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Freebirds, Von Erich meet again at convention
By
MEREDITH RENWICK -- For SLAM! Wrestling
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At the buffet dinner Saturday night, the headline guests and former
World Class
referee David Manning regaled the crowd with tales of behind-the-scenes
shenanigans and favourite ribs, most of them instigated by the Freebirds
- like
the time Buddy Roberts arrived for a show and found a dead possum placed
in his
bag by his teammates then got his revenge by putting the stinking
costume on
anyway and making them smell it all through the match. Or the time Kevin
Von
Erich got bitten on the arm by a monkey during a tour of Africa and the
monkey
dropped dead several minutes later. Manning also revealed that Vince
McMahon
Sr. and Jr. had approached WCCW promoter Fritz Von Erich in 1982 about
forming
a partnership, "and unfortunately for us, Fritz said no."
Wrestlecon was organized by Britt Britton, owner of Autographs Ink, a
movie,
sports and music collector's store in Colleyville TX. Britton has been
involved
in collector and memorabilia shows for over 20 years, and Wrestlecon is the
first show he's done that's been strictly pro wrestling-oriented.
Attendance
was lower than Britton had been hoping for, but he's confident that
word-of-mouth will get out about the event and attendance will be higher
for
the next Wrestlecon in February 2004. "I'm a little disappointed by the
turnout, but I don't think I did anything wrong," Britton said. "I
decided if I
was going to do one [wrestling convention] I'd do two, so the one for
February
is definitely a go."
Meredith Renwick is a Toronto-based writer.
