The International Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame

On June 27th my wife and I celebrated our 10th Anniversary, however we didn't go on vacation until near the end of July when our son was attending Summer Camp in New Hampshire.  You can read all about it here on the Labbe Family Voyages.

Albany, New York is the home of the International Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame, founded in 2019 and it is located on the second floor of the MVP Arena.  We were staying 3 nights in Albany originally to go see The Heavy Heavy, a band we both love, and fortunately for me AEW Dynamite was in town.

Earlier in the week I message the IPWHoF asking if they were going to be open while I was in town.  They normally are not open except for special events, with AEW in town they were going to be open 530pm to 730pm the night of the show.

I got to the venue just a bit after 530pm and found the Hall quite quickly.  It is essentially 2 rooms and hallway but it is jammed pack with memorabilia and artifacts. I spent a good hour in there trying to see everything and I know I missed a lot. 

Referee Dave Dwinell was there, he spent 32 years working for the New York State Athletic commission being assigned matches for NWA, WCW, WWF, indies and more, all over New York and at the historic Madison Square Garden.  He wrote a book all about it and I picked it up.  

Kayla Sparks was there as well, and independent wrestler who wrestled the week before on Dynamite in Boston against Britt Baker.  I was at that show as well.

  

Here are the pictures that I took

Ric Flair's WrestleMania 24 robe

Road Warrior shoulder pads worn during the late 1990's WWE Run

Gorgeous George's hair curler

Dominic DeNucci's robe

Johnny Rodz boots and robe

"Classie" Freddie Blassie jacket

Bruno Sammartino's WWWF Championship used from 1965 - 1971

The Assassin Jody Hamilton gear

George "The Animal" Steele gear and chewed turnbuckle

Tatsumi Fujinami's jacket

Thank you for reading, please leave a comment, check out my other posts, and if you want like my blogs Facebook page.  You can also head over to Amazon and pick up a copy of my new book Limitless Wrestling: The First Five Years, or any of my other books as well.  

Until next time! 

Tommy Dreamers 1995 tour of All Japan Pro Wrestling

While I was working on my Limitless Wrestling book I was researching Tommy Dreamer for his bio in the book.  While looking for something unique to notate in the book I saw that Dreamer did a tour with All Japan Pro Wrestling in 1995 while he was in ECW. 

The first night of the tour was January 2, 1995 and the final night was January 29th.  He wrestled in twenty three matches winning six of them.  He compete in a battle royal, the All Asia Tag Title League, multi-man matches and singles bouts.

He scored wins in singles matches against Mighty Inoue, Ryukaku Izumida, and Manakea Mossman.  In the All Asia Tag Team Title League he was partnered with Johnny Smith finishing with six points.  During the tour he also teamed with Johnny Ace and the legendary Stan "The Lariat" Hansen battling teams like The Fantastics: Tommy Rogers & Bobby Fulton, The Can-Am Express: Dan Kroffat & Doug Furnas, Jun Akiyama & Takao Omori and others.  

One six man tag team match saw him team with Johnny Smith and "Dr. Death" Steve Williams against Holy Demon Army: Akira Taue, Toshiaka Kawada, & Yoshinari Ogawa.  The final night of the tour Dreamer and Stan Hansen teamed to defeat Abdullah the Butcher and Giant Kimala.  

Dreamer would return to Japan for IWA in 1996, WAR in 1997, FMW in 1997, 1998, & 1999.  He wouldn't return to Japan again until 2006 & 2009 for WWE events.  SMASH1 brought Dreamer to Japan in 2010, while WNC: Wrestling New Classic booked him for two matches in 2012.  In 2014 TNA ran a show in Japan that The Great Muta main evented, Dreamer teamed with Abyss earlier on the card losing to The Dudley Boys.  In 2015 he returned to wrestled for Tokyo Gurentai One Night Stand, and again in 2016 for One Night Stand 2.  Which is his last time in Japan to date.

Although Dreamer never tagged with Hansen or Smith again, he did team up with Steve Williams on August 3, 1996 in a losing effort to Brian Lee & Taz at the ECW Arena.  

Thanks for reading, please leave a comment, read my other posts, and like my blogs Facebook page, check out my weekly podcast The Wrestling Insomniac on the Nerdy Legion Podcast Network and while your at it pick up my book over at Amazon in Kindle or Paperback.

Until next time!!

Don't Call Me Fake The Real Story of "Dr. D" David Schultz

The weekend of June 12 - 14th the wife, Wesley, and I spent two nights up in Medway at Pine Grove Campground and Cottages.  We were just looking to get away for a couple nights, enjoy a campfire and some quiet time.  We don't have cell service at the campground and the WiFi doesn't reach the cabin we always rent.  It's great!

Earlier in the week I got my signed copy of Don't Call Me Fake The Read Story of "Dr. D" David Schultz in the mail that I ordered direct from Dr. D after watching his episode of Dark Side of the Ring.  I started reading the book on Friday after we got set up and finished it Sunday morning before we packed up to leave.

Written by David Schultz with John Cosper the book is 470 pages and was published on July 22, 2019.  It has several black and white photos through out the book from his childhood through his life after wrestling and bounty hunting.

The book starts out talking about Shultz childhood growing up and later how he got into the wrestling business.  What his training was like and the early days of traveling the territories across the South and for Stampede in Calgary.  Of course he goes into great detail about the John Stossel 20/20 incident and how it resulted in his departure from not just the WWF (now WWE) but from wrestling.

After wrestling he became a bounty hunter and he goes into great detail about what it takes to be a bounty hunter and several stories.  About half the book is about wrestling and half is about being a bounty hunter.  I found both to be very interesting and exciting. 

Through-out the book there are stories in the book told by stories, friends, and family.  We also get to hear when Schultz has been doing since he left the bounty hunting world as well. I found the book to be a very enjoyable and quick read! 

Friday night when we went to bed my Wesley, who is five, asked me to read the words in my book out loud before bed.  The cabin has a loft with two twin beds and a full size bed.  Wesley and Kate each took a twin and I got the full size bed.  Both Friday and Saturday night I read several pages out loud and both of them enjoyed it.  I didn't have to leave out a few sentences on Saturday night, otherwise it was appropriate.  My wife actually thought it was interesting.

You can order this book on Amazon here or you can order direct from Mr. Schultz like I did to get your own signed copy.  Signed books are $25 in the US or $35 to Canada. Please mail check or money order to David Shults, P.O. Box 24, Henderson, TN 38340. Yes his real name is spelled Schults with and "s" not a Shultz with a "z".

Co-author John Cosper has helped write several other books on wrestlers and wrestling territories as well as some fiction.  You can find more on Amazon here.

Thanks for reading, please leave a comment, read my other posts, and like my blogs Facebook page, check out my weekly podcast The Wrestling Insomniac on the Nerdy Legion Podcast Network and while your at it pick up my book over at Amazon in Kindle or Paperback.

Until next time!!

The Final Matches of Randy Savage

In the days leading up WrestleKingdom I found myself with a few days off and I decided to check out some prior January 4th shows at the Tokyo Dome.  I found some great matches and at times unexpected wrestles.  One of those was on January 4, 2000, then called Wrestling World, where "Macho Man" Randy Savage wrestled Rick Steiner.

Savage in the Tokyo Dome before wrestling Rick Steiner

Two things immediately came to mind when I saw this; I don't think I've ever seen them wrestle before and I don't remember Macho Man wrestling in the year 2000, I thought he had left WCW by then.  That was 20 years ago though, so why would I even remember this.

Using my normal sources Cage Match and The History of WWE plus a few other places I was surprised what I discovered about the Macho Man's finals days in the ring.

His last match in 1999 was on August 14th at the Road Wild PPV when he defeated Dennis Rodman in a hardcore match.  On October 25th he appeared on Nitro in Phoenix, Arizona cutting a promo on Vince Russo and the new blood, saying what they did to Hogan and Flair they could never do to him because he wasn't a punk bitch.  Talk about being a world champion in WWF & WCW and that he was looking to pass the torch to someone.  Savage was 47 years old at this point.

Savage vs. Rodman from Road Wild 1999

His next wrestling appearance came at that January 4th Tokyo Dome show for New Japan, his first appearance in New Japan since 1996.  In this match with Rick Steiner Savage was filling in for an injured Goldberg.

His next match was also filling in for an injured Goldberg, this time against Sid Vicious at a WCW House show on January 14, 2000 in Charleston, West Virginia and was pinned by Sid after a powerbomb.  This would end up being the final singles match of Savages career.

His next WCW TV appearance was on the May 2, 2000 episode of Thunder from this historic Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis, Tennessee.  During the main event number 1 contender Battle Royal Savage made a surprise appearance 20 minutes into the 23 minute match that Ric Flair would go on to win.  This was also Randy's final WCW appearance.

We wouldn't see the Macho Man in a wrestling ring again until late 2004 in TNA.  Well technically he did appear in a wrestling ring on the season 1 episode 14 of Nikki a wrestling situational comedy where he played James "Pretty Boy" Carter and as Bonesaw McGraw in 2002 for Sam Raimi's Spider-Man.  He looked awesome in both.

Savage on Nikki

On November 7, 2004 TNA presented Victory Road their first ever 3 hour monthly PPV.  At the conclusion of the main event Savage made a surprise appearance confronting NWA World Champion Jeff Jarrett.

He appeared on the November 19th and 26th episodes of Impact confronting Jarrett, Scott Hall, & Kevin Nash building towards a six man tag team match at the next TNA PPV.  At Turning Point on December 5th, Savage teamed with AJ Styles and Jeff Hardy defeating Jarrett, Nash, & Hall in a six man tag team match.

I wouldn't say Savage looked bad in the match but he wasn't the Savage of old.  He'd lost a lot of muscle mass and even covered himself wearing a long sleeve shirt and loose pants.  Earlier in the evening Savage was attack in the back and stuffed in the trunk of a car that sped away after.  With a three on 2 advantage Jarrett, Nash, & Hall got the best of Hardy and Styles for over 15 minutes before Savage walked to the ring.

Tagging himself in he went to work with punches on Jarrett, then Hall & Nash.  There was a three way sleeper hold but Jarrett got out of his.  Jarrett then attempted a sunset flip but Savage punched him in the face and then sat down on his hooking the leg for the three count pinning the NWA World Champion.

I've read that this was supposed to lead to Savage defeating Jarrett for the championship at the January Final Resolution PPV and losing it back to Jarrett at the February Against All Odd PPV.  Image Randy Savages name in the history books as a former NWA World Champion.  He and Flair would then be the only ones to hold the WWF, NWA, & WCW World Championships.

Before anyone says but Kurt Angle the answer is no.  Kurt Angle was the first ever TNA World Champion, yes he held the NWA Championship up after defeating Sting and Christian Cage at Sacrifice however, the NWA had stripped Cage and Team 3D of their NWA Championships earlier that day.  Also when Kurt Angle won the WCW Championship, it was in namesake only as World Championship Wrestling had ceased to exist.

It's odd to me that Savage didn't wrestle during that time between WCW & TNA.  Perhaps he had one of those Time Warner contracts that prevented him.  I always think it's sad when a wrestler, especially the one the caliber or Randy Savage, doesn't get the big send off that I feel they deserve.

It's nice that he was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2015, but it would have been better if he could have been there himself to accept it.


Thanks for reading, please leave a comment, read my other posts, and like my blogs Facebook page and while you're at it check out my weekly podcast The Wrestling Insomniac on the Nerdy Legion Podcast Network.

Until next time!