The Pope dies, Julie gets married, and we lose an hour!
By the time you read this I’ll be on a sandy beach in Florida. I know that sounds like I’m about to confess some type of crime and that I’m going to hide out in Florida…But that is not the case. This Friday I will celebrate 5 years of marriage to a wonderful woman who has been with me through thick and thin. We started dating my senior year of high school and have been together ever since. In fact, if it wasn’t for her, I would have never got in the business (so you can all blame her..lol). Not only was she my support system, but she spotted me the money for wrestling school when I was a broke kid that was living from week to week. We had only been dating about a year at the time too. It was a huge investment on her part and could have been considered risky, but she believed in me. So, I thought I’d take a few lines on this post to be a bit sappy over my wife and how much she means to me. If you wonder about the tagline for this portion of the column (The Pope dies, Julie gets married and we lose an hour!) it comes from Julie’s (my wife) cousin. In case you can’t figure it out, our nuptials corresponded with the death of the Pope and daylight savings time that year. The phrase has been mentioned in the Mullikin house to the point that it has became like our marriage motto. But, despite the bad omens of a fire breaking out during the wedding or getting “sleep slapped” our first night sleeping in the same bed, we have managed to have a happy and healthy relationship and these 5 years have flown by.
The Death of the Mark Wall
When I was in high school I started a sort of wall of fame. I hung newspaper clippings of wrestling related news and pictures all over the wall. I also had action figures on it as well. Over time I add pictures to the wall. I even put up a few pics from my first match and cards that I had wrestled on. Well, last week I decided it was time to take down the wall. I got a projector and the only wall in the house that I could use it on was the Mark wall. As I removed the articles one by one I started reading and thinking. I had a newspaper articles up from USA Today’s May of 99 when Owen Hart passed. I had one up talking about Lawler running fro mayor of Memphis (The first time). I also had a Mick Foley interview and the article on Rick Rude’s death. With the exception of the Lawler and Foley articles though, some of them were sad and depressing. I guess me holding on to the clippings was a my little way of doing a memorial…but dam there was at least 4 or 5 death articles up there for guys that were taken way too young. The Mark wall also made me think a bit about where I’ve come to in wrestling. Not that I’ve made it or anything like that, but just the fact that a lot of the guys I looked up to and put on my wall had been on a card with or in the ring with me at some point in my career. Guys I admired like Lawler, Dundee, Bobby Eaton (who I was a huge mark for as a kid….Alabama Jam, motherfuckkkaaa…lol), Ricky Morton, Koko B Ware, and others like that…it was pretty cool.
Big Crowds and Big Events
One of the biggest crowds I have ever had the opportunity to work in front on was at Henderson, TN the beginning of March. There was well over a thousand people there. I kid you not, by the 2nd match they were out of drinks at the concession stand and they brought a lot of cases to sell. Not sure what the gate for the show was because it went to a great cause (The Carl Perkins Center for Child Abuse) but with tickets ranging from $7 to $10, that’s at least $7,000 to $10,000 gate. Big props to Garry and Kevin and all others involved in the promotion of that show. Who else is drawing like that? 2 weeks ago we did 400 or so in Bolivar, TN as well for Brian’s show. With that said I hope the success keeps rolling in to May for shows that Garry and our crew are a part of. That’s because I have a huge show coming up at West Middle in Jackson on May 7th. It also, is for a good cause. The school here needs to raise about $3,000 before the end of the year to avoid trouble. The last show in October raised them about $1,500. So, I have made it my mission to beat that. Wish me luck though, the school is in the middle of nowhere and it’s always a crapshoot if it will draw or not. 3 out of 4 times it has been successful. But to be honest I wouldn’t have come to see that first show we did here 3 years back with that crew…lol….That will get some heat but its true.
One Last Thing
I did receive a few emails about my last column. The celebrity look-a-likes column was pretty well received. I will say it could have been way better than it was. We had some difficulty getting the pictures up with the column and I think that took a little something away from it. I did get some reminders of people I forgot. Such as:
Stan Lee = James Franco (Don’t believe me? Watch the movie Pineapple Express and then come at me with your argument…lol)
Su Yung = Lucy Liu (I personally didn’t see this but I received the email so I thought I’d post)
I even got a pretty mean but funny one that had a local wrestler being played by Corky from the old 90’s tv show Facts of Life. While it was funny, my fear of Karma prevents me from posting who it was. The texter that sent that in should be ashamed of himself…lol. Once again though, if you have some celebrity look-a-likes that I haven’t mentioned or thought of, hit me up. Pyro1772@yahoo.com. I’ll post them on my next column.
Finally, I want to congratulate my pal Christopher Francis O’Neal Jr.. This week he returned to the ring after almost a year off. The operation was supposed to have kept him out for over a year, but through hard work and determination, he mad it back way before expected. I am a bit upset that he didn’t name his tag team with Stan a variation of Picture Perfect and Hot Topic (Something like Hot Picture or Perfect Topic) but I guess I’ll get over it…lol. All jokes a side I’m happy for you bro. I know its rough when you have to sit out. Congrats on being back!
That does it for this month guys. I’ll be back next month with more rambling nonsense…All the way up till BT cancels this column…..Till then…..”When you go to cross the street, careful where you put your feet. Look both ways and be alert. If a car hits you it’s gonna hurt.”
Someone tell me where that’s from? Lol
Later.
