September 27, 2023 • 24 mins
I’m taking a trip down memory lane, reminiscing about the most iconic and memorable characters that have graced the squared circle. From the legendary characters that we watched as kids to the unique gimmicks that left us scratching our heads, we leave no stone unturned in this discussion.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
And now you're made events.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Introducing the hosts are Wrestling with Freddy, Chef Die Hand,
Fredy Bridge. Junior, Ladies and gentlemen, Welcome to a brand
new episode of Wrestling with Friends. Wrestling with Freddy. I'm
your host. We have no news because it's September. You
(00:25):
don't want news in September. Balls here, the breezes are nice,
the ladies are looking good. The men are starting to
dress up a little more ladies, so they're looking good
for you.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
What up did?
Speaker 2 (00:36):
How are you, sir?
Speaker 1 (00:37):
I'm feeling good.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
We're gearing up to head to Survivor Series. And whenever
anyone from our generation talks about Survivor Series, there's one
fact that we will not ever let go of, nor
ever forget, though we try daily, and that is the
gobblede Cooker. Now, today we're going to talk about gimmicks
in and out of the ring, the good ones and
(00:59):
the bad ones, but it has to start and finish
with this because this is the single worst, this single
worst idea that anyone in the WWE has ever had,
and that might even be including Brawl for All. So
this was a giant egg and everyone wanted to know
what was in the egg, and the announcers and the
(01:22):
people talking about the egg led the people to believe
that there was going to be gold in there, that
the fans were going to win something. They were certain
that something great for the fans was going to come
out of this. And it was weeks, it was three, four, five,
five weeks leading up to this, and we're finally going
to realize what it is on Thanksgiving and so it's
(01:45):
a survivor series and here's the big reveal, and the
crowd's excited and they're hyped up, and the egg cracks,
and it's cracks a little more, and then their egg
cracks open and outcomes a dude in a fucking turkey suit.
And the crowd didn't cheer, The crowd didn't boom. The
(02:08):
crowd had the same reaction that a lot of you
are having when I said a guy in a turkey suit,
which is just wait what? And you could hear a
fart in there if someone would have broken wind. It
was so quiet, and everyone hated it so much. I
always wished I could have been in the room when
that gimmick died so that I could see the look
(02:30):
on the face of the person who came up with it,
and I'm pretty sure it was Vince who came up
with the copy. But to think that that was going
to be it had to be right, To think that
it was going to be anyone else is absolutely yeah.
It has to be insane, because it's crazy enough that
it could only be Vince. But to think anybody would
like that is maybe the most arrogant or uninformed decision
(02:56):
ever made. So I've shipped on that enough. How about you, Jeff,
Let's get into some of the what do you want
to start with? Well, I don't even think the gobbledey
Goocker is the worst one. The Gobbledygoocker was so bad
that it it kind of became a reoccurring thing, you know, so.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
It's like it's God.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
They eventually started doing not eventually, but there was a
time when the San Diego Chicken came into wrestling and
was kind of like similar, you know, like Pete Rose.
Like there was a thing where the Santago Chicken had
beef with Caine and they're like why, And it's because
Pete Rose had beef with Caine, And then Pete Rose
was in the San Diego Chicken costume was all kind
of confusing and weird, but the gobbledy Goocker goes back.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
You know.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
Even Gene Oakland was like, this is embarrassing. I've got
to interview the gobbledygooker, like this is ridiculous, and it
just kept working. Then it was the Boogeyman. Then it
was Xavier Woods, then jay Usa was in there. It's
kind of lived on since nineteen ninety and it made
it the last time that we saw they because fifteen.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Yeah, what a bit.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
I think the worst gimmicks was Omas Omas. There was
a time when Tazawa was he had like.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
A because he's Asian.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
They wrote like this whole storyline of him being like
a ninja and he had like all these ninjas behind him.
One of the ninjas was his giant Ninja, who was
just almost wearing a terribly ill fitting mask and like
kind of a weird Halloween costume, almost looked like a
cheap undertaker Halloween costume, and he was the giant Ninja.
(04:32):
And I remember being like, I don't know who that
guy is, but that guy rules because I love like
giant dudes. But it lasted maybe a couple of weeks.
One of the worst things ever, all right.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
What about this, maybe I can top it. What about
Vincent Kennedy McMahon versus God.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
Yes, I hated this. I hated it. It was it
was it's tough to offend me. It was so offensive.
It was every single a church and challenges God and
then like he rinses his face with the holy water,
like it's just like a like it was like a
bowl that's just there for you to like rinse your
(05:14):
hands in. Like it was just every part that would
get a laugh or would get a reaction from the
crowd was just so latently blasphemous that it was ridiculous.
And then they're like, how are they going to portray God?
It was just a spotlight that like went down on
the ramp and then like followed into that.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
That was the best parts didn't be God's asses.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
I mean like it wasn't even a good match.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
It was a squash match.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
Bro. God didn't how he's gonna justify that when he
gets to the pearly gates, Like, how is he gonna
explain this to to God?
Speaker 2 (05:49):
He won't even walk up to the gates. As soon
as he dies, he knows exactly which direction to walk.
He's not even gonna ask and be like, yeah, I
know the bred Hard thing alone.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
Yeah that's true, Like but like that, this one was
extra blasphemous, not as bad as fighting God. But Brian
Kendrick did a thing for a while where and I
would love to talk to him to ask him if
he came up with this. Did he pitch this? What
was the idea? I don't hate the idea, but the
execution was terrible and it didn't last long. Every week
(06:21):
that wherever WW was traveling, Brian Kendrick would come out
as the mascot of that city's pro team. So when
he was like in Phoenix, Arizona, he came out as
the Diamondback, which is just the.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
I.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
And then when he came out in New York, he
was the Jet instead of like like for the Jets.
But it didn't really go over. No one really like understood.
Also like him just wearing like a luchador mask that's
green and like green pants and calling himself the Jet.
Even the crowds like is he supposed to be like
the New York Jets or like like, we don't really
know what this is.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Oh, he didn't dress like the mascot. He was dressing
like a luchador.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
I mean it was always kind of he was like
like it looked like he went into like a props
closet and just put on the color of the sports
team and like whatever the thing was. Because the diamondback
is like a snake.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
He should have put on some knickerbockers and done the
New York Knicks and wrestled in a little knickerbox.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
He is little.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Yeah, that had been super cute.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
I just remember thinking that was a crappy gimmick.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
Where do we stand on bron panty matches.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
I was a big fan of them at.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
The time versus now.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
I think it both. I liked it then, I like
it now.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
I mean, at least at least they were leaning into
the fact that these girls were hot.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Well, I think there's been a handful of women's matches
that I that I've spoken about, but we speak about
more of the men's matches here. When someone's smoking hot, Well,
I do that for the guys too, So that's.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
Yeah, I feel like I feel like you're.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Talking about the hot dudes to we're the voices of
the people, We're not the voice of the voiceless. That's
cmpunk we're the voices of the people. We say what
they wish they could say, and we fear not your
your digital attacks for when you you hate the things
we say.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
So that being said, always loved the bron panties match.
It acknowledged the hot women, and you know what, you
know what break gimmick.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
We got from that.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
That's you know what gimmick we got from that. Remember
when Ivory acted like she was like this purist and
she was like I'm not coming at it and just
showing my boobs and but like these other girls, and
she wore like a white collared shirt with like a
little like Kentucky Fried chicken bow tie, almost like the
colonel would wear. And she would go out and she'd
she'd shame all the female wrestlers about how inappropriate what
(08:46):
they were wearing was and the way they're conducting themselves
and behaving on television was inappropriate. And we got this
kind of like Mormonish kind of like mom being like out,
I'm not out here to be objectified. And then the
girls would come out and I think at one point
they ripped Ivory's shirt and Ivory's high, you know, so
everyone popped because Ivory is you know, Yeah, he was
a huge or one of my favorite women's wrestling gimmicks
(09:10):
was this super pure ivory. The crowd hated it. They're like,
shut up, we want to see the puppies, and then Jerry.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Lawler hat, we want to see them.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Yeah, and Jerry Lawler's there going yeah, why is she
doing this? You know?
Speaker 2 (09:22):
It was The Great screamed fifty times a week for
a good four year stretch there. Man, that was all
he would scream, all right. But from some of the
ones that were a bit more out there to more
the characters themselves, the best one is obviously the Undertaker.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
We've talked about undertaking hands down.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
But there's some other characters in there that I think
get for, have been forgotten along the way or don't
get celebrated as much as they should. And my personal
favorite is the Godfather. I don't know how this got
on TV. I don't know how it stayed on TV
after it got on TV, even in the added tut era.
But for those who don't know the Godfather, he had
(10:03):
been other gimmicks before. He had been this guy named
Papa Shango, who is this like African voodoo witch doctor guy.
He was also I think Kamamination domination. Yeah, Musava, that's right, dude, awesome,
and he was like the angry black man in that.
And then he became the Godfather, which was a pimp,
(10:24):
a full on pimp, dressed like a pimp, walked like
a pimp, came out with what they called a whole train,
had a train of hose behind him. The man had
a whole train. Do you understand? It had an engine,
it had a dining car, it had the passenger cars,
and it had a girl with a big old caboose
in the back. Always like he legit had a hole.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
You know how he got that whole train. He would
go to a strip club in whatever town was near
and be like, you guys want to be on television tonight,
Like I do a gimmick where I got whatever. All
you got to do is just dress hot and come
and meet me, and they would He would literally have
actual strippers come down with them on the ramp.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
You just made the Godfather. It's even cooler. Yeah, so
underappreciated part of the who he He worked security and
was a manager at a strip bar. That's why he
probably went and did that because that was dude's like
six foot seven, six foot eight sauce. He was huge
and the tallest pimp ever for sure, for the dullest pimp.
(11:28):
He would come out there with his ladies and he
would cut promos about selling women for sex and smoking
weed and selling weed, and like he did, and I'd
be watching this like how is this not getting bleeped
left and right? And then the next week he was
on TV, and then the next week he was on
and it lasted a long ass time, and the whole
(11:51):
train came every single time with him, every single time.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
It is a concerning time for wrestling, to say the least. Literally,
this is wrestling. Notoriously was you know, it was family
friendly in a way, and then when it got like
when I was turned into a teenager, you got like
a little more PG. Thirteen, right, like, it's still sort
(12:14):
of for teenagers. You still think you'd want to make
it a little appropriate if it's for teenagers. But no,
they had the Godfather, which is the gammick you just named,
who came out with his whole train, who was a
portraying an actual pimp making it look cool. And then
you had a guy who played a porn star named Valvenus,
and he would come out and just say inappropriate things
while he wore a towel.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
You know, the big Valboshki is a lot like a
Rubic's cue.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
The more you play with it, the harder it gets right.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
And the music was all slunted.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
We literally have a pimp and a porn star on
tel At one point they chopped off Valvenus's penis on television.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
They did chop choppy, choppy pp.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
That's what he said.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
Choppy choppy pp is very easy to find on the internet.
So it was a weird time.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
And was it an Asian guy with a sword saying
cho oh yeah, damn it WWF.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
I've actually got a good side quest for this.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
I was at a wrestling thing for my friend at
my friend Shawn's house, and he had all these wrestlers
and Valvenus is like one of the coolest guys.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
Just wanted to talk.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
About cryptocurrency, cigars and like politics, and I was like,
this is the guy that they had play the a
porn star named Valvenus. We asked him why he came
up with the gig or the character, and he goes,
I didn't come up with it. He goes, I was
literally they came to see me at an independent thing,
and so Vince Russloa goes and watches val and they're
(13:43):
driving to the next gig. Vince Russo just jumps like
in his car and they're driving and he calls Vince
while Valvenus is in the car, and Vince's like, how
is he? And he goes, he's great, great wrestler, great body,
good look, he goes, what.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
Was his thing? He's like, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
He just wants to sit here and talk politics with me.
But if you ask me, he looks like a greasy
porn star. And Vince is like, perfect and just made
just made him a greasy porn star. Based off of
Vince Russo's phone call of like what describing what he.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
Looked like, of course he did because it was vocation wrestling.
I mean that's what Vince did. You're a you're a
hockey player, you're a repo man, you're a you're a
porn star. I mean, that's that was a big part
of what he built, was voc You're an ir S agent,
a fucking I r S agent as a professional wrestler. Well,
(14:31):
I love the.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Man because that might be one of the worst.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
I hate a fake laugh more than anything in acting. Okay,
a fake laugh to me is is a knife in
both my eyes, both my ears, in the part where
your spine connects to the brain, like all those parts
of my body hurts. So when Seth Rollins does the
laugh sometimes it hurts because it's forced, and I know
(14:58):
it's not organic thing. It's something that that either he
wants to do or Vince really wants him to do.
The repo man laugh is the single worst laugh in
the history of professional wrestling. And there have been a
lot of fake laughs. Doinks got me a few times,
but Donks sometimes would do it off a prank, so
it was, Okay, this guy's like, I'm the repo man.
(15:24):
It was like the when when Monica, the Monica character
on Friends was making fun of her boyfriend Chandler's work,
laugh like that's how bad, That's how bad. It hurt
my face. When when he would do it, and he
would always have those vocation type the freaking boogeyman. Bro Yeah,
(15:45):
the Boogeyman, the goon, like all these man they were
all in that in that same realm. What's the worst
vocation wrestler?
Speaker 1 (15:56):
Ever, I mean got it be.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
Also, what was their idea of what a repull Man
looked like?
Speaker 1 (16:02):
Like, why is he wearing?
Speaker 2 (16:03):
Oh yeah, they dressed him like a little bandit?
Speaker 3 (16:06):
Yeah, like yeah, exactly, he looked like the Hamburgler or
something like. If if you guys are listening to this,
you have no idea who we're talking about. Google Barry
Darso who who also was from Demolition, which went was
like kind of Road Warriors before the Road Warriors kind
of mixed kind of s and m like leather leather guys. Well,
it was kind of I think they were trying to
(16:26):
mimic Mad Max when they did Demolition. But the repel
Man was played by one half of or one third
of Demolition, a guy named Barry who he was played
the Repelman. But he wear like a bandana, like a
black bandana, like a teenage mutant Ninja Turtle, and then
he wore like a big coat out to the ring.
He'd have like just a wrestling singlet underneath. And what's
(16:49):
weird about is like he in the beginning, when I
was young, I've seen him come to the ring with
like a rope and like a hook, like he was
gonna tow a car. But then they kind of just
stopped doing it. You just come out with his jacket
and that's it. There was no rope.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
I was like, what that. Even as a little kid,
I was going, I don't understand the hell they're doing
with this guy. Also, what is a repol man? Because
he's like, Dad, look, what's a repol man?
Speaker 2 (17:10):
Probably one of the worst the movie repo Man. Watched
the movie Repo Man. That's pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
Never seen that. I didn't even know that's a movie. Never.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
No, there's a movie called Repo Man. That's actually kind
of cool. I think Emilio Estevez was in it when
he was like twenty one years old.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
Does he actually reposess things or is he just a wrestler?
Speaker 2 (17:26):
Just watch it. It's a cool I don't spoil movie.
I'm in movies. I don't like to spoil thom. This
crop is the worst, and then we should finish with
a couple that we like. Okay, do you remember Mantar
half minotaur, half man, although a minotaur is half man
(17:50):
half bull. This was the only time I've seen this
was watching an episode of Dark Side of the Ring,
which is a show you got me into.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
Yeah, and seen.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Every episode, but I watched the Brawl for all episode
after you and I first spoke about it, and it
really gave me a wild perspective on it, and I
hated it even more.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
Yeah, but in.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
The beginning of that show, they showed Mantar and they
had that writer Vince Russo saying like, I don't think
he's going to be able to get in the ring,
and then sure, shit, he couldn't get in Our shock
Masters probably the worst of the worst, because that lasted
all of ten seconds, you know.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
The shock Master.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
Yeah, right, And I think everyone that listens to our
podcast knows it. But if they don't, he look it up.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
I don't even want should we even spoil it or
just say look it up?
Speaker 3 (18:38):
Well, it happened a long time, but I will say,
like it's basically the reason it's so notorious is because
they were introducing a new character and things went so
wrong that the character within ten seconds was no longer
going to be able to be a wrestler.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
The greatest part of that video if you listen carefully,
after the chaos happens. And I don't want to say
what the chaos is for any new fans that have
it whted. You can hear Rick Flair go.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
I told you, Ah, you can also hear him curse
inside the guy.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
Hear him curse on television.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
I heard they did it on purpose. I heard Dusty
Rhodes hated the idea. Dusty was running it. He was
the one in the gorilla position and nailed have them
nail it two by four right above where he was
gonna walk interesting, purposly trip and ball. That was the
story I heard.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
That's what see.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
You know what's weird about wrestling is it is forever
hard to tell what's real and fake. Earl Hebner, I'm
not get in trouble for saying this. Earl Hebner. When
we hung out, we hung out with him for a
couple of days for this expressling thing, and Earl Hebner
was like, that's all fake. When we were talking about
the the Montreal screw job, he was even saying like it.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
Was all the work. That was all the work. Like
I know, but that's the thing.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
It's most notoriously like famous thing like Brett's talked about
a h and he thinks they're they're both leaning into
it as like they knew the finish it they and
they sold it as whatever.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
But maybe maybe he's leaning into the to the his
version of the kfe Man. It's you can't you don't
know wrestlers, rascals, who's the best, Who's got the best
new gimmick? Of the new guys, you can throw guys
like Lucasaurus out there.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
The Fiend.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
Yeah, my favorite was the Fiend for sure, Big Fiend fan.
Sad with what they did with it, sad with what happened.
Thought it was perfect with the playhouse. I thought every
week kept people guessing. It was really like a throwback
to what I really loved about wrestling in a modern time,
which I like, you don't see a lot of the gimmicks.
(20:39):
You don't even see Finn Bala's demon really anymore. With
that being said, you know Caine, honorable mention, mankind, all
of bray Wyatt's stuff, including the Fiend. I even liked
when they burned them all up and he came up
out of the ring burnt. I thought, I love I
like that they're still doing those type of things and
bray Wyatt's trying to keep it alive. So I think
(20:59):
that's the best, like modern one for sure. For me,
what's your favorite gimmick ever?
Speaker 2 (21:04):
The Undertaker. I think that's probably everybody's.
Speaker 3 (21:07):
One of his favorite besides Undertaker, because that's I mean,
he has got to be the goat for gimmicks in wrestling.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
But besides Undertaker, it's Godfather. But I will say this
Undertaker not only had the coolest gimmick, but he may
have had the coolest vehicle ride out ever because he
got to ride out on the Harley. And I know
the beer truck's awesome. I know the milk truck's awesome.
You know. I know there's been cool cars that have
(21:34):
come out, but the Harley is so epic that you
have to be man enough to ride it. And Hulk
Hogan wasn't like that. To me, it was always like
that's a burning image in my head when hul Cogan
wasn't able to ride off on the Undertaker's motorcycle. It
was like it and it's only because he doesn't know
how to ride well, but it always felt like it
was the Undertaker's bike saying, Nah, dude, you're not me.
(21:55):
You don't get to ride me. Only the man gets
to ride me. Also, that's why I've always liked is
it true.
Speaker 3 (22:01):
I don't know if you you would know, or if
if maybe Alex would know. But like what, I don't
know where I heard this, so it might not even
be true, but or like where it got in my brain.
But Undertaker always wanted to do the American Badass gimmick.
Maybe not with that title, but like he always wanted
to do that. He always wanted to wear to Harley,
he wanted the bandana. He want because he's like a
(22:22):
biker guy, he's also a Texas guy. Like I heard
that he'd always wanted to do that. And once Undertaker's
gimmick was just so obviously legendary and he basically could
do no wrong. He got to do the Badass, he
got to do the motorcycle gimmick. But I heard that
that was like his idea, that's something he had always
wanted to do.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
But I don't know if that's true or not.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
His wife reached out to me on Instagram and said
they wanted to talk to me about something. Could they
have my number? And I gave it to her. But
I never heard from him. So if I ever do
hear from him, I'll ask him. I like hearing him
talk about the business in the old days. He was
always really generous and just really cool. You know, he's
a good storyteller.
Speaker 3 (22:58):
Yeah, nobody doesn't like the Undertaker, and if they don't,
I've never heard anyone say anything bad about them.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
We'll leave it on this. Him and Bruce told me
a story about partying with Cypress Hill. That's like the
coolest story ever. And I'll tell you when we're off
the air.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
Parting with Cypress Hill the band.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
Yes, I'm excited, Yes, the rap group. All right, So
that's it for this week's episode. Tune in for Thursday,
where we break it down even more in your bonus content.
Hope you enjoyed this week's episode on behalf of my
excellent co host, mister Jeff Die. I'm Freddy Prince Junior
and this was Wrestling with Freon.
Speaker 3 (23:34):
Follow us on Instagram, Wrestling with Freddy Twitter is ww
Freddie Pod. Follow us on all the socials so you
can submit your questions for the Federation.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
This has been a production of Iheart'smichael Toura podcast Network.
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. H
And now you're made events.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Introducing the hosts are Wrestling with Freddy, Chef Die Hand,
Fredy Bridge. Junior, Ladies and gentlemen, Welcome to a brand
new episode of Wrestling with Friends. Wrestling with Freddy. I'm
your host. We have no news because it's September. You
(00:25):
don't want news in September. Balls here, the breezes are nice,
the ladies are looking good. The men are starting to
dress up a little more ladies, so they're looking good
for you.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
What up did?
Speaker 2 (00:36):
How are you, sir?
Speaker 1 (00:37):
I'm feeling good.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
We're gearing up to head to Survivor Series. And whenever
anyone from our generation talks about Survivor Series, there's one
fact that we will not ever let go of, nor
ever forget, though we try daily, and that is the
gobblede Cooker. Now, today we're going to talk about gimmicks
in and out of the ring, the good ones and
(00:59):
the bad ones, but it has to start and finish
with this because this is the single worst, this single
worst idea that anyone in the WWE has ever had,
and that might even be including Brawl for All. So
this was a giant egg and everyone wanted to know
what was in the egg, and the announcers and the
(01:22):
people talking about the egg led the people to believe
that there was going to be gold in there, that
the fans were going to win something. They were certain
that something great for the fans was going to come
out of this. And it was weeks, it was three, four, five,
five weeks leading up to this, and we're finally going
to realize what it is on Thanksgiving and so it's
(01:45):
a survivor series and here's the big reveal, and the
crowd's excited and they're hyped up, and the egg cracks,
and it's cracks a little more, and then their egg
cracks open and outcomes a dude in a fucking turkey suit.
And the crowd didn't cheer, The crowd didn't boom. The
(02:08):
crowd had the same reaction that a lot of you
are having when I said a guy in a turkey suit,
which is just wait what? And you could hear a
fart in there if someone would have broken wind. It
was so quiet, and everyone hated it so much. I
always wished I could have been in the room when
that gimmick died so that I could see the look
(02:30):
on the face of the person who came up with it,
and I'm pretty sure it was Vince who came up
with the copy. But to think that that was going
to be it had to be right, To think that
it was going to be anyone else is absolutely yeah.
It has to be insane, because it's crazy enough that
it could only be Vince. But to think anybody would
like that is maybe the most arrogant or uninformed decision
(02:56):
ever made. So I've shipped on that enough. How about you, Jeff,
Let's get into some of the what do you want
to start with? Well, I don't even think the gobbledey
Goocker is the worst one. The Gobbledygoocker was so bad
that it it kind of became a reoccurring thing, you know, so.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
It's like it's God.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
They eventually started doing not eventually, but there was a
time when the San Diego Chicken came into wrestling and
was kind of like similar, you know, like Pete Rose.
Like there was a thing where the Santago Chicken had
beef with Caine and they're like why, And it's because
Pete Rose had beef with Caine, And then Pete Rose
was in the San Diego Chicken costume was all kind
of confusing and weird, but the gobbledy Goocker goes back.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
You know.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
Even Gene Oakland was like, this is embarrassing. I've got
to interview the gobbledygooker, like this is ridiculous, and it
just kept working. Then it was the Boogeyman. Then it
was Xavier Woods, then jay Usa was in there. It's
kind of lived on since nineteen ninety and it made
it the last time that we saw they because fifteen.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Yeah, what a bit.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
I think the worst gimmicks was Omas Omas. There was
a time when Tazawa was he had like.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
A because he's Asian.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
They wrote like this whole storyline of him being like
a ninja and he had like all these ninjas behind him.
One of the ninjas was his giant Ninja, who was
just almost wearing a terribly ill fitting mask and like
kind of a weird Halloween costume, almost looked like a
cheap undertaker Halloween costume, and he was the giant Ninja.
(04:32):
And I remember being like, I don't know who that
guy is, but that guy rules because I love like
giant dudes. But it lasted maybe a couple of weeks.
One of the worst things ever, all right.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
What about this, maybe I can top it. What about
Vincent Kennedy McMahon versus God.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
Yes, I hated this. I hated it. It was it
was it's tough to offend me. It was so offensive.
It was every single a church and challenges God and
then like he rinses his face with the holy water,
like it's just like a like it was like a
bowl that's just there for you to like rinse your
(05:14):
hands in. Like it was just every part that would
get a laugh or would get a reaction from the
crowd was just so latently blasphemous that it was ridiculous.
And then they're like, how are they going to portray God?
It was just a spotlight that like went down on
the ramp and then like followed into that.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
That was the best parts didn't be God's asses.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
I mean like it wasn't even a good match.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
It was a squash match.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
Bro. God didn't how he's gonna justify that when he
gets to the pearly gates, Like, how is he gonna
explain this to to God?
Speaker 2 (05:49):
He won't even walk up to the gates. As soon
as he dies, he knows exactly which direction to walk.
He's not even gonna ask and be like, yeah, I
know the bred Hard thing alone.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
Yeah that's true, Like but like that, this one was
extra blasphemous, not as bad as fighting God. But Brian
Kendrick did a thing for a while where and I
would love to talk to him to ask him if
he came up with this. Did he pitch this? What
was the idea? I don't hate the idea, but the
execution was terrible and it didn't last long. Every week
(06:21):
that wherever WW was traveling, Brian Kendrick would come out
as the mascot of that city's pro team. So when
he was like in Phoenix, Arizona, he came out as
the Diamondback, which is just the.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
I.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
And then when he came out in New York, he
was the Jet instead of like like for the Jets.
But it didn't really go over. No one really like understood.
Also like him just wearing like a luchador mask that's
green and like green pants and calling himself the Jet.
Even the crowds like is he supposed to be like
the New York Jets or like like, we don't really
know what this is.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Oh, he didn't dress like the mascot. He was dressing
like a luchador.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
I mean it was always kind of he was like
like it looked like he went into like a props
closet and just put on the color of the sports
team and like whatever the thing was. Because the diamondback
is like a snake.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
He should have put on some knickerbockers and done the
New York Knicks and wrestled in a little knickerbox.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
He is little.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Yeah, that had been super cute.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
I just remember thinking that was a crappy gimmick.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
Where do we stand on bron panty matches.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
I was a big fan of them at.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
The time versus now.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
I think it both. I liked it then, I like
it now.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
I mean, at least at least they were leaning into
the fact that these girls were hot.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Well, I think there's been a handful of women's matches
that I that I've spoken about, but we speak about
more of the men's matches here. When someone's smoking hot, Well,
I do that for the guys too, So that's.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
Yeah, I feel like I feel like you're.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Talking about the hot dudes to we're the voices of
the people, We're not the voice of the voiceless. That's
cmpunk we're the voices of the people. We say what
they wish they could say, and we fear not your
your digital attacks for when you you hate the things
we say.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
So that being said, always loved the bron panties match.
It acknowledged the hot women, and you know what, you
know what break gimmick.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
We got from that.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
That's you know what gimmick we got from that. Remember
when Ivory acted like she was like this purist and
she was like I'm not coming at it and just
showing my boobs and but like these other girls, and
she wore like a white collared shirt with like a
little like Kentucky Fried chicken bow tie, almost like the
colonel would wear. And she would go out and she'd
she'd shame all the female wrestlers about how inappropriate what
(08:46):
they were wearing was and the way they're conducting themselves
and behaving on television was inappropriate. And we got this
kind of like Mormonish kind of like mom being like out,
I'm not out here to be objectified. And then the
girls would come out and I think at one point
they ripped Ivory's shirt and Ivory's high, you know, so
everyone popped because Ivory is you know, Yeah, he was
a huge or one of my favorite women's wrestling gimmicks
(09:10):
was this super pure ivory. The crowd hated it. They're like,
shut up, we want to see the puppies, and then Jerry.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Lawler hat, we want to see them.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Yeah, and Jerry Lawler's there going yeah, why is she
doing this? You know?
Speaker 2 (09:22):
It was The Great screamed fifty times a week for
a good four year stretch there. Man, that was all
he would scream, all right. But from some of the
ones that were a bit more out there to more
the characters themselves, the best one is obviously the Undertaker.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
We've talked about undertaking hands down.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
But there's some other characters in there that I think
get for, have been forgotten along the way or don't
get celebrated as much as they should. And my personal
favorite is the Godfather. I don't know how this got
on TV. I don't know how it stayed on TV
after it got on TV, even in the added tut era.
But for those who don't know the Godfather, he had
(10:03):
been other gimmicks before. He had been this guy named
Papa Shango, who is this like African voodoo witch doctor guy.
He was also I think Kamamination domination. Yeah, Musava, that's right, dude, awesome,
and he was like the angry black man in that.
And then he became the Godfather, which was a pimp,
(10:24):
a full on pimp, dressed like a pimp, walked like
a pimp, came out with what they called a whole train,
had a train of hose behind him. The man had
a whole train. Do you understand? It had an engine,
it had a dining car, it had the passenger cars,
and it had a girl with a big old caboose
in the back. Always like he legit had a hole.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
You know how he got that whole train. He would
go to a strip club in whatever town was near
and be like, you guys want to be on television tonight,
Like I do a gimmick where I got whatever. All
you got to do is just dress hot and come
and meet me, and they would He would literally have
actual strippers come down with them on the ramp.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
You just made the Godfather. It's even cooler. Yeah, so
underappreciated part of the who he He worked security and
was a manager at a strip bar. That's why he
probably went and did that because that was dude's like
six foot seven, six foot eight sauce. He was huge
and the tallest pimp ever for sure, for the dullest pimp.
(11:28):
He would come out there with his ladies and he
would cut promos about selling women for sex and smoking
weed and selling weed, and like he did, and I'd
be watching this like how is this not getting bleeped
left and right? And then the next week he was
on TV, and then the next week he was on
and it lasted a long ass time, and the whole
(11:51):
train came every single time with him, every single time.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
It is a concerning time for wrestling, to say the least. Literally,
this is wrestling. Notoriously was you know, it was family
friendly in a way, and then when it got like
when I was turned into a teenager, you got like
a little more PG. Thirteen, right, like, it's still sort
(12:14):
of for teenagers. You still think you'd want to make
it a little appropriate if it's for teenagers. But no,
they had the Godfather, which is the gammick you just named,
who came out with his whole train, who was a
portraying an actual pimp making it look cool. And then
you had a guy who played a porn star named Valvenus,
and he would come out and just say inappropriate things
while he wore a towel.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
You know, the big Valboshki is a lot like a
Rubic's cue.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
The more you play with it, the harder it gets right.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
And the music was all slunted.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
We literally have a pimp and a porn star on
tel At one point they chopped off Valvenus's penis on television.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
They did chop choppy, choppy pp.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
That's what he said.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
Choppy choppy pp is very easy to find on the internet.
So it was a weird time.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
And was it an Asian guy with a sword saying
cho oh yeah, damn it WWF.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
I've actually got a good side quest for this.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
I was at a wrestling thing for my friend at
my friend Shawn's house, and he had all these wrestlers
and Valvenus is like one of the coolest guys.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
Just wanted to talk.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
About cryptocurrency, cigars and like politics, and I was like,
this is the guy that they had play the a
porn star named Valvenus. We asked him why he came
up with the gig or the character, and he goes,
I didn't come up with it. He goes, I was
literally they came to see me at an independent thing,
and so Vince Russloa goes and watches val and they're
(13:43):
driving to the next gig. Vince Russo just jumps like
in his car and they're driving and he calls Vince
while Valvenus is in the car, and Vince's like, how
is he? And he goes, he's great, great wrestler, great body,
good look, he goes, what.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
Was his thing? He's like, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
He just wants to sit here and talk politics with me.
But if you ask me, he looks like a greasy
porn star. And Vince is like, perfect and just made
just made him a greasy porn star. Based off of
Vince Russo's phone call of like what describing what he.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
Looked like, of course he did because it was vocation wrestling.
I mean that's what Vince did. You're a you're a
hockey player, you're a repo man, you're a you're a
porn star. I mean, that's that was a big part
of what he built, was voc You're an ir S agent,
a fucking I r S agent as a professional wrestler. Well,
(14:31):
I love the.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Man because that might be one of the worst.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
I hate a fake laugh more than anything in acting. Okay,
a fake laugh to me is is a knife in
both my eyes, both my ears, in the part where
your spine connects to the brain, like all those parts
of my body hurts. So when Seth Rollins does the
laugh sometimes it hurts because it's forced, and I know
(14:58):
it's not organic thing. It's something that that either he
wants to do or Vince really wants him to do.
The repo man laugh is the single worst laugh in
the history of professional wrestling. And there have been a
lot of fake laughs. Doinks got me a few times,
but Donks sometimes would do it off a prank, so
it was, Okay, this guy's like, I'm the repo man.
(15:24):
It was like the when when Monica, the Monica character
on Friends was making fun of her boyfriend Chandler's work,
laugh like that's how bad, That's how bad. It hurt
my face. When when he would do it, and he
would always have those vocation type the freaking boogeyman. Bro Yeah,
(15:45):
the Boogeyman, the goon, like all these man they were
all in that in that same realm. What's the worst
vocation wrestler?
Speaker 1 (15:56):
Ever, I mean got it be.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
Also, what was their idea of what a repull Man
looked like?
Speaker 1 (16:02):
Like, why is he wearing?
Speaker 2 (16:03):
Oh yeah, they dressed him like a little bandit?
Speaker 3 (16:06):
Yeah, like yeah, exactly, he looked like the Hamburgler or
something like. If if you guys are listening to this,
you have no idea who we're talking about. Google Barry
Darso who who also was from Demolition, which went was
like kind of Road Warriors before the Road Warriors kind
of mixed kind of s and m like leather leather guys. Well,
it was kind of I think they were trying to
(16:26):
mimic Mad Max when they did Demolition. But the repel
Man was played by one half of or one third
of Demolition, a guy named Barry who he was played
the Repelman. But he wear like a bandana, like a
black bandana, like a teenage mutant Ninja Turtle, and then
he wore like a big coat out to the ring.
He'd have like just a wrestling singlet underneath. And what's
(16:49):
weird about is like he in the beginning, when I
was young, I've seen him come to the ring with
like a rope and like a hook, like he was
gonna tow a car. But then they kind of just
stopped doing it. You just come out with his jacket
and that's it. There was no rope.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
I was like, what that. Even as a little kid,
I was going, I don't understand the hell they're doing
with this guy. Also, what is a repol man? Because
he's like, Dad, look, what's a repol man?
Speaker 2 (17:10):
Probably one of the worst the movie repo Man. Watched
the movie Repo Man. That's pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
Never seen that. I didn't even know that's a movie. Never.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
No, there's a movie called Repo Man. That's actually kind
of cool. I think Emilio Estevez was in it when
he was like twenty one years old.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
Does he actually reposess things or is he just a wrestler?
Speaker 2 (17:26):
Just watch it. It's a cool I don't spoil movie.
I'm in movies. I don't like to spoil thom. This
crop is the worst, and then we should finish with
a couple that we like. Okay, do you remember Mantar
half minotaur, half man, although a minotaur is half man
(17:50):
half bull. This was the only time I've seen this
was watching an episode of Dark Side of the Ring,
which is a show you got me into.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
Yeah, and seen.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Every episode, but I watched the Brawl for all episode
after you and I first spoke about it, and it
really gave me a wild perspective on it, and I
hated it even more.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
Yeah, but in.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
The beginning of that show, they showed Mantar and they
had that writer Vince Russo saying like, I don't think
he's going to be able to get in the ring,
and then sure, shit, he couldn't get in Our shock
Masters probably the worst of the worst, because that lasted
all of ten seconds, you know.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
The shock Master.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
Yeah, right, And I think everyone that listens to our
podcast knows it. But if they don't, he look it up.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
I don't even want should we even spoil it or
just say look it up?
Speaker 3 (18:38):
Well, it happened a long time, but I will say,
like it's basically the reason it's so notorious is because
they were introducing a new character and things went so
wrong that the character within ten seconds was no longer
going to be able to be a wrestler.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
The greatest part of that video if you listen carefully,
after the chaos happens. And I don't want to say
what the chaos is for any new fans that have
it whted. You can hear Rick Flair go.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
I told you, Ah, you can also hear him curse
inside the guy.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
Hear him curse on television.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
I heard they did it on purpose. I heard Dusty
Rhodes hated the idea. Dusty was running it. He was
the one in the gorilla position and nailed have them
nail it two by four right above where he was
gonna walk interesting, purposly trip and ball. That was the
story I heard.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
That's what see.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
You know what's weird about wrestling is it is forever
hard to tell what's real and fake. Earl Hebner, I'm
not get in trouble for saying this. Earl Hebner. When
we hung out, we hung out with him for a
couple of days for this expressling thing, and Earl Hebner
was like, that's all fake. When we were talking about
the the Montreal screw job, he was even saying like it.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
Was all the work. That was all the work. Like
I know, but that's the thing.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
It's most notoriously like famous thing like Brett's talked about
a h and he thinks they're they're both leaning into
it as like they knew the finish it they and
they sold it as whatever.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
But maybe maybe he's leaning into the to the his
version of the kfe Man. It's you can't you don't
know wrestlers, rascals, who's the best, Who's got the best
new gimmick? Of the new guys, you can throw guys
like Lucasaurus out there.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
The Fiend.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
Yeah, my favorite was the Fiend for sure, Big Fiend fan.
Sad with what they did with it, sad with what happened.
Thought it was perfect with the playhouse. I thought every
week kept people guessing. It was really like a throwback
to what I really loved about wrestling in a modern time,
which I like, you don't see a lot of the gimmicks.
(20:39):
You don't even see Finn Bala's demon really anymore. With
that being said, you know Caine, honorable mention, mankind, all
of bray Wyatt's stuff, including the Fiend. I even liked
when they burned them all up and he came up
out of the ring burnt. I thought, I love I
like that they're still doing those type of things and
bray Wyatt's trying to keep it alive. So I think
(20:59):
that's the best, like modern one for sure. For me,
what's your favorite gimmick ever?
Speaker 2 (21:04):
The Undertaker. I think that's probably everybody's.
Speaker 3 (21:07):
One of his favorite besides Undertaker, because that's I mean,
he has got to be the goat for gimmicks in wrestling.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
But besides Undertaker, it's Godfather. But I will say this
Undertaker not only had the coolest gimmick, but he may
have had the coolest vehicle ride out ever because he
got to ride out on the Harley. And I know
the beer truck's awesome. I know the milk truck's awesome.
You know. I know there's been cool cars that have
(21:34):
come out, but the Harley is so epic that you
have to be man enough to ride it. And Hulk
Hogan wasn't like that. To me, it was always like
that's a burning image in my head when hul Cogan
wasn't able to ride off on the Undertaker's motorcycle. It
was like it and it's only because he doesn't know
how to ride well, but it always felt like it
was the Undertaker's bike saying, Nah, dude, you're not me.
(21:55):
You don't get to ride me. Only the man gets
to ride me. Also, that's why I've always liked is
it true.
Speaker 3 (22:01):
I don't know if you you would know, or if
if maybe Alex would know. But like what, I don't
know where I heard this, so it might not even
be true, but or like where it got in my brain.
But Undertaker always wanted to do the American Badass gimmick.
Maybe not with that title, but like he always wanted
to do that. He always wanted to wear to Harley,
he wanted the bandana. He want because he's like a
(22:22):
biker guy, he's also a Texas guy. Like I heard
that he'd always wanted to do that. And once Undertaker's
gimmick was just so obviously legendary and he basically could
do no wrong. He got to do the Badass, he
got to do the motorcycle gimmick. But I heard that
that was like his idea, that's something he had always
wanted to do.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
But I don't know if that's true or not.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
His wife reached out to me on Instagram and said
they wanted to talk to me about something. Could they
have my number? And I gave it to her. But
I never heard from him. So if I ever do
hear from him, I'll ask him. I like hearing him
talk about the business in the old days. He was
always really generous and just really cool. You know, he's
a good storyteller.
Speaker 3 (22:58):
Yeah, nobody doesn't like the Undertaker, and if they don't,
I've never heard anyone say anything bad about them.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
We'll leave it on this. Him and Bruce told me
a story about partying with Cypress Hill. That's like the
coolest story ever. And I'll tell you when we're off
the air.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
Parting with Cypress Hill the band.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
Yes, I'm excited, Yes, the rap group. All right, So
that's it for this week's episode. Tune in for Thursday,
where we break it down even more in your bonus content.
Hope you enjoyed this week's episode on behalf of my
excellent co host, mister Jeff Die. I'm Freddy Prince Junior
and this was Wrestling with Freon.
Speaker 3 (23:34):
Follow us on Instagram, Wrestling with Freddy Twitter is ww
Freddie Pod. Follow us on all the socials so you
can submit your questions for the Federation.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
This has been a production of Iheart'smichael Toura podcast Network.
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