HONORING TWO GREATS AT THE 50th YEAR REUNION: GERALD BRISCO and LARRY “THE AXE” HENNIG
MORE HONOREES for the 50 th Year Reunion & Banquet are announced
LARRY HENNIG talks about his days in the ring in a one-on-one CAC interview
Jeff Sharkey on “Cuban Assassin” FIDEL SIERRA
Famed referee JAMES BEARD reminisces about his career in the ring and looks to the future
Gold Coast Hotel / Las Vegas, Nevada
Baloney Blowout: April 14, 2015 Banquet: April 15, 2015
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Since our last issue of The Ear, even more stars have been added to the already impressive list of honorees who will be coming to Las Vegas to join in the festivities at the 50th Year Cauliflower Alley Club Banquet and Reunion at the Gold Coast Hotel and Casino. Here are the additional honorees:
This year’s Lou Thesz Lifetime Achievement Award winner is truly an all-time great, Gerald Brisco.
Brisco was an outstanding amateur wrestler, winning multiple AAU tournaments while wrestling for Oklahoma State. As a full-time pro, he was a standout from the late 1960’s up through the mid-1980’s, and he continued to wrestle sporadically for WWE for many years after that. He has held the NWA World junior heavyweight title, the NWA World tag team title (three times, all with his late brother Jack, among many other tag team titles he held with Jack), the NWA Southern heavyweight championship in the old Florida territory, the WWF Hardcore title (twice) and many other titles too numerous to list here. He is a member of the WWE Hall of Fame.
After his full-time career ended, Brisco continued working behind Gerald Brisco the scenes for WWE wearing many hats, from road agent to talent scout to booker to re cruiter to overall general power broker. For years, he played a heel character on WWE TV, aligning himself with Vince McMahon and, at times, fellow WWE agent/booker and CAC member Pat Patterson in a storyline that has gone down as one of the most memorable in WWE lore.
Today, Brisco continues to work for WWE and continues to have a profound effect on the tone and direction of that company. Outside of wrestling, for years he has co-owned a very successful auto body repair shop in Florida with his brother Bill, called the “Brisco Brothers Body Shop.” His other brother Jack was also a partner in the business before his passing in 2010.
The Cauliflower Alley Club is proud to honor such a distinguished and accomplished wrestler and human being. Congratulations to Gerald Brisco, the 2015 Lou Thesz Award winner.
The Iron Mike Mazurki Award –
The 2015 Iron Mike Mazurki Award goes to longtime CAC member Larry “The Axe” Hennig.
Hennig had a stellar career as a pro wrestler that spanned well over two decades inside the ring, and it’s still going on outside the ring. He was one of the top names in the old American Wrestling Association for many years, winning that promotion’s World tag team title on four separate occasions, three of them with the Cauliflower Alley Club’s own Harley Race. He was one of the AWA’s chief heels, reviled by the fans, until a 1974 babyface turn saw him rise to the ranks of the “Most Popular,” a role he would occupy for the most of the remainder of his career.
Hennig was an international superstar who toured numerous parts of the globe, becoming a major name in Japan, New Zealand, Larry Hennig Australia and throughout Europe. In the United States, he ventured outside of the AWA on several occasions and had great success, especially in Texas where he captured the NWA Brass Knuckles title in Amarillo, and in the Northeast where he challenged Bruno Sammartino for the then-WWWF title. Despite a terrible knee injury in 1967 that put him out of action for well over a year—an injury he never really fully healed from—he
nonetheless was able to rely on his ring smarts to remain a top name wherever he went for years afterward. In the early 1970’s, he took time out to film a co-starring role in the famed movie “The Wrestler,” which featured Ed Asner and several AWA wrestlers of the era.
Today, Hennig runs a successful real estate and auction business in his hometown of St. Cloud, MN. He spends his spare time following the athletic exploits of his 24 (and soon to be 25) grandchildren, including Curtis Axel, the son of Larry’s late son Curt (“Mr. Perfect”). Axel is currently under contract to WWE. Hennig has made several appearances for WWE in recent years, including working in the corner of his grandson.
The CAC is delighted to honor one of the true legends of the wrestling business, Larry “The Axe” Hennig, with the prestigious Iron Mike Award.
The Men’s Wrestling Award (Retired) for 2015 goes to Lynn Denton, best known to wrestling fans throughout the world as “The Masked Grappler,” although he also worked under several other aliases, most notably in Memphis as one-half of the “Dirty White Boys” tag team with Tony Anthony.
Denton’s run as The Grappler cemented his place in wrestling history as one of the top masked men ever to don the hood. He used the gimmick all over the United States, including in many of the classic territories like those based in Memphis, the Mid-South, Dallas, Kansas City, Portland, San Antonio and Alabama. In those territories, he virtually always had a title belt around his waist, including those signifying the Pacific Northwest title (no less than seven times), the Pacific Northwest tag team title (a staggering ten times!), the Texas heavyweight title, the Mid-South North American title, the AWA Lynn Denton, aka “The Grappler” Southern tag team title (with Anthony) and the Central States tag team title (also with Anthony). He has also been influential as a booker in several territories, as well as working as a trainer of young talent. More recently, he’s been appearing as a manager on the independent circuit.
It’s great to have Lynn Denton coming back to the CAC reunion this year to receive the Men’s Wrestling Award (Retired).
The Women’s Wrestling Award (Retired) for 2015 will be given to ring veteran Malia Hosaka. Throughout her 25 years in the ring, she was living proof of the old adage that there are no bad Killer Kowalski-trained wrestlers, as this one-time Kowalski trainee always had one of the best matches on any card she appeared on, often stealing the show from the men.
Hosaka competed for both WWE and TNA, working several TV matches and angles for both companies. On the independent circuit, she set a high standard for ladies wrestling, always being called upon to deliver high quality work in the ring and never disappointing. She has held many titles over the years, perhaps none more prestigious than the NWA World Women’s title, for which she defeated the noted pro Debbie Combs. She also has held the Wild Women of Wrestling/Ladies Major League Wrestling junior ladies Malia Hosaka title, and the New Dimension Wrestling ladies title (twice). Without a doubt, she has been one of the best and most consistent female workers of the past two decades.
The CAC looks forward to honoring Malia Hosaka with the Women’s Wrestling Award (retired) at the 50th Year Reunion this April.
The Men’s Wrestling Award (Active) for 2015 goes to a man who has always been a credit to the business through his hard work and student-like dedication to learning his craft, Sinn Bodhi.
Bodhi, a veteran of the Cauliflower Alley Club for several years, is also a veteran of the ring, having been a pro for a decade-and-a-half. He has had stints with both WWE (using the name “Kizarny”) and TNA (being called “Sinn”). He always impressed fans with his working ability and his outrageous personality in both places. In TNA, he was a key member of a heel group called “The Disciples of the New Church,” a role in which he took part in numerous matches against another faction called “The Gathering” which consisted of, among others, CAC member Raven. In WWE, he appeared on Smackdown not only in several in-ring matches but also in numerous excellent vignettes. Today, he remains a noted mainstay of the Sinn Bodhi independent circuit. He was trained for the ring by none other than 2014 CAC honoree Ron Hutchison, and is accomplished in several fields outside of wrestling, including acting (he has appeared in several movies), tattoo art and the creation of comic books.
No one is more deserving of the 2015 CAC Men’s Wrestling Award (Active) than Sinn Bodhi.
The Women’s Wrestling Award (Active) for 2015 is being awarded to one of the biggest female wrestling stars of the past decade, Beth Phoenix.
By any measure, there have been few women who have had as big an impact on women’s wrestling in recent years as Beth Phoenix. She held the WWE women’s title on three occasions and the WWE Divas title on one occasion in a run with that company that lasted nearly a decade and spanned two generations of the WWE ladies division. During that time, she was an anchor of the entire women’s division, more often than not occupying the top slot on the Divas ladder and perpetually being involved in the ladies title picture.
Impressively, this blond bombshell from upstate New York also stands as one of the few major modern wrestling stars, male or Beth Phoenix female, to boast a championship-level background in the amateur ranks, having won the Northeast freestyle women's champion at 72 kg in 1999, the same year she also captured the women's wrestling championship at that weight at the annual New York State Fair amateur tournament.
It’s an honor for the Cauliflower Alley Club to present the Women’s Wrestling Award (active) to the ultra-talented Beth Phoenix.
The CAC has a long tradition of honoring prominent families in the wrestling business, having given awards in the past to recognize the bloodlines of the Gilberts, the Cormiers, the Ortons, the Harts and the Duseks. Now, in 2015, the CAC will add another esteemed family to the list, the Romero family.
It all started with the great Henry “Rapid Ricky” Romero, who The classic star Ricky Romero was a giant star throughout the southwestern United States from (left) and his son Mark the 1950’s to the 1980’s. He was an especially huge draw in Texas
for nearly every promoter operating in that state in the 1970’s, including the Von Erichs in Dallas, Paul Boesch in Houston, the Funks in Amarillo and Gory Guerrero in El Paso. His three sons—Mark, Chris and the late Steven—all became stars in their own right using the last name “Youngblood.” Steven, wrestling as Jay Youngblood, was a multiple-time NWA World tag team champ in the classic Mid-Atlantic territory along with CAC staple Rick Steamboat in the late 1970’s and early ‘80’s. Later, Mark followed in Jay’s footsteps by capturing the Chris Romero (left) and his NWA World tag team belts in a duo with the legendary Wahoo late brother Steven McDaniel. In the late ‘80’s, Chris and Mark had a successful tag team that won tag team gold in Texas and, on numerous occasions, in Puerto Rico for the World Wrestling Council. More recently, Chris has promoted matches as well as training young wrestlers for the pro ring.
The CAC looks forward to adding another great family to the list of those the club has honored when the Romeros step up the podium to accept their award in April.
In addition to the great ring stars mentioned above, we already covered in the last issue the wrestlers below, who are all either getting or presenting the following awards at the 50th Year Reunion:
Even though the holidays are over, there’s still a chance for you to take advantage of the opportunity to snatch up the few final remaining pairs of the CAC’s 50th Anniversary tennis shoes! Proceeds from all sales of this unique item will go to help our wrestling brothers and sisters in need, through the CAC Benevolent Fund. These souvenir shoes commemorate the Cauliflower Alley Club’s 50th Anniversary in true style! They’re top-quality Converse Chuck Taylor All-Star High Tops in stunning 50th Anniversary gold color, covered with wrestler photos and the familiar ‘ear’ logo of the club.
What’s more, you can even choose the option of putting a photo of yourself right on the shoe, alongside past CAC Presidents like Nick Bockwinkel, Red Bastien, Lou Thesz and more! This amazing one-of-a-kind CAC memorabilia item is still available for a few more weeks! Just go to www.bagginsshoes.com, and type “Cauliflower Alley” in the search box. You’ll be glad you purchased this awesome piece of Cauliflower Alley history!
The 50th year CAC banquet and reunion is April 13th to April 15th in Las Vegas at the Gold Coast Hotel and Casino. Here’s how to attend and get the best deals on everything associated with the reunion.
*HOTEL ROOM: For 2015, the Gold Coast has guaranteed the CAC discounted room rates. Standard rooms are just $36 per night, and premium rooms are only $44 per night. You can reserve your room by calling Gold Coast’s Central Reservations line at 1-888-402-6278 (toll-free). To receive these special discounted rates, ask for Group Reservation ID (or Group Code) ACACB50. You may also make a reservation online at http://www.goldcoastcasino.com/groups by using the code above. These rates are good from the day before the reunion begins (Sunday, April 12th) to the day after it ends
An unruly bunch has fun at the 2013 (Thursday, April 16th). The rates include in-room WIFI internet CAC reunion (photo by Scott Romer) service. We’re limited to a certain number of rooms under the special rates, so don’t wait to book! If you have a Players Club card or are eligible for discounts by any other means, please advise when you book your room that you are with the Cauliflower Alley Club so that you will be placed on a master list, which will help out the CAC enormously.
*BALONEY BLOWOUT and BANQUET: For tickets to Tuesday’s Baloney Blowout and Wednesday’s Banquet, please cut or photocopy the order form found on the inside cover of this issue and mail it to the CAC (see form for details). You can also pay for your Blowout and Banquet tickets through Paypal. See our website at www.caulifloweralleyclub.org for details on using Paypal to buy your tickets.
*RENTAL CARS: Budget Rental of Las Vegas provides a great deal on car rentals for CAC members the week of the reunion. For rates, or to make a reservation, call the Budget hotline at 1-800-922-2899, or call Budget’s Vegas Office at 1-702-730-0133. Or, book online through www.budgetvegas.com. When making reservations, you MUST use promotion code R318400 in order to guarantee the low CAC rates.
by Eric Chmiel
Larry “The Axe” Hennig was a tremendous pro wrestling star for two decades. While he is often associated with the old American Wrestling Association—understandable, since many of his career highlights took place there, including a quartet of AWA World tag team championship wins—he also starred in numerous promotions throughout the United States and around the world. He had a legendary tag team with the CAC’s own Harley Race which was resonsible for three of Hennig’s aforementioned AWA World tag team triumphs, and also for a World tag team title win in the classic old Australian NWA territory run by Jim Barnett. He won another World tag team victory in Japan with Blackjack Mulligan (then known as Bob Windham) in the old IWA promotion in 1970, and held the NWA brass knuckles singles titles in Amarillo.
Later, when his son Curt entered the business, the father and son duo had a great run as a team for Don Owen in Portland, Oregon and were recognized as that territory’s tag team champs, prior to Curt’s AWA World title run and his WWF days as “Mr. Perfect.” Even today, the Hennig family legacy continues in the ring as Larry’s grandson Joseph now wrestles for WWE as “Curtis Axel.”
Outside of wrestling, there are few ex-wrestlers who have enjoyed the level of business success Hennig has seen with his realty and auction business, based in his longtime
The great Larry “The Axe” Hennig hometown of St. Cloud, Minnesota. He has two dozen gr andchildren, many of whom are involved in high school and college athletics, and he is an enthusiastic supporter of all of their sports exploits, often attending their games and matches in person.
As noted elsewhere in this issue, Hennig will be honored by the CAC at their 50th Year Reunion this coming April as the recipient of the prestigious Iron Mike Mazurki Award.
“The Axe” recently chatted with Ear editor Eric Chmiel. Their conversation appears below.
The Ear: How did you first get involved with the Cauliflower Alley Club?
Larry Hennig: Well, me and my boy Curt—Mr. Perfect—were given an award in 1997 by the club, but I had been around it well before that. I got into it through Lou Thesz and Red Bastien, and several other members like Dick Beyer and Hard-Boiled Haggerty. There was a group of people I knew that were involved, and they got me involved.
Ear: Dick Beyer still comes to the reunions every year. You know, some of the guys that have heard you’re coming this year are excited not just because they want to see you, but because they know you’re a former winner of the annual cribbage tournament. They’re hoping you’ll get in the tournament this year and try to take your title back. They want to play against you.
Hennig: Well, I’m pretty good at cribbage. They used to give a trophy with a small toilet seat with a cribbage board as the prize.
Ear: I actually didn’t know that. Now, they’ve got a plaque that they put the winner’s name on, and your name is actually on it as a former champion. You were the Minnesota state high school amateur wrestling champion in your teens. But how did you get involved in the pro ranks?
Hennig: I went to the same school that Verne Gagne went to. He was years before me, but he was the state heavyweight champion before me. This was Robbinsdale High School in Minnesota. Then when I went there, I became the state heavyweight champion myself. Verne would come to some of the matches when I wrestled, and we talked. It was nothing about pro wrestling, at least not at that time. After I won the state championship and got a college scholarship to go to Minnesota for football and wrestling, we got to know each other more. We worked out together. He was the one who was instrumental in putting the bug in my ear about pro wrestling. There was also another guy after that, also from my area, who helped me quite a bit, Joe Pazandak. You know the name?
Ear: I do. He was a true tough guy. He and Verne were both great amateurs.
Hennig: Oh yes, they were both very good. Verne had won a lot of amateur titles. I was working out with him, and then I went and worked out with Joe Pazandak. Those two really started the ball rolling for me. Pazandak was from the old school.
Ear: Your first matches were in the AWA, right?
Hennig: Yeah. My first match was with Billy Wicks in Mankato, Minnesota.
Ear: It’s a funny thing, I always associate Billy Wicks with the south, especially Tennessee. I don’t expect to hear him popping up in Minnesota.
Hennig: Well, he was up here at that time. It was a long time ago.
Hennig at the 2000 CAC Reunion, with (l to r) Paul Diamond, Hard Boiled Haggerty and Sputnik Monroe (original photo by Paul Diamond)
Ear: I know you had success in Texas very quickly in your career, and you ended up touring overseas almost as a rookie.
Hennig: I got to tour quite a bit in Japan in the 60’s. That’s actually where I first met Lou Thesz. For some reason, we really hit it off. I guess he liked people who were good amateur wrestlers. He wanted to be around guys who could wrestle. Throughout my career, we were always friends and we always stayed in touch. He’s in the Waterloo Hall of Fame, and I was inducted there as well. I was still pretty young when I started in Japan, and that helped launch my career overseas. I also did a lot in Germany and Austria. I traveled to a lot of places.
Ear: Did you wrestle Otto Wanz in Austria?
Hennig: Yes. He became the promoter there also. He’s a guy I always stayed in touch with. Maybe 25 years ago, for one of our anniversaries, my wife and I flew out to Amsterdam and went
on a tour down the Rhine River on one of those Viking Cruise ships. We wound up in Bern, Switzerland and took the train to Austria. Otto was doing a lot of those strongman shows around Austria then, and his son Michael was helping him out. We spent some time with him. He was a great host. He treated me like a brother. We had a great time. I still communicate with him through the internet. Otto was on a couple of the tours when I was in Japan, and he also came to Minneapolis and wrestled for the AWA. He was the AWA champion at one time.
Ear: It’s great that you’re still in touch with him. I hope he’s doing well.
Hennig: He says he’s lost a lot of weight and his health is okay. We don’t talk specifically about any health issues, but he seems to be good.
Ear: You had one of the classic tag teams with Harley Race. You won the AWA tag team title with him. The two of you also were stars in New Zealand and Australia and you held the tag team in those places too. How did you and Harley wind up as a team?
Hennig: We were both working for the AWA before we teamed up. He hadn’t been wrestling for too long at that time. We were doing studio wrestling here in Minneapolis, at the TV station. They used to do them on Saturday nights at 6 o’clock or 7 o’clock back then. The AWA was working with the promotional office in Kansas City to get some talent to come into Minnesota and wrestle on TV, just to get some new faces in. Then they’d stay and wrestle house matches. By that I mean at the bigger arenas, not on TV. Harley had come in from Kansas City. I watched him wrestle on TV and I met him right in the studio that day. That night, for some reason the promotion had put us together in a match as a
team. Honest to God, right from the start we knew we had something. It was one of those things that comes along and you don’t know why, but we started hitting it off immediately. We started talking about maybe sticking around and trying our luck as a regular thing. He wound up moving up to Minneapolis, and we got hot. Pretty soon we got the names “Handsome” Harley Race and “Pretty Boy” Larry Hennig. It clicked. We won the titles and pretty soon we were wrestling all over. We ended up in Australia on tour. We wrestled in the different territories the U.S. We just had a great connection. We’re still good friends today.
Ear: Harley is another guy who’s been pretty active in the Cauliflower Alley Club. It would be great if he could make it to the 50th reunion.
Hennig: That really would be great. I know he’s had some back problems, and I don’t know if he’ll make the trip, but I’d love to see him. In all the years we’ve known each other, I don’t think we’ve ever had a bad word between us. In fact, when he was living here, I was already involved in real estate, and I helped build him a house. We did a lot of things together. We still talk often. We used to go hunting and fishing all the time. I could tell you some hunting stories with Harley.
Ear: Please do! It would be a lot of fun to hear a hunting story with you two.
Hennig: Okay. One time we went hunting deer in Minnesota. We both had bought snowmobiles when they were first becoming big. They were a big thing in Minnesota, because of the weather, so we each got one. We were up in northern Minnesota. We got all our stuff ready the night before, and in the morning we got up and headed about 20 miles out into a pretty densely wooded area to hunt deer. Well, at maybe 8 or 9 in the morning, we came to a river that was probably 30 or 35 yards across. It was frozen over, but the ice hadn’t gotten real thick yet. We had a couple
other guys with us. We decided to take our snowmobiles across this river. The other two guys went first, and they got across okay. One went, the second one went, they made it over. Then Harley went and I was behind him a little ways. He made it across. Well, I was maybe three-quarters of the way across and the ice just went out from underneath me, and down I went. It was about eight feet of water, extremely cold. Harley gets across and he turns around and looks at me. I’m sticking half out of the water. He says, “Where’s your snowmobile?” I said, “I’m standing on it.” They threw me some rope we’d brought with us, and they pulled me out.
Ear: And there goes your snowmobile!
Hennig: Well, not exactly. I paid a lot for that snowmobile, and I had no insurance on it. The other thing was that, tied to my snowmobile, down in 8 feet of water, was my new deer rifle. I told Harley, “I can’t do this. I’m not leaving a snowmobile and a new rifle underwater in some river in the woods.” I took my clothes off and had them tie the rope around me. I went back down under the ice and down into the water. It was so cold, you wouldn’t believe how cold it was. I tied the rope to the snowmobile and came up. The four of us dragged that snowmobile out and got it back over to the shore. It was a Johnson snowmobile, and they had those caps on the sparkplugs pretty tight. We started a fire and let it dry out for awhile. Everybody gave me a piece of dry clothing, and after awhile we just went back and kept on hunting all day.
Hennig and his son Curt in their 80’s AWA days
Ear: That’s really an awesome story!
Hennig: Yeah, but it doesn’t end there. We spent the day hunting and eventually we had to go back, which meant we had to cross this river again. We were trying to figure out how not to fall through the ice. So Harley says, “Well, I’ll test it.” Now picture this: Harley Race is taking these tiny, side-by-side baby steps, creeping out onto the ice while we’re all holding our breath watching him. He got about three steps out from the shore and boom! He went right through the ice. So there were the tag team champions of the world; I fell in the river on the way going, and
Harley fell in the river on the way back (laughs). We started another fire and dried Harley off, and eventually we were able to make it back across the river. That was quite a day.
Ear: You must have loved your snowmobile a lot, because I can’t believe you took your clothes off to go into a frozen river to get it back (laughs).
Hennig: Well, I liked the snowmobile, but it was more that I didn’t have any insurance on it. I couldn’t leave it. You know, they have a winter carnival every year in St. Paul. It’s a big deal around here. As part of it, they have a big snowmobile race to kick off the car nival. You start in Winnipeg, Manitoba and you ride your snowmobile 500 miles into St. Paul to start the whole thing. I did that race a couple times back when Harley and I were teaming up. Harley did it too. It would be like 30 below. There was a lot of ‘em that didn’t make it, but I stuck it out and finished 22nd the first year I did it. Harley didn’t finish. The next year, I finished 11th. That’s a thousand miles on a snowmobile in just those two races. It’s hard because of the weather. This was back in the 60’s when we did it. You know, someone sent me an antique tape of the race, documenting the entire thing.
Hennig back in the day with Dusty Rhodes, who will also be appearing at the CAC’s 50th Year Reunion
Ear: This is also when you and Harley were the AWA tag team champions?
Hennig: Yes.
Ear: So I’d guess it must have been quite a big deal locally with you two involved, since you would’ve been real celebrities around the area through wrestling, because you were on TV around the territory every week.
Hennig: Oh, yeah. The film has it all documented. The first day we’d drive part of the way to St. Paul, then everyone would stop and there would be a banquet in whatever town you stopped in.
Same thing the next night, until the race ended. So we got a lot of attention in the towns on the way. It was a big deal. The media would follow us the whole way.
Ear: Most of the wrestlers I interview have a lot of stories from inside the ring, but in your case I think I’m enjoying the stories from outside the ring just as much.
Hennig: Oh, I’ve got a lot of stories, especially with Harley. So many things happened to us back then. Before Harley’s wife came here, he used to have an apartment in the downtown area because it was close to TV and close to the wrestling office. He’d go out and eat late at night. He was at a restaurant one night. I wasn’t with him. There were two punks in there and they had prostitutes with them. They were roughing up these girls, and Harley wasn’t the type to just stand by and watch, so he got in the middle of them and broke it up. Well, one of the guys had a knife, and when Harley turned away from him the guy stabbed him in the back. The knife went in and hit his rib. If it had hit his heart, he’d have probably been dead, but it got his rib. These two guys had been in a lot of trouble, and they had a reputation, so they tended to get away with a lot of stuff because no one would press charges. No one would testify against them. People were afraid of them. Well, after this incident, I asked Harley, “What are you gonna do?” He said, “I’m not going anywhere, I’m gonna testify against these guys.” You know, Harley used to carry two guns. We were always together in public, and I started thinking, “What if somebody takes a shot at him, and they miss and hit me?” I had three or four kids at the time. I wondered if it was a good idea, but he did it. He went to trial, and it turned out okay.
Hennig makes a 2014 WWE TV appearance with his grandson
Ear: You probably had a lot of crazy stuff happen to you in the ring, too.
Hennig: Absolutely. This doesn’t involve Harley, but once I was wrestling at the Boston Garden
and someone in the upper deck had a lawn dart. You know, those long darts you throw and they stick in the ground? Someone threw one and it stuck in the mat right next to my leg. Well, the next time we were at the Boston Garden, they put up one of these big nets surrounding the ring on all sides, so you couldn’t throw stuff at the ring. Some of those crowds were crazy, but I liked wrestling in Boston and the other cities in the Northeast. That was for Vince Jr.’s dad. You know, right now my grandson is working for Vince Jr.
Ear: Curtis Axel.
Hennig: Yep, Curtis Axel. He hurt his ankle and he’s just getting back. He was out for awhile there, but he’s coming back now. I worked with a lot of different guys who were working for Vince Sr. back then, like Bruno Sammartino, Pedro Morales. There were so many great guys there then. I made good money with Vince Sr. and had a great time. Through him, I was able to go to Puerto Rico and wrestle. They had some crazy crowds there, too.
A Larry Hennig business card for his realty and auction business (courtesy of Larry Hennig)
Ear: You mention Bruno and Morales, but you were in the ring with just about everybody who was anybody, from Bruiser to Crusher to Bockwinkel. Bockwinkel also has been active with the CAC for a lot of years. He’s a great guy.
Hennig: I wrestled Bockwinkel several times. Harley and I had a quite a series of matches with Bruiser and Crusher. It was always wild in the ring with those two. The thing about Bockwinkel is that he was so good as the champion. He looked great as the champion, and he talked great as the champion. He used to have the team with Ray Stevens. They bought some real estate together back in the day. I used to go out to San Francisco when Stevens held the belt there (the old U.S. title for promoter Roy Shire—editor). I’d go out there and wrestle for a month before I went to tour Japan.
Ear: Did you ever cross paths with Ricky Romero? His family will be at the reunion.
Hennig: Yes, I wrestled him several times in Amarillo. He was a big star down there.
Ear: You suffered a severe leg injury back when you and Harley were at the height of your run as tag team champions.
Hennig: Yep. We were doing real well, but in the fall of that year (1967—editor) we were in Winnipeg for a match against Gagne and I can’t remember who. Maybe Billy Robinson or someone, I can’t recall (it may have been Johnny Powers-editor). Anyway, I got hit from the side in the knee when all my weight was planted on it, and all the cartilage and ligaments got torn up real bad. They wanted me to go to the hospital in Winnipeg, but I didn’t want to go. That night, Harley drove me all the way back to Minneapolis. I was in the back seat with my leg up the whole way. The next day in Minneapolis, they finally put me in the hospital. This was on a Wednesday or Thursday. They were going to do surgery on my leg on Monday morning to fix the damage. Well, I’m lying in the hospital when Wally Karbo and Verne came into my room. They said, “Larry, you have to go to Chicago. You have to make an appearance.” (laughs) So I got up and went.
Ear: But you wouldn’t have been able to do a thing in the ring in that condition.
Hennig: I couldn’t. They had to load me into a wheelchair to get me out of the hospital. There was another patient sharing my room with me, he’s watching them try to get me into the wheelchair and he says, “Where are you going?” I said, “I’m going to Chicago to wrestle.” He just laughed, because I couldn’t even stand up. But they wanted me there because we had to drop the belts. They didn’t want a forfeit. They flew me to Chicago and they drove me to the arena. The ride to the Amphitheater felt longer than the flight to Chicago. I was in pain. But they taped my leg up and got me down to the ring. All I did was stand on the apron, because it was all I could do. But I made the appearance. We lost
the belts on Saturday night. I flew back to Minneapolis and got in early Sunday, so I was back in time for them to operate on me on Monday. Because I had gotten up out of that bed and went to Chicago, I think my recovery time was a lot longer than it would’ve been otherwise. I shouldn’t have gone, but I did it. That’s business. It was good for business. Of course, it wasn’t good for Larry Hennig.
Ear: It must have been tough during the time when you were out.
Hennig: Oh, it drove me crazy, but there was nothing anyone could do about it. It happened, and that was that. It never healed right. The technology then wasn’t like it is now. I had the best surgeon in Minnesota, but it was a nightmare. They put the pins and staples in my knee. But I eventually learned to get along in the ring with it. I kept wrestling after that and I learned to work around it, because I had five children and a wife. I had to make a living. I already had my real estate license, because I got that in 1957, so I’d already been at it awhile. So I was doing that while I was out. I had to keep myself busy, and I had to make money. I guess things worked out for Harley. All the sudden, he had no partner, so he had to go back out on his own. He drifted back into St. Louis and into the
south, and of course he eventually became the NWA World’s champion.
Ear: This is off topic, but did you wrestle Roddy Piper in his first match? He must have been really young.
Hennig: Yes, that’s true. It was in Winnipeg. He put it in his book that it was only a 27 second match. When I’m asked about it now, I always say it was 27 seconds and it only took me that long to beat him because my shoe was untied when the bell rang and I had to bend down to tie it before we started wrestling (laughs).
Ear: We’re very happy to have you coming to the reunion this year, and everyone is delighted that you’re getting the Iron Mike Award.
Hennig: I’ll tell you, I know many of the people who have gotten the Iron Mike in the past, and I am overwhelmed by this award. It’s going to be a real nice deal for me and my family. I really appreciate getting this a lot.
The Cauliflower Alley Club’s Board of Directors has officially announced a change to the terms of a Lifetime Membership to the CAC.
The cost to become a Lifetime Member of the Cauliflower Alley Club will continue to be a one-time payment to the club of $300.00 if you live in the United States, or $450.00 if you live in Canada or Mexico, and $550.00 if you live overseas anywhere else in the world. The club has no plans at this time to change these rates.
However, beginning on January 1, 2015, a total of $150.00 of the Life Membership dues will be directed to the Benevolent Fund, and therefore will be tax deductible. The remaining part of the payment will be used to cover your actual lifetime dues. This change is necessary due to the rising costs of printing and mailing The Ear newsletter six times per year. In the past, $275.00 of the $300.00 had been tax deductible, but this has now changed to $150.00 as of January 1, 2015.
by Jeff Sharkey
Having multiple personalities in wrestling is not a disorder, but rather a means to an end. While some of the mat sport’s legends built their careers by branding a single name into the fans’ memories, others took a less-heralded path. Utilizing a plan by which promoters could see a benefit at the box office when a worker adapts to the wrestling landscape in a variety of personas, a new moniker or mask can mean more marketability.
One such chameleon is Fidel Sierra, who today still draws attention in the ring with his nickname of “The Cuban Assassin.” Sierra attended his very first CAC reunion in 2014 in Las Vegas, and shared his enthusiasm for the club’s prospects moving forward.
“For so many years, the late, great Red Bastien tried to get me to come here, and somehow I never got to make it. But I was talking to Brian Blair this year, and it’s great to see friends I haven’t seen in 15 or 20 years,” Sierra said. “You get to interact with a bunch of people, not only the legends, but also the up-and-coming wrestlers. I can give them a little motivation on what to do, and what not to do, in our business.”
Sierra then proceeded to give a Ring veteran Fidel Sierra, still looking great at the 2014 CAC reunion, history lesson on the ring posing with this article’s author Jeff Sharkey (photo by Jeff Sharkey) names he’s acquired since his debut. “My first name in wrestling in 1978, I wrestled for the Von Erichs. I wrestled as David Patterson. Gary Hart gave me the name. From there, I went to the Carolinas to work for the Crocketts, and then I went to work for Stu Hart as “Crazy” David Patterson,” Sierra recalls. “It was there I met the Cuban Assassin, Angel (Acevedo), and we were supposed to go to Japan together. But it never worked out. Angel said, ‘I’m never going to go to a bunch of places like Florida. You can use the name there.’ So I did Fidel Sierra, the Cuban Assassin, and went to so many places, like Japan for Inoki. I was lucky enough to wrestle Inoki and Andre, and to have Dick Murdoch as a partner. God bless Dickie, he was a great person.”
In some cases, replicating a name that has been made famous elsewhere is an homage to the original. But in others, there can be trepidation in recycling, and Sierra found himself in that spot twice during his tenure in the Pacific Northwest. “I was telling Dick Beyer, the original Destroyer, that Don Owen knew I was wrestling in Dallas, and he said ‘Can you get a mask?’ and I said ‘Whaddya mean?’ Owen told me I’d be wrestling under a mask as The Destroyer. I said, wait a minute… there’s already a Destroyer…I don’t wanna get any heat,” Sierra reflects. “But Owen said, ‘This is MY territory,’ so I went there as The Destroyer, and did great as part of Buddy Rose’s Army. Later on I came back as The Assassin, which Don also gave me. I thought, wow, Jody Hamilton is the original Assassin, too!”
Sierra’s time based out of Portland paid off, despite any perceived identity crisis. “I was part of Rip Oliver’s Clan. We did well together there. I lost a Loser Leaves Town to Playboy Buddy Rose, and so I left for Japan for 5 weeks. That’s when the movie Top Gun came out, so I came back as Top Gun, and everybody would say, ‘We know that’s The Assassin!’ They put out a little bounty, and we did great business, sold out in many places,” Sierra said. “I put my mask up against Buddy’s hair, and then he lost. I even did a match in Oregon where we turned people away. I had a lot of sellouts in Oregon. I’m not trying to brag about it, but it was great. I did a match where it was not going to be on TV the next week, where I was going to take my mask off, just for that match, and I did. That’s what sold it out. The people knew you had to come to see it in person.”
Friendships in wrestling are professional milestones that are clearly important to Sierra, coveted as
much as any championship gold. “I got to wrestle Curt Hennig, who was a very good friend, like a brother to me when he first came to Oregon,” Sierra said. “We were grooming him. I knew he was going to make it to the WWF. Curt had his first sellout against me in Portland in a Coal Miner’s Glove match. Dutch Savage passed me the glove on the interview set, and that passed the torch, sort of. Then I was called The King of the Glove Matches. I wrestled Curt, and Don Owen thought it should be a pretty good crowd. We turned away like 2,000 people, and what a match! I just saw someone had put it on YouTube the other day. There was such great talent there, like Jimmy Snuka and Piper, Bull Ramos, Ed Wiskoski, Rick Martel.”
Criss-crossing the continent, Sierra talks about the twists and turns that took him to his most recent home base in Florida. “I came from the Carolinas, where the booker was Dory Funk Jr. He got me there and I worked
Sierra with his wife and valet Fantasy for a while, then I went to Oregon and came back as The Saint. I managed Krusher Khrushchev (Barry Darsow) and Jim Neidhart, who was the turncoat American. And I was the Cuban guy. We did some good business and I went through a lot of good bookers,” Sierra recalls. “Wahoo McDaniel, I can say he kept his word on a lot of things. When I went to Japan, he said when you come back, you’re gonna beat Kendall Windham for the Florida title. I said ‘okay,’ and sure enough I did. My first TV match back, I won the Florida heavyweight title.”
As the 1980s drew to a close and the Florida territory ceased operations, Sierra found that his hard work had not gone unnoticed. Higher profile opportunities presented themselves. “I did the Cuban Connection with Ricky Santana, and have some great memories there,” Sierra said. “I went to work for Carlos Colon as Fidel Sierra, and then me and Ricky went to WCW. We did so many things, like Los Especialistas. Then we dropped the hoods to the Nasty Boys, and became The Barrio Brothers. I helped Hiro Matsuda, who had helped train me a lot, to train El Gigante. I was the one who took all the suplexes and stuff! Hiro, God bless that man. I would have never thought he would die at his age, with all his exercising. It goes to show, when the man upstairs pulls your number, there’s no waiting until next week. It’s what made me come to CAC this past year, because I wanted to see a bunch of people Sierra in a photo with Fantasy and the late Curt Hennig where I could be gone… or they could be gone. I’m looking forward to 2015. I’m going to be coming with my wife, who manages me in wrestling as Fantasy. It’s going to be very interesting.”
You can count Fidel Sierra as a CAC enthusiast due to his participation at the regular “Legends Lunches” in Tampa. “Florida is my home now. The Legends Lunches are great, and I’m glad to see Brian becoming CAC President,” Sierra said. “He’s gonna do a great job. At the luncheons, I’ve been going the last 2 years, and you never know who will show up. Brian tries to get a bunch of younger wrestlers to come, but you also run into the old timers like me, Buddy Colt, Tony Marino, Dottie Curtis. In a smaller way, it’s like CAC, but for 2 or 3 hours versus 3 or 4 days.”
Bridging the gap between yesterday and tomorrow is the role Fidel Sierra enjoys filling. Younger wrestlers benefit from his experience. “That’s what’s missing in our business, you don’t have a place to learn anymore. If you’re not in WWE or in developmental, it’s a hard road,” Sierra said. “A lot of guys don’t respect the business like they should. It’s not their fault, it’s that nobody taught them the right way. I try to help, because people helped me. I will tell every wrestler I know that CAC is something they should join, and I’ll try to make every reunion from now on. I am glad to be a part of the club.”
A longtime refereeing and promoting veteran of the business and a CAC member since 2003, Jeff Sharkey has studied from wrestling's legendary learning trees, and hope s to pass that knowledge along to the next generation.
In this issue, sadly, we say goodbye to 13 of the boys and girls who traveled the roads with us and made their mark, however big or small, on the business. For more (including bios of all names who have passed from the wrestling fraternity going back to 2005), you can find detailed obituaries on the CAC website, www.caulifloweralleyclub.org, under 2014 Finishes (RIP) on the home page.
Bob Geigel
Age 90
Jimmy Del Rey/Jim Backlund
Lenny Hurst
October 30, 2014 (Leonard Holness)
October 21, 2014
Brad Batten (David Ferrier) (Bradley Jay Batten)
December 6, 2014
November 18, 2014
Age 52 Age 56
Jesse James Rodger Kent (James Judge) (Rodger Vogel, AWA TV announcer)
March 4, 2014
November 28, 2014
Age 86 Age 90
Also passing away recently were the following:
Johnny Angel (Johnny Lee Clar y), October 21, 2014
Sammy Hall, October 30, 2014, 58 Outlaw Woody Lee (Woody Lee Coulter), Nov 9, 2014, 63 Heather Savage (Heather McGuire). November 9, 2014, 36 "Hard Rock" Johnson (Craig Washington), Nov 23, 2014, 50 The Mighty Wilbur (Randall Lee Buchanan), November 26, 2014, 57 “Man Mountain” Terry Tyler (Terry Navalta), Nov 29, 2014, 60
Although several of the wrestling personalities we’re saying goodbye to in this issue were well-known within the business, The Ear would like to make a special note of the passing of the great wrestler and promoter Bob Geigel. Geigel was one of the best promoters of all-time, running the classic Kansas City territory and serving on three separate occasions as the President of the National Wrestling Alliance back when that organization was tops in the wrestling world.
Geigel also was a fixture at the CAC’s annual reunions, making his yearly pilgrimage to Las Vegas for the club’s annual event. He came to the reunion as recently as 2013, when, as always, he spread good cheer and was still the life of the party despite approaching his 90th birthday. He had to break his streak of Bob Geigel at the 2013 CAC reunion, with noted historians attending our reunions in 2014 due to his Steve Yohe and Greg Oliver (photo by Mike Lano) deteriorating health, but he was still there in spirit, as will be the case with al l of our reunions going forward. The CAC mourns the passing of Bob Geigel.
Each year, one of the highlights of the CAC reunion is the “Hospitality Room,” the nerve-center of the event, which features numerous vendor tables with all manner of merchandise and nostalgia items. If you have something you want to sell at the CAC reunion, this is the place to do it!
The venerable CAC board member Scott Hosey is the man to speak to about getting a table in the Hospitality Room. For all information concerning purchasing a vendor table, just contact Scott at shosey@powerplaysportscards.com.
Although admission to the room is free for anyone, there is a charge for table space. Unless you’re raising money for the CAC, YOU MUST PAY FOR YOUR TABLE, NO EXCEPTIONS! An 8-foot table goes for $150.00 for Patrons enjoy the many wares of the vendors in the whole week, which is from 11am to 5pm on Monday the Hospitality Room at the reunion and Tuesday, and 11am to 4pm on Wednesday. There are (photo by Scott Romer) only 30 spaces available, so book your space now!
The CAC is now accepting orders for advertising space in our 2015 reunion banquet program. This program is always an instant collector’s item, and it’s distributed to between an estimated 600 and 700 members at the banquet, all of whom have a special place in their heart for pro wrestling. This year’s program will be an extra-special one, given that this is our 50th year reunion. Not only will your ad target fans and workers, it will also serve to support the CAC.
To reserve your ad now, contact Morgan Dollar, the Banquet Coordinator, via his email address at morgan@caulifloweralleyclub.org. Payment is due by March 1st. NO payments for advertising in the program can be accepted through PayPal. You can send check, money order or call in your credit card number to the CAC office at 1-206-547-2704. Ads are sold on a first-come, first-serve basis. If you have any questions, please email Morgan at the address above.
Rates: BACK COVER: sold out. INSIDE BACK OR FRONT COVER (one color): $275. FULL PAGE (one color): $200.00. HALF PAGE (one color): $125.00. QUARTER PAGE (one color): $75.00.
SPONSORSHIP AD (one color): $50.00 (Sponsorship ads are banners across the page of an Honoree, and they help cover the expense of the award plaques given to the honorees).
This issue, in honor of our 50th year anniversary reunion, we’ve got a three-fer of classic reunion pics. On the left is a shot of two great World champs, Verne Gagne and Jack Brisco, at the 1993 reunion. In the middle is a 2008 reunion photo of Manny Fernandez and Mando Guerrero with Mando’s sister and mother in tow. And on the right, from we don’t even know what year (maybe the early ‘90’s?), is a reunion moment featuring Tito Carreon, Tough Tony Borne and Rey Urbano. Urbano was the original Kabuki. All three pics were snapped by the tireless Mike Lano.
by James Beard
I was in the music business before I got into wrestling. I played with a band around the Dallas area as a keyboard player and a singer. Doing that, I worked with a lot of big country music acts in the late 70’s and early 80’s. I worked for Charlie Pride’s promotion company, and I got to know the boys from World Class when they’d come out to the concerts. That was my opening to get into wrestling in Texas.
I first started in World Class around 1985. One of the first matches I ever refereed was Bruiser Brody vs. Abdullah the Butcher at a spot show. Well, everything was easy after that, because those two were a handful! Working for World Class also gave me the opportunity to referee at the Sportatorium in Dallas. It was one of the truly great wrestling venues. I stayed with World Class until it fell apart and the USWA came in from Memphis. I was there when Global came in too, and actually I was there right up until the Sportatorium closed.
Even though Dallas was my home base, there were times when I James Beard, rules enforcer was gone a lot because I had a regular thing going in Japan. I loved it there. I worked for NOW, Big Japan and also SWS when they were promoting a lot with the WWF. I would be gone for 6 or 8 weeks at a time. I would’ve never left, but Japan’s economy went bad in the 90’s. It really hurt the business over there. But I always enjoyed the Japanese style and the way they did things.
As a referee, I never liked to be in the role of a babyface or a heel. A referee should be a rule enforcer. That’s how I always tried to portray myself. It really meant a lot to me when Dick Murdoch once told me, “You know, one of the things I really appreciate about you is the way you treat the babyfaces and the heels the same way, and you enforce the rules for both sides.” I had so much respect for Dick. It was really a great compliment to hear him say that.
I was fortunate when I worked for World Class, because as a rule enforcer, I often had the fans on my side. Therefore, I didn’t have many incidents where a fan came after me physically. But I did have a run-in or two when a fan would go after someone else. One time, this guy jumped on the ring apron with something in his hand and he was about to take a shot at Iceman King Parsons, who was a big heel at the time. I saw the guy, and just before he threw the blow, I got over there and knocked him off the apron to the floor. Security was there pretty quick. James Beard’s excellent book, Priority one is to protect the boys in a situation like that, so I did. There “The Third Man” are some real good stories about fan interactions in my book.
I always like being in the ring with technicians who really know their craft. It was great refereeing the Rob Conway NWA title win over Kojima at the CAC. What a pleasure it was to have two guys who are always in the right place at the right time, and always doing the right thing. With guys like that, you can really create something you can be proud of. They know how to work, and how to tell a story.
For a while, I didn’t do much in the business. But you know, it’s one of those things you can’t get away from. When the NWA called, I got into advising and working behind the scenes for them. It grew from that, and now I’m the Director of Operations for the NWA. I’m involved in trying to re-establish the brand, and we’ve made a lot of progress. The brand was abused for a while, but we’re trying to build it back up. If you’re going to be an alternative to what’s out there, you have to be a true alternative. That’s why we’re trying to emphasize the competitive aspect of it. We’re heading in the right direction.
A longtime veteran of the business, James Beard has referee d all over the world, from his home base of Texas all the way to Japan and all points in between. He has an excellent book called “The Third Man” which is a great read. It’s is available through Amazon.com and other reputable book sellers.
An association of past, present and future champions, contestants and allied personages joining in recognition and celebration of fellowship within the wrestling world. Upon receipt of dues, your new membership card & parchment membership certificate will be mailed.
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