December 11, 2025 • 41 mins
Ever wonder why crowds once believed with their whole hearts? We sit down with legendary referee and promoter Nick Patrick to trace the line from real-deal kayfabe to today’s indie surge in Atlanta—and we don’t dodge the messy parts. From growing up with The Assassin, Jody Hamilton, to flushing blades as a kid and learning the code that kept heels and babyfaces apart, Nick maps how presentation shaped passion and why belief is a choice a promotion must earn every night.
We unpack the Starrcade storm around Hogan vs Sting from the person counting the fall. Nick walks through conflicting instructions, a missing all-hands huddle, and the trust gap that turned a dream finish into a debate that still rages. Then the conversation shifts to craft: why calling it in the ring beats memorized marathons, how announcers should react to what unfolds, and how a ref can get real heat by playing the guy everyone thinks they can whip—until his friends show up.
The story lands in Atlanta with Deep South Wrestling. Nick breaks down a smart local model: outdoor brewery shows along the BeltLine that hook walk-up fans, a family-friendly tone with room for edge, and a card built for variety—technical, high-flying, comedy, and grit in the right spots. It’s not two hours of the same match; it’s a show that changes gears like a great main event. We share a moving moment when a fan took his graduation walk in the ring, then pivot back to business with dates, a new indoor home at Monday Night Garage, and monthly livestreams on the horizon. The takeaway is simple and powerful: make moments, not checklists. Teach young pros to work the people, not just the moves. That’s how you make wrestling feel real again.
If this conversation hits your wrestling brain, follow the show, share it with a friend who loves WCW history or indie gems, and leave a review so more fans can find it. Then come see Deep South Wrestling in Atlanta and tell us what moment stole your night.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_02 (00:20):
Boy, that ended abruptly.
Hello, everybody, and welcome toan all-new Road Trip After
Hours.
I'm your host, Mike Davis, andalong with me, of course, each
and every week is none otherthan WWE Hall of Famer, Mr.
Teddy Long.
Hey Teddy.
SPEAKER_01 (00:35):
Hey, Matthew, how are you doing today?
SPEAKER_02 (00:37):
Man, I'm doing great.
Look here, I want you tointroduce our guest today
because you've worked with thisguy.
You've known this guy forever.
Oh, great.
Right the time I say that, hehands gets out of the room.
What's he doing here, Teddy?
Teddy.
Hey, back.
SPEAKER_01 (00:50):
Something happened.
I don't know.
SPEAKER_02 (00:52):
Anyhow, open up to everybody who uh we got with us
this week.
SPEAKER_01 (00:56):
Uh yeah, man.
Uh, what a pleasure to have thisgentleman with us, too, man.
Uh Nick Patrick is uh his name,uh his referee name.
Everybody knows him as JoeHamilton Jr.
Uh, but uh a little quick littlestory about me and Nick.
Nick remembers uh God leavefirst when I was even trying to
break in.
I think I walked up to Nick andthe umni and I hand him a
(01:18):
resume.
SPEAKER_03 (01:18):
Yeah, that's the first time with you.
Yeah.
That's what you got you.
I turned, I gave that I gavethat resume to Bobby Simmons.
Yeah, I remember him.
And I and he showed the officepeople, but you know who the
other office people were at thatpoint in time.
Exactly.
And it didn't really help you awhole lot.
I I knew I turned it in and I Istarted working at that time.
(01:42):
I was refing, and then I startedworking, and I and I was
traveling, and I was inLouisiana working and uh as a
wrestler, and and I saw uh theshow back in Atlanta, and I saw
Teddy on there refing, and Isaid, Holy shit, he made it,
hell yeah.
I didn't know the Crockets wasrunning him to death, you know,
uh shit at him doing man,because they they they can run
(02:03):
you hard, especially that's thatCharlotte territory.
That was the Carolinas wasn't nojoke.
You traveled a lot in theCarolinas back.
SPEAKER_02 (02:11):
You too, especially when I you know because when I
look back in wrestling, I meanyou're in my sweet spot.
Both of you are in a sweet spot.
You were in the uh NWA, JimCrockett, uh WCW2 WWE.
So I felt like I grew with youguys as you progressed through
your careers.
Um, but man, I I was thinkingtoday, it seems to me, and and
(02:32):
you tell me if this is true ornot, Nick, because it just feels
like the fans of the early dayswere a much different fan than
that there is of today.
They I believe those folkstruly, genuinely uh believed in
a lot of cases what they saw.
Uh, and even if they didn't,they would just, you know, they
(02:53):
would give that uh, you know,they would let go of that, you
know, functioning, going, no,no, I'll go with it.
But is there a difference in thefans today and yesterday?
SPEAKER_03 (03:04):
Yeah, I believe there is because and and it's
not all on the on the fanseither.
It's a lot on us because thepresentation's completely
different.
There were a lot more believersback in the day because we tried
to make believers out of themback in the day.
And and K Fabe was like, youknow, uh, especially, you know,
I grew up in this.
This is all my you know, fromday one of my existence, you
(03:24):
know.
I got pictures of my mom holdingin at shows, you know.
But uh K Fabe, man, back in theday was a real, was real, man.
I I saw all those Armstrong boysas a kid, but then his Bob was a
baby face and Pop was a heel.
So they were on the uh if weever all met together at the
like at the old city auditorium,sometimes they take their
(03:46):
families every once in a while.
Heels was on one side, baby fishwas on the other, kids wasn't
playing with each other, youknow.
I mean, there was K Fay, but Imean I didn't even I never even
met and spoke to Brad Armstronguntil we were both in the
business and and working atGeorgia Championship Wrestling,
both of us greener than hell,you know.
But I had seen all of them, youknow, as kids, you know, and I
(04:07):
and I knew who they were, butthe K Fe was was the it was the
real shit.
There was only a couple of guysthat that uh that Pop ever broke
the K Fae with, and it was justlike they would come to the
house and it would, you know,they wouldn't be out anywhere,
you know.
And it would be, you know, theywould just be kept quiet.
They'd come and he didn't go.
SPEAKER_02 (04:26):
And and well, you let's talk about your dad, first
of all, is the uh Jody Hamiltonthe assassin.
Uh now when did he smarten youup?
SPEAKER_03 (04:36):
Uh I can I think I was I can always remember being
smart because he didn't want meto be traumatized.
Yeah, you know, I mean he didn'tsmart me up to every, you know,
uh of how the actually thingsworked, but he let me know that
he was friends with this guy.
You know, like if he was gettingif I was there at the matches
and he was about to go out andhave this, you know, blood and
(04:56):
all that, he would get me withthe guy and say, Look, it's
gonna be rough tonight, but thisis my friend, and we are friends
and we're doing this together.
And I'm not mad at him, and he'snot mad at me.
And and when it's done and wecome back, we're gonna shake
kids and we're gonna be friendsagain.
So I want you to understandthat, you know, this is our
business, is what we do.
(05:16):
And I was a little kid, justlisten, yes, sir, yes, sir.
I I went hell, I was inelementary school flushing
blades down the toilet stoollooking so they can get and come
back and go, kid, go flush thisdown a toilet, you know.
Okay, yes, sir, yes, sir.
SPEAKER_02 (05:29):
And did you catch on at that point?
Okay, I know what these are fornow.
SPEAKER_03 (05:32):
Oh, yeah, yeah, but that terrified me too because I
was a little kid, I was scaredto get a shot as a little kid,
you know.
And I thought, oh my god, Icouldn't believe when I found
out what they were really doing.
I'm like, oh no, no way.
I'd rather somebody just bust meopen than do that.
I thought, you know, I didn'tknow as a kid I was a kid how
bad getting busted open hurttoo.
SPEAKER_02 (05:51):
So oh, yeah, I was surprised by how many guys would
carry them in places youwouldn't expect them to carry a
blade.
SPEAKER_03 (05:57):
I know some would actually tuck it up in their
cheek of their mouth, and crazy,and and on your fingers, and and
and I used to have to stick itin my pocket sometimes.
And when you have to go in yourpocket to get it, nine times out
of ten that some bitch is gonnastick you somewhere on your hand
and your finger or somewhere,you know.
And if you think about it now,think of how unsanitary that is
(06:18):
think about this sweat and thedirty ass mats.
SPEAKER_01 (06:21):
Yeah, Nick, if you if Nick, if you remember this,
you remember uh uh uh DennisCondri, you know, he uh left a
piece of the blade in his head,they had to take him to the
hospital.
He kept having headaches, youkept having headaches, didn't
know what it was, and theyfinally checked him.
He's left a piece of the bladein his in his head.
SPEAKER_03 (06:38):
Wow, yeah, them old blue blades were real flimsy.
They could, you know, ifsomebody hit you while you was
doing it, I can see how thatcould happen.
SPEAKER_02 (06:46):
Oh, yeah, yeah.
I mean gig a little harder thanyou really want to go.
SPEAKER_03 (06:50):
I got a funny Dennis Condri story.
Oh, boys back in the day, he hewas uh working Georgia
Championship Wrestling and theymade him the Georgia heavyweight
champion for a short time,right?
And that's when the limelightwas kicking big time in Atlanta,
you know.
Everybody was going partying ina discount, yeah, you know.
I was pressed, uh I was only acouple years out of high school,
you know.
So I had a bunch of young ladyfriends that you know that used
(07:11):
to be cheerleaders, and allthat, and we you know, we see
them up there every now andthen.
So we was all going to go to thelimelight one night, and I was
going, and Condri was gonna beme and Condri and Stan Lane, and
I think Eddie Mansfield, I thinkwas was the group that was gonna
go.
And so when I get there, I wasgoing to go meet Dennis and I
saw Steve Kern come out.
It was at the old Falcon's rest,and Dennis had an upstairs
(07:33):
apartment.
I saw Kern coming down thesteps.
He was laughing.
He said, Where are you going,Ken?
I said, I'm gonna go see CondriHe needs some help.
I said, No shit.
I said, So I went in there andthe door was opened, and Dennis
was standing on his kitchenchair, clutching onto the to the
Georgia heavyweight title,going, Nick, help me! Help me! I
(07:55):
went, What the fuck is going on?
And Steve Kern walked up, andthere was a damn possum on the
trash can, and he closed the lidon it and captured the possum
and went upstairs and knocked onConry's door when Conry opened
it.
He popped that lid open, andthat freaking possum jumped out
and ran into Conry's apartment.
Oh he was freaking out aboutthis damn thing, right?
(08:17):
So I ended up catching it withthe same trash can and Lynn and
took it back out eventually.
But what was funny is the damnthe damn uh possum ran into the
closet, and Dennis had a bunchof robes.
I think they was made by by uhuh two's wife.
He had a couple of them reallynice robes.
He was going, Nick, get thatdamn possum out of he's gonna
(08:37):
eat my robes.
SPEAKER_02 (08:43):
Well, where was Dennis from?
Was he not a country boy?
SPEAKER_03 (08:46):
No, he would wherever he was from, they he
they weren't friendly withpossum.
Because it was a baby possum.
He was a big one, it was scaredand it was hissing, you know.
He wasn't getting near us in.
SPEAKER_02 (08:59):
By the way, those of you who are watching uh right
now, uh, we're gonna take yourquestions in the room.
If you have any questions forNick, any point of his career or
for Teddy, just uh ask him andwe'll throw them up on the
screen.
Uh, before we do that though, uhNick, I do want to ask you about
something specifically uh fromyour career.
Uh was it Starkade, I guess, wasthe uh pay-per-view with Hogan
(09:21):
and Sting.
Is that correct?
SPEAKER_03 (09:23):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (09:23):
All right, let me ask you.
Uh, first of all, I've hearddifferent accounts of how that
went down and how the confusioncame around.
I know you were told threedifferent things in the process
of how to count uh for thatmatch.
Uh one of the things I want toask is when I when I heard you
(09:45):
mention, he said quick count,one, two, three.
Um when you saw Sting at thatpoint, were you shocked by the
way he looked?
Was it anything off about himwhen he told you that and gave
you the heads up?
SPEAKER_03 (09:59):
No, I did it.
SPEAKER_02 (10:01):
And the reason I asked that, Nick, is because you
hear everybody say that uh in intheir different stories that,
well, he just uh somethingwasn't right with him.
He didn't look good, he didn'thave a tan, he did all these
little silly things, but nowthat's ridiculous because he
wore a friggin' bodysuit.
SPEAKER_03 (10:18):
Yeah, yeah, he wasn't in tights you know that
like he used to wear at thatpoint.
He was he was doing a differentgimmick, so you wouldn't really
be able to tell if he had a tanor not.
Was he jacked up like he used tobe when he was Beach Boy Sting?
No, he wasn't.
He wasn't, but he had just comeoff of an injury.
He didn't look, he wasn't out ofshape.
(10:38):
He he didn't look, you know, hehe wasn't fat or needed to work
on his gut, or you know, I meanthat happens to a lot of us when
we get out, we get hurt, and wesit at home and we can't
exercise like we used to, and wejust want to enjoy this time at
all.
When you eat like you want,yeah.
Next thing you know, you've puton 30 pounds and you got, oh
shit, I go out, you know.
But uh, but that didn't happento him, you know.
(11:00):
And and that's what I neverunderstood the thing about the
tan because, like I said, he waswearing the pretty much the
bodysuit by that point in time.
So tan was, however, uh theattitude was a little bit off.
Not so much with me, but I couldtell that he he was very
apprehensive and and uhnon-trusting of Hulk and of the
(11:22):
whole scenario.
That's what I was about to ask.
I get the impression he wasbeing he felt like he was being
uh set up and uh didn't you aswell?
Yeah, oh God, yes.
I I felt like I was being thescapegoat because I who would
have been the person it had beenso easy to just say, uh, let's
get rid of Nick Packett, youknow?
Put the heat on me and get ridof me, and then they could all
(11:43):
move forward and be happy, andthat's what I thought was going
on.
Because honestly, when I gotthere, Eric usually got there
early, but yeah, I'd never seehim until later on after
production meetings and stuff.
Man, I got out of the car and Iwas four or five steps away from
my car walking toward thebuilding, and he met me in the
parking lot and told me what wasgoing on, you know.
And I thought, well, that's kindof flat, you know.
(12:06):
I mean, uh, but I imaginethere's gonna be a shitload of
twists and turns getting to thispoint, you know.
But yeah, but you know, it'sokay.
But he told me exactly prettymuch he didn't tell me slow,
like Hulk wanted me to act likeI was on Valiant Count, you know
what I mean?
But but but he just said normal,regular count, you know.
So I'm okay, you know.
So that's what the boss told meto do.
(12:27):
So that's what was gonna happen.
So then Hulk, you kind of almostreaffirmed what Eric said, but
he went slow, you know.
Yeah, so I'm like, okay, I gotit, you know.
And then Sting hit me later on,like an hour later, because I
hadn't even seen him, and andthere was never any point in
time during that entire freakingday that they got all of us
together at one time in the sameroom and talked about it.
(12:49):
Not once.
Well, that's a mistake.
Not once did that ever happen.
SPEAKER_02 (12:53):
That's a shame because that was a huge match
for WCW, who is the highest buyrate of any pay-per-view or
something like that.
Is that correct?
SPEAKER_03 (13:00):
Yeah, but uh, I was kind of used to working like
that with Hulk because he hadhis own locker room and his own
stuff, and he would have whoeverhe was working with come in
there and he they keep everybodyout.
You know, you have to be kind ofalmost invited in, you know, and
I didn't give a damn about allthat.
You know, you could tell mebefore I go out the curtain what
you need me to do, and I'll doit, you know.
And Teddy knows that, you know.
(13:21):
I I don't need to hear the wholeGettysburg address about what
you're gonna do.
Okay, well that yeah, comes onwhen it I don't care about all
that shit.
Just tell me what you if there'sa spot in there you need me to
know, then tell me.
You know, you need mespecifically, otherwise, I'd
rather have a spontaneousreaction to what's happened in
front of me and follow theaction.
It looks more real, and and Ithink that works better for
announcers too, because a lot oftimes when announcers already
(13:43):
know where the where it's going,they try to lead you to that
that way instead of letting thestory take you there.
They try to lead you there, youknow.
SPEAKER_02 (13:51):
Yeah, I've always preferred announcing and
wrestling to be a reactive uhannouncing to what is happening
in the ring.
Don't tell me about everythingelse that's happening on Sunday
and next Tuesday, focus on thematch and give a match call.
Makes it much better for me.
And I think a lot of fans arethe same way.
They prefer that real sportauthentic feel, not like you're
(14:14):
being getting uh, you know, a10-minute commercial every time
you watch a match.
SPEAKER_03 (14:19):
It doesn't look as scripted.
I mean, you get you get and youget emotion.
You know, a lot of times whenyou just go move for move and
you split everything that youtalked about in the back and you
don't go outside the box, youleave emotion out of it a lot of
the times, you know.
And uh because a lot of timeswhen you're just out there
working, cool shit happens andthings present themselves, and
and you know, and you you youmiss all of that if you're just
(14:40):
gonna stick to what we don'tjust stick to what we talked
about.
And a lot of these young greenkids think that if they go out
there and they have a match andthey didn't forget any of the
the two hours of shit that theytalked about, then it was a
great match.
Forget whether the peoplereacted to it, whether they
jerked them up, they had themdown, and they got them set, you
(15:00):
know.
Forget all that.
They just didn't know well, wedidn't forget nothing.
It was great.
That's that's frustrating.
Yes, but I like with my littlecompany, we're in a situation
now because I I like to have uha variety.
I want my show to be a varietyshow.
SPEAKER_02 (15:17):
His company, by the way, is Deep South.
I don't want to make sure weeverybody knows that because
it's a fantastic promotion.
SPEAKER_03 (15:23):
Oh, thank you.
Thank you very much.
But I like I like it to be avariety show.
I don't want to have two hoursof spot fest.
I don't want to have two hoursof Matt Classic.
I don't want uh I want to havethe whole gamut.
I want to have some funny ha ha.
I want to have I want to havesexuality, I want to have the
technical boom, I want to havethe high spot client, but I want
(15:43):
to have a mix of it and put inthe proper place so that the
show changes gears.
Just like a match changes gearsat certain times.
You want your show to dobasically the same thing, only
on a grander scale.
And uh you have to have allthose things in order to be able
to change gears.
And and to me, I'd be bored totears sitting and watching any
(16:04):
uh even a hardcore.
I couldn't sit and watch twohours of guys killing each other
doing hardcore.
It takes me uh it's about 10minutes, and that's not all I
can do, you know.
Yeah, because I'm looking for,you know, I I like more of the
work aspect of it, thestorytelling aspect of it.
SPEAKER_02 (16:19):
But but you gotta have all three of us are that
way.
SPEAKER_03 (16:23):
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (16:25):
Yeah.
All right, guys, uh, real quick,we're gonna take a quick break.
Um, we're gonna come back withyour questions for Nick and for
Teddy.
Uh, I do want to mention that uhwe have a special guest again
next Thursday night, and here'sa clue.
SPEAKER_00 (16:38):
Anytime Abdullah the Butcher is uh in that squared
circle, his opponent is in for alot of trouble.
Abdullah the Butcher, a man whoappears to be almost impervious
to pain.
Uh a man who uh has nothing uhin his mind at all but to
destroy and destruct hisopponent as quickly as possible
in the rain.
SPEAKER_02 (17:34):
All right, welcome back, Road Trip After Hours.
I'm your host, Mac Davis.
Yes, sir.
SPEAKER_01 (17:39):
Before we get started in here, I wanted to
mention something too.
You know, we had Nick on theshow and glad we could do that.
But I wanted him to say just alittle bit more about his own
company.
You know what I mean?
Nick has been starting, it'sbeen running for some years now.
They're traveling all over theworld, going everywhere.
So they could be coming in yourtown pretty soon.
So uh Nick, give me that, giveus the name of that, and then
(18:00):
you know, give me a little bitmore information on your on your
on your shows.
SPEAKER_02 (18:03):
He ain't going nowhere anyhow.
SPEAKER_03 (18:05):
Yeah, we we we're focusing really on the Atlanta
market right now.
I want to get really strong inAtlanta.
I want to end up getting anAtlanta TV, and we've got we've
just actually secured a placethat is going to be our our
once-a-month place that we goto.
It's uh it's uh it's gonna beand we'll announce all the
dates, but we just secured it.
And it's it's indoors too.
(18:26):
So you know, because I've beenloving doing the outdoor shows,
but there's always a risk, andyou can go year-round, you know.
It's just too rough on yourtalent and your fans, and you
know, yeah, and and we're gonnabe able to do that.
SPEAKER_02 (18:36):
But you know what though, Nick, I don't mean to
cut you off, but I do want tosay I have seen because I watch
a lot of the uh the videos afterthe fact, I kind of keep up with
what happens with your shows,and I've seen some very uh cold
temperatures where shows wereheld.
I've seen where storms just gotfinished where the shows were
held, and every time it's apacked house.
(18:57):
You pull in a great amount ofpeople to these shows.
SPEAKER_03 (19:00):
Well, we we oh you give them a good show, yes.
Well, that and they're gettingfamiliar with our characters
now, and the shows that we runand a lot of the places that we
run are right off that belt linein Atlanta, and that's that that
thing is so it's so awesomebecause people up and down all
day long.
So we get our regular group ofpeople and the and and the
people that are from that areabecause we promote that little
(19:22):
area hard, you know.
Yeah and but we also get peoplethat are walking by all day
long.
Oh, look, there's wrestling, andit got because we don't have a
headcount.
The wrestling is free with wherewe're at.
You know, if you come, you wantget to watch the wrestling, you
gotta buy their food and drinkand all that, but you get to
watch the wrestling for free.
So the the way we uh get uh anestimated headcount, because
(19:43):
we're not selling tickets, is byhow many tabs we sell.
So those people that are walkingup and watching for a match or
two and then leaving, they'rebuying something, you know, and
it adds to our total, you know.
And and I wanna count thosepeople.
They come up, you know, even itmight not stay for the whole
show, but They may live, butthen there's some other people
coming from over here that dothe same thing.
(20:04):
And we have our core group thatgets there early to you know to
get in close and feed, you know,to get the seats.
But everything that fills in allaround it are people that you
know, and a lot of them stay,you know, once once they get to
watch it, a lot of them arehooked and they stay for the
whole thing.
But there is a you know a lot ofpeople that just come up and
like, oh crap, you know, Ididn't know they had wrestling.
Let's check it out, you know.
And we got a lot of people doingthat.
SPEAKER_02 (20:25):
And and that's the good thing about the outdoor
events that you do because youcan draw those eyes.
Where if you're in the building,they're not gonna be able to
just go, oh, what's that overthere?
Other than seeing a you know abunch of cars in a parking lot.
So those outdoor shows have doneyou very well.
Uh yeah, I think the uh one thatwe went to, Teddy, I believe it
was outdoors.
We were at uh Burke Place, hadgreat uh beer and food.
SPEAKER_03 (20:47):
Oh man, and we have a good time.
We have a good time.
You know, you can come and eatand drink, and uh the food's
great, it's drink specials, andyou know, it's it's adult
entertainment, but it's kidfriendly as well.
You know, bunch of kids thatcome, you know, and we're and
we're conscious of that, youknow.
And we know even though eventhough we're inside the city and
inside the perimeter, and youcan get a little more edgy, you
(21:09):
know, especially in certainvenues, yeah.
We're very conscious about,especially the the restaurant
places and the and the breweriesand stuff that we do, because
that that's family-oriented, youknow, you're not gonna go in
there and and go blood and gutsand cussing and all that stuff,
you know.
But I want to know that peopleto know that there we have that
edge, but we only bring it outin appropriate places, you know.
(21:31):
You know, you have to know yourarea, you have to know your
crowd.
And uh you know, so when we dopay shows and and those are
coming, that you're gonna get alot more.
You know, you're gonna get moreof uh it's gonna be more raw
stuff that we can't give you uhin in the other venues.
But what we do give you in theother venues, it's not selling
it short, it's storytelling andathleticism.
(21:53):
And and and young kids that arehungry, and young kids that are
hungry, they they they bring adifferent level of work than
than folks that are complacentand happy, they're just doing it
for fun.
You know, hey, you know, uh, youknow, I don't I'm not looking to
go somewhere else and make it toanother level.
I'm just this is just fun forme.
You know, people that are havingthat hunger bring bring a
(22:15):
different level, and that's whatI'm looking for.
I'm looking for kids that aretrying their best and everything
they have to buster to the nextlevel and that promote
themselves.
I look at that as well.
You know, I don't just hire justbecause some kid can do a couple
of moves, well, that's justthat's fine and dandy.
There's a lot of people that cando a bunch of moves.
The win and why and how you knowhow is not that hard.
(22:36):
When and why is is ultimatelyimportant.
But uh, let's see.
SPEAKER_02 (22:42):
We have uh Dwayne in here saying good evening, and we
also have pretty classy lady.
She's popular in the room aswell.
Oh, good to see you in here.
Zach Minger, one of our uh uhregulars into the room day and
national app day.
Uh so there's no food this week,uh Teddy.
SPEAKER_01 (23:04):
Zach is too much.
Yeah, man.
SPEAKER_03 (23:06):
Teddy, if you stretch anybody today, it's
national stretching day.
I'm gonna go let's go stretchsomebody when this is over.
I'm gonna stretch him here,Kiddy.
SPEAKER_02 (23:17):
Ellen uh's in the room.
Hey, Ellen, it's great to seeyou in here.
I hope Buddy's watching as well.
She says, My favorite, uh mythree favorite fellows, hello
everybody.
All right, all right.
SPEAKER_01 (23:28):
Yes, yeah.
I mean, yeah, it's realsweetheart, nice baby.
Buddy's a good man.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yes.
SPEAKER_03 (23:36):
I think she's a little toes.
SPEAKER_02 (23:39):
Let's see.
Curly man saying, Hello, Teddy,Mac, and Nick.
Hey Nick, I have a question.
How was it being in the NWO'spocket in WCW?
It didn't make me a whole lotmore money.
SPEAKER_01 (23:53):
Yeah, that's what I'm saying.
What does that mean?
That's what I'm saying.
What does that mean?
SPEAKER_03 (23:59):
Yeah, most people remember me mostly for the stuff
that I did in the NWO, honestly.
You know, I mean, uh, a lot ofolder fans remember some of the
stuff I did way back in the day,but people for the most part,
you know, especially the newer,you know, people that that's
what they recognize me for,actually.
SPEAKER_02 (24:15):
So when was your first heel turn as a ref?
SPEAKER_03 (24:19):
It was uh at Sturgis.
They had me do a deal where uhLex was to rack somebody and he
hit me, and they wanted me to godown and take his knee out, but
look like did he do it onpurpose or was it an accident?
And that was when they plantedthe seed.
And Kevin wanted to draw it outand milk it and and do it slow,
which would have been great.
(24:40):
But they just they they justhated me, man.
They got so they got so mad thatand I got it just uh I was
trying to tone it down like youtold me to.
But they just was like, Wow,they got they I had so much heat
there for a minute.
They had me actually they wouldat some of the shows then they'd
pre-record the yays and thebooze so they can, you know,
they could put them in there formatches that that's not getting,
(25:02):
you know, like have thatpre-recorded.
I'd go out there and I'd comeout there making my face and I
was see, that was my deal.
I played off.
I could I I always I think ofmyself, I'm that guy that most
folks look at and they say, Iknow I whoop his ass.
You know what I mean?
So for somebody like that tocome out and be mean mugging you
(25:23):
and like the I want somebody towhoop his ass.
So that that was the psychologythat I used that I you know that
I played off that.
I wasn't you know, and to to lieabout everything, to sneak, you
know, that delete lying andsneaking, that's just natural.
But but being that guy that thateverybody knows that they can
whoop his ass, but he especiallywhen his his big friends are
(25:45):
around, then he oh yeah, yeah,yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (25:46):
Then he's really up, then he puffed his chest out.
I'm a bad motherfucker, yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (25:50):
Boy, yeah, yeah, come and get some of this, you
know.
So that's that was how I playedoff of it.
SPEAKER_02 (25:56):
How did you feel about uh doing a heel turn like
that?
Did was that any concern for youwhatsoever?
SPEAKER_03 (26:02):
Yeah, I was about to say, man.
It gave me a chance to show themI could do more than just be a
ref because I I I knew itbecause how it works for years,
and some of them some of themdidn't know that.
There you go.
And I wanted to show them, hey,look, man, I can do more than
just be a ref.
I can do this, I can I can agentbecause I ended up being an
agent for a while at WCW.
So, you know, but but that wasthe first step of showing them
(26:23):
that look, look, man, if yougive me something to do, it's
gonna get done right, you know.
When I get there and they giveme promos, they never give me
like now that you know that kidsgot three pages of shit they got
to go remember and rehearse.
I'd get there and Eric orsomebody would pull me off to
the side and say, Look, getthese bullet points in, bling,
bling, bling, you know, three orfour things, and then just be
(26:43):
you.
And I'd go out to my car and I'dsmoke and I sit and I'd get
those things in my mind, and Iand I would come up with this
promo and I'd look at myself inthe mirror and I'd say, Okay,
this is the perfect time I cangive them some of this shit, you
know.
And and I and I would just thinkand I'd get it in my head, and I
wouldn't overdo it because thenyou start getting nervous, you
know.
But I I would I would get Iwould get how I wanted to flow
(27:04):
from one bullet point to theother, and I made sure that all
their bullet points got covered.
And I just come up with my ownpromos and went out and did
them.
SPEAKER_01 (27:12):
Well, you had to, you had to, but they didn't have
no writers back then, you know.
So yeah, not right.
Yeah, yeah, they wouldn't mind,yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (27:18):
They had writers, but not that detailed.
Well, yeah, yeah, people guyslead way to to let to get their
character over in their way, youknow.
Well, like they didn't take itaway from people now.
SPEAKER_01 (27:30):
Yes, well, like they told you, here's the bullet
point, yeah.
And then you and you go fromthere, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (27:35):
I want to say hello to Christian Rodriguez Espino.
I hope I said that right.
Uh, saying, How's it going,guys?
Good to have you in the room,Christian.
Uh, also, uh, you probably knowthis fella, Nick.
Uh, this is uh 40 ounce C Dub.
Yeah, C Dub, my man.
SPEAKER_03 (27:49):
He's one of my he's one of my true self guys, man.
You're going to meet C Dub oneday.
I'll introduce you and C dub.
SPEAKER_02 (27:56):
No, I I know him very well.
I know him.
Okay.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
He he he's a hoop.
Man, the last time I saw him, Iwas uh oh, I was covering midget
wrestling for a TV station, anduh he showed up at the midget
wrestling.
Uh we got to talk a little bit.
He he's hilarious.
His videos for like YouTube andthings like that or social
media, the guy's just yeah, oh,great stuff.
SPEAKER_03 (28:19):
Yeah, okay.
There's been a couple of timesthat I knew that I could do
something with C Dumb, otherthan he doesn't, you know, he's
got he's he's got personality,yes, and and he doesn't have to
be a wrestler to be a character.
No, right.
And you know, and I we weretrying so hard to get him into
this mold, but man, we used todo promos at the end of all uh
(28:41):
at the end of practice, andthere was there were several
times it would that you know,and a lot of kids freeze it up,
you know, it's promo time.
It's like, oh shit, you know,dear in the headlights.
Man, he would have me openly,and I'm hard to crack, you know.
I'm I'm got grouchy old fart,man.
And he would have me openlybelly laughing sometimes at some
(29:01):
of the shit that he would comeup with, man, and say, you know,
like, oh my god, you know, so Iknew I had to use this guy in
some some way.
So he's we've got a he's got areally good little group that he
works with, Professor Payne anduh and uh Quattro, a new guy
Quattro.
So they've got you know, and andthey pre and Professor Payne is
(29:23):
another guy.
He's a young kid that I trained.
He was a high school wrestlingcoach over and I won't say what
high school because he's keepingthat a mystery, but and he still
coaches, he still teaches kids.
But he, you know, he did some ofthose shoot wrestle fight
contests and stuff too, youknow.
So he yeah, yeah.
So but he's just a super nice,super nice guy, man.
(29:43):
And and he just we we put him onthis mass gimmick because so he
can go out and and get beat alittle bit because we was gonna
we had this coach gimmick thatwe had in mind for him, but he's
got so much personality too, andwith the and with the C dub
group all together, uh ProfessorPayne is selling as many
t-shirts as anybody out there,man.
SPEAKER_02 (30:04):
It's just like it goes back to what you were
saying a minute ago.
Entertainment.
Uh, you gotta have a mix ofeverything in the show, yeah,
and that is entertainment.
No matter how you look at it,you're gonna sell tickets
because people want to come seethat portion of entertainment.
They may not like anything elseduring the show, but they may
love that part.
SPEAKER_03 (30:22):
Yeah.
I try to teach them too thatit's about making moments, it's
not so much about doing spotsall night long.
They're gonna remember thatmoment that you made more than
oh, he gonna run out of thecorner, blah, blah, blah, blah.
You know, that moment when theguy one guy's down selling and
the other guy's up, and you getthat moment where you're looking
around and the people get thembuying, and you give them time
(30:43):
to react before you jumping intothe next shit, you know.
Yeah, that's you know, thenthat's that's all part of
learning, you know.
And then and where I am, that'swhat I'm trying to teach a lot
of my kids too.
I got kids that arespot-oriented, and then the ones
that that I see that that'sgonna be their deal, I let them
do their thing, you know.
But other kids, I'm trying toget them to learn how to
(31:04):
interact with the crowd.
Yes, you know, and not notdecide, no, shut up, these
stupid rednecks, that's notinteracting with the crowd.
Anyone can do that, and that'scheap heat.
Go out and work for your heat,but interact with the people,
man.
Pull them into what you're doingand and let them be a part of
it.
And that that helped get youover more than if somebody that
has the ability to do that.
(31:26):
If you go to somebody's indieshows and you look and there's a
spot match, then here comes aspot match, and another spot
match, and you go out there andyou interact with the people,
you're gonna get the biggestreaction of the night.
Yep, absolutely.
SPEAKER_01 (31:38):
And it's and it makes it so easy.
Yes.
Ryan Brown saying, uh I got youwrong, uh, Ryan.
SPEAKER_02 (31:47):
I'm sorry, called you Brian Ryan.
Okay, Ryan Brown, sup, y'all.
Uh, 40 ounce uh C dub saying uhthem DSW fans are amazing love
running into them in randomplaces and being recognized for
what we've done on the beltline.
SPEAKER_03 (32:02):
Yeah, I've had a bunch of the kids come up to me
and say that.
Man, I was over such and such,and somebody comes up and
saying, I saw you wrestle at it,and blah, blah, blah.
You know, and it's like they'reso excited about it.
And then it makes me rememberwhen I was young, like that, and
somebody, you know, come up andyou know, first time you sign
autographs when you're, youknow, and stuff, you know, it's
uh it's a big thing.
You know, it's it's it's it'sit's cool, and it's cool to
(32:23):
watch them enjoy thatexperience.
SPEAKER_02 (32:26):
Absolutely is pretty classy lady uh in the room
saying what wants to know whatthe name of the promotion is.
Uh go ahead, Nick.
We're all about that promotion.
SPEAKER_03 (32:32):
Deep South Wrestling.
We're uh we're based in Atlanta,and uh most of our shows are uh
right now we're running uhmostly around the belt line.
We do uh New Realm Brewery is uhis one where we do uh regularly.
We just did our last one of theyear at New Realm.
We're coming to Atlanta Dairies,and we got one on December 20th
(32:54):
there.
That's gonna be our last one forthere in the year because I mean
that's pushing it going intoDecember, but they go they
wanted to go for it, and youknow, if they're willing to go
for it, and I've got the kids, Isaid, look, man, some of you
kids come up with some wintercostumes so that because
sometimes we're working out inthe cold, you was wanting to
have something, you know, goingout there in your short tights,
you know, come up with adifferent costume that you can
(33:15):
wear, have you know, even ifit's under armor, it's athletic
looking stuff, you know.
SPEAKER_02 (33:19):
And you know, as it gets colder too, it depending
upon the kind of canvas thatyou're using in the ring, yes,
that thing can get icy or itgets a little bit glaze, and
that thing will get slick realfast.
Uh yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (33:31):
If you're if you're using anything other than the
cloth canvas, they get it can itcan be dangerously small.
Oh, absolutely can.
SPEAKER_02 (33:38):
Yeah, uh, let's see.
Uh, we have Pee-wee stopping inthe room saying, What up, Mac?
What up, Teddy?
What up, Nick?
Hey man.
Uh also is asking, um, do youhave a YouTube channel?
Nick.
SPEAKER_03 (33:50):
I don't have one, but my cup uh deep south
wrestling does.
So you can check us on YouTube.
You can check us out onFacebook, you can check, you
know, we've got a website.
Check us out YouTube and slashwe are deep south.
SPEAKER_02 (34:04):
We are deep south.
Ellen's saying Buddy'sgraduation was a moment.
Professor Payne was so cool.
Uh tell me about that.
Uh, so one of your wrestlershelped with the graduation.
SPEAKER_03 (34:14):
Yeah, uh, from what we understand, uh, Ellen said
that Bunny didn't want to walkout and and get his deal, but uh
he would at our show.
So uh we had Professor Payne andand then present him with his
diploma and and in the ring.
That is cool.
So so that his mom could get tosee the walk and so he could he
could actually have the walk.
(34:36):
And that is he agreed to do itat the wrestling show instead of
at the school.
So we had him, we had we had himdo it there.
We got him, we got him his hisuh title.
And once we got everything takencare of, of course, we in a
wrestling fashion, we turned itinto a heel coming out, but we
didn't take Buddy's moment awayfrom him.
We had baby faces help him andget him out of there, you know,
and then once we got him to asafe place, then the heel come
(34:57):
in and rah-blah rah, so youknow, and we carried on with it,
you know.
But it it's it was such even ifwe didn't turn it into business,
it was such a uh a heartwarmingmoment.
Yes, man.
Because Buddy's such a sweetkid.
Yes, he is.
And his and his mom uh and Iknow what it takes to take to
take care of folks.
And his mama is that does onehell of a job taking care of
(35:20):
that young man.
She's you know, she's got herlife dedicated to uh you know
24.
When you're a caretaker, you youdon't you're on you're on duty
24-7, you know.
SPEAKER_02 (35:30):
So uh and if I'm not mistaken, it's basically if I'm
not mistaken, it's it's just herand Buddy, right?
SPEAKER_03 (35:36):
I think she has one other special needs uh child
that she takes care of as well.
That's your ribbon.
Yeah, it's a I heard her saythat.
SPEAKER_02 (35:43):
This is one of the fans.
For those of you who arewatching, she is a fan that's in
the Georgia area, and she goesto not just one promotion show,
she goes all over.
Uh, you see her everywhere.
She takes Buddy wherever hewants to go based upon the card.
I think a lot of times who'sgoing to be where, and he's got
to make a choice about where hewants to go.
Uh, but uh she is phenomenal.
(36:04):
Teddy and I have talked abouther on the show before.
Yes, just what she does for herchildren.
SPEAKER_01 (36:09):
Inspirational lady.
Yes, yeah.
Ellen Ellen Divins, that's hername.
SPEAKER_02 (36:13):
Yes, absolutely uh sweet, sweet lady.
Nick, uh, we're out of time.
In fact, we're uh a little bitover here.
Um tell everybody uh where theycan find you again uh in Deep
South Wrestling, uh, both youand uh Deep South Wrestling.
SPEAKER_03 (36:26):
Okay, you can check us out at Atlanta Dairies on
December the 20th.
And on January the 4th, we aregoing to be at Monday Night
Garage on the West End inAtlanta, and that's gonna be our
new indoor once-a-month deal,and we're gonna start live
streaming a show once a month.
And I'm shooting for that one tobe our first one.
I'm hoping that that's gonna bethe deal.
(36:48):
But uh that's that's where we'regoing, man.
We got that going.
We got uh uh you got your ownpodcast too now, Nick.
Yeah, I'm I'm um Nick Patrick'smailbag, and so you can hit me
up at uh and and it's talk justlike we're doing here, man.
Then uh you guys are alwayswelcome at Deep South Show
anytime you guys want to come,man.
And uh I'd really like to see ify'all want to come check out
(37:10):
what's special when we startlive streaming there out of out
of Muddy Night Garage there onthe West End.
It's right there by where theold Tyler Perry by the Tyler
Perry studios, it's real closeto that.
Okay, yeah.
Yeah, so it's uh real close whenyou get off that Lakewood exit
and down and a couple exitsdown, it's just down in there,
man.
But uh it's excellent, man.
It's food and beer, they theygot the fire rusted, they got
(37:33):
the fire uh stone pizzas theretoo.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
And they'll big sellers there,and all the different craft
beers.
It's it's a good time, and andthe wrestling is off the chain.
Those kids are so excited, thecrowds are are are are are
packed, and it it they'rebringing an energy, man.
That's it, it it makes wrestlingfun again.
(37:53):
You know, it's you know how itfeels sometimes when it's a
business.
And and when you're in the ringand you're performing, you're
enjoying it and it's fun, butthere's so much of the other
part around the business thatit's it that it sucks all the
fun right out of it, you knowwhat I mean?
Yeah when you see the energylevel that these kids have in
the show that they put on, andand because I got a crew of
(38:15):
hungry young Hellcats that areout there trying to steal the
show and trying to be the bestthat they can be and trying to
get to the next one.
There you go.
That's the so that's what's youknow, I I'm not trying to I'm
not trying to sell older guysthat are having fun and doing
it, just you know.
If I got an older guy that canreally go and is as passing
something on to somebody, thenthen then then I'm I'm down for
(38:38):
that.
But I'm mostly about the youngthe young guys and young ladies
going out there and getting itdone.
SPEAKER_01 (38:45):
Nick, it's all about knowing when to take the cape
off.
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (38:51):
I tell you what, I don't even want to climb up in
the ring and make announcementsanymore, man.
SPEAKER_01 (38:56):
I had to do that the other day, and I think, yeah,
dang, man, how I used to justrun and jump and bounce my knee
off the apron and I ain'trunning through no airports, you
know, every now and then, butno, brother.
SPEAKER_03 (39:11):
Uh and man, if if I have to run, I'm just gonna be
hurt because I can't, I ain'trunning.
I'd do better off standing andand and fighting to the death.
It hurt me, it hurts me to runbecause my knees I hurt myself
worse trying running than Iwouldn't standing and fighting.
I don't even know if I can.
SPEAKER_01 (39:29):
I ain't running on nothing but that elliptica.
That's all I'm running.
And I certainly ain't gonnaoutrun anything.
SPEAKER_03 (39:38):
I might make them laugh when I could get away from
them.
SPEAKER_02 (39:41):
All right, we gotta get out of here.
We gotta get out of here.
Nick, I appreciate it very much,my friend.
We'll have you back.
I enjoy when you get this is thesecond time we've had a chance
to talk with Nick, and uh Ialways enjoy talking to you
about different things, mainlybecause we just talk shit, and
and that's what I love when wecan just sit down and just have
a conversation and talk aboutfun things.
Uh Everybody else.
SPEAKER_03 (40:00):
We'll tell the Glyco Beak story next time.
SPEAKER_02 (40:02):
Oh, oh, oh, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Okay, hold on.
We got to go.
How many times does it say?
All right.
Tell me the name again and wherethat originated from.
SPEAKER_03 (40:13):
All right.
I didn't work out for thelongest time.
And Teddy was a maniac, hours ofcardio.
So he got me started backworking out.
When I first started, I waslike, 10 minutes is all I could
do.
Well, the first hour I got, itwas in WrestleMania and Seattle.
I went the hour on the on thecardio.
So we get back to the room,we're smoked up, and I was proud
of myself for doing an hour.
(40:35):
I looked at him, I said, DamnTeddy, I could make a comeback
now.
I could, and I hit a mostmuscular, I could be geekobak.
And we were high, and we juststarted laughing like hell,
right?
And in the middle of uslaughing, Teddy said gleco beak.
And when he said glico beakinstead of geekko bleak, we
busted out laughing even harder.
And I thought we thought, damn,glico beak's even better than
(40:56):
geekobleak.
So glico beak stuck, man, andnobody knew what the hell we was
talking about ever.
But that's how I come, that'show glico beak come around.
SPEAKER_02 (41:07):
Oh man, that that is so cool.
Man, I appreciate it.
All right, we're out of herebecause we're gonna get cut off
if I don't get us out of here.
I'm back Davis.
That's WWE Hall of Famer, TeddyLong, and of course, our special
guest, Mr.
Nick Patrick.
We'll see you again nextThursday night, 7 o'clock
Eastern Standard Time, righthere.
Boy, that ended abruptly.
Hello, everybody, and welcome toan all-new Road Trip After
Hours.
I'm your host, Mike Davis, andalong with me, of course, each
and every week is none otherthan WWE Hall of Famer, Mr.
Teddy Long.
Hey Teddy.
SPEAKER_01 (00:35):
Hey, Matthew, how are you doing today?
SPEAKER_02 (00:37):
Man, I'm doing great.
Look here, I want you tointroduce our guest today
because you've worked with thisguy.
You've known this guy forever.
Oh, great.
Right the time I say that, hehands gets out of the room.
What's he doing here, Teddy?
Teddy.
Hey, back.
SPEAKER_01 (00:50):
Something happened.
I don't know.
SPEAKER_02 (00:52):
Anyhow, open up to everybody who uh we got with us
this week.
SPEAKER_01 (00:56):
Uh yeah, man.
Uh, what a pleasure to have thisgentleman with us, too, man.
Uh Nick Patrick is uh his name,uh his referee name.
Everybody knows him as JoeHamilton Jr.
Uh, but uh a little quick littlestory about me and Nick.
Nick remembers uh God leavefirst when I was even trying to
break in.
I think I walked up to Nick andthe umni and I hand him a
(01:18):
resume.
SPEAKER_03 (01:18):
Yeah, that's the first time with you.
Yeah.
That's what you got you.
I turned, I gave that I gavethat resume to Bobby Simmons.
Yeah, I remember him.
And I and he showed the officepeople, but you know who the
other office people were at thatpoint in time.
Exactly.
And it didn't really help you awhole lot.
I I knew I turned it in and I Istarted working at that time.
(01:42):
I was refing, and then I startedworking, and I and I was
traveling, and I was inLouisiana working and uh as a
wrestler, and and I saw uh theshow back in Atlanta, and I saw
Teddy on there refing, and Isaid, Holy shit, he made it,
hell yeah.
I didn't know the Crockets wasrunning him to death, you know,
uh shit at him doing man,because they they they can run
(02:03):
you hard, especially that's thatCharlotte territory.
That was the Carolinas wasn't nojoke.
You traveled a lot in theCarolinas back.
SPEAKER_02 (02:11):
You too, especially when I you know because when I
look back in wrestling, I meanyou're in my sweet spot.
Both of you are in a sweet spot.
You were in the uh NWA, JimCrockett, uh WCW2 WWE.
So I felt like I grew with youguys as you progressed through
your careers.
Um, but man, I I was thinkingtoday, it seems to me, and and
(02:32):
you tell me if this is true ornot, Nick, because it just feels
like the fans of the early dayswere a much different fan than
that there is of today.
They I believe those folkstruly, genuinely uh believed in
a lot of cases what they saw.
Uh, and even if they didn't,they would just, you know, they
(02:53):
would give that uh, you know,they would let go of that, you
know, functioning, going, no,no, I'll go with it.
But is there a difference in thefans today and yesterday?
SPEAKER_03 (03:04):
Yeah, I believe there is because and and it's
not all on the on the fanseither.
It's a lot on us because thepresentation's completely
different.
There were a lot more believersback in the day because we tried
to make believers out of themback in the day.
And and K Fabe was like, youknow, uh, especially, you know,
I grew up in this.
This is all my you know, fromday one of my existence, you
(03:24):
know.
I got pictures of my mom holdingin at shows, you know.
But uh K Fabe, man, back in theday was a real, was real, man.
I I saw all those Armstrong boysas a kid, but then his Bob was a
baby face and Pop was a heel.
So they were on the uh if weever all met together at the
like at the old city auditorium,sometimes they take their
(03:46):
families every once in a while.
Heels was on one side, baby fishwas on the other, kids wasn't
playing with each other, youknow.
I mean, there was K Fay, but Imean I didn't even I never even
met and spoke to Brad Armstronguntil we were both in the
business and and working atGeorgia Championship Wrestling,
both of us greener than hell,you know.
But I had seen all of them, youknow, as kids, you know, and I
(04:07):
and I knew who they were, butthe K Fe was was the it was the
real shit.
There was only a couple of guysthat that uh that Pop ever broke
the K Fae with, and it was justlike they would come to the
house and it would, you know,they wouldn't be out anywhere,
you know.
And it would be, you know, theywould just be kept quiet.
They'd come and he didn't go.
SPEAKER_02 (04:26):
And and well, you let's talk about your dad, first
of all, is the uh Jody Hamiltonthe assassin.
Uh now when did he smarten youup?
SPEAKER_03 (04:36):
Uh I can I think I was I can always remember being
smart because he didn't want meto be traumatized.
Yeah, you know, I mean he didn'tsmart me up to every, you know,
uh of how the actually thingsworked, but he let me know that
he was friends with this guy.
You know, like if he was gettingif I was there at the matches
and he was about to go out andhave this, you know, blood and
(04:56):
all that, he would get me withthe guy and say, Look, it's
gonna be rough tonight, but thisis my friend, and we are friends
and we're doing this together.
And I'm not mad at him, and he'snot mad at me.
And and when it's done and wecome back, we're gonna shake
kids and we're gonna be friendsagain.
So I want you to understandthat, you know, this is our
business, is what we do.
(05:16):
And I was a little kid, justlisten, yes, sir, yes, sir.
I I went hell, I was inelementary school flushing
blades down the toilet stoollooking so they can get and come
back and go, kid, go flush thisdown a toilet, you know.
Okay, yes, sir, yes, sir.
SPEAKER_02 (05:29):
And did you catch on at that point?
Okay, I know what these are fornow.
SPEAKER_03 (05:32):
Oh, yeah, yeah, but that terrified me too because I
was a little kid, I was scaredto get a shot as a little kid,
you know.
And I thought, oh my god, Icouldn't believe when I found
out what they were really doing.
I'm like, oh no, no way.
I'd rather somebody just bust meopen than do that.
I thought, you know, I didn'tknow as a kid I was a kid how
bad getting busted open hurttoo.
SPEAKER_02 (05:51):
So oh, yeah, I was surprised by how many guys would
carry them in places youwouldn't expect them to carry a
blade.
SPEAKER_03 (05:57):
I know some would actually tuck it up in their
cheek of their mouth, and crazy,and and on your fingers, and and
and I used to have to stick itin my pocket sometimes.
And when you have to go in yourpocket to get it, nine times out
of ten that some bitch is gonnastick you somewhere on your hand
and your finger or somewhere,you know.
And if you think about it now,think of how unsanitary that is
(06:18):
think about this sweat and thedirty ass mats.
SPEAKER_01 (06:21):
Yeah, Nick, if you if Nick, if you remember this,
you remember uh uh uh DennisCondri, you know, he uh left a
piece of the blade in his head,they had to take him to the
hospital.
He kept having headaches, youkept having headaches, didn't
know what it was, and theyfinally checked him.
He's left a piece of the bladein his in his head.
SPEAKER_03 (06:38):
Wow, yeah, them old blue blades were real flimsy.
They could, you know, ifsomebody hit you while you was
doing it, I can see how thatcould happen.
SPEAKER_02 (06:46):
Oh, yeah, yeah.
I mean gig a little harder thanyou really want to go.
SPEAKER_03 (06:50):
I got a funny Dennis Condri story.
Oh, boys back in the day, he hewas uh working Georgia
Championship Wrestling and theymade him the Georgia heavyweight
champion for a short time,right?
And that's when the limelightwas kicking big time in Atlanta,
you know.
Everybody was going partying ina discount, yeah, you know.
I was pressed, uh I was only acouple years out of high school,
you know.
So I had a bunch of young ladyfriends that you know that used
(07:11):
to be cheerleaders, and allthat, and we you know, we see
them up there every now andthen.
So we was all going to go to thelimelight one night, and I was
going, and Condri was gonna beme and Condri and Stan Lane, and
I think Eddie Mansfield, I thinkwas was the group that was gonna
go.
And so when I get there, I wasgoing to go meet Dennis and I
saw Steve Kern come out.
It was at the old Falcon's rest,and Dennis had an upstairs
(07:33):
apartment.
I saw Kern coming down thesteps.
He was laughing.
He said, Where are you going,Ken?
I said, I'm gonna go see CondriHe needs some help.
I said, No shit.
I said, So I went in there andthe door was opened, and Dennis
was standing on his kitchenchair, clutching onto the to the
Georgia heavyweight title,going, Nick, help me! Help me! I
(07:55):
went, What the fuck is going on?
And Steve Kern walked up, andthere was a damn possum on the
trash can, and he closed the lidon it and captured the possum
and went upstairs and knocked onConry's door when Conry opened
it.
He popped that lid open, andthat freaking possum jumped out
and ran into Conry's apartment.
Oh he was freaking out aboutthis damn thing, right?
(08:17):
So I ended up catching it withthe same trash can and Lynn and
took it back out eventually.
But what was funny is the damnthe damn uh possum ran into the
closet, and Dennis had a bunchof robes.
I think they was made by by uhuh two's wife.
He had a couple of them reallynice robes.
He was going, Nick, get thatdamn possum out of he's gonna
(08:37):
eat my robes.
SPEAKER_02 (08:43):
Well, where was Dennis from?
Was he not a country boy?
SPEAKER_03 (08:46):
No, he would wherever he was from, they he
they weren't friendly withpossum.
Because it was a baby possum.
He was a big one, it was scaredand it was hissing, you know.
He wasn't getting near us in.
SPEAKER_02 (08:59):
By the way, those of you who are watching uh right
now, uh, we're gonna take yourquestions in the room.
If you have any questions forNick, any point of his career or
for Teddy, just uh ask him andwe'll throw them up on the
screen.
Uh, before we do that though, uhNick, I do want to ask you about
something specifically uh fromyour career.
Uh was it Starkade, I guess, wasthe uh pay-per-view with Hogan
(09:21):
and Sting.
Is that correct?
SPEAKER_03 (09:23):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (09:23):
All right, let me ask you.
Uh, first of all, I've hearddifferent accounts of how that
went down and how the confusioncame around.
I know you were told threedifferent things in the process
of how to count uh for thatmatch.
Uh one of the things I want toask is when I when I heard you
(09:45):
mention, he said quick count,one, two, three.
Um when you saw Sting at thatpoint, were you shocked by the
way he looked?
Was it anything off about himwhen he told you that and gave
you the heads up?
SPEAKER_03 (09:59):
No, I did it.
SPEAKER_02 (10:01):
And the reason I asked that, Nick, is because you
hear everybody say that uh in intheir different stories that,
well, he just uh somethingwasn't right with him.
He didn't look good, he didn'thave a tan, he did all these
little silly things, but nowthat's ridiculous because he
wore a friggin' bodysuit.
SPEAKER_03 (10:18):
Yeah, yeah, he wasn't in tights you know that
like he used to wear at thatpoint.
He was he was doing a differentgimmick, so you wouldn't really
be able to tell if he had a tanor not.
Was he jacked up like he used tobe when he was Beach Boy Sting?
No, he wasn't.
He wasn't, but he had just comeoff of an injury.
He didn't look, he wasn't out ofshape.
(10:38):
He he didn't look, you know, hehe wasn't fat or needed to work
on his gut, or you know, I meanthat happens to a lot of us when
we get out, we get hurt, and wesit at home and we can't
exercise like we used to, and wejust want to enjoy this time at
all.
When you eat like you want,yeah.
Next thing you know, you've puton 30 pounds and you got, oh
shit, I go out, you know.
But uh, but that didn't happento him, you know.
(11:00):
And and that's what I neverunderstood the thing about the
tan because, like I said, he waswearing the pretty much the
bodysuit by that point in time.
So tan was, however, uh theattitude was a little bit off.
Not so much with me, but I couldtell that he he was very
apprehensive and and uhnon-trusting of Hulk and of the
(11:22):
whole scenario.
That's what I was about to ask.
I get the impression he wasbeing he felt like he was being
uh set up and uh didn't you aswell?
Yeah, oh God, yes.
I I felt like I was being thescapegoat because I who would
have been the person it had beenso easy to just say, uh, let's
get rid of Nick Packett, youknow?
Put the heat on me and get ridof me, and then they could all
(11:43):
move forward and be happy, andthat's what I thought was going
on.
Because honestly, when I gotthere, Eric usually got there
early, but yeah, I'd never seehim until later on after
production meetings and stuff.
Man, I got out of the car and Iwas four or five steps away from
my car walking toward thebuilding, and he met me in the
parking lot and told me what wasgoing on, you know.
And I thought, well, that's kindof flat, you know.
(12:06):
I mean, uh, but I imaginethere's gonna be a shitload of
twists and turns getting to thispoint, you know.
But yeah, but you know, it'sokay.
But he told me exactly prettymuch he didn't tell me slow,
like Hulk wanted me to act likeI was on Valiant Count, you know
what I mean?
But but but he just said normal,regular count, you know.
So I'm okay, you know.
So that's what the boss told meto do.
(12:27):
So that's what was gonna happen.
So then Hulk, you kind of almostreaffirmed what Eric said, but
he went slow, you know.
Yeah, so I'm like, okay, I gotit, you know.
And then Sting hit me later on,like an hour later, because I
hadn't even seen him, and andthere was never any point in
time during that entire freakingday that they got all of us
together at one time in the sameroom and talked about it.
(12:49):
Not once.
Well, that's a mistake.
Not once did that ever happen.
SPEAKER_02 (12:53):
That's a shame because that was a huge match
for WCW, who is the highest buyrate of any pay-per-view or
something like that.
Is that correct?
SPEAKER_03 (13:00):
Yeah, but uh, I was kind of used to working like
that with Hulk because he hadhis own locker room and his own
stuff, and he would have whoeverhe was working with come in
there and he they keep everybodyout.
You know, you have to be kind ofalmost invited in, you know, and
I didn't give a damn about allthat.
You know, you could tell mebefore I go out the curtain what
you need me to do, and I'll doit, you know.
And Teddy knows that, you know.
(13:21):
I I don't need to hear the wholeGettysburg address about what
you're gonna do.
Okay, well that yeah, comes onwhen it I don't care about all
that shit.
Just tell me what you if there'sa spot in there you need me to
know, then tell me.
You know, you need mespecifically, otherwise, I'd
rather have a spontaneousreaction to what's happened in
front of me and follow theaction.
It looks more real, and and Ithink that works better for
announcers too, because a lot oftimes when announcers already
(13:43):
know where the where it's going,they try to lead you to that
that way instead of letting thestory take you there.
They try to lead you there, youknow.
SPEAKER_02 (13:51):
Yeah, I've always preferred announcing and
wrestling to be a reactive uhannouncing to what is happening
in the ring.
Don't tell me about everythingelse that's happening on Sunday
and next Tuesday, focus on thematch and give a match call.
Makes it much better for me.
And I think a lot of fans arethe same way.
They prefer that real sportauthentic feel, not like you're
(14:14):
being getting uh, you know, a10-minute commercial every time
you watch a match.
SPEAKER_03 (14:19):
It doesn't look as scripted.
I mean, you get you get and youget emotion.
You know, a lot of times whenyou just go move for move and
you split everything that youtalked about in the back and you
don't go outside the box, youleave emotion out of it a lot of
the times, you know.
And uh because a lot of timeswhen you're just out there
working, cool shit happens andthings present themselves, and
and you know, and you you youmiss all of that if you're just
(14:40):
gonna stick to what we don'tjust stick to what we talked
about.
And a lot of these young greenkids think that if they go out
there and they have a match andthey didn't forget any of the
the two hours of shit that theytalked about, then it was a
great match.
Forget whether the peoplereacted to it, whether they
jerked them up, they had themdown, and they got them set, you
(15:00):
know.
Forget all that.
They just didn't know well, wedidn't forget nothing.
It was great.
That's that's frustrating.
Yes, but I like with my littlecompany, we're in a situation
now because I I like to have uha variety.
I want my show to be a varietyshow.
SPEAKER_02 (15:17):
His company, by the way, is Deep South.
I don't want to make sure weeverybody knows that because
it's a fantastic promotion.
SPEAKER_03 (15:23):
Oh, thank you.
Thank you very much.
But I like I like it to be avariety show.
I don't want to have two hoursof spot fest.
I don't want to have two hoursof Matt Classic.
I don't want uh I want to havethe whole gamut.
I want to have some funny ha ha.
I want to have I want to havesexuality, I want to have the
technical boom, I want to havethe high spot client, but I want
(15:43):
to have a mix of it and put inthe proper place so that the
show changes gears.
Just like a match changes gearsat certain times.
You want your show to dobasically the same thing, only
on a grander scale.
And uh you have to have allthose things in order to be able
to change gears.
And and to me, I'd be bored totears sitting and watching any
(16:04):
uh even a hardcore.
I couldn't sit and watch twohours of guys killing each other
doing hardcore.
It takes me uh it's about 10minutes, and that's not all I
can do, you know.
Yeah, because I'm looking for,you know, I I like more of the
work aspect of it, thestorytelling aspect of it.
SPEAKER_02 (16:19):
But but you gotta have all three of us are that
way.
SPEAKER_03 (16:23):
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (16:25):
Yeah.
All right, guys, uh, real quick,we're gonna take a quick break.
Um, we're gonna come back withyour questions for Nick and for
Teddy.
Uh, I do want to mention that uhwe have a special guest again
next Thursday night, and here'sa clue.
SPEAKER_00 (16:38):
Anytime Abdullah the Butcher is uh in that squared
circle, his opponent is in for alot of trouble.
Abdullah the Butcher, a man whoappears to be almost impervious
to pain.
Uh a man who uh has nothing uhin his mind at all but to
destroy and destruct hisopponent as quickly as possible
in the rain.
SPEAKER_02 (17:34):
All right, welcome back, Road Trip After Hours.
I'm your host, Mac Davis.
Yes, sir.
SPEAKER_01 (17:39):
Before we get started in here, I wanted to
mention something too.
You know, we had Nick on theshow and glad we could do that.
But I wanted him to say just alittle bit more about his own
company.
You know what I mean?
Nick has been starting, it'sbeen running for some years now.
They're traveling all over theworld, going everywhere.
So they could be coming in yourtown pretty soon.
So uh Nick, give me that, giveus the name of that, and then
(18:00):
you know, give me a little bitmore information on your on your
on your shows.
SPEAKER_02 (18:03):
He ain't going nowhere anyhow.
SPEAKER_03 (18:05):
Yeah, we we we're focusing really on the Atlanta
market right now.
I want to get really strong inAtlanta.
I want to end up getting anAtlanta TV, and we've got we've
just actually secured a placethat is going to be our our
once-a-month place that we goto.
It's uh it's uh it's gonna beand we'll announce all the
dates, but we just secured it.
And it's it's indoors too.
(18:26):
So you know, because I've beenloving doing the outdoor shows,
but there's always a risk, andyou can go year-round, you know.
It's just too rough on yourtalent and your fans, and you
know, yeah, and and we're gonnabe able to do that.
SPEAKER_02 (18:36):
But you know what though, Nick, I don't mean to
cut you off, but I do want tosay I have seen because I watch
a lot of the uh the videos afterthe fact, I kind of keep up with
what happens with your shows,and I've seen some very uh cold
temperatures where shows wereheld.
I've seen where storms just gotfinished where the shows were
held, and every time it's apacked house.
(18:57):
You pull in a great amount ofpeople to these shows.
SPEAKER_03 (19:00):
Well, we we oh you give them a good show, yes.
Well, that and they're gettingfamiliar with our characters
now, and the shows that we runand a lot of the places that we
run are right off that belt linein Atlanta, and that's that that
thing is so it's so awesomebecause people up and down all
day long.
So we get our regular group ofpeople and the and and the
people that are from that areabecause we promote that little
(19:22):
area hard, you know.
Yeah and but we also get peoplethat are walking by all day
long.
Oh, look, there's wrestling, andit got because we don't have a
headcount.
The wrestling is free with wherewe're at.
You know, if you come, you wantget to watch the wrestling, you
gotta buy their food and drinkand all that, but you get to
watch the wrestling for free.
So the the way we uh get uh anestimated headcount, because
(19:43):
we're not selling tickets, is byhow many tabs we sell.
So those people that are walkingup and watching for a match or
two and then leaving, they'rebuying something, you know, and
it adds to our total, you know.
And and I wanna count thosepeople.
They come up, you know, even itmight not stay for the whole
show, but They may live, butthen there's some other people
coming from over here that dothe same thing.
(20:04):
And we have our core group thatgets there early to you know to
get in close and feed, you know,to get the seats.
But everything that fills in allaround it are people that you
know, and a lot of them stay,you know, once once they get to
watch it, a lot of them arehooked and they stay for the
whole thing.
But there is a you know a lot ofpeople that just come up and
like, oh crap, you know, Ididn't know they had wrestling.
Let's check it out, you know.
And we got a lot of people doingthat.
SPEAKER_02 (20:25):
And and that's the good thing about the outdoor
events that you do because youcan draw those eyes.
Where if you're in the building,they're not gonna be able to
just go, oh, what's that overthere?
Other than seeing a you know abunch of cars in a parking lot.
So those outdoor shows have doneyou very well.
Uh yeah, I think the uh one thatwe went to, Teddy, I believe it
was outdoors.
We were at uh Burke Place, hadgreat uh beer and food.
SPEAKER_03 (20:47):
Oh man, and we have a good time.
We have a good time.
You know, you can come and eatand drink, and uh the food's
great, it's drink specials, andyou know, it's it's adult
entertainment, but it's kidfriendly as well.
You know, bunch of kids thatcome, you know, and we're and
we're conscious of that, youknow.
And we know even though eventhough we're inside the city and
inside the perimeter, and youcan get a little more edgy, you
(21:09):
know, especially in certainvenues, yeah.
We're very conscious about,especially the the restaurant
places and the and the breweriesand stuff that we do, because
that that's family-oriented, youknow, you're not gonna go in
there and and go blood and gutsand cussing and all that stuff,
you know.
But I want to know that peopleto know that there we have that
edge, but we only bring it outin appropriate places, you know.
(21:31):
You know, you have to know yourarea, you have to know your
crowd.
And uh you know, so when we dopay shows and and those are
coming, that you're gonna get alot more.
You know, you're gonna get moreof uh it's gonna be more raw
stuff that we can't give you uhin in the other venues.
But what we do give you in theother venues, it's not selling
it short, it's storytelling andathleticism.
(21:53):
And and and young kids that arehungry, and young kids that are
hungry, they they they bring adifferent level of work than
than folks that are complacentand happy, they're just doing it
for fun.
You know, hey, you know, uh, youknow, I don't I'm not looking to
go somewhere else and make it toanother level.
I'm just this is just fun forme.
You know, people that are havingthat hunger bring bring a
(22:15):
different level, and that's whatI'm looking for.
I'm looking for kids that aretrying their best and everything
they have to buster to the nextlevel and that promote
themselves.
I look at that as well.
You know, I don't just hire justbecause some kid can do a couple
of moves, well, that's justthat's fine and dandy.
There's a lot of people that cando a bunch of moves.
The win and why and how you knowhow is not that hard.
(22:36):
When and why is is ultimatelyimportant.
But uh, let's see.
SPEAKER_02 (22:42):
We have uh Dwayne in here saying good evening, and we
also have pretty classy lady.
She's popular in the room aswell.
Oh, good to see you in here.
Zach Minger, one of our uh uhregulars into the room day and
national app day.
Uh so there's no food this week,uh Teddy.
SPEAKER_01 (23:04):
Zach is too much.
Yeah, man.
SPEAKER_03 (23:06):
Teddy, if you stretch anybody today, it's
national stretching day.
I'm gonna go let's go stretchsomebody when this is over.
I'm gonna stretch him here,Kiddy.
SPEAKER_02 (23:17):
Ellen uh's in the room.
Hey, Ellen, it's great to seeyou in here.
I hope Buddy's watching as well.
She says, My favorite, uh mythree favorite fellows, hello
everybody.
All right, all right.
SPEAKER_01 (23:28):
Yes, yeah.
I mean, yeah, it's realsweetheart, nice baby.
Buddy's a good man.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yes.
SPEAKER_03 (23:36):
I think she's a little toes.
SPEAKER_02 (23:39):
Let's see.
Curly man saying, Hello, Teddy,Mac, and Nick.
Hey Nick, I have a question.
How was it being in the NWO'spocket in WCW?
It didn't make me a whole lotmore money.
SPEAKER_01 (23:53):
Yeah, that's what I'm saying.
What does that mean?
That's what I'm saying.
What does that mean?
SPEAKER_03 (23:59):
Yeah, most people remember me mostly for the stuff
that I did in the NWO, honestly.
You know, I mean, uh, a lot ofolder fans remember some of the
stuff I did way back in the day,but people for the most part,
you know, especially the newer,you know, people that that's
what they recognize me for,actually.
SPEAKER_02 (24:15):
So when was your first heel turn as a ref?
SPEAKER_03 (24:19):
It was uh at Sturgis.
They had me do a deal where uhLex was to rack somebody and he
hit me, and they wanted me to godown and take his knee out, but
look like did he do it onpurpose or was it an accident?
And that was when they plantedthe seed.
And Kevin wanted to draw it outand milk it and and do it slow,
which would have been great.
(24:40):
But they just they they justhated me, man.
They got so they got so mad thatand I got it just uh I was
trying to tone it down like youtold me to.
But they just was like, Wow,they got they I had so much heat
there for a minute.
They had me actually they wouldat some of the shows then they'd
pre-record the yays and thebooze so they can, you know,
they could put them in there formatches that that's not getting,
(25:02):
you know, like have thatpre-recorded.
I'd go out there and I'd comeout there making my face and I
was see, that was my deal.
I played off.
I could I I always I think ofmyself, I'm that guy that most
folks look at and they say, Iknow I whoop his ass.
You know what I mean?
So for somebody like that tocome out and be mean mugging you
(25:23):
and like the I want somebody towhoop his ass.
So that that was the psychologythat I used that I you know that
I played off that.
I wasn't you know, and to to lieabout everything, to sneak, you
know, that delete lying andsneaking, that's just natural.
But but being that guy that thateverybody knows that they can
whoop his ass, but he especiallywhen his his big friends are
(25:45):
around, then he oh yeah, yeah,yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (25:46):
Then he's really up, then he puffed his chest out.
I'm a bad motherfucker, yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (25:50):
Boy, yeah, yeah, come and get some of this, you
know.
So that's that was how I playedoff of it.
SPEAKER_02 (25:56):
How did you feel about uh doing a heel turn like
that?
Did was that any concern for youwhatsoever?
SPEAKER_03 (26:02):
Yeah, I was about to say, man.
It gave me a chance to show themI could do more than just be a
ref because I I I knew itbecause how it works for years,
and some of them some of themdidn't know that.
There you go.
And I wanted to show them, hey,look, man, I can do more than
just be a ref.
I can do this, I can I can agentbecause I ended up being an
agent for a while at WCW.
So, you know, but but that wasthe first step of showing them
(26:23):
that look, look, man, if yougive me something to do, it's
gonna get done right, you know.
When I get there and they giveme promos, they never give me
like now that you know that kidsgot three pages of shit they got
to go remember and rehearse.
I'd get there and Eric orsomebody would pull me off to
the side and say, Look, getthese bullet points in, bling,
bling, bling, you know, three orfour things, and then just be
(26:43):
you.
And I'd go out to my car and I'dsmoke and I sit and I'd get
those things in my mind, and Iand I would come up with this
promo and I'd look at myself inthe mirror and I'd say, Okay,
this is the perfect time I cangive them some of this shit, you
know.
And and I and I would just thinkand I'd get it in my head, and I
wouldn't overdo it because thenyou start getting nervous, you
know.
But I I would I would get Iwould get how I wanted to flow
(27:04):
from one bullet point to theother, and I made sure that all
their bullet points got covered.
And I just come up with my ownpromos and went out and did
them.
SPEAKER_01 (27:12):
Well, you had to, you had to, but they didn't have
no writers back then, you know.
So yeah, not right.
Yeah, yeah, they wouldn't mind,yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (27:18):
They had writers, but not that detailed.
Well, yeah, yeah, people guyslead way to to let to get their
character over in their way, youknow.
Well, like they didn't take itaway from people now.
SPEAKER_01 (27:30):
Yes, well, like they told you, here's the bullet
point, yeah.
And then you and you go fromthere, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (27:35):
I want to say hello to Christian Rodriguez Espino.
I hope I said that right.
Uh, saying, How's it going,guys?
Good to have you in the room,Christian.
Uh, also, uh, you probably knowthis fella, Nick.
Uh, this is uh 40 ounce C Dub.
Yeah, C Dub, my man.
SPEAKER_03 (27:49):
He's one of my he's one of my true self guys, man.
You're going to meet C Dub oneday.
I'll introduce you and C dub.
SPEAKER_02 (27:56):
No, I I know him very well.
I know him.
Okay.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
He he he's a hoop.
Man, the last time I saw him, Iwas uh oh, I was covering midget
wrestling for a TV station, anduh he showed up at the midget
wrestling.
Uh we got to talk a little bit.
He he's hilarious.
His videos for like YouTube andthings like that or social
media, the guy's just yeah, oh,great stuff.
SPEAKER_03 (28:19):
Yeah, okay.
There's been a couple of timesthat I knew that I could do
something with C Dumb, otherthan he doesn't, you know, he's
got he's he's got personality,yes, and and he doesn't have to
be a wrestler to be a character.
No, right.
And you know, and I we weretrying so hard to get him into
this mold, but man, we used todo promos at the end of all uh
(28:41):
at the end of practice, andthere was there were several
times it would that you know,and a lot of kids freeze it up,
you know, it's promo time.
It's like, oh shit, you know,dear in the headlights.
Man, he would have me openly,and I'm hard to crack, you know.
I'm I'm got grouchy old fart,man.
And he would have me openlybelly laughing sometimes at some
(29:01):
of the shit that he would comeup with, man, and say, you know,
like, oh my god, you know, so Iknew I had to use this guy in
some some way.
So he's we've got a he's got areally good little group that he
works with, Professor Payne anduh and uh Quattro, a new guy
Quattro.
So they've got you know, and andthey pre and Professor Payne is
(29:23):
another guy.
He's a young kid that I trained.
He was a high school wrestlingcoach over and I won't say what
high school because he's keepingthat a mystery, but and he still
coaches, he still teaches kids.
But he, you know, he did some ofthose shoot wrestle fight
contests and stuff too, youknow.
So he yeah, yeah.
So but he's just a super nice,super nice guy, man.
(29:43):
And and he just we we put him onthis mass gimmick because so he
can go out and and get beat alittle bit because we was gonna
we had this coach gimmick thatwe had in mind for him, but he's
got so much personality too, andwith the and with the C dub
group all together, uh ProfessorPayne is selling as many
t-shirts as anybody out there,man.
SPEAKER_02 (30:04):
It's just like it goes back to what you were
saying a minute ago.
Entertainment.
Uh, you gotta have a mix ofeverything in the show, yeah,
and that is entertainment.
No matter how you look at it,you're gonna sell tickets
because people want to come seethat portion of entertainment.
They may not like anything elseduring the show, but they may
love that part.
SPEAKER_03 (30:22):
Yeah.
I try to teach them too thatit's about making moments, it's
not so much about doing spotsall night long.
They're gonna remember thatmoment that you made more than
oh, he gonna run out of thecorner, blah, blah, blah, blah.
You know, that moment when theguy one guy's down selling and
the other guy's up, and you getthat moment where you're looking
around and the people get thembuying, and you give them time
(30:43):
to react before you jumping intothe next shit, you know.
Yeah, that's you know, thenthat's that's all part of
learning, you know.
And then and where I am, that'swhat I'm trying to teach a lot
of my kids too.
I got kids that arespot-oriented, and then the ones
that that I see that that'sgonna be their deal, I let them
do their thing, you know.
But other kids, I'm trying toget them to learn how to
(31:04):
interact with the crowd.
Yes, you know, and not notdecide, no, shut up, these
stupid rednecks, that's notinteracting with the crowd.
Anyone can do that, and that'scheap heat.
Go out and work for your heat,but interact with the people,
man.
Pull them into what you're doingand and let them be a part of
it.
And that that helped get youover more than if somebody that
has the ability to do that.
(31:26):
If you go to somebody's indieshows and you look and there's a
spot match, then here comes aspot match, and another spot
match, and you go out there andyou interact with the people,
you're gonna get the biggestreaction of the night.
Yep, absolutely.
SPEAKER_01 (31:38):
And it's and it makes it so easy.
Yes.
Ryan Brown saying, uh I got youwrong, uh, Ryan.
SPEAKER_02 (31:47):
I'm sorry, called you Brian Ryan.
Okay, Ryan Brown, sup, y'all.
Uh, 40 ounce uh C dub saying uhthem DSW fans are amazing love
running into them in randomplaces and being recognized for
what we've done on the beltline.
SPEAKER_03 (32:02):
Yeah, I've had a bunch of the kids come up to me
and say that.
Man, I was over such and such,and somebody comes up and
saying, I saw you wrestle at it,and blah, blah, blah.
You know, and it's like they'reso excited about it.
And then it makes me rememberwhen I was young, like that, and
somebody, you know, come up andyou know, first time you sign
autographs when you're, youknow, and stuff, you know, it's
uh it's a big thing.
You know, it's it's it's it'sit's cool, and it's cool to
(32:23):
watch them enjoy thatexperience.
SPEAKER_02 (32:26):
Absolutely is pretty classy lady uh in the room
saying what wants to know whatthe name of the promotion is.
Uh go ahead, Nick.
We're all about that promotion.
SPEAKER_03 (32:32):
Deep South Wrestling.
We're uh we're based in Atlanta,and uh most of our shows are uh
right now we're running uhmostly around the belt line.
We do uh New Realm Brewery is uhis one where we do uh regularly.
We just did our last one of theyear at New Realm.
We're coming to Atlanta Dairies,and we got one on December 20th
(32:54):
there.
That's gonna be our last one forthere in the year because I mean
that's pushing it going intoDecember, but they go they
wanted to go for it, and youknow, if they're willing to go
for it, and I've got the kids, Isaid, look, man, some of you
kids come up with some wintercostumes so that because
sometimes we're working out inthe cold, you was wanting to
have something, you know, goingout there in your short tights,
you know, come up with adifferent costume that you can
(33:15):
wear, have you know, even ifit's under armor, it's athletic
looking stuff, you know.
SPEAKER_02 (33:19):
And you know, as it gets colder too, it depending
upon the kind of canvas thatyou're using in the ring, yes,
that thing can get icy or itgets a little bit glaze, and
that thing will get slick realfast.
Uh yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (33:31):
If you're if you're using anything other than the
cloth canvas, they get it can itcan be dangerously small.
Oh, absolutely can.
SPEAKER_02 (33:38):
Yeah, uh, let's see.
Uh, we have Pee-wee stopping inthe room saying, What up, Mac?
What up, Teddy?
What up, Nick?
Hey man.
Uh also is asking, um, do youhave a YouTube channel?
Nick.
SPEAKER_03 (33:50):
I don't have one, but my cup uh deep south
wrestling does.
So you can check us on YouTube.
You can check us out onFacebook, you can check, you
know, we've got a website.
Check us out YouTube and slashwe are deep south.
SPEAKER_02 (34:04):
We are deep south.
Ellen's saying Buddy'sgraduation was a moment.
Professor Payne was so cool.
Uh tell me about that.
Uh, so one of your wrestlershelped with the graduation.
SPEAKER_03 (34:14):
Yeah, uh, from what we understand, uh, Ellen said
that Bunny didn't want to walkout and and get his deal, but uh
he would at our show.
So uh we had Professor Payne andand then present him with his
diploma and and in the ring.
That is cool.
So so that his mom could get tosee the walk and so he could he
could actually have the walk.
(34:36):
And that is he agreed to do itat the wrestling show instead of
at the school.
So we had him, we had we had himdo it there.
We got him, we got him his hisuh title.
And once we got everything takencare of, of course, we in a
wrestling fashion, we turned itinto a heel coming out, but we
didn't take Buddy's moment awayfrom him.
We had baby faces help him andget him out of there, you know,
and then once we got him to asafe place, then the heel come
(34:57):
in and rah-blah rah, so youknow, and we carried on with it,
you know.
But it it's it was such even ifwe didn't turn it into business,
it was such a uh a heartwarmingmoment.
Yes, man.
Because Buddy's such a sweetkid.
Yes, he is.
And his and his mom uh and Iknow what it takes to take to
take care of folks.
And his mama is that does onehell of a job taking care of
(35:20):
that young man.
She's you know, she's got herlife dedicated to uh you know
24.
When you're a caretaker, you youdon't you're on you're on duty
24-7, you know.
SPEAKER_02 (35:30):
So uh and if I'm not mistaken, it's basically if I'm
not mistaken, it's it's just herand Buddy, right?
SPEAKER_03 (35:36):
I think she has one other special needs uh child
that she takes care of as well.
That's your ribbon.
Yeah, it's a I heard her saythat.
SPEAKER_02 (35:43):
This is one of the fans.
For those of you who arewatching, she is a fan that's in
the Georgia area, and she goesto not just one promotion show,
she goes all over.
Uh, you see her everywhere.
She takes Buddy wherever hewants to go based upon the card.
I think a lot of times who'sgoing to be where, and he's got
to make a choice about where hewants to go.
Uh, but uh she is phenomenal.
(36:04):
Teddy and I have talked abouther on the show before.
Yes, just what she does for herchildren.
SPEAKER_01 (36:09):
Inspirational lady.
Yes, yeah.
Ellen Ellen Divins, that's hername.
SPEAKER_02 (36:13):
Yes, absolutely uh sweet, sweet lady.
Nick, uh, we're out of time.
In fact, we're uh a little bitover here.
Um tell everybody uh where theycan find you again uh in Deep
South Wrestling, uh, both youand uh Deep South Wrestling.
SPEAKER_03 (36:26):
Okay, you can check us out at Atlanta Dairies on
December the 20th.
And on January the 4th, we aregoing to be at Monday Night
Garage on the West End inAtlanta, and that's gonna be our
new indoor once-a-month deal,and we're gonna start live
streaming a show once a month.
And I'm shooting for that one tobe our first one.
I'm hoping that that's gonna bethe deal.
(36:48):
But uh that's that's where we'regoing, man.
We got that going.
We got uh uh you got your ownpodcast too now, Nick.
Yeah, I'm I'm um Nick Patrick'smailbag, and so you can hit me
up at uh and and it's talk justlike we're doing here, man.
Then uh you guys are alwayswelcome at Deep South Show
anytime you guys want to come,man.
And uh I'd really like to see ify'all want to come check out
(37:10):
what's special when we startlive streaming there out of out
of Muddy Night Garage there onthe West End.
It's right there by where theold Tyler Perry by the Tyler
Perry studios, it's real closeto that.
Okay, yeah.
Yeah, so it's uh real close whenyou get off that Lakewood exit
and down and a couple exitsdown, it's just down in there,
man.
But uh it's excellent, man.
It's food and beer, they theygot the fire rusted, they got
(37:33):
the fire uh stone pizzas theretoo.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
And they'll big sellers there,and all the different craft
beers.
It's it's a good time, and andthe wrestling is off the chain.
Those kids are so excited, thecrowds are are are are are
packed, and it it they'rebringing an energy, man.
That's it, it it makes wrestlingfun again.
(37:53):
You know, it's you know how itfeels sometimes when it's a
business.
And and when you're in the ringand you're performing, you're
enjoying it and it's fun, butthere's so much of the other
part around the business thatit's it that it sucks all the
fun right out of it, you knowwhat I mean?
Yeah when you see the energylevel that these kids have in
the show that they put on, andand because I got a crew of
(38:15):
hungry young Hellcats that areout there trying to steal the
show and trying to be the bestthat they can be and trying to
get to the next one.
There you go.
That's the so that's what's youknow, I I'm not trying to I'm
not trying to sell older guysthat are having fun and doing
it, just you know.
If I got an older guy that canreally go and is as passing
something on to somebody, thenthen then then I'm I'm down for
(38:38):
that.
But I'm mostly about the youngthe young guys and young ladies
going out there and getting itdone.
SPEAKER_01 (38:45):
Nick, it's all about knowing when to take the cape
off.
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (38:51):
I tell you what, I don't even want to climb up in
the ring and make announcementsanymore, man.
SPEAKER_01 (38:56):
I had to do that the other day, and I think, yeah,
dang, man, how I used to justrun and jump and bounce my knee
off the apron and I ain'trunning through no airports, you
know, every now and then, butno, brother.
SPEAKER_03 (39:11):
Uh and man, if if I have to run, I'm just gonna be
hurt because I can't, I ain'trunning.
I'd do better off standing andand and fighting to the death.
It hurt me, it hurts me to runbecause my knees I hurt myself
worse trying running than Iwouldn't standing and fighting.
I don't even know if I can.
SPEAKER_01 (39:29):
I ain't running on nothing but that elliptica.
That's all I'm running.
And I certainly ain't gonnaoutrun anything.
SPEAKER_03 (39:38):
I might make them laugh when I could get away from
them.
SPEAKER_02 (39:41):
All right, we gotta get out of here.
We gotta get out of here.
Nick, I appreciate it very much,my friend.
We'll have you back.
I enjoy when you get this is thesecond time we've had a chance
to talk with Nick, and uh Ialways enjoy talking to you
about different things, mainlybecause we just talk shit, and
and that's what I love when wecan just sit down and just have
a conversation and talk aboutfun things.
Uh Everybody else.
SPEAKER_03 (40:00):
We'll tell the Glyco Beak story next time.
SPEAKER_02 (40:02):
Oh, oh, oh, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Okay, hold on.
We got to go.
How many times does it say?
All right.
Tell me the name again and wherethat originated from.
SPEAKER_03 (40:13):
All right.
I didn't work out for thelongest time.
And Teddy was a maniac, hours ofcardio.
So he got me started backworking out.
When I first started, I waslike, 10 minutes is all I could
do.
Well, the first hour I got, itwas in WrestleMania and Seattle.
I went the hour on the on thecardio.
So we get back to the room,we're smoked up, and I was proud
of myself for doing an hour.
(40:35):
I looked at him, I said, DamnTeddy, I could make a comeback
now.
I could, and I hit a mostmuscular, I could be geekobak.
And we were high, and we juststarted laughing like hell,
right?
And in the middle of uslaughing, Teddy said gleco beak.
And when he said glico beakinstead of geekko bleak, we
busted out laughing even harder.
And I thought we thought, damn,glico beak's even better than
(40:56):
geekobleak.
So glico beak stuck, man, andnobody knew what the hell we was
talking about ever.
But that's how I come, that'show glico beak come around.
SPEAKER_02 (41:07):
Oh man, that that is so cool.
Man, I appreciate it.
All right, we're out of herebecause we're gonna get cut off
if I don't get us out of here.
I'm back Davis.
That's WWE Hall of Famer, TeddyLong, and of course, our special
guest, Mr.
Nick Patrick.
We'll see you again nextThursday night, 7 o'clock
Eastern Standard Time, righthere.
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