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Jamie Lee Curtis
- Posts:
- 24,183
- Group:
- King of Fags
- Member
- #8
- Joined:
- March 6, 2007
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Somebody needs to give Bobby Heenan a job, because he is still probably the funniest man in pro wrestling.
From the Chicago Suburban News...
- Quote:
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Q: What is it like for you to meet and interact with fans at autograph signings and sports memorabilia shows? A.: They’re very nice, but they just ask dumb things. “What are you doing here? Are you here to sign autographs?” No I just came here to watch him (referring to whichever former wrestler happens to be signing autographs next to him on a particular day) sign. And you know what scares me most about them? Most of them can breathe and vote! First of all, being a heel all these years I never interacted with the fans. I’ve never got to hear what they think or hear how they feel. Now that I’ve gotten close to them, I’m sorry I did. They’re a bunch of idiots. No, they are. They ask the dumbest questions. Like when Mr. Perfect (Curt Hennig) died (in 2003). They asked me, “What do you think of Mr. Perfect dying?” Well, the party’s still going on. We ran out of champagne. What do you think someone thinks?
Q: How many autograph signings do you attend each year? A.: It varies. I’d like to do one a month if I could. I’ve just got to get out of the house with this cancer for four, five years here. So if I can get out once a month, go someplace, see some friends, have them pay for my room, transportation and all of that, it’s a fun time.
Q.: In January, 2002, you announced on your Web site (www.bobbythebrain.com) that you were battling throat cancer. How are you doing now? A.: They’ve (doctors) said I’m cancer free. I’ve already had my radiation, I’ve already had my chemo. I’m fine. I had a tooth removed (recently). You’re not supposed to have a tooth removed after having radiation because it won’t heal. So now I have an open wound that won’t heal. But other than that, I feel fine.
Q.: You’ve written two books. Your first was “Bobby the Brain: Wrestling’s Bad Boy Tells All” (published in 2002) and the second, “Chair Shots and Other Obstacles: Winning Life’s Wrestling Matches” (published in 2004). What prompted you to write a second book? A.: I wrote it to make money! No, the guy who was writing the book with me (Steve Anderson), he came up with the idea. I think the publishers wanted it at that time, too.
So they just asked me questions and I answered them honestly and got the book together. It (the second book) didn’t do that well for the simple reason that wrestling fans want to hear dirt. They want to hear who you hate, who you don’t like. What really goes on behind the scenes. They could really care (less) if I go home and like to have meat loaf and mashed potatoes. They don’t care about that.
Nothing inspired me to do it except to sell it. They just wanted me to write another book. The first one did really good, so write another one.
Q.: You were born in Chicago, but you have some connections to Berwyn. Can you tell us about that? A.: My grandmother’s sister, who would be my great aunt, they owned the Ace Hardware store on Ogden Avenue (in Berwyn). I lived over on the north side (of Chicago). I went to the same grade school as (WSCR-AM 670 The Score radio personality) Mike North, George B. Swift (Elementary School) over in Winthrop. I was never was in the hardware store that I remember, but we always knew they were there. My other connection (to the Chicago area) was the second man I managed in wrestling, Angelo Poffo. He lived in Downers Grove, and his son is Randy (Macho Man) Savage (a former World Wrestling Federation star who is a Downers Grove North graduate).
Q.: What are your memories of growing up in Chicago? A.: I left (home) when I was 15. I remember there was always something to do. I lived in an apartment building, and my mother was the manager of it. There were 104 apartments so there was always some trouble to get into. I lived a block-and-a-half from the beach. Plus I lived only a couple of miles from Wrigley (Field). And we had an empty lot in our neighborhood, and we dug tunnels and had fox holes and played Army and cops, so there was always something to do. In the winter time, we’d go out and play on the ice. It was fun. Then when we got older, 14 or 15, we got bicycles and we’d ride out bikes all the way to Lincoln Park Zoo; we’d ride north out to Ravinia, me and a bunch of guys. I really loved Chicago.
Q.: How did you get into the wrestling business? A.: They sold the hotel that my mother was managing. My aunt came to live with us and she had breast cancer. I was raised by my grandmother and my mother. I didn’t find my brothers and my father until 8-10 years ago ... that’s in the first book. So I went to Indianapolis when I was 15 and in the eighth grade. My aunt had breast cancer and we ran out of money, so I had to go to work. My mother couldn’t get a job — she had to take care of my aunt. My grandmother ... what’s a grandmother going to do? Be a trucker? A life guard? She was 78. So I had to go to work. I wasn’t a great fan of school anyway. I used to cut school and go downtown to the Woods Theater and sleep with the bums all day, then go back on the train. My mom asked me how school was, I said, “It’s OK.” I used to go to Marshall Field’s and go to the tent department where they had sleeping tents and camping equipment. I’d go to sleep for a half-hour or two hours. In Indianapolis I had a job at the Indianapolis Coliseum at the fairgrounds, and the job was setting up shows. Basketball, we put the floor down; hockey, we put the boards up. Wrestling, we put the chairs down and the plywood and the ring up. So I had to start setting the ring up (one day), and I met the promoter and started carrying the (wrestlers’) jackets back from the ring to the dressing room. Then I started selling Cokes and programs, and washed the guys’ cars and that’s how I just got into the business. I just hung around long enough so they couldn’t get rid of me.
Q.: You’ve had such a memorable career. What year or era do you consider your favorite, or which one brings back the most memories? A.: Well, I have two of them. My favorite era was when I was in the AWA, wrestling in the Midwest and the great magic at the (International) Ampetheater in Chicago. At that time, you flew (from show to show) but you also drove in cars a lot. And that’s where you really learn how the business runs. You learn how to practice interviews, you talk over things, you learn in the car. Now, it takes you a half hour to get off the plane, you’ve got to wait a half-hour to get a rent-a-car, you have to wait two hours for the bus to take you to the rent-a-car. Then you have to find out where the hotel is. Then you really get there late. I enjoyed the ’70s. The second was in the ’80s working with Gorilla Monsoon. He was one of the nicest human beings I’ve ever met in my life and I really miss him. I really had fun doing that show.
Q.: One of the wrestling programs you appeared regularly on in the 1970s was Bob Luce Wrestling: A.: With Ben’s Auto Sales (one of the program’s main advertisers). It was a lot of fun in Chicago. We wrestled out at the Ampetheater and we had some big ones at Comiskey Park; we were at Soldier Field one year. It was just a great area — the Hammond Civic Center. I really enjoyed the Midwest.
Q. Two of the most popular wrestlers during the 1960s and the 1970s were Dick the Bruiser and The Crusher, who were tag team partners. You either managed against them or wrestled them. What were they like outside the ring? A.: Bruiser (his real name was William Afflis) wasn’t real friendly with me, and I was not with him. It’s nothing to do with wrestling; it was just a personal thing we had. He passed away (in 1991), I won’t fight a dead man because he can’t fight back and that’s a coward’s way to do things. He’s the only human being in life I really hate. Crusher (who died in 2005; his real name was Reggie Liskowski) was a wonderful guy. He has a nice family, lived in Milwaukee. He and I would always ride together to Moline (for wrestling shows). I’d fly into Chicago, he’d pick me up and go to Moline. He was just a family guy. He didn’t go out and drink; he didn’t even drink beer. He’s from Milwaukee. He never smoked cigars or drank beer.
Q.: Which wrestlers have you remained friends with over the years? A.: It’s funny. I’ve seen all of these guys naked; I’ve seen them on the toilet; I’ve seen them in Spandex; I’ve seen them in suits. I don’t want to see them on my day off. I don’t want to talk to them or hear anything about them. But Baron Von Raschke ... he’s one of the nicest human beings. He and I talk all the time. I talk to Jim Brunzel (Jumpin’ Jim Brunzel and tag team partner B. Brian Blair were known as the Killer Bees, and wrestled in the WWF in the 1980s). Angelo (King Kong) Mosca and Harley Race and Larry Hennig, we’re all pretty tight. The Baron (his real name is Jim Raschke) is a big star. He lives in Minnesota. They just did a play on him called “The Baron” at the University of Minnesota. He was there for a month. He acted in it and they sold out every night. He’s retired; he likes to stay home with his wife. He was an Olympic wrestler. He went to the University of Nebraska. He was a teacher, a very smart guy. But he’s one who would watch a movie like “Bambi” and come out crying like a baby. He was just that way. The character (he portrayed as a wrestler) and him are two totally different people.
Q.: What is your opinion of professional wrestling today compared to, say, 20 or even 30 years ago? A.: Well, there is no professional wrestling today. What you see on TV, that product is a different product. A lot of people say, “Well, they’ve ruined the wrestling business.” No, the WWE did not ruin the wrestling business. The promoters that were in the wrestling business didn’t know how to spend money. They were too cheap to spend money and upgrade their product and make it something exciting like (Vince) McMahon did. It was easier to just change it around. There’s more TNA (Total Nonstop Action wrestling), there’s more sex, there’s more different kinds of matches, things you never saw before. And that’s not the business the way it was, so that means it’s different. It’s 2007, and things are changing. If you can’t keep up, I don’t have any sour grapes. I have a seventh-grade education; I never finished grammar school. Never went to high school; never went to college. I’ve been all over the world and I’ve made millions of dollars. I could have done any other job. I’d have been like Al Bundy looking up a fat girl’s dress selling shoes. That’s what I would have probably been doing. This (wrestling) gave me a heck of an opportunity. I don’t want anyone out there to think they can’t make it without an education. Believe me you can’t. I’m dumb to computers and all that, and I wish I knew some of that stuff. I just don’t have the patience to learn it. But you’ve got to get an education. If you can’t get a job, you can’t do anything. I was just lucky and not everybody gets lucky.
Q.: What is your take on the Chris Benoit incident? A.: Well, at first I felt sorry, I felt very bad. I knew Chris and I’ve known Nancy (his wife whom Chris strangled) longer than Chris; I’ve known her since she was with Kevin Sullivan (Benoit’s rival wrestler to whom Nancy was married in the 1990s). I’ve never seen any problem out of either of them. Chris Benoit was in the (locker) room and was quiet as a mouse. Anytime you walked by him he just smiled, and I always made him laugh, told him something funny.
But I got to thinking about what the guy did and he murdered two people. I can understand the husband killing the wife, and I can understand the wife killing the husband. People can drive people to that. (But) don’t kill your own. They could have done something with the kid (Benoit’s son, Daniel, 7, who died when Benoit suffocated him).
Steroids, I’ve never seen anybody abuse steroids or have ’roid rage. A lot of people have admitted it (using steroids), but that’s when they were legal at one time. I’ve never seen anybody just go off and go nuts. Usually a wrestler’s too tired; he’s been traveling all day, standing in line.
Look, I’m a guy who drinks beer. I like Chicago (hot) dogs and stuff like that. I’m not gonna shoot my butt or my arm or wherever they shoot themselves (with steroids) or take pills and lift 5,000 pounds just to make my body buffer so I have to buy bigger clothes. It ruins your health, you lose your hair, your testicles shrink up and your liver and kidneys fail. It’s not worth it to me to pick up all that weight.
I never talked to anyone about steroids, and nobody ever talked to me about it because I didn’t do it. But the guys that do do it, they hang with each other because they talk that talk. You get a bunch of doctors together and they’re going to talk medicine. Wrestlers are going to talk wrestling.
I’ve never seen anybody in the dressing room do it. I guess they do it in the privacy of their home or own room. But I’ve never seen anyone inject themselves with anything. But you can tell by looking at someone who’s got the veins hanging out, who’s got no fat on their body.
Q.: When you wrestled, you got bloodied up a lot. Did you use blood capsules or did you cut yourself? A.: This is very simple. If you use a blood capsule, which I never seen or heard of, where would you carry it? If you put it in your trunks, what would happen if you got hit there, and it broke, and then you started bleeding? If you put it on your head and you smashed it, and after they hit you twice, it (blood) would be gone.
What you do is you use a razor blade. You break it in half, then you break it into quarters and you tape it and leave the end sticking out. And when it’s time to do it, you whack yourself (along the forehead). Then I’d use it and then you can kind of put the blade away. I would just stagger around and stick it in my boot or up the side of my trunks or something.
(Was there) scar damage to my forehead? Yes. I think we used to call them dollar signs. It used to cause a lot of scarring but I had that mentality.
Q.: I remember you getting thrown around a lot in the ring when you wrestled. You had to have sustained a lot of injuries. A.: I broke my neck when I was wrestling in Japan. You remember how (Hulk) Hogan used to drop his leg on opponents? Well, this guy came off the top rope; he dropped his leg on me, but he didn’t drop it across my chest; he dropped it across my face and it took my head to the left. I’m laying on the mat and there’s no place to go. It just tore everything in my neck. That was in 1983 and I couldn’t get it fixed until 1995.
Wrestlers don’t have insurance. I wasn’t going to spend my savings on it; that operation could have been a lot of money. So what happened was I didn’t get it fixed until I went to work for WCW Turner. Now I was no longer considered a wrestling talent; I was a television announcer. That made me an employee so I was able to get insurance, then I had my neck done. I broke my collarbone. I just had a total knee replacement on my right knee. They want to do both my hips and my other knee.
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