Missed opportunities

[John Matrix]

Was rooting around in the loft over the weekend and uncovered some old press clippings i've kept from my time playing sports.

I was fortunate enough to befriend the editor of one of our local publications and as a result, got to attend several gigs in return for a review for the entertainment pages.  Over the years I got to see HIM, Tim Vine, and went to Knebworth the year it was headlined by Robbie Williams (not bad for a totally unqualified chancer).

The one that got away however, back in 2004, I got a call out of the blue asking if I wanted to interview the Ultimate Warrior ahead of the release of Showdown: Legends of Wrestling

I gather it would have only have been a telephone conference call sort of thing, but none the less, I was absolutely gutted to miss out on the opportunity to talk to simply THE guy as far as I was concerned who got me into, and kept me watching wrestling growing up.  I joined this board in 2005 incidentally, so this was before I had any clue what a lunatic the man had gone on to become over the years, but still... how often can you say that a regular bloke off the street gets to interview one of the most well known figures in the game. 

Alas I only got 24hrs notice and couldn't sack off the day job, so it wasn't to be.

Anyone else got any near misses that haunt you to this very day?

 

[Kaz Hayashi]

Indeed.

As mentioned in another thread I was in a band for several years, we had a low key record deal, tours, album etc. Anyway we had an opportunity to sign a deal with Nike. I can’t remember the full details now but basically we’d supply music for a number of their football tournaments and was told it would be pretty lucrative with the option of potentially becoming in house.

Problem was a lot of our content was left wing politics with a pop at corporate business. 20 something left wing mindset and in fairness I still hold similar views to this day. Due to which we turned it down because you know, it would have been a Soul wrencher at the time.

While there’s an internal dispute about whether it was the right thing to do or not, morally the right decision.. it was still a missed opportunity 

[BomberPat]

Something along similar lines, actually.

I used to do little bits of music journalism - early on I wanted to pursue it as a career, but soon realised it wasn't for me; my location meant it was difficult to get to many gigs, and gig reviews were the bulk of the job, and I hated conducting interviews by phone or Skype.

While writing for subba-cultcha, I got a phone call from the mate who got me that gig, saying they were looking for someone to interview Stone Cold Steve Austin to promote a straight-to-DVD movie called The Package. Unfortunately, he cancelled at the last minute, and I just ended up having to write a review instead.

 

Another more recent one was to do with CIWW, the wrestling promotion I work for. We've done a lot of work with Ophidian The Cobra over the past few years, as one of the main "imports" that we regularly use. He did a European tour earlier this year, and popped over to see us, despite us not being in a position to book him at the time - he'd already accepted a booking for the day of our only show that fell during that time.

The night before he's due to come over, he messages the boss, saying, "Is it ok if I bring Melina?"

The boss doesn't know who he means, assumes it's just some random he's picked up in Wolverhampton over the weekend, asks "who's Melina?", to which Ophidian responds, "4 time WWE Womens Champion Melina".

It turns out that she was booked for a UK tour, but injured her knee on the first night, so cancelled most of her bookings, but was still in the country. She went out drinking with Ophidian, who explained that he was coming over to Jersey for a few days, and raved about how much he loves the place, said she should go. She agreed, and was prepared to pay her own way to get here.

At the time, we had a comedy superhero stable, featuring The Invisible Man, a gimmick we'd used a handful of times, always alluding that there was some great mystery as to the real identity of The Invisible Man. We decided that we would book them in a match, have the lights go out, and come back on with Melina stood in The Invisible Man's place. That was the only appearance she was ever going to make for us.

Sadly she had second thoughts about coming over, before we even had chance to explain the proposed angle to her.

[Tommy!]

Only the time I could have met Mr. T at the mall. The entire day, I kept saying, "I'll go a little later, I'll go a little later." And when I got there, they told me he just left. And when I asked the mall guy if he'll ever come back again, he said he didn't know. I'm never going to let something like that happen again!

[WyattSheepMask]

Me and a friend of mine had an interview scheduled with Chris Jericho when Fozzy were The Astoria in London (which sadly isn't there anymore) which was going to be in a fanzine we were involved with at the time.

We get to the venue at the time that been arranged, they check our names and we get into the the venue in the early afternoon. I've been to fuck knows how many gigs over the years, but it's great to be in a place hours before the shows happening when bands are sound checking, the lights are getting tested etc. Anyway, about 15 minutes go by and the rep for the band comes over and says "are you guys ready?", "yeah sure" we say and off we go backstage and we're introduced to Frank (Fontsere, the drummer). We shake hands, thinking that we're just being introduced as he happened to be there. Then it clicked...Jericho isn't there, and are told "you've got 10minutes".

"woah, wait a minute, we're here to interview Chris Jericho" says my friend as Frank's smile drops like a kid who no-one wants to play with. Rep says "he isn't here, he's at Forbidden 'World' (Planet, comic shop), you'll have to do it with Frank".

Luckily I was able to cobble something resembling an interview together by asking a bunch of Stuck Mojo/Sick Speed questions, both of which were projects that he had done with Rich Ward who is also in Fozzy, none of which we could use for a wrestling fanzine but seen as we were there we might as well do something

[Sergio Mendacious]

There's so many famous people that I admire whom I haven't gone up to and said thanks for everything you do. I think the most painful time was when I saw Lofty from It Ain't Half Hot Mum in the shopping center, and I didn't buy a tape.

[Harry Wiseau]

6 hours ago, Sergio Mendacious said:

There's so many famous people that I admire whom I haven't gone up to and said thanks for everything you do. I think the most painful time was when I saw Lofty from It Ain't Half Hot Mum in the shopping center, and I didn't buy a tape.

Don Estelle, at the Octagon in Burton on Trent? If that's where you saw him you should have gone back the next weekend he'd have probably been there, he was singing in there outside Greggs for most of the 90s. 

[rubbafish]

I was a writer for Drowned in Sound for a good number of years when it started and I had a chance to interview Sarah Nixey, lead singer of Black Box Recorder and I passed it on to a friend to do it as I totally bottled it having had a crush on her for a good number of years and I probably would have thrown up if Luke Haines has come in to the room! Only time though (Terrorvision and Reel Big Fish were great guys as an aside!)