THE PAST
----Before this site even started, my promotion – Chaotic Championship Wrestling – went thru the same fighting with the owners and such. At one point, the other guys that owned the promotion took the ring and hid it from my wife and me. I would later sell the rights to the promotion, ring and everything.
----Early 2007, Arkansas Championship Wrestling drew some big crowds for their shows. Before the end of the summer, this promotion would be dead. They were considered successful, but people within the promotions could not get along on certain issues. They went from drawing record crowds to shutting down the promotion.
----July, 2007 seen a major break in XOW of Tony Watts and Brody Hawk. It was a nasty breakup that was covered by RRO. Watts would go on to promote with Billy Russ. Hawk formed a new company that last just a few weeks.
----MEWA in Batesville, AR was running a FREE show and drawing near 300 every week in 2007. Due to mainly “he said, she said” stuff from owners and operators, the rent was not paid and the building was closed for them to operate. Success was too much for them to handle the day to day operations.
----TLCW won Promotion of the Year for 2006 and 2007. Crowds were real good in Ripley, TN. In December 2007, Dustin Starr beat Chris O’Neal in a Loser Leave Town match. Both guys would quit the promotion. Tatt2 would be beat Derrick King in a Loser Leave Town match in 2008 with King not returning until just a few weeks back. Tatt2 would leave also due to creative differences. Crowds would continue to go down. They would later change the name to EWE.
----NBW would be forced to move their promotion early this year from Dyersburg to Newbern, TN due to fighting within the promotion. Brother and sister were fighting over the direction and overall day to day operations. DCW was reopened in Dyersburg and NBW runs in Newbern now.
RWA: THE RISE
----In December of 2007, it was announced that Royal Wrestling Alliance would debut in Jonesboro, AR in January. The promotion was going to be run by Aaron Polston and Frank Martin. Before the show even debuted, controversy was brewing as they announced Brandon Baxter as being part of the promotion and he denied it.
----January, 2008 RWA debuts with about 200 people in attendance of the main event with Jerry Lawler vs Reno Diamond main event. An interesting note to the whole back story is that Rodney Mack defeated Gary Diamond on that show.
----Before January ends Aaron Polston leaves RWA.
----March, 2008 RWA draws a big crowd under the booking of Rik Burton. The crowd would drop down the next week, but the peak did show them that the fans wanted to see wrestling.
----April, 2008 it is reported that Ali Stevens choked Frank Martin for shoot. Others said it was a work and Martin tried to work everyone with it. Stevens did return to RWA.
----July, 2008 RWA would work with Brandon Baxter and “4th in the Forest”. The July 5th show featured “Dr. Death” Steve Williams and was reported as Standing Room Only!!
----Rodney Mack would replace Rik Burton before the end of 2008 as booker of RWA.
----Rodney Mack and POB would have a run for the first part of 2009 that would have record crowds of 200+ for over 12 weeks in a row.
----Austin Lane would work for RWA and would later say, “I could feel the tension between Rodney Mack and Frank Martin.”
----Martin, in a storyline, turned heel with the “Big Money” gimmick. Many guys working the show said this was close to shoot.
----I had heard rumors of problems with Martin and Mack. I was even told at one time they were going to run an angle where there would be two different promotions – DSW and RWA.
SHUTDOWN: THE FALL
----On Thursday August 6th, the first confrontation that leads to Frank Martin closing the doors happened. Martin drove into the parking lot as the boys were standing outside. He apparently walked into the building without saying a word to anyone. He would call Rodney Mack into the building after everyone hearing him throw a fit inside the building. Apparently someone was supposed to clean under the ring and he was pissed because it was not done. Mack told him he was there to train and if he wanted someone to do that he had to ask them. There was some kind of altercation with JD Kerry and Martin with Kerry telling Martin to “fuck off” and he would do what Mack told him to do, not Martin.
----Martin apparently was livid about Kerry being so rude to him. He fired Kerry and told him to get off his property.
----Calls back and forth from Mack and Martin up to Saturday night were “on & off” with what to do with the show. The boys had picked Mack to be their leader and Martin was not too happy with it. One side would say they were not going to work, and then the other side would agree and so on and so forth. Apparently Mack and crew showed up and Mack was selling “Dogg Pound” shirts. A lot of workers were wearing them also and by the time word got to Martin, he was taking offense to all of this as if they had chosen Mack over him. Martin has also stated over and over that Kerry was to not be at the show.
----Mack and Martin apparently then had a conversation in the building. It was believed by Mack that it was just him and Martin present, but there were some guys hiding in the concession stand in case Mack got out of line. They settled everything and were going to have the show until Mack was told those guys were hiding in the concession stand.
----At this point, it all blew up with Mack telling all the guys from the concession stand to go outside with him and with one carrying a firearm, he said something to the effect that he was ‘bulletproof”, but no one came outside. Martin and Mack continue to argue and everything getting out of hand at this point. It was reported on www.wrestlingnewcenter.com that Mary and Jerry Johnson said, "When we showed up and seen Frank Martin fire J.D. Kerry, who was trained by Rodney Mack, Rodney Mack went nuts. He started cussing and throwing chairs saying that he was going to get a gun and kill Frank Martin and his family.”
----Martin went on to tell everyone that he was doing this promotion for them and he could just shut the thing down. In the middle of all the chaos, he made that decision and closed the doors of RWA. Whether that was the good thing to do or not will be something that we will have to look at when all the smoke clears.
THE FUTURE
----Where does this leave everyone?? Mack and 90% or more of the boys are working weekly shows at Electric Cowboy in Jonesboro on Monday nights and I have heard rumors of other shows. I was told that Martin had a lease on the building until September and I have heard all kinds of rumors on what is going to happen. This is a story that will not have an end until it is decided by Martin and other parties.
