Speaker 1: Tell me ye, Roger, then I so fantasy sat in
Speaker 1: the real history.
Speaker 2: Then tell me by.
Speaker 3: Perfect flexes to spinning gum and he can't get ever
Speaker 3: so perfectly. Today we're talking about mister Perfect here on
Speaker 3: the Golden Era Podcast with Shaw Mooney.
Speaker 2: How you doing today, I'm doing great, Steve. It's funny
Speaker 2: that you started that with the whole thing with the gum,
Speaker 2: because that's like the first thing I when I was
Speaker 2: watching some of the video and I thought that was, like, uh,
Speaker 2: such a kirt thing to do, because he was always
Speaker 2: chewing gum. And then he started doing thing when he
Speaker 2: got in the ring, and he would like spin it
Speaker 2: out and bat it into the crowd, Like what you
Speaker 2: imagine you're out there, Oh I got mister perfect gum.
Speaker 3: I'm just gonna ask you that you imagine someone's like, listen, Jimmy,
Speaker 3: I have the gum, and.
Speaker 2: I have my own gum story. Anyway, but we'll get to.
Speaker 4: That amazing here.
Speaker 3: But I was always very intrigued by mister because honestly,
Speaker 3: he would throw a pen in the air, he'd catch it,
Speaker 3: He'd throw the gum in the air, he'd swatt it,
Speaker 3: he'd throw a towel in the air, Bobby would catch it.
Speaker 3: There was never a moment unless it was edited for
Speaker 3: TV reasons, and it seemed like he wasn't being perfect.
Speaker 4: Now for you, before we get into his career, I
Speaker 4: really want to.
Speaker 3: Talk about his personal relationship with you, because mister Perfect
Speaker 3: is one of those people everyone keeps talking about. But
Speaker 3: for you, what did mister Perfect mean to you personally?
Speaker 3: Kurt Henning?
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I've mentioned it many many times. Kurt was
Speaker 2: one of my favorite people there there. I had a few,
Speaker 2: but you know, Kurt was just such a good guy
Speaker 2: and Master River, you know, that's that kind of was
Speaker 2: his you know, it followed him everywhere because he loved
Speaker 2: doing ribs and some of them went a little far,
Speaker 2: but you know, and when you just got one on
Speaker 2: one with the guy, he was always like really interested
Speaker 2: in what you were up to. He would come into
Speaker 2: the studio and hang out when I'd be doing the
Speaker 2: event center. He used to come in a lot to
Speaker 2: do promo stuff, you know, during the time when he
Speaker 2: wasn't in the ring as much, And so I got
Speaker 2: to know him pretty well, and he was just you know, uh,
Speaker 2: somebody at that at that level and and uh, you know,
Speaker 2: really take the time that genuinely was you know, just
Speaker 2: just cool, you know, like this would come in and
Speaker 2: just bullshit about whatever. And I also got to know
Speaker 2: his dad. I got to know Larry a bit because
Speaker 2: he would come to the events and was just always
Speaker 2: really complimentary to me. And I don't know why, because
Speaker 2: you know, I wasn't I wasn't one of the boys.
Speaker 2: I didn't, but he would always he really liked what
Speaker 2: I did. And so in a sense there he got
Speaker 2: to a little you know, I got to find out,
Speaker 2: you know what where how this all happen, happened, and
Speaker 2: and Larry was, you know, just a really solid, you
Speaker 2: know guy that you know, had had this tremendous career
Speaker 2: and and very much old school and you know, they
Speaker 2: growing up in Minnesota. And I'm sure you've heard about
Speaker 2: Robbinsdale High School, which was this uh you know, turned
Speaker 2: out to be this reading ground for some of the
Speaker 2: greatest professional wrestlers ever and and and during that era
Speaker 2: and and it makes sense, but you know people are
Speaker 2: so and Rick rude and uh, you know, all these
Speaker 2: guys came from there at the same time that during
Speaker 2: that you know, they're all within a fewer you know,
Speaker 2: five or six years of each other. And it was
Speaker 2: because you know, the a w A was there and
Speaker 2: all a lot of these wrestlers, these old school wrestler
Speaker 2: guys kids went to went to the school and then
Speaker 2: you know, they had an incredible athletic program there, as
Speaker 2: you can imagine, because these guys are all great athletes
Speaker 2: and Kurt was among them. He could do everything well
Speaker 2: and as we know with the Moniker and Bruce Pritcher
Speaker 2: tells the story of how they you know, came to
Speaker 2: the idea of him becoming mister Perfect. But you know,
Speaker 2: Kurt was just really a great athlete and really excelled
Speaker 2: at as an amateur wrestler. And his dad, you know,
Speaker 2: talks about Larry talks about early on that he could
Speaker 2: see that and and that was his passion from the
Speaker 2: time he was a kid. And I'm sure it had
Speaker 2: a lot to do with the fact that he was
Speaker 2: just around the business so much and that's what his
Speaker 2: father did. But that that solid upbringing and uh, you know,
Speaker 2: and that family you could just tell, you know that
Speaker 2: it was all about family to him, and these strong
Speaker 2: ties that he had with these guys his entire life,
Speaker 2: and it just made him who he was. He was
Speaker 2: just very down to earth. You know. He later in
Speaker 2: his career there he you know, he became really great
Speaker 2: friends with Wade Box, the great baseball player that was.
Speaker 2: You know, he inducted him into the Hall of Fame
Speaker 2: and uh, you know Wade was one of those kind
Speaker 2: of guys too, uh and attracted to each other in
Speaker 2: that sense. You know, they were like to hunt and
Speaker 2: that kind of stuff. But I'm the point of it
Speaker 2: being is he was just like this down to earth
Speaker 2: got all the fame and everything that came with it,
Speaker 2: and the money and everything like that, but he was
Speaker 2: just when it all came down to it. Uh. You know,
Speaker 2: Kurt was just a really genuine guy. You got you know,
Speaker 2: you got what he was, always who he was. You know,
Speaker 2: you've got what you got with him. It wasn't you know,
Speaker 2: anything didn't big time you because he was around certain
Speaker 2: people at any time he saw you at any of that,
Speaker 2: he had come over, you know, backstage, whatever it was,
Speaker 2: and he wouldn't just comit and do his his interviews
Speaker 2: and then blow out of there. He was just always
Speaker 2: in a in a great mood, always kidding around. I
Speaker 2: don't ever remember, I'm sure there were dark times, but
Speaker 2: you know, most of the time that I spent with him,
Speaker 2: it was you know, it was just awesome. I was
Speaker 2: just it was like kind of like a big brother
Speaker 2: kind of like to me in a sense that I
Speaker 2: felt like that when you're around.
Speaker 4: Him, that's awesome to hear.
Speaker 3: Yeah, because so many stories of wrestlers being either rude
Speaker 3: or just coming to work and leaving. It sounds like
Speaker 3: he was having a good time while at work with
Speaker 3: especially it seems like with you, because you know he's
Speaker 3: one of your favorites in any interaction on camera, it's great.
Speaker 4: You know, shut up Mooney as.
Speaker 3: A classic line that a lot of people used on you,
Speaker 3: but perfect he did it with a extra love, extra love,
Speaker 3: it seems.
Speaker 2: Look and well we've talked about that before too, like
Speaker 2: what you know, like Bobby would say who who, and
Speaker 2: it was what's how they they? If they put you over,
Speaker 2: then you know they liked you. They didn't you were
Speaker 2: in good favor with them in a sense. And uh,
Speaker 2: you know the stuff like with with Kurt saying your
Speaker 2: shut up mooney or even you know, putting your name
Speaker 2: over just that was just that little sense of letting
Speaker 2: you know, putting you over and uh, you know, and
Speaker 2: and that's the way Kurt was.
Speaker 3: That's awesome because again he is brought up so many
Speaker 3: different times as being one of the greatest of all times.
Speaker 4: And we'll get into that discussion later on in the show.
Speaker 3: But the story, the myth of him coming into the WWF.
Speaker 4: Interviews and all that good stuff.
Speaker 3: But he brings his father, does a sit down with
Speaker 3: Vince and they're talking about what are you good at?
Speaker 3: Because they're trying to come with names for this guy,
Speaker 3: what are you good at? And he's I'm pretty good
Speaker 3: at everything. But the myth about this is Terry Taylor
Speaker 3: is also going to be signed to the ww at
Speaker 3: the time. And one wrestler gets this perfect gimmick. He's
Speaker 3: the best at everything, dart, wrestling, bowling, baseball. The guy
Speaker 3: gets turned into a half rooster man the red Rooster.
Speaker 3: Now you were there, Can you clarify if there's any
Speaker 3: truth to these two wrestlers coming in. These gimmicks are
Speaker 3: already made, but they don't know who they're going to
Speaker 3: go to.
Speaker 2: Well, I have to I'll be honest here when I'm
Speaker 2: just looking through the notes and seeing that today that
Speaker 2: you know there was considered to be Terry Taylor is
Speaker 2: considered to be mister perfect. I'm honest, the guy I
Speaker 2: never ever ever heard that. I don't know where that
Speaker 2: came from. If it was true, then maybe I don't know,
Speaker 2: but it's not something that I ever heard, and I
Speaker 2: can't And we've talked about Terry before and he, you know,
Speaker 2: tremendous talent. I don't think that you know, he ever
Speaker 2: really got his chance in the in the w WE,
Speaker 2: but if they would have considering, you know that him
Speaker 2: as mister perfect compared to Kurt Headache. Now, I think
Speaker 2: that Kurt was an easy choice for that. I'm talking
Speaker 2: gimmick wise. Both were great, you know, good ring tacticians,
Speaker 2: but Kurt I certainly give the edge there. And if
Speaker 2: you ever saw a match of his, you would I
Speaker 2: think you'd agree if if he was in his peak condition,
Speaker 2: when he wasn't dealing with a lot of the health
Speaker 2: issues that he had a lot of the ailments that
Speaker 2: dogged him for a good part of his career. But yeah,
Speaker 2: when it came down to you, like you said, they're
Speaker 2: sitting in that room and I would have loved to
Speaker 2: hear that conversation because you know what, do you do.
Speaker 2: And he's like, like the golf, basketball, and what's what
Speaker 2: are your best at I'm like, I'm good at everything,
Speaker 2: you know, I just I can just hear him saying that,
Speaker 2: and and and then that Perfect monitor Moniker was born,
Speaker 2: and uh it certainly it played well. But as we
Speaker 2: you know, people have talked about many times, you know,
Speaker 2: if you're gonna have a gimmick like that get better,
Speaker 2: you'd be able to live up to it, you know,
Speaker 2: And Kurt did I rove it off.
Speaker 3: It's just so true because if you're perfect at everything
Speaker 3: and you suck at the ring and then well, immediately
Speaker 3: we start off on a bad foot.
Speaker 2: Here.
Speaker 4: We were not doing a great job.
Speaker 3: But they did a great job introducing him to the
Speaker 3: WWF audience with vignettes.
Speaker 4: We got baseball, hitting home runs, you know.
Speaker 3: We got strikes, we get darts, we have swimming with everything.
Speaker 4: But then I rewatched the midst of perfect documentary. In
Speaker 4: my heart was shattered when Bruce Pritchard revealed that he
Speaker 4: did not just hit home runs and strikes and hitting
Speaker 4: the darts in the middle and swimming, No, those are
Speaker 4: all edited now. He would eventually hit those moves or
Speaker 4: hit that shot, but they it took like one hundred
Speaker 4: takes to get him. I was sad when I on
Speaker 4: that out today. Was this old when I found.
Speaker 2: That, Well, well, I think you're exaggerating a little bit here, Steve.
Speaker 2: Like hundreds of shots now no, and it was never
Speaker 2: that many.
Speaker 4: We'll say ten, yes, But I.
Speaker 2: Remember, you know, and think about it. You know a
Speaker 2: lot of that stuff was pretty crazy. But as Bruce
Speaker 2: tells the story though, that you know that Kurt really
Speaker 2: was really good at doing everything and and doing extraordinary things. Uh.
Speaker 2: You know, there's like the baseball thing and he got
Speaker 2: up there and he hit a he had a home run.
Speaker 2: And Wade box telling the story because that's why I
Speaker 2: think when they first started to had, you know, becoming friends,
Speaker 2: and they wanted, well, we got to get a ballplayer
Speaker 2: to come out and uh and Wade was a natural
Speaker 2: choice there and he said, well, you know, going there
Speaker 2: and he goes, I thought that what they're going to
Speaker 2: have to do, you know, they'd have him hit the
Speaker 2: ball and it looked like it was a pretty good hit,
Speaker 2: and then they'd cut it and then they go back
Speaker 2: to mister perfect and they go and he goes and
Speaker 2: he hits he hit a home run. I mean, now,
Speaker 2: I don't know how many people have done that, and
Speaker 2: you know it's not easy to do. You got to
Speaker 2: really get a smack a ball. But as Bruce tells
Speaker 2: the story, though, you know that that you know, Kurt
Speaker 2: was really good at this stuff. And when they say, okay,
Speaker 2: let's let's try one and we're going to shoot now
Speaker 2: action where it would he couldn't do it, And so
Speaker 2: what he would do is he just wouldn't tell Kurt.
Speaker 2: They would just roll on everything once they started, even
Speaker 2: if he was practicing or whatever, which was because also
Speaker 2: you know, Kurt would be messing around doing things between
Speaker 2: takes or something, and it would because of athleticism, it
Speaker 2: would be kind of cool. Whether you know, like say,
Speaker 2: for the example, with the golf ball or something, and
Speaker 2: he would bounce the golf like Tiger Woods would do,
Speaker 2: you know, and he would just be messing around, but
Speaker 2: he had this you know, hand eye coordination or whatever,
Speaker 2: or he might do something the basketball, and so they
Speaker 2: could they would just roll. And especially because a lot
Speaker 2: of this stuff was chance, you know that. But you know,
Speaker 2: when you're at the other end of the court completely
Speaker 2: and you need to take a ball and do that
Speaker 2: and in the general direction. Well maybe if you do
Speaker 2: it a thousand times, you might do it, but he
Speaker 2: might do it the you know, third or fourth time,
Speaker 2: just because you know, messing around. So that was a
Speaker 2: really that was a really good idea. But it also
Speaker 2: you know, they didn't end up getting these little nuggets
Speaker 2: of stuff that he was doing, and it would basically
Speaker 2: be kind of an outtake, uh that they could use.
Speaker 2: And so that was that was that was really smart
Speaker 2: when they when they started doing that. But you know,
Speaker 2: trying to do that was not easy to act, you know,
Speaker 2: to capture it on tape and be able to use it,
Speaker 2: you know, like a forty foot putt or something like that. Well,
Speaker 2: you know you could be there for hours trying to
Speaker 2: get it. You know, within a you know, get this close,
Speaker 2: this closer bounces in.
Speaker 3: So now those are so much fun because you know,
Speaker 3: for a little while for introductions of characters, we only
Speaker 3: saw this happen for a few people. Million Oile the
Speaker 3: Man received these vignettes h a few people in the past.
Speaker 3: But really this is like the beginning where the mounte
Speaker 3: and suddenly you know, the bushwhackers get him and the
Speaker 3: Nasty Boys and legit, everyone starts getting these vignettes introducing
Speaker 3: people to the audience. It's it's a nice way because
Speaker 3: suddenly those are pre tapes the Venture going to on
Speaker 3: Superstars from Primetime and Wrestling Challenge that was shot a
Speaker 3: month ago.
Speaker 4: So in reality, that crowd has no idea.
Speaker 3: Who missed the Perfect is until those vignettes stopped playing
Speaker 3: on television. I thought it was a perfect way to
Speaker 3: introduce him to the audience. But he's a great talker,
Speaker 3: He's incredible on the microphone. But yet they kept putting
Speaker 3: managers with him. Is this just because this is the
Speaker 3: time that everyone needs a manager? Or is it at
Speaker 3: Vince maybe being worried. What do you mentally think why
Speaker 3: that keeps happening?
Speaker 2: I don't know. I honestly, I look back that Kurt
Speaker 2: didn't need one, and you know, quickly A note on
Speaker 2: that you talk about those vignettes is they were brilliant
Speaker 2: in a sense because as far as bring the character
Speaker 2: before mister Perfect made his debut, everybody was already, you know,
Speaker 2: dying to see who this guy was, and they already
Speaker 2: knew what he was all about, you know. Uh, it
Speaker 2: was it was a great way to introduce these characters
Speaker 2: so that when they did hit the ring, they were
Speaker 2: already over or they're already had heat. And uh, you know,
Speaker 2: I I used to I thought those were brilliant, especially
Speaker 2: with like the ones mister Purft. By the time that
Speaker 2: Kurt actually, you know, made his debut, he already had
Speaker 2: heat with people. You know that he didn't have to
Speaker 2: keep build it up in the ring and build it
Speaker 2: up on TV every week for weeks and weeks and weeks.
Speaker 2: He already had heat. And uh, you know, that was
Speaker 2: a great way to do it. So anyway, that that
Speaker 2: the fact that you know, Kurt was you know, a
Speaker 2: natural and he didn't need a manager. I I And
Speaker 2: then you know, and I don't know if Lanny was first.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 3: You got the genius, Bobby Heenan, then you got Coach.
Speaker 3: So we'll kind of break them all down right now
Speaker 3: a little bit. But yeah, first the genius. Everyone hates
Speaker 3: the genius, so you put him with anybody you hate
Speaker 3: the wrestler. By the beginning, when mister Perfect first shows up,
Speaker 3: he doesn't have a manager.
Speaker 4: He's wearing like classic just blue tights.
Speaker 3: He doesn't have his his classic I have it right,
Speaker 3: here his classic gear. He's not wearing this, He's wearing
Speaker 3: blue tights, you know, the the underwear. But yeah, then
Speaker 3: eventually he gets the genius and you're like, okay, I guess,
Speaker 3: but how does that in my brain fit?
Speaker 2: Like, yeah, it didn't. And especially you know, and I
Speaker 2: loved Lanny, you know, and and I guess to give
Speaker 2: him something to do, I don't know, they weren't, you know,
Speaker 2: they didn't have big plans for him in the ring
Speaker 2: as a you know, the solo thing going and would
Speaker 2: come out and do the poems. But it was one
Speaker 2: of those things where it just what what did that
Speaker 2: add to the perfect character? It really didn't. Now, you know,
Speaker 2: Bobby might have made a little sense because Bobby is
Speaker 2: a heat generator, you know, and just to turn it up,
Speaker 2: you know, to eleven, But yeah, none of that made
Speaker 2: And it didn't make any sense because I didn't Kurt
Speaker 2: didn't need one. He was already a good which was
Speaker 2: you could see in the the vignettes. So the idea
Speaker 2: behind that really didn't make a whole lot of sense
Speaker 2: to me. Bobby, Okay, I get it, you know, making
Speaker 2: part of the Emily or whatever, you know, just to
Speaker 2: it just helps turn up that heat. But Lanny, I honestly,
Speaker 2: I still don't get it.
Speaker 3: No, it's very shocking because again you see all these
Speaker 3: vignettes him with charisma, hitting all these shots and bowling
Speaker 3: and just everything he has got charisma, and then out
Speaker 3: of nowhere again these managers are not in these vignettes
Speaker 3: with him, so he's being introduced by himself.
Speaker 4: When he shows up, he's by himself. He gets a genius.
Speaker 3: But while he has the genius, he does start a
Speaker 3: storyline with Hope Cogan, and this actually kicks off something
Speaker 3: that's interesting because the genius holds a paint, not a
Speaker 3: pinfall a win a w over Hult Cogan on an
Speaker 3: episode of Saturday Night's the main Event by count out
Speaker 3: because mister Perfect got involved. So in reality, congratulations genius,
Speaker 3: you did it, sir. You beat Holt Cogand and the
Speaker 3: height of Hulkemania because of mister Perfect.
Speaker 4: So he can I guess he can say.
Speaker 2: That in the W take, it doesn't matter how the
Speaker 2: w got there, how it got there.
Speaker 4: Nope, nope, not the asterisk, don't look at that.
Speaker 3: But while mister Perfect does have a robbery with Hult Cogan,
Speaker 3: we're gonna jump around, folks, We're not gonna stay.
Speaker 4: We're not gonna go with the timeline here.
Speaker 3: But with Hult Cogan, mister Perfect steals the w WF
Speaker 3: championship from Hult Cogan. He brings it backstage and he
Speaker 3: smashes it to pieces with a hammer. And this is
Speaker 3: something I have never seen done before. What was the
Speaker 3: thought of this? Because this is huge, Like someone's been
Speaker 3: injuring Hulk Cogan over the years, big guys, but someone
Speaker 3: has never taken his championship and smashed it into a
Speaker 3: million pieces.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, uh, and you just said it. I mean, uh,
Speaker 2: you know, never been done for how dare you? I
Speaker 2: mean really And it was just an It wasn't just
Speaker 2: an affront to Hulk Cogan. It was to uh that championship,
Speaker 2: you know, to the how dare you? But the arrogance
Speaker 2: and uh that the confidence was what you know, kind
Speaker 2: of shine through for that character. So I think it
Speaker 2: was something that got people, was different and uh and
Speaker 2: certainly raised the heat factor. I still, you know, wonder
Speaker 2: why that that Kurt didn't get that opportunity though to
Speaker 2: really wear that strap. It never never really happened, And
Speaker 2: I don't even know if there was a real discussion
Speaker 2: about it. But because I think that, you know, he
Speaker 2: certainly could stand toe to toe with someone like cul
Speaker 2: Cogan and and have a good run.
Speaker 4: Well, mister Perfect, he mister Burke's on a list.
Speaker 3: Anytime makes a top ten list of wrestlers who never
Speaker 3: won the world title, mister Perfect is usually one or two.
Speaker 4: Then know the man's up there as well.
Speaker 3: Right, I don't count him stealing it with double referee,
Speaker 3: sorry folks, but with mister Perfect, he's on that list,
Speaker 3: and with a robbery with whole Cogan in nineteen ninety
Speaker 3: we are inching our way to WrestleMania six to have
Speaker 3: Hogan take on Warrior. So obviously there's no time for
Speaker 3: Perfect to get a championship and then flip it over.
Speaker 3: So I but before we jump into why Kurt was
Speaker 3: never a world champion, the rumor, as long as I
Speaker 3: remember it was the smash WWF Championship was actually the
Speaker 3: ww Hardcore Championship that Mankind was handed over to in
Speaker 3: ninet tenty eight by Vince McMahon because it was all
Speaker 3: smashed up, it was duct taped and had hardcore. I
Speaker 3: believe that rumor up until I heard Bruce Pritchard kind
Speaker 3: of say.
Speaker 4: I don't I don't think that's true.
Speaker 3: What were your thoughts when you years later would abruptly
Speaker 3: see attitude rad things and seeing like is that the
Speaker 3: world title?
Speaker 4: That perfect smashed?
Speaker 2: Yeah? That I feel the same way because it was well,
Speaker 2: there was a great a separation of time there, like
Speaker 2: you wonder like was it in back somewhere pull this
Speaker 2: thing out again? Uh yeah, so uh that's and Bruce
Speaker 2: is the source, I mean really he was. He was
Speaker 2: there and uh uh so I got to go along
Speaker 2: with that, you know, but it did make you wonder, Yeah,
Speaker 2: they didn't want to waste the belt or something. They're expensive,
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 3: Don't get another one, just get buy one and smash
Speaker 3: a new one.
Speaker 2: Yeah. But yeah, that and people that would be a
Speaker 2: really interesting conversation to have with some of these people
Speaker 2: that are are the officionados of of uh you know,
Speaker 2: these championship belts and these collectors that you know, I'm
Speaker 2: sure that that would if there was, If that was true,
Speaker 2: imagine the lore of that belt, you know, I think
Speaker 2: in its condition whatever, it would be worth even more.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, that was attached to it. So it's an
Speaker 2: interesting Yeah, it's an interesting take, but yeah.
Speaker 3: It was bizarre because also you could think that like, oh,
Speaker 3: you're you're kind of in the edged era. You're saying,
Speaker 3: like death to the wing Championship. We have a new
Speaker 3: world titles to Austin. You know, it's a so we're
Speaker 3: kind of buryinging the old by giving man kind of
Speaker 3: fake hardcore title with the Winged Eagle title.
Speaker 4: So it's kind of like a slap in the face
Speaker 4: of the past.
Speaker 3: But also like, hey, let's let's let's create some lore here,
Speaker 3: because this is as long as I remember thinking like,
Speaker 3: oh why because mister Perfect Smash is one here.
Speaker 4: You know, eight years later it's smashed.
Speaker 3: It is the same title, but I guess, you know,
Speaker 3: we'll have to clarify it's not the Hardcourt Championship, but
Speaker 3: mister Perfect smashing it.
Speaker 4: It's again, it's never been done before.
Speaker 3: We still haven't seen that up until today, where someone
Speaker 3: takes someone else's champions. We've seen people throw them over
Speaker 3: bridges and you know, try to blow them up and
Speaker 3: set them on fire, but we have never seen someone
Speaker 3: smash them. And it really I think established mister Perfect
Speaker 3: as a player because no one won ups Hogan usually
Speaker 3: you take the goal, big dude, like Earthquakes, you know,
Speaker 3: smushing you in the Brother Love show, there's Brother Love
Speaker 3: right there, or Andre, you know, ripping the necklace off them,
Speaker 3: like there's just much more here to mister Perfect, Yes,
Speaker 3: call it, but I just want to say congratulations to
Speaker 3: the Genius for beating Holk Kogan. Mister Perfect didn't do it,
Speaker 3: but the Genius did, so W call him there, W
Speaker 3: call him there? Uh though with mister Perfect in the Genius,
Speaker 3: they had a nice little run there. But as time
Speaker 3: would go on, mister Perfect heads into WrestleMania six nineteen
Speaker 3: ninety SkyDome Hogan Rust Warriors the main event, huge, huge night.
Speaker 3: But mister Perfect is undefeated heading into this, and mister
Speaker 3: Perfect has a robberty with Brutus the barber Beefcake. Beefcake
Speaker 3: cut the Genius's hair at the Roy Rumble, and Perfect
Speaker 3: attacked him and we are.
Speaker 4: Off the races.
Speaker 3: But Beefcake beats perfects undefeated. Now, if you don't know
Speaker 3: beef Cake's a friend of Hulk Hogan's, do you believe
Speaker 3: that Hogan said, you know what we should do. We
Speaker 3: should beat mister Perfect, and it should be Beefcake because
Speaker 3: Hogan's not going to do it because he's off with Warrior.
Speaker 4: After that, he comes back in Fight Earthquake.
Speaker 3: So do you think Hogan got involved him was like, hey,
Speaker 3: my buddy should beat him.
Speaker 2: I think in most cases, and you know, I've had
Speaker 2: many conversations with Brutus and over the years, and yeah,
Speaker 2: and I think he credits a lot of his success
Speaker 2: in the w WE to his good friend. Fortunately they
Speaker 2: didn't they had a you know, major falling out, and
Speaker 2: I don't think that ever really got mended. But I
Speaker 2: think at the time, yeah, I think that that probably
Speaker 2: had something to do with it. I also, you know,
Speaker 2: I can't help but wonder you know, what was you know,
Speaker 2: Kurt in the doghouse for something like that, or you know,
Speaker 2: for a little punishment. I don't know, but it it
Speaker 2: shocked a lot of people. I mean, I don't think
Speaker 2: anybody thought that that was going to happen. But that
Speaker 2: was another thing they'd love to do too, Steve, is
Speaker 2: that they would like to do the unexpected. You know,
Speaker 2: they they that you would, you know, once in a while,
Speaker 2: just be able just to throw you off kilter, because
Speaker 2: everybody would you know, you would have you would think
Speaker 2: you'd follow the what you'd expect storyline. Of course, if
Speaker 2: mister Perfect's gonna go in there and he's this arrogant
Speaker 2: and he's undefeated, and you're gonna let someone like Brutus
Speaker 2: the Barbara Beefcake beat him, and I think they they'd
Speaker 2: like to do that once in a while. And and
Speaker 2: and also it had something to do maybe they had
Speaker 2: some plans down the road, but maybe they for Brutus
Speaker 2: to and and Kurt to do something or bring the
Speaker 2: connection of Hulk into it. I don't know, but uh,
Speaker 2: you know that one was tough to swallow. I think
Speaker 2: a lot of people were like, really, come on, what
Speaker 2: happened here? You know? And they like, we're still talking
Speaker 2: about it? So I think that, yeah, I think that
Speaker 2: in most cases, whatever Brutus was involved in, the Hulkster
Speaker 2: had a say in it and helped push him. But
Speaker 2: you know that that wasn't unusual in across the boarder
Speaker 2: just where you fell on the cart. You know, Randy
Speaker 2: had a lot of influence too, So you know, Lanny
Speaker 2: got a lot of opportunities to do things that and
Speaker 2: I've talked we've talked to before. You know, Lanny was
Speaker 2: was it was good in the ring. I mean, I
Speaker 2: think you know, he he was a popo. They came up,
Speaker 2: you know, and but he wasn't that for whatever reason,
Speaker 2: didn't have that marquis that that that charisma that was
Speaker 2: going to put him at a higher level. And it
Speaker 2: always helped to have a brother who was who was
Speaker 2: in that position. So that wasn't that. That wasn't you know,
Speaker 2: crazy to think that Dolkster wouldn't have had some influence.
Speaker 2: He had a lot of influence on what happened that
Speaker 2: in the company.
Speaker 3: I'm glad you said that, because my first evidence here
Speaker 3: for people who don't believe me with that question is
Speaker 3: we go back to a rumble in nineteen ninety. The
Speaker 3: rumor is that mister Perfect supposed to win this Royal
Speaker 3: Rumble hol Cogan though you know Hogan must pose. So
Speaker 3: Hogan is the one who ends up winning the nineteen
Speaker 3: ninety Royal Rumble instead tossing out Perfect, which then leads
Speaker 3: to Perfect losing to Beefcake, which is Hogan's friend. So,
Speaker 3: in reality, is the idea that fans wanted Perfect to
Speaker 3: win the Royal Rumble and not hul Cogan or is
Speaker 3: this just people looking too deep into things because Hogan
Speaker 3: is roll Rumble. Isn't something like where you get a
Speaker 3: championship match. Hogan is the world champion. It we're in
Speaker 3: the height of Hulk Hogan. We're in the whole Holkamania.
Speaker 3: Like it's stupid to think anyone else would win besides
Speaker 3: Hogan at this point in time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but like you said, it wasn't like there's so
Speaker 2: much on the line and something like that. But it's
Speaker 2: a great opportunity to put one of your your people over.
Speaker 2: And and Kurt I don't remember what he entered and
Speaker 2: I think he was in there for a long time.
Speaker 2: Wasn't there was I can't remember. He was number entered
Speaker 2: number number thirty. Yeah, yeah, okay, so it was later, Yeah,
Speaker 2: does that. But uh, it was an opportunity I think
Speaker 2: to put him over more and and uh, for whatever reason,
Speaker 2: you know, the Hulkster has to win it. I I
Speaker 2: don't know if that if he squatched that idea, because
Speaker 2: originally they were gonna put Kurt over. I don't know,
Speaker 2: I really don't. I don't know what what it came
Speaker 2: down to with that, but you can rest assured that
Speaker 2: he'd Hulk would have had to write to sign off
Speaker 2: on it for it to happen. So to say that
Speaker 2: he didn't have influence and it was ala Vince's decision,
Speaker 2: I doubt it.
Speaker 3: Well, it's crazy because they do have the face to
Speaker 3: face with Warrior and Hogan in the match, and then Warrior,
Speaker 3: you know, gets he's out, he gets out of the
Speaker 3: tossed out of the roy rumbole, and then Hogan could
Speaker 3: have probably done the same thing.
Speaker 4: We could have just kept equal footing.
Speaker 3: And I'm just thinking politics wise, Hulk Hogan's like, well,
Speaker 3: if I'm gonna lose it WrestleMania, I'm winning here, folks,
Speaker 3: because I'm gonna go in super strong. And so when
Speaker 3: this just this me spitball that, I'm thinking Hogan, Hogan's
Speaker 3: gonna win because it's Hogan's time, it's Hogan's era. He
Speaker 3: can say whatever he wants and Vince's like, let's throw it.
Speaker 3: And so I can imagine that happening here. So that's
Speaker 3: my exhibit, uh a here with Hold and.
Speaker 2: You see that all the time. I think that that
Speaker 2: was you know, kind of a rot disease with you know,
Speaker 2: like w CW. You had a few guys at the
Speaker 2: top there and they just kept you know, putting themselves
Speaker 2: over and that can be that can hurt you. And
Speaker 2: I think in some cases like this that you know,
Speaker 2: having so much influence in a company can hurt as
Speaker 2: far as you you know, getting other people established, and
Speaker 2: it's I don't think it's good for business and you
Speaker 2: get spread the wealth. But you know, even at this
Speaker 2: point in time, I know that you know, Vince is looking,
Speaker 2: you know, we've got to spread this out. You know,
Speaker 2: he keeps trying to find people that are going to
Speaker 2: be able to carry the load and keep you know,
Speaker 2: these arenas with people with within the seats and they're
Speaker 2: running a lot of shows and and HLP can't be everywhere,
Speaker 2: and uh, you know, so I think that, you know,
Speaker 2: as far as the business sense here, you gotta be
Speaker 2: careful when when somebody has that much influence. But at
Speaker 2: the same time, you can't piss him off either. So
Speaker 2: I think it was kind of a fine fine line
Speaker 2: that that Vince had to walk, as you had to
Speaker 2: keep the guy in the yellow tights happy and at
Speaker 2: the same time try and grow with the roster where
Speaker 2: you've got more guys that can appear at the top
Speaker 2: of the car. So it was you know, it was
Speaker 2: a dance, I think for him, make a really good point,
Speaker 2: try and keep everybody happy.
Speaker 3: That's I never even thought of that way, because the
Speaker 3: heat you have Warrior being the next guy coming up.
Speaker 4: All right, we're gonna be Hogan restling you six.
Speaker 2: Right, but remember they're not sure of him either. Yes too,
Speaker 2: you know, like and so and then so.
Speaker 3: He tried it with Savage a year ago, but they
Speaker 3: had to have Hogan next to them. Every time Hogan
Speaker 3: would walk away to go do a movie or something,
Speaker 3: business would dip. So then Vince would call Holgan, Hey,
Speaker 3: we're gonna call you come back. Business goes up. So
Speaker 3: in reality, Hogan's very smart.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 3: Let's keep everyone down here and I stay up here.
Speaker 3: Every time I leave, these people try to level up,
Speaker 3: but they can't. So you call me back and I
Speaker 3: get more money and I get more opportunities.
Speaker 4: Very smart business plan for him.
Speaker 2: There would step away, you know, how can I miss
Speaker 2: you if you if you're still here? So yeah, it
Speaker 2: worked out great, and it did for a while. I
Speaker 2: mean those years there, they you know, Terry knew it.
Speaker 2: Terry knew their pliells got a ring, you know, he
Speaker 2: just knew. And I can go do whatever I want
Speaker 2: to do, and if even if if it works out tremendous,
Speaker 2: that's awesome. But if it doesn't, I mean, this is
Speaker 2: always here. They're gonna need me, and then I can
Speaker 2: carve out a time where I go back and then uh,
Speaker 2: I'm I got other things going on here and they
Speaker 2: need me even more. And how many times he came
Speaker 2: back over and what he had to do, you know,
Speaker 2: so it was a great business plan for quite a while.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it worked out for him, but you know, miss
Speaker 3: Perfect does not win the nineteen ninety or rumble. He
Speaker 3: loses the undefeated streak at WrestleMania six, but also at
Speaker 3: that event, Warrior becomes world champion. That means he has
Speaker 3: to give up the Intercontinental title because it wasn't title
Speaker 3: for a title for some stream reason.
Speaker 4: But Warrior then, really, which is it?
Speaker 3: They have a tournament, Mister Perfect wins the tournament to
Speaker 3: become the intern Continental Champion, pinning Tito Santana in the finals.
Speaker 3: Now why the hell do you have Perfect loses undefeated
Speaker 3: streak to Beefcake to let him then win a tournament
Speaker 3: to become Intercontinental champion.
Speaker 2: Well, all you can say is was that that was
Speaker 2: some kind of make good. I don't know that. You know,
Speaker 2: let we've got to get Brutus the win and hope
Speaker 2: everybody forgets it. So which didn't happen. But you know,
Speaker 2: did anybody doubt you know, it was that Kurt wasn't
Speaker 2: uh you know, didn't deserve to have a belt on him.
Speaker 2: He made a great intercontinental champion, and so him doing that,
Speaker 2: it wasn't there was no question. Uh, people like give
Speaker 2: it to him, you know. So I think it that
Speaker 2: turned out really to be a blip in a sense
Speaker 2: in his his his career because at least at that
Speaker 2: time that you know, it was just kind of one
Speaker 2: of those things. Yeah, it happened, but you know, could
Speaker 2: five out of you know, five out of five times
Speaker 2: is how many times is it is brute is going
Speaker 2: to go over? Uh, you know, it's not going to happen.
Speaker 2: So he got it. He got the w just like
Speaker 2: Lanny with the.
Speaker 4: Hulkster courage done.
Speaker 2: Put that, put that in uh you know, put it
Speaker 2: in the bank. But but yeah, I don't think him dropped.
Speaker 2: Dropping that match to Brutus hurt his stature as far
Speaker 2: as you know, how he was put on a card
Speaker 2: in the stature that he would be as far as
Speaker 2: did he deserve to be an intercontinental champion?
Speaker 4: Well, it's more even crazier. Exhibit be here.
Speaker 3: While I feel like Hulk Conan is involved with this
Speaker 3: Beefcake Perfect situation is because SummerSlam nineteen ninety, it's supposed
Speaker 3: to be Mister Perfect defending the Intercontinent Championship against Brewster
Speaker 3: Barbara Beefcake. He's supposed to win, but he gets in
Speaker 3: a parasailing accident which then replaces Beefcake with Texas Tornado.
Speaker 4: Texas Tornado beats.
Speaker 3: Mister Perfect at Summerslim nineteen ninety for the Intercontinental Championship.
Speaker 4: So you're telling me.
Speaker 3: Maybe that was all a plan to have Beefcake beat
Speaker 3: Peep Perfect, to have Perfect get the intercontinental title for
Speaker 3: Beefcake then to be perfect.
Speaker 4: Is that what we're all waiting for?
Speaker 2: You? Yeah, so you think that, Yeah maybe, But I
Speaker 2: think we're getting way too like for psychics here as
Speaker 2: far as them planning. And you know, I believe at
Speaker 2: the time, you know, this is where where Kurt was ailing.
Speaker 2: I mean, his back was in really bad shape. He
Speaker 2: was going to have to take some time off, and
Speaker 2: so that's why this was going to happen. So maybe
Speaker 2: they're thinking, Okay, we've got to make it legit somehow.
Speaker 2: We can't just all of a sudden have Brutus come
Speaker 2: out of note and then beat him and get the belt.
Speaker 2: So you know, that could have been part of the
Speaker 2: psychology of that, that they're laying the tracks prior to that.
Speaker 2: But yeah, that's that's that's what was supposed to happen.
Speaker 2: And as you know, as you mentioned that Brutus had
Speaker 2: that horrific parasailing accident. Really he's lucky he didn't die,
Speaker 2: that's how bad it was. I mean, you know, I
Speaker 2: remember Terry Hulkster talking about how he you know, he
Speaker 2: couldn't breathe because his whole face had collapsed and he
Speaker 2: like put his fingers in his mouth to try and
Speaker 2: clear his to give him an air hole, you know,
Speaker 2: like you get to get oxygen. So, I mean, it
Speaker 2: was the fact that he ever even came back is
Speaker 2: to me, it's still astounding. If you ever seen those
Speaker 2: X rays of the titanium whatever in his face, I mean,
Speaker 2: his entire face was really just reconstructed. But yeah, that's
Speaker 2: unfortunate because you know, that was the moment that was
Speaker 2: the peak of Brutus's career. That would have been, you know,
Speaker 2: the absolute peak of his career. But unfortunately that's what happened,
Speaker 2: and you know, things changed and they didn't miss a beat.
Speaker 2: You know, that's that's just how it worked that you
Speaker 2: and I think it was better.
Speaker 4: I agree.
Speaker 3: I love the Texas Tornado, so I have no problems
Speaker 3: with him beating him perfect here at some nineteen ninety.
Speaker 3: Of course, perfect does eventually beat him again, becoming a
Speaker 3: two time in yourgation, and.
Speaker 2: That was, yeah, that was that was on Garry because
Speaker 2: he wasn't able to what he needed to do as
Speaker 2: the Intercottinental champion. That's why that was short lived. But
Speaker 2: he could have had a tremendous run. They really, really,
Speaker 2: they really liked him. They really wanted him to do
Speaker 2: well there.
Speaker 4: I thought he did well on television, but obviously I don't.
Speaker 3: We did a whole episode about what he was like
Speaker 3: backstage versus how he was in front of the camera,
Speaker 3: and I'll be honest, like, in front of the camera,
Speaker 3: I didn't know. I didn't see touch Tornado ever suffering
Speaker 3: or look bad or bad performance. But when we did
Speaker 3: a whole episode about him for an hour, you know,
Speaker 3: we talked about everything that happens backstage, and a lot
Speaker 3: more goes into the Texas Tornado story. Then we're gonna
Speaker 3: elaborate on now because you know this is a lot.
Speaker 3: So if you want to check that out, you go
Speaker 3: to our YouTube channel and check it out, because we
Speaker 3: did a whole hour on Texas Tornado beating Perfect and
Speaker 3: this whole run. But perfect to me at this time.
Speaker 3: The Internet Continental title. We have seen it happen over
Speaker 3: the years. Macho Man gets it, he becomes world champion,
Speaker 3: Ultimate Warrior gets it, he becomes world champion. Mister Perfect
Speaker 3: gets it, he does not become world champion. Why do
Speaker 3: you feel I know we're in the Hogan era, We're
Speaker 3: in good guy territory, so good guys are always to champion.
Speaker 3: But why do you think that out of everybody, even
Speaker 3: million dollar man, like, why didn't Perfect get that world title?
Speaker 3: What is missing from that equation?
Speaker 2: Well that, I mean that is a that's a really great,
Speaker 2: great question because he did have it all. Uh. You know,
Speaker 2: if you could generate the heat that he could generate,
Speaker 2: few sold like he did. He Uh, a few could
Speaker 2: move like he did in the ring. I mean he did,
Speaker 2: he had it all, but there's always these factors that uh,
Speaker 2: you know, for whatever reason that either they think they
Speaker 2: don't need it. You know, Ted was one of those people.
Speaker 2: I think that they felt, you know, the guy sells
Speaker 2: for us, no matter what might as we get you know,
Speaker 2: somebody else in there that can if we're going to
Speaker 2: do that, that needs a belt to make it, you know,
Speaker 2: optimize it, or that there was just something that Vince
Speaker 2: felt like he just didn't have it, you know, that
Speaker 2: that he needs to be in. But I that Kurt
Speaker 2: deserved that, and I think he would have made a
Speaker 2: great champion. I really do. I think that you look
Speaker 2: at when he was with you know uh A w A,
Speaker 2: and he became there their champion, and as Larry says,
Speaker 2: you know, I never I never became champion. He beat
Speaker 2: Nick Bockwickele, who had been you know, the you know,
Speaker 2: the reigning champion forever seemed and you know, Kurt stepped
Speaker 2: right into that role and was was tremendous. And here
Speaker 2: you are road now and he is way beyond that.
Speaker 2: And the way he carried himself and and you put
Speaker 2: him up against anybody, didn't matter their size or what
Speaker 2: they did. You felt like mister perfect could beat that guy.
Speaker 2: So whatever that final discussion was, whatever it was, but
Speaker 2: they felt that he didn't he didn't have it, He
Speaker 2: didn't have what they needed him to have because at
Speaker 2: that point, you know, you know, Kurt was still very dependable.
Speaker 2: I don't remember hearing of any you know issues that
Speaker 2: uh that were keeping him or he wasn't showing up
Speaker 2: or something like that. That was never the case with
Speaker 2: him then. I don't know later on, but uh, you know,
Speaker 2: Kurt was at you know, a point where he would
Speaker 2: have been a great champion. Now as far as the
Speaker 2: other physical things that were starting to happen with him,
Speaker 2: that might have had something to do with it too,
Speaker 2: because as we know, he had horrible back issues and
Speaker 2: would eventually step outs and had a Lloyd's of London
Speaker 2: insurance policy that paid him for a while, uh until
Speaker 2: thens needed him again and persuaded him to uh to
Speaker 2: come back. But yeah, so you know, that's a that's
Speaker 2: a that's a great question that but I always felt,
Speaker 2: from my viewpoint, I thought he had it all and
Speaker 2: I thought he would have been a great champion.
Speaker 4: Agreed. I just think it was good guys or champions here.
Speaker 3: So that's what we're gonna We're gonna do not until
Speaker 3: player and even like Yoko Zuna were suddenly bad guy
Speaker 3: as your world champions for a brief period of time.
Speaker 4: But yeah, he didn't.
Speaker 3: He didn't have it, and it's he's still on that
Speaker 3: list of people. You're like, well, why.
Speaker 4: Didn't he get it? Why why didn't happen?
Speaker 3: Though, But as I will always praise this event, he
Speaker 3: is the team captain SAVA series nineteen ninety It's missed
Speaker 3: perfect and all three members of Demolition Versus Warrior leed
Speaker 3: Jo Doom Texas Tornado Greatest Survivor series ever. I will
Speaker 3: say it until the end of time, even Gobbly Goker,
Speaker 3: he was there and he still will be praised and
Speaker 3: loved in forever. In my have, especially around Thanksgiving, we
Speaker 3: live out cookies and milk for the Gobbly Goker on
Speaker 3: Thanksgiving Eve. That's what we do in my house. That's
Speaker 3: what I hope you do the same thing. If you don't, no, no, wow,
Speaker 3: all right, the turkey, all right, fine, inner connal and
Speaker 3: champion though when he is Icy Champion as Bobby heenon
Speaker 3: A as his manager, and we have seen these videos
Speaker 3: all day long, newer fans are still baffled when Perfect
Speaker 3: is standing on the second rope and he throws a
Speaker 3: towel without Bobby looking, and Bobby just catches it in
Speaker 3: mid air.
Speaker 4: And you see this when he's walking to the ring.
Speaker 4: Every time they hit this.
Speaker 3: Do you did, Kurt ever tell you what it was
Speaker 3: like to work with Bobby heen him, because I imagine
Speaker 3: it's like working with the greatest comedian of all time.
Speaker 2: Yeah. And and they played really well off each other,
Speaker 2: and they were, you know, always just joking around. They were. Yeah,
Speaker 2: they were a great pair together. Uh and uh, you know, uh,
Speaker 2: Bobby was a river, but he was he was a
Speaker 2: you know, it was more like you know, jokes or stuff.
Speaker 2: He would say. Kurt was where you know, he actually
Speaker 2: did stop the people. But they were they were, you know,
Speaker 2: naturals together they you know, and and genuinely loved being
Speaker 2: around each other. Uh and uh So when they the
Speaker 2: two of them together, were was like you said, it
Speaker 2: was in sync. The fact that you know, you throw
Speaker 2: the towel and Bobby would just snatch it, you know,
Speaker 2: wouldn't even look. And and you know when you're there
Speaker 2: and that's saying and you know, a lot of these,
Speaker 2: you know, when you're with each other a lot and
Speaker 2: you do these things and it seems like right on
Speaker 2: the spot like that, Well that that probably you know
Speaker 2: when at that point when you're seeing complete you know,
Speaker 2: disregard of any looking or they've done that a hundred times. So, uh,
Speaker 2: it's great that it comes off that way, but it's
Speaker 2: all been very rehearsed and rehearsed and rehearsed, whether it
Speaker 2: was a real one or whatever, but that they've done that.
Speaker 2: You know, the same thing with Kurt with the gump.
Speaker 2: You know it's spitting a boom, you know, batting it
Speaker 2: off or what he was doing. You know that that's
Speaker 2: through just repetition, reps one half, you know, over and
Speaker 2: over and over again. And that was just one of
Speaker 2: the things. I mean, you see that in the ring
Speaker 2: all the time. You always wonder, like how these guys
Speaker 2: just go in there. They don't know what exactly they're
Speaker 2: gonna do it, know because they've done it so many times.
Speaker 2: It's when somebody grabs your wrists, you know what you're
Speaker 2: what you're gonna go from there, whatever you're gonna do,
Speaker 2: you know. So it's just that that they're professionals, and
Speaker 2: when you do something like that at that level, you're
Speaker 2: really good at it.
Speaker 4: And they're so in synct though too.
Speaker 3: And so when you're part of the Heenan family, you
Speaker 3: have Bob a Heenon always praising you forever, and the
Speaker 3: Heenan family has so many great members from the past
Speaker 3: to President of the future. But mister Perfect gets in
Speaker 3: a storyline with the Big boss Man heading into Restmenia
Speaker 3: seven because Heenan he's making fun of Big Bossman's mother
Speaker 3: on commentary over and over and over again. But then
Speaker 3: it gets a little controversial because we have a moment
Speaker 3: where police brutality is happening in the real world world
Speaker 3: in media and mister perfects hanging on the Big boss
Speaker 3: Man as a police officer.
Speaker 4: I believe this is Rodney King around this time.
Speaker 3: So on your backstage interviewing and Perfect and Bobby heene
Speaker 3: are making like police beat down jokes about people being
Speaker 3: You're like you think that guy the video came and
Speaker 3: the Bush is gonna be hurt, Like We're gonna hurt
Speaker 3: you tonight, boss Man, Like holy shit, And we already
Speaker 3: have a rocky sympathizer shit going on too, Like I don't.
Speaker 3: I didn't put this in the notes, but in reality,
Speaker 3: do you remember any of this and how heavy it was?
Speaker 2: Yeah? And uh, And that's the thing when you're you know,
Speaker 2: a lot of these storylines are walk the line of reality.
Speaker 2: That's that's how you make it work, that's how you
Speaker 2: get it over. But you also have to be careful
Speaker 2: about how far you push it or how insensitive in
Speaker 2: a sense you go, you know and uh, yeah, sometimes
Speaker 2: you I don't think that people you know, like would
Speaker 2: measure in a sense where we were, and I do.
Speaker 2: I do remember, you know, doing some of those and
Speaker 2: going man, you know, but we didn't have the immediate
Speaker 2: feedback like we have today, and so a lot of it,
Speaker 2: to me, would go out into the ether, you know,
Speaker 2: it would just it wasn't people were I mean, what
Speaker 2: was somebody going to do? Write a letter? You know.
Speaker 2: That's kind of the way it worked that way. We
Speaker 2: didn't have a phone line people could call and say,
Speaker 2: I can't believe you guys did that. But it was
Speaker 2: just a it was just a general feeling and you
Speaker 2: had to go by that because you didn't get that
Speaker 2: kind of feedback as today. You know, if you do something,
Speaker 2: I mean, before you're off the air, you already could
Speaker 2: get feedback of people saying I can't believe that, or
Speaker 2: you know it worked, you know, and you had you know,
Speaker 2: these guys of course have a natural sense. That's who
Speaker 2: they are there. So they're gifted psychologists. As I've said before,
Speaker 2: they know how to people people, how to get reaction
Speaker 2: for people, and they know how you know, how they're
Speaker 2: going to react in a lot of this. But sometimes
Speaker 2: when you do it's you know, the whole the Iraqi
Speaker 2: sympathizer and or you get into the terrorism stuff as
Speaker 2: we saw, it's a it's very it's it's a real
Speaker 2: it's a minefield and you have to be really careful.
Speaker 2: And I remember back then, Yeah, to me that that
Speaker 2: was kind of pushing it, and like I said, I
Speaker 2: didn't but we didn't get that kind of feet bay,
Speaker 2: So I never knew. I don't know how that you know, reaction.
Speaker 2: You'd see it in the when you went to the Arenas,
Speaker 2: but that was just really you know, generated in heat
Speaker 2: and you're like, awesome, you didn't know that these people
Speaker 2: really like were thinking, you know, you went too far
Speaker 2: with that, you know.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I just remember Bobby making those Rodney King jokes,
Speaker 3: oh my lord, dude, police brutality, And you know it's
Speaker 3: changed over the years obviously how you perspect looked at
Speaker 3: these things. But in ninety one, when he's saying that,
Speaker 3: and it's so fresh in the news, it's so fresh
Speaker 3: in media that police are beating down a man and
Speaker 3: someone in the bushes videotaping with a cam quarder and
Speaker 3: blow it just it changed the world for a lot
Speaker 3: of different reasons. But bringing it up into a storyline
Speaker 3: or the intercondinal title at WrestleMania seven, when you already
Speaker 3: have your alleged bomb threats over an Iraqi sympathizer character man,
Speaker 3: you're hitting, you're hitting too many checkbox here of how
Speaker 3: many times can we piss somebody off at one event?
Speaker 3: And I feel like that might have gone too far though,
Speaker 3: but that that's that's how I felt about that. He
Speaker 3: beat boss Man, doesn't get the intercondinal title. We go
Speaker 3: to Summer Slam ninety one. Someone missed the perfect back.
Speaker 3: He cannot continue any longer. He has to step away
Speaker 3: from the ring. He fights Brett Hart and maybe the
Speaker 3: second greatest Summer Slam match of all time. The other
Speaker 3: one would be Brett Hart versus Bulldog Mister Perfect goes
Speaker 3: into a match knowing he needs surgery, knowing he has
Speaker 3: bulging discs.
Speaker 4: Did you speak with him? Were you aware of how
Speaker 4: injured he was heading into this?
Speaker 2: Well, didn't speak to him about it. It was something
Speaker 2: you know, you never really would, you know. It's kind
Speaker 2: of a I don't know, JINX thing or something like that.
Speaker 2: You never talked to anybody was you know, dealing with
Speaker 2: something an injury especially that was going to that was
Speaker 2: impacting their performance, their career. But you could see how,
Speaker 2: you know, what what he was experiencing, just by the
Speaker 2: way he moved. And I've said this before that I've
Speaker 2: always been just astounded when I look back at some
Speaker 2: of these matches and uh, I think back to when
Speaker 2: my dog's parking, Uh I don't hear. Yeah, I think
Speaker 2: back to to looking at some of these guys in
Speaker 2: the ring during these matches and going you know, and
Speaker 2: knowing what they look like and were moving like before
Speaker 2: they went out there, and then you see what they
Speaker 2: do and it's they're not uh, you know, not doing
Speaker 2: certain moves, they're not moving a certain way not to
Speaker 2: do they it's full out when they're out there. Dynamite
Speaker 2: Kid was the same way that you know that you
Speaker 2: knew that that guy was destroyed and he was going
Speaker 2: out there. You never know when they're out there in
Speaker 2: the ring and you look at that match with Brett,
Speaker 2: and you know, Kurt's doing all these bridges and snaps,
Speaker 2: supplexes and and you've got to be thinking every time,
Speaker 2: can you imagine every time he's doing that? And then
Speaker 2: you know Brett blocks in the sharpshooter and it's just
Speaker 2: amazing that you look at him and how he performed.
Speaker 2: It's just amazing to me that these guys that they
Speaker 2: would do it and it's one hundred percent went out
Speaker 2: there one hundred percent, and you know maybe he was
Speaker 2: forty percent you know or wherever. Can't even imagine what
Speaker 2: he was going through. And pain is a is a
Speaker 2: great equalizer as far as like, you know, you can
Speaker 2: have that thought in your brain, I'm going to do
Speaker 2: something if your but if your body is with you know,
Speaker 2: pain is supposed to stop you from doing that. And
Speaker 2: watch that match, you know, maybe maybe you saw something
Speaker 2: in it. I didn't I And I I love seeing
Speaker 2: the comments and sometimes that people say, well, you know,
Speaker 2: I can't believe it. And he didn't do this or
Speaker 2: he didn't do that. You're like, please, if you knew that?
Speaker 2: What what? What a mess his back was then? And
Speaker 2: uh and him going out there and just giving it
Speaker 2: his all and then when he comes back, Oh god,
Speaker 2: I mean could you know probably wanted to crawl. I
Speaker 2: don't think that you can't. It didn't help his uh,
Speaker 2: his physical condition. So that's what makes that match to
Speaker 2: me more amazing Steve is what what condition he was in?
Speaker 2: And then he pulled that performance off?
Speaker 4: I agree? I know, I agree.
Speaker 3: When you are needing surgery and you go out there
Speaker 3: and every step you take you're wincing, and you can
Speaker 3: see in his face it's like he was butting down
Speaker 3: a little bit.
Speaker 4: No, he's walking, he's hurts, yeah.
Speaker 2: And you know like he's you know, people look at
Speaker 2: what he's selling or something. You know, I don't think
Speaker 2: he had so much that day.
Speaker 3: No, when you need a back surgery, like this difference
Speaker 3: between like oh I hurt my hand, I'll just tape
Speaker 3: it up and go out there. No, your back, you know,
Speaker 3: kind of getting your legs going, kind of getting your
Speaker 3: whole body going.
Speaker 2: He's got the center of your whole movement and.
Speaker 4: You getting slammed over and over on the thing that
Speaker 4: you need surgery on.
Speaker 2: Yeah, imagine, I mean everybody, I would. You know, most
Speaker 2: people have had their back go out at some point
Speaker 2: in your life. Remember what that was like? That is
Speaker 2: the center of all your mobility, everything from your legs,
Speaker 2: your arms, your every time you twist everything, and that
Speaker 2: is it imagined that that is just on fire and
Speaker 2: every movement and then you're doing.
Speaker 4: That one of the best matches.
Speaker 2: I was just trying to get off the couch.
Speaker 3: No try, like I think I have said before, when
Speaker 3: I sleep on my arm wrong and it hurts, and
Speaker 3: he's like, oh, well, I have bulging discs.
Speaker 4: I need a back surgery.
Speaker 3: But let's go out and have one of the best
Speaker 3: matches of my career, which I honestly think it is.
Speaker 4: Even Brett Hart said that. You know, he told Kurt hey, man, like,
Speaker 4: you know, I know you're hurt. You don't have to
Speaker 4: do this.
Speaker 3: And Kurt told him like, no, I'm going out there
Speaker 3: because you deserve this and you've worked your ass off.
Speaker 3: And if I don't go out there and you beat
Speaker 3: me and you beat somebody else, like who cares? If
Speaker 3: you beat Skinner. I love Skinner, but who cares if
Speaker 3: you beat Skinner for the intercolal title. No, you're gonna
Speaker 3: beat the guy who's had the title for the past
Speaker 3: eight months. So let's go out there and do it.
Speaker 3: And and again they stole the show. They had an
Speaker 3: amazing match. And that's when we all I had missed
Speaker 3: her Perfect with Coach, his other manager, his last manager.
Speaker 4: Coach.
Speaker 3: And it's a physical man. Who think of a gym
Speaker 3: teacher when you were a kid. That is what Coach
Speaker 3: looks like. You get the visor on, the big glasses,
Speaker 3: the sweatsuit, the whistle before Billo Fonso used it every
Speaker 3: single match in ECW. What why go from genius to
Speaker 3: Bobby Heenan to coach.
Speaker 2: That's another one. I don't have any idea need him.
Speaker 4: Jamison. We should have give him Jamison instead of Coach.
Speaker 2: Well, but yeah, it made no sense that that, and
Speaker 2: you know the fact it was just so short lived.
Speaker 2: I think everyone realized it, you know, shortly after.
Speaker 3: Let's just race that in people's brains, like put up
Speaker 3: the men in black, race your brain. Boom, it's gone,
Speaker 3: Oh all right, moving on, mister Perfect though, does commentary
Speaker 3: from this point on, he's gonna do commentary until Rick
Speaker 3: Flair comes in with Bobby Heenan, eventually becoming Ric Flair's
Speaker 3: executive consultant, involved in every damn Rick Flair storyline, from
Speaker 3: winning the world title a Roll Rumble ninety two to
Speaker 3: apparently taking going to post naked photos of Miss Elizabeth
Speaker 3: up in the big screen at WrestleMania eight, even leading
Speaker 3: to SummerSlam ninety two where it's going to be what
Speaker 3: corners mister perfect in?
Speaker 4: Is it Ultimate Warrior or is it the Macho ma'am?
Speaker 3: Where did you land on mister perfect being on commentary
Speaker 3: and then being an executive consultant? I enjoyed it, But
Speaker 3: where you worked with him as a wrestler, What was
Speaker 3: it like working with him as a broadcast journalist.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well it was cool because he came to the
Speaker 2: studio more often and so it got to spend more time.
Speaker 2: But yeah, well it was out of necessity. He couldn't
Speaker 2: you know, he couldn't work, and so you know, I
Speaker 2: think that was that was I always like that aspect
Speaker 2: of it, that Vince would you know, bring, bring, keep
Speaker 2: the guys around, and that was kind of the way
Speaker 2: you could do it. Keep them involved. And it was
Speaker 2: also you know, selfishly for Vince in the sense that
Speaker 2: to keep them near and then at some point when
Speaker 2: I need him, I can put them back into you know,
Speaker 2: action in which we saw with Randy. Randy never really
Speaker 2: never wanted to be a commentator, but you know it
Speaker 2: was Vince made it attractive in a sense as far
Speaker 2: as the money went, and then he ended up being
Speaker 2: whenever they had an issue with somebody, whoever, Brandy would
Speaker 2: you know, pop in take care of it. And so
Speaker 2: that was that was part of it. But I don't
Speaker 2: think that Kurt really ever enjoyed it, you know, immensely.
Speaker 2: I mean I think he you know, it was it
Speaker 2: was a good gig, but he always wanted to be
Speaker 2: in the ring, and I think it was really different,
Speaker 2: dificult for him during that period of time, even though
Speaker 2: he was getting well paid for uh you know, he
Speaker 2: had that insurance policy the Lloyd's of London that you know,
Speaker 2: he was so he didn't have to work. But you know,
Speaker 2: he loved being around the business. That was just his life.
Speaker 2: It was with a lot of these guys and uh
Speaker 2: so it was it gave him more chance, you know,
Speaker 2: he could get home more but I think that when
Speaker 2: it came down to it, he he wanted to get
Speaker 2: back in the ring, and I think that when uh,
Speaker 2: the opportunity came up, and uh, you know, maybe he
Speaker 2: wasn't ready at the time, but it was out of
Speaker 2: necessity that you know that Evince made it worthwhile. So
Speaker 2: you know, I think it was just it was it
Speaker 2: was great to keep him, keep him there. I think
Speaker 2: that that that was one of the best aspects of it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've watched mentioned a thousand times. I watched all
Speaker 3: the Superstars from ninety two on Peacock recently, and he's
Speaker 3: on commentary the whole time, the whole year, and he's
Speaker 3: very good with Vince McMahon. They're a perfect pair. And
Speaker 3: that's where I started noticing, I'll try.
Speaker 2: To do it.
Speaker 3: I did it sort of, not really, but he was
Speaker 3: perfect throwning it in the sky and catching it with Vince.
Speaker 3: And then he made Rick Flair more of a threat
Speaker 3: because Bobby Heenan was a goofball and a weasela cost
Speaker 3: him sometimes you'd see him do funny things.
Speaker 4: Mister perfect.
Speaker 3: We knew who he was, we knew what a killer
Speaker 3: he could be in the rink. So having him with
Speaker 3: Rick Flair. Really, I think added more heat and more
Speaker 3: anger towards Ric Flair, because now Flay doesn't just have
Speaker 3: Bobby Heenen as a goofball manager. He's got a like
Speaker 3: a killer mister Perfect as his executive consultant. They have
Speaker 3: a stable, a faction growing or just around Rick Flair.
Speaker 3: I really enjoyed it because I kept, like you said,
Speaker 3: it kept Rick mister Perfect in the game, but it
Speaker 3: also kept him on air. But when they did need
Speaker 3: him Sarves Area's ninety two, they came calling because we
Speaker 3: did a whole episode about it. Is Warrior gets fired,
Speaker 3: he's out, Well, we need someone to take his place.
Speaker 4: Mister Perfect gets the call.
Speaker 3: Now, I don't know how much mister Perfect's being paid
Speaker 3: of his insurance policy, but I can imagine it's a lot.
Speaker 3: So do you think you don't have the problem of
Speaker 3: the answer, But do you think he was getting paid
Speaker 3: more money to be an active wrestler or to sit
Speaker 3: at home collecting a big ass payday doing nothing except commentary.
Speaker 2: Well, I've heard different amounts. I heard one time was
Speaker 2: like three hundred thousand dollars or something. I don't know,
Speaker 2: but I think that it was it was enough he
Speaker 2: didn't have to work. But you know, those guys at
Speaker 2: the time, especially at Kirt's level, they could, you know,
Speaker 2: they could bring home half a million dollars or more so.
Speaker 2: But at the same time, you think, well, but then
Speaker 2: I don't have to get my my he beaten up
Speaker 2: every night, you know, have that car wreck every night,
Speaker 2: so you know, and and then he's getting paid more.
Speaker 2: He's getting paid extra for doing the commentary stuff too.
Speaker 2: I you know, I think probably at the time he
Speaker 2: was probably faster going back in there than he wanted to.
Speaker 2: But I think that, you know, Vince made it worthwhile.
Speaker 2: And I don't know how that all got settled. I
Speaker 2: don't know if Vince had to pay off the rest
Speaker 2: of the the insurance policy or something, because if he's
Speaker 2: going to go back in the ring, I'm sure Lloyd's
Speaker 2: of London is not going to be happy about paying him.
Speaker 2: They're paying him basically not to wrestle anymore. So whatever
Speaker 2: that deal was must have really been worth it to
Speaker 2: Kurt for him to go back in, because he wasn't.
Speaker 2: It certainly wasn't one hundred percent at that point.
Speaker 3: No, And I've heard stories of like Rick Rude being
Speaker 3: on the same policy where when he came back into
Speaker 3: the WWF in ninety seven ish, he couldn't take bumps
Speaker 3: because the insurance company is like, so you're gonna work
Speaker 3: as a wrestler.
Speaker 4: He's like no, no, no, no, no no no, Like
Speaker 4: I'll do stuff, but I won't get I.
Speaker 3: Won't take bumps, Like, so we're gonna pay you, and
Speaker 3: you're also gonna get paid by them, but you're not
Speaker 3: gonna wrestle, like and Rick Rude had an issue. That's
Speaker 3: why he couldn't wrestle in WCW in to the later
Speaker 3: time because Eric Brushoff's like, I'm not paying off your
Speaker 3: insurance for you to wrestle.
Speaker 4: It cost me more money to pay this off than
Speaker 4: for you to actually wrestle.
Speaker 3: Right, No, yeah, mister perfect only lasted about a year
Speaker 3: in ringing the WWF from ninety three and he went
Speaker 3: back on commentary in ninety four and they tried to
Speaker 3: It's funny because on the Mister perfect Uh documentary they
Speaker 3: try to suggest that him and Hunter Hurst Hemsley Triple
Speaker 3: Hs were together forever. They're together for about like a
Speaker 3: week maybe two, and then Kurt left for WCW while
Speaker 3: on Raw they're airing old episodes of things that were
Speaker 3: taped where mister Perfect turns heel or wild man Mark
Speaker 3: Mary joins up with Triple H. And then he goes
Speaker 3: off to WSW and eventually joins the nWo like everybody
Speaker 3: who ever worked in the WWF, and he enjoyed a
Speaker 3: nice run there for a while as just Kurt Henning.
Speaker 3: But then eventually he starts the rap Is Crap where
Speaker 3: he becomes a Southern boy, red Texas. What was there
Speaker 3: stable name? Something probably offensive, But apparently as time go on,
Speaker 3: people would say he had the most fun being a
Speaker 3: rap Is Crap Texas cowboy in WSW, that he was
Speaker 3: mister perfect.
Speaker 4: I find that hard to believe.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I find that hard to believe too, But Kurt
Speaker 2: found fun wherever he went, so I'm sure that whatever
Speaker 2: the ride was, he made it the best could possibly be.
Speaker 2: And also, at that point he wasn't mister perfect or
Speaker 2: the current we were used to seeing in the ring.
Speaker 2: You know, everything had taken its toll by the time
Speaker 2: he was down there, So I don't maybe just from
Speaker 2: a standpoint of, you know, the character he had fun with,
Speaker 2: but I can't imagine it was fun for him as
Speaker 2: far as him not being able to do what he
Speaker 2: was used to being able to do in the ring.
Speaker 4: Mm hmm.
Speaker 3: Before we wrap this whole, mister Perfect episode of I
Speaker 3: want to talk about ribs for a minute. One that
Speaker 3: I thought was hilarious that I want to know if
Speaker 3: you have any ones that no one's ever heard of.
Speaker 4: But this one is.
Speaker 3: In one match, mister Perfect brought a plastic eye dropper
Speaker 3: bottle and squirted fluid around the ring. The restless panicked,
Speaker 3: and someone shouted, who shit their pants? Apparently he had
Speaker 3: a stink bomb in liquid form and he was spraying
Speaker 3: it around the ring. That to me is hilarious because
Speaker 3: you gotta keep you gotta be in the ring selling
Speaker 3: like I can't. Oh, I'm fighting you as you smell
Speaker 3: like shit. But do you know any rip stories at me?
Speaker 3: Maybe that weren't so evil that we could talk about.
Speaker 2: Most of Most of them were pretty evil rights. But
Speaker 2: he would go to you know, I always thought like
Speaker 2: an extra a bag just for his rib stuff. You know,
Speaker 2: you mentioned the whole stink bomb thing, and he had
Speaker 2: it was a you know stuff he bought. It was
Speaker 2: like a little dropper thing with a you know, it
Speaker 2: kind of drop things and you could and he would
Speaker 2: you know, sprinkle it on people as they walked by,
Speaker 2: and it made I think, I don't know if it
Speaker 2: was morning missed or something. It's just it was just
Speaker 2: smelled like crap. I mean, like you thought somebody pooped
Speaker 2: their pants. And that was just that was one of
Speaker 2: them that, you know, if somebody annoyed him or whatever,
Speaker 2: or he just wanted to have a little rib, you know,
Speaker 2: and it was it lasted too, you know, it wasn't
Speaker 2: just that it would be a few minutes. Uh. And
Speaker 2: I heard that he had he did that on a
Speaker 2: cup on plane, you know, a couple of times in
Speaker 2: the whole you know what that's like, I mean, and
Speaker 2: you're all breathing the same air. So they weren't real
Speaker 2: happy with him. But then he then he also uh
Speaker 2: they they had would take locks and and chain things,
Speaker 2: say whatever you had, you know, like everybody was used
Speaker 2: to carry around those Halliburton briefcases, and he would he
Speaker 2: would lock those two lock you know, lockers in the
Speaker 2: in the arena or uh. You know, he just NonStop
Speaker 2: and you couldn't out rib him. And most of the
Speaker 2: boys at some point would just you know cry foul
Speaker 2: or just throw in the towel like I I'm done, please,
Speaker 2: you know, like you know, they would try and rib
Speaker 2: him back and then he would come back ten times worse.
Speaker 2: Where I think Tanaka Tanaka pat Tanaka is. It talks
Speaker 2: about how he uh had a rental car that he
Speaker 2: they got in because they had broken toothpicks off in
Speaker 2: the locks of of Kurt's rental car, and and so
Speaker 2: he he painted the headlights black on their rental car.
Speaker 2: So they get in the car and they can't uh
Speaker 2: you know, the they're like, what the hell the lights
Speaker 2: are on, but we can't see anything. And then they figured, okay,
Speaker 2: they see painted, so they scrape that off and then
Speaker 2: they go get in the car and then they can't
Speaker 2: see through the windshield. It is this is filmy something.
Speaker 2: And he'd taken motor oil and put it on on
Speaker 2: the windshield. So you you know, man, you try and
Speaker 2: get that off, you put the water on, it makes
Speaker 2: it worse. And uh uh. The way he tells the
Speaker 2: story is that so he has a brilliant idea, had
Speaker 2: a gas can or something to put gas on the windshield,
Speaker 2: thinking it would cut through the oil, and and that
Speaker 2: perfect drives by and throws a match and let's the
Speaker 2: car goes up. Now, well, I don't know, you know,
Speaker 2: that's crazy to me. I never heard that one. I
Speaker 2: just saw him telling the story. But that But really
Speaker 2: it just there were no limits sometimes. And also you
Speaker 2: know fecal matters that we say would show up in
Speaker 2: people's bags and stuff. I mean, you didn't want to
Speaker 2: be on a and and to him, it wasn't you know,
Speaker 2: he wasn't being evil to him, it was just funny.
Speaker 2: It was just funny, just doing stuff like that.
Speaker 4: But you know, did he ever try to rip mister Fuji?
Speaker 2: Because I know you didn't. Mister Fuji was I supposedly
Speaker 2: number one. I remember Alfred told me a story one
Speaker 2: time that this guy that when they were in a
Speaker 2: locker room and the guy had a pocket knight that
Speaker 2: he kept playing with and it was annoying mister Fuji.
Speaker 2: And he went over and he said, let me see
Speaker 2: a knife, and he goes to sharp. He goes, yeah,
Speaker 2: it's like a razor, and he goes, oh really and
Speaker 2: like slice the guy's chest open, like not deep, but
Speaker 2: just like and then yeah, you know, you're right, gave
Speaker 2: it back to him. You know like, yeah, you didn't,
Speaker 2: mister Fuji could was just brutal. I heard other stories
Speaker 2: the stuff that they would remember, the Nair that's the
Speaker 2: hair remover stuff I think it was called there and
Speaker 2: doing things to people. So yeah, the Land of Ribs
Speaker 2: was was intense where they would Marty Jennety said that
Speaker 2: he one time Kurt handcuffed his Halliburton to a hotel
Speaker 2: drawer and they had to catch a flight, so Marty,
Speaker 2: Marty took the whole drawer out. He couldn't get it
Speaker 2: off and had to go through. He says, he went
Speaker 2: through you know, secure and they ended up getting bump
Speaker 2: from the flight, so it kind of went back on
Speaker 2: on the Kurt. But you know, they those guys, you know,
Speaker 2: you're on the road for that long and you're bored
Speaker 2: out of your mind, and that's how they entertained themselves
Speaker 2: by doing this stuff. And Kurt was king. Like I say,
Speaker 2: he did a little stuff to me. I didn't, thank God,
Speaker 2: but you know, I remember I told you the story
Speaker 2: when when I did that pay per view with a
Speaker 2: watter gun on my shoulder, he had come over and
Speaker 2: put his arm on me, his arm around me and
Speaker 2: put a big water gum on my shoulder and went
Speaker 2: through the entire pay per view with a lot of
Speaker 2: gum on my on my shoulder. Nobody said anything, So
Speaker 2: that that was just some of the little things. You know.
Speaker 2: I'd do an interview in one of those group interviews
Speaker 2: and he would step on my foot and I would
Speaker 2: be trying to get over to somebody to with a microphone.
Speaker 2: And that's just that was just Kurt and and uh
Speaker 2: and and genuinely funny too. I mean, you know, he
Speaker 2: was as certainly as funny as Bobby, and the two
Speaker 2: of them together was it was a another It was
Speaker 2: a comedy team too. So you know, bottom line, he
Speaker 2: just loved to have a good time. He really did.
Speaker 2: And and uh, it's just I'm I'm I'm glad that
Speaker 2: that I didn't see those final years. Uh and uh
Speaker 2: because I would have hated to see that. And it's
Speaker 2: tragic the way we lost them. But you know, drug
Speaker 2: use and it was is a big part of the
Speaker 2: industry was then. Uh, So that he was a statistic
Speaker 2: because of it, and those guys. We talk about the
Speaker 2: road that these guys were on and you had something
Speaker 2: get you up, had something to get you to the
Speaker 2: gym and get keep you in shape, and then go
Speaker 2: to an alcohol and then put something healthy in or
Speaker 2: something so you could sleep. It was just a horrible cycle.
Speaker 2: And you know, got a hold of these a lot
Speaker 2: of these guys and they didn't get out of that hole. Yeah,
Speaker 2: he's terrible, right.
Speaker 3: He died February tenth, two thousand and three. He was
Speaker 3: forty four. It was six weeks away from turning forty five. Determined, uh,
Speaker 3: cocaine and you know, steroids and painkillers was the reason
Speaker 3: of his death. So it's just sad to see that
Speaker 3: a lot a lot of wrestlers, especially even from the
Speaker 3: Golden era we've talked about before, none of them really
Speaker 3: die of It's hard to find a lot of people
Speaker 3: who die of old age from the Golden era, and well.
Speaker 2: Old age is sixties, you know, unfortunately, like.
Speaker 4: Forty forty four years old.
Speaker 3: And he had a son, you know, multiple children by
Speaker 3: Curtis Axel, Michael mcgilla, Cutty, Joe Henning, all the different names, and.
Speaker 4: He's a producer now in the WWE.
Speaker 3: So that's great that they he can carry the lineage
Speaker 3: of his family along the way. But it was strange
Speaker 3: when they brought in his son, and they didn't name
Speaker 3: him Joe Henning. They named him Michael McGillicuddy. That was
Speaker 3: his wrestler's name. And then eventually he got to change
Speaker 3: it to Curtis Axel. At least they got to get
Speaker 3: it a little close because the you know Curtis Kurt Axel,
Speaker 3: you know the grandfather. So it's nice to see the
Speaker 3: lineage carried on there, But it was really strange when
Speaker 3: you bring in a second generation or a third generation wrestler,
Speaker 3: they don't use the last name.
Speaker 4: But some get to, some don't get to.
Speaker 3: Before we wrap this up, though, like, what are your
Speaker 3: thoughts on mister We did a whole hour and a
Speaker 3: half here about mister Perfect, talked about the highs and lows,
Speaker 3: the good times, bad times. But what when we shut
Speaker 3: this off, what do you want people to think about
Speaker 3: mister Perfect and Kurt Henning as a person, not the wrestler,
Speaker 3: the person.
Speaker 2: Well, and I think we should remember him as a
Speaker 2: wrestler too, But yeah, he was you know Kurt. Everybody
Speaker 2: that that knew him would say and I've never really
Speaker 2: heard people say anything, you know, bad about him, except
Speaker 2: that some of his ribs were a little far but
Speaker 2: he was just a fun loving guy. You know, he
Speaker 2: just he'd loved to laugh. He had a lot of
Speaker 2: guys that he was very loyal to, you know, that
Speaker 2: whole gang from Robinsdale. You know, you hear you know,
Speaker 2: Barry Darza talks about him to this day fondly, and
Speaker 2: you know, a lot of these guys and he was
Speaker 2: just family with what he was all about. I credit
Speaker 2: where he came from. And if anybody's ever met Larry Hendrick,
Speaker 2: you know that that you know where those values and
Speaker 2: the way he you know, conducted himself and how how
Speaker 2: much he loved the business and respected it and uh,
Speaker 2: you know, he's truly one of those old school guys
Speaker 2: and loved the business. Just loved the business. It was
Speaker 2: in his soul. And uh, you know, all the interactions
Speaker 2: I had with him, you know, we're great. I mean
Speaker 2: he was always uh you know, so encouraging and you
Speaker 2: know so I think that anybody that knew Kurt loved
Speaker 2: them and it's tragic the way it all ended up.
Speaker 2: And you hear, you know, some of these people that
Speaker 2: talk to this day. And I saw something the other
Speaker 2: day from Wade Box talking to me, well that he
Speaker 2: he wished that that Kurt had called him and he
Speaker 2: and he goes and I where I feel to this day,
Speaker 2: maybe I could have done something, And so you know,
Speaker 2: it's it's just uh, it's it's a tragedy the way
Speaker 2: that forty four you know, like wow, if he could
Speaker 2: have just gotten through it, you know, and on the
Speaker 2: other side, so as we always feel it and and
Speaker 2: and then you know, your life, you know, get healthy again.
Speaker 2: But you have to get away from the business. He
Speaker 2: would have had too, especially at that time. So and
Speaker 2: I think overall though, you also have to credit for
Speaker 2: what he did for the business. He kept that old
Speaker 2: school alive during the time that he was. He was
Speaker 2: here and he was a great He was just tremendous.
Speaker 2: He was one of the you know, among the top
Speaker 2: ever and people I'm sure like Brett Hart will tell you,
Speaker 2: and others that spent a lot of time in the
Speaker 2: ring with him, we'll say that he definitely was one
Speaker 2: of the best all the way around.
Speaker 4: Agreed.
Speaker 3: And in two thousand and two he did come back
Speaker 3: into the ww f E at the time at the
Speaker 3: Royal rumbul When his music hit the crowd went crazy
Speaker 3: and he was around for a few months after that,
Speaker 3: but obviously things happened. But one last rib story I
Speaker 3: want to bring up is he went to Road Warrior
Speaker 3: Animal's house for a Christmas party.
Speaker 4: He went up dares.
Speaker 2: Found a little.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he found a toilet. He took a giant shit
Speaker 3: in it. An animal thought it was his son. He
Speaker 3: was so proud to show off the poop to everybody
Speaker 3: that look.
Speaker 4: At my son pooped in the body. It was just
Speaker 4: a giant, mister perfect turn. It was a perfect poop.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And that's how we wrap it up here like
Speaker 2: a proud father. Look at this, my boy.
Speaker 4: It's a giant mister perfect turn.
Speaker 3: And that's how we wrap it up here, folks. No,
Speaker 3: not you know, not the sadness that the poop stories
Speaker 3: about mister Perfect. But again, thank you everyone for enjoying
Speaker 3: us talking about the golden era of the WWE. Mister
Speaker 3: perfect with today's topic, but check out the past. We
Speaker 3: talked about text, Tornado, the Heart Foundation, the British Bulldogs,
Speaker 3: Hogan Versus Warriors, Savage, so many other people. But thank
Speaker 3: you again Shaw Mouney for sharing your passionate stories today
Speaker 3: in the golden era. I'm see fall he shah Mouni
Speaker 3: have a wonderful day and we'll see you next time.
Speaker 4: Bye bye.
Speaker 2: It's a golden age.
Speaker 4: Oh, tell me me talk Dewey.
Speaker 1: Got to the life the fantasy, step in the ringfield history,
Speaker 1: talking to the gold and tell me to talk, Dewey