A Lion's Tale_ Around the World in Spandex - Chris Jericho [80]
In retrospect, that mind-set hindered the Thrillseekers from reaching our full potential and from getting over as much as we could have in SMW. I didn’t understand it at the time, but selling gimmicks and interacting with the fans was a huge factor in gaining popularity in the territory. But whether I understood it or not, I should have just done it, as it was part of my job and my deal with Corny.
But with the deal done and the contract signed, the next step was to pack up my stuff from the Palkos’ house (my North American base for the whole time I was in Mexico and Germany) and move to Tennessee. SMW’s referee Brian Hildebrand had found an apartment I could share with a couple of the other wrestlers in Morristown, about forty-five minutes outside Knoxville, so I was good to go.
Brian was a short slightly built man who was one of the easiest guys to talk to that I’d ever met. He was obsessed with 1970s music and had a good wrestling mind and worked the independent scene as manager Hymie P. Schwartz (the best name ever). He had immense respect for the business, as he’d learned to wrestle in Pittsburgh at the same school as Mick Foley and Shane Douglas. But he’d never fulfilled his dream of becoming a wrestler because he was too small for his time so he’d become a referee instead and was now Corny’s right-hand man in SMW.
Brian worked at a shoestore by day and became the SMW man Friday by night. He helped book the matches, run the shows, and produce the TV program, a little bit of everything. He had a massive wrestling tape collection from all over the world and knew my entire history from my first match on. He was even familiar with Bret Como (or as he called him Bret Cuomo, like the governor), and wanted to convince Corny to bring him in. We really hit it off and he assured me that my apartment was ready to move into, so I flew back to Calgary to pack up my stuff and make the three-day drive to Tennessee.
Leaving the Palkos’ house was quite emotional for me as their home had been my home base for the past four years. No matter where I went or how long I was gone whenever I returned, I went back to live at their house. I was always welcomed with open arms, my mail piled on the freshly washed sheets of my bed. I’d become part of their family and Jerry and Bev treated me like one of their own. I could probably still be living there as the wacky sitcom roommate guy.
I was able to hold back my tears as I pulled out of their driveway for the last time, but when I saw Mrs. Palko waving at me in the rearview mirror the same way my mom had when I’d moved from Winnipeg, the tears dashed down my cheeks. My supposed six-week stay had turned into three and a half years and now I was leaving home for the second time. Once again, if it wasn’t for the Palkos, I never would have made it as far as I have in wrestling or in life.
I drove for three days across two countries and finally pulled up to my new digs in Morristown. It was a two-story duplex that I’d be sharing with Anthony Michaels, a rookie from New York who’d moved to Tennessee to find his fame and fortune. I don’t know how much fortune he found, but he did have a quick taste of fame when he wrestled as the original Dudley Brother Snot years later in Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW).
Unfortunately, Anthony was out of town and hadn’t informed anybody else in the place that I was moving in. I walked into my room to find Goldilocks in my bed and I recognized him instantly as the guy who’d been too wasted to assemble a crib in Christopher Love’s house in Wichita. His name was Rex King and he begrudgingly vacated my bed when I explained that it was my room now.
I found out that my new home had been given the nickname SMF, the Smoky Mountain Flophouse. Wrestler Chris Candido had coined the phrase because anytime a new performer came into the company and needed a place to stay, he would move in there.
No wonder Brian was able to hook it up for me