The purging of BCCW continues. In keyfabe terms, the exponential growth of BCCW has been so massive so as to attract some of the highest-priced premier talent in the wrestling multiverse. Dark Powers amassing a literal army poised to dominate the fantasy wrestling globe from here on out. Broken City Championship Wrestling is that shit. The newly-christened BCCW World title is a collection of the most prestigious titles recognized in history. Everything from the original WWWF title to the NWA (that's National Wrestling Association) and modern-day WWE championship is represented in its golden form. The absolute pinnacle of this business. Today John Cena holds that belt, but it may not be for long. For with the BCCW World title comes a measure of respect and control. The same type of domination men strive for in all aspects of life. At "CHANGING of the GUARD", this BCCW World title will be on the line - along with governing control of the entire BCCW body. In the wake of this massive scandal that has rocked BCCW and the Gold Dust Trio Inc, Mister Mondt has been forced into a position where he must mortgage his entire livlihood on one last gamble. At "CHANGING of the GUARD", John Cena will be defending his BCCW World championship in a Triple Threat match. Along with victory and the belt, winner of the match will gain majority control of Broken City Championship Wrestling itself. Meaning the literal champion will have the power to shape the leagues destiny or fullfill his own vision. One of the opponents that night will be Toots Mondt, who is taking that one last desperate gamble to overtake the title and fullfill his business obligations. The third man in that Triple Threat championship match will be determed at the "CHANGING of the GUARD" warm-up show. Entitled "LEGENDS of WRESTLING: Down & Dirty", this entire show is based on one match - the 3-way eliminator main event. This one match-up alone combines history, intrigue and backstory with modern-day warfare to produce arguably the single greatest "dream match" in pro wrestling history. "Nature Boy" Buddy Rogers versus Lou Thesz versus Bruno Sammartino. Winner becomes the 3rd man in the BCCW championship match at "CHANGING of the GUARD".
The stories between Bruno Sammartino/Buddy Rogers and Lou Thesz/Buddy Rogers have been well documented. These rivalries have continued to burn and sizzle as each man sought to leave his own mark upon BCCW. But what's not too well known, is the beef between Bruno Sammartino and Lou Thesz - two purists from the same school of thought. According to Thesz, talks between he and Sam Muchnick on one side and Vince McMahon Sr. and Toots Mondt on the other concerning the reunification of the WWWF and NWA had begun. The centerpiece of these talks was the ascension of WWWF champ Bruno Sammartino to the NWA throne, a bout that would have drawn big, with every rematch assured of being a sellout as well. But Thesz balked on the issue on money. If he was to drop the title, he wanted to be well paid for it ($125,000) -- in advance. Who could blame him there, considering he was once again dealing with Mondt? He also wanted the title back within a year — another sticking point, but not as bad as the first. It didn’t matter because the deal fell through and Thesz took the blame. Although Thesz didn’t have much respect for Bruno’s skills as a pure wrestler, he did admire him as a performer and greatly admired Bruno’s integrity.
BRUNO SAMMARTINO: Before the book came out, I never had any bad feelings or bad experiences with Lou Thesz. I respected him for what he was to the business. Like anybody else, there were people through the years both pros and cons. There were people who spoke very highly of him and some not so. But that goes for anybody. What bothered me about him and the book, not so much with me because I'm here and I can defend myself, but he spoke of Rocca and Carnera and the Englishman, Bert Assarati, in a very, very negative fashion. I resented it. I lost a lot of respect for the man. I knew Rocca personally. We were tag-team partners in New York and we wrestled each other in New York. With Thesz, that's not what bothered me. Then he said in the book that he made his peace with Rogers so everything was well, whatever that meant. Well, God rest his soul, but let's not compare Buddy Rogers with Rocca or Carnera as far as their reputation in the business. Not too many guys had a worse reputation in the business than Buddy. There's other things. Thesz doesn't get along with Karl Gotch. He didn't get along too great with Danny Hodge. But these guys are all living and well. How come he didn't speak of them what he feels of them? I know there are bad feelings. He speaks of people who are dead, who cannot defend themselves in any way, shape or form. That's what I resent.
LOU THESZ: My quarrel with Rogers dated back to a single incident occurring during my Army days, shortly before I was discharged. I was on a two-week furlough and had lined up some wrestling dates in the St. Louis territory. Rogers, who wasn’t yet wrestling his rough style, was the top attraction in the territory at the time, and we were scheduled to wrestle the main event on my very first night back, in Louisville, Kentucky. Since I didn’t have any transportation, Rogers met me at the train station in St. Louis and I hopped in his car. As we were driving to Louisville, Rogers started talking about what we could expect that night. He was a very hot card, and since I was well-known to fans as a two-time world champion, it looked like a sell-out, a good payoff for both of us. Then he started bitching. ‘The promoter has even brought in Ed Lewis to referee our match,’ he said. “Why do we need that fat old bastard? The money they’re paying him should be going in our pockets." I stared at Rogers for a couple of moments before asking him what he had been doing before he broke into professional wrestling. He said he’d been a cop in New Jersey. ‘Let me tell you something, kid,’ I said. ‘If it wasn’t for Ed Lewis you’d still be walking a beat. None of us would be making any money at this if he hadn’t paved the way. Don’t ever talk that way, in front of me or anyone, about the man whose the foundation of our industry – it’s disrespectful. What’s more, he’s a very dear friend of mine.’
Rogers could see that he’d screwed up, and tried to recover by insisting that he was kidding, but I wasn’t buying it. He’d said enough to make me uneasy about trusting him. So we got to Louisville and I sat down with the promoter. The logical progression, since I was still in the Army, would have been for Rogers to win. He was the big draw, and a win over me would have only made him hotter at the box office. If Rogers hadn’t made those comments about Ed Lewis, I might have gone along with it. I had learned to live with the success Rogers had been give while so many of us worked hard for a sport we loved. But the knowledge of his contempt for Ed and true wrestlers was more than I could tolerate. I wouldn’t let Rogers win, and he certainly couldn’t beat me, so he had no alternative but to go along with whatever I wanted to do. At least that was some satisfaction for me. We ended up wrestling a one-hour draw, and I really turned on the gas, just to punish him. I talked to him in German throughout the match, telling him to hurry up, go faster, setting a pace that had him breathing hard before we were halfway though. He was absolutely drained by the end.
Buddy Rogers and I were to wrestled many more times in the coming years, always as the main-event attraction, and we made an awful lot of money together. One thing fans never saw in any of those matches though, was Buddy Rogers with his hand raised at the end – I never let him win, just on principle. A fan of his put together a Buddy Rogers record book several years ago, and it listed close to 50 Thesz-Rogers matches, every one of them ending in either a draw or a Rogers loss. (What the record book doesn’t reveal is whether the matches were any good, but I can tell you, simply by looking at the results. If the match was a draw, it was almost always a good match; if I was the winner, however, Rogers wouldn’t put any effort into it, cheating the fans of any flair or excitement, and that only served to make me angrier with him than I already was.) In later years I realized that every industry has its equivalent of Buddy Rogers – someone who reaches the top but never understands the objective. Buddy and I finally made peace a few years before his death in 1992, but it’s hard to forget all that happened between us. Life turns on some funny points, and who knows what Rogers’ career would have looked like if he hadn’t made that crack to me about Ed Lewis.
BOBBY "the Brain" HEENAN: Some heels in life are almost so good at what they do, you can't help but admire them. Rogers is truly one of those heels in life who was a backstabber, but he was so good at it and really smooth. I'm not proud of it, but part of me admires what he does. Anyone would, as long as they were not on the receiving end of what Rogers did. He was smart and knew every backstabbing way to get himself over in the ring.
"NATURE BOY" BUDDY ROGERS: To a nicer guy it couldn't happen!!!
CREDITS
LOU THESZ: Hooker
BRUNO SAMMARTINO: Wrestling Perspective #71
BOBBY HEENAN: "Chair Shots and Other Obstacles"
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