March 30- Wrestling with Svenmania, Running Wild!
Last night, I took some time to check out a live PCW wrestling event featuring my talented pal ‘the Feature Presentation” Johnny Mac, and it was a great time- and appropriately, occurring on the same weekend as “the grand-daddy of all wrestling events” as the hipsters always put it- Wrestlemania! I know, it’s hard for a lot of people to believe what a big money-maker this pay-per-view event is…and how outrageous some of the antics can be! Last year’s big thing was owner and lead player Vince Macmahon getting his head shaved by Donald Trump- and this year, the mainstream gimmick is the 7 foot “Big Show” Paul Wight taking on 5 foot nine boxer Floyd “Money” Mayweather.(Maybe the Donald can battle the winner…)
This all brings to mind my brushes with wrestlers in the past-back when I was doing the “Koz Zone” show, we often sponsored contests to attend live events, and I got to meet some of the wrestlers, do an announcement at the beginning of the event from in the ring, and watch the proceedings from ringside. I was amazed when, one time, the champion and idol of kiddies everywhere “the Ultimate Warrior” came to ringside and went after his opponent’s manager, the now deceased “Sensational Sherri” Martel, while loudly calling her some incredibly obscene names that were not quite suitable for younger and more sensitive attendees. To be fair, many of the wrestlers were really nice guys, and fairly intelligent-often far removed from the characters they portrayed. The “evil Russian” Nickolai Volkoff (who, in reality was neither evil of Russian) loved to do magic tricks, and once put a headlock on me!
During that same period, when we went down to Orlando to shoot some programs from the grand opening of the Universal theme park-as we were heading for the terminal, I saw a huge array of platinum-blond hair coming towards us- and, as the person passed, I was amazed to see it was the then-champion of the WCW organization- the “Nature Boy” Ric Flair-truly one of the biggest names in modern wrestling history!(Flair, now with less hair, but just as much attitude, will be, coincident- ally, wrestling what may be his “retirement” match at today’s Wrestlemania.)
I know I’ve mentioned having Hulk Hogan and “Stone Cold” Steve Austin being on our show, and the Elvis-like “HonkyTonk Man”- who had –ahem- outgrown the massive belt for his jumpsuit and had to find a way to pin it on. And, no- Sven has never appeared in a wrestling ring- yet…
This all brings to mind my brushes with wrestlers in the past-back when I was doing the “Koz Zone” show, we often sponsored contests to attend live events, and I got to meet some of the wrestlers, do an announcement at the beginning of the event from in the ring, and watch the proceedings from ringside. I was amazed when, one time, the champion and idol of kiddies everywhere “the Ultimate Warrior” came to ringside and went after his opponent’s manager, the now deceased “Sensational Sherri” Martel, while loudly calling her some incredibly obscene names that were not quite suitable for younger and more sensitive attendees. To be fair, many of the wrestlers were really nice guys, and fairly intelligent-often far removed from the characters they portrayed. The “evil Russian” Nickolai Volkoff (who, in reality was neither evil of Russian) loved to do magic tricks, and once put a headlock on me!
During that same period, when we went down to Orlando to shoot some programs from the grand opening of the Universal theme park-as we were heading for the terminal, I saw a huge array of platinum-blond hair coming towards us- and, as the person passed, I was amazed to see it was the then-champion of the WCW organization- the “Nature Boy” Ric Flair-truly one of the biggest names in modern wrestling history!(Flair, now with less hair, but just as much attitude, will be, coincident- ally, wrestling what may be his “retirement” match at today’s Wrestlemania.)
I know I’ve mentioned having Hulk Hogan and “Stone Cold” Steve Austin being on our show, and the Elvis-like “HonkyTonk Man”- who had –ahem- outgrown the massive belt for his jumpsuit and had to find a way to pin it on. And, no- Sven has never appeared in a wrestling ring- yet…
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