Rhonda Singh - The Ascent Of The Monster Ripper, And The Curse Of Bertha Faye - Grappling With Canada

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hey folks, Andy the Taxman here. Now over the last 11 months I've gotten tremendous and positive feedback, emails, ratings and reviews from many listeners of the show and I wanted to share a couple of those with you today.

(00:14):
I was left a 5 star review from Wrestling with the Truth on Good Pods and they said, 5 stars, the Taxman is quickly becoming one of Canada's best wrestling historians thanks to the work that he puts in to every episode.
While I'll never put myself over as one of Canada's best wrestling historians, I hope to get there one day and I appreciate the kind words from Wrestling with the Truth.

(00:37):
I had a very nice note left on Twitter from at Jimmy Yadig. He says, Good stuff at 6 underscore podcast, the Twitter handle for this show.
Loving grappling with Canada. The episode of Gama Singh was amazing. Canada does not get enough credit in wrestling. I like the series bro, you're giving good historical facts.

(00:59):
I appreciate that Jimmy and I try very very hard to include as many truthful and factual accounts as I possibly can in every episode so I appreciate the sentiment.
I was left another 5 star review on Podchaser, this one from BC Hunter. He says, Andy is one of the best wrestling historians that Canada has to offer.

(01:22):
All episodes are a must listen for any Canadian wrestling fan or wrestling fan in general and I appreciate that because as everybody knows, this show is not just about Canadian wrestling but also about wrestling history
and what Canada does mean to the rest of the world in the grand scheme of things which brings me to my last one that I want to read to you all right now.

(01:45):
So this one came from Fireside Canada, a tremendous podcast as well. I hope everybody goes and checks that out. This was left on Podchaser as well. He said, 5 stars.
My knowledge of wrestling doesn't go much further than childhood favorites like Jake the Snake and Junkyard Dog and in brackets he says, and now you can guess my age.
Nevertheless, I am captivated by people talking about their passions and as I listened, I found myself sharing the excitement about an athlete I had never heard of.

(02:11):
Next thing I know, I'm watching a 50 year old TV broadcast of Gene Kiencinski battling Japan's giant baba, observing the otherwise reserved crowd throwing garbage into the ring and marveling at Kiencinski's talent for being a quote unquote heel.
Enthusiastic, educational and slightly nostalgic, give it a listen. And that's really what I'm going for here.

(02:32):
A show that appeals to everybody whether you're a history fan, whether you like Canada, whether you like professional wrestling, whether you just like human interest stories.
And that's what I try and bring to you guys every month. I'm incredibly proud of producing a program that features a lot of history, a lot of personal experiences and a lot of personal stories that appeal to a wide range of people.

(02:54):
Regardless of just wrestling fans, if you will. And quite frankly, you're going to hear stories on this show that you're never going to hear anywhere else.
And isn't that really why we're all here? To learn something? I'm asking for everybody's help right now to keep all of this going.
This program takes an exorbitant amount of time physically to produce every month. A little behind the scenes look.

(03:17):
Each episode takes me roughly between 30 and 50 total hours to produce, research, coordinate guests, etc. etc.
There's also a financial responsibility that I have towards the show.
So this is the perfect time now to help me out and to help produce further episodes and further seasons of Grappling with Canada.

(03:42):
If you look at the Linktree link in your show notes, you'll find various ways that you can donate to the podcast.
You can choose $5 options and increments on BuyMeACoffee.com slash Grappling.
You'll also find a link to my PayPal account where I would ask if you are able to to donate to the program.

(04:05):
And also if you're listening to this on Goodpuzz, there is the Tip Jar function where you can also donate to the program.
All of that will continue to help this program grow, to help me out with the research towards the program,
and to help provide more in-depth discussion and in-depth historical research on this program that we all love.

(04:28):
And for me to continue to provide what I think is a great look into the personal lives of some of the most influential people,
not just in Canadian wrestling, not just in wrestling in general, but in Canadian history as well.
So once again, I'm asking for your support.
Click the link in your show notes for various ways to contribute to the show.

(04:52):
And as such, if you do contribute to the show, I'll make sure that I give you a shout-out in the next month's episode.
So once again, use the Linktree link in this month's show notes to see particular ways on how you can donate to the show.
And I really appreciate it in advance, and I look forward to chatting with all of you in regards to that.

(05:14):
So thank you for your time, and let's get into today's podcast.

(05:44):
The cops would be in there, but...
Let's get some security out here.
This... I can't see her face!
She's gotta go 300!
Did we take a break? Are we still on? Are we still live?
Are we on here with this thing or what? Who is it? You didn't tell me none of it. What's going on here?
Alondra holding her phone right in the nose.

(06:07):
Who is it?
That woman, whoever she is, just took Alondra, placed right in the face.
Stay with us everyone!

(06:43):
That Ronda Singh, the woman behind Birth of Faith, was anything like that?
You are sorely mistaken.
This month on Grappling with Canada, we take an in-depth look at the incredible career and legacy of one of the most feared,
one of the most vicious, one of the most intense and dangerous women wrestlers of all time.

(07:11):
The Monster Ripper, Ronda Singh.
Hello everyone and...

(07:33):
Welcome back, welcome back, welcome back!
To Grappling with Canada, as usual, I'm your host, The Taxman, and I'm really looking forward to today's episode,
which I think is going to open a lot of people's eyes to one of maybe the most misunderstood, not just women,
but Canadian professional wrestlers, quite honestly in history.

(07:59):
So I'm really looking forward to today's episode covering the life and career,
the very impressive and very, very misunderstood and quite frankly, misreported career of Ronda Singh.
Now, before we get into all of that, I want to thank everybody for checking out last month's episode on Archie the Stomper...

(08:23):
on the Mongolian Stomper, Archie Goldie.
I had a ton of tremendous feedback and I had a lot of family and friends of Archie Goldie reach out to me,
which I always get such a kick out of and I'm very proud that I'm able to connect with people through this program
who maybe knew the person that we had covered, maybe they had relatives that knew them, maybe they are a relative of that person,

(08:48):
and they're kind of able to reminisce a little bit in regards to what we've been covering on this program.
So I was very happy to have the pleasure of talking to a lot of friends and family of Archie the Mongolian Stomper.
Really, it's just such a treat to be able to connect with people really across the world and from all walks of life

(09:11):
who share their stories and who continue to remember the people that we cover in the episodes monthly.
Just a little bit of housekeeping before we kick off this month's episode.
You can find this program, Grappler with Canada, on all major podcasting platforms like Spotify, iTunes, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, etc.

(09:32):
Good pods as well.
While you're listening to this program on any one of those wonderful devices and podcasting platforms,
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If you have the option, please leave a five-star review and please leave a written review as well if you have a chance.
It really helps me with the direction of the show and really it's just nice to read some nice things that people are saying about myself

(09:58):
and about the work that we're putting in here at Grappler with Canada.
You can also find this on YouTube, youtube.com slash c slash six-sided podcast.
We are marching our way to a thousand subscribers.
I think we're almost at the 500 mark.
Even if you listen to this program on your preferred podcasting platform of choice, try saying that one three times fast.

(10:23):
Make sure that you also subscribe to us on YouTube. It would help me immensely.
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(10:48):
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In addition to all of that, it would help me immensely if you would do what you're probably doing anyways right now.

(11:14):
Looking at your phone, go ahead and share this program with your friends and family.
We're trying to get the word out and we've experienced tremendous growth over this past 11 months with the program.
And quite frankly, that's all thanks to you guys.
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Wherever you buy, sell, trade, barter or borrow or listen to your favorite podcasts and one of those being Grappler with Canada.

(11:43):
I really much appreciate all of the support and all of the sharing of the program that's been happening.
So once again, I want to thank everybody for all of that.
As well, we have t-shirts available finally at threadlist.com slash Grappler with Canada.
Or it might be grapplingwithcanada.threadlist.com.

(12:06):
That's where you can find those shirts. We have a bunch of fun designs up there.
Just of note, the classic Grappler with Canada logo, all proceeds from that show are being donated to charity as I've said in multiple episodes.
There's been quite a few of you that have already taken advantage of that and I thank you very much.
If you purchase a shirt, make sure that you share it either on Twitter or on Facebook, preferably in the Facebook group.

(12:34):
And I'll be happy to share that. And yeah, we'll just have some fun with it and show it you out as well.
So once again, grapplingwithcanada.threadlist.com is where you can find those shirts.
You can also support the program via donations using the link tree in your show notes.
You would have heard a little bit of that previously to this show.

(12:57):
And you can find various ways to support the show on there, whether it's buymeacoffee.com slash grappling,
whether it's the direct link to PayPal, or whether it's the tip function on Goodpods.
Some tremendous ways to help support the show and really help with the research and to keep all this thing going.
I also have a new five-star review that I'm going to read later on in the show.

(13:22):
Once again, if you leave a five-star written review, I will make sure that I read it on the next available podcast.
So I'm looking forward to getting into that later on in this show.
However, today the reason that we're all here, Rhonda Singh.
Now, don't let the show notes fool you and don't let the title of the program fool you.
Because I know that a lot of people, their only experience with Rhonda Singh was her joke, quote-unquote,

(13:48):
character in the WWF as Bertha Faye and also how she was used, but more specifically misused,
in WCW as kind of this quasi-comedy, I don't know what they were trying to do there.
And to be quite frank, at that time WCW was a mess, both in terms creatively, they were bankrupt,

(14:13):
they were bankrupt essentially financially because of massinations behind the scenes.
But if those are your only memories of Rhonda Singh, you are in for a big, big treat.
Now, I have two tremendous guests on today's program that I cannot wait to get to, to have you guys listen to.

(14:34):
One is a returning member of the Grappling with Canada family.
You would have heard Dr. Mike Lano on our Abdul of the Butcher episode,
so I'm very happy to be having Wrestling's first dentist back on the show today.
As well as a tremendous wrestling writer, Javier Yoist, is also joining the program

(14:58):
and I'm really looking forward to everybody getting to know him because as you're going to be hearing in this program,
he's done, well it will be right away now, 100 articles for pro wrestling stories as well as some other websites.
So I'm looking forward to my conversation with Javier and with Dr. Mike Lano

(15:19):
and for really dispelling a lot of the false information that's out there regarding Rhonda Singh
because unfortunately, and we're going to discuss this in great detail in the episode,
so I'm not going to get into it too deep right now, but she is easily one of the most misunderstood, misreported,

(15:40):
more importantly, and really the facts of her career are just so misconstrued by so many different sources,
some of it intentional and we are going to get into that, some of it unintentional,
but today we're going to do a very good job, I think, of clearing up a lot of the misconceptions.
We're going to talk in great depth and detail about what she actually meant to wrestling

(16:04):
because there's a lot of things that she has done in her career that are overlooked
and overshadowed by her involvement with, we'll say, the big promotion,
something that we're going to get into later on in this episode.
But before we get into all of that, I'm going to set you up all in the proper frame of mind.

(16:25):
So for anybody who doesn't know the Monster Ripper, Ronda Singh, from Japan, from Puerto Rico, from Mexico,
we're going to kick this thing off right.
So I'm going to play a little bit of intro from one of her title matches against Bull Nakano

(16:46):
and it really set us in the mood for discussing the Monster Ripper.
So this is, if you've never heard it before, it's totally different than you've ever heard her be presented
in any way, shape or form, and it's going to set us up in the proper frame of mind
and eventually the proper context as we put things into place in this episode.

(17:09):
So enjoy this classic wrestling audio, and then on the other side we're going to get into our program
of the Monster Ripper, Ronda Singh.

(17:44):
This is Bull Nakano!

(18:14):
I think we can see what she's got in her.
She's got a different perspective from the other fighters.
She's always been a blue and a bison, right?
So when she's facing a veteran, with a big name from the outside,
I wonder what kind of Bull Nakano she'll be able to see.
She's cool.
She's cool.
The Monster Ripper.

(18:35):
She's huge, isn't she?
She is.
And now from the blue corner, the challenger, the Monster Ripper.
She's got a lot of experience.
She's got a lot of experience.
And now, the fourth time in Bull Nakano's fight, is it the Monster Ripper?

(19:00):
Monster Ripper!
This character is really cool.
Ronda Anne Singh was born February 21st, 1961 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
And from a very young age, she knew that she wanted to be a professional wrestler,
including skirmishes with neighborhood kids,

(19:22):
as well as wrestling her kindergarten classmates in school.
So from a very young age, we see the seeds planted that would eventually come to be known internationally
as the Monster Ripper, Ronda Singh.
Now, I could go on and give you the Coles Notes version of her life told by other people.

(19:45):
However, I find it very important to include as many of the quotes from the actual people
who I'm showcasing on this program as possible.
And I'm going to be quoting from a couple of different articles
to give you guys more context about Ronda Singh the person,
and as well as the characters that she portrayed.
And I hate to use that term characters,

(20:06):
but that's what we're going to go with anyways in terms of this conversation.
The characters that she portrayed in various wrestling organizations.
So this is a quote from Ronda herself.
She's talking about how she kind of got into wrestling itself.
So quote,
Stampede Wrestling was a big influence because you had it on TV Saturday mornings.

(20:30):
My mom used to go out and take us if we had been good through the week.
She always had four ringside tickets for about 20 years.
When I was five, I wanted to be a wrestler.
I was in kindergarten beating up the other kids.
Everyone who knows me in my neighborhood remembers me telling them I was going to be a wrestler.
It was like a lot of wrestlers in the business now.
They knew it when they were kids.

(20:53):
And she would go on to say how she actually got started in the business,
which is something that we're going to go into greater depth and detail later on in this program.
But I want to give you her description in her words.
She's quoted as saying,
I was actually in Hawaii on vacation and zapping through the channels.
I stumbled on Japanese women's wrestling.
They were hitting each other with chairs and everything.

(21:15):
It was an all girl company and I thought it was the coolest thing.
It sparked my interest.
That's definitely what I wanted to do.
So she goes on to give a little bit more context about her time getting into the business.
She ended up reaching out to Mildred Burke,
something that we're going to discuss later on in the program,
and was accepted to Mildred Burke's wrestling school.

(21:36):
She is quoted as saying,
I cleaned out my bank account and told my parents that this is what I wanted to do.
I said to my parents, give me three months.
Let me see if I can do this.
And she would talk about her time in Mildred Burke's school.
Some of the Japanese girls came out to LA to train and scout some talent.
Burke was the only US trainer having women go to Japan at the time.

(21:58):
And they were saying, hey, a fat girl.
We like her.
And she laughed as she said this.
That was in November.
And by January, I was main eventing in Japan.
I could tie my boots and do a backdrop.
I was pretty limited.
And she's very conscientious in her quotes of being absolutely realistic
and where she was at that point in time in her wrestling career.

(22:23):
And she would go into further depth.
And again, this is something that we're going to discuss later on in the program as well.
Her first match was in Japan with a partner,
Miami Konami against the beauty pair.
She was quoted as saying, it was my first match and I won.
The Japanese girls resented it because they never had to lose.
If they lost, they lost to each other.

(22:44):
They never lost to a foreigner.
She would say further, they literally kicked the shit out of me.
I was the first foreigner that they had to lose to and they didn't take it kindly.
You were working seven, eight times a week.
You had to roll out of bed and bit by bit get up because you were just dead.
And she would further discuss her time in All Japan Wrestling,

(23:05):
including a time where she had to start defending herself because of the abuse that she was suffering
at the hands of the other not only professional wrestling students that were there learning,
but also the wrestlers in the ring who were taking out their aggressions on her,
this new up and coming foreigner who was getting the monster pushes.
Quote, it was just a matter of defending yourself and saying, I'm not going to take this anymore.

(23:28):
Once you got respected, it became very easy.
They always respected you and feared you.
So she would spend an exorbitant amount of time in Japan from the 70s into the 80s.
And then she eventually would come back to Calgary in the early 80s.
But she has an interesting take on this as well.
Quote, I didn't want to wrestle there until I knew I was good enough, she said.

(23:51):
This is your hometown crowd and people you grew up with.
The first time I came through, I was with the Mexican girl that was in Japan as well.
We were only going to do two weeks.
Stuart liked us so much that he kept us for four.
He wanted us to go longer, but we had to go back to Mexico.
And she would say further about her time in stampede wrestling.
Quote, this was one of the best territories that anyone could work in.

(24:14):
The people you meet there are still your good friends.
Everyone had a good time.
You didn't have any of the problems that you have in the dressing room now.
There was never anything that ever escalated to a major problem.
And she also knew that she was in a very advantageous position,
and she didn't take it for granted as some other people do.
She was quoted as saying, in this business, you're really fortunate

(24:36):
because it allows you to see a lot of the world that you would never otherwise get to see.
And then we talk about her time with the WWF.
So her career starts in Japan.
She quickly becomes a very big established star there.
She starts doing tours in Puerto Rico, in Mexico, all around the world essentially,

(25:01):
making a name for herself, the Monster Ripper, Ronda Singh,
which eventually gets her hired by, at that time, one of the two top companies in North America, the WWF.
She would be quoted as saying, it was the best and worst of times.
Because I started in Japan, I had a reverse philosophy than those who started in the States.

(25:22):
And their dream is to wrestle in Japan.
Mine was to wrestle in Madison Square Garden, she would say.
I had that opportunity years ago when they had Wendy Richter, she said.
Mula called me up and said that she wanted me to do a couple of pay-per-views with Wendy.
The thing was, Mula wanted half my money.
Why would you take my money when you're not doing anything?

(25:44):
I didn't even know her.
You wanted to go, but you knew it was going to be a guaranteed loss.
And she would talk about further her debut in the WWF and what it was supposed to be,
versus what actually happened in real life.
And her matches, specifically with Bull Nakano, were big factors in her wanting to go to the WWF.

(26:08):
Quote, we had big heat in Japan, so this is what they wanted to do, she recalled.
Medusa was going away and she was getting new boobs and a new nose.
For three months it was going to be Nakano and I.
She was going to drop the belt to me, Medusa was going to come back after a while.
We'd add a few more girls and make it a legitimate women's division.
Eventually, Medusa and I would battle for the belt and it was undecided from there.

(26:31):
I had a two-year contract, so we were going to space it out over that time.
But as WWF fans know, that is not at all what actually ended up happening.
Quote, the whole storyline went down the toilet, she said.
The only way we could save it is if we were able to hurt Medusa because she was still scheduled for surgery.
We had to get rid of Nakano to get me in there at the same time.

(26:53):
And she had an interesting quote about somebody who we're going to be talking about a little bit more in today's episode.
And that was the person that wrestling fans would know as Harvey Whippleman.
Quote, he actually did live in a trailer park. He was that guy, that's who he was.
He never bought a roll of toilet paper in his life. He'd always just take it from a hotel or a truck stop.

(27:17):
She would talk about how they changed her character from the Monster Ripper to what WWF fans would come to know and resent as Bertha Faye.
Quote, they put me in that character. You're not doing something you want to do.
I was Monster Ripper for 15 years. It was hard to walk away from all that personality.

(27:38):
She would further say, I couldn't do these moves because certain guys were doing it.
You went in every night with one arm tied behind your back because someone else lay claim to it.
I was doing these moves on a daily basis for 15 years and now I couldn't do any of it.
No one wanted you to look better than they did.
I did power moves. That's who I was. It sort of stripped my identity.

(28:01):
You're going to the ring skipping and blowing kisses, looking goofy.
You just went to the bank and cast your check.
You felt like you were pimping yourself out. You were a prostitute for Vince.
The guys were doing it too so you know what people had to do for their money.
And she would also go on to how it all really started unraveling for her.

(28:23):
Quote, there was no real storyline. There was nothing really going on. We were just there.
In the background you'd have Medusa calling Vince all the time asking why we weren't on TV.
When you only have two girls you can only do so much.
She had limited skills and basically did the same thing all the time.
Now because of the lack of interviews that Rana Singh had done, particularly in English,

(28:46):
there's a lot of articles in Japan but they're almost impossible for me to access at this point in time.
So what I'm left with is essentially secondhand accounts for the most part.
But I was able to stumble onto an article from The Providence written in 1984.
And this one really does shed some more interesting light on Rana Singh herself

(29:09):
and where she was in that point in time.
Because you've got to remember, 84 would have been 11 years before she even came to the WWF.
So this really gives you more context of Rana Singh at this point in time of what she was doing
and what she really thought about the wrestling business.
So this article is from The Providence newspaper in 1984

(29:33):
and it was written by Sorel Saidman.
The title of the piece really sums up what I'm getting to with this whole Rana Singh program.
And it's titled, She's Real Bad.
Rana Singh is one of only a handful of women wrestlers on the Canadian circuit.

(29:54):
23, she was born and raised in Calgary where she still keeps an apartment.
But much of her 5 and a half year career as a pro wrestler has been spent in Mexico and Japan.
In the latter, a national hero under the name Monster Ripper.
In Canada, she is often billed as a Japanese wrestler, though her ancestry, many generations removed, is in fact Chinese.

(30:15):
At first, she is quoted as saying,
My family didn't think highly of the idea, smiles Singh.
My mother would shake her head.
I have three sons and it's my daughter who wants to be the wrestler?
But it was my mom who got me interested in the first place, taking me to matches when I was growing up.
My dad wouldn't go.
He still never seen me wrestle except on videotape.

(30:37):
Despite the family's objections, Ronda rolled into the All Girl Mildred Brooks School of Professional Wrestling in Los Angeles,
soon after graduating high school.
Japanese wrestlers spotted her there and took her to Japan, retrained and groomed her.
And at 18, she was a main event in a country full of wrestling fans.

(30:58):
She admits it was a lucky break.
Quote, I didn't want to type letters for somebody 9 to 5.
I wanted a challenge, something different.
In wrestling, once you get to a certain level, you go where you want, work who you want, when you want and ask what you want for it.
And you make a lot of money.
Singh is on a 4 to 5 week series of matches around Wrestling Canada with the company

(31:22):
who's televised regularly in 54 major centers in 22 different countries.
She's pitted against Rosy Merino of Mexico and she'd missed us competition at Sparse in North America.
Quote, I win 99% of my matches anyways.
Against Rosy, it's 99.98%.
She's a lot smaller than I.

(31:44):
I could probably kill her, break her up, but then who am I going to work with?
I haven't broken into the states yet.
I think they're scared of me.
The American girls are lazy.
They just play it.
I don't.
In the world of pro wrestling, Merino is the good girl and Ronda is bad.
Quote, unquote.
Being the only two women on the tour, coupled with Rosy's lack of English and Ronda's ability as an interpreter,

(32:09):
she speaks fluent Japanese as well as Spanish and that's something that we're going to get into later in the program as well.
They do spend some time together once out of the ring.
Ronda stresses competition and, like most wrestlers, she resents it being classified as entertainment.
Quote, I'm an athlete.
Everything I do involves strength, speed and power.

(32:33):
I like to beat people up.
They're going to do it to you, so you better do it to them first.
When I'm in a vicious mood, I'll draw blood.
People are sick-minded.
They like blood and gore, but we're not going to kill ourselves for them.
They've got a lot of time and a lot of hand in all sports.
In hockey, they're not happy unless they see someone fight.
In wrestling, if they don't see blood, they get cheated or they feel cheated.

(32:59):
Her quote in all of this on the article itself is, I like to beat people up, which I think is tremendous
and it really does showcase kind of the mentality that Ronda Singh had in the ring at that specific time
and it was something that she carried with her in her legacy in Japan, in Mexico, in Puerto Rico
and other large markets, unfortunately, until she got to the quote unquote big times.

(33:25):
And this is something that we're going to discuss further on in this episode
and this is something that wrestling fans seem to have a hard time with.
This is notion that if you don't make it in the WWF, somehow that qualifies you as not being a big wrestling star.
There's a misconception with some North American wrestling fans that other promotions in other countries

(33:50):
like Mexico, like Puerto Rico, especially in Japan, that matches are held there in front of 500 people
and everybody sits on their hands and there's no excitement and it's boring.
I challenge anybody listening to this program and I normally don't talk about specific wrestling matches.
So I just want to make that abundantly clear before I quantify what I'm about to say here.

(34:16):
But I challenge anybody to go onto YouTube, type in The Monster Ripper and watch any of her matches from Japan
with Aja Kong, with Bull Nakano, really anything and understand what it was like for her being an outsider,

(34:37):
being a foreigner, coming into Japan, creating this massive buzz.
And you can see literally when she's walking through the crowd to get to the ring for her match,
she has security around her because the fans are hot, people are legitimately upset when she's just killing their favorite Japanese wrestler.

(34:59):
You can watch matches of her in WWC, in Puerto Rico where they have these wild cage matches,
one in particular with Wendy Richter, which we discussed a little bit later in the episode as well,
where it's an absolute just bloodbath. These two women are just beating the hell out of each other.

(35:20):
They go in the crowd, they're throwing chairs around.
They're doing stuff back then that male professional wrestlers nowadays would have a hard time doing.
And it's absolutely incredible. And the buildings are crazy, the amount of fans is insane.
And that's really something that I want to highlight in this episode.

(35:43):
And really that's been a focal point of this whole experience of doing Grappling with Canada.
For wrestling fans, there is a large life outside of the WWE.
And what they present as their revisionist history is not necessarily what actual professional wrestling history is.

(36:08):
If you would look at the WWE's version of Ronda Singh's career,
she was a joke character who was kind of a throwaway with this sleazy trailer park manager and didn't really accomplish anything.
She had the best known versions, that's what it was.
And then if you take in the combined careers of her in the WWE and WCW, WCW, she really didn't do anything either.

(36:30):
Same thing, she was paired with Oklahoma, an awful manager, just a horrific take off of JR.
And I won't even get into that, that's a whole other conversation.
But again, you have somebody who's presented as a joke, who's not allowed to work the way that she can work,
and just used and abused.

(36:51):
Whereas her entire career beforehand, never mentioned, never brought up,
because these companies had and still have, in the case of WWE,
have a hard time for some reason acknowledging people's successes and careers outside of their own companies.

(37:12):
So you didn't hear the matches of Ronda Singh with a chain with Aja Kong in Japan.
You didn't hear about the cage matches, four-way cage matches in old Japan,
where women are literally bleeding and beating on each other and just destroying each other in matches for a championship.

(37:35):
You don't hear about her going after fans in the crowd in Puerto Rico and almost causing a riot in Mexico.
It's crazy.
So for as much as I normally don't encourage you guys to go on YouTube to look up specific things,
I highly encourage anybody who has only ever seen Ronda Singh as Bertha Faye,

(37:58):
go out of your way, throw it in your YouTube machine, check out her work in old Japan,
and her work especially in Puerto Rico as well.
It's honest to God, it's better than almost anything you're going to see in today's professional wrestling scene,
and it tells a story, something that is sorely lacking in today's professional wrestling environment.

(38:23):
So now that I've gone on my soapbox and cut my diatrav there,
once again, I'm trying to highlight and really put into context the importance of Ronda Singh and why her legacy matters,
and we're further going to get into that as we move into the program.
So I'm going to bring my first guest into the program.

(38:47):
Javier is going to be joining me right away.
But before we get into that, I'm going to play a promo that she cut after one of her matches in WWC.
Now, Grappling with Canada has a very international audience.
I think we're heard in over 50 countries on last count,

(39:12):
so there's a wide swath of the world that this program covers.
This promo that you're going to hear from Ronda Singh is done in Spanish,
and it really illustrates the fact that she would go to these other countries,
not only become a big star, but take the time to learn their language, their culture, how they do things.

(39:35):
And I think I can't exemplify that any more than to play this type of promo.
So please enjoy this promo cut by Ronda Singh in WWC, and on the other side, my incredible conversation with Javier Oist.

(40:11):
Carolina Sasha, yo, te voy a regresar esta cinturón a mi cinturón, a mi cintura, perdón, porque yo soy el mejor luchador del mundo, Sasha.
Y yo te voy a demostrar esto a ti y a toda la gente de allá en Carolina.
All right, very happy to be joined on the program right now by not just wrestling author,

(40:36):
but a man of many traits right now joined on the line by Javier Oist. Javier, how are you doing?
I'm doing great, Andy. Thanks for inviting me on the show.
It's my pleasure, and it's funny, we had just mentioned something off air, so we're kind of coming into this one laughing a little bit.
You released what, your 99th article in two years, you just said?

(41:00):
Well, it's been submitted, it's one of those things I enjoy writing, and I was only supposed to write one article,
and in two years, and if you include the pandemic, I've submitted my 99th article.
93 have been published, but 99, when they're all published, it'll be 99 total.

(41:22):
So I'm just chomping at the bit to see which one's going to be number 100. That would be a nice number to reach, you know.
No kidding, that's incredible.
I haven't written books yet or anything, but if you add all 99 articles, that's about five books there.
You're going to be getting into the Pat LaPrade territory right away.

(41:43):
Oh, well, I super respect for Pat LaPrade with the squared circle, Women of the Squared Circle.
Yes, Sisters of the Squared Circle, yeah.
Sisters, exactly, that's an amazing book, but he was under Andre the Giant One, right?
He did that one too. Yeah, absolutely phenomenal work.

(42:05):
Oh, he's incredible. I'm a former two-time guest on this program, and yeah, we were talking off air as well about all these wrestling historians
that we've had the great pleasure of dealing with over the years, and yeah, he's right up there as well.
Absolutely, great work, great work.

(42:26):
So before we get into Tite's topic, let's just hear a little bit about yourself for all the listeners at home who may not be familiar with yourself and your work.
That's impossible, but I can try to familiarize them with my work. Just kidding, just kidding.
Since it's a wrestling show, we've got to put ourselves over somehow, right?

(42:50):
Well, yeah, the last thing you want to do is come out and bury yourself three minutes into a program.
I do a good enough job doing that myself, so.
Well, my name's Javier Oist. I've been watching wrestling since around early 86, so I started watching at the tail end of the territories.

(43:11):
I saw how things, I was there with Hulkamania, King Kong Bundy, WrestleMania II, and I loved watching Florida Championship Wrestling,
Kevin Sullivan, and the Army of Darkness, and now he left superstar Billy Graham out in the desert, and all that madness of Florida Championship Wrestling.

(43:34):
And I watched, of course, NWA, the Georgia product, and there were a couple years I stopped watching wrestling.
I just started enjoying, just gained other interests. You start growing up.
And then I was pulled back in when the NWO started at WCW and Stone Cold Steve Austin, all that.

(43:58):
I thought those were really powerful storylines and characters. And fast forward to a couple years ago,
I don't know if you're familiar with Silver King, the Mexican luchador who died in London. I think it was two years ago now.
Yes.
He had a heart attack in the ring against a who and who guerrera. Most people call him Judy.

(44:22):
Well, that was my first article for pro wrestling stories. I just felt so indignant over what had happened.
And this was, I'm not good with dates, believe it or not. We're in 2021. This was around 2019, I believe.
I'm not going to cheat by looking it up. But when it happened, I was just so upset that in the 2019 or 2018, whenever it happened,

(44:49):
how is it that there was no immediate medical attention for the talent of the ring?
And how is it that the referee let the match continue? He respected K-Fate so much, he basically let this guy die in the ring.
Those things, to me, are just crazy.

(45:13):
So I wrote to, I was already a fan of pro wrestling stories, and I wrote to them and I said, you guys should write about this. This is a very important story.
And the owner, his name is JP Zarca. He's a very cool guy, a good friend of mine now.
He said, you know, why don't you do it? It seems that you're passionate about it.
And Yuri sent me all this information where we could take it and write the story by ourselves, you know, take your influence and write it.

(45:42):
Why don't you do it? And when he said that, I almost froze. I thought, me write an article?
Yeah, I've been a fan of Pro Wrestling Illustrated, The Wrestler Inside Wrestling, all those magazines from the past.
And I said, it would be pretty cool if I could write one of these articles.

(46:03):
And I thought, well, okay. I just responded, okay, without even a clue of how I was going to do it.
It's one of those moments in life where you think to yourself, well, this is a moment you're going to look at in the future and say, you should have gone for it, man.

(46:24):
Just go with it. No fear. Go forward and do it.
And what made me feel confident doing it was that on their page, on the part where it says about us, there's a part where it says that they'll do some editing and they'll work with you if you need help, etc., etc.
So I'm like, how bad? You know, let's just submit it.

(46:46):
How bad could it be?
Yeah, how bad could it be? I got positive feedback and I was relieved.
And that story is still out there. It's about the sad passing of Silver King in the ring.
And I thought, well, that was my article. Great. I did it. You know, bucket list.

(47:08):
And then I guess I got bitten by the writing about wrestling bug.
And I thought to myself, okay, just one more. Who do you really want to write about?
And I started thinking, what are you passionate about? Who's one of your favorite wrestlers of all time?
And I told myself, well, let's submit an article on Big Van Vader.

(47:31):
There's no article on him on the site. They'll probably want me to do it.
And of course they did. And it's just a snowball from there.
And before you were recording, we were just chatting and I said that I had just submitted my article number 99.
And it hasn't been published yet, but it's already in their drafts.

(47:56):
They're just waiting to be unleashed to the public.
It seems crazy to me that they wouldn't have anything written about Vader.
He was just an incredibly important character, or not character in that term of phrase, but one important person in professional wrestling history.
That boggles my mind. I'm not going to lie to you.

(48:19):
It's possible they have like one maybe.
But remember, if you grab the book by Kenny Casanova, Vader Time, you can just go through that.
And whatever's not on the site, you ask them, hey, there's an interesting story here. I'd like to write about this.
So in every single book, there's a whole bunch of possible story pitches.

(48:45):
So it's possible they had maybe one story on him. It's possible.
Because when I was a kid, to me, Big Van Vader, or Vader as most people remember him,
to me, whenever people would doubt the legitimacy, how quote unquote real wrestling was,

(49:07):
I would show them the match with Vader against Cactus Jack, McFully, or Vader against Sting.
Those were some pretty brutal matches.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, if you're going to –
And I just loved watching. I loved watching those matches. I loved the physicality of those matches.
Well, then naturally, your writing that you've done for pro wrestling stories is how it came across you.

(49:32):
Because in my research here for tonight's topic, Rhonda Singh, first off, the amount that's out there is –
we're going to say limited, and I'm going to use that in a polite term.
Further to the limited amount of information that's out there, some of it is very skewed.

(49:55):
And we're going to get into that a little bit later, especially in what you had written here.
But I had come across your article on prowrestlingstories.com, and I was like, oh my God.
It was at that point of my research, it was almost the holy grail of –
finally, there's an article that is kind of trying to dig out what I wanted to dig at in terms of this program.

(50:23):
And then I had reached out to you, and then you had so graciously agreed to come on the program.
So I really want to get into –
Well, I asked you to beg me, and we came to an agreement. We came to an agreement, right?
Well, it was – I mean, you asked for –
I'm a pretty busy guy. You're going to have to beg me.
You asked for so much money. I mean, the zeros on that piece of paper that you had mailed – snail-mailed me, of all things, was incredible.

(50:50):
I just – you just slipped the – you just pushed the check toward me, and to me, the zeros on the left were okay.
I love how the zeros were on the right, but they were all on the left of the decimal point.
But I'm saying, okay, I like Rhonda Singh. I like writing about her, and she deserves the spotlight, for real, for sure.

(51:14):
Well, see, I wrote that check in French, so that's why it looks like that.
And just one thing I really wanted to mention, and when you wrote to me, I love feedback from readers.
You know, most of it's positive, not really any negatives.

(51:36):
Sometimes it's negative because they just don't like reading what they've just read.
But if that's what happened, and based on our research, I'm sorry if that's what happened.
Yeah, if you're given the facts.
But what you said to me, I really took to heart because you said that I did a – my article was fair.
And that's exactly what I was trying to do. I wanted to portray – I wanted people to understand that Rhonda Singh,

(52:04):
if they remember her as Bertha Faye in the WWF, it's not a terrible thing.
These are characters and gimmicks that are given – that are placed upon the wrestler.
It's like an actor, you know, in a movie.
And we're going to – I know we're going to get into this, but my point was I wanted people to understand how this evolved,

(52:28):
for better or worse. But in the end, Rhonda Singh was very, very talented with whatever role she was given in any of these companies.
And that's – and I don't want to put myself over, but the reason I was so complimentary about the article was exactly that,
because what you had written, that's what I was – that's my intention of this program as well, right?

(52:55):
Throughout every topic that I've covered so far, I've always tried to present a fair and factual presentation of whoever it is.
Unfortunately, in the wacky world of professional wrestling, K-Fab exists not only in the ring, but also in some of the things that you read.

(53:17):
So when I read your article, probably three times in its entirety before I even emailed you,
because the first time it was like, okay, I think that this is exactly what I've been looking for, but I want to make sure.
So I read it again, and then on the third time, I'm like, yeah.
So you got the road color glasses and read it again.

(53:39):
Without it, yeah. Yeah, so without – oh, yeah, let's see if I can sign this guy to a big ass contract to get him on the program.
First you read it, you read it enamored, and then you read it, okay, without any heart – let me just read it cold.
Well, you just read it like I'm a researcher, maybe I'm not even a fan. Let's see where this article goes, you know, and just –

(54:04):
That's exactly it.
Almost like an editor, but just cold, top to bottom, right?
Well, and here's the further to that. I honestly, when I started reading it, my first thing was like, okay, I was already setting myself up for disappointment based on the other material that was out there.

(54:26):
Based on my other articles.
No, no, no, based on the other articles written on Bertha.
Let's see if he hits this one on the target because the other ones have been way off.
The other ones look like copy-paste from Wikipedia or something. Let's see if he does this one right.
This sounds like Hannibal wrote it.

(54:50):
Oh man, I like his stuff. I don't think he writes though, right?
Well, I think Wikipedia writes his stuff for him, but anyways, so yeah, like I said, the article is tremendous, got in touch with you, and we're going to get into it right now.
So as we're kind of talking about it, what drove you to write the article? Was Rhonda Singh somebody that you had previous knowledge about or is this somebody that as you were kind of researching or rediscovering your love of pro wrestling that she was kind of one of these figures that you had come across and were interested in?

(55:29):
What drove you to write this article?
It's an interesting story. It was actually a reader's request. They wrote to pro wrestling stories and the owner editor asked me if I wanted to write about her.
I had a couple days where I wasn't writing and I was trying to think about what I should write about next and boom, he just said, hey, there's a person who would love an article about Rhonda Singh.

(55:58):
Would you like to tackle it? And I said absolutely. I got chills and I said absolutely because I love writing.
This is, I thought to myself that this is an opportunity to spotlight someone who has been maligned over her WWF, the character they put on her.

(56:21):
So I thought, okay, it was that first difficult researching about her but little by little things just kind of fell into place.
And I did know about her as Monster Ripper in Japan and a little bit about her in WWF but I wasn't really, I can't say I was really a fan of her in WWF but I was younger.

(56:46):
But now as an adult, it just to me, it's amazing the change they did with her. To me it looks like they send you a Corvette.
They send you a sports car. They send you this amazing proven vehicle.
People know, people, for 15 years this vehicle has performed and people have paid tickets to go watch this car race.

(57:16):
And you all of a sudden start altering it from top to bottom because you can.
And that to me is the Rhonda Singh slash Monster Ripper slash a birth of a story. It's fascinating but very sad.
And I mean we're going to get into this a little bit later as well. I don't want to put the cart ahead of the horse to say but it's still something that we see in today's modern age of professional wrestling.

(57:48):
But that's the topic that we're going to get into a little bit later in our discussion tonight.
So you have...
It was a reader's request. And I was glad to write about her. And I definitely like how the article turned out. And it's gotten good feedback.
It's gotten great feedback actually.

(58:11):
Now when you were researching the article, did you have a hard time to get the facts about her career? Or how was your experience kind of separating fact from fiction in regards to Rhonda Singh and Birth of a and then obviously Monster Ripper as well?
She's not alive and there aren't too many interviews of her. You have to kind of grab what you can. Different articles, different books and try to see if one says what the other one says or at least is similar.

(58:49):
If one is totally different than what the other one says then you got a problem.
Yes.
So you put that aside and you continue your research. And you go with, let's say for example Wikipedia.
Wikipedia is so dangerous because anyone can go in there and write something.
Many times there are references to where the information came from. But many times those articles don't exist anymore.

(59:17):
So that's another stumbling block. In my case I use Wikipedia as a super, super general guide. It's like a guideline.
But every sentence I read I really kind of analyze it. I'm like that doesn't sound right. And then I start looking in other places and other sources.

(59:38):
If I can avoid writing anything from Wikipedia I do because first of all that's not my work.
Yes.
And second of all Wikipedia reads like Wikipedia. That doesn't read like a story. It reads like an instruction manual.
Especially when you read it like this to your interviewer. Sorry I had to throw that in there.

(01:00:03):
With my hoodie on and my skull background and my red and black video game chair.
Ah, god damn.
I'm glad he's way up there and I'm way down here in El Salvador so he's not going to find me.
I think he's a 24 hour drive away from me so whatever. He can look me up if he needs to. But anyways.

(01:00:25):
So yes, the request comes in.
With these articles you have to use your six cents. And one huge thing about when I write, one huge thing is if I'm reading some other person's work and I think what they're saying is correct,

(01:00:46):
that cannot be copied exactly like their work unless it's referenced to their work. It has to be. I respect people's work so much.
And the last thing I want someone to say is this guy just copied my article and he just, you know, I do not.

(01:01:07):
That to me is, first of all, every single writer should just protect themselves from that. There's stories out there that everyone agrees on.
Like let's say the plane ride, this whole plane ride from the Elf thing. Everyone's talking about Ric Flair and basically only he's denying it happened.

(01:01:29):
So my instinct tells me that it did happen. That's kind of how I write my articles.
And just so people won't crap on me, you have to protect yourself and say look, this, I got it from this source.
So don't be coming at me. This is the original source and this is what they said.

(01:01:54):
So it's a very fun but complicated process writing these articles and we just hope for the best.
Well, and you, like I said, you hit out of the park on this one.
And for myself, in the research, you know, getting into Rhonda Singh, yeah, there was a little bit about her pre-wrestling days, we'll say, growing up.

(01:02:25):
Like how she was exposed to wrestling in itself.
And I thought that you had a fun little anecdote in your article here. So for everybody sitting at home, Bertha Faye,
but more commonly known in this program tonight as Rhonda Singh, was born in Calgary.

(01:02:46):
But she used to go to the Calgary Stampede wrestling matches.
But I love the line you have here that her mom would take the kids only if they behaved, which I thought that was a nice touch.
Well, that's been stated in different sources.

(01:03:09):
So when I see it, and when I say sources, I mean books, I mean articles from websites that have been out there for a long time,
not just something that's out there. So I thought, okay, I believe this happened.
And if I include this, I don't think people are going to start jumping on me and say that's not what happened,

(01:03:34):
because according to two or three sources, that's what happened.
Now here's an interesting –
Actually, I believe Rhonda Singh says that. I believe she says that.
What's interesting in your article as well is how she started getting into the business itself,
because this is something that's been misquoted, misrepresented over the years.

(01:03:57):
So there was many different stories going back and forth that she had tried to get trained by the hearts,
but some sources said that they refused to train her because she was a woman.
Some sources said that they weren't training women at that time,
because at the time I don't believe that women's wrestling was being as featured in Stampede wrestling.

(01:04:19):
What were you able to kind of find out about separating the diverging stories about her initial trying to get started with Stampede wrestling?
Yeah, I read that too, just like you said. And that's exactly the right way to do it,
because if there's conflicting sources, you tell the reader. Some sources say this, some sources say that.

(01:04:44):
And I read that they didn't want to train her because she's a woman.
But not really because she's a woman. It's because they didn't have women's wrestling at the time. That's what I understood.
But I also read – Bret Hart mentions it wasn't like that. It wasn't really like that. It was more like a scheduling conflict.

(01:05:06):
So I try to give him the benefit of the doubt. I can't see the Hart telling her flat out,
no, we're not going to train you for these reasons. I believe maybe there was a scheduling conflict.
And also I would think perhaps they didn't see the potential draw in her or women's wrestling.

(01:05:28):
I can't recall. I'm not a huge Stampede historian, but I don't recall any women's wrestling in Stampede wrestling.
Correct me if I'm wrong. Was there women's wrestling in Stampede?
There was.
Very little, but they were people that were brought in, right? Not really homegrown?
Yeah, they would parachute in matches. So you would have your Wendy Richters come in, for example.

(01:05:52):
Oh, yeah, cool.
And obviously because they had the match – we'll get into it later – but quite often they would parachute in matches.
There was very little quote-unquote homegrown talent that was used.
If I'm wrong, I'm sure Heath McCoy is going to be listening tonight. Email me, Heath, if I'm wrong, and feel free to correct me.

(01:06:14):
But the territory was never built on that. And I'm not saying that in a derogatory way,
but everybody has to understand we're in the late 70s at this point in time.
79. Well, she debuted, what I understand, 79, 80, right? So this must have been – she started wrestling, from my research.

(01:06:39):
She wasn't even a year in her training when she went to Japan, so this was 78 around there.
And here's the other thing to keep in mind about that point in time is Stampede Wrestling was on a downturn.
I don't think it was until maybe 79 when the territory started getting hot again,

(01:07:02):
because this was after their big run of stars like The Stomper was gone, Dan Croffett was gone, I believe,
and a lot of the big names were all out of there.
And this was just before the time that the Bulldogs would have came in.
So you're looking at this kind of a down period. So she's kind of in this perfect storm, right?

(01:07:28):
They can't train her because of time constraints and they're trying to get this territory fired up again.
And then the other part of it is there's just – even if they did train her, what are they going to do with her?
So I gave Bret Hart the benefit of a doubt, because I didn't want to – look, I want to write an article,
but I don't want to just stir controversy just because.

(01:07:51):
And I didn't want to write, well, they didn't train her because she was a woman,
or the Harts were a-holes and they told her no.
If I can avoid it, I'm not going to write that. If I can't, prove it 100%.
So I just went with what Bret Hart said happened. So hopefully that's what happened.
But it was probably for the best because she did pretty well in Japan afterwards.

(01:08:15):
And that's a super interesting story of how that all came together, because – correct me if I'm wrong,
but she was on vacation in Hawaii, I believe it was, and she had saw – was it All Japan on television?
That's what I read. She was watching – she was just kind of channel surfing board in the hotel,

(01:08:37):
and she saw these wrestlers, Japanese wrestlers, just going at each other with chairs
and just doing what they do, and she was so impressed.
And that's what made her think that, wow, I could do this. She was just in awe.
And coincidences that she wound up in All Japan.

(01:09:03):
And she was exposed to, we could say, the best women's wrestling out there of that era, All Japan women's wrestling.
So that was good on her part.
Yes, because – so she – I think she trained with Mildred Burke in California.

(01:09:25):
Yes, supposedly she was Mildred Burke's last student in Seattle, California.
That's right, too. That's crazy.
Last student. I thought that was amazing. I love that.
Yeah, what a great tie-in, hey, that that would be her last student, and then she makes such an incredible impact in Japan.
And just a parenthesis there, if any of our readers for some reason are not familiar with Mildred Burke,

(01:09:52):
I super recommend the book that's out there on her.
Oh, man.
I apologize. I can't remember the writer.
But if you just search for Mildred Burke book in Amazon or whatever, it will pop up. It's diamonds, something like that.
The book is amazing. The book is so packed with information and research so deep.

(01:10:17):
And what's amazing about the research done in this book that a lot of it was from newspaper clippings of the time.
So the writer – the author, I'm sorry, the author had to fill in a lot of the gaps.
And I'm not saying he assumed things, but sometimes he had to kind of guess what he think happened in those things.

(01:10:41):
Because sometimes the articles had different information about who won the match.
One said Mildred Burke. The other one said so-and-so.
Yeah, depending on the market, I'm sure.
Yeah. Or the promoter who's passing along the dollars to the newspaper.
Yeah, that's true.
So then they spot her. They go in – all Japan women scouts, they spot her at Mildred Burke's school.

(01:11:12):
They see this 5'8". She wasn't the quote-unquote fat. She wasn't overweight.
She was just thick-bodied, just a big girl.
And you can go –
There weren't too many girls with that body type in Japan. So they must have been like, this might be interesting.

(01:11:39):
And that was at the time when it was customary to bring in the foreigners to be the big bad guys, the big heels.
So they're looking at her and immediately thinking, we can really do something with her over there.
Because like you said, there's nobody like her there at that time.

(01:12:03):
Yeah, as far as I – if you try to think about women wrestlers of her body type before Rhonda Singh, I'm shooting blanks.
I mean, there weren't women who were not like her before she hit the scene. There might have been a couple, but really I can't remember any right now.

(01:12:26):
I can't even think of a single one off the top of my head. If one comes to me, I'll blur it out.
And then you started getting – in Japan, you got Aja Kong and Bull Nakano and Dump Matsumoto and big girls, big, very aggressive women wrestlers, Devil Masami.

(01:12:51):
And all this was a little bit right after Rhonda Singh arrived. If not a little bit after, it was like during that period, they were just all training together.
Because – and correct me if I'm wrong, but she – so she gets trained by Mildred Burke, goes to All Japan.
I think she's there for – what is it, like a couple of months before she was put in a big spot already, right?

(01:13:17):
She won her first title a couple of months in, and one of the wrestlers that was in there was Jackie Sato.
And Jackie Sato, she was a superstar wrestler, but she was – I think she was also a singer, actress. She was like super over as a baby face over there.

(01:13:38):
That was one of the wrestlers. It was a – so I think – I think Singh won – it was a tag title is correct. It wasn't a single titles.
But she won her first belt a couple of months in and lost it a couple of months after.
But this created resentment from what I understand with the other students, because here you have this foreigner, which in Japan is called Gaido.

(01:14:07):
So you have this foreigner. They're pushing her to the stratosphere, and all of a sudden she's getting these title matches, and she wins.
And she hasn't – she hasn't really paid her dues. When Rhonda Singh was in Japan for the first time, she wasn't – she didn't even have a year of training under her belt.
She was super green, you know?

(01:14:30):
And they were just – but they – they put her over everybody.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, at first, yeah. But then these other big girls started appearing on the scene.
But at first they just put the little girls against her image. You were just slaughtering them, like lambs would have slaughtered, you know?
And it's – so we're talking a bit about how that was kind of the Japanese idea back then was to bring these big, larger-than-life people from North America over to Japan to be these monsters,

(01:15:13):
and then eventually have their hero triumph over them. And you've seen it time and time again, whether it's guys like Gene Kieniske,
we discussed that very heavily in my episode regarding him, whether it's people like Bruiser Brody was there, Stan Hansen was one, Terry Gordy,

(01:15:34):
and there's so many more that I'm forgetting. Abdul the Butcher is another tremendous one as well, but like all of these – Yeah, the – yeah, the funks coming in, Dory and – That's right, yeah.
Dory and Terry, and you had Dick Murdoch, and a lot of good talent.
And it's crazy to think, like, you wouldn't think that they would try and replicate something like that with the women in Old Japan, but that's exactly what they did, and it paid off, like, huge dividends.

(01:16:03):
Oh, by the way, the title she won was the – it was a tag title, WWA – no, she won the WWA World title twice in the 80s.
But the first one was the tag titles.
And she debuted in a tag team – That's right, yeah. Against the beauty pair, Jackie Sato and Maki Ueda, 79, January. Yeah, very good.

(01:16:36):
But that formula worked very well in Japan, and they still use it today, I think. They still kind of – you go – fall back on that.
They're always looking for the big American or the big Canadian or basically a big foreigner to come into Japan, you know?
So when she's in Japan – Oh, of course. So she's in Japan, she's getting this monster push, but the Japanese wrestlers are not thrilled about this.

(01:17:06):
And as much as wrestling is supposed to be a work, she was taking a ton of physical and mental abuse in the ring.
What were you able to ascertain about how that kind came about for her and how she was able to deal with it?
I mean, what I understand is that she was being basically bullied.

(01:17:30):
She was basically getting bullied, shot on in the ring, as they say. And Japanese joshi-pudo, as they call it, pro wrestling, in itself is stiffer.
It's a lot stiffer, a lot more physical than most women's wrestling across the globe. And it still is today.

(01:17:54):
Now you'll see that strong style in other places. But back in 79, it was the toughest women's wrestling there was.
And you have this green student coming in, like we said, getting this huge push. And they're like, she hasn't paid her dues.
So they just start becoming extra rough on her, almost like a high school bullying kind of thing.

(01:18:22):
And what I understand is Dynamite Kid, who was working with New Japan Pro Wrestling at the time,
I guess over there in Japan, the foreigners or the Americans or the Canadians or whatever, the Australians,
somehow they know that they're over there, they find out they're over there, and they hook up, right, and they socialize.

(01:18:45):
And so Dynamite Kid kind of taught her a couple of tricks of the trade and how to stick up for herself.
And just teach them a lesson and let them understand that you're not going to be pushed around.
So I don't know any details of what he taught her, but apparently it worked, and they started respecting her more.

(01:19:10):
I think it's one of those bullying things where if you stand up to the bully, they'll back down pretty quick.
But they're trying to test you how much they can get away with.
And from everything I read, no matter what the source, I'm not going to call her a birth of a.

(01:19:31):
Rhonda Singh seemed like the friendliest, gentlest, just the least aggressive person you would ever know.
But in the ring, she turned into what Monster Ripper, for example, in Japan.
So they tried to pounce on her, I guess, like hyenas in the jungle, you know,

(01:19:56):
and try to see if they could rip her apart between all of them.
But once you get Rhonda Singh stand up straight and start sticking up for herself,
I don't think there would be any more bullying from then on.
And what I found interesting, both reading your article and a few other tidbits that I was able to uncover throughout my research,

(01:20:19):
is that not only did she kind of kill the bullying that she was experiencing, but she kind of started to curtail it away from the other students that were experiencing it,
which I thought that was interesting.
Yeah, you're exactly right.
That's what I – investigating for the article, that's what I read, too, and I really enjoyed that.

(01:20:40):
I thought that was great.
Because you'll often hear like, you know –
As long as they're not bothering me, who cares?
Yeah, or the flip side of it is, well, I went through it, so then they can go through it, too.
Exactly.
I thought that was super classy. To hear that, that was really tremendous to hear.

(01:21:04):
That's one of those old-school mentalities, it seems, like, well, I got bullied.
I got – they shot on me in the ring, and I was treated pretty bad the first couple years, so she either handles it or she'll be gone.
I had to take it, so she's got a woman up, in this case.
Yeah.

(01:21:25):
So naturally, she's over, like massive in Japan. She's a big star there, drawing huge houses, having crazy matches.
Comes back to Calgary, I think it was in the late 80s, and correct me if I'm wrong, but they essentially just kind of made her the women's champ without a match, right?
Yeah. What I read is like they made her the women's champ because they claimed that she had beaten Wendy Richter beforehand, so that made her the champ.

(01:21:56):
When I was invited on the show, I started just refreshing a little bit about Rhonda Singh, but also I was reading about Gama Singh because you had a great episode on – I call it episode, but I had a great show on Gama Singh.
I started researching a little bit more about him, and I remembered that they – I read that they wanted her to be part of his stable, the Karachi Bice. In some sources, I read that she was part of it, but what I read when I wrote the article, I researched that supposedly she wasn't, but those were the plans.

(01:22:36):
So I'm not sure if you know a little bit more about that.
Yeah, it's one of those weird things because I think that she was put in it, but I don't think that she ever competed as part of it, if that makes any sense.
That makes perfect sense.
So that would explain the different way it's worded in different places, you know.

(01:22:57):
So – and I might get this wrong, so Heath, again, if you're listening, you can correct me again, but I think that when she was getting brought in, this was during their real – we'll call it the decadent times when they were sipping on the Karachi soda, which I think was – it was like scotch and Mountain Dew, and they were in kayfabe partying with women and having all-night orgies and whatever.

(01:23:26):
And then she was getting brought in as like the ringleader of the orgies or something like that.
Maybe that could be my article number 100, the Karachi vice, the worst of the worst.
Just absolutely – just despicable heels, eh?
And truthfully, how much of that is fact or fiction? I mean, that's up to the listener to decide, I suppose. That's one of those mysteries, but it's something that we did touch.

(01:23:58):
And by the way, you got to plug your shirt. You got grappling with Canada Karachi vice-style shirt.
Yes, sir.
I saw that. I saw that.
Yeah. On sale right now. If you're listening to this episode, it's currently on sale. So head over to grapplingwithcanada.threadlist.com and pick yourself up on today.

(01:24:20):
There's a shameless plug unintentional in the middle of the program.
You'll be the coolest cat on the block. Only super dedicated old school dudes will know what you're wearing.
And super, super cool fans who listen to this show and know about Karachi vice will be able to just put both together and say, wow, that's pretty genius. I'm going to order one of those myself.

(01:24:45):
And if you get stopped in the street and somebody says, hey, it's Karachi lice, let me know and I'll make sure that I get you something special because that would be tremendous.
But anyways, as we kind of move on in this in the program tonight.
So so she's back in in Stampede.

(01:25:07):
Unfortunately, Stampede isn't lost too much longer at that time.
But then she she takes her exploits down south into Puerto Rico, I believe.
Correct. And that's where she has great matches against Wendy Richter, who I've been trying to get an interview with for maybe.
Well, ever since I started writing, I was about to say five years, but I've been writing for a couple of years.

(01:25:30):
So maybe that'll be at the show.
One hundred Richter's listening. I would love to interview you.
You could be my article number one hundred. That would be tremendous.
But she's kind of not in wrestling anymore. She's kind of stepped away from wrestling for the most part.
But like in Puerto Rico, she had matches with with Wendy.
And there's a there's actually a cage match, at least one is on on YouTube where they're fighting in a cage.

(01:25:55):
It's a very it's a strange cage because I think it's the ring.
I'm not sure if the ring's very low or the cage is very small.
It's and I think it seems like it just seems very constricting that the cage of that song for their matches.
But they definitely had some great physical matches between them.
And if anybody knows a little bit of what was happening in Puerto Rico, all you have to do is go back in the archives a little bit to our Abdul the butcher episode because he talked about some some intense matches.

(01:26:31):
Puerto Rico is certainly certainly home of some some crazy stories, some crazy matches.
Absolutely.
And they they have it would be Carlos Colon and Abdul the butcher in Puerto Rico. Then they go like to the Trinidad and Trinidad and Tobago and wrestle.
Well, they don't. Well, they didn't wrestle. They just beat each other up.

(01:26:52):
They just beat the piss out of each other.
Like, see how much let's see how much blood we can we can get out of each other in this match.
And then I think they went to Dominican Republic.
They were just those two guys between them. They just just buckets of blood, man, all through the islands.
So people so people so people based on that pattern of matches, Rhonda Singh and Wendy Richter were very physical matches, not not not like Abdullah Butcher and Carlos Colon just butchering.

(01:27:27):
But but they if you watch them, if you watch Wendy and and and Rhonda Singh, the matches, they seem a little messy.
But I believe that's good because real fights are not super perfectly choreographed.
So it really does seem like that there's heat between them because one like let's say Rhonda Singh would pull Wendy's hair and you know, Wendy suit super great at selling selling, you know, when she's in pain and everything.

(01:28:01):
So but I would say I would say those hair pulls were legit painful for her.
So the matches are very interesting. I would if I would recommend Rhonda Singh match that's not in Japan, I would recommend her work against Wendy in Puerto Rico, for example.
That's a fascinating point that you bring up. And it's something that kind of gets overlooked in today's era of modern wrestling is the believability of what's happening in the ring.

(01:28:31):
So when you get like, exactly to your point, when you go back and watch that cage match and I have watched it, it looks like a struggle.
It looks like a contest. It looks like like they're they're trying to one up one another rather than, oh, what's the next spot?
Oh, now we have to do this. Now we have to do this. There's no cooperation.

(01:28:52):
There's no choreography. There's there weren't sitting in a hotel room, you know, writing this thing out on loose leaf beforehand.
This was like, let's go in the ring. Let's show them what we can do and have a physical, a strong match.
But a match that is going to give the fans that that extra sense of, you know, I know that wrestling is fake, but these two don't like each other.

(01:29:20):
And you can see in the ring. Yeah, these these two are almost like a Johnny Valentine.
I can't convince you that wrestling's real. Yes, I can't convince you that wrestling isn't fake, but I can come into that.
I'm real or something like that. Yes. So if you you go you and I hate that word fake because people just don't understand.

(01:29:41):
OK, let's let's talk it out. Talk about it being a work.
But but then also I hear people say, oh, you know, wrestling, they're not really tough guys.
They're wrestling is like a dance. It's like anything. He's almost saying like wrestling is like ballet.
Some some comments out there. And I and I and I just don't like getting into these Facebook fights.

(01:30:03):
I really don't like to get into them. But some of these comments out there, I'm like, listen, man, pro wrestling is a work.
Yes. But believe me, it is one of the toughest, most dangerous things that you can do if you don't know what you're doing.
Oh, God. Yeah, you're in a world of hurt.
And if you don't and if you don't have a partner that and if you have a partner that doesn't want to take care of you,

(01:30:27):
that could be basically your your last day walking like a normal human being on Earth if they really wanted to, you know,
and going back to that point where of choreography, if you go back to wrestling, how it started,
wrestling was supposed to mimic and it was supposed to be like a fight between two people.

(01:30:50):
It wasn't now. It's very now it's unbelievably choreographed, which is it's a beautiful thing.
If you look at it as art, it's amazing. But it but most of the time it does not look like a simulated fight anymore.
Yeah, it's I don't remember who coined the term, but sometimes that is is is quote unquote crapped on by certain fans.

(01:31:15):
If they look at the old school stuff, they're like they're just kicking and punching.
But the point is each kick, each punch means something. There's there's there's a reason behind everything.
If I'm throwing myself off the top rope 10 times in a match, it doesn't mean anything anymore.

(01:31:36):
But if my if my last the way I pin you is off the top rope and you don't get up, it shows that that was a powerful move.
Yes, that means I do the move. If I do the move on you 10 times and you get up nine times,
why are you not going to get out of it on the 10th time?
Is there some kind of energy bar like in video games or after 10 times you just didn't have you just didn't have enough energy to to to get out of the pin.

(01:32:05):
So so basically we're two grown men here talking about the logic of pro wrestling.
But let's move on. Yeah, because we could we could do an entire show on that.
Well, well, that doesn't make sense. But that makes sense.
OK, we can be here all night. Oh, yeah, we can go into that.

(01:32:26):
So so in terms of in terms.
So and here's something that I didn't was able to find out.
Maybe you would know when she was wrestling in Puerto Rico, we're just going to stay there for a second before we move on.
When she was wrestling in Puerto Rico, was she still the monster ripper or was she going by run to sing there?
Or would you know, well, she was I believe she was monster ripper when I when I I can speak Spanish, so I could clearly well in my mind, I believe I hear Wendy Richter's future.

(01:32:57):
Future husband, I would say.
Well, he used to wrestle, but he became Wendy Richter's husband and he's a commentator.
And I remember him saying monster ripper. So I believe that's what she went by.
And and then after that, she goes to AAA and she was it love monster there or what or what was her name in Mexico?

(01:33:22):
They started calling her Lamont, Lamont, Lamontster, you know, I guess, I guess, you know, monster ripper, I guess, I guess, I guess in Spanish doesn't really roll off the tongue so well.
And it really doesn't. So Lamontster is is is easily understandable because you got a big woman, you know, and it's like a monster.

(01:33:43):
And it's not she's like not a model type, you know, and because, you know, they I guess Mexico, they're used to, again, certain body type, not a not a big woman like like monster like a monster.
Rhonda Singh. Now I'm calling her monster Singh.
That would have been a good name.
That would have been a cool name. Yeah, for sure.
That'll be the show notes. Hey, what could have been?

(01:34:06):
Yeah, people in Mexico do remember her. She wrestled against what was her name?
Martha Villalobos, which is another big girl, you know, but Mexican girl.
But she was usually in in in in three on three matches, which what they call they call Australian.
They call those Australian tag matches, Australianos three on three.

(01:34:30):
So she she has this career in Japan with All Japan.
She has her, you know, this big run in Puerto Rico, a run in Mexico.
Now get into the unfortunate run with the WWF 95.
Fifteen years of success. That's that's the the the preface to this 15 around.

(01:34:51):
It's like 15 years of 14 or 15 years of being Monster Ripper, either Monster Ripper or or Rhonda Singh.
And she's just dominating people who have seen her say, well, you know, this this this this girl can go.
She's big. She's agile.
And then she rise on WWF as monster as as a as a Rhonda Singh.

(01:35:17):
But then something happens. So, OK. And this is it's extremely important that we really, really reiterate what you just said.
She has this incredible career, you know, essentially across the globe of this character, which is not really I hate the term character.

(01:35:39):
And I it's only it bemoans me to use. Yes. Yes. Persona. Yes. Tremendous.
So she has this persona. It works and it's over.
And people are ready for it because she a she's believable as hell and B, she does it so well that, you know, anybody who wasn't a believer, it doesn't take very long for them not to be.

(01:36:05):
So I'm talking about we're talking about, you know, late 70s into the 80s and early 90s right now.
The the the the the secret is out that, you know, wrestling is probably most likely a work.
But then you get you have this woman who looks like she's just beating the crap out of people like isn't this supposed to be fake?

(01:36:31):
That's that's what what she was. Monster Ripper was believable, like you said.
And she arrived in WWF like with a bang.
The way she arrived was great. It's just what happened afterwards.
That that is that is just a travesty in wrestling.

(01:36:53):
You know, and so so she she arrives on the scene. I believe it was she she attacked a Lundger Blaze after she had defended the title against Bull Nakano and Nakano.
Well, everybody says it different. I'll blame that on my Canadian accent, if you will.

(01:37:14):
But so so she comes in, she absolutely destroys a Lundger Blaze to the point where people are like it looks like she's it.
Go ahead. I'm sorry. I cut you off. Good. No, to the point where the fans are like, what the hell?
Yeah. And and and I and I encourage people to go back and look at that.
It's right there on YouTube. You don't have to be paying. You don't have to be paying Vince McMahon any money.

(01:37:38):
You can watch it for free on you on YouTube.
It's there. They haven't brought they haven't taken it down yet.
You see Monster, what you see the lights go you see the lights go off.
And when they come back on, it's this huge woman.
I think she's all in black leather face paint, huge hair.
And and I think it was law. I think Cornett was was was the was the announcer.

(01:38:05):
He was doing it was him and Vince on the color.
He was color. She said something like she's even bigger than Bull Nakano.
And then he goes, is it even a she?
You know, these are the kind of this is the kind of color that is is rare nowadays.
That's this is the kind of color commentating that'll that'll leave you without a job quick.
But the point is when when Singh arrived, she just started busting up on on a Lundra Blaze and it looked bad.

(01:38:34):
And there's a part in the end, I don't think I guess there's no spoilers here, but this was like in ninety five.
There's a part in the end where I believe she kicks a Lundra Blaze a couple of times right in the gnaws.
And it looks it looks real painful.
It was and and I don't know if it was it just looked bad, you know.

(01:38:55):
And you can see the fans in nineteen ninety five convinced that that this woman just legit beat up on on on on Medusa,
a.k.a. Lundra Blaze. I think it was fantastic how she was introduced.
And it's even more incredible to think like this was at the height of the the cartoon wrestling era, as I like to call it, of the WWF.

(01:39:19):
This is where you had true. Yeah.
Yeah. So you had got guys playing plumbers in a wrestling ring or they were yeah.
They had the dentist like garbage garbage garbage men.
Yes. You had dentists and doing was there.

(01:39:41):
You know, it was it was they really were off a little bit off the mark on what was what was what could was basically
they were doing everything not to resonate with the fans, it seemed like.
And then they and then they and then they bring in the monster ripper in a hot like a crazy segment.

(01:40:03):
And as you know, insane as she comes in, they just kill or flatter that a plate full of piss faster than anything.
A while and then the subsequent aftermath.
Sorry, you got cut off. You said you're asking what happened.
Yes. So what happened with her debut and then and then the aftermath of her debut?

(01:40:28):
Well, she debuted, like I said, like like just lightning striking.
And I would have loved that I didn't I didn't see that live.
I had to I had to look back many years afterwards on how that happened.
But I would I would have loved that. I think if I would have seen that live
a couple of weeks, a couple of weeks later, all of a sudden she shows up.

(01:40:52):
She's like skipping in the no longer has the fearsome face paint.
She gets this I guess they change her hairstyle.
They put like this outfit on her with polka dots and just all.
Yes, you got the duffie colors. She gets a boa.
She they make they make Rhonda sing into like a joke, a walking, talking joke, like a clown.

(01:41:19):
And I'm not and I'm and I'm not and this is not on her.
You know, again, I respect her work.
But this was a different this was rough for her to put this on her.
And especially like like you mentioned, a proven entity, a proven let's we're using the word persona.
Someone who something that was working everywhere she went in all and WWF,

(01:41:43):
whoever was head of creative Pritchard or whatever Bruce Pritchard,
somehow they decide that we're just going to make her into into a joke pair up with Harvey Wilbur Whitman
and say that she's like from a trailer park and she's acting all sexy.
It's comedy relief, you know.
It's and I would say, let's to be fair, it wasn't that bad, in my opinion, looking back.

(01:42:10):
But it's bad when you compare what she could have been in WWF.
That's my point. Now, and I know a lot of people might be thinking, OK, see, you know,
you guys are talking about something that happened in 95.
So what is that like 27 years ago or something? Maybe my math is wrong about there.

(01:42:31):
But anyways, so you know, you guys are going no 26 because I'm 36 and I was 85.
So anyways, quick math. But anyways, that we might be going a little bit hard up.
But this happens today still. So you are not sure how much of
current modern wrestling you follow. I follow very little, but I did see that they had Piper.

(01:42:58):
Is it Piper Niven? But she is also Viper. She was she's a.
Well, she's a bigger girl. I don't mean that in a derogatory sense,
but she is a she is a big star in in the UK, a huge star in the UK would come out
just the same thing like the Monster Ripper, right? She is at work, whatever.

(01:43:22):
They got her in on WWE now as Dewdrop. That's her name. And she she's a comedy sidekick.
So for you know, it for anybody who wants to say, oh, times have changed and things have progressed.
Well, no, they haven't. And I guess we have to understand that it's still it's still the same company.

(01:43:44):
It's still the same WWE. And they still seem to have this.
I don't I don't know how you want it. It's like it's like a tendency to to almost like
like erase everything you've done somewhere else.
And we're going to do something with you totally different and prove that we can make it work.

(01:44:08):
Yes. Weird way to and that goes back to they want to own the the rights of the character.
And and I'm not in and with with with Rhonda Singh, you know, going in turning into birth of turning
them turning her into Birth of Faith. I'm not I'm not saying, you know, poor Rhonda, let's let's all cry for her and all that.

(01:44:34):
What I am saying is like what you're what you're emphasizing.
It seems like these things kind of repeat themselves where and I guess who's making the decision
where they thought that this was going to work, you know.
But but Rhonda Rhonda Singh, from what I understand, she was a trooper and enrolled with his character.

(01:44:56):
She seemed to have a lot of fun with it for a while.
But but I think deep down, she's a little frustrated with it.
You know, one like you said, they had her paired with Harvey Whippleman, who I mean, we'll talk a little bit about him, I'm sure, in a in a minute.
But see, you're you change her character.
She's now like trailer park sleep.

(01:45:18):
You give her a sleazeball manager, which which further adds to it all.
And and then they're coming out and doing these like weird, like pseudo sexual skits on the air.
And then you also have the commentary team just digging in your role.
That's like, I don't know.
Yeah, it's you know what this is.

(01:45:39):
You know what this is? Just just go back to like when you were a kid watching wrestling and you don't you have no friend.
Very few of your friends watch wrestling.
Your parents really question why you watch wrestling and you want them to to kind of respect what you you enjoy.
And all of a sudden they see something like this on TV.

(01:46:01):
You know, it's it's basically a lost cause.
You're just embarrassed by this as a fan.
If someone you're embarrassed by it, watching it by yourself.
But then you're even worse off as someone who's not a fan watches this.
They're like, why are you watching this?
This is this is ridiculous.
And I remember because I was in elementary at this time.

(01:46:23):
And that was there was a few of us are watching wrestling, not many of us, because this is obviously before the big boom.
But that was our and it's horrible to say now.
But that was our big joke on the on the playground was like, oh, your your birth of fake.
She was just she was a joke like I she was like we didn't know as kids what who she actually was.

(01:46:49):
You know, oh, yeah.
Pre WWF. Yeah, and that's the way that's W.W.F. style.
W.W.E. creative.
But that's been their style for a long time where where no guilt.
They'll just erase the past and the comp the past accomplishments of someone and just start from scratch.
And sometimes you get ridiculous results.

(01:47:12):
So as we kind of progress is an interesting word through her WWF run, not only did they change her character,
but they also were changing the way that she was working in the ring as well, if I'm not mistaken.
What I understand is that she was limited.

(01:47:35):
I mean, she was basically a power wrestler as Monster Ripper, but then she was limited to not being able to do certain moves.
I read somewhere that they didn't let her do.
I think it was a power bomb or something like that.
And I didn't include it in the article because I really couldn't confirm that that was true.

(01:47:57):
But what I could confirm is that they didn't want her to be super aggressive in the ring.
Although if you watch her matches against Alondra Blaze, she does pretty well.
If she's supposedly limited, I can only imagine if they would have allowed her to do everything she could have.
She was able to do, but she was limited.

(01:48:18):
Even though she was limited, they were pretty, pretty decent matches, I have to say myself.
So she she kind of wallows in WWF, you know, will be honest.
It's mediocrity at this point from what she was to where she is.
She makes the jump then to WCW.
But at that time, she did win the she did win the belt.

(01:48:42):
She did win the title.
Yes, you're right about that.
What I'm talking about in terms of in terms of what she was accomplishing previous to this.
Yes, I know she won the title.
I get where she had some notable bad.
But before moving on, I think it's at least worth mentioning that she even with this terrible gimmick, she did have the belt for a couple of months.

(01:49:08):
And the plan was I don't know what happened.
The plan was was for her to wrestle Bull Nakano.
And I don't know what happened where she wound up wrestling Alondra Blaze, which which is fine.
But Bull Nakano was supposed to be part of that equation, too.
But it just didn't happen.
You know, the plan was to bring Rhonda Singh in for Alondra Blaze to have quality matches like she had had had in Japan.

(01:49:35):
That's why they wanted to bring Monster Ripper in.
Why they changed her character, who knows again.
But but she did have matches with Alondra Blaze and she did win the title for she had it for a couple of months.
Yeah, it's just it's I don't know, though the whole thing is very confusing to me, I suppose.

(01:49:56):
But but it is the W.F.F. after all.
So there is that.
And I think and I think and I think the women's division didn't disappear after this for several years.
Yes, because like the last year because and correct me if I'm wrong.
I'm sure somebody will.
But was did this happen before Medusa left with the belt to WCW or was this after?

(01:50:18):
I'm thinking about that right now, as you as you mentioned that it could it could have been really because the timelines for me is that's a good.
That's a good question for your for your listeners, man.
Where's the timeline when she went to WCW and dumped the belt in the garbage can right on TV?
Because because then Medusa goes to WCW, then Rhonda follows not long after and they have matches there.

(01:50:41):
But it's at that time, WCW like that, this we're talking now there.
They're smack dab in the middle of the NWO.
So that's the big focus.
And then you have the cruiserweight division.
So there wasn't a whole lot of room for the women's division.
And truthfully, all that they really had for women's division at that time was it was Medusa, a linger blaze, and then Rhonda Singh.

(01:51:09):
And I guess they had a couple of throwing jobbers.
But it's not like they had a couple of they had they had a couple of wrestlers, women wrestlers who were decent names in the 80s and names escaped me.
And they came in for a couple of matches, but nothing, nothing like you would really remember nowadays.
You know, which is unfortunate.

(01:51:31):
Yes. So she's in she's in WCW, but that ship, ship, listen, we talk, although not everybody knew it at that time.
That was going to be gone very, very soon.
She was there. She was there when they were basic.
They were they were a couple of years into, you know, they were about to just that ship was already sinking when she got there.

(01:51:55):
Yes.
A couple years later, WCW would be gone. So it was what she got there when it was a mess, you know.
And there's there's no organization.
There's nobody looking out for her specifically.
But, you know, the women's division.
So again, I have to reiterate, right?
We're talking about somebody who who had such an incredible career from from Japan to Canada to Puerto Rico to Mexico.

(01:52:25):
You know, and all places in between comes to, you know, North American wrestling fans would consider the big time WWF.
We obviously know what happened with that run and then goes to, you know, the other big time, although at that time they weren't necessarily WCW.

(01:52:46):
And then it's it's like it's it's like even worse.
I think it was even worse for her in WCW.
I think it was in like these mud matches and she was in these pure comedy segments.
I think she was trying to sell her stuff backstage, just not, you know, physical.
It's just so weird how they started using her.
And obviously at Bobby Heenan also making making cornet type lawler kind of comments about her.

(01:53:14):
Just just just sad.
And and again, it seems like Rhonda Singh is enjoying herself, but she's kind of like rolling with the punches.
You know, well, this is these are the cards that have been dealt to me and I'm and I and I got this is what I have to do.
You know, but far cry, far cry from from Monster Ripper in WWF and even worse in WCW.

(01:53:39):
Well, yeah, and it's just like what like what a what a horrific end to end like then she retires in 2000.
So it's like, you know, for this 20 year plus career and like to go out in such a whimper like that is, man, just horrible.
She passed away like she passed away a year less than a year like the year after she retired in and July 27th, 2001.

(01:54:10):
She was only 40 and she's gone.
A lot of a lot of questions remain of how she she passed away.
I would have I would have loved to have read or listen to more interviews with her.
There's there's very little information on her out there.
OK, this is I know, you know, obviously talking about people passing away is not a nice thing to talk about.

(01:54:40):
But again, we're talking about Rhonda Singh and the difficulty we have both faced kind of separating fact from fiction in
trying to understand and piece together her her story, both for your article and this program.
Now, she had passed away and there there were, we'll say, conflicting stories about how she had passed away.

(01:55:09):
And and again, it's once again not nice.
Yeah, it's one of the things you got. But so things you got to be careful with, you know.
Yeah. The one thing I will say about this.
So Harvey Wippelman, her her on air love interest, we'll call him with on the when she was on the W.W.F. television.

(01:55:35):
She would supposedly they never get along with and that's OK.
They just work together. Yeah, I'm glad you brought that up.
So so the story is and he said it and some other people have said it as well that they didn't get along at all.
They just did it like did the angles on TV because that was the job and they had to.

(01:55:59):
That being said, when she passed away, I guess he had come out in articles saying that she had taken her own life,
which I thought was very. I don't know.
To me, like, I understand if you had a bad business dealing with somebody or, you know,
maybe you didn't like working with them or whatever, but.

(01:56:21):
I find it very. Unsavory.
Yeah, it's a bad taste. Yeah, to to come out at.
She had died of a heart issue is what it actually was.
It's almost like he's trying to.
I mean, it's almost like he's trying to make himself a center of attention.
With with her with her with her passing, but he wants to be the center of any things up.

(01:56:46):
And oh, she probably took her own life.
There's a there's a an interview with him on on on again on YouTube about him.
That's his theory.
And that's fine if that's your theory, but just let her let her rest in peace.
You know, just let her rest, man. I mean, just just it's it's it's.

(01:57:07):
It's not your place, you know.
And I just thought it was so incredulous because it's it was like almost immediately like he just.
This was his and maybe it wasn't.
And maybe I'm reading too much into it, but to me it comes off as, oh, this was his time to capitalize or maybe get the last word or whatever his intention was.

(01:57:30):
I don't know. But to me, that was a very in poor taste series of interviews and comments to to make regarding the passing of Ron to sing.
And in the end, it's all documented and in the end, he looks he looks terrible saying that. But honestly, Harvey Wibbleman is is a footnote in wrestling history.

(01:57:52):
And and and and I think Rhonda Singh is much more important to in wrestling overall than than than a Harvard Wibbleman, you know.
So whatever he says, honestly, I included in the article because it's something to think about.
I didn't want to dedicate more than a couple of sentences about what he said, you know.

(01:58:17):
I think I guess like with her her lasting legacy and I'll get your opinion on this as well.
But really, there's as we went into the 2000s and we're not talking about the brawn panties version of women's matches that were prevalent in that point in time.
I'm talking about the Japanese women's wrestling matches.

(01:58:41):
Then when we had TNA come in, they'd had the Knockouts division when they were taking women's matches seriously.
And there were a lot of women from those organizations that had watched those Monster Ripper matches from Japan, from Puerto Rico and took a lot of inspiration and took a lot of of pride in the work that she had done for women's professional wrestling, what you can actually accomplish as a female professional wrestler and brought that into their their repertoire.

(01:59:11):
So for as much as her, you know, her last five years of the career was, you know, mediocre at best, the stuff that she did previous to that still stands up today.
And it's it's almost like let's put it this way, you know, you know, franchises have many movies and there's some fans who who draw a line between saying, you know, I just watched your original trilogy, you know, Star Wars, all those other movies never happened because they are travesty.

(01:59:46):
They suck. So with with with Rhonda Singh, you can almost say, you know what, in my heart, in my mind, as a fan, to me, it's Monster Ripper.
That's that represents Rhonda Singh and whoever was in WWF and WCW later on.
I choose I choose to ignore that that persona, that character to me, it'll always be Monster Ripper. And that's that's how most a lot of people just put this thick line and divide her career like that just for, you know, it's just they focus on the positive, let's say, you know.

(02:00:25):
And that's, again, you know, one of the reasons that I wanted to do this episode specifically on her because, you know, there is still a strong sense of, you know, what she had accomplished previously.
But like I said, a lot of it is wrapped up in, you know, innuendo and rumor. And like I said, articles like the one that you had done, especially and a couple others really paint the picture of, okay, she was way more than even many of the people who followed her all Japan career, for example, would realize.

(02:01:07):
Yeah, people people who followed the product in the in the late 70s, early to mid 80s in Japan, Puerto Rico, Mexico, they remember her.
They remember her. And, you know, in the United States, people remember her as Bertha Faye. But thanks to the Internet. Thanks to shows like these. Thanks to books. Thanks to great, great investigative work by by authors nowadays of fantastic wrestling books out there.

(02:01:35):
I think her legacy is is is secure because there's more information out there. And and and my Rhonda Singh was just wasn't just Bertha Faye.
She was many characters at some point, and her peak was Monster Ripper. But she was a talented lady wrestler with whatever role she was given.

(02:01:58):
And I like to remember, remember her that way, even even though she was dealt an unfavorable deck of cards.
She she she did her best. And if you and looking back on it, if you if you can ignore her previous work as Monster Ripper, there's there's there's a lot of things that are salvageable with her Bertha Faye character.

(02:02:21):
If you look at it with an open mind and just just take it as, you know, the the wacky world of of pro wrestling, where sometimes things work and sometimes things don't.
Yeah, it's. Yeah, I certainly can't see it any better than than that myself. You bring up some excellent points at the end there.

(02:02:42):
So as we kind of want to wrap up this segment tonight, obviously we have the hundredth article eventually to get looking forward towards.
But we've got to get to number ninety nine first. So where can where can people find this supposed ninety ninth article?

(02:03:04):
And what else do you have on the back burner right now going on?
Yeah, there's there's mine at the at the time of recording this show with you at pro wrestling stories dot com.
There's there's six more submitted, so there will be ninety nine.
I could if I stop right now and let these be published, there'll be ninety nine fantastic articles out there.

(02:03:30):
But if for some reason I'm annoying as hell, I just encourage you to go to pro wrestling story dot com and read anything else on there by the other writers.
I think you'll have you'll have a fantastic time. There's all kinds of topics.
The page is dedicated mostly to old school wrestling, not not the newer product.
And just check it out. Pro Wrestling Stories dot com.

(02:03:52):
And I'm going to put on put over source and we talk one more time as we wrap up tonight.
One other article that you had written, which I enjoyed, was was the Janet Boyer Wolf article.
So it's not you're not just a one trick pony there. That's it.
And that's a crazy story, too. I know it's not related to Canadian wrestling at all, but to me, that was a crazy story to read.

(02:04:19):
That's yeah, that's that's the lead.
I'm not you know, I encourage people to look for Janet Boyer story.
If you if you look for it on Google, it should be one of the first articles that pop up.
But this goes way back to to to the Mildred Burke era of wrestlers.
And it's always it's always great to learn about these wrestlers where there's so little footage, video footage on them.

(02:04:47):
I wish there was some there was more footage on them.
And the footage that you do watch is great.
It's just they really all their matches, they go 100 percent against each other.
There's no there's no it's a straight it's freight ahead.
That old school old school women's grappling and black and white glory.

(02:05:12):
Tremendous stuff, tremendous stuff.
So where can where can people get in touch with yourself then as well?
I think you can you can find me on Facebook, Javier, or East last name is OJS isn't Sam T as in Tom Javier, or East.
You know, you can friend me.

(02:05:34):
And I have a a wrestling page on Facebook.
It's called Classic Wrestling Stars.
And you can check that out as well.
As a matter of fact, we're going to add that one right now. So before I let you go, I just want to thank you again very much for for joining the program tonight and for for the tremendous work that you have done.

(02:05:57):
And I'm looking forward to reading in the near future.
Thank you very much.
Thank you so much for inviting me. You do quality work and and it's my honor and the privilege to to be on the show on a show with you and the amount of research you do for every single show is amazing.

(02:06:19):
I and I hope people really understand that these these the work you do is not easy. It's a passion project, but you do a heck of a job. And thank you once again for inviting me to join you to speak about Rhonda Singh.
And so we can keep her legacy alive for future generations.
You know, I appreciate the converse that I'm going to have to have you on again.

(02:06:41):
This is tremendous.
Just what we can negotiate something I'm sure.
Yeah, checks in the mail right now.
Well, as long as as long as the Raiders aren't playing and I'm not writing something we can we can we can we can try to squeeze some time in no problems. You just let me know anytime my friend, it'd be my privilege.

(02:07:04):
Again, it'll be my honor.
Now before we get to my next guest, Dr. Mike Leno, I'm going to play some quote unquote classic wrestling audio. Now this comes from the WWF run of Rhonda Singh as Bertha Faye.
And you're going to hear a little bit from the sleazeball manager who by share at this point, I'm sure you're aware that I don't think very much of.

(02:07:27):
But anyways, you're going to hear from Harvey Wilkman. You're going to hear from Bertha Faye, known to us as Rhonda Singh. And then on the other side of my interview and discussion with Dr.
Mike Leno now for warning the audio quality with Dr.
Mike Leno is not what it normally is for the simple reason as we had some technical snafus while recording.

(02:07:54):
So but it is an interesting conversation.
We do get off off topic a couple of times.
So if the audio seems a little disjointed, there was some editing done.
So I apologize for that. But there was we spent about 20 minutes just cutting promos on some of the modern wrestling that we see nowadays, which I didn't think was really relative to what our topic of conversation was today being Rhonda Singh.

(02:08:22):
So with all that being said, the conversation is great.
There are some little tidbits that he brings up that I had never heard before, and I cannot wait for you guys to hear it as well.
So once again, some quote unquote classic wrestling audio.
And then on the other side, my conversation with wrestling dentist, Dr.
Mike Leno.

(02:08:44):
We're here to talk about the World Wrestling Federation Women's Championship. And let me tell you right now, Doc, my honey, honey, my sweet potato, my gorgeous birthday.
Without a doubt, we'll be the next WWF Women's Champion because you see, not only is she the most gorgeous creature on the planet.

(02:09:19):
Not only is she got the intelligence to have the finest bow on the planet, the one in her hair, the one on her neck, but she has worked every girl in the trailer part.
That's something to be proud of.
She has worked every girl at the honky tonk. And just like you said, it is time for this gorgeous birthday to become that WWF Women's Champion.

(02:09:49):
And just like our special love, that championship will be there forever.
Well, let me ask you something here.
You know, I've been watching a London blazes career for a long time for more reasons than one. But anyway, you are the only person to ever injure her to ever put her out.

(02:10:10):
Does this send you into your inevitable matchup confident?
A London blaze.
You cannot compete with me on sex appeal because I have it all.
Look at this. All right.

(02:10:31):
I skirt a London blaze.
You can't compete with me on men because I have the ultimate man a woman could ever want.
Oh, my.
Take a look at Harvey.
That's disgusting.
I wonder, please.
You cannot compete with me on talent because I have it all.

(02:10:53):
The only thing that is going to change is that when I become the WWF Women's Champion, that belt is going to have a few more polka dots on it.
Well, I tell you, the good Lord makes them and the good Lord pairs them.

(02:11:16):
It's coming up again.
All right. Very happy to be joined on the line.
Finally, via a couple of technical snafus by wrestling's original dentist, Dr. Mike Lado.
Mike, how are you doing?
I'm doing great. I don't know if I told you, but we're going to be talking about obviously women's wrestlers.

(02:11:40):
I have a lot of respect for Britt Baker.
I was on Busted Open with her, it's been about eight, nine months.
Specifically, I'm on that show maybe every four to six weeks.
I was on three times two weeks ago.
Anyway, so I was throwing out these questions only at Dentists Without Me.

(02:12:02):
We actually, for a lot of professions, have our own inside lingo or carny.
We don't call it carny, but when I say a Class 2 amalgam, a lot of people may not know what that is or a Class 5 foil.
So I was asking her stuff like that, and I said, what did you have to do on your boards?
What is an ideal perio probe reading on buckle and lingual?

(02:12:25):
She snapped that out.
I asked some other stuff like what's a cavitron?
Stuff like what's a cone cut?
When you screw up doing an x-ray when you're a dental assistant and you screw up,
one of those screw ups might be a cone cut.
And Britt got all that stuff.
So she's legit.
I was the first, but she's the first wrestler-wrestler who's a dentist.
And she's done it brilliantly.

(02:12:47):
You know, her ring gear and her video, they have all kinds of stuff.
They have a PanaRex x-ray, I think that opens her walk-on video.
And on some of her ring jackets, she's got mouth mirrors, perio probes.
It looks like dental high-speed drills and a low-speed drill is a distinction.
So she was aces on that.

(02:13:09):
And anyway, I know we're maybe two months out from Daphne's passing,
so I want people to know I have done a ton of appearances besides talking about Daphne Shannon,
or as she called herself, Daph Shan, when she would email you or any of us.
Another guy who knew her probably even better than me was the Ring of Honor's ring announcer,

(02:13:33):
a great guy.
But that's the way she would email it or sign off, Daph-Shannon, or Daph Shan.
But I did a two-hour tribute on the show I do with Evan Ginsburg, nearly two hours,
and then went on crazy train radio with two legends I hope to bring to this program,
Su Tec Green and Tony Rose, who was part of, they were the original Glamour Girls in the 70s.

(02:14:00):
And they were often second below Bruno San Martino, Title Defenses, etc.,
Madison Square Garden, Boston Garden, Philly Spectrum, Cap Center in D.C., etc.
But this is the 70s, and it was Tony Rose partnered with fellow heel Donna Christian Tello.
And they were the premier women's tag team.
You know, when people say, oh, we need women's tag titles in WWF,

(02:14:23):
or now as we've heard, they're apparently going to be almost letting that go.
They've broken up all of the other tag teams except for superhero A.S. Nicky.
Oh, God, yeah. And Rhea Ripley, who lost her belt, so there's that.
Yeah, she lost her belt. She was getting in big trouble.

(02:14:45):
I heard Renee Paquette, formerly Renee Young, talk about, like,
that's the biggest sin you can commit where you get the most penalties.
And, you know, it's not even your fault. I would not blame her.
But perhaps Rhea can go back to being the kick-ass person we saw in NXT
as opposed to the goody-two-shoes thing we have now.

(02:15:08):
I know Daphne would have hated the direction of Rhea, you know, particularly,
as we saw a couple of weeks ago, I don't know what it was,
it was like some children's charity, and they bring them out.
And she had to speak off the top of her head, and she looked, you know,
most of us knew and could feel her being so uncomfortable.
That's just not her. She could have let Nicky just do the whole promo-cutting

(02:15:31):
with them standing up there, you know, sweating at the top of the ramp
and talking about this charity. I forget if it was breast cancer or what, but anyway.
Well, and that's kind of part and parcel.
It fits very nicely into what we're talking about today,
because we're naturally talking about Ronda Singh, the Monster Ripper,
and again, here's somebody who, you know, was a badass presented as such,

(02:15:56):
and then look what the WWF did with her, but we're getting a little bit ahead of ourselves.
So for yourself, do you remember what your first introduction would have been
to Ronda Singh, the Monster Ripper?
I met her prior to spending a lot of time with her at the Stu Hart thing
in Calgary that I'll get to in a second.

(02:16:17):
We met at some show, it was prior to her, it was when I was shooting
both AAA and Paco Alonso's, you know, the Luteroff promotion,
CMLL slash EMLL in Mexico City. So I met her down there at Monster Ripper.
Obviously your audience knows that she was killer heel in Japan,
killer heel in Puerto Rico, you know, pretty much everywhere she went,

(02:16:40):
which is why the Birth of Faith thing later on, as we'll get to, was disappointing.
It almost seemed like they were doing the dusty honor with the polka, you know,
trying to sort of put her down for, I'm not sure why, because Alondra Blaze Medusa
at that point needed good solid foes, you know, and there's somebody else

(02:17:05):
I've known since 87, Medusa Debbie Michelli, and, you know, she brought in
specifically some of the people that she'd worked before she quit
and left All Japan Women in 1990. You know, she had that history with
Aja Khan and Bison Kimura and all that stuff, and, you know, some of the other ones.

(02:17:29):
Aja...
Yeah, the Polo Cano feud was a big one too.
I can't really remember. I was trying to look, but I couldn't find Medusa
or Ronda against Belman Samohto. And for Ronda, that would have been like a perfect...
Maybe somebody can call in, or maybe you even know if that had ever occurred,

(02:17:53):
but I really spent a lot of time with her at Stu Hart's. I can't remember the exact date
because I was supposed to go in with Meltzer to Calgary, and he didn't go.
He went directly to the event the next day, which was the UFC Ultimate Ultimate in Denver,
that I, you know, went to. But I went two days early, got to stay at the Stu Hart's,
Stu and Helen Hart's mansion. It's kind of a long story, but to make it brief,

(02:18:17):
and I, the guest room I had was nearly directly above the dungeon, but I had been friends
with the Harts since the 80s and would always call Stu and Helen. I mean, I knew all of them.
Smith, who passed away, the most recent to pass away. Brett, long history, but the guys
I'm closest to are Bruce and Ross. But Stu and Helen I would call every year on New Year's Day,

(02:18:40):
because that was their anniversary. That's when both Paul Bosch and allegedly Lord Tallyho,
James Blair introduced another.
That's right.
New York, and it was very close. So they hired me to be their event photographer.
So December 15, 1995, and then I just flew. I met up with Meltzer the next day in Denver,

(02:19:01):
but this was more important to me because it was the only territory I had never shot.
I'm talking from the late 60s on. I was everywhere. My two home bases were Los Angeles for the
Oval Promotion where I shot ringside for the program, and Royce Shire, San Francisco, that
whole territory, which also encompassed Reno, and at times he did partnering with Ed Francis

(02:19:25):
and Lord Blair's in Honolulu for terrific shows. But those were my two home bases, and in the
magazines you start flying me everywhere. But that was the only territory. And my bucket
list, I had a bucket list back then, it was to shoot everybody, whether it was a small
name like Prince Pollan, an African American guy that few remember, but he was terrific

(02:19:47):
for Bruiser's WWA, as well as Bruiser in Detroit, and he worked for Chicago shows for Bruiser
and Ganya. But anyway, so Calgary, the territory stampede, totally on my bucket list because
I shot in Winnipeg, and Maple Leaf Gardens for Heel Heel, Sheik versus Killer Kowalski

(02:20:09):
in 74, Out of This World, etc. And of course Montreal for Vachon's Grand Prix versus Rouge
National, La Lute. So I got to spend a lot of time. So it was billed as Stampede's 45th
Anniversary. We kind of thought that was a work, that maybe Stampede wasn't quite that

(02:20:30):
old, but who knows, I don't, and I would give the hearts the benefit of the doubt, because
I love Stu and Ellen. But privately it was Stu's 80th birthday, and so that was the main
thing. I got to shoot the show, it was for the public, at his beloved Corral Stampede
venue, but the private family party and all the boys were there, from the old original

(02:20:55):
Dan Croft, to the All Japan one, the one that most know, Phil LaFont, he was renamed that
in WWF, but Dan Croft, the Doug Furness, Dan Croft tag team. So I got pictures of the original,
and he was Stu's top babyface, Dan Croft, Dan King Crow Croft, who also worked a ton

(02:21:19):
against Inoki and Sakaguchi, the earliest days, or the second year of all, of New Japan.
But anyway, so I got to spend a ton of time, you know, with Rhonda, so all the boys were
there, Jericho, Lance Storm, the entire Hart family, Bulldog, the only guys that didn't
show, and Bruce Hart was nailing out, you know, advance money and plane ticket round

(02:21:44):
trips, where Abby and Dynamite Kid, they both cashed in their plane tickets, and kept the
money, never returned it to poor Bruce Hart. And it would have been spectacular, I mean,
everybody was anybody, Wes Thornton, former NBA World Junior Heavyweight Champion, Archie,
Mongolia, and Stomper, Goldie, everybody was there. And the Premier of Canada presented

(02:22:07):
a bust of Stu to him in the middle of the ring, but the private after party was way
more fun, you know, I have pictures of Natty, who's a little, you know, kid, and Harry Smith,
and Teddy, and then the other Hart family, whose last name was Anis, A-N-N-I-S, who passed
away from that virus, brain virus, eating, horrific condition, but so Rhonda's there.

(02:22:32):
And she was at the show, I forget who she worked with, she had to do her, so we are
kind of bopping in and out, she had to do her birthday on the show, it wasn't against
Medusa, I forgot who she worked with, but she did great, Bruce got to put her over,
I mean, you know, like Mike Shaw, Maken Singh, who was Norman the Lunatic in WWF, Bastion
Booger in WWF, and what was that other gimmick? Friar Ferguson, he had a, he had a cute couple,

(02:22:59):
I posted some shots of them together, you know, both kind of overweight, but still bad
asses, Rhonda and Mike Shaw, it was one of the nicest guys in the world before we lost
him, as was Rhonda, and Rhonda used to send me results before this 1995, December 15,
1995, wherever she was, and sometimes she would call, you know, so she was like a lot

(02:23:22):
of people who were in and out of major promotions, like Sherry Martel, you know, when she left
WWE, a lot of people don't know, she went down to AAA and was managing Art Barr and
Eddie Guerrero, and I got her, you know, shot her in Mexico City and Tijuana and other places
managing them, and then some of Ron Scholar's AAA shows in the US, he basically brought

(02:23:43):
the rights to them, anyway Sherry was on those. Rhonda was on in LA later on, one of Ron's
last cards when he split, this is Ron Scholar, we had those huge sellouts, starting in 1992
with AAA for Mexico at the Sports Arena in Los Angeles, and I was already working for
him and then he fired his PR guy for getting Jake Roberts, who was supposed to be in a

(02:24:06):
main event against Conan at a Berkeley, one and only Berkeley house show, the prices were
way too high, so it only did like a third of the venue, the crowd, it could have been
sold out if the ticket prices were lower, but this guy who was Ron's PR guy for the
AAA show, made Eddie and Art Warren, this, Santo Jr., all of them, Masquerida Sagrada,

(02:24:29):
all the big stars, Los Payasos, and she had cars, all that stuff, so he gets Jake there
like at the very end of the match that he was supposed to be in the main event with
Conan on that had to be changed, and the fans were piling out of the building, the main
event was already over, and that's when Jake arrived, so I was hired to take over his PR
from then on out, but Rhonda was on a card, Ron Scholar did, he broke ties with AAA after

(02:24:54):
the When Worlds Collide 1994 pay-per-view, because he was stuck to get in demand and
get on in demand's pay-per-view schedule, he had to partner with Bischoff and WCW, which
he didn't want to do, so his relationship, he switched to the other, older, much older
promotion, it's now like 90 years old in Mexico City, world's oldest that Rhonda worked

(02:25:17):
for, as well as UWA obviously, I don't recall her working for AAA, she was just those apoco
alonso, ludera, family promotion, and then prior to that UWA, which was the one that
had the most foreigners in there, like Jericho, Vader, Owen Hart, quite a few Americans and

(02:25:40):
some European guys too, so anyway, so Rhonda's at the party, the after-party, she wrestles,
I post her with a ton of people, she knew her history, Rhonda really knew her history,
male and female, she could talk endlessly about Mildred Burke and June Byers, who are
arguably the two atop the women's Mount Rushmore, if you're going to talk about athletes, hooker

(02:26:05):
shooters, and plus all the shit they went through with Billy Wolf, who was married to
both of them, and when he, like with Mildred Burke, he would cheat right in front of her
with June Byers, and you know, a really horrific guy, which is where a lot of folks like Sue
Green and Tony Rhodes, who I hope to bring to the show soon, that's where they think

(02:26:28):
Moola got it, because she was so scarred emotionally, physically, monetarily by this guy who screwed
all of those women, he promoted women's wrestling, he had the lock, in the US, you get a couple
of Japan tours towards the end, but he promoted women's wrestling, had all of them in the
30s and 50s, Moola would later take over, you know, she started out valet-ing for first

(02:26:50):
Buddy Rogers as slave girl Moola, and then she valet-ed for a guy who would become the
friar Tormenta, the guy that wrestled just to raise money for an orphanage in his church,
but back then in the 40s and 50s it was called Elephant Boy, doing a weirdo, strange gimmick,
that's how Moola started, and then she became part of Billy Wolf's troupe, and later on

(02:27:15):
though when she took over and ran the women's wrestling in the US, there at least were some
indie women that were not part of that, like Vivian Vashon, who was one of the most spectacular
women's wrestlers, Betty Nikolai, who had two shoots, two matches, so it was supposed

(02:27:36):
to be pro-women's match, California, she was, that match with Betty Nikolai as the
California Women's Champion, title versus title against Moola for Moola's title, was
underneath the, really the only card at the true LA Coliseum, not the New Japan thing
two months ago with Moxley and the Good Brothers, that was at a venue, you know, a smaller venue

(02:28:02):
on the property, but it wasn't really at the LA Coliseum, the only match ever at the Coliseum
was like August, I think it was 22nd, 1971, that I shot ringside for, a topic where the
two longest feuds in the business, Fred Blassie is the baby face, if you can believe it, greatest
baby face in Hollywood, Los Angeles wrestling history, against this guy he'd fought forever,

(02:28:24):
John Tolis, in about a million different matches, with the greatest angle setting that up,
underneath that the other longest feud that was like lasted four decades, it ended in
like the late 80s, started around the 57th over, so against the Sheik, Neil Moskvist
against the original, the guy that died, El Solitario, there's no wealth of cards, Pat

(02:28:45):
Patterson was in the opener, against Paul DeMarco, but the third from the top was Mullen
Nicola, anyway, so Rhonda knew all about that, asked me a lot of questions, a lot of photos
and stuff, so we're, she had been partying and having beers at the arena, the Corral,
the Stampede Corral, and mind you too, it was like 60 below zero, I'd never even been there,

(02:29:09):
had never been in freezing weather, so Rhonda told me to, like triple or quadruple layer,
you know, she was smart enough to smart me up and tell me what kind of under, you know,
full body underwear to wear, you know what I mean, that's serious stuff, so folks in
Canada know that pussies like us in California, we rarely see that in the world, we're super

(02:29:37):
duper cold, but she wanted to hear, she goes, well who picked you up, and she told me that
uh, who's it, Diana Hart or uh, Maddie's mother had picked her up, and I go, well Owen did,
and he had his best friend, his best friend on the road, Louis Spicoli from WWF with him,
and she wanted to hear about it, and she said, did Owen drive like a maniac, I go yeah, and

(02:30:00):
she goes, did he cuss and swear like a, you know, no tomorrow, and I go yeah, there was
no visibility, it was like snowing at that point when he got me around, I don't know
what it was, 10 in the morning with Louis, they were the best of friends, road mates,
you know, since Owen had started, again we're talking 95, and uh, I don't know how Owen
drove without destroying the vehicle, but he didn't, you know, you guys up there know

(02:30:24):
how to handle it, and black ice and everything, I gotta give you credit, so Rhonda wanted
to hear about all that stuff, so she already had some beers at the arena, and after the
show was over, you know, we all moved, no marks, and we went to the private place for
Stu's birthday party, which was huge, and I'm so happy I got to shoot, you know, all

(02:30:46):
of those hard family members who would become stars, from Harriet and Maddie to uh, TJ was
there, I guess they were like high school sweethearts, he and Maddie, and Teddy, the
infamous Teddy Hart, he got a million, I have a million great Teddy Hart stories, like him
showing up unannounced, I had no idea he was, you know, he didn't get to come to California,

(02:31:10):
after he got fired from the rank of honors, he showed up at my house knocking on the door,
up near Oakland, California, I forget what year that was, this was quite a few years
after, it might have been around 19, it might have been like 2000, 2004, somewhere in there,
he just showed up at my house asking me to stay overnight, my wife was there, I go, absolutely
not, get out of the house, get out of the house, something, anyway, I know Rhonda would

(02:31:33):
have a lot to say about that, it's very opinionated, so it's Stu Hart's thing, we're going back
to that, she had way more beers than she should have ever had, and mixed it with some wine
and stuff, and I think did some shots, jealous shots, again, December 15th, 1985, and blue
chunks, so we were talking with Brian Pillman, seated next to Stu, and on the other side

(02:31:57):
of it, Stu was Terry Funk, and Rhonda just let go and heaved, you know, on the block,
she got it all over their shoes and part of Stu's pants and stuff, and it felt terrible,
and she came back out with towels and wet wash rags and clean extra stuff, and was they
cleaning off the floor?
He didn't care, because they were kind of all blitzed, everybody was having beers,

(02:32:20):
Dory and Terry had worked a tag with Bruce Hart and Pillman to rekindle the feud they
had before Pillman ever went to WCW, and whatever year that was, 1990, and it goes, so, you
know, Rhonda never lived that down, because they gave her some shit afterwards, but she

(02:32:41):
was like, when I talked about Daphne, and there must be a lot of other kind-hearted people,
but she reminded me of Bobby Eaton, who we lost just a couple months ago, would bring
extra stuff, extra bottled water, unopened bags of, you know, store-bought nuts and fruit,
little things like that, she had extra sewing kits, and she always had them with her, so

(02:33:05):
she'd ask if anybody would need them in the dressing room, as I was with her again, and
just exhibited a lot of kindness, and this from somebody who, you know, was one of those
killer heels, or, you know, her name was Monster, and which was fitting, because she liked all
things horror, too.

(02:33:26):
This would be her time of year, Halloween.
I think Halloween is unlike Thanksgiving.
You guys already celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving, but ours is coming up, it's always like around
the 23rd of November, whereas Canada's, I think, who determines when Canadian Thanksgiving's
gonna happen?
It's usually the second week of October, just whatever that Sunday, Sunday-Monday combination

(02:33:47):
is.
Okay, well, you guys, you know, on top of the U.S., you guys have it first, so, she
loved that stuff, she loved horror movies, she favored Freddy Krueger over Mike Myers,
and all those other, you know, horrible characters, and was into a lot of that stuff, and this

(02:34:11):
was before people, you know, could watch movies on their cells or anything like that, but
I'm trying to recall some other stuff about her.
She was funny, she had lots of, you know, male friends as well as females in there,
but as I said, she had befriended Sue Green at a really low point, like Sue Green couldn't
even find any work, and Rhonda calls her up and said, you know, how'd you like to go with

(02:34:34):
me to Mexico and Puerto Rico and this and that, and all these indie dates, and she revitalized
Sue Green.
Now, this is a woman that's been working probably in prose since, I think, 62, 63, and she still
rustles, which not even Terry Funk can do anymore, not Dory Funk really, he's having
memory issues as well as, you know, Terry, and Terry's are the more severe.

(02:34:59):
I was keeping tabs with him up until just a few months ago, and you know the whole story
earlier this year, his daughter that lives closest to him in Amarillo moved him out of
the home, did his share, now he and Vicki sold the ranch, the Double Cross Ranch that
I also got to stay at in 97 when they, they too hired me as an event photographer for

(02:35:20):
what was supposed to be one of those Chilean Terry Funk retirements.
Terry would later-
One of the, one of the thousand Terry Funk retirements.
Yeah, well he qualified then like three years ago when he was still 100% mentally saying,
no, no, that was just my Amarillo retirement.
Oh, yes.
It was built, it was called Russell Fest, it was built as Terry's last match ever, and

(02:35:44):
guess who?
You know, I know we have a global audience, but it gets Canadian Bret Hart.
Yep.
Bret was the WWF World Champion at that time and defended the strap against Terry, obviously
the face, and all the hearts were with and seconding Bret.
That would be Bruce Ross Smith, and I can't remember, I think Keith was there too.

(02:36:09):
So similar to how they did it on TV for WWF, the hearts would always be there.
And it's weird because once Owen passed, you know, that kind of destroyed the family for
quite a while and there's still different factions like Diana, Owen's widow, Martha,
they don't, they're Hart members, and Bret has had periods when he's gotten along with

(02:36:34):
Martha and not gotten along with her, and I think she's, you know, now she's in a good
place with AEW.
So I just emailed her in the hopes of getting her to do some radio stuff.
A lot of people, and I'm talking not so much Martha, I've also emailed, but Diana, Diana
has produced and written several wrestling fiction novels involving wrestling.

(02:37:02):
I don't know anybody that's really doing that, or at least on a consistent level, so
chalk one up to one of Stu's own daughters on that one.
But Rhonda was seemingly friends because that was where she broke in, that's who trained
at Finaster, and there weren't that many females that knew Lain Hanson.

(02:37:24):
Obviously his sons did more of the training of Rhonda.
I got home late.
I'm having some health issues, so I got home late.
I wasn't able to, you know, go back and re-review my IMDB history on Rhonda.
But I am going to send you some photos of her in, and in her birth of Fay, and in other

(02:37:45):
gimmicks, you know, with the heavy makeup on, and the scary stuff that more people that
are hardcore fans are more drawn to as opposed to the...
And that's what I say.
I mean, do people view that?
Others, because I know I'm an old-timer, but folks that maybe came to wrestling, you know,
I started watching in 66, 65, but people who came a little bit later, maybe during the

(02:38:11):
Hulk Hogan 80s, mid-80s stuff, do they look at that and go, well, Vince was just like
punishing her, doing the Dusty with the polka dots, making her wear all the polka dots,
and doing a ridiculous, non-threatening gimmick?
I mean, your gimmick was so generic, you know, like, wasn't birth of Fay also the name of,

(02:38:32):
you know, one of the many women that Jimmy Boogie Woogie Man Valiant was, you know, he
would refer to people, sometimes they would be played by male wrestlers in drag, and other
times you never saw them.
So it was like old TV shows where a guy would talk about his wife, but you'd never hear
or see her.
You would just hear him talk about his wife.

(02:38:54):
So, you know, I thought birth of Fay was like a, you know, sort of like when Dusty came
in, and didn't they, it was prior to that, Ted DiBiase's second was Virgil, now that
was obviously Dusty Rhodes, Virgil Ridley Reynolds, so that was prior to Dusty obviously coming

(02:39:20):
in, but, you know, Dusty, a la Sapphire, a la Bertha, or Rhonda rather, all, you know,
you could never see a boo-boo face on them.
They never acted like they were unhappy, they just went with the shitty gimmick, and in
this case, actually all three with polka dots.
I don't know if there's a negatory, you know, polka dots.

(02:39:44):
They don't make you slimming, and these were all, you know, chunky, or what's the wording
that they call now?
Well, like bigger or thicker people, I guess, is maybe, I don't know, what's politically
correct nowadays.
Well, it's thick, P-H-I-C-K-E, the guy that was so talented, so incredibly talented from

(02:40:06):
Europe, that NXT let go, you know, before dismantling NXT.
I think he used to wear, you know, when he first kind of debuted, it was Thick Boy, and
it doesn't have other wrestlers, but I can't think of the guy's name, so incredibly talented.
He held the North American title, and then it's like they put it on him, and then like
weeks later they let him go, and I'm just going, what on earth?

(02:40:30):
So that was the thing with Lana, was she finessed, she trained, she broke in with the boys, I
forget who was in her class, whether Mike Shaw was in that class or not, as were others.
But I know she had a lot of hands-on with Gamma Singh, who a lot of folks, it bothered
me that they never said in the impact when he was there managing the Dead to Hit Squad,

(02:40:54):
this guy's a legend.
And we got into that deep in our Gamma Singh Karachi Vice episode a couple of episodes
ago, because I had Trent Zabrion, who works with AAW Pro out of Chicago, and we got into
a big, whatever, we got into it about how Gamma Singh was presented and impact and just

(02:41:18):
what a travesty that whole thing was.
It hurt me, so this guy helped train Ronda, he was a superstar for Stu, but the first
North American territory he came to was mine in Los Angeles in 75, around the summer,
around June, July of 1975, because both Tollis and Blassie are two top, top, top guys who

(02:41:43):
quit, Greg Valentine gone, we had like no faces, no heels, and so Gamma Singh came in,
along with, it was called Prince Tonga, but that became obviously Haku Ming, and they
came in together as a tag team, sometimes they opposed each other, but they were both
baby faces.
And they came in and Roy Scherz sent us down to help out Don Morocco, and he also sent

(02:42:11):
down Pat Patterson, he knew Tony Correa, who at the time was shooting with the Valiants
in San Francisco, but he said I'd already shot them up there, but he sent them down
because we had like nobody, so Michael Bell, our big boss, our promoter was begging for
people, so with Haku Ming at the last Color Flare alley two years ago, I was pulling out

(02:42:32):
those photos, and he swore, he goes, no, no, I didn't come into LA until 77, and I go,
no, no, he had done, here's the evidence.
It was 1975, I know it, because he didn't stay that long, and then he went right directly
up the stools, I don't know how long he stayed, but then of course Gamma Singh stayed forever,

(02:42:53):
total legend.
Do you have folks that have any contacts for Gamma, because you put me on with him, I know
his history inside and out, I could probably reel off all the matches he had in LA, against
guys like Raul and Carlos Mata, Reno to Ufuli, who's related to the Anahuahe family.
He didn't stay in it that long, but he's related to Peter Maivia and Offen Seek and all of

(02:43:17):
that stuff.
If you guys could find a, when he was with Impact, I was bugging Ross there, the PR guy,
and like, why, he's not doing anything, why wouldn't you let me interview him on my own
show or somebody else's show, and put this guy over the way he should be put over, from

(02:43:38):
a history standpoint, you know, 70s, 80s.
And yeah, that supremely bothered me, but he had a hand in helping Rhonda, I mean, Rhonda
knew all of those guys, she knew Tommy Billington, Dynamite Kid, Davy Boy, and John Foley, who
was the heel manager for Stampede, and she loved it, and whenever she could, you know,

(02:44:01):
she would like come back home, sometimes she'd just be in the back in the dressing room on,
you know, the various incarnations.
Once Vince bought out Stampede, you know, they came back and tried promoting again with
more new guys, like, they had a long series for a couple of months with Sabu against the

(02:44:22):
late Tiger Khan, and that was called Stampede Wrestling, or Hart Brothers Wrestling.
And, you know, so, but anyway, before her death, Rhonda would often, you know, whenever
she was back home, if they didn't have a female to put her against, she'd just hang in the
back, and some astute showed, she said, and she would tell me what was going on, and it

(02:44:44):
was back there, and I just thought, the world of her, and, you know, you didn't see this
coming, like some, like Sherry and Luna Vachon, because of the long-term drug use and stuff,
I still have saved 3 a.m., 2 a.m. voice messages from both of them, Luna, Angel, and Sherry

(02:45:07):
Martell, who I've known forever, and they were like the nicest people on the planet,
but, you know, sometimes they'd be blitzed, and they'd call, and, you know, they were
all over the map, like I am on this radio show today.
But I'm not slurring my words, or anything like that, but I never saw it coming with
Rhonda, you know, I knew she was heavy set and stuff, but it's like, you know, it's

(02:45:32):
like the nice ones go, people I knew, like Eddie Gilbert from like 1968, 69 on, Pelman,
who I was close with, and I participated in pretty much all, not always did they buy my
shots, not always did I get credit, you know, like the FMW, there were some of my images
there, but I wasn't listed in the credits, which that means more to me, because they

(02:45:57):
don't pay you that much for Dark Side, you know, it's more a labor of love, but since
season 1, you know, particularly, thank goodness, some of them, like the Luna, Vashon, and
Chris Candy, once I was credited, not just for photos, an imagery supply, still images,
but also research, you know, and aid on the documentary itself, because I have so many

(02:46:19):
stories on the road with Luna, who was also close to Rhonda, I can't recall if they ever
worked against each other, you might have Rhonda's matchography in front of you or something,
I just don't right now, but you know, she did have some amazing battles with Cynthia

(02:46:40):
and Esther Moreno in different places, Mexico and Japan, I'm trying to think who she was
mainly shooting with in Puerto Rico, what did I just...
Well, a lot was Wendy Richter in Puerto Rico as well, but yeah, she had some crazy matches
there.
She had matches with Rock and Rob and Smith, I forget where those were, but quite a few,

(02:47:03):
and you know she would be, perhaps, she should stay alive, she would be an agent working
somewhere, I mean she would be so happy with, you know, for example, it really felt great
in my heart when Mickey James had all the women on that, all women's impact, the most

(02:47:24):
recent knockouts, knockout or whatever, it was called, they all were black, Daff, arm
bands, and I know Rhonda would have loved that.
Rhonda probably would be coaching people, doing something in AEW now, you know, she
would have gravitated to where people could be themselves and not help back, they don't

(02:47:45):
have to read and memorize promos or read them off teleprompters like in WWE, you know, that's
why AEW is like, as many of us have described, an ECW on steroids and with money.
They're pretty apt to description.
Is there, and I know she would have loved what I'm calling the, the whatever, most

(02:48:11):
potatoey or most hard fought New Japan strong style match on American soil, at least not
in Canada because there might be tougher matches, but the thing with, last week with Brian,
Daniel Bryan, Bryan Danielson.
And Suzuki, yep.
And I've shot Suzuki in Japan as well as on New Japan cards in the US, like New York,

(02:48:36):
Dallas, San Francisco, LA against guys like Ishii and other tough mofos, but that match
last year, not just match of the year so far, but I think it's the stiffest match I've
seen on American soil.
I'm not saying Canadian, I'm not saying US soil, I'm not saying Puerto Rico because
it's not quite a state yet, it should be, but that match was just out of this world

(02:49:00):
and I know Rhonda would have loved that, I know Daphne would have loved that.
It just was, I've watched it a couple of times, it doesn't get old.
The first elbow from Suzuki on Bryan Danielson that knocked him down or that he sold for,
that was stiff as shit.
I don't know, what did you think of that match, did you enjoy it?

(02:49:21):
Oh yeah, it was my cup of tea, I'm going to say that.
Because I don't like a whole lot of the flip flop whatever, it's not my thing, so I like
a nice stiff match and that was good.
Yeah, I think Bully, I got an email from Bully saying something like tight, stiff, and just

(02:49:46):
not the no light.
Yeah, no lights, you can't see through nothing.
Well A, depending on the city, but there's quite a few cities that really respect their
wrestling history, you cannot do a Vince McMahon whitewash of history in Toronto or Montreal
or Winnipeg, I think parts of Saskatchewan and Calgary, because you have fans that know

(02:50:10):
their history and they know when they're being lied to or bullshitted to, and US, I think
there's a lot more long term fans of Canada beating back the 70s, so they might be more
comfortable with WWF product or more tolerant of the weirdness, the bullshit, the grabbing

(02:50:31):
of signs, or telling people they have to leave or take their shirt off if the shirt says
it.
There was somebody at NXT like a week ago that had Tony K on a sign in the front row,
there were very few signs on that NXT, and they were making a sign reference to Tony
Khan, you know, wrestling war it's on with Tony K, I forget what the sign exactly said,

(02:50:53):
but I was so surprised, they don't have that mentality where Vince isn't all over NXT the
way he is with the other two programs, because they can be even house shows, not just TV,
but non-televised house shows where they grab the signs, or if you're wearing a new Japan
or an AEW shirt, or you know, back in the day ECW shirts, they get confiscated and all

(02:51:18):
that sort of stuff.
So I think maybe you guys are more polite, more tolerant.
Must be, yeah.
But what is Canada's, how do they do with ratings with AEW, because it's weird, why
has not, even before the pandemic, why hasn't Tony gone up and toured, at least done one
Canadian city?
I don't think they've done one to my knowledge.

(02:51:40):
So because our borders, the issue with the borders right now at least, so, like that's
the biggest sticking point.
But I'm talking about even prior to that, and...
Oh, I don't know what they do on TSN, they never really release anything here.
I mean, if you wanted to look hard you could find it, but...
I'm just saying, I have a live AEW show, I don't know, I don't have any clue, but I would

(02:52:07):
encourage Tony Khan and AEW to start having some shows when it's possible.
It may not be possible, because that's what we were hearing with Color Flyer Alley three
weeks ago.
A lot of Canadian people couldn't go.
Greg Oliver finally found some way to go, but he kept telling me, no, no, I'm not going
to be able to come and accept my award there, because whereas the U.S. allows anybody to

(02:52:31):
come in, if I were to try to come back to Canada from the U.S. and have to quarantine
for two weeks, two miserable weeks, and I know you guys are probably way closer to herd
immunity in Canada, much smarter versus all the dumb shits down in the U.S. here refusing
to get their shots, refusing to get their boosters.
Hey, I mean, they got shot one and two years.

(02:52:52):
I already had that third week gaze after the boosters became available.
I wanted it, you know, that bad.
And I know, anyway, that brings us back to Rhonda.
We got way off topic.
Yeah.
And this is Rhonda Singh.
I am going to send you some photos of her over the...
I would very much appreciate that.
And it's good to, you know, all the zillion shows, I don't mean to be bringing up Daphne

(02:53:21):
in the context of Rhonda, but all the shows I've done on Daphne, you know, I say as long
as you keep talking about these people, they never die.
If you keep talking about their careers, their accomplishments, what a fantastically incredible
person Rhonda Singh was, then, you know, because I think people sometimes forget some of those.
You know, we're hit in the face, you know, with like 40 new NXT people, and we're supposed

(02:53:44):
to be able to keep track of this and the other.
I don't know where Teagan...not Teagan Knox, but the other one that was a heel that healed
on her partner, the women's champion there.
She's not listed for the main roster.
I mean, just really, they butchered NXT.
But I know hopefully people...I think these people have made a big impact, like Rhonda

(02:54:08):
or Daphne Matsumoto or Bull Nakano, Aja Khan, or Crushed Girls, obviously Che Cusa, or
Jumping Bomb Angels, that made this long-lasting impression.
I think more Canadians could talk about Mike Shaw, Mocken Sang, and his other aliases,
and remember the U.S. fans, because again, you guys are so in tune with history, similar

(02:54:33):
to Japanese fans.
I would put Canadian fans just a little, perhaps a slight peg below Japanese fans who don't
go for bullshit or being lied to the way Canadians know, and U.S. is at the way bottom of that
list.
I think we can be led around very easily and have men's try to tell us.
That was the most insulting thing.

(02:54:54):
Like, whatever, the first of the most recent two Charlotte Bianca Belair matches, they
said that the first of the two, just a couple of weeks ago, like two and a half weeks ago,
was their first ever meeting.
No, you remember that one where it was a year and a half ago, right before COVID, Bianca
was really nervous to lock up and she was giving away too much in awe of Charlotte.

(02:55:18):
That match was like two years ago.
Don't tell us these lies that these guys have never faced before, or the usual almost weekly
lies.
They try feeding people, and people should call bullshit on that stuff.
And people should remember Rhonda Singh with the upper tier, upper echelon of folks.
I bet she would have, had she lived, I bet she would have even tried some MMA, and really

(02:55:44):
your boxing, particularly now with the group doing the freak show boxing with retired boxers
or two, like a retired MMA guy and what have you.
Like I've heard Junior Dos Santos wants to box on that thing, so I know Rhonda probably
would have wanted to try that for a good payday.
She might have even been on Fox, Network, celebrity boxing, stuff like that, because

(02:56:10):
she's not a boxer by nature, but she could definitely protect herself.
Yeah, that much is true for sure.
Just as we start to wrap up here, do you have any closing thoughts on Rhonda before I let
you go?
I know we've got a long and the tooth on this one.
Well, we could probably talk more about Rhonda when I bring Sue Green on soon, because she

(02:56:34):
had a lot of inside stories.
Rhonda helped get her through depression.
Rhonda was caring for other people, male and female wrestlers.
She was kind of no-nonsense.
She stood up for herself when she thought she was being shorted on paydays in Puerto
Rico, for example.
It happened once in Mexico and one time only, and she sent those guys straight.

(02:56:56):
I have nothing but utmost respect.
What a great friend she was, putting the wrestling aside.
She could talk about all kinds of other stuff.
She loved comedy.
She loved various genres of music, rock music, again, monster movies and stuff.
Just a really cool person we lost way, way, way too young.

(02:57:18):
I forget now, how old is she when she passed?
She was 40.
That's insane.
Yeah, crazy.
She spent a whole lifetime in the pit.
She really, I mean, she ate, slept.
She was one of those people, 24-hour, 24-7 on wrestling.
That was her life, but she did have other interests.
Wrestling was a predominant one.

(02:57:39):
Great person.
I hope nobody forgets her, particularly those of our friends and family in Canada.
Do not forget Rhonda Singh.
She was one of the greatest and multicultural person who liked to, I think she would have
really shined in this era with Indian Americans and Indian Canadians.

(02:58:01):
I mean, God, I was such a mark for Tiger Cheeke Singh, the original, whenever he'd take on
Sheik.
She wanted to know more about him.
She wanted me to send pictures of Tiger Singh against all kinds of different opponents.
I sent her some shots of him against Ernie Ladd and against Bulldog Don Kent and Igor
and a bunch of other 70s legends.

(02:58:24):
Anyway, she was one of the greats and a really super person, so I hope she will be continued
in people's thoughts and stay there where she belongs.
Now, before we head to the finish of tonight's program, I'm going to play some more classic
wrestling audio.
This comes via WCW, late 90s and during Rhonda Singh's run therein, which kind of illustrates

(02:58:49):
something that Mike had brought up about how Rhonda would take care of people by bringing
in various other items for other wrestlers to use throughout their matches.
So, please enjoy this classic wrestling audio and on the other side, we're going to finish
up tonight's program.
What do you think?
I think I'm going to wear these tights tonight.
What do you think?
The fishnet?
That's great.

(02:59:10):
I think they look nice.
That's awesome.
I think I'll wear with this.
I think we'll try this black and white one.
This one really makes me look sexy.
Oh, yeah, I like it.
I'm wearing it.
Look at this.
I'm wearing it.
Look at this, I think.
And let's see what he thinks.
Oh, that's nice.
You know what?
I think maybe you might look better with the fishnet stockings.
They'll be better for you.
I think I'm going to go with these.
Okay, thanks.
I think they'll look great.
Oh, we're going to look smashing tonight.
It's going to go over.

(02:59:31):
I think it's going to be great.
I like these.
That'd be good.
Good choice.
Thanks.
I think I'm almost done.
I just got to put this thing elastic in my hair and I'm ready to go.
Do you want me to put it on here?
Yes, I do.
You look really good.
Oh, thank you.
There you go.
Thank you.
A little more lipstick and I'm ready to go.
Good work out today.

(02:59:52):
Good work out.
I feel good.
I'm strong.
I'm tough.
All right, before we finish up for tonight, just wanted to once again thank my wonderful
guests that I had on the program today, wrestling dentist Dr. Mike Lano as well as Javier Oist.
Honestly, it was a tremendous conversation with both of them.
I really think that they unearthed some things that need to be heard by wrestling fans, not

(03:00:17):
just Canadian professional wrestling fans, but people who have kind of a misguided or
misconstrued or very skewed view of Ronda Singh.
So I hope that we were able to change some people's minds, open some eyes and kind of
change the narrative regarding Ronda Singh.

(03:00:37):
So I hope that everybody really enjoyed the program.
I hope that you will go out of your way to like, subscribe and share the program.
Most important of all is to share the program with your friends and family.
So while you're on your phone right now, you're probably going through Facebook, you're probably
going through Twitter.
Maybe you're using some other sort of social media device, if you will.

(03:01:01):
Go ahead and let somebody know that you listened to Grappler with Canada, that you learned
a little bit in this program today or conversely, maybe you learned a lot in this program today.
Either way, I hope that you share the program.
I hope you pass it along because it's really helping spread the word about what we're trying
to do here at Grappler with Canada.
Wanted to make mention as well before I get out of here, you can find links to support

(03:01:25):
the show in the link tree link.
I just said link three times in a row, but that's kind of fun.
In the show notes for the episode, so I hope that everybody will take advantage of that.
Your support would mean, listen to me talk, the world to me in bringing you further programming.
I have an incredible amount of ideas for season two, including some tremendous deep dives

(03:01:52):
that we're going to be uncovering some information that is going to shock some people I think
in season two.
Not that we haven't done in season one, but I'm really, really looking forward to that
and it would really mean the world to me to have your guys' support on that.
Once again, use the links in the link tree to help support the show and support myself

(03:02:13):
as well.
I wanted to make mention of another five star review that we had just received in regards
to the podcast.
This one comes from BC Hunter on Podchaser and he leaves a five star review.
He says, Andy's one of the best wrestling historians that Canada has to offer.
All episodes are must listen for any Canadian wrestling fan or wrestling fan in general.

(03:02:35):
BC, I really appreciate that and as everybody else knows, if you leave a five star review,
I do read them out on the next available episode.
Go ahead, whatever podcasting platform that you're using, if you have the option of leaving
a five star rating and review, just know that those reviews will be read live on the air

(03:02:57):
at the next available episode.
I want to make mention as well, you can pick up a shirt to support the show, grapplingwithcanada.threadless.com.
There's a bunch of designs up there and the classic Grappling with Canada logo shirt.
All proceeds of that will be going to support the local Children's Hospital Charity here

(03:03:17):
in Friendly, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
You can contact me at any time on Twitter at 6 underscore podcast.
You can reach me via mail, sixsidepod at gmail.com.
Please note that I respond to everybody and I do read everything, including anything on

(03:03:39):
Twitter, anything like that.
So please feel free to reach out to me.
I'm going to be an upcoming guest on a couple of programs, so please keep it locked to at
six underscore podcast for everything going on with that.
And also wanted to make mention, if you haven't heard it, I suggest that you check out the
Sunday Night Army.
I was on Jacob's show the other month.

(03:04:01):
I was live, uncensored and uncut, if you will.
And that was a lot of fun.
So once again, I want to thank Jacob for having me on that program.
Please make sure after you're done listening to this program, check out the Sunday Night
Army on all major podcast platforms.
So for myself, the tax man for my guests today, Mike Lano and Javier Oist, to all of you,

(03:04:27):
I won't leave you as I usually do because this program is going to be coming out in
November.
Remembrance Day is a big deal for myself and I hope it is for all of you as well.
There were a lot of Canadians who sacrificed everything to give us the country that we
live in today.
And while it's not perfect, by any stretch of the imagination, their sacrifices must

(03:04:51):
be remembered.
And that's something that I take very much to heart every November.
So I'm going to be playing at the last post at the end of this program because it's the
least I can do to show my support for those who gave so much to this country.
So for all that being said, I will however leave you with the closing thoughts as I usually

(03:05:12):
do.
Please take care of yourselves and each other.
Good night everyone.

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Rhonda Singh - The Ascent Of The Monster Ripper, And The Curse Of Bertha Faye

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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;}Rhonda Singh - The Ascent Of The Monster Ripper, And The Curse Of Bertha Faye