Travicity
12-15-2010, 04:16 PM
The Twilight View- Part 3
By Greg H
I had very few wrestling fan friends in my youth growing up in Brooklyn. I had one friend who was older than me and was a great handball player. His name was Carl and he was a natural athlete and could do everything well – throwing a football, shooting baskets and a killer handball game. I was a solid handball player but he could destroy me. Carl was a wrestling fan as was his friend Wesley whom we called “Weasel”. I have a clear memory of Carl and Weasel doing the infamous Buddy Rogers strut who could strut like a peacock like no other. I remember Carl doing the strut and Weasel playing the manager Bobby Davis. So I joined the club and became a huge fan of “Nature Boy” Buddy Rogers who was the US champion at the time. I still remember the day we got the news that Buddy Rogers beat the reigning world champion “Irish” Pat O’Connor and became the world champion. We were all so happy. As self-conscious as I could be about my appearance(big and dorky) I did my first strut. It was about this time that I realized that my favorite wrestlers were the bad guys and since then I always rooted for them. Now I had only watched wrestling on TV and I looked forward to the day that I could see the matches live and see something other than the typical TV squash. The closest venue to where I ived that I could see a show was Madison Square Garden but that was pretty far away from my apartment building in Brooklyn – a solid 1hr. 15 minutes on the subway.We were pretty independent kids living in Brooklyn in the 50′s and 60′s. We could be out on the streets by ourselves at age 5. I took my first subway trip by myself at age 9. So when I decided to attend my first wrestling show by myself(Carl was busy) nothing could stop me.
At age 13 I hopped on the subway and even though I was stopped at the gate because of my age I managed to convince them that I was cool. My seats were virtual nosebleeds as funds were low even though I had started working a couple of years earlier. But I was enjoying the card immensely when it was time for the main even. My hero and idol Buddy Rogers would be defending his belt against the young “Italian Superman” Bruno Sammartino who was massively built and very strong. I remember Rogers strutting around and pointing at Bruno and I was thinking that this would be some match,.It was for about 5 seconds when all of as sudden Bruno hoisted Rogers into his famed backbreaker and to my shock and dismay Rogers gave up in about 13 seconds. I was heartbroken and started to cry. It was funny because everyone else was going to nuts and cheering and screaming with happiness as Bruno was immensely popular. I never expected Rogers to lose the belt that day and that main event totally spoiled by first wrestling show live.
I remember my first ROH show in 2002. I was reluctantly there having how to fly from the DC area to Philadelphia and noticed how small some of the wrestlers appeared. I only knew one wrestler AJ Styles but I had heard of Jerry Lynn. AJ was fantastic. I thought that Spanky was cool and Christopher Daniels carried himself like a star. Red was amazing as his name even though he looked 13. My protege kept telling me about American Dragon and he too looked 16 but he was impressive. Nana was colorful but very fat. I thought that Doug Williams reminded me of Davey Boy. and young Jay Briscoe gave him quite a match. Low-ki was awesome. I was not favorably impressed wih Homicide at the time but that all changed later on. The supporting cast was solid with teams like Dunn and Marcos, SAT and Carnage Crew and the wierd Christopher Street Connection. Anyway the venue the Murphy Center was intimate and the crowd was wild and very loud that night. By this time I had been to many wresting shows including a few Wrestlemanias and I had never seen anything like this. I remember being impressed with the how the matches looked so much more real and exciting than WWE wrestling and I confessed to my protege that I did indeed enjoy the experience after he had to drag me there. Little did I know how after being a 40 year fan of wrestling that my whole life experiences as a wrestling fan changed that day and it was significantly for the better.
ROH
By Greg H
I had very few wrestling fan friends in my youth growing up in Brooklyn. I had one friend who was older than me and was a great handball player. His name was Carl and he was a natural athlete and could do everything well – throwing a football, shooting baskets and a killer handball game. I was a solid handball player but he could destroy me. Carl was a wrestling fan as was his friend Wesley whom we called “Weasel”. I have a clear memory of Carl and Weasel doing the infamous Buddy Rogers strut who could strut like a peacock like no other. I remember Carl doing the strut and Weasel playing the manager Bobby Davis. So I joined the club and became a huge fan of “Nature Boy” Buddy Rogers who was the US champion at the time. I still remember the day we got the news that Buddy Rogers beat the reigning world champion “Irish” Pat O’Connor and became the world champion. We were all so happy. As self-conscious as I could be about my appearance(big and dorky) I did my first strut. It was about this time that I realized that my favorite wrestlers were the bad guys and since then I always rooted for them. Now I had only watched wrestling on TV and I looked forward to the day that I could see the matches live and see something other than the typical TV squash. The closest venue to where I ived that I could see a show was Madison Square Garden but that was pretty far away from my apartment building in Brooklyn – a solid 1hr. 15 minutes on the subway.We were pretty independent kids living in Brooklyn in the 50′s and 60′s. We could be out on the streets by ourselves at age 5. I took my first subway trip by myself at age 9. So when I decided to attend my first wrestling show by myself(Carl was busy) nothing could stop me.
At age 13 I hopped on the subway and even though I was stopped at the gate because of my age I managed to convince them that I was cool. My seats were virtual nosebleeds as funds were low even though I had started working a couple of years earlier. But I was enjoying the card immensely when it was time for the main even. My hero and idol Buddy Rogers would be defending his belt against the young “Italian Superman” Bruno Sammartino who was massively built and very strong. I remember Rogers strutting around and pointing at Bruno and I was thinking that this would be some match,.It was for about 5 seconds when all of as sudden Bruno hoisted Rogers into his famed backbreaker and to my shock and dismay Rogers gave up in about 13 seconds. I was heartbroken and started to cry. It was funny because everyone else was going to nuts and cheering and screaming with happiness as Bruno was immensely popular. I never expected Rogers to lose the belt that day and that main event totally spoiled by first wrestling show live.
I remember my first ROH show in 2002. I was reluctantly there having how to fly from the DC area to Philadelphia and noticed how small some of the wrestlers appeared. I only knew one wrestler AJ Styles but I had heard of Jerry Lynn. AJ was fantastic. I thought that Spanky was cool and Christopher Daniels carried himself like a star. Red was amazing as his name even though he looked 13. My protege kept telling me about American Dragon and he too looked 16 but he was impressive. Nana was colorful but very fat. I thought that Doug Williams reminded me of Davey Boy. and young Jay Briscoe gave him quite a match. Low-ki was awesome. I was not favorably impressed wih Homicide at the time but that all changed later on. The supporting cast was solid with teams like Dunn and Marcos, SAT and Carnage Crew and the wierd Christopher Street Connection. Anyway the venue the Murphy Center was intimate and the crowd was wild and very loud that night. By this time I had been to many wresting shows including a few Wrestlemanias and I had never seen anything like this. I remember being impressed with the how the matches looked so much more real and exciting than WWE wrestling and I confessed to my protege that I did indeed enjoy the experience after he had to drag me there. Little did I know how after being a 40 year fan of wrestling that my whole life experiences as a wrestling fan changed that day and it was significantly for the better.
ROH