RIP VCCW – (A Dream Deferred)

A couple of weeks ago, I had started writing an entry about professional wrestling. About my love of it, about my evolution from fan to employee to owner. About how it was a dream come true.

While I still may write that column one day, for now, things have changed. Instead, this column on professional wrestling is about a dream deferred.

It is about the demise of Victory Crown Championship Wrestling (VCCW), a professional wrestling company in which I was part owner, and played a role in building. It is about a dream come true, only to come crashing down a few months later. It is about heart, and lack of it.

VCCW was a vision and concept conceived by a close friend of a mine, a friend with similar attitudes and beliefs about not only professional wrestling, but about life. He gave it a go a few years ago, but as is often the case, one person’s dream can take a deep personal toll if he doesn’t have anyone to share it with, and in time VCCW was put on the shelf.

Cue Spring, 2011. My friend realized he was not alone. Plenty of beers drunk on the front porch of his house while talking pro wrestling showed him I believed as well. We also learned of a couple of others who believed – one a former pro wrestler who believed he felt the business in his heart, the other a life-long fan like myself, who just happened to be a genius with a video camera and editing software in his hands.

The concept and idea would take time to develop, but it was a simple one. It was one where we believed that once again professional wrestling in Texas could not only be bigger than it currently is, but could thrive and this state could once again be a mecca for professional wrestling, much like it was when the Freebirds and Von Erichs were tearing up this state in one of the greatest feuds in professional wrestling history.

(watch as much as you want, but the first 2:30 or so is where you’ll see the insane crowd reactions, especially when the Von Erichs head to the ring)

And by mecca, I mean multiple things. I mean a place where promoters could make money, and dare I say, make a career out of professional wrestling. A place where fans knew they would see some of the most kick ass professional wrestling in the entire country. A place where professional wrestlers could hone their craft before heading to the major leagues of the WWE, or a place where professional wrestlers could come and wrestle some of the others who were among the top of their craft.

And mostly, for the boys, a place where they could make money.

"The Underground Icon" Scot Summers - the only man who will ever hold the VCCW Openweight Championship.

Where the guys and gals who spend years training, of bleeding, of breaking bones, could work for more than 10 bucks a night. Where a guy like Scot Summers, who busts his ass every time he’s in the ring, can make a living doing the thing he loves the most, professional wrestling.

Where a guy like The 300 lb Manimal, one of the most professional guys I’ve met in this business, and one of the few who actually “gets it”, can go to make money, to further his career, and become a household name, in professional wrestling.

This SPORT is something I love. I was never big enough, or had the “right body type” to be a professional wrestler, so I got into this business late in life, in an unorthodox manner, and I worked hard once I was in. This is a brotherhood, and when you don’t come in the “right way”, it’s hard to be considered part of that brotherhood. I was fortunate that some of the classiest and most professional people I’ve ever met, from Roderick Strong to CM Punk to everyone else that worked in the ring, locker room, and behind the scenes, took a liking to me and accepted me, despite the roundabout way I got into professional wrestling.

There are plenty of people in this business – and a shit ton of them here in Texas – that did not come into this business the right way, are not respectful of it, and if they tried to work in the Northeast, they’d be changing their fucking gear in the hall way or out back behind the building because they’d get tossed out of the locker room.

And the same goes for some promoters in this state – just because you own a wrestling ring doesn’t make you part of the business. It makes you a payday, and again, if you ran in the Northeast, a few of y’all would have been cuffed across the ears and socked in the jaw multiple times for your shitty attitudes.

Anyway, I digress from The Dream Deferred. The vision was simple. To help turn Texas back to its glory days of professional wrestling. To help make it a place where wrestlers could make a living, and draw real, fair, paydays. To help make it a place where wrestling promoters – ALL WRESTLING PROMOTERS, even rival promoters – could make a living, giving the boys places to work, giving themselves enough money to feed their families and keep the show going.

In Spring of 2011, four men shared this vision. By late Summer 2011, after just two shows, only three still shared that same vision. Unfortunately, the fourth was the one with the money, and when there’s no money, there’s no business. It’s the golden rule – he who has the gold, makes the rule. I won’t slag that man personally, but professionally, I think he’s made a big mistake, and one he will eventually regret. But, what’s done is done.

Victory Crown Championship Wrestling stopped breathing with no warning in late August, 2011. She went on life support with no real hope of recovery on August 25, 2011, and the plug was pulled earlier this morning, August 27, 2011, around 10:15 am.

For now, the dream is deferred. I don’t know what the future of that dream holds. It may dry up, it may fester, it may stink, it may sag like a heavy load, it may explode . But it also might crust and sugar over, like a syrupy sweet. But for now, I just don’t know.

As for VCCW itself, this is the end as far as I’m concerned.

You may see that name again, but unless things change dramatically, the majority of the men who conceived, envisioned, and dreamed, will not be involved. It would be like Dirty Harry without Clint Eastwood, the Godfather without Marlon Brando, Gone With the Wind without Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh. The name of the product would be there, but the heart, soul, and guts would be missing. And without that, it is nothing.

RIP VCCW. You were a good friend, and you will be missed.