I don't' care too much for the "theatre" Gallen provides pre-fight for all his bouts. I think his tirade at Josh for this fight is disgusting and truly hope that this time his opponent leaves him bloodied on the floor!
I do think however, that Josh does offer Manly very little in the front row. Maybe into the 2nd row and Shu to 5/8?
Josh will rise to another level in 2022, I promise you.
He probably was around in the goold old "Brute Bernard" and "Ox Baker" days - some classics
Yep and they were all good mates, despite what happened in the ring. Larry Oshea, Roy Miller, Mario Milano etc etc.
However, as Jimmy recanted to me, it all changed with TV and the Producers decided who was going to win a bout and that didn’t go down well with Jimmy and ultimately he was banned after bashing another wrestler over the head with a chair during a bout. Oh yeah and I think also the referee and maybe the Producer as well.
He recanted so many funny stories to me and my favourite was when he discovered his son-in-law was having an affair and found out the hotel where the couple made out. So Jimmy sat in reception and waited for them to come down in the elevator and when they finally arrived, Jimmy stood up and said “I hope you both enjoyed yourselves.” At which point the son-in-law pissed himself. Jimmy said, “I didn’t need to hit him, he was as weak as piss” and he just walked out and told his daughter.
Another occasion was when taking me from the airport to my hotel I asked him if he knew a bottle shop on the way to the hotel, as I’d like to get a bottle of wine. Jimmy announced that an old pub had just been taken over by a retired AFL player and they’d closed the restaurant and he understood they had some wine.
So, we arrived at the pub and I wanted just one bottle of wine and there was just one patron and the barman at the pub at the time.
I asked “Do you have any wine I could buy?”. The barman responded that they had a fridge full in the old restaurant and would I like to take a look. I said “Yes, that would be great.”
So the barman excused himself from the one patron in the pub and escorted me to the wine fridge and to my absolute surprise it was full of some of Australia’s best wines.
So I chose one, a Tyrells Vat 47 Chardonnay from a good year and asked, “How much for this?”, expecting $50 to $60 dollars at least.
“Don’t know, I’ll have to call the boss” the barman responded.
After a few minutes the barman came back and announced that the boss had told him that every bottle was $15.
Jimmy and I departed that establishment on that night with 12 and a bit cases of very expensive Australian wine at $15 a bottle, which left me very little room to sit in the car and Jimmy’s assurance he’d have it all wrapped up and shipped to my home the next day by one of his mates. Oh and yeah, Jimmy bought two of the cases and I still took one bottle to my room for the next few nights I was staying.
We laughed about it for many years and often wondered if we should poke our heads back in to see if the pub was still selling wine, but Jimmy thought we’d bought the lot.
Jimmy also made his own wine, a Greek style, from grapes he grew in his backyard. It was a red and at least 22% alcohol and he proudly gave me two bottles each year around Christmas. It was horrific but he loved it.
www.foxsports.com.au
