Let's Remember Some Guys: WrestleMania Vol. III

Remembering Guys does not necessarily have to involve trading cards. It’s a pursuit that can be equally at home anywhere on earth—a crowded train or a vast and silent desert work just about equally well for these purposes. I am Remembering a Guy right now. It’s the beefy former Mets corner infield prospect Butch Huskey. Feels great!

But we do something different in these videos. When we step into the studio to do our Remembering, we bring with us more than all the Guys we carry. We enter that church bearing cards, and we trust those small and goofy keepsakes to guide our journey. By prompting or nudging or reintroducing, these cards open doors onto rooms long unvisited and strange places we have been before. Each is a key in a lock, and when the door to Remembering is open there is nothing to do but walk through.

And man, the Classic Sports History of WrestleMania Series II cards are really not that great! While they deliver when it comes to both Guys and Things To Remember, and while Dan McQuade did his thing with aplomb, the cards are a disaster. They’re photographed from weirdly far away—far enough away that a photo of an exultant Ultimate Warrior in the ring just looks like a huge naked guy getting cheered by fans—and strangely framed and tend to have more gape-mouthed audience members in them than could ever be wise, or necessary. A lot of times it’s hard to tell what’s even going on, let alone why all the faraway venous dudes are yelling at each other.

They are about as lame as cards can get and yet... they worked. They turned in the lock and Dan opened the door. What he found on the other side was remarkable—a wrestler named Mr. Hole-In-One whose gimmick was that he was a golfer, a justly loathed wrestling Elvis impersonator, the repossession of Macho Man Randy Savage’s hat, Andre the Giant becoming good by getting kicked in the face, and “The Booty Man.” Dan also cuts a powerful promo about not chewing gum. Even when it shouldn’t work, it works. Remembering is that powerful.