As some of you may know, I grew up w/ a very small pot to piss in. I had two parents with Masters' degrees, but their chosen fields and a nasty divorce left very little money around, and led to yours truly being forced into an Army ROTC scholarship to pay for college. That went...less than optimally.
But I did have cable TV, at least when mom paid the bill. And I had pro wrestling. From third grade to tenth grade, I was a FREAKISHLY huge fan of pro wrestling. I watched everything available on the telly. WWF would air a few times a week. WCCW would air late Saturday night, from 10-11, which my dad would let me stay up and watch. AWA would air Saturday morning. NWA would air early Saturday evening. And don't get me started on stumbling into WWF's Saturday Night Main Event specials that occasionally aired in place of SNL. Holy shit, that blew my mind. I remember that as the time that they rolled out King Kong Bundy as a world class heel.
I mean to say that I was INTO it. I ordered back issues of Pro Wrestling Illustrated. I bought a VCR copy of Lords of the Ring: Superstars and Superbouts (which somehow made it down to William & Mary). I bought fake blood and used it on my three WWF figures (Sheik, Volkoff and Hogan, which I kept and handed down to my kids). And I also played some weird dice game with wrestling, where you had a sheet for each wrestler and would roll to do "moves" to take down your opponent. We all loved having the Great Kabuki, b/c if you rolled 12, he would spit his colorful spray and you would win. So yeah, I was into it. Once I started liking girl's boobies more than Dusty Rhodes' boobies, or at least started getting opportunities to touch girl's boobies, my passion faded. But it was a big run for this guy.
I also made it to my share of pro wrestling events. My dad could not afford premier pro sports events frequently. We would cut coupons off of quarts of Tuscan milk boxes to get cheap Nets or Devils seats. But pro wrestling was more affordable. My first Yankees game in the Bronx wasn't until June 1990 and my first Knicks game at MSG wasn't until early 1991, but wrestling options were around, and generally more affordable.
The first wrestling event I ever saw was at Freehold High School. I think I was in the third grade. The headliner was Pat Patterson, who I didn't know at the time. I think there were 1-2 more "stars" there too. I remember liking it a lot. My second show was at Convention Hall in Asbury Park. There was a decent showing of stars there. The Iron Sheik was there, and my Iranian dad (who I realized in retrospect was a sneaky fan of celeb sightings) worked it hard to get me and him (but mostly him) backstage to meet the Sheik, who was from Tehran, like my dad. Security would not let us go backstage, but did legitimately go to look for the Sheik. While the Sheik did not come out, Salvatore Bellomo did. That was my childhood in a nutshell. It's like the Christmas when I wanted Mike Tyson's Punchout, and my mom got me Ring King.
But I digress. The main event of the evening that night was Greg Valentine vs. Andre the Giant. My dad let me run to the area where the wrestlers come out so I could get close. Valentine came out first. He was smug as hell, a classic heel in a fancy gown. And then Andre came out. The crowd went wild. This was back when he still had the wild afro and wore the trunks w/o the shoulder strap. I got up to the barrier and he walked right in front of me, from right to left. The flashes illuminated his body as he stoically ambled to the ring. I touched his back as he passed me, patting him once. I still remember it. He was a real live superhero to me.
The third wrestling show of my life was when the AWA and NWA did some joint tour. I remember little b/c my dad bought the very worst seats in the Brendan Byrne arena. I remember that Ric Martel and Magnum TA both won separate matches. I brought my Kodak Disc to take pics. That went about as well as my tenure as an ROTC cadet.
So you can see why I am so pumped for this Andre doc. He was a legend I got to see up close and personal one time. As a famous football player once said: CAN'T WAIT.
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44 comments:
Nice work, TR. Very cool.
Magnum TA went to the crosstown prep school down here and was a local hero until his car wreck. A year before that happened, a younger friend of the family was all-in on pro wrestling, so we all went to Norfolk Scope for his bday in my only ever trip to see it.
TA versus Nature Boy and some other classics ensued. Footage here. I was never a huge fan, but it was a pretty awesome time.
Don't let the size of TR's pisspot fool you, he takes yooodge shits. I've seen photographic evidence, likely shot on his Kodak Disc.
this is terrific, tr.
fogtb kevin reynolds is a budding impresario in a local pro wrestling concern. billed as kr superstar, he reps mr. big stuff, the ucw heavyweight champion. i believe he fancies himself as the reincarnation of bobby 'the brain' heenan. check him out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hz9cxY6-F_4
his big stuff industries outfit is billed as one of the 'superstars of the ucw': https://ucwforever.com/superstars-of-ucw. a mini-summit to watch low-rent pro wrasslin' here in the commonwealth might be a good time.
Sadly, I missed most of Andre's prime, but I remember his action figure was IMPOSSIBLE to find. I remember convincing my parents to take me to the local Toys R Us on multiple occasions to find his and it was always sold out and I had to settle for what was there, which is how I ended up with "Special Delivery" Jones and Ted Arcidi action figures instead.
Also, the PlayStation One WWE video game that came out in the late 90's around the time NWA combined with WWE was amazing.
in news related to recent g:tb content, i had a brush with fame yesterday. there i was, minding my own business, eating dinner with a colleague at the new tenpenh location in tysons, when in walked the mayor of tysons himself, buck marston. his face was red from the augusta sunshine, and he was greatly amused when i told him i'd seen pictorial evidence of him trying find his own balls.
Tenpenh is less clever when it's not on the corner of 10th and Pennsylvania, but I assume it's still good food.
Hey to Buck.
true, but westparkjonesbranchh is a mouthful
Yeah rob, I failed to get publishing approval, knowing if I asked it'd get shot down. so here we are. At least I kept his name out of the paper, unlike you.
Can't wait to watch Andre. Do they go to his home in NC? You guys may remember me telling you he purchased it from the family of a woman I work with. In the process they became pretty close with the big guy.
i don't think there's a prosecutor in america that can prove he's in that picture, danimal. my conscience is clean. and my president is black.
nice post, tr! way to end with the chest hair!
we have too many google accounts. it's dave, not a talking garden
I very much enjoy when retail outlets comment on GTB
Danimal - they do dive into NC quite a bit, and interview the family there that became his surrogate family.
hold up, hold up, hold up. dave is the proprietor of the good earth garden blog (https://goodearthhp.wordpress.com/)? wherein he waxes about composting, and planting shit, and plant husbandry? how has he kept this hidden from us for so long? this is a mind-blowing bit of breaking news.
i'm really gonna need to be careful not to mix gheorghe with my two cats, one dad blog.
As opposed to your "two robs one cup" blog.
Or is it two squirrels, one cup?
you blew the obvious joke there, squeak. we still love you, though.
isaac haas sure pissed away a lot of goodwill, eh?
I thoroughly enjoyed the Andre doc. I missed a large chunk of his prime during the territorial days but certainly remember his last act in WWF. Seeing all the old footage of him was great. Easy to forget how athletic he was if you’re only remembering the late years.
I wasn’t as enormous a wrestling fan as TR but definitely had few year phase when I was super into. NWA and WWF on Saturday were my shit.
And those rare Saturday Night Main Events were always a highlight.
Was a huge pro wrasslin' fan back in the 1970s and '80s. Loved the WWWF and later NWA. The Road Warriors were personal faves ("We snack on danger, dine on death, and dead men don't make money."). Didn't see this story referenced, but I think you Andre fans will get a kick out of it.
https://www.si.com/vault/1981/12/21/264333/to-the-giant-among-us-thats-no-small-beer-on-the-right-its-a-normal-12-ounce-can-in-the-hand-of-7-4quot-500-pound-wrestler-andre-the-giant-the-glass-is-in-the-prodigious-paw-of-the-author-a-former-superheavyweight-powerlifting-c
Road Warriors were my first favorite tag team. I had no idea that their name was a blatant rip-off of a movie that has aired a few years before. Hearing Sabbath’s Iron Man as they stormed to the ring to wreak havoc got me soooo pumped as a kid.
Too bad they were a physical mess by the time they came to the WWF.
I watched the doc w/ my boys tonight. My second viewing and their first. Midway through, my 8 y/o yelled “ PAUSE IT!” and ran down the stairs to our basement. He came back up holding the Hulk action figure I had passed down to him. We rewound the doc about 30 secs and found a scene w/ a kid holding the identical figure. My kids loved that. Man dolls!
My 10 y/o welled up at the end of the doc. We talked about how his life was short, but amazing. Appropriate reaction. My sociopath 8 y/o had zero reaction.
I assume the 8 y/o was busy plotting ways to use the new wrestling moves he learned in the documentary.
Great stuff. Watched last night and like TR's non sociopath kid, got a little verklempt at the end. I was really not really surprised to learn that Vince, despite Andre's poor health (to put it mildly), did all he could to exploit him one last time with the Mania 3 Detroit. How much money did that make Vince? Andre? Inquiring minds want to know. And on Vince, that crying he mustered up was totally fake. Guy's a shitbag.
On a side note, had planned on running 5'ish at lunch. I instead ate 4 pieces of pizza. That's a big caloric swing, to the negative.
That's a pick six on your health.
I was a merely whelmed by the Andre doc; felt like most of the subject matter had been covered in other contexts. The WrestleMania III stuff was the most interesting/surprising. I was in elementary school and, watching it then, obviously did not realize that Andre's health was such an issue. Thought the Flair 30 for 30 was better, overall.
this is a good wrestling listen:
https://www.radiolab.org/story/montreal-screwjob/
whoops, wrong account. i'm not dave, i'm a community garden that likes to browse the internet.
also, i was born in 1970 and i did NOT get professional wrestling. i kind of thought kids that were into were insane. in typical dave fashion, i did not get the joke-- it just seemed fake and weird and cheesy and contrived. and using words like "contrived" in fourth grade was a surefire way to get your ass kicked.
It was like the theater for non-fancy people (euphemism). Seeing Ric Flair clearly miss Magnum TA's face with punches as TA recoiled in fake pain, all totally noticeable from several sections away, left a bizarre impression on me... and did nothing to detract from other people's rabid fun there. A sociological case study for me, but it looked to be a goddam good time for thousands of... non-fancy people.
i do love alison brie in the netflix original GLOW
The number 5 trending topic on twitter right now is “pee tape” due to Comey’s upcoming interview and book #tribepride
R Kelly can't wait to get that book.
Drip drip drip
Number 1 is still Alfonso Ribeiro shirtless
9 to 5 is on one of my 69 HBO channels. Dolly had one hell of a chassis in her prime.
i'm gonna play golf tomorrow for the first time in at least a year. i'm going to suck. and it's going to be awesome.
"There's no way I would let people pee on each other around me" will be a popular yearbook quote.
Yearbook quote? I’m saying it to the first coworker I see in the morning.
Dolly Parton is a highly underrated human being.
I enjoyed both docs but give the advantage to Flair based on his personal foibles and my heavy exposure to him as a child. I didn’t truly get into the WWF until a kid (who was a TR level wrestling fan) who become my best friend moved into town in 4th grade. Shortly thereafter, I met the Ultimate Warrior (out of costume) at my Dad’s gym and he was super cool to me. That sparked a real love for wrestling for 3-4 years.
A couple additional thoughts:
The Simmons podcast was actually far more informative on the minutiae of Andre and earlier WWF. I highly recommend.
Knowing about the Montreal screwjob made the whole story (that we knew the ending of) regarding the unknown conclusion of the Wrestlemania III more interesting. Because, as Dan said, Vince is a shitbag.
Bret Hart was a whiner. It's not like the WWF killed his brother. Oh wait...
#toosoon
Have any of you guys stayed at Kiawah Island? I'm looking for some recommendations. I need to do something with my brother for his 50th. He lives in Charleston. So was looking for an easy option to play some golf over a weekend to celebrate. And I hear the island a damn good place to smack the little white ball around.
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