KFR readers, how does it feel? How does it feel watching Ken Patera trying to cut a promo? How does it feel as he twists and cracks words until they are reduced to proverbial rubble? OLD SCHOOL SAMMY!…John Keating!…William Burnett!…Sean D.!…Eric Plunk!..Neal Snow! How does it feel……BOYS?!? How does it feel, Scott Bowden, to present this promo? It feels FANTASTIC! (I must say, I’m digging that cool NWA sign in the background-looks like a 3rd-grader’s art project…or maybe something Randy Hales put together yesterday.)
Eventually, Patera hit his stride as a promo guy in the WWF, no longer anybody’s red-headed whipping boy (or dirty yard dog). You’ll have to click through to watch this one at YouTube as embedding is disabled. (If Gene Okerlund can’t keep a straight face, what chance do you have?)
In retirement, Patera has found an inner peace most never know. Today, he’s capable of speaking on a variety of subjects, including foreign policy.
During my four-part interview series with Dutch Mantell, he spoke of the chaotic scene that was typical prior to the start of the Saturday morning Memphis wrestling TV tapings at 1960 Union Ave. in the ’80s: “…It was a lot fun on Saturday mornings but it was hectic—sometimes I’d get the interview 5 minutes before I was supposed to go out there on live TV: ‘You’re working with so and so Monday night.’”
By the time I was in my final heel run in 1996, things were even more disorganized, as I’d often be pushed out from behind the curtain to do an impromptu promo toward the end of the show if we had time to kill. On this fateful day, earlier in the show, they had plugged an upcoming bout at the Mid-South Coliseum for the prestigious USWA ladies championship between Ms. Texas (Jackie Moore) and Medusa, a masked woman who was definitely not Medusa Miceli under the hood.
After a quick briefing (“You’re now managing Medusa-go talk about it!”), I (aka “Young Boy”) hastily made my way to the desk to somehow try to get over a ridiculous gimmick that made me long for the days when Memphis wrestling featured more realistic angles and characters-y’know, like Dr. Frank and Darth Vader. The result? A real horror show and definitely not one of my most memorable moments. In fact, I had completely blocked this interview and the Medusa gimmick out of my mind until I recently stumbled upon this clip on YouTube. (I must say, though, the company clearly spared no expense on Medusa’s mask and wardrobe-not exactly on the level of the stop-action technology of the original Clash of the Titans. And yes, that is an equipment-issued, authentic Warrick Dunn FSU jersey I’m wearing-a little gift from my Uncle Bobby.) I wish this monstrosity had stayed dead and buried, but since it’s out there, this promo definitely belongs in any conversation regarding the worst pro wrestling interviews of all time.
I can’t help but think that if I had stayed in the business, I could have one day been a renowned manager of ladies champions worldwide in the same class as the great Boogaloo Brown. Now this man knew how to cut a promo and get a lady over.
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