Charlotte Fanfest....Day #2...the REST of the story!

So after a late evening on Friday night....I had the chance to sleep in a little bit on Saturday...so naturally I woke up at 7am. Hotel beds and I just have never seemed to agree, even one as nice as the Hilton (and it was a very nice hotel, just for the record). It was lucky I did wake up early though, as I wanted a chance to be in line early to get my long awaited daypass. I called Pete, who happened to be on the same floor as I was and around 9am we made our way down to the lobby....where my old friend Howard Baum was waiting to join us.The line to get in was long...but not ridiculous...and after a slight delay in opening I made my way up to the window where the passes were being given out. I was on my own here because, quite frankly, Flaherty was still in his room sleeping off the night before. Such is life when you travel with Dave. So I get up there and mention my situation and told the guy working there that I was told 2 passes were being held for me.I had the money for the two day passes in my pocket (oh, don't worry....I was going to make Dave pay me back when the time came) and the guy checked his tablet and must have saw my name. He approached me with two day passes, handed them to me....and we both just sorta looked at one another."Thanks a lot.""Not a problem."And then I walked in. I kept expecting him to ask me for money (and quite honestly, maybe since Cornette had asked on my behalf they weren't going to charge me for it--not sure either way) but when he didn't....after the aggravation of the day before...I wasn't going to insist he take my money. I walked in and went over and told Jim, who got a pretty good laugh out of it. Most of the rest of the morning was spent going over to the various vendors and checking out what they had to offer.....got some nice stuff from Highspots & TUCOLDVIDEO....and then I walked over to George Mayfield's table. I was glancing at some of his DVD's and I noticed he had a few that were part of a top 100 of the 80's...as seen in the Observer.Hmmm."Uh, hey man. Don't you think that I'm entitled to a discount on this DVD since it was my article that was the one you're referring too?"George sort of gave me a strange look and asked."What's your name?""Jeff Bowdren."He gave me a good laugh and handed me the DVD."Here. You earned it.""Dude, I was totally being sarcastic. You don't have to give me anything."But he did anyway and was really nice about it. Before you go thinking what a huge tool I was for trying to scam the guy out of a DVD, I kept shopping at his table and bought 3 or 4 more---at full price. By the way, George was a real nice guy and it was nice to finally meet him---since he had traded tapes with me around 17 years ago and we never had actually met before this moment.Amazingly, Flaherty finally woke up late in the morning and I gave him his pass and took him into the rooms. Keep in mind...this was the first tiem he had actually seen what was going on. I will say that Highspots had the most for sale...followed by TUCOLDVIDEO....I was a little surprised that RFVideo's table seem to not have as much as some of the other guys. Which is usually not the case at all.Dave and I had the opportunity to go over and have a photo taken with wrestling legend Danny Hodge. What a gentleman. Just as nice as could be. I told Mr. Hodge that I was a member of the CAC and had taken a photo with him a few years before in Las Vegas that I somehow managed to lose...and that I wasn't going to let that happen again. I wondered aloud to Dave whether or not most of the room realized that one of the greatest athletes the country has ever produced was sitting there at a table, graciously taking photos with fans and signing his autobiography.Then came my big mark-out moment of the weekend. I went over and told Dave that I was going to pay to have my photo taken with Tammy Sytch//Sunny, as I've been a big fan of hers since her earliest days in Smokey Mountain Wrestling. Dave joined me and we both got a picture with her. She saw that Dave was wearing a Yankees shirt and mentioned that she was a Mets fan. We started talking sports with her and she told us that she was a Raiders fan (although not currently real proud of the fact) and that the guy she was dating was an Eagles fan. We actually talked some sports with her while I stood there and wondered if I could possible tell my wife that I may have found her replacement. Finally I asked her about the woman who had been in all of those skits with her in Smokey Mountain."Oh! You mean Margie!""Yeah, that was her.""She was just some local fan that we got to do those skits. She was really nice. It was funny because Jimmy kept telling me to just hammer her and be just ruthless to her and she was so nice...it seemed so wrong."We left the future--potentially--4th Mrs. Bowdren and continued to work the room, seeing such wrestling luminaries as Stan Hansen, Vader, the Steiner Bros, the Nasty Boys, Kevin Sullivan, Mark Lewin, DDP, Lance Russell, Dave Brown, Jerry Jarrett.....and then there were the obviously local guys like George South, Mike Jackson & the Italian Stallion. My old buddy and ace wrestling photographer Duane Long was working a vendor booth with Black Bart. The only problem was....he looked nothing like the Black Bart of old. Dave ran into a guy he knew who ref'ed during the glory days of the Florida promotion and while I was standing there with the two of them, one of the Nasty Boys walks over to me.After the activity of the evening before...I half expected to get yelled at but he pointed at my Notre Dame hat."Hey man...did you know that Saggs' daughter got a full scholarship to play softball at Notre Dame?""No kidding.""Yeah...she's actually really good.""Its a good school...he should be really proud."And then I think he turned around and got back into character...screaming and yelling at someone. Or maybe he wasn't in character....after that conversation I couldn't be sure.About dinner time we walked over to a nearby restaurant to have dinner and ended up sitting next to George Mayfield. So apparently it was George's birthday, and the waiter does a full production about it and asks everyone in the general vicinity to sing Happy Birthday to him.So we all start singing and I look over at the bar, and sitting there....singing Happy Birthday to George along with everyone else.....is old Big Nasty himself....Angelo Mosca. I told George he should feel pretty honored to have Canada's greatest athlete singing for him.Later that evening, we went back over to the bar to watch for any more excitement. I saw the passed out guy's girlfriend and asked her if he was feeling better after the night before. And then, who walks in? The passed out guy....obviously walking around this time....although for some reason he was carrying around like 3 or 4 replica belts---in the bar area. Maybe he thought the Nature Boy would sneak back down to the bar on this night after being chased away the night before. So a bunch of us are sitting there at the corner of the bar, and our conversation turns to women's wrestling....and more specifically Japanese women's wrestling, since Howard's friend Koichi has joined us. And as we're talking about the glory days of Chigusa, Dump, Bull Nakano and the rest of them....a woman approaches and orders a drink. I vaguely recalled being told by someone earlier that it was none other than Judy Martin, one time member of the Glamour Girls with her partner Le Lani Kai back in the late 80's.Judy sort of bellied up to the bar with another former women's wrestler Susan Green, who used to be all over the Apter mags in the 70's as the "Tall Teen from Texas" or something like that. So since we had been talking about, among other teams, the Jumping Bomb Angels.....I asked her if she was indeed Judy Martin and she sort of shyly said she was. And this lead to what might have been the best part of the weekend for Dave and I...we spent the next hour and a half to 2 hours talking about the business with Judy Martin. And she could not have been any nicer.Answered every question we posed to her....offered opinions on the different issues we spoke about regarding the business past and present.I couldn't help thinking that it was one of those instances where, when you least expect it...you run into someone and you end up having the most interesting conversation. After Judy left for the evening, we sat around some more and were surprised to see Bobby Eaton come up to us and start talking. Bobby had his son with him (a lot of the workers seemed to have brought their kids with them, from Flair to Baby Doll to Eaton and others) and we engaged in a pretty lively debate about Bobby's early career with George Gulas as his tag partner. Meanwhile, Bobby's son is trying to tell him that its time for him to go home. Bobby sort of laughed and remarked that their roles have switched and now HE'S the one being watched.The next morning I had an earlier flight than Dave, so I got up earlier and walking around when I noticed that Ole Anderson was in his usual spot, sitting on one of the couches in the lobby holding court. I approached him and asked another guy if he wouldn't mind taking a photo of the two of us."Mr. Anderson....do you mind if I get a picture?""Well no...if you have a camera!""Yeah...that guy right there has it.""Oh, okay...I was just giving you a hard time." (NO! C'MON! NOT OLE!)"Hey thanks for the photo....by the way, I really liked your book.""You did huh?""Yep.""Well then...why don't you tell me this. What happened when I was approached by the bully when I was 10 yrs old in the book?""Well....I really don't remember.""Well I thought you said you read that book.""I did.""Well then how come you don't remember?""Because that was about 5 years ago and I've probably read about 50 wrestling books since then.""Back when you were in high school....did you take a history class?""Yes.""And did you learn about Abraham Lincoln being the President?""Yes.""Well then why don't you remember the stuff that was in MY BOOK?""Uh...hey, thanks for the photo."Having heard for years about Ole's reputation....allow me to say....he didn't let me down.I had a good time on the trip. It was nice seeing old friends, old heroes of mine and feeling like it was the late 80's and I was at a PPV. (Which is sort of what the weekend felt like) There were things about the weekend I didn't like....and I've expressed those feelings. I understand that the promoter of events like that are certainly in it to make a profit...and believe it or not, I do not begrudge them for that. I wanted to contribute some money to that profit margin...and if I misunderstood the mechanizations of the event....I guess I'll take a certain amount of the blame.Just for the record...and since someone brought it up....I certainly don't go to these events thinking I'm "cooler" than anyone. My daughter?Now she's cool. Me, I'm just an old wrestling fan looking to have a few laughs. Note in the 5 categories that I listed I didn't mention anything about the amount of fat guys that were there, because, quite frankly....after looking at some of the photos of myself at the event....I definitely need to cut back on my soda and sweets intake because I was completely horrified at the way I looked.Hopefully, Tammy thought I looked okay though. Otherwise....I might have to continue searching for the 4th Mrs. Bowdren.Later,Jeff

So it was about 6 months ago when the first reports came across my computer about another "reunion" for older, retired wrestlers. I had been to one in 2004 in Tampa called WrestleReunion, and although I had fun visiting with old friends....it sort of left me with one of those "okay, I did it so I don't need to do it again" feelings. I sent out the notification to all my friends in the south Florida area looking for imput on who might be interested in a roadtrip and the initial reaction was fairly underwhelming. Slowly though, as more and more names were added to the guest list...interest grew in my friends on the possibility of making the trip. Finally, preparations were made, reservations were confirmed, bags were packed....and it was off to Charlotte to try---much like most of the wrestlers who would be attending---to attempt to capture the glory of my youth.It was an early flight that was leaving Ft Lauderdale and my old buddy Dave Flaherty joined me. This certainly was not, as they say, our "first rodeo", but it sure was the first one in awhile, so I really shouldn't have been shocked when going through security they wanted to search Dave's bag. All I could think of was "Dear Lord....please tell me he is not stupid enough to bring something in his bag that he shouldn't have". Well, in this case he sort of did....but it was the large bottle of shampoo and mouthwash that interested security...not anything else. I chastized him."Dave....what's up with the large shampoo? You didn't get the 9/11 memo?""Hey...whatta ya want from me...I haven't traveled in awhile!"So we're off, with Dave grumbling that he was now going to have to stop at a Walgreen's and buy a new (SMALL) bottle of shampoo.We arrive in Charlotte, where....by the way....they have a WAY nicer airport than Ft Lauderdale, and immediately make our way over to meet our ride to the motel, Pete "The Professor" Lederberg. Pete is at the airport to drop his wife off for her return trip home from vacation, while Pete is staying for the FanFest. While we're waiting....over the loudspeaker we hear...."PAGING MR. ANGELO MOSCA....PAGING MR. ANGELO MOSCA...." it was hilarious. I wanted, just for old times sake, to hear how he "walked and talked and did exactly what he wants...." but it wasn't to be. We make the relatively short trip to the Hilton and immediately see the collection of marks hanging out in the lobby, trying to score autographs. We quickly realized that the people that show up for these sort of events (present company exluded---NATURALLY) could fit into one of about 5 groups. Here's what you have:1) The guys who have less than 10 teeth.2) The guys who still have a mullet.3) The guys who are wearing the tight shirts and have the jeans tucked into their boots. We call them "wanna-be workers".4) The guys who are dressed up in suits, because somehow they think it makes them a 4 Horseman member.5) The guys who have their girlfriends dressed completely trashy in some bizarre attempt to "impress the boys".We saw at least 10 of each group within about the first 30 minutes of being there. After check-in, we did Flaherty's favorite activity in the world.We sat at the bar (sorry, couldn't resist) and waited for some of our friends who were already there and were out eating lunch at the old Chick Filet. And we waited. And we waited. I mean, geez Louise....how long does it take you to eat at the Chick Filet??? Finally, we see our old friends from Greensboro, N.C. and Front Row Section D.....John "Parts Unknown" Hitchcock & Bruce "Getting that regular payday from Wade" Mitchell. It had been a good 15 years since we had seen the guys that we had made more than one trip to a PPV with in the late 80's and early 90's and it was great to see them. All of us were a little bit older, a little bit more gray hair (maybe less of it?) and some of us weighed just a little bit more (thank you very much for not mentioning any specific names wiseguy!). We made our way downstairs from the lobby to where the actual event was taking place, and closely monitored by the crack security staff. By this time it was getting to be around 3pm and we decided that, even though the FanFest would shut down for the day around 6pm that we would "bite the bullet" and by a day pass for $29, just to go in and check out the various booths and to see who was walking around. It was at that point that we were told.....that they would not sell us a day pass for Friday.Yep, that's right. They apparently didn't want us to PAY TO GET IN. So that we could then, potentially, PAY FOR THE MERCHANDISE THAT WAS FOR SALE. The merchandise that was being sold by vendors, who, by the way, had PAID TO HAVE THEIR BOOTH THERE. It was capitalism gone astray. Why wouldn't they let us in? Were they making too much money? Were they unhappy with our look? (Good Lord I hope THAT wasn't the problem with some of the people I had seen) Nope, first we were told that the day passes had "sold out". This seriously might have been one of the stupidest things I had ever seen in my (gulp) 47 years on earth. They would not let us PAY TO GET IN. I went back and told someone that I had seen who allowed me to borrow his All Access pass ($150 for each---pure profit for the host by the way) just so I could go in an look around. So I went in, after looking like "I owned the place" (my friend's suggestion) and was actually pretty impressed by what I saw. The event was divided into 2 different rooms, one of which was primarily used for the interview sessions and photo shoots, and the other which was almost entirely made up of vendors---and there must have been about 10 times the amount of merchandise for sale that was available at the event that I attended only 5 years before. It was actually pretty staggering. There were huge booths occupied by the likes of Highspots.com, RFVideo, JimCornette.com, TUCOLDVIDEO and others. Austin Idol, the Universal Heartthrob himself, was sitting down taking photos with anyone interested (and there was a LONG line). After giving the place the once over, I went over and saw Jim Cornette, who I had known for years and asked him quietly if he knew anyone who could help us with our dilema about getting into the thing. He agreed that it seemed pretty ludicrious and I told him that I was sure going to be disappointed if I traveled all the way up here and couldn't even hav e access to the vendors, much less see any of the old wrestlers. Jim told me that he thought he knew who I might want to talk to and took me over to see one of the guys in charge (not Greg Price, who was running the thing). Jim explained the situation to him and actually said:"Look, I know this guy and his friend. They've traveled all the way from Ft Lauderdale and they WILL spend money. All they want is to be able to get in and they do not have a problem paying to do so. They're not looking for a free pass or anything. Can you help them?"Amazingly...they guy still hemmed and hawed and mumbled something about how he would "look into it". I went back with Jim and was checking out some of the stuff at his booth, was introduced to his wife Stacey (very nice---must be a saint to be married to Jimmy! HA!) and started talking to Bobby Eaton, who I hadn't seen in 5 years or so.....when back to the table comes old Mr. Hemm & Haw."Well, I'm really not supposed to do this. But, since their friends of yours....we'll let them buy a day pass for tomorrow."WOW. Thanks for the opportunity pal.He walks away and Jim and I just sort of shake our head. Jim says something about "only in wrestling".I go back out and meet Dave....at the bar....and hand him the pass and tell him I'll wait for him there.Well, about 30 seconds go by. Dave is back. I guess he didn't look like he "owned the place", because they wouldn't let him in. Dave is grumpy in a hilarious sort of way.Later that evening they had their banquet, which included the "Hall of Heroes" enshrinement of guys like Lance Russell (always a gentleman), Blackjack Mulligan (accepted by B.W. since B.J. had recently suffered a stroke), The Fargo's--Jackie & Don, Wahoo McDaniel (accept by his son in what I'm told was a very emotional moment) and others. We didn't go since it was an additional $65 to go to the banquet and so we decided to go to dinner with John Hitchcock and sample some of Charlotte's finest local cuisine. A place called "Outback". Yep, nothing like going "aussie" in downtown Charlotte. Perhaps even more surprising (get ready those of you who know him) was that Dave picked up the check. For the whole dinner. Amazing. Then we go back to the hotel for what is always one of the highlights of any wrestling trip.Hanging out at the hotel bar and watching the magic happen.Yep, depending on the event....you could see drunken debauchery, a fight, a loud altercation....or, if you're lucky. All three!So at this point, I run into old friend Bill Pancoast, owner and operator of the afore-mentioned TUCOLDVIDEO. Bill is hanging out at the bar also, and we're all sort of talking and enjoying the company....waiting for the banquet to end. It had started late, which, truth be told, is sort of required at one of these events as almost nothing EVER happens on time. Occasionally one of the wrestlers would come up the escalator and someone would wave to him or give him a shout....this happened when Tommy Rich (looking pretty rough by the way) came up and I shouted:"I hear someone say somethin' 'bout FIRING UP!" and Tommy turned and gave us a wave and a yell. Flaherty tells us that earlier in the day, while we were at the bar, one of the boys came over to order a beverage and sat there very briefly...and Dave happened to turn right as he pulled a dollar bill out of his pocket....folded it in half and did a line right there at the bar. Amazing.No names, but....it wasn't one of the headliners of the event, let's just say that.So just before the banquet ends, a couple of things catch our eye. One of the fans, and I'll admit his timing was pretty poor, attempted to walk right into a group conversation that was being held away from the bar by the Nasty Boys, Erik Watts & Lacey Von Erich (Kerry's daughter and absolutely stunning---she does not belong in the wrestling business. She should be a model somewhere. Beautiful.). Well, as you might imagine, the Nasty Boys take issue with the interruption and begin to verbally harang the guy and his buddies about the interruption. Again, the guy was completely wrong as far as timing and everything else (I think he was looking for a photo with Lacey), but Saggs just began to browbeat the guys about their conduct and manners, etc....which is pretty ironic when you think about it. Later on, someone notices that a guy sitting down in one of the chairs right outside the bar has either fallen asleep or passed out. Now...mind you....his girlfriend is standing right there next to him, and she's laughing at him, sort of giving it the old shrug of the shoulders. Well someone, I'm not sure who it was first, comes along and does a photo of themselves standing next to the guy. And it totally snowballed to where at least 20 people (myself included) went over and for a laugh took a photo next to the guy, who was still asleep///passed out and completely oblivious. A couple more moments go by and all of a sudden the guy wakes up, looks around...and then sort of goes back to sleep. And then....you see him go into sort of a full body heave and then......there she blows! All over the chair, himself and the rug. It was NOT pretty.Amazingly....his girlfriend just stands there doing nothing. Saggs then comes over and along with someone else helps the guy get up and they take him to a nearby bathroom. Now, if we had stopped right there....I would've thought that Saggs had been a pretty upstanding guy for helping the guy out. But, again....this is wrestling. It was at this point that Saggs walks over to one of the guys who had been standing near our "victim" and asks him if he had taken a photo of him. The guy admits that he had and then Saggs begins cutting a promo on him for taking advantage of the guy. Again, the word "irony" comes into play as I can seem to recall a lot of stories about how the Nasty Boys were the #1 guys in the business for pulling ribs on people who were....shall we say, in no position to assist themselves. Someone mentions that if it had been a few years before that Saggs probably would've shaved his eyebrows.The banquet finally ends and as we're all standing there, the guests begin coming up the escalator and some make their way to the bar.Finally the moment that many in the room had been waiting for happened. Ric Flair comes up with his girlfriend on his arm and begins walking towards the bar. He's just about there when......this guy who is dressed up in a suit while sporting a mullet (that would make him a 2 out of 5 on our master list) runs up to him and begins launching into this hilariously loud, over the top Ric Flair impression. I mean, it lasted almost a full minute. When its over, Flair looks at him....and then turns around with his girlfriend and heads out of the bar area and up to his room.The look on the kids face was priceless. He had done what almost no one had ever been able to do.....he had sent Ric home WITHOUT going to the bar. As Ric is walking away, Flaherty walks over to him. Now, truth be told, Dave sort of "knew" Flair in that years and years ago Dave had sold Flair some music CD's and it was always his "brush with greatness". So Flaherty walks over to "re-introduce" himself to the Nature Boy----and Flair sort of brushes him aside. Completely hilarious. Dave comes back over to me and announces that he's sorry that he has even come to the event. Being the good friend I am.....I begin to complete hammer him about it. Hey, what are friends for????Later on, I go over and share a beverage with Sir Oliver Humperdink and then call it a night around 1:30am. Interesting first day.Jeff