November 17, 2021 • 34 mins
In my debut episode of WWFreddie, I talk about my passion for professional wrestling. I also share how spending time in Puerto Rico with my grandma watching pro wrestling shaped my love for it. I discuss memorable moments like betting on matches with Macaulay Culkin, to getting a big meet up with Vincent Kennedy McMahon himself.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
What's up, everybody. I'm Freddie Friends Jr. And Welcome to
Wrestling with Freddie, the brand new WWF. We're gonna talk
about my career that I had as as brief as
it was with the w w E, my passion for
wrestling as a kid, and the love and respect that
I still have for it, uh to this day. Um.
(00:24):
My time is limited to w w E, but with
wrestling being in the shape it is now and wrestlers
sort of becoming free agents and going to other places,
I can actually talk a lot about other brands too,
because it's all shared now. UM. So you're gonna hear
a lot of stories. Some of them are gonna be
kind of crazy, some would be super funny. Some of
them are even kind of sad. But I feel like
(00:44):
I have a good perspective on them. I'm not here
to bum anybody out. Um. In today's episode, we're gonna
talk about how I got introduced to wrestling, which was
the craziest way possible. Then we're gonna discuss the moment
I fell in love with wrestling, and then we're gonna
discussed the ridiculous circumstances of me being in Orlando Florida
at Ric Flair's retirement match, being in the room right
(01:07):
next to Snoop Doggs, so you know what that smelled like.
And then getting offered a job for the w w
E and for some reason I said yes, So that's
what we're going to get into. And uh, now it's
time to start the show. Now stuffing up to the
mic the host of Wrestling with Freddie Freddie Prince Dunyah Okay,
(01:30):
so uh for those of you who don't know, I
gotta take you back in time a little bit. My
father was a stand up comedian named Freddie Prints hence
the Junior, and he was a big time stand up
comedian and he was so big time that gave him
his own show and it was the number one show
in the country for a very short period of time.
And uh he he died in nineteen seventy seven, so
(01:51):
he couldn't make any more TV shows. But the Puerto
Rican part of my heritage, my grandma mainly has always
been obsessed with professional wrestling. My grandma will call it
luchad And so my mom wanted me to understand my
father's side of the family and the culture there, and
she would send me out to Puerto Rico every Christmas
(02:11):
break and everyone uh and every summer break. H. It's
also a good time for her to find herself and
got a vacation from her pain in the butt only child,
so she sent me out to Puerto Rico. And back then,
I don't know if they still do it, but they
would put like a little tag around your neck that
says I'm flying alone, and you would have, you know,
a flight attendant help you on the plane and get off.
(02:31):
And I landed in San Juan, uh, Puerto Rico, and
my Papo William picked me up. He was a butcher
and he was big and buff like a pro wrestler,
and uh. He drove me to Bocron, Puerto Rico, where
my grandmother lived. And my grandmother had posters on her
wall of old school matches at the Carlos Cologne Arena
(02:52):
in San Juan, and we would watch American wrestling and
lucha wrestling pretty much every day. That in a weird
tune called silver Hawks, which got me into anime too,
But other than that, it was wrestling, and she, as
did many back then, was fully convinced that wrestling was
a hundred percent real and that these fights meant something
(03:13):
and they were important, and the Puerto Rican fans really
believed in in their person winning because their person was
the good guy. They hated the heels, and those will
be some terms you hear me use sometimes heels and
baby faces. Heels are bad guys all like the hardcore
wrestling fans are like, dude, we know, but there's some
that aren't. And all the good guys are called baby faces,
(03:34):
whether you're men or women. So uh so the baby
faces have to win in Puerto Rico, at least back then.
I don't know how it is now. And uh we
started watching it on TV, and I asked if we
could go to uh to see a match live. I've
never I've never been to one. And she goes, yeah, okay, okay,
so we get tickets. And my grandma was like a
baller in Puerto Rico. Okay. Her son was Freddie Prinz.
(03:57):
Puerto Rico really claims him even though he was only
half part Ricon, which makes me a quarter quarto rican. Um.
That's what a comic name. Paul Mooney called me when
I was like twelve years old. He's like, you ain't
even Puerto Rican. You're you're you're a quarto rican um.
But anyway, Uh, so she drives up to San Juan.
She had this great Cadillac, right and she gets a
(04:17):
treatment man. And I didn't know anything about my dad
at this point, so I just thought my grandma was
like the governor of Puerto Rico or something. So she
gets to park right up front, and uh, this guy
sits outside and he says, I'll watch the car. I
didn't know that, man, he was gonna sit there the
whole time. When we came out, he was in the
same spot. And the dude watched the car. It was
she had. She had cloud. So we go and we
(04:39):
get right up close and uh, we're there really early too,
by the way, and they're putting a cage around the ring.
And I'm, you know, eight years old, a third grader,
and I asked my grandma said, oh, it's a steel
cage match. You didn't tell me it's a steel cage match.
She said, no, that's to keep the wrestlers safe. I said,
what do you mean she goes to keep them safe
from us? I said what? And I didn't really understand
(05:02):
until the show started and the fans, I mean a
lot of you'll remember the story like Yankees fans or
whoever it was, they were like throwing batteries at that
picture John Rocker, Um. And I think that's who it was.
That's how it was here, Like any food that was
brought was thrown all over these guys. And all they're
(05:23):
doing is walking to the ring and it's not even
a steel kid. They didn't, not one wrestler used the
cage as a weapon, like there's any regular matches. But
I'm watching the crowd almost as much. I'm like excited
just talking about this right now, like shaking for real,
like adrenaline. Um, I'm watching the crowd as much as
(05:43):
I am the matches because this was it was a
little scary for me. And uh So we go back
home and we're watching wrestling, and said, did you like it? Oh?
I loved it. I loved it, and I would wrestle
with her. She was the first person ever hit me
with a with a Rick Flair chop and she hit hard.
And she's a tough Puerto Rican girl. Grew up in
Puerto Rico and moved to New York. Had to be
(06:04):
tough out there too, so she was no joke. And
uh I would watch wrestling with her every single week.
And then I went back to New Mexico where I
was living with my mom, and uh there was a
wrestling match that was coming. The WWF was coming to Albuquerque,
New Mexico, in this little place where they had the
rodeo called Tingly Colosseum. And when I say it had
(06:25):
dust on the floors, I don't mean dust, I mean
dirt because it was actually a rodeo and they didn't
put hardwood floor in in there in between the rodeos.
It was just dirt. So there's a wrestling ring, bleachers
and a dirt walk up basically with some rolled out,
you know, tarp for them to walk down. And it
was it was you know, New Mexico wasn't the richest
(06:46):
state in the country. So so we go and our
seats are awful, so the smaller place, and there were
a lot of pillars holding it up. And I'm not joking.
Our seats are right behind the pillar and uh so
I can't see anything. And I sneak down, uh, towards
the railing where all the wrestlers are coming out, and
(07:06):
it was like a battle royal, I think, is is
what it was. Because there was multiple wrestlers already in
the ring, and then all of a sudden, here he
comes and it's the Ultimate Warrior and he's running down
the ring, and right when I see him, like come
out of the backstage area, this security dude catches me
right and he knows I'm not supposed to be down there,
(07:27):
and he puts his hand on my shoulder, and the
Warriors like running down and I'm not resisting, you know,
I'm I can't. I think I'm nine now, maybe maybe
maybe ten, and uh, but I want to, you know,
I want to see the Warrior. And the Warrior veers
to the right, like close to the rail, and he goes,
it's okay. He puts his hand on the security guard
(07:49):
and he goes, here's with me. Now, I wasn't, but
he was being good to the kid, right, And it's
not like this place was sold out, like he was
just having this moment. I remember what he smelled like.
It was a mixture of baby oil, sweat and dirt
from the from the rodeo and the tassels around his
(08:11):
arms like the things you will put on your bicycle
in the eighties if you were like, you know a
little girl on your bike with a basket. I felt
him on my face and because of the baby oil,
they're like stuck to my cheek and slid off as
he like ran to the ring. And I'm looking at
this guy and it was still real to me, and
he was a superhero. And the security guard obeyed he.
(08:33):
He listened to it. He did what he said. And
the Ultimate Warriors in no position of power over this
guy and his job. The guys doing the right thing,
but he obeyed him, and so they became these magical
characters to me. And I watched the brand and then, um,
here's where all the hardcore fans will hate me. Then
when it became the the Attitude era was when I
(08:56):
started to tune out a little bit because I didn't
like a lot of the storylines. They just played more
more goofy to me. That said, I watched all the
matches because those were some of the greatest matches that
I ever saw in my life. Still to this day. Um,
they had so much time to work and you would
(09:20):
really commit to the character that was built up, so
that when they had a match, they didn't have to
have a lot of time on the microphone. You could
just get to it um or get to it. Get
it's because I'm from New Mexico and that's close to Texas. Anyway,
they became these like sort of special, magical, magical characters
(09:41):
to me, and so I kept watching. I kept watching.
I kept loving it. My grandma, God rest her soul.
It was so real to her. My wife, Sarah Michelle
Geller made a movie with the Rock years ago called
Like south Land. I don't know, it wasn't it wasn't
the best movie, but they made a movie together. And
for those of you who know the Rock wind from
(10:02):
being the People's champion, he was a baby faced champion
to becoming a heel champion, meaning a bad guy, and
he became the corporate champion. My grandma hated him. He
was her favorite. He was handsome, right he still is. Uh.
He was great on the microphone. He could wrestle and
bounce around the ring like he weighed a buck sixty.
(10:24):
But he looked like he was sculpted from stone, like
Aries or some other Greek god. And he had the
people's eyebrow, which if you don't know about the people's eyebrow,
you just need to YouTube that. There's literally like three
minute montages of it. It's the most powerful eyebrow in
the history of sports entertainment, and he can just do
the one where I've never been able to do it.
(10:46):
And I'm telling you, I like this guy so much
that it was something I actually practiced and didn't even
succeed once without taking my finger and just pushing it
up um the same way you would do your biceps.
But she loved this guy and it was it was
real man, because he genuinely hated his boss, right, And
that's why Vince McMahon was so smart. He gave the
(11:09):
working man an opportunity to live out the fantasy of
slapping your jerk boss across the face when he speaks
out the side of it, and that is so satisfying
to see as an audience member and not to get
to like psychological. But that's why we love John McClean
from the die Hard series so much, because he is
(11:30):
the most relatable protagonist of all the eighties and nineties protagonists.
His body is the most attainable, his hairlines the most attainable.
His karate skills are the most attainable because there are none.
He's just gonna out average Joe. You you know, we
had to. You can't relate to Rambo that much unless
(11:50):
you're super Jack. You can't relate to Commando or the
Terminator because you're not super buff. But we can relate
to the John McClean care her, which is I think
white fans try to push the smaller guys so much
in wrestling, because we can relate to that more. But
we'll get into that episode down the road. So she
turns on the rock, turns on the people. My grandma
(12:11):
turns on the rock. My wife and my grandmother, her
name was Maria. They'd met. She loved her. My wife's
very very sweet um as John Leguizamo told me smart
Puerto Rican's married Jews, so I'm smart, uh and and
she's always taking taking care of me. So my grandma
loved her and they got along great. And then about
(12:31):
three months after that Christmas that we spent out there,
my wife books this movie and I get a phone
call from my grandmother Mary. I called her Mary, and
she's really upset, and she has this heavy Puerto Rican
accent and she says, your wife, Sara Mitchell, your wife
Sana Michell. Yeah, what's rock? Grandma? She goes she's working
(12:53):
with the Rock and I go, yeah, yeah, she's working
with Rus. She goes, hey, Thorn, this back on the people.
He's the call for a champion. Bleep him. But I
don't know if I can curse you, if if I
can buy episode three, I'll be cursing. Like a story.
But I'm trying to keep it together. When dealing with
my grandmother. It's very hard not to laugh at her accent, right.
Like my dad even had a joke about it because
(13:14):
he introduced her to uh to Peter Falk, the great
actor Peter Falk, who played Colombo, and I got to
one of my first movies was with him, and I
told him the story and he actually confirmed it and
told me it's true. My grandma wanted to meet Peter
Falk and my dad said, okay, just don't call him Colombo.
He freaking hates that. Please don't do him. She goes out,
don't worry, I'm not going to embarrass you. Don't work.
And so he goes, Peter, this is my is my mother, Marie,
(13:38):
and she goes, Colombo, I love you. After they made
he goes, my, don't I told you, don't call Colombo.
He hates that she goes with his last name and
my accent. I contact that kind of chance because it
sounds like the effort, which I don't know if I
can say it um So anyway, I'm trying not to laugh,
but I know she's upset, but she's upset about pro wrestling.
And then it all clicks and I remember, oh, yeah,
(14:00):
he he turned his back on the people. So my grandma,
I don't hear some of the stuff in the middle
because she's pretty upset. But the call finishes before I
say I love you, and she hung up before she
said I love you too. By the way, she says,
you'll tell Sada she takes that movie. She's dead to
me too. I'm not joking, and I'm not joking when
I say this. They never spoke again, she never and
(14:27):
the movie didn't do that well, and my grandma like
checked to like make sure, and she was happy when
the movie died. It didn't even really I don't think
it got distribution. I think it was like released in
like independent theaters, and she was happy and pleased. Did
the Rocks movies failed? Meanwhile, today she's rolling in her
grave because the Rocks the most successful dude on the
(14:49):
planet is probably gonna run for president one day, that
I'll get her to come back from the dead. But
that's how hardcore, that's how serious the connection for her.
And she passed that passion to me, and then I
interpreted it in my own way. Now in I'm twelve
(15:16):
years old, and uh, you know, the secret is out
on wrestling right for the out. But there were a
lot of us that were still holding on even though
we knew. And I'm in Albuquerque, New Mexico, at my
second school in one year. I was going through puberty.
I didn't have a dad. My godfather's Bob wall Uh.
(15:38):
You can google him if you want, or I'll tell
you about him on another episode. But needless to say,
I was getting in a lot of trouble. So I'm
at this private school send you a preparatory academy, and uh,
I was doing really well. I even I made it
on the chess team as a sixth grader and this
was like sixth or twelve, um, and they let me
be on their high school chess team. My heads were good.
(16:01):
I didn't always get good grades. Kids, if you're listening,
work harder than me. Um. And there was this dude
named Ray Garcia, and Ray, I'm sorry for saying your name.
I love you wherever you are and whatever you're doing,
and I wish you the best. But on this day, man,
you crossed the wrong wrestling fans. So we're at lunch
and uh, I'm talking to my cousin, my he was
(16:22):
my best friend. I called my cousin, Chris Sandoval, and uh,
this fool Ray comes up and he he hears us
talking wrestling, and he says, you know it's fake, right,
And it was like someone saying, like, you know, your
dad shot himself, right? Like that was the kind of
visceral emotional reaction that I couldn't help but have. And
(16:43):
then he said, I got a curse on this one.
He said, Rick Flair ain't shit, and I like, lost it.
I don't I lost it, right, because I all these
guys were heroes to me as a kid, so and
I always like the bad guys because the bad guys
always won. Rick Flair, he cheated. That's how we want.
The iron cheek cheated, that's how he wants. And I
(17:05):
would literally look at my mom and be like, Mama,
look and she hated it. Right. I started pulling for
the bad guys in movies. Because of that, I never
liked Paul Cogan Andre the Giants my favorite wrestler ever.
So this guy spoke against one of the great villains
who I think is a hero, and so I punched
Ray right in his face. And this isn't the funny part.
And he falls on the ground and I legit grabbed
(17:27):
his left his right leg, and I stepped over it,
spun around, put it over his other leg like the
number four, and I applied what we all now know
as the figure four leg lock. Now I had never
done this before, but I had seen it done a
thousand times, so the technique was flawless. I get on
(17:50):
the ground and I execute the what's what you need
to execute in the figure four? You put pressure on
the leg that's bent over the other, a leg like
the angle part of the four, not the straight line
of the four. And I've seen, you know, Ricky the
Dragon Steamboat reverse this, so I gotta be careful if
it gets reversed. I've seen the pain on on Ric
(18:11):
Flair's face and it's no joke. Um. So I pressed
down hard with my right leg and I just hear
and I let go right away. Almost threw up, and
I nobody said anything because it was loud, and then
Ray just starts screaming, dude, and don't worry, I'm not
gonna tell everybody. You were crying. Ray, I said, screaming, UM,
but he's crying, and I knew right away. I was like,
(18:35):
oh my god, I sproke this guy's ankle, and I
freaked out. I got so scared. I ran and got
a teacher, who bust themselves. By the way, it's such
an idiot. I just ran home, but I win got
a teacher and he had a legit broken ankle had
to be in a cast for however long you're in
a cast, six eight weeks or twelve weeks, whatever it was.
And I felt so bad, so shout out to Ray Garcia. Um.
(18:58):
But now you're kind of getting where the crazy comes from, right,
Like my grandma didn't talk to my wife even on
her deathbed. She had time. She was diabetic, UH and
just refused to to let that go. Ray trash trash
the nature boys. So he got his ankle broke, which
(19:19):
leads us to UH Orlando, Florida, and it was Rick
Flair's retirement match, and he was wrestling against Shawn Michaels
and we went out there early. It was me, Um,
Macaulay Culkin and uh a lot of the wrestling shows
I go to her usually with a Culkin brother. Um,
one of them has been thrown out for throwing a
(19:40):
beer on the big show. By the way, I'm not
gonna rad him out though, But it was me and McAuley.
We were sharing a hotel room and our hotel room
was right next door to the Snoop Doggs and uh,
they brought like a garbage bag of marijuana into there,
by the way, I'm not exaggerating. Uh. So we're there
(20:02):
and Saturday was the Hall of Fame speech and this
was when everyone hated John Cena and uh they booted
him while he was like trying to give this speech
about somebody who was going into the Hall of Fame
because a poor showing on the fans part. But they
were mad, you know, John Cena represented a different kind
of ww than what they were wanting at that time.
(20:23):
But he had to because the company was p G.
We'll get into the business of w w E in
a in another episode. Um, because actually a ton about
that from Vince from the Horses mouth, so to speak.
So we go to that, we meet a bunch of
the wrestlers, and I meet this lady who works there
who kind of helped UH do the invites and and
she tries to book celebrities and things like that for
(20:45):
w W events. And we we chatted up at like
the Hall of Fame party or whatever it was, and
then everybody goes home, goes to bed, and the next
day is WrestleMania, and UH, we're there and we're watching
the final match and it's the whole I'm sorry, I
love you superkick to the face right, and everybody goes crazy,
and I think we had a bet on another match.
(21:07):
And Mac every wrestling match I've ever bet McCauley on,
I've lost. He always knows who's gonna win. He could
write wrestling in his sleep. He never has. He should, um,
but he literally, but he's donna one and we've got
a hunter bucks of match. That's what we would do,
and Uh, I would you know, the end of the night,
you're out, you know, eight hundred to a thousand bucks
anytime that you go with him to a wrestling match anywhere.
(21:30):
So I'm talking to UH, to this nice lady and
I don't know if shoants me to say her name,
so I was gonna keep it out. And uh, she says, wow,
you should. You should uh talk to Stephanie McMahon. You've
got some some really cool ideas about wrestling, because we
had talked about like the old school versus the new
school and where the happy medium is? Is there a
happy medium that kind of stuff, and uh, I wasn't.
(21:51):
I was kind of done acting. I was like, yeah, okay.
I was like, I'm staying in New York with my
wife and I had an apartment out there then, and uh, okay,
I'll take the train up and I'll come. I'll sitting.
I'll mean, I'll meet Stephanie McMahon. That would be cool.
(22:13):
I think it's uh Wednesday, because they had a Monday
night raw and they shot smacked down on Tuesday nights
back then. Um, so on Wednesday, I take the train
to Stanford, Connecticut to Tighten Tower. And this is the
building that had the same gym with the pink and
purple neon lights that Vince used to work out and
where he blew out like both his quads or something
(22:36):
like that. So it's the same building that I saw
as a kid. So I'm already like getting kind of
tingly right because I just remember the old days. And uh,
I was kind of like, what's the word disenfranchised with
my business, if that's the right word, but you know
what I mean. And I was wanting to retire all
the way if at the very least I had a
(22:56):
foot and a half out right. And so I go
and I sit with Stephanie and we just start talking
wrestling and characters and you know, characters who maybe seem
stale and couldn't get over, and they would challenge you
with like, well how would you get this character over?
And and really just on the spot kind of thinking, right,
So you gotta be quick and fast, and my improv
skills are good and we're going to get into that
(23:17):
in an episode where we did acting class with professional
wrestlers and we did literal like acting techniques and things
like that, and there's some really great stories in there,
and they shine like the stars they are. It was amazing.
But so I'm in there with steph and we're talking
about this stuff, and we start talking about acting workshops
and things like that and techniques and stuff to make
people feel things. Uh, little cheats you can do here
(23:39):
and there. Our meetings not over. And she says, you
have to talk to my dad, And I said, what
do you mean? And she goes, you have notes, you
have notes on on the brand, but you're not crapping
all over it. And you come to the table with ideas,
not just oh that sucks, Well what would you do?
I don't know, but it sucks like I would have
three or four ideas for everything. So she would say, hey,
(24:00):
what would you do with Kane? And say oh this,
Oh how about this? Oh what about this? And just
try to, you know, build it up. And then all
of a sudden you have you know, five, six, seven ideas.
So I'm like, I can't. I'm seriously gonna meet Vince
McMahon right now, Like this is crazy. So this all
happens in a day, you guys. So um. I shake
hands with Steph. I haven't met anyone else. I go
(24:22):
into Vince McMahon's office. He has this dude outside on
his desk, is cool guy named Jimmy. I think he
was like ex Army X. He's ex military for sure,
and serious dude, but cool cat. And he looked out
for me when I was there when not everyone did.
And we'll get into that, but uh, yes, I go
into Vince's office and I have a very similar conversation
(24:43):
that I had with Steph. You know, we're just talking
about the characters and and the reason to people will fight, right,
that's the story. And so he hits you with like,
you know, wrestler X is John Cena wrestler? Why is
is Randy Orton? I want him to wrestle at WrestleMania.
Get me there in a way that we haven't gotten
there before. And so we would start talking about stories
(25:06):
things like this. Bringing these other guys in is like
red herrings, which is like a decoy. Right, And uh,
I grew up. I told you the part with my
dad earlier for two reasons, once you understood the Puerto
Rican connection, but also not growing up with a father.
I'm a sucker for him, Okay, I'm a I want
to please my boss. I want to please people that
(25:30):
I looked up to when I was younger. Right, It's
just it's just something anyone without a father or a
mother can relate to. This. Um. So I'm sitting in
there and he calls me son, and he says, well,
I think we could really use you here, son, and
he puts out his hand and I'm like, well, in
my head, I'm like, hold up, I don't I haven't
even like seen a contract or. We haven't spoken money,
(25:52):
and this guy is putting out that lesson make a
deal hand. But because he says, son, that's that's crimpt tonight.
And he did it to me twice, that son of
a gut. He got me to come back with the
same technique. Um So that one's a shame on me.
Um So I shaked the man's hand. I haven't even
spoken to my wife and she was in l A
and uh. He goes, all right, so we'll send you guys,
(26:15):
We'll send your your people whatever they gotta get to you,
and we'll start you next week. Next week. Okay, it's
a Wednesday. So I get on the train. I may
have spoke with Stephanie again after I don't remember. I
get back on the train and I go back to
my apartment. I called Sarah and I say, hey, so
(26:36):
I just took a job working for the w w E.
And she says, well, you're gonna be a wrestler. I
said no, um, I think I'm gonna write, and I
think I'm gonna teach him how to act. She goes, no,
you're not, You're an idiot. I'm Sarah I met with
Vince McMahon today. Because she didn't meet with Vince McMahon today.
I said, Sarah, I shook, I shook his hand. I
said yes in the room. She goes, why would you
(26:57):
do that? And I told her the son thing and
she's laughed because, oh my god, just a stupid She's like,
but I support you. That's what you that I told you.
My wife's the cool that. She goes, that's what you
want to do. She was like, try it out. She said,
don't get fired. I said, that's why Steph wants me
to to uh to take the job, because she thinks
I'm not afraid to get fired. So I'll kind of
speak my mind more. Um. I think everyone has some
(27:18):
fear of job termination. But for whatever reason, the longer
I was there, the less I worried about it. But
in the beginning I was still a little nervous. And
so so Sarah goes, Okay, she goes, so you're write wrestling,
and she goes, when are you coming home? I said,
I don't know. I don't. I don't know what they
want me to do. So here was the deal. Hey
send me a contract, and uh, I don't want to
(27:39):
throw out like exact numbers because I don't know if
their business is public or not. So we'll say it
was We'll say it was two and to write for
them per year. And it was a number that they
weren't in a budget from. And so I said, you
guys can keep all that money and just give me stock.
I'll just take stock in the company and and bet
on myself off right again because I was just dumb,
(28:03):
and so against my manager's advice, that's what I did. Um,
and signed the contract. And the deal was for me
to travel to every single Monday night Raw and every
single shot on Tuesday, but airing on Thursday, I believe
was the date of SmackDown back then, so we would
(28:23):
shoot Raw and smack Down. I would be at all
of those tapings and I would be in the office
every single week. Um, And that was the job. I
took it, and I went in stormy and we'll finish
with this story because it's awkward, horrible and really funny.
So I get to work. I get to work. I
(28:44):
wanted to bring like a lunch box. I didn't have one.
I took the train to work. I've never done that
in my life. New Mexico there's no trains taking new places,
so I'm uh. I get there to tighten tower. They
take a photo so I can do my badge, so
you know, I have full access to Titan Tower. I
can go to the gym if I want. They have
a cafeteria in there where they're serving food. They have
(29:05):
like the media department where they were doing like not
magazine stuff, but whatever, like the digital stuff was at
that point. Then they have like the writer's room, then
the writer's floor I should say creatives floor. Then they
have the executives floor, and then on the very bottoms,
like the merch floor right where you can get like
old DVDs, which I grabbed everything I could and just
watched and studied right away. Um so I get there,
(29:28):
I'm super excited, and I meet my superior, Michael ps Hayes.
And yes, the PS stands for Pier six D dude.
So Michael, who's seen it all now has to deal
with this Hollywood guy coming into his writer's room and
(29:50):
he's supposed to teach me the wrestling business, right, and
I'm supposed to, you know, write better scripts. And nobody
has been told anything about the other person. So I
get in there, I have my meeting with him, and
he's awesome. Okay, he couldn't have been cooler to me.
He had just been in some trouble at the company,
is what I was told, so he was kind of
humbled a little bit, and maybe that's why it was nice.
(30:11):
But Michael and I, by the time I left, were
really really tight. So he kind of breaks it down
for me and he says, here's what's gonna have to do. Uh,
here's how many wrestlers you have on the TV roster
that are going to be working, um, and you have
to give me stories four weeks of stories for all
of them. And most of the time it's not gonna
(30:31):
go through because there's not gonna be enough time in
the show. But that's your job, no matter what I said, Cool,
that's my job. That's my job. While I'm having the
meeting with him, they knock on his door and they
say Vince wants to see Freddy uh in his office,
and Michael's like, you need to go. So I get up.
I'm like, what the hell is this? And uh, I
go into Vince's office and there's this other dude sitting
(30:52):
in there named Brian, and uh I sit on the
other side and Vince shows me the Monday Night Ross
script and he says, Brian fred hey Man, nice to
meet you. Brian, hey hey, nice to meet you. And
Brian's looking warily at me. All right, He's it's like
all side ie, He's like, what is what is going well?
(31:14):
Who is this guy? And I'm sitting in there like
what what am I doing in here? Who am I?
So Vince shows me the script and he goes, Brian
Freddy's here to help out with all the scripts and
the dialogue. I'm gonna have to send you back to
the drawing board on this one. He hadn't even read
it yet. Okay. Brian visibly and audibly snaps a number
(31:37):
two pencil in half upon hearing this, he snapped a
lot of pencils, um and uh he goes okay, and
his big side just and he grabs the script and
Vince looks at me and kind of smiles, and I'm
literally like he's this is a test, like he's trying
to see he's gonna pit me against these guys and
(31:59):
see if I can freaking take it. This is who
this guy is, right, and uh so I'm like all right,
and I don't mind the challenge. So I walk out
and uh, Brian is not waiting for me, by the way,
He's already like halfway down the hall. I catch up
to him and I say, hey, man, that's a that's
just a terrible way they have to meet. I'm so sorry.
(32:20):
You know, I'm not here to rewrite your stuff, dude,
because this is because of you. Man, just straight up
all cards on the table right away. And I was like,
oh no, this guy hates me now he did, But
by the time I left, Brian and I were really
tight to We're not I wouldn't. We're not like friends.
We don't send each other Christmas cards or anything like that,
(32:41):
but if we ever see each other or randomly like
or on the same chain on the social media thing,
it's always all love. And I always check in on
him and he's he's a good dude outside of his
sports team affiliations. Um So I'm sitting there like they
just and he literally threw me in the fire day one.
So I go back in to the writer's room and uh,
(33:02):
Freebord goes, how's your meeting? And he has this huge
grid because he knows, he knows, like this is a
routine for Vince. He just any of all because I
wasn't the first Hollywood writer they had there. They brought
writers from like USA TV shows in there all the time,
and we're gonna get into some of those in future episodes.
But now I go, I go, yeah, everything's fine, and
he goes, so are you ready to work on some
(33:22):
storylines that are gonna get cut every week or not?
And I literally was like I sat there, I sat down,
I opened my computer, and I just started writing. Um,
we're gonna get into the process of writing at w
w E, the pain of getting your ideas killed, the
glory of getting your ideas over. I'm gonna talk about
(33:43):
some wild pitches that were given to me by wrestlers,
some really great pitches that were given to me my wrestlers,
some crazy on the road moments. I have one. I've
told this story before to two friends, but the suitcase
at Terminal Velocity during a nice storm is still one
of my favorite stories. And I'll share that in greater
(34:04):
length because this isn't someone else's podcast, That's my podcast.
That's all for this episode. I want to thank all
you guys for for listening, and remember, if you want
to support what we do, please share, please subscribe. That's
all for now, but I'll see you guys in the
next episode of Wrestling with Freddie. This has been a
(34:25):
production of I Heart Radio is Michael Tour podcast Network.
For more podcasts for My heart Radio, visit the I
heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
your favorite shows.
What's up, everybody. I'm Freddie Friends Jr. And Welcome to
Wrestling with Freddie, the brand new WWF. We're gonna talk
about my career that I had as as brief as
it was with the w w E, my passion for
wrestling as a kid, and the love and respect that
I still have for it, uh to this day. Um.
(00:24):
My time is limited to w w E, but with
wrestling being in the shape it is now and wrestlers
sort of becoming free agents and going to other places,
I can actually talk a lot about other brands too,
because it's all shared now. UM. So you're gonna hear
a lot of stories. Some of them are gonna be
kind of crazy, some would be super funny. Some of
them are even kind of sad. But I feel like
(00:44):
I have a good perspective on them. I'm not here
to bum anybody out. Um. In today's episode, we're gonna
talk about how I got introduced to wrestling, which was
the craziest way possible. Then we're gonna discuss the moment
I fell in love with wrestling, and then we're gonna
discussed the ridiculous circumstances of me being in Orlando Florida
at Ric Flair's retirement match, being in the room right
(01:07):
next to Snoop Doggs, so you know what that smelled like.
And then getting offered a job for the w w
E and for some reason I said yes, So that's
what we're going to get into. And uh, now it's
time to start the show. Now stuffing up to the
mic the host of Wrestling with Freddie Freddie Prince Dunyah Okay,
(01:30):
so uh for those of you who don't know, I
gotta take you back in time a little bit. My
father was a stand up comedian named Freddie Prints hence
the Junior, and he was a big time stand up
comedian and he was so big time that gave him
his own show and it was the number one show
in the country for a very short period of time.
And uh he he died in nineteen seventy seven, so
(01:51):
he couldn't make any more TV shows. But the Puerto
Rican part of my heritage, my grandma mainly has always
been obsessed with professional wrestling. My grandma will call it
luchad And so my mom wanted me to understand my
father's side of the family and the culture there, and
she would send me out to Puerto Rico every Christmas
(02:11):
break and everyone uh and every summer break. H. It's
also a good time for her to find herself and
got a vacation from her pain in the butt only child,
so she sent me out to Puerto Rico. And back then,
I don't know if they still do it, but they
would put like a little tag around your neck that
says I'm flying alone, and you would have, you know,
a flight attendant help you on the plane and get off.
(02:31):
And I landed in San Juan, uh, Puerto Rico, and
my Papo William picked me up. He was a butcher
and he was big and buff like a pro wrestler,
and uh. He drove me to Bocron, Puerto Rico, where
my grandmother lived. And my grandmother had posters on her
wall of old school matches at the Carlos Cologne Arena
(02:52):
in San Juan, and we would watch American wrestling and
lucha wrestling pretty much every day. That in a weird
tune called silver Hawks, which got me into anime too,
But other than that, it was wrestling, and she, as
did many back then, was fully convinced that wrestling was
a hundred percent real and that these fights meant something
(03:13):
and they were important, and the Puerto Rican fans really
believed in in their person winning because their person was
the good guy. They hated the heels, and those will
be some terms you hear me use sometimes heels and
baby faces. Heels are bad guys all like the hardcore
wrestling fans are like, dude, we know, but there's some
that aren't. And all the good guys are called baby faces,
(03:34):
whether you're men or women. So uh so the baby
faces have to win in Puerto Rico, at least back then.
I don't know how it is now. And uh we
started watching it on TV, and I asked if we
could go to uh to see a match live. I've
never I've never been to one. And she goes, yeah, okay, okay,
so we get tickets. And my grandma was like a
baller in Puerto Rico. Okay. Her son was Freddie Prinz.
(03:57):
Puerto Rico really claims him even though he was only
half part Ricon, which makes me a quarter quarto rican. Um.
That's what a comic name. Paul Mooney called me when
I was like twelve years old. He's like, you ain't
even Puerto Rican. You're you're you're a quarto rican um.
But anyway, Uh, so she drives up to San Juan.
She had this great Cadillac, right and she gets a
(04:17):
treatment man. And I didn't know anything about my dad
at this point, so I just thought my grandma was
like the governor of Puerto Rico or something. So she
gets to park right up front, and uh, this guy
sits outside and he says, I'll watch the car. I
didn't know that, man, he was gonna sit there the
whole time. When we came out, he was in the
same spot. And the dude watched the car. It was
she had. She had cloud. So we go and we
(04:39):
get right up close and uh, we're there really early too,
by the way, and they're putting a cage around the ring.
And I'm, you know, eight years old, a third grader,
and I asked my grandma said, oh, it's a steel
cage match. You didn't tell me it's a steel cage match.
She said, no, that's to keep the wrestlers safe. I said,
what do you mean she goes to keep them safe
from us? I said what? And I didn't really understand
(05:02):
until the show started and the fans, I mean a
lot of you'll remember the story like Yankees fans or
whoever it was, they were like throwing batteries at that
picture John Rocker, Um. And I think that's who it was.
That's how it was here, Like any food that was
brought was thrown all over these guys. And all they're
(05:23):
doing is walking to the ring and it's not even
a steel kid. They didn't, not one wrestler used the
cage as a weapon, like there's any regular matches. But
I'm watching the crowd almost as much. I'm like excited
just talking about this right now, like shaking for real,
like adrenaline. Um, I'm watching the crowd as much as
(05:43):
I am the matches because this was it was a
little scary for me. And uh So we go back
home and we're watching wrestling, and said, did you like it? Oh?
I loved it. I loved it, and I would wrestle
with her. She was the first person ever hit me
with a with a Rick Flair chop and she hit hard.
And she's a tough Puerto Rican girl. Grew up in
Puerto Rico and moved to New York. Had to be
(06:04):
tough out there too, so she was no joke. And
uh I would watch wrestling with her every single week.
And then I went back to New Mexico where I
was living with my mom, and uh there was a
wrestling match that was coming. The WWF was coming to Albuquerque,
New Mexico, in this little place where they had the
rodeo called Tingly Colosseum. And when I say it had
(06:25):
dust on the floors, I don't mean dust, I mean
dirt because it was actually a rodeo and they didn't
put hardwood floor in in there in between the rodeos.
It was just dirt. So there's a wrestling ring, bleachers
and a dirt walk up basically with some rolled out,
you know, tarp for them to walk down. And it
was it was you know, New Mexico wasn't the richest
(06:46):
state in the country. So so we go and our
seats are awful, so the smaller place, and there were
a lot of pillars holding it up. And I'm not joking.
Our seats are right behind the pillar and uh so
I can't see anything. And I sneak down, uh, towards
the railing where all the wrestlers are coming out, and
(07:06):
it was like a battle royal, I think, is is
what it was. Because there was multiple wrestlers already in
the ring, and then all of a sudden, here he
comes and it's the Ultimate Warrior and he's running down
the ring, and right when I see him, like come
out of the backstage area, this security dude catches me
right and he knows I'm not supposed to be down there,
(07:27):
and he puts his hand on my shoulder, and the
Warriors like running down and I'm not resisting, you know,
I'm I can't. I think I'm nine now, maybe maybe
maybe ten, and uh, but I want to, you know,
I want to see the Warrior. And the Warrior veers
to the right, like close to the rail, and he goes,
it's okay. He puts his hand on the security guard
(07:49):
and he goes, here's with me. Now, I wasn't, but
he was being good to the kid, right, And it's
not like this place was sold out, like he was
just having this moment. I remember what he smelled like.
It was a mixture of baby oil, sweat and dirt
from the from the rodeo and the tassels around his
(08:11):
arms like the things you will put on your bicycle
in the eighties if you were like, you know a
little girl on your bike with a basket. I felt
him on my face and because of the baby oil,
they're like stuck to my cheek and slid off as
he like ran to the ring. And I'm looking at
this guy and it was still real to me, and
he was a superhero. And the security guard obeyed he.
(08:33):
He listened to it. He did what he said. And
the Ultimate Warriors in no position of power over this
guy and his job. The guys doing the right thing,
but he obeyed him, and so they became these magical
characters to me. And I watched the brand and then, um,
here's where all the hardcore fans will hate me. Then
when it became the the Attitude era was when I
(08:56):
started to tune out a little bit because I didn't
like a lot of the storylines. They just played more
more goofy to me. That said, I watched all the
matches because those were some of the greatest matches that
I ever saw in my life. Still to this day. Um,
they had so much time to work and you would
(09:20):
really commit to the character that was built up, so
that when they had a match, they didn't have to
have a lot of time on the microphone. You could
just get to it um or get to it. Get
it's because I'm from New Mexico and that's close to Texas. Anyway,
they became these like sort of special, magical, magical characters
(09:41):
to me, and so I kept watching. I kept watching.
I kept loving it. My grandma, God rest her soul.
It was so real to her. My wife, Sarah Michelle
Geller made a movie with the Rock years ago called
Like south Land. I don't know, it wasn't it wasn't
the best movie, but they made a movie together. And
for those of you who know the Rock wind from
(10:02):
being the People's champion, he was a baby faced champion
to becoming a heel champion, meaning a bad guy, and
he became the corporate champion. My grandma hated him. He
was her favorite. He was handsome, right he still is. Uh.
He was great on the microphone. He could wrestle and
bounce around the ring like he weighed a buck sixty.
(10:24):
But he looked like he was sculpted from stone, like
Aries or some other Greek god. And he had the
people's eyebrow, which if you don't know about the people's eyebrow,
you just need to YouTube that. There's literally like three
minute montages of it. It's the most powerful eyebrow in
the history of sports entertainment, and he can just do
the one where I've never been able to do it.
(10:46):
And I'm telling you, I like this guy so much
that it was something I actually practiced and didn't even
succeed once without taking my finger and just pushing it
up um the same way you would do your biceps.
But she loved this guy and it was it was
real man, because he genuinely hated his boss, right, And
that's why Vince McMahon was so smart. He gave the
(11:09):
working man an opportunity to live out the fantasy of
slapping your jerk boss across the face when he speaks
out the side of it, and that is so satisfying
to see as an audience member and not to get
to like psychological. But that's why we love John McClean
from the die Hard series so much, because he is
(11:30):
the most relatable protagonist of all the eighties and nineties protagonists.
His body is the most attainable, his hairlines the most attainable.
His karate skills are the most attainable because there are none.
He's just gonna out average Joe. You you know, we
had to. You can't relate to Rambo that much unless
(11:50):
you're super Jack. You can't relate to Commando or the
Terminator because you're not super buff. But we can relate
to the John McClean care her, which is I think
white fans try to push the smaller guys so much
in wrestling, because we can relate to that more. But
we'll get into that episode down the road. So she
turns on the rock, turns on the people. My grandma
(12:11):
turns on the rock. My wife and my grandmother, her
name was Maria. They'd met. She loved her. My wife's
very very sweet um as John Leguizamo told me smart
Puerto Rican's married Jews, so I'm smart, uh and and
she's always taking taking care of me. So my grandma
loved her and they got along great. And then about
(12:31):
three months after that Christmas that we spent out there,
my wife books this movie and I get a phone
call from my grandmother Mary. I called her Mary, and
she's really upset, and she has this heavy Puerto Rican
accent and she says, your wife, Sara Mitchell, your wife
Sana Michell. Yeah, what's rock? Grandma? She goes she's working
(12:53):
with the Rock and I go, yeah, yeah, she's working
with Rus. She goes, hey, Thorn, this back on the people.
He's the call for a champion. Bleep him. But I
don't know if I can curse you, if if I
can buy episode three, I'll be cursing. Like a story.
But I'm trying to keep it together. When dealing with
my grandmother. It's very hard not to laugh at her accent, right.
Like my dad even had a joke about it because
(13:14):
he introduced her to uh to Peter Falk, the great
actor Peter Falk, who played Colombo, and I got to
one of my first movies was with him, and I
told him the story and he actually confirmed it and
told me it's true. My grandma wanted to meet Peter
Falk and my dad said, okay, just don't call him Colombo.
He freaking hates that. Please don't do him. She goes out,
don't worry, I'm not going to embarrass you. Don't work.
And so he goes, Peter, this is my is my mother, Marie,
(13:38):
and she goes, Colombo, I love you. After they made
he goes, my, don't I told you, don't call Colombo.
He hates that she goes with his last name and
my accent. I contact that kind of chance because it
sounds like the effort, which I don't know if I
can say it um So anyway, I'm trying not to laugh,
but I know she's upset, but she's upset about pro wrestling.
And then it all clicks and I remember, oh, yeah,
(14:00):
he he turned his back on the people. So my grandma,
I don't hear some of the stuff in the middle
because she's pretty upset. But the call finishes before I
say I love you, and she hung up before she
said I love you too. By the way, she says,
you'll tell Sada she takes that movie. She's dead to
me too. I'm not joking, and I'm not joking when
I say this. They never spoke again, she never and
(14:27):
the movie didn't do that well, and my grandma like
checked to like make sure, and she was happy when
the movie died. It didn't even really I don't think
it got distribution. I think it was like released in
like independent theaters, and she was happy and pleased. Did
the Rocks movies failed? Meanwhile, today she's rolling in her
grave because the Rocks the most successful dude on the
(14:49):
planet is probably gonna run for president one day, that
I'll get her to come back from the dead. But
that's how hardcore, that's how serious the connection for her.
And she passed that passion to me, and then I
interpreted it in my own way. Now in I'm twelve
(15:16):
years old, and uh, you know, the secret is out
on wrestling right for the out. But there were a
lot of us that were still holding on even though
we knew. And I'm in Albuquerque, New Mexico, at my
second school in one year. I was going through puberty.
I didn't have a dad. My godfather's Bob wall Uh.
(15:38):
You can google him if you want, or I'll tell
you about him on another episode. But needless to say,
I was getting in a lot of trouble. So I'm
at this private school send you a preparatory academy, and uh,
I was doing really well. I even I made it
on the chess team as a sixth grader and this
was like sixth or twelve, um, and they let me
be on their high school chess team. My heads were good.
(16:01):
I didn't always get good grades. Kids, if you're listening,
work harder than me. Um. And there was this dude
named Ray Garcia, and Ray, I'm sorry for saying your name.
I love you wherever you are and whatever you're doing,
and I wish you the best. But on this day, man,
you crossed the wrong wrestling fans. So we're at lunch
and uh, I'm talking to my cousin, my he was
(16:22):
my best friend. I called my cousin, Chris Sandoval, and uh,
this fool Ray comes up and he he hears us
talking wrestling, and he says, you know it's fake, right,
And it was like someone saying, like, you know, your
dad shot himself, right? Like that was the kind of
visceral emotional reaction that I couldn't help but have. And
(16:43):
then he said, I got a curse on this one.
He said, Rick Flair ain't shit, and I like, lost it.
I don't I lost it, right, because I all these
guys were heroes to me as a kid, so and
I always like the bad guys because the bad guys
always won. Rick Flair, he cheated. That's how we want.
The iron cheek cheated, that's how he wants. And I
(17:05):
would literally look at my mom and be like, Mama,
look and she hated it. Right. I started pulling for
the bad guys in movies. Because of that, I never
liked Paul Cogan Andre the Giants my favorite wrestler ever.
So this guy spoke against one of the great villains
who I think is a hero, and so I punched
Ray right in his face. And this isn't the funny part.
And he falls on the ground and I legit grabbed
(17:27):
his left his right leg, and I stepped over it,
spun around, put it over his other leg like the
number four, and I applied what we all now know
as the figure four leg lock. Now I had never
done this before, but I had seen it done a
thousand times, so the technique was flawless. I get on
(17:50):
the ground and I execute the what's what you need
to execute in the figure four? You put pressure on
the leg that's bent over the other, a leg like
the angle part of the four, not the straight line
of the four. And I've seen, you know, Ricky the
Dragon Steamboat reverse this, so I gotta be careful if
it gets reversed. I've seen the pain on on Ric
(18:11):
Flair's face and it's no joke. Um. So I pressed
down hard with my right leg and I just hear
and I let go right away. Almost threw up, and
I nobody said anything because it was loud, and then
Ray just starts screaming, dude, and don't worry, I'm not
gonna tell everybody. You were crying. Ray, I said, screaming, UM,
but he's crying, and I knew right away. I was like,
(18:35):
oh my god, I sproke this guy's ankle, and I
freaked out. I got so scared. I ran and got
a teacher, who bust themselves. By the way, it's such
an idiot. I just ran home, but I win got
a teacher and he had a legit broken ankle had
to be in a cast for however long you're in
a cast, six eight weeks or twelve weeks, whatever it was.
And I felt so bad, so shout out to Ray Garcia. Um.
(18:58):
But now you're kind of getting where the crazy comes from, right,
Like my grandma didn't talk to my wife even on
her deathbed. She had time. She was diabetic, UH and
just refused to to let that go. Ray trash trash
the nature boys. So he got his ankle broke, which
(19:19):
leads us to UH Orlando, Florida, and it was Rick
Flair's retirement match, and he was wrestling against Shawn Michaels
and we went out there early. It was me, Um,
Macaulay Culkin and uh a lot of the wrestling shows
I go to her usually with a Culkin brother. Um,
one of them has been thrown out for throwing a
(19:40):
beer on the big show. By the way, I'm not
gonna rad him out though, But it was me and McAuley.
We were sharing a hotel room and our hotel room
was right next door to the Snoop Doggs and uh,
they brought like a garbage bag of marijuana into there,
by the way, I'm not exaggerating. Uh. So we're there
(20:02):
and Saturday was the Hall of Fame speech and this
was when everyone hated John Cena and uh they booted
him while he was like trying to give this speech
about somebody who was going into the Hall of Fame
because a poor showing on the fans part. But they
were mad, you know, John Cena represented a different kind
of ww than what they were wanting at that time.
(20:23):
But he had to because the company was p G.
We'll get into the business of w w E in
a in another episode. Um, because actually a ton about
that from Vince from the Horses mouth, so to speak.
So we go to that, we meet a bunch of
the wrestlers, and I meet this lady who works there
who kind of helped UH do the invites and and
she tries to book celebrities and things like that for
(20:45):
w W events. And we we chatted up at like
the Hall of Fame party or whatever it was, and
then everybody goes home, goes to bed, and the next
day is WrestleMania, and UH, we're there and we're watching
the final match and it's the whole I'm sorry, I
love you superkick to the face right, and everybody goes crazy,
and I think we had a bet on another match.
(21:07):
And Mac every wrestling match I've ever bet McCauley on,
I've lost. He always knows who's gonna win. He could
write wrestling in his sleep. He never has. He should, um,
but he literally, but he's donna one and we've got
a hunter bucks of match. That's what we would do,
and Uh, I would you know, the end of the night,
you're out, you know, eight hundred to a thousand bucks
anytime that you go with him to a wrestling match anywhere.
(21:30):
So I'm talking to UH, to this nice lady and
I don't know if shoants me to say her name,
so I was gonna keep it out. And uh, she says, wow,
you should. You should uh talk to Stephanie McMahon. You've
got some some really cool ideas about wrestling, because we
had talked about like the old school versus the new
school and where the happy medium is? Is there a
happy medium that kind of stuff, and uh, I wasn't.
(21:51):
I was kind of done acting. I was like, yeah, okay.
I was like, I'm staying in New York with my
wife and I had an apartment out there then, and uh, okay,
I'll take the train up and I'll come. I'll sitting.
I'll mean, I'll meet Stephanie McMahon. That would be cool.
(22:13):
I think it's uh Wednesday, because they had a Monday
night raw and they shot smacked down on Tuesday nights
back then. Um, so on Wednesday, I take the train
to Stanford, Connecticut to Tighten Tower. And this is the
building that had the same gym with the pink and
purple neon lights that Vince used to work out and
where he blew out like both his quads or something
(22:36):
like that. So it's the same building that I saw
as a kid. So I'm already like getting kind of
tingly right because I just remember the old days. And uh,
I was kind of like, what's the word disenfranchised with
my business, if that's the right word, but you know
what I mean. And I was wanting to retire all
the way if at the very least I had a
(22:56):
foot and a half out right. And so I go
and I sit with Stephanie and we just start talking
wrestling and characters and you know, characters who maybe seem
stale and couldn't get over, and they would challenge you
with like, well how would you get this character over?
And and really just on the spot kind of thinking, right,
So you gotta be quick and fast, and my improv
skills are good and we're going to get into that
(23:17):
in an episode where we did acting class with professional
wrestlers and we did literal like acting techniques and things
like that, and there's some really great stories in there,
and they shine like the stars they are. It was amazing.
But so I'm in there with steph and we're talking
about this stuff, and we start talking about acting workshops
and things like that and techniques and stuff to make
people feel things. Uh, little cheats you can do here
(23:39):
and there. Our meetings not over. And she says, you
have to talk to my dad, And I said, what
do you mean? And she goes, you have notes, you
have notes on on the brand, but you're not crapping
all over it. And you come to the table with ideas,
not just oh that sucks, Well what would you do?
I don't know, but it sucks like I would have
three or four ideas for everything. So she would say, hey,
(24:00):
what would you do with Kane? And say oh this,
Oh how about this? Oh what about this? And just
try to, you know, build it up. And then all
of a sudden you have you know, five, six, seven ideas.
So I'm like, I can't. I'm seriously gonna meet Vince
McMahon right now, Like this is crazy. So this all
happens in a day, you guys. So um. I shake
hands with Steph. I haven't met anyone else. I go
(24:22):
into Vince McMahon's office. He has this dude outside on
his desk, is cool guy named Jimmy. I think he
was like ex Army X. He's ex military for sure,
and serious dude, but cool cat. And he looked out
for me when I was there when not everyone did.
And we'll get into that, but uh, yes, I go
into Vince's office and I have a very similar conversation
(24:43):
that I had with Steph. You know, we're just talking
about the characters and and the reason to people will fight, right,
that's the story. And so he hits you with like,
you know, wrestler X is John Cena wrestler? Why is
is Randy Orton? I want him to wrestle at WrestleMania.
Get me there in a way that we haven't gotten
there before. And so we would start talking about stories
(25:06):
things like this. Bringing these other guys in is like
red herrings, which is like a decoy. Right, And uh,
I grew up. I told you the part with my
dad earlier for two reasons, once you understood the Puerto
Rican connection, but also not growing up with a father.
I'm a sucker for him, Okay, I'm a I want
to please my boss. I want to please people that
(25:30):
I looked up to when I was younger. Right, It's
just it's just something anyone without a father or a
mother can relate to. This. Um. So I'm sitting in
there and he calls me son, and he says, well,
I think we could really use you here, son, and
he puts out his hand and I'm like, well, in
my head, I'm like, hold up, I don't I haven't
even like seen a contract or. We haven't spoken money,
(25:52):
and this guy is putting out that lesson make a
deal hand. But because he says, son, that's that's crimpt tonight.
And he did it to me twice, that son of
a gut. He got me to come back with the
same technique. Um So that one's a shame on me.
Um So I shaked the man's hand. I haven't even
spoken to my wife and she was in l A
and uh. He goes, all right, so we'll send you guys,
(26:15):
We'll send your your people whatever they gotta get to you,
and we'll start you next week. Next week. Okay, it's
a Wednesday. So I get on the train. I may
have spoke with Stephanie again after I don't remember. I
get back on the train and I go back to
my apartment. I called Sarah and I say, hey, so
(26:36):
I just took a job working for the w w E.
And she says, well, you're gonna be a wrestler. I
said no, um, I think I'm gonna write, and I
think I'm gonna teach him how to act. She goes, no,
you're not, You're an idiot. I'm Sarah I met with
Vince McMahon today. Because she didn't meet with Vince McMahon today.
I said, Sarah, I shook, I shook his hand. I
said yes in the room. She goes, why would you
(26:57):
do that? And I told her the son thing and
she's laughed because, oh my god, just a stupid She's like,
but I support you. That's what you that I told you.
My wife's the cool that. She goes, that's what you
want to do. She was like, try it out. She said,
don't get fired. I said, that's why Steph wants me
to to uh to take the job, because she thinks
I'm not afraid to get fired. So I'll kind of
speak my mind more. Um. I think everyone has some
(27:18):
fear of job termination. But for whatever reason, the longer
I was there, the less I worried about it. But
in the beginning I was still a little nervous. And
so so Sarah goes, Okay, she goes, so you're write wrestling,
and she goes, when are you coming home? I said,
I don't know. I don't. I don't know what they
want me to do. So here was the deal. Hey
send me a contract, and uh, I don't want to
(27:39):
throw out like exact numbers because I don't know if
their business is public or not. So we'll say it
was We'll say it was two and to write for
them per year. And it was a number that they
weren't in a budget from. And so I said, you
guys can keep all that money and just give me stock.
I'll just take stock in the company and and bet
on myself off right again because I was just dumb,
(28:03):
and so against my manager's advice, that's what I did. Um,
and signed the contract. And the deal was for me
to travel to every single Monday night Raw and every
single shot on Tuesday, but airing on Thursday, I believe
was the date of SmackDown back then, so we would
(28:23):
shoot Raw and smack Down. I would be at all
of those tapings and I would be in the office
every single week. Um, And that was the job. I
took it, and I went in stormy and we'll finish
with this story because it's awkward, horrible and really funny.
So I get to work. I get to work. I
(28:44):
wanted to bring like a lunch box. I didn't have one.
I took the train to work. I've never done that
in my life. New Mexico there's no trains taking new places,
so I'm uh. I get there to tighten tower. They
take a photo so I can do my badge, so
you know, I have full access to Titan Tower. I
can go to the gym if I want. They have
a cafeteria in there where they're serving food. They have
(29:05):
like the media department where they were doing like not
magazine stuff, but whatever, like the digital stuff was at
that point. Then they have like the writer's room, then
the writer's floor I should say creatives floor. Then they
have the executives floor, and then on the very bottoms,
like the merch floor right where you can get like
old DVDs, which I grabbed everything I could and just
watched and studied right away. Um so I get there,
(29:28):
I'm super excited, and I meet my superior, Michael ps Hayes.
And yes, the PS stands for Pier six D dude.
So Michael, who's seen it all now has to deal
with this Hollywood guy coming into his writer's room and
(29:50):
he's supposed to teach me the wrestling business, right, and
I'm supposed to, you know, write better scripts. And nobody
has been told anything about the other person. So I
get in there, I have my meeting with him, and
he's awesome. Okay, he couldn't have been cooler to me.
He had just been in some trouble at the company,
is what I was told, so he was kind of
humbled a little bit, and maybe that's why it was nice.
(30:11):
But Michael and I, by the time I left, were
really really tight. So he kind of breaks it down
for me and he says, here's what's gonna have to do. Uh,
here's how many wrestlers you have on the TV roster
that are going to be working, um, and you have
to give me stories four weeks of stories for all
of them. And most of the time it's not gonna
(30:31):
go through because there's not gonna be enough time in
the show. But that's your job, no matter what I said, Cool,
that's my job. That's my job. While I'm having the
meeting with him, they knock on his door and they
say Vince wants to see Freddy uh in his office,
and Michael's like, you need to go. So I get up.
I'm like, what the hell is this? And uh, I
go into Vince's office and there's this other dude sitting
(30:52):
in there named Brian, and uh I sit on the
other side and Vince shows me the Monday Night Ross
script and he says, Brian fred hey Man, nice to
meet you. Brian, hey hey, nice to meet you. And
Brian's looking warily at me. All right, He's it's like
all side ie, He's like, what is what is going well?
(31:14):
Who is this guy? And I'm sitting in there like
what what am I doing in here? Who am I?
So Vince shows me the script and he goes, Brian
Freddy's here to help out with all the scripts and
the dialogue. I'm gonna have to send you back to
the drawing board on this one. He hadn't even read
it yet. Okay. Brian visibly and audibly snaps a number
(31:37):
two pencil in half upon hearing this, he snapped a
lot of pencils, um and uh he goes okay, and
his big side just and he grabs the script and
Vince looks at me and kind of smiles, and I'm
literally like he's this is a test, like he's trying
to see he's gonna pit me against these guys and
(31:59):
see if I can freaking take it. This is who
this guy is, right, and uh so I'm like all right,
and I don't mind the challenge. So I walk out
and uh, Brian is not waiting for me, by the way,
He's already like halfway down the hall. I catch up
to him and I say, hey, man, that's a that's
just a terrible way they have to meet. I'm so sorry.
(32:20):
You know, I'm not here to rewrite your stuff, dude,
because this is because of you. Man, just straight up
all cards on the table right away. And I was like,
oh no, this guy hates me now he did, But
by the time I left, Brian and I were really
tight to We're not I wouldn't. We're not like friends.
We don't send each other Christmas cards or anything like that,
(32:41):
but if we ever see each other or randomly like
or on the same chain on the social media thing,
it's always all love. And I always check in on
him and he's he's a good dude outside of his
sports team affiliations. Um So I'm sitting there like they
just and he literally threw me in the fire day one.
So I go back in to the writer's room and uh,
(33:02):
Freebord goes, how's your meeting? And he has this huge
grid because he knows, he knows, like this is a
routine for Vince. He just any of all because I
wasn't the first Hollywood writer they had there. They brought
writers from like USA TV shows in there all the time,
and we're gonna get into some of those in future episodes.
But now I go, I go, yeah, everything's fine, and
he goes, so are you ready to work on some
(33:22):
storylines that are gonna get cut every week or not?
And I literally was like I sat there, I sat down,
I opened my computer, and I just started writing. Um,
we're gonna get into the process of writing at w
w E, the pain of getting your ideas killed, the
glory of getting your ideas over. I'm gonna talk about
(33:43):
some wild pitches that were given to me by wrestlers,
some really great pitches that were given to me my wrestlers,
some crazy on the road moments. I have one. I've
told this story before to two friends, but the suitcase
at Terminal Velocity during a nice storm is still one
of my favorite stories. And I'll share that in greater
(34:04):
length because this isn't someone else's podcast, That's my podcast.
That's all for this episode. I want to thank all
you guys for for listening, and remember, if you want
to support what we do, please share, please subscribe. That's
all for now, but I'll see you guys in the
next episode of Wrestling with Freddie. This has been a
(34:25):
production of I Heart Radio is Michael Tour podcast Network.
For more podcasts for My heart Radio, visit the I
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