HOW I SURVIVED THE GATHERING..PART 2

THE WORLD ACCORDING TO DUTCH

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NOW PART TWO OF THE BLOG...

HOW I SURVIVED ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST...OR...

MY WONDERFUL TIME AT AN OUTSIDE MENTAL HOSPITAL!! 

THE GATHERING OF THE JUGGALOS

2010  

PART DOS...

which is Spanish for Two!!!   ¿Comprendez cabron? 

Time for an update on my activities last weekend at the 11th Annual Gathering of the Juggalos Festival in Cave in Rock, Illinois.  In my last blog,  I mentioned I had a lot to write about.  I do.  The Tila Tequila incident is not being forgotten...and apparently little Tila is surging ahead with a lawsuit against the promoters of Gathering of the Juggaloes stemming from her encounter with some 'nasty' Juggaloes  last weekend.    The purpose of this blog today is to give you a feel how it felt, not only backstage with the other wrestlers, but the general mood of being right in the middle of 20 some odd thousand people who follow two guys,  the Insane Clown Posse, all over the country whenever they perform a show.   Whether you're a fan of the ICP or not,  one thing you will have to admit is that they've tapped into a very loyal fan base and a fan base that pro wrestling should be studying.   The closest thing that I've ever seen in the pro wrestling business that even comes close to the loyalty of the ICP fan...was the loyalty that the old ECW fans displayed back in the old bingo hall days. 

In case you missed my earlier blog...what is a Juggalo?  Hell, if I know, but I know one when I see one.  I can't even explain it in words that would get you to understand it. So, in lieu of words, click on this video of comedian Tom Green, who documents his one night stand with the Jugs. The video opens with Tom sitting with Tila Tequila at an airport gate talking about the upcoming Gathering on the Juggalos. Watch it and then come back here..for the rest of this blog.

I've heard so much about the ICP Gathering. I've heard it was dangerous, weird, surreal, loud and the damnest thing I would ever see. I can attest to all of that but I want to add one thing. Even with all those elements in play, for me, and I'm just speaking for myself, I enjoyed my stay more at the Gathering than I enjoyed myself at Wrestlemania, at Starrcade, at any TNA PPV that I've ever done and any show I ever booked in Puerto Rico. I had a blast and one reason is that when you see a Juggalo...you get what you see.  They're some real people....albeit a little over the top.  To me, it was the most fun that I've had in the wrestling business in the last 15 years.   So with that said...on with the blog.

Let me talk about how I even got booked on the show first.   My phone rang about three weeks prior to the event when a representative of the ICP Gathering,  called me and wanted to book me for a couple of shows.  I was  already booked on other shows but even if I hadn't been booked,  I had heard so much about the Wrestling Shows there...that I had absolutely no interest in going.  If you watched the video clip above...when the Juggalos threw at Tila Tequila...at least she was facing them.  In a wrestling ring,  wrestlers don't have that luxury.  The fans would be throwing from all 4 sides at once and more or less reenacting a Biblical stoning scene.  So for that reason alone, my interest dwindled.

But two days later, I got another call from Corporal Robinson,  a wrestler who helps book ICP their wrestling events and who I've known for several years.  The good Corporal said that they had an great interest in booking me for the Legends part of the Juggalo wrestling event at the Gathering.   I like Corporal and he has always been straight up with me but I told him that I had always heard that the Juggs are notorious for beating the crap out of wrestlers during their events.  Of course,  this was weeks before the event and now after you've witnessed,   the Tila Tequila incident,  you have some indication of what I had been hearing and what I was trying to avoid.   I had no desire to get the dog crap beat out of me by a wild mob of  people for no apparent reason...other than I was a 'human target'.   But he promised that the problem had been taken care of and that there would be no rowdy behavior this year.   I thought,  how do you get Juggalos to just stop their medieval behavior?  Just ask them?   I was hesitant but he promised that I would have no trouble at all.  I even made him 'pinky promise'.   He did.   So I agreed to go. 

Corporal then laid out what and when I would be going into the ring.  I have never heard this in my entire wrestling career.  I wasn't given a match number,  I was given a time and that time was...4AM.  Let me repeat that.  4AM???  WTH?    I couldn't believe what I had just heard.  I was scheduled to go into a wrestling ring during an event called Flashlight Wrestling, of which I had also never heard of,  but that was to be my participation in the Legends part. I don't want to get ahead of my story but I ended up doing exactly like it was laid out...and I set two personal records at one time.  I set a record for earliest and latest match in my career.  Actually, my match officially began at 5AM on Sunday morning,  August 15th, 2010 for those keeping score and for the always vigilant and correct Wikipedia historians. 

DID HANK REALLY DO IT THIS WAY???

I remember a song by Hank Williams Jr.  who more or less sung the anthem of wrestlers years ago...when he commented on making show after show after show trying to make it in the country music business.   The answer is..YES.  This was exactly how he did it.  That's what what brought back the old memories...traveling all night to get to this town.  

Now lets get to the actual 'finding of this place."   I think I could have found Jimmy Hoffa quicker.   I knew it was in Illinois...close to a town called Cave in Rock which was only about 80 miles from Evansville.  When I used to work out of Memphis,  we wrestled in Evansville every Wednesday night back in the day.  So 80 miles was nothing.  I thought.  The plan was for me to drive to Evansville and meet up with Doug Gilbert and Road Dog Jesse James, who were working another show in Evansville that night.  After their show, we would all meet and travel together to the Gathering show.  So the plan looked good from the beginning. 

Doug had arranged a limo service to take us First Class to the Show and we left Evansville at 9:30PM on Saturday night in plenty of time to make the show since none of us weren't supposed to work until 4AM.  When I got into the limo,  I asked the driver what time did he expect to arrive at the Gathering and he told me around 11:30PM.  That was our first ETA time.  That was what he said.  That wasn't what ended up happening. 

Actual shot taken of my "OFFICIAL" limo, August 14th, 2010 as we left around 8PM for the 'short' 80 mile trip to the Gathering from Evansville, Indiana.  

So we started driving.  The 1st indication that we were leaving civilization was my cell phone dropped its signal about 30 minutes outside Evansville.  As I looked outside,  I could see nothing but pitch darkness.  No street lights,  no cars coming in the opposite direction, nothing.  But at least,  we were on a nice two lane paved highway.  Then about 45 minutes into the drive,  the driver, who wore sunglasses the entire trip. for no apparent reason other than to appear cook,  turned south onto a secondary road. 

This secondary road would be more described as a driveway...it was a narrow two lane highway with barely enough room for two cars to fit on it.  It was dark because we were in total farmland.  No street lights, no red lights, no town or even communities to go through.  This is there the Odyssey began.  Forget GPS because nobody in the car had any InterNet connection at all.  But I thought the driver knew where he was going.  I found out that the driver wasn't really a 'real' driver at all.  He turned out to be a furniture salesman who just agreed to drive this limo for the night.  The limo wasn't even from a limousine service.  It was a limo that some guy has just bought years earlier and had been sitting in his garage for years until Doug told him we were going to this show and he offered to let us use it.  This was the start of the nightmare. 

So we started driving...and I started wondering why the Clowns would pick such an out of the way place to hold their annual Gathering.  Later on,  I found out.  This place was handpicked for several reasons...the most primary reason is that its remote and hard to get to.   If its hard to get to,  its hard to police and that would mean the the Juggaloes could have their wild ass party with a minimum of police intervention.  Perfect.

Since we had no directional instructions..no GPS nor did anybody in the car possess the common sense to spend $3.99 on a Rand-Mcnally Road Map, sure enough,  we were LOST.   Big time lost.  There's wasn't anything out there.  No cars moving around,  no place to stop and ask and not any houses to speak of and the ones we did see,  there was nobody brave enough to go up and knock on the door.   The Texas ChainSaw Massacre movies kept popping in my head. After 20 or 30 minutes to driving just to find anything that would give us an indication of where we were,  we finally saw a sign that said ,  Cave In Rock, Illinois.  Wow..finally.  We all breathed a sigh of relief as we slowly drove into this dark little Illinois town at about 12 midnight.  It was late but finally we were at the place we needed to be. 

We drove up over a little hill and we stopped dead in the road.  We stopped..because the road stopped.   BAM!!!   We completely dead ended into  a big river and we could go no further.  We stopped and got out....and there was complete silence.  It was hot and humid...and there were no lights from the houses, no lights from the little storefront business and absolutely no traffic moving around.  Nothing.   The town literally looked like a ghost town and no movie producer or Hollywood set designer could have produced it better.  At the left of the road when it ended,  was a small playground complete with swings, slides and a see saw set.   But no signs of life.   There was a 50 gallon trash can attached to a short post and when I looked into the can,  there was no trash.   Nothing.  Funny, the things you think when you're way out in the country and LOST. 

We all got out...and I asked the driver...who still had his sunglasses on where were we?  His reply was,  "I don't know."   Well, if he didn't know then none  of us knew.   It was already 12midnight and he had predicted we would be at the show at 11:30PM and we were already 30 minutes behind schedule and LOST.  

The driver looked like the dead guy from Weekend at Bernie's except he could walk on his own but Bernie could probably read a map as well as this guy could.   As I looked around at this straight out of a horror movie scene,  I fully expected Michael Myers to come running out between one of those darkened houses with an axe and kill us all.  This NIGHT OF THE JUGGALOS might not have been such a good idea I surmised.

We got back in the limo and starting driving some more.  I told the driver...if you see a sign that says Evansville,   take it and I'll go back home.   The driver kept asking us if we were going the right way...and we told him...that we were on our first trip too.  What if you were flying on a plane and suddenly the pilot came down the aisle and asked the passengers,  "hey are we headed in the right direction?".   I would say that would panic most passengers.  At  one point,  I almost volunteered to take over the driving chores and I hate to drive.  But there's only one thing I have more than driving and thats driving LOST.  

As we rolled down the two lane blacktopped road with it getting later and later..it was 12:30AM by this time,  we saw a trailer off the the left and got a glimpse of a couple of guys standing in the driveway.  Usually,  we would nver pull in someone's driveway late at night but we had no choice really.   As we pulled in,  the guys in the driveway...I call it a driveway but it was more like a car path just in front of the trailer...we asked them where the F was this Juggalo thing going on.   I could tell that this limo pulling into the trailers' driveway completely caught these guys off guard.  They took their time walking up to the limo and as they got closer,   they looked at us like the hillbillies looked at Burt Reynolds and his crew in Deliverance.  they finally gave us some general directions and I was glad that one of them didn't say,  "You got a purty mouth boy."    As soon as we got the directions,  I said to the Weekend at Bernie's driver...."Let's get the hell outta here."

I had heard so much about this ICP Gathering festival...and that the route was clearly marked as to how to get to the Gathering grounds.  Clearly marked?   I think the Donner Party trail was better marked.  I never saw one sign, not one but I heard later that the Juggalos pull these signs up...after the fans get in so that fans can't find their way out. 

From the time we left Evansville to the time we actually found the site was over a 4 hour trip.  4 hours to cover 80 miles...that's not moving too fast.    But finally...we saw a bunch of police lights...some of them blue..some of them red adn they were all flashing as we pulled up in the limo.   The cops had about three or 4 cars pulled over and were giving the field sobriety tests to the drivers.   Most of the people they had pulled over wore all the Insane Clown Posse makeup.  

One cop had a young fat girl...about 24/25 years old going through the paces of determining whether she was drunk or under the influence.  I'm not an expert but it didn't take a forensic scientist to figure out that this girl was stone cold hammered.  The girl was stone cold hammered and almost fell down when she took the first step.  She was dressed in a halter top....and all she had on down below was a pair or red panties.  No shorts,  no shoes, nothing but panties.  She went to jail.

WHATS YOUR NAME AND WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?  

As we stopped,  one of the cops wanted to know who we were and what was our business here?  We told him that we were going to wrestle at the Gathering...and it was almost like we had told him we were his long lost brother.  He smiled and looked into the back of the limo and said,  "Well who do we have back there?" 

I spoke up first and said 'Dirty Dutch' and the cop said..."damn, Dirty Dutch, how the hell are you?"  

Then Road Dog said his name and then Doug Gilbert..and he knew all of us.   Funny thing about being a wrestler,  it sometimes works highly in your favor.   He then told us we were about 10 minutes away from the front entrance to the festival and to be careful.  He said they had already had a little trouble...a singer had been attacked on stage he said.  I found out later,  the cop was talking about Tila Tequila and the Juggalos were in rare form.    He told us to be careful because they (the police) couldn't come onto the property unless there was a death.   If I wasn't scared enough, talking to this cop damn sure didn't relieve any of my stress.   He also told us that they had arrested a couple hundred people.   Oh and BTW he said,  they had just gotten a report of a stabbing.  

WTF?  OK...now I thought that this was one BullShit show I had booked myself onto.  Here I am, out here in this GodDamn God Forsaken Hell Pit of the World..with a bunch of f'n loony tunes not to mention psychotics not to mention dangerous psychotics in the middle of the night with no telling how much they've been drinking or doing drugs.  But here I was...and if I could,  I would have had Scotty beam me up...and take me out of this situation I was in.  I didn't feel scared but I damn sure didn't feel safe.   But I was in too deep now to even think about turning around.  Damn, where was I to go?   It was dark,  I was lost,  none of us had any idea where we were and it was close to 1AM in the middle of f'n nowhere.   Could it get any worse I thought?  Maybe I shouldn't have thought that...it could get worse.

We drove a little more but we still didn't see anything.  I could not believe that a music festival like this could be so hard to find.  The paved road then turned into a gravel road...as we finally got close enough to see where the GATHERING fans were camped out.    It was very dark but on both sides of the dirt road,  all I could see were hundreds of tents..rows and rows of tents one right after the other. Suddenly,  I wished I was in the tent business because whomever had this contract damn sure wrapped up.   There were literally hundreds and hundreds of little tents but where were the people?   Some of the tents had clothes hanging out to dry,  and small campfires left unattended.  People were around...but we weren't seeing them.  Past these tents, there were parking lots jammed packed with cars and trucks and you could see feet poking out the through the windows.  I guess those were the ones who couldn't afford the tents. 

We drove for several more minutes through this tent city...and I've never seen more tents erected in my life.   Then we started seeing a few faces...but they were all painted white in the fashion of their heroes, ICP.   As we rolled past,  it was very eerie as we watched those white faces all watching us and in dead silence.   All they did was stare at the limo as it slowly rolled past.

There was no moonlight so the only light we could see were a few temporarily erected streetlights every couple hundred feet or so.  Not only did it look surreal,  it felt surreal too.  There was no noise at all.   I even rolled down my window but heard nothing but the sound of tires crunching on the gravel road.   After hearing so much about these crazed Juggaloes,  I halfway expected to see them chasing each other with chain saws and long butcher knives.  

This place was packed to the hilt.  We finally saw the light of a HUGE bonfire off a couple hundred feet to the right.  Activity was starting to pick up and then,  we came right up on a car that was partially blocking our path.   Some guy was standing outside the car in  semi-darkness and  talking in Arabic it seemed into a cell phone.  I don't speak Arabic but it didn't sound like he was ordering a pizza from Papa Johns.  He was excited and was talking very fast.   I don't know how he even had a signal but he was talking to someone.  We motioned him over to ask him if we were going the right way and he told us that he was a cab driver and  had just dropped somebody off and as he was leaving,  he was accosted and had just been robbed at gunpoint!!!

F**K!!!  WTF?  Yeah, this day had been one of the most interesting of my life up to his point...but I don't know whether I was at a music/wrestling show or watching a rerun of Law and Order but what lay ahead scared the crap out of me.  I still had to enter the gates of THE GATHERING and what lay ahead I had no idea but we already had reports of a singer attacked by the crowd,  a stabbing and now,  a strong arm robbery.   But nobody said this was a church outing or a Boy Scout Jamboree.  This was pure JuggaloVille and the night was just beginning.   I still had a match to get to and I had no idea how that would turn out.   One thing though....I had come a long way from Madison Square Garden and the Memphis Mid South Coliseum to a wild and crazy  underground music festival in Cave In Rock, Illinois but to tell the truth,  this was a helluva lot more exciting.    I'll give it to the Juggalos..they damn sure ain't boring.   As I looked at what was in front of me,  a wild scene straight out of Halloween,  Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Friday the 13th,  I knew that this night wasn't over and I still had to make it til daylight.  The surprises weren't over yet.    

TO BE CONTINUED...

Part 3 you'll hear about FLASHLIGHT WRESTLING,  A 7' FOOT FEMALE WRESTLER AND HEAR ALL ABOUT THE DOPE BRIDGE AND HOW IT FELT GOING TO THE RING AT 4AM IN THE MORNING.    

Stay tuned.

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THE GATHERING...THE STORY BEHIND THE TILA TEQUILA INCIDENT

The World According to Dutch

BREAKING NEWS:  I SURVIVED THE GATHERING...August 15th, 2010

For those that are wondering, what the hell is THE GATHERING...it is the following:  

A 3 day 24 hour annual party attended by devotees of the Insane Clown Posse that results in a wild, bizarre and insane ritual of every non conformist individual/ freak/lunatic that is attracted to the Juggalo creed on the North American continent.   This is not my definition but rather the definition of Violent J, the creator and half of the original Insane Clown Posse,  real name,  Joseph Frank "Joe Bruce.   

The party this year included...95 wrestlers,  rappers, comedians,  D Listers,  porn stars and singers including Tom Green,  Gallagher,  Todd Bridges,  Ron Jeremy and others.   20,000 people attended the GATHERING last year and to my knowledge, that figure was broken this year.   The GATHERING is an event hosted by the Clowns who I got to know when they appeared in TNA several months back in 2003.   The Insane Clown Posse are noted for their 'early roots' of being connected to professional wrestling having started their participation with the old ECW and continuing through WWF and then to WCW back in the 90's.  

Their fans or followers are called, Juggalos...and if you don't know what a Juggalo is..or the definition was too vague up top,  then take a short look at this photo.   It might give you some indication of who and what they are.  

 Nice fellas.   

And this is how I spent my Saturday night/Sunday morning last weekend.  In the company of this 'elitist group'.   But, to be honest,  I had a blast.    

Its mostly a male testosterone laden crowd but there are a few female juggalettes out there too.   Take a look at this photo taken backstage at THE GATHERING.  

Now this might explain why some of the Juggalos are highly excitable after seeing these two examples of fine American womanhood.  After looking at this photo, how did the situation on the left happen?  I guess that's one of the reasons alcohol was invented.  Yeah, those Juggalos just don't give a 'F' I guess?    

This past weekend was one of the wildest,  most bizarre, insane things I've ever done, not only in my wrestling career, but in my LIFE. 

Photo below of the Insane Clown Posse...Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope

I know it's been some time since I posted a blog..but this one is going to be written in sections. I'm not going to put it all in one post. The reason why is that it's just too much to put all of what I have to say in one posting. This entire weekend can be summed up in one word...WOW!!! I did one thing that I never thought I would end up doing..and that was to PERFORM at the GATHERING.

To make a long story short, pro wrestling has always been a staple on the Insane Clown Posse GATHERING shows but I have never wanted to work one of their events. Why? I'm not stupid and I know the Posse personally and even they've told me that the Juggalos are 'f'n crazy'. That was the main reason I've never had a desire to work the event is that every report from every wrestler who has ever worked there, it is described as one huge MENTAL WARD.  The Juggalos have even been described by Violent J himself as on the lunatic fringe and insane and maniacal masters of malcontent. 

The word that I always heard about the Juggalos was that they were prone to throw anything at the wrestlers that wasn't nailed down.  Since THE GATHERING draws 20,000 people, going out in front of certifiably insane people who have access to glass beer bottles, rocks, sticks, metal chairs and the option of hurling said items, plus with alcohol and other substances in their system,  is not my idea of a peaceful Saturday night.   Ask Tila Tequila about it and I'm getting to her next. 

But the more I thought about it, the more I thought...screw it,  lets ride.  I've done so much in my wrestling career...I've worked in WWF/WWE, I've worked in WCW, I've worked Monday Night RAW, been in Madison Square Garden, worked sell outs arenas from San Juan, Puerto Rico to Memphis and all over the US, worked in Mexico, Canada, Europe and Japan. I've worked in Wembley Arena in London and even in the building in Berlin where Adolph Hitler gave his Final Solution speech.

But I had never worked THE GATHERING.  I had heard so much about it..how dangerous it was, how wild and crazy it was...how every lunatic, freak and head case on the North American continent somehow found their way there.  And in the total scheme of things...I rationalized in my head...how many times will I get to do something like this before I won't be able to do it?   Yeah,  I knew it might be dangerous...yeah, I knew it could be unsafe but at this point in my life...I just had to see it for myself.  I knew it was going to be an EXPERIENCE...but the actual event and all that surrounded it surpassed even my wildest imagination.

This year marked the anniversary of the 11th GATHERING which meant I had missed 10 of them.  I considered that an omen as the first WrestleMania I ever worked was WrestleMania 11.  The location was Cave In Rock, Illinois and has been for the last 4 years but don't ask me how to get there because quite frankly,  I can't tell you.  Its west of Evansville, Indiana and all I could say is that its directly south of nowhere and two left turns from hell.  Cave In Rock, Illinois is so far out from civilization that even my GPS was useless out there not to mention my TMobile phone.  But of course, TMobile for me is useless in my front yard.

Before I get into the story...and the

HUGE NEWS OF THE DAY..THE TILA TEQUILA INCIDENT....

THE GATHERING was marred by the following incidents: 

A stabbing...

A robbery at gunpoint that my group just missed by 5 minutes...on the way inside the compound...

My first encounter with an almost 7 foot tall woman wrestler...

A wrestler arrested for possession... 

More arrests by the county sheriff whose department set up shop right outside the Gathering's entrance...

An attack on InterNet sensation Tila Tequila that happened while she performed which left her a bloody mess and is the topic of the INTERNET TODAY

and all of that happened within a 6 hour period Saturday night. 

To say the least,  it was an interesting night. 

Now on to the TOPIC OF THE DAY!!! 

The Tila Tequila Incident!!!  

Tila Tequila Gathering of the Juggalos attack
Uploaded by quebec666. - Watch more music videos, in HD!

Before I get to the actual wrestling part,  I'll describe the story floating backstage at the GATHERING about the Tila Tequila incident.  From what I was told,  by several eyewitnesses to the incident,   Tila apparently had prior 'heat' with several groups of Juggalos prior to her performance on the main stage of the festival.   Word that I got was that,  apparently,  on her InterNet site or on a Twitter post,  she made some disparaging and derogatory remarks about the Insane Clown Posse fan base.  If you know the fan base,  I don't know how anything could be construed as derogatory or condescending since they consider themselves to be completely under the radar and off the screen and anti establishment to begin with.   But, some of them did.  But whatever Tila did or did not do...when it came time for her to perform Saturday night,   there were groups of Juggalos in the crowd who were already pissed at her.  

Tila was contracted to do a 6 song set...and as soon as she hit the Main Stage, the boo birds came out.  In wrestling circles...thats a great thing to hear.  But in Tila's case,  that's not what she expected.   And not only was she getting boos,  she was attracting the debris as well as fans began to throw half filled plastic water bottles and rocks at her on stage.  One report even has it that a fermented watermelon full of urine and feces were even thrown at her but I cannot confirm that.  

Below is  a comment attributed to Tila as reported by TMZ.  

According to Tila, she took the stage at the annual GATHERING OF THE JUGGLOS in Cave in Rock, Illinois. 

"I went onstage and immediately, before I even got on stage, DUDES were throwing HUGE STONE ROCKS in my face, beer bottles that slit my eye open, almost burnt my hair on fire cuz they threw fire crackers on stage, and they even threw s*it and piss out of the PortAPotty at me while I was onstage."

The Tila Tequila incident happened about 9PM on a Saturday night several hours before I arrived on the festival grounds.  According to some eyewitnesses,  if the Tila 'heat' was true,  the appearance wasn't safe to begin with.   But I don't know how Tila's people or even the Gathering people could even consider that Tila's appearance would turn out to be as viscious as it turned into.  

Tila encountered a hostile crowd and, in my opinion,  did not know how to handle a unruly crowd...because quite frankly,  she had never run into a situation like she faced Saturday night.   Any wrestler in that building or site would have told her to abort her performance in lieu of her personal safety.  But she didn't.  She continued her performance despite the danger that it presented. 

I got there around 1:30AM...and it was a horror trying to find this farm out in the middle of nowhere.   I think I traveled down every two lane blacktop road in Illinois trying to find the Gathering.   We left Evansville, Indiana at 9PM...and I was told...that it was a mere 80 miles.  It might have been 80 miles...if my driver hadn't gotten lost 56 times on the way.  We probably ended up driving close to 200 miles.   

I knew it would be heavily attended..but I never thought that I would have so much trouble finding 20,000 people camped out in a farm field.  But I did.  How the hell can 20,000 people camp out in the open and not be found?    I don't know how, whoever booked this event,  found this place so far out in the countryside....but they did.   I now know how the US Government cannot find Osama Bin Laden.   I now think Osama could be living on this farm in Cave In Rock, Illinois and nobody would know about it.  But tell a bunch of Juggalos abotu a Clown festival...and suddenly 20 thousand people can find it.  

As we reached the front entrance to the event property...we told the guard or whoever he was that we were wrestling on the show.  He called for an 'escort' to take us to the very back of the event property.   In a couple of minutes,  a golf cart arrived and we were told to follow behind.   We did.  What we saw as we moved deeper into the Gathering was something I had never seen before.  

As we started deeper into the complex,  it was totally packed with people.   People with  Insane Clown Posse painted faces,  95% of them all male with their shirts off walking around and a thousand tents all erected in mobile city that could be assembled and dismantled in an hours time.  Not only were the males shirtless,  the females were topless.  They were just all aimlessly walking around.  For a better description...think Mad Max and The Book of Eli combined.  It was a surreal sight.  There were small bonfires in front of the tents and one thing that I noticed...was that it was eerily quiet.  I thought these Juggalos were f'n crazy and raised hell all day and all night but apparently,  they wind themselves down too.  

We drove for at least 10 minutes down a dirt path..that had tents on both sides of the road.   Seriously...it looked post Apocalyptic.   If was dimly lit and I could see cars and trucks parked with people's feet hanging out the windows and back in the shadows...between the tents,  there were people just staring at our limo as we drove slowly in.  

At that point,  I couldn't estimate the crowd but it was jammed packed.  The weather was hot as hell and the humidity just hung in the air.  We were headed to the back side of the Festival where the wrestling event was to be in progress.  

There were two shows scheduled that night..one at 12MidNight called Bloody Mania and then another one at 4AM in the morning.  I was scheduled for the 4AM show which I found out later was called FlashLight Wrestling.  

We finally pulled up behind the concert staging in the open air arena and the  12AM Midnight BloodyMania show was still in progress,   I estimated the crowd at about 3.000 people.  These fans that were in this crowd didn't seem at all like the type who would attack a 'female' on stage and until I heard about the Tila Tequila incident backstage,  I would never have known something of that magnitude had happened if not someone had not told me about it in the back.

When we first arrived at the event, I took a few photos...and then headed backstage to see a few friends. I met up with Terry Funk, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, Kamala, Sabu, Ron Garwin, PG 13, Brian Christopher who were all working the 4AM show with me. That's when I first heard of the Tila Tequila incident.

This is just one side of the open air arena right after I had arrived at THE GATHERING...in Cave In Rock, Illinois,  home of the 2010 Juggalo Festival.  In this crowd...there were some that witnessed and perhaps even participated in the Tila Tequila incident. 

 

In the back,  I started hearing the story about the Tila Tequila incident from several of the guys.  I'll sum it up like this.  She got the dog shit beat out of her.  It started with her trying to perform her set but ended with her a bloody mess and having to be literally ushered off the stage.   It was a wild scene complete with cursing and a lot of F bombs directed by Tila to the crowd which, if you really think about it...wasn't a very smart move on her part. 

The one question I have is didn't her management people explain to her what a f'n Juggalo Festival consisted of?  Did her management people know the type of environment and the type of fans she would encounter?   Obviously, not and judging from the way the videos that have been posted,  she didn't know she was in so much danger.   Damn!!!  Is it possible to be so naive? 

Wrestlers have encountered this countless times...and if she had contracted wrestlers to be her security..I guarantee you she would not have been injured on stage.   Wrestlers recognize and can even sense danger in a crowd way before it ever rears its head.   Wrestlers have to be able to do that to survive. 

To me..and now this is just me talking...if people are throwing things at your head...like hard objects like bottles and rocks..wouldn't you rationally think that it would be a good idea to leave?  Or get behind something that would take you out of the line of sight?  Now, that may be just a little too complicated but to me,  that would be what I would do.  From my days in Puerto Rico and Memphis,  when the fans got too riled at me,  the old Dutchman was suddenly unavailable for consultation. 

But then again,  I'm a chicken s**t type guy anyway.  I run from my shadow.  But Tila didn't.  Just to show you how violent the attack was...here's a shot of Tila BEFORE THE INCIDENT IN HAPPIER TIMES. 

Yep..show those assets Tila. 

Now lets show the AFTER PHOTOS taken 24 hours after the incident in Los Angeles. 

Since I wasn't scheduled to go on that morning until 4AM..which is a strange time to start wrestling...I had several hours to speak to eyewitnesses to the incident.  According to several wrestlers personally watching the Tila performance that night,  she tried to calm the crowd about halfway through her act by saying,  "I love you Juggalos" but instead was met with more boos and debris.   

The crowd that night was definitely a 'hostile crowd' but nobody understood why in the beginning.  Later, it emerged why some 'individual pockets' of Juggalos were highly upset with Tila and there were reports that the attack was coordinated via text messaging from one group to the others.   

At one point,  the 90% male crowd began shouting SHOW YOUR T*TS to which Tila,  in her quest to dispel their displeasure with her appearance,  suddenly thought would be a good idea.   The crowd popped intitially for the sight of Tila's naked breasts but, in true Juggalo fashion,  then suddenly turned on her again by chanting WE HATE YOUR T*TS!!  and the debris started sailing again.  You could say the Juggalos are the equivalent of the ECW fans of yesteryear. 

At this point,  security was ushered onto the stage to retrieve her but she refused to vacate the stage by telling them that she  had not completed her 6 song set.   To her credit,  she tried to fulfill her obligation to the Gathering but the situation grew steadily worse as the amount of bottles and rocks increased  as Tila stood behind the security personnel as they attempted to block the debris coming Tila's way. 

Then,  Tila agitated the already rowdy crowd by responding that she didn't give a F and basically fueled their desire to continue their barrage.  In the videos that have emerged,   you can easily tell that she should have left without finishing her set regardless of what she had been contracted to do.  But in the end,  a rock finally found its mark and richocheted off a security guard's chest and caught Tila in the head and face which resulted in Tila leaving the stage in a bloody mess.  

A personal sidenote..for those who have followed my blog for awhile.  I have talked about being pelted with rocks and bottles and other hard objects during wrestling matches...but at least, in a wrestling context,  that was the reaction I wanted.  But I always left the scene as soon as I could possible escape.   But if I were a singer...with fans booing and pelting me with bottles, that would not be the reaction I would envision as a great performance.  The fans weren't  right in pelting Tila as they jeopardized not only Tila's safety but also whomever might be in Tila's immediate vicinity at the time.  Regardless...Tila made the situation worse by not leaving the stage.  But nobody ever compared Tila to a Mensa candidate but how much sense does one need to get the hell out of the line of fire.  Damn!!  

Seriously, folks...I've been in the country before...way out in the country...but this was the most isolated I've been in years.  It was like the Hills Have Eyes but with trees.   On the way in to Cave In Rock,  Illinois,  I believe I heard the theme song to Deliverance...being played complete with guitar and banjo tracks and surely Slingblade had to be in the crowd.   After I had heard what happened to Tila,  I thought stonings just happened in Islamic countries but apparently,  its a pretty common thing at THE GATHERING!!!  

I've been reading today that Tila is filing a lawsuit against the Insane Clown Posse promoters and that the suit will bankrupt them.  Good luck with that Tila. 

This blog will continue...as I'll post Part 2 of this WILD, DANGEROUS weekend in a day or so.  There's a lot more to tell about this night...and I was only there for about 7 hours but there is a lot more to relate.   One of the things that happened was running into a robbery victim before I even got onto the GATHERING property.    Then I wrestled in a match later on that night called FlashLight wrestling...where its almost pitch black...with only flashlights from the Juggalos illuminating the ring.  After hearing what happened to Tila,  I wondered what would be the reaction of the crowd be to me?  Since they had already beat the crap out of a 'woman' earlier that night,   I knew that I didn't stand much of a chance with them and especially in the dark.  

Since we've heard so much about the Tila Tequila incident,  I want to say one thing about the wrestling part of the show.  Just because the Juggalos didn't like Tila Tequila,  that didn't mean they didn't like the wrestlers.   The wrestling on the show and the Juggalo's response to it was excellent!!!   It was A DAMN GOOD SHOW and one that surprised me.  I want to congratulate the promoter and the talent for putting together such a good event.  Backstage,  I met a ton of old friends, some of which I haven't seen in years.  So with that said...stay tuned..this blog has a lot more to say about THE GATHERING.  

 NEXT TIME IN MY BLOG...MY ENCOUNTER WITH A 7' WOMAN WRESTLER THAT I MET AT THE GATHERING...PLUS...

WHAT IS THE DOPE BRIDGE? 

The DOPE BRIDGE???  WTF???  I kept hearing that phrase all night long...the Dope Bridge?   Since I had gotten to the event late,  I finally asked what the name meant and what it represented.   I think the name more or less gives you an indication of what it means..but in the next blog...I will define it for you.  A wild story...and one that I've never seen or heard of before.   I checked on the authenticity of the story this afternoon and was assured that the Dope Bridge was a real thing. In the next blog,  I'll fill you in on it.  

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