22.12.2003, 14:13
We made our way to San Bernardino to try and get booked with Red Bastein who was taping Spanish TV. Jesse Hernandez invited us to his house and tried to get us in. We went to the hall. Mike and I were sitting in a locker room, not getting booked, chatting with a rising star named Konnan, when Mando and Chavo Guerrero walked in. (Mando had a bad experience when working in Winnipeg the previous Christmas and he made it clear he had never been so cold in his whole life.) Lozanski loved the lucha style and made a good impression on them.
Finally out of funds (in other words my plastic was jacked) we made it back to BC in one long drive, and a couple of weeks later Lozanski disappeared one night and went back to Calgary. A few weeks later I flew back to Winnipeg unsure of what to do next.
I saw him a few times in Winnipeg that fall, when I got a job as a TV reporter and Mike became a regular in the territory despite having walked out of that earlier tour, because the promoter liked Lozanski so much as a person.
Within 3 years of that Summer of 89\' road trip, he wrestled all over Canada, went to New Zealand in 1990, and got into Mexico and Japan as Canadian Tiger. He had a legendary feud with fellow Calgary product Bret \"Thunderbird\" Como that got them both a lot of notice internationally.
All my closest friends worked him during the early 90\'s. Eddie Watts made Lozanski look like a million bucks in a TV broadway. Chi Chi Cruz wrestled Lozanski all over Canada. Bret Como in Japan, Starr in BC. Bruiser Bastein remembered teaming with Mike in a tag match against a guy I brought into the business, Dave Levinski, and the guy who brought me in, Vince DeLuca. What a foursome, all connected to my life in the wrestling business in very important ways. Dave had no recollection of the match and asked if I have a copy. Of course I do.
My favorite Lozanski match from that period was a CNWA Calgary bout with Flowers where for some reason the tope missed and Mike landed head first on the concrete. Ed Whelan interviewed Mike after the match and he had a knot the size of a walnut on his forehead and should have been knocked goofy. But Lozanski finished the match and got through the interview. Mike Lozanski had a lot of great ingredients including ability, dedication, guts and a love for wrestling.
He had some bad breaks including a bad car accident a few years ago. I saw him at the All Star Wrestling facility in Vancouver in 2000 and almost didn\'t recognize him. It seemed to me that the accident and lifestyle had aged him quite a bit. We spoke of his tryout with ECW and how he got along with Paul Heyman. Most of all we remembered that crazy Summer of \'89 when we learned what the wrestler life on the road was really all about, and how \"kids these days\" don\'t understand what it is means to pay dues.
The years had been hard on Mike but he was hopeful of getting back to Mexico with his longtime partner Dobie Gillis, and they did get in a run last year. They were planning to go back to Monterey, in April. (They had traveled in Mexico with Sarah Stock, Chi Chi\'s girlfriend. Amazing how the circle kept coming around for us all.)
Dobie wants everyone to know that Mike had spoken frequently of those early days in Winipeg and Mike really loved that time of his life, wrestling in his dad\'s hometown.
Dobie told me Mike had just been visiting him in Vancouver and went home for Christmas and to get his wind back. Apparently Mike broke a rib in Acapulco and his lungs had filled with fluid. He had a tube put in and taken out, and he was on the mend. It is thought that maybe the injury contributed to his sudden passing.
His death has hit home with a lot of us, across Canada and the world, because we all remember Mike as the eager curly haired kid with the bright smile, perfect teeth gleaming, tanned and fresh, wanting to get in the ring and have a good match ...
We remember the kid with the whole world at his feet and a whole future ahead of him.
For Dobie and myself, a little brother who we always loved and thought about no matter what the distance or passing of time.
For the boys a great guy to travel and hang out with.
For the fans a babyface they could get behind and cheer.
For his family a son and brother who followed his dream but came home for Christmas.
For 2 little kids he was their dad.
The legacy of Mike Lozanski is not measured in great matches or titles, it is measured by the lives he touched and the affection for him, all over the world, for a man who as Dobie said \"you couldn\'t help but love\".
Rest in peace, brother.
Finally out of funds (in other words my plastic was jacked) we made it back to BC in one long drive, and a couple of weeks later Lozanski disappeared one night and went back to Calgary. A few weeks later I flew back to Winnipeg unsure of what to do next.
I saw him a few times in Winnipeg that fall, when I got a job as a TV reporter and Mike became a regular in the territory despite having walked out of that earlier tour, because the promoter liked Lozanski so much as a person.
Within 3 years of that Summer of 89\' road trip, he wrestled all over Canada, went to New Zealand in 1990, and got into Mexico and Japan as Canadian Tiger. He had a legendary feud with fellow Calgary product Bret \"Thunderbird\" Como that got them both a lot of notice internationally.
All my closest friends worked him during the early 90\'s. Eddie Watts made Lozanski look like a million bucks in a TV broadway. Chi Chi Cruz wrestled Lozanski all over Canada. Bret Como in Japan, Starr in BC. Bruiser Bastein remembered teaming with Mike in a tag match against a guy I brought into the business, Dave Levinski, and the guy who brought me in, Vince DeLuca. What a foursome, all connected to my life in the wrestling business in very important ways. Dave had no recollection of the match and asked if I have a copy. Of course I do.
My favorite Lozanski match from that period was a CNWA Calgary bout with Flowers where for some reason the tope missed and Mike landed head first on the concrete. Ed Whelan interviewed Mike after the match and he had a knot the size of a walnut on his forehead and should have been knocked goofy. But Lozanski finished the match and got through the interview. Mike Lozanski had a lot of great ingredients including ability, dedication, guts and a love for wrestling.
He had some bad breaks including a bad car accident a few years ago. I saw him at the All Star Wrestling facility in Vancouver in 2000 and almost didn\'t recognize him. It seemed to me that the accident and lifestyle had aged him quite a bit. We spoke of his tryout with ECW and how he got along with Paul Heyman. Most of all we remembered that crazy Summer of \'89 when we learned what the wrestler life on the road was really all about, and how \"kids these days\" don\'t understand what it is means to pay dues.
The years had been hard on Mike but he was hopeful of getting back to Mexico with his longtime partner Dobie Gillis, and they did get in a run last year. They were planning to go back to Monterey, in April. (They had traveled in Mexico with Sarah Stock, Chi Chi\'s girlfriend. Amazing how the circle kept coming around for us all.)
Dobie wants everyone to know that Mike had spoken frequently of those early days in Winipeg and Mike really loved that time of his life, wrestling in his dad\'s hometown.
Dobie told me Mike had just been visiting him in Vancouver and went home for Christmas and to get his wind back. Apparently Mike broke a rib in Acapulco and his lungs had filled with fluid. He had a tube put in and taken out, and he was on the mend. It is thought that maybe the injury contributed to his sudden passing.
His death has hit home with a lot of us, across Canada and the world, because we all remember Mike as the eager curly haired kid with the bright smile, perfect teeth gleaming, tanned and fresh, wanting to get in the ring and have a good match ...
We remember the kid with the whole world at his feet and a whole future ahead of him.
For Dobie and myself, a little brother who we always loved and thought about no matter what the distance or passing of time.
For the boys a great guy to travel and hang out with.
For the fans a babyface they could get behind and cheer.
For his family a son and brother who followed his dream but came home for Christmas.
For 2 little kids he was their dad.
The legacy of Mike Lozanski is not measured in great matches or titles, it is measured by the lives he touched and the affection for him, all over the world, for a man who as Dobie said \"you couldn\'t help but love\".
Rest in peace, brother.