Believe me, the pleasure was all mine. Booze, legendary wrestlers, Backlunds antics, Sgt. Slaughter wanting to see the back of the PSA 9 card, a wild weekend! I can't believe you guys got to hang out and drink with these legendary stars. Cool stuff!
I will add on some stories from what Dpeck wrote up. I ended up staying the night in Denver and didn't make it back to California yet but picked up a $1500 voucher from United by giving up my seat. I still need some sleep as I didn't sleep too much in Charlotte and last night at all. I was there but I still like to read the Dpeck write ups.
BUYING Frank Gotch T229 Kopec Looking to BUY n332 1889 SF Hess cards and high grade cards from 19th century especially. "Once you have wrestled everything else in life is easy" Dan Gable
BUYING Frank Gotch T229 Kopec Looking to BUY n332 1889 SF Hess cards and high grade cards from 19th century especially. "Once you have wrestled everything else in life is easy" Dan Gable
These two wrestled each other back in the day......amazing.
BUYING Frank Gotch T229 Kopec Looking to BUY n332 1889 SF Hess cards and high grade cards from 19th century especially. "Once you have wrestled everything else in life is easy" Dan Gable
Can’t believe how tiny Putski looks in that photo. I remember seeing OMG wrestle at my high school in 1984 in Miami and Flair, Dusty, Barry Windham... were all there. At the time NWA was the largest organization and WWF now WWE was regional. Florida, Georgia, Carolina’s, and Memphis were all of the hotbeds, and the champ would always come through and put guys over in the local areas - he did not do it in the classical sense by losing but made the local guy “look” like he was a hair away from beating him. OMG was a big old boy and still is. One of the best matches ever was he and Dusty where Dusty was the first one to beat him - believe it was the taping in Tampa for a Saturday morning. OMG was managed by Gart Hart correct?
@KendallCat said:
Can’t believe how tiny Putski looks in that photo. I remember seeing OMG wrestle at my high school in 1984 in Miami and Flair, Dusty, Barry Windham... were all there. At the time NWA was the largest organization and WWF now WWE was regional. Florida, Georgia, Carolina’s, and Memphis were all of the hotbeds, and the champ would always come through and put guys over in the local areas - he did not do it in the classical sense by losing but made the local guy “look” like he was a hair away from beating him. OMG was a big old boy and still is. One of the best matches ever was he and Dusty where Dusty was the first one to beat him - believe it was the taping in Tampa for a Saturday morning. OMG was managed by Gart Hart correct?
KC
He definitely was managed by Gary Hart in Texas and Sir Oliver Humperdink in Florida but not sure if he was too by Hart.
collecting RAW Topps baseball cards 1952 Highs to 1972. looking for collector grade (somewhere between psa 4-7 condition). let me know what you have, I'll take it, I want to finish sets, I must have something you can use for trade.
looking for Topps 71-72 hi's-62-53-54-55-59, I have these sets started
@Tecmo Boil said:
Great thread. Look forward to hearing more from WCK
Still working on getting home.... I have more to add.... dpeck did awesome as usual.
BUYING Frank Gotch T229 Kopec Looking to BUY n332 1889 SF Hess cards and high grade cards from 19th century especially. "Once you have wrestled everything else in life is easy" Dan Gable
DPeck. I don’t follow much of this these days, but being from the Charlotte area, I did watch it a lot as a kid. Good stuff and I definitely get tons of enjoyment from seeing how much you guys get out of this. Awesome stuff and thanks for sharing!!
@samspop said:
DPeck. I don’t follow much of this these days, but being from the Charlotte area, I did watch it a lot as a kid. Good stuff and I definitely get tons of enjoyment from seeing how much you guys get out of this. Awesome stuff and thanks for sharing!!
Thank you!
That must have been fun to watch as a kid. Wrestling was so awesome back then.
My favorite wrestling memory is the way I found out it was actually fake.
I was 13 and the WWF had this event at the Cow Palace. My friend and I got tickets and my mom dropped us off at the arena after she got off work. My friend dressed up as our favorite wrestler (piper) and we went in and got in our seats. We had real good seats and got there a bit early and while we were waiting for the start we started talking to this older kid (18 or so) about wrestling. He could totally see how into it we were and he was stoked my friend dressed like piper. He then let us know that his dad was someone in charge in the WWF (forget who) but asked if we wanted to go back stage and meet the wrestlers. Of course we jumped at that. Rowdy Piper was in a fierce war with Paul Orandorf at the time and was set to have a steel cage match that night with him.
So we go back there and started meeting some of the guys. They were all super nice and all of them kept marveling at my friends piper costume and saying he looked just like a mini piper (which he did). Finally the moment at hand....the guy takes us into the room where Piper is and as we walk in there he is playing cards and joking around with.....Paul Orandorf. The look of absolute shock must of been apparent on both of our faces as we could not grasp what we were seeing. How could it be that these two were playing cards and joking around and set to want to kill each other in a cage match that night?? they had been wanting to kill each other for months? Both piper and orandorff were freaking out about my friends costume and Orandorf kept joking that he looked like Pipers son. They both decided they wanted my friend to come out to the introductions as pipers son and asked where our parents were to get the okay to do so. Of course, it was just us two so it was a no go. Not long after we returned to our seats and I just remember both of us looking at each other thoroughly confused and coming to the realization as we sat there that everything we were seeing was fake.
BUYING Frank Gotch T229 Kopec Looking to BUY n332 1889 SF Hess cards and high grade cards from 19th century especially. "Once you have wrestled everything else in life is easy" Dan Gable
When we were chatting with Baron at lunch and he was explaining how he got into wrestling and what got his career moving I told him that his green card was actually a photo of him and Mad Dog and he was just cut out of it.
Over the weekend one of the Twitter users I follow who posts older wrestling programs posted this.
How was Ken Patera? I followed his career as a kid because his brother Jack was the head coach of the Seahawks. They both had their troubles. Jack died last year of cancer and had some other health issues before that. Didn't Ken serve a lengthy prison sentence that derailed his wrestling career?
Collecting Topps, Philadelphia and Kellogg's from 1964-1989
How was Ken Patera? I followed his career as a kid because his brother Jack was the head coach of the Seahawks. They both had their troubles. Jack died last year of cancer and had some other health issues before that. Didn't Ken serve a lengthy prison sentence that derailed his wrestling career?
Patera is hilarious. He doesn't care what comes out of his mouth no matter who it offends. He is recently retired from a sales job that required extensive driving. He has gained a lot of weight and the only thing that resembles his power lifting days are his massive forearms. He has by far the biggest forearms I have ever seen in person.
He spent nearly two years in jail and then came back to the WWF as a good guy so he wouldn't get heat from the fans and have that lead to another issue and not much longer after that his days there were over. He said he bounced around for a few years doing independent shows and then called it quits.
He did really well at this show and was a bright spot for Gregg in an otherwise soft show. I could sit and drink with Ken anytime and never get bored.
I was a first timer for a convention like this as there isn't the opportunity to go to these in California like they do on the East Coast. Needless to say I was pretty excited to go but perhaps not as excited as this granny who was sitting beside me......
I got there before dpeck but was able to meet up with Gregg and have dinner with Baron Von Raschke, Joyce Grable and Bob Backlund. Our other scheduled guests for Friday didn't make it as Bill Dundee was ill and the ride for Candi Divine fell through. Gregg picked up Magnum TA to be one of our guests to make it just five guys on Friday.... Candi was still trying to get to Charlotte but it was looking like she would be pushed back to Saturday, if at all. It was my first time hanging out casually with pro wrestlers like this and it was great. I soon realized that my experience was going to be way beyond a VIP package that anyone could purchase. As dpeck noted, he got there later in the evening and he started purchasing some cocktails for Abdullah the Butcher and the adventure was officially on and the convention hadn't even officially started.
BUYING Frank Gotch T229 Kopec Looking to BUY n332 1889 SF Hess cards and high grade cards from 19th century especially. "Once you have wrestled everything else in life is easy" Dan Gable
I come from an amateur wrestling background so I was pretty excited to work with the Baron. Dpeck hung with Magnum TA Friday. Austin Idol drove to the convention on Friday morning.... we were up to five guests. I observed the amount of respect that Baron had for those who came up to him. Jake Roberts and his girlfriend came up to the table and the girlfriend wanted a signed photo of the Baron. I got to talking to her after our other helper asked if she was the daughter of Jake? She replied, I'm the girlfriend! Anyways, she said if I had anything I wanted to have signed by Jake to just let her know. I had brought his rookie all star so I was in great shape and Jake put a real nice full signature on it. I got to talking to them both and they met during one of Jake's comedy shows and they have been dating long distance since then. It is approaching a year into their relationship and Jake acknowledged he was going to be the one to move. I enjoyed the Baron and it was awesome to see him jump into character with his voice and his photo ops with all the fans came out great. I swear that his face has rubber that he can stretch out. Here are some pictures of Day One.8
I had Baron sign a photo about his bronze medal in the world championships in 1963. He was just the second American to accomplish that feat in greco roman at that time. I will frame this picture and put in my garage that also serves as a wrestling room as I have my own mat for private lessons...
I spent some time that day with Bob Backlund, Joyce Grable and a little with Austin Idol. It was a great way to be introduced to these wrestling shows.
I will write about Friday evening and Saturday once I get settled into my hotel after my next flight.
BUYING Frank Gotch T229 Kopec Looking to BUY n332 1889 SF Hess cards and high grade cards from 19th century especially. "Once you have wrestled everything else in life is easy" Dan Gable
Great write up guys and I speak for many in that getting a look behind the curtain like this is a real treat. People don’t realize how hard this industry is on these men and women from a pain perspective, travel, being away from home... unfortunately the things they use to move up in the wrestling world to enhance their physiques shorten their lifespans, and couple that with alcohol, pain killers, and other stuff.. and it goes downhill very quickly. Some of my best memories as a kid were watching CWF(Championship Wrestling from Florida) with Gordon Solie every Saturday at noon.
@KendallCat said:
Great write up guys and I speak for many in that getting a look behind the curtain like this is a real treat. People don’t realize how hard this industry is on these men and women from a pain perspective, travel, being away from home... unfortunately the things they use to move up in the wrestling world to enhance their physiques shorten their lifespans, and couple that with alcohol, pain killers, and other stuff.. and it goes downhill very quickly. Some of my best memories as a kid were watching CWF(Championship Wrestling from Florida) with Gordon Solie every Saturday at noon.
Kendall I am right there with you. CWF from diapers.
After we were done at the booths we sat down to have lunch and the wrestlers were waiting for their envelopes filled with cash and Candi Devine whipped out here championship belt from the AWA.
She told us the story where she had to drop the belt to Madusa because both women were given the choice to come up to Greg Gagne's room at the time and she opted not to. Needless to say she isn't a big fan of us his.
The wrestling business as you know was a very tough business and a lot of non politically correct things took place and probably in many ways still do.
Day one first started to wrap up as Austin Idol was the first to leave as he drove himself in and out of Charlotte. I ended up getting a rental car as it was just a bit more than taking a cab for just myself to our hotel. I wanted to be as helpful as I could be to Gregg as I was afforded this great opportunity because of of him and I took the Baron to the airport the afternoon of day one. I joked that Billy Graham had his own street near the airport and he said....."Superstar! I think there is another Billy Graham." I get back to the hotel bar where dpeck was holding it down. I sat there for a bit and shortly thereafter Ken Patera shows up....i knew dpeck was pretty excited to have drinks with him and listen to his stories. Being the amateur enthusiast that I am, I had to ask Ken about the 72 Olympics. Ken said the he was a hundred plus feet away from the massacre of the 11 Israeli athletes. Ken was told the Olympics were canceled so he decided to go out with others, got pretty drunk and then was woke up the next day that the Olympics were back on and he needed to get ready to compete. Greg Valentine rolled into the bar, and my buddy Gregg tells him a story of how I sent Greg Valentine an 1982 all star card years ago and he swapped it out and sent me a signed wrestling picture instead. It was always a running joke between my friend and I that I didn't care for Valentine because I considered him a thief. It all got worked out at the bar and Valentine said he would make it up to me and I backtracked a bit saying it wasn't a big deal. As I was down at the bar, Gregg gets a hold of me and he is holding a private signing in the hotel room with Ivan Putski. I was pretty excited as I have a nice Putski which just may improve my 1982 A wrestling all stars set once it is signed. I grabbed a few cards from dpeck and headed upstairs.
BUYING Frank Gotch T229 Kopec Looking to BUY n332 1889 SF Hess cards and high grade cards from 19th century especially. "Once you have wrestled everything else in life is easy" Dan Gable
I'm in the room for the signing with Ivan and noticed that Ivan flew in from Austin Texas. I asked him if he knew where Smithville, Texas was because that is a small rural town 45 minutes east where my in laws live. He said that he did, and when they immigrated to the US, that is where they ended up in 1950. I shot a text back home to Kerry that Ivan grew up in Smithville and we connected the dots. When Ivans family moved to Texas, him and his siblings didn't speak any English. Kerry's dad tried to help his school teacher out by trying to communicate with Ivans sister in elementary school. I told Ivan Kerry's dad last name and he knew it from 69 years ago. I joked we are like family and he agreed! He couldn't believe the connection we just made. It was quite memorable for a non English speaking family to show up in a tiny Texas town at the time....Ivans family soon moved to Austin where his brother Fred Bednarski made football history by becoming the first kicker to kick field goals, soccer style while approaching the ball at a 45 degree angle. Here are a few pics of Ivan. We exchanged phone numbers and I hope to see him for lunch in a few months. I'd like to pick up a few more wrestling all stars for him to sign for me before I do.
BUYING Frank Gotch T229 Kopec Looking to BUY n332 1889 SF Hess cards and high grade cards from 19th century especially. "Once you have wrestled everything else in life is easy" Dan Gable
I got the grades back on some of the cards I sent in from The Gathering. Very nice to see to the Slaughter and Grable. Excited to see they used a numeric grade on the 85 Dusty Rhodes. The Flair was a PSA 6 crack out but no biggie there. Overall very pleased with the results.
Total Items: 9
Date Received: 11/12/2019
Date Shipped: N/A
Line # Item # Cert # Grade Description Type
1 1 44564772 Item Grade: EXCELLENT 5
Auto Grade: Authentic 1986 Carnation Major League Wrestling Ric FlairPSA/DNA Certified Card
2 1 44564773 Item Grade: NEAR MINT-MINT 8
Auto Grade: Authentic 1985 Wrestling All Stars 7 Dusty Rhodes Perforated-Hand CutPSA/DNA Certified Card
3 1 44564774 Item Grade: MINT 9
Auto Grade: Authentic 1982 Wrestling All-Stars-Series B 14 Sergeant SlaughterPSA/DNA Certified Card
4 1 44564775 Item Grade: MINT 9
Auto Grade: Authentic 1982 Wrestling All-Stars-Series B 34 Joyce GrablePSA/DNA Certified Card
5 1 44564776 Item Grade: NEAR MINT-MINT 8
Auto Grade: Authentic 1983 Wrestling All-Stars 14 Spike HuberPSA/DNA Certified Card
6 1 44564777 Item Grade: NEAR MINT 7
Auto Grade: Authentic 1982 Wrestling All-Stars Series A 28 Ivan PutskiPSA/DNA Certified Card
7 1 44564778 Item Grade: NEAR MINT 7
Auto Grade: Authentic 1982 Wrestling All-Stars Series A 26 Pat PattersonPSA/DNA Certified Card
8 1 44564779 Item Grade: NEAR MINT 7
Auto Grade: Authentic 1982 Wrestling All-Stars Series A 31 Ken PateraPSA/DNA Certified Card
9 1 44564780 Item Grade: EXCELLENT-MINT 6
Auto Grade: Authentic 1972 Panini Munich 72 52 Kenneth PateraPSA/DNA Certified Card
My Gathering autos were on business day 107 today....... at the time, the estimated turnaround was 40 days so I hope my wait is worth it!!!!!!
BUYING Frank Gotch T229 Kopec Looking to BUY n332 1889 SF Hess cards and high grade cards from 19th century especially. "Once you have wrestled everything else in life is easy" Dan Gable
Also- I’m late to the party. I didn’t know PSA started grading 1985 All Stars as “hand cut”. Thought they only graded as “perforated”!
I am not certain what changed but I did notice they added the word hand cut to the definition. I wasn't certain if it would get a numeric grade and was thrilled to see it did. Years ago I worked with PSA on this set and sent them a magazine still intact. I wanted them graded as hand cut but they went the other way. I have some graded AUTH and got a Hogan rejected last year for being trimmed so I will be reviewing my holdered copies and seeing about cutting up some more magazines. I don't believe these can be removed with perforations because they don't break like typical perforated cards. It is my view that was more of a cutting line.
When I got this Dusty signed I felt this copy was a high grade one and a perfect one for the project. It looks great in the PSA holder!
About half of this submission was obtained at the Gathering in August.
1 1 44005701 Item Grade: EXCELLENT-MINT 6
Auto Grade: MINT 9 1982 Wrestling All-Stars Series A 15 Don Muraco
2 1 44005702 Item Grade: N0: AUTHENTIC
Auto Grade: NM 7 1982 Wrestling All-Stars Series A 19 Angelo Mosca
3 1 44005703 Item Grade: NEAR MINT 7
Auto Grade: GEM MT 10 1982 Wrestling All-Stars Series A 28 Ivan Putski
4 1 44005704 Item Grade: EXCELLENT-MINT 6
Auto Grade: MINT 9 1982 Wrestling All-Stars Series A 36 the Destroyer
5 1 44005705 Item Grade: MINT 9
Auto Grade: MINT 9 1982 Wrestling All-Stars-Series B 12 Paul Orndorff
6 1 44005706 Item Grade: NEAR MINT 7
Auto Grade: GEM MT 10 1982 Wrestling All-Stars-Series B 20 Jesse Ventura
7 1 44005707 Item Grade: NEAR MINT 7
Auto Grade: GEM MT 10 1982 Wrestling All-Stars-Series B 20 Jesse Ventura
8 1 44005708 Item Grade: MINT 9
Auto Grade: MINT 9 1982 Wrestling All-Stars-Series B 26 Mr. Wrestling II
9 1 44005709 Item Grade: EXCELLENT-MINT 6
Auto Grade: GEM MT 10 1982 Wrestling All-Stars-Series B 29 Mike George
10 1 44005710 Item Grade: EXCELLENT 5
Auto Grade: GEM MT 10 1982 Wrestling All-Stars-Series B 29 Mike George
11 1 44005711 Item Grade: MINT 9
Auto Grade: GEM MT 10 1982 Wrestling All-Stars-Series B 34 Joyce Grable
12 1 44005712 Item Grade: NEAR MINT-MINT 8
Auto Grade: NM-MT 8 1983 Wrestling All-Stars 3 Sheik El Kaissey
13 1 44005713 Item Grade: NEAR MINT 7
Auto Grade: NM-MT 8 1983 Wrestling All-Stars 10 "Hacksaw" Duggan
14 1 44005714 Item Grade: NEAR MINT 7
Auto Grade: NM-MT 8 1983 Wrestling All-Stars 14 Spike Huber
15 1 Auto Grade: Inconclusive/Unable to Render Opinion 1983 Wrestling All-Stars 18 Salvatore Bellomo
16 1 44005716 Item Grade: MINT 9
Auto Grade: GEM MT 10 1983 Wrestling All-Stars 20 Scott Casey
17 1 44005717 Item Grade: MINT 9
Auto Grade: GEM MT 10 1983 Wrestling All-Stars 20 Scott Casey
18 1 Item Grade: N9: NOT GRADED 1983 Wrestling All-Stars 21 the Grappler
19 1 44005719 Item Grade: NEAR MINT 7
Auto Grade: NM-MT 8 1983 Wrestling All-Stars 25 Jake Roberts
20 1 44005720 Item Grade: NEAR MINT-MINT 8
Auto Grade: GEM MT 10 1983 Wrestling All-Stars 34 Candi Divine
21 1 44005721 Item Grade: NEAR MINT 7
Auto Grade: NM-MT 8 1983 Wrestling All-Stars 35 Austin Idol
22 1 44005722 Item Grade: NEAR MINT-MINT 8
Auto Grade: GEM MT 10 1986 Carnation Major League Wrestling Sergeant Slaughter
23 1 44005723 Item Grade: EXCELLENT-MINT 6
Auto Grade: GEM MT 10 1982 Wrestling All-Stars-Series B 36 Dutch Mantell
BUYING Frank Gotch T229 Kopec Looking to BUY n332 1889 SF Hess cards and high grade cards from 19th century especially. "Once you have wrestled everything else in life is easy" Dan Gable
I have to say that I was quite pleased to have this returned to me and be in amazing shape. This is my favorite Slaughter card image of his and this one will be a tough one to top.
BUYING Frank Gotch T229 Kopec Looking to BUY n332 1889 SF Hess cards and high grade cards from 19th century especially. "Once you have wrestled everything else in life is easy" Dan Gable
These two female wrestlers were both guests of the tables that Dpeck and I worked at in August. I have to say that the white cards are hard for me to judge in the all stars and I had no idea that my card was mint although I knew it appeared nice. The funny thing with that card was that Dpeck was just mentioning that his Grable PSA DNA 9 pop 1 would be tough to top on Friday and then on Monday this one hit for me making it a pop 2. I was hoping for the best on my Candi Divine all stars card. There was a part of me that thought I should have cracked out a PSA 8 to get signed as that is what I am trying to achieve with the all stars in PSA DNA for wrestlers that are alive today. Fortunately enough for me, my raw card literally made the grade and no crack out was necessary.
BUYING Frank Gotch T229 Kopec Looking to BUY n332 1889 SF Hess cards and high grade cards from 19th century especially. "Once you have wrestled everything else in life is easy" Dan Gable
Here are a few cards that I got back today. These logged in late November but they finally got to me today. I am happy to get this rare card of Abdullah the Butcher in a PSA slab and it was fun to have this inscription with this Bob Backlund card.
BUYING Frank Gotch T229 Kopec Looking to BUY n332 1889 SF Hess cards and high grade cards from 19th century especially. "Once you have wrestled everything else in life is easy" Dan Gable
Comments
Awesome adventure for sure!!
Believe me, the pleasure was all mine. Booze, legendary wrestlers, Backlunds antics, Sgt. Slaughter wanting to see the back of the PSA 9 card, a wild weekend! I can't believe you guys got to hang out and drink with these legendary stars. Cool stuff!
I will add on some stories from what Dpeck wrote up. I ended up staying the night in Denver and didn't make it back to California yet but picked up a $1500 voucher from United by giving up my seat. I still need some sleep as I didn't sleep too much in Charlotte and last night at all. I was there but I still like to read the Dpeck write ups.
Looking to BUY n332 1889 SF Hess cards and high grade cards from 19th century especially. "Once you have wrestled everything else in life is easy" Dan Gable
Not sure how I feel about seeing One Man Gang in Crocs and knee high black socks
Looking to BUY n332 1889 SF Hess cards and high grade cards from 19th century especially. "Once you have wrestled everything else in life is easy" Dan Gable
These two wrestled each other back in the day......amazing.
Looking to BUY n332 1889 SF Hess cards and high grade cards from 19th century especially. "Once you have wrestled everything else in life is easy" Dan Gable
Can’t believe how tiny Putski looks in that photo. I remember seeing OMG wrestle at my high school in 1984 in Miami and Flair, Dusty, Barry Windham... were all there. At the time NWA was the largest organization and WWF now WWE was regional. Florida, Georgia, Carolina’s, and Memphis were all of the hotbeds, and the champ would always come through and put guys over in the local areas - he did not do it in the classical sense by losing but made the local guy “look” like he was a hair away from beating him. OMG was a big old boy and still is. One of the best matches ever was he and Dusty where Dusty was the first one to beat him - believe it was the taping in Tampa for a Saturday morning. OMG was managed by Gart Hart correct?
KC
He definitely was managed by Gary Hart in Texas and Sir Oliver Humperdink in Florida but not sure if he was too by Hart.
Great thread. Look forward to hearing more from WCK
great thread just caught up on it.
looks lie a lot of fun
collecting RAW Topps baseball cards 1952 Highs to 1972. looking for collector grade (somewhere between psa 4-7 condition). let me know what you have, I'll take it, I want to finish sets, I must have something you can use for trade.
looking for Topps 71-72 hi's-62-53-54-55-59, I have these sets started
Still working on getting home.... I have more to add.... dpeck did awesome as usual.
Looking to BUY n332 1889 SF Hess cards and high grade cards from 19th century especially. "Once you have wrestled everything else in life is easy" Dan Gable
Here are some scans.
Really great cards there Dave!
Thank you very much!
Fun to get them signed in person!
Great writeup! Really enjoyed reading this.
It's hard to believe how old these guys are now.
Dave...how tall is Putski?....5'6" ?...he looks tiny
5'6 might be generous at this point. He can't weight more than 135. Incredible transformation. He was over 300 in the early 70's.
He is very proud of his 605 bench press. Very nice guy and very fan friendly.
Awesome Read! Thanks for sharing so many pictures and the write-up! Brings back great memories.
I collect: 80’s Rookies and 86 Fleer Basketball
It was a great time. We were working for fun and that is fun.
DPeck. I don’t follow much of this these days, but being from the Charlotte area, I did watch it a lot as a kid. Good stuff and I definitely get tons of enjoyment from seeing how much you guys get out of this. Awesome stuff and thanks for sharing!!
My eBay Auctions
My PSA Sets
Thank you!
That must have been fun to watch as a kid. Wrestling was so awesome back then.
One of my all time favorite scenes in wrestling history.....
My favorite wrestling memory is the way I found out it was actually fake.
I was 13 and the WWF had this event at the Cow Palace. My friend and I got tickets and my mom dropped us off at the arena after she got off work. My friend dressed up as our favorite wrestler (piper) and we went in and got in our seats. We had real good seats and got there a bit early and while we were waiting for the start we started talking to this older kid (18 or so) about wrestling. He could totally see how into it we were and he was stoked my friend dressed like piper. He then let us know that his dad was someone in charge in the WWF (forget who) but asked if we wanted to go back stage and meet the wrestlers. Of course we jumped at that. Rowdy Piper was in a fierce war with Paul Orandorf at the time and was set to have a steel cage match that night with him.
So we go back there and started meeting some of the guys. They were all super nice and all of them kept marveling at my friends piper costume and saying he looked just like a mini piper (which he did). Finally the moment at hand....the guy takes us into the room where Piper is and as we walk in there he is playing cards and joking around with.....Paul Orandorf. The look of absolute shock must of been apparent on both of our faces as we could not grasp what we were seeing. How could it be that these two were playing cards and joking around and set to want to kill each other in a cage match that night?? they had been wanting to kill each other for months? Both piper and orandorff were freaking out about my friends costume and Orandorf kept joking that he looked like Pipers son. They both decided they wanted my friend to come out to the introductions as pipers son and asked where our parents were to get the okay to do so. Of course, it was just us two so it was a no go. Not long after we returned to our seats and I just remember both of us looking at each other thoroughly confused and coming to the realization as we sat there that everything we were seeing was fake.
What a story
Looking to BUY n332 1889 SF Hess cards and high grade cards from 19th century especially. "Once you have wrestled everything else in life is easy" Dan Gable
When we were chatting with Baron at lunch and he was explaining how he got into wrestling and what got his career moving I told him that his green card was actually a photo of him and Mad Dog and he was just cut out of it.
Over the weekend one of the Twitter users I follow who posts older wrestling programs posted this.
This is the image used for his card.
Great post.
How was Ken Patera? I followed his career as a kid because his brother Jack was the head coach of the Seahawks. They both had their troubles. Jack died last year of cancer and had some other health issues before that. Didn't Ken serve a lengthy prison sentence that derailed his wrestling career?
Patera is hilarious. He doesn't care what comes out of his mouth no matter who it offends. He is recently retired from a sales job that required extensive driving. He has gained a lot of weight and the only thing that resembles his power lifting days are his massive forearms. He has by far the biggest forearms I have ever seen in person.
He spent nearly two years in jail and then came back to the WWF as a good guy so he wouldn't get heat from the fans and have that lead to another issue and not much longer after that his days there were over. He said he bounced around for a few years doing independent shows and then called it quits.
He did really well at this show and was a bright spot for Gregg in an otherwise soft show. I could sit and drink with Ken anytime and never get bored.
I was a first timer for a convention like this as there isn't the opportunity to go to these in California like they do on the East Coast. Needless to say I was pretty excited to go but perhaps not as excited as this granny who was sitting beside me......
I got there before dpeck but was able to meet up with Gregg and have dinner with Baron Von Raschke, Joyce Grable and Bob Backlund. Our other scheduled guests for Friday didn't make it as Bill Dundee was ill and the ride for Candi Divine fell through. Gregg picked up Magnum TA to be one of our guests to make it just five guys on Friday.... Candi was still trying to get to Charlotte but it was looking like she would be pushed back to Saturday, if at all. It was my first time hanging out casually with pro wrestlers like this and it was great. I soon realized that my experience was going to be way beyond a VIP package that anyone could purchase. As dpeck noted, he got there later in the evening and he started purchasing some cocktails for Abdullah the Butcher and the adventure was officially on and the convention hadn't even officially started.
Looking to BUY n332 1889 SF Hess cards and high grade cards from 19th century especially. "Once you have wrestled everything else in life is easy" Dan Gable
I come from an amateur wrestling background so I was pretty excited to work with the Baron. Dpeck hung with Magnum TA Friday. Austin Idol drove to the convention on Friday morning.... we were up to five guests. I observed the amount of respect that Baron had for those who came up to him. Jake Roberts and his girlfriend came up to the table and the girlfriend wanted a signed photo of the Baron. I got to talking to her after our other helper asked if she was the daughter of Jake? She replied, I'm the girlfriend! Anyways, she said if I had anything I wanted to have signed by Jake to just let her know. I had brought his rookie all star so I was in great shape and Jake put a real nice full signature on it. I got to talking to them both and they met during one of Jake's comedy shows and they have been dating long distance since then. It is approaching a year into their relationship and Jake acknowledged he was going to be the one to move. I enjoyed the Baron and it was awesome to see him jump into character with his voice and his photo ops with all the fans came out great. I swear that his face has rubber that he can stretch out. Here are some pictures of Day One.8
I had Baron sign a photo about his bronze medal in the world championships in 1963. He was just the second American to accomplish that feat in greco roman at that time. I will frame this picture and put in my garage that also serves as a wrestling room as I have my own mat for private lessons...
I spent some time that day with Bob Backlund, Joyce Grable and a little with Austin Idol. It was a great way to be introduced to these wrestling shows.
I will write about Friday evening and Saturday once I get settled into my hotel after my next flight.
Looking to BUY n332 1889 SF Hess cards and high grade cards from 19th century especially. "Once you have wrestled everything else in life is easy" Dan Gable
Great write up guys and I speak for many in that getting a look behind the curtain like this is a real treat. People don’t realize how hard this industry is on these men and women from a pain perspective, travel, being away from home... unfortunately the things they use to move up in the wrestling world to enhance their physiques shorten their lifespans, and couple that with alcohol, pain killers, and other stuff.. and it goes downhill very quickly. Some of my best memories as a kid were watching CWF(Championship Wrestling from Florida) with Gordon Solie every Saturday at noon.
Kendall I am right there with you. CWF from diapers.
After we were done at the booths we sat down to have lunch and the wrestlers were waiting for their envelopes filled with cash and Candi Devine whipped out here championship belt from the AWA.
She told us the story where she had to drop the belt to Madusa because both women were given the choice to come up to Greg Gagne's room at the time and she opted not to. Needless to say she isn't a big fan of us his.
The wrestling business as you know was a very tough business and a lot of non politically correct things took place and probably in many ways still do.
Day one first started to wrap up as Austin Idol was the first to leave as he drove himself in and out of Charlotte. I ended up getting a rental car as it was just a bit more than taking a cab for just myself to our hotel. I wanted to be as helpful as I could be to Gregg as I was afforded this great opportunity because of of him and I took the Baron to the airport the afternoon of day one. I joked that Billy Graham had his own street near the airport and he said....."Superstar! I think there is another Billy Graham." I get back to the hotel bar where dpeck was holding it down. I sat there for a bit and shortly thereafter Ken Patera shows up....i knew dpeck was pretty excited to have drinks with him and listen to his stories. Being the amateur enthusiast that I am, I had to ask Ken about the 72 Olympics. Ken said the he was a hundred plus feet away from the massacre of the 11 Israeli athletes. Ken was told the Olympics were canceled so he decided to go out with others, got pretty drunk and then was woke up the next day that the Olympics were back on and he needed to get ready to compete. Greg Valentine rolled into the bar, and my buddy Gregg tells him a story of how I sent Greg Valentine an 1982 all star card years ago and he swapped it out and sent me a signed wrestling picture instead. It was always a running joke between my friend and I that I didn't care for Valentine because I considered him a thief. It all got worked out at the bar and Valentine said he would make it up to me and I backtracked a bit saying it wasn't a big deal. As I was down at the bar, Gregg gets a hold of me and he is holding a private signing in the hotel room with Ivan Putski. I was pretty excited as I have a nice Putski which just may improve my 1982 A wrestling all stars set once it is signed. I grabbed a few cards from dpeck and headed upstairs.
Looking to BUY n332 1889 SF Hess cards and high grade cards from 19th century especially. "Once you have wrestled everything else in life is easy" Dan Gable
I'm in the room for the signing with Ivan and noticed that Ivan flew in from Austin Texas. I asked him if he knew where Smithville, Texas was because that is a small rural town 45 minutes east where my in laws live. He said that he did, and when they immigrated to the US, that is where they ended up in 1950. I shot a text back home to Kerry that Ivan grew up in Smithville and we connected the dots. When Ivans family moved to Texas, him and his siblings didn't speak any English. Kerry's dad tried to help his school teacher out by trying to communicate with Ivans sister in elementary school. I told Ivan Kerry's dad last name and he knew it from 69 years ago. I joked we are like family and he agreed! He couldn't believe the connection we just made. It was quite memorable for a non English speaking family to show up in a tiny Texas town at the time....Ivans family soon moved to Austin where his brother Fred Bednarski made football history by becoming the first kicker to kick field goals, soccer style while approaching the ball at a 45 degree angle. Here are a few pics of Ivan. We exchanged phone numbers and I hope to see him for lunch in a few months. I'd like to pick up a few more wrestling all stars for him to sign for me before I do.
Looking to BUY n332 1889 SF Hess cards and high grade cards from 19th century especially. "Once you have wrestled everything else in life is easy" Dan Gable
I got the grades back on some of the cards I sent in from The Gathering. Very nice to see to the Slaughter and Grable. Excited to see they used a numeric grade on the 85 Dusty Rhodes. The Flair was a PSA 6 crack out but no biggie there. Overall very pleased with the results.
Total Items: 9
Date Received: 11/12/2019
Date Shipped: N/A
Line # Item # Cert # Grade Description Type
1 1 44564772 Item Grade: EXCELLENT 5
Auto Grade: Authentic 1986 Carnation Major League Wrestling Ric FlairPSA/DNA Certified Card
2 1 44564773 Item Grade: NEAR MINT-MINT 8
Auto Grade: Authentic 1985 Wrestling All Stars 7 Dusty Rhodes Perforated-Hand CutPSA/DNA Certified Card
3 1 44564774 Item Grade: MINT 9
Auto Grade: Authentic 1982 Wrestling All-Stars-Series B 14 Sergeant SlaughterPSA/DNA Certified Card
4 1 44564775 Item Grade: MINT 9
Auto Grade: Authentic 1982 Wrestling All-Stars-Series B 34 Joyce GrablePSA/DNA Certified Card
5 1 44564776 Item Grade: NEAR MINT-MINT 8
Auto Grade: Authentic 1983 Wrestling All-Stars 14 Spike HuberPSA/DNA Certified Card
6 1 44564777 Item Grade: NEAR MINT 7
Auto Grade: Authentic 1982 Wrestling All-Stars Series A 28 Ivan PutskiPSA/DNA Certified Card
7 1 44564778 Item Grade: NEAR MINT 7
Auto Grade: Authentic 1982 Wrestling All-Stars Series A 26 Pat PattersonPSA/DNA Certified Card
8 1 44564779 Item Grade: NEAR MINT 7
Auto Grade: Authentic 1982 Wrestling All-Stars Series A 31 Ken PateraPSA/DNA Certified Card
9 1 44564780 Item Grade: EXCELLENT-MINT 6
Auto Grade: Authentic 1972 Panini Munich 72 52 Kenneth PateraPSA/DNA Certified Card
My Gathering autos were on business day 107 today....... at the time, the estimated turnaround was 40 days so I hope my wait is worth it!!!!!!
Looking to BUY n332 1889 SF Hess cards and high grade cards from 19th century especially. "Once you have wrestled everything else in life is easy" Dan Gable
I have 26 more there that were entered on January 7th and 62 cards in just for grading that were entered on the same day as this order November 12th.
Gregg has a ton of guests coming to Tampa so I am definitely going to look through my cards and do some more cracking.
Some scans.
Wow. Awesome.
Also- I’m late to the party. I didn’t know PSA started grading 1985 All Stars as “hand cut”. Thought they only graded as “perforated”!
That Sergeant Slaughter is bad ass. Nice clean auto and great placement on the card.
I am not certain what changed but I did notice they added the word hand cut to the definition. I wasn't certain if it would get a numeric grade and was thrilled to see it did. Years ago I worked with PSA on this set and sent them a magazine still intact. I wanted them graded as hand cut but they went the other way. I have some graded AUTH and got a Hogan rejected last year for being trimmed so I will be reviewing my holdered copies and seeing about cutting up some more magazines. I don't believe these can be removed with perforations because they don't break like typical perforated cards. It is my view that was more of a cutting line.
When I got this Dusty signed I felt this copy was a high grade one and a perfect one for the project. It looks great in the PSA holder!
Thank you!
I was very pleased with how it came out on all fronts and obviously excited it graded a 9 a second time.
About half of this submission was obtained at the Gathering in August.
1 1 44005701 Item Grade: EXCELLENT-MINT 6
Auto Grade: MINT 9 1982 Wrestling All-Stars Series A 15 Don Muraco
2 1 44005702 Item Grade: N0: AUTHENTIC
Auto Grade: NM 7 1982 Wrestling All-Stars Series A 19 Angelo Mosca
3 1 44005703 Item Grade: NEAR MINT 7
Auto Grade: GEM MT 10 1982 Wrestling All-Stars Series A 28 Ivan Putski
4 1 44005704 Item Grade: EXCELLENT-MINT 6
Auto Grade: MINT 9 1982 Wrestling All-Stars Series A 36 the Destroyer
5 1 44005705 Item Grade: MINT 9
Auto Grade: MINT 9 1982 Wrestling All-Stars-Series B 12 Paul Orndorff
6 1 44005706 Item Grade: NEAR MINT 7
Auto Grade: GEM MT 10 1982 Wrestling All-Stars-Series B 20 Jesse Ventura
7 1 44005707 Item Grade: NEAR MINT 7
Auto Grade: GEM MT 10 1982 Wrestling All-Stars-Series B 20 Jesse Ventura
8 1 44005708 Item Grade: MINT 9
Auto Grade: MINT 9 1982 Wrestling All-Stars-Series B 26 Mr. Wrestling II
9 1 44005709 Item Grade: EXCELLENT-MINT 6
Auto Grade: GEM MT 10 1982 Wrestling All-Stars-Series B 29 Mike George
10 1 44005710 Item Grade: EXCELLENT 5
Auto Grade: GEM MT 10 1982 Wrestling All-Stars-Series B 29 Mike George
11 1 44005711 Item Grade: MINT 9
Auto Grade: GEM MT 10 1982 Wrestling All-Stars-Series B 34 Joyce Grable
12 1 44005712 Item Grade: NEAR MINT-MINT 8
Auto Grade: NM-MT 8 1983 Wrestling All-Stars 3 Sheik El Kaissey
13 1 44005713 Item Grade: NEAR MINT 7
Auto Grade: NM-MT 8 1983 Wrestling All-Stars 10 "Hacksaw" Duggan
14 1 44005714 Item Grade: NEAR MINT 7
Auto Grade: NM-MT 8 1983 Wrestling All-Stars 14 Spike Huber
15 1 Auto Grade: Inconclusive/Unable to Render Opinion 1983 Wrestling All-Stars 18 Salvatore Bellomo
16 1 44005716 Item Grade: MINT 9
Auto Grade: GEM MT 10 1983 Wrestling All-Stars 20 Scott Casey
17 1 44005717 Item Grade: MINT 9
Auto Grade: GEM MT 10 1983 Wrestling All-Stars 20 Scott Casey
18 1 Item Grade: N9: NOT GRADED 1983 Wrestling All-Stars 21 the Grappler
19 1 44005719 Item Grade: NEAR MINT 7
Auto Grade: NM-MT 8 1983 Wrestling All-Stars 25 Jake Roberts
20 1 44005720 Item Grade: NEAR MINT-MINT 8
Auto Grade: GEM MT 10 1983 Wrestling All-Stars 34 Candi Divine
21 1 44005721 Item Grade: NEAR MINT 7
Auto Grade: NM-MT 8 1983 Wrestling All-Stars 35 Austin Idol
22 1 44005722 Item Grade: NEAR MINT-MINT 8
Auto Grade: GEM MT 10 1986 Carnation Major League Wrestling Sergeant Slaughter
23 1 44005723 Item Grade: EXCELLENT-MINT 6
Auto Grade: GEM MT 10 1982 Wrestling All-Stars-Series B 36 Dutch Mantell
Looking to BUY n332 1889 SF Hess cards and high grade cards from 19th century especially. "Once you have wrestled everything else in life is easy" Dan Gable
I have to say that I was quite pleased to have this returned to me and be in amazing shape. This is my favorite Slaughter card image of his and this one will be a tough one to top.
Looking to BUY n332 1889 SF Hess cards and high grade cards from 19th century especially. "Once you have wrestled everything else in life is easy" Dan Gable
Rob that is a great card. Only four 8's including this one. The 9 became a Pop 2 and I figured it would hit EBAY and has not.
These two female wrestlers were both guests of the tables that Dpeck and I worked at in August. I have to say that the white cards are hard for me to judge in the all stars and I had no idea that my card was mint although I knew it appeared nice. The funny thing with that card was that Dpeck was just mentioning that his Grable PSA DNA 9 pop 1 would be tough to top on Friday and then on Monday this one hit for me making it a pop 2. I was hoping for the best on my Candi Divine all stars card. There was a part of me that thought I should have cracked out a PSA 8 to get signed as that is what I am trying to achieve with the all stars in PSA DNA for wrestlers that are alive today. Fortunately enough for me, my raw card literally made the grade and no crack out was necessary.
Looking to BUY n332 1889 SF Hess cards and high grade cards from 19th century especially. "Once you have wrestled everything else in life is easy" Dan Gable
Here are a few cards that I got back today. These logged in late November but they finally got to me today. I am happy to get this rare card of Abdullah the Butcher in a PSA slab and it was fun to have this inscription with this Bob Backlund card.
Looking to BUY n332 1889 SF Hess cards and high grade cards from 19th century especially. "Once you have wrestled everything else in life is easy" Dan Gable