Professional Wrestlers

[caldonna]

Goldberg was on of the guys who got the high hard one because of Hall, Nash, and Hogan. Goldberg was huge, just huge. Hogan worried about losing his spot to "The Man," so he talked Bischoff into booking an angle where Goldberg dropped the WCW title to Nash, and then Nash did the infamous "finger poke" job to Hogan. Then, they essentially froze Goldberg out of a title chase angle by moving Hogan to another program, and setting up 'Berg with Hall and Nash.

The end result was that they started the demise of WCW. Everyone wanted teh match with Hogan, but no one ever got it.

BTW: Hall is in pretty bad shape. His alcoholism is way out of control, and he od'ed on Soma a few weeks ago. It does not look very good for him.

Cg

 

[chips con queso]

Greatest wrestler of all-time

Koko B. Ware

 

[WellDoneOrange]

It's a shame about Scott Hall. That guy was awesome. He never even got to hold a world title.

 

[KTroot]

I hung with Mark Henry back in 1991 when he was at ACC and training on the UT campus for the olympics. Very cool dude.
I ran into him and his crew at Sugars right after he signed with the WWE. He bought us lap dances all night.

I remember going to Gregory Gym with Mark and he would dunk a basketball. the most amazing thing i have ever seen.

 

[Baron King]

I grew up in an apartment complex with the Iron Sheik and Ivan Koloff. Cedric "Cornbread" Maxwell from the Boston Celtics also lived there in the NBA offseason. I used to play pickup basketball with them and whenever Cornbread and Ivan were on the same team I'd call them "Corn-Bear". All were great guys.

 

[jpj927]

This thread just kicks ass, thanks everyone. Keep em coming if ya got them.


And in honor of Scott Hall.....HEY YO!!!

 

[Gaylord_Focker]

Seemed like Goldberg wasn't as into it as many. WWE tried though, they had him go over the Rock and hbk I think.

 

[PBR_StreetGang]

Caldonna, any experience with the Von Erich family back in the 80s? Grew up watching WCCW. That seemed like it was just a cursed family.

 

[laidbackex]

Many years ago, Ernie Ladd quit pro football to wrestle. He said he could make multiple times more wrestling than he could playing football and he was an all-pro DT.

 

[Esoteric2112]

Originally posted by caldonna:
Goldberg was on of the guys who got the high hard one because of Hall, Nash, and Hogan. Goldberg was huge, just huge. Hogan worried about losing his spot to "The Man," so he talked Bischoff into booking an angle where Goldberg dropped the WCW title to Nash, and then Nash did the infamous "finger poke" job to Hogan. Then, they essentially froze Goldberg out of a title chase angle by moving Hogan to another program, and setting up 'Berg with Hall and Nash.

The end result was that they started the demise of WCW. Everyone wanted teh match with Hogan, but no one ever got it.

BTW: Hall is in pretty bad shape. His alcoholism is way out of control, and he od'ed on Soma a few weeks ago. It does not look very good for him.

Cg

Yeah, Hall was always in trouble. I remember the stage manager running around many nights trying to find him. Once he at a concession stand buying a beer.

Yeah, I find it kind of funny that some of the best bookers in the business tend to be the most hated guys. Then you get guys like Arn Anderson who figure "how hard can this be" and end up screwing things up royally for the next guy.

Goldberg had no ring skills though. He couldn't sell anything and got so lazy (admittedly he wasn't required to do much when he first got in the biz) that he would get pissed if he was actually asked to work in a match.

Mike

 

[KTroot]

Booker T used to workout at Ballys in Webster whenever he was in town. He was freaking huge. Very cool as well. Accomidating as well to all the fans and people coming up to him. He would spend the majority of the time stretching and working on flexibility. I never saw him put more than 185 LBS on the flat bar and bench press - he would just rep the heck out of it with perfect form.

 

[caldonna]

Originally posted by laidbackex:
Many years ago, Ernie Ladd quit pro football to wrestle. He said he could make multiple times more wrestling than he could playing football and he was an all-pro DT.

The year after Ladd left the Chiefs, they won the Superbowl. A year later, Ladd ran into Len Dawson at LAX. Ladd was making a connection from Tokyo en route to a date in Indianapolis. Dawson shows him his Super Bowl ring and asked, "Do you feel pretty stupid, now?"

Ladd pulled out his money belt and showed Dawson $25,000 in cash that he made for a one week tour for Japan Pro Wrestling and answered, "Not as stupid as you feel right now."

I never met the Von Erichs, but I will tell you what Gary Hart said: Fritz Adkisson lived in a fantasy world where all his sons were the heroes who always rode in on white horses. He could never accept that they were out of contgrol. Even at the end, when Chris, Kerry, and Mike had all killed themselves and David had od'ed on smack in a Japan hotel room, he couldn't face the truth. Very, very sad.

Cg

 

[johnstark23]

Cal, would love to swap a few stories with you, my dad did the same thing you did ring crew to ring announcer back in the 70s. I won't tell it now, but he tells a great story of a riot in san angelo that killer karl kox caused
Posted from wireless.rivals.com[/URL]

 

[Ketchum]

Great thread. Any Chris Adams stories?

 

[caldonna]

Originally posted by Ketchum:
Great thread. Any Chris Adams stories?

Besides the one about the time that Adams ribbed Kerry at his wedding by blocking the wheels on his Trans Am so the tiers would do nothing but spin? Kerry, in a moment of extreme pique lifted--IIFTED--the care off the blocks. Only problem was that the car was still in gear and drove into Adams' car and totalled it.

No. No Chris Adams stories.

Cg

 

[Esoteric2112]

Adams was a little before my time.

Mike

 

[Esoteric2112]

I will tell you that Paul Levesque was VERY particular about his entrance. I mean VERY particular. He would throw a temper tantrum if his light was inches off. Plus the timing had to be perfect. He would make the poor board op sometimes practice for an hour if he couldn't get it right on.

Mike

 

[Uncut Degenerate]

Caldonna, opinions on TNA? I know they pull in a lot of old guys but do you think they'll stick around much longer? There cn only be so many bits involving the stars of 90's.

Also got chills when the Rock returned in Miami. He just oozes charisma.

 

[Esoteric2112]

Originally posted by LongAus:
Caldonna, opinions on TNA? I know they pull in a lot of old guys but do you think they'll stick around much longer? There cn only be so many bits involving the stars of 90's.

Also got chills when the Rock returned in Miami. He just oozes charisma.

Yeah, but he would drive producers nuts because he was supposed to cut a 90 second promo and he would go for 4 or 5 minutes. Hell of a promo guy, and a great work rate (he would sell a punch to the head like a shot from a shotgun), but he had no sense of how long he had been talking.

Mike

 

[caldonna]

If I ran TNA, the first thing I would do is fire Vince Russo. I've always hated his booking. Then I'd hire either Paul Heyman or Danny Davis (he runs Hertland) and give him the book.

I'd put the belt around Ken Anderson and set up a title feud with RVD, Matt Morgan, and AJ Styles. I'd bring in the Kings of Wrestling and Haas and Benjamin to do a program with Beer Money and then start elevating both the tv and X titles.

TNA would be pretty durn good, then.

Cg

 

[Esoteric2112]

I love Heyman's booking. Where did anyone get the idea that Vince Russo could book?

RVD is still around?

Mike

 

[el_Tony]

As a lifelong wrestling fan all I have to say is this thread is awesome.

 

[tjhookem]

One of the funniest moments of my childhood was watching my grandmother react to wrestling. She would get all worked up watching/yelling at the Mexican wrestlers like we probably do watching football. Crazy seeing a 70 yr old acting that way!

My dad took her to see live wrestling one time when we were kids, she was probably around 60 at the time, and she started hitting the bad guy wrestler over the head with her purse. I'll have to ask my Dad who it was....I wish I could've seen that.

Great thread....keep the stories coming.

 

[40acrefanatic]

On Netflix there's a documentary called the rise and fall of WCW and it's kind of interesting

It said Nash and Hall had written into their contracts something about having to be the highest paid in WCW so if they took on a big contract like a bump for Goldberg those 2 would get a bump as well

 

[-Kirby-]

"You are Jew!"

Anyone heard the Howard Stern Show where they got Iron Sheik all riled up playing Randy "Macho Man" Savage sound clips that he thought was actually Savage? F-ing hilarious ... guy is crazy.
This post was edited on 5/11 9:05 PM by Kirby4286

 

[40acrefanatic]

I only have a couple of stories...Never was involved in the business but grew up a fan in Jr High

1) Kerry Von erich was a dear friend of the family and committed suicide on our family land

2) I went to Jr high with Booker T's nephew and when Nitro came to Dallas he got us ring side seats and we got to go in the back and meet everyone. I was a huge Sting fan and getting to meet him was awesome. Now Sting lives in a small town near Waxahachie called Maypearl where my best friend's dad used to coach

3) One night we hit the Bennigans in Irving after a show I guess because Booker T, Kurt Angle, and The Undertaker were in there eating. We told them we used to be huge wrestling fans in our younger days, I reminded Booker T I grew up with his nephew and they bought us dinner

 

[KipsBigBoy]

I love these stories from Caldonna and Esoteric. I'd love to have a beer with you guys one night.

I've been a fan of wrestling since I was a kid in D/FW (Von Erich & Freebirds hey-day). Got to meet Kerry, Chris Adams, and Buddy Roberts once when the HS my dad was head football coach for put together a WCCW house show for a fundraiser. My dad somewhat knew Kerry from when he played HS ball.

I remember when Stone Cold first came on the scene in WCCW with long, blonde hair. He was Steve Williams, a product of the Chris Adams Wrestling School.

I've also gotten to know Mark Henry over the last few years. He's a supremely nice and cool guy.

 

[laidbackex]

I grew up in Houston. In the early 60's wrestling used to come on Friday nights on Channel 13 after the 10:00 pm news and right before Weird (that's another story). Paul somebody-or-another was the announcer (who had the biggest cauliflower ears I've ever seen). One of my favorite heels was The Mummy who beat Dorie Dixon, the Jumping Jamaican. He had an incredible sleeper hold. He couldn't be beat until Sailor Art Thomas came along and could flex his trapezius muscles and throw off the Mummy. It was great times for a 10 year old.

 

[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

 

[rjenk]

How did the handler contain Kamala the Uganda Giant from attacking the audience?