Jake "The Snake" opens local wrestling club
By MIGUEL MARTIN -- for SLAM! Wrestling
How can you make a group of university students not complain about
tuition for an hour?
While beer helps and showing them a wrestling legend will do it.
Tuition was the last thing on everyone's mind as a group of approximately
200 York University students crammed Vanier Dining Hall to see
Jake "The Snake" Roberts. Also on hand were wrestlers Kingdom James and Joe E.
Legend.
The three were at York to promote both an upcoming card of World
Wrestling Superstars (WWS) and the formation of the York Wrestling Fans
Association (YWFA). There was an autograph session with the trio after promotional event.
Roberts entered the ring to the enthusiastic chant of "DDT!" from
the crowd. He failed to disappoint the crowd. "They tell me
I'm in a battle royal," he said. "I can tell you right now it's bulls--t.
There's nothing worse than being in a ring with 19 idiots -- especially
when I'm looking at two (James and Legend)."
The two relative youngsters also gave the crowd what they wanted.
"You are the ugliest bunch of morons I have ever seen," said James upon
being introduced to the crowd.
"The show isn't about the WWS," Legend added later. "It's about
me." Both received loud responses from the crowd.
The wrestlers were much more humble backstage about their motives
for staying in the independent circuit. Jake Roberts says he would never return to the WWF citing owner Vince McMahon and the raunchy
storylines as reasons why. "The storylines are ludicrous," Roberts says.
"They're obscene, they're filth, they're trash. They're giving the wrong
messages."
James has a different motive for working the independent circuit.
He wouldn't be anywhere else. "There comes a time in everybody's life
where they realize that their goals and dreams are one thing and reality
is another," he says. "Whereas I might have thought a few years ago, 'I'll
go to the WWF and I'll be a superstar,' I realize now that I am an
independent wrestler (and will be) for my entire career."
The 27-year-old from Toronto says his past experience with major wrestling
labels confirms he made the right decision about his career.
Scarborough native Legend, however, does have ambitions of joining
the big leagues. In fact, he was at the Skydome in Toronto Monday for the
Raw is War taping. He lost to Rob Echeverria, who Legend helped train. "It
wasn't my favourite match," he says, adding that Echeverria had the flu,
and Legend had the butterflies. "I've had better matches."
However, there is hope. "I have friends pushing for me in WWF behind the
scenes," he says.
There is a basis for Legend's belief, aside from the Raw taping.
Both Legend and James have worked with the WWF's Edge and Christian, in
their previous incarnations as Sexton Hardcastle and Christian Cage.
The show was part of the inaugural event for the York Wrestling
Fans Association. Frank Belluardo, the club's president, says this event
was almost literally planned overnight. He has a planned event for
February 24 at York, but was approached on Sunday to host the WWS event,
on the condition that it was held on Wednesday.
For Belluardo, a third year classical studies-Italian double
major, the past week has been hectic. The YWFA received club status
February 2. "Someone said to me, 'Why don't you start a wrestling club?',
but mockingly," he says. So he did.
And students at York seem to be happy with the idea of the club.
Victoria Curto, a fourth year political science-law and society double
major, says a wrestling club makes sense. "It's different, and it's going
to be huge," she says.
For Curto, the fan appreciation is noted. "It's nice to see the older
wrestling guys take time off and show their faces around," she says.
York students interested in joining the YWFA can contact Belluardo
at yu174513@yorku.ca.
The WWS' show will be held at the Abyss Event Centre, at 3636
Hawkestone Road in Mississauga on February 21 at 5 p.m. In addition to
Roberts, James and Legend, King Kong Bundy and Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka are
scheduled to appear. Tickets are available through Ticketmaster, or call
(905) 277-5447 for more info.
