[WWW] Don Callis column - Detroit a real jungle

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Detroit a real jungle

By DON 'Cyrus' CALLIS -- For SLAM! Wrestling

This past week I found myself in Detroit of all places, which is not
exactly one of my favourite towns. The one good thing about Detroit is
that it's not Windsor (sorry Scott), but beyond that it kind of sucks.
In these situations I generally find myself longing for Canada like
Sandman for a cold beer, but I decided to make the most of it and go
and hang out with WWE star Rhyno who was in town for a personal
appearance.

I and TNA agent Scott Damore headed off to see Rhyno, whom I had not
seen since ECW went out of business. Scott trained Rhyno and I had him
in Winnipeg in 1996 and helped to send him off to Germany where he
became a huge star for Otto Wanz. He stayed there to critical acclaim
until he showed up one day at an ECW show in the Northeastern U.S.

After catching up that day, I immediately went over to Paul Heyman and
said that, in my humble opinion, he needed to sign Rhyno immediately.
My experience with him to that point was that he was a huge (6-foot-2
and 290 pounds) and agile wrestler with a great mind for working
matches and a tremendous intensity. Paul likely didn't need me to tell
him any of this, and before you knew it Rhyno was an integral part of
our roster, and the company's world champion when we finally shut down
in early 2001.

ECW was Rhyno's first real break and he made the most of it, proving
to be a scary heel and a guy who could have great matches with
everyone. Paul rewarded his hard work by making him the focal point,
along with Rob Van Dam. When ECW went under, Rhyno, like many of us,
took it hard, but I knew that he would be the first guy that Paul
would get into WWE.

When he finally showed up on WWE television he looked to be in the
best shape of his life, and since that time has proven that he is one
of the best workers in the company. He has also shown his incredible
toughness, coming back from a year-long layoff due to neck surgery to
return in peak form once again.

So on Thursday night we shared a few laughs, a few Tony Condello
stories and just got caught up in general. It was a great night for
talking about old times and enjoying good company, even if it was in
Detroit.

K-5 NEWS 

Kurt Angle has a bone chip in his neck and will have surgery to have
it removed this week. No word on exactly how long he will be out ...
WWE promoter Bob Holliday was mentioned in Jim Ross's column in this
month's Raw magazine. Bob has been a consistently high producing
promoter for the company for years ... Rumors abound of Edge being
cast to play a heel in the upcoming Batman movie ... Anyone wanting to
train to be a wrestler, manager, valet, announcer, referee or writer
can email us at [EMAIL PROTECTED] Former WWF wrestler Joe Legend
is a new member of my RedShirt security team in NWA-TNA. Joe and
current member Kevin Northcutt should make a tremendous tag team ...
Come check out Joe Aiello and me for the NHB Radio show today at
Garbonzos. We will also be checking out the Grey Cup and the Survivor
Series pay per view ... I have to admit to marking out for managing
Lex Luger and Jeff Jarrrett this week on the TNA pay per view. Both
had been favourite performers of mine for years, and Lex was my second
favorite wrestler (after Ric Flair) in the late eighties. As silly as
this sounds, it was one of my most memorable moments getting to
struggle to take the robe off Luger's large torso ... Tony Condello's
TCW ran a show in Winnipeg on Friday night at the Little Mountain
Sportsplex. The show was kind of far out, but the guys worked hard and
I had an opportunity to see a few of the boys that I had not seen for
several years. Evil Eddie Watts was in attendance and looked in the
best shape of his life ... NHB wrestler Ivan Sozynski made an
appearance at the show and destroyed five wrestlers. Ivan has a shoot
fight at the Duckworth Centre on December 12th ... I had a chance to
chat with Zach Gowen this week in Detroit as well.