Jerry "The King" Lawler turns 71 today! How many of you knew that the King is also a talented artist? Here is the proof! I think Lawler could have easily made a living drawing comic books or working for MAD magazine had his wrestling career not been so successful!
Funny portrait of Freebird Michael Hayes! I love the expressions of his fellow Freebirds and Gorgeous Jimmy Garvin in the background, laughing at Michael's free-spirited silliness.
Gotta love this self-portrait of Jerry Lawler as the Eighth Wonder of the World; it's even referencing the 1977 King Kong remake instead of the original. Jerry's artistic talents are what first got him in to the world of wrestling; he would send in drawings of Memphis wrestlers like Jackie Fargo to Aubrey Griffith, the local promoter. He eventually worked out a deal with Griffith—free publicity on Lawler's radio show (he was a disc jockey at the time) in exchange for wrestling lessons. Not a bad deal if you ask me!
Playboy Buddy Rose loves to eat at Burgerville and I probably would too if I lived in the Pacific Northwest! I would eat at Burgerville just on sheer principle because that is undoubtedly the best name for a burger place I have ever heard! If it was good enough for the Playboy, it’s gotta be good enough for me…right?
Ric Flair addresses the crowd at the Greensboro Coliseum after winning the NWA world heavyweight championship from Harley Race at the inaugural Starrcade in 1983! This was, of course, the beginning of the run that firmly established the Nature Boy as one of wrestling’s all-time greats!
Someone else on the Gilman booking staff was doing a bad job
putting this show together, so I stepped in about 2-3 weeks before it was to
take place. He was unhappy about me
taking over, but it only took me five minutes of brainstorming to finish a show
that he had done nothing with for the past two months. Unfortunately, this was
probably the most violent show I did that entire year. Multiple fights happened
outside the club. Several kids jumped future investigative reporter Shane Bauer
in the bathroom for no reason. Some Nazi skinhead kid even tried to steal the
keys to TOXIC NARCOTIC’s van during their set! However, the combined effort of
myself and the local bands got approximately 250 people to come to a show that
only had a few weeks of promotion, so that was cool. How does one have a difficult time setting up a TOXIC NARCOTIC show anyway?
DIRECTOR: Martin Scorsese. CAST: Robert De Niro, Nick Nolte, Jessica Lange, Juliette Lewis, Joe Don Baker, Robert Mitchum, Gregory Peck, Martin Balsam, Illeana Douglas, Fred Dalton Thompson. Martin Scorsese’s remake isn’t into implying anything at all; it goes for the throat. Some of the story elements have changed—Sam Bowden is the public defender who suppressed evidence that could have gotten his client a lesser sentence or acquittal from rape charges. Max Cady was guilty as hell, but a report about his victim’s “questionable” sexual history could have set him free and Sam was not about to have that on his conscience. You might note that this is a direct violation of Cady’s constitutional right to a proper legal defense in court. Cady discovers the report while appealing his case as a jailhouse lawyer. Now he wants vengeance. Cady gets out during a time when the Bowden family is dealing with trust issues between Sam and his wife, as well as his daughter slipping between rebellious, awkward, and sexually curious. No one is perfect in Scorsese’s Cape Fear. Max’s behavior is bolder this time around too, particularly when he corners young Danny Bowden at school. Robert De Niro is very good as Max Cady, but eventually degenerates into a parody of the irrational and becomes just another horror movie killer. Strange to see Martin Scorsese resorting to stylized techniques and unnecessary slasher film ploys. Someone else could have hung their hat on Cape Fear using the same approach, but this is Martin Scorsese and it is funny how standards work. This is not one of his better movies compared to the obvious classics on his resume, but maybe that is the point: that even the great Martin Scorsese has flaws.
Happy 56th birthday to Jushin Liger! I was thinking about how Japanese wrestling filtered its way into my fandom—first via photos of Antonio Inoki and Jumbo Tsuruta, then by seeing Jushin Liger and the Great Muta tear up the ring in WCW. They helped me form an impression of how New Japan and All Japan Pro Wrestling represented the True Sport of Kings long before I was able to see it for myself. Liger also changed the business for good in 1994 when he set up New Japan's Super J Cup tournament featuring many of the world's best junior heavyweight wrestlers at the time. Eddy Guerrero (as Black Tiger), Dean Malenko, Chris Benoit (as Wild Pegasus), Hayabusa, the Great Sasuke, and Taka Michinoku were just some of the talents introduced to the greater wrestling world on the Super J Cup's grand stage. Jushin Liger deserves a Hall of Fame induction for that alone.
Happy 50th birthday to Chris Jericho! Here he is during his WCW Monday Jericho run that culminated in a brief confrontation (but not a match) with Bill Goldberg. There used to be a fantastic playlist on YouTube that chronicled Jericho’s weekly antics during this time in his career and I loved watching it before it was lost to the digital sands of time. I had almost forgotten how entertaining those segments were. Chris Jericho was one of WCW’s bright spots during this time, in which Nitro and Thunder were all but taken over by the increasingly convoluted nWo Hollywood/nWo Wolfpac saga. Jericho had nothing to do with either group, opting to terrorize the cruiserweight division and taunting the likes of Dean Malenko and Goldberg. When he jumped ship to the WWF, it is safe to say that WCW would never…eeevvveeerrr…be the same…AGAIN!
DIRTY ROTTEN IMBECILES (D.R.I.) was one of the biggest and best hardcore thrash bands
during the 1980s. They first became known for playing songs of a faster and
shorter nature than most punk bands; their debut record managed to fit 22 songs
onto a 33-RPM 7-inch! D.R.I. would then become one of the first hardcore bands to
merge their sound with that of heavy metal with the release of their 1987 album
Crossover. Bands such as METALLICA and SLAYER had been emulating hardcore’s fast pace throughout the decade to
create thrash, speed, and death metal; D.R.I. had simply returned the favor and
hit the big time themselves.
D.R.I. in the Crossover era: Kurt Brecht (vocals), Spike Cassidy (guitar), Felix Griffin (drums), Josh Pappe (bass).
D.R.I.’s
members weren’t exactly living the rock star life while much of this was taking
place. They had moved to the Bay Area from Texas in 1984, living in their tour
van for the time being. This book gathers journal entries written by vocalist
Kurt Brecht during his final months as an outdoor resident of San Francisco’s Haight
District. I actually received a copy of Notes
from the Nest while living on the streets of Berkeley and Oakland in my
early twenties, so these stories were (and still are) a lot of fun for me to
read.
Golden Gate Park is bigger than New York’s Central Park, taking up 1.583 miles and over a thousand acres. There are plenty of places for a resourceful homeless person to hide.
Kurt
briefly explains his current situation—he sings and writes lyrics for D.R.I.,
sleeps in a tree in Golden Gate Park, and eats at a nearby soup kitchen. He
doesn’t have anywhere else to go for now and crashing out on the grass isn’t a
good idea, as he is aware of stories about local homeless people being
assaulted and killed in their sleep. Kurt manages to find the perfect
configuration of branches to form a “nest” where he can sleep in relative
comfort well above ground. Cops, murderous thugs, and passers-by in general are
unaware of his presence. He works part-time for a flaky jeweler and might move
into a place with his new girlfriend if a potential new job works out. Kurt
even has a cat that lives in the tree with him.
Raging madness and gang warfare
at the Olympic Auditorium.
D.R.I. also plays a show with SLAYER at the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles, in
which one of the four simultaneous
circle pits erupts into gang warfare between skinheads, metalheads, and
Suicidal members. Kurt returns home to find that life is changing fast. He and
his girlfriend will be moving into a room in Oakland after all. One more night
in the nest to end this chapter of Kurt Brecht’s life as another one begins.
Notes from the Nest is not easy to come
by; I saw a single copy listed on Amazon for $150. I was lucky to have acquired
my copy when I did; it often lifted my spirits when homeless punk life had me
down. You probably should have been a down-and-out D.R.I. fan to appreciate these
tales, but Notes from the Nest is a
fun and fast read if you ever find a copy for yourself.
Happy 79th birthday to Abdullah the Butcher! Here is the Madman from the Sudan defending the WWC North American heavyweight championship against Carlos Colon in Trinidad and Tobago in 1981! This match is a perfect example of a wrestling crowd being 100% invested in the action! Colon attacks Abdullah at the start, not giving him a chance to breathe! He repeatedly sinks his teeth into the Butcher’s head, attempting to draw blood! The crowd is on their feet when the battle spills outside of the ring! They begin to surge closer to the action when Abdullah retaliates and bashes Colon’s head into the ringpost! Things go from bad to worse when the referee stops the match, but is unable to stop Abdullah’s attack! The fans nearly riot in the aftermath! Wrestling in Trinidad is serious business!
Pro Wrestling Illustrated’s November 1985 cover story concerned a match that the British Bulldogs wrestled against each other! I was unable to get this issue years ago, but the cover story always intrigued me. I wanted to know more about my favorite tag team wrestling in opposition to one another! Considering that Stampede Wrestling never got much coverage in the magazines, I doubt that PWI was referring to any of those matches. My guess is that the article concerned Dynamite and Davey Boy’s bout in the WWF junior heavyweight title tournament for New Japan three months prior to this issue. Does anyone out there want to fill in the blanks for me?
