The Best Of: Mt. Rushmore!

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
What is up? I'm Velvet Sky.
And I'm Angelina Love. And we are.
The beautiful people. And you're listening to.
Live and in color with Wolfie D.Hey, this is Jimmy St. host of
the Live and in color with Wolfie D podcast.
Here the Life and Times of professional wrestler Wolfie D.
From his time in the territorieswith PG13 to his time in
WWEECWWCWTNA and more. Nothing is off limits and

(00:25):
nothing will be held back. Thanks again for tuning in.
Here he is. Wolfie Hey D Hey y'all Jimmy
here for live and in color with Wolfie D And I just wanted to
say today we don't have a guest.So what we decided to do is go
deep into the archives and bringyou the best of the Mount
Rushmore's. That's right.

(00:45):
We're going with all kinds of former guests.
Trevor Murdoch, Kevin Lawler, somany awesome guests where
they're bringing you their MountRushmore of whatever we ask them
downtown. Bruno did managers.
So that's a little bit of a glimpse into what went on there,
but we definitely appreciate that.
And and the other cool thing is I'm bringing you some clips from
my podcast Give Me Back My Pro Wrestling with my brother from

(01:08):
the same father and mother. The plastic sheet, Jared St. you
know, so many cool guests, Pat Rose, Todd champion, Tommy
Angel, so many cool people. David Isley just heard him on
the Nikita show, the guy who trained Wolfie D, Rick Reynolds.
The cool thing is, is we wrap itall up with Wolfie D's tag team
partner and PG13 Jamie Dunn. So stick around, You'll hear the

(01:32):
Mount Rushmore's from some of our former guests and we thank
you all so much For next week. We'll have a new guest and a new
show. But for now, enjoy these Mount
Rushmore's. We're starting it off with the
boss man himself, live and in color with Wolfie D.
We'll be right back with Wolfie D's Mount Rushmore after these

(01:53):
messages. Hey folks, to get your official
Live It in color with Wolfie D merchandise, go to
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(02:13):
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It's very important to us and always appreciated.
Thanks again. Who is your Mount Rushmore of

(02:37):
wrestling? Put the roadways.
Put Randy Savage. You put Curt.
Henning. And there's some honorable
mention. Rick Rude.
Shoot of. Course, you got to throw flair
in there and again Lawler and. Staying.
I like staying a lot. Give me your Mount Rushmore of
wrestling. You got to throw Harley in

(02:58):
there. I'm going to put Steamboat up
there because he's the only guy that's ever been babyface's
whole career. And like, like, talk about when
when you talk about as a wrestler and you go, well, I
need to learn how to sell and bea babyface.
He's the first name in that dictionary.
And so I think Ricky Steamboat needs to be up there for sure.

(03:20):
Yeah, I think as as much as I, you know, I hate to say it, like
you got to put Vince up there aswell, too, because of the impact
he's had on pro wrestling, the good and the bad.
I'm not going to sit here and bury him the whole time, You
know what I mean? He really, he carried the
business for a long time. And then my 4th one, man, let's

(03:43):
see here. That's a hard one.
It it kind of goes between GustyRhodes and I know people are
going to like, get on to me, butyou guys remember the missing
link? Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah. Dewey, Dewey, brother, you.
Yeah, yeah. You talk about a guy doing a
gimmick and a time when people didn't do gimmicks and

(04:05):
legitimately put fear in people's hearts.
You know what I mean? I know, like it's a random, it
seems like a random name. But I remember as as a young
guy, like the power that that guy had over me when I was
watching him on TV, Like I was just extremely scared of him.
And then, of course, as you get older, you get smartened up to

(04:28):
the business and you get a part of the business and you realize,
like, how good he was for a guy his size and what he what power
he was able to to possess to make me believe in the ring.
Yeah, absolutely. That's awesome.
So I got another question real quick.
So we've got a listener and friend of the show.
He's named the Plastic Sheik forat GM, BM, PW on all the social

(04:52):
medias and he always asked this question.
So I'm going to take it a littlebit into wrestling here.
What is your the Dennis Kelly Mount Rushmore of pro wrestling?
Oh, that's a good one. Well, OK, so got to put on a
taker up there because he's always been like, he's always
been my favorite, you know, kindof to your point, you know, big

(05:16):
tall guy. But, you know, we're still
athletic. We're still able to kind of do
some of these things that kind of, Yeah, I think brought in
his, you know, obviously amazingcareer and kind of really helped
him be special. I'm trying to think.
So I really enjoy Chris Jericho.I think he's done a great job of

(05:40):
continuously evolving and not inin almost in the opposite
fashion, The Undertaker. He continues to change who he is
and still somehow, I mean, not like in the mysterious way Uber
talented, but like is able to make whatever he is at that

(06:00):
time. The best thing there is.
And I think it's I think it's really, really shown these last,
you know, five years or so sincehe left, since he left the WWE.
Then the next to I'm trying you know, it's hard not to put

(06:22):
Austin in there again just you know what he did.
I yeah, I still I can vividly remember.
I think it was the the Smackdownbefore the invasion pay-per-view
and all the alliances is taking over the ring and like Austin's
have been missing. Had kind of been going through

(06:43):
the where he was kind of I thinkhe had just turned heel and was
kind of going with the like the kind of the off brand often.
And then like the glass shattersand he comes in and just clears
house and just how electric the arena was.
Like like it was just one of those things where just a
perfect storm of the character, the music, the moment and and

(07:05):
during his run. And then let's go with him
again. I think I'll I'll guess I'll
I'll go the easy way and I'll say I'll say Hogan again.
What he did. You know, what a different
sport. And for him to be so polarizing

(07:27):
both ways, his two characters like that, I think tells a lot
about what he was able to do character wise, timing wise of,
you know, during the time of wrestling and when pivoted and
and, you know, became Hollywood Hogan.
And just how despised he was andhow he played such a like, even

(07:50):
though he is a was a giant of a man was still able to kind of
play that weasel. And like when he would he'd be
on his knees and he'd be shakinghis head.
You can see the installer just real flopping back and forth
from all the sweat. It was like, I mean, it's, I
mean, I know it's, it's kind of an easy pick, but I think it's
an easy pick for a reason. Exactly.

(08:12):
Right. That was a very good Mount
Rushmore. And people don't realize, man, I
said this, man, Hogan, Hulk Hogan couldn't really work, man.
He only had a couple moves. That's because at that point in
his career, that's all he. Needed if you go.
Back and watch old Hulk Hogan Japan matches and shit.
Hulk Hogan can fucking. Work.
Man. That's.
Right, that's why also when he did switch Hill and like you

(08:35):
just said, he wasn't afraid to beg off and, you know, get on
his knees. No, no, no, no.
You know that type of shit because he could work.
Right. Yeah, right.
Yeah, a lot of big guys now and,and, and shortly, you know, even
then a lot of big guys didn't want to, you know, I'm too big,

(08:55):
I'm too tough. They were going to play tough
guy all the time. That doesn't get a whole lot of
heat, in my opinion. That's why Hogan was able to get
heat, because he was the big guythat was playing a pussy.
You're right, exactly. You're right.
You know, and when he needed to.I'm not saying he played a pussy
all the time, but when he neededto, he knew when to do it.
That's called working. One thing I want to ask you, and
this is kind of a patented question that my brother asks,

(09:18):
and so it's the plastic chic patented Mount Rushmore of pro
wrestling question. So I would love to know you
being, like I said, the son of one of the greatest of all time.
I want to hear your Mount Rushmore of pro wrestling.
Gosh, you mean, you know, I, I, I had told my dad one time that

(09:44):
he should like draw like a, a Mount Rushmore thing of a
wrestling and do like like several different versions of
it, you know, to where, you know, because when you think
about it, man, you know, there'sdefinitely like a Memphis Mount
Rushmore and whatever. But gosh, I mean, just in
general, when you can only have like, I mean, what is that four

(10:04):
guys or five guys or where that's on Mount Rushmore?
Yeah. Whatever, you know, I mean, I
mean, you definitely have to sayHulk Hogan and I would I would
say you have to say Andre the Giant.
And then after that, like, gosh.Do you put your dad on there?

(10:26):
Really. With the jeopardy now.
Well, I mean like I personally would, you know, but as far as
like, you know, you know, to in court, you know, I think.
You just you hold back because it is your dad.
I think you hold. Back No, I mean I just I just
kind of look at it like, you know, just more from this like a

(10:48):
like a national I mean audience,you know which which you know a
lot more of them knowing knowingnow and that's that's one thing
that always kind of kind of bothered me is like, you know,
is that you know he's outlasted everybody really and like the
WWE, they never really treated him on the same level that they
always did the other legends like they always, you know,

(11:11):
really put dusty over and reallyput Piper over and like kissed
all those guys asses and he's outlasted all of them.
You know, not only just still being alive, but still being in
the ring and all that, all that kind of kind of stuff.
I mean, I personally would I just huh, that's it.
That's why you got to put him onthere, yeah.

(11:32):
Yeah, You know, that's what we want.
We want your personal. You don't have to make a Nat,
you know, because I, I know there's that argument of like,
OK, well, popular opinion, StoneCold, Hulk Hogan, Andre
Undertaker, something like that.I want to know Kevin Lawler's
personal so. Oh.
Man. So Andre, Hope you got two more.
Well, if it's if it's my personal, I wouldn't even I

(11:54):
wouldn't put Andre on there. Like my personal.
I would probably put like man, my personal would probably have
like Ultimate Warrior on there. OK.
The Road Warriors and stuff likethat.
I love it. Gosh, yeah.
I mean, I would. I would.
I would. I would put my dad on there, you
know, not just because he's my dad at all, but really because,

(12:18):
gosh, I mean, I really feel likehe is the most realistic, you
know, wrestler ever, you know, like, I mean, and I was just
watching somebody just posted and I was watching this this
video is like that one loser league town match with him in
Dundee. And it's like, you know, his his
matches was like watching a a rocky movie back in the day.
I mean, like, you know, the punches, the I mean, everything

(12:41):
was so believable because, you know, he was one of the few
guys, if not probably the only guy who, you know, like so many
guys just take that same bump. You know, like Dundee always has
that roll bump or, or Stan Lane or so many guys just take a
classic bump and no matter what happens to him, they take that
same bump to where my dad, his bump was based off what what

(13:06):
happened in the, and how much impact was involved with, you
know, Yeah, you know, and, and it just made it seem so much
more or, you know, real and, andthings like that, you know, and
I've heard that loud. And I think Raven, it's so many
people, you know, will say, oh man, he's just the absolute, you
know, best there ever was. And, and, and I, I mean, I

(13:30):
really, you know, feel that way,you know, despite him being my
dad or anything like that, It's just, you know, his, his, you
know, just the whole body language of, of all of it, you
know, from a, from a giving and receiving end is, is just so
much more believable than, you know, most guys.
Absolutely, absolutely. Can you give me the mount?

(13:54):
And this is not normally the question I ask on this show,
although I've been doing it lately.
But what? What is the the Tennessee Mount
Rushmore of tag teams? Of Tennessee.
Yeah, of Tennessee. Are you you're going OK, so so
we're talking to Tennessee, we're talking fairgrounds too or
we're just talking about like our.

(14:14):
Independent. Just Tennessee.
Absolutely any of it. Whatever you want.
I I can, I can all right. So mine get them out.
Rushmore you got Rock'n'roll Express, Midnight Express golly.
And there's more than more than 4.
That's OK, you can have fine. You got moons, you got the moon

(14:35):
dogs. I remember the sheepherd has
come through. Yeah, and I know I'm leaving
some out, but I mean. There's so many of this.
I know, I'm, I know I'm beating the dead horse here, man, but
I'm going to tell you I've got to put some fist in with Dante
on there myself. Love it.
Yeah, that's awesome. I agree.
I agree. I I would say here's mine.
I would go with Jackie and Don Fargo on that.

(14:57):
OK, you got the fabulous one to Rock'n'roll Express Midnight
Express, which they're kind of, they were more North Carolina,
I'm thinking, because hey, you know you got to throw PG 13 in
your Mount Rushmore, right? You don't have to stop it, you.
Probably will be. Oh man, But yeah, I thought that

(15:21):
would be fun. Well, I'm going to throw the
wild boys in there too. How about that?
We'll get them. Oh wow, right.
And we're. Getting about that, we're
getting about that old to be putup on the big rock somewhere.
So, so I've got a I've got a question and I think every one
of our listeners would love to hear the answer that you have
for this. Is it, You know, obviously if

(15:42):
you had like, let me just say, you know, Earl Hebner, Tommy
Young, Charles Robinson, Jerry Calhoun, you know, Nick Patrick,
whatever. Mount Rushmore of referees If
you had to pick, who would you say you're?
Mount Rushmore of referee? In other words, I'm supposed to
pick four of us because there's four on Mount Rushmore.
Correct. Yes, Sir.

(16:04):
Well, I don't want to get myselfin trouble, naturally, but I
would say they would probably have to be #1 of course, Earl
Hebner, David, too. David did that match between
Steamboat and Randy. It's a big, big wrestle Mania,
3-1 in Detroit, where I'm from. That building is no longer

(16:26):
there. You know, where they had the
87,000 or 90 or whatever the hell it was.
God, it would have been nice to have had that match.
And they work David to death. So I would guess Earl, David and
oh gosh, Robbie, Mike, Kyota, Calhoun, you can't, you can't

(16:49):
forget David Manning in Texas. He was a fixture there.
David, David's a good guy. And Bill Alfonso was good.
Bill's still around. He's he's, I think he's still
with us. And he was good.
There were so many. So, but to narrow it down to
four that that would be difficult to do, I would say the

(17:12):
Hebner's, the Charles Robinson and my Kyota.
I love it. That's a great.
And if there's a little room, you could stick me in the corner
somewhere, you know? I love that.
Well, we're going to stick you in the George Washington spot,
but we'll go on from that. You're very kind.
Wolfie D Since you are a Memphistag team expert, give us your

(17:36):
Mount Rushmore of Memphis tag teams.
Memphis tag teams Memphis tag team.
And you can, you can, he didn't say this, but I mean, I'm saying
you could, you can be your own tag team if.
You want to? I'm just going to say, OK,
that's a four, right? That's not even a top five.
So that's a. Four.
Yeah, Four. Yeah, this might make a great

(17:59):
episode, actually, but never mind.
Fabulous ones. And this is in no particular
order, OK, cuz this is Mount Rushmore.
I don't think they're in an order there.
They you know, right, left or right maybe, but no.
Sure. No, no, there's no order.
Yeah. Fabulous ones.
I'm gonna say Lower Dundee. Yeah.

(18:21):
Even though they had their matches against each other,
people still remember them as a team too.
Oh, definitely. And tag teams though, man,
there's so many. I guess you got to go with
Rock'n'roll, even though they were more to me, they were more
Carolina area. Carolina or even a little more

(18:43):
mid South, they never really gotthere, there, there, yeah.
So I might retract that one. I still got 2 left.
And I will put us in there. Fuck it, I will put us in there.
I think we at the time we were needed and we did our job and it
helped. And people remember that.
And as far as the best team of the 1990s in Memphis, without a

(19:08):
question, yeah, PD 13, without question.
Yeah. Definitely.
So Moon Dogs does say Moon Dogs already.
No, you didn't, but that's an excellent one.
Yeah, that was going to be my next one.
Then Moon Dogs. Yeah, bro, because they they
drew big money with Lawler and Jeff and the whole, you know,
had their own battle royal and moon dog rules and all this kind

(19:29):
of stuff. So I mean, yeah.
And if I went way back, which you know, you know, me, I'm not,
I'm not that good at the way back, but I'm sure there was
some good ones. But when I think tag teams, I
think tandem, I think two guys that dress alike and, and and
that kind of thing. And Lawler and Dundee didn't,
but they did, you know what I'm saying?
So, so that's, that's I think that's fine.

(19:51):
I'll, I'll go with that. Yeah, OK.
I like that a lot. I like that a lot.
OK, All right. So I and I agree with you.
I I don't think you can. What about Don and Al Green?
I can't say I've ever watched a match with Don and Al Green.
I'm sure it was great, but you asked me my opinion, right?
That's the ass Wolfie, right? Right, the OG heavenly bodies

(20:12):
right there. So you gotta, you know, throw
that in there. But you know, I mean, I agree.
The Fabs are they? The Fabs really had their best
run ever in wrestling in Memphis, and I think every one
of them would agree with. I was, I was like a kid then and
I remember just how how over it was, you know what?
I'm yeah, definitely in Lawler Dundee, you cannot overlook and

(20:33):
that most of the time their tag team was to fulfill a single
story, you know, where it would work out, where they would have
a problem or whatever. But then also PG, you guys, you
guys essentially were the fabs of your time.
And I, I know people are just like, what is he saying?
Are you right? But whatever man, that's I.

(20:54):
Mean. But really, I mean, yeah, maybe
the the houses weren't as big, but for that time and what their
business was going through rightthen, it it was kind of the same
because it was different then. You know, I would love to have
Randy Hales back on and you know, they're they're coming up
on this episode on on Vice wherethe rocks new thing is he's

(21:15):
doing the end of WCW or whatever.
I would love to talk to Randy about how all the things that
Memphis did to combat the Mondaynight wars on Monday night in
Memphis. I would love, I would love to
hear that full story. And and maybe, you know, we
could have more people than Randy, but it'd be cool to
listen to Randy talk about what,you know, that they were y'all

(21:37):
were up against because they were getting it free at home and
they didn't have to come out. But the ones that came out, man,
Can you imagine how much they loved y'all?
Yeah, and, and they did. And I mean, the houses were
still pretty damn good, man. Thinking about it roughly, just
at the top of my head since you caught me with this question.
Bobby Heenan. Jim Cornette.

(22:01):
Paul Heyman. Now, let me give some thought to
#4 because that, that without doubt, Heyman, we're the same
age. We're, you know, we came up
together, whatever. And, you know, of course we were
both competing for a top spot inMemphis back in the 80s.
So, yeah, we weren't even friends back then.
I love him now. We're like best friends.
But back then we were two young guys in our 20s fighting for a

(22:22):
position. But yeah, Heyman and Haman and
Cornett, in no particular order,or three of the four now #4 it's
I'm not God, let me. I mean, I don't know.
I mean, there's Jimmy Hart. I mean, Jimmy's right there.
I'm going to go out on a limb, OK?

(22:43):
I love Gary Hart, but I know he's not in the Mount Rushmore.
In a realistic Mount Rushmore. I'm almost going to say scary
Sherry. Sherry Martel.
I would say Jimmy Hart over. You're right.
No, Jimmy Hart, I was going to say, and he's a dear friend of
mine. The only reason he didn't just
pop out to me and there's no bullshit is I see him on almost

(23:03):
a monthly basis because we do this together.
So I was thinking about guys that I hadn't seen.
That's the truth. Yeah, Jimmy Jeffrey, Jimmy's the
one that paved the way from me and everybody else and the
necessary. But I was thinking about other
guys, like, like blew a band over the ship.
He took away from matches. Pretty blast.

(23:24):
He was, God bless him. He was a great talker and great
heel. But he was there mainly because,
you know, he was a loyal person to the WWE, the McMahon, which
is they're very loyal to the people that are loyal to them.
Thank God. Oh man, to me it's Midnight
Express comes in probably right with Rock'n'roll.

(23:47):
I mean, they're, it's, it's neckand neck.
I'm not going to say 1's above the other.
It's Mount Rushmore. They're they're all kind of
blended in. Yeah.
So if, if we're doing tag teams,I mean, it's two guys each, but
it's 4 total. So we're doing 4 total teams.
Yeah, yeah, do four. Yeah, on the.
On the Mount Rushmore. We'll crowd him on that hill,

(24:08):
yeah. Road warriors probably going to
be right mixed in there as well.And then I always loved watching
ARN and Tolly work together too.I, I, I think it, it was so good
just watching and whoever you know, they were in the ring with
who they're always trying to make look like 1,000,000 bucks
similar to midnight. So for me that's that's probably

(24:30):
the four I would throw on on thelist.
That's that's an incredible 4. Yeah.
If you could create the Memphis wrestling microphone, Mount
Rushmore, who would be on it? Meaning, who were the best on
the microphone? Yeah, Talkers.
Man, there's a lot really AustinIda was really good, Handsome

(24:53):
Jimmy was good. He, you know, when I think of
people on the mic, it's for me it's more of a that get you
pumped up, make you want to buy a ticket, you know what I mean?
And I mean, of course, the Lawler, Dundee Dutch.
Your partner. Yeah, Jamie was good.
I mean. I mean, Jimmy, Jimmy Hart was

(25:13):
great on the mic back. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
I mean, my brother was good on there.
I mean, you know, building DI mean so many really were so good
at. I mean, if you you know, and all
I say, if you think of the Saturday morning Memphis, the
wrestling show, the the the in studio wrestling part was really

(25:33):
like the worst part of it. I mean, because this is always
good job guys stuff, or even if it was major guys, I mean they
didn't go along. They just kind of, you know, ho
hummed around or whatever. But the meat and potatoes of
that show was when they would show highlights from the from
Monday night at the Coliseum. And really just the the
personalities and the promos andany kind of altercation that
happened at the desk was really the at the wrong point of the

(25:55):
TV. For sure.
I mean, because you were settingup for, you didn't have a month
to set up for a pay-per-view or whatever.
You had, you know, a couple daysto set up for Monday.
You know. And, and, and it all acts about,
I mean, it's somebody was just talking about this.
Literally just, I think yesterday I was talking to
somebody about this is that you really only had one day because
it's not like you even have social media.

(26:16):
So you just had battery. There was not you.
There was nothing you could do on Sunday and nothing you could
do on Monday to help help push. It was just Saturday and that
was it. Yeah, that's true.
Good point. But that's yeah, As far as
narrowing it down, man, that'd be hard.
I don't want Kevin. So it's, it's called Ask Kevin
anything. I know you said round tables.
We've thrown it out there, so we'll let him chisel away and

(26:38):
the four there. Tell us the four.
Man, gosh, I mean the real, I mean the top four.
I would have to probably say my dad and I would say I would put
Jimmy hard on there and gosh, I you know, probably Austin Idol
and I I don't know, I would probably say Bill Andy over say

(26:59):
a a Jimmy Valiant or, you know, one of those other kind of guys.
But but I had to say Dutch wouldprobably be like the next guy in
line after after those kind of guys.
But. Runner up, Yeah.
Definitely. I mean, Dutch is so quick.
And maybe even Jackie Fargo, youknow, I mean, he, he, he, you
know, he was one of the kind of guys that was anytime they
brought him in for something, his promo was going to be, you

(27:22):
know, designed to, you know, just really kind of, you know,
fire you up and all that kind ofstuff.
Yeah. I mean, when it came to firing
up Wolfie D wasn't bad at that man.
Well. When it comes up, when it comes
to firing up, you have to include Tommy Rich.
You know, I got fired up, of course.
If I said something about it, you.
Have to. I mean Eddie Gilbert.
Oh, yeah, man, Eddie, I, I mean,like, yeah, I, I can't even

(27:44):
believe that Eddie slipped my mind, but I don't have to.
Probably. Hey, I almost probably have to
put Eddie up there and instead of Bill.
Really. Yeah, I think so.
Yeah. That's a good one.
But Bill had that accent, man. Part of that, you know, was the
fire and the accent. And you put it together and it
just sounds. I want to listen to more of
that, you know, and that kind ofstuff.
But. It was good, but but I don't

(28:05):
know, there was Bill. Bill had a certain kind of a
personality in a way that could just kind of you just sometimes
kind of be all over the place orsomething to where like Eddie
could be more focused on to the point about, you know, whatever
it was he was talking about. Yeah, let's take a quick timeout

(28:26):
and get a word from one of my dope ass sponsors and we'll be
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(29:33):
Give me your like Mount Rushmoreof wrestling, like your top four
or five favorite wrestlers of all time.
Each one of you. Yeah, OK.
Of all time. Lynn Rossi, Tojo Yamamoto,
Gentleman, Saul Weingroff, BobbyHart and Frankie Kane.
Man, that's awesome. That's.
All right, Bam, bam, bam. Well, I tell you, I'm going to

(29:56):
echo what Tommy said. Echo.
That was in my line. Everyone he just mentioned the
Lynn was the reason why. I got in this business, yeah,
Tojo a good friend. Everyone of them, to me is going
to be the greatest. Yeah, and that's awesome.
Those are great guys. And I tell you what, a lot of
people say you things like your Hulk Hogan's, but those are the

(30:17):
guys that made the business, that paved the path for guys
like. Yeah.
Exactly. They paved the way for your Hulk
Hogan's. Yeah, absolutely, Absolutely.
I love that. I'm tired, Ben.
So my question that I think let's me get to know you, let's
the audience get to know you a little bit.

(30:37):
If you had your Mount Rushmore of professional wrestlers, the
people have influenced you or your favorites or whatever, if
you give me like 4 or five namesof who would be on your list?
OK, I've got, I've really got 2 sets because I had really like
two different, two different wrestling lives in my, you know,
in my lifetime. And to go from being a kid and

(30:59):
watching, I would have to say Jackie Fargo, Bill, Bill Dundee,
Eddie Gilbert and Ric Flair. That's my, that's my big time,
all time. And then I have to go to my
local, you know, my Tennessee. Wrestling roots and the number
one guy on that's got to be Tommy Higgins.

(31:21):
I love you man. Without him, I mean, he, he's
done so much for me in my career.
And then you got to go with Gypsy Joe.
Yeah. And then I heard the podcast
today, Mr. George Linegraff, talk about talk about somebody
smooth to work. And just I, I don't know, just.
Such a great wrestler. Dangerous.

(31:42):
Man too. You don't.
You don't get on his wrong time,Yeah.
Yeah, yeah. It's so gentle of a dangerous of
a killer. I'm just kidding, man.
You really? He was one of those.
Everybody knew you don't piss George off.
I had some great matches with George.
But yeah, I had to mention thosein my in local, you know,

(32:04):
Independence in Tennessee. I cut you off.
Did you have one more or you said?
I didn't admit is. I got about a million more
honorable mentions. You know, you got OK, Joe Cagle,
Jeff Daniels, You can just go down the line.
You know, you got Shane Morton, Rick Reynolds.
Yeah. We're just Tennessee is so rich

(32:27):
and talented wrestlers and you know, we we all can't make it
and be the big stars, right? But I'll tell you, if you lived
in Tennessee back in the in the 80s, seventies, 80s, nineties,
you could go within 50 miles of your house any which way and
find a good wrestling. Show if you could have a Mount
Rushmore of your all time favorite or just the all time

(32:51):
wrestlers to you. They could be impacted your
life, your favorite, or just people you like to watch.
Or it could just be your opinionof who's the best.
And you could even have a fifth one, four to five of your top
wrestlers of all time. But just after being in the
business or just like growing up, who I thought are.
Just all of it. All of it, man, All of it.

(33:11):
Any or all? Yeah.
Big influence on my career made me want to be a professional
wrestler was, believe it or not,Ken Mantel when he was the world
junior heavyweight champion. Yes.
Ted Dibiase's got to go in there.
Ted's one of the best workers that was ever in this business.
Yeah, absolutely. Ricky Morton.

(33:35):
Oh yeah. Good, true close friend of mine.
I love Ricky to death, but he isthis business personified.
Yes, he is. And then, just because I love
him, superstar Billy Graham. OK, OK.
That's awesome, man. That's a great mount, Rushmore.

(33:55):
So Rushmore belts and Oh my gosh, you know, I'm going to the
first one's easy because it's the answer always give when it
you know, I've told you the the main guy responsible before I do
this, but the main belt that wasresponsible for me getting into
this business was the let's see.It ran from about late 1981,

(34:19):
this particular version, until about 1989, and it was the AWA
Southern Heavyweight Championship from Memphis.
Oh, dude, that's a beautiful bell.
Beautiful. It is, yeah.
And these days everybody thinks it's got to be a foot tall and
it's got to have 1500 CCS on it,you know, and it's got to shine

(34:41):
like a diamond in a goat's ass. But I'm going to tell you
something. When you walked into the
Colosseum back in the days before I could talk my dad into
getting me down into the Lozier on the floor, you can walk up
into those cheap seats in the Colosseum and that spotlight
would hit that belt. It might as well have been a
foot tall and it might as well have had 1000 CVS on it because
it's you could see that belt from anywhere in the Mid South

(35:04):
Colosseum. Yes, and it.
Gorgeous, yes. And I and and I and it and it's
it's always going to be my number one because I wouldn't
have ever started doing this without it.
Yeah, yeah. So Oh my gosh.
All right. So we'll go from that to this is

(35:25):
going to be easier than the thanthe guys.
We'll go from that to the 10 lbsof gold.
Yeah. No, but.
We'll go from the 10 lbs of goldto the big goal.

(35:45):
OK. The original The original 1.
Right. Sitting about 35 minutes from my
house right now, that one. Oh, oh, don't tell me that,
Dave. Oh my God.
Some of the copies were, you know, the copies were nice and
the follow-ups and the WWE versions and the whatever, but
that original belt that was handcrafted out of sterling

(36:09):
silver and overlaid in gold, that Crumb Rhyme belt is one of
the kind. And you know, nothing.
There's some beautiful copies out there, but there's only one
real 1. So we'll go with that one and
then we're going to get a littlemore personal.
And even though it didn't originate with me, God knows

(36:30):
I've done more than anybody else.
The, the we mentioned Hogan and we mentioned Brett and I
probably should have mentioned Sean somewhere in the middle of
all that. But the, the winged eagle
championship belt that they callit, which I always said that
name would never catch on. By the way, when it was first
somebody first started standing a little over 20 years ago.
All eagles have wings. Well, boy, was I wrong because

(36:54):
you know my royalty when they sent me my royalty report,
winged eagle, winged eagle, winged eagle.
But that was a, that was a Reggie Parks specialty and
Reggie considered it not just his, but our signature belt.
And I say that because even Reggie needed I, I, I ultimately

(37:15):
needed more of them than he did.And you know, as the, as the
collector market grew, especially and all that.
So I think, I think that would be, that would be it.
I'm leaving off 100 belts that Ilove.
But you know, that's why it's a Rushmore, right?
So right. That's right.
So a little segue question, if Ican promise to delay this after

(37:37):
WrestleMania, will we see another winged eagle coming soon
maybe? Oh.
My gosh. Well, you know, as much as the,
the honest to God truth is, you know, as much as I know, I, I
have been so tempted to, I haven't talked to Cody in a
couple years, but I get so tempted to text Cody and be
like, hey, man, any, any, any chance.

(37:58):
And the truth is I haven't, I haven't heard a word.
And my last communication with WWE was an e-mail on Sunday
night about some other business.So I haven't heard a word.
Nobody said anything to me. So.
You know. And it would have to be me
legally. So.
So that's the truth. I, I, I guess if I was being
coy, then you could say read something into it.

(38:20):
But the the truth is, there's been zero communication with me
about it. Yeah, it's such a beautiful
belt. What is your like Mount Rushmore
of pro wrestlers? Well, one of my top that I just,
I was always a hill fan growing up.
I always liked the hills, you know.
So, you know, it was just to me,Ric Flair back in the day, I

(38:43):
mean, he was just, you know, that man, you know that he said
it many times to be the man. You got to beat the man.
He was the man for me when I wasa when I was a kid coming up,
you know, it was like, you didn't get much better than Rick
Flair. Another one.
And I know everybody's going to say, oh, he said that because
he's kin to a Ricky Morton man to be a baby face.

(39:05):
If you wanted to learn to be a baby face, watch Ricky.
Watch Ricky and this is probablya surprise to a lot of people.
Lawler, Lawler, man, to me, Lawler, you didn't get much
better than Lawler in Memphis then back in the day.
And and I guess my favorite, youknow, Flair.

(39:29):
Flair was really good back in the day but my favorite per SE.
Local regional kind of person, but he went on to be worldwide
to Eddie Gilbert. Man, I love Eddie Gilbert.
Yeah, yeah. He just, he was so way ahead of
his time and man, he just had a mind and and it just some of the

(39:52):
stuff, you know, they did in Memphis.
I know they took turns sharing the books or whatever, but a lot
of that great stuff, the feud with Lawler, Eddie come up with
most of that, you know, it was just, he was an awesome,
awesome, awesome individual. We do a series on air, our show
here randomly that we'll be like, what if?
And we want to do a deep dive ofwhat if, you know, Eddie had not

(40:15):
passed and where he would have landed and what he would have
ended up. I mean, honestly, I would see
him being a big time executive at one of the major companies
today, you know, if he can standit, you know.
Yeah. Yeah, my wild card fifth one
would be Barry Windham. I thought he was always

(40:36):
underrated. Barry Windham was he was great.
You. Know very, very underrated,
yeah, very underrated and very talented and just so it looks so
easy to him, you know what I mean?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, everything he did just
looked so smooth. And you know, he was, and you
know, some people may say differently that worked him.

(40:58):
I never had the opportunity to work him, but man, he just
looked so smooth in the ring. Everything he did just looked
like it was just spot on. And it's like, wow, you know, so
he was in. He would be my wild card.
Or my fifth person you know. Yeah, yeah.
That's that's awesome. I love those pics, man.
It's, you know, Eddie Gilbert, you know, as as little as I

(41:20):
remember, but I do remember watching him when I was growing
up. But I always was, you know,
thought he was a great talent out there.
And Barry Windham, he's he's just great.
And the, the, the first three you had, they're, they're
legendary in my mind. So if anybody doesn't like those
three, they need to tune into a different show.

(41:43):
People may disagree with you on flair right now, you know, but
back in the day, flair, late 70s, eighties, even early 90s,
you couldn't get much better than.
Flair, you know? He drew money.
He drew big money. Yeah, that.
That's the goal, right? Drawing money.
I mean, that's the goal, yeah. That's right.

(42:03):
I had Flair and Hogan in my list.
So people want to disagree with that.
I mean, but Hogan was so instrumental when I was.
I was a kid of the 80s. So, you know, Hogan's not the
greatest worker of all time, buthe just was.
If it wasn't for Hulk Hogan, like, I wouldn't have been the
fan I am of wrestling. I mean, yeah, that's why I have
my list. But you know, people disagree
with that for reasons, but that's OK too you.

(42:24):
Know Hogan was not the great worker that, you know, by no
means Hogan knew how to market himself.
Sometimes you just got to know how to market yourself and make
yourself look better and the people that you're in the ring
with make you look better. And Hogan was a mastermind, a
mastermind of, of marketing himself and making himself look

(42:47):
good and doing all the right things.
And, and you're right, as far asmoney, he was one of the biggest
straws for money wise, you know,because, well, it was just to
take say your prayers, eat your vitamins and all that and just
spell in the mainstream. And, you know, Cyndi Lauper
comes along and then he really helped bring wrestling into the

(43:08):
mainstream that it is today. You know, without Hogan, I
don't, I don't think you would have.
I think it would still be big, but I don't think it would have
been mainstream, you know, like it like it was in the 80s
without him in it. Totally agree with that.
If you had like four or five, like a Mount Rushmore of
wrestlers of all time, your favorite, what would that be?

(43:31):
You know, I, I listen to your podcast also, so I knew this was
coming. Thank you.
They the the very first one on my list would be the Mongolian
Stomper. And the reason it would be the
Mongolian Stomper was when I wasa kid, I used to have dreams.
I, I grew up in East Tennessee and I had dreams about wrestling

(43:56):
the Mongolian Stomper and I got to see him several times live.
Never met the man, always wantedto, always wanted to work once I
got in the business, but never had the opportunity.
My very first one would be the Mongolian Stomper.
My my second one would be RonnieGarvin and I went and watched

(44:20):
him and Boris Milenko. They had a few Knox and I
watched them and I absolutely loved.
I drove different towns just to watch that feud of Ronnie Garvin
and I got to meet Ronnie Garvin at the Gulf Coast Wrestlers
reunion down in Mobile, AL and he and I got to talk about the

(44:43):
feud and, and so I have ultimaterespect for Ronnie Garvin.
I think my third would be NikitaKoloff.
OK. Nikita and IA few years ago, got
to spend a lot of time together and I actually got to take the

(45:06):
Russian sickle a few times and, and we traveled a lot and we, we
talked Jesus and you know, he's a minister now also and hear his
stories and just to talk with him and spend time with him.
It, it helped me grow as a man and, and my walk with God.

(45:28):
He, he was really strong and influential in that.
And I, I was thinking about my last one and I started going
through, you know, that there's several people that, that I was
going to put in there. You know, I was thinking about
Shane Morton and I love Shane Morton and we've been, you know,
friends for 30 years, you know, and I go through and of all the

(45:53):
great guys, I've had something to, you know, to do with their
life or them with me and I wanted to put them in and I, I
thought about it hard and long. There's a lot of great
wrestlers. I've I've wrestled.
I I think it's just good as anybody out there.
Scott Spade up in Chicago, roughcrossing, you know, those guys.

(46:15):
Eric Freedom out of Michigan, Heand I had great matches together
And I, I've decided to put in the fourth spot with somebody
that allowed me to love wrestling again because at one
point in my life, and we'll get into it, is that I, I was going
to step away. And his name is Jimmy Blaze, and

(46:38):
he's the owner of Pile Entertainment out of Chicago.
OK, very cool. Yeah, I noticed him on your
list. Quite a bit of of work, guys,
you've worked. So, you know, I did a little
research myself and that's a cool name.
I like that. We'll check him out for sure.
Listeners, go check out Jimmy Blaze.
That's awesome. Yeah, that's a great list.
Yeah, very original too, you know, because there's two

(47:00):
Canadians, a Minnesota Russian and an indie guy.
You got to love that. And now a word from our sponsor.

(47:22):
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(47:44):
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All right, Tommy, so this is a question if you had like a Mount
Rushmore of wrestlers, give us like your top four or five guys.

(48:09):
Yeah, that's a, that's a tough one to pinpoint down there.
There's so many obviously the influence for me just to get me
interested in the business. I was in the military at the
time and we'd watch wrestling onthe weekends.
We it was a world class wrestling with the Von Erichs
and we also see Hogan on the other networks.
So those those are that's what intrigued me about getting into

(48:32):
business. Just those two guys, Kerry Von
Eric and Hogan, but just I was deciding if I want to get out in
the military or or stay in and wrestling with it.
So I just Gene League and another guy from the same era I
was, we we met him down in Fayetteville to Cumberland
County Arena and he's like, hey,there's a wrestling school

(48:52):
getting ready to open up that N.W.A is going to do.
And we're connected to dots, made some calls and, you know,
four months later, we're on television.
But the, the, the camp was rightthere in Mooresville and it was
with Nelson Royal and Gene Anderson.
We had to try out with a 20 someguys, but so working out with
Nelson and Gene, those two guys obviously influenced me the most

(49:13):
because Gene was a heel, Nelson was a babyface.
So you got the best of both worlds training, use the
psychology of the business. So I'd say Nelson and Gene for
sure. Working wise, very Windham and I
probably had the best matches with my my career working with
them guys. I work with them many times in
house shows and TV and just justgreat guys and they always gave

(49:36):
me a lot because they trust me. So it made me look like
$1,000,000. Yeah, yeah.
That's incredible. Wow.
I mean, that's that's yeah, that's the Mount Rushmore of
Mount Rushmore's right there. So.
We haven't we haven't heard enough of any of those guys,
honestly. You know, obviously we heard a
lot of Hogan, but you know, suchgood Curt Henning.

(49:58):
I mean, they so, so underrated. I think in in his time after,
you know, when, when he was in the WWF and everything like
that. You know, a lot of people
remember his later stuff, but you know he was working for a
good while before that too, so. Yeah, I remember seeing him in
the AWA and yeah. And just just a great heel.
He was. He just betrayed that smug air.

(50:21):
He guy fans hated him. Yeah, that's so good.
You know, I noticed a lot of second generation stars on that
list as well, you know, so that's that tells you a lot.
You know, a guy that did it likeyou did it and you're noticing
the talents and and stuff of these guys.
I mean, you know, to me, I I don't know, it's a great list
and and definitely some of thoseguys we do not hear or talk

(50:44):
about enough. So that was a very appreciative.
All right, David, so give me your like top four or top five
like a Mount Rushmore of professional wrestlers.
You know, that's a great question.
And look, looking back over the time, you know, I'm going to
kind of date myself a little bitbecause of, you know, because of
where I'm at in, in life now. But you know, when I was growing

(51:06):
up, you know, if I had to look at the the my top five rush
Mount Rushmore's at the time, definitely would have been a a
Wahoo McDaniel, a a Jack Jack Briscoe, definitely a blackjack
Mulligan, probably a Mr. Wrestling, Tim Woods.
And, you know, and you have to have, you know, you have to have

(51:27):
the Nature Boy, Ric Flair in there as well.
You know, those were probably some of the guys that I looked
up to when, you know, when I wasstarting out and I just breaking
into the wrestling business. But you know, there's just so
many more names that were that influenced me over the years.
But that's that's a few off the top of my head that I can

(51:47):
remember that, you know, that really, because you have to
understand guys, when I was coming through, we didn't, you
know, we didn't have the Internet back then.
We didn't have, we didn't have cable television till till later
on in the 80s. So when I was a kid growing up,
all I was able to get was Mid-Atlantic Championship
wrestling with Bob Caudle and, you know, Rich Landrum and David

(52:08):
Crockett. And then, and sometimes on
Saturday mornings, if I turn to my rabbit ears just right, I
could probably get a little bit of the Fuller's program out of
Tennessee. Yeah, yeah.
What a list, man. That's a great list.
And when you got Wahoo McDaniel on there, man, that's we, that's
a that's a great that's a great start to it, man.
It's a awesome list. All right, Pat, so this question

(52:31):
right here is designed to kind of let the audience get to know
you and your influences and to let us get to know you.
But if you had like four or fivewrestlers that you could say
you're on, you're like Mount Rushmore of best wrestlers or
who would they be? You know, it's funny, I had, I'd
done an interview last week witha podcast, big podcast got here

(52:51):
in Chattanooga. And that was the first question
he asked. Oh man.
Man, I've got to go with Terry Funk, Ric Flair one more, right?
One or two. You can have two if you need it.
Let me have. And these are these are tag

(53:12):
teams. Midnight Express Rock'n'roll.
Oh my gosh man, you might have just that.
Might just be the list. I might not need to ask that
question anymore. Yeah, I think, I think we got
the one you just broke. That you just broke that
question. I believe you know what I.
Never got to work with Harley orTerry Funk and I've had Terry on

(53:34):
my show or a radio show. Seth Hook.
Pat Rose. And had him on a couple.
Couple times man and I love thatguy.
I hate he passed away but we allgot a transition.
But what a super guy and Harley Race was always, always.
One of my. Favorite wrestlers?

(53:56):
The way he moved it was so, so methodical and smooth and and he
didn't rush and the guy was great.
Really was. He really was.
You know the Funker too, man, I tell you he, well, he's one of
my favorites of all time as well.
But he's just so funny, especially when you get him on a
show. I'm sure you noticed that when
you had him on your show. It's just hilarious, man, you

(54:19):
know? Yeah, he is, He is.
And I was lucky man. I got to hang out with with Dory
Junior over in Puerto Rico and got the norm really good and,
and talk to him a lot And, and through that, you know, I got
introduced to Terry when we was doing WCW and he was a, you

(54:40):
know, mountain or whatever. Yeah.
And just just a super guy. That's awesome.
All right, Todd. So four or five wrestlers,
they're on your like Mount Rushmore of wrestling.
Who would that be? Mount Rushmore Wrestling, that's
a good. There's a lot of dudes out there
that could be on that, but you said only only got 5.

(55:02):
Yeah, you can have, you can havesix.
Yeah, whatever, whatever you. Need man.
Probably Ric Flair. Yeah, OK.
I'd say ARN Anderson. Oh man, love it.
I love it. AA is one of my favorite of all
time so. Yeah, I love ARN to death, and

(55:22):
that's a funny dude too. And then I would probably say
Ricky the Dragon, Steamboat and,and I'm using these guys because
these guys I worked with and I know there's others in different
companies, but these are the guys that I I worked with
probably I would say Terry Gordy.

(55:45):
Oh yeah, a bruiser. I love it, Yeah.
Terry and I were taxing partnersin Japan.
Right and right. That's where I really got to
know him and Super Dude, just just a great guy.
Probably Dusty Rhodes. Yeah, OK, very cool.
Great list. Yeah.

(56:05):
Then probably last but not leastwould probably Nelson Royal.
Oh yes, man. So Mike, this is this is just
let everybody know kind of who influenced you to want to get
into wrestling or who you'd liketo watch.
If you had like a top four or top five they call, you know,
people want to call them Mount Rushmore of pro wrestling.
Who would that be for you? Well, for me, you know, growing

(56:27):
up here and in Virginia, you know, been in the Mid-Atlantic
Territory and the Southeastern Territory.
So that's about all we had back in the 70s growing up.
So the very first man on my listwould have to be Chief Wahoo
McDaniel. Oh.
Man, Yeah, well, he was my favorite, you know, just being
an Indian, the headdresses, thattype stuff.
And I'll tell you a little storyhere in a minute.

(56:48):
That's one of my influences thatgot me hooked on grassland.
But somebody else, you know, andDusty Rhodes and Ric Flair and
Jerry the King Lawler, you know,these guys really influenced me
growing up and, and I thank God as I got older, I got to meet
them all and wrestle with them and travel with them.
So it's just a dream come true. But that'd probably be my Mount

(57:08):
Rushmore right there, right? And, you know, a lot of other
ones, you know, I had a lot of other ones.
But you know, I was, I hate, slept and drank wrestling, you
know, from the time I was 12 years old, really all I thought
about. Yeah, yeah.
That's a big influence. You know, another guy, you know,
Ronnie Garvin, that I got to wrestle with later on and train

(57:29):
with a little bit and and becomegood friends with.
He was a big influence too. That's awesome.
Ronnie's great. That's a great, that's a great
list, man. It's.
He's tough, too. Oh, I bet he seems Yeah, he
seems tough outside of the ring.I can't imagine N, yeah.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, he would definitely,

(57:50):
you know, when he'd had me tied up in knots, you know then.
But I was looking, you know, I was learning.
I was standing where his hand was.
I was standing where his foot was.
Nobody wanted to wrestle the month after I wrestled Garvin
because, you know, I do to them what he did to me, you know?
You're sugar in everybody. Garvin's helping everybody.
Lose, you know. Yeah, I remember he would do

(58:13):
that to those poor guys like theMonkeys or guys like that, those
guys on TV. And I'm just like, let it leave
him alone, man. You're killing that guy.
I watched him in an independent show one time and that gets us
up in like the recent Kentucky and I run the show and he's like
the third day of the tour and I come in and he can't.
He pulled me to the side. He said that Garvin's been

(58:33):
stretching everybody and not giving anybody anything.
Yeah. He said I will double your pay
tonight if you'll just give him a match.
Sounds good to me. You know, and this is a this is
the thing here. And this is probably, I want to
say probably early 90s. By that time, you know, I didn't
have the real long blonde hair anymore.
I had the short splash hair sortof look like Garvin.

(58:54):
You know, I get to the show and I get out of the car and the
fans are running up to me sayingRonnie Garvin.
And that when Garvin's pulling in about that time, you know,
and he's a, he sort of let his hair sort of grow out a little
bit and it's dark and, you know,it's, you know, Pepper Gray a
little bit. And he's not got the blonde
spike anymore, right. And I said no, I said no, that's

(59:14):
Ronnie Garvin right there getting out of the car.
No. And hey, you're Ronnie Garvin.
Ronnie's hearing all this. I'm thinking great.
I've got a wrestling thing up. That.
Was one of the toughest matches I've ever had in my life.
When the bell rang, first one got done, I knew he was going to
chop me and eat me up so I just backed him in the corner.
I ride back and I hit him with 4-5 open hand chops as hard as I

(59:34):
could hit him. His eyes got the biggest
quarters. He grabbed me around the throat
and throws me down and started beating me up and tying me in
knots. But but that's something you
never forget, you know? No, no, it's not.
Yeah, yeah, that's amazing. I love that.
You'd you'd wrestle him one night that he would beat you
high to death and stretch you, you know?
The next night you're back therein the back in the locker room

(59:55):
getting ready to wrestle him again.
You're sucking yourself up like an MMA fight, you know?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Even though it's just pulling
rash and you're thinking I must be left here and fight for my
life. You lock up with him and he's
easy with pie, you know? Then the next time you rush and
think he's going to be that Garvin again, he'd beat you up
again. You never know what you're
going. To get never know what you're
going to get. Oh, that's awesome.

(01:00:17):
That's awesome. All right, so this question is,
does that kind of let people know your influences in
wrestling? If you had a Mount Rushmore and
I always give 4:00 to 5:00. If you need 6, go ahead and
throw it in there of like your Mount Rushmore wrestlers all.
Right. So mine's different than a lot
of people's because a lot of people, like they go, oh, it's
the draw or the biggest stars. I always do my personal Mount

(01:00:39):
Rushmore. Yes, ARN Anderson.
Oh gosh. Beautiful Bobby Tracy Smothers.
Jerry Lawler. Oh man.
That's a beautiful list, man. Wow, Yeah.
And if if you don't want to throw a 5th that doesn't relate
to them at all that I'm a huge fan of Jumbo Seruta but you
wouldn't tell it in a lot of my work.

(01:01:00):
I mean maybe some because he's more old school all Japan, but.
Yeah, yeah. All the other ones like I steal
liberally from. Yeah, yeah, You know where we've
had a lot of guys that have doneAll Japan on recently, I've
inadvertently watched a lot of Jumbo matches.
You know, Tommy Angel, Gene Liggin, Joel Deaton, those guys,

(01:01:22):
they've all wrestled in that. And then Jumbo was incredible,
man. Super, super incredible.
Jumbo had such a crazy the trajectory of his career, like,
you know, he was the chosen student of of Baba and he was
just like the young plucky upstart wrestler.
But then once you know, he's theone who shined up Masawa and you

(01:01:42):
know, and Kawada and all the, you know, all the pillars.
So like he was right before the big take off of all Japan going
into NOAA and like where he's just the grumpy old guy at the
top of the mountain trying to fight all these young guys off
is just bitter, mean, nasty bully.
Jumbo was my favorite Jumbo. Oh yeah, yeah, that's a great

(01:02:06):
list. And honestly, on any given day,
that could be my list, that could be the Jared's list, that
could be anybody's list. Cuz those guys are just, I see,
you know, even though Lawler basically was the king of the
territory, no pun intended, you know, those guys are all
workhorses, you know what I mean?
Those guys could literally work with anybody and have a good

(01:02:27):
match. And that that's, that says a lot
about actually you too. You know, I feel like you're one
of those guys that could pull a good match out of just about
anybody, man. So.
I was always told that's the themeaning of the job.
Yeah. Which, you know, come to find
out it's to get over and that's sometimes not, you know, it's
easier said than done, but if you can have a match with

(01:02:48):
anybody, you can stay employed. Yeah, exactly.
I mean that. That's no doubt.
All right, George, so you've been around this business and
your dad was in this business. Like if you had a Mount
Rushmore, like four or five wrestlers, who would those be?
Like a Mount Rushmore Four or five guys.
Well, personally, I would start with Randy Savage because he

(01:03:10):
was, he was such a, he was such a good worker.
He was such a he was a pleasure.He wasn't too loose.
He wasn't too stiff. He didn't have, you didn't have
to think. And I may have told you, Jim
before his, you know, I traveled.
Yeah, we, we started together. But that's that's another long
story. But but his philosophy was he

(01:03:32):
wanted to have everybody's best match, whether it was a Midget
or it was Andre the Giant. So he and he always, you know,
tried to give everybody a good match.
And also another philosophy, he worked just as hard for a crowd
with 50 people as 5000 people. He says, you know, they they
paid their money. They they deserve a good match.

(01:03:54):
Don't sit on your butt. So yeah, he was really good
that. That's awesome.
That's awesome to hear, man, That makes you, that makes you
respect him even more here than that from you.
Oh yeah, you know, Got. If there's not a good crowd,
they'll just lay down and they don't care.
You know, but. That that wasn't him.
He. Don't penalize the ones who came
right. That's what he would say.

(01:04:17):
He he had a good attitude. You know, he may have, you know,
rubbed some people the wrong way, but he was good on, on a
lot of things. I would have to say Rick, Ric
Flair. I never worked with him.
I was in dressing rooms. And I know a lot of people have
negative things, but he was always a gentleman to me.
He's the first one to come into the room and shake your hand and

(01:04:42):
he always remembered you, I thought, and he was wearing a
suit. He was always classed.
Yeah. And the other one would be
Ronnie Garvin. He had great ring presence.
He got over just walking from the dressing room to the ring.
You knew, you know, that this guy was tough and somebody and

(01:05:03):
somebody special. Yeah, yeah.
You always felt like he could. He could actually.
Yeah. Yeah, Exactly.
There you go. Yeah.
Yeah. He wasn't just lollygagging to
the ring, you know, And I mean, you just, you knew he was tough.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah.
Is that, is that the ones you got?

(01:05:24):
You got any you got? I like this guy Garo Teneru in
Japan. Oh yeah.
Yeah, he was a big guy. I think he was second in the
Olympics. But he was tough.
He was good, carried himself. I was really impressed.
There might be some more. I'll just have to think about
it. OK.

(01:05:45):
Yeah, that's a good list though.That's an incredible Mount
Rushmore. All right, Jamie.
So this is a question that's going to, you know, I wouldn't
mind you to answer this maybe two ways, OK.
You know, like, so I always liketo know like a Mount Rushmore of
wrestling for you. Like, who influenced you?
Who did you like to watch? Who?
Who do you think is the greatestof all time?

(01:06:06):
The very greatest, the reason I became a wrestler, being the son
of a wrestler, you really don't want to grow up and be a
wrestler. You do when you're a little boy,
you know, you watch your daddy on TV and that's cool and you go
to the shows, but it's it's kindof like you don't you know, my
daughter, my 15 year old sittinghere with me.
She has never seen me in the ring but one time in 15 years.
And you see what I'm saying being because it's a totally

(01:06:29):
different world and when if you get struck by that starting
party. But what made me want to be a
professional wrestler is the greatest professional wrestler
on our planet. And that was my brother-in-law,
beautiful Bobby Eaton. When I watched Bobby Eaton in
the ring, brother, I said, wow, this dude has got it.
And of course my dad, my dad wasmy hero, of course, like all
little boys and Jerry the King Lawler by God, Lawler and

(01:06:52):
Dundee. If you have never seen a Lawler
and Dundee match, when you turn one of them home, you won't know
if it's a work or if it's a shoot or it's unbelievable that
that that that that I still to this day don't know Bill Dundee,
Jerry Lawler, my brother-in-law,beautiful Bobby Eaton and of
course Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson.

(01:07:13):
Because you know, those people were around my whole entire
life. When my daddy was became a
Booker and went to Louisiana forBill Watts or we went to
Charlotte for Crockett or we went to wherever, we went here
and there bounced all over the world.
My daddy dad would always take the Midnight Express, the
Rock'n'roll Express, a referee named Ronnie West, and he would
take guys like Terry Taylor or you know, that just, you know, a

(01:07:35):
few others, but always the Rock'n'roll, the Midnight and
Bill Dundee and we would move and we would all go together.
You know what I'm saying? And so those gentlemen have been
such a big part of my life that,that, that, that Bobby passing
away was just, it was the very first really devastating because

(01:07:55):
I believe me, I've heard a lot of my wrestling brothers that I
loved and that I'm up and down. But when Bobby Eaton passed
away, it, it was bad, man. And, but also that's like I
said, I have learned to accept death.
Death is coming for every one ofus whether we wanted to or not.
And so I just feel that I'm a professional wrestler.

(01:08:16):
What made me say this is what I'm doing is watching my
brother-in-law wrestle Ricky Morton and Robert.
I mean, honestly, when I was just the greatest thing in the
world. And then, you know, then, then
of course everyone knows The Rock'n'roll versus the Midnight
is shit bar none, the greatest or else The Rock'n'roll versus
anybody or the Midnight versus anybody is indeed.

(01:08:37):
That's what made me want to be awrestler.
Man, there was a match with yourdad and and Jerry.
It was in the 80s and I think Sting and it was by ringside.
It was a loser leaves town match.
That is one of the best matches that.
Was the second deal where they, they built it up for my mom to
shave her head. They people thought they were
going to shave my mom's head again for the second time, but
yeah, yeah. And then she went to the ring

(01:08:58):
with it and it was Paula Lawler and Jerry Lawler.
And then on the other side was Beverly Dundee.
And it had a lot. It had Billy Travis, had Sting
in the Warrior as the Freedom Fighters, it had Pat Rose.
It had a whole bunch of the restof the day, actually, every
wrestler in the company, they put them on around the ring, you
know, and that was really heard of back in back in that day
because you had the K Fabe, you know, and they had all these

(01:09:20):
guys sitting next to each other because that's how they made it.
Like that's what it was. That's how big of a deal it was.
Right, right. I'm telling you though, it's one
of the greatest matches I've ever seen in my life and I've
seen a whole lot of matches so and.
You know, 60 minutes it went, itwent like 55 minutes or
something. And they never, ever lost the
people, bro. I mean, that's see what the
world don't really understand. When you watch Vincent McMahon

(01:09:42):
the town and he brings all them lights and all them cameras and
he hits your town and he comes one time a year to your town.
And by the time he don't sell the building out, he has to get
the tickets away to make it full.
In our world, every single Monday night they had to go to
the same building with the same people.
Every Tuesday night you had to go to Louisville with the same

(01:10:02):
people. So to to be able to go 52 weeks
in a year for 25 years to the same building and still draw
money, brother that, that that'sreally it's, it's, it's hard as
hell to even fathom to think that that.
Could be done. You know, I mean, how many times
will you go see a movie? Maybe twice, three times at the
most. And this is the same movie

(01:10:23):
coming to your town every weekend.
They're packing it in, bro. They are packing it in.
It is it was it was. It's very, very hard to to even
just to think about that man forreal.
It almost seems magic, you know what I mean?
Exactly right. But it was magic because Jerry
Jarrett, Bill Dundee, Jerry Lawler and Eddie Gilbert and
many other other guys that wouldgo to the office and get

(01:10:45):
together and book it and, and, and they always said if the
people can call it, they won't come back.
So you never could call it. Even even if shit, sometimes
when I was in the angles, I couldn't call the next deal
because they would swerve us. You know what?
I'm saying wow, this is where we're.
Going with this. And they'd be like, Nope, we're
going to go here and you go, wow, that is brilliant.

(01:11:08):
But that's why they ran for 40 years in the same towns and drew
money and made money, you know? Yeah, no doubt.
Are you a pro wrestling fan? We'll stop by Captain's Corner,
where you can get autographed photos, cards, magazines, and
figures from all of your favorite wrestling superstars of

(01:11:31):
the past, present, and future. You'll also be able to
participate in live signings in the weeks and months to come.
Make sure to stop by Captain's Corner on Facebook and give us a
holler. Remember, cheers to the working
man. That's right, it's the talk of
Middle Tennessee, the channel you love to hate and the channel

(01:11:51):
you hate to love. It's Brian Turner from Brian
Turner's VHS Rehab. And if you're looking for
matches from Wolfie D to Jerry Lawler to Dusty Rhodes and the
team that put a pimp before youreyes and a goatee put 2 in your
thighs, Booty KO and Athena go to lostwrestling.com.
See, I made it easy for you. Brian Turner's VHS Rehab.
Booyah. So that was another great.

(01:12:22):
Episode. Hey Wolfie, tell them where they
can find you on social media. Jimmy, they can find me in the
club bottle full of bub. I'm just kidding.
They can find me on Facebook. My personal page is Warren.
Wolf W. LFE.
I'm on Instagram at Warren Wolf.13 You can always find us on
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram andYouTube at Live Wolfie D Here's
the thing, Wolfie always has offers for his autographed

(01:12:45):
photos. He has a selections of some
awesome photos from throughout his career that he will
autograph and personalize any way that you want him to.
Just contact him either directlyat his personal Facebook page or
through anyone. Of our other.
Pages and we'll make sure you get in contact directly with.
Wolfie. Get those photos right, Wolfie?
Yeah, I've got some good stuff on there, you know, to help with
the. Podcast.

(01:13:05):
Folks, if you can't get out to ashow to meet Wolfie D, there's
nothing like that, especially for the fans of PG13 and Wolfie
D. And before we go, you can always
find me your host, Jimmy St. at James Rock St. on Twitter,
Instagram and YouTube. And hey, Jimmy, before we go
real quick, I just want to add in there from the bottom of my
heart, I really appreciate, first of all, the work you've

(01:13:26):
done for this podcast. You have worked your butt off.
Secondly, the people that are liking the page beyond that even
more is the people that are listening.
And we really appreciate that. Yeah.
And remember. Guys, the podcast drops a new
episode every Monday at noon andour past episodes are streaming
now on demand on all major podcast format.
Thanks again. Yeah, PG13 Memphis Wrestling

(01:13:50):
Hall of Fame Classic 2024. Give it up.
Spaceman Jones with the beat. Here we go.
The 90s was ours and we did it with Pride 15.
Times that chance. What a hell of a ride.
Rock'n'roll couldn't beat us. Gautami and Doug not Smothers.
Dirty white boy who called themselves thugs.

(01:14:11):
It's for terrible H for hell PG.Both been locked up in county
jail. The kid was real and we were
immature moms. Buddy Wayne couldn't stand us
because we didn't wear Trump. We did it.
Our way in and out of the ring bought a real rap swagger to the
Memphis thing. You can hate it, you can love
it. We just did our thing.

(01:14:33):
Feel true to the game. Now we Hall of Fame PG13 put
respect on our name.

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