Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 24, 1991 TAG: 9102230044
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By KATHY LOAN NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: FLOYD LENGTH: Long
Professional wrestling. It's poor man's theater. The good guy, just as truth, will always win in the end. The bad guy is the foil, the audience is the chorus.
This night's American Championship Wrestling card offers two particular attractions: Wahoo McDaniel, a veteran wrestler from the big leagues, and hometown favorite Buffalo Frits Brady.
Don't worry if you haven't heard of him. He's used to having no respect. Placards advertising this match misspelled his first name.
> "I guess I'm not the best wrestler and I've still got a lot to learn," says Brady, 28, almost apologetically.
He has no signature moves like the figure four of Ric Flair. Instead, he relies on the basics - arm blocks, head locks and sunset flips.
"I don't quite catch on like some of the other guys. It takes me a little more time to know how to actually do the moves."
One reason is that the actual matches are the only real practice he gets. Floyd County has no "squared circle" - as wrestling rings are called - for between-match work-outs.
At 5-foot-7 1/2, Brady says he's one of the shorter wrestlers around. But he describes himself as "a solid, muscular 200 pounds."
As a high school student, he watched National Wrestling Alliance matches on television and admits he was attracted to "all the glamour."
His next match is Saturday night at Floyd Elementary School.
This is not the big-time. There's no capacity crowd. No fans scream when a wrestler peeks out of a dressing- door. A single rope attached on frail wooden posts, not the aluminum or steel fences of the big leagues, separate the small audience from the ring. But the noise of a body hitting the mat seems louder.
Wrestling in Floyd County may seem a far cry from the glamour of Ric Flair's shiny robes on national TV, but Brady has his following.
Born in Fairfax, he has lived in Floyd County since 1977. He graduated from Floyd County High in 1981 and is a certified geriatric nursing assistant at Skyline Manor Nursing Home.
"You wouldn't know it with all those muscles. Those old people love him," said his mom, Annelies Brady, who was working out at Shortt's Fitness Center while her son was being interviewed.
Brady started lifting weights in high school. He joined the Christiansburg Health Club gym in 1982, entered his first body-building contest in 1983 and placed third in the teen division.
Around that time, he began talking about his interest in professional wrestling.
"I stopped at a small convenience store and I was talking with this one fella . . . and I picked out a wrestling magazine and said, `this is something I would like to try.'"
The man knew some wrestlers in the Independent Wrestling Federation and gave Brady some phone numbers. Brady got in touch with the promoters that fall. He still has the piece of paper the man in the store gave him with the numbers to call.
He spent six years in the IWF before joining the American Championship Wrestling league, based in Roanoke, in September 1989.
Brady took his wrestling name from Buffalo Mountain in Floyd County, but didn't take to a suggestion that he add a western flair to it. He would be Buffalo Frits, not Buffalo Bill.
Brady wrestles about twice a month, usually on Saturdays, so it won't interfere with his night job at the nursing home.
Wrestling has taken him away from the physique contests - his last was a second place in May 1987 - but not body-building.
"I'm really into my weight training," he said. "Mainly what I'm going for is a body-builder's physique."
Brady recently started self-defense classes in Kwon Chi Chuan to improve his flexibility. He has always admired martial arts and thinks a combination of martial arts and muscle mass "would really be sort of neat."
He stays away from red meats, salt, sugar, white flour and most dairy products. Staples of his diet include soy bean milk, carrots and fruit, five bananas a day. And air-popped corn. Lots of it.
His mom buys popcorn in 50 pound bags. He drinks up to a gallon of water a day. He shops at Harvest Moon, a health food store.
Brady takes a blue cooler to wrestling events. It's stuffed with his favorite, healthy foods like pasta, tuna, broccoli and pumpkin seeds. In the locker room, he takes some ribbing from fellow wrestlers about the concoctions he has.
One thing Brady enjoys is the opportunity to travel. Besides wrestling in Southwest Virginia, he's faced opponents in West Virginia, South Carolina and Georgia.
Georgia stands out in his mind because he got to wrestle on television and "meet a lot of very talented wrestlers."
This night, Brady wrestles in a "Six Man Tag Team Extravaganza" with street fight rules. Just about anything goes, even pinning an opponent outside the ring. It's Brady, Rolling Thunder and Wahoo McDaniel against bad guys Eclipso, the Terminator and Joe Powers.
Brady's ring attire is long black tights, turquoise trunks, green knee pads and black, laced-up wrestling boots.
The crowd is loudest as Wahoo, a veteran who knows how to work a crowd, delivers his patented chops to the chest of his opponent. Brady is tagged to face Eclipso, then the Terminator. He is bodyslammed and takes a leg drop in the Hulk Hogan fashion.
In comes Eclipso to further abuse Brady with fists to the head before tagging Powers in. Brady kicks out after his shoulders are pinned for a one-count.
"Go, Frits, go. Go, Frits, go" the crowd chants. Somehow this gives him the strength to rise from the mat, but Powers almost immediately takes him in a choke hold.
The crowd resumes its chant, but to no avail. Brady gets stuck in the bad guys' corner and is triple-teamed.
"Hey, Frits - get up!" someone in the crowd yells.
So, what about the glamour? Well, he gets his share, for a local boy.
"I've got to talk on the Floyd radio station a lot," Brady said. He also talks to children at the four county elementary schools.
"Signing all those autographs is neat, too," he said. He also likes fan mail.
Brady has won three championship belts in wrestling. He won the IWF television belt. He and Rolling Thunder were the North America Wrestling Alliance Universal tag-team champs. And most recently he won the ACW Universal TV Belt on Oct. 20. He lost it to Joe Powers on Dec. 15.
Meeting Wahoo in September and having him as a tag-team partner rates high on his list.
"I felt extremely honored. If somebody would have told me 10 years ago that I would be teamed up with Wahoo McDaniel, I would have either thought they were crazy or probably might be so excited my head would hit the ceiling."
Brady shakes off questions about wrestling being fake. He suggests, laughing, that a reporter refer to him and his colleagues as "acrobatic sportsmen."
And no matter what you call it, he said, it's still a good workout.
Brady's mom admits she's come to only a few of her son's matches.
"I hate really to watch, to see him being thrown around," she said. Brady has been hurt, but nothing serious.
> Brady is outside the ring, arguing with the referee as Wahoo is triple-teamed This does nothing more than divert the referee's attention to him instead of what's going on in the ring. Brady bangs on the ropes with both hands. "Come on ref," he pleads.
The crowd-chorus begins to chant: "Wahoo, Wahoo, Wahoo . . . "
"Shut up, you stupid hillbillies," a bad guy shouts - inciting the crowd even more.
Rolling Thunder loses the match, even though he claims his shoulder was off the mat at the third count.
The good guys beg for five more minutes. When that fails, Wahoo goes after the bad guys, chasing them through the dressing room. They all return and it's fisticuffs all-around until the bad guys again retreat to the dressing rooms.
And good triumphs in the end.
Brady says a lot of wrestlers in the small, independent leagues want to make it to a major league like the World Wrestling Federation or World Championship Wrestling. He admits the idea is attractive, but says he's probably too short.
"Of course it would be a dream to be a big name in wrestling," he said. "But I hope I can always at least do this on a part-time basis." Advance tickets are $5 for adults; $3 for children under 12 at the Floyd IGA, Shortt's Fitness Center and the Game Room. Tickets at the door are $8 for adults and $6 for children. Proceeds benefit the Floyd Recreation Department.
American Championship Wrestling returns to Floyd County Saturday at 8:15 p.m. at Floyd Elementary School. Featured are Brady, Jimmy "The Boogie Woogie Man" Valiant, Joe Powers, Eclipso and Rolling Thunder.
Advance tickets are $5 for adults; $3 for children under 12 at the Flord IGA, Shortt's Fitness Center and the Game Room. Tickets at the door are $8 for adults and $6 for children. Proceeds benefit the Floyd Recreation Department.
Keywords:
PROFILE
by CNB