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Mount Hope twins double as tag team partnersSteve McMichael and Bill Goldberg aren’t the only exfootball players to make the transition to professional wrestling.Bart and Brad Batten, twin brothers from Mount Hope, became pro wrestlers after playing football for the old semi-pro West Virginia Rockets in the early 1980s. Their journeys have takenthem to many FIGURE IV different wrestling lands, and the two have put together quite a successful career as a tag team.The Battens got their start ~ D v when Georgia Championship Wrestling (the National Wrestling Alliance)made an appearance at the Charleston Civic Center. Les Thatcher was a booking agent for the promotion, and the twins contacted him and told him of their interest in the sport.Ironically, Thatcher told them they needed to get in shape. Bart and Brad were playing football at the time.Bart was a wide receiver, and Brad was a running back for the Rockets.When the twins actually got into wrestling training, a popular and legendary wrestling family showed them the ropes.They were trained by none other than Angelo “The Miser”Poffo, along with his sons “Leaping” Lanny Poffo and “Macho Man” Randy Savage.“They were our biggest influence as far as training;” Bart said.The Battens began competing in the old ICW, which featured such wrestlers as the Poffo family, George Weingroff,Ronnie Garvin, “Cowboy” Bob Orton, Jr., and the Convertible Blondes tag team of “Pistol”Pez Whatley and Rip Rogers.Only two months into theirstint with ICW, Brad suffered an injury that forced him out for one year.When Brad finally returned, the twins went to the CWA, aSIMMIK CAMP • SIMMIK CAMP • SIMMIK CAMPPlateau Gymnastics, Inc.Now Accepting Applications ForsurvirvfER cavii*• Cheerleading • Pre-School• Boys Girls GymnasticsWE OFFER: . |Aerobics - Instructors Julie Kominsky Chris Brash IKarate - Instructor Debra Levin 1301 Park Street, Oak Hill, WV 25901 (3041 465-7008SUMMI R CAMP • SIMMI K CAMP • SLMMI.R CAMPpromotion in the mid-south which eventually became the United States Wrestling Association.The Battens never stayed in one promotion very long, but stayed long enough to make animpact. They were in the CWA from November 1984 until the following summer. Although their stay was short, Bart believes it was good for their careers.“We were making decent money and we were on TV every week,” he said. “It was a good experience for us.”From there, they went to Kansas City to compete for then-NWA president Bob Geigel.“Really, that’s where the light bulb came on for us as to what the business is really all about,” Bart said.Soon after, the brothers went to the Caribbean to compete in the World Wrestling Council. While there, they held the world tag titles three times and the Caribbean titles twice.After leaving the WWC, the Battens got out of the sport for a few years. All those years on the road had taken their toll.The Battens weren’t out of the sport for good. They did work a few independent shows from ’89-’92. However, they gotback in full-bore when they began working for Smoky Mountain Wrestling in ’92. They gotinvolved with the promotion after moving back to MountHope. Their mother had recently passed away, so they came back to the area to be with their father.“They used as much as they could, but with the Rock-n-Roll Express, the Heavenly Bodies and others, we never really were considered to be on top,” Bart said.They may not have been on top in SMW, but the Battens made their presence known in the other promotions they worked for.The twins won their first tag title when they won the Central States championship in a tournament in Kansas City in November ’85. The team they beat for the belts was no pushover — they defeated “Loverboy” Dennis Condrey and “Beautiful” Bobby Eaton, the Midnight Express.They held the title until June ’86. The next title they won was the WWC world tag championship. They won the belts on TV in their first matchin the promotion, defeatingKendo Nagasaki and Mr. Pogo in August ’88.Currently, the Battens hold the tag titles in the IWA and the All-Star Wrestling Federation, a promotion they help run, along with Roger Roseber-ry of Gallia, Ohio.“He needed a couple of guys to help out finding wrestlers and booking shows, and that’s basically where we’re at now,”Bart said.Perhaps one of the biggest matches the Battens wrestledwas in the first-ever Jim Crockett, Sr., Memorial Cup on April 19, 1986. They lost in the first round to Nelson Royal and Sam Houston at the Superdome in New Orleans.Bart and Brad both played collegiate football at West Virginia State in Institute. They were teammates of Greg “Cub” Curry, an assistant footballcoach and founder of the Spartan World Order at Greenbrier East High School.“I remember taking a lot of suplexes in the student union from that guy,” Bart said.The Battens did a show for Championship Professional Wrestling in Lewisburg last summer, and Curry was supposed to be their guest manager. Instead, he went on vaca-. tion.“I’m going to give him a lot of hell,” Bart said. “We try to get him involved, and he takes off on vacation.”Sportswriter Gary Faubercan be reached via e-mail atgaryfauber@hotmail. com.
Newspaper Details
Register Herald
Beckley, West Virginia, US
Sun, May 03, 1998
Page 2
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Darrel C.
USA 28 Apr 2019
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