Secret Origins II: The Road to March Madness

Last week we talked a bit about how a youth group video series featuring a group of puppets named the NEO created Yuba-Sutter’s longest-running wrestling ministry. Pastor Vic had agreed to allow Paul and Tony to present a match during the New Year’s Eve all-night event named Thrash-N-Bash. Looking back on that first event, over a decade ago, it’s easy to see the seeds for what UCW is today were being planted.

In a meeting during Christmas Break, Paul, Tony, Victor, Pastor Vic and myself discussed what we should call this match. We wanted to name this crazy thing we were doing. A few names were tossed around but, taking inspiration from the pro wrestling company that helped motivate what we were doing, we finally settled on Ultimate Championship Wrestling or UCW. With the initial match and a name for what we were doing  set, Pastor Vic, Paul, and Tony decided that rather than just have one match, there would be a tournament to determine a champion. In between activities during Thrash-N-Bash, there would be two qualifying matches and a final match where the winner would be the UCW World Heavyweight Champion. So who would be in this tournament?

Tony and Paul were a given. It was already determined that they would be the final match.  Victor would be one of the other contenders as a nod to the NEO. The fourth and final participant was one of Paul and Victor’s good friends named Jared Johnson. Each one would need their own pro wrestling identities so they spent some time coming up with their characters. Tony decided he would become Tony Dreamer, from San Jose. The name was based on then-ECW wrestler Tommy Dreamer, but his character would be based on WWE superstar ”Stone Cold” Steve Austin. Paul’s name would be Kraven, who’s demeanor was based on ECW wrestler Raven, although the name was based on horror director Wes Craven (don’t ask). In a cheap attempt to get a visiting youth group to cheer for him, he decided he would hail from Napa, the city the youth group was coming from (the youth group ended up not showing up, so it was for not). Victor took the name and character of a Chris Farley sketch from Saturday Night Live called El Nino. Jared’s character was the closest we had to an original wrestler. He was named Seven and was a supposed to be psychotic (which, it turned out, was not too far from the truth.)

With the first UCW characters set, the guys went about creating the matches. Looking back on it now, everything about UCW was, well, low-rent. Our “ring” was a single, metal, rectangular stage piece. Our “turnbuckles” were four metal folding chairs. And the belt they were fighting for? A weight belt, spray-painted black, with UCW written on a piece of paper attached to it. It shouldn’t have worked. But it did.

The reason it worked is because, to be frank, the guys worked their butts off. They practiced their matches for days leading up to the event. They were determined to put on the best show they knew how. I still have the footage of the matches and have watched them since then. Most of the “moves” were some variations of punches and kick, with the occasional leg drop thrown in. The one thing they did that made it entertaining was they played to the crowd. Even though the crowd was not a wrestling crowd, they reacted to everything that was going on.

The storyline for the night was simple. In the first  round of the tournament, Kraven would face El Nino and Dreamer would face Seven. Kraven would rather easily beat El Nino and Dreamer would defeat Seven. Both matches were really short, no more than about 5 minutes each. Then the main event came.

The match the tournament final was based on.

 

 In an ironic twist, Kraven and Dreamer’s match ended up lasting longer than the match it was based on. They ended up fighting all around the gym: around Tracy Martinez (then Barton, who will come into play later) and her friend were laying in their sleeping bags; onto the volleyball ref stands; near the commentators (David Diggs and Rick Tuttle); anywhere they could. Finally, nearly 30 minutes later, Kraven was crowned the first UCW World Heavyweight champion. And I watched it, from high atop my perch, operating the spotlight.

Most people assume that after that first event, it was straight into March Madness. Well, there was a short stop, on the road there. While everyone enjoyed the first set of UCW matches, we didn’t think there was going to be anything else. However in February, Pastor Vic scheduled a Valentine’s Day event. As a joke, we asked him if we could have a match there. To our surprise, he said yes. Thus we planned out a single match, tongue-in-cheek titled: UCW’s One Night Stand.

As well as the first night went, the second did not. Plans that were scheduled did come to fruition, egos flared, and to top it off, the power went out at the church, which meant the Valentine’s event stood the chance of being canceled. UCW was in danger of ending before it began. The only reason I am writing about it today is because of a conversation that Paul, Tony and I had in the boys bathroom of the gym as Paul was putting on his make-up (You know, I don’t think that will be the weirdest sentence I’ll be writing about UCW). I don’t remember exactly what it was that was said. I do remember Paul arguing passionately that the match needed to go on.  Because Paul believed in UCW, that night we had a match.

There were still some kinks to be worked out with the characters. When Dreamer came out at Thrash-N-Bash, he emulated Austin as much as possible. However, Stone Cold had tendency to flip off the crowd as part of his entrance. Naturally, Tony couldn’t do that. Instead, when Tony came out, he raised his left hand and brought his palm down in the crook of his also-upraised right hand, curled into a fist. This maneuver was also known as “Up Yours”. Not exactly the kind of thing you want someone doing at a church function. We explained this to Tony, but a youth leader named Scott Tuttle remained a little over-anxious about it. To this day, we still laugh about the number of times he said, “Tony’s not going do that motion, is he?”

Like Thrash-N-Bash, the match that was scheduled was based on a WWE match. In this case, it would be based on Bret Hart vs. the Undertaker from Summerslam ’97.

And the match One Night Stand was based on.

Kraven would be defending the UCW World Heavyweight title against Seven. Tony Dreamer would be the special guest referee, playing the Shawn Michaels part from the match. The story of the match was that Dreamer, still bitter that Kraven was champ, wanted to screw him out his title. As the match came to a close, Dreamer attempted to hit Kraven with a steel chair but he missed and winded up striking Seven instead. Kraven then proceeded to pin Seven. Dreamer, reluctantly, counted the pinfall. And I watched it, this time from my position next to Dave Diggs at the commentators’ booth.

Following the success of that night, it was decided to take things bigger. Much bigger. It was time for the event that started it all. It was time for March Madness.

Secret Origins Part I: From Humble Beginnings

So last week, I gave you the genesis of my fascination with professional wrestling. Today, I’d like to tell you a little bit about how that hobby has turned into something tangible. You see, Twintanillas, your dad is involved in something that takes up a  considerable amount of his time. It involves three simple letters: UCW.

The history of UCW (or for those of you who are initial-phobic: Ultimate Championship Wrestling) is something I have toyed with writing for years. As the only person who has been a continual part of UCW since it’s beginning over a decade ago, I have wanted to share my perspective on the ministry that has taken up so much of my life. So my plan is to use my Monday pro-wrestling post to detail the strange tale of how three puppets spawned the longest-running youth-sponsored ministry at CCC (sorry, initial-phobes: Calvary Christian Center).

Most people will say that UCW came about when our youth group decided to sponsor a pro-wrestling-style event to raise money for Speed-The-Light, a missions funding organization. Others will say it began at a youth group all-nighter that needed to fill time as they kept students entertained till dawn. When the story is told by the old-timers, they say it began as an aunt’s suggestion to her son and nephew. But really, the real origin (the secret origin, if you will) is that UCW was birthed in felt.

In 1996, professional wrestling began it’s rebirth as a wrestler named Scott Hall, who was widely associated with the WWF, appeared on rival organization WCW’s flagship show and claimed he was taking over. This kicked off one of the hottest storylines in wrestling history, the New World Order.

Scott Hall appearing on Nitro

 

Each week more and more fans tuned in. Many of those were former fans who had fallen disenchanted with professional wrestling due to the cartoonish nature of the characters they were presented with and were drawn to the edgy personalities that were represent by the NWO. Two of those former fans were the kids who had started their love of sports entertainment at Wrestlemania 5.

My cousin Paul and I were captivated by the storyline. My brother, Victor, who was never much of a wrestling fan, thought it was intriguing enough to at least mildly pay attention to what we were talking about. As we thought more and more about the storyline, we talked to our youth pastor about it. At the time, Victor and Paul were working with the pastor, Vic, on creating videos to show during Wednesday night youth service.

Victor and Paul’s favorite activity was to stay the night at each other’s house, and using a tape recorder, create radio plays that were called, “The Late Afternoon Show.” They had decided to take two characters on from that show and, with Pastor Vic’s direction and filming, tried to translate them to the screen. It did not work well.

However Pastor Vic, Victor, and Paul did not want to give up on bringing videos to youth group. What was needed was a hook. One day Tuesday afternoon, while we were talking about the NWO, the hook was found. The youth group had recently changed its name from ”The Edge” to “The Youth Corps”. In one of those brainstorming sessions that begin with “Wouldn’t be funny if…”, it was decided that the people who were not happy at the change needed a voice. That voice would be a puppet who would parody Scott Hall who was known as Razor Ramon . The puppet’s name: Cologne.  Joined by another puppet named Crash, they would be known as the New Edge Order or the N.E.O.

The NEO made their presence known by “interrupting” the youth service , and calling out Pastor Vic. The following week, they interrupted again, this time thrashing Pastor Vic’s office. Eventually, they added as a third member the only successful character from Paul and Victor’s earlier attempts, a parody of Forest Gump named Toby Stump. In a reflection of their radio play days, Paul would voice multiple characters, including Cologne and Toby Stump, while Victor supplied the voice of Crash.

 The videos were a success. Each video would get more outlandish as the Youth Corps received it’s own defenders, who never really did anything beyond filming a wrestling style promo calling out the NEO. The NEO finally met their match in the form of a youth leader named Jason. The NEO attempted to kidnap and hold an adult leader named Cherese for ransom. Jason, her husband, channeled his rage, transformed into the maniac of Friday the 13th movies, and successfully rescued her. The NEO gathered their revenge when their leader, a person named “The Ancient One”, provided them with a weapon that would even the odds: a ray gun that transformed Jason into a puppet.

The storyline was building to a climax, planned for the New Year’s Eve lock-in named “Thrash-N-Bash”. However, that was not meant to be. Attempts to film a conclusion, revealing who was the Ancient One who had been planning the defeat of the Youth Corps, fell through. The necessary people to make it happen could not coordinate their schedules. Pastor Vic was trying to figure out something to do to fill in the time that was allotted for the NEO. Little did he or anyone else know that Paul, our cousin Tony, and our aunt Linda were having a conversation that would change the direction of the youth group forever.

Knowing how much her son and nephew loved pro wrestling, she asked them why they didn’t put Tony’s athletic skills and Paul’s charisma together to fill the time with a match. Paul initially thought she meant having  the puppets perform the match. Realizing that Linda meant Paul and Tony should wrestle each other in the same manner as the men they watched on television, they began to work on putting together a match based on the Bret Hart-Steve Austin match from Wrestlemania that year. They presented the idea to Pastor Vic. And from the ashes of the NEO, UCW was born.

That concludes our installment for this week. Next week, we’ll look at Secret Origins Part II: The Road to March Madness.