‘What The Hell Was I Thinking?!!’ - Confessions of the World’s Most Controversial Sex Symbol (26 page)

‘3PW is promoting an ECW style product. Unlike a lot of Indy shows 3PW brings in many name wrestlers such as legends Dusty Rhodes, Terry Funk and former ECW greats The Sandman and Raven. The promotion is owned by…Jasmine St. Claire’

For as much of a high as we were all on from the success of the show, that exuberance was handicapped slightly by the death of one of my wrestlers, former XWF wrestler Fly Boy Rocco, who I managed as part of an in-ring tag-team. He died at the gym working out before the show, so that sadness hung over everything. Still, we all went out to the ring that night with his spirit pushing us all to the top of our game, and by drawing wrestling talent like Abby the Butcher vs. Kevin Sullivan, and Syxxpac vs. Sabu, the audience got swept up in 3PW fever as well! After that show, it was contagious, and we had solidified ourselves as one of the East Coast’s most competitive wrestling leagues. It had taken 7 months, but considering how few shows we’d held in that time, we took the momentum as an opportunity to pay tribute to Fly Boy Rocco at our next show in October. We had a Ten-Bell Salute to him in the ring, and the show was dedicated to him. His old tag-team partner Johnny Durham was there, it was really nice. We had a ceremony in the ring, and then just put on a hell of a show in his memory. We had tag-team between the Blue Meanie and I, and Missy Hyatt and the Rockin’Rebels, and by now, we were drawing anywhere between 900-1200, which is considered a sell-out. I would go onto sell out that arena many times, but these first couple sell-out shows are still my favorites looking back.

I celebrated my birthday that year in New York with my mom, and was really happy, because we were gaining the momentum we deserved. The shit talking was already flying from rival promoters about how we were a flash in a pan, I even got word that Rob Black was trying to move in on our territory and was planning up-coming XPW shows in Philadelphia for later that fall. My attitude was — BRING IT ON, I was fearless, because of the old adage ‘I had nothing to lose,’ since I’d built this league from nothing, and Rob had been hanging around for years on the fringe, unable to rise to the level we had. They had even stooped so low as to sneak into our August show and try to give away tickets to OUR PAYING CUSTOMERS in the audience. If I hadn’t been so strict about our parking lot’s cars being flyered as well it would have been worse, but once I caught wind of Rob’s latest desperate antic, I made sure NONE of his people got into the September and October shows. Still, I

wasn’t intimidated by the thought of the competition. He threw a show in November, trying to go head to head with us, and fell FLAT on his face. Rob’s next move was even more laughable, and pretty under-handed at that, wherein he signed an exclusive lease with the ECW Arena owner Stein and Silverstein, which would force our move in the New Year to the Electric Factory — where we still outsold Rob 2-1!

I think Wikipedia could report the outcome of Rob’s East Coast ‘Takeover’ best: ‘Controversy arose when Xtreme Pro Wrestling (XPW) signed an exclusive lease with the venue in late 2002, preventing other promotions from using the building. XPW went out of business in 2003, and the lease was voided.’

Another insight as to why, perhaps, Rob’s lease was voided: ‘Ring of Controversy’ January 9th, 2003, by R. Jonathan Tuleya, The South Philly Review. ‘A new wrestling organization with a colorful past is drawing criticism…coming from residents…Viking Hall’s (a.k.a. the former ECW Arena) new tenants have some residents in the area ready to tap out. XPW’s (exclusive) lease on the arena began Jan. 1, 2003. Sources report the lease deal is for three years at $120,000 annually…For the last two years, an unidentified group or individual has been circulating a twopage flier, mainly via e-mail, warning people that ‘pornography is coming to your neighborhood…’ The missive makes allegations about XPW’s connections to the hard core pornography industry, problems it has had with licenses for past promotions and even claims that the promotion’s management had something to do with severing the thumb of one of its former wrestlers. Residents should be concerned, believes Bob Magee, the owner of an industry news Web site called Philadelphia Wrestling Between The Sheets (pwbts.com), where he writes a weekly column called ‘As I See It.’Last week he reprinted a copy of the flier on the site…Magee said he is not affiliated with any of the local independent organizations — the major ones being Combat Zone Wrestling, Ring of Honor Wrestling and Pro Pain Pro Wrestling (also known as 3PW) — but he does promote them through his site, all except XPW. “I don’t feel comfortable to promote people that blatantly don’t seem to give a damn about following the same regulations everyone else does,” Magee contended.’

We held our November show as planned, in spite of Rob’s XPW ‘competition,’ and again packed in a sold-out capacity crowd. That must have been what spooked Rob Black into agreeing to pay the king’s ransom he eventually did to steal the ECW Arena away from us. He couldn’t do it on the merits of the crowds he drew, so he had to buy his way in, which in my opinion highlights the one thing Rob never got about promoting wrestling events. It’s not about the quick buck, like porn is. It’s about building a following the way ECW had, and now that 3PW had re-engaged that fan base and won them over through HARD WORK — something XPW had no concept of where wrestling was concerned — I knew Rob didn’t have a chance.

Our November ring roster included Dusty Rhodes, Sabu, Kevin Sullivan, Syxxpac, Kid Kash, and I managed a wrestler named Jason Knight, and the show went off fantastically. I wish I could have said the same about the December 3PW show, our final at the ECW Arena before moving to the Electric Factory. To start with, Dusty Rhodes missed his flight and the match as a result, and another of my wrestlers, Ron Killings from the WWF, no-showed me. I later found out that Rob Black had paid him not to show up, which didn’t surprise me in the slightest. In spite of the setbacks, the crowd was huge, and no one asked for their money back, which I saw as the ultimate fuck-you to Rob and XPW by the fans. Regardless of all the antics Rob had going on, I was satisfied in having a confirmation that I knew where Philadelphia wrestling fans’ loyalties lay. We had earned their respect the hard way, and believe me, it was a trying time for 3PW.

Once we got confirmed word that Rob Black had signed the exclusive, lockout lease for the ECW Arena, our promoter Todd Gordon had already been out looking for a replacement. We’d accepted that it was a business decision on the owner’s part, and decided to fight Rob on that level, rather than making it personal. We had a superior roster of talent, a superior reputation as showmen (and women
^J
) and we outdrew them 2 and 3-1 once they started showing their faces on our turf. We had a show at the end of that December on the 28th, ‘Year End Mayhem!’ It was our final show at the ECW Arena, which was a little sad, but I was proud of what we’d accomplished there and ready to embrace the future of 3PW.

Over the holidays, I stayed in Los Angeles, having been back in the East for so much of the fall. It was a nice quite holiday at home. Brian and I spent New Year’s Eve club-hopping, celebrating how far we’d come in such a short time. In
TWELVE MONTHS
we’d built the hottest wrestling

league on the East Coast, with a popularity that was rising by the match. We were attracting all the top-shelf talent, and serving rabid wrestling fans the best matches in town. For Brian and me, it was an even more special celebration on a personal level because this had been our resolution a year ago to that night, and we’d achieved it. I was re-energized again about the life that lay ahead of me, and with my adult film past so far in my rear-view, I felt like I’d finally really started on the path to making something of myself professionally. I knew adult film had been an irreplaceable stepping stone, but wrestling was my love, and something I’d dreamt of doing since I was a child. People can chuckle at that if they want, but it really was — I was a metal-head wrestling fan who was now as a grown-up getting to live one of those dreams. Looking towards the New Year, my resolve to defeat Rob Black and drive him straight out of Philadelphia was my new resolution. It’s one I don’t mind giving the ending away to way ahead of time: I ACHIEVED IT, and in even less time than I thought it would take!

By the New Year, we were busy moving our operations into our new home, the LEGENDARY Electric Factory, which held twice the capacity as ECW Arena! Todd Gordon had been friends with the booker who was a really big wrestling fan and specifically a 3PW fan.That allowed us to score a really good price on our lease (a third of what Rob was paying, which says something about the real cost to XPW of being our competitor at that time.) Taking a cue from Rob, I also made sure we’d secured exclusive wrestling show rights as part of the deal with the club. We were going to be bigger than ever: within that February, Rob Black would be kicked out of his lease in the ECW Arena, and out of Philadelphia altogether as a result of what went down — but I’m jumping ahead.

‘The Electric Factory is a well-known venue for concerts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The first ‘Electric Factory’ venue was actually a converted tire warehouse that was located at 22nd and Arch Streets. This first Electric Factory had opened in 1968, and it closed in 1973. The first performers at this venue were the Chambers brothers, on February 2, 1968.  The ‘Electric Factory’ was resurrected around the latter 1994 or early 1995. It presently stands at 421 N. 7th Street between Willow and Spring Garden Streets.This place is more symbolic because it is an actual converted electric factory.  The standing-room-only capacity in the Electric Factory is approximately 2500 to 3000 people. This includes the second-floor area. Since this portion of the area overlooks the stage from the left, people up here have a good view of the backstage.The Electric Factory is known to host major musical acts on a regular basis. These musical acts usually consist of heavy metal, rock and grunge genres.The Electric Factory has a rich history just like rock

‘3PW was born out of the idea to see what running a show would be like. I had been in the business for 8 years and started to think of what to do for my post in ring career.Truthfully my body won’t hold up to the punishment much longer so I figured I’d give promotion a try. Our first show was the blotter test to see if we wanted to go on. Things went smooth and we decided to go forward. So we enlisted the help of a good friend in Todd Gordon. Todd is very intelligent in the world of business and wrestling. So who better to come up with idea, Todd, Jasmin and I think of ideas for the shows. So far, so good. Our 2nd year anniversary show is coming up on February 21st at the ECW arena in south Philly.’

Our first scheduled head-to-head show with Rob in our new home in the Electric Factory outdrew him 2-1 from what his previous shows had been drawing. Held on February 15th, 2003, our one-year anniversary as a league, we went ALL OUT in celebrating it — beginning with a wet T-Shirt contest we held with Nicole Bass, of whom I was one of the judges. We had top shelf wrestling talent at that show. Prince Nana vs. Jeff Rocker, RAVEN vs. The Blue Meanie; Jason Knight w/ Jasmin St. Claire vs. Rockin Rebel; Kid Kash vs. Kid Kruel; Da Hit Squad (Mafia & Monsta Mack) vs. Balls Mahoney & Nosawa; a tag-team match between Josh Daniels & Damian Adams vs. Matt Striker & Rob Eckos. Low Ki vs. Homicide; RAVEN vs. Xavier vs. ‘Pitbull’ Gary Wolfe, and finally Terry Funk vs. Sabu in a title match.

Even with a snow storm, we packed the Electric Factory that night, and the kicker was Rob Black — once he found out what our draw was going to be — cancelled his own show! He’d lost his own game of chicken, and I felt validated that I was the BEST at what I did. It didn’t stop with Rob either, every other male indie promoter in the region took a shot at us, and no one could rival our operation. I ran a tight ship for that very reason, and that’s why it may have earned me the reputation of an allbusiness bitch over the years, it was worth every insult that kept my name in the press. In that same article, they had to write about why my league was getting so much attention — good and bad. Word was apparently

spreading beyond Philadelphia that we were the league to beat because shortly after our February smack down, a major DVD distribution company — DGD Distribution — who wanted to offer us a contract, so I snapped that deal right up. On top of that, a company in England who syndicated a weekly wrestling show on the BBC’s Wrestling Channel, wanted to run our taped shows.

For the first time in my life, I can honestly say I felt like I was exactly where I wanted to be, at the top of my game. I had wrestlers calling me for work — including guys who had no-showed me before to take what at the time were bigger gigs with Vince McMahon’s league — and I told them no. I didn’t do it to be spiteful, but to remind them they were dealing with a real wrestling league that didn’t need them. That’s not to sound arrogant either because those wrestlers who were loyal to us, we treated like royalty — they were ALWAYS paid on time, with full travel expenses covered since we had many wrestlers who flew in from all over the U.S. to work for 3PW. We were definitely becoming a force to reckon with. People were calling me for work and I didn’t have to reach out. Even those little fucking skanks who’d talked shit about me over the past year to the porn and wrestling press were calling trying to get work from me, and it actually took me aback: the audacity of it. Naturally, I put my foot down and said: ‘NO FUCKING WAY!’That autonomy extended to anyone — male or female — that I felt wouldn’t bring us money in the form of butts in the seats. I knew from my dancing days that the bottom-line job of the talent is to bring in the customers, which sounds obvious, but in the wrestling business there were MANY times where I saw money thrown down the drain on ‘talent’ that were really just favors. In my league, if it didn’t make dollars, it didn’t make sense, and I ran my company accordingly. If Todd booked someone I didn’t think made sense for the show, I had no problem dismissing them from the bill, it was always my call at the end of the day — and the talent can back that up.

Ron Jeremy:
‘A few years later, when she was retired from porn and was working the wrestling circuit, running her company 3PW, she hired me to come out and emcee a match they were having. And I actually saw her in the ring wrestling, and remember being thinking it was great. Because when she first walked out to the ring, I remember initially thinking to myself,‘This is going to be cheesy and corny,’but she was authentic in the ring. She did a good job, and I remember thinking ‘Wow, Jasmin actually learned some moves. She’s got some moves.’I never really knew any other girl not to insult anyone else who tried to follow in her footsteps that succeeded the way she did. The crowds loved her, and she always went over very well with everybody because she had the looks, and the
moves
. It also helped her transitioning into promotion, because she really knew the business inside out. It was impressive.’

Jasmin:
I had to fight twice as hard to be taken seriously because I was a woman running my own show, and that extended to every area of the business — from hiring and firing talent to physically kicking hangers-on out of the back-stage/locker-room area of the arena. I had my share of throwing people personally out of the arena, so as time went on; people who had second-guessed my authority in the past or press got to see it in action first-hand. I had put time and considerable resources into getting this business off the ground, and now that we finally had momentum, I wanted no dead weight slowing us down or holding us back. By this point, as my fortunes continued to rise, Rob Black’s were fast dwindling, and for better or worse, it put a smile on my face when…well, maybe I should let the media do the talking:

‘Rob Zicari and Janet Romano, better known within adult as Rob Black and Lizzie Borden of Extreme Associates, have been indicted on 10 charges by a federal grand jury for allegedly distributing obscene materials via the United States Postal Service and the Internet. Zicari, Romano, and Extreme Associates, Inc. were indicted for allegedly distributing three obscene videos to the Pittsburgh area through the mail and six video clips in various digital formats over the Internet to the Pittsburgh area. The tenth charge was one of conspiracy to commit the alleged crimes… According to U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan, prosecutor for the case, Zicari and Romano, if convicted both face a maximum penalty of 50 years in prison and a $2.5 million fine and probation. Extreme Associates Inc. faces a $5 million fine and could have to turn over their domain name. ‘For over a year Extreme Associates, Inc. has been investigated by the LAPD Obscenities Squad,’ the warrant reads, in the section entitled ‘
Summary of Case
: On February 7, 2002, PBS-Frontline interviewed Extreme Associates, Inc. during a movie shoot of American Porn. The PBS-Frontline cameraman and interviewer stopped shooting during the movie shoot. We believe they left because of the shock and disgust of the rape scene, which was subsequently released as
Forced Entry
. During the PBS-Frontline interview, [Rob Black] (principal) and Extreme Associates issued a challenge to U.S. Attorney General Ashcroft [USAG].They touted the USAG in regards to the content of their movies and that USAG could not do anything about it.’

‘Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft promised upon taking office that he would crack down on the distributors of adult entertainment material such as movies, magazines and Web sites. Much as his Reagan administration predecessor Edwin Meese III did in the 1980s.’Today’s indictment marks an important step in the Department of Justice’s strategy for attacking the proliferation of adult obscenity,’ Ashcroft said. ‘The department,’ he said, will,‘continue to focus our efforts on targeted obscenity prosecutions that will deter others from producing and distributing obscene material.’

Jasmin:
Now you see why I got out of the porn business as quickly as I did. And by the complaint being lodged from Pittsburg, it was clear this part of the country wasn’t very welcoming of XPW’s ‘East Coast Invasion’ after all. He wasn’t very wanted back home in L.A. either, as I found out later he’d run for Mayor of Los Angeles in 2001, receiving only 789 votes. His ego was out of control, to where he’d even tried opening a wrestling school, which fell flat on its face:

‘In April 2003, Rob Black and Lizzy Borden were indicted on obscenity charges due to pornographic material produced by XPW’s parent company, Extreme Associates…The stress of the trial took a toll on the owners of the company, and XPW could no longer be subsidized financially.’

With Rob Black now out of the way, 3PW moved full-steam ahead into our second show at the Electric Factory, held on March 29th, and entitled ‘Legends Collide
’
which featured as its Main Event a 3-way LEGENDS match between Terry Funk, Abdullah the Butcher & Dusty Rhodes ‘The American Dream, as well as under card matches between Homicide vs. Xavier and Nosawa vs. Balls Mahoney, and of course, Jasmin St. Claire vs. Missy Hyatt — Panties & Pasties Match. We drew around 1000 people to that show and had a full show schedule for the remainder

of the year. I was commuting back and forth from L.A. during the period in between matches, subsidizing income with dance gigs, and still running my wrestling league from the road. I’d liaise with Todd on booking decisions for upcoming shows, which was made a little easier by the fact I’d booked a lot of our name wrestlers into multi-match commitments, so we didn’t have to go from show to show sweating out who our mainevent talent would be. I was juggling a lot of balls at once, but loved the challenges I had before me now. For the first time in my life, I was 100% in charge of my own destiny, and living it to the fullest.

Our show that May, ‘A Funkin Classic,’ held on the 3rd, was as starstudded as ever, featuring a Title Match between Jerry Lawler and Terry Funk, we also had a hard core match between Ian Rotten and Balls Mahoney, and of course, a ‘Miss 3PW’ beauty pageant, which I hosted. We always made sure to feature girls for every type of guy, and our attendance was up from the March show to around 1500. Our other wrestlers included Trent Acid vs. Ric Blade, Rockin’ Rebel & Jeff Rocker vs. Da Hit Squad, Homicide vs. Kid Kash, the Blue Meanie & Roadkill vs. Joey Matthews & Christian York, and Kevin Sullivan vs. ‘Pitbull’ Gary Wolfe. We kept the pace right up heading into June’s show, and took full advantage of Rob Black’s exit to welcome back in some of the ECW talent he’d tried to steal away from us a year earlier. Aptly titled ‘A New Era,’ and one which 3PW absolutely owned in that moment, the show featured a bevy of heavy hitters. It included a three-way match between Sandman vs. Terry Funk vs. ‘ Pitbull’ Gary Wolfe, N.W.A. TNA’s AJ Styles vs. Kid Kash, Da Hit Squad vs. the Blue Meanie and Roadkill, Damien Adams vs. Ricky Vega, and a tag-team match-up of Joey Matthews & Christian York vs. Matt Striker & Rob Eckos. As well as the 2nd round of the Miss 3PW Contest, hosted by yours truly. I’ll happily admit, looking back, that it felt a lot nicer to be HOSTING a beauty pageant than to be starring in one.

Because it was June and we had our usual Jersey Shore competition, we drew around 1000 people, but we still covered our overhead and made a profit. Having just come off back-to-back shows, everyone wanted a little break, so we decided not to hold a July show and focus our resources on August’s show, ‘That’s Incredible,’ which we held in the middle of that month on the 16th. Our roster for that show included a title match between Justin Credible and Terry Funk, as well as match-ups between Sandman vs. ‘The Pitbull’ Gary Wolf, Ricky Vega vs. CJ ODoyle, the Sugar Shack with myself & George Frankenstein, ‘Hot Stuff ’ Striker vs. The Blue Meanie, and a tag-team match between Nick Berk & Damian Adams vs. Monsta Mack & Rockin Rebel among others. I had my own little brawl outside in the parking lot with some punk bitch who we’d caught papering our parking lot at the June show. I’d let him off with a warning, and then saw him again at our August show doing the same fucking thing, which made me livid! After my security caught him and alerted me to what was going on, I PERSONALLY beat the shit out of him in the parking lot. I was fucking pissed, and he started wining about the cops getting called, until we told him we had off-duty cops working as security on the show. After that, he put his tail between his legs and limped away to lick his wounds elsewhere. By that point, you could safely say word was out on the street that 3PW wasn’t a league to be fucked with, we gave everyone their money’s worth, but we also fiercely protected our turf, especially after what Rob Black had pulled over the last year. After going through all of that together, we had become a tight-knit gang.