The Rest of the Angles

On the CWF Archives site and in an old discussion on KM, the 25 top angles in CWF history were outlined.  While I was only around to witness about 15 of those top 25, I was fortunate enough to be an observer of some other memorable angles and matches in the years I lived in Florida.  Having spent a significant portion of my last 4 days of unemployment watching a stack of videos that had been piling up, I started thinking about the angles and matches I did get to see.

In thinking about these angles, I asked myself about my “Top 25” angles – the ones I was able to witness.  So, in the articles I write in the coming months, I will detail the angles and matches that I saw, that would likely rank in my “Top 25” but that, in most cases rightly, didn’t make the overall list.  The first angle that I’ve chosen for the remaining 10 in my top 25 involved JJ Dillon, Eric Embry and Avalanche Tyler.  This angle speaks to me, particularly in retrospect, because it shows how skilled everybody in the territory – from the bookers, to the announcers, to the talent themselves were.  This angle was certainly not the best one Florida ever ran and it didn’t involve the biggest stars to come through the state, but it was memorable and got it’s participants over like a million bucks.

You see Avalanche Buzz Tyler had recently come into the state of Florida.  Apparently, they wanted to put him in a mid- to upper-card slot, but he (in my opinion) wasn’t strong enough, nor did he have a big enough pre-established name to go directly into that slot.  Another relatively recent arrival to the state was a very young, very skinny, towheaded kid by the name of Eric “Emory” (later changed to Embry).  Eric looked like he would be your typical television enhancement guy and wouldn’t amount to much.  The working and talking abilities of both JJ Dillon and Gordon Solie made Avalanche Tyler and Eric Emory much bigger stars than they would have been otherwise.

It all started with a JJ Dillon interview.  It was JJ’s second or third week in the territory and he came out with Avalanche to give Gordon an interview.  In the course of the interview, Dillon noted that Avalanche Tyler was there for a reason and that he, himself, had been the mastermind behind bringing this great talent to the state.  JJ further went on to state that Championship Wrestling from Florida was not providing Tyler with enough quality competition and, not only could Avalanche Tyler (great physical specimen that he was) beat any one man, but he could beat any TWO men, with the Avalanche (a form of a powerslam) within 10 minutes.  

Dillon was, as a matter of fact, so confident in Tyler’s abilities, that he would put up $1,000 to any man or two men who could last the 10 minutes against the big Avalanche.

In the course of this conversation, Tyler headed to the ring preparing to take on the tough test of Dorve Roach.  Suddenly, Eric Emory sauntered out to the desk from the dressing room and asked JJ if he had heard him correctly.  Was JJ really offering $1,000 to anybody who could last 10 minutes with Tyler?  Dillon confirmed that he had the opportunity to walk away with $1,000, but scolded Embry about what a tough task he was undertaking.  Emory, essentially being talent enhancement, had never seen money like that for one match before and eagerly accepted the offer.

Embry got in the ring and the match was on!  Emory started the match against Tyler and did a pretty darned good job of working with him.  Eric was evading, crawling through the legs and getting in offense here and there.  As the match progressed and the clock ticked, Dillon approached the ring at around the 5:00 mark for a little war of words with Tyler.  Dillon reminded Tyler of the $1,000 of Dillon’s hard-earned money that was at stake against these two boys and Tyler needed to perform!  Keep in mind that Roach hadn’t tagged in once to rest Emory and poor Eric had been out there, on his own, this entire time.

After Dillon’s rather stern talking-to, Tyler, in a fit of aggression, pulled Roach off the ring apron and gave him the Avalanche on the hard floor, thereby removing him from the match.  Tyler got back in the ring and started going for Emory with both guns ablaze!  Tyler started getting his offense in, got Emory on the mat and delivered a devastating elbow drop (did you ever notice how over the elbow was in Florida?)!  Bill Alphonso dropped to his knees and counted.  One, Two….  Wait a minute!  Why was Alphonso stopping the count Dillon and Tyler demanded!  Fonzie physically explained that the rules of the match were that Tyler had to win with his avalanche – a simple one, two, three wasn’t enough.  More...