Archie Gouldie - The Lore Of The Mongolian Stomper - Grappling With Canada

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
The Stomper has to land down.

(00:02):
And here comes the fan out of the crowd.
There's a fan coming up the front row of the crowd going after Don Carson.
The fan has jumped into the ring after Don Carson.
The Stomper has got him. Oh boy, I've never seen nothing like this.
A fan couldn't take it anymore.
He was sitting here on the front row and all of a sudden he jumped up into the ring.

(00:26):
And the Mongolian Stomper and Don Carson are going after him.
But he landed down to come in to help out and they got rid of him in a hurry.
Oh, and they've opened up a wound over the right eye of the fan that came off the front row.
And now the Shannon and the Maki being applied to the fan.
I don't know who this gentleman is. I'd like to know because he was sitting here watching the matches just to the right of me.

(00:51):
Then all of a sudden he had about all he could stand of Don Carson and the Mongolian Stomper.
And they went into the ring and he is out.

(01:15):
He's known by many names.
The Stomper, the Masked Bounty Hunter, the Midnight Stallion, the Mongolian Stomper.
With a gaze that would send chills up and down your spine and a vocabulary that would cut a grown man to pieces.

(01:38):
Join us this month on Grappling with Canada as we look at the greatest heel in wrestling history, Archie Goldie.

(01:59):
Hello everyone and welcome back, welcome back, welcome back.
To another episode of Grappling with Canada.
As usual, I'm your host, The Taxman.
And I'm very excited because this month's episode is finally the last month of me having to come have my podcasting space together.

(02:26):
So if this is your first time joining the program for the last few months, unfortunately, due to us renovating our basement for various reasons,
I've been kind of all over the map trying to record these programs.
I would highly suggest if this is your first time, you can go back in the archives and enjoy all of the podcasting hijinks that I've endured over the last couple of months.

(02:52):
But for everybody else, thanks for sticking with us.
It really means a lot to me.
And when you hear the next episode, November 1st, I will be fully encased, not in carbonite, but in a new podcasting area.
So that's going to be a lot of fun.
And I'm very much looking forward to that.
But more specifically, I'm really looking forward to today's episode because we are going to be taking a deep, intense and long look at,

(03:23):
in my opinion, the greatest wrestling heel, not just in Canadian professional wrestling history, but professional wrestling history around the world, point blank period.
It's my intention that after this program, you will maybe not agree, but maybe see my point of view on the subject, if you will.

(03:46):
So before we get into all of that, and by the way, I have three tremendous guests that I cannot wait for you guys to hear on this program.
I know that I always have incredible guests every month on this program.
This month is no different, and I'm really, really looking forward to you guys getting exposed to them later.

(04:09):
Notice how I didn't say I'm looking forward to you being exposed to them later.
Yeah, a little play on words there. But anyways, like I said, I'm looking forward to that.
But a little bit of housekeeping before we kick off today's episode.
If this is your first time joining us, welcome to the program.
You can find Grappling with Canada on all major podcasting platforms like iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Amazon Podcasts.

(04:38):
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(05:07):
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There are, there have been and I have received a plethora of emails, which I really, really appreciate from many people talking about what they enjoy about the program.

(05:31):
And I do appreciate that.
All feedback helps me kind of not curate, but tinker the program a little bit to give you guys a little bit more of what you really enjoy hearing.
So the more feedback I get, the better of a program I can release on the first of every month to everybody listening.

(05:52):
Conversely to that, if there's something that you would like change or whatever, I don't leave me a one star review,
but feel free to leave constructive criticism because like I said, it helps me with the direction of the show.
I'm not saying I'm going to change everything because I got a one star review.
Clearly that's not happening because it didn't happen on the earthquake John Tenta episode, for example.

(06:15):
But every little bit helps to help me shape the future of the show, if you will.
Also, if this is your first time joining us, listen to me talk.
A great introduction, if you will.
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(06:36):
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The podcast is always a late getting onto YouTube.
So don't don't you know, cut me off real quick.
Everything shows up there eventually.
I just have lots of things going on in the background.
So I'm not often able to get these programs up right away on YouTube.

(06:59):
But I would still like for your subscription on there anyways, as we march our way to a thousand subscribers.
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Search Grappling with Canada.
Come join the group and also make sure that you like the Grappling with Canada page.

(07:22):
Once again, use the pages search bar on that wonderful Facebook app.
I know everybody loves Facebook.
Yay.
And make sure that you like the Grappling with Canada page.
I am very excited to finally announce that T-shirt gate is over, if you will.

(07:45):
We finally have T-shirts available for purchase.
So you can either find the links on Twitter or on the Facebook groups page.
Or you can type on your wonderful Google machine or whatever browser you use.
Grappling with Canada dot threadless dot com.

(08:06):
You're going to find the Grappling with Canada store.
There are four designs on there.
The original Grappling with Canada podcast logo.
There's an alternate on there.
And I have two fun variations based on the old Karachi Vice logo.
People who would have heard last month's episode, you know exactly what I'm talking about.
So Grappling with Canada dot threadless dot com is where you can find those.

(08:32):
And like I said, all the links will be available on our Twitter page, on the Facebook groups, and also on our Instagram page.
Simply search Grappling with Canada on Instagram.
Of note, I'm not going to cut the entire promo about what happened with the T-shirt fiasco, if you will.

(08:53):
Although I'm going to tell you in a second where you can hear that exact kind of promo.
However, like I had mentioned previously on other months,
all T-shirt sale proceeds are going to be donated to the Children's Hospital here in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
So any T-shirt you buy, all that money goes directly towards charity.

(09:15):
So I'm really looking forward to finally having this all figured out, sorted, and ready to go for you guys.
For those of you who had emailed me trying to procure sizes when I was going to do it the other way,
check your inboxes because I've already, we're going to say about a half hour after I'm done recording this program,

(09:39):
which will be before it gets released on the 1st, you're going to have an email link sending you towards the Threadless store.
So go check it out in there. It's fully customizable, which I think is sweet.
So you can literally pick the style of shirt you want, the color of the shirt you want, if you want a hoodie, a zip, whatever.
It's all on there. It's tremendous.

(10:00):
So anyways, grapplingwithcanada.threadless.com is where you can find all that wonderful stuff.
Speaking of which, if you want to hear the promo of what happened on T-shirt gate, but more specifically,
if you have ever wanted to hear the taxman unglued, unchained, uncensored, and unhinged, you have your chance.

(10:21):
I was very graciously a guest on the Sunday Night Army podcast with Jacob.
Now, for those who are not familiar with him, this Jacob and the Sunday Night Army podcast is kind of a cornucopia of podcasting topics.
Usually his episodes run anywhere from 10 to 40 minutes, quite a bit different than this marathon program that I always run.

(10:46):
But he runs the gambit from talking about social issues to things like Facebook porn.
It's an episode and it's tremendous to things like social media and how influential it is or is not.
He also has a body positivity episode. Really great stuff.

(11:09):
But hands down, my favorite thing that he does is he does a tremendous job of showcasing Canadian artists, specifically music artists.
So what he'll do is he'll have an up and coming artist on who has just released a single.
He'll have an interview with them. He'll play their single so you can actually hear the music that these people have put together.

(11:30):
And then they go a little bit more in depth about that person's career trajectory.
Now, all the music, some of it is not my cup of tea.
However, I still love the episodes because it gives you a really good insight about what makes these people tick.
What makes them or what makes them produce the music they do and what makes them the way they are.

(11:52):
So, like I said, Jacob does a fantastic job. You can find him on Twitter at Sunday Night Army.
Like I said, the episodes are quick, usually between 15 and like 40 minutes.
And then my meltdown episode on his program is about 45.
So anyways, I want to say a big thank you to Jacob for having me on the program.

(12:14):
It was a ton of fun. I highly suggest you guys go check it out.
Once again, on Twitter at Sunday Night Army or you can search on whatever podcast and platform that you are listening to me on.
Search for the Sunday Night Army podcast.
In addition to all of that fun stuff, I've had some fantastic five star reviews that I'm going to get to later in that program.

(12:38):
Look, there's my phone. It's probably another one right now.
You can't see because it's not a video program. I'm giving the old thumbs up.
But anyways, I'm going to be getting into those later on in the program as well as a fantastic project that I was made privy to that I want to get into a little bit.
It's based part in part of one of the previous episodes that I did in the grappling with Canada series.

(13:05):
And it blew me away. So I'm looking forward to sharing a little tidbit with you guys later on in today's episode.
But the reason we're all here tonight, Archie the Stomper Goldie.
Now, I know that some people will just think and wrongly think, oh, he was quote unquote only big in Calgary.

(13:36):
Conversely, there may be some American listeners for which I know I have quite a few who may think that, oh, the Mongolian Stomper was quote unquote only big in Memphis.
Both statements are equally wrong. And like I said, I have some tremendous guests that are going to really shed some light on, again, in my opinion, the most underrated, underappreciated and quite frankly, one of the most history defining heels in professional wrestling history.

(14:10):
So as we move into the nuts and bolts of this program, I'm going to play some classic wrestling audio. Now, this is from Stampede Wrestling.
You're going to hear yourself some Archie the Stomper Goldie to get us primed for the rest of this episode.
And after that, we're going to start profiling the Stomper. Please enjoy.

(14:35):
Now, you are as lean and mean as ever.

(15:05):
The states once a while he goes to Japan trying to build his self a reputation.
I want to tell you something, Bret Hart. I beat your old man half to death and put him in the old folks home.
And I'm going to beat you half to death. If you've got enough guts to get out here. This is my home, brother.
You're stepping on my territory just because old man Hart lives up on the hill and got 29 kids.

(15:31):
That don't make him any more better than I am. I'm a lot tougher than your kids ever thought of being still hard.
And I'll put Bret Hart in the hospital or any other hard kid or anybody else.
I've been crippling more people in the last two years in the wrestling profession than anybody in history.
I go down into the record books as the crippler. I put them in the hospital, man. They carry them out.

(15:57):
Bret Hart, let me ask you one thing. I've been challenging you. This man right here paid me a lot of money.
And that's what it's all about, brother, money. He paid me a lot of money to come here and clean this place up.
John, I want to ask you, where's all the big men? That cross-eyed skinny Japanese punk that's just in there.
I didn't even get a workout with him. If you're going to pay me some big money, you better get me some competition, man.

(16:25):
He's going to better get me some competition. Because I'm going to put some people in the hospital.
I'm going to put them in the hospital.
Now, as we really dig into the life and career of Archie Goldie, as impressive and as crazy as the stories are that you're going to hear in this program tonight,

(16:47):
unfortunately, the story and subsequently the interviews that I have all end on a somber mood.
Now, this is not necessarily intentional. However, it does bring up a fantastic talking point that I think that you're going to get the picture of as we kind of progress through the program.

(17:10):
So although this portion of the program tonight and all essentially all three of the interviews that you're going to hear later in this program kind of end on a somber note,
I hope that everybody will take the time to kind of use it as a bit of reflection and get out of it.

(17:35):
A certain personal touch, if you will. And I think you'll understand what I'm getting at as we kind of move into the program.
So for those who are not aware, Archibald Edward Goldie was born November 22, 1936.
Fun fact shares the same birthday, November 22 as my mom. Hi, mom. I know you ain't listening, but there's that too.

(18:01):
So all good and fun. He was born in Carbon, Alberta, Canada, which has roughly a population of 600 people.
So from there, he would become a massive star in obviously Calgary, but also Western Canada.

(18:23):
He had very impressive tours in Atlantic Canada, and he was a massive star in the United States in specific promotions emanating out of Missouri, out of Texas, Georgia, Florida, California, Tennessee.
He was also big in Puerto Rico. He had a very significant run in Japan and also Australia.

(18:52):
So when I'm talking about Archie Goldie being a big time player in the professional wrestling industry, I'm not sugarcoating it.
This guy was huge. He was a massive star, not only in Canada and across the world, but a massive star for two different reasons.
And this is very interesting because he's one of the only individuals that I know.

(19:15):
And if I'm wrong, please send your hate tweets to at six underscore podcast. It's fine. I can take the heat.
But he's one of the only people in wrestling history who used one persona in one country and then another persona everywhere else.
So in Canada, he was known as the loudmouth, braggadocious.

(19:39):
He would annihilate his opponents on the microphone and then eviscerate them in the ring.
Whereas in the States, he always had a manager doing the speaking for him.
Down in the States, he was known as the Mongolian Stomper. He did everything, including changing his entire appearance.

(20:00):
Up in Canada, he would kind of wear his hair downish, if you will. His look kind of varied a little bit.
Sometimes he would be bald, but he looked like your standard North American heavyweight wrestler.
In the States, however, he would grow his mustache and like a Fu Manchu.
He would have his hair kind of pulled back in a little bit of a bun.

(20:24):
And he would be known as, like I said, the Mongolian Stomper. And he would have managers speaking for him.
He never talked for the most part, except in a few territories. He did a little bit in Memphis.
Towards the later years, he started speaking in Louisville and Kentucky.

(20:46):
And some people would say that that kind of ruined the aura and mystique of Archie the Stomper.
Because they had gone, you know, 10, 15 years of seeing him wrestle in these venues, never speaking or speaking, quote unquote, Mongolian,
to his manager, who would then translate it for the English speaking audience, we'll say.

(21:13):
But a lot of people would say that when he started speaking himself, that it ruined the mystique a little bit,
because clearly then he's not Mongolian.
Although, let's be frank, a lot of the crowds at that point, although they loved wrestling, especially in the South,
they knew that there was, it wasn't on the up and up. They knew that there was a little bit of magic behind the scenes.

(21:39):
So while I can appreciate that people would have kind of a skewed look on the Stomper, kind of taking away the mystique and speaking for himself,
I really don't think that in the overall crux of his legacy, that that really affected a whole lot of it.

(22:02):
Yes, does it ruin the mystique a little bit? Sure.
But you also can't be the exact same things for, you know, 20 years and expect it not to get stale with the audience.
So I can understand why he would have done things the way he did, and I can fully appreciate it.
So a lot of people would wonder, OK, so where does this all come from?

(22:24):
So essentially, and we're going to get into this later in the program, he gets a start up in Calgary.
It doesn't really work out the way that he wants in Calgary.
And he moves down to Kansas City, where Pat O'Connor was the big promoter there, came up with the Mongolian Stomper gimmick,
and then paired him with the manager. So he was the one who kind of started this whole program.

(22:50):
What's even more impressive with RG the Stomper is how many world champions that he wrestled throughout his career.
He wrestled everyone from Lou Thes to Dory Funk Jr., Terry Funk, Jack Briscoe, Ric Flair, Harley Race, and Gene Kieninski,
who you will all know from our Gene Kieninski episode back in episode five, I believe.

(23:16):
And when I'm talking about how impressive he was in terms of what he was able to accomplish,
presenting two different personas in essentially different markets, that's not the only impressive thing about him.
He was an absolute machine mountain of a man. He was six foot three, 275 pounds, wearing massive size 13 boots.

(23:45):
And he was a physical specimen, not in the way that you would think like, you know, a Hulk Hogan, roided up and things like that.
When you looked at Archie the Stomper, he looked like a professional athlete.
He carried himself as an absolute pro. And when you looked at him, you didn't think that he was some schlub who, you know,

(24:08):
was drinking a 12 pack of beer on his way between shows. He looked, acted, and presented himself as very intense,
very serious, and took himself as such in the ring and outside of it as well.
Now, I could wax poetic about, you know, what the Stomper meant to the Calgary territories, what he meant in America,

(24:34):
but fortunately for all of you at home, I have some tremendous guests who are going to get into this topic a lot better.
My first guest is Bo James. Now, for those who are not familiar, Bo is not just a former professional wrestler.

(24:55):
Not only is he a former promoter and current promoter as well, I might add, he also works with current talent.
And you're going to hear a little bit about that in my interview or discussion with him in regards to his interactions with
Archie the Stomper Goldie. Of note, I think it's super interesting, just on a side note, you'll hear people from maybe

(25:24):
the southern states who will say, oh, Archie was big here or the Mongolian Stomper was big here, but I don't think he ever did
anything anywhere else. And then you'll hear people in Calgary who will say, well, he was big here, but he didn't really do
anything else. And I think part and parcel of that is because of, like I said before, the different personas that he used

(25:45):
in these different markets. But I find it fascinating that in all of these markets, he was a star.
He was selling out venues, like I said, in Calgary, selling out venues in Memphis, working against some of the biggest names
in wrestling, like at the time, Jerry the King Lawler, massive star. Like I said, Harley Race, massive star.

(26:10):
He's working against all these different people and all these different promotions. It's incredible to think that a guy comes
from essentially a footnote town in Alberta, goes on to become one of the biggest stars of essentially North American
wrestling and then wrestling abroad. Although, because this is Grappling with Canada, I suppose we shouldn't be so surprised

(26:35):
considering the plethora of talent that I've already talked about in the context of this program. But I digress, I'm waxing
a little bit here, but it doesn't take anything away from the interview that I'm going to get into right now.
So before that, I'm going to play some classic audio. This is from the aforementioned time when our boy Archie,

(27:03):
the Stomper Goldie was taking on, actually he was at that time the Mongolian Stomper, taking on Jerry Lawler in Memphis.
So please enjoy this classic wrestling audio. And on the other side, my conversation with Bo James. Please enjoy.

(27:41):
I made a promise to the people of Memphis last week, and by getting my hand raised in a disqualification is not what I want.
That to me isn't finishing Jerry Lawler off. I promised him I was going to bury him in his own trench with his rats with him.

(28:06):
And like I said, he got disqualified, the referee wanted to raise my hand, but I didn't want him to raise my hand.
I want him to raise my hand when Lawler's laying in the trench. But you know Lance, you can't beat two guys at one time.
Especially when you have a rat, yes a dirty low down rat, coming off the top rope on your back with a whip in his hand.

(28:29):
You can't do that, you can't beat two of them rats with one behind you. So now Lance, I'm going to do something now I've never done in my 13 years as a professional wrestler.
I'm going to ask for help. And I got the man right over here, if he'll come over here, is Rocky Johnson, that saved my neck tonight.

(28:50):
Rocky, I'm going to ask you next week to be in my corner to watch the rats, to keep the rats off my back so I can complete the job with Lawler.
Right on, I'll tell you one thing, I'll be in your corner and I'll guarantee you one thing, if that bat makes one move, I'll guarantee you I'll bury him myself.

(29:11):
Put it there brother.
Right on.
Rocky Johnson and the Mongolian Stompers.
One last thing Lance, I promised the people in Memphis that the blood would flow from Lawler's head and that I was going to finish the King of Memphis.
With Rocky Johnson in my corner to watch the rats, I'm going to complete the job for the people, I'm going to make my last promise, the blood will flow again and Lawler yes, I will bury you in the trenches.

(29:42):
Because Rocky is there to watch the rats and I'll complete my job.
There it is from the Mongolian Stomper, he had Lawler bleeding tonight, he won on a disqualification, refused to have his hand raised, he has promised back again more blood from Lawler and he's going to finish the job this coming week with Jerry Lawler.
This is Lance Russell from the Memphis Mid-South Coliseum.

(30:04):
Alright, very pleased to be joined on the line right now by Bo James. Bo, how you doing?
Doing wonderful.
How is life down in the states right now? It's a little bit hairy in some areas, I'm not sure how it is where you are.
Same kind of deal here, we kind of opened back up in May and I went back in the ring for the first time in 14 months after everything shut down, but in July and August I had panels cancelled because the virus got out of hand in different places.

(30:41):
School boards in different buildings said, hey we need to shut this down, so it's just, it's uncertain times and you never know what's coming tomorrow.
So that's the way I'm looking at everything now, anytime the phone rings from somebody that I'm booked for I'm thinking, yeah here comes the cancellation.
More importantly, how did that first bump feel after 14 months?

(31:05):
I wrestled my nephew the first night back in the ring and the longest break that I had had, and I've been in the ring for 31 years, involved in the wrestling for 33 and in the ring for 31, I was in a car wreck in 04 and I had to have surgery done on my ear.

(31:29):
I was out about four and a half months and then in 2014 I had back surgery and they told me I would be out a year and I was back in the ring and back in the ring several nights a week in six and a half months.
Wow!
So sitting still for 14, it was 14 months to the day from when I came off the road and everything started getting canceled until I went back in the ring and we were sitting in the dressing room and I told Jake, if I tell you to cover me, I'm not getting up.

(32:05):
We're going home.
Yeah.
Oh that's tremendous.
I said I have no idea what is going to happen to my body out there when we get to the ring.
Wow, wow, that's incredible.
Well, I'm happy to think at least that he took care of you out there.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's, you know, I've been not nearly as active in years past, but we're pretty active.

(32:31):
I mean one or two a week right now.
And we, matter of fact, we had one canceled for this Thursday, we were supposed to have a town going to get people over the building were afraid to have a crowd in there so that was the only one I had this week so I'll just sit here this week and watch baseball and football.
Good plan at least at least it gives you a little bit to get prepared for the next one, if you will.

(32:56):
Yeah. So naturally we're here tonight to talk about Archie Goldie but before we talk about the Mongolian Stomper. I just give everybody a little bit of background about yourself.
I was super fan I watched every wrestling program.
I went to the live matches here I live, I grew up in East Tennessee, 80 miles east of Knoxville, almost to the Virginia line, far from Carolina so I lived where the Knoxville territory, and the rocket territory overlapped.

(33:34):
And I live in between Kingsport and Johnson City.
Kingsport was a every three weeks stop for rocket.
And Johnson City was an every Tuesday night stop for Knoxville. So I got to see everybody live as a kid all the top star steamboat young blood flayer dusty mulligan on the rocket side in the golden fuller family and the Stomper and everybody on the Knoxville side.

(34:01):
And I just hung around the matches all the time as a kid.
And my mom worked for service merchandise, which was a big retail store.
And when Walmart came to East Tennessee, kind of like a good booker.
They went and rated the talent.

(34:23):
And she went to work for Walmart when they first came here, and one of her jobs for Walmart was she was over promotions and promoting the grand openings of these new ones, because there was a new thing here in the bit in late 80s.
And we got the idea about maybe we should book some wrestlers for the grand openings to some of these stores.

(34:44):
And she talked about folks you called he called back. He was Ron Fuller's partner in Knoxville. We started, she started booking the wrestlers Johnny and Davey Rich, Scott Armstrong, Doug Furness.
So I got to know these guys when I'm 1314 years old. Wow.
So, they took care of the kid because mom's taking care of them.

(35:18):
And we just go to the door wherever and find the riches or Scott Armstrong and they would bring me my family in. And we're in Knoxville one night I'm sitting there at the merchandise table and Johnny and Davey Richard talking and Ron West comes walking by Ron West was spot town promoter.
And longtime referee one of the best referees that ever was started with Nicholas work for pocket then went to work for fullers worked in Atlanta for Barnett work for Bill Watts.

(35:50):
The best front office man of all time. Everybody says that about Ronnie West. He comes walking by one day and Davey Rich says Ronnie give this kid a job he loves our business and he's always around.
He called my mother that Tuesday and asked if he can hire me to help promote town. Wow. So, 14 I started to help promote spot towns in East Tennessee.

(36:14):
Did in some old merchandise set up the rain, they paid me.
I was around the boys around the business, and it was, I was around so much around so many people for so long. They just assumed I was smart.
And I was it. And I had ideas like everybody does but you know, we're not 100% sure that we're in the ring. Well now they tell you everything.

(36:41):
So after the Knoxville office territory shut down there was, you know, these little independent out all shows around here and I was helping doing the same thing.
I'm 15 years old selling tickets in a little bitty spot town called McPheeters being Tennessee, just a little bitty place. If you've ever seen the movie The River with Mel Gibson's this is basic, the farm.

(37:07):
And that movie was in McPheeters being the school that they're playing softball is that is where we were at. Wow. And the promoter sticks his head out the curtain and he looks at me and he's like, Come here.
So I walk over and he says, Do you think you could referee.
And I said, Well, you know, like when I grow up or something, you know,

(37:29):
he says I mean like in 10 minutes.
There's not a referee here and it's time to start.
And I was not smart enough, I was put out there, but I just tried to do what I'd seen all the referees before do.
And I evidently did a good job because the guy running the town comes to my house.

(37:50):
This was on a Friday or Saturday he comes on Monday and says, Hey, we would like to use him as a referee all the time.
And then it just grew from that 16 years old.
And then at last, the guy that was running those towns and out had been in a real bad car wreck.

(38:19):
You want to take this over.
Wow.
You do more to promote it than anybody on the card.
And next thing I know, a few weeks later, it gets serious.
And it's 16 February the 16th 1991.

(38:41):
I ran my first town where I was the boss.
It was my money.
I'd go out and get it.
And, you know, and it was a hopes and dreams promotion to getting started.
And here we are 30 years later, and I promoted in Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee with my own promotion.

(39:04):
And I actually took a tour out west and did South Dakota, North Dakota, Wyoming a few years ago.
And I've promoted towns for other people in Washington State, Louisiana, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania.
So, you know, it was all all destined to be.
I tell people all I ever wanted to be my my kindergarten teacher.

(39:29):
I was one of the first years of her career.
And her last year, my one of my nephews was in her class.
He brought me to show one pay open because his uncle was on TV and the whole deal.
So she told me that day, she said, ever how many years it was she had taught and the hundreds of kids that she had.
She said, you are the only person that ever stood up at five years old and said, I'm going to be this and became that that she never had.

(39:58):
She said, And I remember that day in kindergarten when they were asking me to be a wrestler and everybody laughed.
Everybody, the teacher, the kids, the teachers, everybody laughed.
And here I am.
Thirty three years later, involved in wrestling, three time published author.
I've been on CBS Evening News.

(40:19):
I've been on HBO, Vice News.
I've been all across the country and I've got to live my dream.
And now who's laughing, hey?
So when my goodness and all from refereeing, just just what a crazy story to just come from.

(40:40):
Hey, kid, can you ref this match?
Just incredible.
Only in wrestling could would you ever hear something like that? Hey, oh yeah.
And that's how all of my nephews followed in my footsteps.
I've had three of them in the ring.
Zach referee for a while.
Jake Grassles, the referee, still full time now.

(41:03):
His older brother, Dakota referee and wrestled some plus Dakota was very good at TV production.
He produced the TV for me for a couple of years and actually four.
I forgot my other little nephew, Tyler, he refereed.
He saw and all of them got thrown in the same way.

(41:24):
And I walked up and said, come with me.
You want to ref and they were all teenagers, you know, just because I didn't give them time to think about it.
And they had grown up around the wrestling.
So they knew they knew all the boys and the boys knew to take care of them.
And it worked.
That's tremendous.
Yeah. What's good for the goose, as they say, hey.

(41:48):
Yeah.
So because you had such an early and incredible start to the business, are you would you know, then when your first interaction with the Stomper would have been?
Very early on, probably within four to six months of being in the ring.

(42:11):
Oh, wow.
Because once I started here, I got me booked around Knoxville and I was passed away and I was business partner who became my business partner for years, who became like a brother to me.
Glenn Day, who wrestled is crunch the equalizer passed away this year crunch started getting me booked.

(42:32):
So he'd have somebody to travel with him.
And I'm 1516 years old and I walk in a dressing room in Knoxville and there sits the face of my childhood nightmares.
There was four people I had nightmares about the great movie, Jody Hamilton, the assassin, Joe, the Duke and the mongolian Stomper when I was a kid and there sits the Stomper.

(42:59):
And I was scared to death and you got to do it.
Walked over and introduced myself and he says, just call me Archie.
Wow.
And that day your friendship began.
So, before you had met him, how would you have seen him previous to that? Like what television stations or promotions would you have gotten down there?

(43:23):
Run for southeastern rice.
Okay.
Where he was the monster heel and he was smashed over.
Had the big run with Garvin had the big run with Joe the Duke where he almost killed Joe the Duke on TV where he hit him in the head with the sledgehammer.
Yes.
Then he worked for Flare Mulligan after they had bought Knoxville.

(43:46):
Then he came back for forward through the years.
I had seen him all my life and I had seen him live many times.
And I tell you when Stomper went to the ring in Johnson City, there was nobody in the aisleways.
There was nobody trying to pat anybody on the back or get a high five.
They knew the Stomper was coming.
People scattered.

(44:08):
And that was, and I tell people this all the time, I was terrified of him as a fan as a kid.
Then I got to know him very well and was around him.
I was really scared of him then because I knew after getting to know him, this dude's even better than I thought he was.

(44:30):
And he worked for the Knox County in Knoxville for the Sheriff's Department.
And one of the things that he was good at, if they had warrants and they needed to go pick a guy up and they knew he was going to fight, send the Stomper.
And the Stomper would go get him and he was coming to jail.
So I will get a little bit more in depth into that in a minute.

(44:55):
So when you first meet him, you're a young kid still.
You're sitting across from him. You go up. You introduce yourself.
He says, call me Archie.
Was it at that point that you started going on tour with him or was that a one-off and you didn't see him after for a little bit?
Or how did the relationship come to develop?
We were just in towns around each other.

(45:19):
He lived in Knoxville and I'm up here so I was around doing marriable in North City, Knoxville.
These are all suburbs of Knoxville.
All these towns are running pretty regular.
Everybody uses Archie because he was an easy guy to deal with.
He had name value.
He didn't break your bank and your budget to bring him in and work and he worked hard.

(45:43):
So I was around him a lot.
And then finally one night, I'm probably trying to think here, maybe end of 16, getting ready to turn 17, might have just turned 17.
I said, hey Archie, can I get your phone number?
And he gave it to me and I said, I'm going to call you this week.

(46:04):
So I called him and started booking him in my towns.
And he worked on it all for me for years.
He was my champion for a while.
But before that, Rick Connors, old time Knoxville guy.
Rick is kind of the stew heart of Knoxville.
Rick was the trainer. He trained Tim Horner.
He trained the Dirty White Boy.
He trained Doug Furness.

(46:26):
And a lot of other guys, Ron Sexton, a lot of other guys that worked the territories.
But Rick was a boxer, a judo guy and an amateur wrestler.
High level, army champion.
He won five tough bank contests.
He was a judo champion.
He was MMA before there was MMA.
Geez.

(46:48):
And he was another one of them guys.
Once I got to know him and knew his history, man, this guy's a bad guy.
Yeah, he's a bad man.
Yeah, Rick liked me too.
And he tells me one night, he's booking a town and it was running every week.
And I was working there.
And he says, we're going to turn you hill, but if you're a manager.

(47:10):
I'm a kid referee.
I'm like, no, you're not.
Yeah.
I was like, no, I've seen what happens to some of these managers.
And he said, you're dependable.
You're going to do good.
So we do a hunt and finish.
We'll help the hills win.
The next week, he tells me, you know, get a cowboy hat, get a this and that.

(47:32):
You're going to be my manager.
So we're sitting in the dressing room and Rick says, I'm going to go out and do this interview.
He gives the interview to me.
He tells me what he's going to say in the interview.
Yes.
I've never did an interview.
I've never did.
I've never even picked up a microphone other than just setting up the building, getting ready for that night.

(47:53):
So we go out.
He gets the mic and he says, everybody be quiet.
I have an important announcement to make.
So I think he's getting ready to do the interview.
I'm just going to stand behind him and clap, cheer, do whatever.
He says, my new manager has something to say.
Oh, and I'm on the spot.

(48:15):
And I'm like, oh, my gosh. So I just do the interview the best I could that he gave me in the dressing room.
Yeah.
So we're doing this for a few weeks.
And he says, stoppers coming in, go start working here in two weeks.
So I'm like, oh, great, because I get you're learning from these guys being around them and watching them and listening.

(48:38):
And he goes, you're going to start managing the stall.
Wow.
And I said, what?
He says, you're going to start managing the stall.
He said, he'll help you. You'll learn from.
So first night, I got to go out and do an interview for the stall because the mongolian stopper doesn't speak.
That's right.

(48:59):
And he's standing behind me.
I'm a nervous wreck.
I think I was 17 at this time.
And he says, tell him Andre couldn't beat me. Tell him Hogan couldn't do it.
He's just he's just feeding me lines.
And I just I'm taking them and using them.

(49:20):
And then we go to the ring and he just murdered some poor guy and stomps his brains out and beats him.
And we're coming back from the dressing room and he ain't said nothing to me.
We go in once we get out of the sight of the people.
Archie says, hey, good job.
And that was it.
And just like that.
Yeah. And I got to manage him for six or eight weeks because you can't have the stopper there every week.

(49:47):
So six or eight weeks and Rick says he'll come back in probably four or five months.
We'll do another four or five week run with him.
And that's what happened.
And I just got to work with Archie a lot and got to be around him.
And he Archie knew my family because he came up and started working for me.
And he him and my dad became friends because my dad was my ring announcer.

(50:14):
My nephew's for little boys, little boys like two and a half and four.
And I'm in the shower one night my hometown and I come out of the shower and I'm drying off.
And I hear my nephew's laughing.
So I look around the corner and there sits the Monkoli and Stomper, the baddest man on earth.

(50:37):
And he's got Dakota on one knee.
He's got Jake on the other knee.
He's tickled them and playing with them.
Come on.
And I'm like, what kind of bizarro world am I in right now?
This is just absolutely crazy.
And he just, you know, I got to see another side of him.
And I got to work with him a lot and you know he had Alzheimer's at the end.

(51:03):
And a lot of the boys went at the scene and people kept telling me you got to go scene.
You don't know who anybody is.
That's what they kept saying.
You don't know who anybody is but go scene.
And I went through that with an aunt.
I went through that with my grandfather.
And I said that's not going to be my last memory.
Stomper, knowing what he was and who he was, I can't do it.

(51:28):
You know, but I was there for the funeral and you know, and I've got videos and I've got pictures and all kinds of stuff.
And anytime his name comes up, I've got a story.
So there's a couple of things that I wanted to just elaborate on a little bit that you had brought up.
So you had mentioned the point that you always found it very easy to work with.

(51:53):
There's been so many stories or innuendo that seem to paint the picture that he was difficult or that he was hard to deal with or that he was high strung.
But everybody that I've talked to speaks differently or contradicts that.
Do you think that that image is just people are basing that based on his in-ring character or is there something that is lost in translation here that people seem to be missing about him?

(52:25):
He would leave territories if he thought he was being misused.
Like he went to work for Bill Watson. He was there maybe four weeks and went back to four.
He went to work for Byrne and you know, if he didn't think the money was right or he didn't, he wasn't going to argue with you.

(52:46):
Yes.
And he wasn't going to fight for what he thought was his.
I'll just go back to Knoxville. I'll go home to Calgary.
And that's what he did.
And now if you crossed him, you're going to have a bad day.
I saw him one time.
This is this is very early knowing him.

(53:09):
We're in a nightclub in Knoxville.
And something happened in the ring. I don't know. I wasn't the referee in that match. I was in the back waiting to go in the next match.
And the guy that he worked with come running through the door running and said, I got to get out of here. I got to get out of here. He's going to kill me.

(53:30):
And he came. Here comes Archie through the door, stomping.
And you could tell he was mad.
And the guy goes, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. And he's trying to make an excuse for whatever he did.
And Archie reached right out with his thumb and his pointing finger that was bent. And he grabbed him by the Adam's apple and he put him to sleep.

(53:52):
And I'm standing right there watching. And I said, oh my gosh, he'll kill you.
Yeah, he has the arm on his good side. Yeah.
But if you were business with Archie, Archie was business with you.
He had no ego. Now he wanted to protect who the stomp was.

(54:17):
I remember one night giving him a finish and he said, I'm not saying no.
But can we do it just a little different and do it this way?
And he explained it to me and he says it makes both of us stronger.
And I said, yes. He still put the guy over.
But we just did it a little different than I originally said.

(54:41):
But I was a kid learning and it was a great learning experience for me.
To work where some guys would have just said, no, I'm not doing it.
He did not have that trouble whatsoever.
He always seemed to be, to me at least, and then obviously from the people that I've talked to and the articles that I've read,
that he was very much like a thinking man's wrestler.
He would think about storylines and how they would make him look as well as how his opponent looked coming out of it.

(55:11):
He would go out of his way to make sure that things made sense in the ring to translate later on.
He always seemed to be kind of a big planner. Was that your impression of him as well?
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Because like when I would bring him in for, say I would bring him in and say, you know,
I've got six or eight dates on you in the next month or two months or three months.

(55:34):
Okay, who am I going to work with? And what is, what did he want at the end of this deal?
And I would tell him, this is what I want to do.
And he would think of a way to make sure when we're done, he's still strong and so is the guy that he's worked with.
And it, but he would also tell you, I've got to get the heat. I've got to get the heat. I've got to get it early.

(56:03):
So, you know, pretty much the first night if Archie came in, like tonight when I brought him in to work with Mike Stamford,
he spread it to him and I had a guy like Jason out with the skull crusher. There had to be blood.
Different day, different time. Stamford's got to stomp your brains out.
You know, but in the end, you guys are going to come out on top.

(56:28):
And he knew that and he was, like I said, he was not hard to deal with at all.
Now, there's a story that you had briefly touched on, which I have to circle back to because, you know,
I've heard it a few times from a few different people, but it's in regards to the sledgehammer incident with Joel the Duke.

(56:51):
Now, were you present for that or is that something you caught on television?
I would have seen it on television, but I was only three or four years old. But I had the program,
the weekly event program from Knoxville and New York City from that time. So I've seen it. I've heard about it.
And I have the video up.

(57:12):
You have the video.
And it's getting ready to be on Ron Fuller's Southeastern Rewind YouTube channel.
Wow.
I just today, matter of fact, and it's the wrong. I said, look, I have it. Let's play it. Let's show it.
And so we want to do some editing this week to take the copyrighted music off of it.

(57:37):
But here's what's great. Les Thatcher, who was commentating and who was there, is still working with us.
So we're just going to use Les to call it again.
Wow.

(58:19):
We were kind of like, no, no. And Robert called them into it.
But what they did is they went out there and it was something that Igor had done and a lot of the wrestlers had done over the years where the manager busts the block almost all procedure.

(58:40):
They come back next week and the Duke comes out and he says, I'll show them as tough as him. I'll let you do it to me.
When the block that Stauffer had on his head was the regular sized center block, the block that the Duke had on his head looked like a cornerstone to a skyscraper.

(59:06):
The bigger the block, the less chance of getting hit in the head.
So they go to do it and Stauffer grabs the sledgehammer out of Gorgeous George Jr.'s hand and he swings it.
Well, he's thinking, bigger block, I've got to swing harder. So he ends up hitting the block, the block drives the Duke's neck down into his shoulders and then the hammer hits the back on Duke's head.

(59:36):
Oh, God.
He goes into convulsions right there in the ring.
I mean, he's got a brain injury right there in the ring on TV and they have to hold the taping up to get the paramedics in there.
He legit was in the hospital for eight or ten days.

(59:59):
It made all the local news. It was a big, big deal and he almost killed him.
Yeah, no, it was legitimately he almost killed him. This isn't one of those. This was not a, this is not storyline anymore. This is real life.
Right. And it got so much news attention, the newspapers, the TV news. People knew this is for real.

(01:00:26):
Even if you thought, okay, it could be a work or it ain't real. Everybody knew this man almost killed this man on television.
So they now have to see different opponents to the Stomper because they don't think the plan was able to do.
Excuse me. So they don't know how long the Duke's going to be out. They have no clue.

(01:00:52):
The Duke goes, Jimmy Goldman goes to see the Duke in the hospital on a Friday. So this would be 13 days after the incident.
He comes back to the he comes to the building that night and he says he's gone. He's not in the hospital. He checked. He said, I'll tell.

(01:01:14):
So now they don't know where he is. They don't know where he's at. They thought he might have went home to Canada to recuperate.
So Stomper goes to the brain to work with. I think it was Ricky Gibson. He's having the match.
He wins. Gorgeous George Jr. is in the ring with him after the match.

(01:01:36):
And they hear the grumble of the fans and they see in the Coliseum, they would turn the lights out during the match and then they would turn them up if you went out on the floor.
Yes.
Or when the match was over. When the lights come up, the Duke is walking down the steps of the Coliseum for the people.

(01:02:00):
Well, they double-edged axe.
And they see him.
And Stomper told me this is the only time in my life I was afraid.
My God.
He's coming to kill us.

(01:02:21):
So they look at each other and they say it's time to go.
They run for their life.
Gorgeous George Jr. and Stomper.
The Duke gets in the ring. He picks up the microphone and he says, guess who's come home to Knoxville?
Stomper. Stomper. You're a dead man.

(01:02:46):
They don't know if he's working or not.
He doesn't know if he's working or not.
Right. They think he has come to murder us.
They leave. They get their stuff and leave.
And they end up having a conversation.
And then he's like, it's all of our fault.

(01:03:10):
It's just my fault as it was your fault.
I should have never agreed. I should have never put that block on.
No kidding.
Who does that?
We're dumb.
But we're going to draw some big money. And they grew some big money off of it.
I can only imagine being in the building that night.

(01:03:35):
The chills. I must have been going up everybody's spine to see Joel the Duke coming down the aisle way with an axe.
And you're like, what is happening here?
Yeah.
And they sold out for weeks in a row because people said it's gladiators fighting to the death.
Somebody's going to die.
And they were selling out to small towns. They're selling out to Johnson City.

(01:03:59):
They're selling out to Crossville. They're selling out to Hazard.
You know, Hazard and Johnson City were the BNC towns.
But the little towns they're going to, like Newport, Tennessee,
they're setting records. Morristown. They're turning people away.
There's more people outside trying to get in than there is in the building.
This is a huge, huge money drawing angle.

(01:04:22):
And I don't think they had a match that lasted over six minutes because they sold real.
The Duke hit the ring and they went to fighting.
Yeah.
It's kind of like what Brody and Abdullah would do a few years later.
So I guess in terms of your in-ring work with the Stomper,

(01:04:50):
like we've kind of covered that as well,
you had also mentioned that after he was done in the ring, he had taken a job with,
it was a sheriff's department, correct?
Yeah. Yeah. He was a deputy sheriff.
So because he ended up moving to Knoxville, was that more, he just, he liked it being there?

(01:05:11):
Was it because it was easier on him physically?
Like what was the draw for him to make Knoxville his home
and then to obviously get a job with the sheriff's department?
The mountains. Fugiki came here and never left.
Fugiki had a home here the whole time. He worked for Bethesda.
Ron Fuller lived here on and off for years.

(01:05:33):
He's back here now and retired and came back to Knoxville.
He's right outside of Knoxville in the mountains.
Kane lives here. Jimmy Golden made his home in Knoxville.
Everybody that comes to these mountains don't want to leave.
We live in one of the most beautiful parts of the world.

(01:05:54):
And he was so over in this territory, Stomper was.
He loved it. He knew that area because he worked in every town within a hundred miles of Knoxville in every direction.
And it's a good place to raise your kids.
It's just the economy is fairly good here in East Tennessee.
We're one of the fastest growing states in the country.

(01:06:17):
Knoxville has exploded. Nashville has exploded.
Where I live in the Tri-Cities has exploded.
People are coming here from major markets because they like the country
and they like the mountains.
You get 35 minutes outside of Knoxville, you're in the middle of nowhere.
So they can get lost on the lake or they get lost on a hiking trail.

(01:06:39):
Stomper loved the lake and he loved riding his bike.
He would ride his bicycle from Knoxville to Morristown and Rassel,
then ride his bicycle back to Knoxville 38 miles each way.
That's incredible.
That's the kind of machine that man was.

(01:07:02):
He was a machine. He was unreal.
And the first time that I wrestled the Stomper, I had managed him, I had revved him.
He knocked me down a few times, always took care of me.
But still that first night you're in the ring looking across the ring at him,
you're thinking, I'm getting ready to get it handed to me.
It's a whole different now.

(01:07:28):
But no, the scary side is laying there as he hits the ropes
and comes running with that big stomp to your head.
And you're looking up and you see that size 14 coming right at you.
And you're like, oh my goodness.
Yeah, I'm done for.
And I have seen him stomp some people, but I was never stomped,

(01:07:50):
other than in a working way.
In terms of his physical ability and the shape he would keep himself in,
he was never, and I have this conversation with another guest on the program,
but he was never a body guy.
He was never Hulk Hogan with 24-inch pythons, blah, blah, blah.
But you can look at him and you knew that he was an athlete who took it seriously.

(01:08:17):
And from his matches, from the way he carried himself,
when you looked at him, you just knew, just looking at him, that he was a specimen.
He could do squats all day.
He would ride his bicycle 20-plus miles a day.

(01:08:38):
His legs were unreal.
The wheels underneath him were unreal.
He was cardio.
You couldn't blow him up.
You could not.
I've seen guys try and him play with them,
him let them try to blow him up just to see how far they would try to take it.

(01:09:02):
And he was a health nut. He was always in shape.
He was a monster and he was a machine.
That was his whole presence.
And he knew that presence was his selling point.
You didn't see people on the street like him back then.

(01:09:23):
You didn't see people coming at you as you were standing there in the aisle way like him.
And he didn't speak until they had turned him baby face in 79, so nobody had heard his voice.
So he was a mystery, a man of mystery.
You just knew this man stomps people's brains out.
He beats their brains out.
He barks and slobbers.

(01:09:45):
He's an animal.
And he was a 180 from that, if you got to know Archie.
Archie was funny.
Archie had a sense of humor.
He liked to go watch people in McDonald's order all this food and then they would get a diet coke and he would just laugh.

(01:10:09):
He would laugh hysterically about it.
Just little things that would happen in the ring, he would kind of look at you.
I never saw him laugh in the ring, but you knew he was about to laugh.
He had a sense of humor.
I never got to travel with him.

(01:10:31):
That's the one thing.
I lived up here and he lived in Knoxville.
So if we're going to the towns, you would see him in the town.
But just about everybody else from that time frame that I worked with, I made at least a couple of towns with.
And I never got to travel with Archie.
That's one of my great regrets.
I wish I would have got to make a couple of towns with him.
He would have had a W on the bike then.

(01:10:54):
Yeah.
It had been his old, I'm trying to think what, it was a Chrysler, an old Chrysler that he had.
That he would drive if it was over 30 or 40 miles, he would drive his car if it was raining.
But he rode the bike to Morristown with his kid on the back a few times.
Wow.
And went and wrestled and he drove him home.

(01:11:19):
There will never be another like him.
There will never be another Stalper.
There will never be another Mongolian Stalper.
There will never be another character of that.
The only thing that you know of him is Archie Stalper Goldish from Calgary.
Then look at Ron Fuller's YouTube, the Southeastern Rewinder, look at my YouTube, King of Kingsport,

(01:11:45):
because I have videos of him where you can see him as the Mongolian Stalper.
And it's somewhat the same guy, but it's also 100% different.
Because in Calgary he did his own interviews and he talked and he grew his hair out, you know,
where he didn't have that in the States.
And he was a success everywhere he went.

(01:12:07):
Kansas City, Georgia, Florida, Knoxville, you know, everywhere that he went he grew money
because he was a businessman and he was somebody that truly understood what it took to draw a house.
And in keeping with that, it's funny you mentioned like, you know, he, if you only saw him in Calgary,

(01:12:32):
you're missing out, or if you only saw him in one of the other territories, you're missing out on the total package
that he presented because, yeah, he was a guy who, like we were saying, not only physically took himself seriously,
but took his presentation seriously.
So you have, and that's what I totally agree with your point that you'll never see another one like him

(01:12:53):
because it's almost impossible in today's day and age that you're going to have somebody who is that disciplined
to make sure that who they portray in the ring is who the people see them as instead of, you know,
they go home and they hop on Twitter and they're totally different or any kind of, you know, things like that.

(01:13:16):
He never went in public.
He never went out in the public where people could see him other than to and from the wrestling matches until years later.
He, when he was riding his bike on the side of the road, he would have the sweats on the sweatshirt and knit cap.
So you just saw this big guy.
You didn't realize, hey, that's the Stonker when you went by.

(01:13:39):
You know, he protected himself because that was his money and he protected it as far as you could protect it.
He would not speak English or he wouldn't speak, period.
And if they stopped at a gas station, he wouldn't speak.
Most of the time he didn't get out of the car.
He would have one of the other boys go do it.

(01:14:00):
When Don Carson and Gordas, he just, he protected it all the way.
All right.
So I know you, you are a very busy man and I got to let you go for the night tonight, but where can people get in touch with you?
At King of Kingsport on Twitter, on Facebook, facebook.com slash pro wrestler, Bo James.

(01:14:22):
That's B E A U. Everybody misspells it the first time.
Also, if you want to see some of the stuff that Stonker worked with me, which I've got a lot more to go up.
I've got a streaming service, Southern States Wrestling Network, pivotshare.com, free seven day trial to check it out.
You'll see the Stonker, Buddy Landale, Rockwell Express, Sherri Martell, Jerry Lawler, Jimmy Golden, gosh, Arne Anderson.

(01:14:47):
The list goes on and on.
People that's worked for me over the last 30 years and we're going through the year 2002 right now on there.
But I've got stuff from all 30 years.
You can check it out.
Plus a lot of other great independence from the South here over the years.
Check that out.
And it's only $4.99 a month after your free day, seven day trial.
And Southeastern Rewind right now is taking a lot of my time.

(01:15:10):
That's Ron Forrest, YouTube, and Ron and I are working to make sure the history of Knoxville and Alabama is told correctly.
And we're going to show you some rare videos from our collections like Stonker and LaDuke coming up.
And I think it'll be up next week as we record this.
So we've got a lot of great stuff.

(01:15:31):
So just give me a follow.
Let me know you heard this.
And I always enjoy hearing feedback from people from wherever I do these podcasts at.
And I love talking about the history of the business.
It has given me everything that I've ever had.
Well, I appreciate your time tonight.
And I really appreciate all the hard work that you guys are putting in preserving the history is really important because otherwise it's if when it's gone, it's gone.

(01:15:58):
And unfortunately, if it's if it leaves or is being told incorrectly, then man, that's just it's a shame.
So I'm whoever lives longest, right?
It's history.
So we're going to make sure it's right.
I couldn't say it any better myself.
Both. Thank you very much for your time tonight.
Thank you very much.

(01:16:19):
Hopefully I'll come back.
We'll talk about somebody else on a different episode.
Hey, anytime the doors open.
All right.
Thank you.
Before I unleash my next guest onto everybody, I have some classic wrestling audio for everyone to enjoy.
This comes courtesy of Stampede Wrestling.
This is from a feud between Archie the Stomper Goldie and Harley Race.

(01:16:45):
So I'm going to play this classic wrestling audio.
And on the other side, a reoccurring guest all the way from episode one of Grappling with Canada.
Who is it?
Find out on the other side of this.
I told Dan Crawford and I told all these other punks that there's no man in this world going to stop me from getting that world belt.

(01:17:16):
That world heavyweight wrestling belt is going to be mine.
It's going to be mine because I have earned the reputation to meet the world heavyweight champion.
And like I said, nobody is going to stop me and nobody did.

(01:17:39):
Well, you're Tommy. You're beating them three times.
That's right.
Here comes the man that I have beat three times when he was the U.S. champion.
There he is.
Three times.
That's right. You know, it never hurts to have an edge.

(01:18:07):
To have an edge on a man like this man.
I've got my edge now.
You come, stopper. You come for this.
And I'll guarantee you that I walk out of there a winner.
I told these people here just a few minutes ago that I can beat any man in the world and I can beat them.

(01:18:28):
I'm looking ahead here.
Well now, this is one time I might be all in favor of the stoppers.
This new champion is something else again.
Speaking of something else again, that's it.
No, it's not it.

(01:18:49):
Like I said before, nothing is going to keep me from the world title.
Not even the world champion.
Well, you want to know something?
Look at him.
The stopper just going to work on this guy Harley Race and nobody is interfering.

(01:19:13):
Nobody seems to give a darn.
Like I'm going to say again, nothing.
Nothing is going to keep me from the world title.
I don't give a damn what I have to do to win it.
All right. Very pleased to be joined on the line with returning guest from episode one.

(01:19:35):
Remember him, the author of like I said in that episode, the Bible of Stampede Wrestling, Mr. Heath McCoy.
Heath, how you doing?
Very good. How are you?
Oh, I'm doing pretty good.
I can't really complain right now and if I did, nobody would listen anyway.
So there's that.
So for any of the guests who haven't listened to our first episode, first off, shame on you because it was tremendous.

(01:20:02):
But for those who may not be familiar with yourself, let's just hear a little bit about yourself before we get into today's topic.
Did you were sure I wrote the book?
The reason I'm talking to you right now, I wrote the book Pain and Passion, the history of Stampede Wrestling.
So I was I was a newspaper journalist for for 15 years.

(01:20:23):
A lot of my career was in McHenry Herald.
I was actually a music and pop critic, pop music critic and stuff for years.
But there was a point when I was doing news in 1999.
I was I was just sort of starting off at the Calgary Herald.
That's when Owen Hart died and I wound up going to the Hart House to cover that story.

(01:20:48):
And I had an insight into the Hart family that I think the other reporters around me didn't have because I had grown up watching Stampede Wrestling.
I had grown up with the Hart family and I followed them into the WWF.
And, you know, I knew I knew I sort of knew this was something about this world.
The other reporters that congregated there from around the world didn't.

(01:21:11):
And I kind of got to know and as I covered this story because this continuing saga, you know, the Hart family was suing in the man.
And this was an ongoing thing and it was all this drama within the family.
And I got to know the Hart family and the more I got to know the Hart family, I thought at first I thought I should do a book about the death of Owen Hart.

(01:21:32):
But then, you know, but then I thought, no, I want to do something.
I want to do the history of Stampede Wrestling.
I want to do the history of the whole family.
So, yeah, I just I spent I spent years sort of researching and then interviewing people from from throughout the history of the promotion and interviewing family extensively.
And yeah, I wrote the book Pain and Passion, the History of Stampede Wrestling came out in 2005.

(01:21:55):
And yeah, it's still people are still interested today.
So I'm flattered by that, which in reality, too, if you didn't write the book, if you would have sorry, I should preface this.
If you would have wrote the book with your original intention, then perhaps a lot of the information that a lot of us fans who missed out on all the great periods of Stampede Wrestling,

(01:22:19):
we would have never known it because if you didn't write a lot of that, it would have never been spoken about afterwards.
And then who knows who would have known it after that.
So I have to commend you for for definitely going with your gut and doing the extra work.
Thank you. Stampede Wrestling was a very special part of my life.

(01:22:40):
And it was a special part. You know, I grew up with it.
These guys were my super heroes as kids, you know, and I every every Saturday morning Saturday afternoon.
I'd watch I'd watch Stampede Wrestling and I'd go to the matches in Saskatoon whenever I could when they come to Saskatoon.
And it was a generational thing. My grandpa watched it. My dad was into it, you know, years and years.

(01:23:01):
It was just such a part of the Western Canadian culture, Stampede Wrestling.
And, you know, I just knew it had these colorful characters and this colorful past.
And it was sort of unique compared to other wrestling territories.
And I just thought there's something special here.
This needs to be, you know, this needs to be chronicle. This needs to be recorded.
There needs to be a record of this. And that's what that's what motivated me to write specifically about the Stampede Wrestling territory.

(01:23:26):
And naturally, a big part of your writing was talking about our our topic today, the Stomper.
Now, yes, sir. Now, this will be a two part question.
First part is what was your first kind of memories or introduction to Archie Goldie?
And then as you kind of matured as a fan, what were your impressions of him as you kind of progressed throughout your fandom of Stampede Wrestling?

(01:23:54):
OK, my first impression, the first exposure I had to Archie the Stomper Goldie was not in his initial run in Stampede Wrestling. And some people would say his prime in Stampede Wrestling, which was that 1967 to probably about 74, 75 period when he was there a lot.
I missed all that because I wasn't born yet. Yes.

(01:24:17):
But so my time was watching in the early 80s, basically, the era of the Dynamite Kid and the young Bret Hart and that kind of stuff.
And so in 1983, they brought him around and it was this sort of I had never heard of the guy before.
He's like, you know, they're talking about becoming the return to the territory of Archie the Stomper Goldie and Whelan sort of, you know, the Stampede Wrestling announcer, Ed Whelan is educating me about Archie the Stomper.

(01:24:47):
He was the greatest heel of his time and he was the scourge of the territory in the 70s and they're bringing him back to Stampede Wrestling.
And there was this huge, tremendous build up to Archie the Stomper Goldie. And then he comes into the territory, comes back in and in 83, I think the summer of 83 maybe.
And yeah, sure enough, he's a killing machine. You know, he's a little older now, he's a little bit more long in the tooth.

(01:25:11):
But, you know, they throw a bunch of jawbers at him at first and he destroys these guys.
And then he started, you know, he has his run with Bret Hart. You know, he starts getting back into his old battles with the Hart family.
Of course, it's not Stuart anymore. Now it's Brett that he's taking on. But yeah, he's unstoppable killing machine sort of thing.
And he's just and I don't know if I want to give it up. The thing that really impressed Archie the Stomper's relevance to me was an angle he gets into with Bad News Allen, which they sort of build up to.

(01:25:45):
And if you want to talk about that now, if we should save that for later. That's a little tease for a little bit later in our conversation tonight.
So, so you were introduced to him more in the lore aspect and then you got to see this this legend that was played up by by Ed Whelan and everybody else.
So for yourself, being that OK, so you hear about him, then you get to see him in person. Were you when you were attending the shows and when you were seeing him, did you start to see that?

(01:26:18):
That kind of turn from the fans were, yeah, he's a heel. We're supposed to boo him, but they had so much respect for him that it was kind of like those.
I don't know what it just said. The crowd had that certain type of energy around him, not like they didn't hate him because he was a heel.
They booed him because they knew he was that damn good at being a heel. Yeah, absolutely.

(01:26:40):
There was that there was that. Yeah, it was a love hate thing. Kind of the dynamite kid had the same thing.
You know, he was most of the time that he was in Stampede Wrestling wasn't until the very end of the Stampede Wrestling run that he was, you know, he kind of did the baby face turn.
He was a he was a vicious, wicked heel for most of the time that I was watching him. But people loved him. I loved the dynamite kid.

(01:27:01):
I couldn't I couldn't admit to myself that I loved him. I had to love the hearts, you know, but I loved him.
I thought he was the greatest. And it was the same thing with Archie the Stomper. Yeah, he was the heel.
He got the boos. People, you know, jeered him and hated him. But there was this tremendous respect for him, especially from the old school fans.
And, you know, Ed Whalen, again, he taught he kind of educated the young fans that me and said this guy is something like even Ed, who's like, you know, Edward do the his announcer thing.

(01:27:29):
And he would he would kind of heckle the heels and, you know, be outraged at the antics of the heels.
And, you know, and obviously he's supportive of the of the baby faces, the Hart family and then their cronies.
But you could tell it has got this great respect for Archie the Stomper. And he's happy. He's happy that Archie the Stomper is back.
You know, you just sort of picked up on it. This guy was something special. And he had this great history.

(01:27:54):
You know, and then, of course, when I'm when I got more into being a wrestling fan and kind of learned the history, and especially when I'm researching the book, I realized that Archie the Stomper Goldie was probably the most consequential heel possibly of all time.
Brett Hart, there was a there's a great photographer who's passed away. Bob Leonard, he's the kind of official stampede wrestling photographer.

(01:28:19):
And he he supplied the photos in my book. He talked about it like a lot of people that Stu himself.
A lot of people thought that Archie the Stomper was the stampede wrestling heel.
He's when he came and when he came, he wrestled for a short blip at the time in 62. But when he came back full time in 67, he ushered in this sort of golden age of stampede wrestling.

(01:28:41):
He was he was an important guy, certainly the most powerful heel people have seen since like Killer Kowalski in the early 50s in the Stampede territory.
So then in terms of your your fandom and understanding of Archie, when you started the research for the book, did that give you any pause to you know, there's all this lore and there's all this all these stories and everything in regards to him.

(01:29:06):
Did it give you any pause to be like, maybe I don't want to dig too much into him to keep the mystique or was it oh, I got to know I need to know even more about him now in terms of research in the book.
Oh, no, I'm a journalist. I want to know. I wanted to dig in and get into I wanted I didn't want to do away with a mystique.
I mean, I wanted to express that mystique and that and just exactly what he meant.

(01:29:29):
But I still wanted to get you know, get the story of the real story of Archie.
And I actually I have to admit, I didn't ever really get a great interview with Archie.
He was he was living in Tennessee at the time. When I did talk to him, I got in with him because I was he was great friends with Bob Leonard, who was a huge help with my book.
But he kind of you know, I never got to talk to him in person.

(01:29:52):
It was only on the phone a couple of times and kind of had that KFate mentality that he didn't want to share very much with me.
A lot of the Archie stuff that I the best Archie stuff that I got comes from other people, you know, all the 50s or so interviews I did with other people who talked about Archie.
I got a little bit from Archie. He did quotes and everything, but he didn't divulge that much to me.

(01:30:14):
And that almost seems to be the story of his wrestling career almost is, you know, there's the wrestler that you see in the ring.
Although in Canada, he was very much up front and forward with the promos in the States, totally different character.
But but regardless of the two, he was, you know, in the ring, outside the ring, in wrestling, outside of wrestling, just to me comes off as one of the most serious and intense persons about himself.

(01:30:49):
Like he always seems to be this person who presents himself in a very, yeah, just just a very serious, a very serious matter of fact.
Yes. I couldn't say it better myself. Yeah.
Yeah, he actually absolutely. And he is that way. I mean, when I spoke to him and from the people that knew him well, he was that way. He was a serious guy.

(01:31:14):
He had a lot of respect for the hearts, especially Stu. Stu broke them in the business and everything. But he hated, like, you know, I don't know if you've heard that the hearts are perpetually late for everything.
Yes. It's sort of a family trait. You know, they're living on heart time, people say. And it's true. And Archie was very prompt. He was very punctual. He did not like that.

(01:31:36):
He was often fuming at them because of stuff like that. You know, he was, you know, he was never. I mean, I think he would have I think Bob Leonard talked about him and Archie having a few beers here and there.
But he was a very he was very serious about his health. I apparently like as an old as an old guy, long after he retired, he would bike 60 miles a day sometimes.

(01:31:57):
He was serious about his health. He was serious about about everything. He was kind of a young kid. He was just a very driven, no nonsense, serious, you know, kind of right in your face guy, I think.
And you had mentioned naturally that he was broken in by the hearts who do who do run on a heart time. You are correct about that. But but he had quite the interesting start to his wrestling career.

(01:32:29):
I don't think I've ever quite heard a story like his. It's so cool. Shall I talk about it? Yeah. And then I'll I'll step over you once in a while. Yeah, let's get into it then.
Yeah, yeah, I mean, so I'll go right from the start. He grows up. He's an Alberta kid himself. Yeah, Calgary, Alberta is of course the homeless stampede wrestling.
He's he's from Carbon, Alberta. So it's basically he grew up on a dairy farm in the town of Carbon, Alberta. It's I think 75 miles northeastern kilometers northeast of Calgary.

(01:33:01):
You know, he's just right. It sounds like right from the start. He's just sort of intense, loud, brash, scrappy sort of kid. He loved wrestling. He loved wrestling from an early age. He'd go to the matches in the early 50s.
And you kind of had what thought about becoming a wrestler had his eyes on the wrestlers and he just loved loved it. And then in his early 20s, this got to be towards the end of the 50s. He he comes to Calgary moves to Calgary.

(01:33:31):
His mother and his wife, they all they moved to Calgary. And he's working on a service station and he's playing football on the side, not CFL. I can't remember the team he's with. He's with he's playing football.
He's working at the service station and he still loves wrestling. He gets to go to the matches all the time. And his brothers are there and they're always egging him on. And he's a big strong boy.

(01:33:53):
And they're like, you know, you should get in there. You should get in there and take on a wrestler. And at one point he marches up to the ring, grabs the microphone away. I'm not sure if it was Ed Whelan or if it was one of the other announcers over the years at that time.
I believe it was Whelan. Yes.

(01:34:14):
But anyway, he grabs the microphone away and Al, Murder Mills and Tiny Mills are getting into the ring. And these guys are like some of the great heels of their time. They're legendary as well. And they're legit tough guys. Archie starts yelling into the mic, calling them on.
And they're like, OK, boy, get in the ring. They want it. They want it. Because they're going to teach this Mark a lesson. Absolutely. Yeah. He's climbing into the ring to take them on. So he's got he's has no fear.

(01:34:41):
Completely, you know, believes in himself. And he's climbing into the ring. And then apparently that first time security or the cops or whatever came running in and they drag him out of the ring.
He's ratting and raving. They don't take him on any time. And they're they're heckling him. And then a couple weeks later, he comes back and holds straight to the ring.
Come on, I think coming after the Mills brothers again and Stu grabs him before he gets in the ring. I guess Stu whispers in his ear, he says to him, if I let you go, you're dead.

(01:35:12):
And Archie gets in his face and he says, I'm not scared of you. I'm not scared of those guys in the ring. I want to be a wrestler. I can take on anybody. And Stu talks him off the ledge.
He basically says, well, you know, why don't you if you think you're you got what it takes to be a wrestler, why don't you come to the dungeon? You know, Stu's salivating at this.
Of course. He says, if you think you got what it takes, why don't you come to the dungeon? We'll give you a try out.

(01:35:37):
So, sure enough, Archie comes to the dungeon and I think you and your listeners know well what happens to people in the dungeon.
So for anybody who is not familiar and once again, you have to go back to episode one.
Again, my conversation with Heath, the heart dungeon is easily the most infamous and famous, depending on how you look at it, wrestling, quote unquote, training rooms in history where many men have shed many tears, many screams and other bodily fluids at the hands of Stu Hart.

(01:36:15):
And then had their blood vessels broken in their eyes from being squeezed so tight. And yeah, Archie gets the full the full treatment.
I'm sure Stu wanted to hurt him, too, because the way he, you know, the way he behaved in the matches and Stu talked about how he remembered like sticking his head down and by his belly button so he couldn't breathe and just twist him into a pretzel.
He just he just works over Archie well and Archie, I don't think he left there. I don't think he walked out of there. I from what I'm told, he crawled out of the dungeon up those iron stairs and got out of there.

(01:36:48):
And they don't see him again. Stu says, OK, another guy that I chased off here, another big shot that could take on a wrestler.
They don't see him again for three or four months. And then he comes back. He comes back and he knocks on the door and he's humble and polite. And he says to me, you know, you taught me a lesson.
And please, Mr. Hart, train. I want to I want to be a wrestler.

(01:37:10):
So Stu takes him down and, you know, does the same thing to him week after week after week.
Apparently, at the time, he lives five miles, only five miles away from Hart House with his with his wife and his mother. So every day, you know, however, however often he would try to, you know, the five miles through the frozen snow, you know, the snow and the lovely Calgary winter sort of thing.

(01:37:39):
He goes to the Hart House, you know, get worked over and then like carries his somehow carries his broken body home.
If mom would look at him and say, there's something wrong with you, boy, and you keep going back, you keep doing it.
He was determined he wanted to, you know, he wanted to get in the ring. He wanted to be a wrestler.
And so I just want to pause you for one second, because people who are maybe not from Canada will always hear about, you know, the infamous Canadian winters and, you know, have to trudge through snow, which is a legitimate thing.

(01:38:11):
But the important thing to realize here as well is Stampede Wrestling was one of the very few promotions that had an offseason.
He couldn't run during the summer. So if if he wanted to get trained, you're getting trained through that fall, obviously the winter and then the spring.
So when we're talking about he's walking five miles through harsh conditions, he was walking five miles through harsh conditions with a beat up battered body in part thanks to Sue Hart.

(01:38:42):
Yeah, it's really something.
He has a really funny story that I'll share. Oh, yes.
I know exactly which one you're talking about. Yeah.
He remembers watching Archie get, you know, get just like hell beat out of him by his dad.
And he remembers, I guess at one point, Stu puts him in a double grapevine type of hole.

(01:39:07):
And in the struggle getting this on him, he winds up, you know, heels him, kicks him and he actually kicks him in the nuts, he sticks his he jams his heel right into his nuts.
And, you know, beats out of him and Archie, you know, crawls back to the bench and in agony and and Steve Keith is there, you know, I think he's probably a teenager or something at the time.
Archie looks at him and he says, Hey, kid, you ever seen a swollen nut before?

(01:39:32):
Look at your old man done to me and he pulls his shorts aside, he pulls his trunks aside and Keith, you know, still talking.
He remembers this black and blue nuts, you know, testicles swollen to the size of a coconut.
And that's the kind of thing that he went through to become a wrestler.
And they broke so he finally in 1962, they gave him a shot and they let him come in, you know, he comes into the ring.

(01:39:59):
But he doesn't, I don't know if Stu doesn't believe in him or thinks he has to prove, you know, Archie's got to prove himself somewhere else.
But they bring him in and at first he's sort of just a job.
He's not doing much. He doesn't have a lot of promise.
They're not they're not pushing him and he gets fed up and he winds up going to the southern United States and, you know, doing and wrestling there and kind of making a name for himself there.

(01:40:21):
And that's when he becomes they develop this whole Mongolian Stomper gimmick for him there where he's he's the sort of mute.
Bob Leonard used to joke and say, you know, he's the only a Scottish Mongolian.
You know, he grows this like pony, this kind of ponytail on the base of his skull.

(01:40:43):
Basically, they had the Fu Manchu as well. Correct. Yes.
And he's mute. I think later maybe they let the Mongolian Stomper talk. I don't I'm not positive.
But but but earlier he's a mute Mongolian and he's this killing machine.
But he makes a name for himself as this gigantic heel to the point.
And then and then the tables turn a little bit.
In 67, Stu's business has been bad.

(01:41:07):
The mid 60s was a real we in time for stampede wrestling.
If you look at the cards from the period and stuff, they're not that impressive.
So Stu's hurting and he's trying to revamp the business a little bit.
They kind of relaunch themselves at the stampede wrestling logo before that.
They were big time wrestling and then they were Wildcat wrestling.
But, you know, this kid he trained now is a big star in the South.

(01:41:29):
So he coaxes Archie back.
OK, so there's there's one thing that you had brought up and it kind of ties into an ongoing theme
that I've been kind of trying to dig into in regards to kind of the lore of Archie Goldie,
because you'll read in articles and I'm not saying all of them,
but you'll read quite often that he was temperamental or hard to deal with.

(01:41:53):
And from everybody that I've talked to and other interviews that I've read,
it doesn't necessarily seem to be that case,
except for the fact that we talked previously that he always took himself very seriously.
I wonder how much of that perception of him being, you know,
quote unquote difficult started with him leaving Stampede Wrestling being unhappy

(01:42:17):
about how he was being used in the original run.
Maybe, but I think, you know, I think any wrestler would do that.
I mean, I think that's what that's what it was expected of wrestlers back in the day.
You get started and you know, you know, you got to go from territory to territory
and start sort of prove yourself.
And I think that's one of the reasons you didn't give him a reason to prove himself
or didn't give him the opportunity to prove himself in the early 60s.

(01:42:41):
But he sure had a reason to in the late 70s.
Yeah, he sure did.
And yeah, you do hear that he did have a temper.
He did. He wanted, you know, he was very meticulous.
He was very clean like his key part describes his socks and his trunks.
Well, he's perfectly clean.
Like he was, you know, his gym bag.
He never smelled bad.
So he's like just meticulous, you know, was, you know, meticulous.

(01:43:04):
He was very meticulous about everything.
He wanted to be on time.
He wanted things to be a certain way.
And he was tough.
And he was and when things didn't go his way, he really he those are the times when people fit.
He loses temper.
And then, you know, infamously with Billy Robinson, again, I'm just probably jumping ahead in the story of Archie here.

(01:43:25):
But, you know, one one infamous time is his work with Billy Robinson in 69.
Well, OK, so naturally he comes back to the territories.
He's now he's established himself.
But what's interesting when he comes back, because as we had previously discussed, he's down in the States.
He's a mute.

(01:43:46):
He's relying on managers down there to be his mouthpieces.
And he just goes in and just annihilates people.
He comes back up to Canada.
And then now you're seeing him speak and he's and he's delivering these just stone cold killer promos.

(01:44:07):
I just scare the hell out of everybody.
Oh, yeah.
I don't understand why in the South they wouldn't they kind of made Archie the mute.
He was fantastic on the money.
You know, when he came back to Calgary, they don't go with the Mongolian stopper gimmick.
They go with Archie the stopper gold.
And they kind of make him a cowboy.

(01:44:28):
He starts wearing these cowboy boots, size 13 cowboy boots, which he stomps.
And that's his thing. He stomps his opponents into a bloody paste.
And just sorry to pause you for a second.
But when we're when we're talking about he stomps the hell of his opponents, like there's video that you can watch on YouTube.
Some is hard to watch because he legitimately beats the living hell out of his opponents stomps, stomps their heads, stomps their bodies, stomps their hands.

(01:44:57):
It's crazy.
They go for stopper for a reason.
You know, they get mad at the best with the with the lasso right on the back.
Yeah.
Oh, the horseshoe.
Yes.
Yeah, they kind of make up into into a cowboy and they and they let him be on the mic. They let him talk and he delivers a hell of a promo.

(01:45:18):
He's this he's this sort of wild, loud, threatening, just seething cauldron of rage.
He's got this this pure, intense piercing.
You know, it looks straight into the camera and you see, you know, it's terrifying to be in the ring with him or to, you know, to meet him in a dark alley would be an absolute nightmare.

(01:45:39):
You know, just through the TV, he's got this he just commands the commands fear and respect.
And yeah, and he's got that same brutal style where he just destroys people on the ring and they really build them up to be this, you know, and step and step.
Wrestling is rebranding itself at this time, rebranding themselves with the stampede wrestling label.

(01:46:02):
It created a new belt, the new staple belt, which is the North American heavyweight title and Archie is the first guy to win the North American heavyweight title.
And he wins it 14 times between 68 and 84.
But he's such a powerful heel, just such terrifying heel.
He really invigorates, reinvigorates the territory and he kind of ushers in what a lot of people would consider to be the golden age of stampede wrestling.

(01:46:32):
And just to further dig into the the impressiveness of his North American heavyweight record run, like 14 times between essentially it's a 20 year span.
And yeah, he was the first one to win it. I think he had some of the longest reigns as well with it.

(01:46:54):
So you got to figure like within a 20 year span, it's almost every year that Archie the Stomper is a champion at one point or another.
Well, and except, though, there's this huge period of time. I can't remember now when I'm not clear as to when the last time he's because he leaves the territory again for a long time.

(01:47:16):
Yes, he's there from 67, I think, to about 74, 75.
Then he disappears again and he doesn't come back until 83.
So there's this large period. So those 14 win title reigns.
Most of them are concentrated in the 70s. So he had a long periods of time.
And some of his feuds in the 70s are just unforgettable.

(01:47:41):
I wish there was more footage of it, but it's just it's just incredible. But what you do see is incredible.
His feuds are Stu Hart, Abdullah the Butcher, Harley Race, Tor Kamada, Dan Crawford, who you spoke to, Sweet Daddy Siki, Dave Ruhl, Ox Baker, Waldo Von Erich.
These are some of the people he's trading titles back and forth with as well.

(01:48:04):
And yeah, and back to the story I wanted to tell that kind of really reflects what an intense, terrifying promo he would give to Brett Hart tells this story about being 11 years old.
And, you know, I think Archie just destroyed his dad on TV.

(01:48:25):
And Brett watched it. And he does a, you know, he does an interview with Ed Whalen afterwards, and he's raving and raging and he's talking about he's going to come to the Hart house and tear it down brick by brick.
And the great the kicker, he says that he's going to get Helen Hart, you know, the Hart matriarch, Stu's wife, he's going to take Helen Hart and he's going to pile driver on the inner stage.

(01:48:53):
And he says, here's this and he's terrified. And at that point, like they were in the dark about the business, the kids were kept in the dark, they didn't understand the way the business worked.
When they saw their dad get beat up on TV, they thought it was, you know, they thought it was the real deal. So, you know, that's terrifying shaken by the by what the Stomper said, and the very next day.

(01:49:14):
And ding dong goes the doorbell. Helen Hart answers the door, answers the door. There's Archie the Stomper. Brett Hart is terrified. He runs into the key, you know, their big diner and hides under the dining room table.
And he's so confused because, you know, Helen Hart's like, oh, she's got that New York. Yeah, yeah, yeah. She gives him a big hug. He comes in and they have tea and coffee and cake and they're having a nice old conversation.

(01:49:45):
And then, you know, Brett kind of whips up to the business at that point. But he remembers being absolutely terrified. I think at one point, Brett said that,
he wasn't Brad. Somebody talked about how in a lot of ways Archie was sort of a Goldberg of his day before Goldberg. Remember how intense Goldberg was?

(01:50:06):
Yes.
That's the sort of intensity that Archie the Stomper brought with him.
And when we're talking about beat up his dad, like, he beat from pillar to post, Stu Hart broke his arm, I believe, as well, as part of the story. Yeah.
Oh, yeah, just he is a mess. Just absolutely. And here's his dad, who's the owner of the promotion, who's, you know, a larger than life. He's essentially a living legend in Calgary.

(01:50:37):
And he just gets completely wiped out by Archie. And then here's Archie having tea with his mom a couple days later. It's tremendous.
It's just a story that I love. And, you know, he's talking about pile driving, hell and I mean, how much more savage could you get? So you understand why young Brett was terrified.

(01:50:58):
So, and we had kind of talked about it previous to this, but let's talk about the Billy Robinson episode because this as well.
And again, we're we're digging a little bit deeper into this this seriousness in the way that Archie carries himself.
So for those who may not know, because, again, a large portion of our listenership are not wrestling fans at all, but they love to hear the stories.

(01:51:26):
So Billy Robinson is a British wrestler and he's a big deal over there and he comes over here into Calgary and gets put was he put in the feud immediately with Archie?
He was immediately here if he had to work his way into it. I'm not clear about the way the trajectory of that work, but they were setting up for it was a it was going to be a big feud with Billy Robinson and Archie Stomper and the winner of the feud was going to take on the world champion, Dory Funk Jr.

(01:51:57):
That's right.
And he was coming to town for the Calgary Stampede and the Calgary Stampede in Stampede Wrestling was essentially their WrestleMania. That was the big like Andre the Giant would come to town, the world champions would come to town.
You know, you get special guest referees that were old retired boxers and stuff like that was the big deal for Stampede Wrestling.
So Archie and I believe the way it was supposed to work out was that Archie was going to come be the victorious one and he was going to take on Dory Funk Jr. But Billy Robinson had a bad reputation for being working really stiff if he wanted if he didn't like you being really arrogant and he worked with Archie really stiff and he also wouldn't sell.

(01:52:40):
He wouldn't sell his blows. He wouldn't you know and he would act like it didn't hurt him and they just did not click in the ring.
And I think Billy's kind of sort of was a great, you know, great, a great legit wrestler stretched them and everything and Archie was furious and at the end of one of the matches he came back, back into the dressing room threw his boots against the against the wall and he left.

(01:53:08):
He left, it doesn't matter what the angle was going to be, what the plans were going to be, he left the territory and he didn't come back for the rest of that year. This was in 1969. So Billy Robinson wound up taking on Dory Funk.
But that's sort of indicative of the kind of temper Archie could have if you, if you, if you, you know, if you messed with him, if you played around with him.
And that's not the first or the last time that he would do something like that. There's stories about him being in Southeast, him being in Mid-South where if there was something that was happening or if he felt that he was being disrespected by either his opponent or the office, he would just pack up and leave.

(01:53:46):
I believe that there was a story in Southeast where he was in the middle of, middle of one of his matches and I, I'm going to get the story wrong and I apologize if I do. Somebody will correct me, I'm sure.
Send your hate tweets to at 6 underscore podcast, it's okay. But I believe the story was that the promoter had asked Archie to go and shoot on his opponent because the, his opponent had done something to the promoter

(01:54:15):
and the guy's pissed so he was trying to get, essentially send Archie in to settle a score in the ring.
And Archie said, nope, not doing that. Rolled out of the ring, walked out of the arena. I don't think he set foot back in the territory.
That sounds like the kind of thing he would do. He was, he was, when he set his mind to something, nothing was going to turn him around.

(01:54:36):
I mean, if you think about it, walking away from the Billy Robinson thing, even if Robinson was making him look like, you know, look bad in the ring and wasn't cooperating, I mean, this is a shot, this was going to be him and Dory Funk Jr.
That's a major deal. And he just said he wasn't putting up with what Robinson, you know, was doing and he's gone. He wasn't going to put up with it. Yeah, that does sound like stuff that, you know, that does sound in line with what we hear about Archie.

(01:55:02):
So there's obviously he had a very storied career, you know, back and forth from Stampede going down to the southern states, especially.
He spent some time in Japan. He spent some time in Australia as well.
Now, when he comes back to Stampede in the 80s and you start to get your first taste of him, that also kind of leads us to another story that we had kind of prefaced before this.

(01:55:27):
The big event that happened in 1984. Yes. So once again, this is something that we had touched on very briefly during episode one, the Stu Hart and Stampede Wrestling episode that you had graciously joined me on.
But let's dig a little bit deeper into what happened that night and then really what the aftermath was.

(01:55:49):
Sure, because it's one of the most consequential things in Stampede Wrestling history, certainly.
And more than that, unfortunately, because of revisionist history from, we'll just say certain organizations, it's one of those things that kind of gets overlooked as, oh, it's just that thing that happened in Canada.

(01:56:10):
Nobody saw it. So we're going to dispel a lot of that right here.
Yeah, I mean, whatever, say what you want about the revisionist history. This is one of the most, this was an amazing angle and the way it went down kind of blew up in the hard space, though.
So basically, they bring Archie back, you know, and the territory is red.

(01:56:35):
Hot in the 80s. After Archie left the territory, I think around 74, 75, because the territory was going into another slump. Not very good cards, not very good guys coming in.
I think just Archie saw the writing on the wall and he was a much hotter draw in the south and he wanted to go back south and do other things.
So he left Stampede Wrestling, didn't come back for a long time.

(01:56:57):
And then the dynamite kid in 78 comes along. He reignites the territory and much the way Archie did in 67 gets the territory red hot and other talents start coming in and the territory is just on a huge, great high point at this point.
And so Stu, I think, coaxes Archie to come back into the territory. And Bruce Hart, Stu's son, is running, he's doing a lot of the creative at that time.

(01:57:25):
He's kind of got this vision, vision for how he wants to bring Stampede Wrestling into the future and into the 80s.
And he often winds up in conflict with his dad and his brothers over it too.
But Bruce had some great ideas and this was this is one of his greatest ideas. So they bring Archie to the territory.
The huge heel of the time, the absolute menacing heel in the early 80s in Stampede Wrestling.

(01:57:49):
Same way Archie had been in the early 70s was Bad News Allen.
Bad News Allen was much like he was so intense on the mic. He had this intense terrifying stare. He was just brutal in the ring.
He destroyed Bret Hart. He destroyed Dynamite Kid. He destroyed everybody he came across.
You know, you have this killer, this insane feud with David Schultz. He was just a, he was a force. He was terrifying.

(01:58:18):
And so he was the monster heel of the current stuff, you know, of the early 80s.
And then they bring in the monster heel of the early 70s. And at first, they team the guy, they team the two of them up.
You know, they're two, they're two bad guys. They're obviously going to be buddies, right? They're going to be friends.
And then they had this other sort of little side angle cropped up where Archie brings with them his supposed son, Jeff Golden.

(01:58:45):
Who's this, who's this rookie wrestler. I think his name is Tommy Dalton from Georgia. He's 18 years old.
And he's this rookie nobody's ever heard of. But they bring him in as Jeff Golden. And this is the son, this is the stopper's son who's breaking into business.
So there's that little side thing going on. And, you know, so Archie comes along. He's there for a few months.
And he, he has feuds with Bret Hart and everybody as well. And then him and Bad News Allen are friends.

(01:59:12):
And then there's a, I think, geez, I hope I don't get the date wrong here. I believe you might know better than me right now.
December 2nd, 1983, that this fateful match happens. December 2nd or December 3rd?
It's December 2nd, yes.
Is it December 2nd?
Yes.
So it's a six man tag. Archie the stopper, Jeff Goldie, and Bad News Allen are against Bret Hart, Davey Boy Smith, and Sonny Two Rivers.

(01:59:44):
And it's a great match. It's a great heel versus baby face match. The baby face has pretty much got destroyed if I recall it right.
But then after, they're sort of, they're like not even a part of the story because Bad News Allen double crosses the stopper.
His, his, you know, his Japanese warlord manager, Wakamatsu, comes to the ring with his kendo stick and another heel, Terry Brown, comes into the ring.

(02:00:13):
And they, you know, they, they hit Archie from behind. They take him down. They castle him to a ring post.
Bad News Allen, this is one of the big things, he takes out a fork and starts raking it across Archie's head.
Yes.
Gets some juice. You know, Bret, Davey Boy, they've dissipated at this point.

(02:00:34):
And then he takes the, you know, the little rookie whelp son, Jeff Goldie, takes him outside the ring, Bad News Allen does, pile drives him on the concrete.
And, you know, essentially, you know, according to, you know, the angle breaks his neck. And Archie is flipping out.
He's tied to the calf, he's tied, he's calf roped to the ring post. He's pulling on the ring post and he's freaking out.

(02:01:00):
Bad News Allen gets back into the ring. And there's absolute pandemonium. These guys pulled this off with such precision, just so, so beautifully.
The crowd buys it. They absolutely buy it and they go nuts. So actually, there's a little riot in the Victoria Pavilion this night.
An old man comes up and it hits Bad News Allen with his cane. And Bad News Allen grabbed the guy by the throat. He throttles him.

(02:01:27):
He says, you don't touch me, old man. Your ticket doesn't give you the right to put your hands on me.
Which further incenses everyone.
Yeah, further incenses. He's beating up an old man. He gets back in the ring. And you can see this on YouTube.
And anybody who thinks this is just some Canadian thing that didn't matter. I mean, it's one of the greatest, I think it's one of the greatest wrestling moments of all time.
Bad News Allen is, he's screaming at Archie's. He's saying, you know, I crippled your son. I helped him die. I ended his career.

(02:01:55):
Archie's flipping out. And Ed Whelan, who often had conflict with the Hart family. Ed Whelan wanted it to be family entertainment.
And he didn't want the violence. And he was sort of, he was a, he wasn't just an announcer. He was like, he had, he held a lot of power.
Because he was, he was, you know, he was a newscaster. He was the, he was the head, he was a big name at the station where the Stompie Wrestling ran.

(02:02:18):
He was a sportscaster. He was, you know, he was the voice of the Calgary Flames. He was a big guy in Calgary.
And he would, sorry, I don't mean to cut you off too, but he was also big in terms of the production of the actual television show.
Yeah. And there was many times where if something was going to make air that he didn't like, he would edit it off.

(02:02:41):
And I know that that had caused conflict for quite a few wrestlers.
Very much so. Yeah. In fact, in the 70s, there was an, in the mid 70s, there was a point where he left for a while. He thought it was too violent, too bloody. And he only came back because he agreed to, you know, kind of get away from that a little bit and get back more into the, you know, the old timey wrestling.

(02:03:03):
But Ed Whelan is disgusted by what's happened here. He's disgusted by this, by this riot that's happened. He's, you know, he's, he's a, like I say, he's a, he's a respected figure in town.
He doesn't want to be attached to this, I think. It hurts his reputation when things get this out of hand.
And the hearts never really clued him in as to what was going to happen in the ring, too. So he wasn't wise to what was going to go, what was going to go wrong.

(02:03:28):
And whether he believed that what happened to Jeff Goldie or he was just, he was just disgusted by the way, by the way the Angler Don and the way the whole night went, went to hell. It's hard to say.
But he was disgusted. And yeah, he does his interview with Bad News Allen and then they cut away. They cut away. It goes, you know, they won't air it anymore.

(02:03:49):
And then the end of the show, he's in the ring. Everybody's cleared out of the pavilion. It's dark and it's Ed Whelan and Archie the Stomper.
And there's just a sort of a spotlight in the ring. And it's just this dark, quiet interview. And Archie the Stomper, who we're used to being this raving lunatic in the ring, he's quiet.

(02:04:13):
He's like, he's a depressed man. He's slumped over. It's just brilliant. Like for anybody that said he couldn't do a promo, he slumped over the, you know, the ropes.
He's regretful. He's mournful and sad. He's expressing regret that he ever got his kid into the wrestling business and now his son's crippled.
And it's just this amazing, and it's such a contrast to the ranting, raving promo that Bad News Allen had just done too.

(02:04:40):
And then Stomper comes somber and sad. And then the intensity builds up. He never raises his voice, but he's got that intense stare.
He vows revenge on Bad News Allen, essentially. And after he leaves, Ed Whelan expresses his disgust at the whole night, at what's gone down.

(02:05:02):
And he drops his mic and he quits. He says, this is the last time I'm in stampede wrestling. I can't remember what exactly he said.
But he retires. He's on the air. He quits. And you take that, what a major figure, respected figure Whelan was in the community,
plus the violence that happened, the fact that Bad News Allen got in an altercation with a fan. The media totally turns on stampede wrestling.

(02:05:30):
The boxing and wrestling commission turns on stampede wrestling. Bad News Allen is fined. But this is brilliant angle.
It should have been like King Kong versus Godzilla. The monster versus monster. Monster, monster. It should have been King Kong versus Godzilla.
It should have packed in the arenas. And I always equate it to Orson Welles' War of the Worlds.

(02:05:57):
The story of he's reading War of the Worlds on the air. He reads it in such a way that people are freaked out.
People actually think that there's a Martin Martin. Yeah. And they're phoning 911 and everything else. Yeah, exactly.
And this is what happened. The public buys into this. They don't see it as, you know, like I think in the 80s, you know, it wasn't,

(02:06:18):
I think a lot of people saw wrestling as, you know, sort of quote unquote fake. But people buy this and the media, who should know better, buys into it.
And they call for a Stu to be suspended. And the boxing and wrestling commission levies all these fines on him.
He almost loses his TV license. He pays all these fines. Bad News Allen is incredibly, you know, hammered the fines as well.

(02:06:44):
All told, Stu winds up losing $300,000. He loses the big kicker is the boxing and wrestling commission,
Calgary boxing and wrestling commission takes away his license. So he can't promote Calgary shows.
So for the big Bad News Allen, Archie and Stomper match, they have to take it out to the Sarsi Reserve.

(02:07:06):
It's a First Nations Reserve outside of just outside of Calgary. They have to take events.
They had a winter, you know, people that people love going to the Victoria Pavilion.
They don't want to go all the way up to the Sarsi Reserve. And there's all this media shade thrown at the business and stuff.
And anyway, it doesn't wind up being what it's supposed to be. They have this big strap match at the at the what was the name of it?

(02:07:30):
The arena. Anyway, I don't I can't remember the name of the arena right now, but it but they but it's just not what it's supposed to be.
It should have been this huge deal. But instead it becomes this sort of it kind of almost cripples Stu at this time when he when he when he's you know,
he loses three hundred thousand dollars and this is around the same time that Vince McMahon began sniffing into the territory.

(02:07:56):
Yes, I was happy wrestling and he's and he's taking such a blow from from what the way this match goes down.
So I'm sorry I've gone into this huge tangent, but it really I'm just trying to get across how consequential this is.
Yes, this whole Bad News Allen Stomper thing was for Stampede Wrestling and how it led to them shutting their doors.
And not only that, it was also essentially the end of the biggest or that last big run the like end of it for Archie Goldie.

(02:08:25):
Yes, he did some other time in like I know he was in Smokey Mountain in the early 90s, for example, for a while.
And he wrestled some other independence. But in terms of like a big money making feud,
which this for all intents and purposes was going to be until it kind of went off the rails intentionally or otherwise.

(02:08:47):
It just kind of, you know, this one, you know, idea, this one feud, this one, whatever you want to call it,
not only cripples Stampede Wrestling, which then forces a sale to Vince,
it essentially ends the last big run of Archie, you know, Archie the Stomper.

(02:09:09):
It just it changes the course of wrestling history in a way that I feel a lot of people just don't they don't grasp the gravity of how how different things could have been.
If if this all didn't happen, if it would have been an alternate universe, if this had gone off without a hitch and they had had the matches the way they were supposed to be presented

(02:09:30):
and this feud the way it was supposed to be presented without meddling from and say would you will about the athletic commission.
But that was unfortunately their prerogative at the time, especially with the increased media presence and vitriol.
So it just it's incredible. This it's not. And we had said this already.

(02:09:51):
It's not it was not an inconsequential, you know, oh, it just happened in Canada. This changed a lot of stuff.
Yeah, it was hugely consequential. If if if that hadn't happened and Stu had this was sitting on it and the territory was hotter than ever.
He might have been able when Vince came around, when Vince McMahon starts sniffing around and wanting to buy the territory from him, he might have been able to say no, we're doing just fine here.

(02:10:16):
We don't need you sort of thing. But as it was, he was, you know, he was hurt.
He was he was in a bad way. He had Helen Hart in his ear saying I can't take this anymore. We got to end this. You're losing money. You're hemorrhaging money.
So this kind of this makes him take the deal from Vince and the deal from Vince includes and which Vince totally reneges on.

(02:10:37):
And, you know, the hearts do not come out ahead in this deal at all.
But one of the things Vince, one of the deals Vince makes is I'll take you know, I'll put you some of your top talents on.
So he wants Bret Hart down to my kid, baby boy Smith and Jim Neidhart.
And I mean, you well know and the fans well know how huge this the British Bulldogs and the Heart Foundation.

(02:11:02):
And that goes on to be the you know, the world, one of the most one of the hugest wrestlers of all time. This them going to the WWF at that time.
I mean, yes, things have gone down differently. A lot of that might not happen or might happen in a different order sort of thing.
Yes. You know, what's the what's the butterfly effect?

(02:11:23):
You know, it could have changed. It could have changed the course of the course of how things went in wrestling history, not just in stampede wrestling history, but wrestling history.
So naturally, that was a big.
And big is even a poor choice of words to describe the but such a monumental moment for for the career of Archie Goldie.

(02:11:48):
Naturally, that was kind of it for his real run in Calgary.
I know that he had made like some appearances and whatnot years prior to that or years.
Yes, afterwards. But unfortunately, like he so he doesn't make Calgary his his home after right.
Because he like I said, he spent some time in Smokey Mountain.

(02:12:11):
He ends up moving to Knoxville and that's where he ends up living.
While he was living in Knoxville, was there was there anybody in Calgary that was, you know, trying to, you know, research what was going on with him?
Was there was there this I guess what I'm trying to ask is when he had left Calgary, was he just kind of gone and forgotten?

(02:12:35):
I hate to say it, but in a lot of ways he was like, I mean, there's a whole there's a whole era of people that remember Archie the Stomper and they know how huge he was.
But I mean, in Calgary, just me sort of keeping him alive and knew, you know, in terms of the media, knew I was the person who knew how what a huge deal this guy was.

(02:12:57):
And like when he passed away, you know, that should have been a big story in Calgary that at that point, you know, I don't I no longer work in print journalism.
I wasn't in I'm not in the media at this point. So, you know, when he passed away, I almost wanted to call them.
You know, I almost wanted to say to them, this is a big deal.
I mean, the CBC did something on him. Thank God. But yeah, I mean, the Calgary Herald, even the Calgary Sun, which was sort of the wrestling paper, they didn't really they didn't do anything to mark the occasion.

(02:13:28):
You know, it's like he's sort of like he was forgotten. I think it's a real shame.
I always wonder if that's because like, I wonder if he if he would have been, you know, and forgotten is such a horrible way to say it to and I, I don't mean I.
Yeah.

(02:13:51):
Okay, yes, I'll go with that for sure. Yeah. And I mean, clearly, I mean, no disrespect with the way I'm saying it. But I wonder if it would have been a situation where he would have been more recognized, remembered, however, whatever connotation want to put on it, if he had moved back to Calgary, for example, because you always you know, especially with the Hart family, because, you know, they, you know, quote unquote,

(02:14:20):
made it big and then stayed in Calgary, essentially, or you hear about you'll hear about other, you know, big names that make it big and then they go back home to settle after whereas you know, Archie made it big.
Also, predominantly made it big in the States and then chose to move there so I wonder if that kind of affects his legacy as well.

(02:14:56):
For example, like when bad news Alan died. The media did make a big. They did make a big deal with the death of bad news. Alan. But, you know, I'm not trying to be egotistical here anything but the reason they did is because I was there, I said, this is a big deal.
This guy just died. We got to do something about it. And so, you know, we did do a big story about what he meant to the territory and same in talk about it died. And he wasn't living in Calgary actually he was living in Saskatoon. So but again, it's because it's because you know, I was sort of the wrestling historian that sort of was like this is a big deal.

(02:15:32):
This is a big deal, but I wasn't doing it anymore when Archie passed and I always did feel bad about that.
And I think the other thing that sort of didn't cement his legend, boy, I should have.
I think it's a shame. Time just wasn't on his side but I if he could have done a great WWF run. Maybe he was too old at that point, maybe by the mid 80s, it just wouldn't work. Maybe they would have just I would hate to think and see them, you know, treat them as a job or something like that.

(02:16:04):
If they if they had given him a proper push. I mean, he could have been. He could have he would he would have been amazing. I think that would have cemented his legend a lot more and then you can bet you better believe that you know the news, there would have been a big.
He would have been hailed more when he died.
Do you know if there's anything in carbon that is like is there any kind of memorial there is there is there anything there in the in the city.

(02:16:33):
And I realized that carbons it's like 600 people or something like that.
I don't even know that anymore. I may be speaking at a turn here and I even dug around a little bit just just on my own accord just to see if there's any of his surviving relatives in carbon or anything like that.
I don't know if that's something that's going to be coming up a matter. That's okay. Or if you want to educate me on it. I'd love to I'd love to know about if you still got people in carbon. But to my knowledge, though, there's not some you know there's not like there's not an archie to stop her statue in carbon.

(02:17:11):
I wholeheartedly agree with that.
I mean, you're in the from the 50s 60s right through the 70s and even the 80s. That was a big attraction of the county stampede. They have this big stampede wrestling big sort of WrestleMania of the year take place during the county stampede and they'd be in the stampede grade the wrestlers and everything and it was always it was a pretty big deal.

(02:17:46):
And the giant come to town these were major draws. And, you know, the county stampede I don't think kind of recognizes it should either. They should have just like they've got the various cowboys and rodeo people and stuff immortalized in their records. They should have wrestlers immortalized too, but they don't.
Which is that's a shame too because

(02:18:17):
Hopefully programs like this will will maybe start to sway some public opinion. We'll see what happens with it. I it's worth a shot at least. I would love to see it. I would love to see it. All right. So before I go for the night, what's what's on the horizon for yourself?

(02:18:40):
You know what? I'm not. I'm actually not a liberty to say there's something that could be exciting on the horizon, but it's sort of in the in the planning stages right now. So I can't talk about that. I'm kind of retired as a journalist right now. I'm not saying I will.
I'm forever retired or that I'll never write another book or that I'll never, you know, publish another magazine article. But I've sort of, you know, I sort of moved on from it. I got out of print the print media business because it's sort of it's such a, you know, it's Titanic now.

(02:19:13):
Yes, not what it used to be. I didn't want to be a part of it anymore. I work at the University of Calgary now and I have a media communications and that's where I've got a big family. That's my focus now. I don't have any. There is something in the works, which I can't talk about. But other than that, I'm not doing a lot.
Well, if I hope people buy Pan and Passion, you can get it on Amazon. It's probably the best place to get it. But it still sells. There's still a lot of interest in it. And naturally all links for that will be included with the show notes for this episode as well. And if your other project does come to fruition, I'm sure many of us will be very interested to see what it is.

(02:19:55):
Okay. I'll keep my fingers crossed as well. We're just going to will this thing into existence. That's all it's going to be. All right, Heath. Absolute pleasure having you on. I can't thank you enough for all your time. Thanks a lot.
Now before I bring in my final guest of the evening, I'm going to play some more classic Stampede Wrestling audio. Now this clip is from the aforementioned Calgary Riot incident. So in this clip, you're going to hear the direct aftermath of Bad News Alan Palah driving Archie Goldie's quote unquote son.

(02:20:34):
And then you're going to hear a really long interview from Archie Goldie. Now we kind of set this up and I think we did a very good job actually setting this up in my conversation with Heath. But this is Archie as nobody had ever heard him before.
And it's really, really impactful. And this really further cements the supposition that I started at the beginning of this program where I said that he is very much, he being Archie Goldie, is very much one of the most underappreciated and really unfortunately today forgotten names in professional wrestling history.

(02:21:18):
And interviews like the one that you're going to hear next really further cement my thoughts and an understanding of him, both in terms of his in-ring persona and him as a big thinker, which is another topic that I'm going to be covering a little bit more with the next guest on the program.

(02:21:43):
So the next guest that I'm going to have up. And this interview is a little bit different than some of the other ones that you've heard because we kind of jump right into it and there's a little bit of a reason for that.
So I'll preface all of this by saying my next interview is with Dan Croffett, cowboy Dan Croffett. Now Stampede Wrestling fans will remember him as one of the biggest stars in Stampede Wrestling.

(02:22:09):
Oh, in the late 60s into the 70s for sure wrestled some of the 80s, I think he retired by 85. But a massive star in Stampede Wrestling, certainly a big star in America as well.
And he has fascinating insights into both Archie and professional wrestling. But more than that, he has incredible insights into personalities and people in real life situations.

(02:22:44):
And it's I'm not going to go too much into it because I don't want to build it up too much. But I think it's going to be very impactful for everybody to hear now.
Of note, our conversation had started about 20 minutes before what you're going to hear on this program. A lot of what we had talked about in that portion, which I'm leaving out of this program, was regarding COVID-19.

(02:23:14):
Now I understand that this is a big thing that everybody is still dealing with in the world. Certainly where he is in Alberta, it's a big issue.
I didn't really want and this was a hard decision for me to make. I just want to make this implicitly clear.
I thought about this for days, whether or not to include that portion of our conversation, not that there was anything polarizing or not that there was anything bad about it.

(02:23:41):
Just for the simple fact that I realized that people are using this program and things like it, but specifically listen to my program clearly, but things like this to kind of get the escape from what's happening around the world and what's happening in their own backyard.
So I was really back and forth with it for a long time. It was incredible. I'm just going to put it at that. It was a great conversation.

(02:24:15):
However, I've chose to leave that part out only because I understand that people are looking for a bit of an escape and I don't want to bog down every program and everything that you hear with this specter of COVID-19.
So I hope that you can all appreciate my decision on that one. It doesn't take anything away from the conversation that myself and Dan had.

(02:24:46):
And as you're going to hear when we're talking legitimately, and this is no blowing smoke either, I got him on the phone. I had never spoke to him before and it was like we were old friends.
He is an incredible individual. We had a great conversation and I really hope that that comes through with what you guys are going to hear. But like I said, before all of that, we're going to take it back to Stampede Wrestling and the fateful night of the Calgary Riot.

(02:25:19):
And then on the other side, my incredible conversation with Cowboy Dan Croft. Please enjoy all of it.

(02:25:49):
Well, I am in a state of shock. That's all.

(02:26:14):
I have never seen anything quite like this.
Stop right. I don't know if you have.
I've never seen anything like it.
No, it was ridiculous.
That kid has asked me to train him to wrestle.

(02:26:35):
He was old enough to talk.
I've trained him.
I didn't want him to start.
I didn't want him to wrestle.
But he begged me and he said, Dad, I want to follow in your footsteps.
I want to be a professional wrestler.

(02:27:00):
I said, okay, Jeff.
He had a few matches down in the States where he went to school.
He said, Dad, I want to go up and I want to wrestle in front of my grandma and my uncles and aunts and nieces and everybody else.
Up in my home, our home country up in Western Canada.

(02:27:24):
So I brought him up here and I said, I'm not real proud of it.
Bringing him up here, bringing him anywhere and starting him.
I'm not real proud of it at all.
I've been called a lot of things in my career since I've been a professional wrestler.

(02:27:51):
But one thing that nobody can ever say.
I've taken advantage of the young boy.
I've wrestled young boys in the ring.
I've never taken advantage of them like that kid was taking advantage of tonight.

(02:28:12):
There was a couple of people involved here.
One of them trained with me for several days in the gymnasium right beside me and my son.
Sweating together, our own sweat.

(02:28:34):
Getting ready for the big one. Patting them on the back, say, kid, this is the big one. This is your chance.
Take him out here on the concrete floor.
I just took him away in the ambulance.
I'm not going to holler and scream tonight, Edward.

(02:29:02):
First thing I'm going to do is I'm going to the hospital and see how my kid is.
And I'm going to say, Jeff, I'm sorry.
You're not going to wrestle anymore.
But I am.
I'm going to wrestle some more.
I'm going to get even. That might be the wrong thing to say in a situation like this now, maybe a time like this.

(02:29:32):
But I'm sure not going to go up and shake the man's hand and give it to my son.
And you know we are professional wrestlers.
I'm not out here crying for myself.
I'm sorry I started my son in the wrestling profession.
But I'm still fine and well.

(02:29:56):
And just as soon as I leave that hospital and find out my kid is okay, I'm coming back to the ring, Edward.
And I don't know which one I'm going to take on first.
But I'm going to put everything aside.

(02:30:18):
I'm going to put all the championship belts away back in the corner, the furthest thing from my mind.
I'm going to get the man that hurt my son.
And I promise him.
He's going to be the sorriest individual that ever put on a pair of wrestling boots or ever stepped into the squared circle.

(02:30:47):
Yeah, so anyway, I know you want to talk about Archie Goldie.
I will bring up one point. I noticed I looked online and you had a conversation about Abdullah the Butcher.
I wish I had an opportunity to be a part of that conversation.
I could have added a real, real interesting dimension to that conversation with regards to my career in Abdullah.

(02:31:09):
But anyway, I know you want to speak about Archie tonight.
Well, no, let's let's hang on before we before we get into that, because I would love to hear your position on Abby, because it's you know, it's one of those things like with doing the podcast, you know,
to really I think I do a fairly decent job or at least I like to I'll put myself over and say I do a decent job of of getting some, you know, in depth conversation, in depth stories about the subjects that I'm covering.

(02:31:40):
And unfortunately, you know, it's if I was to do as in depth as I possibly could, my show was would run probably eight to 10 hours an episode.
And I'd I'd probably spend about 100 hours on each of them. But no, by all means, like I would love to hear your experiences with Abby.
Well, you know, it's funny. I noticed a couple like Gene Kineski.

(02:32:03):
I'd worked with him a lot and I'd done an interview about him a number of years ago as well.
But Abdullah interesting role in my life.
It's funny. Most people know that Earl Maynard was the one that introduced me to Stu Hart back in 1969, which started my career.
But my real break in the business, and I think I would use the analogy of an actor.

(02:32:29):
There's actors who struggle to get going in life to climb that ladder, and they'll get a break like a great movie like an Al Pacino might have gotten The Godfather or something in his career took off.
If I could use that analogy in my career, Abdullah ironically came into Calgary, either right around 1970.

(02:32:52):
I think it was. I'm not correct. Always right about the dates. But I've been working for about a year.
I was a jobber, which was the right thing. I mean, I was breaking in, getting going.
And Abdullah came into the territory in Calgary, and he was a huge superstar at that time.
He was squashing wrestler after wrestler, and Stu Hart had him right in the main events.

(02:33:17):
He was a headliner. And Abby, of course, would take guys. His matches never lasted long, maybe four minutes, five minutes.
And he was very quick on his feet for a guy of his size.
After about four or five weeks of squashing guy after guy, they had me booked against them.
And of course, as I say, I was a jobber, really nobody, just a young guy, and trying to work my way up the ladder.

(02:33:44):
And for some reason, I'll never know why, but he was to work with me that night.
I was expecting to do a job in like three, four minutes for him.
And we got in the ring, and he started doing me in just like he had done previous guys.
And then all of a sudden, he slammed me in a corner, and he had a traditional move where he went back to the other corner of the ring,

(02:34:08):
coming running across with a flying elbow.
When he slammed me in the corner, he said to me, move.
And he went to the other corner, and he came flying through the air. I moved, and then he said, come back, kid.
So I went crazy. I had this style of doing the work, kid.
I really, you know, I guess I was pretty energetic. As a matter of fact, I got the nickname Dynamite Dan Croft.

(02:34:33):
And I made this huge comeback on him, which no guy previous to me had done that.
And the crowd, the place, the building was packed, and the people exploded.
And I drop kicked him about four times, all kinds of stuff.
And he scooted out the ring, and he ran away and never came back to the ring and left me standing there.

(02:34:54):
He put me over so big that when I got back to the dressing room, and I didn't expect that, he just said to me, hey, kid, you're going to be okay.
And Stu Hart, I'll never forget, came up to me in this Stu Hart tradition.
He went, yeah, that bastard, he put you over. You made it.
And right from that moment on, I was a pretty popular baby face because I sort of really did something with Abdullah that nobody to that time had.

(02:35:24):
So I credit him, and we've talked about it, he and I, over the years a couple of times about the fact that he really put me over.
And that's the way the business is sometimes made.
Just like as I said, Al Pacino's movie might have been, you know, Godfather that put him over.
And I would say Abdullah put me over. And I had many matches with him after that.

(02:35:46):
And he was always extremely generous with me.
And another point is Abdullah loved to gig.
And he used to cut the other guys sometimes too.
And never once in all our matches did he ever ask me to cut, and he never cut me.
So I have to say, quite honestly, he played a significant role in helping me become a baby face.

(02:36:08):
That's tremendous. I really appreciate you sharing that story.
That's again, you know, doing these programs, there's always, you know, these untold stories, these kernels that you just dig up and you come across.
And it doesn't matter if it's, you know, like the Kieniski episode, like you said, or whatever.

(02:36:31):
There's in every episode I've done, there's always something that brings us back to a different episode.
It's just it's the more I get into it, the more fascinating it is.
Yeah, I think the world of wrestling was interesting.
I'm sad in this day and age I'll share with you is I see so many of the guys I work with are gone.

(02:36:52):
And, you know, I'm 76 now and, you know, I know, you know, we don't live forever.
And over 90 percent of my life is gone, too.
But it's a sad moment when I read constantly about this guy's gone, that guy's gone.
And, of course, when Archie died, I was quite touched by the fact that he had died because I wish we could have spent some time together.

(02:37:15):
And I remember going I was invited to CAC in Las Vegas to speak to a fairly large crowd about what I did with my life after wrestling, talking about life after wrestling.
And I was hoping Archie could be there.
And then I found out that Archie was not well, either financially or physically.
You know, he was living a pretty drab life.

(02:37:38):
And Bob Leonard, who was alive at the time, shared with me that Archie just wouldn't come to those events because I think he was somewhat embarrassed or whatever reason.
But, you know, I was deeply saddened by his loss.
But it's an ongoing thing.
It seems like, you know, our generation, there are so many guys that are gone now.
And, you know, it's sad to see this.

(02:38:01):
And that's another reason for, you know, doing this program is to kind of.
I'm not going to, you know, sit here and tell you that I'm, you know, the world's best historian.
It's not true.
But I feel like if I can at least do my part to kind of preserve some of this history and get some of these stories out there that are otherwise would be lost to the sands of time.

(02:38:24):
If I can play at least that small part in this equation, then, you know, that really makes me feel good.
And that's something that I'm really excited to be able to share with everybody else.
Well, I'll add something to that.
When I spoke in Las Vegas, I talked about the three elements of my career.
And the three elements of my career were obviously the guys I worked with who put me over.

(02:38:48):
I never thought of myself as a superstar.
I was always cognizant of the fact that it was a work and it was working together, unified as a team.
I was always a firm believer that it was about a business and that we told stories.
And that was a part of my agenda was to fill the houses.
And if I could find guys that would work with me, which I had the great privilege of, I never thought of myself as a great worker, uniquely big or a great speaker.

(02:39:18):
But I always thought the business was about us, not I.
And the other piece in it was I always said the fans were critical to our careers.
I pointed out if the buildings were empty, we would not make any money and who could go out and work in front of very small crowds.
And so I was always appreciative of the fans' support.

(02:39:41):
But my third piece was that I was really appreciative of the media, the people who told our stories, who wrote our stories, who preserved the pictures.
I mean, really, you're historians. You preserve our legacies.
If you guys weren't telling our stories, I would suggest people wouldn't even know who we were.
And as we passed on, so would our histories.

(02:40:04):
So you're doing a much bigger job than maybe you realize.
And I look at everybody. Bob Leonard was a photographer.
He's been gone now a few years, but he preserved so much of what we did through the photography that he did.
And I mean, Greg out of Toronto, he's at the CAC all the time.
He's preserved stories. There are so many people.

(02:40:27):
So I've always had a great admiration and appreciation of the media, you people who preserve our stories, whether it's in written form or in picture form.
And so, you know, take pride in what you do, because I am certainly grateful for the work that you guys do.
Well, I really appreciate that. And yeah, you're talking about Greg Oliver.

(02:40:48):
He does a tremendous job like him and everyone at Slam Wrestling.
They do such a great job with everything, too.
Yeah, I just think that that's critical.
I mean, if you think about the guys who are in the business, the Gene Kuliski's are the guys who were 40, 50 years ago.
You know, I work with some of the greatest names in the business. Bruno San Martino, Keller Kowalski.

(02:41:09):
When I was in Los Angeles, I, you know, I've worked with some of the biggest names around.
And if you in the storytelling industry were not preserving the names, the new generation of fan would have no idea who those people were.
So, you know, whenever I get a chance, I've done interviews on YouTube.
I've done interviews at different levels, even at my age today.

(02:41:31):
People talk to me and I think, you know, this is a real honor.
You're preserving my history along with the history of the people I work with.
So, you know, again, you know, I give you credit and take credit for what you do.
Well, again, I very much appreciate it.
And, you know, naturally, the topic of our conversation today is somebody who maybe modern wrestling fans wouldn't know otherwise.

(02:41:57):
And that would be Archie the Stomper Goldie.
Just speaking about Archie, when were you first introduced him in in Stampede?
In the early 70s.
And was that when he because I'm trying to think now, did he start in the mid 60s, if I'm correct?
Yeah, I started in 69, but he and I didn't connect till the early 70s.

(02:42:23):
I was I think you probably know this.
I created the ladder match.
I invented that in the early 70s.
And I had a bit of a reputation about angles and telling stories in the business.
I used to, you know, talk to the promoters and talk to I used to pick out villains that I thought I could work with.
But the first thing I do with them would talk to them about how do we build the business?

(02:42:46):
How do we make this into a sequel?
I was never a believer of just one match.
And when Archie and I first met, I did an angle with him called the Destroyer.
And I laid out a four to five week program with him.
And he he embraced it immediately.
And I know so much I could tell you about Archie.

(02:43:07):
And I'm sure you've done your research on him.
But I you don't have enough hours in a day for me to share all the stories that I could tell you about Archie.
Well, OK, I just want to I want to touch on that destroyer angle because that is one that people still talk about today.
So as we kind of like was that your first program with Archie then was the destroyer angle?

(02:43:34):
Yeah, it was one of the first ones when I sat down with Archie, I'd heard stories about him.
And I should share with you, I never personally experienced anything I'd ever heard that I heard he was temperamental.
He was moody. He didn't like working with certain people.
He picked his shots.
He was, you know, he all these temperament things that I had heard never once that I ever experienced that with him.

(02:44:02):
But I remember talking to him and I just said to him, I could care less if I wear the belt.
I said to me, what is more important than wearing a belt, which I had the North American belt maybe four or five times.
But I always utilized it in an angle.
And I told him, you know, I said to him, I could care less about wearing the belt.

(02:44:23):
I said, you can have it.
I said, as long as you and I can do an angle, tell stories that the fans will appreciate and will fill the buildings.
To me, that's what business is all about.
I remember distinctly him sitting across from me in a dress room.
He lit up like a Christmas tree and said something to the effect.
That's exactly how I want to do business.

(02:44:46):
I knew from that moment on that when I presented ideas to him, he would embrace them because it was never about having my hand raised.
It was more about telling a story and creating sequels.
So Archie became, I would say, one of my best dancing partners, if I can use that analogy.
He just was really, really on board with anything that was an angle.

(02:45:10):
So when I created the Destroyer story, he just embraced it immediately.
And I can tell you there's a four-minute clip of him and I.
You can see on YouTube that Archie and I worked.
And it was a match that we were going to do that the winner would meet the world champion the next week in Calgary.
I think it was Harley Race, if I remember right.

(02:45:32):
And Archie said to me at that time, he said to me, you know, I think you should work with Harley Race.
And I said, I could care less.
I said, really Archie, let's go out and have a good match and you can win this in the middle of the ring.
And that was where he and I really clicked, that he saw it was about business.
It wasn't about ego or narcissistic attitude about had to win or had to look great.

(02:45:58):
And I can't really say enough about him.
And as I say, the Destroyer angle really was one of our biggest angles.
And from that moment on, we just continued doing some really good business.
So for anybody sitting at home who is not familiar with that angle, essentially how it played out.
And please correct me if I'm wrong, but you both had a match.

(02:46:22):
He essentially, you know, kind of crushed you.
I think he came out saying that he ended your career, that you had brain damage or whatever.
You took some time off.
I think it was you took a couple of weeks off.
You came back under a mask as the Destroyer.
So the fans had no idea who you were.
This brand new, you know, baby face to go against Archie Goldie, who just, you know, he just he took out our guy.

(02:46:47):
Now here's this, you know, this masked Avenger, if you will, to come back to the Destroyer.
And if I'm not mistaken, that angle was it several weeks and it was it sold out buildings, left, right and center.
Yeah, to put a little more detail on it, when I laid it out to him, which, you know, was rather interesting because even Stu Hart was kind of surprised that I was willing to do this.

(02:47:13):
But I had had a young fan who was standing.
It came in the ring.
I introduced this young fan into the ring and, you know, brought him up and Archie Goldie was going to beat this kid up.
And it set the it set the stage where I was going to defend this local young boy who is a fan.

(02:47:35):
And so the conversation started at that.
And then when we finally had a match, him and I, I told him, I said, you're going to literally destroy me.
But I want you to do this.
We're not actually going to have the match.
I'm going to be doing an interview with a suit on.
And what I want you to do is jump in the ring.
Flubber me and literally knock me out and rip the suit off me so that people see you rip off a suit because no one had ever done that before in the ring where somebody ripped off their suit, the sports jacket, their shirt, everything.

(02:48:10):
It was a unique perspective to see a wrestler demolished in the ring and all his clothes ripped off him except his pants.
And I would lay there and they would take me out in a stretcher.
And then Ed Whalen would announce that due to brain damage, I was my career was over.
Archie jumped in the ring was laughing.

(02:48:31):
You know, he went on to say that he destroyed my career and it was rightfully so.
I knew that would build the hostility in the fans minds to see that on television.
And the kid was supposed to be crying.
The young boy was crying because this had happened to me.
And then I told Stu I want to take two weeks off.
But you announced the next week with no reference to me that there was a wrestler coming.

(02:48:57):
And at that time there was a wrestler, the Destroyer, who is well known throughout the United States.
Yes.
So I borrowed him as a copy.
The people would think, OK, this guy's coming.
They know all about the Destroyer.
This is a world renowned wrestler.
So what I did is I waited a couple of weeks and then Archie was booked against the Destroyer.

(02:49:18):
But to fool the fans, what I did was I not only wore a mask, but inside my outfit that I had on,
I put on heavier clothing to make myself look like 20, 30 pounds heavier and that way.
And then when I got in the ring with Archie and we got into a battle, I immediately took over.

(02:49:40):
And I took him down and then I stepped across his throat after pounding on him for a while.
And I slowly took off my clothes and then I lift my mask off.
I think the sound in the hall, the building was deafening.
And from that moment on, we took that match all over.
Then we moved it to the big building from the Pavilion.

(02:50:03):
The next week we booked it into the next building, which was much, much bigger, three times bigger.
We sold that out.
Stu said he turned away, he thinks around 7,000 people were turned away from that arena.
And we took it all over Western Canada and sold it out everywhere.
Archie from that moment on, obviously, he became a partner in ideas.

(02:50:27):
So whenever I was able to sit down with him and talk to him.
And the other thing that emerged from that, which was really a compliment,
I had other heels that came to me and said, hey, I'd love to work with you.
What is it? You got any ideas?
So when I worked with Torra Kamata and I created the ladder match and other matches for them,

(02:50:48):
I was able to earn their respect.
And it was a critical piece because it elevated me in the main events.
I was making a better living and I was able to go to other territories and do relatively well.
Of course, Los Angeles became a high point for me, having the belt there and working with Seiji Sakaguchi
and working in a 20-man battle role with Bruno San Martino and some of the biggest names.

(02:51:14):
So really, I think what elevated my career was creating angles.
I recognized early sitting in the dressing room.
I looked around the room. These guys were a lot bigger than me.
I was 6 feet, about 230, but there were guys, massive physiques, good-looking guys, good talkers.
So I had to find a way to protect my career, create longevity.

(02:51:38):
And it was angles for me. Telling stories was the way to do that.
So from my perspective, working with Archie, he was a perfect fit for telling stories.
I've always read articles, read interviews, heard other interviews regarding Archie.
He was very much like the thinking man's wrestler. He was always planning that next match.

(02:52:01):
He was always planning that next story. So hearing you back that exact information up is fascinating.
Yeah, he was great that way. I had guys say to me, and Stu Hart even shared with me,
that Archie could be temperamental and that he wouldn't work with certain guys.
But he and I, funny enough, were on the same page about certain types of wrestlers.

(02:52:24):
There were some wrestlers in the business, and I don't think I need to use their names,
but some of them were bullies. There were some guys who were not cooperative.
Their narcissistic attitudes and personalities made it very hard to work with them.
Archie had no time for those guys. I know of two or three guys he refused to work with,

(02:52:47):
because maybe they were shooters, they were hard to work with, they weren't cooperative in the ring.
Archie just shied away from that. I remember on several occasions he and I talked about the fact
that this was a business, and filling the seats, filling the buildings increased our paydays,
and it elevated our presence in the business. So to me it made common sense, and to him as well.

(02:53:12):
But I always enjoyed his time with him. I can't say enough about the guy.
For me personally, he was like finding a dance partner. We danced to the music. He was great.
So naturally you worked with him quite a bit in Stampede. Were you able to work with him outside of that territory as well?

(02:53:35):
No, funny enough you say that, because I know he worked in other places, in Zamongro and other territories.
I was in Louisiana. I was in the deep south, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, all those areas.
He was in other areas in the US. Then I was in Los Angeles, or I was working in Portland, I was working in Vancouver.

(02:53:56):
But Archie and I just never connected outside of Calgary. It was almost a natural fit.
Ironically, I think Calgary was our best place to work. He and I were sort of, if you were to think of Hollywood
as the place to make movies, I would say that Calgary was the place for he and I to work.
Because the chemistry, I was very fortunate to be over as a baby face, and he was probably the premier heel at the time.

(02:54:21):
I still think today that Archie was one of the greatest heels that Stampede Wrestling ever had.
I would say that he's easily the greatest homegrown heel that they ever had.
Sure, they brought in a lot of great import heels. We were talking about Abdullah just previously.
He built himself in Stampede. He was the prototype for a homegrown heel. He just did so much for himself there.

(02:54:52):
Yeah, I would have said what made him as good as he was, I would have said with his physical physique,
and his speaking ability, and his believable work. He was a solid worker.
He would have been a WWE superstar even in today's world. Those are two different worlds.

(02:55:13):
The world of WWE today, you look at the physiques of the guys and the type of work they do and the stories,
and you look at our time, it was a total different time.
I'm the first one to admit that I may not have made it in the WWE.
I may have got in the door if I could have convinced Vince that I was an idea guy.

(02:55:37):
I was talking about filling the buildings and shooting angles.
But from a physical and working perspective, I don't think I had what it took to be a WWE worker.
I think to be quite honest with you, a lot of the guys in the business during my era physically or from a working perspective
would have never made it in the WWE. It was a different time.

(02:56:02):
But I think Archie had the capacity to be a WWE worker at any time.
That really speaks volumes to his ability, I believe.
While I was doing my research for this program and we had talked about slam wrestling before,
I had come across an article that you had written in regards to Archie once he had passed away.

(02:56:24):
You had a line in here that I wanted to circle back to because it kind of encapsulated what you just spoke about.
In the article you had written, he should have been a bigger star.
It's like a guy who played in the CFL who could have played on any team in the NFL, but he stayed in Canadian football.
I don't think Archie ever reached the limits.
To your point, he almost could have been the biggest heel, I don't want to say in the world, but certainly in North America.

(02:56:53):
Why do you think he made the choice to not make the jump to a larger promotion?
I'm not sure I can answer that.
Sometimes in life, things lie within that individual's decision making and maybe he didn't ever share it.
I'm not sure. I can't speak to that.
The interesting thing about Archie was when I had heard that he ended up in the US working in the sheriff's department and that,

(02:57:21):
I often wondered what would become of him.
So many of us in the business, this is a piece that doesn't get talked about a lot,
but many of the greatest names in the business in retirement find some of the greatest failure.
I don't mean that in a mean way. I mean it from a point of observation.

(02:57:43):
We get so caught up in the world, and that's one of the speaking points that I tried to address when I went to Vegas and I've spoken to other outlets,
is talking about creating a second career, finding yourself, reinventing yourself after wrestling.
A lot of the guys are not prepared for that after, and not to avoid your question regarding why he didn't step up.

(02:58:10):
But I noticed that where he went after his career often led me to wonder if Archie was prepared for retirement or how long did he feel he could work.
A lot of the guys worked far too long in my opinion. Those guys in the WWE who I think could have retired sooner or should have retired sooner.
You know, their appearance and their quality of work declined.

(02:58:35):
But I talked about that on numerous occasions about creating a career. I got very involved with community work.
I do volunteer work. I'm on different committees. I do fundraising. I do charity work.
It really comes down to one sentence, finding purpose in life.
So quite often now at my time I look back on a lot of the guys who were superstars in the business.

(02:59:00):
I spent time with Jake The Snake in 2011. I've talked to a lot of the guys.
The difficulty of transition when they finished their careers were so caught up in the world of wrestling and were not prepared for that transition.
So I was always looking out for him. I was always looking out for him to find that second career and be prepared.
Archie, I always wondered if, you know, I wish I would have known if he was happy at what he was doing when he retired.

(02:59:27):
I know he ended up almost penniless living in a basement suite and not healthy.
You know, that really broke my heart.
And I wish I could have talked to him earlier in life and maybe we would have been able to find a better exit plan for him.
I see so many of the guys from the business who, you know, Brett Harden, I as an example, talk quite often and he's done well.

(02:59:51):
And, you know, I'm happy for him and I'm happy for a lot of the guys that have done well.
They found careers after wrestling.
But as you know, a guy who follows the industry so closely, there are a lot of sad stories out there.
You know, speaking about Archie specifically, then I want to bring up another point after this.
But it was it was so sad to read when he had passed in the poor condition that he was health wise,

(03:00:18):
because, you know, going through my research and reading about him, the fact that he would he would do things like he would bike, you know, 60 miles or whatever to to his next booking or whatever.
He would he was just he was always in top physical shape, I guess you could say, for lack of a better term.
You wouldn't know it looking at him physically because he didn't have the, you know, Hulk Hogan, 24 inch pythons, whatever any of that nonsense.

(03:00:46):
But you can you can look at him and you look like an athlete.
He looked like he looked like somebody who took himself, his profession and his physical fitness very, very seriously.
And the more stories I've read about, you know, like you like I said, he even working as a sheriff, if I'm not mistaken, he still didn't have a car.

(03:01:09):
He would still ride his bike to the sheriff's office as well every day.
It's just you read stories like that about this man who was just so committed to keeping himself in such fantastic shape to unfortunately pass the way he did is really heartbreaking.
Yeah, sometimes genetics play a role to hereditary thing.

(03:01:33):
But, you know, it's funny, Archie and I, we would do 200 push ups as an example before a match.
We do it for fun. I did it always.
Our 200 squats and that just warming up for that.
But he would do them and I would do them every night like I was always doing it.
And he would as well. And we talk about that, you know, like he was always running or doing something.

(03:01:55):
He was in much better shape than I was. You know, I had an athletic background.
I had a shot of pro baseball. I swam.
You know, I did a lot of athletics, but I was never as intently committed to health as he was.
Archie was absolutely. And I think that was part of his persona, too.
You know, if you look at his interviews standing in the ring, he projected as a guy who was capable of what he was saying he was doing and his face.

(03:02:23):
You know, his facials were amazing. Like, you know, quite often he'd almost scare me.
I'd watch him do an interview how he said he was going to rip me apart.
I thought, thank God, this is the worst. If this is real, I'm getting out of town.
You know, we'd laugh and joke about that quite often.
I mean, you know, I just I have so many fond memories of him as I do of so many of the heels I work with, you know.

(03:02:48):
And, you know, I think back to my time sitting with Gene Kieninski in the dressing room,
we worked for the Pacific Coast Championship, him and I, numerous times.
Or Abdul, the butcher, or Tor Camada, you know, the list goes on and on.
You know, you have so many great memories of working with these guys.
But Archie in particular, I guess that, you know, if a movie star had a particular guy that he liked working with,

(03:03:14):
I think of Burt Lancaster, who may have worked with Kurt Douglas a lot of times,
he may have said Kurt Douglas was his favorite guy to work with.
You know, I don't know that, but I'm just assuming.
I would say that Archie Golding was right up there and is probably one of my favorite guys to work with.
The other point that I wanted to make in that something that you brought up is the lack or seeming lack of the exit plan in professional wrestling.

(03:03:40):
And, you know, that's one of the comparisons I think that you can draw between wrestlers of previous generations.
And it still continues today, is unfortunately, it's the when you're in the moment, you're so caught up in being that person,
you're being that wrestler, that superstar that you kind of don't think about, OK, what's next after this?

(03:04:02):
And you still, unfortunately, see it today of wrestlers who once they're out, that's it.
And they're left kind of twisting in the wind and they don't know what to do with themselves after.
Yeah, preparation for departure is such an important decision making role.
I used to talk about wrestling. I remember even young saying that wrestling is like a porthole in a ship.

(03:04:26):
It's not a picture window. It's an opportunity.
And if you look, you can use comparables, other pro sports, whether it's football or baseball, any pro sport.
An athlete could be at the top of his game for four or five, six, seven years, eight years.
All you need is one injury or a decline in your ability.
And all of a sudden you're traded and all of a sudden you're cut.

(03:04:50):
Now, are you prepared at 40 years old, 35 or whatever age it is, are you prepared for that next stage of your life?
And I was always cognizant of that. I used to talk to guys about financial planning.
It's funny, if they were here today still alive, they would tell you about conversations we had.
I used to talk to the Davey Boy Smith and Dynamite Kid.

(03:05:13):
You know, I had Dynamite's one of his first matches in Calgary when he came. He was only like 170 pounds.
And I remember talking to those guys in the dressing room.
I was buying real estate and talking about financial planning and these guys were making $800,000 a year with WWE.
And my last show was in 1985 in the Saddle Dome. We had 22,000 people there.

(03:05:37):
And I remember sitting in the dressing room with Dynamite and Davey Boy.
And I talked to them about, you know, had you guys made financial plans to exit the business and that?
You know, there was a lot of smiling and laughing. But unfortunately, a lot of guys don't see the finish line.
You know, you're at the peak of your height. You know, there was another term that used to be said all the time.

(03:06:01):
And I wouldn't single out anybody. But a lot of guys used to believe their own publicity.
You know, you're a superstar. You're the greatest. You're this and that.
But the one thing we forget about wrestling is it's a work. It's a business.
And it's not for real. It's entertainment. And you're an entertainer.
And you have to see yourself in that light. And the publicity you get, you know,

(03:06:24):
whether it's by people in the media like yourself or written stories or how high they promote you in the card,
that's all because it's staged. It's a performance. It's not like you're a great Olympian and you've won all the gold medals.
That's a different type of achievement. This is an industry where we're made or our careers could end so quickly.

(03:06:48):
So, you know, if you were fortunate enough to make a lot of money in the business, which I wasn't,
you know, I was never made the big money like WWE. I was fortunate after the business investments and other things that worked for me.
But I used to talk all the time to the boys, guys who would listen to say, you know, think about financial planning.
You know, you're going to have a second career when you leave the industry.

(03:07:12):
And for me personally, you know, even at 76, I'm still engaged in the community.
I'm on several committees. I do fundraising. I run charities like golf tournaments and help different organizations.
It gives you purpose, but it also gives you something else. It gives you self-worth.
It gives you a sense of well-being. You're a part of the community. You feel like.

(03:07:34):
You know, so many guys recede into sort of an empty world. They don't know what to do next.
And, you know, it's sad. And I wish sometimes I wish there was ways that we could convey a message and help individuals.
You know, I'd be the first one to say if there's a guy out there who's been at the top of the game,
but today they're, you know, they suffer from depression or loneliness and they're not being able to find themselves.

(03:08:00):
I'd be happy to, you know, talk to them and give them some help in regards to finding direction,
because I think that's a missing part of our business where we don't have people out there supporting guys after the business.
It's, you know, I know Vince runs a big business and, excuse me, you know, I don't know how much follow-up Vince does with guys after they retire, you know.

(03:08:25):
Yeah, that's that's an excellent point you make. It's almost, you know, when you're out,
is there anybody really looking out for you then at that point or, you know, you're almost kind of left to your own devices and like you put it perfectly.
If you don't if you don't plan for it, if you don't have that that exit strategy, man, it's it's a it's a rude world out there once you're out of the spotlight.

(03:08:50):
Yeah, you know, another piece to a game without mentioning names. I went to CAC a couple of times and I found myself rather kind of depressed.
I saw a guy sitting at tables, you know, selling signatures and, you know, pictures and photographs.
They sit there all day. They were superstars from 20, 30 years ago.

(03:09:13):
And, you know, I talked to some of them, you know, on the side and I say, how are you doing? And, you know, they're struggling either with health issues or or they're living on some sort of assistance, social assistance or what have you.
And they go to these signing shows to make up loose ends, you know, get what they can when they can.
And that breaks my heart really to see that. I know the fans are engaged, are excited to see the ex superstars there.

(03:09:39):
But there's another layer to the individuals that maybe the fans are not aware of.
A lot of guys are struggling, either psychologically, emotionally or financially.
And that's a sad that's a sad case.
You know, if if there was any way of engagement to help people who are living in loneliness or struggling, you know, after the business, because we all sort of fade into our own places in life.

(03:10:06):
You know, wrestlers end up living all over the place. We don't.
I see Bret Hart periodically. But as I say, he's been extremely successful.
And we've shared many of the stories he and I quite often about the guys who have fallen through the cracks.
And, you know, you somehow sometimes you want to reach out and help.
But of course, they're so far away. It's difficult to stay in touch.

(03:10:29):
Well, and especially in Archie's case, because, you know, he ended up being I believe it was in Knoxville is where he ended up having his residence and then he was working, you know, out of the sheriff's office.
But man, that's a long way from Calgary. And that's a long way from, you know, the the group of people that you kind of came up with throughout the years.

(03:10:53):
And, you know, it's one thing to be on the phone and talk to somebody and whatever. But if they're, you know, a few thousand kilometers away, I'm not sure what the drive is from Calgary to Knoxville or Kentucky or anything.
But I don't I don't want to passion. It's a it's a quick one. But yeah, it's tough if you're away from that support system, if you're away from the people who, you know, you came up with and who know you and who are would be available to support you.

(03:11:22):
And you don't have that. It's yeah, that's a tough go.
I'm wondering, I would maybe someday somebody have created a fraternity, you know, guys, a retirement group that you can stay in touch. It's kind of like this may be not a great analogy, but alcoholics anonymous.
You can you can phone and talk to each other if you're struggling. And I've often wondered if somebody could, you know, take the reins on that and set up a group of wrestlers to where because with our modern technology like Zoom and other forms of technology that we have today, we can be closer in touch with each other.

(03:12:04):
And, you know, set up conversations where if you're having a bad day, you know, you're not feeling that well and you need to talk to somebody that you've got a host of individuals who are understand where you're where you're from or where you're going and what you're going through.
I think it'd be an ideal idea. My hopes were that when I spoke at, you know, I spoke at CAC that, you know, the message I conveyed was about there is hope after the business. You just have to find yourself. You have to find your feet and and acknowledge what your capacities are, what you can't do and what you can't do and get involved with organizations and join groups.

(03:12:42):
You know, but it's hard to really reach out just in, you know, in one session like that. So I don't know. I don't have the answers. As I say, I'm sad to see all the guys that are gone.
You know, it seems like every week I read about another guy who's passed along that I may have worked with somewhere.
And but on the other side of it, I wish there was some way that we could have stayed in touch. Like you say, Knoxville was a long ways from Calgary. But I would love to, you know, I even offered to pay for Archie's trip to CAC when I talked to Bob Leonard.

(03:13:18):
I said I'd pay his ticket, but he just said he wouldn't come. He had a matter of pride and I think he was embarrassed. And that was unfortunate. You know, I was deeply sad to hear that.
Yeah, it's, you know, naturally the end result of what happened with Archie is heartbreaking, like we've said multiple times.

(03:13:42):
But it is a part of the story and this it is something that we need to discuss and talk about. And it is uncomfortable and nobody, you know, it's it's not something that anybody really likes to talk about.
But it is it's it's the fact of what happened and it's it's worthy of discussion at least. But I like your point there that, you know, maybe it was a source of or a matter of pride that he wouldn't, you know, reach out and ask for help.

(03:14:13):
Maybe that's kind of in line with, you know, the pride that he had, you know, like we said, you know, keeping up in top physical form and the pride he had, you know, being champion and things of that nature. Maybe it's maybe it's all just a microcosm of itself.
Yeah, I think that happens in all industries. There's people in the movie industry who have great careers and then all of a sudden they're pumping gas again or there's great athletes.

(03:14:39):
You know, I think of Lenny Deister, a baseball player whose story just claps. There are so many stories out there of guys who have been at the top of the world.
And we can go on and on with names of people like that. Then they disappear, you know, into the public because, you know, I think I met Pete Rose once.
And, you know, I almost came to tears meeting Pete Rose and, you know, one of the greatest baseball players. Baseball was actually my first choice. His career.

(03:15:09):
I had a chance for the Pittsburgh Pirates. And so I had this affection for baseball. So meeting Pete Rose, but to see Pete Rose in his later years, you know, with his dyed hair and overweight and sitting there talking to him, it was in some ways a mistake.
I had this image of him, you know, Charlie Hussle. And now I'm sitting in front of a depleted man whose reputation.

(03:15:36):
And I think that, you know, in the world of sports and entertainment, you're going to have the tragedies quite often. And they're sad.
Hopefully, you know, maybe we can learn from them, maybe new and young athletes and people can see that and not make the mistakes that many of us have made previously.
But it's the society we live in. Archie wasn't a perfect guy. You know, that's another thing that we have to examine and be honest about.

(03:16:04):
Human beings generally are faulted. I mean, and I put myself at the top of the list. I've made mistakes in life and done things that I regret.
The key to regrets is never doing them again. If you've made a mistake, don't repeat it. Then you've learned from it.
You know, but quite often there's, you know, whether it's drugs or alcoholism or divorces because of all the things that went on in the world of wrestling.

(03:16:30):
I mean, there's a lot of faults to our business and there's a lot of faulty guys.
But I'd like to remember Archie and guys like him for what they did for the business and what they did for me.
You know, they catapulted my career to a better place and I'm grateful for that. So I'd like to remember Archie and other guys that I worked with rather than seeing the glass half empty.

(03:16:55):
I'd like to remember them as a glass more than half full, you know.
So in keeping with that, and we can leave the fans with the glass half full aspect of this conversation, is there another fun Archie story that you'd like to share with the listeners?
I'm sorry, what was that I missed it?
Oh, sorry. Just in keeping with the glass half full option as we wind up this portion of the program, is there another fun Archie story that you'd like to share with the listeners?

(03:17:23):
You know, I really can't. I don't think I can make you laugh or make your listeners laugh.
I can just tell you that I would sum up Archie as a dedicated, committed, 100% involved guy in a business and he gave 100% to the business.
He was truly, you know, he was an asset to the business. He was an asset to us.

(03:17:48):
I had the privilege and good fortune of being in a time frame with a guy of his quality.
I think my friendship with him, I cherish.
I think it's more of a personal observation than telling you a story about anything unique about him outside the business because as I say, my career was always involved with him at a level of the career.

(03:18:15):
We didn't socialize. I can't think of many times ever that he and I did any socializing because of course of K-Fave.
But I would just say he was as good as it gets. I'll borrow a Jack Nicholson movie as good as it gets.
Archie was as good as it gets and I truly miss him.

(03:18:37):
Couldn't say it better myself.
So before I let you go, Dan, is there, I know you're obviously involved in a great deal of charities and you were mentioning some of the work that you're doing.
What are you up to right now outside in Alberta and what's going on with yourself personally right now?
Well, you know what? Trying to stay healthy. That's one of the primaries.

(03:18:58):
Of course, dealing with a couple of health issues.
But the good fortune is that health issues are manageable in most cases and I'm fortunate enough to be able to be managing mine.
But my involvement in the community is really another pinnacle in my life.
I can't begin to tell people if someone said to me, what is the best decision you can make when you retire one day is community involvement.

(03:19:24):
I would suggest I work with Rotary. I work with Alliance. I work with Kiwanis. I work with the Chamber of Commerce.
I run a golf tournament for a mayor here in town. We raise money to build a senior center.
We work with the Boys and Girls Club. I raise money for them. I raise money for the Girl Guides.
I help. I created a poppy box that was theft proof about four years ago working with our veterans throughout Canada.

(03:19:49):
So I could tell you that I'm totally involved and I would pass that message along that there's nothing more than fulfilling than when you give to others.
The reward is not in a monetary way, but it's in an emotional way. And I've been very fortunate to be well rewarded.
And if people were looking to get in contact with you, how could they go about that?

(03:20:12):
Gosh, I'm not too sure what is the best way. Is there sort of a good formula for that?
Well, you're on Facebook, of course. That's how I ended up finding you.
Yeah, I'm on Facebook and I'm pretty easy. I'm receptive. I get a lot of fan comments there.
I'm also trying to think. I'm not too sure how else everybody seems to get a hold of me through Facebook. They wanted to do that.

(03:20:38):
I welcome that. Absolutely. You know, I appreciate any comments.
So I'm not sure what to tell you with the process. I don't probably not giving out my telephone number.
Yeah, that is not going to be available in the show notes tonight.
No, my wife wouldn't appreciate that. I will say this to the fans. I'd like to say this.

(03:21:00):
I appreciate your support over the years. Without you, I would have not had a career.
And number two, whenever I'm stopped in the community, which still happens today, which really amazes me,
I've always got time to talk, sign an autograph and listen to the stories.
I love the reminders that many of them tell me. They actually bring things up that I forgot.

(03:21:22):
So I do appreciate seeing the fans and I appreciate their support.
Perfect. Well, Dan, thank you so much for your time tonight.
This was a tremendous conversation and we got into a lot of topics that I never I never thought we would.
So I really do appreciate that.
Yeah, well, I appreciate the time that you've given me and being a part of your program. Thank you very much.

(03:21:45):
As we head to the finish of tonight's program, I really want to take some time to thank my guests.
Bo James, Keith McCoy and Cowboy Dan Croffit.
Without the three of you, this episode would not have come together.
So I cannot thank the three of you enough for your contributions to this episode and legitimately spending hours of each of your lives talking with little of me from Winnipeg, Manitoba.

(03:22:12):
It truly means a lot. And I think it added a lot to the Archie the Stomper story.
Now, I'm sure that everybody understood throughout the course of this program, you know, kind of the.
Meteoric rise and sad end to Archie's story, and we didn't really cover the way that he passed and it's.

(03:22:43):
I know it's not nice to talk about, but I have kind of a personal connection to the way that he had passed away.
So you can read about it online. I'm not going to go too, too deep into it, but essentially he had been having some Alzheimer's issues.
He was in assisted living. He had a bad fall.

(03:23:06):
He had hip surgery and and ended up passing away due to complications from such.
Why that's personal to me.
So Archie Goldie passed away in 2016.

(03:23:27):
The year previous to that was the year that my wife and myself had got married.
We got married in October of of 2015.
In the spring of that year, my papa, a man who I very much looked up to throughout my entire life, he was developing, you know,

(03:23:52):
we never got diagnosed, but we had figured dementia or something like that.
He was having issues, we're going to say.
And he was living with my Nana and unfortunately he had a bad fall and he broke his hip, wound up in the hospital.

(03:24:13):
We had all gone as a family to see him, wish him well.
The next morning he was supposed to be going in for surgery.
Everything was on the up and up. He was in pretty good spirits.
You know, we were all in the room talking to him, laughing, you know,
we all gave him a hug and kiss.
I gave him a hug, said I love you, all that kind of good stuff.

(03:24:36):
And unfortunately, he didn't make it through the night.
And when I had heard how Archie Goldie had passed away,
it's a year later, it really brought me back to that.
And then just the further part that, you know, a lot of the community didn't know that he had passed away.

(03:25:03):
I'm talking about the community in Alberta specifically didn't know.
I hope that this program at least gives some people that feel good moment about, you know,
seeing Archie or maybe reliving some past memories of him.
Whatever you get out of it.

(03:25:25):
As usual, that's the whole purpose of this program.
So I didn't, it was not my intention to get all sappy on you guys,
but I just wanted to share that little bit of my past with you all.
I think it's a little bit pertinent in this conversation at least.
Now, with all that being said, we still have a few things to get through towards the end of this program.

(03:25:47):
So first off, once again, thank you all for joining the program tonight.
You could have been doing anything else in the world,
but you decided to throw on a few hours of Grappling with Canada covering Archie the Stomper Goldie.
So thank you very much for that.
Do me a favor, pass the program on to your friends, to your family,
to people who like history or human interest stories or Canadian history, whatever.

(03:26:12):
Pass it along.
Grappling with Canada, as everybody knows, is not really a wrestling program.
And I'm still trying to break the stigma of that a little bit.
It's getting there, but with your guys' help, we're going to get exactly where we need to be.
So thank you very much for listening to the program tonight,
and feel free, please, to pass it on to your friends and family.

(03:26:37):
Now, at the start of this program, I had teased a new project that I was privy to,
and I'm going to talk a little bit about that right now.
I was emailed from Sarah.
She lives in Scotland, I believe,
and she had heard a story about one of the previous topics of Grappling with Canada, Billy Two Rivers.

(03:27:01):
This was years ago, and started doing a little bit of research into him and what came up,
but my conversation with Mr. Two Rivers himself,
which her and her friends have listened to multiple times,
fun fact that Sarah is an artist, and she is also a screenwriter.

(03:27:23):
So she actually had written a screenplay, it's like a 10-minute short, I believe is what it actually is,
featuring a story regarding Billy Two Rivers, which I thought was pretty damn cool,
considering somebody from Scotland hears my program,

(03:27:44):
and that kind of gets the ball rolling for them writing a short film script.
So very, very cool.
As I get more details on that, clearly I will let everybody know.
She was very gracious enough to send me the script, which I read.
It's super fun, and it's set in the proper time period.

(03:28:11):
And I'm not going to go too far into it because I don't want to spoil anything, but I loved it.
I thought it was a super neat idea, and I'm really looking forward to where she goes with it.
So, Sarah, if you're listening, again, I've emailed you multiple times.
We've been talking back and forth, but I'm really, really excited for where you take this program specifically in the future.

(03:28:35):
Now, the other thing that I teased at the top of the program is talking about a few five-star reviews that we were left.
So on Good Pods, we were left a five-star review on our Abdullah the Butcher episode.
So this comes from LG, who says,
Five-star review? I've listened to this episode multiple times now.

(03:28:59):
Wow, what a crazy story.
And I can't get over that intro scene craziness. I highly recommend.
Well, thank you, LG. I really appreciate you leaving the five-star review.
I also got another five-star review from BC Hunter as well, also on Good Pods.
He says,
Five-star review? The Tax Man is quickly becoming one of Canada's best wrestling historians thanks to the work he puts in to every episode.

(03:29:24):
Well, I don't know that I would put myself over that much, but BC, I really appreciate that.
And speaking of BC, he has a podcast along with a good friend of his.
They are called Wrestling with the Truth podcast.
There are a couple of guys from the East Coast.
They focus mostly on the modern programming of professional wrestling.

(03:29:51):
Modern wrestling is not necessarily my scene.
However, I love listening to those guys show. They make it a ton of fun.
A ton of, you know, they bring up interesting topics.
My favorite episode so far is they had a top 10 wrestling belts of all time.
I'm a huge belt guy, so I really enjoyed that.
And they just had recently at time of this recording,

(03:30:15):
had released an episode on the top 10 worst entrance theme musics of all time for professional wrestlers.
So great listen.
Definitely want to plug in a wrestling with the truth on any podcast platform like the one that you are currently listening to me right now on.

(03:30:36):
As we really start to wrap this thing up and want to thank once again, everybody for listening to the program.
You can check us out on our Facebook group.
Use that Facebook group search bar search grappling with Canada.
You can find us on there.
Want to make mention as well in regards to the Facebook group.
A week before the next month's episode is going to be released, I always drop what the episode is going to be on.

(03:31:05):
And that gives you an opportunity if you would like to ask any questions in regards to that topic.
So go ahead and join the Facebook group.
It's it's a good conversation.
And we had talked earlier on in this episode about the sledgehammer incident regarding Archie the Stomper Goldie.
I'm going to be posting video of that sledgehammer incident in the Facebook group page a few days after this episode drops, as the kids say.

(03:31:36):
So come on to the Facebook group page. Use that wonderful search bar grappling with Canada.
Come join the group.
Also use the Facebook page search bar search for grappling with Canada and come like the Facebook page.
Again, want to mention grappling with Canada dot threadless dot com is where you can find the current four designs for the grappling with Canada shirts.

(03:32:02):
And once again, if you pick up a shirt, all the proceeds are going to charity, namely the Children's Hospital here in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Also, if you are willing to buy the tax man a beer because God damn it's hard putting these shows together, I would appreciate that.

(03:32:25):
You can go ahead and head on over to buy me a coffee dot com slash grappling where you can buy your wonderful pal the tax man a beer.
It is thirsty work recording these programs, but that's how you can support me.
Hey, listen, I love doing this show.
It's it's a passion of mine.
I'm not doing this to make money or anything like that.

(03:32:48):
I'm just doing it because this is stuff that I think that that not just Canadian wrestling fans, but people who enjoy personal stories, people who enjoy history, people who enjoy like human interest avenues.
This is for you.

(03:33:09):
So I hope that you enjoy it.
If you want to buy me a beer, go ahead.
It's it's just one of those things.
Right. But God damn, I'm having so much fun doing this.
I hope it translates for you guys and I hope that you're really enjoying it as well.
So with all of my rambling out of the way and before we finish up specifically, if you want to get in touch with me super easy on Twitter at six underscore podcast on Instagram.

(03:33:37):
You can search grappling with Canada on YouTube, YouTube dot com slash C slash six sided podcast or you can strip email me six side pod at Gmail dot com.
Shoot me a line. Let me know what you think.
If I really do appreciate it, I've been getting a ton of emails.

(03:33:58):
Like I said, at the start of the program, I've been getting a ton of emails, ton of DMS.
I love it.
I love talking to everybody.
I love I love just conversations and it makes the whole thing worthwhile.
So, huh, I think we're all done with the plugs tonight.
But for myself, the tax man, for all my tremendous guests that I had today, and I really hope that you all enjoyed them.

(03:34:24):
By the way, if you haven't picked it up, pick up pain and passion.
The Calgary Stampede Bible available on Amazon for my guests and to all of you.
I believe you, as I usually do, take care of yourselves and each other.
Good night, everyone.

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Archie Gouldie - The Lore Of The Mongolian Stomper

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Archie Gouldie - The Lore Of The Mongolian Stomper