----Ashley Massaro lasted at least the first round of “Survivor - China” Thursday night. It was close as some of her tribe voted for her to be eliminated. Was she a good player for the first show? No way. She was sick as a dog. She lay around dry heaving with fever. It would have been hard for me to not vote her off, if I had been part of the tribe. They voted off an old guy “Chicken”, who actually got on my nerves too. But, it also was typical of a wrestling show – the person that has the most talent sometimes gets pick over the ones that look good. As for Ashley, she is not as pretty without the makeup and glitz. One local worker asked the other night, “How did Matt Hardy get her?” and my response is – Matt Hardy could get all the pootie tang he wants!! Ashley is better looking than Lita though.
----The girls from RAW really do work their asses off to have a good match. I was really impressed with the improvement of Candace Michelle [which the “Big Cheese” noted in an earlier column] Monday night. I always thought Mickie James was so far ahead of the other three girls that in the past I would have not given them a second look. Melina has turned into a decent worker also. I don’t think Julian Hall is bad, but everything else she does, I just don’t like. Not in the ring, but outside of the ring. Beth Phoenix is one of my fave girls right now. I have seen a lot of her from OVW – that is my kind of woman – big and blonde!! LOL
----The Shimmer promotion based out of Chicago was formed in November of 2005 by former RIOT zine subscriber Dave Prazak. Prazak has grabbed some of the best working females in the US and have had them work each other. These girls wrestle and have a huge cult following. Their shows are taped for DVD and sold everywhere. Prazak has proven that women wrestling can sell not only on big boobs and good looks, but also on character development and storylines along with good workers. I have seen very little of the product, but what I have seen I have been impressed. That is almost the opposite of all wrestling promotions – when I first watch them I pick them apart. You can watch the Shimmer promotion and notice all the right things they are doing. I believe the girls in the Shimmer promotion could go toe to toe with any area worker and out work 75% of them. Former CCW photographer Emilo Lazardo travels across the country to watch their shows and owns all their DVDs.
----My all time favorite female wrestler is Chigusa Nagayo [pictured]. Most of the visitors reading this are saying – Who?? Chigusa was part of the tag team of The Crush Girls and would later become a singles star also in Japan. She did tour the US a few times and wrestled in WCW as Zero with Sonny Ono. That was just a shell of what she was in the 80s. She will go down as one of the top performers [male or female] of this sport that I have ever s
een. The excitement that radiated from the all female crowds in Japan came across well on the tapes that I would get from Japan. I was fortunate enough to be able to see her perform live in October of 1988 at the Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis. She wrestled on the undercard against Candi Devine. The match was ok, but I was so in awe that it really didn’t matter. That card also featured a Lawler vs Fujinami match that I had forgotten was even on the show, because I had went to see Chigusa. How good was she?? In Dave Meltzer’s 2002 book The Wrestling Observers Top 100 Greatest Wrestlers of All Time, she ranked 45 on the list, which was complied by professional success, importance to the history, how good they were in the ring, their drawing power, and the main stream success they achieved. Ranked under her were Ricky Steamboat, Shawn Michaels and Randy Savage. You can also type in her name at youtube.com and take a look at some of her matches.----Chigusa wrestled Candi Devine that night in Memphis and it reminded me of the only Devine story I have. I was wrestling I think in Waynesboro, TN against JD McKay?? I also was doing photography and working on a story for Wrestling World magazine. I took a few pics of Candi and she was going to be in my story. And, she was so sweet and nice to the point I think she was working me to make sure she got the press. She was sitting real close to me on the floor with her arm in my lap and even my friends took note of this after the show. I was thinking, damn I might get lucky with Candi Devine!! As we were talking and she was working me to no end, everyone started laughing in another part of the dressing room and yelling to Chris Champion to “put that snake up”. Champion carried a snake to the ring, but unfortunately the dressing room was not talking about THAT snake. As soon as Devine seen Chris’ “snake” it was almost like I was invisible. LOL
----I went on to publish the story and I actually was in the main event battle royal that night. I was the third to the last person out and everyone had been ribbing me about Champion’s superkick. He called for it as the finish to eliminate me over the top rope. Everyone said, “ Damn he is stiff with that – he is going to knock your head off.” I got ready for the kick and he gave it to me – light as a feather. I bumped between the second and top rope falling straight on my head, which ended up as a black eye, even though I had been hit with one of lightest superkicks in the world. That was one of my final matches.
