January 5, 2022 • 37 mins
In this week’s episode I talk to Macaulay Culkin about the current state of wrestling, launching our own wrestling league, and how far women’s wrestling has come.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Thank you for tuning in to Wrestling with Freddie, Thanks
for coming back, thanks for joining the Frederation. And today
it's not going to be story time. We're going to
have a guest. Fantastic guest. So let's start the show.
Welcome to Wrestling with Freddy. Now stuffing up to the
mic of Wrestling with Freddie. Freddie Frience June. Yeah, ladies
(00:27):
and gentlemen, McCauley coking, Yeah, welcome to show. Was mild
goes mild, Welcome to the show, man, Man, thanks for
having me. Man. Yeah, I'm doing good and doing good.
I was just saying before we recorded that I'm I
took the morning shift with the kiddoh, so you know,
(00:47):
but I'm doing okay. But I'm glad this is a
this is a podcast, and uh, you know, I haven't
put a comb through my hair yet this morning, but sorry,
I haven't shaved in about a week and a half.
So we're on the we're on the same page, brother,
We're all we're a little grizzly here exactly. Man. Um So,
I started this podcast a while ago and this is
about I don't know, ten or or eleven episodes in
(01:10):
and a lot of The talk in the beginning was
sort of how it all came to fruition, and I
started talking about that Rick Flair retirement match that we
all went to, and I got sidetracked on the gambling
that we had and and I I don't know if
I told the story right or not, but I don't
(01:32):
think you lost a match the whole night. And I
was I think you walked home with like eight hundred
bucks or some like that. You know. What it was
was that I wasn't really watching the product a lot
around that time, so like, so everyone kept on putting
in beds on, you know, everyone was being so smart,
you know, yeah, And I was like, cool, I'll take
Randy Ordan, sure, man, Like, yeah, there was. It drove
(01:55):
me nuts. We were there, there were I think four
of us, and all of us watched a lot accept
you and you didn't lose a bet the whole night,
and it drove me absolutely insane. But it re ignited
my sort of love of wrestling. And I was just
hoping that you could kind of touch on where you
and your family kind of got their love, because I
(02:17):
know your brother was a hardcore fan, and I don't
think you ever jumped into the dark Side, or if
you did, at least not for as long as your
brother did. But but I've seen your your knowledge, and
I was just wondering where it all started, when it started,
and where it came from. For me, it was when
I was doing an uncle book and you know, so
I'm sitting in some place and like suburban Chicago or whatever,
(02:40):
and uh so this must have been the winner of
eight nine. And so it was one of those like
a like and I guess what were they called the
like the essentially the daytime shows, like you know, all
the Saturday Yeah what was that mean? Events? But yeah,
I forget what it was like a recap shows with
the ones that shot in Philly, Yeah, exactly. And uh
(03:02):
they were showing a replay of Warrior honkytalk Man from
Summer Slam eight nine, and it was the first wrestling
match I ever saw on you know, and boo. As
soon as that like, you know, that music hit and
all that kind of stuff, I was just like, who
is that guy? You know? Yeah, when it comes to come,
not Honky talk Man, the Warrior. But I didn't like
the talk music. I don't know, you know what. I
(03:24):
appreciate him so much more now guys guys like I missed,
guys like the Honky talk Man and the Genius. I
think I think wrestling needs more guys like that nowadays,
for sure, you know. Yeah, but yeah, no, the music
hit and boom and then next thing, you know, I
was hooked and I was. I was looking it up,
you know, made sure I didn't miss anything. And you know,
I remember I was a year later. I was back
(03:45):
in Chicago and I was working on home alone and
that's when um WrestleMania six happened, and I was such
a big Warrior fan on stuff, but I couldn't watch
the paper beause I was working. So they actually had
a hot line back then. Remember you had to call
in and then well tell you the results. Gosh, that's right, hey, yeah,
And I was, I was ecstatic with it, like the
ultimate war It's like it's a nanjen doing it and
(04:06):
the ultimate Yal defeat Hogan. You know, look again, you know,
and you know I was like, I was like, yeah,
you know, yeah, but that's yeah. That That's how I
watched Wrestling six for the first time. Was Nan Jean
recapted from me over the phone at like whatever, ten
dollars a minute or something. So in eighty seven or
eighty eight, I was in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and there
(04:28):
was a house show at the place where like the
rodeos were at, because that's all that really came to
New Mexico. And it was called it was called Tingly Colosseum,
and there really wasn't a good seat in the house,
but there were seats there, but there were just pillars everywhere,
so there were people blocked all over the place and
there they were going to do a Battle Royal or yeah,
(04:49):
I think it was just a little Battle Royal and
all the kids would like run down to the rail
to see their favorite wrestlers come in. And I didn't
have a ticket for that area, but I ran in
with the other kids, and uh, the Ultimate Warrior ran
by and security the security guy grabbed me and was like, hey,
you don't have a ticket, And the Ultimate Warrior didn't
put his hand on me, but kind of around me
(05:11):
and on the security guy and he goes and and
I could smell I still remember I smelled like dirt
from the Colosseum, baby oil and sweat. I was going
to say, oh, I still smell it, and his like
the bicycle tassels were like kind of like wet and
sticky and like on my face when he was like
(05:34):
and I still remember that, and so I was a
huge Ultimate Warrior fan. And then well, and then I
started watching uh n w A and I saw Rick
Flair and then everything ended for me. I was and
that it was Rick Flair and staying and that was
That's all I cared about for a long long time.
(05:54):
But we both have Warrior origin stories. He was such
a good gateway a drug, you know. I mean he
was just you know, like if he just like you
know that you know it's not good, but you're just
gonna try it a few times. Yeah, exactly, exactly. Yeah,
you know I love the version I am when I
watched The Ultimate Warrior, you know, yeah, I only have
(06:15):
to wrestle forty two seconds. Yeah, I am so funny
and hilarious. And your brother told me a story once,
and I'm wondering if you were there, but he told
me a story of when he was at a show.
He said he got thrown out of a wrestling show.
And this was we were all at your place in
New York City and we were playing Soul Caliber two
(06:36):
or three or four, I don't remember which one. And uh,
you guys were killing me with this dude with a
long staff and I couldn't get in and it was
driving me nuts. And we started talking. I hated you,
and so he said he got thrive in. What happened?
He said, I threw a beer on the big show
(06:57):
and they threw me out of your good good they
absolutely But were you were you there when that happened?
Or no fun, no man, any of anything. I'd be
pushing him toward the security guard like he did it. Yeah,
you'd be the Russell Westbrook of the of the of
the rest of the Keep this guy out of here.
(07:20):
So he went. He went hardcore, like hardcore and deep
to the point where I had no like, I couldn't
even communicate with him. And there was this one other
dude that could and his name was Angelo. Yeah and yeah,
and we all know Fause and we love Fause. And
when I started working there, he started working there as well.
(07:44):
And uh, I took a little break, and you came
in when I did like a GM spot, just to
like say hello and help out and be a part
of the show. And I get asked this question all
the time, and I think I know why, but better
if you say it. But I get asked this all
the time. Why didn't you ever get Mac to go
(08:06):
and write for the w W E Oh man. There
were times where I wanted to like kind of just
you know, like find you know, six months of my
life at the very least, kind of go in there
and stuff. And you know, I will say I do
kind of regret not doing that, like now now that
I'm a dad and stuff like that. I got, Man,
I barely have time to pete at this point. Yeah,
(08:28):
I know, yeah I figured that. You know, yeah, exactly
all makes sense now, you know. Um, but yeah, no,
I you know, I just never got around to it. Thing,
you know, there was there was always something I'm next. Thing.
I know, I'm like on the road being in a
pizza band or something, you know, PiZZ if out of
like Europe or you were in Paris or something. Yeah. Yeah,
(08:48):
And then I moved to France for like five years
and stuff like that, you know. But also I came
up with some really great like bring Wyatt story angles,
like when alone in my room in Paris. Man, you know,
I really wanted to They called me up for consultation
kind of stuff like you know how yeah, I know
people they've reached out to for that kind of stuff. Yeah, exactly,
(09:08):
kind of just you know, what do you think would
make the brand better? What about it? And they don't,
you know, I think they might have like done one
or two things. And I was like, hey, I'm not
saying I came up with it or nothing. But at
the same time, I was like, oh, there you go,
you know, but you know, I'm just like, hey, you know,
why don't we make the shows slightly different? Because i
mean just one's blue and one's red, like you know,
want to you know, I said, you know, God blessed
Kevin Dunn. But you know, it's like no, no, no,
(09:30):
like this is our products, like dig it man linking again,
and he's very protective of it. Man. He's like, yeah,
he's really good at what he does what he does.
Far be it for me to criticize anything he's saying.
I'm just saying, well, can we do something that's even
just visually different, you know, things like that. No, they're
the generation of go with what you know, So they're
they're like like Garth, they fear change. Oh yeah, no,
(09:54):
ship especially the product now, fun, dude, Like this is
just I have to see one more fucking Like, I
don't get me wrong, you know, I'm actually looking forward
to what will be different this time. But if I
see brock Less and Roman Reigns one more freaking time,
you know. Yeah. That's the thing is that, like they'll
do the same pay per view like back to back
for two years straight. It felt like, yeah, it's always
(10:16):
like a like new day. Lusso's like every freaking card,
like you know, and it's just like, you know, and
I understand that like their roster obviously isn't as deep
as it was a year ago. Back they've caught I
think eighty six wrestlers from their roster in the past
calendar year. Yeah, so it's like you know, like, yeah,
so like you don't really have this rich variety that
(10:37):
maybe you might have had before and stuff. But even then, man,
it's just like, you know, how many times can we
watch the same match over? I mean literally, I think
it was just recently it was like like Survivor series
and I think they're like, you know, the one before
that they were like it was I think it was
the two before that they were virtually the same card man,
and it's just like, what the fun is going on?
You know? Yeah, well you were you and I were younger.
(10:58):
They allowed the story lines to develop sometimes for almost
a year before you got that that final payoff. And
I think once the Attitude era hit, they gave you
everything right away in a four week package, and it
kind of changed the way the stories were told, almost
pay per view to pay per view, and at a
(11:19):
certain point, I feel like you just run out of
stories to tell, so they just go with what they know.
And I'm not saying this is running out of stories
coming up. They are running out of stories. Believe I pitched.
If I pitched one every week is just when you're
pitching to a wall is going to bounce back at you.
But that that's kind of the problem, you know, that's
(11:41):
that's that's the problem right there, because you know there
there's never gonna be a lack of stories. I mean,
you know Three's Company. You know they had an episode
in the first season where they had to hide a
puppy from from the landlords, uh, the Ropers, and then
in a season like six, they're hiding a kitten from
Mr Furley. You know, it's just like again, It's like, man,
(12:03):
you can even you can just repackage with some of
this ship, you know, as long as you give it
enough time, you know you can. You can't do that.
The rest Ling's had more time than any TV show ever. Yeah,
but I mean, I think there is something to your
point of like these longer stories. But at the same time,
there was less product on television, and you know, you
were totally fine with like you know, uh you know,
watching bad News Brown beat up Jerry the Job or uh,
(12:25):
you know, on on Saturday mornings kind of thing. Like
you know, now then you know, no one's gonna be
like down with that. There's only you know, like they
can't really have too many Cocoa be Wears in your
company anymore, you know what I mean. It's hard and
you have to because you have to have people that
can lose, right, and you have to give them a
run at least once a year, at least a baby run,
(12:46):
so that they're credible that the guys you want to
get over, the girls you want to get over, have
a have a villain or a or a or a
good guy to beat. That was the Dope Sigler kind
of thing. Man. They kept on jobbing him out, and
he's just like if I don't win one, no one's
like you know, like and listen, the guy bumps like
a boss. I would love to see him in a
Kurt Henning him and Kurt Henning and a match together.
(13:06):
Just all they're doing is bumping and not actually attacking
each other. The match, by the way, are the best
matches when it's two wrestlers trying to outsell each other.
Those that like a dream right there, you know, throw
Shawn Michael's in there too, like Swan Shawn Michaels just
does it like a double back flip. Just love it,
(13:28):
Like I want to see that, you know. I mean
that's the thing Dol Sigler like, he's guilty of selling
way too well, so next thing, you know, they freaking
drop him out. You know? Yeah that Have you been
to Kendricks Wrestling Pro wrestling shows here in Los Angeles?
(13:50):
I took I took a buddy of years from New York,
Matt and his brother and they literally have matches like
that where it was he's a he's a wizard and
his name is his name is the Great brand Zino. Well,
I'll let me back up Xavier Woods brought Xavier Woods
brought me and introduced me to this and I'm like,
(14:12):
what am I seeing here? And he goes, it's Holiday wrestling.
I go, what are you talking about? Holiday wrestling? Goes,
it's the Christmas Show. He goes, I'm not telling you
anything else, like all right, so we sit down. In
the first match is a guy named Emo Tep but
it's Emo E m O Tep and he's a mummy
and topic well, he has a he has a bleached
(14:37):
bandage that comes down over his eye, and the eye
makeup his Egyptian and dramatic. But he wrestles the way
a mummy would wrestle, very slowly, Oh my god. And
all the matches are like this, and they put a
holiday story around each one, and then this one in particular,
it was die Hard and they had literally a guy
(14:59):
named the Sexy Assassin who and he has a lisp
so he sounds like Daffy Duck. He comes in in
the middle of the Emo Tep match and with all
these like lumberjack looking guys that are some are buff,
some are not so buff, and uh, and he takes
the microphone and he goes, I'm the I'm then I'm
(15:21):
not going to do a sexy assassins because he was
too good. And he says, uh, he says, and I'm
taking over Wrestling Pro Wrestling, And to prove it, I'm
calling the owner of the company right now, and you
can listen in. And we're in the Moose Lodge and Burbank,
so it's like a hundred people, okay, and he calls
he calls the owner of Wrestling Pro Wrestling, and the
(15:42):
speaker comes on and plays in ring ring and I
look at Xavier and I go, nobody's picking up, and
he looks backing and he goes, no, he never picks up,
and it rings about seven more times, and then he
gets Superman and he hangs up and he goes, well,
just because he's not there, it doesn't mean I'm not
taking over. And to help me, I brought a bunch
(16:04):
of Lumberjack orphans that were never adopted, and they all
they all turned to the crowd and they go, where
are friends now? We're never adopted and the crowd, the
crowds literally yelling back, we just heard him say that,
like they're going back and forth. And then the only
way that you can save the show. Of course, from
this this Hans Gruber sexy assassin who's taking over the
(16:24):
show is You've gotta have a John McClean, and that
John McLean is none other than a character they have
named cereal Man. And cereal Man is dressed like you
and I, but he has this amazing prosthetic cereal box
completely like plastered to his head and it says wheaties
(16:44):
and uh or whatever. Their version, but I'm telling you
like the cosplay that they do for these is top shelf.
They do full Kaiju matches, okay, like literally Kaiju matches,
and people, giant monsters are falling out of the ring
and breaking there. It's just there a so so John
McClean comes our cereal Man comes up and he says,
I'm gonna stop you, and throughout the whole night, which
(17:07):
about two and a half hour show, he starts assassinating
some of the lumberjacks, and at the end of the show,
the sexy assassin gets the only person close enough to
cereal Man that he can get leverage, right like the
John McClain's wife whatever, Holly McClain, right and uh. But
their version played by my aunt by the way, well
side quest, Hello, Yeah, that's my aunt. That's actually my aunt.
(17:30):
Don't even Delia is my aunt. She plays Holly McLean's
Crazy Yeah family Affair. So their Bonnie Badilia is of
course pop Tart Boy, who is a giant pop tort
and only his hands can poke out and his feet
so he can't really wrestle. And he's got him on
top of the turn buckle and he's gonna throw him
(17:52):
off the turn buckle the way they were gonna fall
out the Naka Tomy Plaza. But here comes Cereal Man
and he walks right by a Ston and I and
instead of a nine millimeter taped to his back is
gotta be got back of Cereal and he takes it off,
and this guy, God bless him that he throws it
and it hits the Sexy Assassin right in the head,
(18:14):
and the Sexy Assassin falls off, and then his vel
crow gets stuck to the pop Tarts vel crow, and
Cereal Man comes in and undoes it, and the Sexy
Assassin falls off the turnbuckle and lands on the Lumberjack
orphans that were never adopted, and the main event that
was supposed to happen never happens. They literally just said
thanks for coming out and good night. How they do
(18:37):
it for Thanksgiving? I've seen him top it with RoboCop
on Thanksgiving, which was hysterical, like they do the weirdest stuff.
But you said something earlier that led me to this,
which is now I'm leading back to you. He said
something like, eighty three wrestlers have been released. Yeah, I
(18:57):
wrestlers have been released, right, people like Keith Lee, people
like Carry and Cross that I think are like, well,
that's a shocked that you would release them. People like
Gray Wyatt, where I'm like, uh, that's the only attraction
left in professional wrestling. But OK, that's weird, Bretta with
all these wrestlers. And I already said this on a
podcast with Ariel Hawawani. I'm I'm I just did this
(19:22):
Netflix movie and I'm doing a couple more after this,
and I'm putting a little a little kitty together. Right
in the old days, that would be like a little
piggy bank a little kitty. And I want to start,
not to make money because it won't, and not to
compete with anyone because I'm not trying to do that,
but just to start a West Coast indie wrestling brand,
(19:44):
and there's so many free Now. Granted I'm a year
and a half away from this coming to fruition. I
just finished the first one, so I'm I'm still a
little ways out, but when I'm ready to go, I
just want to have a two year plan where if
it makes money, cool but it's probably not, which is
what my accountant said. Yeah, you're you're hoping for a
(20:04):
break even endeavor. I'll take it. I'll take it, and
I'll try to do things the old core netway as
far as business. I like if I can find some
places that actually want to play it, otherwise I just
played on my YouTube channel and screw all them. Um,
but I want to start an indie league or an
indie wrestling league. And I don't know if I wanted
to be kind of like I don't know, if you're
(20:25):
familiar with g c W where Cordona's wrestling now, Um,
they kind of they brought a lot of cool back
to wrestling, Like there's just some cool elements to it.
But I don't know if I want to go that
direction or if I want to go full like comedy
wrestling like wrestling and attraction kind of stuff. If you
and I were to start a wrestling brand, what would
(20:49):
you want it to be between between those two whatever
you wanted to be, talk about it and maybe, you know,
in a year and a half we do it. I
don't know. I like the silly stuff kind of thing,
I think, you know, I think that's something that's kind
of missing from from wrestling, you know, um uh, you know,
like that that attitude era still had that stuff like
(21:12):
like's yeah, I mean you know, can can still shoot lightning,
you know, like stuff like that, like you know, yeah,
like you know some of that kind of like that,
that kind of over the topness. I think it's been
sorely missed in wrestling, So I would I think engaging
in something like that would be a lot of fun.
You know. Um. I always had this idea for a
character called the Arm. Uh. It's just he's got one
strong arm and he does all of his moves with
(21:35):
this one arm, and the other arm is just doesn't
do anything, no effect, just like you know, punch, punch, nothing,
but this one's all chokes. Like I'm like, oh god,
the arm you know. Yeah, you like to convince someone
to get super buff on one side, just on one
arm again, like hey, bron Stroman, Hey, dude, would you
mind just working out one arm and just not doing
you double to just completely moreph your body. Didn't you
(22:06):
have like a comedy character that we were joking about
one time. I think we're talking about doing a like
a D and D wrestling league, and you were going
to have a character named the Librarian. You have the
Librarian didn't interrupt promos every every every time the crowd popped,
he go like, you know, which is actually great heat.
I would love to see somebody just always shushing the
(22:28):
audience every time he loses because he's so well schooled,
because he's already read all the rules, all the books
on wrestling. Uh, he always can get his losses overturned
because of some kind of technicality tests or something like that. Yes, exactly,
you know, so he's got a spotless record, you know. Yeah,
would work? Hey yeah, no, he said, what is it?
(22:50):
The doing decimation system? You know? That would be a finisher? Yeah? Yeah,
all right, See, this would be good at a moose
Lodge type place. If you're going for silly you, I'm
your man. You know, we can come up with all
kinds of stuff. You believe me, I know. Um, Okay,
(23:12):
I love this Netflix funded wrestling Federation. It's all right, man,
they don't care where I put my money, all right,
yeah exactly. No, No, I'm just like doing doing gigs
exclusively to make sure I fall in love and nine
minutes or less, that's all take care of. Yeah exactly,
(23:32):
it'll it'll fund my ultimate Warrior inspired wrestling fantasy. But
we're not We're not gonna say that. Yeah. Yeah, taking
and taking the gym Cornett uh like like package like
all right, yeah, all right, I just like his business package.
That's all I want to end on on women's wrestling,
(23:54):
because when I got there, the women had five minute
matches and two minutes of it was their intros. So yeah,
and I mean I think like what like we either
like Lida and Trish and stuff like that. No, I was,
oh geez, jeez. Yeah, I mean just I mean, I
forget what the what people have nicknameed that, but yeah,
(24:15):
I mean it was it was just it was just
kind of just trashy. It was just you know, good
looking women like riding around with each other, you know
it skip up, yeah, they it was it was goofy.
And when I got there, their matches they weren't allowed
to do much. I would see the producers literally tell
Vince in the production meetings like, look on the road,
(24:36):
we're letting these girls work and they can do these moves.
They're not getting hurt. They've been doing them for months
now you gotta let them and be like, oh no,
they're gonna get hurt. They can't do it. And so
the women had to fight girls like Eve Torres, the
Bella's McCool and layla Um. They were like lay Cool
or something like that. That was in between my two
(24:57):
stints was the lay Cool Experiment Um Beth Phoenix, Natty
Nidheart like that was the that was like the group
that was there. There are some legit challenges, yeah, but
they had no no time. And then I left and
the Total Diva show started out rating segments raw, and
all of a sudden, the women that were on that
(25:18):
show started getting nine minute matches and then they had
commercial breaks, and then that next generation of wrestlers came
in and really just took flight off of that foundation
to where they were headed. Banks and Bailey had a
sixty minute Iron Woman match on n xt UM. When
it was before it looked like you can't do that
(25:40):
on television started there's a salt box right over there.
But uh, but they kind of like took flight and
then all these releases happened, and it looks as if
they're pushing more towards that pretty girl less time. I
(26:01):
don't time the women's matches, but I have timed a
couple of them because it felt I don't they felt
like they've been getting shorter and what we're thirteen minute
matches are eleven minute matches now. So if I'm worried
that it's going back the other direction, but if they
keep releasing them a e W. Who I've I find
(26:22):
lacking in a women's roster as far as yeah, I
think it's one of their one of their flaws. I
think otherwise, I think they're actually a really cool company.
I I did what I do too. What about and
they would have to start it by signing a bunch
of these women? But what if a e W did
a women's division and gave it an hour and a
half or gave it the full two hours on one
(26:44):
of their nights. They have a lot of men. They
don't necessarily talk about that. Well, there's been talking about
like you know, um, like a women's only kind of show,
you know what I mean, like they're gonna try with wow,
but they don't have the level of talent the a
W Well no, no, no, I'm talking um gosh, I
forget which which where there was it was some somebody
(27:06):
was talking about this. No not not just a FED
that is all women. It's like literally just giving the
women a show, you know, like that kind of thing,
giving them an hour like kind of a week. And
I think, yeah, I don't, I don't. I don't think
it's w w E, but I I just remember I
think it was some it was a women's wrestling that
was like Ring of Honor. Yeah, yeah, yeah, women sounds great.
It sucks that we were at a point where like yeah,
(27:28):
like you kind of do have to find some of
these matches like that's actually you know, like the fact
that we that that that's even a notion, uh is
messed up, Like that's not the way it should be.
You know, look like the insane sorry for interrupting, going yeah,
well yeah, yeah, that's what I mean. Is that like
before when they were just these five minutes, I mean,
women's wrestling was a joke from like you know what
I like from even with the like when I first
(27:49):
started watching the Rock and Robin and stuff like that,
and just like funk, man, I don't feel like it
was just like that was your pea break, you know
that only wasn't a lot going on, you know, Yeah,
and then they didn't really you know, I I think
there was I think that kind of stigma like kind
of stuck for a while until you actually started like
letting some of these women cut loose and actually you know,
do some things. It's like, yeah, you know now, like
(28:10):
you know, you can it's not crazy for them to
headline WrestleMania or to close the show at Survivors. You
can put Charlotte Flair in any WrestleMania main event and
people are gonna want to watch. I mean, that's that's
no brain, regardless of men or women or whatever, like
exactly like you know, it's it's just good. This is yeah,
this is her peak, this is her time. Man Like,
she's she may not be the best actor, but she
(28:32):
owns that character. And when she stays in that character
and she never breaks, it's gold man Like. She's just
she should never be a baby face. As for as
long as John Cina wasn't a heel, Like, that's that's
how long she should be a heel for it? Yeah,
I think I think that's I think that's fair, you know. Yeah,
(28:52):
Becky Lynch is a heel. Is kind of been interesting. Yeah,
but I don't buy that she's always that. That's the
problem is that you don't you don't buy like you know,
it's it's it's it's the termin didn't work right, you know,
that kind of thing people people still want, like people
still freaking her, cheering for and stuff that's Charlotte and Beef.
(29:13):
That that her that she and Charlotte had is still
so fresh in people's minds, and it's like for them
to just get that one match out of that and
then just say, well they're on different brands, so it's over.
It's like, man, that's that's three pay per views. You
could get three pay per views out of that easy.
Easy means she could interfere with her on Raw, Charlotte
(29:34):
could interfere with her on SmackDown for what for four months? Okay? Whatever? Yeah,
you know, I've always have two minds when it comes
to the brain split anyway, you know, Um, it gives
people more TV time, you know, and we have a
deep roster. I think that's a good, you know, good thing.
They've got a lot of talent that you know, you
want to be able to see. But at the same time,
it's like I don't think they It does prevent you
(29:54):
from certain kind of matchups, and not necessarily in the
good way. There's not these dream matchups per se that
you actually like, oh, I can't wait till you know,
Survivor series where you know, Biggie gets to get take
on Roman brains like that. You know, it doesn't tickle
you in that kind of way. Um, but you know,
like I don't think they've taken full advantage of it,
like you know, yeah, I think maybe they tried to
do like an invasion storyline once or twice or something
(30:16):
like that, you know. But again, they're the same product,
like you know, on both shows, Like stylistically they're the same.
They look one is just blue when the other one
is red, and like that's that's it's just you know,
so I you know, I don't even pay attention to
who's on what roster anymore, you know what I mean.
I I can tell what I just glanced at what
color their belt is. But otherwise, Like I don't know
who's on, you know, I don't know which show misses on.
(30:38):
I just know that he's on, and it isn't important
to the fans which show there on anymore. Like there
is not a brand, you know, because they're actually they
aren't separate brands. They're both w W By the way,
how can they make n x T look so different?
But they can't make SmackDown and Raw look different in
any way, shape or for in any way exactly. And
I don't like. I don't think they improved n x T.
(31:00):
I thought I thought the next he went from the
most watchable product in w W E t unwatchable in
a week. Like it just there was nothing. There was
just stuff in there for me. And they have some
wrestlers that I still like, but I just don't And
the name thing I still don't get, Like, I just
they got they got Rick Steiner's kid, and he's he's
gonna call himself bron Breaker and the kids kid. I
(31:23):
love it, but like Breaker man like, and then they'll
change it when he gets to Raw and it'll be
you know, Brick brackman like. I just don't get it,
man like what they did to carry across was insane.
They had a guy who looked like Jeez, and he
tried him to Immortal Kombat that he had on red suspenders.
(31:48):
They put him in. They put him in reds. You
know how imagine imagine you you create this great character
right as an actor, and then a new direct actor
comes onto the movie and it's like, hey, man, we
feel like for this. You lost all your hair, like
you have you have a unicorn. You're just like, these
(32:13):
movies made a billion dollars. This is your first movie, man, Like,
even if it's your tent, what are you talking about?
When he came out in like the porno dungeon mask
and the red suspenders, I literally I didn't. I didn't.
I felt bad for the guy. I didn't even know him.
I reached out to a wrestler that I do know
(32:34):
who I happened to know. I was on the road
with him and I was like, yo, man, give that
dude a hug for me. And you just don't even
know the dude and you just the face time me.
That night he was driving and it was Morrison, John
Morrison was righting shotgun and I literally like, bro, I'm
so sorry, and he was like, dude, thanks man, it's
(32:55):
been hard, but I just I gotta because I gotta
stay with it. It's like it's him and and his
girls Scarlet, I don't scarlet board dough. They were like
the evil Macho and Elizabeth for n x T and
they're like, yeah, we're gonna split you guys up. And
you look like a linebacker who could legit beat up everybody.
(33:15):
So we're gonna get rid of that too. Some video
game costumes and see how that goes. I never felt
bad for someone, or if I not, since I worked
in the company, I haven't felt bad for someone. What
is it was? Well, remember I was at Harper and
Rowan was the bash brother. They give him big accent.
My daughter, my daughter said, Dad, why are they doing
(33:38):
that to these big guys? She was she's twelve now,
I think she was ten men and I'm like, yo,
my daughter knows what humongous men don't need weapons. How
do you know the only thing you would make that better?
If she was fighting through tears to say it. You know,
(33:58):
when they gave him the basket that he kept covered,
my my daughter literally just walked in the room, looked
at the TV. She was eleven, I think at this
point and goes here we go again, and it was
walked out and I was like, she's eleven. It doesn't
want to watch, Like, what are you doing to these
humondous people? Yeah, exactly. I feel like they've kind of
(34:18):
you know, that he is really kind of lost focus
on on all this, and I think, you know, I
think there is some kind of master plan. Um, you
know that they're bringing all these new people and they're
I mean personally, I think they're gonna sell. I think
that's exactly right. You're exactly reusive what they say. Yeah,
you know, I think Vince doesn't feel like anyone like
you know, and his family can do this. You know.
(34:39):
He's like, Vince had to buy the company from his
dad's so he's like, all right, Stephanie, if you want
to buy it, you know you have to kill billion dollars. Yeah.
So I haven't I haven't said this before, but I'll
say it now because it's been long enough. So I
was talking to a dude who was interviewing to be
their CE or do that they wanted to interview, and uh,
(35:00):
they ended up going with Nick Cole. He had he
had passed. But I just wanted to talk to me
about the company, and uh so we were just talking
about the brand and all this. He goes, yeah, they
wanted us to buy the whole product. He was an
executive Fox. Because they want us to buy the whole brand,
but the number they wanted wasn't a number we were
going to pay, so we licensed SmackDown instead. And I said,
(35:21):
were you going to and overpaid? Yeah? I said, were
you even considering the job? He goes, no, but I
just wanted to talk to you to make sure I
wasn't like crazy and lose in my mind. I said, man,
it's a crazy place to work. So you got a
nice job in l A. Your family's in l A,
Stay in l A. But I knew they were going
to sell a long time ago off that, and that
hit me like a ton of bricks. I was just like, Yo,
(35:43):
Vince isn't gonna let anyone have it. That's crazy. That's
but they have a faceless corporation have it rather than like,
you know, keep it in the family. Yeah. Yeah, we're
going to start a wrestling federation. We got to think
of a name. We'll start texting you ideas. Don't forget
the arm and the librarian. We have to make sure
(36:05):
we have both of them. Um, I could just do
steroids in one arm for like six months. I'm willing.
I'm willing to make the sac all right, there you go.
We found her work. It works like that. Yeah, that's
that's how it works. Just just wanted to just keep injecting.
You got it. I have a drago style. Alright, dude,
thank you so much for being a guest. Thank you
(36:26):
for being a friend. Like the Golden Girls always said,
thank you. Actually, I got my son some Golden Girls.
Don't really. I'm gonna tell Woodsy that he's going on
the Golden Girl's cruise. Oh oh yeah, I remember he
because he asked for time off. I heard about this.
He has for time off, like like do this freaking
thing crazy? Yeah, So I got I got got some
(36:49):
of these little little things. It was this series. So
you can play with his little Elmo and his little
remember the thank you and enjoy being enjoying a great dad.
That's the idea. This has been a production of I
Heart Radio's Michael Tura 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. M h
(37:14):
m m hmm.
Thank you for tuning in to Wrestling with Freddie, Thanks
for coming back, thanks for joining the Frederation. And today
it's not going to be story time. We're going to
have a guest. Fantastic guest. So let's start the show.
Welcome to Wrestling with Freddy. Now stuffing up to the
mic of Wrestling with Freddie. Freddie Frience June. Yeah, ladies
(00:27):
and gentlemen, McCauley coking, Yeah, welcome to show. Was mild
goes mild, Welcome to the show, man, Man, thanks for
having me. Man. Yeah, I'm doing good and doing good.
I was just saying before we recorded that I'm I
took the morning shift with the kiddoh, so you know,
(00:47):
but I'm doing okay. But I'm glad this is a
this is a podcast, and uh, you know, I haven't
put a comb through my hair yet this morning, but sorry,
I haven't shaved in about a week and a half.
So we're on the we're on the same page, brother,
We're all we're a little grizzly here exactly. Man. Um So,
I started this podcast a while ago and this is
about I don't know, ten or or eleven episodes in
(01:10):
and a lot of The talk in the beginning was
sort of how it all came to fruition, and I
started talking about that Rick Flair retirement match that we
all went to, and I got sidetracked on the gambling
that we had and and I I don't know if
I told the story right or not, but I don't
(01:32):
think you lost a match the whole night. And I
was I think you walked home with like eight hundred
bucks or some like that. You know. What it was
was that I wasn't really watching the product a lot
around that time, so like, so everyone kept on putting
in beds on, you know, everyone was being so smart,
you know, yeah, And I was like, cool, I'll take
Randy Ordan, sure, man, Like, yeah, there was. It drove
(01:55):
me nuts. We were there, there were I think four
of us, and all of us watched a lot accept
you and you didn't lose a bet the whole night,
and it drove me absolutely insane. But it re ignited
my sort of love of wrestling. And I was just
hoping that you could kind of touch on where you
and your family kind of got their love, because I
(02:17):
know your brother was a hardcore fan, and I don't
think you ever jumped into the dark Side, or if
you did, at least not for as long as your
brother did. But but I've seen your your knowledge, and
I was just wondering where it all started, when it started,
and where it came from. For me, it was when
I was doing an uncle book and you know, so
I'm sitting in some place and like suburban Chicago or whatever,
(02:40):
and uh so this must have been the winner of
eight nine. And so it was one of those like
a like and I guess what were they called the
like the essentially the daytime shows, like you know, all
the Saturday Yeah what was that mean? Events? But yeah,
I forget what it was like a recap shows with
the ones that shot in Philly, Yeah, exactly. And uh
(03:02):
they were showing a replay of Warrior honkytalk Man from
Summer Slam eight nine, and it was the first wrestling
match I ever saw on you know, and boo. As
soon as that like, you know, that music hit and
all that kind of stuff, I was just like, who
is that guy? You know? Yeah, when it comes to come,
not Honky talk Man, the Warrior. But I didn't like
the talk music. I don't know, you know what. I
(03:24):
appreciate him so much more now guys guys like I missed,
guys like the Honky talk Man and the Genius. I
think I think wrestling needs more guys like that nowadays,
for sure, you know. Yeah, but yeah, no, the music
hit and boom and then next thing, you know, I
was hooked and I was. I was looking it up,
you know, made sure I didn't miss anything. And you know,
I remember I was a year later. I was back
(03:45):
in Chicago and I was working on home alone and
that's when um WrestleMania six happened, and I was such
a big Warrior fan on stuff, but I couldn't watch
the paper beause I was working. So they actually had
a hot line back then. Remember you had to call
in and then well tell you the results. Gosh, that's right, hey, yeah,
And I was, I was ecstatic with it, like the
ultimate war It's like it's a nanjen doing it and
(04:06):
the ultimate Yal defeat Hogan. You know, look again, you know,
and you know I was like, I was like, yeah,
you know, yeah, but that's yeah. That That's how I
watched Wrestling six for the first time. Was Nan Jean
recapted from me over the phone at like whatever, ten
dollars a minute or something. So in eighty seven or
eighty eight, I was in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and there
(04:28):
was a house show at the place where like the
rodeos were at, because that's all that really came to
New Mexico. And it was called it was called Tingly Colosseum,
and there really wasn't a good seat in the house,
but there were seats there, but there were just pillars everywhere,
so there were people blocked all over the place and
there they were going to do a Battle Royal or yeah,
(04:49):
I think it was just a little Battle Royal and
all the kids would like run down to the rail
to see their favorite wrestlers come in. And I didn't
have a ticket for that area, but I ran in
with the other kids, and uh, the Ultimate Warrior ran
by and security the security guy grabbed me and was like, hey,
you don't have a ticket, And the Ultimate Warrior didn't
put his hand on me, but kind of around me
(05:11):
and on the security guy and he goes and and
I could smell I still remember I smelled like dirt
from the Colosseum, baby oil and sweat. I was going
to say, oh, I still smell it, and his like
the bicycle tassels were like kind of like wet and
sticky and like on my face when he was like
(05:34):
and I still remember that, and so I was a
huge Ultimate Warrior fan. And then well, and then I
started watching uh n w A and I saw Rick
Flair and then everything ended for me. I was and
that it was Rick Flair and staying and that was
That's all I cared about for a long long time.
(05:54):
But we both have Warrior origin stories. He was such
a good gateway a drug, you know. I mean he
was just you know, like if he just like you
know that you know it's not good, but you're just
gonna try it a few times. Yeah, exactly, exactly. Yeah,
you know I love the version I am when I
watched The Ultimate Warrior, you know, yeah, I only have
(06:15):
to wrestle forty two seconds. Yeah, I am so funny
and hilarious. And your brother told me a story once,
and I'm wondering if you were there, but he told
me a story of when he was at a show.
He said he got thrown out of a wrestling show.
And this was we were all at your place in
New York City and we were playing Soul Caliber two
(06:36):
or three or four, I don't remember which one. And uh,
you guys were killing me with this dude with a
long staff and I couldn't get in and it was
driving me nuts. And we started talking. I hated you,
and so he said he got thrive in. What happened?
He said, I threw a beer on the big show
(06:57):
and they threw me out of your good good they
absolutely But were you were you there when that happened?
Or no fun, no man, any of anything. I'd be
pushing him toward the security guard like he did it. Yeah,
you'd be the Russell Westbrook of the of the of
the rest of the Keep this guy out of here.
(07:20):
So he went. He went hardcore, like hardcore and deep
to the point where I had no like, I couldn't
even communicate with him. And there was this one other
dude that could and his name was Angelo. Yeah and yeah,
and we all know Fause and we love Fause. And
when I started working there, he started working there as well.
(07:44):
And uh, I took a little break, and you came
in when I did like a GM spot, just to
like say hello and help out and be a part
of the show. And I get asked this question all
the time, and I think I know why, but better
if you say it. But I get asked this all
the time. Why didn't you ever get Mac to go
(08:06):
and write for the w W E Oh man. There
were times where I wanted to like kind of just
you know, like find you know, six months of my
life at the very least, kind of go in there
and stuff. And you know, I will say I do
kind of regret not doing that, like now now that
I'm a dad and stuff like that. I got, Man,
I barely have time to pete at this point. Yeah,
(08:28):
I know, yeah I figured that. You know, yeah, exactly
all makes sense now, you know. Um, but yeah, no,
I you know, I just never got around to it. Thing,
you know, there was there was always something I'm next. Thing.
I know, I'm like on the road being in a
pizza band or something, you know, PiZZ if out of
like Europe or you were in Paris or something. Yeah. Yeah,
(08:48):
And then I moved to France for like five years
and stuff like that, you know. But also I came
up with some really great like bring Wyatt story angles,
like when alone in my room in Paris. Man, you know,
I really wanted to They called me up for consultation
kind of stuff like you know how yeah, I know
people they've reached out to for that kind of stuff. Yeah, exactly,
(09:08):
kind of just you know, what do you think would
make the brand better? What about it? And they don't,
you know, I think they might have like done one
or two things. And I was like, hey, I'm not
saying I came up with it or nothing. But at
the same time, I was like, oh, there you go,
you know, but you know, I'm just like, hey, you know,
why don't we make the shows slightly different? Because i
mean just one's blue and one's red, like you know,
want to you know, I said, you know, God blessed
Kevin Dunn. But you know, it's like no, no, no,
(09:30):
like this is our products, like dig it man linking again,
and he's very protective of it. Man. He's like, yeah,
he's really good at what he does what he does.
Far be it for me to criticize anything he's saying.
I'm just saying, well, can we do something that's even
just visually different, you know, things like that. No, they're
the generation of go with what you know, So they're
they're like like Garth, they fear change. Oh yeah, no,
(09:54):
ship especially the product now, fun, dude, Like this is
just I have to see one more fucking Like, I
don't get me wrong, you know, I'm actually looking forward
to what will be different this time. But if I
see brock Less and Roman Reigns one more freaking time,
you know. Yeah. That's the thing is that, like they'll
do the same pay per view like back to back
for two years straight. It felt like, yeah, it's always
(10:16):
like a like new day. Lusso's like every freaking card,
like you know, and it's just like, you know, and
I understand that like their roster obviously isn't as deep
as it was a year ago. Back they've caught I
think eighty six wrestlers from their roster in the past
calendar year. Yeah, so it's like you know, like, yeah,
so like you don't really have this rich variety that
(10:37):
maybe you might have had before and stuff. But even then, man,
it's just like, you know, how many times can we
watch the same match over? I mean literally, I think
it was just recently it was like like Survivor series
and I think they're like, you know, the one before
that they were like it was I think it was
the two before that they were virtually the same card man,
and it's just like, what the fun is going on?
You know? Yeah, well you were you and I were younger.
(10:58):
They allowed the story lines to develop sometimes for almost
a year before you got that that final payoff. And
I think once the Attitude era hit, they gave you
everything right away in a four week package, and it
kind of changed the way the stories were told, almost
pay per view to pay per view, and at a
(11:19):
certain point, I feel like you just run out of
stories to tell, so they just go with what they know.
And I'm not saying this is running out of stories
coming up. They are running out of stories. Believe I pitched.
If I pitched one every week is just when you're
pitching to a wall is going to bounce back at you.
But that that's kind of the problem, you know, that's
(11:41):
that's that's the problem right there, because you know there
there's never gonna be a lack of stories. I mean,
you know Three's Company. You know they had an episode
in the first season where they had to hide a
puppy from from the landlords, uh, the Ropers, and then
in a season like six, they're hiding a kitten from
Mr Furley. You know, it's just like again, It's like, man,
(12:03):
you can even you can just repackage with some of
this ship, you know, as long as you give it
enough time, you know you can. You can't do that.
The rest Ling's had more time than any TV show ever. Yeah,
but I mean, I think there is something to your
point of like these longer stories. But at the same time,
there was less product on television, and you know, you
were totally fine with like you know, uh you know,
watching bad News Brown beat up Jerry the Job or uh,
(12:25):
you know, on on Saturday mornings kind of thing. Like
you know, now then you know, no one's gonna be
like down with that. There's only you know, like they
can't really have too many Cocoa be Wears in your
company anymore, you know what I mean. It's hard and
you have to because you have to have people that
can lose, right, and you have to give them a
run at least once a year, at least a baby run,
(12:46):
so that they're credible that the guys you want to
get over, the girls you want to get over, have
a have a villain or a or a or a
good guy to beat. That was the Dope Sigler kind
of thing. Man. They kept on jobbing him out, and
he's just like if I don't win one, no one's
like you know, like and listen, the guy bumps like
a boss. I would love to see him in a
Kurt Henning him and Kurt Henning and a match together.
(13:06):
Just all they're doing is bumping and not actually attacking
each other. The match, by the way, are the best
matches when it's two wrestlers trying to outsell each other.
Those that like a dream right there, you know, throw
Shawn Michael's in there too, like Swan Shawn Michaels just
does it like a double back flip. Just love it,
(13:28):
Like I want to see that, you know. I mean
that's the thing Dol Sigler like, he's guilty of selling
way too well, so next thing, you know, they freaking
drop him out. You know? Yeah that Have you been
to Kendricks Wrestling Pro wrestling shows here in Los Angeles?
(13:50):
I took I took a buddy of years from New York,
Matt and his brother and they literally have matches like
that where it was he's a he's a wizard and
his name is his name is the Great brand Zino. Well,
I'll let me back up Xavier Woods brought Xavier Woods
brought me and introduced me to this and I'm like,
(14:12):
what am I seeing here? And he goes, it's Holiday wrestling.
I go, what are you talking about? Holiday wrestling? Goes,
it's the Christmas Show. He goes, I'm not telling you
anything else, like all right, so we sit down. In
the first match is a guy named Emo Tep but
it's Emo E m O Tep and he's a mummy
and topic well, he has a he has a bleached
(14:37):
bandage that comes down over his eye, and the eye
makeup his Egyptian and dramatic. But he wrestles the way
a mummy would wrestle, very slowly, Oh my god. And
all the matches are like this, and they put a
holiday story around each one, and then this one in particular,
it was die Hard and they had literally a guy
(14:59):
named the Sexy Assassin who and he has a lisp
so he sounds like Daffy Duck. He comes in in
the middle of the Emo Tep match and with all
these like lumberjack looking guys that are some are buff,
some are not so buff, and uh, and he takes
the microphone and he goes, I'm the I'm then I'm
(15:21):
not going to do a sexy assassins because he was
too good. And he says, uh, he says, and I'm
taking over Wrestling Pro Wrestling, And to prove it, I'm
calling the owner of the company right now, and you
can listen in. And we're in the Moose Lodge and Burbank,
so it's like a hundred people, okay, and he calls
he calls the owner of Wrestling Pro Wrestling, and the
(15:42):
speaker comes on and plays in ring ring and I
look at Xavier and I go, nobody's picking up, and
he looks backing and he goes, no, he never picks up,
and it rings about seven more times, and then he
gets Superman and he hangs up and he goes, well,
just because he's not there, it doesn't mean I'm not
taking over. And to help me, I brought a bunch
(16:04):
of Lumberjack orphans that were never adopted, and they all
they all turned to the crowd and they go, where
are friends now? We're never adopted and the crowd, the
crowds literally yelling back, we just heard him say that,
like they're going back and forth. And then the only
way that you can save the show. Of course, from
this this Hans Gruber sexy assassin who's taking over the
(16:24):
show is You've gotta have a John McClean, and that
John McLean is none other than a character they have
named cereal Man. And cereal Man is dressed like you
and I, but he has this amazing prosthetic cereal box
completely like plastered to his head and it says wheaties
(16:44):
and uh or whatever. Their version, but I'm telling you
like the cosplay that they do for these is top shelf.
They do full Kaiju matches, okay, like literally Kaiju matches,
and people, giant monsters are falling out of the ring
and breaking there. It's just there a so so John
McClean comes our cereal Man comes up and he says,
I'm gonna stop you, and throughout the whole night, which
(17:07):
about two and a half hour show, he starts assassinating
some of the lumberjacks, and at the end of the show,
the sexy assassin gets the only person close enough to
cereal Man that he can get leverage, right like the
John McClain's wife whatever, Holly McClain, right and uh. But
their version played by my aunt by the way, well
side quest, Hello, Yeah, that's my aunt. That's actually my aunt.
(17:30):
Don't even Delia is my aunt. She plays Holly McLean's
Crazy Yeah family Affair. So their Bonnie Badilia is of
course pop Tart Boy, who is a giant pop tort
and only his hands can poke out and his feet
so he can't really wrestle. And he's got him on
top of the turn buckle and he's gonna throw him
(17:52):
off the turn buckle the way they were gonna fall
out the Naka Tomy Plaza. But here comes Cereal Man
and he walks right by a Ston and I and
instead of a nine millimeter taped to his back is
gotta be got back of Cereal and he takes it off,
and this guy, God bless him that he throws it
and it hits the Sexy Assassin right in the head,
(18:14):
and the Sexy Assassin falls off, and then his vel
crow gets stuck to the pop Tarts vel crow, and
Cereal Man comes in and undoes it, and the Sexy
Assassin falls off the turnbuckle and lands on the Lumberjack
orphans that were never adopted, and the main event that
was supposed to happen never happens. They literally just said
thanks for coming out and good night. How they do
(18:37):
it for Thanksgiving? I've seen him top it with RoboCop
on Thanksgiving, which was hysterical, like they do the weirdest stuff.
But you said something earlier that led me to this,
which is now I'm leading back to you. He said
something like, eighty three wrestlers have been released. Yeah, I
(18:57):
wrestlers have been released, right, people like Keith Lee, people
like Carry and Cross that I think are like, well,
that's a shocked that you would release them. People like
Gray Wyatt, where I'm like, uh, that's the only attraction
left in professional wrestling. But OK, that's weird, Bretta with
all these wrestlers. And I already said this on a
podcast with Ariel Hawawani. I'm I'm I just did this
(19:22):
Netflix movie and I'm doing a couple more after this,
and I'm putting a little a little kitty together. Right
in the old days, that would be like a little
piggy bank a little kitty. And I want to start,
not to make money because it won't, and not to
compete with anyone because I'm not trying to do that,
but just to start a West Coast indie wrestling brand,
(19:44):
and there's so many free Now. Granted I'm a year
and a half away from this coming to fruition. I
just finished the first one, so I'm I'm still a
little ways out, but when I'm ready to go, I
just want to have a two year plan where if
it makes money, cool but it's probably not, which is
what my accountant said. Yeah, you're you're hoping for a
(20:04):
break even endeavor. I'll take it. I'll take it, and
I'll try to do things the old core netway as
far as business. I like if I can find some
places that actually want to play it, otherwise I just
played on my YouTube channel and screw all them. Um,
but I want to start an indie league or an
indie wrestling league. And I don't know if I wanted
to be kind of like I don't know, if you're
(20:25):
familiar with g c W where Cordona's wrestling now, Um,
they kind of they brought a lot of cool back
to wrestling, Like there's just some cool elements to it.
But I don't know if I want to go that
direction or if I want to go full like comedy
wrestling like wrestling and attraction kind of stuff. If you
and I were to start a wrestling brand, what would
(20:49):
you want it to be between between those two whatever
you wanted to be, talk about it and maybe, you know,
in a year and a half we do it. I
don't know. I like the silly stuff kind of thing,
I think, you know, I think that's something that's kind
of missing from from wrestling, you know, um uh, you know,
like that that attitude era still had that stuff like
(21:12):
like's yeah, I mean you know, can can still shoot lightning,
you know, like stuff like that, like you know, yeah,
like you know some of that kind of like that,
that kind of over the topness. I think it's been
sorely missed in wrestling, So I would I think engaging
in something like that would be a lot of fun.
You know. Um. I always had this idea for a
character called the Arm. Uh. It's just he's got one
strong arm and he does all of his moves with
(21:35):
this one arm, and the other arm is just doesn't
do anything, no effect, just like you know, punch, punch, nothing,
but this one's all chokes. Like I'm like, oh god,
the arm you know. Yeah, you like to convince someone
to get super buff on one side, just on one
arm again, like hey, bron Stroman, Hey, dude, would you
mind just working out one arm and just not doing
you double to just completely moreph your body. Didn't you
(22:06):
have like a comedy character that we were joking about
one time. I think we're talking about doing a like
a D and D wrestling league, and you were going
to have a character named the Librarian. You have the
Librarian didn't interrupt promos every every every time the crowd popped,
he go like, you know, which is actually great heat.
I would love to see somebody just always shushing the
(22:28):
audience every time he loses because he's so well schooled,
because he's already read all the rules, all the books
on wrestling. Uh, he always can get his losses overturned
because of some kind of technicality tests or something like that. Yes, exactly,
you know, so he's got a spotless record, you know. Yeah,
would work? Hey yeah, no, he said, what is it?
(22:50):
The doing decimation system? You know? That would be a finisher? Yeah? Yeah,
all right, See, this would be good at a moose
Lodge type place. If you're going for silly you, I'm
your man. You know, we can come up with all
kinds of stuff. You believe me, I know. Um, Okay,
(23:12):
I love this Netflix funded wrestling Federation. It's all right, man,
they don't care where I put my money, all right,
yeah exactly. No, No, I'm just like doing doing gigs
exclusively to make sure I fall in love and nine
minutes or less, that's all take care of. Yeah exactly,
(23:32):
it'll it'll fund my ultimate Warrior inspired wrestling fantasy. But
we're not We're not gonna say that. Yeah. Yeah, taking
and taking the gym Cornett uh like like package like
all right, yeah, all right, I just like his business package.
That's all I want to end on on women's wrestling,
(23:54):
because when I got there, the women had five minute
matches and two minutes of it was their intros. So yeah,
and I mean I think like what like we either
like Lida and Trish and stuff like that. No, I was,
oh geez, jeez. Yeah, I mean just I mean, I
forget what the what people have nicknameed that, but yeah,
(24:15):
I mean it was it was just it was just
kind of just trashy. It was just you know, good
looking women like riding around with each other, you know
it skip up, yeah, they it was it was goofy.
And when I got there, their matches they weren't allowed
to do much. I would see the producers literally tell
Vince in the production meetings like, look on the road,
(24:36):
we're letting these girls work and they can do these moves.
They're not getting hurt. They've been doing them for months
now you gotta let them and be like, oh no,
they're gonna get hurt. They can't do it. And so
the women had to fight girls like Eve Torres, the
Bella's McCool and layla Um. They were like lay Cool
or something like that. That was in between my two
(24:57):
stints was the lay Cool Experiment Um Beth Phoenix, Natty
Nidheart like that was the that was like the group
that was there. There are some legit challenges, yeah, but
they had no no time. And then I left and
the Total Diva show started out rating segments raw, and
all of a sudden, the women that were on that
(25:18):
show started getting nine minute matches and then they had
commercial breaks, and then that next generation of wrestlers came
in and really just took flight off of that foundation
to where they were headed. Banks and Bailey had a
sixty minute Iron Woman match on n xt UM. When
it was before it looked like you can't do that
(25:40):
on television started there's a salt box right over there.
But uh, but they kind of like took flight and
then all these releases happened, and it looks as if
they're pushing more towards that pretty girl less time. I
(26:01):
don't time the women's matches, but I have timed a
couple of them because it felt I don't they felt
like they've been getting shorter and what we're thirteen minute
matches are eleven minute matches now. So if I'm worried
that it's going back the other direction, but if they
keep releasing them a e W. Who I've I find
(26:22):
lacking in a women's roster as far as yeah, I
think it's one of their one of their flaws. I
think otherwise, I think they're actually a really cool company.
I I did what I do too. What about and
they would have to start it by signing a bunch
of these women? But what if a e W did
a women's division and gave it an hour and a
half or gave it the full two hours on one
(26:44):
of their nights. They have a lot of men. They
don't necessarily talk about that. Well, there's been talking about
like you know, um, like a women's only kind of show,
you know what I mean, like they're gonna try with wow,
but they don't have the level of talent the a
W Well no, no, no, I'm talking um gosh, I
forget which which where there was it was some somebody
(27:06):
was talking about this. No not not just a FED
that is all women. It's like literally just giving the
women a show, you know, like that kind of thing,
giving them an hour like kind of a week. And
I think, yeah, I don't, I don't. I don't think
it's w w E, but I I just remember I
think it was some it was a women's wrestling that
was like Ring of Honor. Yeah, yeah, yeah, women sounds great.
It sucks that we were at a point where like yeah,
(27:28):
like you kind of do have to find some of
these matches like that's actually you know, like the fact
that we that that that's even a notion, uh is
messed up, Like that's not the way it should be.
You know, look like the insane sorry for interrupting, going yeah,
well yeah, yeah, that's what I mean. Is that like
before when they were just these five minutes, I mean,
women's wrestling was a joke from like you know what
I like from even with the like when I first
(27:49):
started watching the Rock and Robin and stuff like that,
and just like funk, man, I don't feel like it
was just like that was your pea break, you know
that only wasn't a lot going on, you know, Yeah,
and then they didn't really you know, I I think
there was I think that kind of stigma like kind
of stuck for a while until you actually started like
letting some of these women cut loose and actually you know,
do some things. It's like, yeah, you know now, like
(28:10):
you know, you can it's not crazy for them to
headline WrestleMania or to close the show at Survivors. You
can put Charlotte Flair in any WrestleMania main event and
people are gonna want to watch. I mean, that's that's
no brain, regardless of men or women or whatever, like
exactly like you know, it's it's just good. This is yeah,
this is her peak, this is her time. Man Like,
she's she may not be the best actor, but she
(28:32):
owns that character. And when she stays in that character
and she never breaks, it's gold man Like. She's just
she should never be a baby face. As for as
long as John Cina wasn't a heel, Like, that's that's
how long she should be a heel for it? Yeah,
I think I think that's I think that's fair, you know. Yeah,
(28:52):
Becky Lynch is a heel. Is kind of been interesting. Yeah,
but I don't buy that she's always that. That's the
problem is that you don't you don't buy like you know,
it's it's it's it's the termin didn't work right, you know,
that kind of thing people people still want, like people
still freaking her, cheering for and stuff that's Charlotte and Beef.
(29:13):
That that her that she and Charlotte had is still
so fresh in people's minds, and it's like for them
to just get that one match out of that and
then just say, well they're on different brands, so it's over.
It's like, man, that's that's three pay per views. You
could get three pay per views out of that easy.
Easy means she could interfere with her on Raw, Charlotte
(29:34):
could interfere with her on SmackDown for what for four months? Okay? Whatever? Yeah,
you know, I've always have two minds when it comes
to the brain split anyway, you know, Um, it gives
people more TV time, you know, and we have a
deep roster. I think that's a good, you know, good thing.
They've got a lot of talent that you know, you
want to be able to see. But at the same time,
it's like I don't think they It does prevent you
(29:54):
from certain kind of matchups, and not necessarily in the
good way. There's not these dream matchups per se that
you actually like, oh, I can't wait till you know,
Survivor series where you know, Biggie gets to get take
on Roman brains like that. You know, it doesn't tickle
you in that kind of way. Um, but you know,
like I don't think they've taken full advantage of it,
like you know, yeah, I think maybe they tried to
do like an invasion storyline once or twice or something
(30:16):
like that, you know. But again, they're the same product,
like you know, on both shows, Like stylistically they're the same.
They look one is just blue when the other one
is red, and like that's that's it's just you know,
so I you know, I don't even pay attention to
who's on what roster anymore, you know what I mean.
I I can tell what I just glanced at what
color their belt is. But otherwise, Like I don't know
who's on, you know, I don't know which show misses on.
(30:38):
I just know that he's on, and it isn't important
to the fans which show there on anymore. Like there
is not a brand, you know, because they're actually they
aren't separate brands. They're both w W By the way,
how can they make n x T look so different?
But they can't make SmackDown and Raw look different in
any way, shape or for in any way exactly. And
I don't like. I don't think they improved n x T.
(31:00):
I thought I thought the next he went from the
most watchable product in w W E t unwatchable in
a week. Like it just there was nothing. There was
just stuff in there for me. And they have some
wrestlers that I still like, but I just don't And
the name thing I still don't get, Like, I just
they got they got Rick Steiner's kid, and he's he's
gonna call himself bron Breaker and the kids kid. I
(31:23):
love it, but like Breaker man like, and then they'll
change it when he gets to Raw and it'll be
you know, Brick brackman like. I just don't get it,
man like what they did to carry across was insane.
They had a guy who looked like Jeez, and he
tried him to Immortal Kombat that he had on red suspenders.
(31:48):
They put him in. They put him in reds. You
know how imagine imagine you you create this great character
right as an actor, and then a new direct actor
comes onto the movie and it's like, hey, man, we
feel like for this. You lost all your hair, like
you have you have a unicorn. You're just like, these
(32:13):
movies made a billion dollars. This is your first movie, man, Like,
even if it's your tent, what are you talking about?
When he came out in like the porno dungeon mask
and the red suspenders, I literally I didn't. I didn't.
I felt bad for the guy. I didn't even know him.
I reached out to a wrestler that I do know
(32:34):
who I happened to know. I was on the road
with him and I was like, yo, man, give that
dude a hug for me. And you just don't even
know the dude and you just the face time me.
That night he was driving and it was Morrison, John
Morrison was righting shotgun and I literally like, bro, I'm
so sorry, and he was like, dude, thanks man, it's
(32:55):
been hard, but I just I gotta because I gotta
stay with it. It's like it's him and and his
girls Scarlet, I don't scarlet board dough. They were like
the evil Macho and Elizabeth for n x T and
they're like, yeah, we're gonna split you guys up. And
you look like a linebacker who could legit beat up everybody.
(33:15):
So we're gonna get rid of that too. Some video
game costumes and see how that goes. I never felt
bad for someone, or if I not, since I worked
in the company, I haven't felt bad for someone. What
is it was? Well, remember I was at Harper and
Rowan was the bash brother. They give him big accent.
My daughter, my daughter said, Dad, why are they doing
(33:38):
that to these big guys? She was she's twelve now,
I think she was ten men and I'm like, yo,
my daughter knows what humongous men don't need weapons. How
do you know the only thing you would make that better?
If she was fighting through tears to say it. You know,
(33:58):
when they gave him the basket that he kept covered,
my my daughter literally just walked in the room, looked
at the TV. She was eleven, I think at this
point and goes here we go again, and it was
walked out and I was like, she's eleven. It doesn't
want to watch, Like, what are you doing to these
humondous people? Yeah, exactly. I feel like they've kind of
(34:18):
you know, that he is really kind of lost focus
on on all this, and I think, you know, I
think there is some kind of master plan. Um, you
know that they're bringing all these new people and they're
I mean personally, I think they're gonna sell. I think
that's exactly right. You're exactly reusive what they say. Yeah,
you know, I think Vince doesn't feel like anyone like
you know, and his family can do this. You know.
(34:39):
He's like, Vince had to buy the company from his
dad's so he's like, all right, Stephanie, if you want
to buy it, you know you have to kill billion dollars. Yeah.
So I haven't I haven't said this before, but I'll
say it now because it's been long enough. So I
was talking to a dude who was interviewing to be
their CE or do that they wanted to interview, and uh,
(35:00):
they ended up going with Nick Cole. He had he
had passed. But I just wanted to talk to me
about the company, and uh so we were just talking
about the brand and all this. He goes, yeah, they
wanted us to buy the whole product. He was an
executive Fox. Because they want us to buy the whole brand,
but the number they wanted wasn't a number we were
going to pay, so we licensed SmackDown instead. And I said,
(35:21):
were you going to and overpaid? Yeah? I said, were
you even considering the job? He goes, no, but I
just wanted to talk to you to make sure I
wasn't like crazy and lose in my mind. I said, man,
it's a crazy place to work. So you got a
nice job in l A. Your family's in l A,
Stay in l A. But I knew they were going
to sell a long time ago off that, and that
hit me like a ton of bricks. I was just like, Yo,
(35:43):
Vince isn't gonna let anyone have it. That's crazy. That's
but they have a faceless corporation have it rather than like,
you know, keep it in the family. Yeah. Yeah, we're
going to start a wrestling federation. We got to think
of a name. We'll start texting you ideas. Don't forget
the arm and the librarian. We have to make sure
(36:05):
we have both of them. Um, I could just do
steroids in one arm for like six months. I'm willing.
I'm willing to make the sac all right, there you go.
We found her work. It works like that. Yeah, that's
that's how it works. Just just wanted to just keep injecting.
You got it. I have a drago style. Alright, dude,
thank you so much for being a guest. Thank you
(36:26):
for being a friend. Like the Golden Girls always said,
thank you. Actually, I got my son some Golden Girls.
Don't really. I'm gonna tell Woodsy that he's going on
the Golden Girl's cruise. Oh oh yeah, I remember he
because he asked for time off. I heard about this.
He has for time off, like like do this freaking
thing crazy? Yeah, So I got I got got some
(36:49):
of these little little things. It was this series. So
you can play with his little Elmo and his little
remember the thank you and enjoy being enjoying a great dad.
That's the idea. This has been a production of I
Heart Radio's Michael Tura 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. M h
(37:14):
m m hmm.
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