'Thunderfoot II' Gene Ligon on GMBMPW!

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
All right, wrestling fans, this is Gene Liggin thunderfoot #2
you're listening to Give Me BackMy Pro Wrestling.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome toGive Me Back My Pro wrestling.

(00:46):
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 mypro Wrestling podcast and I am
here as always with my brother from the same father and mother,

(01:06):
Jared the plastic sheet St. What's up she.
Hey brother, not much. Are we calling you the Hustler
if we gave you that nickname? I mean, I know you asked RIP to
use it in the DVD show. I didn't know for your.
Yeah, no, I mean, nobody, you don't know.
You don't have to call me the Hustler.
Just, you know, that's, that's my, that's my, that's my
lifestyle, I should say. Well, yeah.

(01:30):
And I figured why not ask him? And you know, I've got the
Hustler here, you know, might aswell ask.
Him permission, yeah. Yeah, so.
Well, Speaking of podcasts, our most recent podcast is Crazy Man
Jamie Dundee is blowing up the charts.
He's probably the quickest to the top ten in a long, long
time. And I, I, I feel like he's

(01:51):
probably going to be #1 in no time.
It's been fun. Gator, we thank you for your
service. Yeah, yeah, no doubt.
He's, he's, he's a live wire. But that episode got some good
responses. I think we got a lot of people
listening to the show that maybewould have normally listen.
So you know, I love it when a plan comes together.

(02:15):
Hey, yeah, nice, Hannibal. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
We got a good one today. Mr. Jean Liggin.
He's one of those guys that's been around a long time since
the late 70s he started. So, you know, be prepared for
some wrestling history to go on today's show, I think.
Yeah, I'm, I'm expecting them. I'm sure he's got some good

(02:36):
stories to tell. And I'm, I'm positive we're
going to hear some stuff about the Crockettes and all that
stuff that we love growing up so.
Yeah. And it the Thunderfoot tag team
with Joel Thunderfoot. Yeah, it always, it was like
something I always just curious about because Thunderfoots is
what they called them the Thunderfoots.
But that is not like Thunder Feet or Thunderfoot.

(02:59):
And I think they were like you're Thunderfoot 1 and
Thunderfoot 2. That makes sense, like the
assassins, but it's not really, it's not really grammatically
correct, is it? Is Thunderfoots right?
Yeah, I'm not an English major. Thunder.
I don't know. Thunder.
Thunder. I mean, because.

(03:20):
Then you're talking about like aname, and I don't know.
We'll, we'll go with, yeah, Thunderfoots.
I don't know. I don't know.
Thunder feet sounds better. But again, but you think about
it like, think about like a beloved cartoon and toy series.
Thundercats. Right, right.
Thunder. Yeah.
Kitties. Yeah, I can just imagine Dusty.

(03:43):
Yeah. Gee Joe, y'all going to be the
Thunderfoots, You know, like. If you will.
If you will. But yeah, I hope he tells that
story. Of course we're going to ask him
that, so he'll tell it, I'm sure.
But yeah, the Thunderfoot putting together, Joel's such a
good dude. If you haven't, go listen to his
episode on live and in color andyou know, and Gene will be the

(04:06):
Part 2 of the Thunderfoot connection.
But anyway, Long story short, asI always say, we've got a great
1 today. I'm I'm excited to to see what
he's got to say. And such a long time North
Carolina man. And yeah.
I'd say. I'd say let's get it going.
All right, we'll be right back with thunderfoot #2 Gene Liggin

(04:28):
after these messages. 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.
You'll also be able to participate in live signings in
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(04:50):
Corner on Facebook and give us aholler.
Remember. Cheers to the work, Goodman.
One time Dan now speak from Charlotte, NC I said, well, he
said, what? Guy looked at me like I was.
I said, because every guy was interested in Salisbury, NC,
right? Right.

(05:10):
And all the fans that liked me. Yeah, Said man, you, you never
forgot where you come from. I said no, Salisbury North time.
My name is Jillian. Yeah.
Birth name Yeah, I'm Salisbury, NC.
That's awesome. And that's what he said.
So one night he said, Charlotte,NC I said whoa.
And it was a good, it was a goodauditorium.

(05:31):
Yeah, I walked up and said, you need to do that over.
And I was the I was the bang face.
Yeah. What's back?
That's it's Salisbury on the county, he says.
But Charlotte Salisbury, what's the difference?
I said it's a difference. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So he stopped and he did it again from Salisbury and
everybody went, yeah. That's great.

(05:54):
That's great. You you, there's a great place
to eat there. I had to do an MRI, had a back
surgery a few years back and I had a last minute MRI and they
booked me in at the Novant thereor it was a hospital there and
there's is it the College Inn orsomething?
College. College barbecuing.
Yeah, man, that place is good. I was just, I just took a chance

(06:16):
on it. I was like this, this is, I was
like, this is way too busy in the middle of the day to pass
this place up. Oh, my goodness.
Yeah. So it's so good, there's so many
people shove up there. Yeah, understand.
Yeah, yeah, exactly. I mean, but you know, I just
took a chance on it. I was like, I'm just gonna get.
And I asked him in the drive through.
I was like, what's the, you know, best you got what's what

(06:37):
do y'all have? I've never eaten here.
And they're like, oh, we've got this, this, this, this 300
things they named off. And I was like, OK, let's just
go with the basics. Let me try a hot dog.
Let me try this and man, so anytime we're near Salisbury, we
always stop there just because it's just a chance we're going
to take, you know, so. I moved up there when I was at
my I was raised in Charleston, SC.

(06:58):
I was born in Florida. Only stayed only stayed there a
few months. OK, so I was a baby.
So, yeah, yeah. My mom was Charleston, my dad
was from Buffalo, SC, which is near a Union Spartanburg.
OK, Yeah. And and they admit Marine Corps,
the whole bit. Got married five years after
being married. They had me.
Yeah. So I was down in Florida being

(07:20):
born in Saint Petersburg. He was a a travelling salesman
selling medical supply medical stuff to to pharmacists.
Yeah. He always wanted to be the
pharmacist. He said, yeah, I don't like
being the salesman. Now he realized being the
salesman, you can make a whole lot more money.
Sure, being a pharmacist he he wanted that deal, but he only
had a GED. OK.

(07:41):
OK, he didn't realize the GED was equivalent to a high school
education. He just thought, well, he got
the Marine Corps, took the test and passed it.
He was one of the first ones to take that GED because it wasn't
around before World War 2. OK, OK.
You know, you wanted to get a job.
You had to have a high school education.
Yeah, you were. Pushed, Get your high school

(08:02):
education. You better pop, you know.
So I said, OK, so he got, you know, he got the GED done.
And so he was like mocking around, you know, 195152 and I
was a baby and he said I'm goingto be a pharmacist and so on.
Yeah, I said, well, you got to go to colleges.
Yeah, I only got, I only have a high school education.
So didn't you take the GED? The guy said, well, yeah, yeah.

(08:24):
He said, well, that's good at high school.
Yeah. You can go on your GI Bill,
which was like $17.00 a month. That's what you got.
Wow, that's. Clear he had to pay his way
through college. He worked at a pharmacy in
Charleston SC and got paid $0.00.
Got worked in the death but taught him how to be a
pharmacist and got his degree from Medical College Charleston

(08:47):
with a 9th grade education. That's all it is.
Wow, to that GED test, 9th gradeeducation, I said you still
ain't know what's doing 9th grade.
That's how much better educationwas back then. 9th grade
education, you can go to college, right?
And so he he got degree. Next thing you know, 1955 I
think it was, he got his degree,became a pharmacist.

(09:09):
Yeah. He won't open his own store.
He won't be an I'll have my own store.
I was a little boy living in Charleston.
Second line so we went down to Hollywood, SC yeah that found a
building there. It was empty started buying
stuff to put a store together Hewas in debt like 4 or $5000
that's like, Oh my God, a lot ofmoney, right.

(09:31):
Started being a pharmacist and the problem was in that town.
It's a it's a town of people. Right.
A doctor there ran the town. He gave me medicine.
He told you what to take. He was the king.
Yeah, they're coming to town. So this great little town, I'll
have enough business. The only pharmacist because a
blinking light basically that was it.

(09:52):
And you know, a few 100 people in the area, so.
Yeah. The doctor started and, you
know, antagonizing and said started filling prescriptions in
the doctor's office. And then it's against the law.
You can't do that. So dad was struggling real hard.
So if I had someone moved to Charleston, so that's where mom
was from, went over the store there, had a little house and
I'll find the house and send a picture of it.

(10:15):
It's still good. Yeah, you go holy back.
It looks terrible now, but back then it was a decent little
house. Yeah.
He has started working and has his own store, Rexall Drug Store
in Charleston, Dorchester Ave. That's awesome.
And did that for about four or five years.
And then they had the race riots, came to Charleston, SC

(10:35):
all busted out all the glasses in the store.
He's like, you know, and the insurance will cover the first
class but not in a second glass.Oh man, and.
They bust them out again, said plywood up on all the windows.
It looked like he was going, youknow, not in business.
And so he said, shoot, I'm goingto close it down.
So he shut it down. But he didn't declare bankruptcy

(10:55):
because he was honorable enough though.
I owe these different companies a total of about $20,000, which
I know today that's nothing. But when you're only earning
6000 years of pharmacist and that's what pharmacist paid.
Holy cow. Now it's like 100 and something
thousand, but yeah, he's making 6000.
He said I'm going to move to Salisbury, NC, the VA hospital

(11:18):
up there, they're needing a pharmacist.
So he moves to Salisbury, leavesus there till the the the school
year's out, then came back down and got us and we drive that
1960 sixty in 1960 Buick all theway up to Salisbury.
Granite Quarry is where we livedat, which is right outside

(11:38):
Salisbury. And he started working in the VA
and we found a house that we could rent for like 40 something
dollars a month. The guy had built it himself.
He said, well, you don't want tobuy it.
And I said, yeah, how much that basin?
Well, I'll finance it for you. So he financed it, cost about 10
more dollars a month, 50 something dollars a month and
they lived that. We lived there till I was 30.

(11:59):
Wow, my. Mom passed away about 8 years
ago and she was 90 something years old and the house was
selling for 125,000 but she theybought it for 7000 and they said
that this house was worth 125,000 and the guy said if it
was in Cabarrus County the housebe worth close to $300,000

(12:21):
because Rowan Rowan she prints she bought stuff.
So that's where we lived and. I said.
Man, I said let's just bought that house because mom died.
We we were going to move in the house with her and she says no
it's going to cost much to fix the house up.
Y'all don't need to do that. Mom, if you live in the
basement, my wife's, you know wedon't have your children, so we

(12:42):
live in the basement. Yeah.
Because, you know, she was getting 90 years old, but she
wasn't short and fragile, but just want to be nearer in case
or something. But about three years later, she
died and swallowing food and choked on it and died.
Oh my gosh. I said, where were you guys at,
you know? Right, right.

(13:02):
That was that. So I said we could have moved
into this house, could have bought it for a you know,
$120,000 give half of them to mybrother.
We keep that way. We've got a house and now we got
a house here which cost us 175,000 and we just got our tax
assessment in. Did you get?
Your own? Yeah, we sure did.

(13:23):
Yeah, yeah. Have it, Have it.
I didn't realize I'm partial. I'm $340,000 value of this
house. Now I said what?
What do we do? Right.
We put up blinds. That's good, I said.
And of course, they they just passed the thing at $60 million
for renovating all the recreation because there might

(13:44):
be a slight property tax increase or there it came.
It. Comes from 70 to 3:40, I said.
Man and then Cross Street says Igot 3 houses on rent, he said.
I became an instant millionaire.Yeah, yeah.
That's crazy. That's crazy, that's crazy.
You know, it's so funny. That house in Charleston is
probably worth 2.5 million even in the shape it's in now,

(14:07):
because that place is so high-priced.
I'll send you the picture, you'll know.
I'm just, I'm just playing though, my brother.
If they kept it up, made it looknicer, but it was cell phone.
But it's a we when we lived out in Hollywood, we lived on the
water of the of the inlet cominginto Hollywood.
Yeah. And I look it up all the time.

(14:29):
We lived on a plantation, a little small house.
There was the plantation house, but there were several houses
there that that farmers used to live in.
Yeah. And, and slaves too.
And we lived in a little cinder block house, which is about the
size of that office you're in right now.
OK, OK. On the water.
I'm like this is nice but then living on the water was

(14:50):
considered low rent. Right.
It changed, right? So I took a wife out there.
She never, I said just go out and see it.
We found it. Hey, there's the house we used
to live in, but it's all going now because the hurricane wiped
it out. See the the plantation house.
It's just a nice looking house. That's not even there's a house

(15:10):
in the in the woods down the street there.
I said, what was that house was going for?
It was a nice little house. What?
Nothing fancy. And of course we looked up on
the on the phone, it said a no nice home, waterfront property,
all this stuff, 1-2 acres of land.
And I said called the guy. He said, yeah, we're going for
5:50 on this 550. See, it's got waterfront

(15:34):
property. And I said thank you.
And I said, well, here's what itis.
They got waterfront, one of the waters in right when it's out,
you got a stinky marsh. Yeah.
They they only show you the house when the water's up.
Right, right. That's great, but that's it.
So enough of that. So.
Just no. Yeah, no, that's great.
It's a great way to start the show.
You know what's funny is my brother and my father and a lot

(15:57):
of my, his wife, my sister-in-law are all
pharmacists. So yeah, you're home.
You're home. Don't.
Ever believe, Don't ever believethe doctor.
Yeah. When you go to the pharmacist,
they said, hey, Doc, I was called Doc.
Hey, Doc, what's up? My dad was called Doc all the
time. Yeah.
He said the doc told me to take this.
What do you suggest? Hey.

(16:18):
Well, doctor, I'm telling. I'm asking you.
Yeah. They don't know that you know
this. They they are the prescriber.
You are the facilitator, I said,because my dad used to catch the
doctors making mistakes all the time.
He called, they called us a he called us a doc says you got
misses Aunt Miss Jones over heretaking taking this for her
medication. Yeah, that's what I wanted to

(16:39):
have, he said. What about the other stuff you
gave her a year and a half ago? She's still got it, you know.
Yeah, no. She's still, she's still taking
that. Yeah, well, don't, don't give
her that. Don't give her that, he said.
Yeah, yeah, they're killing. Killing.
Yeah, yeah. And he's like, man, yeah, my dad
had a young pharmacist. He was making 25,000 a year at

(17:00):
Kroger in Salisbury. New pharmacy boy comes to, comes
in to take, you know, be a assistant.
Dad was asking. So I said we out of medicine,
Mr. Legan, he's we'll make some and see.
I got all the stuff and all the materials behind you and the guy
brought it out, had everything you needed.
He said stir it up. So he started stirring up and
he's mixing all together. He said it won't mix.

(17:21):
What do you mean it won't mix? He said, well, I've added water
to it and tried to stir up. It's just all clotting up like
crazy. He said you added water.
He said, son, you had alcohol. You don't add water.
Yeah, alcohol. He said don't you notice all the
cough medicine has 2% alcohol, 12% alcohol, 80% alcohol, He

(17:41):
said. Alcohol is a mixer.
Water's not, water's a separator.
Don't know that, he said. We know we're shown that.
All we did was shown how to count pills and what pills would
interact with the wrong pill, hesaid.
So he said. And then he saw his paycheck.
He was making $10,000 more a year than my father was as a
rookie. Oh my gosh.
My dad was running the pharmacy,so the Kroger people didn't tell

(18:03):
him. So dad called the Kroger ball
and said come here and talk. He said I got the weekends, Dad
would work the weekends. The guy had during the week
because dad like the weekends, he'd see people.
He talk politics and he was legislators.
So he that's why I worked weekends and he called both said
he's I see where my new assistant is getting paid 10

(18:23):
grand more than I am. He's old brand.
That's he's a new kid out of college guy.
I said, well, why not get a 10 grand?
He said, well then that's your paycheck.
That's what we you agreed to. He said, I don't know, but I
didn't know everybody was getting a raise.
I didn't get one. You're getting ready to retire
one day. He said, tell you what, it's
Friday's tomorrow, right? He said, yeah, the other boys

(18:45):
off. He's going.
He's going to the beach. See you later.
Bye. So Dad says I'm supposed to be
coming in. Yeah, I'm not.
You're not. He says I might come down ill.
And he said. And the rule was the pharmacy
was open then. Right.
Now they have it all enclosed, but at that time, if the
pharmacy was an open pharmacy, you couldn't open the store and

(19:09):
the pharmacist wasn't there. Holy crap, they.
Shut the pharmacy down and stillhave the store open.
Sure, but dad says I won't be here.
He said, well, we can't open thestore.
He said, yeah, I suggest you start talking your boss about
the race. So they called him and I said,
Brad, we got the race pushed through.
We got you. We covered it.
So last paycheck that was, you know, making 35,000 a year.

(19:29):
But he liked politics more than anything.
He was a legislator from Rowan County.
There you go. Yeah, that's awesome.
He. Pulled a little.
He pulled a little, you know, a little hard, hard potato there.
He ain't coming to work. Dad would never.
He'd still come to work because he cared about the people who
was sick. But he said they're doing me

(19:51):
wrong. I said, yeah, that's sad.
You gotta go hardball, Dad. Yeah, yeah, they have to.
Paid every year he's paid him $10,000 less than what he
deserves. So.
My daddy was a good daddy was a good man.
Yeah, that's awesome. That is awesome.
Well, he raised a good man, too.And we're so happy to have you
here. Thunderfoot.
Gene Legan is with us here todayon the show.

(20:13):
And, you know, just, I can't wait to get into more of this
conversation. You've started us off so well.
So, Jared, take the first question if you don't mind.
So Gene, this is a question I like to ask that starts out the
conversation for us as far as wrestling goes, and it lets
everybody know kind of your influences or who you like to
watch or whatever. If you had like a Mount
Rushmore, like four or five wrestlers that you really looked

(20:35):
up to or really like to watch, who would that be?
Oh, Ollie Anderson. Boom, love it.
Because, you know, he, he showedthe toughness and also the, the
mental part of the game, right. But the funny, the funny line I
heard one time is the the Ollie and and Gene and and Arne were

(20:58):
all sitting around, you know, and all the guys were just, they
love to, the guys love to rib each other like crazy.
Boom, boom, boom. And who had the best comeback
that was. So that was all I told.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, sure. Anderson's y'all this, y'all
this and y'all that y'all. So yeah, he said.
And then Arne looked at him and said, well, all I know is this,

(21:19):
and I'm the only, we're the onlyteam where everybody says, I
don't know about everybody else,but the Anderson's matches are
real. Yeah, yeah, yeah, no.
Matter what was it? Stiff arm is beautiful and and
only was good, but only if he wanted you to express something
he said wow, you have to imagineanything at all.

(21:41):
But I always watched only when Iwas younger, I watched him say
that's a tough man. And yeah, and he was always very
polite to me. I, I don't know, we got, for
some reason I didn't, didn't hang out with him or anything.
But he one time he, he was, his boy was wrestling in a high
school and they were travelling through the area.

(22:02):
They came up to Charlotte for business and everything.
And he called me. He said, he said Gene is only
Internet. I missed that.
Listen, I'm in town for a, for the weekend.
My boy's with me. He's a, he's a little freshman.
I think he's a freshman of sophomore in high school and he
thinks he's hot patootie. And I said, really?
Yeah. He said I need some guys to work

(22:23):
out with him. You got any buddies?
I said clearly knew I, I had wrestling buddies and
everything. I said, yeah, I got a buddy of
mine in Gastonia. Where are you going to?
He said, well, I'm in Charlotte at the, at the Knights Inn,
which that's that's typical, only the cheapest place he can
find. And I said, well, let me, let
me, let me call him up. So I called him and he said,
yeah, we can meet over at high school at Hunter House High

(22:44):
School in Gastonia. So I've got a few boys, I'll get
them lined up. And so it was near wrestling
season anyway, so they were starting workouts.
He said, what's that going to be?
I said, make it, make it 1:00. So we we drive over to 1:00 in
the afternoon. It was like school wasn't going
on at the time. So get there and all of a sudden
got these black kids there, couple red deck country boys.

(23:08):
And here's all these boys and all this boy in shape look good,
but he's wrestling in Georgia. There ain't a whole lot of
wrestling going on in Georgia that in the out in the middle of
the country where you'll be wrestling top wrestlers.
You know you're going to meet me.
I tell my kids I coach wrestlingwith I said, listen, we went to
the conference and you did really well.

(23:28):
You came in first place, second place, tried three guys first,
second and third. This year I had two guys, three
guys get one second and 2/3. But it's a conference match.
You're wrestling guys who are inyour conference, which is your
equals. You're you're the same guys.
We go to regionals, you're not going to leave guys who are not
wrestlers. You'll meet a guy who's a

(23:51):
wrestler and the guys that's on a wrestling team and then
there's wrestlers. I said and I go out and I got
just like that. Boom.
I said, how'd that go? Like I was nothing.
I said, you've been wrestling with guys.
Today you met a guy who's a wrestler.
Right. That's a big difference.
And Ollie Anderson is a wrestler.

(24:12):
And so he said, I said, you're telling your boy he should do
this and this and this and he ain't listening.
He said he don't listen to me. I said, you're too close.
I said, as the Bible tells you, it's a it's a, it's a, a prophet
in his own land has no, has no ability to, you know, he's he's
yeah, yeah, yeah. That's why Jesus wasn't accepted

(24:34):
that quick because so and so's boy.
Right, Mary and Joseph's. He's from around the corner.
Yeah, he. Used to work on the wood.
What does he think? Oh, my God, you're kidding me.
Because, right. He's a prophet of his own land.
He could tell the absolute truth.
And it ain't good, though. I said holy.
That's what prompt is. He says, yeah.
He said he won't listen to me. I said, well, listen today.

(24:56):
So they go down there and I'm. I'm still on the mat.
I can still roll around with thekids.
And I said, all right, come on here, Anderson.
And he comes out there, you know, get so a mat and he goes
against I said this kid's a freshman.
He said, yeah, see freshman boom, boom, boom, boom, pow,
hit. Watch it hop up.
You'll do it again. Let's go.
He got decked so many times and he you know, he had he had good

(25:17):
ability, but he just didn't havethe experience.
And these kids would just cut your boys and just, you know,
St. kids that just were tough and they whooped in all day long
and all these over just just smiling on the inside.
His humbleness. He's getting humbled big time

(25:39):
practice. The kid had a different
attitude. I'm sure, I bet.
He thought he was beating everybody in town at his house,
and he couldn't get off the mat 45 seconds decked.
Decked. So all these guys got
experiences. They're all freshmen, huh?
Yeah, they're all freshmen and none of them seniors out here.

(25:59):
We brought the seniors out here.He'd make you cry.
Right. So that was that was good there.
And then the kid got better as the years went by, of course.
But Ollie Anderson, he was, you know, tough, tough guy, the
orange, orange, same thing. So I put them for, like,
intertwined. And I mean, Gene was, you know,

(26:23):
here. You watched him as a boy growing
up. You saw the Andersons?
Wow, man, that's the tough. He don't look strong, but man,
he makes those guys cry when he squeezes them.
I mean, Gene was just tough. He could take a beat.
And you know what? Sometimes you take a beating and
you end up winning because you can take for a while.
And all of a sudden, damn, Gene Anderson one time had a stroke.

(26:44):
All of you ever heard this storyand he handled stroke and he and
he always had a little tick thing, you know, but he had a
stroke. So they go to the doctor and he
had, you know, he didn't stroke completely out.
He was still mentally capable, but it affected his arm and he
was having his arm was weak. So they they they take him to
the doctor and Sandy Scott take well, Sandy, Sandy is like

(27:08):
funniest thing. So they go to the doctor and the
doctors, Mr. Anderson, what seems to be a problem, I had a
little a little bit of a stroke.I think I had a little stroke.
It's starting to affect my righthand.
I'm losing strength. He said, well, squeeze my
finger, Mr. Anderson. And and you said Gene looked
over and said, he said, Sandy Gene, do what the doctor told

(27:29):
you, squeeze his finger. OK, so fingers grabs the
doctor's 3 little fingers right here and squeezes and as the
doctor goes to his knee he's saying no you've had a stroke
and you've almost broke my hand.Good thing I had a stroke.

(27:52):
Not he could snap, he could snappliers in his hands.
It was just certain guys have tendon strength, they don't
muscular but they just crack. It was another guy I never met,
but they said he'd woke up and he's grabbed a pair of pliers.
There he goes, Roma. Yeah, yeah.
Tremendous power in her hands. Difference in weightlifting,

(28:14):
Weightlifting guys now and guys who just had this natural power
about him. Natural power.
I watched all them guys going up, I said.
I said thought you could, NelsonRoll told me one time.
Nelson Roll another hero too, Nelson Roll told me one time.
He said the difference in now which was 198586 and when he

(28:35):
wrestled he said there's a battles some legit stuff going
on and said you know, everybody talks about it's fake.
It's fake. Well, you know, torn.
I got replaced shoulder and had this thing operated on twice on
this side got torn triceps had it applied torn hamstring, both
knees had one knee replaced oncebeen operated.

(28:56):
It all came from rest. It didn't come from me playing
football or anything. Don't.
Feel very fake, does it? Fake injuries.
Right. And so he said that, you know,
he had match one time where the guy was a bit of a jerk and they
they throw punches each other. Sometimes it it's called potato
when you accidentally hit a guy too hard, you know, it could be

(29:18):
stiff pause and then the next one would be light and you
realize the guy just timing was off.
And but he said this guy was laying potatoes in and I was
saying come to another potato and another potato.
I said, Oh my God. So he realized, he said no, I'm
not going to get him now, I'll get him later.
Right. And he done knocked him almost

(29:38):
completely out. He later got beat you.
I got to pin some. He said five years later, five
years. He said five years later, we've
had several matches together. We've been, you know, rode
together, driving together. But now we've got this big
battle thing lined up where me and him are going at it and said
basically renewing what they didfive years ago.

(30:00):
And he said get ready to get in the ring.
And so shot the guy off. He said duck.
And as he ducked, Uppercut laid on top of him and says, I tell
you I'd get you. Next time, Next.
Time it happens, I'll kill you and then they kill each other.

(30:20):
Wow. I said she didn't want to make
no enemies. In the old days, he only got cut
up by a knife one time in a match in Greenville, SC.
I've heard that. He was the South cutter.
As he pounded on the guy, as he's holding his guts together,
I said holy cow, not that tough.I'm not that tough.
Yeah. I could do that.

(30:46):
That hurt. Yeah.
Promotional consideration paid for by the following.
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

(31:09):
team champions of the wrestling podcast world.
From thought provoking topics tosuperstar interviews to action
figure expertise, this team. Does it all and all they ask is
give me back my pro wrestling every other Thursday wherever

(31:30):
you listen to podcasts. For my pick one time in a match,
I said, well, I got to at least be as good as Gene Ollie
Anderson. So I'm sort of going, you know,
I tore my pick at Florence, SC and the guy dropped the knee on
it and I said, oh, popped it just, no, that's all right.
I got up and I flexed. That thing rolled right over.

(31:52):
Here I went, oh, oh, no, I ain'thaving this.
Finished the match. So I go to the emergency room
and the doctor says, so not givehis do that.
He said, yeah, oh, oh, he caughtinterns over here, brought all
these like 6 or 7 interns over. They stood there in front of me.
I'm looking at this all these rookies.
What the heck? He said, Sir, flex your chest.

(32:14):
Stop, flex that thing, roll right over.
You know he said, ladies and gentlemen, this is what's known
as a torn pectoralis major muscle.
Thank you, Mr. Liggin muscle. I said, do I get any help here?
He says I suggest you'll see your doctor when you get home
and get it operated on. You got you got a week or so.

(32:35):
I said OK. He said don't tie it back on.
It's not a big of a deal, but ifyou leave it alone, it'll just
stay curled up. I said I don't want to be curled
up. It look ugly and you want to
have a chest that's step by going, what's that hole in your
chest? So I went and I had to wrestle.
I wrestled that Saturday and I had a match in Asheville, NC the

(32:58):
following more today. So I'm sitting here in pain.
I and what it hurt bad like sharp pain.
It's just dull just hurt. So I get the next morning.
I didn't tell my mom and dad. That's what my head in
Asheville, and I'm sitting here with my arm hanging down.
It's starting to turn black because the blood's starting to
pull. It's starting to turn black.
I'm like, oh, gosh, it's so I can, I can.

(33:19):
I'm still moving around. You still have capability.
It's just, it's just a little funny, you know, it's not quite
right. So I go up there, the guy that's
wrestling, that was just, I can't think it was I'll think
of. But Lee Lee Ramsey.
Lee Ramsey was the guy I'm wrestling now.
Lee was a little guy, you know, we were both rookie guys,
basically. Yeah.
Like, so Lisa, what we're going to do, genius.

(33:41):
I'll do a couple of this. But I said I can't take a fall.
I can't take a bump because my shoulder is killing me, my chest
is killing me. He said, oh, don't worry about
it. We lock up and doing out habits
out of habits. First thing he does is tears the
arm off and does the twist thingon.
I said, Lee, I'm sorry. And he couldn't, he couldn't

(34:03):
undo his thinking. You have these little routines.
You get in your head, shoot a guy off, give him an elbow,
backdrop stuff. It's the habits.
And I'm sort of going, Leah. So Lee shoots me off, gives me
an elbow to the chest. Boom, I hit the ground.
And the whole time he's thinking, what am I doing?
What am I doing? I said, you're killing me is
what you're doing. So I'm still taking the bumps.

(34:24):
And finally he goes up for a drop kick and I swapped his head
feet away from me. I crawled and Papa said, don't
you get up 123? I guess So I crawled out.
The guy's ready. I still raise the wrong arm.
So I get in the car. I go home that night.
Next morning it's black. My whole arm, bloods run down.

(34:44):
So I go to the doctor. He said we have an operator,
have a surgery, thirsty. I said, OK, so in my head I'm
thinking I don't have any insurance, I've saved my money
up from wrestling, it's gonna beall gone by the time I'm done.
And I said OK, so I go. Tuesday said you're in
Spartanburg. Oh, man, what am I gonna tell
somebody? Don't book me because you die

(35:05):
for bookings. You die.
Yeah. And I said I can't tell them,
don't book me. So OK, so I go down to
Spartanburg, SC. We've got the Rock'n'roll
Express. I said Oh my gosh, gonna be drop
kicks like crazy now. And.
And so I go to back. It wasn't Spartanburg.
I'm sorry. It was at Gaffney, SC Tuesday

(35:26):
night. Oh, OK.
Yeah, might have been a Monday night, but it's Gaffney, SC at
the college there, Limestone College, and we're there and I
go back to the dressing room anda knock on the doors with a
rock, rock roll over there. Jay, what's up?
We got you tonight, right? I said yeah, yeah, I got B
tonight. I said it was, it was Tuesday

(35:46):
night, Tuesday night, Tuesday night because we did TV taping.
So we got you for TVI said. I know I said this.
I can't take a bump. I'm sitting here sweating the
pain right now that's hurt and Ican take pain, but this is hurt.
Who you got to tag him with? I said it's a new kid.
He says let him start because you always old guy starts.
The experienced guy always starts 1st and then tags out to
the rookie guy to get his butt handed to him.

(36:10):
So that was that's what the guysdid to each other.
He said don't start and don't come in.
I said and don't tag, that's OK.So I'm sitting on the sideline,
got my hand on the turnbucker right here, rope right here and
he see ready. Go ahead and start.
Start. Yeah, I was in there.
Of course they shooting back andforth, boom, boom, boom, boom.
He's done about 5 or 6 bumps already.

(36:32):
He reaches over to tag me and I'm kind of like looking the
other way. Oh, I'm sorry, I missed the tag.
So we're sitting there and they beat him.
If I go back finally. So that Thursday I had surgery.
I had to put back together and Ishow up about a week later at at
Crockett Promotions. I think it was a Monday on that

(36:52):
Monday, because that's when you had Fayetteville.
I'm sitting there going to Mr. Crockett and I'm asking Mr.
Crockett for a loan. I want to ask my mom and dad
because yeah, I just it's a it'sa thing.
That'd be a man ask my mom money.
So I go, Mr. Crockett, can I borrow $1500?
He's well see And I don't loan money to wrestlers.
There's a real good reason why because they skip, they just

(37:14):
take. But I'm from here, Mr. Crockett,
because I'm different than the rest.
You know, I'm treat me special, he said.
Now you know, I just don't, I don't want money to wrestlers.
I made that a policy and whatever, OK, I just take it
like this and I'm sitting there and you know, I've never had a
conversation with Mr. Crockett more than two seconds, but we'd

(37:35):
had about a 5 minute conversation.
I got to know I'm sitting ready to get up.
At just that point, the door comes slamming wide open and
there's Dusty Rhodes in this door.
Dad Gummet. He was going to say Dad Gummet,
son of a gun. He didn't say son of a gun down
there in Atlanta, GA last night.Wrestling.
He's refereeing. He drunk as a skunk during the
match and he's he's in in a jailor something.

(37:58):
He can't be at the match tonightbecause I fired him.
I got nobody to referee the matches in in Fayetteville for
tonight and I said I'm like I'm going to sling.
I got my arm and a sling right here.
I'm like, OK, be stupid. I can do it.
How are you going to do it with a sling, A sling on?
I pulled my arm out of my sling and put it in my pocket and I

(38:21):
stood there and I jumped down onthe ground like a burpee.
Jumped down, went 123. I got back up with one hand
because you got one hand pushingand one hand push up.
Got back up and said is there anything else I need to do?
He said, well, that about coversit, right?
The rest of it was just about walking around, pointing and

(38:41):
stuff like the rest of it hit the ground, 123, get back up.
I said that's it. He said, yeah.
He said be in Fayetteville tonight, sit at, be there by
7:00. I said, all right, you got a
shirt. I said I got a referee and shirt
from high school. I coached.
I used to referee high school matches and college matches in
college. I said I still get the uniform.
I got white shoes, though. He said don't worry about your
shoes. I'm not going to buy a brand new

(39:04):
pair of black shoes. I said I got some white tennis
shoes. He said that'd be good to be a
favourable. All right, so I get the
favourable and Johnny, Johnny, Johnny, Johnny Weaver is the guy
organizing everything. What are you doing here?
I said I'm the ref. He said you're the ref, all
right, because he was going to have to ref.

(39:24):
He said I'm glad you don't. You have to do it.
She said, yeah, I said I'll be doing reference for a while
because his shoulder, he said, or his pet, he said, all right,
so I did the wrestling guy and went home that night and I'm
like, OK, how sore am I going tobe tomorrow?
So I got this sling going on. I was substitute teaching at the
same time at the at the middle school, $20 a day gentleman big

(39:49):
buddy $20 and substitutes each and they beat me on my beeper
which was costing me like $11.00a month.
I called yeah y'all call said yeah look, can you be at so and
so referee tonight? I said yeah, he's got got to
move somebody around. So I had to drive 3 hours.

(40:10):
I said I might be a little bit late because I Oh no problem.
And I get there right before thebell.
I'm walking in with the shirts on.
Ring the bell. Let's do it.
Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding. Back, back home.
I'm laying in bed at night to get home at 2:00 in the morning.
I'm laying there like this. And the school would call you at
5:00 AM in the morning because they got to get there.

(40:30):
Organize. Ring, Ring, Ring, Ring, ring,
ring. Hello.
Hello. Hello.
Mr. Lingon. Yes.
This is Mr. Johnson down at North Rowan Middle School.
Can you come in and substitute that?
Sure. Goodbye as a minute goes by, who
just called? I don't even who called.
Now I'm trying to figure out whoam I supposed to go such.

(40:52):
So if I just take yes, it's got to be Rowan middle.
Everybody skips Rowan middle. So I go to am I supposed to be
heard that yes, yes, sure. So I started getting a little
note here W Rowan high School, East Rowan high school.
They had to write them down because you forgot, but I got a
call from Rowan N Rowan all the time and then we lined up.
I see Crockett and then we're trying to do something expanding

(41:13):
because they were getting punkedout by WWF.
But all the videos they do live and on travelling and stuff like
that. So they want to start
travelling. How can we do videotaping and
find venues to do videotape instead of just doing in a
studio, which looks so lame? I said I I know people at school
system. How's that going to help?
I can get you in a school. You can get us some school.

(41:36):
Yeah, I'll get you in a school and I was substituting Northrow
and they needed my butt. They called me every day.
So I went to school and I said we're trying to raise money.
I said how would you like to raise 2 to $3000 in one night?
Get out of here, How you going to do that?
I said have a pro wrestling match and they all went, are you
kidding me? With pro wrestling match,

(41:57):
there's no way they'd come to our school.
I said, hey, well, if I ask. So of course I already knew
them, but they were looking for a place.
If I give them a phone call, they may come because I have all
this power. Yeah, so I said, and Jimmy,
Jimmy the boogie woogie man Vac was the hot thing at the time.
He was hot. He was the hottest thing on TV.
So we sitting there and I said Ican get you to know, throw in

(42:21):
high school. He said, well, so they all
can't. The electrician guys came down
and lived. They said, hey, you know, got
power from that source over there again, but it's going to
be on the edge of using so much power.
It may blow the system, but it felt like they were within the
window. I said, yeah, so hold on a
second. Holds about 1500 people with
seats on the floor. I said, when's the last time we

(42:44):
had 1500 people at ATV tape? Yeah, never.
I said, that's right. Yeah.
So 1500 they had a contract dealwas it was $10 to come to the
match like $10 from ringside. It was $8 for general admission
and if you fill the whole place up $1500.
I mean you talking 15 you talking about it's a 10 or
$12,000 a night to get 30% afterthe 1st 2000 dollars.

(43:09):
Yeah, the school end up making. 34 grand, which you told them,
yeah. So I'm saying, I said, you think
you can pack it out? I said, oh man, we can.
So when they came down, I said you knew, though we have a, a
railroad car system, a railroad system here in Spencer, NC It's
the historic transportation facility.
Right, right. My, my dad was in the

(43:31):
legislature. He got funding because this town
was wanting to outfit everything.
He said we'd get some grants there.
So my dad was very, very high and responsive to that thing.
And they had just finished making it beautiful.
They added much more to it now. But I said they started talking
around and said, I think Boogie Woogie man do good here.
I said, don't run, right? So they put him in the train.

(43:53):
If you watch, find old videos ofJimmy Boogie Woogie Man riding
in the train doing his thing, you know, boom, boom, boom,
boom, boom. And there it is.
And he went to the high school that afternoon because we were
done taping. Got done by 3/30, 4:00.
Well, that's about 2:00. So we go on to school and the
kids are still there. He's walking through.
He looks like an old man with long hair, right?

(44:14):
Not an old man, but just like hehad the beard, the whole thing.
And they they want. Hey, Mr. Liggin.
Hey, Mr. Liggin, how you doing, Coach?
I said pretty good. So look at that over there.
Who's that? I said, you don't know who that
is? No, it says Boogie.
Hey, Boogie, What's Boogie doinghere?
We got wrestling here tonight. Yeah, but.
And Boogie came early just to meet you guys.

(44:35):
That ain't Boogie. And I said I looked over Boogie.
He was about, you know, 150 feetaway.
I said Boogie, Boogie, you know?He.
Said it is Boogie. The whole school emptied out in
the hallway. I mean, everybody's running
around school. Boogie.
Woogie's here. Boogie Wait, he was black.
Kids loved him to death. They loved.

(44:55):
Him. And that night, that night I got
to pull another power play. I'm sort of, I'm helping to get
tickets at the front door. We're packed.
We're filling up, we're filling up.
I'm I'm going to pack it out, have them flowing, flowing out
the door. But they had rules and
regulations on fire, fire code. And here comes the fire Marshall
walking up with about three of his buddies and I, you know, I

(45:16):
know most of them. I said, what's up, guys?
Look at man, you're over. You're overcrowded.
We can't have it speak people here.
You got to cut it off right now.We got about 30 more people want
to come in general mission. I said, listen, we got these 30
people. Well, they're going to be left
out. I'm sorry, they can't come in.
We're overcrowded. I said, OK.
I said, you know those fire laws, the fire law, as they were
saying it, they walk past me. I said, well, where are you guys

(45:39):
going? We're gonna go watch the
matches. I said, you just told me that
we're at capacity. That means if you go in there,
you're breaking the law because you pass capacity.
Said, yeah, but that's I said, yeah.
I said, but you know, 30 more people not gonna make that much
differences. He said get him in here but cut
it off. Now we got the land bunch in.

(46:00):
They've been staying in line forhours.
I said come on, quick, quick, quick.
No more, no more, no more so andit ended up pretty good.
Had a great night. School raised about 3 to $4000
that night and they said when can we do this again?
They didn't want to have popcornor drinks inside it.
I said they just done the floor.I said you need to get over it.
You need to have, you need to have some popcorn, lots of ice,

(46:23):
but leave a mess. I said go to your janitor over
there. Tell him you're going to give
him $100. He will say mess it up as bad as
you want at that time. He's probably getting $5.00 an
hour. He had to stay after.
So you give him a crisp $100 bill.
Cash under the table here, keep it clean.
He'll hire four or five of his little student buddies and he'll

(46:45):
give them all $5 a piece and they'll be happy as can be.
And he was very happy with that $100 substance.
And so it just, we did that at West Rowan, East Rowan, S Rowan
went to all the schools in the area and was able to then they
started going, they started going to other schools and other
venues and stuff like that. So they kind of saved them a
little bit because they were trying to find a place to have

(47:07):
batches. I said I got places every every
school wants to know how'd y'allmake that money and the rest of
the match. That's all we do that.
Yeah, yeah. Perfect.
Yeah. Well, so, Gene, you know, man,
you've this has been amazing so far.
I, I I barely hate to to stop this progression.

(47:29):
No, Sir, no, I'm just curious about your start in wrestling,
your official start. What when when was that?
And and how did that happen? I was teaching at Westerland my
second year in teaching. I my first year in teaching I
was at Kings Mountain ElementarySchool system.
I was APE teacher for elementarykids loved it loved it loved it

(47:50):
loved it. I am I am calling a wrestling
match that night at I think I think it was East Gaston High
School and a girl I dated. We went to see a wrestling match
the week earlier of and I think it was in Charlotte.
Or it might have been Charlotte,might have been Greensburg of

(48:11):
Sweet Hanson and RIP Hawk loser leave town.
Oh. Yeah.
And they were best of buddies, you know, and all of a sudden,
boom, meow. Now they're hated enemies.
They had beaten each other up banding and said, this is the
final match, loser leave town. So we'd go to the match.
She'd never been a pro wrestlingmatch.
I'd only seen one at a small venue, which I've watched, you

(48:33):
know, Don Purdue versus a guy asa rookie.
And it was at shelby.com. So we'd go and it was fun.
It was a lot of fun. And bloody they were beaten.
Hit him with pipes on her head and stuff.
And so I'm refereeing a high school wrestling match and all
of a sudden she comes out of thering, out of the match is over

(48:54):
with. She comes running down from the
stick. She won't believe who's here.
I said why? It's just a little high school,
no big thing. The guys we watched last night
wrestle, one of them's here. Who?
And I looked up. Here comes RIP Hawk, son of a
gun. And I introduced my hike, Mr.
Hanson. I'm Gene Wig and he said I'm not

(49:15):
Hanson. I'm Hawk because I'm at Hawk.
I'm at Hawk. Come out match last other night.
It was great. He said, I saw you here moving
around a little bit, so why are you here?
He said my son's headway. I said heap heap.
He just got at night. I said, oh, your son's a
headway. Yeah, I said, man, that's
amazing. He said, why don't you come up
to Kings Mountain this weekend? You know what I said?
I said, yeah, I know where he's at.

(49:36):
And so I was teaching there. So I said, yeah, come on up.
He said at the at the big recreation basketball court they
have there, we're having wrestling there all weekend.
We're doing six weeks worth of taping in three days.
It's like almost 24/7. They were doing this.

(49:56):
They had meal mascaras, they hadthe Kangaroos, cannonball,
somebody. I can't think our names, but it
had all these guys. Rick McGraw and Rick McGraw.
Rick McGraw was a great wrestlerin the Charlotte area.
And I'm, I'm, I'm refereeing against these guys all the time.
So I'm like, OK, so I go there and I'm I'm watching school and
Rick McGraw is sitting here sweating bullets because he's

(50:18):
got to go do the announcing. They got him in a tuxedo
announcing. He don't he don't like, he don't
talk to nobody. He's just playing out of high
school and college. Don't talk.
So I'm like I said, you can do it.
Rick, get up there. He did a good job.
He did the whole thing. And that's the last time they
didn't do it after that made himwrestle.
But I met all the guys from the old in WWF, Chicago area, the

(50:41):
New York area, you know, I got mil mascaras.
I mean, I'd seen him on TV, incidentally, in different
things. There was no YouTube or
anything. So I'd see him on TV, you know,
change the antenna around. What is that?
Who's these guys? There was no cable.
There was no that stuff. So we just watched on regular TV
and occasionally you'd see a match out of Florida and there'd

(51:01):
be Gordon solely, you know, on UHF channel.
You're like, you're kind of tuning it in to try to get
picture and that's what you'd say.
But you have to do it late at night.
And that's how I got introduced to meeting some real people who
were in it. And then a year later, I'm at
Westerland High School as a coach because I always wanted to

(51:23):
coach and I was teaching these kids.
I should have stupid the kids because that was fun.
That was a lot of fun. I retired in Kings Mountain by
now, but I went to West Rowan. I was a wrestling coach there.
All my kids there, We, we were like little brothers of mate.
We used to pretend we're Ric Flair.
We'd chop each other during wrestling practice, be arrested

(51:44):
for doing the things we. Right, right.
But they're all my boys, right? My boys come here, Coach.
They popped me on the chest. I got mosquitoes and then when
they were looking at mosquitoes,mosquitoes, that's how we had

(52:05):
fun. And now a word from our sponsor.
This is Kroll. And you're listening to Give Me
Back My Pro Wrestling with JimmySt. and Jared the Plastic Chic.

(52:28):
Be sure to like, subscribe and view all of our USWO and Saw
wrestling content at Nashville Wrestling Network exclusively on
YouTube. So why not we all went to a
wrestling match and watched it and everything said coach you,

(52:49):
I'll be a wrestler. I said I weigh 160 lbs soaking
wet. I'm going to be a pro wrestler.
Sure, You know, I liked it, but I was strong enough to do it.
But I was too small. I like heavyweight mate.
And so I go to I go to the TV and watch the TV mean a new
company, the IWA. Who's this guy?

(53:11):
Oh yeah, yeah, the guy's got Bulldog Brauer.
It's just all these different guys, names.
I'll take a little bit. But anyway, I said I'll send off
a letter. It says if you like, try out for
wrestling, come on down, you canbe a wrestler.
I said OK, So I sent a letter off, they said, and I got back,
got thing back, said come down and on on Sunday at the Triad

(53:34):
Arena. What the heck is Triad Arena?
There's no GPS or anything like that.
You got a map? Come on.
There he is. I-40, then on I-40, boom place
that hockey games at you just had.
So I go there and big old burly guys out there have told the
story so many times. Big old burly guy looks like

(53:54):
your brother big. Everybody had a beard, long
hair. I'm like, Oh my gosh, I'm £100.
This guy's 27280-O. Lord, I don't know if we're
supposed to fight that day or what, but we're there.
And 40 other guys showed up like, OK, this guy went, how you
doing? He got a guy named Chuck, and

(54:18):
Chuck was as nice as can be and we will do.
So we sit there, man, he's out. He was from Albemarle and I was
from Solid Press, and we got along good.
So we go into the place at the back of the arena, they got a
ring set up. Wow.
Dino Bravo showed up. Whoa.
Dino Bravo, Goldall Brauer, Johnny Powers.
Johnny Powers. Johnny Powers.
OK. Johnny Powers.

(54:39):
There he was the man, right. He was all guy put together
pretty good until he had a wig on him.
But it was that was his thing. So we get the ring and there's
forty of us on the outside of the ring, some of the ground,
some hanging on the ropes. And I'm kind of looking at it
because I want to get his attention somehow.
Look at him. I'm going to act like a jerk.
I'm going to brag about him and look at him straight.
Now as he's instructing how to do something, he's looking

(55:01):
around. He sees me looking at you.
Come here, I'm going to hold what I do, what I do, they're
going to get me and beat me up or no, I brought one of my
wrestlers with me just in case because a little redhead boy
that would fight the world and and if anybody jumps me, get
ready. It's going to be one of those.
Right, right. I do.
I'd back him, he'd back me and we'd ready to go.

(55:23):
But so we're sitting there, I get in the ring, Johnny's put
the headlock on me. That's how we do a headlock.
I lift the head up a little bit.Yeah, You know, proper
positioning. You take a guy over, take you
over. Ryan took me over.
It didn't hurt me. He said you try not to injure
the guy, but we will make sure it's properly done.
I think because you can do it proper, you could do it improper

(55:43):
and hurt somebody not mean to. So he said.
I say, well, let's get clear, clear ring here.
Clear ring, clear ring, stay here.
OK. What I'm staying for across the
ring is the big burly guy. I said this guy outweighs me
double easy. I don't know how strong he is,
but it's going to be a fight. I'm like, oh gosh, I'm thinking

(56:06):
we're going far here. And I'm like swallowing my
courage. Come on, come up somewhere.
I'll take you on. But my gosh, he says.
I say want you. I want you to run towards him
and you're in a corner over here.
You lift your foot up, put it inhis chest and kick him back.
I sound like gymnastics to me. That's fun.

(56:26):
I was a gymnast in college. So I said all right, so I go
running to the guy hard as I can.
He brings 1 foot up, puts it right on my jaw.
Bam his I hit the ground. Bam I said.
And I can figure not coordinatedvery well.
He probably didn't mean to do that.
But what got me hot was when I hit the ground, busted my lip on
my son. He looked down.

(56:49):
I'm like, oh, that's the way it's going to be.
I slung around, got back up and I looked Johnny, Johnny Powers
and I said tell him to charge me.
He said, well, I said tell him to charge me.
He got me. I'm getting him because that's
why I do it. He said OK, so see how you do
it. Well, I do and Jim Nastis, I can

(57:10):
do it. What I call L Seat he's and a
lever where you pull yourself upin your flat as a, you know,
just like that and he comes flying in at me back and I put
both feet up pow, both cheeks. Bam boom hit the ground.
Boom. Then I'm on my.
I didn't, I didn't. I felt bad.
I said, oh God, I might knock the guy out.
I said yeah, I. Yeah.

(57:33):
And just a softer voice. Yeah, I guess I'm OK.
He got up and just as sweet a kid as you going to me.
He was so scared when he first met us all.
And he wanted to be tough. But he was a tennis.
Tennis coach at the recreation department in Lexington, NC 300
lbs team coaching, you know, teaching tennis, though.

(57:55):
And he was raised by older people and everything like that.
Good guy Ken. Ken Hopkins.
He's dead a couple years ago he never, he never got his chance
to do anything. He just was just a big old burly
boy that wanted to beat somebodyand that was how I got into
wrestling. They 3 weeks later they we had
practice every every Sunday and on the 3rd Sunday they walked.

(58:19):
You even need to talk. Yes, yes Sir.
What can I do? I got a contract right here.
Get you and wrestle, man. I'm thinking NFL type thing.
Here we go. We didn't salary for like $3000
because at that time a teacher made 8000 a year.
Something I can make. He said.
It's going to cost you $1500 fora six week training cycle.

(58:44):
Yeah. Feel like you need to go on from
that. Well, you know, I said 1500
dollars. Yeah, that's too much pay.
That's more than too much pay because they take taxes out.
I said, well, I can't do that. He said, well, he can't do it.
He says $1500. That's just quick.
We'll actually finance it for you.
I said no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

(59:04):
I said I just don't think it's for me.
So I said I'll see you later. I said I don't have the money,
so I left. I want to go ask my mom and
daddy for it. So just because they said you're
out of your mind, I got home andit's how'd it go?
I said it was, it was tough, I said, but they wanted some money
to teach us how to do it. And I ain't paying somebody to
teach me how to, how to wrestle.So months go by, it's

(59:25):
summertime, June, June, July andget a phone call.
We're having lunch for my mom and dad.
Dad came home for lunch during on the weekend on a on a
Saturday got a quick lunch in and we're sitting there listen
Paul Hardy WSAT radio the best That's right, Paul Hardy list
them every Saturday morning if I'm set something to eat and

(59:46):
we're sitting ate Sam's all of asudden phone ring, ring, ring,
ring and get up pick phone up. Hello may I speak to Gene
Liggett? I'm Mike.
Hello. Let's see.
Sounds like some voice I've heard on TV.
It's Johnny Powers. I said this is Jane Liggin.
Jane Liggin, this is Johnny Powers.

(01:00:06):
How you doing? I need you in Roxboro, NC
tonight at 7:00 for a wrestling match.
But I haven't been trained or anything.
Just bring your tights and your shoes, your boots and your
trunks and we'll see you there at 7:00.
By the way, could you bring yourfriend Chuck with you?

(01:00:28):
Sure. I hang up.
I call Chuck. Chuck.
What are you doing tonight? Nothing.
We've got to wrestle tonight. We've got to wrestle.
Yeah. Meet me at my house at 4:00.
So we don't. We're going got to find a place.
Roxburgh. Where the heck is that?
It's above Greensboro up towardsthe Virginia area, so we get the
car on a ride. He used to travel.

(01:00:50):
He was a meat deliverer, so he was used to traveling all these
roads. He said I'm fine.
We go to Roxboro, NC, we don't know anything.
We're along the way. We're trying to figure out like
2 little brothers right there. Like I'm looking at two brothers
right now. All right, listen, I'll, I'll
give you a hip toss. You hit the ground, you go ow,
ow, ow, and then get up and giveme a shoulder shot, you know, do
something, pick body slam me up,and then at the end of the whole

(01:01:13):
thing, I'll flip over the top ropes.
He said, yeah, you did that flipthing over the top ropes, sunset
flip. So I said I'll flip this dirt
rope, I'll fly over, boom, boom,roll.
You up 123 win. Simple.
But what if we're wrestling against two other guys?
Well you box I wrestle, I'll take it and when they get up you
punch him because he's a bop He could he could punch because

(01:01:33):
we'll be in a fight, but we got to fool these guys to believe
that we're fighting each other so they know we're not cheating
them because they're going to pay us to do something.
I don't want to think y'all fakethe whole thing.
We can't fake it. We got to lay it in there.
So we're throwing punches at each other big, you know, big
parts of the body, blah, blah. And we we want to be creative.
So the first first thing reachedout to shake hands.

(01:01:56):
He says, I won't shake your hand.
I'll look at you like and look at you like you're a piece of
crap person. OK, I stick my hand out.
Hey, he goes and looks the otherway and I go shake my hand and
he said look the other way. And this time I reached my hand
out again. He looks down at it.
He goes whack right across my face.
I hit the ground about knocked me out because he's he's not

(01:02:20):
used to it. He can't pull a punch because
he's mocks his whole hand slap contest.
My head's on the rope. I'm looking.
I said this is my friend. He said look on your face.
I knew I was in trouble. I got up.

(01:02:41):
I said here we go. So we started locking up doing
those and we went for 20 minutesexhausted ourselves, we were so
tired. And we go back to dressing room
and he's on his side, on my side.
And our guys, they're not sweaty, you know they're not,
they're not breathing hard. They're all smoking cigarettes.
I don't smoke, I don't drink. He don't drink.

(01:03:02):
He don't smoke. What'd you say?
He said, man, they don't look like they're in shape, but they
ain't none. I'm sweating.
They ain't none. I'm tired.
They're like I'm worried I'm passed out in the shower, laying
in the shower turning the water on us.
Me too. These guys are amazing.
They don't look in shape, but they're in the most shape of
America ever was. I didn't realize it.

(01:03:24):
It's work. Didn't realize that for 20
matches crap at each other. Finally, one night Johnny Powers
look at me and say, and I go next door and talk to the guy
was the light heavyweight champion of the world, I think,
but he could talk to him and sayokay, so I said for what?

(01:03:45):
He still talk to him about a match, match.
I talk matches. Okay, I go there.
I said, how you doing? He said yeah, hey Gene, I've got
a match. Yeah, tell you what, we'll do a
little this, little that. He didn't say anything.
We'll do this and that and I'll get, I'll put a sleeper on you
and it'll be over with the meanwhile, we'll just kind of
bounce around. I'll flip you around, you flip
me, but I'll I'll call you and ring us.

(01:04:06):
OK, awesome. OK, so we're not trying to, to
beat each other up or anything. He said, Oh, no, I said no, I'd
get killed. I got guys out.
They killed me in a matter of a second.
But they don't. They don't know how to perform.
OK, so this is. I never had such relief come

(01:04:27):
over me in my life because I I don't want to fight.
But you know, if I have to, you have to, Right?
Right. Guys, go.
He's gonna help you out. RIP.
RIP. His name was RIP.
RIP Tyler, the top Buzz Tyler and RIP Tyler they were taking.
OK. RIP Tyler was the lighthead and
RIP was just a great guy and buthe he would, he walked me

(01:04:49):
through the whole thing and dunking.
I didn't do it quite right. I did it more like a wrestler,
high school wrestler would, but they had their way of doing it.
Pro wrestling, that's slightly different but more presentable
to the crowd. If he goes so fast, nobody sees
it, he said. The beauty thing about
progressing is when you go to dosomething, you could do it a
whole lot faster, but nobody's gonna see it.

(01:05:11):
To see the move. When they duck under somebody,
go behind, pick the guy up and then dump him instead of doing a
bubble, they might be looking down.
Look up what happened, right? You have to tell the story in a
a protracted way, slowly but surely, but not so.
And so I was so happy. That's how I got it.

(01:05:33):
And the last match that I did, you had they had they had me
versus RIP Tyler. And they let me take the title
that night. I felt bad.
I said, oh, I don't get it. You're sure Tyler's nose last
night, they want to give it to somebody.
He said you don't want it anywaybecause you have to carry a
stupid belt around with you. So you're going to win the oh,
and they're going to take the belt.

(01:05:54):
That's so cool. So he did that.
And Chuck was refereeing that match that night.
And he, he he's just doing the best he can.
He had 123. I got a point.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And RIP looked at me and said,
boy, you're screwed up now. See, they, you know, they always
ripping each other. So screwed up, man.

(01:06:15):
That wasn't supposed to happen. You did find and so that was it
said man I win the title and close the company What the hey
and there's podcast y'all shut down what day So what happened

(01:06:38):
to Jimmy? I don't know, They can talk to
the whole place shut down after that.
That's. Forever.
We're talking to high school. Lebanon High School in Virginia,
near Bristol, TN Lebanon Heights.
Yeah, very, very small town, 3000 people.
But yeah, yeah, yeah, yes. But you probably, you probably

(01:06:59):
have. And that's the sad part is we
missed all this great wrestling before we were born.
But you know. Relive the glory days of Memphis
wrestling with the Retro Wrestling Review USWA podcast.
Each week we go back in time to review USWA Championship
Wrestling from the 1990s, episode by episode.
Join us for watch alongs, behindthe scenes stories, and

(01:07:20):
exclusive interviews with peoplewho were there and lived it.
Whether you grew up watching it or you're discovering it for the
first time, this podcast is yourringside seat to Memphis
wrestling history. It's all a part of the Wrestle
Copia Podcast Network. Listen now at US wapodcast.com.
Hi, this is Mike Needham, host of the Reckless Abandoned

(01:07:42):
podcast with Mike Needham. We invite you to jump on your
favorite podcast platform and search for the Reckless
Abandoned Podcast and give us a listen.
I'm sometimes joined by a part time podcaster, part time Co
host and full time wife Kitney Nicole.
We talk wrestling, we talk pop culture, we talk local events,
local happenings in West Tennessee, and a ton of other

(01:08:05):
stuff. But be sure to check out the
Reckless Abandoned Podcast, findus on Facebook.
Also look up the micro group Podcasting Family on Facebook
and see some of our other podcasts we have out there.
Until next time, make good choices and always remember, no
Dollar, no dice. Ladies and gentlemen, this is

(01:08:37):
Jimmy St. and that was episode 13 of the best of James Rock St.
productions with the first half of episode 56 of Gene Liggin on
Give Me Back My Pro Wrestling. Gene's a great guy and has some
incredible stories from his timein the business.
I got to meet him at the Mid-Atlantic Fan Fest reunion a
couple years ago and absolutely loved his work as a Thunderfoot
with Joel Deaton. You can hear the full episode

(01:08:57):
and more over on at G MB, MPW orGive Me Back My Pro Wrestling.
Wherever you listen to podcasts or simply as we 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.
everywhere. Peace with a tear in my eye.

(01:09:22):
This is the greatest moment in my life.

(01:09:55):
This has been a James Rock St. production.

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