The only person who knew Galli was going to propose was his broadcast partner.
It was nearly two years ago at the NWA’s 74th Anniversary Show that lead commentator Joe Galli proposed to his significant other during the broadcast.
Galli detailed how it came together as he was guest appearing on Knockouts and 3 Counts. He shared that beforehand, he only relayed the message that he would ‘hijack’ the show at some point but did not elaborate. He remembers the show Director yelling when he got up from the commentary desk and made his way into the ring.
He said his move was not listed on the run sheet and the only person that was fully clued in was his broadcast partner Tim Storm. Storm helped Galli’s now-wife to the ring.
No, she wasn’t (clued it that I was proposing). She had no idea it was happening and I had to plant people in the crowd so, going back to my old friend from high school who works for New Japan now, he was there and his wife was there and they were kind of hanging out and they knew… and my worst fear was she wasn’t gonna be able to get in the ring because my wife is not into wrestling, has not done anything in wrestling and my fear is she would trip and she’s like, ‘I’ve got this nice dress I wanna wear.’ I’m like, ‘No! Wear jeans! Jeans and a t-shirt! Jeans and a t-shirt!’ She’s gonna panic trying to get over this rope and so, I got in there and I think what’s so fantastic about it so, I had told Billy Corgan and I had told everybody on the team that I’m hijacking the show. It wasn’t on any of the formats, nobody knew it was happening and I hijacked the show and the director of the show, Billy Trask, and to quote him exactly, after I had taken my headset off was, ‘What the f*ck is he doing!?’ And then Corgan went, ‘Oh, he’s gonna propose to his girlfriend’ and went, ‘Oh! Well that’s beautiful. God dammit! Where are gonna get these 10 minutes!?’ So, we went in there and she came in, I proposed, she said yes, thank God, and the benefit of that is you do it at a wrestling show, it’s in front of thousands of people. I’ve got so many great photos. I’ve got so many professional photos out of it. It’s on TV, and then one day, we will have a child and they’ll be able to watch the clip of here’s me proposing to your momma on pay-per-view baby. I don’t think I was especially nervous in the moment. All of my nerves were, can she get over the rail? Can she get into the ring? And all this other sort of stuff and I smartened up Tim Storm who thankfully, he left the booth as well to grab her by the hand to be like, come this way. This is where the stairs are.
Galli confirmed in the interview that the NWA is running their 76th Anniversary Show this year. He teased the idea of it emanating from a different location than it has in years past.
To read his comments, head over to this link.
If the quote in this article is used, please credit Knockouts and 3 Counts with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcription.