Transcript of an interview with The Shousemeister for IWAR Magazine:
“When I started in this business, all I wanted was to be Beautiful Bobby Eaton- the epitome of a tag partner. I never counted on being a top draw for any company.”
That is what Mr. Magnificent Jamie Montgomery said to me when I asked him about his Hall of Fame career. He didn’t harbor dreams of being bigger than life, a hero and villain others would mimic. He was just a 21-year-old kid who wanted to be a tag team specialist. How incredible it is then that the wanna-be tag specialist would become a master of opportunity and a highly respected grappler.
May 1995 – Jacksonville, Florida
A barely-trained young man working under the name of The Shooting Star arrived at the offices of the Heartthrob Wrestling League. He was placed into a young tandem called The Stud Club along with The Equalizer Ryan Reeve, Damon Reznor and Ace Aaron Hart. Hart and Shooting Star (newly packaged as Magnificent Montgomery) were paired as a tag team. None of the men could cut an interview so the group was given a mouthpiece, Billy “The Brain” Donald.
“We were all so young, green. We did what the office asked, drew our checks and tried to get better every day. Billy was a young cat from the South. He grew up watching Memphis wrestling and could talk like a man 20 years in the business. All of us watched him on the microphone with awe. Of course he went on to manage major champions like Billy Kendall, Alex Lifeson and The Tank Tony Wayne. Ryan was the best of us all; he was a powerhouse with an amateur background. He was all set for a huge singles push. But it was short-lived. Two territory championships were all Equalizer enjoyed – a neck injury in Tokyo put him out after only a year. It was just a blown spot and then it was over. That was when we all started to think about the future and whether we could leave a legacy.”
“My tag team with Ace was marginally successful; we had good chemistry. But one day Billy and I were called into the office and we were informed that I was being given a TV title match at the next televised event versus the territory’s top heel- Lord Pandemonium. The guy was a real monster; huge. But I determined to make the shot count. I won that title and proceeded to keep it for the next five cycles. The money was good and with all the singles matches, the tag team with Aaron just started to fade away. The road agents and producers started sending me and Billy out to do interviews and things without Damon and Ace. Slowly everyone grew tired of it. So after only about 18 months as an elite group, TSC was no more.”
“Ryan became a school teacher in Ohio. Damon spent a lot of time in Japan and then opened a wrestling school in Saint Louis. Ace stayed in the business but liked the office more than the travel; he’s a producer for a company in Tennessee now. And Billy took a great contract for a company in New York City.”
November 1996 – Phoenix, AZ
New COO of Questionable Motives Wrestling, Jeff Rice, saw footage of Magnificent Montgomery and immediately determined that the young man was going to be working in AZ and not FL. Jamie’s contract was in renegotiation and house shows were down so the money in AZ was far better. Montgomery bought a plane ticket and left the sunshine state for the desert. He arrived and was booked in another tandem alongside a flamboyant grappler who called himself Greatness. The group survived a mere three months before Montgomery seized opportunity during a four-way dance and pinned Greatness to become the QM World Champion, his first of four World titles in the Rice era.
“I was in the steel cage along with Greatness, Dan Capilla and Matt Rassler. One of us was going to be champ. And Greatness told me to stand in the corner while he pinned one of the guys we had beaten down. I thought about the order less than a second and then I dropped him on his head. I held that title for a good while before Dan Capilla took the title from me in Seattle; I won it back a month later in Vegas. He took the title again in Vancouver between my third and fourth reigns. The second title reign ended on an overseas tour against a guy named Iron Sultan; it was actually Lord Pandemonium working under a new gimmick. Amazing how the business comes back around really. I was the champion again before we got back to the states.”
Montgomery’s last championship reign ended at the hands of one Hitman Chris Spencer. Jamie would not regain the title. But it was not his number of titles that defined him as much as the feuds he endured while in QML. Between 1997 and 2001, he fought in yearlong battles against Hall of Famers Sexy Boy Steven Paradise, Confederate Warrior, Roy Hammerhead and then the Extreme Icon Hannibal.
“The feud that took the biggest toll on me and really led to my retirement in 2004 was my two year run against Steven Paradise; that Virginia piece of trash put me in the hospital four times. He broke my leg in ’99 and I was on the shelf for months. The only reason I was allowed to keep the world title was so I could defend it against him at the year-end PPV. We did the show in Dallas and it was jam packed. I made a lot of money that night. And I got my revenge big time. Paradise bled out at least a pint of blood in the match. He went to the hospital that night.”
“Hannibal entered the region in late 2000 and immediately set out to make an impact. There was no better target than me. So we fought all over the world. Each of us taking the other to edge of sanity and physical exhaustion. For all my hate toward Steven Paradise, Hannibal ended up being one of my best friends. And it was because of how much respect we had for each other by the time it was all said and done. If you ask me, I won the feud. If you ask him, he won it. No one is sure how the records vetted out. It’s all just talk.”
“I ended up working in NY in the same company as Billy Donald. He got me the opportunity but I did not fit in very well up there. When you go Broadway with the IWA World Champ, you don’t expect to be signing autographs at a car show the next day. But it was where I was at. I was in a tag team with a kid that was allegedly my illegitimate son. I re-broke my ankle in tag match on a PPV in 2007. And I went home for good.”
In 2012, Montgomery released his memoir It’s the Way You Lace Your Boots.
While doing a book signing in his adopted hometown of Louisville, Montgomery saw a familiar face waiting for an autograph; Hannibal. The Extreme Icon was now wrestling for Lone Wolf Wrestling out of Massachusetts. And they were in town for a house show. Hannibal wanted to invite Montgomery to watch that night and to show him something.
“Jeff showed me a picture of LWL’s top star- Wrestling Gold. The thing was that Gold had a scar on his left elbow that looked exactly like one that I had personally put on Steven Paradise. Hannibal knew that I could not say no to the ring if I thought Paradise was wrestling again (and being cheered as a savior no less). So I went to the arena that night to confront the masked man and ended up in the ring for the first time in five years. The next day I signed a deal with Lone Wolf, kissed my wife and kids goodbye and hit the road. Gold quit the company before I could take the mask off of him. No one ever confirmed who was under the mask, but I will always believe that it was Steven Paradise. My obsession did not go without casualties though. I ended up in rehab because I started drinking heavily. My wife filed papers of separation; I nearly lost my marriage and my kids. I forgot what was most important. Thankfully my family made it through the tough time. This business is a greater drug than any pill or drink. It was my first mistress and now I guess it’s my last. Here I am at 41 years of age, the reigning Lone Wolf champion. I have won five of those belts thus far. I am a 6-time Tag and 8- time US tag champion. All but one of those has been teaming with Hannibal. I am within earshot of writing Wrestling Gold out of the record books. My plan to stay out of the ring did not pan out obviously. But I have been very lucky to come out of retirement, out of the Hall of Fame and have this incredible run. I can’t wait to see what happens next. The only thing that I am sure of is that I am going to find a protégé and teach him everything that I know.”
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