[WWW] Alex Marvez 10.23.03 column

http://www.tcpalm.com/tcp/sports/article/0,1651,TCP_1154_2370720,00.html

Alex Marvez's weekly look at professional wrestling

By ALEX MARVEZ
October 23, 2003

The voice that blared over the Pro Player Stadium public address
system for last Sunday's Dolphins-New England Patriots was familiar to
every World Wrestling Entertainment fan.

Lillian Garcia sang God Bless America before kickoff and delivered the
pre-game introduction of the Dolphins' defensive players. Garcia's
oratory talents as a WWE ring announcer have also led to recent gigs
performing other patriotic anthems before the U.S. Open tennis
tournament and a Dallas Cowboys-New York Jets game in the Meadowlands.

Garcia credits such high-profile appearances to WWE owner Vince
McMahon, who has allowed her to sing at the promotion's events.

"That's what it's all about: Networking and trying to get to the right
place and signing in front of crowds," Garcia said following her sound
check before the Dolphins-Patriots game. "Vince found out I sang and
started having me do the national anthem at every venue. And now here
I am at the Dolphins game. Who knows? Maybe this would have happened,
but it definitely opens doors that I come from WWE."

Garcia, 30, didn't know what to expect when she was hired by WWE in
August 1999 after attending a ring announcer audition at the request
of her agent.

Garcia had watched wrestling as a youth, but lost interest in the
product en route to graduating cum laude from the University of South
Carolina.

"I used to watch Andre the Giant and Ric Flair, but then I didn't
watch when I was in high school and college," said Garcia, who was
raised in Columbia, S.C. "When they called me for the audition and I
turned it back on to see what it was all about, I couldn't believe the
change. It was not only the look of everything, but the storylines and
the drama.

"I had to learn. Watching as a kid, you don't know how you're supposed
to act backstage. All that was new. There were things I had to learn
the hard way."

That process began her first day on the job when Garcia was
unexpectedly told she would be handling ring announcing duties after
arriving for a Monday Night Raw show emanating from Ames, Iowa. Garcia
thought she would be able to use cue cards until being told otherwise
only 20 minutes before the live telecast began.

"It sounded horrible," Garcia said. "That's why when I first got there
the fans were booing me. They're not thinking that I'm not trained.
They didn't know I was thrown in. But by the next week, I knew who all
the guys were. I did a lot of studying and I started getting
comfortable.

"It took a while. A year later, I was still messing up. It's one of
those things. It's a live show and things are constantly changing all
the time. It took about six months to a year to really get a handle on
it."

Garcia showed enough promise that she was chosen to sing the national
anthem before Wrestlemania 2000, which was performed by such big-name
recording acts as Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles and Reba McEntire at
previous Wrestlemanias. Garcia said that was the most memorable moment
of her professional career until performing the national anthem at a
WWE Smackdown taping on September 13, 2001, which was just two days
after the terrorist attacks on America.

"It wasn't Wrestlemania or anything like that, but it just made more
of an impact because of the circumstances," said Garcia, who lives in
New York City. "Everyone had a feeling that was so heavy. And you had
all the WWE superstars up on the ramp (watching). It was such a
special moment. I don't think we'll ever recapture that - and let's
hope not."

Unlike almost all of WWE's other female performers, Garcia has managed
to avoid racy stunts that would compromise her own personal ethics.

"Everybody chooses what they want to do," Garcia said. "I told them,
'My background just is not like that.' I don't mind being sexy, but my
whole thing has been sexy-classy. It's just something that's instilled
in me.

"There's nothing wrong with it if anybody wants to be a little more
risqui. Maybe some people think me wearing a miniskirt is risqui. I've
got to do what's right for me."

Garcia's vocal independence should be evident on her first full-length
musical release. Garcia is spending her free time from WWE events in
Los Angeles working with five-time Grammy Award-winning producer Mike
Post on a project that should get released next year.

"It's been really incredible because now I really feel what you guys
are getting ready to hear is me," said Garcia, who has a music sample
posted on her web site (www.lilliangarcia.com).

"It's not manufactured or somebody writing for me or anything like
that. It's my lyrics and my expressions. It's going to take a little
time, though.

"It is rock. It is not pop. It might be a little rock-pop, but it's
definitely more heavy guitars. I love that genre."


- GOODBYE, HAWK AND HART: The wrestling world recently lost two of its
most prominent members with the deaths of Mike "Hawk" Hegstrand and
Stu Hart.

Hegstrand, 46, died in his sleep last Sunday at his Tampa-area home,
while Hart, 88, died Oct. 16 from multiple medical problems at a
Calgary hospital.

Initially paired in 1983, Hegstrand and Joe "Animal" Laurinaitis
became arguably the most successful tag-team in wrestling history as
both the Road Warriors and Legion of Doom. In an era where jacked-up
physiques weren't as prevalent, Hegstrand and Laurinaitis became stars
worldwide and subsequently influenced fans' views of what a pro
wrestler should look like.

Unfortunately, Hegstrand was unable to separate the invincibility
portrayed by his wrestling character from real life. Hegstrand's drug
and anabolic steroid abuse helped lead to medical problems that
curtained his career in recent years. Hegstrand, who almost died of
heart problems in 2000, and Laurinaitis had a WWE tryout match last
May but weren't hired.

"I was no saint," Hegstrand told the Orlando Sentinel in 2001. "For
years I put a lot of stuff in my body that I shouldn't have."

A successful wrestler and promoter in Calgary for almost four decades
through the mid-1980s, Hart was the patriarch of one of wrestling's
most famous families. To today's fans, Hart was best known as the
father of grappling stars Bret and Owen as well as the father-in-law
of Davey Boy Smith and Jim Neidhart. Stu Hart also held helped produce
such stars as Chris Benoit and the late Brian Pillman through rigorous
training sessions from a basement in his house nicknamed The Dungeon.

Hart, though, was forced to endure numerous tragedies in recent years.
Owen died during a botched ring introduction in 1999, which led to
family squabbling that helped polarize the Hart family. Stu Hart's
wife Martha, with whom he had 12 children, also died in November 2001.

WWE performers paid tribute to Hegstrand and Hart on recent shows. The
Dudley Boys used some Legion of Doom mannerisms in their Raw victory
over La Resistance, while Benoit deployed the sharpshooter - which is
a move affiliated with the Hart family - to defeat A-Train on last
Sunday's No Mercy pay-per-view show.


- SYLVIA STRIPPED: Tim Sylvia was stripped of his Ultimate Fighting
Championship heavyweight belt after failing an anabolic steroid test
following his Sept. 26 title defense against Gan McGee on the UFC 44
pay-per-view show in Las Vegas. UFC is expected to hold a tournament
for a new champion, as Sylvia was suspended by four months by the
Nevada State Athletic Commission.


QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 

Q: Whatever happened to Jazz? - Robb Tinnin, Denver.

A: Jazz (real name Charlene Begnaud) is almost fully recovered from a
shoulder injury that had sidelined her since July. While she should
quickly become a prominent part of WWE storylines again, Jazz's
husband - Rodney Mack (Rodney Begnaud) - appears to have suffered a
major knee injury during a recent match against Hurricane Helms at a
non-televised show.


More wrestling news can be found at www.wrestlingobserver.com.
Questions can be sent to Alex Marvez c/o the South Florida
Sun-Sentinel, 200 E. Las Olas Blvd., Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301, or
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