Thanksgiving with the Superstar

I spent Thanksgiving in Charlotte this year. My brother and sister-in-law, and mom all went there on Thursday. Stopped at a Cracker Barrell for a pretty good Thanksgiving meal. Not as good as mom's, but it did the trick. It was the first Thanksgiving without dad, and I was more affected than I thought I'd be. Christmas is gonna be bad, but Thanksgiving had been slipping away the past few years, so I didn't think it would be as emotional as it was. But we got through it. And the weekend went well.

We went to Charlotte at my brother's urgings because of the Mid-Atlantic Legends reunion. It's a gathering of old wrestlers and old wrestling fans. It started last February and has spawned a few imitators throughout the year, which have pretty much lost money for the organizers to the point that there may very well be no more. A shame, really. It was poorly run, but still a lot of fun. My brother and sis-in-law had been to the one in February and to an NWA Legends reunion (that's the National Wrestling Alliance, no attitudes there) in Fayetteville, NC back in August, so they knew the agenda, and knew the promoters, and knew a bunch of participants. I'm socially retarded, no social skills whatsoever, so I was impressed with how many people they'd gotten to know from previous events. It was pretty cool to see so many of the wrestlers I'd grown up watching in Danville and Greensboro.

My brother also had a big advantage over me here in that he's been a huge wrestling fan all his life and has an almost encyclopedic memory of everything he's seen. Me, I've got a sieve where my memory is supposed to be and I didn't really watch wrestling on tv til the mid-80s, so I'd go to the cards and enjoy them, but I didn't know many wrestlers by name. I mention it only in that I never really made an effort to meet the wrestlers because I didn't want to just say "I enjoyed watching you way back when". I wanted to be able to tell Ivan Koloff,"I saw you in a cage match in Greensboro against Flair and it was one of the coolest things I'd seen at the time." I mean, I could have done that with Ivan, but there were so many others that I'd have had nothing more to say than "I dug your stuff". I don't know, it just seemed pointless at the time. Better to enjoy seeing them from afar.

Things officially began Friday, but there wasn't a lot scheduled. Q&A sessions with Greg Valentine and Paul Jones. I expected zero from the former and much from the latter, and was fooled both times. Greg had some interesting things to say and I realized I was more interested in his career than I'd thought. Paul couldn't seem to focus and stay on track with his answers. To be fair, his plane had been delayed five hours in Florida and they rushed him straight from the airport to the hotel and he didn't start til ten or so, so I expect he was tired and maybe just a little jet lagged. Valentine was on the same flight and in the same situatioon, but I guess he handled it better. I came down with a bug and slept through most everything Saturday, but I did manage to make a comeback on Sunday. I slept in and missed the autograph session with one of my all time favorite wrestlers, but I made up for it later.

It's in no way an understatement that I am a huge fan of the Masked Superstar. I just loved him as a kid. I'd eventually come to like Ric Flair as much as I liked Superstar. (Superstar went on to the WWF, which didn't run shows down South, and eventually switched from mask to make-up to become Axe of the Demolition tag team, Flair stayed in my area for another decade plus.) My brother liked another masked wrestler, Mr. Wrestling II, but not me. I liked his hated rival, the Masked Superstar. He had a cool mask and ran with cool people and did cool stuff in the ring. He was cool. And I got his autograph Sunday. And I was the biggest, goofiest fanboy while doing so. I stood politely as he was talking to some exhibitors. Finally, I squeaked out a "Superstar?" He didn't hear me. I waited almost five more minutes before trying again. "Superstar?" He noticed me. "Superstar..." I held out my VIP badge. "I only want one signature on this badge. You were my favorite wrestler as a kid, will you do the honor of signing this for me?" To his credit, he didn't laugh at me. He signed it. And by signed it, yes, he wrote the word "Super" and drew a little star under it. It's his signature. It is. It's how he signs his checks. There is no Bill Eadie. There is only Superstar.

Minutes later, I realized he was standing right there, I had my camera around my neck, and I didn't get his picture. As luck would have it, I caught up to him about fifteen minutes later. "Can I get a quick picture?" I asked. "It'll have to be really quick," he replied,"cause I'm on my way to the bathroom." I told him I'd wait.

They also had a raffle where the winner got a ring-worn pullover shirt that was specially made for and autographed by The Masked Superstar. The very same shirt you see him wearing in the picture above. And whose name do you think, out of the hundred or more entries in the raffle, did the Superstar himself pull out of the bag to win that special prize? Yep. My brother's. Heh. Gotta love the irony. I'm actually thrilled Michael won it, though. While I was the bigger Superstar fan, Michael was by far the bigger wrestling fan. I think it meant more to him than it would have to me. Plus, I got a great picture of him. And he shook my hand. And I got his autograph.