Speaker 1: It's the lapsed fan Wrestling podcast with Jack and carn
Speaker 1: S e O and JP Sorrow. He's a lapsed fan.
Speaker 2: In all my years and wrestling.
Speaker 3: You never seen anything.
Speaker 2: And it's the.
Speaker 3: Lapse fan man like the one in the ring. Beget
Speaker 3: about Sado. He the real king of swing when the
Speaker 3: bell goes in with the kick, like me throwing in
Speaker 3: the corner.
Speaker 4: But it's rash like stick.
Speaker 5: Even Jerry King can say off the crowd nodded in
Speaker 5: his head like it te low Brown, did you get
Speaker 5: low down?
Speaker 3: Wore the go even high up? Flip you on your head?
Speaker 4: But you know cool driver.
Speaker 5: Speak mona dragon spits fire, give you more shock than
Speaker 5: when Edge treats higher drop a more truth than the
Speaker 5: con of sniper unless you would a coconut.
Speaker 3: Roddy Piper, Jack and JP ne.
Speaker 5: A j y d drop the cupcakes and gold the
Speaker 5: brain Bob means the best podcast Frost start the close cloud.
Speaker 3: If you all I've been as a flassic and polls.
Speaker 6: It is rumble season once again here in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 3: Yes it is. It's a new era.
Speaker 6: It's a new.
Speaker 3: Decade for TLF.
Speaker 6: It's there's a lot of change in the air, But
Speaker 6: as it regards the year nineteen ninety six, it stuns
Speaker 6: me as we put our heads together to think about
Speaker 6: how we can set the stage for how a rumble
Speaker 6: ought to be as we and bokwn another one this year. Yes,
Speaker 6: that we have not done the nineteen ninety six Royal
Speaker 6: Rumble before.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, it's a you know, it's it's kind of
Speaker 3: it's it's like a sleeper, you know, it's it's I
Speaker 3: have fond memories of the show. I have fond memories
Speaker 3: watching the show, But at the same time, it was
Speaker 3: never like a go to one. I always liked it,
Speaker 3: but it was never a go to rumble. And I'll
Speaker 3: tell you for me why unlessen if you want to
Speaker 3: get into this right.
Speaker 6: Now, oh sure, I mean I have my own little
Speaker 6: story too, so go ahead.
Speaker 3: The reason why this wasn't never a go to rumble
Speaker 3: is because the rumble wasn't the main event and I
Speaker 3: couldn't stand that. I hated it.
Speaker 6: So you're saying that's what diminished its replay value. Yeah, yeah, Look,
Speaker 6: I was alluded to the TV I about this on
Speaker 6: pay per view. I mean, I don't run member Brett
Speaker 6: Undertaker at all because the exact thing you're saying. I
Speaker 6: remember bretat Undertaker.
Speaker 3: I remember the finale of Bread Undertaker very very well,
Speaker 3: but it was just like I remember having such a
Speaker 3: I mean, also two things, one of them didn't end
Speaker 3: up being as bad. But this was, I believe, the
Speaker 3: first year or was it last year? Was it the
Speaker 3: ninety five one? The first year of the entrance music?
Speaker 3: I think it was this year. I think it was
Speaker 3: ninety six, the first year they started doing entrance music.
Speaker 6: When someone's time comes up in the Rumble.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, And that bothered me at first, but I've
Speaker 3: grown to be okay with that because the music does
Speaker 3: get a nice pop, but it just kind of takes
Speaker 3: away from the the the if you will, the realism
Speaker 3: of the Royal Rumble. If you look at those older ones,
Speaker 3: the reason why they worked so great is because they
Speaker 3: didn't have these queued up moments. Yes you know, it
Speaker 3: all felt more organic, like there was just a guy
Speaker 3: waiting to go. There wasn't a essentially a producer and
Speaker 3: a music the sound guy waiting to put to set
Speaker 3: up the next person's music like it was. It was
Speaker 3: just more it felt more organic, but the the the
Speaker 3: Rumble not being the main event.
Speaker 7: Was was.
Speaker 3: It was detrimental to the success of a royal rumble. Absolutely,
Speaker 3: I would expect that it stayed that way for three
Speaker 3: years following and then has happened twice since then is
Speaker 3: a nightmare.
Speaker 6: Including Kurnengle versus Mark Henry.
Speaker 3: Including Kurding versus Market. Like, I get why they did it,
Speaker 3: but it wasn't worth it. Oh, I mean not only that,
Speaker 3: that was even worse actually because they put the rumble
Speaker 3: two match is prior, like they have two title matches
Speaker 3: after that rumble. Ugh, I was disgusted. I was so
Speaker 3: fucking disgusted when they did that.
Speaker 6: Honestly, it's hard enough to like get in the right
Speaker 6: frame of mind after they do the women's rumbles now
Speaker 6: to open the shows, Yes, because they've already spent so
Speaker 6: much of that dynamic that it harms the men's rumble
Speaker 6: every single year yeap.
Speaker 3: And or vice versa. You know, there's thing it's exhausting
Speaker 3: because I'm like two Like since when do you have
Speaker 3: Like since when does any wrestling show have two hour
Speaker 3: long matches right on the same card.
Speaker 6: Right, Like what the fuck? And there's such a novelty
Speaker 6: to the way the match is structured. You wait so
Speaker 6: long for it, you build up so much nostalgia for
Speaker 6: the big moments of rumbles past, and by the time
Speaker 6: the Men's Rumble gets in the ring, that kind of
Speaker 6: magic has been expelled again. It hasn't been so long
Speaker 6: anymore because you've used it all in the Women's Rumble,
Speaker 6: you know. And to your point about entrince music, I
Speaker 6: think one of the sneaky good things about that was
Speaker 6: it gave you a referendum on how over these guys
Speaker 6: were without their entrance music drowning out the crowd noise. Yes, yes,
Speaker 6: Piper comes out at the ninety two Rumble to confront
Speaker 6: Rick Flair. You know that that program is money because
Speaker 6: of the way you can hear the fans react to Piper,
Speaker 6: not Piper's music, right to the fact that Piper was
Speaker 6: walking to that ring to do what needed to be done.
Speaker 3: Because the thing is, and I feel like maybe the
Speaker 3: w and any wrestling organization maybe has become afraid of
Speaker 3: this or or or or doesn't want to admit this,
Speaker 3: but there are wrestlers whose music is more over than
Speaker 3: the guy himself absolutely or woman themselves, you know, like
Speaker 3: it's it's like the music is I mean, I think
Speaker 3: in many ways Seth Rollins is like.
Speaker 6: That, absolutely yep. And you know who else was like
Speaker 6: that too? In some ways was daniel'brien in that not
Speaker 6: until Yes got over was he considered a main eventor
Speaker 6: in their eyes now. I don't know if that's necessarily
Speaker 6: the case in the fan's eyes, but it makes it
Speaker 6: very difficult to parse the two when you never get
Speaker 6: a chance to sample them without the music. And this
Speaker 6: should be an annual opportunity to hear a guy come
Speaker 6: out and hear a raw crowd reaction. I think there
Speaker 6: would be a lot of utility in that they can
Speaker 6: crowd reaction. For that matter, Well, you know when you've
Speaker 6: got a guy running the company now who literally is
Speaker 6: posting videos to X of him rehearsing the entrances of.
Speaker 3: The wrestlers, get out of here? Are you serious?
Speaker 6: They just debuted Pentagon from aw on Raw last week
Speaker 6: and they Triple H posted a video of him stage
Speaker 6: managing where the little pyro boxes would go, with his
Speaker 6: headset on directing people as to when the wall of
Speaker 6: fire would explode, where the lighting overhead will come. He
Speaker 6: thinks like this is he thinks this is the job
Speaker 6: he thinks the job is to stage manage the entrances
Speaker 6: because he was sixty percent entrance in his career. Everybody
Speaker 6: else has to be sixty percent entrance.
Speaker 3: Right, Oh, I didn't know that. That's awful.
Speaker 6: He's walking around with the top button unbuttoned, you know
Speaker 6: what I mean, like pointing, and it's.
Speaker 3: Like fucking AirPods in his ear, like you know, conducting.
Speaker 3: You know, he's he's on a conference call as well
Speaker 3: as directing, uh, you know content, right.
Speaker 6: You know, you like to think they do it because
Speaker 6: it helps the talent get over, which it does, but
Speaker 6: you'd also like to not think that it's really done
Speaker 6: as a masturbatory exercise in Triple H putting his you know,
Speaker 6: creativity on display. But he can't help himself. He can't
Speaker 6: help but remind you at every turn that what this
Speaker 6: is really about is how good Triple H is at
Speaker 6: his job and not how good this wrestler is at
Speaker 6: being who he is, right right, and thumbs down to that.
Speaker 3: I mean, it is kind of interesting, you know that
Speaker 3: they don't they they they that they I guess really,
Speaker 3: I don't know, like you'd think that they would take
Speaker 3: the opportunity because especially in this era to to take
Speaker 3: advantage of those kind of situations where there is no entrance,
Speaker 3: like take away the interest music, have them come out
Speaker 3: just as is and see how the fans react, and
Speaker 3: like it's a great time to judge maybe who you try.
Speaker 6: Next, ye, And I'm sure they never even crosses their mind.
Speaker 6: And furthermore, once the guy gets in the ring, unless
Speaker 6: you're a booked to be one of the last guys,
Speaker 6: you have no agency. You go in there and you
Speaker 6: boom boom boom, because you fit a certain slot in
Speaker 6: their mind as to what needs to happen at this
Speaker 6: juncture of the rumble. You have your shine spots and
Speaker 6: you're out. And really it's no different than seeing the
Speaker 6: guy or the woman at a house show match, you know,
Speaker 6: just doing their shitting their shit in, you know, maybe
Speaker 6: a little twist on it, but like ninety percent of
Speaker 6: the Rumble participants are slated and sort of you know,
Speaker 6: type cast in a way to fit like a certain
Speaker 6: need of the match instead of you know what, kind
Speaker 6: of being an open forum to see who really can
Speaker 6: capture that opportunity and who might be able to surprise
Speaker 6: you with how interested they can get the fans into
Speaker 6: their ability to win the Rumble match. But there's a
Speaker 6: lot of that here in ninety six. And I'm glad
Speaker 6: you pointed out the entrance music thing. It is key,
Speaker 6: it is critical, and we'll document that. This also is
Speaker 6: the first WWF pay per view ever with a.
Speaker 3: Free for all special. Yeah, it is the first free
Speaker 3: for all.
Speaker 6: So now we're starting to see, like his live matches,
Speaker 6: trying to appetize us. They're trying a lot of different things,
Speaker 6: and some of it's working.
Speaker 3: Some of it isn't.
Speaker 6: Sean Michaels, of course, repeats in the nineteen ninety six Rumble.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Also, is it the first one to have the
Speaker 3: uh like if you will? And I'm willing to to
Speaker 3: say it to stand by this. I don't know when
Speaker 3: they started doing the sunny disclaimers in the beginning. Oh
Speaker 3: it was before.
Speaker 6: It wasn't in the ninety five Rumble, that's for sure.
Speaker 6: This is the first Rumble to have it. I don't
Speaker 6: know if it's the first pay per view to have it,
Speaker 6: but I think it is.
Speaker 3: But I'll tell you that's attitude. That's attitude, all right,
Speaker 3: We're talking. January ninety six is the beginning of the
Speaker 3: Attitude era. They're starting to look, what does Diesel do? Yeah?
Speaker 3: Fuck yeah, he's all the tweeener, you know, fucking you know,
Speaker 3: he's he's he's the baby face heel. But what does
Speaker 3: he do to undertaker?
Speaker 8: Oh?
Speaker 3: Yeah, what does he do?
Speaker 2: I remember?
Speaker 3: Flips him off? He flips flips him off.
Speaker 4: He slips them off.
Speaker 6: Unless I'm forgetting something. That's got to be the first
Speaker 6: middle finger, yeah, ever on WWF television at a time
Speaker 6: when they were even hinting that they were trying to,
Speaker 6: you know, stretch the limits of at least language. So yes,
Speaker 6: and we talk all the time about like Nash, you know,
Speaker 6: like how he had that little moment where he could
Speaker 6: have been in He's crucial.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean before but even even afterwards, you know,
Speaker 3: like when he started what he became, when when he
Speaker 3: when he kind of turned on Brett at the uh
Speaker 3: At Survivis series after after losing you know, like that
Speaker 3: was kind of it too, like when he kind of
Speaker 3: he he he kind of gained back some of that
Speaker 3: that badassness of him, you know, and that and there
Speaker 3: is attitude right there, attitude ninety five many six. Fuck it.
Speaker 6: We talked so much about how, you know, Nash was
Speaker 6: so lame as a baby face Hogan champion in ninety five,
Speaker 6: and so I don't know what you're talking about. Such
Speaker 6: an abject failure was fucking brilliant, and it's like they're
Speaker 6: trying to force him to be somebody that he just
Speaker 6: is not going to be. And by the time they
Speaker 6: throw in the towel on that, they actually land on
Speaker 6: a Kevin Nash that's money, right, Kevin Nash who carries
Speaker 6: himself and speaks in a way that isn't so like
Speaker 6: patently false and forced that you actually can get into
Speaker 6: this guy. And we see that on full boil. I
Speaker 6: would say here at the nineteen ninety six Royal Rumble, Yeah,
Speaker 6: because he's pissed. I mean, he's he's pissed that he
Speaker 6: got eliminated from the rumble. Although he doesn't attack Seawn
Speaker 6: Michaels afterwards, which you might have expected, but he's just
Speaker 6: not he's not willing to just you know, skull through
Speaker 6: the curtain.
Speaker 3: He it's a slow burn for him. It's it's a
Speaker 3: really it's a well done slow burn to turn him
Speaker 3: heel and with an eye towards you know, actually doing
Speaker 3: something with the guy. I mean it's not entirely clear
Speaker 3: which exact day in nineteen ninety six the Kevin Nash
Speaker 3: decided he was following Scott Hall to WCW. But right
Speaker 3: around this time is when those key decisions are being
Speaker 3: are being made in his mind and inn WWF's mind. Yeah,
Speaker 3: because I mean he like he he And honestly, if
Speaker 3: you asked me, he didn't even really fully turn heel
Speaker 3: until after WrestleMania, Like he was playing this this guy
Speaker 3: on the fence. I mean, he was certainly more heelish,
Speaker 3: you know, on the build at to WrestleMania, but he
Speaker 3: wasn't really full blown heel until he turned on Sean, right,
Speaker 3: That's when he really you know, that's when he became
Speaker 3: a real full fledged heel. So he's kind of playing
Speaker 3: this weird role this for months of this kind of
Speaker 3: like yeah, maybe he is, maybe he isn't, And it
Speaker 3: works beautifully, Yeah it did. He's the first guy in
Speaker 3: that skin to call out Vince as the owner of
Speaker 3: the company on the TV show too. Yes, So he's
Speaker 3: he's pushing into areas that would be signature to the
Speaker 3: Attitude era in small but subtle ways before anybody else.
Speaker 3: And it's amazing to think about what Kevin Nash could
Speaker 3: have been in nineteen ninety six had he stuck with WWF.
Speaker 3: In that vein, Bruce Pritrid had said that the plan
Speaker 3: was always to have Nash turner heel and be the
Speaker 3: first challenger for Shawn Michaels after WrestleMania. That did play
Speaker 3: out as expected. Whether it would have played out with
Speaker 3: such a strong heel turn is I guess a question
Speaker 3: that's up in the air. But certainly by the time
Speaker 3: Good Friends, Better Enemies came along the April nineteen ninety
Speaker 3: six pay per view, they knew that Kevin Nash was
Speaker 3: on his way out, and so they wrapped it up
Speaker 3: very definitively with Sean Michaels. I'm not sure they would
Speaker 3: have done it quite that way had Nash stuck around,
Speaker 3: and what it would have looked like from there is
Speaker 3: an interesting question. I think it definitely set up a
Speaker 3: Kevin Nash that can walk into WCW and not just
Speaker 3: be a total one eight from his WWF character, which
Speaker 3: I think helped him quite a bit because we had
Speaker 3: start to see him get a little prickly, he start
Speaker 3: to see him get a little sarcastic, and basically he
Speaker 3: can walk on a ww television and not appear to
Speaker 3: be something other than we saw in WWF or Scott
Speaker 3: Hall to the point has to go in still pretending
Speaker 3: to have the Cuban accent and all that stuff. So
Speaker 3: it's it's really, uh man, are things changing? I thought
Speaker 3: you were going to say this one before you said
Speaker 3: the attitude of ra stuff and the sunny open how
Speaker 3: about the first rumble with this logo? Oh yes, travesty, travesty,
Speaker 3: absolute travesty. I grew to accept it, but a travesty, yeah,
Speaker 3: I mean it grew to become that kind of that
Speaker 3: the new generation slash you know, early Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: well most attitude era royal roma. But no, it's awful.
Speaker 3: It's so I mean, it's fine, but it's not the
Speaker 3: fact that okay, here here's the problem I have of it.
Speaker 3: The fact that that is the that they have that
Speaker 3: logo in the video games, in the video games and
Speaker 3: not the original one is completely bogus.
Speaker 6: Yeah, you need the shiny royal one, like literally, it
Speaker 6: has a royal kind of sheen to it. Yeah, and
Speaker 6: the rocks are rumbling at the bottom word rumbling.
Speaker 3: So brilliant. It's so fucking brilliant. It's it's the best logo.
Speaker 6: I don't know, boss, It's almost like whoever was running
Speaker 6: logos in the earliest days of the WWF is someone
Speaker 6: you know that we should talk to.
Speaker 3: I mean yeah.
Speaker 6: But when you think about that, that ninety six Rumble logo,
Speaker 6: they repeated it the next year in San Antonio for
Speaker 6: Shawn Michaels. To me, it always smacked of like, I
Speaker 6: don't know, Saturday morning, like inside the NBA. It just
Speaker 6: looks like a kid kids, it's a cartoon logo. It's
Speaker 6: like a yeah, exactly, it's that. It's that it's a
Speaker 6: Saturday morning cartoon logo. Yeah, what it is, right, you know,
Speaker 6: exactly straight out of the fucking nineties with kind of
Speaker 6: weird little uh uh uh you know, like geometric shapes
Speaker 6: and uh you know, hard angles and like, you know,
Speaker 6: it's it's it's just not I mean, it's it's it's
Speaker 6: no no different really than the w logo at the
Speaker 6: time when they change that to be that weird you know,
Speaker 6: slanted off, but you still have the yeah, the box
Speaker 6: in the background, like just come on, yeah, yeah, you're
Speaker 6: not attacking the right things here. Yeah, the blue and
Speaker 6: yellow logo which displays faithfully in the corner of our
Speaker 6: screen throughout the course of this broadcast.
Speaker 3: And you know, it's really amazing. They didn't change up,
Speaker 3: like they changed up that one, and they didn't change
Speaker 3: up in ninety six. They changed up the Survivor Series
Speaker 3: one too, but nothing else. Yeah, like WrestleMania Summers Summers
Speaker 3: sam remained. This remained the same until ninety seven, which
Speaker 3: is bizarre when you're so bizarre, like why that one?
Speaker 6: And they kept the old w w F logo and
Speaker 6: the referee shirts and stuff. Yep, you can still see
Speaker 6: the original.
Speaker 3: I'm not going to, right we you know, make new
Speaker 3: clothing for these hassholes. They want it, they can do themselves.
Speaker 3: I'm not going to pay for it.
Speaker 6: I remember the Jack's WWF referee had the old logo
Speaker 6: on it. Yeah, but you said they want to get
Speaker 6: away with the hard angle, and that's true.
Speaker 3: They just even the jack, even the even the jacks,
Speaker 3: even the jacks uh uh, like they the figures they
Speaker 3: had the plates like the yes, you know, they they
Speaker 3: were the old logo as well.
Speaker 6: Yeah, those little holes on their feet so you could
Speaker 6: stand them up on this display plate.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and those were the Those are the old logo,
Speaker 3: but you know, they.
Speaker 6: Switched out the hard angles of the logo for the
Speaker 6: hard angle of gold Dust raising ramone. There you go,
Speaker 6: which was quite a bit, quite a bit to see
Speaker 6: and take in, and very attitudinal as well.
Speaker 3: Oh for sure that's true too. Yeah, you forget gold
Speaker 3: gold Dust for sure a total kind of groundbreaking attitudinal
Speaker 3: intensity persona.
Speaker 6: And well, he'd been around for like four right, Well
Speaker 6: it depends I've been around for four months. He hadn't
Speaker 6: so much leaned yet into I'm like actively going to
Speaker 6: caress Maile wrestlers to get in their head. Yeah, he
Speaker 6: was acting, you know, strangely and throwing people off with
Speaker 6: psychological games, and they kind of hinted that he might
Speaker 6: be you know, androgynous or homo erotic or whatever the
Speaker 6: case may be. But it was this Razor Romone program
Speaker 6: and the Razor Romone match we see on this show
Speaker 6: where Goldust takes the Intercontinental Tile off of them, where
Speaker 6: they really went all the way with it and yep,
Speaker 6: and did the kind of things that would come to
Speaker 6: characterize the gold Dust gimmicks at its peak. So yeah,
Speaker 6: very very fascinating to think about it in that context
Speaker 6: of them trying new things, and it's before they're really
Speaker 6: feeling the pressure of WCW. I mean, make no mistake,
Speaker 6: Nitro came out of the box in September of nineteen
Speaker 6: ninety five, and I think did better than what their
Speaker 6: expectations would have been. And it was it was more
Speaker 6: competitive from the beginning than it would have expected, with
Speaker 6: Nitro being live and with the star power of a
Speaker 6: Hogan and Savage and all the rest of the crew
Speaker 6: on that show and flair, but it was neck and
Speaker 6: neck every week. They didn't run away with it until
Speaker 6: the nWo right right, So you can you can still
Speaker 6: sense that putting sufficient pressure on Vince to start testing
Speaker 6: the waters a little bit, maybe leaning into some of
Speaker 6: the things that this Russo is saying in meetings. You
Speaker 6: know Russo sitting in the chair in the billionaire ted skits,
Speaker 6: Yes he is, He's right there. Who's the other clown?
Speaker 6: I don't recognize the other people. I would love somebody
Speaker 6: who knew WW of office personnel. I don't know if
Speaker 6: Conrad's ever asked Bruce on an episode. I don't recall
Speaker 6: or haven't heard who those people were. But it's vital
Speaker 6: intel and I was, Yeah, I love to know who
Speaker 6: played the Huckster and the Nacho Man and steam Gene yep, yep,
Speaker 6: or even Ted. I don't even know who plays Ted.
Speaker 6: I don't know if plays Ted yep, but those are
Speaker 6: in full swing. I think this is the only WWA
Speaker 6: pay per view with the billionaire Ted skit on it,
Speaker 6: this royal rumble.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think you're right.
Speaker 6: They did it for like four or five weeks, and
Speaker 6: then they kind of were talked out of continuing to
Speaker 6: lean in that direction. They ran that print at we've
Speaker 6: read before in the Wall Street Journal, you know, asking
Speaker 6: Turner shareholders to question like if Ted is spending his
Speaker 6: money in a wise way and having blood, sending letters
Speaker 6: expressing concern to shareholders about the blood on WCW television.
Speaker 6: Vince just tremendous stuff, tremendous gamesmanship at the time, so
Speaker 6: gotten too by the mere possibility that that WCW would
Speaker 6: take guys that he determined in his mind were old
Speaker 6: news and came back to challenge him with those guys.
Speaker 3: I was really surprised that they even had.
Speaker 7: That.
Speaker 3: They were that the billionaires. Ted's sketches started that early. Yeah,
Speaker 3: me too, I was. I was stunned at that.
Speaker 6: I kind of thought they launched him in response to
Speaker 6: the power of the nWo.
Speaker 3: Yeah, right, exactly. Well, no, I knew they happened before WrestleMania, Yeah,
Speaker 3: because I knew that the culmination happened at WrestleMania. Yeah,
Speaker 3: but I really I was just surprised that it you know,
Speaker 3: that it's just started. I feelt it started a little
Speaker 3: bit like it was like four weeks before wrestling. I
Speaker 3: every week lead have to WrestleMania happened. I didn't realize
Speaker 3: it was at the rumble. That's just that was just
Speaker 3: wild to me.
Speaker 6: It just says so much that he went and did
Speaker 6: this before w CW even started to beat him in
Speaker 6: the ratings. This is just a psychological unraveling for Vince
Speaker 6: in so many ways. And he's on the call too,
Speaker 6: so we get the pleasure of, you know, try trying
Speaker 6: to interpret and read the intonations of his voice on
Speaker 6: commentary with a mister perfect too. I think, while overall
Speaker 6: very lame in the color seat in this era, does
Speaker 6: a pretty good job at this rumble. I kind of
Speaker 6: feel like he feels a little loose, like it's fun.
Speaker 6: It seems fun. It's fun, right, for him, and it
Speaker 6: wasn't always. But my story in the nine tinety six
Speaker 6: oil Rumble is that, and I just lab serendipity. Remember
Speaker 6: we were talking so much in recent weeks about VCRs
Speaker 6: and when we got our first VCRs, Yes, when we
Speaker 6: were able to dub tapes from the video store or
Speaker 6: record things off television. I remember I was saying, we
Speaker 6: always had a challenge. I never could figure out how
Speaker 6: to hook it up appropriately to tape cable. I just
Speaker 6: couldn't figure it out. I couldn't configure the VCR. And
Speaker 6: then we had that period of time where the VCR
Speaker 6: was on the fritz and we were in between until
Speaker 6: we get a new one and fix it. And every
Speaker 6: time we made efforts to fix it, they fell flat.
Speaker 6: And you know, no one wants their tape to get
Speaker 6: eaten up. So for years we had a VCR sitting
Speaker 6: there that we just were afraid to use. And certainly
Speaker 6: that's tragic it was, And it certainly wasn't, like I said,
Speaker 6: set up to record anything.
Speaker 3: Anyway.
Speaker 6: This was the first WWF pay per view. After the
Speaker 6: Christmas we got a new VCR.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 6: And when I tell you that that VCR changed everything,
Speaker 6: I am not exaggerating in the least because immediately because
Speaker 6: I was much older now, I mean we're talking, I'm
Speaker 6: like a teenager, and I can figure this out now.
Speaker 6: I hooked it up to record cable, and when I
Speaker 6: realized that, I figured out how to do it and
Speaker 6: had the confidence this was a new machine with modern
Speaker 6: capabilities and was not, you know, one malfunction away from
Speaker 6: being garbage. I went so hard and not only did
Speaker 6: I order the nineteen ninety six pay per view, then
Speaker 6: Tenny six rore a Rumble.
Speaker 3: Pay per view.
Speaker 6: I ordered every WWF pay per view from then until Wow,
Speaker 6: the end of the company Wow on pay per view,
Speaker 6: as it were. I would say now, to say I
Speaker 6: ordered everyone is probably wrong because at some point I
Speaker 6: did get a black box, right, but I never missed
Speaker 6: another one, and I recorded all of them, and I
Speaker 6: was obsessed, and it was this was what started it.
Speaker 6: I don't know how it came on my radar, because,
Speaker 6: like I've said before, ninety five was a, like most,
Speaker 6: a very down year for me in terms of wrestling.
Speaker 6: I got into all kinds of other stuff, other cartoons
Speaker 6: and other stuff as Big an X Men and shit
Speaker 6: like that. And while I kind of kept wrestling on
Speaker 6: in the corner of my eye. I was not watching
Speaker 6: Raw every week. I was not, And there was just
Speaker 6: something about the hype for the nineteen ninety six Royal Rumble.
Speaker 6: I'm sure there was just some ad on cable. Maybe
Speaker 6: I watched the TV Guide channel and there it was
Speaker 6: like it used to be when you had to go
Speaker 6: to a particular channel to see the guide. And of
Speaker 6: course the cable car right, they share in the profits
Speaker 6: of the pay per views, so they're going to bombard
Speaker 6: you with ads for pay per view stuff when you're
Speaker 6: looking at the TV Guide channel. And I was like,
Speaker 6: because we've talked about this before, and I think it's
Speaker 6: always worth saying anytime we do a rumble, and there's
Speaker 6: not many more we're gonna end up doing on this
Speaker 6: show because we put our heads together. What rumble haven't
Speaker 6: we done?
Speaker 3: I know there aren't. There aren't too many left that matter.
Speaker 3: Most of them have been done right right that.
Speaker 6: Are from the golden era, the era where it was better.
Speaker 6: And so I'm looking at it and I'm like, you know,
Speaker 6: this is a show. The Rumble is always a show
Speaker 6: where you can count on the people in your life.
Speaker 6: When you're a kid, who kind of think it's kind
Speaker 6: of fucking dumb that you watch wrestling, you can get
Speaker 6: them to come over for the rumble.
Speaker 3: Yes, well, I use that's I used to do.
Speaker 6: Of course, I had. I had friends.
Speaker 3: We had, we had, I had a group of friends
Speaker 3: who I mean, I've said this a million times, you know,
Speaker 3: not only did I have the friends who would who
Speaker 3: would come over for the Rumble, I'd have I'd have
Speaker 3: more people for the Rumble than even WrestleMania, oh by mine.
Speaker 9: Yeah.
Speaker 6: And this is when I would put up the uh,
Speaker 6: I would make the drawings.
Speaker 3: I'd put my little fucking mini posters, and I've you know,
Speaker 3: made T shirts out of those posts.
Speaker 6: On the Progressing store. That's right for those who don't know,
Speaker 6: Boss Mama drop posters for the different entrants in the Rumble,
Speaker 6: kind of like the Saturday Night's main event graphics.
Speaker 3: Almost yeah, yeah, actually yeah, they were kind of like that.
Speaker 6: And he found them and we put them on T shirts.
Speaker 6: And there were people walking around wearing yeaph designs of
Speaker 6: the thing's Boston. Really was it ninety four? Doninkle clown around.
Speaker 3: I'd say, yeah, ninety four and uh and certainly, I mean,
Speaker 3: certainly there's one from the couple from this year, like
Speaker 3: I had a great stone cold one. I don't know
Speaker 3: if the stone cold one made it up, but I
Speaker 3: had a stone cold one.
Speaker 6: I must have been ninety seven then, because he wasn't
Speaker 6: stone cold yet.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I must have been ninety seven year run
Speaker 3: he wasn't so cold yet. It definitely didn't have a
Speaker 3: ring Master one, no, but uh yeah I had. You know,
Speaker 3: don't clown around the brumble. IRS will tax his way
Speaker 3: to the top. Well that's not that's not false. And
Speaker 3: uh yeah, a bunch of them.
Speaker 6: It's so ironic that it was actually, of all the
Speaker 6: wrestlers at the time, IRS was the most taxing to watch.
Speaker 3: It was indeed, oh fucking rotundo.
Speaker 6: So there I was dialed in, ordered it and I
Speaker 6: can't remember if anyone came over for this or not,
Speaker 6: but it was like, this is the rumble, And even
Speaker 6: though I don't follow ww for religiously anymore, the rumble,
Speaker 6: I can air drop into Sunday Nights Open. I can
Speaker 6: actually tape this thing.
Speaker 2: I was.
Speaker 6: I swear to god, I probably ordered it more to
Speaker 6: test whether I could record a pay per view than
Speaker 6: oh sure, of course, interest in this particular lineup and
Speaker 6: there it is. Oh, Shawn Michael says back, Wow, look
Speaker 6: at this, he's going for the gold. Oh, they're really
Speaker 6: getting behind Shawn. Sean's the new guy I need to
Speaker 6: care about. It was a great time to check in
Speaker 6: because you had a new guy. It hadn't gone for
Speaker 6: the world title, you know, with that baby face push yet, right,
Speaker 6: and so it was like, Wow, things were changing. Goldust
Speaker 6: was like a fascinating new character. Jake came back. That
Speaker 6: was huge.
Speaker 3: When Jake came through that curtain, Oh my, I mean,
Speaker 3: you know, I've talked about it, and this is this
Speaker 3: is the show where I've said it was very you know,
Speaker 3: leading up to him actually coming out, I thought he
Speaker 3: was going to be a heel, right because the last
Speaker 3: time I saw him he was a heel. So why
Speaker 3: would I think otherwise? Like, how could he come back
Speaker 3: and be a babyface?
Speaker 6: How could the fans not remember exactly what you remembered
Speaker 6: him traumatizing Elizabeth.
Speaker 3: And exactly and and and and you know, and and
Speaker 3: and having this snake fucking bite savage and you know,
Speaker 3: beating the Undertaker with a chair before WrestleMania ate, Like,
Speaker 3: how could you not remember this? Then they cheered him,
Speaker 3: and it was very confusing to me.
Speaker 6: Did you know what was coming? Yeah, so you did,
Speaker 6: right because you expected that? Yeah, yeah, because they announced him.
Speaker 6: But he See what was weird?
Speaker 3: I don't remember him doing any promos on the TV,
Speaker 3: like I think the first promo that I saw him
Speaker 3: and actually, honestly, god, until I watched it, I didn't.
Speaker 3: I completely forgot that he did a fucking promo. Uh
Speaker 3: you know, they did one of those pre those pre
Speaker 3: match promos that they really hadn't done in a while,
Speaker 3: but they they they did for for this show, and
Speaker 3: I was like, you know, I was wading like, holy shit,
Speaker 3: I can't believe he's actually uh he's he's doing a promo. Yes, right,
Speaker 3: but man, I was. I was taken aback by that.
Speaker 6: But I hadn't caught any of the wind of men
Speaker 6: on television that Jake Roberts was coming back. So I
Speaker 6: was taken totally by surprise when he walked back when
Speaker 6: his music hit, and even better because I heard his
Speaker 6: music for the first time and when he came to that,
Speaker 6: I don't know, I have to say, watching it back
Speaker 6: to prepare for this episode on Peacock, I did not
Speaker 6: sense the crowd reaction that I recall not only on
Speaker 6: the night, but as I'll explain, I've watched this tape
Speaker 6: a million times because, like I said, it was the
Speaker 6: first w W pay per view I was able to
Speaker 6: figure out how to record, and I feel like that
Speaker 6: pop was like one of the biggest things on the
Speaker 6: show when he came out. The people wanted Jake to
Speaker 6: mark March to that ring with that snake in that sack,
Speaker 6: and they wanted they wanted to see him execute badly. Yes, yes,
Speaker 6: they want exactly DDT like crazy when he came and
Speaker 6: you know the walk, you know the walk. I mean
Speaker 6: he can do it as a heel, but when he
Speaker 6: does it as a face, it's almost like he's walking
Speaker 6: with this you know.
Speaker 3: What he's he's moving, Yes, he moved at a slightly
Speaker 3: brisker pace. Yes, yes, yeah, it's just yes, just ever
Speaker 3: so brisker. It's the same intensity, but he's just going
Speaker 3: a little faster. And instead of that much difference.
Speaker 6: Exactly, instead of coming off as cold and calculating, he's
Speaker 6: coming off as the adrenaline is flowing.
Speaker 3: Through his veins.
Speaker 6: Yep, and he's ready, you know, like we've always talked
Speaker 6: about it, like we always talk about, he's ready to
Speaker 6: use his powers for a good again. You can tell
Speaker 6: by the way he's carrying himself. And when he gets
Speaker 6: in that ring and loads the snake and everyone SCRAMs,
Speaker 6: it's just a beautiful thing to see. Yeah, And they
Speaker 6: brought him back with the idea not only to use
Speaker 6: him as a wrestler, but maybe put him on the
Speaker 6: writing team, have him do some booking, and he did
Speaker 6: get it.
Speaker 3: Seems to be the only fucking what they always do
Speaker 3: with They always like that. Well, didn't bring it back
Speaker 3: and you can be a booker, right, Well.
Speaker 6: There wasn't talking about ninety two as well. You're right,
Speaker 6: it's a great mind for the business. But uh, of course,
Speaker 6: and played no small part I think in engineering what would.
Speaker 3: Just as sadly a poor uh a poor mind for
Speaker 3: mind altering substances.
Speaker 6: Right, exactly, has poor minds for other reasons, yes, indeed,
Speaker 6: but no small part in kind of engineering. The Austin
Speaker 6: three to sixteen thing that printed them hundreds of millions
Speaker 6: of dollars, yeah, right, and then disappeared because he you know,
Speaker 6: continued to struggle a bit with alcohol and other drug
Speaker 6: issues and things.
Speaker 3: But yeah, a.
Speaker 6: Remarkable part of the show here in Fresno when he
Speaker 6: comes out. But I mean, you have shows like this,
Speaker 6: and this is my show because this is the first
Speaker 6: one I could tape besides that Saturday Night's main event
Speaker 6: that a family friend taped for me with a perfect win,
Speaker 6: that Battle Royal that I've talked about many times. Yeah,
Speaker 6: I watched this tape over and over, and I did
Speaker 6: it because it was the time marker I would use
Speaker 6: to have Hasbro rumbles. I brought all the Hasbro's back out.
Speaker 3: I tried.
Speaker 6: I merged him together with some of the Bendi's as
Speaker 6: best I could. Before the with the bone crunching action
Speaker 6: ones crossed my consciousness in the winter of ninety six.
Speaker 3: Sure, and I just would you know.
Speaker 6: I would wait for the broadcast behind me to reach
Speaker 6: the countdown, and then I knew the next guy was
Speaker 6: due out, and I had my thirty guys arranged and
Speaker 6: it was time to go, and it was So It's
Speaker 6: one of those shows where, like it's I'm watching it,
Speaker 6: I can I can recite it like you can recite
Speaker 6: a movie you've seen one hundred times. Yep, yep, I
Speaker 6: know what Vince is gonna say. I know what everybody's gonna.
Speaker 3: Say this is this is your Summer Slam ninety three.
Speaker 6: I think so, eh, Summer Slam ninety three, that's the
Speaker 6: show you had on and the dorm all the time,
Speaker 6: isn't it?
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's the one I could fucking you know so many,
Speaker 3: so many things that I would say came from that show,
Speaker 3: so many things.
Speaker 6: My favorite one I know, which was going.
Speaker 3: Could we said that? Uh that mister Shawn Michael's everything
Speaker 3: he knows. He didn't teach him everything he knows.
Speaker 6: You know, we talk about lapsed Vince. That's a huge
Speaker 6: part of it. The shows we watched a hundred times.
Speaker 6: Even though he wasn't the best announcer, it was him. Yeah,
Speaker 6: And just to hear his mind work and the word
Speaker 6: choice as a as a TV announcer just makes Vince
Speaker 6: so much easier to channel and imitate and think about.
Speaker 6: But yeah, this was definitely the one. And those promos
Speaker 6: you mentioned that cut they do kind of like the
Speaker 6: rapid Fire with like six or seven rumble entrants in
Speaker 6: the locker room. I was like mouthing exactly what they
Speaker 6: were going to say next is I watchow it's buried
Speaker 6: deep in there somewhere because of the love that, and
Speaker 6: I love that. I remember labeling the spine of the VHS.
Speaker 6: I remember putting WWF kind of like at an angle
Speaker 6: in the top left corner, and then I wrote royal
Speaker 6: rumble and big capitol letters across the middle. I even
Speaker 6: wrote live with an.
Speaker 3: Exclamation point on it. I don't know why.
Speaker 6: I wrote nineteen ninety six on it. And then for
Speaker 6: the rest of my time recording things on a VHS,
Speaker 6: I did the exact same format forever shit, YEP, promotion,
Speaker 6: name and year at an angle in the corner, show
Speaker 6: name in the middle, live I wrote with an exclamation.
Speaker 3: And actually I think it's in the hair tape. It
Speaker 3: wasn't recording off of a previously done videotape. All right,
Speaker 3: it makes sense.
Speaker 6: And I actually think in the rare occasion where I
Speaker 6: bought a replay instead a live version, I did not
Speaker 6: put live on it. Wow, I couldn't bring myself there,
Speaker 6: of course you can.
Speaker 3: How can you just do that?
Speaker 6: It wasn't live?
Speaker 3: Oh man? What a time?
Speaker 6: Yeah, like through ninety six, remember we just did be
Speaker 6: aware of Dog coming up? Yeah, May of ninety six.
Speaker 3: That was that run.
Speaker 6: I can picture the VCR. I can even picture the
Speaker 6: red circle that were indicated recording. I can hear the
Speaker 6: sound of it recording, checking it one hundred times, Like
Speaker 6: there's like, you know, if I'm going to look up
Speaker 6: because the VCR is kind of a little high on
Speaker 6: the TV, if I was laying on the ground or
Speaker 6: sitting on the floor, I had to look up and
Speaker 6: it's like, oh, it's still going, thank god.
Speaker 3: I would take little you know, sometimes in a moment
Speaker 3: where I was like, okay, it wasn't it wasn't a match.
Speaker 3: It was kind of like a behind the scenes thing,
Speaker 3: a back backstage thing. I would stop the tape rewinded
Speaker 3: for a moment and then make sure it was recording.
Speaker 3: Oh you did that? Make sure? Yep? I would. I
Speaker 3: would stop just to make sure that it was okay,
Speaker 3: like we're getting the right feet. That's huge.
Speaker 6: What a disaster if you think you recorded for three
Speaker 6: hours and the tape as something else on it or
Speaker 6: something blank and.
Speaker 3: Yep, well right exactly. It's like, you know, it's like
Speaker 3: what happened to the VCR?
Speaker 2: What happened? What did I do?
Speaker 3: And and you know what was what was also what
Speaker 3: was equally like you gave me so much panic when
Speaker 3: I was using the the the the the last three
Speaker 3: hours of a six hour SLP tape.
Speaker 6: Oh baby, that's high stakes. You don't want to mess around.
Speaker 3: I would.
Speaker 6: That's another thing. You just brought back a memory. It
Speaker 6: would become a ritual. On the Sunday of a pay
Speaker 6: per view, I would go, I would accompany one of
Speaker 6: my parents to the grocery store or to the to
Speaker 6: the pharmacy, and I would get a new VHS fresh
Speaker 6: for that night. And I remember, I would remember a
Speaker 6: little tab that you have to break off so a
Speaker 6: record over it. I remember I would bite it off
Speaker 6: for some reason.
Speaker 3: I could.
Speaker 6: I could taste the plastic. I can taste the plastic
Speaker 6: right now.
Speaker 2: See.
Speaker 3: I wanted I wanted a catalog of two shows per tape,
Speaker 3: got it all the time.
Speaker 6: No, I only had one, and I still did SLP
Speaker 6: speed to be safe.
Speaker 3: That's hilarious. I always wanted to have, like, I wanted
Speaker 3: to have six hours of wrestling on a tape, and
Speaker 3: so I would take the chance and I would just
Speaker 3: be like, you know, when the show is coming to
Speaker 3: an end, and I'm like, I'm you know, it's the
Speaker 3: only time, only the time when I'm using the second
Speaker 3: half of a tape that I ever want to show
Speaker 3: to end as fast as possible, right because I want
Speaker 3: to make sure I had the whole thing on my tipe.
Speaker 3: Because it happened one time where the tape wasn't lined
Speaker 3: up properly and it kept stopping. It stopped and started rewinding.
Speaker 3: What a nightmare.
Speaker 6: Oh to hear hear that rewinding sound when you're live,
Speaker 6: when you're live in the main event. It must have
Speaker 6: happened to me before, because when you said that, I
Speaker 6: immediately could identify with what you're saying.
Speaker 3: Oh, it was so traumatic.
Speaker 6: It starts, it starts low, so you're not sure then you.
Speaker 3: No, no, no, no, no no, Well you here first,
Speaker 3: you hear the you hear the Oh God, the tape
Speaker 3: stopped recording and the VCR stopped moving, and.
Speaker 6: I'm having an anxiety attack right now. Yeah. Remember of
Speaker 6: life when all you had to worry about was clearing
Speaker 6: a three hour pay per view on a VHS tape. Yeah,
Speaker 6: that was the biggest thing you worried about. Now I
Speaker 6: worry about them going too long. Yeah, in a different way.
Speaker 6: Now I worry about them if I can going too long,
Speaker 6: because I want to go to bed. Yeah, now I
Speaker 6: worry about having to watch them exactly. Yeah, yeah, so true.
Speaker 6: But those are just incredible memories and incredible time. You know,
Speaker 6: I was thinking about the difficulty that I had figuring
Speaker 6: out how to hook the VCR up such that it
Speaker 6: would record cable, and I'm thinking back on it now,
Speaker 6: I remember actually trying so hard to figure it out
Speaker 6: and failing and actively arguing with people I would talk
Speaker 6: to about it who said, who claimed that they could
Speaker 6: do it. I would argue with them, I, so you
Speaker 6: can't do it. It doesn't allow you to tape television
Speaker 6: And be like, what are you talking about? I doing
Speaker 6: all the time, Like, no, you must have like a
Speaker 6: different setup, you must have two VCRs. I just would
Speaker 6: not accept this. I said, yeah you can, you can
Speaker 6: dub another tape, but you cannot record the TV. They
Speaker 6: won't let you. I convince myself that it was a block,
Speaker 6: you know that it was. It wasn't that I wasn't
Speaker 6: configuring it correctly, because I tried every possible configuration I
Speaker 6: could think of. All you do is put the coaxel
Speaker 6: cable in. Maybe it was a different VCR. It just
Speaker 6: didn't work, and so I was. I'm wondering what happened
Speaker 6: that that was an issue because idea I never had that.
Speaker 6: I never had that issue, no idea still this day,
Speaker 6: have no idea. Like I said, I didn't figure it
Speaker 6: out with that VCR.
Speaker 3: So I don't know.
Speaker 6: Maybe it was just old I don't know, but God
Speaker 6: damn it.
Speaker 3: I would.
Speaker 6: I would argue with people. I can picture one person particular.
Speaker 6: I'm like, no, you cannot do that, and they were like,
Speaker 6: okay man, like it's it's not you're wrong. Whatever you say, like,
Speaker 6: I'm gonna go do it, and.
Speaker 3: You shut up. Yeah, it's Jesus Christ man, it's a problem.
Speaker 6: Remember the rumbles I would play to this rumble with
Speaker 6: the Hasbros, like the Hogan with the shirt off, that
Speaker 6: that with the bandana against Diesel, the Bendam okay ye,
Speaker 6: both justices were in the rumble. Ron Simmons from the
Speaker 6: Glube was in the rumble YEP, with like half of
Speaker 6: his pants chipped off and his wet sneakers. I mean,
Speaker 6: just amazing memories, just so locked into this time period
Speaker 6: and Sean ascending to the top baby face role and
Speaker 6: only being vaguely aware even that Hogan wasn't there anymore.
Speaker 6: I didn't expect him to come out. I knew he
Speaker 6: was in WCW, but I didn't care. I really didn't.
Speaker 6: It was such a streaming time for someone who went
Speaker 6: on to be obsessed with wrestling forever.
Speaker 3: I cared, but I I you know, at the same time,
Speaker 3: I was very much an acceptance about the fact that
Speaker 3: he just was not there anymore, right, you know, like
Speaker 3: it just was over. What I wanted was not going
Speaker 3: to happen, and it didn't stop. This is the show.
Speaker 6: It did not stop until this very day. I watched
Speaker 6: religiously from this show on. So when I realized that
Speaker 6: this was going to be the show we pulled, I thought, well,
Speaker 6: this is actually goddamn you know. We started this whole
Speaker 6: podcast ten years ago trying to talk about shows that
Speaker 6: meant something to us and the one that maybe it's
Speaker 6: more to me than anything else. We didn't get to
Speaker 6: until year eleven.
Speaker 3: Right exactly over ten years later.
Speaker 6: So that'll give you an idea of how much more
Speaker 6: we still have to chew on here at TLFHQ. But
Speaker 6: it's quite a show. Fresno, California, Michaels gets the win.
Speaker 6: Watching it back, did you feel the way you expected
Speaker 6: to feel or differently.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean honestly, you know, it was a breeze. Yeah.
Speaker 3: You know, some shows are I won't line, it can
Speaker 3: be kind of rough, and this was just like easy,
Speaker 3: you know. I was like, this is just like, this
Speaker 3: is just fun because in a weird way, although you
Speaker 3: know you have that you know, you have that magical
Speaker 3: time of when you first started, that's always a very
Speaker 3: unique time and there's a certain favoritism. But for me,
Speaker 3: this is just when I was in I was just
Speaker 3: on cruise control. Yeah, as a fan. So like all
Speaker 3: these shows, this entire time period is really that that like,
Speaker 3: it's kind of funny, like the worst period is some
Speaker 3: of my favorite stuff or what I remember most fondly
Speaker 3: because this is when I was more dialed in than ever.
Speaker 3: I was just like Monday nights were raw done. I
Speaker 3: was you know, Royal Rumbles doesn't matter who's in, it
Speaker 3: doesn't matter what's going to happen. Yeah, I hope it's
Speaker 3: the best rumble ever, but it doesn't matter because I'm
Speaker 3: still gonna watch it. It's still there. It's still the
Speaker 3: number one thing that I'm going to do in January. Yep,
Speaker 3: And there was, Yeah, so like all this stuff, even
Speaker 3: ninety five, like all this, I was so dialed in
Speaker 3: to the weekly television that none of it, none of
Speaker 3: it stands out as like it's all Like I said,
Speaker 3: it's just it's it's me as a fan on Cruise Control.
Speaker 3: Just fucking boom. That's excellent.
Speaker 6: That's excellent time to be so observant too, because a
Speaker 6: lot of this stuff was at the absolute, you know,
Speaker 6: trough of their interest level. So a lot of people
Speaker 6: don't know this time period ninety five to ninety six,
Speaker 6: you know, they don't know it in in strict details.
Speaker 6: So we're the beneficiaries of you being that locked in.
Speaker 3: I mean it was like, yeah, this was it's weird.
Speaker 3: You know, it's weird because it's in a weird way.
Speaker 3: This is what made for me, this is what really
Speaker 3: made the Attitude era be such a great payoff. Yeah,
Speaker 3: because I suffered through this, yes, not realizing that I
Speaker 3: was suffering, but like I watched this like dreaming that
Speaker 3: they would come up with something more exciting and more
Speaker 3: edgy and more what I was doing with my action figures, Yeah,
Speaker 3: you know where they're throwing guys into fucking television sets
Speaker 3: and you know, you know, they're getting electrocuted like fucking
Speaker 3: Daniel Stern in any fucking home Alone movie.
Speaker 10: Yes, and.
Speaker 3: But I just in my mind, I just knew they
Speaker 3: weren't going to do that. And so by the end
Speaker 3: of ninety six when they did start kind of I
Speaker 3: mean even here, like they started testing those waters, I'm like,
Speaker 3: wait a minute, Hot Sunny is in the fucking bathtub
Speaker 3: and she's naked, and.
Speaker 6: I can see up her skirt, wouldn't it.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, fucking Perfect brings that out. It's hilarious. He's, yeah,
Speaker 3: fucking perfect on the fucking mic.
Speaker 6: Walking right up to the line of being able to
Speaker 6: address it. But yeah, she said' to a breeze.
Speaker 3: It's true.
Speaker 6: It's like the matches are bang bang bang. They're allowing
Speaker 6: these guys to do or I don't know allowing is
Speaker 6: the right word, but the matches to seem much more
Speaker 6: designed to create as many high spots as possible, you know, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 6: until Brett goes out there and does his thirty minute clinic.
Speaker 6: But watching back, I was surprised on the undercard, how
Speaker 6: boom boom boom the matches were. You know, there was
Speaker 6: no attempt to grab a hold and you know, kill
Speaker 6: ten minutes or anything like that.
Speaker 3: No, it just it moved at a at a at
Speaker 3: a great pace with.
Speaker 6: Clean, decisive finishes for the most part, so very I
Speaker 6: shouldn't say for the most part, but you know, the
Speaker 6: gold dust finished was like wow, like that was that
Speaker 6: was over.
Speaker 3: It's decisive, and I was, I was, I you know,
Speaker 3: it's funny. It's funny that it only happened one time,
Speaker 3: but for some reason in my mind, for some reason,
Speaker 3: in my mind, the Royal Rumble would be where Razor
Speaker 3: Roan would always lose the intercontinental title. Yeah, sure, like
Speaker 3: I had, even though it only happened once. But I
Speaker 3: guess in a weird way, it almost happened twice because
Speaker 3: Iris did pin Razor at the ninety four rumble before
Speaker 3: the referee ch changed his mind.
Speaker 6: Well, he came up short against Brett too, so it's
Speaker 6: almost like the rumble isn't his night, right, that's a
Speaker 6: good point.
Speaker 3: And actually I didn't even think of that, like it
Speaker 3: really isn't It isn't his night. And he's kind of
Speaker 3: interesting case too, because he never actually participated in Royal Rumble.
Speaker 3: That's amazing. I don't think he ever. Yeah, because even
Speaker 3: when he came back, he was pretty much he was
Speaker 3: the wouldn't even in the company.
Speaker 6: Long enough to So it got so sad when you said,
Speaker 6: you know, January is just when it comes around. I
Speaker 6: still find myself looking forward to it. You still feel
Speaker 6: it in your skin and bones, and I feel it
Speaker 6: that that way to to this day. But I don't
Speaker 6: get it this year, do I? No, I don't get
Speaker 6: to have it on the calendar month of January.
Speaker 3: No, No, of course not. It's going to happen in
Speaker 3: February because that's where we can get a stadium.
Speaker 6: Because we have strategic needs.
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly, we have. We have strategies, We have strategy strategization.
Speaker 6: We have deals with tourism councils, economic development agencies to
Speaker 6: bring economic stimulus to the downtown.
Speaker 3: The ship stop stimulizing me, right, Look.
Speaker 6: Look how many pizzas we sold in downtown Indianapolis. Give
Speaker 6: us great, give us six million dollars?
Speaker 3: What give me a piece of the pie?
Speaker 6: Now that I think that's more a quirk of the
Speaker 6: fact that, for some reason, which is also gross, the
Speaker 6: Super Bowls like halfway through February this year.
Speaker 3: Well, because they keep in the fucking seasons.
Speaker 6: So they're always going to go. WWB is always going
Speaker 6: to go the weekend between you know, uh, the end
Speaker 6: of the NFL playoffs and the Super Bowl.
Speaker 3: So Y's smart in a way, you know that way
Speaker 3: you're not you know, you're not like in the midst
Speaker 3: of shit.
Speaker 6: Yeah, good luck ever getting the attention you expect on
Speaker 6: the Royal Rumble if it competes against playoff NFL football.
Speaker 6: It's hard enough on an NFL Sunday in general, right
Speaker 6: or during you know, Monday night football for raw. But
Speaker 6: Jesus Christ, I mean if the you know, if it's
Speaker 6: playoff day all day and they're deciding the divisional champions
Speaker 6: or the FC NFC champions, nobody's watching the Rummy to
Speaker 6: do exactly. So I don't blame them in that way.
Speaker 6: But just a cork of the calendar denies me the
Speaker 6: January comfort. I need no surprise there. And you know,
Speaker 6: thinking back about how I got you know, really anal
Speaker 6: about keeping every pay per view and recording everyone, and actually,
Speaker 6: when I think back with more particularity on it, it
Speaker 6: wasn't something I decided that very day after the Rumble
Speaker 6: was over, that this is the beginning of new thing.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 6: But when the February in your House came around, oh,
Speaker 6: and I landed in a position where I can buy
Speaker 6: this thing and there's a VCR. I wasn't there. I
Speaker 6: was at another house as my grandmother's house. I was like,
Speaker 6: wait a minute, me can I actually asked by this
Speaker 6: and we got the yes and I recorded it.
Speaker 11: Ooh.
Speaker 6: And after that, I was like forget it, like I
Speaker 6: can't not do this. I'm gonna buy WrestleMania because of
Speaker 6: course the rumble hooked me on Mania and Shawn Michael's
Speaker 6: going for it of course, and then Warrior came back.
Speaker 6: It's like, fuck this, I gotta Warrior. Oh yeah, so
Speaker 6: ready for that and that just like I can't stop now,
Speaker 6: I have to keep going, and I kept going. I
Speaker 6: kept going. We haven't done that. Forevery ninety six rumbled
Speaker 6: and Louis in your house in Louisville. Have we I
Speaker 6: don't think so?
Speaker 2: Uh no, no, we have not.
Speaker 6: Taker comes out the bottom of the ring. Okay, because
Speaker 6: a lot of the stuff we're gonna talk about Visa
Speaker 6: VI Kevin Nash and this time period on this show
Speaker 6: evolves around that show as well. Because to hear Kevin
Speaker 6: Nash tell it. That was kind of the last draw
Speaker 6: for him as far as deciding whether he was definitely
Speaker 6: going to WCW or not. Was that whole thing where
Speaker 6: he wanted to put Sean down with this with his
Speaker 6: jackknife before Taker came out leading the idea that he
Speaker 6: was close to get in the belt back and it's
Speaker 6: kind of a win for him, and then Brett putting
Speaker 6: up a fight, like, you know, if we're gonna just
Speaker 6: do this, Undertaker come out of the ring, it makes
Speaker 6: no sense for me to take the jackknife and give
Speaker 6: the crowd an indication that you're gonna win the belt.
Speaker 6: That's when Undertaker, who never says anything so his motherfucker's
Speaker 6: not about you, don't forget Nash puts those words in
Speaker 6: Undertaker's mouth, even though it's exactly how Kevin Nash and
Speaker 6: Kevin Nash alone would say it, exactly with.
Speaker 3: The motherfucker in the beginning.
Speaker 6: Yeah, at most I understand people say motherfucker, but Nash
Speaker 6: only Nash puts it at the beginning of the sentence,
Speaker 6: right right, So just tremendous stuff. And uh, and that's
Speaker 6: you know, also part of the narrative of why Kivin
Speaker 6: Nash left we're not too far away from that Raw
Speaker 6: magazine Why Nash Why or whatever it's says yep, Oh god,
Speaker 6: what a time. And that's another thing that's coming out
Speaker 6: Raw Magazine. You want to talk about the shifting direction.
Speaker 6: And sure, for sure, whenever Vince Russo's asked about sensing
Speaker 6: the change, that's his whole thing is, you know, Vince Rusou,
Speaker 6: because he was a debt of magazine and writing promos,
Speaker 6: was able to get a little bit of leeway on
Speaker 6: this new Raw Magazine title. And by the time Vince
Speaker 6: really felt up against it and needed to do something drastic,
Speaker 6: he Gordon Vince Risau. Yeah exactly. They had already done
Speaker 6: pinups of Sonny and there remember that the ronjer rats
Speaker 6: on the front cover. Oh yeah, you remember this, and
Speaker 6: then the Marlena one, Like, what's happening here? Marlena debuts
Speaker 6: on this rumble as well, Yes she does. First time
Speaker 6: we ever seen Martlina or as you would call her,
Speaker 6: tremendous stuff. Stay stay in your m lane throughout the
Speaker 6: course of this round, is my high suggestion. Now Vince
Speaker 6: McMahon is up against it and just needs something drastic,
Speaker 6: and he Gordon Russo takes a copy of Raw magazine,
Speaker 6: throws it down on the desk and says, this is
Speaker 6: where we're going. You know, this is this isn't just
Speaker 6: going to be some like different take on the company.
Speaker 6: This is going to be the company, the thrust of
Speaker 6: what we do, the theme, the field of what we do.
Speaker 6: And that's all happening now before anyone seemed ready for it,
Speaker 6: before anyone realized there was an emergency.
Speaker 3: Well, that's just it, like it's it's it's wild that
Speaker 3: that they're already you know, very very very lightly putting
Speaker 3: their toes in the water here stuff.
Speaker 2: Boss.
Speaker 3: I was not I really I really kind of forgot that.
Speaker 3: And and it's not like we haven't touched upon this
Speaker 3: this era at all either, Like we've we've certainly done
Speaker 3: some nineties, some some ninety six. We've done a lot
Speaker 3: of ninety six stuff actually in the last year or
Speaker 3: so and.
Speaker 6: So first half of ninety six.
Speaker 3: That's yeah, that's where it's kind of really surprising, where
Speaker 3: there's a lot more of this stuff than than you expect,
Speaker 3: and even leading back to ninety five. Honestly, like we
Speaker 3: like we said between nash and and gold Dust, like
Speaker 3: that's that's ninety five. That's a whole Yeah, that's a
Speaker 3: whole thing here.
Speaker 6: Yeah, the way they treated Nash losing the belt to
Speaker 6: Bret Hart Survivor Series ninety five, I think is like
Speaker 6: the earliest flicker of it, you know. Yeah, yeah, So
Speaker 6: we'll get into all that with the table crash in
Speaker 6: that match, one of the first times they I think
Speaker 6: the first time they ever broke a table in WW
Speaker 6: first time someone went at the table. It's like, Okay,
Speaker 6: they're going to go this way. So it's it's gonna
Speaker 6: be a real joy and a unique nostalgic run to
Speaker 6: go back through, at least for me, this ninety ninety
Speaker 6: six Roure a Rumbles show. Sure as we prepare for
Speaker 6: another rumble season here in that cast and besides this,
Speaker 6: what eighty nine and that's it?
Speaker 2: Ninety nine as well?
Speaker 6: You get to do ninety nine, Vince's big win. We
Speaker 6: went to ninety nine.
Speaker 3: Eighty nine.
Speaker 6: Have we done ninety four?
Speaker 3: Have we done ninety four? I think we did we
Speaker 3: ninety four? We did ninety four, Yeah, we did do
Speaker 3: ninety four. Yeah, the tie A six, Yeah, it's this
Speaker 3: and and ninety nine or are the two that we
Speaker 3: have not done of that? You know in that time,
Speaker 3: percuse we did nine. We did up to two thousand
Speaker 3: and one.
Speaker 6: And you're not counting eighty nine, no, I mean, oh, eight, nine.
Speaker 3: Ninety six and ninety nine. Yeah, those are the three three.
Speaker 6: From the period that matters. Not to say we'll never
Speaker 6: do another Rumble, but this is a big thing I'm
Speaker 6: checking off.
Speaker 3: I mean, you know, I was like, you know, there's
Speaker 3: one Rumble I know we should do just because we
Speaker 3: were there, which is two thousand and three, absolutely, you know,
Speaker 3: but it's not like it's on the fast track right now.
Speaker 6: Tremendous, tremendous stuff. So we're going to really make sure
Speaker 6: you're ready for Rumble season here with a treatment of
Speaker 6: this particular night in Fresno, California. And of course it's
Speaker 6: a wonderful time to be involved with us over at
Speaker 6: Patreon because the were Rumble Live call is coming your way,
Speaker 6: to say nothing of the next installment of Saturday Night's
Speaker 6: Main Event, which we primed you for with our coverage
Speaker 6: last time we were with you on the main feed
Speaker 6: of the very first Saturday Nights Made Event Special YEP
Speaker 6: in nineteen eighty five. And I do have to give
Speaker 6: a little bit of a couple of stars out to
Speaker 6: people who had the most money comments. I think I'm
Speaker 6: going to make this a regular feature in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 6: You know, we always do feedback shows and we'll get
Speaker 6: to all your great letters and sentiments. But I have
Speaker 6: to give the gold medal to Zach on this one
Speaker 6: on Patreon, who had the following comment relative to things,
Speaker 6: and we were talking about fabulous Mula visa via sybyan Oh.
Speaker 3: Yes, like you do.
Speaker 6: And I think Zach really was smart about it. He said,
Speaker 6: you know, no way Mulla would buy a Sibyan. But
Speaker 6: let's just say she's owned the same Westinghouse dryer from
Speaker 6: Sears since the fifties and there is a top corner
Speaker 6: with not a bit of paint left on it.
Speaker 4: Fuck my life.
Speaker 6: Can you picture her, yes, making her way genteely down
Speaker 6: the stairs to the basement in like the sixties to
Speaker 6: take a ride on some American steel.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 6: Absolutely, listen, she has needs. I think that's yeah, I
Speaker 6: think that's what, like, we have to stop beating around. Well,
Speaker 6: but in the bunt.
Speaker 3: Doesn't she doesn't. She does not give a fuck. All right,
Speaker 3: everyone knows that she fucking rides the ship. Everybody knows
Speaker 3: how old is she gonna get satisfied?
Speaker 2: You can't.
Speaker 3: She's not gonna have a husband. She's a fabulous There
Speaker 3: is no gentleman who can satisfy that. Once she discovered that,
Speaker 3: it was over. Like the it's not a guy in
Speaker 3: the world that can interest her and activate her loins.
Speaker 3: Give me a break. None, none, none, none. She's hungry,
Speaker 3: she needs she needs sustenance. And that's where.
Speaker 6: Do you call it? Sustenance?
Speaker 3: And that's where the device comes Oh, that's where that's
Speaker 3: where the device comes in, comes in. We got you.
Speaker 3: What was his name? Billy?
Speaker 6: Oh god, what is it? The old promoter of women?
Speaker 6: But Billy Wolf. He was the last one that could
Speaker 6: get her eyes to roll the back of her head.
Speaker 6: And from that point forward, if it wasn't from the
Speaker 6: appliance room and sears, it wasn't going to do it.
Speaker 6: Damn Jesus, can you put a lid on it, Lilyan,
Speaker 6: Jesus can only imagine.
Speaker 10: So.
Speaker 6: Also, honorable mention goes to Corey and Winnipeg, who loves
Speaker 6: this era and has a great resource for this era.
Speaker 6: We were wondering when did Hogan switch from I Have
Speaker 6: the Tiger to real American he certainly hadn't by the
Speaker 6: first Enterning's Man event in May eighty five. He advises
Speaker 6: Hogan's first juice of Real American December thirty first, nineteen
Speaker 6: eighty five, and an MSG show versus Randy Savage the
Speaker 6: first time of the Hogan.
Speaker 3: Sales program took on. Oh shit Wow.
Speaker 6: He writes, Hogan loses by count out, which is a
Speaker 6: funny way to debut his anthem that is kind of
Speaker 6: that is weird. Corey also advises that for Hogan and
Speaker 6: te hosting SNL, the host didn't get sick. He pulled
Speaker 6: out of the gig the week of the show because
Speaker 6: of an expected writer strike. Steve Landsberg from the TV
Speaker 6: show Barney Miller was the scheduled host. He still appears
Speaker 6: and does a stand up bed. The show is the
Speaker 6: only one that doesn't have a weekend update segment.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 6: That episode of SNL turns out to be notable for
Speaker 6: many reasons, but that creating the opening, as we discussed
Speaker 6: last week, for Hogan and mister t right before WrestleMania, indeed,
Speaker 6: the night before WrestleMania one take the stage on SNL
Speaker 6: and interest a whole lot more people and uh and
Speaker 6: looking in and leading to us.
Speaker 3: I still think that it's more ever Saw. I think
Speaker 3: ever Saw I would have said told the guy that
Speaker 3: he fucking say it's a writer strike, right, say strike.
Speaker 3: I don't give a shit, but you're not going on
Speaker 3: the show, going.
Speaker 6: On the show no matter what, because he's pulling rank.
Speaker 6: I mean, it's not you know, Steve Lansberg makes reference
Speaker 6: on the broadcast to the to the reporting that he
Speaker 6: was sick or his family member was sick. Now whether
Speaker 6: subsequent to that people found out the real reason wasn't that.
Speaker 6: I'm not saying that is ari isn't the case, but
Speaker 6: it's not like people invented illness as a reason he
Speaker 6: was off the show. That was that was everywhere that week, right,
Speaker 6: and he even mentions it himself. But it is curious,
Speaker 6: yet he still appears. And and the weekend update thing,
Speaker 6: you know, makes sense in terms of like not having
Speaker 6: the writing staff to put that together, or having a
Speaker 6: writing staff that doesn't have its foot on the gas
Speaker 6: and is waiting to see what happens, waiting for the word.
Speaker 6: So that's that, And these are all examples, those two insights.
Speaker 6: If you can call Zach's comment an insight I consider
Speaker 6: it an insight. When I read Westinghouse, I almost spit
Speaker 6: my water out everywhere. That's what you're missing if you're
Speaker 6: not on Patreon. It's not just the ad free versions
Speaker 6: of the show. It's not just deep dives a day
Speaker 6: before everybody else. It's not just the monthly premium live
Speaker 6: calls of modern WWE. We watch it so you don't
Speaker 6: have to. It's not just for the motors WrestleMania, wrestle Mamia,
Speaker 6: pardon me. It's not just for the EPs under the cinemat.
Speaker 6: It's for these comments from these incredibly funny, insightful listeners
Speaker 6: who have great knowledge, who fill in so many gaps
Speaker 6: that we have no matter how diligently we researched something.
Speaker 6: People who just lived every era and wrestling in every
Speaker 6: part of the world, not just the United States, and
Speaker 6: it's many pockets of wrestling history. But I feel like
Speaker 6: there's a listener with a beat on wrestling from every
Speaker 6: country that's had wrestling of significance that we've heard from
Speaker 6: over the years. People who were, you know, just as
Speaker 6: religious about watching WABFF on German and Italian television as
Speaker 6: we were on American television. Of course, and Canadian and all.
Speaker 6: It's all there, and it's a wonderful thing to be
Speaker 6: able to take in even if you don't partake, just
Speaker 6: to be able to see the comments and see the
Speaker 6: things people come up with and see the way they
Speaker 6: answer questions. Martin was able to find video of the
Speaker 6: Hogan Jesse match for Minneapolis Wow that was referenced. I
Speaker 6: guess it just was put up recently. In a bit
Speaker 6: of lap serendipity. We played an interview last week with
Speaker 6: Jesse Mentur on a Minneapolis talk show talking about how
Speaker 6: we just wrestled Hulk Hogan in the market and how
Speaker 6: fascinating that was considering how close that was to Saturday
Speaker 6: Night's main event and his transition being an announcer. People
Speaker 6: forget how late into eighty five Jesse wrestled against Hogan.
Speaker 6: So all that stuff and much more now under the
Speaker 6: cinemat came back with a bang for twenty twenty five.
Speaker 6: I guess you could call it a bang. There are
Speaker 6: movies that this same thing for wrestling shows that are
Speaker 6: good because we give it the treatment and then when
Speaker 6: left to their own devices, they're not worth the time,
Speaker 6: but they they make for the best lapsed treatments.
Speaker 3: Yes they do.
Speaker 6: You got to tell them about Death from Above.
Speaker 3: Yes, Death from Above sadly not the last uh sid
Speaker 3: udy venture into the film world that to come down
Speaker 3: the line at some point. But nonetheless we get a
Speaker 3: good uh you know, we went back to Pittsburgh, went
Speaker 3: back to River of Darkness. We got the chance to
Speaker 3: to really dig into you know, Kurt Angle and his
Speaker 3: and his disease and lots of lots of stuff. And
Speaker 3: it's an awful film. It's an awful film. And and
Speaker 3: James Storm and uh, what's your name, Obadiah? What's ob
Speaker 3: odb whatever?
Speaker 6: It's definitely not I'll tell you that.
Speaker 3: And Rhino too, Rhino as well, and it's it's just
Speaker 3: such a it's it's just so it's such a trash movie.
Speaker 3: But still you said better than Almighty thor Oh. I
Speaker 3: think so wow. I think so that's just amazing. That's
Speaker 3: just amazing to me. I think you're mest I'm going
Speaker 3: to try. I know you will. I listen. You know what,
Speaker 3: the the tiers for bankers might might do it.
Speaker 6: Yeah, that sounds like a real contender.
Speaker 3: It may be the best contender because you know what,
Speaker 3: I'll say this at least almighty thor attempted special effects. Right,
Speaker 3: you know, there's at least that this is just tears
Speaker 3: from Tears for Bankers. Is just the fucking drizzling shits.
Speaker 6: Hey, mean, that's what we need to do with our
Speaker 6: Patreon tiers for bankers, I mean tier, I mean just
Speaker 6: for that episode.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right, Tier for Bankers.
Speaker 6: I think you just gave me a really naughty idea,
Speaker 6: a one show tier that last.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 6: Okay, sorry everybody, it's coming, all right, rev engines and
Speaker 6: warm up your wallets, yep, Okay, but it's it's all.
Speaker 6: It's it's so work. What a great time we had
Speaker 6: with that under the cinemat man, those episodes, those those
Speaker 6: movies are just so funny. When you see wrestlers. You know,
Speaker 6: it's one thing to have one wrestler in the movie,
Speaker 6: but when you have seven, it's like, okay.
Speaker 3: Oh, I know, and that that's the thing. Like basically
Speaker 3: like it's like Kurt Angle brought all of his friends, right,
Speaker 3: It's right, it's exactly what it is. Like I I
Speaker 3: was just shocked and appalled at how many fucking wrestling
Speaker 3: talent was in this goddamn movie. And and you know,
Speaker 3: and what's your butts squeezing or tits? The whole time.
Speaker 3: It's just like, oh my god.
Speaker 1: Like the wrestling podcast, the wrestling podcast that knows the
Speaker 1: boys need their candy. It's the Lapsed Fan. He's a
Speaker 1: lapsed fan wrestling podcast with Jack and Carnacio, m JP sorrow.
Speaker 6: When she catches a guy jerking off in her gas
Speaker 6: so you get an on the mat.
Speaker 3: We get a guy jerking off to a magazine in
Speaker 3: her store.
Speaker 6: Yeah, she's like a convenience store manager in the movie, right,
Speaker 6: I mean, I mean scenes like you wouldn't believe. And
Speaker 6: it was so fun to have the chance to go
Speaker 6: back to think about Kurt coming into TNA in the
Speaker 6: first place, and I remembered interviewing him. I got to
Speaker 6: tell that story, which I kind of told it before,
Speaker 6: but like this is the perfect time because we're probably
Speaker 6: not going to do you know, unless some hop maniac
Speaker 6: in some future year picks it, you know, the Samoa
Speaker 6: Joe matches. We're probably not gonna talk about angles early
Speaker 6: years in TNA EVERA.
Speaker 3: I can I can always hope, you can hope for it, right, Yeah,
Speaker 3: we said that about Hogan's TNA era too, and we
Speaker 3: fucking didn't.
Speaker 6: We turned the show over to but TNH is resonating now.
Speaker 6: Man as he comes back, it's like and people are like,
Speaker 6: why is this guy so like lame? Now It's like, well,
Speaker 6: let me tell you a story. Okay, it goes back
Speaker 6: the ways, and so yeah, that's another thing you're able
Speaker 6: to get for your Patreon dollar. We did a live
Speaker 6: call of the Netflix debut and you were able to
Speaker 6: hear our live reaction to Hogan getting that that that
Speaker 6: huge rejection from the people in LA and what's gonna
Speaker 6: happen Saturday Night's main event? They seem to be going
Speaker 6: forward with featuring him as like this mascot of the
Speaker 6: days of snm E. What's gonna happen? We'll be rolling tape.
Speaker 6: We'll be rolling tape. God, are you going to be there?
Speaker 6: That's the only question at this point. WrestleMania's coming up
Speaker 6: two nights. We'll be in our chairs where we belong,
Speaker 6: not in Vegas, but in our fucking home. I mean,
Speaker 6: it's it's the time. It's the time to lock and
Speaker 6: load elimination chamber and just anything we come up with,
Speaker 6: to say nothing of our tiptop to our rider dies,
Speaker 6: those who give way way more than anybody else, and
Speaker 6: so signal to us that no matter what, you know,
Speaker 6: even if we get hit with a wildfire, this house
Speaker 6: will be standing. It's the moat.
Speaker 3: To your boss and it's restaurant. Tell them about Oh,
Speaker 3: it absolutely is. I mean, just you know, we're i mean, listen,
Speaker 3: we're in Rumble season, so we're you know, I've got
Speaker 3: a little project with my mom that every year around
Speaker 3: the Rumble, we're just gonna watch all the rumbles in succession,
Speaker 3: yes as they go, you know.
Speaker 6: And uh so you're gonna watch the Rumble and succession.
Speaker 3: Yes, we're gonna do both. We're going to like do
Speaker 3: a the Rumble and then see if there's an episode
Speaker 3: of Succession that can kind of co correspond with that one.
Speaker 6: I mean you want to talk about I mean, there's
Speaker 6: the McMahon thing, you know, shivs, Stephanie and Tom is
Speaker 6: triple h. We've you know, and a Kendall is Shame.
Speaker 6: We've done that a million times. But I mean the
Speaker 6: Trump's my god, I was just thinking about this. I mean,
Speaker 6: you've got now with Baron, you've got the Roman, You've
Speaker 6: got the Roman Roy Yeah, and you've got you know,
Speaker 6: Don Junior's definitely Kendall. You know, Avanka's definitely Shive. There's
Speaker 6: some more in the fray, you know, there's more kids.
Speaker 6: But oh my god, that that show is like, it's
Speaker 6: got to be such a mind fuck to be in
Speaker 6: those families and watch that show and to like see
Speaker 6: yourself and those characters and like you try to pretend
Speaker 6: they don't have it.
Speaker 3: The best part they don't. You don't see yourself. You're like, man,
Speaker 3: I'm glad I'm not that person. But it's like, you
Speaker 3: really are, you really are. That's right.
Speaker 6: You can tell yourself it's not you, but it's you.
Speaker 6: It's it's what makes you tick. It might not be
Speaker 6: your exact circumstance, but what makes those characters tick is
Speaker 6: what you mean speaking of which, so yeah, definitely this
Speaker 6: is the time to get back on you want to
Speaker 6: talk about, get back in the living room carpet and
Speaker 6: watch a rumble. Russell. Mommy is the oh absolutely closest
Speaker 6: facts million podcasting you'll find.
Speaker 3: She you know, she's she's it's it's it's I'm always
Speaker 3: pleased with the reception that she gets because, honest to god,
Speaker 3: that that's that's her. You know, that ain't. That's not
Speaker 3: an act confirm you know, I I I prime her
Speaker 3: so that she's not performing, you know, that's that's kind
Speaker 3: of it, Like there's a process to kind of get
Speaker 3: her where she's just settled and just off the cuff. Yeah,
Speaker 3: she's not. She's not performed like she when she can
Speaker 3: get kind of just invested in in what she's watching
Speaker 3: on television. It's just like there's just you know, it's gone,
Speaker 3: like she's just she's just being honest and.
Speaker 6: Give the people a little flavor. Does she always need
Speaker 6: reminders of what a royal rumble is?
Speaker 3: Or she needs a reminder of everything she's watched let
Speaker 3: me tell you like the the if you haven't heard
Speaker 3: this already, just she needs a reminder pretty much every
Speaker 3: time we record that that that that that the wrestler
Speaker 3: needs to have his back on the mat right and
Speaker 3: shoulders down to count to three, because she'll say, well,
Speaker 3: the guy is down on the mat. How come he's
Speaker 3: not Why is the referee counting? He's not uncovered, He's
Speaker 3: not being covered. He has to be covered. He thinks
Speaker 3: it's like boxing, right exactly, like you get you get
Speaker 3: counted out, which you do. Actually you know, it's funny.
Speaker 3: You do do that sometimes, but no, like she's like,
Speaker 3: I'm like, no, mommy, Oh you have to cast to
Speaker 3: be on top of the guy, and the same thing.
Speaker 3: Well he's on top of the guy, and well, mommy's
Speaker 3: not on his back. He's gonna be on his back.
Speaker 3: Which you know, the more you talk about too, the
Speaker 3: more you're like, wow, the rules are fucking just ridiculous.
Speaker 6: That's what's so fun about it is trying to make
Speaker 6: it make sense, you know, because it doesn't. But how
Speaker 6: about imagine that if, like you thought pro wrestling was,
Speaker 6: you have to get off the mat three seconds after
Speaker 6: you get knocked down or your booth. Funny, Actually, it's hilarious.
Speaker 6: I'll tell you of all the twists I've heard on matches,
Speaker 6: you know, like most falls in two minutes and all
Speaker 6: the crazy you know, multiple falls matches and multiple person
Speaker 6: that's one I haven't heard yet, And yeah you can.
Speaker 6: You can take that one. And it's on the house.
Speaker 6: You don't have to give us credit. I want to
Speaker 6: see what it looks like to have a wrestling match
Speaker 6: where you can't be on the mat for more than
Speaker 6: three seconds.
Speaker 3: Right, like you get you know, you take a flatback.
Speaker 3: The the time it takes to get up from from
Speaker 3: just taking a flatback is like more than three seconds. Yeah,
Speaker 3: it's take at least for my fat ass.
Speaker 6: It would well, it would make every high impact move
Speaker 6: so much more meaningful because like, you don't have to
Speaker 6: knock the guy thoroughly out, you know what I mean,
Speaker 6: All you have to do is hit him with enough
Speaker 6: impact that he stays down for three seconds, which happens
Speaker 6: in every match.
Speaker 12: You know.
Speaker 6: That's how you sell any move of consequence, and so
Speaker 6: all of a sudden, a vertical soupx is potentially for
Speaker 6: the win if you do it at the right time.
Speaker 6: I'll tell you, man, I don't I don't know why
Speaker 6: people don't just steal our ship and book wrestling promotions better.
Speaker 6: I mean, I know a lot of them do, but
Speaker 6: more should so wrestle mom you, I mean, I don't
Speaker 6: think much more needs to be said. If you're not
Speaker 6: hooked in, we get it. But trust me, if if
Speaker 6: you have the means, yes we have the miles.
Speaker 3: Okay, it's I think it's I mean, there's certainly a
Speaker 3: lot of fun and she does enjoy watching it. Oh,
Speaker 3: I mean, it's come to the point where she's like,
Speaker 3: you know, she asks like, if she's around, are we
Speaker 3: gonna be able to watch the wrestling? Yes, mom.
Speaker 6: That's always been one of my favorite parts of like
Speaker 6: the adult who thinks it's phony and doesn't understand when
Speaker 6: they get into it just a little bit. Yeah, exactly,
Speaker 6: they lean in just a little bit. That's a wonderful feeling, yep.
Speaker 6: And we try to keep that feeling alive here at TLF.
Speaker 6: As you well know by now. Another way to keep
Speaker 6: the feeling alive is to follow the lead of homies
Speaker 6: like Dominic and some others that we've seen out in
Speaker 6: the wild wearing TLF shwag to live events always the
Speaker 6: ticket for us to spread the word and spread the gospel.
Speaker 6: I've seen some shirts out there. I've seen people in
Speaker 6: shirts where they're not looking to bring it to our attension,
Speaker 6: but I still see them and I love that too.
Speaker 6: But always let us know, man, we'd love to shout
Speaker 6: you out if you go to Pro Wrestling Teas dot com,
Speaker 6: slash the lapsed Fan and look through our t shirt
Speaker 6: catalog over the years, all the inside jokescluding the ones
Speaker 6: we talked about. I have an inside joke just childhood
Speaker 6: drawings on a fucking T shirt. We want to know
Speaker 6: about it and we appreciate your patronage. There that's where,
Speaker 6: that's how to wear your lapshwag with pride in T
Speaker 6: shirt form, And of course Chopped Teas and our Chopped
Speaker 6: Tea store for the higher end merch, the higher end apparel,
Speaker 6: amazing stuff on thend there, and we encourage you to
Speaker 6: check out everything from jackets to tank tops, to hats
Speaker 6: and hoodies and fanny packs and everything else you might
Speaker 6: need to fly the flag. We hope to see plenty
Speaker 6: of black and red out in Vegas for Mania this year.
Speaker 6: Look forward to your dispatches there and a lot more
Speaker 6: to come on on a chances to see your coach
Speaker 6: hairs perhaps this summer.
Speaker 3: I don't know, You never know.
Speaker 6: Roughly sketched plans, things do, things happen, Things do absolutely happen,
Speaker 6: and so that's great, and so we'll have that, and
Speaker 6: we'll have much more as the year unfolds, undoubtedly for
Speaker 6: your Patreon dollar. But that that's that's more than enough.
Speaker 6: And if you're not convinced it's worth it, we are
Speaker 6: not convince you're worth it.
Speaker 3: So here we go. Keep that very much in mind. Yes,
Speaker 3: very simple. Indeed.
Speaker 6: So here's something I bet you don't know about the
Speaker 6: nineteen ninety six Royal Rubble.
Speaker 3: Boss, tell me, did you.
Speaker 6: Know that it was during this time period, roughly six
Speaker 6: months before and after this, that the Fresno b the
Speaker 6: newspaper for Fresno, California, the show being in Fresno. The
Speaker 6: editor of that paper was the lapsed editor for that
Speaker 6: time period.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, I did not know. But I'm not surprised.
Speaker 6: I don't know what you have to do to warm
Speaker 6: up your pipes or anything. But we are about to
Speaker 6: take a deep dive into how the Fresno be covered
Speaker 6: the nineteen ninety six Royal Rumble. And if you think
Speaker 6: they just let this one come and go without all
Speaker 6: the requisite boxes being checked, you do not know this podcast,
Speaker 6: my friend, you do not know this podcast. Let's start
Speaker 6: with the first article ahead of the Rumble January nine,
Speaker 6: WWF Starr is Ready to Rumble. Will give you a
Speaker 6: little little insight as to where WWF was placing the
Speaker 6: local drive ticket sales promotional attention for this event.
Speaker 3: This is where we start. Okay, here we go. Uh
Speaker 3: WWE star is Ready to Rumble. One fan moved toward
Speaker 3: the exit an autographed picture of Shaan Michael's clutched to
Speaker 3: a face. Whatever you might think about the worlds of entertainment,
Speaker 3: this fan's tears were real. So was the adulation shown
Speaker 3: for one of the more flamboyant charismatic performance in w
Speaker 3: W history, The Heartbreak Kid.
Speaker 6: I do feel compelled to interrupt. While I did say
Speaker 6: the Labs editor edited this paper, he did not write
Speaker 6: these articles.
Speaker 3: So all right, that's right, that's good point.
Speaker 6: He's the one looking over the shoulder. We gotta remember,
Speaker 6: Bruce Ferres, the article of this and many of these
Speaker 6: fresno By articles covering were a rumble. He wants to
Speaker 6: cover WWF coming to tenth fair and so he's gonna
Speaker 6: he's gonna get the wrist slapped a few times, but
Speaker 6: he's gonna get more into the local paper than WIF
Speaker 6: is accustomed to.
Speaker 3: Gotcha, all right, I'll start over. One fan moved towards
Speaker 3: the exit an autographic picture of Jean Michael's clutch to
Speaker 3: her face. Whatever you might think about the worldessing entertainment,
Speaker 3: this fan's tears were real. So was the adulation shown
Speaker 3: for one of the more flamboyant charismatic performance in w
Speaker 3: W history. The Heartbreak kids.
Speaker 6: Come on in, Bruce, come in this first line of
Speaker 6: the second paragraph. You want to read this to me?
Speaker 3: One one fan moved towards the exit. The next line, Oh,
Speaker 3: whatever you might think about the worlderessing entertainment, this fan's
Speaker 3: tears were real. What do you think that is? We
Speaker 3: we that first half. Look, Look, you've done good, kid,
Speaker 3: You're done good. That's exactly what I want. I want
Speaker 3: to tell you something right now. I don't really I
Speaker 3: rarely give praise. Listen, listen, I'm not a happy guy.
Speaker 3: All right, I'm gonna put that out there. I'm not
Speaker 3: a happy guy. But don't want to tell you something now.
Speaker 3: You made me happy, all right. You let me say, listen,
Speaker 3: this is one of the best written articles I've ever
Speaker 3: seen in my life, ever in my years in the business.
Speaker 3: All Right, I I it's not It's right. It's not often.
Speaker 6: Much stuff in the paper for this show.
Speaker 3: That I come out and I say, hey, you know what,
Speaker 3: what you've written is just what we need. Person.
Speaker 6: I wants you to tell me why that preamble right
Speaker 6: there was relevant before you write this? Fans tears real?
Speaker 6: Tell me why you put that in note.
Speaker 3: You know what, you know what? You know what that was?
Speaker 2: You know why?
Speaker 3: You know I'll tell you why. See, I don't even
Speaker 3: know if you knew this or not, but this is
Speaker 3: this is the way your great mind works because it's
Speaker 3: all bullshit. It's all fucking bullshit. And you know that,
Speaker 3: you fucking know that, you know what, you know what's
Speaker 3: you know what? This is what makes it great because
Speaker 3: you know that, and because you're ready to to expose
Speaker 3: the ship of the people. I don't have to kill you,
Speaker 3: all right, well, excuse me. I keep a gun in
Speaker 3: my desk, all right for times just like this, except
Speaker 3: the reporter comes in here off and says, you know
Speaker 3: what you know? Don't They don't. They don't know what
Speaker 3: they're fucking writing. They don't know what they're fucking writing.
Speaker 3: And so when they come in here and they don't
Speaker 3: admit from the very beginning of this fucking ship, this
Speaker 3: professional wrestling bullshit is literally masking the eyes of the
Speaker 3: American people.
Speaker 6: Right well, boss, I just want to tell you I
Speaker 6: really appreciate the praise. It means a ton to me,
Speaker 6: and I'm so glad that you saw merit in the
Speaker 6: way A friend I do want to tell you something.
Speaker 3: See this is my gun.
Speaker 6: People people get this in their face when they don't
Speaker 6: write the truth. And I don't want to I don't
Speaker 6: want to disabuse you of any note. But I mean
Speaker 6: what I was trying to say with that sentence. Whatever
Speaker 6: you might think about the World Wrestling Entertainment, this fan's
Speaker 6: tears and tears were real. Yeah, I was acknowledging. But
Speaker 6: but what I was trying to say, isn't it remarkable
Speaker 6: that this thing, this enterprise can bring real tears even
Speaker 6: though it might not be real in the ring. I
Speaker 6: wasn't trying to make fun of them for being fake
Speaker 6: or point out they were fake. I was trying to
Speaker 6: point out, actually that it's quite real the effect it
Speaker 6: has on people.
Speaker 3: I'm sorry, Would you mind repeating that again?
Speaker 6: Well, I was just saying, you know, when I write whatever,
Speaker 6: he shut the fuck up. I call you in here
Speaker 6: and I give you praise.
Speaker 3: I have been vulnerable with you, that's right exactly, And
Speaker 3: he n he didn't feel comfortable doing it. I have
Speaker 3: exposed my unabelly to you just now. I have said
Speaker 3: I have given you praise that apparently apparently is not
Speaker 3: duty because you're a fucking idiot, because you're a fucking fool,
Speaker 3: because you, like everybody else, has been hoodwinked by these
Speaker 3: fucking idiots, by these these fucking they are. I don't
Speaker 3: even know where to be, these are. This is the
Speaker 3: scum of the earth, right all right? These are basically
Speaker 3: warmongers here. I'm thinking when you write whatever you might
Speaker 3: think about the WWF, that that you're on the right team,
Speaker 3: that you put that in there because you know what's
Speaker 3: fake and you need the people to know it's fake.
Speaker 3: I thought you knew what you were doing, and now
Speaker 3: you're just basically admitting that everything you wrote was a
Speaker 3: fucking fluke, And makes me wonder, are you a fluke?
Speaker 3: Are you a fluke as a human being? Are you
Speaker 3: just a fucking mistake just happen to be here? It
Speaker 3: makes me wonder if my weapon in my hand isn't
Speaker 3: better used in your foreheads. Makes a man wonder because
Speaker 3: if you're a fl maybe you shouldn't be here to
Speaker 3: begin with.
Speaker 6: You know what, I'll tell you what, stand here in
Speaker 6: this office and read the rest of the article right
Speaker 6: to my face.
Speaker 10: Do it?
Speaker 3: Do it? Read the fucking pick up where you left off.
Speaker 3: Go ahead, Michael's speaking at a media conference at the
Speaker 3: West Fresno Boys and Girls Club on Monday, announced he
Speaker 3: will be in Fresno's celland Arena on January twenty first,
Speaker 3: along with twenty nine other w performers. After the Royal Rumble,
Speaker 3: Michael says he was beaten by several Excuse me?
Speaker 13: What?
Speaker 3: Mmm? It was beaten. You didn't put quotes around. He
Speaker 3: was beaten. You know that was a That was a
Speaker 3: that was a typo. I didn't me. I intended to
Speaker 3: put quotes there, all right, Look that one slide. Keep
Speaker 3: in mind, I've got fifteen rounds in this sound. The
Speaker 3: chamber said.
Speaker 6: I don't know how many rounds they go in this
Speaker 6: wrestling crap, but it's not as many as I've got
Speaker 6: in the glock.
Speaker 3: I could have fifteen. I could have sixteen rounds put
Speaker 3: in your body. Is it amazing that this guy never
Speaker 3: got charged with the you know, threatening it's always yeah somehow,
Speaker 3: so he only got fired.
Speaker 6: You may tell yourself, well, he never actually did it,
Speaker 6: so it makes sense. No, it doesn't. You would absolutely
Speaker 6: be jailed for saying this.
Speaker 3: He's threatening to kill people with a fucking gun in
Speaker 3: his hand, says he was beaten by several thugs outside
Speaker 3: of Syracuse, New York nightclub in October who quote didn't
Speaker 3: like the way Sean Michaels carried himself. One later, he
Speaker 3: collapsed during a match with Owen Hart on Monday Night Raw.
Speaker 3: The diagnosis was that Michaels was suffering from post concussion syndrome.
Speaker 6: Come here, you're gonna you're gonna tell me, as an
Speaker 6: honest reporter that you believed that that phony kick that
Speaker 6: he took in the back. I was watching the phony
Speaker 6: kick he took in the back of the head legitimately
Speaker 6: resulted in post in customer syndrome. I'm gonna take fucking stupid.
Speaker 6: I'm going to tell you the truth. You see, I
Speaker 6: watched this shit every week, exactly. I watched the shop
Speaker 6: every week because I'm looking for every little fucking detail.
Speaker 6: All right, this this whole business, this whole fucking this,
Speaker 6: this racket, this, this syndicate, what going on here? This thing,
Speaker 6: this is bringing down the country, This is making us
Speaker 6: into completely subservient fools. And I'll tell you, credulous journalists
Speaker 6: like you don't help matters because you should be able
Speaker 6: to know without writing in my paper that he collapsed
Speaker 6: during a match with Owen Heart, like he really collapsed
Speaker 6: like it wasn't.
Speaker 3: He's a fucking he's a fucking idiot. Exactly. Do you
Speaker 3: want to know what a concussion feels like?
Speaker 6: You're gonna write somebody with collapsed on the on the
Speaker 6: theater stage. If I assign you to write a theater review,
Speaker 6: if he dies in the play, you're gonna write, he
Speaker 6: collapsed like it was really just come over here right
Speaker 6: now exactly.
Speaker 3: Oh fuck him, Fuck you.
Speaker 2: Now, you fucking tust.
Speaker 3: Now you know what it feels like, and you know
Speaker 3: what he did. It's fucking bulls. Give another round. Go
Speaker 3: what a boss? What a boss? Bullet surprise wad next time.
Speaker 3: Next time, I put a bullet in your head ship
Speaker 3: and we'll see how fucking can cust you on the story.
Speaker 6: Well, we finally get the green light to do a
Speaker 6: film studio. The Editor is just the first one, a
Speaker 6: film about an editor who just focks his reporters.
Speaker 3: Just like you man. It's like completely balls to the wall,
Speaker 3: like how this guy survives yet somehow he's respects. Did
Speaker 3: you know?
Speaker 6: That's the best The best part. The last thirty seconds
Speaker 6: of the trailer is you looking up as if you're
Speaker 6: in the position of a grounded victim and he's just
Speaker 6: punching the camera for thirty consecutive seconds.
Speaker 3: And that just is the editor.
Speaker 6: Print that motherfucker exactly all the news that's fit to print.
Speaker 6: If you're willing to get God, keep going. This is
Speaker 6: great coverage.
Speaker 3: I let quote, I let my ego take over and
Speaker 3: got back in the ring too soon, said my.
Speaker 2: Working, he's working.
Speaker 3: Wait, you got this. This is a quote from you
Speaker 3: got this fucking quote from this motherfucker. He's said.
Speaker 6: He's working the frest no time.
Speaker 3: No time is too soon because it's fake because he
Speaker 3: didn't get injured. You didn't fucking get beaten up, he
Speaker 3: didn't get concussed. And look at me, even if that happened.
Speaker 3: I know this police reports, I look into it. Even
Speaker 3: if that happened, you're going to tell me that he's
Speaker 3: feeling the effects this far out, it's very clear they've
Speaker 3: got plans for the guy. And and and now was
Speaker 3: very clear. It's very clear they they they're doing the
Speaker 3: sympathy push with this guy.
Speaker 6: He looks you in the eye in a press conference
Speaker 6: with an authentic interaction with legitimate media like the Fresno
Speaker 6: b and you print him saying I got back in
Speaker 6: the ring too soon when you know.
Speaker 3: That that's how did you not know that? That's that's fake,
Speaker 3: that it didn't happen. You got to point out out
Speaker 3: the problem. The problem that I'm having here is that
Speaker 3: you're not saying you're not asking the right question.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: He says, I let my ego take over and I
Speaker 3: got back in the ring too soon, And you say
Speaker 3: to him, well, what's too soon? Isn't what you do?
Speaker 3: Phony that's right? I mean, isn't this obvious what you're
Speaker 3: supposed to ask? I mean like that, this is where
Speaker 3: you fail. You just let him keep let him keep going,
Speaker 3: just let you let him spin his web of lies.
Speaker 3: Would you have a job very very long if if
Speaker 3: you if you let the maya do that to you,
Speaker 3: just you know and blab and blab and and you know,
Speaker 3: genua flecked and uh if you were if you were
Speaker 3: an accountant and you lied, you lied about you know,
Speaker 3: the money that was being taken in or being being
Speaker 3: uh you know, expensed, what happens to you? Are you credible? No,
Speaker 3: you're a fucking idiot, right, are You're a fucking fraud.
Speaker 3: Are you being lied to.
Speaker 6: Your face as a journalist just supposed to interrupt the liar?
Speaker 3: This guy's a fucking fraud all right. Now listen, you
Speaker 3: feel this fucking cold steel against your fucking temple?
Speaker 2: All right?
Speaker 3: This this is real? Can you tell the difference? That's
Speaker 3: another line of the trailer. Now, as far as my health,
Speaker 3: I feel better, and ultimately the decision is mine. I
Speaker 3: have goals and dreams. Even that's fucking fake. Here's no
Speaker 3: goals and dreams. He's a fucking idiot. He's pretending he's
Speaker 3: ten goals and dreams. His pretend golden character has goals
Speaker 3: and dreams and dream This guy gets fed lines. If
Speaker 3: I ask going of you, Tom Hanks, are you gonna
Speaker 3: quote him saying Forrest Gump has dreams? Come on, man,
Speaker 3: do you know what this guy's real name is? Are
Speaker 3: you aware that this Seawn Michael's name is Michael Hickinbottom.
Speaker 3: When I watch the credit, you think, let me ask you,
Speaker 3: do you think that a man named Michael Hickinbottom has
Speaker 3: fucking dreams? Not a fucking buddy quote. His guy's got nothing.
Speaker 6: But when I watched the end of NXT, it says
Speaker 6: executive producers Paul Levech, Lee Fitting and Sean Michaels. I'm
Speaker 6: really confused if that's where you put the real names.
Speaker 3: I don't know if I could live with myself or
Speaker 3: the people around me if I didn't do the one
Speaker 3: thing I'm really good at, lying the people.
Speaker 6: Yeah, you forgot the rest of the quote. You can
Speaker 6: just put in parenthesis if he didn't say it. I
Speaker 6: want to apologize to my friends, doctors, and family. I
Speaker 6: have a destiny to meet in the w W either
Speaker 6: World Resting Entertainment Championship. I'm throwing my name in with
Speaker 6: the many names for the Royal Rumble and Fresno. Regardless
Speaker 6: of who is there, they will be facing the best,
Speaker 6: and folks, that's me. You know why he's the best
Speaker 6: because someone wrote it, Because someone wrote this guy is
Speaker 6: going to be the best, because he's not the best.
Speaker 6: And here we are, and you're printing it like it's legitimate,
Speaker 6: like he's a legitimate athlete. The best teams, the best
Speaker 6: athletes are the ones who win championships at the end
Speaker 6: of the season, not the ones who are scripted to
Speaker 6: win them. Those are called actors, and they're in movies
Speaker 6: and television shows. I'll give it to actors. At least
Speaker 6: the you know, at least the Academy doesn't script who's
Speaker 6: gonna win those things. At least they take a vote,
Speaker 6: for Christ's sakes. Here it's just here, it's just fucking
Speaker 6: you know. The only thing they're not doing is fucking
Speaker 6: just announcing it for the public in the middle of
Speaker 6: the show. And that's just fucking bullshit. Just sitting there.
Speaker 6: You're a fucking idiot. You know, then, you're a fucking idiot.
Speaker 6: You just let these people walk all over you. This
Speaker 6: is this is why this paper is failing today. This
Speaker 6: show's coming to town. I send you the press conference
Speaker 6: to cover it with eyes wide open. You come back,
Speaker 6: this guy in character.
Speaker 3: I give you the opportunity to do the right thing
Speaker 3: for the people of Fresno, to let them know that
Speaker 3: this is not healthy, that this right here is a
Speaker 3: cancer on there on their community. And you, you, you
Speaker 3: just drink their fucking kool aid, right, you just allow
Speaker 3: them to just to just continue their bullshit narrative.
Speaker 6: Oh I'm sorry, I thought you worked for the Fresno
Speaker 6: b not WWFPR.
Speaker 3: And here I thought you were a fucking journalist and
Speaker 3: an honest man, little that I know, you're just a
Speaker 3: fucking bitch.
Speaker 6: Doesn't sound like the same guy who told him fifteen
Speaker 6: minutes ago that he was really happy in present.
Speaker 11: Uh.
Speaker 3: The large cluster of fans gathered just outside the press
Speaker 3: conference area whooped, clapped, and what you see? This is
Speaker 3: the problem. They're buying into this bullshit. They think it's real.
Speaker 3: What's the matter with you? What is the matter? But
Speaker 3: why didn't you tell these people? What are you doing?
Speaker 2: Why? Why?
Speaker 3: Now I gotta do it?
Speaker 6: You tell me when is the last time an American
Speaker 6: mainstream paper did an article about WWF coming to town
Speaker 6: and didn't find at least two fans to quote about
Speaker 6: why they even watched this ship? I mean, that is
Speaker 6: a that is a cornerstone of the It's almost like
Speaker 6: ap style. That's how much it has to be in
Speaker 6: the article, like you.
Speaker 2: Know, you know that.
Speaker 3: Oh I'm doing right now. I'm gonna tell you this
Speaker 3: right now, as I'm reading this shit out loud, or
Speaker 3: haven't you read this shit, I'm just taking my red
Speaker 3: pen and crossing everything out. You's gonna start over it
Speaker 3: from scratch because you're so fucking dumb and so fucking
Speaker 3: inept that you don't know how to write the fucking truth?
Speaker 6: Like what are you?
Speaker 3: Are you a newsman or are you a fucking bitch?
Speaker 6: If I send you to Disney World, are you gonna
Speaker 6: come back with quotes from Mickey Mouse?
Speaker 3: Is that what you're gonna do?
Speaker 6: An interview the people in the costume and pretend that
Speaker 6: there are the costume?
Speaker 2: Is that what you're gonna do?
Speaker 3: Because that's what you did here, and it's disgusting. You
Speaker 3: make me sick, you know what. I'm nauseous looking at
Speaker 3: your face. Finish the article and get the fuck out
Speaker 3: of here, No question, he is their man. I'm sure
Speaker 3: none of the wrestlers are thrilled that I'm back, but
Speaker 3: they never liked me in the first place, he said, smiling.
Speaker 3: They still don't like me, and that's fine. Oh well,
Speaker 3: Sean's on his way, that's for sure, right. The rumble
Speaker 3: winner will challenge the ww Champion in March at WrestleMania
Speaker 3: twelve in Anaheim. The Sunday afternoon Royal Rumble will begin
Speaker 3: at three forty pm. There are also individual matches on
Speaker 3: the card. Tickets are twenty dollars, fifteen dollars and twelve dollars.
Speaker 3: They are available at the Fresno Convention Center box office
Speaker 3: and Bass Outlets details two to six Bass. So what's
Speaker 3: the next move the LAPS editor makes Here here a
Speaker 3: top of the fence, Noby, I'm gonna say it's time
Speaker 3: to rewrite this story.
Speaker 6: He's gonna call Jaqueline Thornton into the office here from
Speaker 6: the life section. He can count on her.
Speaker 3: I want you to do.
Speaker 6: Look, we tried already, and let me just say, Bruce
Speaker 6: swung and missed to say the very least. I want
Speaker 6: you to go down there, and I want you to
Speaker 6: tell me, and I want to tell our readers why
Speaker 6: anybody would go to see this stuff, and why if
Speaker 6: they do go to see this stuff, there's probably something
Speaker 6: wrong with him. Now get out there, Jacqueline, because let
Speaker 6: me tell you right now, right Bruce is looking for
Speaker 6: a new job. Bruce is refucking typing his resume. He's done,
Speaker 6: all right, and if he's not done at the end
Speaker 6: of the day, I'm gonna fucking kill him. Maybe I'll
Speaker 6: give you another chance to after he sees you know,
Speaker 6: the kind of thing we want, the house style we
Speaker 6: want in this stuff to get some more articles in.
Speaker 6: But for now he's on thin eyes, and I want
Speaker 6: you to go show him how it's done.
Speaker 3: Jacqueline wants you to close your eyes for a moment,
Speaker 3: and I wants you to open up your ears. Hear
Speaker 3: that noise?
Speaker 6: Yes, you know what that is.
Speaker 3: No, it's the hammer of a gun that I just cocked.
Speaker 3: I'm not afraid to use it on you if you
Speaker 3: don't do the right fucking thing for the American people.
Speaker 6: Right, I have your brain splattered all over that avocado
Speaker 6: on your desk.
Speaker 3: Right, well, I will gladly splatter your brains on every
Speaker 3: fucking issue of this newspaper. Do the right thing for
Speaker 3: the American people? And what it counting on you?
Speaker 6: What is the headline? She comes back with, Boss, read
Speaker 6: it for.
Speaker 3: Him, ready to rumble. Fresno's family's idea of fun is
Speaker 3: a ringside seat to watch wrestlers take up pounding.
Speaker 6: Now we're getting somewhere. Give it to the people. Carmen
Speaker 6: Reid is our victim this week.
Speaker 3: When Carmen Reid talks about Big time wrestling, she's like
Speaker 3: a preacher trying to convert the infidels who doubt it's
Speaker 3: legitimacy as a professional sport.
Speaker 6: That's how you fucking do it? You get the word
Speaker 6: legitimacy in the lead.
Speaker 3: Let me Jacqueline, can we do you like champagne? What's
Speaker 3: your favorite? Listen? You're not gonna celebrate, all right, and
Speaker 3: if you're lucky, you may get laid all right by me,
Speaker 3: because what this is wonderful, this is excellent. I give
Speaker 3: myself to you because of this, this is art.
Speaker 6: And before you start feeling too secure at Jaqueline, remember
Speaker 6: he said the same thing to Bruce after reading the
Speaker 6: first two paragraphs too.
Speaker 3: But I'll tell you, I'll tell you what. You're out
Speaker 3: of the woods yet, all right. I'm willing to give
Speaker 3: myself to you based on this first line, and you'd
Speaker 3: be lucky to have me. But if it's evening els
Speaker 3: that I take umbrage with in this article, I won't
Speaker 3: be giving you myself. I'll be taking yourself right, all
Speaker 3: right hard. Her sermons are filled with words quote athletic
Speaker 3: ability unquote, beautiful, beautiful, absolutely beautiful, fun of ours, saying
Speaker 3: that these guys are athletes go quote flair unquote, quote
Speaker 3: flamboyans unquote, quote acting talent unquote, quote, towering specimens unquote
Speaker 3: end quote, brute strength, so, Carmen Reid told.
Speaker 6: This journalist the part of the reason I think wrestling
Speaker 6: is a legitimate sport is quote towering specimens end quote.
Speaker 6: Carmen Reid, also known as Vince McMahon.
Speaker 3: My name is Carmen Reid. I I like to talk
Speaker 3: about big time wrestling, and Wow, I'm so glad you
Speaker 3: came up to me, ma'am, I'm here to write about it.
Speaker 3: Isn't that funny? Indeed, you like my long, beautiful, luscious
Speaker 3: locks of hair.
Speaker 6: How about my brute strength or my flamboyants?
Speaker 3: Are you a fan of traps or deltoids? Are you
Speaker 3: a delt fan? Because I believe in towering specimens of
Speaker 3: feminism and femininity? What as that is what I am?
Speaker 3: I am not, as he says, as that is what
Speaker 3: I am. I am not a male specimen. That's what
Speaker 3: you were thinking. I am certainly all female of type.
Speaker 3: It's different times of entertainment rolled into one. What more
Speaker 3: could you want? She asked? She says, it's different types
Speaker 3: of entertainment rolled into one. Well, it's different times of
Speaker 3: entertainment rolled into one. I mean, what more could you want?
Speaker 6: I mean, that's that's gotta.
Speaker 3: Be him seriously discussing wrestling with her family is like
Speaker 3: preaching to the choir. The Reed family, Carmen and husband Craig,
Speaker 3: son Stephen, daughter Tamarra are all professional fans, wrestling fans
Speaker 3: big time. The Reids watch wrestling on television, see live
Speaker 3: matches whenever possible, and will be upfront when the ground shakes.
Speaker 3: January twenty first from thirty stars stepping into the ring
Speaker 3: at once during the Worldless Entertainment's royal rumble. Ah, you
Speaker 3: know I haven't watched. I haven't followed wrestling all my life,
Speaker 3: of course.
Speaker 10: You know.
Speaker 3: Oh wait, I haven't followed wrestling all my life for nothing,
Speaker 3: Carmen Reid laughed. Of course we'll be there.
Speaker 6: I'm starting to question of Carmen Reid exists, by the way.
Speaker 3: Exactly damn right. All the high priests of the sport
Speaker 3: will be there too, in colorful costumes with names like
Speaker 3: Diesel Brett, Hitman, heart the Undertaker, Razor Ramone, gold Dust,
Speaker 3: heart Break Kids.
Speaker 6: The same paper that just read an article exclusively about
Speaker 6: Sean Michael as the big deal of the show, which
Speaker 6: she refers to him like seven of his ten Heartbreak
Speaker 6: Kid Fodder and Bam Bam Bigelow, who's not on this
Speaker 6: show at all?
Speaker 3: Not at all?
Speaker 12: No.
Speaker 6: Oh, is that Heartbreak Kid coming to the real now?
Speaker 3: Is here the Royal Rumble two? That's him? Yeah, that's
Speaker 3: Heartbreak Kid, not even the heartbreaking Heartbreak Kid?
Speaker 10: Oh?
Speaker 3: Was he friends with the one two three kid?
Speaker 6: Are they a tag team of sort?
Speaker 3: Do they do?
Speaker 10: They?
Speaker 13: Do?
Speaker 6: They play together? They play on the do they play
Speaker 6: on the same team?
Speaker 3: That's exactly right. Gone are the mild days of Ray
Speaker 3: Stevens calling Pepper Gomez a pencil neck? Okay. Today's more
Speaker 3: savvy wrestlers project images that appeal to various segments of society.
Speaker 3: Stars for Country, Western, gay, African American, I don't know
Speaker 3: if they're really appealing to the gay out of the
Speaker 3: gold dust? Is there a hero? Yeah? No, African American, Latino,
Speaker 3: British Arian who's arian? Oh, that's a weird one, American
Speaker 3: Indian not anymore, he's gone. And patriotic fans who I think,
Speaker 3: by just by name alone, would hate all the previous
Speaker 3: is mentioned.
Speaker 6: With the exception of people, just like with the exception
Speaker 6: of gay. Oh yeah, every single one of these types
Speaker 6: she's listing were represented in pro wrestling every decade going
Speaker 6: back to the fifties forties.
Speaker 3: Exactly exactly, I mean some don't necessarily by people of
Speaker 3: the exact community, namely American, Indian American.
Speaker 6: Just next sentence, did this woman watch a tape of
Speaker 6: nineteen ninety two and assume it's the current state of affairs?
Speaker 3: I mean ninety two, for forget it. This is this
Speaker 3: is like eighty nine. Here among them is an Elvis impersonator.
Speaker 3: He's been god, he's he hasn't been around since ninety
Speaker 3: ninety one. A business suited tax collector, well, there we go,
Speaker 3: a sadistic dentist, and the macabre undertaker in case you yes,
Speaker 3: because she's describing the the occupation, not the person.
Speaker 6: A sadistics and a macabb undertaker also known as the
Speaker 6: Brothers of Destruction.
Speaker 2: Right, some call them.
Speaker 3: There we go. Get that in there. This is just bravo.
Speaker 3: Let me tell you, let me tell you. Come up
Speaker 3: with just one. You are a beauty. You are beauty.
Speaker 6: Because I was starting to get a little nervous there
Speaker 6: the way you knew who Ray Stevens was, I thought
Speaker 6: that was a little saucer, But then you really brought
Speaker 6: it home.
Speaker 3: I was a little I was a little worried there
Speaker 3: and won't lie.
Speaker 12: You know.
Speaker 3: You know what, Ray Stevens, But you know what, I
Speaker 3: know what you did beautiful. Let me tell you you
Speaker 3: are a woman after my own. Read the sentence.
Speaker 6: Some call them actors on steroids.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Others considered them chippendale dancers with attitudes.
Speaker 6: Or two dudes of attitudes.
Speaker 3: That's true too, But some things remain constant. There's always
Speaker 3: a good guy versus a bad guy. Wrestling is action
Speaker 3: and good, clean American fun. Craig Reed said, I don't
Speaker 3: necessarily like the roles. His wife's said, I just like
Speaker 3: something to get out there, to flex their muscles, slam
Speaker 3: bodies and wrestle. People want the action, that's what they
Speaker 3: pay for, and colorful characters.
Speaker 6: About Leberts the other day, that first sentence there can
Speaker 6: also be said of Lambert's bunch, I.
Speaker 3: Don't necessarily like the roles unless your image of a
Speaker 3: wrestling fan might be someone who spends his day drinking
Speaker 3: beer and fiddling with his pickup, then heads to his
Speaker 3: pickup supposed to be euphemism for his dick, Jackie. This
Speaker 3: is beautiful. This is just that's exactly it. This is it,
Speaker 3: you know what you what you were saying is that
Speaker 3: they're not just these these fucking imbeciles who are just
Speaker 3: who are day drinkers and and and have nothing to
Speaker 3: do but touch the truck. You're talking about their people,
Speaker 3: who are normal looking people who are being being exploited.
Speaker 6: Right right, right, They take an advantage of we're not
Speaker 6: making fun of these people were acknowledging that they're being
Speaker 6: manipulated into partying with their money for this pretend fighting like.
Speaker 3: They literally just they might as well burn it. These
Speaker 3: people need everything, These people need every dollar. These are
Speaker 3: people who are working, you know, paycheck to paycheck, hand
Speaker 3: the mouth, and these guys come to now giving them money.
Speaker 3: You know, this is not like going to the movies
Speaker 3: for escapism. This is an attempt to bullshit people.
Speaker 6: Jacquly, you have to understand most of these people think
Speaker 6: it's a real sport. They think it's real what they're buying.
Speaker 6: How is that not consumer fraud?
Speaker 3: I mean, exactly, how is this? How is this legal?
Speaker 3: Is my question?
Speaker 6: After you got done talking to this Carmen Reid, did
Speaker 6: you not feel like she was being ripped off, that
Speaker 6: she was being manipulated into buying something that wasn't what
Speaker 6: it appeared to be.
Speaker 3: Actually, I kind of felt that she worked for the company. Yeah, well,
Speaker 3: there it is, right second, that's it. That's it. That's it,
Speaker 3: and then it heads to a match to enjoy of
Speaker 3: vicarious violence. Consider this. Craig Reid has a master's degree
Speaker 3: from Columbia University in New York and works as an
Speaker 3: activities director at Fresno City College. He shouldn't be a
Speaker 3: wrestling fan, exactly. Next, Carmen Reid has a teaching credential
Speaker 3: from Oberlin College in Ohio and teaches pre employment preparation
Speaker 3: at Fresno's Roosevelt High School.
Speaker 6: For all the words, she shouldn't be a wrestling fan.
Speaker 3: Stephen Reid, a seventh grader at Kastner Intermediate School, plays
Speaker 3: trumpet in a jazz band, was on the championship Fresno
Speaker 3: volleyball team, and is interested in military history.
Speaker 6: In other words, he shouldn't be a wrestling fan.
Speaker 3: Sister Tamra, a fourth grader at Lincoln Elementary School, sings.
Speaker 3: She performed in Roger Roka's Fiddler on the Roof. Okay,
Speaker 3: I don't know who Roger Raka is. She could exactly,
Speaker 3: I mean, okay, dance's ballet before she broke her foot,
Speaker 3: a legitimate injury, not a worked one, takes gymnastics.
Speaker 6: And so other words, a woman who should not be
Speaker 6: a wrestling fan.
Speaker 3: They have another daughter, Tasha at twenty two, who works
Speaker 3: and attends California State University, Fresno.
Speaker 6: The words, a woman who should not be the daughter
Speaker 6: of wrestling fans.
Speaker 3: You'd be surprised how many people following wrestling. Carmen Reid said,
Speaker 3: there's a lot of closet fans. Judge not Craig. Craig
Speaker 3: Reid explained how his family enjoyed seeing a play on
Speaker 3: Broadway and watching live wrestling matches in Fresno. We like,
Speaker 3: you know, you know, we like being around all kinds
Speaker 3: of people. Dude, there's Craig Craig working for WCW. By
Speaker 3: the way, Craig, Yeah, just because a person who drives
Speaker 3: a truggle or bulls for a living doesn't mean they
Speaker 3: aren't as smart. You know, that's as bad as judging
Speaker 3: people by race.
Speaker 6: Brother, Just because a person drives a truck. That's so
Speaker 6: funny because now like all these rich guys drive trucks
Speaker 6: exactly doesn't mean anything to drive a truck anymore.
Speaker 3: I know it does not. Carmen reads that her family
Speaker 3: has lots of interests. You know, we enjoy a variety
Speaker 3: of sports. We quote concerts, jazz, R and B, We
Speaker 3: go to plays, to the circus, and professional basketball. You know,
Speaker 3: why not professional wrestling too? You know, who the heck
Speaker 3: are we to act like we're too good to associate
Speaker 3: with wrestling fans or that were better than anyone else.
Speaker 3: Her husband said, you know, we're all equal under God, dude.
Speaker 6: A quote in an article about why people like professional wrestling.
Speaker 6: It reads, and I follow, and I quote, We're all
Speaker 6: equal under God.
Speaker 3: Wrestlers at times see more seem more than equal. They
Speaker 3: are tossed out of a ring with naria scratch body,
Speaker 3: slammed with a hardly a bruise, beautiful freed boom.
Speaker 6: Jacqueline, please read that. Read that line back to me.
Speaker 3: Read it again. Wrestlers at times seem more than equal.
Speaker 3: They are tossed out of a ring with nary a scratch,
Speaker 3: body slam with hardly a bruise. Does that bother? The
Speaker 3: reads not at all? See this is what the problem is.
Speaker 3: We believe this.
Speaker 6: We need to hold these people accountable and I'm glad
Speaker 6: you put it this way.
Speaker 3: Were and they're actually fighting tot to toe blow to blow.
Speaker 3: It's great. Carmen Read said, it's like seeing Mike Tyson
Speaker 3: and the ring.
Speaker 6: This woman thinks there's points where they're actually fighting.
Speaker 3: Did you did you see that quote? You see? You see?
Speaker 3: This is what you know. These are intelligent people and
Speaker 3: they are being brainwashed, right, That's that's that's the problem.
Speaker 3: They are being brainwashed on tele by watching television into
Speaker 3: into this just just separating themselves from their hardned money
Speaker 3: to to to support a bunch of a bunch of phonies,
Speaker 3: a bunch of connoris.
Speaker 6: It's just pro wrestling. What's the big deal of there?
Speaker 6: But where does it stop, Jauline? Where does it stop?
Speaker 6: If you can convince them what this is, what's spending
Speaker 6: money on, and that it's real enough to spend money
Speaker 6: on what you.
Speaker 3: Know, why shouldn't I can? Why couldn't Why shouldn't I
Speaker 3: convince them to just spend money on me for sitting
Speaker 3: on my couch?
Speaker 6: Hold educated people falling for this. You would think at
Speaker 6: the very least they would be insulated from it.
Speaker 3: But they love it. M h staged not phony.
Speaker 6: That's a subhead if I've ever seen one.
Speaker 3: The reads admit that most fans know the action is staged.
Speaker 3: Admit it.
Speaker 6: Put the word admitting there.
Speaker 3: He's right, you put me sure, say admitted, you know,
Speaker 3: make sure that they know they like they came clean
Speaker 3: about it, right, not phony, staged. But when they fly
Speaker 3: through the air, they really fly. When they land on
Speaker 3: their back outside the ring on concrete, they really hit.
Speaker 3: And when they're flying off the top of rope, that's technique.
Speaker 3: As fake as it may be, you have to give
Speaker 3: those guys credit. The fake blood and stuff makes it
Speaker 3: seem real. This is just a fucking nightmare. Welcome to
Speaker 3: Welcome to Fresno. WWF. Yeah, you don't have to put
Speaker 3: up with this anymore. It's the same as a cowboy movie.
Speaker 3: John Wayne was great, but did he really connect?
Speaker 7: No.
Speaker 3: I mean they had the ability to make it appear real,
Speaker 3: but it was faked too. Besides, when ringing that when
Speaker 3: announcer Brother Love.
Speaker 6: Was he there, I don't think so.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 6: I mean he worked for the company, but I don't
Speaker 6: think in the Brother Love. He was on Boy Meets
Speaker 6: World his Brother Love in ninety six.
Speaker 3: I know that, I know he even made a comeback
Speaker 3: at some point a little for a little bit, but
Speaker 3: I don't remember it being.
Speaker 6: Dude, she just decided honky tuk me in an irs.
Speaker 3: No, that's so true, uh, stars proselytizing, proselytize, costlytizing. The
Speaker 3: crowd is filled with true believers. You know, when I'm there,
Speaker 3: I never feel like I say anything less than real.
Speaker 3: I watch it like it's real, and just like I
Speaker 3: watched a Nero movie, like it's real. And even though
Speaker 3: they're acting, your theatrics is up for a call it.
Speaker 3: You know, there's tremendous athletic ability. You know, you don't
Speaker 3: often see a four hundred pound god do in somersaults
Speaker 3: and flip through the.
Speaker 6: Air, right, you don't you know, also don't see that
Speaker 6: in WWF. Interestingly damn right? Can you restate that? But
Speaker 6: started with even though they're acting, please thank you.
Speaker 3: Even though they're acting, or theatrics as I prefer to
Speaker 3: call it, there's tremendous athletic ability. You don't often see
Speaker 3: a four hundred pound guy doing somersaults and flipping through
Speaker 3: the air. And they don't have pads on like football players,
Speaker 3: so you see the brutal strength of these guys and
Speaker 3: their awesome thighs. Yeah, his wife said, smiling.
Speaker 6: This is a great This is such a meaningful part
Speaker 6: of the article. Subhead two paragraphs and.
Speaker 3: Read them family values. Hulk Hogan has even gotten the
Speaker 3: read children to take their vitamins because the whole family
Speaker 3: enjoys it. I've been bussed with a family who likes
Speaker 3: sports and music. I can do all things on joy.
Speaker 3: It's all my family with me. Brother.
Speaker 6: What was that article about? They found one family that
Speaker 6: likes wrestling and just acted like they represent anything but
Speaker 6: their own family.
Speaker 3: You know what was that?
Speaker 6: That's an article, that's that's an agenda driven article. Oh absolutely,
Speaker 6: that was a sign like you come back with this?
Speaker 6: That was that was spectacular. I mean, oh, can you
Speaker 6: imagine getting this kind of publicity? The reads that wasn't
Speaker 6: quite Bruce, that wasn't quite enough. And I think you
Speaker 6: saw the way Jacqueline turned that thing around. I need
Speaker 6: you to prove yourself to me, buddy, if you're gonna
Speaker 6: stay on payroll, I need you to go and tell
Speaker 6: me why these You can't write an article about this
Speaker 6: as if Bruce, one of the guys is legitimly going
Speaker 6: for a title. You have to write about it from
Speaker 6: the exclusively from the lens of why do people go
Speaker 6: to this?
Speaker 3: Bruce? You know you see this. This is a dumb
Speaker 3: dumb This is a bullet that explodes, right, so when
Speaker 3: I put it through your head, it's gonna explode on
Speaker 3: the other side. That's what's next if you don't make
Speaker 3: up for what you did.
Speaker 6: So before you leave this office, I want you to
Speaker 6: tell me what's the headline gonna read with what you
Speaker 6: come back from the next time, my son, you to
Speaker 6: cover this upcoming WWF show. What's the headline going to
Speaker 6: be read?
Speaker 10: It?
Speaker 3: Poss wrestling fans go for the show.
Speaker 6: Now go go get me wrestling fans go for the show.
Speaker 3: All right, yeah, all right, that's not bad. It's not bad.
Speaker 3: It's like a little subtle, you know, it's not totally
Speaker 3: out there. But I'm supported. I support it. When Fresno
Speaker 3: promoter Al Geller was told to offer two hundred ring
Speaker 3: side chairs for one hundred and fifty dollars each, you
Speaker 3: see that's the problem right there, right the selling chairs,
Speaker 3: I mean, come on, selling fucking chicks.
Speaker 6: And didn't tell me that I'm overreacting. When then Nicol
Speaker 6: and diamond people on a metal folding chair that you
Speaker 6: can get for four dollars from home depot.
Speaker 3: Jesus fucking Christ, Well, then you I can get him
Speaker 3: from the fucking basement. Idiots. Uh for Sunday's World Wresting
Speaker 3: Entertainment Royal Rumble at selling arena. He had serious doubts
Speaker 3: they would sell shows how much. I know Geller said,
Speaker 3: we only had three left a week ago, and now
Speaker 3: they're gone. I don't think our mark was ready for
Speaker 3: one hundred and fifty dollars a pot. But the purchases
Speaker 3: get to keep. The purchasers get to keep the chairs
Speaker 3: of momento. Who wants a fucking chair from a goddamn
Speaker 3: sporting event. Nobody wants that. Nobody wants that ship from
Speaker 3: a legitimate you know, you get get like the you know,
Speaker 3: some some football stadium that's been you know, they get
Speaker 3: the you know what the they take down the for
Speaker 3: the the Green Bay Packers or whatever. You know, people
Speaker 3: want that.
Speaker 2: Can do it.
Speaker 6: But can you imagine telling somebody that comes to visit, hey,
Speaker 6: do you know if this was the chair that was
Speaker 6: on the floor when hulkgan what the title?
Speaker 3: Get me up? What's gonna happen is what's gonna happen
Speaker 3: is see this is this is where it comes This
Speaker 3: is where the issue comes in because what they they
Speaker 3: get there and there, and they're brainwashing and thinking they
Speaker 3: want this that Not only are they gonna pay money
Speaker 3: to see these fucking idiots, these these phony you know,
Speaker 3: no talent ass clowns jump around in a ring like
Speaker 3: ballet dancers, untalented ballet dancers, not the the anything of ballet.
Speaker 3: Ballet is legitimate. This is illegitis. When they say this
Speaker 3: ain't ballet, You're damn right, it isn't. You're damn rice.
Speaker 3: Not ballet, not even close. Ballet is respected, right, So
Speaker 3: not only the fucking pain are they getting these people
Speaker 3: to pay for this, this this this fakery, but then
Speaker 3: they're charging for the chairs of charging for chairs. I mean,
Speaker 3: come on, and noways look at this. You tell me this,
Speaker 3: all right, you get a chair from one of these
Speaker 3: fucking shows, Are you gonna put it out for people
Speaker 3: to see You're gonna do with it? No, you're not.
Speaker 3: They're gonna be thinking they want it, They think they
Speaker 3: want it, but they're not gonna put that out for
Speaker 3: people to say when they get home they're holy shit,
Speaker 3: Holy shit, I was robbed. I was robbed of my
Speaker 3: money in exchange for this fucking horseship. They're gonna buy
Speaker 3: the chair and they're gonna go home, and they're gonna
Speaker 3: hide it. And I want you to tell me why
Speaker 3: are they gonna hide it? Why are they gonna hide it?
Speaker 3: Because it's fake? Okay, you can't say that about the
Speaker 3: super Bowl, just asked Jerry Yep of Kerman, a longtime
Speaker 3: wrestling fan, who will sit next to his brother Gary
Speaker 3: of Livermore these fucking nights. I present you, Jerry Yep
Speaker 3: of Common Yeah, and Gallery of Livermore and Bruce of
Speaker 3: the Palisades in one of those chairs Sunday afternoon.
Speaker 6: I going to big sporting events?
Speaker 10: What makes it?
Speaker 3: Thinkey? Sounds like that.
Speaker 6: I like to go to big sports events. I'll be
Speaker 6: you going to the super Bowl next week. But I'm
Speaker 6: just as excited about this. Jerry Yes, a recent transplant
Speaker 6: from Cohag Rhode Island, said being on television and getting
Speaker 6: to keep the chairs a momento.
Speaker 3: Why not?
Speaker 2: Why not?
Speaker 3: Yep says his super Bowl ticket cost three d and
Speaker 3: fifty dollars. Both tickets were gifts. I've been a final
Speaker 3: fours in basketball many of the biggest arenas in the country,
Speaker 3: but I never heard the sustained noise level experience at
Speaker 3: the Los Angeles Sports Arena in the late nineteen eighties.
Speaker 3: Hulk Hogan, Rowdy Piper, Rowdy Piper. By the way, okay,
Speaker 3: Rowdy Piper, We're going for the world title. Noise was
Speaker 3: unreal awesome. Gary Yep says he knows all about the
Speaker 3: thirty wrestlers who will be in Fresno for the Rumble.
Speaker 9: You see, they're the same players who developed favorites. I
Speaker 9: grew up watching people like Pepper Gomez and Andre the Giant.
Speaker 9: I like the action, you know, some people like to
Speaker 9: watch the dukes of hazard. I like wrestling.
Speaker 6: You ready for the ninety six Rumble now, Bruce, Bruce,
Speaker 6: that was a little better. I like some of the
Speaker 6: shots you got in there, but I still felt a
Speaker 6: little bit of warmth in there for wrestling. And so
Speaker 6: I'm gonna send you on another assignment, but this one
Speaker 6: I'm teaming you up with Lanny Larson, and I want you, guys.
Speaker 6: I want you guys to really tell me it's my name.
Speaker 6: I'll tell you my last name is not it's Larsen.
Speaker 6: I'm gonna give you the number of this guy Meltzer.
Speaker 6: This guy Meltzer claims it's all like a real business.
Speaker 6: I want you to call him. I want you to
Speaker 6: put him in the article.
Speaker 3: Go right, get get this Meltz factor in there, right whatever.
Speaker 12: His name is.
Speaker 3: Sunday's World Wrestling Entertainment Royal Rumble at Sealandna is a
Speaker 3: multi medium It's a what now, It's a multi media
Speaker 3: marketing assault that enriches ww's parent Titan Sports while pumping
Speaker 3: thousands of dollars through the Valley economy.
Speaker 6: Bruce, come here, please come here. I want introduce you
Speaker 6: to Jay Andernaco. He's our director of media relations. Before
Speaker 6: you talk to Jay, I just want to let me
Speaker 6: know that there's a way for this thing we do.
Speaker 3: I want to tell you this is not a wrestling event,
Speaker 3: wrestling a wrestling show. What this is, in all honesty
Speaker 3: and understanding, this is a multi media marketing assault. You
Speaker 3: put that in there without quotes, and I mean that
Speaker 3: that is. This is an assault. This is a legitimate
Speaker 3: sort of of of of marketing endeavor. And we are
Speaker 3: you know, we're all about endeavors right here in the
Speaker 3: w W and I do appreciate you, you know, attending
Speaker 3: are the Royal Rumble the w's first, uh multi media
Speaker 3: marketing assault of the year. Now the multimedia marketing is
Speaker 3: Critics call the Royal Rumble.
Speaker 6: A multi media marketing assault, the.
Speaker 3: Multi media marketing assault of the year. And then you know,
Speaker 3: in you know, we're coming back to California and in
Speaker 3: UH in March for WrestleMania and that's also going to
Speaker 3: be a a multi media marketing assault, not a multi
Speaker 3: level marketing scheme, a multi a multi level multimedia marketing
Speaker 3: endeavor with with a premise that we we have so
Speaker 3: much action that it assaults our viewers and our our
Speaker 3: fans and you know, our people, we have.
Speaker 6: So much action that it assaults our fans, insults our fans.
Speaker 2: That's right, that's right.
Speaker 3: It only not only goes out on TV, said j
Speaker 3: Andrew Nako, w's manager of media relations.
Speaker 6: It happens on AOL.
Speaker 3: It's America Online if you didn't know, Jay, it happens
Speaker 3: in the w W magazine. They have a we have
Speaker 3: a magazine, all right, We're about to call with another
Speaker 3: one as well. And then it happens in the merchandise
Speaker 3: based on who's hot. You know, there's not one part
Speaker 3: of that we leave out, and for Fresno to be
Speaker 3: the side is an equally big deal, said al Geller
Speaker 3: in his thirty third year as a Fresno event promoter.
Speaker 3: Oh it's pretty damn exciting for Fresno to be going
Speaker 3: around the world like this.
Speaker 6: You didn't sound like that last article when he was
Speaker 6: selling the chairs. Same fucking guy, show us how much
Speaker 6: I know.
Speaker 3: Actually, it's not going around the world, just to the
Speaker 3: United States and Canada. That's a beautiful thing he did there.
Speaker 3: Beautiful called him out in their Lives, where about four
Speaker 3: hundred thousand households are expected to hook up for twenty
Speaker 3: nine to ninety five apiece to the three forty five
Speaker 3: PM show. An estimated twelve million dollars in pay per
Speaker 3: view revenue will be split among Titan and local cable systems.
Speaker 3: The money in pro wrestling is not as abundant as
Speaker 3: it was in the nineteen eighties, when WrestleMania drew crowds
Speaker 3: of almost one hundred thousand. Dave Meltzer, who who says
Speaker 3: his quote Wrestling Observer unquote newsletter, has subscribers in twenty
Speaker 3: three countries admits that interest peaked between nineteen eighty six
Speaker 3: and nineteen eighty nine.
Speaker 6: Let's get that word in there.
Speaker 3: Admits it's a good word you use. Admits I appreciate
Speaker 3: that quote. Normal wrestling shows are no longer sellouts in
Speaker 3: the country. In this country, Melter said, they used to
Speaker 3: have the Rumble in places like New York, Philadelphia, Chicago,
Speaker 3: but now the competition. When when was it in Chicago
Speaker 3: the Rumble?
Speaker 6: Yeah, where was it in eighty nine?
Speaker 3: I don't remember. I don't know. I don't think it
Speaker 3: ever was in Chicago before this. I don't think it
Speaker 3: was either. And not only that, we weren't talking about Florida.
Speaker 3: It was in Florida twice.
Speaker 6: Yeah, that was in Lakewood, Florida. The nine to one,
Speaker 6: I don't know, No Houston, pardon me aid nine rubble
Speaker 6: was in Houston.
Speaker 3: Ninety was in Orlando, ninety one was in Miami, two
Speaker 3: in New York. She was in New York. Ninety three
Speaker 3: was in California, sax Sacremento, ninety fours in Rhode Island.
Speaker 3: Ninety five was in Florida again, And where was eighty eight?
Speaker 6: Eightiot was in Hamilton, Ontario.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so not no Chicago, and not even Philadelphia for
Speaker 3: that matter. Nope, at that point, but now the competition
Speaker 3: for the entertainment dollar has forced them to smaller markets.
Speaker 3: Meltzer says wrestling is extremely popular in Japan, where it's
Speaker 3: a sellout in the sixty four thousand seats Tokyo Dome.
Speaker 3: In the United States, Meltzer says, quote, people are attracted
Speaker 3: more by names than performances, and cites Hulk Hogan as
Speaker 3: an example. Quote, Hogan made a name in ninet eighty four.
Speaker 3: Meltzer says, Now he's terrible, really washed up Brotherwood. He
Speaker 3: said that, but his name is so strong he can
Speaker 3: still withdraw a big crowd. Totally really washed up, he
Speaker 3: fucking and.
Speaker 6: He cannot have another how many years in the business,
Speaker 6: and it can also draw crowd like that in the
Speaker 6: Dokio dumb that's right, as he did right.
Speaker 3: Meltzer says, the best American wrestler is Brett Hart, but
Speaker 3: the best showman in top box office draw is charismatic
Speaker 3: Sean Michaels. Hart is the champion now, but Sean is
Speaker 3: a phenomenal performer. Meltzer says he only weighs about two
Speaker 3: hundred and fifteen pounds, but he flies all over the place.
Speaker 3: He can put on a show all by himself, regardless
Speaker 3: of who the opponent is. Meltzer says, Michaels was beaten
Speaker 3: in New York by thugs in November and that's bullshit.
Speaker 3: It's bullshit. But his collapse in the ring a few
Speaker 3: weeks later was quote absolutely fake. I want you to
Speaker 3: call this guy and Bruce, I want you to make
Speaker 3: up for your error. You quoted him directly a couple
Speaker 3: of weeks ago as saying this was legitimate. Ask this
Speaker 3: guy if it was Bruce, Bruce, I want to tell
Speaker 3: you this. I want to tell you the truth. Reading
Speaker 3: that's reading that fucking quote right there. Give me a
Speaker 3: fucking heart on all right. I'm fully a wreck right now.
Speaker 6: Call him and ask him if it was real. This
Speaker 6: guy is the biggest wrestling journalist of the world. And
Speaker 6: if you want to call it that and you publish
Speaker 6: what he says about whether his his that collapse was
Speaker 6: real that you presented to our readership is.
Speaker 3: Real, it's beautiful. A ruse, a sucking right, A ruse
Speaker 3: to get people to switch stations from a World Championship
Speaker 3: Wrestling match between Hogan and sting.
Speaker 2: Was it on?
Speaker 3: Why did I feel like it wasn't on Monday Night?
Speaker 3: Was it on Monday Night Raw? That match between Yeah, Yeah,
Speaker 3: it was really Owen and Yeah. I always felt like
Speaker 3: it was on. Maybe I had just heard about it
Speaker 3: on a Saturday. I didn't see it, but I always
Speaker 3: remember it happening on Saturday for some reason.
Speaker 1: Wow, it's collapsed fan wrestling podcast. The wrestling podcast that
Speaker 1: knows the boys need their candy. It's the Lapsed Fan.
Speaker 1: He's a lapsed fan wrestling podcast with Jack and Carnaco
Speaker 1: and JP Soro.
Speaker 3: Meltzer makes no apology for the fact that a large
Speaker 3: majority of the matches are decided beforehand, a large majority
Speaker 3: of the matches. There are some that are not right,
Speaker 3: but says promoters, quote will throw you a curve every
Speaker 3: so often. Quote. Sure, there's a lot of show a
Speaker 3: lot of show business and pro wrestling, that's the name
Speaker 3: of the game, Meltzer said, But it is very entertaining.
Speaker 3: Some of the wrestlers themselves are very smart and super athletes.
Speaker 3: And Andronico and Geller predict a sellout Sunday, ninety six
Speaker 3: hundred seats going for twelve to twenty dollars a piece
Speaker 3: plus two hundred at two hundred at one hundred and
Speaker 3: fifty dollars each for could you imagine, I know, fucking
Speaker 3: Jesus Christ twelve dollars seats for the Royal Rumble.
Speaker 10: You know.
Speaker 6: They were talking about this on Observer Radio the other day,
Speaker 6: and I thought it was a really interesting point, Like
Speaker 6: the reason tickets cost so much these days, and the
Speaker 6: reason that they're able to command these huge gates and
Speaker 6: fucking celebrate record gates all the time, it's because of
Speaker 6: stub Hub and resale value. Right right, these these promoters
Speaker 6: are watching these tickets for a little while there be
Speaker 6: resold for two x the amount they're pricing them at. Right,
Speaker 6: Fuck that we'll make that money. Will make that money. Yep,
Speaker 6: It's that simple. I mean, it's not that these people
Speaker 6: are getting greedy. It's that they I mean, they are
Speaker 6: being greedy in a way, but it's they're seeing that
Speaker 6: they're seeing directly right in their face, how much people
Speaker 6: are actually willing to pay for these tickets. And it's
Speaker 6: never going to be the same. It's never going to
Speaker 6: be like this where they think pricing is going to
Speaker 6: get is going to fill the building it's because it's
Speaker 6: not going to make enough of a difference. You would
Speaker 6: rather sell one ticket at fifty bucks than three or
Speaker 6: five five dollars tickets. It's because you know, you have
Speaker 6: the data right there that tells you that this is
Speaker 6: what people are willing to pay, and either you capture
Speaker 6: it or somebody else does. Amazing, amazing that you go
Speaker 6: to the word rumble for that amount. Amazing, sheep, sheep, sheep.
Speaker 3: People are two hundred and fifty dollars each for commemorative
Speaker 3: folding chairs imprinted with the Royal Rumble logo that can
Speaker 3: be taken home. When was the first time they did that?
Speaker 3: You know, was it WrestleMania eleven?
Speaker 6: Jerry Briscoe just posted some pictures of things that he
Speaker 6: has in storage, and he had a ninety five Rumble chair,
Speaker 6: which I was surprised to see.
Speaker 3: You that far back. Yep, I remember, you know what
Speaker 3: I feel like, I because I remember a pay per
Speaker 3: view where they made the big they made a big
Speaker 3: deal out of it, and I'm actually feeling like it
Speaker 3: might have been SummerSlam ninety four when they started doing that.
Speaker 3: I could be wrong with the domin it's a logo
Speaker 3: on it. Maybe yeah, I remember. I do remember them
Speaker 3: making I remember seeing the show where like I bought
Speaker 3: the pay per view where they were making a big
Speaker 3: deal where Todd, Pett and Gill was making a big
Speaker 3: deal about the chairs and I wanted one. Oh yeah,
Speaker 3: I really wanted one. I really. I was so bummed.
Speaker 3: I was, you know, for WrestleMania fourteen. I was like
Speaker 3: a couple of rows away. Yeah, I was so bummed.
Speaker 6: Yeah, my mom told me like that they had this
Speaker 6: chair package versus ridiculous, Like I wasn't going to pay
Speaker 6: that much and I had great seats, but they it
Speaker 6: was like, meaning double the cost, for get the chair.
Speaker 3: I mean, honestly, it's the The seats that I had
Speaker 3: for WrestleMania at fourteen were the second best seats ever had. Ye,
Speaker 3: The seats we had for that raw are the best
Speaker 3: seats I ever had. But we were in the tenth
Speaker 3: row for Wrestlmingia fourteen, behind behind JR. Amazing and King. Yeah,
Speaker 3: it was wild. It was wild. A nine hundred telephone
Speaker 3: number will allow fans to talk with wrestlers after the
Speaker 3: four preliminary championship matches. For preliminary there's only three championship matches,
Speaker 3: but fine, and get other vital information about the WWE.
Speaker 3: But the newest link between the WE and fans is
Speaker 3: an America Online home page, Andronico said it's been a
Speaker 3: hit since it started in September. Folks with computers, modems
Speaker 3: and an America Online account have access to a half
Speaker 3: hour pre rumble show, interviews with wrestlers, photos of the ring, action, quote,
Speaker 3: behind the scenes gossip, a forty five minute post event
Speaker 3: wrap up, and of course, access to ww merchandise.
Speaker 6: I don't remember this. I do not remember this component
Speaker 6: of like live streaming. I don't think that's right. Chatroom opened,
Speaker 6: Could they stream? I don't think so. I mean, when
Speaker 6: w w'st are doing that, it was revolutionary and that
Speaker 6: was on the internet.
Speaker 3: That was not the reo. Wel yeah, I mean it
Speaker 3: would have to be the choppiest fucking video ever. Yeah.
Speaker 6: I can see photos that you opened the chat room.
Speaker 6: I remember that there's like an official chat room and stuff.
Speaker 6: But I don't think they did post shows on exclusively
Speaker 6: for AO. Well, the pre show they're describing as the
Speaker 6: free for all, I don't know what that's about.
Speaker 3: I mean, yeah, forty five minute post event wrap up.
Speaker 6: God imagine finding tape of that if it existed.
Speaker 3: Oh god, that'd be spectacular. The live gate should total
Speaker 3: around one hundred and seventy five thousand dollars. Jesus, that's pathetic.
Speaker 6: Pathetic, that's like god.
Speaker 3: You know nothing. Split among Geller, the Fresno Convention Center,
Speaker 3: which also gets parking in, food, concession revenue, and Titan.
Speaker 3: About one hundred and fifty hotel rooms have been reserved
Speaker 3: for two nights for the wrestlers and staff. The Fresno
Speaker 3: Convention and Visitors Bureau Estimates estimates visitors spend an average
Speaker 3: of one hundred and forty one hundred and forty dollars
Speaker 3: and eight cents per day, which works out to about
Speaker 3: forty two thousand dollars for lodging, food, and incidentals. But
Speaker 3: those dollars turn over several times in the local economy,
Speaker 3: so the impact could run into the hundreds of thousands
Speaker 3: of dollars. Why Fresno, And we feel Fresno brings a
Speaker 3: lot of things to the table. And Ronico said, we
Speaker 3: get a lot of support out there. We wanted to
Speaker 3: bring something to that community.
Speaker 6: Yeah, yes, So just a little bit more where that
Speaker 6: came from. Oh boy, tickets at that price, boss, you
Speaker 6: think they would move pretty quickly. Here on the January nineteenth,
Speaker 6: nineteen ninety six edition of the Fresno b Quick Line,
Speaker 6: here Sunday's World Wrestling Federation Royal Rumble is a sellout.
Speaker 6: Promoter Al Galler announced Thursday tickets were old for all
Speaker 6: nine thousand, eight hundred seats at selling.
Speaker 3: The lousy I mean not even ten thousand people.
Speaker 6: Is it sell end or sell out? I mean I
Speaker 6: don't even know. Truly amazing, So that more more scattered coverage.
Speaker 6: This is just okay, I need to give you this
Speaker 6: one poor coverage because you know, we entered the cinemat,
Speaker 6: we go through local people respond to, oh, yes, a
Speaker 6: film set coming to their neighborhood. Yes, this is kind
Speaker 6: of the wrestling version of that. This is an article
Speaker 6: a letter to the editor from Frank Dame of Fresno
Speaker 6: in the Jeneral twenty first be he wants people to
Speaker 6: know he doesn't appreciate all this coverage.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the Beast.
Speaker 6: Coverage of the NFL playoffs has been lousy. I mean
Speaker 6: he has passed.
Speaker 3: When the forty nine ers made it past the first
Speaker 3: round up of the playoffs, the b was full coverage
Speaker 3: from what was happening in preparation for the game. Something
Speaker 3: every day. I have been in Fresno for eighteen years,
Speaker 3: and one thing is obvious. There are forty nine Ers fans,
Speaker 3: and then there are football fans. It seems to be
Speaker 3: is realized that once the forty nine Ers are out
Speaker 3: of the playoffs, football season is over from most of Fresno.
Speaker 3: And when I open my paper and Wednesday's sports page
Speaker 3: and plastered in front.
Speaker 6: Of me was the Royal Rumble.
Speaker 3: I had to say, I'm mad as hell and I
Speaker 3: won't take it anymore. He's going fucking uh uh, He's
Speaker 3: going fucking network on this guy's ass there.
Speaker 6: Fuck you Christ Frank Jay Dame, I'm.
Speaker 3: Mad as hell. Oh my god, take let's fake shit
Speaker 3: no more?
Speaker 2: Fuck it.
Speaker 3: Wow Wow, I'm front Dame. I challenge the system. Fuck wrestling.
Speaker 3: I want legitimate sports in Fresno on my sports page.
Speaker 6: On my sports page.
Speaker 3: If they want to print about the WWE Royal Rumble,
Speaker 3: put it in the finner page.
Speaker 6: If they want to print about that's so for it. Well,
Speaker 6: the shows sold out. All the prematch type has been done,
Speaker 6: including quoting Sean Michaels and k fabe and the day
Speaker 6: after you better believe, Hey, you know, Monday's papers is
Speaker 6: always thin, man, you better believe there's coverage of what
Speaker 6: went down in the Celling Arena. For Royal Roma ninety six,
Speaker 6: we start with this piece from the intrepid Jim Steinberg,
Speaker 6: WrestleMania Pound for pound, it's a slam. Above the rest
Speaker 6: Royal Rumble becomes one big jungle. I like thought, WrestleMania
Speaker 6: is the first word that I was like, damn, that's
Speaker 6: not a relative article.
Speaker 3: And then'm like, oh wait. They filled celend Arena on
Speaker 3: Sunday with beef and muscles, rounded by nearly by a
Speaker 3: nearly full house of spectators who paid up to one
Speaker 3: hundre fifty dollars apiece to see struggle, pain and triumph,
Speaker 3: and not necessarily in that order. No struggle, pain and triumph.
Speaker 3: That's a wrestling struggle, pain and triumph. No matter that
Speaker 3: most people who were asked about the worlds Entertainment Royal
Speaker 3: Rumbles said the whole thing was fake.
Speaker 2: There it is.
Speaker 3: He gets it right in there. That's the way we do.
Speaker 3: That's the way we fucking do. I knew I hired
Speaker 3: this this, uh Jim Steinberg for a bit.
Speaker 2: I love it.
Speaker 3: I fucking love it. So we're motion pictures. So were
Speaker 3: they not anymore? Apparently now motion bridges are real. It
Speaker 3: was fun and exciting, they said, They said, Jannita semon
Speaker 3: Diego sem Diego.
Speaker 6: But what why is the editor calling me? The sports
Speaker 6: editor home at four point thirty on a Sunday? This
Speaker 6: needs to be in paragraph two?
Speaker 3: What are you doing right now? Huh? You're gonna do
Speaker 3: me a big favor right first in the morning. I
Speaker 3: gotta get listen. I'll pay you. I'll pay you double
Speaker 3: over time if I have to.
Speaker 6: Whatever you need, whatever you're writing about this WWF thing.
Speaker 6: I need the second paragraph.
Speaker 3: I don't even I don't even listen. Write it right now.
Speaker 3: The show hasn't happening for another couple of hours. I
Speaker 3: need you to write it now. It's fake. Yeah, it's
Speaker 3: fucking fake.
Speaker 6: And if I don't see the word fake in paragraph
Speaker 6: two of tomorrow's coverage, it's your head, it's your ass.
Speaker 3: Listen. If you don't fucking if you don't fucking put
Speaker 3: then it's fake. In the second paragraph, at the very
Speaker 3: latest second paragraph, your head's gonna be on a spike
Speaker 3: outside the front of the build Monday morning. All right,
Speaker 3: don't fuck with me, coss is, what are you doing?
Speaker 6: And within two minutes don't fuck with me? Guy hasn't
Speaker 6: said a word yet. That's great.
Speaker 3: Don't fuck with me to someone who hasn't said a word.
Speaker 3: What are you doing? What are you doing?
Speaker 6: You've been sitting all day Sunday scheming, Jim.
Speaker 3: It's your boss's boss. He's just fucking threatened. His wife
Speaker 3: didn't even know it.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's like when George Bailey yells at the the
Speaker 3: teacher and it's the husband on the phone.
Speaker 6: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3: Juanita Salmon Diego nineteen, a student at King's River Community College.
Speaker 6: Who was named after Vincentior's second wife.
Speaker 3: Right. And John Hastings twenty one, a waiter at Table
Speaker 3: Mountain Brother Table Mountain. What's that, dude? Tail Mountain Brother
Speaker 3: a mountain Mountain tables tables? What do you mean, dude?
Speaker 3: Who's going through?
Speaker 10: What?
Speaker 3: Lets go through a table? Exactly? You don't even run
Speaker 3: this by me. I'm sorry, who's finding a waiter?
Speaker 14: Like?
Speaker 3: What's going on here? Dude? No one told me about
Speaker 3: a table mountains? Eric promised me. Dude, Eric, Yo, easy,
Speaker 3: We're never running Fresno. Say it to me, brother, dude, Brother,
Speaker 3: I'm not working that friz No brother, f dude, not
Speaker 3: working the Frizze dude. All right, let me tell you something, dude,
Speaker 3: I'm not working the selling arena.
Speaker 2: Brother.
Speaker 3: All right, listen, I'm not selling anything.
Speaker 11: Right.
Speaker 6: You want to sell an arena, sell the garden, brother,
Speaker 6: But you.
Speaker 3: Know I'll sell an arena, brother, but I'm not selling
Speaker 3: in the arena. You know what I'm saying, dude.
Speaker 6: Oh well, Hulk has his terms.
Speaker 3: That's what I said my contract.
Speaker 2: Brother.
Speaker 3: You know I'm talking right what section eleven paragraphy Brother
Speaker 3: Old Cogan will sell an arena, whul Cogan will do
Speaker 3: no selling in arena if he doesn't want to to
Speaker 3: create a control brother, creative, the creative contrizzle. Brother, That's
Speaker 3: where I'm working at POOF. I want you to know
Speaker 3: I did like the fucking hang tough. You know I'm
Speaker 3: gonna take Yeah, I'm gonna think you even know what
Speaker 3: you are inside?
Speaker 9: Uh.
Speaker 3: Table Mountain couldn't keep their bodies attached to their ringside seats.
Speaker 3: The excitement was too much for them. Again and again,
Speaker 3: Hastings jumped to his feet and ran to restraining barriers.
Speaker 3: With the quickness of a charging bear, he thrust his
Speaker 3: gloved left hand.
Speaker 6: Brother, what, let me ask you a question, dude. Why
Speaker 6: didn't you just say his left hand? Why did you
Speaker 6: have to say there.
Speaker 3: Was a glove?
Speaker 6: Why is it globe? What's in the glove?
Speaker 3: Why do you have a glove on you?
Speaker 10: You know?
Speaker 3: Just was it loaded? I'm sorry? Brother, People and gloves now, Dude, Like,
Speaker 3: like you go to a sporting event all of a sudden,
Speaker 3: you know, go to an entertainment event, brother, and all
Speaker 3: of a sudden, you know, hey, do you I got
Speaker 3: a glove?
Speaker 6: I can see it in cold climbs in general, brother,
Speaker 6: But this is the frizziz No.
Speaker 3: You were talking you know, California. A brother, They're wearing
Speaker 3: gloves indoors in Fresno. Dude, Like, what's that is?
Speaker 2: Brother?
Speaker 3: Like, I'm you're supposed to question, you know, I'm I'm
Speaker 3: going I'm going to go to go to a go
Speaker 3: to a w W event, brother, and I'm wearing a glove.
Speaker 6: Like who says that exactly? And it's not brother, Brother,
Speaker 6: I understand you know that it's just a glove. I
Speaker 6: get that, but it's it's that's not the glove. Brother,
Speaker 6: it's what's next? Fingers cut out?
Speaker 2: Whoa dude? Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa.
Speaker 3: Whan the fingers were exposed, brother, like full grip Like Brother,
Speaker 3: we're talking like, you know, like real grippage, dude. We're
Speaker 3: talking about like rolling me up.
Speaker 2: Brother.
Speaker 3: This kind of sounds like UFC gloves.
Speaker 2: Dude.
Speaker 3: I'm thinking like this guy's gonna come up from behind
Speaker 3: Hult Coagan, roll me up, brother, the.
Speaker 6: Sea gloves on?
Speaker 2: Brother?
Speaker 3: I mean, dude, like, have you trained no hold's bar? Dude?
Speaker 3: I mean, what's it is? Dude? Were you huh? Are
Speaker 3: you don fry?
Speaker 12: I know this.
Speaker 6: I know that ship's big out here on this.
Speaker 2: Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa?
Speaker 3: Brother, Listen, I'm not I'm not. I just want to say, dude,
Speaker 3: I'm here for different purposes, but I don't know people
Speaker 3: allowed to wear gloves with fingers coming in? Brother exposed, Dude,
Speaker 3: that's not okay, right, Like what else are they exposing? Brother?
Speaker 3: Was in business? Dude exposed to Hult Coven.
Speaker 2: I knew that was coming.
Speaker 3: You see, I see where my mind's going. He says
Speaker 3: these things.
Speaker 6: He says these things like by saying them, it's going
Speaker 6: to be clear to you where he's coming from.
Speaker 3: But it gets less like you see where I'm Comforromed brother, Like,
Speaker 3: you know, expose Hulk Cogan. What does that mean exactly?
Speaker 3: You know, I mean expose him for for you know,
Speaker 3: like a frame job brother, or we talking expose him
Speaker 3: from behind and then like roll them up, get the
Speaker 3: pin one two three torch. Dude, this is the Concerns book.
Speaker 3: This is what we gotta com think about.
Speaker 6: I love it, bo I love it, he says, this
Speaker 6: is what we got to kind of think about. Great
Speaker 6: if any idea how much work the word kinda is
Speaker 6: doing in that sentence, we have to kind of think about,
Speaker 6: like we.
Speaker 3: Like, look because kind of like in Hull Cogan, we're
Speaker 3: in Hull Cogan terms kind of means one hundred and
Speaker 3: fifty percent of the time exactly, you know, kinda is
Speaker 3: like you better be on top of the ship before
Speaker 3: I even think about it.
Speaker 6: And I love this like general theme of like, uh,
Speaker 6: I know that you don't think it's a big deal,
Speaker 6: but trust me, if we don't all put our heads
Speaker 6: together on this, we're all in trouble. You know, Like
Speaker 6: he kind of creates that feeling. Yeah, exact, because if
Speaker 6: this isn't sacred, If I can't hold this as sacred,
Speaker 6: You're not going to be able to hold anything as
Speaker 6: sacred either to yourself. It might not be this concern,
Speaker 6: but it will be another related concern. I'm so glad
Speaker 6: as I as I literally snort, I'm so glad that
Speaker 6: that came up. What episode is that must have been
Speaker 6: one where Hogan was in the w W F right,
Speaker 6: certainly not Oh my goodness, he said that wearing gloves
Speaker 6: in the.
Speaker 3: Shawn Michaels gloves probably and he goes gloves, Yeah, it goes.
Speaker 2: Whoa dude, whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa brother?
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's it's right here, dude, in the style of
Speaker 3: Hero Diesel. Dude, Diesel is supposed to be the new
Speaker 3: quote unquote Hulk Hogan. Right, and you wonder why I
Speaker 3: worried about this brother. We got new Hulk Hogan, we
Speaker 3: got we got cod on this trucker, Hogan. Dude, gloves,
Speaker 3: you know, what, what are you gonna do? You're gonna
Speaker 3: suddenly all of a sudden bringing gloves in dose w Dude, Like,
Speaker 3: what are we talking about?
Speaker 6: Who's he talking to he's he's concerned that Bischoff had something.
Speaker 3: To do with this, I mean, and then all of
Speaker 3: a sudden, you bring these guys in.
Speaker 2: Brother.
Speaker 6: You can see how because there's not really a good
Speaker 6: whole human glove. I don't wear gloves.
Speaker 3: I'm not even talking these guys, dude, Like, what's the
Speaker 3: dis bro, can you get gloves? Due? Are you gonna say,
Speaker 3: you know what, We're gonna get the whole cooking by
Speaker 3: the gloves. Like, are you gonna plan on these guys
Speaker 3: gloving me out?
Speaker 6: So great, you get hold cooking by the gloves, but
Speaker 6: whatever that means? And then he says, you get these
Speaker 6: guys gloving me out, dude, what does that mean? Just
Speaker 6: surrounding them and smacking them with gloves?
Speaker 3: Glove out? Brother, I know that trick.
Speaker 6: I've heard of it before. I love how he invents
Speaker 6: things like their things, you know, like.
Speaker 2: This is completely confidently, like it's normal.
Speaker 6: Like we all know, like Strangler Lewis got gloved out,
Speaker 6: he was never the same Joe Stevie.
Speaker 3: Brother, dud, I say, we've all worked the gloves, brother,
Speaker 3: We've all done it, dude, We've all we've all had
Speaker 3: that glove and experience. So I'm just fron well, what's
Speaker 3: the next brother? You're gonna hear? Jarrenny Glover? I mean
Speaker 3: we got Danny Lover, We've got John Glover. Where we
Speaker 3: where are we?
Speaker 2: What do we?
Speaker 3: Where do we end?
Speaker 10: Brother?
Speaker 3: Where did it end? You know how many gloves come out?
Speaker 15: Right?
Speaker 3: You know, throwing down, brother?
Speaker 6: And not just the childish can childish camping or brother?
Speaker 3: I mean you know, I think you know I'm talking
Speaker 3: of playing high the gloves, right, dude? Or glove the ball? Right?
Speaker 3: We are kind of talking about this scene on the
Speaker 3: serious bass because we're talking legal. We're talking legal.
Speaker 6: Oh yeah, very clearly we're talking legal.
Speaker 3: I mean legal.
Speaker 6: What exactly?
Speaker 12: Right?
Speaker 6: You're talking about gloving the ball instead of hiding the ball?
Speaker 6: What am my baseball player?
Speaker 1: Now?
Speaker 10: Do?
Speaker 12: I mean?
Speaker 3: Do you know what are we changing? Changing the name
Speaker 3: of the game?
Speaker 2: Brother?
Speaker 3: We what we what are we fucking baseball players?
Speaker 10: Now?
Speaker 3: Do was this World championship baseball?
Speaker 2: Brother?
Speaker 6: Are we hiding the ball in the gloves? I mean?
Speaker 2: Whoa?
Speaker 6: Or are we glove on the ball on the hide?
Speaker 3: Dode? I just want to know where we're at right exactly?
Speaker 3: I mean, let me just talk about clarity. It's all
Speaker 3: he needs is clarity where we're at.
Speaker 6: In other words, I just want some reassurances that you're
Speaker 6: not engaging in a very convoluted conspiracy to catch me
Speaker 6: off guard for reasons unknown. But if you're trying to
Speaker 6: catch me off guard, no matter what your goals, hope's
Speaker 6: gonna inquire.
Speaker 3: Oh god, maybe so good. But someone new and unsettling
Speaker 3: was about to enter the ring, Hastings said, somebody someone
Speaker 3: who gave Hastings pause about wrestling's future. You'll be shocked
Speaker 3: by what you see, he warned. It was a match
Speaker 3: between Razor Ramone and gold Dust. Yeah. Quote, a lot
Speaker 3: of people are calling to be taught, are calling for
Speaker 3: gold Dust to be tossed out because of the gay thing.
Speaker 3: Pastings said, sure enough. Gold Dust entered the ring decked
Speaker 3: in gold with a long blonde wig and heavy eye makeup. Nice,
Speaker 3: it's just face painte It's not heavy I makeup. It's
Speaker 3: not fucking right, you know, like I mean they're describing
Speaker 3: Mark Merrow fucking w CW. He had heavy eye makeup on,
Speaker 3: not fucking dustin here, you fucking face paint. The crowd booed.
Speaker 3: Someone held up a placard quote gold Dust, Ted's tired
Speaker 3: of Jane call him.
Speaker 6: That's a good sign.
Speaker 3: It's a good.
Speaker 6: Sure enough.
Speaker 3: Midway through the match, gold Dust pulled a nifty maneuver
Speaker 3: to escape Razors ground as from behind. Brother, What whoa
Speaker 3: see you call me, dude, paranoid brother? First of all, dude,
Speaker 3: who's this gold Dust guy?
Speaker 6: He's coming up from behind him? And where's it coming
Speaker 6: from behind?
Speaker 12: Brother?
Speaker 3: What's it is? Dude?
Speaker 6: That's Dusty's kid, and Dusty's working here w c W brother,
Speaker 6: and you'ren't telling me. I'm much to be worried that
Speaker 6: he's fucking training to go behind people and the other.
Speaker 3: We're talking about like he's trying to roll people from behind?
Speaker 3: Dude over on the other side, what's to say? I mean,
Speaker 3: I'm it's obviously certain he's coming back to your brother
Speaker 3: to roll up Hulk Hogan from behind.
Speaker 6: What's his full name? Take Hulk Hogan's gold Dust. What's
Speaker 6: the first name?
Speaker 10: Brother?
Speaker 3: What it is you take Hulk Hogan?
Speaker 6: Is that his first call?
Speaker 3: Brother? Take Hulk Hogan's gold Dust. Brother. Listen, dude, I
Speaker 3: have concerns.
Speaker 6: Dusty Dusty brother. I'm just saying I know that you
Speaker 6: claim re alienated from from from your son, dude, but
Speaker 6: you got you gotta see it from Hull Hogan's pert.
Speaker 2: Brother.
Speaker 3: You're gonna tell me, dude that you're not behind him
Speaker 3: going by the name take Hulk Hogan's Gold Dust, but
Speaker 3: that I don't want to say what you're talking about,
Speaker 3: what we think.
Speaker 9: I don't.
Speaker 3: I just want to tell you that I'm not a fan.
Speaker 3: I don't didn't approve of my son going over back
Speaker 3: over to w W work for nthic man. I didn't.
Speaker 6: I didn't say, okay, Daddy, I didn't think go over there.
Speaker 6: I don't know what he's doing over there. You're telling
Speaker 6: did not approve this, this gimmick he's doing.
Speaker 3: Brother, So you tell me, dude, that you didn't give
Speaker 3: him the name take Hulk Hogan's Gold Dust. That I
Speaker 3: don't even know what the fun you're talking about. I
Speaker 3: know that to go by the name gold Gold newspaper
Speaker 3: right now. I don't appreciate, daddy. I don't like it, Daddy,
Speaker 3: but it's going by the name gold Deaf. He's reaching around,
Speaker 3: he's touching people up and down, grabbing cox in hand,
Speaker 3: the whole fucking thing, Daddy.
Speaker 2: I don't.
Speaker 3: I don't know anything about take Hulk Hogan's brother. I mean,
Speaker 3: you don't take Hulk Hogan's what today you said, take
Speaker 3: Hold Cogan's gold duff daddy, brother. See this is what
Speaker 3: I'm talking about. You told him to take the name,
Speaker 3: take Holdgan's gold dust brother. Why did you do that, dude, Baby,
Speaker 3: Hulk holks the baby. I'm not I'm saying no, dadday,
Speaker 3: Hulk Mania not taking gold dust Daddy. Nobody's taking hulk dust.
Speaker 3: Article says said, waitman, do you said his name is
Speaker 3: hulk dust?
Speaker 2: Dude?
Speaker 3: He said, brother, you said Holt dust.
Speaker 6: And I'm not fan nothing about Hulk dust.
Speaker 3: Baby. Why you talking about Holk dust?
Speaker 2: Brother?
Speaker 3: I want to know what Why you're not talking about this?
Speaker 3: This is clearly the issue.
Speaker 2: Dude.
Speaker 3: Read the article, brother, Read the fucking paper. Brother, We're
Speaker 3: talking about Dustin Runnels. Dude is taking Hulk Cogan's torch.
Speaker 2: Brother over in w W.
Speaker 3: E is not even there, Dude, that's a goddamn quote.
Speaker 3: Read Read the quote again, deary, go ahead, read it.
Speaker 2: What does it say?
Speaker 3: It says Dawston Runnels over in WW taking a whole
Speaker 3: COVID torch from w W dude, and bring it all
Speaker 3: around the world for a whole COVID fucking.
Speaker 2: Laughs at like he's.
Speaker 3: Like he's allie in Atlanta in ninety six. Why are
Speaker 3: you telling me to do that?
Speaker 2: Dude?
Speaker 6: Wait to the summer game. Wait to the summer games.
Speaker 6: Right here in Atlanta, Terry, you're gonna see a toy
Speaker 6: and you're gonna be the guy in Atlanta without the torch.
Speaker 2: Perfect thoughts. You came with him before I was even there.
Speaker 3: I wasn't even talking school like you kicked into a
Speaker 3: different gear. Oh my god, what you're saying. There's a
Speaker 3: torch run down in Atlanta?
Speaker 9: Dude?
Speaker 3: Who give my torch?
Speaker 2: Why is it?
Speaker 3: Why is his handshaking?
Speaker 11: Brother?
Speaker 2: Oh god?
Speaker 11: Uh?
Speaker 3: Behind now? Behind Razor gold Dust appeared to be doing
Speaker 3: non athletic handwork on raising, non athletic handwork.
Speaker 6: That's another thing you could call pro wrestling.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm athletic. Oh my god. The crowd went wild.
Speaker 3: Quote oh god, Hastings said, alarmed, unbelievable, something like vinciic man, unbelievable, unbelievable.
Speaker 3: Just as Razors seemed to get things under control, a
Speaker 3: totally illegal invasion brother Southern.
Speaker 2: Border who whoa whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa whoa?
Speaker 3: What do you mean? What's going on? Dude?
Speaker 2: Brother?
Speaker 6: Our CPB can't or border patrol of apps getting deleted?
Speaker 10: Dude?
Speaker 3: Like, what are we talking about here, dude? Like, who's invading?
Speaker 10: What?
Speaker 3: Exactly? Right? Port of entry?
Speaker 2: Brother?
Speaker 3: I mean, like am I like? Are we talking about
Speaker 3: like Hulk Hogan's home? I'm talking about home invasion?
Speaker 16: Brother?
Speaker 6: Is w CW a port of entry to those who
Speaker 6: might take my torch?
Speaker 3: I mean? I and Brother?
Speaker 2: What I mean?
Speaker 3: Dude? Did I make a mistake coming in here?
Speaker 10: You know?
Speaker 3: Eric, Dude, you know you like, what's the I was
Speaker 3: just making TV show, Brother, I was totally fine. All
Speaker 3: of a sudden in WW. Don't even know why. I
Speaker 3: don't even know how. And now I got to read
Speaker 3: about and now I'm talking about now now now a
Speaker 3: paper talking about w W talking about Hulk Hogan Holdon's
Speaker 3: house getting invaded.
Speaker 6: Brother, home invasion, Dude, he was a lot to manage,
Speaker 6: was a lot to manage.
Speaker 3: It says totally illegal home invasion getting the one two
Speaker 3: three from a kid on Hulk Hogan. That's what it says. Brother,
Speaker 3: Right there, dude, totally illegal home invasion kid gets one
Speaker 3: two three on hul covid that happened. I ask you, brother,
Speaker 3: what would you do if you were me in that situation?
Speaker 2: Brother?
Speaker 3: What would you be?
Speaker 2: Would you not be alarmed?
Speaker 10: Dude?
Speaker 3: Would you not be the life of the concerned brother
Speaker 3: that Wait a minute, they're making it up. Brother, I
Speaker 3: wasn't home if somebody went home to my home illegally invaded?
Speaker 3: And if I want you three by kid on old Cogan?
Speaker 3: Why are they writing about that? Enfresno, Brother, Bishops just
Speaker 3: like totally concerned, like not sure.
Speaker 6: What to say writing about that in friends, God, it's
Speaker 6: so good. It all started when that kid had the
Speaker 6: glove on and you had my brother. It's concerning, Its
Speaker 6: concerning so good.
Speaker 3: Okay, totally invasioned by the one two three kid, not
Speaker 3: even a contestant in the match, That's what I'm talking about, brother,
Speaker 3: non contestants. I brother, Well, bad enough, he's called the
Speaker 3: one two three kid. Dude, you're telling me that's not
Speaker 3: that's not jabb at Hulk Cogan right, a fuck brother.
Speaker 3: Six months later, Terry, we're bringing in Sean Waltman. What
Speaker 3: would you call him? That's the first question. Wob Well dude,
Speaker 3: I was a How about the brother you know one
Speaker 3: two and three adamoth they get six right? Just call
Speaker 3: him six? Are you calling? We call him the one kid?
Speaker 3: I mean we're talking one too. We're talking about what was.
Speaker 6: It I just read about Wait a minute, didn't I
Speaker 6: read in January and President?
Speaker 3: Wait?
Speaker 6: Brother, and you told me there was nothing to worry about. Dude,
Speaker 6: about one two three kid and all the implications.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna tell you something. Now you're bringing him in.
Speaker 3: I want brother, you keep him away from me, dude.
Speaker 3: I will fuck him up. Brother.
Speaker 6: You have the one two three on Hulk Coogan, and
Speaker 6: I'll tell.
Speaker 2: You that right now.
Speaker 3: I'm not jobbing, no little bitch.
Speaker 6: He's gonna go from the one two three kid to
Speaker 6: the zero.
Speaker 3: Man. I'll take him from six to zero, dude in
Speaker 3: two seconds, real quick, brother, exactly, starry hitting negative numbers, Yo, Sean,
Speaker 3: Welcome to the company. Dude. Look with your brother, you
Speaker 3: can't come around me, dude, we can't be any I
Speaker 3: just wanna say, dude, you can't. You can't be one
Speaker 3: two three kid, brother, right, you can't be one two
Speaker 3: three around me. That just ain't gonna happen, dude, right now.
Speaker 3: I got no personal beef with you, brother, but I
Speaker 3: do have a beef with you calling out Hull Coogan
Speaker 3: by going by one two three kid.
Speaker 6: It's a cute idea, brother, but I can't be having
Speaker 6: a guy in the locker room with an excuse to
Speaker 6: be saying one two three all the time around Hulo. Listen,
Speaker 6: how do I know if my shoulders are down what
Speaker 6: it's said?
Speaker 3: I mean, dude, I could be. I could be. I
Speaker 3: could be, you know, standing for my locker brother, kind
Speaker 3: of like you know, getting ready to you know, getting
Speaker 3: the clothes, dude, ready to go, and all of a
Speaker 3: sudden someone yells one two three, hey, one two three, dude,
Speaker 3: all of a sudden. IM wondering, brother, my my pinned? Someone?
Speaker 3: Am I done? To a camera on somewhere? I mean,
Speaker 3: did I just lose the title? Who?
Speaker 2: Who know?
Speaker 3: Who's to say? You know I can't be one two
Speaker 3: three brother, I'm I'm not allowing it, dude. I have
Speaker 3: career creative controlling the hul Cogan and Hull Cogan is
Speaker 3: not allowing one two three kid. No, my wsw brother,
Speaker 3: I have. If you need a problem to do, you
Speaker 3: can read my contract. Brother, Sexual love and some paragraph e. Brother,
Speaker 3: I can say no, one, two, three.
Speaker 6: I can see a little consternation in your face.
Speaker 3: Brother.
Speaker 6: I just advise you to be very careful about your
Speaker 6: response right now, because if I don't hear something I like, Brother,
Speaker 6: it's gonna get very difficult for you real quick.
Speaker 3: Here. I do have firing power to a certain degree, Dude.
Speaker 6: I'm going to take any risks so that you can
Speaker 6: walk around here playing I'm not I'm not here, dude.
Speaker 6: You know I'm there, Dude.
Speaker 3: There are plenty of people out here, brother, who are
Speaker 3: trying to make a name for themselves, dude, and I'm
Speaker 3: not down with that.
Speaker 6: This guy just got to the company and he is
Speaker 6: getting absolutely berated by freaking day one.
Speaker 3: Imagine just imagine fucking Sean Waltman and like a black
Speaker 3: T shirt and like a vest and you know, with
Speaker 3: sunglasses on in fucking old school walkman headphones on. He's like,
Speaker 3: what the fuck is going on? No, man, I'm fucked.
Speaker 3: Oh dude, I'm hunky. I don't know what you're talking about, dude.
Speaker 6: I'm man, I'm I'm on your side.
Speaker 3: I'm just walking my dog. That's what I thought, dude, brother,
Speaker 3: you mean walking a dog. You got a leash, brother,
Speaker 3: You know I mean what you know. I'll tell you
Speaker 3: right now, dude, you get a leash for that dog. Brother,
Speaker 3: and I'll tell you what, Dude, I had Haul and Nash. Brother,
Speaker 3: they get a leash for you. They're gonna keep you
Speaker 3: on a very short leash.
Speaker 6: Exactly before you write before you played dumb with me,
Speaker 6: brother and act like you weren't sitting here on a
Speaker 6: mission with that name. But let you know I'm watching you.
Speaker 6: And then I got all the bases covered, dude, Dude,
Speaker 6: I got, I got.
Speaker 3: I want to tell you something, Brother. Cameras at your house, dude,
Speaker 3: and I have people watching your house twenty four to seven.
Speaker 12: Brother.
Speaker 3: I know when you leave, I know when you come home.
Speaker 3: I know who you're fucking at night.
Speaker 6: Brother goes up to him, shakes his hand and says,
Speaker 6: Sean Walton's addressed to him.
Speaker 3: I know who you are, dude, I know we are
Speaker 3: every morning. The day brother, you try to fuck with me,
Speaker 3: I'm gonna kill you. Wow. Just walked into the fucking
Speaker 3: building the first time.
Speaker 6: Just walked in in his face, like twenty minutes of questions.
Speaker 3: You know, with a stinky cigar mustache, rubbing up against
Speaker 3: rubbing up against the fucking nose of Sean Waltman, and.
Speaker 6: I'm gonna go back to Fresno now.
Speaker 3: Gave the match to the hideously taunting gold Dust quote.
Speaker 3: No good, no good, Hastings shouted on to the free
Speaker 3: for all rumble. No wait a minute, free for all
Speaker 3: different shows, a totally different warriors, Diesel, British Bulldog, King Mabel,
Speaker 3: vodder Yokozuna, Shawn Michaels, Jake the Snake, Robert and many
Speaker 3: others thumped, slammed, gouged, grimaced, spit groaned, did about everything
Speaker 3: but bleed. You could even see them talking short inaudible comments, instructions,
Speaker 3: question mark, it's to each other as the crowd the
Speaker 3: crowd brought it says, know who the editor is? Yeah,
Speaker 3: a guy named King Mabel weighed five and twenty pounds.
Speaker 3: Hastings said, But next to Tatanka is to Tunku in
Speaker 3: the rumble.
Speaker 2: No he's not right.
Speaker 3: No, I don't think so. I don't remember him being
Speaker 3: in the rumble.
Speaker 6: Well you know, no he is for a second. Is
Speaker 6: I take that back he was in for a second,
Speaker 6: Yes he was. Wow, I can remember Vince nor American
Speaker 6: toa TNKA.
Speaker 3: Oh god, I mean's funny. I've watched it, I remember.
Speaker 6: And then he comes back for the February show against
Speaker 6: Jake and then he's gone.
Speaker 3: I think.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 3: But next to Tatanka with the sumo wrestler appearance, King
Speaker 3: Mabel looked like an overweight Share what c hr He
Speaker 3: looks nothing like Share? What the fuck is there? What
Speaker 3: the fuck he's talking about? That's bizarre.
Speaker 6: Looks like a Marty purple eggplant fucking Japanese snack is
Speaker 6: what he looks like.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Marty Funk forty six looked down from a prime
Speaker 3: seat as her husband. Oh no, he got access to
Speaker 3: Marty Dorance Junior. Dori Junior fifty three, oldest wrestler in
Speaker 3: the Rumble engaged in combat.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 3: He looked small, but stood six foot four inches and
Speaker 3: weighed two hundred and fifty pounds. It turned out he
Speaker 3: stayed away from wilder wrestlers. Yeah, certainly not his brother.
Speaker 3: Great coverage quote. He's in better condition than half the
Speaker 3: guys here. He's the George Foreman of all the wrestling business,
Speaker 3: the biggest bunch of bullshit r.
Speaker 6: Remember he came out at the ninety six and rumble.
Speaker 3: What were your thoughts. I had no idea. Who the
Speaker 3: fuck he was? Unreal?
Speaker 6: He was last year, right with Dick Murdock too.
Speaker 3: Dick Murdoch was in it, but not not Dorance. Yeah,
Speaker 3: he acts like he was in it his book, Dorance,
Speaker 3: I don't think he was. I think so either. I mean,
Speaker 3: I know that it was weird. They had these old
Speaker 3: guys in Yeah, these these like these two rumbles. It
Speaker 3: was just so. And I always get them confused, honestly,
Speaker 3: I always. I always think Dick Murdoch is in the
Speaker 3: ninety six one and it's Dory and the other one
Speaker 3: or versa. But I mean I'm looking he's not, and
Speaker 3: I'm looking off people he's not. He's not it.
Speaker 6: No, maybe he went to the show, but he wasn't
Speaker 6: in the match.
Speaker 3: And he talks about him match book. That's weird. Uh,
Speaker 3: this was this was no fake. She said this was real.
Speaker 3: She said that, she said that this fucking this, this
Speaker 3: is a lunatic, fucking luminic is what she is. They
Speaker 3: all hurt, Marty Funk said, every day they hurt. That's true,
Speaker 3: Opera when he's lying. Yeah, the quote fake charge was
Speaker 3: a misconception. She said, the wrestler.
Speaker 6: This guy goes to the recover of the ninety six Rumble,
Speaker 6: It gets into it with Marty fun about what if
Speaker 6: it's fake or not?
Speaker 3: Not to be not to be confused with Marty funkauser
Speaker 3: from the Herb.
Speaker 2: Not to be confused.
Speaker 6: Oh man, that's good, boss, I think you know it.
Speaker 3: What's up? LT right? Absolutely? Oh Jesus Christ, I can't
Speaker 3: handle this right now. The quote fake charge was a misconception.
Speaker 3: She said the wrestlers had plays. Oh god, but plays
Speaker 3: often run astray, as in pro football. So wrestlers have
Speaker 3: plays apparently. I guess there's a playbook, but we knew
Speaker 3: there was a spot book. Oh.
Speaker 6: I mean, I'll read the one page chapter from please
Speaker 6: Dori's book about this rumble, okay, because he has a
Speaker 6: separate thing which we'll read from when we get to
Speaker 6: the deep dive about what happens in Fresno. But the
Speaker 6: chapter is Royal Rumble and Tampa, flor in nineteen ninety six.
Speaker 6: What fuck is he talking about? Wow, you really look good.
Speaker 6: I said to Dick Murdoch. I have an idea. We're
Speaker 6: gonna go through the entire crew of wrestlers here and
Speaker 6: tell each one, just how good they look. Ask them
Speaker 6: if they'd been working out, Tell them they look pumped up,
Speaker 6: ask them what kind of diet they've been on. Compliment
Speaker 6: them in any way you can. I'll bet you that
Speaker 6: not one single wrestler will return the compliment and say
Speaker 6: how good we look. Dick loved the idea, and we
Speaker 6: made the rounds. Just as I said, not one wrestler
Speaker 6: return the compliment to Dick or myself. We got lots
Speaker 6: of comments like, oh, well, yes, I've been in a
Speaker 6: special workout, it's the special protein something that I've been on.
Speaker 6: Many just said thank you very much. Dick and I
Speaker 6: were having a ball telling wrestlers just how good they looked.
Speaker 6: Even the godwins thanked us for the compliments as we
Speaker 6: laughed the less. As we left the last dressing room,
Speaker 6: we saw George the Animal Steel walking down the hallway.
Speaker 6: I was the first to speak, George Steel, Wow, you
Speaker 6: really look good tonight. Dick Murdock chimed right in, George,
Speaker 6: you must have been working out. Have you lost some weight?
Speaker 6: George looked at the two of us, hesitated for just
Speaker 6: a moment, then said, listen you to anytime someone comes
Speaker 6: up to me and says, how good I look. I
Speaker 6: know it's a rib. I'm not buying this. Nobody in
Speaker 6: there right tells me I'm looking good. We all three
Speaker 6: had a good laugh in the hallway that night. Dick
Speaker 6: and I told George about all the boys who believed
Speaker 6: we were serious. The call came for Dick to go
Speaker 6: into the ring that night, Marty and I stayed to
Speaker 6: watch his match. I see, so he was in attendance.
Speaker 3: I see.
Speaker 6: Dick was an incredibly strong man. He had natural strength.
Speaker 6: I remember Dick picked up Henry Godwin that night, gave
Speaker 6: him an airplane spin and dumped him over the top rope.
Speaker 6: It was quite a feat for someone whose training regimen
Speaker 6: included lifting more cores beer than dumbbells. It was a
Speaker 6: long drive back to our home in Ocala that night,
Speaker 6: so we left early, thinking we would see Dick again soon.
Speaker 6: On the way back, we laughed about all the good
Speaker 6: times we had just knowing Dick Murdock.
Speaker 3: So, yeah, he was there.
Speaker 6: He thought it was ninety six, But he doesn't need
Speaker 6: to have been in the match. Okay, that's better, that's hilarious.
Speaker 3: Where was I here? That fake? Fake? The plays? By
Speaker 3: the time it was over favorite. Shawn Michaels emerged as
Speaker 3: sole survivor among the thirty wannabes in the Who's Left
Speaker 3: Standing Royal Rumble epoch. He celebrated the teasing Dance the
Speaker 3: Federation Championship match and died the with the Ndertaker, defeating
Speaker 3: Brett Hitmanheart viat us qualification, but the championship can't change
Speaker 3: hands on just qualification, so Heart still has it. The
Speaker 3: Intercontinental Championship match tormented many in the crowd as gold
Speaker 3: Dust beat Razor Ramon only because the one two three
Speaker 3: kid lent a helping hand. The referee didn't even see it.
Speaker 3: The Tag Team Championship went to the Smoking Guns, who
Speaker 3: defeated The Body Donnas, and Ahmed Johnson defeated Double J
Speaker 3: Jeff Jarrett, who was disqualified for smashing a guitar over
Speaker 3: Johnson's head. Great coverage, Jesus Christ Almighty, at.
Speaker 6: Least you got your results in the next day's paper.
Speaker 6: I guess it doesn't always happen when w w F
Speaker 6: would come town in that era. That's true, that is true,
Speaker 6: but that wasn't enough. Finally, just to get the real
Speaker 6: heart of what we're looking for here, because you know,
Speaker 6: I think the editor had had an inkling that when
Speaker 6: he sent Jim Steinberg that he would, Yeah, he'd put
Speaker 6: it was fake in the second paragraph, but he'd also
Speaker 6: get into who won and lost like it was all real,
Speaker 6: and he'd that's just the way he reports on things, right.
Speaker 6: So we've got to send Jacqueline Thornton as well, and
Speaker 6: she's got to do the observe the people and make
Speaker 6: fun of them, Oh boy, color column that we always
Speaker 6: have to do when the Wrestling Circus comes to two,
Speaker 6: No boy, of course. So as it regards the Fresno
Speaker 6: Bees contributions to our understanding of the nineteen ninety six
Speaker 6: Royal Rumble, I present to you solar system and the
Speaker 6: boss does this well. The final word from Jacqueline Thornton
Speaker 6: Royal Welcome to the WWE.
Speaker 3: Why would any mother and yep in her right mind
Speaker 3: take her impressionable young son to see thirty grown men
Speaker 3: in bizarre costumes body slamming and tossing each.
Speaker 6: Other out of a wrestling ring.
Speaker 2: Open?
Speaker 3: Beautiful, wonderful, just fucking beautiful. What an opening sendence? Man
Speaker 3: like Jackie, you are an artist. You are a fucking artist.
Speaker 3: It is just it's a pleasure to read your work.
Speaker 6: It's right to the heart of the matter.
Speaker 3: After all, many nights I come home from work to
Speaker 3: a royal rumble in my holy fing room.
Speaker 10: Do what?
Speaker 11: Oh?
Speaker 6: Now we gonna find Jacqueline Thornton.
Speaker 3: Also, I love the best part is that hul Cogin's
Speaker 3: reading all these fucking Fresno articles.
Speaker 6: Okay, he is obsessed with coverage of the other company's space.
Speaker 3: He's just obsessed with coverage. She goes, what what?
Speaker 12: What?
Speaker 10: What?
Speaker 6: Jacqueline Thornton comes home to a world rumble in her
Speaker 6: living room and that that just can't stand and hult
Speaker 6: Cogan's mind without a significant diligence being done.
Speaker 3: I mean, who's booking it?
Speaker 2: Brother?
Speaker 3: Exactly?
Speaker 6: All kinds of questions present themselves at that point.
Speaker 3: I mean who, I mean, first of all, who's this Jacqueline?
Speaker 12: Brother?
Speaker 3: What's going on with this night?
Speaker 6: This is gonna happen in my living room?
Speaker 10: Like?
Speaker 3: Are we saying like is she saying this roar about
Speaker 3: my living room? And that's going on? Metaphor? Are we
Speaker 3: talking about thirty people in my house? Uninvited? Brother rumbling around?
Speaker 2: Dude?
Speaker 3: How do you eliminate them?
Speaker 2: Dude?
Speaker 3: What are you talk about? The front door. Who's what's brother,
Speaker 3: who's letting them in?
Speaker 12: Dude?
Speaker 3: Exactly, basket, I'm not letting him in, but yeah, they're
Speaker 3: getting in. She said this. This is a fact. Brother.
Speaker 3: There are people in my house right now having a
Speaker 3: role rumble.
Speaker 6: I just pictured the bel Air house.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, uh my, mint and mauv couch cushions
Speaker 3: strewn about the floor to provide padding in my ten
Speaker 3: almost and almost eight year olds pounding each other's head
Speaker 3: on the floor. I think, first of all, you've got
Speaker 3: more issues than just any kind of rumbling going on.
Speaker 6: It's sounds like a depth of murder.
Speaker 3: All the while the on duty referee is oblivious to
Speaker 3: the actor the action, much like the men in black
Speaker 3: and white shirts at professional matches. Professional matches, well nervous,
Speaker 3: I mean, black and white? Brother, what's going on? What's
Speaker 3: she getting at? Dude? Is a chocolate vanilla milkshake? Or what? Dude?
Speaker 3: Whoa ooh? Brother? Whoa black of white? What's going on?
Speaker 2: Way?
Speaker 3: He said it, well, he said it, black and white?
Speaker 2: Brother?
Speaker 3: What's going on?
Speaker 6: Exactly?
Speaker 3: Like you know, who's calling black and white? We're talking
Speaker 3: about balls and strikes like we're we're talking the police
Speaker 3: coming down, brother, Like, what's it is?
Speaker 6: Roddy Piper at Wrestlmingia six? Brother, I mean, what is this?
Speaker 3: And where are we getting at?
Speaker 2: Brother?
Speaker 3: What's the dos? Yet? I found myself in the midst
Speaker 3: of ten thousand big time wrestling fans at such as
Speaker 3: World Wrestling Entertainment, Royal Rumble at celend Arena, where I'd
Speaker 3: rather have been reading Jane When I'd rather have been
Speaker 3: reading Jane Austin. Stone called Jane Austin.
Speaker 6: It's like a woman's ripoff promotion in India in nineteen Dude,
Speaker 6: I love this like she had no choice, like they
Speaker 6: assigned her. I love the camp. I love We read
Speaker 6: from an article in Philly at live show. Remember this.
Speaker 6: It was the same thing. They sent a columnist to
Speaker 6: the Philly Mania ninety nine and she came back like
Speaker 6: with all of the fury and venom you could expect
Speaker 6: from like the female columnist in the city. You know
Speaker 6: whose job it is to look at this and just be.
Speaker 3: Like I would have rather been at home in the
Speaker 3: tub with a with a glass of wine and some
Speaker 3: candles and incense.
Speaker 6: We want you to really bring the perspective of somebody
Speaker 6: who's seeing taking this all in with without being necessarily
Speaker 6: a fan of it, but just observing the phenomenon.
Speaker 10: That it is.
Speaker 3: We want the female perspective, right right, We want some
Speaker 3: put your personality in there, but we need definitely have
Speaker 3: the female perspective and see what's going.
Speaker 6: On compared to your own life, you know, and don't
Speaker 6: be afraid to express your own thoughts about it. I
Speaker 6: think people love to read that stuff you represent, you know,
Speaker 6: the average woman in Fresno here.
Speaker 3: I think. However, as soon as a British gent in
Speaker 3: tails strutted into the ring to the music of clavichord,
Speaker 3: so she thinks, I guess. So I believe it's a
Speaker 3: harpsichord clavichord, but maybe it's a harp clavio chord. I
Speaker 3: don't know. I was hooked. This might not be so bad,
Speaker 3: I rationalized for getting that body slams contradict everything I
Speaker 3: teach my sons, like not communicating with fisties and feet.
Speaker 3: But perhaps there are some lessons to be learned in
Speaker 3: a wrestling ring too, I thought, while my seven year
Speaker 3: old booed and screamed quote, I hate you gold dust
Speaker 3: to a decidedly effeminate wrestler clad in gold, wearing a
Speaker 3: platinum wig and swishing into the ring.
Speaker 2: Quote.
Speaker 3: Now this is entertainment, remarked my classics professor husband. This
Speaker 3: is better. Now, this is entertainment. This is better than
Speaker 3: a la news. Well, I know he wasn't much of
Speaker 3: a champion, but yeah, but I digress back to rationalizations.
Speaker 3: A free for all with thirty wrestlers with an attitude
Speaker 3: attempting to throw each other out of a ring could teach,
Speaker 3: for instance, quote or no, this is number one. Good
Speaker 3: guys generally end up on top. Most matches pit good
Speaker 3: against evil. The rumble just throws the forces of good
Speaker 3: and bad into the ring all at once.
Speaker 6: We just want you to observe this phenomenon. You know,
Speaker 6: comment on what you see.
Speaker 3: What are the rules? What's this? How does it affect
Speaker 3: you know?
Speaker 6: You know, are there morals?
Speaker 3: You know? What's the morality play going on? Oh God,
Speaker 3: cheating doesn't pay. Even when evil overcomes, he's usually disqualified
Speaker 3: for cheating. He by the way, he not And you
Speaker 3: know evil is pronounced a he. Yes. Sometimes authority is
Speaker 3: weak and looks the other way. So you need to
Speaker 3: depend on your inner strength to do what's right during
Speaker 3: a rumble warm up tag team match, The Smoking Guns
Speaker 3: played by the rules despite the referees blindness, and still
Speaker 3: ended up the victors. If you hang onto the ropes
Speaker 3: long enough, you might just win. Seawn Michaels, known as
Speaker 3: the Heartbreak Kid and an obvious favorite of the fans,
Speaker 3: twisted and turned at least a dozen times on the ropes,
Speaker 3: only to hold on and become the champion.
Speaker 6: She couldn't tell the difference between the rules of a
Speaker 6: regular match and the Royal Rumbles.
Speaker 3: I guess not.
Speaker 6: She thinks you win matches and championships no less. Yeah, yep,
Speaker 6: apparently you imagine going to a Royal Rubble event and
Speaker 6: not being able to tell the difference between the Rumble
Speaker 6: match and all the rest.
Speaker 3: Of the matches. Now, wait a minute, how come they're
Speaker 3: not hitting each other? I don't understand. Talk about rest now, Mommy,
Speaker 3: they get tossed out? How come they're not being counted out?
Speaker 3: I think you know what? Honestly, the Royal Rumble is
Speaker 3: the one match that she knows the rules for, right, Like,
Speaker 3: she actually knows that one because she knows when I
Speaker 3: was a kid, Like she can remember when I was
Speaker 3: a kid, it was my favorite, right, So she kind
Speaker 3: of knows that one for sure. And last, but not least,
Speaker 3: it's better to be a good sport than to sucker
Speaker 3: punch the winner. After Michael's beat Big Daddy cool the
Speaker 3: big guy, I still hit him with a high five
Speaker 3: instead of a blow to the ribs. That's cool, okay,
Speaker 3: And one more okay, and one more thing looks can
Speaker 3: be deceiving. I snobbly assumed I'd prefer masterpiece theater, but
Speaker 3: there's a lot of fun theater in big time wrestling too.
Speaker 3: The Fresno Bee on the case, Jackie, I thought you
Speaker 3: knew that we knew each other. I'm sorry to say
Speaker 3: it's open get done.
Speaker 6: So was the Fresno Bee's coverage of the nineteen ninety
Speaker 6: six Royal Rumble. If that isn't like the ultimate exhibit
Speaker 6: of what you have had to deal with, and they
Speaker 6: can Ah, if you're gonna get coverage, it's gonna have
Speaker 6: all this shit in it, all these pot shots and
Speaker 6: Jarndice eyes and oh my god, it started as a
Speaker 6: shot and it ended with her observing with her classics
Speaker 6: professor husband that uh, you hold on to the ropes
Speaker 6: to win oh championship? And who was that person? That
Speaker 6: was holding ont of those ropes to win. It was
Speaker 6: Shawn Michaels. And were you ready for Shawn.
Speaker 3: Michaels to become a hulk Hogan back in ninety six
Speaker 3: rumble boss? Where we.
Speaker 11: I? I?
Speaker 3: I didn't. I was happy that he was a babyface,
Speaker 3: but I was still Diesel was my guy. He was
Speaker 3: gonna win the Rumble and it hurt my fucking soul. Yeah,
Speaker 3: when he got to be the last one and then
Speaker 3: get just so.
Speaker 6: You were still the frame of mind that like all
Speaker 6: roads lead back to Diesel getting the title. Oh yep,
Speaker 6: like I to.
Speaker 3: Me, to me, it made it to me. It's kind
Speaker 3: of It's so funny how you you know, you think
Speaker 3: in your mind like there's this like I felt the
Speaker 3: same way about Luger in the ninety five Rumble, Like
Speaker 3: he's going to win, right, he needs to win this.
Speaker 3: He's obviously the guy to win the championship. It's like,
Speaker 3: makes no sense, what are you talking about? You know,
Speaker 3: like if you took in ninety four ninety five, he
Speaker 3: was the guy to win a ninety five in your
Speaker 3: mind absolutely, because he was my whole Cogan still wow.
Speaker 6: You know, like he was he did nothing in the Wrestlemandia.
Speaker 3: It did nothing, nothing at all. I mean, he was
Speaker 3: he you know, like as I was waiting, I was
Speaker 3: like ready for him to win the Royal Rumble and
Speaker 3: you know, and then slaughter to Tonka and call it
Speaker 3: a day and then then you know, and then win
Speaker 3: the championship. Like obviously that's going to be the way
Speaker 3: they play it out. You know, who else are they
Speaker 3: going to fucking put over? Right? Nobody else feels like Cogan, No,
Speaker 3: not at all. And the same thing with Diesel, Like
Speaker 3: I I, you know, there might have been a part
Speaker 3: of me that that thought, you know, Sean Michaels was
Speaker 3: going to win. But man, I was like, to me,
Speaker 3: it just made sense that Diesel would win and he'd
Speaker 3: go after the championship. And in a weird way, part
Speaker 3: of me even thought that, uh, Diesel would win the
Speaker 3: next month's match, the cage the Cage match, and it
Speaker 3: would be Shawn Michaels versus uh, you know. To me,
Speaker 3: to me, it's it's kind of funny. Like of course,
Speaker 3: you look at it if you look at it differently,
Speaker 3: you look at Shawn Michaels and Brett Hart, they're the
Speaker 3: two they're the two best wrestlers in the company at
Speaker 3: the time, hands down, and so of course you want
Speaker 3: to see them go at it. But in my mind,
Speaker 3: I've already seen that. I saw it someer, I mean,
Speaker 3: even though I've already seen Diesel versus. But I'll tell
Speaker 3: you what the difference was. I'd never seen Diesel and
Speaker 3: Shawn Michaels actually may have been a WrestleMania, but I saw.
Speaker 3: I was like I saw Sean Michaels and Brett Hart.
Speaker 3: They did their thing.
Speaker 6: You didn't see Sean Michaels and Diesel may have been
Speaker 6: wrestled Mania the year before.
Speaker 3: They didn't an event Lawrence Taylormane event with bam Man Bigelow. Okay,
Speaker 3: So yeah, that's that's you know, to me, that's the rematch,
Speaker 3: not Shawn Michaels Brett Hart. Because also you know, in
Speaker 3: my mind too, it's it's so weird.
Speaker 6: It is weird.
Speaker 3: How I don't know, I feel like maybe I'm different
Speaker 3: to go along with the Jake the snake thing being
Speaker 3: a heel. It's like, to me, those things mattered more
Speaker 3: than they probably did to anybody else, right, Like to me,
Speaker 3: Shawn Michaels and Brett Hart feuded all summer ninety two.
Speaker 3: To me, that's a fucking has been. That's an old thing, Like,
Speaker 3: who wants to go back to that? I've seen it.
Speaker 3: To me, the ideas I've seen Shawn Michaels and Diesel once.
Speaker 3: I want to see it again. But now the story
Speaker 3: is different, you know, like I don't you know, don't
Speaker 3: I never I never thought of it, like Brett Hart
Speaker 3: and Shawn Michaels, like that was the big money matchup right.
Speaker 3: It always felt a little eh, okay, you say so
Speaker 3: so interesting.
Speaker 12: I know.
Speaker 6: It's weird, right, the things, the lenses we watch these
Speaker 6: matches through, you know, Like.
Speaker 3: I wonder how many people even thought of ninety two
Speaker 3: when ninety six rolled around. Probably nobody, nobody, just me,
Speaker 3: Probably because I'd watched those shows a million times, and
Speaker 3: I've watched my tapes of those shows a million times.
Speaker 6: That show once when had happened, Like, there's no way
Speaker 6: that occurs to you four years later.
Speaker 3: Right, But I watched, I watched the SURVIVIORCE series I
Speaker 3: need to a million times. I watched, you know, and
Speaker 3: I watched my my recorded you know, the the vhs
Speaker 3: that i'd recorded all my my weekly television on that
Speaker 3: I just recorded like maybe two or three weeks worth.
Speaker 3: Like that's with the with the Saturday Night's main event.
Speaker 3: I'd watched it a million million times and it was
Speaker 3: and so I'd seen, you know, coming up with the
Speaker 3: Boston Garden Shawn Michaels versus Brett Hart for the Inconnaal Championship.
Speaker 3: So in my mind, that's the thing that's been said
Speaker 3: over and over and over and over again. So like
Speaker 3: to me, that few just like was non NonStop, and
Speaker 3: so it's like it's it's it's old to me and
Speaker 3: it's funny. But the next year it's all different. I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 3: these guys fucking gotta go again. But yeah, it's weird.
Speaker 6: Well, Sean is a regard Sewan and where he was at,
Speaker 6: and we've probably read from this excerpt from his first
Speaker 6: book many times, but man, if the Royalm in nine
Speaker 6: ninety six and his victory there doesn't put us right
Speaker 6: in that vortex. If Sewan becoming the guy, I don't
Speaker 6: know what show it would be. We're certainly for something.
Speaker 6: Twelve is so deeply in our past at this point,
Speaker 6: we weren't even on the tip of like necessarily reading
Speaker 6: from the books and stuff back then. Yeah, right, so
Speaker 6: let's set it up here.
Speaker 2: He right.
Speaker 6: Sometime in the fall of nineteen ninety five, Vince decided
Speaker 6: to change course and Brett hartbeat Kevin for the World
Speaker 6: Rustling Federation Championship.
Speaker 3: It's RIBS series.
Speaker 6: You can tell I just watched this show because I
Speaker 6: say World Rustling Federation the way Sean does. I don't
Speaker 6: know why this happened. Business wasn't great, but it had
Speaker 6: picked up a little during Kevin's run. Maybe it was
Speaker 6: because WCW was coming on strong and Vince felt he
Speaker 6: needed to shake things up. They had Hogan and Savage,
Speaker 6: plus all their mainstays like Brick Flair. Eric Bischoff is
Speaker 6: running WW. When he decided to put on ww's Nitro
Speaker 6: opposite Raw for the first time, we had direct competition
Speaker 6: in our time slot. I'm sure Vince sents that he
Speaker 6: needed to do something. I know Vince didn't plan on
Speaker 6: keeping the title on Brett for long, because it was
Speaker 6: about that time that Vince told me he wanted me
Speaker 6: to beat Brett at WrestleMania twelve. So Sean saying as
Speaker 6: far out as the fall of ninety five, Boss that
Speaker 6: the yeow Vince thought we were both great wrestlers and
Speaker 6: that we could put on a heck of a show.
Speaker 6: He commented on how hard I had worked, how I
Speaker 6: earned and deserved the title. He also told me to
Speaker 6: keep it quiet. He still had to doctor Brett about it.
Speaker 6: He said, Brett will be fine, He'll do business. Brett's
Speaker 6: good about that. I felt great to know Vince thought
Speaker 6: so highly of me that I could be the man
Speaker 6: the company was going to go with. I wasn't going
Speaker 6: to do any celebrating yet. However, I'd been around long
Speaker 6: enough to know that anything can happen and that things
Speaker 6: could change in the blink of an eyelash. After Owen
Speaker 6: knocked me out, I took two months off from the
Speaker 6: ring and came back at the Royal Rumble. Anytime you
Speaker 6: take time off from TV, you come back fresh in
Speaker 6: the fans mines. This was important because I was now
Speaker 6: a babyface. My heroic comeback from post concussion syndrome insured that,
Speaker 6: and I needed the fans behind me. It was essential
Speaker 6: that I build up as much momentum as I quick
Speaker 6: as I could, as quickly as I could, I wasn't
Speaker 6: going to top last year's wire to wire win in
Speaker 6: the Brumble, but I had to win. Entered thirty two
Speaker 6: minutes into the match and won twenty five minutes later
Speaker 6: after super kicking Kevin out. But the win, I heared
Speaker 6: a title shot against Brett Hart. It was Vince who
Speaker 6: came up with the idea to go with the boyhood
Speaker 6: dream storyline for WrestleMania, and they certainly hit that hard
Speaker 6: on commentary on this show, don't they. Man, Vince brings
Speaker 6: his boy, Oh my god, twelve year old boy, blah
Speaker 6: blah blah oh, and that was like a story where
Speaker 6: he saw wrestling on TV for the first time when
Speaker 6: he was twelve. He remembers that he tells that story
Speaker 6: a bunch of times. He brought me one day and
Speaker 6: said he brought me in one day, Vince did and said,
Speaker 6: I want to tell your whole story, how you wanted
Speaker 6: to be a wrestler since you were twelve, your dream
Speaker 6: to be a champion, and all the ups and downs
Speaker 6: of your career to get to this point. There's nothing
Speaker 6: better than that. It's true, it's real, and we're on
Speaker 6: our way. What do you remember thinking about Brett Sean
Speaker 6: wentning back to back rumbles Dum that was a that
Speaker 6: was Ferstin's Hogan. Yeah, I how it feel.
Speaker 3: Um, it didn't bother me as much, Like that didn't
Speaker 3: really occur to me as much because so much had
Speaker 3: happened and changed since ninety five, you know, like he
Speaker 3: made a complete Yeah, it didn't really feel like it
Speaker 3: was Sean winning twice in a row because it was
Speaker 3: right exactly. It didn't. It felt different.
Speaker 1: It's a lap ball wrestling podcast, the wrestling podcast that
Speaker 1: knows the boys need their candy.
Speaker 3: It's the Lapsed Fan.
Speaker 1: He's the Lapsed Fan wrestling podcast with Jack and Carnaco
Speaker 1: and JP Soro.
Speaker 3: So, uh, you know, I I it didn't bother me.
Speaker 3: It didn't bother me that much. It didn't. It didn't
Speaker 3: even really I I don't even know. I mean, I know,
Speaker 3: I knew that it happened, but I don't know. Something else,
Speaker 3: something something about it just didn't. It just seemed like
Speaker 3: the same way like Hogan.
Speaker 6: It seemed like more than twelve months past between these
Speaker 6: two weeks exactly because it was such a drastic difference,
Speaker 6: because he went through the whole cycle of winning ninety five,
Speaker 6: losing WrestleMania, falling out with the IC title due to
Speaker 6: the concussion and them telling us as an audience he'd
Speaker 6: never wrestle again. So by the time he came back,
Speaker 6: it seemed like the Sewn that won the ninety five
Speaker 6: Rumble was ten years in the past. I really remember
Speaker 6: feeling that way about it at least. Yeah, and you know,
Speaker 6: for Shawn, he goes in a WrestleMania eleven. Clearly the
Speaker 6: fan favored against Diesel, and the fans want to see
Speaker 6: him win the title. Yeah, so they just fucking did
Speaker 6: it the next year. You know, that's pretty much the
Speaker 6: story there.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 6: We hear on the Rumble broadcast as well as on
Speaker 6: Monday Night Ron the week's leading into the show from
Speaker 6: a certain doctor, Jeffrey Hunger Boss.
Speaker 3: He's oh my god, oh my god. This guy provide
Speaker 3: us no.
Speaker 6: Shortage of medical updates and contradictory medical updates on Shawn Michaels.
Speaker 6: This guy went from appearing on television in the fall
Speaker 6: of nineteen ninety five telling us that Shawn Michaels should
Speaker 6: and should not, should not rather ever wrestle again due
Speaker 6: to the concussion, to telling us he's one hundred percent
Speaker 6: two months later and showing us that he's some in tiptop.
Speaker 3: Shape to enter the r A. What a great fucking
Speaker 3: doctor this guy is.
Speaker 6: And it got me wondering who is this guy? Yes,
Speaker 6: it's his deal and he shows up in the in
Speaker 6: the press a bit. This is an article from the
Speaker 6: Chino Champion. He's a doctor out of Chino, California from
Speaker 6: twenty oh one doct Jeff Unger Chino physician who takes
Speaker 6: away the hurt from World Wrestling Foundation patients.
Speaker 3: That's right, Ustas Foundation.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 6: It was featured apparently on KCOP channel thirteen this week
Speaker 6: for his work with the pro grapplers. Doctor Runger discussed
Speaker 6: the painful conditions brought on by the constant slamming and
Speaker 6: aggressive moves of the fighters. His Chino office walls, boss,
Speaker 6: you guessed it are covered with w W photographs to
Speaker 6: pick the wrestlers at their best. So he's the mark
Speaker 6: doctor on the West coast.
Speaker 3: You know. That's fucking hilarious.
Speaker 6: Not to suggest he's doing anything he shouldn't, but he's
Speaker 6: definitely a guy the wrestlers can count on for perhaps
Speaker 6: some uh candy, favorable treatment, some Halloween candy. If there's
Speaker 6: a wrestler I need to go to to tell me
Speaker 6: that despite my concussion at the hands of a series
Speaker 6: of marines beating my ass in Syracuse, I should still
Speaker 6: be able to oh my god. But it's just I
Speaker 6: love the fact that there are these doctors around the
Speaker 6: country that they can count on to say whatever needs
Speaker 6: to be said on television. That it never concurs to
Speaker 6: these doctors that maybe it's sent or not a little
Speaker 6: unethical to.
Speaker 3: But you're being an actor. It's you're not giving a
Speaker 3: true diagnosis. It's just it's a it's a it's a part.
Speaker 3: You're playing a character. Yeah, very different. I want to
Speaker 3: do it. You want to be on TV? I thoughts
Speaker 3: you want to be you want to be an actor.
Speaker 3: I thought I saw that spark in your eye, you know,
Speaker 3: I saw a little twinkle, a little twinkle going on,
Speaker 3: and I said, this guy, this is the guy we
Speaker 3: need that television. That's right, you know, I mean twinkles
Speaker 3: put smiles on faces. And I can tell you have
Speaker 3: that desire turned out talk to desire for Smileage.
Speaker 6: Had been at it for for quite a while with
Speaker 6: the WWF. Here's an article, boss, if you could please
Speaker 6: gale the solar system. You've got three pages there, the
Speaker 6: beginning of the article on the end from the Chino Champion,
Speaker 6: the forementioned paper in Chino, California. It's from nineteen ninety
Speaker 6: and it's going to get us acquainted with this doctor
Speaker 6: Jeff Hunger character we see during the nineteen ninety six
Speaker 6: Royal Rumble broadcast okay, which by the way, of course,
Speaker 6: begins with sunt.
Speaker 3: I know he got a great, I mean quite a
Speaker 3: great intro package, so wonderful. It's the way it should be.
Speaker 6: That sound and the you know, watching this show a
Speaker 6: million times is probably why that's burned into my mind,
Speaker 6: as well as the ultimate course WWE pre show package
Speaker 6: theme and if the you know, if life are fair guy, Yeah,
Speaker 6: they get the voice over to it's all black and.
Speaker 3: White, yeap Champion, stuff like that, because that is up.
Speaker 3: Just call him the pro wrestling doc. Yep, the massive
Speaker 3: professional wrestler towers over the Chino physician. Quote.
Speaker 6: We need to draw blood, says the doctor.
Speaker 3: Oh, the doctor, not the wrestler. Okay, says the doctor.
Speaker 3: Looking at the giant of a man he's examining. Suddenly
Speaker 3: the size differential doesn't seems almost non existent, and all
Speaker 3: of a sudden, the giant of a man takes out
Speaker 3: a razorblade.
Speaker 6: Yeah, it's funny because you got the doctor telling the wrestler,
Speaker 6: we need to draw blood, whereas at the nineteen ninety
Speaker 6: nine Halloween Haavoc it was Sid telling the doctor that.
Speaker 3: And also I imagine Vince Russo telling Sid that you
Speaker 3: need the blood to draw.
Speaker 2: Exactly.
Speaker 6: Yeah, you know, all kinds of fun with that one.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Suddenly the size differential seems almost non existent. If
Speaker 3: this were in the ring, the doctor Jeff Unger would
Speaker 3: probably be cracked across the face with a forearm smash,
Speaker 3: slammed onto the mat bi a ultrasuplex. What now, a
Speaker 3: ultra supplex not even fucking right grammar. There should be
Speaker 3: an ultrasuplex, but it's a ultrasuplex. Then, when placed in
Speaker 3: the grips of the agonizing figure four, leg Lock forced
Speaker 3: to give up all hopes of sticking the.
Speaker 6: Sky with a needle.
Speaker 3: That man, I mean, I think you listen, those hopes
Speaker 3: are always there, exactly, but they're not in the famed
Speaker 3: squared circle of the Worldlessing Entertainment. The two are backstage
Speaker 3: at the Los Angeles Sports Arena, where doctor Unger, not
Speaker 3: doctor Deaf, is in charge. I didn't know Steve Williams
Speaker 3: was there, pointing to a chair where his assistant Angie Acosta,
Speaker 3: sounds like a wrestling name. Yeah, honestly, or Angie the Acosta,
Speaker 3: I suppose.
Speaker 6: Like somebody on the unlike the drive time hip hop station.
Speaker 6: Yes place he plays the.
Speaker 2: Plea in the heads w do do do do do?
Speaker 2: Do do doo?
Speaker 3: So good?
Speaker 6: Uh is waiting needle in hand?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Wow?
Speaker 6: Do they really let the reporter of the room for this?
Speaker 3: I know, seriously. Doctor Hunger signs the papers that will
Speaker 3: allow the wrestler to go on tonight, assuming everything checks
Speaker 3: out okay in his blood test and other parts of
Speaker 3: his physical Meanwhile, on the other side of the room,
Speaker 3: another towering pro wrestler is talking to Doctor Hunger's colleague,
Speaker 3: butch or Tease, a physical therapist. The wrestler is asking
Speaker 3: advice for about his aching back. Mister Ortiz of the
Speaker 3: Restorative Heel health Care Services in che Gino reminds him
Speaker 3: that because he is so built up in the ches
Speaker 3: his chest, he tends to walk slumped over. That, says
Speaker 3: mister Ortiz, causes straining the lower back. He should try
Speaker 3: to walk straight up with his shoulders back. The wrestler smiles,
Speaker 3: but wonders aloud what people would think of a guy
Speaker 3: walking around that way, Coming from a man who struts
Speaker 3: around the ring, especially after leaving an opponent unconscious with
Speaker 3: one of his trademarks, the quote sleeper hold, it seems
Speaker 3: out of character. Another wrestler walks in the room, coming
Speaker 3: to pick up a knee brace for his evening's match.
Speaker 3: He steps, He stops and talks for a few seconds
Speaker 3: with the other wrestler and may share a laugh or two.
Speaker 3: An hour later, they are in old please brother, whoa dude?
Speaker 2: Whoa?
Speaker 3: What are they?
Speaker 12: Are?
Speaker 6: They in the ring bashing in each other's heads on
Speaker 6: furious hatred. So justin this is fake, by the.
Speaker 3: Way, I can't imagine they are. Yes, they are bashing.
Speaker 3: They are in the ring, bashing in each other's heads
Speaker 3: with furious hatred. One by one they all come in
Speaker 3: this night to visit the Doctor from Chino and his crew.
Speaker 3: There's Dusty Rhodes, also known as the American Dream, on
Speaker 3: the wrestling car tonight. He's to meet Macho King Randy Savage,
Speaker 3: whose voice is really as raspy as it appears on television.
Speaker 3: The Big Boss Man is there, along with a million
Speaker 3: dollars and Teddy Bias, who, although uh a villain in
Speaker 3: the ring, displays an easy laugh and is clearly a
Speaker 3: gentleman when not stuffing one hundred dollars bills down the
Speaker 3: throats of fallen opponents. Right, the Tag Team's Demolition featuring
Speaker 3: Axe and Smash and the Heart Foundation made up of
Speaker 3: Jim the Anvil, Knightheart and Brett Hitman Heart come trumping in,
Speaker 3: tramping in for their physicals. The stage names are colorful.
Speaker 3: The men are tremendous physical specimens. Many former college and
Speaker 3: pro football players have changed who have changed professions. They
Speaker 3: are massive giants, all arms the size of normal man's legs.
Speaker 3: But they all have to come to Chino's Doctor Unger,
Speaker 3: who will give them the ok to go on. After all,
Speaker 3: Doctor Unger is the pro wrestling doc. Just check out
Speaker 3: his car's license plate. It reads w W E d
Speaker 3: O c ah. He's a Mark doc. He is, He's
Speaker 3: He's no better than a fucking.
Speaker 6: Geors oriens orion doc Hollywood over here.
Speaker 2: Mm hmm.
Speaker 6: So why are all these giant men coming to a
Speaker 6: Chino doctor for medical treatment?
Speaker 3: Steroids not there. It all started when a young boy
Speaker 3: was growing up in the Midwest and watching a lot
Speaker 3: of wrestling on television. Yep, young Jeff Hunger, not yet
Speaker 3: old enough to follow in his father's footsteps into medicine,
Speaker 3: found himself captivated by Dick the Bruiser, Verne Gagney and
Speaker 3: other stars.
Speaker 6: Of the match.
Speaker 3: I admired these men, Yes, I admired uh Dick the
Speaker 3: Bruiser and Verne Gagney poked on wrestling. He maintained his
Speaker 3: passion for it when he relocated uh on the West
Speaker 3: Coast to open a medical practice in Chino. He went
Speaker 3: to the matches when he could, but what he really
Speaker 3: wanted was to be a par tisssi pen. Yes, wanted
Speaker 3: to be a par tis uh pen. That seems to
Speaker 3: be they the doctor uh challenge here, Like that's the problem.
Speaker 3: That's right. They want to participate, That's right.
Speaker 6: They can and the business can smell you coming a
Speaker 6: mile away.
Speaker 3: Yep.
Speaker 6: That's why to this day it's like, oh, this guy's
Speaker 6: a fan, Like, maybe we can work them. You know,
Speaker 6: we already have the leg up.
Speaker 3: He takes us. You know, he sees this as actual celebrities.
Speaker 3: Well what do you mean, leg up?
Speaker 2: Brother?
Speaker 17: Right?
Speaker 6: Sorry, So now the games are just beginning, doctor doctor
Speaker 6: Jeff Funger Jazz.
Speaker 3: He wrote to all the wrestling federations, there are many
Speaker 3: across the country until you finally get a shot to
Speaker 3: help out or to what is it? Yeah, help out?
Speaker 3: Help out? Try to help out with the world wisting
Speaker 3: entertainment balancing his private practice. He is a respected physician
Speaker 3: in Chino and one of the founders of the Chino
Speaker 3: Medical Group next to Chino Community Hospital. How many fucking
Speaker 3: times we need to say Chino, what his fucking West
Speaker 3: Side story? Jesus Christ with with uh, you know, with
Speaker 3: working with wrestling. He kept his ties with the w
Speaker 3: W until he finally got his big break. It was
Speaker 3: less than two years ago when the main w W
Speaker 3: doctor announced his retirement, giving doctor Unger.
Speaker 2: The opening he was waiting.
Speaker 3: M was it a Jorge was a horr um quote.
Speaker 3: When I got the call and was asked to work
Speaker 3: with the WWE, it was the happiest day of my life.
Speaker 3: He recalls. His wife was very sad. His wife Lisa,
Speaker 3: who accompanies him to the matches a recent one, just
Speaker 3: a couple of weeks ago after giving birth to their child.
Speaker 3: Look at us all, this ship is not the happiest
Speaker 3: day of his life. He has a kid, he has
Speaker 3: a wife. Neither are make him as happy as the
Speaker 3: call he got from the day. Yep confirms his his sentiments,
Speaker 3: but admits she also has been won over. Quote. I
Speaker 3: thought it was stupid, she says, remembering when used to
Speaker 3: go on dates to the wrestling matches. I only went
Speaker 3: because I wanted to be with Jeff. Now listen, honey,
Speaker 3: why did you want to be with him after taking
Speaker 3: you this ship? I never took my wife to any
Speaker 3: of this ship. I tried once she was She would
Speaker 3: have one time, but then I ended up having a
Speaker 3: show and I couldn't take her to WrestleMania. I was
Speaker 3: gonna take her to Arizona to Phoenix, you see, because
Speaker 3: I was really close and we were about to go,
Speaker 3: but then I had a show that weekend and we
Speaker 3: wouldn't have made it. She totally did. She's always been
Speaker 3: thrilled about that, but she would have gone. Now she
Speaker 3: loves it. And when he packs up his van with
Speaker 3: his I'D equipment and assisted, that'd be the ww doc van,
Speaker 3: the pro wrestling doc.
Speaker 6: Hey doc, what do you got for me?
Speaker 2: Pal?
Speaker 3: She is right there an enthusiastic as can be. They
Speaker 3: make a good team, and professional wrestling needs needs men
Speaker 3: like doctor.
Speaker 6: There's a pregnant sentence.
Speaker 3: Why Because most days, including California, no longer classify pro
Speaker 3: wrestling as an official sport. The stars aren't required to
Speaker 3: meet the stiff medical demands of the National Football League
Speaker 3: or Major League Baseball. However, although they are not participating
Speaker 3: in a real sport, they are performing tremendously demanding physical ass. No,
Speaker 3: the punches aren't thrown with full power, but that doesn't
Speaker 3: mean the wrestlers aren't taking a beating. When Big Boss
Speaker 3: Man slams Ted Dbioski to the mat and jumps on
Speaker 3: him with all three hundred and fifty plus pounds landing
Speaker 3: on Debiassi's chest, that can take its toll. They may
Speaker 3: not be meeting an athletic competition, but their profession is
Speaker 3: unquestionably athletic. Is wrestling fake? There is nothing fake about
Speaker 3: jumping Jim Brenzel. Actually total iyes a total fucking bullshit
Speaker 3: right there. Yeah, I actually love to tell you something. Yeah,
Speaker 3: there's nothing thinking about jumping Jim Brenzel climbing to the
Speaker 3: top rope and leaping off, completely flipping over while he
Speaker 3: does it. That takes tremendous athletic skill, and athletes like
Speaker 3: pro wrestlers need to turn to medical team to a
Speaker 3: medical team to keep them able to come back again
Speaker 3: and again. That's where doctor Hunger comes in. He is
Speaker 3: the official doctor for the Worldssing Entertainment and he soon
Speaker 3: may be contracted to some others, including Ted Turner's group
Speaker 3: that feature stars Rick Ri, C k Flair and Sting. Yes,
Speaker 3: even Hulkogan has to get the medical approval from Doctor
Speaker 3: Unger before he can try to win back his World
Speaker 3: Champion belt from The Ultimate Warrior. What a weird wain
Speaker 3: to in this article? Uh, con Colb Russell Warren talk,
Speaker 3: are you booking? Are you booking them? Are you booking
Speaker 3: the finish? Dude?
Speaker 12: Right?
Speaker 3: They told me to come see you on the fetish,
Speaker 3: They said, brother, talk to you about the fish. Due
Speaker 3: you book the finish? Huh huh. By the way, at
Speaker 3: the Mister Texan Restaurant on Riverside Drive and Chino, one
Speaker 3: of the breakfast specials two pork chops, hash browns, two
Speaker 3: eggs for four fifty five and then you could have
Speaker 3: a shrimp omelet with rice and beans for five to fifty.
Speaker 3: That sounds vile. I'll tell you there's one thing. I mean, listen,
Speaker 3: I don't I'm not much of a fish person anyway,
Speaker 3: but fish and eggs. No fish and cheese, you know, yeah, exactly,
Speaker 3: I mean, but fish eggs. I mean, fish and eggs
Speaker 3: is not a thing. I'm sorry. You just can't do that.
Speaker 3: Steaking eggs a good price, staking eggs for twenty five,
Speaker 3: that's good.
Speaker 2: I had you know.
Speaker 6: I hate it when they put scrambled eggs on a salmon,
Speaker 6: like a salmon sandwich.
Speaker 2: I hate.
Speaker 6: Oh god, there's some places that like insist on I'm like, dude, no,
Speaker 6: you don't how I mean?
Speaker 3: That just sounds awful?
Speaker 10: Is it?
Speaker 3: That sounds disgusting?
Speaker 11: It is.
Speaker 3: It's horrible, like hot eggs on fish. It just does
Speaker 3: not sound okay, all.
Speaker 6: Right, dancing off the cold rubbery salmon. It's not working
Speaker 6: for me. Pal, just fucked this whole thing up. Locks, bread, capers, onions, tomato, exactly, simple,
Speaker 6: exactly what are you putting eggs on there?
Speaker 12: For?
Speaker 3: What the fuck is this? Listen? You got enough protein
Speaker 3: with the fucking salmon.
Speaker 6: I'm so you know, I'm already down on the eggs.
Speaker 6: Almost every bagel place puts on the sand It's like,
Speaker 6: you know, it's hardly ever a fried egg properly done.
Speaker 6: It's always stupid fucking pre pre package.
Speaker 3: Like, yeah, I agree, out of a Let me tell
Speaker 3: you something. I'll be honest with you. There's only one place.
Speaker 3: There's only one bagel place that I had that it's
Speaker 3: in It's uh, I remember, but it's in Hoboken and
Speaker 3: it's on the main drag there.
Speaker 2: And they they they.
Speaker 3: Not only was it not a freshly fried egg, it
Speaker 3: was microwaved. Which listen, man, I'm telling you, normally I
Speaker 3: do not respect it. But whatever they do to it,
Speaker 3: really it is one of the best fucking breakfast sandwiches
Speaker 3: in the planet.
Speaker 6: It's just so amazing to me how how hard it
Speaker 6: is to find people that do it right, because it's
Speaker 6: so easy, it's so obvious how to do it right.
Speaker 6: It must be too expensive or something.
Speaker 3: But I get like a little one, Well, I mean
Speaker 3: you got to have because then you got to have
Speaker 3: a you know, like you got to have all that
Speaker 3: like a big thing going on in the back. You
Speaker 3: gotta have a big griddle going on too much, you know,
Speaker 3: and I and and that's that's got to be expensive,
Speaker 3: especially when you know, it takes a long time for
Speaker 3: those things that heat up to to a proper respect it.
Speaker 6: There's just places that do it like it's like every
Speaker 6: place does one of the ingredients right, but no one
Speaker 6: seems to be able to do all of them right.
Speaker 3: Very rare exceptions.
Speaker 6: Panera used to get it kind of right with a
Speaker 6: bit of a runny egg and then they fucked everything up.
Speaker 6: It's so weird, the what And I'm a white cheddar guy.
Speaker 6: I know that's supposed to be fucking sacrilegious, but to me,
Speaker 6: like it elevates the sandwich so much.
Speaker 3: I mean, I'll tell you that there's a place. There's
Speaker 3: a place in Waterbury Ammi's crispy bagels. Oh fuck you,
Speaker 3: I'm gonna tell you what are you doing. I'm gonna
Speaker 3: tell you. Yeah, well I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna
Speaker 3: do it hard. So they first of all, their bagels
Speaker 3: are are just unreal because and they're they're really a
Speaker 3: miracle of of culinary cuisine or arts or whatever. Because
Speaker 3: when you look at them, you look to your you
Speaker 3: see yourself. These are not gonna taste very good, right,
Speaker 3: Like they don't look at they have enough stuff on
Speaker 3: them to create flavor. But man, yes, like because the
Speaker 3: everything bagel you go to some place of everything bagels
Speaker 3: like loaded, Like literally everything is like plastered on that bagel, right,
Speaker 3: they got so little I'm in everything bagel, yet it
Speaker 3: is the most flavorful everything bagel in on the planet. Sausage, egg,
Speaker 3: and cheese from that place is just it's it's it's
Speaker 3: handed down to you from God himself. Yes, it's one
Speaker 3: of the absolute best.
Speaker 6: I don't know if I've ever made this clear on
Speaker 6: the air before, but you know, we talk about it's
Speaker 6: all about food, and that's true, folks, It's all about
Speaker 6: breakfast sandwiches. I don't know if we realize that this
Speaker 6: is pretty much the only food you really need. Like,
Speaker 6: if you time a breakfast sandwich, right, you don't need
Speaker 6: to eat anything else until like eight o'clock at night.
Speaker 3: Oh, it's so true.
Speaker 6: It's economically true. It's delicious, it has a lot of
Speaker 6: protein depending on what you get on it, and it
Speaker 6: might not even be that bad from a carbs perspective
Speaker 6: as far as you get it on.
Speaker 3: But it's like it's basically it's life. Listen. I used
Speaker 3: to go when I was when I was driving New
Speaker 3: York for King of the Jews. I was going to
Speaker 3: you know, many times I would go to a bagel
Speaker 3: place on the way for sure, Like it was just
Speaker 3: it was it was going down because it's just it's
Speaker 3: it's what's needed. It's what's needed.
Speaker 6: Keep calm and have a bagel. Yeah right, I mean
Speaker 6: that's life.
Speaker 3: And if you can find a place who does and
Speaker 3: an exquisite breakfast burrito, your you're golden. Sure.
Speaker 10: Sure.
Speaker 6: The breakfast burrito is a very it's a hard thing
Speaker 6: to master. I mean that's very Yeah, it's very risky.
Speaker 6: It's almost definitely going to disappoint. But you have to
Speaker 6: you really have to find Yeah, there there is a
Speaker 6: there like you because you're already talking about those fluffy
Speaker 6: scrambled eggs that will come out of a right, a
Speaker 6: prepackaged thing that you need.
Speaker 3: You need to have somebody like it's gotta be a
Speaker 3: crumbly too crumbly not good right, No, no, because you
Speaker 3: have to have a griddle because you have to have
Speaker 3: fresh eggs and they need to be cooked with the potatoes.
Speaker 3: I see, that's the requirement. They need to be cooked
Speaker 3: in like this is I'll tell you, I know this.
Speaker 3: I make them, and I make a damn good breakfast burrito.
Speaker 3: All right. You like you shred the potatoes. I don't.
Speaker 3: I don't buy the fucking pre shredded bullshit. I shred
Speaker 3: my own potatoes. I put them, you know, I put
Speaker 3: them make up basically like a like a hash brown.
Speaker 3: And that's when you throw in the egg and you
Speaker 3: mix it all together into a scramble. And then from
Speaker 3: there it's it's the mixture. And then you put on
Speaker 3: you know, bacon or whatever else you want and cheese
Speaker 3: on top of that, and then that becomes your insize
Speaker 3: and you roll it up and it's it's it's uh,
Speaker 3: it's an art it's an art form. I don't know.
Speaker 3: You know you lived in New York for years? Yeah,
Speaker 3: you know.
Speaker 6: I I came up on the Boston Bought bacon, egg
Speaker 6: and cheese ketchup.
Speaker 3: Never fuck that show? What is that about in New York?
Speaker 6: I know New York has the bacon, egg and cheese
Speaker 6: crown whatever, But dude, you put ketchup on that. Like,
Speaker 6: I don't get it, you know, you know, I I
Speaker 6: remember I was like, ketchup salt pepper. I'm like, no, yeah,
Speaker 6: ketch of salt pepper. No, I'm like, no, sure, why do.
Speaker 3: You want ketchup? Ketchup overwhelms everything, Ketchup makes everything taste
Speaker 3: the same, that is on everything Ketchup. I don't. I
Speaker 3: just don't underst and catch up and eggs, Oh, like,
Speaker 3: why what is the deal with ketchup and egg Someone
Speaker 3: tell me what is like, honestly, honestly, like it's kind
Speaker 3: of childish. Honestly you're gonna be taken out back and
Speaker 3: be Yeah, if you, if you, if you decide to
Speaker 3: do that, like seriously, it could be totally wrong. But
Speaker 3: I just don't know. I mean, I I can't even
Speaker 3: I mean, the smell of it. I mean, I've been
Speaker 3: with people who eat it. I've been with people who
Speaker 3: eat it, and I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, no,
Speaker 3: this is not okay. And something's wrong with you for
Speaker 3: even like for for for doing this in public, all right,
Speaker 3: Like that's I mean, I guess I should show you
Speaker 3: some respect for having the ball to do that. But man,
Speaker 3: it's just it's an insult to anybody who eats food. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I agree, it's awful. Yeah, I'll tell you what I mean.
Speaker 3: I don't, I'm I don't know if I've ever seen
Speaker 3: anybody who's actually taken the ketchup. When I see a
Speaker 3: video this.
Speaker 6: All the time, like New Yorkers and talking about bacon,
Speaker 6: egg and cheese, you got to have.
Speaker 3: I I've never no fuck that, I've never been in.
Speaker 3: I've never actually seen someone take that and actually say, Okay,
Speaker 3: I've seen salt and pepper, that's fine.
Speaker 6: Putting spread on a bacon, egg and cheese, like actually
Speaker 6: having cream cheese on a bacon, egg and cheese. I'm
Speaker 6: not with that.
Speaker 3: You know, I've had it. It's great, it's fine.
Speaker 6: If I had another podcast, it would just be about bacon,
Speaker 6: egg and cheese.
Speaker 3: Way to go. I swear to that. You can talk
Speaker 3: and talk about a million different breakfast sandwiches. It's uh,
Speaker 3: it's fine if you're looking for that particular flavor. It's
Speaker 3: not hot sauce, I mean, and not people. No, no, no, listen.
Speaker 6: I'm I'm very very simple, trying to make your bacon,
Speaker 6: egg and cheese taste like everything else you eat.
Speaker 3: Sometimes I do listen. Sometimes I like to indulge a
Speaker 3: little bit sometimes baking breakfast sandwich. But it's totally it's
Speaker 3: it's not core to if you're if you're going to
Speaker 3: certain places that have crazy ass breakfast sandwiches. I'm fine
Speaker 3: with it. But if I want, like from a day
Speaker 3: to day thing, I'm not like, there's a there's a
Speaker 3: place I've gotten where you get like you get you
Speaker 3: can you get. It's like a I've had an Irish
Speaker 3: breakfast sandwich where it's corn beef, a hash brown egg, cheese,
Speaker 3: and some kind of sauce and it's like, yeah, it's excellent,
Speaker 3: it's very good. But that's not an everyday thing. That's
Speaker 3: like a special indulgence. If I'm everyday thing is a sausage,
Speaker 3: egg and cheese and a toasted everything bagel.
Speaker 6: Yeap, done, hands down. And you go for cheddar.
Speaker 3: Fine, I think that's a pussy move, old fashioned government
Speaker 3: cheese my opinion, but I understand. I respect the cheese choice.
Speaker 3: You do your own cheese choice. My dad, he hates
Speaker 3: American cheese, absolutely hate. He's Communist, for God's sake, hates
Speaker 3: American but he he likes, he prefers cheddar. I love.
Speaker 3: I mean, to me, it's the salty creaminess of American
Speaker 3: cheese that makes a breakfast sandwich.
Speaker 6: But I totally get it. And uh, but yeah, like
Speaker 6: I I again every now and again, but I have to.
Speaker 3: Like be in the mood for it. See breakfast sandwich
Speaker 3: not not like not in everyday thing. It's like, hey,
Speaker 3: let's get a bagel sandwich, and you know, go get
Speaker 3: a bagel sandwich from fucking amies. I'm not gonna get
Speaker 3: a fancy thing. I want to get married. I want
Speaker 3: to get what is miraculous. Miraculous, you know.
Speaker 6: And to think about white cheddar to me on a
Speaker 6: breakfast sandwich is that the only time I've had it
Speaker 6: is places that start out with it and then drop
Speaker 6: it because it's too expensive. I would imagine, because it's
Speaker 6: just like, oh god, if I only found a place
Speaker 6: that does it like an adult and that instead of essentially,
Speaker 6: you know, I haven't grown out of Kraft mac and
Speaker 6: cheese yet, and so and then it disappears in favor
Speaker 6: of yellow cheese inevitably every time, and you know it's
Speaker 6: a yellow cheddar. I don't know, it's just yellow. So
Speaker 6: I just kind of stop caring about whether it's cheadar.
Speaker 3: I understand it could be yellow cheddar.
Speaker 6: It could be, yeah, it could well be.
Speaker 3: But there is something I will say about white cheddar
Speaker 3: is much different. Have you heard of a concept place
Speaker 3: called egg Tuck? No, it's all right. I was very disappointed.
Speaker 6: I was very excited to try it because I thought
Speaker 6: it was like, oh, this is going to be the
Speaker 6: chain place that makes like really flavorful breakfast sandwiches that
Speaker 6: it will come everywhere. They're they're expanding quickly.
Speaker 3: But one of the things that I'm not a fan of,
Speaker 3: and and they're pretty common, but are the breakfast sandwiches
Speaker 3: on hard rolls? Not fan no, not a fan. No,
Speaker 3: they got to be on Bible, you know.
Speaker 6: And and or an English muffin. I'm not against Themish muffin.
Speaker 6: And I've had some delicious ones on English muffins, but
Speaker 6: it doesn't you need the half and you need the seeds,
Speaker 6: totally salt that bagel.
Speaker 3: Totally play. I mean, i mean, look, the bagel is
Speaker 3: the king. But you know, like they there's the store
Speaker 3: near my parents' house. They make fucking badass bacon and
Speaker 3: cheese on on on your fucking demulis not even not
Speaker 3: Thomas EnGIS Muss Demolis English muffins, and it's like it's
Speaker 3: just heavenly. They fucking you know, grill the bagel, which
Speaker 3: those you know, it's very funny. That's really a bagel
Speaker 3: means one thing in New England and nowhere else because grilling.
Speaker 3: I remember I ordered I wanted a grilled id for
Speaker 3: a grilled English muffin at a diner in LA and
Speaker 3: they put it on a grill, which what a grilled
Speaker 3: English muffin actually is is the English muffin is slathered
Speaker 3: with butter and then you put on the griddle until
Speaker 3: it creates this incredible magical hard crust on the meat
Speaker 3: side of the English muffin and then you know, the
Speaker 3: the the outside is like this soft, fluffy miracle. And
Speaker 3: it's like, that's a New England thing, and nobody, at
Speaker 3: least I've only seen in New England other places where
Speaker 3: I've tried to order it, like they don't fucking know
Speaker 3: what I'm talking about.
Speaker 6: Ask question, Yes, alvocado and bacon, egg and cheese.
Speaker 3: Depends. Yep.
Speaker 6: I've had some wonderful ones I've had sometimes.
Speaker 3: You know, again, if I'm feeling if I'm feeling kind
Speaker 3: of like I need something a little bit more, bacon,
Speaker 3: egg and cheese with tomato and avocado is amazing. Tomato
Speaker 3: is bold, it is, but it works sometimes but again
Speaker 3: not an everyday thing. Well, I can pretty much say
Speaker 3: reliably I could do a sausage, egg and cheese on
Speaker 3: a toasted everything every day and be fine. I don't
Speaker 3: because you know that would kill me. But I can
Speaker 3: want it. I can, I could do it, and it's
Speaker 3: so true.
Speaker 6: I remember one of the places I used to go
Speaker 6: to that like a sign about like how it's actually
Speaker 6: good for you. It was like, fuck, yeah, man, let
Speaker 6: me make a couple of motherfucker please. Yeah, let me
Speaker 6: send it to my doctor please.
Speaker 3: See.
Speaker 6: Look, thank god I didn't have a bagel today. Let
Speaker 6: me have a pizza. Yea, what the fuck right?
Speaker 3: Thank god I didn't have a bagel. Let me get
Speaker 3: a triple cheeseburger.
Speaker 6: Oh you enjoy bagel? See that's the problem. That's why
Speaker 6: you die. It's like, right, exactly if you if you
Speaker 6: eat it because.
Speaker 3: You don't like it, then you're okay. If I want
Speaker 3: to please your.
Speaker 6: You only eat things you don't enjoy. Everybody, you tricked
Speaker 6: yourself into enjoying a spoonful of peanut butter, and that's it.
Speaker 3: Talk. I ate a fucking bagel today. It was so hard,
Speaker 3: it was so difficult.
Speaker 6: I did not want to eat it. I want to
Speaker 6: kill myself now. So yeah, that's these are important things exactly,
Speaker 6: liking egg and cheese. Uh, suggestions welcome.
Speaker 3: And yeah, I'll be very curious see what people talk
Speaker 3: about with like breakfast sandwich is what they like?
Speaker 6: Hunt always fast, hunt it down. I will hunt it down.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 6: So that's doctor Jeffrey Younger. And thankfully that profile from
Speaker 6: nineteen ninety was on a page with pork chops and eggs.
Speaker 3: Pork chops and fucking shrimp omelets. That so fortunate was
Speaker 3: it sent is on the right path. But nonetheless, so.
Speaker 6: How did they tell this whole story around Sean getting
Speaker 6: the concussion and being so inspiring that he comes back
Speaker 6: for the Rumble ninety six? This excerpt from WWF television
Speaker 6: at the time, I think tells the story.
Speaker 2: Well.
Speaker 18: This past weekend, I went to the Chino Medical Center
Speaker 18: just outside of Las Ane Willis, California, looking for Shawn
Speaker 18: Michael's personal physician, doctor Jeffrey Hunger. After what happened a
Speaker 18: couple of weeks ago on Raw everyone has been concerned
Speaker 18: about the health and future of Shawn Michaels, especially Dr Runger.
Speaker 15: When I was at home watching Monday Night Raw with
Speaker 15: my wife and I saw this. I was terrified for Sean.
Speaker 15: I was one to send him back to the ring
Speaker 15: in the first place, and I thought that Sean was
Speaker 15: seriously injured at that time.
Speaker 3: And he wasn't the only one.
Speaker 18: Sean was in control of his match with ollen Hart.
Speaker 18: Victory seemed to be at hand, and then we witnessed
Speaker 18: the longest five seconds in World Wrestling Federation history. Shawn
Speaker 18: Michaels collapsed to the canvas and we later found out
Speaker 18: Sean was suffering from post concussion syndrome.
Speaker 15: In the United States, annually, there's about four million patients
Speaker 15: suffered from some type of head trauma. As a result
Speaker 15: of the head trauma, about half these patients developed a
Speaker 15: syndrome which includes problems such as ringing the ears, nausea, vomiting, headache,
Speaker 15: blurred vision, different problems such as this in their hands
Speaker 15: and feed forgetfulness and ability to concentrate. They can lose
Speaker 15: their direction and this becomes a problem because these patients
Speaker 15: tend to get frustrated. They get depressed as well, they
Speaker 15: have sleep disturbances and all this persists for between two
Speaker 15: weeks to several months. However, there's a group of patients
Speaker 15: that may go up to three years before they show
Speaker 15: any improvement, and these patients usually have a very poor
Speaker 15: prognosis and they don't seem to get better at all.
Speaker 18: I asked the doctor about Shawn's current test results.
Speaker 15: Shawn's current neurological tests are abnormal, and I believe that
Speaker 15: he might be out considerably longer than I expected. Any
Speaker 15: indication of having Sewan return at this time the WWF
Speaker 15: are just totally premature.
Speaker 18: I then asked the doctor when we could expect to
Speaker 18: see Shawn Michaels back in action.
Speaker 15: I'm not sure when Shawn's going to come back. I
Speaker 15: do know there are many professional football players and boxers
Speaker 15: that never fully recover from these type of head injuries.
Speaker 15: With Sean, the problem is that he is such a
Speaker 15: high impact type of athlete that I would have to
Speaker 15: be one hundred percent certain that he would not re
Speaker 15: injure himself when he got back into the ring.
Speaker 18: Shawn Michaels is renowned for his stamina and his resiliency.
Speaker 18: As a matter of fact, earlier on this year at
Speaker 18: the Royal Rumboll, Shawn survived a brutal forty minute battle
Speaker 18: in which he outlasted.
Speaker 9: Twenty nine other superstars.
Speaker 18: The day after WrestleMania, he was viciously attacked by Psycho
Speaker 18: Sid and still returned to action and went on to
Speaker 18: reclaim the Intercontinental title. Shawn also survived a second ladder
Speaker 18: match at the WWF SummerSlam with a bad guy Raised Ramone,
Speaker 18: and most recently, Seawn returned to the ring after being
Speaker 18: attacked by nine thugs outside of a Syracuse nightclub. Now,
Speaker 18: surely this kind of resiliency should help Sean Michaels recover faster.
Speaker 15: Probably not, because the brain is not resilient. Shawn's wrestling
Speaker 15: career is absolutely insignificant to me. I am concerned about
Speaker 15: Shawna's human being. Technically, Sewan does have brain damage and
Speaker 15: that's the cause of the post concussive syndrome. With Shawn's
Speaker 15: chronological status, any additional blows to the head could be
Speaker 15: life threatening.
Speaker 18: So now, so, what becomes Shawn Michaels the most charismatic,
Speaker 18: the most flamboyant superstar in the history of the World
Speaker 18: Wrestling Federation. Well, Doctor Unger left me with these very
Speaker 18: disturbing final comments regarding the future of Shawn Michaels.
Speaker 15: Shawn is simply not progressing very well neurologically.
Speaker 10: I don't think it would be.
Speaker 15: Safe for him to enter the ring at this time.
Speaker 15: In fact, it may not be safe for him to
Speaker 15: go back to wrestling at all.
Speaker 8: These sobering thoughts have led us to reflect upon many
Speaker 8: of our WWF.
Speaker 3: Superstars in the theater of life.
Speaker 8: We talk to place public figures on a pedestal born
Speaker 8: elite views.
Speaker 3: We reserve the mettle of superstardom. By doing this, we
Speaker 3: separate these individuals from the rest of us, bestowing up.
Speaker 8: On them superhuman qualities that may or may not even exist.
Speaker 8: We tend to think of our superstars as different from us,
Speaker 8: superstars bigger than we are.
Speaker 3: They're faster, they're stronger.
Speaker 8: Why they don't even think the way we think, they
Speaker 8: don't talk the way we talk, and they certainly.
Speaker 3: Don't feel pain the way we feel pain.
Speaker 8: Well, Shawn Michaels has unquestionably always been the very embodiment of.
Speaker 3: What super stardom is really all about. But two weeks
Speaker 3: ago on Raw.
Speaker 8: The facade of superstardom was smashed in an instant when
Speaker 8: Shawn Michaels collapsed to the canvas in that frightening moment
Speaker 8: we realize that a superstar is really just.
Speaker 3: Like the rest of us, a human being. They do
Speaker 3: feel pain, They're not invincible.
Speaker 8: Unquestionably, these athletes are driven by their insatiable desire to
Speaker 8: be the very best they can be here in the world.
Speaker 8: Rusting Federation, we cheer while as these superstars risk their
Speaker 8: bodies time after time, constantly taking one step closer to
Speaker 8: the edge in an effort to thrill the crowd. Well,
Speaker 8: Shawn Michaels has been living on the edge and thrilling
Speaker 8: the crowds for quite some time. Shawn Michaels while dust
Speaker 8: into believing he could do just about anything because we've
Speaker 8: seen him do it. But now we find ourselves in
Speaker 8: the uncomfortable position of hoping you'll just be all right,
Speaker 8: all the while knowing we helped push him over the edge.
Speaker 3: And our unsetchable thirst for excitement.
Speaker 8: However, like anyone who totally loves what they do, Shawn
Speaker 8: Michaels can't wait to get back into the ring, and
Speaker 8: believe me, he's even more anxious to get back than
Speaker 8: we are to see him back. But unfortunately, now there's
Speaker 8: a watch as to when or even if Sean Michaels
Speaker 8: should return battle.
Speaker 3: I mean, I don't that's funny. I don't remember that
Speaker 3: at all.
Speaker 6: When you when that switches convinced in life. But he
Speaker 6: takes that voice like he's doing a like he's reading
Speaker 6: a speech at the inauguration or something. Yeah, oh my god,
Speaker 6: just too much.
Speaker 3: Man, he's such a what are you hearing there? He's
Speaker 3: such a dufus. What's he trying to accomplish? No, that's
Speaker 3: a thing, like he's so phony, he's so phony in life.
Speaker 3: In life, we elevate, we elevate people like myself on
Speaker 3: a pedestal, the pedestal of life. Right, it's just remarkable.
Speaker 6: Like the tone they were going for with Sean, like, yeah,
Speaker 6: it's like their whole mission with this period Shawn Michaels
Speaker 6: was to get like teenage girls to cry at the
Speaker 6: thought that he might not wrestle again, then he might
Speaker 6: actually be hurt, you know, I know that's the emotion
Speaker 6: they leaned into. And yeah, I guess we're a room
Speaker 6: in nine ninety six is supposed to be his bounce
Speaker 6: back from all that.
Speaker 1: It was.
Speaker 3: It was interesting, I guess, I mean, I guess it
Speaker 3: just I don't know. It's very weird. It's like a
Speaker 3: it's it's it's I don't remember what actual injuries he
Speaker 3: got from that.
Speaker 6: You got a concussion, for sure, he got a concussion.
Speaker 3: It's just like, I mean, I don't know, it seems
Speaker 3: I mean, obviously it worked better than say the Fritz
Speaker 3: van Eric.
Speaker 6: Yes, yes, but was you know, invented like he didn't
Speaker 6: have a heart attacking right.
Speaker 3: Right, But I mean even so, it's like, you know,
Speaker 3: it seems a little I mean, you know, I guess
Speaker 3: it shouldn't matter because it was his you know, it
Speaker 3: was it was Sean's issue. Wasn't like there was somebody
Speaker 3: else they were you know, I don't know. It wasn't
Speaker 3: like they were taking something from somebody else and putting
Speaker 3: it on him like it was his only isshoe. But
Speaker 3: something weird off about it.
Speaker 6: Still, I think what's off about it? Honestly, see, in
Speaker 6: a business where we're always trained to think that the
Speaker 6: person who puts someone on the shelf it's a fellow wrestler.
Speaker 6: The heels in the situation are these faceless nine marines
Speaker 6: who beat the shit out of and I supposed a
Speaker 6: tough guy, yeah too. It means you gotta do I
Speaker 6: guess you got to do something with it if it's
Speaker 6: in the papers, I guess. And they kind of put
Speaker 6: it on Owen by having him kick him in the head.
Speaker 6: But still it was like all Owen did is exacerbate
Speaker 6: the damage that was done by these people who right, Really,
Speaker 6: you know, it's one thing for it to happen to Sean,
Speaker 6: it's another thing for the WWF to make that the
Speaker 6: storyline that these nine marines beat his ass. Yeah, I
Speaker 6: don't think it was nine, by the way, maybe nine
Speaker 6: were there, but I don't think nine of people kicked
Speaker 6: his ass. They were all just we've told the story before.
Speaker 6: I remember what episode would.
Speaker 3: And we've we've had an we've done it a couple
Speaker 3: of times. I when we did it, we did it.
Speaker 3: We also did it for one of the for a
Speaker 3: cinemat thing too. Oh yeah, I alwish I remember what why.
Speaker 3: I mean, we've only done one any click.
Speaker 6: Era in nineteen ninety five shows or Diesel's champ.
Speaker 3: And yeah, I feel like we've done it, But I
Speaker 3: also feel like we did. I just don't remember why
Speaker 3: we would have done it for a cinemat because like
Speaker 3: it had nothing to do with the movies. I must
Speaker 3: you know what, I bet I have a funny thing.
Speaker 3: I know why the marine the marine because it was
Speaker 3: the marine and he was beat up by marines, right right,
Speaker 3: that might have been the case.
Speaker 6: It's just all of his buddies were all so fucked up,
Speaker 6: you know. I think it was a deal where Sean
Speaker 6: and Razor were away overseas and so it was like
Speaker 6: kid and Davy boy that like they were convinced sewn
Speaker 6: and I think Scott and Kevin were mad because they
Speaker 6: felt like if they were there, it never would have happened.
Speaker 6: But right, Sean was left out, hung out to dry,
Speaker 6: to get beat up like this by people who were
Speaker 6: just too preoccupied getting fucked up in their own right.
Speaker 6: Like I remember, I think Brett tells the story of
Speaker 6: how Davy was just like so zonked in his own right,
Speaker 6: that he was basically going in slow motion trying to
Speaker 6: defend Sean and couldn't even stand on his own two
Speaker 6: feet in his.
Speaker 3: Own I'm sure. I'm sure he was punching at walls.
Speaker 6: Real so, so yeah, that's that's what they leaned into,
Speaker 6: I mean, really landed on thick though, with that piano
Speaker 6: music and all. Yeah, oh my god, Jeff Unger just
Speaker 6: totally willing to play his role. I mean, going out
Speaker 6: there and saying like I don't think you should wrestle again,
Speaker 6: and in my professional opinion and talking about post concussion
Speaker 6: syndrome and real athletes. Hilarious, the amount of things that
Speaker 6: it's so bizarre this guy to say in the white coat,
Speaker 6: just to do a complete about face. Bruce Pritchard had
Speaker 6: said in his podcast that you know, essentially after Sean
Speaker 6: got a clean bill of health following that aforementioned attack
Speaker 6: in Syracuse, they looked around and said, all right, he's
Speaker 6: you know, he's clean from a health perspective. Let's so
Speaker 6: let's make a story out of it. And then we
Speaker 6: go from there as far as you know, building the
Speaker 6: Owen heart kick so that they can get the the
Speaker 6: story back on the table. It's a fresh issue, but
Speaker 6: with the full tension of having Sewan overcome it, and
Speaker 6: so was as you heard from one of those Resno
Speaker 6: b articles. In fact, the first one we read, Shawn
Speaker 6: Michaels goes out to Fresno to do publicity for the
Speaker 6: World Rumble and is making himself available for interviews in
Speaker 6: this press conference format about his head injury. And trying
Speaker 6: to play it off is a real thing. He's coming
Speaker 6: back from for reel here at the Royal Rumble, and
Speaker 6: here he is on on a Monday night Raw announcing
Speaker 6: in early nineteen ninety six. I believe the first or
Speaker 6: second money Net Rob nineteen ninety six, that not only
Speaker 6: is he back in action, but he's looking to win
Speaker 6: the Royal Rumble again.
Speaker 11: Yeah.
Speaker 8: There he is the most undy, the most charismatic superstar
Speaker 8: in the world that I saw.
Speaker 10: Bible, I am a most exciting athlete in the World
Speaker 10: Rustling Federation.
Speaker 3: We look at that time.
Speaker 9: I'm willing to go out there.
Speaker 3: And lay it all on the line.
Speaker 16: There is no mistakening that I want to go out here.
Speaker 3: At the of the show, find good fine thiss got
Speaker 3: time to the class.
Speaker 4: Where's that?
Speaker 3: What can I do tonight and make those people come
Speaker 3: out of their stings?
Speaker 16: What can I show these people.
Speaker 10: That they have seeing What can I do to make
Speaker 10: sure that when the fans of the World Wrestling Federation
Speaker 10: file out of this arena, the one name that sticks
Speaker 10: from their minds.
Speaker 3: With Shawn Michaels, I was.
Speaker 16: Riding eyes the World Wrestling Federation's top dog.
Speaker 10: But then Shawn Michael's kind of reality check as he
Speaker 10: was jumped by nine thugs.
Speaker 12: It's Eyracuse, New York.
Speaker 11: Due to the severity of Shawn Michael's compassion, I have
Speaker 11: asked Seawn Michaels to publicly forfeit the intercomental Belt to
Speaker 11: be tonight, I.
Speaker 3: I had to do it in from the whole world.
Speaker 10: Just wasn't an easy thing to do. From that point,
Speaker 10: I let my ego take over and try to get
Speaker 10: back into the ring against the advice of doctors and
Speaker 10: friends and family, and that also.
Speaker 3: Proved to be a mistake, collapsing the little ring.
Speaker 10: On live television and all I remember is being escorted
Speaker 10: off to the hospital.
Speaker 15: Technically, Sewan does have brain damaging. With Shawn's chronological status,
Speaker 15: any additional blows.
Speaker 12: To the head could be life threatening.
Speaker 3: I have goals and I have dreams, and I don't
Speaker 3: know that I can live What makes them different from
Speaker 3: everybody else.
Speaker 10: With people around me? If I didn't do the one
Speaker 10: thing that I know it is important to me, the
Speaker 10: one thing that I know that I'm really good at.
Speaker 10: So Shawn Michael's at this time is throwing his name
Speaker 10: in the many names that will be competing at the
Speaker 10: Royal Rumbo and Fresno. By now has become quite obvious
Speaker 10: to everyone the hopes and dreams of a twelve year
Speaker 10: old boy. It's become the World Wrestling Federation Champion, still
Speaker 10: beat inside the heart of this thirty year old man.
Speaker 10: Thanks to the fans of the World Rusting Federation and myself,
Speaker 10: I've been given the second chance. But now time is
Speaker 10: of the essence, and this Sunday night, the road to
Speaker 10: the World Rusting Federation Championship goes through Presno, California and
Speaker 10: the Royal Rumble and once again the Heartbreak Kid will
Speaker 10: outlast twenty nine of the best superstars in the World
Speaker 10: Wrestling Federation and then myself and all my fans. I
Speaker 10: got a one way ticket to WrestleMania and the World
Speaker 10: Rustling Federation Championship.
Speaker 3: You heard it there.
Speaker 6: Tell me a lie and say that you won't go.
Speaker 3: I mean, you know, in retrospect, it's like, you know,
Speaker 3: they they just took it up a whole notch. That
Speaker 3: just I don't know why. It feels uncomfortable.
Speaker 19: Well, it's just too syrupy sight, I mean, but the
Speaker 19: idea that he was close to death, yeah, he does,
Speaker 19: you know, he says, I'm beginning been given a second
Speaker 19: chance since, Like I mean, I'm trying to think of
Speaker 19: any angle in wrestling where they've talked about someone being
Speaker 19: that close to death where they're like, you know what,
Speaker 19: I've been given a second chance at this, Like I don't,
Speaker 19: I don't see it well.
Speaker 6: And had the doctor come on the air and say
Speaker 6: one more blow to the head could be fatal. I know,
Speaker 6: but and I guess, but that's the whole thing.
Speaker 3: Like they took it to a level that I just
Speaker 3: feel was really far, Like when have they done that
Speaker 3: since where they've been like, you know, like didn't I
Speaker 3: mean it would have been against the character in Austin,
Speaker 3: but like they never did that with Austin afterwards, like
Speaker 3: when he broke his neck, and you know, like I
Speaker 3: just it's it. I mean, maybe it's because it's so
Speaker 3: mushy that I take it a little more seriously, but
Speaker 3: it's just like, yeah, like I feel like I'm watching
Speaker 3: like twenty twenty Yeah, yeah exactly, and then doing like
Speaker 3: a special on fucking Christopher Reeve or something.
Speaker 6: It really feels that way. And to have like the
Speaker 6: music and Vince like take that tone. It's yeah, it's
Speaker 6: like he's not dead yet. Why are we talking about
Speaker 6: him like.
Speaker 3: He's and and he also wasn't close to dead, Like
Speaker 3: do we need to take it that far?
Speaker 6: Yeah, it is a little cheesy, it's a little it
Speaker 6: smacks a little bit of really trying too hard to
Speaker 6: get Sean to be that as like the the most
Speaker 6: sympathetic baby face they've ever had. It kind of looks
Speaker 6: like the kind of thing you do if you're not
Speaker 6: really confident in the guy's the guy, you know, Yeah, yeah, right,
Speaker 6: to really crank up the volume on whatever human interest
Speaker 6: element there is to the guy's climb. And yeah, by
Speaker 6: the time we get to WrestleMania, there's none of this
Speaker 6: concussion stuff.
Speaker 3: You know, it's not like it.
Speaker 6: It's not like it follows him through the title wind. No,
Speaker 6: this is not the end of it. He proves in
Speaker 6: the by winning the Rumble essentially that he doesn't get
Speaker 6: concussions anymore. And then he beats owen Hart at the
Speaker 6: February in Your House as well to it to button
Speaker 6: up that issue and then get spread at WrestleMania. Now
Speaker 6: Brett's side, I'm Brett standing around with his arms folded, right,
Speaker 6: he's the top guy He's the guy who actually closed
Speaker 6: his the nineteen ninety six Royal Rumble with Strap and
Speaker 6: all of that. What's he thinking as this all takes
Speaker 6: shape around Shawn Michaels, we turned to his book chapters
Speaker 6: called The Snakes Are Docile. By January nine, ninety six,
Speaker 6: Vince was looking high and low for talent. Just in
Speaker 6: time for the Royal Rumble. He brought in four hundred
Speaker 6: pound Vader, who had quit w c W after being
Speaker 6: thumped good by Paul Orndorf in addressing room argument. Even
Speaker 6: Jake the Snake slithered back. He'd left the business to
Speaker 6: find God, vowing never to return, and when he reappeared
Speaker 6: in the dressing room, he seemed weathered and humbled. He
Speaker 6: was broke and divorced, and still appeared on Sunday morning
Speaker 6: evangelical shows to tell everyone who would listen how Jesus
Speaker 6: helped him beat his cocaine addiction. I was happy to
Speaker 6: see the arrival of Steve Austin, now called the Ring Master,
Speaker 6: with Ted Dibiassi as his manager. Royal Rumble mark Shawn's
Speaker 6: first appearance since his face was mashed, and he won
Speaker 6: for the second year in a row. Dancing and twirling
Speaker 6: around the ring and pulling his tights right down past
Speaker 6: the pubic line.
Speaker 3: You know, let me ask you something, how did they
Speaker 3: make Brett Hart feel? I'm granted, you know, no one
Speaker 3: really cares about these matches as much as fans do.
Speaker 3: But I'm wondering, how does they make Brett feel that
Speaker 3: Shawn Michaels legitimately won two Royal Rumbles and Brett Hart
Speaker 3: never won one legitimately by himself.
Speaker 6: True, I know, I'm sure bothers them somewhere.
Speaker 3: I'm sure. How about let me see here too, how
Speaker 3: many WrestleManias has Brett Hart may have been in? Three? Right?
Speaker 13: No?
Speaker 3: Two, two No three three three three three? He did nine,
Speaker 3: ten and twelve Sean with Sean So but Shawn Michaels
Speaker 3: then did he had twelve? Fourteen, he did twenty seven,
Speaker 3: twenty three, rather twenty three and twenty and seven he
Speaker 3: did twenty three, he did twenty. Yeah, so he rest
Speaker 3: he's made event more. Oh yeah, I had a longer career.
Speaker 3: I mean he had that second twenty as well, twenty
Speaker 3: as well. Yeah. No, I know, but it's still like
Speaker 3: you'd think, you know, Brett Hart was on top for
Speaker 3: so long during that period. You'd think that he would have,
Speaker 3: but he didn't main event as many.
Speaker 6: Oh that's the story that the battle like you wouldn't
Speaker 6: wasn't suposed to headline wrestling in the ten you know,
Speaker 6: they just they just couldn't make les work that It
Speaker 6: was very clear from the Rumble ninety four finish that
Speaker 6: it was time for Brett or Brett was the person
Speaker 6: to go with. That's always been the story with Brett.
Speaker 6: I mean, he he's he's like the winner in a
Speaker 6: circumstance where the first choice falls through. You know, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 6: that's kind of the story. Yes, and that is true.
Speaker 6: There Sewn does nearly pull his pants all the way
Speaker 6: down during the post match celebration, which I thought was
Speaker 6: kind of a weird element to the character.
Speaker 3: But there it was things like this, was he he
Speaker 3: doesne playgrol already, hadn't he? Or that later?
Speaker 6: Oh that's later in ninety six because he has the
Speaker 6: belt covering his dick. Oh that's right, I'll win the
Speaker 6: title first. Things like this made me and a lot
Speaker 6: of the boys wonder about Sean Brett Wright's That night,
Speaker 6: Taker and I also worked our first major pay per view.
Speaker 6: He was wearing his protective mask from when Mabel had
Speaker 6: fallen on his face for the finished Taker Tombstone in
Speaker 6: the middle of the ring and pinned me with my
Speaker 6: arms folded across my chest just as Diesel lumber down
Speaker 6: the Aisland pulled her all out of the ring, stopping
Speaker 6: him from making the three count. The pay per view
Speaker 6: ended with me bent over in the ring, having injured
Speaker 6: my knee for real. Lucky to well, I don't know
Speaker 6: that heard his knee in this match, lucky to still
Speaker 6: have the belt and take her stalking Diesel all the
Speaker 6: way back to the dressing room. I have to say
Speaker 6: it did little to build me for WrestleMania twelve, Vince's
Speaker 6: latest project.
Speaker 3: I mean, let me, but did you did he really
Speaker 3: need to be built for WrestleMania. I mean not to do,
Speaker 3: not to side with with Nash and whatever on the
Speaker 3: whold thing, But like, this is Brett Hart's third time
Speaker 3: as champion, right, what do you need to build with? Like,
Speaker 3: you don't need to build up Brett Hart. Brett Hart
Speaker 3: is already missed your solid like if anything, you know,
Speaker 3: especially for me as a fan, it's like, oh here
Speaker 3: we go again, another fucking Brett Heart title run. Like right,
Speaker 3: you know, he's already he's like he's untouchable.
Speaker 6: You can't.
Speaker 3: They could have jobbed him every week for a month
Speaker 3: and it would not have mattered, Like he still would
Speaker 3: have been main event Brett Hart and people would have
Speaker 3: he would have been a draw, like he have that
Speaker 3: kind of status, like I I mean, I guess maybe
Speaker 3: it's just the paranoia of the business that makes them
Speaker 3: freak out like that, but like like he was there,
Speaker 3: like he was there's no way he was a made man,
Speaker 3: like you know, nothing's going to take him down. I
Speaker 3: think it was kind of weird that he gets upset
Speaker 3: about that, like in I mean, just I you didn't
Speaker 3: have to do anything. Just the idea of Sean Michaels
Speaker 3: and Brett Hart was money.
Speaker 6: I agree, And I think it's a point of personal
Speaker 6: pride more than anything, where it's like everyone's compared themselves
Speaker 6: to Hogan, and Hogan would not be taking l's on
Speaker 6: the way to a WrestleMania match where he's going to
Speaker 6: lose the title. He's not going to be having situations
Speaker 6: all the time where it looks like somebody else basically
Speaker 6: beat him, be an Undertaker or Diesel before the WrestleMania match,
Speaker 6: because you know in Brett's mind, and it's what you
Speaker 6: do from a sound booking perspective. Even if you have
Speaker 6: the luxury of knowing that Brett is going to stay over,
Speaker 6: just like Rick Flair is going to stay over if
Speaker 6: you don't book him this way, that that doesn't change
Speaker 6: the fact that you know, if you really want to
Speaker 6: make the big climactic match for the title feel as
Speaker 6: climactic as possible, both sides of the equation should not
Speaker 6: really lose on the way to that match. That's how
Speaker 6: to maximize the impact of the match when you get there.
Speaker 6: Doesn't mean the guy can't prove resilient if you do
Speaker 6: something different than that on the way to the match.
Speaker 6: But if you're one of those guys, you have to wonder, like,
Speaker 6: why why don't they believe in this match enough to
Speaker 6: keep me essentially flawless going into it, thus making it
Speaker 6: as big as it possibly could be?
Speaker 3: You know, why are they? I mean because it's also
Speaker 3: one of those things too, where it's such a foregone
Speaker 3: conclusion the moment that he won the Rumble, you knew
Speaker 3: he was going to win a Mania. Yeah, Like it's
Speaker 3: it's it's one of those things where you really I
Speaker 3: don't think there's anything he could have done, hon as
Speaker 3: anything Brett could have done to make anyone think that
Speaker 3: Sean wasn't gonna walk away with a belt.
Speaker 6: Do you think if he beat Undertaker and Diesel Clean
Speaker 6: in January in February that that wouldn't create some doubt?
Speaker 6: I don't think so, Okay, I don't. I don't think
Speaker 6: for me anyway. I mean the moment Shawn Michaels won,
Speaker 6: I knew he was gonna win. Yeah, none of the
Speaker 6: stuff that mattered, Like, like, to me, the only the
Speaker 6: only way I would have thought that.
Speaker 3: He wasn't gonna win, it would have been Wrestlmania when
Speaker 3: they went to the when they went to the tail
Speaker 3: of Madraw. That that's it, Like the time of my
Speaker 3: draw would have been in like wow, they fucking didn't
Speaker 3: go through with it, you know. But the rest of it,
Speaker 3: I was like, I was certain he was gonna win.
Speaker 3: Like to me, it was a foregone conclusion. It was
Speaker 3: as it was as as obvious as you could get.
Speaker 6: Yeah, perhaps Brett is overestimating the degree to which any
Speaker 6: kind of booking would have really fundamentally changed the way
Speaker 6: the fans saw him going into wrestling, and to me,
Speaker 6: that's that's where it became.
Speaker 3: It became that that became the intrigued And I didn't
Speaker 3: even get wrestling year twelve, but that's the intrigue of
Speaker 3: the match. Was like, they're gonna put the belt on Sean, Like, sorry, Brett,
Speaker 3: I know, but like that's that's the intrigue. If the
Speaker 3: intrigue is putting on putting the belt on somebody new
Speaker 3: and uh, you don't need to be strong for that.
Speaker 3: I mean, I could be completely off base. And I
Speaker 3: also again, you know, I had issue. You know, I
Speaker 3: was already over Brett Hart by that point, but there
Speaker 3: wasn't anything Brett could have done to make me wish
Speaker 3: that I had gotten the show more than well, you
Speaker 3: know what I was already feeling.
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, that's interesting. You know, I think in wrestling,
Speaker 6: when you foregone conclusion is not a bad thing, right,
Speaker 6: that's agreed. That's a good thing when you get the
Speaker 6: fans dialed into feeling like if they go to the
Speaker 6: show or they buy the show, they will see something
Speaker 6: historic happen. But I feel like the absolute best promotions
Speaker 6: of a match go a step further than that. And
Speaker 6: recognize that the fans expect this certain thing to happen,
Speaker 6: and while you do, you know, plan on delivering that.
Speaker 6: The real strength that puts it over the top and
Speaker 6: makes it great is when you can do things that
Speaker 6: make people doubt that in the home stretch.
Speaker 3: I agree, you know, I mean, I agree that normal
Speaker 3: circumstances would do that. But again, it's like you've got
Speaker 3: you know, Brett Hart was was the.
Speaker 6: Was the guy.
Speaker 3: It's like, you know, it's it's kind of like, I mean,
Speaker 3: I don't know how much of a I don't know.
Speaker 3: I'm trying to think of like a Hogan title loss,
Speaker 3: Like how much of any of his title losses were
Speaker 3: foregone conclusions. I don't know about wrestling many in six
Speaker 3: at all.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I'm thinking of that as the closest analogy.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Like, I don't know how many people were like,
Speaker 3: there's no way that Hogan's coming out of this.
Speaker 6: And if if Hogan dropped two DQ losses on the
Speaker 6: way to WrestleMania six, you know that doesn't help Warrior.
Speaker 3: I mean, he did lose to he did lose to uh,
Speaker 3: I don't remember when it was, but did lose to
Speaker 3: Genius by count out on Satay. It's main event around
Speaker 3: that time, eighty nine was it was far back I think.
Speaker 3: I don't know. I don't think it was like early
Speaker 3: ninety or something. Okay, I don't know, but you know,
Speaker 3: I don't know. It's also a different time, like you're
Speaker 3: you're doing. Hogan didn't have the Hogan wasn't doing uh,
Speaker 3: you know, pay per views in weekly television leading up
Speaker 3: to WrestleMania.
Speaker 6: I'm sure Brett would have been fine with that, you know, right, And.
Speaker 3: It's like, I don't know.
Speaker 11: To me.
Speaker 3: I again, I just never to me that those things
Speaker 3: never hurt. I mean, if anything, I wanted Diesel to
Speaker 3: win at in your house, right right, So if anything,
Speaker 3: I was disappointed, but he didn't win, you know, And yeah,
Speaker 3: it never really it never really bothered me that he
Speaker 3: didn't win again because I just came. I was like, Okay,
Speaker 3: Sean getting the belt and the moment he kicks Diesel out,
Speaker 3: he's getting the belt, and there's nothing you can do
Speaker 3: that would make me think otherwise. I really don't think
Speaker 3: it's interesting.
Speaker 6: I'm interesting to hear from fans on that too, listeners
Speaker 6: sort of how they perceived Sean's inevitability at the time,
Speaker 6: and whether Brett could have been stronger going into the show,
Speaker 6: or if that made any difference at all. But yeah,
Speaker 6: he continues in his book, Vince's latest project was Billionaire
Speaker 6: Ted Skits, which mocked Ted Turner as a redneck and
Speaker 6: mocked his acquisitions from WWF as Over the Hill has beens.
Speaker 6: He had two old men spoofing Randy and Hogan's Nacho
Speaker 6: Man in the Huckster. Vince had built them up and
Speaker 6: now he was knocking them down. When I went to
Speaker 6: do a live promo with Vince, he told me to
Speaker 6: just shoot about everything. But when I sarcastically asked him
Speaker 6: whether I should say the WWF was the Shawn and
Speaker 6: Diesel show now, he stammered viscently and stopped me. On
Speaker 6: January twenty seventh, I arrived at the paper at WOW
Speaker 6: brand new Bryce Jordan Center and University Park, Pennsylvania to
Speaker 6: find a huge story breaking in the dressing room. The
Speaker 6: Road Warriors and Miss Elizabeth had shown up in WCW,
Speaker 6: and word was that Diesel and Razor were considering jumping
Speaker 6: to so Brett pegs it as January twenty seventh when
Speaker 6: the word starts spreading around the locker room about Diesel
Speaker 6: and Razor jumping. So that is wow set after this show.
Speaker 6: Actually didn't write down when the nineteen ninety six rumble
Speaker 6: was let's see January twenty first. Yeah, so that would
Speaker 6: be after the rumble that he pegs. The word really
Speaker 6: starting to spread and accelerate the week after.
Speaker 1: Fan wrestling podcast, The wrestling podcast that knows the boys
Speaker 1: need their candy.
Speaker 3: It's the Lapsed.
Speaker 1: He's an lapsed fan wrestling podcast with Jack and Carnacio
Speaker 1: and JP Sorow.
Speaker 6: Okay, this was a shock to everybody Brett right, especially Sean,
Speaker 6: who looked anxious at the thought of being left behind.
Speaker 6: Despite the overall tension between the boys and the click,
Speaker 6: Sean and I had never let onto each other that
Speaker 6: there were any problems between us. He told me that
Speaker 6: he hoped Diesel and Razor would stay because after he
Speaker 6: became champion at WrestleMania twelve, he figured on working with them,
Speaker 6: as hegested he had fresh guys to work with, such
Speaker 6: as Vader and Austin. He nervously chewed on his nail,
Speaker 6: spit out a piece, and shook his head. I'd rather
Speaker 6: work with Hunter and do another little program with the kid.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 6: I had spoken of Rowan, Jim and Davy over the years,
Speaker 6: but I never pushed them to the exclusion of everybody
Speaker 6: else as Sean fully intended to do with his clique.
Speaker 6: I realized then that the Heartbreak Kid didn't have the
Speaker 6: heart be Champion. So we're already starting to bubble up.
Speaker 10: You know.
Speaker 6: We started our nineteen ninety seven journey, our road to
Speaker 6: Montreal with the nineteen ninety seven Rumble, and felt like
Speaker 6: we were kind of early then in charting the history
Speaker 6: of tensions between Shawn and But we just recently did
Speaker 6: in your House. It's time from December nineteen ninety six
Speaker 6: where it really reaches a higher point when they're basically
Speaker 6: shooting and shooting at each other in the ring on
Speaker 6: Monday Night Raw into and around that show. And they
Speaker 6: still thought that Shawn and bretton the rematch would be
Speaker 6: part of WrestleMania thirteen. But man, you can go all
Speaker 6: the way back to here, you know, all the way
Speaker 6: back to how Sean saw himself as handicapped by the
Speaker 6: departures of Razor and Diesel when Wow, they wanted to
Speaker 6: continue the whole thing they had going in ninety five.
Speaker 6: It was the same thing as we'll get to with Razor.
Speaker 6: I mean, he was putting up a stink because he
Speaker 6: wanted to work a program with Kid. He didn't want
Speaker 6: to work with gold Dust. Once it was clear that
Speaker 6: he was leaving, and also that he had been suspended
Speaker 6: for a marijuana test, that he'd have to drop the
Speaker 6: icy strapped, then it was less important. He did get
Speaker 6: Kid to do the you know, the run into costume
Speaker 6: the championship against gold Dust, but all these guys wanted
Speaker 6: to do his work against each other. The night after this,
Speaker 6: Ramon wrestles Hunter On Raw, a guy he wanted to
Speaker 6: slot in instead of gold Dust.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 6: Of course the time still thought of as a candidate
Speaker 6: to win the nineteen ninety six King of the Ring
Speaker 6: tournament at this time. That gets blown up, of course
Speaker 6: by the click farewell in May at Madison Square Garden.
Speaker 6: That that's the subject of so much lower. But yeah,
Speaker 6: you want to go all the way back to here
Speaker 6: Brett looking at Sean and being shaking his head like
Speaker 6: all this guy wants to do is work with his
Speaker 6: four buddies. That's how he sees his title reign unfolding.
Speaker 6: Despite all this new talent we're getting.
Speaker 3: Isn't that kind of the way he still is today?
Speaker 19: Mm hmm.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Pretty much the same old fucking story lines over
Speaker 3: and over again. Yep.
Speaker 6: And now he's having an XT. Guys and gals do it,
Speaker 6: That's what I mean.
Speaker 3: Yep. Absolutely.
Speaker 6: But we talk about Sean winning the rumble, and we
Speaker 6: talk about Brett and Diesel and their roles and all this.
Speaker 6: We mentioned Vader, we'll get more into him. Of course,
Speaker 6: Jake somebody else that that should have been in the
Speaker 6: final four of this match but didn't get there.
Speaker 3: Ooh, do you know who it was? I don't know
Speaker 3: who was who was it?
Speaker 16: I won three roll rumbles, but I didn't really like
Speaker 16: the roll rumbles because there's so much going on, so
Speaker 16: many things that are just you know, can't go wrong,
Speaker 16: because everything's got to get kind of got to work out,
Speaker 16: you know what I'm speaking of without just spelling it out.
Speaker 16: And I'll never forget. In San Diego, at my first
Speaker 16: roll rumble, I was supposed to be the fourth.
Speaker 3: Guy left in the ring sakes.
Speaker 16: He or somebody gave me a clothes line and the
Speaker 16: ropes were so baby old up from everybody wearing baby
Speaker 16: old I slept and there was a bunch of guys
Speaker 16: in the ring, and I went out way early.
Speaker 3: And I hit the ground.
Speaker 16: And you know, I'm still pretty new in the company
Speaker 16: at this time, Ryan, but they're gonna try to, you know,
Speaker 16: keep me in the rumbles. So they're giving me a
Speaker 16: little bit of a push and I blew it, and
Speaker 16: so I hit the ground. Because Sean Michaels was gonna
Speaker 16: be pivotal as far as you know, me getting out.
Speaker 16: I was sitting there, someone was beating the hell out
Speaker 16: of you, and I was kind of looking at him
Speaker 16: over the mat like this, like, dude, I'm out, and
Speaker 16: he kind of goes like this lander is getting his
Speaker 16: ass kick. It goes like this, So, you know, I
Speaker 16: didn't really care for roll rumbles. I won three, and
Speaker 16: I'm glad that I won three.
Speaker 6: And there's Steve with his classic his his best moments.
Speaker 3: He hated. But yeah, but that's so funny, Like, you know,
Speaker 3: you know, I do remember, I do. I feel like
Speaker 3: I do remember hearing that he was that he I
Speaker 3: don't think I realized he was going to be one
Speaker 3: of the final four, but I do remember, Wait, does
Speaker 3: he know that that that Fresnos on the other side
Speaker 3: of fucking California.
Speaker 6: And now these guys have trouble with that.
Speaker 3: Christ.
Speaker 6: It's so funny to well, that's it. You know, Nash
Speaker 6: gets it right every time. But it's so funny to
Speaker 6: me how these wrestlers like it means enough to them
Speaker 6: where the show was that they bring the city up
Speaker 6: every time, but they still don't get it right most
Speaker 6: of the time or half the time. It's like, why
Speaker 6: does this Why is it so important for you to
Speaker 6: mention what city it was in if you're not even
Speaker 6: going to get the wrong city right.
Speaker 3: But I remember that.
Speaker 6: But yeah, I remember him leaving.
Speaker 3: I think I think because I I brought up like
Speaker 3: has anyone ever fucked up one time when we did
Speaker 3: a Royal Rumble show years ago, and I feel like
Speaker 3: this story came up that he did fuck up, like
Speaker 3: he did accidentally get eliminated. But again, I didn't realize
Speaker 3: he was going to Final four. I thought I thought
Speaker 3: it was I don't know what, I don't know, just
Speaker 3: I didn't think he was going out that far.
Speaker 6: Yeah, a year before he went to Final four in
Speaker 6: your House.
Speaker 3: Yes, the year after he did go to Final four.
Speaker 3: But and he was in the final four of the
Speaker 3: Royal Rumble two for that matter, he was. But yeah,
Speaker 3: he won the ro Rumble the next year, that's true.
Speaker 3: But he still was part of the final four.
Speaker 6: Yeah, you have to be part of.
Speaker 3: Oh wait a minute, he was eliminated, so he actually
Speaker 3: wasn't part of the final four. I think if I'm
Speaker 3: not mistaken, because the whole point was that it was
Speaker 3: the three other guys who were in the match after him.
Speaker 3: But think about it.
Speaker 6: Think about a world where is Steve Austin with white
Speaker 6: boots with black stars on them and the Bruce Willis
Speaker 6: pulp fiction haircut blonde ring master Steve Austin goes to
Speaker 6: the final four in his first Rumble.
Speaker 3: I mean I would have bought it, because you know,
Speaker 3: I was. I was excited for you know again, I'm
Speaker 3: like the only person in the world who was excited
Speaker 3: that Steve Austin was in the WW I guess Brett
Speaker 3: Hart was too, but uh, I kind of, I kind
Speaker 3: of vaguely, you know, I'm I'm I'm I'm now putting
Speaker 3: myself on the place I remember he I don't remember
Speaker 3: if I was like. One of two things happened for
Speaker 3: me was that number one he debuted and I saw
Speaker 3: his debut with with teddybas And, and I for either
Speaker 3: forgot about him and was like, oh shit, there he
Speaker 3: is in the Royal Rumble, or it was there is around,
Speaker 3: but like, oh shit, he's already out right. One of
Speaker 3: those I had one of those two feelings. I don't
Speaker 3: remember which one it was, but one of those two
Speaker 3: feelings was what I felt towards Austin at the time.
Speaker 3: But I think he I don't think I would not
Speaker 3: have been surprised. I think it was more I was
Speaker 3: surprised that he was eliminated so early.
Speaker 6: Well you can hear in the commentary that they're surprised too.
Speaker 6: Mister perfect all of a sudden goes where's Austin And
Speaker 6: you can tell like he was quite expecting it. Just
Speaker 6: to me smacked of like he had been told that
Speaker 6: Austin was going to go far and try to emphasize
Speaker 6: how well he's doing or how much of a survivor
Speaker 6: he is in there. And and what happens is that
Speaker 6: elimination because it wasn't expected at the time, basically happens
Speaker 6: off to the corner of your screen while the camera's
Speaker 6: focused on something else happening. Sean's hanging upside down by
Speaker 6: his leg for the tenth time in the match during this,
Speaker 6: for example, and they have to replay it like a
Speaker 6: minute after Austin gets eliminated because they just start putting
Speaker 6: the pieces together as to what happened, and when they
Speaker 6: replay it, you can see that Fat too throws him.
Speaker 6: Earlier in the match, Austin does a cool thing where
Speaker 6: like he gets hit and he jumps back into the
Speaker 6: top rope and he bounces his back off the rope
Speaker 6: and comes back in the ring instead of goes back
Speaker 6: at ass overt kilt to the floor. And I feel
Speaker 6: like he was kind of, I don't know, maybe a
Speaker 6: little too confident that he had a command of the
Speaker 6: ropes and could tease a near elimination in more dynamic
Speaker 6: ways than we're accustomed to. And you can see just
Speaker 6: he goes to reach to grab the ropes as he
Speaker 6: goes over to kicks him, and he just goes fly
Speaker 6: into the floor. And it looks like a clean elimination
Speaker 6: at first, but when you hear him tell the story,
Speaker 6: then you look back you can kind of see maybe
Speaker 6: where the opportunities he would take to stop himself fail
Speaker 6: and he just hits the floor and you can see
Speaker 6: he comes up, and so Michaels is like, let's say,
Speaker 6: let's say your hard camera. Michaels is in the bottom
Speaker 6: left corner, hanging on by a thread as the guys
Speaker 6: try to eliminate him. This happens on the far side
Speaker 6: of the ring, and then when Austin hits the floor
Speaker 6: on the far side, you can see him officials around
Speaker 6: him trying to figure out what the consequences of this are,
Speaker 6: and he's got his eyes locked on Sean, who's hanging
Speaker 6: upside down in the corner, and he comes down to
Speaker 6: the corner of the ring. Austin does the far corner
Speaker 6: and finally he makes eye contact and he like does
Speaker 6: a throat slash towards Sean. Michaels like I'm out, Yeah,
Speaker 6: I'm out, And you can't see Sean's eyes. But the
Speaker 6: way Steve Austin describes it there in that interview with
Speaker 6: Ryan Sattin, what he described was Michael's eyes basically bugging wide,
Speaker 6: like WHOA, what the fuck's gonna happened now? Because, as
Speaker 6: Austin was explaining, apparently the way Austin was to be
Speaker 6: eliminated from the Royal rumble was to significantly involve Sean Michaels.
Speaker 6: I gotta think Kama was the guy that was left
Speaker 6: in the final four and shouldn't have been because he's
Speaker 6: way he They had no designs on pushing him after this.
Speaker 6: He was gone shortly after this. The gimmick was an
Speaker 6: abject failure. He'd already done the Undertaker program. He seems
Speaker 6: to be the most out of place for a final four.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 6: Sure, it's probably Austin spot. Yeah, and that's it's wild
Speaker 6: to think, you know, because we know what that means
Speaker 6: when they put a guy that you don't really think
Speaker 6: is heralded in that position.
Speaker 3: Huge, it would thank yep, yep.
Speaker 6: But it is a month later that he shaves his
Speaker 6: head and does the Stunner and we go off to
Speaker 6: the races.
Speaker 3: From there, it's already it's only a no. He does
Speaker 3: the Sunner later in that, doesn't he? I think February
Speaker 3: ninety six, he where is it out? Yep?
Speaker 6: I remember we autopsied that for something. There was something
Speaker 6: where we were like, we're not going to rest King
Speaker 6: of the Ring ninety six and probably that's it.
Speaker 3: You nailed it.
Speaker 6: We're not going to rest until we identify exactly when
Speaker 6: he went bald and everything, and uh when he started
Speaker 6: using the stunner against Savia Vega when he was feuding
Speaker 6: with him heading in a wrestling May twelve. But uh, yeah,
Speaker 6: what could have been He told that story just like
Speaker 6: three or four years ago in his podcast. It hasn't
Speaker 6: It's not like it's been known since it happened. I
Speaker 6: don't think anybody knew the story honestly until he until
Speaker 6: he brought it up.
Speaker 3: That's so wild. Yeah, yeah, I mean, because it's like,
Speaker 3: you know, I gain you know, I guess it's really
Speaker 3: amazing that it hasn't happened more than that really is,
Speaker 3: because you know, or at least it's not mentioned more
Speaker 3: because you know, you think about how easy it is.
Speaker 3: You know, you see these guys getting tossed over the
Speaker 3: top rope and they're hanging there, and it's like, how
Speaker 3: easy it must be to just slip your you know,
Speaker 3: just your hands drops and or your hands slips and
Speaker 3: you're done.
Speaker 6: Especially in a case like this where the eventual winner
Speaker 6: is one of the best athletes in the match, so
Speaker 6: he's going to do the most near teases. It's not
Speaker 6: like a guy you can afford to have that accident.
Speaker 6: I mean, if Sean slips out of the ring, it's
Speaker 6: a fucking disaster. Yeah, and that's one thing we haven't
Speaker 6: happened had happened yet. You know, we haven't had a
Speaker 6: you can say Batista John Cena in that both hit
Speaker 6: the floor. Batista was supposed to win, but we haven't
Speaker 6: had the royal Rumble winner fall out way before the
Speaker 6: end of the match like that. Yeah, right, they were
Speaker 6: damn lucky it actually happened the way it did with
Speaker 6: scene in Batista because they could restart it and they
Speaker 6: were the last two in there. It wasn't like, right,
Speaker 6: there were ten guys in the ring and the guy's
Speaker 6: supposed to win gets eliminated by mistake, right exactly.
Speaker 3: Like, I mean, that's the fact that there hasn't been
Speaker 3: a winning and you got guys who are who are
Speaker 3: so who are so goofy, you know, with that way
Speaker 3: that they're like kind of hanging, they're kind of hanging
Speaker 3: the way they hang out the ropes and stuff like that,
Speaker 3: they kind of you know, where they get tossed over
Speaker 3: and then go back in like you know, Sean Michaels
Speaker 3: is one of those guys Ray Mysterio's one of those guys,
Speaker 3: fucking Kofi Kingston, for God's sake, you know, you know,
Speaker 3: if one of those guys were scheduled to win and
Speaker 3: then they just fucked it up in there.
Speaker 6: But they did want to range on great examples because
Speaker 6: they went on to win, and they did tease a
Speaker 6: lot of near eliminations to.
Speaker 3: My memory, no, and like but again not even near eliminations,
Speaker 3: but like crazy ones where if they just slipped for
Speaker 3: a second, they could ruin the whole fucking match and
Speaker 3: the potentially the future of the company.
Speaker 6: I do kind of wonder, and I'll be watching now
Speaker 6: that we have this discussion, I'll be watching for this
Speaker 6: this year in the Rumble. Well, it's going to be
Speaker 6: hard to watch for this if you don't know who wins.
Speaker 6: But maybe going back and watching it again, I wonder
Speaker 6: if they tell the guy who's eventually going to win
Speaker 6: to be extra careful, you know, And I wonder if
Speaker 6: you'd actually detect that more often than not, the guy
Speaker 6: who goes on to in the Rumble doesn't do a
Speaker 6: hell of a lot of risky near elimination teases, and
Speaker 6: that that mostly falls to the So why would why
Speaker 6: would you know.
Speaker 3: Really, the question is why would Fat two yeah go
Speaker 3: for such a powerful clothesline on Austin super Kick I
Speaker 3: don't remember. It's a close it's a close line, and
Speaker 3: it's like he rushes towards the ring. I mean, he
Speaker 3: rushes towards Austin and like like he's going to eliminate him.
Speaker 3: That's the thing, Like he's it looks like it would
Speaker 3: be a legitimate elimination.
Speaker 6: That's what I'm saying. It's like when you watch it back,
Speaker 6: it doesn't look like anything's amiss. It's weird that the
Speaker 6: commentators like all of a sudden notice he's gone.
Speaker 3: Right, And it's weird that the camera doesn't get it,
Speaker 3: like because it is in the background. It's like, you know,
Speaker 3: it's it's actually right.
Speaker 6: You would think that was elimination. They would have lined
Speaker 6: up the show.
Speaker 3: The shot is very well composed, Honestly, it's a very
Speaker 3: well composed shot where you get, like you said, you
Speaker 3: get Sean Michaels in the bottom right of the frame,
Speaker 3: and on the upper left is Austin very clearly getting
Speaker 3: tossed out. But it's just weird, Like I I mean,
Speaker 3: is anyone to ask for Kishi, like.
Speaker 2: No, not that I know of.
Speaker 6: I don't think anybody's asked him because no one even
Speaker 6: knew this story until recently. And I'm not sure there's
Speaker 6: been a ton of Q and a's or shoots to
Speaker 6: the Lukishi since then. But it'd be worth asking him,
Speaker 6: you know, because I don't think Sean's even answered the
Speaker 6: question of how he adjusted. You know, there must have
Speaker 6: been something that had to happen now that Steve was gone.
Speaker 6: Maybe it's just as simple as comma. You you pretend
Speaker 6: to be Steve now, and you know, we know that
Speaker 6: wrestler acts is supposed to I think it's Diesel tosses
Speaker 6: him and this is one of those rumbles that ends
Speaker 6: in a flash at the end.
Speaker 3: I know, I really hate that. I'm not a fan
Speaker 3: of that kind of a run at all.
Speaker 6: I don't like that either, but it seems to me,
Speaker 6: I like a.
Speaker 3: Good two to three minutes at least, let alone fucking
Speaker 3: Sean Michael's undertaker in two and seven, right, And.
Speaker 6: I think they know that, But what might you know?
Speaker 6: I might consider the possibility that because Austin isn't in
Speaker 6: there anymore, maybe a lot of shit they would have
Speaker 6: done to elongate. The final four is out the window
Speaker 6: because the guy that's replacing him doesn't know any doesn't
Speaker 6: know the score at all as to what was supposed
Speaker 6: to happen. Yeah, it's like, fuck this, we just need
Speaker 6: to accelerate to the point that Shawn dumps Diesel because
Speaker 6: the two we have besides that don't really know what
Speaker 6: the plan would have been, but.
Speaker 3: You think wouldn't wouldn't have Sean and Diesel would have
Speaker 3: had when they had a few I mean, unless it
Speaker 3: was supposed to be like an accidental thing like they
Speaker 3: were gonna like maybe triple team.
Speaker 6: Now because I think the Yeah, I don't think they
Speaker 6: wanted to. I don't think they wanted a Sean and Michael,
Speaker 6: a Shawn and Diesel epic back and forth for the
Speaker 6: last two because I think the whole idea was Sean
Speaker 6: kind of fucked Diesel a little bit by sneaking up
Speaker 6: on him. Yeah, I think that's the psychology they were
Speaker 6: looking for there, But I think it's more the three
Speaker 6: eliminations that come before that's just boom boom, boom boom,
Speaker 6: and then suddenly Sean's kicking Diesel out of the ring.
Speaker 6: Whereas I feel like perhaps those prior eliminations to Diesel
Speaker 6: making that last one might not have come as fast
Speaker 6: if things hadn't gone off the rails.
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 6: The ring just clears, there's like five people in the ring,
Speaker 6: and then like two minutes later, Sean's kicking Diesel in
Speaker 6: the head. But fascinating to think about. And I don't
Speaker 6: know if there are really any repercussions for Steve, at
Speaker 6: least not ones that he could see, but he definitely
Speaker 6: wonders if if it stalled a more serious push he
Speaker 6: could have gotten And he remembers looking to Sean and
Speaker 6: thinking to himself, quote, you must do something and overcome
Speaker 6: this tragedy. I just gave him the visual cue like, dude,
Speaker 6: I'm out. I screwed up. I don't know how Sean
Speaker 6: fixed that, But sometimes things happen that you can't control,
Speaker 6: and the rest of the guys just got to go
Speaker 6: on the fly. And that's when one guy will step
Speaker 6: up and he'll be that ring general and come up
Speaker 6: with the general plan. That's copasetic. That's something else that
Speaker 6: Steve Austin said about the situation that somebody kind of
Speaker 6: steps up and says, all right, here's how we're gonna
Speaker 6: do the match now. I'm sure that was to some
Speaker 6: degree Shawn Michaels. So we talk about that til towards
Speaker 6: towards attitude and this before Steve Austin is ready to
Speaker 6: exploit that to its max. Definitely something to that, And
Speaker 6: the question is, you know how much more might they
Speaker 6: have leaned into it if they didn't get the word
Speaker 6: so early late January that Kevin Ash and Scott Hall
Speaker 6: might be leaving, because they would be two key architects
Speaker 6: in this new direction. Sure, there's Bruce Pritchard on his
Speaker 6: podcast about this show ninety six Rumble, talking about the
Speaker 6: Kevin Nash middle finger and what it portended and who
Speaker 6: knew what at the time.
Speaker 14: I think a lot of it was trying to get
Speaker 14: to the point of being more real and having a
Speaker 14: little bit more of an edge, getting Kevin Nash out
Speaker 14: of giving a little more Kevin Nash attitude out of Diesel.
Speaker 14: So it was Vince was Arghanici just turn around and
Speaker 14: fucking flipping the finger. So obviously a lot of people
Speaker 14: are looking to that questioning it based on just our
Speaker 14: history and trying.
Speaker 7: Not to go that far.
Speaker 14: But there was really no written rule and or unwritten
Speaker 14: rule that we couldn't do that, and thought, what the hell, man,
Speaker 14: let's let's get a little edgy and be a little different.
Speaker 20: So let's talk about Diesel for moment here at this point,
Speaker 20: did you know he was leaving or did you still
Speaker 20: think he was sticking around here in January ninety.
Speaker 7: Six, I had a pretty good idea that he was leaving.
Speaker 3: Of course you did. Of course you did, your fucking idiot.
Speaker 7: I don't think that Vince wanted to believe that.
Speaker 20: Yet, because Diesel was still saying I'm staying right. Yes,
Speaker 20: but you did know that Razor was leaving, or at
Speaker 20: least talking to wcw Right.
Speaker 3: Correct.
Speaker 6: Yes, Vince didn't know, but I knew, or Vince was,
Speaker 6: according to an admitted to himself.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's always a fucking listen, Pritchard knew before everything.
Speaker 6: For what it's worth, Kevin Nash says that he made
Speaker 6: the decision, as we mentioned, and then back and forth
Speaker 6: over the February and your house finish and all that
Speaker 6: shit about bud Oar taking the jackknife. It fuck this,
Speaker 6: but you know how that is on you. Once you
Speaker 6: want to leave, you just wait for a thing to
Speaker 6: pipe two as the last straw, you know, oh, of course, yeah,
Speaker 6: but uh, it was known that Scott had got a
Speaker 6: good offer, and uh and I think I think the
Speaker 6: way Kevin Nash has told the story historically is they
Speaker 6: reached out to him first, that he he was the
Speaker 6: first person to get interest from WCW, and it kind
Speaker 6: of kind of blew him off. And Scott heard about
Speaker 6: the interest, said, hey, what you know, I haven't call
Speaker 6: him in like I hones to see what they're offering,
Speaker 6: Like that's crazy. And then what Scott came back with
Speaker 6: as far as what he was able to secure told
Speaker 6: Kevin like, oh my god, I got I got to
Speaker 6: explored this more than that. I didn't know they were
Speaker 6: talking that kind of schedule and that kind of money.
Speaker 6: And then and then Nash follows on and it was Nash.
Speaker 10: You know.
Speaker 6: Maybe that's what Richard saying. It's like people probably knew
Speaker 6: in the company that WCW reached out to Nash first,
Speaker 6: and when they hear the hall's going and they already
Speaker 6: know that Nash has got inquiries and they must have
Speaker 6: been so fucking terrified that Sean was going to go,
Speaker 6: Oh my god. I wonder if that played some role
Speaker 6: in putting him over like this. Oh maybe it's like, man,
Speaker 6: if we don't do this now, like he's gonna go
Speaker 6: with them, because, as Brett described in his book, Shawn's
Speaker 6: already really anxious about not having them around. And that
Speaker 6: would really, you know, that would characterize Sean Hunter and
Speaker 6: later Sean Waltman when he came back their whole WWF presentation,
Speaker 6: those guys being gone. Let's not forget the Triple H
Speaker 6: promo the night after Wrestlmingia fourteen, or the Sewn Waltman
Speaker 6: promo when he comes back the night after wrestling NA fourteen.
Speaker 6: If you know, Kevin National, Scott Hall would be here
Speaker 6: with us if they weren't being held hostage by WCW.
Speaker 6: Oh my god, yep, I'm talking about.
Speaker 3: That fucking promo.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 3: That that that so good, That made me so excited,
Speaker 3: That gave me so much excitement. I thought for sure
Speaker 3: that I was waiting for Hollanas to show up any
Speaker 3: fucking day.
Speaker 6: God, you had to bring their name up like that,
Speaker 6: You know, you're within your right and.
Speaker 3: Say that they wanted to be there. Oh, you know,
Speaker 3: it's one thing just to mention them, but to say
Speaker 3: they wanted to be there, and that they would be
Speaker 3: there if they weren't fucking being held hostage.
Speaker 6: Like holy shit, man, that was that was Wwfett. It's
Speaker 6: mojo back right there. Oh yeah, there was no turning back.
Speaker 6: So gold Dust Huge Night for gold Dust wins. His
Speaker 6: first title goes over Razor Clean. They lean heavily into
Speaker 6: the gamesmanship and that borders on homer eroticism. He gets
Speaker 6: the Razor Ramone chest tattoo he has as he does
Speaker 6: the form of a heart on his tit his shaved chest.
Speaker 6: And here's his book, dustin Rhadess Crossroads, talking about how
Speaker 6: this all came together.
Speaker 3: Wait, his book is called Crossroads. Yes it is, if
Speaker 3: you can believe it. I think that's not that's not appropriate.
Speaker 3: In the beginning, Vincent, does Cody know this?
Speaker 6: I think this is before Cody called his finish the Crossroads,
Speaker 6: But I could be wrong about that. I'm sure he
Speaker 6: knows about it. In the beginning, Vince put me with
Speaker 6: Scott Hall, who's a Razor Ramone Terry was it?
Speaker 3: What if he didn't know about it and we just
Speaker 3: told him? What if he didn't know that his brother's
Speaker 3: book was called Crossroads until we fucking missed well.
Speaker 6: That at least was confirmed to me that nobody read
Speaker 6: this book, because I remember I remember hearing a thing
Speaker 6: about it, not a thing about it. In the beginning,
Speaker 6: Vince put me with Scott Hall, who was Razor Ramone. Terry,
Speaker 6: his wife was at WW with me at this point,
Speaker 6: and although things weren't great between us, life was moving on.
Speaker 6: But Razor and I didn't click. He didn't like all
Speaker 6: this suggestive stuff I was doing in the ring. Marlena,
Speaker 6: which is Terry's character, was like my director. We had
Speaker 6: an usher boy, Ritchie, and we'd all sit in director
Speaker 6: chairs near the ring.
Speaker 3: I'd be one, who the fuck was Richie? Who was
Speaker 3: this class?
Speaker 6: I think he was special effects man Richie Posner that
Speaker 6: Bruce always talks about that they have at the company
Speaker 6: to do like props and stuff.
Speaker 3: I could be wrong.
Speaker 6: I did a little bit of looking. I think there's
Speaker 6: probably another pay per view where it's worth really like
Speaker 6: going to the mat and figuring it out, because this
Speaker 6: is his last night in the company, essentially as the
Speaker 6: usher character. They kind of drop it when Marlena come
Speaker 6: steps into the picture, but yeah, someone must know. I'm
Speaker 6: sure it's come up on Pritchard's podcast before because they've
Speaker 6: done like entire episodes and just the gold Dust character.
Speaker 6: So if you know, let us know. But that one
Speaker 6: didn't strike me as one to run all the way
Speaker 6: down to the bottom the earth on this one.
Speaker 3: But oh, I was curious.
Speaker 6: That's why I assumed it is Marlena, which is Terry's character.
Speaker 6: Was like my director. We had Nusher boy Richie. We'd
Speaker 6: all sit in the director's chairs near the ring. I'd
Speaker 6: be watching Razor wrestling and start rubbing on myself.
Speaker 3: Tremendous, That's that's fucking wild.
Speaker 6: I sent roses to the ring from gold Dust. At
Speaker 6: one point, I walked up to the ring and unzipped
Speaker 6: my suit while he was beating up his opponent. I
Speaker 6: stood there licking my lips, then pulled open my suit.
Speaker 6: I had a big heart painted onto my chest with
Speaker 6: Razor's names in the middle of it. Razor charged out
Speaker 6: of the ring after me. When it came time for
Speaker 6: us to meet for the Intercontinental Championship on pay per view,
Speaker 6: Razor didn't want anything to do with gold Dust. Scott
Speaker 6: and I were on good terms. But hey, no, hey, no,
Speaker 6: the Razor Goldust fore you. Scott and I were on
Speaker 6: good terms, but he wasn't comfortable with gold dust. He
Speaker 6: said it was because his kids were at home watching
Speaker 6: their father on television. He didn't want them seeing another
Speaker 6: man coming on to their dad that way. Granted it
Speaker 6: was a bit much. I didn't really understand or appreciate
Speaker 6: his perspective at the time because I was just playing
Speaker 6: a character and doing what I was told. That's when
Speaker 6: I called Vince until him I was having issues with Scott.
Speaker 6: He told me to call if I had any problems Vince.
Speaker 6: I'm just trying to do the character and he's making
Speaker 6: it difficult. What should I do? Vince told me not
Speaker 6: to keep touching him.
Speaker 3: Just keep touching him next time. Tell you what when
Speaker 3: you do it? Reach around, reach around, put your hand
Speaker 3: down his drunks and grab his cough. What do you
Speaker 3: think I want you to do? Pal? I want you
Speaker 3: to fuck him on camera? Wow? I want you to
Speaker 3: go all the way. I want to see gold dust
Speaker 3: penetration of Scott all wow. Well, he regrets calling. That's
Speaker 3: for sure, that's what the fans want. Therefore, that's what
Speaker 3: you want. That's what you want, he says to him.
Speaker 6: Just don't know it yet. Vince told me not to
Speaker 6: worry about anything. We're going with you, Dustin, just keep
Speaker 6: doing what you're doing. Once in a while, Razor would
Speaker 6: go and talk to Vince, but he'd come out all
Speaker 6: droopy faced. Vince made it clear he was going with me,
Speaker 6: and that's all there was to it.
Speaker 10: For me.
Speaker 6: That was awesome, going like world champion, like all the way.
Speaker 6: I think he means gold Dust's character is more important
Speaker 6: than Scott Hall's complaints.
Speaker 3: I see him.
Speaker 6: So what we want gold Dust to achieve is more
Speaker 6: important than you know. We're not gonna let Scott Hall
Speaker 6: talk us out of doing what we want with the character.
Speaker 6: And I'm sure they knew he was gone anyway, so
Speaker 6: fuck him. Scott had a hard time with it, no question,
Speaker 6: Golddust Rites. It all came to a head over in Europe.
Speaker 6: We were doing our run over there when I hurt
Speaker 6: my knee in the first minute of one of the
Speaker 6: first matches. We had to end that match fast because
Speaker 6: I needed to get to the hospital. We went a
Speaker 6: couple more days on the tour, but I couldn't work
Speaker 6: and eventually had to return home. One night, we were
Speaker 6: on a bus heading back to the hotel from one
Speaker 6: of the shows and I was drinking a couple of beers.
Speaker 6: Everyone knew Scott's issues. He started getting a little lippy
Speaker 6: with me. All those guys on the bus were friends, Kevin,
Speaker 6: ash On, Michaels, and Scott. He just kept running his mouth.
Speaker 6: I gave it right back at him. As we pulled
Speaker 6: up to the hotel, we were raising our voices. The
Speaker 6: bus was unloading, but Sean stayed back as kind of
Speaker 6: a mediator. Being Scott and me, we weren't quite to
Speaker 6: the point where we were going to throw down, but
Speaker 6: it was pretty intense verbally. We both got to the
Speaker 6: point where we started crying. Well, that's not what I expected.
Speaker 6: We left the bus and we were okay. But it
Speaker 6: wasn't long after that night that Scott asked for his
Speaker 6: release from w W. Razor wasn't a big gold Dust fan.
Speaker 3: He was such a yeah. And the remember that there's
Speaker 3: a there's a I think it's the the uh the
Speaker 3: Cape Fear episode of The Simpsons where where there's a
Speaker 3: guy who's like he's you know, he's supposed to be
Speaker 3: the the Jodn Baker character in the movie, where he
Speaker 3: like he's big, he's tough, he's like threatening. But in
Speaker 3: the Simpsons. He's like, just turns into a commute.
Speaker 6: Please for I'll be your friend, please just go away.
Speaker 3: You know, it just does the opposite, and it's that's
Speaker 3: what Yeah, yeah, exactly, that's what it is like.
Speaker 6: Come on, man, oh my god, crying over the angle idiots.
Speaker 6: Razor wasn't a big gold Dust fan. He was such
Speaker 6: a huge star doing all these good things with Kevin,
Speaker 6: Shawn and XPOC. They were like a band of brothers,
Speaker 6: and here I came in as this outsider doing something
Speaker 6: that was ahead of time, on the cutting edge and
Speaker 6: working him. Whether his kids were watching or not was
Speaker 6: relevant to me. If he didn't want them watching their
Speaker 6: father on television, then he should have had the power
Speaker 6: to make sure they didn't watch. I think it turned
Speaker 6: out to be just too much for him.
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 6: Maybe he didn't feel he was getting what he expected
Speaker 6: out of the deal. Everything was leading up to the
Speaker 6: match in Miami, where Scott is from. That is some
Speaker 6: to say, Miami. I don't know what he's talking about.
Speaker 6: What show that would have been?
Speaker 3: Yeah? What what's Miami? What an idiot?
Speaker 6: He writes, we had come back from Europe and he
Speaker 6: was chasing my Championship. We built up the angle over
Speaker 6: a couple of months.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, he doesn't know what he's talking about.
Speaker 6: The culmination was supposed to be a Miami street fight
Speaker 6: that would be shown via satellite at WrestleMania. Okay, so
Speaker 6: the show wasn't going to be in Miami, but they
Speaker 6: were going to call the match at between the two
Speaker 6: in Anaheim a Miami street fight that would have been
Speaker 6: shown via satellite at WRESTLEMINGI twelve of the Pond in Naheim, California.
Speaker 6: And as we all know, that becomes the Hollywood Backlot Brawl.
Speaker 6: And he gets out of that in his book where
Speaker 6: you know, they call it late audible when they were
Speaker 6: that Scott Hall is going to be suspended and leaving
Speaker 6: the company and not able to do this match, and
Speaker 6: they get Roddy Piper on the phone, who was kind
Speaker 6: of involved in fact, when they first got word that
Speaker 6: Hall was to be suspended for a marijuana test, Halls
Speaker 6: were called in a shoot interview that he shows up
Speaker 6: to an event in East Rutherford, New Jersey and gets
Speaker 6: told about this. History of WWF ninety six indicates that
Speaker 6: this show took place in February twenty fourth of nineteen
Speaker 6: ninety six and on that show due to Razor Ramone
Speaker 6: not being able to make it due to the suspension,
Speaker 6: who substitutes against one two three kid Roddy Piper. Ah,
Speaker 6: So they get Piper on the horn and back in
Speaker 6: the fold a full month out from WrestleMania, and thus
Speaker 6: the transition of the Goldiest feud to Piper is complete.
Speaker 6: They pre taped the backlot brawl portions that happen in
Speaker 6: the parking lot about a week out and it's a
Speaker 6: wild story where Goldust really gets his bell rung. Remember
Speaker 6: he was bleeding from the top of his head during
Speaker 6: this year.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, it's wild. It has had on.
Speaker 6: They were like apparently the scene where Goldust hits him,
Speaker 6: hits Roddy Piper with the gold convertible was an audible
Speaker 6: and there wasn't supposed to be a scene where Goldust
Speaker 6: hits him with a car, but Piper kind of like
Speaker 6: egged him on to do it, and they really laid
Speaker 6: into each other with stiff shots and bats. And the
Speaker 6: direction for the match, which Vince McMahon personally oversaw out
Speaker 6: there in La was that, you know, Goldust was supposed
Speaker 6: to get basically no offense. Besides a low blow, we
Speaker 6: just get the absolute piss beat out of them, which
Speaker 6: Piper was more than able to do. And then of
Speaker 6: course they do the second half of the match out
Speaker 6: in the arena after the tape had played for the
Speaker 6: people in the building, and Scott Hall is essentially never
Speaker 6: to be seen again, not never, but not in any
Speaker 6: kind of a role where much is going to happen.
Speaker 6: He of course makes that in May nineteen ninety six
Speaker 6: appearance farewell at the Garden Brother So we're sorry about that.
Speaker 6: So we heard about gold Dust's perception of how Scott
Speaker 6: felt about this whole thing. Here's Scott on a shoot interview.
Speaker 6: This is with Sean Oliver on the KFAP Commentary's segment
Speaker 6: talking about the oldest of you.
Speaker 17: I remember when Vince called me in. You gotta remember
Speaker 17: this is a whole different era that we're not allowed
Speaker 17: to fight on the floor. You don't hit guys with chairs, nothing,
Speaker 17: it's all. And they're real big on family entertainment. And
Speaker 17: so Vince calls me in and you know, they're doing
Speaker 17: the Kolda single and he goes, we're gonna need this Golda.
Speaker 17: You know we're gonna sing with you, and he goes,
Speaker 17: you know he's gonna be you know, he's gonna be
Speaker 17: in love with you. And I remember thinking, think like what,
Speaker 17: like I just went through a long angle with Sean
Speaker 17: and I worked with keV, who was like a big killer.
Speaker 17: And then like I'm thinking, and he goes, let me
Speaker 17: tell you about my first homosexual experience. And I remember
Speaker 17: sitting me and Kevin was sitting in Vincent as a TV.
Speaker 3: And I looked at keV.
Speaker 17: My first thought was as opposed to your most recent
Speaker 17: like you and Warrior on the bearskin rug but.
Speaker 6: Exactly.
Speaker 17: But I remember, you know, he was telling me about
Speaker 17: what the hell did he tell you about? No, he
Speaker 17: was told me about when he was living in North Carolina.
Speaker 17: He said, I was hitchhike one time. But see, and
Speaker 17: I don't know aly think about Vince's past, but I'm
Speaker 17: thinking hitchecond from where the pool to the country club,
Speaker 17: like what? And he said some guy picked him up
Speaker 17: and was like remnisy. I was like, but I'm thinking, Okay,
Speaker 17: now you're telling me what does this that do with wrestling?
Speaker 17: But I remember being a little resistant to it because
Speaker 17: I remember being really resistant to it because that wasn't
Speaker 17: the way we're doing business. And now it was great
Speaker 17: and I did a lot, you know, they put a
Speaker 17: lot of time in it, you know, and everything, and
Speaker 17: I just I don't know. It was if you look
Speaker 17: at the early Goldens stuff, it was really coming across
Speaker 17: homosexual vibes, you know, like later on as he got
Speaker 17: really over and the attitude there, it wasn't that way
Speaker 17: as much, but it was really strong then. And I
Speaker 17: remember feeling a little bit weird about I didn't get it.
Speaker 17: I didn't get why. I didn't get why he had
Speaker 17: been in love with me because I remember thinking, well,
Speaker 17: I'm not homophobic. Then she goes, you know, that'd be
Speaker 17: perfect because you know, Razor would be really homophobic, and
Speaker 17: I'm going, yeah, but I'm not. I'm not homophobic. I
Speaker 17: don't just don't. I don't swing that way. I don't
Speaker 17: have anything against it, but it's not my style. But
Speaker 17: me and Dustin ended up having pretty good matches because
Speaker 17: some of the stuff was my idea. I said, like
Speaker 17: wastelocked me then like just throw you know, it was
Speaker 17: like whoa. And then he had his then wife with
Speaker 17: him at the time, which was really hot.
Speaker 3: So I mean, we did okay, but I remember not.
Speaker 17: I remember being a little resistant to the angle at
Speaker 17: the beginning, and I think it got me in dusting
Speaker 17: off on the wrong foot because he thought I didn't
Speaker 17: want to.
Speaker 3: Work with him, all right, And it was like, no, bro,
Speaker 3: I got nothing against you.
Speaker 17: Your father started me, but I didn't like the whole gimmick,
Speaker 17: and I was just looking back, I was being a
Speaker 17: you know, like a goof because it it could have
Speaker 17: been huge, but it was a way different era that, right.
Speaker 6: Yeah, you didn't want it was a goof. Yeah, you
Speaker 6: didn't want to work with him? Yeah, right, If you
Speaker 6: don't want to work with him because he's gold dust,
Speaker 6: there's no difference.
Speaker 3: Right, exactly. Also, you're not Razor Ramone, so Rasor Ramone
Speaker 3: can be homophobic and Scott Hall not before it's true too, right,
Speaker 3: that's kind of the idea, like you're not Raisor Ramone.
Speaker 6: Right, and you're not saying Dustin Rhodes's gold dust, right, right.
Speaker 6: He just to keep feuding with his pals. He won
Speaker 6: a feud with Sean Waltman and Walman comes off the
Speaker 6: top and kicks him in the head and then they
Speaker 6: have the remember of the diaper match.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, of course next month February in your house.
Speaker 3: That's what you do.
Speaker 6: Put Mike sewn Waltman in the diaper and puts baby
Speaker 6: powder all over him and then skips down. But yeah,
Speaker 6: that's all they want to do is feud with each
Speaker 6: other forever and tell each other how much they were
Speaker 6: making so that they can all make the same and
Speaker 6: all that bullshit, and Paul power play on Vince and
Speaker 6: gang up on someone that pissed them off to get
Speaker 6: him out of the company and give him the shame.
Speaker 3: Really, it's like they do it. It's not particularly cool, No,
Speaker 3: it's not, but they think it is because is playing games.
Speaker 6: Nothing particularly coincidental that the company's fortunes turned around the
Speaker 6: second they split.
Speaker 3: Up, right exactly.
Speaker 6: But the mention made of Marlena there. This is not
Speaker 6: to be overlooked, of course. Terry boat Wright, she was
Speaker 6: involved as Alexander York as a Vala and WCW where
Speaker 6: Dustin Rhodes met her. She came into the company as
Speaker 6: a makeup lady that was kind of working for TBS
Speaker 6: at the time when they were shooting in the TBS studios,
Speaker 6: and so she kind of got involved in wrestling and
Speaker 6: met Dustin and married her, and Dusty Rhad's not a
Speaker 6: fan of her. There was a big fight between Dusty
Speaker 6: and Dustin years of not really talking to each other
Speaker 6: over this marriage, and I think Dusty probably was vindicated
Speaker 6: and learned on that one. But but you know, Marlena
Speaker 6: here coming into the forefront and to hear her tell it,
Speaker 6: this is from a shoot interview she did with Tommy
Speaker 6: Dreamer as the host for our video. She was talking
Speaker 6: about how the whole game it came together and what
Speaker 6: the you know, what the the impetus was for it.
Speaker 6: As far as I can tell, it's it's a woman
Speaker 6: who used to like being on camera, who wants to
Speaker 6: find another.
Speaker 3: Way to be on camera.
Speaker 13: I had just been at my family's home and my
Speaker 13: sister collected collectible Barbie dolls, the ones that were unique, okay,
Speaker 13: And there was a Bob Mackie. Bob Mackie used to
Speaker 13: do all of shares dresses that you know, were so
Speaker 13: over the top. And there was a Bob Mackie Barbie
Speaker 13: doll called Sun Goddess. And the minute I saw it,
Speaker 13: as she had Oliver Barbie's displayed in this one room
Speaker 13: and I remember looking at it and thinking, oh my god,
Speaker 13: like that that would look so good with gold dust,
Speaker 13: Like that's amazing. Then I started thinking, and when I
Speaker 13: when all this came to fruition, I'm in our tanning
Speaker 13: bed in our basement.
Speaker 12: Dustin's on the road, so I'm at home being mommy
Speaker 12: and I'm tanning, and I went, what is it that
Speaker 12: that w w F doesn't have. They've got scary Sherry,
Speaker 12: They've got Tammy Sitch.
Speaker 13: Screaming, you know, and this other one is like assist
Speaker 13: boom bought, but nothing is this elegant, strong female that
Speaker 13: has nothing to do with masculinity or whatever, like old school.
Speaker 13: And the more I thought about it, I was like,
Speaker 13: wait a second, they're trying. They're they're using all of
Speaker 13: these old movie lines with Dustin because he's this actor,
Speaker 13: which you know and Russo did all of that, and
Speaker 13: so I just started thinking, like, it would be so
Speaker 13: cool to have Dustin be managed by this very somewhat
Speaker 13: androgens female that is very strong, like the old school
Speaker 13: trains that you walk, you know, the red carpet to
Speaker 13: the oscars. And I called him, I said, dust I
Speaker 13: have this idea and I and I told him everything.
Speaker 12: That I just told you, you know. I said, this
Speaker 12: is what I see, and you know, this is what
Speaker 12: they're lacking, and he goes, I love it. He said, okay, great.
Speaker 12: He goes, okay.
Speaker 13: I said, you know, you'll tell you'll call Vince. He goes, no, y,
Speaker 13: if you want to do it, you call Vince. Yep,
Speaker 13: I don't work for Vince. You work for Vince like
Speaker 13: I've never even met them.
Speaker 3: I don't Vince.
Speaker 12: You you know you're telling me.
Speaker 13: He said, nope, if you want to do it, which, hindsight,
Speaker 13: that was Dustin not wanting to have anything to do
Speaker 13: with power at that point.
Speaker 12: But I called Vince's office.
Speaker 7: It's also too you look like you're pitching an idea
Speaker 7: for your wife.
Speaker 12: True. I called, and.
Speaker 13: I left a message, and I got a phone called
Speaker 13: back from Pat Patterson, ironically enough, and he gave me
Speaker 13: the very like kind obligatory Oh, you know, thank you
Speaker 13: so much. We appreciate that idea, but yeah, we're we're
Speaker 13: just not interested in using that, but thank you so much.
Speaker 12: Click. I didn't think another thing about it.
Speaker 13: I was so happy being a new mom, and I
Speaker 13: was at my grandparents' home on at Christmas and Dustin
Speaker 13: called me and said what are you doing? I said,
Speaker 13: I'm at granny Granny's. He said, pack your bags. They
Speaker 13: want to do your idea. That was it, everything about her.
Speaker 13: I created the name the cigar.
Speaker 10: You know.
Speaker 13: At one point I said, Vince, either she should walk
Speaker 13: to the ring with a glass of wine or a cigar.
Speaker 12: He said, do the cigar. But he wouldn't let me
Speaker 12: lie to it at first.
Speaker 7: It's good it doesn't like people will smoke.
Speaker 12: He hates that. Ironically enough, he's spent on the cover
Speaker 12: of cigars you know there what.
Speaker 6: What she was, Well, he doesn't like cigar smoke, so
Speaker 6: he wouldn't let her light the cigar. And then he
Speaker 6: ends up one time being on the cover of a
Speaker 6: magazine called Cigarfiicionado. Vince, Oh my god, I remember if
Speaker 6: this was if the Clinton cigar stuff had come out yet.
Speaker 6: I always thought it had something to do with that,
Speaker 6: But no, I don't think so, because I don't think
Speaker 6: it came out until ninety eight.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that was a little ways the ways away still.
Speaker 6: Yeah, but that's that's where the emlanes comes from. It's
Speaker 6: where Marlena came. As far as the name, Uh, have
Speaker 6: you ever heard of Marlene Dietrich. Sure, of course legend,
Speaker 6: that's that's thought to be the genesis for the name.
Speaker 6: And here is Marlena commenting on that in terms of
Speaker 6: where the name came.
Speaker 14: From, Marlena, you came up with the name everything, Hang on,
Speaker 14: no frickin thing that they came.
Speaker 12: Up with, I did it. It says your character was
Speaker 12: modeled after Marlene Dietrich, that.
Speaker 13: Rlana Marlena Dietrich was one of the old school Hollywood
Speaker 13: women that back when it was not appropriate for women
Speaker 13: to wear pants, she would wear like men's suits and pants.
Speaker 12: And so I thought that name.
Speaker 13: I had two names that I liked, Oscar because that
Speaker 13: was very androgynous, plus it played along with the whole
Speaker 13: movie thing, or Marlena, and of those two, they decided Marlena.
Speaker 12: But those were both of my you know, both of
Speaker 12: my names.
Speaker 7: It worked out.
Speaker 3: I always thought you were you were going to be
Speaker 3: you remind me so, no, it was kind of it was.
Speaker 13: And at the time too, they were already getting massive
Speaker 13: heat because you know, the advertisers were going, I'm not
Speaker 13: really sure about this, you know, so I kind of
Speaker 13: helped neutralize a bit of that with me being female.
Speaker 6: You know, it's funny she talked to about androgynous this
Speaker 6: and that, and Marle and Dietrich wearing pants and stuff.
Speaker 6: Do you I kind of remember this now that she's
Speaker 6: talking about this. Do you remember in the very earliest
Speaker 6: days of this gimmick, like they were talking about Marlena
Speaker 6: like she might be a guy.
Speaker 3: Do you remember this? I don't remember that.
Speaker 6: I even feel like there was reference made to like
Speaker 6: like she had like a bulge under her dress or something.
Speaker 6: I could be making this up, but maybe they said
Speaker 6: these kind of things about China too, which they really
Speaker 6: you know, went hard on that. But I do remember
Speaker 6: them trying to get us to think that, like because
Speaker 6: Goldust was, you know, obviously supposed to be they would
Speaker 6: say androgynous over and over again to avoid what they knew.
Speaker 6: It's just like Muhammed Assan. You know, this guy is
Speaker 6: going to get heat because people are gonna yell the
Speaker 6: you know, slurs at him, like there's even if you
Speaker 6: don't even if it doesn't come out and say he's
Speaker 6: he's gay, that's still the heat. And you know full
Speaker 6: well that's the heat even if you get really cute
Speaker 6: in your booking, so you can't be accused of homophobia,
Speaker 6: and I do feel like that was part of it, Like,
Speaker 6: this guy can't just come out liking women. That's not
Speaker 6: what we want to do. So we have to call
Speaker 6: in a question whether she's actually a woman, and she's
Speaker 6: just too mysterious for us to be able to tell.
Speaker 6: But it's interesting to hear her talk about like names
Speaker 6: like Oscar and stuff like that. Was definitely part of
Speaker 6: the idea for this character was that you weren't sure
Speaker 6: if she was a woman, which is weird because she
Speaker 6: very much presents like a woman.
Speaker 3: I know, right, I mean you can't fucking I mean
Speaker 3: those fucking you know, her chest definitely reads women. Yeah,
Speaker 3: well there's that too, yes, you know, fucking exploding out
Speaker 3: of everything she wears.
Speaker 6: And eventually it comes down to her. And this is
Speaker 6: around ninety seven, right, because we heard some of this, Yeah,
Speaker 6: we heard some of this when we went through the
Speaker 6: CID journey. And of course he has such an important
Speaker 6: early in ninety seven, winning the title from Brett on Raw.
Speaker 6: I think it's on that raw in fact, where Barlena
Speaker 6: for the first time says he's all man, oh yeah, right,
Speaker 6: like finally confirming that they're actually a romantically involved couple
Speaker 6: and not just too like you know, head, just like
Speaker 6: you know, expressing sexuality all the time, but not actually together.
Speaker 6: So that is Marlena. We see her for the first
Speaker 6: time right here at the ninety six Rumble. And finally
Speaker 6: another impactful character that we see for the first time
Speaker 6: in WWF on this show. Take me back, boss, how
Speaker 6: excited were you about the arrival of Vader?
Speaker 11: Oh?
Speaker 3: I was fucking this is the show, so fucking excited
Speaker 3: when they because look again, at the time, it was
Speaker 3: like WCW was always taking guys. Yes, you know, he
Speaker 3: didn't really see it the other way around. They had Hogan,
Speaker 3: they had Savage, like everyone, they had, you know, even
Speaker 3: that Honky Tonk. They had fucking Earthquake, all these guys
Speaker 3: who who. I was like, you know, I held on
Speaker 3: as being loyalists. You know, we're jumping ship. And so
Speaker 3: when when I saw Vader being announced for the the Rumble,
Speaker 3: I was fucking thrilled, thrilled, thrilled, Like to have Austin
Speaker 3: jump ship first, and then to have fucking Vader of
Speaker 3: all people jump ship. I was like, this is this
Speaker 3: is game changer.
Speaker 6: And Foley Fully's coming, Johnny b Bad's coming, it would
Speaker 6: be the year of them loading up on ww talent
Speaker 6: for sure. And uh yeah, I mean they they built
Speaker 6: him up big time with a series of vignettes where
Speaker 6: he's just you know, crushing various things and and various
Speaker 6: states of training. They show him I'll never forget this
Speaker 6: moon salting on a trampoline outdoors. Yeah, to get an
Speaker 6: idea of what he could do in the sky. So
Speaker 6: here's how the Vader Hints began on WWTV.
Speaker 4: On the Rocky Mountains in Boulder, Colorado. Ah, I'll bring
Speaker 4: you the Prince of Power.
Speaker 1: It's the Lapsed Fan Wrestling podcast, the wrestling podcast that
Speaker 1: knows the boys need their candy. It's the Lapsed Fan.
Speaker 1: He's the Lapsed Fan Wrestling Podcast with Jack and Carnassio
Speaker 1: m JP sorrow.
Speaker 3: Sounds good, sounds accurate from a leaning in.
Speaker 6: They pair him with Jim Cornett as a mouthpiece as well,
Speaker 6: who does a lot of work getting the people hyped
Speaker 6: up on Vader's forthcoming arrival.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that was a fucking that was a choice. I
Speaker 3: was certainly a great choice to have for him.
Speaker 6: Are you saying that sarcastically or no?
Speaker 3: I loved I loved Cornette and Vader. That to me
Speaker 3: was a great, great it was fantastic. I was a
Speaker 3: big fan of that.
Speaker 6: He'd proved to be very valuable in ways. Maybe they
Speaker 6: didn't even anticipate, because did you know that Vader comes
Speaker 6: into the nineteen ninety six Royal Rumble in his first
Speaker 6: night with the company with a huge shoulder injury.
Speaker 2: No, I did not know.
Speaker 6: That's why he's so exceptionally fat in this match.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 6: I always wonder.
Speaker 3: When and I always thought it was just because he
Speaker 3: ate a lot.
Speaker 6: Well, we'll get into it, but I always wondered why
Speaker 6: on this show he's wearing his singlet backwards.
Speaker 3: And it says, God, damn it.
Speaker 6: I never fucking noticed this Vader time on the back,
Speaker 6: not the front like it always did in WW. And
Speaker 6: even if it didn't say Vader Time, the space where
Speaker 6: the letters are was always in the front, and I
Speaker 6: was looking at it, having, you know, learned about the
Speaker 6: shoulder injury that he came into this match with and
Speaker 6: the subsequent effect on his waistline and presentation above the waistline,
Speaker 6: I was like, wait a minute, maybe switching the sing
Speaker 6: letter around actually served to hide more fat than would
Speaker 6: have been hidden if he had it the other way around,
Speaker 6: because it's so weird because he's got the strap down
Speaker 6: the middle of his so you just see his tits
Speaker 6: on both sides. Yeah, the sing let's supposed to cover
Speaker 6: your nipples and it doesn't. His nipples are on full
Speaker 6: display because he's got the thing on backwards. And I
Speaker 6: never knew why, and I just started to deduce that
Speaker 6: maybe it had something to do with Look, because you
Speaker 6: can pull up the sides better, you don't see as
Speaker 6: much sag underneath the tits when you have it on
Speaker 6: this way, because like the back, which is tighter and higher,
Speaker 6: covers more of the stomach than I think the other
Speaker 6: way around does because it droops on the other way.
Speaker 6: That's just my my supposition as to why he did this,
Speaker 6: because it was very strange looking. But when he gets
Speaker 6: in the ring, you can kind of see he's he's lumbering,
Speaker 6: he's not, and he's way fatter than he usually is
Speaker 6: and he's not bulked.
Speaker 10: You know.
Speaker 6: The thing with Vader that was always over the top
Speaker 6: was that not only was he massive for hun a
Speaker 6: plus powder, he was ripped too. He had he had
Speaker 6: the muscles.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I mean he was like, you know, he
Speaker 3: was a boulder. He was like a giant beast.
Speaker 6: His size wasn't just in the stomach, it was in
Speaker 6: his shoulder and his biceps and his traps.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: But he just like when you saw him, you didn't
Speaker 3: look at him and say, like even look at him
Speaker 3: like uh like the Mabel, right Like, he looked like
Speaker 3: a beast.
Speaker 6: He looked like a animal. And he you know, he's
Speaker 6: admitted to it. He broyed up and to be that
Speaker 6: big plus Roids, I mean, Jesus, you're creating a fucking
Speaker 6: monster for sure.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 6: But now, unfortunately the shoulder injury came at a terrible
Speaker 6: time for him, and they really didn't want to push
Speaker 6: off his Rumble debut. As Brett talked about in his book,
Speaker 6: they were really hurting for an infusion of new talent
Speaker 6: that could spark interest at the time, but eventually, I
Speaker 6: would argue, lead to them biting their swallowing their pride
Speaker 6: and bringing back Ultimate Warrior even and cutting a deal
Speaker 6: that was destined to fail. So here's Vader, and they
Speaker 6: need to put him in the position to look dominant
Speaker 6: in this rumble because they want this to be his
Speaker 6: big coming out party. And you can do some unique things,
Speaker 6: introducing a new monster in the Brumbles. He can pummel
Speaker 6: on so many people at once.
Speaker 3: Of course, that's kind of the beauty of it. You
Speaker 3: can you can go to go to fucking town and.
Speaker 6: Knowing monster like this he does and he ate is
Speaker 6: the ship out of people in this one. This is
Speaker 6: where it comes from. I think back of my A
Speaker 6: to A to eight to some w c W. It's
Speaker 6: this show that I watched one hundred times sure where
Speaker 6: he comes in going high low, high low, cuffing people
Speaker 6: with the black gloves, oh for sure. And he's cuffing
Speaker 6: people exclusively because he can't really do a whole hele
Speaker 6: of a lot in the ring. He's throwing probably three
Speaker 6: times the punches he would throw. That's what all he
Speaker 6: can do. And remember what happens the night after this,
Speaker 6: I'm wraw is when he and he takes care of
Speaker 6: Grilla monsoon, right, he attacks really months soon after attacking
Speaker 6: Savio Vega and gives girl month soon. Of course, then
Speaker 6: the president of the World Wrestling Federation a Vader bomb
Speaker 6: and Gorilla goes away. And that's all done so that
Speaker 6: they have a reason to suspend him from TV. So
Speaker 6: we can go have surgery on the shoulder. Wow, that's
Speaker 6: why that was done so quickly. It turned out to
Speaker 6: be greatly impactful. And the Jim Cornette point is great
Speaker 6: because while Vader is off TV, you can still have
Speaker 6: Jim Cornette on TV, you know, explaining why this guy's
Speaker 6: a huge deal and how dangerous.
Speaker 3: Oh, that's fascinating, and you have this offense. I never
Speaker 3: really thought of that. That's brilliant.
Speaker 6: And he comes back on the on the wrong foot
Speaker 6: with that injury. He doesn't let it heal very well
Speaker 6: because he's so eager to get back in the mix.
Speaker 6: He's back in just a few weeks. Remember there's that
Speaker 6: weird six man tag at Wrestling A twelve where he's yeah, yeah,
Speaker 6: he's not really going for the gusto as a single's force.
Speaker 6: He comes back in kind of a water down program
Speaker 6: where he's a face in the crowd and he never
Speaker 6: gets it back. I mean that that was a horrible
Speaker 6: first impression for him. By the time, he's somewhat the
Speaker 6: old Vader from a physical health standpoint, and they get
Speaker 6: to Summer Slam ninety six. You know, enough of whispering
Speaker 6: has been done by Sean and others that.
Speaker 3: This guy, right, you know he is. He can't recover troubles.
Speaker 6: And there was a lot of issues right up until
Speaker 6: the Rumble itself in and around Vader's contractual status because
Speaker 6: apparently he had an agent who I couldn't really find
Speaker 6: the name of and isn't mentioned, but is referenced several times,
Speaker 6: including in Bruce Pritchard's podcast talking about this time period
Speaker 6: that was making closing a deal with Leon White very difficult.
Speaker 6: And The Observer even said at the time that Vader
Speaker 6: went into the Royal Rumble that night without a final
Speaker 6: inked contract, without a wow signed a deal in place,
Speaker 6: and Pritchard didn't quite deny that. He just chalked it
Speaker 6: up to the agent making things more difficult than the
Speaker 6: tail end. Vader takes to his book, which we'll read
Speaker 6: fro him now and sort of confirms that that circumstance
Speaker 6: at least, you know, he ended up not being a
Speaker 6: great fan of the agent who was in play at
Speaker 6: the time. But here's the lay of the land and
Speaker 6: why the Vader appearance for the first time in the
Speaker 6: WWF for the nineteen ninety six Royal Rumble, while in
Speaker 6: packful was kind of snake bitten at the same time. Boss,
Speaker 6: Let's take us to Vader's book, Vader Time.
Speaker 3: All right, I'm not going to do the voice. It's
Speaker 3: too painful to read this much. Vince was a class act.
Speaker 3: He offered a great opportunity, global exposure and really good
Speaker 3: money to return the favor. I was up front with
Speaker 3: Vince right from the start. I told him about the
Speaker 3: shoulder injury I was working on in w CW. He
Speaker 3: was working I'm working on the shoulder injury, and I'm
Speaker 3: working on the shoulder injury right now, kind of working
Speaker 3: on that. It's hurt. And let him know that I
Speaker 3: really needed shoulder surgery. One of the big problems for
Speaker 3: me initially was that shoulder injury. I was hesitant to
Speaker 3: sign on with the WW because I felt I couldn't
Speaker 3: deliver the monster Vader that I wanted to. I could
Speaker 3: barely lift my shoulder up over my head. God, I hope.
Speaker 3: I mean anyone who can lift their shoulder over their
Speaker 3: head as a that's a problem. Yeah, I know, let
Speaker 3: alone body slam anyone. Vince didn't care. He didn't want
Speaker 3: w to change their mind and call me back. He
Speaker 3: also didn't want another promotion coming along and scooping me up. Well,
Speaker 3: do you think you can heal up in a reasonable
Speaker 3: amount of time, say within a year? He said, yes. There,
Speaker 3: I said, I'm not the issue before. I just knew
Speaker 3: the operation.
Speaker 6: That's really smart of you to deploy it and direct
Speaker 6: quote that's great.
Speaker 3: Good, Then it's settled.
Speaker 6: Yeah, tell me twice then so I can't get out
Speaker 6: of bed. Good it's settled. See in Fresno.
Speaker 3: So I don't can't get out of bed see in
Speaker 3: the rumble. He didn't care about the injury period, end
Speaker 3: it there, fucking it and brought me in Anyhow, after signing,
Speaker 3: we decided I would work for some of the some
Speaker 3: with the injury, uh and get some interest in my
Speaker 3: character before taking some time off for the surgery. There
Speaker 3: were a number of weeks leading up to the to
Speaker 3: the w Royal Rumble. Vince decided that he would announce
Speaker 3: my debut for the pay per view to boost sales
Speaker 3: and hype it up like crazy on television. How did
Speaker 3: Vader do with sales? Did a lot of people buy
Speaker 3: it because of Vader? I don't think so, but I
Speaker 3: think that, I mean they fucking listen, listen all right?
Speaker 3: I mean, yes, the injury I'm sure is a problem,
Speaker 3: but they fucking bury him right from the get go
Speaker 3: in this match.
Speaker 6: Yeah, We've talked about this for years. It's like the
Speaker 6: ultimate yeah WTF spot in a Royal rumble They've had.
Speaker 3: They've had every rumble, You've had moments where I mean
Speaker 3: even even Yokozuna himself. Yokozuna himself had like a dozen
Speaker 3: guys and the ninety three Rumble trying to eliminate him.
Speaker 3: He didn't even fucking bud, he didn't exactly. And yet
Speaker 3: in this one, Sean Michaels is to eliminate both Vader
Speaker 3: and Yokozuna at the same time, but just fucking lightly
Speaker 3: touching one arm each.
Speaker 6: Yeah, puts his arm in both of their ass cracks
Speaker 6: and shoves him over the ropes.
Speaker 3: It's one of the most ridiculous. Like at the time,
Speaker 3: I was fucking thrilled because I was like, that's amazing,
Speaker 3: you know, because it's like you don't expect that, and
Speaker 3: so it's exciting as a kid to like, yeah, and like,
Speaker 3: you know, listen, all I wanted was a babyface to
Speaker 3: win the rumble. I want a Diesel for sure. But
Speaker 3: Shawn Michaels was a fine second. I don't know I
Speaker 3: made that clear earlier, but I was fine with seaw
Speaker 3: Michael's winning as a second second place and so like
Speaker 3: that was amazing to me at the time. But then
Speaker 3: you know, you're like, wait a minute, how the fuck
Speaker 3: is how the fuck is rinky ding Shawn Michaels not
Speaker 3: able to eliminate? Is he to eliminate Yokozuna? But fucking
Speaker 3: earthquake couldn't? Right? You know what the fuck?
Speaker 6: I think a couple of dropkicks wouldn't have been a
Speaker 6: lot better, I.
Speaker 3: Meaning could have been better. I mean, I mean, I mean,
Speaker 3: especially for Vader, like in his first match, you give
Speaker 3: them just like tossed out like a rag doll, Like
Speaker 3: that's just stupid. Yeah, he should have been accidentally eliminated,
Speaker 3: like you know, something like that, like would have been
Speaker 3: way better. Before they could promote my coming in, they
Speaker 3: had to first figure out what they were going to
Speaker 3: call me. The name that there was some discussion at
Speaker 3: first be on the scenes as to what Vince wanted
Speaker 3: to call me right after I debuted. Since Vince likes
Speaker 3: to own your name, he wanted to change my gimmick
Speaker 3: into something he was going to call the mastodon, which
Speaker 3: was like a giant prehistormic wooly mammoth.
Speaker 2: That's it.
Speaker 3: The man they called wooly mammoth. What do you think
Speaker 3: I like it? How about woody mammoth.
Speaker 6: Picture VADERI after the wsw run coming through the curtain,
Speaker 6: and they call him the mastodon.
Speaker 3: I think the wooly mammoth, mammoth masterdon el mastadono.
Speaker 6: H isn't that what they call it in Mexico?
Speaker 3: Pell the the Lucha libra el masdonides right.
Speaker 6: Something like that?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 6: Sounds good? Chili Keile said, how.
Speaker 3: About how about we call you the wooly mammoth or
Speaker 3: l mammoth o wooly delicious. I think, listen, I'm telling
Speaker 3: you you know what what you gotta do. So here's
Speaker 3: the thing, the red and black get rid of it.
Speaker 3: We're talking full brown body.
Speaker 6: Sit right, all right with trunk man Tower on the phone.
Speaker 3: All right, get your trunk out and you'll come in there.
Speaker 3: And what you'll do is you'll you'll take the trunk
Speaker 3: and you'll just suck people's faces. And that's how you
Speaker 3: beat him. The man they call Woolly big Fan.
Speaker 6: I think he gets to it. But it's Cornett, who
Speaker 6: really stands up, who had a voice in the creve
Speaker 6: to help us. You know, we just got the guy
Speaker 6: in w CW like WW champion coming in here. We're
Speaker 6: gonna like force the people to memory hole. He is
Speaker 6: who he is, which is the only reason Richard signing
Speaker 6: him anyway.
Speaker 3: Right, Jim Cornette one of wrestling's top managers of all time,
Speaker 3: one of wrestling's top managers of all time. Okay, stepped
Speaker 3: up and went to bat for me. He was a
Speaker 3: fan of my work and approached Vince McMahon. He's fucking fader.
Speaker 3: Jim said, oh yeah, it's already one of the biggest
Speaker 3: names everyone ws W Japan, all around the world. And
Speaker 3: you want to change his name, call him Macedon.
Speaker 6: Well, Brian Pelder friend of mine.
Speaker 3: Uh wait, there's something cut off here. But they say
Speaker 3: dress up in some elephant costume, perhaps something worse.
Speaker 6: Oh geez, really sorry.
Speaker 3: Part of it's cut off. It goes from Masadon, then
Speaker 3: it goes to the kindall thing, and then you said elephant. Yeah,
Speaker 3: part of the there's part of it elephant. Actually, I
Speaker 3: might have the book.
Speaker 6: Actually, let's take a look. Dress up in some elephant costume.
Speaker 6: Or perhaps something worse. I was able to keep my
Speaker 6: name for the most part, as the man they call Vader.
Speaker 6: I've often wondered what if we had gone with the
Speaker 6: Master done gimmick all in. Vince wanted to change the
Speaker 6: name to Mastadon, to create a whole new character, with
Speaker 6: a whole new look, to make money with, you know what.
Speaker 6: Not having the business sense that I do today, I
Speaker 6: probably should have done it. Here's Vader, the fuck is
Speaker 6: wrong with you? Don't be an idiot, Don't be a
Speaker 6: fucking Vince was a great genius. He said to me,
Speaker 6: you've been Vader. You'll always be known as Vader, but
Speaker 6: I want to change your name here in the WBF
Speaker 6: officially to Mastadon.
Speaker 3: That was a big change. Rather than masters, Oh Adrian, Mastadonis,
Speaker 3: you could be you could be like kind of the
Speaker 3: ring leader for the body don us. You got the
Speaker 3: Skip and you got zip and you got mastered. That
Speaker 3: was a big change. Rather than make a quick decision,
Speaker 3: I asked to think about it. I knew he would
Speaker 3: own the name and he would market it because it
Speaker 3: was his, but I would have still gotten a good
Speaker 3: piece of it. He would have made money with it,
Speaker 3: and maybe even more than with the Vader gimmick. Who
Speaker 3: knows there have been new mastered on shirts, new mastered
Speaker 3: on action figures, and just all kinds of new gimmick
Speaker 3: stuff that Vader fans could buy. Dude, dude, just stop it, man,
Speaker 3: stop it.
Speaker 6: Everybody would have bought a single more. He's coming up
Speaker 6: with this thing, ready, you know what.
Speaker 3: The thing is. He's come up with this because he's
Speaker 3: he's so desperate because his career didn't go so well
Speaker 3: in WW that he's come up with but maybe I
Speaker 3: should have done this, and I would have been better
Speaker 3: exactly exactly now, you wouldn't have been You would have
Speaker 3: been worse off.
Speaker 6: He wants to tell himself that Vince underinvested in him
Speaker 6: because he didn't take the name, and that if he
Speaker 6: took the name, there would be all these opportunities that
Speaker 6: would open up before No, Sir Sean would have thought
Speaker 6: you were lame no matter what you did.
Speaker 3: And therefore, and he was, he was.
Speaker 2: Like, what do you want?
Speaker 3: We were wrestling an animal?
Speaker 6: Fuck that absolutely he would have been, you know, probably
Speaker 6: even less enthusiastic about working with you on a staff.
Speaker 6: It wouldn't even called Vader and he wasn't even going
Speaker 6: to get that cachet by working with you. I'm not
Speaker 6: sure why, but I didn't do it.
Speaker 3: He said.
Speaker 6: There are a bunch of action figures made when I
Speaker 6: was Vader with the WBF, probably a dozen of them,
Speaker 6: but they all trade me as I had always looked. However,
Speaker 6: when Vince creates a character, it becomes his baby. He
Speaker 6: loves it more. I might have had the royalties to
Speaker 6: thirty or forty action figures coming in, had I let
Speaker 6: him change my name and look, thirty or forty action figures,
Speaker 6: who's even I mean what.
Speaker 3: I mean, I don't think. I don't think even Steve
Speaker 3: Austin has thirty or four and definitely not in that era.
Speaker 6: But you know, he's getting he's writing this book, he's
Speaker 6: getting some checks, and he's like, man, this would be
Speaker 6: three times the amount. He said, no, wouldn't dude. Of course,
Speaker 6: that's wrestlers, You know what I mean. It's never like,
Speaker 6: it's never what it is, it's always what.
Speaker 3: It could be.
Speaker 6: Yeah, of course it's all exactly. In hindsight, I probably
Speaker 6: should have. That was a mistake. That was just stupid
Speaker 6: on my part. Maybe I should have said, yes, sir,
Speaker 6: the Master down sounds just fine. Please, oh my god,
Speaker 6: my contract. However, I want to see at least five
Speaker 6: action figures on the market every year. Imagine that term,
Speaker 6: that deal term, Vince Bilg, what are you talking about.
Speaker 6: We don't have any control over that. First of all,
Speaker 6: we only come out with action figures twice a year,
Speaker 6: Acting Max.
Speaker 3: Anyway, right now.
Speaker 6: I forced three more Evader action figures on the market
Speaker 6: for what And he probably would have said, you got it.
Speaker 6: He wouldn't forgetting behind his idea. Mick took the mankind
Speaker 6: character and look where he went. He did what they
Speaker 6: asked to start and then became one of Vince's favorite.
Speaker 6: Steve Austin did too. He played some character called the
Speaker 6: ring Master and then also went on to what he
Speaker 6: is today by dropping it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly, he let it go and it became great.
Speaker 3: If he stuck with it, he would have no action figures. Right.
Speaker 6: This again was do you remember the Jacks though that
Speaker 6: had the star on the boots?
Speaker 3: Remember this hole? Yes, God, yes, that's a lot to
Speaker 3: deal with.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 6: The first Steve Austin bone crunching was basically the ring Master.
Speaker 3: YEP.
Speaker 6: This again was my lack of understanding politics.
Speaker 3: Did it have the weird logo on the tights too?
Speaker 3: I feel like it did, didn't I don't remember that. No,
Speaker 3: I think one.
Speaker 6: I think they did come out with one with that,
Speaker 6: but it wasn't the same one that had the stars
Speaker 6: on the boots. I feel like that was just black.
Speaker 6: That could be wrong, though. This again was my lack
Speaker 6: of understanding politics. Not taking on the mast Don gimmick
Speaker 6: may have alienated Vince and hurt my future in his
Speaker 6: company to some degree before even started with the promote
Speaker 6: Live and Learn? Do you have the WWF debut?
Speaker 10: Here?
Speaker 6: H mean, Jack here, I'll just I'll just keep going. Oh,
Speaker 6: it's about halfway down.
Speaker 3: It's this w W. I do have it, I do
Speaker 3: have it. Go for it. My very first World Rossling
Speaker 3: Entertainment appearance was as a participant in the Rumble Match.
Speaker 3: I entered at number thirteen, an unlucky number for everyone
Speaker 3: in attendance.
Speaker 6: Okay, an lucky number. You could just say, what why
Speaker 6: for everyone in attendance? What does that?
Speaker 3: I mean, what did that do to any everybody watching
Speaker 3: this show? I don't understand these people in the ring actually,
Speaker 3: but okay, I eliminated Jake Roberts Doug Gilbert, one member
Speaker 3: of the Headshrinkers. I think, yeah, they weren't in I mean, no,
Speaker 3: the head Shrinkers no nothing, No, no, I mean I
Speaker 3: mean Fat two was in it. Let's talk about the heads. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and Savio Vega. I was then eliminated by Sean Michaels,
Speaker 3: but then to come off as a real monster, I
Speaker 3: re entered the ring and kicked everyone ass that I could,
Speaker 3: including old HBK for revenge. I have to admit it.
Speaker 3: When I went back into the ring after being eliminated,
Speaker 3: I was so mean. I took some pain medication to
Speaker 3: get through the pain on my shoulder Indrey, and I
Speaker 3: didn't care who I steamrolled over. So wait a minute,
Speaker 3: So you took pain meds and you became angrier, Well.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I think the pain meds in him. Oh, I
Speaker 6: didn't have to worry about hurting the arm, so we
Speaker 6: just started going next.
Speaker 3: Except you do have to worry about hurting the arm,
Speaker 3: because it doesn't heal your pain, It just numbs your pain.
Speaker 3: I was still four hundred pounds and I made good
Speaker 3: and sure that everyone knew just who I was. My
Speaker 3: shoulder should have been on fire the whole time, but
Speaker 3: the pills blocked it. Let's go. I feared that I
Speaker 3: was going to do further damage, but I couldn't feel it.
Speaker 6: So when you see Vader on the show, he is
Speaker 6: pilled up to the max.
Speaker 3: Yeah, all right. I knew I wasn't going to be
Speaker 3: around long, however, so I gave it all my all.
Speaker 3: Bitsic Man was totally cool to how we let me
Speaker 3: go on to They had me written off in the
Speaker 3: best way to make me continue to look bad and strong.
Speaker 3: I was written off by suspension rather than an injury
Speaker 3: angle coming in that would have made me look weak.
Speaker 3: They had me defeat Savio Vega on the following One
Speaker 3: Night Raw. Then I unable to calm me down. W
Speaker 3: officials became my next victims as I plowed through whoever
Speaker 3: got in my path like an angry bull. Eventually, W
Speaker 3: President grillamnd soon stepped in. He demanded that I stopped
Speaker 3: my attack, and he too received a fresh Vader bomb
Speaker 3: for his peacekeeping efforts. As a result, Vader was suspended
Speaker 3: in the story, while in real life, Leon White was
Speaker 3: off to get a much needed shoulder surgery. It all
Speaker 3: happened so fast. The very next day after the gorillamn
Speaker 3: soon angle I was off to the hospital. My agent
Speaker 3: agreed for me to come back in ninety days, when
Speaker 3: in reality I probably needed more like ten months to recover.
Speaker 3: Even though that was what was in my contract, didn't happen.
Speaker 3: When I came out of surgery. I couldn't bench press
Speaker 3: one hundred pounds. I couldn't do a push up. I
Speaker 3: couldn't I can't raise arm my hand over my head
Speaker 3: yet in the ring yet him in the ring with
Speaker 3: the WE. It was just too early. My whole first
Speaker 3: year in the WWE. They had a monster of a
Speaker 3: guy who could usually bench press six hundred pounds who
Speaker 3: had to fake it well, I mean, Leon, I mean,
Speaker 3: isn't that the whole fucking job? Man, Come on, dude,
Speaker 3: it's all phony. If I had you are a phony Okay,
Speaker 3: remember that, you're not a real athlete working title for
Speaker 3: the book. You're not a real athlete, a phony man
Speaker 3: named Vader.
Speaker 6: Oh shit, oh shit.
Speaker 3: If I had had the ten months recovery time like
Speaker 3: we had talked about, it may have been a different story.
Speaker 3: I mean, I think that would have been bad for him, though,
Speaker 3: Like to be suspended for ten months, that seems.
Speaker 6: Like, yeah, that wouldn't have worked out at all. By
Speaker 6: the time he came back, they would be like, so moved.
Speaker 3: On, Yeah exactly, I mean that would have been fucking October. Hey,
Speaker 3: maybe maybe he could have.
Speaker 6: Maybe he wouldn't have stepped on land mines as quickly
Speaker 6: as he did on it. Maybe, yeah, but you know,
Speaker 6: generally speaking, it's not good. Maybe for him it will worked,
Speaker 6: but yeah, I don't know. Like we talked about, it
Speaker 6: may have been a different story.
Speaker 3: I may not have had that that fan come up
Speaker 3: to me at an appearance saying he was disappointed on
Speaker 3: how they used me in the WV. If all of
Speaker 3: a sudden I came back to the WV after ten
Speaker 3: months a health evader at four hundred pounds, things may
Speaker 3: have been different. But instead of four hundre pounds with
Speaker 3: a lot of muscle and power, I was three seventy pounds,
Speaker 3: three hundred and seventy pounds of fat. Yes, at a
Speaker 3: fat three seventy I wasn't as big where I was
Speaker 3: where I was supposed to be big. So it was
Speaker 3: a bad time physically in my career. My agent went
Speaker 3: against my wishes and agreed for my return way too
Speaker 3: soon after the surgery, and the ninety days were up.
Speaker 3: I continued to have to fight the office over my
Speaker 3: contractual return that the Asian agreed to. I remember telling
Speaker 3: I can't even do a push up, yet I was
Speaker 3: scheduled to do a match with Yokozuna, someone who weighed
Speaker 3: even more than I did. You don't understand I can't
Speaker 3: physically do it. You look fine, right, exactly? I don't understand.
Speaker 3: You're not in a real athlete leon, all right, you
Speaker 3: fake fight. That's what we do. When we fake fight.
Speaker 3: You're not You're not really doing feats of it.
Speaker 6: Letters, Liam, I'm standing here telling you you can do it,
Speaker 6: and if I.
Speaker 3: Say you can do it, it means I'm medically clearing
Speaker 3: you to do it.
Speaker 6: Right, You don't understand when I say you can do it,
Speaker 6: that means you can do it.
Speaker 3: That's if I say you can do it, it means
Speaker 3: you have to do it. There's no way about it.
Speaker 3: Did I coerce your agent into changing your return date? Yes?
Speaker 2: I did. Did he sign it?
Speaker 3: Yes?
Speaker 2: He did?
Speaker 3: Am I making you wrestle entertained earlier than expected? Yes?
Speaker 12: I am.
Speaker 3: Do I care that you're fully rehabbed?
Speaker 10: No?
Speaker 2: I do not.
Speaker 3: I am paying you not to sit at home and
Speaker 3: eat and rehab. I am paying you to get in
Speaker 3: the ring and put a smile on my ass so
Speaker 3: you can get your fat ass in the ring. Flippityflop,
Speaker 3: do your fucking moon salts, jump around like a bitch
Speaker 3: injure yourself further. I don't care, but I'm here to
Speaker 3: make money off of your pain. The amount the skuy
Speaker 3: ate while recooping that shoulder. Listen, I don't care if
Speaker 3: you eat ten big Macs, three whoppers, and a fucking
Speaker 3: live turkey in one sitting. You'll get your ass in
Speaker 3: the ring. You'll get to work on time. You'll have
Speaker 3: as long of a match as I say. You will
Speaker 3: get up top. You'll get up top, you'll moon salt
Speaker 3: to the floor. You'll land an your face, you'll miss,
Speaker 3: You'll go neck first on the little fucking on the
Speaker 3: fucking guardrails.
Speaker 6: Enough about Vince talking to Sean before the Saudi Arabia
Speaker 6: comeback match.
Speaker 3: You'll do everything I say, and you'll do it with
Speaker 3: a smile on your face because you're putting a smile
Speaker 3: on my ass. I'll quit your bitching, get your fat
Speaker 3: ass out there and kill yourself for entertainment.
Speaker 4: And with that, yeah, mcmah.
Speaker 6: And with that, I believe it's time for the nineteen
Speaker 6: ninety six Royal Rubble death doll.
Speaker 2: There it is.
Speaker 3: Oh shit, um, oh my god. I had it right here.
Speaker 3: It's all where are you for whom the death tolls?
Speaker 6: I know, uh, I'll get it for the dive. I
Speaker 6: don't know where it is. I had it right here. Problem,
Speaker 6: No problem. Well we'll leave you with baited breath because
Speaker 6: it's got to be a li one. I mean, with
Speaker 6: the whole rumble match thirty participants and indeed, Vader in
Speaker 6: the book saying that Cornett acted is a great mouthpiece
Speaker 6: for him in his absence, and while he wasn't there,
Speaker 6: Cornett kept his name alive on television and campaigned for
Speaker 6: his reinstatement. But yeah, come the February eighteenth, in Your
Speaker 6: House Show, he returned. Yokozuna, who had recently left camp
Speaker 6: of Cornett, was about to pin the British Bulldog when
Speaker 6: Vader attacked him, handcuffed him and beat his ass with
Speaker 6: the one arm that was working. So we're going to
Speaker 6: hit that deep dive, the latest deep dive in here. Well,
Speaker 6: it used to be your WW network archive and is
Speaker 6: rapidly not becoming anything but your own personal archive if
Speaker 6: you're lucky.
Speaker 3: That's really going to be they It's going to become
Speaker 3: the Lapse fan archive.
Speaker 6: Really, So let's get the countdown clock ready and let's
Speaker 6: prepare for one of the few royal rumbles left that
Speaker 6: we have yet to dive here on the show. It's
Speaker 6: the nineteen ninety six installment from Fresno, California. Sean Michaels
Speaker 6: is about to punch his ticket to his first World
Speaker 6: Championship win at WrestleMania twelve. On the other side of
Speaker 6: this break and so much more to come. It's that
Speaker 6: fucking cast