Hot Rod Biggs on GMBMPW!

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Hello. So don't know.
Now you know, baby, this is GiveMe Back My Pro Wrestling with
Hot Rod Bigs. It's a special guest, Jared,
Jimmy St. We're going to take him to the
limit one more time, baby, righthere.
Oh Give Me back My pro. Wrestling ladies and gentlemen,
welcome to Give Me Back My Pro wrestling.

(00:51):
Hello, Sir. Don't know.
Now you know. Baby, this is Hot Rod Bigs,
Jared, Jimmy St. We're going to take them to the
limit One more time, baby. Right here.
Oh, give me back my pro wrestling.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome one more time to the Give Me
Back my Pro Wrestling podcast. And today I've got, as always,
my brother from the same father and mother, the Plastic Chic

(01:13):
Jared St. What's up chic?
How you doing today buddy? How much brother?
Just good to be your tag team partner for.
Life for life. Life.
Yeah, man. Well, you definitely are that.
You know, I got to start off by saying we've got an excellent
show today. As you read on the welcome mat
today, we have the one and only Hot Rod Bigs on the show.

(01:35):
If you're not familiar with Hot Rod Bigs, I understand he's very
well known in the Middle Tennessee area where I had my
little turn at bat. And he has really had a cool
career, wrestled a lot of awesome people and honestly just
has some great stories to tell. So even if you haven't heard his
name and you normally listen to us anyway, go ahead and listen
just to a little bit of the story and then I think you'll

(01:58):
stick around for the rest of it because like I said, Hot Rod
Biggs is the man. Trust me on that.
So, you know, to kind of go backa little bit, we've had some
shows in the in our rearview mirror and we had, of course,
Shane Morton, which is now just crossed so many barriers.
I don't even know that his numbers can be broken at this
point. Maybe.
Brand new reigning champion. We said that about Greg Gonya

(02:21):
too, though, so who knows, right?
But you know, and Jeff Daniels is still there too.
So they're all kind of still hanging in the top three.
They're very strongly gotta appreciate all y'all for that so
much. And we can tell that you stuck
around and listened to our MountRushmore of managers.
The funny thing is, is as we I had Jared, I said Jared, let's
do a chic short, kind of just saying each of our picks, you

(02:44):
know, so maybe it'll bring him to the episode to listen.
And what I noticed in that, thatwe clearly didn't notice during
in the show, maybe you did but Ididn't, is that you picked 3
Pauls and I picked 3 Jimmies. And I know I get it.
Some people's going to be like, what are you talking about?

(03:05):
Jimmy Hart, James J Dillon. OK.
And then Jim Cornette, who also goes by Jimmy to those who know
him. I almost wish now that I would
have picked Father James Mitchell or somebody like that
instead of Gary. You would have leave Gary Hart
off. There's no way you could leave
Gary. There is zero chance I could
have done that. And you know, people would have

(03:26):
been like, you can't pick yourself, Jimmy.
So you know, but it was just so funny.
I was like, you know, 3 Pauls and a brain and three Jimmies
and a Gary. Who's who's the 4th Paul I could
have picked out of them? Oh man, that's a good one, you
know? I was trying to think that when
you mentioned that I could put that off the top of my head.
So yeah, yeah, I can't if if youguys out there in listener land

(03:47):
think of another manager named Paul.
And I'm sure on the Indies there's a Paul somewhere.
Yeah, but but tell me a real manager with the name Paul
'cause I think we did a pretty decently thorough job of going
through them. And anyway, 3 Pauls and three
jimmies later, we had a Mount Rushmore of managers episode
that y'all. Paul Jones.

(04:09):
Paul Jones. Oh dude.
Paul Jones. But I don't want.
I would have never picked. Him.
I love you, Paul Jones. Yeah, Jared, good job.
I love you, Paul Jones. But man, I think I even brought
Paul Jones up. Yeah, I think you did.
See, I told you we covered everybody anyway, so.
Yeah, but I couldn't ever you. It's like you could never take

(04:32):
the brain off your. Lip that's replaced Bobby Heaton
with Paul Jones. No offense, that would be crazy
talk. Then the YouTube comments would
have Really. Oh no.
YouTube comments would have burned us down.
Imagine, imagine you taking Brain off picking Paul Jones, me
taking Gary Hart off and pickingJimmy St.

(04:54):
You know that it's just not going to be happy.
I saw we had you one comment. It was like Bobby Heenan on
there and you were like, did youlisten to the episode?
Yeah, I was like, that was kind of, you know, it was pretty
apparent that both of us really wanted to pick Bobby the brain,
but at the same time to to make enough time for everybody.
We went ahead and split that up.But anyway, thank y'all again.

(05:16):
Especially, you know, seems likey'all, y'all enjoy those
episodes. You know, we do notice one
thing. Our interviews seem to do a
little better through the apps and our topics seem to do a
little bit better through YouTube, which hey, is awesome.
However you are ingesting this show.
We thank you immensely and honestly, I just I don't you
know, I don't know what to say. It's just two brothers from

(05:40):
southwestern Virginia that love to talk about pro wrestling.
And you know, it really kind of blows my mind that y'all do
support us like you do, but we do greatly appreciate it.
So with that being said, we're going to prove to you that we
appreciate it so much by shutting up.
Shutting up and getting to it. And getting to it.

(06:01):
So stick around for these messages.
We're going to be right back with the one and the only Hot
Rod Biggs be right back. Are you a pro wrestling fan?
We'll stop by Captain's Corner, where you can get autographed
photos, cards, magazines, and figures from all of your
favorite wrestling superstars ofthe past, present, and future.

(06:23):
You'll also be able to participate in live signings in
the weeks and months to come. Make sure to stop by Captain's
Corner on Facebook and give us aholler.
Remember, cheers to the working man.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome one more time to the Give Me
Back My Pro Wrestling podcast. And today y'all, To say that I'm
excited for this guest is an understatement.

(06:46):
One of my favorite people from the Middle Tennessee scene.
Y'all know I love a lot of them out there, but at the same time,
Hot Rod Biggs has always held a very special place in my heart.
Welcome to the show, Hot Rod Biggs.
You are too kind, brother. You are too kind.
Glad to be here. Glad to be here, Jimmy.
Thank you for being here. That's the important part.
So but you know, I told you earlier on I said we just kind

(07:09):
of take it easy. We treat this kind of like a car
trip to a show. You know, I'll I'll be driving
you be a shotgun. Jared's in the back making sure,
you know, everything's going good there.
But we're just going to take a car trip to whatever show we're
about to do and and and have some fun while we're doing it.
OK, so we're all gassed up and ready to go and let's ask some

(07:30):
questions. So very first question that I
always start with goes to my Co host Jared, Plastic Chic St.
Jared. So hot Rod, this is a question
I'd like to ask every guest. It kind of lets the listeners
and lets us know maybe what influenced your what you've,
what you've saw in your wrestling career.
But you're you're like Mount Rushmore.

(07:51):
You like top four or five wrestlers that have impacted you
or you like to watch or or whatever, just your top four or
five wrestlers of all time. Very easy question answer there
for your brother, superstar BillDundee, Buddy Landale, Rick
Flair, Dusty Rose, Jerry Lawler,Call me Amar.
That's. That's the quickest answer man,

(08:13):
I love it. Record time.
Record time, man. I didn't even have any notes on
that one. We're good, actually.
That's awesome. I was 12 years old.
I got reeled in Dutch man tail. Let me throw number six in
there. They reeled me in and I've been
there ever since, man. 1983 forward.
I love it. I love it.
Those are great guys. I mean, that's a Mount Rushmore

(08:35):
for wrestling in my opinion, youknow what I mean?
So and I can actually see small elements of all those guys in
your in your ring career too, you know, and and that's
awesome, man. So well, let me start off with
this then, since you know, you got that one out of the way in
record time. So talk about your younger days.
Where are you from? Where'd you grow up?
Right here in Nashville, TN Brother born and raised grew up

(08:55):
at the Nashville Sports Arena where I was able to main event
later in my life. That's that was my Madison
Square Garden and I never cared about venturing out.
Most guys get into professional wrestling to to take it wherever
they can take it. I was content once I hit the
fairgrounds. Oh man, that is the Mecca.
Right. Come on.
That's the place. So.
OK, Where'd you go to high school?

(09:16):
Where'd you go? Where were you about your school
days? I once graduated from Pearl Cone
in 1992. I'm an old man now and just you
know, it did did did the music thing, did the wrestling thing,
did all kind of extracurricular things and and it and it led to
pro wrestling by the time I was 19.
Thanks to a gentleman, you know,is kids sensation or Jason

(09:38):
nation. Maybe you probably know with the
nation. He and I go back to Little
League. I wouldn't be here talking to
either you gentleman right now if it weren't for Jason.
Jason shout out if you hear this.
Jason preceded me. He went through Ben Jordan and
and trained and kind of got the nerves and butterflies out of
the way. And I said, well, you know, if

(09:58):
Jason can handle it, then I'm going to give it a shot.
And I look moon dog spot up. It's fairgrounds.
I had a family tie in that I waskind of unaware at at the at the
onset. And you know, the moon dog
didn't speak to me for a few weeks.
He worked a gimmick and he couldn't speak what not.
So they came, but I kept coming back.
I offered him AI made him an offer he couldn't refuse and

(10:22):
thank God he did refuse it. And three or four months in a
tobacco barn through the summer of 1995 and and August 4th,
1995, Jason and I rolled down. My very first match was in
Smithville, TN Second match was ironically at Jack's Auction.
Martin Mcminnville, both with Jason Nation and the rest is
history man. Wow, that's awesome.

(10:44):
So Jason is a great dude. I got to know him working on
down the line, you know, but youtalked about it just a quick
little bit there. You played some Little League.
Did you play football and stuff like that in high school?
What were you in high school? You were the rock and roller in
high school, right? Just remember my thing man, my
daddy was buried on my 7th birthday.
I see my life ending at 28th on my whole childhood.

(11:06):
It sounds ridiculous at this age.
Just look back and say that. But I figured that 28 was the 28
was my cut off. So I poured everything I could
into everything that I could along the way.
See sports weren't my thing. I, I to this day, I don't watch
football. I couldn't tell you who does
what and whole Little League andand I started playing guitar
when I was 12 years old and and up and down.

(11:28):
I'm actually had to to reteach myself how to play these last
few months after my neck surgery, I hand debacle and you
know, fingers are paralyzed and things like that.
So definitely been a wake up call, but started with with
guitar and and it is circling back to that now.
It's wrestling and music man. That Rocket Wrestling connection
reeled me in just like the my mytop six man.

(11:50):
Oh yeah, for sure. That's definitely what grabbed
us as well. You know, we, we love that rock
and wrestling. I've got such great nostalgia on
that, but real quick, so you know, I'm also a magician.
You maybe didn't know that, but I think we talked about that in
the past. I learned I picked up the bass
and guitar at 12 years old myself, got a base for Christmas
one year and and I was in it to win it from then on.
Talk about your band, man. I've heard some of the music.

(12:13):
It was very of the era kind of metal.
Talk about your first band, or talk about the band that did
those demos that we've heard online.
Well, man, I had no idea those were even available.
I was trying to see where you were going.
That's news to me. Trash, man.
Thrashing, hard rocking, ass kicking, slamming hoofums,
THRASH, habitual thrash. We applause to definitely

(12:34):
influenced by DRI, Metallica, Slayer.
I mean, man, I'm liable to play anything from George Jones to
Jim Crow, she to DSI, you know, musical taste all over the
place. Yeah, I mean, we just, you know,
10th grade, we decided we're going to give us a shot, see if
we can put a back then, you know, these kids today brand.
I didn't know what the hell a cassette tape is.

(12:59):
And we, we pursued that in 1991.We, we got a little demo
together, you know, sold a few 100 copies to our friends, went
out and just played some local venues, skating rings, you know,
VFW's anywhere, high school gyms, anywhere that would let us
into play. It was, it was the Vanilla Ice
era. So, you know, we, we were kind
of there, but, you know, I was introduced to Metallica in the

(13:23):
ninth grade. I I've not even hurt, you know,
I, I didn't get caught up until I didn't get master of puppets
ride the lightning and kill themall until and justice for all
came out. So I had some catching up to do.
A good friend of mine is no longer with us.
His name is Richard Slate. I hope his kids are listening.
Turned me on to Metallica and kind of force it down my throat.
I honestly didn't even like I couldn't do.

(13:45):
I couldn't wrap my brain around that offbeat on master of
puppets forever. Now that's like, but I had to
force it on myself and and a little peer pressure kind of I
got to do this to fit in. Maybe I, you know, I never had
really thought about it from that perspective.
But it was not a a natural fit with the metal.
But man, once it got in the blood, brother, it got in the

(14:06):
blood, Yeah. Well, you know, and a lot of the
guys that I the one, and I'm notknocking Metallica, I'm a huge
Metallica fan too. They actually, you know, are
somewhat of an influence on my career as well.
But at the same time, a lot of the guys that love and just tell
how much they love Metallica nowwe're the kind of kids that
would have made fun of us for liking Metallica back in the

(14:26):
day. Am I right or wrong on that?
You're absolutely correct. You hit that one right on the
head, Jimmy. Absolutely, absolutely.
You know, it went from everybody.
I guess at that time it was what, poison and warrant and you
know that. And I went actually called a
poison show. And yeah, now, again,

(14:46):
hindsight's always 2020. I don't care who you are.
Hindsight's always 20, but at the Town, you know, I, I know
they're, they were using tracks and whatnot, and CC Deville
would come out of his guitar solo, held his guitar over the
head and over his head with the drum beat and was, you know,
doing the count And the guitar kicked in.
And I'm like, what the hell is that?

(15:08):
So. You know, he gets everything.
And so when I had the opportunity to dive in the
middle, I did. But you're right, a little bit
of shunning came with that territory.
But hey man, you know, the very first injury that I had was blew
my knee out slam dancing at Operation Rock'n'roll show.
Iron Raiden. Judas Priest Testimony and yeah,

(15:31):
so you know, I I took a hit froma guy twice my size, probably
twice my age, and brought me outone of our club shows a couple
weeks later about lost my head our our guitar player.
We brought a lead guitarist in it.
The band you'd asked about. Let me circle back because I
talk too fast and too much sometimes was my buddy Ricky,

(15:51):
Ricky Stewart, my buddy Ronnie, Ronnie Finley.
We've been friends for years andwe put that together.
Ronnie had met a guy that we we were 1617 years old.
He met a 2830 year old guy that came in and could just play like
nobody's business. And he was into a little, how do
I say this? He was into some things that we

(16:12):
weren't not only of age to do, but even of age we shouldn't
have been doing. He was doing it and he was he
was wigging out a little bit andhe had this big grim reefer
sword and and he decides he's going to swing it around while
he's doing his guitar so low. And here I am in a on an unlevel
stage at a place called It was called Pan Starship.
It was Club Downtown, a spot that's now part of the

(16:33):
Bridgestone Arenas parking lot. Actually down on the little
raggedy, uneven stage and about broke my neck avoiding getting
hit with the sickle because I was getting a new the sickle by
the guitar player on the dope who was.
It was a hell of a performance. But he about killed us.
And I'm about to make me kill myself because I was in that

(16:55):
knee brace from my knee injury from the slam dancing at the
Rock'n'roll show. It's a Operation Rock'n'roll,
and it's just one big old circle, brother 1 big old
circle. I love it, man.
That's awesome. Because you know, like I said,
I've got such huge ties. And that's what led me to where
I eventually met you was I was amusician and then you and I

(17:15):
actually met when I was working at the Great Escape out there in
West Nashville. And you would come in there and
I wouldn't see it's Hot Rod Bigs.
I know who Hot Rod Bigs is. I'm gonna talk to Hot Rod Bigs.
And then Tony Falk, Lt. Falk, Luke from the Bushwackers.
Then eventually Eric Camaro camein there and said, hey, you
know, you want to come. And I'd done a little work up
in, in Virginia for my, for my mentor Kenny still and told him

(17:37):
about it. And he said, you want to come
work at Mike Porter's. And then I, you know, got tired
of not getting paid and ended upgoing to work at TJ Sawmill.
But that's a that's a whole other story we'll get into in a
minute. So.
Tell me where all these people can hear us right now that you
were too talented to work for Hot Dogs for Mike Porter.

(17:58):
I did it. I did it, my brother.
I did. I even got a bag of chip one
time, he said. Jimmy, go ahead and take you a
bag of chips, honey, you worked hard out there tonight.
And I'm like, Mike, come on, man, you're killing me.
Anyway, work twice for that. Exactly.
All right, hot Rod. You talked about it a little bit
already, but give us like a little look into your start in

(18:21):
wrestling and and who trained you and all that stuff.
Meanwhile, I began again. We we had again.
We're going back to the music. Billy.
Yeah, you would know in Jimmy asMilenko, AKA Billy, Billy
Manson, name name is Billy Stewart.
His brother Ricky was was one ofour original band members in

(18:42):
thrash. Me and Billy had decided we were
just going to play a little, a little show at a skating rink
down here for some friends that that we're going to come through
town. And, and we kind of I had a very
large circle of very loyal friends back then.
Still do, still do. I don't mean to sound like I
don't, but so much so that that we were setting up a little show

(19:03):
skating rink, just do some covertunes and whatnot and we were
practicing seven days a week andwe decided, you know, we ain't
really we kind of drifted away from wrestling.
It got a little blase for a couple of years and we wound up
going back to the fairgrounds. PG13.
We're headlining with Tommy Richand Doug Gilbert.

(19:26):
It was the year that that Eddie had passed away.
We were at the fairgrounds when Doug got the news about Eddie
actually, and that was a pretty,pretty intense saying.
And, and it was there's actually, and I you know, it's
come to think about it, I've, I've Doug is, is now somebody
I've probably called my friend. I don't know if I ever told Doug
that story. Anyway, first time for

(19:47):
everything, right. So I think that's been Doug Jet
out the back door and it trickled through the through the
crowd where we were just, you know, up top having an adult
beverage or two and. I was like, you know, that
that's that's real. That was like the, you know,
everything else was in question.And and I was never one of those
guys that that I never picked apart the show to try to see

(20:10):
what the trick was or to see what the, you know, with this,
this might be legitimate and this might not be.
I just took it for what it was. You know it, to me, that would
be like going to see, you know, Fast and the Furious and trying
to figure out which one's a stunt driver and which one was
gone, right? Exactly.
Yeah, exactly. That the that the piece of
purpose to me, you know, I'm going to see the show I'm going

(20:32):
to see the show and and that waslike the first difference that
I've seen in the emotion and Billy Jack Haynes has come in
and took Doug's spot on the mainevent.
So everybody knew something serious was going on.
I didn't didn't realize I had the tie in that I did at that
time. I believe it was February of 95.

(20:53):
We we come back to where we're going.
Our reward for ourselves, for practicing for the show, because
that's just was what we were doing in life, was to go to the
fairgrounds. And once that break happened, I
got word within a week or two that Jason was mentioned.
Jason followed him in. He had started training with Ben
Jordan. And so I started throwing the

(21:16):
idea around and I'd always wanted to, you know, as a kid, I
was always told you're, you're too small to that you're not
tough enough to do this or, you know, somebody hit you with a
chair, you're going to go home crying to Mama and whatnot.
And so I was always in the back of my mind.
I was a little intimidated, not that, you know, I'm not 6 foot 5
and, and, and, and not the gym rat or the bodybuilder or the,

(21:38):
you know, the muscle guy, whatever.
You know, I always like the goodfight now good fair fight, you
know, always up my alley as far back so I can remember.
So I there was No Fear, but there was some intimidation
about it. And once we've seen the deal
with Doug and then Jason kind of, you know, lay some bread
crumbs out Hansel and Gretel style.
And I just, we've seen moon talkspot at the gimmick table, man.

(22:03):
And I went down and bought a couple of pictures.
Just open up a conversation withhim.
He didn't speak to me. You know, he works to give me.
He couldn't talk for a few weeks.
And that just kind of drove me. I was like, that son of a bitch
is going to talk to me, you know, following my attitude and.
And God rest his soul. Yeah, You know, Moon Dog Spot

(22:24):
actually said to me one time, heand I obviously didn't register
at the time and I didn't realizeI hadn't, I got my feet wet yet,
so I couldn't understand what hemeant.
But he actually made the commentthat if he died in the ring,
that was perfectly fine with him.
And, and, and sure enough that that's what happened.
You know, and I don't know if he, and you probably know this,

(22:45):
but Cassidy was among the, the guys in the, in the ring that
night. He was in Memphis.
We were in Columbia, TN and we got a phone call.
Cell phones were still kind of new, you know, new to to the to
everyone. You know, they just become
affordable that everyone will start to pick up cell phones.
And someone had called one of the fans in in Columbia at the

(23:08):
Grand Slam. A fan there where we were had
received a phone call from someone in Memphis and they were
actually saying moon dogs Spock.So they they weren't exactly
they didn't know who the hell they were talking about.
It turns out that there and we got the news like almost, you
know, fairly real time that Larry, Larry Latham Boondogg

(23:28):
spot that Larry had passed away at the Mid South Coliseum during
the match kind of set on the bottom turnbuckle and and roll
it out. And in hindsight, again,
hindsight being 20/20, he said he was OK with that.
And you know, I didn't I hadn't seen Larry for a couple of three
years at that point. I had the opportunity to do the

(23:49):
Memphis loop. Most of the guys come through
here and and that's what they do.
You know, anybody who watches wrestling and or watched
wrestling in the territory days knows that any all the guys that
turned out to be somebody all came through missus.
They all came through and that should have been on my radar.
It kind of was, you know, my first match with Larry with Moon

(24:14):
Dogs Blessing was actually in Memphis.
It was not at the Mid South Coliseum, but it wasn't a show
in Memphis. My first weekend out I did
Blavel Arkansas. I did where Dyersburg, TN
Blavel, Arkansas and Memphis on a, on a three day loop.
And that drive was new to me. I, I was a local boy right here

(24:37):
in Nashville and, and I was justthinking, damn, do I want to
drive 8 hours there? You know, right.
But off the riff I was just like, damn, there's got to be a
better way to do this. And Larry called up a gentleman
by the name of Terry Rice. I don't know if you're aware of
Terry, but Terry was a promoter around here.
He set up a show with the same skating rink that that we were

(25:00):
practicing to to do the show at very popular skating rink at
probably, again, the kids today that don't know anybody are
going to take a skating rink. What kind of backyard wrestling
stuff you got going on? But that's what it was.
Yeah. I'm sorry.
I didn't mean to give you the long answer.
I haven't really thought about this in a long time.
I love it. I love it we.
We rolled through and moon dog made a cottage Cherry rice and

(25:24):
and told him to book me and I met Dante Tommy Hagee Halton.
I knew Gary Valiant and Gary wasthere.
I I went to high school with Gary Valiant.
Actually, he's a couple years ahead of me, but I've known him
for years. He's he's from the same
neighborhood I am. And all these guys were were
congregating at this show right here in the neighborhood, like a

(25:45):
mile from when I could have walked in.
And so I was thinking, now I'm looking at do I want to go a
mile down the street or do I want to make a four hour trip to
stay in the hotel? And so that was that.
And that was on actually, that was Halloween night of 1995.
So I had a couple matches in August.
I didn't have anything up until the Halloween night show.

(26:08):
Dante seen something in me. To this day, I don't know what
it was. And you talk about a
cheerleader, man, I I see he's going to be an upcoming guest
soon. And yeah, I look forward that
myself. I mean, you are.
And I don't mean the sidetrack here if you got the edges out,
whatever. But did you know that, you know,
he was on the Texas Stadium showand Terry Vonner beat Ric Flair

(26:32):
and he was, you know, you know, Jim Pride.
He rushed his Jim Pride. He was Tommy.
Yeah. I mean, what a what a what a
career this guy had. You know, he's sitting back and
used to party with the free birds.
And I'm thinking, you know, kindof minor, but saying if Tommy
seems something to me, man, he brought me down to brought me

(26:54):
down to Lewis. Lewisburg.
Columbia wasn't a thing yet. Oh, actually Columbia wasn't our
thing yet. They had broke off from the
promoter Columbia. They've been running Lewisburg.
I found that out after the fact.So I started out my Southern
wrestling career, Southern Tennessee spot that that was
very good to me by going to Lewisburg.
Almost ruined that right out of the gate.

(27:15):
So we're talking Halloween night, October 31st and what 6
or 7 weeks later on December 23rd, 2 days before Christmas,
same year. Here I am a couple of months
into the business and you know, as far as I know, the future is
so bright. I got to wear shades brother.
And there was a bachelor party for the promoter Willie Paul
Davis. There was some Willie Paul.

(27:39):
They, they had a birthday party for Willie Paul at the, the
gentlemen's Club here in Nashville.
I'm trying to be politically correct and verbally respectful.
Little bit of Crown Royal, etcetera, later and, and a
little bit of, hey, I'm being green and stupid and I didn't
know any better. And, and later that night, you
know, here I am demonstrating his toss to somebody on the hard

(28:02):
floor that I had no business doing.
And I separated my shoulder, which to this day, right now all
the way from 1995, I twist my elbow and my collarbone pops out
because I never got it screwed back in.
And I thought that was going to be the worst thing that could
have possibly happened to me. And I start, you know, I'm not,

(28:23):
I'm not a sinless man. None of us are.
But I, I serve a good God. And he used that, you know, use
what I thought was my defeat andturned it to a victory.
And I'm tell you how he done it because I was in Lewisburg and
I've been there for just those few weeks.
It was enough for Chris Kern, mybruised brother partner.
Talk about heat magnets, man. I've never experienced anything.

(28:46):
To this day, I still haven't experienced anything in my
career is Hot Rod Big, so to speak, as I did when I was Hot
Rod Bigs, 1/2 of the Bruce Brothers, me and Chris Kerner,
and we later factored in Little Lakes victory.
God rest his soul. And man, we just took the the
area by storm. Because I was in Lewisburg and

(29:07):
because I was in that sling, I knew I couldn't wrestle, but I
wanted to show that that I was still on the team.
I still made the trip for the next few weeks and shortly after
New Year's, well, actually maybebeginning January, February,
Chris Kern was working with Jason Nation.
I hate to keep going back to him, but he was a very integral

(29:27):
part. They were doing a deal in
Lewisburg. Jason had just bought a brand
new Firebird 1996 model. He was wrestling against Chris
Kern. The car was on the line and
Chris needed to make sure that he walked out the winter.
So there I am sitting in my slings.
Quentin Charisma is managing Chris.
He's got his own thing going on during the deal.

(29:49):
And Kern looks at me in that sling and he says, hey, you want
to come to the ring with me and hide that spray can in your
sling so he could Jason at the end of it.
And I was like, hell yeah, brother, count me in.
That's what I'm here for. I was just making the trip to
show up and support the team, you know, not not the Bruce
brothers team. The hey, we're in Lewisburg
team. They're working on Bruce.

(30:10):
And something just clicked, man.Something you would have to ask
Chris Carter what it was, but but he's seen something.
I was just very fortunate in right place, right time.
And and he went to Tommy, who isthe Booker and asked him if we
could do a little thing. He brings the idea to me the
next week about the Bruce brothers.
Again, maybe not being smart to my environment.

(30:32):
I almost rejected the Bruce brothers because as soon as he
said, OK, we're going to, you know, put on the bow ties and
the shirts and the slacks and, and, and I'm thinking, oh God,
that's the big boss man type shit.
I don't want to do that. And I tried to talk to mom about
it. He, you know, he wasn't having
it. Thank God he didn't listen to
me, but he, he insisted. And man, like 3 or 4 weeks

(30:56):
later, man, we were rolling. And it wasn't long before we
were bumped up to the main event.
Not because we were excellent workers, not because of policy,
not because of any reason other than it was very evident that
the people were buying tickets to see our opponents, whomever
they were at the time beat up the Bruce brothers or get beat

(31:19):
up trying. And that was not, that was a a
full, that was a full education in a very short period of time
on the insurance and outs of professional wrestling.
And only then that I start to smarten up and look at the
business for what it was. I never considered it a
business. I didn't consider it a money
venture. I didn't consider it a stepping

(31:41):
stone. It was, this is what I'm doing
you. This is what's in front of me
tonight and I'm going to take care of this.
And I didn't look beyond that and it could have been
detrimental, but thankfully I had.
I was surrounded by some good people and I rode Chris Kearns
coattails and man, the rest is just history.
To this day. I, I, if I were to go to a show

(32:02):
in that area, somebody or somebody's kid, somebody's going
to come up and say something to me about the Bruce brothers.
Their grandma watched me, their Mama watched me, their daddy
watched me. They, they watched me in there a
little. I, I could not that I wanted to
escape it, but I couldn't if I wanted to it.
We were for the small audience. We had, you know, 3 or 400
people. We were, which isn't small,

(32:24):
especially nowadays, the three or 400 people packed into a
National Guard army in Lewisburg, TN and they just
couldn't, they couldn't get enough.
I mean, we did the, the sugar bottle deal with, with Shane
Morton, man. And we went out there and, and I
was drinking the, the, the shootcoke, right?
You know, the legitimate Coke bottle.

(32:45):
And I dropped one of them. And so I had quit and bring me
another one. So they knew we had more than
one, you know, I purposely dropped it so they hear it and,
you know, see it. And, and man, we, we blasted
Shane Morton with that damn thing.
Later, Shane and and Steve were just a couple of months ahead of
me. We all kind of come in at the
same time. And so they were the up and
coming babysace tag team. Chris and I were the up and

(33:08):
coming hill tag team and we blasted him with that coke
bottle man and and Susan, if youhear this, I'm sorry is what it
is, man. She I was about to eat through
the bricks man. They tried to get to us for
cutting Shane up and it was it was brother.
It was magic. You know, they just Mikey Dunn
and all those guys were were were still in the audience and

(33:31):
they'll just they were still in because I was in the audience
before I wasn't either and we all right.
So I don't mean that just actually, but but this was a
while back. None of those guys have broken
in. And I I mean, you could ask any
of those guys, man, that the heat that we have and, and
everybody, you know, gets yelledat or, you know, starts a a ride

(33:52):
or something and thinks they gotthe most heat in the world.
We didn't have the most heat in the world, but we had the most
heat in the circuit. And it was because of the
position we put in. And Chris Carlin was just that
damn good. And I was smart enough to follow
him. Yeah.
So that's awesome question. You don't have to edit out about
45 minutes of that, probably because that's just how you
know. That's awesome.
So you know, in 98 I'm looking here at your list of stuff.

(34:15):
And then so Music City, you actually work at N.W.A North
American title versus Colorado kid at the fairgrounds.
And then also at around that same time you're also working a
very young James Storm. Talk about some of those times,
man, I'd love to hear. I mean, you're first of all,
you're getting to work in the fairgrounds there and then
second of all, you're working a very early version of someone

(34:36):
that would end up doing some bigthings.
Talk about these times. Here, don't mind, I'm going to
take them opposite you gave themto me though.
James Storm. James Storm was was the the
first person I was ever assignedto so to speak.
James trained with, if I'm not mistaken, he trained with the
Mortons to, to kind of get his feet wet and he come into

(35:01):
Columbia eventually led to to remember back, you know, back
then we, we had a pretty good toget this is before your time.
We had a pretty good schedule, man.
We were doing Wednesday nights. We were doing Tennessee City,
which is outside of Dickson, TN.We were doing Tennessee City on
Wednesday nights. We were doing Shelbyville on
Thursdays. We were doing Menville on
Fridays. We were doing Lewisburg, which
rotated the Lewisburg, Petersburg and Columbia on

(35:23):
Saturday. So we hit each one, you know,
every third week and then Sundayevery the other Sunday was
produced in Kentucky. We had the occasional spot show
on a Monday. Tuesdays were off.
And so I, I hit the ground running with five to six work
days, you know, a week. And that obviously expanded on
my knowledge. And it wasn't long after here

(35:43):
come James Storm and and I almost I need to send you a
picture, whether you put it on your site, whatever, just so you
can see that the kid that I was working with compared to the
James Storm that the world now knows night and what a great
attitude that he had. Now I hear and I'm going to say
I hear because I never experienced it.
I hear James grew into a little bit of a problem that if he

(36:06):
didn't like the way things were rolling, he would buck up and do
this. I can say with certainty he
never once done that to me. James and I become very good
friends after the fact. And, and, and let me reiterate
this. This was a time when we were not
in the same dressing rooms. You know, I've been wrestling
four or five years before, unless I just happen to catch a

(36:29):
ride with one of the guys up or,or we did something like that.
We didn't talk to it to our opponents.
We the referee took the gimmick for the end over and I don't
like he's an F word, you know, sure, but sure the the referee
would bring the gimmick over. I'm still got a little old
schooling and if the referee, hopefully he was smart enough to

(36:50):
to communicate well and sometimes that led to a fight in
the ring. You know, we've been in been in
a couple of shoots in the ring, unfortunately too, not that I
started any, but then it's kind of been the end results along
the way. Sometimes it was a
miscommunication or, you know, the baby's face meant this and,
and we took it as this and, and it just come down.

(37:10):
But we were not in the same dressing room.
So James and I became friends after we went out there and put
our lives in each other's hands for week in and week out for
months at a time. And I mean, James and I made a
lot of a Rd. wound up making a lot of Rd. trips together.
You know, I got to kick it with,with Mickie James at, at Storm's
wedding. I don't even know where I, where

(37:32):
I could start or stop with Stormoutside of that.
But what a what a sponge for theprofessional wrestling industry.
He was, he wanted to learn at all.
He had a good attitude. He didn't mind doing anything,
whether I was burning him with fire, whether I was still
placing him off the top rope. I was, I taught him to do a

(37:52):
Frankensteiner by taking it fromhim, which was a new buck for me
too. But it was the thing he and I
eventually went into Mcminnville.
If you're doing your homework, and I know you have you seen
with this Ronald McDonald House benefits in conjunction with a
high school down in, in Mcminnville, TN a few years in a

(38:14):
row. We raised, you know, the upwards
of 30 grand over three years forthe Ronald McDonald House
because of some shows. We would go in and do a morning
show at the school where the kids would pay 2 bucks to get
out of class and, and enter the deal.
And then we, we as crazy as thissounds, they was literally tore
and I got pictures to prove thatthe same we making stuff up
where they took the section out like the men's clothes out of

(38:38):
the Walmart section, because Walmart was sponsored and, and
we would come in and, and do a show in, in the Walmart, you
know, literally inside in the men's section.
They had to, and they, they asked and me and storm headline
that stuff. And then we would come back and
do a, a regular ticket price forthe show that night.
I mean, what a, what a babyface.And I hope he hears this.

(38:59):
And if you don't, then I hope the world hears it and tells you
about it. What an excellent babyface that
kid was right out of the gate. And you know, everything that he
got from my perspective, I, I, his attitude that I've never
experienced aside because I, I've never seen that.
But where I'm sitting, James Storm worked hard for everything

(39:21):
that he got and he deserves all the good that happens to him.
And I would take a bullet for that kid.
I was laid out in traffic for him right now.
I hadn't seen him in several years, but I would lay down
talking for him right now because of what he did for me
way back then and because I've seen the same love that I had
for professional wrestling come out with James Storm.

(39:41):
Me Cat Taylor Storm tore the circuit up for for quite some
time. And now a word from our sponsor.

(40:01):
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome toGive Me Back My Pro Wrestling,
the podcast that's based on the old school but can still help
you find the good stuff from today.
Jimmy St. and the Plastic Sheet Jared are the undisputed tag
team champions of the wrestling podcast world.
From thought provoking topics, the superstar interviews to

(40:23):
action figure expertise, this team does it all.
And all they ask is give me backmy pro wrestling every other
Thursday, wherever you listen topodcasts.
Which leads me to your second person you asked me about.

(40:45):
So I have been the Southern heavyweights champion for an
extended period of time, a little over 18 months
consecutive, Which what an honorthat was.
You know, where would I be goingto get guys like Tracy Smothers
and Jamie Dundee and Stephen Dunn and Paul Diamond and these
guys that I, I, I everybody withthe exception of Paul Diamond, I

(41:08):
become friends with after the fact.
But at the time, not being in the same dressing room, I didn't
get to talk to him before nor after the match.
You know, it was a hey, tell himI said thank you and vice versa.
And for these guys to come in, they didn't know who I was.
I hadn't been on TV at the at that point and they come in and
and and and did the favor and you know, for for who, who the

(41:30):
hell is hot Rod Bigs? We should all put him over And
those guys came and done it And that led to the tie in Steve
Bryant and Randall Fanning, who was Steve Bryant was the
photographer of the area. Randall Fanning was the video
videographer. However, the hell you say that
videographer, he did the he recorded the shows and make sure

(41:51):
the boys had their gimmicks, which I was a student of that I
would I would work. I was a Marx, right?
So I would work for free if that's what I had to do.
I rarely had to do that, but I would have worked for free just
to be able to record my match. Because as soon as we got home,
it was put in the tape. And let's see what went right.
And let's watch it again and seewhat went wrong and let's watch

(42:11):
it a third time. Let's see what we maybe should
have done so we can try it next time.
And and became a student of the game.
Randall and Steve took over Mcminnville, TN Bert Prince came
to town shortly thereafter, which led to the Music MCW, the
Music City Wrestling at the Fairgrounds, which opened the
door for me to wrestle with the fairgrounds for the first time.

(42:33):
I had dropped the title after 18.
I think it was like 18 months and two weeks.
You know, they say wins and losses don't matter.
I never kept up with that, but Ikept up with that time because
it was the first title that I had held in a singles manner.
The Bruce Brothers held that hate to back up, but Chris and I
had the tag team titles and I, Imentioned it, we worked in six
towns. Chris worked in five of those

(42:55):
because Chris didn't do producer.
Kentucky because of the shoot job.
All towns, different promoter ineach town, a lot of the same
crew, but not the same promoter.Nobody was, you know that the
Columbia promoter wasn't making money off the Shelbyville.
The Shelbyville guy wasn't making money off Tennessee City.
It was they were independent shows for their own right.

(43:16):
And all five towns had put theirtag team titles on us.
Not cooperating had given us titles.
So I held tag team titles up to that point, but not a singles
title. After 18 months, whatever, I put
Storm over for that title. It was time and he deserved it.
And you know, it was just time. And just as luck would have it,

(43:39):
again, I thought I'd done something detrimental. 2 weeks
later we're told, hey guys, you know, we're going to, we're
going to send y'all to the fairgrounds on Saturday night,
you know, and I'm taking the fairgrounds.
And what city? Nashville never crossed my mind.
They're like, now you're going to to the sports arena in
Nashville. And I mean, it was like, how do

(43:59):
I equate that without being a sports fan?
I guess it would be like going to the Super Bowl.
I imagine. I don't know, but I don't know.
But what a what a great piece ofnews that was.
So here I am now. I'm going to the fairgrounds,
but I just gave up my title and I'm thinking, damn, I just I can
just make a Mr. Run here. But I didn't because they put me
in there with Colorado kid rightout of the gate and we had a

(44:22):
very smooth match, so much so that that MM Propada Colorado
kid. Then Mike told somebody about
it. I I know he told Bert, but
apparently he told somebody elseabout it because he started
showing up at the Fayetteville show and he came to to
Shelbyville and and he wanted tobe in the ring with me.
Whether because I was safe, whether because I was like,

(44:43):
whatever the reason members because I didn't mind putting
him. I don't know.
I didn't ask those questions, but for whatever reason, he
wanted to work with me. We we went out there and done it
a couple times and I never I don't want to be disrespectful.
Let me choose my words carefully.
I never fell in the favorites list of Mr. Burke Prentice and
that has its own connotations. I guess you know you're not

(45:07):
going to lower the well, I was not, I was not amongst that
group and. It's a good thing, right?
I mean, come on. Are you kidding me?
But I will say this, I never judged those who were and I was.
I was, as time went on, all the way through the inauguration of

(45:27):
TNA and Which I don't. I'm sure you probably didn't see
this online, but I, I am one of the only local talents that
opted out of an opportunity withTNA.
And there I got a whole set of reasons for that.
But yeah, I was invited to. Yeah, I was out there with the
rest of them. Some bitches paint walls for the
fairgrounds, all black, but Sarah went from white to blue to

(45:50):
black. Certainly was.
We bring it, you know. Yeah, I was there.
I mean, sidebar, but I was standing talking to Jim Cornett
when it's now a famous story. But I was standing there talking
to Jim Cornett as Ed Ferrara andand Vince Russo walked into the
walked into the fairgrounds thatnight and and Jim Cornette goes
off on him about the Jr. skit, the Oklahoma deal.

(46:12):
And you can Google that and there's stories.
I was getting there talking. I was sitting here talking to
Jim Cornette when he stopped talking to turn around to be
there. Ferrara, he was going to try to.
He didn't, but he was wasn't because they.
They didn't stop him. Yeah, yeah, he certainly did.
He thought. And I'm going to tell you what
everything that I've heard Cornett say about that was
almost verbatim. Yeah.

(46:33):
Big. But so yeah.
That that was all the DNA inauguration anyway.
I say that because I was one of the only guys around here and
I'm. I'm not special.
I'm not over talented. It was just the way it was.
All these guys were clamoring to, to get in the door for TNA
and I opted out. And that goes back to my deal

(46:55):
with with Colorado kid that, youknow, Colorado kind of weeded
himself out of that. But I was the only local guy.
I've said this nine times. I'm going to finish my sentence.
The only local guy that was not in that circle because I don't
know what else to call it, you know what I mean?
I wasn't on the phone list and but I stayed booked, you know, I

(47:15):
didn't get kicked. All the other guys got left off
the car or they got timed out orjobbed out or whatever and they
kept me in the mix. I chose not to do the the
Wednesday night shows because there was a whole list of
extracurricular expectations that I wasn't participating in.
And some of the some of those guys and guys, if you're

(47:36):
listening to, I'm not going to name names and I don't mean any
disrespect to you, but I was just raised a different way.
Perhaps I don't know, but I was very I was very fortunate to
lie. I I stayed in the mix all all
the way till till it just wasn'ta thing anymore.
Finally, 11 Saturday night wherethey say, hey, this is the last

(47:57):
one. And I was there from the
beginning to the end. And it goes back to the very
first night with Colorado kid. And none of that would have
happened if not for me dropping the belt to James Storm, which I
thought was a mistake. I know I give long winded
answers. I thought it was a mistake and
it turned out just like the separated shoulder, just like
the the pursuing spot everything, you know, all the

(48:19):
thing. I thought I'd done something
wrong and it turned out to be a break that I couldn't have seen
coming if it had bright lights on it.
Right, right. Yeah, that's awesome.
Well, it leads you to the USWO eventually talk.
Talk to us about your time tagging with the former guest of
the show, Hammer Jack against the Extreme Clown Posse.
Oh, buddy, Kroll and Malenko talk about that time.

(48:41):
Oh, good guy. Well, let me let me preface all
of that by saying this. Very few of us would be a name
in this area, independent or not, if not for for Kroll.
And some people, like most people like him, some people
don't. If I had to pick one person, if
everybody was going to drown andwe should say one guy, Crawl

(49:05):
would get my life raft. I promise you that.
I got to say this real quick. Crawl gave me a chance.
You know, I was kind of halfway hiding behind a gimmick of the
Sheik Omar Al Kazan, and Crow gave me a chance that I'd almost
lost my focus on it. He said, why don't you come back
and do a little something? And I did.
And I got to give him credit. So I didn't mean to cut you off,

(49:26):
but I always wanted to say that.So Crow definitely gave me a
shot when when a lot of people wouldn't do it, you know?
Thank you. Crawl hot rod.
I'm sorry to cut you off there, brother.
No apologies necessary, baby. We're just riding down the road
talking. Yeah.
I mean, what? What a phenomenal guy.
I mean that there's so much frombelts to to, I mean, everything.

(49:46):
Crawl is just a I I I don't wantto, you know, write a love
letter to him or nothing, although I would because of
that. That's funny, man.
I that you know, I was like, talk about taking a bullet,
laying down the traffic. Somebody he'd be at the top of
my list. So Pearl puts this thing
together. He and Tony Faulk go back, you
know, Iran Hatchett, you know, Norae, he's Jon by bow.

(50:10):
Those guys were the foundation. And you know, Tony Falk was was
always kind of the front guy forthe USWO, but the the driving
force behind all of it. Before the sawmill, before there
was a sawmill, there was a caliber gym on Friday morning
and the USWO and what a phenomenal time that was.

(50:30):
If I could go back to one year and in my entire life and just
stay there, it would be from 97 to 99 during that USWO period.
It was it was something else, man.
Who you know, guys like, you know, Ricochet and Chuck Taylor
and I don't honestly, I don't Ricochet.
I like Ricochet on a personal level.

(50:51):
I don't watch wrestling anymore.I know.
I didn't even know he he was theIntercontinental Champion until
I seen his doll and put in well,Shane, tell the homo you find
Jack show and I said that looks that name looks familiar, and it
turns out it was ricochet shows you how far I am away from
wrestling now, But I don't like I didn't like Chuck Taylor
again, and I don't like Chuck Taylor now he's a punk and I'll

(51:14):
smack him today like I smacked him all them years ago given the
opportunity, but that's a whole another story.
But The Who who's who of independent wrestling came
through the US WO you know the what was the kids name?
P Wright kid named P Wright Lindsay Lohan first scandal when

(51:35):
when her new pictures come out was with the one of L TS
buddies. You know, PD Wright.
This kid had a took a modeling job.
He was a waiter at a restaurant here in Nashville and got
invited out to LA because of some people that seen him at the
show and and then went to to dinner at the restaurant where
he worked afterwards. And you know, six months later,
this kid, last time I seen this kid, he's he's he's had taken a

(52:00):
King's home Bundy doll or something and painted it must
suck to be you on him. And this kids telling me how
he's got a homemade hot rod big doll by his door so he can tell
it by when he goes to work and 6-7 week.
However, you know, look at afterthat, however long it was this
kids you don't want all the newsoutlets laid up news with
Lindsay Lohan. A lot of people.
I mean, some really interesting personalities came through the

(52:22):
USWO and I mean specifically those so that again, I
sidetracked myself. Nobody has to do it for me.
Hammer Jack hammer hammer Jack'sanother guy that our friendship,
our interactions with each otherpredate professional wrestling
for either of us. So he had had a history that

(52:44):
very few people know about outside of our circle.
You know I Hammerjack had his wife.
I don't know have you Do you know Hammerjack's wife?
I don't want to sure do no absolutely give the whole
privacy. I I still remember her
Hammerjack. Don't come look me up for this.
I still remember her when she was just the pretty blonde girl

(53:05):
that come down from up north with her with her husband, with
her brother. She wasn't Hammer Jack's wife
yet. So we go back a long way and
what a phenomenal person they both are.
But I love hammer Jack man, and one of the few people that that
just got it, you know, to have two left feet, Hammerjack, you

(53:26):
know, it's true. To have two left feet the way he
does what a what a worker he became.
You know, we didn't know he was going, we didn't know if he was
going to make it coming out of the gate.
And I'm sure everybody said the same thing about me and, and all
the rest of us. But what a long way he came.
But we had some good times, man.Hammerjack and I, we, we, we had
some good matches against just, they came in as disturbing

(53:48):
behavior with Jeff Daniels and Tim Ernesto.
Man, I can't say enough about Tim and Ernesto either.
We have to do a 10 part series for that 1/25/20 part as much as
I talk, right, But I mean, and then, you know, you go back to
Milenko and tell you about my history there.
Milenko had met Crawl in their neighborhood.

(54:10):
You know it, I heard hey, then the sky, the stores got a, a
legitimate winged eagle. It wasn't even known as winged
eagle belt like it is now, but it was just the WWF heavyweight
title and, and Crawl had had this, you know, $1000 belt
whatever back, you know, 199519941995.
And he was taking it to his place of business and showing it

(54:31):
to the customers coming in and and he and Maliko cross paths
then. And I mean, man, the rest is
history. You you just met listed a a
match with me and three of my best friends in life.
You know, in the long looking atit from the Longview, probably 3
three of the best friends of my life and Hammerjack crawl and
Maliko. I mean, what, what great guys,

(54:52):
what an it was for me to to be in there and to be LED through
by some to lead others through on the other thing and, and to
just go out there and, and make the people dance, man.
That's what's wrong with wrestling today.
It's why I can't watch it. It's about spots, it's about
flips, it's about dangerous moves.
You know, it's about breaking your leg in half so it looks

(55:13):
like a rubber band. There's no way in hell anybody
would grab a hold of me and do something like that.
I just did. Just wouldn't happen.
But the difference is you what you see these people, they,
they're working so hard trying to remember what's next that
they don't know. And I can say I was in the ring
for 27 years, brother, 27 years that I laced my boots and, and,

(55:36):
and while I may have the do you know, the last two minutes of
the match, I never once, never did I even try.
And, and damn, if I would, I would, there's no way I would
let somebody come and say, we'regoing to do this and then we're
going to do this and then we're going to try this and what about
this? And they get beat up before we
went to the ring, especially if we're dressed with the wedding,
I'd have to make a clip around the building because that just,

(55:58):
it just wouldn't happen. And that's what I feel is wrong
with wrestling is, you know, I referenced the going to a movie
earlier. Yeah, we sure that movie's
written. But, you know, they had the
luxury of multiple takes if something goes wrong.
We do not, you know, we're we'rekind of our own stuntmen.
We're our own director. We're our own producer.

(56:19):
You know, we didn't we didn't have an agent coming back there
telling us to do this spot, thisspot, this spot, this spot.
When I heard that, I heard through the Internet, once the
Internet became a thing, becauseobviously I predate the
Internet. It was crazy to me to try to
wrap my head around that, you know, almost like the Metallica
thing. How do you wrap your head around
an agent telling you what to go out there, what spots to do

(56:41):
whether he was a worker or not? And you know, I just can't
imagine that I never experiencedthat.
Tommy had faith in US that say, OK, you just go there and do a
thing and you slip him over somehow, you know, and that was
that's what we don't he give us the message, but he never said,
you know, we'll give him a pile driver and then, you know, you
suplexing and duck of clothes like, you know, we didn't hear

(57:01):
all that people can. You know, I try not to use the
word fake. You know, I don't use the word
finish. I try not to use the word fake
because sure, when I was bringing it it it was only as
fake as my opponent's aim. It was only as fake as my aim.
Did I get people? Sure I did.
Did I do it on purpose? Very, very, very seldom.
A small handful of times that I had to lay something in because

(57:24):
it needed to be laid in. Only a handful of times was I,
you know, had my eyes swollen upor whatnot.
And a couple of times I did. I deserved it and I learned
something from it and I thanked that person for swelling my eye
up, etcetera, because that's what I needed in that moment and
I learned something from it. Where now these kids just get

(57:45):
beat black and blue and wrist breaking their neck and don't
even to know what they're doing it for other than the next flip.
And that's crazy to me. Tell me how how they pull a
match back together when the tackle drop down spot goes awry
and the people don't react to it.
So you're going to tell me it itwe're talking at 6:15 in the

(58:06):
afternoon and the match is goingto go on at 8:47 and you're
going to tell me how the people are going to respond to and 1/2
hours in advance. No, you're not.
And if you are right on the first one, the second, the third
one, what do you do when they don't respond to the 4th 1:00?
So I knew I never knew what I was going to do next until I'd

(58:26):
done it. You know, I didn't know when I
was going to, you know, call forthe sheep alive or when I was
going to, you know, let them shine or, or, you know, maybe,
maybe we're going to start with he, you know, who knows?
It depends on how they respond. If if my spiel goes good and,
and my telling people to shut upand sure, go, if I go, if
they're responding to that, thenthen let's go.

(58:46):
But if they're not, then it's time to change pace.
And you have to do it on the flyand you have to know how to do
it on the fly. And that's the magic that is pro
wrestling. That's what I alluded to earlier
when I said I never watched it to dissect it to see, you know,
how do they do this and how do they do that?
They just went out there and done it.
And I'm fortunate to have that perspective in it.
I learned by osmosis, by how however I learned it, I don't

(59:10):
even know how I learned it, but I learned to do it in the
moment. You know, that's where the,
where the magic happens, you know, and, and then later when
I, when I got to Russell Bill Dundee and I got to Russell
Jerry Lawler and I got to Russell Dutchman Tail and Stan
Lane and, and, and all these guys later down the road, they
appreciated the fact that I didn't need to come have a 45

(59:32):
minute conversation with them beforehand to not go out there
and screw something up and. Yeah, exactly.
Hey. My name is Tammy Reynolds.
I am the wife of Forsaken Rick Reynolds, that super cool guy
that everybody knows and loves. And I represent West Side

(59:54):
sauces. I make sauces.
I bottle them, I seal them, I sell them.
I have a hot honey sauce. I have a sweet sauce.
I have a hot sauce. I have a white sauce that's so
yummy you can use it on everything.
They are absolutely amazing and I'm so proud of them.
We make them from scratch. So go on our website,

(01:00:17):
westsidesauces.com, check out our products, read about our
story and go online and order you some of these yummy sauces.
And Rick actually uses all of the sauces because he is a die
hard smoker and griller and so he likes really good sauces and

(01:00:37):
rubs and I make them. So how convenient is that for
him? Go on our website,
westsidesauces.com, order you some samples and I think you'll
thoroughly enjoy them. Thank you guys, be blessed.
We did have a special request onthis episode 1 of the good

(01:00:58):
friends of the show, Brian Turner, Booty call, Brian
Turner, Brian Hardison, Brian Turner's VHS rehab, who's
resurrected a lot of the careersof the Middle Tennessee area and
his channel. We love his channel.
It's a big part of all my podcasts.
He's helped us out. We've helped him out.
It's a great relationship with him.
He made sure, and I was already gonna ask it, but he made sure

(01:01:19):
to get a part to where he said you've got to ask him,
especially about the dog collar match with with Bart Sawyer.
But just your time with Bart Sawyer.
What a character, man. What original character you
know? What a real person that brought
his personality into the ring. How about how you talking about
how they built like a fire plug and and and twice as tough.

(01:01:41):
Bart Sawyer. Oh my God.
Oh, my God, that Oh, yeah, yeah.That that one took me back.
Let me start by saying Brian Turner, I love you, man.
You have restored my memories. I, I I lost the story she had
many years ago over the silly battle of pride so to speak.

(01:02:03):
I let the story shit go not knowing that I I mentioned
earlier and I keep alluding back.
I would have worked for free to get my matches on tape so I can
go home and do my homework and see what I've done right and
wrong. And so I missed from 1995 till
2000 and three, 2004, there was one, maybe two matches that I

(01:02:24):
did not have on 8mm tape and every one of those were in
storage. I had a few lives because I
transferred them to VHS and store them.
So I, I didn't lose every match I ever had, but I lost 7080% of
them. And because of Brian and his
passion and his dedication and his, his respect for me,
whatever makes him put the hot rod big stuff out there, I can't

(01:02:47):
thank him enough. I've told him personally.
Now I'm telling the world publicly, Brian, thank you.
You have restored my faith and, and, and you've restored my
faith. You restored my memories.
Thank you for what you do, you say?
Great friend of the show. Great friend to have on your
list. Anyway, I love me some Brian
Turner. Brian Turner VHS rehab.
If you have not checked it out fans, check it out.

(01:03:09):
You're going to see some real stuff.
I'll leave it at that. You're going to see some on the
channel. Bart Sawyer.
Man, what a Wildcat he was. So he and I were were both
vertically challenged. So we matched up as a good pair
in there. I was probably in the worst
physical condition of my life. When you know I I was upwards of

(01:03:30):
I, I got up to 300 and 23130 lbs.
During that era, I typically been around 2/22/30 the most of
the rest of my career. Some medications have been given
to me and, and I just kind of threw caution to the wind, some
injuries, what not. And man, that did that put the
weight on me and the fast food and the coffee and everything

(01:03:52):
else I was pouring down my throat certainly did not help
matters. But I was in the worst physical
condition that I could have it. If you watching those tapes,
you'll see that I'm, you know, well over 100 lbs over my normal
weight. And it, it almost killed me to
try to keep up with this fire plug.
It was like a he was like a packof firecrackers with three

(01:04:13):
fuses. Man, I've never been in the ring
with somebody like that. I mean, he, he, and I'm sure you
know, and hopefully the fans know Bart Sawyer was a protege
of Roddy Piper. You know, he started like Bart's
in the Portland area. I'm not sure what what part of
his story brought him to Nashville, but I didn't

(01:04:33):
recognize Bart. I was not familiar with Bart
Sawyer. Many of the boys around me were
they were glad to see him. They were, you know, some of
them, for lack of a better term or marking out, you know, like
Hulk Hogan, who walked into the to the promotion and and a few
weeks down the road I found out why they reacted like that.

(01:04:53):
What an excellent worker he was.What a stiff son of a bitch.
I had not taken beatings like I took from Bart Sawyer ever up to
that point. And and it wasn't even, it
wasn't like him being facetious or being, you know,
unprofessional. And that's just the way he
worked. And I mean, you know, if he, if

(01:05:13):
he gave you 4 punches, you felt six of them.
I promise. No, I didn't get, I didn't get
those numbers transposed. I admit that.
He threw 4 punches. You felt six of them.
It was that bad. So the dog collar match, you
know, he wants to do the here, here I am.
I'm hot Rod digs and and you know, he's Rodney Piper's
protege. Hey, how about we, you know,
let's do the angles, man. Let's you know, what do you say,

(01:05:36):
hot Rod? Hey, brother, whatever you want
to do. One of the dumbest things I ever
said. So leading up to the dog collar
match, we started off, I'll get through this as quickly as
possible. We did the coconut deal.
You know the Jimmy still get thecoconut deal.
So here I am. I've never I'm a West Nashville
boy. What the hell do I'm going to do
with a coconut and I don't get acoconut.
It's a topping at bashing Robbins, right?

(01:05:57):
I go to the store coconut. I never felt how hard a coconut
was in my life. Jesus Christ, was that a
mistake. So I buy these.
I get it. I I playing with the first one
and trying to figure out how hard it's got to be hit to, you
know, let the milk come on to emulate what I've seen on
television so many years earlier.
You know, how did they do? How did he make that coconut

(01:06:19):
explode on so I could say, because I knew it was going to
be my turn to, you know, do that.
And so I I finally figured out, you know, the best I could have
thought I did anyhow, and man, II had three coconuts.
I left two in my bag in the back, one gimmicks, one knot and
took one to the ring and there'sAthena.

(01:06:40):
We getting to the dog collar. I swear Athena and I
fairgrounds, you know, I've I'vehad a pretty good run because of
my position. I mentioned earlier with Bert
printers that he always kept me in the in the running.
You know, if I wasn't main eventor semi in my main event, I was,
you know, I was the match right before it, which the first match
is just as important, if not more important than the last

(01:07:01):
match. Mean anything except it means
something in the fans eyes, you know, so they see me as a as a
bigger star than than I would have otherwise been seen if not
for my position on that car. And so I'm, you know, so I've
got I've got a load to carry. I got a job to do and I already

(01:07:22):
know that, you know, this fire plugs coming in and he's
throwing live rounds and and youknow, there's no way around
that. And now that he's going to throw
a live round with the coconut and I know that's coming.
So I got this gimmick coconut. Well, it's my luck would have it
that coconut gets kicked off with a damn ring and it breaks.
It's pretty hot. It actually worked out from the

(01:07:43):
fans perspective, it actually worked out pretty good because
they seen it. They didn't break this soon as
they hit the ground. They took a pretty severe fall
for it to break. So what do we do now?
That's a that's our that's that's the that's the go home
deal, right? You know, so I make my way, we
fight back and we go get one of the other coconuts.
Well, just luck would have it again.

(01:08:04):
I pick up the one that's still in the plastic and then I didn't
have time to sort through and get it when we're, you know,
filming and and that footage is out there somewhere.
I've seen it. I know it's there.
I haven't seen it in a long time, but it's there.
I hope IT services it comes timeto do the deal.
And he said, and so I know he just took the plastic off this

(01:08:25):
coconut that it just took a 10 foot fall in the concrete off
top of the ring post to crack the one that had been gimmicked.
And this one's coming straight out to plastic.
And so I know it's going to be aa tough night.
And so I, I try to halfway, halfway bump and emit swing, you
know, kind of brace myself as best I can to be whacked in the
hell with a coconut. Which let me add right this

(01:08:46):
moment, as we speak, I have two fingers on the knot that is
permanently in my skull from thecoconut, all a permanent knot.
I, I swear to God, next time yousee me, pat me on the head,
you'll see I have a knot to thisplace.
Coconut. He, he swings the coconut when
he gets me, he gets me good and he don't get me good enough for

(01:09:07):
Mark Sawyer, because this is Mark Sawyer.
That son of a bitch grabs me by he has me in the hot rod shirt
right at the gate over my head. Must suck to be you.
Do I got the hot rod shirt, which I always wanted a hot rod
shirt because I went to WrestleMania and won a close
circuit at the Municipal Auditorium.
March 31st, 1985. I'll never forget that date.
I'll remember it beyond my birthday.
March 31st, 1985 they were sold out of Roddy Piper shirts.

(01:09:31):
When we got there. I never had a Roddy Piper shirt,
never had the opportunity to buyone and then I get one.
But man, what a price I had to pay for.
And he grabs to buy that shirt. I try to bump and he catches me
on my way down. I'm kind of in the turnbuckles.
He, he, I don't know if he done it on purpose or he thought I
don't know and I didn't get to ask him because I was knocked
out. So he grabs me by the shirt,

(01:09:52):
pulls me back up and away, lays me a second time and and I just
knew I was busted open because Ifelt all this stuff running down
my face. Well, after after I was woken
up, you know, 45 seconds later, it was the coconut milk.
He legitimately smashed that damn coconut, which ironically
worked out because I'm hating. We're going to do the deal like

(01:10:13):
they done and by God Mark saviormade sure it happened.
He knocked me out cold with thatcoconut.
So now there's that. Now that I got that long story
as it was now we're coming from the dog Carter match.
Well, we did. We did a sleeper thing and, and
I, I've let him up, you know, good footage.
That's on Brian's channel. Actually, Christmas night we did

(01:10:33):
the deal. Then we did the dog collar
match. The dog collar match was the
night of Jerry Lawler and David Flair.
And yes, I, I got fired before the main event coming on.
I didn't even get to see the match.
Oh my God. So here we are.
The biggest house I'd ever seen.Well, I ain't going to say ever

(01:10:56):
since the biggest house I've seen since the late 80s when the
fabulous ones in the Sheepherdersold out to the fairgrounds.
The the television show that morning.
David Flair. Can you talk about a kid who who
needs to learn a wrist lock froma wrist lock?
Jesus Christ, He's Rick Flair Point and he can't wrestle.
What the hell is that? Hold on for it.
Hold on. So David's in town.

(01:11:17):
We do. We do a Friday night show and I
get to work with David. Found out he can't work.
I didn't get to see him work with Lawler because I got fired,
which I'm getting to. And so Man barter out there, the
television show that Saturday morning a thing that I had a
spot and I haven't seen it in years.
Brian, if you hear this, find methat interview.
I'd love to see it. And not only my interview, but

(01:11:39):
I'd love to see how it's what a what a marked moment it was for
hot rod digs because I got to watch my interview with Athena,
which was awesome in its own right.
Because here I am with the pretty lady on the big TV show
going into the big card at the big arena that I mean, it was
it, it was Super Bowl time here.And to tie the ice in on the
cake, is it the interview fades out.

(01:12:00):
I'm going to be a mark here. The interview fades out from
Athena and hot rod bigs and up. Cuz Ric Flair talking about he
just might have to pay Jerry Lawler a visit to protect the
sun at the National Fairgrounds.And that was followed by Jerry
Lawler's interview with Ric Flair on the gimmick.
And I mean, what a what a momentthat was.
So I mean, not to say that I wasa little bit nervous to say I

(01:12:23):
was excited to say I was worriedabout getting the hell beat out
of me because we, we have a legitimate, you know, 20 LB dog
collar just fixing to be strapped to his.
And and then I know what he donetrying to emulate the Jimmy
snooker deal. Is he going to try and RIP my
ear off like great Valentine? You never know what Bart's are.
So there's a lot of nerve going into that.
And I would say this every single movement we made, I don't

(01:12:46):
give a damn if I was trying to powder and if I was shooting him
into the ropes. That chain, I don't know if it
was longer than the other one. I, I didn't look at the
logistics, but every time we made a movement, he or I moved
that chain was like a like a whip and it was going bam.
And it was doing away with smacking in the face and getting
in the eye, heating in the nuts and popping in the knee and I

(01:13:10):
chain beat me to death. I just been put on pain
medication for a very serious back injury.
I shouldn't even been in the ring.
I was so beat up. The next day I was so beat up
that my medication was at the bottom of the stairs.
I didn't even get up to go get the pain pills.
I was in so much pain it was bad.

(01:13:30):
That why I got that's the worst I ever to to not be injured to
just be a just be sore from froma match.
Nothing nothing compares to thatdog collar match.
The most sadistic most brutal match I I was ever in and and
what I call a career was that dog collar match.
So the reason I was fired and the reason that it is now the

(01:13:52):
story it is amongst those who were there is that Bart Sawyer
says throw the sign at me. You know, I started carrying the
stop sign before, before ECW featured it, before Tommy
Dreamer, you know, grab the marks fan with the sign and if
they're off on the TV and now everybody carries a stop sign.
Somebody brought me a stop sign and, and, and what a the Bruce

(01:14:14):
brothers had the, the, the gym portal out there.
We had the tennis racket. That was something that Chris
Kern had with the former tag team.
I didn't like the idea of it, just like I didn't like the idea
of the, of the suit that mimicked the big boss man.
But man was I wrong again, because that tennis racket
sounded like a shotgun and we got a lot of heat off of it on
equal playing field. That stop sign, it was flat.

(01:14:37):
The smooth, the harder you threwit, the louder it was and the
harder you threw it, the easier it was to take in most days.
And so it was a win when you hitsomebody really hard with as
long as you get them with the edge, it's still getting hit
with a stop sign. It's not a day at the beach, but
it's bubbles and then sometimes loops are sounded.
And so, as always, I'm getting you.

(01:14:59):
He told me, hey, he told me to grab the sign.
I grabbed the sign. Baby, you have a thing of the
Iggy. And she used to leave that baby
in. And when I turn around, I felt,
I felt the chain hit me in the back.
So I knew he moved, but I don't know where he moved to.
And when I turned around, he is sitting on the his ass is on the
top turnbuckle. His feet are in on the 2nd row

(01:15:19):
and he's just kind of sitting upin the corner still chain to me.
And so I took two steps and slung that stop sign, adding
flat, hard, hard as I could throw it.
What does Bart Sauer do? He's Bart Sauer.
He's going to do exactly the opposite of what you think he's
going to do. He puts his head down and sells
backwards. When he does Jimmy, he backdrops

(01:15:40):
that sign about 12 feet above the top rope.
So you're talking 20 foot and I I'm I'm not exaggerating man 20
foot probably that this thought signs form them in the air.
You want to guess where it lands?
They got me fired and sent home before the David Flair and and
Jared all of that. It lands in the front row.
Well, where on the front row, Hot rod?

(01:16:02):
I'm going to tell you where it lands on a little girl and two
old women. Oh my gosh.
It's a wonder it didn't cut their legs off.
The girl had on some, like some back.
She, she couldn't have been 10 years old, baby.
I don't know. I I was out of the hill.
We weren't in the same dressing room.
I didn't get to follow up. Well actually I didn't get to

(01:16:25):
even change clothes. I got thrown out of the
building. Our apprentice tells I says you
get the hell out of my ring now.And the first time you'd ever
say anything derogatory and I'm like, I didn't do it.
I didn't get to argue my point, but that was my first thought.
The thing is over there. She just looks horrified like Oh
my God, you know, I didn't know if these I didn't know if they
were hurt. I didn't know what happened.

(01:16:47):
Turns out it is sculpting the girls baggy pants and and just
left a little brew. They just kind of glanced them
so it didn't hit with the impactI thought it did.
And Oh my God. And and then to top all that off
is if it could get any worse from my position, who are the
guest commentators for the big television taping that's going
on? Jim Cornette and Scott Hudson

(01:17:09):
are there live to do the deal. And all I hear to this day is
Jim Cornette on the when I went back to watch it, I hear Jim
Cornette saying, I just scoop that old lady up.
She was ready to go anyway. You know what?
Yeah. We all thought it killed these
people, you know, just in that moment.
You know, I, I'm just waiting onBart to go down and and we move

(01:17:31):
on to to whatever was next. I said I never knew what I was
going to do next till I've done it.
So I don't know what was coming after that.
But it wasn't leaving the ring because the stop sign hit
somebody in the front row. That was not the play and it was
crazy. It was crazy.
We were welcome back to the goodgraces.
Bart Staller showed up a couple of weeks later with flowers for
the for the old lady and and, and the gift certificate and

(01:17:52):
whatnot. He come out of pocket and took
care of that was actually comingjust to legitimately apologize.
So when I did get to talk to Bart a day or two after the
match, because it took me that long to get off the couch, once
I got my big ass on, I wasn't moving.
It was it was it was terrible. The worst meeting I'd ever had,
the scariest moment I ever had, which says a lot because I've

(01:18:13):
been in some pretty in particular situations over the
years. But wow, what a what a
culmination of the feud and whata way.
And then I missed $100 payoff because yeah, I wasn't even
going to argue the point. I never come in for the money
anyway. I made more money at home than
it wasn't there anyway. I was 15 minutes from home, you

(01:18:35):
know, Thank God I didn't have a four hour road trip or a 10 hour
drive or something. Actually, yeah, it was.
It was as bad as it could be without being bad.
Yeah. What a night.
Man, that is definitely What a night.
That's a legendary story and I can just envision every bit of
that, honestly. Hot Rod.

(01:18:56):
Listen up, you bunch of Slack Joe flea market freeloaders.
If you think you know Memphis wrestling, you don't know
nothing till you've heard the Retro Wrestling Review podcast,
brother. Every week they're talking the
real stuff. Lawler PG13.
Yeah, and even my Moon Dogs. Watch long stories from Rd.
interviews. Folks who are in the thick of

(01:19:18):
it, brother, The blood, the beerand the bail money.
It's all on the Rascal Copia podcast network.
Go to uswapodcast.com or I'll come down there and I'll slap a
taste out of your mouth. Ladies and gentlemen, this is

(01:20:09):
Jimmy St. and that was episode 22 of The Best of James Rock St.
Productions with the first half of episode 34 of Hot Rod Biggs
on Give Me Back My Pro WrestlingHot Rod.
Biggs was a good dude and a heckof a pro wrestler.
He could literally talk them into the building.
Sadly, inmate of 2024, we lost hot Rod Biggs and the hole he
left will be felt forever. We'll miss you forever Rod.

(01:20:32):
You can hear the full episode and moreover on at G, MB, MPW or
Give Me Back My. Pro wrestling wherever you
listen to podcasts or simply click the link in the notes
below, we hope you've enjoyed a look back in the archives of
James Rock St. Productions.
Check us out next week to see what else we have in store.
Until then, follow at G, MB, MPWand at James Rock St.

(01:20:52):
everywhere. Peace with a tear in my eye.
This is the greatest moment in my life.

(01:21:31):
This has been a James Rock St. production.

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