April 3, 2024 • 45 mins
IT'S GAMBLERMANIAAAAAAA!!! Roy Burton is joined by Brian Waters of The Ringer and Dave Rueter, author of Kayfabe: A Love Story to talk all things #WrestleMania as we inch closer to WrestleMania 40 in Philly!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
This is Fox Sports Radio The Wrestler. Now Here is your host, Roy
burtand WrestleMania Week is finally here andhere on Fox Sports the Wrestler. There's
no better person to talk WrestleMania withthen our next guest. He's a very
extensive resume. He's a co hostWednesday worldwide for The Ringer, He's a
(00:21):
producer for The Ringer Podcast Network,co host, co founder of the Wrestling
Realm podcast, and maybe more importantlythan all that, he might be the
number one brutus to Barbara Beefcake fanin America. Our good friend, Brian
H. Waters. Brian Waters,how's it going on, my friend?
I'm good, you know I'm cominghere. Stratton and cut is like my
good old frude Eye, you know, the guy who beat Mister Perfect for
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the very first time in WW atwrestle Mania six. And we are talking
all things WrestleMania again with Brian Waters. Again the number one of brutus to
Barbara Beefcake fan, but we makeit the Brudhs to Barber Beefcake. A
little bit later, we got totalk about WrestleMania forty here in this beautiful
city of Philadelphia, and I gotto call you out. I'm gonna I
brought you in again, I gaveyou the good intro. I got to
(01:07):
call you out because you, morethan anybody I've seen in my feed,
have been very vocal in your opinionthat you wanted to see the Rock Versus
Roman Reigns headline WrestleMania instead of CodyRoads versus Roman Reigns. Now, given
how the story has played out sofar, do you think they made the
right decision? No? Okay,you know, in all honesty, right,
(01:30):
and if I can be real andnot talk from a k faith standpoint,
put my analyst hat on. Ithink this was the planet all along.
I know a lot of people maynot think so. A lot of
people think WW pivoted right to me. When you knew you had the rock,
you knew you had the Rock atRoyal Roman No Day one. And
(01:53):
the reason is because when the Rocksshowed up that night in Boulder, Colorado.
My it was in Denver because hewas and Boulder for the on the
Yeah. And so then when heshowed up in Denver, everybody kept saying,
well, why didn't he say anythingabout Roman or anything else? Right?
(02:15):
And I remember we had Brian gerwortson it. If anybody knows wrestling,
you know, Brian Gerwortz used tobe writer for WWE. More importantly
pretty much like one of the Rocks, right him man creatively, you know.
And one of the things he saidwas, if the Rock goes out
there and calls out or mentions thebloodline in any way, shape or form,
(02:37):
it's all game there. So that'sthe reason why he was, you
know, having former Grayson Waller inAustin theory. And I think when the
Rock got those goosebumps, you know, and everything started working in his favor.
The moment he came out and saidat the head of the table,
we all thought, oh yeah,here we go. It's time Rock and
Roman. We finally gonna get it. But the thing he said in September
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was he believes in long game,and they wanted to tell a story that
hadn't been done before, and ofcourse something like, well, what you
mean, it's no matter, justgive you Rock and Roman. Look,
I went to Wrussell Mayia. Ican tell you. I promise you Wressell
Maya thirty eight. There was peoplelooking to the interest and if you've ever
been in the arena or the stadiumwhen Roman rains music is playing, there's
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a certain part where it sounds likeit's going to go shifting into if you'll
smell And you know, me beinga former retired as even though they don't
let try to let me, I'ma retired drummer in gospel quartet. You
know, I listened to music.And at Survivor Series twenty twenty one in
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Brooklyn, that was the night everybodythought rock was coming back. In Dallas,
people thought the rock was coming back. In Los Angeles last year,
everybody thought Rock was coming back.He was gonna show down with Roman,
finally gonna get this dream matchup.So when Day one happened and he said
the head of the table, ofcourse we thought that and then all of
(04:09):
this to me, If it wasn'tset up for this for us to get
to this story, Drew McIntyre wouldhave won the Royal Rumble because when you
look at there was three viable candidateswho could win the rold Rumble with Jay
WHO'SO being a wild card, andthey was Cody Rhodes see Him Punk and
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Drew McIntyre. Because Drew had alreadystarted around Survivor series. All this stuff
we started seeing and he'll see tosay. I'm not a bad guy,
you know, I'm just a realist. So that's the reason why I personally
believe this has been set up allalong. I'm for it, but you
know, deep down the side,I want my Rock and Roman match,
give my familiar forty we could Codycan wait, and plus I want to
(04:56):
see Roman. Look, I'm I'ma hawk maniac and I'm just leave it
at that. Okay, But okay, I don't want to go too far.
You know. Yeah, I gotyou, I got you. But
I want to see Roman past therecord. Oh you know, okay,
I want to see history. Iwant to be able to say, you
know, I remember. This mightbe a soft spot for a lot of
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people. I remember in two thousandand six, two thousand and seven,
two thousand and eight, when thePatriots were on their run and people wanted
to see them break the Dolphins record. And one of the things I heard
somebody who was neutral, they said, I want to be able to say
I live through that, like oh, and that's how I feel about Romans
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record, right, I mean Hogan'srecord, you know, to be able
to say, oh, I livedthrough Roman reigns having x amount of thousands
of days, two thousand days ofww World Heavyweight Universal, all the winding
belts. I would love to saythat, but you know, we will
see. Yeah, we we willsee, and I think we you know,
we kind of expect Cody Roase tofinish the story on Night two Wrestling,
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but we will see what happens ifhe don't. Just to get back
to the Rock for a second.Very briefly, we're talking with the Brian
Waters again, co hosts of WednesdayWorldwide for the ringer, just to get
back to the Rock for a second. You know, the man's back,
he's engaged, he's active, he'scalling himself the Final Boss, he's cutting
promos on Instagram, just as andagain like you you know you are a
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longtime w W fan. You gotthe belts in the background, you know,
you know you're you're you're in it. So just as a longtime fan,
how cool is it to just seethe Rock being active and disengaged in
wrestling again? Ah? It isphenomenal to think, you know, I
was, I'm a huge Rock fan. If there's there's some shifting in my
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top ten, right, okay,well even top five but Rock is up
there, he's you know, tiedfor like he's like three. But I
always felt like I understood Hollywood wascalling. But we have been spoiled with
people like Hogan, Brett Hart,John Cena where they have these lengthy careers
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on top, and then the Rockwhen you really think about it, in
his heyday, we're talking top ofthe league only from ninety eight to two
thousand and two. Now they werea dynamic and iconic four years, but
three or four he was just sofar in and out just for Wressellania.
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But man, so I remember thishad to have been around two thousand and
five, two thousand and six.One day, my uncle was over and
he was cutting my hair. Soyou know back when we used to tape
the pay per views and we woulddrawed like the logo. So we put
in the tape of Russell Mayer eighteenand were watching Hogan Rock, which I
believe is the greatest wrestle Maya matchin history. And he I said,
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if Rock kept going where he hadbeen bigger than Hogan, And my uncle
said, he said, you gottalook at it, he probably would have
or passed him. And I waslike, really, and he said,
you look at all that he's doneand how far, how quickly he got
there? Right and wow. Andin two thousand and seventeen, I was
at work, so I was workingon Johns Hopkins media relations team and one
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day I was talking to my friendReagan and we brought the Rock and she
said, he's the wrestle. Differentgenerations, man, they just don't know.
She's born in the mid ninety early, like between ninety three and ninety
five. And I'm like what.She was like, here's the wrestle.
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And I was shocked because we've beenin the bubble and yeah, he used
to wrestle. She says, whatWHOA did? Was he good? I
said, was he good? He'slike six times? Ww Yes, he
was good, Like he was thatdude. That's the reason why he's a
big movie star. So it wascrazy, you know, but you know,
you sit back and you look ateverything over the course of time,
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man, and I'm I'm happy.I'm so happy he's back, and I'm
happy like that the surprise on Monday, that surprise, How was every day
right? Right? And yeah?And then the rocks rock has been filled
with, you know, a lotof great moments in his return back.
You know, it's kind of takinga lot of the focus you know,
you know away from you know whatpeople you know wanted to see from from
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the from the main event, theRoman Reigns versus Cody thing. But again,
the Rock has added a very goodelement to that, and I appreciate
everything he's done. But again,this I think if you look at this
wrestle in card, I think it'spretty stacked, you know, top to
bottom. I mean there's a tonof great matches on the car. There's
you know, Seth Rollins and DrewMcIntire, you got the USO match.
You know, you got a coupleof matches with the women's on the women's
side for the titles, the sixpack match. Is there anything any of
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these matches kind of stand out toyou other than obviously you know, the
two the bloodline storyline stuff. Isthere anything that sticks out to you or
even stuff that hasn't been out yet, because I think there might be a
little bit of a Jade Cargill actioncoming on the wrestling in a card too,
Anything that you're kind of looking forwardto, specifically in Philadelphia next weekend.
Oh yeah, Bailey versus Eel Skyoh, okay. I was in
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I was in Tennessee, Nashville whenBailey came back, and that was a
big deal. And if anybody remembers, well, this is the first Poe
under Triple H and we was allthinking, wow, he came out swinging
and you know, shout out tostack Gye Greg from Cheap Heat. I
(10:37):
was sitting next to him, andI'm like, I'm the type of wrestling
fan that when I'm in the stadiumor the arena, I don't want to
look at no dirt sheets. Ijust want to enjoy the show. And
it's crazy because like at the RoyalRumble, it was hard, like I
had to like turn around content anda lot of stuff I couldn't tweet because
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of the they had like cut offthe Wi Fi. But I'm sitting there
and I remember we just kept jumpingup and down like, oh my goodness,
I can't believe this. Because Baileycomes out, then Dakota Ka,
then Eo Scott and of course weall now this is the time when Sasha
Banks and Nail Me and left.Everybody's kind of hoping like, well,
what if they come out, youknow, a bed and Bianca. But
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so to see that from start fromthere and then come all the way,
you know, being there with EOCash in it last year Summer Slam and
winning the title. This will bevery interesting. And I'm a huge Bailey
fan and you know, getting achance to meet her last year she was
on the mass Man Show during Russellmay A week. An incredible person.
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So I'm excited to see her gether opportunity and you know, get her
you know, coming out party.And it's not involving Mercedes Monette because a
lot of times, like we thinkabout Bailey or her her big moments,
with the exception of last year,but her big Russell Mayham most was attached
to Mercedes. That's good point.That's good point. We're talking with Brian
Waters. He is you can followhim on Twitter Brian H. Waters on
(12:07):
Twitter and ig talking all things WrestleMania. And again, it's like you said,
it seems like it's gonna be apretty good WrestleMania moment for Bailey.
And again, you you've seen abunch of great WrestleMania moments over the years
because you've been to a few WrestleManiasin the past. I this is my
first WrestleMania experience. So I needto ask you, as a first timer,
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what are the things I need tokeep in mind in order to kind
of get this is a long weekend. It's gonna be a long weekend.
So what do I need to keepin mind in order to kind of get
through this whole experience? Well,first, if I could be the good
boyfriend that I try to be,is I want to plug my girlfriend Queen
PR's wrestle Maia blog. She puttogether the Ultimate WrestleMania Guide, which you
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can find on her Twitter at QueenUnderscore three Underscores Pr. But one of
the things is pace yourself, takeit it And there's a lot of wrestling
that weekend, a lot of wrestlingshows from all because in my first wrestlming
was twenty eight in Miami, therewasn't this. Everybody flocked to the same
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city of wrestleminga and you know,put on a show. Now thirty three.
It was that way my second wrestleand I went to one of the
shows, went to a couple ofevents, and then even in Dallas.
Dallas was the first one that Iworked under the ringer. And last year
I went to a couple like youknow events or like like a couple of
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dinners and stuff. But you know, I told people I'm not gonna try
to make everything. You know,one of the things I always says,
you know, find your tribe,link with them, drink, cling near
water. Luckily, this is goingto be a cooler city. But there's
still a lot of moving around.Definitely a lot of phone battery, have
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a lot of phone battery, andspace to take a lot of photos.
Because there'll never be another first timeexperience. You know, Miami will always
be special because like me and mybest friend shout brother Hugh from the Wrestling
Realm, we went and we wereboth in six seventh and eighth grade here
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in Baltimore City, a Catholic school, and man, just the height of
attitude there. And we was,oh, you know that's fake. How
you watch this is fake? This, that and the other and both of
us will have to take it onthe chin. And so when we was
like, yo, we really madeit the wrestle Mania and we did this
together. But you know that's thething, like, you know, the
events are so much fun. Youknow, I always a buy shirt or
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a piece of merchandise to commemorate.You know, I still have the shirt
I bought, which is like theonce in a lifetime WrestleMania shirt, which
we got twice in a lifetime exactly, you know, you know, but
definitely, you know, escape allthe dirty, escape all the rumors because
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people are always you know, Ipersonally don't like the when they show you
the set beforehand, and I knowthat's a big thing, you know,
WW like make some money, whichI don't blame them, so it's like,
oh, we can sponsor this.So me, personally though, I
avoid all that stuff. You know, I'm I want to see when I
walk in there for the first time. That's when I want to see the
set. I'll scroll through Twitter andthe heartbreak. But yeah, just take
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it in, enjoy it. Youknow. If there's other independent wrestling events,
check them out, but don't feellike obligate. I have to go
to everything WWE World. It seemslike it's gonna be so exciting. I
know we're gonna have some shows therenice so, you know, some live
tapings for the podcast from the Ringof Wrestling. But you know, even
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go there and you know, checkout the superstore, check out a lot
of stuff, just because like accessis something we see it on, Like
you go back and look at likethe old Wrestle Mayans. They always did
a commercial for it, like atWrestle Mayya seventeen and eighteen. You see
all this stuff. He's like,man, that looks so cool. So
then to finally be able to goand attend, you know, I say,
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go take it all in because thisis once you go. Once,
you're never gonna never want to watchit at home again, you know,
But take it in as a fan. Don't let nobody cloud your judgment.
Don't try to predict the card,analyze it later, but just you know,
especially because when the fun part iswhen you see those little kids.
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Last year, it was this littlekid named Zach and his dad wasn't in
the wrestling at all. He hadshout out to the dads out there.
He had his two sons and hisdaughter and we're sitting there watching with him.
And Zach was such a smart,fun wrestling fan because he was like,
well, I want the USO's towin, but then I want Sam
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He's ain't and Kevin owens the wayand you just watch the enjoyment of his
eyes and then I'm talking to hisdad and his dad's like, man,
he loved it. I don't knowmuch about it, but this is what
he loved and he earns it.He did he did well in school,
and honestly, when you see alittle black kid and a black father all
come to it was the most amazingthing, and it's like, this is
what's fun. You know. Theyear before, yeah, I saw the
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same experience with with Mike Ronaldis,who was at the time his name is
escaping me. He was a manwhat was his name? He was Emma's
husband. He was with Baron Happy, Corbin's partner. Because I'm trying not
to call him create a wrestler,because that's what everybody used to call him
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at the time. You know I'mtalking about right, I know exactly talking
about Yeah. But somebody that knewhim was at the show, right,
and it was in the same sectionI was in, and the same thing.
You just you know, you seeand there's always you know, there's
gonna be people there. It's likethey don't know what this is. They
got dragged to it. But thenyou go see wrestling fans from all over
the world. It's it's our superBowl, it's our time. I know,
Philly just got you know, acouple not to a few years removed
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from winning championship. You know,you know that that's fun. As I
will always say, like when DanielBryan, who at the time was my
number one favorite wrestler, when hewon at wrestl May thirty, I wish
I went. It was like,this was better than the Ravens winning the
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Super Bowl. And I enjoy it, you know, but that moment,
Yeah, and it would be agreat moment for me next week when I
see for the second year in therow all the Cody cry babies walk out
with their faces because, man,La, that was a fun night.
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I don't I don't know if youwant to see that in Philadelphia. I'm
just saying, like, now,you know, Sunday night, you know,
the Cody cry Babies are upset inPhiladelphia. I don't know if you
want to see that. I'm justputting it out there. I'm just gonna
put that out there. We're talkingall things Wrestlmania forty with Brian Waters from
The Ringer Podcast Network. A couplemore questions before we get you out of
here. You mentioned a bunch ofevents going on this week, you know,
(19:08):
Wrestlmingia Week. You are involved ina couple couple of these events,
so I people want to come checkyou out and see you and the Ring
of Wrestling crew. How can theydo that? Well, we do have
the Ring of Wrestling Meet and greeton Friday at Chicken and Pete's, so
that'll be that'd be fun. Comehang out with us before SmackDown, you
know, come from five to seven, you know, come have a drink,
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come eat some food with us.I'm excited for the Craft Fris.
I've been there once. I went. I was in Philly for the American
Heart Association conference this during the JohnsHopkins Days in two thy nineteen. And
while me and my friend Vanessa wasthere shout out to doctor McMains, we
I saw SmackDown was in town andI texted my boy Corey and I was
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like, You're going to smack Day. I said, oh, duh,
and he was like, yeah,I'll be there and then I'm going to
Rutgers game tomorrow. So we wentand we went to the game. I
mean, we went to SmackDown,and before we did, we went to
Chicken and Peace. And now Iain't know, it was like such a
big thing. But I was like, oh, yeah, the food here
is good, so we're gonna bethere. But the big party place you
want to be, the place youwant to be is wile a Mania for
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all wrestling fans and hip hop fans. It's the party of the year.
It's when you sit there and youwalk around and you see people from ae
W and WWE Center there, youknow, having fun. You know,
last couple of years, Samoa Joegets on the stage and raps. That's
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always funny. Omas did jay z. I remember last year I saw him
and I'm a Morgan State grand andso Omas went there to play basketball there
and you know, we talked aboutthat. It's just so much fun to
be able to party with other wrestlingfans, you know, kind of get
away from the graps and stuff.You know, there's gonna be a lot
of wrestling shows. You got fullthe culture. Shout to my boy Jay
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Bougie, you know, one ofthe hottest independent wrestlers who I believe will
be signed by the end of theyear. You know, some should check
him out. Uh, He's goingto be performed in on some of the
cards. And then there's also aFashion Mania event shot my friend Yolanda.
She is so funny. Story is, me and Yolanda actually watched WrestleMania thirty
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three together. Were sitting next toeach other at Wrestlminga thirty three, and
you know, we've been friends.We both worked in the industry. She
is a gear design and you've seensome of her work. She designed like
Leo Rush and Cizarro. I guessI still do Claudio so but she's having
this called the Art of Creativity,the Art of Creative Misfit Fashion Show,
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which is taking place on Thursday,f five on twentieth and Race Street,
hashtag fashion Mania. So I'm excitedfor her just knowing her journey where she's
been in this industry. You know, she's an amazing person. So,
you know, to see especially it'slike, you know, it's not a
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lot of black people that we seein wrestling back when we were coming up,
and now to see so many ofus working in the business behind the
scenes, in front the scenes,and we got a black black man headline
in Russell Maya yet again, sir. So it's really good, you know.
But just to see it, likeeverybody come together, like they said
wally Mania, it's the unofficial kickoffparty. But we we have some special
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guests. I can announce that wedid drop that Beanie Siegel and Young Chris
will be in the building. Sothat's gonna be fun. You're gonna have
Willow Nightingale, You're gonna have SamanthaIrvin and Ricochet coming through. You have
you know, obviously the Ring ofWrestling Crew. You got Cornell Gunta,
w W two K champion, thetwo w W two K World Heavyweight Champion,
(23:03):
Cortnell, good friend of mine.He will be in the building.
You know, so many people,so I'm really excited about that. And
I'll tell y'all, you do notwant to miss this. The special guests
you do not want to miss AndCast said it best the other day on
Wednesday worldwide. We like announcements,but the surprise pop and I'm gonna be
(23:29):
sitting there and I hope I seeyou because I want to be standing right
there and see your face with thesurprise pop have is, you know,
because I don't want to ruin it. And but you know, even while
the mania something, you just youtake it all in man, like you
know, it's just it was apoint last year and you know, I'm
(23:52):
sitting there vibing to the music.I just like threw my hands up and
my manager shout out a Ben Cruz, he like, got this dope folk
me and I was like wow,and and it just made me think,
like all the years of being toldno or this is stupid. You know.
There was even a time in MorganState where me and my co host
The World Away Now and from theWrestling Round, the show we created at
(24:15):
school. We both realized we're bothwrestling fans and we said, you know,
we're gonna use this to help usimprove everything we're learning in the classroom,
from setting up the cameras to broadcastand edit and production. We're going
to create a wrestler show and usethis and we've been still doing it every
Wednesday night on YouTube. And wethere was we had an opportunity to intern
(24:36):
for a local independent wrestling company andwe we use a term called they gave
us the dusty If anybody's seeing thestone Nah the stone Cold promo when he
said, uh, he's like hehad this idea in w C E W
and no, baby, that's forsomebody else to go keep it right way.
Yet, so we have the termyou give they gave us the dusty,
(24:59):
they would let us do this internship, and I thought about all of
that, like and here I amstanding at wallet Mania wearing a chalk Line
WrestleMania jacket on stage working and soyou know, it's those moments you just
never know who you go see.You know, last year I was sitting
up there, I got a selfiewith j car Gill, you know,
laugh, talked with her. TrinityFatu was the guest of honor. You
(25:22):
know, this was during the timebefore she went the Impact and you know,
talk with her. And the guestlast year was the Bloodline, so
you know, talking with Jay Hussoand Jimmy and just lit It was lit
up there. Who's wow, youknow. And and this year the guest
of honor is shouting Benjamin. Youknow, Shelton is going to get his
flowers. So it's gonna be amazingtime. Shout out the Kaz Wilet,
(25:45):
Amelio Sparks. They do a greatjob. All start by you know Court
Bauer and Wile a way back andWrestling thirty one, but you know Kaz
took it over. You know,the wrestlming in New York. When that's
when you know they was honoring BookerT and it kind of went viral.
Nobody knew the New Day was gonnabe there. And then you know it's
(26:06):
going to KOFE Mania, man,So it's it's exciting. Yeah, no,
no, I am looking forward tothat. You know, maybe not
not as much as maybe wressell Ani, but right there, like Wallemnia,
my first Wallemdia. I'm so I'mhappy you're gonna be at all of it,
you know, like I said,I really you know, be in
the mix, man. Like Ilove when people go to wrestle Maya for
(26:29):
the first time. Last year itwas Ben and Cows first time and I
was sitting next to it. I'mjust Cows older than me. Ben's a
little bit younger, and but bothall of us lifelong wrestling fans, and
I'm just watching them take it.In the year before that, it was
Jack Farmer and watching him take ithis first WrestleMania. So it's nothing like
it. And then it's like it'swant to go again, and wrestling is
(26:52):
a great way to see the seethat I haven't seen the country. I'm
gonna I'm gonna tell you right now. See if if it's fifty percent of
what you're telling me. I'm gonnabe hitting you up on social media.
I'm gonna show you sending you mypictures I want to say. I'm gonna
send you my tweets. I'm like, yok man, we started something with
this. I'm gonna telling you rightnow, if it's half as good as
you tell me, I'm gonna bombarredyou all week. And I'm like,
(27:14):
look like you like you know,I'm an addict now, like I'm in
my yearly fixed. And the onething I tell people, do not let
the internet dictate how good the showwas to you. I'll never forget leaving
out of it. It was HardRock Cafe Stadium at the time in Miami,
and we the traffic was crazy,so we all stood in the parking
(27:36):
lot and we did like a postshow for YouTube, and we talked about
how great it was. Everybody hadthis good time because when the rock beat
seen or the place felt like itshook. And you know, I remember
when finally got back to the hoteland I got on an elevator and I
saw people like, oh, it'snot a good show, and this,
that and the other, and that'swhat I was like, Wow, it's
really a difference, you know,but nobody's going to tell me that.
(28:00):
You know, even when I goback and watch twenty eight, I'm like,
nah, like I watched it yesterday. I'm like, this was a
fun show. And I'll never Iwas always tell people never let nobody else
dictate how much fun you had.Just take it in, as Jerik would
say, drink it in, man, just enjoy the moment. Just live
in a moment. Yeah. Sowe're talking, and we're talking with Brian
(28:21):
Waters from the Ring of podcast network. If people want to check you out,
want to follow along with everything thatyou got going on, you know,
whether it's at WRESTLINGI a weekend orafter, how can they keep up
with you on social media? AtBrian H. Waters on Twitter or I
guess we gotta say x, Instagram, threads, TikTok. Actually, right
before we went live, I toldmy daughter I saw Roman Rings had trolled
(28:45):
Seth Rollins. Seth Rollins had tweetedin April twenty twelve one day I will
main event WrestleMania. It was likethe day after wrestling in twenty eight and
then he quote tweeted it the graphicand Roman tweeted a picture of him with
the is that forty year old version? So I did a quick TikTok that.
(29:10):
So I like to do some quickreactions. So at Brian H.
Waters on all social media platform Brianwith an I but yeah, and shout
out to Brian Dawkins. When Iworked at up North in Bristol, we
worked together, and I remember whenI first met him. I was fieling
in doing prompted for NFL Live andhe said you, He said, how
(29:32):
you spell it? I said what? I he That's the only way to
spell it, baby. And Iknow, you know, every every eagle,
I know that's the person they saythat is their favorite eagle. And
I mean, you know, awonderful person that I you know, I
had chance to work with a coupleof times. Oh look, look like
I know you're trying to endure yourselfto the Gambler audience here Fox Sports Radio,
and you're trying to do yourself forthe Philadelphia fans. You've already done
(29:53):
it. You don't need to throwthe Brian Dawkins card out there like you
already us It was a time.There was a time, you know,
both Super Bowls and actually all threeSuper Bowl shoes that I've rooted for the
Eagles, but there was a timeduring the mcnabby years, I was like,
that's my other team. Okay,okay, No, we appreciate the
(30:15):
love. We always appreciate the love. And again, if you see Brian
out, Brian Waters, not BrianDawkins. If you see Brian Orders out
you know about and about in PHILADELPHIYthis weekend, give him some love,
share him some love. And please, if you see him, see David
she Maker, please tell them tobring the Book of Rustling podcast back because
I love the Book of Wrestling podcast. I need that. I know,
I know it's a busy time.I'm not I'm not gonna put you out
there. I love the Book ofWrestling. I need it back in my
(30:37):
life. I just put it outthere right now to keep it real.
It was a very very hard andintense show, but I never enjoyed something
that much as far as that wasthat much work, you know, from
the editing, the research, andDave does an incredible job with the scripts.
I miss it too. You know. It's like, okay, because
(30:59):
the thing is it's kind of likea soft spot because that's kind of what
was like one of the selling pointsto get me to the Ringer was like
when they you know, shot tomy former manager Cash is he probably be
mad that I just put him outthere. But you know when I applied,
we knew each other ESPN and he, you know, he spoke up
for me. He vouched for me, and we have a brother vouch for
(31:21):
you know, you always appreciate it, and he knew like this is something
you know, he felt like ifsomething I was made for. And you
know, working with Shoemaker on thatjust incredible, you know, being able
to and he did, like Isaid, a great job with the script.
And I missed it. And welaunched the first episode the day after
wrestle Mania thirty eight. Okay,okay, yeah, So which was what
(31:44):
was it called? It was theprologue, which was on the Curtain Call,
the Curtain Call episode the Curtain Call. Yeah yeah, that was a
really well they're all it were allreally good episodes. And again I miss
it. So if anybody out there, if you see, if you running
the Brian running, David Shoemaker puta little buggeer, bring it back.
You know, we love it again. Brian h Waters again co hosts Wednesday
(32:04):
worldwide for The Ringer, producer forThe Ringer Podcast Network, co founder Wrestling
Roalm Podcast. Again, thank youfor joining us, man, we appreciate
it. And again, if youwant to link up here on Fox Sports
The Gambler or Fox Sports to Wrestleranytime, you're more than welcome. Man
boy, I appreciate it, brother, it was a honor, a pleasure.
Seriously, Like you know, whenyou asked me come on, I
was like, wow, Okay.It was like okay, so now I
(32:28):
gotta figure out, Okay, howwe gonna make this happen because it wasn't
a matter of like you know,if it was just a matter of like,
we're gonna make this happen. ButI really really appreciate the honored fan
of your work. Love. Iknow how much you know, heart and
hustle you put into everything. Soyou know, that's why I'm so excited
for you to go to WrestleMania,because I know you're going to enjoy that.
Heck, got it. Thank you, Thank you. Hopefully everybody else
(32:49):
everybody listening to this has an amazingexperience at WrestleMania as well. Keep it
locked here we will talk more WrestleManiaexcel here on Fox Sports the Wrestler.
This is Fox Sports the Wrestler.Now Here is your host, Roy Burton.
We could not talk WrestleMania forty withouttalking about the WrestleManias of the past.
(33:09):
And to help us with that isour good friend, the Final Boss,
the Head of the Table, anauthor of k Fabe, A love
story, a good friend, Daverud Or Dave. How's it going man?
Not too bad, boy, Katie, Thanks for having me listen.
We would be remiss right WrestleMania fortyin our beautiful city, the City of
brotherly Love. We'd be remiss ifwe didn't say that this was the first
(33:31):
time, or this wasn't the firsttime that our fair city has hosted a
WrestleMania Dave, you are an expertin all things WrestleMania's past, president future.
So I'm going to take you backinto the Dolorean a little bit to
WrestleMania fifteen, which is held backof what was then known as the Wells
Fargo. Oh sorry, the FirstUnion Center, excuse me, First Union
Center, highlighted by Stone Cool SteveAustin beating Corporate rock for the WWF Championship.
(33:53):
Now we're twenty five years removed fromthat moment, but you, as
a wrestling historian, how does thatand how does that card hold up twenty
five years later? I think thematch holds up. I remember being devastated
that the Rock turn heel he turnedheel up at a previous Survivor series because
he was starting to break out allthe catchphrases and was getting a lot of
(34:15):
momentum and then but obviously stone Colewas the baby facing equally as popular,
so Rock's hern Heel a Survivor,she was like like, ah, Like
what a bummer, because I wantedto pull for this guy, but you
know, once she aligned herself withVince McMahon as a kid, like,
it's so hard to do. Ithink the match holds up. I think
the rest of the card, andI think that's kind of my thing with
(34:35):
the Attitude Era is I think everyoneremembers Attitude Era so fondly because of the
rolls, right, It's because ofthe promos and because of like the you
know, outside the ring antics,but the card itself. The match before
that was a Big Boss Man versusUndertaker in the hell in a Cell match,
and ignoring the fact that you know, Undertaker basically tried to crucify him.
(34:57):
You know, like what once youget past that, once you get
this is why we bring you oneday. We don't bring you on for
the main events. We bring youon for the for for the for the
denu ma of the like, butbefore the before the climbax of the partment,
this is why we bring you on. And Katie, in all honesty,
WrestleMania fifteen my first, my twobiggest memories. It isn't Austin versus
(35:22):
Rock because obviously they rock. Theywrestled, but three times at WrestleMania,
it's it's it's Butter Beaver's bart Gun, which never should have happened. What
a ridiculous concept that was like eighteenseconds. And then it was the poor
Big boss Man just trying to dohis thing, you know, trying to
test his metal against the Undertaker andalmost got murdered, you know. For
(35:45):
it. It's like, I don'tknow how I can think about like that.
Austin Rock match probably is the onethat kind of, you know,
sticks in my memory the most.It is those two concepts which were so
crazy and so kind of ill conceivedand the rest of that art. There
wasn't really any match. It reallyjumped out of me for the right reasons.
But you know, the Brawl forAll was probably one of the worst
(36:07):
ideas of the Attitude era and thenAttitude I think it's one of the worst.
It's one of the worst ideas inhistory of the business. It really
is. No I'm going down thelist the card right now, and it
is. It's it's a doozy afatal four way Intercontinental Championship match road Dog
(36:29):
road Dog defeated Ken Shamrock, Valvenusand gold Dust and the European Championship Cherry
McMahon with Test defeats XPOC. Thatis a that isn't a d level card,
right. I feel like the wrestlingwas always just a backdrop, right.
This had to be like the VinceRusso era for sure, Like this
had to take the peak of it, right, and I just think the
(36:50):
wrestling just didn't matter except for likethe main event. It's like all this
stuff is just like you could havetold me, Katie, without me looking
at the car, that any twoguys were wrestling for the European title,
and I would have believed you ifyou said wrestling in the fifteen it was
midian verse draws. I'm like,yeah, yeah, I can't. I
(37:10):
can't dispute that, you know,and I think they at the Attitude Era
it's it's to me, it's likeAustin Rock DX. But I think it
was like the catchphrases and all likethese like wild scenes on roll. It
wasn't so much to wrestling or itwas sports entertainment level. It was.
It was no And I feel thatthis is not the segment to get in
(37:32):
there. But I have heard peoplesay that the Attitude Era, although it
was memorable, it was not deep. You didn't have like I don't know,
like the mid card wasn't great.I mean, like I think there
are parts when like you had thecard angles kind of developing. But I
mean, if road Dog is yourIntercontinental champion, obviously the pickings are slim
(37:54):
for the Intercontinental Championship. And Ithink the belt changed hand like the IC
built just wasn't even a consideration.It changed hand like every three weeks on
Raw. So it wasn't like my, you know, the Golden Era,
whereas like Ricky Steamboat and Randy Savageand those guys and mister Perfect and like
they would have the belt for sixmonths or nine months, or Hockey Talk
Man who had it for seventeen years. It was like back then in ninety
(38:16):
nine, it's like the belt otherin the world title was just like just
you know, this hodgepodge of guys, and the tag titles were just like
two guys who were thrown together andnone of them had names, which drove
me crazy. Like at this time, it goes Owen Hart and Jeff Jarrett
were the tag team champions. Yougot to throw a name on them.
I don't care what you call,but you can't just speak two guys,
(38:37):
right, you know that that devaluesthe tag team in my perspective. Well,
well, let me ask you aquestion about the era. Again.
We're talking with Dave Ruter, authorof k Fabe a Love Story. Let
me ask you a question about thatera and how it compares to this era,
because again, you grew up inyou know, the Golden Era and
the Attitude era and what they callthe New Generation era, but you you're
kind of plugged in a little bitto what's going on currently. How does
(38:59):
this current era kind compared to youknow, the late eighties and early nineties
of w W. I think this, Karen, it's running hot. It
is really running hot there. AndI think in eighty five when McMahon you
know, got you know, theWorld Wrestling Federation really on the mac,
really mainstream, it was the celebrities, right, and it's you know,
you'll always have your hardcore wrestling fans, they're gonna watch regardless. But I
(39:20):
think if you think back to WrestleManiaone, it was mister T and Sidney
Lauper, like you know, hogame, Paul Warrendorf, you know,
Roddy Piper in the main event.That's all right, as he was in
like the outside enforcer, right,Livaracchi was there, like why everybody was
there? Right? And to meit's like, you know, it was
Cidney Lauper, mister T. That'swhy you know, WrestleMania one exploded compared
(39:44):
to other times that year. Andthen it was the year before WrestleMania fifteen
it was Mike Tyson. And rightnow I think you're coming full circle where
the Rock is not only this hugewrestling name, but this massive celebrity and
coming back with all this reelism mixedin and you know, Rock, it's
like he's allowed to curse on TV, where that's like fauxpa now. But
I think to me, like thatis that's the biggest difference between where the
(40:07):
ww's now maybe compared to a fewyears ago all the products I think has
been trending upward for the last coupleof years. Is I think you have
a name like the Rock who isso mainstream, and all of a sudden
you're getting so many more eyes onit. Right it's the casual fan who
may only watch wrestle Mania, butnow it's a casual fan who's like only
you know, on the periphials,like man, like you know, seeing
(40:28):
these clips of rock and everything goingmainstream. And I think that's like the
such the biggest difference, but probablythe biggest similarity between you know, eighty
five and the Golden Era and theAttitude era and right now is that they
have that mainstream, you know,quality that they're able to bring in.
Yeah, and just to kind ofducktail off that you kind of lead me
into my next point. You know, WrestleMania more now than I would say
(40:49):
more now, but a lot nowas as you know, opposed to maybe
ten or fifteen years ago, it'salways a night where we get the guest
appearance as a surprise or turns thoseyou know, those random celebrities that bring
them bring the additional eyes, youknow, to the product. So outside
of everybody who's kind of been announcedfor Wrestlmania forty here in Philadelphia, who
would you, Dave Ruter, whowould you mark out for the most if
they showed up at Lincoln Financier Fieldthis weekend? I mean probably Brett Hart,
(41:14):
right, I mean obviously I'm aPrett Hart guy as as as a
Philadelphia as a Philadelphia slant though Ithink I call me crazy, but and
I love this guy A fall himon Twitter. He's actually hosting a party
at mccuskers in South Philly. BlueMeenie. Let's bring the blue Meanie back.
(41:35):
Let's get him into BWOT shirt.You know, I want the black
jean shorts. But like, tome, it's like, obviously it's we're
looking at this through a different lensbecause we're from Philly. So it's like
what wrestlers from Philly And even thelate SD Jones who used to be built
from Philadelphia, PA and then turnedhis back on us and said he was
(41:57):
from Antigua. On the West Indies, and I never I gave him for
that. I never forgave him forthat. Once you're from Philly or built
from Philly, you can't change that. So it's like, you know where
is where's the Philadelphia Slay? Correctly, you know who am I missing from?
Who is the local ties that couldcome back there? But that's probably
would be my first choice. Bill, let me know who I'm missing?
Yeah, I don't. I don'tthink you're missing in anybody Blue Mini's.
(42:19):
I didn't expect Bluemini. I didn'tdidn't expect Lumini, you know, I
feel is the guest celebrity dsur themost the most recently retired center for the
Philadelphi Eagles. I feel that heis almost a stone called pun intended Locke
to join the festivities on some levelabsolutely makes sense for sure. Yeah,
(42:40):
I think we're I think we're definitelygoing to get appearance from him from number
sixty two at some point this weekend. Dave, of course you are the
again the historian DuJour here whenever wetalk to you, So I do need
to ask you about your amazing book, because again we are fans of the
w W now but we're also fansof w W you know, back from
the eighties and nineties, and youwrote, you know, a love story,
love letter if you will, aseries of love letters to the Squared
(43:04):
Circle. So if you could pleaseindulge in those of you listeners, please
tell everybody about your book, kayFabe a Love Story. Yeah. So
it's released it in December of thispast year, twenty twenty three. It
is a collection of eighty seven shortchapters or essays paying homage to my favorite
WrestleMania nineteen eighty seven's WrestleMania three,written entirely in k fabe. Right,
(43:25):
I think every kind of book writtennow about pro wrestling is it's, you
know, to peak behind the curtain. It's either a wrestler who has written
an autobiography or has somebody writing abiography about their life. And I love
all the shoot stuff. I've probablyseen more YouTube shoot interviews than I care
to admit, But I want todo something entirely different. And I think
(43:46):
kind of you know, me goingback as a thirty nine year old guy
and watching It's wrestling as a kid, and then you know, writing about
it, you know, through thatlens as if wrestling wasn't scripted, and
the matches weren't predetermined. I thinkit just allowed for a lot of funny
moments and kind of weaving in storiesfrom my childhood, remember watching these matches
and watching these wrestlers, And Ithink there's a relatability about it. I
(44:08):
think if you read this book,you be able to like, man,
I remember that match, or Iremember that pay per view, and you
know, certainly the book is intendedto be funny. Think you guys have
read it like it is not.It is not the great gad speak.
It's not meant to be. It'smentioning to make make you laugh and riten
the tongue of cheek, but reallyproud about it. And I hope you
check it out. It's an amazing, amazing book. Again, it's called
(44:30):
k Fabe, a Love Story.You can find it on an Amazon,
Barnes and Noble wherever you get yourbooks. And you can also you know,
hit Dave up on Twitter. He'sat Where's Ben Rivera on Twitter?
Slash x I should say slash atthis point, and you can follow him
for all sorts of Phillies musings andwrestling musings and whatever else is going on
in his mind. But again,if you want to, you know,
(44:51):
enjoy yourself and kind of go backinto the world of ww from the eighties
and nineties. Pick up k Fabe, a love story from our good friend
Dave Ruder. Dave, thank forjoining us, man. We appreciate it.
Thank thanks, thanks for having me. And again we have plenty more
WrestleManias talk coming up here on FoxSports The Wrestler. This is Fox Sports
Radio The Wrestler.
This is Fox Sports Radio The Wrestler. Now Here is your host, Roy
burtand WrestleMania Week is finally here andhere on Fox Sports the Wrestler. There's
no better person to talk WrestleMania withthen our next guest. He's a very
extensive resume. He's a co hostWednesday worldwide for The Ringer, He's a
(00:21):
producer for The Ringer Podcast Network,co host, co founder of the Wrestling
Realm podcast, and maybe more importantlythan all that, he might be the
number one brutus to Barbara Beefcake fanin America. Our good friend, Brian
H. Waters. Brian Waters,how's it going on, my friend?
I'm good, you know I'm cominghere. Stratton and cut is like my
good old frude Eye, you know, the guy who beat Mister Perfect for
(00:43):
the very first time in WW atwrestle Mania six. And we are talking
all things WrestleMania again with Brian Waters. Again the number one of brutus to
Barbara Beefcake fan, but we makeit the Brudhs to Barber Beefcake. A
little bit later, we got totalk about WrestleMania forty here in this beautiful
city of Philadelphia, and I gotto call you out. I'm gonna I
brought you in again, I gaveyou the good intro. I got to
(01:07):
call you out because you, morethan anybody I've seen in my feed,
have been very vocal in your opinionthat you wanted to see the Rock Versus
Roman Reigns headline WrestleMania instead of CodyRoads versus Roman Reigns. Now, given
how the story has played out sofar, do you think they made the
right decision? No? Okay,you know, in all honesty, right,
(01:30):
and if I can be real andnot talk from a k faith standpoint,
put my analyst hat on. Ithink this was the planet all along.
I know a lot of people maynot think so. A lot of
people think WW pivoted right to me. When you knew you had the rock,
you knew you had the Rock atRoyal Roman No Day one. And
(01:53):
the reason is because when the Rocksshowed up that night in Boulder, Colorado.
My it was in Denver because hewas and Boulder for the on the
Yeah. And so then when heshowed up in Denver, everybody kept saying,
well, why didn't he say anythingabout Roman or anything else? Right?
(02:15):
And I remember we had Brian gerwortson it. If anybody knows wrestling,
you know, Brian Gerwortz used tobe writer for WWE. More importantly
pretty much like one of the Rocks, right him man creatively, you know.
And one of the things he saidwas, if the Rock goes out
there and calls out or mentions thebloodline in any way, shape or form,
(02:37):
it's all game there. So that'sthe reason why he was, you
know, having former Grayson Waller inAustin theory. And I think when the
Rock got those goosebumps, you know, and everything started working in his favor.
The moment he came out and saidat the head of the table,
we all thought, oh yeah,here we go. It's time Rock and
Roman. We finally gonna get it. But the thing he said in September
(03:00):
was he believes in long game,and they wanted to tell a story that
hadn't been done before, and ofcourse something like, well, what you
mean, it's no matter, justgive you Rock and Roman. Look,
I went to Wrussell Mayia. Ican tell you. I promise you Wressell
Maya thirty eight. There was peoplelooking to the interest and if you've ever
been in the arena or the stadiumwhen Roman rains music is playing, there's
(03:23):
a certain part where it sounds likeit's going to go shifting into if you'll
smell And you know, me beinga former retired as even though they don't
let try to let me, I'ma retired drummer in gospel quartet. You
know, I listened to music.And at Survivor Series twenty twenty one in
(03:46):
Brooklyn, that was the night everybodythought rock was coming back. In Dallas,
people thought the rock was coming back. In Los Angeles last year,
everybody thought Rock was coming back.He was gonna show down with Roman,
finally gonna get this dream matchup.So when Day one happened and he said
the head of the table, ofcourse we thought that and then all of
(04:09):
this to me, If it wasn'tset up for this for us to get
to this story, Drew McIntyre wouldhave won the Royal Rumble because when you
look at there was three viable candidateswho could win the rold Rumble with Jay
WHO'SO being a wild card, andthey was Cody Rhodes see Him Punk and
(04:30):
Drew McIntyre. Because Drew had alreadystarted around Survivor series. All this stuff
we started seeing and he'll see tosay. I'm not a bad guy,
you know, I'm just a realist. So that's the reason why I personally
believe this has been set up allalong. I'm for it, but you
know, deep down the side,I want my Rock and Roman match,
give my familiar forty we could Codycan wait, and plus I want to
(04:56):
see Roman. Look, I'm I'ma hawk maniac and I'm just leave it
at that. Okay, But okay, I don't want to go too far.
You know. Yeah, I gotyou, I got you. But
I want to see Roman past therecord. Oh you know, okay,
I want to see history. Iwant to be able to say, you
know, I remember. This mightbe a soft spot for a lot of
(05:16):
people. I remember in two thousandand six, two thousand and seven,
two thousand and eight, when thePatriots were on their run and people wanted
to see them break the Dolphins record. And one of the things I heard
somebody who was neutral, they said, I want to be able to say
I live through that, like oh, and that's how I feel about Romans
(05:41):
record, right, I mean Hogan'srecord, you know, to be able
to say, oh, I livedthrough Roman reigns having x amount of thousands
of days, two thousand days ofww World Heavyweight Universal, all the winding
belts. I would love to saythat, but you know, we will
see. Yeah, we we willsee, and I think we you know,
we kind of expect Cody Roase tofinish the story on Night two Wrestling,
(06:04):
but we will see what happens ifhe don't. Just to get back
to the Rock for a second.Very briefly, we're talking with the Brian
Waters again, co hosts of WednesdayWorldwide for the ringer, just to get
back to the Rock for a second. You know, the man's back,
he's engaged, he's active, he'scalling himself the Final Boss, he's cutting
promos on Instagram, just as andagain like you you know you are a
(06:28):
longtime w W fan. You gotthe belts in the background, you know,
you know you're you're you're in it. So just as a longtime fan,
how cool is it to just seethe Rock being active and disengaged in
wrestling again? Ah? It isphenomenal to think, you know, I
was, I'm a huge Rock fan. If there's there's some shifting in my
(06:49):
top ten, right, okay,well even top five but Rock is up
there, he's you know, tiedfor like he's like three. But I
always felt like I understood Hollywood wascalling. But we have been spoiled with
people like Hogan, Brett Hart,John Cena where they have these lengthy careers
(07:15):
on top, and then the Rockwhen you really think about it, in
his heyday, we're talking top ofthe league only from ninety eight to two
thousand and two. Now they werea dynamic and iconic four years, but
three or four he was just sofar in and out just for Wressellania.
(07:36):
But man, so I remember thishad to have been around two thousand and
five, two thousand and six.One day, my uncle was over and
he was cutting my hair. Soyou know back when we used to tape
the pay per views and we woulddrawed like the logo. So we put
in the tape of Russell Mayer eighteenand were watching Hogan Rock, which I
believe is the greatest wrestle Maya matchin history. And he I said,
(08:01):
if Rock kept going where he hadbeen bigger than Hogan, And my uncle
said, he said, you gottalook at it, he probably would have
or passed him. And I waslike, really, and he said,
you look at all that he's doneand how far, how quickly he got
there? Right and wow. Andin two thousand and seventeen, I was
at work, so I was workingon Johns Hopkins media relations team and one
(08:24):
day I was talking to my friendReagan and we brought the Rock and she
said, he's the wrestle. Differentgenerations, man, they just don't know.
She's born in the mid ninety early, like between ninety three and ninety
five. And I'm like what.She was like, here's the wrestle.
(08:48):
And I was shocked because we've beenin the bubble and yeah, he used
to wrestle. She says, whatWHOA did? Was he good? I
said, was he good? He'slike six times? Ww Yes, he
was good, Like he was thatdude. That's the reason why he's a
big movie star. So it wascrazy, you know, but you know,
you sit back and you look ateverything over the course of time,
(09:11):
man, and I'm I'm happy.I'm so happy he's back, and I'm
happy like that the surprise on Monday, that surprise, How was every day
right? Right? And yeah?And then the rocks rock has been filled
with, you know, a lotof great moments in his return back.
You know, it's kind of takinga lot of the focus you know,
you know away from you know whatpeople you know wanted to see from from
(09:33):
the from the main event, theRoman Reigns versus Cody thing. But again,
the Rock has added a very goodelement to that, and I appreciate
everything he's done. But again,this I think if you look at this
wrestle in card, I think it'spretty stacked, you know, top to
bottom. I mean there's a tonof great matches on the car. There's
you know, Seth Rollins and DrewMcIntire, you got the USO match.
You know, you got a coupleof matches with the women's on the women's
side for the titles, the sixpack match. Is there anything any of
(09:56):
these matches kind of stand out toyou other than obviously you know, the
two the bloodline storyline stuff. Isthere anything that sticks out to you or
even stuff that hasn't been out yet, because I think there might be a
little bit of a Jade Cargill actioncoming on the wrestling in a card too,
Anything that you're kind of looking forwardto, specifically in Philadelphia next weekend.
Oh yeah, Bailey versus Eel Skyoh, okay. I was in
(10:16):
I was in Tennessee, Nashville whenBailey came back, and that was a
big deal. And if anybody remembers, well, this is the first Poe
under Triple H and we was allthinking, wow, he came out swinging
and you know, shout out tostack Gye Greg from Cheap Heat. I
(10:37):
was sitting next to him, andI'm like, I'm the type of wrestling
fan that when I'm in the stadiumor the arena, I don't want to
look at no dirt sheets. Ijust want to enjoy the show. And
it's crazy because like at the RoyalRumble, it was hard, like I
had to like turn around content anda lot of stuff I couldn't tweet because
(10:58):
of the they had like cut offthe Wi Fi. But I'm sitting there
and I remember we just kept jumpingup and down like, oh my goodness,
I can't believe this. Because Baileycomes out, then Dakota Ka,
then Eo Scott and of course weall now this is the time when Sasha
Banks and Nail Me and left.Everybody's kind of hoping like, well,
what if they come out, youknow, a bed and Bianca. But
(11:22):
so to see that from start fromthere and then come all the way,
you know, being there with EOCash in it last year Summer Slam and
winning the title. This will bevery interesting. And I'm a huge Bailey
fan and you know, getting achance to meet her last year she was
on the mass Man Show during Russellmay A week. An incredible person.
(11:43):
So I'm excited to see her gether opportunity and you know, get her
you know, coming out party.And it's not involving Mercedes Monette because a
lot of times, like we thinkabout Bailey or her her big moments,
with the exception of last year,but her big Russell Mayham most was attached
to Mercedes. That's good point.That's good point. We're talking with Brian
Waters. He is you can followhim on Twitter Brian H. Waters on
(12:07):
Twitter and ig talking all things WrestleMania. And again, it's like you said,
it seems like it's gonna be apretty good WrestleMania moment for Bailey.
And again, you you've seen abunch of great WrestleMania moments over the years
because you've been to a few WrestleManiasin the past. I this is my
first WrestleMania experience. So I needto ask you, as a first timer,
(12:28):
what are the things I need tokeep in mind in order to kind
of get this is a long weekend. It's gonna be a long weekend.
So what do I need to keepin mind in order to kind of get
through this whole experience? Well,first, if I could be the good
boyfriend that I try to be,is I want to plug my girlfriend Queen
PR's wrestle Maia blog. She puttogether the Ultimate WrestleMania Guide, which you
(12:50):
can find on her Twitter at QueenUnderscore three Underscores Pr. But one of
the things is pace yourself, takeit it And there's a lot of wrestling
that weekend, a lot of wrestlingshows from all because in my first wrestlming
was twenty eight in Miami, therewasn't this. Everybody flocked to the same
(13:15):
city of wrestleminga and you know,put on a show. Now thirty three.
It was that way my second wrestleand I went to one of the
shows, went to a couple ofevents, and then even in Dallas.
Dallas was the first one that Iworked under the ringer. And last year
I went to a couple like youknow events or like like a couple of
(13:37):
dinners and stuff. But you know, I told people I'm not gonna try
to make everything. You know,one of the things I always says,
you know, find your tribe,link with them, drink, cling near
water. Luckily, this is goingto be a cooler city. But there's
still a lot of moving around.Definitely a lot of phone battery, have
(13:58):
a lot of phone battery, andspace to take a lot of photos.
Because there'll never be another first timeexperience. You know, Miami will always
be special because like me and mybest friend shout brother Hugh from the Wrestling
Realm, we went and we wereboth in six seventh and eighth grade here
(14:20):
in Baltimore City, a Catholic school, and man, just the height of
attitude there. And we was,oh, you know that's fake. How
you watch this is fake? This, that and the other and both of
us will have to take it onthe chin. And so when we was
like, yo, we really madeit the wrestle Mania and we did this
together. But you know that's thething, like, you know, the
events are so much fun. Youknow, I always a buy shirt or
(14:46):
a piece of merchandise to commemorate.You know, I still have the shirt
I bought, which is like theonce in a lifetime WrestleMania shirt, which
we got twice in a lifetime exactly, you know, you know, but
definitely, you know, escape allthe dirty, escape all the rumors because
(15:09):
people are always you know, Ipersonally don't like the when they show you
the set beforehand, and I knowthat's a big thing, you know,
WW like make some money, whichI don't blame them, so it's like,
oh, we can sponsor this.So me, personally though, I
avoid all that stuff. You know, I'm I want to see when I
walk in there for the first time. That's when I want to see the
set. I'll scroll through Twitter andthe heartbreak. But yeah, just take
(15:33):
it in, enjoy it. Youknow. If there's other independent wrestling events,
check them out, but don't feellike obligate. I have to go
to everything WWE World. It seemslike it's gonna be so exciting. I
know we're gonna have some shows therenice so, you know, some live
tapings for the podcast from the Ringof Wrestling. But you know, even
(15:54):
go there and you know, checkout the superstore, check out a lot
of stuff, just because like accessis something we see it on, Like
you go back and look at likethe old Wrestle Mayans. They always did
a commercial for it, like atWrestle Mayya seventeen and eighteen. You see
all this stuff. He's like,man, that looks so cool. So
then to finally be able to goand attend, you know, I say,
(16:17):
go take it all in because thisis once you go. Once,
you're never gonna never want to watchit at home again, you know,
But take it in as a fan. Don't let nobody cloud your judgment.
Don't try to predict the card,analyze it later, but just you know,
especially because when the fun part iswhen you see those little kids.
(16:37):
Last year, it was this littlekid named Zach and his dad wasn't in
the wrestling at all. He hadshout out to the dads out there.
He had his two sons and hisdaughter and we're sitting there watching with him.
And Zach was such a smart,fun wrestling fan because he was like,
well, I want the USO's towin, but then I want Sam
(17:00):
He's ain't and Kevin owens the wayand you just watch the enjoyment of his
eyes and then I'm talking to hisdad and his dad's like, man,
he loved it. I don't knowmuch about it, but this is what
he loved and he earns it.He did he did well in school,
and honestly, when you see alittle black kid and a black father all
come to it was the most amazingthing, and it's like, this is
what's fun. You know. Theyear before, yeah, I saw the
(17:22):
same experience with with Mike Ronaldis,who was at the time his name is
escaping me. He was a manwhat was his name? He was Emma's
husband. He was with Baron Happy, Corbin's partner. Because I'm trying not
to call him create a wrestler,because that's what everybody used to call him
(17:44):
at the time. You know I'mtalking about right, I know exactly talking
about Yeah. But somebody that knewhim was at the show, right,
and it was in the same sectionI was in, and the same thing.
You just you know, you seeand there's always you know, there's
gonna be people there. It's likethey don't know what this is. They
got dragged to it. But thenyou go see wrestling fans from all over
the world. It's it's our superBowl, it's our time. I know,
Philly just got you know, acouple not to a few years removed
(18:07):
from winning championship. You know,you know that that's fun. As I
will always say, like when DanielBryan, who at the time was my
number one favorite wrestler, when hewon at wrestl May thirty, I wish
I went. It was like,this was better than the Ravens winning the
(18:27):
Super Bowl. And I enjoy it, you know, but that moment,
Yeah, and it would be agreat moment for me next week when I
see for the second year in therow all the Cody cry babies walk out
with their faces because, man,La, that was a fun night.
(18:48):
I don't I don't know if youwant to see that in Philadelphia. I'm
just saying, like, now,you know, Sunday night, you know,
the Cody cry Babies are upset inPhiladelphia. I don't know if you
want to see that. I'm justputting it out there. I'm just gonna
put that out there. We're talkingall things Wrestlmania forty with Brian Waters from
The Ringer Podcast Network. A couplemore questions before we get you out of
here. You mentioned a bunch ofevents going on this week, you know,
(19:08):
Wrestlmingia Week. You are involved ina couple couple of these events,
so I people want to come checkyou out and see you and the Ring
of Wrestling crew. How can theydo that? Well, we do have
the Ring of Wrestling Meet and greeton Friday at Chicken and Pete's, so
that'll be that'd be fun. Comehang out with us before SmackDown, you
know, come from five to seven, you know, come have a drink,
(19:30):
come eat some food with us.I'm excited for the Craft Fris.
I've been there once. I went. I was in Philly for the American
Heart Association conference this during the JohnsHopkins Days in two thy nineteen. And
while me and my friend Vanessa wasthere shout out to doctor McMains, we
I saw SmackDown was in town andI texted my boy Corey and I was
(19:55):
like, You're going to smack Day. I said, oh, duh,
and he was like, yeah,I'll be there and then I'm going to
Rutgers game tomorrow. So we wentand we went to the game. I
mean, we went to SmackDown,and before we did, we went to
Chicken and Peace. And now Iain't know, it was like such a
big thing. But I was like, oh, yeah, the food here
is good, so we're gonna bethere. But the big party place you
want to be, the place youwant to be is wile a Mania for
(20:19):
all wrestling fans and hip hop fans. It's the party of the year.
It's when you sit there and youwalk around and you see people from ae
W and WWE Center there, youknow, having fun. You know,
last couple of years, Samoa Joegets on the stage and raps. That's
(20:42):
always funny. Omas did jay z. I remember last year I saw him
and I'm a Morgan State grand andso Omas went there to play basketball there
and you know, we talked aboutthat. It's just so much fun to
be able to party with other wrestlingfans, you know, kind of get
away from the graps and stuff.You know, there's gonna be a lot
of wrestling shows. You got fullthe culture. Shout to my boy Jay
(21:04):
Bougie, you know, one ofthe hottest independent wrestlers who I believe will
be signed by the end of theyear. You know, some should check
him out. Uh, He's goingto be performed in on some of the
cards. And then there's also aFashion Mania event shot my friend Yolanda.
She is so funny. Story is, me and Yolanda actually watched WrestleMania thirty
(21:30):
three together. Were sitting next toeach other at Wrestlminga thirty three, and
you know, we've been friends.We both worked in the industry. She
is a gear design and you've seensome of her work. She designed like
Leo Rush and Cizarro. I guessI still do Claudio so but she's having
this called the Art of Creativity,the Art of Creative Misfit Fashion Show,
(21:53):
which is taking place on Thursday,f five on twentieth and Race Street,
hashtag fashion Mania. So I'm excitedfor her just knowing her journey where she's
been in this industry. You know, she's an amazing person. So,
you know, to see especially it'slike, you know, it's not a
(22:15):
lot of black people that we seein wrestling back when we were coming up,
and now to see so many ofus working in the business behind the
scenes, in front the scenes,and we got a black black man headline
in Russell Maya yet again, sir. So it's really good, you know.
But just to see it, likeeverybody come together, like they said
wally Mania, it's the unofficial kickoffparty. But we we have some special
(22:41):
guests. I can announce that wedid drop that Beanie Siegel and Young Chris
will be in the building. Sothat's gonna be fun. You're gonna have
Willow Nightingale, You're gonna have SamanthaIrvin and Ricochet coming through. You have
you know, obviously the Ring ofWrestling Crew. You got Cornell Gunta,
w W two K champion, thetwo w W two K World Heavyweight Champion,
(23:03):
Cortnell, good friend of mine.He will be in the building.
You know, so many people,so I'm really excited about that. And
I'll tell y'all, you do notwant to miss this. The special guests
you do not want to miss AndCast said it best the other day on
Wednesday worldwide. We like announcements,but the surprise pop and I'm gonna be
(23:29):
sitting there and I hope I seeyou because I want to be standing right
there and see your face with thesurprise pop have is, you know,
because I don't want to ruin it. And but you know, even while
the mania something, you just youtake it all in man, like you
know, it's just it was apoint last year and you know, I'm
(23:52):
sitting there vibing to the music.I just like threw my hands up and
my manager shout out a Ben Cruz, he like, got this dope folk
me and I was like wow,and and it just made me think,
like all the years of being toldno or this is stupid. You know.
There was even a time in MorganState where me and my co host
The World Away Now and from theWrestling Round, the show we created at
(24:15):
school. We both realized we're bothwrestling fans and we said, you know,
we're gonna use this to help usimprove everything we're learning in the classroom,
from setting up the cameras to broadcastand edit and production. We're going
to create a wrestler show and usethis and we've been still doing it every
Wednesday night on YouTube. And wethere was we had an opportunity to intern
(24:36):
for a local independent wrestling company andwe we use a term called they gave
us the dusty If anybody's seeing thestone Nah the stone Cold promo when he
said, uh, he's like hehad this idea in w C E W
and no, baby, that's forsomebody else to go keep it right way.
Yet, so we have the termyou give they gave us the dusty,
(24:59):
they would let us do this internship, and I thought about all of
that, like and here I amstanding at wallet Mania wearing a chalk Line
WrestleMania jacket on stage working and soyou know, it's those moments you just
never know who you go see.You know, last year I was sitting
up there, I got a selfiewith j car Gill, you know,
laugh, talked with her. TrinityFatu was the guest of honor. You
(25:22):
know, this was during the timebefore she went the Impact and you know,
talk with her. And the guestlast year was the Bloodline, so
you know, talking with Jay Hussoand Jimmy and just lit It was lit
up there. Who's wow, youknow. And and this year the guest
of honor is shouting Benjamin. Youknow, Shelton is going to get his
flowers. So it's gonna be amazingtime. Shout out the Kaz Wilet,
(25:45):
Amelio Sparks. They do a greatjob. All start by you know Court
Bauer and Wile a way back andWrestling thirty one, but you know Kaz
took it over. You know,the wrestlming in New York. When that's
when you know they was honoring BookerT and it kind of went viral.
Nobody knew the New Day was gonnabe there. And then you know it's
(26:06):
going to KOFE Mania, man,So it's it's exciting. Yeah, no,
no, I am looking forward tothat. You know, maybe not
not as much as maybe wressell Ani, but right there, like Wallemnia,
my first Wallemdia. I'm so I'mhappy you're gonna be at all of it,
you know, like I said,I really you know, be in
the mix, man. Like Ilove when people go to wrestle Maya for
(26:29):
the first time. Last year itwas Ben and Cows first time and I
was sitting next to it. I'mjust Cows older than me. Ben's a
little bit younger, and but bothall of us lifelong wrestling fans, and
I'm just watching them take it.In the year before that, it was
Jack Farmer and watching him take ithis first WrestleMania. So it's nothing like
it. And then it's like it'swant to go again, and wrestling is
(26:52):
a great way to see the seethat I haven't seen the country. I'm
gonna I'm gonna tell you right now. See if if it's fifty percent of
what you're telling me. I'm gonnabe hitting you up on social media.
I'm gonna show you sending you mypictures I want to say. I'm gonna
send you my tweets. I'm like, yok man, we started something with
this. I'm gonna telling you rightnow, if it's half as good as
you tell me, I'm gonna bombarredyou all week. And I'm like,
(27:14):
look like you like you know,I'm an addict now, like I'm in
my yearly fixed. And the onething I tell people, do not let
the internet dictate how good the showwas to you. I'll never forget leaving
out of it. It was HardRock Cafe Stadium at the time in Miami,
and we the traffic was crazy,so we all stood in the parking
(27:36):
lot and we did like a postshow for YouTube, and we talked about
how great it was. Everybody hadthis good time because when the rock beat
seen or the place felt like itshook. And you know, I remember
when finally got back to the hoteland I got on an elevator and I
saw people like, oh, it'snot a good show, and this,
that and the other, and that'swhat I was like, Wow, it's
really a difference, you know,but nobody's going to tell me that.
(28:00):
You know, even when I goback and watch twenty eight, I'm like,
nah, like I watched it yesterday. I'm like, this was a
fun show. And I'll never Iwas always tell people never let nobody else
dictate how much fun you had.Just take it in, as Jerik would
say, drink it in, man, just enjoy the moment. Just live
in a moment. Yeah. Sowe're talking, and we're talking with Brian
(28:21):
Waters from the Ring of podcast network. If people want to check you out,
want to follow along with everything thatyou got going on, you know,
whether it's at WRESTLINGI a weekend orafter, how can they keep up
with you on social media? AtBrian H. Waters on Twitter or I
guess we gotta say x, Instagram, threads, TikTok. Actually, right
before we went live, I toldmy daughter I saw Roman Rings had trolled
(28:45):
Seth Rollins. Seth Rollins had tweetedin April twenty twelve one day I will
main event WrestleMania. It was likethe day after wrestling in twenty eight and
then he quote tweeted it the graphicand Roman tweeted a picture of him with
the is that forty year old version? So I did a quick TikTok that.
(29:10):
So I like to do some quickreactions. So at Brian H.
Waters on all social media platform Brianwith an I but yeah, and shout
out to Brian Dawkins. When Iworked at up North in Bristol, we
worked together, and I remember whenI first met him. I was fieling
in doing prompted for NFL Live andhe said you, He said, how
(29:32):
you spell it? I said what? I he That's the only way to
spell it, baby. And Iknow, you know, every every eagle,
I know that's the person they saythat is their favorite eagle. And
I mean, you know, awonderful person that I you know, I
had chance to work with a coupleof times. Oh look, look like
I know you're trying to endure yourselfto the Gambler audience here Fox Sports Radio,
and you're trying to do yourself forthe Philadelphia fans. You've already done
(29:53):
it. You don't need to throwthe Brian Dawkins card out there like you
already us It was a time.There was a time, you know,
both Super Bowls and actually all threeSuper Bowl shoes that I've rooted for the
Eagles, but there was a timeduring the mcnabby years, I was like,
that's my other team. Okay,okay, No, we appreciate the
(30:15):
love. We always appreciate the love. And again, if you see Brian
out, Brian Waters, not BrianDawkins. If you see Brian Orders out
you know about and about in PHILADELPHIYthis weekend, give him some love,
share him some love. And please, if you see him, see David
she Maker, please tell them tobring the Book of Rustling podcast back because
I love the Book of Wrestling podcast. I need that. I know,
I know it's a busy time.I'm not I'm not gonna put you out
there. I love the Book ofWrestling. I need it back in my
(30:37):
life. I just put it outthere right now to keep it real.
It was a very very hard andintense show, but I never enjoyed something
that much as far as that wasthat much work, you know, from
the editing, the research, andDave does an incredible job with the scripts.
I miss it too. You know. It's like, okay, because
(30:59):
the thing is it's kind of likea soft spot because that's kind of what
was like one of the selling pointsto get me to the Ringer was like
when they you know, shot tomy former manager Cash is he probably be
mad that I just put him outthere. But you know when I applied,
we knew each other ESPN and he, you know, he spoke up
for me. He vouched for me, and we have a brother vouch for
(31:21):
you know, you always appreciate it, and he knew like this is something
you know, he felt like ifsomething I was made for. And you
know, working with Shoemaker on thatjust incredible, you know, being able
to and he did, like Isaid, a great job with the script.
And I missed it. And welaunched the first episode the day after
wrestle Mania thirty eight. Okay,okay, yeah, So which was what
(31:44):
was it called? It was theprologue, which was on the Curtain Call,
the Curtain Call episode the Curtain Call. Yeah yeah, that was a
really well they're all it were allreally good episodes. And again I miss
it. So if anybody out there, if you see, if you running
the Brian running, David Shoemaker puta little buggeer, bring it back.
You know, we love it again. Brian h Waters again co hosts Wednesday
(32:04):
worldwide for The Ringer, producer forThe Ringer Podcast Network, co founder Wrestling
Roalm Podcast. Again, thank youfor joining us, man, we appreciate
it. And again, if youwant to link up here on Fox Sports
The Gambler or Fox Sports to Wrestleranytime, you're more than welcome. Man
boy, I appreciate it, brother, it was a honor, a pleasure.
Seriously, Like you know, whenyou asked me come on, I
was like, wow, Okay.It was like okay, so now I
(32:28):
gotta figure out, Okay, howwe gonna make this happen because it wasn't
a matter of like you know,if it was just a matter of like,
we're gonna make this happen. ButI really really appreciate the honored fan
of your work. Love. Iknow how much you know, heart and
hustle you put into everything. Soyou know, that's why I'm so excited
for you to go to WrestleMania,because I know you're going to enjoy that.
Heck, got it. Thank you, Thank you. Hopefully everybody else
(32:49):
everybody listening to this has an amazingexperience at WrestleMania as well. Keep it
locked here we will talk more WrestleManiaexcel here on Fox Sports the Wrestler.
This is Fox Sports the Wrestler.Now Here is your host, Roy Burton.
We could not talk WrestleMania forty withouttalking about the WrestleManias of the past.
(33:09):
And to help us with that isour good friend, the Final Boss,
the Head of the Table, anauthor of k Fabe, A love
story, a good friend, Daverud Or Dave. How's it going man?
Not too bad, boy, Katie, Thanks for having me listen.
We would be remiss right WrestleMania fortyin our beautiful city, the City of
brotherly Love. We'd be remiss ifwe didn't say that this was the first
(33:31):
time, or this wasn't the firsttime that our fair city has hosted a
WrestleMania Dave, you are an expertin all things WrestleMania's past, president future.
So I'm going to take you backinto the Dolorean a little bit to
WrestleMania fifteen, which is held backof what was then known as the Wells
Fargo. Oh sorry, the FirstUnion Center, excuse me, First Union
Center, highlighted by Stone Cool SteveAustin beating Corporate rock for the WWF Championship.
(33:53):
Now we're twenty five years removed fromthat moment, but you, as
a wrestling historian, how does thatand how does that card hold up twenty
five years later? I think thematch holds up. I remember being devastated
that the Rock turn heel he turnedheel up at a previous Survivor series because
he was starting to break out allthe catchphrases and was getting a lot of
(34:15):
momentum and then but obviously stone Colewas the baby facing equally as popular,
so Rock's hern Heel a Survivor,she was like like, ah, Like
what a bummer, because I wantedto pull for this guy, but you
know, once she aligned herself withVince McMahon as a kid, like,
it's so hard to do. Ithink the match holds up. I think
the rest of the card, andI think that's kind of my thing with
(34:35):
the Attitude Era is I think everyoneremembers Attitude Era so fondly because of the
rolls, right, It's because ofthe promos and because of like the you
know, outside the ring antics,but the card itself. The match before
that was a Big Boss Man versusUndertaker in the hell in a Cell match,
and ignoring the fact that you know, Undertaker basically tried to crucify him.
(34:57):
You know, like what once youget past that, once you get
this is why we bring you oneday. We don't bring you on for
the main events. We bring youon for the for for the for the
denu ma of the like, butbefore the before the climbax of the partment,
this is why we bring you on. And Katie, in all honesty,
WrestleMania fifteen my first, my twobiggest memories. It isn't Austin versus
(35:22):
Rock because obviously they rock. Theywrestled, but three times at WrestleMania,
it's it's it's Butter Beaver's bart Gun, which never should have happened. What
a ridiculous concept that was like eighteenseconds. And then it was the poor
Big boss Man just trying to dohis thing, you know, trying to
test his metal against the Undertaker andalmost got murdered, you know. For
(35:45):
it. It's like, I don'tknow how I can think about like that.
Austin Rock match probably is the onethat kind of, you know,
sticks in my memory the most.It is those two concepts which were so
crazy and so kind of ill conceivedand the rest of that art. There
wasn't really any match. It reallyjumped out of me for the right reasons.
But you know, the Brawl forAll was probably one of the worst
(36:07):
ideas of the Attitude era and thenAttitude I think it's one of the worst.
It's one of the worst ideas inhistory of the business. It really
is. No I'm going down thelist the card right now, and it
is. It's it's a doozy afatal four way Intercontinental Championship match road Dog
(36:29):
road Dog defeated Ken Shamrock, Valvenusand gold Dust and the European Championship Cherry
McMahon with Test defeats XPOC. Thatis a that isn't a d level card,
right. I feel like the wrestlingwas always just a backdrop, right.
This had to be like the VinceRusso era for sure, Like this
had to take the peak of it, right, and I just think the
(36:50):
wrestling just didn't matter except for likethe main event. It's like all this
stuff is just like you could havetold me, Katie, without me looking
at the car, that any twoguys were wrestling for the European title,
and I would have believed you ifyou said wrestling in the fifteen it was
midian verse draws. I'm like,yeah, yeah, I can't. I
(37:10):
can't dispute that, you know,and I think they at the Attitude Era
it's it's to me, it's likeAustin Rock DX. But I think it
was like the catchphrases and all likethese like wild scenes on roll. It
wasn't so much to wrestling or itwas sports entertainment level. It was.
It was no And I feel thatthis is not the segment to get in
(37:32):
there. But I have heard peoplesay that the Attitude Era, although it
was memorable, it was not deep. You didn't have like I don't know,
like the mid card wasn't great.I mean, like I think there
are parts when like you had thecard angles kind of developing. But I
mean, if road Dog is yourIntercontinental champion, obviously the pickings are slim
(37:54):
for the Intercontinental Championship. And Ithink the belt changed hand like the IC
built just wasn't even a consideration.It changed hand like every three weeks on
Raw. So it wasn't like my, you know, the Golden Era,
whereas like Ricky Steamboat and Randy Savageand those guys and mister Perfect and like
they would have the belt for sixmonths or nine months, or Hockey Talk
Man who had it for seventeen years. It was like back then in ninety
(38:16):
nine, it's like the belt otherin the world title was just like just
you know, this hodgepodge of guys, and the tag titles were just like
two guys who were thrown together andnone of them had names, which drove
me crazy. Like at this time, it goes Owen Hart and Jeff Jarrett
were the tag team champions. Yougot to throw a name on them.
I don't care what you call,but you can't just speak two guys,
(38:37):
right, you know that that devaluesthe tag team in my perspective. Well,
well, let me ask you aquestion about the era. Again.
We're talking with Dave Ruter, authorof k Fabe a Love Story. Let
me ask you a question about thatera and how it compares to this era,
because again, you grew up inyou know, the Golden Era and
the Attitude era and what they callthe New Generation era, but you you're
kind of plugged in a little bitto what's going on currently. How does
(38:59):
this current era kind compared to youknow, the late eighties and early nineties
of w W. I think this, Karen, it's running hot. It
is really running hot there. AndI think in eighty five when McMahon you
know, got you know, theWorld Wrestling Federation really on the mac,
really mainstream, it was the celebrities, right, and it's you know,
you'll always have your hardcore wrestling fans, they're gonna watch regardless. But I
(39:20):
think if you think back to WrestleManiaone, it was mister T and Sidney
Lauper, like you know, hogame, Paul Warrendorf, you know,
Roddy Piper in the main event.That's all right, as he was in
like the outside enforcer, right,Livaracchi was there, like why everybody was
there? Right? And to meit's like, you know, it was
Cidney Lauper, mister T. That'swhy you know, WrestleMania one exploded compared
(39:44):
to other times that year. Andthen it was the year before WrestleMania fifteen
it was Mike Tyson. And rightnow I think you're coming full circle where
the Rock is not only this hugewrestling name, but this massive celebrity and
coming back with all this reelism mixedin and you know, Rock, it's
like he's allowed to curse on TV, where that's like fauxpa now. But
I think to me, like thatis that's the biggest difference between where the
(40:07):
ww's now maybe compared to a fewyears ago all the products I think has
been trending upward for the last coupleof years. Is I think you have
a name like the Rock who isso mainstream, and all of a sudden
you're getting so many more eyes onit. Right it's the casual fan who
may only watch wrestle Mania, butnow it's a casual fan who's like only
you know, on the periphials,like man, like you know, seeing
(40:28):
these clips of rock and everything goingmainstream. And I think that's like the
such the biggest difference, but probablythe biggest similarity between you know, eighty
five and the Golden Era and theAttitude era and right now is that they
have that mainstream, you know,quality that they're able to bring in.
Yeah, and just to kind ofducktail off that you kind of lead me
into my next point. You know, WrestleMania more now than I would say
(40:49):
more now, but a lot nowas as you know, opposed to maybe
ten or fifteen years ago, it'salways a night where we get the guest
appearance as a surprise or turns thoseyou know, those random celebrities that bring
them bring the additional eyes, youknow, to the product. So outside
of everybody who's kind of been announcedfor Wrestlmania forty here in Philadelphia, who
would you, Dave Ruter, whowould you mark out for the most if
they showed up at Lincoln Financier Fieldthis weekend? I mean probably Brett Hart,
(41:14):
right, I mean obviously I'm aPrett Hart guy as as as a
Philadelphia as a Philadelphia slant though Ithink I call me crazy, but and
I love this guy A fall himon Twitter. He's actually hosting a party
at mccuskers in South Philly. BlueMeenie. Let's bring the blue Meanie back.
(41:35):
Let's get him into BWOT shirt.You know, I want the black
jean shorts. But like, tome, it's like, obviously it's we're
looking at this through a different lensbecause we're from Philly. So it's like
what wrestlers from Philly And even thelate SD Jones who used to be built
from Philadelphia, PA and then turnedhis back on us and said he was
(41:57):
from Antigua. On the West Indies, and I never I gave him for
that. I never forgave him forthat. Once you're from Philly or built
from Philly, you can't change that. So it's like, you know where
is where's the Philadelphia Slay? Correctly, you know who am I missing from?
Who is the local ties that couldcome back there? But that's probably
would be my first choice. Bill, let me know who I'm missing?
Yeah, I don't. I don'tthink you're missing in anybody Blue Mini's.
(42:19):
I didn't expect Bluemini. I didn'tdidn't expect Lumini, you know, I
feel is the guest celebrity dsur themost the most recently retired center for the
Philadelphi Eagles. I feel that heis almost a stone called pun intended Locke
to join the festivities on some levelabsolutely makes sense for sure. Yeah,
(42:40):
I think we're I think we're definitelygoing to get appearance from him from number
sixty two at some point this weekend. Dave, of course you are the
again the historian DuJour here whenever wetalk to you, So I do need
to ask you about your amazing book, because again we are fans of the
w W now but we're also fansof w W you know, back from
the eighties and nineties, and youwrote, you know, a love story,
love letter if you will, aseries of love letters to the Squared
(43:04):
Circle. So if you could pleaseindulge in those of you listeners, please
tell everybody about your book, kayFabe a Love Story. Yeah. So
it's released it in December of thispast year, twenty twenty three. It
is a collection of eighty seven shortchapters or essays paying homage to my favorite
WrestleMania nineteen eighty seven's WrestleMania three,written entirely in k fabe. Right,
(43:25):
I think every kind of book writtennow about pro wrestling is it's, you
know, to peak behind the curtain. It's either a wrestler who has written
an autobiography or has somebody writing abiography about their life. And I love
all the shoot stuff. I've probablyseen more YouTube shoot interviews than I care
to admit, But I want todo something entirely different. And I think
(43:46):
kind of you know, me goingback as a thirty nine year old guy
and watching It's wrestling as a kid, and then you know, writing about
it, you know, through thatlens as if wrestling wasn't scripted, and
the matches weren't predetermined. I thinkit just allowed for a lot of funny
moments and kind of weaving in storiesfrom my childhood, remember watching these matches
and watching these wrestlers, And Ithink there's a relatability about it. I
(44:08):
think if you read this book,you be able to like, man,
I remember that match, or Iremember that pay per view, and you
know, certainly the book is intendedto be funny. Think you guys have
read it like it is not.It is not the great gad speak.
It's not meant to be. It'smentioning to make make you laugh and riten
the tongue of cheek, but reallyproud about it. And I hope you
check it out. It's an amazing, amazing book. Again, it's called
(44:30):
k Fabe, a Love Story.You can find it on an Amazon,
Barnes and Noble wherever you get yourbooks. And you can also you know,
hit Dave up on Twitter. He'sat Where's Ben Rivera on Twitter?
Slash x I should say slash atthis point, and you can follow him
for all sorts of Phillies musings andwrestling musings and whatever else is going on
in his mind. But again,if you want to, you know,
(44:51):
enjoy yourself and kind of go backinto the world of ww from the eighties
and nineties. Pick up k Fabe, a love story from our good friend
Dave Ruder. Dave, thank forjoining us, man. We appreciate it.
Thank thanks, thanks for having me. And again we have plenty more
WrestleManias talk coming up here on FoxSports The Wrestler. This is Fox Sports
Radio The Wrestler.
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