My official review of the Rumble is posted in the “Editorials” section of WrestleZone. However, I wanted to use this week’s editorial to tell you about another part of my St. Louis trip: X-Pac and Billy Gunns’ after-party at the Tigin Irish Pub.
Josh Isenberg and I were invited to cover the event and even do a little hosting. We gladly accepted as we knew the type of time we’d have after attending the WrestleMania party in Atlanta last year with Kevin Nash and X-Pac. And I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing Billy Gunn several times in the past, so I knew it would be fun to catch up with him again.
After an initial hour-long VIP session where premium payees got to receive their pictures and autographs, plus spend some extra face time with the two superstars, Gunn and Waltman came into the main section of the bar for a Q&A session. Although the sound system was poor in the place, there were plenty of highlights:
*Waltman said that Scott Hall was doing well and that he had just recently moved. It’s closer to Sean so the two should be seeing each other more often.
*A fan asked Waltman why Macho Man isn’t in the Hall of Fame. Sean said that Randy should be inducted, but believes it has something do with Randy’s brother, Lanny Poffo’s demands in wanting the entire Poffo family inducted at the same time. Waltman put over the late father of Randy, Angelo Poffo, but said that he hardly worked for Vince. He also took a small shot at Lanny by saying that he believes he might be riding his dead brother’s coattails. He said he was good friends with Macho Man and misses him very much.
*A very funny moment where a fan asked Sean to do the Ric Flair strut. The crowd popped big when Sean extended his hand to the fan, but pulled it back right before the fan could shake it. He rubbed his hands through his hair, turned, strutted away, and completed it with smoking one last drag of his imaginary cig before throwing it down and putting it out with his boot.
*He put over D-X as the group he had the most fun in and said it was the primary reason WWE ended up beating out WCW, so it was the superior faction over nWo.
*I actually thought Billy Gunn was going to go off on a fan who came up during his session, beer in hand, and demanded to ask a question. I guess he felt he had been waiting long enough. The crowd starting yelling “Woah!” repetitively and it eventually forced Billy to enter “promo mode”. To paraphrase, Billy’s response was something like, “I know you’re not directing that toward me, because you haven’t drank enough to take the pain away when I knock your teeth down your throat”. Naturally, the crowd loved it. The funniest part about the whole thing was the fan’s question that he had been DYING to ask Billy. It wasn’t even a question. Once the crowd finally simmered down, the name “Stan Lane” screeched through the speakers. The fan apparently wanted to tell Billy that his career reminded him of Stan Lane’s. This, of course, prompted the rest of the crowd to start up a “Fame Asser” chant. Unfortunately, Billy didn’t deliver one to this guy. I hope there’s video of this somewhere. It’s up there with the “It’s still real to me, dammit!” guy.
Nick was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, and lived there until the age of 18, when he decided to pack his flack jacket and move to New York City.
