The following is not a review, episode commentary, interview or anything else normally featured on this site. Instead, it is a venting of an event that took place this past Saturday that I feel I need to share with the wonderful readers of this site.
Last week, I found out about an Eastern Professional Championship Wrestling show at Our Lady of Guadalupe in Brooklyn, New York and being a life-long wrestling fan, I wanted to check it out. Just the fact that I could see professional wrestling in a gym that I once scored 28 points in as a teenager in a Catholic basketball league was indeed a pretty cool thing to me.
However, with my journalistic instincts roaring, I figured it would be a great place to also interview some of the independent wrestlers and some of the older “legends†that were appearing on the card, including Nunzio and Jim “The Anvil†Neidhart. The ECPW has a pretty interesting roster as well, including a big dude named Andrew Anderson as their champ and a vampire guy in Timothy Plazma, making me want to interview them as well. After making my inquiry with the company, I soon after got a phone call from Gino Caruso, one of the heads of the promotion, who assured me everything was all set and I had all the access I needed.
Once I got there, I chatted with a few people and quickly got an interview with Nunzio, who was a great guy, answering all of my questions and posing for a few pictures. For that, I thank you for your time and energy. I always had a ton of respect for your in-ring ability and you were great with the kids that night. You are the type of example that other wrestlers should follow as far as dealing with both fans and press.
While all of this was going on, I ignored the fact that one of the ring posts was missing and the show was delayed; these guys looked like decent people and with all the kids there having fun, I allowed myself to not be as harsh as I usually am.
Soon after, Neidhart came and after I announced myself, IÂ waited about 45 minutes for an interview, as he signed autographs and pictures.
Again, I ignored the fact that he was peddling a book by photographer [and an acquaintance of mine, who helped me out tremendously by just being a nice guy when I first started covering the Brooklyn Cyclones in 2006] George Napolitano, entitled “The New Pictorial History of Wrestling†for 25 bucks, telling the fans it was a brand new book, despite the fact that it came out in 1990.
Finally when it came time for me to get my interview, Neidhart asked me for 10 dollars, so “I could get a good one.†Trying to play slick, I informed him that I didn’t have any money and have never paid for an interview in my entire life and didn’t plan on starting anytime soon. I was then informed by an employee of the company that I could go to the store around the corner and go to the ATM and come back and conduct the interview.
Rather than do so, I headed out of the building with staff writer Nick Valente, who was taking pictures for the site that night.
What a shame.
Sometimes you have to wonder where people come from when they say or do the things that they do. This is a guy who has wrestled in the States, Canada, Japan, all over the world and still isn’t above the small trivialities that someone in a much worse station in life possesses themselves with everyday.
I don’t know; maybe I’m the bad guy here; maybe I was wrong for thinking for one second that Neidhart should have class. Maybe because guys like Nunzio, and the others I’ve interviewed over the years, such as Diamond Dallas Page, Harley Race and Shark Boy were gentlemen. Hell, even the ones who didn’t want to be interviewed by me, because they had nothing to promote at the time, such as Scott “Raven†Levy, were cordial when I was pestering him for a phone interview.
All this makes me wonder how bad off is this man to ask someone for 10 dollars, to just ask him a few questions so anyone curious about him can get a little update.
In the end, it didn’t hurt him, but the youngsters in the ECPW who could have had some fun getting themselves on the internet and on a decent website lost out. The guys with hopes and dreams and a chance to achieve something lost an opportunity to tell their story and the people who might have been interested lost a chance to hear and learn.
All the while, a man hanging on to lost dreams, in a scraggly leather jacket, has the nerve to make demands, in order to tell his.
Not on that day, my friend. Not on any day.
This site may not be CNN and I indeed am not Horace Greeley, but we stand for something here.
Something worth much more than 10 dollars and one conversation.
The man is a bum, lol. This is probably why he cound not hook himself back up with wwe for recent bret hart/ Mcmahon match in some capacity. I also understand from a very reliable source that he was once high or drunk during an autograph session. By the way for what ever it may be worth, his match was a disgrace and his anti climactic finisher of a regular head butt was even worse! I’m just glad to know I have a friend who brings the field of journalism nothing but respect!
Screw the fat hog. I was a big neidhart mark back in the day. I have read and heard so many negative things about this jobber that proves hes a fag. Hogan said on the bubba the love sponge show That neidhart was and always will be a no talent drug using alchoholic. Bret hart ive heard is on the same par as neidhart. A lieing, backstabbing jobber.