Joey Moss’s locker room alter ego the stuff of legend
Edmonton Oilers wrestling with goodbyes
EDMONTON - Anyone who didn’t know the history or understand the relationship would likely be aghast if they saw an NHL team booing a mentally challenged dressing room attendant while he wrestled their 250-pound enforcer.
But Joey Moss, possibly the biggest World Wrestling Entertainment fan the world has ever known, wouldn’t have had it any other way. He lived for those legendary matches in the Edmonton Oilers locker-room, challenging the likes of Georges Laraque and Dustin Penner to epic showdowns that far overshadowed anything happening on the ice that day.
Nobody outside of the Oilers inner circle ever got to witness those underground bouts, but they remain an essential chapter in Moss’s 35-year relationship with the team. As former Oiler after former Oiler stepped forward to pay tribute to their friend, who died Monday, they couldn’t help but laugh out loud at the memories.
“He had this championship belt that he would wear around the dressing room,” said Laraque, recalling how Moss loved to showboat and trash talk. “I would challenge him for it and if I ever beat him and took the belt he would demand a rematch so he could win it back. We had so much fun.”
On a match day, you would show up at the rink in the morning and feel a genuine buzz in the air. “Mosser’s putting his title on the line after practice.” It would be the talk of the day.
Moss would be zoned in, too, his usual cheer replaced by a steely focus. He was all business. There was no time for idle chat when a championship is up for grabs right after these towels are folded. “Ready, Joey?”
“Yup.”
Ready? You have no idea. “When he had a chance to fight for that belt, boy, was he fired up,” said former Oiler Sam Gagner. “He would prepare for it the whole week. You would see him warming up in the gym — he would be on the bike, doing his calisthenics, getting ready. That faded as time went on, but those were great times.”
While Moss was the beloved friend and teammate outside the ‘ring,’ he was far from a good guy in it. He loved being the villain, the heel, playing the character with everything he had.
The Oilers did their part, booing him loudly as he made his ring walk, and Moss would revel in it, extending his arms wide open, as if to soak up the jeers, flipping the occasional bird and letting everyone know that this was his world.
Newcomers on the team couldn’t believe what they were watching.
“I remember the first time,” said Gagner. “He had his own walk-in music, Kid Rock or whatever, and he walked in and the whole room booed him. I couldn’t believe it, everyone is booing Joey! But he loved it. He loved being the villain in the wrestling matches. He relished that.”
Like the bad guys in wrestling? As if Moss couldn’t be any cooler.
He enjoyed psychological warfare, too. One time, Moss snuck into the laundry and grabbed Gagner’s prized London Knights shorts, then wore them into the ring for their match to mess with Gagner’s head.
“One of the billet moms gave me these London Knights boxers that had my number and a Knights logo on them,” said Gagner.
“I thought they were cool. So Joe comes out for our wrestling match and he’s wearing my boxers. I’m like, ‘Are you kidding me?’ He loved it. He thought it the funniest thing ever. He was laughing at me. It was a great time.”
It must have worked.
“I think I’m 0-3 against him,” grinned Gagner.
From Dave Semenko to Laraque, Moss would take on all comers. Kevin Lowe remembers the famous trilogy with Moss and Penner, who, as Oilers fans remember, often had trouble making weight.
“On his best day, Dustin had about 100 pounds on Joey,” chuckled Lowe. “They had a best-of-three for the title. It was great. Dustin did a great job. He made it look as authentic as possible and allowed Joey to win the match.
“It resonated how important wrestling was to him,. How the entire team stayed around, cheered and made him feel so good about that time in his life.”
They say in sports you have to keep an even keel, but that wasn’t so much the case with Moss and wrestling. When he won, he would strut around and soak up the glory like a champion.
And when he lost … let’s just say if the players hated losing hockey games as much as Moss hated losing his matches, the last 20 years might have been much different.
“Every time he would lose, he would fake an injury,” laughed Gagner. “He would go limping out of the room to the trainer’s table and say, ‘It was my leg, that’s the only reason I didn’t win.’ And 10 minutes later he would be completely fine.
“Those memories, talking to some of the guys, those are things you will remember forever. He could really put a smile on your face. It was such a fun time in our lives.”