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| Bonnie Blackstone & Joe Pedicino |
I remember going to the National Guard Armory at Lawrenceville, GA to watch local promotions put on matches. The wrestlers were guys you'd meet anywhere else in everyday life. It was kind of like Fight Club. They were the people who made your food, changed your tires, pumped your gas...but for a Saturday night, for a young boy, they were gladiators. For a kid having no inkling how the industry actually worked, watching these behemoths go at it was primal.
I remember going to the Georgia Mountains Center in Gainesville and watching NWA, and later WCW, put on TV tapings. This was the heyday of the Four Horsemen. This was the time of the dreaded "Dudes with Attitudes." And I loved every minute of it.
One night at the Mountains Center, my Dad and I watched a young wrestler named "Mean" Mark Callous wrestle five or six matches. Given the television taping schedule, this was not uncommon. That wrestler, "Mean" Mark, wasn't a common wrestler. He went on to a long and storied career in the WWF/WWE...as The Undertaker. He was managed by Paul E. Dangerously, played by Paul Heyman, who would go on to found Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) and now leads his client, Brock Lesnar, in a quest to end Undertaker's undefeated streak at WrestleMania.
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| "Mean" Mark Callous and Paul E. Dangerously |
After another night of TV tapings we left the Mountain Center and headed home. We had to stop at a gas station and while my Dad stood there filling up the tank a big black car pulled up. When the driver door opened out stepped Ric Flair. Arn Anderson sat in the passenger seat. It was an awesome experience for a kid like me.Of all the memories I've told so far, this next one takes the cake.
Once more at the Georgia Mountain Center, my Dad, my uncle Gene, and I sat in the folding chairs along the ringside area. We watched the night's proceedings up to the point that Kevin Sullivan and Norman the Lunatic were coming to the ring. Their feud had been a fairly violent one. Sullivan was a dark figure, a precursor to guys like the Undertaker and Bray Wyatt. Norman the Lunatic was a lovable fat guy with the gimmick of an escaped mental patient.
They locked up in the ring and went back and forth for a bit before the action spilled out into the crowd. People moved to get out of their way. Chairs were knocked over. I quickly darted to the side. My Dad stepped back several feet from the action. My uncle, though, calmly folded the chair he was sitting in, extended it out to either Sullivan or Norman, whoever would take it, and said, "Here, hit him with this."
I'm sure the recording of that event is somewhere in my parents' house.
To catch up to modern times, here's a pretty good encapsulation of my likes and dislikes.
I don't get the toddler and soccer mom devotion to John Cena. His character is stale.
I like Daniel Bryan as a wrestler, but I'm thinking that we may reach a point of over-saturation with him and the "YES" movement.
I don't like how WWE brings back part-timers to sell their big pay-per-view events.
I don't like how WWE is failing to properly book the mid-card champions.
I like the Shield.
I like Bray Wyatt and the Wyatt Family.
I don't like the Divas division and their reliance on the cast of a reality TV show to bring in fans.
I don't like Batista.
I like the level of heel that Stephanie and Triple H have achieved.
I'm sure I'll write more on these in the coming days and weeks.
Welcome to my new wrestling blog, Kicking Out at Two. I hope you enjoy it.
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