Well, it’s WrestleMania Sunday, my friends. This is a day that brings back a LOT of memories for me, and trust me, they’re all good.

The first WrestleMania I saw was WrestleMania 2, however, that was by way of videotape. I didn;t see any of the hype going into the event, just what happened afterwards. WrestleMania III, however, I saw all the buildup for, and even though I was just a little kid, I was hyped up for it. I didn;y understand what pay-per-view was, so I stayed home all day trying to find it on TV. I figured “pay TV” meant it was on the movie channel we got. Oh well.

This next memory is either funny, or just dumb. When I was young,  wrestling a lot and had zero real-life expenses,  I obtained an interesting “device” that enabled me to, with questionable legality, obtain wrestling pay-per-views. Often, my buddy James would come over to check out the shows. In this case, it was WrestleMania X-7 (or whichever one had the Gimmick Battle Royale).

James and I, both being goofs for equally goofy gimmicks were REALLY looking forward to this added attraction. Where else would you be able to see Hillbilly Jim, the Gobbelly Gooker, and Iron Sheik all in the same match (with Repo Man, no less?). Well, just as the battle royale was starting, the fire alarm went off in my apartment building.  Now, I lived in one of those complexes that had three or four seperate apartment buildings, and all were a little on the shady side. My building was actually the nicest one, and the more family-oriented one (read: the least crack and meth dealers lived in it). I figured someone homemade meth lab just blew up, or someone set off a smoke alam smoking a bong in the hallway. There was no way were going to evacuate and miss the GIMMICK BATTLE ROYALE!

So I did what any same human would do. I tunred the TV in the other room on and set it to the security camera channel. I figured it it was serious, I’d see fire trucks and police cars showing up at the front door. Then I kept watch the Gimmick Battle Royale.

 That’s right kids, who needs safety when you can watch Duke “The Dumpster” Droese and Kamala.

Still, there’s nothing like being 12 years old and heading out on Monday morning before school to buy all the newspapers to see if any of them ran results of the big show the next day (no internet back then).

And for the record, my least favorite WrestleMania? WrestleMania IX. The ending makde me so mad, I almost legit quit right then and there. ALMOST! Best thing about the show was Hulk Hogan’s black eye.

And with that, I will go search out a way to watch WrestleMania this year. I have no wrestling friends in this city, so it’s getting harder to share this special day with people, but darn it, it’s WrestleMania! I could watch alone and be happy.

Perhaps later I’ll post some old WrestleMania newspaper clippings I still have from when I was a kid.

Hey, kids…it’s just me checking in again after slacking off.

I’ve been in the habit the last few weeks of probably staying up way too late considering I have a rugrat that likes to come drop an elbow on me early in the morning. With the house nice and quiet in the night-time, I have been spending time with the Mrs., exploring You Tube (definately one of my favorite passtimes), and or delving into my scary back room to look through old tapes.

My favorite thing about You Tube is some of the weird and wacky stuff you can find there, and the old clips from my childhood years that are bunrned in my memory but I thought I’d never see again. I also check out plenty of video tutorials, as nerdy as that sounds.

The problem with me staying up late can be that sometimes I just get in a silly mood. As such, I’ve been watching a lot of old Andy Kaufman clips and sketches.  Most of my familiarity with Kaufman as a kid came from Taxi (which I never liked as a kid, but actually enjoyed when I saw one episode on a rerun years ago as an adult) and his escapades with Jerry “The King” Lawler in the Memphis wrestling territory.

Now, as I understand it, Mr. Kaufman was never particularly comfortable with being labelelled a comedian.  I beleive he saw himself as more of a song-and-dance performer or performance artist. In fact, in my opinion, some of his best work was him trying to be absolutely serious, with people thinking he was joking and laughing at him.

I recently came across a film on Google Video which presents a very good cross-section of Kaufman’s work. It’s called “The Passion of Andy Kaufman.” Clocking in at over two-and-a-half hours, it may be a little long for most, but I highly recommend checking it out. I’ve been watching parts of it here and there in the evenings, and it’s been great fun. He was such a “worker” that it’s no suprise he ended up having some involvement in professional wrestling.

Here it is, hope you enjoy it…

The Passion of Andy Kaufman

If you don’t have the patience for such a hefty undertaking, check out one of my favorite Andy sketches, from the show “Fridays” (an SNL knockoff), with the mysterious “Masked Magician.” When I first saw this sketch a few weeks ago, I totally thought it might be the one and only Intelligent Sensational Destroyer (Dick Beyer) under the mask. Actually, it was Andy’s co-conspirator Bob Zmuda.

Be good,

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