By TIM BAINES – Ottawa Sun

Many years ago, wrestling heels knew the wrath they’d face each night. Grannies sitting at ringside would swing their purses at the villains, greaseballs would hurl weapons. Being a heel could be painful — in an out of the ring. That’s changed a bit.

“They’ve all become anti-heroes now,” says SlamWrestling.net guru Greg Oliver, who, with Steven Johnson, has co-authored a wonderful book, The Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame: The Heels.

“Wrestlers don’t want to be hated now … if they’re hated, they won’t sell merchandise.” This book is a magnificent blast from the past, with terrific stories of the heels an older generation grew up watching, plus some of today’s bad boys. “What sets this book apart is it tells stories about people, not wrestlers,” says Oliver.

WE’LL MISS DEWEY: Dewey Robertson, who had been batting cancer, died early Thursday morning in Hamilton. Robertson was a huge star as a fan favourite in the 1970s, then morphed into The Missing Link.

NO KIDDING: Just who is Vince McMahon’s illegitimate child? Tune into Saturday Night’s Main Event tonight and you’ll be given four candidates. I loved Coach on RAW, deadpanning to McMahon when it was suggested The Boogeyman could be the boss’ kid: “Well sir, he does have your eyes.” It would have been a great angle to reveal Triple H as Vince’s son.

HARD JUSTICE: Kurt Angle beat Samoa Joe at TNA’s Hard Justice PPV Sunday. Angle now holds all the TNA belts and will put them all on the line at No Surrender. Other results: Jay Lethal and Sonjay Dutt beat Triple X and the Motorcity Machine Guns; Kazarian beat Raven; James Storm beat Rhino; LAX beat Voodoo Kin Mafia; Robert Roode beat Eric Young; Chris Harris beat Black Reign Dustin Rhodes; The Steiners beat Team 3D; and Sting, Abyss and The Punisher Andrew Martin beat Christian Cage, AJ Styles and Tomko. TNA later released Matt Bentley, Brother Runt, Basham, Jerry Lynn and Damaja.

CRUSH DEAD: Brian Adams, who wrestled as Crush, the third member of Demolition, and later as Kona Crush, died on Monday. Adams, who was 43, also teamed with Bryan Clark as KroniK.

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