December 2, 2024 • 34 mins
Cody Bowers, a man of many hats behind the scenes at Pro Wrestling Mid-South. He's been doing a lot of tech stuff back stage as well as commentator. He's also starting his own podcast based on one of the richest territory histories.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
What's going on? And everybody? This is a Pro Wrestling
Wire Radio part of Pro Wrestling Wire dot Net. You
can check us out on the AIWF network and of
course Flix Rock Radio dot Live each and every Wednesday
at nine pm to eleven. This is Rick adel Santo
right now, I'm sitting down with Cody Bowers from Pro
Wrestling Mid South. What's going on?
Speaker 2 (00:20):
I'm doing pretty good man? How are you doing?
Speaker 1 (00:22):
I am fantastic. Now you're quite a few states away
from it, all the way down down South and I'm
all the way up here in the Northeast. So we're
gonna talk about a lot of professional wrestl Let's talk
about what you do in the professional wrestling world world.
And I understand you're starting your own podcast as well.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
May six, of twenty fourteen, my sixteenth birthday. Actually I
started with RCW Pro Wrestling. It was a company in Ripley, Tennessee.
But there wasn't ever a time that I don't remember
sitting on my grandfather's you know, knee, or you know,
sitting on the floor or watching a wrestling event or
(01:02):
anything like that. My grandfather actually used to take my
mother and uncles and aunts and stuff like that to
the Missile Colisseum and the Pyramid and Memphis and stuff
like that. But uh, I sadly, whenever I was fourteen,
I had a back injury and I'm sixty three, three
(01:25):
hundred and fifty pounds and there's not a lot of
jobs and professional wrestling for guys my size besides wrestling,
and my back just will not let me do it.
So I talked to the promoter. I said, hey, I said,
I can't wrestle, but I said, I'm willing to do
whatever you need me to do. So first couple of
weeks I started going out selling discounting tickets. And then
he was like, hey, you know I'm having to run
(01:47):
locker room, having to do audio, having to announce. Can
you come on back to the back and do audio
for me? And then after so long, he's like, hey,
can you announce from back here? So I'll be I'm
a backstage ring announcer and audio technician.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
What was your first reaction today's.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Been doing that for a long time.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
What was your first reaction to do that, to backstage
and start announcing and such?
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Surreal? Yeah, it was very surreal being able to be
actually be a part of something I've watched since I
was a kid.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Now.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
I know a lot of people will say, oh, you know,
you didn't start out wrestling, but that wasn't matter to me.
I was a part of the show somehow.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Yeah, that's kind of similar to myself in a way.
The funny part is like I didn't get involved until
I was about forty four years old. I'm now going
to be I'm now just turned forty nine. So for
roughly about six years I've been involved. You know, I started,
well rewind a little bit before that. I started podcasting
(02:59):
because I did have a slight career in radio, mostly
public radio and stuff like that, and I wanted to
get back into it again. And then I said, I
forget and start a wrestling podcast podcast. And then just
so happened. I went to my first indie show in many,
many years, and that struck up the bug to start
a wrestling podcast. So and then one day and one
day I got asked by some local guys to do
(03:21):
commentary on their on their show. And I've been doing
it ever since. It's been about four years doing that now.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
So oh yeah, yeah, yeah, I just uh, about two
or three years ago, I just recently started up. We
have an event it's about thirty thirty five minute drive
from here, but it's in Tiptonville, Tennessee. It's called the
Real Foot Arts and Crafts Festival. And a couple of
our guys that work for us in Pro Wrestling Mid South,
(03:49):
they their hometown boys of Tiptonville, and they were telling
me is like, you know, hey, you know, we get
about ten to twenty thousand people to this one event.
It's a three day event. And I was like, well,
you know, maybe maybe we can get something started. So
about two years ago, I started this event. It's Quick
(04:10):
at the Lake. It's an annual wrestling event once a year.
It brings in a lot of people. It's a pretty
good deal. So I recently started doing you know, do
that once a year promoting booking stuff like that. I
also had my my co booker who was also my
co host for the up and Coming podcast. His name
(04:32):
is Blaize Ray. That's the first time i've I was
going to kind of keep him with a surprise, but
I have our feeling this is get out to a
lot of people. But yeah, yeah, yeah, I have a
co host for the Mid South Wrestling Center podcast. His
name is Blaize Ray. He's been in the business. He's
been wrestling the business almost fifteen years, maybe not fifteen,
maybe twelve, between twelve and fifteen, I'd say about that
that he's traveled around. His brother is our current our
(04:56):
former unified heavyweight champion, Brandon Ray. Uh. Yeah, it's it's
surreal the things that I've the people I've got to meet,
and the things I've got to do in the business
so far.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Yeah, what is this so special about it? I mean,
you know, I've made some of the best friends that
I've ever made in life through the world of professional
wrestling over the last like seven or so years. I
think that's you know, it's kind of that's what's professional wrestling.
You know, that's like there's never a day without professional
wrestling in my life, one day or another.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Oh yeah, I get that. For the ten and a
half years I've been in the business, there's not a
single day, not even as probably even a single second
or minute something with professional wrestling doesn't show up in
my life.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
Yeah, I mean, whether it's a text message in the morning,
a phone call, hey what are you doing this weekend?
And then even though there's so many times where I say, hey,
I got a weekend free, I'm going to hang out
and then do absolutely nothing to sit my couch, and
somehow I found myself at a wrestling show somewhere, you know.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I've been kind of tied
down with Pro Wrestling Mid South stuff here, especially lately
because I just recently become the branch manager of our
Ripley district. It's you know, our Friday show, Friday night show.
We do two shows a week. It's Friday Night and
Ripley Saturday Night in Dyersburg. Who recently just got done
(06:27):
with our Thanksgiving Throwdown weekend. That's a three day event.
We do it Thanksgiving Night, our regular Friday show, and
then our regular Saturday show.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
So why don't you tell the people a little bit
about Pro Wrestling Mid South. Now. I've had Greg Anthony
on the show a year ago, and I need to
reach out to him again because I want to have
him back on the show sometimes. So he is the
head of Pro Wrestling Mid South as well as the
AIWF World Champion.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
Correct he is. He is so after RCW Pro Wrestling,
the booker owner of r CW for Wrestling. His name
was Richard de Vaughn. He worked for Corey Macklin's Memphis
Wrestling TV show for a while as a referee and
(07:11):
a referee and manager. Well, he lost his either mother
or sister at the beginning of the week. Then he
lost his mother or sister at the end of the
week as well. So yeah, his mindset for the professional
resident business after they losing two people in a week's
(07:34):
time just kind of he didn't want to do it
no more. He was he was pretty much done. He
was just wanting to mourn pretty much. And I understood
that we went out of business. I traveled around with
another gentleman that I met in the business. His name's
Coco Anderson. He ran a show for a while. I
(07:54):
traveled around with him doing audio for him stuff like that.
Commentated at one of his shows. Well, we'd got around
that somebody's taking over the building that RCW for Wrestling
was gonna was being in. No, the building that we're
in now in Ripley. It's had wrestling in it since
(08:16):
like eight o seven. It's had it's had a few
companies that go through there. But uh, I found out
who who who did it? Who was doing it? Greg
Anthony and the first month, you know, I showed up,
paid a ticket, sat an audience, started talking to who
(08:39):
I didn't know at the time was his wife. Because
she runs the house. She she runs concessions, she runs
the front door, stuff like that. I started cutting up
a conversation with her, telling her, you know how I
used to work for RCW for wrestling stuff like that.
You know, I'd really like to come and work for
you guys. I do audio stuff like that. Well, after
about a month of doing that and stuff like that,
(08:59):
he Greg Anthony messaged me. He said, hey, can you
come fix to fix the speaker we've been having a
problem with And then I fixed it, and then off
I went. Here we are eight years again later, and
I'm still going strong with pro is liy Midzu.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
That's uh, that's pretty awesome. I actually have no obviously,
I don't live close enough to you to witness to
be in attendance of a show. But I just watched
them on mind and you guys stream them through a
subscription service through Facebook that's still in existence.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Correct, Yes it is. Oh yeah, it's new. It's new.
We just started it months two months ago. We do
it every it's like nine to ninety nine a month.
You get the entirety of the Saturday night shows, and
it kind of breaks down of like not ninety nine
(09:52):
a month, it's like five dollars a week. But if
you're out and about or if you're like you'd like
you can't make it to a live show, not out
a nine in a month you're getting. You're getting four
shows in one month, cheaper than what you would live.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
One of the things that I've noticed about for wrestling
Mid South is that you guys have very family friendly
ticket prices. I see the ticket price on online, so
if I'm ever in the area, I'd love to, But
you guys have I think it's at one of your venues.
I think you have five dollar tickets and then ten
dollar tickets, I believe as well.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
So regular well regular shows, our regular Friday and Saturday
night shows. Yes it's five dollars for both shows. But
you know we have our annual big shows you know
are once a year shows. We like our Thanksgiving Throwdown
is one of our big shows that we just had
on Saturday. So it was you know, fixed prices because
(10:52):
we you know, it was something one of those things
where you know. But yeah, it was general mission eight
dollars row tickets and ten dollars.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Okay, that's I mean, you can't go wrong bringing a
whole family. I mean for what thirty forty dollars and
that's a great price. A lot of places, oh yeah,
get there to go into a lot of the major
shows these days, even a lot of indie shows these
days are are charging you know, twenty thirty dollars tickets.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
Yeah. Yeah. Whenever I first started in the business with
RCW Pro Wrestling, we were actually charging like it was
so out there. And I kept telling Richard. I was like, listen, man,
we got to get these why don't you just do
five dollars? And I can't remember what he said, what
his excuse was, but it was like seven dollars and
(11:40):
some change, and it was it wasn't even like, you know,
seven dollars and maybe a quarter or two quarters, three quarters.
It was just like just out there. And I'm like,
this is listen, this is Ripley. Because I lived in
Ripley all my life. I know how the people of
Ripley are. I said, listen, I said, just lower the
prices to five dollars and he just it was I
(12:00):
don't know what his mindset was, but it was I
love him to death, but yeah, I don't. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
It sounds like an oddball price, but yeah, yeah, So
so what's it like down there? And you know, you
live in a very wrestling history rich history area in Tennessee,
you know, and you're mentioned in the Mid South Colisseum,
which I've never had the opportunity to go to before.
But I have a whole DVD collection up in my
(12:28):
up in my living room that's got matches from the
DV that's from the Mid South Coliseum and it's the
one of the most world famous professional wrestling arenas.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Yeah. Uh, well with see as I just kind of
give you a backstory on the podcast thing. The reason
why I got into a podcast is because I went
on somebody else's podcast. His name is Buster H. R. Johnson.
He does a lot of Mid South area coverage and
he covered us for quick at the Lake two event
(13:01):
this year, and like I was, I missed it on him.
Memphis is a very wrestling rich history, but I don't
quite think that people understand how big of a wrestling
rich history Dyersburg, Tennessee has really because we've had Herbwelch,
(13:22):
which is he legendary trainer. Uh. He trained David Schultz,
Doctor d David Schultz. It's in quite a few other people.
And you know, it was all here in Dyrsburg. And
I think that's kind of what the concept of what
Greg Anthony was wanting to pick back up on creating
(13:44):
nw A min South pro wrestl Men South was he
you know, Dyrsburg is a wrestling rich town.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
Yeah. I actually have a book on Herb Welch. I
gotta find it. I don't have it here around here,
but if I find it, it's like a it's like
a small pamphlet sized bookboard I do. I'll snap a
picture and send it to you.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
So, yeah, it's a Herb Welch How to Be a Champion.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
That's the book. That's the book. Yeah, yeah, I bought that.
I bought that on Amazon. It's quite the interesting little
little book. So, oh yeah, tell me about so you
joined back. You said the off air that it was
the last year and a half of the being part
of the National Wrestling Alliance. What was it like for
you when Billy bought the n w A and then
(14:32):
closed up a lot of all the territories, and U
basically became a singular brand.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
One word stupid.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
Yeah well, yeah, yeah, I thought there was a lot
there to utilize it. I believe.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Well, I think me and you have talked about this
on Facebook messenger before this. But whenever I was part of,
whenever it was NWA, Miss Sou, we got to see
a lot of great talent, a lot of TV talent
and stuff like that come through there. And then then
that happened. It was like, well, now that you know
we're no longer in WA, all these guys was like, well, yeah,
(15:14):
I don't want to really, you know, mess with y'all anymore.
You know, you ain't got that NW thing. So it
really hurt at first pros in them in South. But
now you know, after, since it's been so long, you know,
we've we triumphant a lot. But it's twenty twenty four.
(15:34):
Billy Corgan has owned NWA. I can't remember how many
years ago.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
Like it was twenty seventeen, I believe.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
It, Yeah, something like that.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
Yeah, I think he held his first actual event in
twenty eighteen. That think I might be off on the timeline,
but I think I'm pretty kind of accurate.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
Yeah, so yeah, i'd say something like that, but so
he pretty much my adaptation of the current NWA Billy
Corgan's in WA is it's as they as old saying goes,
you know, it's it's a wolf in sheep's clothing. It's
(16:18):
a new school wrestling company trying to dress up as
old school wrestling.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Yeah. Yeah, I think that I enjoyed it for quite
a for a look, for quite some time, I guess
after he bought it, you know, up until probably the
second or third season of the television when when they
put out power and then when the pandemic came and
closed down everything that might have been the second season,
(16:49):
and then they tried to come back and just things
were not the same. It just yeah, it was just
I don't I mean, I went to the seventy six
Anniverse show this past August, and I had a less
than great time, I'll tell you that much. But I
had a great time hanging around with my son, more
(17:09):
so around the city than I did, you know, doing
stuff watching the actual event.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. There's a lot of things that the
NWA has done in the last just a couple of
years that I just absolutely do not agree with, especially
one here most recently.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
Yeah, and.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
That that would be the Family Jewels Ladder match. I
don't know if you've seen that. I don't know if
you've seen that one.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
I believe that that was on what last week or
the week before on TV maybe I believe. So, Yeah,
I don't understand what their deal is because it's like
they had, you know, the this will get back to that,
but they keep losing their television like they were on YouTube.
Then they went to Fight and I don't think anybody
(17:59):
was really purchasing that Fight subscription. So when everybody's expired,
they decided to go back to YouTube. Then the CW deal,
which what they only signed for eight months or something
I don't know, like, which I thought was awkward that
all of a sudden, after eight months they were on Twitter.
How are you going to get a wrestling audience on Twitter?
But I think it's stuff like what you just mentioned
(18:20):
that match. Nobody wants to deal with them.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
So you said TV deals for the NWA, and one
really really pops up, and it was here recently, I
think it was this year. And me and Greg ta
Anthony we talk all the time about stuff like this.
Because I always ask Greg, he's he's pretty much a
wrestling library built into a human. I will say that, Yeah,
(18:44):
he's the biggest wrestling historian I've ever met. And it
was the Father James Mitchell cocaine spot.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
I watched that right on TV as that was happening, Yeah,
and I was just so annoyed. So what the yeah
bleep is this? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Yeah, could could have been the biggest thing for n
w A to get in a huge TV network. And
then they show Father James Mitchell around a poker table
with a bunch which is like strippers, and he's doing
cocaine off the table? Are you kidding me? That?
Speaker 1 (19:21):
Uh? That they suffered a little bit for that, I mean, well,
I wouldn't say a little bit, but a lot of
people were talking very negative about them for quite some
time after that had happened. And like I said, I
don't think anybody really wanted to deal with them after
that to I think they lost a lot of fans
during that time period.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
Yeah, oh yeah, yeah. Yeah. Now I'm not gonna sit
here and say they're all terrible.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
Some of those that work there, so y'are not gonna
you know, good, good for them? They're getting a payday
and you know, getting to travel around the whole country
because of that or run the world. Really, yeah, I have.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
I have a close friend that works there. I met
in RCW Pro Wrestling. He's doing great. He's an attag
team up there with n WA right now. And you know,
I absolutely love him to death. You know, it's uh.
I met him, Like I said, I met him MARCW
(20:16):
Pro Wrestling. It's it's the Red Dog Rodney Matt Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
Anytime we book him in pro wrestling, it south Oh yeah,
big legend, w W legend. I meet at MARCYW Pro
Wrestling quite a few years back. He come in worked
for us a couple of nights with Jazz. He brought
in Jazz one night. I got to meet her, sweetheart
of a person. He was sitting in the back and
(20:42):
Brochard walked up to me and said, hey, he said,
you know, we got a Domino's pizza right down the road.
And he's like, hey, Rodney's hungry, why don't you go
go down, run down the Dominoes and get him a
pizza or something and nice stuff like that. So went
ran down, got him, got him a large pizza, and
A and A two leader and I handed to him
(21:02):
and you know, stuff like that. He sat down next
to me, he goes, he wants any of this. I go, now, Bud,
you know, that's that's all you. And he ate that
whole pizza down, that whole tea leader right there. And
still to this day, anytime we bring him in or
Professor P who was his manager at the time, anytime
we ran Professor P. And that's the only story that
(21:22):
he talks about. And like I said, love Rodney to death,
sweetheart of a guy.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
Yeah, yeah, who who do you think where you are
a perror wrestling mid South? Who sticks out to you?
I mean, you got a lot of great talent though
down there of course. You know, like I said, Greg Anthony,
who's been around for quite some time. I didn't realize
until I interviewed him quite the history that he had
in professional wrestling.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
Oh yeah, yeah, I think twenty five years going up
on twenty five years and something like that. Yeah, I
watched throughout my childhood. It was kind of kind of
awesome because I used to watch the Corey Macklin Memphis
wrestling whenever it is.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
Yeah, I used to get tapes of that when I
used to be in Yes, Yeah, I was very familiar
with that.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
Yeah. Greg Anthony on his YouTube channel if nobody really knows,
he's posted a lot of old Mid South area matches
with him, and it's the people I got to grow
up watching. I've got to see Greg Anthony, Derek King,
Stan Lee, John Michael, Chris O'Neill, you know, Christian Jacobs,
(22:32):
you know, guys like that. But uh, to give you
kind of a two part answer of guys that stick
out to me in our current business, kind of putting
Greg Anthony to the side, because he's up there, he's
probably that number one spot right now. But if you're
talking about young, younger guy, it's either got to fall
(23:00):
under Brandon Ray or Thud Powell. Okay, Uh, Brandon Ray.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
What do they got that you're saying that makes you say.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
That Brandon Ray? He's uh, he's three hundred pounds of
pure absolute what's he's He's up there, he's three hundred pounds,
but he moves like a loocha door. Literally, if you
if you ever got a chance to watch Brandon wrestle,
I there's there's quite a few people on my list
(23:30):
of guys that I kind of want him to wrestle
with Like this Friday night in Ripley, Tennessee. He's he's
facing Peytonaires. Peytonaires is this guy's He's probably got about
six six six seven, maybe a little maybe just the
not around there big guy, you know. But it's gonna
(23:55):
be a hard hitting match. It's gonna be like two
bulls running into each other. But I've known Brandon Ray
for four or five years since he's come to prostling
Mid South, and he's done a lot, Like I said,
two time former unified heavyweight champion. You know, great talent.
(24:17):
If you need him to high fly, he'll high fly.
If you need him to throw somebody across that ring,
he'll throw somebody across that ring. He's a tough guy. Now,
dud Powell, he's our current unified heavyweight champion, and he
was in pro Wrestling Mid South and WA Mid South
when I first started. Now he's a great talent as well.
(24:40):
Same thing with him. You need him to high fly,
he'll high fly. If you need him throw somebody across
that ring, he'll throw somebody across that ring. They're both
great talents and we've seen them cross paths quite a
few times with Old with the Unified Heavyweight champ because
(25:01):
dud Powell was the one who beat Brandon Ray for
the Unified Heavyweight Champion. Brandon Ray's beat Dud Powell for
the Unified Heavyweight Championship. We just had our ten thousand
dollars Royal Challenge where you get ten thousand dollars check
and a shot at the Unified Heavyweight Championship. And now
we get to see that again because Brandon Ray won
(25:21):
that match. Now when that match is going to take place,
I have no idea, but Dud Powell Brandon Ray, I
say they are top talents right now.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
Okay, I have to keep an eye everybody that's listening,
keep an eye out because Cody says, so, all right,
that's talent right there. Let's talk a little bit more
about your podcast before we decide to before we wrap
it up. Now, what's the name of it again?
Speaker 2 (25:52):
So I've had the It used to be Mid South
Wrestling News in twenty sixteen. In twenty sixteen, I started
it up shortly after I joined NWA Mid South and
it was just something I wanted to help all Mid
South area shows help promote their product. Whether I post
(26:13):
flyers or anything like that. Well, I said here recently.
I was on Buster Ade Johnson HR Johnson's podcast earlier
this year, and after the podcast was done, me and
him was talking about it, and I was like, you know,
I think I can do this. I think I can
start up my own podcast, I said. I said, it'll
be me with what wrestling knowledge I know, but I said,
(26:36):
I also gonna have, you know, my out of ring
experience and mixed with somebody's inn ring experience. So that's
where Blaize Ray comes in. Blaize Ray, me and him
have known each other for the same amount of time
that Brandon Ray and I have known each other because
they come in together as a tag team. They were
the Ray Boys. They pretty much carried the tag team
(26:59):
division of pro wrestling at South for two years before
Blaiseray had had to get out of it for a
little bit because he was actually born club footed. His
feet were on backwards whenever he was born, so the
doctors had to break his ankles and then set his
feet back right, and his ankles have just always caused
(27:23):
them problems. But he still got out there, he wrestled,
He did what he needed to do. Stuff like that.
But it was just kind of time for him to
get his personal health correct. Get that, get that done.
But like I said, he's got the entering experience. He's
got twelve thirteen years of an entering experience. I have
(27:44):
my ten eleven years of out of ring experience. I
think I think we're we're going to set this thing off.
Our first episode is huge. It's a double guest episode.
It's going to be the Golden Boy, Greg Anthony and
Downtown Bruno.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
You can't get two better guests than that. Really, Downtown
Rule is an absolute legend in the world of professional wrestling.
He actually was just at a convention that I worked
in Massachusetts just two weeks ago. Yeah, he was there,
and what a nice guy.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
Man.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
I gotta tell you, I got a chance.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
I love him. I have him on speed dial, I'll talk.
I'll call him out of the blue and you know, hey,
you know, I'm sorry. I don't mean to bother you
or anything like it. He's like, man, you gotta you
gotta stop saying you're sorry. He said, we're friends. He said,
we're friends. He said, you ain't got to apologize. He said,
you call me anytime you need to and well we'll
(28:43):
just sit and have conversations or I'll text him wish
them half a birthday. I texted him the day that
Sid Vicious passed away, because you know that was you know,
that's who got Bruno pretty much into adob He got
him to Adobe Chance and he managed it for a
long time.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh So tell me about any events
that you guys have coming up. Obviously you have events
coming up this weekend because you guys, like I said,
regularly run Friday, Saturday and then, uh except for with
the exception of like the big events. So what do
you guys, What's what's going on? What's on the plate
this weekend?
Speaker 2 (29:22):
Well, as of right now, for Friday night, we have
a huge six man tag team elimination match. We also
have like I said, what I just what I just
said before, we have Brandon Ray versus Peyton Ayres. The
(29:43):
six man tag team match has our newly crowned Legends
Allions Champion, Rob Danger. Uh. He beat Big Cody Sawyer
last Friday night for the Legends Lions Championship. It was
kind of a kind of not going to say it,
you know, it was kind of a thing. Some thing's
goind that got out of hand. He took advantage of it. Yeah,
(30:06):
we'll go. We'll go with that. We have also have
in that match tagging with Rob Danger is gonna be
the Uber Destroyer. He's a German based gimmick. He's been
for the past two months. He goes out and he
tries to get everybody to stand for the German national anthem.
(30:29):
That's hasn't went overwhell for him lately because you know, yeah,
we're not We're out of doing that. Yeah, I don't.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
Think it would go over well.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
But yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, we so far, so far,
he hasn't gotten through the full national anthem yet. Let's
just say that. Then their Their third man in their
team is Chad Austin. It was formerly mister Mitz South
number two, and he's just he's kind of had a
change of heart. He's come out of the mask. He
(30:58):
was tagging with the Yellow Jacket for a long time.
He just picked up the Southern Junior Heavyweight Championship from
the Yellow Jacket last Saturday night, So we got to
two champions in that match. Now on the other side
of the ring, it's going to be the man who
(31:25):
I've known him for a long time. Also, it's game
time James Elliott, he's a former Legends Lions champion. Next
to him, it's gonna be Big Cody Sawyer. That's who
Robbed Danger beat for the Legend Lions Championship. And then
we also have the Yellow Jacket, who Chad Austen beat
(31:47):
for the Southern Junior Heavo Championship. So it's a lot
of back and forth there with that. Yeah, it's gonna
be a great event.
Speaker 1 (31:57):
I am familiar with a couple of those guys, Chad Austin,
and I'm familiar with the Yellowjacket. I've seen them on
Herbsimon's s i c W TV before.
Speaker 2 (32:08):
So yeah, yeah, a few of those guys. Yeah, we
also have Yeah, we also have our Mitsule Tag Team Champions,
current Metsuth Tack Team Champions, the Desirables. They're they're compacted
of a young guy, Logan Heindrix, but then he's got
the veteran of j R. Stone, who's his tag team partner.
(32:35):
I've I've known j R. Stone for a while working
with Pro Wrestling Mid South. I've loaned I've known Logan
Hendrix for a short bit. And let's just at end
to day, they'll do whatever they have to do to
keep the midsuth Tack Team championships. I don't agree with
the way they do things because that I don't like
(32:57):
cheating and I always try to do right by the people,
and it's just, you know, I gotta deal with him
because they're the champions.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
Yeah, yep, all right, all right? How could people get
in touch with you? Cody?
Speaker 2 (33:13):
Facebook? Cody Bowers uh Mid South Wrestling Center Facebook page.
We also have YouTube channel Mid South Restling Center. We
have an Instagram Mit Southwestern Center. I don't I personally
have an Instagram, but I don't use it, so Facebook
(33:33):
is always going to be the best place to reach me.
Speaker 1 (33:39):
Okay, all right, Cody, I want to thank you for
coming on. I want everybody to go subscribe to the
YouTube channel because, uh, you know, you're gonna get some
really good wrestling content talking about the Mid South area
and because there's a lot of quality wrestling down there.
So it's you know, I want everybody to go down there. Cody.
I want to say thank you for joining
Speaker 2 (33:58):
Meppreciate you, thank you,
What's going on? And everybody? This is a Pro Wrestling
Wire Radio part of Pro Wrestling Wire dot Net. You
can check us out on the AIWF network and of
course Flix Rock Radio dot Live each and every Wednesday
at nine pm to eleven. This is Rick adel Santo
right now, I'm sitting down with Cody Bowers from Pro
Wrestling Mid South. What's going on?
Speaker 2 (00:20):
I'm doing pretty good man? How are you doing?
Speaker 1 (00:22):
I am fantastic. Now you're quite a few states away
from it, all the way down down South and I'm
all the way up here in the Northeast. So we're
gonna talk about a lot of professional wrestl Let's talk
about what you do in the professional wrestling world world.
And I understand you're starting your own podcast as well.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
May six, of twenty fourteen, my sixteenth birthday. Actually I
started with RCW Pro Wrestling. It was a company in Ripley, Tennessee.
But there wasn't ever a time that I don't remember
sitting on my grandfather's you know, knee, or you know,
sitting on the floor or watching a wrestling event or
(01:02):
anything like that. My grandfather actually used to take my
mother and uncles and aunts and stuff like that to
the Missile Colisseum and the Pyramid and Memphis and stuff
like that. But uh, I sadly, whenever I was fourteen,
I had a back injury and I'm sixty three, three
(01:25):
hundred and fifty pounds and there's not a lot of
jobs and professional wrestling for guys my size besides wrestling,
and my back just will not let me do it.
So I talked to the promoter. I said, hey, I said,
I can't wrestle, but I said, I'm willing to do
whatever you need me to do. So first couple of
weeks I started going out selling discounting tickets. And then
he was like, hey, you know I'm having to run
(01:47):
locker room, having to do audio, having to announce. Can
you come on back to the back and do audio
for me? And then after so long, he's like, hey,
can you announce from back here? So I'll be I'm
a backstage ring announcer and audio technician.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
What was your first reaction today's.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Been doing that for a long time.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
What was your first reaction to do that, to backstage
and start announcing and such?
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Surreal? Yeah, it was very surreal being able to be
actually be a part of something I've watched since I
was a kid.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Now.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
I know a lot of people will say, oh, you know,
you didn't start out wrestling, but that wasn't matter to me.
I was a part of the show somehow.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Yeah, that's kind of similar to myself in a way.
The funny part is like I didn't get involved until
I was about forty four years old. I'm now going
to be I'm now just turned forty nine. So for
roughly about six years I've been involved. You know, I started,
well rewind a little bit before that. I started podcasting
(02:59):
because I did have a slight career in radio, mostly
public radio and stuff like that, and I wanted to
get back into it again. And then I said, I
forget and start a wrestling podcast podcast. And then just
so happened. I went to my first indie show in many,
many years, and that struck up the bug to start
a wrestling podcast. So and then one day and one
day I got asked by some local guys to do
(03:21):
commentary on their on their show. And I've been doing
it ever since. It's been about four years doing that now.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
So oh yeah, yeah, yeah, I just uh, about two
or three years ago, I just recently started up. We
have an event it's about thirty thirty five minute drive
from here, but it's in Tiptonville, Tennessee. It's called the
Real Foot Arts and Crafts Festival. And a couple of
our guys that work for us in Pro Wrestling Mid South,
(03:49):
they their hometown boys of Tiptonville, and they were telling
me is like, you know, hey, you know, we get
about ten to twenty thousand people to this one event.
It's a three day event. And I was like, well,
you know, maybe maybe we can get something started. So
about two years ago, I started this event. It's Quick
(04:10):
at the Lake. It's an annual wrestling event once a year.
It brings in a lot of people. It's a pretty
good deal. So I recently started doing you know, do
that once a year promoting booking stuff like that. I
also had my my co booker who was also my
co host for the up and Coming podcast. His name
(04:32):
is Blaize Ray. That's the first time i've I was
going to kind of keep him with a surprise, but
I have our feeling this is get out to a
lot of people. But yeah, yeah, yeah, I have a
co host for the Mid South Wrestling Center podcast. His
name is Blaize Ray. He's been in the business. He's
been wrestling the business almost fifteen years, maybe not fifteen,
maybe twelve, between twelve and fifteen, I'd say about that
that he's traveled around. His brother is our current our
(04:56):
former unified heavyweight champion, Brandon Ray. Uh. Yeah, it's it's
surreal the things that I've the people I've got to meet,
and the things I've got to do in the business
so far.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Yeah, what is this so special about it? I mean,
you know, I've made some of the best friends that
I've ever made in life through the world of professional
wrestling over the last like seven or so years. I
think that's you know, it's kind of that's what's professional wrestling.
You know, that's like there's never a day without professional
wrestling in my life, one day or another.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Oh yeah, I get that. For the ten and a
half years I've been in the business, there's not a
single day, not even as probably even a single second
or minute something with professional wrestling doesn't show up in
my life.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
Yeah, I mean, whether it's a text message in the morning,
a phone call, hey what are you doing this weekend?
And then even though there's so many times where I say, hey,
I got a weekend free, I'm going to hang out
and then do absolutely nothing to sit my couch, and
somehow I found myself at a wrestling show somewhere, you know.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I've been kind of tied
down with Pro Wrestling Mid South stuff here, especially lately
because I just recently become the branch manager of our
Ripley district. It's you know, our Friday show, Friday night show.
We do two shows a week. It's Friday Night and
Ripley Saturday Night in Dyersburg. Who recently just got done
(06:27):
with our Thanksgiving Throwdown weekend. That's a three day event.
We do it Thanksgiving Night, our regular Friday show, and
then our regular Saturday show.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
So why don't you tell the people a little bit
about Pro Wrestling Mid South. Now. I've had Greg Anthony
on the show a year ago, and I need to
reach out to him again because I want to have
him back on the show sometimes. So he is the
head of Pro Wrestling Mid South as well as the
AIWF World Champion.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
Correct he is. He is so after RCW Pro Wrestling,
the booker owner of r CW for Wrestling. His name
was Richard de Vaughn. He worked for Corey Macklin's Memphis
Wrestling TV show for a while as a referee and
(07:11):
a referee and manager. Well, he lost his either mother
or sister at the beginning of the week. Then he
lost his mother or sister at the end of the
week as well. So yeah, his mindset for the professional
resident business after they losing two people in a week's
(07:34):
time just kind of he didn't want to do it
no more. He was he was pretty much done. He
was just wanting to mourn pretty much. And I understood
that we went out of business. I traveled around with
another gentleman that I met in the business. His name's
Coco Anderson. He ran a show for a while. I
(07:54):
traveled around with him doing audio for him stuff like that.
Commentated at one of his shows. Well, we'd got around
that somebody's taking over the building that RCW for Wrestling
was gonna was being in. No, the building that we're
in now in Ripley. It's had wrestling in it since
(08:16):
like eight o seven. It's had it's had a few
companies that go through there. But uh, I found out
who who who did it? Who was doing it? Greg
Anthony and the first month, you know, I showed up,
paid a ticket, sat an audience, started talking to who
(08:39):
I didn't know at the time was his wife. Because
she runs the house. She she runs concessions, she runs
the front door, stuff like that. I started cutting up
a conversation with her, telling her, you know how I
used to work for RCW for wrestling stuff like that.
You know, I'd really like to come and work for
you guys. I do audio stuff like that. Well, after
about a month of doing that and stuff like that,
(08:59):
he Greg Anthony messaged me. He said, hey, can you
come fix to fix the speaker we've been having a
problem with And then I fixed it, and then off
I went. Here we are eight years again later, and
I'm still going strong with pro is liy Midzu.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
That's uh, that's pretty awesome. I actually have no obviously,
I don't live close enough to you to witness to
be in attendance of a show. But I just watched
them on mind and you guys stream them through a
subscription service through Facebook that's still in existence.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Correct, Yes it is. Oh yeah, it's new. It's new.
We just started it months two months ago. We do
it every it's like nine to ninety nine a month.
You get the entirety of the Saturday night shows, and
it kind of breaks down of like not ninety nine
(09:52):
a month, it's like five dollars a week. But if
you're out and about or if you're like you'd like
you can't make it to a live show, not out
a nine in a month you're getting. You're getting four
shows in one month, cheaper than what you would live.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
One of the things that I've noticed about for wrestling
Mid South is that you guys have very family friendly
ticket prices. I see the ticket price on online, so
if I'm ever in the area, I'd love to, But
you guys have I think it's at one of your venues.
I think you have five dollar tickets and then ten
dollar tickets, I believe as well.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
So regular well regular shows, our regular Friday and Saturday
night shows. Yes it's five dollars for both shows. But
you know we have our annual big shows you know
are once a year shows. We like our Thanksgiving Throwdown
is one of our big shows that we just had
on Saturday. So it was you know, fixed prices because
(10:52):
we you know, it was something one of those things
where you know. But yeah, it was general mission eight
dollars row tickets and ten dollars.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Okay, that's I mean, you can't go wrong bringing a
whole family. I mean for what thirty forty dollars and
that's a great price. A lot of places, oh yeah,
get there to go into a lot of the major
shows these days, even a lot of indie shows these
days are are charging you know, twenty thirty dollars tickets.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
Yeah. Yeah. Whenever I first started in the business with
RCW Pro Wrestling, we were actually charging like it was
so out there. And I kept telling Richard. I was like, listen, man,
we got to get these why don't you just do
five dollars? And I can't remember what he said, what
his excuse was, but it was like seven dollars and
(11:40):
some change, and it was it wasn't even like, you know,
seven dollars and maybe a quarter or two quarters, three quarters.
It was just like just out there. And I'm like,
this is listen, this is Ripley. Because I lived in
Ripley all my life. I know how the people of
Ripley are. I said, listen, I said, just lower the
prices to five dollars and he just it was I
(12:00):
don't know what his mindset was, but it was I
love him to death, but yeah, I don't. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
It sounds like an oddball price, but yeah, yeah, So
so what's it like down there? And you know, you
live in a very wrestling history rich history area in Tennessee,
you know, and you're mentioned in the Mid South Colisseum,
which I've never had the opportunity to go to before.
But I have a whole DVD collection up in my
(12:28):
up in my living room that's got matches from the
DV that's from the Mid South Coliseum and it's the
one of the most world famous professional wrestling arenas.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Yeah. Uh, well with see as I just kind of
give you a backstory on the podcast thing. The reason
why I got into a podcast is because I went
on somebody else's podcast. His name is Buster H. R. Johnson.
He does a lot of Mid South area coverage and
he covered us for quick at the Lake two event
(13:01):
this year, and like I was, I missed it on him.
Memphis is a very wrestling rich history, but I don't
quite think that people understand how big of a wrestling
rich history Dyersburg, Tennessee has really because we've had Herbwelch,
(13:22):
which is he legendary trainer. Uh. He trained David Schultz,
Doctor d David Schultz. It's in quite a few other people.
And you know, it was all here in Dyrsburg. And
I think that's kind of what the concept of what
Greg Anthony was wanting to pick back up on creating
(13:44):
nw A min South pro wrestl Men South was he
you know, Dyrsburg is a wrestling rich town.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
Yeah. I actually have a book on Herb Welch. I
gotta find it. I don't have it here around here,
but if I find it, it's like a it's like
a small pamphlet sized bookboard I do. I'll snap a
picture and send it to you.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
So, yeah, it's a Herb Welch How to Be a Champion.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
That's the book. That's the book. Yeah, yeah, I bought that.
I bought that on Amazon. It's quite the interesting little
little book. So, oh yeah, tell me about so you
joined back. You said the off air that it was
the last year and a half of the being part
of the National Wrestling Alliance. What was it like for
you when Billy bought the n w A and then
(14:32):
closed up a lot of all the territories, and U
basically became a singular brand.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
One word stupid.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
Yeah well, yeah, yeah, I thought there was a lot
there to utilize it. I believe.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Well, I think me and you have talked about this
on Facebook messenger before this. But whenever I was part of,
whenever it was NWA, Miss Sou, we got to see
a lot of great talent, a lot of TV talent
and stuff like that come through there. And then then
that happened. It was like, well, now that you know
we're no longer in WA, all these guys was like, well, yeah,
(15:14):
I don't want to really, you know, mess with y'all anymore.
You know, you ain't got that NW thing. So it
really hurt at first pros in them in South. But
now you know, after, since it's been so long, you know,
we've we triumphant a lot. But it's twenty twenty four.
(15:34):
Billy Corgan has owned NWA. I can't remember how many
years ago.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
Like it was twenty seventeen, I believe.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
It, Yeah, something like that.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
Yeah, I think he held his first actual event in
twenty eighteen. That think I might be off on the timeline,
but I think I'm pretty kind of accurate.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
Yeah, so yeah, i'd say something like that, but so
he pretty much my adaptation of the current NWA Billy
Corgan's in WA is it's as they as old saying goes,
you know, it's it's a wolf in sheep's clothing. It's
(16:18):
a new school wrestling company trying to dress up as
old school wrestling.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Yeah. Yeah, I think that I enjoyed it for quite
a for a look, for quite some time, I guess
after he bought it, you know, up until probably the
second or third season of the television when when they
put out power and then when the pandemic came and
closed down everything that might have been the second season,
(16:49):
and then they tried to come back and just things
were not the same. It just yeah, it was just
I don't I mean, I went to the seventy six
Anniverse show this past August, and I had a less
than great time, I'll tell you that much. But I
had a great time hanging around with my son, more
(17:09):
so around the city than I did, you know, doing
stuff watching the actual event.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. There's a lot of things that the
NWA has done in the last just a couple of
years that I just absolutely do not agree with, especially
one here most recently.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
Yeah, and.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
That that would be the Family Jewels Ladder match. I
don't know if you've seen that. I don't know if
you've seen that one.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
I believe that that was on what last week or
the week before on TV maybe I believe. So, Yeah,
I don't understand what their deal is because it's like
they had, you know, the this will get back to that,
but they keep losing their television like they were on YouTube.
Then they went to Fight and I don't think anybody
(17:59):
was really purchasing that Fight subscription. So when everybody's expired,
they decided to go back to YouTube. Then the CW deal,
which what they only signed for eight months or something
I don't know, like, which I thought was awkward that
all of a sudden, after eight months they were on Twitter.
How are you going to get a wrestling audience on Twitter?
But I think it's stuff like what you just mentioned
(18:20):
that match. Nobody wants to deal with them.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
So you said TV deals for the NWA, and one
really really pops up, and it was here recently, I
think it was this year. And me and Greg ta
Anthony we talk all the time about stuff like this.
Because I always ask Greg, he's he's pretty much a
wrestling library built into a human. I will say that, Yeah,
(18:44):
he's the biggest wrestling historian I've ever met. And it
was the Father James Mitchell cocaine spot.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
I watched that right on TV as that was happening, Yeah,
and I was just so annoyed. So what the yeah
bleep is this? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Yeah, could could have been the biggest thing for n
w A to get in a huge TV network. And
then they show Father James Mitchell around a poker table
with a bunch which is like strippers, and he's doing
cocaine off the table? Are you kidding me? That?
Speaker 1 (19:21):
Uh? That they suffered a little bit for that, I mean, well,
I wouldn't say a little bit, but a lot of
people were talking very negative about them for quite some
time after that had happened. And like I said, I
don't think anybody really wanted to deal with them after
that to I think they lost a lot of fans
during that time period.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
Yeah, oh yeah, yeah. Yeah. Now I'm not gonna sit
here and say they're all terrible.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
Some of those that work there, so y'are not gonna
you know, good, good for them? They're getting a payday
and you know, getting to travel around the whole country
because of that or run the world. Really, yeah, I have.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
I have a close friend that works there. I met
in RCW Pro Wrestling. He's doing great. He's an attag
team up there with n WA right now. And you know,
I absolutely love him to death. You know, it's uh.
I met him, Like I said, I met him MARCW
(20:16):
Pro Wrestling. It's it's the Red Dog Rodney Matt Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
Anytime we book him in pro wrestling, it south Oh yeah,
big legend, w W legend. I meet at MARCYW Pro
Wrestling quite a few years back. He come in worked
for us a couple of nights with Jazz. He brought
in Jazz one night. I got to meet her, sweetheart
of a person. He was sitting in the back and
(20:42):
Brochard walked up to me and said, hey, he said,
you know, we got a Domino's pizza right down the road.
And he's like, hey, Rodney's hungry, why don't you go
go down, run down the Dominoes and get him a
pizza or something and nice stuff like that. So went
ran down, got him, got him a large pizza, and
A and A two leader and I handed to him
(21:02):
and you know, stuff like that. He sat down next
to me, he goes, he wants any of this. I go, now, Bud,
you know, that's that's all you. And he ate that
whole pizza down, that whole tea leader right there. And
still to this day, anytime we bring him in or
Professor P who was his manager at the time, anytime
we ran Professor P. And that's the only story that
(21:22):
he talks about. And like I said, love Rodney to death,
sweetheart of a guy.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
Yeah, yeah, who who do you think where you are
a perror wrestling mid South? Who sticks out to you?
I mean, you got a lot of great talent though
down there of course. You know, like I said, Greg Anthony,
who's been around for quite some time. I didn't realize
until I interviewed him quite the history that he had
in professional wrestling.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
Oh yeah, yeah, I think twenty five years going up
on twenty five years and something like that. Yeah, I
watched throughout my childhood. It was kind of kind of
awesome because I used to watch the Corey Macklin Memphis
wrestling whenever it is.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
Yeah, I used to get tapes of that when I
used to be in Yes, Yeah, I was very familiar
with that.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
Yeah. Greg Anthony on his YouTube channel if nobody really knows,
he's posted a lot of old Mid South area matches
with him, and it's the people I got to grow
up watching. I've got to see Greg Anthony, Derek King,
Stan Lee, John Michael, Chris O'Neill, you know, Christian Jacobs,
(22:32):
you know, guys like that. But uh, to give you
kind of a two part answer of guys that stick
out to me in our current business, kind of putting
Greg Anthony to the side, because he's up there, he's
probably that number one spot right now. But if you're
talking about young, younger guy, it's either got to fall
(23:00):
under Brandon Ray or Thud Powell. Okay, Uh, Brandon Ray.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
What do they got that you're saying that makes you say.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
That Brandon Ray? He's uh, he's three hundred pounds of
pure absolute what's he's He's up there, he's three hundred pounds,
but he moves like a loocha door. Literally, if you
if you ever got a chance to watch Brandon wrestle,
I there's there's quite a few people on my list
(23:30):
of guys that I kind of want him to wrestle
with Like this Friday night in Ripley, Tennessee. He's he's
facing Peytonaires. Peytonaires is this guy's He's probably got about
six six six seven, maybe a little maybe just the
not around there big guy, you know. But it's gonna
(23:55):
be a hard hitting match. It's gonna be like two
bulls running into each other. But I've known Brandon Ray
for four or five years since he's come to prostling
Mid South, and he's done a lot, Like I said,
two time former unified heavyweight champion. You know, great talent.
(24:17):
If you need him to high fly, he'll high fly.
If you need him to throw somebody across that ring,
he'll throw somebody across that ring. He's a tough guy. Now,
dud Powell, he's our current unified heavyweight champion, and he
was in pro Wrestling Mid South and WA Mid South
when I first started. Now he's a great talent as well.
(24:40):
Same thing with him. You need him to high fly,
he'll high fly. If you need him throw somebody across
that ring, he'll throw somebody across that ring. They're both
great talents and we've seen them cross paths quite a
few times with Old with the Unified Heavyweight champ because
(25:01):
dud Powell was the one who beat Brandon Ray for
the Unified Heavyweight Champion. Brandon Ray's beat Dud Powell for
the Unified Heavyweight Championship. We just had our ten thousand
dollars Royal Challenge where you get ten thousand dollars check
and a shot at the Unified Heavyweight Championship. And now
we get to see that again because Brandon Ray won
(25:21):
that match. Now when that match is going to take place,
I have no idea, but Dud Powell Brandon Ray, I
say they are top talents right now.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
Okay, I have to keep an eye everybody that's listening,
keep an eye out because Cody says, so, all right,
that's talent right there. Let's talk a little bit more
about your podcast before we decide to before we wrap
it up. Now, what's the name of it again?
Speaker 2 (25:52):
So I've had the It used to be Mid South
Wrestling News in twenty sixteen. In twenty sixteen, I started
it up shortly after I joined NWA Mid South and
it was just something I wanted to help all Mid
South area shows help promote their product. Whether I post
(26:13):
flyers or anything like that. Well, I said here recently.
I was on Buster Ade Johnson HR Johnson's podcast earlier
this year, and after the podcast was done, me and
him was talking about it, and I was like, you know,
I think I can do this. I think I can
start up my own podcast, I said. I said, it'll
be me with what wrestling knowledge I know, but I said,
(26:36):
I also gonna have, you know, my out of ring
experience and mixed with somebody's inn ring experience. So that's
where Blaize Ray comes in. Blaize Ray, me and him
have known each other for the same amount of time
that Brandon Ray and I have known each other because
they come in together as a tag team. They were
the Ray Boys. They pretty much carried the tag team
(26:59):
division of pro wrestling at South for two years before
Blaiseray had had to get out of it for a
little bit because he was actually born club footed. His
feet were on backwards whenever he was born, so the
doctors had to break his ankles and then set his
feet back right, and his ankles have just always caused
(27:23):
them problems. But he still got out there, he wrestled,
He did what he needed to do. Stuff like that.
But it was just kind of time for him to
get his personal health correct. Get that, get that done.
But like I said, he's got the entering experience. He's
got twelve thirteen years of an entering experience. I have
(27:44):
my ten eleven years of out of ring experience. I
think I think we're we're going to set this thing off.
Our first episode is huge. It's a double guest episode.
It's going to be the Golden Boy, Greg Anthony and
Downtown Bruno.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
You can't get two better guests than that. Really, Downtown
Rule is an absolute legend in the world of professional wrestling.
He actually was just at a convention that I worked
in Massachusetts just two weeks ago. Yeah, he was there,
and what a nice guy.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
Man.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
I gotta tell you, I got a chance.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
I love him. I have him on speed dial, I'll talk.
I'll call him out of the blue and you know, hey,
you know, I'm sorry. I don't mean to bother you
or anything like it. He's like, man, you gotta you
gotta stop saying you're sorry. He said, we're friends. He said,
we're friends. He said, you ain't got to apologize. He said,
you call me anytime you need to and well we'll
(28:43):
just sit and have conversations or I'll text him wish
them half a birthday. I texted him the day that
Sid Vicious passed away, because you know that was you know,
that's who got Bruno pretty much into adob He got
him to Adobe Chance and he managed it for a
long time.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh So tell me about any events
that you guys have coming up. Obviously you have events
coming up this weekend because you guys, like I said,
regularly run Friday, Saturday and then, uh except for with
the exception of like the big events. So what do
you guys, What's what's going on? What's on the plate
this weekend?
Speaker 2 (29:22):
Well, as of right now, for Friday night, we have
a huge six man tag team elimination match. We also
have like I said, what I just what I just
said before, we have Brandon Ray versus Peyton Ayres. The
(29:43):
six man tag team match has our newly crowned Legends
Allions Champion, Rob Danger. Uh. He beat Big Cody Sawyer
last Friday night for the Legends Lions Championship. It was
kind of a kind of not going to say it,
you know, it was kind of a thing. Some thing's
goind that got out of hand. He took advantage of it. Yeah,
(30:06):
we'll go. We'll go with that. We have also have
in that match tagging with Rob Danger is gonna be
the Uber Destroyer. He's a German based gimmick. He's been
for the past two months. He goes out and he
tries to get everybody to stand for the German national anthem.
(30:29):
That's hasn't went overwhell for him lately because you know, yeah,
we're not We're out of doing that. Yeah, I don't.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
Think it would go over well.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
But yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, we so far, so far,
he hasn't gotten through the full national anthem yet. Let's
just say that. Then their Their third man in their
team is Chad Austin. It was formerly mister Mitz South
number two, and he's just he's kind of had a
change of heart. He's come out of the mask. He
(30:58):
was tagging with the Yellow Jacket for a long time.
He just picked up the Southern Junior Heavyweight Championship from
the Yellow Jacket last Saturday night, So we got to
two champions in that match. Now on the other side
of the ring, it's going to be the man who
(31:25):
I've known him for a long time. Also, it's game
time James Elliott, he's a former Legends Lions champion. Next
to him, it's gonna be Big Cody Sawyer. That's who
Robbed Danger beat for the Legend Lions Championship. And then
we also have the Yellow Jacket, who Chad Austen beat
(31:47):
for the Southern Junior Heavo Championship. So it's a lot
of back and forth there with that. Yeah, it's gonna
be a great event.
Speaker 1 (31:57):
I am familiar with a couple of those guys, Chad Austin,
and I'm familiar with the Yellowjacket. I've seen them on
Herbsimon's s i c W TV before.
Speaker 2 (32:08):
So yeah, yeah, a few of those guys. Yeah, we
also have Yeah, we also have our Mitsule Tag Team Champions,
current Metsuth Tack Team Champions, the Desirables. They're they're compacted
of a young guy, Logan Heindrix, but then he's got
the veteran of j R. Stone, who's his tag team partner.
(32:35):
I've I've known j R. Stone for a while working
with Pro Wrestling Mid South. I've loaned I've known Logan
Hendrix for a short bit. And let's just at end
to day, they'll do whatever they have to do to
keep the midsuth Tack Team championships. I don't agree with
the way they do things because that I don't like
(32:57):
cheating and I always try to do right by the people,
and it's just, you know, I gotta deal with him
because they're the champions.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
Yeah, yep, all right, all right? How could people get
in touch with you? Cody?
Speaker 2 (33:13):
Facebook? Cody Bowers uh Mid South Wrestling Center Facebook page.
We also have YouTube channel Mid South Restling Center. We
have an Instagram Mit Southwestern Center. I don't I personally
have an Instagram, but I don't use it, so Facebook
(33:33):
is always going to be the best place to reach me.
Speaker 1 (33:39):
Okay, all right, Cody, I want to thank you for
coming on. I want everybody to go subscribe to the
YouTube channel because, uh, you know, you're gonna get some
really good wrestling content talking about the Mid South area
and because there's a lot of quality wrestling down there.
So it's you know, I want everybody to go down there. Cody.
I want to say thank you for joining
Speaker 2 (33:58):
Meppreciate you, thank you,
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