Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Probably the biggest-kept secret about 'Ring of Honor' is that when you go to see a live show - I've had people in their 60s from down in North Carolina that have seen a lot of wrestling tell me that it was the greatest live wrestling show they've ever been to. The atmosphere is off the charts.
As far as the NWA tag-team wrestling of the '80s - and I know you're talking some heavy hitters there - the first thing people will always say is The Midnight and Rock 'N' Roll Express. We invented things as we went along that people had never seen. It was always different. And it was always good.
The Midnight Express and the Rock 'n' Roll Express were the greatest tag team rivalry of all time and drew more money than any other tag team rivalry probably in history, and I did manage the WWF champion and WWF Tag Team champion at different points in time but my phone hasn't rung and I haven't lost sleep over it.
Every wrestling show is now designed to be the greatest show ever. In contrast, the NWA show is different. It didn't tire people out to watch, something was allowed to register. It is the exact antithesis of planned, big budget, choreographed, scripted sports entertainment, and that is what makes the show so different.
I didn't get a chance to see Bruno Sammartino regularly because I didn't grow up in the northeast, but he came into Indianapolis in his in-between time of being the champion between '71 and '73 when he worked for Dick The Bruiser because he liked The Bruiser. I got to see him and the The Bruiser against the Valiant Brothers.
Johnny Valentine's the one who said, 'I can't make them believe that wrestling is real, but I can make them believe I'm real.' It would take him forever because he was just stinkingly boring for 30 minutes of the 40-minute match, but he would let people hit him as hard as they could, and he would hit people as hard as he could.
I thought the Rousey match was the best major league debut in the history of wrestling. They did the right thing at the right time at the right pace and took people on a roller coaster ride. That, to me, was a pro wrestling match. I couldn't find fault with it, except I wish that Ronda had come out with her game face on when she did her entrance.
I feel like there's no reason to put myself through what I put myself through for 20-something years on airplanes, especially these days. You don't know whether your pilot is going to drop dead over the ocean; you don't know when you try to land whether the wheels are going to come down; you can be searched and seized and detained and quarantined.