Las Vegas 2008 CAC Part Four |
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Tuesday night was reserved for the Mexican stars as the previous year’s was dedicated to the Canadians. It was an evening that started with all the decorations at the tables and on the podium. The evening started with a wonderful buffet style dinner. Bill White and I had selected a table near the rear of the room, and we joined a group of Lucha stars from Los Angeles. A little bit later, Bob and Ryan Roop joined us. Before the actual program started, they gave tribute to former President Red Bastien by bringing the entire Bastien clan to the stage. It was then announced that the tribute of the Friendship award had been renamed to the Red Bastien. The first to be awarded with the new award was Joyce Paustian from Davenport, Iowa. The previous winner, Diane Devine, had her award renamed and received a new plaque with the new logo on it. Joyce is a much deserving lady that has been a fan, a friend and more than that in the years that I have known her. She has been very supportive to our profession for many years, donating many of her pictures to magazines and newsletters that she had taken at the matches and other events that she attended. It will be very hard to pick someone for next year’s banquet that will top Joyce. The other award, named after James Melby, wrestling historian, was presented to Scott Teal for his many years of work in both books and newsletters. The night unfolded further at the center stage by paying tribute to all of the Mexican stars that had been associated with our business. Names like Mil Mascaras, El Santo, Gory Guerrero and his sons Mando, Hector and Chavo were among some of the top people honored. In a very stirring, crackly voice, Dave Burzynski gave tribute to two top Mexican stars from the Detroit area, Luis Martinez and Ricky "Crusher" Cortez. Ricky has since just passed away at age 83, and, yes, he was one of my boyhood idols. I still have very vivid memories of him in the ring and being able to pack the Flint Arena to standing room only crowds. Towards the end of the evening, I was called to the podium to be a guest auctioneer, substituting for Larry Hennig. The Gordienko family had donated a beautiful hand done print by George Gordienko. I knew I had big shoes to fill when starting this task, and, remembering the skills I had in Auctioneering, I began to sell. I stopped every few minutes and reminded the crowd that this item is a museum piece, and you could not get one at Wal-Mart. I also told the story about going to an auction once and waving at a friend and buying a bull. It brought many a laugh and more bids into the sale and made it easier to do for me. I even had a $250 bid from Stone Cold Steve Austin, and I tried to see where he was, but the speakers were in my way. I kept coming back to a very attractive young lady seated at Pat Patterson's table. She seemed like she was not going to give up for any amount of money. As luck would have it, she won the auction at $360, and I then learned that it was Ata Johnson, the Rock's mom. I had the pleasure of meeting with her after the sale during the karaoke segment of the night. At about midnight, I finally made it out the door and went back across Las Vegas Boulevard to my suite for the evening. Wednesday morning started, again with a wonderful breakfast at Katy's. Many of the wrestling profession were there, and each had their own war stories to be told at the meal. As I wandered thru the room, I stopped to pay tribute to all my friends that I have made during my short lifetime. We went back to the reception room to resume our Cribbage tournament, and, as I looked across the room, I saw Ronnie Garvin there. I went and asked him to come over and sit in on a game with me. He sat down and played his heart out, and I cannot honestly remember if I won the game or not, but I had a lot of fun just talking with him. Ronnie is a true giant in our industry and carried the ball many times before retiring from active participation. At noon, the tournament started again with the finals between Dave Bodell and Jeff Sharkey. I have never seen such a stare down between two guys as I did them. This was, of course, for all the marbles, and they had the center spotlight with a lot of fans cheering both of them on. The game went the entire three falls, and, in the end, Dave Bodell was crowned the 2008 Cribbage Champion. It was also a first for the tournament as Dave was not a wrestler, but a fan that made his way to the top. It will be up to us to defend our honor next year and get a wrestler back into the ranks of champion. We broke away and returned to our suites to ready ourselves for the big banquet evening ahead. To be continued… Percival A. Friend,
Retired
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