Sharkey on Sharkey: Vampires are hard to find these days

It was only a matter of time before Eddie Sharkey and Jonathon Sharkey hooked up. The former is the long time Twin Cities wrestling promoter. The latter, of course, is the self-described "vampyre" who is running for governor of Minnesota under a platform that calls for impaling Osama Bin Laden, child molesters and, possibly, George W. Bush.

Aside from the common name, the promoter and the vampire have something else in common: a background in professional wrestling. After learning of the political hopeful's ring experience, Eddie Sharkey, who can always be counted on to work an angle, invited the Impaler to appear on a January 31 wrestling card at First Avenue. The answer, Eddie says, was an unequivocal "yes."

"I talked to him for a while last night. Nice enough guy. Very friendly," he reports. "I've never seen him in action. But he seemed quite excited about the wrestling thing."

So did the two come to financial terms? Not yet. But the promoter doesn't think it will be a problem. "He's worked independent shows down in Florida. He knows there's not much money. I imagine I'll give him $40 or $50 bucks. If it was Halloween, maybe I'd give him $60."

After pausing a moment, he seems to reconsider. "Vampires are hard to find these days. Maybe I should give him a little more."