Tales from the Road: Part 2 - The Red Rooster
I flew out to Nashville for the NWA Convention with four primary goals
that I needed to complete; One to photograph the official handshake and
signing of the New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) / Total Non-Stop Action
(TNA) Wrestling talent trade agreement. Second was to pitch and promote
the NWA Magazine to the members of the NWA which I helped design.
Third was to photograph three days of pro wrestling that included
wrestling styles from across the world. Fourth and finally just
to have fun and relax with my friends.
So C. Edward Vander Pyle and I land in Nashville and we are already off to the races for the weekend. After we checked into the hotel, we were off to or first destination; The TNA Offices for the talent trade agreement signing between my friend and NJPW VP David Marquez and TNA Official Terry Taylor.
So C. Edward Vander Pyle and I land in Nashville and we are already off to the races for the weekend. After we checked into the hotel, we were off to or first destination; The TNA Offices for the talent trade agreement signing between my friend and NJPW VP David Marquez and TNA Official Terry Taylor.
To say I was in awe of Terry Taylor would be an understatement.
Here I was just shooting pro wrestling for a little bit over a year and
all of it in California where there was really no big names that I grew
up watch on television and now the Red Rooster himself is standing here
shaking my hand.
Growing up I remember sitting on my couch when would come out doing the roster strut, with his manager Bobby "The Brain" Heenan, Taylor would always have the upper hand for most of the match until he turned to Heenan to find out what to do next. This would always end in disaster for Taylor, as his opponents would often roll him up for a pin. This continued until Saturday's Main Event, where Taylor lost his match against Tito Santana, which infuriated Heenan. Heenan jumped into the ring and berates Taylor and punctuated it with a slap to Taylor's face. Taylor became enraged and slapped him back and threw him around the ring. He battle Heenan's evil forces till a match at Wrestlemania where he when he final got his revenge on Heenan in a match that lasted only 32 seconds.
And now here I am standing in front of him. It was all so surreal, real wrestler from my childhood, I thought this would be the biggest high light of my weekend little did I know what else was going to happen.
Growing up I remember sitting on my couch when would come out doing the roster strut, with his manager Bobby "The Brain" Heenan, Taylor would always have the upper hand for most of the match until he turned to Heenan to find out what to do next. This would always end in disaster for Taylor, as his opponents would often roll him up for a pin. This continued until Saturday's Main Event, where Taylor lost his match against Tito Santana, which infuriated Heenan. Heenan jumped into the ring and berates Taylor and punctuated it with a slap to Taylor's face. Taylor became enraged and slapped him back and threw him around the ring. He battle Heenan's evil forces till a match at Wrestlemania where he when he final got his revenge on Heenan in a match that lasted only 32 seconds.
And now here I am standing in front of him. It was all so surreal, real wrestler from my childhood, I thought this would be the biggest high light of my weekend little did I know what else was going to happen.
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About Slam Jam
Shane Michael Kidder, creator of a Web site of his photos that receives nearly 2 million hits a month from around the world, has learned many lessons in his time photographing wrestling, the most important one being “watch where the wrestlers are going.” This comes after almost being knocked out by a wrestler diving out of the ring at his first show in 2003 at a Golden State Championship Wrestling event in Newhall, Calif. Born in Northridge and still living in the San Fernando Valley, he spends most of his time working on his Web site in preparation for the next wrestling event.
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