Speaker 1: And I thought, jp maybe if we need these answers
about these shows in the eighties that came to Boston
with Eddie Ndlman sort of behind the scenes making them happen.
What if we were able to talk to mister Handleman,
What if we were able to locate him and get
all of our questions answered? Would that sound good? I
think that's the only way we could do it. So
we'd love to welcome mister Eddie Andndleman now to the
Lapsed Fan to help answer all of the questions that
this and other shows from Boston in the eighties. Rais
Eddie Endelman. It is a pleasure to have you on
the show.
Speaker 2: Well, thank you very much.
Speaker 1: So I want to start with King of the Ring.
That actually the first King of the Ring in nineteen
eighty five at Sullivan Stadium in Foxborough happened before this
Wrestling for a Cure event at Matthew's Arena at Northeastern
just a few months prior the same year, in nineteen
eighty five. Can you tell us the story of how
you brought King of the Ring here?
Speaker 2: Well, I think I mean any of these things I
did was for charity. I never made a Nickel off
of any of them, and I concentrated on children's charities
and I think I did pretty well by the Jimmy
Fund and the Joey Fund over a forty year career.
So it was really my pleasure and very rewarding for me.
But what happened was I actually owned the land where
the Patriots were. So I went to Billy Sullivan and
I said, look, I have a plan to raise some
money for cystic fibrosis, but I need your help on this.
What can I do? I said, Billy, what I want
to do is get the cheapest possible rent I can get,
because I have no idea if one person's going to
come at twenty five, there's a thousand people would come.
And he says, shook my hand. He says, you got
a deal. And they gave me a great deal. And
so that was the beginning. And then I called Vince
McMahon uh down in Connecticut, and I've known Vince in
his family for quite some time, and I told her
what I wanted to do and what the charity was,
and he said, how do you think we'll do it?
So I have no idea, Vince, That'll be up to
you promoting it. So he said, no, I understand. And
so remember Don Morocco, of course, well you know he
was from Newton, he wasn't a Hawaiian. Another another wrestling scam,
and he insisted on uh ending up the King of
the Ring, the King of the King of the Ring
had well he wanted he had his family there and
uh and then he said that I couldn't stop laughing.
He said to uh Vince, he said, don't forget. You know,
we all bought tickets. You know, we bought good seats too.
So uh Vince said, did you want your money back?
That's not that's not so.
Speaker 1: So anyway we had he bought the tickets so we
could go over, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So we had eight wrestlers and there was a
quarterfinal and a semi final and of course a final.
And I don't even remember who Don Morocco beat, but
I know why. I was with his family and they're
all excited.
Speaker 1: Is that right?
Speaker 2: Wow? So yeah, they brought a good show. We do
almost thirty thousand people.
Speaker 1: It was it was all the way of becoming a
draw and buy the tickets yourself.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry again.
Speaker 3: So that's a whole new way to become a wrestling drawer, right,
buy all the tickets yourself.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, anyway, it turned out to be very good.
We made over we made over one hundred thousand dollars,
and we distributed it to severals. Oh, concentrated on children.
Speaker 1: That's terrific, so amazing. If you're curious, Eddy don Morocco
beat Iron Cheek in the final to become King of
the Ring. And then that's right, and then you had
Hogan and nikola I Volkov in the main event. Did
you get to work with Hulk at all? What was
he like?
Speaker 2: Ah? It was like a carefree guy, you know, he was.
He was fun. He couldn't wrestle any at all. Yeah,
so they had to they had to tell the Sheikh
you know, uh, he had to take a beating and
because he wasn't happy with that. But he was as
Russian as Ivana Trump.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's the one way to put it. You know,
that's funny. So you're why King of the Ring, you know,
why not just a card of matches? Why this tournament?
Why this sort of special attraction? Who came up with it?
And why did that happen here?
Speaker 2: Well? I came up with her because I like to
do original things, you know. I mean that's part of
my my blood structure. I get a kick out of
doing things that nobody's ever done before. And I thought
it would be successful. Uh And Vince was into it,
and the wrestlers of my add were really into it,
and it turned out to be a very good thing
because I threw a dinner for them at the Kowloon
and they, like the real Russians were invading a one
with the Red Chinese and and they became very friendly
with the Wongs. Andy Wong is probably one of the
brothers that owns it. It's probably the single biggest wrestling
and boxing fan in the world. Sometimes you get him
on your show because he knows everything. You mentioned my name,
I'm sure and he'll do it.
Speaker 1: That's great, that's great. You know, that's always been a
great curiosity of ours that as New England wrestling fans,
is why the Kowloon all these years being the spot
wrestlers flocked to.
Speaker 2: Well, that answers it. You know. It was really funny.
I forgot all about it. And when I was running
Floxborough Racetrack, I used to get home, you know, at
twelve thirty or one thirty. But of course in those
days I'd weighed two hundred and seventy pounds. Now I'm
one hundred pounds less. There you go. I wish, I wish,
I wish I'd listened to my wife from the beginning.
But anyway, I'm driving home one night, It's probably one
o'clock in the morning, and I swung a lot of
MACI into the kyw Loon Parkers. It was not a
space there. And I didn't realize at that time that
Andy had made friends with all the wrestlers and gave
them special attention, and it's become a thing with them.
So now they go whenever they're in Boston. That's like
a must go to the alone and eat your head off.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was gonna say that must have been quite
a sight to see the whole nineteen eighty five King
of the Ring card just, you know, push the Kowloon
to its absolute limits in terms of inventory. I'm sure
they ate more than they'd ever seen before.
Speaker 2: Well, they advantages retired restless. I mean, the whole family
was like filled up the place. But you know, it
was the least I could do. And as I said,
Andy was a great fan and Andy was a good
friend of mine. The ones and wonderful people, and there
is no Chinese I'm down in Florida, now yeah, I
would rather eat out of a dumpster than Chinese food
in Florida.
Speaker 1: Good to know. Pro tip if you're ever down there,
right there, you go forget it.
Speaker 2: Forget it.
Speaker 1: So you worked with Vince Junior putting it together. I
know you were a longtime wrestling fan and you would
have wrestlers on your show, you know, of course, a
highly popular sports talk radio show, and I wanted to
know what it was like. We're working with Vince and
how that, how that evolved, because it's a pretty powerful
promotional platform you guys had on your radio show.
Speaker 2: Well I've had. Vince is not only a good friend,
but he's a wonderful person. Vince is very charitable. I'd
take his handshake over any contract. The best lawyers ever
drew up. He's that kind of that kind of a guy,
and I think the world of him. And you know,
he's the one that finally cracked the Restless and started
to pay them fairly. No, not, none of the other
groups ever paid them fairly. So if you're a star there,
you get you get the dough. Yep. If not, you
work in the minor leagues and try and work your
way up. The only thing I don't like about the
wrestling now is it's too much concentration on the women
wrestling and we don't have the and the managers that
I love. I mean, the managers were better than the wrestlers.
Speaker 1: You know you must be thinking Ernie Roth.
Speaker 2: Oh. Ernie was a very close friend of mine. I
liked him because he was a betting to gentlemen.
Speaker 1: I used to go right, yes, I used to go
to Suffolk downs.
Speaker 2: With him all the time. I ended up lending him
money which I never got back.
Speaker 1: He couldn't get one of his charges to pay you back.
I mean he managed some of the biggest stars in
the territory.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, they got what they call zip.
Speaker 1: A lot of good. That did you, right? So how
far back does your fandom go at you? I mean
you're from Boston.
Speaker 2: Yeah, here, I'll tell you a little trivia question. Okay, yes,
how far it goes back? On w e X fifteen
to ten on the dial. At that time, they had
a wrestling on the radio show Live from Boston Arena.
That's when Abe Ford was the promoter and the head
of sports broadcasting for w MEX was a guy named
Frank Fallon, who I would say was in his mid
hundred and tens time. And of course it was the
director because there was no other sports on fifteen ten
and it's way before the gorgeous Georgia area.
Speaker 1: That's like forties, right, thirties even.
Speaker 2: Yeah, forties, And I was just a young kid then.
I mean, I got a big kick out of the
whole thing. And of course you can at that time,
you know, it was so cheap to get in there.
And that's Boston Arena is where BU has their b
you bought it, and that's where the hockey team plays.
Speaker 1: So Boston Arena isn't isn't Matthew's arena when we talk
about Boston Arena.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right, it's Matthew's arena.
Speaker 1: But I think Matthews was Northeastern as supposed to be.
Speaker 2: You I'm sorry, you know, yeah, we're right.
Speaker 1: It's North Eastern, Okay, got it all right?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Yeah, Because they talk a lot about Northeastern on the
on the wrestling for.
Speaker 2: Cure, I'm I'm a graduate of both schools. Oh both, Yeah,
I got a business degree from Boston University. They got
a math's business.
Speaker 1: NBA doesn't get more Boston than that, Eddie Geez doesn't
get more Boston than that. A bachelor's from BU and
a master's from Northeastern.
Speaker 2: Well, listen, I knew I had to make a living.
Speaker 1: Absolutely So. Do you remember dano O'Mahoney? Who the wrestler
dano O mahoney. It might have been a decade before
you started going to the matches, but he was. He
was a huge draw. Did you ever go to matches
at Fenway Park?
Speaker 2: I don't think so.
Speaker 1: It's one thing when I look back on those old
days and they used to have big crowds there, and
I can't imagine them doing a wrestling show at Fenway
Park today.
Speaker 2: I've always hated fin White Park at best. To be
charitable or is it dumb?
Speaker 1: I don't want to Yeah, I don't want to open
an old wound or anything. JP. You got anything for
a fready here.
Speaker 2: I'm not the World Series or the NFL Championship super Bowl,
but it's right up there now with the World Series
and wrestling. Yeah, that's in the country. I mean, it's
a huge money maker. You know, people don't understand why
Vince McMahon got so rich, And I'll explain it to
you if you want, please, sure, all right, just just
think about this. He runs a wrestling show in Minneapolis.
Let's see, on Monday night, he sells out fifteen thousand seats.
He gets to keep all the money, lets his rent
and expenses to the rest. So a show makes well
over one hundred thousand dollars. Some weeks, he does two
or three shows, but then he tapes those shows and
he blends it in and sells it to the networks.
The networks give him commercials in exchange for the show.
He then sells the commercials and all that money is
his again, So he's lighting the candle at both ends.
And he runs like maybe one hundred and fifty shows
a year, so the company makes millions of fact, it
had a public stock issue and I bought some years
and years ago. I think I paid ten dollars this year,
and it's worth many times that today.
Speaker 1: Still holding Eddie, Still holding WW I'm sorry, still holding
WW stock.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well that changed the name now WWE now, of course, yeah, yeah,
But I had a lot of fun, you know. I
maintained over the years, I owned a wrestler. I don't
know if you remember this or not, but I owned
a wrestler called a mask rabbi. Oh yeah, and he
was ashamed of the congregation, so he wore a mask.
And what he used to do was the reason he
was undefeated. He used to smash the Ten Commandments over
his opponents, said, which is actually in the rule book,
because I had the rule book right in front of me,
and it says on chapter twenty seven, lines one through four,
no eye gadgeting is allowed, and no choke holds anything
else is perfectly legal of smashing the tablet over someone's head,
or as mister Moto my idol used to say, you know,
he had that dust in his pouch and his stomach.
He would throw sand in his opponent's eyes. Well, I
fought for him for years that it was a legal
move because it's not excluded. And people used to get
upset with me. But listen, that's the way the ball
bounces like you see it.
Speaker 1: Who can we say, all these years later, Eddie, who
was under the mask is the red mask? Rabbi? I'm sorry,
who was under the mask is the mask? Rabbi? I
can't tell you that I'm sworn to see you have
to k favios on that. Wow, that's good for you.
That's a rare that's a rare thing these days. Keep
it alive, man, keep it alive.
Speaker 2: My word. But I'll tell you a couple of other things.
Remember James Stern.
Speaker 1: Of course he was from Everett.
Speaker 2: I didn't know that.
Speaker 1: I thought he was from the chickataw Nation Eddie.
Speaker 2: Yeah. No, it's wow funny. And I'm one of the
few people that were invited in Miss Elizabeth and Rowdy
body pipe is wedding.
Speaker 1: It's Ready Savage's wedding. Mancha man, You know I'm not
so phone.
Speaker 2: You have to speak up a little bit.
Speaker 1: Oh sorry, Yeah, I'm talking about macho man and Elizabeth's wedding.
Speaker 2: Yeah, what was that like?
Speaker 1: Tell us all about it.
Speaker 2: Well, I kind of get I'm on the Oh oh.
Speaker 1: It was that kind of wedding. Huh wow all right, yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I want I want to tell you my hint.
There was sixteen naked women, uh plus hay Stack plus
hay Stack.
Speaker 1: Go wow, you're saying and he was naked?
Speaker 2: He was.
Speaker 1: What did you go into his hotel room?
Speaker 2: Any? No? No, this was this was the rich.
Speaker 1: Were there were the women under him or in his
belly or something where.
Speaker 2: No, I just was a quiet observer. I mean I
felt flattered because I've never been that high in society.
Speaker 1: You're killing this is great? So so where how about this?
Where was the wedding? Was it down in Florida? The
Randy Savage is Elizabeth wedding?
Speaker 2: No? Was it the Rits in Boston?
Speaker 1: Really, I never knew that. I never knew that wedding
was here? Wow? So all right, Well we talked about
King of the Ring and we established kind of how
that came together.
Speaker 3: And I do want to ask him one question I
want to ask, go ahead, did you know did you
know Big Joe Lacreta?
Speaker 2: No? No, all right? My best friend and the wrestled
was Captain Loue Albano and the most learned, versatile, brilliant man.
He was a scientist, he was a lecturer, he was
a music aficionado and a man that could solve h
a crossword puzzle in New York Times in less than
two minutes.
Speaker 1: What was the key to his longevity? Do you think
lou Albano?
Speaker 2: Well, I mean he ate right all the time. You
know he exercised, all right, yeah, well that's right. And
the other thing is, you know, an open belly and
all kinds of weather is healthy. Right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's constantly getting an air bath, if you will,
on the stomach. Yeah. So so King of the Rings
behind us and it's a success. Everyone seems happy, and
of course you the next year, nineteen eighty six would
be the second King of the Ring back in Foxborough, Massachusetts.
But between those two King of the Rings a fascinating development.
You team up not with Vince McMahon, but with Vern
Gania to put on the show we're talking about this week,
Wrestling for a Cure at Matthew's Arena.
Speaker 2: It was on. No, no, Frank Kanya did not put
the show together.
Speaker 1: Oh, talk to me more. Who did.
Speaker 2: That? Was Vince's father?
Speaker 1: Okay, Well, on the broadcast you have Greg Ganya, the
son of Vern, come to ringside and you and Killer
Kowalski interview Greg and Greg talks about how Vern really
wishes he could have been here and how much the
event meant to him to be a part.
Speaker 2: Well, he sent a couple of wrestlers, is what he did.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was entirely an a w a roster. There
were no w w F guys on the show.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, sure, and Slaughter was on.
Speaker 1: Yeah. He had just left the w w F earlier
that year in a dispute with Vince over the licensing
rights to the merchandise. In fact, there was there was
a lawsuit out between him and Vents at the time.
You weren't there, he was there. This guy knows better
than you. Keep your mouth shut.
Speaker 2: Yeah. One of the one of the big mistakes of
my life was taking Size and Slaughter to eat.
Speaker 1: Oh tell me more, please. I've said that a hundred times.
I'll keep saying it.
Speaker 2: Well. At that time, Jurgen Park was in the Coffee
Square mall uh huh. It only lasted a couple of years.
But I'm not ex what I tell you. You know
how big those roast beefs were. Sure he had two
of them, Oh my god. Plus he had three desserts
and half a dozen drinks. And then I said to him,
like on a joking manner, I said, hey, saj you know,
how would you like to get a snack? So he said, well,
what have you got? I'd say, handed him another menu,
I said, whatever you want, so he did. He ordered
some kind of shrimped castle role. I don't know what
it was, but he says he's got to watch his weight.
Speaker 1: Clearly. So one of the things we see speakers watch it,
watches it very well. He watches it. Yeah, he just
doesn't do anything about it. Yes, but one of the
things we see on Wrestling for a Cure that that
the TV broadcast on CVB is that he had done
sort of a promotional tour of Boston. He was out
of Faniel Hall taking pictures with people and trying to
drum up interest in the show.
Speaker 2: And Channel four has always been a classy station. Yeah,
and they do things right. Your object, of course, was
to raise money for jar and a very sad thing
when you bring it up. I hate to tack about
it because the Joey Fund was named for Joey o'donald. Yeah,
at that time was dying. He was Joe Donald's son.
He was like twelve years old and he sat on
my lap for half the show. I was doing the
Color Wow and he was dead like two weeks later, you.
Speaker 1: Know, So do you know that you remember that joe
Little Joey actually got on the TV show. Sargeant Slaughter
was holding him in his arms.
Speaker 2: He was he was on my lap for half the show.
Of course, I don't.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's it's amazing. Is that love? Did you let
him in the ring? Is that why the ring filled
up with all those kids after Sargeant Slaughter won?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Can you tell us that story? That was crazy? All
of a sudden, Mike Lynch is overwhelmed by all these
people filling up the ring.
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, that's what happens at the Boston Garden too.
You know. I used to take my three kids, my
three boys, to the wrestling and they jump on the
ring and I were having a heart attack because I
expected the ring to collapse. But Sagean Slaughter was really
a nice scout. That a little story about him. He
had two young daughters, I think one was eight and
one was six. They had never been to a wrestling
match before, so this was their first one. And of course,
the Russian handed Sergeants Slaughter a terrible beating. For the
first fifteen minutes. The girls were petrified, they were crying,
they were hysterical. My wife, the fabulous Judy, was there
and she was calming them down. And then of course
he made a comeback and he raised the flag and
sang the national anthem, you know, and he beat those
dirty Russians. Wow. But my wife reminds me of that
once she catches me watching wrestling.
Speaker 1: That's great. So that was Sargent Slaughter's two daughters for
the first time. We're seeing him wrestle. Yeah, were they
were they an emotional record? Did they know was the work?
Speaker 2: No, they had no idea. They thought it was getting
a beating. I mean there were young girls, did you,
eight and six? And they never saw it before and
he never told them that it was all fixed.
Speaker 1: When you had guys on your radio show, wrestlers to
what degree, you know, when the microphones weren't hot, were
they talking to you like real people or did they
did they try to be their characters to you at
all times? Or were you kind of let into the
business because you know, you had such a key role
in these local shows.
Speaker 2: Well, they're all performers. You got to understand that. And
so to come up and be a superstar, you know,
they're always interviewed because don't think those days they had
managers interviewing. That was there was less wrestling and much
more interviews, which I thought was a riot and I
think what happened was that they started to be in money,
you know, as much as the rest was. And of
course so they downplayed that. You don't even see them
anymore today. It was just, you know, just overhead that
he didn't feel it was necessary. Turns out he was right.
McMahon is a shop guy. Don't ever underestimate him.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I hear you on that for sure.
Speaker 2: His wife'stephen shopper. So you just she just donated forty
million dollars the Republican Party.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, oh yeah, well publicized, yeah she uh, she
got a high post in the Trump administration and all
the rest. So wrestling for a cure. Sargent's slaughter was,
like I said, going around the city shaking hands and
drumming up interest. And there was an article in the
Herald that he got a parking ticket in his camouflage limousine.
Do you remember this?
Speaker 2: I do?
Speaker 3: I know.
Speaker 2: I paid it.
Speaker 1: Oh you paid it. You couldn't get Ray Lynn and
take care of it. He was in the front row.
Speaker 2: No, we couldn't. But it was a wonderful night, it
really was. And Chet was a wrestling.
Speaker 1: Fan, yeah, Chet curtis the anchor. Yeah, yeah, and wrestling fan.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, and Natalie hated it. Yeah, she left after
ten minutes.
Speaker 1: Oh his wife.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well that was a lady and it was something
she'd up familiar with.
Speaker 1: Here you So what was the deal with the parking ticket?
Did Sarge come up to you and say, hey, Eddie,
I got this thing. What can you do about it?
Speaker 2: Yeah? No, he had a manager that he traveled with,
so I think it was like at the time, like
ninety dollars, eighty dollars whatever was I paid it? Oh?
Speaker 1: Cool, all right, so that got taken care of.
Speaker 2: So it was a cool guy.
Speaker 1: So I got to ask you back to back to
the nature of this car and the wrestler's on it.
You know, you've got Nick Bockwinkle, You've got like you mentioned,
Sergeant Slaughter, There's Larry's Obisco and Bobby Backland and the
road Warriors.
Speaker 2: Bob Black, Bob back One. Because of me, I thought
it was going to kill me. He was booed unmercifully. Yeah,
because I would call him the biggest fraud and phony
that ever lived. I would call him as Sissy. I
called him every name that there was. So he couldn't
understand why people will bored him. Then the guys that
listened to the show are telling them, oh, that guy
over there, So I said, go ahead and take a swing.
You couldn't hurt me if you wanted to. Amazing. I
know you couldn't do it.
Speaker 1: So what's the backstory there? You're calling him a fraud
on the radio before the show happened. Yeah, yeah, why
is he a fraud?
Speaker 2: Well, because he couldn't wrestle. It couldn't beat anybody. He
had no color, he had no stick.
Speaker 1: It's pretty amazing. At one point during the course of
this broadcast, wrestler, two very highly scientific wrestlers by the
name of Brad Ringins and Billy Robinson are in their
exchanging holes and in tights and knee pads and boots,
and you straight up say on the broadcast, Eddie, you
just say, you know I'm gonna I'm gonna sit back here, killer.
I prefer good guys and bad guys. You were bored
to death and you weren't afraid to say it.
Speaker 2: I remember exactly what I said. I said, if I
wanted this kind of stuff, I turned to educational television.
Speaker 1: So the Matt stuff, the chain wrestling, the exchanging of holes.
That wasn't so much Eddie Edelman's thing. It doesn't sound
like no, no, I like to manage is the best.
Speaker 2: I mean, I had Louel Bono on never had to
rehearse anything. He'd walk in the studio and I say, look,
you know, what are we going to do? The Russians
are trying to take over a Stonia. And then he
would come on and say, I'd get the tanks, I
get the parent troopers, make up numbers one hundred and fourteenth,
the women in the hospital, taking care of the Red Cross,
the wounded veterans, and he go on and on and on,
and it got to be a game with him because
in me, because I just want to ask him stupid questions.
You know, why do they call bananas bananas low? You know?
And he would say that's a crazy question, but I'll
tell you the answer, and they go on and on
and on.
Speaker 1: Oh he was learned, indeed, Yeah, I mean he was
an encyclopedia.
Speaker 2: And then I'd introduced him as the President's personal advisor, right,
and also the man who would predict volcano eruptions a
year or two before they happened. But unbelievable, the men
who will right now is working on the research of
the common cold. And he would go on. He would
talk about his microscopes, and I mean he really was
a funny guy. And he had a wife who was
about five ten, barely one hundred pounds, and he led
him on.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 2: One time I was in New York. I was on
the television show and and Luke came by to see it,
and he brought his wife and went out to eat afterwards,
and she would order him around like you wouldn't believe.
She said, you was slub. Put a napkin down your table.
You know, y.
Speaker 1: Wow, what did you think of that time?
Speaker 2: I really was ever afraid of these guys.
Speaker 1: Remember Doctor Death, David Chuld of course maniac.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well he's the one that punched John Stassel. Yeah,
but I got to tell you something. He came into
the studio and he was a frightening guy. I mean
really a frightening guy. You know, we didn't know what
the hell to expect. I was glad you McCarthy was
there because I would I was saying to doctor Death, said,
see that guy that he makes funny, Well, David kick me.
But he was really a strange guy. Yeah, but them
what fun guys. They weren't paid very much in those days.
That's one thing McMahon has done. He pays them feely.
Speaker 1: I hear you. So let's circle back because this did
I mean, you did King of the Ring with Vince
in June, and then August comes around and you're working
with Vern. Can you talk about how that happened or
do you not remember? I'm sorry, I said King of
the Ring happened. Obviously, that's with w w F and Vince,
and then that's in June, and then August comes and
you do Wrestling for a Cure in Northeastern and that's
with Vern, Ganya and a w A wrestlers. Can you
talk about how you shifted to talking to Vern for
that show? Why wasn't it a ww F show?
Speaker 2: And Sam Recole he sent some wrestlers. I mean, yeah,
he sent wrestlers, and I think and I think McMahon
did too, or I range it through McMahon. McMahon was involved. Okay,
I just don't mean it's forty years ago.
Speaker 1: I remember, yeah, yeah, I mean we're just we're in
an advantage because somebody had the copy of the show
and put it on YouTube. I mean, we wouldn't have known.
I mean I was three years old when this happened,
two years old, so I wouldn't have known. I wouldn't
expect you to have the recall anyway, But yeah, it's
it's just interesting because you know Northeast Boston, Vince McMahon,
WWF Connecticut based, you know, and and your Dune King
of the Ring. Yet here you are working with Vern
Gania had just gotten on ESPN with his a w
A Wrestling, So they were kind of going head up
against Vince McMahon on Tuesday nights on TNT based on
the TNT on USA with the TNT show based on
the based on the scheduling of the shows. So it
was kind of a competitive time in the business, and
I'd wondered if there was kind of a to do
about the fact that you went with Vern clearly for
this show and after having gone with Vince before.
Speaker 2: There several territories. There was a California territory, Oh yeah, absolutely,
it was a Canadian territory. Yeah, but you can have
an exclusive territory right in the United States.
Speaker 1: So do you remember the story of Greg Anya Verne's
son saying on the broadcast that Vern wishes he could
be here, but he had a fishing accident in Alaska.
Do you remember that?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 1: Yeah, he excited. That is the reason Vern wasn't there
in person. I wondered if there was a story there, not.
Speaker 2: That I know of. Fair enough, Okay, you're talking about
something a long time. I can't remember what they had
for breakfast?
Speaker 1: Yeah, right, exactly. That did not say much. Well, you're
doing a great job. I mean, we've already gotten so
many fun details that that I I've got more than
than I expected to remember. So this is this is
really great. Let me ask you, how did you get
the mayor to come? Mayor Flynn?
Speaker 2: How did you get the name King of the Ring?
Speaker 1: No, I'm sorry, how did you get Mayor Flynn to come?
Ray Flynn?
Speaker 2: Oh? Ray Flynn was a great sports guy and a
really good guy. I mean I was a fan of
hitsment he went with the Celtics, and if Ray Flynn
had been in the NBA when the three point shot
was there, he would still be playing. Oh yeah, he
was one of the deadliest shooters I've ever seen. Wow,
But he had white Man's disease.
Speaker 1: What's that you couldn't run. Couldn't run, Oh, he couldn't run. Okay,
So when when Sargents Slaughter is wrestling in the main
event against against Boris Zukov, the Russian, they end up
at ringside and at one point Larry Sharp, who is
the manager, pretty boy Larry Sharp of Zukov gets thrown
right into your lap and kill her, and you guys
have a big, you know, jostle there. How was that
unexpected that the wrestlers suddenly were right there up against you?
I mean, did you know that was Kelly?
Speaker 2: Yeah? No, no, listen, they show people that's what they are,
you know. I mean, I've never taken it seriously, as
I always said every time I ever did a wrestling show.
There's only one major sport in this country that's never
had a betting scandal. The Bruins had a big betting
scandal with a guy who was fixing named Don Gallinger.
Pro basketball has had several, baseball has had several, and
pro football has had several, but there's never been one
in professional wrestling.
Speaker 1: Why do you think that is?
Speaker 2: Well, that's true.
Speaker 1: Finally, for you, Eddie, we want to thank you so
much for all this. This is just it's so great
to get this detail. I think it would be lost
to history if we didn't get the chance to talk
to you. The wrestlers that did the show, be it
King of the Ring or be it this Wrestling for
a cure so that they got paid off of the
donations and then what was left over got donated. Did
the wrestlers get paid to do these shows? I'd imagine
they did. They flew in from all over the place.
Speaker 2: No McMahon paid them.
Speaker 1: Wow. So you just took the proceeds from the ticket
sales and donated them and a lot of good things,
believe me. Yeah, that's that's really cool.
Speaker 2: Go to waste.
Speaker 1: So when you did these charity shows, then you would
you would take all the ticket sales and donate them,
and the promoters would take care of paying the wrestlers.
You didn't pay the wrestlers.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I did the Hot Dogs five for twenty five years,
thirty years and never paid a penny. Wow, it all went,
It all went to charity. Whatever expenses there were, I
paid myself.
Speaker 1: It's really cool.
Speaker 2: So I've been lucky. I've been lucky. You know. Sports
was just part of my life. I'm a businessman.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, you know.
Speaker 2: And I've done well and I always appreciated the fact
that I have three boys that are very successful and
the uh if you had to go a Mayer is
a very successful company.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 2: And they bought the mend and drive in a couple
of other drive ins.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 2: They've done They've done.
Speaker 1: Well, Absolutely they have. So that's great. So there was
one more King of the Ring. It was locally before
it became you know, a pay per view and everything.
It was I believe nineteen eighty six Foxborough, and then
after that I think there may have been one JP
do you know in Providence or something.
Speaker 2: No, that was that was the second one in Foxboro
that got fogged out.
Speaker 1: Really yeah, tell me more, Eddie, What do you mean
I fogged out? It was canceled it.
Speaker 2: Well, they started it, but then they couldn't finish because
you couldn't see the ring. Oh wow, that that whole
area of Foxborough is like a fog area.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: The next the next four years it was eighty six,
eighty five, eighty six in Foxboro and then the next
four years in Providence.
Speaker 1: In Providence, did you have anything to do with the
Providence one, Eddie, No, No, Okay, what was the difference there?
Why did they go from Foxboro to Providence?
Speaker 2: Well, because I only do things for charity that I'm
involved with, right and and Providence was a money deal,
I see.
Speaker 1: They so they saw the publicity that and then the
crowds they drew eighty five eighty six and lured them
over for a paid show. It sounds like, yeah, probably, yeah, yeah,
that makes sense. Do you remember sort of hitting them up, Hey,
you coming back in eighty seven and them saying, no, Eddie,
We're going to Providence. Do you remember that whole thing?
Speaker 2: No? No, I don't think I had anything to do
with it.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Would this name mean anything to you? From the
nineteen eighty six King of the Ring show, he faced
Bruno san Martino that night, a gentleman by the name
of the designated Hitman.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but Bruno and I will arch enemies. Really yeah,
I mean really. One one night I was with Billy Massolino,
I used to play for Holy Cross Football great Foot,
and we're at the Cafe House at one o'clock in
the morning on a Friday night, and Bruno came in
and Billy ran up to him and said, that's the
guy that has challenged you and calls you a sissy
every week since he's been on the radio and television.
And so Bruno came over, but I grabbed a knife.
I mean, he was you know, Bruno actually believed he
was champion of the world. Yeah, most of these guys
don't believe it. He actually believed it, you know. So
you know, you know you're talking. Yeah, there's a psycho
coming at you. You better have a weapon. But Bruno,
he's a dumb.
Speaker 1: Bell awesome, so awesome. So I got to ask you, so,
why would you call him as sissy and everything on
the air? Was it because you were trying to be
the heel and it was fun? Stick?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was a stick, that's all. And I used
to say, I know four Italians that committed suicide because
Bruno kept saying he was Italian. I mean, I would
just knock him every week.
Speaker 1: It's incredible, he had some balls. Why did you, I mean,
did you expect that one day you'd come face to
face with him and he'd just be yeah, it's all
fun and games. And then he wasn't.
Speaker 2: No, I assumed that he realized that it was shick,
you know, And uh, I mean all wrestlings are stick,
so why would I think different. Yeah, he went up
to him and he started to come at me. I
was scared, of course.
Speaker 1: How did it end up resolving itself?
Speaker 2: Did he all I had to throw at him was
to play the spare ribs like a knife? Yes?
Speaker 1: Did you really throw spear ribs at a betty? No?
Speaker 2: Okay, that was an alternative. I didn't if I didn't
have a knife.
Speaker 1: Spirit, I see your point. So how did that resolve itself?
Did he just back off at one point? With wrestlers,
you don't usually have spare ribs.
Speaker 2: That's a good one, but I I just don't care
about the women wrestlers. I think it's kind of boring.
Speaker 1: Okay here around that? Uh so the brute trying.
Speaker 2: To appeal to fourteen year old boys?
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, there's a lot of that. No shortage of them,
it shows. So how did the Bruno confrontation resolve itself?
Did he just back off at one point? Or did
he No?
Speaker 2: He sat to talk to me and then as I
was going out, and I was you're a moral.
Speaker 1: So he just gave you a stern talking to and
then went about his business.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry.
Speaker 1: So he just gave you a talking to, so to speak,
and then went about his business. That that's how it ended.
Speaker 2: Oh did you know he had a business No, yeah,
in Pittsburgh Bruno San Martino health Store. I used to
I used to make fun of it every time I
would see a person that was sick. Oh, agent, I said,
that's guys walking advert. I used to add, for he.
Speaker 1: Must have loved you. Oh that's incredible. Well, you know
one thing that happened here locally was when Roddy Piper
passed away. You actually sort of re emerged and authored
a piece for the Boston Herald kind of remembering him
and what he did for you and the shows he
was on. Can you talk to us quickly about the
hot rod?
Speaker 2: It was a front page story, it was yeah, yeah, Well,
I mean, Piper was really a funny guy to begin with.
He had a great sense of humor, and he loved
playing the role, and he loved wrestling in the skirt,
you know, and he loved talking. He liked the talking
better than wrestling. So Pipe's pitt was probably the highlight
of anything I've ever seen on wrestling. Do you remember that?
Speaker 1: Of course?
Speaker 2: Yeah? And I'll know if forget it. He broke a
cheer over what that was.
Speaker 1: Jimmy Snucker.
Speaker 2: Jimmy Snuker, You're a disgrace the rest of I mean
his interviews. They've tried one hundred different interviews since then,
but no one had the charm that he had.
Speaker 1: Sure, but.
Speaker 2: You know, because now it's much more of a a
business than it ever was. You know, they're merchandising. In fact,
anybody at the Boston got and they'll tell you when
wrestling comes once a month or so, do the Boston
Goden They spell more souvenir merchandise than they deal with
their bruins and the sushlets combined for a month.
Speaker 1: Wow, it's got a long, long history in the city. Hey,
do you remember Harley Race He won the nineteen eighty
six King of the Ring crown.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, Holly Race. Yeah, I do remember him.
Speaker 1: Because he would He was on WWF television all the time.
Is the King the King? And no one really knew
why because the King of the Ring wasn't on television.
He wanted here in Foxborough. Do you remember any you
remember him going over and winning the King of the
Ring and working with him at all?
Speaker 2: No, I don't all right, I don't, No, I don't.
But there were good guys, you know, except for Bruno,
there were really good guys.
Speaker 1: Well it sounds like Hulk too. It sounds like you
weren't too impressed with Hogan.
Speaker 2: Well, Hogan was Hogan couldn't wrestle at all. He had
to say what they say, He had to say hi,
because he couldn't do anything right. I mean, he certainly
was a character. And he had the kids taken the
vitamins and while he was taking drugs.
Speaker 1: What do you think, Eddie, did he get him from
Bruno's health store?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Probably, Now, Bruno's health store. They had two of them.
They went the funck of course, because when you know Bruno,
I used to say Bruno was like three foot nine
and two hundred and sixty pounds of muscle, you know,
and you know he really was very short.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, he was. You can tell it when he's
in the ring with certain opponents. He's very short.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: How was worked? Finally, how was working with Killer Kowalski?
He's an institution around here. How was he? Walter Walter?
Speaker 2: Yep, Well, you know people don't know about Walter. Was
Walter was a vegetarian. He didn't get married till he
was seventy one. And I actually went to the wedding. Wow, oh,
if someone was trying to get me. I actually went
to the wedding with Ed Bell from w BZ News,
who is a big wrestling fan. And I think I
gave one hundred bucks. I don't remember, but yeah, I'm
sure I did. But afterwards, it's a place called Hugo
Harrington's Miniature Golf and Restaurant, and that's where the wedding
party ate and in exchange, they ate for nothing, in
exchange for the publicity they got, which was which never came.
No one cared. I oh god, you bring back a
lot of fond memories. But you know, when I did sports,
I really I really tried to make it fun, you know,
and not be afraid. And I didn't care. You know,
I never cared if I was going to be fighted.
That never bothered me because I knew I would make
a good living. I'm extremely well educated and had a
good business sense. And so to me, what's the worst
thing that could happen to me? You know, I get fighted,
so what so the next day I'd make some money
someplace else.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, and so we're glad you took the time, Eddie.
I'm glad it brought back some fond memories.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 1: And we thank you so much for joining us here
on the lapsed fan, filling in so many holes we
had on King of the Ring Wrestling for a cure
in the mid eighties. Thanks for your contributions to Boston Wrestling,
and thanks for your time tonight.
Speaker 2: Okay, good luck to your fellows. Thank you,