Luna Vachon and Gangrel Shoot Interview

[Guest TSMAdmin]

I know I promised at one point not to use this column as a blog, but it's certainly more fun than wrestling these days.

 

 

The "Joke them if they can't take a fuck" department-

 

I went back to my alma mater for Homecoming this weekend and found out that some changes had taken place. The local Baptists had decided to take some of the fun out of a college town by passing an ordinance aimed at shutting down the local strip club which, not coincidentally, was on the outskirts of the local Army base.

 

Due to the wording of the ordinance, my friend's video store was forced to relocate because they ran a quiet sideline of adult movies in addition to their wide variety of mainstream films and happened to be across the street from a Baptist church. In what must have given them the redass, the new tenant of the building is the only liquor store I know of in the county, which is adorned by LARGE neon signs pushing their wares. (The college straddles two counties but the county to the west of the store was the one with all the liquor stores. However, the county the store is in DOES boast some head shops operating out of convenience stores.)

 

 

It's hard to argue with a drunk-

 

While I was eating on Saturday night during the Miami vs. Virginia Tech blowout, I struck up a conversation with a table full of guys about the possible national championship contenders, including LSU. Notre Dame's priveliged status as the only independant to get preferential treatment with the BCS came up because my alma mater belongs to a mid-major conference and has a tough time getting considered for much, although they are respected for the tough out-of-conference schedule they play including upsets of top-ranked teams and the near-upset of a top-ranked team on the way to a Top 15 ranking while I was enrolled there. I'll transcribe the conversation from that point.

 

A- "You know, it sucks that Notre Dame gets a free ride for the BCS. Hell, they have only played in this state once, and that was 30 years ago against X (a snobby in-state rival)".

 

B- "Fuck Notre Dame!"

 

Me- "Well, at least we don't have to worry about them this year, because they absolutely suck. On top of that, they'll probably lose their NBC deal since it's about to come due and they've sucked ever since they signed it."

 

B- "Fuck Notre Dame!"

 

A- "Yeah, don't they get to take up some conference's bowl spots even though they're an independant?"

 

Me- "They get to steal the Big East's bowl spots since they're a Big East team for everything but football. Somehow, I think that's going to change when the Big East realigns and is in danger of losing their BCS spot, especially since they're not doing well under Tyrone Whittingham."

 

B- "Fuck Notre Dame! And fuck Lou Holtz too!"

 

Me- "Uh... Holtz is at South Carolina now. Whittingham's the coach for Notre Dame these days."

 

B- "Fuck Notre Dame! And fuck Lou Holtz too!"

 

Me- (notices at least three empty beers in front of B) "How many of those have you had?"

 

B- "Not enough... Fuck Notre Dame! And fuck Lou Holstz too... (trails off drunkenly)"

 

 

Anyway, I'll find some shoot to review next week, possibly Jack Victory, or I'll repost the Bret Hart shoot. If you like the above and want to see more of it or you hate it and want smaller intros like usual, hit the link below and send me an e-mail.

 

 

As always, you can feel free to Drop me an e-mail, read the archives, buy me stuff, or <!-- Begin Affiliate Code --> buy yourself stuff at Highspots.com.

 

 

Luna Vachon and Gangrel Shoot Interview (6-8-2002)

 

Gangrel:

 

He got into the wrestling business when he was about 17, as he had a son on the way and was intrigued when he saw an ad for a pro wrestling school that implied he could make big money. It was Professor Boris Malenko’s school in Florida, which was a feeder school for Global at the time. He had his first match three weeks after entering the school because he was broke and couldn’t afford the tuition any longer.

 

Was he a fan growing up? Yes, he was a fan of Florida Championship Wrestling and his favorite wrestlers included Barry Windham, Mr. Wrestling II, the Masked Superstar (Bill Eadie, Demolition Ax), etc.

 

Training with Dean Malenko and Joe Malenko- They made him a student teacher, although he was more of a charity case that they were training for free. He also learned from Karl Gotch, an expert shooter, while training with the Malenkos.

 

Dean and Joe- “Joe’s scary.” He just has a crazy look in his eye. Dean, on the other hand, is hilarious. When he was doing jobs in WCW trying to get hired, Dean gave him a really good match at one of the TV tapings in order to help his chances and Gangrel puts him over heavily for it, even though it didn’t pan out.

 

Who else was there at the time? X-Pac, Tom Nash, Alex G, “Black Magic” Norman Smiley, etc. Some guys would pop in and train them occasionally, such as Eddy Guerrero.

 

His fangs- He loved The Lost Boys and tried to figure out how to do it. At first, he’d chop up some Lee press-on nails and glue them to his teeth. Eventually, he had them bonded to his teeth, although Too Cold Scorpio “liberated” on of them from his mouth, complete with the root, during a match. Brian Christopher knocked the other one out in Memphis. From there, he found a special effects guy who made him a set that he could clip onto his jaw.

 

Luna enters the room at this point.

 

Do they take the Goth lifestyle seriously? They used to, although they’ve backed off. When he realized that his kids were imitating him, such as wearing black nailpolish and Marilyn Manson stuff to school, he cut it out and started setting a better example most of the time.

 

Luna starts talking about the roleplaying game Masquerade and how die-hard fans of the game know that Gangrel’s character is not a member of the Gangrel clan and so forth. He used to get death threats from some of the true wackos who were obsessed with the game because they thought he was intentionally misusing the Gangrel name. Gangrel insists that the WWF had chosen the Gangrel name for him and he didn’t give a crap as long as they were paying him.

 

Norman Smiley makes a brief cameo here.

 

Florida- There were so many rib stories that it’s hard to pick one. He starts talking how he met Luna, which was when he was still very green and was sitting in the locker room when she came in, looking as scary as she always does, and said “Fresh meat!” when she saw him. He was so scared of her that he hid behind the Nasty Boys all night “which was not a fun place to hide, believe me.”

 

How was he treated? Everyone’s always treated him great, but he thinks that it’s because no one ever thinks he’s a threat.

 

Going to Stampede and teaming with Tom Nash as the Blackharts- Nash went crazy up there then came back to Florida. Nash sold him on coming to Calgary, so he sold his car for about $800 and rode with Nash to Calgary, where he was lucky to make $50 a week. He was also having to train in the Dungeon and do other stuff before working the towns that night. They had to drive to all of them in Nash’s car since Nash had been ribbed to death by the British Bulldogs (Dynamite Kid and Davey Boy Smith), amongst others, and refused to ride in the company van as a result.

 

Dynamite Kid and Davey Boy Smith- Davey once picked up a guy by his ears and repeatedly slammed him into a wall while mumbling something about how you should never be late to the show.

 

Talent in the territory- Brian Pillman had just left for WCW and Owen Hart and others were about to come back in when Gangrel decided to get out because he couldn’t live on $50 a week.

 

“Black Nature Boy” Scoot Andrews makes a cameo here.

 

The Blackharts gimmick- It was a rib, as they were supposed to be the illegitimate kids of Stu Hart and a ring rat. They were supposed to be trying to claim their Hart heritage but “at $50 a week, I wasn’t claiming anything.”

 

Losing a tooth in Calgary- He was at the Hart house when Stu Hart came up to him and asked him what Bruce Hart was teaching them. When Gangrel said that Bruce was teaching them how to punch, Stu said “He punches like a pussy!” and proceeded to put Gangrel in a headlock and show him what a real punch looks like, knocking a tooth out in the process.

 

Working for Joel Goodhart’s TWA- Luna had gone to high school with Gangrel’s tag partner, Tom Nash, and was actually married to him at one point. Gangrel became her best friend while they were all working Goodhart shows and, one night, attempted to break up a drunken brawl between the couple. The only thing he remembers was Nash taking a swing at him, then blacked out and only came to while Luna was begging him not to hit Nash anymore. The thing that stood out the most about Goodhart’s shows were the memorably bad First Blood Battle Royal and the series of Eddie Gilbert vs. Cactus Jack matches.

 

Their relationship- After Gangrel saved Luna from Nash, everyone thought they were a couple and, eventually, they did become one. He remarks that no one ever thought that they’d get married, although it did happen.

 

Herb Abrams’ UWF- Tom Nash wouldn’t sell for Brady Boone one night, so Brady threatened to shoot on Nash during the UWF pay per view the next week (the ill-fated Blackjack Brawl, if I’m not mistaken). Brady then picked up a wooden chair and, when Nash refused to get up, he proceeded to beat himself over the head with it until Gangrel pulled him out of the locker room and said “You might as well hit me with it because he ain’t getting up.”

 

 

Gangrel stops for a second to explain that he’s had so many concussions that his memory can be spotty, as one minute he’ll be telling you about something then, the next, he’ll forget where he was in the story.

 

 

All Japan- He was nervous when he faced Doug Furnas and Phil LaFon at Budokan. That was his first plane trip to begin with then he was standing in the same ring as living legends like Stan Hansen and Kawada, so it was an interesting experience. Everyone was pissed at them to begin with because they were green then Giant Baba decided to put tag titles on them, despite the fact that “we absolutely sucked”, which made things worse. Johnny Ace told him after the match that there was a pool in the back betting on whether Furnas and LaFon could carry them the whole 20 minutes the match was scheduled for. The match ended up being VERY good because Furnas and LaFon, especially LaFon, called a good match and did an unbelievable carry job. He ended up losing that spot because Nash told the AJ office that Gangrel had refused to stay in Japan for a year at their Dojo, which was a lie but that was Nash’s way of getting a new partner. Right before the WWF hired him, he got another tour in All Japan because of all his work in other territories such as Puerto Rico. He went from the opening match his first night on the tour to a main event against Gary Albright soon afterwards. Johnny Ace was instructed to sign him for six tours a year since AJ had just lost Val Venis to the WWF, but they gave him the chance to talk to the WWF first since he’d trained at their camp before.

 

Who came up with Vampire Warrior? Frenchy Martin came up with it, although most people referred to him as “Lester” because they were thinking of the Vampire Lestat from Anne Rice’s series of novels but they couldn’t really pronounce Lestat correctly. As part of a rib, Frenchy got the company to put the Light Heavyweight belt on him despite the fact that he weighed 290 pounds.

 

Puerto Rico vs. other territories- It’s a different world down there and he thinks Kayfabe may still be in full effect. He was down there for nine months the first time. He says of two things can happen: You come back in great shape or you come back in the worst shape of your life because you’re a drunk or a drug addict. No matter what, you’re coming back broke. After his first tour, he came back in fairly bad shape because he had spent too much time drinking with the locals. The locals have claimed him as one of their own there because he worked there early in his career and he has no objections to working the bloody, hardcore style that the island is known for.

 

The fan heat down there- It’s so intense that top heels like Chickie Starr carry guns to the ring and fire them into the air in order to clear a path to their cars. All the rest of the heels carry guns in their glove box just in case things get out of hand.

 

Working in Memphis with Jeff Jarrett- He liked the territory a lot, although getting paid only $30 a night sucked. You learned a lot because you could face anyone on any given night from “Dirty” Dutch Mantel to the Rock and Roll Express to Jerry “The King” Lawler himself. There were also WWF wrestlers like “Mr. Perfect” Curt Hennig coming through the territory all the time because of their affiliation with Lawler and Jerry Jarrett.

 

Getting into ECW- He showed up one night with Luna and Paul Heyman gave him a job. He thinks that the reason he was offered a job on the spot was that Paul E owed Luna money for several shows and he probably thought Gangrel had come with her to beat him up. He ended up wrestling one match against Hack Myers then doing an angle with Tommy Dreamer where they brawled over the building. He came back for what was supposed to be a return match against Dreamer, but he ended up against the Steiner Brothers and was told by them that they had instructions to stretch him but that they weren’t going to do it. He doesn’t know why he had heat there.

 

The Funkin’ Dojo- He came in after a Puerto Rico tour to be there. Droz, Test, Albert, Crash Holly, Giant Silva, Vic Grimes, Dan “The Beast” Severn were all there at the same time learning under Dr. Tom Pritchard. They would all practice certain moves each day and be paired off with a partner and Gangrel was unfortunate enough to be paired off with Albert they day they had to throw people over the top rope. Albert ended up throwing him out of the ring and pretty far across the room. Pat Patterson and others saw that bump and said “He REALLY wants that contract!” while he was just laying on the floor thinking to himself that it was an accident. When Test went to throw his guy, a UFC fighter, out of the ring, he accidentally ended up with the guy’s toupee, which had been stitched to his head. He also ended up taking some move from Dan Severn that knocked him out. He ended up getting up, excusing himself, then laying near the ice machine in the locker room. Pritchard put him over for not selling how hurt he really was. He left for All Japan right after that and didn’t hear anything for a while after that. At the end of the camp, he said that he was asked who he would recommend and he named four names and, despite his refusal to name them, he says they’re all still working today. When he called them from Japan, he was told that a developmental contract had been sent to him then he received one a month after he got back from the tour.

 

His developmental deal- He’d been told that Vince McMahon didn’t want him to use the vampire gimmick and that he’d probably be under contract just to tie him up for a year until they could think of something for him. Within days of signing the deal, they called him up to start on RAW and told him that he’d be using his vampire gimmick after all. He puts over WWF creative for coming up with his music, entrance, and gimmick between the Friday that they called him and the Monday of his debut. He loved the entrance to death and enjoyed being there. He did get a little heat from the office, though, for appearing to be too happy during his walk to the ring but he attributed that to how much he was enjoying himself. (That was one of my favorite intros of the time, as he had the flaming circle around him and he would spit “blood” from a chalice.)

 

Why he had problems from the start in the WWF- Because he was too used to jobbing, he gave too much to Brian Christopher in his first RAW match and Vince McMahon had a coronary because he’d never really wanted the gimmick, as it was Vince Russo’s pet project. That was on top of him getting his foot stuck between the elevator and the stage during his entrance, so he was just having a bad day all around.

 

Working with Edge- He’s a good guy. The office would tell them to pull certain spots out of their matches together until they finally got tired of telling them that and paired the two of them with Christian. He feels he and Edge had a lot of chemistry together but that he kept getting hurt, which is why his career never really went anywhere.

 

The angle where he brought in Christian as Edge’s brother- It happened so quick that he barely remembers it, although that was a problem with the storyline as he feuded with Edge, then Christian appeared, then Edge attempted to save them from Kane but got his ass kicked in the process. They would all suggest stuff but none of it was used and they were never let in on what was happening with their characters. The one thing he suggested that got used was the bloodbath gimmick, although they wouldn’t listen to it until he got Edge to pitch the idea to them. “It was kind of a ripoff of Blade, but it was cool.”

 

Al Snow and the JOB Squad- “Al Snow is insane.” Snow and Scorpio would rib them all the time. He also remembers Al getting so pissed off at Christian one time that he found a way to screw up a whole match. As Luna puts it, “Christian was a little bitch.” Al finally had enough of Christian whining about the finish of a match that he decided to turn the entire match into a comedy-fest and intentionally screwed up all of Christian’s spots.

 

X-Pac at Royal Rumble 1999- They had a weird finish that night, as apparently a false three-count was made. He also remembers getting tossed out of the Rumble match as soon as he got into the ring. At this point, Luna starts talking about a meeting they’d had in Vince McMahon’s office that night which didn’t go well and, while they can’t go into specifics for legal reasons, they think that it kept her from winning Sable’s WWF Women’s Title and him from winning X-Pac’s European Title. “There were a couple of other people in there who didn’t have things dropped to them that night” as well, so they weren’t alone. (Translation- Billy Gunn made a complete and total ass out of himself, which is appropriate considering his ass was his gimmick, and didn’t win the Intercontinental Title from Ken Shamrock as a result.)

 

Was he surprised that he, Edge, and Christian weren’t kept together longer as a group? Yes, although he knew that Edge wanted to stay in the group and that he didn’t really want to do tag matches after Gangrel was broken away from him and Christian. He thinks that Christian may have wanted to break up the group because he was considered the low man on the totem pole. If that’s what happened, he has no objections to what Christian did.

 

Working with Undertaker in the Ministry of Darkness- In order to join the group, you had to get hung and, because they accidentally used the wrong rope, he really DID get hung. He thought he really was going to die but, thankfully, Mideon saw that something was wrong and put Gangrel’s leg on the apron in order to help relieve some of the pressure on his neck.

 

Working with the Hardy Boyz- He’s not sure what he was supposed to be doing with them, although part of the problem was that “my sorry ass wasn’t going to get on a ladder.” Apparently, another problem was that Gangrel was going to kiss Terri as part of the angle, Luna scared Terri a bit backstage, Terri talked with Vince, then the next thing everyone saw was Gangrel getting his ass kicked on camera by Edge, Christian, and the Hardy Boyz. He ended up with quite a few bulging and herniated discs in his back as a result. He just went home for two years and rehabbed his neck, which is fine now.

 

His injuries- He tore his pectoral muscle against D Lo Brown in his first Pay Per View match. Tazz blew out his eardrum, tore his shoulder up, etc. He was constantly injured.

 

How did the company handle his inability to return to the ring? They knew he couldn’t come back because they’d talked to his doctors. He wanted to come back because he wanted to stay employed and, once they bought WCW, it became that much harder to stay on the roster because of the amount of wrestlers under contract.

 

Does he think he’ll ever go back to the WWF? He hopes so and they do take his calls instead of hanging up on him, so he thinks the possibility could be there.

 

 

The Blackharts vs. Jumbo Tsuruta and ? – The Blackharts look like extras from Eyes Wide Shut, as they wear black robes and white masks to the ring over their singlets and featureless black masks. The Blackharts win with a legdrop from the top rope that looks like a Demolition Decapitation (one guy holds the opponent while the other drops the leg on his throat).

 

 

How have Luna and Gangrel stayed together for so long? Gangrel says it’s because “I’m afraid of her.” Seriously, though, they feel it was because they were best friends before their relationship escalated.

 

Why don’t most couples in the business survive? There’s too many reasons, although the number of half-naked women and guys tempt people, along with the party lifestyle and all the time away from home.

 

If one was hired by the WWF and not the other, how would that affect their relationship? Luna would be happy for Gangrel if he was re-hired. However, Luna wouldn’t want to go back without Gangrel despite Gangrel’s insistence that she go anyway.

 

 

Luna-

 

 

Did Luna always want to follow her family’s legacy in the business? Yes, she wanted to follow her aunt’s footsteps. The whole family stopped talking to her for a long time when she began training.

 

Her training- She was sent to train under her aunt Vivian, who was married to Buddy Wolfe at the time. Vivian would stiff her and try to get her to quit since the life of a female wrestler at that time wasn’t very good, as work was a lot harder to come by. After a certain point, the decision was made that she had to go train under the Fabulous Moolah, if nothing else as a way to get more bookings.

 

How did Moolah help her? It was like army training, as they lived in army barracks at the time and trained very hard. By the time you were done there, you were in incredible shape.

 

Her first paid wrestling appearance- She appeared in Florida to give the Rookie Of The Year award to Kendall Windham then got the piss slapped out of her by Kevin Sullivan. This worked because, at the time, she was about 40 to 50 pounds lighter (If you've never seen Luna, that extra weight is all muscle I can assure you) and could have passed as a reporter.

 

Women’s wrestling at the time she started- She’d told her father when she was three that she was going to change the business for women and he laughed at her, saying that the business would never change. However, at the time she started, Wendi Richter was working her big program with Cyndi Lauper in her corner and women’s wrestling began a revival. While Luna didn’t have an impact as big as she’d though on women’s wrestling, at least she got opportunities because of the timing of her debut.

 

Did her size work against her? Moolah was always telling her to put on more muscle because she looked so frail despite her big bone structure.

 

Being in Kevin Sullivan’s entourage in Florida- Winona Littlehart was managing Sullivan along with Woman, who was once Sullivan’s wife before leaving him for Chris Benoit. Mark Lewin and Bob Roop were also in the group. Littlehart left for Japan and, about a year later, Luna was brought in to replace her. They shaved half her head as a part of her gimmick. Soon after Luna got the job, Littlehart came down to Florida to visit and decided to shave half of her head as well and work with them.

 

Whose idea was the black and white outfits? They found them while looking for tights and they completely fit their gimmick, as they were white on one side and black on the other like one of Two-Face’s suits. They would also be chained together on the way to the ring and fight all the way down the walkway and back. When they went to Japan, they were chained together in public and were lead along by Luna’s father, Paul "The Butcher" Vachon.

 

Did they ever get heat with fans outside of the ring? Of course. People tried to jump her all the time because she’d completely destroy the babyface as they were trying to make their comeback against Sullivan. One night, someone jumped the guardrail and she was tired of getting abused by the fans so she beat the shit out of him. The guy pissed himself over it and she never got attacked after that. Another night, some guy threw a cup full of tobacco juice at her and Ric Flair stopped the show until the police could find the guy and arrest him.

 

How did the locker room treat her? She was treated differently for several reasons, including her being a second-generation wrestler and being a woman. She starts talking about how she always would fight people who claimed wrestling was fake as far back as when she was still Gertrude Vachon as a kid.

 

Did any of the things they did with Kevin Sullivan go too far? She didn’t like it when they claimed she had the Mark Of The Beast on her (if you don’t know what that is, watch The Omen). She also didn’t like called a “demoncologist.” She says she’s a Christian who believes in folk magic, etc. and kind of loses track. Gangrel jumps in here and explains that she was just happy to be working back then but that she doesn’t like some of it in hindsight and that standing up for some of her beliefs later on down the road cost her, such as refusing to take off her top in a bikini contest in the WWF. (This didn’t get her expressly fired but certainly didn’t help things.) Gangrel also expresses his contempt that Luna had to go to “that douchebag Moolah’s camp” and that Moolah is “basically a pimp.”

 

Fabulous Moolah- According to Luna’s Aunt Vivian, Moolah is indeed a lesbian. Moolah was a big drinker while Vivian was training and that Moolah would sleep with the girls at that time. When Luna started training, she never saw any of that. However, Moolah DID send Luna out west at age 16 to pose for pictures taken by a prominent cardiologist. The pictures were all with clothes on, but it was bullshit to send young kids out there to be taken advantage of when they thought they were going to learn how to wrestle. Moolah didn’t take advantage of Luna much longer because Luna left the camp shortly after that.

 

Other abuses she’s gotten- One time at age 9, someone slipped LSD in her drink because they thought it would be funny. While she admits she’s not a complete face, she’s opposed to people completely taking advantage of students, such as how Moolah would make students board on her property, charge them 25% of whatever they made when they got booked, and then still abuse them in other ways like with the cardiologist.

 

Perception of her vs. reality- She’s a very nice person and always has been, except when she was drunk. Moolah used to yell at her all the time about how she would never make it in the business because she was too good-hearted. People who think she’s mean don’t know her. She’s also acted as an ambassador of sorts for the WWF, working lobbies for hours after the show signing autographs well after Sable and Chyna have left. However, she thinks that Vince McMahon never saw that as a positive but, rather, that she “wasn’t cunty enough for his company.”

 

Was there ever jealousy behind the scenes in Florida between her and Woman? Absolutely not, as Woman later got Luna a job in ECW.

 

Kendall Windham and Barry Windham- “They were CRAZY” back then. They still see their sister, who married Mike Rotundo, every once in a while. They actually just bought a security system from the Rotundos.

 

Bob Roop- A piece of shit.

 

Mark Lewin (Purple Haze)- Very awesome. Lewin wrestled Butcher Vachon, Luna’s father, when Butcher was just starting out on the business.

 

Eddie Graham- She was at Moolah’s when Eddie killed himself. Eddie used to take her fishing when she was young. He was a very nice guy, although she didn’t have a professional relationship with him.

 

Working for Japan- Her dad sent out a lot of promo shots of her and Littlehart to get her booked in other territories. This was at the time when her family wasn’t really talking to her, so she was known professionally as Luna rather than Luna Vachon.

 

Did she learn more as a worker in Japan? She’s never been much of a worker and she got her ass handed to her the whole time she was there. She hurt her knee at the beginning of the tour and, since her contract was for every shot on the whole tour, they pumped her leg full of morphine every night in order to get her through it.

 

Madusa Micelli- She wasn’t ready to work a program against Madusa when she did because Luna’s mostly worked on the outside of the ring instead of inside of the ring and didn’t have the cardio fitness to keep up with her. It didn’t help that Madusa had just come back to the US after a long stretch in Japan, where the women wrestlers take their business VERY seriously. It didn’t help that it was a mixed tag match with Madusa and her husband Eddie Gilbert against Luna and Cactus Jack, because Gilbert was either jet-lagged or hung over and, no matter how you slice it, in no condition to work. Madusa took that opportunity to show off in front of Gilbert and Luna got the crap beaten out of her in the process.

 

How did the WWF approach her about a contract in 1992? Luna had trying to get Gangrel hired there and had been sending in pictures and tapes. He got a call one day and they asked to speak to Luna, who hadn’t even been trying to get herself hired. They’d seen her do the splash on one of the tapes and decided she was perfect for them. The WWF actually hired a detective to track her down because the tapes had been mailed from Puerto Rico, where Gangrel was working at the time, but she was in Florida working and didn’t have a phone where she was living.

 

Being paried with Shawn Michaels and working with Sherri Martel- Sherri was easy to work with and she’s experienced enough to call a great match for the two of them.

 

Wrestlemania 10- That was the Bam Bam Bigelow and Luna vs. Doink the Clown and Dink (Doink’s Mini-Me) match. The ref had gotten the message on his earpiece that the match was supposed to go home right away, earlier than was planned, so they had to rush to the finish of Dink getting squashed. It didn’t work as well as planned because Dink was French and didn’t understand English well.

 

Working in ECW- She loved the cage match she had against Stevie Richards and puts him over heavily.

 

Leaving the WWF briefly- They put her in rehab for her drinking then fired her while she was still there. She didn’t sue them for it because she wanted to be able to come back some day.

 

Coming back and working with Sable- Sable was great when Luna first came back to the company. They all used to ride together until about Wrestlemania 14, at which point Sable started getting Playboy offers and Vince began giving Sable preferential treatment. Sable’s attitude towards her changed almost immediately once she realized that Luna was below her in the food chain. Around that time, Sable told her that she didn’t have to learn how to take bumps in response to Luna trying to teach her how to bump while taking her silicone funbags into account and let it slip that she was going to be given the WWF Women’s Title, which was what Luna had wanted forever. The next thing she was told from management was that if she hurt or scratched Sable, she’d get fired. Sable “had the world by the nuts” at that point, although Gangrel points out that “she squeezed them too hard” and that’s why she’s fallen so far. (Sable has since been rehired by the WWE and given a nice position, confounding EVERYONE in the Internet Wrestling Community since Sable sued Vince for millions and left under horrible circumstances.)

 

Politics and the WWF- Gangrel was talking to Stephanie McMahon one day when he noticed Sable and Mark Mero positioning themselves around him. He knew that something was up but couldn’t figure out what it was. Around that time, a door flew open and Luna came in screaming “Fuck you!” at Mark Mero and threatening to kick his ass, Golden Gloves championship or not. Shane McMahon had to drag Luna out of the room. Mero then made a comment about how people could now see what a “crazy fucking bitch” Luna was and Gangrel made a polite comment to the effect of “If you have issues with her, fine. Just at least have the common courtesy not to disrespect my wife in front of me.” Mero then started picking a fight with him over it and Gangrel finally said “It’s not my fault your wife ruined your career. If you’re so interested in running the women’s matches, go ahead and put on a dress.” Mero then backed off, but Gangrel kept challenging him and was about to punch him when Triple H and Droz grabbed him and drug him out of the room so that he didn’t get fired. Vince had a talk with him about it and they all laughed it off, although Vince expressly told him that if he ever hit Mero, he’d get fired. The funny thing was that people had started blocking the doors in anticipation of the fight because they’d had enough of Mero and Sable’s shit by that point.

 

Sunny- She loves Sunny to death but is scared for Sunny these days. She did beat the crap out of Sunny once, though, because Sunny made a joke at an inopportune time.

 

Wrestlemania 14- That was Mero and Sable vs. Luna and The Artist Formerly Known as Goldust (or, more accurately, Marilyn Mansondust at that time). After the match, Sable got all the congratulations while Luna got none until she got all the way back to her seat, at which point Owen Hart came up an congratulated her.

 

Pride and the business- It hurts her that she gave so much to the business and the WWF yet she was the lowest paid woman in the locker room and that the women’s division hasn’t reached the peaks it could hit yet. She thinks very highly of Molly Holly and Lita, as Molly knows match psychology while Lita has the impressive moves.

 

Chyna- She “used to look like Peppermint Patty” and was very sweet. However, when they came across each other in the WWF in the late 90s, Chyna was trying to tell her that she couldn’t wear black studded leather anymore.

 

Jealousy between the women in the locker room- She wasn’t directly involved with that because she wasn’t trying to be a beauty queen or sleep her way to the top. She never saw it, although Gangrel’s sources told him that there had been ideas proposed for her in booking meetings that had been shot down by some of the women who sat in on the meetings, with claims that she was on drugs and so forth.

 

Vince McMahon- She thinks Vince never got to know who she really was even though they’d known each other since the days when Vince McMahon Sr. still owned the WWF and Vince Jr. was learning to be a ring announcer. She thinks that if Vince had handled some of the business functions instead of someone like Jim Ross, he might have gotten to know her instead of relying on hearsay about her.

 

What lead to her leaving the WWF? The altercation with her and a producer was an excuse. The producer in question was a friend of hers and had shot a spitball into Luna’s hair. Luna then went into the trainer’s room, got permission to borrow the trainer’s tape, then taped the producer’s mouth shut and wrapped tape all around her. Everyone had a big laugh over it, including the producer. A few days later, she gets a call at home from Jim Ross firing her for the taping incident. Apparently, someone had been taking Brian Christopher to urinals, naked, and leaving him there for hours, and it was enough circumstantial evidence to blame her for things when she taped the producer. She feels the only reason she was kept around that long was because she was involved in refuting accusations Sable made that Owen Hart and others had sexually harassed her and that everyone in the WWF was on drugs except her.

 

Will she ever return to the WWF? She doesn’t think she wants to go back, although she feels that Gangrel is talented enough to go back there some day.

 

Any regrets? That she didn’t change the business as much as she wanted to, as well as not going to Vince about things rather than talking with people like Jim Ross. She also regrets that she didn’t get the WWF Women’s Title after all that she went through, although the title wasn’t what she thought it would be anyway.

 

Anything to say to their fans? Thanks. Gangrel didn’t even realize how many people were fans of his, even after two years of healing up. They also ask that younger wrestlers respect the people who came before them for making things possible for them.

 

 

Madusa and “Hot Stuff” Eddie Gilbert vs. Cactus Jack and Luna- This is from Joel Goodhart’s TWA promotion in Philadelphia in about 1990 or 1991, between Cactus Jack’s stints in WCW. As Luna said, this match was mainly Madusa kicking the crap out of her. Madusa wins with a bridged suplex and proceeds to cut Luna’s hair until the entire heel locker room hits the ring when the job’s half-done.

 

Vampire Warrior (Gangrel) vs. Hack Myers- Gangrel wins with a DDT.

 

Promo- Stevie Richards and Gangrel cut promos on Tommy Dreamer and Luna, then a brawl breaks out and becomes a match.

 

Tommy Dreamer with Luna vs. Vampire Warrior with Stevie Richards- This is the aforementioned match, which is a semi-shoot angle as Vampire Warrior is being Luna’s estranged husband. Dreamer wins with a DDT after a long brawl leaving both bloodied.

 

Stevie Richards vs. Luna in a cage match- Luna makes Stevie submit with a testicular claw.

 

There’s a TWA match here but it’s so incoherent I can’t even tell who’s involved.

 

Luna Vachon vs. Debbie Combs- Luna wins with a top-rope splash.

 

Bradshaw and vs. Gangrel- This is from a non-WWF house show, either Puerto Rico or ECW while the WWF was doing talent exchanges with them. Gangrel wins with the DDT.

 

 

Thoughts- Certainly a very solid shoot, given that my expectations were low going in due to Gangrel’s only claim to fame being his run during the WWF Attitude era. The bits about Stu Hart and the Fabulous Moolah are enough of a reason to watch this, as the Stu stories are hilarious and it’s both funny and sad to hear what was said about Moolah. I personally didn’t like Moolah going in because I’d heard some of the claims against her from others, such as Gary Cappetta, but the newest ones are truly disturbing. The only low point is the match footage included, as it was subpar to say the least. The only one that really interested me was the mixed tag match from TWA because Eddie Gilbert and Cactus Jack were involved, although neither did much in the match.

 

Recommended.