AS I SEE IT
Bob Magee
Pro Wrestling: Between the Sheets
PWBTS.com
Jason Ray was good enough to pass this along...
A Johnny Grunge Memorial Show will be held on Saturday, May 20th, at 7:00 pm in Rapid City, South Dakota at the Mother Butler Center Arena.
A silent auction of wrestling and non-wrestling items will be held at 6:00 pm with 100% of all proceeds going to the official Michael Durham (Johnny Grunge) Memorial Fund.
If you'd like to contribute directly, you can do so by sending contributions to the Michael Durham Memorial Fund at: Bank of America GA7-083-01-01, 500 North Lake Drive, Peachtree City, GA 30269.
The fund benefits Grunge's two young sons, Michael Jr., aged 8 and Chase, aged 3.
We'll have more news on the show as the date comes closer.
Jon Douglas of the Midwest-based UCW shared the following:
"I’m still somewhat shocked. I knew Mike fairly well as he’s worked for UCW for the last 5 years. I knew both him and Teddy. He took Teddy’s death very hard and while it is reported that he was never the same-he had turned the corner. He was always friendly and helpful to everyone in the organization. He spent a lot of time helping the younger guys out before the shows when he could of been at the hotel or hanging out. He was the life of the locker room. He was a team player. He helped set-up and tear down the ring.
He watched EVERY SINGLE MATCH on the monitors and gave the boys his honest feedback. My first match back from destroying my shoulder, he was the first person to pat me on the back when I got through the curtain-despite the fact that I really blew it. He encouraged me to keep my head up.
Going over matches before the show at Uncle Tom's Rib Shack provided another classic "Johnny moment". He had BBQ sauce dripping from his goatee and a mouth full of rib meat as he literally cut the mother of all promos on an unnamed worker who refused to do the honors. Nobody could understand what he was saying-but damnit was it funny!"
[EDITOR'S NOTE: As I'm writing this portion of the column at 7:00 am Wednesday, I'm chuckling...because I can just visualize Grunge cutting this "promo" of sorts...]
"He had just spoken with my tag partner Jason Ray last night. Mike got booked with Jason (Ray) in Big Japan next month and the two talked about how this would be his “comeback”. Mike has had some rough days these last few years. His marriage, his career, his friends, things were just starting to look up for him. I remember lacing up my boots while Johnny was on his cell phone chuckling. Chase had climbed up on a chair and started emptying the ice maker on the refrigerator back home. Mike wasn’t a saint-but he was one of the “good guys”. We’ll all miss him very much. "
In more disgusting news, the Tim White WWE "suicide" storyline continues.
For anyone fortunate enough to miss it, WWE has given us a series of skits in which Tim White, supposedly driven to despair because of his career-ending shoulder injury suffered in the Chris Jericho-Triple H Hell in the Cell match at the Judgment Day 2002 PPV, attempting to end his life by
shooting himself (in the foot, as it turned out later) in the now-infamous skit which made PPV. Subsequent skits saw him hanging himself from the ceiling, throwing a toaster into a bathtub in which he was standing (complete with WWE fireworks special effects), slitting his wrists with a straight razor, complete with inserted sound of the noise of spurting blood (and shooting "blood" ala the Julia Child Saturday Night Live sketch), then tried "suffocating" himself by placing a plastic bag over his head.
USA, Spike TV and InDemand PPV apparently made clear that they weren't interested in airing this macabre humor, so the skits were exiled to WWE.com after the first one that made PPV.
Well, the newest bits of alleged humor include Tim White trying to shoot himself (complete with blood splattering on Josh Matthews). This week's segment sees White runs out into traffic to attempt suicide (wearing a bandage on his head where he evidently shot himself and somehow "missed").
Like I said earlier this month, God help Vince McMahon if any child or teenager, watches these crap, imitates it; and a angry, grieving parent makes a connection and gets a lawyer. The public outcry that would result after airing these online skits would likely make the Lionel Tate "wrestling death" furor look like nothing.
Newsflash to Vince McMahon: your viewers aren't like Wile E. Coyote, who can fall off a cliff and get back up for the next scene. They're more like Michael Durham, who died, is being mourned by friends and family, and can't magically come back to life for next week's episode. If nothing else means anything to you...if one of them imitates this garbage, they won't be alive to buy your next PPV or to be a Neilsen ratings point.
To quote Josh Matthews in your skits...ignoring THAT wouldn't be wise.
Until next time...
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If you have comments/questions, or if you'd like to add the AS I SEE IT
column to your website, I can be reached by e-mail at bobmagee1@hotmail.com)