Rudy Gonzalez

Episode Transcript
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(00:01):
The owner of the most educated professionalshim in the show. And I mean,
folks, where's the line. It'stime for the undisc Podcast with Bobby
Fish and we're back another outstanding episodeof the Undisputed Podcast. That's the good

(00:24):
DJ he's got below him. It'snot funny, mister electricity, Mabby Fish,
mister electrocutions there. Yeah, soI'm going to do the whole podcast

(00:44):
with a list that's all right withyou? That begs a question? Why?
Yeah, it does? I don'tknow. That's that's fun Go ahead,
continue, Franklin, Why don't yougive a proper reduction to our guest.
Yes, our guest this evening isnone other than Rudy Boy Gonzalez Texas,

(01:06):
Texas Wrestling Academy. Hello, sir, how you guys doing spectacular?
Dennis? I'm good? How areyou? No? You know? Well?
Are you talking to Rudy here?Yeah? I mean I don't really

(01:27):
care how you are? Yeah,No, I don't care. I don't.
Yeah, you shouldn't care. Iwouldn't either. Yeah. Uh So,
Rudy briefly was telling us about theweather in Texas and what was the

(01:48):
what was it that you mentioned lastyear's record of consecutive days over one hundred,
over one hundred and five hundred andten. I mean it was pretty
hot. Less I like it though. I like the hot weather. I
love it. I mean we'll goif we're if we're not doing anything for

(02:09):
the weekend, we'll go to thebeach and just hang out, you know.
I mean, I love I hatethe cold weather. What's the what's
the go to beach for you?Down there in uh in Texas? In
Lubbock, not Lubbock. What amI saying? South Padre Island? Yeah,

(02:30):
and never been San Antonio? Yeah, yeah, So down here at
the beach is South Padre Island.That's where every gonna goes? Okay,
And would you say that that yearand it gets is that the one that
you like? I'll go there,or I'll go to a place, yeah,
I mean there's a lot of stuffhappening. Or we'll go to Port

(02:52):
of Ranza's which is not as farand more family stuff, you know,
but it's a little bit more quietalso. But South pod Drawllan gets all
the college kids, the teenagers,the young adults drinking and loud music.
Yeah. I don't know if there'sanybody on this right now. That's at

(03:13):
that speed in life. I know, I'm not my names are over with
then I'll watch. I want toparticipate, right even me both Uh My
wife had you know, just afew drinks the other night at a work

(03:34):
function, and the way she paidfor it the next day, you know,
and nothing nothing crazy. It wasn'tlike she was throwing up or anything,
but just you know, the thingsshe shared with me about how awful
she felt and didn't want to eat, didn't want of this, and didn't
one of that, And it waslike, man, we yeah, we
we cannot get away with what weused to right right? No way?

(04:01):
Yeah? Yeah? Boys? Oris there a bit of a delay?
I think? So okay, Idon't well for mine fell me like,
yeah, I think there's I thinkRudy's got a little bit of a Yeah.
I'll say something and I'll finish sayingwhat I'm saying and I'll look at

(04:25):
you guys, and you're looking atme like I'm crazier. Like it's like
I guess the delay or something?So all right, So do we just
grin and bear this? D oris there a fix to this? I'm
not sure if there is. Itcould just be it could be internet connection

(04:47):
or okay, otherwise I'm not reallysure. Okay, I mean, is
it maybe that it's a full moonor a leap ear or or a certain
promoter trying Septizer show. Who's that? I don't want name names. I
don't I don't name names. Uh, Scott Diamore, Yes, Uh.

(05:11):
I think he's trying to sympathize ourshow. Okay, all right, Well
anyway, Frank, you wanna youwanna get us? Maybe maybe we're all
just such a long distance could beI am in France right now? Why

(05:34):
no, not even I was lying. But I do like the toast there.
I like the toast from France.All right, that's my man.
That's Rudy come and clutch with hisdad joke right behind it. All right,

(06:00):
say this is I tried to tellyou guys, this is why Rudy
and I got along so well.Like it was one of the things I
said when I got back from theseminar of the weekend. I was there
with you, Rudy, as Ihad told these guys like, I don't
know, man, we I thinkwe're like we share like a brain,
like I think we could complete eachother sentences. I had such a good

(06:20):
time. And this is just alot of stuff Bobby talked about in our
clinic were things that like the nextMonday when we had training, I asked
the guys what they thought, andone of them was like, he said,
the same thing you say. AndI'm like, well, I mean

(06:43):
it makes sense. I mean,yeah, I'm not I'm not blowing smoke
up. Y'all's asked or anything.It's just that's just the way it is.
And yeah, you know, Imean and obviously he wasn't blowing smoke
up. Anyone's ask me. That'sjust the way it is. So I
mean, I sat and listened thewhole time, and and usually like if

(07:03):
I'll have somebody like, I don'tknow, I don't just if somebody else
is here and they're talking about somethingthat I I mean, everybody has their
own method of doing this stuff.But if they like, like I have
a thing of running off the roadswith your left foot, let's say,
for example, and someone says,yeah, man, it don't matter,

(07:27):
but I'll interject and say, no, well I chose you know, all
all correct. Whatever. But Imean, everyone does their own thing,
but I'll always if it doesn't jibewith what I I teach or what I
train. Right then I'll interject withmy own thoughts and honestly, you know,
not blowing boke if anyone's asked ornothing. I mean I just sat

(07:48):
there and listened to Bobby. Hejust you know, uh, every now
and then Bobby would say right,Rudy, and I'm like, yeah,
well yeah, I mean, youknow, I mean it was it was
like uh and then and the coolthing was is that me and Bobby are
from two different eras of wrestling.I'm from the eighties and he's from you
know, basically today. So Imean, yeah, we we uh,

(08:09):
you know, we died with alot of our ways of thinking. Uh.
And then afterwards we went to goeat and you know, I mean
we you know, we talked andand everything that we talked about was was
uh, you know, was onlinewith what I you know, if we
you know, we agreed on youknow, whatever we talked about. Yeah,
yeah, it was. It wasvery very cool in that way,

(08:33):
and and part of what made meenjoy the trip as much as I did.
So, Frank, I took Bobbyto a show. Oh okay,
yeah, I took Bobby to ashow after our clinic and I was watching

(08:54):
one of the matches, well allthe matches actually, and some of the
matches were just horrendous. During ishorrible, and I was looking over at
Bobby and he was watching. Hewas watching him too, and I was
actually embarrassed because it's like, man, this is you know, this is
garbage. And then afterwards we wentto go wet and we're talking and I

(09:18):
said, hey, so what doyou think about the matches? Every match
that I thought was trash? Bobbywas like, I hated this match.
I hated that match. And I'mthinking myself, yep, yep, yep,
yep. You know what I mean. It was funny, very cool,
So what makes it trash? LikeI'm I look at the videos you

(09:39):
posed it today and asked, I'mnot sure if Bob, you've got a
chance to see the one with thechick in the corn that it may not
have been actually happened, but thethe illusion of it happening. And then
there was the wealth of power bomb. I think it was. Is that
kind of what you got talking aboutor just something else to me? To

(10:00):
me, it's to me, it'sthe psychology of it. It's it's why
are you doing like what what partof wrestling does stapling a chicks couch?
You know what, what where isthat coming from? Or or giving a
guy a power bomb and then theguy gets right up and and fights back.
You know, it makes it becomeback to me. It's it's psychology.

(10:22):
And what's what's the psychologist lost?I just lose interest in the match?
Yeah, I mean, I Iwhat I think, especially now that
I've gone back and I'm working independentlyagain and I'm getting to see all sorts
of wrestling. What my theory onsome of this is is that at this

(10:46):
point, so much has been exposedthat most You've got a lot of people,
let's say that that have seen theway the doughnuts are made that should
have never been given the opportunity tosee that. And now the belief is

(11:09):
like, Okay, well everybody canmake these donuts because it's it's what you
don't have to actually be a baker, you know, you don't have to
actually be an athlete. And that'sa misperception and it's incorrect. And so
I think you have a lot ofpeople that are privy to things that they

(11:35):
was never meant to be their privilegeand so they've bastardized what was a tried
and true psychology that kind of existedalmost everywhere because it had to in order
for their to the business to survive, because it was a business, and

(11:58):
you know, k fabe, kfabe had to be maintained in order for
the business to continue. And nowbecause it's you know, k fabe is
gone, here you go. Youknow, the versions that are coming out
now are like not only missing someof the psychology, but void of psychology

(12:22):
in any way, shape or form. Right, And when I I'll and
when I said when I when Isay, a match just is trash.
That's my opinion. I mean,I'm heavy on psychology and stuff making sense
that everyone else. There may bea thousand people in the room and all
a thousand people may love that match, But the way I was taught and

(12:46):
brought up, it was not youknow, the psychology is not there,
then I'm not interested. But likeyou know, uh Bobby said, you
know, it's it's the fans havegone so conditioned to seeing what they're seeing
now that you know, there's noreally no big deal with them. They
just you know, they're just poppingforward. The next big move M yeah,

(13:13):
and so Frank, I'm gonna jumpin where I think you may be
interested at this moment just because whatI what I don't want to do and
and this is my own temptation,is like to like run down all the

(13:33):
negative because there there is more thanenough. But let's go back then,
Rudy, to how was it?What was the psychology that you were taught
and who taught it to you?Frank? Am I anywhere? Am I
warn? That's where I was going. Yeah, that's where I thought.
Yeah, okay, Well, Imean so if you took a big move,

(13:56):
then you sold a move till youknow, so whenever it's time to
move on, you didn't just getripe back up and and uh it continues
some kind of offense or anything.Uh, there were some moves that you
just didn't do. They were reservedfor certain guys. Like down here,
Bob sweet Ten was the pile driverguy, and if he gave you a

(14:18):
pile driver, that was in thematch. And so like I know,
I know one time a guy trieddoing in an opening match a pile driver
and uh, there're two green guys, and uh, the referee was an
older guy, so he was tryingto call the match, but the guys
just did to move anyway, andthe referee said, I was trying to

(14:39):
tell him, don't do it,don't do it, don't do it,
and they did it. And thenwhen he counted, the other guy kicked
out and then you know, theycontinue to match and did whatever they're gonna
do. But when they went tothe back down here the bookers were Luke
Williams and Butch Luke Williams and JonathanBoyd of the Bushwhackers and the Sheepbergers,

(15:00):
and man, they tore those guysup. And Bob sweet Twen were just
staring at him, and he waspissed because what we're doing at that time
was we were building up a adeal where they were going to bring in
Jerry Lawler and they were going todo this pile drive match. So and
so, Bob sweet Ten the matchesleading up to this, but he and

(15:20):
nailed you with the pile driver andyou were either carried out, a couple
of guys had to help you out. We did the old fall on your
head and then you know, uh, shak your shaker leg a little bit
to show how devastating the pile driverwas. I mean, we did everything
we could to put the move over. And then these two guys in the

(15:43):
first match and they you know,pile drive one guy and they kicks out
and and the fans they didn't evenreact to it. It wasn't like like
today, you do a big moveand and the fans are oh. But
then, I mean, the fansaren't stupid. They I've always told,
you know, even to that,I tell guys, they know what how

(16:03):
it's supposed to look, they knowhow it's supposed to go. So when
these two guys did their move andthe guy that guy, the other guy
kicked out of the pile driver,it was like crickets, you know,
and you'd almost tell the fans arelike, this isn't right. You know,
so'st and you know. But thenwhen later on in the I think

(16:26):
that it may have been I'm Idon't, I don't. It might have
been like like Bob Sweeten and ScottCasey or somebody, and uh so the
whole match, Bob sweet Ten wastrying to get Scott Casey's position to give
him a pile driver, and ScottCasey did stuff like double legged them,
back dropped him over anything, todo to get out of that until finally

(16:47):
he caught him and then bam,the match was over. And when he
caught him with that pile driver,the place ooh, you know, and
and the referee counted, the fanswent nuts and stuff and and uh.
But again, the guys that didin the first match, they got they
got shoot out bad. I meanI felt bad for him. I was
like the second match, and Ialways kept that in my back pocket not

(17:11):
to do stuff that, like youwould never do it, and you would
never see another match where a guydid a super kick because you know as
a as a superkick as just anothermove. Chris Adams did it down here,
and that was the finish. Clotheslines, sleeper holes, you know,

(17:33):
just different things, had different meetingsand they were you know, and you
didn't do them because somebody else was, you know, was was using that
as they're finish. And so youknow, the guys that taught me that
were guys like Chabo Guerrero and TellyBlanchard and Manny Fernandez, and some of
these guys would do you know,you go to dressing room and you know
they would you know, maybe Mannywould say, just look at you and

(18:00):
just say it's slow down, that'sall. And so you could say like
okay, or you could say whatdo you mean by slowing down? What
are you talking about? And that'show we learned, you know. But
today, if you tell guys don'tdo something, they're gonna do it just
to piss you off. And youknow, I think the fans they're not

(18:22):
stupid. They know what they know. They know wrestling is whatever you want
to call it, and they knowhow it's supposed to look. And so
but when when you kind of goout of you know, go out of
bounds with that, I feel likeyou kind of lose the fans. Yeah,
Frank Dennis, what do you haveany any thing to add or any

(18:47):
any thoughts on on that? It'sunique, unique way to think about it
because it's it's right like you watchany show right now, you're how old
were gonna see the same move atleast five times you shouldn't? Or the
power of the power bombing examples,a power bomb everybody's a power bomb back

(19:10):
in the day, has to belanded a power bob like, oh my
god, who doesn't have a superkick? And they were, uh, the
right, right, everybody is doingsuperkicks right well, And it's funny that
you bring up superkick, because Ithink part of it was so like the
superkick was so overdone that it gotto a point where it being overdone was

(19:37):
such a bone of contention for whatwas considered like the more old school believers
in psychology, that it became coolto you know, superkick party, all
that stuff, like Matt and Dickare good friends of mine, And that's
part of how they went out andestab published getting over as the young buzzs

(20:02):
was that sort of counter culture likeOkay, if you say stop doing this,
I'm gonna do it even more similarto what Rudy had just said,
And it's part of what got themover. And I'm not arguing with it
even a little bit. Like Isaid, they're good friends of mine,
and they used you know, theyalmost used it against people. But I

(20:29):
think what you're seeing now is theevolution of what some of that stuff that
upset the foundation of the business whenthat does actually come out in the wash.
However, many years later, you'reseeing the byproduct the result of that
now, which is, you know, very little psychology in most in a

(20:56):
lot of today's wrestling you know you'resuper cat. I grew remember growing up
the super kick that was Chris Adams, and when he did it, it's
like, holy God, look atthe super cat. It been something point
yep I was. I was alreadyin business for a year or so,
two years, I guess. AndI saw a match with Carrie von Eric

(21:17):
and Chris Adams. I posted avideo on my on my Facebook page.
And Carrie was a big dude.He was six four six five and uh
legitimate, three three hundred or soand uh, just a big man.
And Chris Adams superkicked him in amatch and Carrie took a bump, rolled
out of the rings, sold itlike a million bucks. And when I

(21:38):
saw it, I saw it onTV, I thought I was already,
you know, smart the business.So when I saw it, I thought
to myself, holy holy cal hejust kicked kicked the ship out of him
and I thought it was legit.I thought it was a spud and uh
no, man. Years later Iworked with Chris and coolest ship man.

(21:59):
He gave me a super kick andand you know, and when he gave
it, I kind of marked out, like, oh you know, oh
I got I'm getting super good guy. And you know, but Carrie sold
it like a million bucks man andmade me believe that he really got the
heck kicked that of him. Youknow, what I will say is that
today's athlete, today's wrestler is Yeah, they're smaller guys, but they're and

(22:26):
will very very very good condition Ithink that if guys put the conditioning and
you know, the look and thestatue and all that stuff together with more
psychology, everything would make better sense. You see some of these guys do
these moves and it's like, there'sno way in the world Adam you know,

(22:49):
whatever his name is, you know, can get up from that.
But here, you know, he'sgetting up and he's doing the next move
or whatever, and and you know, just it just were is taught to
suspend your belief or disbelief. Soseeing a guy like Adam Cole, I'm
sure he's not more than one eightyI mean one sixty or so, but

(23:11):
for him had a big move andthen get right back up and then do
something else just kind of like youknow, you're like, I'm I'm rolling
my eyes. I like him.Yeah, he's a cool I like his
and and you know he's gotten over. I like all those guys, I
like, you know, I meanI watched the A. E. W.

(23:33):
Show every now and then, andall those kids. Man, they're
their athletic as hell. Rot He'sone of my favorites. But when they
do some stuff, it's like,come on, man, you know,
you know, and it takes awaymy disbelief. And so I just kind
of like not watch watching just Ijust don't like that style of work.

(24:04):
Yeah, yeah, I do.I feel like, uh, you know,
the delays of things. Yeah,yeah, we're definitely on delay.
We're definitely on delay. Frank,speaking about delay? Where where should we

(24:26):
go here? Frank? I thinkit's a good segue. Let's talk about
Chris Adams and how great Gino Hernandezwas, what could have been? Yeah,
well, Rudy Gino Hernandez thoughts andand and what was how much history

(24:49):
it exists there? How well didyou know Gino Hernandez? Even Chris Adams
for that matter. I mean,let's let's get into what your your paths
crossing was. So so I camein January of eighty two. I I

(25:11):
came in of January of eighty two, and Gina was down here tagging with
Kelly as a dynamic duo. Uhso here's here. He was here for
a few months, maybe almost ayear, and uh, coolest ship man
he was. You know, youknow, I was I was a new
guy. I was the green guy. So a lot of a lot of
guys kind of like k fade me. They stayed away from me and stuff.

(25:36):
Gino, Ricky Morton, Ken Lucas, Tally Manny, they kind of
like, you know, started talkingto me and whatever. Gina was always
very cool to me though. Waslike in the beginning, my job was
to set the ring up, anduh, there are times let's just sit

(25:56):
in the front row, you know, just tired because there was usually me
by myself putting up the ring.You sitting next to me, and like
how they're going, and we justhave a have a talk, like you
know, like like guys who haveknown each other for years. Yeah.
Uh, and then he left.I'm not sure what the situation was,

(26:17):
but he went to World Class Wrestling, and but when he was down here,
man, I mean he got somuch, so much tremendous heat,
man, And it was just walkingout from the back, you know,
I mean back then, we didn'thave curtains and pyro and lights and all
stuff. It was just a backdoor and came out and immediately people would

(26:42):
throw stuff at him and boo himand whatever, and I mean he got
heat. And then when he startedtagging Telly, it was even worse.
Uh So, I mean, Imean I never had any really issues with
him. I never you know,he was just on a couple of years
ago. He was on that darkside of the ring and stuff. Yeah,

(27:03):
whatever paint picture they painted of him, I never saw. I never.
He might have been on coca.I never asked him. I never
asked, hey, man, areyou high? But the picture of him
was I I didn't know that guy. I didn't. I had no idea
we was because well and I thinktoo when you used the documentary, it

(27:26):
was a little on the centric side, but around the I would what do
you what do you think, Dennis? What's uh rank? Are you there?
Yeah? I'm live all right?Where I fell? Yeah, I'm

(27:47):
here? Oh there you go?What did you got? What did you
think of the Iron Movie? Howactor was that? How did that depict
Texas wrestling back of the day?The bonny? I didn't watch it.
I didn't. I didn't watch it. I don't watched it yet. I
have I have no interest in watchingit. I don't. I've heard different

(28:10):
reviews from different guys and and whathave you. And I got along with
Kevin, I got along with Carry. I loved Carrie was again. Carrie
was like the John Travolta of wrestling. He was just so charismatic, just
I mean, cool, coolest shit. I mean he was. I didn't
know Mike von Er very well.We talked a couple of times. I

(28:33):
didn't know him very well. Ididn't know David. He had already passed
away by the time I got toworking with the company. Fritz was you
could kind of you kind of tellit even at that time that he was
a little on the controlling side.But that's none of that was none of
my business. That was I wasjust there to do some work for him
and and uh and leave, youknow. But I mean, I I

(28:56):
have honestly, man, I havegood memories of the work for World Class
and the bond Eerics, and Iyou know, when I I'm not gonna
lie. I mean when I heardthat, when I heard Geno passed away,
I cried when I heard Carrie passedaway, and he I cried because
I knew those guys and they werevery cool with me. They were you
know, you make it like aconnection with them, you know, we're

(29:19):
you know, when guys talk aboutyou know, brothers and stuff. I
look at those guys as like olderbrothers at that time, and I still
do. Man, I you know, uh so, I don't you know.
I mean, if somebody were totell me, you know what,
hey man, Bobby Bobby Fish does, I don't want to hear it.
I know Bobby in one perspective andone you know, one form of you

(29:41):
know, my relationship with him isdifferent from anybody else, and so if
you have any negativity or whatever totalk about, I don't want to hear
it. I don't I don't care, I don't. You know. All
I know was my relationship with withthe boys, with whoever. And if
you have a problem with him,yeah, I agree with that sentiment,
and I try the best I can, and I'm sure I don't always pull

(30:03):
it off one hundred percent. Butto only not judge people, but only
like formulate an opinion on them basedon that on how they treat me.
Because at the end of the day, the stuff that circulates about people like,
what can you trust? There isno checks and balances in the pro

(30:23):
wrestling newsfeed whatsoever, and that boysare the boys, and the boys are
gonna you know, most of theboys, and this is just kind of
the way that you know, industrylends itself to like a I don't want
to say most of the boys,but at times people just talk out of

(30:49):
both sides of their mouths, andyou gotta be careful as to what you
believe and what you don't believe,and even the stuff that is quote unquote
true, there's like a certain percentageof embellishment that is just accepted because this

(31:12):
is pro wrestling, you know,where everybody's a liar literally, right.
So, Rudy, when you hadsaid the part about Carrie and Carrie being
the John Travolta of wrestling, immediatelymy thought and part of this is because

(31:36):
I'm such a big fan of thisperson, and I've been in many a
locker room with him, and I'mvery you know, I dare I say
I'm friends with the man. Soif he were to hear this, he's
never heard it before and would probablybe like, oh, I don't know,
I don't know how he would feelabout it. But Samoa Joe is

(32:00):
that to me as far as likethe locker rooms he's been in, He's
always been about business. He's alwaysbeen obviously he's a more than capable worker.
And his his charisma is, youknow, undefinable, like it's you

(32:22):
can't necessarily say what it is,but it's there and it it comes off
of him regardless what he's doing.Yeah, just a comparison popped in my
head when he called carry the JohnTravolta of Texas Wrestling. I grant I

(32:43):
so I knew. I knew Joeback when he was at Ring of Honor,
and I think the world of him. But he gives off that that
persona of don't mess with me,you know that type of stuff, and
which is cool, don't you know. Everybody has their own little deal and

(33:05):
that's fine. I've picked him upthe airport and we've sat there and talked
in the car and and would havehim and and he's cool, the cool
shit with me. I like hima lot, but he definitely gives you
that that rub of you know,he's there for business and uh, you

(33:30):
know, don't don't f with him, you know that type of stuff.
Yeah, I think nothing, nothingbut respect for him. I think it's
a little bit of a lost art, uh these days when it comes to
uh, somebody just being about thebusiness, because at this point, so

(33:51):
much of the business is fed bythe dirt sheets and by the you know,
meltzers of the world and the youknow, it's just it's a it's
a such a dirty, dirty placein some regards. So a guy like
Joe who is not taking ship fromanyone, but at the same time isn't

(34:15):
a pain in the ass himself either. He's a breath of fresh air.
I would compare it somewhat to aguy that and this will be you know,
Frank and Dennis. I want creditfor the segue on this. But
a guy that you're very familiar with, Rudy, and that would be Brian
Danielson another one of those guys thatthat is you know, he's he's such

(34:38):
a lighthouse in regard to just beingan example of a good version of this
business. I agree, I mean, Brian, Brian Danielson is another one.
I mean, he's he's a hehad a sense of humor, but

(35:05):
it's a little on the dry side, you have to I mean, I
was around for six months. SoI caught on to you know, I
caught onto his stick, you know, and got along in love to death
man. And but you know he'syou have to you know, I've had
guys that were like, man,Brian has no personality, Hey, he
does? You just gotta you justgotta figure it out, you know,

(35:25):
Well, I think too, youwould, you would always hear so Dean
Malenko grew up watching Dean and hewas Man of a thousand holes, and
everybody would say, how you know, he was the wrestling guy, the
technician, He didn't have a personality. But then anybody who knows him behind
the scenes would say that the realindividual, you know, is this like

(35:50):
dry, sarcastic, hilarious guy.And my experience with Dean has been very
much that. Frank, Where becauseI'm a little bit tempted to dive into
some of the Ring of Honor stuffwith Rudy, But I want to get

(36:13):
before we go that direction, getwhat I'm sure you have still that we've
yet to touch on. Where wouldyou go on in here now, Frank,
he's already mentioned the man, Butwhat was like with Kelly Blancher his
father and being in the hot bitof Texas wrestling when you were there.

(36:37):
So again, I came in innineteen eighty two. So back then,
the only way you got into wrestlingbusiness was if you were related to somebody
or you knew somebody. And Iwasn't related to nobody, and I didn't
know nobody except my high school footballcoach. Coach, you know, my

(37:00):
high school, and he coached asemi pro football team here in San Antonio,
and lo and behold. Some ofthe players that he had was a
guy named Joe Bnarski who was arunning back who later later on turned into
Ivan Putsky. He had a guynamed Bill Layman who later on turned into

(37:22):
the Spoiler. Uh, a guynamed Frank bish who turned into Bruiser Broding.
So he had a bunch of guysthat that were that got into wrestling,
and then he was He knew allwho McDaniel, he knew my coach,
knew a lot of people, andhe knew the Blanchards. So I

(37:42):
came home from college. I didone year of college football, and I
came home and I went to govisit my high school. And so he
asked me, what are you doingfor for training? And UH said,
I don't know, man, Idon't earn a wrestling school. And I
remember like it was yesterday. I'mnot telling you to be a pro wrestler.

(38:05):
But he said, this friend ofmine started wrestling at school, and
I'm sure if you go over thereand tell him you're one of my players,
he'll let you train for free untilyou go back to jard And And
Telly was a booker at the time. And once I said once I said,
George past Check, which was myfootball coach, Joe like warmed up

(38:30):
to me, and you know,I mean he he he let me.
He let me train in for free. I was supposed to go back to
school on a Sunday, and hesent the referee guy to come pull me
out of training on that wednesdayday andasked me if I wanted to help with
the ring Thursday, and so Isaid sure. You know, so I

(38:53):
ride with the ring guy to CorpusChristy, Texas to help put the ring
up. And so my job,dreamed to show was to sit at the
back door and make sure no fanscame in through the back. But from
where I was sitting at I couldsee the matches and so in Corpus Christie

(39:15):
were at the Memorial Coliseum and theyhad the old one light, so the
place was dark except for the ring. They had one big light over the
ring, and all I could seewhere the guys fighting. And so I
remember there was Tiger Conway Junior,there was Dick Slater, there was Eddie

(39:37):
Mansfield, and none of none ofreally none of those matches appealed to me.
I was a wrestling fan, soit didn't really appeal to me.
So but then the main event cameon and that was Wahoo and Telly,
and to see a live match,that was it. I mean they I

(39:57):
mean, knowing what I know now, knowing that it's to work and whatever
you want to call it, thosetwo guys beat the shed out of each
other, and whatever ideas I hadof pro wrestling at that time went out
the window. Man. As youknow, Wahoo was chopping the heck out
of Telly, Tully was bumping allover the place, I mean it was,

(40:20):
and then somewhere somewhere in there,Tully Kelly started bleeding, and the
and then you can't see the crowdbecause it's dark in there, but the
crowd's going nuts, and uh soyou know that that happened. And then
the next night. That night,after the show, they asked if I
wanted to help with the ring againthe next day, so I said sure.
So I went to the next townhelp with the ring. Same thing.

(40:40):
I watched the back of the backdoor, but I could see the
matches and the main event was TierKong and Dick Slater. I think,
and and I started so the nextthe second night, I started paying more
attention to the matches and then theyasked me if I could help out with
the ring Saturday. So Saturday,I paid more attention than the matches,

(41:04):
and it just I just grew intoit, grew into it, and so
Sunday I was supposed to go backto school, and I never And so
I showed up to the office Mondayand Joe asked me, he goes,
aren't supposed to be going back toschool? And I said yes, so
to leave yesterday. He said whathappened? And I said yeah. We

(41:27):
talk and he said sit down,and uh, so I sat. I
sat there and I told him Iwant to learn the wrestling business. I
didn't tell him I wanted to bea wrestler. I just told him I
wanted to learn the rest of thebusiness part because every time, I mean
we did like Corpus Christi, whichwas I mean, I'm another twenty five
hundred people there. We just smalltown. There's probably another five six seven

(41:49):
hundred. Another small town Saturday thatwas probably another seven eight five hundred.
So I wanted to learn how youknow, these guys are making all the
money and and Joe walked out ofthe buildings with the Halliburton like the like
the money in the bank suitcase ofHalliburton and full of money. So how

(42:10):
do you know, how can Iget to without going through four years of
college? So I figured if Ifollowed him around and and uh shadowed him
and and just did whatever they askedwith you, eventually I would get to
that point. And so, uh, you know, Joe chewed me out.

(42:30):
I mean he spent like about itfelt like half an hour, but
it's probably maybe a couple of minutes. But he's like, just you know,
I told him I want to Iwant to learn the ruston bility.
He said, you know, uh, don't you have a scholarship for football
or something. I said yes,And he just said, are you stupid?
And I'm like, ohh and uhHe goes, you're gonna starve,

(42:52):
You're gonna have no home, you'regonna look car, You're gonna, you
know, be broke, no relationship, You're gonna miss anniversaries. He just
gave me this doom and Gloom wrestlingdeal, right, And I'll tell you
he was right. I mean Iexperienced all that stuff, but also a

(43:12):
lot of good things that I've experienced. Well, uh, well he gets
done with and I said, okay, he said, go gom up the
building. Well he gets done withhis spiel, and and you said,
yeah, where do I sign?So so he told me go them off
the buildings. So exactly exactly,I that's what I did. Man,

(43:39):
I I did what they asked meto. I learned. I started seeing
what the different people in the officedid. Some guys did, uh made
flyers, not like we didn't havephotos and stuff. Then it was like
you had to get a white sheetof paper, and then you had to
use their typewriter and type in whateveryou want to type in. And then
there was like these little tape thingsthat had designs on him. You had

(43:59):
to take gave him to the tothe paper and it was the paper and
the folder. It's take it tothe copying place and it'd make five hundred,
you know, a thousand fars whatever. And it was a it was
a tedious thing to do, butI learned it, and I learned how
to count t shirts. I learnedthe merchandise part of it, and before
you knew, I had a job. And uh and then you know,
they you know, uh, Joehad a big enough crew to run two

(44:22):
shows a night, so he neededtwo referees. So there I was.
I was, I was one referee. I got. He gave me a
ring, you know, the keysto a truck to and I was in
charge of one of the rings.And I just, you know, I
just learned the business. And Joealways took care of me. He was
always, you know, he's soI worked for I started with Southwods Wrestling,

(44:47):
and then a guy named Fred Baronbought him out, and so I
went from working with one of thebest motors in the in the business,
Fred Baron was like the complete opposite. It was like night and day literally,
So you know, when when Joewas folded the company, when he

(45:07):
was going to sell out, hepulled me in the office and he said,
I'm selling the company. And sonow here's where I dropped out of
college. So what am I goingto do? So I said, well,
what do I do? He says, you gotta He said, you
gotta go on the road. Anduh, I'm like, I didn't know

(45:28):
anybody. I didn't know because Joetook care of me so much. I
didn't know the part about networking andconnecting with the other boys and stuff.
I just, you know, Ijust kept isolating, isolated myself from the
guys. And then some of theguys I just didn't you know. Again,
this is the eighties, so someof the guys were on pills.

(45:51):
Some of the guys as were drunk. Some of the guys were just you
know, nice guys until they getyou know, until they start partying or
whatever. From a lot of theguys. And so when Joe was gonna
fold, he said, call Fritz. And Fritz was like the big competitor

(46:14):
there was. It was like thethe and the and back then he was
they were like the enemy world classingwas the enemy. So I was like,
really, he says, I'll giveyou Fritz's number, I'll call Fritz
myself and and put in a goodword for you and go work for Fritz,
and I said, all right,and so I talked to him,

(46:36):
and this guy Fred Baron Hm wasthe San Antonio promoter for World Class Wrestling.
So Fritz said, well, sinceyou're in San Antonio, just stay
there and work for Fred. Andso I was like, all right.
And so I didn't know Fred thatwell at that time. So but they
from day one, there were someissues. And then Fred caught win that

(46:59):
Joe Blanchard was selling, so hebought Southwest Wrestling and that became Texas All
Star Wrestling. And then Fred trieddouble crossing Fritz, and uh so there
was an issue with that, andand then there was money with There was
issues with money and not getting paidand stuff like that, and and uh
so I just quit. I justI just quit working for Fred. And

(47:23):
I worked a few more shows forFritz, and we were come into the
era of Big John Studd and HulkHogan and carry on Airlex Luger and all
these guys. Man, I'm fiveeight. There was no way in the
world, you know, I wasn't. There was no way in the world
I was gonna like fit into thatstuff. So I talked to a couple

(47:49):
of guys here and somebody said,you know what, maybe you can get
a job doing jobs, and Iguess, you know, I mean,
I've never I've never. One thingI can say I guess was a blessing
on my end was I've never takenthis business so serious that I can't move
my matches. You know, Idon't. That's never, That's never bothered

(48:13):
me. So at that time,w w F was paying like four hundred
bucks to come in and put overYokazuma or the Mounte or what. So,
you know, twice a month,I'd go in and four hundred bucks,
four hundred bucks. But at thesame time Mexico and so I'm like,

(48:37):
I said, I'm five eight,and in Mexico everyone's five eight,
everyone's five to seven, everyone's fiveto six. Some of the guys that
I thought we were giants, bigMexican Mexican heroes, lucha heroes were I
was told, and they were like, Elsaster was a short dude. Man,
I'm like really, So I didreally well, and man, I

(48:59):
was there for three year and thenso I was going back and forth.
I come back in time to dothe w WF stuff, and then Joe
in the meantime started working for WorldChampionship Wrestling, where he started working for
the Crockets actually, and so hisjob was he was an event coordinator,
and so he would go to thetowns before the shows and set up the

(49:23):
radio spots, the newspapers, theappearances and all this stuff. The only
thing was Joe had a bad hip, so it's hard for him to get
around. So he called me oneday and he said, uh, are
you busy next Friday? And I'mlike, no, sir, And he
goes, you want to go withme to Tahlequah, Oklahoma? And I
said, sure, what I gottado? He says, we got to

(49:45):
set the ring up for the Crockets, and I said, yeah, you
know. So we drive out toTahlequah, Oklahoma, which was was quite
a drive, and so he dothe deal, come back home and uh,
a week later, I get acheck for like something crazy, like

(50:06):
six hundred bucks or some some Wejust put the ring up and I was
used to like one hundred dollars forthe ring or something, you know,
so this was like something out ofthe world, out of this world,
like yeah, and so uh,then Joe called me again and I called
him. I said Hey, Igot a check for like six hundred dollars.
Was there a state? He goes, No, you got paid for

(50:30):
the ring, you got paid forthem, you got paid for travel time.
So yeah, he goes, how'dyou like it? And I was
like, I, this is great, you know. So I started working
for n W for the Crocketts andthen uh then then Ted brought out and
it became World Championship Wrestling. SoI worked for them for a little while

(50:52):
and uh got paid really well,Like I got those spots through Joe Blanchard
and it was just just a relationsbut I with them through the years.
Uh, even though I was nolonger working for him, I still called
him every day at least once aweek week and uh, just to talk
just to how you're doing, justyou know, I mean, I love

(51:13):
the man to death. And anduh when he would go visit Tully,
who was living in Charlotte at thetime, I would watch the house.
He would give me the keys anduh, you know, so they'd be
gone all week, and I justas long as I fed the dog every
every day. You know. Hesaid, if you want to sleep on
the couch and want to welcome toyou know, Uh, I never slept
there nothing. I just did whatI was supposed to do and left.

(51:34):
Uh. But I had a greatrelationship with mister blanche I mean, when
he passes and I'm not I'm nottrying to get sympathy from nobody, but
when he passed away, man,a huge part of me, a huge
part of my wrestling uh being,Yeah, disappeared. Man. It was.

(51:55):
It was pretty tough. Yeah,and tell me I've Telly. I
mean, no, Telly, youknow, if he says HI to you,
you're doing man, he's he's notknocking him. I like, I
love Telly. That's also, butTelly is telling Yeah. So joking with
Joe was was you know, thatwas the health heck of a way to
get into the business, was workingfor a guy like like Joe Blanchard.

(52:19):
How how similar or how different wereJoe and Tully from one another? Joe
Tully was Telly was if you don'tlike it, tough ship, you know,
that type of stuff. If youdon't like it, leave Joe was
more like, you know, wellthat's how it is, and uh,

(52:44):
and it sets you down, explainstuff to you and and uh, I
mean Joe was a very kind heartedguy. He was a very easy to
you know. I mean, andI'm not trying to paint you know,
this great picture. He had hisvices. There was there were there were
a couple of times when and Iwould show up to the office early and
he was at the office already.But it was because man stayed the night

(53:06):
and had a couple of drinks andyou know, uh whatever, and and
I'd come in and he'd be there, and and then'd be a bottle of
whiskey on the on the desk orsomething, you know. So I mean,
but he was Joe was very caring. I mean, there was a
time where there was a time whereI worked like like five times in one

(53:30):
night, and one day we dida show in the afternoon. We only
had like six guys on the card. So I wrestled twice on that show
and I did. I did twomatches and then a Battle Royal and then
we had to the ring guy hadto take the ring down or whatever,
and we hauled ass to another Austin, Texas, which is like an hour

(53:51):
from this place, and I wrestledtwice, uh because they were shorthanded,
So was twice in Austin, andJoe paid me for every mat I did.
I mean a payday, which atthe time we had a commission and
so you you you had to getpaid at least twenty five whatever. It

(54:13):
was twenty five bucks. So likethe towns gave me a full payday,
which was each town was probably likesety five bucks, which in the eighties
was good money, right, Andthen the first town was seventy five and
I wrestled again. I wrestled threetimes, so it was sety five additional
fifty and then the second town wasawesome, so was I got paid seventy
five for that and then additional whatevertwenty five three bucks, so you know,

(54:37):
but he didn't have to do that. As the years have gone by,
I realized that not all promoters dothat, and they'll pay for just
a town. They won't. Youget to wrestled fifteen times on a show
and you'll get paid one time.You know. Joe was very generous with
money. He was very he paidvery well. Everyone I've talked to since
then, I've always said that Joewas a good ay day guy, right,

(55:01):
and he was, Yeah. Well, that's interesting conceptually in itself,
is that like that's not really it'snot always the priority these days, because

(55:21):
I think you do have at times, Rudy. I look around at some
of these places I've been employed towork for the day and and uh man,
it's like Halloween or cosplay. It'slike this, this isn't who you

(55:44):
are. This is like you're doingthe things that you think you're a pro
wrestler would do, You're not actuallya pro wrestler. Like so if I
think back to my fandom and growingup, like a guy like Tully Blanchard
was exactly what he was selling,was exactly who he was, you know,

(56:07):
It's like that was that was apro wrestler to me, right,
I mean, I mean I'm sureyou you you follow this up. I
mean you are who you are timesten. Yeah. That's why I tell
my students or you are whoever itis, you are, just crank it

(56:29):
up a bit. Yeah, andthat's what telling him yep. Yeah.
What what do you think, uh, if you had to put like a
priority on it, Like, whatdo you think it is? Because you're
one of those guys who's been knownI know, like when I was coming

(56:49):
up, your name as a mentorand a teacher and a coach and somebody
to learn the business from what doyou What do you think if you gave
yourself an assessment? Is the numberone thing ingredient that needs to be present
for for a person to hold thatrole. You got to be humble,

(57:15):
you know. I mean I'm notsaying this because you're online with us,
but you're you're I mean, whenwhen this guy Duke said, Bobby Fish
wants to talk to you about,you know, doing a clinic, I
was like, holy shit me.You know, I think the world of

(57:37):
you. And when when you knowand based on your I mean I never
I've never met you until when youcount here, but from your work and
from people that I've heard talk aboutyou stuff, I have a commitous amount
of respect for you. So uh, you know, I've had guys tell

(57:58):
me you know you are you know, you need to realize who you are.
And I mean, uh, Ijust I'm just one of the guys.
Man. I'm just you know,I think you gotta keep you gotta
you gotta keep your feet on theground and and uh, you know,
I feel very I feel very Uhwhat's the word I want to use?

(58:23):
It means a lot to me whenI get called to go do the personal
training at the PC. Out ofall the wrestling coaches that they can call,
they you know, and and uh, and I'm I think Shawn's want
to have told me you need torealize, you know, you've trained some
pretty good guys and you know,so you're not just another guy, you

(58:45):
you know. And I and andI I I see what he and hear
what he's saying. But again,I just look at myself as just one
of the boys. And I'm morethan willing to help out guys, you
know. And I've had guys onyou know that have message me and and
what have you, and hey,I know you don't know me, but
can you help me out with this? Can you look at my matches?
Can you look at more than happyto because back in the day, guys

(59:08):
that did the same thing to meand they didn't charge me for advice or
whatever. And I know now guysdo clinics like you can and you have
to charge now because you're traveling.And I get that. But like I've
I've had guys that have commented,like, you know, I'm not gonna

(59:29):
tell nobody's shit unless they unless theyask for it. I never asked anybody
for advice, and you know,Manny would say hey, you know,
like I said, hey, slowdown, or Chapa would say, hey,
man, you need to sell more. You're not selling enough. And
I'm like, all right, whatdo I need to do? What?
You know? I mean, guys, guys offered me advice and and uh

(59:50):
and they didn't have to, youknow. So but it's funny because and
I'm not trying to show the guystoday, but like if I see it,
if I see a match, Ido. The kid down here,
his name is, his name isRemsen. Uh he changed his name,
I don't I don't know. Lastname was Remsen, big, big kid.

(01:00:13):
And he came up to me aftera show and he's like, hey,
Michter Gonzalese's my match, and Isaid, yes, I did.
He said what do you think?And I looked at him and I was
like, all right, man,well, I mean you you know you
didn't have to do this. Youdidn't you sold too much for this guy.
The kid's like six' two orsomething and he weighed like three.
I mean, he was a bigkid and the guy who was working with

(01:00:36):
was half his size. And I'mlike, he didn't have to do this,
he took too many bumps, youknow, and I just laid into
him. You're overweight, man,you got and he said, well,
I was blowing up and said,okay, you're overweight. Lose some weight
so you don't blow up. Workslower, don't do you know, don't
try and wrestle as a cruiser weight. You're you're three hundred pounds man.
And so I was very upfront withhim and sure enough, man, I
mean he every now and then andhe's lost weight and he's changed his look.

(01:00:59):
He's changed is gimmick and and youknow, but I try and not
just throw stuff out there because todaysome of the guys just said they just
don't want to hear it, youknow. And a good example is is,
uh, you know, uh,let ae W you know, we're
punk. Try telling hay Man Pagesomething. Paige was like, hey,

(01:01:21):
man, I'm not you know,I might listen to you whatever. Uh.
And that's just you know that thatyou know, that was on ae
W. But you know, that'show a lot of guys are today.
You can't tell them anything. SoI've kind of learned to just shut up
and you know, uh, askI'll tell them, but I'm not going
to just throw stuff out there justyou know, because they may not want

(01:01:45):
to hear it, you know,Yeah, I see that. I think
unfortunately, there there is some ofyou know, what's what's happened with the
industry, There is some of thatwhere it's like, okay, well,
because you you've heard it said overand over and over, Well, there's

(01:02:07):
different flavors of ice cream. It'sall ice cream, you know, there's
chocolate and there's vanilla. So youmay be you may have your way,
but but the and and it isthe truth. There is no one right
way, and everything else is wrong. However, there is a certain set
of guidelines for this ship to makesense. And as soon as we deviate

(01:02:30):
too far from that, and thingsaren't making sense anymore. Like all right,
we've we've really you know, screwedthe pooch here, or we've really
you know, it's it starts toresemble you know, three monkeys fucking a
football, and it's like, Okay, this wasn't the intention, you know,

(01:02:52):
right right, and uh, andthat's just the way you know things
have turned out. Can it change? I think it can. Yeah,
somehow we got to this point.I'm sure we can go back to what
it was before, not completely,but again just make it make some kind

(01:03:12):
of sense. What, Rudy,what would you say, So like,
if if somebody were to say,okay, what is the one ingredient you
can only have one ingredient for awrestler coming up let's say today, coming
up today, because that's the timewhere we're living in right now. What

(01:03:36):
what would that be? As oneof the coaches who's held in such high
regard, like we talked about before, what would what would that ingredient be?
H I suggest to guys to askquestions, just you know, ask
questions and and you know it maynot be the answer you want to hear.

(01:03:59):
And you don't have to sit thereand say, you know, I
don't agree with that, and justput it in your pocket and and uh,
you know, just ask questions.Man, you're gonna have You're gonna
hear different opinions from different guys.You're gonna hear different sides. Tom Pritrid
says, there's different flavors of icecream, but at the end of the
day, ice cream is still madea certain way. The end the flavors

(01:04:23):
is a strawberry added in or thechocolate added in but it's still made with
ice and whatever it is that Ican make that of, it's still there's
still a foundation in there. Sojust I tell you know, I'll tell
guys all the time, just askquestions. Man, if you don't understand
some ask uh, You're gonna heardifferent opinions, find something that figure out

(01:04:45):
whatever works for you and and youknow, run with it, and if
it doesn't work, then try somethingelse. But I also just ask questions.
H I think it kind of partof it goes back to what you
had said before was about being humble. Like so for a lot of times,
for people to ask a question,you've got to humble yourself because you're

(01:05:15):
not with your unwillingness to ask thequestions. Sometimes it's just wrapped up in
your own ego and it's like,oh, well I have X number of
years doing this or I'm trying toget to here, and if I'm ever
going to get there, I gotto believe that like I'm the you know,
the best thing since apple pie,like I think some people you know,

(01:05:35):
it doesn't it takes being humble,uh to know and and to put
forth like Okay, well I don'thave all the answers. So here's somebody
who came before me, who fedtheir family with this industry. Your goddamn
right, I'm gonna I'm gonna asksome questions to this person. It is

(01:06:00):
like I heard Telly. I thinkthe world of Telly Blantard man I mean,
I think the world of Telly BlanchardManning. He's not the biggest guy
in the world, but he gota lot of heat. Uh. He
worked with some of the biggest starsin our in our business. He spent
his family, he's done her lillSo I heard him doing an interview somewhere

(01:06:23):
and he mentioned that when he wasat ae W, don't asked some questions
and man, if I was onthat roster, I would be on his
ass. I would be, youknow, asking him, how to how
can I what would I What wouldyou do in this situation? How can
I get heat? I work withthis guy? What do you think I
should do? I would be askingquestions all the way until bell time.

(01:06:45):
I mean I would I mean,you know, same thing with arn Anderson,
same thing with Malinko, he's overthere as well. I mean I
would be asking. If I wason that roster, I would be asking
questions all day long. Yeah,yeah, I know that for me,
and it was you know, Kyleat the time wasn't in aw when I
was there. We crossed paths kindof towards the end. But so much

(01:07:11):
of what Kyle and I did asa tag team when we got first put
together was influenced by what Arn andTully had done all those years. And
you know, we Kyle and Iwere probably similar size to what Tully was.
We were smaller guys, and justknowing this side of the industry now,

(01:07:39):
I realized that they were the thingthat I was most enamored by when
it came to those matches. LikeI thought that I was a fan of,
you know, Barry Wyndham and LexLuger, and I was a fan
of the Road Warriors, and Iliked these babyface tag teams, but the
common thread in all the matches wasArn and Tully. And I realize now,

(01:08:04):
like I realized once I was inthe business at that that was the
engine that was driving and making thisTV that I was into so compelling,
and man, it was a kindof a missed opportunity. I really,

(01:08:25):
really really wish that that Kyle andI were there together when Tully was there,
he was kind of out on myway in, and then Arn was
there a bit when I was there, and I got the opportunity to work
with Brock on a couple of darks, and I just really wish Kyle and

(01:08:49):
I were there together to be ableto sit under the learning tree that was,
you know, for lack of abetter term, the brain Busters.
It would have been pretty pretty goddamncool, right right? I think so
too, Yeah, you're right,Yeah, what do you think, Frank?
I'm a huge Brainbuster fan. Thatwas about That was about my guys

(01:09:14):
growing up. Frank, what's it? Uh, let's get let's get into
some of the questions that you mighthave for for Rudy, beyond what you've
already gotten into. Yes, Ithink we've got to touch upon a lot
of this stuff, the world classstuff and what you've changed today. I

(01:09:35):
mean, but uh, your touchedon the Crockett years. What was a
big transition between the Crockett years andW c W for you? Was there
a difference or was it all justmeshed together, you know what? So
they would come in it was Ithink anyway, I mean, we just

(01:10:00):
our job was to go M's andJoe would would have set up the TVs
and and the spots or whatever,and then we take the ring to wherever
we had to go. Uh So, I mean it was like a you
know, it's just there really wasno difference. It's like, uh one
week the check said, you know, Crockett Promotions, and the next week
the Czech said Turner, you knowwhatever. So I mean there really on

(01:10:27):
our end there really wasn't any big, like you know, difference from nothing
like that. I do know thatat one point w c W got they
did a show in Phoenix, Arizona, and uh so the local as Teca
television station, the local Mexican station, bought a match they wanted to match

(01:10:53):
on the show. And this wasfor the War War Games or one of
the was one of those pay perviews. And so the first that it
was a it was a dark match. It was me and a guy named
Ultraman against Eddie Guerrero and a guynamed el Wiechel and uh the tellhim the

(01:11:16):
Texas station paid us, and sothe dark match was part of the pay
per view. Russell Moore, that'swhat it was. I think it was
anyway. Anyway, so we didour match it was a Luca match,
and I remember going to the backand Brian Pilman was like, that ship
didn't make sense. Didn't make sense, man, it was that bullshit,
you know. Uh, and acouple other guys were, you know,

(01:11:40):
they're like, what the fuck wasthat, you know whatever, But guys
like Mike Graham and Dusty and Dustinwas there and and they loved it.
Man. You guys worked hard,you know, a good, good,
good job and what have you.But nothing came out of it. And
then maybe later on during the yearwe ended up getting w CW was cutting

(01:12:01):
back and so they cut me andJoe Blanchard back. They cut us off.
So and then a couple of yearsafter that they brought in Conan and
you know, the Cruiser weights andall those guys and stuff. We're all
from Mexico and so, you know, there was obviously a change of there
was a change of of you know, how they wanted to do the loota

(01:12:26):
stuff. But I mean, otherthan that, there really was no change
for us or anything like that.It was the checks were always good,
you know. I mean, westill do the same towns, status,
got the same pay. Nothing changed. Yeah, well, I mean I
guess that pay is the most importantpart. That's what I'm realizing now after

(01:12:51):
twenty four years. I should haveshould have been a little more concerned with
that, maybe maybe a little lessconcerned with my what my opinion was,
and that people needed to know it, because at the end of the day,
who gives a ship? Yea,like I said at the very beginning,

(01:13:13):
Yeah, like I said, wayin the beginning, I didn't know
anybody. So when I started,when I got into business, man,
I appreciate every day that I was. You know, if Joe Blanton said,
go sit the ring up and paintit, man, I was,
yes, sir, Yeah, Iwent out there and in paint. I
I enjoyed every minute, every andI still do of being in this business.
And the money part. Never youknow, I never fought over money.

(01:13:40):
I've never fought over money, so, you know, but now looking
back, maybe I should have takenthings a little bit differently. But I
mean I'm fine with it. Ihave no regrets. Yeah, well that's
a good place to be in aswell. And I think too, like
I know for myself at this pointand like moving forward, like what I've

(01:14:00):
really discovered is I love coaching inall different forms and fashions. I mean,
like a lot of it is wrestling, you know, but I've taught
martial arts since I was young aswell, and then you know, lately

(01:14:21):
with the DDP yoga, I've beendoing a lot of that, and I
really just I don't know, that'swhere I see the value being is in
passing any of this stuff on tothe people that aren't as clued into it.
And I feel like, Rudy,is that kind of where the coaching

(01:14:45):
thing comes for you? Like thatis that? Is that what you would
say that at this point you feelmost drawn to and fulfilled with, is
like, because all these years later, I'm sure you could do something else
other than coach wrestling, but hereyou are still coaching. I don't want
to, you know, I probablycould. I mean I've I've looked in

(01:15:06):
and doing real estate, and I'velooked into other other things to do after
wrestling, but I don't want to. Right. One of the biggest thrills
I get is seeing a kid walkin here and he has no clue what
he's about to get into other thanhe's seen it on TV, and you

(01:15:29):
know, he wants to be apro wrestler and then take them from not
knowing shit and then watch them dotheir first match, and you know,
I mean it's like a dad watchingthis kid play little league, you know,
the first game of little league baseballor little league footballers. I'm it's
like, you know, three fouror five, six months whatever before I'm

(01:15:50):
thinking to myself, Man, whatam I going to do with this guy?
And then you see him throwing dropkicksand you know, working the crowd
and stuff like that, and it'syou know it, that's where I get
my satisfaction from. You know,Yeah, I I can relate because for

(01:16:14):
me, it's been that's kind ofa new discovery that I've had over the
last year or so. And whyit was so surprising to me, I
don't really understand. Because I've doneother you know, coaching endeavors, like

(01:16:35):
I said, with martial arts andCrossFit things like that, and I always
enjoyed that as well, So tothink that I enjoy coaching wrestling shouldn't be
as far fetched as I thought itwas for me. But yeah, I

(01:16:55):
really have discovered And part of thattoo would be my visit to uh Texas
Wrestling Academy and coming there to dothe seminar we did with with your students
who were so appreciative and welcoming,and you know you really I could feel

(01:17:17):
that, like, Okay, Rudi'sand I would expect nothing less, but
like Rudy's really instilling some values andwhatnot in these kids as well as just
teaching them how to bump and runthe ropes like they were super respectful and
so appreciative that it was an absolutepressure pleasure to be there and do what

(01:17:41):
I what I was fortunate enough todo. Right. I tell you,
guys, man, wrestling is seeyou guys can see this. Wrestling is
is just is this everything else,this part I mean wrestling and professional wrestling

(01:18:09):
has so little to do with wrestling. I mean, it's being a good
human being. It's being appreciative,it's being humble, it's being able to
want to go out there and helpothers. It's going out there and you
know, whether you've driven six hoursor six minutes, put on the best
possible match you can, whether there'sfive people or five hundred people, whether

(01:18:33):
you know I've seen online when guysare like, you know, man,
this promoter put me with some greenhorn and man through that. Man,
I'd love to work with a guythat screen because you know, if anything,
he's gonna leave the match knowing thathe didn't know shit, but he
learned something from my match, fromworking with me, I mean wrestling,

(01:18:56):
pro wrestling as such, the smallpart in the actual pro wrestling. H
Yeah, and you just you know, you just gotta you know, you
gotta want to do this, man, you have to want to do this.
Yeah, and then at the endof the day you may not even
be thankful for it, so,you know, I mean, that's another

(01:19:17):
that's a whole nother podcast. Youknow, I spell part two well,
you know, and you guys arethe ones that book it. Oh parto?
Yeah, buddy, yeah, Jackson, Yeah, that's uh, Who's

(01:19:43):
Jackson? Would that be me?Yeah? It was New tur Jackson.
Yeah. I took a full Itook a full circle. That was That
was quite the segue. Frank,Well, Rudy, what, uh.
We haven't talked once about your wifeMika, and I know that when I

(01:20:08):
was down there with you, youand I talked a bit about what she's
been doing with I'm not the nameof the company escapes me, but anything
that you have going on with Mekacurrently wow. Uh oh, Micah,

(01:20:30):
So she lived, well, they'redoing a program where yeah, yeah,
they were. They're doing a programwhere her and her partner split up.
They have a manager, and sothe last thing you saw on TV,
which was a few weeks ago,was at a frustration, she kind of

(01:20:53):
goes off on the manager and slapsher. And man, I've heard people
from you know, do you knowTokyokhega U Uh, yeah, I do.
I think I was just on asigning with him, uh, the
same one then actually the bush WhackerLuke was on too here in Florida and

(01:21:14):
Martin Laurentz and Mark Laurentz. Yeah, yeah, so there you go.
So Caga's messaged me like, bro, what the you know, what the
thought? I'm like, what happened? He goes Micah slapped a ship out
of you know, and you know, she you know, they've given her

(01:21:35):
a spot and and just you know, I'm not taking credit for anything of
this, but from from the teachingsof just being humble and whatever, they've
given her a spot. They've givenher an opportunity, and she's ran with
them. Man. She she goesover there and trains with the girls,
and helps the training and and doeswhat she can. Uh. She's not

(01:21:58):
one of those that you know,starts trouble and you know, complains about
everything. She'll complain about it tome later. But I mean, and
you know, I mean she haspaid very well. So I mean she's
doing good over here. Man.I'm proud of her. You know where
where she's gonna go from here?I have. I have no idea.
You don't, and I tell heryou don't know. Just do what you

(01:22:20):
do and make sure all your stuffon TV looks good because you don't know
who's watching, but you do knowwho's watching. So she's doing great,
man, And thank you for asking. Yeah, of course, of course,
what about yourself, Rudy. Whatwhat's going on with the Texas Wrestling
Academy at this point that we shouldknow about before we've wrapped this this podcast

(01:22:45):
up? Oh, we just wereyou know, we're running here in San
Antonio. We trained seven, youknow, five days a week. I've
got a group that comes in themorning ten to twelve, a group that
comes in at night, uh,seven to nine. I mean, you
know, I'm not and I learnedthis from from doing Shawn's school. I'm
not the guy to say you're toofat, you're too small, you're too

(01:23:09):
whatever. I mean, have youbecause I mean because the first thing,
you know, Brian Kendrick asked uswhen he came a train here was am
I too small? And me andBrian Kendrick and Brian Danielson that kid,
Brian Danielson said, am I toosmall? And me and Sean looked at
each other and said no, notat all. And twenty what is it?
Twenty three, twenty four years later, they're both still going strong.

(01:23:31):
Brian Danielson is like one of theyou know, biggest names, if not
the biggest name of the business rightnow, and he's going strong. Man,
he's I don't see any let andhe slow down in him at all.
Uh. And so I had thesame mentality, Man, if you
if this is what you want todo, then this is what we're gonna
do. And as long as youtry, I'll try. I've got time
for you. I don't you know. I know that b is is picking

(01:23:57):
up you know, college athletes andstuff like that, but doing that,
and I l but I also knowthat you've got something to offer. They'll
take time to look at you.They'll you know, and so I tell
guys, don't let that stuff deteryou, don't let it discourage you make
in fact make it should make youwork harder, because now you're not just
competing against against other indie guys.You're competing against the kid that probably played

(01:24:20):
in a national championship, uh inin the in the Stun Bowl or whatever,
the Fiesta Bowl or the Orange Bowl, you're probably competing. You're competing
against uh a kid that won theyou know, gold medal and in some
mm a fight, you know,I mean, uh So, indie guys
they gotta you know, if theywant to do this, man, they

(01:24:40):
gottah, you know, dig downand really work hard. And I have
no problem pushing guys. You know, I'm not gonna baby nobody, you
know. I mean, you've seenthe guys that that that I have.
I'm not gonna baby nobody. I'lltell you what you need to know,
and you know, you take itanyway you want. Yeah, I think

(01:25:04):
you know what it comes down tois is regardless you're gonna go out and
if you want to do this,you're you're gonna have to compete with the
rest of the field. And ifWWE is going to scout in the colleges
right now for Division one athletes,Like that's the field you're going to compete

(01:25:28):
with. And it comes down to, like do you have the wherewithal and
the stick to itedness and the reallythe willingness and the ability to eat shit
and keep a smile on your face, because inevitably, at some point,
if you're gonna be successful in thisbusiness, you're going to eat some shit.

(01:25:51):
And it's just the way that itis. So after getting the taste
of that in your mouth, you'reready to move on to something else.
It is what it is. Butif you're going to be successful, you've
you got to, you know,come back for more. And that's being

(01:26:12):
able to eat it with a smile. And so I think, yeah,
I think that it's you had saidit before, like if you better be
humble, you better be humble ifthis is what you're going to pursue exactly
exactly. I mean, I've beendoing this, you know, since eighty

(01:26:32):
two for you know, forty threeyears, and I'm still here. I
don't think I'm better everybody else.I mean, I you know, like
I said, when the guy,the guy Duke said, hey, Bobby
Fitch was to talk to you aboutand I'm like, wow, you really.
I mean, I don't. Ilook at myself just like any other

(01:26:53):
guy, you know. And Ireally appreciate every day that I've been part
of this. I appreciate you comingdown, I really do. And I'm
hoping you're willing to come down againsoon. But there's a lot of fun,
man, and I appreciate you guysare having you on this on your
podcast as well. That's awesome.Yeah, it's actual pleasure. And like

(01:27:16):
you named the date, and ifI'm not tied up with something family related
like I'm there, I would I'llcome back and work with you guys or
anything affiliated with you guys in aheartbeat. It was one of the one
of my more fond experiences in thewhole you know, twenty four to twenty

(01:27:39):
five years, however long I've beendoing this. Yeah, I was just
rewarding in every way. And thena couple of weeks later, you sent
me this video. I actually Ineed to post this video. You sent
this video of your students and theappreciation and the things that said, the

(01:28:00):
way that they thanked me was reallyjust touching and unexpected and uh again just
a reminder of the fact that theseyou're you're not only teaching them how to
bump, You're you're teaching them respectand gratitude, and man, this world
could just use some more of thatanywhere and everywhere, right, exactly,

(01:28:26):
exactly, all right, Well,boys, I think we're wrapping this thing
up then, Rudy, an absolutepleasure to have you on. Thank you.
I'm pretty sure Frank has already penciledin in the suggestion box for this

(01:28:49):
to be a two part endeavor,So we're gonna have to get you back
on here in a in a monthor two here, sure, all right.
I I apologize guys for last week. Just just just a quick story.

(01:29:11):
We moved into this building, youknow when when Bobby came down.
We'd been here for two months areay, But we moved in this building and
nobody told us that the electricity wasn'tpaid for, not just in our in
our space, but throughout the wholewarehouse. And so one day last week
they just cut it off. AndI messed with Mike. I'm like,

(01:29:32):
hey, we paid the rent,didn't we. She said yeah. I'm
like they cut the electricity off here, And She's like what, And so
we called the electricity company and wecalled her landlord, and the electric company
said, no, the electric billhas been paid since twenty twenty one.
They're like, so, you know, immediately I went to panic. Ho

(01:30:00):
oh, I mean I went topanic mode and I messed with Bobby.
I can't do it. I can't, you know. And so we had
to go to the city and andgo through all this red tape and what
have you. And we'd only beenhere since January, and we had to
show them the lease agreement, andthe landlord had to you had to,
you know, show them they're youknow, they're part of the deal.
And and uh, I don't knowhow many thousands of hundreds of thousand dollars

(01:30:24):
that they had to pay, butthey finally got everything situated last week.
And uh, I was like,you know, what do you mean?
You know, when they said therent hasn't been the electric hasn't been paid
in that building since I think saidNovember of twenty twenty one, my heart
is stooped. I was like,what we got We got straightened out,
man, we got a straightened out. Wow. Yeah, all right,

(01:30:51):
Well, it's glad to uh gladto hear that you're back up and running
and fully uh he uh Texas WrestlingAcademy is still alive and well. Yes,
sir, well once again, uhtell your wife. We say thank

(01:31:12):
you guys for having me on thepodcast and uh Rudy, thanks for coming
on and we will be in touchabout part two for sure. Thank you
guys, Thank you appreciate it.Frank, what do you got nothing perfect?

(01:31:33):
Say good night, Bobby, SirBobby

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