It’s been awhile since I have wanted to write about anything in professional wrestling. Those who may have seen my work in the past know that I’ve written numerous opinion pieces for various websites over the years, but I’ve been pretty much out of this side of things for over 3 years. I have my reasons for that and maybe one day, whether it be in this forum or another I may choose to discuss those reasons. My latest endeavor has me writing TV reports for the pwtorch.com and I’m hoping many of you are reading those reports and will support me there, here and well in any other medium I choose to express my views on this crazy business. I don’t know how often I will blog, or if I will even stay blogging as I thought about maybe doing some audio format down the line, but I had the proverbial writing itch and this is a way to scratch it.
Those who have followed my work in the past, know that I kind of go out of my way not to be negative about things. After all, if you are negative towards the wrestling business than why do you choose to follow it? I tend to try to be positive or at least constructive with my views, however from time to time I probably will get negative. I had a few things I wanted to discuss in this blog, and I may get to some of them in the future but there was one that was important for me to address now and that was the passing of Jersey All Pro Wrestling Promoter “Fat” Frank Iadeavia.
I didn’t know Frank personally, although I have had the privilege to exchange pleasantries and light discussion with him on a couple of occasions, so I have no Frank stories, and can’t tell you truly what kind of person he was. What I can tell you is that my very first independent wrestling event was a JAPW event. I was introduced to JAPW through my cousin, Ring of Honor original Diablo Santiago. Diablo was coming off a reign as JAPW Tag Team Champion and I was probably 4 or 5 months into writing columns for the DOIwrestling.com website that was my introduction into this crazy medium. Diablo being my surrogate big brother, would read the pieces and offer me feedback whenever he could. One day he called me, and while talking the subject of me never having attended an independent show came up. Now I had seen a few DVD’s and such but never actually attended a show live because I never really had an interest in it at the time. Diablo told me how I really should go to network, and broaden my horizons if nothing else, and invited me to attend the next JAPW show.
I thought it would be a good idea to cover a show, as I had never done it before in the past. I also wanted to watch my cousin perform live as I had avoided doing that in the past for a variety of reasons but given where we both were at that point in our lives, I thought it was time to see him live. I have scant memories of that first show, I can tell you that Teddy Hart was the JAPW Champion at the time and he worked the main event like if it was Wrestlemania, and that Diablo lost his rematch to regain the JAPW Tag Team Championship from Azraiel and current Ring of Honor Champion Jay Lethal. It was definitely a different experience than anything I had ever experienced going to WWE shows in the past, and I was very eager to come back.
I’d attend JAPW shows from that point on until things got stale and I eventually just lost interest, but I never lost track of the on goings. When they ran Anniversary shows I would always get a phone call from my youngest brother, who while not a big fan of wrestling, was a casual enough fan to want to attend shows every so often. For years I wondered, if things would ever get back to what it was when I first started going, and now if it does it saddens me that Frank won’t be here to see it.
Again, I wasn’t a friend of Franks, just a fan of his product. I do however feel that in my going to the Rahway Rec Center, Golden Door Charter School and the Arts Center gave me glimpses of the man. I can honestly tell you I never saw the man without a smile on his face. It didn’t matter if it was a packed house or a few hundred people, Frank always came across as happy to be around wrestling to me. Even though he was a promoter, he never stopped being a fan. Now for some promoters that’s not necessarily a good thing but for Frank it worked.
I don’t know if Frank had any kids, I can tell you he was always great with them. To this day I can’t recall a single JAPW show that didn’t have kids running all over the place with Frank at times being the biggest kid of all. It sounds kind of silly, but you could tell in his interactions with people that Frank considered his friends to be like family, my condolences to all of them, as he seemed like the kind of friend you would want to have. The wrestling business lost a good one.
R.I.P Frank Iadeavia
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