Great American Bash '90, Baltimore Arena, Baltimore -  PPV (8,900 crowd) "Big Van Vader pinned Tom Zenk in 2:16 with a big splash. There was interest in seeing Vader from the tv clips, and he got a babyface reaction coming down the aisle, especially when the fans saw the headgear blowing steam. Crowd was quiet once the match started because they couldn't work out if Vader was a  face or heel. Zenk sold his stuff good and he did some elbow drops and falling moves that got over because of his weight [251lbs]. But because of the time, this was really just a squash "

 
Extract from Tom Zenk's upcoming book

".... what else could you do with Vader except drop kick him once or twice? When he lifted me for the press slam, instead of grabbing me by the inner thigh like everyone else, he grabbed me by the balls .... the fucking BALLS!! ......

.....When I came back from the match, I was selling another loss, as usual. But my balls were the only thing sore. I went up the steps to the locker room hallway and proceeded to the dressing room. Big Leon was waiting.  "Hey buddy are you OK?  Man, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to get ya on the press slam". "No Leon, I'm fine... good match, good match, thank you." "Hey, I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to grab your balls. My hand slipped!” The first night in, you really don't want to be labeled a bad, stiff, clumsy worker. You want everything to be OK and your opponent not to be hurt. So, in the back I started to sell my nuts.......

.....“How was it Ole?” I asked him. "Did I get him over strong enough?" He wasn't sure how to take it. "I can do it quicker," I told him. "Looks like we’re gonna have some GREAT matches!!!" I hit him with so many questions while holding and selling my balls, he must have thought I was nuts. He had a look on his face I'll never forget. The booking sheets had come out already. The cat was outta the bag. I was booked around the loop with Big Van Vader for the next month - three thousand dollars per week for eight to ten minute matches. I don't think Ole had Ted Turners best interest in mind. In Ole's 'real wrestling' mind you gotta ask yourself - Is it believeable for a guy to get CRUSHED in two minutes, but then go to house shows and expect the people to buy 8-10 minute matches from the same LOSER they watched on PPV? ...."

copyright Tom Zenk

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