KINGSPORT, TN THANKSGIVING NIGHT 2000 SOUTHERN STATES WRESTLING
SOMETHING ELSE (EDDIE BROWNING & JOHN NOBLE W. BIG E) VS. BEAU JAMES & KC THUNDER
With a return to Kingsport, TN coming up on Thanksgiving Night, my first turnbuckle memory will be of Thanksgiving night , 2000. The match was a falls count anywhere match between myself and Eddie Browning with our manager Big E as we took on "The King of Kingsport" Beau James and KC Thunder. The situation was that Eddie and I , along with Big E, Killer Kurt and "Sweet" Scotty Ace had began an NCW invasion in September. Houses were consistently coming up as this was one of the hottest angles in the area in a while. All of us were new to the area and had so much heat that we had to have our own seperate locker room.
Beau and KC had been the two most hated men in the area, but that quickly came as they stepped up to defend the honor of Southern States Wrestling against the hated oustiders from Nationwide Championship Wrestling.
The match, itself, was a textbook example of good, old fashioned, violent, southern style wrestling match. We beat, punched, slapped and threw each other all over the ring and the building. My back hurt for two weeks following that match from all of the times that it had met the concrete floor in that National Guard Armory. Beau James was busted open and was bleeding profusely and they fans reacted to him like they were living and breathing with every punch he was taking. Beau truly is a guy who can produce regardless of whether the fans love him or hate him. He and KC were the perfect opponents for an up and coming team like Eddie and myself. We learned alot on that night and in several of the previous and subsequent other matches with Beau and KC and sometimes the lesson was rather painful. To be honest, my memory can't recall whether or not we won that match, but that match and that particular time in my career will always hold a strong place in my memory. Southern States was one of the first promotions to really put me and Eddie in a position to show what we could do in a main event situation and we learned alot as a result.
