Roy Shire's Great Empire

As ring announcer in Northern California for over 14 cities including the Cow Palace I had great opportunities to witness events and locker room/backstage happenings many times. Some of the greats then were Alexis Smirnoff (The Mad Russian); Playboy Buddy Rose; Moondog Mayne; Ron Starr; Rocky "Soulman" Johnson (father of The Rock); Chief Peter Maivia, Pat Patterson, Dean Ho and others.

Smirnoff was over big time when he had the belt and drew huge crowds throughout. Always a courteous person, and living in Hayward (where most of the boys lived; geographically it was best for the total territory) he was a total heel and like The Great Mephisto years earlier often used the loaded boot to kick his foes unconscious. Smirnoff had his tires slashed at the Cow Palace and once in Sacramento from irate fans.

Gerhardt Kaiser also was a hit for a good three years. He started out managing The Von Brauners with the German military style outfit then managed The Masked Interns and The Medics then The Von Steigers. Then Kaiser changed to colorful suits and was known as The Godfather and he had great heat.

Kaiser was a good person but I as Cow Palace ring announcer didn't like sitting close to him at the announcer's table simply because fans often threw things at him and I didn't want to be in the way.

Kaiser was famous and he had to kayfabe often when not wrestling; people recognized him on the streets and he had to avoid them though no incidents occurred. He eventually opened a jewelry shop in downtown Oakland then moved to Florida. A great guy and very educated.

Every Monday night was TV taping at Sacramento Channel 40 and all the tapings and interviews were done that night beginning at 5pm for the live 1 hr show then interviews after the studio audience left and the boys didn't get out till about 9:30 or so. Interviews for Fresno, Sacramento, San Francisco were all done then. But everyone seemed to get along fine.