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RECAP & NOTES FROM DAVE LA GRECA'S LIVE NYC STAGE SHOW WITH DREAMER, BULLY, SAM ROBERTS, TASHA STEELZ, MARK HENRY & MORE

 

I attended Dave La Greca’s Live Laminated Lists stage show this past Saturday 2/10 at The Gramercy Theater in New York City and it was a great, fun two hours featuring a good majority of the cast of characters that populate SiriusXM’s Busted Open radio show.

La Greca was obviously in his element in front of his people and lots of family members and you could tell that this was a big, almost overwhelming moment for him personally, noting how much it meant to have his name on the marquee of the legendary venue.  La Greca, who sometimes takes flack online for his rants about pro wrestling, fired back to critics on stage, giving them a hearty “f*** you” for anyone knocking his passion about professional wrestling as his sport of choice.  

La Greca, who had been very outspoken about his support of the idea that Cody Rhodes needed to headline Wrestlemania 40,had joked about making the event a Cody Rally online and even dropped his pants to show off some American Nightmare boxers.  

The theme of the freewheeling conversation, which featured a lot of good natured ribbing of everyone on stage and even members of the audience, was the most inspirational wrestlers for those on stage.  

Bully Ray discussed being in the front, at 12 years old, for the night Jimmy Snuka hit the Superfly Splash on Don Muraco in Madison Square Garden and after that impact of the move, he circled to look around MSG and knew he wanted to be a professional wrestler.  

Mark Henry told a story about attending a Junkyard Dog vs. Ted DiBiase match in Mid-South Wrestling that was a bloody war and later telling the story to DiBiase, who gripped his arm and knew exactly what and where the match was as Henry told him as they connected in an emotional moment.  

Tommy Dreamer told the story of attending a Championship Wrestling from Florida event with his father while on a family vacation and the second Dusty Rhodes walked into the arena, Dreamer’s life was changed.

Surprise guest Sam Roberts, appearing just a day after his family welcomed their latest addition - congratulations to all! - told a story about growing up in the UK and falling in love with professional wrestling there.  His first live event was Summerslam 1992 at Wembley Stadium and Roberts told the tale of how his parents were worried that when he got to see professional wrestling live, he’d realize it was more of an entertainment product than an actual sport and would be disappointed.  Obviously, Roberts is still going strong as someone who is involved in and loves the business.

TNA star Tasha Steelz, showing an absolutely insane level of charisma when she came out to her theme music, talked about what it meant to work with and beat Mickie James, one of her heroes, in TNA.  Steelz noted that she wants to work with Naomi and Trish Stratus one day.

Dave La Greca’s brother Don, an ESPN Radio personality, appeared as a surprise and told stories of beating his younger brother up as a child, even breaking his leg in a fantastic story about how their father was probably more upset he was going to miss the end of M*A*S*H as much as anything.

A truly emotional moment during the show saw Bully Ray and Dave La Greca call up the house lights in the building while pointing out Vladimir the Superfan was in attendance.  Asking Vlad to stand, they praised his documentary and how inspirational his story is.  La Greca said that seeing Vladimir at all those shows over the years as he grew up in New Jersey led to La Greca chasing his passion for professional wrestling and thanked Vlad for inspiring him, which got a massive ovation.  Later, Mark Henry pointed out Vlad and how moved he was about Vlad’s love of his mother but also told a story about how Vlad mocked him and ripped him from the front row of Henry’s MSG debut when Mark tripped on the ropes getting in the ring.  He joked he hated Vlad and held onto that hate until he saw the documentary.  When they met last month at AEW Worlds Collide, they had a chance to speak and cried together.  It was a really, absolutely beautiful few moments for Vlad and personally, I can’t thank Dave, Bully, Mark and everyone else there enough for their kindness towards Vlad.

Another segment of the show saw La Greca's wife take questions from the NYC crowd and she handled herself perfectly.    The night opened with comedian Kyle Lewis doing a great pro wrestling-themed set and then Mark Henry made his stand-up debut with a great R-rated set that showed really good poise and timing for that style of performance.    Gabby LaSpisa, who had formerly produced Busted Open, was the host and emcee, ribbing everyone as good as she received on stage and even quipped that she couldn't be fired twice from Sirius as she had been let go as part of overall cutbacks last year.

In attendance were legendary photographer George Napolitano, former WWE NXT and ROH star Bull “Dempsey” James, author and historian Keith Elliot Greenberg, announcer extraordinaire Kevin Gill, ISPW star Vicious Vickie and more.

A lot of smiles across the near-sold out Gramercy Theater and with good reason.  It was a community of people who all loved pro wrestling gathering to enjoy a fun night of talking about it while also celebrating La Greca, who has built out his own community with the Busted Open series.  He's given a lot of personalities a new trajectory in their life while also allowing them to continue to be a big part of the professional wrestling world.  For good reasons, La Greca got his flowers Saturday.

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