…for the subscription to Universal Yums!
Our first installment was a box full of snacks from Thailand.
Mmmm! Thailand-y!
A country of collusion is next,
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…you’ll find classics like Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees, and… wait, what?
Is it just me, or does that Freddy Krueger look kind of sad?
Yep. Definitely sad. Maybe that’s Teddy Krueger, Freddy’s second cousin.
Could also be a scene from the last reboot,
…I’m assuming, or at least I think, in kindergarten.
I know I was four when we met because Andy was at my fifth birthday party.
Here’s a photo of Andy at my first-ever friends’ birthday party in September 1981. Andy is in the background with the dark hair, peeking out from the left side of my super-excited face.
After the gifts were opened, the party moved to Showbiz Pizza. Andy is on the far right side holding a red balloon.
I previously posted about this party here.
Anyway, sometime soon after this party happened, Andy stopped going to the same school. I’m assuming he moved to a different neighborhood or something, though the exact details are lost on me. I mean, it was almost 40 years ago.
One year, Andy was there. The next, Andy wasn’t. That’s just childhood for you.
Decades passed. I went off to college in Ohio, then moved back to Milwaukee, then moved to Los Angeles, Chicago, and on and on and on. I became a husband, a father. I lost my hair. That’s just adulthood for you.
But then, out of the blue, my good friend Milan mentioned to me that an independent wrestling circuit called Mondo Lucha had started up in Milwaukee. It was run by this awesome guy named Andy Gorzalski. Yep, that Andy Gorzalski.
Milan (an old college friend of mine) and Andy (an old elementary school friend of mine) had become friends independently of me. That’s just Milwaukee for you.
Mondo Lucha only puts on one show a year (occasionally, a second show), and not living in Milwaukee has always made it tough for me to attend. But this past September 7th, KB, Ciappa, and I headed to Milwaukee to join our good friends Milan, Dori, and Jodi and celebrate the 10th anniversary of Mondo Lucha.
A surprise appearance from “Mean” Gene Okerlund kicked off the night…
…and the fans in the audience were just as colorful as the wrestlers in the ring.
A robot wrestled…
…as did a Space Monkey. Literally, his name is Space Monkey.
Zach Gowen made a return appearance at Mondo Lucha…
…to prove that, with only one leg, he’s still in better shape than I am with two.
A trash-talking manager in a hot pink outfit…
…leapt off the top ropes and brought everyone in the ring crashing to the mat.
That guy in hot pink? Andy Gorzalski…
…37 (or so) years after that day at Showbiz Pizza.
In addition to Mondo Lucha, Andy has done some amazing things for the city of Milwaukee. For example, check out this ESPN 30 for 30 short doc they did on Andy called MECCA: The Floor That Made Milwaukee Famous.
Then, learn more about Mondo Lucha here.
Hopefully, it won’t be another four decades before we see each other again. At the very least, I know I’ll see him next year when I take in another amazing night of independent wrestling. And old friends.
Andy aged much better than I did,
Back when I was living in Columbus, Ohio my friends and I started a quote wall. Whenever a bit of brilliance (or otherwise) poured out of someone’s mouth, somebody would yell “Quote!” thus nominating it for Quote Board status. The quote then had to be seconded by someone (it almost always was), and then it would be written down to be forever immortalized on the Quote Board.
This is the modern-day equivalent of that classic piece of my past.
QUOTE BOARD:
“Am I the Holocaust?”
– Ciappa, 11/2/18
No, Ciappa. You’re not.
Welcome to the Quote Board,
