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Ernie Santilli is an American writer, musician and performer better known under the pen name of Stately Wayne Manor. [1] He is best known for his participation in professional wrestling as the longtime magazine columnist for Power Slam and Wrestling World.
Self-taught, Manor became competent in songwriting, synthesizer, drum set and related percussion instruments, harmonica, vocals and electric bass. He performed in a public demonstration with synthesizer inventor Dr. Robert Moog. He also wrote three articles for Modern Drummer magazine.
Stately is one of the "Sigma Kids," a group of eleven (among dozens) of David Bowie devotees who kept a ten-day vigil outside the studio and band's hotel during the recording of Young Americans rewarded afterwards with an exclusive listening party hosted by Bowie, as documented in Rolling Stone magazine. In 2007, a special CD/DVD re-release of the album features Manor visible in four photos in the enclosed booklet. Photos from the event also appear in books about Bowie and the original supermodel, Gia, as well as on the SWM website ‘Photos’ archive. [2] The May 2014 issue of Britain's Mojo magazine, in an article chronicling the YA sessions, featured two photos from said booklet, including a never-before-released color version of one, capturing Stately in the foreground. The same photo ran in the September 2016 editing of Wax Poetics magazine. Inspired by the Sigma experience, Manor assembled a short-lived band, recruiting bassist Gail Ann Dorsey.
In the latter half of the Seventies, Stately became deeply immersed in the emerging punk rock music scene. He was a regular and occasional performer at Philadelphia's Hot Club and frequented NYC venues such as CBGB and Max's Kansas City, regularly sleeping on the couch of future recording-engineer superstar Bob Clearmountain while in New York. Manor was also slated to drum behind former Sex Pistol Sid Vicious on the Philly date of the latter's aborted "solo tour." Additionally, he wrote the liner notes for the aborted Cheetah Chrome debut solo album on Polish Records. (Stately did receive a 'Thank You' on that label's release "Siren" by Ronnie Spector.)
Manor later regained interest in a childhood hobby, professional wrestling, and was particularly drawn towards the "heel" (‘bad guy’) characters.
Manor eventually broke into the sport as a feature writer in 1984 and, in 1986, as a pro-heel columnist for Wrestling World magazine. Manor expanded into color commentating, managing grapplers, performing in-ring skits and ghostwriting wisecracks for the performers. Manor was a color commentator for the ECW promotion (in their pre-Extreme days). He is also the first American magazine writer to give international exposure to Sabu, Rey Misterio, Sean Waltman, John Cena, Sandman and Victoria/Tara (Lisa Marie Varon).
During 1993, in the midst of his 17-year Wrestling World’ employment, Manor debuted a second villain-praising column in the British Power Slam . The combined consecutive tenures makes Manor the longest-running magazine columnist in pro wrestling history.
Stately takes on the general public via ‘’On Manor's Mind’’ rants for the alternative set, and rages about inane celebrities in his SNAPS—Suckas Needing A Pimp Slap—Of The Month column.
A lifelong fan of obscure so-bad-they're-good films, Stately also authors ‘’Manor On Movies’’, an affectionate homage to the genre, and one of the earliest columns of its kind still regularly published. It is available in hard copy and on a few websites besides its own, e.g. The Spinning Image. [3] His long-term side project is a book dedicated to the horror/sci-fi end of what Manor has dubbed "junkfilms."
Other journals that have carried Stately's work, under the Manor moniker or otherwise, include Inside Karate, Video Review, People (Australia), Filmfax, Tuber’s Voice (the originators of the term ‘couch potato’), Comic Release, Carbon 14, and Brutarian, to name a few. In addition, he has repeatedly scored ‘Dishonorable Mention’ in the annual international Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, where the challenge is to compose the worst possible opening line for a novel.
In character, Manor has guested on radio programs throughout the US and Canada, including morning drive time shows in Philadelphia and New York City.
Manor was once booked on Sneak Previews Goes Video—an Eighties reworking of the popular movie-review program—to discuss wrestling videos, but the segment was red-lighted by PBS executives who considered the subject matter "too lowbrow."
Stately can be heard providing color commentary on two volumes from the Pro Wrestling From Japan series, Bam Bam Bigelow And Friends, and Bruiser Brody Memorial, both featuring the American stars as they toured with the New Japan Pro-Wrestling promotion in the late Eighties. A few tapes of his work with primordial ECW were briefly marketed, as well. In July 2019 WWE Network made some of these extremely early ECW matches available in their Hidden Gems section.
Scott Levy is an American professional wrestler better known by his ring name, Raven. He is best known for his appearances with professional wrestling promotions Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), World Championship Wrestling (WCW), World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment (WWF/E) and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA). Widely recognized as "one of the best talkers in wrestling", Raven is known for his "psychological heel tactics" and grunge-inspired gimmick. His feud with The Sandman in the mid-1990s has been described as "one of the most emotional rivalries in professional wrestling's history".
Paul Heyman is an American professional wrestling manager, former promoter, and executive. He is currently signed to WWE, where he appears on the SmackDown brand as the manager of The Bloodline. In WWE, Heyman has managed or has served as manager for a record six world champions. Critics have praised his managing and promo skills. He has also competed sporadically in matches, usually as a comedic foil, including in the main event of the 2002 Rebellion event.
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James Reiher Snuka was a Fijian and American professional wrestler, better known by the ring name Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka.
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Brian Knighton, better known by the ring name Axl Rotten, was an American professional wrestler. In the early 1990s, he was a part of the tag team The Bad Breed with Ian Rotten. He had a short stint with World Championship Wrestling in 1991, and was better known for his matches in Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) from 1993 to 1999.
William Fritz Afflis Jr. was an American professional wrestler, promoter, and National Football League player, better known by his ring name, Dick the Bruiser. During his NFL days he played four seasons with the Green Bay Packers. In addition to that he was also hugely successful in professional wrestling, being a sixteen-time world champion, having held the AWA World Heavyweight Championship once, the WWA World Heavyweight Championship thirteen times, the World Heavyweight Championship once, and the WWA World Heavyweight Championship once. He also excelled at tag-team wrestling, having won 20 tag team championships, having held the AWA tag team championship five times and the WWA tag team championship a record 15 times in his career. Eleven of these championships were won alongside his long-time tag-team partner Crusher Lisowski.
Power Slam was an independent non-kayfabe magazine published in the United Kingdom from 1991–2014 by SW Publishing, with co-founders Findlay Martin and former WCW Magazine owner Colin Bowman. Power Slam was Europe's best-selling pro wrestling publication.
Mike Halac was an American professional wrestler. He was best known for his appearances with the World Wrestling Federation in the mid-1990s under the ring name Mantaur, and briefly as Tank.
Stanley Weston was an American publisher, sportswriter, artist and photographer. He promoted the sport of boxing and professional wrestling throughout his career. Weston started Pro Wrestling Illustrated, a professional wrestling magazine, as well as 20 other magazines over his career. Weston was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2006.
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The St. Louis Wrestling Hall of Fame is a professional wrestling hall of fame in St. Louis, United States. After several years of debating the idea of creating the Hall of Fame, former owner and promoter of the St. Louis Wrestling Club Larry Matysik opened it in 2007. He was joined in this effort by SBAC Member Tony Casta, sports journalist Keith Schildroth, collector Mitch Hartsey, and longtime fan Nick Ridenour. Although these directors oversee the selection process, the St. Louis Wrestling Hall of Fame is unique because it is the only wrestling hall of fame that allows fans to vote for potential inductees.
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Dave Scherer is an American sports writer and journalist, best known for writing about professional wrestling for the ECW Magazine, New York Daily News, World of Wrestling Magazine, 1Wrestling.com and founding the newsletter The Wrestling Lariat in 1995 and the website PWInsider.com, which he created in 2004 when he left 1Wrestling together with several other reporters. Scherer played an important part in making Extreme Championship Wrestling noticed in the early 1990s through tape trading and gained a cult following among the hardcore ECW fans at the time when he appeared at the promotions shows. Scherer later recused himself from covering ECW and helped the company in various capacities while still reporting with independent publications. PWInsider is one of the most popular pro wrestling news websites and has been cited by CBS Sports as perhaps the most trusted source for wrestling news, despite Scherer not being a traditionally trained journalist, but the site has also been criticized for its liberal use of advertising, many of which are pop-ups, which has been blamed on Scherer.