RWA: November 13, 1998 -- The Opera House, Toronto

I don't have pictures from the Hamilton show where Doctor Love made his bigger debut. But to sum up, it was pretty good -- the crowd hated me. That was just the idea. So we'll skip that show and move on to the RWA's big return to Toronto.

This was a pretty good show, wrestling-wise. The opener was a tag-team street match type of thing, with lots of foreign objects -- metal trash cans, a Super Nintendo, and most spectacular, pieces of drywall. Kwan Chang got nailed in the head with a couple of them, and they shattered beautifully. Tommy Twilight had his debut and got a good reaction as a good guy.

I was supposed to do an interview spot with him in the last third of the show, but Tommy hurt his back doing a suplex on the outside of the ring. So he left early, leaving me with nobody to interview, so I was bumped from the show. *sigh* .. Oh well, next time. Since I had nothing else to do, I took pictures, which you'll see below.

Pictures & Video

Here are some photos from that show... Click the thumbnails to see the big ones. (Bill Skullion reminds all that he's affiliated with the Blood Brothers, promoters of the music half of the event, not the RWA)
Mandatory photo credit: Scott Simpson, cygnals.com

	Here's a look at the crowd. About twice as many people as the first Ring 'n Ears show in August.		Three-way abdominal stretch in the Cruiserweight Champtionship ladder match between Danger Boy (front), L'artiste (middle) and Gord Rease (behind)
	Lotsa flyin' in this one. Dangerboy flew out of the ring, into the crowd, and into L'artiste		L'artiste returned the favour a minute or two later.
	L'artiste decides to one-up his previous feat of jumping off the balcony by taking the ladder on-stage and climbing up the speaker column, then leaping 20-some feet onto Rease and Danger Boy.		Danger Boy Derek Wylde either chucking the ladder or getting hit by it. Either way, ouch!
	L'artiste ranas Danger Boy off the ropes.		Danger Boy gets slugged by L'artiste atop the ladder as they both reach for the belt. Where's Rease in all this?
	Oh, there he is, grabbing the belt. New champion. Woo-woo.		Coupla cute fans sitting on the ring. Dunno if they were there for the rasslin' or the music.
	Bloody Bill Skullion, pre-match, with a safety pin through his forehead. In case you don't know, he rips it out after being introduced. Ugh.		Bill's opponent, Detroit tag-team partner Killer Kanarech (sp?) (I just called him Killer Canary, but not to his face), spikes Bill with a fork. Dig in, everybody!
	Bill continues the culinary theme by messing up Canary's face with a cheese grater.		Mmm, freshly grated Detroit guy!
	Ian The Weasel takes a time-out from referereeing to get piledrived (piledriven? piledrove?) into a bloody guy. Weasel's biggest complaint was that his shirt got bloody. Sucks to be you.		Bill's got enough energy to chuck the other guy into a chair.
	But by the end, they're both spent. And the boards have slipped out of the ring floor.		More cute fans. These ones wanted to wrestle each other. I'd rather see 'em kiss.
	Oh, that's just me. Doctor Love.		So, there was supposed to be a Miss Ring 'n Ears evening gown competition. Promoters manage to dig up a coupla peelers from the strip joint arount the corner. My buddy Randy (whose ring name I forget right now) introduced them Burt Parks-style.
	Who's gonne win? The one with the messed-up teeth, or the cute one whose dress I want to look up?		Well, the skinny one decides to give herself an "advantage" by taking off her top. Nobody asked her to, but it put the pressure on the other one to show her assets. The judges are suitably entertained.
	The judges -- Live Audio Wrestling host Chris Tidwell, a member of the band Bad Blood, and some radio guy who's always around -- confer.		There's the shot I wanted. Or at least something resembling it. "Hey lady! You dropped a quarter!"
	In the end, neither Toothy nor Skirty won. These two gals came outta the crowd offering to tussle to decide a winner. A puzzled ref steps in to make the count.		The two combatants spotted shortly afterward. Kissing. Did I mention one of the strippers had really awful teeth?
	Fire match between Asian Assassins and Mayhem Patrol. I missed all the fire, so here's a shot just after the initial fireball.		Assassin #1 (the one with the long long name) slugs Mayhem Patrol #2 (the one who's not Major Punishment).
	The final match of the night finally happened around 2:30am. Only a handful of people stuck around to see J.Q. Publiq vs. The Tyrant.		They missed cool action like this.
	To quote a female friend of Doctor Love, "Ooo, he's got a great body!" (Not referring to Tyrant. Sorry Tyrant.)		Take that, Mister Good Body! Aha!
	Not content to let some gap-toothed stripper take all the spotlight, J.Q. does a victory strip to tease the dozen or so hardcore wrestling fans still lurking in the building.		This picture shows the insides of my eyelids upon arriving home around 3:20am. What a long night. And I didn't even get into the ring. And my lab coat got all bloody with Bill Skullion's blood. Ew.

Mandatory photo credit: Scott Simpson, cygnals.com
drlove@cygnals.com November 25, 2001

November 13, 1998 - The Opera House, Toronto Ontario

Pictures & Video