Dot Net reader Keith Brigham attended a book signing featuring WWE Hall of Famer George "The Animal" Steele (a/k/a Jim Myers) in Troy, Michigan over the weekend and sent the following report.

The book signing took place very close to where George Steele was a teacher, football and wrestling coach at Madison High School. The signing started at 2:00 p.m. with about  people waiting for George. He was right on time and was met with a nice round of applause. He started out with a few stories about wresting as a masked wrestler named The Student in the Detroit Area. He wore a mask so his students would not find out.

The Student was discovered by Bruno Sammartino at a show at Cobo Hall. Bruno took him to wrestle him in Pittsburgh. As George was getting ready he was informed that they did not want a mask wrestler, they wanted him. While trying to come up with a name someone said that they were in the steel city so he should be Jim Steele. He liked Steele but not Jim. Someone said George and George Steele was born.

He also talked about being an agent with the WWE in charge of one Triple H. He talked about The Kliq curtain call. He spoke to Triple after and explained that with Scott Hall and Kevin Nash leaving and with Shawn as the champ, Triple H was going to take all the heat. Triple H asked what to do. George told him to keep his mouth shut and work hard. He did not tell him to marry the boss's daughter, but that was not a bad idea.

My favorite story was as he kept trying to hide from his students that he was living a double life. Some student would transfer from the east coast would bring in programs with his picture and confront him with it and he would just blow it off by saying you think I am that ugly? When cable came into the area, he went to his first football practice of the year. They were doing calisthenics when they went for a football stance all the player stuck out their green tongues. At that point, he knew it was over the next time the WWF was in town he took the team to meet all the wrestlers.

He then took questions from the people and was asked about a lot of wrestlers he worked with as well some matches. I found it was interesting that he hated WrestleMania 3 being in the corner of Ricky Steamboat because it was 15 miles from home and he was not able to wrestle. He also was not a fan of being apart of The Oddities, but he still gets a check quarterly, so not that bad.

Once the signing started, he took time to talk with every fan. He posed for pics with anybody who wanted them. Many people came late and were told after everyone who had a number they could line up and he would sign for everyone. When I left, he had been signing for over an hour and a half and still had at least another 100 - 150 left to go.

I most say George "The Animal" Steele was on of the nicest wrestlers I have ever met. Now I can't wait to read his book.

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