Special To The Examiner
She was running out of time. Longtime Bay Area wrestling fan and BTW supporter Alice Cooper had sadly just learned her breast and liver cancer recurred with a vengeance. She had already been through the pain and agony of chemo and radiation, but still appeared at BTW's show in Newark several months ago for just a few minutes to meet with her many friends. She had thought she had KO'd the cancer. This column is devoted to a woman personifying guts and dignity in the face of death.
Rock star Alice Cooper was actually a fan of hers and the creative celebrity dessert company she ran with longtime friend and partner Luna Nyx, who had taken great care of her during her fight with cancer. Many wrestlers, sports stars and entertainers had them cater events. One of her main pleasures -- and more recently a coping mechanism from declining health at such a young age -- was continuing to watch pro wrestling. On Jan. 3, after wrestling on the terrific WWE return to the Cow Palace, Matt Hardy got word from BTW promoter Kirk White that Alice had just learned of the recurrence and was given only two weeks to live. He risked missing his flight to Anchorage, Alaska, for a mandatory show and later spent some three hours with her, trying to take her mind off everything. She had been in and out of consciousness, the pain exhausting, and just didn't have the energy to make the show. He almost didn't make WWE's show the next night, but I'm sure WWE would have understood. It's the fans that are most important.
Matt couldn't get a boo out of the Cow Palace crowd that night, even though he was the heel against Chuck Palumbo. The huge crowd lustily cheered his every move. I think they'll cheer "Version 1" even more once they know what he did later that night to make the world a better place.
Matt cheered Alice up and she was ecstatic with his visit from 2 a.m. to 5 a.m. She soon lapsed back into unconsciousness, dying peacefully just two days later. Alice and Luna were great friends and gentle souls.
Rob Van Dam has an autograph show for Kirk at Southland Mall in Hayward on Saturday, several hours after Alice's noon memorial at Fremont's Chapel of the Angels, 40842 Fremont Blvd. Roddy Piper got choked up when I told him this and said his patented "may Alice be in heaven a half-hour before the devil knows she's gone."
A new wrestling promotion (MCW) has its debut show Feb. 1 at Oakland's Moose Lodge. It will attempt to spotlight the other local groups and use its stars to improve relations with everyone in a neutral area where no one currently promotes. Icebox and Tony Fury are MCW's top stars who have worked for other groups, along with Boyce Legrand, Kuami and Ricky Thompson, who was APW's and Iron's very first trainer. Rick is a local legend who wrestled for Roy Shire since the early 1970s and I'm sure the folks at Ricky's Sports Bar will be there supporting him. San Leandro-based Iron's top talent highlights MCW's debut card with Mike Modest-Donovan Morgan reprising their Noah-Japan feud with Bison Smith-Max Justice.
Local WWE promoter Will McCoy deserves credit for his many years promoting Bay Area events. Will's a great guy, a longtime fan of all Bay Area sports and works tirelessly on a daily basis for WWE, which had Rock finally return to an Anaheim card to do the spin-a-roonie with Booker T.
Tommy Maddox, the XFL's top star and hero for the Pittsburgh Steelers' comeback playoff win over Cleveland, said: "I'm still a huge WWE fan, although Vince doesn't write my checks anymore." Maddox overcame a concussion and spinal injury last month that nearly left him paralyzed. Matt and Maddox, you're my kinda guys.
Alice, Godspeed.
E-mail: mlano@examiner.com
