From the “I didn’t expect to wake up on a Saturday morning in 2023 and see this” file, comes the news that none other than Phillip Theis decided to do a painting of me. Yes, me, RD Reynolds. Longtime Crappers would probably know Theis better by his ring name of Damien Demento who plied his trade in the WWF in the early 1990s. In fact, he was in the main event (!!) of the first ever Monday Night Raw battling the Undertaker. So to say this is an honor is an understatement. For the record, that original photo of me was one I took in a hotel room and the light just hit perfectly for a “dark side of RD Reynolds” shot. Mr. Theis (whom you can follow here) took it way beyond that and I am honored.
SPEAKING OF being honored, let’s see what gifts y’all have give me this week in question form…
Chad A kicks us off with…”What’s your all time favorite wrestling attire? Mine’s either Savage’s classic trunks with the stars on them or Rick Rude’s tights”
Savage’s three star trunks were great, and his robes were absolutely incredible. I liked them more than Flair’s robes for sure as they were just so neon, so colorful, so in your face. Currently my favorite gear is Orange Cassidy’s – Mrs. Deal got me a pair of “jeans” like his years ago, long before I ever saw OC, and I still wear them often. What’s funny is that I have a cheapo OC shirt I got on Black Friday at Hot Topic that I sometimes wear at the same time. I wear them for comfort, but it would appear to anyone at the house I was cosplaying.
Erik B continues the fashion files with…”Who had the goofiest ring attire and why was it Jeff Jarrett?”
There were worse (Bastion Booger springs to mind), but seriously…
…what was this with the strips of fabric covering his torso? Never, ever understood that.
Marko B goes OLD school with…”A *What if?* Gino pulls it together, goes to Vince.”
Assuming you mean Gino Hernandez. I loved his work but I couldn’t see him doing much in the WWF at that time as it was a land of giants. I picture Vince looking at him and thinking it was Al Perez. Would have wound up in the same spot too – random house show matches that were more or less ignored on Prime Time. Not everyone is made for WWE, and that’s not a knock. There’s a big world of pro wrestling and you can be a success without being under Vince’s employ.
Tony C asks the question of the week (non-prize winning, non-award winning) with…”Why must devoted fandoms consistently criticize the flaws of their chosen passion instead of just enjoying themselves?”
It’s the world we live in. It’s easier to mock stuff you don’t like than praise stuff you do. I often wonder if I had a miscroscopic bit to do with that in the world of wrestling by starting this silly site nearly a quarter century ago. I try to do it in a good natured format, but others don’t. And as I’ve mentioned before, we are in a very tribal environment where everyone wants their side to “win”, be that a wrestling promotion, a film franchise, a political party, or whatever. I’m doing my best to distance myself from that but it’s very difficult.
Sean B wants to know…”What is your favorite Blade Braxton story?”
Oh geez, there are way too many to possible single out one. As I write this though I think about the very first time he ever sent me anything, which was the Revenge of the Scorpion VHS that he sent in for our Recreate the Crap contest. Basically I asked my fellow Crappers to send in video submissions of them attempting to redo Inductions from the site, and Blade chose the Black Scorpion. He sent it in at the last minute (as was the norm with him) and it showed up on the contest’s last day. I saw it came in FedEx (!!!) and was like “what could this possibly be’. Mrs. Deal was there at the time and she said throw it in the VCR and let’s watch it. Which was also weird as she was burned out on wrestling by that point for sure. So we watch it and it was the funniest thin I’d ever seen. We both laughed until we cried at the Uncle Burt reveal at the end. Heck, I’m crying now just thinking about it…which is a pretty good way to end this week.
As always, send in your questions for the mailbag by clicking, you guessed it, rightchere!