MACW - Indy Event (Photos)

[Man in Black]

This past Saturday I got to attend an independant wrestling show in Shelby, NC. I've been to countless wrestling events from house shows to pay per views and this was by far the most fun I've ever had at one of them.

The whole thing was to raise money for local law enforcement and their efforts to help the youth in the area. Ric Flair was a special guest and sat up on the stage of the gym for several hours before the show until every single fan that wanted to meet him got a chance to do so.

The Nature Boy has fun with the kids

There were several guys there that I grew up watching and I was able to get an autograph from every wrestler on the card (excluding Buff Bagwell who I met at another event and already had his signature). I got to meet and talk to most of them and had a hilarious conversation with The Barbarian which I'm not even going to try to describe here.

Below I'm posting some of the siggys and pictures from the event


The autographs below include several of the old NWA/WCW stars of yesteryear - Ricky Nelson, Ricky Morton and Beautiful Bobby Eaton



Here is the Ric Flair signature I got, I love this picture of him




And the magazine below is a bonus - Ric took this from me and signed it even though they announced that no personal items would be autographed. I didn't ask him to, he just took it from me and did it. I've been wanting to get it signed by him for over 10 years. On this night it was worth the wait because both his sons (David and Reid) also signed it.






Donnie Dollar$ the new Hardcore Champ - This guy was really nice in person even though he was a heel in the ring.




Ric and Bobby Eaton



These ladies had more in ring skills than the divas on TV



Andru Bane - This dude is ripped and I expect we'll see him on TV pretty soon



Ricky Morton - One half of the Rock n' Roll Express



Marcus "Buff" Bagwell





Beautiful Bobby Eaton of the Midnight Express



The Barbarian





This fan almost got tossed out of the building



The Naitch threatens to reopen Space Mountain!



Reid and David Flair faced Buff and Ricky Nelson in the main event for the MACW Tag Titles



David Flair works the mic



Reid Flair



Bagwell and Nelson leave with all the gold





This guy was here right before his wedding and called himself "The Masked Groom"

Here is the link to the entire gallery of over 90 pictures with the original sizes - imageevent.com/afap/photographix/wrestling/macwshelbync

[Jason]

Holy! That looked like a blast! I remember watching Buff Bagwell and David Flair in the WCW days. It's good to see them still involved with the business!

[Man in Black]

Remember how nutty David Flair and Daffney were in WCW? They were a trip.

[Jason]

Haha. Yeah! I used to watch them every week! I remember they were pretty much a trio with Chris Kanyon. Who I believe called himself Crowbar. I've still got some old WCW events on tape. I'm sure I have some with them.
On a side note. David gained some weight. Haha.

[Man in Black]

Yeah he did and he moves around quite a bit better in the ring.

[Jason]

On a side note, I'm really surprised at how much TNA is looking like WCW. I happen to flick past it every now and then and saw Kevin Nash, Sting etc. I'm really surprised to see Mick Foley in TNA. Still sad that Kurt Angle is gone, though.

[Man in Black]

I'm loving TNA right now. It is a lot like WCW currently and the good WCW too when the NWO was in full swing. The storylines are crisp and the actual wrestling has been better than WWE for years anyway. I look forward to every show.

I think a little bit of me died when the WWE bought out WCW. I had been hooked on that since it was the NWA and Ric Flair and Ricky Steamboat were just starting out. I like WWE but it never has seemed as real as WCW when it was at it's best.

[Jason]

Jun 7, 2009 16:08:14 GMT -8 Man in Black said:

I'm loving TNA right now. It is a lot like WCW currently and the good WCW too when the NWO was in full swing. The storylines are crisp and the actual wrestling has been better than WWE for years anyway. I look forward to every show.

I think a little bit of me died when the WWE bought out WCW. I had been hooked on that since it was the NWA and Ric Flair and Ricky Steamboat were just starting out. I like WWE but it never has seemed as real as WCW when it was at it's best.

WCW is what I originally watched to begin with. When they had Goldberg, Bret Hart, Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Sting, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Scott Steiner, Rick Steiner, and so many others. I loved seeing the Filthy Animals with Rey Mysterio, Kidman, Eddie Guerrero and Konnan compete every night. It was weird, though, because when I started watching WWF for the first time, a lot of WCW guys were jumping ship. I remember the rivalry between The Filthy Animals and Revolution (Benoit, Dean Malenko, Perry Saturn and Shane Douglas). It was interesting seeing them all form an alliance in WWF. The Radicalz.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Radicalz

[Man in Black]

Yeah, I'm an old school wrestling fan. I started watching wrestling back in the 70's. We used to go down to the Spartanburg Auditorium to see the NWA matches. Wahoo McDaniel, Tony Atlas, Ricky Steamboat and Jay Youngblood, Jimmy Snuka (back when he was seriously feared, not the cartoon that WWF made him into) Johnny Weaver, Paul Jones, Ivan Koloff, Jimmy Valiant and tons more.

I'm still into it, but I miss the days when it was treated like a sport instead of fake entertainment. I know it is fake, but it seems more cool when the companies maintain the illusion that it is a real sport.

[Jason]

I loved it. I remember growing up I was never too sure if it was actually real or not. WWE sure is doing a great job of showing that it's fake now, though.