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(1 ) For the last 30 years my parents in Austin have been next door neighbors to Ivan Putski (The Polish Power). I used to go down to the Civic Center that was on town lake next to the Palmer Center (Austin Convention Center).

(2) I was a head waiter at the Magic Time Machine in Austin in the mid 80's and Kerry Von Erich came in for dinner. We talked him into putting "Superman" into a sleeper hold. He only agreed to do it for a second and the 6'3" waiter went down IN A SECOND. It was a Vulcan neck pinch type of reaction!! Superman told me that the lights just WENT OUT.
 
My dad went to college with Putski at Southwest Texas. His real name is Joe Bednarski. Great guy.

Cg
This post was edited on 5/11 9:49 PM by caldonna
 
I had lunch with Jeff Jarrett when I was 8. My father won tickets on a local radio show to Monday Nitro or a house show and we also won lunch with Double J. From what I remember, he seemed like a cool guy. I didn't watch wrestling back then, but since I do now, I know who he is. Founder of TNA.
 
Originally posted by caldonna:
Paul Boesch was the announcer/promoter for the Houston office. He had a helluva company for a while. He's responsible for putting together the "Dynamic Duo," Tully Blanchard and Gino Hernandez.

An interesting story about Paul: he came thisclose to double-crossing Lou Thesz out of the NWA World Title. Thesz was a real hardcase when it came to holding out for his standard fee from the promoters. He'd count the house and had an idea of what he should be paid. If the promoter didn't fork it over, then Lou would refuse to work for him in the future. Back then, the NWA title meant something, and Thesz was always box office, so the promoter would pay.

Sigel had his fill, so he paid Boesch to shoot on Lou and steal the title. During their match in Houston, Paul backed up Thesz in a corner and copped a Sunday on him. He almost knocked Thesz out, but Lou was smart enough to duck between the ropes and stall until he regained his senses. That's when the fun began.

Thesz was known as a "Hooker," a wrestler who knew moves that could seriously injure a man. One of the reasons he was NWA champion was because none of the promoters trusted each other, so they wanted a man who could protect himself. He took Boesch down and nailed him to the cross. He pinned Boesch in under five minutes. The second fall was even shorter.

The irony is that Thesz and Boesch became great friends later in life.

So, if any of you wondered if there were any shoots in wrestling, now you know that they do sometimes happen.

Cg
Yeah, but 98% of shoots were in the wild days of regional promoters.

I can't remember a single shoot in all the time I worked for WWE.

Well, unless you count Michaels/Hart.

Mike
 
Originally posted by Esoteric2112:
Originally posted by caldonna:
Paul Boesch was the announcer/promoter for the Houston office. He had a helluva company for a while. He's responsible for putting together the "Dynamic Duo," Tully Blanchard and Gino Hernandez.

An interesting story about Paul: he came thisclose to double-crossing Lou Thesz out of the NWA World Title. Thesz was a real hardcase when it came to holding out for his standard fee from the promoters. He'd count the house and had an idea of what he should be paid. If the promoter didn't fork it over, then Lou would refuse to work for him in the future. Back then, the NWA title meant something, and Thesz was always box office, so the promoter would pay.

Sigel had his fill, so he paid Boesch to shoot on Lou and steal the title. During their match in Houston, Paul backed up Thesz in a corner and copped a Sunday on him. He almost knocked Thesz out, but Lou was smart enough to duck between the ropes and stall until he regained his senses. That's when the fun began.

Thesz was known as a "Hooker," a wrestler who knew moves that could seriously injure a man. One of the reasons he was NWA champion was because none of the promoters trusted each other, so they wanted a man who could protect himself. He took Boesch down and nailed him to the cross. He pinned Boesch in under five minutes. The second fall was even shorter.

The irony is that Thesz and Boesch became great friends later in life.

So, if any of you wondered if there were any shoots in wrestling, now you know that they do sometimes happen.

Cg
Yeah, but 98% of shoots were in the wild days of regional promoters.

I can't remember a single shoot in all the time I worked for WWE.

Well, unless you count Michaels/Hart.

Mike

Back when the Road Warriors were working for the AWA, Baron Von Raschke and Crusher Lisowski had their limits of the no selling. Jim and Reggie got them in a St. Paul match and kicked the living crap out of them. They never had any trouble with Hawk and Animal after that.

Dynamite Kid writes about having planned to shoot on Brutus Beefcake in a match because the latter kept stiffing him in the ring. The night before he had his shot, he suffered the back injury that sidelined him for seven months.

Here's my favorite: In the late 1970's, the Briscoes had a big feud going with Ole and Gene Anderson--the Minnesota Wrecking Crew. One night in Pembroke, North Carolina, Jack Brisco had a bad stomach virus and really didn't want to work. He also didn't want to miss a date. He sent a message to the heel dressing room to Ole and Gene that he was feeling crappy and just wanted to do a quick double-DQ match.

Ole being Ole (read: a real prick), he came up with the notion to make his bones by roughing up Jack. Gene warned him, "Don't do it, kid. Jack will gobble you up."

Ole was adamant that he go ahead and take his shot. So Gene then tells him, "You do that, and I'm not tagging in."

Now, before I continue: Jack was a three-time NCAA champion in wrestling at Okie Lite. He had geared his entire life at becoming the next Lou Thesz, and even learned to hook from Thesz and Billy Robinson.

The match starts, and Ole crossfaces Jack. HARD. Brisco makes the ropes, but instead of tagging out, he locks up with Ole and shoots on him and commences to stretching him. Every time Ole reaches for Gene, Gene backs off and shakes his head.

The match went to a 60 minute broadway, with neither Ole or Jack tagging out. The next morning, Ole couldn't get out of bed.

He never gave Jack any trouble ever again, and they must have wrestled 500 times.

Cg
 
Oh, before I forget: Bruiser Brody once shot on Lex Lugar. It was Lugar's last night in the Florida office before going to Atlanta, and he had no-showed a couple of dates with Brody. When it was obvious that Frank was going to put a beating on him, Larry got himself dq'ed (in a cage match) by hitting the ref and climbing out of the cage.

Chickensh*it.

Cg
 
Tully Blanchard always gave me the creeps, he just looked mean. I heard Fit Finlay shot on Goldberg.

Who is the toughest wrestler? I mean in a real fight, who would you take?

And, did Mr. Wonderful really whip Van Vader?
 
I heard Jack was a mean old cuss.

I remember Pat Petterson trying to make a comeback. Man, that guy was loopy. He didn't know if he was coming or going. He was supposed to shoot a backstage promo at a RAW event at Mohegan Sun and he wasn't in the room 5 minutes before the shoot. But no one was worried, he was always late. But about a minute before the shoot the stage manager is freaking out. So we went to look for him, and we looked everywhere. Well, I got a call over the radio that the promo was delayed but we had 5 minutes to find him. Well I had to piss like you wouldn't believe. So I duck into a bathroom and while I am filling a urinal, I hear snoring from a stall. I thought. No way. So I get on the radio and the stage manager tells me to look. I told her screw you, I ain't peeping on a guy in the john. She said do it or you are on the next flight home. So I peek in and there is Patterson, asleep on the john, suit pants around his ankles. I try knocking on the door, yelling, everything. If he wasn't snoring I would have sworn he was dead. Well the stage manager really freaks and tells me do whatever it takes to wake him up. So I go under the stall and tap him on the shoulder. Dude wakes up and goes on a profanity laced tirade. Well, I left my mic open and the stage manager hears it and says "shut the f*** up, get off the pot, and get your a** up here to shoot this d*** promo." He gave me an evil look and ran upstairs. Just did make the promo shoot.

Mike
 
I did see Chris Benoit (rest his demented soul) shoot some kid in a house show that had missed a few suplexes on Chris in the past and had a rep for not working. The other guys in the locker room told Chris to "take care of it". That poor kid looked like he got in a fight with 12 guys by the end of the match.

Mike
 
Originally posted by GDforHC:
Did Hart shoot on HBK?

No, but there is the famous Montreal Screwjob where Michaels was the beneficiary of McMahon screwing Hart out of the WWE title.

Orndorff whipped the hell out of Vader. Paul was the road agent for WCW at the time, and he wanted Vader to go out and reshoot a promo that he'd botched. Vader didn't want to, so Orndorff told him to "get your fat ass in the ring."

Leon was one mean bully, so he gets nose to nose with Orndorff and says, "Say it to my face, old man." Orndorff slapped him, and Vader swung. Ordorff took him down and went Nolan Ryan on him. Vader was in no shape to do a promo after that.

Today, the toughest bastard in the business, among active wrestlers in the US, would probably be Alberto Del Rio. He's a former NCAA wrestler at Arizona State, was a member of the Mexican Olympic team, and has a winning record in MMA. After him, it would be Kurt Angle. Booker T is a tough dude, too. Ron Simmons could scare your nuts into your abdominal cavity.

Cg
 
Hmmm wonder if Del Rio was in the same class as Cain Velasquez.


Also read that Bradshaw-Leyfield and Dick Slater were not to be trifled with.
 
Wow, not one mention of Dory Funk Sr., Dory Funk Jr., and Terry Funk. Dory Funk Sr. was the World Heavy Weight Champion in Amarillo, TX, during the the mid 1960's. Kicked the Von Erich's (the bad guy's) ass on many times.
 
Bradshaw was the type of guy you would like to sit around and play cards and smoke cigars and drink scotch with. But don't expect him to pay. Early in his career he was a hard worker, but sloppy in the ring, but man he would sell for you and could cut a good promo. Later on in his career he became "entitiled" (pun intended) and became lazy in the ring and even more sloppy. We used to joke about his JBL character, because it was so the opposite of who he really was. But a lot of guys hated getting in the ring with him because he was lazy and could get you hurt. I wonder who he had nude pictures of to get and retain the title.

Mike
 
Originally posted by amahorn:
Wow, not one mention of Dory Funk Sr., Dory Funk Jr., and Terry Funk. Dory Funk Sr. was the World Heavy Weight Champion in Amarillo, TX, during the the mid 1960's. Kicked the Von Erich's (the bad guy's) ass on many times.
All before my time. I did meet Terry with Mick Foley one night. But only had about 5 minutes to listen to them talk.

Didn't McMahan have a vendetta against Terry?

Mike
 
Originally posted by caldonna:
Originally posted by GDforHC:
Did Hart shoot on HBK?

No, but there is the famous Montreal Screwjob where Michaels was the beneficiary of McMahon screwing Hart out of the WWE title.

Orndorff whipped the hell out of Vader. Paul was the road agent for WCW at the time, and he wanted Vader to go out and reshoot a promo that he'd botched. Vader didn't want to, so Orndorff told him to "get your fat ass in the ring."

Leon was one mean bully, so he gets nose to nose with Orndorff and says, "Say it to my face, old man." Orndorff slapped him, and Vader swung. Ordorff took him down and went Nolan Ryan on him. Vader was in no shape to do a promo after that.

Today, the toughest bastard in the business, among active wrestlers in the US, would probably be Alberto Del Rio. He's a former NCAA wrestler at Arizona State, was a member of the Mexican Olympic team, and has a winning record in MMA. After him, it would be Kurt Angle. Booker T is a tough dude, too. Ron Simmons could scare your nuts into your abdominal cavity.

Cg
That whole affair was messy. It has been so long, I called it a shoot because it was unscripted.

Mike
 
I remember when we got the new RAW set I was a truss spot operator. I was headed up to my chair when the lead elec grabbed me and said, "do you this flame retardant suit?" I said no and made my way up to my position. Well, this was when the Dudleys were out with us and headlining. Well, remember that pyro effect that would shoot off and explode over their entrance? Yeah, that came from almost directly under my seat.

After that night I took the pants.

Mike
 
I remember watching that Hart/Micheals match. I'll never forget the look on Bret's face standing outside the ring wondering what the hell just happened.

I also remember the time when Stone Cold and Owen Hart had a ppv match and Steve almost broke his his neck from his head sticking out to far on a pile driver. That thing just bounced off the the mat.
 
I was driving home from a fishing trip when I got the call from Chavito about Eddie. I had to pull over to the side of the road with that news. A DPS trooper comes and knocks on my window to ask me if I was fine because I was crying so hard. It was a horrible, horrible day for me.

Terry Funk is one crazy dude. Not in a dangerous way; he was the kind of guy that you talked about the day after a party. When he was in his first run in WWE, he got homesick as all get out one cay and called Vince and told him, "I've gotta get home. My horse is sick."

He never came back.

He and his brother were the king of the ribs. Jack Brisco was a big time chocoholoic. One night, Dory, Jr. was going to do a 60 minute broadway with Jack in Lubbock. Terry and he melted down a whole box of chocolate Ex Lax inot milk and put it in a thermos. Terry shows up in the dressing room with the thermos and gives it to Jack as a gift from his wife. Jack drank the whole damn thing. Later that night, in the middle of the match he starts feeling it.

"Let's go home," he told Dory. "I'm real sick."

Dory refused to take the fall, because the match was only a few minutes old and he didn't want to ruin himself in the town by taking the fall so early.

The keep going in the match. About 45 minutes in, Jack is dying. He begs Dory to pin him. They can do it again in Abilene two nights later, and he can get his belt back. Dory refused, because they didn't have permission from the NWA office to do a title switch. Finally the match ends, and Jack doesn't even wait for the official decision. He just rolls out of the ring and runs to the back and barely makes it.

I don't think they ever told him what happened.

Cg
 
Caldona or Esoteric......any more detail on my post above about Hart/Michaels and Stome Cold's neck?
 
Also, any stories to share on Rowdy Roddy Piper, Jake the Snake, or Hogan?
 
Originally posted by jpj927:
I too would also love to hear more stories caldonna. This is a very enjoyable thread because of your insight.
Totally agree. I finally saw "The Wrestler" last weekend. My question is is the sado-masochistic stuff performed in small venues in the movie really a subset in the real wrestling world?
 
There was a good documentary that came out about 10 years ago detailing the Michaels/Hart match in Montreal. Hart finds McMahon afterward and would have killed him had bystanders not gotten in the way. Can't remember the name but Caldonna/Esoteric probably does.

Caldonna, I remember hearing about the fued with Brody and Luger. There was a urban legend that during one of their last matches Brody just stands in the ring refusing to fight but cannot remember the circumstances.

It is amazing how so many in wrestling were involved in tragic situations. Luger with Miss Elizabeth and of course Brody in Puerto Rico.
This post was edited on 5/12 9:16 AM by moosehead
 
JYD! JYD! JYD! Wish he would have gotten to hold the title at least once.
 
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