Old School Fan

February 20, 2022

July 1966

Over at the studios of CJPM-TV (the independent TV station in Chicoutimi, Quebec) where a TV taping was being held for All-Star Wrestling, Renée Martel and Michèle Richard had finished going over their upcoming tag team match (with Claire Lepage as Renée's partner while newcomer Marianne Duchesne would team with Michèle) and were now going over a post-match interview. "Okay, so after the match, you'll go on with the host first and talk about the match, right?" Michèle said to Renée.

"Yep, I talk with the host for about a minute, then you come in..." Renée said.

"Right, I come in and start an argument, we start arguing for a bit, then I lay down a challenge to you and Claire for a rematch..." Michèle added.

"Which I accept," Renée finished. "And you'll make the argument look good by pitching it up a bit, right?"

"Don't I always?" Michèle said with a grin.

"I've never known you not to when you get in front of the camera," Renée replied.

While Renée and Michèle were talking, Fred Blassie, who had come along on the trip to Chicoutimi as he was scheduled to face Édouard Carpentier for the All-Star World Heavyweight title at the TV taping, approached the girls. While he had been touring with All-Star starting the week before, he had not spoken with the ladies on the roster up until that point, although he knew that Renée, Michèle and Claire were all fluently bilingual. "So, ladies, how's it going with you today?" he asked the girls.

Michèle, who had been speaking French with Renée up to that point*, decided to pull a rib on Fred the moment he spoke. "No habla ingles, señor," she said jokingly in Spanish while Renée giggled.

"Okay, very funny," Fred said in response. "I'm told you both speak English though."

"No, davvero, non parliamo inglese," Renée then piped up with another giggle, putting the little bit of Italian she had learned from Bruno Sammartino and Gino Brito to use while Michèle also laughed.

"Okay, I get the point," Fred then said with a chuckle. "I should've spoken with you and the other girls right from when I first arrived."

"So why wait until now to do it?" Renée said, finally switching to English.

"I would've, but I know how protective your dad seems to be of you and the other girls," Fred explained. "I get it though, I got a daughter of my own along with two sons and I'd be the protective dad with her too whenever she went out with a boy."

"And you've worked with my dad before down in Los Angeles, right?" Renée said.

"Sure did," Fred replied. "Wrestled him several times a couple of years ago with my World title on the line. You're from the same town as he is, right - Drummondville?"

"Yeah, that's right," Renée confirmed.

"Ah, now that's God's country**," Fred then said with a grin. "And you, Michèle, where are you from?"

"Sherbrooke," Michèle said. "That's not far off from Drummondville."

"Hey, now that's God's country too," Fred remarked.

"Hold on, now how can both towns be God's country?" Renée wondered.

"I took the time to travel around the area before first arriving in Montreal," Fred explained. "Trust me on this, any place that has a beautiful countryside like your towns have, that's God's country."

"Ah, okay," Renée said with a giggle. "That makes sense now. But since you've been staying in Montreal for a few days, what about there do you like?"

"That's easy, and it's something I found out about when I first got there - the Japanese steak houses it has," Fred said. "I first got hooked on teriyaki cooking when I was wrestling in Japan and I've liked it ever since."

"Hmmm, I've never tried teriyaki before," Renée remarked, curious about that style of Japanese cooking. "What's it like?" After Fred explained about it to her (including the use of fish in Japan for teriyaki cooking, while red and white meats were used in North America), she then remarked, "Mmm, now that sounds delicious."

"Well then, next time we're back in Montreal, we'll have to get over to a steak house to enjoy some teriyaki," Fred said.

"Well, I can join you anyway, since you and me are on the same side of the rulebook," Michèle pointed out, invoking kayfabe.

"Oh yeah, that's right," Renée said with a sheepish grin. "Even if I could come along, I'd have to sit at another part of the restaurant."

"Not a problem, just have your dad come along too and I'll cover the bill for all of us," Fred said, pleasing both Renée and Michèle.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

* Whenever two or more Francophone characters (such as Renée and Michèle) speak together in this diary, they are assumed to be speaking French with each other (but translated to English for reader benefit) and would be heard doing so by non-Francophones, but as Renée, Michèle and other Francophones here are also fluent in both French and English, they will switch to English when speaking with non-Francophones (as done here with Fred Blassie, for example).

** Blassie's exclamation of "Oh, that's God's country!" references the 1990s documentary movie he starred in, Mr. Blassie Goes to Washington.

February 20, 2022

My man Fred's already getting good old school heat.

Ever heard this?

King of Men by Fred Blassie:

I listened to both that and "Pencil Neck Geek" and they both made for a pretty interesting listen. Dr. Demento sure liked them enough to feature them on his radio show and on later album compilations.

February 17, 2022

Men of the Year vs. CM Punk & Darby Allin (w/ Sting)

Altisimo vs. Anthony Bowens (w/ Max Caster)

Rebel (w/ Dr. Britt Baker DMD) vs. Ruby Soho

Anthony Ogogo (w/ The Factory) vs. Marko Stunt (w/ Jurassic Express & Christian Cage)

IWGP UNITED STATES CHAMPIONSHIP: Jon Moxley © (w/ Eddie Kingston) vs. NJPW's Minoru Suzuki

February 17, 2022

All-Star Wrestling @ Paul Sauvé Arena

July 4, 1966 - Montreal, Quebec

Paul DeGalles defeated Mr. Haiti by pinfall.

Mixed Tag Team Match

Chief White Eagle & Renée Martel defeated Ron Garvin & Mary Jane Mull when White Eagle used the Indian Deathlock to force Garvin to submit.

Marcel Martel & Ti-Blanc Richard defeated The Guillotines when Guillotine II submitted to Richard's bearhug.

Édouard Carpentier & Johnny Rougeau defeated Fred Blassie & Bulldog Brower (subbing for the injured Hans Schmidt) when Blassie was disqualified for throwing the referee aside and for excessive violence (particularly targeting Carpentier, who was bloodied by Blassie during the match). Post-match, Blassie continued on his rampage against Carpentier as the locker rooms emptied out to try to stop Blassie's onslaught. After Blassie was finally removed from the ring, he grabbed the arena mic and demanded a title shot against Carpentier.

February 17, 2022

The latest All-Star Wrestling arena program is now out:

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

February 16, 2022

They need to de-privatize the diary thread. It opens the site up to more readers, potential thread creators and product buyers who might become interested in GD because of this thread.

I second that, as it would open up more responses to diary posts as well and get an overall pulse of what readers think of the diaries.

February 14, 2022

All-Star Wrestling @ Paul Sauvé Arena

June 27, 1966 - Montreal, Quebec

Claire Lepage wrestled Marianne Duchesne* (making her debut) to a time-limit draw.

Mary Jane Mull defeated Renée Martel by pinfall.

Marcel Martel & Ti-Blanc Richard defeated Paul DeGalles & Baron Gattoni when Gattoni submitted to Martel's figure-four leglock.

Fred Blassie & Hans Schmidt defeated Mr. Haiti & Eddie Auger when Blassie pinned Haiti following a neckbreaker.

ASW World Heavyweight Championship

Édouard Carpentier © defeated The Beast (John Yachetti) by pinfall following a cross-bodyblock. Post-match, Fred Blassie ran in and attacked Carpentier using Carpentier's title belt, then attempted to brutalize him before Marcel Martel and Ti-Blanc Richard ran in and chased Blassie out.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

* Marianne Duchesne (pronounced du-shane) was created for this diary.

February 14, 2022

Is this supposed to be Robert Plant? If not, well you did a heck of a render that looks a lot like him.

I also wanted to add, all of those renders in that post were awesome. Loved seeing the masked wrestlers being redone. Keep up the great work.

I dunno, he looks more to me like Sammy Hagar.

February 14, 2022

Picking up where the previous chapter left off (with a song linked within the story to establish the setting and mood early in this post):

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The birthday surprise Renée Martel got from Michèle Richard, Julie Painchaud and Claire Lepage was their taking her out for a night on the town as they went to go dancing at a downtown nightclub on St. Catherine Street. In their keeping of kayfabe, Michèle and Julie, being the heels, went to the club in Michèle's car, while babyfaces Renée and Claire took Renée's own car to get there, separately from the other girls. Once they went inside, they quickly hit the dance floor to groove to the latest rock songs playing over the club's sound system, both songs from local French-language rock bands and from American and British groups, after being asked to dance by some of the male patrons at the club.

After about twenty minutes, Renée and Claire were taking a break from the dance floor as they sat at a table close by while nursing soft drinks they had bought at the club's bar. "So, you enjoying yourself so far?" Claire asked as she and Renée tried not paying attention to the music.

"I didn't really think I would, but I am," Renée said with a grin. "It's been a good way to unwind from the autograph sessions I did earlier."

"Good," Claire said. "Too bad we don't do this more often."

"No, I couldn't do that," Renée said. "I wouldn't have the time for it, and even if my wrestling career did allow it, I don't think either my dad or Johnny would approve."

"I bet I know what Michèle would say to that," Claire said in response. "'Hey, what Johnny and your dad don't know ain't gonna hurt them,' that's what she'd say."

"I just know Michèle would," Renée remarked with a laugh.

A moment later, one of the male patrons of the nightclub walked up to Renée and Claire at their table. "Hi, would you like to dance?" the handsome stranger asked Renée.

"Yeah, sure," Renée said with a smile as she got up from her chair to follow the man onto the dance floor as

was playing on the sound system.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

After finishing up that dance, Renée and her new dance partner, who identified himself as Jean-Luc, went to another part of the club so they could talk. "Hey, you really know how to carve up the floor out there," Jean-Luc said as he complimented Renée's moves on the dance floor.

"Thanks, you did alright out there yourself," Renée replied.

"I couldn't quite hear what your name was with the music blaring earlier," Jean-Luc then said. "What is it again?"

"It's Renée," the blonde said.

"Well, nice to meet you, Renée," Jean-Luc said as he shook her hand. "I'm going to get a drink at the bar, do you want anything?"

"Nothing alcoholic, no," Renée said. "I wouldn't mind a soft drink, though, maybe a Pepsi or Coke."

"Okay, I'll be right back," Jean-Luc said as he went off to the bar.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

At another part of the club, Michèle and Julie were sitting at their own table some distance from Renée and Claire's table, still maintaining kayfabe to avoid the two groups of girls being associated with each other in case of the chance of any club patrons or employees possibly recognizing them from TV as wrestlers. "You ever get out to the clubs all that much?" Michèle asked Julie, needing to speak up to be heard over the music.

"I do sometimes on the weekends, when nursing school's in session," Julie said. "Helps me unwind from all the studying."

"Well, there you go," Michèle said. "Nightclubbing's a good way to relax after a busy week."

"Even though I have to soak my feet afterward thanks to all that dancing," Julie joked, drawing laughter from Michèle.

"That reminds me, did you see that guy Renée was dancing with out there?" Michèle then asked, speaking of Jean-Luc.

"Did I ever," Julie remarked. "I couldn't take my eyes off him the whole time she was with him on the floor."

"Now you got another chance," Michèle said, directing Julie to look in Jean-Luc's direction as he headed toward the bar and bought two drinks, one for himself and one for Renée. The girls watched as Jean-Luc paid for the drinks, but they noticed that, rather than go back to Renée right away, he went to the end of the bar, placed the drinks on it and reached into his coat.

"Hold on, what's he up to?" Julie wondered aloud as she glanced momentarily at Michèle before looking back to Jean-Luc, who had taken out what appeared to be a white cube, then took out something else, appearing to be a small squeeze tube. Acting discreetly and thinking no one had seen what he did, he then squeezed a couple of drops of liquid onto the cube and dropped the cube into the drink and then stirred the drink with a swizzle stick to dissolve the cube.

"Whatever it is he just did, I don't like it," a displeased Michèle said as she then saw Jean-Luc take the drink he had spiked in his right hand and, with his own drink in his left hand, walked back to Renée. "Let's move," she said to Julie as she got up from her chair.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Jean-Luc then returned with drinks in hand to where Renée was standing. "Hope I didn't keep you waiting," he said to her as he arrived. "The bar's been pretty busy tonight."

"That's okay, the music kept me occupied while I waited," Renée said with a grin.

"Here, I got you a Coke," Jean-Luc then said as he prepared to hand the drink in his right hand - the drink he had spiked moments earlier - to an unsuspecting Renée.

"Okay, thanks," a pleased Renée said. As Jean-Luc was about to hand the Coke to her, however, he suddenly felt the drink, contained in a clear plastic cup, get smacked out of his hand as it went flying before landing on the floor near some patrons.

"I saw what you just did!" an angry Michèle snapped at a stunned Jean-Luc as she got right in his face. "What the hell's the matter with you?!" she added before she began loudly cursing at him. Following Michèle's lead, Julie soon joined in and also began yelling at Jean-Luc, which began drawing attention from other club patrons as a shocked Renée wondered what was going on.

The scene Michèle and Julie were causing soon drew the attention of a club bouncer, who quickly arrived at the scene. "Okay, hold on, what's going on here?" the bouncer asked.

"I saw this guy go and spike someone's drink," Michèle said as she then lunged at Jean-Luc, grabbed at his coat and reached into its inner pocket, then pulled out several items and let them drop on the floor. The bouncer picked up the items, which turned out to be several sugar cubes and a small silver-colored squeeze tube; he then read some writing on the tube and scowled at what he read.

"Alright, wise guy, you're coming with me to the manager's office," the bouncer then said as he grabbed Jean-Luc by the arm in a hammerlock and escorted him away.

After seeing the bouncer leave with Jean-Luc, Michèle said to Julie, "Let's get the hell out of here." Upon coming to Renée, she then said, "We gotta go, I'll explain outside." Renée and Julie then started walking toward the club's front entrance with Michèle, who saw Claire still sitting at her table and called and gestured to her, saying, "Come on, we're leaving," at which point Claire got up and followed the other girls.

Once the girls got to the door, Michèle and Julie were the first ones to go out onto the street, followed a few seconds later by Renée and Claire as they walked down the block some distance from the club before turning a corner past the Capitol Theatre and off of St. Catherine Street onto a side street where Michèle and Renée's cars were parked. "Okay, that was a close one," Michèle said as the girls finally stopped near her car.

"Michèle, what was that all about in there?" a puzzled Renée asked about the earlier incident where Michèle confronted Jean-Luc.

"That guy you were dancing with at the club was about to acid-drop you," Michèle explained. "Julie and I saw him spike your drink at the bar and he was about to give you that drink when I stopped him and got in his face about it."

"Acid-drop?" Renée said, still not fully understanding.

"He was gonna drug you with LSD," Michèle pointed out. "What he did was one of the ways they administer or take LSD, by putting a drop or two of it on a sugar cube and then eating the cube. He put the cube he spiked into your drink and stirred it in before he brought it to you. I don't know what he had in mind when he did that, but it probably wasn't anything good."

"I saw the argument from my table, but I didn't know why it happened at first," Claire said, "but now I know. Renée, you just got saved from something bad possibly happening to you, almost like Truro."

Renée muttered something under her breath as she covered her eyes with her right hand and shook her head in disbelief, then she walked over and hugged Michèle. "Thanks, Michèle," she said to her friend. "I hate to think what would've happened if you and Julie hadn't been there to stop him." She then turned and hugged Julie, saying, "I owe you both for that."

"Hey, that's what friends are for," Michèle said as she patted Renée on her shoulder.

"Yeah, but now our club night's a bust thanks to that guy," Julie joined in. "I don't think we'll be going back to that club anytime soon, if at all."

"Well, just so the night's not a total loss, I got an idea," Michèle said.

"What is it?" Renée asked.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Michèle's idea was for the four girls to drive out of town and head over to a drive-in restaurant she knew about in neighboring Laval. When they arrived at the busy drive-in, Renée, who had Claire with her again, parked her car closer to the drive-in building on one side of the attached fixed canopy, while Michèle and Julie parked on the other side of the canopy, further from where Renée and Claire were parked.

Soon after the girls' arrival, one of the waitresses on duty stepped out from inside the restaurant and walked over to Renée's car first. "Hi, can I take your..." the waitress started to say, before she realized with a gasp who was sitting in the driver's seat of the car she came out to serve. "Wait a minute, you're Renée Martel, aren't you?"

"Yep, that's me," Renée said with a pleased laugh over the recognition.

It was all the waitress could do to contain her excitement over meeting one of her favorite wrestlers in person, but she tried her best. "Ohmigosh, this is so exciting!" she said as she marveled at Renée. "I think I might faint!"

"Oh, no, don't do that," Renée said reassuringly, "or you won't be able to take our order. Just take a few deep breaths and relax." After the waitress did as instructed, Renée then asked her, "Are you okay now?"

"Yeah, I will be," the waitress said. "Before I take your order though, let me head back inside a moment and talk to my boss."

After the waitress went back in to see the drive-in's manager, Claire looked to Renée and asked, "You don't think we're going to have any problems, do you?"

Renée leaned toward the steering wheel just enough so she could look inside the restaurant, where she saw the waitress talking with a man, apparently the manager. "From the looks of it, I don't think we should," she replied.

After the man looked outside to Renée's car for a moment, he then nodded and said something to the waitress, who then went back outside to the driver's side of the car. "I just finished talking to my boss," the waitress began. "He's seen you wrestle on TV before and he's a fan of yours too, so he said whatever you and your friend order tonight is on the house."

"Oh, okay," Renée said with a giggle. After she and Claire briefly discussed what they wanted to get, she then turned to the waitress and said, "We'll get two cheeseburgers, two sides of fries, two apple turnovers and two medium root beers."

"Coming right up," said the waitress. "Oh, and before I go, is your friend a wrestler too?"

"I sure am," Claire said as she greeted the waitress. "I'm Claire Lepage."

"Can I get both your autographs?" the waitress then asked as she tore a sheet of paper out of her order pad and handed it and her pen to Renée.

"You sure can," Renée said with a grin as she autographed the paper, then handed it to Claire to sign.

Shortly after the waitress went back inside the restaurant to place their orders, Renée and Claire overheard the sound of a car horn honking the first five notes of the "Shave and a Haircut" sounder. Realizing it was a signal prearranged by Michèle, Renée looked over to her friend's car and sounded the final two notes with her own car horn in response. Within seconds, in a seeming case of "monkey see, monkey do", other car horns began sounding around the drive-in parking lot, and Renée looked over and saw Michèle laughing in her car, amused at what she started.

Looking over at Michèle's car as well and seeing her laughing in the driver's seat, Claire asked, "Does Michèle like making mischief like that sometimes?"

"Does Bugs Bunny like carrots?" Renée replied rhetorically, which then started her and Claire laughing as well.

February 14, 2022

HELL YEAH!

Fred's gonna tear Montreal apart...with his teeth!

This diary is really well written.

Serious question. How are you able to post pictures?

Check out some of the upcoming entries I have planned that'll feature "The Vampire" (AKA the "Hollywood Fashion Plate").

Here's the formatting I use for some of the pictures here, using the PostImage website for this example:

February 12, 2022

Karl Fredericks (#6) VS. Tom Lawlor (#4)

Bateman & Steve Manders VS. Gunner Miller & Schaff

Adrian Quest (#15) vs. Ken Broadway (#16)

February 12, 2022

While I continue working on the next chapter (on Renée's birthday eve night out), here's a YouTube clip:

Jerry Blackwell's face turn in the AWA (from St. Paul, MN, June 10, 1984 - features the post-match brawl pitting Bruiser Brody, Abdullah and Sheik Adnan vs. Dusty Rhodes, Curt Hennig and the Fabulous Ones)

February 12, 2022

Two more Route 66-themed belts:

Route 66 Television Championship

Route 66 Women's Championship

February 12, 2022

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="Jaysin" data-cite="Jaysin" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="53774" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>These are great and I love and appreciate that you took my advice about posting pics instead of links. Keep up the great work.</div></blockquote> No problemo, and thanks. <img alt=":cool:" data-src="//content.invisioncic.com/g322608/emoticons/cool.png.f00d2562b2c1d873a09323753efdb041.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" />

February 11, 2022

AWA Midwest Tag Team Championship

This is an approximate recreation of the very first championship belt ever made by wrestler-turned-beltmaker Reggie Parks. The photo reference for that title belt is here.

February 11, 2022

Thanks my guy. What fonts did you use? The text around the logo look Arial.

For the IWGP letters in the middle, that looks like the same font used for the titles for the original Battlestar Galactica series from 1978.

February 10, 2022

WCW United States Championship Match

KroniK vs. Team Canada [storm & Corino]

Match 1 in Best of 5 Series

Submission Match

Booker T vs. Sting

Chuck Palumbo vs. Shane Douglas

February 10, 2022

NWA International Heavyweight Championship (Amarillo, used by Dory Funk Jr. in 1974-81)

The photo reference for that title belt is here.

February 10, 2022

LoNdOn, based on your Lita lookalike render, that's making me want to consider getting into doing wrestler renders myself - that's how good that render looks.

February 10, 2022

The benefits of DAZ Studio at work in those renders (and I say this because I'm also a DAZ Studio user).

February 7, 2022

Renée Martel had had a busy day that Saturday, the day before her 19th birthday, doing autograph sessions at two of the local TV stations in Montreal. She did her first session at the studios of CFTM-TV (the city's independent French-language station where Johnny Rougeau's French wrestling program for All-Star Wrestling, Sur le Matelas, aired on Saturday afternoons), where she was met by young Francophone fans seeking her autograph after becoming fans of hers through either seeing her on TV or live in person at the matches at either the Paul Sauvé Arena for the regular shows or the larger Forum for the supercard events. After wrapping up her session at CFTM, she then went to the studios of English-language station and CTV affiliate CFCF-TV (which aired Sur le Matelas' sister English program Superstars of the Mat on Saturdays at lunch hour) for her next autograph session, which ended up drawing a larger and enthusiastic crowd of primarily English-speakers along with some Francophones; thanks to the larger crowd size, that session ended up lasting over half an hour past its planned 3:30 wrap-up time, as Renée made sure that no fan who came to the session left without an autograph.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

After the last autograph session ended, Renée went over to Morgan's Department Store downtown, where she knew Michèle Richard was working that day due to her on-call status when she was not wrestling. After saying hello and talking briefly with Michèle, Renée went "window-shopping" around the store for a while before finding a dress she liked, on sale for $12*, and decided to buy it. After the store closed for the day at 6:00, she and Michèle then went back to the latter's apartment and phoned in a Chinese takeout order for dinner.

"So, how's your writer's cramp holding up?" Michèle asked jokingly as she dug into some of the chop suey on her plate and speared a piece of broccoli.

"Huh?" a puzzled Renée asked as she was about to lift a forkful of chow mein.

"Your writer's cramp," Michèle pointed out again. "You must've been kept very busy signing autographs all afternoon at those meet-and-greets."

"Oh, that," Renée said with a slight giggle. "It was no big deal, really. Had a lot of fun meeting the kids who came out for autographs, I even got to pose with some of them for photographs."

"Well, that's alright," Michèle said. "That's a sign that you're starting to get more popular."

"True," Renée admitted. "It's opposite from what you deal with while wrestling as a villain - they don't get asked much for autographs anyway and I guess that's how it is with you, right?"

"Funny that you mention it," Michèle said. "After I parked my car close to work this morning and headed to Morgan's, I got recognized by a couple of boys who saw me at the matches a few times. I thought I was going to get hassled, but instead they asked me for my autograph. I won't lie and say I wasn't shocked because I was, getting asked for an autograph when I don't usually get asked."

"So, did you?" Renée asked before eating a bite of sweet-and-sour chicken.

"When they asked, I thought, 'Okay, why not?'" Michèle said. "They both looked about high school age and I figured it's just the odd fan or two who probably root for the 'bad girl' type anyway, so I went ahead and signed."

"You might want to be careful about that," Renée advised her friend. "You've got that 'bad girl' wrestling rep to maintain and I don't think you'd want to mess with that."

"Yeah, I know, kayfabe and all," Michèle said before putting another forkful of chow mein into her mouth. Just then, her apartment intercom began buzzing, so she swallowed her mouthful of food as she got up and walked over to answer the intercom, "Talk to me."

"It's Claire," the voice of Claire Lepage came over the intercom. "Is the birthday girl here yet?"

"She is, come on up," Michèle said before buzzing Claire into the apartment building and opening the front door for her.

"Uh, is there something you haven't told me yet?" a curious Renée wondered.

"Oh, did I forget to mention it?" Michèle said with a sly grin. "I called Claire, Julie and Barbara a couple of days ago and told them about your birthday tomorrow. Claire's here now and Julie's supposed to come soon. Barbara couldn't make it because she's busy back in Quebec City, but she sends her regards."

"Ah, so what do you have in mind, then?" Renée asked as she raised an eyebrow.

"You'll see soon enough," Michèle said.

Just then, Claire opened the front door the rest of the way as she arrived and came inside. "Hey, birthday girl!" the blonde girl said with a smile as she walked over and gave Renée a hug. "How's the day before your big day been?"

"Good so far," Renée said with a giggle. "Michèle told me about whatever it is she, you and Julie have planned, she just hasn't told me exactly what it is yet."

"Oh, well, until she does spring the surprise, I got something here for you," Claire then said as she took an envelope out from her purse and handed it to Renée, who opened it and took out a birthday card. Contained with the card was a booklet of movie theatre tickets which Claire had bought as a birthday gift for Renée while going out to a movie one night.

"It's a nice little gift, Claire, thanks," Renée said of the movie tickets, then she hugged Claire again. As the two girls were hugging, the intercom sounded again and Michèle went to answer it.

"It's Julie," Julie Painchaud's voice answered over the intercom.

"Come on up," Michèle said before she buzzed Julie in.

About a minute later, Julie arrived at the apartment and stepped through the front door. "Hey, how's the birthday girl doing?" the redhead greeted Renée as she walked over to give her a hug.

"It's been quite a day," a grinning Renée said.

"Well, just wait 'til later tonight," Julie said. "Meanwhile, I got something here for you," she added as she produced an envelope for Renée, who opened it and took out a birthday card - and inside it, also found a booklet of movie tickets.

Upon seeing the booklet, Renée started to giggle. "What's so funny?" Julie said, not getting the joke.

"I gotta ask, did you go to the movies the same night as Claire?" a still-laughing Renée asked.

"No, I never even... Oh, wait a minute," Julie said as her suspicions were raised. "Did Claire get you movie tickets too?"

"Guilty as charged," Claire said with an embarrassed giggle as Renée produced the other booklet of movie tickets, leading to all four girls starting to laugh over the coincidence.

"That's okay, Julie, it's the thought that counts," Renée said before giving Julie a hug as thanks for the tickets. Turning to Michèle, she then asked, "Alright, so what's the big surprise you have for me?"

"Well, I'm glad you asked," Michèle replied as she went to get her jacket and put on her shoes.

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So, what does Michèle have planned for Renée for her birthday? Stay tuned...

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* When adjusted for inflation, $12 (in Canadian funds) in 1966 is equal to almost $98 as of 2021.

February 7, 2022

I enjoy that you’re doing an old school diary. I love seeing wrestling from this period. Focusing on Renne while saying the basic results for the other matches and gives a general view of what’s going on within in the company is a unique path to take in a diary. The article you made about a Blassie & Martel was also awesome! I by gawd love those types of articles. Got a few St. Louis wrestling programs that I love to read. The wrestling was treated seriously and made sense. I assume you use photoshop to make those posters, as someone who’s never used photoshop before but always wanted to make posters like that any recommendations for which photoshop to get or getting started using it?

Thanks, glad you like how the events and the posters and arena programs turned out. The Photoshop version I've been using to make my posters and programs is Photoshop Elements 15, but you can use whichever version of Photoshop that works for you.

February 5, 2022

Claudio Castagnoli & El Generico VS. Lance Archer & Malakai Black

Clark Connors (#7) VS. Hikuleo (#8)

Kevin Knight (#20) vs. The DKC (#19)

February 1, 2022

While I'm working on the next chapter of this diary, here are some YouTube clips featuring the spotlighted wrestler profiled in the above arena program:

(from Los Angeles, 1970)

(from 1985)

(from 1962)

January 31, 2022

One of the first arena programs/newsletters released by All-Star Wrestling after its return from its hiatus that June featured some big news in its main headline (particularly for some board members here who happen to be fans of Fred Blassie), as seen below:

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