Stuck Inside The Box - The Name Game

When the wrestler known as "Vortex first appeared at Ultimate Wrestling as "Nick Virtue" a smiling, Bible-toting preacher character, most fans didn't know whether to spit, chew bubble gum or buy a rabbit's foot. The transition was nothing short of shocking.

Previously, Brother Virtue had been known as "Vortex" or in some quarters, "Nick Vortex." He was the sole survivor of the premier tag team "The Backyard Boyz," along with partner and longtime friend "Iceberg."

These two youngsters lived the backyard dream during the days of PWA. They were "discovered" by Black Sheep Danny Roland when they auditioned for him in a backyard arena at the home of Nick's parents.

Back in the day (and even more so now), to be pinned with the label "backyarder" constituted the worse epithet that could be imposed on a young aspiring pro wrestler. To have come from the back yard epitomized "the wrong stuff" and literally, no self-respecting locker room would suffer any such person as that beyond its doors.

No one was more anti-back yard than Bobby Doll, head of the PWA. Upon hearing about Iceberg and Vortex for the first time from an enthusiastic Danny Roland, Bobby put his foot down so hard that the floor shook. So adamant was he about the subject that it would have ended right there and we would never have seen any of the incredible matches that followed over the years featuring the wrestlers in question.

Danny Roland is nothing if not persuasive. He kept after his friend and tag team partner for weeks until Bobby finally relented and offered Iceberg and Vortex a tryout at the PWA arena on a student training day.

Bobby saw the same spark of future genius that Danny had seen. Tenacity and endurance are two very important character traits a wrestler needs to be true to his calling. Courage and a high tolerance for pain certainly does not hurt. Training began in earnest for the new, unnamed tag team and to call that transition time brutal would be to understate its intensity.

Some wrestling schools of today are there for the bucks. The quality of training consists of showing a prospect some moves and cashing the check. Often, an ill-prepared wrestler is thrown into the mix long before he is ready. That wrestler then becomes a danger to himself and his peers.

The PWA school training was just the opposite. PWA trainers did everything in their power to encourage wrestler-wannabees to quit and go home. Punishing exercises designed to employ every muscle in the body were employed in order to prepare new wrestlers for the ordeals ahead as they faced real opponents and real audiences.

The training tactics that allowed PWA to produce so many well-prepared wrestlers then are being employed now by Ultimate Wrestling to enrich our performing community with qualified talent. But that's another story.

The debut of The Backyard Boyz hit the PWA like a summer thunder boomer. They became instant rivals to New Era, the previously adored babyface tag team suddenly turned heel. Success followed success. Autographs were written, hands were shaken and lady fans were hugged. Somewhere on the back end of PWA's progressive down-slide after Club Carousel, Iceberg slipped away and The Backyard Boyz' Vortex simply became Vortex as PWA alumni gradually began to disperse over the landscape of indy employers on the panhandle.

That journeyman route eventually led to Ultimate Wrestling. After DSPW dismissed Jerry Reiner from service as booker in Brewton, Vortex, like so many other bright talents drifted into the Ultimate locker room. Good thing too, because many of those who made PWA great had assembled there and the atmosphere seemed almost perfect for a PWA revival with an Ultimate twist.

Diana and Dion have been vilified endlessly over the past two years for their "mistakes" but truth be told, there were not nearly as many missed steps as we smarks and speculators might suppose, plus many of those were simply rookie errors made by folks in a high intensity new promotion pressure cooker. Understandably - some might even say inevitably, since all new promotions face endless speed bumps.

Now here's where it all gets a little foggy, because I had no advance notice at all that my much admired friend, Vortex, would suddenly swap in his trademark long hair and hockey jersey for a suit, a tie and a Bible. I was as startled as anyone when Brother Virtue emerged from the cocoon of Backyard Boy tradition. But there he was, completely reborn, as though some metamorphic wand had passed over him, changing him forever.

Fan reaction was immediate and vociferous. Some were outraged that UW would mock religion, being unmindful perhaps of wrestling's longstanding history of sending up more American icons than South Park (remember Brother Love). Others were completely fascinated. Brother Virtue did for me what other wrestlers often fail to do - get my mind off the table and get my glasses on so I could better see the action.

It has been a while since I have seen Brother Virtue "save" someone. Were he to take to the road, I am sure that the reaction would be profound. I haven't returned to UW in quite a while for the simple reason that there is no room for my table in the American Legion Hall in Pensacola, due to the consistent crowd overflow that comes with a successful promotion.

That all may change with Ultimate's expansion into Milton, FL at the SRCA, where there is plenty of room for vendors and the 300 plus audiences I expect to see. Milton audiences have always been raucous avid wrestling fans and will turn out in droves to supplement Pensacola fans who "can't get enough Ultimate."

What's in a name?

Before Mr. Electricity, Jerry Reiner there was "The Lightning Kidd." Before Nick Virtue was Vortex. Before Carlos DeAngelo was Jester McCain. Is it possible to "rebrand" a wrestler working the Indies? The answer is not only yeah, but in some cases, hell yeah.

Gimmicks (which is to say wrestling personae) sometimes run their course and must be either renewed. Would Percy Pringle have been a good fit for The Undertaker? Certainly Paul Bearer fit the bill more precisely creating a second Legendary avatar for veteran manager Bill Moody.

DSPW features former XW-2000 wrestler and TV star BAD as Beau Fury, a beer swilling tag team partner to Steve Fury - together they are known as The Redneck Mafia.

The Sin City Saints, Scotty and Billy Rayz have undergone many name changes, Scotty having once been Bombzaloco.

Tiny Tiswell used to be known as Tiswell the Giant. Alright, I totally fabricated that for cheap laughs.

Point is, that wrestlers who don't think outside the box in terms of their gimmick are doomed to degenerate into staleness unless they can imprint their personality so completely onto a character (as Steve From Chicago and rainbow Warrior have done) that change is both imposible and unnecessary.

We, the audience are able to row with the flow, so to speak, accepting a new mask on Bullet Bob, an add-on tag, such as "Son of Old School" in the case of Cowboy Billy. We smarks are able to recognize that some changes are impossible without a mask - who could Marcel Pringle ever be but himself? For that matter, who could DJ Pringle be besides a Pringle, or "tater chip" as Erick has blessed him to be.

When a gimmick grows stale or outdated a wrestler needs to be prepared to move in a new direction. So also should a promotion never be content to present the same old matches and time-worn feuds.

It is never to late to break out of the box and do what Brother Virtue did, literally be reborn into a fresh and shining new version of one's self. Only then will bookings or ticket sales soar.