In the week since the
announcement of the untimely passing of Jim “Devil Bhudakahn”
Fawcett, so many of his friends and fellow wrestlers have
shared stories and fond memories about him. Some of the
stories were about the wrestling business while others were
about Jim outside of the ring.
First and foremost, let it be
said that if Jim’s family did not realize how much he was
respected and meant to professional wrestling in the
Pittsburgh area, all anyone had to do was see the turnout at
Savolskis-Wasik-Glenn funeral home in Munhall (PA).
It is said that approximately
50 wrestlers/personalities paid their respects over the
course of the four viewings, and I counted almost 40
wrestlers myself during the Thursday night session and I
wasn’t even there the whole time.
HIS RESPECT FOR THE
BUSINESS
I had known Jim for almost
ten years, and one thing that can not be questioned was his
love and respect for the wrestling business. The love for
the business came from within, as it does for most of us.
The credit for his respect partially goes to one of his
trainers, Shirley Doe.
Devil encompassed Doe’s
passion and respect for the business and Devil had that very
respect and tried to teach it to every young wrestler he
encountered. At every CWF show, even before he had a MAJOR
part in the creative direction of the company, Devil would
help the younger guys and try to talk to them. He had
recently taken an interest in our latest two trainees. We
had just started putting them under the infamous Masked Duo
hoods to get their feet wet. Devil would be waiting for them
right behind the curtain to talk to them, make sure they
were OK, and to give pointers.
One or two times, I had seen
rookies ignore and almost blow his words off. Jim, being his
usual opinionated self, would let them know how he felt
about it. He didn’t care about titles or wins and losses,
unlike one guy he had gotten on. Then again, this guy pulled
me aside once with tears in his eyes at a show saying that
he had not won in another promotion and wanted to win on a
CWF show.
VINCE VIPER
We first met in Penn Atlantic
Wrestling in 1998 when Jim was working as Vince Viper. He
was not Viper all that long (after we had met), but I
remember him coming in with Super Hentai and the two having
INCREDIBLE matches with each other. But their entertaining
matches almost caused a stigma: If one of them were
wrestling, it would be against the other.
Both men shed that label, but
it didn’t happen overnight. While one promoter thought they
were too small, another wanted them to just face each other.
Seeing them in practice with other guys, I knew that all
they needed was a chance. And I wasn’t the only one who
thought that.
Around this time, Jim had
shed the Vince Viper gimmick. He was now Devil Bhudakahn.
By the summer of 1998, a new
promotion was in the works. For those who were around, this
was the era of the local contracts and only being able to
work for one promotion in the area.
When we decided to start the
CWF, two of the first names put out there were Hentai and
Devil. Our debut was kept tight-lipped until the end of
1999. By the time I had contacted Hentai and Devil, they
(along with Shirley Doe) had already been booked on a show
in another state and would not be available for our debut
show (2/19/00). But they did commit to our second show (Revenge,
3/25/00). The three of them asked if they could be a group.
We were more than happy to oblige, as they had agreed to
work all of our dates that they were not already booked on.
What followed was magic. For
the next year and a half, the Pittsburgh wrestling scene
would be dominated like it had never been before or has been
since. What followed was the birth of the greatest group in
Pittsburgh wrestling history.
THE HELLFIRE CLUB
The three of them contacted
me and asked if they could come up with a name for the
group. I told them to go for it. Their CWF debut was a
six-man tag elimination match against Fumar and the Masked
Duo.
The heat they got was almost
to the point of making the crowd want to riot. No one was
safe, and if a fan was flipping out, they would signal out
that fan to irritate them even more.
Along the way, they added
Katarina Heiss as their manager and Mantis as another
member.
The crowds hated them. I’m
not talking about “Boo you suck” hatred. I’m talking “I am
going to beat your head in with a baseball bat” hatred.
It was around this time that
Doe and Hentai began helping out with the creative direction
of the company. Now, they had no control over the titles,
but they had input in everything else.
It was in the Fall of 2000
that the Hellfire Club really began dominating. Hentai and
Devil had won the CWF tag team titles against Scotty Venom
and Orion in a ladder match at Take Me Higher
(10/7/00) in what was voted as the CWF match of the year.
Doe had won the Mon Valley title at Madness (9/7/00)
the show before.
A month later at Chaos
(11/18/00), Mantis became the first Keystone champion. The
Hellfire Club now held every CWF title except the
Heavyweight.
I would see fans in public
and they would tell me that they wanted to see the Hellfire
Club get the heads knocked off. Two fans, and I will never
forget this, told me once at the Belle Vernon Wal-Mart that
they wanted to train to wrestle just so they could beat up
the Hellfire Club.
It was around this time that
PWX and its sister promotion, PWL, transformed the guys into
the Hellfire Club there too. All of the members were already
there but were in different directions. During this time,
they added more gold to go with their CWF titles. Hentai
held the Three Rivers title, Doe and Mantis had runs with
the Triple Jeopardy title, and the group also held the PWX
and PWL tag team titles.
During their domination, the
Hellfire Club continued to run rough shed over the CWF.
Devil and Hentai would lose the CWF tag team titles at our
first anniversary show (Unfinished Business, 2/10/01)
in an amazing ladder match to Dirk Ciglar and Scotty Venom.
In the fans eyes, titles mean
something. And until the Hellfire Club went their separate
ways in the fall of 2001, they practically held almost every
major title in Pittsburgh. Since this time, several
promotions in Pittsburgh, including the CWF, have tried to
build up groups to the level of the Hellfire Club. It hasn’t
happened.
The best thing about the
Hellfire Club was the knock on Hentai and Devil from the
beginning. When they were labeled too small, all they wanted
was a chance to prove themselves. There wasn’t a member in
the Hellfire Club who was intimidating size wise. The
tallest member was 5’10”, tops.
When they were finally given
the chance to “run with the ball”, they delivered.
POST-HFC
Following the departure of
Hentai, Doe, Mantis, and Heiss, Devil remained in the CWF
through trying times for us as a company. We were running
shows in a building that didn’t want wrestling, and they
were canceling shows on us left and right.
Like others, Devil could have
left, but he remained loyal. (Note: At the time, I became
disgruntled that guys were leaving. But our shows were
happening so inconsistently that I do not blame them for
leaving. At the time, it was frustrating for me.)
As we went into 2002 and
through 2003, I decided to throw Devil a bone for being so
loyal to the CWF:
I gave him complete creative
control of the Keystone title division.
DEVIL’S CWF PRIDE AND JOY
If Devil did not prove his
loyalty by staying through the tough times, he did once he
took over the Keystone division.
His first three elaborate
angles built around the belt had to be shelved because of
problems with our former home building. It is truly a shame
that they did not carry out because you could tell by
Devil’s voice that he was so excited and had put so much
time into the angles.
Devil’s first act once we
resolved the building dilemma was to put together an
eight-man tournament for the Keystone division. The tourney
took place over two shows (Rampage on 12/13/03 and
Motown Showdown ’04 on 1/10/04), with Justin Idol
defeating Devil in the finals. In typical Devil fashion, he
used his popularity to get someone else over and help
establish them more in the fans eyes. It wasn’t the first
time he had done it, and it wouldn’t be the last.
In fact, it would not be
until two years after he took over the division that he put
the Keystone title on himself. And to be truthful, he
actually tried to apologize to me for putting it on himself.
My response? “Quit apologizing. It’s about time you held
that belt.”
DEVIL’S ITCH TO RETURN TO
HIS ROOTS
It was in late-2005 that
Devil told me that he was thinking about getting out of the
business (in ring). He wanted to stay on and write, but he
felt that he had done just about everything that he could.
The one last thing he had
wanted to do was to turn on me and reform the Hellfire Club
for one last run. According to Devil, the other members had
mentioned that it was almost time for them to retire as
well.
As much as I always gave
Devil free reign to do as he wished with the Keystone
division, I told him that I was fine with the Hellfire
reformation with the exception of one person. Devil
countered hoping that Glenn Spectre would come in; I told
him I was absolutely cool with that.
Devil wanted to go out as a
“bad guy”, and I was cool with him doing that. Although he
was one of the four most popular wrestlers in CWF history
(with, alphabetically: Bison, J-Ru, and myself), I felt his
turning back would definitely grab at the fans.
DEVIL BOOKING MORE THAN
THE KEYSTONE DIVISION
In late-2005, I added Devil
officially to the overall writing team with myself and Eric
Lancy. Devil had been giving ideas for other stuff besides
the Keystone division for a while, but I had never
officially offered him the spot.
I had told him stuff that
Eric and I had penciled in and that we would like his input
on stuff. With an odd number of guys, it would always be
majority rules. There were never any issues between the
three of us and the direction we wanted to go. Whoever was
outvoted, that person was OK with it.
In the Summer of 2006, Lancy
decided to leave wrestling so Devil and I decided to revamp
a lot of the stuff that was already set. First thing we had
to do was crown a new CWF Heavyweight champion. When Lancy
left, he was the CWF champion. So we had to decide which way
to go and we both agreed that we wanted to get there in a
unique way.
DEVIL ONCE AGAIN DOES
WHATS RIGHT FOR THE CWF
It was decided that Zubov
would become the CWF Heavyweight champion again. He had a
short reign in late 2005 with the title and really shined as
“the man”. We had put the belt on Zubov as a way to hold the
belt up to put it into the 2006 Motown Rumble at Motown
Showdown ’06 (2/11/06). So we had Zubov continuously
attack guys to the point that he was “unbefitting of being
the CWF champion and his actions would not represent the
company” in 2005.
So we decide to put the belt
up in an eight-man “Chaos” match at Fall From Grace
(9/2/06). Participants included: Zubov, Devil, “the
Spotlight” Scottie Gash, Ethan “$mooth-X” Price, Big Lenny,
“King of Karaoke” Steve Flash, Lightning, and Blade.
I gave Devil the book for the
match, and once again, he made a smart decision: as the most
popular wrestler in the match, he asked that Zubov eliminate
him last to win the belt.
Telling him he didn’t have to
ask, we went with it. Zubov’s first title defense was 15
days later at No Escape (9/17/06). His opponent? Yep,
Devil once again chose himself to put over Zubov as a strong
champion.
It was around this time that
Burt LeGrande was brought on board as the third member of
the creative team. It was also around this time that
LeGrande and myself talked about giving Devil a run with the
CWF Heavyweight title before he retired.
THE GREATEST MATCH IN CWF
HISTORY
Although Devil had been
helping write everything going on in the CWF, he still had
complete control of the Keystone division. When we started
blue printing out Unfinished Business VII (2/10/07),
the Keystone title was vacant due to the then-champion not
showing up for a show.
Devil said he wanted to run a
four-man ladder match for the show involving himself, Justin
Idol, Mantis, and Jason Gory. Knowing the match would steal
the show, I bumped the CWF Heavyweight title match between
Zubov and “the Spotlight” Scottie Gash to co-main.
It’s a good thing too because
the ladder match not only stole the show, but the four men
got a three and a half minute standing ovation.
And once again, Devil didn’t
put himself over. Idol won the match, but the purpose had
been served. Devil didn’t care about winning the match. But
it was those 210 seconds after the bell when the fans
applauded that he cared about.
THE 100th
CWF SHOW
On April 14, 2007 we ran our
100th show. The only three men on the show that
had been around since day one of the CWF in the locker room
that night were Devil, Nasty Nick, and myself.
Before the show, I gathered
everyone up and thanked them for helping us get to that
point. I purposely made eye contact with everyone to make
sure they knew I was talking to them. When I looked at
Devil, the sheer excitement was on his face as he knew how
much we as a promotion had been through. The look of pride
on his face is something that I will never forget.
DEVIL WINS THE ZUBOV
INVITATIONAL
After I told Devil we were
going to him with the CWF Heavyweight title, he was more
appreciative than anything. I truly believe that at that
point, he knew how much I appreciated everything that he had
done for the CWF.
Storyline wise, we had to get
him into the title mix. Zubov was (and is) still the CWF
Heavyweight champion, so we had Zubov cut a promo saying
that he has beaten everyone in the CWF, so someone had to
prove to him they deserved a shot at the belt. We set up an
eight-man, one-night tournament called the Zubov
Invitational Tournament. I gave Devil the books on the
tourney as I wanted him to have the best matches in each
round. He proposed the tourney to LeGrande and myself and we
agreed with how it was set up.
At mass inSINity
(5/5/07), we ran the tourney. But not only did Devil have
three matches to worry about, but he also had to run the
entire show with LeGrande as I had been at a wedding in
South Carolina. When he called me that night, he was happy
with how everything went. His time appeared near.
WHAT WOULD HAVE BEEN
Devil was to cash in the
title shot this Saturday night at No Escape
(7/28/07). And while I wont come out and say what exactly
was planned, it doesn’t take a brain surgeon to figure out
where it was going.
Unfortunately, Devil did not
get his chance “to run with the ball” this time.
CWF TALENT DEVIL BROUGHT
IN
The list of wrestlers that
Devil played some part in to bringing them into the CWF is
impressive. The list, whether directly or indirectly,
includes (alphabetically):
Aaron “UnReal” Gibbs, Amir al
Jahari, Apollyon, Benjamin C. Steele, Blade, Blitzz, Bobby Digital, Bobby
Williams, Chris Hero, Chris Taylor, CJ Sensation, Dean
Radford, Dirk Ciglar, El Tiburon, Eric Xtasy, Ethan
“$mooth-X” Price, Glenn Spectre, Jake Garrett, Jason Cage,
Jason Davidson, Jason Gory, “Deeelicious” Jimmy DeMarco, JT
Rodgers, Justin Idol, Kid Cupid, Lance Dayton, Mantis,
Marshall Gambino, Mickey Gambino, Orion, Raelene, Sam
Sledge, Scotty Venom, Viki Gambino, and White Trash Hero.
CWF WITH DEVIL FOREVER
Since Devil was with us since
the beginning, I decided to leave something with him. When a
CWF contingent arrived at the funeral home Thursday night, I
ran into Jim’s brother Russ. I gave him a CWF t-shirt and
asked him to make sure it was OK for it to be placed in the
casket with Jim. My reasoning was that Jim had been with us
since day one. Knowing how much he cared for the CWF and
what we stood for, I felt that it was only right for the CWF
to be with Jim forever.
His brother and mother both
thanked me for the gesture. But as I left that night, it
wasn’t so much that I wanted to leave a shirt with him. It
was just my way of one last time thanking him for everything
he had done. Last Tuesday, I spoke with one of Jim’s closest
friends in the business. This friend told me how much Jim
loved the CWF and appreciated everything that I had done for
him.
Speaking to Jim on an almost
daily basis, it was more than Devil and Powerhouse talking.
It was Jim and Bill talking about other things, whether
about the latest Star Wars book we had both read or a new
outfit design from one of his favorite comic books. And did
the man love his comic books!
Leaving the funeral home, I
remembered what another local wrestler said. He pointed out
to me that at one time, Devil’s outspokenness splintered the
Pittsburgh wrestling scene to a point. And now, his passing
had brought everybody together under one roof.
Right before I left, I looked
one last time at the casket. In it was one of his patented
masks, pictures, the CWF shirt. Around the room and in the
one lobby were so many of his wrestling brothers and
sisters.
Yes, Jim always had the right
attitude and respect for the business. He finished with a
CWF record of 37 wins, 29 losses, and one no contest. Never
once did he care about that though. As long as the fans left
happy (or mad) and wanted to come back, that is all that
mattered to him.
The respect from the CWF
locker room at the funeral home was evidence of what Jim
meant to us. On our superstars page here on the site, 31 of
our talent members are from the Pittsburgh area. 26 of the
31 paid their respect to Jim. Three others I could not
reach.
This Saturday night, the show
will continue as we perform our first event since Jim’s
passing. He will be there somewhere. And he always will be.
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