Author: Robski McFadden
Progress is a process. Every profession requires you to work your way up. Those who take shortcuts often find they do not have the experience they need to stay there. It may seem like Danny Boy Collins had his success handed to him. That only made him work harder to earn what he already had. Daniel Collins was born in Bristol, England. He was a fan of wrestling for as long as he could remember. He watched it on television on with his parents every Saturday since he was ten years old. He knew this was what he wanted to…
The Bible tells of a story of a young farmer’s son called David. He defeated a giant and went on to become king for forty years. The story of Blue Demon is similar. A humble farmer’s son would conquer a giant in lucha libre, and ruled over the sport for forty years. The man who would become the Blue Demon was born on the outskirts of a small city within Nuevo León, Mexico, in 1922. It was renamed García in honour of its most famous resident. Joaquin García was born there, and went on to become a two-term state governor.…
Mercy is slowly becoming a forgotten concept. Agreeing or disagreeing with one opinion can be construed as aligning yourself with an entire ideology. D’Lo Brown often found himself beside people who expressed radical views. While he was deemed guilty by association, he never asked for mercy. Accie Connor was born in Burlington, New Jersey, in 1970. He was taught the importance of working hard and living right at a young age. The world treating you poorly was no excuse for treating the world poorly. He met his closest friend in high school. Darren Lewis would call him “Ace”, and Connor…
Trailblazers are only celebrated if they are successful. Little thought is given to the ones who made way for them. Nobody dreams of following in the path of Men On A Mission. But when you are on a mission, you need to be brave enough to go forward, no matter who is behind you. Robert “Bobby” Horne was born in Monroe, North Carolina, in 1967. He played multiple different sports at school. But his favourite sport was pro wrestling. After graduation, he went to indie wrestling shows in a bid to get his foot in the door. He managed to…
Wrestling has always been regarded as a big man’s sport. Few have been bigger than King Mabel. His size got him to the top of the industry quickly, and it didn’t last long. He learned the hard way that staying on the mountain required more than being the size of one. Nelson Frazier, Jr. was born in Goldsboro, North Carolina, in 1971. He watched pro wrestling since he was three years old. Nelson Fraizer Jr – Before There Was A King Mabel He knew early on that it was what he wanted to do with his life. He started competing…
Chairman Ram Kaicho – Wrestling’s Child of Darkness. Humans may be at the top of the food chain, but we are not invulnerable. There are many creatures that could kill us in an instant if we dropped our guard. Nobody is afraid of a cub when it is young. But the smartest men know to make themselves scarce when they see a full-grown lion, a tiger, or a bear. We have all had a laugh at Chairman Ram when she was little. Now she is full-grown, she should not be taken so lightly. There has been no shortage of wrestling…
The term Lucha Libre translates literally as “free fighting”. This is not an industry trying to convince us the combat is real. Luchadors are fighters in a broader sense. They fight for honour, for fame, for money, or just for the passion of their craft. For Fray Tormenta, his cause may seem like the plot to a movie, but he fought for something greater than himself. Sergio Gutiérrez Benítez was born in one of the smallest municipalities of Hidalgo, Mexico, on May 9, 1945. San Augustín Metzquititlán has never had a population that reached ten thousand people. Yet most of…
World Championship Wrestling Australia. Before it became a poor excuse to share photos of women in bikinis on social media, the initials “W.C.W.” stood for only one thing. World Championship Wrestling remains the entity that has come closest to defeating the WWE. It has now been twenty years since the promotion ceased operations and was sold off to their rivals. But, before there could be a World Championship Wrestling, there was World Championship Wrestling. Jim Barnett spent his entire adult life in the wrestling business. He got his start working on a publication owned by wrestler and promoter Fred Kohler…
Gene LeBell. Every industry has their icons. Hollywood has John Wayne and Clint Eastwood. Music has Elvis. TV has David Hasselhoff. Stand-up comedy has Jay Leno and Steve Martin. Martial arts have Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris. MMA has the Gracie family. Wrestling has Lou Thesz and Frank Gotch. Lucha libre has Mil Mascaras. One thing these icons have in common is that they have all grappled with Gene LeBell. Ivan Gene LeBell was born in Los Angeles, California, in 1932. His mother, Aileen, was working as a secretary for the Los Angeles Athletic Club. Her work meant that her…
The current “Women’s Revolution” in wrestling appears to be anything but revolutionary. Women wrestlers are finally getting the opportunity to do things they were already doing. If it seems like they have become more demanding, it is because they have seen how easily it can all be taken away. This is the story of the Ladies Professional Wrestling Association, a blueprint for a revolution. The first ‘Rocky’ movie hit cinemas nearly fifty years ago. The franchise used to have a knack for launching people into superstardom. Such was the case when Hulk Hogan had a small role in the third…