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Yours truly went out to Empire State Wrestling’s “WrestleBash” event in Lockport, NY earlier tonight with one thing on my mind — I’m going to get Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake’s autograph.  That didn’t happen.

A table was set up for Beefcake, but his agent wouldn’t allow anybody to have an autograph signed by or a picture taken with him unless they paid $10.  Well, so much for that autograph – I had less than $10 cash on me.  So, I walked away.

Across the room, former WWF Enhancement Talent Barry Hardy and his son Brian were looking over their merchandise.  I remember seeing Barry on television when I was younger, and so I went up to him and struck up a conversation.  He’s a down to earth guy who appreciates his fans.  He signed an autograph for me, as did his son, and the duo posed with me for a photo.  The father-son team won a match earlier in the night with an awesome finisher – Barry held the opponent up in Hart Attack position, and Brian nailed him with a 360 flip clothesline from the top rope.

On the way back to our seats, my girlfriend and I ran into Pepper Parks.  We’d met Pepper before, and he remembered us – probably because of my goatee.  Pepper took a few moments to thank us for coming out to the show before having his attention diverted by a few kids wanting an autograph.

Former ESW Champion Kevin Grace was standing near the entrance, so we walked over to him.  He was wearing the awesome reflective ring gear that he wore the last time I’d gone to an ESW event, so I had to ask him where I can get that kind of material (I’ve got a show with my band coming up, y’know).  Kevin was a great guy who very much appreciates every single one of his fans and will take the time to sign anything and talk to anybody.  My girlfriend, Caroline, got her picture taken with him and he told me (while signing tons of autographs) that his gear was inspired by EMTs.

Since it was on the way back to our seats, I decided to stop back at Brutus Beefcake’s table and at least shake his hand – after all, I understand the guy’s got to make a living somehow, and I have been watching the guy since I was 8 years old.  We got back to his table as two girls were paying for Beefcake’s autograph.  He looked at his agent and said “did they pay?” before signing it.  He didn’t even look in their direction.  I said that I couldn’t afford the 10 bucks but I wanted to shake his hand.  He didn’t even look at me when he went for the handshake.  After seeing how much of a prick he was to anybody who couldn’t afford to – or otherwise didn’t want to – pay $10, I should’ve left him hanging.  I didn’t.  I shook his hand and went back to my seat.

Now, you may have noticed that I haven’t talked much about the wrestling tonight.  I can’t.  Unfortunately, this show was further away from home and went later than usual, so I missed the last two matches.  It wouldn’t be fair to Chris Cooper, Johnny Puma, or Mastiff Will Calrissian if I talked about the rest of the show and didn’t get to talk about their matches.  I would like to offer my congratulations, however, to my good friend Inferno Johnny Adams, who won a 20 man battle royal to claim the ESW Interstate Championship!  Other participants in the match included a Doink The Clown, the Goldust knockoff Dewdust, and the Warrior ripoff (but otherwise awesome guy) Primal Warpath.

"AHAHAHAHA! Look at all these idiots willing to pay $10 for me to write my name!"

I do apologize to the ESW crew for not having a full review of the show, if in fact any of them read this website, but I do encourage you all to check out ESWwrestling.com for more on Empire State Wrestling!

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