The Bull Pen

However... before we get into Part II, I must go back and add a prequel episode. So in the spirit of STAR WARS (hence the pic) we will make the first part "Episode IV"  and I will now go back and bring you episode III before we move on to part II which is now Episode V. Confused? Hey it made trillions for George Lucas.

Episode III.
"the Japan Wars"
This entire episode takes place weeks before the epic Loser Leaves Japan showdown scheduled for the LAST NIGHT night of the tour. (Quote of the day: "How Con-veeeeeeeen-ient" -The Church lady).
Our Hero, me, flies to Japan knowing the dangers he will face in the first ever World Extreme Cup hardcore tournament. All matches for the tourney will have some sort of hardcore stipulation, so I expected light tubes, thumbtacks, flaming tables, barbed wire, cactus plants, live Pirranha, and many other assorted objects to be used to continue the morbid road map of scars which now form a intricate pattern over most of my upper body. I doubt after years of hardcore matches and the abuse my body has endured I will get any offers from Calvin Klein to be their new underwear model, although if Fruit of the Loom calls, that Apple costume would conceal most of my scars and still let my pretty face shine through, although I would refuse to wear the lil' hat thingy as that would mess up my rockstar hair..
I arrive in Japan 45 minutes earlier than Mike Samples, so the car that was sent for me will wait for Mike to arrive so we can ride together to the Fuji View which is still another hour away. We arrive and find Tower Of Doom sitting in the lounge with Abdullah the Butcher and Harley Lewis. A quick "hello" and a laugh about the fact Harley, Doom, Mike and myself all bleached our hair white for the tourney, in an effort to "stand out" and showcase any blood loss, when blood mixes with white hair it just looks sooo OLD SCHOOL COOL, check out Ric Flair's many NWA title defenses. The four new blondes look around at each other and then over to Abby, guess Abby didnt get see that BLONDE memo in his mailbox. After checking in and getting unpacked, I return to the lounge to see that Rico Suave, Mustafa,  and Mike have joined Doom and the boys. I pull up a chair as Abby sizes me up, I am one of the smaller guys there, as everyone is over 6'2", he looks at me and says" So, you must be the tour's shooter?" To which I quickly reply, "No, I'm the tour's bleeder". Abby laughs out loud, turns to Mike and says I really like this guy, pats me on the shoulder and buys my drinks the rest of the night. A few hours later a representative from the Big Japan office asks us all to tape some pre-match interviews for the tourney, this lasts 30 minutes tops, and back to the lounge we go. The next day is our big media day in which we posed for pics, talked with reporters and signed autographs for fans. That night the NEW guys on the tour(ones who had never worked for BJW before)  were treated by sponsors to a night on the town. I returned very late and rested up before our first night in the famed Kourakeun Hall. My first match, was a six man win with Harley Lewis and Tower of Doom as we beat Mustafa, Benkei & Abdullah Kobayashi. Off to a good start, the press love me, I'm a media darling, the fans love me, I'm quickly becoming a foreign legend, and I'm undefeated. Yay! Go me.
Things are going good, until the fifth day. A two day show in the promoter's hometown of Sapporro, we're taping for TV. Another six-man tag, and during a very simple reversal which involved a turn to the left, my knee exploded, tearing my ACL, "luckily" for me the match ended moments later, as I could barely move or even get back to the dressing room. (Now of course I have no clue how bad my knee is hurt at the time, so I decline the offer to stay in a Tokyo hotel while the tour continues on). I'm thinking its just swollen, bruised ect. I walk each day around town to get blood flowing through it to help it loosen up before the night's matches, I finish the tour in pain, but finish the tour Dammit! I get back to the states and find out just how serious it is. Yeah I wrestled over 20 matches in Japan with a torn ACL, I'm soooo over. So I'm wrestling each night in great pain and very limited mobility, which brings us to the night before the epic showdown of Abby and Teioh's Loser Leaves Japan match. So now onto part II of "Selling"

"Selling" part II
(When we last left our Hero, me, had just found out he was going to wrestle Men's Teioh in Teioh's last singles match leading up to his showdown with Abdullah the next night to end the tour. Both Abby and Teioh suffered tag team losses the night before after using the entire tour to gain momentum with win after win to peak the fan's interest.

Abby quickly avenges his loss, and disposes of Winger with sheer brutality and blood, going after security, referees, fans ect, total chaos, Abby is a ruthless monster that can't be stopped!!! The press quickly forgets about the minor upset loss and is once again reminded just how dangerous this man is heading into the showdown match.
Now most of the tour, except during my tournament matches I have been involved in six man tags, I'm thinking its because the office is protecting me from my injury, yet rewarding me at the same time for my uncomom valor and dedication. I find out my match isnt a six man, hell its not even a tag, its a singles match with the main company babyface who's heading into the company's biggest showdown. Great, lucky me.
So with one good leg, I try to make the best of a bad situation, Teioh and I, WRESTLE for over 20 friggin' minutes, with him countering all my counters showing off his great skills. The fans are enjoying their champion's huge arsenal of moves.Since he is going to be billed once again as "Terry Boy" he has been using Terry Funk's trademark spinning toe hold to get his last few wins by submission. So with the torn ACL I am very quick to counter any offense of his aimed at my left leg. After showcasing his great skill, I decided to showcase my incredible left hand to his jaw, <POW> another left, another, some boots to his head, a bit of choking, basically going into "Abby" mood, But with the fans solidly behind him, he mounted a comeback and with the stars aligned in his favor, and a japanese fan pointing a laser pointer into my eyes(Basic Heel 101, always have an excuse). He was able to trap me into the spinning toe hold, but luckily he had grabbed my right leg, which I was able to fight out of a few times before tapping out, (I only tapped because that damn laser pointer was friggin frying my retna). Teioh won, showcasing his skill and ability to fight back from a beat down. Which set up Teioh's technical wrestling and mastery of the spinning toe hold vs. Abby's bloodlust and bedlam. Should be an awesome encounter, one man will fall and be forced to leave Japan.
Now this is where we get into the reasoning behind the title "selling".. so WORKERS only may read on beyond this point.
Now I've just done my part to help set up the biggest match in the company's young history. I am suffering from a legit torn ACL injury to my LEFT leg which will NOT support my body weight on its own, yet just tapped to a hold applied to my RIGHT leg with media documenting the event for tomorrow's big showdown. Now what do I do?! What would you do? Sell the worked leg and limp out hoping noone notices? I chose to lay there grabbing my injured Right leg until security and the staff rushed the ring to get me to the back to check my injury, I never did find the guy with the laser pointer, but I'm sure it was Kojika the promoter pulling a Japanese version of Vince McMahon's famed Survivor Series BS. The next night, again I'm not in a six man tag, its a friggin 8-way scramble for the BJW "8-way Scramble" championship belt. 8-way Scramble Championship?! Gotta love the Japanese.
On a side note, Men's Teioh was able to beat Abdullah the Butcher in their Loser Must leave Japan match, forcing Abby to make his scheduled flight right on time. Heh, what a shocker.

Your pal,
Terry

I never said part II was going to be anything special by making you wait and wait, it just happened that way. Get over it, spend a little less time reading journals and try updating YOURS so I have some stuff to read then criticize.

BULLSEYE!!!

Um..., yeah this won't be "part II" either. During the big storm which hit the area the other night,  my computer, or something related to my computer was fried by a bolt of lightning. So I was without a computer the past few nights and couldn't get back online to write the exciting conclusion. I have, however,  finally decided to go rent a new computer, this way I just give it back when I move, and don't have to worry about packing it up, or worrying about shipping it, or even worrying about the problems associated with any viruses acquired during late night cheerleader porn downloads. So now part II of the journal entry "selling" has to wait since I now have to waste this journal entry explaining why Part II isn't on here.
Now, I have never claimed to be all scientific or even computer savvy, but isnt lightning just electricity? And if you answered "yes" to that question, doesn't a computer run off electricity?! "yes" again? Hmmmm... now I realize a lightning bolt has like a million jigga-watts (according to Prof. Emmit Brown) and can easily send a Delorean traveling at 85 MPH into the space-time continuum, providing of course said Delorean is equiped with a "flux capacitor", which we all know is what makes time travel possible. Knowing this, I can easily see that my computer did not have such a device installed, however, it was still JUST electricity which surged through it and destroyed the inner workings. So, a computer that operates on electricity is destroyed by a surge of electricity?! WTF? At most I would think my computer would have been given some sort of radioactive super power or something, even a spidey sense. Instead, I'm now stuck explaining to the guy at Rent-a-Center that pro wrestling is in fact a job and I've been employed there 18 years, just to get a friggin' computer for a few days. GrRrRrRrRr.. What makes it even worse I was paying cash, its not like I was asking him to cash some third party out of state check.
On a side-note, since Billy Maverick (www.billymaverick.com) is the one who told me about Live Journal, I decided to just "borrow" some of his friends off his list, the ones of them I knew, geez... none of them ever update. "We" need new friends Billy. Be sure to stop by Billy's online store and buy a copy of his wrestling DVD "Best of Maverick Vol 4" seems he put alot of effort into them.
Your pal,
Terry

I surfed over to the images site and waited breathlessly for the images to load, one by one... then just 7 images down was the one I had just sent. Cool. However here are Images #6 & #8. I could have been given a better slot, I'm Terry Bull dammit!  

Pic before mine.

And the pic after mine.

So, I signed off after writting part I, and went to Live Journal images, yeah I'm hooked. When I noticed a few hours had gone by, geez. So the idea comes to me to post a pic here and then go there and see if it comes up. If youre unfamiliar with L J Images, its random images pulled off these Journals and posted there, you can just sit back and watch for HOURS, obviously. There's alot of shots of plates of spaghetti, cats posed with beer bottles, Russian ads for who knows what, and the always present avatar of two nekkid people doin' it in every position possible. I'm still waiting for that one a million beastiality shot that shuts the whole thing down.

So, I'm foregoing writting part II and continuing with my pic experiment. And don't give me any hell over part II, hell "Star Wars" started with part 4 and is just now some 30 years later on part 3. I'm sure you can wait a day or so for the exciting conclusion of "Selling."

Now sit back and enjoy this pic of me from "Bull's Last Stand" at the Evansville Coliseum. (okay, now hurry over to the images page and see if its on there, this'll be fun, and soooo cool.) 

I'm sooooo friggin' cute when I'm mad. Now maybe some Goth chick will see me all bloody and just have to have me. Wooooo Hoooooo!!

A great wrestling fan sent me this pic of him posing with Terry Funk at a recent SCW show in Nashville. The really cool part? Thats an official Terry Bull T-shirt he's wearing. I'm sooooo over. I really do appreciate the pic, thanks man. Now if he just coulda' got Funk to trade him shirts. Hmmmm...

Please note Terry Funk's hat, thats friggin awesome. Its a Texas Funkers hat. He's one up on me. I know what youre thinking, "JUST one? He's F'n TERRY FUNK"

Has anyone read Funk's book yet? I still haven't had time, but will put it over huge after I read it. If I ever get the time, I'm about halfway boxed up and ready for the move to Seattle, which is why I'm online a few hours earlier than the normal 6am can't sleep shift, now in Seattle I will gain 3 hours so I'll actually be closer to sleeping on a normal schedule. Today's Japan memoir ties into Terry Funk, and you just thought I was posting the pic to put my shirt over, Ha! I say to you, the non-believers.

"Selling"
The tour was the World Extreme Cup, a hardcore tournament stretched out over 4 weeks and many, many cities. Abdullah the Butcher was the Captain of the foreign Invaders, i.e. us. "Foreign?" Thats hard to get used to. And the Great Kojika, the BJW promoter/owner was the Captain of the Japanese defenders. The Tourney was set up in three blocks (divisions) of 4 wrestlers, after each wrestler in each block had faced one another the wrestler with the best record would then move on and face the winner of the two other blocks. So in each Block there was a wrestler at 4-0, 3-1, 2-2, ect. there were some wild card  winners too, and matches to settle third and fourth ect. But the tournament was just setting up a HUGE Finale, a  showdown on May 14th between Abdullah the Butcher and Men's Teioh(ECW/WWF's "Terry Boy") the loser of the match had to leave Japan. Ironically, the scheduled tour was up the 15th(the next day), go figure. Terry Boy was the name Teioh used to honor his American Wrestling Idol, Terry Funk(see? I told ya' it would all tie together). 
So every city there were several 6-man tags, hardcore matches, singles, inter-promotional matches with FMW, title bouts, ladies matches ect, and always one match from the tournament. Men's Teioh was fresh off his WWF run in Kaientai with Taka Michinoku, so he was treated as a star and wasnt involved in the tourney, all of his matches were used to showcase his technical wrestling abilities and never die attitude, at the same time Abby was winning his matches with his brand of blood & brutality, they're both racking up wins heading for the showdown. Closing in on the showdown I am paired with Mike Samples & Tower of Doom in a six man tag against, Teioh, Winger & Kamikazee. We win, Teioh of course was not in the finish, on the same night Abby is teamed with Crazy Sheik and they lose a tag to Benkei and Kobayashi, again Abby was nowhere near the finish. So heading into the big night, both participants have suffered a set back with just one night left before the LOSER MUST LEAVE JAPAN!! The next night, the final match before the big finale, I get Teioh, and Abby draws Winger, on the eve of the big LOSER LEAVES JAPAN showdown.

yes, part II tomorrow.

Your pal,
Terry 

Tokyo, Japan. 2000 WEC Tournament
(Note: Right before this photo was taken all four of my "Pals" decided to pull a rib and stand on their toes to appear they're all taller than me, Ha! good one guys.)

Left to Right:
Tower of Doom (USWA's Macho Warrior Ric Hogan)
Mustafa Saed (1/2 of ECW's Gangsta's w/ New Jack)
Mike Samples 
Terry Bull (the Cute Blonde, sportin' my Colts hat & Vols jacket)
Harley Lewis

Now on to the story.
"Corn Soup"
The entire tour we travel by bus. LONG bus trips. In Japan, every rest stop is a restaurant/bathroom gimmick. Now I say "restaurant" but its actually a giant vending machine where you put money in next to the picture of what you want, then a reciept comes out, you take that receipt to a counter where the cooks then prepare your meal. At this point I'd like to thank Winger for translating what I was attempting to buy wasn't BEEF, thank you man I owe you big. After a few of these same restaurants we come to a much bigger one during our second week of the tour, on the right is the bathrooms, the middle is the giant vending machine, and to the left is a japanese "Denny's" (Shoney's, Jerry's... whatever its called in your area). So Doom and I are asked by Abdullah the Butcher (Abby) if we'd like to eat with him at the "Denny's" gimmick. Naturally, we take him up on the offer and we are quickly escorted to table where the entire service staff begin to file out and get the legends autograph. Abby is no small man and orders 3 dinners, COMPLETE dinners. I get something that is very close to chicken (Winger had decided to save some money and go with a cheaper meal from the vending machine, so I'm left to fend for myself, I hoped I was ordering chicken.) I don't remember Doom's selection, although I do know he was having a hard time getting enough water to drink, the waitress kept serving him water OVER and OVER in these "shot glasses". Finally after a few trips back and forth to our table, a couple of pitchers were brought to the table, BOTH for him.
Abby's first course arrives, its called corn soup, but its actually just a huge bowl of creamed corn, Abby finishes it quickly in time for his Octopus.., um... "balls". (not what you think, rolled Octopus, looked like hushpuppies). Then Abby gets his first entree' as my "chicken" arrives, Abby is quickly done, and the waitress brings more balls and another soup. Abby asks me "Champ, you want my corn soup?"
I decline, and tend to my "chicken".
Abby doesnt ask Doom, as Doom is currently ahead in Poker winnings from the hour long games played on the bus. Abby HATES to lose at cards. He eats his second meal and makes sure I don't want his soup.
"Champ, you sure you dont want this corn soup?"
"No thanks."
Another round of balls and soup.
"Champ, you want this bowl of corn soup?"
"No, I'm stuffed"
Another entree' is finished off, Abby is a very big tipper, and before we go he asks again, "Champ, you want my corn soup?"
The whole time Doom is just drooling, the guy is a legit 6' 6" or taller, and well over 400lbs, he had only one dinner, and NO corn soup.

Moral: You never really win when you play Abby in cards. Doom was up $50 bucks or so, but missed out on two glorious bowls of corn soup.

Abby gave me a card to his "House of Ribs" which he owns in Atlanta. I'm still thinking of going and ordering a few bowls of corn soup.

Your pal,
Terry

Abdullah the Butcher's House Of Ribs
2387 Fairburn Rd. SW
Atlanta, GA 30331-5242
(404) 629-2332

Billy Maverick has gotten me hooked on Live Journal images, and if that wasn't wasting enough of my time, he introduces "Paper Toss" onto his website, Geez Billy, I still gotta sleep sometime. The game is actually very cool, simple, yet cool. I of course rule all in the P-Toss death matches. Now Billy has convinced me to write in these journals, which I will begin to do, on a semi-regular basis(between the LJ Images and paper Toss games). I figure I'll go back to May 2000 for some Road stories of Japan, its pretty funny stuff and you never want to waste all your good material in your early Journal entries since no one actually reads them. Besides, it gives me another chance to talk about being in Japan, which gets me over with the marks and some of the boys who didnt know I wrestled in Japan. Yup, I'm over. Speaking of over, this entry is about done, I need to be at the airport in a little over 2 hours, I have to be there BEFORE 5am for a 7am flight?! WTF, damn Terrorists. When I got my itinerary I thought "cool" the flight won't be too long, I kept forgetting they put arrival and departure times by the local time zones. I thought my first flight to Dallas was just an hour long, Nope 2(They're on Central time, an hour Behind), then the flight from Dallas to Seattle was only going to be 2, nope 4 (you lose two more hours on the west Coast). I need to invest in one of those portable Playstation gimmicks. Maybe the stewardess will be hot. Mile High club? Hmmmmmm...

Your Pal,
Terry

I FIND YOUR LACK OF FAITH.....DISTURBING.