Cru's Views

Cru’s Views

Cru Jones is an outspoken wrestler and co-owner of NWA-Atlanta

These are the Views of Cru Jones and only he, for he is I, and I is he. The following views are mine and do not reflect anyone else’s opinion, even though after reading them, I am sure a lot will agree with them.

I was sidelined at the beginning of the year, unable to do anything physical. (a quick side note, who would have thought that the Beastie Boys mashed-up with the Grateful Dead would sound unreal; listening to it as I type this). Back to being sidelined. I have pretty much done everything inside the ring. Now I found myself unable to do anything physical. Personally I have always prided myself on my brains, not just the muscles. Actually a lot of people are shocked at how good I am when I spank them at jeopardy or any other trivia venture. I have been involved behind the scenes in various roles for most places I have wrestled. I camouflaged all of the off the wall ideas at RPW for the last 5 plus years. I guess you could say I got my ”Masters” degree in taking a totally ridiculous idea for a match or storyline , then molding, twisting, and polishing it into something that makes sense. I was able to work with a lot of bookers, Jodie & Nick, Micah, Jimmy, Bill, Jason & AJ, and M1. I learned what works and what does not work. When it comes to being creative and risky I am way ahead of the curve. I am proud that a lot of the stuff I pitched was shot down for the fear of it being too risky and fear of backlash. I have never half-assed anything; I always go all out in everything. If someone is scared to go for something I pitched, I do not look down or hold a grudge. I save that idea for the future.

I was faced with sitting on my butt and doing nothing, or getting involved in something. That something was NWA-Atlanta. NWA-Atlanta has pretty much let me do whatever I have wanted. I had creative control of whatever I did when wrestling for them. As time went on they would ask for more advice. I never interjected myself on them. I was happy just showing up and doing my own thing. As time went on I was asked to review matches by some of the guys. Next thing you know they asked me to start training their guys, in which I refused. To NWA-Atlanta’s credit they were persistent and finally got me to agree to training, which is good some days, but other days it totally pisses me off, but that will be another “View” to write in the future.

NWA- Atlanta had been looked down in the wrestling community in this area for most of their existence. This is when I came up with a question. How many people can say they have helped turn a wrestling organization around? Sure, Football coaches have done it with programs or teams. I started thinking to myself and could not come up with a “yes” answer. Have people propelled certain organizations to another level, of course, but turn around a place with a bad rep? I approached the powers that be of what I wanted to do. I wanted to help in any way possible to pull this off. It took exactly 6 months to do it.

The following are things that I did, but not limited to, and remember I been in this for 13 years for all those that think they are above it. I papered cars, doors, and windows with flyers. I trained anyone I could threaten to show up, including trying to walk out myself several times for lack of effort or dedication. I pretty much made 85% of the people attempting to train rethink themselves, nothing would be given by me, so they quit. I helped with creative, making every damn gimmick known to mankind, getting talent, confirming talent, dealing with marks in the crowd and behind the curtain, dealing with facebook bookers, concessions, all media outlets, teaching security guards about the importance of B.O.,write ups, flirting with ugly fans, promoting, even cleaning the nasty ass bathrooms in Locust Grove. The number one thing I did not want to do was be in front of the crowd and take away from the wrestlers. I hate that, when someone in a non-wrestling role tries to be the star of the show. It is Pro Wrestling, not Pro Announcing, not Pro Commentating, and Not Pro General Managing. Things happen and people do not show up, and of course things get totally screwed up like referees looking dead at cheating and still not making the correct call, so I had to interject myself at times, which I hated. For the most part I was able to help run things behind the curtain. I do not view myself as a “Booker”. I would say I am closer to an Adviser. I am going to let the cat out of the bag, Andy Anderson is the booker. All the praise that the booking gets needs to go to him. He bounces ideas off of me to make sure they make sense, but the majority of creative stuff is his ideas, so all of the haters out there can go chew on some crow! I have been hearing it for years, he (Andy Anderson) is a mark, he has not been around long enough to run a fed, he is not trained right, he is a belt mark, he is a sting mark, he killed Jimmy Hoffa, he was the third gunman on the grassy knoll, he is a white-latino like Zimmerman, and on and on. Here is the truth about Andy. He got in the business and got screwed over by some pieces of shit. Old school turds like Jeff White, you may know him as “Vision Warrior” or “Rampage”. If you do not, then do not worry, be thankful, you are not missing anything. He is a perfect example of someone who has been in the biz for 20 years and they still f@#king suck. Pretty much these guys promised the world and took the money and ran. Andy being Andy said “F” this and decided he could run his own show, since these guys pretty much had Andy doing all the work and stiffed him. This is a trend for Andy. If you know him outside of the ring, then you would know he is an entrepreneur. He owns several businesses, all of which he got pissed off and decided he could do it better, and did. Most, correction, everyone that talks shit on him does not know that. They just run their mouth off of bullshit they have heard from Jack Meoff or the local Mark Kayfaberson. His wrestling fed has been at it for 4 plus years now. How many guys would sit back, see, and admit to their flaws, and asked to get re-trained? Only one, and that was Andy Anderson. Not another person would set their pride aside and try to restart, at least not up to this point. That is what Andy did. It started with training, and then morphed into re-vamping the entire show and roster.

As for people running their mouth about stuff they have heard, here is another example. In the mythical Top 10 that came out recently there was a term mentioned “PCW Guy”. This is also known as a “Platinum guy”. I am here to tell you, outside of PCW, it is not a good thing. Anyone who is not a “PCW Guy” knows what I am talking about. If you are a “PCW Guy” you automatically get labeled with the image of a cartoony spot-monkey who does not know psychology from his or her a$hole. Is it fair? Of course not, but it is reality. Are all PCW Guys like that? No, but there are some who are high on spots. It is not fair because these guys have to work hard to prove they can go. Marko Polo works out with me. I knew where he was from, but I just observed him. I did not get all into the “he said she said”. Marko is nothing like that. In fact when Marko speaks of Stephen training he tells stories of Stephen preaching on psychology for hours. The point, get the info first hand.

My goal was to get NWA-Atlanta turned around. I interjected all kinds of ideas and opinions on things that needed to be changed to get things going into the other direction quicker. Honestly, I thought the biggest success was the War Games show in the spring. That show was a home run. The thing that was missing was exposure. It got rave reviews, but certain people did not see it. In a Top 10 that came out recently the comment was “ if Larry has never come to one of your shows, you ain’t shit”, this statement is so true. I do not agree with all of said Top 10, but some points I do. The assessment of the importance of Larry Goodman was dead on. At the Bash at the Bridge show Larry Goodman showed up unannounced. I was told midway thru the show in between trips of me running to my car in east bumble (a distant parking lot) for everything from masks, boots, and gear. My first response was “Is Anarchy not running tonight”? The fact that Goodman showed up was shocking considering NWA-Atlanta runs on the same nights as Anarchy. I don’t care what anyone one says, Anarchy is Goodman’s first love, well maybe second to some good Vodka…lol..Take that Larry! Now that I think about it, 3 others from the mythical Top 10 were on hand also, only 1 booked to wrestle. So, that would make 3 on their own, not to mention that there were 6 other promoters attending the show.

The infamous Goodman report came out. I had warned the powers that be in NWA- Atlanta of the infamous day that when it does come out it will be an eye opener. I was right. Honestly I thought it would be a lot more brutal. I saw a lot more than the report had, but then again I pick the show apart every 2 weeks NWA- Atlanta has a show. Funny thing is Murder One and I was discussing a while back about loving how Goodman rips apart shows. It gives guys something to strive for, to improve. In corporate America, giant corporations pay people to come in and analyze & evaluate their company’s and tell them everything wrong with it and it cost big bucks. Larry is doing the exact same thing for free.

When asked about Goodman’s report, I replied that he pretty much was dead on. The next thing I said was now use it to improve. It is the same in training, don’t give me an excuse, tell me how you intend to resolve the problem, give me a solution, not an excuse.

Next on the horizon is trying to help organize a 32 man tournament over the course of the next 15 weeks or as I like to call it, Mission Impossible. Indy Wrestlers are the most irresponsible people I have ever met. After the last 6 months I see why the majority of them are unemployed or stuck in dead end jobs. If it was not for Andy a lot of people would have already been gone from NWA- Atlanta, but then again a lot of new guys are getting a shot to show what they can do in this tournament, so come October 26th the roster could look a lot different. On to improving….

NWA Atlanta news:

Bash at the Bridge 2013 was plagued with Injuries. Mike Cannon tore a pectoral muscle the week before the show. Jimmy Rave contracted Staph. Axil Anderson was legitimately struck by Lightening last Wednesday. He was in the hospital for 2 days before being released.

Upcoming:

The first half of the first round of the NWA- Georgia Heavyweight Title Tournament will be July 27th in Locust Grove, GA.