Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Buffalo Jim goes to the mat for LV wrestling

"Buffalo Jim" Barrier can't remember a time when he wasn't a pro wrestling fan.

He loved the exhibition/sport as a boy growing up in Cleveland, though Barrier didn't see his first live match until the late 1970s, about a decade after moving to Las Vegas and opening Allstate Auto Marine and Electric, a repair shop he still operates today.

Barrier had been on his own since he was 12 years old. As a teen, he let his dark hair and burly beard grow free. That, along with his height topping out over 6 feet and his weight reaching 275, earned him his nickname.

"I had no one to tell me to cut my hair or shave, so it just grew," he said, masking what had to have been a tough existence as a youth. His dreams of one day being involved in pro wrestling sustained him.

"After I saw my first live matches at the Showboat, I was even more impressed. But I didn't think I should get involved at that time because I was building my business."

Although he still clocks 12-hour days at his shop on Industrial Road, Barrier's time to get involved with wrestling came last year, when an old friend, Charles Wright, got him involved with a promotion at the Aladdin.

Wright is a former University of Nevada, Reno, football player who at the time wrestled as Papa Shango. He's currently known as Kama.

Aladdin too large

Wright was thinking of giving up the extensive travel involved with the big-league World Wrestling Federation to be closer to his Las Vegas home with the fledgling National Wrestling Conference.

The Aladdin show drew a respectable crowd that looked tiny in the cavernous Theatre for the Performing Arts. It made Buffalo Jim and others realize that for a promotion to work here it had to be in a cozy setting where the arena could be more easily filled by appreciative local fans.

Enter the Silver Nugget.

"I think there are more wrestling fans in North Las Vegas -- at least they sure are enthusiastic," said Barrier, whose initial involvement was limited to sponsoring the taped televised matches emanating from the Silver Nugget and broadcast on a UHF station.

Promoters have long maintained that without a weekend TV show featuring the wrestlers, a promotion has little chance to survive. But television costs money. And although Barrier's ads for Allstate did little to add to his business, the sponsorship gave the NWC a fighting chance at establishing a foothold here.

"It didn't work at the time, but I think it will work eventually because live wrestling is good entertainment at an inexpensive price," Barrier said, noting that for $12 a parent can take his kids to the live promotion compared to twice or triple that cost for a movie.

The NWC returned to the Silver Nugget for shows in May and June, where Barrier's lifelong dream came full circle when he got to actually participate in promotions as Kama's manager.

A third show, set for July 17 at the Nugget, was canceled because several of the big-name wrestlers had other engagements. Barrier said the promoters did not want to put on a card with lesser talent for the main events.

Shows are wild

The shows at the Nugget are wild, even by professional wrestling standards.

Barrier and Kama enter the arena riding motorcycles and whip the 1,000-plus fans into a frenzy.

When Kama gets in trouble during a match, Barrier comes to his rescue, smashing beer and wine bottles over the heads of the opposing wrestlers.

"This is good family entertainment, because if you watch the kids, 99 percent of them are cheering for the good guy -- they want to see good triumph over evil, and that's a positive message," he said.

"Sometimes, like in real life, the bad guy wins, and that's a lesson to be learned. But if you follow the matches long enough, the good guy eventually comes out on top."

Although he portrays a manager who at times finds it necessary to bend the rules, Barrier said he has no trouble with his wife and four daughters sitting ringside watching the spectacle.

"They wear Buffalo Jim T-shirts and cheer me on," Barrier said, proudly showing off a card from one of his daughter's principals, inviting him and several wrestlers to come to the school next year and speak to the students during an assembly.

One aspect Barrier won't discuss about wrestling is the age-old question of matches having predetermined winners.

"All I want to say about that is the biggest, strongest, fastest and best-trained wrestlers win the matches," he said.

Barrier noted that to a devoted fan, legitimacy of the sport is not even an issue because they don't know who is going to win a match between two evenly matched opponents on a particular night.

Many of Barrier's employees also are into wrestling and it has been a thrill for some of them to meet not only the wrestlers on the cards, but the many matmen who come to Las Vegas on vacation.

Pat McNamara, who has worked for Barrier as a mechanic for two years, doubles as a chauffeur, picking up wrestlers at McCarran International Airport.

Imposing figures

"The thing I am most impressed with is just how big these guys really are and the amount of training they do to prepare for their matches," McNamara said.

"You see these guys on TV and you think they're about 6-2 or 6-3, but, when you see them in person they are more like 6-7 or 6-8. And some of them train harder than pro football players."

McNamara said of all the wrestlers he has met, the nicest of the bunch is The Undertaker, a World Wrestling Federation title contender who has portrayed everything from a beyond-the-grave bad guy to a gentler giant who strikes fear in the hearts of evil ex-cohorts.

Most of the wrestlers in the NWC are far from attaining that status. They fall into the category of up-and-comers, seeking work where they can find it in small Southwestern and California promotions.

"While some of the stars in the WWF and WCW (World Championship Wrestling, cable mogul Ted Turner's group) travel by plane, many wrestlers use their cars to cut the costs of getting to their matches," Barrier said. "It's a tough life when you are as big as they are and have to sleep in your car."

Barrier's brief stint as a manager has been successful. He even got a mention on the WCW hotline -- a "900" pay call-in line for the most fanatic of fans who are not satisfied with the myriad weekend and Monday night televised matches.

Barrier said plans are under way for the next Silver Nugget show, hopefully in August.

"The wrestlers love to come to Las Vegas because this is, after all, a fun place to visit," Barrier said. "But they have to go where the bookings are, and so they limit their travel to certain regions.

"Our goal is to get the Silver Nugget going with filled-to-capacity, twice-monthly shows and bring the best wrestlers here to put on a good show for the fans. For now, I'm having a great time riding my motorcycle and hitting people over the head with bottles. It's fun."

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