Dave,

Thanks you for your great issue on Roy Shires.  As a kid, I’d see him peaking through the curtain at the San Jose Civic watching the matches and surveying his empire.  I never had contact with the guy.  My dad was friends with everybody and would talk to John Swenski, the local front man, at every card.  I could tell you based on what he said, that he did not want to feel the wrath of Shires.  One time as a kid, I sent Shires about a 10 page letter on yellow legal pad paper with suggestions of who to bring in and booking ideas.  One of my ideas was to force the Invaders to wear different outfits based on their untagged switches (if you remember they had two outfits--  one white with black, the other blue with gold).  I had never seen this stip anywhere before but just came up with it in my own young mind.  A month later, it was made a stip in one of their matches.  I am absolutely convinced to this day Roy had read my letter.  Shires’ booking stuck to a strict plan that worked.  It was such a vibrant time.  My grandmother lived near downtown San Jose and I would run down to the liquor store to see the wrestling poster that had been posted with the next card’s matches.  They always had 10 wrestlers (except the occasional time Andre came when they had 11).  Most of the time, there were two two-out-of-three fall tags and a singles opener.  I can still smell the building.  When I was lucky enough to go to the Cow Palaces bashes too, there was an electricity in the air that for my money cannot be duplicated.  I wish I could recapture that vibe.  I could go on and on but despite the locker room issues I was not privy to, I was lucky to be a part of it and would not trade it for the world.  Take care and thanks for the great work with the Observer.

Derek Sousa