It's the Lapsed Fan Wrestling podcast with Jack and carn S e O and JP
sorrows. He's a lapsed fan in all my years and rest you never seen
anything. And it's the laps fan man number one in the ring begin a
Boussada were the real king of swing with the bell goes eggs and the kick
like me throwing in the corner but gets rash like stick even Jerry King you
can take off the crowd nodding his head like a see low Brown would just
getting low down for the goat even high up flipp you on your head,
but you know cool drive you speaking more now and Dragon spits fire if you
more shot than in Edge retire dropping more truth than the con of sniper less.
You would a coconut Roddy Piper check a JP you like Jay d drop
the cupcakes and gold the brain Bob means the best podcast for the start,
the close flop. You are benefit. It's a classic a pose boss.
I'm not sure. I'm not sure what to say, but we lost Virgil,
we did and we were all on the verge. On the verge is
indeed the title on the Verge is indeed the mission and we can't act like
it's a loss that hits us the same way as all the other losses.
No, because we just have this really weird fucking thing where Virgil came to
your bachelor party in twenty twelve. Yes, yes, it's it's a it's
a it's an odd connection. It's a very very odd connection that I doubt
many people, if any other people have Yeah, we've talked about it over
the years, of course over ten years strong here at TLF. Because this
happened before the podcast existed. Yes it did, and I'm I'm prepared to
say this happened before Virgil was known as the Meat Sauce mo Via King,
before he was you know, basically a meme machine on Twitter. That this
was even before the Lonely Virgil blog that Sam Roberts started took off, where
they would take pictures of him at you know, unattended booths at conventions,
right, I mean, yeah, it did. I mean this this happened.
This happened yeah, way before all that, and uh, you know
the especially the uh the meat sauce because the meat Sauce thing didn't go off
until he started on Twitter. That's when that all blew up. Yeah,
all of a sudden, it was the weirdest thing because we had this whole
story, this whole arm we would spin about how after the bachelor party,
which took place at a basement cigar bar in the North end of Boston,
we took Virgil out along with Tim to an Italian restaurant because he couldn't stop
haunting us and other friend Eric Olsen as well. Right, Eric was there
as well, and we took him out for Italian food because he kept haunting
us throughout the course of the evening about food. He was hungry out blame
the guy. But but when we got there, he couldn't stop asking and
inquiring about meat sauce. Do you have meat sauce? What is the meat
sauce? Can I just get some pasta with meat sauce? I mean the
best, the best thing was the uh, the the you know, do
you have meathoff? And the server goes, well, we do have a
bow and a sauce. Well is that a meatthoft that's written now what I
asked you man? Yes it is. Actually it's the Italian word for meat
sauce pal. So you know what I'm trying to say, is we didn't
have that Virgil yet, right, we saw him, yes before it was
a thing, Yes, in his element off the top of his total Carnie.
I'm not suggesting we got pretty Carnie Virgil, of course, not lifetime
Carnival worker. And we'll talk about that Carnival Barker two I've heard. Absolutely
depends what Moody caught him in, I guess. But but in so many
ways it's the ultimate lap story because it's a testament to like reaching for these
things that impacted you as a kid wrestling fan of the Hasbro era that just
don't make any sense. Characters You connected with people who for some reason stuck
with you even though they only had really a cup of coffee. In the
Wwftrickley is you know the baby face. That's what we remember, right with
the white boxing troncks. Yeah, the I That's exactly the Virgil I remember
because that was the Virgil that I was introduced to. I wasn't watching when
he was the bodyguard Virgil, and certainly being the servant to Ted DIBIASI was
his highest profile role and got him as rich as paydays. Although I'm sure
that WCW contract was pretty sweet in the nWo days. Sure, I'm sure,
but suffice to say, it's just like a guy. And it's been
wild to see all of these other people who report on wrestling and interview wrestlers
talk about Virgil and much the same way we did growing up, like or
you know, talking about growing up, where it's like with this Virgil guy
was just somebody who he wasn't anyone super I don't think maybe he was,
but he wasn't hours But he was just like on the short list of guys
that you could say this was my era of ww fandom. Yes, yeah,
he for some reason, is that like direct signal he I mean he
is because I mean he was so he was so visible. You know,
the visibility was such a huge factor. And you know, and and you
know, sadly it really only stemmed from from Ted Dbias, but the still,
like the visibility from what eighty seven until ninety two was huge, Yeah,
huge, you know, I mean numerous WrestleMania appearances, two of them
in the ring, and there's no denying that that that there, he's one
of those guys. He is. You know, you can pretty much count
almost anyone on that hasbro roster as somebody who is just of that, you
know, like in a weird way, they're all like all those guys.
If you had a Hasbro in my opinion, except for nails, you're a
main eventor you know you kind of you kind of have that. Especially I'll
say this, especially in the in the old school, you know before they
did like the the the color the color coded cards to dictate the series of
the action figure. You know, when it was all blue or all purple,
or yellow or all red. You know, when it was the old
school red and blue. That to me, anyone from that era they're a
main eventor there they're a Hall of famer, amazing easily amazing hall of famer
of the era where the WWF absolutely got its merchandising game dialed in exactly correctly,
Like oh oh, for sure, there were bigger money at the gate,
There were bigger money periods on pay per view, There were bigger money
periods at the merchandise stand all over the place. But when you talk about
when the Hasbros Came out and you talk about flipping through the WWF merchandise catalog,
you talk about the blues, you talk about the light hue blue,
you talk about the red, white and blue ropes. You talk about the
way that all the characters popped in the color and the action figures, the
way they jumped off the shelf. Folks, the esthetic was perfect. We
had it and we lost it. Not to say everything after it was bad,
but everything after it was decidedly inferior in any lapsed fan's opinion. And
Virgil was that action figure you had in the mix. Yes, that Virgil
Toy. Yep, absolutely, he you know he had he He had quite
a bit of you know, of time, a playtime for sure. So
when it came time to start something called the lapsed fan, of course,
as we've talked about over ten years, you know, several years after we
we got to know each other, almost ten years after, we got to
know each other and talked about who the resident wrestlers were of our childhood.
What show did We started off with Summers twenty one one that featured him,
by the way, I you know, you put me on a mission earlier,
and I have not given up yet. And I think I've actually found
his high school photo. Oh it's wonderful. I think I find this.
I think I've got more information in regards to Mike Jones. So that reminds
me that we ought to lay it out for folks. So this is going
to be a very different kind of tribute show. You know, this isn't
the lapsed fan goes month by month through someone's life or anything like that.
Virgil, no matter how unique a place he holds in the Solar system,
does not deserve that in terms of his wrestling career and the weight of it.
But what we're going to do is just tell the most personal story that
we probably could tell on the lapsed fan, because not only does it involve
me in you, it involves your dad, all your friends, the wider
circle of people that helped contribute to what Lapsed is and helped us see that,
Oh my god, other people can muster enthusiasm for Virgil, even if
they're not anywhere near as big wrestling fans as we are, And we might
be onto something, right boss, if we lean into people, characters and
feelings from this time period. It's all for sure part of the same recipe,
for sure, no question about it. So what we're going to do
is tell the story in a very concentrated way of how we came to book
Virgil, meet Virgil, understand and sample Virgil back in twenty twelve by bringing
on a range of voices from that time over a decade ago. We're going
to be talking to folks you've heard from in the podcast before, and folks
you haven't heard from the podcast before. People who were in the room when
Virgil made the surprise appearance unbeknownst to JP. Yeah, oh my god,
the guest of honor at this cigar jumping good time ahead of his nuptials.
How that all came together? Yeah, the blow by blow, and we're
proud to also bring you the financier behind it all. Indeed, it's time
for Papa Sorrow on the main feed. Good, damn right it is.
We'll be talking to JP's dad about working with me the best man, yep,
to find Virgil, to explain to Virgil the opportunity to negotiate that fucking
fee with Virgil and to close the deal and to get him on a plane
to Boston, and to deliver something that we thought of as a lark as
a laughline in college. Talking to Tim who'll be joining us later. Who
you know Tim Diddy, the DIDs the DIDs You heard from him most recently
when we reviewed The Iron Claw. He came with us to the movie and
joined us for the review, that's right. And we were talking with him
back when he would have parties at his house, or he'd have parties more
accurately at his house, and we'd come over sometimes and bring the no Mercy
and it wasn't all like you know, just like sausage fest geek offs,
you know. Sometimes it was an actual party, like a yeah, right,
a party that you can be respected. Usual was a real party,
and so we would talk about how amazing would it be. And this is
before really the wrestling convention circuit as we know it today with the old timers
really existed, or if it existed, we didn't really know about it,
and it wasn't as easy to find the advertising for it wasn't as aggressive online,
for instance. I remember. What I remember was that it was it
was a time period where it was that weird period where right after WCW closed,
like within a couple of years after WCW closed, and there were a
lot of guys who didn't have jobs because of that, that's right. And
so what I remember is when I this is during the period, this is
after you introduced me to the to the Wrestling Observer website, let alone the
Observer itself, and I would always check out the updates and see what was
going on. And one thing that I noticed was that in almost every update
there was a you know, so and so is available for personal appearances.
That's right, you know, contact so and so to book them for bookings
or whatever Twitter, Yeah, right, And so you'd see any any wrestler
from that you know, that era or that closed just recently closed w CW
thing, and and it would be it'd be like, you know what,
like these people are are available, Like what do you mean appearances? What's
an appearance? Right? That mean right? And that probably got the gears
turning to where we were bullshitting with Tim and we were like, what,
how amazing would it be if for some reason we were able to get in
touch with Virgil Virgil? We came up with Virgil? Come up with Virgil?
Virgil was the thing because it was the most random, right, because
like like Tim was was he saw it, like did saw it? And
it was like are you kidding me? Like this guy you know? And
it was like just the most random person, random wrestler you could ever choose.
And so and that's what made it, you know, that's it made
it stick in the mind. To be one thing, if I said,
imagine if stone Cold Steve Austin came to this party, we'd all yuck it
up. It'd be funny to think about, but it wouldn't stick in our
mind for nine, ten, twelve months, two years as possible actually,
I mean because also it was like every time after that, whenever DIDs had
a party, it was always like, are you gonna invite Virgil? You're
gonna are you gonna get virtual account? You know, it became kind of
a thing after that, and with no honest intention of actually trying to book
him, you know, not necessarily one hundred percent honest, but I'd say
that there were was, there was a little bit there of like he wanted
that to happen. There's no doubt about that. He would have loved you
know, it didn't It wasn't something so far fetched that he would that it
was always not possible. It was something that he would have liked to have
done. Yeah, well Tim would have not Virgil, Yeah, no,
no, no, I'm sure Virgil would love to do it, would have
loved it. You kidding me? Free food and in a payday and right,
well that's the candy. But the it just a totally you know,
just totally inappropriate passes at some of the female attendees. I'm sure. Oh
yeah, oh, oh my god, when you pay Virgil the fuck money,
as we learned, he's turning around and looking to fuck with it.
Listen, he's there. He sits burning a hole in his pocket and in
his cross and in his fucking box or shorts. Did you look at the
picture? Just sign you, by the way, I did look at that.
What a glorious picture of him. Apparently gotta be him. Oh,
that's one hundred percent him. Look at the face, man, you can't
deny it, right, and the eyes are kind of droopy eyes on the
side there. Why is I wonder? Why is there such a dearth about
Michael Jones's upbringing? Why do we know so little about where he came from?
I'm discovering as we go along here, pal, Well, why are
there two completely different decades that people say he was born in. Upon his
passing, a lot of folks reported that he was born in nineteen sixty one,
and then quickly after conferring with his management team and others that were making
arrangements post death. They said he was actually born in nineteen fifty one,
why would he? And and actually they're wrong. I'm telling you right now
it's nineteen fifty four. Wow, based on what I'm looking at right now,
it's nineteen fifty four, Pep. I'm ready to deal with that.
And I'm going to stick with the with fifty one because it serves my purposes
here in a little while. And of course, you know, everyone embraced
it because it's one last work from the ultimate worker, the guy who you
know, would you would approach his gimmick table and within twenty minute, twenty
seconds somehow feel like you inadvertently agreed to pay him eighty five dollars for a
picture in an autograph, right, and he would get all these little tactics,
and that's what led to the Lonely Virginal phenomenon. That's what led to
Sam Roberts starting the blog. He would go to these conventions and he would
observe Virgil at work and the ways in which he would, you know,
kind of cut in line when bigger stars were the draw getting autographs and he'd
try to like front run them and just set up shop near them to try
to get some of that daste. He would put a banner out that said
Teddy Biassi and Virgil, even though Teddybiyaski was nowhere in the zip code.
Oh my god. And you know, people would ask him where Teddy Biasi
is and he'd say, well, he's I'm not sure where he is right
now, but he'll be back. Of course, he was not going to
come back, of course. And he would always just you know, if
you had a girlfriend or a friend or somebody there, he'd rope them in
and then try to charge you for that picture and that extra autograph and that
extra interaction. Of course, why wouldn't Why not, I'm as sue.
The problem is replica million dollar belt. He brought it everywhere, not only
the conventions. He brought it to the bachelor party, and it was and
I didn't ask him to do it. That's me. I didn't know that.
I didn't know that. I mean when he got out of the car
we had to pick him up and drop him off at the cigar bar,
and he had that glistening title on his shoulder when over the shoulder of his
hooded sweatshirt when he stepped out into the Boston night. I was like,
this is too much. And you know, the best thing is that I've
said it before when you kind of got a little closer to it and you
saw that, you know what that belt that ain't that ain't put together real?
Well, no, there's little gems that are missing. There are gems
that are missing. And then also it's all put together. It's held together
by fucking zip tize there zip tize in there. Absolutely there were and we
can't we can't dance around the reality. And you know that's not like he
wasn't forthright about it being a replica belt or anything like that. He wasn't
trying to convince you it was the real thing, because as we learned,
he's got a whole tall tale to tell about how the belt was actually fifty
pounds and caused Teddy Biassi to suffer nearly two hundred stitches. I don't see
what that. Yeah, and so strap yourself through the world according to Virgil,
you saying it's bullshit. Yes, no, Because as quickly as it
went from like the shock and awe in surprise of him being there, it
quickly went to the side glances at each other like, does he expect us
to believe what he just said? Absolutely horrifying? I mean, more whoppers
than any burger king Oh seriously, seriously, God, he hit fucking quadruple
whoppers going. He piled them high with cheese. Okay, and we're going
to get to all of it. There's no more appropriate time to try to
do something definitive about this one of a kind night that we experienced, a
night that I swear to God played a big part in forming kind of the
theoretical basis for why we would do a podcast like The Lapsed Fan and why
we would be so convinced that it would be worth doing it. Yep.
The reaction we saw a Virgil from people that were just kind of tangential wrestling
fans, not because they thought Virgil was a huge fan, but it's just
because it's so funny that it's Virgil. Yeah, right exactly. That That's
what makes it all work, is that, and that you know, is
echoed in the Lonely Virgil stuff that's echoed everywhere that's had fun with Virgil and
Sean Ross sapp interviewed him for Fight Full and he was plugging his meat sauce
Madness mobile game. I god, it just didn't stop, this mobile part
of Madness, the meat sauce thing. It was just like we thought he
just said it off handedly because we thought that that's kind of what he wanted
at the time. And it was, by the way, it totally was.
I mean he was, he was, he was craving it, but
I mean, come on, and then just to hear it like echoed back
to us five years later, three years later, it's like, what's going
on here? How is you running with this? The funny thing is I
can tell you too. I remember, I remember that it happened, that
this all happened after we even told the story for the first time. Oh
yeah, of course it did. Twenty fourteen. Yeah, well we told
twenty fifteen. We told her. I believe we told it Wrestling You thirty
actually when we cover Wrestling of thirty, and I'll never forget like it was.
It was like a year or two after that, and all of a
sudden, it was meat sauce, this meat sauce that what the fuck?
Like? Wow, how about it? Yeah? Exactly? How about it?
You know, you know what you're thinking in terms of where credit belongs,
it's where it always belongs. We tried not to say it too much
because God forbid we're wrong, but it happens too often for us now,
and so I'm okay with that the inference. So yeah, we're going to
do just a show that's completely focused on why Virgil and why this moment and
why this bachelor party and why everything really, and we're going to look at
just a few flashpoints from his in ring career. Certainly not an in ring
career to write home about, he had his fair share of high profile matches,
many of which are in the archive already, but we'll revisit them and
watch a long form for tribute purposes, as we have done before. So
we're talking nine and one Summer Slam, of course against Debasi for the million
dollar Championship. That that magical pairing with piper Man. That that was,
That was some That was some good stuff. Oh it was amazing. Oh
it was tremendous. It's it's it's you really can't get much more kind of
dramatic and and it's it's it's the gooey stuff that wrestling can provide, you
know. It's that it's it's that you know when when you when you really
play out the this this thing. It's a shame that he didn't have what
it took to take it to the next level. But yeah, you know,
because he just couldn't. I don't know. I mean, it wasn't
like I felt like I didn't think it was even felt like he identified with
the servant character, the bodyguard character anymore. It just was he just didn't
have He just didn't have a lot. Yeah, yeah, yeah, there
wasn't much there there. You know, him a boxing gimmick because he was
doing some boxing before. The best thing was, without a doubt, the
best thing was his you know, the the issue of of of W magazine.
It was during kind of the very tail end of his career, and
they were basically pushing a gimmick through the magazine, and the idea was Virgil
was upset that he was not getting enough attention in the magazine, and so
he bought an ad page. He quote unquote bought an ad page and created
his own cover. Oh my god, his own w Againe. I'm gonna
find it, Yeah you will. We're to touch on that. So this
is more. This will be more our part two, it'll be his matches
that one ninety one Rumble where he turns on Debs. He matched in the
Garden where he teamed with DiBiase against Hogan and Bigelow when they were trying to
push Bigelow as you know, a two one bee baby face star for a
little while there in eighty seven, pretty much, you know, his highest
profile match with Deebs. I would think he didn't wrestle very much as Ted
DiBiase's bodyguard was pretty much more of a manager than anything else. And we're
also going to take a look at a match you got to have against Brett
Hart shortly after Brett won his first WWF world title. Remember that in late
ninety two we had a match against Virgil on Superstars where he gave Virgil quite
a bit and it turned out to be a match that meant a lot to
Virgil and actually meant something to Brett Hart as well. So we look forward
to looking at that match with a fresh set of eyes. It's not much
to write home about, but as far as Virgil goes, I mean,
listen, he got a world title shot, it's got to be up there.
Let's not forget Virgil got a world title shot on TV, not just
a fucking paper that's just a fucking house show rather yep, yep, and
all the biographical details and the smoke and mirrors of his you know, actual
biography and all of the things that he came to be known for when you
know he had that second lease on life? Is this meme, this walking,
living, breathing meme. Who didn't even know what a meme was?
I know he didn't. That was kind of being led around by people who
definitely knew what a meme was. Well, God absolutely weren't hesitating to put
words in his mouth on social media and another forum to keep the buzz going.
So we look forward to doing a tribute to Virgil Mike Jones that we
think only we're capable of doing here at TIA left us say and Reynolds can't
do a great tribute. Of course they can, but we have a unique
vantage point in the sky. No one can do anything. Yeah, needs
to be done. So before we get to our esteem, guests to revisit
that day. It was October right of twenty twelve. It was October fourth,
twenty twelve, My god, and then all went down. Yeah,
we are obliged to remind you that the road to WrestleMania is obviously in full
gear, oh goodness, and what that means is the biggest premium live event
of the weekend is also rapidly approaching. April seventh, Sunday high noon Punchline
Philly and Philadelphia, the co Chairman take the stage for the Lapsed Fan's Bozos,
Biceps and Bullshit Brunch Boss. Absolutely, and it's it's going to be
wild. It's gonna be I mean, if you ask me, based on
what happened last year's it's even more uncensored, more uncut, more real than
anything you'll ever experience. We're definitely gonna take full advantage of the notion that
this is, you know, for a select group only in the system,
and we can go places perhaps that we and you know what, as we
always do, we're going to do our damnedest to make sure we never get
invited back. Yeah, one and done, baby, We're moving on to
the next town. We're like Terry Funk, we did what we came here
to do. It's time to go. It is time to go before we
butt heads. Let us move on down the road. And in that spirit,
of course, we're obliged to remind you that if you buy tickets ahead
of time and send us proof of purchases so many have done to the Lapsed
Fan at gmail dot com, you will be entered into a raffle to win
an authentic Terry Funk branding iron obtained by the Man's estate sale himself, the
co chairman of course, as you know from the Lapsed Funk able to get
our hands on this, as well as many other pieces of what we considered
research materials for the Lapsed Funk journey. But this branding iron, we feel
like is a gift befitting attendance at Punchline Philly in April seventh, So please
get your tickets early, get your proof of purchase to the Lapsed Fan at
gmail dot com, let us know you're coming, and man Boss's I size
up the roster of people who are taking us up on that and who are
already in the hopper for that raffle. Absolutely, this is like, this
is a true who's who of the Lapsed Fan solar system at this point.
Oh question, no question, I keep good. What about what about what
they're all coming? Yeah, they're all gone. What a difference the East
Coast time zone makes relative to last year's la show. Oh question, what
a difference it makes to not be going, you know at eleven pm on
a Sunday night after two nights of WrestleMania, which we had to do last
year. Nice afternoon slot between the two shows. So please, folks,
I mean look it up. Look up the club punchline Philly on Google hit
their schedule of events, go down to April seventh, Buy your tickets early
and often get in on that raffle. And we've got some great friends from
the stand up comedy world joining us, some great stand up comedians, lamaiyor
Lee among them. Really excited to have Lamaire come through as he's a big
wrestling fan, of hilarious comic and an associate of Shane Geillis, who recently
hosted Saturday Night Live. You probably heard our interview with Ray Gooots, who
helps us put the comedy piece of this together recently on the main Feed,
talking about Lamaire and the other comics that are going to be joining us.
And we have an a pretty good authority as well that we're going to be
able offer even sweeter of a deal on above and beyond Terry Funk's branding iron
to attendees of the show of certain allegiances and alliances come together. Just put
it that way. It's all happening in the spirit of TLFX. It's accelerating.
Boss. People are pretending not to notice, people are pretending. People
are just pretending. People are just pretending. No, no, no,
no, no no. We know you know. Yes, we know you're
watching. Yes, we know you're monitoring, and we know you're thinking.
Oh yeah, I remember that cover. I remember that cover, big time
fake cover. It's not even it was in the middle of a magazine.
Wasn't even a real cover. I remember the fake cover then. And in
the spirit of TLFX and everything accelerating around here, do check out Dark Side
of the Ring Unheard. We are proud to partner with our friends over at
Dark Side of the Ring for a podcast series in conjunction with their season five,
which launches this week, looking at their archives as only we can,
going into the great hours long interviews they've done with so many luminaries from wrestling's
past, some known, some lesser known, and just pulling out choice nuggets
that didn't make the final cut of the documentaries but still deserve to have an
air. So much fun to come on that podcast. So oh, it's
so much fun to hear those, to hear those those those all the stories
and just those soundbites that that you know, what I think is great about
it and what I enjoy the most about it is there are two things that
I enjoy the most about it. Number One, it's it's hearing stories that
aren't even really relevant to the Yeah, you would never have a reason to
surface them exactly, that's to me, that's where the real gold mine is.
And in these stories that there's just not enough like where would you put
this in an episode? And also to hear to hear Evan and uh,
you know the other whatever. Guess we end up having hearing their memories and
how a lot of these interviews because they've been they've been in the can for
so long, just like we like it, and that they it just triggers
a lot of memories and a lot of like emotions and stuff, and it's
fascinating to listen to. Yeah, if having Virgil around for a bachelor party
for a couple of hours launches an entire inspiration for a tribute series here or
a couple of tribute shows, can you imagine what spending all that time on
the road for five seasons in front of all of these wild and fucking crazy
carny characters from the wrestling business. The kind of stories you accumulate then,
so they just un load on you. Dark Side of the Ring Unheard get
it wherever you find your podcast. It's also up on YouTube, and we're
really excited to play a part in launching Dark Side season five. You knew
it was only a matter of time, folks. You know, there's only
so many times we can set down definitive histories and the most entertaining way possible
be for you know, folks at a higher level just say you know what,
these are the guys who need to partner with. It's a very simple
thing. It is a very simple thing, and God bless simple things.
So excited about April seventh punchline Philly, excited about Dark Side of the Ring
Unheard, excited about Under the Cinemat. Oh yeah, we get to pop
a sorrow boss. Tell them what journey we have embarked on for EP and
above on Patreon. If you don't know, you damn well should know.
We have embarked on the Carnies Are Forever Tour, and that is a look
into wrestling, wrestlers and wrestling involved with the James Bond franchise, and we
are touching upon every you know, want to know, it's funny, it's
it's a it's a work in progress. You know, I gave, I
gave a twenty film. I guess what they're twenty one now. Oh yeah,
there'll be more by the time with I know, I know, like
there, I'm sure at some point we're gonna have to go back and fill
in all the holes because it's as we do, because it's it's really unbelievable.
Uh uh, you know when it comes down to just you know,
looking through the these these characters and these people and stuff and the stuntman,
especially the stuntment are key in this one because it's it's you know, it's
a UK based film franchise, and so what you know, the best stupman
in the UK where are they. They're working the they're working the wrestling circuit
totally. You know, it's a concentric circle in the UK, just like
it is with you know, Mike mssurki and Ship in the US. So
it's uh, it's it's going to be a wild ride. It's exciting and
uh, you know, you can figure out what comes next, honestly,
but there there are going to be some holes and so I'm not going to
tell you what's up next. Doctor No available, Now that's right, Doctor
No start off featuring Milton Reid of the UK Grappling Circuit and and and here's
the thing, this is the thing too. The reason why I decided it
was time to do it was because it got to the point about maybe late
last year, maybe the fall of last year, and I realized that it
can actually connect all the dots. We're not missing a bond. Every bond
is going to get covered, not because I feel like we have to,
but because there is a wrestler, at least one wrestler in every single Bond
movie with a different James Bond. That is fascinating. That includes that includes
the two Rogue ones, what which aren't associated with the the Eon franchise.
That's really ridiculous. Yes it is, and it's it's really we're touching upon
a lot of shit. And again that to me was like when I was
able to connect all of that, it's go time so excited too do a
lot of fun. As I said, you know, this is a classic
example of a film franchise that I would never crack open. I'd never I'd
always want to watch them all, but would never have the reason to say,
this is the time to do it. Yeah, and now thanks to
under the cinemat and I assume many members of the Solar System are in the
same boat. Not only were going to do it, are we going to
watch it? Are we going to experience it? Or we're going to understand
it thanks to Passu's research, but we're also going to get the full story
behind passing glimpses and even more of wrestlers that appear in these films. It's
the concept is proven, proof of concept is in. We continue pillaging the
competition on Patreon dot com, damn right slash the Lapsed Fan of course,
not only under the cinemat tier executive producer tier, but above our great friends
and the Mote tier. The really the most intense nucleus of wrestling podcast fans
anywhere on planet Earth. I put them up against anybody, and they were
the recipient of two recent calls. We've decided, you know, the motier
is like our friends. We're going to bring them into that closer social circle
than the rest of the Solar system gets to see. And the long tradition
when a wrestler dies is we race to be the first to call the other
one to renounce the news, and if circumstances are right, we record the
thing and share it only with the moteier. The call for both only Anderson
and Virgil. Virgil his tribute show able to the moat tier as well,
So we hope that served as a bit of an entree to what we're going
to be doing here. Boss, I think it's time to bring up Papa
Sorrow. I think you are absolutely right. I'm preparing to call him.
Tell people like how you pitched him on this about coming on the show.
Yeah, oh my god. I didn't have to do anything. I just
said, hey, look we're doing a you know well he he Okay.
It always starts off too. He whenever, whenever a wrestler dies, he'll
always send me a text, yes, a link to whatever news article you
know that he that he read that. And what he'll do is he'll say,
oh, I'm so sorry for your loss. You're right, and the
thing are you doing? Okay? I know, I know it's been hard.
Had he heard about Virgil ahead of time. Uh after you you called
hey, hey, hey, hey, hey John, listen, can you
do you call me back in twenty minutes? Work? Okay? Is he
shooting a work in JP? You tell me? I don't know what he's
doing. Can you call me at nine o'clock? Why are you watching Raymond?
No, it's a great episode. It's one of my favorite. I'll
be glad to call you back, no problem, nine o'clock. Consider it
booked? All right? Yes, thanks, so amazing, so amazing.
I'm keeping that in. I don't give a fuck. That's perfect. We've
got we've got more folks on deck who were there, and you know John
was there as well. And this is a good time to tell people something
that just for me at least absolutely put it across the finish line is clear
out all plans for what we had on the schedule for TLF. We have
to do a Virgil show for sure. The discovery that, in fact,
on the night of the Bachelor Party, Bill was a recording this this was
boss all right. So here's so so okay, let me tell you what
happened here. So the so the other day, so leading up to this,
we've been talking about who are we you know, we should get as
many people as we can to to talk and and and you know, get
and reflect on on the night and and what we all remember. And so
I I talked to Bill. I texted him and he said, well,
here, I'll just read what we he said, He said, hey,
I said, hey, don't know if you heard the news that Virgil kicked
it this week? Jack and I are prepping a tribute show for him and
are trying to talk to everyone who was at the bachelor party. Do you
have time for a quick call? And he wrote back abs of fucking lutely
and then the audio is terrible, but here, and I thought he like
sent me a link. I thought it maybe he'd he'd whipped up like like
he misunderstood, like he whipped up an audio response and like reflected. And
so I click on the link because I couldn't see it all right away.
I click on the link and he has sent me a link to the the
video of the thing, a whole fucking thing. And when you told me
that not the whole thing, well, they mean like the Virgil parts.
Yes, And when you said that, I was like, you know what,
it was twenty twelve? Yeah, So it was pre everything being on
film all the time because the cameras weren't that good. But I do remember
him holding up a cell phone camera, a primitive one such as it was.
Yeah, and then it just it just blew my mind that it's still
yep, it's still rested within his archives. Ye. Yeah, that was
That was the thing that I was like, holy shit, like he fucking
had this. And I think we call it lap serendipity by the way,
motherfucker's. I think we call it lap serendipity, by the way. Motherfuckers.
I have yet to watch the whole thing through. Does it make you
nervous? Of course it does, if be horrified? Why because because there's
just like the they're there, because I remember how awkward it was then,
yes, and and trying to like sober up. Yeah, you already a
few drinks in. I'm like, I'm like totally lit at this point,
and I'm like, oh shit, I got a fucking I gotta go to
work now, because nobody knows who the fuck this guy is except for five
of us. Really, there are five people who are who are aware of
paint depicture. Who else is there? I mean we're talking so the five
people in the know as to who Virgil is. It's you, it's DIDs,
it's Bill, my dad and me. That's the five. And we're
talking. I've got my my well, my redacted father in law, would
be would be redacted father in law, my would be redacted brother in law,
my my, my two uncles, my uh uh, my my wife's
uncle, my wife's cousin was there. And doctor Tom Foss, who is
a West Newbury neighbor of the scene, is yes he is, Yes he
is. I've whenever they find some old wrestling relic, they always give it
to me. And he didn't know. Virgil was no, no, no,
he wouldn't fucking know. He'd be like, what is this ship?
So I want you to imagine. Okay, everyone here knows JP's a big
wrestling fan. You know he's a boy, child, man, child whatever.
Yes, yes, and you know they expect wrestlers coming. Oh that's
wild. Maybe child and proud they oh, yeah, well better be proud.
There's no choice generation. We grew up in the there's no choice.
Yes, we play with toys longer than our kids do with the fuss,
right, that's right. So they know a wrestler's coming. Oh, that's
that's a funny idea. Oh, sure, I will prefer a stripper.
But that's cool, it's all. It's also kind of very what's the word
I'm looking for it is having a stripper there. It's very in cell to
have a wrestler at your bachelor party instead of it. But anyway, Oh
my god, I I I understand, Uh, I understood. Uh uh
what's his buttery directed? Uh uh? Beyond the mat, I understand Barry
Blausting's embarrassment and pain right that third hand embarrassment of that. Although I think
my dad, I think my dad bringing out the fucking wrestling rings that he
fucking brought them to the roast, probably more embarrassing than Virgil. I'll say
that. I'm just sitting here. It's just just mortified for you. As
he's like, well, you know, I guess I guess it's gonna be
his thing. I mean, makes him happy, right like, let seriously
bossed, like you have down syndrome. Honestly, listen, I might as
well be Jeff Town'll be j JP Town. It was it was JP Town
for one night, wasn't it. It was? Indeed, Oh my god,
Virgil caught a one way flight. So so imagine, you know,
well, wrestler here. It'll be funny. You know, the guy will
come out. He'll be this way charismatic, over the top, loud,
looking muscular in costume, you know, like like Hulk Cogan comes out like
in his in his wrestling attire, richs his shirt off and shit, you
know that's what they would expect. And that guy who looks like Virgil at
his age in twenty twelve and a hooded sweatshirt walks in. He's not him.
He's big, but he's not. He's not someone you'd seen in an
airport as a wrestler. He's not. He walks in and everyone's like,
I mean, everyone was such great sorts. And that's one thing that going
back and watching Bill's video really drove home to me. It is like people
were great, like they were just acting like it was the biggest deal in
the world, even though they could give a fuck about this guy. Yeah,
great support system there, But like you said, it changes everything to
have him walk in that door. It does, It absolutely does, because
what are we gonna what's he gonna do? Like, yeah, what's he
gonna do? What is I his host? Now? Like, what's happening
now because he doesn't know me well enough to roast me. He's standing there,
and he's standing there, and the the invigil is standing there right right.
He's kind of like standing there like a fucking you know, like a
like a bearded woman at the circus, just like we always thought at the
party, like when we talked about hiring him to go to a party,
what the funniest thing was, we wouldn't do anything. We just have him
stand there right, like we didn't even talk to him. Really, you'd
just be hilarious if he was standing there. You see, he's just kind
of standing there. But you know, it kind of got to a point
where it's like, well this doesn't really work right now, and I,
you know, start to get really really nervous, like what the fuck are
we going to do with this guy now? And so no plan. Oh
my god, past the initial entrance. So that's it. Oh my god,
you tell what era we were in. It was the entrance era.
That's right, exactly exactly, and uh except no one's singing the theme song
and uh, I oh god, I I just said, you know,
well I got to ask him questions. I guess I guess it's going to
be a Q and a session because we had the the mics and the PA
set up because he's supposed to be a roast, right, and it was
we all got up there and ripped into you. Yeah, Brgil, you
know I told him it was a roast, but he just showed up just
like where's my money? You know, basically exactly, he's not there to
fucking you know, he's not there to. He doesn't he doesn't know where
he is. And I'll talk more about this when we get some of the
attendees on the line and tell my side of of everything. But suffice to
say it was quite an adventure for me because, as we're about to talk
about with with JP's dad, it was it wasn't entirely clear back then how
to reach Virgil at all. Like I said, he's not lonely Virgil yet
he doesn't have a Twitter account yet, right, he probably didn't have a
Facebook. I'm almost certainly he didn't because I would have used that as a
means of communication if I had it. Yep. So I had to get
kind of creative because because what stuck with me was just how you got to
do something that is like a no, you didn't. Right, you got
to try to do that in life, of course, no matter what it
is, of course, and has discussed for us. Virgil showing up at
something like this is that you didn't. I was locked on you. I
was locked on your eyes. When I hit Teddy b Yassi's theme song on
my cell phone over the loudspeaker, I will say, I'm still at disappointed
at that. Yeah, that didn't do the Virgil entrance. I would have,
well, look, if it's a Virgil tribute show, can we do
the theme song a little bit? Did? Did do you need B D
B D? You pick it up? Let's go No manifang tang hang,
but I get no, no, na, I mean my name? Come
on, boss? We lost Virgil. Puddy cho putting up Cuba Gooding?
What Cuba Gooding, Chocolate Pudding? Cuba Gooding and Chocolate Pudding coming soon to
o w N. The Virgil story coming soon to o w N one Warrior
Nation. Cuba Gooding Junior is Virgil? Virgil is Cuba good They asked him
on the Fightful interview that Sean Rossapp did with him, which, by the
way, Sean Rossapp swears that Virgil's like handlers were actually in his ear telling
him what to say, like funny answers all the questions because he has totally
a natural series of pauses. But he also had dementia, so it's hard
to tell where one ends and the other begins, even harder than with the
usual pro wrestler. And he says, you know who should play you in
a movie? And he said Ryan Reynolds. Duh, I would agree with
that. I spent a lot of time thinking of But you mentioned Cuba Goodding,
and yeah, he'd be good. But I think Ryan Reynolds should play
Virgil. I think Ryan Reynolds would be fantastic. Why do you think so?
Because I feel like I feel like the kind of the kind of person
you need to play Virgil is someone who you can pretty much presume has no
fucking idea who it is, and that which is ninety nine eight percent of
the population, Oh my god, fucking money. So so I'm like,
how do I get in touch with this guy? And Okay, I know
that he's on the comic circuit. I know he's on the comic con circuit.
I've heard this. I think I probably in fact, you know what
I probably found some kind of schedule of where he was going to be,
and I saw he's a comic con guy that was starting to happen in wrestling.
Sure, sure, and and so I thought, well, he's doing
one of the wizard World, which is a comic book company. Yes,
yes, And at the time, Wizard World actually owned a fight company called
the International Fight League. Really yeah, that looked to compete with the UFC.
You a disastrous since, so maybe they went public. It was hilarious.
So they were they were rocking and rolling, they were up and running,
and they had a relationship with of course shirt Og where I was reporting
on MMA at the time, so I knew their press people, and I
said, what are the chances that the same guy who does PR for the
fight side of the house also does PR for the comic con side of the
house. And of course he did. Wow. His name is Jerry,
and I emailed him and I'm going to share now with the Solar System for
the first time the texts of these emails because it's it's history in the making.
Wow. Hey, Jerry, this is dated August twenty first, twenty
twelve, so time is of the essence boss. Oh yes, this is
my first outreach on it, because, as we'll talk about with your dad,
it wasn't until we were kind of walking around trying to figure out our
tuxes and stuff. Holy shit, that we were like, we got to
do this if it's possible. Once I realized that your dad was on board
to cut whatever check it took, having no clue what to expect, having
done nothing remotely like this before. Oh, it's like the last thing I
want to do is get a yes and then not be able to afford it.
And it's more it's Virgil, you know, and I don't know.
I don't understand that wrestlers will basically let you take a shit in their mouth
for twenty five dollars. I know that at the time. So I write
to Jerry, I say, hey, this is Jack. If you remember
working with me in the IFL days, I hope you're well. I'm looking
for help in contacting the wrestler Mike Virgil Jones, who was either booked for
the next comic con or was it a recent one. And I showed a
link because they had that. It's what it was. Wizardworld dot Com had
a Virgil page. Oh my god, let me see if it's still alive
link Oh probably because yeah, no, it doesn't work anymore, heedless to
say, Ah, I'm desperately I wrote trying to reach him to book him
for a personal appearance. You're probably the only person who's been desperately looking for
fucking Virgil. I'm doing a roast for my best friend who's about to get
married, and he was a huge Virgil fan as a kid. Tell me
why it's funny. I know it's funny, but tell the people because this
is the same I mean, just the thought of of somebody like you're saying
that Virgil was their favorite wrestler. Ever, it's the same exact train of
thought of like every cameo we get, you know, exactly, it's exactly
I say, you're a big fan to get anywhere with these people are saying
that I'm a big fan of all these E c W clowns I've never heard
of, right, Yeah, Because if you say it's like a business thing
and not a fan thing, that all of a sudden they two x the
price exactly exactly, and then like, well, wait a minute, what
is this for? Exactly it's for your mom? Yeah, I write,
I wrote to have him show up at the event. You do, I'm
gonna have I'm gonna have a cameo done for my mom. That's what I'm
gonna do. I'm gonna well, I'm gonna have like I'm gonna do one
for the show. Mom won't get it, but I'm gonna do one for
the show. Asking about a you know, asking a question, say,
and it's for it's for my mom. I'm gonna say. That sounds good,
sounds like wrestle Mommy's energies to me exactly, I wrote. To have
him show up at the event would be an unforgettable moment. Any help you
could provide would be immensely appreciated. If you don't feel comfortable, give me
his number of contact info. Please pass along my number to him. Oh
my god, Jerry writes back pretty quickly. Right, let's see yeah,
within ten minutes. Thanks Jack. I'll email Ted DBAs Oh my god,
and let you know what he says. Oh my god, I wrote,
Pat, I did not expect this all of a sudden. Ted Dibiasse's involved,
like that was a k fabe thing. Jerry like he's not actually his
servant. Well, well, you never know. This is before they had
their falling out in and around conventions, and they were trying to book each
other, or at least I got the distinct impression that Teddobyassi saw it is
kind of like looking after Mike to to bring a you know, opportunities to
his attention to Tidbyassi has since said on podcasts and the like that there were
a point in time where, you know, he would try to appear with
Virgil whenever possible, Like he told Virgil, if you're at the same convention
as I am, let's sit together so we can offer the package deal.
That's probably where Virgil got the Virgil and Teddy b a C banner that he
would bring even enough, Ted wasn't there, So thanks Jerry. The event
is October fourth, fingers very much crossed, and then he writes back messages
into Ted we'll let you know asap. Oh, this was eleven fifty four
in the morning on August twenty first. At eight fifteen am in August twenty
second, I get this email from Jerry. Virgil is very interested in the
appearance. You bet your ass he is thinking back on it. Of course
he was his first Payday's hadn't fucking mons probably can't thank you enough. Take
care and then it all, it all took, it took shape. From
there, I got his email. I sent him my phone number. Oh
my god, called me, Oh my god, Mike Jones from the fucking
Did he say Mike Jones or did he say Virgil? He said both.
I'll read it to you. Wow. When he called you, I think
he said it's Virgil. Almost positive he said it's Virgil. But I had
addressed him as Mike already, so he knew. I knew his name was
Mike. Okay, kind of thing. So it's it's hard to say,
but I know, right, just flush it right down the toilet. Why
don't you so? Now I have his email. Oh my god. August
twenty second, twenty twelve, five oh one pm. I'm mister Jones.
This is Jack. I got your contact info through Jerry at Comic Con.
He told me you're interested in taking an event booking I have in mind.
We're roasting my best friend October fourth, Oh my god, and it would
be a huge thrill for him if you made a surprise appearance. We're all
fans of yours. I'm not sure what this would take. Please give me
a call at your earliest convenience to discuss. He said, we're all fans
of yours. Not sure why almost said it. Please give me a call
at your earliest convenience to discuss. I left you a voicemail earlier today as
well. Thank you. Mike Jones replies eight thirty three am, Friday,
August twenty fourth, Hi Jack, this is Virgil. Oh wait a minute,
so we had spoken by now he'd spoken on the phone. He called
me and he talked to me for I swear to God an hour and a
half. Oh wait, I love that. In the email he said,
Hi Jack, this is Virgil. He does this is Mike Jones and his
email okay, I guess, but like, okay, his emails had Virgil,
Vincent and Jones all in the name God. He called me and he
talked to me for like I said, at an hour and a half.
I was like, I gotta take this call. And I was, you
know one of those things like when you're done after, I gotta go take
this call, and like your arm hurts, yes, oh God, yes,
and you're kind of winded because you've been a pacing the whole time talking
to the person. Yep, and he's just The only thing I remember about
the conversation was he kept hammering home this idea that there were gonna be strippers
at this thing. We're gonna have so much fun. Man, We're gonna
get him fucked up. We're gonna get him, We're gonna get the woman
in his face or whatever he was saying. And I was like, dude,
like god, no, like, you have no idea, how not
that this is going to be. He just wants some titties. That's what
it was. Virgil wants some titties. Virgil wants wants a stripper fucking smothering
that cock. And he he wasn't shy about that. He was telling me
about how, oh man, I love Boston. Man, I got bitches
there. Oh my god. I remember he said he's got this Cape Verdian
girl in Boston that he always hits up when he comes through these are as
far as I can tell. And Bless the man. Prostitutes is what he's
talking about, essentially, because he needs the money to get the girls.
Okay, Oh Jesus, it's very apparent to me that one had to come
before the other based on future demands that he would make. Not demands,
but you know, gentle nudges that he would make. And so I'm talking
to this guy and I'm like, yeah, man, crazy like trying to
like trying to keep him gassed up about doing it, you know, instead
of like, it's just going to be a bunch of guy smoking cigars,
looking at you and laughing at you. So please still show up because I
don't know. Again, I'm naive to how people didn't no Lonely Virgil.
Yet I can't emphasize that enough. No, people didn't know that he would
do anything for ten dollars. No one knew this, right at least I
didn't, And I followed wrestling extremely closely, and something like that would definitely
have caught my attention if it was well known. So anyway, we're going,
we're going, we're going, and I'm trying to keep him on the
hook, and we're talking price, and we'll talk price with your dad here
in just a moment. But he says, Jack after the phone conversation,
it in he loves the idea. He loves of course he does. In
my retrospect, of course he does. He's living in a fucking studio,
you know, with like the TV on top of his head basically because there's
no square footage a hijack. This is Virgil. Did you hear anything on
the request for October fourth, twenty twelve, Thank you, Virgil. Hijack
is Virgil, and man only calling you shortly and then attached just the contract.
I asked him for his vitals so we could book him a flight.
So excited to have you coming out, I said, and he responded,
including a date of birth. Okay, so all I can say is,
here's the date of birth that Virgil would have given you if you were booking
him a flight in twenty twelve. April seventh, nineteen sixty one. That's
the cafe birthday that everybody apparently walked back after he died. Thanks Virgil,
Michael C. Jones perfect, Thanks Jack. I'll mail the contract this morning,
Sunday, August twenty six, twenty twelve. You should have by Wednesday,
August twenty eight, twenty twelve. Thank you very much, Virgil.
Great. As soon as I receive it, I'll have the deposit sent along.
Thank you, Jack. Thanks Virgil, Hi Jack, I got a
delivery confirmation. I hope everything is great and I am ready to do this
affair. Thank you, Virgil, still don't have it. When did your
confirmation say it was delivered? Do you have a tracking number, Jack?
Do you have a fax number? I can fax a copy to you.
Thank you, Virgil, Jack. That delivery confirmation was from my post office
saying it takes four days from Coropolis, Pennsylvania to where you are. You
can give me a fax number, then you have both. Thank you,
Virgil. I mean you know what, I'll put it in my inbox.
I didn't put it in the out box. I'm sorry. Great news.
Contract came in the mail today. I should have the Western Union to you
by Monday. And what do I have in my fucking hand? The contract
signed by Virgil with the stamp he put on it and his name. Come
on, fuck fun you get it fucking notarized. Got a note? Thank
you Jack. The event will be great. Thank you again, Virgil.
Can't wait. Thanks Hi, Mike. A check will be sent overnight on
Tuesday to you at your address. We would have the checks in today,
but it's ally. Let me know when you've received it should be all set.
Thanks again. We're all very excited to have you. Thank you Jack.
I will let you know as soon as I get the check. Thank
you Virgil, Jack, And okay, this September third, six pm.
I'm going to send you the check. I will let you know when I
get the check. September third, six, thirteen pm. Thirteen minutes later,
Jack, can you send a money order please? Thirteen minutes after saying
okay, fine. This is the way this man's mind works. Did I
ignore him? I must have ignored him. Oh God, I must have
ignored him, because then he sends something. September fifth, Hi, Jack,
was the money sent FedEx or express mail over night? Thank you,
Virgil. Hi Mike, I spoke with John yesterday. He's prepared to write
a personal check and send it, but now has to go get a money
order. Per your request, you get a money order like this. By
the way, he's real busy. He might be a day or two.
I've checked with her a day, but I've heard back. I'll let you
know as soon as I do. I've booked your flight and we'll forward you
the information right now. Thanks caller emailed any questions. Can see a personal
check if you want to see for cent I guess. Thank you for the
flight info. Thank you, Virgil. Jack. The flight is great and
John can sent a check next day mail. It will be great. Thank
you, Michael Jones, Virgil. Jack, when will he send it?
The checker money order? Thank you, Virgil? I repeat, okay.
September fifth, twenty twelve, one thirty three pm. Yes, Jack,
the flight is great. John can send a check next day mail. It
will be great. Thank you. That's one thirty three pm. That same
day, six to eleven pm, Jack, When will he send the checker
money order? Jack? Jack? I didn't get the check yet. They
call him Mike Jones because he's Jones and Jack. I didn't get the check
yet. Did he fend it? It's the same day, verge, Yeah,
fame me delivery right exactly? Did he send again? I wrote back
in the next day or two. I'll let you know for sure as soon
as I can. Getting very nervous at this point, very nervous, or
he's just gonna assume he's not gonna get the money and say no, okay,
thank you, Jack, Thank you, Virgil. Hi, Mike Jack
here from Boston. Again, thank you, Virgil. I would like to
chat with you on the phone prior October fourth to go over some details.
Please give me a call Jack. I will call this morning September twenty eight,
twenty twelve, and that is where the email chain ends. Oh my
god, should we call your dad? Yeah? That is I don't know
if you. I don't remember you reading that stuff when we first told.
You've probably never heard it. I don't think so that's unbelievable. I'm nervous
for you. Yeah. Oh god, he's busy. What hello? John?
Probably King and Queens now there No, that's on until eleven, so
our time is short here. Well, thank you for doing this, John,
Thanks for jumping on the lapsed fan It's appropriate. Anybody who joined us
at our fan get together at the TD Garden in Boston for Survivor series got
to meet you and it was wonderful. You won high marks from all of
our listeners that attended, and so I'm sure many are thrilled to hear your
voice again to talk about I'm sure one of your proudest moments coming out of
pocket for your manchild's son to have a wrestler come to his bachelor party.
Thoughts, Well you are you and I spoke and thought, let's see what
could we do for JP's bachelor party that he would really appreciate? He said,
Strippers wrestling strippers wrestling wrestling, no question. Well, especially if I'd
known you had the choice, I'd have been pissed and we could have had
both. Actually, we could have had he could have stripped. That would
have been okay. Virgil seems to think that that was the plan. Anyway.
Apparently according to Well, I was talking to I probably told you this
John back in the day. But I mean the first time I talked him
on the phone for like an hour and a half explaining what we wanted because
it supposed to be like a roast, But I was explaining, how'd just
be hilarious if he just showed up and he can't stop telling me, Oh,
it's going to be so much fun. There's gonna be bitches all over
the place. We're gonna get him naked, drunk. I'm like, I
had don't have the heart to tell this guy like there are there is There
are no bitches at this thing unless you count us, right, yeah,
right, exactly exactly. So, if I remember correctly, John, we
were stomping around Lowell right, trying to get our tuxes in range. Yes,
and we were brain rights because we both had the same appointment time,
so we had some quality time together. We're walking the streets and we're like,
what can we do? And I said, you know, we always
just have a joke about what if we hired Virgil to show up at a
party back in the college days. And I had no idea if it was
at all possible. But one thing I didn't want to do is go down
that road and then find out that he wanted more than I could afford.
So I approached the delicate question of you know, do I have your blessing
John to pursue this? And what was your thought? Of course, of
course for the boy, of course, whatever it took. Did you is
his memory correct? Did you bring a ring and some toys to the bachelor
party? Yes, yes, that's right I brought. I brought the ring,
and I brought his his wrestling figures, which, by the way,
he would get a bowel. You know, he cut off, he takes
off the arms and legs, and reattached different arms and legs to his to
his wrestling his wrestling figures. Yep, but I brought those, we did?
I forgot? I brought a box. You're right, we can right
back up. Thanks, he was he was honored. Okay, he was
honored. Yeah, So we get to talking and we had to this plan
and I find a way to get in touch with this guy and he names
his price, and I ask you, John, do you remember the price?
I think it was like two grand, just about two, yes,
twelve twelve fifty to twelve fifty up front, twelve fifty to show, okay,
And I don't know if And he thought we had one thousand and two.
We had to feed him and he had to eat. Oh, he
had to eat, as did We put him up, We flew him out,
We put up with him as well, and uh, and he just
he wanted He thought we had one two and fifty dollars in a briefcase.
And he was like he was so distressed to get a personal check at the
end of that bachelor party, so distressed. Really, I didn't know that
walking around Really, do you remember JP, how many times he would ask
us, is there a bank open? Like he needed to make this liquid
as soon as possible. All all I remember, honestly that he kept asking
for was the food, like that he was just starving, as if he
hadn't eaten in Mike, Yes, two weeks. I probably told him there
would be food, thinking there was because it was like a you know,
a thing like a cigar bar, kind of like a party, and so
we had to take him out for pasta afterwards. And that's as we were
talking. Really, it was me, JP, Tim and Eric. You
said, right pass yeah, yeah, yeah, and not everybody went we
just don't you were there. I don't think you were there, Dad,
No, I think I had. I think I was done. Yeah,
I don't blame I need your perspective. I need your perspective because everybody we
can talk about on this night, you know, wrestling fans or close to
wrestling fans, so they're you know, Virgil means something to them. But
for you and your friends, this guy is a complete nobody, Like who
is this guy? What did you think when he walked in the bar?
What are your memories? Oh god, you know it's twenty twelve. I
have to think that's well. I never had I never met him. I
didn't even see him because in those days, I don't think I don't think
we've had pictures of him, And so I was depending on what that you
would recognize him when he walked in. But I was just I mean,
my attention was fully on JP's reaction when he walked in, because that was
JP. It was a total surprise, or you had no idea fleet surprise.
I had no clue at all, not even and I was I was
so excited more than the wedding. I was so howbout that night because I
knew how I knew he COVID stories about about talking about him in uh,
you know, in college, and so I was so excited about him coming
that that was the highlight of the weekend. Practically, Virgil walking into that
room was the highlight of the weekend. Do you remember him just sitting there
at a stool awkwardly with a microphone where we just suddenly decided to turn it
into an interview because he wasn't about to roast JP. He didn't know him.
Yeah, that's right, and I just I'm sure no one prepared anything,
but even you know, no, of course I wouldn't expect you to.
It would have been for nought anyway, John, I'm gonna read the
agreement. Okay, this is what he sent me back in the mail.
This agreement is entered into this I wrote this sough. This agreement is entered
into this twenty fourth day of August twenty twelve, by and between Michael Jones
and John Sorrow. Michael Jones agrees to provide a personal appearance and performance upon
the following terms. Place of appearance Boston, Mass Specific information to be determined
prior to October fourth. Date of appearance Thursday, October fourth to Friday,
October fifth. Time of appearance four pm until two am. An appearance fee
of two thousand, five hundred dollars as follows. Upon execution of this agreement,
John Sorrow shall pay to Michael Jones a deposit. It's too much.
It's too much that we got your dad to pay Virgil. It's just like,
how does that happen? Oh my god, there's a contract we actually
signed. Yeah, I made him sign it because he's a he's a carneie.
You never know, right, he's a goof. He's gonna fucking say,
hey, hey, let him rest in peace. Come on exactly,
just some respect. Respect. You're presuming he's actually dead. I don't know
if I believe it yet. Shall pay to Michael Jones a deposit of twelve
hundred and fifty dollars. Following the appearance, John Sorrow shall pay to Michael
Jones the balance of twelve hundred and fifty dollars agreed to by Michael Jones,
August twenty six, twenty twelve. John, I want you to know that
shortly after the bachelor party, my brother actually went to a wrestling autograph convention
and having heard about this that we did this, and he was talking to
a wrestler named Raven, and he was telling him, yeah, oh yeah,
my brother just hired Virgil for a bachelor party. How much you pay
him? And when he told Raven how much we paid Virgil, he said
I would have done it for fifty dollars. So Virgil fucked us again.
Well, I like to think we kept him alive an extra year, you
know exactly. There's no telling well worth it was well worth it. Can
you imagine it was so well worth it if it had been Raven, you
think can you imagine the misery I would have been? Yeah, it's not
your favorite, is it at all? What do you remember about the look
on his face, John, when you say that, KP. It was
just total shock. It was total shock. I think his mouth was a
gain. It was it was it was the best, It was the best.
It was the best. Surprise ever, did you notice the fear we
couldn't have done anything better than that? It was great? Did you notice
the fear the holster showed up? That would that would have been amazing.
We'd still be paying for it, exactly. It would have been sued the
whole thing exactly. You said there was going to be pasta there, brother,
Possumania was going to be there. Dude, am the fact that you
know what? My back still hurts brother from this engagement. Dude, what
what you know? People haven't had the chance to hear from you, John
over the years on lapsed fan What of JP's and I guess mine, but
really JP's lifelong wrestling fandom. What have you made of it? You're not
a fan yourself, I'm not, but I put up with it and I've
I've nurtured it. We have about five million dollars worth of equipment here of
toys, uh that I'm trying to get him to take take with him.
He's taking most of them. And actually in our the lower level of our
house became became a wrestling rink or wrestling space, and all the guys in
the neighborhood who have to be around JP's age, he would have these wrestling
matches downstairs, and everybody would leave wounded injured when they left the house after
after playing. His parents were complaining it was it was rough. It was
a rough time in the neighborhood. But now it was We had fun with
all that stuff, and I was very happy to support his favorite. Who's
your favorite? Do you remember your favorite? My favorite? What wrestler?
You mean professional wrestler? Yeah, do you remember who your favorite was?
Oh? Oh, wait a minute, Oh come on. I used to
call him by his formal name. JP helped me out, Sydney, Sydney,
Sydney. What's his name, Sydney Justice. Oh yeah, Justice,
Sydney Justice. Oh. And of course it was a lovely miss uh what
was her name, Miss Francis. What's her name? What's her name?
Miss uh Elizabeth? Elizabeth, Miss Elizabeth, miss Francis. Instead, that's
much better. Yeah. Oh, actually Miss Francis was on Ding Gung school.
I forgot that was when I was a kid. I was gonna say,
he turned up Miss Elizabeth, the beauty queen of the w WF.
You call her miss Francis, and she just sounds like some ham and Egger
history teacher. You know, Miss Francis weighed about three hundred pounds and she
had the puppets. Anyway, I won't get into that. So she's like,
she's a Catholic school history teacher, right, Miss Francis? No,
yeah, Miss Elizabeth, Yeah, I went through all that torture with her.
That was rough. Her and Randy, Randy what's his name? Ran
Dandy? Randy is he Randy Savage? Yeah, Randy Savage, Randy Savage.
Yep, I remember them all. Listen. I got to know them.
Well. Did you after the after the the Bachelor party, did you
talk to Tom Fozzio about it? Did you? Did you get his thoughts?
Do you remember he had no clue? This was totally insane. He
got He got a boot out of it, though he thought it was funny
when I explained what all this was, he got a boot out of it.
He had no clue. Actually, nobody had a clue except you and
Jack. Five people. There were five people there, and only four of
them really knew who Virgin was. I said, it's it's you. It
was you, it was Jack, it was it was me. Bill and
Tim. Those are the five people. Yeah, Bill and Tim, that's
right, But only four of us actually knew you know Virgil, right,
no clue, right, right? And I only knew him because of Jack.
Jack introduced me to Virgil during those walks in downtown Wall. Well,
I'm here to tell you, over a decade later, John, I'm sorry
about that. Well, I'm sorry, my my. My sympathies are out
to you and your fans the loss of our dear friend Virgil and may he
rest in peace in wrestling heaven. Absolutely couldn't agree more. And John,
thank you for taking the time, Thank you for bankrolling the venture, because
you created a memory that has rung throughout ten years of doing this podcast.
It's I don't know how that night got so much legs. It's true.
It was a great night, the whole thing, from the Center to the
cigar bar to Virgil it was. It was a terrific night night to remember.
John. Thank you. You're welcome, guys, I love you.
How great is that? That's unreal? I mean, delivered with all the
sincerity of of the critic. Yep, yep, exactly from Jay that was
his name? Oh yeah, from uh yeah it thanks do so was Omar
there? Uh yeah? I think so? Okay, So you should include
him as someone who knows Virgil. That's true. You got me nervous there.
I was like, waitmember, even there, I think he was remember
him? He was there now, Omar, Yeah, so there were five
of us who knew who he was, So don't short change him. Sorry,
Omar. How about this agreement, boss? How about the agreement?
I can't I sent you a picture because I saved I saved it in the
envelope and I couldn't remember where the hell I put it. And then when
this happened, this this idea, I was like looking all over the place
for it, and you know how this always goes. Of course, once
you turn everything upside down to find a physical something, you realize you had
it digitally the whole fucking time in your email. But that's fine. Yeah,
at least I'm here with a sign, Dude. I love that.
I mean, is it valid because my dad didn't sign it? That's a
good point. It's valid on his side, right, But I don't know.
That's good. That's a good point. Now I look at the picture
you sent me my dad, so like, is it a really valid?
Did he did he actually have to pay him the money? My god,
Mike Jones or at least the balance. Did he have to pay him the
balance? We don't know. That's wild, That's fucking wild, And I
love too, Like all this shit's happening, I'm I'm in fucking Utah at
this time. Oh right, you're working the theater out there. Yeah.
Yeah, it's fucking crazy. Mike Jones, Well spun a little time.
I'm reflecting further on on his wrestling career, like why we've already kind of
done it, but before we welcome in our esteemed guests from the night,
just just thoughts on why Virgil came to be a person that would be like
the shortlist most hilarious person you could hire for something like this. Why,
my god, why just I think because he's there, because because it's like
I guess, I guess here's why he's the last person you would think to
hire for a fucking personal appearance. Totally, there was no way he got
another booking like this ever in his life. Like why would you know?
I guess I think because I remember one of the things that we when we
when when you me and Tim saw that that posting or whatever the hell we
saw, I feel like it's like, why, who the fuck would pay
for just Virgil, like why would he make an Like why would I want
him to make an appearance? That's why you want to make appearance, because
you want like why would you? And that's it. That to me is
the is the only the only reason. It really was, Like I'm not
kidding when I say the thought was he'd come to the party before the bachelor
party idea and just like stand there like we were, so that like for
the whole joke of the party thing was that he didn't actually have to do
anything. He was just invited to be a guest, like he's being paid
to just be like everybody else at the party, right, and to like
basically you let us just talk about him, right like right, or like
just kind of be there, and if we felt like going up the talking
about stuff, we'd go up to him talking to him. You know,
that'd be something to put in the contract. Guests reserve the right to talk
to the guest if if, if desired. However, to be perfectly here,
we are under no obligation to engage you in conversation throughout the course of
this Uh, We're under no obligation to feign interest as you feigned moves in
the ring, not that you would know anything about fainting or fainting as it
were, That's true. So was it him knocking out DBS with the title
Summer Slam ninety one that did it for you as a kid? Is that
what it was? I didn't even see that. I mean, let me
think here, like when like the worst or earliest Virgil memory, if you
had to get that earliest Virgil memory, would have been right after Tuesday and
Texas and he was feuding with Repo Man, and of course that was a
fucking main event drawing feud. I mean, who wouldn't be drawn to that
feud Virgil and Repo Man. And I would have to say, I think
probably that the the really the the biggest memory I would have had at the
time, because I mean, you know, once you establish a guy as
a good guy that era at Babyface in that era, obviously I become a
fan of them because that those are the rules, you know, like Babyface
should become a fan at least my rules, I should say, those are
the rules that I abided by. And so it came to the point where
if he was if he was like the one guy against a bunch of heels.
I would always root for him as if he was Hulk Hogan, you
know what I mean, Like I would root from Matt Hard because the good
guy, a good guy meets in all cases, and it was such a
must. It was, you know, it was like it was fucking crushing
if a heel won, like Undertaker beat Hulkogan, like folks, oh miserable.
You felt a sense of dread. You felt like like like your country
was being taken over the hostile force. Even the fact that Hogan won by
DQ at WrestleMania eight is one of the most disappointing things about being a wrestling
fan right right there. And I'll say I think probably the most impactful memory
at the time, because I always remember, like you know, I always,
for some reason remember that that Repo Man feud because I read about it
so much in the magazine at the time, you know, I was so
in touch with that. And it happened right around or right maybe not right
maybe right after Tuesday or right before Tuesday in Texas because the text toothing in
Texas was the tag match and Repo Man caused Verge to lose the million Dollar
Belt back to Deep back to deeps and so that was my go to feud
for Virgil, like Repo Man was was virgils Andre the giant. Those are
the hasbros you picture clacking together. Oh yeah, when it came to that,
the two of them would always like it was always a go to feud,
and Virgil had that spring loaded punch, right Virgil, Yeah, Virgil,
Virgil. Virgil's figure was good Man's was awful was because it was the
t bone back, t bone back. Yeah, fucking fraudulent joke of a
of a of a figure. You send me something. I didn't send you
anything, but I heard that noise. Brother, it's going on, dude,
probably the countdown for to bring into our esteem colleagues. Do I need
to get on the call. Yeah, it wouldn't hurt. Yeah, let
me let me forward you the info. H we'll call this one in the
ring. Folks love it. But yeah, good uh uh. But I'll
say, probably the most profound memory that I had early in my fandom regarding
Virgil would have been his nose getting broken by Sid Yes, I was going
to say that. For WrestleMania that probably would have that was huge. He
played a big part whatever money that match drew Hogan and Sid at WrestleMania.
You can't say Virgil had nothing to do with it, because what was it
about that angle? He just he just took him apart, exactly that,
He just took him apart. And Virgil was a great sympathetic baby face for
that role. He was. He was somebody that people really wanted to see
be like a you know, a plucky underdog. After he broke free from
debias. You wanted to see him succeed and to swim on his own.
And the kind of kept that alive for about a year in the fan's minds.
But Sid Sid just undid it. It was like, Okay, Virgil's
going nowhere because Sid is a fucking killer. Yeah, Sid Sid ruined him.
He wore the face mask right, yeah, yeah, and was here
in the ninety three rumble. He was. It wasn't ninety rumble. What
happens there? Um he goes uh he's in early I believe, and he
goes ra after tbios but gets nothing really relevant, nothing, nothing crazy happens.
I was reading. There was actually and we may have covered this when
we did the ninety three Rumble, which actually served as our Bobby Heenan tribute
show, because he's so fucking hilarious on that broadcast that he was actually Virgil
was actually a late replacement in the Rumble and wasn't originally scheduled to be in
there, and I'd pretty much wrapped up his time with WWF. I oh
no, because I mean that magazine cover came out later in the year,
in August August August issue of the magazine August ninety three, he was still
in the sup three. Yeah, he's that's when he fucking doesn't And I'll
say I think part of it too. One of the things is, uh,
in the magazine, he also does this little fucking thing with Bob Backland,
you know, where he's like eating, like Bob Becklan's making fucking vegetable
smoothies or something, and and and and I'll find that one too, because
that that thing is fucking that's just fucking hilarious too too. He's he's like,
yeah, he's eating, he's like making yeah, like vegetable smooths,
and the Vergion just like sitting there as if as if I don't know what,
but like, okay, you're gonna learn how to eat. Bob Backlans
his daddy exactly like Papa Backland is gonna fucking Papa Backman. Well, it
depends if he hits the atomic drop or not. That's very true. But
that's very true. It was a long It was a long loop to close
with Virgil. And you might remember that when we went out for WrestleMania in
New Jersey. We went to wrestle Icon and he was there. Now you
were at the garden. Oh, this is when I went on my personal
sojourn over there because you were working. I think it was right after the
tour we gave I'd imagine after the tour, and I put some audio up
of it as I walked around and kind of journaled what I saw. And
I ran into Virtil. He had a table set of at restlicon what do
you know? And I went up to him and had a bag in my
hand. I had bought an action figure or something. And I walked up
to him and I said, Virgil, remember us we hired you a bachelor
party in Boston. Yeah, yeah, yeah, what's up? Man?
Hey? What you got in the bag? I mean? He responded to
me like like he didn't remember the bachelor party at all, which is fine.
I don't give a shit if he does. But he wanted to know
what was in the bag, and I never could figure out what that was
about. And the more I hear about his reputation in the convention circuit preparing
for the Tribute show, I feel like he probably was trying to figure is
there something in there that I could offer to sign, sign and then ask
you to pay for it, even though you didn't agree before I signed it
to pay for it? That was his thing or or or uh uh,
you know, or if you got something that he can that he can take,
and we got food in there for him, maybe yeah, maybe he
wanted he wanted to pasta carbonara or something like that. We got a snack
in there. You have food and there in the bag. It's in the
bag. It's in the bag. And so you know, we just of
course we we we learned the hard way that we were dealing with a carneye,
that we were dealing with somebody that you know, saw numbers on our
face and nothing else, which is you know, fine, fair play to
him, sure, And uh, I think it came home most starkly when
we launched a certain something called the Lapsed Fan. Yes, and I emailed
him and I said, hey, you remember us. Yeah, it was
such a great time, and thank you so much for that. Hey,
you know we're doing a podcast now. We're doing a podcast now, and
it would it would just be so great if you could come on and reflect
on a segment we'd like to call on the Verge. This is when we
were very naive about how we could involve how advisable it was to involve people
in the business, I think. I think at the time we also figured,
hey, you know what, he's a friend. Yeah, you know,
we took him out for dinner afterwards, like, we're cool with this
guy, right, and this might be a chance for him to say,
hey, I'm coming to this comic convention. You might want to come see
me. No, how naive we were. Oh yes, July sixth,
twenty fourteen, so just weeks after launching the show, we were in the
middle of the journey. Hey, Mike, please confirm you'll be oh wait
a minute, looking here, Please confirm we be available to record an interview
with JP and I for our podcast. He must have agreed to do it,
That's why I felt so jilted. Yes, yes, he did,
you know what, I agree, he agreed and then, and then he
had to hit us with this. Okay, right, this is July six,
twenty fourteen. Hey Mike, please confirm you'll be available tomorrow to record
an interview with JP and I for for our podcast. Looking forward to it.
Thanks, he writes back the next day, Jack, my fee is
seven hundred and fifty dollars for the podcast after agreeing to do it. I
hope I repeat, this is the sentence. Jack, my fee is seven
hundred and fifty dollars for the podcast. What's the problem. I hope that
is cool? Thank you? Virtual. Oh sorry, can't pay, see
Jack, When I do a comic con, they tell who is going to
be there. In other words, I don't need to do a podcast to
advertise my pards. Yeah, apparently it don't verge because the lines around the
fucking block. Okay, right, and the line's wrong the block, but
like you're in the wrong building. When you talk about WWF things, you
get paid because the WWF here h E R E about it. Yeah,
wwa F would be totally fine. That's what he fucking wrote to you.
That's what he wrote, because WWF would be totally fine with you doing an
interview if you got paid for it, and they made no money off r
exactly. Yeah, dude, I don't think you're on a Legends contract pell
and he he followed up one more time and said, Jack, I am
sorry I could not do your podcast because I still work for the WWE.
That why I had to say seven hundred and fifty dollars maybe another time.
Thanks again, No, why would there be another time? There's no time
changes. The view never changes, daddy. So here we are, ladies
and gentlemen. This is These folks can bear witness. That's what we can
say. These folks can bear witness. We have assembled for you in our
on the Verge tribute looking back on the life and times of he who made
the trek from Kropolis, Pennsylvania to Boston back in twenty twelve to absolutely sounds
a little bit better here than it did the night of Bill Knows the Truth.
Fucking hell. Virgil he made his entrance, and the gentleman joining us
here. What an opportunity to get us all back together virtually here to reflect
on many vantage points on Virgil walking in with a million dollar belt, missing
a few studs ready to talk about his fourteen inch long cock and and smoke
some cigars with your boys. It was quite a night. And we've got
Tim, We've got Bill, We've got Eric, we've got Omar. Of
course I have JP and myself to look back on this night, and we
got a particular way. We've got to do this because there's a lot to
get to. But I think probably the best way to start, gentlemen,
I'm sure you would agree, is to share with everybody if you have your
zoom screens video that the mighty Bill who. By the way, folks on
the let's introduce Bill, because Bill's been talked about on the air over the
years. We refer to Bill as Bill Demot because his first name is Bill,
and apparently that's enough. Oh Bill, Bill's the agile big man.
Yeah, I remember you moon salting all the time. Bill, reflect on
reflect for us quickly, because I forgot you were recording this thing. What
what what? What was your instinct when Virgil walked through those doors? Oh
God, So I felt like I had really dropped the ball all communication wise
on trying to help you get the event together, Jack, trying to get
trying to get the PA and trying to do all this stuff. And I
think that's like the only evidence of the entire night. I remember taking a
single other picture except for that, and such a phone to the time that
you know, it's just like I forgot that phone videos used to be this
bad. It's like it's like a real video player from like nineteen eighty seven
with my HTC nova? Is that what it was? Some old ht It
had a kickstand on it or something. It was a big, big fuck
all phone. And honestly, so I've been following, you know, the
activity that you have been doing with his passing, and when JP reached out,
I'm like, I'm just gonna I'm gonna send him the video off hand.
I mean, surely he's seen this in the past, you know,
decade, and to see the I couldn't believe it. And I must never
have sent it out. It's got you know, the thousands something news,
so at least it's been seen by the masses. But I was just so
glad I got the damn thing. Jackie. You don't waste much time,
I think before asking, he's get the biggest cock and the biss as well.
I mean, I was like, all right, how do we get
this party started? Because there are people in this cigar bar who couldn't give
a fuck about Virgil. And that's most of us, let alone JP's relative.
What's that too? I'm assuming most people didn't give this about Virgil.
I figured they were at best four of us. Honestly, the people who
knew who and what Virgil is are on this call. Omar, How excited
were you to see Virgil? I mean fucking pumped. I'm trying to even
remember how much I knew going in. I don't remember how who I told
honestly, think I think Jack, Yeah, you make me like you might
have to be there. Oh like somebody's going to show up, And I'm
like, the fun could you be talking about? And then he made that
grand interest when they most of the music started playing, I'm like, let's
fucking go. Eric. I think you said it was what the greatest night
of your life? Is that right? Yeah? Something like that. What
did you think when you saw the Verge? I don't know. If I've
known you over the years, I don't know how much you know about wrestling.
I mean, who You're like, who is this fucking guy? Okay,
so real quick, So I'm a very passive wrestling fan. If it's
on I may watch a few minutes of it, but I do remember.
And I had to go back and get some of my terminology right, because
I knew that I was in the presence of Rape's with the wrestling, so
I had to make sure that I knew what I was talking about. But
it was a real rumble match that a friend of mine had on at his
house, and Virgil hits Dbai with the belt. Oh yeah, anybody remember
that's right? Yep. We asked him about it. So so so I
think I asked somebody It was like, is that the guy that hit the
other guy with the belt? Like the guy who hit the other guy?
Right? Yeah, that's that's pretty much my knowledge of wrestling. So uh
so there you have it. That's uh, that was about my base knowledge
of of where we were at that point. It's so, Bill, did
you know it's going to be Virgil? I don't remember what I told you.
Yes, so you had reached out. I don't know, you needed
like another point person. And so I knew I wasn't expecting the belt.
I really wasn't. Anybody again said, was anybody really expecting the belt?
Oh? Yes? But yeah, so I knew ahead of time and so
I'm watching JP and he's leaning back in the chair. He's got you know,
less than half is a guy left and just perks up when he eventually
hears the music. You can see, yeah almost do the start of the
video here and Jack with an outstanding intro, like, yeah, hit some
points and then he wasn't the only one perked up with a c by the
way, oh shit, Oh you think he was a little bit Virgil Malcolm
Virgil left Clean man. He always talked about how he never did anything besides
cherry coke and breadsticks, jaw snake running clean. Yeah, they were all
right, So you knew it was going to be Virgil. Yeah, yeah,
I was one of the lucky few knowing what the calamity that was going
to come in that door. What I wasn't expecting. Again, he was
so many stories later on, but one of his first couple of sentences was
like, man, it's a terrible job. Man. You're on the road
four months at a time. He's going right down and I think, Jack,
you saw that, and you're like, fuck that tell us about you
know, uh, bitches and cocaine. You know, Yeah, he comes
to a bachelor party. It is telling the groom to be about how fucking
hard it is to keep a family together and all this something. All right,
dude, yeah exactly, Let's talk about your conquests. How about you
make some things up for us like we expected. But I want I want
everybody to know that I didn't expect him to bring the million dollar title either.
I did not request that. I did not expect that. And when
he stepped out of that car that we sent to pick him up on that
sidewalk in the North End and he came out with that thing glittering over his
Peluca Joe blackhoodie, I was like, this is this is not happening.
He did not bring the belt, and he's just like, what's up?
And I'm like, all right, Virgil, I guess we're walking downstairs together.
I said, you wait here, you wait for the music, which
which Bill, we knocked it out of the park with that music. You
could hear it so well. You remember that how much we were struggling to
get the fucking music to work. It was just I'd love to try to
recreate the muffle. But then there's even a tiny glitch in here that you'll
see as well. But you fix it, right, quick. Yeah,
I provided a p a terrible communication. Uh, but it's still it's still
it's so funny because the idea was a roast of JP. That's what we
wanted to do. We want people get up there and you know, make
fun of him, and we brought it. We all roasted him. But
Virgil is not going to know how to roast him. Virgil doesn't know how
to roast a chicken. He's not gonna roa That guy's not gonna have anything
to say about JP. What's up? Man? Yeah, well you're gonna
be bitches of this thing or what it's like? You know, like it
would go so far? O. Mar. When I was talking to this
guy, he was he couldnot stop asking me, like he kept it would
have so much fun. Man, there's going to be bitches everywhere. Wudn't
get him fucked up. We're gonna get pussy in his mouth. I'm like,
dude, oh ma Ohmar, this was not the kind of party he
thought it was going to be. I mean you no, no, no,
that's you know what I've I've always wondered Jack your side of this,
because I can only really remember our container of that fucking cigar bar. Like,
how the fun did you even get him this far? Well, it's
funny because we just spent a lot of time before we connect with you guys
talking about the house. And I read all the emails between me and him.
There was a guy who I knew from the comic book convention circuit.
He was like a PR guy for them, and he also was pr for
a an mm A promotion that the same company owns. So I knew him
and I was like, Hey, I see Virgils on a couple of your
conventions. Can you get me in touch? He writes me back, I'll
send the message to Ted Dibiassi and let you know. Oh my god,
I almost said I told him JP. I said, Jerry, he's not
actually his real life sir. You know that, right, Jesus, we
call him a valet Jack. I was like, Okay, this is awkward.
But now apparently Ted was like an intermediary to get a messages and what
do you know, Mike Virgil Vincent, which his fucking email, writes me
back. He's like, Hey, this is Virgil and he calls me,
talks to me for an hour and a half and he said he would love
to Virgil would love to make the appearance. Yeah, I'm sure he would.
Yeah, it was more than seventy five dollars in a flight. Of
course he's going to be there. I did not know that at the time.
And so he's just like, and I'm letting him. I'm letting his
imagination run wild when he hears bachelor party. You know, oh my god,
he's thinking his he's thinking his stream of com is going to hit the
ceiling fan. That's what he's thinking. He's just gonna rub one out at
the hotel. It's all it's going to happen. But I can't let him
know that because I don't want him to like think of this is like going
to be man children like all over me. And it's what it was exactly.
So that's the story, And then we talked about terms. I got
JP's dad to make the commitment. It took Tim well before we hit play
on this. Motherfucker, Tim, I do need to let people know that
the genesis of the idea of Virgil being at a thing goes back way before
this. This is twenty twelve, the bachelor party. But we used to
talk about when you'd have parties at your house during college, what if we
hired Virgil to just stand there. Right, This goes a decade prior,
I think two thousand and two, we were talking about getting Virgil to come
to my Christmas party. That's what it was. Nothing special. It just
is suburban Connecticut, just a nice house, and it would just be very
strange to have Virgil there, but we wanted him there, right. We
thought this would be a good idea. And my father, you do you
share jp sense that there was more than just a joke when we said that,
that we somehow that there was a glimmer of hope that it could actually
happen one day or just remember it being so such a ridiculous notion that we
would never be acted upon. No, I we we sent some email to
some person and I don't know what it was. We looked up Mike Jones
because but it probably wasn't him. It was probably just some other person named
Mike Jones that got this email. But we did try initially. So,
would you like to come to our Christmas party? And here's what we want
you to do? Stand there and let us pretty much make fun of you,
but not to your face. Right, So it's not gonna be that
humiliating. I think we offered cookies. Yeah, yeah, there was like
sit there, you know, just stand there, and we're gonna pay you
to be a guest. We're gonna right, We're gonna pay We're gonna pay
you to say Virgil was at the party, you know, like that's all
that, That's what we're paying you for. It doesn't matter what happened to
the party. It just seems so ridiculous. But it was as we talked
about it media, we didn't. We weren't saying, oh, we'll share
this with everyone. We'll let everyone know that Virgil was there. No one
would know and no one would know who he was. It would be just
like the Bachelor Party, Like ninety percent of the people there would have no
idea who this guy was or why he mattered. And if we explained it,
he'd matter almost even less. But I don't know if you guys,
Eric, did you know that JP's dad brought his wrestling toys and his ring
to the Bachelor party. I did know that after the fact, not originally,
so you didn't see you didn't see those those Hasbro trinkets in the wild.
I did not. Just so pathetic were the bloody ones. JP.
I don't. I don't remember what they were, of course you don't.
I just remember I remember the ring with my makeshift steel cage. And I
think you brought some of the figures that I painted over with and I imagine
some of them had like fifteen year old blood on them. So it's possible.
No wonder he wanted to come to the bachelor party. Yeah, right,
anyway, this is going to be great. So thanks to Bill,
we have the footage. Now again, low grade videophone technology was not crystal,
it was not four K, so it's hard to hear. But know
that I'm going to be pausing strategically when I can discern something that was said
that that's worthy of comment, and we're to take it through. We're sharing
screens. Here looks like my back to start because Virgil has yet to enter
the room. Okay, you need to picture this. It's a cigar bar
and a basement. Is this like a bus? Is this like a restaurant?
What's up? I don't remember. It's a bar. My dad used
to bring me with his friend Mike McCarthy, Mike McBride, and we would
go down there, have drinks, smoke, cigars. That's it, got
it. Occasionally they have a game dinner with it's right there. They would
have like a goose or something. Yeah, they have like uh venice and
ship game meat hunted and caught by Paul evec And wait until we get to
the meat sauce portion of this. I know a few of you guys know
about this. Not by Paul be but served by hunters helms lady when he
had an accent. Okay, all right, when he was all right,
forget it. So so here we go. This is everyone's sitting in sort
of the galley if you will. You know, different circular tables. You've
got JP at his cluster of friends. You've got his dad and his associates.
You know, you have you have guys at sweater vests in this thing.
Okay, you need to know this. And and and Bill and I
are standing at the front of the house facing the people, with the bar
behind us and the pa that Bill brought. So we've got two speakers and
a couple of mics, but like a real nice space shack. He's lovely
brick and the bar was really nice. And then you had Virgil. That's
true. Yeah, not to spoil the surprise, but so so I was.
I was waiting. I mean, you have no idea, like I
can't stop talking. Oh tell me, Tim, I've never gotten a bird's
eye view on how I was at What do you remember? Oh you kind
of you kind of you were kind of like Tony Khan at one of his
media scrums. You were just incredibly nervous, Like I knew the version was
coming. I think you had told me like a couple of weeks earlier,
but I didn't want to miss out on like all the JP nests of everything,
so I was focusing on him. But then I saw you start pacing
at the back, and every fifteen seconds he would say something like I think
he's here. I think he's Virgil by the way, I'm talking about Virgil.
But I think he said something like, I hope he brings the belt.
Really I said that, I was, Yeah, fingers were crossed and
they he disappointed. Oh my god, So I was. I was.
I must have been waiting for a phone call because I knew that because I
don't even know I probably had an email on my phone. Then yeah,
I probably did, But anyway, I just knew that if I didn't hear
by a certain time, like it was going to be this huge you know,
question mark on the night we had the roast. You know, I
always kept I kept my options open. I always had in my mind like
if we have to k fabe that no one was ever supposed to come,
we just go right into the roast and and that'll be fine. But of
course I want Virgil to show up. And when the word came that he
was up there, I had to like duck out. Do you remember me
disappearing, JP? Or yes, really I do? Because everyone was like
Bill wend and Bill was hilarious. Tim you said something. You didn't roast
me though I didn't want to. I wanted to. I wanted to be
nice. And then and then you guys made me make fun of you.
That's fine, Omar, did you roast me? I genuinely told you what
a genuine asshole you are? All right, that's great? Yeah, okay,
good, I'm a fan of man. I love you. That's a
shoot. How about you? Eric? I don't remember did you get up
there? No? Absolutely not? Okay, all right, that's why I
don't remember. Absolutely not. So all right, So I disappeared, And
what did you think JP did? You think I was up to mischief or
that I had to go to the bathroom or Yeah. I was kind of
confused because I'm like, he's missing all this stuff, and isn't he going
to roast me? And then all of a sudden you came back. Yep,
And I was equally or more confused now before we played the clip.
But I'm going to set this up as long as I fucking want to,
so I don't give a shit if I don't hit play for another hour and
a half. Okay, there were things that need to be established here.
One of them is that you have no idea, but the realization and comes
over your face. Your dad talked about this. You realize that I'm about
to do something very naughty. And what what do you remember about the first
maybe Q that you got that I was up to something. I mean,
my disappearance was one thing, but I start to make reference on the microphone
to a very special guest and stuff like that. Do you remember when you
clicked in your mind? Yes, because now I remember, I thought you'd
gone away to dress up as Vince nick Mann. I thought you were going
to roast me as Vince Jick Mahnon. I planned on it, but I
couldn't find someone to play Janelle Grant brother. All right, So when it
was clear, it was so when it was you can take a pawn out
of that sentence? So what when? So when I come out not as
Vince, then what? I was kind of confused? And then you said
a special guest and I really had no clue, and then the music hit
it and it was just I mean, I went from from complete shock to
sheer joy to say he was hilarious, two nervous, and then concern.
Yeah, horrified right there, and then sheer terror? Why were you?
Why? Terror? Terror? Because I knew nobody outside of you, Curse
Bill and Omar knew who this Carnie was. And I was like, what
the fuck are we going to do with him now? And I was like,
all right, I got a sober up. I'm like think and think
and start asking questions and go from there. You're on now, pal,
Yeah, right, all of a sudden, I had to perform, and
so did he. And so here's the moment and all of its glory as
I make the announcement that we have every special cast at JP's bachelor party.
Oh my god, what a goom what a groom. You know, I've
got to choose to getting hit ahead in a couple of times and get in
the case all formem. What is that a reference to? Does anybody know?
Oh? It's ninety eight? Yes, Arn Anderson when he introduces the
new Horseman in Greenville, South Carolina, and doesn't introduce the returning Rick Flair,
and then he stops and goes, what a goof? I forgot Rick
Flair? And so this is the closest week you get to that. My
girl almost forgot our special. Now you're nervous, there you go, Bill,
Oh, what's going? Well? I'll try together. Yeah, you
just said get out of here? Did you hear that? JP? Yes?
I did. Well. Were you thinking get out of here? No?
I don't really know what I was thinking. I don't think I knew
was virtual? Maybe I did. Apparently he's arriving on the MBT a John
Sorrow just a sides you do a Rick Flair straut in the middle of it.
That that because he's a special guest. That chaotic voice voice over in
her net protocol sound you just heard is what phone sounded like when you recorded,
you know, forty guys screaming in a basement back then you're the teddy
be asking music. This is where it sunk in for you. Look at
you sit there looking at the back with your hand on your mouth. How
terrified. Oh god, it was so worth it for this. How ayahaya?
Dude, that's the biggest pop he got ever in like twenty years.
There's no question. So all right, we're going around the horn, tim
your first thoughts. I was exuberant that he was there. I mean,
it was It's what we had talked about for a decade. Exactly. Yeah,
all right, Bill thoughts. Genuinely, even despite knowing ahead of time,
he seemed like someone who is too famous, wow to get at something
like this, saying something oh yeah. But it was quickly dispelled, you
know after a few minutes, like, oh no, this is exactly where
he belongs. After his mouth, Well, he needs a dirty table and
some headshots autographs. He didn't least, he didn't have that between us and
them. I was telling you, we were talking about this before we connect
with you guys. This is three years before the Lonely Virgil thing even happened,
before it became an internet meet. This is this is years before he
ever had meat sauce as his calling card. We got we started all this
ship. That's the way I look at it. I mean, he didn't
no one knew of him as like the guy that no one wanted to go
to his autograph table yet that hadn't started the fucking what was it? The
tumbler, the lonely Virgil tumbler, pip of him at empty desks at various
convention centers around the country, no one giving a fuck about him making himself
available for pictures and autographs. Eric, your thoughts is that the guy that
hit the other guy with the belt? We're getting there, still googling after
all these years. Huh? So he walks into here, like, who
the fuck is this? What are these people going crazy for? This is
a perspective I need. Yeah, for sure, I had. I had
very very little knowledge of what was going on at that point. Oh,
Mark, I went on a bit of a journey. I'll say, like,
I was fucking hyped, you know, talk to me about well they
have but so many black heroes and interesting you know, good call. So
I'm like, I'm like, all right, Virgil, let's fucking go.
Wait a minute, did Virgil mean something to you as a kid. I
mean I was never talked about this a little bit, you know, him
and Ahmed Johnson. Sure, sure you know the story baby, like it's
it's wild. Yeah, like you know, I was a little, very
little entitdn't care, but you know we had I asked some representation that ship
matters totally. But much like Bill, the mystique started to fade. What
ship got going as we will uncover, you know, yeah maybe once you
noticed the zip ties on the belt that did. Is't stop me. I
give a fuck. I mean, hell, if he didn't come out to
his own music, then the zipcs makes sense. Let's be real, that's
true. I was just talking to JP about like, like, think about
John's friends, okay, his father's friends. Like they know a wrestler's come
into this thing, and you imagine who they pictured, right, like ultimate
warrior, like someone with face paint on muscles, you know, as far
as the eye can see, a guy who looks like a comic book in
Virgil in a hoodie walks through the door, looking like any other person you've
ever seen in your life, And I just can't, I just can't ever
let rest the thought of what their internal monologue must have been so here.
Here's more, we're circling this man like sharks. Look at my uncle,
uncle Mike, He's like, what the fuck is this? Yeah, let's
see him right there in the middle. Yeah, you brought the bare table.
Like no one stands up when he first walks in the room. Yes,
we're treating him like a friend. We haven't seen like a decade.
I mean, I can't. Okay, he walks from the back of the
house to the front of the house and we're just like pacing around him and
pointing at his bell. You brought the belt. It's it's pathetic, of
course. What what were we watching because that looked like Maury Povich with the
do rag on for a little while. Probably Vince's ECW champion, I don't
know, probably, but with the zip ties. I originally thought, oh
is that how it always looked on TV? Right? Well, that's he
tells us later. We know it wasn't the real one because the real one,
according to and was four hundred pounds and caused tend to be asty to
suffer four hundred stitches on his head. I mean, I told JP,
there's more whoppers than a burger king on on the way right now. Let
me tell you, this guy is about to start lying like you wouldn't believe.
Oh he has to say? Is that is old school? He could
have said anything. He could have said you you, you are the dumbest
bunch of motherfuckers I've ever seen in my life. That we would have exploded
in cheers. Yeah, yeah, baby, Looking at the rosy cheek there,
JP. Now I'm getting nervous for sure. Look at the This is
what they would freeze frame, the unsolved mysteries. I'm wondering what are we
going to do with them? Now? I mean this looks like a like
a impressionist pastiche right here, this freeze frame, this is this is like
Dega of the on the night. So what are you feeling here at JP?
Sorry to cut you off. Oh no, I'm nervous because I'm wondering
what the hell are we going to do with them? Now? He's here.
The shock has happened. He's contracted to let me, let me consult
the contract. We've done the pun two a line. Now what Yeah,
we're a minute and a half in. Is this over yet? Correct?
Yeah? You know, I'll take this twice, but it just left it
right. Video straight up. He wait, I am pacing. I'm not
ashamed to say I am pacing because I'm having the same what's that your arms
folded across your that's my nervous fold. I'm thinking the exact thing. JP
is. Okay, he's actually now standing in front of everybody like he's not
going to sit down. I should have thought about that before I fucking you
know, cut into uh. John's four O one k for this, right.
I love the guy, but there's no way that everything he says is
that funny. Oh no, it's it's just trying to create apps atmosphere so
that everyone else can think that it's okay. It's completely not. What this
ultimately illustrates is what we talk about all the time, the pain and shame
of being a wrestling fan, you know, and like, how about you
have to overcompensate your whole life for liking it, you know, And it's
it's it's full display here as we as we try to make others feel comfortable
in the fact that we have done this. Oh, I was nervous about
what I felt nervous at first to approach him like Bill said he was.
He was a hero to a lot of people, and he was faith and
I thought that he was. This was below him, and I was nervous
to go up and say hi to him. Wow, so you thought he
would be We went to that show in Dan Barry and we and we saw
the honky talk man. But I was too nervous to get his autographed because
he's a honky talk man. He sure doesn't want to talk to me.
Well, that actually probably was true. He's he's, he's, he's,
he's a he's a rare breeding in that regard. But now Virgil got right
in. He was telling jokes. I don't know what. Do you remember
what he said there Jp when he walked up to the bar, he said
something that popped everybody. Not a clue. Probably just said like give me
a Jamison or something. I don't know, there we go cock herd or
something. Yeah, I don't know what I'm doing. You remember what I'm
doing? Though, I think you're preparing, because because right after this you
start the interview portion, so I think you're you're getting ready. I think
your tea and stuff up. I think I was calling a getaway vehicles.
Probably what I was doing. I'm just not realizing I'm the one taking that
picture. Oh that that flash we just ye, which I just threw into
the chat. If you can see it. Oh, let me look,
that's wild. Oh wow, that's awesome. Tho. I have to say
say, the pictures look so great from this night. They really do.
They put you right back there. So yeah. The first thing we did
basically was get as many get as many pictures of JP with his arm around
Virgil as we possibly could. It's all we could think to do it first.
Now let the live start. You're one of my favorites. I think
I just said that he was one of my favorites on the runch. What
was that, Phil? What was the order? Jamison on the rocks or
something like that? Does he come? Does come with the bushwhackers? To
last year? Paul? Paul just got married last year? Who's Paul?
Do you think he's talking about triple h Oh? He doesn't call him Paul.
I'm sure he does. It's fucking so sad. Oh God, still
nothing making through it? Hiper b be as forgets you forgets? Come on,
man, say something can't his marriage? So guys, if you go
to a bachelor party and you're you're face to face with the groom to be
and you've been celebrated in this grand way. Spirits are high. Do you
immediately transition into uh as many failed marriage stories as you can possibly think of,
with the straight faith and absolutely no hint of humor on your countenance.
I mean, what's he talking about here, JP? Is he just talking
about like I mean, he seems to be talking about failed wrestling relationships.
He starts talking about how hard it is, like how hard of a business
it is, and then he specific He's like, you know, one time
I was on the road for four months at a time, which sounds like
a lot. But again, I'm I would think as a professional wrestling you'd
be on the road for even longer. But you are eating this up though,
or at least it appears that way. I didn't realize you were scared.
You appear to be eating this every last bit. JP. I'm I
absolutely was. I was at least lit enough that it all mattered. Well,
I think we've landed on the title of your memoirs, lit enough that
it all mattered. Here we go, wrestling man just destroy destroys you.
That quote. He comes to your bachelor party and looks at you in the
face and goes wrestling man just destroys you. Thanks, Verge, my childhood
alive and your bar on the road car out on the road. Four months,
oh there is four months straight. So I decided to do this like
a Q and A style because everyone's just standing there looking at you talking to
him anyway, and no one can hear what he's saying. Yeah, I
mean, my uncle's are like, what the fuck? Who is this clown?
And the thing is, if we explain to them who this clown was,
it would be even worse. It ten times worse a safe jack.
I don't know. I just felt like something had to be done because I
knew he wasn't gonna he wasn't gonna take the mic, so I had to
like force him, and I knew I could ask him some funny questions,
but uh, he delivers here and this is where this is where he goes
in a full Virgil mode, like, Okay, the people in this room
know nothing about wrestling, and they don't believe a word he says. He
can't he can't convince these people who don't know the first thing about wrestlers,
you know, proclivities to lie that what he's that the figures in particular that
he's dropping are anywhere in the universe of true about this? Okay, tell
us a story about some crazy ring rack, some crazy uh, some crazy
bit you man after a show? This show? I see, I got
a week one man? Oh yeah, see. I knew if I'm talking
to him already ahead of time that he could go on like, you know,
fucking sex and can't be the door, Yeah, Camper Arena where Owen
Heart died? Do for that thing? Man? I we're being here.
Our program we had like maybe one hundred billion dollar program. Okay, here
we go. I believe what he just said was me and Ted when we
were working together, had a one hundred million dollar program. Now what does
it even mean to assign a dollar figure to a program in the first place
alone? I'm not even gonna quibble with the figure, although it's very easy
to What do you is that? How many tickets you sold in aggregate?
Do you keep track of? Sick? What are you talking about? A
one hundred Okay? Right? Do we have an unexpected guest here that I
didn't know about? Oh? Oh you know what? Fuck it fine?
Virtual? Just what did you say on JP's birthday message? This is former
WWF Wrestling superstar version, the godfather of the meat sauce Mafia. JP.
Your dance said, you are turning forty. Well as my gift to you,
you are now part of the meat sauce mafia. Can't believe it.
Your dad just gave me a great payday A sauce pasta Hell yeah, JP,
have fun racking and that fuck money base so mean normal. The problem
what he says, does the meat sauce come without any prompting? Does the
meat sauce come with pasta? Hell yeah? And I can't tell you how
grateful I am that he clarified. All right, so one hundred million dollar
program. Yeah, I'm at a loss. I don't know what he's talking
about. More to come from that file. Okay, So Vince took us
from Restland Entertainment. Entertainment. We just finished sing that lifestyle and is attainments
Rob and Leap, Sure, okay, that's a shoot. They were on
Lifestyles of the Rich and famous. It was it was. It wasn't his
house though a hyenas it was. It wasn't Vince's either. I don't think
it was like somebody else as they used as a stand in for the million
dollar man's house, so that they showed him here at life home. They
showed me cheap at home. You're Stampord, Connectian. Okay, at forty
one million? All right, Zilo dot com, here we go. So
he just said the cheapest house in nineteen eighty seven in Greenwich, Connecticut was
forty one million dollars. Oh my god. So let's see uh inflation adjusted
values. Okay, I am seeing a forty seven million dollar house. I'll
give him that. But let's sort. Let's sort load to high. What
do you say, what do you think the lowest cost house I see here
is? Do you think it's forty seven million? Or do you think it's
closer to four hundred and sixty five thousand dollars? Yeah? That one?
What would you venture? Okay? So the whoppers are coming off the assembly
line with cheese. That's what's so calling to me. Oh cheese is right.
And the whole extrinsive was send home, they send you can call madign.
Remember they used to say DBS makes his summer residence in the in the
Netherlands Antillis. Remember that, Yes, yes, international million dollars. All
right, there's a seven hundred and ten million dollar property. Well, he's
adjusting for inflation the wrong way. Obviously, the man nineteen years billion.
No one believes a word coming out of his mouth. And he's been talking
for four minutes. Yeah, like General fifty or magazine about exactly what about
the pussy Bringing it back to what matters? Bill? What was that?
When were you the one that went okay, like, oh international, huh
cool? You know, uh yeah, he's not getting the hint on the
story. I mean when we were like men started getting right, not the
rats. We were getting right. Women we were getting, not the rats,
we were getting women coming. They showed up. We can't see the
missour at my hotel. He showed up. I said, don't come to
the later women. What was that, Bill? I missed what he said?
You know again, like JP said, I have no idea, but
just like keep keep the atmosphere light and eat what you did? You know
what? What? What's what? The most the most supreme irony is that
if all the people in the room were working the hardest in my working I
mean in the wrestling sense, we're all pretending to have a blast. They
are waiting for you. Where I got that when I got that in arena
from ship for arena, through that camera to the hotel. Nothing in the
rest of my room. I think over up here there wasn't How do you
look at Si spreads? Okay, nothing one springs, nothing on? But
then he says you had a G string on? Yeah? Right? Was
that your dad? What do you ask? Scene? Non existent nylon?
Is that what it was? I think? So, oh my god,
thank you Bill. Oh yeah, man, mess up a lot of marriage.
There we go again. I said, watching on your marriage. If
you get I mean marriage, brit if you find the right person, yeah,
okay, the the right got to show that to a boss, Yeah
I will right, woman cross. Then I've seen the ant I think.
I think Hala is great. Man, you just bring the whole up.
It's a great marriage. I would ask Eric, what you don't know much
about wrestling. What do you know about he's marriage? Do you think of
it as a as something that ended well? To my knowledge? No,
that was not a good example, no doubt. Scott Oh Marty thoughts on
the harmony that was Hogan and Linda. Here's isn't is it? He's too
hip? I can't even I can't even have him sit in the non t
n H chair anymore. He knows all the yes. All right, that's
all good. You get that right on the on the phizzizzle. So let's
get some more from the verge is right? I mean, but he is
your father. I mean like he got the worst he did by charge,
White, said Nick. But who's County Virgil monitoring? How old brook is
interesting? Twenty three? I think so he's a great father, man,
I mean he's great ut nine fifty five, so prety five? Man,
well much, I don't know what that's about. You were big you're talking
about? I think this is it' that's sir. You have to know he
got up, he took a bow, He gave a little hand signal before
that. Like me, so glad that's on video because that's one of my
most resonant memories. And I always feel like, am I fudging it a
little bit? Am I like exaggerating how perfectly he reacted to the question.
No, I'm not. It was where he was ready to go, because
he's never been shy about his fucking night stick sized Marley spliff just drawing on
the blue right used to draw me on the board. That's okay to draw
me on the board. I hang one hanging on the true. OK,
what to say? Yeah, I can't believe who said yeah I like that?
Who is that? I'm sorry, I think that's me. It's who
it might be omar, Oh my god, Wow, I told you I
was hype. It's so great dude the way yeah, like go off.
He's like he's talking about how his dick is so long you can't hang him
by his neck. Right, is that what he's saying. It's a tripod,
right, and they love it the people, the people love it so
much. People need it. Yeah, I wouldn't drop you know, like
who uh black that morning? And then I've lived a black Jack land.
But some lands I try to think, you don't go ahead? But he
little ring back and ship like that, so uh he dropped off. He's
got a bang and of WLD rack crawl under the door. The records opened
the door, Like, okay, tell me those are some breath he laughs.
But what he's saying. What he's saying is, you know Blackjack LANDSA
would be in the room fucking somebody, and his deck was so long it
could come under the door like a python and just interject. Also have a
nice stetson hat as well. That was only when he's in the West Texas
rednecks. Do we think that he actually believes what do you sing? Well,
I don't think he believes that his dick would go under the door.
No, are you sure? Yeah, I'm pretty sure. But you know,
it's probably an old story they used to tell. I mean, if
it's true that they used to joke about the size of his of his package,
then they probably that probably is a real thing that they would have that
joke. I believe that. So there you go a little bit of truth
from Virgil. Yeah, man, so tell us this, that's the weirdest
pals thing you've never been hired to do by ted was hired before to tell
a story. Kelly was going to books Venger. So we were were Soon's
yacht. Maybe told the whole story, and Teddy told this whole thing out
I mean for his wife to take him back. M Okay, there we
go again, strive on. I asked him what the weirdest thing he's ever
gotten paid to do was, and I think he's saying someone paid him to
tell a story on Ted Dibassi's yacht. Am I picture? Am I kitching?
That right on Martha's vineyard. It's like a yacht. It's like mad
lives at this point. Yeah, real good send of minister Teddy gas billion
dollars. I'm the rider dollar man, a billion dollars champion. Yeah,
I mean Eddy, uh, I mean this this business going grew his marriage.
Man, he doesn't know. There's a book you ere. You ever
get a poke in the book and read it. Man, he came out
and told everything and now wore for his wife to come back. A kid's
best friend is a minister, so a nineteen hive in city when he minister,
ok, no, hope that marriage, man, get that marriage back
together because reality way bye bye man for me, what let me ask you
this for? When then we we got to turn over some of the other
guys rose mister of sorrow here, Ah what marriage mine for mister sorrow?
But he's not even married. He's never been closed and married this day.
I mean about my mother. My mother was married to a navy seal.
Okay, I had some good until my mother was married to a navy seal.
I did not know. Yeah, I didn't know that, Nate,
And I was like, why do I think Virgil comes from a military family.
I can't find anything online that explains why I think that. It's because
he said that here and it stuck in the back of my mind somewhere.
And that's rough marriage. Okay, bold Man had all the day in the
house. Okay, so my mother understood that. Okay, I mean he
gets the last word all the time. And then mo Man told me to
embarrass is like a job. You got to make them work every day,
man, especially like him. That mean he had a huge balls, short
short few definitely showed that the show any day that it was all like,
you know, like that, you're gonna make embarrage work every day? Man,
Right, I do want to ask you know what JP is like?
Now you're going to ask is Mark question? One of my favorite matches that
you had and you're washing up with, uh the commers plan is Eric?
He looks look at Eric. He looks fucking thrilled, doesn't he look?
So what's going through your mind? Eric, I got eyes on you.
I'm still googling. Yeah, all dream on the means yeah, yeah,
he was as all right, you remember it was in the back when you
want when you beat him, they were huge reaction was in cans and it
was amazing and like, what was what was it like for you to kind
of happen to have that kind of crowd behind your back the whole time?
Did you hear the pop like that? Oh? They do many build jp
with the director's thing after the screening question. Yeah, absolutely totally. That
was a year program, six years. Did we check on that right?
Because field it up, build it up, field it up, build it
up. You give a little bit, but you don't get a really say
sexual reference incoming, you know how you we don't get everything, but you
never enough. We don't give a well I really want that's definitely right way
the idage which you want this you will fall him over to give her a
little bit, a little bit, a little bit, but you don't give
her what she wants until you do, and then she's going to fall in
love with you. That's how he describes the slow burn of his program,
his one hundred and forty million dollar program with Friday. The forty million dollar
man, Well, Hogan did used to say he's a multi million billion dollar
man. He thought, I don't know what Hogan thought that if he called
them the multi million dollar man, that it was like an insult. Yeah,
but it was like it was like a red scarlet letter that he would
he'd call it in these promos, the multi million dollars. Come on,
dude, the multi million dollar man, Like it's like it's an insult,
Like he's better off with multimillion dollars. People on television a little, a
little, a little when you think you're going to give him something, and
they reached away a little little. When you reach for it, you pull
it away. We're bringing it home here with words to lift here, pull
it right back. So we did like that for like six years. So
I finally happened, and that's just their run a summer friend. He did
mall long and then they pop like that and it popped so much man to
go off the wall. And then we gave them enough at WrestleMania. It
was Wressellmania, right, give the nuk man. We the red on it.
But we use Piper like that where they don't give a fool set up.
He's give them enough to keep a whistle with then going to keep on
buying that paper. And there's any wheel too. That guy that moment at
the Royal Rumble that here smack them in the head with the bell. Oh
yeah, it's just a yeah, same time. Like you said that,
it's fucking phenomenal. Bill, Well, how did you tell me about the
inspiration that struck at that moment? I was trying to engage my Emerson art.
Yeah, I was gonna say a degree put to use? Yeah?
Is it closest you probably ever put your degree to use? Wow, it's
so awesome, dude, I can't even tell you how funny it is that
he into the belt when he referenced it. It was your moment, fucking
Felini over here. I love it so much. All right, So he's
about to tell a huge lie about the belt and what it did to Teddy
Biassi's head. How body there was so great? You smashed him? And
he said he did great, He did a great, Mike. He just
remember, I hope you do that from the hand that belt. He gave
them a cussing and one hundred and he looked across there right there, one
hundred and fourth, what's it? What's up with the kind of hudder?
Forty wasn't one hundred forty million before? Yes, wrestling fans have been tricked
again by one hundred I think was one hundred forty one fifty. Oh yeah,
mateen, things are only replica. That's your replica right there. Ye
see he was honest. It's the replica belt. Yeah, yeah, the
bolt is a standing of editor. The real belt way seventy to comb seventy
two pounds. Yeah, the real vault right now will falling on five five
million dollars. Another forties, that's another forties, forty five million dollars,
he says. The belt is worth Yes, that's a problem. Hitting play
the nineteen eighty seven adult who was made in Ben's jewels. And there's British
today, Okay, all nineteen eighty seven were like, I think seventy four
dollars a hounce, So that belt was worth nine Virgil on gold prices,
set out the value expert? Did an you guys ever hear about the gold
standard? Seventy more thousandgmin and okay, two thousand and twelve. Now,
so that belt now is what twenty seven doll house hold on, Virgil,
I get the Wall Street Journal right here. Hold on a second, let
me see how much gold is trading for right now on the nasdak. He
keeps up on goldworth. Yeah, he clearly does so that belt right now
about paying forty five and forty and that's it you, Uh, all right.
I don't know what just happened, but I'm glad it did. And
we're going to close out our recollection on this most famous of nights. As
it regards Virgil, the only, the only acceptable reason to have a tribute
show to the man was something like this. We did it, we saw,
we came, we conquered Eric. Actually, Omar, I'm gonna start
with you, because you didn't circle back to the restaurant afterwards, so you
didn't get that post show view of Virgil. So I'm going to turn the
floor over to you. Closing thoughts having heard wisdom from the Book of Virgil,
and just thoughts on this night, as we've lost Mike Jones, who
knows exactly how old he really was. It turns out he was lying about
his birthdate all these years. I think he was seventy two when he died
on February twenty eight, born in nineteen fifty four. Okay, well,
whatever the case, he's no longer with us, and Omar, your closing
thoughts on this night, having had the chance to relive it in three hundred
p Damn, I might even worked us on his age. What a fucking
night, Like, thank you to Jack and JP's daff even like organizing this
shit. Yeah, we're getting to the reason we're doing the show. Oh
my god, Like it's just yet another example of how this bullshit brings us
together. That's right, man, that's right. I just fucking love this.
Like, you know, as much as I miss my ideals about the
man, I'll always hold on to the memories we've like built around this weird
thing we love and with him. It's so true that that that's what wrestling
does. That's why wrestling fans seek each other even in their forties, because
it's like it's like it's hard to not have something someone else to like connect
with on this stuff because it's it's a night. It's an isolating thing to
be into. Looking back at the video, Omar, did you notice anything?
Did did anything take you by surprise? Oh? That wasn't exactly how
I remembered it, Or that was exactly how I remembered it. No,
that was exactly how I remembered it. Just like that dusky gass room I
remember like squeezing through the entrance and then like opening up into that area,
not really knowing what to expect or who to expect. And yeah, again
the mystique fading this like veneer of like wow, this wrestling superstar is here
in our presence, and then him talking about like ring rats and ship you
know that fat you No, no, no, he was brilliantly uh interviewed
because the best at that as you know. But I mean, you know,
like in his humanization of that time we had. I don't know,
I think I appreciated him a little bit more love it had you like gom
there to the cigar bar. No, we went to a lot of places
in the North End together, but never there. That was my first time.
Only time you had the stake. He know's I'd take it no more.
Oh yeah, come on, many times this ain't a game. We
sh just took Virgil there. I don't know if it was open, but
he wanted pasta. I was like, well, we're in the North End.
I mean, I guess I can't say no. Yeah, that's when
I had the dip yard. Were just that's when the meat sauce shit started
having And then I had like a show like I was coming from a show
to see y'a and then I had to leave because of it. I see,
well, you didn't miss much, but we'll give you a little bit
of glimas to you and to what you missed. I know it's true.
I'm just happy it's over by this point because he actually showed up, so
it's all upside for me. All right, we'll go to Eric. Eric.
You you joined us right for the post festivities. Yes, I actually
got stuck with the bill that night. Wow, you still remember that.
I'll send you the money. How much was it? No clue? Okay,
Solar Systems got your back. So what do you remember about the aftermath?
Everyone's filing out, but Virgil's hungry, right right. Virgil's hungry,
and he keeps saying he wants meat sauce, over and over. That's all.
That's all we can figure out that you want to meet thaw and Uh.
At one point, we're at the restaurant and he doesn't see meat sauce
on the menu, but JP tells them it's booloonnais and he's like, well,
is that mean saucer or what. There's a whole conversation the JP is
explaining the intricacies of the boloonnaise sauce and the Virgil and it was absolutely epics
night and the video just let me relive that all again. And I can't
thank you enough for including me in this. Oh man, it's our pleasure.
I was so glad to remember that you had the cat's eye view.
I forgot that you'd come out afterwards. It's this guy, really, he
really signed up for something he had no idea about. That's fucking to go
have to go to the restaurant afterwards. It's just too much. So what
did you make of this guy? You're coming with an outsider's view that you're
not starstruck by this guy, but what was the final analysis? Now,
I was confused to all get out as to why we liked this guy and
who he was and how he plays into any of the few wrestling matches I've
ever seen in my life. So I had no clue what to expect.
But I knew that you and JP were just over the moon with this guy
showing up and the fact that we were eating dinner together after the fact,
So it was it was all just amazing and just so fun. Bill.
Bill, take us through your your final thoughts and how did you wrap up
the night and just watching the video back again, which, by the way,
we're indebted to you more than anybody for recording the damn years unbelievable piece
of history. This is the thing's Back in the day, you didn't even
think about saving him, but now you're so glad you did. Closing thoughts,
Bill, your point, I'm so glad that I, I mean,
I never upload any videos to like my personal YouTube account at all. Uh,
and just I had a string back in the day that I did,
and I'm so glad that this was one of the ones that I just happened
to do. But regardless that, you know, that's to have that h
video and and the evidence of the night again, like Eric said, just
to kind of bring you directly back to it, I missed the meat sauce
pasta aftermath. Yes, I remember feeling oddly self conscious about the audio.
You're like, God, damn it, you brought the PA give ship it
up. And yeah, but it was just a real He was like,
you know, a celebrity, you know, like an absolute celebrity, a
guy you would watch on TV weekly, you know, you would you would
see his face, you know, multiple times a month for years growing up
over the weekends, you know, on Superstars, and uh, you know,
genuinely to be within a couple of feet of him, And I think
that's maybe why we crowded around him. Jack, just let me look at
this. You you I've watched this guy for for decades on TV and now
he's within spinning distance. Uh. And I should have spit on him at
the time, but I should have should have see what he would have done.
Yeah, but it was just an absolute pleasure. Yeah, yeah,
we're gonna miss this guy. He was that the fact that he was out
there capable of doing something like this again, what was a reason to get
up in the morning. But uh, let's see, we have Tim Sheridan,
we come back to you and you were beginning, middle and end here.
Okay, this was like how do we get him to your house?
And now we're sitting here eating pasta with the guy. What do you remember
about, uh, the saucy aftermath? Well, this was I always think
of this night as the law of diminishing returns. So what we see in
the video is the absolute best of Virgil that night. Yes, at every
step we thought, okay, now what do we do? And so Jack,
you stepped in. You did the interview, and you know, we
had a little bit of Q and A, and then it was the end
of the night, and then we went outside and we all thought, all
right, well, we're gonna go our separate way, that's right. And
I think I think that Virgil asked if we were going out to eat,
and we didn't really have a plan, and we just sort of were like,
oh, okay, sure we'll do that, and yeah, I guess
you can come with us. That's that's so true. I'm so glad you
remember that. That that subtlety because while he was exerting pressure on me all
night to get potsa with meat sauce, because I probably told him at some
point there would be food, assuming there would be food, and there wasn't
food. Maybe I was expecting game or something based on to it said in
the past, but I was like, yeah, there'll be food. Of
course there wasn't food, and he needed food. And not only was he
on me, was he on me about that one to one is the facilitator
of the thing, but he was also on me about trying and I told
JP's dad about this, trying to find a place to cash the check at
fucking twelve thirty at night. He was not He was not thrilled that we
didn't bring a fucking briefcase with twelve hundred and fifty dollars in it and with
rubber bands to hand to this guy so that he could go and I don't
know, hire someone at the motel six, you know, to piss on
him or whatever the case would be. So he is just so like anxious
and jittery about the fact that he is not liquid at the moment, the
man is not liquid. He has a piece of fucking paper that says he's
owed twelve hundred and fifty dollars and that's not enough for Virgil, even though
we paid him twelve fifty in advance to show up. Who knows where that
money went. I have a guess, But he he just needed to hear,
you know, is there a bank open, pro Virgil? You know
there's no banks open? You have her bankers hours, like seriously, like
you're asking me if a bank is open on a Friday night at midnight.
But So, he was jones and not just because that's his last name,
I mean he was Jonesen and and so and so that's such a key point.
Tim. We didn't we didn't enthusia. We wanted the night to be
over. We're like, all right, man, go back to the hotel,
but we'll get the rides come in. It's and he was the one
that put it in our and it's kind of in his playbook because when you
hear others talk about his lonely Virgil days and kind of observing him in action
at conventions, that's what he would do. He would almost he would almost
guilt trip fans into feeling like they owed him money for something that you didn't
ask him to do. Like he would proactively sign a picture for you,
proactively take a picture with you without you explicitly asking, and definitely not with
you agreeing to any price point for said service. And then that is like
some Romanian pickpocket shit essentially. Yeah, he's a carneye like like all of
them, you know, looking to make fifty bucks for a twelve second interaction.
You know, after all this goodwill we built up in the hefty sum
we paid him, he still gave me a price of seven hundred and fifty
dollars to come on Labs fans. So I'll tell you how far that money
went. And then I saw him at a convention and I walked up to
him. I had a bag in my hand of a wrestling something, a
toy or something, and I said, hey, Virgil, remember us from
the Badge? Oh? Yeah, man, what you got in the bag?
I don't know, Virgil, I got your twelve hundred and fifty dollars.
Here you go. I have something that belongs to me in the bag.
What the fuck like? Anyway? So he he left. Huh.
He still wanted to go out and do something once he realized he couldn't cash
his check, and he thought we were going to continue to go and party.
Yeah, and Jack, you said I'm going to go home? Did
I say that? You know it's probably true because his mind, the way
his mind works. Okay, Well I can't get because if you could get
the twelve fifth, now he'd go, like I said, and find ways
to spend it. Okay. He was not shy about telling me on the
pre the pregame phone calls to arrange this thing about how many how many women
he's got in the area and how he he's looking forward to visiting them again.
Okay, he would have been spending it, put it that way.
But now that he doesn't have that cash to spend on the night. Now
it's a game of how much can I get these guys to pay for?
Right? Can I get him to pay for dinner? Can I get him
to pay for a strip club? I'm sure that's where his mind's going.
I'm positive so. But I forgot about that wrinkle where it was like,
yeah, we ended up at dinner with him, but it wasn't like an
extension of this holy shit, look at Virgils here. It was kind of
like, right, tim, it was kind of over. Yeah, any
thoughts of sitting at the table. I remember that we had no plans to
go to dinner, and it was virgil plan to go to dinner. Sorry
this snort, that's too funny. Oh JP, what are you okay?
I mean this is all that's all for you? Now. I forgot about
that part he too, Honestly, I really did. By Oh, I
do remember being so tired, tired. Sorry, I still have an echo
and so it's weird to hear my voice. Okay, I was gonna say,
yeah, you've definitely been liquoring up. I know, I know,
no, no, no liquor. I remember going to the restaurant and being
really tired, I forgot that I argued with him about the meat sauce,
that I actually was telling him that bologniis was the meat sauce. And I
believe then the waitress or waiter or server rather confirmed it for me that the
bolognies is indeed a meat sauce, and so he ate it and correct me
if I'm wrong. Did he eat so slow? So slow? Because it
just took forever and he didn't Yeah, he didn't want it to end,
and he became like the celebrity who overstayed his welcome. I was like,
go away, I'm done. We've used you. The joke's over. I
think we need to end it there, because I think what you just did
was basically tell the story of Virgil's life. God bless you, Michael Jones.
It was. It was a pleasure getting to know you. It was
a pleasure laughing at your many references. It was a pleasure to watch you
eat and talk about meat sauce before it was a thing. And it was
a pleasure to send our buddy JP off into matrimony with the tailwind, the
tailwind of having experienced your aura. Coming up next, a dive through Virgil's
biggest moments in the ring, about four of them, as on the verse.
Our tribute to Virgil continues