September 18, 2025 • 55 mins
From April 2025, the beginning of the HK and Brundo odyssey through the career of JJ Rogue.
Join Handsome Kevin and Brundo as they discuss how JJ Rouge got his start in the wrestling. It’s been a wild ride from day one so make sure you hear all about it.
Episodes in the series are available on Patreon.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:25):
None. All right, ladies and gentlemen,
we are back for another Patreon and thank you everybody out
there for, you know, dropping a couple of bucks on us.
We appreciate all you people that take your extra time and
(00:51):
support the shining Wizards. This is Brundo here and I am
here with handsome Kevin and we got a show for you guys to today
and I'm already slipping over myvoice.
We're onto a great. Fucking star here.
We'll fucking nail it down, man.Yeah, we got a show.
(01:11):
We got. We're going to have a couple of
shows, man. This is going to be a fun
adventure for us, I think. And again, thank you.
I always want to thank everybodyfor for, for doling out a couple
of shacks and and being a Patreon supporters.
Thank you. Thank you very much everybody.
All right. So you want to go over kind of
what your idea was for these these shows we're going to do
together for a little while? Yeah, man, I think it's going to
be fun. We're going to talk about
(01:32):
obviously I'm I'm out there on the indie scene here in
Minnesota. The way I got into wrestling was
a little bit unconventional and compared to a lot of people.
So I think what we're going to end up doing is, is today we're
just going to tell the story of back story of how I got into it
leading up to my debut. And then from there we'll, we'll
take one episode will be 1 show,man.
(01:55):
We can go through all the, the backstage stuff, the events of
the day, the funny shit, the badshit that maybe we'll throw some
motherfuckers under the bus. I don't we'll see.
We'll see how I'm feeling that fucking day.
And it'll be, it'll be fun, man.There's, there's a lot of,
there's a lot of good stories, alot of good stories that we'll
get into, I'm sure. As long as this shit's not in
your underwear and you know which ends up in the dryer, I
(02:17):
think we'll be good. You know if you shit your pants
that everything goes in the in the garbage just directly.
That's that's that's. We're on.
We're in agreement on this one. So good start.
Yeah, yeah, don't shit your pants and don't wear socks in
the house. Those are the rules, man.
Those. Well, at least one of them,
right? Yeah.
(02:38):
All right, so let's start off with everybody kind of knows
where your background and love and wrestling is and WWF and
everything where didn't where did you discover the Indies?
Oh boy, yeah, that's awesome. So I, I discovered the Indies,
boy, early 90s, early 90s was myfirst indie show and the first
(03:02):
indie show was actually just up the road walking distance to my
from my house. Had to, had to ask my parents if
I could go right, 'cause they, they, I was not like I didn't go
to a WWEWWF show until I was oldenough to drive to 1 and buy my
own ticket. So, yeah, so like, I, I grew up
(03:23):
in a family where like we didn'thave, we didn't have shit, like
we didn't have money, nothing like that.
So there was no extra income. So there's no ever getting to go
to the fucking go see a show or go to a sports game or anything
like that. So my first, my first like WWF
show was when I was old enough to buy my own ticket.
My first indie show, on the other hand, was my neighbor.
(03:48):
They had, he found out there wasa show right up there, like I
say, walking distance from my house.
His dad was taking him and they asked me if I could go and I'm
going. I would, you know, I would love
to go. That would be amazing.
So I, I went home and I asked toask the folks if I could go.
They weren't too keen on it 'cause it was, it was in a bar
(04:08):
and I was, you know, I was AI was a younger, I was a younger
kid. And then the other part of it
was they just told me like, Hey,we don't have money to get you a
ticket. So I went, I went back over to
my neighbor's house and said, Hey, you know, I can't go.
And his dad was like, why not? And I was like, well, we, I, I,
we don't have money for the ticket.
And he's like, I'll get the ticket.
Don't worry. Like we want you to go.
So like, right. Then I was like, wait a second,
(04:29):
one problem solved. Like one problem is solved.
I can go to the show. So I run back home, you know,
Hey, guys, don't worry about theticket, right?
Don't worry about the ticket. They're going to get me a
ticket. They want me to go with.
And they're like, oh boy. So now it's like their position
to the point where like, do theyreally want to break, you know,
this young man's heart? And, and they, they finally,
(04:51):
they said is, is, you know, his dad's going to be there.
His dad's going to be there all night.
And I was like, yeah, he's not just dropping his fucking off at
the bar so we can watch a wrestling show.
I mean, back then I don't think you could, but you know.
Maybe. Maybe a couple years before
that, you probably could get away with that.
Small town Minnesota, man. There's a lot of stuff they they
overlook. Yeah.
(05:13):
So finally got him to say yes. And I got I got to go to my
first indie show. On the card was actually a young
Sean Waltman and he he faced a ayoung Jerry Lynn horse.
The psychopath was actually on the car.
Nice, that's awesome. Like a ton of those, those
Charlie Norris, He was on the car.
OK, Yeah. Do you remember him?
(05:35):
JB Trask. Mortimer.
Plum Tree. Yes.
People might know from from TNA and a Yep, yeah, he's a
Minnesota guy, so. The original, I think he was the
original manager of AJ Styles. I think you're right.
Yeah, Yeah, I think you're right.
So fun night, Like I just fell in love with it.
Couldn't, couldn't get enough ofit in that.
(05:56):
During that night, though, I forget what match it was, but my
buddy's my buddy's dad, he had acouple to drink and during the
match they had one that was English Boy, might have been a
two out of three falls. I can't remember the exact
stipulations, but they had a break in the match and his dad
(06:17):
walked over to to ringside, put his arm around the performer,
who is like kind of sitting on his ass in the corner just to
encourage him and then walked back.
And I was like, what? And it was the fucking heel.
Like, that's the part that stuckout to me.
Like I'm watching going. No, no, no, no, no, we don't.
We don't like that guy. That guy's bad news and you're
encouraged. That's not the guy to encourage,
(06:38):
right? That's not him.
So yeah, that was that was my first like delve into the into
Indies. And then I never got to, I never
really got to experience anotherindie until boy, until the the
show where I met Buck Rock'n'roll Zoom off that was
one him and him, Bock, Winkle, Patera, all those guys.
(07:00):
And then I latched onto a company called MPW, which was a,
was a kind of AI don't want to say they were 'cause we have
steel domain in Minnesota, but they were kind of like they were
kind of the, the other guys, youknow what I mean?
Like the, the, the guys that arekind of the, the upstart young
Indies. So latched on to them and, and
(07:22):
started going shows MPW. And then not long after MPW
first wrestling started, kind ofrose from the ashes of, of MPW.
And I was at the first, first wrestling show at 1st Ave. and,
you know, kind of kind of kept on going all the way through
there. So I've, I'm, I'm a, I'm a, I'm
a lifelong lover of indie wrestling, man, that's for sure.
First wrestling was that that was Eric Cannon, right?
(07:46):
It's and it's still going today,right?
It's still going today. Yep, Yep, absolutely, man.
Yeah, that's, that's Cannon Cannon's promotion.
Yeah, he started it, I mean, years ago now, but yeah, still
still running strong. They, they had the first one
that I believe the story is thathe was a bartender at 1st Ave.
and that's kind of how they, they were able to get their,
their spot in there. And, and for a long time was
(08:08):
just associated with 1st Ave. was super, you know, famous club
here in Minnesota. And then they kind of started
breaking off and, and now, you know, still holding shows at at
1st Ave., but not, as you know, closely as you know, they used
to, I guess you would say. That's pretty awesome.
When did when did you go to yourfirst AWF show?
(08:30):
My first AWF show would have been.
Boy, that's a great question. I'm trying to think back now
when my first AWF 'cause I know that the, the, the company that
I saw when I was a kid, they're no longer around the, the show
that I saw Buck Rock'n'roll ZoomHoff.
That was the called FLWA. So that was that's the called
(08:54):
French Lake Wrestling Association.
So that was that was. But as far as AWFI trying to
remember because that that's that's a that's got to be way
back. I'm guessing AWF has been around
for 20 boy going on 21 years now.
(09:16):
Yeah, yeah. So I think, I think my first
one, I probably was probably early, Nah, probably mid 20s,
mid 20s might have been in. No, I take I know exactly what
it was. Man, I got there first, first
AWF show I saw, just took a flyer on him because I saw a
(09:38):
bunch of guys that I knew from going to other rest local local
Indies and they had Scotty to Hottie on the card.
And I went, I went, well, there's all these other guys
that I like already that are going to be wrestling there from
the local Indies scene and they're going to have Scotty to
Hottie. I probably should go check it
out. Yeah, that was that was a fun.
(09:58):
And when I met Scotty to Hottie,I was shocked at how tiny he
was. Oh yeah, he's like like 5-7 if.
You're not a big man at all. So I was like, huh, 'cause I
always look so much bigger obviously on, on television.
But yeah, it was that was, that was back then.
Man, that was fun. That was in a small town called
Isanti. Isanti, MN is where that show
was years and years ago. But yeah, that was, that was my
(10:20):
first, my first look at AWF. And it's kind of funny, 'cause I
I went to that AWF show. I was, I was entertained, I was
intrigued, but it didn't have that same feel because it was
more of a kid friendly program versus what I was what I was
used to going to. Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, we got a we got a bunch ofthose out here.
(10:40):
I think the the one I used to goto out here pro wrestling magic
originally was more kid friendlyand now it's like it's kinda is.
But then they drop a hell of a lot of F bombs, so it's not
really. Yeah, couple F bombs, couple
needles, needles through the wing, that type of thing.
No, not in that. Not in the Mecca.
Not allowed. To well, I mean.
A lot of blood in the Mecca, or really any.
(11:03):
It's a magic trick. Though, right?
Yes, that's in White Eagle Hall,not in my gotcha.
OK. Gotcha.
My bad, my bad. All good.
So when did you how was your like intro into wrestling?
Like when did you kind of get hooked or start doing anything
with the company? Or did you start as a manager?
(11:23):
Or did you? So yeah.
Beforehand. I did not.
That was I what, what ended up happening was I actually reached
out or I, I, I can't even say I reached out.
I, I've seen PD Brown wrestle tothat point, 'cause I started
going to more and more AWF showsand I, I saw PD Brown wrestle a
lot and I hated them. I absolutely fucking hated him.
(11:46):
I, I, every time, Yeah, yeah, I every time.
Every time he was out there, I'dyell that he was a bum.
I hated his character. Everything, just everything
about him I fucking hated. He was the whitest of white meat
baby faces you've ever seen. He is Petey Brown is Minnesota's
fucking John Cena, right? Every God damn child loves him.
(12:11):
Every single child loves the parents love him because the
kids can love him, right? He's just the the all around
good guy. I fucking hated him.
So one day on Twitter, I noticedthat he he lost a belt or posted
something about losing the match.
So I was like, fuck him. So I'm, I'm like tweeting at
him. I'm like, yeah, you sad about
that bitch? Like just, you know what I mean?
(12:32):
Like just having fun but kind ofbeing a Dick about it.
Yeah. And then I, I direct messaged
him and I said, Hey, man, I justwanted to let you know I'm, I'm
just having fun. Like I've all the respect in the
world before you and what you do, because I'd like I, I'm
anybody that, that actually getsin there and does it, man, it
takes a lot. It takes a lot to get in the
ring and actually do what, what,what the, what the talent does,
(12:54):
what the performers do. So I just as a side, like as a
side note, I didn't want to think of that.
I'm just fucking grilling them because I fucking hate his guts.
I was just having fun. And so we, we started kind of
kind of chatting back and forth and he was like, no man, all all
good. I appreciate it.
And, and he's like, we have a, we have a show coming up.
Would, would, would love it if you were able to make it out
(13:16):
there. I was like, yeah, man, I'll
fucking make it out there. So my wife and I went to a show.
I want to say it was called the God.
What the fuck was it Fox? Something in a foxhole or
something like that. That's what they named it.
I can't, can't remember the nameof it off the top of my head.
Went there, chatted with him a little bit.
He thanked me for coming out. We had a we had a nice chat.
(13:39):
And then he goes, hey, we have another show coming up.
It's actually down at a casino in Iowa.
You should, you should come out to that show.
And I was like, OK, casino in Iowa is kind of my style.
I like it. You know, I'm like, I'm in like
gamble and all that kind of stuff.
Yeah, yeah. Talked to my wife and I said,
hey, you want to go down to a casino in Iowa?
(13:59):
She goes a casino and why would I want to go down?
I said, I said casino. You didn't, did you not hear
that fucking part? So we go down.
It's I believe it's called Diamond Joe's.
Diamond Joe's Casino in in. Iowa, that sounds like it.
Either a casino or a pawn shop or something like that for sure.
Or a strip club man. That's, that's, yeah, I'm just
you guys looking for one of those.
(14:21):
So we, we, we go down there, we get, we get a hotel room because
we're, we're going to get, you know, we're, we're going to have
a couple drinks while we're downthere.
We're going to be responsible. So go down there, have a ton of
fun at the show, chat with, you know, chat with PD, chat with
the rest of the talent, have some drinks.
And then after the show, PD comes up to me and he's like,
(14:41):
hey, man, you do you guys want to hang out?
Like come hang out with everybody?
And I was like, yeah, fucking gohang out with everybody.
That's cool. Like I, I didn't expect it, you
know what I mean? I'm just, I'm just a fan, that's
all. That's all I am.
And so we go out with the entireroster.
We, we drank at the casino untilyou couldn't drink at the casino
(15:02):
anymore. And then the, the bars stayed
open a little bit later in Iowa and the casino that allows you
to have drinks. So then we went to the bar
afterwards. I just got, I mean, we, we drank
way too much. Just wait, a casino cuts off the
time you're allowed to drink. Yeah, in Iowa, I don't know if
they still do, but at the time, yeah, in Iowa, I think it was
like 1:00. They were.
They no longer served. They no longer served.
(15:24):
So, like, all right. It's insane because the drunker
you get the more you lose normally.
Exactly, Yeah. I can tell you that.
Money, dignity, pride, the wholething.
So. So we go out to the bar because
they're like, yeah, you guys gotto come to the bar and like,
Stoney was down there, Cannon's down there.
K PS down there, NDS is down. Like all the guys were like,
(15:46):
yeah, come with us. And I was like, fuck, I'm just
all right, I'll just go right, because I'm at that point.
I'm not saying no to shit, right?
I, I, I see an opening for me tobe kind of part of the group.
So I'm like, yeah, fucking in. We proceed to drink way too
fucking much, like one of those situations where I woke up the
following morning and looked around and had to remind myself,
(16:09):
that's right, you're in Iowa. Like fucking horrible, right?
We we, we leave the following morning, driving back.
It's about a three and a half hour drive home, something like
that. I get ferocious hangovers.
So I'm just like, eyes on the prize.
Keep on pondering like whatever,like a Gatorade.
(16:31):
Fucking Pete. I buy Pedialyte, right?
All that shit pound driving and we are just outside of the Twin
Cities and Molly goes do you still have that Target bag?
I said, Yep, she goes good, get it.
And I fucking horse right the and she gets the bad hangover
(16:55):
too, man. We, we each get the bad angle,
but she's she, she gets the bad hangover and fucking spews.
So she spews in the bag right? Just, and it's all just last
night's fucking white claws and vodka and whatever the hell else
there was and she gets done and it was I, I remember laughing so
fucking hard because she was, and she ties the bag perfectly
(17:16):
right and then ties it again andI was like, what are you going
to do? And she goes, no, it's not going
to leak at all. Trust me.
I said, I don't trust you. That's, that's liquid inside of
a target bag. Like you're really, you're
really over overestimating, you know, the, the integrity of the
target bag. It didn't leak at all, man.
We made it back home. But that was, that was, that was
(17:38):
a long, that was a long night, long day.
And then it was probably, I wantto say the next might have been
the next day or two days later, PD reaches out to me again and
he's like, hey man, had a great time.
Everybody loves hanging out withyou.
Do you want to? Do you want to be part of this?
Oh shit, Yeah. So that's how it how it started.
(18:01):
Petey Brown randomly, Yeah. I and I think that them him
asking me to go out and, and youknow, hang out with everybody
and drink with everybody. I don't know if that was like
my, my tests like can I, can I hang out?
Can I be cool like that type of thing?
But yeah, it was it was a did you have like everybody,
everybody loved hanging out withyou last night, man.
(18:22):
Just want to check. Do you like, do you, do you,
We'll find something for you to do.
Like I would love for you to be a sound guy if you know anything
about sound. And so happens that for a couple
of years in in my early 20s, I was a wedding DJ.
So I was like, yeah, man, I can run a sound board no problem.
So that was the plan. I was going to be, I was going
(18:43):
to be the sound guy. That that was the big plan.
It was the first show that I wassupposed to run sound was
Wabasha Minnesota. And and I get there early
because I you know, I got to I'mgoing to help with with ring
crew, like the whole the whole bit like I'm in.
(19:06):
So I'm there early. And the second guy that's there
is talent that that you you know, Bill Williams.
So big cat. Big cat.
Bill Williams. Yeah.
Yeah, and we're chatting a little bit and we're kind of
waiting because nobody's there yet and call time has now come
and now it's 10 minutes past call time and it's just me, Bill
(19:26):
and the fucking truck guy. And so like, all right, what
are? We're so the ring is the ring is
there. Ring's there and me and Bill are
there and I'm just, I just like I look at Bill and I said, well,
I mean, we can start moving shit.
So we start unloading and setting up Ring and more more
people start to show up and we set it up in the middle of the
shutdown Main St. in Wabasha forus.
(19:48):
Anybody that doesn't know Wabasha claim to fame is.
That's the town the Grumpy Old Men movie is is is.
You know, like I heard that thatname and I'm like, I know this
from somewhere. I couldn't put my finger on it,
but yeah. That's, that's the that's the,
that's the claim to fame of the town.
Funny side note the the last scene in Grumpy Old Men, the
(20:10):
first the first grumpy old men where they're getting married in
the church. That church is a 3 minute drive
away from my house, so just downthe road.
What bigger? So we're setting up the ring and
you know, streets like city, town streets, I guess they
crown, right? So the water runs off.
(20:31):
We're setting up everything and I'm in handling a corner post
and that interlocking mechanism that runs past that locks all
the corner posts together. And I mean, anybody that has
never been worked, ring crew or anything like that, like that's
a heavy fucking steal. That's, that's, that's that,
that shit on a bad day will get you.
(20:52):
And I had a bad day that day. Corner post shifted on the on
the street there and that interlocking mechanism dropped.
And then when it dropped, it dropped straight through my
finger and cut, cut my finger inin two and broke it in two
spots. I I I remember like vividly
(21:12):
watching my fingernail go flyingin the air.
Oh my God. And I looked down and I could
see the road through my finger and and I went that's, that's
not good. So, but in my mind, like I
hadn't really like, I'm like, maybe it's not that bad, right?
Maybe it's not that bad. So, so I turn my hand over and
when I turn my hand over, I see and obviously the viewers can't
(21:35):
see what I'm doing now, but I see this part of my finger is
flopped down. Oh my God, so.
So for the viewers at home, takea look at the first knuckle as
they say in letter Kenny and imagine it like sideways down.
That's that's his finger. That was rough.
It was rough. So I so all I do is I just
(21:57):
start, I hold my hand up and I start walking and cuz like, this
is I'm fucking this is, I'm supposed to be the sound guy
tonight, right? I'm part of the crew, right?
This is, I'm, I'm in, right? I'm making it.
And now I fucked everything. So I and Bill goes, I hear Bill
go. That's a lot of blood, Kevin.
(22:18):
You asking for super glue? And I said thanks, Bill and I, I
looked over at this point like all the blood had gone, gone
down my hand and down onto my wrist.
So it was it was ugly. Yeah, we have, we have medical.
We have medical at that show. So the medical guy came over, he
took a look at it. He's like, yeah, we got to take
this up right now and you have to go to the hospital.
(22:38):
So PD comes walking out and he was like, are you OK?
And I was like, yeah, it sounds like I got to go to the
hospital. And he goes, OK, who's going to
drive you? And I was like, well, I'm going
to drive me. And he goes, I don't think you
should drive. And I was like, it's one hand.
It's my fucking finger, Pete. Like I could drive.
Petey is such a caring, like good spirited human.
He's like no man. He's like I, I don't, I, I don't
(22:59):
want you to drive. He's like he'd go into shock.
Anything can happen. Like I just like I'll drive your
car and then we'll have DJ, who is the the ring announcer and
commentator. He'll drive behind us.
That way, once we get you checked in and all that kind of
stuff, I can come back to the show.
That's fine, Petey, if that's what you want to do.
We get to the we get to the ER in Wabasha and the hospital is
(23:22):
in the middle of a cornfield. That's not a joke.
You I, we literally couldn't find the fucking hospital
because it was in the middle of a cornfield.
We had to take a right into whatwe thought was a farm road to
into a clearing that the hospital said it was the
weirdest shit ever. Jesus.
We get in there this. Is Minnesota, this isn't like
(23:43):
Iowa or one of those corn. Nebraska.
Yeah, yeah, one of those corn states.
Though Yep, southern, southern Minnesota.
And we get in there and I, I looked at PD and I said, man, I
was like, well, we'll see what happens.
And he goes, he goes, have you talked to your wife?
I said, no. I said, what the hell is she
going to do? He goes, you should call your
(24:05):
wife. And I was like, why?
Like, why do I need to call my wife right now?
That part of it didn't compute. And he goes, you need to call
your and I was like, she's having a good time back at home,
like she was out with friends. I was like, I don't need her to
worry. She's just going to have a good
time after the hospital visit. Then I call, then I tell her
what's going on and PDP DS fucking amazing.
(24:26):
He goes no man, no, not at all, not at all.
That's not what you do. And he's not even married at
this point and he's giving me like marriage advice.
He's like, here's what you do, trust me, call her.
And the first thing you say is everything's.
OK, Yeah. She picks up the phone, you just
say everything's OK, I'm good. And I said no problem, all
(24:47):
right, I'll call her for you, PD.
I'll call her because I'm still waiting to get checked into the
emergency room. Yeah, they had this really
weird, like waiting area. It was it was fucking weird,
man. Weird, weird hospital.
I imagine any hospital in the middle of cornfield is not going
to be like normal like ER hospital.
No, it was. Yeah, no, Clooney was not
showing up at this bitch. So we're fucking.
(25:11):
I pick up the phone, I call and my wife picks up the phone and
my wife says hey, what's going on?
And I said everything's OK, I'm good.
And PD Brown while I said giant smile on his face and pumps his
first. He's like, yeah, it's OK.
I told her what was happening. I said I'm just about to see in
(25:32):
the ERI said I fucked my finger up pretty good.
I'll let you know what happens, PDI told.
PDI said go on man, get back to the show.
You got shit to do, get in. Doctor starts unwrapping it, and
as he's unwrapping, I tell him, I said be careful, I don't know
what's connected to what. And he he unwraps the
(25:54):
motherfucker, and the first thing he says is, Oh yeah, you
did a good job. Good job rapping or good job
cutting off your finger. Exactly.
Well, I was trying to say, Brenda, you know, you know when
a doctor, when you've had a traumatic injury and the doctor
says you did a good job, you fucked something up.
(26:14):
So and he's like looking at it and and I told him I was like,
you do whatever you need to do. I'm not watching it right.
That shit will turn my stomach. I'm not.
Watching it, Yeah, I'm with you.There, I can deal with the pain.
I just don't want to fucking seethe gruesome.
SO he's looking at it and he goes, OK, he's like, I don't
(26:35):
think he's like, I don't think we're going to need to remove
it. He's like, I think we can, we
can save the finger. And I said that's good news to
me, man. Like I, I would like to keep the
finger. He's like, yeah, Plus if, if we
do have to get like if we do have to remove it from like that
knuckle down, he's like, then wehave to airlift you.
I was like the fuck we do? Like I'm not getting airlifted.
(26:55):
From Yeah, they have a helicopter pad and some place in
the cornfield. Right.
For a fucking finger, like get the hell out of here.
So he ends up shooting it up pretty good and it he doesn't
stitch it, what he does is he, he kind of ties it.
So he starts running what looks like, like, I don't know, £4
(27:17):
billion fishing line from the outside of the finger straight
through the finger to the other side.
And he ties the meat of my finger back together.
Jesus Christ. And, and he's like, I, I, he
goes, did, oh, did you feel that?
And I said, yeah, I felt that. He goes, yeah.
He was like, there's a lot of nerves.
(27:38):
So it's kind of hard, like we will shoot it up some more.
So they, my fucking finger was feeling dandy by the time he
got. I couldn't feel fucking shit.
And I asked the dog, Yeah. Oh, yeah, I asked the dog.
I said, I said whatever you tellme to do, I'm going to do.
But I'd like to go back to the wrestling show.
(28:00):
Like I wanted them to know that I'm good.
And then, like, the big thing was for me if I could get back
there before first bell, becausefirst bell was going to be a 10
bell. Salute to Playboy Pete Huge and
Playboy Pete Huge was a guy thatI I watched a long time, really,
really loved his work and then he had he had passed away
recently, so. Was he like a local Minnesota
(28:22):
guy or an AWA guy or something? Yeah, yeah.
No, he was, he was a, he was a local Minnesota guy, Midwest Pro
Wrestling and and 1st Wrestling and and AWFI mean he was, but he
was, he was a fun guy to watch wrestle.
Just passed away recently and I wanted to get there for his 10
belt salute. So I asked the docs, I'll do
whatever you tell me to do, I said.
(28:43):
But I'd like to go back to the show and I have like probably a
2 1/2, two hour and 45 minute drive home.
And he goes, yeah, you won't feel your finger until probably
midday tomorrow. He's like, that's that's fine.
He goes and he goes, you can go back to the show just.
But I wouldn't get in the ring tonight.
Motherfucker thought I was like,I was performing.
(29:03):
And so he's when he tells me I, I, you go back to the show, but
I wouldn't get in the ring tonight.
I told him it's a doc. There's going to be a lot of
disappointed orphans. The joke didn't land, but I, I
fucking, I laughed. I thought it was hilarious.
So go back to the show. I I hung out until intermission.
I talked to everybody. Bill walked over and Bill wanted
(29:25):
to make sure I was OK. And I was like, yeah, but
everything's good. So that was like.
How long were you at that hospital for to sew up back on
your finger? The.
Fact that you got back to the show, that's insane.
So yeah, and this happened rightaway.
Call time was 3 hours before first bell.
So it was, we were, I was probably at the hospital maybe
(29:47):
for an hour and 15 minutes, something like that.
But I was able to get back to, Iwas able to get back to the show
before first, first bell, which was the important part, you
know, to me. Yeah, I've been in waiting rooms
for longer than an hour and 15 minutes, so that's pretty.
Really. Yeah, I mean, I live in a
populous area. I was going to say, you haven't
(30:08):
been to a, you haven't been to ahospital in the cornfield.
Then that's what I'm going to got back did that and I'm
thinking like it's done right, that that was my shot.
I fucking blew it. I split my finger.
It's fucking over. I wrap it.
I'm in a I'm in a fucking fingersplint.
(30:29):
They tell me I got it 12 weeks. They put me on a shit load of
medication. It was, it was, it was a wild
time. We get done, I drive, I drive
home, everything's fine till thenext day and my fingers fucking
falling off. Jeez.
PD calls me up. I apologize.
I'm like, hey, man, sorry mistake.
I I said just my my hand was in the wrong spot.
(30:51):
The corner pose shifted the way it went.
I apologize to him and he goes, that's that's OK man.
He's like, you think you'll be able to run sound at the next
show? You bet your fucking baby balls
I can run sound to the next show.
I I don't need all my fingers torun sound.
I can I can do that. So.
So I get back to a show down in Iowa and they say, you know, I,
(31:17):
I show up, I meet Tony, the owner of the company for the
first time. And Petey's, you know, Petey's
the Booker. He's kind of running everything
Tony. Tony owns the company.
OK. I get down there, I'm supposed
to be the sound guy. Well, they already have a sound
guy that they fucking hate, right?
Everybody hates the sound guy. But the owner, he fucking misses
(31:39):
cues. Like he just like he's he, he
can barely set up the equipment.Like he is not good at what he
does. So Tony comes up to me and he's
like, he's like, yeah, I, I, I don't, I don't need a sound guy.
I said, OK, no problem. PD starts talking to him.
(31:59):
He's like, no, fuck that. He's like everybody hates the
fucking sound guy. He's like, he's like, we're
trying to make this, we're trying to make this shit better,
you know what I mean? He's like, that's why he, he
actually knows what he's doing like that.
He's the sound guy. And, and Tony's like I just, I
just, and I told him I said that's cool man.
I'll just hang out and enjoy theshow.
(32:21):
Not a problem. So I hang out and enjoy the
show. Petey's fucking pissed, right?
At least you have all your fingers for this show.
Yeah, it worked out all right. Petey's pissed a bunch of the a
bunch of the other town is upsetlike I like they're going up to
Tony being like, what the fuck? We have a sound guy now that we
want to have here. Doesn't play out following day
(32:45):
after the show, Petey calls me up.
He's like, hey, man, I need you to come to the next show.
I said OK. I was like, what do you need me
to do? He's like, you're going to run
sound. I said I fucking was told I'm
not the sound guy, right? Like the owner of the company
told me they don't need a sound guy.
I'm not the sound guy. He's like, no man, He's like
you're he's like fucking I need you there.
(33:07):
I show up, fucking everything's getting figured out.
The fucking laptop goes dead about hour and a half before the
show, so people are scrambling around figuring what they do.
I, I look at PD, I said, hey man, I live 45 minutes away.
I can get home, I can get my laptop, I can be back and set
(33:32):
up. You e-mail me the files, we can
get this thing done no problem. Like done.
And he's like, ah, do you reallywant to drive that far?
Like he's like, it's an hour anda half getting there and getting
back. And I was like you, you got
better fucking options right now, man.
Like this is an issue. Here's the solution.
This is what we need to do. And Petey was like, all right,
(33:56):
man, you do it. So I take off, get the laptop,
come back, run sound for that show.
I didn't love running sound. I wasn't, I wasn't bad at it,
but I really fucking didn't loveit.
But at the same time I was involved.
That was the big thing to be like I'm, I'm involved.
So. Yeah, you're on the behind the
(34:17):
curtain for the first time really, instead of in the crowd.
In the crowd or in the fucking hospital in the cornfield.
Like I'm, I'm, I'm actually a part of this now.
Super exciting. So we get to the the next God,
the next, I think it was the next show.
And I get told again by the owner like, hey, we have our
(34:40):
sound guy. We don't need a sound guy.
Fucking everything's, everything's sideways,
everything, everybody's mad. So Petey calls me up and he
goes, he's like, he's just because like the kid that rants
out, he might have been. What's the best way to put this
without offending everybody? You're a little slow on the
mental draw, right? So not.
(35:06):
Playing with a full deck we'll. No, no, not at all. 48 out of
52. Right, 47 / 46.
So we, we're going on, all right, I'll, I'll, I'll fucking,
you know, I'll go and, and I gettold, you know, you're not,
you're not the sound guy. So Petey's pissed off again.
Everybody's pissed off again. And then the following day, and
(35:31):
actually it was funny too, Like Tony came up to me.
Tony's a super loyal guy and he's like, hey, could you, maybe
you could run sound like, but let him sit next to you.
I said no, I'm not doing like I said no, like I'm not doing
that. I'm not being the sound guy.
So the guy that you have to run your sound doesn't have to do
(35:52):
his fucking job. I'm not willing to do that.
So that I'm not the sound guy anymore.
I was going to be the sound guy.I'm the sound guy.
I'm not the sound guy anymore. I don't know what the fuck I'm
doing right? No idea.
So PD, yeah, PD calls me up and he goes, hey man, you're you're
too good not to be involved. And I said, well, I appreciate
(36:14):
that man. But I, I said I don't, I don't
know what spot you want me. And I said, I, I'm not, I by no
means I'm, I'm some type of commentator, right?
Can't do that. I said, quite honestly, I don't
really want to just show up to work like a ring crew or
anything like that. I said, I guess I'm, I'm willing
to do that. But like I, I don't see that
being something I'm going to do like long term.
(36:34):
If you want me to be, you know, because he was adamant.
He's like, I want you to be partof this.
And he goes, no, no, no, man. He's like, like I want you like,
you could be like a character and I'm going OK, like, what do
you want me to do? Like a backstage interview guy?
And like, I could do that like, so in my head, I'm going OK, I'm
gonna be the the Todd Pettengillguy, right?
That's, that's what I'm gonna be.
(36:54):
I'm gonna. You'll be the guy that
interviews Lugar when he says I don't know.
Right. Yeah, that's gonna be who I.
Am that's a character. Yes, I'm I'm in right, And even
that like I'm pumped. I that means I get to be part of
the show because we have like wehave TV in or AWF has TV in
Minnesota here. So I'm like, yeah, I can, I can
figure that out. What ends up happening is is PD
(37:19):
goes no, no, no, not like that. And I was like, well, what
exactly is it that you want me to be?
He's like, you think you'd be a manager?
Do I think I can? Do you?
Do I think, do you think that? I think if I could, maybe I
might be a manager. Talk about a moon stem, Brundle
fly. I'm like it, it's, it's it's way
(37:41):
up there, right way up there touching the and I Oh yeah,
yeah, I remodeled the place. So I said yeah, I, I think I
could probably handle that. Like in, in when I was younger
in school, I was, I was, I was in every school play, every
production I could be in. I performed rock'n'roll music
(38:02):
since I was boy. My first live concert I
performed at was 12 years old asa like a my making, playing my
own music. So like, I know how to perform.
I'm in. Like I'll figure it out and it's
wrestling. That's what I love.
Yeah, yeah. And I said, who am I managing?
And he goes, you could be my manager.
I'm like oh fuck my ass. Was he still a babyface at that
(38:24):
point? He's always a fucking babyface,
man. He's the, he is the whitest of
white beat babyfaces. He's Minnesota's John Cena.
Everybody loves him. The children adore him, the
parents like everybody. And what the fuck am I going to
be right? Because everybody doesn't love
me, all right? That's not who I.
AM and managers are normally notbabyface.
(38:46):
I mean, there's what Paul Erling, there's Lou Albano in
the later years and. There's there's not, Elizabeth.
And that not much else. Well, yeah, and she sucked
anyways, but. You're not take it off your
pants. So like.
Anyway, if I had anyway, yeah, if I had to and it came close a
(39:07):
couple times, But so I'm going, yeah, like I, I it doesn't
matter. It didn't matter who he said.
You're going to manage. I was in like I had 100%.
Like, do you pass up this opportunity?
There's no way. There's no way you can pass the
opportunity. So he he's been battling with
(39:33):
Stonehenge for a while, kind of his arch nemesis.
And the way he set it up was super simple.
He cut a promo where on the phone, I call him and he goes,
well, he goes, you let me know about this man.
He goes, are you in? And I'm not, obviously not on
the other fucking side of the phone.
(39:55):
And he goes, you're in. Awesome.
We'll roll. Petey calls everybody doggy.
So he's like, we'll roll doggy. And then he's trying to figure
out what my name's going to be. Holy butt fuckers.
Yeah, where did were you always JJ Rogue or?
(40:15):
Thankfully, yes. Yes, thankfully, yes, Petey had
some ideas that that weren't JJ Rogue.
Any chilly Mcfreezes in that idea or?
Yep, Yep. He he liked, he liked
alliterations and and because heis, he's downtown PD Brown.
(40:37):
He's the Prince of party, right?So he wanted something that had
to do with partying and my name.So he's trying to figure it out.
He's like starts with an R It's like a party thing, like rave,
right? Like a rave, like a rave thing.
And he's thinking, he's thinkinghe's like, you could be like the
raver. He's like, we want to have your
name in there. He's like, what if it was like
Rogie? He's like you could be Rogie
(40:58):
raver. And I was like Petey I, I don't
think I'm feeling Rogie Raver. He's like, he's like raver raver
Rogie, like Rogie dog raver Raven.
I'm like, if you said that's so fucking Raven right now, I'd
pick that over Rogie Raver. I'm I'm not in on Rogie Raver.
(41:19):
Rogie Raver ain't working for me.
Ultimately, if he said guess what, you're you're, you're
fucking Rogie Raver. I would have been Rogie Raver,
right? But I'm, I'm, I'm trying to not
be Rogie Raver and I and I, he asked me, he's like, is that
your, is that actually your name?
I'm going yeah, yeah, man. My, my actual name is, is Rogue.
(41:42):
That's my last name ROGUE. My last name is Rogue.
So he goes, that's that's prettygood.
I said, yeah, we could just leave it at that.
Or I said I sign off all my likeprofessional emails.
JJ Rogue my my 2 initials, middle initials are are both J.
So I'm going JJ Rogue works. You had JJ Dillon, you had
(42:05):
double J and right there, I'm already sold.
Let me be JJ Rogue. And he goes, actually, yeah,
that works, that works. Boom, I got my name right.
Perfect. Love it, I'm in.
And that's a good name too, thatlike, rolls off the tongue well.
I I've always liked it, man. Yeah, yeah.
And I appreciate that, man. And it it makes it easy when
(42:26):
like I don't have to remember a fucking gimmick name.
Yeah. Like I like if I go to shows,
people usually call me JJ or they call me rogue and it works
out either either way. So now I'm I'm going to debut,
right? We're we're finally here.
We're finally to the client. We finally climax here on on on
(42:47):
episode 1. We're, we're, we're two.
I'm getting to walk through the fucking curtain.
What's the What was the date again?
It was. Oh boy, let's see here.
I I just had it up to it. That would have been 12:18.
So, December 18th, 2021. And it was in Minnesota, right?
(43:11):
It was in Lake Mills, IA. Oh, Lake Mills, Iowa.
OK so people in the Midwest had a choice.
They could either go to Rockford, IL to a super show and
watch Rick Boogs and Nakamura against Happy Corbin and Mad
Camp Boss. Wait, they ran against my They
(43:31):
ran against my debut in Rockville?
In the Midwest, in the Midwest, well, or they can watch you
debut. Boy, that's, I mean, that's kind
of it was Boogs and and Shins. Gay against Happy Corbin and
Madcap Moss. I mean, there were other
matches, but that's the one thatpops out to me.
That's the one that yeah, that makes sense.
(43:55):
Yeah. And it was I mean, it was one of
the things I loved about the card that that I I guess I I
Dame debuted on Bill Williams was there fucking Stonehenge was
there. Eric Cannon was there.
Super Thunder Frog was there. Cold stone Tim Boston, who's the
guy that I there, there's I I hold an extremely high regards
(44:19):
as cold stone Tim Boston is there and I and I it is a it's a
Christmas street fight. And we're like I'm talking with
PD. He's thinking of all these
different things like we should bring along with us as far as
like weapons and all this other kind of shit.
And I'm going, Oh boy, I'm not really sure what I'm in for.
(44:42):
We get together. I buy the most obnoxious, loud
holiday suit that I can think of.
That's awesome. I I, I have the pants fucking
like altered. So now they're shorts, right?
So I'm wearing a holiday suit that has shorts as bottoms.
I have I bought the loudest looking purple converse high
(45:08):
tops I can find. So I'm I'm really getting into
this right. I have AI have a a top hat like
a holiday top hat that I took some of the material from the
fucking pants that got cut off and I looped it around the hat.
I look like a, a holiday douche bag right through and through.
I, I, we're getting ready. I, I'm in the, I'm in the back
(45:30):
when we're starting to form the match, right?
And all I'm doing is listening, right?
That's all I'm doing because I, it's my first time out.
All I need to do is just listen.Yeah.
They get to a spot and he's like, well, here's what will
happen. Like you know, it'll be Stoney
goes off the the the core. I throw, PD knocks, Petey hits
(45:52):
Stoney with the knucks. He goes backwards to the table,
still ends up being only two. Kyle Pro comes running out.
Kyle Pro's running with Stoney at this time.
Kyle Pro comes out. They start both put beating the
shit out of Petey, right? Well, they're both beating the
shit out of Petey. They're like fucking Petey's
like, that's where you come in, man.
And I was like, all right, what am I gonna fucking do?
(46:15):
And they're like, you get on theapron, right?
You start yelling, maybe throw your hat at Stonehenge.
Stonehenge will come over. He's going to fucking hit you.
You take an apron bump, roll off.
And then then, you know, I thinkSuper Thunder Frog ended up
making the the save ultimately. OK that makes sense.
I had the card up and Kyle Pro Super Thunder Frog was the main
(46:38):
event. Was the main.
OK, so yeah, that makes perfect sense.
So I'm sitting there like, listen, listen, like, you know,
the you take the apron bump, youroll off like, and then that's,
you know, that's that's the spotfor you.
I'm sitting there. I'm going.
OK, yeah, yeah, I got that. I got that.
So Tim Boston is standing behindme and, and I had talked to him
earlier just letting him know, like, hey, this is my first time
(46:58):
out, you know, and just kind of getting advice because, again, I
I love Tim Boston. And Tim Boston's listening to
him and put together the match. They tell me, like, yeah, you
know, you're going to take an apron bump, You're going to fall
off. Tim Boston puts his arm around
me and he smiles. He goes your first, your first
(47:18):
bump. It's just the hardest bump you
can take. It's fine.
You'll be all right. Yeah, talk about jumping in with
two feet. Jeez.
Yeah, and, and my main, like my main concern was I didn't want
anybody. I didn't want to make anybody
look bad, right? If anything, if anything went
wrong, it was not going to be because of my apron bump looking
like shit. So the fucking match plays out.
(47:41):
It's it's, it's God damn my timeto jump up.
I jump up, I'm yelling, I throw my hat.
Sony comes over. Fuck it does the, the Andre the
Giant style head butt to me. I, I apron bump and, and in my
mind, I'm thinking if I land farenough with, with the, with the
left side of my back off of the,the side of the apron, I could
(48:05):
probably, I could probably clip it in the right way where when I
hit, I'll spin and I'll start rolling away.
And in my mind I was like, that's going to look, that's
going to look good. He'll hit me.
I'll hold on to the ropes just enough.
I'll be able to position my bodywhere I hit the, you know, I
hit, I hit the apron the right way and it'll force me to roll
away. Yeah.
(48:28):
It fucking worked. Nice.
I, he Stoney hit me, hit it, rolled away and I'm laying there
and I'm like, well, I'm a manager that just took an apron
bump. I'm not moving right.
So I didn't move. My legs were sitting there
fucking weird. And, and I, I went with I'm
knocked out. I'm not moving.
I'm fucking dead, right. Nothing's gonna happen now.
(48:50):
I waited 'cause they went right.They did a promo after that and,
and you know, Super Thunder Frogcut a promo setting up the main
event, something that the entiretime I'm laying there, like legs
are weird as shit. I'm fucking not moving.
Referee finally comes over and picks me up and helps me to the
(49:11):
back. And I'm not even telling like
the referee like I'm OK or anything like that.
I just walked. All the wrestlers are waiting to
go out for intermission to sell their gimmicks.
OK. I get through the back, the
first guy I see is is Bill Williams.
And behind Bill Williams is EricCannon and Bill Williams looking
(49:31):
at me. And Bill Williams got a giant
smile on his face. He goes, how was it?
Nothing like it, right? And I look at him and I go
fucking nothing like it. Cannon goes great bump, good
sell. I said thank you very much.
They're like, it was it was awesome.
And I talked to talked to DJDJS like you had the fucking owner
freaking out. I said, why?
(49:55):
He goes? He thought you were hurt.
He honestly thought you were hurt.
He was asking wrestlers to go check on you.
Like he thought you were hurt. I was like, interesting.
So I asked Hannah. I said, was that was that true?
Like he thought I was hurt? He's like, yeah, yeah.
The owner, Tony thought you wereyou were done.
He's like, I told him you're just selling.
But yeah, you were. And I was like, yeah, no, I
(50:16):
that's that's fucking great. Stoney comes back through.
Stoney comes over and gives me agreat hug.
Stoney tells me he goes, thank you.
I said for what? And he goes, that's the best
sell anybody's ever done for me on that spot.
And I. Went oh that's awesome.
I said no thank you man. Like I I appreciative.
I thanked everybody as many times as I possibly could for
(50:37):
the opportunity because I thought it was going to be 1 and
done. You mean I didn't think?
I didn't think in my mind it wasgoing to, it was going to go on
as long as it as it as it has. I thought, you know, I'll come
out like in my mind, in the backof my mind.
I guess it was PD was repaying me for not being able to have me
be part of the show as like the sound guy or you know what I
(50:58):
mean? Like, yeah, I wasn't into like
the backstage interview thing. So he was going to give me this
opportunity to go out, be part of one of the shows and it was
going to be done. And we're in the locker room.
I'm changing and PD goes all right, man.
He's like, so next show and I was like, oh, we get to do this
again. He's like, yeah, he's like
(51:20):
you're you're in now. Like you're in.
So from from making fun of PD Brown on Twitter to not going to
wrestling school, having my first bump be an apron bump,
losing part of my finger. That's how it happened, man.
(51:40):
That's a That's a hell of a way to get in everybody.
Usually it seems like a lot of guys have like these crazy
stories, but this one, this one takes a cake, that's for sure.
Yeah, man, it was it was it was a wild ride.
I I did not. I didn't expect me making fun of
Petey Brown get to get me to where I you know, where where I
was there at the first show. It was it was a hell of a we
(52:05):
left. I was the shit too, by the way.
I was, I was, I watched so many,like so many managers, tried to
study so much going into that first match that that I was a
manager just because I wanted tomake sure I wasn't horrible.
And I can tell you I was horrible.
I think the only thing that saved me was my fucking bump.
(52:26):
I think that's the only thing that fucking saved me.
I didn't even get into the ring right.
I hadn't even been inside of a wrestling ring to that point.
And I took I took an apron bump.That's that's how that played
out. Fucking wild, man, Fucking wild.
But yeah, that was a oh boy, That's that's that's number one.
(52:49):
That's a hell. I gotta say.
That's a that's a hell of a start.
I've never heard that story. And yeah, that's freaking
amazing. What a way to what a way to
start a manager career. I was fortunate, man.
I was super, super fortunate. But man, that's, I suppose
that's what we'll, we'll put a, we'll probably put a pin in in,
(53:10):
you know #1. Yes.
Because we have, boy, do we we have a long way to go here.
And I know that I know that the the next event that that we
cover is, is I'm I'm still working face.
And I guess it's a little bit a little bit of a teaser.
We got a car of Chicago talent that comes up for this one.
(53:34):
OK. And it was, it was, it was an
interesting day, man. It was an interesting day.
I will, I will tell you that forsure.
So next month we'll, we'll, we'll dive right into the second
card and, and go, go from there,man.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. This was this was a blast that I
hope all the listeners enjoyed hearing the story of the origin
(53:56):
of JJ Rogue. And glad you still have all 10
fingers too. Yeah, for now, man, for now I
got, I got, I got some more dates coming up.
So, yeah. So we'll see how it plays out.
Again, thank you everybody for for being a Patreon.
Your continued support is, is very important to us.
It's it's very valued and we're very grateful for it.
So thank you everybody for hanging out, man.
(54:17):
I'm, I'm, I'm excited to to, to share some more some more
stories in the next next one up is from a little little event in
Siren, WI. Make sure you guys tell all your
friends listen to shining wizardfor a couple of couple of bucks
a month. You listen to all of your bonus
shows and I'm nailing this. You know we've got plenty of
(54:41):
bonus shows in the past in addition to this one crosswords,
you know, trivia shows. I just everything it's the best
you know 131050 bucks you could spend that's for.
Sure. Yeah, for a couple extra bucks,
I'll. I'll send you everybody a
picture of my obliterated pinky toe.
(55:04):
Jeez, if we had a, if we had like a picture for this episode,
this would, that would absolutely be it, that's for
sure. Here we go.
Make sure everybody tunes in Monday night 7 to the nine,
9:00-ish, every Monday night on YouTube, on Facebook Live.
And I don't know how to end shows, so we'll just put a say,
(55:25):
we'll put a pin in it. Unless you got an end.
What I usually say is, well, Orney got to go.
None. All right, ladies and gentlemen,
we are back for another Patreon and thank you everybody out
there for, you know, dropping a couple of bucks on us.
We appreciate all you people that take your extra time and
(00:51):
support the shining Wizards. This is Brundo here and I am
here with handsome Kevin and we got a show for you guys to today
and I'm already slipping over myvoice.
We're onto a great. Fucking star here.
We'll fucking nail it down, man.Yeah, we got a show.
(01:11):
We got. We're going to have a couple of
shows, man. This is going to be a fun
adventure for us, I think. And again, thank you.
I always want to thank everybodyfor for, for doling out a couple
of shacks and and being a Patreon supporters.
Thank you. Thank you very much everybody.
All right. So you want to go over kind of
what your idea was for these these shows we're going to do
together for a little while? Yeah, man, I think it's going to
be fun. We're going to talk about
(01:32):
obviously I'm I'm out there on the indie scene here in
Minnesota. The way I got into wrestling was
a little bit unconventional and compared to a lot of people.
So I think what we're going to end up doing is, is today we're
just going to tell the story of back story of how I got into it
leading up to my debut. And then from there we'll, we'll
take one episode will be 1 show,man.
(01:55):
We can go through all the, the backstage stuff, the events of
the day, the funny shit, the badshit that maybe we'll throw some
motherfuckers under the bus. I don't we'll see.
We'll see how I'm feeling that fucking day.
And it'll be, it'll be fun, man.There's, there's a lot of,
there's a lot of good stories, alot of good stories that we'll
get into, I'm sure. As long as this shit's not in
your underwear and you know which ends up in the dryer, I
(02:17):
think we'll be good. You know if you shit your pants
that everything goes in the in the garbage just directly.
That's that's that's. We're on.
We're in agreement on this one. So good start.
Yeah, yeah, don't shit your pants and don't wear socks in
the house. Those are the rules, man.
Those. Well, at least one of them,
right? Yeah.
(02:38):
All right, so let's start off with everybody kind of knows
where your background and love and wrestling is and WWF and
everything where didn't where did you discover the Indies?
Oh boy, yeah, that's awesome. So I, I discovered the Indies,
boy, early 90s, early 90s was myfirst indie show and the first
(03:02):
indie show was actually just up the road walking distance to my
from my house. Had to, had to ask my parents if
I could go right, 'cause they, they, I was not like I didn't go
to a WWEWWF show until I was oldenough to drive to 1 and buy my
own ticket. So, yeah, so like, I, I grew up
(03:23):
in a family where like we didn'thave, we didn't have shit, like
we didn't have money, nothing like that.
So there was no extra income. So there's no ever getting to go
to the fucking go see a show or go to a sports game or anything
like that. So my first, my first like WWF
show was when I was old enough to buy my own ticket.
My first indie show, on the other hand, was my neighbor.
(03:48):
They had, he found out there wasa show right up there, like I
say, walking distance from my house.
His dad was taking him and they asked me if I could go and I'm
going. I would, you know, I would love
to go. That would be amazing.
So I, I went home and I asked toask the folks if I could go.
They weren't too keen on it 'cause it was, it was in a bar
(04:08):
and I was, you know, I was AI was a younger, I was a younger
kid. And then the other part of it
was they just told me like, Hey,we don't have money to get you a
ticket. So I went, I went back over to
my neighbor's house and said, Hey, you know, I can't go.
And his dad was like, why not? And I was like, well, we, I, I,
we don't have money for the ticket.
And he's like, I'll get the ticket.
Don't worry. Like we want you to go.
So like, right. Then I was like, wait a second,
(04:29):
one problem solved. Like one problem is solved.
I can go to the show. So I run back home, you know,
Hey, guys, don't worry about theticket, right?
Don't worry about the ticket. They're going to get me a
ticket. They want me to go with.
And they're like, oh boy. So now it's like their position
to the point where like, do theyreally want to break, you know,
this young man's heart? And, and they, they finally,
(04:51):
they said is, is, you know, his dad's going to be there.
His dad's going to be there all night.
And I was like, yeah, he's not just dropping his fucking off at
the bar so we can watch a wrestling show.
I mean, back then I don't think you could, but you know.
Maybe. Maybe a couple years before
that, you probably could get away with that.
Small town Minnesota, man. There's a lot of stuff they they
overlook. Yeah.
(05:13):
So finally got him to say yes. And I got I got to go to my
first indie show. On the card was actually a young
Sean Waltman and he he faced a ayoung Jerry Lynn horse.
The psychopath was actually on the car.
Nice, that's awesome. Like a ton of those, those
Charlie Norris, He was on the car.
OK, Yeah. Do you remember him?
(05:35):
JB Trask. Mortimer.
Plum Tree. Yes.
People might know from from TNA and a Yep, yeah, he's a
Minnesota guy, so. The original, I think he was the
original manager of AJ Styles. I think you're right.
Yeah, Yeah, I think you're right.
So fun night, Like I just fell in love with it.
Couldn't, couldn't get enough ofit in that.
(05:56):
During that night, though, I forget what match it was, but my
buddy's my buddy's dad, he had acouple to drink and during the
match they had one that was English Boy, might have been a
two out of three falls. I can't remember the exact
stipulations, but they had a break in the match and his dad
(06:17):
walked over to to ringside, put his arm around the performer,
who is like kind of sitting on his ass in the corner just to
encourage him and then walked back.
And I was like, what? And it was the fucking heel.
Like, that's the part that stuckout to me.
Like I'm watching going. No, no, no, no, no, we don't.
We don't like that guy. That guy's bad news and you're
encouraged. That's not the guy to encourage,
(06:38):
right? That's not him.
So yeah, that was that was my first like delve into the into
Indies. And then I never got to, I never
really got to experience anotherindie until boy, until the the
show where I met Buck Rock'n'roll Zoom off that was
one him and him, Bock, Winkle, Patera, all those guys.
(07:00):
And then I latched onto a company called MPW, which was a,
was a kind of AI don't want to say they were 'cause we have
steel domain in Minnesota, but they were kind of like they were
kind of the, the other guys, youknow what I mean?
Like the, the, the guys that arekind of the, the upstart young
Indies. So latched on to them and, and
(07:22):
started going shows MPW. And then not long after MPW
first wrestling started, kind ofrose from the ashes of, of MPW.
And I was at the first, first wrestling show at 1st Ave. and,
you know, kind of kind of kept on going all the way through
there. So I've, I'm, I'm a, I'm a, I'm
a lifelong lover of indie wrestling, man, that's for sure.
First wrestling was that that was Eric Cannon, right?
(07:46):
It's and it's still going today,right?
It's still going today. Yep, Yep, absolutely, man.
Yeah, that's, that's Cannon Cannon's promotion.
Yeah, he started it, I mean, years ago now, but yeah, still
still running strong. They, they had the first one
that I believe the story is thathe was a bartender at 1st Ave.
and that's kind of how they, they were able to get their,
their spot in there. And, and for a long time was
(08:08):
just associated with 1st Ave. was super, you know, famous club
here in Minnesota. And then they kind of started
breaking off and, and now, you know, still holding shows at at
1st Ave., but not, as you know, closely as you know, they used
to, I guess you would say. That's pretty awesome.
When did when did you go to yourfirst AWF show?
(08:30):
My first AWF show would have been.
Boy, that's a great question. I'm trying to think back now
when my first AWF 'cause I know that the, the, the company that
I saw when I was a kid, they're no longer around the, the show
that I saw Buck Rock'n'roll ZoomHoff.
That was the called FLWA. So that was that's the called
(08:54):
French Lake Wrestling Association.
So that was that was. But as far as AWFI trying to
remember because that that's that's a that's got to be way
back. I'm guessing AWF has been around
for 20 boy going on 21 years now.
(09:16):
Yeah, yeah. So I think, I think my first
one, I probably was probably early, Nah, probably mid 20s,
mid 20s might have been in. No, I take I know exactly what
it was. Man, I got there first, first
AWF show I saw, just took a flyer on him because I saw a
(09:38):
bunch of guys that I knew from going to other rest local local
Indies and they had Scotty to Hottie on the card.
And I went, I went, well, there's all these other guys
that I like already that are going to be wrestling there from
the local Indies scene and they're going to have Scotty to
Hottie. I probably should go check it
out. Yeah, that was that was a fun.
(09:58):
And when I met Scotty to Hottie,I was shocked at how tiny he
was. Oh yeah, he's like like 5-7 if.
You're not a big man at all. So I was like, huh, 'cause I
always look so much bigger obviously on, on television.
But yeah, it was that was, that was back then.
Man, that was fun. That was in a small town called
Isanti. Isanti, MN is where that show
was years and years ago. But yeah, that was, that was my
(10:20):
first, my first look at AWF. And it's kind of funny, 'cause I
I went to that AWF show. I was, I was entertained, I was
intrigued, but it didn't have that same feel because it was
more of a kid friendly program versus what I was what I was
used to going to. Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, we got a we got a bunch ofthose out here.
(10:40):
I think the the one I used to goto out here pro wrestling magic
originally was more kid friendlyand now it's like it's kinda is.
But then they drop a hell of a lot of F bombs, so it's not
really. Yeah, couple F bombs, couple
needles, needles through the wing, that type of thing.
No, not in that. Not in the Mecca.
Not allowed. To well, I mean.
A lot of blood in the Mecca, or really any.
(11:03):
It's a magic trick. Though, right?
Yes, that's in White Eagle Hall,not in my gotcha.
OK. Gotcha.
My bad, my bad. All good.
So when did you how was your like intro into wrestling?
Like when did you kind of get hooked or start doing anything
with the company? Or did you start as a manager?
(11:23):
Or did you? So yeah.
Beforehand. I did not.
That was I what, what ended up happening was I actually reached
out or I, I, I can't even say I reached out.
I, I've seen PD Brown wrestle tothat point, 'cause I started
going to more and more AWF showsand I, I saw PD Brown wrestle a
lot and I hated them. I absolutely fucking hated him.
(11:46):
I, I, every time, Yeah, yeah, I every time.
Every time he was out there, I'dyell that he was a bum.
I hated his character. Everything, just everything
about him I fucking hated. He was the whitest of white meat
baby faces you've ever seen. He is Petey Brown is Minnesota's
fucking John Cena, right? Every God damn child loves him.
(12:11):
Every single child loves the parents love him because the
kids can love him, right? He's just the the all around
good guy. I fucking hated him.
So one day on Twitter, I noticedthat he he lost a belt or posted
something about losing the match.
So I was like, fuck him. So I'm, I'm like tweeting at
him. I'm like, yeah, you sad about
that bitch? Like just, you know what I mean?
(12:32):
Like just having fun but kind ofbeing a Dick about it.
Yeah. And then I, I direct messaged
him and I said, Hey, man, I justwanted to let you know I'm, I'm
just having fun. Like I've all the respect in the
world before you and what you do, because I'd like I, I'm
anybody that, that actually getsin there and does it, man, it
takes a lot. It takes a lot to get in the
ring and actually do what, what,what the, what the talent does,
(12:54):
what the performers do. So I just as a side, like as a
side note, I didn't want to think of that.
I'm just fucking grilling them because I fucking hate his guts.
I was just having fun. And so we, we started kind of
kind of chatting back and forth and he was like, no man, all all
good. I appreciate it.
And, and he's like, we have a, we have a show coming up.
Would, would, would love it if you were able to make it out
(13:16):
there. I was like, yeah, man, I'll
fucking make it out there. So my wife and I went to a show.
I want to say it was called the God.
What the fuck was it Fox? Something in a foxhole or
something like that. That's what they named it.
I can't, can't remember the nameof it off the top of my head.
Went there, chatted with him a little bit.
He thanked me for coming out. We had a we had a nice chat.
(13:39):
And then he goes, hey, we have another show coming up.
It's actually down at a casino in Iowa.
You should, you should come out to that show.
And I was like, OK, casino in Iowa is kind of my style.
I like it. You know, I'm like, I'm in like
gamble and all that kind of stuff.
Yeah, yeah. Talked to my wife and I said,
hey, you want to go down to a casino in Iowa?
(13:59):
She goes a casino and why would I want to go down?
I said, I said casino. You didn't, did you not hear
that fucking part? So we go down.
It's I believe it's called Diamond Joe's.
Diamond Joe's Casino in in. Iowa, that sounds like it.
Either a casino or a pawn shop or something like that for sure.
Or a strip club man. That's, that's, yeah, I'm just
you guys looking for one of those.
(14:21):
So we, we, we go down there, we get, we get a hotel room because
we're, we're going to get, you know, we're, we're going to have
a couple drinks while we're downthere.
We're going to be responsible. So go down there, have a ton of
fun at the show, chat with, you know, chat with PD, chat with
the rest of the talent, have some drinks.
And then after the show, PD comes up to me and he's like,
(14:41):
hey, man, you do you guys want to hang out?
Like come hang out with everybody?
And I was like, yeah, fucking gohang out with everybody.
That's cool. Like I, I didn't expect it, you
know what I mean? I'm just, I'm just a fan, that's
all. That's all I am.
And so we go out with the entireroster.
We, we drank at the casino untilyou couldn't drink at the casino
(15:02):
anymore. And then the, the bars stayed
open a little bit later in Iowa and the casino that allows you
to have drinks. So then we went to the bar
afterwards. I just got, I mean, we, we drank
way too much. Just wait, a casino cuts off the
time you're allowed to drink. Yeah, in Iowa, I don't know if
they still do, but at the time, yeah, in Iowa, I think it was
like 1:00. They were.
They no longer served. They no longer served.
(15:24):
So, like, all right. It's insane because the drunker
you get the more you lose normally.
Exactly, Yeah. I can tell you that.
Money, dignity, pride, the wholething.
So. So we go out to the bar because
they're like, yeah, you guys gotto come to the bar and like,
Stoney was down there, Cannon's down there.
K PS down there, NDS is down. Like all the guys were like,
(15:46):
yeah, come with us. And I was like, fuck, I'm just
all right, I'll just go right, because I'm at that point.
I'm not saying no to shit, right?
I, I, I see an opening for me tobe kind of part of the group.
So I'm like, yeah, fucking in. We proceed to drink way too
fucking much, like one of those situations where I woke up the
following morning and looked around and had to remind myself,
(16:09):
that's right, you're in Iowa. Like fucking horrible, right?
We we, we leave the following morning, driving back.
It's about a three and a half hour drive home, something like
that. I get ferocious hangovers.
So I'm just like, eyes on the prize.
Keep on pondering like whatever,like a Gatorade.
(16:31):
Fucking Pete. I buy Pedialyte, right?
All that shit pound driving and we are just outside of the Twin
Cities and Molly goes do you still have that Target bag?
I said, Yep, she goes good, get it.
And I fucking horse right the and she gets the bad hangover
(16:55):
too, man. We, we each get the bad angle,
but she's she, she gets the bad hangover and fucking spews.
So she spews in the bag right? Just, and it's all just last
night's fucking white claws and vodka and whatever the hell else
there was and she gets done and it was I, I remember laughing so
fucking hard because she was, and she ties the bag perfectly
(17:16):
right and then ties it again andI was like, what are you going
to do? And she goes, no, it's not going
to leak at all. Trust me.
I said, I don't trust you. That's, that's liquid inside of
a target bag. Like you're really, you're
really over overestimating, you know, the, the integrity of the
target bag. It didn't leak at all, man.
We made it back home. But that was, that was, that was
(17:38):
a long, that was a long night, long day.
And then it was probably, I wantto say the next might have been
the next day or two days later, PD reaches out to me again and
he's like, hey man, had a great time.
Everybody loves hanging out withyou.
Do you want to? Do you want to be part of this?
Oh shit, Yeah. So that's how it how it started.
(18:01):
Petey Brown randomly, Yeah. I and I think that them him
asking me to go out and, and youknow, hang out with everybody
and drink with everybody. I don't know if that was like
my, my tests like can I, can I hang out?
Can I be cool like that type of thing?
But yeah, it was it was a did you have like everybody,
everybody loved hanging out withyou last night, man.
(18:22):
Just want to check. Do you like, do you, do you,
We'll find something for you to do.
Like I would love for you to be a sound guy if you know anything
about sound. And so happens that for a couple
of years in in my early 20s, I was a wedding DJ.
So I was like, yeah, man, I can run a sound board no problem.
So that was the plan. I was going to be, I was going
(18:43):
to be the sound guy. That that was the big plan.
It was the first show that I wassupposed to run sound was
Wabasha Minnesota. And and I get there early
because I you know, I got to I'mgoing to help with with ring
crew, like the whole the whole bit like I'm in.
(19:06):
So I'm there early. And the second guy that's there
is talent that that you you know, Bill Williams.
So big cat. Big cat.
Bill Williams. Yeah.
Yeah, and we're chatting a little bit and we're kind of
waiting because nobody's there yet and call time has now come
and now it's 10 minutes past call time and it's just me, Bill
(19:26):
and the fucking truck guy. And so like, all right, what
are? We're so the ring is the ring is
there. Ring's there and me and Bill are
there and I'm just, I just like I look at Bill and I said, well,
I mean, we can start moving shit.
So we start unloading and setting up Ring and more more
people start to show up and we set it up in the middle of the
shutdown Main St. in Wabasha forus.
(19:48):
Anybody that doesn't know Wabasha claim to fame is.
That's the town the Grumpy Old Men movie is is is.
You know, like I heard that thatname and I'm like, I know this
from somewhere. I couldn't put my finger on it,
but yeah. That's, that's the that's the,
that's the claim to fame of the town.
Funny side note the the last scene in Grumpy Old Men, the
(20:10):
first the first grumpy old men where they're getting married in
the church. That church is a 3 minute drive
away from my house, so just downthe road.
What bigger? So we're setting up the ring and
you know, streets like city, town streets, I guess they
crown, right? So the water runs off.
(20:31):
We're setting up everything and I'm in handling a corner post
and that interlocking mechanism that runs past that locks all
the corner posts together. And I mean, anybody that has
never been worked, ring crew or anything like that, like that's
a heavy fucking steal. That's, that's, that's that,
that shit on a bad day will get you.
(20:52):
And I had a bad day that day. Corner post shifted on the on
the street there and that interlocking mechanism dropped.
And then when it dropped, it dropped straight through my
finger and cut, cut my finger inin two and broke it in two
spots. I I I remember like vividly
(21:12):
watching my fingernail go flyingin the air.
Oh my God. And I looked down and I could
see the road through my finger and and I went that's, that's
not good. So, but in my mind, like I
hadn't really like, I'm like, maybe it's not that bad, right?
Maybe it's not that bad. So, so I turn my hand over and
when I turn my hand over, I see and obviously the viewers can't
(21:35):
see what I'm doing now, but I see this part of my finger is
flopped down. Oh my God, so.
So for the viewers at home, takea look at the first knuckle as
they say in letter Kenny and imagine it like sideways down.
That's that's his finger. That was rough.
It was rough. So I so all I do is I just
(21:57):
start, I hold my hand up and I start walking and cuz like, this
is I'm fucking this is, I'm supposed to be the sound guy
tonight, right? I'm part of the crew, right?
This is, I'm, I'm in, right? I'm making it.
And now I fucked everything. So I and Bill goes, I hear Bill
go. That's a lot of blood, Kevin.
(22:18):
You asking for super glue? And I said thanks, Bill and I, I
looked over at this point like all the blood had gone, gone
down my hand and down onto my wrist.
So it was it was ugly. Yeah, we have, we have medical.
We have medical at that show. So the medical guy came over, he
took a look at it. He's like, yeah, we got to take
this up right now and you have to go to the hospital.
(22:38):
So PD comes walking out and he was like, are you OK?
And I was like, yeah, it sounds like I got to go to the
hospital. And he goes, OK, who's going to
drive you? And I was like, well, I'm going
to drive me. And he goes, I don't think you
should drive. And I was like, it's one hand.
It's my fucking finger, Pete. Like I could drive.
Petey is such a caring, like good spirited human.
He's like no man. He's like I, I don't, I, I don't
(22:59):
want you to drive. He's like he'd go into shock.
Anything can happen. Like I just like I'll drive your
car and then we'll have DJ, who is the the ring announcer and
commentator. He'll drive behind us.
That way, once we get you checked in and all that kind of
stuff, I can come back to the show.
That's fine, Petey, if that's what you want to do.
We get to the we get to the ER in Wabasha and the hospital is
(23:22):
in the middle of a cornfield. That's not a joke.
You I, we literally couldn't find the fucking hospital
because it was in the middle of a cornfield.
We had to take a right into whatwe thought was a farm road to
into a clearing that the hospital said it was the
weirdest shit ever. Jesus.
We get in there this. Is Minnesota, this isn't like
(23:43):
Iowa or one of those corn. Nebraska.
Yeah, yeah, one of those corn states.
Though Yep, southern, southern Minnesota.
And we get in there and I, I looked at PD and I said, man, I
was like, well, we'll see what happens.
And he goes, he goes, have you talked to your wife?
I said, no. I said, what the hell is she
going to do? He goes, you should call your
(24:05):
wife. And I was like, why?
Like, why do I need to call my wife right now?
That part of it didn't compute. And he goes, you need to call
your and I was like, she's having a good time back at home,
like she was out with friends. I was like, I don't need her to
worry. She's just going to have a good
time after the hospital visit. Then I call, then I tell her
what's going on and PDP DS fucking amazing.
(24:26):
He goes no man, no, not at all, not at all.
That's not what you do. And he's not even married at
this point and he's giving me like marriage advice.
He's like, here's what you do, trust me, call her.
And the first thing you say is everything's.
OK, Yeah. She picks up the phone, you just
say everything's OK, I'm good. And I said no problem, all
(24:47):
right, I'll call her for you, PD.
I'll call her because I'm still waiting to get checked into the
emergency room. Yeah, they had this really
weird, like waiting area. It was it was fucking weird,
man. Weird, weird hospital.
I imagine any hospital in the middle of cornfield is not going
to be like normal like ER hospital.
No, it was. Yeah, no, Clooney was not
showing up at this bitch. So we're fucking.
(25:11):
I pick up the phone, I call and my wife picks up the phone and
my wife says hey, what's going on?
And I said everything's OK, I'm good.
And PD Brown while I said giant smile on his face and pumps his
first. He's like, yeah, it's OK.
I told her what was happening. I said I'm just about to see in
(25:32):
the ERI said I fucked my finger up pretty good.
I'll let you know what happens, PDI told.
PDI said go on man, get back to the show.
You got shit to do, get in. Doctor starts unwrapping it, and
as he's unwrapping, I tell him, I said be careful, I don't know
what's connected to what. And he he unwraps the
(25:54):
motherfucker, and the first thing he says is, Oh yeah, you
did a good job. Good job rapping or good job
cutting off your finger. Exactly.
Well, I was trying to say, Brenda, you know, you know when
a doctor, when you've had a traumatic injury and the doctor
says you did a good job, you fucked something up.
(26:14):
So and he's like looking at it and and I told him I was like,
you do whatever you need to do. I'm not watching it right.
That shit will turn my stomach. I'm not.
Watching it, Yeah, I'm with you.There, I can deal with the pain.
I just don't want to fucking seethe gruesome.
SO he's looking at it and he goes, OK, he's like, I don't
(26:35):
think he's like, I don't think we're going to need to remove
it. He's like, I think we can, we
can save the finger. And I said that's good news to
me, man. Like I, I would like to keep the
finger. He's like, yeah, Plus if, if we
do have to get like if we do have to remove it from like that
knuckle down, he's like, then wehave to airlift you.
I was like the fuck we do? Like I'm not getting airlifted.
(26:55):
From Yeah, they have a helicopter pad and some place in
the cornfield. Right.
For a fucking finger, like get the hell out of here.
So he ends up shooting it up pretty good and it he doesn't
stitch it, what he does is he, he kind of ties it.
So he starts running what looks like, like, I don't know, £4
(27:17):
billion fishing line from the outside of the finger straight
through the finger to the other side.
And he ties the meat of my finger back together.
Jesus Christ. And, and he's like, I, I, he
goes, did, oh, did you feel that?
And I said, yeah, I felt that. He goes, yeah.
He was like, there's a lot of nerves.
(27:38):
So it's kind of hard, like we will shoot it up some more.
So they, my fucking finger was feeling dandy by the time he
got. I couldn't feel fucking shit.
And I asked the dog, Yeah. Oh, yeah, I asked the dog.
I said, I said whatever you tellme to do, I'm going to do.
But I'd like to go back to the wrestling show.
(28:00):
Like I wanted them to know that I'm good.
And then, like, the big thing was for me if I could get back
there before first bell, becausefirst bell was going to be a 10
bell. Salute to Playboy Pete Huge and
Playboy Pete Huge was a guy thatI I watched a long time, really,
really loved his work and then he had he had passed away
recently, so. Was he like a local Minnesota
(28:22):
guy or an AWA guy or something? Yeah, yeah.
No, he was, he was a, he was a local Minnesota guy, Midwest Pro
Wrestling and and 1st Wrestling and and AWFI mean he was, but he
was, he was a fun guy to watch wrestle.
Just passed away recently and I wanted to get there for his 10
belt salute. So I asked the docs, I'll do
whatever you tell me to do, I said.
(28:43):
But I'd like to go back to the show and I have like probably a
2 1/2, two hour and 45 minute drive home.
And he goes, yeah, you won't feel your finger until probably
midday tomorrow. He's like, that's that's fine.
He goes and he goes, you can go back to the show just.
But I wouldn't get in the ring tonight.
Motherfucker thought I was like,I was performing.
(29:03):
And so he's when he tells me I, I, you go back to the show, but
I wouldn't get in the ring tonight.
I told him it's a doc. There's going to be a lot of
disappointed orphans. The joke didn't land, but I, I
fucking, I laughed. I thought it was hilarious.
So go back to the show. I I hung out until intermission.
I talked to everybody. Bill walked over and Bill wanted
(29:25):
to make sure I was OK. And I was like, yeah, but
everything's good. So that was like.
How long were you at that hospital for to sew up back on
your finger? The.
Fact that you got back to the show, that's insane.
So yeah, and this happened rightaway.
Call time was 3 hours before first bell.
So it was, we were, I was probably at the hospital maybe
(29:47):
for an hour and 15 minutes, something like that.
But I was able to get back to, Iwas able to get back to the show
before first, first bell, which was the important part, you
know, to me. Yeah, I've been in waiting rooms
for longer than an hour and 15 minutes, so that's pretty.
Really. Yeah, I mean, I live in a
populous area. I was going to say, you haven't
(30:08):
been to a, you haven't been to ahospital in the cornfield.
Then that's what I'm going to got back did that and I'm
thinking like it's done right, that that was my shot.
I fucking blew it. I split my finger.
It's fucking over. I wrap it.
I'm in a I'm in a fucking fingersplint.
(30:29):
They tell me I got it 12 weeks. They put me on a shit load of
medication. It was, it was, it was a wild
time. We get done, I drive, I drive
home, everything's fine till thenext day and my fingers fucking
falling off. Jeez.
PD calls me up. I apologize.
I'm like, hey, man, sorry mistake.
I I said just my my hand was in the wrong spot.
(30:51):
The corner pose shifted the way it went.
I apologize to him and he goes, that's that's OK man.
He's like, you think you'll be able to run sound at the next
show? You bet your fucking baby balls
I can run sound to the next show.
I I don't need all my fingers torun sound.
I can I can do that. So.
So I get back to a show down in Iowa and they say, you know, I,
(31:17):
I show up, I meet Tony, the owner of the company for the
first time. And Petey's, you know, Petey's
the Booker. He's kind of running everything
Tony. Tony owns the company.
OK. I get down there, I'm supposed
to be the sound guy. Well, they already have a sound
guy that they fucking hate, right?
Everybody hates the sound guy. But the owner, he fucking misses
(31:39):
cues. Like he just like he's he, he
can barely set up the equipment.Like he is not good at what he
does. So Tony comes up to me and he's
like, he's like, yeah, I, I, I don't, I don't need a sound guy.
I said, OK, no problem. PD starts talking to him.
(31:59):
He's like, no, fuck that. He's like everybody hates the
fucking sound guy. He's like, he's like, we're
trying to make this, we're trying to make this shit better,
you know what I mean? He's like, that's why he, he
actually knows what he's doing like that.
He's the sound guy. And, and Tony's like I just, I
just, and I told him I said that's cool man.
I'll just hang out and enjoy theshow.
(32:21):
Not a problem. So I hang out and enjoy the
show. Petey's fucking pissed, right?
At least you have all your fingers for this show.
Yeah, it worked out all right. Petey's pissed a bunch of the a
bunch of the other town is upsetlike I like they're going up to
Tony being like, what the fuck? We have a sound guy now that we
want to have here. Doesn't play out following day
(32:45):
after the show, Petey calls me up.
He's like, hey, man, I need you to come to the next show.
I said OK. I was like, what do you need me
to do? He's like, you're going to run
sound. I said I fucking was told I'm
not the sound guy, right? Like the owner of the company
told me they don't need a sound guy.
I'm not the sound guy. He's like, no man, He's like
you're he's like fucking I need you there.
(33:07):
I show up, fucking everything's getting figured out.
The fucking laptop goes dead about hour and a half before the
show, so people are scrambling around figuring what they do.
I, I look at PD, I said, hey man, I live 45 minutes away.
I can get home, I can get my laptop, I can be back and set
(33:32):
up. You e-mail me the files, we can
get this thing done no problem. Like done.
And he's like, ah, do you reallywant to drive that far?
Like he's like, it's an hour anda half getting there and getting
back. And I was like you, you got
better fucking options right now, man.
Like this is an issue. Here's the solution.
This is what we need to do. And Petey was like, all right,
(33:56):
man, you do it. So I take off, get the laptop,
come back, run sound for that show.
I didn't love running sound. I wasn't, I wasn't bad at it,
but I really fucking didn't loveit.
But at the same time I was involved.
That was the big thing to be like I'm, I'm involved.
So. Yeah, you're on the behind the
(34:17):
curtain for the first time really, instead of in the crowd.
In the crowd or in the fucking hospital in the cornfield.
Like I'm, I'm, I'm actually a part of this now.
Super exciting. So we get to the the next God,
the next, I think it was the next show.
And I get told again by the owner like, hey, we have our
(34:40):
sound guy. We don't need a sound guy.
Fucking everything's, everything's sideways,
everything, everybody's mad. So Petey calls me up and he
goes, he's like, he's just because like the kid that rants
out, he might have been. What's the best way to put this
without offending everybody? You're a little slow on the
mental draw, right? So not.
(35:06):
Playing with a full deck we'll. No, no, not at all. 48 out of
52. Right, 47 / 46.
So we, we're going on, all right, I'll, I'll, I'll fucking,
you know, I'll go and, and I gettold, you know, you're not,
you're not the sound guy. So Petey's pissed off again.
Everybody's pissed off again. And then the following day, and
(35:31):
actually it was funny too, Like Tony came up to me.
Tony's a super loyal guy and he's like, hey, could you, maybe
you could run sound like, but let him sit next to you.
I said no, I'm not doing like I said no, like I'm not doing
that. I'm not being the sound guy.
So the guy that you have to run your sound doesn't have to do
(35:52):
his fucking job. I'm not willing to do that.
So that I'm not the sound guy anymore.
I was going to be the sound guy.I'm the sound guy.
I'm not the sound guy anymore. I don't know what the fuck I'm
doing right? No idea.
So PD, yeah, PD calls me up and he goes, hey man, you're you're
too good not to be involved. And I said, well, I appreciate
(36:14):
that man. But I, I said I don't, I don't
know what spot you want me. And I said, I, I'm not, I by no
means I'm, I'm some type of commentator, right?
Can't do that. I said, quite honestly, I don't
really want to just show up to work like a ring crew or
anything like that. I said, I guess I'm, I'm willing
to do that. But like I, I don't see that
being something I'm going to do like long term.
(36:34):
If you want me to be, you know, because he was adamant.
He's like, I want you to be partof this.
And he goes, no, no, no, man. He's like, like I want you like,
you could be like a character and I'm going OK, like, what do
you want me to do? Like a backstage interview guy?
And like, I could do that like, so in my head, I'm going OK, I'm
gonna be the the Todd Pettengillguy, right?
That's, that's what I'm gonna be.
(36:54):
I'm gonna. You'll be the guy that
interviews Lugar when he says I don't know.
Right. Yeah, that's gonna be who I.
Am that's a character. Yes, I'm I'm in right, And even
that like I'm pumped. I that means I get to be part of
the show because we have like wehave TV in or AWF has TV in
Minnesota here. So I'm like, yeah, I can, I can
figure that out. What ends up happening is is PD
(37:19):
goes no, no, no, not like that. And I was like, well, what
exactly is it that you want me to be?
He's like, you think you'd be a manager?
Do I think I can? Do you?
Do I think, do you think that? I think if I could, maybe I
might be a manager. Talk about a moon stem, Brundle
fly. I'm like it, it's, it's it's way
(37:41):
up there, right way up there touching the and I Oh yeah,
yeah, I remodeled the place. So I said yeah, I, I think I
could probably handle that. Like in, in when I was younger
in school, I was, I was, I was in every school play, every
production I could be in. I performed rock'n'roll music
(38:02):
since I was boy. My first live concert I
performed at was 12 years old asa like a my making, playing my
own music. So like, I know how to perform.
I'm in. Like I'll figure it out and it's
wrestling. That's what I love.
Yeah, yeah. And I said, who am I managing?
And he goes, you could be my manager.
I'm like oh fuck my ass. Was he still a babyface at that
(38:24):
point? He's always a fucking babyface,
man. He's the, he is the whitest of
white beat babyfaces. He's Minnesota's John Cena.
Everybody loves him. The children adore him, the
parents like everybody. And what the fuck am I going to
be right? Because everybody doesn't love
me, all right? That's not who I.
AM and managers are normally notbabyface.
(38:46):
I mean, there's what Paul Erling, there's Lou Albano in
the later years and. There's there's not, Elizabeth.
And that not much else. Well, yeah, and she sucked
anyways, but. You're not take it off your
pants. So like.
Anyway, if I had anyway, yeah, if I had to and it came close a
(39:07):
couple times, But so I'm going, yeah, like I, I it doesn't
matter. It didn't matter who he said.
You're going to manage. I was in like I had 100%.
Like, do you pass up this opportunity?
There's no way. There's no way you can pass the
opportunity. So he he's been battling with
(39:33):
Stonehenge for a while, kind of his arch nemesis.
And the way he set it up was super simple.
He cut a promo where on the phone, I call him and he goes,
well, he goes, you let me know about this man.
He goes, are you in? And I'm not, obviously not on
the other fucking side of the phone.
(39:55):
And he goes, you're in. Awesome.
We'll roll. Petey calls everybody doggy.
So he's like, we'll roll doggy. And then he's trying to figure
out what my name's going to be. Holy butt fuckers.
Yeah, where did were you always JJ Rogue or?
(40:15):
Thankfully, yes. Yes, thankfully, yes, Petey had
some ideas that that weren't JJ Rogue.
Any chilly Mcfreezes in that idea or?
Yep, Yep. He he liked, he liked
alliterations and and because heis, he's downtown PD Brown.
(40:37):
He's the Prince of party, right?So he wanted something that had
to do with partying and my name.So he's trying to figure it out.
He's like starts with an R It's like a party thing, like rave,
right? Like a rave, like a rave thing.
And he's thinking, he's thinkinghe's like, you could be like the
raver. He's like, we want to have your
name in there. He's like, what if it was like
Rogie? He's like you could be Rogie
(40:58):
raver. And I was like Petey I, I don't
think I'm feeling Rogie Raver. He's like, he's like raver raver
Rogie, like Rogie dog raver Raven.
I'm like, if you said that's so fucking Raven right now, I'd
pick that over Rogie Raver. I'm I'm not in on Rogie Raver.
(41:19):
Rogie Raver ain't working for me.
Ultimately, if he said guess what, you're you're, you're
fucking Rogie Raver. I would have been Rogie Raver,
right? But I'm, I'm, I'm trying to not
be Rogie Raver and I and I, he asked me, he's like, is that
your, is that actually your name?
I'm going yeah, yeah, man. My, my actual name is, is Rogue.
(41:42):
That's my last name ROGUE. My last name is Rogue.
So he goes, that's that's prettygood.
I said, yeah, we could just leave it at that.
Or I said I sign off all my likeprofessional emails.
JJ Rogue my my 2 initials, middle initials are are both J.
So I'm going JJ Rogue works. You had JJ Dillon, you had
(42:05):
double J and right there, I'm already sold.
Let me be JJ Rogue. And he goes, actually, yeah,
that works, that works. Boom, I got my name right.
Perfect. Love it, I'm in.
And that's a good name too, thatlike, rolls off the tongue well.
I I've always liked it, man. Yeah, yeah.
And I appreciate that, man. And it it makes it easy when
(42:26):
like I don't have to remember a fucking gimmick name.
Yeah. Like I like if I go to shows,
people usually call me JJ or they call me rogue and it works
out either either way. So now I'm I'm going to debut,
right? We're we're finally here.
We're finally to the client. We finally climax here on on on
(42:47):
episode 1. We're, we're, we're two.
I'm getting to walk through the fucking curtain.
What's the What was the date again?
It was. Oh boy, let's see here.
I I just had it up to it. That would have been 12:18.
So, December 18th, 2021. And it was in Minnesota, right?
(43:11):
It was in Lake Mills, IA. Oh, Lake Mills, Iowa.
OK so people in the Midwest had a choice.
They could either go to Rockford, IL to a super show and
watch Rick Boogs and Nakamura against Happy Corbin and Mad
Camp Boss. Wait, they ran against my They
(43:31):
ran against my debut in Rockville?
In the Midwest, in the Midwest, well, or they can watch you
debut. Boy, that's, I mean, that's kind
of it was Boogs and and Shins. Gay against Happy Corbin and
Madcap Moss. I mean, there were other
matches, but that's the one thatpops out to me.
That's the one that yeah, that makes sense.
(43:55):
Yeah. And it was I mean, it was one of
the things I loved about the card that that I I guess I I
Dame debuted on Bill Williams was there fucking Stonehenge was
there. Eric Cannon was there.
Super Thunder Frog was there. Cold stone Tim Boston, who's the
guy that I there, there's I I hold an extremely high regards
(44:19):
as cold stone Tim Boston is there and I and I it is a it's a
Christmas street fight. And we're like I'm talking with
PD. He's thinking of all these
different things like we should bring along with us as far as
like weapons and all this other kind of shit.
And I'm going, Oh boy, I'm not really sure what I'm in for.
(44:42):
We get together. I buy the most obnoxious, loud
holiday suit that I can think of.
That's awesome. I I, I have the pants fucking
like altered. So now they're shorts, right?
So I'm wearing a holiday suit that has shorts as bottoms.
I have I bought the loudest looking purple converse high
(45:08):
tops I can find. So I'm I'm really getting into
this right. I have AI have a a top hat like
a holiday top hat that I took some of the material from the
fucking pants that got cut off and I looped it around the hat.
I look like a, a holiday douche bag right through and through.
I, I, we're getting ready. I, I'm in the, I'm in the back
(45:30):
when we're starting to form the match, right?
And all I'm doing is listening, right?
That's all I'm doing because I, it's my first time out.
All I need to do is just listen.Yeah.
They get to a spot and he's like, well, here's what will
happen. Like you know, it'll be Stoney
goes off the the the core. I throw, PD knocks, Petey hits
(45:52):
Stoney with the knucks. He goes backwards to the table,
still ends up being only two. Kyle Pro comes running out.
Kyle Pro's running with Stoney at this time.
Kyle Pro comes out. They start both put beating the
shit out of Petey, right? Well, they're both beating the
shit out of Petey. They're like fucking Petey's
like, that's where you come in, man.
And I was like, all right, what am I gonna fucking do?
(46:15):
And they're like, you get on theapron, right?
You start yelling, maybe throw your hat at Stonehenge.
Stonehenge will come over. He's going to fucking hit you.
You take an apron bump, roll off.
And then then, you know, I thinkSuper Thunder Frog ended up
making the the save ultimately. OK that makes sense.
I had the card up and Kyle Pro Super Thunder Frog was the main
(46:38):
event. Was the main.
OK, so yeah, that makes perfect sense.
So I'm sitting there like, listen, listen, like, you know,
the you take the apron bump, youroll off like, and then that's,
you know, that's that's the spotfor you.
I'm sitting there. I'm going.
OK, yeah, yeah, I got that. I got that.
So Tim Boston is standing behindme and, and I had talked to him
earlier just letting him know, like, hey, this is my first time
(46:58):
out, you know, and just kind of getting advice because, again, I
I love Tim Boston. And Tim Boston's listening to
him and put together the match. They tell me, like, yeah, you
know, you're going to take an apron bump, You're going to fall
off. Tim Boston puts his arm around
me and he smiles. He goes your first, your first
(47:18):
bump. It's just the hardest bump you
can take. It's fine.
You'll be all right. Yeah, talk about jumping in with
two feet. Jeez.
Yeah, and, and my main, like my main concern was I didn't want
anybody. I didn't want to make anybody
look bad, right? If anything, if anything went
wrong, it was not going to be because of my apron bump looking
like shit. So the fucking match plays out.
(47:41):
It's it's, it's God damn my timeto jump up.
I jump up, I'm yelling, I throw my hat.
Sony comes over. Fuck it does the, the Andre the
Giant style head butt to me. I, I apron bump and, and in my
mind, I'm thinking if I land farenough with, with the, with the
left side of my back off of the,the side of the apron, I could
(48:05):
probably, I could probably clip it in the right way where when I
hit, I'll spin and I'll start rolling away.
And in my mind I was like, that's going to look, that's
going to look good. He'll hit me.
I'll hold on to the ropes just enough.
I'll be able to position my bodywhere I hit the, you know, I
hit, I hit the apron the right way and it'll force me to roll
away. Yeah.
(48:28):
It fucking worked. Nice.
I, he Stoney hit me, hit it, rolled away and I'm laying there
and I'm like, well, I'm a manager that just took an apron
bump. I'm not moving right.
So I didn't move. My legs were sitting there
fucking weird. And, and I, I went with I'm
knocked out. I'm not moving.
I'm fucking dead, right. Nothing's gonna happen now.
(48:50):
I waited 'cause they went right.They did a promo after that and,
and you know, Super Thunder Frogcut a promo setting up the main
event, something that the entiretime I'm laying there, like legs
are weird as shit. I'm fucking not moving.
Referee finally comes over and picks me up and helps me to the
(49:11):
back. And I'm not even telling like
the referee like I'm OK or anything like that.
I just walked. All the wrestlers are waiting to
go out for intermission to sell their gimmicks.
OK. I get through the back, the
first guy I see is is Bill Williams.
And behind Bill Williams is EricCannon and Bill Williams looking
(49:31):
at me. And Bill Williams got a giant
smile on his face. He goes, how was it?
Nothing like it, right? And I look at him and I go
fucking nothing like it. Cannon goes great bump, good
sell. I said thank you very much.
They're like, it was it was awesome.
And I talked to talked to DJDJS like you had the fucking owner
freaking out. I said, why?
(49:55):
He goes? He thought you were hurt.
He honestly thought you were hurt.
He was asking wrestlers to go check on you.
Like he thought you were hurt. I was like, interesting.
So I asked Hannah. I said, was that was that true?
Like he thought I was hurt? He's like, yeah, yeah.
The owner, Tony thought you wereyou were done.
He's like, I told him you're just selling.
But yeah, you were. And I was like, yeah, no, I
(50:16):
that's that's fucking great. Stoney comes back through.
Stoney comes over and gives me agreat hug.
Stoney tells me he goes, thank you.
I said for what? And he goes, that's the best
sell anybody's ever done for me on that spot.
And I. Went oh that's awesome.
I said no thank you man. Like I I appreciative.
I thanked everybody as many times as I possibly could for
(50:37):
the opportunity because I thought it was going to be 1 and
done. You mean I didn't think?
I didn't think in my mind it wasgoing to, it was going to go on
as long as it as it as it has. I thought, you know, I'll come
out like in my mind, in the backof my mind.
I guess it was PD was repaying me for not being able to have me
be part of the show as like the sound guy or you know what I
(50:58):
mean? Like, yeah, I wasn't into like
the backstage interview thing. So he was going to give me this
opportunity to go out, be part of one of the shows and it was
going to be done. And we're in the locker room.
I'm changing and PD goes all right, man.
He's like, so next show and I was like, oh, we get to do this
again. He's like, yeah, he's like
(51:20):
you're you're in now. Like you're in.
So from from making fun of PD Brown on Twitter to not going to
wrestling school, having my first bump be an apron bump,
losing part of my finger. That's how it happened, man.
(51:40):
That's a That's a hell of a way to get in everybody.
Usually it seems like a lot of guys have like these crazy
stories, but this one, this one takes a cake, that's for sure.
Yeah, man, it was it was it was a wild ride.
I I did not. I didn't expect me making fun of
Petey Brown get to get me to where I you know, where where I
was there at the first show. It was it was a hell of a we
(52:05):
left. I was the shit too, by the way.
I was, I was, I watched so many,like so many managers, tried to
study so much going into that first match that that I was a
manager just because I wanted tomake sure I wasn't horrible.
And I can tell you I was horrible.
I think the only thing that saved me was my fucking bump.
(52:26):
I think that's the only thing that fucking saved me.
I didn't even get into the ring right.
I hadn't even been inside of a wrestling ring to that point.
And I took I took an apron bump.That's that's how that played
out. Fucking wild, man, Fucking wild.
But yeah, that was a oh boy, That's that's that's number one.
(52:49):
That's a hell. I gotta say.
That's a that's a hell of a start.
I've never heard that story. And yeah, that's freaking
amazing. What a way to what a way to
start a manager career. I was fortunate, man.
I was super, super fortunate. But man, that's, I suppose
that's what we'll, we'll put a, we'll probably put a pin in in,
(53:10):
you know #1. Yes.
Because we have, boy, do we we have a long way to go here.
And I know that I know that the the next event that that we
cover is, is I'm I'm still working face.
And I guess it's a little bit a little bit of a teaser.
We got a car of Chicago talent that comes up for this one.
(53:34):
OK. And it was, it was, it was an
interesting day, man. It was an interesting day.
I will, I will tell you that forsure.
So next month we'll, we'll, we'll dive right into the second
card and, and go, go from there,man.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. This was this was a blast that I
hope all the listeners enjoyed hearing the story of the origin
(53:56):
of JJ Rogue. And glad you still have all 10
fingers too. Yeah, for now, man, for now I
got, I got, I got some more dates coming up.
So, yeah. So we'll see how it plays out.
Again, thank you everybody for for being a Patreon.
Your continued support is, is very important to us.
It's it's very valued and we're very grateful for it.
So thank you everybody for hanging out, man.
(54:17):
I'm, I'm, I'm excited to to, to share some more some more
stories in the next next one up is from a little little event in
Siren, WI. Make sure you guys tell all your
friends listen to shining wizardfor a couple of couple of bucks
a month. You listen to all of your bonus
shows and I'm nailing this. You know we've got plenty of
(54:41):
bonus shows in the past in addition to this one crosswords,
you know, trivia shows. I just everything it's the best
you know 131050 bucks you could spend that's for.
Sure. Yeah, for a couple extra bucks,
I'll. I'll send you everybody a
picture of my obliterated pinky toe.
(55:04):
Jeez, if we had a, if we had like a picture for this episode,
this would, that would absolutely be it, that's for
sure. Here we go.
Make sure everybody tunes in Monday night 7 to the nine,
9:00-ish, every Monday night on YouTube, on Facebook Live.
And I don't know how to end shows, so we'll just put a say,
(55:25):
we'll put a pin in it. Unless you got an end.
What I usually say is, well, Orney got to go.
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