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Nicest person in wrestling


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Can't forget about Molly Holly. EVERYONE who talks about her says she is a saint and was too good to be in the wrestling business. Of all the WWE Divas of the past 20 years, I have never heard a bad story about Holly- just all praise

 

she had a BEYOND creepy stalker type making youtube videos trying to "prove" she was a fraud with regard to being a virgin and such. he even included a clip of himself burning a pile of like 20 molly holly action figures, as if that wouldn't set off anyone's alarm bells...

 

wonder if that's still going on, this was a few years ago

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Can only speak for guys I've met, or at least 'been around', which doesn't necessarily speak for someone in general, just how they were at the time, but Blue Meanie was cool fuck, Kevin Steen was a nice dude, and 'Uncle' Jerry Lynn was a great guy. Ricky Marvin was very funny to be around, even through his somewhat broken English, and very polite. Some of the Japanese guys I've met (Takeshi Morishima, Go Shiozaki etc.) have been nice guys, but the language barrier means you'd be hard pushed to argue with them even if you wanted to. Doug Williams, Jonny Storm, Paul Burchill and Johnny Moss all seemed like decent guys when I was around them, and for all the shit Alex Shane gets in various quarters, he's been nothing but gracious to me in the few times I've been around him. Likewise, Davey Richards was quiet and unassuming when I was around him in 2006/2007. Roderick Strong and Chad Collyer were also both very open to answering questions from myself and others.

I got to spend a bunch of time with Tracy Smothers who was a sweetheart and extremely nice to me, although he did later try to fight my friend when he got the wrong end of the stick about a payoff. Poor old Trace was going through some personal issues at the time, so we all put it down to him being justifiably grumpy and it all got patched up later. He was nothing but a gentleman to me though, and apparently very complimentary about me to others when I wasn't around, so yeah, Tracy = totally awesome in my book.

Al Snow is a guy who has an air about him and I've heard stories about his being a dick at times, but I figure a lot of that is down to his lot in the business, or walking on eggshells under various periods of employment. That said, I was with him at this intimate pre-show Q&A thing (we were in another part of the building) and a guy in a wheelchair started disrupting things by being loud and shouting a lot (obviously a condition he had, not being a jerk or anything). He was also out of sight of the wrestlers and fans at the Q&A, so there were a lot of confused, puzzled looks being shot by people who had no idea what was going on. Anyway, Al went out of his way to go introduce himself to the guy, shake his hand, give him a hug and get down on his knees to talk to him, which not only diffused the disruption but placated the guy and gave him a real nice moment that probably made his week. Just thought that was a very classy thing to do.

Adrian Neville I've known since 2001, years before either of us had any sort of involvement in the business (he a lot more than I, obviously), and for all of his talent, he has always been one of the most bashful, humble, polite people I've ever known so I couldn't be happier to see him go to Dragon Gate, work with Liger in the New Japan Super Juniors and succeed on NXT. His knocking on my door and immediately asking "Dee ya mind if ah take a piss in yar toilet, mate?" is my second favourite "rubbish claim to fame" ever, and I still laugh at my introduction to him - "Alreet mate, a'hm Pac" he announced, before a mutual friend said "Show him! Show him!" and he did a running shooting star press over a garden fence.

Christian blanked me at an indy show once because he was a Bigtime Superstar™, so "Fuck that guy!" became a running joke with a couple of buddies for a while every time he came on TV.

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For guys I've known and worked with, I'll confirm Bobby Eaton and Jerry Lynn. Awesome dudes, they go out of their way to be nice to everyone. For guys I've just heard about, nobody's mentioned Mick Foley yet but I've never heard anyone say anything bad about him personally (not counting people knocking his in-ring style or whatever).

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One more I would like to add. I know he is a guy who a lot of people feel one way or another about, and I know some people have had bad experiences with him. But I met him a few times before I got into the business, and I have worked a ton of shows with him since I started, and Shane Douglas has always been super fucking cool to me. From taking time to answer my questions about the business, to meeting my buddy who was in from overseas and being genuinely interested in talking to him and learning about politics in his country, to sitting with me and laughing hysterically as Ricky Morton proceeded to tell us rat stories for 45 minutes as we waited for a postponed show to start.

 

Hell, I made him a copy of GBBrutal's comp so he could show his sons his pre-ECW work and he was so appreciative he gave me his phone number and told me if I ever had questions or needed his opinions on something to give him a call.

 

Great guy

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Just going by the very small number I have met, but one guy I have heard can have a bit of an attitude is Low Ki, however he was an absolute peach with me. Took time to chat with me about where the photo I bought was taken, gracious in hearing me praise one of my favorite matches of his, and just a very sweet man. Also Colt Cabana and Chris Hero were class gentlemen when I met them. Not exactly a household name, but C4/sometime Chikara wrestler Cecil Nyx works on the same floor that I do and he is a great guy.

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Always heard John Studd was just a great guy. Incredibly nice. In fact Bobby Heenan said he was almost too nice to be in the wrestling business

 

Always heard he was a gentle and kind man and sort of a father figure to the wrestlers. I remember Barry Windham talking about Studd kindly but firmly calling him out for wearing the same cowboy boots that he had been wearing while walking out in the streets, and how he should show more consideration for the other wrestlers ... Barry said he really took that to heart.

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Listening to him on Austin's lastest podcast reminded me that Bill Apter belongs on this list. When I was in middle school and couldn't get enough wrestling but didn't really know where to look for more, I called up the number in PWI and said I was writing a report for school about wrestling and wanted to speak to someone. Turns out it was Apter who answered the phone and spent 45 minutes talking to a kid about comparing WWF vs. WCW and talking about territories I'd never seen outside of the magazine's pages. These weren't yes/no responses to a bunch of silly questions (which was all I could manage until I was too floored to say much at all), but him going out of his way to talk about the game. What a passion.

 

This belongs in the podcast thread, but I'm talking Apter so screw it -- loved his line about being asked if he knew wrestling was fixed by incredulously responding he didn't know it was broken.

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Most of the wrestlers I've met have been at the Thesz/Tragos Hall of Fame inductions and the CAC in Vegas. From that group, Danny Hodge, Dick Hutton, Butcher Vachon (spent about 5 minutes talking to my then 10 year old son about school, athletics, etc.), Ivan Koloff, Baron Von Raschke, Larry Hennig, Sir Oliver Humperdink, Kenny Jay, Jake Milliman, Adam Pearce, Gerry Brisco, Jim Ross, and Rock Riddle all stand out as super friendly and very willing to interact with fans like myself.

 

As far as "randomly running into a wrestler", I was in the Vegas airport around 2010. My wife had sit down at the gate while I grabbed a soda, and when I got there, she had (unknowingly) saved me an empty seat right next to Daniel Bryan. I asked for an autograph for my son, and took a picture with him. He was very gracious, and even laughed when my wife said "Should I know who this is?" I told him that she was a wrestling fan by marriage. :) I thanked him and told him I'd quit bothering him, but he continued our conversation for another 5-10 minutes, asked what brought us to Vegas, etc. When his flight was called, he wished us safe travels. Super nice guy!

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Maybe not the nicest to everyone, but I met Kevin Nash through a radio contest a few years ago and he was really cool and easy-going. Hilarious too.

 

 

Bobby Eaton was my first thought, though, just based on how many books he's been mentioned specifically as the nicest guy in the business. His name always comes up, even in books or interviews where the subject almost has no reason to bring him up or are asking about him directly - they just do because they feel he deserves mention. To me, if you have guys going out of their way to say Bobby Eaton is a nice guy, he must be a really nice guy. For example, I think Foley mentions him in his 1st book apropos of nothing.

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I met a majority of the ROH 2006/2007 roster at a couple of Wrestlemania weekends. Jack Evans and Bryan Danielson stood out as being particularly nice people.

 

Austin Aries, not so much.

 

And Tyler Black/Seth Rollins was either kind of a jerk, or just uncomfortable having to have dinner with a bunch of weird, weird people.

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