Magazine Archives: Indy Tales: Mark in Stripes (Patreon)

As originally seen in FightfulMag.com issue 1!

By Matt Young 

“You’re in the wrestling business?” is a common question I answered for six years of my life. My name is Matt Young, and for one year, I was a wrestling ring announcer before spending the next five as a professional wrestling referee, also known as a mark in stripes. I was certainly not somebody that ever dreamed of being in the business despite being a fan my entire life.

During my time in the business, I worked in Canada and throughout the south-eastern United States. It was not uncommon to spend three or four days a week away from home traveling the roads to officiate matches.

Over the years, I had the opportunity to work with many stars of the past, present, and future. It was a tremendous experience being able to work with stars you watched as a kid, or you could see regularly on television at that time, such as Ron Killings (WWE 24/7 R-Truthas he’s known today), ECW’s Chris Hamrick and WCW wrestler, The Stro.

While everyone sees the finished product on television, the path to get there is not always pleasant. For every terrific show, there’s a good chance you’ll encounter one that is a complete disaster. One of those disasters took place on an event in Shelby, North Carolina, with the aforementioned Killings, Hamrick, and The Stro.

It was a few days after New Year’s Day in 2004 when I received a call that will forever leave Shelby as a historic place in my mind.

“Hey Matt, it’s Chris (a promoter I frequently officiated for). Are you good to go to Shelby, North Carolina, for a pair of shows at the beginning of February?”

“Absolutely, I can,” was my immediate response as I was excited to go work a double shot in Flair country.

It was just a few months prior that I had graduated from university, and knowing life was about to get serious, I decided to take six months to work wrestling shows on a full-time basis. Although I said full time, the world of independent wrestling was not nearly flourishing as it was right before the pandemic, so it was a challenging way to make a living.

In other words, you took the bookings when they were available, which explains the instant acceptance to hit the double shot in Shelby.

I learned I would be traveling with a few other wrestlers from nearby Buffalo, New York, so I was extra excited about making the long car ride with them. A few weeks later, we were ready to depart Buffalo in what I believe was an older SUV and what was one of the worst snowstorms I have ever experienced in my life.

We departed on a Thursday night around 9:00 PM. We planned to drive overnight, sleep for a few hours during the day, and head to the show later that night. Luckily, our hotel was only a few minutes away from the venue so we would be in great shape.

What we did not account for is the severe weather we faced from Buffalo until we had left Pennsylvania. Every couple of miles, we were forced to slow down because another car had spun off the road. Despite the weather, we were determined to get to our booking. You simply do not miss a booking.

Little did we know that this weather was likely foreshadowing the disaster that was to come later that Friday night. Our 11-hour drive had suddenly become 17 hours by the time we arrived at our hotel. Hungry and tired, we drove around the local area to find something to eat.

In the independent community, most people do not realize that you become keenly aware of the potential for an event as soon as you arrive in town. One can get a quick idea of just how well a show was promoted based on posters around town as you search for a recognizable chain.

After arriving, we did not see a single poster, which prompted us to ask a few locals if they knew where the wrestling show was that night. Normally, you can find a few people that know of events happening in their town, but not a single person we talked to that day knew about the show.

Having said that, this was not our first rodeo, so we collectively concluded that the show might not be as successful as the promoter had told us it was going to be, based on the advanced ticket sales he was boasting about weeks prior.

We arrived at the venue, and things seemed quite normal. The chairs were set up around the ringside, and the bleachers looked ready to go. It was time to shake hands and meet everyone on the show, as is customary in every wrestling dressing room, no matter how many times you worked with those individuals. The handshake ritual was one not to be skipped and was tradition no matter the geographic region.

Everyone got changed and began to work out their matches when we realized something was not quite right. The doors had opened, and a super small crowd was waiting in their seats. By that time, the promoter had vanished. Everyone began to ask around to see what had happened, but nobody seemed to know where he went. We all knew what that meant; we were not likely going to see our money for that show or the following night’s show.

While it is nothing most of us had not experienced before, it certainly was not ideal. The only consolation was that we knew our hotel was paid for through Saturday night, so at least we had a place to sleep.

Around showtime, everyone began to make decisions on what needed to happen for it to go off without a hitch. Killings decided to let one of his wrestling students take his spot since it was clear we were not going to get paid. The Stro and Hamrick decided they were definitely going to work their match. People were at the event, and it wasn’t their fault that the promoter skipped town. We wanted to give them a show; one that was safe and low risk.

It was time to start the show, when yet another stark realization happened for everyone. We did not have a ring announcer. Somehow in all the planning, one had not been booked. At that point, nobody really knew for sure what the plan was.

I volunteered my services to ring-announce and referee that evening. I could remember Killings laughing at the absurdity of it. “Let me get this straight, you’re going to be the announcer and the referee?” he asked.

“Why not?” I said, “There’s not a lot of people here, and well we need an announcer. I did it for a year. I’m in. Let’s have some fun.” Years later, I laugh at the notion this is absurd given R-Truth’s work with the character Little Jimmy and the many other things he has done since his return to WWE television.

As I walk out to ringside, I pick up the microphone to start the evening’s event. Everything is going well, and while the fans probably thought it was odd the referee was doing the announcing, they had a subtle reaction to the randomness taking place before them.

After the introductions were done, I placed the microphone down on the ringside table and went to ring the bell. That’s when I realized that nobody had even thought about having a ring bell. I did what every great improviser does in that scenario; I picked up the microphone and said, “ding, ding, ding” into it.

I could immediately see the boys and girls in the back laughing hysterically at the ridiculousness they were witnessing, but we got through the night’s matches.

At the intermission, Killings could not resist the opportunity to tell me that despite being a good referee and announcer, I should probably focus my future on being a ring bell as I did that the best out of the three. Well played Ron. Well played!

Despite the small crowd, Hamrick really put on a show working with Buffalo’s Marc Mandrakein a hardcore match that allowed everyone to leave the building happy.

Following the show, everyone gathered at Motel 7 to consume beverages and tell stories. It was great to hear The Stro talk about his time in WCW and share the stories that he had while under contract.

The crazy thing about the independent scene is you truly never know what will happen. The Hamrick’s, Killings’, and Stros’ of the world dedicate themselves to the craft to make a living with the hopes of a return to the bright lights and a bigger stage. The pitfalls are that everyone knowingly takes a risk with each booking as you could end up working for the love of the business. The theory goes that you never know who will see you on any given night, but I can assure you that not many saw their performances that night.

Once the trip had come to an end, the chaos continued once more before we could safely return to Buffalo. We stopped on the way home to eat at a restaurant and noticed after ordering our food was taking a lifetime to arrive at the table. We then saw our server storm out of the kitchen and burst into an argument with the restaurant manager that ended up with our server quitting in the middle of our meal. I had never seen that before and have not seen that since.

The good news was that the manager felt awful about what happened and reduced our bill for the delay that the entire event created. We collectively laughed at the table as we paid as we wondered if the wrestling gods were trying to help us out after the promoter took our money. Finally, something had gone right on that trip!

Despite the promoter skipping town and our payoff disappearing, that trip became one of my favorite trips over my six years in the wrestling business. It was never about the money because we knew the payoff would be spent quickly, but the memory of that event would linger to this day. I will always wonder if I could have gone further as the ring bell. Regardless, as Killings said, I’m happy to have worn the stripes for that trip.