As some have undoubtedly noticed from some previous posting, I still have a soft spot for famous wrestlers. I really don’t watch it anymore, and even knowing that it was all fake didn’t take one ounce of the entertainment value of it away. So whenever I get a chance to meet and greet wrestlers that I enjoyed at some stage in my life, I usually take the opportunity gleefully. But I try not to let them see me being gleeful, lest they decided to piledrive me. Whilst at the Chiller Theatre Show in Parsippany, New Jersey, on April 30, 2011, I met a trio of wrestlers.
The biggest (not size-wise, but in level of importance to my specific memories) was Greg “The Hammer” Valentine. He was the son of famous wrestler Johnny Valentine, and was a no-nonsense pug-faced wrestler who wrestled both in the NWA and the WWF during my first go-around as a wrestling fan. I think I remember him best during his early days in the WWF when matches from Madison Square Garden would occasionally be broadcast in their entirety. When I asked him to add “The Hammer” to his signature, he told me that he already had.
Brutus Beefcake came around at about the same time period and teamed with Greg Valentine for a while. He was known as “The Barber” because he cut the hair off of Adrian Adonis in the ring, after a defeat by Roddy Piper. I don’t remember him well, but his name was certainly familiar to me.
I planned to only pick up signed photos from these two, and each attempted to charge me for pictures with them, but I worked in free photo ops into our deal. I got the feeling that the wrestlers were located in a bit of an out-of-the-way location amongst the non-celebrity dealers and they weren’t doing too much business. The photo ops were my favorite parts of the encounter, as I had them pose in the ‘attacking/cutting my hair’ fashion, and then in ‘friendly’ fashion.
Foes
Friends (I know. It’s hard to tell the difference)
The Barber simulates a hair cut
Pals afterall
There was a third wrestler sitting with them named Andrew Anderson. I had never heard of this gentleman, who is exactly 20 days younger than me – but he was bound and determine that I wasn’t going to leave the wrestlers table and purchase something from everyone but him. We bantered back and forth for a bit. And finally I agreed to pay $10 for a signed photo and a picture with him.
Two things clinched this decision – one being that he was part of the ‘Anderson’ legacy, being Ole Anderson’s real-life (he claims) nephew (unlike the fictitious nephew Arn Anderson and brother Gene Anderson, who weren’t related in any way). He said that Ole didn’t want him to enter wrestling, but he did anyway, and eventually adopted the made-up name.
Andrew Anderson in The Wrestler
The other clincher was that Andrew appeared in the acclaimed Mickey Rourke film The Wrestler as The Anvil, and from the point that he mentioned this, all I heard from him, Greg Valentine, and especially Brutus Beefcake was trash-talk about Mickey Rourke. It was awesome. I felt like Vince McMahon or Gordon Solie doing a wrestling interview.
Meeting Andrew Anderson, a talkative and really nice guy – as the photo indicates
As long as the wrestlers keep showing up, I’ll keep giving them business. They’re a unique bunch who combine athleticism with over-the-top comic acting.
Celebrities of the Spring 2011 Chiller Theatre Show will continue…
I haven’t cared about wrestling at all for a long time, but some of my favorite memories growing up are of hanging out with Ben at Jim’s house watching WWF. Good times.
Chris
February 7th, 2012
I am the last ECPW JR Division champion and I have had the pleasure of working for the same company ECPW and this is one of the few companies that was picked for the wrestler movie.
MR.BAD,NEWS
August 9th, 2013