Honoring photographer & friend Robert Riddick, Jr.
Rob Riddick once told me that one of his favorite trips was to New Orleans in April of 1986 for the inaugural Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Cup tag team tournament. George Napolitano, through the assistance of Tony Schiavone in the Crockett office, made it possible for him to get credentials.
Ironically, it would be an event where he wasn't allowed to shoot many of the matches, since they limited the number of photographers that could shoot ringside, and those would be the guys like Napolitano, Bill Apter, and the photographers from Japan. But what made the trip so memorable for him was that he was able to get this shot.
Rob told me he was walking through one of the long hallways in the Super Dome before the evening session and noticed Jim Crockett and Bill Watts having a conversation in front of a set where they had the Crockett Cup trophy on display in front of a huge board with the tournament brackets. He worked up the nerve to interrupt them and ask them could he get a picture, sensing the brief opportunity to get them together in such a setting. Watts told him, "I don't have my jacket with me." Rob assured him that wasn't a problem in the slightest.
Without being asked, the two reached up and each held the trophy for the photograph which Rob told me was one of his all-time favorites given these two giants in wrestling together for that rather historic show.
As mentioned earlier, we are featuring some of Rob Riddick's favorite photographs to honor his memory as part of an ongoing series here on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway.