Charlotte, NC ~ On October 17-18, 2003, Ricky and Edie Smith, owners of SideKick Karate, hosted Living Legends VII Martial Arts Expo and Jerry Piddington Celebrity Roast at the Charlotte University Place Hilton.  The main sponsors were SideKick Karate of China Grove, NC, American Karate Academies National Association, and World Black Belt.  This sport karate reunion of karate/kickboxing world champions and movie stars had a who’s who guest list which included names such as Don “The Dragon” Wilson, Bob Wall, Joe Lewis, Jeff Smith, Howard Jackson, Joe Corley, Sam Chapman, Ben Kiker, Dennis Brown, George Anderson, Larry Lunn, Roger Greene, Jerry Piddington, Art Heller, Jim La Rocco, Larry Reinhardt, Mike Genova, Roy Williams, Jerome “Magic” Johnson, Rhonda “Ridgehand” Alexander, Jimmy Horsely, Ricky and Randy Smith, Larry Bullard, Garry Dillingham, Jeff Gripper, and many more.

Living Legends honored some of the top fighters and form champions of sport karate at the Celebrity Roast on Saturday evening.  “Living Legends was created to educate this generation on the people who actually pioneered the sport of karate.  The Southeast is a haven for great sport karate competitors and pioneers who promoted the sport to a new level in the last 30-40 years,” say promoters Ricky and Edie Smith.  Joe Corley, promoter of the thirty-six year “Battle of Atlanta” which launched the career of many of these great champions, was the master of ceremonies for the Celebrity Roast. 

Some of the highlights of the weekend were a Best of the Best Forms Competition, Sport Karate Reunion Reception Party, Troy Price Jiu-Jitsu Exhibition, Living Legends Seminar, Stranger Danger Kid’s Safety Seminar, Bob Wall Seminar about Chuck Norris and Bruce Lee, Don “The Dragon” Wilson Seminar on “Breaking Into the Martial Arts Film Industry” and Celebrity Roast and Show, honoring Hanshi Jerry C. Piddington, one of the pioneer fighters of sport karate.  Spectators got a chance to meet celebrity stars and enjoy a martial arts extravaganza. 

An all-star lineup of celebrities and martial artists, who are some of Hanshi Jerry Piddington’s closest comrades, students, and past opponents were there to toast Mr. Piddington in a Hollywood style roast which ended up in a tell-all of the funniest experiences of their career in and out of the ring.  Jerry Piddington is the seventh pioneer of sport karate to be honored by Living Legends.  “Mr. Piddington is the epitome of sport karate.  I have admired his fighting ability since I was a kid,” says Gary Lee, originator of the Living Legends Celebrity Roast.  “I met Ricky Smith, head of Mr. Piddington’s karate association, AKANA, at Bob Wall’s Celebrity Roast in Burbank California, last year and asked him if he would host a Living Legends event honoring Mr. Piddington in Charlotte, NC.  Ricky gladly accepted the invitation.”  Hanshi Piddington is the founder of American Open Style Karate and American Karate Academies National Association, with most of his schools in the southeast.  He now resides in Jacksonville, Oregon. 

Friday, 6:00 p.m. — Martial Arts schools sent their best competitors to perform in a Best of the Best Forms Competition.  Celebrity judges, such as Don “The Dragon” Wilson, selected winners to perform as a tribute to the Living Legend on Saturday at 7:00 p.m. during the banquet dinner and show.  Winners were Denise Jensen in traditional kata, Terri Jacoby in weapons, and Dennis Tosten in the entertainment division.  Garry Dillingham was the arbitrator. 

Friday, 9:00 p.m. — A reception was held with food and drinks.  Many of the guests arrived and saw friends and comrades for the first time in decades.  The party livened up when Joe Lewis arrived.  Lots of photos were taken and autographs were signed. 

Saturday, 9:00 a.m.  — Hanshi Piddington conducted a forms (empty-hand kata) test called Tomoe Warrior Test.  This is the first time Mr. Piddington has opened the test to all styles.  There were a five kata, ten kata, and seventeen kata test.  Students who passed received a handmade Tomoe (the Okinawan karate symbol) pendant and a certificate signed by Hanshi Piddington and his AKANA’s high dans, Dan McCall and Dan Wilson.  Seventeen kata is the marathon of the tests and the 14k gold tomoe pendant has three diamond inserts symbolizing the mind, body, and spirit. 

Saturday, 11:00 a.m. — Mike Genova, who has owned and operated a successful karate school in Columbia, SC, for thirty years, conducted a kid’s safety seminar called Stranger Danger.  It was designed to teach kids how to protect themselves against bullies and strangers.  He played a cartoon video that he produced as part of the program, which was a big hit with the parents and kids. Genova was also inducted as a “Living Legend Sport Karate Fighter” at the banquet on Saturday evening. 

Saturday, 12:00 noon — Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris fans participated in a seminar with Bob Wall.  Bob Wall is the only actor to co-star in three of Bruce Lee’s five movies. He is best known for his role as the evil O’hara in Enter the Dragon, one of Warner Brothers top ten grossing films of all times.  Bob trained with Bruce Lee for 10 years.  This year marks the thirtieth year anniversary of Bruce Lee’s death.  Also, Mr. Wall has been Chuck Norris’ business partner and friend for 38 years.  He gave a presentation on his life experiences with these two great legends.  

Saturday, 2:00 p.m. — Martial artists fine-tuned their fighting skills with four of the greatest karate fighters of all times — Joe Lewis, Howard Jackson, Jeff Smith, and Don “The Dragon” Wilson.  This dream team of Living Legends instructors taught some of the fighting skills that made them champions.  Troy Price of Columbia, S.C. warmed up the participants with an extraordinary jiu-jitsu exhibition.  “I wanted this to be a seminar with the legends that introduced the fighting skills that we teach in our dojos today,” said promoter Ricky Smith.  “I sat down and thought of my choice of the world’s greatest karate/kickboxing champions that I would want to train with and these were the ones, except for Bill Wallace who had other commitments.”  All of the participants received a certificate signed by the instructors.  “For thirty-five dollars, a person could come and train in a two hour seminar with four 30-minute sessions by four of the greatest fighters in the history of sport karate, wow!”  Joe Lewis actually started kickboxing by fighting the first kickboxing match in history and was voted “greatest karate fighter of all time.”  Howard Jackson, Chuck Norris’ training partner, is the only fighter to hold championship titles in point karate, full-contact karate, boxing, and kickboxing.  Jeff Smith is a seven-time World Light-Heavy Weight Kickboxing Champion and the first recipient of the Bruce Lee Award for “fighter of the year.”  Don Wilson is the only fighter to win 11 Kickboxing World Titles in six different weight divisions.  He has a record of 71 wins with 47 KO’s.  All of these champions are members of the prestigious Black Belt Hall of Fame.  

Saturday, 4:15 p.m. — Don “The Dragon” Wilson conducted a seminar on “Breaking into the film industry as a martial artist.”  His next film called Sci-fighter will be released in February 2004.  “The Dragon” is one of the very few martial artists who have successfully bridged a career as a full-contact champion and a movie star.  You can visit www.donthedragonwilson.com for a resume of his long list of film credits. 

Saturday, 7:00 p.m. — The Celebrity Roast began at 7:30 p.m. as 310 people were seated at a semi formal dinner.  Promoter Ricky Smith introduced the roasting team one at a time like a fight announcer introducing a fighter as he enters the ring.  This helped set the stage for the roasting competition that was about to begin.  The roasting team of Joe Corley, members of Jerry Piddington’s undefeated kickboxing team in the 1970’s called the “Charlotte Warhawks” (Dan Wilson - trainer, Dan McCall – heavy weight, Jimmy Horsley – middle weight, Ricky and Randy Smith – super light weights called “The Gold Dust Twins,” and Gene Smith - manager), Garry Dillingham, Larry Bullard, Dennis Brown, Jeff Smith, Howard Jackson, Joe Lewis, Roger Greene, Eva Leazer Piddington, and Bob Wall entered the arena and took a seat at the roasting table as an intro song hand-picked by promoter Edie Smith to fit each of their characters was played.  For example Bob Wall’s intro song was “Enter the Dragon” and Dennis Brown’s intro song was “Everyone was Kung-Fu Fighting.” 

Preliminaries were the National Anthem by Sandy Wise, a prayer by Ricky Smith, and an Indian Ceremonial Blessing by Jacob “Little Pony” Deuber from the Rappahannock Tribe, one of the oldest indigenous tribes recognized in the state of Virginia. 

One moment that displayed a quality of Jerry Piddington that brought tears to the audience was a letter read by Ricky Smith from a father of one of Jerry Piddington’s students, Tony Ingle.  The letter praised Mr. Piddington for his nine years of endurance and patience as the study of martial arts helped his son overcome autism.  Tony was tested and scored 16 out of 16, being the most severe.  Earlier this year, a complete brain image scan was performed at a prestigious medical facility and there were no signs of autism.  Doctors concluded that the left and right movements of martial arts became too strong and eventually overcame the autism.

Joe Corley and Bob Wall recognized numerous pioneers and champions of sport karate by calling them forward to receive certificates mounted on beautiful plaques signed by Jerry Piddington and Bob Wall. 

Some of the recipients who received these awards were: Don “The Dragon” Wilson, Bob Wall, Joe Lewis, Jeff Smith, Howard Jackson, Joe Corley, Sam Chapman, Roger Greene, Ben Kiker, Dennis Brown, George Anderson, Larry Lunn, Carl Wilcox, Jim La Rocco, Devorah Dometrich, Lynn Scott Gregory, Larry Rienhardt, Roy Williams, Al Sussman, Richard Smith, George Baker, Rhonda “Ridgehand” Alexander, Gary Basinger, Bruce Brutschy, Dan McCall, Larry Bullard, Curtis Bush, Garry Dillingham, Mike Genova, Jeff Gripper, Art Heller, Larry Hodges, Tommy Hood, Jimmy Horsley, Jerome “Magic” Johnson, Charlie June, John Maynard, Maurice Moore, “The Gold Dust Twins” - Ricky & Randy Smith, Jessie Thornton, James White, Stokes Hairston, and many more. 

One of the tearful moments of the evening for Mr. Piddington was Jeff Smith receiving the Keith Haflick Memorial Full-Contact Award.  Keith was one of the members of Mr. Piddington’s “Charlotte Warhawks,” an undefeated kickboxing team.  Jeff Smith defeated Keith Haflick in the first 11 round light-heavy weight kickboxing championship in 1976, which Jerry Piddington promoted in Charlotte, NC. 

The American Karate Academies National Association (AKANA) sponsored the “Spirit of the Eagle” Fighter Awards by selecting six of the toughest fighters in the history of sport karate, who were Joe Lewis, Bob Wall, Jerry Piddington, Howard Jackson, Jeff Smith, and Don “The Dragon” Wilson.  These Living Legends Alumni held their statues of an American eagle high above their heads as fans and comrades cheered and applauded.  This was an electrifying moment and the highlight of the evening worthy of a cover shot on any martial arts magazine. 

After Joe Corley read a letter by karate champion Mike Stone congratulating Mr. Piddington and wishing him happiness, Ricky Smith introduced a surprise guest and roaster who was an avid martial artist and movie star.  As the crowd waited with anticipation to the music of "Space Odyssey", none other than an Elvis impersonator entered the room and sang a melody of Elvis songs.  Before roasting Jerry, he jokingly asked if anyone had seen that Mike Stone character.  He then proceeded to roast Jerry by singing a personalized rendition of "My Way", paying tribute to Jerry by singing “he chartered every karate class with each kid in mind along the way and yes, much more than this, Jerry did it his way.” 

In his professional and cool manner, Joe Corley started the roasting competition by machine gunning Piddington with multiple insults.  Danny McCall jabbed his long-time instructor for misleading him in the fact that he would be financially successful by fighting full-contact karate.  Randy Smith remembered a time when he and his twin, Ricky, use to pray that their instructor, Jerry, would have a flat tire on the way to China Grove from Charlotte to train them.  “That’s how bad we didn’t want him to show up, because we knew the workouts were going to be tough, and guess what, one time he called and said he had a flat tire and we praised the Lord.”  Gene Smith bowed out of telling the good roasting stories about their long working relationship saying, “they would probably incriminate me as well,” and praised Jerry for helping his sons establish their name as “The Gold Dust Twins.”  Garry Dillingham roasted Piddington by demonstrating a lion performing kata.  Larry Bullard recounted his first impression of Piddington as Piddington would score a point in the ring and then go gather a kiss from a beautiful hippie girl who would be sitting admiringly at ringside.  Bullard commented that it was clear that Piddington could score at will.  Dennis Brown gave tribute to Hanshi Piddington for bringing his instructor, Willy Lynn, to America, thereby accredited Jerry for his soft style lineage.  Jeff Smith flurried Piddington with a barrage of jokes about his resume, which he printed off the internet.  Howard entertained the audience with a hilarious story about how Piddington was devil possessed as a fighter and how the demon possessed fighter turned into a guy who only wants to kissy kissy and huggy huggy.  Joe Lewis talked about the definition of a champion and used the roast as an opportunity to plug his new book.  Eva, Piddington’s wife, told a story illustrating the range of her husband’s personalities from how he once broke out of jail to his sensitive nature as a father.  Bob Wall read a letter from Chuck Norris stating that he hoped that Jerry did not get burned to badly by the master roaster - Bob Wall.  Mr. Wall went for the knockout pulling no punches in a no-holds barred main event roast of jokes and insults, which bordered a PG to R rating.  “It was perfect,” says promoter Ricky Smith, “Bob was nailing Jerry in a way that made the kids laugh, but only the adults understood the hidden meaning of the jokes.  We gave all the roasters a list of five rules and #4 rule was no vulgarity or obsessive profanity.” 

Mr. Piddington made a grand entrance for his retaliation by stepping up on and over the roasting table and squaring off nose to nose with Joe Corley as Elvis sang, “Are you looking for trouble, look right in my face.”  Mr. Piddington hammered everyone with low blows and fouls, including special guest Don “The Dragon” Wilson, by challenging him to a kickboxing fight.  Don quickly accepted the challenge. 

Singer, Sandy Wise, closed out the evening with a spiritual song called "Strong Enough".  Promoter Edie Smith said, “We selected this song because even though the fighters that we honored are some of the strongest men and women on earth, they still need God to be strong enough.” 

Joe Lewis said if he could describe the event in one word, it would be - class.  This is exactly what promoters Edie and Ricky Smith had in mind when they put the program together. Bob Wall agreed when he said, “These martial artists, such as Jerry Piddington, deserve to be recognized with class and this event showed a lot of it.”  Ricky Smith stated, “as roasters were speaking, it was evident their intelligence and wit were qualities that made these champions the most successful leaders of today’s martial arts.” 

Promoter Edie Smith said that many people were verbalizing their appreciation and gratitude about the event.  “To have that caliber of martial arts talent in one room made the work of this event a pleasure,” said Edie.  “Many comments were made on how martial arts celebrities such as Don Wilson, Bob Wall, Joe Lewis, Jeff Smith, and Howard Jackson interacted with the fans, signing autographs and gladly allowing pictures.  This helped to make a very successful and memorable event for everyone.”