In Bill Watt’s Mid South territory in 1981 we were averaging 2000 miles a week in travel. On one occasion we had the opportunity to spend an extra night at home in Baton Rogue in our own beds and drive to Shreveport for the matches the next day. Paul Orndorff, his brother Terry, Tommy Wright and myself made use of the chance and planned to travel together the next day.

Of course, we were running late.

In those days, Bill Watts’ road agent was Grizzly Smith (Tiny Anderson to Carolina fans) of the Kentuckians. Griz let very little slip by and being late without a good excuse was a $50 fine.

For the last hour of the trip the four of us went over the story we would tell Griz. Paul (who was driving) had replaced the water pump in his car earlier in the week. By smudging the date, it was decided that he would produce the receipt as proof that we had had car trouble, making us late.

Paul, Terry and Tommy were in one dressing room while I was in another. When we arrived, Griz went to all three to quiz them as to why we were late. As we had arranged, Paul produced the receipt and they proceeded to tell him a detailed story of how we had "broken down" on the road to Shreveport and had to replace the water pump.

When Griz came to my dressing room I was ready with my story as well. Both Len Denton (The Grappler) and Scott Irwin (Super Destroyer) listened intently as I described our problems to Griz

"Griz," I said with the most innocent face I could muster, "you won’t believe the trouble we had getting here today. The generator in Paul’s car went bad and we had to replace it."

Griz immediately slapped his head in disbelief. "Geez!" he screamed, a giant smile breaking on his face. "Can’t you guys even get your stories straight?"

I guess Griz liked the tale we told, or maybe he just took pity on us, but we didn’t get reported or fined that time.

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.