Billy Garcia Tells us About His Day as Part of Wrestlerock

Billy Garcia of Survivor: Cook Islands sent me his write-up of the day his dream to be a part of pro wristling history came true. He’s a great guy and has a big heart. He plays guitars in a heavy metal rock band called Forsakken and a MySpace site.

On August 2nd, 2008 I had the honor of being part of a very historic pro wrestling event. It was AWA Survivor Wrestlerock held in Rochester, Minnesota. There were many great matches and wrestling legends like Larry Zbyszko, Nick Bockwinkel, The Honky Tonk Man and Sheikh Adnan Al Kasey to name a few. Well, Needless to say, being a wrestling fan first and a pro wrestler second, I felt some pressure. I was booked in a match where I would face Mookie Lee of Survivor: Fiji. I was confident that I could take Mookie but it was a tag match with two legends involved and this is the AWA. This was the number one wrestling promotion on Earth in the 60s, 70s and early 80s before Hulk Hogan left the AWA for the WWF and shifted the balance of power forever altering wrestling history. Furthermore, if I’m not mistaken, the very first AWA Wrestlerock event was held April 20, 1986. So this event has a lot of history behind it. Then there was the Hype that comes with a Survivor facing a Survivor in the ring. I knew that I had to step it up a notch. PRESSURE!

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So as I stepped out of the dressing room tent to hold one last interview for a local Minnesota magazine all I could think about was all of the legends I spent the day hanging out with as if I was just one of their buddies in the locker room back in the day. Larry Zbyszko was especially fun to chat with. Then as my interview with the reporter progressed, I started feeling massive butterflies because I could hear the very enthusiastic crowd react to the match before mine going on the ring (Chasyn Rance vs. The Shark). I knew then that this was one of those moments when I’d catch yet another dream. I remember watching the AWA on TV as a kid. I’d watch the likes of Dusty Rhoads, Rowdy Roddy Piper, The Road Warriors, and the Fabulous Freebirds and daydream of being in the ring with them. Now I was just moments away from living that dream. I was teaming with an AWA legend, Johnny Stewart who was dressed up as Jeff Probst. Johnny is renowned for his sense of humor and this was yet another one of his great, hilarious moments that I get to be a part of. We were taking on Mookie Lee and the legendary Honky Tonk Man. How did Mookie and I get this lucky? Suddenly the match going on in the ring ended. IT’S TIME!

As Mookie Lee walked side by side with The Honky Tonk Man to the ring I could see on his face that he was feeling the same emotions that I was feeling. This was a dream come true for him too. Hell, he’s in the ring with a legend. Then to my huge disappointment, The Honky Tonk Man grabs the mic and announces that he can’t wrestle because of an injury. He says that he couldn’t get clearance from the doctor to wrestle. No! Johnny Stewart and I hit the ring. We try to bait the Honky Tonk Man into wrestling anyways, but Mookie interrupts and announces that he has a replacement. The Patriot. I remember him.

Holy Crap, this dude his huge. Wait just a minute. Me and Johnny jumped out of the ring and start calling for the Honky Tonk Man to come back. No luck, the Honky Tonk Man leaves and it’s now official. It’s announced that it’s Mookie Lee and the Patriot vs. Billy Garcia and Johnny Stewart. Damn. I let Johnny start the match. It’s not that I’m scared it’s that I’m not ready. The Patriot is a huge dude. I let Johnny start. He’s a legend. So he locked up with the Patriot and Nailed him with a couple of arm drag take downs. I yelled from the corner “You got him Johnny, yeah!” I should’ve kept quiet.

The Patriot then nailed Johnny a bunch of times. Johnny crawled to our corner and begged for time out which he didn’t get so he tagged me in. Yikes. Lucky me, Mookie wanted in so the Patriot tagged him in. Fhew! Here we go! We shoved each other back and forth. Mookie is strong so he got the better of that. He nailed me with a couple of close lines and then a stinger splash in the corner. He looked to the cheering crowd and celebrated. Rookie mistake. I kicked him when he wasn’t looking. Then I body slammed him. Of course I wasn’t satisfied. I stomped him hard over and over again. Then I came off the ropes and landed a flying elbow drop.

I went for the pin but Mookie kicked out before the three count. So I grabbed a rear headlock and tried to put him to sleep. It seemed to be working for a while but then suddenly Mookie got to his feet. He nailed me three times in the gut with elbows. I didn’t like that so I grabbed him by the hair and slammed him down backwards. Hey, The ref didn’t see it so it’s not cheating. Anyways, I put the rear headlock back on him and put all of my weight on top of him. I thought that would slow him down but I’ll be damned, Mookie fought back to his feet and got away from me. He hit me with a flying shoulder tackle and we were both down for a while.

He managed to get to his corner and tag the Patriot in. Wow did the crowd erupt. The Patriot nailed me and Johnny left and right and even landed a drop kick on Johnny that sent him out of the ring. The Patriot turned to finish me but Johnny grabbed his leg from the outside. Ha ha, an opportunity!

I kicked the distracted Patriot in the gut and nailed him with a flying DDT. I turned him over on his back and pinned him for the One, Two, Three. I jumped out of the ring and celebrated with Jeff Probst, err, um, Johnny Stewart. Poor Mookie and the Patriot looked sad and whipped in the ring as Johnny and I really rub it in. Suddenly the Patriot regained his bearings and me and Johnny hauled ass. It’s not that we’re scared it’s that we were tired and we had dinner reservations. Plus we didn’t want to get mobbed by all of our adoring fans. Whatever, WE WON!

As I walked towards dressing room tent, I struggled with the thought of taking off my wrestling boots because deep inside I didn’t want the night to be over.

I looked over at the living legend and reigning AWA world heavyweight champion, Larry Zbyszko who was about to step into the ring for his own match against Ricky Landell. He had seen at least some of my match if not all of it. I don’t know what expecting to see from him but he sincerely smiled at me and that made me feel like the dream was realized. So put this one in the bag cause it’s mine. I lived my dream.

The AWA will be at the Indianapolis Speedrome in INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA on September 12, 2008 for AWA WRESTLERACE 8.0 visit www.awastars.com for info.