In my travels through airports this week I saw Playboy magazine and Maria on the cover. It brought to mind Karen Angle. I believe that if Karen Angle was in WWE Hugh Hefner would be all over her to pose for the magazine. I have never met her but I have inquired and she seems to come up with positive reviews as a human being. It’s a shame that the TNA Company doesn’t have the machine behind them. There is money to be made from the right divas and I think that Karen Angle could easily be the right diva.
While I was on the road the other night I got a chance to watch the AWA on ESPN Classics. I am certainly waiting for the shows that I was a part of to be on. In the mean time I want to watch them any chance that I get. I had the chance to see a tag match between “Playboy” Buddy Rose, “Pretty Boy” Doug Somers and Alexis Smirnoff managed by Sherri Martel vs. Shawn Michaels, Marty Janetty and Curt Henning. It did my heart good to see a match like this. I have had the pleasure to be in the ring with everyone involved in the match except Alexis Smirnoff that I can remember. I even worked a tag match with The Midnight Rockers vs. Rose and Somers. The match was so easy. In those days almost everyone that you worked with really got it.
I don’t understand why matches like this don’t exist anymore. This was the business that I got in to and loved. Of course we are aware of the careers of the guys that were in the match. It’s really interesting to see how these guys turned out. I had Playboy Buddy Rose on WrestleReunion 1 in Tampa. He was so much larger at WR1 than when he was a huge star in Portland and in the AWA. I got many more chances to work with Doug Somers over the years and with Curt Henning as well. What a tragedy that Curt had to die. What an incredible talent he was. I had Marty Janetty on WrestleReunion 1. After many ups and downs over the years, Marty performed so well in his match with Gorgeous Gary Royal that I believe all the publicity he got from our show helped him to get another shot with WWE. These guys all made me feel good about wrestling this week. I am very grateful to them for that.
Well its Wrestlemania time and for the first time I can say "who cares"? I think this Wrestlemania card is just one big dud. I hope that I am wrong and I truly hope that we are all being swerved and Ric Flair doesn’t actually retire. In my next article I will talk about Flair and what I would do with him. I would have done that this week but I really had to write about the AWA.
The picture in this article is of Richie Blood. Some of you might know him better as Ricky Steamboat Jr and “Carolinas Own” David Isley (Thunderfoot #1). I have known Richie since he was a young boy. Who knows, perhaps he will one day step into the ring, maybe he wont. I did see him wrestle Reid Flair once in an amateur match and I thought wouldn’t it be funny if twenty years from now we are watching Flair vs. Steamboat the next generation.
This has been a piece of my mind
