Journal 18
by Tony Kozina on 2001-07-06

Greetings to all. I hope you all had an excellent 4th of July and for my friends in Canada- a wonderful Canada Day.
The summer has been busy for me and there seems to be no let up anytime soon.
The ECCW Supershows are fast approaching and I will soon face Sabu again which should be another great experience.
Congratulations are in order for my friend Josh Wilcox who has signed a 90 day developmental deal with the WWF and is headed to Ohio Valley Wrestling. I'm sure he will do well and with the folks they have helping the talent over there you can't NOT improve.

So on with the nonsense...
It was as easy as one simple email that I was added to the WWF shows in Tacoma, WA and I stared at the sentence "be there at 12 on monday and 1 on tuesday" and said to myself "well I'll be damned."
It's funny how the rumor mill get going- and over the past few weeks I must have heard them all. Speculations on who I'd face. Development deals in the works. The expansion of the WWF junior division and so on. I went to the show with Christopher Daniels who in addition to being on those WWF shows had also wrestled that past weekend with me for ECCW/NWA-PNW. Actually Sunday was a day off between shows so I declared that we celebrate our upcoming 2 days of stardom at the WildWaves waterpark in Federal Way, WA. I brought my family with me to the shows over the weekend as I sometimes do, so they got in on all the waterpark goodness. Needless to say it was a fun filled day. And, to boot, not only is WildWaves a waterpark, but it is also tied together with the Enchanted Park which has all the rides you could shake a stick at. So the day was spent going on everything in sight while making sure that we kept a fresh coat of sunscreen on so we did pull a "Penticton Stu" and fry like a lobster.
For those who don't know, let me tell you a story about "Penticton Stu", otherwise known as "Fountain Bob" due to an uncontrollable and irrational need for a Super big gulp morning, noon, and night...

Okay, so here we are in Penticton, BC about 2 years ago, and by the way I tell a little about the waterslide fun a previous journal. But here we are and Michelle Starr gets sicker than a rabid wolf and is taken to the hospital insane with food poisoning. In comes Fountain Bob, king of the 64 oz. and declares that he has talked the good folks at the waterpark across the street into letting the wrestlers waterslide for free. So in we go,and hey, what a perfect day. The suns out, it's about 90 degrees and it's 10am. We've got all day and it's looking to be so much fun that i'm glad that Starr is sick and secretly hoping that his condition deteriorates as the day continues!
Now then... Adam Firestorm and I assess the situation and come to the conclusion that sunscreen is needed. We lube up and continue doing so every hour or so. We offer this to "Penticton Stu" who refuses to sunscreen concluding that "it isn't necessary" and continues to refuse hour after hour as the sun beats down on him and his "thirsty-two ouncer" that seemingly has no end.
Late afternoon comes along and Starr has snapped out of his madness. We pack up and head for homebase. About 20 minutes in we all notice that "Penticton Stu" is sitting in the back of the ECCW van with a look on his face like he just crapped his pants and is getting ready to barf. "Whatsa matter Stu" someone asks and it doesn't take long to see that he has burned himself from head to toe and the beauty of it is just getting started because we have a 5 hour drive to Vancouver. Needless to say the poking, joking, and good times kept on-a-rolling all at the expense of one man who, at times so foolish it would make your head spin 6 ways till sunday.

Okay, so back to where I was before I went off on my tangent. So we all had fun at WildWaves.
Monday morning we all meet and Chris and I head off for the Tacoma Dome. I'm a bundle of nerves but once I kinda mingle around I loosen up- just a teeny bit though.
A few hours later I learn that I'm scheduled to face "Heartthrob" Buddy Wayne in the opening match. "Okay", I thought, "here we go". Next thing I know Sgt. Slaughter is giving me the cue to head out to the ring and it's on like neckbone as the "Fallen Angel" would say. The match went well, I thought. The feedback was positive although I may have scared everyone with my frankensteiner to-the-floor- whoops... The next day I worked out, then went to the arena again. I wasn't scheduled to wrestle and that was a bummer. At least by the second day I was far more relaxed and chatted with a few people throughout the day. As i've said before the people in the WWF are very supportive, positive people and Tacoma was no exception. That kind of atmosphere certainaly helped me feel at ease there and I am determined to be a part of many more WWF shows in the future.
Monday I fly out to Tampa for NWA Florida's "Super Junior Open". It is a "Super 8" type of tournament and who am I scheduled to face you ask? Why none other than that pesky "Fallen Angel" Christopher Daniels now can you believe that? Word has it that Jim Kettner is going to be there to present a trophy to the winner. It will be nice to see Jim and the other guys that I've met before. And of course I'm always eager to meet the other fellas who I've heard about but have never seen wrestle. Well, I'm gonna end this one and get back to reading Mick Foley's new book. I hope you've had a few laughs reading this so until next time enjoy your summer and support your local indy wrestling!!! Take care