Ep. 433: The Complete Hulk Hogan | Alabama (Part 2)

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So what is the deal with this territory? How did
to say the least right, I would like to know
what the deal is with this territory for sure. How
did Terry Boulder discoverer Ron Fuller and Company come into ownership? Well,
in fall of nineteen seventy four, as Ron stud talked

(00:20):
about in that clip, he left the Florida territory and
bought in to Knoxville which was on the market. He
was only twenty six at the time. Knoxville County and no, no,
that would be Knox County, Oh, Knox County. Sorry, be
a much different racket for another pro wrestler. But coming
from the family, he thought he could own a territory
at just twenty six years old. I mean, think about that,
he's buying that's insane. He admits he knew nothing about

(00:43):
owning a business at the time and he was kind
of struggling up until seventy four. There was a promoter
by the name of John Cazanna who would run the
office in Knoxville, and he had an alliance with Nick Gulis,
who was sort of the predecessor promoter in Memphis to
Jerry Jarrett and had a tremendous reputation for under paying.
I say tremendous with tongue from your cheek. Yes, And

(01:04):
when he decided to sell the territory, Fuller stepped in
and brought his own talent aboard. At the same time,
a promoter by the name of Lee Fields was looking
to sell his Gulf Coast Championship Wrestling in Alabama and
the Florida Panhandle, and so Fuller purchased that territory as well,
and all of a sudden, what we consider Southeastern were
two separate territories but owned by the same wet behind

(01:26):
the ears, but bright eyed and entrepreneurial pro wrestler, Ron Fuller.
And so that's absurd, yes, And there was no overlap
in terms of like the TV. So you're running two
separate circuits with different storylines, with different talent, shooting different interviews,
two brands. I understand that he started that, shitten, I
understand that. I appreciate that. I exploit that, right. I'm

(01:50):
a brand exploitationist. So just you wait, there's gonna be
a ton coming down the pike for you to exploit.
Vince here on the complete hull of cogin femininit well
exploitation of the loins of individuals. Exploitation of the lowins
is a shirt. What does the east stand for? After all?
In w worldwide exploitations? You kids, stop brings worldwide exploitation. Yeah, well,

(02:18):
I like to definitely add of the loins, so we
know exactly what our prime focal point is loinage, right
and so right before buying the territory, Jerry Jarrett in
early seventies taken over Memphis, taking the reins from Goole
lissen Herb Welch, who was obviously I think a grandfather
to Ron Fuller or a great uncle or something like that.

(02:39):
And that territory covered Louisville and Evanston and Lexington as well.
Could he not decide what do you mean whether he
was a grandfather or an uncle. I just didn't care
to look it up. Oh okay, yeah, no, I wasn't
putting those words in his mouth. Certainly he knows all
the Welches are related. That's all you have to know.
Great Rawberry, BlackBerry. They were nowhere nearest prominent though, as

(03:02):
the Nebraska area promoters, the Smuckers and that sound like
a wrestling promoter, Na Herbs Smucker or Gerald Smucker. Jerald
Smucker was not paying talent on the up and up.
Jerald Smucker was skimming off the gate. Okay, nor was

(03:22):
his product. Product was also not.

Speaker 2 (03:24):
On the up and up.

Speaker 1 (03:26):
So Jerry Jaredson controls. You got two really young promoters
who were from wrestling families, who were young in the
business in terms of even wrestling themselves, starting on the
administrative side, running things, booking talent, and look being plugged
into pop culture. You'd have to think more than you know,
the forty and fifty year old promoters were. It makes
some sense that someone as young as Ryan relatively speaking,

(03:47):
would be under what would be hip to the fact that,
you know, Incredible Hulk is one of the hottest things
on television for instance. I'd like to think that makes sense.
And so yeah, I can't imagine the older guys watching
that kind of stuff. In a case it becomes relevant.
Don't forget. Jerry Jarrett's territory as he took over also
included Louisville, Kentucky, Evansville, Indiana, and Lexington, Kentucky. And in

(04:08):
nineteen seventy seven, Jerry Jarrett, of course, the father of
Jeff Jarrett, went into business for himself and took the
northern loop of what was considered the Memphis territory from
Nicholas and Roy Welch. And so one day Ron Fuller
gets a call from Jerry Jarrett. He was similar in
terms of being a young motor and also kind of
struggling to get his footing early in a territory that look,
it was for sale for a reason, right, and he

(04:29):
was able to buy it because it wasn't doing that well.
And Jerry Jarrett said to Ron Fuller, come to Memphis.
We're gonna put the belt on you. You could work Memphis,
only not a whole territory. This is, of course, before
Ron bought his own territory, to be clear, But this
establishes the relationship between Jerry Jarrett and Ron Fuller because
Jerry got started a little bit earlier in terms of
ownership than Ron.

Speaker 2 (04:49):
And so.

Speaker 1 (04:51):
How much Ron asks thousand dollars every Memphis show plus
plane on airfare, So much for guaranteed money not existing
to the Monday Night Wars. Yeah, right, guaranteed money has
always existed in Now The question is how many dates
did he actually work? I didn't count them all, but
quite a bit he had a okay, had a several
year run, Yeah for sure, because you know, one thousand

(05:11):
dollars a shot sounds great until you're only working one
shot a year. Well on a thousand dollars a shot sounds
great until you're Rick Flair and the fucking ICU. So
you know, Ron Fuller's thinking ahead. He's like, you know,
it won't hurt if I have promotional aspirations in my
own right to create a relationship with this guy who's

(05:31):
also running a territory and we could share talent, and
Memphis had great talent as far as Ron Fuller was
concerned at the time. So generally twenty second nineteen seventy
nine the onset of the year of Terry Bolea arriving
in this territory. But you know, a couple of months
before he showed up, he showed up in March was
the first night that Rob Fuller, the brother of Ron Fuller,
Colonel Robert Parker ended up in Memphis as part of

(05:53):
this exchange that's going on, and a lot of the
guys ended up going there from the Southeast territory, and
suddenly there was this very clear linkage thanks to the
alliance between Ron Fuller, Rob Fuller and Jerry Jarrett and
of course Jerry Lawler as well, who was Jerry Jared's
business partner, sharing a lot of talent between Memphis and
Southeast Gulf Coast, a lot of groups of guys going
back and forth to help each other out. Sure, Ron

(06:15):
Fuller counted as many as seven Southeastern stars on one
of the first cards of nineteen seventy nine in Memphis,
and Rob brought in for a second there, I thought
you said that Rob Fuller counted as was counted as
seven talent or something. That's seven grand right, that's right.
Sounds like I'll tell you I could be seven people

(06:36):
watch put enough looking simon, Oh my god, you know
that's what I do. That turns out to just be
him doing you know, the Colonel Parker from Elvis Days,
not how they sound at all, which is tremendous stuff.
So February there was a coward. That's the only way
he sounds. No, of course, well laps fans know this

(06:59):
laps fans of okay on that, yes, right, that's very true.
February of seventy nine there was a Memphis card with
eleven stars from Ron Fuller Southeastern territory. March twenty six
of that year, there were eight Southeastern stars on the card,
and by March twenty oh, here we're talking about five
stars being the limit. No, I know, well, no, we're
breaking the scale here. This is Ocada Omega. This is

(07:19):
the Ocada Omega of stars being shared in nineteen seventy
nine between Memphis and Southeastern as that were oh good.
By March twenty six of that year, just two months
after those first departures from Southeastern to Memphis began, there
are a total of ten wrestlers, including Ron Fuller's brother,
Robert the Booker, as well as wrestler there permanently in Memphis,

(07:40):
or at least, you know, without a definitive end date.
And I mean it's kind of tough because the way
Ron Fuller puts it on his podcast is not really
like he had a whole hell of a lot of
choice in how many or who he lost. It seemed
to be like shortly after kind of working this out,
he kind of lost control of Memphis, ability to call
on people. And he considers that these wrestlers that went

(08:02):
to Memphis is kind of losses for him, losing eight
of what he considered his top guys in two months
because you know, Memphis was hurting and part of the
reason they you know, his brother is up there booking.
He wants to help his brother, so he sends him
Mongolian Stomper, he sends him Toro Tanaka. Yes, that Toro Tanaka.
He said, wow, Don Carson, Tony Charles, Jimmy Golden, the Future,
Bunk house Buck, the Assassin, Randy Colly, buzz Sawyer of course,

(08:25):
an absolute legend in the making. Who you know, petered
out as a star of the drug problems, uh account
by the name of Gorgeous George Junior. No relation to
the original Gorgeous George, of course, I'm sorry. What no
relation to the w CW Gorgeous George either, I'm I'm sorry.
Somebody actually had the balls to book a gorgeous George Junior.

Speaker 3 (08:46):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 1 (08:47):
He was a pretty overheel in that part of the country.
Oh yeah, all right, yep, I'm not saying it was here.
This was the great Shikes, but oh yeah, the mainstay
heel look kind of looked like him, you know, kind
of had the blonde locks and everything. Mike Stallings, Rip
Smith and his and his brother Rob did he look
like the one in uh In Uh Maestro Uh. Now
the the fucking off of that awful movie, the one

(09:09):
we just saw the woman wrestler, Queen of the Ring.
They play back gorgeous George. Probably it's probably closer, right, Yeah,
probably right. I mean not only towards Naka Boss. Mister
Fuji was in Southeastern Coast when Hogan was. So he's
running in Owens, He's running into everyone that would form
kind of the heart of the mid to late seventies

(09:29):
w WWF territory, kind of like the last years of
Vince Senior's rule, and so crowds are dropping dramatically to
hear Ron Fuller tell it, in his territory after sending
all of that star power up to Memphis to help out.
And in Memphis, according to Ron, of course, was was
doing quite well and so a drastic jump with a
lot of these guys coming up there. You also have
Jerry Lawler and Buildundi in the territory, and he remembers

(09:53):
talking to his brother Rob a heck of a lot
during this whole time frame. You know, one of the
houses house business. It's so refreshing to hear the guy
talk about like attendance and keeping particular notes on gate.
It's like sometimes we as wrestling fans think like, why
do we talk about numbers. Why don't we talk about ratings,
Why do we talk about money? Why do we care
about gates? And it's like, because the people who run

(10:14):
the business cared about nothing else besides what they could
pencil in their little books. Because because I'll tell you
what that what that means to me, that that dictates
something because what it always numbers are so fucking important
because what they do is they tell you what was
actually working right and what wasn't working at the time
in the business where you had no choice right to

(10:36):
lean into what was working. You couldn't pretend that something
was working that wasn't because the money was guaranteed, right,
I mean, and even then, I mean it's like, you know, right,
but the still even even without the you know, the
the financial part of it, but looking at the numbers,
like looking at who's watching it, it's like you also know, yes, okay, obviously,

(10:56):
like now you get guaranteed money through all these different
these different uh pay yours for WWE. But it's like
who's watching it and you watch you hear about the
dwindling audiences on Netflix and whatever, and it's like that
that that matters, and it matters here too, like it
the money matters, but also who's coming to see your shows?

(11:18):
How many people are seeing your shows? Is the audience full?
Is it half full? Is nobody there? These are all
incredibly important things, so we can know exactly what was
working when and at what time and where. I find
it fascinating. Anyone who does it's a fucking idiot. Well,
I mean it's almost like even if you try to

(11:38):
enjoy wrestling without any of that context, you're going to
be so frustrated because you're not going to understand why
things happen the way they happen. You can enjoy wrestling
without without with you know, it's all the people in
these tickets like it. You can enjoy it without knowing
the numbers. You can enjoy with knowing the numbers. But
as as a as as someone who wants to understand
it on a deeper level than just watching the correct

(12:02):
the matches and the stories and whatever, you have to
this is this is this is the business. I've always said, like,
this is it. They have they becount their lucky start
that you complain about the Internet fans and at rest
of they think they're fucking God above that. Wrestling fans
get this interested in how it really works behind the scenes,
because if they did exactly, they would be done by
the time they're twelve years old, because they're not fucking

(12:24):
you know, they're not impressionable children with even underdeveloped prefrontal cortex.
It's going to be interesting to see, you know, our
generation's kids, you know, because like, what's going to happen,
are you know, our generation and and the those born
you know, probably in two thousand, yes, you know, after

(12:44):
these after these generations die off, after we die off,
what's going to be the fate of the business, Given
that our kids are the ones who watched it for
five seconds and then quit and got enough of it,
and we're like, I'm done, I don't want to watch
it ever again. Who knows how many how many kids
are getting hooked these days? Well, here's the thing. You

(13:07):
can't get hooked these days without also, I don't think
becoming aware of all of the business industry information. Right,
it was the last generation that could enjoy a distance
from that. We had to seek it out. It didn't
smack us in the face because we followed ww on
Twitter and then it's over. Exactly. That's what. You're absolutely
bombarded with content farming around like this kind of stuff.
And I guess my whole point is this is not

(13:27):
some new school like nerd modern fan obsession. What we do.
This is actually the most time hotter tradition in the
business of boiling it all down to the house.

Speaker 2 (13:34):
Now.

Speaker 1 (13:35):
The difference, of course at the time is for Ron Fuller,
he's playing the same buildings every week, pretty much the
same day every week, and he's working to the same audience.
He's broadcasting his television in the same way. And you
can tell when you have that kind of format who
is drawing and who is it. There's no fucking argument,
of course, you know, and you're talking seven eight thousand
seat buildings, four thousand seat buildings. Someone who you know

(13:56):
does two thousand more people than the last week is
a fucking superhero to you a fuck exactly. He You
don't have to fill stadiums, okay, but when Terry Boulder
comes along all of a sudden for the first time
in the history of this promotion, you better believe their
book in a football stadium for the Harley Race match,
which we're gonna get to. Wow, but was it a
high school football stadium?

Speaker 4 (14:15):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (14:15):
It was all right, there we go. Yeah, they didn't
exactly have a pro college football stadium in Dothan. So
Dothan sounds like a character in fucking ten Commandments. I
gotta go now by the time I'm done with this,
I gotta go to Dothan. So tell me what the
best restaurant is. I'm coming. I want the best ribs.
I'm gonna I'm gonnay. It's probably one of those gas

(14:37):
station restaurant. Yeah, low and slow exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Like
the guy's name is like Smiley or something that just
he doesn't have a name, He just has a nickname,
right right, smiles barbecue. Right. So Ron Floorer says, you know,
I felt young and dumb and I thought I was
bulletproof until the business rolled over on me. And so
you have Southeastern Knoxville and Southeastern Gulf Coast running at
the same time. Rolling Brother get that. Well, he needs

(15:00):
a booker for Knoxville because he's spending most of his
time in and round Dothan, where that first acquisition of
his was based. And so he needs a booker for Knoxville,
so he taps who Bob Roup. Bob Roup, of course,
of course I'm gonna know very well kind of the
enforcer policeman in the championshiprest from Florida Territory when Eddie
Graham was running the show and someone that hul Kegan
became acquainted with not only playing a raw rold band

(15:22):
at the Imperial Room, but once he's got into the
Sportatorium and started learning the ropes after they hear Matsud initiation,
he did work out a bit with Bob Roup and
got to know Bob well, and Bob got to know
him about well, but got to know him, and all
of a sudden, Bob Rup has got the book in
the territory that Terry Boullay is heading for. This is
in seventy eight, the year before Bolly arrived in this
part of the country. Bob Rroup got the book in
Knoxville to help out Ron Fuller. And this will be

(15:43):
extremely important later because Bob Roup is going to be
the guy that I I don't think it's uncharitable about
it this way, that's going to try to fuck Ron
Fuller in the ass and take it all from him
take it off. Yes, Bob Roup wants ownership, baby, but
Ron Fuller didn't know. Why shouldn't is before why shouldn't
he exactly because this is the wrestling business. But Ron

(16:05):
Fuller did not know and found out later, is that
Bob Group came to him after being essentially banished from
San Francisco where he tried to take over the existing
territory and we'll pull the rug out from under the
existing promoter's feet as well a power play to try
to take over the city and have it all to himself.
So there's a lot of money there if you can
pull it off, you know. So that's Ron's next. But

(16:26):
he knew Ron Fuller from Florida. Did Bob Roup when
Ron Fuller was working there in the early seventies, Freddy Graham.
They knew each other well and worked together and he
fell to good trust him and he felt like, you know,
he was a guy that knew the business well enough
to book the territory down the Gulf Coast. He picked,
of course Louis Tillett, who we've already talked about to
book that part of the territory. You know that in
did you know that in November in Dothan. They have

(16:48):
an annual National Peanut Festivals. So what you're saying is
I'm gonna go in November. Fucking right. And also, oh
they are also home here we go. You know we're
talking about it. How about this. Dothan is also home
to two professional barbecue competition I knew it. So what

(17:09):
are the state tri State Barbecue Festivals held in the
second weekend in April and is sanctioned by the Florida
Barbeq Association. There is a Florida Barbecue, the fbbb A,
the Oklahoma BBA sponsors j R. And then there is
the where's the other one? The oh, oh my god,

(17:33):
oh god almighty. In October they have porktober Q, october
Fest and october Fest and Kansas City Barbecue Society sanctioned event.
There is a Kansas City Barbecue Society. No funk that

(17:57):
I'm going to the Dothan barbecue event in Kansas City.
I'm not going to the Kansas City want to go?
I wonder Harley Race was involved? Yeah, right, exactly. Wow.
Bob Armstrong, of course was a centerpiece star in that
part of the country. But by the time Ron Fuller
took the book. As he said in his podcast, Bob Armstrong,
he wasn't a big fan of him. Well, Bob Armstrong

(18:19):
wasn't a big fan of the selection of Bob Roup
in particular to book the Knoxville part of the territory,
and wasn't not the only one, according to Ron Fuller,
so Ron's kind of laying the groundwork for Bob Roup
to be the ultimate snake in this whole scenario. They
were dealing with some small houses in Knoxville, according to Ron,
and he started to feel after a while that Bob
Roup was intentionally booking weak cards. Almost the kind of

(18:40):
thing you do to be able to build a case
to the boys that you know how to fucking ditch
this guy. I don't know, just I don't know this
guy's not doing you know, wait, wh they're trying to
kick who out Bob Rupert Ron Fuller, because I don't
know this guy, this Fuller guy, I'll tell you what,
he's full of shit, he ask me. I finished that. Yeah,

(19:03):
and here's too, ye. I'm gonna kick this guy on
the curb and then stomp his brains out because looks
filling shit. It was extremely simple, say what you will
about guaranteed payoffs. Percentage of the house went to the talent.
That's how it worked. So if you did ten thousand
dollars at the gate, twenty percent of that was split

(19:23):
amongst the boys, and everyone had their little games they
played to get a bigger cut. Of course, the main
event got the most. If the house was thirty thousand dollars,
everyone made three times the ten thousand. It was really,
like so easy to manipulate the situation because if you
booked cards to not do well, then the pie that
the talent got for payoffs was shrunk, and they're and
they're taking home less money, and pretty soon they're grumbling,

(19:45):
and pretty soon someone's got the bright idea of what
we could run this whole thing better than this absentee landlord. Motherfucker. Right,
And that's how you that's how you stage a coup
in the wrestling business, of course, and wrestler payoffs were
going down, according to Ron, And and there came a
point Bob Rupe stood up and said, you know what,
someone's stealing box office receipts. I know somebody that's your
sort of a I don't know you're Emissary Ron Fuller

(20:07):
that's down here. You know, the fucking Arnold Scoland or
whatever whoever you got handling the gate receipts. They should
be a lot higher than what we're being told they were.
And let the games begin, Let the games be so again.
I love I love that. It's so absolutely love that
best part of wrestling to me is the games these

(20:29):
guys play when they try to put on a suit
and tie and be real human beings as opposed well, right,
and it's like, it's this, it's this, it's this constant
I'm always fascinated with, Like I always want to know
where that where's the threshold? Right where what is the
point where Bob Rup who comes in and is doing
his job, he decides, you know what, I can do

(20:51):
this better than he can. And I'm gonna fucking do
it better than he can. So I'm gonna stab this
motherfucker in the back and the territory. So no matter
what happens, you're going to build the case that you
can do it better and that this guy's looking up.
You have no chance if you run full or to
satisfy this guy, I know, And that's why I'm like,
it's just it's amazing it's an amazing thing. And I
want to know where that ultimate decision is made. Right,

(21:13):
where's that decision made? When did Rupe say, you know what,
this is going to be mine and I'm going to
take it. They know, they know pretext well in the
wrestling business. Yeah, so yeah, indeed, so punk Rock. Wayne
Ferris comes in for Louis to Lette. He brings in
David Schultz was that was already there and some reflections here.
Uh this is from doctor D's book, Don't call Me Fake, which,

(21:37):
of course, uh well why not, right, I mean, so
John Stossel, could you're not you're not You're not a doctor.
I know exactly, don't call me a fake doctor. But
he remembered, you know, he remembered Sterling Golden. He wrote
in his book Sterling Golden was a six five musician,
a giant of a man with a long blonde hair
and a handlebar mustache who had a great physique and

(21:58):
a lot of potential. Sterling was spot by some of
the boys playing bass in a bar band, and they
invited him to give wrestling a try. On his first
day of training, Hero Matsuda snapped his leg, broke it
and told him if he still wanted to be a wrestler,
to go home, heal it up and come back. God,
we got to really fill space in your book with
Hulk Hogan story, Like how many people have done this?

Speaker 3 (22:14):
Well?

Speaker 1 (22:15):
You got to know that half of his book are
stories of him being a bounty hunter and how he
almost got a television series out of it. And he's
telling like a bunch of stories way after his wrestling
career is over about chasing down criminals. And it's colorful stuff,
but it's a classic, like people are going to care
about more than what I did in pro wrestling bullshit.

Speaker 3 (22:32):
You know.

Speaker 1 (22:33):
So on his first day of training Gay he goes
over it all. That's kind of a different that's kind
of a different take on it. This idea that he
told he told him to come back and start over,
and you know that Matsuita just told him go home
and heal up. That was a that's a little part
of it that you never hear from anybody else, right,
that Mairo told him that, uh, we'll look forward to

(22:55):
seeing you again. I thought the whole point of breaking
the poor guy's leg was they wanted him out of there. Uh,
but a little pat on the back, according to Dave Schultz,
as we continue that fucking rasham on that story. Oh
it really, I mean it's seriously, that is it is
a ramon. I mean honestly, it's like, honestly for this,
I know, seriously, just for all this bullshit, multiple perspectives,

(23:18):
multiple truths. That's right. Sterling was determined to succeed Schultz. Right,
and he came back and started a push brother. Maybe.
I mean, that's not too far from Matt Suita, right.
Sterling and I connected the day we met Schultz right,
and we became the best of friends. We had a
lot in common, and his iron sharpens iron. We brought
out the best in each other. He taught me a
great deal about working out. We sure did, and the

(23:41):
two of us pushed each other to become better. He
stayed in our home when he needed a place to crash.
He became a close friend of the family. He was
over at the house all the time. My daughter Jessica
adored him and loved to hear him play the guitar.
I want you to picture Terry Blea looking like he
did in seventy nine playing guitar for David Schultz's little daughter.
In Alabama. I can't I fucking cannot have and all that.
The picture in his book two of him with David

(24:02):
Schult's daughter, it's just to imagine Hulk being this kind
of couch surfing yep, you know, like nobody you know,
to David Schultz is tremendous. I want to savor the
I want to savor every little morsel we get of
Terry Boleya before he's whole coast. I mean, I honestly,
this is like, these are the last little morsels of

(24:23):
him being a human being, absolutely right. This is the
last morsels of him having to win people over, instead
of everyone trying to win him over.

Speaker 3 (24:30):
M hm.

Speaker 1 (24:33):
We said, what, no one's winning those going over, brother,
I'm going over. That's true. No one whatever win over him,
not at all. We said goodbye. Schultz writes to Sterling Golden,
when my time was up in Florida. Uh, he means
by Florida, the Pensacola part of Gulf Coast. I packed
the family up to head north of the border to Canada. Sterling, Yeah,

(24:53):
he went to work for for Stu Hart. After this,
did David Schultz. And Brett Hart loves David Schultz because
of that love was the guy and in fact, when
so weird, the vice guys, the dark side guys, details
from the territories. There was a lot of back and
forth about like who makes sense for Stampede it's still
alive and because it was such, it was a territory
with so many guys that had passed on and Dave

(25:16):
Schultz Brett Hart's gonna love having Dave Schultz there, and
that's crazy. He was the last guy you'd expect because
he has nothing Canadian about him, but he had great
stories from from being out there Tennessee boy right in
the in the the western Canadian winters. Bizarre. He said
goodbye is Sterling Golden. When my family my time was

(25:37):
up in Florida, I packed the family up to head
north of the border to Canada. Stirling would be moving
on himself to better opportunities. Our paths would converge again
in Minnesota and the two of us would battle our
way to the very top of the business. But that's
still to come, isn't it? On the complete hol of Cogan,
Oh yes it is. And wait to get to many
so Billy Spears, Billy Spears, who the answer to the

(26:04):
trivia question, who was Terry Blays first ever manager in
pro wrestling. Wow. Billy Spears is the heel manager with
the family stable that every territory had, be it a
Jimmy Hart's family, Bobby Heenan's family, Loue Albano's family, Every

(26:24):
territory had a version of this for the most part.
Kevin Sullivan had his tribe of He was a wrestler too,
who not quite an exclusively manager, but had his tribe
of weirdos following him around and to the Southeastern Gulf
Coast territory and nowhere else. Far as I can tell,
Billy Spears was that shit talking, power grabbing, muney grubbing

(26:46):
heel manager. He was the guy you put with your
next big superheel threat to talk for him. And there's
almost nothing that survives on this guy as far as videotape,
because he really didn't, as far as I can tell,
spread his wings at all past This territory, which is
we've discussed already, was very limited in its exposure and
definitely limited in terms of how much tape survives, So

(27:07):
I can't give you a great kind of flavor or
sense or feeling on like how Billy Spears was as
a performer or or what it is he how he
came across, like what his essence was. I can't tell
if he was more Heenan than he was I don't know, heart,
or if he was more jeez, I don't know. I mean,
you go down the list you talk about like RedBerry

(27:29):
and some of these other managers. Just I'm just looking
at pictures of him right now, and it's like in
in one picture he looks like Nick Bockwinkle. In another
picture he looks like fucking looks a little bit of
like Pat Patterson. Huh. And another one I can't he
looks like he's got the face from from No Mercy,

(27:51):
like a face that was like copied and pasted for
No Mercy. Like he's got like it's very interesting, Like
I don't know, like, yeah, this guy's fascinating just to
look out and heard of him, but he's fascinating to
look at it. If you've ever heard of him and
you didn't grow up watching wrestling in this part of
the country, it's probably because when the footage did surface
of Hulk Hogan having the arm wrestling contest with Andre

(28:12):
the Giant in Gulf coast and attacking him with the
table afterwards and really shooting the first angle ever between
these two. There's a guy with a top hat down
on the floor at ringside barking orders to Terry the
up Boulder. That's wow, Billy Spears. And you hear a
TV commentator Tarvelie Platt make reference to Billy Spears and
just listening to studcasts, this guy was all over the place.

(28:34):
I mean, Billy Spears was like the heart of the
television like he'd come over to the announced position, the
Gordon Solely position and just run his mouth love it.
He was like a Jim Cornette. He was a MoMA's boy.
He always used to talk about his mama and how
his mama was unhappy and how he you know, he
longed for his mama. So they played that up big
time too. So he had a lot of Cornette in him.
It sounds like, wouldn't surprise me if Cornett even took

(28:55):
a little bit from some of the things that he
would say and riff about. So Billy Spears is is
the guy that would manage Terry the Hulk Boulder and
bring him into the foreground. Now it's interesting, and we'll
get to this as we go to hear Ron Fuller talent,
even though to me there's a noticeable dearth of actual
published information that shows Terry Bolea being called Sterling Golden

(29:18):
in Gulf Coast as opposed to Yeah before he goes
to Georgia later that year. According to Ron Fuller, the
big thing was that Billy Spears on television always wanted
to call Terry Sterling Golden, and he got sick of
that name, but Billy Spears refused to stop calling him that,
and he'd say, no, I'm Terry the Hulk Boulder, I'm
Terry the Hupe Boulder, and that actually led, according to

(29:39):
Ron Fuller's recollection, that actually led to Terry's face turn
because he got so fed up with his heel manager
Billy Spears not using the proper name for him, that
he freaked out on him and basically turned on him.
So that's going to be a really curious thing to me,
because whenever other people talk about it, including Hulk himself,
he never seems to talk about being Sterling Golden, and
certainly the hype limited footage that exists from Terry in

(30:02):
this part of the country, he's not called Stirling Golden
at all. He's always called Terry the Holpe Boulder. Did
you find the match between Dick Slater and Billy Spears
the match? No, I didn't know. I just found working
at them on YouTube. Yep, okay, good to check that one.
Check that one out. I was looking for promos. I'm
gonna get an idea of his voice. Oh sure, sure,
for sure. That was very limited. This is what I

(30:22):
could find And this isn't this seems to be If
I was reading the context right, it seems like Billy
Spears had actually turned face here, so he's not doing
the whole cowardly heel stick. But this is at least
what he sounded like.

Speaker 5 (30:34):
Welcome to personality, bay Wow, I said, But the Vistern
Television Wrestling my guest today Billy Spears and the members
of his family of the Salviason Tag being champions, the
Alabama State Heavyweights champions, and once we're going to be
This thing is in partially an interative. It took place,
It's started here on television last weeks. Mister Spears, Tommy

(30:55):
Gilbert was injured at the hands of the rat Are
so trying to protect you through Frank rib Yeah, we're
trying to protect made you see, y'all saw what happened
last week there on TV.

Speaker 3 (31:05):
You know why Tommy Gilwer did what he did. My
mother is really grateful for Tommy to do what he did. Man,
he went out there and saved me.

Speaker 5 (31:12):
If I'm possible, it's mendous injury and then return.

Speaker 3 (31:16):
And he was the one that got injured.

Speaker 1 (31:19):
See, he's grateful. And then they watched the footage and
he's not really calling anybody names or anything. So he
was kind of died enough in the wold that he
eventually apparently turned babyface. But that's kind of what he
sounded like. And that was the voice track to the
whole Billy Spears part of the show. And what they
would do, and this is just so great. You know,
you'd have the studio show that would broadcast out live

(31:40):
on a Saturday, I think it was in the afternoon
or late afternoon, and they'd push tonight's show wherever it
was right and the different markets might get a different
style television show based on what town they were in
that night, and you would go to the matches as
soon as the TV was over, and so they're pushing
and what they would do is they'd film the matches
with like one hardcam and then the next week every
territory did this for the most part. Then the next
week you go over and visit with Charlie Platt at

(32:02):
the desk and they sit there and they watch the
footage of what happened last week at the arena. So
you felt like you missed out on something, but you
only got clips of it. You never saw the whole
thing almost never. And next time, if you want to
feel that in person excitement as opposed to the studio excitement,
you better buy a ticket. That was kind of I
think the feeling that would wash over viewers of wrestling

(32:24):
such as it was constituted at the time, particularly this territory.
So yeah, they would sit at the desk and review
the footage, and so you can imagine how agonizing it
is boss to hear Ron Fuller describe the amount of
times and Terry Boulder and Billy Spears went to the
desk to rewatch what happened last time we were in
the arena with Hulk in the ring, wrestling guys like

(32:45):
Ox Baker, Austin Eidel, Harley Race, Andre the Giant, and
we don't get to see it. Where's the footage? Where's
the footage? Ron, the homie Matt put it. Well, oh
that's all really nice.

Speaker 3 (32:58):
Ron.

Speaker 1 (32:59):
Where's the footage?

Speaker 3 (33:01):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (33:02):
Why can't I see it? You don't deserve where's the footage?
You don't deserve it, except that there's no fan in
the audience that brought a camera like like happened in Charlotte,
that miraculous discovery of all that seventy stuff. Oh my god,
that the Middletlantic documentary makers found. Come on, folks, this

(33:23):
is hulk Hogan. No, where's the footage? Nope? None, there
was why boss?

Speaker 3 (33:32):
It was on TV.

Speaker 1 (33:34):
It wasn't. No, it wasn't it was live. It was live.
No one taped anything. That's the problem. That's true. No
one did. I mean, yeah, I don't know. If I'm
going to take a guess of which state got VCR's last,
as far as like most households, it's probably Alabama, Mississippi, Okay,
that that part of the country. Yeah, I would imagine
they were the last to be clued in on VCRs.

(33:57):
I mean, a lot of the Georgia survives not only
because a TBS product, and TBS was actually you know,
a substantial satellite based cable innovating operation. But also because
everyone got TBS, it beamed out to anyone who had cable,
And yes, they're gonna be crs. But when you're talking
three cities in Alabama saw this television show. I mean,
it would be one thing if there was none. But

(34:17):
we have the Hogan Andre fight, we have a Hogan
squash match. Where's the footage? Where did that come from?
And why isn't there more from wherever that came from?
Why would that be the only thing that survived? It's
it's it's all phony. I mean, do we have to
go and knock on the door of whatever TV studio
they used to shoot this in in Dothan or Web, Alabama?

(34:39):
Do we have to go visit them and say, show
me your archives and show me where to put a
number on a blank check?

Speaker 6 (34:47):
What?

Speaker 1 (34:48):
What do you wrestling? Another Jim Crock moment. I know,
I don't think we ever did the wrestling in here.
I think you might have a wrong station that's up
in New York, isn't it. It's like when we went
into brookefield House or Allow. This used to be a
really historic wrestling building and the women running a fucking
stamp collection show, damn. Whatever it was. It was like,

(35:09):
you know, this is okay, okay, you know that we're
we're selling something else. It was like some weird sticker thing.
A lot a lot of women, a lot of old
women with turtlenecks enter their sweaters. Okay, oh yes shirts,
I should say, yes very much. And they're like, okay,

(35:32):
so you think I give a fuck that they used
to have pro wrestling here in the seventies. Well maybe
they did, but they don't anymore. A reality check that was, man,
thank god for that. We're going to pay admission and
walk around. We're not going to buy know my god, No,
We're going to pay a mission and just walk around
the exactly see if we can find ship that like

(35:53):
you know that that that that maybe the entryway where
the wrestlers came. It was a swinging to miss like
calhoon right there. Yes, we had to pay for it,
so that's Billy Spears. He had tremendous We paid for it.
So you know, let's get a taste. Go go to
your Alabama folder boss and actually jump forward if you

(36:15):
could to nineteen seventy nine. April twelfth is the clipping.
This is also from the News Herald in Panama City, Florida.
And thank god for the News Harold. As far as
like the heart of the cities that they were in,
there is not a lot of newspaper. Fuck is that?
Oh my god? Looks he kind of looks like Jimmy
Valley in a little bit, he does. I mean, he

(36:36):
kind of looks like Hogan in a way. He does
big top hat, you know. Yeah, he looks like he
could have been Hogan's manager in Rocky three. This is April.
This is like three weeks after he arrives. And this
is how they're they're framing Billy Spears new Monster to
the readers of the of the News Herald in Panama City, Florida.

(36:56):
Hulk teams with Gladiator, two rough husky wrestlers. We'll try
to batter up battle batter a pair of chicken thighs
local favors into submission in my main event. Now what
chicken thighs our local favorites down there? I can confirm.
There we go, There we go. All right. I'm sure
they love him battered as well in a submission in

(37:19):
the main event of tonight's professional wrestling card. At Bowl
Air Wrestling Arena. The Hulk, who weighs three hundred and
sevens like Andre Wayne eight seventy I know Jesus Christ
three hundred and seventy five pounds and he's seven feet tall.
No wonder he fucking developed the uh oh, my god condition,

(37:42):
the mania that he has. We'll team up with the
Masked Gladiator and a tag team scrap against Ron Fuller
and roy Lee Welch. Fuller has proved he can wrestle
either clean or rough, and we'll get a chance to
prove it tonight. Another main event the equal equally rough
David doctor Schultz. Yeah, doctor D, Doctor Schultz, Doctor D

(38:10):
doctor Shult. Doctor Schultz sounds like uh, I mean that
sounds like my pediatrician somewhere it does. Yeah. We'll go
against Norvell Austin, who has become a fan favorite with
local with Loca fans. Billy Spears will manage the Gladiator
and the Hulk in their battle and will also be
on well. Owls be on hand to give advice to Schultz.

(38:33):
There will be three other matches on the card starting
at eight pm, so there and then mad As results
from April eighteens right next to it, Yes, Gladiator Hawk win.
The Hawk and the Gladiator won their tag team match.
The Hawk, by the way, called the Hawk Hawk, not
the Hawk? The Hawk? Who who wrestled the Gladiator? The Hawk?

(38:54):
The Hawk? Who the fuck is the Hawk?

Speaker 7 (38:57):
What?

Speaker 1 (38:59):
All right? Find the Hawk? Love it man? The Hawk?
About the animal exactly? What about the draws? Well, I
guess they did draw. The Hawk and the Gladiator won
their tag team wrestling battle with Roy Lee Welch and
Ron Fuller at the Bowl There Wrestling Arena, despite the

(39:19):
Hawk being battered all over the place. Brother, right, why
don't you snelders? Well, I'm listening to not so. I
said I'd come out there and wrestle. I'm sound get
beer battered. It's like it is the Alabama version of
Tartan feathered get battered. Many fans claimed that Billy Spears,

(39:42):
manager of the Hawk and Gladiator, gave illegal aid. So, yeah,
did so? Yeah, Hulk was dealing Billy Spears was the
legal aid?

Speaker 3 (39:58):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (39:58):
Okay, I'm the right. Norville Austin beat David Doctor d
Schultz and a chicken wire match. The ring was enclosed
with wire so neither wrestler could get out. The wrestling
Pro Austin and others will be featured in a five
match card next Thursday night at Bowl Air Wrestling Arena.

(40:18):
I mean excitement all around. I have to say, unbelievable.
Let's get a further taste if you can jump back
to April fifth of seventy nine. Here's another mention of
Hulk even before that one. But I jumped ahead to
that one because there was just a photo of Billy Spears.
We couldn't pass up. Oh yeah, no question. But Lucas
and Shoals to wrestle. According to the News Herald, Lucas

(40:39):
Schultz to wrestle more Ken Ken Lucas, a long a
local favorite with wrestling fans, will challenge Doc David Doctor
D Schultz for the latter's Southeastern Championship Southeastern Championship Wrestlings South.
The words are never organized in that fashion, but it
just goes to show how little they cared about the

(41:00):
wrestling stuff in these in these fucking newspapers. The Southeastern
Championship Wrestling Belt next Thursday night at Bowl Air Wrestling Arena.
Sheltz is known here as one of the most rugged
grapplers to enter the squared circle. Lucas returning here last
week after a long absence, showed he has lost none

(41:21):
of his old skill. In a special challenge match, Roy
Welch will face the Gladiator rough masked wrestler. They have
a feud going. A five thousand dollars bounty match has
been scheduled, pitting Rip Tyler not can confuse Rip Taylor
and Eddie Sullivan and who are managed by Billy Spears,

(41:43):
against Ricky Fields and Terry lathamused with tost Mama Spears
that Mama's sorrows. I guess the maternal influence in the
family has offered a five thousand dollars bounty to Sullivan

(42:06):
and Tyler if their opponents Field and Latham are seriously hurt.
Next Thursday night, pretty Boy Wayne Harris will wrestle Norvell
Awayne Harris. Huh does it say Wayne Harris, Wayne Ferris?
Damn it? I'm sorry, good one. Oh look you think
of a honkey talk right now and picture of being

(42:29):
named Wayne Harris works at the fucking gas down the street.
That's what they call him. The call. Hey it's pretty
Boy Wayne Harris. Oh look he's working today, babes.

Speaker 3 (42:42):
Look at that.

Speaker 1 (42:43):
Wayne Ferri's honey talk man. He still works at the
gas station. Hey ladies, Oh that's good. There's potential there.
You get me some car to fill up with gasoline.
I don't care how big it is. It's coming over
with that fucking with that shit eating T Diddy smile

(43:06):
that he has. I think you would call his fill
station the honk of honk Hong. You have to honk
to get someone to come out the the the honk
of honk of leaded fuel, something like that, the petrol

(43:26):
up honk honk of petrol. Look, I don't understand why
it took us twelve years to envision what if Honky
tunk Man owned a gas station. Honk a honk a
honky petrol. That's it right there, pretty boy, Wayne Ferris Wheel,

(43:53):
Wayne Ferris Wheel, I'm here with the honky tunk Man,
the legend. He's a Do I have this right, Siry?
Your real name is Wayne Ferris Wheel? Right? What a
podcast is this? You got that? Right?

Speaker 8 (44:09):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (44:11):
Well, pretty boy, Wayne Ferris Wheel wrestle or wheel and
and uh hull seventy five pounds. He lost one hundred
pounds and wait a minute, gained it. He gained one
hundred pounds and six inches, Terry reads this article is
a nope. Get that editor phone. You gotta go up

(44:34):
to four hundred. Next week.

Speaker 3 (44:36):
Four hundred.

Speaker 1 (44:37):
We'll face Ben Alexander. Everyone an event anywhere in the country.
How we never got w W World Champion Ben Alexander?
I'll never know? And where are you Ben? I need
to know wrestling Terry Boulder, Yes, I need to know.
Do you remember that no the Hulk or do you
have brain about those early matches?

Speaker 7 (45:00):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (45:01):
I want to know more about Ben Alexander? All right,
Next up there, Lucas will wrestle This is four days
after the article you just read. Lucas will wrestle Ken.
Lucas another fucking main event name. Lucas will wrestle Ken
and George, the Lucas brothers. We'll make a movie in

(45:25):
the ring. Popular wrestler in these parts for a long time.
Will challenge David doctor d Schultz for the Latters the
same fucking thing. Southeastern Heavyweight Championship is a feature of
tonight's professional card. Not a professional wrestling card, just a
professional card.

Speaker 3 (45:47):
So that.

Speaker 1 (45:50):
Bowl Air Wrestling Arena just can't fucking handle this. Lucas,
the French Prince of oh god Schultz is naturally not
anxious to lose the belt with all of the glamour
that goes with it, so tonight's scrap should be interesting.

(46:14):
Roy Welsch will meet the gladiator rough masked man. Why
do they fucking why don't the kid? They say? Roy
Welsh will meet the gladiator a rough mass man? Why
is it? We'll meet the gladiator Comma rough masked man
in a special challenge match that has been demanded by
both men. That eator was Dick steinborn long time? Well,
what's what? What's the fucking what's what's the challenge? You

(46:37):
have to find out? Apparently they've they've demanded a challenge
match where we don't know what the challenge is. There
will be a five thousand dollars bounty tag team battle
in which Rip Tyler and Eddie Sullivan, managed by Billy Spears,
will tangle with Rick Rickey Fields and Terry Latham. Mama Spears,
Billy's mother, has offered the five thousand dollars bounty to
Tyler and Sullivan if Latham and Fields are seriously injured.

(47:00):
Ken Alexander, So wait is it Ben or is it Ken?
It's Ken? Absolutely? Oh no, it's Ben because an Lucas.
It's Ben Alexander with Ben Alexander or Ken Alexander because
we got both here, another brother. We'll do it. We'll
face the Hulk two hundred and seventy five pound, six
foot six wrestler. Action will start at eight PM. So

(47:23):
I guess there was just a typo. That's the same.
That was the same article where they called him hawk,
but but not to say but is he seven foot? Now, yeah,
that's true. That was hard. That's true. Yeah, I mean
I mentioned Hulk Hogan in nineteen seventy nine was four
hundred pounds of muscle. I mean, could you imagine how
like imagine the cheeks, imagine the cheeks on that motherfucker.

(47:45):
It's like a guy who created no mercy and just
dial everything up to ten, you know, like exactly exactly,
still doing moves all like just round, like you know,
the skin of a fucking balloon. Next, we haven't had
here for Southeastern Wrestling, romoted by Dick Steinborn. What do
you know? Dick Steinborn the promoter also in the main
event as the Gladiator uh managed by Billy Spears his

(48:07):
partner The Halt who's you're listed at sixty four and
three hundred pounds to take on. So he's so he's shrunk. Now,
he's shrunk, that's correct, and they're taking on with this
main event already. I mean, the guy's in the territory
a week or week and a half and he's main
eventing here at the Montgomery Montgomery, Alabama Civic Center. Tickets
four dollars for ringside if you're wondering, Well, see he's

(48:29):
see he's he's six four in Montgomery and in Panama.
He's uh, he's six six. Gonna make quite a few
stops at that all you can eat they talked about
in brutuses, that's right. Uh, they're they're facing Ron Fuller
and roy Lee Welch. Ron Fuller of course, uh, the
Tennessee stud the owner of the territory and a big
star in his own right down there in Royley Welch
his his cousin, who was a well known name kind

(48:53):
of the generation before but was still hanging around, was
like a grizzled veteran in the area. So that's big
that he's already in that position. You see the picture
of the mass man, that's actually Gladiator Dick steinborn under
the hood. They are not picturing the Hulk quite yet. Next,
this is from the Selma Times Journal on April eighth,
seventy nine, just to match card at the Selma National
Guard Armory, also promoted by Dick Steinborn. It's time it's

(49:15):
Ron Fuller vers David Schultz in the main event. And
further down the card we get a look at our Hulk.
He's taking on Ben Alexander, listed simply as the Hulk. Okay,
I can't stress this enough. He's called the Hulk from
the very beginning. It doesn't say Terry Bolea, it doesn't
see Sterling Golden, it doesn't say Terry Boulder, doesn't say anything,
but the Hulk. That's what he's called. There's no fucking

(49:36):
way that he got that name after being in a
television studio with Lou for Rigno the week he shows
up in the territory. According to all records we have,
he's already been called the Hulk and nothing more. Okay,
case closed, No, not possible closed. We already looked at
that one. Here's a card from also promote to Dick
Steinborn at the monkoin Re Civic Center. And where do

(49:57):
you see let's see where do we see him here?
This is kind of hard for me to read. Oh yeah,
the Hulk verse Fuller. There it is again further down Yep,
the Hulk. Okay, how about uh the Hulk. This is
from April twenty third, nineteen seventy nine. This time it's
not Roy Lee Welch. Let's see where does he fact

(50:19):
the Hulk? The Hulk? Ron Fuller pounds versus Ron Fuller
My goodness, next April twenty six to seventy nine, Boss
give it to him. From the aforementioned Panama City News
Herald Fuller Schultz clash Tonight. Ron Fuller and Dave Schultz
will clash in a Southeastern Championship Wrestling match tonight. I

(50:39):
mean is that the name of the organization southeastre Championship Wrestling?

Speaker 6 (50:43):
Is he?

Speaker 1 (50:44):
Is it for the belt or what do we know? Oh,
he is putting up the belt. Shelves is putting up
the belt, and Fuller says he intends to get it.
A quote bull rope unquote. Match is also scheduled, with
Roy Lee Welch checking on the Gladiator. Welch will be
seconded by his father, Lester Welch. Roy and Lester Welch.

(51:05):
Oh yeah, well well known in his wrestling days. Here
and Billy Spears will manage the gladiator. Both men will
be tied together with a bull rope, and to win
the match, one of the wrestlers must either pin his
opponent for account of four or drag him all the
way around the ring. I've never heard the four count
before ever in my life. I kind of need it, though.

(51:28):
You imagine, like, how how fucking confusing could that be
for wrestling fans, Like, like, how can you not be conditioned?
I know to like cheer at three, but no, you
need four. Imagine if when ae W started all right
twenty nineteen, Tony Kahn steps up at the press conference

(51:49):
and says, all right, we're excited. We're not a couple
of things that we think make aw different. We will
have seven counts.

Speaker 9 (51:58):
One, two, three, four, five, Six goes and tells me
people still won't kick out till six, even though two
did just fine forever.

Speaker 1 (52:18):
Oh my god, seven count Look, if we ever get
the book anywhere, that's the first thing I'm implementing. Absolutely,
we are a seven count promotion. We're proud of either
that or either that, Either that or I might go
old school and have it just be a single a
single count. But yeah, one slap of the shoulder, one
slap of the shoulder. You could do a lot. You
could have a lot of fun with that, Actually, you could.

(52:39):
You could change the whole dynamic of the matches for sure.
These guys wouldn't know fuck all how to do that,
but they'd have to learn. You could also do count outs.
Forty counts. I would do a minute. The way you
can get counted out in our promotion is if you
get bludgeons so badly you can't move for a full

(53:00):
in it. Yeah, Hogan would still insist on losing Olivia
count now exactly, fucking right, fucking that's the only place
he would sell. He's just laying out there outside the ring.
They'll ref kind of to you heard it. Where's any

(53:20):
financial backers out there? They want to get this off there.
We're going to call it, that's what we're doing. We're
gonna call it the Real Wrestling Association, the Not Fake
Wrestling Association, No, the Not Fake Wrestling League. There it is,
that's right, the n f n f w L no foul.

(53:44):
You could call it the no Fake League. I won't
get us in any trouble. All right, fine, we can't
call it the No the No Fake League. We're gonna
call it the No Bullshit Association. Here's another fucking cease
and desist. Well, we just call it major League Bullshit.

(54:08):
So much for the No Bullshit. We just go and
call it major league bullshit. We went for two names
that say that this isn't bullshit, just well admitting it's bullshit.
But Bush, you have to come up with a third name.
We're already frustrated. I can't remember did you finish this
wonderful article or not?

Speaker 10 (54:27):
You didn't even know why?

Speaker 1 (54:28):
Because this you're about to hit on something that is historic.
Go ahead, Oh yes, The Samoans, a colorful tag team,
will meet Arman Hussein and Norvelle Austin in a tag
team match. Eddie Sullivan will wrestle Rickey Field and Ben
Alexander will wrestle Larry Mills The Hulk. The Hulk giant

(54:50):
grappler who will meet another big man, Andre the Giant
here soon will give a demonstration of his strength and wrestling.
A Billy te action starts at eight pm. That's buried
as the last paragraph of this thing.

Speaker 3 (55:04):
Yep.

Speaker 1 (55:04):
That's insane. Okay, they're already promoting that Andre's coming. Terry
has been there for a month, a little over a month,
and it's already in the papers that Andre's coming for
the Hulk. I mean that is just huge. How do
we get there? Throw Hulk of the wrestlant worldly in
the throw Giant all the restlant world, not the houlk.

Speaker 10 (55:31):
Headed to Alabama? Roll come down for Alabama. A lot
of the thrown a hunk, don't prove them Iron the
only giant.

Speaker 1 (55:45):
How wasn't he can rob for? I called for you next?
And then the Hunk? He's fired up about this program.
He really wants us to work. He really loves his
boy Louis to let his fucking month you all homeboy?
How was How was Andre not considered for the loof
for Rigno role? Well? I couldn't move? Well, I guess

(56:08):
he could. He could he move back? Then it's before Princess.
He can move enough. Yeah, I guess that's true. Yeah,
he could have made it and make it fake it. Yeah,
well you know because he's not he's not muscular though, right,
the Holt's gonna be muscular. Yeah, you need the definition
more than anything. Yeah, great point. So yeah, as established,
Rob Fuller's up there booking in Memphis and uh, and

(56:30):
a special arrangement was made, according to Ron Fuller, between Rob,
his brother and his father, Herb Welch, and Jerry Jarrett,
that if Rob's gonna go over there in book Memphis,
Rob had the right to decide each wrestler's payoff every night.
He wanted control as a booker over what the guy's
got paid, because if you don't have control, you're not

(56:51):
the boss. If you don't have control a verb much
people get paid, you're not the boss, right yep. And
so according to Ron Fuller, what they agree on is
that every night in the Memphis territory of Rob is
going to book, it's going to be twenty eight percent
of the gross house is going to get paid out
to the wrestlers. Twenty eight percent was the magic number.
Ron Fuller said. Twenty eight percent is what he always
used in his territories to figure payoffs, and he said
that actually was significantly more than most territories paid their wrestlers.

(57:15):
The crowds are bad in Memphis. When Rob arrived in
January seventy nine, Ron said, and they grew quite a bit.
So by the time you get to May, according to
Ron Fuller, that twenty eight percent is starting to make
Jerry Jarrett feel like he's getting screwed. You know how
that goes? Oh boy, when the money starts rolling in,
all of a sudden, the people who get paid the

(57:35):
most feel underpaid. You know how that goes. And so
all of a sudden, according to Ron, Jerry comes to
Rob and says, actually, coming, we're going to lower the
percentage from twenty eight percent to twenty two percent to
the talent. Now, if they're bringing in that much more
at the gate, you know, the wrestlers might not notice
that big of a difference in their check. Yeah, but

(57:55):
it actually was quite a bit because he goes through
the math a little while for a little bit, and
you know, it's a couple hundred dollars less every week
take home at a time when that accounted for a
lot inflation adjusted. So it actually quickly sours the Fuller
Jarrett alliance in Memphis. And this will be important because
where is Terry Bullya and Ed Bulder.

Speaker 5 (58:17):
Going to go.

Speaker 1 (58:17):
They're gonna go to Memphis as well. And suddenly it's
not a cooperative situation, but a competitive situation because things
are already starting to sour up there visa VI the Fullers,
and according to Ron, his brother Rob told Jerry Jarrett,
if you're gonna do this and cut the percentage the boys,
I have no choice. I'm leaving as booker. So that
is going. Wow, Really, that is going to That's a

(58:39):
seed that's going to sprout as we go. But here's
Ron remembering. At the wtv Y Studios Dothan, Alabama, run
March eleventh or so of nineteen seventy nine, the Hulk
appears on television for the first time.

Speaker 3 (58:58):
Wow, he was definitely on that TV Dave, and it
was the first time either Louis, who was the new
booker down there, or I, either one of us saw it.
And you know, we needed to meet him and we
needed to talk to him about our plans for him,
but most of all, we needed to see how capable

(59:18):
he was in the ring. We didn't know anything about him,
not even what he looked like. And while you know,
he was pretty impressive when you first get a look
at him, and these first TV matches that he was
going to be in down there were critical man in
getting him over, especially since he had very little experience.
And as always with everything, just about the first impression

(59:41):
is so important, and especially with wrestling fans, it's was critical.
This TV show got a lot of surprise. And the
next one was this huge wressler that no one had
ever seen before, six feet nine inches tall and three
hundred pounds. And when he came addressing there was a
little you know, people in the then the features in

(01:00:04):
the studio were, you know, they're always talking a little bit.
As soon as he came out, it went to silence
in the studio, it was like. And then when he
got in the ring, fans didn't know whether he was
a heel or a baby face. They had never seen
him before. And uh and he was introduced as Terry
the Hug Boulder and in less than about two minutes,

(01:00:28):
Uh it took you for him throwing this little opponent around,
looked like he was resting a baby, you know, throwing
him all over the ring. And then he got him
in the bare hug and he submitted, and uh so
it was still silence in the studio when he got
out of the ring, you know, and then they started
carrying his opponent out. You know, the studio had just

(01:00:51):
sat there. They were mouths open, like, wow, who is this?
What is this all about?

Speaker 11 (01:01:00):
Didn't he start his Southeastern career as a heel? Was
there any indication of that?

Speaker 3 (01:01:06):
Oh? Well, I wasn't. In that first match, obviously he didn't.
You know, he didn't really heal. He just basically bumped
the guy around a little bit and then put him
in the barre huge and it was over with us
all he had to do. Yeah, so yeah, but yes,
he was a heel when he came.

Speaker 1 (01:01:22):
Can you imagine being in that studio, no idea, what's coming?
Not He walks out as the Halt and he's like
the biggest person anyone in that town has ever seen,
including in a wrestling ring besides onr that you of course,
and he and I love what he describes that people
just don't know what to say. There's like a pregnant silence,

(01:01:43):
like look at this fucking guy, you know, and it's
not like we're gonna say anything. You got to remember
how intimate and small these studio wrestling settings are, like
every little peep you make, the wrestler can hear, you know,
and you're you're kind of sitting there kind of you know,
with your hands folded a little bit. It kind of
studio yep. So it's like, uh, it's it's pretty. I mean,

(01:02:04):
just imagine Boss as he describes that. What are you picturing?
I mean, I mean, I you know, I think of
a I think of a small I mean, I you know,
you say studio wrestling. I always think of I always
think of of the old w CW. You know, the
the World Championship Wrestling yep. You know layout, So you have,

(01:02:29):
you know that kind of a small group in there,
and you know, in a weird way, it's like there's
I can picture Hogan coming out with you know, whenever
you whenever you have a studio something like that, there
is always a lack of spectacle because they you know,

(01:02:50):
you come out as if you're coming out in front
of thousands of people, but you're not. You're coming out
in front of like hundreds of people. And so even
though you've got this this whole grand thing, you got
a costume and everything, it just always feels a little
bit out of place. And I can picture Hogan being
in that situation. Well he doesn't know what, you know,
like just of course, I mean we saw how reticent

(01:03:11):
and strange he looked in those brief training clips from
Florida in seventy seven, just kind of like lumbering around
and like, you know, kind of looking unsure of himself.
And now while he's jacked like a motherfucker by now,
he's still like run Fullert's scrib he doesn't know what
to do. He's like, he's just going out there and
he's got three moves he's got to do. He's gonna
squash these little guys because it's right off to the

(01:03:33):
racist like they're going with this guy right away, and
so he is going to have to learn to swim
after being thrown into the pool. So we mentioned the
Ben Alexander match on March twenty second, nineteen seventy nine,
is generally regarded as Terry Boley his first match in
the territory. He worked the Wrestling Pro in Panama City
and some others, and after after a while, it becomes

(01:03:53):
very clear that they're going to really accelerate the push
for this guy after he has that sort of that strange,
subdued reaction in his first appearance in the television studio
and here Ron Fuller on a YouTube series he does
called short Ride talks about Louis Tillette coming to him
and saying, this guy has potential. You need to come
see him. This is kind of jumping back a little

(01:04:14):
bit in the timeline, but he tells it in a
little more richer detail.

Speaker 3 (01:04:18):
Louis Tillett called me up.

Speaker 4 (01:04:21):
He had had a hulk in the territory for about
four or five weeks and and he says, and he
had his finch ex and he says, Romna, this guy's
got tremendous potential. You know he needs he needs a
big guy to wrestle with. He needs a We don't
have anybody your size. And and uh, and I think

(01:04:42):
he's ready. You need to come and take a look
at him. And and I want you to work with him.
So I go to Dothan, Alabama, first time I ever
see the hulk Terry Terry Terry Boulder is what his
name was, Terry the hog Bolder.

Speaker 3 (01:05:00):
You know, that's what we called him anyway. And uh so, uh,
I went to the ring, got to the ring first.

Speaker 4 (01:05:07):
He's obviously and uh and I see him come out
of the dressing room and he doesn't look anything like
the hull Cooke.

Speaker 3 (01:05:14):
And people remember or people know. Most people know.

Speaker 7 (01:05:18):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (01:05:19):
He had black hair on his body. His upper body
was the all black hair. His hair was black. He
didn't have the blonde hair. He had shaved his chest
down into the shape of a diamond, down to where
his trunks were. He was the most hard looking guy ever.

Speaker 4 (01:05:40):
But once he got to the ring, and he got
in the ring, and I stood facing him and next
to him and really got to look at him. I
could see what Louis to Let saw in him and uh,
and I could see that he had tremendous potential. Obviously
he wasn't a very good wrestler.

Speaker 3 (01:05:57):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (01:05:58):
We had a great match, but I had to lead
him and did the best I could. He was in
the process of learning. But it was unbelievable love for
us to Louis to find him and to bring him
there and to develop him into being a star, and
where his career went from there.

Speaker 1 (01:06:19):
It was just.

Speaker 3 (01:06:21):
Out of sight, unbelievable. But we started him out.

Speaker 1 (01:06:26):
Yeah, let's not forget that Ron Fuller himself is like six'.
Nine he's a tall. Motherfucker if you ever see him
in the, Ring, WOW i didn't know. That, ye he
towers over. Everybody he, wrestles and he was like a,
long almost a career long babyface in terms of like
the territories where he sunk in the. Most he had heel,
runs of, course but he had to figure out a
way to be a babyface as a, big tall. Motherfucker
AND i think that that's kind of related to looking

(01:06:50):
At Terry bullay and seeing this guy not as some
guy with tremendous limitations because he's so much bigger than everybody.
Else how's everybody else going to work with? Him but
seeing a guy, like of course you can go with
the guy this, Tall i'm that tall and remain invented
In florida and elsewhere for. Years this is the opposite
of the problem they had In, florida where you, know
the promoters and the owners are kind of short of.

(01:07:11):
Stature Mike graham in, particular what Did Brian blair, Say
terry call them the main event? Midget, yes, right they're
being as big As terry is a problem that you
have to. Overcome but here In Gulf, coast you're you're
working for a guy who ride tons of money in
the business being. Massive you know what what what what
really it comes down to Is it always depends on

(01:07:34):
who runs the territories because obviously the one who runs
the territory is going to want people who look like.
Them that's. Right they're gonna be able to see who resemble,
them you. Know and it's, like, well wait a, MINUTE
i can draw IF i step foot in this ring right,
NOW i can, Draw but how AM i going to
draw with this fucking clown who's like a? Tree you're absolutely,
right it's what it. Is is it's another it's another prime.

(01:07:58):
Example AND i, mean, honestly we're seeing it even with
the stuff with when we do the live, calls the
narrow the the the narrowed viewpoint of the people in.
Charge they can't see past themselves really Because TRIPLE H
Shawn michael's doing the same thing. ABSOLUTELY i, Mean Johnny
gargano And Tomasso champa basically costume themselves to resemble them

(01:08:23):
in so many. Ways it gets that. Gratuitous and maybe
you don't have to look like, them but you better
do the, spinebuster you better kip up and you're doing
and they're doing the same. Story but but my point
is that they're doing the same stories though stories, too
like they're Doing diesel the Diesel Shawn michael's, dynamic you,
know and and it's like you really can't get past

(01:08:43):
LIKE i don't know if IT'S i don't know if
it's if it's it's a narrow, mindedness or if it's
a choice or. What but it's like it is a
very it's a it's a problem honestly in the business
that that you have so many people who can't and
in a weird, Way vince Sick man no, different always

(01:09:05):
looking for New Hulk cogan, totally you, Know and here's
the same type of. Thing and this is why it's
so money what you're. Saying hulk brings with him the
experience of what got him over and all of these
other territories despite having ritle to know experience To vince's
doorstep and gets so much power When Vince junior takes
over and they're essentially co CEOs OF wwf in a

(01:09:25):
lot of, ways every decision has been run By. Hulk
they'll live together In connecticut at the office every. Day
you better Believe hulk is putting on the table some
of the things that work for him when he came
up in the. Business of, course and you take a
closer look and all this stuff That vince gets all
his credit for being a. Genius for, you, like, actually No,
Hogan Terry, boulder whatever did a version of. That if
you closely examine the territories he worked in, beforehand be At,

(01:09:45):
memphis be At, georgia be it At alabama Or japan
or Even, Montreal a's will talk about. Unbelievable he had
all these ideas and he had all these opponents to
work with and, everything AND i don't, know it's just
extremely fascinating that his limitations that That terry was narrow
minded to but because it was so new to so

(01:10:06):
many people when he became a national, star it was
all new, angles but they really weren't, new and the
presentation really wasn't new in terms of how many wrestlers
he borrowed from and the look and. Feel and, yeah
you know, again not being able to see past your
own success is a huge problem for wrestling. Bookers SO
i don't know if you Heard Ron fuller describe the
black hair, there but someone recently hit us On twitter

(01:10:28):
with this picture and it was so deeply. Alarming this
is him laying on a bed In japan with The Stan.
Hansen don't know IF i want to see, this this
is this is going to Be this is gonna be
like like some some frank silver, shit isn't.

Speaker 11 (01:10:43):
It let me?

Speaker 1 (01:10:44):
See? Oh what is? That what it looks Like Sean
connery and he really does with the jet black. Hair
is that his natural hair in? COLOR i don't think.
SO i MEAN i. Must he's got blondish hair and
all the although all the pictures are black and white
from when he was In little, league in high school
and when he was In. Ruckus but he may very
well have been dying it by the. Time but he
could also have. BEEN i, mean you know so, many

(01:11:06):
so many people with blonde hair end up their hair
ends up getting. DARK i, MEAN i don't Think i've
ever seen like jet black like. That, right there's a
blonde but it's mostly. Black, yes but it makes. SENSE i,
mean his chest hair is. Black when we see the you,
know the pictures of him when he had the mushroom
cloud of chest hair shaved onto his his his his
chest and stomach that Run fuller was talking about it

(01:11:28):
is jet. Black he's An italian. GUY i, mean look at.
Him look at how it's so weird to See Hulk
cogan with jet black hair like. THAT i, mean he
looks like a porn. Star He and also what's amazing
IS i guess who's not? TAN i, KNOW i know
he's got pretty much uh white skin, there like, yep,

(01:11:51):
wow look how fucking puffy he. Is it's a. Riot
how fucking puffy he? Was oh, YEAH i, mean, well
when you roid like that without any counterbalancing cutting drugs
you know that allow you to do to maintain lean muscle,
mass you're just gonna bloat with the water weight like.
Crazy but he's, experimenting AND i guess you, know we

(01:12:11):
talked about the name. Confusion why does it seem like
he was Called Sterling golden In Gulf coast as well
As Terry boulder as well as just The. HULK i
mean we just read the. Articles he was called The
hulk and nothing else when he first.

Speaker 6 (01:12:22):
He was.

Speaker 1 (01:12:24):
Being promoted as a h legal reason maybe Brother Ron
fuller said in another, podcast we initially called Him Sterling
golden and Says Billy spears called Him Sterling. Golden is,
mentioned But terry wanted to be Called, boulder but primarily
we called him The, hulk he, Said louis till that told,
ME i want to call this guy The. Hulk and,
yes back in those, Days Ron fuller said The hulk
was a big, thing And louis, said let's just call

(01:12:47):
him The. Hulk and later, on, Oh, louis can we
can we Give louie. Credit, absolutely we can Give louie
credit for Calling Terry boulet The. HULK i mean that's,
big that's, huge full of, remembers you, know after you're
laying eyes on him and working with, him also making

(01:13:07):
a trip To tampa at one point to get a
look At ballet and see what he looked like and
offer him the opportunity to come work for them and
make a star out of. Him and here in the
studcast this is a Classic ron like did you meet
him or? Not did you lay eyes on him the
first time going to work against, him or did you
lay eyes on? HIM i went to fucking recruit. Him
can we please figure this? Out apparently, Not, no you.

(01:13:28):
Can't Here's ron on the pod talking about this whole,
thing And Louis tillette to.

Speaker 11 (01:13:32):
Him sometimes as just Simply Hawk and why is? That
is there a leg legal reason for that or what's
why Just.

Speaker 1 (01:13:40):
Hulk.

Speaker 3 (01:13:41):
NO i, mean you, know he started for. Us we're
the first wrestling, Company southeastern that he ever wrestled. For
and you, know WHEN i first saw him And louis
first saw, Him louis told Me ron he, GOES i
want to call this guy The. Hulk and back in those,
days The hulk was a pretty big feature in. Television

(01:14:05):
there it is the Actual, hulk the. Bodybuilder, yeah The,
hulk you, know and Obviously hogan that, big, big great body.
Too so, uh you, Know luis, said let's just call
him The. Hulk The hulk. Wow so that's where he
got That. Hulk from later, on probably in his third

(01:14:26):
or fourth territory that he worked in was For Vince
senior and w W f before it became W w
even and he got that. NAME i think that's where
he got That hogan tied on to the end Of.

Speaker 11 (01:14:41):
Hulk, So louis To, lett your, booker is the one
who first used the Word hulk in association with who
was eventually to Become Superstar Hulk hogan as we know him.

Speaker 3 (01:14:54):
Today that's.

Speaker 12 (01:14:55):
Great it's where he got the Names superstar l part
of his name that he was so famous for came
From louis To let In southeastern.

Speaker 3 (01:15:06):
Wrestling there it is nail it.

Speaker 1 (01:15:08):
DOWN i don't know who THIS i don't know who
this fucking a superstar is the superstar with a gram
of course he meant the Superstar hulk coviin, yes but
there it is nail it, Down. BABY i feel like
we found All we're gonna find about who was the
first person to lay eyes On Terry bole and say
you are The. Hulk LOUIS Toi lett and there's a.
Guy there's a guy in the territory Named Herb. Calvert

(01:15:32):
this was like an old, shooter guy that had the
respect of the fans in that part of the, country
a guy that they kind of considered like a, mainstay
not not a not a world, beater not a, superstar
but a guy that was deeply. Respected he would actually
do the challenges of fans out of the. Audience he
was like the the territory shooter in that. Regard and
and you better believe at a at a certain, point

(01:15:57):
The hulk gets interested in This Herb calval. Challenge, okay
gets very interested and here in a clip from the,
saidcast we get a further development of The hulk On Alabama.

Speaker 3 (01:16:11):
Television calvert took care of, business and he showed the,
ringer the arena, fans and then and then the, challengers
and they were in the. Ring the five, five one
hundred dollar bills that he had here was his. Money
he gave the money to the, referee as he had always,
done because you can't wrestle where you're gonna put the
five hundred. Dollars he gave it the referee to hang on.

(01:16:33):
To so immediately after he beats the second challenger from the.
Audience you, know this Is hulk's first. Night bear in,
mind it's the first time people have ever seen him, live,
right so you, know he stands, there he watches this.
Deal and then immediately After calvert wins the second, match you,
know And calvert reaches, down he picks the guy up

(01:16:55):
that he beat quote boats in the ring man he
Nailed calvert from, behind and he shoved the fan down
and put him with his, foot booted him out of
the ring into the. Floor and then he picked Up
calvert and he put him in a bear, hood, uh
and he started swinging him. Around you, know the match
had the second match hadn't been officially, said it was

(01:17:19):
done and The hawks already got calvered up in a bear,
hug and the referee tried to stop him as best he,
could you. Know and then when he couldn't stop, it
he signaled the timekeeper and they started ringing the bell
to stop the, match a match that had never officially
won as a matter of, fact you. Know so when
The Harvard calvert's arms went limp, hok just dropped him

(01:17:43):
like a bad. HABIT i hate, them and you, know
he'd done what he wanted to. Do and then he
grabbed a referee and he turned him upside down and
he held him with one hand around the, ankle and
he reached in there and Got calverts five hundred dollars
out of the rod spogger and he left the.

Speaker 11 (01:17:59):
Ring, wow that is what a way to get started for,
real all. Right so that had to be some real
heat on the first night he was ever in the.

Speaker 3 (01:18:09):
City, yeah so let's just say you got you say
you got everybody's, ATTENTION i can tell you. That and,
then and like most times in mobile with, heat you,
know and people were jumping up out of their seats
and getting in the aisles to try to stop. You
nobody tried to stop him on his way to the.
Dresser they showed him a lot of. Respect luis, said

(01:18:33):
they kind of let everybody just sit there, like, wow
we don't like. It BUT i no one messed with.

Speaker 1 (01:18:39):
That, yeah no one messed with. THAT i, mean just
to to picture like the Future Hulk hogan running out
there and just beating up a fan for heat and
taking down Herb calvert and bear hugging the guy that
was like The Territory, shooter the guy nobody could. Touch,
like nobody knows this stuff about what he was doing

(01:19:01):
In South coast until this podcast came. Out, yea unless
unless you watch the Tell Crazy. Time and So i'm
just sitting there riveted because we're getting actual testimonials of
what it was like to watch the television without having the.
Video it's got to be the next best. Thing it's
way better than just even reading it on. Paper oh for.
SURE i, mean you, know hearing him say it is is.

(01:19:22):
INCREDIBLE i mean, yeah the next thing you'd need is
really to be able to watch. It and it's a
shame we can't watch, it but well there's a young
man Named John kirk who couldn't watch it as. Well
this is kind of just off to the. Side MAYBE
i don't, know maybe Young John kirk was so terrified
of this New hulk that it had led to, this,
boss why don't you hit us with what appears in
nineteen seventy Nine april twenty seventh and The Dothan eagle

(01:19:45):
Actually april. Thirty the clipping is entitled nineteen seventy nine
four twenty, Seven oh for, Twenties okay The Dothan. Eagle,
ooh youth dies Here. Friday John, kirk sixteen year old

(01:20:06):
son of mister And Missus Arnold, kirk was pronounced dead
on arrival at The Southeast Medical Center friday night following
a series of. Seizures kirk was attending the wrestling matches
at The Farm center when his friends noticed he was
quote acting. Funny kirk then went into something comparable to
seizures and was taking to the medical. Center according to
Corner Jack, still an autopsy showed That kirk died from

(01:20:31):
a brain. Hemorrhage very, SAD i very. MUCH i. Understand
Terry bolea looked out into the audience and saw him
and reached out for him before he passed, away and
later wrote a song about. It rest in, Peace John?
Carter what was? It what's the? SONG i haven't needed another.

Speaker 3 (01:20:54):
Needed a?

Speaker 1 (01:20:55):
Maniac how Many olka maniacs are? Dead, LIKE i, mean
what's it? CALLED i can't think of the name of
the Fucking let me find it. Here, YEAH i Know
i've got the weve got the whole album has to
be where he got the idea. Here it has to. Be,
Oh hulkster In. Heaven that's. Right it makes it sound

(01:21:17):
like he's in heaven he, died, Right. NOTMANIA i know you're,
right that's, right it's Not holkamaniac can have. IT i
never even noticed. That that's like fucking. Weird so, like
why would you call It hulkster In? Heaven it just

(01:21:38):
makes no. Sense so we go forward here to the
seventy Nine april. Thirtieth here's a clipping from The Alabama.
Journal this Is Southeastern wrestling. Again it come, on we're.
Moving we're getting this. Here oh you're bringing it. Up,
OKAY i got.

Speaker 2 (01:21:51):
IT i was TELLING i read in the, PAPERS.

Speaker 1 (01:22:05):
I saw it ON.

Speaker 8 (01:22:06):
TV i guess you'll be an empty seat WHEN i.

Speaker 3 (01:22:11):
Wrestled it will be.

Speaker 2 (01:22:13):
LEAVE i used to tear my, shirt but now you
tore my. HEART i knew you were a healthy maniac
right from the very. Start from, YOU.

Speaker 1 (01:22:33):
I see you.

Speaker 8 (01:22:36):
As you see.

Speaker 2 (01:22:37):
Him now when comes to.

Speaker 1 (01:22:45):
Kind out, again.

Speaker 3 (01:22:48):
We are.

Speaker 1 (01:23:00):
Brought his friend to the. END i think that kid
was a bolder. Maniac, actually, oh actually would. Be you
could have been all he could have been a hulk,
maniac as we know about the king Of. Hulkmania, michael

(01:23:23):
thank you for. That so uh, wow thirty seventy, nine
here he is. Lost another hulk. Maniac that's just greats just,
so there's so much a rhythm to, it you, know so.
Harmonious like what was he fucking? Thinking, honestly he was,
thinking there's A uk that's gonna pay me to do an.

(01:23:43):
Album that's what he's. Thinking but it's, like you, know
it's like he's he's trying to Be Eric clapton writing
that song about you know Is, yeah it's just, Dude,
no all, right you can't holkster in heaven And i'll
see you. Again another, hulk a. MEDIAC i know what

(01:24:09):
music we're going to play at his? Vigil oh, god
you know damn.

Speaker 7 (01:24:12):
Well.

Speaker 1 (01:24:14):
Yeah But april, thirtieth here he is in the, paper
The hulk versus The wrestling pro and the main event
at every top of the. Bill look at his face
there you can see. Him it's blonde, hair but the
mustache is. Black that's. Alarming, yeah, listen his his his
inability to decide what he looks. Like he's a real fucking.

(01:24:36):
Problem all. Right he needs to. Choose you need to.
Choose it's a, really really well put. Point how about, This,
april pardon? Me it also looks like he looks like
A i don't, know it looks like the photo you
have when YOU'RE i don't. Know have you seen this?
Man absolutely it does what that looks? Like Milk Carton

(01:24:57):
about The may, third seventy nine clipping Here giants color
in wrestling from The Panama City News. Herald, yes One
giant and one Super giant will be in the local
wrestling ring tonight when seven foot four Inch andre The
giant teams up with Roy Lee welch in a tag
team match with The hulk six Foot they're saying that

(01:25:18):
Hul cogan is taller than under The. Giant. Correct, oh,
no he said seven Foot, No i'm, sorry they said
seven foot. FOUR i might have said six foot. Four
they said seven foot. Four he is six foot, six my,
bad and, wait hold, on excuse, me hold, On, OKAY
i JUST i NEEDED i needed to sit up for

(01:25:40):
a moment and like just lean in here to see
IF i got this. Right, okay in a tag team,
MATCH i go at the beginning, here One giant and
one Super giant will be in the local wrestling ring
tonight when seven foot four Inch under The giant teams
up with Roy Lee welch in a tag team match
against The hulk six foot six and weighing six hundred.

(01:26:08):
Pounds that is. Six that must. Be that must mean
the combination two and the no no he's because look
it says The hulk six foot six and weighing six
hundred pounds and The. Gladiator so they're Saying Hulk hogan
weighs because here's and is the best part here at
bowl Rescum, andre who was a headline attraction throughout the,

(01:26:30):
country weighs four hundred and eighty four. Pounds so they're
saying That Hulk hogan weighs more Than under The, giant
one hundred and twenty pounds more Than under The. Giant
did you know That Terry boley when he was In
Gulf coast weighed six hundred pounds hundred, pounds yet somehow
did not look like. YOKOZUNA i can't be. That that's

(01:26:57):
like the pure laziness of the of these typos is
really it's it's really. Bad six hundred pounds all, right
whatever you, Say wait six for, six six hundred, pounds
so you got a six six six is the fucking
devil rights, Right it's a, level that's.

Speaker 3 (01:27:14):
All that.

Speaker 1 (01:27:14):
Was the guy taking dictation just heard six to six
and then heard another six put out of the weight as. Well,
UH i, mean so here he, IS i mean being
listed and the same breath is under the. Giant that's
on the day of nineteen seventy. Nine and to hear,
a you, know run fuller tell. It it's not Like
Terry bulea was full of all kinds of confidence getting

(01:27:36):
this kind of attention and push this. Early he was
kind of terrified about doing something wrong out. There AND
i think we get quite a bit of a glimpse
into how Quickly terry had to learn to find comfort and.

Speaker 3 (01:27:49):
Discomfort then the second match had the same rnswer in,
it you, know that had shocked the studio audience a week,
before and this time it was no. Different the studio
crowd went silent as soon as they saw him come
around the dressing room the door at the television. Station
And Charlie platt told me later he was surprised that

(01:28:11):
the crowd had to guts the pooh of the hook at,
all even a little, bit he. Said and he, said
because this was his SECOND tv, match they now knew
he was a. Heel so a few of them did,
booing you, Know and they said the others were so
intimidated by him that they didn't even didn't react much

(01:28:32):
to his. Match and the problem was they didn't get
to see him but about half as much in the
SECOND tv match as they did in the first, one
because when the bell, Rang us just reached over and
grabbed his opponent by the hair the back of his
head and he ran him face first across the ring
and into the turnbuckle so hard it knocked him. Out

(01:28:54):
the guy went down on his, face didn't, move so
then hopefully you know what's he going to do, then
so you, Know huk just snatched him, up put him
in the bear. Hug, anyway he just slung him around
the guy's arms were just flying in the air and
flailing around, wildly and the referee finally he gets the

(01:29:14):
match stopped and rings the bell raises Hawk can in.
SILENCE i, mean they don't even boo this, time you,
know they're just the fans didn't know how to accept.
Him he was such a he had such an impact on,
fans and tag a little more impact for the first
time in this. Match The hunk faced the cameras and

(01:29:35):
he gave that very impressive trap shot that he was
going to become so famous for in the. Future you,
know he cranked those shoulders and arms out there and
popped his traps up. There And charlie, said as soon
as The huk disappeared in the dress, room the studio
crowd started buzzing and probably had those people home did as.

Speaker 1 (01:29:54):
Well Wow.

Speaker 8 (01:29:56):
Wow so do you think The hulk came up with
the trap shot on his?

Speaker 1 (01:29:59):
Own was that His?

Speaker 3 (01:30:01):
NO i got to feel the men that just went
back to the booker, again To, louis To Leett terry
was so young and so. Green he was terrified about
maybe doing something. Wrong he was so concerned he was
going to do something that we didn't want to, happen And.
Wow and so it being That green was no, doubt you,

(01:30:24):
know he was getting the fastest push any wrestler in
history ever had in his first few. Matches it was
unheard of to be winning your first matches in the
ring ON. TV i, mean that just didn't happen anywhere
in the. World it only happened because of his size
of what he looked.

Speaker 11 (01:30:42):
Like see that really fascinats me because the studios that
he was filmed. In, originally THIS tv Show Pardon, me
was originated In, Dothan. Alabama so and that SAME tv
show Correct me on, this it was also seen In,
Montgomery mobile anyplace.

Speaker 3 (01:31:03):
Else, well later, on it's going to be seen In, Birmingham,
Alabama it's going to be seen In, Mississippi it'll be
seen back In. Tennessee, WOW i mean. It you know
that it all emanates out of that SMALL wtv weis
studio In, Bothan. Alabama.

Speaker 11 (01:31:20):
Yeah and so that's amazing THAT i was sitting there
watching it that day when this, guy The hulk as
we're calling him, now came on the. Scene and it's
amazing to me to hear you talk about how green
he was and he was afraid that he was going
to mess something up because he was new to this.
Business and then when you look at, him, well obviously

(01:31:42):
during his, career just the word confidence is never. Doubted
this guy just ruled everything that every ring he ever stepped.

Speaker 2 (01:31:51):
Into that's.

Speaker 3 (01:31:52):
Amazing.

Speaker 11 (01:31:53):
LISTEN i saw quite a few of those EARLY tv
matches in those, days but the ones that really got
my attention was when he put the bear hug on
some of them and this is.

Speaker 3 (01:32:04):
Weird they would start bleeding from the.

Speaker 8 (01:32:06):
Mouth, yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:32:11):
It, was so he was so, Green. Dave in order
to really get him, over whether it was ON tv
or in the, buildings we had to focus on just
one move for him because he didn't do a whole
lot of rustling, moves and that one move that he
could do very well was the bear, hug, right you.
Know and so when these wrestlers started bleeding from their,

(01:32:34):
mouth that's when his persona really took. Off you, know
people saw him put the barrel hug on him and
the guys give, Up but when he squeezed them to
the point that they bled from their, mouth that's what
really made a. Difference then then that he became something
more than just this, big huge. Guy he became somewhat

(01:32:57):
a monster at that, point you, know and it not
only did his persona take, off but so did The
southeastern houses down, there you, know in that part of the.
Country business just went. Crazy oh because.

Speaker 2 (01:33:12):
We saw him ON tv and he was like looking
At andre The.

Speaker 11 (01:33:16):
Giant we'd never seen anything like that ON tv before
as far as wrestling. Goes of, Course andrea was the
Eighth wonder of the. World and then This hawk guy
was like have you people were calling people on the,
phone have you seen this? Guy and so then, oh
he's going to be at a farm. Center he's going
to Be holy. Cow so The hawk stuff is really
amazing seeing how fast you guys made a monster out of.

Speaker 1 (01:33:39):
Him so that's that's really. Cool so, yeah the, blood you,
know he's, squeezing, guys and the bleeding from the, mouth that's.
Crazy that's. Crazy he's Just i'm okay with. That the
guy put it, well like he owned every ring he
was ever, In, like you got to work really hard
to Make Terry belaya not seem like he's the brightest
star in the. Room, yeah and what he doesn't know

(01:34:00):
what the fuck he's doing in the, ring and that,
uh or you gotta be The briscoes. Right, well to
my way of, thinking that's why he was run out
of town on a rail from From florida was because
you Know dusty and having that it's a bit, better
better to get him out of. Here but just man
to be able to watch that, stuff as the co
host clearly. Did what a fucking, Privilege what a privilege
in retrospect it really is to be in that part

(01:34:22):
of the country and to see to see him just
finding his way. Around AND i love to this description of,
like it's not just That hulk himself was, huge it
was that he matched up With andre, physically and like
you never you never thought of, That like you never

(01:34:42):
thought of somebody right that would stand next To andrea
and Make andre seem normal. Sized. Yep and it just
it endlessly fascinates me that from the absolute very, Beginning,
Yep terry Had andre The giant to thank for coming
across as larger than. Life, yes from the first month
in the, business because of the way circumstances turned, out

(01:35:06):
and the fact That montreal Man Louis tilt had the
Book good Knew andre well unbelievable set of circumstances, HERE i, mean,
honestly you talk about laps there and seraen w you
talk about the stars. LINING i, mean that's that's what happened.
Here you, know that's this is this is The these
are the, things the the intangibles that are happening to

(01:35:27):
help make Hul cogan into Hul covid timing, elements you know.
Exactly and what's so fascinating is that you read Both hulk's,
books you Read andre's, books the books that have written About.
Andrea you listen all the Interviews hulk did about coming
up in the world and how much respect and deference
he has For andre and how much he owes. Him,

(01:35:50):
ever do they talk about this part of. Things, Nope
hulk does, talk as we've, read about being in The
Gulf coast territory and breaking in For Ron. Fuller does
he once mention that he paths With andre The giant
for the first time In? Alabama nary a. Mention why is?
THAT i have to land on the explanation that they
got so bought in to the idea that the McMahon's

(01:36:14):
discovered the money dynamic between Putting Hulk cogan And andrea
The giant in the ring together And New york was
a big man's, territory and blah blah blah blah blah
that this just doesn't fit in the. Narrative it's just
it doesn't have a. Place, well it's kind of funny
because in, reality it really could have thought they could

(01:36:35):
have easily made it. WORK i, mean how would you play?
IT i mean just the, idea, like, like you, know
how how great would it have been If andre cutting
promos On hogan being again To WrestleMania, three SAYS i
remember you you don't like to talk about, it but you,

(01:36:55):
know like going into that, Ship, LIKE i think that
would have been. CRAZY i think it would have added
so much more depth to. It nothing they not the
obviously look like they they sold out the fucking Silver
master storytelling no, problem, Masterful but, LIKE i think adding
that stuff just makes it even more. Legendary, YEAH i.
Agree can you, imagine, Though Vince, junior in the frame

(01:37:17):
of mind he had about himself and his position in the,
world Having andrea acknowledged the existence of the state In,
alabama let alone it was wrestling. TERRITORY i know he
wouldn't Have he wouldn't even acknowledge that these two wrestled
in nineteen eighty and Fucking chase stating in the same company's. Dad, yeah,
amazing and so in the lore Of Hogan, andre it

(01:37:40):
has to start in nineteen eighty it can't start any.
Earlier and they went kicking and screaming to acknowledging that
they had wrestled. Before as anybody who was watching eighty
seven knows that one of the huge parts of the
presentation Was andrea was never defeated ever in, wrestling and
he never Faced Hulk, hogan and now it's going to,
happen and it's like. Bullshit he didn't Fa he is

(01:38:01):
the first goddamn guy he ever. Saw, yep, exactly but
he didn't. Know he's asked from The holy. GROUND i
cannot believe that it worked out this way For Darry.
Boley it's fucking. Amazing but the fact that it's radio
silence about this ever, happening and the only reason we
know about it is that for some reason that This
Wrestling gold vhs that got released found the footage of

(01:38:23):
the Arm Wrestling angle and distributed it in stores to
try to sell. Tapes that's like the only reason it's.
Unbelievable it REALLY i just can't say it to myself
enough and come to terms with. IT i just can't accept.
That we Get hogan figuring out that he's money With
andrea in his first month back in the. Business so

(01:38:44):
here's a bit more tantalizing and frustrating descriptions of what
this television looked and felt. Like here is from the
Studcast Ron fuller Describing Billy, spears the manager To Hulk,
hogan and what they called the personality profile, segment which is,
basically let's go to the desk and do an interview
instead of go to the ring and watch a. Match
And hulk is introduced to the studio audience And. Dolphin

(01:39:05):
he is accompanied by two other charges Of Billy, spears
the tag team champions of The, Territory Rip tyler And Eddie.
Sullivan so folks are going to start to get to
know The hulk as a presence and as a protegee
as a client Of Billy.

Speaker 3 (01:39:19):
Spears spears sat down With. Charlie he had his two
tag champions behind, him they had their belts, on and
then he had his mask gladiator standing with them and
they bragged about his, men you, know the guys that
he already had standing behind him his two champions and

(01:39:40):
his gladiator that was soon going to be a champion.
Himself and then out of, nowhere he hadn't been doing thirty.
Seconds he just changed the subject, entirely and he basically
said the three of, Them he, said, oge thank you
guys for coming out with, me and goes for this
triumph a, moment but, uh you, know basically insulted all

(01:40:03):
three of them, then but he, says young going back
to the dressing, room he, says Because i'm about to
introduce my lady's. Acquisition so the three wrestlers they looked
at each. Other, man they had no, idea, like what's
going on?

Speaker 1 (01:40:19):
Here who is?

Speaker 3 (01:40:20):
There what are you talking? About and then so and
then you know they probably knowing spears. Though they just
went on to the dressing.

Speaker 1 (01:40:28):
Room and.

Speaker 3 (01:40:31):
Then billy got out of his, chair you, know and
he dug down deep in his pants pocket, man and
he pulled out a lot of. Money. Man you, know
he didn't say what it, was but it, was you,
know it was a handful of this, time and it
was far beyond what he'd ever given the other, guys you,
know and he'd given away some pretty decent money to

(01:40:52):
his tag team. Guys so then it was you, know
then he was acting like he was The master's ceremony
and he's had a at a circus, man and he
was going to introduce the almighty himself. Man and he
raised his voice up and he, SAYS i have found
the greatest rastro on the planet and the man that's

(01:41:14):
going to take me to the Promised land WHEN i
become the manager of the next world Heavyweight. Champion what you.

Speaker 4 (01:41:22):
Know so.

Speaker 3 (01:41:24):
Wow they looked around at the two sets of bleachers
next to they were full of, fans and he, said
get up to, them stand up to honor this. Moment
obviously they just, booed, right nobody got. Up they just
started to boo. Him and then he introduced his so

(01:41:44):
called next world Evyweight, Champion Sterling, golden The Sterling, Golden Sterling,
Golden sterling. Golden and you know he that was the
word the first time anybody heard of him is Earning.
Golden SO hk came out of the dressing room door
on the far side of the. Studio obviously there's a

(01:42:07):
monitor back, there and when he gets, it when he
Sees billy dig into his pants and bring out that
wad of. Money, Boy and so it comes out of
the studio the dressing. Room he's smiling from here to.
Here Man and while the booze, intensified he comes over
and he grabs A billy and he gives him a big,

(01:42:27):
hug you, Know and and Then billy starts to sit.
Down The cooch's going to walk around to stand behind
him like the other guy's, work but the huk stops.
Him he grabs him by his jacket there, right and
he spends him around and he sticks out his. Head
billy still got the, money and he's.

Speaker 1 (01:42:46):
Head.

Speaker 3 (01:42:47):
Oh billy, goes oh, yeah. Yeah he puts a handful
of money in the oaks and the oak's hand and you,
know and that's not everything about this relationship between those, two,
obviously this says all about. Money, well Then charlie's first
question was where did you come? Up where did you

(01:43:07):
come up with that? Name Sterling goldan From? Billy you,
KNOW i never heard anybody call him. Dad and he,
says you, know, well he, Says, charlie because because this
man is pure silver and, Gold sterling for the silver
and obviously golden for the. Gold oh my, god he,
said he, said he, said this man is going to change,

(01:43:31):
everything especially you, know and he, said he, says And
i'm going to change. Him he, goes especially his sweet
attitude in the. Ring he, goes he needs to be a.
Monster he, Goes i'm going to make a monster sensation
out of. Him i'm going to lead this guy to
The World Resting championship And i'm going to take that.

(01:43:53):
Trip it's going to start today right here in THIS
Tv STUDIOS.

Speaker 8 (01:43:59):
A wife call wrestling, podcast the wrestling podcast that knows

(01:44:32):
the boys need their. Candy it's The Lapsed. Fan sick
of the. Ads sign up for ad free shows and

(01:44:53):
even more content at patreon dot Com slash The Lapsed.
Fan he's An Lapsed fan wrestling podcast With jack N,

(01:45:19):
seo M jp Soorro.

Speaker 1 (01:45:21):
So Now hulk is A gun For. Hire ye the
Way Ron fuller was describing in his very first in studio,
Appearances Terry, boleo while running someone over like a destructive,
heel was not doing it in a way where he
was playing up the fact that he was like this
monster and this bad. Guy you couldn't really tell was
he doing this for good or was he doing this for?
Evil he was, dominating so there was kind of a,

(01:45:41):
silence a hush that fell over the. Crowd but here
When Billy spears digs into his pocket on an episode Of,
southeastern pulls out the Big wad And Terry boulder Or
sterling The Hulk. Golden in case you weren't confused, enough
he was also apparently Called sterling The Hulk. Golden yeah
THAT i. KNOW i, MEAN i knew that with that
from the from the NEWSPAPERS i. Researched, yep he comes
out and accepts the. MONEY i. KNOW i always thought

(01:46:02):
it's either The, Hulk Terry boulder Or Sterling, golden Not
sterling The Hulk, golden or just The hulk for that,
matter or just The. Hulk So Billy spears has paid him,
off and he said the, words he allowed himself to
utter the Words the next heavyweight champion of the, World
Terry boleya is back in the business for a, month
and the top manager In southeastern is on television saying

(01:46:24):
he's a future world heavyweight. Champion, yep you're not ready to.
Accept how Early Terry boleya was portrayed to the wrestling,
fans even in the limited reach Of Gulf coast as
a massive. Deal there was no period where he was
just such a, greenhorn wet behind the, ears flailing, around
no idea what he's doing the way The florida guys

(01:46:45):
want you to think about. It, no, no, no no.
No he was money money from the. Beginning. DEAL i
mean it just shs to show you too like, that you.
KNOW i mean sometimes a look can really open that
door for. You, Absolutely sometimes a lot of the time
it always opens. It it's a question of tenu to

(01:47:05):
do something with. It, yeah and he had the. Instincts
he sure. Did he was showman for the. Music from
a lifetime of watching pro, wrestling from observing these, guys
from figuring out all, Right Superstar, Graham Dusty. RHODES i
can see what makes, them you, know, COOK i can
see what makes them stand. Out it's all. There so
he wrestles later on that, show Does terry Roy lee

(01:47:28):
Welch this was a cousin Of Ron fuller kind of
felt like he wanted to give this hulk a better.
Opponent remembers this has been kind of the third time
on television For Terry. Bulan he won with a bear.
Hug it gets a little confusing BECAUSE i think sometimes
they taped multiple televisions in one, day so it's like
the same, day but it's his second and third and FOURTH.
Tv so, afterwards here's how that post match situation played.

Speaker 3 (01:47:54):
Out, then the last match on THIS tv was going
to change, everything So Southeastern rustling And Southeastern Gulf coast as. Well,
Man So Sterling golden was up against my Cousin Roy
Lee welch And, louis AND i wanted to give The
huk a much better opponent than he'd been. Having this

(01:48:15):
was only his third time ON tv and he had
won two matches with his Bird. Hug but it was
very obvious the personality profile has done his, Job, man
because when The hulk came out With Billy spears out
of the dressing room for this last match and edit
for the, ring there was no doubt anymore about the

(01:48:36):
fans from the fans, anyway about who The huk was
and what he was all. About and you could have
heard that crowd in the studio Booing Man Downtown, DOTHAN
i maan while they were really all of a, sudden
The huk is a heel and there ain't no doubt about. It,
wow so for the first time in A huk, match

(01:48:56):
he actually showed signs of being almost. HUMAN i, Mean
roy actually threw a couple of punches and he he
almost got him, staggering. Right, so but it was the
end of the match man that left everybody in that
studio and all of them at home, Too i'm, sure
and All hulk was finally able to Get roy in

(01:49:19):
his barehood and and he got him to give, up
just like he had the first two. Opponents and then
when he got the, victory he Dropped roy to the
mat and he just started to leave the ring like
he had done. Before But billy jumps up in the
ring and he stops him when he gets the ropes
and he, says, no go get him, finishing get him,

(01:49:43):
again put him in it. Again and so The hulk,
hesitated you. Know but his new, manager he's got a
handful of money, already you, know so he so he went.
Back he picked Up Roy royce laying on the, Mat
he picked him, up he put him in back into
the bare hud went and the boy put that vice

(01:50:04):
grip on him and uh and he started squeezing him. Again,
well the referee tried to stop him with spears and
nay on the ref from. Behind he knocked him down
and kicked him till he went out onto the. Floor and,
uh and then he just went right in The hawk's
face and squeezing. Harder he was really he was really
really pushing, it and the studio crowd was, screaming man

(01:50:26):
for somebody to come in and Help. Roy. Uh, So
roy's head at this point was hanging over The hawk's. Shoulder,
man his arms were dangling down by his. Side he
was basically out of.

Speaker 1 (01:50:37):
Him he was.

Speaker 3 (01:50:38):
Unconscious and then all of a, sudden, man blood started
streaming From boy's mouth and it ran down The hulk's.
BACK tv got a close up of it with blood
coming out of his mouth and was running down The
hawk's back and instead of that crowd they were going crazy,
booing and they went dead. Silent and uh it was

(01:50:59):
a sign, man and that basically things had gone too. Far,
yeah yeah maybe, so So i'm. There you, Know roy's my.
Cousin SO i was the first guy to hit the,
ring AND i hadn't been seen In dothan for almost
six weeks since the world title defense Against Harley, race
which is about six weeks. Earlier nobody KNEW i was,

(01:51:22):
there you, know and the studio. Exploded as soon AS
i could hit the, Ring holk, Drop roy and Hen
spears headed for the dressing. Room they didn't make any
attempt to do anything to, me but you, know it
was it. Was it was pretty pretty heavy duty deal.

Speaker 1 (01:51:39):
Heavy, duty. INDEED i mean you got the top baby
face run to Save hulk and to Save roy From.
Hulk and the way they used to do it was
they grabbed a, syringe drew some blood from the, arm
put it into a condom so you could bite down
on it When hulk put, you so that you could
start running real. Blood not that's so, gross that's what he.

(01:51:59):
Said that is. VILE i, Mean i've heard of the.
Condom i've never heard of drawing the blood from someone's actual.
Veins that's so fucking beyond. Them what we're gonna. Do
we're gonna we're gonna draw blood from this guy over.
Here we're gonna put in the, Cold we're gonna put
in your. MOUTH i guess this is pre, ades, huh
like holy?

Speaker 2 (01:52:17):
Ship, YES.

Speaker 1 (01:52:20):
I want you to bathe in the two for that.
Matter we're gonna we're gonna draw a, bath and he
would blood draw, blood, bath draw your, blood draw some,
money draw, bath draw a. House instead of taking months
to Bill halt to draw, money they had to do this.
Quickly so they're putting him in there with the cousin
Of Ron, fuller bear hugging him till he's, bloody And

(01:52:42):
Ron fuller, HIMSELF i mean this is A it's, like you,
Know i'm not gonna Say Ron fuller was the biggest
stupor star in the, world but like for like it's
kind of Like Bruno San martino running in to, say,
HEY i mean, Right i'm gonna say this is this
is uh, uh you, know he's the big star of
the of the of the of the. Territory so it's
a big. Deal and as he, mentioned he was coming

(01:53:02):
Off Ron fuller was a, legit you, know sellout world
title match Against Harley. Race of course was nwable to
do you a, champion so he was being h the
last time they had Seen Ron, fuller he was going
for the glory Of, alabama no question about. It so
he is he is that. Guy and then the next,
Match terry has is again with the Aforementioned Herb, calvert

(01:53:23):
the The shooter and the veteran of the of the.
Circuit and here is the description how that went.

Speaker 3 (01:53:29):
Down. Lewis he later told me that when The hook
And Billy spears went to the, ring he, said didn't
just happen To, mobile but it happened in every city
ron that had seen THIS, tv he, said if they
saw THE, tv he, said when they went to the,
ring he, said the crowds went. Crazy, man they'd seen
them standing in booing. Them he. Said they heat was

(01:53:49):
unbelievable from that one television. Experience and he also said
when they left the ring In mobile After, SPEARS i
got in the match and hog Beat Curb calvert with
his bear hood again like he had done the week.
Before H louis said that all the policemen in the
building had to escort him back to the dressing, room

(01:54:12):
even though it was just the third match on the
card and it was only the second time The hulk
had been in that. Building, no so that kind of
heat that fast was extremely. Rare man for a third
match on a six match, card for fans to react that,
way maybe That sterling golden name was going to come.

Speaker 1 (01:54:33):
True, yeah he'd be, golden all, Right, yeah you're damn. Right,
YEAH i mean To Bloody Royley welch like. That the
next time he comes to the, arena they're they're. Rioting turn's.
Crazy they want his fucking. Scalp, tremendous. Tremendous that's how
you do. Business that's how you, say all, right we're
not gonna pussy foot around. Here this guy could be.
It let's give it our all and see if it,

(01:54:54):
works instead of sitting around try to figure out reasons
not to, try which is precisely what happened In. FLORIDA
i have. Decided and so, yeah the next time he
gets out, there the heat is. Undeniable this guy's catching
on as somebody that the fans are going to really
want to see get his and so now we're starting
to get some. Magic now it's starting to come. Together Come,
April halt's moving up the card And Ron fuller himself

(01:55:17):
is going to be Facing hulk for the first. Time and,
again his legacy in the area goes back so, Far
Gulf coast, area back to the, fifties The welch, family
and he went onto the, set Did Ron, fuller and
he's talking With Charlie platt about representing the family against
this hulk because they watched the tape of his, Cousin
Royley welch gets squeezed to death and he was in

(01:55:38):
tears practically witnessing this scene and they didn't they actually
didn't Say, interestingly he makes this. Point Royley welch was
presented as like a, friend somebody That Ron fuller, respected
But Ron fuller didn't use his real last, Name welch
On Gulf coast tell, right so they did not acknowledge
that they were family at this point in. Time it's so. Weird,

(01:55:59):
yeah was kind of. Weird but the sensitivity was if
everyone knew that his name Was Roten, welch they would,
know based on government, records that he was the owner
of the, territory and that was a big no. No
if you're gonna be the big, babyface you did not
want the fans to know that you actually owned and
operated the whole thing and were you, know puppeteering. Everything
you didn't want that you, Want, yeah because the babyface

(01:56:21):
has to be someone who overcomes, circumstances you, know someone
who has to lobby and fight for opportunity and prove,
himself not someone who can hand himself opportunity because he
runs the. Organization so that was always always a problem
when you had wrestlers owning the. Territories as they had to,
go they had to put the promotion in somebody else's
name often is often how it, worked so that nobody

(01:56:42):
would know that they actually owned the whole. Thing and
you certainly can't go on television and, say that's the
guy with the last Name welch is my family. Member all.
Right so Here's Ron stud talking about about the Fallow
ron The Tennessee Stud. Fuller yes it's, Confused, Yes tennessee.

(01:57:02):
Stutters His Midnight rider is like the masked version of,
them oh for. Sure and here he was talking about
all the fallout from The Roy welch thing and how
he addressed it on television and got the. Fans really
is how you hook people in those. Days man invested
in this emotional story of how he's got to avenge
what happened To Roy.

Speaker 3 (01:57:18):
Lee man's got a big pop from the. Crowd man
before it even, STARTED i hadn't wrestled on THE tv
there in, months AND i was certainly not expected to
be in the. Ring so for the first time ever
on the upcoming, cards. TOO i was in the main
event and all three of those major cities against The,
hope and there wasn't much time left in the show

(01:57:40):
at this, point AND i was trying to get a
quick victory before the show. Ended AND i dropped kicked
The guide AND i jerked him up and threw him
over my, shoulder ran across the ring and gave him
a power, slam and referee was about to start to
count him, out and all of a, sudden here comes
To Hopkins pears into the. Ring Now i'm on the
top of the. GUY i don't even see him until

(01:58:02):
they're in the, ring and so the studio, exploded and you,
Know huk stamped me in the. Back he picked me
up and he got me in a full, nelson And
Billy spears took a wild swing at my head AND
i bent forward and he hit The huk, Instead so
So hunk went. Down he wasn't Expecting spears to hit.

(01:58:23):
Him and THEN i got my hands around spears, throat
and all of a, sudden The, gladiator now another guy
comes into the, ring and SO i Dropped. SPEARS i
see the gladiator coming AND i nail him AND i
go down on him, Man i'm trying to put his lights.
OUT i was getting him with some good shots and,
down you, KNOW i got two guys behind my. BACK

(01:58:44):
i don't see Either hok or the other Or, spears
And hope kicks me in the back and he picked
me up and he put me in his bare. Hut
man studio was going wild at this, point and thene
of all people that came into the ring Was. Lester
and you, know when he hit the, ring he went
straight to The hulk and he hit him in the

(01:59:05):
back and the hug dropped me and he turned around
and he Grabbed lester in the bare. Hug so then
The gladiator And, spears, uh they both got.

Speaker 1 (01:59:14):
Me you.

Speaker 3 (01:59:15):
Know you know the cook was. Strong, wow he's unbelievably,
Strong so you know when he dropped, me they had
plenty times then to start putting the boots on. Me
lester was still in the bear hug from the, hug
and for the second time in two, weeks, man somebody
was bleeding from the mouth and there was another welch,

(01:59:37):
wow and the blood started running From lester's mouth and
it ran down The huk's. Back SO i kind of
felt my weight to my feet and the spears and.
Gladiator they took off quick as they, could Nailed hulk
in the. Back he Dropped lester and he headed for
the dressing. Room AND i had just Sent leicester upright
because he was starting to Choke man to keep him from.

(01:59:59):
Choking bud was still running out of his. Mouth The
Novelle Riggy, Fields Terry, Lakeam Herb, calvert all those guys
came to ring to kind of help me get lesser
out of.

Speaker 1 (02:00:10):
Her So hulk is now bear hugged the grand old
man of the. Territory, okay this would be like Putting
jess McMahon in the bear hug in the. Garden it's
just WHAT i don't. Understand what do you THINK i,
mean as long as they're pushing them. Hard oh my,
god you, know it's just a it's a little you,
know Fucking jabron coming, in going all the way right,

(02:00:31):
away And Ron fuller is going to bring it home
on the. Stick he walks over To Charlie platt's area
for the.

Speaker 3 (02:00:35):
PROMO i said With charlie the time was running out
on the show AND i wanted to say something about all,
this SO i verbally tore himTo spears and his, men
especially The, Hulk and uh you, KNOW i, said you,
know this big son of a, GUN i, said he's
been running a rough shot over wrestler's ear ever since he.
Came and, uh you, KNOW i said that, now, man

(02:00:56):
he's going to be for the first, time looking eye to,
eye had his opponent Because i'm his, Size i'm his,
height And i'm down there his, size and you, know
AND i, said he may be an opponent that's famous
for squeezing the blood out of wrestler's But i'm famous
for breaking their. Legs so the, studio you, know they

(02:01:17):
had stopped screaming it's a whole conspirasht the, ring and
by this point they were louder than. Ever. Man so
the show closed out with me screaming To charlie the
spears of the whole you better get you some crutches
because he's going to need.

Speaker 1 (02:01:34):
Them why CAN'T i hear the? Promo why CAN'T i
see the? Promo this Is Ron fuller Making hulkogan a
superstar on traditional territorial wrestling, television AND i can't hear
it and feel it in experience because it didn't. Happen fucking,
hell it didn't. Happen what do you mean it didn't? Happen,
well how do we want? Happen we have to trust

(02:01:54):
this guy's fucking. Stories who says he's? Reliable, hm you
know we're taking this guy for his. WORD i don't
know his. WORD i don't know who he. Is as
far AS i, know Hul cogan was created By vin
Sick man and they. Ain't no one else can prove

(02:02:15):
otherwise each. Boss so, There Ron fuller Ship, WOW i said.
It he went ahead and said. It folks on the
Complete Hulk Hogan Ron fuller Ship wow mobile out with the.
Files show me the fucking. Files, okay well release the,

(02:02:39):
release release The alabama. Files you will release THE bam
release THE bama. Files you. Won't that's. Right i'm, On?
Ron where are the? Tapes don't? Exist never, Happened? Ron,
never it's not Even.

Speaker 2 (02:02:54):
Ron how do we know?

Speaker 1 (02:02:55):
That how do we know It's Ron? Fuller? Oh hulk
never talked about any of this. Stuff you find me
one instance Where hulks talking about exactly putting the squeeze
on On Lester welch to get over On alabama television
when talking about using the bear HUG i, said we,
start why should He after that fiery. Promo five nights,

(02:03:15):
Later Mobile, alabama It's Ron fuller versus The, hulk and my,
god does he nail. It, finally The hulk's going to
face someone he sees eye to eyeways leveraging the, height
which is. Key you're bringing a big guy like, That
the key is to find someone else big to oppose.
Him that's who the money. Is and now we have,
it and we have the first glimpse of what happens
when a giant Faces. Hulk people want to see. It

(02:03:38):
and only his fourth match Run fuller faces The.

Speaker 3 (02:03:42):
Hulk after we're, watching after the fans And mobile watching
THAT tv, Show That mobile crowd was. Electric, wow and
didn't didn't they? Did they were already fired up before
they rang the bell for the. Match so THEN I
hope and the. Spears they had tremendous. Heat, man after

(02:04:02):
Both lester And roy had been bleeding from the mouth
two straight TVs in a, row this match was so, Easy.
Gosh the crowd was on its feet for every bit of.
It and it didn't last long BEFORE i got my
toe hold on, Him man on The, hulk and well
the roof came off the Old expo hall and spears

(02:04:22):
charged man into the ring too intentionally get his man,
disqualified but he also wanted to get me off his
leg BEFORE i could do some real damage to. Him
SO i got back up and AND i Backed billy
into a corner AND i started to work on his. Butt,
man and here comes the gladiator kind of like ON.

(02:04:45):
TV i don't know where, again and then the og
nails me from behind and they all three started working on,
me so as mobile crowds. Did man when something like this,
happened all of a, sudden the sitting in their, seats
and they seemed, like all of a, sudden you couldn't
step out of the. Ring the whole crowd came to

(02:05:07):
the ring AND uh AND i and then thank, GOODNESS
i don't know, where here Comes Roy. LEE. Uh And
Roy lee had been in the dressing room all, night
nobody was knew he was even in the. Building and
while when he got in the ring and he started
to help me out with his total mayhem at that,
point SO i fought my way up with the roy

(02:05:30):
AND uh and the. Heels all three of those guys
hit the. FLOOR uh and the boy the police were so.
Good they were so accustomed to what the problems we
had In mobile that as soon as these guys hit the,
floor they surrounded them and they fought their way as
usual back to the dressing.

Speaker 1 (02:05:48):
Room, wow absolute. Mayhem the people want to See hulk
get his And Billy spears get his five weeks in
a Row ron stud works With Hulk. Helgen they needed
to make the, guy that's the. Thing they didn't have a,
choice Right AND i.

Speaker 3 (02:06:05):
Was, wrestling obviously against The hulk and just about every
one of these five weeks For, cards about five weeks
in a row and spending almost all of my time
down there in The Gulf Coast territory trying to basically
help The hulk improve as a wrestler as fast as
possible because he was getting over so. Good we were

(02:06:27):
going to push him as much as we, could and
obviously if he got over, good that's going to help
the territory to start growing. Again you, know we were
kind of down. Here we lost all those guys To,
memphis and The hulk single handedly with me and some
really good workers are going to be able to try

(02:06:47):
to bring this. Back in all of our early, matches
meaning the ONES i had against. HIM i led. HIM
i called the. SPOTS i led the matches like the heel.
Would but even THOUGH i was the baby, face AND
i called the spots to make him look good WHENEVER i,
could to give him an idea and uh and basically

(02:07:11):
some on the job training about what to, do how to,
do how to do it AND u and when to do,
it which is even maybe more important than how to do.
It so the ind the ring training was followed up
basically every night in the dressing. Room after the, match
we sat, down the two of, us and we had
these long sessions of continued repetition about you, know this and, that,

(02:07:38):
uh the critiquing of the. Match we talked about you,
know we talked about making sure that the mistakes that
he made were discussed and, uh and that he learned
how to cure, them what to do to cure, them
and along with, that what could we have done better
to have an even better?

Speaker 1 (02:07:58):
Match?

Speaker 3 (02:07:59):
Uh and and at this point in his, CAREER i
Found terry to be a very good student of the.
SPORT i, MEAN, uh had a great. Attitude and after he,
left you, know, uh as time went, BY i, mean
after he moved on to other territories and later on
when he went to w W f and, uh you

(02:08:20):
know the other, territories big Territorys. Uh he was. Smart
he created a lot of unique ways to get himself.
Over yeah he.

Speaker 1 (02:08:30):
DID MM i CAN i can't deal with. This it's
it really. Is it's IT'S i don't know how to describe.
IT i didn't have room in my head for this preamble. Career, no, no,

(02:08:51):
no he Does rocky And vern runs with. It that's. Right,
no a whole fucking, career walks them through a series
of matches and sits down with it afterwards and breaks
down where he can improve and realizes that guy actually
has quite a bit of spark and an understanding of
innateally how to get himself over and what he brings
to the. Table, buller what it brings it out of?

(02:09:15):
Him who's? Talking? Who we're about to find? Out you're
talking to? You you're gonna be talking To Charlie. Platt
on the set In, dothan they're watching the match Back
Ron fuller versus The, hulk and they show The hulk
And Billy spears and The gladiators all Jumping Ron fuller
And Roy welch makes the save and there's a tag
Against hulkin the gladiator managed By, spears And platt Says

(02:09:35):
we're never going to show that footage again of Poor
Lester welch bleeding from the mouth and the clutches Of
Terry Boulders Bear huck And spears on the plat set
With hulk behind. Him you got to picture, THIS i,
mean this is like every giant, ever. Right you got
the manager in the foreground screaming into the, mic and
behind him The hulk is so big and wide that
he almost Subsumes Billy spears an entire profile behind, him glide, wide,

(02:09:58):
glide like he's blocking the, sun you, know like he's
blocking the. Sun and Again Billy spears refers To hulk
His hulk as future NW wa. Champion, yes, yes And
Billy spears boss has added two new guys to his.
Stable welcome to the. Territory The samoans unfucking. Believable only
did they work the road. Together hulk was In billy

(02:10:19):
Spears heel stable with The samoans in nineteen seventy nine Versus,
smoans as mentioned living In. Pensacola later, on there's a
double as qualification as The hul team With gladiator And
Billy spears and thought that the dressing room Against welch
And Roy Ron fuller And Royy. Welch at this, Point

(02:10:41):
hulk was all wrestling fans in that part of the
country talked. About according To Ron, fuller all they talked
about was The, hulk and they didn't, know they didn't
know what they were. Watching can you imagine going to
the building and there's all this buzz in just your
little area about This hulk Guy, no and it's, like,
yeh my, god it's like six years before everyone in

(02:11:04):
the country is. Talking it's like that That. Hulk can
imagine being one of those fans from those three cities
there are. There there's the only a handful that knew him.
Before and, AGAIN i want TO i want to talk
to them if they're still. Alive must. Know maybe the
best we can do is if you go back into

(02:11:24):
Your alabama, Folder, boss to take a good look at
the nineteen seventy nine dash oh, five dash oh. Four
so these are a couple OF us screen grabs From
facebook courtesy of the home he, met where people From
alabama were commenting on threads About hulk's days As, Wow

(02:11:45):
harry The Hulk boulder in that part of the. Country
they're they're an article written About hogan's beginnings In dothan
after his, passing and, yeah here are fans saying things
LIKE i believe he. WAS i believe he was tearing
A Hulk boulder when he wrestled here in Oath, Well.
DAVY i could be, wrong BUT i think he was
Just Terry boulder back. Then now he was he, WAS

(02:12:10):
i ref he, WAS i. REF i don't know his
first match was In. Dothan, oh you, know, well this
is really. Cool do you happen to remember anyone he
might have wrestled during that time In dothan beside his
famous matches With andre Against andre And? Harley thanks so.
MUCH i Remembered terry The Hawk boulder when from him

(02:12:33):
wrestling In Dothan Farm center and In New. Brockton he
actually asked me, out but of COURSE i decline SINCE
i was already. Married Bro one, date, dude, brother you
want to go to? Date, DUDE i live in a. Van,
dude want to come see my? VAN i live ON
i live in a mobile. Van, sorry, MEN i live

(02:12:56):
in a van in MOBILE i canna drive around beach to. Beach,
well you know your house stationary. Brother you, Know hope was.
Poor but you have to say technically when he when
he stayed With David, schultz he was the first guy
to have a mobile phone in the. Business good. Point so,

(02:13:19):
yeah of course he's asking women out in the. Area
of course he Is Bill Bill cappel that he wished Back,
Alabama Gallon. Satla you know you know he damn well
did he want instead of an L a? Girl he
wanted an A l. Girl now that's a Cool, now
that is a cool. Story do you remember anyone Met
terry The Huk Boulder Wrestling dothan Or New. Brock's guy's

(02:13:42):
fucking going crazy for this. Ship he was somebody to
turn this guy into the. Studcast stat's like he won't get. Me,
GODDAMN i didn't know who he. Wrestled sounds like sounds
like us cannone tell me who he?

Speaker 8 (02:13:56):
Wrestled And New, brockton.

Speaker 1 (02:13:58):
Goddamn and enough of what we shout outside of The
dothan studio into any open window we can. Find and
his autobiography he, states and not, QUOTE i wrested all
over the world And the one place that always weirded
me out was doath In. ALABAMA i, mean he's not.
Wrong oh, fuck when your locals don't take, offense that's

(02:14:19):
exactly exactly. Hyah he did Rastionlate Houston County Farm center washed.
Him hold, On oh My, god washed. Him Hold andrew
The giant enter up off the. Mat he fucking, right
the sixty Pound andrew The giant watched. Him Hold andrew
The giant up the matt and a bear. Hug can

(02:14:41):
we take a? Second can we take a? Second, Ye
andrew The, giant The. Giant how has that one never?
HAPPENED i don't even know. How we've never fucking said
that through the. Charms it's like, work does? It it's
not at. All something tells me the Eighth wonder of

(02:15:02):
The world is not Named Andrew Andy andy The giant
and The giant first Saw i'm AT hcfc WHEN i
used to take my grandma to watch wrestling. There he
was a very nice. Guy my grandma had her picture

(02:15:24):
taking with. Him he actually wrestled my daddy back in the. Seventies.
Lol It's britney Mack. Mills here we, Go here we.
Go hold on a, Second Bill. Capple that's really interesting
to see who wrestled whule kviing in the early. Days
if you don't mind me, asking what was your dad's
ring name back? Then thanks so, Much jared did he

(02:15:48):
even sat with his cool dude with his cool dude
at the waffle house WHEN i was about, six must. Fantastically,
YEAH i. WAS i was at The dose The doathan,
match SAYS. R. A. YATES i was at The dothan.
Match we arrived very. Early it sold out and people

(02:16:08):
try to watch through the glass. DOORS i stood near
a dressing room at the end of the. Bleachers he
walked right by me and as he walked to the
ring a big. Man W Tv why wrestling was was
a special time with The, Freebirds Jimmy, Fuller Norville austin
And international Heart Throb Austin. IDOL i didn't mention the
Free birds started there. Too let's, Yeah Terry, GORDY i

(02:16:31):
Remember terry The. HULK i would go down Doath And
Farm saturday For Friday, night been to W Tv why
On saturday afternoon for The shadowagne and then to the
New Brockton Farm center On saturday. Night that's when wrestling
was more of a spot with some show. Boating, yeah,

(02:16:53):
okay Than marie Uh terry what the plays Called gary's
On Hartford highway And. DOTHAN i used to spot for,
him biggest, MAN i have us. ALL i feel like he's,
missing you know. RIGHT i feel like it's a FUCKING
i feel like it's like a lawn order episode and
people are fucking like asking questions around these people doing

(02:17:17):
doing dockwork and stuff, like oh, Yeah terror was out
of now terrible Place gary's, Gym well spot him a
couple of, times could be doing dock working about a,
year that's. Right and they sometimes stopped The Jim steakhouse
And marianna back. Things it Is Jim, steaks all, right all,

(02:17:37):
Right Gem's steakhouse the gym he worked out. In, YEP
i guess we have to go back To. Alabama, wow
good stuff there steak. House and there's. More BUT i,
OKAY i thought that was the last. One, NO i
NEED i just need to find out. This let's bring
the whole thing to a screeching halt until we see

(02:17:58):
the potatoes all. Grotten all, right all, right this is
oh it's a oh, yes this is it's a gym's
buffet and. Grill, NOW i guess In, Marianna, Florida. Florida, yeah, yeah,
yeah let's see they give Me is there a? Menu? Please?

(02:18:18):
Ah here we.

Speaker 8 (02:18:19):
Go.

Speaker 1 (02:18:19):
Menu what do we? Got what do we? Got let's. See,
oh they have beef, dinners the fourteen ounce ribbi uh
tens twenty ounce no ten Ounce rabbi seafood, Dinners Happy
meal for the, family which is a nine piece chicken,
meal six piece pork chopped, meal six piece country fry beef.

(02:18:46):
Steak of course a country fry beef. Cake but that
would be. Different that was really. STUPID i saw him.
Again It's Harley Race, austin not a interfere by taking
a picture with flash cube with Flash Cube coston Costing

(02:19:10):
bowld the. Match what's flash cube to? That trust? Me
what's a flash? Cube get? There you know? What it's
a real thing at Flash cube called it.

Speaker 7 (02:19:20):
That BUT.

Speaker 1 (02:19:22):
I remember Him Thoughtingma John Farm, Center Washington Wrestle Harley
race to the world title at Rip Hugh. Stadium we
took my husband's daddy to see you and went and
for the very first show In, Dothan, alabama daddy's husband's
daddy to see him for the very first show In, Dothan,

(02:19:46):
alabama Show Pulk wrestler. Exactly so we want to talk
To Tammy hilms. Here we gotta get her on the
fucking horn. Boy saw him back in the day at
The New Brocton Farm, center saw him In New. Brockton
that's it. Unreal they're out there and they're taking A

(02:20:07):
facebook to. Reflect oh, wait, sorry well there's this. One
this is. Yet oh, okay this is the next one
you're looking. At, yeah, yeah, yeah we'll get that, right
because we're.

Speaker 8 (02:20:17):
Not to The.

Speaker 1 (02:20:18):
Hulk we're not to The andre match. Yet hulk was
still working Against Ron fuller and they had a match
where to, Win hulk had to use his Bear hug
And fuller had to use the figure four leg, lock
or he didn't call it the figure, four it was
just a light. Lock. Yeah they do a personality profile
on television where it's like tell us About hulk and wrestling,
him And Ron fuller talks about how strong The hulk

(02:20:38):
is and how the bear hug could crush your bones
and how rare these types of submission matches, are like
we're having the one coming. Up, Hey, Brett Brett austin.
MUCH i, mean, yeah, right you have to use your hold.
Though that's the. Thing it's not submit by any. Means
you had to submit him with, wow your. Hold hulk
been wrestling ON tv every week and so people are
getting accustomed to his offensive, arsenal in particular the bear.

(02:20:59):
Hug and then suddenly there's there's a hint of a
bit of a dispute with the, Manager Billy, spears and
the story begins to take some, well let's, say pardon
upun some fuller. Shape here's The tennessee.

Speaker 3 (02:21:12):
Stud so The hook was back ON tv, again and
and he'd been wrestling on EVERY tv show since he
got there except for the very last. Week and for
this time he did something that was really different that
he had never done. Before he had a little dispute
with his, Manager Billy, spears you know. Who billy had

(02:21:34):
him announced As Sterling, golden but the Big, man and you,
know he went straight over the announcer and he told
him to call Me terry the Hug. Boat.

Speaker 1 (02:21:47):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (02:21:48):
Wow, okay, basically there's this big guy man who has
just been following everybody's suggestion and keeping his mouth. Shut
for the first time in his, career he did something
on his. Own you, know nobody told him do. That
he just went over and, Said, hey that's not WHO
i want to be, called call Me. Terry the whole boat.
Wow the guy introduced, him the natural introduced him. Again

(02:22:11):
SO i was pretty, UH i was pretty impressed by.
THAT i, said you, know this kid's got a, son
he's got some ump to. Him So spears obviously was
a little bit upset by, it but he didn't push
it too, far you, Know AND i think that A
hoak made a gesture to him to like get out
on the, floor, right get out of the. Ring oh you,

(02:22:32):
know there's a little thuming going on now Between oak And.
Spears so Then hoak made his opponent give up in
the barreug and when he, did he dropped him. Immediately
he wasn't going to hurt. Him and Then spears jumped
back up in the ring and he made him pick
up the guy and put him in the bar ug
again after he'd already beat him right, Right so you,

(02:22:54):
know and obviously it looked Like spears Wanted oak to
make him bleed from the wow like he had Done
roy And, leicester both The, welches you, Know and SO
i wasn't going to allow. THAT i ran in the
ring And terry And spears they headed for the dressing.
Room the Lap Fan.

Speaker 8 (02:23:12):
Wrestling, podcast the wrestling podcast that knows the boys need their.

(02:23:46):
Candy it's The Lapsed. Fan sick of the. Ads sign
up for ad free shows and even more content at

(02:24:07):
patreon dot Com slash The Lapsed. Fan he's A Lapsed

(02:24:29):
fan wrestling podcast With jack mjp.

Speaker 1 (02:24:33):
Soo so we have the first hint of a potential, babyface,
yes And Terry. Bowler he's taking a stand Against Billy.
Spears and that's a time tested pro wrestling, angle right
where the heel that's managed by the overbearing heel manager eventually.
Right andre did this with With heenan AND wwf. Yep
so it's starting to build and they're starting to already

(02:24:55):
even just like a month, in start kicking. Around what
it looks like at this guy is actually. Babyface so
we continue. Forward he has these three on one handicap
matches and the such and so before we get to
The andre, STUFF i want to skip ahead a little bit.
Now this match that we're about to. Watch if you

(02:25:16):
can configure your your folder, there we're gonna jump. Forward
this actually does take place after The andre. Things you're
gonna see The andre, thing but you keep you keep it,
moving and we're gonna. Go we're gonna go to let
me see how far in it? Is is it a?

(02:25:38):
Tag is it a? Wait is it five seventy? Nine
so at some point A vhs comes out Called Tag
Team Title, wave but it has Hal cochin wrestling in
a non tag team match In Gulf. Coast BUT i
get the tape is mostly made up Of Gulf coast
AND i think some unreleased In memphis as. Well and
so here is, uh here's our first glimpse you're gonna

(02:26:00):
get you get to feel, it and if you want
to find it on, YouTube it's easy to, find ye
of What Terry boley looked like in the ring in
this territory and uh in a classic sort of example
of you, know the muscleman style that he was. Doing
so are we? Ready? Yes start from the? Beginning oh
yeah on my one, okay three two one voting playing

(02:26:27):
play get ready? Folks oh that's crackling, Hum oh, yeah it's.

Speaker 2 (02:26:43):
There it.

Speaker 1 (02:26:46):
Is in, fact There's Parker films three g home video
there he is flexing those huge biceps with a blue
singlet's still In Terry.

Speaker 6 (02:27:02):
Bolea, Oh welcome to another edition of The World's Greatest wrestling.
Series on this, series we featured a madness some of
the most awesome and punishing wrestling actions you've ever. Witnessed
Randy Macho, Man savage, Ravishing Rick, rude the.

Speaker 1 (02:27:20):
Anvil they're rock and roll. Expressions sell as much as
they can off the.

Speaker 7 (02:27:24):
Guys fuss just uncovered from the vaults of private. Collectors
private collectors of carry The Hulk. Boulder that's, Right Hulk
holgan against The.

Speaker 1 (02:27:35):
Outlaw let's go with the private. Collection where's that private?
Look oh, shit all that WAS i just FUCKING i
hit the wrong damn. Button, here pause for a. Second
what's your time? Code go back to one. Eleven, actually
let's start. THERE i want people to observe and listen
to the transition when he actually goes to the ring
and you hear you just see how big he is

(02:27:58):
and how he's. Introduced are you? Ready all? Right? Yeah?
Three two? One play against The.

Speaker 7 (02:28:02):
Outlaw let's go right to the.

Speaker 1 (02:28:04):
Action look At Holy ship.

Speaker 5 (02:28:09):
Five pounds From, Tampa.

Speaker 8 (02:28:10):
Florida terry The Hawk.

Speaker 1 (02:28:12):
Boader wow started getting. Cheers the, hair the hair is, parted.
Golden he's blue, pads blue sing. Up it's sterling as.
Well someone said this might be the sizes fucking. CLOWN
i don't think it's, telebitch the.

Speaker 3 (02:28:27):
Uncrowned did you hear that?

Speaker 1 (02:28:30):
Uncrowned we're gonna find out they need of his colored? Elbow, gone,
oh look at, that just fucking tosses him down like a.
Bitch push you weight by.

Speaker 3 (02:28:39):
Bowler i'll say one thing About Jerry.

Speaker 1 (02:28:42):
Boulder he broke all attendant records and both In alabama
a few weeks ago and he broke all. ATTENDANCE i
don't know is? That is that a real impressive? Thing
breaking records and do thirty seven? Seconds he held that
title talking About wow for the deep. Slam hogan's, going, no,

(02:29:02):
no you're not gonna slam this guy.

Speaker 3 (02:29:06):
Wow questioning about his.

Speaker 1 (02:29:10):
Slam look at. Him the hair is really fluffy. Too
it's not. Thin it is now thinning on the. Top but,
yes it looks on the sides like he would make
it very soft.

Speaker 3 (02:29:24):
Hair.

Speaker 1 (02:29:26):
Wow looksty thing really was? This is he's much more
advanced that he was in fucking in That florida training.
Footage he's, like he looks probably some of his most
intensive over seeing big whip and there's the bear. Hut,

(02:29:46):
whoa look at that he's got. That that's. Right charlie's
got a bag left to right Like marlene In. China, right, yeah.

Speaker 8 (02:30:02):
He's.

Speaker 1 (02:30:02):
Dead oh my, god look at the. FANS i, mean
that was. It that's. Wild what just go, ahead, impressions
you've seen. Them it's just it's it's seeing him in
THE i don't Think i've ever seen him that early,
on and he looks he looks. Phenomenal, honestly he's in great,

(02:30:24):
shape and he looks he looks, tough he looks. Threatening,
right that's. KEY i can't you, KNOW i can't think
of a, time you, know it's certainly not in my,
uh sweet and warm and fuzzy period where he felt.
Threatening and that's and AND i mean like physically aggressively,

(02:30:45):
threatening not just not like this guy. Alive, yeah. Exactly it's.
Wild it's quite a way to get introduced to this
guy instead of the way we got introduced to him
as young hul comaniacs after the whole the cake had been.
Baked you, know those those those twenty people in THAT
tv studio cheering him on or oh yeah at the absolute.
Vanguard So fuller continues to work With Terry, boulder including

(02:31:09):
The april twenty third show In. Montgomery this is the
one where you could win by submission. Only Ron fuller
recalls it being a great match with people into, it
And terry still a, heel kept leaving the ring Whenever
Ron fuller would go for his leg lock because uh
uh oh some trauma, there boss, right, yes, exactly And
i'm trying to not get caught in the hold. Brother,
Finally Terry boulder collides with the ref And fuller gets

(02:31:32):
the toe hold on in the. Middle Billy spears hits
the ring with the referee down And fuller on his
back and The hulk screaming that he was giving, up
but there's no referee to hear. Him Billy spears had
a loaded fist and Knock Ron fuller. Out he got
The hulk, Up hulk put the bear hug, On spears
left the, Ring referee, recovered Raised fuller's arm three, times
ring the. Bell terry The Huke boulder Squeezes Ron fuller to.

(02:31:53):
Death he raises his hand in. Victory spears And hulk
had to fight their way via police to the back
to the dressing, room and they came back with a
lumberjack match this, time the idea being That hulk can't
run out of the ring like he did When Ron
fuller was threatening with the leg lock and keep you.
Out he showed, something Run fuller, says by doing something

(02:32:13):
he wasn't told to. Do uh in the, match he
had good sensibilities and a good feeling for the, sport
AND i knew right, away Run fuller, said this guy
is going to be big time by the end Of.
April he's Working montgomery against The wrestling pro and the
territory brings in IN Wa World Heavyweight Champion Harley race
for the first time Since Terry bolea arrived in The

(02:32:35):
Gulf coast. Territory so that's going to make for an interesting,
mix oh for, sure and lead to comments like we
just heard about How Terry boleya was referred to On
Gulf Coast Television Southeastern television as the Uncrowned World Heavyweight
champion in his first fucking two months three months in the.
Business and here Comes Andre, insane here Comes, Andres As

(02:32:59):
hulk said to a book that ww came out with
About andre The, giant including commentary from people that wrestled
them from all over the. World hulk, said WHEN i
first got into the, business in my, MIND i THOUGHT
i could get as big As. Andre, yeah he even
told the newspapers he was. Right, apparently apparently he can
weigh more Than. ANDRE i wasn't. STUPID i KNEW i
could never be seven foot. FOUR i just thought that

(02:33:19):
in the wrestling BUSINESS i could be so big people
would just believe, Everything, like even if you Beat, andre
nobody really believe that he was so. Big so that
was my goal to be the, biggest STRONGEST i could,
be and hopefully be more impressive Than. Andre and along
with that came my, verbiage and that was a direct
threat To. Andre, yeah as far As ron stud could,
assess he knew what he. Needed he knew what he.

(02:33:40):
Needed he needed a guy that was. Big because If
hull could now destroyed, him the tallest guy in the
territory and really the biggest guy in the, territory not
from a star buyer, perspective but a literal height and mass,
perspective where do you go from? There if he's already
Squashed Ron, fuller where are you going to turn To

(02:34:02):
boss to find someone that can match the stature of
This terry The Hulk. Boulder, well who's the man for the?
Job all one of?

Speaker 2 (02:34:12):
Us?

Speaker 1 (02:34:12):
Are are you all down?

Speaker 6 (02:34:16):
There?

Speaker 3 (02:34:19):
Are?

Speaker 1 (02:34:20):
MEG i come the golf, Coast, oh the golf coast
of The. STROLL i know we've been doing a lot
of COMPLETE i know we, have but can you believe
we're already talking About Hulk cogan Versus andre The? Giant? No,

(02:34:44):
NO I i figured we had another couple of months
before we got. There and here's, Why Ron fuller speaking to.

Speaker 3 (02:34:50):
It, Well Louis man and Both louie AND i were
pleased with with His star Of. Recruit that's What i'll call,
HIM i guess so was the name we'd given. Him
And terry had a great, Attitude he had a great
desire to learn as fast as, possible and Both low
AND i recognized early on That terry's height and his

(02:35:12):
huge body was going to make it difficult for him
to wrestle just any you, know anybody, basically and certainly
for smaller, guys so other than me at six feet,
nine he was going to be looking down at almost every.
Opponent he is about six, Eight so In may in
nineteen seventy, nine he was about as far as long

(02:35:35):
AS i was going to be able to take. HIM
i couldn't keep wrestling him every. Week that's What i've
been doing now for about four, weeks and the upcoming
card that we'll be talking about later was the fourth
straight week That i'd wrestle against. Him so he was
going to need someone else his size soon to work,
with and we'd already begun to discuss who in the

(02:35:56):
sport was close to his size and available as soon as.
Possible somebody had to replace, me and one name we
both liked Was Ox, baker but he wasn't available soon
enough for. Us it was going to be a little
wild Before ox could get. There so the person that
we discussed Was Perfect, man and he was a wrestler

(02:36:19):
that also needed someonet closer to his size to have
a competitive. Match So lewis was From, Montreal, canada and
they had a close relationship with the most recognized wrestler
in the world back in those days and maybe still,
Today andre The, giant and they ad met years earlier
In montreal When andrea arrived there From. France so due

(02:36:42):
to that, connection Now andre was somewhat. Available he was
going to be easy for us to think get down
there into The Gulf. Coast SO i also had a
very good relationship With. Andre he'd been in the territory
match since four years. Earlier he had been in Both

(02:37:04):
southeastern territories at this. Point and but just as, IMPORTANT
i also had a good relationship with the guy that
booked him, man and that Was, vincement the owner of
THE wwf.

Speaker 1 (02:37:15):
Territory He'd Ron fuller had wrestled For Vince senior IN
wwwf in nineteen seventy, three And vince was back on
HIS nwa good graces at that point in, time so
he'd See Vince senior at THE nwa. Convention you, know
it wasn't rare to have guys like A Rick flair
Or ted De biassi who were working for other N
wa territories to work In Madison Square garden here or.

(02:37:36):
There that's. Right we know this this is around the
time we played it earlier in the Complete Hulic coogan
that they did The Superstar Billy graham Versus Harley Race
champion Versus champion Super bowl match at The Orange. Bowl
so there's a lot of co, promotion a lot of cooperation. Going,
Yeah super Super bowl of all the, leagues all the
leagues been a fan of that other version of That Super.
Bowl we needed a big. Guy and how about that

(02:37:59):
if Ox baker was, available maybe we wouldn't have gotten this. Early,
WOW i, know right Proto Hogan andre. Action but the
pieces were, there the connections were, right And, louis to let,
it already talked To andrea About hogan being a perfect
fit for him and a perfect.

Speaker 3 (02:38:14):
Opponent So andre The giant and the Future hug were
an obvious natural fit for each. Other louis had already
talked To andrea about his new talent that we had
and that he was huge Like andrea and a perfect
fit for him as an. Opponent And i'd also talked
To Vince senior at this point about someone knew THAT

(02:38:34):
i had in my territory there was a perfect fit For.
Andre so basically a deal was made between me And.
Vince Obviously andre was going to be a part of,
it and it was going to Put andre In, Dothan,
alabama On friday, Night may the, fourth nineteen seventy nine
for a three day. Stay and That may the, fourth

(02:38:56):
nineteen seventy nine, Afternoon terry The Huge boat Or Sterling
golden or you, know whatever name he, wanted and they
had a bunch of them at this, point you, know
they wanted to you, know The terry rode with me
over To Louis tilled's home In, dothan And andre was waiting.

Speaker 1 (02:39:16):
There.

Speaker 3 (02:39:16):
Wow, Yes so it was In Southeastern resting on The
may the, fourth nineteen seventy nine that for the first,
Time andre To johan And Huk hogan laid eyes on each.

Speaker 1 (02:39:28):
Other, huh that's wild face to. Face you think of
The WrestleMania three video jacket cover With hulk And andrea
and that iconic face. Off quite a different story in
the spring of seventy nine In, alabama Where terry The
Hulk Boulder greeness can Be. Greeness The hulk himself walks
into a room and first makes eye contact with the

(02:39:50):
guy that he would draw the most money with and
just take the business to a higher level than anyone
ever thought possible with That pontiac silver domin eighty, Seven
let the echo of eighty, Seven let the echoes of
our pilgrimage to The Pontiac silver. Nomes, yes, indeed begin
let us go to the. Route the next, time on
the Complete Hull, cogan we go to the very First

(02:40:12):
Hull cogan Versus andre The giant. Match this anouncement as.

Speaker 8 (02:40:17):
A T J DeSantis, production its contents is intended for
private use.

Speaker 3 (02:40:21):
Only