Well it has been speculated for quite a while but it appears that on Friday night we will see Lisa “Victoria” Varon wrestle her last match for WWE at least for the foreseeable future. She has written a blog addressing the situation. It wasn’t surprising to me at all to see that she would have hung around if anyone in the company understood how to address talent. The other thing was that she realize if her heart wasn’t in it why take up a spot when others are dying to get a job she has had enough of. I have met Victoria on a couple of occasions I realized quickly that she was very humble and a class act. I have always been a big fan of Ladies Wrestling of course the Ladies Wrestling you see today doesn’t compare to what I was used to watching in the seventies and eighties but Victoria against Trish Stratus was about as close as you were going to come to it. They both left the WWE on their own terms I applaud them both.
I am in the New York area this week freezing cold but in my travels I was at Gold’s Gym in New Jersey when I saw a guy who looked familiar. I finally said Jim? Sure enough it was Jim Powers one of the Young Stallions. I had worked with Jim in the eighties I believe it was but hadn’t seen him in a long time. I have to say this guy has barely changed a bit he looked fantastic. We had a nice chat updating each other on our lives now and exchanged contact information. You never know in this day and age when you need to get in touch with someone. It’s always nice when you see guys that are now in the Legends category like Brutus Beefcake and Stan Lane that are in tremendous condition. Well you certainly can add Jim Powers name to that group of people.
In my early days getting involved in wrestling there were two guys that used to come to TV in Allentown, PA for WWF. They were named Bill Travis and Lanny Kean they were two really good talents. I can remember Greg Valentine having a five star TV match with Billy Travis which earned my respect of him. It was many years later that I heard of Billy becoming Billy Joe Travis in Memphis and getting a little push. It wasn’t too long after that Lanny Kean became Cousin Junior in WWF probably due to the efforts of our mutual friend Hillbilly Jim. He had finally made it in the business unfortunately success sometimes hits people the wrong way. It was a shame that he wasn’t long for the WWF and was fairly soon replaced by Gene “Cousin Luke” Petit.
I hadn’t seen or even heard much about Lanny Kean over the years so imagine my surprise when I ended up managing him on the now famous Fed Ex Forum show with Hulk Hogan. He was to face my old buddy The Barbarian. I had no idea who he was but I was told to take publicity pictures with him. When Moondog Cujo came over to take the pictures with me I told him that I was sorry but I didn’t know who he was. He looked at me and said well they call me Junior, I said you aren’t Cousin Junior he said yes I am. So I reintroduced myself and we had a nice chat.
It really is a shame to see so many go so soon in life but that’s exactly what life is. One big guessing game no one really knows who is coming or who is going.
On the first WrestleReunion I used Kristin “Krissy Vaine” Eubanks and Amber O’Neal collectively known as Team Blondage in the eight ladies tag team match. It was some time after that Krissy Vaine was signed to a WWE developmental deal. It was only in perhaps the last year that Krissy Vaine made it to WWE TV. It was shortly after that Krissy Vaine walked away from the WWE and we thought perhaps the whole wrestling business. It was recently announced that Team Blondage lives. They are looking for bookings. If you use ladies I would suggest that you use them. As a matter of fact I think that Rain/Peyton Banks and Serena Deeb vs. Team Blondage would be one hell of a match.
This picture was taken at WrestleReunion 1 it shows from left to right Peggy Lee Leather, the late Sherri Martel, Krissy Vaine and Amber O’Neal.
This has been a piece of my mind
