It is hard to believe that this April, I have been involved with his business for 31 years, What is even crazier to think is that it took me a little over 4 years into the business to meet, Murder-1. When I first got into this business, New Jack was one of the trainers at Sammy Kent’s school in Norcross. It was a little over a year after I started that New Jack and Mustafa would go up to Smoky Mountain Wrestling and cause all kinds of havoc. If you go back and watch those videos you will see D-Lo Brown and Murder-1 as part of The Gangsta’s posse. Murder-1 learned a lot from being in that background and watching what was happening; it is still on display today.
I first met Murder, er excuse me, TC Sledge back in 1997 as we were both working for War Zone Wrestling at the International Ballroom in Doraville. So, I am sure he will tell you this, but TC Sledge was about as generic as they come. Complete with a create-a-wrestler blue singlet and every babyface move and mannerism imaginable. But you know what? It was over. It doesn’t surprise me because Murder always makes something special. During his time in War Zone, he transitioned from TC Sledge into Homicide where he would join forces with Notorious D.O.G. and they would be managed by Whoopie Kravitz. They had some memorable battles with Team Extreme (Air Paris and Terry Lawler). When War Zone closed down, Homicide joined up with one of the students from the WZW training school, Steve Stussey and they would form, Millennium Wrestling Alliance.
It didn’t get more outlaw than Millennium. Stussey was the money guy. He had the ring and a few months of knowledge under his belt. Murder was the connections guy. In his time in the business, he had a lot of connections, but not only that he had a wealth of knowledge. As the booker of Millennium, Murder was putting out some pretty amazing shows and doing it all with a diverse amount of talent. Stussey and Murder invited me along for the ride of Millennium giving me an opportunity to referee. Because I had worked with Ruckus at War Zone promoting towns, they also brought me along to help promote and hang posters in the various areas Millennium was going to run.
Stussey and Murder also put me in charge of doing some promoting on the internet. For you younger folks, this wasn’t as easy as it is now. First off, there was dial-up internet. Secondly, there was no social media, just message boards and chat rooms. It was in one of these AOL chatrooms that I would be introduced to a young man with the screen name, CrzyEscobar. Millennium was coming to Marietta, so I was in the chat rooms promoting the event when I got an IM from CrzyEscobar asking me about the event, but more importantly how to become a wrestler. This 16-year-old kid would hit me up anytime I logged on. I reached out to Murder because he was going to start training at Stussey’s house. I told this kid to meet Murder in Marietta and they could go from there. By the way kid, what is your name? He told me James, but everyone called him Jimmy. Well, those two met and the next thing I know Murder-1 is training the late great Jimmy Rave.
Part of training, especially with someone who came up like Murder, is that you are immediately ring crew, street team, security, and anything that is asked of you. Jimmy was no exception to this rule. One night, Stussey, Murder, Jimmy, and I were down in Jackson putting out posters and flyers. This was the night I introduced the crew to free advertisement. I got a roll of quarters and we rode through the town looking for newspaper machines. I’d put in the 50 cents to get the paper, only I wasn’t making a withdrawal, I was making a deposit. I would place a flyer just behind the first section of each newspaper. Now, of course, this was illegal and if we got caught, I am sure there would have been some kind of charges brought against us. For the record, Stussey seemed a little apprehensive about my endeavor, but there cheering me on all the way was Murder-1. Three weeks later when we got to Jackson, no cops were waiting to arrest us, which was good, but we did have a decent house.
Something about that area of Georgia brought out the mischievous side of Murder-1. One night in Griffin, Murder-1 came to me and told me that I was going to ref the main event of Kenny Dees and Terry Floyd. I didn’t think anything of it except I knew these two would get color and Jimmy Rivers usually did their matches because Jimmy was a juicing referee. Again I thought nothing of it. I got out to the ring and looked over at the side, there was Notorious D.O.G. Murder-1, Stussey, and I want to say Dusty Dotson. About a minute into the match, Dees called for me to take a bump. From there it was open season on me. I cannot tell you how many spots they called, but I took them including a dive from Kenny Dees off a chair and onto my face. It left a mark. Then D.O.G. got in on the act and placed my head against the turnpost and slammed a chair into it. I looked over and Murder was laughing his ass off. Later that night at Waffle House he told me that it was a planned rib the entire time and that he was impressed that I didn’t get mad. I was looking up as the waitress came by, it was like that scene in Tommy Boy after David Spade hit Chris Farley with the 2x4. I had this huge bruise on the side of my face and the poor waitress was like “What the hell happened to you?”
Murder-1 was building momentum with his amazing in-ring stuff and his booking was getting the attention of different people in Georgia. Not only that, he was training a generation of talent that would make Georgia wrestling what it was. Not only was he training Jimmy Rave, but he was also developing the careers of Iceberg and Rainman Kory Chavis. Those days and early evenings in Stussey’s backyard were something special. I don’t know if all of us realized it then, but something was happening that would shape wrestling for the upcoming decades. These training sessions were not just how to take a bump or how to do a move, these training sessions were lessons, hell, master classes on how to tell a story with your entire body. Why a facial expression makes the difference in a clothesline. He was demonstrating why timing is so important, waiting that extra second to walk out the curtain or not rushing to your next spot. He was shaping and molding a generation that would also shape and mold the next generation. I honestly don’t think there is a person in Georgia wrestling who hasn’t in some shape or form been trained or mentored at one time by Murder-1. Some other of those notable names include Chip Day and Kaleb Conley.
1998 was a pivotal year in wrestling. Not just on the national scene, but locally as well. During the summer of that year, a new promotion would emerge called the IWU. The IWU was an ambitious project run by a local boxing promoter and memorabilia dealer named Don “the Moose” Lewis. Before I go any further, I have debated on giving Moose flowers. While I try to keep these positive and uplifting, I honestly believe that doing a piece on him would lean more towards the negative, even though it was through IWU I made a lot of friends and got a lot of opportunities. So who knows? Ok, back to Murder-1. During the summer of 1998, the IWU ran the Cobb Civic Center in Marietta. It was a disaster of a show. There was no way this man was ever going to run again. Except he did. It was the next IWU show at the Roxy in Atlanta that would be the meeting of Moose and Murder-1. Only in the IWU for this event, he would be known as Redrum. It was at this event that the wheels would be set in motion for a merger of sorts. While Stussey and Murder were doing an admirable job of keeping Millennium afloat, it was a daunting task. Crowds were good, but running shows costs money and if you can get an investor to give you more, then do it. The first joint Millennium/IWU show was in November 1998 at the Marietta National Guard Armory. If you remember from an earlier Flowers, this was the debut of Todd Sexton as a referee. The event featured a lot of talent in Georgia during this period. It would also prove to be the end of Millennium as Stussey and Murder agreed to fold into the IWU. Originally, Murder-1 was hired as the booker with Notorious D.O.G. acting as an assistant. Things were going great and Murder-1 was hitting a stride. The matches were exciting, the armories were full of rabid wrestling fans enjoying the product. Some time in the spring something happened. Although I did work in the office, I never fully understood what led to the dispute between Moose and Murder, I just know that one day the book changed hands, and Murder was gone.
Murder-1 would return to tearing up rings throughout the southeast as we were getting deep into 1999. He was plying his trade at a place called Good Old Days in Atlanta. Good Old Days was a place where some of the Power Plant guys were going to get some ring time. It was run by Frank Arledge and Chris Robb. It is a forgotten staple in the history of Georgia Wrestling. I don’t know much about the place because Chris had some sort of heat with me because I worked for Don Lewis. Murder-1 was one of the many standouts at Good Old Days. It was also around this time that Murder-1 and his manager Todd Wimbledon would appear at an ECW event in Atlanta and have a spot with Bill Alfonso and Sabu.
One of the craziest things about the late 90’s in wrestling was the usage of message boards. In the early days of the internet, there was no social media. It was all AOL chat rooms and random message boards. One of the most notorious wrestling message boards in the state of Georgia was The Big Shoot. The Big Shoot was run anonymously by some of the boys and was moderate as such. TBS was a place for anyone to come and say whatever they felt needed to be said at any given time. The beautiful thing was the anonymity involved. There was no registration, just come to the site and post. It was fun and it led to some pretty memorable online exchanges. One of those exchanges culminated in a real fight that ended up involving Murder-1. To set the plate, there were several exchanges on TBS between the aforementioned Steve Stussey and Johnnie Walker who was working for IWU at the time. The talk led to a challenge being made and said challenge being answered. When Stussey arrived at the Marietta Armory, he was accompanied by his old friend Murder-1. They had a shoot fight in the middle of an IWU event. Stussey left with a little more than hurt pride, but it was also this event that cracked a door that would lead to Murder-1 returning to IWU somewhere down the road.
That somewhere down the road would end up being several months later when Todd Wimbledon and Murder-1 showed up at an IWU event seemingly joining forces with Moose. However, it was all a ruse and they soon attacked him. Murder-1’s run in IWU didn’t last very long this time either. He had a very brief stay and a couple of matches with Billy Black. As the new millennium was here and all of us survived the Y2K scare, a Blackout was on the horizon.
The team of Blackout became one of the most iconic teams in Wildside. Murder-1 and Rainman had wars with many of the top teams during that time winning the Wildside tag team titles 2 times. I think the biggest thing of note besides the in-ring work and the wars, is the loyalty of Murder-1. Here is a guy who could very easily be a top star on his own, brings one of his trainees, and forms an amazing tag team. Now granted, Rainman was one of those generational talents who was going to be a big star on his own too. However, I think some of that is credited to Murder-1 and his methods of training. It isn’t just in this case, it is in a lot of other areas too. The Murder-1 I have known has always been one of those guys who is very unselfish with his time and his knowledge. I have seen him mentor young guys and girls. He does it in a way where it just isn’t words, it is applied knowledge as well.
When Wildside ended in 2005 and Anarchy took its place, Murder-1 had a brief run there. However, he had plans to do something else and was hyper-focused on running a promotion he was collaborating with Josh Wheeler on to get off the ground, Pro-Wrestling Evolution. For the next several years, he was featured in all of the major promotions in Georgia of that time. He had sporadic appearances at Anarchy. He was having good runs with Rampage and Great Championship Wrestling to name just a few. It was in 2014 that once again he would be involved in the launching of a new promotion, Atlanta Wrestling Entertainment. AWE was producing great action with a blend of established stars, young talent, and the occasional name talent.
Murder-1 continues to be a major player and influencer in the state of Georgia. He launched Southern States Pro Wrestling back in 2022. They are doing amazing things and when you look at the card you know has his fingerprints all over it. He recently announced Murder-1’s Savage 16. It will be a unique season-style tournament featuring talent under the age of 26. Again, presenting opportunities to the young guys in our industry and unselfishly giving back to our business. He is also a featured part of Southern Honor Wrestling.
I don’t care if it is TC Sledge, Homicide, Da Hood, or Murder-1, in that person, you have perhaps one of the realest, most genuine people in the world. He has always been outspoken, he has always let you know exactly where he stands. He is very honest and sometimes being honest in our industry tends to hurt a lot of feelings. Murder loves this business. You can feel his love for it through everything that he does. It doesn’t matter if he is training the next up-and- comer, you can see and feel his passion in their actions. If it is booking an event, you can feel his love through every part of that event. Guys like him don’t exist much anymore, and it is a shame.
As much as Murder-1 gives to the industry, he does so while giving back to the community too. For years, African-Americans were grossly mistreated in this business. Very few were taken seriously or even given opportunities that their white counterparts were easily handed. While he was not the first to do so, Murder 1 still stood up for the African-American performer. He did so by creating opportunities to showcase them to a broader audience. He did so by going out and breaking down barriers and becoming a sought-after commodity. Not just in the ring, but behind the scenes as well. He is an elder spokesman not just for the African-American wrestler, but for the industry as a whole.
I have a ton more of Murder-1 stories I could tell. Like the time he pulled the Smokey scene from Friday on me and told me he was going to get me high one day. I explained to him that I wasn’t a smoker and that the chances of me ever smoking anything were pretty much zero. While he would rib me about it, he secretly told me one day that he respected me for sticking to my guns, but I was still a pussy because I wouldn’t smoke with him. Speaking of ribs, it was during a match I was refereeing that involved him Billy Love of the Beautiful People that Murder gave me my first chair shot. It was crazy because he picked up the chair looked at me and smiled and gave a wink just before he did it. It wasn’t supposed to happen, but it did and he got a kick out of getting me. There was also this time when he was featured in an article in Creative Loafing, I remember he was excited and then looked at me and said, “I am becoming a name in Georgia.” This was like 25 years ago. He was so stoked and I think that drove him to do more. And I am glad it did. I couldn’t imagine wrestling without him, and I honestly wouldn’t want to. He is truly one of the good ones, and while I know he has the respect, I wish it was with more reverence. He has helped an insane amount of people in this business realize their dreams. Either through training, mentoring, or just by being in the ring with them, he made them better, he made this business better, and he continues to do so. For all that you have done, for all that you continue to do, and for the legacy you continue to do so. For all that you have done, for all that you continue to do, and for the legacy you continue to build, I two finger salute you, my friend, I hope you enjoy your flowers.
