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Wrestlers are Recycling “Allegedly”


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I have a couple of stories but one that jumps out right now is Matt Hardy.

So we all know he had that addiction that led to his departure from WWE.  You know, when he talked about loving grapes and saying who knows what.  So time passed and he eventually found his way to ROH as Big Money Matt.  It was honestly not a version that I cared for but he seemed like he was into it.  So while he's doing that he's also at MCW on a semi-regular basis and I believe was their heavyweight champ at the time.  Intermission comes around and I'm see who's at the tables when I notice Matt at one with nobody in line.  So I go up to him and somehow his addiction got brought up.  He was telling me how he feels great, feels remorseful for what he did and how he's super motivated to make things right.  I am used to hearing wrestlers talk similar stuff and it leads to mixed results.  But there was something about the way he said it and the look in his eyes where I truly believe he meant it.  The guy couldn't have been nice throughout all this and I to this appreciate him opening up to a random fan like me.

So fast forward a couple years later to when he was in Impact.  While he had a weird start once he became Broken everything was coming up roses for him.  At the height of its popularity they're doing random indy shows and were filming them all for Impact.  So him and Jeff come back to MCW on a conquest for gold (or whatever they call it)  And they legit sell out the place which is the first I remember that happening for MCW.  But that night was wild as as we're waiting in line to get in and both of them storm their way inside on this conquest and it's the craziest goddamn thing.  We're all loving it and there was no doubt I was going to wait in that long-ass line to get a picture with all of them.  It was kind of rushed due to the amount of people but I just remember feeling happy seeing Matt go from having no line for him a few years prior to dealing with hundreds waiting to see him.  Despite his issues I always found something good in Matt and I couldn't be happier for how far he's come since his down period.

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These stories are great. Man, I really needed this thread. I understand that there is a solid chance that all the negative stuff coming out now will lead to a better tomorrow for a lot of people... but it's been kind of overwhelming.

I'm feeling better after reading this thread. Not just better about wrestling, better overall. 

Thanks for starting this, Octopus!

Edited by gordi
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Christy Hemme may be the sweetest woman on planet earth.  A friend and I met her at Detroit Comic-Con one year and we all talked for hours.  She never treated us like geeks or aliens.  We even took her out to lunch even though she offered to buy first.

While we were at the con, she autographed my boy's copy of her Playboy edition and then she gave us all access passes to the venue where her band was playing a gig while she was in town for the con.  The show was fucking great.

After the concert, she still wanted to hang out with us so we all went to the Hockeytown Café and drank coffee until some ungodly hour in the morning.

I will never have a bad word to say about her.  She is permanently etched in the good books.

George South is also the polar opposite of the heel he works on television. Totally nice, extremely philosophical, and very serious about his faith.  The sleazy side of the business makes him extremely uneasy.

If you don't watch yourself, he'll talk you into attending Sunday service at his church and you'd better stand up and introduce yourself when they pause to acknowledge visitors.

Edited by J.T.
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5 hours ago, BrianS81177 said:

One more Terry Funk story, though this one is really more about ICP. It's from Funk's book. Apparently word had gotten to ICP that Funk was a little annoyed they used him in the Stranglemania DVDs without asking him. This was what happened when they finally met:

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I swear if any stories about Funk being a scumbag come out that may be what makes me lose all interest in wrestling. 

Really this just goes to show that ICP are good guys.

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At the same Wrestlecon Steve (my brother see the first page) and I met DDP we also met Terry Funk. I had an ECW Commercial VHS a ton of the ECW guys signed, Shane took up most of the front with his autograph. I remembering telling Terry “sorry Shane took up most the room” then Terry says “Shane took up most the room because Shane is important” which is hilarious. As we were leaving Terry said and I’ll never forget “Thank for coming out thank for getting your pictures taken with me” and of course I was like “ um no thank you” and he then got serious and said “no I really mean it thank you for your time, thank you for spending your money on me, I really appreciate you being a fan of mine” I didn’t know what to say to that. 

Also I was getting my picture taken by RVD and Steve was standing around waiting for me. ODB’s table was next to Terry’s and this was when she was briefly in ROH and Steve overheard her voice her concerns to Terry about her time may be limited in ROH because didn’t have a women’s division. Well I missed it but according to Steve Terry Funk assures ODB that she was gonna be fine she was plenty talented and her talent didn’t need a women’s division and things were gonna work out for her. I wish I was around Steve so I could tell you what he said exactly or almost exactly but Terry Funk took time away from making money to give a younger talent grandfatherly advice. 

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I'm sure I told these stories before on here, but it always makes me chuckle.  WCW came to our town for a Nitro in the dying days of the company (Aug. 2000 IIRC) and, up to that point, we never got any big wrestling shows (We later had a WWE house show and a Smackdown (the one where they promised a Lesnar-McMahon cage match that ended up just being an angle for Lesnar to turn on Angle with no match, whatsoever; that was a very unhappy crowd and WWE hasn't been back).  My friend's dad had box seats for the arena so he asked me to come with him.  I went downtown that day for something else with my 12 year old brother and 15 year old cousin (who was visiting and had had a bit of a tough year of school with some bullying, IIRC) and we swung past the arena and saw all the WCW trucks were there and decided to linger around and see if we saw anything.  As the wrestlers arrived, we waved and called out to most of them (They were behind a barricade and about 40 feet away); most waved, some said hi, some ignored us, no big deal.  So Tank Abbott gets out of a car and my cousin was like "I hear he's really mean, I wouldn't bother him" and my brother was just like whatever and yelled "Hey Tank!"  Abbott turns around, glares at us, walks toward us and goes "Did you guys come here to watch Three Count dance?" and we all cheered and he laughed and walked away.  So good dude/bad dude, I dunno, but he made out day.

The second part was from that same experience.  My cousin, after hanging out there with me ,decides that he has to go, I feel bad that I can't invite him along but it's not my suite etc. etc.  So he goes over to the box office to see if there's any tickets and buys one for him and my brother, way up in the nosebleeds.  So we hung out until it was almost time for the show, when a WCW guy comes by and says "Are you guys going to the show?", then asks if we're all together, we explain our seating arrangements and the guy goes up to my cousin and goes "Here, compliments of Mr. Goldberg!"  So, they're all happy because the tickets are on the floor, rather than way up.  We go our separate ways (This is before cellphones) and I'm up in the suite, and it's a terrible view: I can't see the Tron so those interviews are all invisible (And this is Russo time, so there's lots of onscreen/backstage stuff).  I can't see my brother or cousin, just know they're down there somewhere.  I meet up with my brother and cousin after the show and they are just buzzing and here they were seated DIRECTLY behind the announcers.  When Goldberg flips the desk at Russo, they are in danger of getting hit with it.  Tony Schiavone hands them a bottle of water at the end of the show. And every time they cut to the announcers, they are on TV.  We got home and watched a recording of the show and there is my cousin and brother standing behind every time they come back from commercials, my cousin even does the RVD point pose.  That night, my mom was checking up on everyone and my cousin is wide awake and she asks how he is: "Best night of my life, Auntie Liz."  So I don't know if it was actually courtesy Mr. Goldberg, but whoever it was made the night for my little cousin who'd been going through a rough time!

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So after watching Karrion Kross be awesome on NXT it reminded me of meeting him last year.

It's Baltimore Comic Con and try as I might I couldn't get anybody to go with me.  While it's always best to go with others I go anyway to see what's going on.  At first I was kind of bummed out and going through the motions when I realize that it's not long before Killer/Karrion and Scarlett are at the MCW booth in about 20 minutes.  So I'm killing time and just in case wait about 10 or so minutes before getting the courage to go up there.  I know he knows @Tromatagon and I figure that by starting with that it should hopefully be a good conversation.

Turns out that waiting 10 or so minutes worked as while I could see before people were there I got there when there was nobody in line for a fair bit.  So I bring up Casey and the podcast and he went on for a good 3 minutes talking how much he's a good dude (sorry for killing the gimmick ?)  From there after complimenting his run in Impact I had to ask about what's going on.  He was on his way out and it wasn't long after this that he was officially done.  But I remember him saying how he's excited for what comes his way once he's done with Impact.  I don't know if I should have said something about Impact but he was open in his feelings and seemed like a man with a helluva plan.  So to think about where he was in October and to see him now being a future NXT champ it just makes me feel good.  Oh, and Scarlett was nice but while we did small talk in between her meeting people I focused my attention on Karrion.

After getting a picture with him Karrion was nice enough to say the following and I can't believe I managed to film this without laughing.  I also got a huge kick out of the reactions from the podcast crew.  So yeah he's a good dude and as long as he's featured I'll surely be interested in NXT.

 

Oh, yeah, just saying but I love the way Twitter shows up in the boards now.  Nice to see that finally get fixed.

Edited by NikoBaltimore
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The sane friend from the Foley/Funk story I told wound up training with ECCW for about a year. In that time they were bringing name guys in pretty regularly. He said Steve Corino was polite, but not exactly overwhelmingly outgoing. Tommy Dreamer was the same, but in Dreamer's case it was his last indy shows before his WWE debut so he probably had a lot on his mind. Nova was a bit stuck up but not difficult to work with or anything. The nicest guy he said they brought in was Christopher Daniels. He would go through the locker room, shake everybody's hand and thank them for their contributions whether they were wrestlers or ring crew guys. 

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I met Terry Funk once and he was an absolute riot. It was the night before the 2010 Legends of NWA Wrestling convention in Charlotte, NC and my buddies and I were in the hotel bar where  a bunch of the wrestlers were hanging out. Funk was there and I asked him if I could buy him a drink and get a pic. He obliged but the funny part was I gave my drunk buddy my digital camera  and he couldn't figure it out. He had it stuck on video mode and had it pointing above our heads. I have a video somewhere of Funk laughing his ass off in his distinct Terry Funk voice going, "you're buddy is a dumbass. He's got it on video, oh ha ha ha ha!" It just struck me that a lot of guys might've lost patience and just said forget it but he waited for me to straighten it out and get one of my more sober friends to take the pic and thanked us all for being fans.

Edited by cwoy2j
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Guest Stefanie Without Stefanie

Prior to my transition, I did occasional ring announcing and commentary. At one show, a promoter must have been expecting to pay everyone based off the house because when it came time to pay everyone, there wasn't enough money to go around for everyone. And as the ring announcer, naturally, I was the first one to end up with no pay.

The biggest name on the show was Adam Pearce. He pulls me aside and asks me if I was getting paid. I said no. He then asked me I was going to have enough to get home and get something to eat on the way back. I said yeah. He said "are you sure?", and offers me some of his pay anyway. I tell him not to worry about it, I'll be fine, if he's going to help folks out then there are wrestlers who were on the show that didn't get paid either and need it more than me. So he pats me on the back and I figure that's that.

Six months later, I go to a show in a different area without being booked, just to visit, and go out to dinner afterwards with most of the folks on the show. Pearce was there for this one too, and decided to join in for dinner. When it comes time to pay the checks, Pearce grabs mine. When I protest, he says "it's your pay from six months ago. You should've gotten a bigger meal!"

So yeah, I always liked Adam Pearce.

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Christie Hemme is an absolute class act. A friend of mine went to high school with her in Temecula California. When I met Christy she remembered the girl and we talked for quite awhile. Easily one of the nicest and most beautiful people you will meet.  Maria is also really cool to talk to. Velvet and Angelina were nice. Velvet looks incredible in person but both were super down to earth. 

I worked a few shows with Renee Michelle and she was awesome. One of friends has a son in a wheel chair and he wanted to meet her. She signed a pic for him and walked over, gave it to him and took a pic with him. She probably could have made a ton of $$$ during that intermission but she spent it with the boy and made his night. 

Shane Douglas is also really cool. He was showing people how to make a blade and put it in the wrist tape the best way. He also got pissed at me for slamming the steel cage door on him to softly. My punishment was buying the first round of beers. 

Graves and Sam I've known since they were 19 and 13. I know sometimes they shoot without thinking but both guys will do anything for their friends. Glad to see the success Matt has received, he deserves it all.

AJ and Daniels are both saints in  my eyes. I rode to a show in Erie, PA with Norm Connors who owned IWC at the time. AJ was in the main against Chris Hero. Obviously we arrived very early but AJ was already at the venue sitting down playing game boy. I walked over and sat down a few seats away. He got up and walked over and introduced himself. I was in awe. This was in 2004 and TNA and ROH were taking off and this guy was a huge part of it. We spoke for nearly an hour and later on in the show he passed the mic around to see what people thought of Chris Hero, I said "he's a piece of shit"  AJ ended the night on that note.  

Hero is not a piece of shit however, he is also one of the nicest guys you could ever speak with. Sprad Daddy (AOL shout out) was someone I was lucky enough to see on a monthly basis from 2004-2008 or so. He would always recommend me obscure matches to watch and every single one of them was incredible and unique in it's own way. 

Claudio/Cesaro is another class act. Funny story, he was selling his Ricola bomb t-shirts. I asked him what size he wore and he told me Medium. To this day I have a hard time believing that. Also to this day I don't believe I have ever seen anyone work out as hard as Claudio. 

Wardlow is also someone who will always pull me aside to chat and ask my thoughts on his match. I love seeing the guy on TV and anyone who followed him in IWC knew he would go far. It was only a matter of when. 

I'l do one more and mention Jack Evans. Back in early 2004 I was chatting with him on AIM. He has to be the most random person I ever met. It could be ADHD but he would change topics every few seconds. Eventually he said "Let me give you a call" he ended up calling my cell as if we were longtime best friends and starts out with "we got this ring up in Canada and are hoping to get a cage"  he was getting ready for ROH and TNA this was in January I believe right before he started with ROH.  The thing I will always remember is that he had the greatest answering machine message of all time. He would randomly call just to talk about video games (he loved that stupid muscle buster ps 2 game) but then I lost touch with him. Funny guy. Would tell me how he would do back flips off the counters at mcdonalds or Jack in the Box and get free food for doing it. He also always would find a way to bring up how much he loved Blitzkrieg. He came across as more of a fan of wrestling than an actual wrestler. 

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