#Bronko Lubich

[ringthedamnbell]

"C'mon Ref, Gimmie a break!" Top Five Worst Referees

Rob Faint A referee can make or break a match.  A good referee is always in the right place, keeps the action moving and recognizes injuries quickly.  A bad referee does the opposite.  Here is a list of the 5 worst referees in wrestling. Continue reading “C’mon Ref, Gimmie a break!” Top Five Worst Referees

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#"C&039;mon Ref #AEW #Bronko Lubich #Gilberto Roman WWF #Gimmie a break!" Top Five Worst Referees #NWA #Rick Knox #Special Guest Referee #Tommy Young #Top Five #WCCW #WWE #WWF

[hiphoptothestreets]

Valid Pays Homage to Bronko Lubich Throughout “The Bronko Tape” (Mixtape Review)

Valid Pays Homage to Bronko Lubich Throughout “The Bronko Tape” (Mixtape Review)

[oldschoolwrestlers]

Bronko Lubich

#Bronko Lubich #old school wrestler

[greatspeeches]

Ultimate Warrior Hall of Fame Speech

Ultimate Warrior Hall of Fame Speech WWE Hall of Fame, 5 April 2014 (snort) The most anticipated speech in the history of sports-entertainment. There’s a lot of squiggling going on in these seats right here. I want to take a second to say to my wife, pooch, you came into my life in ‘96, just as I came back to wrestling, and very shortly after I came back things unravelled, but you stuck with me, we got married, we built an incredible life, we have beautiful children, you look absolutely awesome and I love you. (applause) Mom, I’m glad you’re here tonight. I remember when I was 11 or 12 and dad decided he was going to go on and do different things in his life and he never looked back to provide any kind of support, financial or otherwise, you didn’t skip a beat. You got to work, provided for me and my other 2 brothers and 2 sisters so that we never went without. The hard work ethic that I have and the self-discipline I have I got from you and I love you. (applause) And my two warrior girls, Indiana Marin Warrior and Mattigan Twain Warrior, you weren’t even alive in this world yet when daddy was doing his Ultimate Warrior thing, but I tell you what, this is awesome. I told you, Mr. McMahon and WWE, they do awesome stuff, right? Just awesome. I want to let you know, here tonight, that although I’ve done some pretty incredible things in wrestling, in my wrestling career, when you weren’t around, the most awesome thing I will ever do is be your father. (applause) Well, I’m glad Linda mentioned about the sweat, 'cause it gave me a pass on carrying a rag out here, 'cause I do sweat. And, I was backstage, sitting there, some of the guys were there, some of the younger talent and stuff and I was thinking to myself, 'Man, this is just—this is unbelievable, this is just awesome, this is getting ready to happen.’ After suffering all the blows, taking all the shots, the toil on the body and the mind for all those years, I thought, 'I just can’t believe this is happening.’ Evidently I was doing, like I do a lot now that I’ve gotten older, I was talking out loud. (laughter) Or, you know, talking to myself, I don’t want to admit that. Talking to my hands, like the Ultimate Warrior used to do. Hey, it worked. But this young kid beside me, he says, 'Yeah,’ he said, 'Sir, it just—it really is, it’s so fabulous, I just can’t believe it, it���s just like a dream come true, you getting into the Hall of Fame, and getting inducted into it this evening.’ And I looked at him and I said, 'The Hall of Fame? I’m not talking about the Hall of Fame, I’m talking about DDP Yoga! (applause) I’m finally going to get me some DDP Yoga! I told him when I got up to go to the men’s room, I said 'Look, if an 800 number pops up on that screen you be sure and scratch it down for me.’ (laughter) I mean for a second back there I thought I was watching a DDP Yoga infomercial. But all seriousness aside, it’s really, it is inspiring to see how DDP and his yoga is helping people fix their self-destructive ways. It is… (applause) Did I just say that? I promised that when I came here tonight I wouldn’t say those two words. Ever since I put this deal together with Paul (Levesque), now I thank Paul for that, all the effort and energy he put into that, that’s a story that can be told on another day. I said to myself 'Ok, you’re not going to go there, you’re not going to go there.’ I made a trip up to the WWE tower the other day, and it’s like it never existed, that DVD. When I sit and talk with people, they get this stone cold look on their face. I was in a meeting with the media people, the people that do appearances and stuff, and I was making a joke out of what Paul said, that 'I only met him for 5 minutes and he was an asshole.’ (laughter) And I told Paul, I said, 'Well, boy, for just spending only 5 minutes with this asshole, you sure learned a lot.’ (applause)  And anyway, there were about 8 people around the table and nobody cracked a smile or nothing, except this one girl in the back, she was pressing her lips together as hard as she could to keep from bursting out laughing. Finally, she couldn’t hold it no more, she burst out and everybody in the room just went wild with laughter and cutting up about it. But, you know, when I think about it, I mean if you really want to do something kick-ass in your life, if you really just want to get the biggest bang for your buck, I might suggest that you practice my brand of self-destruction. I mean, even after 18 years in exile, you can still come back and be the headliner for the WWE Hall of Fame at the landmark 30th WrestleMania. (applause) (“One more match” chant) Well, now you’re being kind, and that’s cool and we’ll talk a little bit about that, the one more match thing isn’t going to happen, but other bigger things are going to happen. But, I want to start by thanking a bunch of people. I’ve never interacted with anybody in this business that hasn’t taught me something, even if it is to teach me things that I don’t want to do. Directions I don’t want to go in my life. Things that aren’t going to work for me. But everybody in this business that I ever crossed paths with taught me something, going all the way back to the beginning. Getting a few hours of training, of course that was easy to notice. A few hours of training from Red Bastien in California, a raquetball court, they had a ring set up in there. That was before they were smartening people up. Me and Steve Borden, “Sting,” helped—(applause) and a couple other muscled-up guys, Red Bastien and Billy Anderson enjoyed just watching us pound the crap out of one another. After a few hours training there, me and Steve put some fliers together, we went to Mid-Southern. Jerry Jarrett gave us the opportunity there, and the people we met there—Dutch Mantell, Jerry Lawler, The Fantastics Bobby Rogers and Tommy Fulton, or the other way around, Tommy Rogers and Bobby Fulton—from there to (Bill) Watts’ territory, all the guys over there, things we learned from them. Ted Dibiase was over there at the time, “Dr. Death” Steve Williams. I have to tell Teddy, Teddy, I somewhat fashioned my clothesline after you. 'Cause I remember you and Steve Williams, when you had matches with me and Steve (Borden), you tried the best you could to make it obvious that you wanted us to pack our gear bags and go home, and I remember my adam’s apple was always sore and hurting because of the clotheslines you gave me. So, you can take some honor in that, Ted. Where’s Ted at? Is Ted here? Ted, good evening, how you doing, bud? Awesome. Of course, went to WCCW—World Class Championship Wrestling—and learned a lot of great things there. Started the Dingo Warrior gimmick, the poor version of Ultimate Warrior. Only had a couple tubes of paint, a couple strings to put around my arms, but all the great people there—David Manning, Rick Hazzard, the Von Erichs, Len Denton, Tim Brooks, some of the guys that just worked in the business because they enjoyed working in the business. Bruiser Brody was there. (applause) George Scott was there, he was there at the tail end of it, George Scott worked with Vince in the beginning to do the first couple WrestleManias, he was going down to Florida to retire and he, Fritz (Von Erich) had asked him if he’d come down there and do some of their booking. And he came down there for a while and I remember another old timer, Bronko Lubich was working in the office there and he pulled me aside one day and he said, “George was on the phone today, he was talking to New York.” [Note: The following bold text has been omitted from the on-demand version of this speech available on the WWE Network] He didn’t say WWF, eh, I wish that they could put the F, the f-in’ F back in, you know, for us guys— (“Yes” chant) For us guys that have a difficult time now keeping track of those kind of details. I mean, I really can’t believe Jerry McDevitt got his ass kicked by those wildlife people. (applause)  Anyway, Bronko said, so, he said “There’s a kid down here, and he’s raw"—obviously, again—"he’s green"—obviously, again—"but he could be something.” And that led to me going down to Tyler, Texas, having a match for a card that WWE (laughter) was putting on down there and that led to me going up to New York, and in New york, so many people I want to thank. The first guy I worked with, Jose Estrada. It was a television taping in Indianapolis. I went there and he made me press on him about 15 or 16 times, something like that. And I guess to see if I was going to blow up, I was blown up before we started (laughter). Steve Lombardi, where’s Steve Lombardi, the Brooklyn Brawler? (applause)  Steve was on the receiving end of my “green” punishment every night for a long, long time. Always kept a positive attitude about it. Terry Gibbs, the first guy I worked with on TV. All the guys there that helped me out. You know, in the business, the boys have a pretty good bullshit detector. And aside from the details of specific stories, or events that are told in the DVD there’s a lot of discussion about that I wasn’t welcome in the locker rooms, I wasn’t “one of the boys,” I was an a-hole to everybody, and, you know those kind of things, when I saw the DVD, they make me angry and they piss me off but they also broke my heart. It really did. Because, in the business, when somebody comes in, as new guys would come in every 3 weeks we did television, and they would come in for a tryout or something, if they didn’t have the kind of personality to cut it amongst the boys, they weren’t around very long. If they couldn’t handle having their high-security gear bag with the combination lock that can’t be violated, if they couldn’t handle having the bulldogs find their way in that bag and leaving something in the bag that you don’t want to find in any bag, anywhere, then they were out of there real quick. And recently, one of the guys I had one of the classic all-time matches of all time with has been on the record saying that I was a good guy. I was a good guy, I am a good guy, and when those kind of things were said about me—(applause) I want to thank the superstars that you never see. To make this—no, it’s not a new gimmick, the invisible man or anything (laughter)—I’m talking about all the people behind the scenes here that work for WWE, some of them for years, 25, 30 years. They are the superstars that make this happen. (applause) They really are. The ring guys, who, back in the day would get to the building, set up the ring, tear it down, drive all night, get to the next town, get a couple hours’ sleep, grab a cheeseburger, couple Coca-Colas, go back to another arena, set the ring up again, right before the matches take a shower, and then come and ask me or the other guys “Can I get you anything?” “Is there anything I can get you, man?” I’ll never forget those guys. In fact, when I think about the Hall of Fame and I think about honoring people that make this company work—30th WrestleMania tomorrow. 30th WrestleMania, that’s awesome. I was at 4, that was the first WrestleMania I was in, and I said the other day at the office to everybody, I said, “You know, it’s WrestleMania 30, but you’re already working on 31 and you can damn sure bet that WrestleMania 75 is going to happen, when the founder and creator of this company isn’t even around anymore.” Well, I better take that back, Vince says he’s going to live forever. (laughter) But to be that dedicated and have this thing come that far, I think that it would be appropriate to have a category in the Hall of Fame where you honor these people, and I would suggest— (applause)  Every year you take one. And I would like for it, my suggestion is that it’s called the “Jimmy Miranda Award.” Jimmy Miranda was a guy who, in the beginning, before you could get merchandise all over the world, he used to drive his car or truck with a trailer, show up at the building, set up a table, and sell t-shirts and posters and pictures. And he always had an awesome attitude. So next year, I want to see that there’s a Jimmy Miranda Award. (applause) I would not be here this evening, and everybody says this and it becomes cliché, I wouldn’t be here this evening if it wasn’t for all you Ultimate Warrior fans. (applause)  I am Warrior, that is my name, I’m the creator/performer of the Ultimate Warrior, the one and only Ultimate Warrior, you are the Ultimate Warrior fans. Ultimate Warrior is a legend, and the Ultimate Warrior fans, you are legendary! (applause) You waited all these years to speak your voice. You fought, I saw you fight over the years. I saw you fight back at all the anonymous ones, who put forward all this—the lies, and the mischaracterizations—they tried to reprogram your minds, rewrite history about a wonderful, exciting, fun memory of the Ultimate Warrior, and you fought back and I’m here tonight because of you. I want to thank—(“Thank you Warrior” chant) No! No, no. When I, what I do—(“Yes” chant) Well, you just taught me something, I’ve been out of the business way too long. When I meet people at the signings I do and they come up and say that I turn it right back on them, “No, thank YOU.” Thank you. Thank you for the life I have, thank you for the way that I have come to view things about my life, view the experiences I had in the business, how appreciative I am for having the opportunity to be me—aw, jeez (spills water, laughter)—the opportunity to just be me. Be nobody else. Fortunately, when I was in the business, it was all on merit. I remember coming back through the curtain, when I started shaking the ropes, or when I ran into the ring and there would be veterans there that I was always respectful to. I’ve said it many times, the reason why me and Steve got the chance we did to continue in the business, even though we were greener than green, was because we had manners, and we minded them, and we treated the guys who’d been in the business with respect, that we appreciated that they let us into their business, to give it a try. (applause) I remember how great it was to know that what I put into it was worth something, and it was going to be counted for something, and that’s an incredible thing when you can determine your success based on how much you’re willing to give to it. How much hard work, how much sacrifice, how much discipline you’ll use of yourself to succeed. And when those guys came to me and they told me those kind of things, I would always be respectful and say “I hear you. I just couldn’t control myself, I’ll try harder next time.” In the back of my mind, I kept remembering one person didn’t tell me to stop, and that one person was Vince McMahon, and he gave me that opportunity— (applause)  That opportunity to use my imagination, to use my creativity, and to go as far as I could with it. I remember the first time I went and met with Vince, I don’t even think I was on TV yet. The only time you saw Vince was at television tapings or at Madison Square Garden. And I remember getting an appointment with him. It’s kind of funny because back in the day, all the guys would be on the road, and they’d be talking about their checks—not getting a pay per view check, you know, how they didn’t like their check, or how something was this or that—and they’d be saying that how when they get a chance to see Vince, at TV or at Madison Square Garden they were going to give him a piece of their mind, they were going to get things straightened out. A lot of guys up here are laughing, 'cause they know. Everybody always walked out of there with a bobbling head. “Bad News” Brown, one of the legitimate bad guys in the business, (applause) he had reached his breaking point and he was talking about how on the road, and I thought for sure it’s going to happen now. Vince is going to go down. Sure enough, he had his meeting and he came out with a bobbling head. The psychology in the ring is one thing, the psychology with Vince happens on a whole other level. (laughter) I remember meeting with him the first time, and I kept a journal, so I made notes. I went in with him, I don’t think I was on TV, like I said, yet, hadn’t gotten a push, and I—this is at Madison Square Garden, one of the dressing rooms there, it’s all wide with mirrors. And I opened my journal and I said, “Mr. McMahon,” I said, “This is what you can do for me so I can help you better.” And I remember he quickly turned around, did a 180, I could see his reflection in the mirror, and he was trying to keep from laughing. He was trying to keep from laughing from the fact that this guy I’m not even putting on TV is coming to me with a list of ideas. He turned back around, he kept his composure, and after that I got a meeting with Vince whenever I wanted it, because he knew I was dedicated, and he didn’t have to worry about me being out on the road and keeping up my end of the deal with my gimmick. But to be you, in your life, to be able to do that thing, to be able to engage your creativity, push yourself hard and know you’re going to get paid back for that, is incredible. It’s also incredible to experience the magic. Magic. The magic of working in the business. All of it was really magic. Traveling down the road going to a different city every day like it was vacation. Showing up at the locker room at night and the atmosphere is comforting and supportive with the guys you’re working with traveling up and down the road for all these days in a row. I miss that. It was awesome to be able to experience that. It was awesome to be able to be bigger, and larger than life than I really was. To play make believe in being a tough guy. I mean, let’s face it, in this business, there are few legitimate tough guys. Few legitimate tough guys, the rest of us get to play that role. And that’s an incredible thing to feel. To go out and become a character that people believed in, in this mini battle that you’ve created, this mini challenge between two characters, one of them to win out. To be a hero to people, to experience what it’s like that fans and kids get behind you in a way that they really, really believe in you, in a serious way. I’ll never forget the first time that it hit me when I did a Make-a-Wish Foundation—and kudos to John Cena for all the Make-a-Wish stuff he does. Where is John? John. (applause)  He doesn’t want anybody to know it but he kicks more ass and does more good with Make-a-Wish than anybody—any other celebrity, any other entertainer. (applause) I also know too, from Ed Connors that you’re a big Ultimate Warrior mark. But to go out and do that, I remember meeting with the Make-a-Wish kid, I was in my gear, I went to a room, I got down on a knee—the kid was in a wheelchair and the lighting was just right where I saw the reflection of my painted face in their eye. It never left me, just the power of that, the responsibility of that, the gift of being able to experience that, that we get to do that. Wrestlers get to do it. A few months ago, Ray Lewis retired. And there was a video montage out where he had done a—saying things, motivational speaking, inside the huddle, that type of thing. He says, “I am the Ultimate Warrior.” Him and Rock and all those guys were Ultimate Warrior fans, and the guys at ESPN, what they did was they put Ray Lewis in Ultimate Warrior gear. Wrestlers don’t put hockey gear on, they don’t put baseball gear on, they don’t put basketball gear on, they don’t put any other sport gear on, but all those athletes, they put wrestling gimmicks on. (applause) That’s how powerful it is to have that experience in being a role model, being a performer in WWE. To me, in my life, I appreciate the opportunity to understand the responsibility to the degree that if you get to play a tough guy, a strong guy, in WWE, then you should be able to go out and handle a simple thing like life, and not fail at it. WWE gives you the gifts, gives you a gear bag that’s got everything in it. It’s a gear bag I go to every day to make my life work and have for the 18 years I haven’t been in this business. It gives you the tools you need to go out and succeed in life in other ways, and it’s weak-ass, when you get that opportunity to do that, to go out and present a different picture than the strong, tough and heroic one that you get to present in the ring. People ask me, “Warrior"—or they say, "He doesn’t appreciate the business,” “He doesn’t respect the business.” There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think about the business. The business, that gear bag that I built here, it didn’t just give me what I need to make a match work, it gave me everything I needed to make my life work. (applause) And I appreciate that. So much I appreciate that. I also want to express my appreciation for having the opportunity to become really good friends with blowing up. To all you fans out there, blowing up in the ring, meaning that you really have pushed yourself, your body to its physical limits and you’re just a heaving hog. Guys used to always make fun of me for blowing up in the ring. They still do. “He blew up.” I’m blown up now. But what they don’t say is my entrance blew me up but I still continued through the match. And then I punish myself even more, and did things at the end of the match to blow up even more. But I’ll tell you what, being able to experience pushing your body that far is the greatest feeling I ever had in my life, it’s the thing I miss the most, man, pushing my body, being able to push beyond, quit in my mind and keep going. Your body is an incredible thing and it can be pushed so far. The demands of the road back at that time—3 hours sleep a night—you can still get up and you can go, you can make it happen, you can do so much more than you think you can, so much more than you think you can. I remember blowing up sometimes in the ring so bad all I could hear was the beat of my heart, I couldn’t hear anything else. And it was so incredible that I would give a few years of the life I have left to go back and experience that kind of thing again. Being in the WWE gave me such incredible experiences. I want to say… you know, everybody out there is sitting and thinking, or has sat and thought about me coming up here and saying things tonight and what I’m going to say, and how I’m going to behave and how I’m going to act. A lot of people talk about that “the guy didn’t know or doesn’t know where to draw the line between the work and his real life.” But, what I see, especially with social media today, everybody is working their gimmick. Everybody still works their gimmick. But I’m fortunate that my gimmick was mine. Ultimate Warrior embodies a kind of place you need to go to if you want to get something done, especially on a physical level or a sports-related level and that’s why it’s been so popular and continued to be popular for all these years. The intensity that came out of that character. (applause)  And I figured that if I get to go to the ring or if I go to the ring and the purpose behind the ring or the success of a persona is that you want to get fans, have fans get behind it, sell product, sell merchandise, believe in you, then inspire people, then what is wrong with using it yourself to inspire your life? And that’s what I’ve done. (applause) Oh, you don’t need to applaud for that. But I know a lot of people have been thinking about what I’m going to say, a lot of people act, you know, “Is he going to come up here, is he just going to go on a rant, is he going to start pointing fingers and picking on people?” You know, all I can say is that when I was in the business, nobody ever said anything to my face, they never came up and said that I was an asshole, I was this or that, I was always respectful to people in every single way. The DVD was just wrong, that’s all. And it did make me angry but it also, it was hurtful. I want to say that I’m honored to be an inductee in this class of 2014 along with the other guys and the lady who’s been inducted. I’m proud to be here this evening, I’m also proud to have been honored with the role of an official ambassador for the company, in a multi-year deal, and I’m looking forward to fulfilling that role too. (applause) There are a lot of different characters in this business, a lot of different characters make this business work, and Ultimate Warrior was one of them. It was an incredible time in my life to do that, the character has continued to bond with people throughout the years. Vince—hold on, I just forgot about something—in 1991 Vince wrote me a letter. I was in a match with Hogan, (inaudible) …with Sgt. Slaughter, I came running back through the curtain, and the agent was there and said, “Do you want to meet with Vince?” So Vince wrote me a letter but I gotta check on something first. Hey Vince, this check, for this supplemental money, it’s not going to bounce, is it? When he wrote me that letter he thought he was chastizing me, he said, “You think you’re a legend in your own mind.” He was wrong. I was just a young kid, I was only 30 when I wrestled Hulk at WrestleMania 6. (applause) And I was just doing the best that I could, and I was doing pretty damn good. But I didn’t think that I was a legend in my mind, but I will tell you this Vince, you were a good fortune teller, because the Ultimate Warrior is a legend today and he will continue to run into the hearts and minds of fans throughout generations to come. And I’m proud of that. I’m proud of you for supporting me, and fighting for Ultimate Warrior to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. (applause) (faint “One more match”) No more match. No more match. Couple more things here and I’ll be done. You know, it’s not easy when you’re an athlete to participate at that level and then one day the time comes when you shouldn’t be doing it anymore. It’s really hard. But it’s the right thing to do to step up to the next level in your life, and what this company needs, because there will be a WrestleMania 75, it needs people who have their time here, and when the time comes that it’s no more, they step up to the next level and they help the younger generation come up. (applause) To you young guys, let me say this: the writing is already on the wall, your time is going to come and go, and it’s not going to be anything personal, when it’s time to go, it’s just going to be the way that it is. And you need to use this opportunity to prepare yourself for all the other incredible things you can still do in your life beyond your time here in the ring, and get out into the arena of life and make it happen there. Thank you everybody for coming to see me, enjoy WrestleMania, good night. (applause) Filed under WWE Ultimate Warrior Hall of Fame speechtranscript lovelyangel100 liked this thecultofwrestling posted this We love Tumblr & Stationery by Thijs

[starkmyarc]

i love when my mom tells old stories about how cool my grandpa and adre were when they hung out, wow

#Andre the Giant #Bronko Lubich #wrestling #they were best friends #I need to find the pictures in the family photos of them #text post #mobile post