The NWA picked up steam in the late 90s due to Howard Brody and what not, and that included Green Bay's indy group becoming an affiliate. Since I was on the fringe of the backstage situation for our Shindy (I knew several of the workers personally, watched WWF PPVs at a tiny hick bar with Ken (Anderson) Kennedy and his buddy Shane Hills (who still works locally) and was casually chatty with the owner a bunch of times and even attended a bar party/karaoke/booking meeting.
Long story short, the NWA promised them stuff like reduced rates to bring stars in and it never fulfilled the promise and potential.
Our group did get Road Dog, Lawler, Raven, Gangrel, Brutus and others. I probably saw CM Punk in the early 2000s and didn't know him from Steve for the most part.
Our Shindy also gave the world Hornswoggle, who was Shortstack at the time.
Kevin Kruger was probably the most notable regular as he had done WWF job duty a bunch.
Peter B Beautiful of Ian Rotton infamy was "The Wisconsin Cream" Busty Loades here. One of my favorites!
When Hornswoggle made it to WWE and came back to visit his buds at a bar, I went over to talk to him. Apparently I broke midget etiquette as I bent over to hear him in the noisy bar and he got pissed off that I didn't stand up straight and treat him like a full sized man.
