My First "Broadway"

By Frank Dusek

Back in the "dark ages", before the modern era, wrestlers often referred to matches that ended in time limit draws as "Broadways." I'm not exactly sure where the term originated, but its roots are probably hidden in the annals of the vaudeville era.

Anyway, my first "Broadway" or time limit draw, came quite by accident. I had been wrestling for about three months or so at the time. One Saturday, after wrestling twice in the morning on WTBS and again at 4PM for Fred Ward in Columbus GA, Rufus R. Jones and I were busting our humps to make it to the show that night in some high school gym in Middle Georgia

We got there just before bell time to find out that I was the only heel who had arrived. Things were only slightly better on the other side. In addition to Rufus, Chic Donovan was there.

Referee Ronnie West was representing the office, so he immediately changed the card. Rather than working with Rufus, he made the curtain raiser Chic and me.

Instead of a finish, Ronnie told us to just "go until we saw the rest of the boys arrive." Once they got there, we were to go at least five more minutes to give the next match time to dress.

The original twenty minutes time limit came and passed with no other wrestlers arriving. Uncertain what to do, I had Chic ask for the dreaded "five more minutes."

Once the extra time had elapsed there still wasn't a second match, so I asked for the next "five more minutes."

Now thirty minutes into the match, we went at least twice through my entire inventory of moves and high spots at the time. There still wasn't another soul on the heel side, so, you guessed it, we asked for and got another "five more minutes."

Mercifully, as the third "five more minutes" was winding down, the guys started to arrive. I was never so glad to see such an ugly group of faces in my life.

Like I said at the start of this, our finish was to go "Broadway" but even then I realized that the crowd was expecting it. In the middle of a high spot, I called for an "Oklahoma Hay Ride" (small package to the less informed) and held on to Chic for dear life.

Despite his best efforts to the contrary, he managed to "pin" me and win the match, thoroughly surprising the fans as well as Chic.

Later that night, as we left the town, a car came up behind Rufus and me flashing its lights. We finally pulled over. It was Chic.

He was all excited and he wanted to thank me for giving him his first win ever in the NWA.

Oh well, that's wrestling!

Frank Dusek is a second-generation wrestler from one of the most famous wrestling families ever. He had a solid career as a wrestler and later managed several wrestlers to major titles. He also spent time as a broadcaster, promoter and matchmaker. His first memories of the wrestling business are selling programs for his father when he was 4 years old.

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