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‘Night Train’ Gary Jackson keeps on rollin’ down the track

Thomas Starr
Gary Jackson

Gary Jackson

The entrance of Gary Jackson to the world of pro wrestling is all about a special entrance.

Too young to attend the shows at the Chase Park Plaza Hotel, he could only dream of attending TV tapings of Wrestling at the Chase, the flagship show of the St. Louis Wrestling Club, one of the most prominent members of the National Wrestling Alliance for decades.

By chance, Mickey Garagiola, the voice of Wrestling at the Chase from 1969 to 1982, worked with Jackson’s mother at Ruggeri’s, an Italian restaurant in St. Louis. When Garagiola found out young Gary was a wrestling fan, he instructed him to be at a certain door at a certain time, and Gary would be secretly ushered in.

That was Jackson’s introduction to the world of professional wrestling. He would befriend Larry Matysik, St. Louis promoter Sam Muchnick‘s trusted assistant for over a decade, just one of numerous connections that would influence his career.

It’s a career that will be celebrated at next week’s Cauliflower Alley Club reunion, running August 19-21, at the Plaza Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. During the reunion, Gary Jackson will be honored as this year’s Independent Wrestler Award honoree. Herb Simmons, his friend and a key figure in Jackson’s career, will introduce him for the award.

“For him to be honored at the CAC is icing on the cake,” Simmons said, pointing out that Jackson has wrestled some of the “great legends in our business.”

During the 2024 Southern Illinois Championship Wrestling (SICW) Fan Fest 2, Gary Jackson also received the Sam Muchnick Award. Appropriately, the Fan Fest was held in St. Louis, once center of the wrestling world and where Jackson’s career began. Simmons formed SICW in 1975 and promotes across southern Illinois and Missouri. The choice of Jackson for the Muchnick Award was easy. He received the award “for all his years and devotion to this business.”

“Him being part of the Southern Illinois Championship Wrestling for all these years has been awesome,” Simmons explained.

Gary Jackson featured early in his career in this Central States card in Kansas City, on January 23, 1986.

Jackson has now spent over 40 years as a wrestler. He remains active in the SICW as well as select other independents. If you Google Gary Jackson wrestler you will find dozens of matches on YouTube; his long, but not anywhere close to comprehensive Cagematch match listings; and even a tribute from St. Louis-based independent wrestler Warhorse.

“Gary Jackson is a St. Louis Legend and should be treated as such,” Warhorse tweeted on July 26, 2019.

Warhorse was quote-tweeting a GIF of Razor Ramon giving Gary Jackson the Razor’s Edge. Patrick Reed, an author and historian from London, posted the GIF calling the bump Jackson took a “masterpiece.”

Deserved praise for a lengthy and rewarding career of a man whose life began humbly.

Jackson was born 1960 in El Dorado, Arkansas, to Mary Lee Jackson and Jody Clemens. It is about 20 miles from the border of Louisiana. However, he grew up and still lives in St. Louis. He describes his childhood as normal, attending a Catholic elementary school and Vashon High School, where he participated in wrestling and football.

Once he finished high school, Jackson joined the Army for active duty from 1980 to 1983. After he was discharged, he looked for a place to train to become a pro wrestler. He learned his new trade under Tim Kearns and Ricky Robinson at the South Broadway Athletic Club, and Robinson was also Jackson’s debut opponent in August 1984. His old friend Matysik opened his own promotion in 1984 and used Jackson on some of his cards, though never on TV.

The South Broadway Athletic Club where Gary Jackson would train.

Jackson’s big break came with Bob Geigel‘s Central States promotion in 1985. Although he would only spend about six months in the territory, he made connections that would provide him work in various places. One of those connections was ex-wrestler Terry Garvin, who was  the booker and ring announcer for the Central States territory at the time. Garvin went to work with the WWF (now WWE) and got Jackson hired for enhancement work.

“To get booked in those days you had to know somebody who knows somebody who knows somebody,” Jackson explained.

The WWF provided sporadic work for Jackson from 1986-1990. Most of his bookings were shows close to his home area in Missouri and Kansas, but he also worked matches in West Virginia and Ohio. He appeared on WWF television as part of WWF’s syndicated shows Wrestling Challenge and Superstars. Jackson wrestled the likes of Haku, The Warlord, Demolition, and Sgt. Slaughter.

A significant number of Jackson’s matches do not show up in any archives, because he worked for a lot of small promotions whose cards have been lost to time. As far as televised matches are concerned, he would show up again in 1991 for Jerry Jarrett‘s USWA promotion. Unlike the WWF, where he lost all his matches and was only booked sporadically, Jackson would find some success and steady work for a month with the USWA. He even defeated Steve Austin (by DQ) on April 5, 1991.

“Night Train” Gary Jackson in-action against “Mr. Electricity” Steve Regal, Wilbur Snyder’s son-in-law.

The rest of 1991 through the beginning of 1992, Jackson would work some shots for WWF, but was primarily working independent shows. In June 1992, he debuted for World Championship Wrestling (WCW).

His first match in WCW was against Dan Spivey and he would work for the next three years alternating between WWF and WCW TV tapings. Although always in a losing effort, he faced a who’s who of names from that era, including Razor Ramon, The Legion of Doom, Rick Rude, Rick Martel, Shawn Michaels and Jean-Paul Levesque, who is better known now as Triple H.

The connection to Simmons’ Southern Illinois Championship Wrestling (SICW) has been going on for Jackson for decades now. In fact, it is one of the first promotions he worked for. Jackson met Simmons when he was a teenager, so they have worked together and been friends for over 40 years.

Gary Jackson has worked for SICW for decades.

SICW has an active YouTube channel with weekly shows called All-Star Wrestling. Jackson is a prominent figure on the events. He dons a conductor’s hat, overalls, and uses a wooden train whistle due to his moniker “Night Train.”

Briefly, he wrestled as “Gorgeous” Gary Jackson while he was a heel in St. Louis. The moniker that stuck was “Night Train.” Bruiser Brody thought he looked like Pro Football Hall of Famer Dick “Night Train” Lane.

“If Brody gave you a nickname it was yours,” Jackson said.

One time, Jackson told Matysik that he was “the most famous unknown wrestler in the world” due to his face showing up on so many programs, but rarely as a “pushed” wrestler. But the sport of wrestling was built on competitors like Gary Jackson, who have built a solid career through their longevity and the trust so many pushed wrestlers had in him.

He’s been around long enough to be able to comment on how the territorial system disappeared and the big companies controlled almost everything, to now where there’s more of a balance.

“We really didn’t know at first what was happening (with the WWF expansion),” Jackson explained.

Unknown to him, the Central States territory was nearing its end just as his career took off. Although officially, Central States closed in 1989, it was 1986 when Geigel sold the territory to Jim Crockett. Geigel would repurchase the territory six months later, but the writing was on the wall.

Gary Jackson with a dropkick on Eli the Eliminator.

Despite his 40 years in the industry, when you talk to people who know him, they all say the same things — not only has he maintained his shape, but Jackson seemingly does not age.

“He looks exactly the same!” Warhorse wrote in his tweet.

Simmons concurred: “He’s an individual that has never aged, others admire him for his ability to stay looking young.”

When you see pictures of him over the years, it is hard to argue. Jackson said he does not have a secret, he has just worked out since he was 16. He maintains a strict workout routine, five days a week. You would never know that his oldest child is now 44 years old.

Jackson married in 1991 and, unlike many wrestlers, has maintained that union. He and his wife have four children, two boys and two girls. The family continues to live in the St. Louis area, where Jackson has steady work as a deputy sheriff.

Don’t expect him to give up wrestling any time soon. He lives by the old rule of “always have your gear with you.”

“Night Train” Gary Jackson at the St. Louis Wrestling Hall of Fame induction at the SICW Fan Fest II at the Aviator Hotel in St. Louis, on Saturday, May 18, 2024. Photo by Scott Romer

So the Muchnick Award from SICW and the CAC Award are both mid-career notices in his mind.

As Jackson said while receiving the Muchnick Award, resplendent in an orange suit, he succinctly summed up an ongoing career: “It’s been great, I have no regrets.”

2024 CAULIFLOWER ALLEY CLUB HONOREES

TOP PHOTO: Gary Jackson is all business.

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