Tuesday, February 23, 2010

In Hybrid Moments

You guys wanna hear a story about the time I met Jerry Only from The Misfits?  I must preface this with a brief explanation:  I used to be really into professional wrestling.  Like, really really into it.  Like, I actually went to WrestleMania.  I am not talking about when I was 8.  I'm talking post-virginity.  I used to carry around in my wallet a trading card of The Rock and a  black and white photo of Shawn Michaels I clipped out of a wrestling magazine.  I read wrestling gossip sites every day (this was in pre-blog times).  I bought wrestling magazines.  I owned wrestling t-shirts.  I made my own t-shirts.  I went to shitty local pro wrestling events with about 30 people in the audience at the Somerville, MA version of Dave & Busters. 

I bought pay-per-view events.

So a friend and I bought tickets to see The Misfits play at Roseland.  When we showed up, there was a sign taped to the door that the show was canceled.  Since we were in midtown on a Thursday evening, I suggested we go to the WWF restaurant (now the Hard Rock Cafe).  When we arrived, guess who's there:  Jerry Only, in full Misfits makeup and outfit.

At this time, there was a wrestler in WCW, Vampiro, whom Jerry had been acting as the manger/valet for.  Vampiro's schtick was basically "Misfits fan" (wrestling fans may notice this was a copycat of Sting's post-neon Crow look).  Around this exact moment, several wrestlers from WCW ("The Radicalz") were about to switch over to WWF (I knew because I obsessively read wrestling gossip websites).

I don't think I've ever actually gone up and talked to a famous person, and I'm only an average Misfits fan, but the thing here was that I was a HUGE wrestling fan.  Seeing someone affiliated with WCW at the WWF restaurant was like the hugest scoop ever, and I had to find out.  So I summoned my courage to go over to him, and we talked about Eric Bishoff, the state of WCW, and wrestling for a half hour or so.

Ok, I get it.  it's not like I met Glen Danzig, Jerry Only sucks, yeah yeah yeah.  That's what a Misfits fan would say.  But a wrestling fan?  This was a huge deal.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

RIP Good Time Emporium

Albondigas said...

Man I miss your wrestling days. So freshman year.

Anonymous said...

Heh, you were a wrestling fan. What a dork.

Coorain said...

WAIT YOU LIVE IN SOMERVILLE!?!?!?! OMG OMG YOU'RE LESS THAN 10 MINUTES AWAY FROM ME RIGHT NOW. It's like we're at a party and you're in the back room and I'm on the dance floor. And then someone threw up on me so I went home.

hotvernors said...

i used to be a smart mark wrestling fan too! backyard wrestling, gossip pages, pay-per-views blah blah blah..i grew out of it around age 14 when i discovered pot and punk rock. there was some overlap there, though, when the misfits did wcw...

ps. i used to date a guy from somerville and spent a lot of time there. great town.

PartyPooped said...

OH SHIT! Good Times closed? RIP. i do not and have never lived in somerville, but Good Times was the only place in the Boston Metro area in 1999 that had local pro wrestling.

Dave said...

you were post virginity in 1999? I had my Bar Mitzvah the year before. See, I was right!

PartyPooped said...

soo.... you lost your virginity in 1998?

Anonymous said...

cool story B-)

Viagra Without Prescription said...

eeey what's the problem with the WWE fans, I'm a fan and I like party, and you dare to insult me, maybe you need some class to improve your party skill, dork.

Virgtastic said...

RIP Macho Man.