Wrestling and My Grandmother....

Today is the birthday of my late Grandmother. She would have been 86 years old but passed away 14 years ago. I loved that woman and she was awful good to me. After getting divorced from my first wife I moved to Lexington and lived 4 miles from my work and her house was in between. I remember when she would call me during the day and say "Grandson, she always called me Grandson, I am cooking some ........................ fill in the blank and it will be ready around 5 if you want to stop by for a home cooked meal" Enough said for at 5pm sharp, I was sitting down to a meal that only a Grandmother could cook. I am a very good cook and there are several on this board that has eaten my Jambalaya, Vegetable Soup, Chili, Biscuits and Gravy and other on fishing trips, but I could not carry my Granny's bra strap when it comes to cooking.

She loved to watch wrestling on Saturday mornings at 12 noon. Don't call her, don't ask her to go anywhere, if you show up sit on the couch and don't bother her, for she will be sitting on the end of her chair yelling at the TV. I think it was Lance Russell that was the announcer for the Mid South Wrestling back then. Jerry "The King" Lawler, Billy "Superstar" Dundee, "Handsome" Jimmy Valiant, The Moondogs Rex and Spot, The Four Horseman Rick Flair, Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard, Olie Anderson, Sting, Lex Lugar, Junkyard Dog, Fabulous Freebirds, Michael PS Hayes, The Midnight Express, Rock and Roll Express, Jimmy "Mouth of the South" Hart, The Sheephearders, "Dr Death" Steve Williams, Nikita Koloff, Tojo Yamamoto, Greg "The Hammer" Valentine, Terry Gordy, Bam Bam Bigelo, Kimala The Uganda Giant, Bruiser Brody, Abduhla the Butcher, The Road Warriors (how could I forget them), Barry Windham, Dusty Rhodes, and on and on and on. My granny was always for the Baby Face (good guys) and I was always for the Heels (bad guys) for the sole purpose of stirring the pot (imagine that me stirring the pot). Man she hated Rick Flair and I would root for him the loudest. Back then Flair was the champion a lot plus had a group called the Four Horsemen as his buddies and they would come in and save him from a loss from time to time and that got under her skin. When they would come to Rupp for a show, she always got seats right next to the ring. After the matches were over we would walk up close to the ring and she would find the plastic capsules that the fake blood was in on the floor and she would say the same thing "**** fake stuff, I am not going to watch this or come for a show ever again" But come saturday at noon or the next show in town and there she was screaming her head off. I know it is "Sports Entertainment" and is completely scripted but she would not like today's wrestling in the WWE and TNA for it is too glitzy and glamorous for her. Too many girls showing too many things and the wrestlers have become pretty boys to her. She may not have liked it but she would still be sitting on her chair yelling at the TV for the "Ref to open is dam eyes because he is pulling his hair" every saturday at Noon, Monday at 9pm, Thursday at 9pm and any other time wrestling is on the tube.

Happy Birthday Granny!!!

PS - I still have 2 pressure cookers, 3 caserole dishes and a little metal sign that reads "As you go through life, Two rules will never bend; Never whittle toward yourself and never pee against the wind" in my kitchen and look at or use them often ( but even though a lot of them are your recipes, they just don't taste as good as yours did)

Just purchased 5 VHS tapes of Memphis wrestling about a month ago. That stuff was the absolute best.

Rasslin'...I used to watch it all the time when I was a kid. Probably won't ever forget Jackie Fargo and his brother Rough House Fargo, The Interns, Tommy Marlin...yea, that was some good entertainment back in the day.

[QUOTE=psprowler;446457]Just purchased 5 VHS tapes of Memphis wrestling about a month ago. That stuff was the absolute best.[/QUOTE]

My all time favorites were from 30 years ago. "Handsome" Jimmy Valiant, Bill "Superstar" Dundee, Tojo Yamamoto (who I think retired and started an artificial bait company), Jimmy "Mouth of the South" Hart - who I think was from Louisville could talk up a storm. Today's wrestlers have no clue as to what a headlock is. Certainly called Sports Entertainment for a reason. The Krogers that Randy "Macho Man" Savage, aka Randy Poffo, was busted for shoplifting a couple of steaks from the meat counter was just across the street from my grandmothers house.

My Grandfather was the same way....when "Wrasslin" was on, you better leave him alone. The only thing he got in a bigger uproar about was UK Basketball.

"Hacksaw Jim" Duggan...HOOOOOOOO!

[QUOTE=elnutsmalljaws;446461]Randy "Macho Man" Savage, aka Randy Poffo[/QUOTE]

Me and my Dad were eating breakfast one morning when I was a little kid....we were at the old Jerry's that used to be at the intersection of New Circle and Broadway (I think)....He walked in, sat down in the booth beside ours. I kept looking at him and he recognized it...came over and talked to me for a little bit, was nice as can be.

I believe it was the Von Erich (sp) family that was the wrestling family. Had several members in the wrestling business and several of the sons in the family committed suicide. I think there were 4 or 5 of the sons committed suicide by overdose or shooting themselves. Lacy Von Erich is in the business now for TNA, at least she was. I remember one after another that died in this family.

[QUOTE=MrSplitshot;446463]Me and my Dad were eating breakfast one morning when I was a little kid....we were at the old Jerry's that used to be at the intersection of New Circle and Broadway (I think)....He walked in, sat down in the booth beside ours. I kept looking at him and he recognized it...came over and talked to me for a little bit, was nice as can be.[/QUOTE]

My grandmothers house was on Withers Avenue. If you left that Jerry's and went up Broadway towards downtown, Withers was right across from that shopping center. There was a Krogers or maybe it was a Winn Dixie, now that I think of it, that Randy shoplifted. Ate many a J boy burger at that Jerry's plus their Spaghetti was awesome.

Ricky Steamboat was my favorite as a kid. He and Ric Flair were always going at it.

[QUOTE=elnutsmalljaws;446465]I believe it was the Von Erich (sp) family that was the wrestling family. Had several members in the wrestling business and several of the sons in the family committed suicide. I think there were 4 or 5 of the sons committed suicide by overdose or shooting themselves. Lacy Von Erich is in the business now for TNA, at least she was. I remember one after another that died in this family.[/QUOTE]

Correct. Kevin Von Erich is the only one that is still alive. He hosts some of the intros with Michael Hayes/Jimmy Garvin for the old World Class Championship Wrestling shows on the WWE on Demand channel. I watched a documentary on this family and one of them, either Mike or David got toxic shock syndrome and literally fried his brain his temperature got so high. Then somebody actually gave the ok for him to wrestle again, which was very dangerous considering he wasn't "right" mentally. I only remember toxic shock syndrome from the warnings on tampon boxes, he might be the only person I ever heard of that actually had the syndrome. Very strange and sad family story................

[QUOTE=DJD;446526]Ricky Steamboat was my favorite as a kid. He and Ric Flair were always going at it.[/QUOTE]

If somebody can show me a better match than Ricky Steamboat vs. Ric Flair from WrestleWar 89 I'd love to see it. 30+ minutes of flawless technical wrestling, a clean title change, and then another legend Terry Funk comes in after the match and piledrives the new champ Flair through a table, leading to Flair turning into a good guy and another 5 star feud...............

I remember when Bill Dundee was paired up with Rick Barnes when they first started wrestling as a tag team. Man they were unstoppable, Barnes died in a car accicent about 3 months after they hit Memphis and Dundee became a solo wrestler from that point on. But he did team up with several guys after that and worked nicely with the King ( Jerry Lawler) in matches.

lol, same thing with Lawler when he first started out, Sam Bass was his manager, who like Barnes was killed in an auto accident.... Man Lawler was a bad ass in his younger day's...Whne the Strap came down on his leotard, you knew a can of whoop arse was about to happen....lol

I also remember when i was a kid, watching **** The Bruiser, The Shiek and Bruiser's tag team partner who wore the little Derby hat..Can't remember his name atm....