Speaker 1: It's The Lapsed Fan Wrestling podcast special report. The Lapsed
Speaker 1: Fan presents the complete Hulk Hogan, a real American story,
Speaker 1: brought to you by Garage Beer.
Speaker 2: Well, there had to be a first time. There had
Speaker 2: to be a first time that Hulk Hogan, that Andre
Speaker 2: the Giant Boss.
Speaker 3: I I don't even know where to begin with that.
Speaker 3: I mean, the fact that it happened before nineteen eighty
Speaker 3: is really is really just it's borderline unacceptable.
Speaker 2: Yes, tired is thinking Hogan Andre didn't happened before eighty seven.
Speaker 2: Wired is thinking it didn't happen before nineteen eighty.
Speaker 3: Damn right.
Speaker 2: Well, we're here to tell you and as much detail
Speaker 2: as humanly possible, considering almost none of it survives on film,
Speaker 2: precisely what went down Southeastern Championship Wrestling. Terry the Hulk
Speaker 2: Boulder comes face to face for the first time with
Speaker 2: the man against whom he created perhaps more box office
Speaker 2: than any pairing in the history of this industry, or
Speaker 2: at the very least lit the way to crowds and
Speaker 2: attention and spectacle theretofore unimaginable in the business of professional wrestling.
Speaker 2: For all that so many of the greats created in
Speaker 2: all the stadiums that had been filled before, including by
Speaker 2: these two themselves in nineteen eighty as you just mentioned
Speaker 2: at Chase Stadium nineteen eighty seven, Hogan Andre showed us
Speaker 2: what was possible when we allowed pro wrestling to embrace
Speaker 2: the things that need to be embraced for us, to
Speaker 2: be allowed to believe, yes, to not be taken out
Speaker 2: of it every ten to fifteen minutes, to not be
Speaker 2: told it's a performance, and to not even think for
Speaker 2: a second that this is some sort of figure skating
Speaker 2: exhibition where you hold up scores of one to ten
Speaker 2: upon execution, but in fact, know what you do is
Speaker 2: you let the wrestlers convince you that whether they win
Speaker 2: or lose this next match will determine everything.
Speaker 3: Yep.
Speaker 2: And where did Terry Bullaya the Future Hulk Hogan get
Speaker 2: that muscle memory from as it regards working with Andre
Speaker 2: the Giant. How were these two so let's say, fully
Speaker 2: baked come WrestleMania three or nineteen eighty seven? It did
Speaker 2: all start Friends and doth in Alabama and that tiny
Speaker 2: television studio for WTVY that broadcast Ron Fuller's Southeastern Championship
Speaker 2: Wrestling and only a handful of Alabama cities were privy
Speaker 2: to it because that was as discussed last time on
Speaker 2: the Complete Hulk Hogan here on the Lapsed Fan Wrestling podcast,
Speaker 2: how far those television shows reached the time wasn't really
Speaker 2: far and wide. And the level of preservation of this
Speaker 2: footage criminal. And it's an especially sensitive time to be talking,
Speaker 2: isn't it boss about losing access?
Speaker 3: I mean, I don't know.
Speaker 2: I don't know what's worse having never seen the Hogan
Speaker 2: Andre matches and as we're going to talk about the
Speaker 2: Hogan Harley NWA World Heavyweight Title match in this promotion,
Speaker 2: or having been shown it, having been led to believe
Speaker 2: we'll always have access to it and then have it
Speaker 2: be taken away.
Speaker 3: I I mean, I think it's always worse to have
Speaker 3: had it and then have it taken away. I always
Speaker 3: work that worked.
Speaker 2: Like the archives, I mean, look words out by the
Speaker 2: end of twenty twenty six, by the end of twenty
Speaker 2: twenty five, rather yeah, right, I wish it was twenty six.
Speaker 2: I have more kind of we're holding solace in that
Speaker 2: by the end of this year. The ww WW and
Speaker 2: ECW archives the very foundation of the ww network. In
Speaker 2: twenty fourteen, the very foundation of this podcast, or at
Speaker 2: least the notion of it, will be taken away from
Speaker 2: us and removed from Peacock with no certain home. I
Speaker 2: wonder if the AWA stuff will say, yeah, look at
Speaker 2: us grasping at what we can get. I mean, I mean,
Speaker 2: you gotta grab as much as we can while we can.
Speaker 2: It's it's it's it's I just don't I just don't
Speaker 2: understand it. I mean, it's so they're so careless with
Speaker 2: this stuff and you go ahead, please, I don't know, please.
Speaker 2: It just it just makes me feel.
Speaker 3: Disrespected as a fan, as a as a lapsed fan,
Speaker 3: because we've had access for this stuff for eleven years now,
Speaker 3: and now they're just like whatever just goes back into
Speaker 3: the vault and it stays there until it's released on
Speaker 3: the Vault I suppose on YouTube, which just the problem
Speaker 3: is though as much as I love the Vault, they
Speaker 3: just don't drop enough, okay. And it's also so scatterbrained
Speaker 3: and it's so random you can't count on the what's
Speaker 3: being drop on any day, right, And also I mean,
Speaker 3: I know, like, what do you you know? I understand
Speaker 3: that they're that they're doing, you know, the full match
Speaker 3: thing that they do on the vault. It just just
Speaker 3: don't do that. Just don't do that. If you're gonna,
Speaker 3: if you're gonna drop it, drop the whole fucking event.
Speaker 3: And that's it. Don't don't don't drop Yeah, exactly, don't
Speaker 3: drop these fucking one off matches from things that doesn't
Speaker 3: fucking matter. Also, there's no there's no frame of reference
Speaker 3: except that they occasionally do some seasonal stuff like they've
Speaker 3: been doing Survivor series matches and they did the World
Speaker 3: Class Thanksgiving Star Wars f Min eighty five. But can't forget.
Speaker 2: The pressure and initiative to put the whole archive on
Speaker 2: Peacock was because there was a new place that was
Speaker 2: representing itself as the home for this kind of footage,
Speaker 2: and it was pressure on Peacock not wanting to disenfranchise
Speaker 2: all these WWE subscribers that join them overnight, that pressured
Speaker 2: them to get the archives of WW feels no such pressure.
Speaker 2: This isn't some some new third party that's come to
Speaker 2: the table. It is afraid of angering all these WW
Speaker 2: fans that they paid out the notes to attract.
Speaker 3: I just I just I. I mean, you just gotta
Speaker 3: grab as much as you can at this point, grab
Speaker 3: everything you can until until the year's out, and you
Speaker 3: know where where we're fortunate. We are fortunate that there
Speaker 3: we have had a massive amount of of listeners, members
Speaker 3: of the Solar System who have built an army. We've
Speaker 3: built We've built an army, and we have we have
Speaker 3: an archive. We probably actually have in many ways, we
Speaker 3: have a better archive than than the we has. We
Speaker 3: certainly have certainly more more stuff than they than they
Speaker 3: originally had. But there's still stuff that we need and
Speaker 3: there's still stuff that we want, and it's all I mean, look, look, look,
Speaker 3: just the raw stuff alone is a disaster. The fact
Speaker 3: that they don't have the entire I'll be embarrassed, they
Speaker 3: shall be shaded that that should have been Like I
Speaker 3: don't understand why that wasn't a day one thing. The
Speaker 3: fuck are you doing? Why that wasn't a day one thing?
Speaker 3: And why after almost a year there's still massive gaps
Speaker 3: Like whatever decades, decades, whatever.
Speaker 2: Whatever justification you're gonna come up with on their behalf,
Speaker 2: put a clown nose on it.
Speaker 3: Cloud, I'll tell you what. You know, you know what
Speaker 3: if you're gonna do, if listen, we we say it
Speaker 3: all the time. You know, obviously you know less is
Speaker 3: more in many ways, like you know, so if you're
Speaker 3: going to do that, just take it away, take it
Speaker 3: all away, don't don't, don't tease us with little bits
Speaker 3: and pieces. Just take it all away and gradually put
Speaker 3: up on the vault. If you're gonna do that, because
Speaker 3: it's fucking bullshit.
Speaker 2: It's not lost stupid, it's stupid or born of the
Speaker 2: of the network. We started in twenty fourteen, the year
Speaker 2: the networks started, and because we picked up on the
Speaker 2: signals WW is putting out about who this whole service
Speaker 2: was really supposed to cater to, these so called lapsed fans,
Speaker 2: remember this whole thing, yep? And how ironic is it
Speaker 2: that almost twelve years on, here we sit the last
Speaker 2: bastion of a concept that they introduced and spawned us
Speaker 2: and so many others. I mean, there's a ton of
Speaker 2: wrestling podcasts that were created because the network made on
Speaker 2: demand all of this archival footage, and we salute them
Speaker 2: as well. But I'm gonna say, man, like, how ironic
Speaker 2: is we're the ones left like making it hurt a
Speaker 2: little less because we're gonna do what it takes to
Speaker 2: keep the archives alive in a way that we've you know,
Speaker 2: sort of cornered the market on Yep, yep. Can't stop
Speaker 2: it at this point. I mean, I really want to
Speaker 2: know what they're thinking. I really want to do.
Speaker 3: I really want to know, and you know, I want
Speaker 3: to know what what in what frame of mind they said,
Speaker 3: you know what, this is the best thing. Yeah, this
Speaker 3: is the best thing to do. This is what we
Speaker 3: should do.
Speaker 2: Why they just it's it's literally they don't care. Like
Speaker 2: Peacock is done paying they could give a fuck. I mean,
Speaker 2: it's no other might have interpreted this. Does that mean
Speaker 2: Saturday Night's main events are dead? Yes, after after John's
Speaker 2: said a great, I mean, as far as the contract runs,
Speaker 2: they're still in USA, so they reupt with they can
Speaker 2: re up to the NBC Universal. But as far as
Speaker 2: Peacock itself having WWE, P L E S and stuff,
Speaker 2: I think that's coming to an end. And uh the
Speaker 2: beginning of the year, I believe so well. Forespn NXT
Speaker 2: cut a deal with c W for the television show
Speaker 2: and they took all the NXT archives off Peacock. It's like, what,
Speaker 2: so you can tell me the NXT archives are part
Speaker 2: of the c W Television contract and as far as
Speaker 2: I know, the there's no way to watch them. Why
Speaker 2: do you want to buy the rights to these things
Speaker 2: if you're going to not release them?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 2: Had supported I mean, just put you could make millions
Speaker 2: of dollars tomorrow if you just uploaded, you know, one
Speaker 2: hundred thousand videos and just put ads in it, Like,
Speaker 2: what the fuck is wrong with you?
Speaker 3: Guys. It's just it's just it's a fucking it's it's
Speaker 3: just just it's.
Speaker 2: A fiduciary matter at this point. Ye, I would be
Speaker 2: concerned if I was a stockholder. Anyway, Well, we'll we'll
Speaker 2: get through it. That's the irony. The whole thing is
Speaker 2: Frankenstein created Frankenstein's Monster here right where we keep walking, just.
Speaker 3: Like the Hulk, And that's the beauty of it. The
Speaker 3: monster outlast the doctor.
Speaker 2: What I really mourn is the loss of the ability
Speaker 2: of lapsed fan listeners to follow along with us, right
Speaker 2: to be able to watch the show back as part
Speaker 2: of the enjoyment of our revisitation and recontextualization of the events.
Speaker 2: It's a much like under the cinemat It'd be as
Speaker 2: if people couldn't access the movie right.
Speaker 3: Which you know, which does happen, Which does happen from
Speaker 3: time to time, there's some sometimes there are not easy
Speaker 3: ways outside of purchasing the movie outright, of following of
Speaker 3: watching the movie. It does happen. But this is this
Speaker 3: is just a fucking disgrace.
Speaker 2: And even though we took the most circuitous and capitalistic
Speaker 2: way here, it's not lost under the irony that we're
Speaker 2: now once again as far as wrestling fans are concerned,
Speaker 2: on the doorstep of the rebirth of physical media, yep
Speaker 2: on a podcast that decried its loss in every way possible,
Speaker 2: from every angle possible, and laid down the irrefutable case
Speaker 2: that physical media was better for the fans. It was
Speaker 2: better for the talent that won remuneration from video sales.
Speaker 2: It was better for Christmases where you can magically unwrap
Speaker 2: permanent access to magical moments. We just looked at a
Speaker 2: magazine for PWI years ago, forty four to ninety five,
Speaker 2: for a fucking compilation PWI tape with no WWF involvement
Speaker 2: in the eighties. I mean, you think about how much
Speaker 2: fifty bucks would be today for a VHS full of
Speaker 2: matches that you know, kind of of middleing quality just
Speaker 2: sort of a collection of names you've heard of, thrown
Speaker 2: onto a tape to make a quick buck. And we
Speaker 2: gave that up. We gave all those margins up, We
Speaker 2: gave up the whole industry. Yeah, of selling physical movies
Speaker 2: in videos. Your problem. If it wasn't for this, we
Speaker 2: wouldn't have your problem. The Hulk Hogan Alabama stuff, we
Speaker 2: do have. What's your problem? That stuff was dredged up
Speaker 2: from the quote personal collections or whoever the fuck because
Speaker 2: there was a VHS market to sell it into. If
Speaker 2: these kind of things exist now, people, yeah, people might.
Speaker 2: People are more motivated to scrounge them up to get
Speaker 2: views on YouTube. But that's not an industry. That's not
Speaker 2: the same thing as being powered by people with a
Speaker 2: profit mode of seeking out this stuff. That's where you
Speaker 2: really get the gems. And we were willing to pay
Speaker 2: for every little bite, every little glimpse, every little morsel.
Speaker 2: And it was proved over ten years and they just said, ah,
Speaker 2: not as many people watch that then a fucking WrestleMania.
Speaker 2: Well no shit, no shit, that was your expectation.
Speaker 3: Then you was there'd be that many people watching all
Speaker 3: the time. Yeah, exactly, you're a fucking idiot. It's about
Speaker 3: keeping people, fucking idiot, It's about keeping people. But if
Speaker 3: you want to live paycheck to paycheck, show to show,
Speaker 3: hype to hype, be my guest. But this is what
Speaker 3: keeps you homestead and knowing it was all there and
Speaker 3: we had it across the entertainment spectrum. When you subscribe
Speaker 3: to a service, you knew you had that that that
Speaker 3: IP library forever whenever you wanted to watch it. And
Speaker 3: now this ship is getting shopped around across streaming services annually,
Speaker 3: and we act like we're not getting fucked. We act
Speaker 3: like this is this is clearly not an evolution. This
Speaker 3: is a devolution, yep, of the distribution system for entertainment
Speaker 3: in this country, and it's now finally trickled down to
Speaker 3: the last bastion of hardcore fandom out there such that
Speaker 3: would support a subscription with streaming service ninety eight percent
Speaker 3: of which we never even want to watch, but just
Speaker 3: because it has the archives of thirty year old wrestling shows.
Speaker 3: We've been subscribers to peacocks ince day one, and subscribers
Speaker 3: to the ww Networks in twenty fourteen. Yep.
Speaker 2: Yeah, sounds like a bunch of consumers you can definitely
Speaker 2: afford to, you can definitely afford to alienate the complete
Speaker 2: hul Cogan. What a great time to lunch. This journey
Speaker 2: we're cruising. We don't have to worry about someone hitting
Speaker 2: us with a request for a show that suddenly we
Speaker 2: don't have access to. Right, We're a lot floaded for
Speaker 2: quite a while until the complete story of Hulk Hogan
Speaker 2: is told to a level that will remain unmatched forever more,
Speaker 2: particularly from an audio perspective, And we're excited to get
Speaker 2: to the point in time where we come to understand
Speaker 2: and crystallize why the Hulk Hogan Andre the Giant dynamic
Speaker 2: didn't just work in the capable hands of Vince McMahon
Speaker 2: junior or senior. It just worked no matter who the
Speaker 2: fuck was at the controls. Yeah, why does it work?
Speaker 2: Why does Hulk verse Andre work?
Speaker 3: Boss? Because honestly, it's it intangible. For me, it's it intangible.
Speaker 3: It's like you could take it. It's the it's the aura,
Speaker 3: it's the essence of these two giants of the business.
Speaker 3: Because I mean, I guess from a practical standpoint, it's
Speaker 3: like you've got under the giant who when did he
Speaker 3: start again in the sixties. Yeah, under the giant, who
Speaker 3: has been a spectacle since the sixties, late sixties, so
Speaker 3: a decade basically probably in many ways unmatched. Yeah, in
Speaker 3: terms of that, in terms of being Matt spectacle. But
Speaker 3: then you've got another guy. Here comes this new guy
Speaker 3: who is a giant in his own right different ways, tall, massive,
Speaker 3: bloated at this point and showing signs of an un
Speaker 3: tapped charisma. Yep.
Speaker 2: That and like Billy Graham and other big muscled up
Speaker 2: guys being sold as a supernatural force.
Speaker 3: Right right, being sold as a superhero already, this is
Speaker 3: probably one of the first true irresistible force meeting the
Speaker 3: immovable object of the modern era. Correct, all right, that's
Speaker 3: what this is. That's what this this exemplifies. It is
Speaker 3: it's it's I mean, it's really you know, in many
Speaker 3: ways too when you look at it, it's it's a
Speaker 3: legend versus you know, versus the future. Yes as well,
Speaker 3: it's all these different things. And and it was sold
Speaker 3: that way in the beginning as this young upstart threat.
Speaker 3: It ended up shoot being that at wrestling a three right, Right,
Speaker 3: That's why Hogan and Vince always cry when they think
Speaker 3: about this night, because even though a lot of it,
Speaker 3: I'm sure as crocodile tears, they know that if Andre
Speaker 3: did not think that Hulk deserved to run with the ball,
Speaker 3: it wouldn't have happened, right, It wouldn't have happened in
Speaker 3: the way it needed to happen to really cement the
Speaker 3: whole thing as magical and to give Hulk, you know,
Speaker 3: several more years of gasoline in the engine, and goddamn
Speaker 3: were with the beneficiaries and God Dan are loss to
Speaker 3: be a fan in Dothan, to be a fan on
Speaker 3: this fucking incredibly historically significant weekend in nineteen seventy nine,
Speaker 3: and to be able to witness Hulk and Andre tie
Speaker 3: up for the first time. For that to be a
Speaker 3: completely new thing, you to be the first person to
Speaker 3: witness that interpersonal dynamic. I can't.
Speaker 2: I'm going to go to my grave longing to be
Speaker 2: in one of those seats.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure. I mean I want
Speaker 3: to know, I want to I want to talk to well,
Speaker 3: I want to talk to somebody who experienced that. Of course,
Speaker 3: of course I don't need to experience it. I need
Speaker 3: to know what people thought, because experiencing it it's like,
Speaker 3: I know I can never have that. I know I
Speaker 3: can never have that, But but at the same time,
Speaker 3: I know that there are people who are still alive
Speaker 3: who did see this.
Speaker 2: And to your point, it's not even it's not even
Speaker 2: what they thought on that night. It's what they thought
Speaker 2: ten years later, almost exactly when the whole world was
Speaker 2: talking about this as a first of its kind matchup,
Speaker 2: and they're like, I saw these to wrestle down the
Speaker 2: road in nineteen seventy nine.
Speaker 3: Is that there's a handful of people who are like, no, no,
Speaker 3: this is fucking old news.
Speaker 2: And it would go to Georgia, and it would go
Speaker 2: to Montreal, and it would go to Japan before and
Speaker 2: around the same time it was in New York. But
Speaker 2: let's not get ahead of ourselves. Let's not get awared
Speaker 2: of ourselves. The total, the complete Hulk Hogan allows us to,
Speaker 2: much like a Greg Valentine, take our time, but much
Speaker 2: like a Hulk Hogan, you better believe we're hulking up
Speaker 2: and dialing it up to ten in the goal on
Speaker 2: the stage. But it's time to put under the microscope
Speaker 2: Hulk versus Andre for the very first time. As we
Speaker 2: established last time, on the complete Hulk Hogan charting Hulk's
Speaker 2: arrival in the Gulf Coast Territory, his first since taking
Speaker 2: a year off of the business and going with Ed
Speaker 2: Leslie to Cocoa Beach to run a bar. It is
Speaker 2: not lost on anybody, including territorial owner Ron Fuller, that
Speaker 2: this guy's money and booker Louis Tillett, they figured it
Speaker 2: out right away. They positioned him incredibly strongly. He's taking
Speaker 2: on the top guys, including Fuller in the ring, squashing people,
Speaker 2: bear hugging them to blood runs from their mouths. They're
Speaker 2: just doing the things that you do when you need
Speaker 2: to turn a guy into money immediately, and Hulk Hogan
Speaker 2: was money immediately. That's a key takeaway I think so
Speaker 2: far from this whole thing is that it didn't There
Speaker 2: was no baby steps with this guy. There was no
Speaker 2: period where it was like, uh, you know, he's still
Speaker 2: finding himself. If a booker wanted to, they could make
Speaker 2: hul Cogan a box office attraction from day one. Not
Speaker 2: all the bookers he worked for wanted to. That's the difference.
Speaker 2: Ron Fuller wanted to and he pulled it off. He
Speaker 2: pulled it off in such a way that I think
Speaker 2: you could argue it kind of sent a shock of
Speaker 2: panic through the NWA power structure. I think we're going
Speaker 2: to be able to make that claim by the time
Speaker 2: all is said and done, by the time nineteen seventy
Speaker 2: nine is in the books. And as we've already soort
Speaker 2: a forecast in nineteen seventy nine isn't just about Gulf
Speaker 2: Coast and southeastern for Terry Bolea. It's also about Memphis.
Speaker 2: It's also about New York, all of the Georgia GBS.
Speaker 2: All these things happened for ull Cogan in his very
Speaker 2: first year back. It all happens at once. It doesn't
Speaker 2: happen in a very neat, predictable tidy, one year at
Speaker 2: a time format. And thus you're going to witness the
Speaker 2: sort of format of the complete hul Cogan evolve to
Speaker 2: be able to pay appropriate respect to the fact that
Speaker 2: he's all over the place. He's back and forth, He's
Speaker 2: back and forth a series of runs. Sure life is
Speaker 2: a series of runs, Terry. But do they all have
Speaker 2: to happen at the same time? What happens when the
Speaker 2: runs happen in parallel?
Speaker 3: Boss chaos, chaos, chaos, trouble and destruction.
Speaker 2: I can only think of one way to take the
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Speaker 3: I think it.
Speaker 2: I think it fits very coolly in the palm of
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Speaker 3: Nothing like popping a cold one, even on these cold days,
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Speaker 2: We can we can tell you, folks, We can tell you.
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Speaker 3: Support them. Crack it.
Speaker 2: If you're going to crack a can you know you're
Speaker 2: going to do it, especially over the holidays. Make it garbage.
Speaker 2: You can make it garage. Look, look, you know what
Speaker 2: this is. Here's here's the deal. Holidays are here, all right,
Speaker 2: and a lot of us are going to be around family.
Speaker 2: Correct for better or worse. Okay, and when it gets
Speaker 2: to the worst, excuse yourself. Yes, take a little moment,
Speaker 2: say you know what, I'll be right back and head
Speaker 2: out to the garage. Have one, crack it open, take
Speaker 2: the edge off a little bit, have a six pack
Speaker 2: ready like your Terry Boleya about to negotiate a heel
Speaker 2: turn with Eric Bischoff.
Speaker 3: Or you're about to fucking convince Macho man Erney Savage
Speaker 3: to come to WCW Right, all right.
Speaker 2: I mean live in the spirit of holkg and as
Speaker 2: the complete plays out this holiday season.
Speaker 3: With just to live in the spirit of Terrible laya please, And.
Speaker 2: That's how to take that is edge off, brother, that's
Speaker 2: how to get things calm down and dialed in.
Speaker 3: Damn right.
Speaker 2: But when the new year hits and it's time to
Speaker 2: dial it up and pump up. When it comes time
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Speaker 2: on the couch and cocoa beach. We're talking spoonfuls of
Speaker 2: peanut butter. We're talking cubes of hogends.
Speaker 3: So did we ever what a is? No oka?
Speaker 2: Plenty of people offered suggestions that I appreciate all of them.
Speaker 2: I can't say any of them land that is exactly
Speaker 2: what Hulk meant by a cube of hogendas.
Speaker 3: I just don't understand it.
Speaker 2: That's the whole point. You don't have to do anymore.
Speaker 2: Folks like lived have figured it out. They've dialed it
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Speaker 3: I know, it's it's it's it's such a it's turned
Speaker 3: into such a fucking ship show. It's so pathetic. Really
Speaker 3: is like they've just lost all sight of what you know,
Speaker 3: what you know the problem is is that they they
Speaker 3: all I mean, listen, I've said it a thousand times.
Speaker 3: They all looked at what Netflix did, and they all
Speaker 3: thought they could do it, and they all thought it
Speaker 3: would make them easy money. Then they realize and that's
Speaker 3: and that's where the problem is, because they opened the
Speaker 3: floodgates and they fucking they the toothpaste is out of
Speaker 3: the tube and they can't put it back in. That's right,
Speaker 3: And now now the resolidation is happening, no one can
Speaker 3: stay in business anymore. And we all act like this
Speaker 3: is something that was inevitable and yeah, and they realized that, hey, shit,
Speaker 3: you know what we're we can't have all our stuff
Speaker 3: out there because it just won't work that way. And
Speaker 3: it's like, yeah, no, shit, right, obviously that's the case.
Speaker 3: But you did it anyway. And now we suffer as
Speaker 3: fans because you suck exactly because you're fucking morons, tremendous
Speaker 3: Now you have more.
Speaker 2: You're a copycat bitch, yeah, copycat, but you're a fomo bitch,
Speaker 2: just like somebody somebody chasing a fucking slot machine.
Speaker 3: Except the problem is is that unlike umlike being a copycat,
Speaker 3: you have you have now uh, what you've done, what
Speaker 3: they have all done is given us access has given
Speaker 3: us access, They've proved it's possible, and now they realize
Speaker 3: that doing that was a mistake. And I don't know,
Speaker 3: I don't disagree with them in many ways it was
Speaker 3: a mistake, but you did it, and now we're being
Speaker 3: punished for it, right, And it's like why, Oh, because
Speaker 3: you want money, And it's like, okay, great, well I
Speaker 3: want money too. What am I paying for? Then?
Speaker 2: What am I bothering doing? Because you know what I've
Speaker 2: I've got at least we can go to the Royal
Speaker 2: Rumble next year and in WrestleMania the year after that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, as long as we can go, you know, I mean, listen,
Speaker 3: the USA, Okay, the United Saudi Arabia.
Speaker 2: Big fucking thumbs up from your coach chairs, big fucking
Speaker 2: thumbs up from the coe chairs. You already know what
Speaker 2: it is. You've presided over it a bunch of fucking idiots.
Speaker 2: So let's go back to Let's go back to God's country.
Speaker 2: Let's go back to where they were A man still
Speaker 2: fears God. Let's go back to Alabama. Let's go back
Speaker 2: to the Southeastern Championship Wrestling Territory owned and operated by
Speaker 2: the Tennessee stud Ron Fuller and Terry the Hulk Boulder
Speaker 2: is just beginning to make Let's do it his impact.
Speaker 2: We talked last week about the feud with Fuller. Fuller
Speaker 2: goes in there as someone who actually towers a bit
Speaker 2: over Terry Bully in terms of height, not necessarily musculature,
Speaker 2: but what a great opponent. Fortunately for him, that the
Speaker 2: guy who ran the territory and had all of the
Speaker 2: self interest in the world and making this green kid
Speaker 2: a box office attraction right to save his territory, went
Speaker 2: in there and actually let a hulk bear hug the
Speaker 2: shit out of him, the blood out of him, and
Speaker 2: do the same to his old uncle Leicester Welch, and
Speaker 2: do the same to Roy Lee Welch and all these
Speaker 2: other family members that have been longtime veterans of the
Speaker 2: circuit down and around East Tennessee and Alabama, to feed
Speaker 2: to the Hulk and having no hesitation about it, having
Speaker 2: no bullshit Dusty Roads games about it, which drove Hogan
Speaker 2: almost out of the business in the first place, yep,
Speaker 2: or Mike Graham, bullshit, whoever you want to peg it on.
Speaker 2: And here he's just taken it to Ron Fuller and
Speaker 2: proving that he can hang with the biggest and baddest guy.
Speaker 2: So this territory is known, but under the Giant is
Speaker 2: kind of a different story. Yes, Andre, like so many
Speaker 2: territories across the country, and indeed the world, would come
Speaker 2: through at predictable but spaced out intervals to different territories
Speaker 2: across the country. He'd often come in for big battle royals,
Speaker 2: like the one at the Cow Palace in San Francisco.
Speaker 2: You'd often bring him in for your big annual battle
Speaker 2: Royal show because you know, he's sort of difficult book
Speaker 2: one on one against somebody. Unless you're going to sacrifice
Speaker 2: one of your local guys to Andre the Giant. He's
Speaker 2: not going to come in into a job for you necessarily.
Speaker 2: But this way the circumstances aligned. Here in the spring
Speaker 2: of nineteen seventy nine, Andre just happened to be coming
Speaker 2: through at the same time Louis Tillette had begun investing
Speaker 2: in this halt guy and setting him up, and it
Speaker 2: made a perfect match. As we discussed last time, Louis
Speaker 2: Tilette is a French Canadian, knew Andre well and on
Speaker 2: that deeper sort of French Canadian mafia level that courses
Speaker 2: so distinctly through the pro wrestling business.
Speaker 3: To you.
Speaker 2: You look at the Rougeaus and Patterson and Garvin and Thedino,
Speaker 2: Bravo and so many others. They run as a pack,
Speaker 2: and they are willing to do things for each other
Speaker 2: that they wouldn't be willing to do for an average
Speaker 2: booker or an average promoter that they might have a
Speaker 2: relationship with but don't have that deeper homeland kinship with.
Speaker 2: I think that is a big factor as to why
Speaker 2: Terry Bully I got the shot like he did, and
Speaker 2: Andre this early and this often now there it's generally
Speaker 2: accepted that May fourth, nineteen seventy nine was the very
Speaker 2: first match between Hulkgan and Andre the Giant in Dothan, Alabama. However,
Speaker 2: like so many things, when you go back and actually
Speaker 2: look at the wrestling data record and other career records,
Speaker 2: it shows a May third, the day before nineteen seventy
Speaker 2: nine match at the Boler Wrestling Arena in Panama City, Florida,
Speaker 2: where Andre teamed with roy Lee Welch to take on
Speaker 2: the Gladiator and the Hulk. So bullshit is what you're saying.
Speaker 2: I think so bullshit. I think you know the best
Speaker 2: we're going to get is Ron Fuller going back over
Speaker 2: his notes and recalling what he can recall from his
Speaker 2: personal archives and his personal memory about how he booked
Speaker 2: all this stuff and how it played out, and what
Speaker 2: struck him as the first instance of something happening and
Speaker 2: what struck him as the time. He has very specific
Speaker 2: dates on the studcast, which of course is an invaluable resource.
Speaker 2: The podcast that we pointed you to last time, on
Speaker 2: the Complete Hulkoken, where Ron Fuller really just goes through
Speaker 2: his date book from the Southeastern Gulf Coast days and
Speaker 2: Knoxville days and just delineates all the cards and all
Speaker 2: the very first times that people showed up in the
Speaker 2: territory and who they worked with, what the feuds were,
Speaker 2: what the television segments were, like the personality profiles with
Speaker 2: announcer Charlie Platt that they did on television to introduce
Speaker 2: the fans of the Gulf Coast territory to new wrestlers
Speaker 2: like Terry Bolea, And so if you follow that trajectory,
Speaker 2: there are a lot of things that he says that
Speaker 2: contradict with the dates that exist in these sort of
Speaker 2: complete career records, which if of course, thankfully have become
Speaker 2: a thing on the Internet over the past ten twelve years,
Speaker 2: these master databases, these master list. Richard Land's history of
Speaker 2: WWF is another great one. And so we have a
Speaker 2: conflict here in that it appears this is, you know,
Speaker 2: no different than Brian Blair swearing to God he had
Speaker 2: Hulk's first match, and you look it up and Hulk
Speaker 2: had two matches, including one with Brian Blair before the
Speaker 2: one in Chieflin, Florida. And we put Brian Blair to
Speaker 2: the test on that when we had her on this
Speaker 2: show as part of the complete hul COVID, and he
Speaker 2: stood by it. So it's not like people are just
Speaker 2: failing to ask. It's just right. There's just going to
Speaker 2: be conflicting recollections out there. That's the nature of everything,
Speaker 2: let alone the pro wrestling business. But if this is
Speaker 2: to believe, there actually was a tag match where Hogan
Speaker 2: and Andre steered across the ring from each other in
Speaker 2: Panama City, Florida, before their first one on one meeting
Speaker 2: in Dothan. But suffice to say, even if that is
Speaker 2: the case that they did meet in a tag match,
Speaker 2: we can say at the very least, this is the
Speaker 2: first Hulk Hogan Andrew the Giant one on one match,
Speaker 2: which is really what counts anyway.
Speaker 3: Full Yeah, I suppose that is true.
Speaker 2: Full Of recalled that they had to do the personality
Speaker 2: profile for the doth And market only because when Andre
Speaker 2: came in Boss, they didn't have a lot of time.
Speaker 2: They just had one weekend of Andre dates and not
Speaker 2: every city in the territory was going to get Andrea
Speaker 2: in Hulk. So think about this. Not only did they
Speaker 2: not only did they narrow cast at the time because
Speaker 2: they had so few cities to broadcast their TV, and
Speaker 2: they even had to split that up into pieces because
Speaker 2: they didn't want to promote Hulk versus Andre to a
Speaker 2: city that wasn't going to get the match. So you
Speaker 2: had to live in doth in Alabama to see this
Speaker 2: shit like not you couldn't live in Mobile either, And
Speaker 2: I know it's mobile and not mobile. I'm just trying
Speaker 2: to make mobile phone jokes. And then it just set
Speaker 2: problem with that. Then people get it. They can go
Speaker 2: fuck themselves, but you're going to say something there I
Speaker 2: don't remember. It's okay, well we'll get it back. So
Speaker 2: Ron Fuller recalls having to do the person profile on
Speaker 2: Terry the Hulk Boulder and Andrew the Giant and the
Speaker 2: matchup in the Dothan market only all about this match
Speaker 2: and that Mobile and Montgomery got different personality profiles the
Speaker 2: week that The Hulk Andre won aired because they weren't
Speaker 2: going to get the match. They didn't want to get
Speaker 2: people interested in the match. So, man, that makes this
Speaker 2: even more of a needle in a haystack to ever
Speaker 2: find this. Jesus Ron recollects that after they shot their
Speaker 2: normal television show with the matches before the fans there
Speaker 2: at the TV studios in Dothan with an empty studio,
Speaker 2: they kept Hulk Hogan behind there with his heel manager
Speaker 2: Billy Spears, who he introduced you to last week on
Speaker 2: the show. And Hulk was still part of the Spears family.
Speaker 2: Is a heel at this point in time, of course,
Speaker 2: in the great tradition of manager run stables of heels.
Speaker 2: You know the heen And Family, Jimmy Hart's first Family,
Speaker 2: jim Cornett's Cornett's Camp, and the Dangerously Dangerous Alliance. All
Speaker 2: that shit, it's all part of the same formula. Wow,
Speaker 2: And Hulk was there standing behind Billy Spears as he
Speaker 2: went on and on as one of his many muscle men.
Speaker 2: One thing I didn't even really appreciate until spending some
Speaker 2: time listening to podcasts that a guy named Bo James
Speaker 2: has done over the years, both on the Between the
Speaker 2: Sheets Show and the six oh five Super Podcast. Shout
Speaker 2: out to Steve on Patreon for pointing out that he
Speaker 2: has a lot of good insight because bo James was
Speaker 2: a teenager growing up in this exact market and actually
Speaker 2: got a job working for the territory down there as
Speaker 2: a young kid who wanted to get into the business
Speaker 2: and became a very much historian. He spent a lot
Speaker 2: of time documenting on the Exile from Bad Street sub
Speaker 2: series that Chris Selner Between the Sheets has done on
Speaker 2: the South Eastern Territory, particularly when it became Continental in
Speaker 2: nineteen eighty five after Vince has gone national and Crockett
Speaker 2: too Fuller tried to get back into the business as
Speaker 2: Continental Championship Wrestling and tried to get you know, national
Speaker 2: ad sales going. He wanted to make a run at
Speaker 2: it like Bill Watts wanted to make a run at
Speaker 2: it with UWF and so many other folks that were
Speaker 2: trying to navigate this new post WWF takeover world, and
Speaker 2: a lot of that stuff was produced and preserved and
Speaker 2: it can be rewatched. So a lot of that stuff
Speaker 2: from the mid to late eighties in Continental in that
Speaker 2: area survives on tape. One of the insights that bo
Speaker 2: James has brought is that Ron Fuller we talked about
Speaker 2: how weird it is that none of this survives and
Speaker 2: there's so little coverage of it. He didn't want the coverage.
Speaker 2: According to bo James, Ron Fuller would not let the
Speaker 2: wrestling magazines come to these shows. Why is it so
Speaker 2: weird there's no after mag coverage of these epic hult
Speaker 2: yeses Andre backlets?
Speaker 3: What is?
Speaker 2: What's the why? According to bo James. And I haven't
Speaker 2: heard Ron Fuller say this. Maybe he has said it somewhere.
Speaker 2: According to bo James, ron Fuller.
Speaker 3: Is actually think I keep thinking of me to say
Speaker 3: bow Jangles, and I'm thinking of fried Chicken. I will
Speaker 3: not say bo Jangles. Well, maybe now I will because
Speaker 3: you said that, But I know I keep thinking like it. Honestly,
Speaker 3: I keep thinking you're going to say that, and I'm
Speaker 3: getting hungry because they have incredible breakfast biscuits. They sure do.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, that's the way it stuff today. Yeah, I
Speaker 2: can't deny that. According to Bo James, Ron Fuller was
Speaker 2: concerned that if the national wrestling magazines featured his stars
Speaker 2: and the kind of houses they were doing and the
Speaker 2: kind of sensation they were careering in their part of
Speaker 2: the world, that other bigger territories would raid his wrestlers.
Speaker 2: And I wonder if that mentality is set in chiefly
Speaker 2: after this, because as far as I can tell, that's
Speaker 2: exactly what happened to him. Visa VI Hulk Cogan, He's a.
Speaker 7: Lapsed fan wrestling podcast.
Speaker 1: He's a lapsed fan wrestling podcast with Jack and Carno.
Speaker 5: M J. P.
Speaker 2: Sorow Like he found the star in Hulk Cogan, Him
Speaker 2: and Louis Tillette found the star in this guy and
Speaker 2: drew the kind of houses with Andre and others that
Speaker 2: would get the attention of a Jerry Lawler and Jerry
Speaker 2: Jarrett in Memphis, get the attention of an Olie Anderson
Speaker 2: and Jimmy Barnett in Atlanta, get the attention of Vince
Speaker 2: Senior in New York, and whoever was running the Bravos
Speaker 2: or the Brideaus, whoever was running Montreal at the time,
Speaker 2: all these places Japan that booked Hogan right after this.
Speaker 2: I mean that might have been the lesson learned in
Speaker 2: part is because this might be one that word got
Speaker 2: out because certainly people in the business knew about it,
Speaker 2: that this this new this new guy. Insiders knew that
Speaker 2: this new guy. Hull had drawn huge with with andre
Speaker 2: in this market. But Ron Fuller liked it that way.
Speaker 2: He liked that lower profile because I think he was
Speaker 2: concerned about his ability to retain what was working for
Speaker 2: him if word got out about how successful it was
Speaker 2: all being. So it's really counterintuitive in a way, but
Speaker 2: it kind of makes some sense when you think about it.
Speaker 2: Because he had such a small territory, he didn't have
Speaker 2: to worry about too many people laying eyes on the show,
Speaker 2: and the wrestlers could come there knowing and knowing that
Speaker 2: they could actually work and do things that not everybody
Speaker 2: would see. So it's kind of it's kind of more
Speaker 2: chill atmosphere that way. It's not National TBS right right,
Speaker 2: You're in a territory of the size of the AWS
Speaker 2: where you're pretty much reaching half of the country already anyway,
Speaker 2: or New York. So that was something apparently to be
Speaker 2: preserved about this part of the country and wrestling in
Speaker 2: this part of the country where they took it very
Speaker 2: seriously and had a great, great sense of local ownership.
Speaker 2: This idea of this is our wrestling, These are our wrestlers.
Speaker 2: And while people would cycle in and cycle out, it
Speaker 2: seemed very important, particularly to Southeastern, to keep alive in
Speaker 2: the fan's eyes, the sense and this is sort of
Speaker 2: just for us, you know, this is cooked to our liking,
Speaker 2: precisely to our liking. So after the normal show, as
Speaker 2: I said, they kept hulking. There were Billy Spears according
Speaker 2: to Ron Fuller, and the Samoans are in there and
Speaker 2: Billy Spears family, the gladiator Eddie Sullivan, and they're talking
Speaker 2: about how big ox Baker will be joining the family soon.
Speaker 2: And they're putting over how ox Baker had suppose killed
Speaker 2: two wrestlers in the past. Right, let's not forget that.
Speaker 2: Tell the people how we know about that, Well, we
Speaker 2: talked a lot about that when we did escape from
Speaker 2: New York under the Cinema where we went into a
Speaker 2: pretty I mean, honestly, you know, because he's a guy
Speaker 2: that we you know, oftentimes we you know, we don't
Speaker 2: there There are are our big time, big name wrestlers
Speaker 2: who were not going to really come across on the
Speaker 2: main show, which you know, it's it's I don't think
Speaker 2: before now, I don't I mean, have we ever, I
Speaker 2: don't know we ever talked about ox Baker before now
Speaker 2: on the main show?
Speaker 3: Would we? I mean, he's not exactly any you know
Speaker 3: Lapsteer of shows. No, no, no, no, no exactly. So
Speaker 3: we we went into a full, a full dive on
Speaker 3: him and some of these encounters and some of the
Speaker 3: riots that happened and all that ship. It's it's not
Speaker 3: the me. Let me let me look into there. Let's
Speaker 3: going to find some of my old gems there from
Speaker 3: from from back then.
Speaker 2: One thing ox Baker himself has said was that it
Speaker 2: was supposed to be Bruiser Brodie getting that role and
Speaker 2: escape from New York.
Speaker 3: Did we did he? Wow? Did I Did I know that?
Speaker 3: I don't know if I even knew that?
Speaker 2: Not sure, but he's definitely talking shoot interviews, and so
Speaker 2: it was kind of a there was an opportunity that
Speaker 2: I think took him out of circulation at a time
Speaker 2: when he really could have found a way to integrate
Speaker 2: into the you know, the nationalization of wrestling. Sure, her
Speaker 2: face at your time. But that kind of created a
Speaker 2: potential separate Hollywood path, and Southeastern was a great territory
Speaker 2: to go to when you sort of didn't want to
Speaker 2: hustle as much as far as driving, the towns are
Speaker 2: very close. You could live on the beach, as we've
Speaker 2: talked about, and a lot of the guys were from
Speaker 2: and around Florida. Anyway, you could live in Pensacola and
Speaker 2: make all the towns in Alabama in just a few
Speaker 2: hours in the car. You could be home at night.
Speaker 2: One things bo James said is that I think you
Speaker 2: said about Royally Welch. You know he's about Ron Wright.
Speaker 2: He said, ron Wright just decided I don't want to
Speaker 2: work at a territory. Think about this. I don't want
Speaker 2: to work at a territory where I have to leave
Speaker 2: before my kids get home from school that day.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 2: And he didn't have to this in this territory, and
Speaker 2: that was a huge selling point of working there and
Speaker 2: why guys like the Fullers and the Armstrongs and the
Speaker 2: Goldens were so homesteaded there for many years. And so
Speaker 2: ox Baker was being talked about on television at this
Speaker 2: point in time, is coming to join Billy Spears' family
Speaker 2: as well, and during this particular segment, Ron Fuller recalls
Speaker 2: Billy Spears asking the Hulk in particular to step forward,
Speaker 2: and then he tells the director, does Billy Spears, the
Speaker 2: director of the television go to run the video that
Speaker 2: I provided to you, And what the video was was
Speaker 2: the submission match from three nights earlier where Hulk was
Speaker 2: wrestling Ron Fuller in the submission match and Hulk had
Speaker 2: Ron and a bear hug, and eventually Ron Fuller went
Speaker 2: out cold and Hulk's hand was raised in victory, and
Speaker 2: Billy Spears requested the tape be run back with Ron
Speaker 2: Fuller pounding the Hulk and putting the leg lock on
Speaker 2: earlier and apparently Hulk Hogan has talked about by Ron
Speaker 2: Fuller had conceded, but the referee didn't see it, so
Speaker 2: you know the sort of a visual pinfall gimmick going
Speaker 2: on here. Spears says someone doctored the tape, yes, because
Speaker 2: he claims to the audience, Ron Fuller never had the
Speaker 2: Hulk in that hold and there's no way that this
Speaker 2: is real footage. At which point, those are the liberty
Speaker 2: liberties affonded to you? Well, I think this shit is
Speaker 2: ourn't artificial intelligence? Oh my god, I believe that artificial
Speaker 2: intelligence has taken a hold of this videotape, in this
Speaker 2: footage and has has has has perverted it and something
Speaker 2: that didn't happen. Well, if everything else the wrestling business
Speaker 2: is artificial, the intelligence ought to be too, right. I've
Speaker 2: seen a lot of artificial intelligence in the wrestling business.
Speaker 2: Let me tell you. Whenever someone's talked about as a genius,
Speaker 2: you watch them talk for more than forty five minutes,
Speaker 2: you know, this guy's pretty much a fucking moron. But
Speaker 2: it's fine feigned intelligence. So the studio empties out and
Speaker 2: spears calls him Sterling the Hulk Golden. According to Ron Fuller,
Speaker 2: I can't emphasize this enough. It's incredibly confusing to me.
Speaker 2: But Ron Fuller swears that Terry Boleo was interchangeably called
Speaker 2: Sterling the Hulk Golden and Terry the Hulk bolet on.
Speaker 3: His test show. Yes, listen, it's it's in the newspapers, Okay,
Speaker 3: I saw it in the New Georgia though. No, no,
Speaker 3: not a Georgia. No it's not. It was from earlier.
Speaker 2: It was from earlier, in seventy nine, yes, I remember
Speaker 2: the date being November of seventy nine.
Speaker 3: Am I wrong? Hold on?
Speaker 2: Because I found what I found for the Hulk read
Speaker 2: during the Incredible Hulk Under the Sad episode that was.
Speaker 3: Shure to go back. Maybe I've listened. I'll fully admit
Speaker 3: if I if I if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty
Speaker 3: sure I saw it fairly early in the year where
Speaker 3: he was Sterling the Hulk or something like that, or
Speaker 3: the Hulk Wrestling's Hulk Sterling Golden something like that.
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, let's run that down. The Solar system has
Speaker 2: already heard it, so I remember finding that away in
Speaker 2: my mind is okay, that makes sense. It's a Georgia
Speaker 2: newspaper and it's after he had left Alabama, at which
Speaker 2: point no one disputes. I mean, there's tape of him
Speaker 2: being called Sterling Golden on WTBS.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but Sterling the Hulk Golden.
Speaker 2: No, the tapes that I've seen from the territory, which
Speaker 2: I believe is the full extent, and we'll talk about
Speaker 2: it as the Completehull. COGA and unfolds from Georgia always
Speaker 2: just calls them Sterling Sterling Golden, not sorry.
Speaker 3: This is this is the Knoxville New Sentinel Sentinel. Okay, yep,
Speaker 3: the Hulk this is from I guess this is from
Speaker 3: This is from later in the year. Okay, so I'm
Speaker 3: wrong about that. This is from November and he is
Speaker 3: the Hulk. Sterling Golden.
Speaker 2: Does it give a date line as far as like
Speaker 2: where the matches took place that the reporter was.
Speaker 3: It's the uh I have? This is the ad here,
Speaker 3: I have the w It was a the W Knox Auditorium, Okay, Tennessee. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and it's it was. It was on Thursday, November twenty
Speaker 3: ninth at eight pm.
Speaker 2: As we'll talk about November, right, as we'll talk about
Speaker 2: it gets really hairy out round here because those guys
Speaker 2: like Bob Rupe who defect from Ron Fuller and take
Speaker 2: over Knoxville, or at least try to run opposition, they
Speaker 2: do run up position in Knoxville and try.
Speaker 3: To take it over.
Speaker 2: I'm not entirely sure that we get the whole story
Speaker 2: from Ron Fuller as to where Terry Bullay has loyalties.
Speaker 3: Lie Holy, he.
Speaker 2: Kind of makes it seem like Terry just, you know,
Speaker 2: ferried off to Memphis and didn't really take a side
Speaker 2: in the Bob Roup versus Ron Fuller war, but I'm
Speaker 2: pretty sure that there's evidence that Terry essentially picked Knoxville,
Speaker 2: he picked the outlaw group, which I think might also
Speaker 2: be a part of why Terry has very little to
Speaker 2: say about this the particulars at this point of his
Speaker 2: career in his books and such, for a million other
Speaker 2: reasons that maybe perhaps among them, and further to the
Speaker 2: point earlier about Ron Fuller showing away from magazine coverage
Speaker 2: out of fear that it would, you know, attract people
Speaker 2: to steal his talent and get hip to what he
Speaker 2: was doing that or you know, another thing he said
Speaker 2: was like this is what bo James said. It also
Speaker 2: kind of makes a promoter who has expansion ambitions say,
Speaker 2: wait a minute. If they're packing out every arena in
Speaker 2: this territory, we got to run down there. You know,
Speaker 2: you're just inviting Vince to come even sooner. And it
Speaker 2: wasn't just Vince he'd be worried about. Is this Knoxville
Speaker 2: drama demonstrates and others had made moves. This is a
Speaker 2: part of the country where you got like two three
Speaker 2: city territories and there's been four owners of six different
Speaker 2: ways of slicing it over thirty years, they're always making moves.
Speaker 2: It doesn't have to be the big, bad New York guy.
Speaker 2: It can be to the you know, the country boy
Speaker 2: from you know, two towns over that could try to
Speaker 2: take their shit too, right, And so I think, you know,
Speaker 2: I think there's there's evidence that Hulk actually went against
Speaker 2: Ron Fuller in this war. I think too that Jimmy Barnett,
Speaker 2: who of course helped run Georgia champion to Presting at
Speaker 2: this time with oly Anderson, had some loyalties and ended
Speaker 2: up backing the Knoxville guys too to some degree. I mean,
Speaker 2: eventually Ron Fuller sold Knoxville to Jim Barnett, and so
Speaker 2: maybe selling Knoxville to Jim Barnett his version of Knoxville
Speaker 2: obviously not the version of the outlaw version, right, Maybe
Speaker 2: that's what sort of put Hulk in a comfortable position
Speaker 2: to work for him. But it looks optically like Hulk
Speaker 2: leaves southatern Gulf Coast and goes to the part of
Speaker 2: the territory that was up for grabs, so to speak,
Speaker 2: and kind of was a beneficiary of all the trouble caused,
Speaker 2: and he has to have some level of not loyalty
Speaker 2: really but just straight familiarity with guys like Bob Rup,
Speaker 2: Bob Orton Junior, and some of the other guys that
Speaker 2: made that jump. We talked a lot in the early
Speaker 2: stages of The Completely, the initial stages of The Complete,
Speaker 2: about how formative and central those guys were to Florida
Speaker 2: a CHAMPIONSI Wrestling from Florida when Hogan first was training.
Speaker 2: So all that you have to factor in as well.
Speaker 3: I will say, by the way, in regards to ox Baker,
Speaker 3: so I guess a lot of the stuff that I
Speaker 3: had are actually sound bites, So you'd have to go
Speaker 3: listen to you'd have to go to listen to that
Speaker 3: episode of Escape from New York regarding an ox Baker,
Speaker 3: Except there is one thing funny here that that ox
Speaker 3: Baker didn't want to lose his fight New York. Yeah,
Speaker 3: he didn't want to lose, and he he would. He
Speaker 3: was upset about that for the rest of his life.
Speaker 3: And even where Hogan got it from. Yeah, and even
Speaker 3: claim this is this is the best part. So you
Speaker 3: know that there's a sequel to Escape from New York,
Speaker 3: Escape from La coming soon to the Cinement, and he says,
Speaker 3: and it didn't do as well, and he says the
Speaker 3: reason that the sequel failed was because he wasn't in it.
Speaker 3: Of course, I mean, come on, folks, everybody knows that, everybody,
Speaker 3: because everyone came to escape from New York for the Ox.
Speaker 2: Okay, for the Ox, I'll tell you looking ahead of it,
Speaker 2: not only is he coming in to join Billy Spears family,
Speaker 2: he's coming in to work a series of matches with Theulk.
Speaker 2: Ox Baker is waiting for Hulk, and in fact, here
Speaker 2: Ron Fuller tell it, they would have started the Ox
Speaker 2: Baker Hulk Hogan feud a lot earlier than they did,
Speaker 2: and in fact, it may have even preempted the Andre
Speaker 2: the Giant idea. If Ox was available at the first time,
Speaker 2: they had the idea of matching these two up, which
Speaker 2: it's just wild to think about.
Speaker 3: As well.
Speaker 2: So as in the Empty Studio once again, on the
Speaker 2: Gulf Coast television, Billy Spears calls him Stirling the Hulk
Speaker 2: Golden and he has them watching an interview that had
Speaker 2: been cut in New York and sent to Dothan three
Speaker 2: days earlier by the Giant.
Speaker 8: Wow.
Speaker 2: So Andre's there shooting TV for WWWF and he takes
Speaker 2: a moment to shoot TV that's going to be sent
Speaker 2: down to Dothan for this hoping. So can you imagine
Speaker 2: sitting at home in Dothan, Alabama watching Southeastern Championship Wrestling
Speaker 2: and you see a tape shot in presumably Allentown, PA,
Speaker 2: with Andre at ringside at the WWWF taping setting we
Speaker 2: all know so well, and he's cutting a promo on
Speaker 2: Hulk Hogan and he's coming Terry the Hulk Bowlder. So
Speaker 2: that WWF has that because that's their fucking equipment being used.
Speaker 2: That's part of one of the marathon taping sessions somewhere.
Speaker 2: So if you don't produce andres first promo on Hulk,
Speaker 2: out of your fucking minds, guys.
Speaker 3: We'll never see it. Why is that because they don't
Speaker 3: want us to, they don't care. Suck it.
Speaker 2: This was not the week for this news to come out.
Speaker 2: When we're sucking and we're knee deep in kneeds and
Speaker 2: wants around Hulk Hogan and video.
Speaker 3: Plats the kit. That's what I'm gonna have to do.
Speaker 3: Like the kids, and like the kids in school used
Speaker 3: to say, yeah, bad because bad kids. Eyebrow rings right, Yeah,
Speaker 3: just unbelievable that a New York promo was sent to
Speaker 3: Dothan from Andre's lips to Hulk Hogan before he'd even
Speaker 3: laid eyes on the guy, just cutting a promo on,
Speaker 3: you know, his most lucrative foe. And he's talking about
Speaker 3: coming back to Dothan, according to Ron Fuller, because Andre
Speaker 3: had come to the territory several times before, and they
Speaker 3: had opened Othan in nineteen seventy eight, and Andre, ron
Speaker 3: Fuller says, was on that first card when his family
Speaker 3: opened up their own their uh their promotion and doth
Speaker 3: in Alabama. When they opened doth into the promotion, they
Speaker 3: were running elsewhere, and Andre said he looked forward to
Speaker 3: coming back. And then Andre, according to Ron Fuller, here
Speaker 3: for the first time, that's just from the stud cast
Speaker 3: his Ron Fuller's podcast again highest recommendation for the first
Speaker 3: time our promo turns his attention.
Speaker 5: To Hulk, and he said he had never heard of
Speaker 5: this Russer, which is true. You know, he said he
Speaker 5: never heard of this Russer called the Hulk, but everyone
Speaker 5: that knew him said he was a very big guy.
Speaker 5: And you know, and then andread ended up in his
Speaker 5: normal fashion, he said, but I don't care. The bigger
Speaker 5: the better. You know, he wasn't concerned about it. So
Speaker 5: Spears jumped in, you know, the second the video ended,
Speaker 5: and he said, this was the moment he and Sterling
Speaker 5: had been waiting for. And then suddenly, for the first
Speaker 5: time Hulk had done anything like this, he just stopped
Speaker 5: Billy wrighting, Hey, Hey, hey, I got this wow, and
Speaker 5: he asked, you know, he says that he says to Billy,
Speaker 5: he says, how many times have I told you my
Speaker 5: name is Terry. Then for the first time, he didn't
Speaker 5: just say that little thing to say. He took over
Speaker 5: the rest of the interview. He was like a different
Speaker 5: person in this personality profile than we had seen from him.
Speaker 5: So Hoaks said, basically, you know, they're going to be
Speaker 5: two big phenomenal things in wrestling that were going to
Speaker 5: happen this month, and both of them are going to
Speaker 5: happen in Southeastern wrestling, and both of them are going
Speaker 5: to change wrestling history forever. He said. Next Friday night,
Speaker 5: he says, I'm going to beat Andre the Giant, and
Speaker 5: then three weeks later, I'm going to beat the NWA
Speaker 5: World Champion Harley Race.
Speaker 3: Whoa wow, and he walked.
Speaker 5: Off the set. Billy Spears chasing behind him, apologizing, Hey,
Speaker 5: you hope, whoa whoa. You know, that was a pretty
Speaker 5: short little deal, but it was very effective so that
Speaker 5: it showed the different personality.
Speaker 2: So Hulk steps into the foreground and says, I got this,
Speaker 2: spears Andre. Not only am I going to beat your ass,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna turn around become NBA World Heavyweight Champion.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, where's the fucking footage? Didn't happen?
Speaker 2: I mean, this is him coming into his own in
Speaker 2: every conceivable way.
Speaker 3: Didn't happen. There's no television evidence. Didn't happen. How do
Speaker 3: I know?
Speaker 2: H nothing. I'm electrified just hearing him describe that. I know,
Speaker 2: I mean, what what are you seeing? When he's hot?
Speaker 2: When he's utting that picture out? I mean it's hard
Speaker 2: because I know, why does his voice sound like I
Speaker 2: want to see like I want to see Hull Cogan
Speaker 2: in like eighty five. But the problem is I know
Speaker 2: what Hull Cogan was sounding like, you know, and it
Speaker 2: wasn't pretty, you know, because I because I also think
Speaker 2: of so I wanted to be Hulk Hogan in his prime.
Speaker 2: But I can't help but think it's hl Hogan on
Speaker 2: Johnny Carson. Yes, right right, devoid of any over the.
Speaker 3: Top right exactly. That's that's that's my concern. But I
Speaker 3: don't know, you know, very well could have been but
Speaker 3: for him.
Speaker 2: Even just for a small amount of time, to be
Speaker 2: portrayed as this silent killer monster you know who said
Speaker 2: less than Goldberg in those early days. Yes, by the way,
Speaker 2: shout out to everyone on x and Patreon who noticed that, Yes,
Speaker 2: Hulk Hogan was indeed the first coming of Bill Goldberg.
Speaker 2: That it's precisely how he was pushed in Gulf Coast.
Speaker 2: The for him to suddenly like not only talk but
Speaker 2: offer more than just a grunt and acknowledgment of what
Speaker 2: Billy Spears is saying for him is so huge. Yeah,
Speaker 2: And to step into the foreground and say those things,
Speaker 2: It's like, whoa, this guy is not only ready to
Speaker 2: take on Andre, they want us as fans to now
Speaker 2: think of him as a potential NWL champion. It's been
Speaker 2: in the business for like three months since the return, yep.
Speaker 2: So it's very clear. And so there's something that does
Speaker 2: survive and we are deeply fortunate for this. And according
Speaker 2: to the Wrestling Gold series the Kid Parker Films put out,
Speaker 2: this comes from some private collection. It's not Ron Fuller's.
Speaker 2: He said he doesn't have footage going much before nineteen
Speaker 2: eighty I believe.
Speaker 3: Is what he said. Fucking he is, Oh, I know, idiot.
Speaker 2: The word salad he must throw at you when you
Speaker 2: ask him save these tapes.
Speaker 3: Well you know, yeah, yeah, fail. I just oh wow,
Speaker 3: you know what the problem? I wanted to my memory
Speaker 3: more than I want to live on Okay, it, so
Speaker 3: we do have. I prefer to just sit there and
Speaker 3: think about it and dream about it than I do
Speaker 3: to actually experience.
Speaker 2: We might not know anything about this if it wasn't
Speaker 2: for this VHS that found the Hult versus Andre in
Speaker 2: the arm wrestling match at the doth And TV studios
Speaker 2: to set up their first match. We have footage of
Speaker 2: the angle. We have Billy Spears at ring side with
Speaker 2: his back to the hardcam. We have you know, two
Speaker 2: three rows of bleachered fans with that like pink spotlight
Speaker 2: on the blue wall like it's fucking a w A
Speaker 2: teen Challenge series over here, and we have we have
Speaker 2: the full texture of what it looks like. Yeah, we're
Speaker 2: gonna watch that along with you. You can find it on YouTube.
Speaker 2: A simple Andre Hulk arm Wrestling Alabama. We'll get you there,
Speaker 2: but we're gonna watch it here along with you. And
Speaker 2: if you're ready, boss, I am ready. Have you ever
Speaker 2: seen this before? First, No, I have never seen this before.
Speaker 2: This is a man. This is brand new to me.
Speaker 2: I'm very very this is you know.
Speaker 3: I used to always find want these these kind of
Speaker 3: tapes of the unseen Hulk Hogan stuff. Yes, this one,
Speaker 3: I've never seen this.
Speaker 2: Here we go three two one, play.
Speaker 5: And headed for the ring.
Speaker 4: Terry the Hulk Bowlder is in the ring now.
Speaker 9: Yes, we have a challenge here. And Andre looks huge.
Speaker 4: There you see the eighth wonder of the world, Andre
Speaker 4: the Giant.
Speaker 3: The history right here is like and.
Speaker 4: Terry the Hawk Boulder Nicky Steinborn into instruck the gentleman
Speaker 4: on the rules of his arm wrestling match.
Speaker 9: No, I can't hear the grips.
Speaker 4: Look at the size of a.
Speaker 3: Yeah, stronger going on? Here we go?
Speaker 2: Here we go, Steinborn laying in the rules all across
Speaker 2: this wooden table.
Speaker 3: In the middle of the ring. The xplaining Hogan's locks
Speaker 3: are flowing.
Speaker 9: What must be done to win this match?
Speaker 4: We get there, have started evenly matched so far.
Speaker 3: Struggling.
Speaker 4: Willie Spears at ringside still looks like he's hurting, right
Speaker 4: that seven Dickie Steinborn, the lean.
Speaker 10: Wolf, got park Old looking who andric But the whole
Speaker 10: looks like on these frings some expressions the haultage, it
Speaker 10: looks like on the half springs and expression duck.
Speaker 3: Maybe ongres coming down? Oh yeah, o Russell.
Speaker 8: Then you want to be.
Speaker 3: Shaped like it says.
Speaker 10: Here and tell him the whole time back he's gonna split.
Speaker 10: Let's look at him, look at him God and his sandals.
Speaker 10: Yeah right, that's montre A. Matt Billy Spears is got
Speaker 10: in the ring, Aldredes after Spears, look for Spears.
Speaker 3: Plugget's got the table, Holgan's got the table after on
Speaker 3: the table roll and stumping the ship out of him
Speaker 3: and sandals like he's called Ardwarf to Vader Sweet clubbing entre,
Speaker 3: the off road entre, y Ronhouse rats on the classic
Speaker 3: rights and I blade too. H is trying to do
Speaker 3: what's the andre the clubbing gloss in the.
Speaker 4: Funds to the floor on the manager of the Hulk
Speaker 4: sus him back Yender again, he dogs Hunger again.
Speaker 3: So I'm hearing that cut place on and.
Speaker 1: On the.
Speaker 3: Giant is down in the corner and the Hawk is
Speaker 3: still on.
Speaker 9: He's paring at him.
Speaker 3: He's trying to really open him up and.
Speaker 9: Take him out of him.
Speaker 3: Had a commission for good. He's bowling at me now, Charlie,
Speaker 3: Let's see if we get somebody in there to stop this.
Speaker 9: Andres the word and the Hawk is back into a game.
Speaker 3: This is the harst time I've ever Sirs shop to
Speaker 3: stay alive.
Speaker 4: I've guys coming back where he comes.
Speaker 3: Said, halt, why bit right?
Speaker 4: I hate the man Terry Boulder shoes now, but he's
Speaker 4: fighting him.
Speaker 3: We're those two superman in the way and ten other
Speaker 3: shot and Terry Bales. Andre's got a whole of them.
Speaker 9: That's the wildest thing, obviously.
Speaker 4: And there was that wrestling world's biggest man right there,
Speaker 4: and he's been busted open.
Speaker 2: By the first time you've seen that. I'm so happy
Speaker 2: that you hadn't seen that before. I've never seen that before,
Speaker 2: So just say things about it, please, I am. I
Speaker 2: mean you know what, I I take it all back.
Speaker 2: I mean, Hogan was like Hogan was a was a
Speaker 2: was a madman and really yeah, yeah, I mean he's
Speaker 2: like he's got he's got there's such a.
Speaker 3: A sense of him that you know him in the future.
Speaker 3: You know, he's got that. That the way he was
Speaker 3: holding Andrey's hand and he was like shaking his head
Speaker 3: and all this stuff, that's that's classic Hogan right there.
Speaker 3: That's vintage Hogan. A lot of the mannerisms and no
Speaker 3: he it was. And but you know what I love
Speaker 3: the most, and it's what we talked about and discovered
Speaker 3: in in the Uh in the AWA is the kind
Speaker 3: of the badass Hule Cogan. Yes, the whole Cogan who's
Speaker 3: coming in with with you know, is it. He's just
Speaker 3: got intensity and he's he's trying to hurt. He's trying
Speaker 3: to hurt his opponent.
Speaker 2: He's not trying to entertain, he's not trying to be
Speaker 2: a fucking matinee idol. He's just trying to kick ass,
Speaker 2: which is why people fell in love with them the
Speaker 2: first place, and why he became the biggest baby face
Speaker 2: attraction in the business. Yeah, because money drawing babyfaces come
Speaker 2: to kick ass, and you believe they're here to kick ass,
Speaker 2: and if they have a ton of charisma on top
Speaker 2: of it, that's all gravy, except your babyface isn't here
Speaker 2: to fuck somebody up. They're not maximizing their box office appeal, right,
Speaker 2: and had that in him and he had that in
Speaker 2: him from from from the beginning as a heel. I mean,
Speaker 2: I'm going to notice all kinds of like first journey
Speaker 2: of things as we go. But the way he's shaking
Speaker 2: in that Armorsson contest, that's the way he shakes in
Speaker 2: any test of strength he would ever do in the
Speaker 2: big w af Matt exactly exactly, same trembling we recognize
Speaker 2: even on this grainy footage. And he's got wild like
Speaker 2: you know, almost like pajama pants on and sandals. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that's fascinating to me. The whole corpse sell goes into
Speaker 2: the ring and there's Andrea his cowboy boots with no
Speaker 2: shirt on in his own right, flailing all over for
Speaker 2: the whole I don't know, man, Andre's not doing that
Speaker 2: for many guys in seventy.
Speaker 3: No, no, I mean he ah the way that Andre
Speaker 3: sells for Hogan in that I mean he is, He's
Speaker 3: letting you know that this is a big deal.
Speaker 2: Right exactly, especially if you're in the business and you
Speaker 2: know what it takes to get Andre to sell like
Speaker 2: that for you, what you have to show Andre in
Speaker 2: terms of spark to get him to believe it's worth
Speaker 2: handing over his equity as this you know, monster that
Speaker 2: can't be stopped to somebody like. And that's that's what
Speaker 2: everyone says, from Ron Fuller on down, what Andre we
Speaker 2: saw in this guy was a guy I could actually
Speaker 2: work with. When you're of such freakish proportions, it's really
Speaker 2: hard to find an opponent you can go around the
Speaker 2: horn with and make money with that the fans will
Speaker 2: buys a legitimate physical threat to you, and Hulk was
Speaker 2: the right place, right guy in that regard. Andre saw
Speaker 2: it right away. He's in the territory for just one weekend,
Speaker 2: just one weekend, and we shoot this TV angle that
Speaker 2: were privileged to watch all these decades later as a
Speaker 2: first glimpse of a chemistry between Hulk Cogan and Andre
Speaker 2: the Giant that would to say they very at least
Speaker 2: go to the bank, go to the fucking bank. Yes,
Speaker 2: So it's time for the match in Dothan, and according
Speaker 2: to Ron Fuller, it set an all time record not
Speaker 2: just for Southeastern at that point, but for the building
Speaker 2: they were running in itself, of any farm it's called
Speaker 2: the Houston County Farm Center, where Hulk and Andre wrestled
Speaker 2: for the very first time. According to Ron Fuller, the
Speaker 2: building was built to hold five thousand people, but they
Speaker 2: had six thousand squeezed into the building because people watch
Speaker 2: that angle that we just saw were Hulk waffles Andre
Speaker 2: over the head, Yeah, with a fucking wooden arm wrestling table,
Speaker 2: and Andre blades like a motherfucker and bleeds and suffers.
Speaker 2: And you don't think the fine people of Dothan are
Speaker 2: gonna think it's worth five six bucks to see Andre
Speaker 2: beat the shit out of this guy, Yes, or maybe
Speaker 2: even more tantalizingly, to see if maybe Hulk can actually
Speaker 2: take the fight to Andre. Because they've seen nothing but
Speaker 2: credible physical opposition from hul Hogan, they have reason to
Speaker 2: believe that maybe this guy is actually gonna beat Andre
Speaker 2: the Giant. I got to be there to see that
Speaker 2: shit the all time record. Houston County Farm Center a
Speaker 2: very important building to this territory, and a very important building,
Speaker 2: come to find out, to the history of Hulk Hogan
Speaker 2: and Andre the Giant. Recently, the building was undergoing extensive renovations,
Speaker 2: and this television news clip from WDHN Television down there
Speaker 2: puts it all into perspective as to what's happening at
Speaker 2: the former Houston County Farm Center site, which now it's
Speaker 2: firmly established thanks to the complete Hulk. Hogan is a
Speaker 2: pilgrimage site. It's a holy site.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: If it's where Hogan and Andre first wrestled, it's got
Speaker 2: to be a holy site.
Speaker 3: We got to make that a thing.
Speaker 2: So here we'll bring up to speed on what's there now,
Speaker 2: what's happening at the site now, and you better believe
Speaker 2: that this ends. This clip here ends in the most
Speaker 2: money way possible.
Speaker 11: The Wiregrass Tonight, a historic landmark in Houston County, is
Speaker 11: undergoing a multi million dollar makeover, and almost a year later,
Speaker 11: the foundation is starting to come together. The WDHNS Robert
Speaker 11: Smith has the story.
Speaker 8: Not even a full year since the makeover on the
Speaker 8: Houston County Farm Center began, and county officials are blown
Speaker 8: away by the progress of the iconic landmarks.
Speaker 12: I'm very excited, you know, a lot of work is
Speaker 12: finally starting to come together, and we're starting to see
Speaker 12: kind of things take safe and so very exciting.
Speaker 8: Months ago, the roof was replaced with standing scene metal
Speaker 8: that will last about fifty years. And now a majority
Speaker 8: of the work has taken place inside the arena.
Speaker 12: Interior is pretty close to being done. The bath rooms
Speaker 12: are gonna be flown down pretty soon. It's closed to
Speaker 12: start laying the concrete foundation next week, so that'll be good.
Speaker 12: And you can see we've actually been able to save
Speaker 12: some of the other structures that used to be here
Speaker 12: on the grounds, like the horse barn, so the horse
Speaker 12: born is now the way is coding for the arenas.
Speaker 8: With the farm Center being historic to many, Shoop says
Speaker 8: they wanted to make sure history is preserved but also
Speaker 8: make it more modern into a flexible event space mainly
Speaker 8: used for the home of the Farmer's Market, but not
Speaker 8: only limited to it.
Speaker 12: Future generations will be able to enjoy the structure just
Speaker 12: as as much as the previous generation has. We think
Speaker 12: that this building is something that will be special, and
Speaker 12: we think it's something that everybody will appreciate that everybody
Speaker 12: will do.
Speaker 8: Product Shoe says. County Services will also occupy the farm Center.
Speaker 8: The Commission to prove the Sanitation and Building Department to
Speaker 8: be a tenant there.
Speaker 12: Offended this property so it will join the arena it
Speaker 12: will join the new DHR building and needs something new
Speaker 12: coming to the farm Center property. The space that we
Speaker 12: have now is just not conducive to taking payments, and
Speaker 12: there's just a law of you over step with literally
Speaker 12: still and let each other's stones in there.
Speaker 8: Shoot says he's thankful that the City of Dothan canceled
Speaker 8: the original set of the Farm Center and allowed them
Speaker 8: to invest in it, also using multiple local contracts. Right
Speaker 8: the center has expended to be completed.
Speaker 12: In February, looking forward to having a grand opening. I
Speaker 12: don't know what the first event is going to be,
Speaker 12: but if I had my pick, it would be wrestling.
Speaker 2: If if I had my pick, it would be wrestling.
Speaker 2: I mean, is there another option if it is to
Speaker 2: be wrestling? If there is to be a wrestling card
Speaker 2: upon the reopening of the Houston County Farm Center in Dothan, Alabama,
Speaker 2: site of the very first Hulk Hoganonner, I think I
Speaker 2: can commit to making the pilgrimage. Yes, I don't care
Speaker 2: who I can card.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it'll be some fucking goofball, probably headlined by Billy
Speaker 3: Gunn or something, and we will.
Speaker 2: Make We'll make pit stops at any video archive and
Speaker 2: library in the Tri State area. Yes, to see what
Speaker 2: we can find. Let's go to the courthouse. I mean,
Speaker 2: let's fucking go. Okay, let's go to wherever he lived. Well,
Speaker 2: he lived in the beach, So maybe we'll get an RV.
Speaker 2: That's what we should do.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we should written RV and just fucking drive down
Speaker 3: and and live life like hul Cogan Leslie. Yeah. Well,
Speaker 3: I don't know about Ed Leslie to come with us.
Speaker 3: Imagine show us where so much where you showered. I mean,
Speaker 3: all right, it's kind of weird, guys, but oh I
Speaker 3: don't I don't know about you said I do it.
Speaker 3: Then you said you pay me in travelers checks, right, Yes,
Speaker 3: if that's what you want travelers checks, don't worry if
Speaker 3: we have cash. Jesus, it's that time. It's that time,
Speaker 3: holidays are here. It's time to get home alone. I can't.
Speaker 3: I mean, this is just too much the history. I mean, yeah, dude, it's.
Speaker 2: It's I mean, you don't have any idea about this
Speaker 2: growing up, no clue. I mean they didn't know about
Speaker 2: this until three years ago when he started doing this podcast.
Speaker 3: Right, Because that's part of it, too, is the is
Speaker 3: there's so much you know, because like, like we've been
Speaker 3: saying that there's so much stuff that that's really just
Speaker 3: a very like not even not even a handful, but
Speaker 3: like a pinch, a pinch of the United States population
Speaker 3: witnessed any of this shit a pinch, and it was
Speaker 3: like no one knowing any clue. It might have well
Speaker 3: have been buried by the rest of the country. It's unbelievable.
Speaker 2: And the more I think about it, the more it
Speaker 2: does fit Terry in a lot of ways in his
Speaker 2: personality because one of the things with him looking there
Speaker 2: was book you really feel this way, But both of them,
Speaker 2: there's these chapters like why did he write a book?
Speaker 2: A MiG read chapter about that there's a fucking reason
Speaker 2: to address this one thing out of the million things
Speaker 2: that happened to him. I think what you realize is
Speaker 2: he's got the kind of brain, the kind of organizational
Speaker 2: brain and like photo recall brain, where he doesn't forget
Speaker 2: a single thing that was ever published about him, right,
Speaker 2: and what's reality to him isn't what happened to him.
Speaker 2: It's what other people can confirm happened to him. What
Speaker 2: right independent verification exists. That's why he freaks out when
Speaker 2: he's on these modern podcasts and they can pull up
Speaker 2: video and the snap of the finger via Google of
Speaker 2: things he actually said and the way he actually put things.
Speaker 2: He's not comfortable in that world because no, no, he's
Speaker 2: for him to settle the narrative to his advantage. He's
Speaker 2: got to be able to characterize what was said in
Speaker 2: the first place, counting on no one having the wherewithal,
Speaker 2: if not the motivation or time to go track down
Speaker 2: the source material themselves, which of course is one of
Speaker 2: the many reasons that doing something like the complete Hull
Speaker 2: Cogain is so invigorating for us, because we can go
Speaker 2: we have all the time in the world, and all
Speaker 2: the resources in the world, and all the support from
Speaker 2: our listeners in the world to go right to the
Speaker 2: mat to find the source, the primary source every time yep.
Speaker 2: And so here he is not having to talk about
Speaker 2: this part of his career because it wasn't documented anywhere.
Speaker 2: There's not a photo out there that he has to
Speaker 2: explain and have a story about, particularly how maybe the
Speaker 2: photo would conflict with all he told people for years
Speaker 2: about how the first time he ever met or saw
Speaker 2: Andre the Giant was in New York Because as I
Speaker 2: point out last time he does talk about Dothan, he
Speaker 2: does talk about wrestling in Alabama and living with Ed
Speaker 2: Leslie on the beach and seeing Ron Fuller rob Fuller's cock, right,
Speaker 2: and when he's jumping off the diving board with a
Speaker 2: titlele he acknowledges that he came through this area, but
Speaker 2: he never mentions crossing paths with Andrea the Giant for
Speaker 2: the first time in his life in this area. Why
Speaker 2: would that be Why would he act like the first
Speaker 2: time he ever saw Andrea's when he goes to New
Speaker 2: York the next year or at the end of the
Speaker 2: year seventy nine. I don't know, but I think it's
Speaker 2: probably because he didn't think anybody would ever see it
Speaker 2: or hear about it, and therefore it's not part of
Speaker 2: his reality. But what about this video though, this videotape,
Speaker 2: This videotape, I agree. I mean, I don't think as
Speaker 2: unplugged as Hogan seemed to be around YouTube and what
Speaker 2: it was, I wouldn't surprise me if he didn't even
Speaker 2: know this was out there, honestly by the time he
Speaker 2: sat down to recollect for his two books. But it's
Speaker 2: just so weird that, of all the hours and hours
Speaker 2: of interviews Hogan has done about Andrew the Giant that
Speaker 2: he never talks about where it all started. He never
Speaker 2: talks about this arm wrestling angle with the table. It's unbelievable.
Speaker 2: It's unbelievable. There's just something about it. He doesn't want.
Speaker 2: In my way of thinking, Hulk doesn't want people to
Speaker 2: start directing their attention to this stage of his life.
Speaker 2: They don't want to. He doesn't want them to be
Speaker 2: asking questions about this stage of his life. And I
Speaker 2: think we've nibbled around the edges a little bit. I
Speaker 2: think doctor d David Schultz may have told us exactly
Speaker 2: why that might be.
Speaker 3: There might be, I don't.
Speaker 2: I just envisioned some police stations somewhere around there having
Speaker 2: one too many documents about what other ways Hulk may
Speaker 2: have been making ends meet at this particular point in time. Brother,
Speaker 2: I didn't know.
Speaker 3: I'm not saying, I'm just in my mind. I know, brother,
Speaker 3: you know, you know sometimes true. I mean, I have
Speaker 3: done something, dude, but you're implying that I did everything.
Speaker 3: I think David Chelton implied and I just repeated it.
Speaker 3: But it's fine.
Speaker 2: Jesse and Randall call Randy Coley and the publicists that
Speaker 2: you used to have around the story trial, and and
Speaker 2: in your own book, how you talked about how you're
Speaker 2: afraid that the government might have evidence to flip I
Speaker 2: don't call you a dealer.
Speaker 3: Well I don't have Well, probably they they may have
Speaker 3: evidence on Hulk Hogan. They don't have answered Terry Boy
Speaker 3: about Terry Boulder. There's a curve ball he's never had
Speaker 3: to deal with before. You're talking about Terry Boulder. Who
Speaker 3: bring Terry Boulder? What do you bring him for? Why
Speaker 3: did you bring up Terry Boulder? Which wamp we've been
Speaker 3: here about. You're talking about who you're talking about Terry?
Speaker 3: What if I asked you about No one ever asked
Speaker 3: you about this guy ever in your life. Tell me
Speaker 3: about Billy Spears. Oh, I don't know. Well, you're telling
Speaker 3: him Billy Spears brother. You think you know so much
Speaker 3: about him? That was brother. That was my original idea
Speaker 3: of my name for Goldberg about you know Billy Spears,
Speaker 3: Goldberg brother. You know the spear man, Billy Billy Spears,
Speaker 3: Philly Spears brother, he'd be spearing motherfuckers. I mean, why
Speaker 3: do you ask me who was that? Who's Billy Spears.
Speaker 3: Have you seen tape? Yeh, there's something called the newspaper archive. Now,
Speaker 3: but you got tape, dude, you taping? Not right now?
Speaker 2: I'm just asking you about Billy Spears. I know he
Speaker 2: was an important part of your early career.
Speaker 3: But you recording this conversation, dude, Oh it is a podcast? Oh?
Speaker 2: He says it like, Oh, I'm not I wasn't born yesterday. Brother,
Speaker 2: I've heard that one before.
Speaker 3: I don't want this podcast, busess. Brother, I'm talking about
Speaker 3: Blue Spears. Dude, who told you about Blue Spears? Where
Speaker 3: you getting your sources from?
Speaker 7: Brother?
Speaker 5: Oh?
Speaker 2: I don't know if you know this, Terry, but a
Speaker 2: lot of some collectors had tape of you when you
Speaker 2: were being managed by Billy Spears, working with Andre, doing
Speaker 2: an angle with Andre before anybody even heard about you
Speaker 2: in seventy nine in Dothan.
Speaker 3: I never, I don't even know who Andre is, dude,
Speaker 3: What Andre under the Giant? What do you mean what
Speaker 3: Andre and and the Giant? Brother? Yeah, Andy Russ Andrew
Speaker 3: the Giant? Correct, Andre the Giant? Broll I never, I mean, see, brother,
Speaker 3: here's the thing, do you see. I'm Hulk Cogan never
Speaker 3: saw under the Giant brother Nady. But I asked you,
Speaker 3: what about Terry Boulder. We don't know what what about
Speaker 3: Terry Boulder.
Speaker 1: LA fan wrestling podcast. He's lapsed fan wrestling podcast with
Speaker 1: Jack and.
Speaker 2: This Terry Boulder cease to exist when you got back
Speaker 2: to the trailer on the beach the second you stepped
Speaker 2: out onto the onto the beach in Pennsylvania, Brother will
Speaker 2: Hop dude, when I leave the house, brother on Hulk Hogan,
Speaker 2: what about what.
Speaker 3: Yet? Where I left the house Hulk Hogan. But you
Speaker 3: weren't in seventy nine. I was. I just didn't know
Speaker 3: it yet, Brother Hulk cogd. But I didn't know it yet.
Speaker 2: Hey, that's kind of makes some sense anyway, because we
Speaker 2: just saw the raw material in that clip there, one
Speaker 2: of the precious few we have, and I want you
Speaker 2: to know just so to to lower expectations, yeah, you know,
Speaker 2: in a fair way. And that what we've watched him
Speaker 2: in that match against the mask guy where he gives
Speaker 2: them the bear hug. We just saw him attacking Andre
Speaker 2: and the armor.
Speaker 3: That's it.
Speaker 2: Yep, that's all the video that anyone is. There's one
Speaker 2: more match we're going to talk about, but it's sort
Speaker 2: of it's after a Hulk leaves Alabama and then kind
Speaker 2: of comes back, and it's it's more than of a
Speaker 2: Knoxville clip than it is a golf closed clip.
Speaker 3: But as far as him in his.
Speaker 2: Earliest stages is Terry the Hope Boulder.
Speaker 3: This is it. We just saw it all.
Speaker 2: Unfortunately, thanks to Ron Fuller, we haven't heard it all.
Speaker 2: What a fucking what a fucking travesty. Andre was just
Speaker 2: coming in for three days and agree to do all
Speaker 2: this stuff, shoot the angle and do two matches with
Speaker 2: the guy, and part of his agreement will close.
Speaker 3: So he's coming for three days? What do they do it?
Speaker 1: Like?
Speaker 3: So what are they gonna do?
Speaker 1: Like?
Speaker 3: Is he gonna come back?
Speaker 2: Or is he he comes in, he does the angle
Speaker 2: on live TV to promote the match that night in
Speaker 2: Dothan and then they have another match.
Speaker 3: So and that's it?
Speaker 1: Wow?
Speaker 3: Is it?
Speaker 2: And uh here, Ron, I'll put it. He kind of
Speaker 2: he tells different versions of this and we'll go through
Speaker 2: both of them. I kind of get a little confused
Speaker 2: as to when Ron says Andre first laid eyes on
Speaker 2: Hulk because of course they have to get you know,
Speaker 2: put their heads together backstage before encountering each other in
Speaker 2: the studio.
Speaker 3: When and how that happens. There is a couple of
Speaker 3: different versions. I think he's told just imagine imagine Wrestlingia three. Okay,
Speaker 3: Andre comes to Hogan in the back, goes are the
Speaker 3: words from all about your dolphin? What we talk about Dothan?
Speaker 3: What are you talking about? Brother? Also doctor dollhund and
Speaker 3: whole brother. I think he's losing mine. But I don't know,
Speaker 3: is he okay? Brother? Brother? How many he had? Dudes?
Speaker 3: He had one hundred and fifty. Brother, he's one hundred
Speaker 3: gas like you, brother. I don't even know what Alabama?
Speaker 3: What do you talk about Alabama? Dude? But I didn't.
Speaker 3: I didn't. I don't even know what you're talking about. Dude.
Speaker 3: I've never abandoned.
Speaker 6: Anywhere.
Speaker 3: I can't say it. How about this?
Speaker 2: How about this for a complete hull Coogan pull quote
Speaker 2: that that will be remembered for years.
Speaker 3: Say Alabama?
Speaker 4: Eye shut dolphim.
Speaker 2: I mean, who would have thought that we'd end up
Speaker 2: laser focused on Andre trying to Pinhogan down about this
Speaker 2: actually having happened, quib and just insisting on referring to
Speaker 2: it only as Dothan, So that Hogan can't run away
Speaker 2: and pretend it was somewhere else in Alabama.
Speaker 3: What episode was it? Oh, yeah, you know what it was.
Speaker 2: Oh Jesus was the first Hulk Andrea edition of the
Speaker 2: Complete Hulk Hogan. Now Here is Ron stud Ron Fuller
Speaker 2: in some more detail describing Andre's sort of feeling about
Speaker 2: the whole program with Hulk and meeting this guy.
Speaker 5: So after just meeting Hulk the afternoon before their first match,
Speaker 5: Andre was shot man with the response in the size
Speaker 5: of the crowd that night, and he had nothing but
Speaker 5: good things to say about the hope. He was sold
Speaker 5: on the fact that we had found for him the
Speaker 5: opponent of his future, you know, someone big enough for
Speaker 5: Andre to have a legitimate match with. So no wonder
Speaker 5: he was all in when Louie and I we went
Speaker 5: and suggested to him Saturday morning TV day we do
Speaker 5: a little arm wrestling contest that day on the TV,
Speaker 5: and he was all in.
Speaker 2: Wow, it was all wud So the arm wrestling contest
Speaker 2: we just saw. This is to clarify the timeline, happens
Speaker 2: the morning after the first match. Okay, So he saw
Speaker 2: that just Hulk looking into the camera and saying, I'm
Speaker 2: going to beat you and then beat Harley Race and
Speaker 2: Andre's tape from New York. Filled this building in Dothan,
Speaker 2: Phill Winderston County farm Center. And here's a description of
Speaker 2: that match, also from Ronstad. This is how it actually
Speaker 2: played out in the ring. These are the details we
Speaker 2: were missing until Run did the podcast.
Speaker 5: Well, I can tell you this, man, It was absolutely
Speaker 5: electric in that building.
Speaker 7: Man.
Speaker 5: When I walked out, I looked at it. The only
Speaker 5: way I could describe it. It was a see of
Speaker 5: human team that farm Center. Every seat was filled and
Speaker 5: there maybe a thousand people standing behind the ringside on
Speaker 5: both ends of that farm Center. You know, you had
Speaker 5: the two bleachers on one side, but on the other
Speaker 5: end you had a great expanse between the ring side
Speaker 5: and the entrances and exits to the building, and that
Speaker 5: was all full of people standing.
Speaker 7: Uh.
Speaker 5: And you know the strength versus strength match, Man, this
Speaker 5: is what it was. I watched this match and and
Speaker 5: basically it was a strength versus strength match. In the
Speaker 5: early part, the fans were so into it they stood
Speaker 5: up on everything.
Speaker 7: Wow.
Speaker 5: And at the end of it that kind of turned
Speaker 5: violent instead of just being who's the strongest, and spears
Speaker 5: got hoped basically disqualified intentionally, and Willie Spears ran to
Speaker 5: the dressing room I remember by himself say round the
Speaker 5: ring there before he went back after it was all over. Wow,
Speaker 5: And there were so many people in there he could uh,
Speaker 5: Spears could hardly get to the dressing room.
Speaker 2: So the disqualification caused by Billy Spears. But the building
Speaker 2: is full and Andre notices the building is full, and
Speaker 2: Boss Andre makes a mental note, doesn't he that this
Speaker 2: hul covid guy is someone I can make money with?
Speaker 2: And the first place he realized it was in Dothan, Alabama,
Speaker 2: off of just the promos we just played for you.
Speaker 2: So the next morning, as Ron stud just laid out
Speaker 2: when it comes time for television, which again the magic
Speaker 2: of shooting live TV in the morning to sell tickets
Speaker 2: to the arena that night, the immediacy of it, the
Speaker 2: the your ability to just attribute one piece of height
Speaker 2: to one gate. You know, it's like, we put these
Speaker 2: guys on TV that morning, and we featured this angle
Speaker 2: and we drew this many people. We did these two
Speaker 2: guys and we drew this many people. What a fucking
Speaker 2: great way to tell what's.
Speaker 3: Walking And it's exciting too, Like it's exciting to think that,
Speaker 3: like what you're you know, because even even watching you know,
Speaker 3: you don't get that they would never have live TV
Speaker 3: in the morning right of like a pay per view
Speaker 3: or something, you know, like we never had live TV.
Speaker 3: They always said they were live you know, they always said,
Speaker 3: you're watching you know, All American or the Action Zone,
Speaker 3: and they're acting like they've got to wrestle that night
Speaker 3: after wrestling in the morning. But that didn't happen. So
Speaker 3: to think that you can turn on the TV undecided,
Speaker 3: perhaps undecided whether or you're going to go to the
Speaker 3: matches tonight, just think about that. Just think you have
Speaker 3: kind of an open Saturday night. Yeah you know, I
Speaker 3: went last week. I'm not going to go this week,
Speaker 3: you know. But yeah, well, alt's see what's going on.
Speaker 3: You throw on the TV. You see this angle with
Speaker 3: Hogan and Andre and you're like, well, guys, I got
Speaker 3: plans for tonight. Fuck it's drivable. Yep.
Speaker 2: It's not like you watch something and now you've got
Speaker 2: to make a week's worth of playing to get there.
Speaker 2: You just go and you get to the building, you
Speaker 2: buy the ticket, you get in, you sit down. It
Speaker 2: takes two hours because your territory wasn't that big. And
Speaker 2: that's that's the buildings they were trying to point you
Speaker 2: to were so close that you could make a decision
Speaker 2: that morning to go that night.
Speaker 3: That's also the beauty of the lost, the lost, I
Speaker 3: don't know what you call it, but.
Speaker 2: The magic, the lost dynamic, the lost the law.
Speaker 3: Yes, you're right, the lost dynamic of local television. Of course.
Speaker 2: Oh this opens that whole vean, doesn't it. You know,
Speaker 2: when I'm talking about Bill Cardill again, let's go exactly,
Speaker 2: that's what I mean, Like, you know, we we we
Speaker 2: there's really nothing, there's nobody. There's nothing like that anymore.
Speaker 2: Everything is close, you know, except for except for like
Speaker 2: local news. But there was something so cool that I
Speaker 2: didn't apprecialling, anyone really appreciate it at the time, the
Speaker 2: idea of local television. This is a thing that hundreds
Speaker 2: of years from now, if we haven't blown up the
Speaker 2: earth by then, is people aren't even gonna even pay
Speaker 2: attention to in the history books. It's gonna be such
Speaker 2: a small blip in the history of humankind. Experience one
Speaker 2: city and one and two generations. You know, that lasted
Speaker 2: for just a just a small, little bit of time.
Speaker 2: It's it's just it's such a idea that you could
Speaker 2: have a TV station that made money broadcasting to and
Speaker 2: only selling to people within a certain radius of the
Speaker 2: TV studio, and that was more than enough for everybody
Speaker 2: to become stars. Everyone was happy, and everyone was going
Speaker 2: back home at night, including the talent themselves. They were home.
Speaker 2: They didn't have to travel over the place to make impact.
Speaker 2: They didn't have to, you know, be vagabonds to be
Speaker 2: television stars. That was something available to them locally, and
Speaker 2: you could become a local celebrity as a television presenter
Speaker 2: in your city, and that was a damn fine living
Speaker 2: and you were beloved for it, you were remembered for it.
Speaker 2: And I'll be damned if professional wrestling wasn't the absolute
Speaker 2: best at figuring that out. There were, as we've talked about,
Speaker 2: you know, shows like local horror movie specials, right presentations
Speaker 2: that you would do, other shows with local flavor that
Speaker 2: people from these cities remember for years, kids shows, you know,
Speaker 2: people portraying kids show characters that only broadcast in certain markets,
Speaker 2: like mister Rogers started and I think Pittsburgh, and it's
Speaker 2: like those generations will never forget these people that presented
Speaker 2: that were sort of the the prism through which television
Speaker 2: entered your your mind at a time, and there was
Speaker 2: only so many channels, and the local ones are probably
Speaker 2: the ones you watch the most because it had local
Speaker 2: information on the news and all of that. And there's
Speaker 2: a reason that the legendary television wrestling announcers of the
Speaker 2: territorial days by and large came from the news divisions
Speaker 2: of the same studios where they taped the fucking wrestling.
Speaker 2: You think of Lance Russell and Dave Brown and Memphis
Speaker 2: television newsmen weather men. You think of me and gen
Speaker 2: Oakerland Minneapolis area radio personality Charlie Platt, who we've heard
Speaker 2: on commentary in Southeastern over and over again. He was
Speaker 2: a very prominent broadcasting figure in that part of the
Speaker 2: country and in these markets before Ron Fuller set up
Speaker 2: and hired him to do commentary.
Speaker 3: You can go on and on.
Speaker 2: The list goes on and on to these people that
Speaker 2: were Bob Coddle, who just passed away. He was a
Speaker 2: weather man in Charlotte who became the voice of mid
Speaker 2: Atlantic wrestling.
Speaker 3: Folks.
Speaker 2: It was where it was at, It was where it
Speaker 2: was at. It was a way to experience wrestling in
Speaker 2: a way that was just engrossing.
Speaker 3: And here's the thing.
Speaker 2: These markets are so small. You had fucking half of
Speaker 2: the population of some of these cities watching these television shows.
Speaker 2: So no television manager worth as salt could afford to
Speaker 2: GFA at pro wrestling. It was the goddamn biggest rating
Speaker 2: straw he had in his little station. Everyone he knew
Speaker 2: was watching it, even if they didn't admit it, and advertisers.
Speaker 2: I wanted to be in front of those eyeballs, those
Speaker 2: captive eyeballs, for sixteen ninety minutes, one hundred and twenty
Speaker 2: minutes every single Saturday morning, live in the city that
Speaker 2: you were based in, coming to you from a building
Speaker 2: where you knew where it was. You watched championshipressing from
Speaker 2: Florida from the Sportatorium. You knew where that fucking sportatorium
Speaker 2: was in North Albany.
Speaker 3: You knew you could go. Might I get in? But
Speaker 3: you knew you knew you could go.
Speaker 2: You knew where the the tech would drive studios were
Speaker 2: for Georgia Championship and then later, of course some World
Speaker 2: championshiprestling under Crockett. Fuck this man, God damn it.
Speaker 3: YEP Nope.
Speaker 2: As if I needed further proof points that I was
Speaker 2: born in the wrong decade, I know, man, you got
Speaker 2: to see Hogan wrestle Andre after watching the fucking arm
Speaker 2: wrestling angle for anybody else, So that was the finish DQ.
Speaker 2: Andre's pleased to punch with what he's seeing, very happy,
Speaker 2: and we're on our way. And this is the seed
Speaker 2: that will sprout into superstarredhom for Hulcogan because he wins
Speaker 2: over Andre right away, right away.
Speaker 3: It's not that he did it.
Speaker 2: He did it in his first two months in the business.
Speaker 2: I consider it. You know, if you don't count seventy
Speaker 2: seven and the aborded run is super destroyer in Florida,
Speaker 2: if you could please navigate bosson your Alabama folder to
Speaker 2: nineteen seventy nine, dash oh five, dash oh four. This
Speaker 2: for now is probably the best we can do as
Speaker 2: far as want to talk to somebody who was there,
Speaker 2: want to talk to someone who witnessed it last time
Speaker 2: on the complete hullcog and we read from a Facebook
Speaker 2: post where people were conveying really general memories of who
Speaker 2: Hulcogan was to people in and around Dothan who were
Speaker 2: watching wrestling in nineteen seventy nine, people reflecting upon his passing,
Speaker 2: of course, and Facebook threads and comments about what they
Speaker 2: remembered in these little moments of seeing him in and
Speaker 2: around town at the gym, or at a restaurant or
Speaker 2: whatever the case may be, and being a personable guy.
Speaker 2: Here is a comment posted to the Wrestling Classics message
Speaker 2: board all the way back in two thousand and three
Speaker 2: by someone by the name of Callaway and this, this
Speaker 2: is one of them in the wild boss.
Speaker 3: What does he remember? Waitineteen seventy nine, Dash O five
Speaker 3: dash four dash secw Oh okay one, oh okay? Is this.
Speaker 7: No?
Speaker 3: We got a couple? Oh, here we go? Start with yep,
Speaker 3: there we go. Yep, yep, yep, yep. I was in
Speaker 3: the Houston County Farm Center that night. If I remember correctly,
Speaker 3: it was late March early April nineteen seventy nine for
Speaker 3: romfo Or Southeast and Wrestling Terry the wrestling Hulk. Boulder
Speaker 3: was a bad guy managed by Belly Spears. The angle
Speaker 3: to set things up that night is available. It's the
Speaker 3: one where I dream Boulder you have the arm wrestling contest.
Speaker 3: Well over five thousand fans crammed, creamed, creamed the Farm
Speaker 3: Center that night. They had to bring an extra football
Speaker 3: bleach just to accommodate seating. I can recall the finish
Speaker 3: to the match. A few weeks later, Boulder would turn
Speaker 3: good guy when the Southeastern title from ox Baker have
Speaker 3: what I believe was his first World championship match substituting
Speaker 3: for Ron Fuller against NWA champ. Harley Race feuded with
Speaker 3: ox Baker, Austin Idol, and Toro Tanaka while in the
Speaker 3: area before finally leaving in October nineteen seventy nine.
Speaker 2: Wow remembers it all. Guy remembers it all. And look, yep,
Speaker 2: as we go through run Fuller's recollections, all that tracks
Speaker 2: that that fan remembers. So there are some who are
Speaker 2: posting at least in two thousand and three, which is
Speaker 2: like a lifetime ago, now more than twenty years ago,
Speaker 2: reflecting I don't know that gentleman or that woman is
Speaker 2: still with us. But if you click forward a few
Speaker 2: times to get to nineteen seventy nine Dosh five six,
Speaker 2: you'll see what appears to be in shout outs to
Speaker 2: the intrepid homie Matt for finding this. I'm not sure
Speaker 2: what the source of it is. But it's clearly a
Speaker 2: ringside photo that's not shot by a professional. But there
Speaker 2: is Hulk, and there is Andre and his big red
Speaker 2: trunks and red boots.
Speaker 3: Andre that is, and.
Speaker 2: There's Terry the Hulk boulder and what I'm supposed to
Speaker 2: be the blue singlet with the red knee pads.
Speaker 3: This is this is the match.
Speaker 2: And those ropes look red, white and blue. Although the
Speaker 2: white is up top. It looks so ratty and shitty,
Speaker 2: but it's raw. Yeah, I wanted to not be polished yet.
Speaker 2: I want to see Hogan Andre before people knew what
Speaker 2: they want, you know, right, I mean I want to
Speaker 2: see I want to see Andre and Hogan in front
Speaker 2: of five in front of five thousand people. That's that's
Speaker 2: that's where the magic is. Right there, there's a newspaper
Speaker 2: clip seeing this whole thing, like from from a time
Speaker 2: when you know it just it almost wasn't supposed to happen, right,
Speaker 2: that's right. And here's a clipping from their match. Let's
Speaker 2: see this had been the May sixth, the next nine,
Speaker 2: eight fifteen PM belt but the Municipal Auditorium, which I
Speaker 2: think is Montgomery or it wasn't, Houston County Farm Center
Speaker 2: obviously it was the Municipal Auditorium main event, hunder the
Speaker 2: giant seven foot four inches, four hundred and eighty four
Speaker 2: pounds versus the Hulk. All it says is the Hulk,
Speaker 2: right boss. Yes, no dary Bolea, no Arry Boulder, no
Speaker 2: Sterling Golden, the Hulk. That's all I'm selling you. Yes,
Speaker 2: six foot six and ninety five. Okay, that's a farm primer.
Speaker 3: At least they got the fucking ad write instead of
Speaker 3: in it in the actual copy for the news the
Speaker 3: news article. Yeah, that's nice and also only only eight
Speaker 3: eight pounds shy of three three. It's pretty amazing, isn't it? Yeah?
Speaker 3: Can I can I get the footage? Can I see
Speaker 3: this match? Please? Please? Nope, because they replay it on
Speaker 3: the fucking television show. According to Ron Fuller, they taped it. Nope, nope,
Speaker 3: you'll never see it. It's all erased. Think of that.
Speaker 3: Think of that. Somebody said, you know what, we don't
Speaker 3: need to archive this, let's just fucking tape over it. Hmm.
Speaker 2: And Ron's all distracted by the Knoxville War, so it
Speaker 2: doesn't even sink in and what is achieved here? In fact,
Speaker 2: Cogan wrestles hardly when we get there, he's not even
Speaker 2: there because he's so preoccupied with Knoxville. He's basically moved
Speaker 2: to Knoxville to run the war room over there. It's
Speaker 2: fucking amazing, unbelievable. That's what we deserve, I guess is
Speaker 2: wrestling fans.
Speaker 3: Yes, Ron said.
Speaker 2: When they announced it the fans that Andre would be
Speaker 2: in studio that morning. They announced it the week before.
Speaker 2: The studio was so packed for television time they couldn't
Speaker 2: get him in. And Andre came out with Charlie Platt
Speaker 2: right off the bat, and they watched the end of
Speaker 2: the match from the night before. So that morning when
Speaker 2: they shot the angle with arm Wrestling, they had already
Speaker 2: watched with Charlie Platt footage of the very first Hull
Speaker 2: Cogan versus Andrea the Giant won on one matchup from
Speaker 2: the night before Houston County pharm Center, where it all started.
Speaker 3: They watch it, So there's tape of it? What the
Speaker 3: fuck there's tape of it? Well, there was, it's over right,
Speaker 3: you're not. How did I not?
Speaker 2: How did I not account for the pain that the
Speaker 2: complete Hull Cogan would bring. I mean, it's always been
Speaker 2: about come on, come on, I mean, I thought it
Speaker 2: was all laid out before I thought all the.
Speaker 6: Hurt.
Speaker 3: This is gonna Listen, if there's one thing we're.
Speaker 2: Gonna watch it all and all I'm gonna to think
Speaker 2: about it at the end is what I couldn't see exactly.
Speaker 3: That's what I'm That's it. You know. If there's one
Speaker 3: thing that you should have known, that you should have known,
Speaker 3: is that this is gonna hurt more than anything else.
Speaker 3: This whole journey is gonna hurt more than any anything
Speaker 3: else because of what we won't get, because of what
Speaker 3: we don't have, and having things actively taken away from
Speaker 3: us as we exactly exactly all right? Does that teach
Speaker 3: us about life? Nothing fucking matters, nothing's permanent. Ooh baby,
Speaker 3: you better be careful too much truth Not everyone's ready
Speaker 3: for that. Oh listen. I have had in twenty twenty five,
Speaker 3: I have had more like I've become very I have
Speaker 3: been very introspective over the last year. Sure, thinking about mortality. Sure,
Speaker 3: thinking about immortality, immortality, Yes, thinking about legacy, not the faction.
Speaker 2: But oh shit, I was just about to say, that
Speaker 2: makes two of us. I can't stop thinking about if
Speaker 2: Ted Dibiassi Junior still is ready.
Speaker 3: To come back. I think you can put those lawsuits
Speaker 3: behind him. Thinking about like the for example, okay, thinking
Speaker 3: about I was talking about this with my cousins over Thanksgiving,
Speaker 3: actually talking about the idea that you know, I have
Speaker 3: this mental idea of what Thanksgiving is supposed to be,
Speaker 3: which stems from high school, college era thanksgivings. That's what
Speaker 3: Thanksgiving is supposed to be. But the reality is that
Speaker 3: each Thanksgiving will never happen again. That's correct. The Thanksgiving
Speaker 3: that just happened is never going to happen again.
Speaker 2: And what was so perfect about it you come to
Speaker 2: find out later is that it won't happen again.
Speaker 3: Yes, exactly is that you can't have all these things
Speaker 3: like you can't you can't ruin it because you can't
Speaker 3: revisit it right, right, But and and also that things
Speaker 3: that nothing that that nothing.
Speaker 2: Lasts, nothing lasts forever, and especially tapes of Hogan versus
Speaker 2: Andre at the Houston County Farm Center.
Speaker 3: That's right, that's right.
Speaker 2: So I knew that we would get to these kind
Speaker 2: of life lessons at the end of the complete Hull
Speaker 2: Hogan because this is in many ways the story and
Speaker 2: the love letter to wrestling.
Speaker 3: From us.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I didn't expect this much reality this soon.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's all crashing down right away.
Speaker 3: We get it at the beginning. That's correct. Okay, we
Speaker 3: get it at the beginning. How about it ain't gonna
Speaker 3: stop anytime soon.
Speaker 2: So Andre and Charlie Platt watched the end of the
Speaker 2: match from the night before, and at the end of
Speaker 2: the video, Billy Spears brings Hulkgan out to the set.
Speaker 2: According to run about the vis, no, I think we're.
Speaker 3: Well, well, why why do you think you could do better?
Speaker 3: But wow, how about you go to that? I don't know,
Speaker 3: but something could be done that would make it better
Speaker 3: than this is his answer. It's stuff. Hell, how about
Speaker 3: you go up to the top rope? Exactly?
Speaker 9: Well, those are about top rope.
Speaker 3: Why don't you go up at top rope? See what happens?
Speaker 3: Oh see what happened to a mischievous son of a
Speaker 3: bitch this Charlie Platt is huh, why don't you just
Speaker 3: go up there? That's a Southern Uh, that's an opra?
Speaker 3: What do you think about that? And be Andy Giganty
Speaker 3: what you call? No, Andy Giganty?
Speaker 6: I don't like that, un Charlie Platt. Fine, I go
Speaker 6: up to the top rope. I show you what happened.
Speaker 6: I go to the top rope.
Speaker 2: Another thing Vince stole from the territories, making Andre go
Speaker 2: to the top rope and fall. All right, now, who
Speaker 2: was Charlie Platt? That didn't first Terry came here, Andre's
Speaker 2: going to the top rope?
Speaker 3: What plot, plot? Other idea would import to New York.
Speaker 3: I want to want you to do what I want
Speaker 3: you to do, Terry. I want you to cut the
Speaker 3: top rope right when Andre's gonna jump. Bo bro what
Speaker 3: you heard me? Well, I don't know, I do that's
Speaker 3: hard of the drawing boiler. Now, I'm Charlie fucking blad Ship,
Speaker 3: Oh ship, oh ship, I didn't see that coming exactly.
Speaker 3: Drop names. This is dothing, all right, my name Travels.
Speaker 3: Let me tell you right now, we're not in fucking
Speaker 3: sunny Florida, all right. We're in goddamn motherfucking dot And
Speaker 3: and I'm gonna fucking cut your fucking judgly if you
Speaker 3: don't do like goddamn saying you understand me a little
Speaker 3: fucking bitch.
Speaker 13: Ship, I'm crying to the top he is, I see
Speaker 13: your dumb fat bitch, you.
Speaker 3: Boy, what do you got I'll tell you how. What
Speaker 3: an absurd situation? You cut the damn rope right now
Speaker 3: with my with my my hunting knife. Okay, brother, al On,
Speaker 3: what do you want to do on the top rope?
Speaker 3: I want you to jump as high as you can.
Speaker 3: Andy Giganty, Now good luck coming back from that. Holy shit,
Speaker 3: I think the fucking die is cast. Andy Giganti, get
Speaker 3: on our level. Fucking hell no, Terris coach.
Speaker 7: Oh ro ro.
Speaker 10: Ro oh holding them, I'll cor.
Speaker 9: War old hold road, our brogue wire, oh.
Speaker 3: Char bribe wire, because I want to tell you who
Speaker 3: the god damn reel giant. He's this gold bracelet war
Speaker 3: and Southern boy. Oh fuck that. Yeah, I'm gonna expect
Speaker 3: that the soon either.
Speaker 4: No.
Speaker 2: After watching the video, Billy Spears brings Hulk out to
Speaker 2: the set challenges Andre right then and there to an
Speaker 2: arm wrestling contest Billy Spears does against his sterling, the
Speaker 2: Hulk Golden. According to Ron Fuller, he loved to call
Speaker 2: the Hulk sterling and Terry didn't like that. As has
Speaker 2: already established, Andre accepted the challenge. Studio exploded at the
Speaker 2: prospect of this happening. In front of their eyes. They
Speaker 2: did not expect to see this on television, and indeed
Speaker 2: they saw this on television this same TV taping, Ox
Speaker 2: Baker debuts in Southeastern and Billy Spears brings in Ox
Speaker 2: Baker standing behind him just like the Hulk did. So
Speaker 2: not only his Hulk starting to take issue with how
Speaker 2: Billy Spears is referring to him and getting him involved
Speaker 2: in arm wrestling things and sending him in to double
Speaker 2: down on Andre when he was trying to get away.
Speaker 2: He saw on the clip. He's also bringing in a big,
Speaker 2: monstrous heel that you can make Hulk feel like he's
Speaker 2: about to be supplanted in the Billy Spears family and
Speaker 2: further adding to his insecurities. And you can already start
Speaker 2: to feel that little nudge towards thinking of Hulk potentially
Speaker 2: as a babyface, which is also fascinating that it happened
Speaker 2: so soon that he started to rebel against his manager
Speaker 2: so soon. Jesus and they knew. Ron Fuller knew that
Speaker 2: NWA World Heavyweight Champion Harley Race was coming to the
Speaker 2: territory in just two weeks to defend his championship. And
Speaker 2: here he has two men, two big men who are
Speaker 2: ready to beat Harley in the territory Ox Baker and
Speaker 2: Terry the Hulk Boulder. How will he play his cards? Well,
Speaker 2: that is too unfold. So, as we just saw on
Speaker 2: the clip, Dick Steinborn, who was a longtime wrestler and
Speaker 2: a promoter for Ron Fuller in the Territory as well
Speaker 2: as a television color commentator, sets up the arm wrestling
Speaker 2: contest between these two as sort of the you know
Speaker 2: the Bob Geigel, you know office representative Stanley Blackburn type
Speaker 2: figure on the show Connects. The hands went back to
Speaker 2: the set because you actually heard Dick Steinborn with that
Speaker 2: New York accent, commentating over the Hulk Andre arm wrestling contest.
Speaker 2: So they battle, and Fuller says, as far as he
Speaker 2: remembers knowing Andre well, teaming with him, as we talked
Speaker 2: about before he ever came in to work Hulk, knowing
Speaker 2: him around the Horn, being familiar with his work everywhere
Speaker 2: he met things. The only time he saw Andre bleed.
Speaker 2: This may been the first time. Wow that Andre bladed
Speaker 2: for an opponent. Now maybe you can find examples of
Speaker 2: it elsewhere. I know, be interested and keen, but you
Speaker 2: would think Ron Fuller would have a vested interest in
Speaker 2: you know, yes, if this is the first time Andre
Speaker 2: ran the razor, you would think that would come up
Speaker 2: as a point of conversation in formatting. What was going
Speaker 2: to happen on the television show that day when he
Speaker 2: asked him to grab a razor blade and slice his
Speaker 2: forehead open so as to attract the ticket buying public
Speaker 2: by bleeding for real on television.
Speaker 3: You know that looks yeah, I think that would be
Speaker 3: an important thing.
Speaker 2: So after seeing a huge crowded Othan and the arm
Speaker 2: wrestling contest on television and they wrestle, according to Ron
Speaker 2: Fuller and Pensacola Romra remembers telling Roy Lee Welch to
Speaker 2: call people at the Pensacola Auditorium and add as many
Speaker 2: seats as they possibly could, because if what they saw
Speaker 2: in Dothan was any indication, compounded by the interest of
Speaker 2: the arm wrestling angle that we just watched that morning
Speaker 2: on television, Pensacola was in for a full fucking house.
Speaker 2: And that is indeed what happened watching, or at least
Speaker 2: hearing what's happening here, according to Dave Meltzer is Terry Funk.
Speaker 2: Terry Funk, of course, coming off his run as NBA
Speaker 2: World Champion, was still an executive and an owner in
Speaker 2: the I'marilla territory.
Speaker 3: His father.
Speaker 2: Very much involved in the NWA at the board level,
Speaker 2: as was his brother. They were power brokers in the business.
Speaker 2: They were, you know, the Funk family was royalty. They
Speaker 2: had influence everywhere, and they were always, especially Terry Funk,
Speaker 2: keeping their ear to the ground of what was drawing
Speaker 2: and what parts of the country at what points in time.
Speaker 2: Terry Funk of course known to the family. In fact,
Speaker 2: think about the stud Stable right in WCW.
Speaker 3: Remember that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, Stud Stable started in Gulf Coast with arn
Speaker 2: Anderson involved by the way, and Rob Fuller and company.
Speaker 3: Yep.
Speaker 2: And I think Jerry Stubbs, who trained arn Anderson and
Speaker 2: teamed to them, was involved to and the stud Stable
Speaker 2: was kind of like the precursor to the Horseman before
Speaker 2: uh sure, sure the Horseman ever attacked Dusty Roads in
Speaker 2: a gas station parking lot and slammed a car door
Speaker 2: in his arm. The television viewers of South Eastern Wrestling
Speaker 2: were told that Austin Idel had been attacked by the
Speaker 2: stud Stable in a gas station. Wow, they didn't According
Speaker 2: to Bo James, the aforementioned bo James. They didn't film
Speaker 2: this angle because to film it would give away the
Speaker 2: fact that it was a big put on for television.
Speaker 2: You remember the horseman angle. They kind of made that.
Speaker 2: They took the time to explain why a camera would
Speaker 2: have been there, that the horseman essentially commandeered someone to
Speaker 2: film this attack, but they didn't think that. So, according
Speaker 2: to bo James, they did the angle at an actual
Speaker 2: gas station in Alabama somewhere where Austin Idl got attacked
Speaker 2: by the stud stable and got his arm broken. They
Speaker 2: didn't film it, but they just let it. Let words
Speaker 2: spread throughout the community from people who happen to be
Speaker 2: bystanders and witnesses to this attack, that it in fact happened. Wow,
Speaker 2: that was enough to do business back then. Can you
Speaker 2: imagine that's insane angles happening in the wild at the
Speaker 2: fucking grocery store. That's another advantage. You fucking love it.
Speaker 2: I fucking love it so much. You run into the
Speaker 2: guy in public, and you got to have a at
Speaker 2: least a shouting match with the guy. You know, at
Speaker 2: least a shouting match. Ah, many people being nervous, like
Speaker 2: fucking like, oh, my god.
Speaker 3: Around nervous.
Speaker 2: Ed Leslie said, Terry was when the Samoans would hang
Speaker 2: out and an Ox Baker would hang out with him
Speaker 2: at the camp on the beach, and they shouldn't be
Speaker 2: seen together because Hulk was gone, baby amazing. Hulk was
Speaker 2: so nervous about it. But I mentioned Terry Funk because
Speaker 2: he's an important part of the story.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 2: Hulk has the thing in his first book about how
Speaker 2: Terry Funk saw him working at the docks after showing
Speaker 2: some promise as a professional wrestler and convincing him to
Speaker 2: give it another shot. That's pretty much Terry Funk never
Speaker 2: said that. That's pretty much accepted. It's kind of like,
Speaker 2: I don't know, Hulk creating an anecdote to explain something
Speaker 2: that he may have heard happened that reversed his fortunes
Speaker 2: in the business, but that he wasn't actually directly a
Speaker 2: party to the conversation. But Terry Funk was involved and
Speaker 2: asking around and trying to understand what's happening down here
Speaker 2: in Alabama. As much as Ron Fuller tried to keep
Speaker 2: the lid on it. From a wrestling magazine publicity perspective,
Speaker 2: Bird's going to travel if you put a program together
Speaker 2: that fills the house like that, it's going to travel,
Speaker 2: especially in a smaller territory.
Speaker 3: What did you do?
Speaker 2: Who's involved? Who's this guy that Andre's working? And according
Speaker 2: to Dave Meltzer's obituary for hul Cogan and Meltzer stayed
Speaker 2: in regular touch with Terry Funk for years and years
Speaker 2: and years. This is how it went down. Terry Funk
Speaker 2: first took notice of Hulk Cogan when he heard then
Speaker 2: a match between Andre the Giant and Terry the Hulk.
Speaker 2: Boulder and Dothan, Alabama had set the all time gate
Speaker 2: record for that city on May fifth, nineteen seventy nine,
Speaker 2: and An angled the TV tapings at WTVY Studios where
Speaker 2: Boulder and Andre were to to do an arm wrestling match.
Speaker 2: Boulder was losing and turned the table over and attacked Andre,
Speaker 2: leading to a match there and in Pensacola, Florida, and
Speaker 2: perhaps other cities that week. On the sur there wasn't,
Speaker 2: according Ron Fuller, was just three matches. In nineteen eighty.
Speaker 2: That angle was copied on WWF television in Allentown, PA,
Speaker 2: lead two Hogan vers Andre matches not only in WWF,
Speaker 2: but that tape of Hogan putting a foreign object in
Speaker 2: his elbow pad, hitting Andrea with the Hogan Hammer a
Speaker 2: closed line, and then body slamming him was playing on
Speaker 2: television and several other circuits leading to Andrea Versus Hogan
Speaker 2: matches all over the Northeast, including at Chase Stadium, as
Speaker 2: well as matches between Hogan and Andre Boss at the
Speaker 2: Superdome in New Orleans, Bill Watsonster, the Omni in Atlanta,
Speaker 2: Olie Territory, the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles, and the
Speaker 2: Paul Suave Arena in suburban of Montreal. All these cities
Speaker 2: got Hogan vers Andre off. The buzz that what we
Speaker 2: just watched created.
Speaker 7: The Lapsed Fan Wrestling podcast.
Speaker 1: He's a Lapsed Fan Wrestling podcast with Jack and Carno JP.
Speaker 2: Hogan's only working Andre right away. He's working Andre around
Speaker 2: the fucking horn right away.
Speaker 3: I'm I'm I'm I'm at a loss.
Speaker 2: Gordon Meltzer Funk talked Jim Barnett, who of course owned
Speaker 2: Georgia Championship at the time, into bringing Hulk into Georgia,
Speaker 2: but Ole Anderson, Barnett's booker, always said he wasn't impressed
Speaker 2: and we'll get to that, and claimed that he fired him.
Speaker 2: Claim that he fired Hogan.
Speaker 3: I'm all about that.
Speaker 2: Hogan claimed the same and told the story.
Speaker 3: Of starlang Sterlang Wah shit fuck, Oh he's coming.
Speaker 4: He is.
Speaker 2: He is flying to Hong Kong to get some of
Speaker 2: the finest knockoff suits tailored for this complete in his
Speaker 2: role in the Terry story. But yeah, apparently despite all
Speaker 2: the success, Oli doesn't see it in the guy, and
Speaker 2: Hogan's thinking about quitting again by the end of seventy nine,
Speaker 2: oh God, and working on the loading docks in Tampa.
Speaker 2: That's where the docks come in. And that's where the
Speaker 2: whole story about how Terry Funk being the one to
Speaker 2: come to the docks to talk to him comes from
Speaker 2: from Hulkoga's first book, because he was on the docks
Speaker 2: before really leaning in to wrestling again. I don't know
Speaker 2: what he had to be so bearish about. I guess
Speaker 2: OI didn't believe in him, and there was more of
Speaker 2: a if you look at if you look at the
Speaker 2: chronology of it, it looks like he just makes a
Speaker 2: nice clean jump from Atlanta to New York and he's
Speaker 2: off for the choruses. But as we'll get to there
Speaker 2: may have no there may have been a lot more
Speaker 2: doubt in there than than would meet the eye. We
Speaker 2: played some audio in a prior episode of The Khalete
Speaker 2: Hulkogan from Anthony Barcello, who of course was Hulkgan's bandmate
Speaker 2: in Ruckus courtesy of Brad Bluccian, and Barcello talks about
Speaker 2: remembering Hulk, you know, basically showing kind of a beat
Speaker 2: down nature and basically talking like he wanted to quit
Speaker 2: the business. It was hard to tell when Anthony Barcellos
Speaker 2: said that if he was talking about nineteen seventy seven,
Speaker 2: after the Super Destroyer tobaccle and the Hero Matsuda stuff
Speaker 2: and not getting paid, he was talking actually about giving
Speaker 2: up on the business again after portraying Sterling Golden in
Speaker 2: Georgia Championship and going back to work in the Tampa Docks.
Speaker 2: And it's there where Hulk creates the fable that Terry
Speaker 2: Funk came up to him and talked him back in
Speaker 2: to getting into the business. There's others who have different stories,
Speaker 2: but suffice to say, Hulk not only comes back, he
Speaker 2: goes to the number one territory in the world in
Speaker 2: New York and starts really earning the kind of money
Speaker 2: that will keep Hulk Hogan in play. Japan gets interested
Speaker 2: because Andre's already a legend in Japan. Andre more than
Speaker 2: happy to bring Hogan with him to Japan to earn
Speaker 2: more japan money, because when you cannot forget as much
Speaker 2: as we glorify the territorial days and justifiably so from
Speaker 2: a fan enjoyment standpoint, the one thing that that did
Speaker 2: mean is that there was no place close to Japan
Speaker 2: as far as how much you could make for working
Speaker 2: day by day, night in, night out. So that meant
Speaker 2: that all the top stars in the wrestling business in
Speaker 2: this country were gone for like six months of the
Speaker 2: year making as much money as they could in Japan.
Speaker 2: I'm pretty soon that's crazy. Ichibon is Hogan's song. Pretty
Speaker 2: soon ichi bon is Hogan's song on the fucking complete
Speaker 2: Hulk Hogan. That's all coming faster than you could ever
Speaker 2: possibly expect. But the Pensacola match May sixth, nineteen seventy
Speaker 2: nine under the Giant Versitory, the Hulk Boulder winner unknown
Speaker 2: according to the results that survived. Pensacola is the second
Speaker 2: city in the territory. According to Ron Fuller to Mobile
Speaker 2: and the Samoans lived there, and that's, of course, like
Speaker 2: we said, where Roman Reigns was born. Ron full of
Speaker 2: a crowd recalls in Pensacola having the massive crowd on
Speaker 2: their feet, just like the Houston County Farm Center was.
Speaker 2: It was less of an open expanse for this kind
Speaker 2: of standing room only dynamic, but still it was packed out,
Speaker 2: and Ron Fuller, indeed, anticipating a big crowd, said that
Speaker 2: the Pensacola Arena added as many seats as they could.
Speaker 2: Lots of people from Mobile and fifty miles away had
Speaker 2: come to Pensacola, he recalls to see the second Hulk
Speaker 2: Andre match, and he told Roy Welch. By the end
Speaker 2: of the night, the management upfront of the building said
Speaker 2: it was one of the largest crowds they'd ever seen
Speaker 2: in the building, around five six hundred people to see
Speaker 2: the Hulk match versus Andre that came off of the
Speaker 2: arm wrestling angle we just watched. And Ron Fuller says
Speaker 2: he didn't even think they could put that many people
Speaker 2: in that building, and.
Speaker 3: Roy told him.
Speaker 2: Roy Welch told Ron Fuller that three thousand people as
Speaker 2: many as three sat three thousand people were turned away. Wow,
Speaker 2: being able to see Hulk for Sandre and Pensacola.
Speaker 3: Wow, Ron believe that.
Speaker 2: I don't know how they could possibly count, but I'm
Speaker 2: sure there are people. Yeah, they couldn't get in. Bo
Speaker 2: James remember seeing pictures of people on the steps of
Speaker 2: some of these buildings when they couldn't get in, you know,
Speaker 2: just sitting there.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, But I don't know.
Speaker 2: I don't know how he could possibly count how many
Speaker 2: people didn't get in at the end of the match.
Speaker 2: This is Fuller's recollection of how the match actually played out.
Speaker 2: Andre started to take over on Hulk and Billy Spears
Speaker 2: got in the ring, so the referee stopped the match.
Speaker 2: At this point, the Samoans come to the ring and
Speaker 2: attack Andre the Giant, and of course Hulk was still
Speaker 2: a line with Billy Spears and the Samoans in the
Speaker 2: stable at that time, so Hulk was on him as
Speaker 2: well Andre. So there's four guys on Andre the Giant
Speaker 2: and along with Billy Spears and at this point Ron
Speaker 2: Fuller himself as well as Territory babyfaces Ricky Fields and
Speaker 2: Terry Latham hit the ring to make the save for
Speaker 2: Andre and a bunch of those guys and those heels,
Speaker 2: run Fuller recalls definitely had to fight their way back
Speaker 2: to the dressing room that night because part of the
Speaker 2: fun of going to the matches back then was fucking
Speaker 2: attacking the heels as best you can, of course, and
Speaker 2: he recalls even doing another SALID in Pensacola the next
Speaker 2: Wednesday night, even without Andre the Giant, because the building
Speaker 2: and the territory got so hot as a result of
Speaker 2: this matchup, even without Andre.
Speaker 3: So it's time.
Speaker 2: If Andrea's leaving, if Andrea's done his duty and was
Speaker 2: glad to do it, I mean, that's pretty much the
Speaker 2: extent of it. I don't think there were three matches.
Speaker 2: I think there were just actually two Dothan and then
Speaker 2: they did the arm wrestling Angle, and then that night
Speaker 2: they worked Pensacola and that was it. Roup meets with
Speaker 2: Ron Fuller as they plan their Phase two for Hulk Cogan,
Speaker 2: the Phase two plan, as Ron Fuller refers to it.
Speaker 2: After the Andrea program, Bob Roup meets with Ron Fuller
Speaker 2: and the war for the Knoxville Territory is about to commence.
Speaker 2: Oh boy, this will cause the full and permanent distraction
Speaker 2: from all of the things that the Hulk Andre program
Speaker 2: should have catalyzed, crystallized and excited him about. We're gonna
Speaker 2: read a couple more clippings from back in the day,
Speaker 2: just to track where Hogan's at in May. If you could, Boss,
Speaker 2: direct your attention to nineteen seventy nine Dash Out five
Speaker 2: Dash ten wrestling card Thursday. This one from the Trustee
Speaker 2: Panama City, Florida and News Herald Sunday, May sixth, nineteen
Speaker 2: seventy nine. As the Hulk is riding the wave of
Speaker 2: being associated in such a high profile way with Andre
Speaker 2: the Giant. Wait, there are two here wrestling card Thursday.
Speaker 2: Okay that one may both of them.
Speaker 3: An all star professional wrestling card will be presented Thursday
Speaker 3: night at Bowl Air Wrestling Arena. The main evental feature
Speaker 3: a tag team battle between the Hulk Giant Grappler and
Speaker 3: his manager Billy Spears on one side, and the popular
Speaker 3: Rickey Fields and Terry Latham on the other. Another tag
Speaker 3: team battle will pit the wrestling pros Numbers one and
Speaker 3: number two against suitable opponents to be announced later. In
Speaker 3: other matches, Inferno number one will wrestle Burhead Jones, Eddie
Speaker 3: Sullivan will meet Superstar and Dave Doctor D Schultz will
Speaker 3: face Ron Slinker. Action will start at eight pm. How
Speaker 3: about Giant Hulks will wrestle According to the Hulk, the
Speaker 3: giant wrestler who has been having things more or less
Speaker 3: his own way and matches here, will team up with
Speaker 3: Wiley Manager Billy Spears and a tag team scrap against
Speaker 3: popular Ricky Fields and Terry Latham as the main event.
Speaker 3: That's the night's professional wrestling card at Bowl Air Wrestling Arena.
Speaker 3: In another tag team match, the wrestling pros Number one
Speaker 3: and number two will take on suitable opponents lowercase suitable
Speaker 3: lowercase yeah. There will be three other matches on the
Speaker 3: car beginning at a PM. At e Sullivan will wrestle
Speaker 3: Superstar Dave Doctor D Schult will meet Ron Slinker, and
Speaker 3: Infernal Number one will wrestle quote Burrhead unquote Jones.
Speaker 2: And we move one click forward. Coming to the Municipal
Speaker 2: Auditorium here in Pensacola, Ron Slinker, the Gulf Coast Champion
Speaker 2: at the time, to take on the Hulk in the
Speaker 2: main event, as well as a lumberjack match hair versus
Speaker 2: mask Roy Welch to.
Speaker 3: Face is that Ron Slinker on the on the right there.
Speaker 3: I believe that is Ron Slinker. Yes, well, all known
Speaker 3: in the area and little other places. I would imagine watch.
Speaker 2: TV Channel five Saturday at one pm is when you
Speaker 2: could catch territory footage in Pensacola. Also c Toba champion
Speaker 2: Thunderbolt Patterson, who was a remarkable figure in the business
Speaker 2: for many many reasons, is also in the territory of
Speaker 2: the Austin Idol. We'll talk a lot about the significance
Speaker 2: of him being no, I'm sorry, it's Austin ivy I
Speaker 2: v ol. Great stuff. The Samoans Pro one and two
Speaker 2: and Rickey Fields and more. How about Southeastern and Gulf
Speaker 2: Coast Championship at the Montgomery Civic Center on Monday, it
Speaker 2: appears to be May fourteenth, nineteen and seventy nine, the
Speaker 2: Southeastern Gulf Coast Tag Champs, the Samoans to face Rickey
Speaker 2: Fields and Cherry Latham. Thunderbolt Patterson to defend his championship
Speaker 2: against Eddie Sullivan in an attag match. The Hulk and
Speaker 2: Billy Spears versus roy Lee Welch and Ron Slinker with
Speaker 2: the Austin Idol on the card there as well. The
Speaker 2: ringside What is it? What do you go for ticket
Speaker 2: prices four dollars ringside, three dollars general admission and two
Speaker 2: dollars for children. Why don't we read it to the
Speaker 2: Solar System Boss. The May seventeenth, nineteen seventy nine clipping
Speaker 2: from the News Herald Hulk once again you guessed it to.
Speaker 3: That's the headline. Hulk to wrestle indeed one of the
Speaker 3: biggest professional wrestlers in the business. Two hudred ninety five pounds,
Speaker 3: six foot six terry in parentheses the Hulk Boulder. We'll
Speaker 3: team up with Eddie Sullivan in a tag team match
Speaker 3: with the Continental Wrestling Association champion Thunderbold Patterson, A Black,
Speaker 3: Matt Stares, and Roy Welch Thursday night at the Bowl
Speaker 3: Air Wrestling Arena. The Southeastern Gulf Coast Hitaway champion Ron
Speaker 3: Slinker will wrestle Austin Idel, who has been termed the
Speaker 3: highest paid wrestler in the world. That clipping definitely got
Speaker 3: Hulk's attention. Brother. What what'll he doing?
Speaker 5: Brother?
Speaker 3: What? Hey? Dude? Man? How much you wait?
Speaker 9: Brother?
Speaker 3: How A'm you getting paid? Getting paid? Brother?
Speaker 1: What?
Speaker 4: What?
Speaker 3: How much? How much? Brother? I just wont know who
Speaker 3: you're talking to?
Speaker 1: You?
Speaker 3: I get that, you know, highest paid buler. No, I
Speaker 3: don't want to be highest paid. I just want to
Speaker 3: be paid.
Speaker 2: What's this idle mania I'm hearing about. You've been cupping
Speaker 2: your year brother, You've been tearing your shirt in the bag,
Speaker 2: You've been cutting.
Speaker 3: Holes, your python's brother, blonde hair down on your shoulders. Dude,
Speaker 3: did you get what's helping your arms? You got a
Speaker 3: deep tan. You claimed to be from the West Coast
Speaker 3: brother or Tannon brother. Well you go outside of the beach.
Speaker 3: What do you do tanning bed? What's going on? Shades
Speaker 3: on indoors? Brother? We were red yellow? So with that
Speaker 3: you like red and yellow? That why are the highest
Speaker 3: paid wrestler red and yellow? Real American?
Speaker 12: Brother?
Speaker 3: Are you American? Huh? Nice to meet you too, sir.
Speaker 2: I mean I'm the news Herald, brother. I see hulk
Speaker 2: of the headlines as it should be. A hold to
Speaker 2: wrestles is the headline. I'm in the lead sentence here.
Speaker 2: My match is the top building in the article. All
Speaker 2: of a sudden I read the second paragraph and it
Speaker 2: says someone else is the top I'm wrestler in the world.
Speaker 3: I just want I'm just I'm just curious about how
Speaker 3: you know your top paid wrestler. Brother, How do you
Speaker 3: know how the paper know that?
Speaker 5: Brother?
Speaker 3: Is they print it some me? True? I mean when
Speaker 3: they get access to our you know, payroll where they
Speaker 3: work at the bank. I used to work at. Is
Speaker 3: there a bank look at in Alabama? What do you know?
Speaker 3: We're all the wrestler's bank. Dude? What do you know, dude?
Speaker 3: You work at the bank that all the wrestlers. Are
Speaker 3: you a banker? Brother? Right? Ron Slinker? Like banker?
Speaker 1: Brother?
Speaker 3: I mean, what was the deal? Dude's ron Slinker work
Speaker 3: at the bank?
Speaker 4: Dude?
Speaker 3: What are you saying? Ron Ston is a banker on
Speaker 3: the side due Slinker Community credit Union? Dude? Are you
Speaker 3: talking about? What do you count money? Wait? Sting there
Speaker 3: is he is? He tried to payroll?
Speaker 2: Brother, trying to take the track of all what's going on.
Speaker 2: I mean, I understand you know the deal, but I've
Speaker 2: got to get a way up to speed here.
Speaker 7: Brother.
Speaker 3: Well, I'm just trying to you know, I'm trying to
Speaker 3: get kind of get things back from track.
Speaker 5: Brother.
Speaker 3: I just wanted to figure out what's going on in
Speaker 3: the cell. What are you doing that's making you the
Speaker 3: highest paid wrestler. I want to copy it for the
Speaker 3: rest of my life, dude. Basically, I want to know
Speaker 3: what the evidence of brother. I want to know how
Speaker 3: you got that at level, Dukes. I want to take
Speaker 3: things up for the next level. Brother. I wonder how
Speaker 3: I can take your life? Brother? Wow, And he will
Speaker 3: and he will. But continue the article here. Southeastern Gulf
Speaker 3: Coast Tag Team Championship match will pitt the Samoens current
Speaker 3: champions against former title holders Ricky Fields and Terry Latham.
Speaker 2: Push you ahead here. This is the May twentieth card
Speaker 2: at the Municipal Auditorium double main event as the Masked
Speaker 2: Gladiator to take on champion Ron slinker In in a
Speaker 2: special challenge match. You better believe. It's the Hulk versus
Speaker 2: Ron Fuller ce WA title on the line, Thunderbolt Patterson
Speaker 2: taking on Von Hess and it's Austin Idle versus Roy
Speaker 2: Welch plus a six man tag team matchup. Southeastern Pro
Speaker 2: Wrestling returns Wednesday in this next article here, this is
Speaker 2: from the Press Register and Boss, I'd love for you
Speaker 2: to read the accompanying article. As we see a photo
Speaker 2: of Harley Race and all of his license plate belt
Speaker 2: carrying glory Mutton Shops on full effect.
Speaker 3: Oh Yes Southeastern Professional Wrestling sanctioned by the Continental Alliance Wednesday,
Speaker 3: May twenty third. Bell time will be eight pm. After
Speaker 3: an absence of several months, wrestling returns with a tremendous card.
Speaker 3: Leading the way will be about for the World's heavyweight
Speaker 3: title with Harley Race, the National Wrestling Alliance Champion, defending
Speaker 3: his title against Ron Tennessee stud Fuller. Fuller get the
Speaker 3: title shot. That's right. The challenger has faced Race before
Speaker 3: and has always been a good given a good account
Speaker 3: of himself. This then is Fuller's golden opportunity, but he
Speaker 3: faces a true title holder who was defended his belt
Speaker 3: many times in the last few months. In a Gulf
Speaker 3: Toast tag match, the Samoans champions will defend their belts
Speaker 3: against the youthful Rickey Fields and Terry Latham. This should
Speaker 3: be a rousing battle. Popular Bob Armstrong has his work
Speaker 3: cut out for the Moon he takes on the Hulk
Speaker 3: in a single bout. Thunderable Patterson is back on the
Speaker 3: scene when he swaps holds with Inferno Number One in
Speaker 3: a Continental title wrestling match. Ox Baker makes his first
Speaker 3: appearance in Mobile when he takes on Ron Slinker. There
Speaker 3: will be others on the card, including Austin Idel. This
Speaker 3: great program marks the return of professional wrestling to the
Speaker 3: Mobile area Wednesday, May twenty third.
Speaker 2: So there it is Harley Race come into the territory
Speaker 2: and he's going to meet or at least we're led
Speaker 2: to believe the Tennessee stud Ron Fuller for the World's
Speaker 2: Heavyweight Championship. You see there the poster to the left.
Speaker 2: Southeastern Wrestling returns Wednesday, May twenty fourth, eight pm, Bell
Speaker 2: Time World's Heavyweight Championship match Harley Race the champion versus
Speaker 2: Tennessee Stud Fuller. The Samoans with manager Billy Spears defend
Speaker 2: the Southeastern Tag Team Championships against Ricky Fields and Terry Latham.
Speaker 2: Thunderbolt Patterson meets in Frontal number one for the CWWA title,
Speaker 2: and The Hulk versus Bob Armstrong. On the same card,
Speaker 2: we're Hardley Race to defend the richest prize in the
Speaker 2: game against Ron Fuller. Austin Iidel also on the card,
Speaker 2: and many more bouts. Watch wrestling Saturday one pm on
Speaker 2: Channel five. So there it is Harley's coming to town
Speaker 2: and Ron fullernew this he knew he's got Andre comming
Speaker 2: and then he's got Harley coming big one, two special
Speaker 2: attractions for Tory Lake Gulf Coast. You better have big
Speaker 2: plans to leverage it and leave people behind after those
Speaker 2: two leave town. That can draw for you, and you believe,
Speaker 2: you better believe that Terry the Boulder figures prominently as
Speaker 2: we just described, not just in the Andre scenario, but
Speaker 2: in the Harley Race scenario as well, Because if you
Speaker 2: think that, in fact, Harley Race ends up defending against
Speaker 2: Ron Fuller on this fateful night in Mobile, Alabama, you're
Speaker 2: not paying attention because Hulk Cogan is about to step
Speaker 2: into the foreground just like WrestleMania nine mmmm and come
Speaker 2: to run Fuller's injured rescue and challenge right then and
Speaker 2: there for the world's have a right title.
Speaker 3: So even that fucking angle is ripped off, that would be.
Speaker 2: Correct and we will get there the complete Hulkogan I
Speaker 2: mentioned Bob Rup. It's important to remember that this is
Speaker 2: happening at the same time. According to Ron Fuller, right
Speaker 2: around this time, just as Hulk is hitting his stride
Speaker 2: against Andre and preparing to be programmed against Harley Race,
Speaker 2: the world's heavyweight champion Bob Roup comes to Ron Fuller
Speaker 2: running Knoxville for him. He says that he and Ron
Speaker 2: Wright both witnessed the ticket sellers that Ron Fuller had
Speaker 2: put in Knoxville to two ladies. Oh, steal money, steal
Speaker 2: money from the gate.
Speaker 3: Yes.
Speaker 2: Ron Fuller is beside himself, said he'd never heard anything
Speaker 2: like that about these particular women that he put in
Speaker 2: that position. And he says there was a referee in
Speaker 2: that part of the territory named mac McMurray.
Speaker 7: What are you accusing me of?
Speaker 3: Huh? You accuse me of steal money off my goddamn
Speaker 3: what do you think? I'm selling tickets and I'm poking
Speaker 3: on the daddamn change.
Speaker 2: There's not a whole lot of Kate Spade around here
Speaker 2: that you often see. Suddenly you gals are turning up,
Speaker 2: You're jangling with their rings.
Speaker 3: So I'm gonna tell you so, I'm gonna jangle your
Speaker 3: throat with my goddamn hands in the fendll out two
Speaker 3: minutes you stop accusing that bullshit. I'm an artist, goddamn woman,
Speaker 3: and I got these through hard work and through the
Speaker 3: cut of my jib, And I'm gonna tell you I
Speaker 3: work sold goddamn, I don't mind killing the motherfucker a
Speaker 3: half tow wight to his face. I've killed before, and
Speaker 3: I'll kill again at that Bob rup and I'll put
Speaker 3: your fucking name on my goddamn list. Ron knows how
Speaker 3: to pick him, and he knows how to deploy him,
Speaker 3: doesn't he knows how to depend. I'll fuck you afterwards too,
Speaker 3: after your dad. Your mama sure does love you, boy.
Speaker 3: Mm hmm.
Speaker 2: So Mac McMurray, the guy that Fuller put, you know,
Speaker 2: sort of like the Arnold skulln position in charge of
Speaker 2: monitoring the gate and everything and a referee in that area,
Speaker 2: and in fact someone who had lent run full of
Speaker 2: himself money to buy the territory and get started as
Speaker 2: an owner. He was the one that Fuller trusted to
Speaker 2: keep track and verify ticket saless in the Knoxville part
Speaker 2: of the territory, and he was the one that brought
Speaker 2: the money back on a nightly basis to make sure
Speaker 2: the office got what they were do And once Ron
Speaker 2: Fuller kind of according to him, pushed back at Bob
Speaker 2: Roop saying that these two women in particular were skimming tickets, saying,
Speaker 2: I really don't think they would do something like that. Suddenly,
Speaker 2: according to Ron Fuller, Bob roops which is his story,
Speaker 2: and he says, well, you know what the payoffs forget that,
Speaker 2: we're just not getting paid enough for these shows at
Speaker 2: the Knoxville Coliseum. He kind of accorded. Ron Fuller just
Speaker 2: kind of drops the whole conspiracy theory about these ladies
Speaker 2: keeps shifting around why he's discontented, and to Ron's conspiratorial mind,
Speaker 2: what rob Roup is doing is basically setting a series
Speaker 2: of pretenses to try to make a run on the
Speaker 2: territory and to try to set a bunch of pretenses
Speaker 2: for why the wrestlers would want to go with Bob
Speaker 2: Roop's alternative outlaw group instead of sticking around and still
Speaker 2: work for Ron Fuller. Fuller says, you know, it's weird
Speaker 2: because I don't handle ticket sales at the coliseum, this
Speaker 2: venue that you claim is selling out way more than
Speaker 2: you guys are getting paid up per year percentage that's
Speaker 2: actually run by the building. The office, the wrestling office
Speaker 2: doesn't handle that money. It's kind of a unique arrangement
Speaker 2: out there. And you know, pretty good wrestlers have got
Speaker 2: pretty good a judging houses have been going there for years.
Speaker 2: So Roup changes tack again according to Ron Fuller and says,
Speaker 2: A right, fine, Well all the wrestlers are very unhappy
Speaker 2: with their payoffs. You know why and how and who
Speaker 2: runs what and who's responsible is besides the point? And
Speaker 2: Fuller says, well, you're the booker. Attendance has been down
Speaker 2: in Knoxville. That's why the payoffs are down. The payoffs
Speaker 2: are a percentage of how much you draw at the gate.
Speaker 2: And if you're not booking cards, the people want to
Speaker 2: buy tickets to come to see. Of course the payoffs
Speaker 2: are going to be down. You're not doing this on purpose,
Speaker 2: are you?
Speaker 1: So?
Speaker 2: According to Ron Fuller, Bob Roup changes history again, mentioning
Speaker 2: the two Knoxville Hardley Race states upcoming, and suddenly Bob
Speaker 2: Roup says, you know what, Ron Fuller, I want you
Speaker 2: to wrestle Harley when he comes to the town. I
Speaker 2: want you to wrestle Harley on my car.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: Ron's like, but I you know, I've been down in
Speaker 2: Dothan and Mobile and Montgomery. I been out in Knoxville
Speaker 2: in seven weeks. They're not even accustomed to me being
Speaker 2: out there, let alone building me up for a title shot.
Speaker 2: And the last time I was on a card in
Speaker 2: that market, I was like third match. I wasn't even
Speaker 2: the main event. Why don't you put Ronnie Garvin, who
Speaker 2: was headlining in Knoxville for Bob Roup at the time,
Speaker 2: in there against Harley Race?
Speaker 7: Do that?
Speaker 2: This is what Ron Fuller recalls saying, and he says
Speaker 2: that Rob Rupe responded that Ronnie actually wanted to see
Speaker 2: if Fuller could put the asses in the seats. Mmm,
Speaker 2: is she gonna come over here?
Speaker 3: This is Bob Roup.
Speaker 2: You'd come over here and say that payoffs are down
Speaker 2: because I don't know how to book and fill buildings.
Speaker 2: Will find Harley Race is coming here. That's the most
Speaker 2: guaranteed money night you could have in the NWA days.
Speaker 2: You go against him, We'll see how much Ron Fuller
Speaker 2: draws to see if you've got a point. And ron said, fine,
Speaker 2: book me. Book me for the world title on the
Speaker 2: first show and a Texas death match against Harley Race
Speaker 2: on the next show for the dates we have on Harley.
Speaker 2: And with that, Ron Fuller recalls, Bob Roup left his
Speaker 2: house and it was the last time that Ron Fuller
Speaker 2: would be alone in a room with Bob rup things
Speaker 2: are happening, Sands are shifting, and Hulkovin is kind of
Speaker 2: just a party to it. But he will be caught
Speaker 2: up in the winds and the storm that old cyclone
Speaker 2: down there. But of course, Hulk isn't just Terry Bolea
Speaker 2: a brilliant mind is He isn't just subjecting himself to
Speaker 2: the vicissitudes of what might happen in this power struggle
Speaker 2: between Ron Fuller and Bob Rupe. He's not leaving his
Speaker 2: fate in the hands of these two small time promoters
Speaker 2: arguing over small time money. No, Terry's always had his
Speaker 2: eye on the bottom line, and according to the match
Speaker 2: result chronologies that are out there from his career, even
Speaker 2: though he's just wrestled Andre in May and he's about
Speaker 2: to be programmed against Hartley Race later that month, he's
Speaker 2: already dipping his toe. Is Terry Bolea in Memphis, Memphis.
Speaker 2: The earliest result I can see for hul Cogan wrestling
Speaker 2: in Memphis is May fourteenth, just week after wrestling under
Speaker 2: the Giant. He's the Mid South Colisseum, the mecca of
Speaker 2: wrestling in Memphis, and he's taking on the stumper for
Speaker 2: the NWA Southern heavyweight title. Now, this might not be
Speaker 2: entirely surprising because, as we've already discussed on the Complete
Speaker 2: Hulk Hogan, Ron Fuller's brother Rob Fuller, was booking Memphis
Speaker 2: upon the onset of nineteen seventy nine, and while there
Speaker 2: had been some disagreements between Rob Fuller and Jerry Jarrett
Speaker 2: and Jerry Lawler about how much of the gate as
Speaker 2: the territory was recovering should go to the talent from
Speaker 2: twenty eight percent down to twenty two percent is but
Speaker 2: Ron Fuller says Jerry Jarrett wanted to do it still wasn't,
Speaker 2: according to Ron Fuller, complete Splitsville between him and Memphis.
Speaker 2: They were still allies more than they were enemies. Yeah,
Speaker 2: but something tells me that Terry Boley as Antenna, very
Speaker 2: quickly picked up that there was trouble in Paradise. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and there may very well Boss be a rich opportunity
Speaker 2: for Terry for the first of many many times in
Speaker 2: his life, to play both sides against each other. This
Speaker 2: is from Hulk's second book. I've just sent it to you.
Speaker 2: Apologies for the color there of the font, No probably,
Speaker 2: but I think this is very clearly puts us into
Speaker 2: the mind of this cherry bolea who's now starting to
Speaker 2: see by the houses he drew with Andre the Giant,
Speaker 2: by the way, that it's trouble in paradise for the
Speaker 2: Knoxville territory and for the Memphis relationship, that he may
Speaker 2: have a chance here to parlay the buzz that's spreading
Speaker 2: around on the inside of the business around what he'd
Speaker 2: done with Andrea to much greater riches and much more
Speaker 2: leverage at the bargaining table.
Speaker 3: Technically, I wasn't the best wrestler. I wasn't quick, I
Speaker 3: was an athletic. I couldn't jump off the top ropes.
Speaker 3: On the other hand, I wasn't an old fashioned, thick
Speaker 3: headed fat wrestler either. I was right in between, and
Speaker 3: the more I wrestled, the more I developed my own style.
Speaker 3: In fact, it was right during this time that I
Speaker 3: started using the leg drop to finish off my opponents.
Speaker 3: The crowds went nuts for it a few months later.
Speaker 3: If you want us into this routine, Louis de lett
Speaker 3: made a big mistake. So I'm I'm booking you out
Speaker 3: this Monday night. You told me I want I want
Speaker 3: you to go up to Memphis. By this time, brother
Speaker 3: it was a Memphis dude. Of course it wasn't his fault.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 3: By this time, I had started to understand that wrestling
Speaker 3: this is a little bit more, you know, I'd picked
Speaker 3: up on things. I didn't have those blinders on like
Speaker 3: I did when I first started in Florida, and I
Speaker 3: knew that Memphis could be a major stepping stone to
Speaker 3: wrestle in New York City. The Memphis Territory, run by
Speaker 3: Jerry Lawler and Jerry Drartt, was known for doing the
Speaker 3: kind of all kinds of circus stuff. They had tar
Speaker 3: and leather matches and loser leaves, towel matches and hanging
Speaker 3: the manager in a cage above the ring matches, you know,
Speaker 3: crazy stuff. It was also the perfect play develop a gimmick,
Speaker 3: and that was key because because all of the guys
Speaker 3: were making the really we're making the really big money
Speaker 3: in New York had a gimmick? Did did? Did Bruno
Speaker 3: Summer here have a gimmick? Right? Bruno having a gimmick?
Speaker 3: You know there are sargeist laughter, the Russian Bear, Iron,
Speaker 3: the Iron Chic. You know, there there were no there
Speaker 3: were no Joe blows. You know, brother, what what Joe
Speaker 3: blow do Brother. You wrote a brother? What do you
Speaker 3: not wrote to do? What we're talking about brothers in
Speaker 3: your book? Brother? You know you wrote the book brother.
Speaker 3: I know I wrote, Dude, You've got a Joe blow
Speaker 3: push brother. Don't said anything about Joe Bull push brother.
Speaker 3: You're talking about Joe Blow push Brother. Well, I didn't
Speaker 3: say that, Joe.
Speaker 2: You would be a hell of a studio wrestler job
Speaker 2: or name.
Speaker 3: You imagine. Also, I mean just the idea of now
Speaker 3: Hogan's getting nervous from himself, of course, is pretty fucking.
Speaker 7: Uh.
Speaker 3: You know, no regular name wrestlers just got in the
Speaker 3: ring and wrestled. You know, everybody had something extra, So
Speaker 3: Brutus and I drove up the Memphis by this one
Speaker 3: night to wrestle as the Boulder Brothers. I mean, they
Speaker 3: put on a hell of a show. I know because
Speaker 3: Jared and Lawler you know, pulled me aside immediately after
Speaker 3: the match and said, Yo, Terry, you know we wanted
Speaker 3: to come work here. I told him I couldn't because
Speaker 3: I was committed to the Alabama territory, you know, Louis Tiletta,
Speaker 3: and give me a break when I really when I
Speaker 3: really needed it, and I couldn't let him down, you know.
Speaker 3: Then they asked me how much money I was making?
Speaker 3: Only one fifty one seventy five a week. I said, well,
Speaker 3: we'll give you an eight hundred dollars a week guarantee.
Speaker 3: About a shocker. You know, I wasn't as much of
Speaker 3: a mark as I used to be, but I wasn't
Speaker 3: totally disloyal either, So I played really cool and told
Speaker 3: him I needed to go back and talk to Tilette
Speaker 3: about it, exactly what I did. Now I'm back Alabama
Speaker 3: and confronted to that, I said, we know I'm wrestling
Speaker 3: seven is a week for you. You know, the Bowler
Speaker 3: Brothers are making a name and draw on audiences. You know,
Speaker 3: how come I'm only making you know, one seventy five tops?
Speaker 1: You know?
Speaker 3: His response, that's all you're worth and all you deserve.
Speaker 3: So I hit him with the eight hundred a show week,
Speaker 3: eight hundred a week guarantee. I've just been offered a
Speaker 3: Memphis and said Ed and I were leaving and to
Speaker 3: let just about shit a brick, right, and we called
Speaker 3: Jared Lawler up the Memphis screaming, how can you steal talent?
Speaker 3: How did you a favor for one night and this
Speaker 3: is what happens. How can you do this? He was pissed.
Speaker 3: It didn't matter, you know, Brutus and I had already
Speaker 3: had one foot in the van at that point, and
Speaker 3: we were on our way to the big time, and
Speaker 3: we knew it.
Speaker 2: On our way to the big time, and we knew
Speaker 2: it as well. For Terry bulay A, Memphis counted as
Speaker 2: the big time at this fertile, furtive stage of his career,
Speaker 2: and it's going to be fascinating to watch him play
Speaker 2: many promoters out of each other simultaneously. He's established himself
Speaker 2: with the Andre match early and often, and Ron Fuller
Speaker 2: is not able to keep a lid on it. Other
Speaker 2: territories are making plays. But what can't we forget? We
Speaker 2: can't forget that, According to ed Leslie has read from
Speaker 2: his book last week, it wasn't that all of a sudden,
Speaker 2: Louis Toilette had an idea to send these guys to Memphis.
Speaker 2: According to Eddie Boulder, Jerry Jarrett recruited them out of
Speaker 2: Cocoa Beach and said, we'll bring you in as the Boulders,
Speaker 2: but we want you to go somewhere else to get
Speaker 2: the gimmick working first, and that would be Alabama now
Speaker 2: conspicuous by his absence and everything we've talked about thus
Speaker 2: far and Golf Gulf Coast results is Ed Boulder himself,
Speaker 2: who never appears to have anything to have had anything
Speaker 2: to do with Terry the Hope Boulder in Southeastern Championship President.
Speaker 2: There are no match results that exist of him teaming
Speaker 2: with Terry or even wrestling on any of these cards,
Speaker 2: even wrestling in SECW until nineteen eighty, after Terry has
Speaker 2: already left. But I think, as we've established, I think
Speaker 2: it is will to suggest that he certainly was living
Speaker 2: with and traveling with Terry at this time, learning the
Speaker 2: business along with Terry, ascending in the business at this
Speaker 2: point in time, and maybe got on some prelim cards
Speaker 2: or some cards where results are under reported somewhere around
Speaker 2: the way, and perhaps even teamed with Terry before any
Speaker 2: official or surviving match results indicate. But that is a
Speaker 2: key distinction that the Memphis was expecting them from the beginning,
Speaker 2: and we're using Alabama as approving ground. Is that a
Speaker 2: story you make up after the fact to paper over
Speaker 2: the fact that you essentially just went for the higher
Speaker 2: bidder and said fuck you to Louis Delay, who made
Speaker 2: you a made man in the business when nobody else
Speaker 2: wanted to book you. Or is it as simple as
Speaker 2: what hulc Can just outlined in his book as it
Speaker 2: can't be both. It can't be that they came with
Speaker 2: the eight hundred dollars guarantee, so I'm going to Memphis,
Speaker 2: and Memphis sent us here to work on the gimmick
Speaker 2: with the understanding we were coming back. But at least
Speaker 2: according to Hulk Coke and it was Louis Tolay, the
Speaker 2: guy that brought the Hulk in, created the Hulk programmed
Speaker 2: against Andrea, had the stroke with Andre to make it
Speaker 2: happen and blew out the business in that territory that
Speaker 2: suggested that made perhaps the fatal suggestion that Hulk go
Speaker 2: and give Memphis a try, because he's gonna fucking hit
Speaker 2: it big out there as well, because even more than Alabama,
Speaker 2: Memphis was a territory absolutely known across the wrestling world
Speaker 2: that would go super ridiculous with gimmicks and fantasy angles
Speaker 2: and monsters and the supernatural, and in the hands of
Speaker 2: artists Jerry Lawler, you think he's going to hold back
Speaker 2: in some of the sketch work he can do. Now
Speaker 2: that he has the Hulk marvel Ip coming to his territory,
Speaker 2: you get.
Speaker 3: Another thing coming.
Speaker 2: It's about piled up to a whole new level. Memphis
Speaker 2: is knocking, and just as hul Cogan is prepared to
Speaker 2: stare across the ring from NWA World Heavyweight Champion Harley
Speaker 2: Race in the Gulf Coast, it is just as quickly
Speaker 2: over for Hulk Cogan in the Gulf Wow. Not only
Speaker 2: is it over for hul Cogan in the Gulf Coast,
Speaker 2: It's soon going to be over for Ron Fuller himself
Speaker 2: and then the territory that and so much more to
Speaker 2: come on the Complete Hulk Hogan as Terry the Hulk
Speaker 2: Boulder stares across the ring from n w A World
Speaker 2: Champion Harley Race,