Recap courtesy of LordsofPain.net writer Michael Bluth:

FOX Sports South has posted a new article looking at DDP‘s work helping 2013 CAC honoree Jake “The Snake” Roberts resurrect his health and career.

“’This is it. If you don’t get it done, you’re going to die,’” Roberts told himself before moving into DDP’s Accountability crib. “I mean, when you want to die, you can shut yourself down to that point. There’s no doubt in my mind I could do that to myself to die. Give up.”

The big news from the interview was Jake Roberts announcing he’ll be in the 2014 Royal Rumble:

“I’m announcing that right now. I’ll be in the Royal Rumble next year, count on it… I worked too hard in this business to go out that way. So I guess we’re going to have to take a victory lap. I’m definitely coming back.”

DDP, one of Jake’s strongest supporters, says Jake is constantly surprised at his progress.

“Every day, this guy is getting stronger and stronger,” Page said. “He’s like, ‘How is that happening?’

Read the full article here:

http://www.foxsportssouth.com/fox-sports-networks/story/Ex-wrestler-Page-resurrecting-fallen-ico?blockID=902469&feedID=11087

Hosts Jack E. Jones and One Inch Biceps welcomed former WWE Women’s Champion Molly Holly to IYH Wrestling Radio on April 24, 2013.  Molly Holly was honored by the Cauliflower Alley Club with a 2013 women’s wrestling award.

Highlights included the following:

Whose idea was the Hair versus Title match at Wrestlemania XX where she ended up getting her head shaved?

“Well, I’m guessing that people listening to this wouldn’t be too hurt if I tell like the real, behind the scenes truth, but the real truth is that it was my idea.  I was told by the writing team that they were not going to have a Women’s Championship match at Wrestlemania, and I was really hurt by that…so I just came up with an idea that I thought they couldn’t say no to, and so I pitched it.  They said, OK, you can be on Wrestlemania if you get your head shaved.  And I was like, “Yes!”  So yeah, I was excited about it, it was my idea, they actually did it, and even though there wasn’t much of a storyline and people didn’t really love or hate me that much as a character at that time, I still was really happy to be able to do something memorable.”

Who came up with the “Molly-Go-Round” and who was the first wrestler to take the move?

“Well, what actually happened is that I had been working on a full twisting moonsault ever since I got hired from the WWF and was in developmental, cause I’m like when I debut in the WWF I’m going to do a full twisting moonsault for my finish.  Well, the day I have a match with Trish Stratus that I actually am going to do our finishing maneuver, I was practicing on a crash pad and I could not do it…So Dean Malenko said, you know, I saw Rey Mysterio do a front flip into a hurricanrana thing, but what if you just did a front flip and land on them…So, I got to practice it a couple of times just on some indy guys that were willing to take bumps from me in the afternoon, and it worked every time…I think Trish might have been the first one to take the Molly-Go-Round, but it was really Dean Malenko’s idea to save me from being fired for not having the move that I had planned originally.”

Other topics discussed included:

• How did the character of Mighty Molly come about?
• What did she think was the favorite time in her career?
• What was it like working with Macho Man Randy Savage?
• What “bump” is more painful to her than going through a table?
• Did she think that Trish Stratus deserved her induction into the WWE Hall of Fame?

This interview is available for listening at:

http://www.iyhwrestling.com/viewnews.php?autoid=7637

Dailp Singh (now known as The Great Khali) in APW -2000

 Upon futher review of this photo, we have realized that he is mangaed by none other that CAC Executive Board Member Jason Deadrich.

From Sports Illustrated – June 18,1979

“Some Cauliflower Alley Clubmen Might Be Down, But They’re Not Out”

Near Hollywood’s central business district lie the remains of an old boxing and wrestling arena, the 7,000-seat Legion Stadium. In 1959, to make way for new land use, concrete slabs were laid over the stadium, burying what had been one of the West’s busiest fight clubs during the 1920s, ’30s and ’40s. But the place still draws fans. On a recent afternoon some 80 members of the Cauliflower Alley Club, an organization of old-time ring stars (average age 67), met above the spot where many of them once threw punches or wrestled. “Maybe they buried the joint,” said 71-year-old Jimmy McLarnin, the world welterweight champion in 1933, “but they haven’t got us yet.”

That defiant spirit marks the CAC, the country’s largest fraternity of ex-fighters and wrestlers. The club was formed to salute yesterday’s heroes of the ring, to help them escape the loneliness of retirement and hear some cheers againâ??if only from their peers. “Having a club to come to fills empty days for the boys,” says one of the CAC’s founders. “Many of them live on small savings and pensions, although we have a few millionaires. They may need a cane or wheelchair to reach the sessions, but they keep coming. Mickey Cohen, for instance, collapsed at the door and we had to carry him in. He died not long after.” ( Cohen, Los Angeles’ most notorious gangster in post-World War II days, qualified for the club because he was a popular Cleveland lightweight years earlier.)

Weekly meetings, which are usually held in the Golden State Hotel in Burbank, are called to order by striking the bell used at the Dempsey-Tunney “long-count” fight of 1927. The death of an Alley Clubber is observed by striking the same bell 10 times. Last words are often spoken by Kid Chissell, 69, once the U.S. Navy’s top-ranked welterweight. Not long ago, during a eulogy for a departed comrade. Chissell declared. “Friend Ed isn’t dead, he’s sleeping.” From a side table came the reply, “I’ll lay 8 to 5 against that.”

Some club members are so old they can recall Lillie Langtry sitting at ringside before World War I. Eighty-six-year-old Phil Bloom, a noted lightweight in his day, knew John L. Sullivan. Fidel La Barba, 74, held the world flyweight crown during the Coolidge Administration. Young Abe Attell, a wispy 84-year-old who had 300-odd bouts beginning in 1910, says, “Cuts didn’t stop you in those daysâ??they used a solution so damned powerful it blinded some guys for good when it got into their eyes.”

One of the few honorary members of the Cauliflower AC is Mae West, 86, a lifetime boxing fan. One day, arriving at a club meeting in a cloud of chiffon, Miss West glanced over the elderly crowd and asked, “Where am I, boysâ??in a wax museum?”

Many famous names of the past attend the club’s gatherings, among them Willie (Gorilla) Jones, 73, a former middleweight champion who toured New York with a pet lion on a leash; Jackie Fields, 72, once welterweight champ; Henry Armstrong, 67, unique holder of three world titles simultaneously; Lou Nova, 64-year-old inventor of the “Cosmic Punch,” who twice KO’d Max Baer; Jimmy Dime, 82, who, when hit with a full uppercut some 60 years ago, performed a backward somersault, landed on both feet and went on to win the fight.

But not all club members are noted for their deeds in the ring. Dr. Brad Levin, for instance, a spry 84-year-old from Los Angeles, was a fighter’s dentist for half a century. Levin probably replaced more teeth than anyone in his field and perfected the protective mouthpiece back in the days of Jack Johnson. And some members still hold jobs. Among them is Harvey Parry, who, though over 70, is the active dean of Hollywood stuntmen. “At 80 I plan to quit stunting,” says Parry, a feared body puncher in his youth. Parry taught Jimmy Cagney to fight for the movies, cauliflowering one of Cagney’s ears in the process. Cagney, by the way, is an honorary CAC member.

At a typical gathering CAC members might watch boxing movies, form committees to visit ailing and bedridden ex-fighters or hand out awards. In a recent poll the 420 cardholders chose those club members they felt most qualified for various honors. Among the winners: “Worst hands,” Jimmy McLarnin, whose knuckles are shoved halfway to his wrists; “Worst nose,” Mushy Callahan, 74, junior welterweight champ in 1926-30, with a nose so pancaked it’s hardly a hose at all; “Worst ears,” Mike Mazurki, 6’6″ club president, a one-time professional wrestler and a current movie tough guy, whose ears fold down from the top, then flatten into doglegs; “Prettiest,” the one and only Sugar Ray Robinson, still handsome at 58; “Ugliest.” Count Billy Varga, ex-heavyweight wrestler, who’s also the biggest noisemaker, agitator and program pest during the luncheon meetings.

Many of the former boxers and wrestlers miss the excitement of the past, a yearning expressed in the club anthem which they sing at the end of every CAC meeting:

Bless us all,
Bless us all,
The heavy, the light and the small,
Bless our flat noses and cauliflowered ears,
For we are the ones whom
They stood up and cheered.

George Hackenschmidt

Despite being located in an isolated corner of the world, deep in the Southern Hemisphere, New Zealand â?? much like its neighboring country of Australia â?? has a long and colorful history associated with professional wrestling on a grand scale.  One of the first professional wrestling stars of the 20th century, George Hackenschmidt, toured in 1905 and 1910, usually dispatching the local talent within minutes, then performing â??demonstrationsâ? to the numerous fans in attendance. Stanislaus Zbyszko visited our shores in 1926 to tangle with our local tall timber by the name of Ike Robin. Promoter Walter Miller stepped off the boat in the early 1930â??s and with the help of Canadian hall of fame grappler Earl McCready, set in motion two decades of seasonal wrestling tours, bringing the top names in the industry from the United States. Notable grapplers such as Jim Londos, Lou Thesz, Dick Raines, Paul Boesch, Ray Steele, Vincent Lopez, Ray Gunkel, Bob Managoff, Dean Detton amongst many others to the cities and towns of Aotearoa (â??The land of the long white cloudâ? as the native Maori call our country) came to battle the local talents of Lofty Blomfield, Ken Kenneth and briefly, before they made their names overseas, Pat Oâ??Connor and Abe Jacobs.

In the era following that, local boys made good Steve Rickard and John Da Silva, who were successes in amateur wrestling before making it in the pro ranks, used their drawing power and local support to start their own promotions. Concurrently, Australia was running hot with Jim Barnett and Johnny Doyle at the helm, meaning New Zealand made for a useful detour for many of the talent travelling there. When Australia faltered in the mid 1970â??s Rickard replaced the Australian promotionâ??s television spot with his own show â??On The Matâ?, which ran for nine years in a country that only carried two channels of television. Perhaps unsurprisingly, On The Mat is a strong television memory of any New Zealander over the age of 35. The likes of Abdullah the Butcher, King Curtis, Mark Lewin, Rick Martel, Mr Fuji, Harley Race, Andre the Giant and â??Nature Boyâ? Ric Flair are all household names to a generation of Kiwis who unfortunately show little interest in the goings on of the squared circle in its current format.

D Hoya of NZWPW Fame

When On the Mat ceased broadcasting in the mid 1980â??s, local wrestling petered out with the occasional show rarer than the eggs of the long-extinct Moa bird. However, since then two new generations of pro wrestling fans have surfaced in this country, the first lot becoming fans during the televising of WWF (as it was) programming from 1988 through to 1991, and the second group of fans exposed to the WWE attitude era, WCW, and even more recently TNA, all of which have been shown heavily on New Zealand television during the last 15 years. These new generations wanted more than anything to witness professional wrestling as a regular live spectacle (WWE have run yearly show here for the past five years), and took it upon themselves to build a new scene of independent wrestling companies and talent.

While there are a handful of Kiwis competing overseas in Australia and the United States (Reon Mahima currently competing in FCW rings under the name Rhys Ali is one such example), to date the majority of the homegrown talent has stayed put. What this has done has allowed the scene here to grow exponentially, and can proudly boast three full time companies that have been putting on shows for close to a decade.

â??The Oneâ? Vinny Dunn of IPW Fame

Aucklandâ??s Impact Pro Wrestling is the countryâ??s longest-running promotion of the current generation. Unique in that the company is run as a co-operative between the wrestlers themselves, IPW is very much focused on putting on the best in-ring shows in the country. Something that backs that up is the inclusion of â??The Dealâ? Dal Knox, â??The Oneâ? Vinny Dunn and â??Double Dâ? Davey Oâ??Connor in the 2010 PWI 500. Add to that the likes of Alfred Valentine, Jon E. King, Jordan Invincible and â??The Professionalâ? Joseph Kinkade all respected within the local community for their wrestling acumen, and all regularly found at the top of IPW cards. More great talent is on the way up including Brian St James, and the 6â?? 10â?, 310 lb former K-1 fighter, Rueben De Jong. It would be remiss to talk of IPW without mentioning their ladies division, with likes of Evie, Britenay, JPE and others working hard, if not harder than the boys in deliver athletic entertainment of a high calibre. IPWâ??s weekly television series, â??IPW Ignitionâ? is now in its sixth year of syndication and despite being broadcast on two smaller networks, is available to almost every home in the country.

Perhaps their only detractor is being based in New Zealandâ??s largest city, with so much on every weekend it can be hard to attract a regular, growing audience, however the shows usually draw crowds between 150 and 400 fans. Apart from running four varying venues within Auckland, they also have run as far North as Dargaville and Whangarei and as far south as Hamilton and Te Aroha in the Waikato. In addition they have the spot as part of the Armageddon Expo, a booking dating back to 2003, which allows the IPW crew to wrestle in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch on multiple shows over a several day period, and wrestle stars from the US including Raven, The Sandman and Disco Inferno in years previous.

Travis Banks & Corey Dallas of NZWPW Fame

At the Wellington-based NZWPW (New Zealand Wide Pro Wrestling) there is experience in the office end, with owner Martin Stirling having promotional ties with both wrestling boxing linking back over several decades. They are also tied in with the local Marae network, which is not to say that they arenâ??t able to draw on their own, as they run some of the larger venues in the Wellington area, including the Lower Hutt Town Hall. They also run several towns in the lower half of the North Island including Gisborne, Palmerston North, Hastings and Levin, and have made a foray into the South Island (where a new group has recently started). NZWPW is home to arguably the most â??overâ? wrestler in the country, D-Hoya, and they also have a number of guys with a lot of potential including the 6â?? 8â? Tykade, Travis Banks, JC Star, Corey Dallas and several others, and they are also able to boast a number of impressive female grapplers.

Jade Diamond of KPW Fame

Kiwi Pro Wrestling (KPW), also based in Wellington is not short on talent or ambition. Certainly with former wrestler Rip Morgan at the helm, they have plenty of experience when it comes to the operation and productions end of the business. Perhaps the only drawback that could be aimed at KPW is their infrequent number of shows compared to the other main two promotions, but they too have run a variety of locations including Whanganui and New Plymouth. A demonstration of their ambitious nature was their television series â??Off the Ropesâ? – the first weekly wrestling show on a major TV network since Steve Rickardâ??s â??On The Matâ?. Whilst the tenure was brief, just 13 episodes, the production quality was top-notch and exposed local wrestling to a wider audience. Young talent such as Jade Diamond, H-Flame, Max â??the Axâ? Damage, Inferno and Shane â??the Technicianâ? Whitehead all show a lot of potential, and the healthy crowds at their admittedly sporadic shows point to good signs for the future.

Double D & Joseph Kinkade of IPW Fame

Naturally, with increased exposure comes increased attention, and with that, criticism. However, as long as that criticism is constructive it can only be beneficial to the product. Certainly, input from some of the major players in the industry is not only welcomed but overdue.

Despite a generational gap much larger than one found between most nationâ??s professional wrestlingâ??s veterans and newcomers, when approached, names from New Zealandâ??s past including Butch Miller and Luke Williams of  Sheepherders/Bushwhackers fame, Steve Rickard, John Da Silva, the late Al Hobman, Bruno Bekkar, Juno Huia, Bobâ?the Hogâ? Crozier, A.J. Freely and Peter Lane have lent their collective decades of experience, ability and advice to the new breed.

One final point to note is that each of these companies have now been in business for up to a decade, which is a considerable while in this industry. If things can improve and grow then thereâ??s no reason this little corner of the globe couldnâ??t contribute to the greater wrestling world with genuinely talented people, as it once did, and as the European wrestling scene is currently proving, which is that great, profitable talent can come from anywhere in the world.

(Special thanks to Dave Cameron, Auckland Sports Photography, Dion McCracken, â??Handsomeâ? Danny Jacobs, David Dunn and Luke Farmer for without whom this article would not have been completed.)