By DOUG LUNNEY – For SlamWrestling.net
WINNIPEG – Bob “Doc” Holliday, who died early on the morning of December 28th, was one of those colorful characters who made the Winnipeg Sun such a great place to work.
He had more years of experience in the business than anyone in the building and was always there to mentor so many of the young reporters.
He was a great friend as well and I always enjoyed listening to his stories. There were so many.
One of my favorites was one that he often had a hard time telling because he would break out in fits of laughter recounting it.
It was back in the days of the WWF and a match at the old Winnipeg Arena. Doc was tasked with getting an old guitar from a pawn shop so the Rhythm and Blues tag team of The Honky Tonk Man and Greg “The Hammer” Valentine could use it in their match against The Bushwhackers.
As the story goes, nobody took the time to score the back of the guitar to weaken it, which lessened the blow when it came down on somebody’s head.
Well, it was one of the Bushwhackers who brought the guitar down on the head of Valentine, which proves sometimes you are The Hammer and sometimes you’re the nail.
The way Doc told it, poor Valentine was absolutely clobbered and seeing stars, wobbling around the ring.
Doc had such an infectious laugh as he would spin the tale.
Then there was the time we sent Doc to one of the local hospitals to do the annual first New Year’s baby story.
Doc came back with this great story of how huge this baby was and how the parents were “calling him The Big Show.” Perfect considering Doc’s wrestling background. Just one problem. The entire story was about how huge this baby was, yet nowhere in the story did Doc include the baby’s height and weight. Poor Doc never lived that one down, but because he could give the ribbing as good as he could take it, he just laughed it off.
Doc was an excellent crime reporter, partly because he had so many trusted sources on both sides of the law.
But the funniest story stemmed from the time a cop tipped him off about members of the Winnipeg Police Service’s bomb squad, who went to get matching tattoos. Unfortunately, their chosen artist had trouble spelling and the tattoos read BOMB SQAUD.
I remember Doc calling one of the cops, who was too embarrassed to comment, but did confirm it.
Doc began the phone call by saying “Ya, I’m looking to contact a member of the Bomb Skwad,” then broke out chuckling, which ignited laughter throughout the newsroom.
Only Doc could get away with that one.
TOP PHOTO: Doc Holliday with his retirement Winnipeg Sun homepage. Facebook photo
BOB HOLLIDAY PHOTO GALLERY
[modula id=”136704″]
RELATED LINKS
- Dec. 28, 2022: Winnipeg WWE promoter ‘Doc’ Holliday dies
- Dec. 29, 2022: JBL on Doc Holliday: ‘Bob was special’
- Guest Column story archive
“Deadline” Doug Lunney is a former Winnipeg Sun City Editor and columnist, and is a long-time wrestling fan. He even ventured into the indy wrestling world himself, learning to wrestle and perform in a series of articles back in 2001. He now is more than happy to talk to you about your need for Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and RAM vehicles at Gauthier Chrysler in Winnipeg.
