Tuesday, September 15, 2009

"Pitbull" Kerry Brown (1958 - 2009) RIP

Being that I am kind of still in a daze about the sudden death of Kerry Brown, it took me a few days to figure out what I wanted to say. I knew after reading Danny's "tribute" which told the details of the one tour he was lucky enough to get booked on with Kerry which not only violated what Kerry believed in "what happens on the road, stays on the road" but also took suttle shots at me, that is was not fitting for me to pay a "tribute" to Kerry in this way so I figured I would talk about the first time I meet Kerry and the last.

There are certain things that should only be told to the boy's ears. I think that would be the wish of Kerry from the long hours, days and weeks I spend travelling with him over 6 provinces during a 4 year period, sitting beside me, taking his turn driving the ring van when I got too tired so those will be left where they should be.

Now I apologize as I don't have a lot of pictures of Kerry on my laptop, most are on my PC and I am away for awhile so I will see what I can find when I get home.

I can't remember the year I first met Kerry but I think it was 2003. Rob Stardom was booking a crew for me for a few shows on a dry reserve and he told me Kerry would like to work for me. So Kerry was booked and off we went along with a number of local workers.

We ran the two shows and were staying in a house that one of the local people had given up for our accommodations. After the show I was asked by the people that brought us in to send a few wrestlers to the local dance as they were trying to raise some funds for a trip, so Stardom and his crew headed to the dance. Kerry, myself and Matt Fairlane stayed at the house, watched TV, talked then when to bed. I asked Kerry if he wanted to tour with me and he said he would be happy to.

That kind of started off our friendship, we travel thousands of miles together, on the winter ice roads for a few years and kept in touch when we were not on the road. Kerry must have done well over 100 shows for me, maybe even 150.

The last time I saw him was last year in the late fall. He was walking down Keewatin and I spotted him in the street. So I yelled "hey Brownie" out the window, I parked my van, he crossed the street and we talked.

He did not look right to me at that time as he lost lots of weight. This was a big man who very rarely was under 265 but he weight 225 at the time. Looked like he was not eating good. He told me he was on disablity, waiting for an operation on his shoulder but would like to go on the road with me maybe as a referee or anything just to get back on the road. We talked a little more, I gave him my number and never heard from him or saw him again after that.

Kerry taught me and many others that had the chance to work with him, a lot about what a wrestling match really is. His "ugly people" promos were classic as were his "26 years in the business" promos.

I turned him babyface for a while and he sold pictures like they were going out of style. When he was a heel, as soon as he walked through that curtain, the people hated him.

He brought reality to every show he was on and now that he is gone I will always have those memories and lots of tape of CWF Kerry Brown matches as well to watch and edit.

4 comments:

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Keven said...

I remember enjoying Kerry Brown and Duke Myers in the 80's in Alberta wrassling with Stampede Wrestling show every week, beating the snot out of the Hart Brothers. The original Masters of Disaster... no one could get the crowd going like Kerry could except maybe other truly legendary bad boys such as Abdula the Butcher, or Doctor D aka David Shultz, to name two. Few could unionize the crowd in their disdain like Kerry could as the crowd of 8 thousand would chant "Susie! Susie!" to insult him. Whether it was the Hart brothers, the late Davey Boy Smith, Kerry low bowled them all and we loved watching the silly boys bleed. The first true punch I saw in performance wrestling was by Kerry as a crowd lost control in the Edmonton Kingsmen Fieldhouse in Edmonton when he was flung over the ropes and the crowd mobbed him. He made a bee line for the dressing room tossing spectators out of his way and one man stepped in front of him and Kerry gave him a punch as he ran and that man flew into the stands as Kerry didn't miss a stride. It took a while for the crowd to calm down and be reminded "This is entertainment folks!" with both Dynamite Kid, Davey Boy Smith and Duke Myers stood inside the ring wondering if a riot was about to break out.

Classic Kerry Brown... a true wrestling master of disaster.