On January 29, 30, and 31^st, California will play host to the state’s largest wrestling convention to date, WrestleReunion 4.  Event organizer and promoter Sal Corrente was kind enough to sit down with Cageside Seats for an interview in the week leading up to the event. 

Earlier in the day that I interviewed Sal, the wrestling industry received the news that a longtime fixture of the pro wrestling community, journalist Georgiann Makropoulos had passed away.  Sal wanted to open with some remarks about her passing.

Sal Corrente:   The wrestling world got a little bit more bad news tonight.  Around 6:30 Easten time, I got a call from Bob, a guy I’ve known for my entire time in the wrestling business.  He was a photographer for Georgiann Makropoulos, who was a journalist as well, and known throughout everybody, pretty much, in the wrestling business.  We heard she passed away tonight at the age of 69.  It was extremely sad and shocking to hear.  Of all the wrestling deaths, that was actually the one that cost me the most off-guard, because I spoke to her about every day, and I just wasn’t thinking about it. 

That’s generally not the way you start off an interview like this, but I did want to mention it, and I think you’ll be hearing about it for several days through the industry.

But to get back to the WrestleReunion convention, this is the first time, really, that a convention like this is being held in Los Angeles.  The other WrestleReunion conventions were on the East Coast, which is where most wrestling conventions are, so this is kind of a new thing for you folks out there on the West Coast.  We hope that it’s well-accepted.  We’ve got RVD wrestling [which is a] rare occasion in the US.  We’ve got legends like Bruno Sammartino.  We’ve got guys from Japan and guys from Mexico.  The Great Muta and Jushin "Thunder" Liger and Super Crazy.  We feel like we’ve got a great mix of people.  Demolition and Scotty 2 Hotty, Larry Zbyszko, Stan Hansen. 

We feel like we’ve got a good, solid lineup of talent.  People will be there signing autographs, but the truth is, if you’re familiar with the WrestleReunion conventions, when we first had them, the autographs were the big thing.  We had a lot of wrestlers and you could get a lot of autographs.  Our first convention, we had 95 wrestlers, then we had around 65 at the second one, and everybody wanted autographs.  I really think in the five years [we’ve been doing this], we’re starting to see now, it’s not really about autographs anymore.  A lot of the guys – Muta and Liger – they ‘ve not done things like this.  For the regular convention-goer, getting those guys, it’s huge.  Even legends like Sammartino, Nick Bockwinkel, Demolition; these guys have been to a number of conventions, so if you’re one who travels to conventions, you’ve probably met those guys before.  I don’t think you’re going to find a lot many people, if any, who attend conventions who have met Muta or Liger, but what we’re finding, and what WrestleReunion is always trying to do, is to create an experience for people that they’re not going to get at any independent show, or pretty much any other convention.  We have some things here for the Superticket holders, where they can do video promos with the wrestlers, and we have some photo opportunities built into the packages.  But then again, if you’re more of the contemporary wrestling fan, and you really just want to see matches, we’ve got the Ring Of Honor show on Friday night, and we’ve got the Pro Wrestling Guerrilla show on Saturday night.  There’s something for everybody.  Or if you’re just a person who just wants to experience the weekend from beginning to end, you can do that and pretty much stay busy the entire time.  You know, Muta wrestling and Liger wrestling at the show is kind of going to be a big deal for some people.

I just believe that the weekend now is more about the events than the autographs.    Really and truthfully, I can remember the first WrestleReunion convention in Tampa, people lined up with bags of items to have signed.  Truth is, we got through it all, but I really do think the experience has somewhat changed.  I know there’s a lot of rain out there in California, and that’s a unique thing, and I think the WrestleReunion convention will be a unique thing as well.  If you’ve never been to one, it’s really hard to explain it, but it’s a very cozy type atmosphere in many ways.  It’s not like going to San Diego Comicon.  It really is a totally different thing.  The wrestling conventions usually are.  I don’t think anyone will come away – if you paid for something, I think you’re going to be satisfied.  If you pay for everything, I truly think you’re going to be satisfied.  Think about this: some wrestling fan could potentially – if they’re one of our VIP SuperTicket holders – they could be sitting in a video with Sunny and Terri Runnels, and having the girls fight over them, or having Jimmy Hart and JJ Dillon fight over you.  There are so many different things.  You can take that video home with you and have that for life.  It’s an interesting thing, I think, for the people that are really kind of like me; growing up, just die-hard wrestling fans.  Every week, I remember I couldn’t wait for Saturday at midnight for WOR out of New York.  I would have done a lot of things at the time to meet my heroes of the day.  At the time, that would have been Ivan Putski and Austin Idol, and now we’ve got Austin Idol coming out to this thing.  The important thing is, if this is an experience that you’d like to have, it’s there, it’s accessible.  You can go to www.wrestlereunion.com and get all of the information you need right there.  There’s an email address right there, and if there’s any question you have that’s not covered on the site, by all means you can email your question in and somebody will respond to you with an answer. 

You mentioned that California has not seen many wrestling conventions like this in the past.  Last year, I went to a convention in Fremont, California, which was put on by Big Time Wrestling.

SC: Yes, Kirk White.  He’s actually the one who’s bringing Bret Hart as a vendor to WrestleReunion.

That event was hosted by Bill Apter, who will also be hosting WrestleReunion 4.

SC: Quite honestly, I’ve known Bill Apter longer than I knew Georgiann Makropoulos, but that’s because Bill is one of the very, very first wrestling people that I ever met.  He put his name out there on the first WrestleReunion to stand behind me.  He’s known me a long time and was willing to do that, and it was kind of a big deal and I really needed that at the time, because the biggest problem I had with WrestleReunion was no one believed it was going to happen. The things that I was advertising, people said it wasn’t possible. 

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In '80s, heartthrob tag teams were all the rage with the success of the Fablous Ones and later the Rock 'n' Roll Express.  They were often hyped in music videos that were always corny and often unintentionally homoerotic.  Some were understandable as attempts at marketing dudes in the '80s, but there's one that stands out as being completely ridiculous.  After the jump, check out early Fabulous Ones copies The New Generation's initial hype video from Memphis and be amazed.

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In the Summer of 1980, Ole Anderson had been a babyface for about a year after a long feud with Dusty Rhodes in Georgia.  They ended up teaming up against the Assassins in a cage match in what seemed like the usual kind of "old rivals unite" story, only with an extra twist: Each team chose a special referee.  The Assassins chose Ivan Koloff, while Ole Anderson chose his brother Gene.  With that stipulation, you probably figured out what happened next: The Andersons turned on Dusty, so it was a five on one beatdown in a cage.  Good guys stormed the ring to try to get in the cage, the fans were out for blood, and the bad guys eventually fled.  Ole bragged about it in an incredible interview on the next week's episodes of Georgia Championship Wrestling on TBS as they showed the carnage.  Check out the video of the whole glorious segment after the jump.

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The foremost historian on all things Hart family and Stampede Wrestling, former program seller/TV producer/booker/wrestler/TV interviewer Ross Hart joins me for a fun look at everybody’s favorite prairie territory.  We talk about his first memories of wrestling, producing the TV show, Stampede leaving the NWA, the British and Japanese wrestlers who went through Stampede, wrestling in Hungary and England, the origins of the ladder match, and much more.  A really good show.

Check out the show here and the archive of past shows here.

Today is the 21st anniversary of The Road Warrors (Hawk & Animal, w/ Paul Ellering) defeating The Midnight Express (Bobby Eaton & Stan Lane, w/ Jim Cornette) for the NWA World Tag Team Titles. The Midnights had just won the belts off of Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard barely one month before this match, when a newly turned heel Road Warriors finally demanded a title shot. Once the bell rings, the contest is over. The Midnights aren't just defeated, they're literally beaten, with Eaton getting a final tag title belt whipping before finally being rolled out of the ring.

The end of the road is rapidly approaching for Cageside Seats Monster Month. Who comes in at #'s 5 and 4 on our list of the top monsters in the history of professional wrestling?

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I'm heading out of town for the weekend so here is a Triple Shot of Monster Madness for your viewing pleasure!

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