I'd like to begin this article with a correction from the previous one. My father informed me that his chest problem he had before his retirement was not diagnosed a heart attack and was not the main reason he had to retire from wrestling.
He was wrestling against a former WWE Superstar, Bull Buchanan. He took a body slam and landed shoulder first.
He says his arm still isn't right to this day because of it. That's just how it goes in wrestling sometimes. It's just a shame it had to end his career.
But anyhow, this article isn't about the end, but rather the pinnacle of his career. Dad had long stopped being "Hogansville's Own" and transformed into The Texas Hangman.
He was a top tag team wrestler in most of the independent ranks in the Southeast.
For those who live in Georgia, he wrestled often on TV69 for a company that was sponsored by Gallery Furniture, which was known as "The company owned by The Wolfman."
As The Texas Hangman, my father was a heel. His partner had a speech impediment, so Dad had to pick up the slack cutting promos and getting heat from the fans, while his partner focused on being the technical wrestler.
Getting heat from the fans is done in several ways. In a small local promotion to the biggest stage of World Wrestling Entertainment, the easiest way to do this is to simply talk about the town you are in in a negative way.
So this was obviously his first technique. Normally, just cutting a simple promo doing that and insulting your opponent in some way and ending it with bragging about your ability is enough to do this. Dad always took it a thousand times farther.
Another way he got heat was pulling illegal swaps. The two wrestlers had similar body build (although you could very easily tell them apart).
They wore the same outfit. They had the same mask. His partner, The Tennessee Hangman, would take a body slam and hold his back and roll out of the ring.
They would then huddle up and walk around in a circle, Dad would hold his back and pretend to be hurt and roll into the ring.
When I look back on it now, I can't help but think about how angry something so simple like this actually made those fans.
I was right there with them screaming "HEY REF! THEY SWITCHED." But as always, the referee was one second too late.
But, these tactics still weren't enough for my father. He took advantage of every moment he had from the time he walked through the curtain until the time he left the arena.
There were times his partner wouldn't be able to tag my Dad because Pops was too busy jawing with a certain fan in the crowd.
He has gone so far as to be shot at and attacked at a red light after a show. These stories will come in future installments.
The story that follows is a series of events. They all revolve around a certain fan. We simply called her Granny.
Granny was an old woman staying in an old person's home in the Carrollton, GA area. She got the chance to leave her facility once a week and she used that time to come to the wrestling shows.
She sat in the front row and was always the most avid fan. She carried a purse with her and never let it leave her arm. This will come into play later in the story.
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