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.
