Post by Stu-E Price on Jul 28, 2007 9:01:07 GMT -5
BRUCE ALLEN
Shortly after we became engaged in 1983, Davey was in Tokyo to wrestle as White Tiger. He was in the dressing room getting ready when the Canadian rock singer Bryan Adams and his manager Bruce Allen strode in. Bruce had already had huge success with Heart and Loverboy and was now building a great career for Bryan. Bryan had just released “Cuts Like A Knife” and was on the verge of superstardom.
Davey, dressed as White Tiger, jumped up and demanded to know who they were. They introduced themselves and Davey took his mask off and said, "I'm sorry about that. I just didn't expect to meet you guys in Japan."
Bruce laughed and said he was a big fan of the British Bulldog. Davey explained he was only filling in as White Tiger for a wrestler who was sick. They chatted for a few minutes and hit if off. Then Davey coincidentally ended up sitting right next to Bruce Allen in first class, flying back from Tokyo to Vancouver.
Bruce told Davey, "I'd love to do promotions for Stu. He's got Gene Kiniski doing promotions in Vancouver now and the newspaper ads aren't any bigger than a postage stamp and poor Stu's losing money. If I just had a chance I wouldn't even take a salary for the first show just to prove to him how much money I could make for him."
When Davey got back to Calgary, he immediately talked to my dad. It took quite a bit of convincing because my dad's very loyal. Even though Gene was robbing him blind, he was loath to replace him. Gene was a real bitter, jealous old bastard. He had two sons, Kelly and Nick, and a wife who shot herself. I thought he was unbearable. Gene was a football player for the Edmonton Eskimos before he turned to wrestling. His mother was Julia Kiniski, a longtime Edmonton city alderman. Gene had a voice that sounded like he was chewing gravel and was a world's champion before Vince McMahon's time. Gene was a “squeaky wheel gets the grease” kind of guy – always complaining and never endearing himself to anyone. His son Kelly was more like his mother and his son Nick played football for the CFL's BC Lions. Kelly got into pro wrestling, but he was quite bull-legged and pigeon-toed. He was much more likable than Nick. Nick used especially offensive language around the female wrestlers.
Bruce Allen ran a show for my dad in Vancouver and he produced an awesome turnout.
They sold out the arena. Afterward Bruce said, “Stu, I think I proved myself to you."
Bruce had done what he promised he'd do and didn't make a penny on it.
My dad understood. He said, “Okay Bruce, you did a phenomenal job, you got 10,000 people at the show."
Gene was sick about Bruce's success. My dad had let him run the wrestling in Vancouver for years and he had been only moderately successful. My dad's relationship with him went back to the ’50s when my dad coached him a bit in wrestling and helped him with junior football.
But the wrestlers were always complaining to my dad about Gene. They said he treated them like garbage and that there were no people at the shows and no advertising. It was demoralizing to drive 12 hours to Vancouver for nothing.
My dad agreed to let Bruce Allen run the shows in Vancouver and Victoria, but he cut Gene in. Gene began to undermine Bruce's efforts and so did his son Nick. Nick was an absolute beast.
Bruce's secretary and right hand Crystal Harbidge really knew his promotion and put her heart into everything. She arranged all the catering and wrangled the talent. In fact, it was she who taught us to call the wrestlers “talent.” They got a kick out of that. She picked them up at the airport and booked them at better hotels and made sure their every need was looked after. Expenses came out of my dad's end of course and now that Bruce had proven himself, it was time for my dad to pay up.
Gene refused to cooperate and made it really difficult in the dressing room. Crystal arranged professionally catered food for the wrestlers: fresh fruit, cheese, buns and vegetables. It was great. They were treated like celebrities. They felt better and the shows looked better. Crystal was used to doing this for rock stars like Bryan Adams, Heart and Loverboy.
Nick Kiniski and Gene helped themselves to the food and tossed aside what they didn't want like a couple of pigs at the trough. They would make a total mess of the buffets.
Finally Crystal intervened. "This food is for the wrestlers."
Nick swore at her, putting her in tears.
"I don't have to listen to you," Nick growled. "There shouldn't be girls allowed back here anyway."
Bruce, Bret and Davey were upset with the way Nick treated Crystal. But my dad still would not fire Gene. My mom got wind of this story and she flew out to Vancouver to fire Gene herself, but it never happened. My mom never went on the road. It just never happened. It wasn't even like, "Oh, that's unusual." She absolutely never went, but so infuriated was she by the reports about Gene and Nick, she flew out to Vancouver.
"That bastard. I'm going to fire him. He never liked your father anyway."
When she got there, my dad stopped her. Very rarely did he forbid her to do anything, but he could not bring himself or anyone representing him to tell Gene off.
Bruce Allen had a wonderful impact on Stampede Wrestling. He helped our territory a lot. He was getting wrestlers deals on airfares. He lined up Air Canada and Rainier Beer to sponsor the shows. He sent us a disc jockey from Vancouver named Dave Pratt to work as our announcer. Dave, who is now with The Sports Network, was great. He was like a new, improved version of our old commentator, Ed Whalen. Actually I thought he was better than Ed who tended to be pretty corny.
Ed was a big part of the early Stampede Wrestling shows out of Calgary. He had a distinctive nasal voice and some catchy one-liners. He'd talk about a “malfunction at the junction” and a “ringa-ding-dong-dandy.” He'd sign off, “in the meantime, in between time.” Nothing was too corny for Ed. But he definitely had a following. He was treated like a rock star when he did a publicity tour in the Caribbean.
Ed likes to portray himself as a big friend to our family, but in reality he's not. He never thanked my dad for making him an international celebrity. He'd carefully credit himself with the show's success while pretending to be modest. He treated my dad like a stupid wrestler, when it was my dad's promotional ability that made the whole show go.
When Bret started to get famous, Ed pushed past my dad to stand next to him. He never missed an opportunity to knock anybody he couldn't benefit from. Ed was never there for anybody in our family when they needed something, but he'd show up in a minute when the spotlight was on.
When Owen died and we were all suffering, Ed was doing columns and interviews. I was offended.
My brother Smith used to say Ed's bottom was so flat his underwear was padded. I'm not sure if this was true or just Smith's way of showing how much he disliked the man.
Wrestling was Bruce Allen's real love. He liked it better than the rock business. Bruce promoted these awesome angles and the show grew in popularity. It was seen all over the world. In Uganda, it was one of Idi Amin's favorite shows. He and the guards in his camp watched it regularly.
We found out about this one night while watching the Canadian game show Front Page Challenge. They had a prisoner of war on the show and you could see his silhouette behind a panel of journalist celebrities including Pierre Burton and Betty Kennedy. It was their job to guess who he was and what story he represented.
This fellow told them he’d watched the show every Sunday. I remember how odd this felt. On one hand, it was impressive that the leader of a country liked our show more than any other, but on the other, Idi Amin was a ruthless dictator and an abusive, syphilitic husband with 50 wives.
Shortly after we became engaged in 1983, Davey was in Tokyo to wrestle as White Tiger. He was in the dressing room getting ready when the Canadian rock singer Bryan Adams and his manager Bruce Allen strode in. Bruce had already had huge success with Heart and Loverboy and was now building a great career for Bryan. Bryan had just released “Cuts Like A Knife” and was on the verge of superstardom.
Davey, dressed as White Tiger, jumped up and demanded to know who they were. They introduced themselves and Davey took his mask off and said, "I'm sorry about that. I just didn't expect to meet you guys in Japan."
Bruce laughed and said he was a big fan of the British Bulldog. Davey explained he was only filling in as White Tiger for a wrestler who was sick. They chatted for a few minutes and hit if off. Then Davey coincidentally ended up sitting right next to Bruce Allen in first class, flying back from Tokyo to Vancouver.
Bruce told Davey, "I'd love to do promotions for Stu. He's got Gene Kiniski doing promotions in Vancouver now and the newspaper ads aren't any bigger than a postage stamp and poor Stu's losing money. If I just had a chance I wouldn't even take a salary for the first show just to prove to him how much money I could make for him."
When Davey got back to Calgary, he immediately talked to my dad. It took quite a bit of convincing because my dad's very loyal. Even though Gene was robbing him blind, he was loath to replace him. Gene was a real bitter, jealous old bastard. He had two sons, Kelly and Nick, and a wife who shot herself. I thought he was unbearable. Gene was a football player for the Edmonton Eskimos before he turned to wrestling. His mother was Julia Kiniski, a longtime Edmonton city alderman. Gene had a voice that sounded like he was chewing gravel and was a world's champion before Vince McMahon's time. Gene was a “squeaky wheel gets the grease” kind of guy – always complaining and never endearing himself to anyone. His son Kelly was more like his mother and his son Nick played football for the CFL's BC Lions. Kelly got into pro wrestling, but he was quite bull-legged and pigeon-toed. He was much more likable than Nick. Nick used especially offensive language around the female wrestlers.
Bruce Allen ran a show for my dad in Vancouver and he produced an awesome turnout.
They sold out the arena. Afterward Bruce said, “Stu, I think I proved myself to you."
Bruce had done what he promised he'd do and didn't make a penny on it.
My dad understood. He said, “Okay Bruce, you did a phenomenal job, you got 10,000 people at the show."
Gene was sick about Bruce's success. My dad had let him run the wrestling in Vancouver for years and he had been only moderately successful. My dad's relationship with him went back to the ’50s when my dad coached him a bit in wrestling and helped him with junior football.
But the wrestlers were always complaining to my dad about Gene. They said he treated them like garbage and that there were no people at the shows and no advertising. It was demoralizing to drive 12 hours to Vancouver for nothing.
My dad agreed to let Bruce Allen run the shows in Vancouver and Victoria, but he cut Gene in. Gene began to undermine Bruce's efforts and so did his son Nick. Nick was an absolute beast.
Bruce's secretary and right hand Crystal Harbidge really knew his promotion and put her heart into everything. She arranged all the catering and wrangled the talent. In fact, it was she who taught us to call the wrestlers “talent.” They got a kick out of that. She picked them up at the airport and booked them at better hotels and made sure their every need was looked after. Expenses came out of my dad's end of course and now that Bruce had proven himself, it was time for my dad to pay up.
Gene refused to cooperate and made it really difficult in the dressing room. Crystal arranged professionally catered food for the wrestlers: fresh fruit, cheese, buns and vegetables. It was great. They were treated like celebrities. They felt better and the shows looked better. Crystal was used to doing this for rock stars like Bryan Adams, Heart and Loverboy.
Nick Kiniski and Gene helped themselves to the food and tossed aside what they didn't want like a couple of pigs at the trough. They would make a total mess of the buffets.
Finally Crystal intervened. "This food is for the wrestlers."
Nick swore at her, putting her in tears.
"I don't have to listen to you," Nick growled. "There shouldn't be girls allowed back here anyway."
Bruce, Bret and Davey were upset with the way Nick treated Crystal. But my dad still would not fire Gene. My mom got wind of this story and she flew out to Vancouver to fire Gene herself, but it never happened. My mom never went on the road. It just never happened. It wasn't even like, "Oh, that's unusual." She absolutely never went, but so infuriated was she by the reports about Gene and Nick, she flew out to Vancouver.
"That bastard. I'm going to fire him. He never liked your father anyway."
When she got there, my dad stopped her. Very rarely did he forbid her to do anything, but he could not bring himself or anyone representing him to tell Gene off.
Bruce Allen had a wonderful impact on Stampede Wrestling. He helped our territory a lot. He was getting wrestlers deals on airfares. He lined up Air Canada and Rainier Beer to sponsor the shows. He sent us a disc jockey from Vancouver named Dave Pratt to work as our announcer. Dave, who is now with The Sports Network, was great. He was like a new, improved version of our old commentator, Ed Whalen. Actually I thought he was better than Ed who tended to be pretty corny.
Ed was a big part of the early Stampede Wrestling shows out of Calgary. He had a distinctive nasal voice and some catchy one-liners. He'd talk about a “malfunction at the junction” and a “ringa-ding-dong-dandy.” He'd sign off, “in the meantime, in between time.” Nothing was too corny for Ed. But he definitely had a following. He was treated like a rock star when he did a publicity tour in the Caribbean.
Ed likes to portray himself as a big friend to our family, but in reality he's not. He never thanked my dad for making him an international celebrity. He'd carefully credit himself with the show's success while pretending to be modest. He treated my dad like a stupid wrestler, when it was my dad's promotional ability that made the whole show go.
When Bret started to get famous, Ed pushed past my dad to stand next to him. He never missed an opportunity to knock anybody he couldn't benefit from. Ed was never there for anybody in our family when they needed something, but he'd show up in a minute when the spotlight was on.
When Owen died and we were all suffering, Ed was doing columns and interviews. I was offended.
My brother Smith used to say Ed's bottom was so flat his underwear was padded. I'm not sure if this was true or just Smith's way of showing how much he disliked the man.
Wrestling was Bruce Allen's real love. He liked it better than the rock business. Bruce promoted these awesome angles and the show grew in popularity. It was seen all over the world. In Uganda, it was one of Idi Amin's favorite shows. He and the guards in his camp watched it regularly.
We found out about this one night while watching the Canadian game show Front Page Challenge. They had a prisoner of war on the show and you could see his silhouette behind a panel of journalist celebrities including Pierre Burton and Betty Kennedy. It was their job to guess who he was and what story he represented.
This fellow told them he’d watched the show every Sunday. I remember how odd this felt. On one hand, it was impressive that the leader of a country liked our show more than any other, but on the other, Idi Amin was a ruthless dictator and an abusive, syphilitic husband with 50 wives.