Under the Shade Tree – 3-29-09

Last edition I stated I was going to have a mystery subject. Well I know muscle heads and they said to themselves I bet she does not know what subject she is going to write about!  WRONG!  One of the definitions of mystery is one whose identity is unknown. Lets think back most of us traveled to small towns and wrestled in armories, high school gyms and some small and large facilities. The booker would come to us and talk and there was always that mystery man with him. Allow me to describe him.

Usually small  physically and did not speak too much unless know by a certain few workers. But in the ring things changed. This man was fast enough to not obstruct the view of fans or television cameras, fast to get down for a three count, sometimes took a big bump, sometimes even got belted, smart enough to hand us a gimmick or another object at a certain time, and agile enough to stay out of our way during rope work or high flies and smart enough to say those breath relieving words GO HOME or for those of us that spoke Carney GEESO HEESOME. I sat and thought of the many matches I had all over the world and could only come up with names of five of these men. YES THE REFEREE.

What would we have done with out him and how many times did we thank him. Maybe by the time we thought of it he was going out for his next match. No rest for the weary. I hope all of you did better than me. I remember Tommy Young, Dick Woherle, Paul Morton, Frankie Reaze and Bill Alfonzo. Maybe it is time we recognize them at the CAC and have a name drop during our many discussions and talk about their job. A job that did not pay much, was not a public celebrity, and would catch holly hell if he did something wrong. So I say this when they introduce the referees for our CAC matches lets send this message to all those that did this work.

WE THANK YOU REFEREES ALL OVER THE LAND! AND FOR ALL THE HARD WORK YOU DONE ! LETS GIVE THEM A MARVELOUS HAND!

Until next time this is a teary eyed Beverly Shade saying goodbye.