May 20, 2024 • 61 mins
We’re jumping off the top rope and back into the ring, when wrestling legend Bruce Prichard joins the gang to reminisce about one of the most memorable moments in Boy Meets World history.
Bruce not only appeared in "Sixteen Candles and 400-pound Men" as his alter-ego, Brother Love, he was the poor soul tasked with producing the in-ring scenes on the wrestling side. What does he remember as a rare outside producer? How did he pull it off? And just how mad was Jake "The Snake" Roberts that he had to perform for a sitcom?
Bruce also explains how the world of pro wrestling became his career, shares some of his incredible creative touches in the WWE and lets us know who he thinks is the next household name from the squared circle.
We’re going for the championship belt with a legendary name in wrestling...on a new Pod Meets World!
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
So it has been detaiale of two technologies for me
the last few days. As our dear listeners can see
if they use this clip or here, I sound a
little different because I am at Danielle's house this morning
because my internet has been out for three days. It
(00:41):
comes on, gives me just the inkling of technology, and
then leaves again. And no matter what they do, they
can't seem to fix it. They're rewiring everything. So here
I am. And yet this weekend I was in San
Francisco to see my stepdaughter and my son in law,
and I took my first ever way mo.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
No oh, automatic driving car?
Speaker 3 (01:06):
Is the auto driving cars? How was it?
Speaker 1 (01:09):
It's trippy, so it took like a It was like
a fifteen minute drive.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
This wasn't like down the block.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
And this car shows up with all these lights on
it doing all this stuff, and my stepdaughter, who hasn't
account her initials, flash on the top of the car
and then she uses her phone to unlock the car
and she's like, you sit in front. I want you
to experience this. It's like, great, I'll be the air bag.
So they put me in the front of the car.
Speaker 4 (01:36):
I have video of this.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
They put me in the front of the car.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
The car then sinks to her phone, so her playlist
of songs comes up. And then they welcome you, and
you have to snap your seatbelts and you press a
button and the wizard that is driving the car, because
I'm assuming that's what it is, takes over. And it
is the trippiest feeling in the world. You're driving through
(02:00):
the streets of San Francisco, you know, the big, hugely
elevated streets and the big and this again, evil wizard
next to you is the steering wheel is spinning.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
It's stopping for pedestrians. It is so strange.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Were you nervous the whole time?
Speaker 3 (02:17):
Like really the whole time?
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Like so they have done this all the time. They
haven an account. They they're like, oh, we don't use
uber anymore. This is all we use, so they're used
to it. But it was so trippy to be sitting
there and you're seeing people like crossing the street in
front of you, and and my son in law, who's
very tech savvy's all right, look at the screen.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
It's mapped out, it's it sees everything.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
So as you're driving up the street, all the cars
that are in the parking lots are registered on the
screen and pedestrians and it's point has arrows pointing like
there's a pedestrian here, there's a pedestrian in there, And
apparently it is in the next two or three months
coming to LA.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Yeah, they're doing a pilot program right now in LA.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
But no freeway, I guess, because that would be I
couldn't even imagine driving on the LA Freeway.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
And I mean, go, isn't that weird?
Speaker 2 (03:04):
I think I would feel safer on the freeway, you think,
like in the Yeah, the freeway is remember the movie
Minority Report. Yeah, where the cars are just kind of
like cruising and they like stop and you get in.
That makes sense to me because it's almost like I
can imagine it like a train, like just stay in
your lane and it'll eliminate traffic because cars will actually
keep the safe distance in the right distance. So there
would be way less traffic in LA. With automatic driving
(03:27):
on freeways. I get more scared by just yeah, the
dog that runs in front of you or coyote in LA,
which happens all the time, Like you know, I would
be so terrified of that. And yeah, if I was
in the front seat of a car moving under thirty
miles prior. I feel like I would just be constantly
second guessing it, looking around it. Well, that's what you're doing.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
And Lexo Lexi told us a story where she's like,
the third one she was ever in got hit by
a bus.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
Oh so while she was in driver Yes, she's in
this car. She's in the car.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Can you need a driverless bus? That's the problem. They
just putting human because it was their own thoughts and emotions.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
It was the bus's fault.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
So the bus turned and hit It wasn't bad, but
it like it hit into the thing.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
And then a voice comes on like, okay, you've been
in an accident. Are you okay? Do you know we're
sending somebody out.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
She's like minutes later a guy pulled up in a
car and was like, we're so sorry you were in
an accident and you don't have to stay here.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
We've called you another one. Another one shows up takes
her on her. But that was the thing. It's like
a robot.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
I mean, where's the insurance robot?
Speaker 5 (04:29):
Taking out back and being shot Yes, And.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
It's like, I'm We're gonna this robot.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
What do I do? She goes, if I'm in an accident,
I stay at the accident. That's what I do. She's like,
well do I stay?
Speaker 4 (04:39):
Do I do?
Speaker 1 (04:40):
I have to, you know, give witness information. And the
company just shows up like, no, God, we got it.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
Take care.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
They called her two or three times the next week,
like we're just checking to see that you're okay.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
And but I mean it was so yeah. She was
also in a Waimo accident.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
You know what I can't stand is like my wife
we got her a car maybe three or four years
ago and had all the automatic It had all the
automatic censoring without doing anything about or it would automatically
break for you. But then it would also just beep
it me constantly and like I had to turn everything off.
I was like, I'm it didn't bother my wife. She
was like, yeah, yeah, that's good to know. It helps
(05:14):
me park. I'm like, no, it stresses me out. I'm
sitting here trying to park and it's like, baby, I
know that's.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
The worst when you're driving and all of a sudden, God, yeah, I'd.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Rather it be fully automatic or nothing at all. You know,
I don't want to just like in between, but I
don't know about the fully automatic I still haven't experienced it.
Speaker 5 (05:34):
And I I want to do it.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
It was crazy. I'll show you the video the.
Speaker 6 (05:38):
Pilot program in LA can you Can you arrange for
rides or no?
Speaker 2 (05:42):
You had to have signed up for it ahead of time.
Speaker 4 (05:43):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Maybe you can join it now, but I think for
the next couple of months you just have to have
been like one of the beta testers or whatever that
that agreed to do it months ago.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
Can I ask who would name a company that drives
vehicles so close to whammos lamb was welcome.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
To smash Box. That was the other thing.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
When you when you watch the video, you see me
commenting because it was raining the night that we're in
our way mow and the wind show wipers are on,
and I'm.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Like, who is these?
Speaker 3 (06:14):
Who is this four?
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Right?
Speaker 3 (06:15):
There's nobody driving.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
You just put a scream. You can watch a movie.
You don't need to even look out.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
It's like, why are their wind show wipers?
Speaker 1 (06:23):
What? What is the point of this? It's like a
helmet when you're skydiving. It's you don't need it. So
very strange, But I thought you would enjoy the Tale
of two technologies.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
I can't.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
So are you are you?
Speaker 4 (06:35):
Are you?
Speaker 1 (06:35):
No?
Speaker 3 (06:35):
I do it again.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
You're sold, You're ready.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
I don't know if I'm sold, but it was. It's
a it's a.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
Unique kind of crazy experience. I'm glad I experienced it.
I would do it again again. It was a fishing
It showed up on time, it dropped us off, we
didn't hit a bus.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
It was all good.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
There's so many weird ramification, right. I mean, there's the
jobs factor, right, like people just losing jobs. Okay, that sucks.
But then yeah, just the automation and like getting used
to it.
Speaker 6 (07:02):
And I will also say that as a woman, there
is a nice feeling of knowing that I could be
in a car without another human being because there is
always a risk factor getting into a car with a stranger,
that there is a there is like a safety element
that would make me, you know, on the one hand, crash, Oh,
I may get into it. I make it into a
(07:23):
terrible accident because there's no human driving. On the other hand,
I don't have to worry about being assaulted.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
So life is a trade off.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
Exactly.
Speaker 5 (07:35):
Welcome to pod meets World. I'm Daniel Fishel.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
I'm righter, strong, and I'm Wilfredo. Guys, what the kids
want to jump? Again and again and again.
Speaker 5 (07:45):
Well, now that Will doesn't have COVID. He wants to jump.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
I want to I want to jump without that sneeze.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
That wouldn't go everywhere. Six months later, the tour is back.
Speaker 6 (07:56):
We have rescheduled Durham, North Carolina. We will be inside
you on June nineteenth, Atlanta we will be there on
June twentieth, and.
Speaker 5 (08:04):
New Orleans we will see you on the twenty first.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
Are we gonna be there by ourselves in Durham?
Speaker 5 (08:10):
We absolutely are not.
Speaker 6 (08:11):
We have the one and only Lee Norris Mincus hold
the plane for Mincus himself is going.
Speaker 5 (08:19):
To be joining us on the nineteenth, is.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Exiting the time warp wormhole that he entered and disappeared
from our show and appearing on our stage.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
I can't get Danielle saying Durham, We're going to be
inside of you on the night.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
I know it's not a awkward, right, Why should to
phrase it like that?
Speaker 6 (08:35):
If you haven't already, please buy your tickets. Podmeets World
Show dot Com.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
All the Dame script with her, Yeah right, we hope to.
Speaker 5 (08:43):
See you there inside you.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
Oh God, we hope to be inside of you. I
mean the town, your city.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Please just come, just come.
Speaker 6 (09:01):
When we watched the classic season four episode sixteen Candles
and four hundred Pound Men, we heard exactly how much
chaos went into throwing writer Ben and Ethan into a
real life WWF ring between Big Bad Vader and Jake
the Snake Roberts, and you have to wonder who actually
made that happen. Obviously we had a crew with us,
(09:24):
but it was bare bones on location, so we relied
heavily on the WWF team to one have it all
come together and two make sure our cast wasn't killed
by fans angry that their main event was being hijacked
by some TGIF weirdos. And the man to thank for
producing the segment on the wrestling side of things is
(09:45):
also the guy who not only introduced the wrestlers on
their way to the ring for the episode, but he
was also the announcer you heard throughout the match.
Speaker 5 (09:54):
And that man is Bruce.
Speaker 6 (09:56):
Pritchard aka Brother Love. In the eighties and nineties, he
was seen on WWF programming as a red faced, white
suit megachurch preacher who claimed he was in the Federation
to spread love, but in reality was a money hungry
con man or a heel, the term used for bad
guy in the industry. He hosted interview segments, worked as
(10:17):
a commentator, and even managed wrestlers, most notably as the
first mouthpiece for the Undertaker, but it was his behind
the scenes skills that would turn him into an icon
in the business. As a producer, he's been in and
out of but mostly in the WWE now as a
head honcho senior vice president executive director for the company's
two flagship shows, Raw and SmackDown, right in the middle
(10:41):
of one of the company's most successful periods. Ever, if
it happened in wrestling, he most likely had a hand
in it, and since twenty sixteen, he's also had his
own podcast, Something to Wrestle with Bruce Pritchard, where he
gives listeners the real scoop on some of sports entertainment's
biggest events and what's bigger than the night we all
ended up in his ring. I'm gonna guess nothing. So
(11:05):
now let's welcome one.
Speaker 5 (11:08):
Of our most requested guests by fans. It's the man.
Speaker 6 (11:11):
Who loves you, WWE s Bruce Pritchard.
Speaker 4 (11:17):
Hey, where's genius?
Speaker 5 (11:25):
Genius?
Speaker 4 (11:26):
Hey, we're finally here.
Speaker 6 (11:27):
You made it, and let me tell you, we are
so thankful that you are here with us.
Speaker 5 (11:33):
When we recently rewatched.
Speaker 6 (11:35):
The wrestling episode, we immediately realized there was someone on
the WWF at that time side of things who had
a very hard job that night, and we were able
to figure out that it was you. That night of
us being there could not have been fun for you.
You were pulling triple duty.
Speaker 4 (11:55):
Yeah, and dealing with dealing with my own set of
temperamental over here on this side exactly.
Speaker 6 (12:03):
That's actually the thing I want to know most is
like we heard from writer and from Ethan that it
was chaos for them, but we've never heard your side
of things.
Speaker 5 (12:13):
What was that night like for you?
Speaker 4 (12:16):
Well, we're, first of all, we're in Anaheim and we're
trying to present a live event for Anaheim, and it's
a live event. Is a different feel than when we
go out and we produce television, because when we produce television,
I think the talent are accustomed to a bit of
waiting around and having to do things two and three times.
(12:39):
We operate a lot differently than Hollywood does. Hollywood has
the luxury of you know, cut, Okay, let's get back
in their place and let's try it again. We don't
have that luxury in front of a live, paining audience
that wants to be entertained. And I think that that
was part of the frustration the event in and of it.
So he was a little bit longer that night because
(13:02):
we had to fit in the Jake, the Snake, Roberts
and Vader match. Yeah, and then what should have been
a ten minute match, I think we ended up going
almost thirty five to forty minutes. Oh no, Jesus, well, yeah,
Corey and he had them all down ringside. You're trying
to get this scene, this heartfelt scene of you know, dad,
(13:25):
do you love me? And I'm trying I'm sitting at
ringside in a white suit, face painted red. Right, Yeah,
so it was I'm trying to direct them there. I'm
trying to fund Jake down to say, hey man, it's okay,
(13:47):
you stay there and do your thing. Vader's doing his
say at here for Boy Meets World, and to make
it logical for the audience, you had to do certain
things to get Vader in that position. Didn't protect Jake
right then on on top of that talent backstage that were,
oh hey, Bruce, are you done Bruce in your movie?
Speaker 2 (14:13):
So Bruce, I was there. I was one of the actors.
I played Sean, So I was in the ring. I'm
curious because my memory is just you know, it's chaos
and misery. But how big was the audience? Because it
felt bigger than any crowd I have ever been in
front of. How big would the audience have been? Because
we're at the Mighty Ducks Arena, right is that where? Yeah?
(14:34):
So how big of an audience would that have been?
Speaker 4 (14:36):
You know that night we were probably in the nine
ten thousand range.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
Wow?
Speaker 4 (14:41):
So yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
See on Boy met we were used to performing in
front of about one hundred people. Two hundred people were
there to watch us make mistakes and do it five times?
So yeah, that was it was overwhelming.
Speaker 4 (14:54):
God. Yeah.
Speaker 6 (14:54):
We actually recently heard how annoyed Jake Roberts was the
whole experience. He said he basically had to repeat moves
and it was just a produced match in a way
that's pretty taboo, as you mentioned, in front of a
live audience, and then you also had to call the
match live on the fly.
Speaker 5 (15:14):
Is that correct?
Speaker 4 (15:15):
Yes? And I will say this, I've done a lot
of things in the business, and of the things that
I've done, I am probably the worst played by play
commentator on the face of God's great Earth. So yeah,
it was, hey, can you do play by play? I
(15:36):
said no? I said, what'd you do? Play by play?
Speaker 3 (15:39):
I'm like, okay, it sounds like I don't have a choice.
Speaker 4 (15:42):
Sure, and you know, and again you're you're trying to
do play by play, not knowing what's going to make it,
trying to give them sound bites that they can use anywhere.
And in the midst of it, Jake's looking yeah, Jake
was pissed. Jake's looking at me in the ring like,
what are we doing here? You know, wrap this up,
(16:04):
let's go man, I'm done. This is done by now.
And we would have, but it's a different animal. It's
a complete different animal. You guys are hitting your marks.
You guys have lines that you've got to get through
and that you've got to nail, and that affects everything
(16:25):
you do. We can improvise, we can okay, Hey, they're
not buying this, Let's go here. And I can only
imagine being in that environment where you are used to
the luxury of man. I've studied, I've got my part down,
I know my lines, I know my reactions here, I
(16:47):
know this, I know that, and I dare say, I
don't think you guys had the feedback even on the fly,
correct if. I'm well, no, that was a good taker.
Now that was a bad take. I think it was.
Let's get another one. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
No, we did a full take of all the things
that we had to get in the ring, and then
Ben and I ran backstage, and then our ad told
us to go back out there and we had to
do it all over again, which, of course, the poor audience,
the poor wrestlers, that just ruins the show for them
as far as you know, and we had to hit
all the same beats. But yeah, I can't imagine also
(17:26):
just you know, not only the chaos of the audience,
but also not knowing who was in charge because we
had our director, poor Jeff McCracken. You're producing your side
of the show. You have the wrestlers who are used to,
as far as I understand it, you know, doing the
show themselves like they're the ones in charge and they
can kind of roll with However, things are going. So
(17:47):
I feel like all of us were sort of looking
at one another being like, who's in charge? What's happening here?
And I still don't know to this day.
Speaker 6 (17:54):
Yeah, I would like to know. Do we have Mark
Blutman to blame for this? To blame Mark?
Speaker 3 (18:00):
Yeah, he's easy to blame Mark.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
Yeah, it's easy to blame Mark and probably the right
thing to do most of the time, right, just blame Mark.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
He's not here.
Speaker 4 (18:08):
So yeah, I think that's a standard for everything, whatever
happens in your life, if the something goes awry, I
like that.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
I have a question when it comes to so creating
the stories. In the world of wrestling, something happens in
the ring, it becomes canon, right, I mean, it's this
is something that is part of the wrestling world. So
when a live audience sees Vader come out and now
he has a son, is.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
That now part of the wrestling world? Is Vader?
Speaker 1 (18:39):
Is is Ethan's character now officially Vader's son in the
world of wrestling?
Speaker 4 (18:45):
No, And I think that I think that you got
you know, I think you underestimate the popularity of the
show Boy Meets World because I think that that show
in and of itself will so strong, especially at the
time that people understood. People knew who you guys were,
(19:07):
and they knew, okay, they had seen and I think
Leon had done one or two, so they knew that
Leon was playing a party, gotcha, and it was you know,
it was cool to have him a part of our
world while he was a part of the Boy Meets
World world. But they knew that he was playing a
(19:28):
part at that point. And again, Boy Meets World was,
you know, very popular at the time to the point
that there didn't need to be a whole lot of explanation.
They knew.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (19:41):
That helped, you know, it definitely helps in the audience's
familiar it's like, oh my god, oh my god.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
There's pang.
Speaker 6 (19:50):
Well, we may be underestimating how popular Boy Meets World
was at the time, but we are definitely not underestimating
how much the fans actually wanted to keep Hill writer.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
And then we were on the wrong side.
Speaker 6 (20:05):
Which was I you know, looking back, when you're not
I wasn't there for that part of it. For me,
it's so fun to think about that, Like, you know,
they were with a heel and so they were as
part of the audience, the audience. That's my favorite aspect
of wrestling is how into it. You know, the the
audience is truly a character, a part of the show,
(20:27):
and they're so into it. So because they were with
a heel, they were hated the same way the heel
is hated.
Speaker 5 (20:34):
And the writer can explain, we had no clue.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
No, well, we had no clue because I knew nothing
about wrestling except what Leon had told me, you know,
he had he had sort of informed me about like
what the storytelling was and the skill it took to
be a wrestler, and so I had this like vague
but for some reason, nobody told us that he was
a heel, and.
Speaker 5 (20:54):
Like people would be screaming at you, and.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
Though, of course, well it makes perfect sense when you
think about his mask and a whole lot. Oh, I
had no idea. So when we showed up, and you know,
I remember Ethan Supple particularly got very upset because people
were yelling at us. People were like, go home, Cory,
go home, shown you suck. And I remember him just
like getting pissed and like, you know, we're like trying
(21:21):
to stay in character.
Speaker 6 (21:22):
Uh yeah, Ethan said, he actually fought back just out
of instinct that people who were coming at him his
natural instinct was to like really go at him.
Speaker 5 (21:31):
And then he's like, wait, what am I doing?
Speaker 3 (21:33):
Need this part of the show.
Speaker 5 (21:34):
This is the part of the show. I need your
show exactly.
Speaker 4 (21:39):
Yes, that's the best.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
Now, the match itself that night between Vader and Jake
the Snake, This this is a match that actually mattered, right,
wasn't It wasn't one of them the winner going to
go on to the championship.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
Yeah, that's so cool.
Speaker 5 (21:55):
It's so cool.
Speaker 6 (21:56):
And correct me also if I'm wrong, because some of
this is just a little confusing for our for our
brains to wrap around. But the stuff that we were shooting,
the stuff with Ethan there and the guys in the ring,
didn't actually air on the WWF side. It was right,
So like when Will asked the question about now does
Vader have a son? The stuff we were shooting wasn't
(22:18):
airing for the televised WWF crowd.
Speaker 5 (22:23):
It was just the live audience who was seeing.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
Well, but no, the actual but the why of the
ring we had to have shown.
Speaker 5 (22:30):
Up in the ring, right, I don't think you didn't.
Speaker 4 (22:33):
We didn't use any of that for any of our time? Right?
Speaker 3 (22:37):
What about the entrance?
Speaker 1 (22:38):
Was the entrance when because there he's flanked by Frankie
and Corey and Sean.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
Was the entrance aired for w W E or no? No?
Speaker 7 (22:46):
Now?
Speaker 4 (22:46):
That was then for Boy Meets World? Interesting?
Speaker 5 (22:49):
That's so cool.
Speaker 4 (22:50):
Audience never got to see it.
Speaker 3 (22:51):
What a production.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
There's two massive shows, one of them live in front
of ten thousand people going on at the same time.
Speaker 3 (22:59):
Yep, crazy.
Speaker 4 (23:00):
Okay, let me ask you guys question. Yeah, okay, whoever
got really close to Leon when he was sweaty? Oh?
Speaker 2 (23:09):
Me Will all the time, and Will got picked up
by him.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
He would pick me up.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
So I was the guy that he would always pick
up and bench press over his head and then throw
me on his shoulder.
Speaker 3 (23:18):
It became like our thing. So yes, there was. He
would baby oil himself up and then get all sweaty.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
The smell of gold bond powder.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
Yeah and uh and use his rubber bands to get
his shoulders working, and then he would grab me.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
So yeah, it was.
Speaker 6 (23:33):
Is that the only smell you remember is the smell
of gold bond powder and baby oil and baby ol?
Speaker 5 (23:38):
Okay?
Speaker 1 (23:38):
Yeah, what a guy though, What a guy? When he
told his stories about coming up and what it took
to become a professional wrestler in some of the places
that he started wrestling in and some of the small
kind of pits and dens that he started in. And
he told us one story about getting stabbed and another
one about putting his eye back in himself. I mean,
it was telling the stories of what it took to
(23:59):
get to that level of w w F at the time.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
But w w E is they're amazing.
Speaker 4 (24:04):
And Leon Leon was a tremendous athlete. He truly was.
He was a big man, great athlete, played football at
Colorado and he you know, he had an r about him.
Great athlete, absolutely incredible athlete. We used to call it
(24:24):
if he would like grab you or he would pat
you and oh hey thanks, you just got Vader, he said,
is all you can smell for the rest of the day.
And it was like you would take you take your
jacket off.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
And it was like you swear, I can't get rid
of it.
Speaker 4 (24:41):
Einfeld episode where the stinky Valet stinky car couldn't get
rid of it. It was absolutely damnar impossible, and it's
Vader had a lot of a lot of funny, funny
stories about him from the standpoint the links that he
(25:02):
would go through to get out of something. So if
he didn't want to go to Canada, he had a
what they call a minister's permit to get him into Canada.
Because of some issues he had had in the past,
it was difficult to travel internationally and Leon didn't particularly
want to Canada. It was his minister's permit had lapsed,
(25:27):
but there was another one in the works. It was
all in the computer. All they had to do was
look it up. And Leon flies to Canada, goes to
the customs agent and says, you can't let me in
my see my bussor's permit has expired. I need to
go home. And he goes, oh, no, I recognize you.
You're okay, Yeah, you're right. No no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
(25:50):
it's expired. See look it's aspired. Goes yeah, but they
put the paperwork in. It's in our computer. You're okay
to go, goes.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
No.
Speaker 4 (25:56):
You don't understand. I can't. I have to go back
to the States. Right, No, because he just.
Speaker 2 (26:01):
Wanted to go home, he didn't want the job.
Speaker 3 (26:05):
He flies all the way there just to country away,
right right.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
He fulfilled his duty.
Speaker 5 (26:15):
As somebody who likes being home even more than Will.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
Yeah, really I would, because I never would have gotten
on the flight to Cannon in the first place.
Speaker 3 (26:22):
I would have found an excuse on the way to
the airport.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
You just would have gotten sick.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
Yeah, to do that.
Speaker 6 (26:40):
So, Bruce, did you watch your episode of Boy Meets
World when it aired? And was there any pride for
you and being on a network show? Did anyone at
the WWF care?
Speaker 4 (26:52):
Yes? I mean I got to tell you, you know,
for me, it was a thrill. That was a pretty
cool production to be a part of. First of all,
I was honored to even be asked, and yes, it's
Bloodlin's fault. But as we got into it and started
talking about people, I was suggesting other people to play
(27:14):
the role that I did, and He's like, hey, he goes,
could you do it? Nobody's gonna know who I am
because no, no, no, no, no, go brother, love do it?
I said, oh, well, you know, I don't know, and
I didn't think it fit, but personally, very selfishly glad
it did. Of course I watched it. Yeah, absolutely, you know,
(27:37):
I loved it. That was a big thrill. And when
my kids got old enough because I didn't have kids.
My kids are twenty five now, but when they got
old enough, I used to, you know, show them the table.
See that was another TV too real TV.
Speaker 5 (27:54):
Well, do people still mention it to you now?
Speaker 6 (27:56):
Like the WWE Superstars now are kind of like the
perfect Boy Meets World age?
Speaker 5 (28:01):
So do people still mention it to you?
Speaker 4 (28:04):
Yes? And especially whenever, you know, whenever it's on the cycle,
the syndication and the show hits, I always get, you know,
those tweets or what have you and messages or hell
my god, I didn't know you were on Boy Meets World,
so you know, yeah, it was And for me, I think,
(28:24):
you know, Boy Meets World along was saved by the bell.
We're kind of like my guilty pleasures of just when
you need It's going to sound terrible, but I mean
in the best way. When you need mindless entertainment and
you just want to chuckle yep, and you want it, man,
entertain me. Don't don't give me something serious here. I
(28:46):
think everybody could relate to Boy Meets World. You know,
it was something that is relatable, right a passage growing
up as a kid. Everybody went through that.
Speaker 5 (28:57):
How did you find yourself in the wrestling business.
Speaker 4 (29:00):
It's all I've done since I was ten years old.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
Wow, just like like I know, it's a magical age
to find who you want to be ten for some reason.
Speaker 4 (29:11):
Yeah, and you just continue every time, you know, I had,
I had dreams as a kid what I wanted to
do and where I wanted to be. I was very
fortunate that by the time I was twenty five years old,
I had reached ninety nine percent of my goals. Wow,
but oh wow, what do I do now? I figured
(29:33):
it out? You've gream bigger and more so. It was
it's a passion for me. I love what I do.
I love the business, I love the company, and it's
it's just something where you can I haven't had I
haven't had to go to work a lot of time.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
So what ignited the passion? You were ten years old
and it was watching a wrestling match on television or
was it going to a match.
Speaker 4 (30:03):
It was in Paso, Texas, and I saw the Funk
Story and Terry Funk wrestling on TV in a black
and white TV that was in our kitchen. The Funks,
who were the good guys, they were like, you know,
the hometown they were brothers and their dad was a wrestler.
By God, this was a family from Texas, by God,
(30:24):
from a barber, Texas, and they were they were wrestling
the von Bromner's Evil Germans, and one of the Von
Bromers had a pair of scissors and was cutting off
Terry Funk's ear and Terry was bleeding and I was crying,
and I was begging my mom, by God, we've got
to help him. We've got to figure out some way
(30:46):
to help him. And my Mom's like, be quiet and
meet your dinner. This was this was done a long
time ago. Wow. I was like, what you know when
you're when you're four years old, you don't know about videotape.
You don't well, I don't know they had videotape, but
you don't know about pre recording something. And my brother
(31:09):
and I just always wanted to be wrestlers. He always
wanted to be a business and he started taking pictures.
I started selling posters. Was my first job. And it
was crazy.
Speaker 3 (31:23):
Who was your favorite wrestler growing up? Were you a
Jerry Lawler fan? Or who did you love?
Speaker 4 (31:27):
Oh god, no, My favorites growing up were the funks
because that was my first exposure to the business. They
were presented to me as the end all be all.
Funk became world champion when I was very young. Terry
(31:48):
soon after that. It was those were my childhood heroes,
and I eventually got to the point where I met them,
worked with them, and became friends with them. So that
was kind of kind of crazy.
Speaker 6 (32:03):
And how was the brother Love character born for WWF
at the time? Did you always feel comfortable as a heel?
Speaker 4 (32:10):
Oh? God, yes, look I mean in school I was
a heel. I always felt I just wanted to get
a reaction, whether it was from teachers or other students,
whatever it is. So yes, I loved being a heel.
I loved being booed. I love people hating me. Brother
(32:32):
Love is a product of the South. As a kid
growing up on Sundays your only TV before noon ision,
and so as I grew up, and for example, in Tulsa, Oklahoma,
(32:53):
we did TV. We would record television on Sunday night.
Then we would record what we call our local lies
promos on Monday morning. So we stayed in this little
town called Bixby, Oklahoma. On Sunday night, you know what
is on TV and Bixby, Oklahoma. On Sunday Night. You
had Oral Roberts, you have Robert Tilton, you had Jim Baker,
(33:14):
and you had Jimmy Swagger. And they were mesmerizing to
me right in the fact that they could. Robert Tilton
had a spill. His television show was called Success in Life,
and he would explain to you, why if you have
faith in him, and you have faith in your saviors
(33:36):
of the Lord Jesus Christ, then send me what you have.
If you only have a dollar, we'll send me fifty cents.
I'm gona tell you what's gonna happen. The Good Order
is going to reward you with three dollars you're gonna
send me to you're back even then. You know what
you're gonna do from there, and you're gonna make all
this money and you're gonna send seventy percent of it
(33:58):
to him every time you make it. That's what they
call success in life. And I'm listening to this, going,
oh my god, this is great because I know there
are people sending him money.
Speaker 6 (34:08):
Right yeah, and they're going, yes, if I just just
keep making money to stay even.
Speaker 3 (34:15):
Winning, if I can just break even, I am winning
and that was.
Speaker 4 (34:19):
Success in life, and I thought that was genius. So
that was like the most beautiful, simplest, pure message, and
it was all BS and it was beautifully done, so
believable that I knew that if I could convince people
the same way and get people to hate me as
much as I hated them.
Speaker 3 (34:37):
Then I would have won.
Speaker 4 (34:42):
The brutes in the South. I love to watch the televangelists,
the old time evangelists come to town. And no kidding,
we had a tent Baptist church right by my house
and I used to I was one of those kids
that would get on my belly and go underneath the
tent to watch the the revivals, just for an entertainment.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
Right, Yeah, Well that's so interesting too that you took
this charisma right, this presentation, and rather than saying, maybe
I want to be a preacher, maybe that's something I
can do, you said, how can I how can I
you know, sort of make a show out of this,
How can I make a character out of it? That's
really brilliant, that's really cool.
Speaker 4 (35:22):
Exactly, And I remember, you know, all they asked about
Brother Love and I remember an interview Brother Love was
timing and it was freak timing because I debuted in
eighty eight, three weeks after I debuted the Jim and
Tammy Baker scandal.
Speaker 2 (35:44):
I have said, Han, it hits, So your story just
resonated perfectly.
Speaker 4 (35:52):
They all thought that I did it because of that response.
It was just luck timing, oh man, luck timing. And
Tammy fay Baker did an interview with Mareno Boyle from
a current affair and she was wearing makeup and Reno
Boile says, tell me, Tammy, you talk about being really
(36:15):
what's with all the makeup? And Tammy fay Bake with
the straight faces. I don't wear makeup.
Speaker 2 (36:23):
And straight.
Speaker 4 (36:26):
Lived it.
Speaker 8 (36:27):
So when I did Brother Love, I did a testing
in the studio with all everything in the look and
as as a rib they put red makeup on my
face and I was wearing a white suit and the
white came out. I've got makeup everywhere, and I thought,
this is the greatest thing ever. From this vantage point,
I'm telling everyone I'm as real as it gets. What
(36:50):
I'm phony is you see it ten miles away, and
I use that Tammy Faye, you deny in the face
of reality. I was in a nappy convention the National
Association Television Programming Executives and I'm brother in love and
I kid you not. Maureene O'Boyle from a Current Affair
(37:13):
interviewed me and she looked at me and she says, so,
what's with the makeup?
Speaker 4 (37:21):
And I'm thinking, okay.
Speaker 5 (37:24):
Is this really happening?
Speaker 4 (37:28):
Just what I answered her with?
Speaker 5 (37:30):
What I don't wear?
Speaker 4 (37:32):
Manow I don't wear makeup. It's just what's all over
your face? I said, love?
Speaker 3 (37:42):
Did she get it? I hope she got it?
Speaker 4 (37:45):
You know what. I tried to talk to her afterwards
and she just really had no time, but I got it.
It was funny to me.
Speaker 2 (37:56):
So I want to pull if you're willing, I want
to pull back the curtain little bit. So do you
have in these situations you're you're in character, You've created
a character, but you don't have a script. Right, it's
not like you're writing anything or anybody else is writing
this for you. You have to improvise in character. Do
you have a director, do you have a producer that's
(38:18):
helping you or how does that work?
Speaker 4 (38:20):
That's me, just you, that's me.
Speaker 2 (38:23):
So you would walk into situations where some people would
be themselves interviewers or whatever, and you would be in character.
Would you stay in character when the cameras were off.
Speaker 4 (38:34):
Amazing, Yes, my philosophy, and I don't I wouldn't say
I would ever go to the extent of a Jim
Carrey being Andy Kaufman. But if you are in the
character and you stay in the character, there's especially one
as extreme as that. If you go in and out,
(38:57):
people get lost and it's like, who am I talking
right now? Talking brother love God, it's just referred to
myself and third person.
Speaker 6 (39:06):
Danielle does it sometimes too, Yeah, you said and brother
love you kind of double third person, which is very impressive.
Speaker 4 (39:15):
But if you're but if you're in character, you stay
in character, and you you that's who they'refore therefore, so
I would I would pretty much stay in character and
walk in his brother love, walk out his brother loves.
Speaker 5 (39:30):
But you to give you your flowers a little bit.
Speaker 6 (39:33):
You're a little bit unique in that in that not all,
not all wrestlers have that ability to be self directed,
self produced, self written. There are other writers and producers
who work with other wrestlers. Absolutely, you currently like, produce,
direct and write for lots of people. But that's because
(39:55):
that's your skill and your talent. So you were doing
that for you as Brother Love. But that's not necessarily
the truth for every wrestler.
Speaker 4 (40:03):
That's that's true. We have an entire staff of folks
that help with that. I think at the time I
was still doing that for other talent, and I guess
it was easier for me because I was working with
other talent. So I was producing and directing them while
I was working with them. So, as Brother Love, I
(40:24):
would get them to where they needed to go. I
would get them to the point of here's what you're
going to say, and I would lead them there and
I would take them on that ride. So was producing
and directing literally on the spot five as we go.
Speaker 1 (40:40):
Who was your favorite wrestler to work with in that capacity?
Speaker 4 (40:45):
Wow? You know in the time, you know, Hulk Hogan
was magic.
Speaker 1 (40:53):
Really August eleventh, Brother, Hulk Cogan, August eleventh, Brother, thank
you very much.
Speaker 2 (40:57):
Important fact.
Speaker 4 (40:57):
Yes, it is, It's crazy. It was. That was where
I felt just you would have goosebumps all over your
entire body. And he was.
Speaker 2 (41:10):
Just because of his acting ability, his performance.
Speaker 4 (41:13):
The charisma, the feeling from the audience. The audience was
so into his presence that you felt this holy cow man,
it's they wanted him to kill me. Yeah, and that's
that's great. I mean, there were so many Undertaker absolutely
(41:35):
love working with the Undertaker because it was easy. You
didn't have to I didn't have to think about things.
And then there were guys that, you know, rest their souls,
Dino Bravo, Ron Bass, they couldn't put two sentences together
that I would just have to do it for them,
say in that right, you know?
Speaker 3 (41:59):
For yeah, did you notice that?
Speaker 1 (42:01):
So some people talk about the shift that was noticed
in wrestling pre Hulkgan and post Hulkgan, where he kind
of changed the game. Did that Have there been other
wrestlers that you've noticed that with where when they come
in it's kind of everything seems different after they're there.
Speaker 4 (42:18):
Yeah, I think that. You know, the Stone Cold, Steve
Austin and Rock during the Attitude era had a definite
shift in the way people viewed the business and what
they accepted what they didn't. After that, you had the
John Cena era, where John was a little more wholesome
(42:39):
and different than those that came before him. I think
right now we're in a shift with Cody Rhodes and
the talent that we have now that the business is cyclical,
some people would argue that after fifty years in it.
I go, you know what, it's been cyclical in the
last six years of my life. So it I think
(43:02):
the the audience kind of changes, and I think those
that were fans years and years ago may now have
grandkids that they want to bring and show them, and
that's their excuse for doing it. I want to take
my grandkids, which is cool because it's family. Mm hmmm.
Speaker 6 (43:19):
Since Brother Love was such method character work, did you
ever want to act outside of wrestling.
Speaker 4 (43:26):
I don't think I could do that.
Speaker 3 (43:28):
I think it's too I bet you could, Oh, I
bet you could.
Speaker 2 (43:30):
I'm sure you could.
Speaker 3 (43:31):
I bet you could.
Speaker 5 (43:32):
Absolutely.
Speaker 4 (43:35):
I have the utmost respect for anybody that can learn,
that can learn lines, learn marks. I don't know if
I could do it because, and I say it because
I've been so used to add living. I've been so
used to If this doesn't work in this moment, I'm
going over here. And I am the utmost respect for that,
(43:59):
because that's hard. I've tried it. I've tried to just
little things like commercials in Februy you got to hit
this mark. You gotta do it like this, can we
do it? You know on the nineteenth take, it's like
you know where you can go?
Speaker 2 (44:12):
Yeah, But you know, man, that's craft. That's that you
can learn. I feel like having the story, character instincts
and and the ability to sort of read the room
or read the beats and shift that is acting.
Speaker 3 (44:25):
That is the truth.
Speaker 2 (44:26):
That's the talent, learning all the lines and stuff. If
you figure that out, I would I would argue you
already have everything it takes. You just have to do
it more if you just got into it. You know,
it is tedious, it's not. That's the not fun part,
the learning the lines, the hitting the marks. But that's
the part that that doesn't require your own you know, animation,
(44:48):
your own sort of like spirit with you when you
bring Yeah, that's a technical site of craft. I think
I think you've already got in spades what you know
what real acting requires.
Speaker 4 (44:58):
Well, I would argue that I just reac act actor
and then an actor.
Speaker 2 (45:07):
That's the same thing.
Speaker 6 (45:08):
Yeah, So your son is named kin after the wrestler.
Speaker 5 (45:13):
Did he ever want to enter the business.
Speaker 4 (45:16):
He had a fleeting moment where he went booker t
has a school outside of Houston where we lived, and
Kine went and trained with him for a little bit.
But I think his dream at that point in his
life when he was still young, was still football and
he wanted to play football really bad. And then COVID
hit and so on and so forth, and uh, you know,
(45:39):
you have to adjust, But yes he did and didn't
discourage it. But I also didn't encourage it, right, Yeah.
So actually, see Undertaker was Kane before Kine was Kane,
and then Kane just was there's a good story. And
then I was having twins, boy and a girl, and
(46:01):
my wife got okay. She told me I can name
my daughter and she would name my son. The only
rule was that I couldn't name my daughter after a
stripper and he couldn't be a stripper name. And so
I went with Amber Nicole and I had heard that
one before. And one of the like the second names
(46:21):
she had on her list was Cain, and she didn't
know the story of Cain and Kane. And I'm like, okay,
this works, and I kid you not. After my daughter
was born, I went into a gentleman's establishment and then
got a beer and it was like all right, emburd
Sage Shoe Emberd is second stage and I'm like, I'm
(46:45):
out of here, gotta go.
Speaker 3 (46:48):
Even on the main stage.
Speaker 4 (46:50):
Yeah, amber Sage too, all right, how much you appreciate her?
Come on down? Only costs a dollar terrible in the world.
I'm sorry, I says, I'm on gentlemen's clubs. The last
time that I went into a gentleman's club was six
years ago, and I had not been in one in
(47:13):
for like so many years. It's just you grow up
and it's just not not your bag. And I went
in a bunch of guys with me and I got
a drink and there was a tag on their ankle
and I said, what is that. Oh that's their id,
because at nineteen they can still get naked, but they
(47:33):
can't drink.
Speaker 9 (47:34):
I'm out. And I'm like, well, I'm out. I can't
do this. I don't know you. It just kids changes
you for them.
Speaker 5 (47:46):
Oh, yes, absolutely, Oh yes they do. That's a hundred percent.
Right now.
Speaker 6 (47:50):
We talk a lot about the nineties here. Who would
you say is the most underrated wrestler of the nineties.
Speaker 4 (48:00):
Wow, I would Oh boy, it's funny because we were
talking about this just the other day. And I don't
know that he was underrated, but I think he was underappreciated.
And that is Kane from this standpoint. He was the
guy that was always there. You could put him in
(48:21):
any situation and he would deliver. But he wasn't always
in that top spot, but he could have been. If
one guy got hurt, you plugged Caine in, and he
was that utility guy that could do everything and do
it well. So he's one of those guys that I
think people took for granted.
Speaker 6 (48:43):
Okay, Now, if we had to bet on someone now,
someone young and emerging in the WWE, to become the
next household name, where do you suggest we put our money.
Speaker 4 (48:56):
Well, I mean, obviously I've got to go with Cody
Rhoades right now, who is just absolutely red hot. When
you look down, uh down that pipeline and you look
to the future ten years from now, I look at
guys like Ron Breaker and Trick Williams that are going
to be those stars that are going to be the
(49:20):
ones that everyone is talking about, and it's built around that. Really,
have you know they've got they've got that?
Speaker 1 (49:27):
It would you put Danielle Fischel as a heel or
as a hero in the record heel.
Speaker 3 (49:37):
Okay, okay, all the way.
Speaker 5 (49:39):
Yes, oh man, you're right.
Speaker 6 (49:42):
I have Everyone would assume I'm going to be a babyface,
so you gotta send me in as a heel.
Speaker 4 (49:46):
No, you would be a heartbreaking heel.
Speaker 5 (49:50):
I love it.
Speaker 4 (49:51):
I love it.
Speaker 6 (49:53):
I do have a real it's kind of a secret goal,
but at some point in my life I want to
be put through a table.
Speaker 3 (50:01):
I can make that happen.
Speaker 2 (50:02):
That's not that hard.
Speaker 3 (50:03):
All you have to do is ask one of us,
daniell I mean in a wrestling race.
Speaker 2 (50:09):
Just turned to us and we'll do it.
Speaker 3 (50:11):
I would have thrown it through a table years ago.
Speaker 2 (50:13):
Danielle.
Speaker 5 (50:14):
Serious, that's so sweet of you.
Speaker 4 (50:17):
Like, what do you doing tonight? Hey?
Speaker 6 (50:22):
You know, with your storied history in business, what storyline
or character would you say you're most proud of?
Speaker 4 (50:35):
I think the most fun because it was Eddie Guerrero
was great, great talent, Ray Mysterio equally great talent, and
we did a storyline where Eddie Guerrero claimed that Ray
Mysterios Sun was his. And how how we got there
(50:59):
was I read Eddie's biography and Eddie had put a
book out and in the book, Eddie talks about the
time that he was separated from his wife and had
a child out of wedlock. That was all he said,
And the timeline kind of matched up, but didn't all
the way match up, but it was close enough. And
(51:22):
maybe somebody posed the question to them, Hey, what if
what if that child or Dominica mysterio? What if there
was a time in Eddie's life and time in Angie's life.
Maybe one night something happened never told Ray and it
(51:45):
was it was touchy because again, you're dealing with real
people in real lives. Right. Eddie was just getting back
with his wife Vicki at the time and happy they
had children of their own school age. Ray and Angie
had two children, and that's real life. You can't. We
(52:08):
can write all the stories in our world that we
want to, but people still believe it. And when it's
the real person and it makes sense, and you can go.
Speaker 9 (52:19):
Well, I bet that Andy Greer one not just had
his what and and it.
Speaker 4 (52:24):
All We did some horribly great things with that where
Andy I wanted to put dominic on a pole and
the winner, whoever could climb the pole and get Dominick
could get.
Speaker 2 (52:39):
Yeah, claim fraternity.
Speaker 5 (52:42):
I mean, that's a storyline that's still prevalent.
Speaker 6 (52:44):
Don that child, the child they're talking about Don Mysterio
is a wrestler now, a big wrestler, So that's a
storyline that's gone decades.
Speaker 4 (52:52):
And hates his dad Ray because he because uncle Eddie.
He was really maybe Daddy Eddie and oh man, and
every time Dom says something stupid, I just say, Eddie
would be so so sad. Wow, that was you know,
I look at the because it's based in reality. People
(53:13):
couldn't poke holes in it, right, because there was just
enough information out there that you could say this could happen. Yeah,
But at the same time, you're going, do you all.
Speaker 6 (53:25):
The great makings of a perfect conspiracy theory?
Speaker 4 (53:28):
Yes? Yeah, and anything that is based that is based
in the.
Speaker 5 (53:34):
Kernel of truth.
Speaker 4 (53:35):
Yeah. Yeah. That was a fun one. That was That
was great and the Undertaker and Kine just coming up
with that story because that was ongoing as well. That
it just kept getting more and more bizarre. And characters
are so bizarre they let themselves to You can do
(53:56):
anything with this. That was good.
Speaker 2 (54:09):
If you're willing. I'd love to hear an example of
the flip side a time when something didn't work where
you did, you had you were sure something was perfect,
and either the audience didn't react or the wrestlers themselves
didn't like the story and you couldn't go there.
Speaker 4 (54:24):
God, we don't have enough time.
Speaker 2 (54:26):
Is that what you're doing all the time, you're pitching
ideas and getting shot down? Or at the time, yeah.
Speaker 4 (54:32):
The time, I mean we had and sometimes life just
it just happens. We did a scenario one time where
we had a bunch of guys go down dressed all
in black and be undertaken with the club and carry
them out over their heads. The day before it was
(54:53):
to air, guys, they bombed the subway in London and
people were dressed exactly like now. We had pre peaked
ours the week before, so we knew nothing. You know,
obviously couldn't tell the future.
Speaker 7 (55:10):
It's tape upn already had the tape and we're like,
you can't air this, you cannot air this, and.
Speaker 4 (55:22):
And that was that was not good. But a lot
of oh yeah, well Friar Ferguson. We had a guy
dressed up as like a monk, as a friar, and yeah,
the audience will tell you quickly right away.
Speaker 1 (55:36):
So I remember hearing something about wasn't there a guy
that was originally going to be pushed just called puke
who could make himself throw up kind of like on command.
Speaker 4 (55:46):
Darren Rosov, great guy. He played for the Denver Broncos
and was famous for he was a nose tackle and
his nerves would get to him and he lined up
on the ball and puked over the ball for the snap.
That's disgusting. Yeah, and he came he was trained to
be a wrestler, and that was his claim to fame,
(56:08):
that he could puke on command.
Speaker 2 (56:10):
Oh god.
Speaker 4 (56:12):
So in a documentary interview, Vince tried to get him
too puke and he couldn't do it. And I tried
to get him to the same thing. I tried to
get him to do it one time. Did you guys
have a football, Yeah, that's what you need. But he
I gotta have some water, I got to do this
and all that stuff. But yes, we sure did. The
problem was getting him to do.
Speaker 5 (56:32):
It on que couldn't do it.
Speaker 4 (56:34):
Oh wow, Yeah it happened. That's funny.
Speaker 6 (56:37):
Well, Bruce, we know how unbelievably busy you are, and
we are so appreciative that you joined us, and I
just would like to remind everybody Bruce's podcast is something
to wrestle with Bruce Pritchard, tons of great behind the
scenes wrestling stories from one of the most creative minds
molding it. So thank you so much for being a
part of the Boy Meets World journey and we're just
(56:59):
so happy you made the time to stop by.
Speaker 4 (57:01):
Thank you for having me. I know less or hard
whoever had just continually Uh that was.
Speaker 6 (57:09):
My husband, my husband Jensen, who who worked me two
thousand and five.
Speaker 4 (57:13):
I know, and I felt so bad because like during
the time it's going into WrestleMania at a point where
I'm looking through things and it's like, don't need answer now, next, next, next, next,
and I don't. I don't always get back and then.
But I knew it was coming this week. I am
(57:34):
extremely guys, really thankful, and I appreciate you asking me
because it to this day, it's one of those shows
that if it's on I just stop and watch it
because again it gives me good mindless entertainment that I
can laugh and I go, hey, I know them. So
it was a lot of fun and I really appreciate
(57:56):
the ask and I wish you guys the absolute best
and Marks Tall.
Speaker 1 (58:02):
It is Marks fault and anytime, it would just anytime
you'd like to bring Danielle down and put her through
a table rider, and I are with that, and we
will be there front and center.
Speaker 4 (58:12):
Jensen, get the table.
Speaker 10 (58:17):
Thank you man. Those are some stories.
Speaker 1 (58:26):
That's a guy where you go to dinner or something
and you just keep your mouth shut and he'll keep
you entertained all night long with story.
Speaker 2 (58:34):
His entire life has been entertainment, such good entertainment, so fascinating. God,
do you guys know what your wrestling characters would be.
Speaker 6 (58:43):
I'd have to be We've already decided that I would
be a heel. I think i'd be a manager. I'd
be a heel manager, so I'd manage a wrestler and
I'd just be a terrible person.
Speaker 3 (58:56):
I think I'd a guy.
Speaker 2 (58:57):
You'd have to you'd have to be super Phil Freedol. Yeah,
it'd be like the like the superhero, maybe a little
past his prime.
Speaker 1 (59:06):
Yeah, And I think it will be like, yeah, come on, guys,
we don't need to We don't need to wrestle yourself.
Speaker 2 (59:12):
Do we have to leave home to wrestle I assume.
Speaker 3 (59:19):
You writer would just be called the poet. Oh yeah,
that's your character.
Speaker 2 (59:24):
I'd just be this emo, hipster, pretentious. I would just
get into the ring and cry on people. I just
cry on small match bourbon. Yes, emotional deflection, don't you understand.
And I'd bring up my own like coffee roasting. I'd
like make my own like I'd be a barista, yeah, mixologist.
Speaker 4 (59:46):
How do we not.
Speaker 3 (59:47):
Start this right away, this wrestling program.
Speaker 6 (59:50):
Yeah, his finishing move is the smelt.
Speaker 2 (59:53):
I love it or no, I just I just make
you us out reading poetry.
Speaker 5 (01:00:02):
Bor us to death.
Speaker 2 (01:00:03):
And now William Wordsworth, let's go.
Speaker 3 (01:00:09):
I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (01:00:10):
Another great name for you would be the wordsmith. That's
another word, great wrestling name, the word smith.
Speaker 2 (01:00:16):
Yeah, the emo wordsmith.
Speaker 6 (01:00:19):
Well, thank you all for joining us for this episode
of Pod Meets World. As always, you can follow us
on Instagram pod meets World Show. You can send us
your emails pod meets World show at gmail dot com.
And we have merch.
Speaker 5 (01:00:31):
Get some merch, brother who I love it?
Speaker 6 (01:00:35):
Pod meets Worldshow dot com writer, send us out.
Speaker 2 (01:00:39):
We love you all. Pod dismissed. Pod Meets World is
an iHeart podcast producer hosted by Danielle Fischel Wilfridell and
writer Strong Executive producers Jensen Karp and Amy Sugarman, Executive
in charge of production, Danielle Romo, producer and editor, Tarasubasch, producer,
Maddie Moore, engineer and Boy Meets World Superman Easton Allen.
Our theme song is by Kyle Morton of Typhoon. Follow
(01:01:01):
us on Instagram at Podmets World Show or email us
at podmetsworldshowat gmail dot com.
Speaker 1 (01:01:10):
M
So it has been detaiale of two technologies for me
the last few days. As our dear listeners can see
if they use this clip or here, I sound a
little different because I am at Danielle's house this morning
because my internet has been out for three days. It
(00:41):
comes on, gives me just the inkling of technology, and
then leaves again. And no matter what they do, they
can't seem to fix it. They're rewiring everything. So here
I am. And yet this weekend I was in San
Francisco to see my stepdaughter and my son in law,
and I took my first ever way mo.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
No oh, automatic driving car?
Speaker 3 (01:06):
Is the auto driving cars? How was it?
Speaker 1 (01:09):
It's trippy, so it took like a It was like
a fifteen minute drive.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
This wasn't like down the block.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
And this car shows up with all these lights on
it doing all this stuff, and my stepdaughter, who hasn't
account her initials, flash on the top of the car
and then she uses her phone to unlock the car
and she's like, you sit in front. I want you
to experience this. It's like, great, I'll be the air bag.
So they put me in the front of the car.
Speaker 4 (01:36):
I have video of this.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
They put me in the front of the car.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
The car then sinks to her phone, so her playlist
of songs comes up. And then they welcome you, and
you have to snap your seatbelts and you press a
button and the wizard that is driving the car, because
I'm assuming that's what it is, takes over. And it
is the trippiest feeling in the world. You're driving through
(02:00):
the streets of San Francisco, you know, the big, hugely
elevated streets and the big and this again, evil wizard
next to you is the steering wheel is spinning.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
It's stopping for pedestrians. It is so strange.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Were you nervous the whole time?
Speaker 3 (02:17):
Like really the whole time?
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Like so they have done this all the time. They
haven an account. They they're like, oh, we don't use
uber anymore. This is all we use, so they're used
to it. But it was so trippy to be sitting
there and you're seeing people like crossing the street in
front of you, and and my son in law, who's
very tech savvy's all right, look at the screen.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
It's mapped out, it's it sees everything.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
So as you're driving up the street, all the cars
that are in the parking lots are registered on the
screen and pedestrians and it's point has arrows pointing like
there's a pedestrian here, there's a pedestrian in there, And
apparently it is in the next two or three months
coming to LA.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Yeah, they're doing a pilot program right now in LA.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
But no freeway, I guess, because that would be I
couldn't even imagine driving on the LA Freeway.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
And I mean, go, isn't that weird?
Speaker 2 (03:04):
I think I would feel safer on the freeway, you think,
like in the Yeah, the freeway is remember the movie
Minority Report. Yeah, where the cars are just kind of
like cruising and they like stop and you get in.
That makes sense to me because it's almost like I
can imagine it like a train, like just stay in
your lane and it'll eliminate traffic because cars will actually
keep the safe distance in the right distance. So there
would be way less traffic in LA. With automatic driving
(03:27):
on freeways. I get more scared by just yeah, the
dog that runs in front of you or coyote in LA,
which happens all the time, Like you know, I would
be so terrified of that. And yeah, if I was
in the front seat of a car moving under thirty
miles prior. I feel like I would just be constantly
second guessing it, looking around it. Well, that's what you're doing.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
And Lexo Lexi told us a story where she's like,
the third one she was ever in got hit by
a bus.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
Oh so while she was in driver Yes, she's in
this car. She's in the car.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Can you need a driverless bus? That's the problem. They
just putting human because it was their own thoughts and emotions.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
It was the bus's fault.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
So the bus turned and hit It wasn't bad, but
it like it hit into the thing.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
And then a voice comes on like, okay, you've been
in an accident. Are you okay? Do you know we're
sending somebody out.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
She's like minutes later a guy pulled up in a
car and was like, we're so sorry you were in
an accident and you don't have to stay here.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
We've called you another one. Another one shows up takes
her on her. But that was the thing. It's like
a robot.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
I mean, where's the insurance robot?
Speaker 5 (04:29):
Taking out back and being shot Yes, And.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
It's like, I'm We're gonna this robot.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
What do I do? She goes, if I'm in an accident,
I stay at the accident. That's what I do. She's like,
well do I stay?
Speaker 4 (04:39):
Do I do?
Speaker 1 (04:40):
I have to, you know, give witness information. And the
company just shows up like, no, God, we got it.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
Take care.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
They called her two or three times the next week,
like we're just checking to see that you're okay.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
And but I mean it was so yeah. She was
also in a Waimo accident.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
You know what I can't stand is like my wife
we got her a car maybe three or four years
ago and had all the automatic It had all the
automatic censoring without doing anything about or it would automatically
break for you. But then it would also just beep
it me constantly and like I had to turn everything off.
I was like, I'm it didn't bother my wife. She
was like, yeah, yeah, that's good to know. It helps
(05:14):
me park. I'm like, no, it stresses me out. I'm
sitting here trying to park and it's like, baby, I
know that's.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
The worst when you're driving and all of a sudden, God, yeah, I'd.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Rather it be fully automatic or nothing at all. You know,
I don't want to just like in between, but I
don't know about the fully automatic I still haven't experienced it.
Speaker 5 (05:34):
And I I want to do it.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
It was crazy. I'll show you the video the.
Speaker 6 (05:38):
Pilot program in LA can you Can you arrange for
rides or no?
Speaker 2 (05:42):
You had to have signed up for it ahead of time.
Speaker 4 (05:43):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Maybe you can join it now, but I think for
the next couple of months you just have to have
been like one of the beta testers or whatever that
that agreed to do it months ago.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
Can I ask who would name a company that drives
vehicles so close to whammos lamb was welcome.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
To smash Box. That was the other thing.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
When you when you watch the video, you see me
commenting because it was raining the night that we're in
our way mow and the wind show wipers are on,
and I'm.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Like, who is these?
Speaker 3 (06:14):
Who is this four?
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Right?
Speaker 3 (06:15):
There's nobody driving.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
You just put a scream. You can watch a movie.
You don't need to even look out.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
It's like, why are their wind show wipers?
Speaker 1 (06:23):
What? What is the point of this? It's like a
helmet when you're skydiving. It's you don't need it. So
very strange, But I thought you would enjoy the Tale
of two technologies.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
I can't.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
So are you are you?
Speaker 4 (06:35):
Are you?
Speaker 1 (06:35):
No?
Speaker 3 (06:35):
I do it again.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
You're sold, You're ready.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
I don't know if I'm sold, but it was. It's
a it's a.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
Unique kind of crazy experience. I'm glad I experienced it.
I would do it again again. It was a fishing
It showed up on time, it dropped us off, we
didn't hit a bus.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
It was all good.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
There's so many weird ramification, right. I mean, there's the
jobs factor, right, like people just losing jobs. Okay, that sucks.
But then yeah, just the automation and like getting used
to it.
Speaker 6 (07:02):
And I will also say that as a woman, there
is a nice feeling of knowing that I could be
in a car without another human being because there is
always a risk factor getting into a car with a stranger,
that there is a there is like a safety element
that would make me, you know, on the one hand, crash, Oh,
I may get into it. I make it into a
(07:23):
terrible accident because there's no human driving. On the other hand,
I don't have to worry about being assaulted.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
So life is a trade off.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
Exactly.
Speaker 5 (07:35):
Welcome to pod meets World. I'm Daniel Fishel.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
I'm righter, strong, and I'm Wilfredo. Guys, what the kids
want to jump? Again and again and again.
Speaker 5 (07:45):
Well, now that Will doesn't have COVID. He wants to jump.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
I want to I want to jump without that sneeze.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
That wouldn't go everywhere. Six months later, the tour is back.
Speaker 6 (07:56):
We have rescheduled Durham, North Carolina. We will be inside
you on June nineteenth, Atlanta we will be there on
June twentieth, and.
Speaker 5 (08:04):
New Orleans we will see you on the twenty first.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
Are we gonna be there by ourselves in Durham?
Speaker 5 (08:10):
We absolutely are not.
Speaker 6 (08:11):
We have the one and only Lee Norris Mincus hold
the plane for Mincus himself is going.
Speaker 5 (08:19):
To be joining us on the nineteenth, is.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Exiting the time warp wormhole that he entered and disappeared
from our show and appearing on our stage.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
I can't get Danielle saying Durham, We're going to be
inside of you on the night.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
I know it's not a awkward, right, Why should to
phrase it like that?
Speaker 6 (08:35):
If you haven't already, please buy your tickets. Podmeets World
Show dot Com.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
All the Dame script with her, Yeah right, we hope to.
Speaker 5 (08:43):
See you there inside you.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
Oh God, we hope to be inside of you. I
mean the town, your city.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Please just come, just come.
Speaker 6 (09:01):
When we watched the classic season four episode sixteen Candles
and four hundred Pound Men, we heard exactly how much
chaos went into throwing writer Ben and Ethan into a
real life WWF ring between Big Bad Vader and Jake
the Snake Roberts, and you have to wonder who actually
made that happen. Obviously we had a crew with us,
(09:24):
but it was bare bones on location, so we relied
heavily on the WWF team to one have it all
come together and two make sure our cast wasn't killed
by fans angry that their main event was being hijacked
by some TGIF weirdos. And the man to thank for
producing the segment on the wrestling side of things is
(09:45):
also the guy who not only introduced the wrestlers on
their way to the ring for the episode, but he
was also the announcer you heard throughout the match.
Speaker 5 (09:54):
And that man is Bruce.
Speaker 6 (09:56):
Pritchard aka Brother Love. In the eighties and nineties, he
was seen on WWF programming as a red faced, white
suit megachurch preacher who claimed he was in the Federation
to spread love, but in reality was a money hungry
con man or a heel, the term used for bad
guy in the industry. He hosted interview segments, worked as
(10:17):
a commentator, and even managed wrestlers, most notably as the
first mouthpiece for the Undertaker, but it was his behind
the scenes skills that would turn him into an icon
in the business. As a producer, he's been in and
out of but mostly in the WWE now as a
head honcho senior vice president executive director for the company's
two flagship shows, Raw and SmackDown, right in the middle
(10:41):
of one of the company's most successful periods. Ever, if
it happened in wrestling, he most likely had a hand
in it, and since twenty sixteen, he's also had his
own podcast, Something to Wrestle with Bruce Pritchard, where he
gives listeners the real scoop on some of sports entertainment's
biggest events and what's bigger than the night we all
ended up in his ring. I'm gonna guess nothing. So
(11:05):
now let's welcome one.
Speaker 5 (11:08):
Of our most requested guests by fans. It's the man.
Speaker 6 (11:11):
Who loves you, WWE s Bruce Pritchard.
Speaker 4 (11:17):
Hey, where's genius?
Speaker 5 (11:25):
Genius?
Speaker 4 (11:26):
Hey, we're finally here.
Speaker 6 (11:27):
You made it, and let me tell you, we are
so thankful that you are here with us.
Speaker 5 (11:33):
When we recently rewatched.
Speaker 6 (11:35):
The wrestling episode, we immediately realized there was someone on
the WWF at that time side of things who had
a very hard job that night, and we were able
to figure out that it was you. That night of
us being there could not have been fun for you.
You were pulling triple duty.
Speaker 4 (11:55):
Yeah, and dealing with dealing with my own set of
temperamental over here on this side exactly.
Speaker 6 (12:03):
That's actually the thing I want to know most is
like we heard from writer and from Ethan that it
was chaos for them, but we've never heard your side
of things.
Speaker 5 (12:13):
What was that night like for you?
Speaker 4 (12:16):
Well, we're, first of all, we're in Anaheim and we're
trying to present a live event for Anaheim, and it's
a live event. Is a different feel than when we
go out and we produce television, because when we produce television,
I think the talent are accustomed to a bit of
waiting around and having to do things two and three times.
(12:39):
We operate a lot differently than Hollywood does. Hollywood has
the luxury of you know, cut, Okay, let's get back
in their place and let's try it again. We don't
have that luxury in front of a live, paining audience
that wants to be entertained. And I think that that
was part of the frustration the event in and of it.
So he was a little bit longer that night because
(13:02):
we had to fit in the Jake, the Snake, Roberts
and Vader match. Yeah, and then what should have been
a ten minute match, I think we ended up going
almost thirty five to forty minutes. Oh no, Jesus, well, yeah,
Corey and he had them all down ringside. You're trying
to get this scene, this heartfelt scene of you know, dad,
(13:25):
do you love me? And I'm trying I'm sitting at
ringside in a white suit, face painted red. Right, Yeah,
so it was I'm trying to direct them there. I'm
trying to fund Jake down to say, hey man, it's okay,
(13:47):
you stay there and do your thing. Vader's doing his
say at here for Boy Meets World, and to make
it logical for the audience, you had to do certain
things to get Vader in that position. Didn't protect Jake
right then on on top of that talent backstage that were,
oh hey, Bruce, are you done Bruce in your movie?
Speaker 2 (14:13):
So Bruce, I was there. I was one of the actors.
I played Sean, So I was in the ring. I'm
curious because my memory is just you know, it's chaos
and misery. But how big was the audience? Because it
felt bigger than any crowd I have ever been in
front of. How big would the audience have been? Because
we're at the Mighty Ducks Arena, right is that where? Yeah?
(14:34):
So how big of an audience would that have been?
Speaker 4 (14:36):
You know that night we were probably in the nine
ten thousand range.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
Wow?
Speaker 4 (14:41):
So yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
See on Boy met we were used to performing in
front of about one hundred people. Two hundred people were
there to watch us make mistakes and do it five times?
So yeah, that was it was overwhelming.
Speaker 4 (14:54):
God. Yeah.
Speaker 6 (14:54):
We actually recently heard how annoyed Jake Roberts was the
whole experience. He said he basically had to repeat moves
and it was just a produced match in a way
that's pretty taboo, as you mentioned, in front of a
live audience, and then you also had to call the
match live on the fly.
Speaker 5 (15:14):
Is that correct?
Speaker 4 (15:15):
Yes? And I will say this, I've done a lot
of things in the business, and of the things that
I've done, I am probably the worst played by play
commentator on the face of God's great Earth. So yeah,
it was, hey, can you do play by play? I
(15:36):
said no? I said, what'd you do? Play by play?
Speaker 3 (15:39):
I'm like, okay, it sounds like I don't have a choice.
Speaker 4 (15:42):
Sure, and you know, and again you're you're trying to
do play by play, not knowing what's going to make it,
trying to give them sound bites that they can use anywhere.
And in the midst of it, Jake's looking yeah, Jake
was pissed. Jake's looking at me in the ring like,
what are we doing here? You know, wrap this up,
(16:04):
let's go man, I'm done. This is done by now.
And we would have, but it's a different animal. It's
a complete different animal. You guys are hitting your marks.
You guys have lines that you've got to get through
and that you've got to nail, and that affects everything
(16:25):
you do. We can improvise, we can okay, Hey, they're
not buying this, Let's go here. And I can only
imagine being in that environment where you are used to
the luxury of man. I've studied, I've got my part down,
I know my lines, I know my reactions here, I
(16:47):
know this, I know that, and I dare say, I
don't think you guys had the feedback even on the fly,
correct if. I'm well, no, that was a good taker.
Now that was a bad take. I think it was.
Let's get another one. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
No, we did a full take of all the things
that we had to get in the ring, and then
Ben and I ran backstage, and then our ad told
us to go back out there and we had to
do it all over again, which, of course, the poor audience,
the poor wrestlers, that just ruins the show for them
as far as you know, and we had to hit
all the same beats. But yeah, I can't imagine also
(17:26):
just you know, not only the chaos of the audience,
but also not knowing who was in charge because we
had our director, poor Jeff McCracken. You're producing your side
of the show. You have the wrestlers who are used to,
as far as I understand it, you know, doing the
show themselves like they're the ones in charge and they
can kind of roll with However, things are going. So
(17:47):
I feel like all of us were sort of looking
at one another being like, who's in charge? What's happening here?
And I still don't know to this day.
Speaker 6 (17:54):
Yeah, I would like to know. Do we have Mark
Blutman to blame for this? To blame Mark?
Speaker 3 (18:00):
Yeah, he's easy to blame Mark.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
Yeah, it's easy to blame Mark and probably the right
thing to do most of the time, right, just blame Mark.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
He's not here.
Speaker 4 (18:08):
So yeah, I think that's a standard for everything, whatever
happens in your life, if the something goes awry, I
like that.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
I have a question when it comes to so creating
the stories. In the world of wrestling, something happens in
the ring, it becomes canon, right, I mean, it's this
is something that is part of the wrestling world. So
when a live audience sees Vader come out and now
he has a son, is.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
That now part of the wrestling world? Is Vader?
Speaker 1 (18:39):
Is is Ethan's character now officially Vader's son in the
world of wrestling?
Speaker 4 (18:45):
No, And I think that I think that you got
you know, I think you underestimate the popularity of the
show Boy Meets World because I think that that show
in and of itself will so strong, especially at the
time that people understood. People knew who you guys were,
(19:07):
and they knew, okay, they had seen and I think
Leon had done one or two, so they knew that
Leon was playing a party, gotcha, and it was you know,
it was cool to have him a part of our
world while he was a part of the Boy Meets
World world. But they knew that he was playing a
(19:28):
part at that point. And again, Boy Meets World was,
you know, very popular at the time to the point
that there didn't need to be a whole lot of explanation.
They knew.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (19:41):
That helped, you know, it definitely helps in the audience's
familiar it's like, oh my god, oh my god.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
There's pang.
Speaker 6 (19:50):
Well, we may be underestimating how popular Boy Meets World
was at the time, but we are definitely not underestimating
how much the fans actually wanted to keep Hill writer.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
And then we were on the wrong side.
Speaker 6 (20:05):
Which was I you know, looking back, when you're not
I wasn't there for that part of it. For me,
it's so fun to think about that, Like, you know,
they were with a heel and so they were as
part of the audience, the audience. That's my favorite aspect
of wrestling is how into it. You know, the the
audience is truly a character, a part of the show,
(20:27):
and they're so into it. So because they were with
a heel, they were hated the same way the heel
is hated.
Speaker 5 (20:34):
And the writer can explain, we had no clue.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
No, well, we had no clue because I knew nothing
about wrestling except what Leon had told me, you know,
he had he had sort of informed me about like
what the storytelling was and the skill it took to
be a wrestler, and so I had this like vague
but for some reason, nobody told us that he was
a heel, and.
Speaker 5 (20:54):
Like people would be screaming at you, and.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
Though, of course, well it makes perfect sense when you
think about his mask and a whole lot. Oh, I
had no idea. So when we showed up, and you know,
I remember Ethan Supple particularly got very upset because people
were yelling at us. People were like, go home, Cory,
go home, shown you suck. And I remember him just
like getting pissed and like, you know, we're like trying
(21:21):
to stay in character.
Speaker 6 (21:22):
Uh yeah, Ethan said, he actually fought back just out
of instinct that people who were coming at him his
natural instinct was to like really go at him.
Speaker 5 (21:31):
And then he's like, wait, what am I doing?
Speaker 3 (21:33):
Need this part of the show.
Speaker 5 (21:34):
This is the part of the show. I need your
show exactly.
Speaker 4 (21:39):
Yes, that's the best.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
Now, the match itself that night between Vader and Jake
the Snake, This this is a match that actually mattered, right,
wasn't It wasn't one of them the winner going to
go on to the championship.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
Yeah, that's so cool.
Speaker 5 (21:55):
It's so cool.
Speaker 6 (21:56):
And correct me also if I'm wrong, because some of
this is just a little confusing for our for our
brains to wrap around. But the stuff that we were shooting,
the stuff with Ethan there and the guys in the ring,
didn't actually air on the WWF side. It was right,
So like when Will asked the question about now does
Vader have a son? The stuff we were shooting wasn't
(22:18):
airing for the televised WWF crowd.
Speaker 5 (22:23):
It was just the live audience who was seeing.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
Well, but no, the actual but the why of the
ring we had to have shown.
Speaker 5 (22:30):
Up in the ring, right, I don't think you didn't.
Speaker 4 (22:33):
We didn't use any of that for any of our time? Right?
Speaker 3 (22:37):
What about the entrance?
Speaker 1 (22:38):
Was the entrance when because there he's flanked by Frankie
and Corey and Sean.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
Was the entrance aired for w W E or no? No?
Speaker 7 (22:46):
Now?
Speaker 4 (22:46):
That was then for Boy Meets World? Interesting?
Speaker 5 (22:49):
That's so cool.
Speaker 4 (22:50):
Audience never got to see it.
Speaker 3 (22:51):
What a production.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
There's two massive shows, one of them live in front
of ten thousand people going on at the same time.
Speaker 3 (22:59):
Yep, crazy.
Speaker 4 (23:00):
Okay, let me ask you guys question. Yeah, okay, whoever
got really close to Leon when he was sweaty? Oh?
Speaker 2 (23:09):
Me Will all the time, and Will got picked up
by him.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
He would pick me up.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
So I was the guy that he would always pick
up and bench press over his head and then throw
me on his shoulder.
Speaker 3 (23:18):
It became like our thing. So yes, there was. He
would baby oil himself up and then get all sweaty.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
The smell of gold bond powder.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
Yeah and uh and use his rubber bands to get
his shoulders working, and then he would grab me.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
So yeah, it was.
Speaker 6 (23:33):
Is that the only smell you remember is the smell
of gold bond powder and baby oil and baby ol?
Speaker 5 (23:38):
Okay?
Speaker 1 (23:38):
Yeah, what a guy though, What a guy? When he
told his stories about coming up and what it took
to become a professional wrestler in some of the places
that he started wrestling in and some of the small
kind of pits and dens that he started in. And
he told us one story about getting stabbed and another
one about putting his eye back in himself. I mean,
it was telling the stories of what it took to
(23:59):
get to that level of w w F at the time.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
But w w E is they're amazing.
Speaker 4 (24:04):
And Leon Leon was a tremendous athlete. He truly was.
He was a big man, great athlete, played football at
Colorado and he you know, he had an r about him.
Great athlete, absolutely incredible athlete. We used to call it
(24:24):
if he would like grab you or he would pat
you and oh hey thanks, you just got Vader, he said,
is all you can smell for the rest of the day.
And it was like you would take you take your
jacket off.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
And it was like you swear, I can't get rid
of it.
Speaker 4 (24:41):
Einfeld episode where the stinky Valet stinky car couldn't get
rid of it. It was absolutely damnar impossible, and it's
Vader had a lot of a lot of funny, funny
stories about him from the standpoint the links that he
(25:02):
would go through to get out of something. So if
he didn't want to go to Canada, he had a
what they call a minister's permit to get him into Canada.
Because of some issues he had had in the past,
it was difficult to travel internationally and Leon didn't particularly
want to Canada. It was his minister's permit had lapsed,
(25:27):
but there was another one in the works. It was
all in the computer. All they had to do was
look it up. And Leon flies to Canada, goes to
the customs agent and says, you can't let me in
my see my bussor's permit has expired. I need to
go home. And he goes, oh, no, I recognize you.
You're okay, Yeah, you're right. No no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
(25:50):
it's expired. See look it's aspired. Goes yeah, but they
put the paperwork in. It's in our computer. You're okay
to go, goes.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
No.
Speaker 4 (25:56):
You don't understand. I can't. I have to go back
to the States. Right, No, because he just.
Speaker 2 (26:01):
Wanted to go home, he didn't want the job.
Speaker 3 (26:05):
He flies all the way there just to country away,
right right.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
He fulfilled his duty.
Speaker 5 (26:15):
As somebody who likes being home even more than Will.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
Yeah, really I would, because I never would have gotten
on the flight to Cannon in the first place.
Speaker 3 (26:22):
I would have found an excuse on the way to
the airport.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
You just would have gotten sick.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
Yeah, to do that.
Speaker 6 (26:40):
So, Bruce, did you watch your episode of Boy Meets
World when it aired? And was there any pride for
you and being on a network show? Did anyone at
the WWF care?
Speaker 4 (26:52):
Yes? I mean I got to tell you, you know,
for me, it was a thrill. That was a pretty
cool production to be a part of. First of all,
I was honored to even be asked, and yes, it's
Bloodlin's fault. But as we got into it and started
talking about people, I was suggesting other people to play
(27:14):
the role that I did, and He's like, hey, he goes,
could you do it? Nobody's gonna know who I am
because no, no, no, no, no, go brother, love do it?
I said, oh, well, you know, I don't know, and
I didn't think it fit, but personally, very selfishly glad
it did. Of course I watched it. Yeah, absolutely, you know,
(27:37):
I loved it. That was a big thrill. And when
my kids got old enough because I didn't have kids.
My kids are twenty five now, but when they got
old enough, I used to, you know, show them the table.
See that was another TV too real TV.
Speaker 5 (27:54):
Well, do people still mention it to you now?
Speaker 6 (27:56):
Like the WWE Superstars now are kind of like the
perfect Boy Meets World age?
Speaker 5 (28:01):
So do people still mention it to you?
Speaker 4 (28:04):
Yes? And especially whenever, you know, whenever it's on the cycle,
the syndication and the show hits, I always get, you know,
those tweets or what have you and messages or hell
my god, I didn't know you were on Boy Meets World,
so you know, yeah, it was And for me, I think,
(28:24):
you know, Boy Meets World along was saved by the bell.
We're kind of like my guilty pleasures of just when
you need It's going to sound terrible, but I mean
in the best way. When you need mindless entertainment and
you just want to chuckle yep, and you want it, man,
entertain me. Don't don't give me something serious here. I
(28:46):
think everybody could relate to Boy Meets World. You know,
it was something that is relatable, right a passage growing
up as a kid. Everybody went through that.
Speaker 5 (28:57):
How did you find yourself in the wrestling business.
Speaker 4 (29:00):
It's all I've done since I was ten years old.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
Wow, just like like I know, it's a magical age
to find who you want to be ten for some reason.
Speaker 4 (29:11):
Yeah, and you just continue every time, you know, I had,
I had dreams as a kid what I wanted to
do and where I wanted to be. I was very
fortunate that by the time I was twenty five years old,
I had reached ninety nine percent of my goals. Wow,
but oh wow, what do I do now? I figured
(29:33):
it out? You've gream bigger and more so. It was
it's a passion for me. I love what I do.
I love the business, I love the company, and it's
it's just something where you can I haven't had I
haven't had to go to work a lot of time.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
So what ignited the passion? You were ten years old
and it was watching a wrestling match on television or
was it going to a match.
Speaker 4 (30:03):
It was in Paso, Texas, and I saw the Funk
Story and Terry Funk wrestling on TV in a black
and white TV that was in our kitchen. The Funks,
who were the good guys, they were like, you know,
the hometown they were brothers and their dad was a wrestler.
By God, this was a family from Texas, by God,
(30:24):
from a barber, Texas, and they were they were wrestling
the von Bromner's Evil Germans, and one of the Von
Bromers had a pair of scissors and was cutting off
Terry Funk's ear and Terry was bleeding and I was crying,
and I was begging my mom, by God, we've got
to help him. We've got to figure out some way
(30:46):
to help him. And my Mom's like, be quiet and
meet your dinner. This was this was done a long
time ago. Wow. I was like, what you know when
you're when you're four years old, you don't know about videotape.
You don't well, I don't know they had videotape, but
you don't know about pre recording something. And my brother
(31:09):
and I just always wanted to be wrestlers. He always
wanted to be a business and he started taking pictures.
I started selling posters. Was my first job. And it
was crazy.
Speaker 3 (31:23):
Who was your favorite wrestler growing up? Were you a
Jerry Lawler fan? Or who did you love?
Speaker 4 (31:27):
Oh god, no, My favorites growing up were the funks
because that was my first exposure to the business. They
were presented to me as the end all be all.
Funk became world champion when I was very young. Terry
(31:48):
soon after that. It was those were my childhood heroes,
and I eventually got to the point where I met them,
worked with them, and became friends with them. So that
was kind of kind of crazy.
Speaker 6 (32:03):
And how was the brother Love character born for WWF
at the time? Did you always feel comfortable as a heel?
Speaker 4 (32:10):
Oh? God, yes, look I mean in school I was
a heel. I always felt I just wanted to get
a reaction, whether it was from teachers or other students,
whatever it is. So yes, I loved being a heel.
I loved being booed. I love people hating me. Brother
(32:32):
Love is a product of the South. As a kid
growing up on Sundays your only TV before noon ision,
and so as I grew up, and for example, in Tulsa, Oklahoma,
(32:53):
we did TV. We would record television on Sunday night.
Then we would record what we call our local lies
promos on Monday morning. So we stayed in this little
town called Bixby, Oklahoma. On Sunday night, you know what
is on TV and Bixby, Oklahoma. On Sunday Night. You
had Oral Roberts, you have Robert Tilton, you had Jim Baker,
(33:14):
and you had Jimmy Swagger. And they were mesmerizing to
me right in the fact that they could. Robert Tilton
had a spill. His television show was called Success in Life,
and he would explain to you, why if you have
faith in him, and you have faith in your saviors
(33:36):
of the Lord Jesus Christ, then send me what you have.
If you only have a dollar, we'll send me fifty cents.
I'm gona tell you what's gonna happen. The Good Order
is going to reward you with three dollars you're gonna
send me to you're back even then. You know what
you're gonna do from there, and you're gonna make all
this money and you're gonna send seventy percent of it
(33:58):
to him every time you make it. That's what they
call success in life. And I'm listening to this, going,
oh my god, this is great because I know there
are people sending him money.
Speaker 6 (34:08):
Right yeah, and they're going, yes, if I just just
keep making money to stay even.
Speaker 3 (34:15):
Winning, if I can just break even, I am winning
and that was.
Speaker 4 (34:19):
Success in life, and I thought that was genius. So
that was like the most beautiful, simplest, pure message, and
it was all BS and it was beautifully done, so
believable that I knew that if I could convince people
the same way and get people to hate me as
much as I hated them.
Speaker 3 (34:37):
Then I would have won.
Speaker 4 (34:42):
The brutes in the South. I love to watch the televangelists,
the old time evangelists come to town. And no kidding,
we had a tent Baptist church right by my house
and I used to I was one of those kids
that would get on my belly and go underneath the
tent to watch the the revivals, just for an entertainment.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
Right, Yeah, Well that's so interesting too that you took
this charisma right, this presentation, and rather than saying, maybe
I want to be a preacher, maybe that's something I
can do, you said, how can I how can I
you know, sort of make a show out of this,
How can I make a character out of it? That's
really brilliant, that's really cool.
Speaker 4 (35:22):
Exactly, And I remember, you know, all they asked about
Brother Love and I remember an interview Brother Love was
timing and it was freak timing because I debuted in
eighty eight, three weeks after I debuted the Jim and
Tammy Baker scandal.
Speaker 2 (35:44):
I have said, Han, it hits, So your story just
resonated perfectly.
Speaker 4 (35:52):
They all thought that I did it because of that response.
It was just luck timing, oh man, luck timing. And
Tammy fay Baker did an interview with Mareno Boyle from
a current affair and she was wearing makeup and Reno
Boile says, tell me, Tammy, you talk about being really
(36:15):
what's with all the makeup? And Tammy fay Bake with
the straight faces. I don't wear makeup.
Speaker 2 (36:23):
And straight.
Speaker 4 (36:26):
Lived it.
Speaker 8 (36:27):
So when I did Brother Love, I did a testing
in the studio with all everything in the look and
as as a rib they put red makeup on my
face and I was wearing a white suit and the
white came out. I've got makeup everywhere, and I thought,
this is the greatest thing ever. From this vantage point,
I'm telling everyone I'm as real as it gets. What
(36:50):
I'm phony is you see it ten miles away, and
I use that Tammy Faye, you deny in the face
of reality. I was in a nappy convention the National
Association Television Programming Executives and I'm brother in love and
I kid you not. Maureene O'Boyle from a Current Affair
(37:13):
interviewed me and she looked at me and she says, so,
what's with the makeup?
Speaker 4 (37:21):
And I'm thinking, okay.
Speaker 5 (37:24):
Is this really happening?
Speaker 4 (37:28):
Just what I answered her with?
Speaker 5 (37:30):
What I don't wear?
Speaker 4 (37:32):
Manow I don't wear makeup. It's just what's all over
your face? I said, love?
Speaker 3 (37:42):
Did she get it? I hope she got it?
Speaker 4 (37:45):
You know what. I tried to talk to her afterwards
and she just really had no time, but I got it.
It was funny to me.
Speaker 2 (37:56):
So I want to pull if you're willing, I want
to pull back the curtain little bit. So do you
have in these situations you're you're in character, You've created
a character, but you don't have a script. Right, it's
not like you're writing anything or anybody else is writing
this for you. You have to improvise in character. Do
you have a director, do you have a producer that's
(38:18):
helping you or how does that work?
Speaker 4 (38:20):
That's me, just you, that's me.
Speaker 2 (38:23):
So you would walk into situations where some people would
be themselves interviewers or whatever, and you would be in character.
Would you stay in character when the cameras were off.
Speaker 4 (38:34):
Amazing, Yes, my philosophy, and I don't I wouldn't say
I would ever go to the extent of a Jim
Carrey being Andy Kaufman. But if you are in the
character and you stay in the character, there's especially one
as extreme as that. If you go in and out,
(38:57):
people get lost and it's like, who am I talking
right now? Talking brother love God, it's just referred to
myself and third person.
Speaker 6 (39:06):
Danielle does it sometimes too, Yeah, you said and brother
love you kind of double third person, which is very impressive.
Speaker 4 (39:15):
But if you're but if you're in character, you stay
in character, and you you that's who they'refore therefore, so
I would I would pretty much stay in character and
walk in his brother love, walk out his brother loves.
Speaker 5 (39:30):
But you to give you your flowers a little bit.
Speaker 6 (39:33):
You're a little bit unique in that in that not all,
not all wrestlers have that ability to be self directed,
self produced, self written. There are other writers and producers
who work with other wrestlers. Absolutely, you currently like, produce,
direct and write for lots of people. But that's because
(39:55):
that's your skill and your talent. So you were doing
that for you as Brother Love. But that's not necessarily
the truth for every wrestler.
Speaker 4 (40:03):
That's that's true. We have an entire staff of folks
that help with that. I think at the time I
was still doing that for other talent, and I guess
it was easier for me because I was working with
other talent. So I was producing and directing them while
I was working with them. So, as Brother Love, I
(40:24):
would get them to where they needed to go. I
would get them to the point of here's what you're
going to say, and I would lead them there and
I would take them on that ride. So was producing
and directing literally on the spot five as we go.
Speaker 1 (40:40):
Who was your favorite wrestler to work with in that capacity?
Speaker 4 (40:45):
Wow? You know in the time, you know, Hulk Hogan
was magic.
Speaker 1 (40:53):
Really August eleventh, Brother, Hulk Cogan, August eleventh, Brother, thank
you very much.
Speaker 2 (40:57):
Important fact.
Speaker 4 (40:57):
Yes, it is, It's crazy. It was. That was where
I felt just you would have goosebumps all over your
entire body. And he was.
Speaker 2 (41:10):
Just because of his acting ability, his performance.
Speaker 4 (41:13):
The charisma, the feeling from the audience. The audience was
so into his presence that you felt this holy cow man,
it's they wanted him to kill me. Yeah, and that's
that's great. I mean, there were so many Undertaker absolutely
(41:35):
love working with the Undertaker because it was easy. You
didn't have to I didn't have to think about things.
And then there were guys that, you know, rest their souls,
Dino Bravo, Ron Bass, they couldn't put two sentences together
that I would just have to do it for them,
say in that right, you know?
Speaker 3 (41:59):
For yeah, did you notice that?
Speaker 1 (42:01):
So some people talk about the shift that was noticed
in wrestling pre Hulkgan and post Hulkgan, where he kind
of changed the game. Did that Have there been other
wrestlers that you've noticed that with where when they come
in it's kind of everything seems different after they're there.
Speaker 4 (42:18):
Yeah, I think that. You know, the Stone Cold, Steve
Austin and Rock during the Attitude era had a definite
shift in the way people viewed the business and what
they accepted what they didn't. After that, you had the
John Cena era, where John was a little more wholesome
(42:39):
and different than those that came before him. I think
right now we're in a shift with Cody Rhodes and
the talent that we have now that the business is cyclical,
some people would argue that after fifty years in it.
I go, you know what, it's been cyclical in the
last six years of my life. So it I think
(43:02):
the the audience kind of changes, and I think those
that were fans years and years ago may now have
grandkids that they want to bring and show them, and
that's their excuse for doing it. I want to take
my grandkids, which is cool because it's family. Mm hmmm.
Speaker 6 (43:19):
Since Brother Love was such method character work, did you
ever want to act outside of wrestling.
Speaker 4 (43:26):
I don't think I could do that.
Speaker 3 (43:28):
I think it's too I bet you could, Oh, I
bet you could.
Speaker 2 (43:30):
I'm sure you could.
Speaker 3 (43:31):
I bet you could.
Speaker 5 (43:32):
Absolutely.
Speaker 4 (43:35):
I have the utmost respect for anybody that can learn,
that can learn lines, learn marks. I don't know if
I could do it because, and I say it because
I've been so used to add living. I've been so
used to If this doesn't work in this moment, I'm
going over here. And I am the utmost respect for that,
(43:59):
because that's hard. I've tried it. I've tried to just
little things like commercials in Februy you got to hit
this mark. You gotta do it like this, can we
do it? You know on the nineteenth take, it's like
you know where you can go?
Speaker 2 (44:12):
Yeah, But you know, man, that's craft. That's that you
can learn. I feel like having the story, character instincts
and and the ability to sort of read the room
or read the beats and shift that is acting.
Speaker 3 (44:25):
That is the truth.
Speaker 2 (44:26):
That's the talent, learning all the lines and stuff. If
you figure that out, I would I would argue you
already have everything it takes. You just have to do
it more if you just got into it. You know,
it is tedious, it's not. That's the not fun part,
the learning the lines, the hitting the marks. But that's
the part that that doesn't require your own you know, animation,
(44:48):
your own sort of like spirit with you when you
bring Yeah, that's a technical site of craft. I think
I think you've already got in spades what you know
what real acting requires.
Speaker 4 (44:58):
Well, I would argue that I just reac act actor
and then an actor.
Speaker 2 (45:07):
That's the same thing.
Speaker 6 (45:08):
Yeah, So your son is named kin after the wrestler.
Speaker 5 (45:13):
Did he ever want to enter the business.
Speaker 4 (45:16):
He had a fleeting moment where he went booker t
has a school outside of Houston where we lived, and
Kine went and trained with him for a little bit.
But I think his dream at that point in his
life when he was still young, was still football and
he wanted to play football really bad. And then COVID
hit and so on and so forth, and uh, you know,
(45:39):
you have to adjust, But yes he did and didn't
discourage it. But I also didn't encourage it, right, Yeah.
So actually, see Undertaker was Kane before Kine was Kane,
and then Kane just was there's a good story. And
then I was having twins, boy and a girl, and
(46:01):
my wife got okay. She told me I can name
my daughter and she would name my son. The only
rule was that I couldn't name my daughter after a
stripper and he couldn't be a stripper name. And so
I went with Amber Nicole and I had heard that
one before. And one of the like the second names
(46:21):
she had on her list was Cain, and she didn't
know the story of Cain and Kane. And I'm like, okay,
this works, and I kid you not. After my daughter
was born, I went into a gentleman's establishment and then
got a beer and it was like all right, emburd
Sage Shoe Emberd is second stage and I'm like, I'm
(46:45):
out of here, gotta go.
Speaker 3 (46:48):
Even on the main stage.
Speaker 4 (46:50):
Yeah, amber Sage too, all right, how much you appreciate her?
Come on down? Only costs a dollar terrible in the world.
I'm sorry, I says, I'm on gentlemen's clubs. The last
time that I went into a gentleman's club was six
years ago, and I had not been in one in
(47:13):
for like so many years. It's just you grow up
and it's just not not your bag. And I went
in a bunch of guys with me and I got
a drink and there was a tag on their ankle
and I said, what is that. Oh that's their id,
because at nineteen they can still get naked, but they
(47:33):
can't drink.
Speaker 9 (47:34):
I'm out. And I'm like, well, I'm out. I can't
do this. I don't know you. It just kids changes
you for them.
Speaker 5 (47:46):
Oh, yes, absolutely, Oh yes they do. That's a hundred percent.
Right now.
Speaker 6 (47:50):
We talk a lot about the nineties here. Who would
you say is the most underrated wrestler of the nineties.
Speaker 4 (48:00):
Wow, I would Oh boy, it's funny because we were
talking about this just the other day. And I don't
know that he was underrated, but I think he was underappreciated.
And that is Kane from this standpoint. He was the
guy that was always there. You could put him in
(48:21):
any situation and he would deliver. But he wasn't always
in that top spot, but he could have been. If
one guy got hurt, you plugged Caine in, and he
was that utility guy that could do everything and do
it well. So he's one of those guys that I
think people took for granted.
Speaker 6 (48:43):
Okay, Now, if we had to bet on someone now,
someone young and emerging in the WWE, to become the
next household name, where do you suggest we put our money.
Speaker 4 (48:56):
Well, I mean, obviously I've got to go with Cody
Rhoades right now, who is just absolutely red hot. When
you look down, uh down that pipeline and you look
to the future ten years from now, I look at
guys like Ron Breaker and Trick Williams that are going
to be those stars that are going to be the
(49:20):
ones that everyone is talking about, and it's built around that. Really,
have you know they've got they've got that?
Speaker 1 (49:27):
It would you put Danielle Fischel as a heel or
as a hero in the record heel.
Speaker 3 (49:37):
Okay, okay, all the way.
Speaker 5 (49:39):
Yes, oh man, you're right.
Speaker 6 (49:42):
I have Everyone would assume I'm going to be a babyface,
so you gotta send me in as a heel.
Speaker 4 (49:46):
No, you would be a heartbreaking heel.
Speaker 5 (49:50):
I love it.
Speaker 4 (49:51):
I love it.
Speaker 6 (49:53):
I do have a real it's kind of a secret goal,
but at some point in my life I want to
be put through a table.
Speaker 3 (50:01):
I can make that happen.
Speaker 2 (50:02):
That's not that hard.
Speaker 3 (50:03):
All you have to do is ask one of us,
daniell I mean in a wrestling race.
Speaker 2 (50:09):
Just turned to us and we'll do it.
Speaker 3 (50:11):
I would have thrown it through a table years ago.
Speaker 2 (50:13):
Danielle.
Speaker 5 (50:14):
Serious, that's so sweet of you.
Speaker 4 (50:17):
Like, what do you doing tonight? Hey?
Speaker 6 (50:22):
You know, with your storied history in business, what storyline
or character would you say you're most proud of?
Speaker 4 (50:35):
I think the most fun because it was Eddie Guerrero
was great, great talent, Ray Mysterio equally great talent, and
we did a storyline where Eddie Guerrero claimed that Ray
Mysterios Sun was his. And how how we got there
(50:59):
was I read Eddie's biography and Eddie had put a
book out and in the book, Eddie talks about the
time that he was separated from his wife and had
a child out of wedlock. That was all he said,
And the timeline kind of matched up, but didn't all
the way match up, but it was close enough. And
(51:22):
maybe somebody posed the question to them, Hey, what if
what if that child or Dominica mysterio? What if there
was a time in Eddie's life and time in Angie's life.
Maybe one night something happened never told Ray and it
(51:45):
was it was touchy because again, you're dealing with real
people in real lives. Right. Eddie was just getting back
with his wife Vicki at the time and happy they
had children of their own school age. Ray and Angie
had two children, and that's real life. You can't. We
(52:08):
can write all the stories in our world that we
want to, but people still believe it. And when it's
the real person and it makes sense, and you can go.
Speaker 9 (52:19):
Well, I bet that Andy Greer one not just had
his what and and it.
Speaker 4 (52:24):
All We did some horribly great things with that where
Andy I wanted to put dominic on a pole and
the winner, whoever could climb the pole and get Dominick
could get.
Speaker 2 (52:39):
Yeah, claim fraternity.
Speaker 5 (52:42):
I mean, that's a storyline that's still prevalent.
Speaker 6 (52:44):
Don that child, the child they're talking about Don Mysterio
is a wrestler now, a big wrestler, So that's a
storyline that's gone decades.
Speaker 4 (52:52):
And hates his dad Ray because he because uncle Eddie.
He was really maybe Daddy Eddie and oh man, and
every time Dom says something stupid, I just say, Eddie
would be so so sad. Wow, that was you know,
I look at the because it's based in reality. People
(53:13):
couldn't poke holes in it, right, because there was just
enough information out there that you could say this could happen. Yeah,
But at the same time, you're going, do you all.
Speaker 6 (53:25):
The great makings of a perfect conspiracy theory?
Speaker 4 (53:28):
Yes? Yeah, and anything that is based that is based
in the.
Speaker 5 (53:34):
Kernel of truth.
Speaker 4 (53:35):
Yeah. Yeah. That was a fun one. That was That
was great and the Undertaker and Kine just coming up
with that story because that was ongoing as well. That
it just kept getting more and more bizarre. And characters
are so bizarre they let themselves to You can do
(53:56):
anything with this. That was good.
Speaker 2 (54:09):
If you're willing. I'd love to hear an example of
the flip side a time when something didn't work where
you did, you had you were sure something was perfect,
and either the audience didn't react or the wrestlers themselves
didn't like the story and you couldn't go there.
Speaker 4 (54:24):
God, we don't have enough time.
Speaker 2 (54:26):
Is that what you're doing all the time, you're pitching
ideas and getting shot down? Or at the time, yeah.
Speaker 4 (54:32):
The time, I mean we had and sometimes life just
it just happens. We did a scenario one time where
we had a bunch of guys go down dressed all
in black and be undertaken with the club and carry
them out over their heads. The day before it was
(54:53):
to air, guys, they bombed the subway in London and
people were dressed exactly like now. We had pre peaked
ours the week before, so we knew nothing. You know,
obviously couldn't tell the future.
Speaker 7 (55:10):
It's tape upn already had the tape and we're like,
you can't air this, you cannot air this, and.
Speaker 4 (55:22):
And that was that was not good. But a lot
of oh yeah, well Friar Ferguson. We had a guy
dressed up as like a monk, as a friar, and yeah,
the audience will tell you quickly right away.
Speaker 1 (55:36):
So I remember hearing something about wasn't there a guy
that was originally going to be pushed just called puke
who could make himself throw up kind of like on command.
Speaker 4 (55:46):
Darren Rosov, great guy. He played for the Denver Broncos
and was famous for he was a nose tackle and
his nerves would get to him and he lined up
on the ball and puked over the ball for the snap.
That's disgusting. Yeah, and he came he was trained to
be a wrestler, and that was his claim to fame,
(56:08):
that he could puke on command.
Speaker 2 (56:10):
Oh god.
Speaker 4 (56:12):
So in a documentary interview, Vince tried to get him
too puke and he couldn't do it. And I tried
to get him to the same thing. I tried to
get him to do it one time. Did you guys
have a football, Yeah, that's what you need. But he
I gotta have some water, I got to do this
and all that stuff. But yes, we sure did. The
problem was getting him to do.
Speaker 5 (56:32):
It on que couldn't do it.
Speaker 4 (56:34):
Oh wow, Yeah it happened. That's funny.
Speaker 6 (56:37):
Well, Bruce, we know how unbelievably busy you are, and
we are so appreciative that you joined us, and I
just would like to remind everybody Bruce's podcast is something
to wrestle with Bruce Pritchard, tons of great behind the
scenes wrestling stories from one of the most creative minds
molding it. So thank you so much for being a
part of the Boy Meets World journey and we're just
(56:59):
so happy you made the time to stop by.
Speaker 4 (57:01):
Thank you for having me. I know less or hard
whoever had just continually Uh that was.
Speaker 6 (57:09):
My husband, my husband Jensen, who who worked me two
thousand and five.
Speaker 4 (57:13):
I know, and I felt so bad because like during
the time it's going into WrestleMania at a point where
I'm looking through things and it's like, don't need answer now, next, next, next, next,
and I don't. I don't always get back and then.
But I knew it was coming this week. I am
(57:34):
extremely guys, really thankful, and I appreciate you asking me
because it to this day, it's one of those shows
that if it's on I just stop and watch it
because again it gives me good mindless entertainment that I
can laugh and I go, hey, I know them. So
it was a lot of fun and I really appreciate
(57:56):
the ask and I wish you guys the absolute best
and Marks Tall.
Speaker 1 (58:02):
It is Marks fault and anytime, it would just anytime
you'd like to bring Danielle down and put her through
a table rider, and I are with that, and we
will be there front and center.
Speaker 4 (58:12):
Jensen, get the table.
Speaker 10 (58:17):
Thank you man. Those are some stories.
Speaker 1 (58:26):
That's a guy where you go to dinner or something
and you just keep your mouth shut and he'll keep
you entertained all night long with story.
Speaker 2 (58:34):
His entire life has been entertainment, such good entertainment, so fascinating. God,
do you guys know what your wrestling characters would be.
Speaker 6 (58:43):
I'd have to be We've already decided that I would
be a heel. I think i'd be a manager. I'd
be a heel manager, so I'd manage a wrestler and
I'd just be a terrible person.
Speaker 3 (58:56):
I think I'd a guy.
Speaker 2 (58:57):
You'd have to you'd have to be super Phil Freedol. Yeah,
it'd be like the like the superhero, maybe a little
past his prime.
Speaker 1 (59:06):
Yeah, And I think it will be like, yeah, come on, guys,
we don't need to We don't need to wrestle yourself.
Speaker 2 (59:12):
Do we have to leave home to wrestle I assume.
Speaker 3 (59:19):
You writer would just be called the poet. Oh yeah,
that's your character.
Speaker 2 (59:24):
I'd just be this emo, hipster, pretentious. I would just
get into the ring and cry on people. I just
cry on small match bourbon. Yes, emotional deflection, don't you understand.
And I'd bring up my own like coffee roasting. I'd
like make my own like I'd be a barista, yeah, mixologist.
Speaker 4 (59:46):
How do we not.
Speaker 3 (59:47):
Start this right away, this wrestling program.
Speaker 6 (59:50):
Yeah, his finishing move is the smelt.
Speaker 2 (59:53):
I love it or no, I just I just make
you us out reading poetry.
Speaker 5 (01:00:02):
Bor us to death.
Speaker 2 (01:00:03):
And now William Wordsworth, let's go.
Speaker 3 (01:00:09):
I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (01:00:10):
Another great name for you would be the wordsmith. That's
another word, great wrestling name, the word smith.
Speaker 2 (01:00:16):
Yeah, the emo wordsmith.
Speaker 6 (01:00:19):
Well, thank you all for joining us for this episode
of Pod Meets World. As always, you can follow us
on Instagram pod meets World Show. You can send us
your emails pod meets World show at gmail dot com.
And we have merch.
Speaker 5 (01:00:31):
Get some merch, brother who I love it?
Speaker 6 (01:00:35):
Pod meets Worldshow dot com writer, send us out.
Speaker 2 (01:00:39):
We love you all. Pod dismissed. Pod Meets World is
an iHeart podcast producer hosted by Danielle Fischel Wilfridell and
writer Strong Executive producers Jensen Karp and Amy Sugarman, Executive
in charge of production, Danielle Romo, producer and editor, Tarasubasch, producer,
Maddie Moore, engineer and Boy Meets World Superman Easton Allen.
Our theme song is by Kyle Morton of Typhoon. Follow
(01:01:01):
us on Instagram at Podmets World Show or email us
at podmetsworldshowat gmail dot com.
Speaker 1 (01:01:10):
M
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