The somewhat scary moments at the Cow Palace mentioned in some of the comments on the previous post made me remember this great story told by Pat Patterson for Slam! Wrestling. The interview was conducted by Mike Lano but Ill post it anyway. ;) Debut album out on CD for famed wrestler By MIKE LANO - SLAM! Wrestling May 14, 2009 Working in the San Francisco Bay Area all those years as a heel for [promoter Roy] Shire was dangerous. I was glad to turn babyface, he confessed. Any time I mightve gotten the advantage or at worst, beaten Peter Maivia, the Samoan fans would encircle the ring. Once Ray [Stevens] and I had a tag match with him and [Pepper] Gomez at the Cow Palace and it was the first and last time George Two Ton Harris was brought in by Shire to be my very first manager. For someone who had already cut such a reputation, both in the ring as a performer and as a character, why was Harris brought in as a second to Patterson? Roy just wanted to do something different, and try to book his first manager in the territory. This was before Haru Sasaki and Gary [Gerhardt] Kaiser, who were basically the only managers Roy ever used in the late 60s and 70s along with Ken Ramey who managed Paul DeMarco, Billy Graham, Interns, Von Brauners and Von Steigers. Patterson picked up the story -- and hes a great storyteller. Harris got it from the fans who surrounded the ring. I yelled at him to come help us. No way was he coming close but I think some of the fans popped him. I yelled at Shire to come help us, but he was afraid to get into the middle of it too, standing way back on the sidelines. Somehow Ray got out after I distracted the fans who hated us and were gunning for us. I watched him walk with the cops who couldnt even stop the fans, watching that blond head bopping towards the back, and then that head of blond hair went down! I shouted, They got Ray! they got Ray! But then I saw his blond head pop back up so hed only leaned down. Somehow I put up my fists and was able to run down the aisle and to the back. I then fell on the floor on my back and looked up in disbelief. How did I get out of that mess without getting killed? I asked myself. I couldnt believe I got out of there alive. That was Harris first and last time as a manager for us. This happened several other times; and as many cops as we had, couldnt really stop the riots. The Samoan fans in particular. They were hot and sometimes I dreaded working with Peter as a result of it. Very dangerous, but at least I was proud Id done something to move the people to real emotion.
Posted on: Mon, 13 Oct 2014 03:53:46 +0000
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