If it hadn’t been for Ricky Steamboat, I would have probably never even known about WrestleCade IV in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. I had tried to keep tabs on wrestling autograph events, but this one looked positively giant compared to most of them… and what’s more, they had a lot of names, both obscure and pretty popular, who had been on my long-term radar to try and meet. When I met Steamboat at Fanboy Expo in Knoxville, his handler passed on a coupon to this WrestleCade event and I immediately became intrigued with the many names on the coupon. Then when I checked it online, it had even more names – some of them incredible! I immediately ran this by my Dad and he quickly assessed that it would be something he’d like to attend as well.
Not only did the line-up of wrestlers who would be there to sign autograph look amazing, but the signing would be followed by a wrestling event. This didn’t quite interest me as much, because I figured that the guys who would be wrestling would be some of the younger wrestlers whom I didn’t know. I didn’t buy our tickets right away, and by the time I tried, I was surprised to see that the $25 tickets had sold out. All that was left were the $65 tickets, which would give us better seats at the wrestling event, early admission to both events, and a batch of free autographs (mostly of no-namers). At that point, we had no choice if we wanted to go, so we bought those. Those Steamboat coupons didn’t work either.
WrestleCade was scheduled for Saturday, November 30, 2015, which is the weekend after Thanksgiving. I decided to work a half-day on that Friday and then leave from my office. Then I changed my mind and had my Dad meet me at home. I left work at 11:30 and met him at home, saying goodbye to Carolyn who hadn’t gone into work yet. Dad and I took off a little after 12:30 and drove for about five hours. He reminisced quite a bit about his trips home while on leave during his Army days in Fayetteville, North Carolina. The highways had been rerouted outside the little towns, but there was still quite a bit that he remembered.
Totally irrelevant, but decidedly gorgeous sunrise on Friday morning
Once we got fairly close to our destination, we stopped for dinner at a Shoney’s around 5:30, where I enjoyed a nice mushroom and swiss burger. From there we made our way to the nearby city of Bluefield, West Virginia, where we stayed in an odd little motel called the Economy Inn, which was next door to the motel office, and behind another building. I grabbed some pork rinds and ultimate cheddar Munchies for a snack, and watched some TV on my computer.
Our ominous Economy Inn
Dad and I took off about 8:30 the next morning and headed to Winston-Salem and the Benton Convention Center. There was a parking garage right next to the building and it looked like plenty of restaurants in walking distance. Our ‘Superstar’ ($65) passes allowed us entry a half hour early at 10:30am. We didn’t finally get in too much earlier than 11am, but it saved us from waiting in line.
The next two and a half hours during the FanFest portion of the day were something akin to a Wrestling Wonderland. I think we both had a ball meeting a good number of wrestlers, who spanned the early days of Georgia Championship Wrestling all the way through Monday Nitro and everything in-between. Even though there were tons of wrestlers present, there were surprisingly few who I had met before. Among these were Hacksaw Jim Duggan, Jimmy Hart, Ricky Steamboat, the Masked Superstar, Greg Valentine, Booker T, Brutus Beefcake, Tom Prichard, Road Warrior Animal, and manager Jim Cornette.
Dad meets the Russian Bear, Ivan Koloff
Interspersed with the celebrity wrestler mingling was a constant stream of amateur professional wrestling in a ring set up in the same room. If I had to make a complaint about anything, it was that the room was a bit too small for the event. There were certain wrestlers who drew huge crowds and there lines really interfered with getting to many of the other wrestlers. It was tight but we dealt with it. The only other disappointments would be the few wrestlers who didn’t show up, namely Harley Race, whom I would have loved to have met. The other wrestlers whom I had on my list to get were Ronnie Garvin and Al Snow, but Snow had cancelled and Garvin just sent along some pre-signed items. There was one pleasant surprise of a wrestler who wasn’t listed who showed up to help make up for it a little bit.
Around 1:30 we left the building in search of food. It wasn’t as easy to find a place as I thought it would be. Dad was getting tired of walking, and several places weren’t yet open. We settled on the Mellow Mushroom for pizza, and it was a good decision. We enjoyed splitting the Bayou Bleu pizza, which had a spicy bleu cheese base and covered with grilled shrimp and Andouille sausage.
A most spectacular pizza
We then headed back to the convention center where they had set up another room for the wrestling event. Our passes got us early entry at 3:30, and we ended up in front row seats off to the right of the ring. We had a bit of a wait as the first match didn’t start until around 5pm. I didn’t have too high of hopes for this and figured we’d only stay an hour or so, but Dad and I were both surprised how entertained we were… for the next four hours!
Let’s get ready to rumble
I can’t express enough how surprised I was to see these wrestlers re-instill our suspension of disbelief, after we just saw many of these same guys in the next room behaving like normal, civilized, down-to-earth individuals. No one was in character one room over, but in the ring everyone was in character. The heels riled up the crowd as much as I’d ever seen. Almost every match had a comedy element to it, which has always been the most entertaining aspect of the ‘sport.’
The matches included Greek God Papadon vs. Mysterious Q: ended in a time limit draw. Papadon offered to continue the match, then backed out. The Heatseekers vs. The American Wolves: the match was introduced by Jim Cornette, whose tennis racket was used by the Heatseekers to defeat the Wolves. CW Anderson vs. 2 Cold Scorpio: Anderson wins by pinfall. Mr. Ken Anderson vs. Shelton Benjamin: Cigar smoking Armando Alejandro Estrada accompanied Anderson and was naturally hit at one point, breaking his cigar. Benjamin wins 2-1 in a best of three pinfall match. Team ODB (ODB, Tessa Blanchard, and Taeler Hendricks) vs. Team Havok (Havok, Barbi Hayden, and Amber O’Neal/Gallows): six woman tag team match, with ODB pinning Amber for the ODB win. Tessa Blanchard was beyond hot. Sonjay Dutt vs. Matt Sydal: Dutt wins. Gunner vs. Luke Hawx: steel cage match, with Gunner winning the bloody battle by escaping through the cage door. Second annual Geroge South Battle Royal: This was more in line with what I was expecting, pure comedy from many of the old timers. Even Jimmy Valiant and Colonel Robert Parker participated briefly. Other old timers like Greg Valentine and Brutus Beefcake played it for laughs. Once ‘greats’ like Glacier were disposed of quickly. EC3 was the winner, which guaranteed him a title shot at the next WrestleCade. John Morrison vs. PJ Black: The most technically impressive match, although by this time Dad and I were both getting restless. Morrison wins.
Shelton Benjamin gets the upper hand on Mr. Anderson
Some gorgeous ladies of wrestling
Sonjay Dutt and Matt Sydal in the steel cage
Sydal gets bloody
The comical Battle Royal
And I’m glad we didn’t leave because the highlight of the night was most certainly the main event Jeff Jarrett vs. Matt Hardy. Of all of the wrestlers who wrestled that night (not counting the battle royal), Jarrett was the only wrestler I had known. I had completely forgot how disarmingly funny he was as a heel, as he taunted the crowd with everything he had. He made fun of Mid-Atlantic wrestling, he made fun of Ric Flair, he made fun of Hulk Hogan, he invited fans into the ring, and he laid on top of the top ropes as if bored. His ‘manager’ and wife Karen Jarrett also taunted the crowd, even knocking the hat off of one of the guys in the front row. In the end Jarrett won the WrestleCade championship belt from Hardy, which was good news if we decide to go back next year. We’ll get to see Jarrett again. Incidentally for whatever reason 2016 will be the fifth and final WrestleCade.
WrestleCade champion Matt Hardy gets ready to face Jeff Jarrett
Jeff Jarrett makes his presence known
Jeff and his wife enrage the crowd over the microphone
Jeff Jarrett invites a fan into the ring
The epitome of cockiness
The event overall was pretty darn spectacular and if I wasn’t careful it could suck me back into following wrestling if I let it. It was close to 9:30 when we finally got out of there, still laughing at Jeff Jarrett’s antics. And he seemed like such a nice guy in the FanFest part of the day…
It took about an hour to get to our motel in Mount Airy. There was some confusion as we were booked at the Knights Inn Mayberry, and not the superior Mayberry Motor Inn next door. We finally got it right and checked into the Knights Inn, which boasted a Bates Motel-like run of rooms. I decided not to go out and get any fast food for dinner, and instead polished off my ultimate cheddar Munchies.
On Sunday morning, Dad and I visited the motel lobby for the weak continental breakfast (bagels) and then headed out around 9:30. It was only a couple of miles to downtown Mt. Airy, which Carolyn and I had visited back in 2013. Unfortunately being a Sunday morning, many of the attractions weren’t yet open, most notably the Andy Griffith Museum. I had also hoped to finally eat something in the Snappy Lunch (actually mentioned on The Andy Griffith Show), but they were closed again too.
Our Knights Inn lodging, looking quite Batesish
Instead we opted for a simple visit to the TV Land Andy & Opie statue, a walk down Main Street, a stop at the ‘Mayberry Courthouse’, and drive-by of Andy Griffith’s boyhood home. We skidded out of Mt. Airy around 10:30.
The boys of Mayberry
The colorized version
Main Street in Mayberry… er, Mt. Airy
Snappy Lunch, closed again
Three minor traffic jams between there and our next destination cost us about an hour, but we finally made it to our last stop of the trip at around 2:45. This was Hillbilly Hotdogs, one of the most fun eateries in the Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives world. This was my third visit and the place never gets old. In fact there’s always something new to see as people pile more and more junk on the establishment, and there’s always something new to eat as their hot dog menu is so expansive.
Hillbilly Hot Dogs, looking all dapper in a backwoods way
New and improved junk
This time I opted for the Taco Dog (Jalapenos, Tostito chips, chili sauce, picante sauce, sour cream, and tomatoes) and the Pineappleachian Dog (barbecue, country ham, cheese, and crushed pineapple)… plus an order of fried pickles to share. I even got a milkshake for the road. I think Dad got quite a kick out of this one as well.
The Taco Dog and Pineappleachian Dog
Can never get enough of these Hillbillies
It took about two and half hours to get home around 6:30 that evening. It had been a fun whirlwind trip, as most of them are. Carolyn was working that night, so I went up to visit her and bring her some Taco Bell for dinner on her break. It was the least I could do after going off gallivanting across state lines to see the wrestlers.
2015 will being its final descent as we move into December…
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