Legendary wrestling manager passes away
 

On the heels of the "Big Cat" Ernie Ladd passing way comes the news of the "Golden Boy" Aronld Skaaland dying at the age of 82. He was better known as the manager of Bruno Sammartino and Bob Backlund. It was he who "threw in the towel" when Bob Backlund lost to the Iron Shiek in 1983...and the rest is history!
Here's more details...

http://www.wrestlingobserver.com/wo/....asp?aID=18934

I remember him so well, a decent wrestler in his own right, he was one of few "good-guy" managers in an era of "heel" managers. Bruno was a legend of course, Bob (Howdy Doody) was a long-time champ but lost popularity as he was seen as "squeeky-clean" and boring...these guys paved the way for more "colorful" wrestlers such as Hulk, Macho Man and others.

wonder what Bob backlund really thinks of him, I liked it when he fought Brett Hart

Ahh the Golden Age when I swear as a kid in the Boston Garden in the 60's I saw George the Animal and Bruno put on one of the best shows anytime anywhere........Edwardo Carpentier in street clothes takes George out with a drop kick Michael Jordan would have been envious of.......

God rest ye soul Arnold....

Man, I'm getting old.....

Sad to see the passing of both Ernie Ladd and Arnold Skaaland.

Funny, I was never much of a fan of the baby-faces like Backlund/Skaaland. I always loved The Wiz, Mr. Fuji, Jimmy Hart, Albano and The Weasel. Used to love to go to the Civic Center in Baltimore to see The Samoans and Magnificent Muraco. Greatly enjoyed the reign of Muraco as Intercontinental Champ and loved the Hawaiin Spike....

Saturday mornings were a big event back in the mid-70's when WWF would be on Ch 20. The best part of the show was always the hype interviews with Vince. Simply the most entertaining and funny stuff I ever saw. Wish I had a VCR back then to have recorded some of it as it was truly classic material.

Guess I'm dating myself severely here..... :)

Those were the days! :)
My grandfather got me into wrestling about 1977, that's when there were three "big" wrestling companies; WWWE, AWA & AWA.
The eastern seaboard was controlled by the McMahons & the World Wide Wrestling Federation (now the WWE), The Chicago/ Midwest area (American Wrestling Association) and the National Wrestling Alliance in the south. On the west coast many smaller territories with the WWWF & NWA also promoted there. I always taped the midnight show on channel 9 (WOR) in N.Y. (Championship Wrestling) that was the "main" promotion show from the WWWF. Our local station had wrestling on Sunday mornings at 11, the "Allstar" program.

Never knew much about the AWA but I recall the first time I ever saw the NWA. Was headed south to Myrtle Beach for vacation and stopped along the way for the evening. I'd heard and read alot about Rick Flair and the 4 Horsemen, Dusty Rhodes, etc but had never seen them - and up they popped on TBS. Their interviews weren't as funny as the WWF's.

I actually managed to buy front row seats at the Capital Centre (Largo, MD) for one event in 1983. Snowed its ass off the day before, over 20", and I couldn't get the driveway plowed in time to go. That sucked..... :)

Yep, the good 'ol days.....

Barry Wyndham was wasted talent, injuries curtailed with what could of been a legendary career

I started watching wrestling as a kid...Vince's dad ran the WWWF and the AWA and NWA were hard for me to get on TV until I moved to WVa for college. I liked Florida wrestling as well, very bloody...Kevin Sullivan at his best, and barb wire matches...Foley as Cactus Jack. Out in Texas the Von Eric family ruled...along with One Man Gang, The Angel of Death, Kabuki. My all time favorite will always be Rick Flair with the Four Horsemen and The Andersons.

Another classic I just thought of was Jimmy Jam Garvin. Too funny.....

Bloodiest matches I ever saw were between the original Sheik and Abdulah the Butcher...Dusty Rhodes and Abdulah had some classics as well!

Had to love the first time I saw Superfly come off the top rope.....

Loved the coconut to his head by Piper too....:)