Cauliflower Alley Club In Las Vegas Live Report
Johnny Nitro~!
CAULIFLOWER ALLEY CLUB IN LAS VEGAS LIVE REPORT
by Harry White @ 1:30:00 PM on 4/20/2005
CAULIFLOWER ALLEY CLUB REPORT FROM LAS VEGAS
by Harry White
There is a popular phrase used a lot during last year's baseball playoffs,
"Who's your daddy". Well, at 40 years of age and still going strong, CAC is
the "Who's your granddaddy" of wrestling gatherings.
The weekend started Thursday with the third year of in the ring seminars. It
is a good thing the Riviera Hotel had the wrestling ring on the ground floor
and not higher as the noisy action surely would have caused concern to
anyone on a lower floor under the ring. One of the hard loud slams caused
the distinct voice of teacher Harley Race to ring out, If you dropped me
like that, I would have to give you a receipt."
The interested students who are wrestling's "future" were taught proven
traditional "past" methods by Les Thatcher (Art Abrams Award Banquet
Honoree) and Scott Casey who were kind of like the "Back To The Future"
movie concept.
Friday night was the Baloney Blowout hosted by Nick Bockwinkel and Mark
Nulty of wrestlingclassics.com who did a double shot as the MC on Saturday.
Both the food and the wrestling stories continued nonstop over the evening.
The Stratosphere Hotel recently debuted a new attraction called Insanity
Ride. Insanity ride is a term that could also be applied to some of the wild
road stories that were told during the course of the evening.
In the movie `League Of Our Own`, Tom Hanks' character said "there is no
crying in baseball". Well, Friday night there was crying in wrestling as in
an emotional moment; Adrian Street talked about his wrestling career and
publicly proposed to Miss Linda, his former wrestling valet. This was to be
no shotgun wedding as the lovely Linda has been Adrian's friend , confidant,
and partner for over 30 years.
Saturday afternoon continued the merchandise area. This was another
continuation of wrestling booksapalooza. If this publishing trend continues,
Barnes and Noble might someday have a wrestling book section. Jeff Walton of
Olympic Auditorium fame signed his book, husband and wife banquet honorees
Paul Christy and Bunny Love signed their book, Paul `The Butcher' Vachon
signed his as did Gene LeBell. Ox Baker had a cookbook and to go along with
that cookbook a voice that will match the voice of any cook or singing
waiter in Las Vegas. Penny Banner, soon to be in the Senior Olympics again,
signed Banner Days. Greg Oliver has a book that tells one everything there
is to know about Canadian wrestlers and his new book will do the same for
best tag teams . Scott Williams' Terry Funk book will surely result in Terry
Funk adding carpal tunnel from signing to his long list of wrestling related
injuries. Books from Sports Publishing and ECW Press were displayed and
highspots.com had quite a bit of merchandise. If one was in the market for a
bobble- head doll, then a better looking one than The Destroyer's could not
be found. Mil Mascaras made his first CAC appearance a popular one with
collectors.
Also on Saturday there was an excellent (in all the spectators views)
wrestling card featuring the best of the students. Each match was unique as
they had a wrestling legend as a second in each corner. Long time CAC member
Roland Alexander's APW set things up and helped keep the card running
smoothly. I have not heard good piano since Joey Boesch played before the
event several years ago.
The night's banquet opened up with the Adrian Street/Miss Linda wedding
performed by Jason Sanderson with Don Leo Jonathan as best man. Historian
Tom Burke who is up all week had the somber task of reading the roll of
wrestlers who had passed away.
The Posthumous Award went to Fred Beell and was presented by Chief (police,
not Indian) Paul Farber.
Former Future Legends winners Steve Bender and Melissa Anderson presented
this year's award to Frankie Kazarian who was trained by former Iron Mike
winner Killer Kowalski.
Honoree Kenny Jay did a good roast type routine on the stars that he put
over. Honoree Ernie Ladd mentioned that in Louisiana he was the first black
man to wrestle a white man-Don Fargo.
If your job description includes whipping emotional fans into a frenzy, then
Sir Oliver Humperdink certainly deserved his managerial award presented by
former honorees Percival A. (Al) Friend and Percy Pringle. If there was such
a thing as a six man manager's tag team title then those three would be top
contenders.
The Lou Thesz award was next. Lou Thesz/Jack Brisco, Jack Brisco/Lou Thesz,
those two are interchangeable for the way they have represented wrestling in
and out of the ring.
Former Iron Mike Mazurki Award winners Destroyer, Tom Drake, Gene LeBell
graced the stage as Terry Funk received his Iron Mike award. Terry
alternated his comments between the humorous and sentimental. Finishing up,
Terry said wrestling is "a trip he will never forget and never want to end".
Then came a special auction with auctioneer extraordinaire Larry `The Ax'
Henig. In addition to pumping up the money bids, Larry pumped the crowd with
humor. The highest money item was a shirt worn most of weekend by Destroyer
with the autographs of 50 wrestlers.
The end of an article is certainly not the proper place to mention the
contributions of wrestling wives and companions in keeping things together
and enduring the sometimes nomadic lifestyle. Several of the wrestlers gave
credit where credit is due.
A familiar refrain echoed by wrestlers is "I'd do it all over again". The
CAC could do it all over again for another 40 years with the leadership and
organization of Red Bastien, Karl Lauer, Chris Drake, Dean and Ruth
Silverstone, George Shire, Kurt Nielsen, Royal Duncan, Al Mandel, Scott
Hosey, Jason Deadrich, Juan Hernandez, Gloria Lovell and so many others.
Among the many at the weekend were Bob Orton Sr and Barry Orton, Mando
Guerro, Tiger Conway Sr and Tiger Conway Jr, Ray Thunder Stern, Reggie
Parks, Ed Wiskowski/Colonel DeBeers, Killer Brooks, Cowboy Bob Kelly, Bill
Bowman, Manny Fernanadez, Reggie Love, Bruce Swayze, Omar Atlas, Buddy
Wolfe,Gary Hart, Tito Carreon, Rock Riddle, Bill White, Bill Anderson,
Pepper Martin, Scott Dickinson, Charlie Smith, Mickey Jay, and many, many
more I could not keep track of.
Harry White can be reached at Harry...@yahoo.com.
--
"Buster: No mother, I can blow myself. You've interfered for the last
time." - Buster Bluth
Squad
news:7dadnefzuJk...@giganews.com...
Curse you Harry White for overlooking Rico.
Squad
news:4266bb0b$0$79460$1472...@news.sunsite.dk...
> "Squad" wrote:
>
> > Curse you Harry White for overlooking Rico.
>
> or at the banquet.
>
> --
> Chad Bryant
> Annoying The Ignorant Online Since 1995
> http://www.chadbryant.cjb.net/
>
> The great will always soar above the mediocre.
> They create, while others destroy.
Curse you Chad Bryant for having the privilege of meeting Rico.
Red Herring
I bet Rico could take better pictures than Chad. Of course, Rico has
no need to run them through the blur filter in Photoshop to try to hide
his weight problem.