Interview with pro wrestling legend Nick Bockwinkel

Marty O'Neill with Nick Bockwinkel
(photo: WrestlingClassics.com)

A sold out throng of fans packed Staples Center last night for the WWE's annual SummerSlam event. It was a glitzy affair, attended by many athletes and celebrities - including NHL defenseman Sheldon Souray sitting in the front row.

It wasn't that surprising really, as there's always been a loose link between hockey and wrestling - after all, they at the very least share the same arenas in most major markets.

One of the building's normal residents, the Los Angeles Kings, have their own ties to the squared circle as well. Ted Irvine, who helped set up the first goal in team history, is the father of former WWE champion Chris Jericho.

However, years before Jack Kent Cooke brought the NHL to Los Angeles - and a lifetime before AEG helped revitalize downtown - one of the hottest tickets in SoCal was for events held just a few blocks from the city's showpiece arena now located on Figueroa Street.

One man who helped make that much smaller venue an icon among sports buildings was Nick Bockwinkel. For those not familiar with the rich history of pro wrestling, he's a mulit-time world champion, Hall of Famer and had many classic matches with the fellow legends, such as Verne Gagne, Dick The Bruiser, Terry Funk, Larry Zbyszko, Andre The Giant and Hulk Hogan.

"Before I came back to the Midwest, Los Angeles was where I first started wrestling and that's where my father wrestled for a number of years," said Bockwinkel. "A lot of my early matches were at the old Olympic Auditorium, back in 1955. The dressing room there was like a dungeon."

Tuesday's 10 Tidbits on the Hockey-n-Wrestling connection

In 1985, in what's billed as the World's Most Famous Arena, Vince McMahon launched his version of professional wrestling into super-stardom, live from Madison Square Garden. Largely on the back of a "Rock-n-Wrestling" connection - fueled in part by a partnership with MTV - his World Wrestling Federation staged the first WrestleMania.

Fast forward 25 years...just a few weeks ago McMahon and crew were at the sold out Staples Center for SummerSlam, their annual mid-year spectacular. While connections to Cindi Lauper and MTV have long been removed from the on camera presentation, strong ties to the world of hockey still exist behind the scenes.

It only makes sense too. Professional wrestling has deep roots in Canada. And certainly there is nothing more Canadian than hockey, right?

Here in the U.S., many of the greatest wrestlers in history come from Minnesota, a state that promotes itself as 'The State of Hockey'. Thus, the opportunities for overlap are similar to our friends north of the border.

Sure enough, in today's 10 Tidbits article we take a look at several such connections, including at least two linked to the Los Angeles Kings.

1 - The most obvious connection between wrestling and the Kings is tied to a man considered to be one of the best wrestlers of his generation, the first ever unified world heavyweight champion, Chris Jericho.  His father was Ted Irvine (pictured), a member of the inaugural L.A. team in '67-68.  Wearing jersey #15 that season, Irvine scored 18 goals and had 22 assists, including a helper on the first goal ever scored in Kings history (October 14, 1967).