No wrestling tour of New Zealand would be complete without a visit to Dave and Shirley's home, and time spent in his wrestling room - essentially a mini-museum full of all sorts of treasures from around the world of wrestling. So I made sure that when we came to Auckland, the crew would have a chance to visit. When Dave suggested we "come over early and we'll give you a bite to eat" we had no idea that he, Shirley and son Paul were preparing a HUGE feast for everyone, way beyond anything we could have imagined. We all spent a wonderful afternoon there, and would have liked to have been able to stay longer, if we didn't have a show on that evening.
Great hospitality - many thanks once again to Dave, Shirley and Paul.
Also for any young New Zealanders serious about coming overseas, I would recommend you spend time browsing through Dave's collection. When I first went to Japan, I was able to impress my hosts by actually being able to discuss the 1950's bouts between Japanese pro wrestling legend Rikidozan and NWA World Champion Lou Thesz, which I had read about in magazines in Dave's collection. Rikidozan is kind of like a "wrestling god" in Japan, but Wally couldn't believe someone from New Zealand knew about him - until I told him I read about him in Dave Cameron's wrestling room. Then he understood! (Wally had previously visited New Zealand for the Race Vs Flair World Title matches in 1984, and had visited Dave's room on that occasion, so he knew what a treasure it is.)
Photos accompanying this post are as follows:
1: Dave and Bison Kimura.
2: Dave with the two Mexican women (Esther and Blanca) and also Shirley and Paul with them.
3: Dave with Wally Yamaguchi, Bison and American Candi Devine, in Dave's living room. Wally and I must have been hamming it up a bit while I was taking these pcs, as Bison is telling me to shhhh!)
More pics from our visit to Dave's wrestling room tomorrow.......
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