The Brooklyn Brawler has become a legendary character. I can remember sitting in a hotel lobby in Allentown PA with Steve Lombardi who had just had his first TV match the night before. As silly as this may sound that I even remember it, he said wow we have to drive thirty miles today. At that point Rocky Johnson looked at him and said yeah that’s far. Rocky then looked at my with a look on his face like, is this guy kidding? Well here it is about twenty five years later. The Brooklyn Brawler is one of the most famous enhancement talents in the history of the business. His alter ego Steve Lombardi has been so many other characters in the business Abe” Knuckleball” Schwartz, Kim-Chee, Doink and the occasional Steve Lombardi. He probably has a job for life with WWE I bet its been quite a ride for a guy who thought thirty miles was far to drive to get from one match to the other. He is now a backstage agent for the company and occasional makes on camera appearances. If the office was smart they would have him work with some of these young kids for a few months straight.
I continue to believe that Hornswoggle is a pure entertainer at heart. I don’t believe that he and Finlay should have walked through The Highlanders last night as they did. I wonder why John “Johnny Ace” Laurinaitis doesn’t come up with the original idea of giving them a flag bearer and giving them a chance to get over as heels? What I saw in RAW last night was several pieces of talent being walked through like they meant nothing. I don’t see how that helps the company. I personally am tired of watching Triple H succeed in situations that are overwhelming. Is this the best that creative can come up with? Did the Umaga match help Umaga or hurt Kendrick? I don’t think it did anything for either of them. It appears that they should give the belt to Jeff Hardy but I just can’t see him as a World Champion. Don’t we all wish that we could be in business and do things that nine out of ten people would think are crazy and still make millions?
I was at the Showboat Casino in Greg Gagne’s hotel room having a meeting before TV was to be filmed for the AWA. It was my first TV for the company and I was very glad for the chance that Ray Stevens gave me. I did learn though how out of touch the AWA was. My first clue was that as the meeting began Greg walked over to a guy who I had known for years and said. I am sorry you will have to leave we can’t have photographers in here for our meeting. It was then that the guy said didn’t Wahoo tell you Greg, I am Paul E. Dangerously. Of course Greg apologized and welcomed him to the company. He was there with New Midnight Express Dennis Condrey and Randy Rose. A little later I was given the two big angles for the night which I will go into more detail about another time. It was later on that Rod Trongard started asking Tommy “Wildfire” Rich about some of the highlights of his career so he could talk about them on TV. I remember Tommy telling him that he was a former NWA World Heavyweight Champion. To say Trongard was shocked was an understatement; he looked at Tommy and said you were? In the most humble way Tommy said yes sir. I was wondering if anyone in the company had any knowledge of the wrestling business.
It would have helped a little if someone in the company pointed out to the new referee where the hard cameras were. I never made that mistake again, I got yelled at pretty good but the truth was that was only a minor issue at best with good camera people and a good director. I was the smallest guy though and Greg quickly apologized he was just upset because the angle went wrong. At the time I only knew a couple of thing’s I was on national TV for the first time I had made it. The other was that in a tag team match Jake “The Milkman” Milliman kept trying to get a reaction out of Paul E by screaming NICE TIE. It didn’t work at all, isn’t it funny that a guy who couldn’t pick up the simplest of cues is now one of wrestling greatest minds.
The picture in this article is from a ROH show that I booked Bruno Sammartino on in Manhattan to make a short speech and sign autographs. He was asked to pose with many people. The ROH Champion Bryan Danielson was someone Bruno and I had never met. He seemed like a very good guy.
This has been a piece of my mind
