Thursday, September 20, 2012

Guzmania

I do not know a great deal about him except I assume his last name is Guzman and hence the Guzmania thing.

A rotund Hispanic grappler, he may well remind older fans of the retired Eli Hernandez. Though he had been around beforehand, Guzmania started making wave sin about 2010 and continues to do so at this writing.

Sometimes cheered and sometimes booed, he seems more comfortable in a  heel role, in the shade of the late Playboy Buddy Rose, where he places overemphasis on his supposedly tremendous physical condition, when he is in fact quite overweight.

Don't let the "fat" thing fool you though, as he also has legitimate upper body power and can go long matches in spite of what his appearance might imply..

Several Guzmania matches may be found on you tube now.

This includes one of his best encounters with High Alert Cody Baker.


Thursday, September 13, 2012

Peggy Connors

Peggy Connors was one of several wrestlers who happened to drift through Arizona, but did not stay long. Her name crops up in results data for different areas, but she only had a  short Arizona stint before moving on.

In 1976, she had a feud with Marilyn Bender, the top female heel in the area at the time. Bender was as underhanded as they come and frankly, brawled like a man. She was also overbearing and annoying on the microphone with an arrogance few women could match.

Bender stayed in Arizona and New Mexico for quite a while, extending throughout the mid-1970s into the early 1980s, acing a number of female competitors such as Daisy Mae, Ann Casey and Mrs. Wrestling. Connors was one of the others to come through, lose to her in a short feud and depart.

Connors was billed a being from California and was the exact opposite of the hated Bender. She posed for photos  signed autographs and was loved by the fans during her Arizona stay, which saw her facing Bender in casa Grande, Yuma, Tucson, Phoenix and other areas under the promotional hand of Paul Harvey.

One of the reasons she might not have stayed would have been the Paul Harvey pay offs, which were usually rock bottom.

Even though she and Bender had exemplary matches, Connors more likely than not saw a bad deal and headed for greener pastures.

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

What A Pain

When I first started throwing things together I thought it would be easy to compose a results book for Arizona wrestling. Not so.

Oh, the book will be out on Lulu okay, but I am not sure if it will be this month as planned.

The thing is it has not been so hard to find results from the 1960s-1970s or even older stuff from the 1920s-1950s.

What is hard is finding stuff from my era, say 1979-1990s.

It seems none of us bothered to keep the old programs, ads and the like for cards we were on.

Oh, I remember deign several shows, but as far as exact dates and complete results, forget it.

Well, there has to be some egomaniac who roked Arizona in my era with a bunch of stuff lying around.

Maybe it will turn up.