PL Myers: From fan to bona fide pro wrestling manager
By Mike Pankow
November 7, 2019
Paul Myers has lived his professional wrestling dream over the last two decades.
When Myers walks into an establishment for a local independent show, he becomes PL Myers, manager extraordinaire.
POWW Midwest Champion Matt Dewar with his manager PL Myers in tow. Myers will lead Dewar in a title defense against Meathooks O’Bannon on Saturday night at WrestleRage 17 in West Suburban Addison. (Photo provided by PL Myers)
From meeting and working with many of his heroes to his “unpaid internship” with the original ECW, Myers has experienced plenty of great moments and has blazed a trail following the footsteps of managerial greats like Bobby “The Brain” Heenan, Jim Cornette, Jimmy Hart and Paul Ellering.
This Saturday at POWW Entertainment’s WrestleRage 17 at the Addison Park District, Myers is looking for a few more hits as he represents POWW Midwest Champion Matt Dewar (along with Cognito Jones) in his title defense against big man Meathooks O’Bannon.
“I’ve been working with Jimmy Blaze, the owner of POWW, for the last year, and have had the opportunity to manage Matt Dewar and see his bright future,” Myers said. “The sky is the limit. The guy has the body chiseled like Adonis. He’s got the heart of a lion.”
Myers is also managing two veterans in Dr. Jeff Luxon and Dave Rydell against the team of Joey Cece and Joey Ariola.
The matches with Myers’ charges are just two matches on a loaded event which features a four-way ladder match for the POWW Championship as Chicago veteran Vic Capri defends against Acid Jaz, Ruthless Ramon and Tylor Sullivan.
Noise Booze and Tattoos (Ruff Crossing & Scott Spade) defend the POWW Tag Team Championships against Chris Cairo and a mystery partner. In a six-man elimination for control of POWW, The Revolution (Blaze, Eric Freedom and Trainwrecker) takes on The Outlawed Saints and Yanni “GQ” Giannos.
In another six-man attraction, Max Holiday, B.O.W & Machine square off against The Butcher and Hardcore Impact (Hardcore Craig & Pauly Tomaselli). In a tag match, Trevor and Kyle Blanchard take on Trog the Caveman and Joey Roth.
The company also will be inducting the Untouchables (Buster and Ice) and Zebra Kid into the POWW Chicago Hall of Fame.
Front tickets are sold out, but there are still tickets available for Saturday night’s event, which begins at 6:30 p.m. at the Addison Park District (120 E. Oak St). Advance general admission tickets are available by using the “Shop Now” button on POWW Entertainment’s Facebook page until 10 p.m. Friday night for just $15. Tickets will be $20 at the door.
“Here’s your chance to get out there and meet these wrestlers, seeing the future wrestling superstars. It’s just one of those events where for three hours you can go out there and enjoy yourselves for $15. Nowadays, it’s probably cheaper than a movie. This is where you can interact, you can get autographs, you can get pictures with these guys. The POWW roster is a good bunch of guys.”
Latching on to wrestling
As a child, Myers saw wrestling’s over-the-top characters and was hooked almost immediately.
“I was a short, heavyset kid,” Myers said during an exclusive interview with Windy City Slam. “I really wasn’t doing sports. My dad was much older, so we weren’t like playing football or baseball. I clicked on the television to watch WWF (at the time), you saw Hulk Hogan, this larger-than-life character. You just fall in love with it like your first teddy bear. Then when you’re growing up a bit and you’re watching World Class, NWA and AWA, you kind of throw away that teddy bear, and go, ‘Wait, the Road Warriors, Ric Flair, the Horsemen,’ it becomes bigger than life. I was just drawn to these wrestlers, these athletes. It was something that I was just glued to. I got the action figures, I read the magazines, late nights watching WWF Superstars and Wrestling Challenge.
“My great grandmother was a big wrestling fan, watching Gorgeous George on television. That’s what I was told by my dad, so I think it skipped a generation.”
Myers attended his first live show for his 14th birthday when his family traveled the Rosemont Horizon (now Allstate Arena) for a WWF live event when it ran monthly at the arena.
Road Warrior Hawk poses with PL Myers during a Special Olympics Illinois’ fundraiser show in Rosemont in Sept. 1996. (Photo provided by PL Myers)
His love for the business grew when he began interviewing wrestlers for HeroTV in 1996, beginning with the wrestler that Myers really gravitated toward in Road Warrior Hawk. Hawk was making an appearance at Chicago Sports Spectacular event in which proceeds went to Special Olympics Illinois.
“I brought my camera, a little VHS handheld camera,” Myers said. “I go up to Hawk and I’m going to do my best to impress him. Growing up, I had the Road Warriors figures, I had the T-shirts, I saw them in Chicago win the 6-man belts in a steel cage at the UIC Pavilion against the Horsemen. I was always drawn to Hawk because he had the personality. Animal was always the rough-and-tough guy.”
When Myers began to run off a litany of Hawk’s pro wrestling accomplishments, the charismatic Road Warrior was thoroughly impressed.
“He looks in the camera and goes, ‘How can I not like this guy. He knows everything.’ ” Myers said. “It was the best day of 1996.”
Extreme dreams
An upstart promotion based in Philadelphia, one that would air in the overnight hours on Chicago television, caught Myers’ eye. That company was ECW, featuring the crazy, barbaric in-your-face style which focused mostly on hardcore wrestling with doses of ridiculous athleticism.
“There was something different about ECW at the time,” Myers said. “Maybe I can go backstage and be an interviewer. They come into town and I met Bill Alfonso. He’s says ‘Yeah, we’re going to be on TNN (which became Spike TV).’ I thought, ‘OK, I’ve got a shot there.’ ”
While holding on to his ECW dreams, Myers began working for the Lunatic Wrestling Federation, which was based in Chicago’s South suburbs, which eventually included a young kid who went by the name of CM Punk.
“I went to the LWF … I was enamored with it,” Myers said. “It was like ECW. They had the characters, they had a packed crowd. The next month I met Billy Whack, we went to dinner and we talked. My goal was to get to ECW. I wanted to become a manager. I get hooked up with the LWF and I become (CM Punk’s brother) Mike Brooks’ lawyer, agent, manager extraordinaire (LAME). I managed Team Fire Pro (Havoc and Mimic) and they won the tag team belts.”
One fall weekend in 1999, Myers flew out to Buffalo for ECW’s “November to Remember” pay-per-view and had a chance meeting with the Extreme leader, Paul Heyman.
PL Myers interviews Triple H during the WrestleMania 22 press conference at the Chicago Theatre in 2006. (Photo by Mike Pankow)
“I went to the hotel, I found Bill Alfonso, Jerry Lynn and Spike Dudley and I get in the elevator and there’s Paul Heyman,” Myers recalls. “ ‘Hi, Mr. Heyman, my name is Paul Myers. I’ve been sending you tapes. I just wanted to introduce myself.’ He’s just, ‘I know who you are, just keep doing what you’re doing and we’ll talk.’ ”
When ECW came into the Chicago area for shows, Myers volunteered to work concessions and merchandise while sitting under the learning tree of some of the veteran ECW workers.
“Spike Dudley gave me the best advice: ‘Pick one thing and be the best at it,’ ” Myers said.
Those words helped to mold Myers into a quintessential wrestling manager.
Things got maybe a little personal for Myers at one point. During “November to Remember” in 2000 at the Odeum in Villa Park, New Jack borrowed some items from Myers’ parents house for his match against Rhino.
“He took my Bears helmet, used that,” Myers recalled. “I almost lost my Bears helmet, which was a Neal Anderson helmet. He took some pool cue sticks from the basement and used them.”
A few months later, ECW closed down and its assets were purchased by WWE, which closed the door for Myers joining ECW.
“I never had a shot with them.”
Long local run
After ECW’s demise, Myers was an integral part of the decade-and-a-half run for PCW, which ran shows in the South and West suburbs over the years.
“We started PCW in 2001,” Myers said. “Our first show was at the Melrose Park Civic Center. We had Billy Corgan sitting front row, because he was an ECW fan. Sandman was there. Bill Alfonso was there. I was managing the Midwest Champion Flyboy TK for his title shot. We had over 900 people paid at that show.”
PCW became known for its annual “Dream Nights,” which usually featured appearances by wrestlers from the mainstreams or various legends. It also gave the local talent a bigger stage and a brighter spotlight under which to perform. Before it closed down, PCW held 13 “Dream Night” shows.
The Chicago Connection dominated the local scene for over a decade. (Photo provided by PL Myers)
“We came up with the name Dream Night, because it was everyone’s dream to walk out that tunnel and be somebody for that 15 minutes of fame,” Myers said. “You have kids there, people of all different ages. The great thing about PCW is that it was like the ‘Bad News Bears of Wrestling.’ Guys of all different shapes and sizes and for 10 bucks you can enjoy it. I was fortunate to given an opportunity by Sonny Rogers, Jimmy Blaze, John Burke, Wally Wild, Rick Knight, Rick Rocket – and whole bunch of guys who were making that thing work.”
PCW also opened the door for Myers to work with his idol.
“When I became friends with Hawk, we brought him into Chicago on Oct. 20, 2001 and I managed the Road Warriors in Chicago. Me and John Burke wrestled Q101 guys Turd and Jim Jesus (former AAW co-owner Jim Lynam). The Road Warriors came out on their motorcycles against Tony Scarpone and Flyboy TK.”
Myers also was a driving force behind the Chicago Connection, arguably the most dominant faction in the history of Chicago independent wrestling.
The Chicago Connection was started by Myers and Kingpin in 2000 with Burke and Jarrod Priest. Then the stable added Chris Styles and Michelle Morgan. Later on, the group added Whiplash and Jay Phoenix (with Styles and Burke being removed). Phoenix was the longest tenured member of the Chicago Connection.
Other notable members included Knight, Body Count (tag team) and Aries (Windy City Pro Wrestling alum). Over 14 years, the Chicago Connection held the heavyweight, women’s, tag team, Midwest and Dream Night titles. The Connection also won the only cage match in the history of Dream Night.
Book it
Around a decade ago, Myers decided to take pen to paper and compose a book of his memoirs in professional wrestling called “Gate to Gate.” Hawk, who died in Oct. 2003, was the inspiration for the book and its title.
“Hawk would always say by the time you got off the plane till the time you get back on the plane, he was taken care of. I always made sure the talent was always taken care of. I got him to the car. I got him a good hotel. That was our old saying, ‘Gate to Gate.’ ”
Bobby “The Brain” Heenan and PL Myers. (Photo provided by PL Myers)
The proceeds from the book went to Special Olympics Illinois, who was behind the fundraiser where he met Hawk in 1996, and the Elmhurst day camp program where he was a day camp counselor. The book raised over $1,000 for the two charities.
Myers became so close to Hawk after their initial meeting that he spoke at his funeral right after “Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase. WWE Hall of Fame manager Bobby “The Brain” Heenan was in attendance at the funeral and remembered Myers’ speech.
“After I started writing the book, I met Bobby Heenan,” Myers recalled. “We brought him to Chicago and I worked against him. He took a bump from me. I hit him the throat with (Heenan’s) book. I had Bobby ‘The Brain’ Heenan, the greatest manager of all time, suffering from throat cancer, getting hit by me – a little kid. But that was the greatest manager of all time putting me over. He saw the passion in me, the respect for the business.”
Heenan offered to write Myers’ foreward pro bono. Myers was starstruck even at that point.
“It’s like Michael Jordan offering to write a foreward to some kid in high school right now.”
Oh, what a rush!
Check out the full 34-minute interview with PL Myers, including stories about ECW, Road Warrior Hawk, Bobby “The Brain” Heenan and the local companies for which he worked:
Catch Windy City Slam editor Mike Pankow talking local and national pro wrestling every other week on The Broadcast Basement, available wherever you download podcasts or at https://broadcastbasement.podbean.com/.
