On July 31 at the Nashville Fairgrounds in Nashville, TN, 73-year-old professional wrestler Ric Flair, real name Richard Fliehr, will be making his return to the ring for one last match at an event titled Starrcast V.  One person who isn’t excited about the Nature Boy’s return to the ring is CBS radio anchor and part time news writer for WTOP  Christopher Cruise. Wrestling fans will remember Cruise as a play-by-play commentator and interviewer for World Championship Wrestling during the late 80’s and early 90’s. Cruise argues that a man Flair’s age , with serious health problems, should not be allowed to compete.

Prior to this summer’s upcoming event, Flair’s last wrestling match took place in Orlando, FL against a man called Sting at a TNA wrestling show in September 2011. Though he hasn’t wrestled in nearly 11 years, Flair has made many appearances on various wrestling programs, including WWE, in recent years. Reaction to the announcement of Flair’s upcoming match has been mixed.

In 2017, Flair was placed in a medically induced coma to undergo emergency heart surgery and have part of his bowel removed due to decades of alcohol abuse.  After a different heart surgery in 2019, Flair told TMZ, “This is the 4th time I’ve been in in 7 weeks,” and “They finally figured out what type of pacemaker to put on me. Which I found out just how important the operation of your heart is. You can’t breathe if your hearts not working.”

Prior to the announcement that Flair’s latest retirement match would be taking place in Tennessee, Cruise wrote to the Maryland State Athletic Commission, urging its members to deny Flair a license if he ever attempted to wrestle in the state. Cruise wrote, “I am writing as a citizen of Maryland to express my concern about the prospect of Mr. Fleihr being granted a license to wrestle in this state. I’m sure you understand how disastrous it would be for the Commission if he died in the ring during a performance for which you granted him a license.”  This wasn’t the first time Cruise has contacted the Maryland commission regarding wrestler safety.  After a 2019 match in Baltimore between AEW wrestlers Kenny Omega and Jon Moxley that involved broken glass and barbed wire, Cruise made headlines when he filed a formal complaint with the commission. The AEW wrestling promotion ended up receiving a $10,000 fine for the match, although Cruise states that the commission had a representative on-site at the event and said it had already been considering taking action before his complaint.

Earlier this week, Cruise shared an email he sent to the four commissioners of the Nashville Fairgrounds and the mayor of Nashville, urging them to cancel the match:
“The 73 year old professional wrestler Ric Flair, who has a pacemaker installed, will be having his last match at The Fairgrounds in late July.
Were you aware of this?
I am a former play-by-play announcer for World Championship Wrestling. I am deeply concerned about Mr. Flair’s health. I think you should be, too.
What if he dies in the ring (something he has reportedly professed he wants to do) during the match at The Fairgrounds? Can you imagine the lawsuits, the bad publicity? It would be impossible for you to explain. You would be pilloried nationally and internationally.
This is a bad idea all around.
Unfortunately, the Tennessee State Athletic Commission does not regulate professional wrestling, so you are the only ones who can stop this from happening at The Fairgrounds.
Please cancel this event. It isn’t worth the risk involved. If something happens to Mr. Flair during the event, The Fairgrounds will be held up to ridicule worldwide, justifiably so.”

At this point it appears that despite Cruise’s efforts, Flair’s retirement match will go on as scheduled in July. Information about the event can be found at www.starrcast.com/ric-flairs-last-match.  Besides his work for CBS and WTOP, Cruise teaches classes at the Oasis center in Bethesda and at The Graduate School USA in DC. He is a retired federal employee and a wrestling fan for over 50 years, having worked for both the WWF and WCW.

Feature photo courtesy of Ric Flair, The Nature Boy on Facebook.

Jackass 4.5 is now available to stream on Netflix. The film contains unreleased footage and outtakes from Jackass Forever, which grossed over 80 million when it was released in theaters earlier this year. Originally a 30-minute show on MTV, the Jackass franchise was created by MoCo natives Jeff Tremaine and Spike Jonze, along with actor Johnny Knoxville. Tremaine and Jonze were childhood friends, both growing up in MoCo and graduating from Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda in the mid 80s and are both executive producers of all the Jackass movies.

Tremaine is the former editor of the skating culture magazine Big Brother and a former art director of the influential BMXmagazine GO. He was also a former professional BMX rider. Tremaine has directed and produced all the movies in the Jackass franchise and was also the executive producer on the MTV reality series Rob and Big, and the executive producer of Rob Dyrdek’s Fantasy Factory, Ridiculousness, Nitro Circus, and Adult Swim’s Loiter Squad.

Jonze began his career as a teenager photographing BMX riders and skateboarders for Freestylin’ Magazineand Transworld Skateboarding, and co-founding the youth culture magazine Dirt. Moving into filmmaking, he began shooting street skateboarding films, including the influential Video Days (1991). Jonze co-founded the skateboard company Girl Skateboards in 1993 with riders Rick Howard and Mike Carroll. Jonze’s filmmaking style made him an in-demand director of music videos for much of the 1990s, resulting in collaborations with Sonic Youth, R.E.M., Beastie Boys, Fatboy Slim, Daft Punk, Weezer, Kanye West and more.

The early inspiration for Jackass came when Knoxville was an aspiring actor who pitched an idea to test self-defense equipment on himself. This captured the interest of Jeff Tremaine’s skateboarding magazine Big Brother. Some of the stunts were recorded and included in Big Brother‘s “Number Two” video. Eventually a demo of the stunt/prank television show was created and pitched to several networks. Saturday Night Live made an offer to make the show the subject of a recurring segment, which was rejected. A bidding war between Comedy Central and MTV, but the trio of Tremaine, Jonze, and Knoxville accepted a deal half hour show on MTV.

Jackass originally aired for three seasons on MTV between October 2000 and February 2002. The show debuted on October 1, 2000. After the second episode had aired MTV gained its highest Sunday ratings in its history, featuring a cast of nine carrying out stunts and pranks on each other or the public.

Chef Robert Irvine will be holding a meet and greet at the Aspen Hill Liquor and Wine (13661 Connecticut Ave) on Friday, May 13th from 2-5pm.  Irvine will be signing bottles of his Dry American Gin and Precision Distilled Vodka, which are now available at Montgomery County ABS stores. The event is free but registration is required.

Irvine is best know for his Food Network programs Dinner: Impossible and Worst Cooks in America, and is married to professional wrestler Gail Kim.
Per Eventbrite:
Meet and Greet Bottle Signing with Celebrity Chef Robert Irvine featuring Irvine’s Gin and Irvine’s Vodka!
Love Chef Irvine? Want to have a bottle of his new Gin or Vodka signed personally by him?
Now’s your chance!

Dave Chappelle will be performing two stand up comedy shows at Maryland Live! Casino & Hotel (7002 Arundel Mills Cir Ste 7777, Hanover, MD) on June 18 and 19 as part of the casino’s ten year anniversary celebration.  The shows will take place in The HALL, Maryland Live! Casino’s 4,800 seat venue. Tickets go on sale Friday, April 29, and start at $89. Dave Chapelle grew up in Silver Spring, attending Woodlin Elementary School before attending Duke Ellington School of the Arts in DC.

According to the AXS ticket website,  “this is a phone-free show. No photos, video or audio recording devices allowed. Upon arrival at The Hall, all phones and other photo or video-capturing devices will be secured in a Yondr pouch that will be unlocked at the end of the show. You keep your pouch-secured phone with you during the show and, if needed, can unlock your phone at any time in a designated Yondr Phone Zone located outside the venue.”

For more go to Dave’s website and follow Dave on Twitter and Instagram .

Dave Chapelle and Stephen Colbert talking about where they lived in MoCo. pic.twitter.com/lziwL9MBeJ

— The MoCoShow (MCS) (@TheMoCoShow) October 16, 2017

Per Maryland Live:
Dave Chappelle is an American comedian, screenwriter, television and film producer, and actor. Recognized as one of the greatest comedians of all time, Chappelle was awarded the prestigious Mark Twain Prize for American Humor from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 2019. Chappelle’s work in stand-up comedy, writing, producing, and acting has earned him more than 30 nominations and awards in television and film for projects that include his groundbreaking sketch comedy television series, Chappelle’s Show, guest appearances on Saturday Night Live, and his comedy specials, which have collectively earned five Emmy Awards. In audio content, Chappelle has won the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album three years in a row, 2018 through 2020. In 2017, Netflix cited Dave Chappelle: Collection 1 as the most-viewed comedy special ever on their network.

 

 

On Sunday night, WWE wrestler Omos will face off against Bobby Lashley at WrestleMania 38 in Dallas, TX. But, did you know that he attended high school in Rockville? The 7’3, 335 Nigerian-born Jordan Omogbehin moved to America with his family and attended school/played basketball at Montrose Christian for the 2008/2009 and 2009/2010 school years. He went on to attend and play for the University of South Florida before moving back to Maryland and attending/playing for Morgan State University. His college basketball career spanned from 2012 to 2015.

Omogbehin signed with WWE in October 2018, and made his in-ring debut at last year’s WrestleMania 37 in Tampa, FL. Omos won’t have a shortage of people to talk MoCo with at WrestleMania. Shane McMahon, the son of WWE chairman and owner Vince McMahon, was born in Gaithersburg. The McMahons (Vince, his wife Linda, and Shane) even lived in Montgomery Village for about a decade, and the home they owned was recently sold.

Below you’ll see Omos’ opponent for this Sunday, former WWE champion Bobby Lashley, giving the MoCoShow a shoutout.

@themocoshow

Bobby Lashley defeats Brock Lesnar for the WWE Heavyweight Championship at the 2022 Royal Rumble

♬ original sound – themocoshow

 

 

Daytime talk show Maury will be coming to an end this September after a thirty-plus year run, with host and MoCo native Maury Povich set to retire at the end of this season, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Povich was a local reporter before gaining national fame as the host of A Current Affair. The Maury Povich Show began airing in syndication in 1991 and was rebranded simply as “Maury” in 1998.

The controversial program, routinely compared to Jerry Springer, is often criticized for exploiting its guests and their misfortunes for the viewer’s entertainment. The show’s most popular segment features Povich reading DNA paternity results in front of his studio audience. Maury Povich graduated from Landon in Bethesda. His wife, journalist Connie Chung, graduated from Blair in Silver Spring.⁣ His father, Shirley Povich, was a sportswriter at The Washington Post. Maury was born and raised in the area and graduated from the Landon School (Bethesda) in 1957.⁣
⁣
Connie Chung has been an anchor and reporter for ABC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, and NBC. In 1993 she became the first Asian-American and second woman to co-anchor a major network’s national news weekday broadcast.⁣ Chung graduated from Blair High School in 1964, where she was even named Homecoming Queen.

Over the years we have highlighted hundreds of celebrities with ties to Montgomery County, and we’ll continue to do so in the years to come. Today, however, we’re going to look at just five of many celebrities that you may not know have ties to neighboring Prince George’s County.

Martin Lawrence (Actor/Comedian)

Martin Lawrence came to fame during the 1990s, establishing a Hollywood career as a leading actor. He got his start playing Maurice Warfield in What’s Happening Now!! (1987–1988) and later had his breakout starring role in the Fox television sitcom Martin. He has also the Bad Boys franchise, and House Party, Boomerang, Wild Hogs, Nothing to Lose, Blue Streak, Life, Big Momma’s House, A Thin Line Between Love and Hate, and more.

Lawrence was born in Germany where his father was serving in the U.S. military. When he was seven, his father left the military and the family moved from West Germany back to the United States, settling in Landover in Prince George’s County. During his teen years he attended Eleanor Roosevelt High School and Friendly High School. He lived in Apple Grove.

Kathie Lee Gifford (Television Personality)

Kathie Lee Gifford is perhaps best known for her 15-year run (1985–2000) on the talk show Live! with Regis and Kathie Lee, which she co-hosted with Regis Philbin, She is also known for her 11-year run with Hoda Kotb, on the fourth hour of NBC’s Today show (2008–2019). She has received 11 Daytime Emmy nominations and won her first Daytime Emmy in 2010 as part of the Today team.

Gifford grew up in Bowie, Maryland, and attended Bowie High School.

Mya (Singer/Actress)

Mya Marie Harrison began her career as a VJ and dance posse member on BET’s Teen Summit. She has recorded several albums and has achieved success on the billboard charts with her music. In addition to a music career, Harrison crossed over into acting and made her feature-film debut in 1999’s thriller In Too Deep starring LL Cool J and Omar Epps. She continued to appear in supporting roles in films such as Chicago (2002), Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights (2004), Shall We Dance? (2004), and Cursed (2005).

Mya graduated from Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Greenbelt at the age of 16, and then took a few classes at the University of Maryland, College Park, but her primary focus was on the recording studio.

Jim Henson (Puppeteer/Animator)

Jim Henson achieved worldwide notice as the creator of The Muppets characters and Fraggle Rock. In 1969, Henson joined the children’s educational television program Sesame Street (1969–present) where he helped to develop Muppet characters for the series. He and his creative team also appeared on the first season of the sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live (1975–present). He produced The Muppet Show (1976–1981) during this period. He earned fame for his characters, particularly Kermit the Frog, Rowlf the Dog and Ernie.

Henson was born in Mississippi, but moved to University Park in Prince George’s County with his family when he was a child. He graduated form Northwestern High School and later attended the University of Maryland in College Park.

Taraji P. Henson (Actress)

Taraji P. Henson began her Hollywood career in guest roles on several television shows before making her breakthrough in Baby Boy (2001). She has since received praise for her performances in Hustle & Flow (2005), The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), Date Night, the remake of The Karate Kid, Think Like a Man (and the sequel), Hidden Figures, TV’s Empire, and a lot more. In 2016, Time named Henson one of the 100 most influential people in the world. That year, she released a New York Times best selling autobiography titled Around the Way Girl.

Though she was born in Southeast D.C., she grew up in Prince George’s County and graduated from Oxon Hill High School in 1988, where she was homecoming queen.

JC Chasez (Singer)

JC Chasez started out his career as a cast member on The Mickey Mouse Club before rising to stardom with *NSYNC. JC Chasez and Justin Timberlake were the two lead singers of what would become the popular boy band *NSYNC. The group was formed in 1995 and became popular in Europe in 1996. In 1998, the band released its debut album *NSYNC which sold 11 million copies and became very popular in the United States. The group released its second studio album No Strings Attached in 2000, which became the fastest-selling album of all time, selling 2.4 million copies in the first week (the record has since been broken).

Chasez grew up in Bowie and attended the former Robert Goddard Middle School and then Bowie High School.

Sugar Ray Leonard (Boxer)

Sugar Ray Leonard is often regarded as one of the greatest boxers of all time, he competed between 1977 and 1997, winning world titles in five weight divisions; the lineal championship in three weight divisions;  as well as the undisputed welterweight title. Leonard was part of “The Four Kings”, a group of boxers who all fought each other throughout the 1980s, consisting of Leonard, Roberto Durán, Thomas Hearns, and Marvin Hagler

Leonard was born in North Carolina, but moved to the area with his family when he was three. They settled permanently in Palmer Park, Maryland when he was ten. His father worked as a supermarket night manager and his mother was a nurse. He attended Parkdale High School.

 

ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt, a MoCo native who graduated from Sherwood High School, announced Monday that he’d miss the evening’s edition of SportsCenter after dealing with a “bit of a medical scare.”

Van Pelt said he suffered a supraventricular tachycardia (SVT), a rapid heartbeat that develops when the normal electrical impulses of the heart are disrupted.

Van Pelt was taken to Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, MD, and is now home resting.

Van Pelt was listed as the most famous person to graduate from Sherwood High School in a 2017 MoCoShow article.

Bummed to miss one of my favorite shows of the year, but happy to be ok and home after a bit of a medical scare this afternoon. Thanks to @SuburbanHosp @CJPVFD for looking after me.

Heart got a little out of whack, (SVT) which was pretty spooky, but fine now.

— Scott Van Pelt (@notthefakeSVP) January 11, 2022

According to a report published on Monday by the British Medical Journal, Gaithersburg rapper Logic’s 2017 song 1-800-273-8255 may have prevented hundreds of suicides. The song title is the phone number for the American National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.

The BMJ tracked date from 34 days following three specific events, the release of the song in 2017, the MTV Video Awards in 2017, and the 2018 Grammy’s, and found the Suicide Prevention Lifeline received an excess of 9915 calls, an increase of 6.9% over the expected number. The report states, “a corresponding model for suicides indicated a reduction over the same period of 245 suicides (95% confidence interval 36 to 453) or 5.5% (95% confidence interval 0.8% to 10.1%, P=0.02) below the expected number of suicides.”

“1-800-273-8255” peaked at number 3 on the US Billboard Hot 100.

Logic was born and raised in the West Deer Park neighborhood of Gaithersburg. Logic attended Gaithersburg High School and his ties to the area are still strong with a lot of his family still living in MoCo.

He also worked at Joe’s Crab Shack in Rio and performed there a few times when he started off!

​

 

 

RM of BTS Visits MoCo’s Glenstone Museum   

Recently, rapper RM visited Glenstone Museum in Potomac while on a trip to the DC area. He posted two different sets of photos from his visit on Instagram. One post includes the caption “돌의 마을.. 세라가 잘 어울렸다,” which roughly means “The village of stone… Serra built it well,” referring to sculptures by artist Richard Serra. 

27 year old RM is one of the founding members and the leader of South Korean boy band BTS. The band has been active since 2013 and currently has 7 members: RM, Jin, SUGA, j-hope, Jimin, V, and Jung Kook. BTS has won numerous awards internationally and have been one of the few groups to earn four US number one albums in less than two years (a distinction also held by The Beatles). Some of their singles include songs “Butter,” “Mic Drop,” “Savage Love,” and “Permission to Dance.” 

Glenstone is an art museum based in Potomac. The museum displays exhibits of contemporary and modern art from post-WWII artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Louise Bourgeois, Alexander Calder, Andy Goldsworthy, Jeff Koons, Richard Serra, and more. A large portion of the museum’s art and architecture can be viewed through an outdoor walking tour experience, spread out throughout the 300 acre property. 

The museum is free to visit, although tickets are required for entry. Glenstone offers a guaranteed entry (no ticket required) program for students, active military personnel, museum professionals, and Ride On Bus passengers. Glenstone also partners with MCPS to offer free field trips for students. All visitors must be over age 12. 

You can learn more about Glenstone by checking out their website. 

Featured photos courtesy of @rkive on Instagram. 

Special thanks to Christine Muhn for help with translating RM’s caption.

By Michelle Katz @pike.and.rozay

Local newscaster Wendy Rieger has announced her retirement from WRC-TV after 33 years.  NBC 4 will be paying tribute to Wendy and her career on its newscasts today, December 17th.

Last Friday, Rieger said the contract and her retirement were negotiated two years ago and that she looks forward to starting the next stage in her life.  This past June Rieger had surgery to remove a brain tumor and has since completed radiation and chemotherapy.

Rieger began working at NBC Washington in 1988 as a general assignment reporter and began anchoring the weekend evening newscasts in 1996, before becoming the 5 p.m. anchor in 2001.

Prior to NBC4, Rieger worked for WMAL, NPR, WTOP and CNN, according to WTOP.

Watch the on-air announcement below:

Bittersweet news about Wendy Rieger. Our dear, sage anchor announced her retirement from News4 after 33 years. She shares why she’s chosen to write her next chapter. pic.twitter.com/Ui81mVoXyI

— NBC4 Washington (@nbcwashington) December 10, 2021

In June,