The longest, on-going feud in the IWF to date is between the Colonel and R. Bruce Tharpe. The seeds were planted on the September 27, 2003 edition of IWF Wrestling International. The IWF World Title was on the line in a Texas Death Match, pitting then champion Mad Dog Johnson and challenger Playboy Dusty Wolfe, in which R. Bruce Tharpe was appointed special guest referee by the IWF Board of Directors. As the match was to draw its conclusion, The Colonel comes out to distract R. Bruce Tharpe, to which Dusty Wolfe had already answered the mandatory 10 count and thus was about to be crowned new champion. The Colonel purposely distracted Tharpe and shoved him into an already stood up Wolfe, which prompted Wolfe to go back down and Tharpe was totally oblivious to the whole outcome, thanks to the Colonel. This would set up a tag team match between the four wrestlers at a later IWF event.
The reasoning behind the Colonels interference was simple; to add salt to the already proverbial open wound that was the feud, at the time, between R. Bruce Tharpe and Dusty Wolfe. The tag team match was set: it was going to be R. Bruce Tharpe & Mad Dog Johnson going up against The Colonel & Playboy Dusty Wolfe. The match took place on the November 9, 2003 edition of IWF Wrestling International.
The tag team match turned out to be 2 on 1 handicap match, as Tharpe was left without a partner. Mad Dog Johnson had suffered a horrific injury prior to the event and thus was not able to make it to Tharpes corner. Rather than give up on the spot and disappoint many fans in the IWF Arena, Tharpe gallantly decided to go at it alone against the Colonel and Wolfe. Tharpe held his own but it was too much for him to muster.
Thankfully, Psycho Simpson came out of the back to give assistance to Tharpe and the numbers and odds were now even. Bruce Tharpe had the Colonel in his patented sleeper hold in the middle of the ring, but it was at this time that the referee was down and out from an earlier Psycho Simpson Butt Bump and out comes Charlie Akagi, another referee, who precedes to Karate Chop Tharpe on the side of the neck, temporarily causing Tharpe to go unconscious and enabled Colonel to get the 1-2-3. The International lines were drawn and the feud between The Colonel and R. Bruce Tharpe began.
During an interview with the Colonel being conducted by Mando Sanchez, located in front of one of the many IWF sponsors locations, which aired on the February 15th, 2004 edition of IWF Wrestling International, we were pleasantly interrupted by R. Bruce Tharpe, who had two major announcements given to him by the IWF board of directors. One of the announcements was in regards to the IWF World Tag Team titles, in which the champions at the time, Golden King and the Colonel, in which they were to be stripped of the tag titles due to their recent conduct on IWF television programming and at IWF live events. The second announcement was forthcoming until the Colonel interrupted R. Bruce Tharpe in mid-sentence as he was about to announce the date and location for the next big IWF extravaganza. The Colonel viciously attacked RBT from behind with the tag team title belt, hitting him in the back of the head and causing him to go down to the ground. Then Colonel proceeded to climb the vehicle in which Tharpe arrived and from the top of the hood on the car, Colonel came crashing down on RBTs right arm, injuring it in the process. Due to his injury, the IWF Board of Directors was forced to cancel the upcoming IWF event in March, due to Tharpes injury.
The television crew accompanied Tharpe on his visit to the doctors office, to which it was revealed that Tharpe had a huge bump on his right elbow as a result of the attack on the Colonel. Tharpe was determined to get back in the ring and amend his revenge on the Colonel.
Vignettes were aired on IWF programming, depicting Tharpes training for the upcoming May 13 IWF live event as he was to be in the same ring with the Colonel. Now with R. Bruce Tharpe 100%, he is ready to step into the ring in tag tea, action as he and Avalanche Tyler set go up against the tandem of Golden King and the Colonel for the vacant IWF World Tag Team titles, the same titles that were the focal point of this entire feud between R. Bruce Tharpe and the Colonel.
