans. The fans came along to cheer certain wrestlers and boo others. He said that we made others around us unsure of who they were meant to be supporting. He then made us write down our addresses. I don't know what the others put, but I was so stunned that I put down my actual address. He then said that he had wrestled hard men including Dan Severn, and asked if we had seen the match. We all said no. We were WWF fans and whilst we knew of Dan's legacy, our limited exposure to him painted him as some sort of 70's throwback porn star with a dodgy 'tache. He told us he would send us a tape of his match against Dan to the addresses we provided. Conversely, we expected the mob to turn up at our doors rather than "The Best of Andre Baker Against Hard Men".

 

I'll take this opportunity to tell you what I saw of others in the room, and their reactions. Mike White was looking very sheepish and guilty. I think he has posted here, before? Well, I've not seen him since that day and I think he's a piece of shit for putting us in that position. The one other person in the room as angry as Andre was a ginger haired wrestler, possibly 25 at the time. I've no idea who he was but he was egging Andre on, a real nasty piece of work. Maybe others here can ID him? The Anvil looked really embarrassed by the whole sorry incident. He was used to working for a professional outfit and visiting sick kids, rather than making them sick with fear. Andre referred to Anvil by saying that he came all the way over here and didn't expect this nonsense to be going on. Anvil just mumbled something, shook his head and went back to stroking his beard. My friend remembers Doug Williams being in the room, blocking the door, making sure no-one else came in or out. At least he did not look happy to be part of this intimidation.

 

At his point I asked if we could stay for the second half if we kept quiet (what a wimp). He said we could make as much noise as we liked and that we were welcome. He made everyone shake our hands but there was a big young guy called Titan who wouldn't. He said he didn't shake hands with shit. We were told to go back to our seats which we duly did and became automatons for the remaining hour or so. From that day, I vowed never to go to a BritWres event and I never have. I am still friends with my fellow victims, one of which I went to Wrestlemania 28 with, so as you can see I still love my wrestling. I would have spent a lot of money over the years at British events if not for this incident, but who cares really? I now have two kids who I also won't ever take to anything from the British scene. I didn't exactly shed a tear when Andre snuffed it as you can hopefully appreciate. I never got my compilation tape of his greatest matches, but on the plus side my family were never ritually slaughtered in the middle of the night either.

[Zebra Kid Mark]

Cracking story. What ever came of Titan? I've no idea who he is but sounds a nasty piece of work.

[Astro Hollywood]

One post to his name, and it's the best post to ever grace this forum. What a story.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

I feel quite sad reading that. What a shit show wrestling can be sometimes. I can just imagine Andre Baker with his fat hairy thighs squeezed into his singlet trying to convince himself he wasn't a big girl who pretended to wrestle. Its sort of good that most wrestlers are big marks who want to collect their action figures and dont care if you call it fake. Wrestling pretty much gets the respect it deserves these days.

 

I remember someone once saying in his shoot interview that Andre Baker was one day going to look in the mirror and realise what a dick he is and top himself. Maybe that's what happened.

[Undefeated Steak]

Wow, that's the best story I've read in a long time!

Edited September 15, 2014 by Undefeated Steak

[PowerButchi]

What a story, amazes me how things like that can happen. You reckon he felt he was doing some kind of Inoki thing with the slapping?

 

Did you get your video in the post?

Edited September 15, 2014 by PowerButchi

[Arch Stanton]

Super story for our benefit, but really sad that it put you off ever seeing any British wrestling shows again and even sadder that you would not even want to take your own children now. I am sure that some other forum members would be able to recommend some super family-friendly promotions to you.

 

P.S. You should post more.

Edited September 15, 2014 by Arch Stanton

[TheTagRope]

Jesus, a completely disgusting tale, and I apologise you had to go through it.

 

Always get pretty embarrassed hearing 'locker room lads' tales like that, at absolutely no stage does any performer, much less a jacked up professional wrestler, earn the right to physically assault a paying member of the audience. 

 

I realise it would most likely be difficult, but I would urge you to check out some of the aforementioned family-friendly promotions across Britain. For what it's worth, it seems like the British wrestling scene has done well to clean up its act since the 90's. 

[Rob Lowe]

He told us to get on our knees where he again slapped each of us around the face. We were snivelling and were told to be quiet.

 

Creepy. as. fuck.

 

Other wrestlers being around may have helped you, if it was just Andre and the ginger fella it may have got even weirder.

 

The last paragraph about never going to a brit show again and never wanting to take your kids either bummed me out. Thats a real shame.

Edited September 15, 2014 by Rob Lowe

[andrew "the ref" coyne]

Wow. That sounds like a soul crushing experience. I'm glad to say that the majority of promotions I've worked for are much more professional in the way they treat the fans / non wrestlers, and I (personally) have seen a decrease in the number of dickheads backstage. Sadly I imagine this isn't the case for all promotions.

 

I hope a promoter on here jumps on the opportunity to invite you to a show and try and rekindle your love of the British Wrestling scene. 

[Ant]

Wrestling seems to attract or breed utter weirdos in this respect.

Yesterday I checked out the contents of Curt Hawkins shoot interview, and it appears to have stories of him and Zack Ryder "having heat" for putting their bags in the locker room before the top of the locker room hierarchy, and Miz having to get changed outside the locker room for a year.

Just imagine your normal workplace some dick(s) telling you that you weren't permitted to use the staff room, or twats falling out with you for using their coat hook.

It's a very odd business we love!

Edited September 16, 2014 by Ant

[bAzTNM#1]

Cracking story. You should have got the police involved.

 

Could this be Titan?

 

How did Fin Martin get to know about it?

Edited September 16, 2014 by bAzTNM#1

[Zebra Kid Mark]

 

I hope a promoter on here jumps on the opportunity to invite you to a show and try and rekindle your love of the British Wrestling scene. 

I guess it would have to be one without Doug Williams on it.

[RancidPunx]

Great listen and i am only half way through. Fin seems like pretty much a good guy.

 

The Foley story was odd, PowerSlam seemed completely justified with it's story.  

[garynysmon]

Wrestling seems to attract or breed utter weirdos in this respect.

 

That story made me really sad but thanks for sharing it, certainly an eye opener.

 

I don't think its as bad now, but I imagine that Wrestlers are forever looking for acceptance as they don't get respected by their peers in the sporting world as its all predetermined, and don't get kudos from the entertainment industry either because, well, its wrestling. It falls between two stools.