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Sometimes, the best laid plans of mice and men go to hell.  Sometimes, the best of intentions end up spiraling out of your control.  That happens in all walks of life and business, but in professional wrestling, when such a thing happens, it becomes one of those great urban legend/precautionary tales that will only get richer and more insane as the years go by.  This past weekend, the first (and likely last) event promoted by 22 year old Jason Blaustein under the "Turnbuckle Promotions" banner, went down in history as one of those events.

Blaustein, a nephew of "Beyond the Mat" director Barry Blaustein promoted one of the biggest undertakings in recent professional wrestling convention memory in Lynbrook, Long Island featuring an announced talent pool that was highlighted by Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Sabu, Amy "Lita" Dumas, Superstar Graham, Bruno Sammartino, Terry Funk, Dory Funk Jr., Sid Vicious, Barry Blaustein, Ted DiBiase and Christian Cage.

Other appearing included Al Snow, Brutus Beefcake, Tony Atlas, Afa and Sika, Rosey, Sean Waltman, Marty Jannetty, Christy Hemme, Virgil, Pat Tanaka, Lou Albano, Vince Russo, Dawn Marie, Missy Hyatt, Tito Santana, Johnny and Jimmy Valiant, Ivan Putski, JJ Dillon, Larry Zbysko, Nora "Molly Holly" Greenwald, Nicole Bass, Talia Madison, Baby Doll, Shelly "Ariel" Martinez, Gail Kim, Daffney and Jimmy Hart, among others.

Disorganization was the theme of the day for the convention's opening.  You name it, it happened.  Wrestlers waited for long periods of time to be picked up from the airport.  Drivers were sent to the wrong place at the wrong time.  Wrestlers were dropped off at hotels to find there was no reservation or paid rooms waiting for them.  There was no clear indication of a schedule for where wrestlers would be signing and in many cases, they didn't appear during advertised time periods.  Some wrestlers were sitting around doing nothing for long periods of time while at the same time, being asked to stay longer than they were contracted to appear.  There was talk for much of the day that the NWO Wolfpack were so disgusted with the entire situation that they were just going to no show but in the end, they came down because they didn't want fans to be let down.  

On the side of the fans, things were no better.  They arrived to find out Jesse Ventura would not be appearing "due to illness" (exact quote from the sign posted, right down to the quotation marks) and would be replaced by Long Island's own Mick Foley.  An announcement was made that Foley would be signing for free, which shocked even the former IWA King of the Death Matches champion into submission.  They later had to clarify that Foley's photos were free, but not the autograph.  One friend of mine waited three and a half hours to enter the venue's autograph room.  Between the time he paid and the time he entered, he had missed every headline guest he specifically came to see.

The venue hosting the event, Sportstime, a sport-related business that will never ever have anything to do with pro wrestling again I predict, used a basketball room that featured a capacity of 147 people.  I doubt if there were 350 fans there but due to the mess of how everything was handled, fire marshals arrived early and forced fans to line up in a hallway to enter as others' left, which left fans (some paying $175-$300 for VIP level tickets) standing for hours with nothing to do, little time to interact with wrestlers or peruse vendor tables and basically paying to stand around.  A number of vendors, who paid $125 for tables, left with little in their pockets because all of their customers were outside the room.  

Even once fans made it to the Valhalla of the autograph line, anarchy ensued yet again.  There was no rhyme or reason, until late Friday when disgusted fans started organizing themselves as to who went first, why, or how.  Common sense would dictate that VIP ticket holders would get first crack but instead it was a complete mosh pit of fans trying to get through the line before the time limit expired.   Some gave up and just wandered to whoever they wanted, as there was no security to prevent any of that from going down.  As the "sessions" ended, I even witnessed several instances of fans waiting on line to get signatures being  forced off the line and rushed out of the room by the convention staff because of fear the entire event would be shut down.  

Later in the day, a second room (a tennis court) was opened up (at greater cost) for another signing session highlighted by the NWO Wolfpack.  The room ended up with so much foot traffic that the floors will need to be resurfaced so if there was even a hint of a possibility, a glimmer of profit, it all went to hell for the promoters.  

Even once the second room was opened, disorganization continued as there was no announcement that the signing session for many of the talents had been moved and once fans discovered this, on their own, they wound up being trapped in (you guessed it), another line, this time in a tiny, hot hallway.  VIPs who paid big money were stuck in a line behind GA ticket holders, because security didn't know or case to differentiate between the two.  To make it worse, the line to get through the room moved slow because the NWO were at the start of the room, leaving a cavalcade of wrestlers to sit around doing nothing as they waited for fans to slowly trickle their way.  

As the chaos continued to ensue, fans began chanting for refunds and for "Terrance" (a reference to the promoter of the New Jersey convention scheduled for the same weekend).  In one of the most surreal things I've ever seen in pro wrestling (and think of the ground THAT covers), as all of these chants are going on, promoter Jason Blaustein is making his way through the room, taking pictures of himself with those signing, almost oblivious to Rome burning around him. 

Saturday was said to have been more organized, primarily because Blaustein's mother recognized the dire situation and stepped in.  At one point, Blaustein's mother said to several, "The men had their chance yesterday, now it's the women's turn."  Still, many of the out of town fans who came in had already thrown their hands up and headed to the greener pastures of New Jersey.  I didn't hear much in the way of complaints on Saturday, but on Friday, I witnessed a number of fans angered and complaining to whoever would listen without any sort of compensation because there was no chain of command.  

There were a number of people, including Scott Epstein who helped booked talent on the event, trying their best to hold it together but it was almost comical how bad it was falling apart.  Still for every piece of good Epstein was trying to do, it was overshadowed by the mess Blaustein created.  Fans who approached Blaustein personally were said to have been treated rudely, which is even worse.  It's one thing to have plans go awry but to be stand-offish to the fans that actually cared enough to pay for the event is just disgusting in my opinion.  

There were even more horror stories of performers who appeared only getting part of their pay or having additional problems finding out their hotels weren't covered.  One legend was moved from one hotel to another without prior notice.  When the financial problems began making the rounds among the wrestlers, a number of the top-tier names appearing, including a very vocal Sean Waltman, were doing their best to make sure everyone got what they were supposed to get.  Waltman was said to have personally stepped in when Amy Dumas, among others, began having issues over pay.  Tammy Sytch left her booking in New Jersey on Saturday to drive back to Long Island to get what she was owed.

There were probably some positives to the event.  A number of wrestlers who hardly see each other got to congregate and pass time.  Bruno Sammartino had a camera crew filming footage for a documentary on the former WWWF champion.  I can see some fans who really hustled getting what they paid for but for the most part, there has been nothing but complaints coming out of the event.  

Even after the fact, the entire situation has been nothing but a letdown to fans and just creates just another blight on the industry.  For every fan who attended their first convention at Blaustein's event, with hopes of meeting their heroes for a few moments of joy, their personal let down could prevent them from wanting to sample another convention.   Just like a bad indy promotion can ruin a town for future years, bad conventions can only serve to hurt the interest of the fan base that would actually care the most about such events. 

In a sad but not surprising post-script to this entire scenario.  Blaustein's website at www.turnbucklepromotions.com has already been pulled off-line, which only makes him and his event look like a bunch of carnys getting out of dodge.  In comparison, Greg Price had some problems at his event (nothing near the Turnbuckle debacle) a few weeks ago in North Carolina.  The first thing he did after it was done was issue some refunds and be straight-up responsible by taking the blame himself.  Blaustein instead shuts down his website.

The message board for the event, however, is still filled with angry messages and in the case of a company that was brought in to provide certificate of authenticities for autographs and left with nothing to show for it, the threat of a lawsuit.  If you have any interest in perusing it, you can at http://s3.excoboard.com/exco/forum.php?forumid=27962, once you sign up for a free account.

I guess in the end, you could say Jason Blaustein was way over his head.  He may have had the best of intentions for all I know or he could have just had a lot of bad luck.  The why isn't as important as the bottom line.  That bottom line is he's now joined the list of dreamers, the wannabes and the haphazard carny promoters who walked in without a plan (or possibly a clue) and expected to leave with a windfall of money.  Instead, Blaustein left a crash and burn event in his wake, a damaged venue, heavy personal losses and a congregation of fans and performers alike waiting for answers while hoping they never come across a similar experience. 

Perhaps Jason Blaustein should have paid closer attention to the documentary his uncle made on the underside of professional wrestling.

As the event's website has been shut down, if anyone (and I know there are a lot of you) wants to contact Blaustein, I would suggest starting at his MySpace.com page at http://www.myspace.com/knicksfan23.  Best of luck.

Mike Johnson can be reached at Mike@PWInsider.com.