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"Baby Doll" Nickla Roberts Talks About Her Family History In The Business

Posted: Nov 8th 2012 By: CMBurnham

Former WCCW and Jim Crockett valet ?The Perfect 10? Baby Doll Nickla Roberts joined Kayfabe Wrestling Radio Tuesday Night. In a nearly 20 minute interview, she talked about her family history with professional wrestling in Texas, how she personally got into the business, if she had any idea the WCCW was becoming a big deal, if Tully Blanchard or Gino Hernandez was more fun to be at ringside with, if Gino could have been the heir apparent to Ric Flair or been big outside of Texas, was there ever a fear of trying to make it out of town being so hated, how it was being a female in the territory days, her reaction on the CM Punk/fan incident, the epic Steel Cage ?I Quit? match from Starrcade ?85 between Blanchard and Magnum TA, and more.

Her family history in the wrestling business: ?Well, both of my parents were professional wrestlers. My dad had a promotion, actually, out in west Texas; my dad promoted Lubbock while Tully?s daddy promoted San Antonio. My dad promoted Lubbock for well over 20 years; we actually, Lubbock was part of the Amarillo territory. We?d use some of the San Antonio guys a little bit when I was more like in high school but when I was growing up, we used the guys from Amarillo: the Funks (Terry and Dory), (Ted) DiBiase, (Dick) Murdock came in, Dusty Rhodes came in. I mean, for about 15 years, everybody came through the cause there were territories and you would work territories for about 6 months to a year and then you?d pack up and go somewhere else. So, we had everybody through there, so I grew up seeing wrestling every week on Wednesday night and then, on the summertime, cause we had school and didn?t get to go to the matches during school time, but we got to go a couple of time during the summertime when we were little kids and then on Saturday afternoon, I got to see my dad promote our shows for every week; so my dad was on TV every week. And then, whenever TBS came on, that was the magic I guess to see because this was back in the day before everyone had cable; there were grids set up in towns, where every month you could call in and find out if cable was available for your house and I was calling up every month to see when I could get cable because I wanted to see WTBS, I wanted to see Georgia Championship Wrestling on the Superstation on every Saturday night at 5:00 and I made it my weekends to watch wrestling.?

How she got into involved in the business: ?I had a chance; I guess we were using the Von Erichs at the time. I was going to school full time; I was studying to be a paramedic, I was working full time for my dad and had another full-time job and I heard my parents talking that they were looking for a girl for Gino Hernandez. At the time, I had a huge crush on Gino; I had a crush on Gino since I was 14 or 1, and I got the wild idea to call the Dallas office and see if maybe they could use me. And the phone call was made at the right time and the right place. David Manning answered the phone call and they were just about to go into a meeting about some upcoming shows and it was like perfect timing; it was like the stars had aligned and it was kismet and this was meant to be. I got a phone call about 20 minutes later that said ?Yes, we can use you. We love the idea. We want to get started on this immediately; And who?s gonna tell your Daddy?? So, I had to sit down and tell my parents that I was going to quit school and move to Dallas and chase after professional wrestlers, which didn?t really go over too well, but it worked out very well for the time being; I had a couple of good years, I had a good run at it and at the time I met Sam (Houston), fell in love and had a couple of kids and got out, got back in and here I am now.?

Who was more fun to be out at ringside with: Tully Blanchard or Gino Hernandez- ?I mean, Tully and I just from the get go, I mean when you look at the first tape we did, like with Mike Davis when we did, like the first TV and videos we did; when I first came off the plane and we rode off in the limousine; Tully and I just, we just had a natural chemistry. To this day, I don?t think that we really ever had harsh words or yelled and screamed at each other; I mean it?s almost like we?ve had a perfect relationship. There?s been a respect since the start; I?ve learned so much from him and that was the whole key to that. I was brought in as an equal to him, which had never even been done before and Tully fought for me on this; was that, whatever happened in the match, it happened to all of us. No one had more than the other one and if you look at it, not one of us did more than the other. If we did something, like I handed something to Tully or ? it was all so magical; it was perfect and it all just worked so well for the two years I was there. These guys were so smart. You had Dusty?s genius of putting all these guys together, cause if you look at the mass of talent that Dusty brought in; that we were running two or three towns a night, every night, it was just crazy. We had like an A Team and a B Team and a C Team, but when you look at the cards, neither card was better than the other; people were getting amazing wrestling action in this time. And with Tully and I, it was just people hated us and it was cool to be driving down the road from Atlanta to Charlotte and people would pass us and we?d pass them and we would get recognized in our car, going 70 miles an hour down the road and Tully was like that had never happened to him before. He said ?This is magic baby, this is magic. We?re gonna make some money so get ready for the ride.? I still remember that to this day. People were pointing at us and shaking their fists at us because they hate us and we?re just driving down the road. It was crazy, it was really fun and I was very lucky to be where I was at.?

Her reaction to the CM Punk Fan Incident: ?Number one: you never go out into the crowd, never. I mean, you?re fair game. That?s the way I look at it; Punk went up into the audience and he?s their number one heel. That?s pretty much throwing the peasants to the lions; you know what I?m saying? I can?t say that the fan was wrong, because we?ve got them all hyped up and yea, yea, yea. He wasn?t doing anything except for hitting him; it wasn?t like he was getting punched or anything, he just got a flat hand to the head. Punk had no reason to hit the guy, I mean seriously. Punk went up into the audience. Number one, where was the security; that was my main beef with it, because if security was with him, if he had two or three guys around him and followed him up there to back people off so they couldn?t touch him, then it wouldn?t have happened. So my deal is, whosever big idea it was to have Punk go up into the audience; that was stupid. If it was Punk?s idea, he got what he deserves because you never go out in the audience. Number two, where was security? If those two questions got answered then I think we?ve figured out what it was but going to and from the ring, I was never went out and looked for a fight. You know? I was going out to do my job. Punk went out and up into the audience and you never ever, ever; that was one thing we were always taught was never go out there because you?re asking to get hurt but if someone came over the guard rail or came into the ring, then that?s our territory; you asked for what you got. It?s kind of like the same thing, if a fan comes over the guard rail, you?re ours; same thing if we go over the guard rail, we?re asking for whatever we get.

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