One of the most passionately loved (and violently loathed) villains of wrestling, in any era, Classy Freddie Blassie is probably best remembered by modern wrestling fans for his stint as a manager in the 70s and 80s WWF. During this time, he memorably guided the on-screen careers of stars like Nikolai Volkoff, The Iron Sheik, High Chief Peter Maivia (grandfather of The Rock), George The Animal Steele, Hulk Hogan and others. In this era, Blassie enjoyed a career renaissance by making a nuisance of himself at ringside and helping inexperienced or camera shy wrestlers get their characters/angles over. In his wrestling prime, however, Blassie was one of the most charismatic men to ever set foot between the ropes. He was that special kind of heel that had audiences eating out of the palm of his hand (at one point, he was even doused with acid by angry fans) and could make a crowd hate him simply by cutting a promo, or shooting an arrogant look at the camera. Towards the end of his wrestling career, Blassie became so notable for his roguish ways that he got over as a babyface, despite his best efforts. For decades, the fans had loved to hate him, now, however, they simply loved him...
I am a professional author and lifelong comic books/pro wrestling fan. I also work as a journalist as well as writing comic books (I also draw), screenplays, stage plays, songs and prose fiction.
I don't generally read or reply to comments here on What Culture (too many trolls!), but if you follow my Twitter (@heyquicksilver), I'll talk to you all day long!
If you are interested in reading more of my stuff, you can find it on http://quicksilverstories.weebly.com/ (my personal site, which has other wrestling/comics/pop culture stuff on it).
I also write for FLiCK http://www.flickonline.co.uk/flicktion, which is the best place to read my fiction work.
Oh yeah - I'm about to become a Dad for the first time, so if my stuff seems more sentimental than usual - blame it on that!
Finally, I sincerely appreciate every single read I get. So if you're reading this, thank you, you've made me feel like Shakespeare for a day! (see what I mean?)
Latcho Drom,
- CQ
