Later, Roland came by to explain to us battle royal participants what we were going to do.* Roland grew up watching a lot of Roy Shires, so he does a very old-school battle royal.* Basically, there are fifteen guys in the ring, and the first ten minutes is just a brawl.* Then it becomes one of those Titanic battle royals where everybody jumps out at the same time to safety.* At that point, there are four guys left and they do a tag match.* Pinfalls are a form of elimination at that point.* When it gets down to three guys they do the old three-way, then it comes down to two guys for a singles match.
I was told that APW battle royals are an experience because some guys like to go after the rookies and the new guys.* I’m not a rookie but I sure was a new guy down here, so I knew I would be in for a beating.* Ed and I concocted what I felt was an ingenious plan — we would stay together the whole time.* We had various plans, like putting each other in a long headlock and hiding in the corner while the combat ensued in mid-ring, and maybe doing a chop in the corner just for old Kinji Shibuya.* Unfortunately, few of our plans got a chance to transpire.
Once the bell rang for the battle royal, I went straight to the corner and looked for Ed.* He was looking for me, so everything initially went according to plan.* We did some stuff in the corner and I even hooked him for the old Flying Mare.* Unfortunately there were just too many people in the ring so we couldn’t pull it off.* You see, there’s this very old rule about never bumping in a battle royal until there’s just a few guys left in there.* It’s just too dangerous.* So you can imagine how stupid I felt when someone grabbed me, put me in a front facelock, and gave me a DDT right there in the middle of the ring with fifteen other guys running around.* I kind of knew it would be trouble right there.* I got up and Super Dragon suddenly jumped at me and hit me in the shoulder with the stiffest flying knee ever.* “Ed,” I screamed,* “Help me!”
So Ed grabbed Super Dragon and I saw them exchanging shots in the corner.* I later learned from Ed that this became his first shoot in twenty-four years.* Apparently, Dragon was really laying into a lot of people, and he laid into the wrong man in Moondog Ed Moretti.* Ed grabbed him, switched him into the corner and punched him right in the face as hard as he could.* “I punched him three times,” Ed said later.* “I crossed his eyes on the third one.”* Ed ended up with a big cut on his fist and young Super Dragon hopefully learned the error of his ways.''