A correction from last week. Nick Bockwinkel does not have Alzheimer’s according to wife Darlene. She said that the family would like to keep private his condition. This one is heartbreaking because Bockwinkel was always such an intelligent, confident, insightful person who I learned a ton from watching perform and talking with over the years and a real credit to this industry. I remember him at King of Indies in 2001 watching Bryan Danielson matches with Bockwinkel and Red Bastien and how impressed they were of many of the wrestlers in that tournament, with neither having any negativity toward style changes or that there were only a few hundred people in the room. Bockwinkel and Bastien both gave standing ovations after Danielson’s matches with Brian Kendrick and Low Ki. Bockwinkel said that he would have been proud to be able to work with Danielson at any point in his career. He went out of his way to talk with him and tell him that. He has extensive knowledge of the industry like few because not only did he travel all over the world as a top star and world champion (Jerry Lawler, who saw and faced most of the major world champions of the past 40 years, will always tell you he felt Bockwinkel was the best of all of them), but he had knowledge dating back to the 40s and 50s. His father, Warren, was one of the top stars for decades, starting out in St. Louis at the same gym as Lou Thesz. In those days, the pro wrestling gym in St. Louis that the guys started out in was far more like an MMA gym today than a pro wrestling gym, in the sense it was almost all shoot training early on and working training came much later. Bockwinkel went to high school in San Francisco when his father was working for Joe Malciewicz with John Madden (Bockwinkel was a grade ahead) when both were local football stars. and Lou Thesz would always tell the story of Nick Bockwinkel as a baby peeing on him.