OT: My buddy got tickets for he and I to attend WrestleMania this year in Phila.

[Mr. Potter]

Anyone ever go to a wrestling event? He's always been a diehard wrestling fan and said I'll have a blast. Since I haven't watched wrestling in years, I decided to peruse the internet to see who is wrestling but all searches led me to Vince McMahon and the deep trouble he is in. The links had the text messages he sent regarding sex trafficking. I read some of the text messages he was purported to have created, if the allegations are true this guy is a Wack-a-do, nut job.

Anyone else know or heard about this?

 

[LionJim]

Anyone ever go to a wrestling event? He's always been a diehard wrestling fan and said I'll have a blast. Since I haven't watched wrestling in years, I decided to peruse the internet to see who is wrestling but all searches led me to Vince McMahon and the deep trouble he is in. The links had the text messages he sent regarding sex trafficking. I read some of the text messages he was purported to have created, if the allegations are true this guy is a Wack-a-do, nut job.

Anyone else know or heard about this?

The first wrestling match I attended was at the Spectrum. Pedro Morales was the champ at the time. It wasn’t until I saw it in person that I realized how fake it was.

 

[TheBigUglies]

Anyone ever go to a wrestling event? He's always been a diehard wrestling fan and said I'll have a blast. Since I haven't watched wrestling in years, I decided to peruse the internet to see who is wrestling but all searches led me to Vince McMahon and the deep trouble he is in. The links had the text messages he sent regarding sex trafficking. I read some of the text messages he was purported to have created, if the allegations are true this guy is a Wack-a-do, nut job.

Anyone else know or heard about this?

I attended many wrestling(WWF) events at the Spectrum in Philly back in the late 80s. I was actually at the very first Wrestlemania but at the Spectrum which had it on Closed Circuit TV back then(I believe it was the same day of WMMR's Louie Louie parade on Walnut Street in the morning) and watched it on the big thing in the middle. We sat by the bad guy entrance one time and I high fived Randy Macho Man savage!! Haven't washed my hand since!!

I have no idea what wrestling is like these days.

 

[LionJim]

I attended many wrestling(WWF) events at the Spectrum in Philly back in the late 80s. I was actually at the very first Wrestlemania but at the Spectrum which had it on Closed Circuit TV back then(I believe it was the same day of WMMR's Louie Louie parade on Walnut Street in the morning) and watched it on the big thing in the middle. We sat by the bad guy entrance one time and I high fived Randy Macho Man savage!! Haven't washed my hand since!!

I have no idea what wrestling is like these days.

Sting is still wrestling. Imagine.

 

[Catch1lion]

Since the WWE put the kibosh on steroids, the wrestlers are much smaller. Focus seems more on gymnastics, and talk. Haven't been since the 80's.

 

[MrTailgate]

The first wrestling match I attended was at the Spectrum. Pedro Morales was the champ at the time. It wasn’t until I saw it in person that I realized how fake it was.

Do you remember Jim “Sports” Kelly. A high school friend of mine interned for him. One night they had the monthly wrestling card that they broadcast on Prism. My friend was sent so Sports Kelly had a report for the Channel 10 news. My friend asked us all if we wanted to go and sit ringside and go in the locker room afterwards. We all laughed and said no thanks. I’m sure we drove around that night doing nothing. My buddy told me it was insane between the people and then the wrestlers. This is when Bruno’s kid was wrestling. Well apparently someone elected to not follow the script and my buddy said there was a massive brawl in the locker room that he said you had to see to believe. Bodies and furniture being moved all over the place. The stuff in the ring wasn’t real but the locker fight sure was.

 

[LionJim]

Do you remember Jim “Sports” Kelly. A high school friend of mine interned for him. One night they had the monthly wrestling card that they broadcast on Prism. My friend was sent so Sports Kelly had a report for the Channel 10 news. My friend asked us all if we wanted to go and sit ringside and go in the locker room afterwards. We all laughed and said no thanks. I’m sure we drove around that night doing nothing. My buddy told me it was insane between the people and then the wrestlers. This is when Bruno’s kid was wrestling. Well apparently someone elected to not follow the script and my buddy said there was a massive brawl in the locker room that he said you had to see to believe. Bodies and furniture being moved all over the place. The stuff in the ring wasn’t real but the locker fight sure was.

Oh, 100%. These are really really talented athletes, stronger than hell. You get someone really hardcore, any of the Harts, for example, and the locker room is a nitroglycerin factory.

 

[Erial_Lion]

Random WWE story...when I was in school working at the BJC for a wrestling event, I got in an elevator to switch floors at one point in the night. I was looking down (to avoid any eye contact with the other couple of people in the elevator of course), and noticed the boots that the guy a few people over from me was wearing...with the curved toes...sure enough, it was The Iron Shiek. He's probably the only guy on earth, outside of JoePa, that I would have recognized simply based on his footwear.

 

[LionJim]

Random WWE story...when I was in school working at the BJC for a wrestling event, I got in an elevator to switch floors at one point in the night. I was looking down (to avoid any eye contact with the other couple of people in the elevator of course), and noticed the boots that the guy a few people over from me was wearing...with the curved toes...sure enough, it was The Iron Shiek. He's probably the only guy on earth, outside of JoePa, that I would have recognized simply based on his footwear.

Great line about the footwear.

I’m guessing you didn’t say hi to the Sheik. I’ve heard that he was a nice person outside the ring, much like George Steele.

 

[Erial_Lion]

Great line about the footwear.

I’m guessing you didn’t say hi to the Sheik. I’ve heard that he was a nice person outside the ring, much like George Steele.

I'm sure I gave him the standard "nod" that I'd give to someone in an elevator or men's room.

 

[LionJim]

I'm sure I gave him the standard "nod" that I'd give to someone in an elevator or men's room.

Good story about Robert Mitchum, told by Roger Ebert. Ebert is interviewing Mitchum and they go into an elevator. Mitchum is stoned which isn’t relevant to the story but whatever. It’s just them in the elevator until it stops and a woman gets on and of course she immediately sees it’s Robert Mitchum. She stares directly at his tie for however long it takes for the elevator to reach the lobby and when she gets off Mitchum asks, “Thunderstruck, or do you just like my tie?”

 

[Mr. Potter]

some of your posts jogged my memory. In the early 90's I bartended the summers in a Big Philly Nightclub on Delaware Avenue. One Friday Night, its packed and at some point I look up from mixing cocktails and its Rick Rude. I look behind him and there's Ted Dibiase and a whole gang of wrestlers. They had an event that night and came out to drink afterward.

 

[MrTailgate]

Random wrestling story. As many know, I’m a snowbird and had a condo on Clearwater Beach ( recently sold, now own a house in neighboring Dunedin). I belonged to the gym on Clearwater for many years. It’s not there anymore as a side note if anyone is coming to Clearwater for Spring Training.

The gym was fronted by Bushwacker Luke, one of the Bushwackers. Super nice guy that would walk around and talk to everyone. He told me one time how grueling it was. The contracts provided that the wrestlers would move around so that you didn’t have the same people rooted in the same area for long. That was viewed as being bad for biz. So, each wrestler would wrestle for x days and then be off for y days. He said that when you were on, it could mean that you’d be multiple countries over that period so often you’d be traveling country to country frequently. Said it was exhausting.

Hogan would come into the gym and every time I saw him, he looked to be in physical pain and was miserable. He isn’t young but he looks like he paid a heavy price for his fame.

 

[JerseyLion]

Great line about the footwear.

I’m guessing you didn’t say hi to the Sheik. I’ve heard that he was a nice person outside the ring, much like George Steele.

The same could be said for The Wild Samoans. Met 2 of the 3. They could not have been nicer. Also met Rocky Johnson (The Rock's dad) the same weekend - there was a wrestling card at the hotel where my family stayed. He wasn't nearly as gracious.

 

[JohnJumba]

Great line about the footwear.

I’m guessing you didn’t say hi to the Sheik. I’ve heard that he was a nice person outside the ring, much like George Steele.

Years ago, Steele was at the Civic Arena. We were right by where the wrestlers came out. Unbeknownst to us, our goofy friend, "Frank the 'F'" had urinated in a squirt gun.

When George came out, with that tongue hanging out, Frank puts the squirt gun on his arm and, ss-ss -ss 3 squirts in the Animal's mouth.

Steele went crazy, tried to climb into the section. Though they didn't know who did it, our entire section was ejected.

 

[Midnighter]

Wrestling was a big part of my childhood for a while; when my dad was stationed in North Carolina (I was in 4th grade I guess) I'd get up every Saturday morning to watch the NWA, which was my preference over WWF (NWA had Road Warriors, Sting, Ultimate Warrior, Rick Flair, Lex Luger, Midnight Express, Dusty Roads, Nikita Koloff & Krusher Kruschev, Rick Rude, Ted DiBiase, The Barbarian, Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard, The Von Erichs, Eddie Gilbert & Rick Steiner, Fabulous Freebirds, Ole Anderson, Ricky Steamboat, Sam Houston, Terry Funk...). UWF was tougher to find on TV and eventually their top stars went to the NWA, who in turn all went to the WWF. We used to go to high school gyms where a lot of these matches were filmed; I saw Sam Houston and Nikita Koloff in person with a few others. When the NWA sort of collapsed I was forced into watching WWF or WCW, and saw a WWF presentation in Pittsburgh. Civic Arena was sold out. I think I saw Big John Stud and Koko B. Ware. It was well before the stories were so well crafted week to week (and before Vince became a big part of the show.

One of the many issues I heard from wrestlers throughout the years is that they are contracted employers, but treated as individual contractors, so they don't get a lot of benefits normal employees get. McMahon is a grade A ******* and has been forever; glad he's finally getting his comeuppance.

The legal argument for WWE Superstars as employees, not contractors

WWE has been classifying their wrestlers as 'independent contractors' for decades, but that doesn't line up with US law.

aiptcomics.com

 

[PSUJam]

Random WWE story...when I was in school working at the BJC for a wrestling event, I got in an elevator to switch floors at one point in the night. I was looking down (to avoid any eye contact with the other couple of people in the elevator of course), and noticed the boots that the guy a few people over from me was wearing...with the curved toes...sure enough, it was The Iron Shiek. He's probably the only guy on earth, outside of JoePa, that I would have recognized simply based on his footwear.

When we were kids in the 80's the WWF would come to the CYC in Scranton, which is now Lackawanna College's basketball arena. My sister took my cousin and I, and as usual she was running late so she dropped us off then parked her car. As she was walking down the steet, the Shiek stopped her and gave her the name of his Hotel and room number and told her to stop by after the match. Needless to say, she never did but we laugh about it til this day.

They would always book a match with 2 of the top wrestlers but one wouldn't show. The only one they delivered on was a cage match between Jake the Snake and George the Animal. That was fun to see back then.

 

[Catch1lion]

In the 80’s , I saw the WWF at Shamokin HS and in Pittsburgh at the Igloo. The wrestlers worked on being engaging with the audience to sell the event . Shamokin being small you could get up close for a little bit with the guys . Iron Sheik , Sgt Slaughter , Ivan Putski , Nikita Koloff come to mind .
At the Igloo there was a bigger show . The wrestlers entered through the corner like the hockey players , but they had a tunnel built out of metal piping and plywood . I was seated close to the tunnel . When they announced Andre the Giant , I lifted up the plywood roof and there was Andre’s big hair . Having had a few brewski’s I thought it would be a good idea to pat him on the head . With the lean over and the booze I kind of swatted him on the head . I quickly gathered myself after an Oh, **** moment and recoiled . A second later Andre rocked the plywood up two feet in the air . Close call .

 

[MrTailgate]

Years ago, Steele was at the Civic Arena. We were right by where the wrestlers came out. Unbeknownst to us, our goofy friend, "Frank the 'F'" had urinated in a squirt gun.

When George came out, with that tongue hanging out, Frank puts the squirt gun on his arm and, ss-ss -ss 3 squirts in the Animal's mouth.

Steele went crazy, tried to climb into the section. Though they didn't know who did it, our entire section was ejected.

We now can officially say that the urine balloon perp has been identified. Apologies to the OSU band members for us doubting their story all these years.

 

[WSTLion87]

I saw the very first WrestleMania in 1985 on closed-circuit tv at Pittston High School. The picture kept going off the big screen and the irritated crowd all shouted REFUND... REFUND! Those were the days...

 

[PSUSignore]

There's a Biography series on A&E called WWE Legends that's worth watching, it gets into the outside the ring personal lives of many of these wrestlers. It echoed that some of these guys were incredibly nice people outside of the ring, specifically the Samoans and Iron Sheik as mentioned above. Of course many of these guys are very troubled and have serious, sometimes fatal, substance abuse problems. It looks like season 3 starts up on Feb 25 with Randy Orton. The Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels episodes that got into the Montreal screw job were pretty entertaining.

 

[LionJim]

There's a Biography series on A&E called WWE Legends that's worth watching, it gets into the outside the ring personal lives of many of these wrestlers. It echoed that some of these guys were incredibly nice people outside of the ring, specifically the Samoans and Iron Sheik as mentioned above. Of course many of these guys are very troubled and have serious, sometimes fatal, substance abuse problems. It looks like season 3 starts up on Feb 25 with Randy Orton. The Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels episodes that got into the Montreal screw job were pretty entertaining.

Any possibility that Hart was actually in on the screwjob? Just wondering about your pov, idle curiosity.

 

[Fac]

Anyone ever go to a wrestling event? He's always been a diehard wrestling fan and said I'll have a blast. Since I haven't watched wrestling in years, I decided to peruse the internet to see who is wrestling but all searches led me to Vince McMahon and the deep trouble he is in. The links had the text messages he sent regarding sex trafficking. I read some of the text messages he was purported to have created, if the allegations are true this guy is a Wack-a-do, nut job.

Anyone else know or heard about this?

Your friend lost a bet?

 

[LB99]

Sting is still wrestling. Imagine.

Not a fan of his music.