Remembering Shooter Tony Jones And The National Day Of Prayer

The photo above features me and another one of my old pro wrestling colleagues, the late "Shooter" Tony Jones, in the locker room at the Grand Olympic Auditorium in downtown Los Angeles, before I did play-by-play at ringside for one of our Urban Wrestling Alliance TV tapings. Tony passed away last month at the age of 53.

Tony Jones and another old wrestling colleague of mine, Michael Modest (who was our UWA trainer) were prominently featured as the 2 wrestlers who had a WWF tryout match in the documentary movie "Beyond The Mat". For the Urban Wrestling Alliance TV shows, Tony wrestled as HTK...first, as a no-nonsense babyface/"good guy" known as Hard To Kill, and then later on as a heel/"bad guy" known as Honor, True & Knowledge. While there was no doubt that Tony was solid on the mat, there were some in the "creative department" (which included a staff of Hollywood TV writers) who had doubts about his "charisma" or on-camera persona, so then Tony as HTK was turned into a heel, similar to Bob Backlund's heel turn as "Mr. Backlund". Tony and Bob were both outstanding amateur wrestlers (as well as nice family men in real life), and they both were restimulated as self-righteous pro wrestling heel characters, who looked down on their opponents and the audience, cutting condescending promos in front of the cameras on national TV.

Others and I have good memories of Tony, as a nice, easygoing guy and a good talent in the ring. While I understand why some say that he was underappreciated and that he should have gotten more than he did out of the wrestling business, some of us recognized that Tony truly seemed to be content with what he did get out of the wrestling business (while he held a steady job in the banking industry), and God's Word does have good things to say about contentment (1 Timothy 6:6).

Another wrestler who I knew from the Urban Wrestling Alliance TV series was a wrestler called Deacon, a babyface/"good guy" preacher character (real name Dameon Bird, a true Jesus Christ follower, who was trained as a wrestler by Rodney Anoa'i, aka Yokozuna). Behind the scenes, Deacon and I would have serious conversations about the Bible, and I remember him leading all of us in prayer backstage, before the start of our TV tapings. 

With that, as I write this, today is the 73rd annual National Day Of Prayer (held on the first Thursday in May). May we give thanks to God in everything (1 Thessalonians 5:18), and while there is plenty to worry about and be anxious about in our nation, well, instead of worrying and being anxious about anything, may we pray about everything and present our requests to God with thanksgiving (Philippians 4:6). May we pray for our nation's leaders and all who are in authority, so that we may live peaceful lives marked by godliness and dignity (1 Timothy 2:2). And "Brothers, my heart's desire and my prayer to God is for Israel, that they may be saved" (Romans 10:1).