A Wrestler’s Struggle, Transformation, and Faith - Podcast interview with Ira Mark Smith - Ramsay Unleashed Live - Going Beyond Borders

Episode Transcript
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(00:21):
Hey, this is Athea Leatham, creator of the Frame Your Day app,
helping you walk out every day in victory.
I'm proud to be a sponsor of Ramsey Unleashed.
Going beyond borders hi this is the kia ringgold
from natural soap by the kia dot trial sponsors
of the ramsay unleashed going beyond borders podcast
and welcome to another edition to ramsay unleash going by wars podcast a bit

(00:44):
of a spontaneous one tonight it is a night time and evening i won't tell you
what day it is just a pick an evening if you're keeping it generic i've been
catching up with a guy i met a guy through a group of christian podcasters a
guy called ira mark smith but we'll talk about how he got his name ira he goes by mark Mark.
I kind of had a chat with him earlier to find him about his name and I decided,

(01:06):
oh, this is interesting.
He told me about it. So we're going to hear that interesting story,
how he got that, how he got the name.
But he goes by his main middle name, Mark.
Ira is a former wrestler and more independent, but also has wrestled a lot of
famous wrestling names. You'll hear about it during this interview.
You'll hear about his bringing up, he went he went through a bit of a tough

(01:28):
time being brought up and also his faith and how.
Wrestling with his own demons and how he's now got a book but we're going to
hopefully have to do a part two with this guy because he's got a lot and lot
of stuff to talk about and a lot of and hopefully in the day and what he's gone
through will inspire somebody listening to this and will feel challenged in their life,
to overcome maybe what they're going through in a similar way and how he has

(01:51):
done the same through his life and what he's been doing so So, Mark,
either Mark Smith, Mark Smith, welcome to the Ramsey Unleashed Going Beyond Borders podcast.
That was such a great video where it was coming on, Ramsey.

(02:13):
The intro, right, the intro. Yeah, the intro. I mean, I am so intimidated.
That was better than, I mean, that was as good as WCW.
That was fantastic. I was just waiting for Tony Schiavone to say something or
Jim Ross to go, what a slobberknocker.
So anyway, it was fantastic.
So let's just dive in. Let's talk about the first thing we're going to talk

(02:40):
about. Let's just talk about the funny story.
How did you get Ira? Let's talk about how you got your name.
Let's do that. Well, I mean, like most people, you're named after someone.
And unfortunately, or fortunately, whichever way you want to say it,
the man I was married to, I say married, my God, I've been married to him for 31 years.

(03:05):
Boy, this is spontaneous. You can tell. C-T-E, I'm already claiming it.
Anyway, so the doctor that delivered me, that said, hut one, hut two, hut, hut, hut.
And then I came out, you know, like an athlete would.
And so his name was Ira Slade. But he didn't like Ira. His nickname was Dutch.

(03:30):
And he was a cool-looking guy, a great doctor, great heart.
He became a minister later on. But I was named for a man that didn't even like the name himself.
But I'll say it this way. My parents got divorced after 30 years.
My mom was a great stabilizer. She gave me a normal childhood anyways.

(03:53):
Ways my dad will get into it abusive
all this kind of stuff they probably didn't
talk much about the name they probably looked at
dutch slade as i came out of the out of the womb and they probably said dutch
what's a good name and as a joke he probably said you can call him ira they
said okay done deal that's probably what happened so you've got a name named

(04:18):
after the the doctor who delivered you.
He wouldn't even use the name. That's right.
But you go by Mark, Mark Smith. So where did the Mark part come from?
I had an Uncle Mark. Right. I do not ever remember having a grandfather,
okay? I was the youngest of five.

(04:40):
I really don't remember many uncles, maybe one or two.
I have a brief memory of
sitting in uncle mark's lap one time and i
was i had to be a little run at that point i mean
little but i remember i do
remember something about i know the fact he was good and so that's that's where

(05:07):
mark came from cool let's dive into a little bit your life now obviously we've
been you said your mum brought you up as best she can but you also said that you, well I mean,
during the sort of, I mean in life the first you get up to your age you're five
and you're roughly five, six you start going to school and you start the usual

(05:28):
stuff, I mean what was life in general up until your sort of.
Maybe early teens like education wise, I mean obviously with,
how did all this sort of, was it alright right?
And then the abuse you're telling about your dad was a bit abusive to you?
Yeah, I really don't remember them not fighting as a kid.

(05:57):
It was always, I used to have a little name for it, called the 11 o'clock,
11 p.m. night at the fights.
Because that's generally when it was really going strong, about 11.
And as I said, my mom, she was really the provider.
And she and I talk every day. My dad passed with cancer.

(06:20):
Answer and i actually a brother one of my brothers and i actually buried him
with a shovel now burying your own father there's a lot of things about my dad
i didn't like it's until today,
there's a lot of things about my dad i don't like he was a racist he had a lot

(06:44):
a lot of prejudice toward people that were different.
I used to hear him say things that I really have never said myself.
But getting back real quick, I don't remember how many, but there were several
pictures on the walls where if you lifted up the picture,
there'd be a handprint of one of his hands going through the paneling. Go ahead.

(07:10):
And so I do remember as I was getting older, I began sleeping with a baseball bat in my bed.
It was a silver.
Grayish softball bat. It was a Louisville Slug.

(07:31):
It had a black handle. I still remember that bat.
And And...
I was actually talking to my mom about three, four nights ago,
and she said, Mark, you did that bat well. I said, really?
She said, yeah. She said, I'd forgotten all about it.

(07:54):
She said, what would you have really done with that bat? I said,
my mind had killed. I would have.
Have and my dad
one of the one of the few memories as a
child with my dad is he gave me a cigarette no kidding and that kind of seems

(08:14):
very strange in today's society but that's one of the things i remember but
it's very it's a very uncertain life when you've got a parent coming home home,
you don't know what's in store next,
because anything that happened bad at the gas station is probably going to set him off at home.

(08:42):
And he was, I found out later, he was beaten with chains as a child.
Right. So it's a kind of common theme.
Yes, yes. Yes, and I can say luckily, well, I won't say luckily.
It's got to be more of God himself, but I'm just so glad that my kids have not had to live in it.

(09:06):
They've not had to live in that kind of fear.
So what were your folks generally arguing about? What kind of was the tipping
point of what, when you're giving them that story?
My dad was a womanizer. Right.
He owned a business in the same respect with the customers.

(09:27):
He would have a great heart, and he would just let them take advantage of it.
Maybe that's why he was like a bully at home.
He, in some way, had revenge, that feeling. I don't know.
But we were definitely, we kids and my mom were definitely an outlet for his frustration.

(09:54):
And but the womanizing and money and spending, things like that.
And I know the womanizing is absolutely for real.
He told me, and you know, he died and never knew. He told me he had had a hernia surgery. Right.

(10:16):
And he had a pillow over his midsection, and he was high as a kite one day.
I went by to see him. He was high as a kite, and we began just talking,
and he started telling me where he would meet the women, And he was laughing
and telling me everything.
And it was very strange to me because I didn't know whether to rip his head

(10:42):
off or just let him continue to incriminate himself.
But I just sat there and let him incriminate himself.
I never went and told people what he told that day.
But it's very strange, Frazier, when your dad actually confesses his womanizing to you. Very strange.

(11:08):
So when did he die? How old were you when he passed?
Okay, when he passed away, we were living in Texas. there was somewhat of a uh.
I guess, a coming, a ringing in between us.

(11:30):
My dad, I don't know how else to say it, so if it's okay with you, he was a BS artist.
He really was. He could trauma. He could sell ice to Eskimo, okay? He could.
As his hand goes. He could.

(11:50):
But I just got to the point where when I'd had kids and Brenda and I had been
married a while, I got tired of him carrying on junk all the time on the phone,
trying to be this charming guy.
And if I finally told him, I said, look, when I ask you how you're doing,

(12:13):
I mean it. I want to know how you're doing. it.
If all you're going to do is joke instead of having a relationship,
then I think it's best for my kids versus to stay away from it.
Cool. So how old were you roughly when you passed? Let's see, I'm 50.
I was born in 66. My birthday's December 4.

(12:36):
So I'm either 56 or 357. My math's not competing right now. Anyway, I think I'm 56.
But I would have been probably.
I'm going to guess 40ish not too bad got you so during your teenage years what got you,

(12:59):
I'm guessing school when did you start wrestling or what were your I don't know
what were your teenage years like were you a good kid were you out causing trouble
what kind of guy were you when you were maybe to be leading your teens leading
up before you came to school. Yeah.
My senior year in high school, I remember I was taking a typing class.

(13:24):
I fell over on the keyboard because I was drunk in class. Yeah.
And I spelled something like Rubishlubin or something like that,
you know, something weird.
And when the teacher asked me, she came and she actually grabbed me by the hair. But it ain't easy.
She didn't rip or nothing. But she grabbed me by the hair and lifted me up.

(13:49):
And she said, Mark, what is this?
I said, it's a foreign language.
She said, son, just go back to sleep. And she laid my head back on the keyboard.
I think by the time i was in high school everything at home all the stuff that
had happened i was i was frustrated i really was i had to have an outlet i didn't handle things well,

(14:15):
i was always if i ever fought anybody i was defending someone else i had no
idea when i hit people and i hit a few but all i know was i would be mad i would
hit them one time, and they'd go down on the ground.
It was later that my friends would tell me when I would hit somebody.

(14:39):
They would elevate off the ground a little bit. They would go back.
And so I thought, huh, that's kind of a neat skill.
I did some training after school or after work at a local boys club,
boxing, scene, that kind of thing.

(14:59):
I was able to develop some hand speed.
And so in high school, if I saw someone making fun of someone else or trying
to hurt someone else, I would step in, pop, pop, they'd go down.
If I wanted to play with them a little bit, I would just jab them for five or ten minutes.

(15:20):
One of the coaches pulled me off to the side.
He said, Mark, number one, I'm glad. He took care of this guy.
But if you ever use those skills again here at school and beat somebody like
you beat him, because I probably hit him with about 15, 20 jabs before I just

(15:42):
right crossed him and knocked him out.
He said, I'm going to have to pop you in front of everybody because I can't
make it look like that's acceptable.
Go ahead. I said, yes, sir, coach. So I always respect that. that.
But I didn't handle my school well. I did enough to get by.

(16:07):
A lot of drinking. Never really much drugs.
About the most drugs I did was actually in the wrestling business.
I could see how coke would mess with people.
So I was more with with the weed, that kind of thing.

(16:30):
Weed and beer or weed and mixed drinks, that was kind of my go-to.
That's how I dealt with pain.
It's kind of strange in wrestling. I did that to deal with physical pain.
In high school, I did that to deal with emotion. right so i i've you know it

(16:54):
really you know i've never thought about that till right now you're a good therapist
how much do you charge per hour.
You're really good dude.
Well yeah,
you're gonna have me crying by the time this is over thanks

(17:16):
and i'm an ugly crier in fact
i'm ugly anyway but anyway that's why i don't have a ring light on me phrase
you've got the look got the sleep i don't have a ring light because my wife
tells me i look better in the dark,

(17:38):
You got a face for radio then.
Okay we're good So,
This is brilliant This is it,
Now, Frazier, I've got a question for you, okay? I've never asked you this,

(17:59):
and I don't know if anybody ever has. This is a for real question.
I think it's very neat.
You know, me writing the book and being on your program, and we're having a
great time together in all this.
And I'm hoping that through what we're talking about, plus the book, someone can be helped.

(18:25):
That's going through something really bad or whatever the case may be and it
may be the exact same motive for you but I'm really curious you're really good
at this what got you into wanting to podcast?
Oh crikey right okay it's actually,
well you're talking about the end of 2014 I was

(18:46):
talking about actually it was at wrestling related because
I kind of started listening to Chris Jericho's podcast cast talk is jericho
okay so i kind of like it started getting wanted to find it a bit more then
i got my friend hugh and we started the original but before so then we started doing,

(19:11):
the podcast side so that's what we did that's how i got into it sorry because
i started listening to that that was way back in 2014 so you're literally 10
years like it can be 10 years almost, it was nine years now,
that's what got me into it so I just gave it a bash and see where it goes and
then, yeah, nine years later, you know,

(19:33):
Right, was it like when you did it it just really tickled that place or,
No, I think it was I just sort of tried it to see where it goes and it started
off with the both of us and it kind of just um.
Yeah, it's more just like what Rod was talking about, kind of general politics and stuff like that.

(19:57):
And it was a little bit un-PC, but it was a little bit kind of, yeah.
So, but eventually just as time went by, you know, I started to end up,
you see, I was married with kids and I was just interviewing a lot of people anyway.
So eventually it was just time to go separate ways and I just kind of kept interviewing

(20:18):
people and I rebranded it slightly and that was it, you know.
So I just like having a good old chinwag and hearing good old inspirational stories, you know.
Yeah, you're not getting in my business. You're going to make me cry.
Okay, I got you. No, I'm kidding with you.
You know, to give them, you know, for real, just to give the audience,

(20:40):
I told the real deal on this, the real scoop.
Scoop, when we were just, we talked for a few minutes before this,
and I mentioned that there would probably be a question or two I'd want to ask
you, and that was actually one of them.
Okay. So people out in the podcast land, TV land, all kind of land,

(21:02):
look, I wanted to find that out.
I'm sorry. Okay, go ahead. I'm sorry for you.
Let's go back to where we are. Darcy, obviously you're doing a bit of drugs
and things in your early school days stroke.
So let's say go expand on that a little bit. Okay.
Well, I graduated school, high school, and I decide, okay, I'm going to go to college.

(21:28):
Or I'm told, you know, my best impersonation of my mom. You're going to go to
college, young man. Okay, I'm going to go to college.
So I went to college. and I again I still was not over that phase.
Let's see. What did I do? There you are. I'm sorry. I bumped my mouse by accident.

(21:53):
I got confused on the courses. I thought biology was virology.
Okay. And I thought John Adams was Jack Daniels. And so I got confused on this.
So I was very impressive. They said nobody had hardly ever done it before. I did it.

(22:16):
Graduate. Oh my gosh. I ended the year with a 1.11 grade point average.
That means I was the lowest D you could get. A 1.0 was a D.
I was only a couple percentage points from having an F after a whole year of college.

(22:38):
So they called me into the dean's office and I
also get a letter handed to me that says
i'm on probation and i have to withdraw so i do and work at a gas station and
a fellow i went to school with came in and his his daddy was back in the wwf

(23:00):
with chief j strongbow his name,
Keith J. Strongbow's real name was Joe Scarpa.
His son's name was Mark. So it was Mark Scarpa, Mark Smith.
Whenever they set us in class and we were alphabetized, we sat beside each other.

(23:20):
Well, we got along really good. And he saw me pick up some metal and some different equipment.
And he said, man, why don't you come out with me and let me show you what I'm doing?
Doing i says what do you mean he said
well he said i'm home now visiting daddy but i've

(23:41):
been up in oregon working for don i think it was don owens and the last name
was owens and he ran that whole that northwest wrestling promotion the northwest
territory and he said come out i said I said,
Mark, you're wrestling full-time?

(24:03):
He said, yeah, I'm making pretty good money.
He was making decent money up there. He was making around, I want to say,
between $800 and $900 a week.
Just driving a couple hours, he wasn't having to drive too far.
He was able to make a little money being single.

(24:23):
I go, okay, well, look, when I get off, you want to swing by and we go out to
wherever you're talking about? about? I had no idea.
Well, he had this wrestling ring, 18 by 18 wrestling ring sitting out in the
woods in a little cleared area.
So he said, okay. He said, do you know how to body slam somebody?
I said, I've seen it on TV.

(24:45):
I said, here and here? He said, yeah, body slam me.
And he goes, Mark, you didn't even let me plant and go up with you. You just jerked me up.
And he said, and he used some good words, pretty fancy words,
a lot of them four letters.

(25:05):
But he was saying, you're strong. Oh, my gosh.
And I had a 38-inch waist and a 54-inch chest and a 21-inch neck.

(25:25):
So he said, can you flip? And I got in there and I did this stuff and all this.
He said, here, I want to work with you a little bit. So I worked with him a little bit.
And then he and someone else I knew took me to a guy that owned a used car lot who was retired.

(25:46):
He used to be one of the managers of the Mass Medics.
He called a guy named Art Britz. Art Britz meets me at a rec center.
A one-inch collegiate wrestling match. You know how hard those mats are on a basketball court.
That's all I trained on.

(26:12):
I mean, I had things shook loose in me. It was crazy.
It was. If you'd have put me in the oven, I'd have been shaking bait. I'll tell you what.
But anyhow, I go and I start working for a small show.
One of the former mathematics comes out of retirement.

(26:35):
And my first match was against a fella from Columbus, Georgia who's really a
legend in the southeast United States his name's Teta, no Jerry Oates,
Jerry Oates he has a brother wrestling that wrestles named Ted I wrestled Jerry
I wrestled and then I got calls and worked Worked some house shows,

(27:04):
some small shows for the AWA that were being run by Jerry the Crusher Blackwell.
Then I was just off doing small shows, wearing my hood, my mask, we call them a hood.
And sometimes I would work twice in a night, one with the hood,
one without. I'd have two sets of gear.

(27:25):
Well How I ended up Getting in the NWA Was one of the original Assassins.
Jody Hamilton I called Jody Hamilton And I said Mr.
Joe He said And he had this deep voice Yeah Mark what do you need I said Mr.

(27:50):
Joe I'm going broke Doing this wrestling thing and I said, you know that ring I bought?
And I spent $1,000 and bought a 16 by 16 ring.
When I say 16, 16 foot by 16 foot.
And he said, I know the ring you're talking about.

(28:12):
He said, I've wrestled Andre the Giant in that ring. I said, cool.
I said, well, Mr. Jody, I just want to sell it. I'm broke. I'm desperate.
He said, Mark, I'll make a deal with you. You bring that ring or I'll come down
and we'll get the ring together. Bring it up here and set it up.

(28:33):
I'll take care of all the maintenance. It's something big is about to happen.
And since I've known you and seen how you work, you're going to be a part of it.
And, I mean, Fraser, I'm so broke. I mean, that sounds good.
But to me, it was just so disappointing.

(28:55):
I needed cash.
He calls me about three weeks later. later he says uh mark can you be in cleveland
tonight i said well yes sir cleveland cleveland georgia and i knew he had run
shows in cleveland georgia i go yes sir mr joe i can be up there,
i'll leave here about three be there by about five is that okay what time's the bell,

(29:21):
he said mark i'm not talking about cleveland georgia i said what you're talking
about mr joe He said I need you to come by CN Center and sign your contract
You're going to be in Cleveland Ohio tonight.
And, you know, I'm very composed. I think I'd do something like this.

(29:42):
You know, I'm holding my phone.
Back then, it was a regular phone, right? There were no cell phones.
And I try to keep my composure. So naturally, he tells me that, and I go, ah!
And I'm freaking out.
So I pack up all my gear, run up to the airport or CNN, go to the airport,

(30:05):
fly out, get there, walk in.
Sid Vicious over here. Over there, Ron Simmons.
Hacksaw Butchery.
The Freebirds over here. The Midnight Express over here.

(30:27):
I mean,
I thought before I walked and got started getting dressed, I was going to need
to put me a pants on. because I was scared to death.
So I guess you're hanging with the legends of wrestling nowadays. Names are kind of...
Some of the names you're saying I don't know, but I know some of them I have, yeah.

(30:49):
Well, Mike Rotunda, Bray Watts' dad was in there. Mike Rotunda, yeah. Mike Rotunda, Dr.
Steve Williams, manager of Playboy Gary Hart, the great Muta was in there.
Sting, Luger. Sting, wow, Sting. Yeah. Lex Luger, Flair was there.

(31:12):
And so we get dressed, we look at the match sheet, see what's going to happen.
And so naturally what we do is we start running through the building,
just opening every door we could find just to see what's in there.
And we actually open a door. and this building evidently has a real big wall

(31:32):
and we go through the door and through this wall and we're on a stage and Alice
Cooper's free was setting because Alice Cooper was having a concert the following
night and I'm thinking I have just,
you know I feel like I'm in the Wizard of Oz or something right,
I mean I'm just freaking out

(31:55):
out and that's actually how
i got into the wrestling business i had
bought a ring doing small shows and then
jody hamilton he calls me says i want
you in cleveland from there it was just building relationships you know i it

(32:16):
seemed like every night i was working on the road terry funk would walk in hey
brother and just start dressing right beside me in the tier next Next time.
Terry Fox.
They can't go off. I haven't fell off.

(32:36):
The Road Warriors. The Road Warriors, wow. Oh, they love hot dogs. Come to find out.
Hawk would always want hot dogs before they wrestle.
So we would be standing and watching out of a black dirt, just watching probably
no more than through a little peephole like that, make the dirt and see what's

(32:59):
happening in that match.
And hawk would go hey you want a dog well if red warrior hawk tells ask you
if you want a dog you don't tell him no you say yes sir mr hawk yes.
I mean i'd have went and killed the dog and made him a hot dog if we needed one,

(33:25):
so what was your what was your kind of characters in the right way obviously
you've just signed and what was your kind of character obviously wrestling is a bit of a character,
so what was your sort of persona for wrestling when you're doing it and were
you a sort of heel face, obviously heel is a bad guy but also the wrestling
face is a good guy so what was your kind of,

(33:47):
looking back at some of your early matches they brought me in as a clean cut
guy clean cut, ok and so I was running as a face quite a bit And I would be going against Rotunda,
well, the Varsity Club, the Steiners, all them Varsity Club,
Road Warriors, because even though people would cheer for them,

(34:10):
they were considered still heels.
The Dill of the Butcher, the Iron Sheik.
Let's see who else.
Let's see.
Oh. Oh, Hot Stuff. I forgot. I worked at Hot Stuff Eddie Gilbert.

(34:34):
I always forget about him. I only worked him one time. Hot Stuff Eddie Gilbert.
He was married to, I think, either married or boyfriend-girlfriend with Missy Hyatt at that time.
And the Russian assassins. one of
them was a fellow blonde hair his name was Jack Victory he did a lot out for

(34:59):
the Von Erichs and then of course I ran like that a few months and then they
would turn me into a heel and that's when I would wrestle like flying Brian Brian Hillman,
let's see,

(35:21):
Uh, gosh. I'm just kidding.
I'm just kidding. Let's say as a babyface, I used to work at Sid Vicious a lot.
Sid Vicious and Danny Spivey.
As a heel, I worked against Ron Simmons because he and Butch Reed were doomed or something like that.

(35:46):
Teddy Long was their manager. And then they separated.
And And, gosh, I worked against Nick Busek when it went to WWF.
Oh, as a heel, I worked Ricky Steamboat. Oh, yeah. And so that was a lot of fun.

(36:06):
Scott Hall was a lot of fun. Cool. Tommy Rich was a lot of fun.
So. so during so during that time obviously with your early struggles with some
dabbling in the hatch and weed and all that or weed and drink how did you did

(36:27):
that sort of fade out and you got the concentrated orders that kind of obviously
seeing in the industry back then i'm guessing,
and probably there's a lot of alcohol or drugs or especially steroids going
around i mean how did it affect you and how did you like i mean that's probably
just a touch of the surface you You know?
Yeah. Well, when I finally walked away from the wrestling business,
uh, I, I could have been facing 20 years in prison.

(36:53):
Right. I don't tell everybody that. Yeah.
Uh, Richard Cantrell, Sheriff Richard Cantrell, he's passed away now of Spalding County, Georgia.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation had me on tape.
Buying steroids.

(37:15):
When I walked away from the wrestling business, I knew I'd be away forever. That killed me.
I thought it was just killed.
You're asking, how did it affect me? Obviously, you're around it every day,
because back in the day, you used a lot more steroids than you'd probably sports.

(37:38):
Yeah, there were no wellness programs. Let's say that.
Exactly. It wasn't like, yeah, you're a broccoli and cucumber.
Yeah. And you knew. I mean, you knew in the dressing room who was doing it,
who wasn't. You also knew who you could buy it from.
You knew who were the most expensive ones to buy it from, who were the cheapest,

(37:59):
who had the better quality.
I mean, for me, there was some Deca and some D-Ball testosterone tests. test.
And I almost started dabbling into horse hormones because some of the wrestlers
were working on horse hormones. Horse hormones?

(38:21):
Yeah. No joke. I'm trying to get my head right now about horse hormones.
I'll tell you what, I'll make a joke. But I want you to take me serious.
I'm trying to be serious. I get horse hormones.
That's the most random. The only part. Hey, what does horse hormones do to you?

(38:45):
Normal heart health. I'm going to ask. Grow like crazy.
I know what you're thinking. Don't go there. I'm going to have to be brief.
The only thing bad about the horse hormone is after about the third cycle of
it that you've done, every time you see some hay, you want to go get you a bite of it.

(39:11):
And you want grain and wheat, not barley and all that.
I have to say that is the most random crikey well the horse hormones because
they make you bulk up more than normally right exactly,
and I can't be but the thing the thing too Fraser though I mean you say on this

(39:34):
session we're about to run out of time,
there's no time I'm just kind of I'm enjoying this okay this is there's no rush
okay well yeah the thing is is really Really, when you think of all these things,
you go, no sane person would do it.
That's what you would normally think. A normal person on the street,
I guess, would think. What do you think?

(39:57):
Yeah, true. Yeah, nobody would. But see, that's how much it means to succeed.
Do you sell your soul to the devil? No.
You know, I can't say I sold my soul to the devil.
I can say that i compromised

(40:18):
myself i compromised a lot of people that i love and i was married then and
not to brenda but to another young lady and she at times was my was my valet
and smaller shows she would go out with and.
Oh i got i got to where i was treating her like her i wasn't beating her and

(40:41):
that kind of stuff Nothing like that.
But just not treating with the respect that you should.
The wrestling business is a very cutthroat business.
And normally to get on top, that means you've got to knock somebody down. Yeah.

(41:08):
And you know, when it comes When it comes to home versus wrestling,
it's almost the same way because there are times where you have to knock those down at home.
And I mean that figuratively, but not people knock down the home so that the

(41:29):
wrestling space is the most important thing.
Go ahead. I was very pro-abortion.
I was pro-anything as long as it kept me my career and that it would not get
in the way of me getting on that airplane and going to the next town.

(41:52):
And so I was willing to sacrifice everything. I mean, think of,
and God bless him, but, you know, and he jokes about it, so I think I can say it.
You know, Flair's marriages, you know, and he's been able to,
and then the price of fame, the one on DiBiase,

(42:14):
and his regaining relationships with family.
We don't realize wrestling takes the toll on us that it does while we're doing it.
Then it seems like, like when we step back and we look around us,
we realize the world is a lot different than it was when we started it.

(42:38):
And the problem is what we did.
The people out there still love this, our family. We're the one that betrayed them so many ways.
And so in my book I mean really if you want to say who is the villain in my book it's me.

(43:11):
Before we go let's say how many years were you wrestling for I wrestled four,
four and a half something like that and then uh.

(43:33):
Years later, I stepped back in in small stuff to help train.
We had a few matches that way.
Now, since then, I've had both hips replaced, knee replaced,
and I think I'm going to get back in for a farewell for one or two days.
I've already taken some bumps in the ring, and I know all my artificial joints can take it.

(43:58):
That's all right. you told me a
story a while ago when you were when we were
having a call once and you talked about
you were wrestling Sid Vicious and you
talked about that he had been in the gym and he'd taken some bad steroids or
something you know they all got

(44:20):
bad juice at one time and but I've always said this is that we We said,
we say it said, number one, I love Sid's dad.
So I'm not meaning this derogatory. There was no health wellness program.

(44:40):
I mean, the business, so cutthroat, so political.
Sid did what he had to do, just like every other big wrestler.
And I'm going to tell you, if I had Sid's height, I would have done the exact
same thing. Oh, yeah. Okay. Okay?
Just below six foot, I'm like even with Flair when Flair was wrestling in the 80s. Okay?

(45:04):
Flair's not a tall guy. Neither is Steamboat.
But Sid's a monster. And I don't know why, but it almost seemed like people,
when they worked Sid, little guys, they would try to get stuff over on him or whatever.
And I'm going to tell you, he He, no kidding, I think one night I was like in

(45:27):
West Virginia and Huntington and Charleston.
And what they should have done was taken one of those numbers like they have
on the back of airplanes, you know, the plane number or whatever.
They should have painted it on my rear end because I think he threw me from
Charleston and I landed in Huntington.
I mean, that man that man could launch me like I mean, I'm telling you,

(45:56):
so, that man could throw me so far, I'd have to wear a seatbelt just so I'd
feel safe that's how far he could throw me,
are you able to tell the story a bit, because you're arresting him the end of
the house, did you certainly?
He was hurt bad, bless his heart and so we.

(46:17):
And he was coming up for the belt. You don't. If you want to be a good company
man, you don't try to take advantage and hurt nobody.
And I mean hurt them. Of course, Sid could have killed.
But I mean, as far as, you know, emotionally or job wise, you don't want to hurt nobody.

(46:43):
I did. Now, there's a lot of people out there that would. I would.
And Sid, we had a great match.
He did the things he wanted to do.
Sid's one of those guys, he's so big, it's best to work with him than try to work against him.

(47:05):
I mean, it's just, you know, a guy's almost seven foot tall and built like,
I mean, the Incredible Hulk.
Huge yeah what are you going to do so I mean I wanted to work with him and I got to tell you,

(47:27):
this is when I found out that Sid was such a good guy was if I was going to
wrestle against somebody in for the first time and normally a big guy,
if Sid saw it he would look at the guy he would walk right up to us and go you take care of him,

(47:51):
yeah I'm going to get hurt some sure but you don't have to try to break my arm
or break my leg or break my neck and that's really what he was telling the guy,
or he would tell the guys and I thanked him so much and if I saw him him today,
I'd want to tell him thanks.

(48:17):
He's a funny guy and from what I've heard, a tremendous softball player.
But he's just...
I think the world will see it. I really do. Sid Udy, you know, real name.

(48:38):
But I I can't say nothing bad about him look when a man like that takes care
of you so that you know you can work and make money the next night,
How do you fall for a guy like that? No, it's a tough one. I suppose I definitely
don't know the industry.
The time of year, the time that he'd up was obviously, yeah,

(49:02):
you had to keep going, you know? Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Nobody wanted their invitation or to start jobbing for other guys,
because they wanted to be able
to compare pair and have a choice between Atlanta or Turner and Vince.

(49:26):
And so if you were working for one of those promotions and you were a big star
and then you just start losing all the time, look, the other company can't take you.
And all of a sudden you're at the top of the heap because people are going to
look at it and go, the guy lost over there.
He's winning all the time over here.

(49:47):
So we've got one weak organization and one strong organization.
I'm not going to watch the weak organization. Exactly.
Let's go back into you, but when did you.
Really find you had a faith? Well, when did you start just trying to discover your faith?

(50:09):
Especially, this is where... This is hard.
When did you start your faith? First off, I got to use a caveat with this,
and that is I'm not trying to insinuate anything.
I'm just stating the fact, and it is in no means, no way meant to hurt anybody.

(50:32):
Okay? So I want to say that.
Like I said, I was married. I'm not mentioning names because I'm very careful
about using people's names.
Okay? Okay. But I'd been married for three years.
I walked in coming off a trip, I believe. And.

(50:55):
I heard this very strange noise, a really strange laugh.
And so I went down to, I think we had a condo or an apartment or something.
Anyway, went in the bedroom. She's laying on her stomach.
And there's this noise, whatever this noise is, it's kind of like her laugh, but it's different.

(51:21):
And I kept asking, baby, are you okay? Are you okay? And like I said, I have been named to her.
She doesn't deserve anybody to look at her in a negative way.
I'm the villain. Turned her over.
And Frazier, I don't know what happened. Something surprised me.
Something hit me so hard that I was pushed back and I landed on my back on the floor.

(51:49):
I went, got in the car. I was scared. Scared. Just, I'm scared to death.
Drove around the area for a few minutes.
Came back home. She's so composed. Everything seems fine.
And she just looks at me with a straight face and says, I'm going. I'm leaving.
Now, I couldn't blame her for that.

(52:10):
Because of the scumbag I had been. Or scumbag, whatever you want to say.
The next day, she had already left. And I was going to just Turn back,
turn over the apartment to the management.
And I found a pregnancy test in the trash can, a stick.
I took it to my sister and my sister said, it's positive.

(52:37):
Well, I tried over and over to call to see what the situation was.
Finally, after months, her aunt picked up the phone and said,
everything's been taken care of.
And that's the way she said it. That was it.

(52:58):
Well, you know, your mind can go all different directions.
But I feel like there was a child.
I feel like i killed that child go ahead and so i went to someone's house.
And i just sat on the bed in a spare bedroom didn't feel like talking to anybody,

(53:19):
you're sitting there and it's quiet and i look and i don't know why but i reached
up and grabbed the book and i flipped it open it was the bible of all things
i didn't and it went to the book book of Proverbs.
And Proverbs is the kind of book that says, if you do this, then this will happen.
If you do this, this will happen.

(53:41):
Proverbs, I read the whole book that night, and it kicked my butt for several hours.
People have asked me, what is the roughest battle I've ever been in?
And I tell them, it wasn't Sid Vicious. It wasn't this person or that person.
The toughest battle was the way the book of Proverbs just tore me out of the frame.

(54:10):
And Sunday came, I got in the car and just drove up the road. And I saw this church.
Drove past it, drove past it two or three times, just turned around, drove and passed it.
Finally, I stopped, went inside, sat down.
I got so sick at my stomach sitting there, I had to run outside and throw up on the front lawn.

(54:35):
Came back in had to go
back out throw out throw up on the front lawn again third time
i walked in i was watching my clock my watch and about 30 seconds or so before
service started i walked in there i clamped my uh hand against the side of the

(54:58):
pew they started singing a song,
The name of the song was called Lift Jesus Higher. It was a chorus. I remember that.
I don't remember them finishing the song because they said I had got up,
almost ran to the altar. I just went down to my knees.
It literally felt like somebody took a water hose and my navel,

(55:24):
my belly button, connected it, and everything got flushed out.
That was at 1030, 1040 in the morning.
Somebody taps me on the shoulder. I looked up and as a real young kid,
it was my next door neighbor.

(55:44):
He was a pastor. That was his church.
I didn't know that was his church. Oh, yeah.
So I said, Mr. Lewis, he said, hey, Mark, he said, I was surprised to see you coming down the altar.
I said, where's everybody? He says, oh, they've been gone a while.

(56:07):
What time is it, Pastor Lewis?
It's 1.30 in the afternoon. Let me go buy you lunch.
And then I started walking into the church door.
Then Brenda I meet this late girl Brenda she and I are sitting in a service out in a tent,

(56:31):
and it's about six months seven months later and I say God you know,
I'm wondering you know if I'm going to get married again but if I don't need
to that's alright if you would tell me something let me know something well this woman,

(56:52):
that was behind this,
crazy I ain't lying you know you've seen people women their hair is white and
it gets that little bluish tint to it this woman was so old her hair looked like a smurf I swear,

(57:13):
she went to the prom with Abraham Lincoln in the 1840s in the 1830s.
Yeah, the Blue Roons. Yeah.
She might have been drafted into the War of 1812. I'm not sure.
She said, I have a word for you. I said, yes, ma'am.

(57:37):
She said, what you prayed for, the answer is right beside you. And that was Brenda.
And we've been married 31 years. 31 years wow and for my dad to be a racist
the way he was and to use all the names he used to use for people of different color,

(58:02):
like I said earlier he did things that really bothered me that was one of the
one thing I never thought Fraser was today I would have 8 kids there 3 4 Four
that are Caucasian white.
There's two that are Hispanic.
There's one that's Native American Indian. And then there's one that's African American dark skin.

(58:31):
So not only did God.
Me not only not only was
uh brought to a better place spiritually but
the thing is is he changed my heart and the fact that all the division that

(58:53):
my dad would talk about and use slang names bad names for different for people
just because they were different all that was taken away from me all All that prejudice,
all that stuff that I didn't even know if I had it or not.
But, you know, it's got to be hard not to be prejudiced when you're around such

(59:16):
racism and things like that all the time growing up.
But it's good not to have that. I mean, talk about free. I've been freed from a lot of stuff.
And that is something that your viewership, those that are watching,

(59:37):
when I left the wrestling business and then I'm divorced, I felt like junk.
I felt like the statue of an old Mark Smith that was sitting in a junkyard. Not worth anything.
Couldn't do anything. thing. Have you got the half the dog fart with the back

(01:00:00):
barking away by any chance?
My kids got home from school so the dogs were barking at the bus.
All I can hear is the sound effects and thinking, where's that noise coming from?
Is that my side or is that I can hear it from you? Right. That's the dogs.
They'll stop in just a second. I promise.

(01:00:20):
I kind of think sound effects. I was thinking, is that a barking can come from.
But yeah.
Me seeing all that or feeling all that. Dogs are on heat.
I actually have a dog that's blind, believe it or not. Okay.

(01:00:42):
I put a I should, well, yeah, I'm going to say it. It's just a joke.
Please. Nobody get mad at me.
I put sunglasses on them and let them play for the sunshine of my life like
Steve Warner. No, I'm kidding. I'm kidding.
Okay. Just kidding.
But god the thing is god does not make jump and everybody out there was made just like we're made,

(01:01:11):
and there is we are not
we are not junk and those of your viewership they be may be wondering is my
life over no it's not well just uh before it goes more depth of a you're finding
your faith because you're talking you've got while when you became a believer,

(01:01:33):
you're talking about i know your book is fighting your
demons so what kind of demons during the process and
in that mix sure let's talk about the demons in the faith and what when do you
remember this fight really right that's obviously the nifty gritty well i think
i think a lot of my date but a lot of my inner demons were were the way i was

(01:01:55):
brought up talking Talking about my dad.
I didn't think I was worth anything. Right.
I had that little, I remember growing up, and I don't know. Did you ever see the Flintstones?
Yes. When you were, okay. Well, you remember how the little devils would show
up on Fred Flintstone's shoulder, and one would say, can't do this, Fred.

(01:02:19):
The other one would say, Fred, you should do this.
And it was his conscience, basically.
That's not what the demons were like. The inner demons for me were those gut-wrenching,
traumatized feelings that when I looked at them, I was like,

(01:02:40):
I don't know how I get past them.
But it was, one was fear.
Fear of my future. Fear of, am I just going to end up in a small town with no
ambition? Am I going to be that guy that people look at and go, yeah, that's the guy.

(01:03:00):
He had that mean dad that he didn't end up being anything.
He wasn't worth anything.
He was the one treated like trash or felt like trash.
But the fear, the self-esteem, the anger.
Oh, my God. Think about it, Fraser. How many of us have those inner demons where

(01:03:25):
we're just angry and we're carrying around that anger?
Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. And so you think about the anger.
Then you think about the inability to forgive.
So it's harboring. You just think when you're carrying around so much stuff
and you can't forgive it,

(01:03:46):
But you're harboring so many feelings that you cannot really experience true
happiness because it's always everything you see is going to be shaded. Mm hmm.
And so you're and then you know the question is am I lovable that was another

(01:04:11):
demon inner demon am I lovable am I able to love,
can I really have these people that have it together that I see that seem to
really have it together can I have anything like they have.
Did you Did you find that people you found, did you find that,

(01:04:33):
did you struggle, did you, what was the word I'm trying to say?
Did you struggle to feel, did you not feel that you were loved as much at all yourself?
No, I. Or did you feel you were loved? With my dad, I felt more like a possession.
I knew my mom loved me. My mom allowed me to play ball. She allowed me to be in sports. words.

(01:04:58):
There were times that my mom actually cracked my dad over the head with a chair,
because he would be going after one of the kids.
I want to say, as you grew up, were you a lovable kind of guy,
or did people love you, or were you kind of guy who got picked on a bit quite
a lot, or were you kind of the butt of jokes?

(01:05:19):
Well, the youngest of five kids, a lot of being the butt of the joke.
And I enjoyed being in the butt of the joke now. I enjoy it.
And it's because I'm happy with who I am.
That when you're a kid, and if you're always the butt of the joke,
you kind of wonder, well, you kind of, and sometimes you kind of believe what they say.

(01:05:43):
But I do, I really do appreciate my mom so much. And.
What I didn't know was I was wondering when I was young like that and all the
fighting going on in the household and all that going on I was wondering,

(01:06:11):
is that what a house is supposed to be like?
I mean you know as a kid you have these questions,
and yeah post PTSD PTSD, when you're a kid and there's a lot of fighting,
I think as a kid you can really develop PTSD,

(01:06:33):
because any time you hear somebody scream, you cower. You cower down.
I'll tell you this, how I fought the inner demons was, number one, just like an alcoholic.
You know, they say the hardest thing for an alcoholic is to admit that they're an alcoholic. Yeah.

(01:07:00):
Don't look. This is what I would beg people.
Don't look at the inner demons as something that's unbeatable.
That it's your destiny to be cursed by those kind of feelings and that trauma.

(01:07:20):
But number one, admit they're there.
When I was wrestling somebody, how foolish would I have looked if I'd have gotten
the ring and never acknowledged the other guy there? Yeah, exactly.
I wouldn't have known where to throw my punches. I wouldn't have known how to
fight, where to guard myself, how to protect myself.

(01:07:41):
If I did not see my enemy?
Well, the thing is, is God tells us he's more powerful that we are going to win.
What we got to do is, number one, we got to believe we're going to win.
And number two, we've got to acknowledge that they're there.

(01:08:03):
And just like wrestling, say, okay, God, I'm going to tag your hand.
I need you to come in here and do it. I need you to put the finish on them. I need them to be gone.
I need you to send them back to the dressing room.
They'll tear me down. But you are the part of this team that nobody can beat, God.

(01:08:27):
God, I need you as my partner.
You do that and treasure that, that's when the miracles happen.
What would you say in your life apart from your early stages,
what's the really most challenging thing that's happened in your life that's really,

(01:08:50):
kind of knocked you sideways completely that's really made really just like
crikey I mean even in your life currently now or even the early stage of Christianity
or whatever what is something that's really really knocked you,
really been a, really like a noose, I would say,

(01:09:12):
like a weight around the neck and you're being thrown in the river kind of thing.
Well, almost died four weeks ago, Fraser. I didn't tell you,
almost died four weeks ago. You're crazy.
Crikey. Wow. I think I've known you for a bit longer than that.
You almost died four weeks ago.
What happened? Yeah. What happened was I developed the bacteria.

(01:09:32):
It was my.
In fact, it was on my right side.
It was breaking the bones. It
was swelling so bad that it was breaking the bones in my jaw, in my feet.

(01:09:53):
And it was pulling my nose to my right ear.
They still don't know what happened to it or why it started.
Started but i was they put me in the hospital thought i was going to be in there
for two or three days no for a day actually and i was in there for five and

(01:10:19):
a half days good grief now,
my goodness you can see the difference well obviously people who are watching
or listening to us on the podcast you can go to the youtube video unless you're
listening in the audio version and you can see a difference as well.
You can see that difference?
Yeah, totally. It's a wow.
So, yeah.

(01:10:43):
But when my son, Austin, this is when we were living in Texas.
My son, Austin, started turning purple one day.
And we didn't know why. I had just been told my dad had stage 4 cancer. We were talking.

(01:11:03):
I was in Dallas, Texas on business. I was driving out of Dallas to go home.
My wife calls me, says I'm in back of an ambulance, get back to Dallas in a hurry.
The same hospital that John F. Kennedy died in, the former U.S.
President, my son was taken to that hospital. they tested his blood and he he

(01:11:26):
had zero platelets in his blood he was bleeding to death on the inside,
for several months yeah i was mad i hit a tree and uh i'd go out take an ax i'd hit a tree,
and probably yell damn it 20 30 times why are you doing this why are you taking my son.

(01:11:55):
Not till maybe four or five months later.
They had already told us that if he scratches his knee, he may bleed out before
you get to the hospital. Right.
Now you tell me how you're going to keep a two, three-year-old kid scratching his knee. Certainly.

(01:12:15):
We one day had a,
message on our phone The doctors at the Parkland Hospital Children's Medical
Center there in Dallas said, Mr.
And Ms. Smith, we're calling. We have new test results on Austin.

(01:12:38):
I said, we do not know how to explain it.
But we took his blood this morning and his platelet count was absolutely normal.
The only thing we could say was it's in America. Wow.

(01:13:00):
You know, Fraser, I've been told three times, I had to tell,
three times that I was going to be hospital bound for the rest of my life.
I was in second grade, believe it or not. And they told me I had to have special
braces made. I just think I ended up being a pro athlete, but I had to have

(01:13:23):
braces made. My mom would pay for those braces.
They told me I would be in a wheelchair by the time I was 12, 13 years old.
12, 13 years old, I began wearing some different braces.
Playing ball, playing baseball, I was a pitcher. I had a 94-mile-an-hour fastball.

(01:13:46):
I was attacked by a man and when I hit him, put him down on the ground,
my itching hand was destroyed so so.

(01:14:08):
But I was told at that point that by the time I was 21, 22 years old, I'd be in a wheelchair.
Then living in Texas, they tell me that I was actually born with degenerative joint disease.
My entire body, my joints are getting weaker. They do not understand how I was able to play ball.

(01:14:32):
They do not understand how I became a professional wrestler.
And they told me I was months from being in a wheelchair.
They told me that I was so, and that there was nothing they could do for the pain.
And I'll tell you how close I was, how bad it was.

(01:14:55):
Brenda went to work one day at church.
And I was sitting on the bed. and I had my oxy and my hydrocodone all laid out
on the bed in a straight line and she had to go.
She said, don't do it. Don't do it, Mark.

(01:15:16):
And I had my drink with me, whatever it was.
And she will tell you, she did not know when she came in the door that I was
going to be alive, but she thought more than likely I was going to be dead.
So yeah.

(01:15:40):
The inner demons I think I've had a few battles I mean I don't say that being
a smart aleck as a joke or being funny I think I have,
the thing is that's been a long long time ago.
I hated reading and writing. Gosh, I hated it.

(01:16:05):
Ended up going to college and going to grad school, graduate school,
at a school called a paper mill because you had to write so much. Go ahead.
Well, I wrote the book in two and a half weeks.

(01:16:27):
Was my actual writing time on the book.
It was not finished until we adopted Jefferson.
That's when the voice in me said, it's done.
And what I've been really surprised about is like 227 pages or something like that.

(01:16:47):
And people are saying, yeah, I read it two nights.
Yeah, I read it three nights. My one of my the one daughter that I adopted, Native American.
When she was in the foster system, she was raped.
And that had tormented her.

(01:17:09):
And she took one of the books without me knowing and come to find out she read it two days. Mm hmm.
And what surprised me was that she read it.
She said, Dad, it helped. It helped, Dad.

(01:17:33):
She said, I'm at terms with everything.
And so it's been something that's actually helped my own family.
And for a guy that hated to read and write, I can't believe I did it.
I feel like I look at that, and I feel like it's a miracle.

(01:17:54):
I'm sure there's a lot more we can actually talk about going forward.
I know your book, so I was going to say, I'm sure you've got more stuff you
could talk about maybe in another interview.
I'm just more conscious. Your dog's been barking.
I'm very excited. When you're trying to say a serious topic,
and you hear his dog just starts yapping away in the background.

(01:18:15):
Oh, see, I figured this. Yes, I'm taking them to the Chinese restaurant after eating lunch.
They think the joke's on me. The joke's about to be on them.
All I can hear is the dog barking. I hear the kids that they've been talking.
I'm thinking, this is not... I can hear the same... You're talking the serious

(01:18:37):
part. I'm thinking, oh, no, it's the dog again.
That's the reason I pulled it up to me. and the thing is is I I really do hope,
that I think we're going to do a part two because I think there's a lot more stuff,
we're going to do in our section because there's a lot more stuff you could

(01:18:59):
talk about I think and I believe yeah I think there's stuff you probably just
touched the surface on by looking at it so by saying what you've said so far
I don't know how open and who they want to be.
I think I told you one time that I'm going to be an open book.

(01:19:20):
Any question, right? And I hope I haven't dodged anything. No, it's all good.
I'm enjoying it. There's a lot more wrestling stuff we could talk about as well.
So when did you write your book and when was it published?

(01:19:41):
Okay, it was published September 15th September 13th, I'm sorry. This year?
Yes, yes. So it hasn't been long at all.
And I was serious about the writing time. The thing is, I'd had it written. I knew it wasn't ready.
But I didn't know exactly what the ending was supposed to be.

(01:20:06):
Right. And then when we adopted Jefferson and Colton, it made me realize more about the inner demons.
And I realized, okay, that's what I need to touch on. That's what I need to get into.
And I sat down and just a few hours, I wrote quite a bit about inner demons, fighting demons.

(01:20:31):
And the thing is, what was I doing? I couldn't defeat the demons.
It was God that defeated the demons.
But what I was doing was wrestling with them.
So for me, that's why the topic is so pertinent, so important,
is because I could wrestle, maybe hold my own, but I couldn't win the battle, not by myself.

(01:20:59):
So let's just do what going forward now
you've written you've written the book that's only been recently going
forward they obviously were kind of coming we're getting
close to the end of the year and you're going to be forecasting for the next
again year what kind of stuff are you looking to achieve any more goals obviously
before weeks you've just you could have died but you're still you obviously

(01:21:21):
still got work God's got work for you to do and in finish so,
that means it means getting getting back in the ring
again one last time for a farewell thing you never know
but what are your kind of general okay
looking forward into the next year what kind of goals or things would you like
to try and achieve that you've done this time but maybe what would you like

(01:21:44):
to try and maybe achieve further in that ladder well what I would like to do
and what I'm working on is I've already,
got the title and the outline for the sequel. This book.
It's going to be called The Rebuild. Brilliant.

(01:22:05):
And because we talk about the demon defeating the demons, but when you get those inner demons,
when you've won the battle, when God has helped you and the battle's been won,
then how do you rebuild? How do you go from there?
So it's going to build on like that. we've already

(01:22:26):
been contacted by some churches that will
they want to use the book as a study guide into different
lessons so i'm going to be writing a study guide more than likely to go along
with it and if anybody wants it they can have it we are also starting the book
i really enjoy speaking with people i enjoy the connecting just this like you

(01:22:50):
fraser i man i have a ball with you i do.
I mean it's fun and,
hope to be able to go out more to groups, churches, different organizations,

(01:23:10):
conferences, whatever,
and be able to use whatever parts of our story will fit in, that will fit in
with their message, their topic.
And so we're hoping the public speaking is going to increase.
Greece. We're looking at the study guide, writing that.

(01:23:32):
I've already been getting thoughts together for the sequel. And,
the Lord, yeah, I'm going to get back into the ring a couple times, maybe a time or two.
And And got a couple of Comic-Con shows or whatever that I'm probably going

(01:24:00):
to be hitting up and doing things with.
And last night, someone made a joke. They were laughing with me,
and they said, you ought to have a bobblehead doll.
And I said, yeah, I'm a bobblehead doll all the time.
They said, no, seriously. So I actually checked in a bobblehead, believe it or not.
But I want my younger kids,

(01:24:25):
I want to see a lot of this come to fruition because,
number one, I want my kids to see that God's not finished with you.
That you always have a purpose. Even when you don't realize what that purpose

(01:24:46):
is, you just might be getting prepared for that purpose or for that task, whatever it may be.
You know, you and I have talked, and you never know what our relationship may bring in the future.
And so, you know, I'm excited. I've got things that I want to do.

(01:25:08):
I've got some things started. started but we know
that i've told someone the other day god's
god has really got a sense of humor take someone like me and you know have him
write a book because you know i'm you can tell by talking to me i'm very highly

(01:25:28):
intellectual i can't even say that without laughing i'm sorry.
So what just two things what would you say for somebody who's just recently
written a book what would you say to somebody who's maybe starting to look at
writing a book or their story for the first time well what I would say is,

(01:25:52):
number one,
to be more than just writing facts
don't be writing an
obituary you get
what i mean fact after fact after fact there's got to be a meaning behind it
right i mean look at look at the lessons if you've learned lessons in your life

(01:26:18):
okay can they help other people do you think other people have ran into those same walls.
Because I'll tell you, if you can't relate to an audience, an audience is probably
not going to respond well to the book.
And so what I want to do was with love, with humor, laughing at myself,

(01:26:45):
being the boat of the joke and all this,
what I want to do is let people know, hey, you can have happiness in your life
no matter what you've been through unless you're being put in the grave you've
got another chapter in your life,
so let the big tag team partner upstairs let him kind of lead you in that next

(01:27:08):
match in your life and you're going to find out some great things happen and
you're going to be shocked by what you do is that right.
So we're about to rest a little bit you've obviously talked about the older
wrestlers you've kind of worked with and been with, what about any of the modern
day wrestlers and people have you been around,

(01:27:30):
more of the modern like Sam Azain obviously you've been around,
Bray White's dad Mark Rotunda you've
been around who have you been around like the modern
day wrestlers to this day from WWE and
maybe AEW be as well for example and
other like impact wrestling as well yeah sure well i

(01:27:53):
mean i you know i told you i had worked
against brian hillman well brian hillman
jr who was in dark side of
the rain the the one the two-parter they
had on brian senior well i got
to know brian jr brian jr is
a a great kid super kid and so

(01:28:15):
talented and he has now signed
a contract he's actually i think on nxt now he goes by alexis king or something
like that i think is what it is and a super guy and he he was taught the right
way he was trained by stew hart the hart family up in canada.

(01:28:40):
I just think the world of him. I also think Cody Hall, Scott Hall's son.
Fantastic work. Fantastic. And I gotta tell you,
before I knew he was Scott's son, his build is so much like Scott,
even the way he stands and the way he puts his hands on the hips, all this kind of stuff.

(01:29:04):
I thought, God, he looks like Scott Hall. So I went up to him and I said, who trained you?
He said, my dad. I said, well, okay. He said, Scott Hall. I said,
D. Scott Hall? He kind of grinned. He said, no.
And I'm thinking, you liar. You liar. You liar. You know you're lying.

(01:29:24):
Anyway, I walked back. I walked about five foot away from him, turned around.
I walked up to him and said, okay, now that we're going to have a fresh start,
I want to tell you, son, I thoroughly enjoyed working with you.
And he said, you did. I said, yeah, I did.
And I said, for all things, the first time I met him, Terry Funk was working Ric Flair.

(01:29:49):
And the match had gotten out of control. I and Scott Hall were supposed to go down and pull him apart.
Well, I'm standing at the curtain in gorilla position with Scott.
Hey, Scott? Yeah. Yeah. You know, that deep voice Scott Hall had.

(01:30:10):
I go, exactly, what are we supposed to do?
How are they expecting us to pull them apart or anything? He goes, I don't know.
We're just going to go there and get the you-know-what beat out of us.
Okay, that's cool. I don't know. I'm just here for the ride, man. Okay, Scott.

(01:30:30):
And I was telling Cody that. He says, that sounds just like him.
And I told him a few things that Scott would do when we'd be at a lounge or
whatever and he'd say boy that sounds like my daddy I said well it ought to, it was him.
And Gilman he almost went to tears,

(01:30:53):
or his eyes watered, let me say it that way we talked after he had wrestled,
and I looked at him and I said you know, I was in the ring with you.
I'd feel like I was in the room with your daddy. And,
well you wrestle my dad i said oh yeah
when he first came up to wcw i worked

(01:31:16):
a lot he said you're kidding i said
no i said the way you jump up and down and get
warm in gorilla position the way
you think about the match the way you're using your arms and kind of through
your mind going through the motions he did the same thing and then brian started
to take bringing people calling people well hey come here he used to work with

(01:31:39):
my dad come here and we talked for maybe 45 minutes,
and we're still in contact with each other but it's just,
it's you know it's such a blessing it really is such a blessing I feel so bad
for my pretend that what they've had to go through.

(01:32:01):
What about so let's obviously there's going to be and we need to do another
interview because we have talked for about an hour and 40 minutes almost oh
my gosh okay time flies when you're having fun isn't it it's great yeah it is I've had a great time so,
it was great sound effects and dogs and kids coming home from school it's been great it's brilliant,

(01:32:29):
Chinese markets are waiting that's right they're going to have funny tasting egg rolls tomorrow.
The animals will be harmed during this broadcast,
but what would you on a message of hope to people what would you like to,

(01:32:56):
share a positive message to somebody what would you like to share share with
somebody how they've listened to this and you've watched or listened on podcast
or YouTube what would you like to share well,
If you're on a podcast, I would just say, look, be honest and you're going to

(01:33:19):
have a great time. Be honest.
Don't try to embellish. About everything I tell you, you can find on the Internet.
So find pieces of me in the ring with the guys.
And you're able to really tell the truth without

(01:33:39):
anger and that if the people
that have been in your lives if you understand they may not be people that you
care for but from everybody we come in contact with we do learn i mean we do
learn some from some people we learn very positive things.

(01:34:01):
From some people, we learn how not to be.
So take it for what it's worth.
And that is, understand everybody that you deal with in your life, there is a positive.
We either learn something good or we learn something bad.
And oftentimes, if it's someone one and we're learning bad from them,

(01:34:23):
we can see their life and see how those bad, whether they're actions or whatever they may be,
we can see how it affects that person.
You can almost see that's how my life's going to end up if I go down that road.
Take things as learning. if somebody if

(01:34:45):
somebody you know business-wise i
mean screws you remember this you're gonna be able still to look at yourself
in the mirror and be happy about who you are they can't and again you just learned how not to be.

(01:35:08):
Think it's positive when we understand that everything
can be used to make us into
better or loving understanding people when we understand when we when we understand
that i think that's a big positive we become a better success does that help

(01:35:29):
answer the question yep i'm just letting you talk what my son doing okay just your final word almost,
I'm just letting you see your obituary, that's what I'm doing I'm joking.
By the way, for the audience that doesn't know I'm the one with the Scottish
accent I don't know where that guy's from Let me get my finger I don't know where he's from,

(01:35:55):
I'm from Scotland Those who have been whoever's listening whether or watched
on YouTube or listened via Facebook link,
LinkedIn or listened via the audio of the podcast version interviewing Ira Mark-Smith
it goes by Mark-Smith, a former wrestler,

(01:36:17):
looking to get back into the ring after a wee bit of a farewell shindig and
we're looking to just to kind of,
talk about his book obviously Wrestling With These Demons, talking about his
just life growing up but hey, this skill, and they'll just say...
Of what he's done. He's now pasting. We're going to ask him before I carry on.

(01:36:43):
Where can people connect with you? I don't believe in cheap plugs, but here.
If you're watching this, you're going to cheat plugs.
Instead of showing, for those who are listening, tell people where they can connect.
Our website is WrestlingWithDemons. okay .godaddycites.com.

(01:37:08):
Wrestlingwithdemons.godaddycites.com wrestlingwithdemons.godaddycites.com go to Amazon,
Wrestling with Demons by Mark Smith you will find our book it is red on top
and kind of silverish on the bottom and you see my family on the bottom I made
sure they were real small in case the FBI is looking for them.

(01:37:36):
And on the web on facebook it's wrestling with dame demons dot smith wrestling
with those links will be in the show notes to the uh the the podcast those who
are listening on the audio version but yeah mark is when thank you for being it is a very spontaneous,

(01:37:57):
call I used we happened to be free and we did a spontaneous podcast,
and we just did it and we've talked for the best part of nearly cover not just
shy of two hours which means you've obviously had a lot to talk about and you've
got a good in-depth story so to those of you who might be you've got time to,

(01:38:18):
do it in sections it's been great it's been great hearing your story the stories
from wrestlers and obviously just your life and how you've kind of put it all
back and be a support going forward in some way or form from across the pond, helping you, yeah,
in your next chapter, next book, etc., etc.

(01:38:39):
All right. Well, I appreciate it so much. For everybody out there,
I want you to know, Fraser is the real deal.
I mean, I have talked to him on and off.
You will not find a better guy. And that's really important because sometimes
people are really good showmen and you never see the real person.

(01:39:01):
With him, you are seeing the real person. So please support him.
Listen, because he is not at all,
trying to pull the wool over anyone's eyes or
anything like that and he does this because he
really cares so please give him
a shout out and let you know you appreciate him he's a fantastic guy and he's

(01:39:24):
my brother and I love him to death thank you very much for those who are listening
thank you and if you want to connect with Mark and maybe have him on your show
and be interviewed and or if you want to get advice on his book or get his book.
Hey, listen, I'm happy to connect you guys up and you can have a good old natter
or chinwag on a call and hopefully you can get some more advice or be able to

(01:39:48):
collaborate in some way or form, basically.
I highly recommend getting him on your show and interviewing him again from
a different angle, different perspective.
I look forward to our second chat at some point, which will be good.
And a free dog to the first caller. Free hot dogs.
Get the dogs ready get the buns get the onions I'll even give you some kibble,

(01:40:15):
are you a mustard man or are you more of a ketchup.
Right on that note listen thanks again to everybody wherever you are in the
world whether it's morning, evening, afternoon and whatever it is have a great,
great time whatever you're doing each day keep reaching for the top and until

(01:40:39):
next time we'll catch you on the flip side on the next show and you take it
easy all the best bye for now.

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A Wrestler’s Struggle, Transformation, and Faith - Podcast interview with Ira Mark Smith

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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;}A Wrestler’s Struggle, Transformation, and Faith - Podcast interview with Ira Mark Smith