Devon Nicholson responds to my Poffo vs. Valentine MMA challenge column

Devon Nicholson, the promoter behind the Macho Man Memorial Show that Greg "The Hammer" Valentine no-showed, emailed former Cageside Seats site manager David Bixenspan with concerns over the article I wrote yesterday entitled "Lanny Poffo challenges Greg Valentine to an MMA match over missing a Randy Savage memorial show", in particular my belief that the whole situation was a work orchestrated by himself.  David kindly forwarded Nicholson's email on to me and I replied with a defence of my article and gave him the opportunity to publicly respond to it.  After the jump, I'll post Nicholson's email to me that he wanted published, using the quote function to denote where Nicholson quoted my initial correspondence to him.  I've decided to let Nicholson's words speak for themselves, but I'll be interested to hear what our readers think of Nicholson's response.

Hi Keith,

Thank you for your e-mail.  Now that I know where you got your information from I'd rather that you post my responses to this e-mail if possible so I can clear some of this stuff up once and for all.  It is very nice to find a wrestling reporter that is willing to get both sides of the story rather then report rumours like the supposedly reputable Wrestling Observer Newsletter often does.

Regarding your issues with the piece, I'm happy to publish your email to David on our site, so that both sides to the story can be heard.   Please get back to me if you would like me to do this and I'll do it once I've heard back from you.

Regarding whether this situation is still a shoot, anyone who listened to Lanny Poffo's challenge of Greg "The Hammer" Valentine to an MMA match that had been uploaded to YouTube would immediately jump to the conclusion that the situation was fake, as it was so over the top and wacky.  Indeed, Dave Meltzer reported in his news update yesterday that this was an angle to set up a match on December 30th in Gatineau, Quebec.

Lanny Poffo's comments are shoot comments.  I can understand how after watching his promo they don't seem that way but that's just how he talks.  Everything he said he meant.  Lanny is mad because him and I are good friends and he didn't like the way Greg treated me.  When Greg first left the first message I asked Lanny's opinion on what to do.  Lanny told me to cancel him.  We had a huge pre sale so I decided to wait a day to see if Greg would calm down.   The next day Greg called me back and said he was drunk and just really broke.  He said he "swore on a stack of bibles" he would show up if I wired him the extra money.  I didn't take Lanny's advice and trusted Greg.  I thought since Greg was also supposed to work for Great North Wrestling on 3 shows later this month in September he would come not to jeopardize those bookings.  After Greg got the money on Thursday he ignored all my calls and texts until 1:30 pm Saturday afternoon when he said he did not get on his plane.

Lanny is also mad because Greg insulted Lanny, calling him "an idiot" for no reason both by phone message and later after the no show in text messages to me that I forwarded to Lanny.  I am mad at Greg for taking advantage of me, making Great North Wrestling look bad to the fans and insulting my friend.

Lanny and I did not make our speeches to hype a possible December 30th match.  The arena isn't even booked its just available.  At this point the last event of the year for Great North Wrestling is October 8th in Renfrew Ontario.   Lanny and I are simply challenging Greg.  If he wants to leave rude and vulgar messages with me when I'm nice enough to get him work and insult Lanny he better be prepared to back up what he says.  The truth is Lanny does not back down from anyone.  He backed down Bam Bam Bigelow in a WWF dressing and he is backing down Greg now.  Greg is a coward, thief and liar.  If he had any guts he would fight Lanny in a real MMA match and I would book it.  I was a National Champion in grappling in 2008 and have MMA connections.  Unfortunately not only will Greg try his best to pay back the money he owes me but he'll never accept Lanny's challenge.  Lanny was a good wrestler in high school and would actually train for the fight if it were to happen.  Greg would not.  Lanny would pick him apart.

To see the video that contains more details on this including Lanny and my promos on Greg please click on this link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBmRnitRHDI

I agree that for balance my story should have mentioned that the show was well attended and well received.  It was not my attention to imply otherwise by omitting this information, that was just an unfortunate oversight on my part.

The Great North Wreslting Macho Man Memorial Show had over 1400 fans and was very well received.  Lanny told me his brother would have been very proud.  Macho Man was my hero so that meant a lot to me.  Here is the highlight video from the event:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8kBNWZBHF4

Regarding the line that your parents are wealthy and bankroll your events that's been reported in Dave Meltzer's Observer on at least a couple of occasions.  When covering your Montreal show mentioned in my article Meltzer wrote:  "Nicholson wanted to do the show even though local promoter Pat Boucher thought it was a terrible night for a show with UFC running in the city and also thought that Dreamer wouldn't draw in Montreal.  Nicholson said he didn't mind, since his family has a lot of money so money is not a big concern of his in running shows."

Dave Meltzer is wrong on a few points here.  That event was not a Great North Wrestling event.  It was a CRW event. Promoter Pat Boucher was the one who decided on the date.  I would never run an event against UFC in Montreal when GSP is on the card.  I didn't loose any money on that event.  I got all my money back from Pat for Dreamer before the match.  Pat is just mad that I left the company as champion and knew nothing about what really went on that night.  The real reason I did that was because he fired and was badmouthing my friend, his former booker Jeremy Prophet.  I don't like people who badmouth my friends and I wanted to show to everyone how clueless he really was about the wrestling business.  Pat is the guy in the vest in this video that shows a bit of the aftermath of the incident.  The footage was not being taken for the "Don't Bleed On Me" documentary and we only decided to make that after WWE announced they were putting Abdullah The Butcher into their Hall of Fame despite knowing what he did to me.  I've had cameras following me at every event I'm on for a number of years now for a movie that will eventually be released. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8mjGwugx1A

When covering your lawsuit in his August 10th newsletter, Meltzer wrote:  "Some background on this is that Nicholson's father is a lawyer, who was the money behind a lot of the shows that Nicholson promoted and brought in top stars to work with him in."  So if you have issues with that point in my report, then you should contact Dave Meltzer too who was the source of that information.

I saw this article and e-mailed Dave correcting him and never fixed the mistake.  I even offered to go on his radio show and address what he wrote directly but he never responded.  My father is a former cop and is currently and Enforcement Procedures Officer and Building Inspector for the city of Ottawa.  He is not and never has been a lawyer.  My mom is in daycare.  I come from a middle class family and my parents are not wrestling fans.  I was a Junior National Champion in Freestyle wrestling in High School.  I had scholarship offers from the University at Buffalo and Simion Frazier Universtiy in BC among other places.  I turned them down to move to Calgary and train in the Dungeon because my true love was pro wrestling.  My parents have never really forgiven me for that and it bothers them more now with everything that has happened to me with Abdullah and the financial situation wrestling has put me in at times.  They have never and would never invest a penny in wrestling.  They don't like me wrestling.

At one point I was 100k in debt because of my wrestling events.  I put them on because I love wrestling.  There is no money in indy wrestling.  The Hep C that I caught from wrestling caused me to loose my WWE contract.  I will never be able to wrestle for WWE.  The closest thing I can get to the big time is wrestling on big events for GNW.  When a guy like Greg Valentine no-shows an event it makes me look bad.  I would not make up or forgive him for it.  As I say in my video the only thing he could possibly do to earn my respect back would be to fight Lanny in a shoot and pay for his own plane ticket to come out to the fight with the money he owes me.  Unfortunately since he knows Lanny would humiliate him it would never happen.

Thanks again and I hope this clears some stuff up for you.

Devon.

Edit:  Dave Meltzer did write a correction of his report about Devon Nicholson's lawsuit in the August 10th newsletter in his August 24th newsletter.  Here is what he said:

Regarding the Devon Nicholson story last week.  Nicholson's father is not a lawyer, he is a former enforcement procedures officer and building inspector for the city of Ottawa.  He also claimed regarding Tommy Dreamer that nobody will know the real story of his incident with Dreamer until he comes out with a movie in 2012, and that Dreamer praises him in his documentary and set him up with a number of WWE tryouts when he worked in talent relations.

I wasn't aware of this until now and thought that should be clarified.