Wrestling fans will realise the absolutely ridiculous timing of this death.  Warrior and WWE were at odds for 18 years, suing each other several times.  They made peace and Warrior was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame just this past Saturday, appeared at Wrestlemania on Sunday and his final TV appearance two days ago giving a classic "Warrior" promo live on Monday Night RAW.  Tuesday evening, he collapsed and died.

 

Politics aside, Warrior was a childhood hero of mine (and many others).  It was gratifying to see him rightfully honoured by WWE.  He was escorted onto stage by his young daughters and told them of everything he has done in life, his greatest thing was being their father.

 

RIP Warrior.

There have been a number of legitimate broadcasters/media people involved in the business.  

 

Some examples off the top of my head would be:

 

Ed Whalen -  He was just the voice of Stampede Wrestling to me when I was growing up, I had no idea until much later on that he also worked for the Flames for years.  

 

Joe Aiello - his radio career took off here in Winnipeg after doing TV for Tony Condello.

 

Jeff Marek, formerly of Hockey Night in Canada, started out by creating an Live Audio Wrestling (an internet radio program).

Jim Ross did some Big 10 football (Oklahoma, where else) before he was culled into the wrestling biz. 

 

I remember Ron Maurier and Bernie doing the wrestling out of Vancouver. Gene Kiniski was the classic interview. Learned years later that Gene owned most of that promotion and hired a Wpg turd named Al Tomko to run it for him.

 

Larry 'The Preacher' Updike (citi fm) did some TV wrestling in the late 80s and 90s. His classic catchphrases were "My lord!" and "O, the humanity!"

 

Tony Chevani was a pro sports announcer before going to NWA/WCW

 

The Coach, Jonathan Coachman did some professional sports announcing before Vince brought him to WWE. Coach left WWE a few years ago and became a show host on ESPN radio. Now, I'm told he's prepping for a WWE comeback.

 

But the greatest wrestling announcer of all time, imho was Rodger Kent of AWA fame, based out of Minneapolis. This guy had more classic phrases than just about anyone I've seen. He was my hero.

Never a fan of Bob Brown.  But I didn like Kerry Brown and was lucky enough to have booked him a couple of times before he died.

I kind of find it weird that the WWE trashed the warrior and guys like HHH ripped Warrior in the self destruction DVD yet after he dies HHH contradicts and says such nice things about the guy on Raw...

Funny how the wrestlers and football players from that late 80 to 90's period have the same struggles in life.

If you like stories for guys from now to back in the day check out the Steve Austin podcast. Some great stuff does a real good job of just shooting the breeze with guys from all generations.

I kind of find it weird that the WWE trashed the warrior and guys like HHH ripped Warrior in the self destruction DVD yet after he dies HHH contradicts and says such nice things about the guy on Raw...

 

Because wrestlers have never contradicted themselves week to week in wrestling  

 

Wrestling is all about make believe drama and the story.    Whatever sells.   Whether it is in ring for the current story line or a DVD to sell.   

 

At least at the end, whatever issues HHH had with the warrior, he was able to forgive and not trash the guy after his death.

 

There have been a number of legitimate broadcasters/media people involved in the business.  

 

Some examples off the top of my head would be:

 

Ed Whalen -  He was just the voice of Stampede Wrestling to me when I was growing up, I had no idea until much later on that he also worked for the Flames for years.  

 

Joe Aiello - his radio career took off here in Winnipeg after doing TV for Tony Condello.

 

Jeff Marek, formerly of Hockey Night in Canada, started out by creating an Live Audio Wrestling (an internet radio program).

Jim Ross did some Big 10 football (Oklahoma, where else) before he was culled into the wrestling biz. 

 

I remember Ron Maurier and Bernie doing the wrestling out of Vancouver. Gene Kiniski was the classic interview. Learned years later that Gene owned most of that promotion and hired a Wpg turd named Al Tomko to run it for him.

 

Larry 'The Preacher' Updike (citi fm) did some TV wrestling in the late 80s and 90s. His classic catchphrases were "My lord!" and "O, the humanity!"

 

Tony Chevani was a pro sports announcer before going to NWA/WCW

 

The Coach, Jonathan Coachman did some professional sports announcing before Vince brought him to WWE. Coach left WWE a few years ago and became a show host on ESPN radio. Now, I'm told he's prepping for a WWE comeback.

 

But the greatest wrestling announcer of all time, imho was Rodger Kent of AWA fame, based out of Minneapolis. This guy had more classic phrases than just about anyone I've seen. He was my hero.

 

Giovani was a broadcaster for the Atlanta Braves, I believe. Roger Kent's most famous phrase was, "Larry 'The Axe' Hennig. Big enough to go bear hunting with a switch." Another one, "The Crusher. The Man who made Millwaukee famous."

I've heard the best description of wrestling. Its all about lying. The best liars make it the furthest.

 

Sometimes the best liars incorporate aspects of the truth to put themselves over even more.

 

Best guys at doing that were Gene Kiniski, Paul Heyman, Vince McMahon, Archie the Stomper Gouldie, Triple H, CM Punk, 

No, that was my former partner.  We started Premier Championship Wrestling together in late 2001, "debuted" in March 2002 at the IGAC (1700+ people to see Geurrero, HTM and Beefcake), ran SHAW Park in July 2002 with LOD & Buff Bagwell (the root of my distain for Sammy) and regular shows at The LID Nightclub.  My former partner left PCW in 2003.  We still run shows using Doubles as our home venue featuring mostly locally talent (with guys from UK, Austraila etc) and Kenny Omega (very talented and popular Indy star).

 

My former partner did bring in a lot of former big names whereas I was always trying to bring in younger "indy" stars like Somoa Joe, AJ Styles, Amazing Red, Chris Sabin, Chris daniels etc...and ofcourse Winnipeg's own Steve Corino.

Did you have season tickets in section W in the old stadium? The guy in front of me, I'm guessing somewhere in his 30's, was a wrestling promoter in Winnipeg. I wonder if that was you? He came to games with a huge guy who was a wrestler.

 

You must know Dave Petrishin (sp?) if you're in the local wrestling industry. My parents have sat with him at games for years.

 

No, that was my former partner.  We started Premier Championship Wrestling together in late 2001, "debuted" in March 2002 at the IGAC (1700+ people to see Geurrero, HTM and Beefcake), ran SHAW Park in July 2002 with LOD & Buff Bagwell (the root of my distain for Sammy) and regular shows at The LID Nightclub.  My former partner left PCW in 2003.  We still run shows using Doubles as our home venue featuring mostly locally talent (with guys from UK, Austraila etc) and Kenny Omega (very talented and popular Indy star).

 

My former partner did bring in a lot of former big names whereas I was always trying to bring in younger "indy" stars like Somoa Joe, AJ Styles, Amazing Red, Chris Sabin, Chris daniels etc...and ofcourse Winnipeg's own Steve Corino.

Did you have season tickets in section W in the old stadium? The guy in front of me, I'm guessing somewhere in his 30's, was a wrestling promoter in Winnipeg. I wonder if that was you? He came to games with a huge guy who was a wrestler.

 

You must know Dave Petrishin (sp?) if you're in the local wrestling industry. My parents have sat with him at games for years.

 

I believe  that was my former partner Mike (I remember seeing him in the same seats at a few games I went to).  I never had season tickets.  I think he's mid-30's.  Im a couple of years older.  If you ever went to The LID nightclub, you likely talked to me as I worked there for years.

I've heard the best description of wrestling. Its all about lying. The best liars make it the furthest.

 

Sometimes the best liars incorporate aspects of the truth to put themselves over even more.

 

Best guys at doing that were Gene Kiniski, Paul Heyman, Vince McMahon, Archie the Stomper Gouldie, Triple H, CM Punk, 

A little simplistic.  To an extent the same thing can be said about acting.  Plenty of liars dont make it.  Good manipulators and motivators probably make it the furthest.  The best characters are the ones that are exaggerations of reality (their personality's amped up).  WWE got away from that for awhile.  They would come up with character ideas and then assign them to a wrestler, put the wrestler on TV with little hype and when he didnt get over in two weeks, they called him a failure and got rid of him.

 

HHH has been a strong positive influence lately (even though he had the bad habit of cutting guys' balls off over the years).  And WWE has been much better lately.

Unknown Poster, you must have crossed paths with 'The Outlaw' Adam Knight?

Unknown Poster, you must have crossed paths with 'The Outlaw' Adam Knight?

A very good friend of mine and top guy in my promotion. He and Steve Corino just lost the tag team championship on our last show.

 

Unknown Poster, you must have crossed paths with 'The Outlaw' Adam Knight?

A very good friend of mine and top guy in my promotion. He and Steve Corino just lost the tag team championship on our last show.

 

He is a quality human being. We worked together for a short time a few years ago. I remember seeing him wrasslin at the Osborne street festival one year, it was lots of fun to see live even years after I stopped watching wrestling much (Tatanka ftw). I understand he recently published a fiction series as well. Quite an interesting guy.

 

 

Unknown Poster, you must have crossed paths with 'The Outlaw' Adam Knight?

A very good friend of mine and top guy in my promotion. He and Steve Corino just lost the tag team championship on our last show.

 

He is a quality human being. We worked together for a short time a few years ago. I remember seeing him wrasslin at the Osborne street festival one year, it was lots of fun to see live even years after I stopped watching wrestling much (Tatanka ftw). I understand he recently published a fiction series as well. Quite an interesting guy.

 

Absolutely.  If you'd like to come check out a live event (and see Knight work), feel free to let me know.  I'd be happy to add you to my guest list!

I'm a fan. Loved Ultimate Warrior, the energy he brought to the ring was insane. Always going 150 percent out there. His promo from RAW, think people are reading to far in to it. That was the Ultimate Warrior just being the Ultimate Warrior. I thought he looked pretty good for a guy who is 54. Hogan looks terrible, warrior looked ok. Sure, he seemed to be a little winded and was sweating a lot but... thats the ultimate warrior. The guy would get winded back in the day running to the ring. It was part of his gimmick.

 

Watched the Utlimate Warrior DVD the other day and some of the stories people tell, Insanity. How warrior and macho man would always be pushing each other to see who can be more intense. One of them was, they were in englad i believe and needed a fix, (none of these guys were that in to drugs i dont think, doesnt sound like it at least, pretty sure warrior was pretty natural for the most part) but... they needed a fix, nothing was around. They went and found a cofee machine and stole it, brought it back to the arena and proceeded to down about 100 cups of cofee b4 going out to wrestle. I know the easy thing to do is when these guys die is to think, gotta be drug related but its not like that in all cases.

 

Things have changed recently too, wwe's drug testing policy is more strict then any other "sport".

 

Sure, the 80's sounded like it was an insane time but.... Not everyone back then did drugs all the time.

 

His official cause of death is cardiovascular related, rumors are his father died of something similar. Like i said, its easy to go the drug route... but  fact is... hear disease is also something that could be hereditary. I dont like the idea of saying its because of years of steroid abuse, the guy hasnt been around for 20 years. Had a young family, great kids and great wife. His hall of fame speech was outstanding telling his little girls the greatest thing he will ever do in life is be their father. Outstanding. Sad day when warrior died.

 

Hulk Hogan was apparently a huge drug addict, i really dont think warrior was even back in the 80's. Sounds more and more like he was just... well, he was just crazy intense.

 

The stigma of wrestlers from the 80's is they all were drug addicts. I dont think thats always the case tho.

 

The one thing i wonder tho is, macho man is dead, warrior is dead... but hogan? the biggest drug addict in wrestling history isnt? how.

Were they all drug addicts?  No. Were most of them drug users?  I would say yes.

 

Warrior has been very open about steroid use.  He was most certainly not natural.  When he returned in 1992 he was much smaller (this was after the steroid trials and Warrior returned as Hogan was taking a sabbatical to let heat die down from his being caught lying about steroid use).

 

There's no doubt Warrior was a fitness freak.  He began working out at a very young age but was 155 lbs at his graduation.  A couplf of years later, he was 250+.

 

When Eddy Geurrero died, the very tragic aspect was he had cleaned himself up.  Perhaps he was still using steroids (he was huge for a tiny guy) but he had kicked the addictions (I was fortunate enough to have booked him in Winnipeg in 2002 a month before he re-signed with WWE, amazing guy).  He died of a heart attack but his heart was enlarged and damaged from drug use.

 

I certainly will not be surprised to hear Warrior's heart was enlarged and damaged.  It is true his grandfather and father both died in their 50's and Warrior felt he would too.  He wrote to Vince 20 years ago that due to the early deaths of the men in his family, he knew he didnt have long to live.

 

Look at Jake Roberts and Scott Hall.  How they're still alive is baffling.  Even Vince.

 

If you're a fan and have never seen our shows, Ill be happy to comp you and friends to our next one.  Just shoot me a message.

Were they all drug addicts?  No. Were most of them drug users?  I would say yes.

 

Warrior has been very open about steroid use.  He was most certainly not natural.  When he returned in 1992 he was much smaller (this was after the steroid trials and Warrior returned as Hogan was taking a sabbatical to let heat die down from his being caught lying about steroid use).

 

There's no doubt Warrior was a fitness freak.  He began working out at a very young age but was 155 lbs at his graduation.  A couplf of years later, he was 250+.

 

When Eddy Geurrero died, the very tragic aspect was he had cleaned himself up.  Perhaps he was still using steroids (he was huge for a tiny guy) but he had kicked the addictions (I was fortunate enough to have booked him in Winnipeg in 2002 a month before he re-signed with WWE, amazing guy).  He died of a heart attack but his heart was enlarged and damaged from drug use.

 

I certainly will not be surprised to hear Warrior's heart was enlarged and damaged.  It is true his grandfather and father both died in their 50's and Warrior felt he would too.  He wrote to Vince 20 years ago that due to the early deaths of the men in his family, he knew he didnt have long to live.

 

Look at Jake Roberts and Scott Hall.  How they're still alive is baffling.  Even Vince.

 

If you're a fan and have never seen our shows, Ill be happy to comp you and friends to our next one.  Just shoot me a message.

PCW? I've been to a couple in the past. Dont you guys always bring in stars from the past? like billy gunn was there among others? Kenny Omega (omega driver rules) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GLeEE9zLUo <--- sick

 

What was the deal with omega? i thought wwe signed him but then he left, i heard rumors it was because they wouldnt let him do all his crazy moves. but, whats the actual reason? do you know? Cuz man, that guy would have been great to see in wwe.

 

Were they all drug addicts?  No. Were most of them drug users?  I would say yes.

 

Warrior has been very open about steroid use.  He was most certainly not natural.  When he returned in 1992 he was much smaller (this was after the steroid trials and Warrior returned as Hogan was taking a sabbatical to let heat die down from his being caught lying about steroid use).

 

There's no doubt Warrior was a fitness freak.  He began working out at a very young age but was 155 lbs at his graduation.  A couplf of years later, he was 250+.

 

When Eddy Geurrero died, the very tragic aspect was he had cleaned himself up.  Perhaps he was still using steroids (he was huge for a tiny guy) but he had kicked the addictions (I was fortunate enough to have booked him in Winnipeg in 2002 a month before he re-signed with WWE, amazing guy).  He died of a heart attack but his heart was enlarged and damaged from drug use.

 

I certainly will not be surprised to hear Warrior's heart was enlarged and damaged.  It is true his grandfather and father both died in their 50's and Warrior felt he would too.  He wrote to Vince 20 years ago that due to the early deaths of the men in his family, he knew he didnt have long to live.

 

Look at Jake Roberts and Scott Hall.  How they're still alive is baffling.  Even Vince.

 

If you're a fan and have never seen our shows, Ill be happy to comp you and friends to our next one.  Just shoot me a message.

PCW? I've been to a couple in the past. Dont you guys always bring in stars from the past? like billy gunn was there among others? Kenny Omega (omega driver rules) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GLeEE9zLUo <--- sick

 

What was the deal with omega? i thought wwe signed him but then he left, i heard rumors it was because they wouldnt let him do all his crazy moves. but, whats the actual reason? do you know? Cuz man, that guy would have been great to see in wwe.

 

PCW yes!  We didnt bring in Billy Gunn (that was my former partner after he left and started another promotion), but I believe Gunn was in our audience once when we booked Ultimo Dragon, Black Pearl and Brian Christopher when they were in town for the other promotion.  As an aside, I helped out backstage at one of those shows and Gunn was a great guy.

 

Kenny signed with WWE after attending a Noah (Japan) camp put on by Harley Race's promotion.  Interesting story:  The camp was a bit of a work in that it invited indy guys to pay to attend but the guys were split into two groups: beginners and advanced.  The advanced group were all (or mostly) Race's guys and the beginners were everyone else.  The idea being that the Japanese and WWE scouts (Johnny Ace was there) would pay particular attention to the advanced guys.

 

Well, after a few minutes, Trevor Murdoch (worked for WWE briefly) pulled Kenny aside and asked why he was in the beginners group.  He explained he was told to be there.  Murdoch said no, you're going to the advanced class.  Kenny was the only guy signed from that camp.  Johnny Ace compared him to Brian Pillman.

 

When Kenny reported to developmental it was the old Deep South Wrestling promotion and run by Bill Demott.  Far be it for me to speak for Kenny, but there were several guys who were there during that time that later spoke out about the poor conditions and treatment.  Not to mention there was a standard pay that wasnt very good.

 

I think Kenny felt that he was young and wanted to pursue his dreams in the business, which included Japan.  He asked for his WWE release and left on good terms.  He actually returned with a week's notice and wrestled AJ Styles for us (PCW) in a tremendous 25+ minute match (Styles was another great guy to work with).

 

He's worked in Japan ever since (as well as ROH, England etc etc).  WWE developmental is a lot different now since HHH took over.  Full training centre, medical staff, TV facilities and guys (and girls) are developed from the beginning with the idea they will grow into the character and get on WWE TV.  I'd love to see Kenny there too.  He'd be the most talented guy in their system if he was there and had a great look, charisma etc.  Dont be surprised if it happens....

Also... while we didnt bring in Billy Gunn, we have brought a lot of guys in such as:

 

Eddy Guerrero

Road Warriors

Honkytonk Man

Brutus Beefcake

Buff Bagwell

Jim Neidhart

Brian Christopher

Ultimo Dragon

 

And many younger guys like:

Chris Sabin

Petey Williams

Steve Corino

Chris Daniels

AJ Styles

Amazing Red

Samoa Joe

El Generico

Kevin Steen

Davey Richards

Also... while we didnt bring in Billy Gunn, we have brought a lot of guys in such as:

 

Eddy Guerrero

Road Warriors

Honkytonk Man

Brutus Beefcake

Buff Bagwell

Jim Neidhart

Brian Christopher

Ultimo Dragon

 

And many younger guys like:

Chris Sabin

Petey Williams

Steve Corino

Chris Daniels

AJ Styles

Amazing Red

Samoa Joe

El Generico

Kevin Steen

Davey Richards

quite the list, el generico is now rocking it out on NXT as sami zayn, dudes gonna be a star. Petey williams, the canadian destroyer. Awesome stuff there. Kevin Steen? No doubt, guys a machine and heard he learned to speak english listening to jim ross doing commentary on wwe shows as a kid. Yeah, PCW... pretty solid organization there, pretty big too isnt it? you guys do lots of shows. Not sure how to say this, is your former partner not around anymore? was he the guy that... well, suicide? dont have to answer that if you dont want too, just i heard one of the guys killed himself and he was a promoter of one of the groups here in the city.

Well if Warrior was telling the truth then Hogan was a huge drug fiend and he used to pimp his wife out and was really a selfish bad guy. He hated Hogan with a passion and made it seem like the guy was pure evil.

Now Randy Savage he said the complete opposite, macho man was genuine and a real good classy guy.

As for your former partner , the shows had great talent but we're poorly put together and his business partner who was trying to get people to sign up for his credit card was extremely shady.

It was nice seeing some old classic guys mixed with Indy wrestlers on the up.... But 4 hour shows with no breaks kind of was a buzz kill and torturous.

Also... while we didnt bring in Billy Gunn, we have brought a lot of guys in such as:

 

Eddy Guerrero

Road Warriors

Honkytonk Man

Brutus Beefcake

Buff Bagwell

Jim Neidhart

Brian Christopher

Ultimo Dragon

 

And many younger guys like:

Chris Sabin

Petey Williams

Steve Corino

Chris Daniels

AJ Styles

Amazing Red

Samoa Joe

El Generico

Kevin Steen

Davey Richards

Was it your promotion or the Church on the Rock promotion that brought in Scott Steiner. He was a real roid-berg during his heyday. Wonder what was he on when he appeared on Hussler & Lawless prior to the matches? Or just pure Scott Steiner hate?

A few answers:

The former partner I've referred to is Mike. I refer to him as my partner because I met him when he was booker for a promotion called TRCW which began running shows at The Palladium where I worked at the time. We became very good friends and started PCW together.

We submitted a proposal to a local businessman named John who Mike had previously pitched. A couple of the local wrestlers worked for Johns business as their day jobs and he was a casual wrestling fan (but more into MMA). John liked our proposal and bank rolled us initially (as well as bringing us both into his business as employees).

This was December 2001 (it was actually Grey Cup weekend 2001 that we pitched John and he agreed to bank roll us). We made our unofficial debut at the end of January 2002 with shows in Minnedosa and Portage. Our official debut was March 3 at the U of M where we drew over 1700 fans.

John rapidly began losing interest shortly thereafter. He let us continue to work out of his Pembina hwy offices until late summer 2002 but for all real purposes he was "out" by spring.

John did later pass away. The circumstances were questionable.

Mike left in 2003 and started up his own promotions called AWE and WFX. It was WFX that ran shows at Church of the Rock.

I didn't meet Steiner but I was always a fan. His wwe debut was tremendous. Unfortunately for him he was programmed with HHH at a time when Hunter was very protective of his spot.