PWTorch.com - VALLEY: RIP to the Third Nature Boy

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VALLEY: RIP to the Third Nature Boy - Remembering Buddy Landel

Jun 27, 2015 - 1:50:52 PM

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By Jim Valley, PWTorch contributor

Growing up, I was never a fan of Buddy Landell. What a trashy name. Buddy Landell wasn't even his real name. He chose it. (FYI: If you're reading this and are also named Buddy Landell, I'm sure you are an outstanding human being and a credit to society.)

It was obvious by his JC Penney suits and his one robe with an "L" on the back, he was more trailer park boy than nature boy.

Over time I appreciated him as one of wrestling's great characters, but in 1985 I was amazed that Crockett Promotions allowed him to not only use the Nature Boy moniker but to call out its number-one, main event star, Nature Boy Ric Flair.

Isn't that amazing? WWE management thought two guys with just the first names Steve or Shane would confuse fans, so William Regal and Gregory Helms

Mid card, low rent Buddy Landell, with a pre-Horsemen JJ Dillon in a terrible, frilly tuxedo, would say 35-year-old Flair need to go out to pasture.

You know the now-famous "What Dreams Are Made Of" by Pusha-T:

“It’s so hard for me to sit back here in this studio, looking at a guy out here, hollering my name!—When last year I spent more money, on spilled liquor, in bars from one side of this world to the other, than you made! You’re talking to the Rolex wearing, diamond ring wearing, kiss stealing, WOO! wheelin dealin’, limousine riding, jet flying son of a gun and I’m having a hard time holding these alligators down!"

That's Ric Flair responding to Buddy Landell.

The next week, "No-Show Budro" (a nickname in wrestling he earned by consistently missing bookings) made the biggest mistake of his career. He couldn't get out of bed to feud with Ric Flair. Landell even claimed he was told he was going to be NWA Champion. I found that a very dubious claim.

He was fired. booker Dusty Rhodes took his National title, and he went back to Memphis.

Today when I watch his stuff on YouTube from Mid South (with Skandor Akbar and Butch Reed) or Memphis (with Dutch Mantel and Bill Dundee) Buddy Landell was better than I thought, even if he has the most trailer park name.

RANDOM THOUGHTS: I know Kevin Owens is in vogue right now (and he is great), but I see Dean Ambrose as something that WWE needs to pull the trigger on soon. He has "it", but, to be frank, I worry his career trajectory is going to suffer as he loses hair. Sad but true...Cora Combs and the "girl wrestlers" of her generation may have had the worst lives of any wrestlers. Sexual, physical and emotional abuse for low pay was the just another day at work for many. It's a testament to her that all of that is no longer part of pro wrestling in 2015. Right? Right? Do I hear snickering?