Off The Hook: Remembering A True Wrestling Innovator

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Growing up a wrestling fan in the 1980’s, wrestling news was not easy to come by. I remember going to my local convenience store and picking up a couple of wrestling magazines like Pro Wrestling Illustrated and/or The Wrestler and others to get my fix of news outside of the WWF. While I thoroughly enjoyed flipping through the various magazines and reading about wrestlers and wrestling promotions across the country I never heard of, the truth was that the info was weeks and sometimes months in the past. It wasn’t until I discovered the magic of pro wrestling hotlines that I suddenly became a wannabe wrestling “insider.” One hotline in particular became an almost daily routine to call and that the “Coach Kurt” hotline.

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Remembering ‘Beautiful’ Bobby Eaton

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Brian Damage

This week, professional wrestling lost one of its best friends when ‘Beautiful’ Bobby Eaton passed away. A true professional in and out of the ring, Eaton was considered a quiet and gentle soul. A vastly underrated worker who could bring the very best out of any opponent he was competing against. Stone Cold Steve Austin named Eaton as the best wrestler he ever shared the ring with. While a great worker, it was his quiet demeanor that perhaps held him back from bigger accolades as a singles competitor.

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Remembering ‘The Patriot’ Del Wilkes

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Brian Damage

First of all, if you are reading this and live within the United States…Happy Independence Day! Secondly, while I usually take a small breather from the blog on Sundays, I did feel the need to talk about the untimely passing of Del Wilkes…the wrestler most known as ‘The Patriot.’ Del Wilkes passed away on July 1st of 2021 of a massive heart attack. I was going to include this little write up on This Week in Wrestling, but since it is July 4th…what better time to honor a true patriot in Del Wilkes than today.

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Memoriam of the Dallas Sportatorium

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Brian Damage

Growing up on the east coast of the United States, I was only relegated to watching the WWF on television. It wasn’t until the mid 1980’s when I got cable TV, that a whole new world of professional wrestling was opened up to me. I was able to watch the NWA on the Superstation TBS and of course World Class Championship Wrestling on ESPN. It was WCCW that really piqued my interest seeing stars like the Von Erichs, the Freebirds, Gino Hernandez, Chris Adams and Iceman King Parsons. The fans were red hot from the beginning of the show until the end. It all hailed from….as WCCW announcer Bill Mercer said…”The World famous Sportatorium in Dallas, Texas.”

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Remembering ‘Rugged’ Ronnie Garvin in the WWF

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Brian Damage

For most of his career, he was known as ‘The Hands of Stone’ and wrestled for various territories and promotions in Georgia, Tennessee, Puerto Rico and Canada. He was even a former NWA world heavyweight champion defeating ‘The Nature Boy’ Ric Flair. After nearly 30 years in the wrestling business, Ronnie Garvin was looking to slow down a bit. Garvin thought, what better place to do that than go to the World Wrestling Federation.

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Remembering WWF’s WrestleFest ’88

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Brian Damage

Professional wrestling has always been a cutthroat business in some which way or form. Promoters and / or bookers trying to get a leg up on their competition. That was the case with Vince McMahon and Jim Crockett Jr. Their wrestling war in the mid to late 1980’s was vicious and brutal at times…as noted in this piece. The year 1988 was a great example of that. Continue reading →