Shawn Michaels has earned the monikers “The Showstopper” and “Mr. WrestleMania” for his show-stealing performances on sports entertainment’s biggest stage. On March 30, Michaels will compete in his 15th WrestleMania, but this one is perhaps the most special to him. Michaels will be facing Ric Flair, the man he idolized as a youngster, in a match that very likely will be the final one of Flair’s legendary career.
I spoke briefly with Michaels about the match and his legacy at WrestleMania in a phone interview this afternoon.
You have wrestled Ric Flair before, but can you put into words what it means to you to be facing him at WrestleMania in what could be his final match?
There’s just an emotional thing here for me and for Ric that I think is probably hard for a lot of folks to get a hold of. I’m going in there with a guy that, when I was 16 years old, I sat in front of the TV and I said, “Gosh, I want to be just like him. He embodies everything I want to be. Everything I picture the wrestling life to be, he’s it.” Fast-forward 20-some-odd years later and to be a grown man and be able to call him my friend – we’ve gotten so close with each other in the last several years – and then for him to handpick me to try to get him his greatest moment. I take it so seriously and so personally because of what he’s meant to me in the past and what he means to me now as a friend, and what he’s created in this industry. I know there are so many people that believe he ought to be honored and set apart, and to be the guy that needs to get that done, on the one hand, it’s wonderful. On the other hand, I go, “Gosh, I wish I wouldn’t have been calling myself ‘The Showstopper’ and ‘Mr. WrestleMania’ all these years. I’ve really worked myself into a shoot this time.”
I’ve always gone into WrestleMania, and most of my matches and pay-per-view matches, where no matter what I was feeling on the inside – there have always been nerves and things like that – but I always went in on the outside feeling 7-feet tall and bulletproof. This is the first time that I’m visibly shaken. Can I honor him? Can I do what I really believe he deserves, and can I make it happen for him? Because I want to. There’s a strange emotional thing going on for me that I’ve tried to detach myself from as best I can, but it’s still there. There’s still a part of me that’s 16. Everyone wants me to bring my best, and to do that would mean him leaving this industry forever. Being the guy that did that, and I recognize that there’s a whole show that goes with that, but bittersweet is the only way that I can describe it. There’s an inner conflict going on with me the likes of which I’ve never really had before because there are so many real emotional levels with me. The idea of Ric Flair not being in this industry is something that I don’t even know if I’m prepared for.
I remember a TV match in 1991 or’ 92 that you had with Ric when you were still part of The Rockers. You were a young guy at that point and not yet a singles star. What was it like to work with your idol at that stage of your career?
He had been in the company for a short time and that was our first chance to get to meet each other. That was when I first began to tell him sort of how I felt about him and his impact on my life. At that time I hadn’t become an established anything yet other than a tag-team guy. I think it was one of those things that he had probably heard before and was flattered by. When we went out there, it was business as usual for him. Obviously, me, I was giddy, and it was the fastest eight minutes of my entire life. It wasn’t that long of a match, but it was something at that point in my life that I held very precious. It was like, “Holy cow, I’m in there with ‘The Naitch.’ I’m in there with this guy that I watched.”
The thing that always sort of brings me back to reality is that I’ve got this buddy, Kenny, who was there with me when I was 16 years old watching Ric. And he called me way back then and said, “I can’t believe you wrestled Ric Flair.” And, of course, now to fast-forward so many years later, and we still talk, and he’s like, “Holy cow, Shawn. Can you believe it? He might be having his last match.” There’s still a part of me that I keep tucked away and hidden here in Texas that’s still 16 and chatting with my buddy Kenny about the fact that I’m wrestling Ric Flair at WrestleMania XXIV. I was giddy then. Now, when I talk to Kenny he gets me giddy about it. But the harsh reality is that Ric Flair has always been a part of this business for as long as I can remember. Of all the interest that I’ve ever had in this line of work, he’s been involved in some aspect of it. And the idea of him not being in there – I feel like the old couple that when one of them goes, the other one loses their will to live a little bit. And I really have to wonder, as goofy as it sounds, how much more I’ll want to go on if he’s gone.
I’m in the midst of counting down the Top 20 WrestleMania moments on this blog, and, not surprisingly, you have been involved in several of them. If you had to pick just one, what would be your favorite WrestleMania moment that you were a part of?
Wow. Gosh, that’s always been a hard one for me. I suppose I always have to go back to the ladder match [with Razor Ramon in 1994] because I think that’s the one that sort of put me on the map. That’s the one where people said, “You know what? Thus guy could be a player.” I really have to credit that one for taking me to that next level. I don’t know that any of those other WrestleMania moments would have been possible had I not been in that match.
The plan for the main event at last year’s WrestleMania was John Cena vs. Triple H, but you were inserted in Triple H’s spot after he got hurt. Had he not been injured, what was the plan for you at WrestleMania?
At that time, like every other WrestleMania, there were a couple different ideas. That’s sort of how it’s been with me every year. … The last call I got before Hunter went down was, “Well, we’re thinking about maybe you and King Booker, but we’re also thinking about maybe putting you in the Donald Trump thing. How would you feel about that?” I was like, “Well, Donald Trump and Vince [McMahon] will probably get all the focus and it doesn’t really matter who you put in the match.” Those were the two talked-about scenarios. Just like it was with every other WrestleMania before that, I was like, “That’s fine.” I landed in the main event at WrestleMania XX, which wasn’t really a discussed thing. They brought to me the [Kurt] Angle match years ago. So, things have just slowly gotten better each time. The only one that I’ve ever requested on my own was [with] Vince McMahon, because, for one WrestleMania, I wanted to be in a match where I didn’t have all the pressure of having to tear the house down.
Although it still did.
And I appreciate that, but it’s a lot easier to go in when the sights are set sort of low. Again, that’s when that whole “Showstopper” and “Mr. WrestleMania” thing works against you. I’m at a point in my life now where I don’t know that I enjoy the pressure-cooker as much as I used to. So, I’d love to have a WrestleMania where all the pressure in the world wasn’t upon my shoulders. Apparently it’s not going to happen this year, that’s for sure. I’m looking forward to a day, if it ever comes, when I can maybe be just “plus one other exciting match.”
Media Man Australia Profiles
Shawn Michaels
Ric Flair
WWE
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Wrestling Media Blog. Pro wrestling blog. WWE, WCW, WCW in Australia, ECW, NWA, interviews, promotions, news and more.
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Manager "Playboy" Gary Hart dies at 66, By Mike Mooneyham - Post & Courier - 18th March 2008
Manager "Playboy" Gary Hart dies at 66, By Mike Mooneyham (Credit: Post & Courier)
By Mike Mooneyham
The Post and Courier; Charleston, SC
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
*"Playboy" Gary Hart, one of the most successful managers in pro
wrestling history, passed away Sunday at the age of 66 in Euless,
Texas.
Hart, whose real name was Gary Richard Williams, had just returned
from a wrestling reunion over the weekend in Allentown, Pa., when he
died at his home from an apparent heart attack.
Hart was regarded as one of the greatest managers of all time, and
for a span of nearly 30 years managed such names as The Spoiler,
Bruiser Brody, Great Kabuki, Great Muta, Terry Funk and Abdullah The
Butcher, as well as such tag teams as Rip Hawk and Swede Hanson, and
The Missouri Mauler and Brute Bernard.
Hart also played a pivotal role in some of wrestling's most famous
angles, including the Dusty Rhodes babyface turn in Florida in 1974
when Hart managed the villainous Pak Song, and serving as booker for
a classic 1982 cage match in Dallas that involved Ric Flair, the Von
Erichs and The Freebirds.
Hart, who began his career in 1963 as a wrestler based out of
Chicago, was a major figure in a number of territories throughout the
country. He later turned to a more successful role as a cocky,
well-dressed manager who would do most of the talking for his heel
charges.
His greatest success, though, came as a booker and creative force
during the glory years of the Dallas-based World Class Championship
Wrestling, a position he held from 1979 to 1987. He is credited with
helping create the classic feud between the Von Erichs and The
Freebirds that set the territory on fire.
"I spent a lot of time on the road with Gary Hart," 16-time world
champ Flair said Monday. "He was a big part of that angle and success
(in Texas)."
One of Hart's last major high-profile stints was as leader of the
J-Tex Corporation in the now-defunct World Championship Wrestling in
1989 when he managed a stable that included Muta, Funk, Buzz Sawyer,
Dick Slater and Dragonmaster in a feud with Flair and Sting.
Hart, who had made a name for himself working as a manager for
promoter Jim Barnett in Australia during the late '60s, was brought
into the Carolinas in 1970 at the behest of veteran Mid-Atlantic star
Rip Hawk (Harvey Evers).
"I brought him in right out Australia, and I had to talk like hell
to (promoter) Jim Crockett (Sr.) to get him in here. It all worked
out. It was good for everybody," said Hawk.
"Gary was a great manager," Hawk added. "He always had his brain
working. He could get on the mic and do anything. He knew how to
handle the people and he knew how top control the wrestlers he was
with. He had a lot of good ideas."
Hawk, 77, last saw his former manager last August in Charlotte when
Hart inducted Hawk and late partner Hanson into the NWA Legends Hall
of Heroes.
It was Hart who NWA Legends Fanfest founder Greg Price first talked
to about the Hall of Heroes concept.
"I talked with Gary a bunch about it, and he loved the idea from the
beginning. It was different because they are the true legends, instead
of the legends who are on top now. He loved the idea as far as
honoring Rip and Swede, and the history that he had with them, and
the Crocketts. He always spoke highly of the Crocketts and about how
first-class they were and how well they always treated him. This area
meant a lot to Gary Hart."
Former Mid-South Wrestling owner Cowboy Bill Watts, who called Hart
one of the greatest minds in the business, credits the manager with
helping jump-start his Oklahoma-based territory in the early '70s.
Hart had been sent to Watts by Texas promoter Fritz Von Erich as part
of his commitment to helping an early partnership that included Watts,
Von Erich, Verne Gagne, Danny Hodge and Leroy McGuirk.
"Gary and I just clicked right off," said Watts. "He wore quality
handmade suits and alligator shoes, and that was an era where
managers dressed on the cheap because they always had junk thrown at
them and stuff thrown on them. But Gary had first-class, handmade
suits, like you'd see on a banker, and sharp shoes to go with them.
And he had a way of talking to people that really hit all their hot
buttons, because he could get so down and dirty."
Along with The Spoiler (Don Jardine), "who never really had made any
money before," said Watts, the two popped the territory.
Watts also said Hart worked well with promoters.
"Gary was always extremely flexible in that he knew different ways
to take things that would work out and still protect the man he was
managing, along with his gimmick and longevity. I knew I could go to
him to get ideas about where we wanted to go. And that was huge,
because when you had the burden of booking and running a territory,
sooner or later your mind went dry because you had done everything
and had repeated it. You had to have new ideas."
Hart proved just how valuable he could be while Watts was booking
Florida in the '70s.
"We had billboards around town with Pak Song Nam's army and a bounty
on Dusty Rhodes and Jack Brisco. That's when Dusty Rhodes truly became
'the American Dream' in the feud with Gary and Pak Song. Gary is the
one who positioned that. He was phenomenal. In Georgia, he managed
Dick Slater and Bobby Orton Jr., who were an awesome tag team. He
also managed Maniac Mark Lewin, who was a phenomenal worker and had
that new gimmick, and then he managed Kabuki. And, of course, he was
booking for Fritz when he positioned The Freebirds' feud with the Von
Erich boys. The kids got so hot after that."
"Gary was a dear friend and a stand-up guy," said Watts. "He would
always tell you exactly what he thought. He wouldn't back down from
anybody."
Watts related a story where Hart even stood up to the imposing
Abdullah The Butcher in Atlanta. Watts had asked Abby to do an angle
that the "madman from the Sudan" didn't particularly embrace.
"I was getting ready to can his (behind) when Gary Hart walked
over," said Watts. "Now Gary had no official status. But he walked
over and cussed Abdullah out right to his face in the vernacular of
the ghetto. They had started together under (Detroit promoter) Bert
Ruby years earlier. But Gary told him off and said if he wasn't going
to do things right, get the ---- out of here. I was just shocked that
he would talk to him so strongly, because Gary was never known as a
tough guy. But for somebody like that who didn't have an ax to grind
to come to my support like that, it said a lot."
Hart survived a 1975 plane crash in Tampa that claimed the life of
wrestling star Bobby Shane. The same plane that had been piloted by
Buddy Colt, who was badly injured in the crash, had been flown to
Atlanta to Jacksonville to Tampa by Watts.
"Buddy was a student pilot, and I already had my instrument rating,"
recalled Watts. "I was coming down anyway, so I flew his plane for
him. It was the same plane he crashed later that night in Tampa Bay
where Bobby Shane drowned, and Gary, Buddy and Dennis McCord were
injured. They were lucky to get out alive because they had to swim to
the beach. Gary lost his sight in one eye in that crash."
Hart had joined fellow Texas mat personalities Skandor Akbar (Jim
Wehba) and Bill Irwin over the weekend at a wrestling-themed event in
Pennsylvania. He also had been working on the final touches of an
autobiography, whose working title is "My Life in Wrestling: With a
Little Help from My Friends," that is expected to be published later
this year.
Hart hadn't been home long after being picked up at the airport
Sunday when he collapsed.
"Jason had just gotten to the house, and said his dad was acting
like he was trying to clear his throat. He was shaking real hard, and
he was having the final moments of a heart attack."
"Gary hadn't been sick," added Watts. "He was trying to talk me into
coming to some of these fan deals and meeting him there. He'd call me
about every two weeks, and we'd just talk. He was a great guy."
In recent years Hart had become a regular at fan conventions and
other related nostalgia gatherings, and had provided a major voice in
DVDs about the World Class years.
"From the little time that I was around him, I know he really
enjoyed the fanfests," said Greg Price. "He liked doing that stuff
and being around the fans, reminiscing about wrestling. Gary Hart was
one of the most intriguing men I ever met.
"The times that I got to know him and spend with him just confirmed
whatever I ever though about the guy about how smart he was and how
on top of everything he was. When I watched him manage, he was like
the consummate professional. And when I met him and got to know him,
that just confirmed everything I ever thought about him. He was
probably one of the coolest guys I ever met."
Hart indeed wore many hats. He was booker in charge of the first
Starrcade in Greensboro, N.C., in which Flair won the NWA world title
from Harley Race.
"A lot of people talk about Gary and World Class, but they forget
that he was so much more for so many years before that," said Price.
"He's what WWE now calls creative. He was creative at a time when the
business was much more protected and much more structurally relaxed.
It's completely different from what it is now."
Price says he'll have fond memories of the colorful manager.
"Gary Hart was like the best uncle you could ever have. He was that
'Uncle Gary' to a lot of people. I know Kevin Von Erich still refers
to him as 'Uncle Gary.'"
Hart, who described himself as "a kid from Chicago who worked very
hard to make it in wrestling," will be remembered as someone who
changed the landscape of the wrestling business. Even WWE
acknowledged his contributions to the business in a note on the
company's Web site.
"Gary Hart will live on in the hearts and minds of his friends,
family, and fans and colleagues."
Reach Mike Mooneyham at (843) 937-5517 or
mooneyham@postandcourier.com. For wrestling updates during the week,
call The Post and Courier Info Line at (843) 937-6000, ext. 3090.
Websites
The Post and Courier
NWA Wrestling
Media Man Australia Profiles
Wrestling
By Mike Mooneyham
The Post and Courier; Charleston, SC
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
*"Playboy" Gary Hart, one of the most successful managers in pro
wrestling history, passed away Sunday at the age of 66 in Euless,
Texas.
Hart, whose real name was Gary Richard Williams, had just returned
from a wrestling reunion over the weekend in Allentown, Pa., when he
died at his home from an apparent heart attack.
Hart was regarded as one of the greatest managers of all time, and
for a span of nearly 30 years managed such names as The Spoiler,
Bruiser Brody, Great Kabuki, Great Muta, Terry Funk and Abdullah The
Butcher, as well as such tag teams as Rip Hawk and Swede Hanson, and
The Missouri Mauler and Brute Bernard.
Hart also played a pivotal role in some of wrestling's most famous
angles, including the Dusty Rhodes babyface turn in Florida in 1974
when Hart managed the villainous Pak Song, and serving as booker for
a classic 1982 cage match in Dallas that involved Ric Flair, the Von
Erichs and The Freebirds.
Hart, who began his career in 1963 as a wrestler based out of
Chicago, was a major figure in a number of territories throughout the
country. He later turned to a more successful role as a cocky,
well-dressed manager who would do most of the talking for his heel
charges.
His greatest success, though, came as a booker and creative force
during the glory years of the Dallas-based World Class Championship
Wrestling, a position he held from 1979 to 1987. He is credited with
helping create the classic feud between the Von Erichs and The
Freebirds that set the territory on fire.
"I spent a lot of time on the road with Gary Hart," 16-time world
champ Flair said Monday. "He was a big part of that angle and success
(in Texas)."
One of Hart's last major high-profile stints was as leader of the
J-Tex Corporation in the now-defunct World Championship Wrestling in
1989 when he managed a stable that included Muta, Funk, Buzz Sawyer,
Dick Slater and Dragonmaster in a feud with Flair and Sting.
Hart, who had made a name for himself working as a manager for
promoter Jim Barnett in Australia during the late '60s, was brought
into the Carolinas in 1970 at the behest of veteran Mid-Atlantic star
Rip Hawk (Harvey Evers).
"I brought him in right out Australia, and I had to talk like hell
to (promoter) Jim Crockett (Sr.) to get him in here. It all worked
out. It was good for everybody," said Hawk.
"Gary was a great manager," Hawk added. "He always had his brain
working. He could get on the mic and do anything. He knew how to
handle the people and he knew how top control the wrestlers he was
with. He had a lot of good ideas."
Hawk, 77, last saw his former manager last August in Charlotte when
Hart inducted Hawk and late partner Hanson into the NWA Legends Hall
of Heroes.
It was Hart who NWA Legends Fanfest founder Greg Price first talked
to about the Hall of Heroes concept.
"I talked with Gary a bunch about it, and he loved the idea from the
beginning. It was different because they are the true legends, instead
of the legends who are on top now. He loved the idea as far as
honoring Rip and Swede, and the history that he had with them, and
the Crocketts. He always spoke highly of the Crocketts and about how
first-class they were and how well they always treated him. This area
meant a lot to Gary Hart."
Former Mid-South Wrestling owner Cowboy Bill Watts, who called Hart
one of the greatest minds in the business, credits the manager with
helping jump-start his Oklahoma-based territory in the early '70s.
Hart had been sent to Watts by Texas promoter Fritz Von Erich as part
of his commitment to helping an early partnership that included Watts,
Von Erich, Verne Gagne, Danny Hodge and Leroy McGuirk.
"Gary and I just clicked right off," said Watts. "He wore quality
handmade suits and alligator shoes, and that was an era where
managers dressed on the cheap because they always had junk thrown at
them and stuff thrown on them. But Gary had first-class, handmade
suits, like you'd see on a banker, and sharp shoes to go with them.
And he had a way of talking to people that really hit all their hot
buttons, because he could get so down and dirty."
Along with The Spoiler (Don Jardine), "who never really had made any
money before," said Watts, the two popped the territory.
Watts also said Hart worked well with promoters.
"Gary was always extremely flexible in that he knew different ways
to take things that would work out and still protect the man he was
managing, along with his gimmick and longevity. I knew I could go to
him to get ideas about where we wanted to go. And that was huge,
because when you had the burden of booking and running a territory,
sooner or later your mind went dry because you had done everything
and had repeated it. You had to have new ideas."
Hart proved just how valuable he could be while Watts was booking
Florida in the '70s.
"We had billboards around town with Pak Song Nam's army and a bounty
on Dusty Rhodes and Jack Brisco. That's when Dusty Rhodes truly became
'the American Dream' in the feud with Gary and Pak Song. Gary is the
one who positioned that. He was phenomenal. In Georgia, he managed
Dick Slater and Bobby Orton Jr., who were an awesome tag team. He
also managed Maniac Mark Lewin, who was a phenomenal worker and had
that new gimmick, and then he managed Kabuki. And, of course, he was
booking for Fritz when he positioned The Freebirds' feud with the Von
Erich boys. The kids got so hot after that."
"Gary was a dear friend and a stand-up guy," said Watts. "He would
always tell you exactly what he thought. He wouldn't back down from
anybody."
Watts related a story where Hart even stood up to the imposing
Abdullah The Butcher in Atlanta. Watts had asked Abby to do an angle
that the "madman from the Sudan" didn't particularly embrace.
"I was getting ready to can his (behind) when Gary Hart walked
over," said Watts. "Now Gary had no official status. But he walked
over and cussed Abdullah out right to his face in the vernacular of
the ghetto. They had started together under (Detroit promoter) Bert
Ruby years earlier. But Gary told him off and said if he wasn't going
to do things right, get the ---- out of here. I was just shocked that
he would talk to him so strongly, because Gary was never known as a
tough guy. But for somebody like that who didn't have an ax to grind
to come to my support like that, it said a lot."
Hart survived a 1975 plane crash in Tampa that claimed the life of
wrestling star Bobby Shane. The same plane that had been piloted by
Buddy Colt, who was badly injured in the crash, had been flown to
Atlanta to Jacksonville to Tampa by Watts.
"Buddy was a student pilot, and I already had my instrument rating,"
recalled Watts. "I was coming down anyway, so I flew his plane for
him. It was the same plane he crashed later that night in Tampa Bay
where Bobby Shane drowned, and Gary, Buddy and Dennis McCord were
injured. They were lucky to get out alive because they had to swim to
the beach. Gary lost his sight in one eye in that crash."
Hart had joined fellow Texas mat personalities Skandor Akbar (Jim
Wehba) and Bill Irwin over the weekend at a wrestling-themed event in
Pennsylvania. He also had been working on the final touches of an
autobiography, whose working title is "My Life in Wrestling: With a
Little Help from My Friends," that is expected to be published later
this year.
Hart hadn't been home long after being picked up at the airport
Sunday when he collapsed.
"Jason had just gotten to the house, and said his dad was acting
like he was trying to clear his throat. He was shaking real hard, and
he was having the final moments of a heart attack."
"Gary hadn't been sick," added Watts. "He was trying to talk me into
coming to some of these fan deals and meeting him there. He'd call me
about every two weeks, and we'd just talk. He was a great guy."
In recent years Hart had become a regular at fan conventions and
other related nostalgia gatherings, and had provided a major voice in
DVDs about the World Class years.
"From the little time that I was around him, I know he really
enjoyed the fanfests," said Greg Price. "He liked doing that stuff
and being around the fans, reminiscing about wrestling. Gary Hart was
one of the most intriguing men I ever met.
"The times that I got to know him and spend with him just confirmed
whatever I ever though about the guy about how smart he was and how
on top of everything he was. When I watched him manage, he was like
the consummate professional. And when I met him and got to know him,
that just confirmed everything I ever thought about him. He was
probably one of the coolest guys I ever met."
Hart indeed wore many hats. He was booker in charge of the first
Starrcade in Greensboro, N.C., in which Flair won the NWA world title
from Harley Race.
"A lot of people talk about Gary and World Class, but they forget
that he was so much more for so many years before that," said Price.
"He's what WWE now calls creative. He was creative at a time when the
business was much more protected and much more structurally relaxed.
It's completely different from what it is now."
Price says he'll have fond memories of the colorful manager.
"Gary Hart was like the best uncle you could ever have. He was that
'Uncle Gary' to a lot of people. I know Kevin Von Erich still refers
to him as 'Uncle Gary.'"
Hart, who described himself as "a kid from Chicago who worked very
hard to make it in wrestling," will be remembered as someone who
changed the landscape of the wrestling business. Even WWE
acknowledged his contributions to the business in a note on the
company's Web site.
"Gary Hart will live on in the hearts and minds of his friends,
family, and fans and colleagues."
Reach Mike Mooneyham at (843) 937-5517 or
mooneyham@postandcourier.com. For wrestling updates during the week,
call The Post and Courier Info Line at (843) 937-6000, ext. 3090.
Websites
The Post and Courier
NWA Wrestling
Media Man Australia Profiles
Wrestling
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
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