Nicest person in wrestling

[tigerpride]

I agree, I found that to be annoying.

[C.S.]

I met Foley, and he was super cool to me. Granted, it was at a book signing, so while it's more or less his job to be nice in that type of environment, he didn't have to go the extra mile, and he did. It was a signing for, I believe, the third book. I had it already, so I went in there and bought Scooter - his work of fiction which was released around the same time. The bookstore security douche refused to let me give Scooter to Mick to sign - now, keep in mind, the "rules" were never exactly made clear by the store in the first place - but Mick immediately objected and said, "Why not? I wrote it!" or something alone those lines. He winked at me after the fact, or maybe it was a smile...something friendly like that. We might have shaken hands too, I can't remember. My point is, Mick was very nice in a warm, heartfelt, genuine way.

[Sean Liska]

I've run into Foley in a variety of random contexts over the years (including separate run-ins at Disneyland and Disney World!) and he has always been exactly as friendly and generous with his time as his public image suggests.

 

Not a name you hear a lot in these talks, but I met Roddy Piper once and he was so over-the-top friendly and welcoming that I swore there must have been cameras recording us somewhere. But I couldn't find any.

[rzombie1988]

Sonoko Kato and Manami Toyota are two of the nicest wrestlers I've met. Add Hayabusa, Munenori Sawa(Miss that guy), Tony Atlas, Terry Funk, Bryan Danielson, Mickie James and a bunch of others to that list. Almost all of the Japanese wrestlers are nice.

 

Meanest wrestlers? Ozaki, Arn Anderson and Fit Finlay. Oz has been a douche to me twice, even though I spent a bunch of money to see her show. Arn flipped out on me for saying hi. I can't ever think about Arn without remembering that.

 

Scariest wrestler? Chigusa Nagayo. She's nice but I'll take on Arn or Finlay before I'd try her in a fight. I'm being totally serious too.

 

I honestly don't like to meet wrestlers. The #1 way to turn on a wrestler you like is to meet them.

[pantherwagner]

I'm also way over wanting to meet wrestlers, but the nicest I have ever meet are Dory Dixon and Killer Khan. Both were a couple good decades removed from their heyday though and maybe they were different while active.

[Bix]

Why would anyone even run the 'I'm not going to say anything' gimmick? Why even bring it up? You just come off as full of shit. Dustin Runnels is a bad person- I refuse to talk about it. See...nice and easy. Anyone can do it.

 

As someone else alluded to, it has to do with Colt Cabana, but it's something that he's never directly addressed publicly. A lot have people have connected to dots, but personally, I'm not comfortable with doing it myself in public for various reasons.

[Loss]

I kind of love that Mayumi Ozaki is not friendly. I think I'd be let down if she wasn't hateful to me if I tried to talk to her.

[NintendoLogic]

Oz has been a douche to me twice, even though I spent a bunch of money to see her show.

 

Living the gimmick, brother.

[SteveJRogers]

Granted there is an aura of Derek Jeter/Michael Jordan around him (especially if you watch his romance with Nikki Bella on Total Divas) where you can say its just as much for show and "look at me" publicity then 100% genuine, but I'm surprised the all-time Make A Wish leader (legit), John Cena hasn't been named yet.

[tigerpride]

Is Al Snow an anti-semite?

[wewantflair]

I'm shocked nobody has mentioned The Rock. Everybody in the business loves him, and I've heard nothing but great things from everyone who has met him. He goes out of his way to be a genuine, personable guy to everyone, even after his massive star turn.

[The Thread Killer]

Is Al Snow an anti-semite?

I know that Cabana is not a big Al Snow fan, based on how Snow reportedly treated him in OVW - Snow allegedly told Cabana that he couldn't get over as a comedy wrestler (which coming from Snow is just plain weird) and also allegedly said and did a lot of other unpleasant things to Cabana.

 

Cabana also told Paul Heyman that somebody in WWE developmental called him "Kike Cabana" which caused Heyman to go on a rant about anti-Semitism in wrestling in general. The rumor I heard was that it was Dean Malenko or Nova that actually uttered the slur - but maybe Snow gets the heat for it, I dunno.

 

Overall, to hear Cabana tell it, Snow, Malenko, Nova and Steve Williams all went out of their way to make Cabana's time in developmental shitty. From what I understand, it was a case of "I don't care if you were over in the indies, yer in the big leagues now, boy" by a bitter bunch of guys who never made it all that big with WWE themselves.

 

(Coincidentally, Nova invented hazing rookies.)

 

As far as I know, none of this can be proven.

 

Also, in my own humble opinion Colt Cabana does kinda suck and comes off bitter about not making it big when his buddies did...

 

But either way that is no excuse for anti-Semitism obviously.

 

On the flip side, one of my best friends has had the occassion to interact with Al Snow on several occassions and says he's really nice and very funny. So who knows?

[PeteF3]

I thought Malenko was Jewish.

[Mini Bennett]

And Nova and Cabana are buddies.

[sek69]

I remember Colt saying something about how Steve Williams made everyone read his Jesus book as part of the training in OVW, which of course led to some awkward moments.

 

Daniel Bryan might be a contender for the nicest person on Earth, to the point you wonder how has he not got eaten alive in the wrestling business yet.

 

Not a major league name, but Count Grog is a manager in NC indies and from my time on the interwebs he's been nothing but great. He's been around for a while and avoided getting what I called the William Moody Entitled Fuck on the Internet Syndrome.

[Dooley]

 

I've met Foley a bunch in ROH and he was always really cool. the people in that thread come off as massive dicks

 

I read through the first three pages of that thread, and so far the posters seem like massive dicks, not Foley.

 

 

Holy smokes. I don't have an opinion on Foley as a person one way or the other, but that thread was all kinds of terrible. Makes me appreciate the level of discourse here.

[The Thread Killer]

I thought Malenko was Jewish.

 

I don't know if he is or not. I do know that the four names he centered out for giving him a hard time in developmental were Snow, Malenko, Nova and Williams. And if I remember the interview correctly, he told Heyman that somebody who worked for WWE used the aforementioned slur.

 

And Nova and Cabana are buddies.

 

They may have been, and maybe they still are but in the interview clip I saw, Cabana did not seem like a big Nova fan. Remember, Nova got fired for screwing something up royally in developmental. Perhaps this was it. I don't know.

 

I remember Colt saying something about how Steve Williams made everyone read his Jesus book as part of the training in OVW, which of course led to some awkward moments.

 

You might have seen the same interview I saw, sek. I remember him saying that Williams made him read it, and then quizzed them on it!

 

Anyhow...

 

I have met the following wrestlers:

 

Jake Roberts

Johnny Valentine

The Iron Sheik

The blond Nasty Boy (I could never remember which one was Knobbs and which one was Saggs)

Greg Valentine

Jim Duggan

Kerry Von Erich

The Ultimate Warrior

Ricky Steamboat

Ted Dibiase with Virgil

Bret Hart

The Undertaker

 

This was in my capacity as a Social Worker, WWF used to run shows every December 26 at Maple Leaf Gardens and Jack Tunney (in his role as Toronto promoter NOT "WWF President") used to give us a great deal on tickets and let the kids backstage to meet the wrestlers. This was the big Christmas treat for the kids, we'd go downtown to eat, go to the show and the kids would get to meet the wrestlers.

 

We would also go to the odd house show at MLG and get backstage if we could. Jack Tunney was a nice man for that, he didn't have to do it, and wanted to extra thanks or credit.

 

For the most part, the wrestlers stayed in character, but...

 

Even though he was supposed to be all dark and mysterious, Jake Roberts was CRAZY nice to those kids.

 

Johnny V ignored the kids totally and spent all his time hitting on my female coworkers who were thoroughly repulsed by him.

 

The Iron Sheik was in and out, nice enough but CLEARLY high as a kite. This caused no end of hilarity for the kids, since they were all well able to spot the signs of somebody fucked up on drugs, from dealing with dear old Mom and Dad. The blond Nasty Boy spent all his time trying to get him out of the room as quick as possible.

 

Greg Valentine was nice but the poor guy was incredibly tired, he told us he literally couldn't remember what city he was in. He had to fly somewhere else for another show the same day.

 

Jim Duggan was just as nice as Jake Roberts, he actually talked to the kids at length, like asked them questions about themselves.

 

Kerry Von Erich and The Ultimate Warrior just waved and said hello, but they were nice enough I suppose.

 

Ted Dibiase and Virgil stayed in character, but Ted cut a promo for the kids and did his famous laugh and they LOVED it. I had to hear that laugh imitated for weeks after.

 

Ricky Steamboat was super nice too. He was one of the only ones who was nice to the kids but also thanked the workers who brought them, which was really cool.

 

The Undertaker stayed in character, but did something so incredibly nice for one of my kids, I'll never forget it as long as I live. It is a bit of a story, so I'll have to type it later.

 

Bret was VERY nice to the kids and pretty damn rude to us.

 

I also met Sabu once. He was rude, profane and gave me an autograph. It was funny.

 

I met Balls Mahoney and Axl Rotten after an ECW show in Buffalo. They were cool, thanked me for supporting ECW, especially when they found out I had driven down from Toronto for the show.

 

Oh, you know who was crazy nice? Carey Silken. Both ROH shows I went to, he worked the door, shaking fans hands on the way out and thanking them for supporting the product.

[ButchReedMark]

After spending last night partying with him I can attest Paul London's probably the nicest wrestler ever.

[thebrainfollower]

Of the wrestlers I've met Paul Bearer and Trish Stratus were the two nicest to everyone. Given how much fun being gawked at by guys all day long must be, that says something for her.

 

I also accidentally made Bret Hart more paranoid in 98 and caused Ric Flair to cry in 2004. I talked to him about how his book reminded me that it was important to believe how good you were, and that, as a struggling young teacher, learning the greatest of all time had a hard time believing how great he was really helped me overcome my own lack of self confidence. With tears in his eyes Ric got up and hugged me, thanking me as a person.

 

King Kong Bundy is pretty awesome. At a signing he was putting people in holds and when my friend asked to put him in a headlock he thought about it and said "okay but not too hard dude". Then at a later one he swiped my wallet as part of an elaborate prank.

[Graham Crackers]

I also accidentally made Bret Hart more paranoid in 98 and caused Ric Flair to cry in 2004. I talked to him about how his book reminded me that it was important to believe how good you were, and that, as a struggling young teacher, learning the greatest of all time had a hard time believing how great he was really helped me overcome my own lack of self confidence. With tears in his eyes Ric got up and hugged me, thanking me as a person.

I just assume that if you run into Ric Flair the odds that he cries or blades are pretty high.

[MikeCampbell]

After spending last night partying with him I can attest Paul London's probably the nicest wrestler ever.

I met him in 2011, and got to hang out with him for a bit after the show. Super cool guy.

[tofu_chipmunk]

Is Al Snow an anti-semite?

After not helping his old tag team partner Dr. Isaac Yankem during his early WWF struggles, Snow may qualify as an anti-dentite.

[pantherwagner]

 

After spending last night partying with him I can attest Paul London's probably the nicest wrestler ever.

I met him in 2011, and got to hang out with him for a bit after the show. Super cool guy.

 

Not to mention a 100% certified pussy magnet.

[ButchReedMark]

He was with his partner who made me dance, he bought me drinks, told me awesome stories, a real class act.

[Dooley]

I also accidentally made Bret Hart more paranoid in 98

 

Do tell.