Canadian Wrestling’s Elite (CWE) is returning to Plaza 88 on July 15 for the Cruel Summer Tour.
The event will feature a guest appearance from former WWE and TNA/Impact Wrestling star D’Lo Brown.
This is his second set of dates with CWE after doing the Manitoba and Northern Ontario stops in June. He said the tour has been great so far.
“It’s a different way of life, when it’s 85 degrees and everyone’s sweating and I’m really thinking, ‘it’s a spring day,’” Brown said. “(That) kind of puts things into reality, but it’s quite nice up here.
“I have probably been to Saskatchewan several times with WWE in the past, so I definitely run through there a few times.”
Brown got started in the business as a backyard wrestler with his friends. He went off to college and got a job, but a friend kept wrestling.
One weekend, Brown visited his friend, and they rented a ring from legendary wrestling trainer Larry Sharpe at the Moose Factory. Sharpe has trained wrestlers like Chris Candido, Rocco Rock, and Tatanka.
“He (Sharpe) stuck around to watch us kids play around,” Brown remembered. “We had no clue, and then he looked at me and said, ‘hey, you’re pretty big. Would you ever think about doing this for real?’”
Sharpe challenged him to sell 50 tickets and he would appear on his next independent show.
“I sold four and bought the other 46 myself and that’s how I got on my first show,” Brown said. “That’s how I got my starting wrestling.”
Brown began his career in Smokey Mountain Wrestling as the Security for the infamous tag team the Gangstas (New Jack and Mustafa Saed) as “Downtown” D’Lo Brown.
“Being around the Gangstas, being in the Old South and walking around and pointing out racial tendencies of people was really not accepted, but it was great for, as a bad guy, getting a lot of hate sent back to our way,” he explained.
The Gangstas were famous for agitating the crowd, especially New Jack.
“He would say things that would even make my head spin sometimes, so I can only imagine how the fans were feeling,” Brown said. “I mean, when I’m standing behind him, I’m hearing things that make me uncomfortable, yeah, I knew it was doing the crowd.”
His time in Smoky Mountain segued into him joining WWF (now WWE) as a similar character in the Nation of Domination led by Faarooq (Ron Simmons) and eventually The Rock.
“(I was) pretty much doing the exact same role as in the gangsters where I was the guy in the back who was the guy who got in trouble and then I had the big guys in front of me to help me out,” Brown said.
A famous part of his act was chest protector worn because of a torn pectoral muscle that became a running bit and used in his finisher. He said that the idea came from announcer and backstage worker Jim Ross and trying to accentuate his frog splash finisher.
“He goes how do we make people mad at you for doing something you’re supposed to do and he goes well, we hurt your chest and put a protector on it. Then it’s kind of illegal, but it’s not,” Brown said.
“Initially I hated the idea. I thought people were going to make fun of me in wrestling and to my credit, and I don’t usually give her a lot of credit, my ex-wife told me try it. She said, ‘try it, (and) if it fails it’s a bad idea, but if you don’t do it, then it’s on you for not trying it … and it turned out to be the greatest thing ever for me because it separated me from the pack.”
Brown said that the chest protector bit helped people notice he was a great wrestler because he needed an extra thing to draw them in.
“Once people noticed me, then they hooked on to me and then here I am 25 or 30 years later, still talking about it,” he said.
Aside from his chest protector, there was one other thing Brown credits for helping launch his career: The Nation of Domination.
“It gave me the platform to cover my time in WWE and then when I transition out I can still use part of that. I had to change the times but it gave me a great platform,” Brown explained.
Brown has worked in TNA/Impact Wresting, All Japan, New Japan, NOAH and Ring of Honor. Although he’s worked everyone, Brown said people always associate him with the WWE.
His best memory of his time in WWE was wrestling with Sean Waltman (X-Pac/Syxx/1-2-3 Kid) when the two feuded for many months over the now defunct European Championship.
“He was just one of those guys where we always had a good match,” Brown said. “We never had any bad matches. We never had people who didn’t like what we did, and we’d always make the house go wild. Those were some of my fondest memories of being there.”
Brown said the two wrestlers had similar talents, and both knew how to make other wrestlers look great in the ring.
“We took a meaningless title in the European title and put some prestige on it because of the quality of matches he and I were having night in and night out,” Brown said.
They exchanged the title on numerous occasions in 1998 and he eventually held the European and Intercontinental Title at the same time
“It was back and forth. It was like you take it, I take it you take it I and that got people really into it because it created a rivalry that that people could grab a hold of. Whenever it was announced that he and I were going to each other the crowd would applaud and they were eagerly anticipating our match.”
He also transitioned into backstage work at TNA/Impact Wrestling while also continuing to wrestle.
“Probably around 2010, I started segueing into behind the scenes where I really got into agenting and producing younger talent and helping them kind of grow and imparting some of the wisdom that was put on me,” Brown explained. “I’m trying to hand it off to the next generation. That was kind of like my next calling and the next evolution of my career.”
Brown is not expected to participate in a match in Prince Albert but that does not mean he will not be involved.
“I’m not actually working, but I’m on the show. I’m special appearance and then you let the shenanigans happen after the show starts,
He explained that he is impressed with CWE because they are one of the companies in North America that travel on so many dates.
“I mean, they’re doing towns on a level that no other promotion other than maybe WWE used to do. When you’re doing 30 or 40 dates, that’s a lot of shows. It’s a quality product with some great talent. When CWE is in town, come see us because you’re going to miss out if you don’t,” Brown said.
“I can’t wait to get out there and be in front of them and hopefully help them increase for the next time for the guy who comes in next.”
Teh CWE will be in Prince Albert on Monday, July 15. The card will feature CWE Champion ‘The Zombie Killer” Mentallo vs two-time CWE Champion “The Canadian Crusher” AJ Sanchez. Other matchups include “Chiseled” Chad Daniels vs “Hotshot” Danny Duggan and Josh “Cheeks” Holliday vs “The Headliner” Shaun Martens, among others.
The Meet and Greet is at 6 p.m., doors open at 6:30 p.m. and bell time is 7 p.m. at Plaza 88. Advance Tickets Available at: Colette Portamedic Services or purchase tickets online at cwetickets.com.
