Message-ID: 

In the earlier days one of the biggest problems to deal with were the
transportation problems causing your matches to be changed. Once again,
one of our wrestlers had called in unable to make it to the arena for
that nights matches. 

So, we're sitting around, throwing out ideas to salvage our main event
and give the fans something worthwhile without totally revamping
everything. Then there was a knock on the door and as we all looked up
to see who was there, we caught ourselves looking at each other,
surprised at what we saw. There stood a huge, long blonde haired guy
with a great big smile giving us the most polite and humble greeting
you've ever seen. 

He introduced himself as John Layfield and he was looking for a chance
to wrestle. Our first question was "who trained you "? He told us that
he had been trained by Brad Rheingans in Minnesota and Brad had told him
to come by and see if we needed any talent. After asking a few more
questions, we could tell he was telling the truth. Manny said if he'd
been trained by Brad Rheingans, he had to know something. So, our next
question was "Did you bring your gear"? When he said that he had it in
his truck, that showed us he had learned something else we all
knew....never go anywhere without your gear.  

Everything about this giant of a guy seemed to be right. I don't know
what it is, but you can tell, many times, if a guy has "it" before you
ever see him perform in the ring.  
We didn't even consider it for long. And even more out of character, we
decided to really see what he could do by having him take Rod to a draw.
If we were right, we had a big guy we could do something with. 

I remember giving him a good talking to before the match and he amazed
me with his politeness and respectful attitude. Still, I went into the
ring concerned that we had hung too much on such a green, inexperienced
guy. About thirty minutes later, we all realized we had nothing to be
concerned about.  This guy was the real thing. It didn't take long
into the match for me to know this was going to work out just fine. So,
we all relaxed and got on with it. He and Rod Price went back and forth,
wrestling on the mat, brawling just enough to make it interesting and
finally, getting the fans worked up before the bell rang to signal the
end of a grueling but satisfying match between two big, strong athletes. 

We had found us a star in the making and I had met a guy who would
become one of my best friends and someone I would share a ton of great
and fun experiences with. I knew right off that he would eventually move
on to bigger things. And he has as Justin "Hawk" Bradshaw or just plain
old Bradshaw in the WWE. 
But, for a while John was a mainstay at the Sportatorium and a big part
of everything that went on there for several years. He is a great
athlete with a real talent for the wrestling business. But, he is also
an intelligent, deep thinking and devoted person who loves his wife and
family. He also has a great sense of humor and a love of life that's
made being his friend and traveling companion rather interesting at
times



--- Internet Rex 2.29