Dangerous Stories: Dreamer Welcomed Sign Guy To ECW

First off I want to say thanks to the guys at Tha "O" Show for posting my stuff. I'm glad to be here, and want to hear from all of you. Check me out on my space. Let me make my first post here at Tha "O" Show about how I got into this business.

So my whole start in to E.C.W came as a photographer hooked up by ROH booker Gabe Sapolsky. He wrote the E.C.W. Action Wire and occasionally I would contribute articles and that grew to being a ringside photographer. Being a photographer was fun stuff, it was my 'in' to the wrestling business and a chance to be part of some pretty cool things. It was also the start of my long and continuing friendship with Tommy Dreamer.

Dreamer always looked out for me and gave me a lot of pointers about staying out of TV camera shots, out of the way of any outside the ring action, etc . . . It was also the Dream who “broke me in” to the wrestling business. As the story goes I had become friendly with Raven traveling with him to an occasional indy show and taking some pictures and what not. Well once night at the E.C.W. Arena in August of 1995 Steve Richards, another guy I had become friends with along the way, told me Raven needed to see me. Well usually when you hear something like that it’s either that someone needs you to go get something, or they wanted copies of their photos, etc – Well this was a little different. Raven’s exact words were “Congratulations you graduated, you are now Sign Guy Dudley” and there you have it, that is how Sign Guy Dudley was born. He told my task for the night would be simple, they had a ringside seat for me on the hard camera side and he wanted me to hold up pro-Dudley signs. At the time the Dudley’s were Big Dick Dudley, Little Snot Dudley, and Dudley. So here I go off to ringside wearing a tye-dye that didn’t fit a flannel shirt, and a pair of shorts. The whole gimmick was to mock the other sign guy who sat in the front row and for some reason annoyed Raven, and to also expand the Dudley family of interbred freaks.

As the show went along I held my signs, watched the matches, etc – Dudley Dudley came to the ring to battle Tommy Dreamer and at that point I jumped up and down, went crazy, and looked like a goofball. Well the finish came along with Dreamer up and all the Dudley Boys left the ringside area but T.D. stayed. He gave me a long stare from the ring and then jumped down to the floor. Then he was face to face me and I just kept going along with it all, laughing at him and what not. Then he ripped my sign, cool I thought, then he grabbed me and pulled me over the rail. Yeah, this shit was not worked out at all.

So there is Lou D’Angeli – Sign Guy Dudley – whatever, being slung into the E.C.W. ring not having any fucking idea what is going on. I hear Dreamer call for a chair, and all I could think of was not to put my hands up and take this shit because Dreamer would never hurt me – He didn’t but did give me a nice one. So now I am selling this chair shot thinking all is done, wrong. Dreamer comes over and says “DDT” and I am like OOOOKKKKKKKKKKKKK – He hauls me up, screams E.C.W. and plants my head right on the chair that he just wacked me with. To even try and describe the shit going through my head at that time is impossible. All I can say is the EMT’s came out, threw me on a stretcher and hauled me to the back; the entire time I was covering my face because I was smiling because I couldn’t believe that had just taken place. It was fucking great.

From that point forward, Dreamer would help me non-stop to become a better, bumping, manager. He always had faith in me when others gave me shit because I wasn’t trained and had a spot in the hottest company in wrestling. But as time went on, I started making trips to Long Island and the House of Hardcore so Dreamer, Taz, Saturn, Mikey, and eventually Bubba could show me how to be an effective manager without getting myself killed. As Bubba and D-Von became huge I always felt grateful I had the chance to be part of those matches, to have spots, and to have their faith that I wouldn’t fuck it all up. Dreamer gave me those chances by opening doors for me, and not just letting me rot away and I am very grateful to him for that.

I always thought Sign Guy Dudley would be a three month deal. Who knew? Not me . . .

Thanks for reading . . .

lou

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