Much thanks to Steve Cook from 411mania.com for the following first-hand account of the incident:
I went to the OVW show last Saturday night in Cincinnati as a fan and not a reporter. I had heard that Kenny “Starmaker” Bolin was going to make his 3rd ever appearance in Cincinnati in his 20 year career. I was not going to miss it cause I hear Bolin always bring his A Game to the LIVE House shows plus he sits at a picture table and signs autographs all night Long. I have never met Mr. Bolin so this was my chance. Little did I know what a treat I was in for.
Kenny was set up for autographs at 6:45pm and was being very friendly with all the fans. He was selling pictures and talking with every one who stopped by. He was there all night but during the 6th match of the Night, OX Larue had called Bolin over and had asked him a question. Obviously OX was looking for a little managerial assistance from Bolin for his match against Charles “The Hammer” Evans. Kenny seemed reluctant but agreed to do so. Kenny got on the mike at the request of OX and explained how Cincinnati had become a city of Losers…from the Bearcats to the Buckeyes (who lost to Illinois that day) to the Reds to the Drunken Convicted Felon Bengals! He said he loved Cincinnati and that he was a fan of those teams and wanted to bring winning back to Cincinnati. He agreed to manage OX but promised all in attendance that he would not cheat because he wanted to win back the trust of the Hammer and the fans of Cincinnati had been too good to him in picture sales to let them down. I was a bit skeptical knowing Bolin’s shady past, but
Bolin looked like he would keep his word till the very end of the match. He even pitched his picture table to the fans at ring side telling them to go buy something…the match itself was pretty much going as planned, as OX dominated Hammer for most of it until Hammer made a HUGE Comeback and it looked bad for OX…Hammer was going to suplex OX back in the ring but Bolin tripped Hammer (the crowd favorite) and held his feet down as he hid below the ring! Hammer had been defeated and Bolin cheated after swearing he would not. The fans were pissed to say the least, they were all encouraging Hammer to get Bolin. OX had left the arena and Bolin tried to make his way back to the picture table. OX had him cut off and Bolin was terrified…..the fans were wanting him lynched! Bolin in a desperate move grabbed his own teenage son who was near by and held him in front of OX as a sacrifice to save his own hide. When Hammer looked as if he were coming anyway, Bolin threw his own son to the ground and grabbed a metal chair and tried to fend off Hammer like a lion tamer. When it was obvious that was not going to work and the fans were still wanting his hide, Bolin did the most cowardly thing I have ever seen. He reached right into the crowd and pulled out a small African-American child from his family….looked to be 7 years old at best….Bolin lifted the small child in the air and fended off Hammer with this poor child. Many of the fans family started taking swings at Bolin and trying to get their son back, but Bolin would not give the kid up until Hammer was escorted out of the building by security and Al Snow. Bolin was exhausted and sweating like a pig. He gave the Kid back to his family and swore to them he saved their kids life…..that Hammer was going to kill him if Kenny had not thrown his enormous body over him and saved him! Needless to say, the crowd was not buying it. Bolin got on the mike and said Cincinnati should name him a local hero and declare a Holiday after him for saving that small child’s life from the Hammer. He demanded every fan in the building come by the picture table, shake his hand…and buy one more picture to remember this historic night by. out of nearly 200 fan or so. Most of them gave him the finger but about 20 or 30 shook his hand and bought more pictures. I could not believe what I was seeing. Bolin went from the biggest butt kissing baby face I had seen in years to the most hated heel I had ever seen in my life. I am not sure what those 20 fans that shook his hand were thinking…but I was at least glad I saw it live or I would have not believed it.
I had dinner at BW 3s later that night in Florence, Kentucky and who was there signing autographs? Oh yes….Kenny “Starmaker” Bolin and a few other OVW stars. Yes…I did get my autographed pic for only $5. I asked him about what he had done to that kid and he said “Someone needed to step up and save that kid’s life…and I was the one to do it!!”
-Steve Cook
Columnist, 411mania.com
