(My hardcore weekend from back in June)
FRIDAY
Arrived in the evening at Harrahs. I saw Tommy Dreamer in the lobby talking to The Nasty Boys and Terry Funk who had their luggage in hand. I figured they were tired from the flight and wanted to call it a night so I went on my way. The vast casino was fun to explore. So different how things are compared to the Vegas location. Then I came across Faarooq gambling at a slot machine while he was smoking a cigar. I made some small talk with him. I figured we would chat for 5 minutes at the most. It turned into a 2 hour conversation at the bar with me getting him a drink during this:
- He doesn't like or use social media.
- He asked me about how the WWE Network actually works. He was shocked that any fan could watch any of his matches from any PPV at the click of a button using the search bar all for $10 a month. He agrees the company should've gone international with it at launch.
- He didn't know how roulette worked (he's more of a blackjack guy) so I told him it was basically double or nothing if you bet on red/black or odd/even, but if you make a single bet on one number and it lands, you win a buttload of cash. I told him to pick a number and he said 33. I **** you not at the table next to us, it coincidentally landed on 33! His eyes widen and you could tell he wanted to say "I'll be damned."
- We talked about a certain WWE tag team wrestler who got caught fooling around on his wife. He said that guy messed up by coming not through on what he promised the mistress by leaving the wife to be with her. Otherwise, he should've never done it to begin with.
- He's a fan of Fleetwood Mac.
- He coaches kids on playing football back in Georgia these days. Its his way of giving back to the community to make a positive difference.
- He didn't mind working with Vader because they were stiff with each other. It was a mutual understanding.
- His favorite match was against The Mastadon when he won the WCW Championship. He got the belt because Sting was injured and he didn't know he would win the title until that very night when Bill Watts told him which made it all the more emotional for him due to the shock factor. He went back to his hotel room, sat down, and stared at the world heavyweight title on his table for the rest of the night, ignoring everything around him.
- He wished he could've had a longer run with the title, but he had hip problems stemming from his football days so he knew that run was going to be a one time deal (no WWF title either) and was okay with it. He chose to work for the rest of career elevating the younger guys.
- I brought up Ahmed Johnson to get his side of the story. He said he was disrespectful, unprofessional, impatient, and refused to listen to him. The goal of his feud with him was to make Johnson the WWF Champion. Johnson was going to take over The Nation Of Domination and go onto win the belt, but because Ahmed was such a pain in the ass to work with, he screwed himself over on his world title push and they recycled the storyline with The Rock.
- He had been wrestling for so many years then decided to call it quits as a full timer at Wrestlemania 20 as he had lost his drive to perform. It was only fitting for him.
- He doesn't mind being paid to fly across the country to appear in backstage segments on TV / PPV.
- His craziest fan encounter was a woman coming up to his table asking to have sex with him while he was eating with some friends at a restaurant in Atlanta during his WCW days. He said she was hot, just bad timing.
- Back in 2003, I met a female fan outside the hotel the Smackdown crew was staying at who claimed Asad invited her back to his room. She was not attractive. I told him this story to get his response.
Asad: Would you have hit it?
Me: No.
Asad: Then the story isn't true!
We LOL'ed then he called it quits for the night and so did I before he did me a favor:
Saturday
After having breakfast at Farmer Boys (great place), I went back to the hotel just in time for the convention. Some notes for the talents I met:
Matt Hardy: told me he was coming back to TNA. I didn't believe him. D'oh!
Terry Funk remembered me from Cauliflower a few years ago (I opened the door for him) and gave me a hug after signing a copy of his "More Than Just Hardcore" book before posing for me:
King Mo: said he was excited to wrestle in TNA, but they never used him in the ring for whatever reason then he had to go fulfill his Bellator commitments. He said The Calf Killer was originally his finisher as it was Al Snow's idea, but it went to AJ Styles. He wasn't happy about that. He hopes to actually wrestle this time against King, Roode, and Aries. His beef with Rampage is legit.
Lance Storm: Told me his favorite match was against Terry Funk.
Matt Striker said he was going to be interviewer for RF now, but only with certain people. Wrestlemania 23 was his favorite match.
Balls Mahoney is a chatterbox, but he said his favorite matches were with Rob Van Dam.
Lita signed my copy of her "A Less Travelled Road" book, but when I asked her if she would come back for one more match against AJ Lee, she shook her head "No."
I met
Zeus back in 2010 and he was cool with me, but he was being an ass to fans. I really do think he's bi-polar.
Waltman,
Masters, and
Carlito are basically the new Wolfpac now. They went almost everywhere together. (h) Waltman said his favorite match was against Hart and Masters was against Michaels. Carlito didn't seem to give a fu**, but he picked Mysterio in Puerto Rico.
The Nasty Boys were interesting to meet because while Knobbs is the wild one, Saggs is actually the reserved one away from the cameras. So strange seeing that. Knobbs's pick was against Harlem Heat at Uncensored 1995 while Saggs went with The Hart Foundation at Wrestlemania VII.
Don Frye said he stays busy acting and that his favorite fight was against Takayama. During our conversation, he was gawking at this hot blonde that walked by. He looked back at me and apologized for doing that. I told him I didn't blame him and we had a good laugh.
Just to be nice, I gave Ken Patera a bottle of water:
Patera: Did you put drugs in this?
Me: NO!
Patera: Well, I wish you had!
Ric Flair signed his copy of "To Be The Man" book for me. We talked about one of my favorite matches of his, Starrcade 1993. He said he didn't know how able to walk out of that match since he felt like Vader was trying to kill him. He said he had a blessed life by being able to work with so many of the guys and wouldn't change a thing as he likes to live life to the fullest.
Gene Okerlund was the main reason for my turbulent trip to San Diego. Not an easy guy to meet as he hardly makes West Coast appearances. I was wearing my USA Ultimate Warrior t-shirt so we talked about him for a little bit:
He said out of the 23,000 interviews he's conducted over the years, he was the worst guy he worked with. One time, they had to do 28 takes just for Warrior to get it right! He stands by what he said on The Self-Destruction DVD, but he was able to make peace with him over Wrestlemania 30 weekend. He was not the same guy he was back then.
He didn't have a favorite interview, but enjoyed working with Hogan the most. He was surprised how good Hogan got on the mic compared to how green he was at cutting promos back in the AWA.
Not interested in doing Season 2 of Legends House. He can't handle being with the guys at his age. He told me he had no luck with Ashley.
He said his eatery business is doing well. He said the key to success was having them in small towns to avoid competition with the fast food chains.
I told Gene I was such a big fan of his as he was the voice of the WWF to me and it took me 25 years to finally meet him (Wrestlemania III was the first show I watched). I brought my own microphone with me for our photo-op. He was touched and signed a WWF card of him for me for free.
After the convention, I went to the circle bar. Chavo Guerrero Jr. and his lawyer buddy were there. They asked me if I was going to the show. I told them I was waiting for a friend to come, but Robert was like "Forget your friend. Here's an extra ticket." So I'm walking in with Chavo! He was supposed to work the show, but didn't due to a dispute with the promoter because they wanted him to sign 5,000 items which wasn't part of the original deal.
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Matt Striker is a terrible dancer, but went to do commentary for the show (which was being recorded) after his match.
I couldn't care less for Adam Pearce and started a "Please retire!" chant after he got his ass kicked by Bob Holly, but I did feel bad for his manager, Jarek 120. He got X-Pac heat before the match started as he was cutting promo and was on receiving end of some mean chants such as "Who are you?" and "Shut the fu** up!" I shook his hand afterwards to make him feel better.
It was cool to see Lance Storm still wrestle. He's still got it despite being 45. I tried to do a "Boring!" chant to no avail. I don't think the fans there got the reference.
I respect Mil Mascaras for everything he's done, but seeing him wrestle at 71 was painful to watch. He was hobbling around with poor Jesus having to sell for him. The fans chanted "Del Rio!" and even did the "Ole!" thing which was pretty cool. The best part was before Mil won the match, he went to the top rope for the match's finish with a flying cross body, some of the fans chanted "Please don't die!" LMAO With all that said, I really liked Mascaras theme song:
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Next up was an Extreme Triple Threat TLC match except there was nothing to climb and grab as Carlito pointed during the match. Funk, Dreamer, and Hardy each got an amazing reaction from the crowd. After Hardy Side Effected Cool through a table for the win, Dreamer got a "Thank you, Tommy" chant from us for putting on a great show.
I thought it was over, but that wasn't the main event. What we got was a smark's dream come true: The Young Bucks Vs. Bad Influence! As they were putting on the MOTY, the fans chanted "Fu** TNA!" I was rolling in stitches hearing that. After the Nassie brothers won the match in spectacular fashion, the Nasty Boys came out to congratulate both teams only to swerve everybody and attack them until this happened:
It was One Night Stand all over again! It was a glorious feeling and now I know how those fans in Philadelphia felt. House Of Hardcore sh**s all over TNA!
After the show ended, Piper came out to do Piper's Pit with his guests: Zeus, Striker, Funk, and Frye in front of a bunch of fans for an hour, which sounded like a great idea, but then the fans went into business for themselves. The first couple of chants were funny, but after that, they just hijacked the show. I felt bad for Piper. He could barely get a sentence out due to some of the fans being attention seeking assh*les!
I went to the outside bar after the segment ended and did Patron shots with King Mo. Bad idea!
SUNDAY
My friend's buddy couldn't make it to the breakfast with the wrestlers session so I got his ticket and I sat the the table with some other fans to chow down with Mo (who made fun of me for getting wasted so easily hours ago), Funk, Okerlund, and Frye (who was drinking cups of coffee like it was water). I got all my questions answered so I just sat back and listened while they all talked amongst themselves.
Mascaras, Gangrel, X-Pac, Rikishi, Hardy, Kelly Kelly, Kanellis, Mahoney, Masters, The Nasty Boys, and Williams were also there to enjoy an early meal.
Brian Knobbs said:
Bushwhacker Luke is wrestling at 70. He thinks he's Lou Thesz!
Roddy Piper was there and he also remembered me from Vegas a few years ago (he put me in the Sleeperhold back then) and also gave me a hug. He told me he would try to make do a comedy tour in the USA after he was done in the UK.
Edit: Piper was so disappointed with how the live Podcast turned out and didn't want to post it, but I talked to him into using it still. Thankfully, he took my advice and put it up on Podcast One although its been edited for Hell to make it listenable!
He signed my copy of his "In The Pit With Piper" book before making my dream come true:
Afterwards, as I was leaving the hotel to catch my flight back home, I saw Storm, Okerlund, The Midnight Express, Mo, Funk, and Flair boarding the shuttle to the airport. The Nasty Boys were running late and The Nature Boy told the driver "We have a flight to catch. Leave the fat bastards!" (I don't care who you are, when Ric Flair tells you to move, you move!) And off they went.
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: Wrestling Observer Newsletter
