Sika "Educates" A Non-Fan

By Frank Dusek

I’ll never understand human nature.

I spent almost three years managing wrestlers in Bill Watts’ Mid-South Wrestling and for the Dallas-based World Class Championship Wrestling. I traveled with such wrestlers as Scott and Bill Irwin, The Freebirds, the Grappler (Len Denton), Ernie Ladd, Leroy Brown and The Wild Samoans (Afa and Sika). In that span of time, I can’t tell you how many people (fans and non-fans) nearly got their heads torn off for irritating the wrong person.

There’s one example that will always stand out to me.

After the matches in Shreveport, LA, all the heels would stay at the same motel. We were regulars we pretty much took run of the place. About 11:30 pm or midnight the Samoan boys, who were great cooks, would fire up a grill out by the pool and by 1:00 am we were usually having supper.

On this particular night an "outsider" joined our little group. We didn’t invite "outsiders" to join us, but if they mustered the courage to wander over and were okay people, we didn’t care.

Now if someone wanted to discuss the merits of professional wrestling’s validity (whether or not it’s fake) with the group I mentioned above, one would think they would seek out me. After all, I was a manager, not a wrestler and the smallest of that group But nooooo … true to form, this guy, who appeared to be fairly sober, sat down next to Sika!

"Is wrestling fake?" he asked Sika.

Sika blew him off with something like, "come on bruddah, let’s just have a beer and eat."

But this guy was determined. He asked Sika a couple of more times and each time the big Samoan tried to be nice and change the subject. Finally, he made the near fatal mistake. He stood up and declared in a semi-loud voice, "I KNOW it’s fake!"

Just as he was attracting everyone’s attention Sika was up in a flash. Like a cat, in one move he rose from the wrought iron love seat where was sitting, back-handed the guy sending him down at my feet, about four to five feet from where he stood only an instant before.

Before anyone, including the stunned guy, could react, Sika was standing over the guy with this wrought iron love seat raised with one hand ready to smash the poor guy’s brains out.

I know it was just a matter of a couple of seconds, but it seemed like the wild-eyed Sika stood over this guy for an eternity. Finally I mustered the presence of mind to move over to the Wild Samoan standing over his prey. Hoping to prevent Sika from going to jail, I gently tapped Sika on the shoulder and said, "Brother, you think he’s had enough?"

Sika looked over and I saw the fire in his eye fade away. He laughed stepped back off the poor soul cowering on the ground and put down the love seat.

I turned to suggest that the "outsider" leaves, but all I could see of him was backside and elbows!

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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