When I heard that Luna Vachon passed away from Bill Apter, I was devastated. Luna was such a great person that had been forgotten by many wrestling fans after her quiet retirement in 2007. I spent the better part of Friday grieving. I loved Luna to death. We would run in to each other on & off over the last 14 years. Our lives might have gone in a million different directions, but we always clicked in getting along.

I met Luna during 1996, during the ill fated AWF based out of Chicago. Luna would walk up to with that gravely voice that I originally thought was her being in character 24/7. Nope, the voice was legit. I helped Luna with her wig, since she was playing the character of Peggy Sue with Honky Tonk Man. She thanked me after we got the wig down right & said ?I heard that you are the biggest bitch in wrestling, but I like you?. Luna won me over as a friend for life that day.

I always felt some what guilty that when the valet craze was big, novices like me would get national TV stardom in comparison to Luna Vachon who was a second generation wrestler. Luna had to break her ass in the dying days of Florida, low pay offs in Memphis, & being one of the few regular Americans in JWP. Luna didn?t take crap from anybody & had no problems putting anybody in their place if she felt she was disrespected. She earned everything she got in wrestling from hard work & making herself unique.

Luna was one of the few American women wrestlers that made it on her own by refusing to be booked with Fabulous Moolah?s troupe. Luna balked at the premise of giving a cut of her money if she was the one taking the bumps & making the long drives. Luna?s hard work paid off when most of us first saw her in WWF in 1993 with her feud with Sensational Sherri. Sherri is one of the most universally respected women that had ever entered this business. I remember reading an interview in which Sherri put over Luna over to WWF when the premise of working with Luna was presented to her. Keep in mind that WWF in 1993 had not really exploited the cat fight craze that WCCW & UWF had presented prior to WWF.

Many people credit Sunshine & Precious with pioneering the cat fights in 1984. I say Sherri & Luna perfected it in 1993. They were beyond stiff on their famous cat fight on RAW to the point that I questioned why it took anybody so long to hire Luna on a big stage. She had a unique character that would still stand out in 2010. Her promos were not an artistic success [they could be best compared to Ultimate Warrior], but she had something that you couldn?t keep your eyes off of with the crazy hair, tattooed veins on the head, & scary voice

People fail to forget what a great worker Luna could be at times. I remember Luna worked an indy show against Alicia towards the end of her career in 2007. Luna put on a brawl that was reminiscent of Bruiser Brody in the 1980?s in which they tore the building apart. Both wrestlers made the most jaded fan suspend their belief for a few minutes at the stiffness of the match. At the end of Alicia taking a stiff beating, Luna would put her over cleanly. In the end, Luna was over for being a crazy brawler & Alicia had her stock rise to the local fans for beating an established star.

I remember Luna & others telling me about the infamous fight she had with Alundra Blayze in 1994. Alundra would work too stiff with Luna nightly with the excuse that she was working ?Japanese style. One night, Luna could take no more & beat the hell out of Blazye for not lightening up. The end result was that they never had a problem in the ring ever again.

In 2007, I was busting Luna?s chops about her biker boyfriend at the time being possibly an anti-semite. I was just doing it to see if I could get a rise out of Luna. Luna would call me up a few days later & say ?F*CK this sh*t about the Jews & The Hells Angels, I still love you no matter what?.

Too bad not many people saw the kinder side of Luna, since she would probably be pissed that it would kill off her character. Luna was such a sweet heart that she would offer a friend of a wrestler a couch to crash on, since being a friend of Luna was enough for her to go out of her way for a stranger. Luna would go out of her way to look after a young referee that got sick from partying with the other wrestlers. Luna had such a kind heart that she looked after the young referee because she didn?t want him to lose his job at the start of his career.

I love Luna for willing to fight New Jack when he went on his drunken tirade on me at last years Ring Roast. Luna had more guts then almost any wrestler that night in refusing to back down in the confrontation. She earned my life time loyalty for sticking up for me. I remember after the Roast, Luna apologizing that she should have beaten New Jack up. Luna would then pause, then blurt out that she just found out that she?s a grandma. I was amazed how Luna could switch modes from wanting to kick ass to being ecstatic that she now got a grandson. Unfortunately that night would be the last time I would run in to Luna.

A couple of weeks ago, I found out that Luna lost all of her belongings in a fire. I tried to make every phone call & email to track down Luna to help her out. Unfortunately I could not get in touch with her to find out what kind of clothes that I could mail her. I felt terrible that all I could do for Luna was find her post office address & put up a plug for where to send any donations.

I think it was rather funny that when I was writing about the kindness of Luna that my computer crashed. I thought for a moment that maybe it was divine intervention that Luna didn?t want me exposing that she was a sweet heart despite the rough exterior. I hope Luna?s sons are aware that their mother was one of the toughest-big hearted woman that I had ever encountered in the business.

I always think the best way to remember a wrestler life is to watch highlights of their career as a remembrance and a thank you for all of the sacrifices they made to entertain all of us. I listed some youtube links of Luna.

I finished writing this article on Friday & I cried my eyes out for almost an entire day. I loved Luna for being one of the most genuine people that I ever met in the business. I hope many other friends, fans, wrestlers, & family members of Luna have just as many fond memories of Luna that I have.

Please pardon any typos or grammatical errors. I wrote this article from the heart. I wanted to share my thoughts & memories on one of the nicest people I ever met in the biz.

Missy Hyatt

Here’s some info & some pics from a re-enactment event I attended a few weeks ago:

The Bridge at Remagen

The Ludendorff Bridge was originally built during World War I as a means of moving troops and logistics west over the Rhine to reinforce the Western Front. The bridge was designed by Karl Wiener an architect from Mannheim. It was 325 metres long, had a clearance of 14.8 metres above the normal water level of the Rhine, and its highest point measured 29.25 metres. The bridge carried two railway tracks and a pedestrian walkway. During World War II, one track was planked over to allow vehicular traffic.

The capture of the bridge

The Ludendorff Bridge at Remagen—the last standing on the Rhine—was captured by soldiers of the U.S. 9th Armored Division on 7 March 1945, during Operation Lumberjack. On 7 March 1945, soldiers of the 27th Armored Infantry Battalion, led by Lieutenant Karl H. Timmermann, from West Point, Nebraska, approached the bridge, and found it standing. The first American soldier across the bridge was Sergeant Alex Drabik; Lt. Timmermann was the first officer across.

Although the bridge’s capture is sometimes regarded as the “Miracle of Remagen” in U.S. histories, historians debate the strategic importance of the capture of the bridge at Remagen. General Eisenhower said that “the bridge is worth its weight in gold”. However, few U.S. units were able to operate east of the Rhine ahead of the main crossings in the south, under Generals Patton and Bradley, and in the north, under Field Marshal Montgomery (Operation Plunder). Ultimately, only a limited number of troops were able to cross the Rhine before the bridge’s collapse. However, the psychological advantage of having crossed the Rhine in force and in pursuit of the retreating Wehrmacht improved Allied morale while communicating disaster to the retreating Germans.

In the immediate days after the bridge’s capture, the German Army Command desperately attempted to destroy the bridge by bombing it and having divers mine it. Hitler ordered a flying courts-martial that condemned five officers to death. Captain Bratge, who was in American hands, was sentenced in absentia while the other four (Majors Scheller, Kraft and Strobel, and Lieutenant Peters) were executed in the Westerwald Forest.

Soldiers from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers worked long hours to stabilize and repair the bridge (with American combat troops stationed to guard the bridge sometimes shooting out their worklights to minimize visibility of their position to the enemy). To increase traffic capacity, the engineers also laid pontoon bridges upstream and downstream of the Ludendorff Bridge. However, despite the best U.S. efforts, on 17 March 1945, ten days after its capture, the Bridge at Remagen succumbed to the cumulative damage from German bombing and collapsed, killing twenty-eight soldiers of the Army Corps of Engineers. However, because the pontoon bridges and other secured crossing points had supplanted the bridge, its loss was neither tactically nor strategically significant. Still, the Ludendorff Bridge remained important as the first point at which Allies crossed the Rhine.

PHOTOS

Lots more pics can be found here & the official site for the event is here.

Also check out http://www.1stlahrecon.com/ my reenactment bio is on there. Let me know what you think

I hate how so many people jumped on the band wagon that Dawn is a fraud before they ever allowed her a forum to defend herself. I’m a personal friend of Dawn, so naturally I will defend her. People who are bashing Dawn forget to realize the expense of legal fees, corporation fees, phones, & misc. to maintain a charity . Guess who swallowed any losses & upstart fees to Wrestlers Rescue? DAWN!!!! What ever profits that trickled in with ebay sales, auctions, went in to some holding account. I know for a fact that Steve Williams was sent approximately $5000.00 to help off set mounting medical expenses prior to his untimely death. I know an additional $2000 was donated in conjunction from the Cauliflower Alley Club.

I am very upset that everybody who is associated with Dawn was lumped in as thieves or con artist on various message boards without anybody asking for a statement or any proof. To my knowledge, only one person in the wrestling business decided to distance them self based on the recent negative article that was circulating.

When Dawn filed for the 501(c)(3) paper work to become a non profit charity it needed a corporate structure to be shown in the paper work. This is why I am listed as secretary. I started all of that paperwork before having it out sourced to an attorney to be completed.

The 501(c)(3) filling is a long tedious headache of paper work to fill out and file. I believe it took Dawn almost a year to have it all sorted & filed. The actual 501(c)(3) company is listed as Pro Wrestling Releif, (Dawn already had Wrestlers Rescue LLC organized and filed as a for Profit so we could begin the work that needed to be done.). I know Dawn personally shelled out a few thousand dollars in filing the 501(c)(3) paper work & the lawyer fees that took to complete it. As a 501(c)(3) they are eligible for tax free status and grants.

My participation within Wrestlers Rescue consisted of signing for free at Dawn’s convention, raffling a gift basket at the Paul E Normous memorial show, agreeing to be on the cancelled cruise, & helping Dawn gather the 501(c)(3) paper work [which was completed by a lawyer]. Various people accused me and others of having our hands in the cookie jar, despite NEVER handling or having any access to any money. I guess asking me about my participation would be too much of an oversight. To my knowledge, the participation of most wrestlers was either volunteering their services & donating memorabilia in order to be used for fund raising purposes. To call any wrestler a thief would be grossly inaccurate, since we never handled the financial aspects of the charity.

Like I stated earlier, Dawn will release a statement showing her innocence & the lack of research done in the many malicious articles. My personal feelings are a friend defends each other until there is proof that shows that they are guilty. I’m defending Dawn until I see proof that she misappropriated funds. I believe in Dawn based on the character of her as a person, rather then just blindly throw accusations without her side of the story.

Missy Hyatt
1st Lady Of Wrestling

Check out my bio on 1stlahrecon.com – I am Ottilie Louise von Tonn

Lucky Cannon

Rookie for Season 2 of NXT!

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The member’s section was updated on Friday with 38 new photos, here are some samples:

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The member’s section was updated yesterday with 41 new photos, here are some samples:

Already a member? Click here to sign in and check out the latest update. If you aren’t a member, click here to join now for only $9.99 a month. We have over 13,000 photos and over 350 videos for members only!

Autographed copies will be available on the site once it’s released.

On Friday Night RF VIDEO conducted another wild interview for our Face Off Series with Missy Hyatt and the Honky Tonk Man. What do you get when you put a couple that never holds back when you turn the camera on? A off the wall interview that will have you glued to your TV set for the entire length of the DVD. The interview starts off with Missy Hyatt asking HTM some questions that she wanted to ask for a long time. She did her homework as she had a ton of questions for him about his early days pre WWE. She asked him a lot about working in Memphis and the golden years during the territories. I quickly took over when she was done and asked them both about current events. You want to hear about what really happened with TNA and the HTM? Why is there heat with him and Bubba. What do they both think TNA needs to do to work. Both have some messages to Dixie Carter, Hogan and Eric Bischoff.

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