Ep. 436: The Complete Hulk Hogan | Sweet Goodbye, Alabama

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:15):
It's a Lapsed Fan wrestling podcast special report. The Lapsed
Fan presents the Complete hull Cogan, a real American story
brought to you by Garage Beer you.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Know around here Lately. Boss is part of the Complete
Hulled Cogan. It's kind of felt like Sweet Home Alabama,
hasn't it.

Speaker 3 (00:33):
That?

Speaker 2 (00:34):
It has starting to feel right at home in the
Gulf Coast. And just as soon as we're getting comfortable,
much like Terry Blaya did in nineteen seventy nine, it's
time to move on. Yeah, I agree. I mean, listen, listen.
We're not here to make people comfortable, all right, We're
here to make people feel uncomfortable, And as soon as
they feel a sense of normality, it's time to produce abnormality,

(00:57):
for better or worse. Terry Boulaya always knew when he
was overstaying his welcome, right, I'll be he was. He
was pretty good at it, Like well, he wasn't as
good as as Terry Funk, but he had his moments.
That's right. That's a great point. Yeah, Well, perhaps if
Terry struck gold in New York like Hogan did, he

(01:21):
wouldn't have left either on such a rapid clip. But yes,
you're right, that is an interesting contrast. But we have
to we have to put a bow on this thing.
Last time we were with you on the Complete Hulk Hogan.
Hogan had just wrestled Harley Race at the Rip Hughes
Football Stadium in Dothan, Alabama for the NWA World Heavyweight Title,
a match that ended when Austin Idol got up on

(01:43):
the apron snapped a flash photograph and Hogan's eyes blinded
him and caused him to get rolled up one, two three.
According to Ron Fuller, I mean, there's not enough for
you in there, and what I just said at all
the things it says, I don't know what to tell
you at this point in the journey there. There's too
much going on right there. And I would say definitely

(02:05):
a lot of fear, a lot of fear, a lot
of concern, you know, photographers to roll ups. It's getting real,
it's getting real for hul Covid. Yeah. Yeah, he's already
starting to learn to look out of the corner of
his eye. And I think there's a lot to be said.
I mean, the thesis basically is everything you think Hulkkein

(02:28):
figured out as his career unfolded he did in the
first six months in Alabama. Yeah, in one way or another,
he downloaded all he needed to download about the characteristics,
the Austin Idel stuff that he lifted. But there's a
home stretch here for the Alabama run. Chronologically, it gets
a little complicated because at the same time he's working
in parallel in Memphis around this time, almost as frequently.

(02:50):
But as we discussed last time, when he steps into
the ring against Harley Race in July nineteen seventy nine
in doth And, he'd already essentially communicated to booker Louis
Tillette and owner Ron Fuller that he was moving on.
Ron Fuller, of course, as we mentioned, is sort of
put the blame on Toilette for not putting a strap
on Hogan earlier and making him feel like he was
going to be a centerpiece of the promotion and thus

(03:11):
very susceptible to an offer from Jerry Jarrett and Company
up in Memphis for a bit more money and perhaps
a bit more spotlight. So Hogan has already made it
clear before he steps into the ring with Harley Race,
according to Ron Fuller, that he's not long for the world,
And so we have to take a look at how
Hogan played out the string because when you hear that,
you might think it was sort of a hard stop.

(03:32):
And after he fails to defeat Hardly for the championship,
he hasn't really seen in the territory. Again, that is
not the case. In addition to Memphis, he goes to
work for Georgia, and these are two offices that didn't
necessarily have adversarial relationships with Ron Fuller in Southeast. It's
not like when he went to these two territories he
would never be welcomed back again. In fact, he even

(03:53):
goes to New York to the WWWF and comes back
to work a couple of some shows. Now Alabama by
the close of nineteen seventy nine. Yes, wow, Bob Armstrong,
of course, a long time staple in the area, father
of the road Dog for those among temporary fans. Yeah yeah,
ends up back in sort of the power circle with
Southeastern Championship Wrestling, and they work a bit of a

(04:16):
program to close out nineteen seventy nine, and I think
an extreme serendipity it all ends on what of all
nights for Hogan and Alabama, but Christmas nineteen seventy nine.

Speaker 4 (04:27):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (04:28):
So we're going to take you through to that here
on this week's episode. Of course, the complete hull Kogan
as you know by now made possible not only by
your incredible support on Patreon, but also our friends at
Garage Beer, fastest growing beer brand in the US Crisp
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(04:51):
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dot Com for their beer finder and support them this
holiday season, and you know it toasts the new year.
Let's ring in twenty twenty six, Yeah, with a cold
garage beer. Absolutely, when the when the ball drops, head
to the garage. Yeah. And when they leaned into TLF,

(05:12):
all of a sudden the awards started pouring in on
their side of the house. Think not, I think not.
So it's been terrific to have their support as we
do really what it takes and spend what it takes
to really dig and on earth as much as can
be said about as we've talked about Boss, a criminally
underdocumented part of Hulkgan's life in times you know the

(05:35):
more we the more we dig into it, the more
it's It's really shocking that people have not really talked
about it as much as as they should have. It's
a real shame, Like what do you what are you doing?
You're missing out? I mean, listen, I'm grateful, you know,
if we're uncovering some stuff that maybe had been covered

(05:55):
for quite a while. So I'll take that. But you
know what, the fuck the fact that Hogan verse Harley
in July of nineteen eighty and doth in nineteen eighty
seventy nine in Dothan filled this football stadium the only time,
according to Ron Fuller, that this territory had a stadium
scale show, and not a single photograph exists of that show,
let alone the match between Harley and Hogan. Yep, just

(06:18):
sets my mind into a tizzy. I mean it's just,
you know, I guess all we can count on are
these snippets of fans who have posted things on Facebook
or forums over the years that that bore witness, Right,
I mean, that's the best we can hope for, right, boss,
the best we can hope for. Well, we'll see about that.
But the complete Hull Coogan continues two unfold and is

(06:40):
mentioned he had just hustled with Harley Race. I did
sort of parrot something that Ron Fuller said about the
match that I'm going to reel in on this episode.
And this is thanks to the homie Matt, who was
quick to point out immediately that in fact, Hogan verse
Harley seventy nine dothen yes, was not the only time

(07:06):
that Hull Cogan challenged for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. Fuck,
turn your attention please, if you could, to your chat
window and observe. Tell the folks what you see. Hold
on here, what do you see? What? Describe? Describe? Well,

(07:31):
the first thing, obviously, you know, your eye goes right
to the fact that you got Hull Cogan wearing yellow
and red. By the way, yes, yellow and red. That's key.
He is giving a roundhouse right too, uh uh Harley Race,
who's holding the the NWA title. It says right there
up in the ever left corner, Harley Race versus Hull Cogan,

(07:53):
but down on the lower left hand corner. This is
what's kind of a little this is this is this
is interesting. Is a lot of Japanese characters or some
kind of Asian cash and say I mean, I'm assuming
Japan because wrestling is in Japan. I don't know, but yeah,
a lot of Japanese characters saying something. I don't know what,

(08:17):
but it's saying something. So I imagine this happened in Japan.
You know what. No, the photo ran in a Japanese
magazine only, oh my god, I won't say only, but
it ran. What we have here is a photo from
a Japanese magazine. No, what you're looking at with Harley
Race to your point holding the license plate NWA World
Title belt, the one that we just can't allow our

(08:40):
minds to put in the same space time continuum as
Hull Camanium. Yes, what you were looking at is Hulk
Hogan wearing the red and yellow Yes, going for the
NWA World title in October nineteen eighty three in Saint Louis.
What how yep? Take your time? I mean, okay, so

(09:10):
I'm trying to think here eighty three. I mean, wouldn't
have he wouldn't he been working for VERN sort of yes,
but not exclusively. He's going to Japan all the time,
and Saint Louis was a very close confident on office
to Vern, just like it was to Fritz. You know,
but I but I thought that, you know, why would

(09:32):
I mean, I guess if you're not if he's not
exclusive to Verne, then he's okay. But something Why would
Verne let somebody go down to n WA territory when
he was very anti NWA. I but what makes you
say he's anti NWA. Well, he made his own fucking
company because he didn't get the NWA championshop. You go
back to the fifties, Yeah, I got you. Yeah, I
think by now he's kind of over that for the

(09:54):
most part. I mean, he has his own world champion.
But guys like Bockwinkle and Toura many others were allowed
to go to Keel auditorium shows and work for Sam
much Nick and Larry Matti sick. Yeah, just like you know, well,
I guess Fritz never really split off from the NWA
in a clean breakaway until the late eighties. Yeah, but

(10:15):
you know, when it was time to start pushing the boys,
they went where to Saint Louis Television, particularly David von
Erik to meet Harley in that handicapped matches we talked
about in a lamentable tragedy. I just it's one thing
to say that Hulk Hogan challenged Charlie Race for the
NBA Championship the same year he came back to WWF
to start the whole Camania run, but with that belt.

(10:37):
But it's another thing to say he was wearing the
red and yellow. I can't. I can't accept that Hogan
wore red and yellow trunks before January nineteen eighty four.
Well did he? Or I should say December eighty three didn't?
He didn't. Didn't he wear red and yellow for that
that Super Sunday match? Was it red? And Well? It was,

(11:00):
but I think that the trunks were red if I'm
not mistaken when I picture Hogan and Awa, and I'm
sure you know it's very at everybody's fingertips to pull
up counter examples, but I don't know. Man. When I
heard about this match, before I saw the pick, I'm like, Okay,
it's going to be him, and like, you know, light
blue trunks wrestling Harley, Right, yeah, right, No, he's wearing

(11:21):
red and yellow. He's wearing it's exactly like he did
in WWA. That's that's nuts. There were two matches in
October of nineteen eighty three, and it's really fascinating because
where do they go right when he's well a whole
on a second, Actually, no, that I'm thinking about it,
he's not working for VERN. He is, Yeah, he is.

(11:41):
He's working for Vern. Yeah, because the shows that he
know shows after giving his notice were Christmas Time eighty
three and that's when he shows up in Wow in
New York. But well, where does he do it? Let's
not forget where were the television tapings happening the very
first time Hulk Hogan came back from the ABA Saint
Louis Chase tell So that adds a whole new context

(12:03):
of how the Saint Louis fans that saw Hulkogan make
a surprise return with just a couple of days left
in nineteen eighty three to the WWF, they would have
seen him in that city at Keel going for the
world title a few months before that against Harley Race.
So keep that in mind when you take in that
famous footage of him returning in December ety three, and

(12:23):
in what the Saint Louis fans had thought about this guy.
He wasn't this distant guy that they may have remembered
when he wrestled in seventy nine and eighty for the
WWWF that they would have just seen him under the
auspices of Sam Muchnick and the NWA. So Jesus I
thought it was highly appropriate to rein in that. Admittedly,

(12:45):
the speculation from Ron Fuller that that may have been
in seventy nine, Hogan's only NBA Championship shot just another
example of how much there still is to learn as
we go through this chronology about Hulk Cogan. It's absolutely oh,
I'm I mean, it's just it's almost it's borderline unacceptable, right, Okay,

(13:09):
the border line unacceptable because of the magnitude of his career.
You think, if there's one wrestler that I have a
handle on the biggest things he did, it's Hult COVID
and you don't even have forty percent of it. Yeah, right, exactly,
because he did he did so much more before he
went full time for the McMahons that then we can

(13:31):
handle handle. I mean, it's one thing to look through
a chronological list of his matches, but when you see
the pictures and you get the texture, and you hear
the testimonials from people who were fortunate enough to lay
eyes on the things that he was doing, that do
not survive on videotape or even still photography. That's a
whole different matter. And looking back on the match in
Dothan against Harley, Ron said in his podcast that they

(13:52):
were trying to figure out how to see all these
people in this stadium. It was a football field, wasn't
as secure as a typical wrestling arena was. And so
what do you have to worry about? I mean, all
of a sudden, you've got to worry about people finding
ways to sneak in. I mean, think about a high
school football stadium. There's a million ways in that motherfucker
who's exactly no less than Terry the Hulk Boulder wanted

(14:12):
a full security plan. Ah, but I mean I could
there must have been hundreds of people that did not
pay and found a way into that stadium for this match. Oh,
I would imagine I'm listening it. I mean, I don't
know high school football stadium. I figured that's pretty easy
to fucking oh. And Ron Fuller said his podcast you

(14:38):
remembers asking announcer slash businessman businessman, I should say a
promoter Charlie Platt, who helped with a lot of his logistics.
How many people do you think the Ripheus Stadium is
going to hold? And he recalls plat say about eight thousand,
and Fuller said, I trusted that was an accurate figure.
And that night he's sitting at home. He just wrestled
in Knoxville, where the war is in full tilt. So
Ron Fuller is spending all of his time there, not

(15:00):
down in Dothan. And he had his cousin Royley well
chandled the box office down there, waiting for the call.
Ron's waiting for the call from down there to see
how many people they did. Comes in seventy eight hundred people,
two thousand more fans that had ever attended an event
in Dothan. Wow, he said, you get to keep this
in mind. If basically eight thousand people were at the
stadium and fifty thousand people lived in Dothan, think about

(15:25):
what you're saying there. Yeah, I mean that's not to
say everybody in that stadium is from Dothan. There are
plenty of shots on the territory. There were a couple
hour drive. But still, I mean, when you really it's
one thing to say these territories, these old school territories
used to put thousands in the building or every every week.
It's another when you step back and say, well, the
population wasn't that big. That's remarkable. That's like the only

(15:47):
thing going on in town. No wonder, these territories, in
these areas that didn't have professional sports teams thrive so much,
right right, of course, of course, because you know they
got nothing else to do. That's much easier to convince
you in a city like that that wrestling is kind
of like the prestige night out, you know, like the thing,
the sporting event that has the most consequence. I think

(16:08):
that's often overlooked when people talk about why, uh these
people were, you know, chanting and reacting to these matches
like they were real, These old ladies and these adults
you see in the audience in the territorial days and
equal in greater parts than you see children. That's what
Hulk Hogan did at w w F, of course, is
switch the demographics to primar ely kids. But before that
it's adults. They were looking for blood, They're looking for

(16:28):
pieces of ship to get their asses handed to them
by good old boys, and that works, right. I mean,
you know, end of the week, you know, it's a
perfect time everyone's everyone just got through a hard week
at work, and they they want to they wanna to release,
to say the least. Yeah, And the thing is they

(16:50):
have not. They have not they have nothing else going on.
There's no other sport, so like, I don't know, man
like if if there's not you know, three major professional
sports teams in my city, or even a collegiate sport
that's convenient to get to to speak of a lot
easier to just say, you know what, even wrestling's phone. Yeah,
I'm going to take it seriously because I don't really
have a lot more on the way of sport entertainment

(17:11):
options here. I don't know, I don't have a lot
going on in my life, right, I mean just they're
not going on around me, not my life, but just
no in my life. I gotta treat something like it's real.
Oh my god. But Ron Fuller starts getting calls from
Louis Toillette and it's deep French accent. Louis sounds extremely upset.

(17:31):
Ron said, I could hardly get him to calm down.
He was ecstatic. The crowd was way over ten thousand.
Actually he was as he estimated, Rather that the crowd
was way over ten thousand, well, seventy eight hundred. There
had been a fucking revolt backstage because the wrestlers were
all pissed off with their pay and assume that someone

(17:52):
had stolen thousands from them, and the wrestlers because when
they assessed it an eyeballed it. They said, there's no way,
there's only seventy eight hundred people. That's what you have
to remember about, you know, the double edged sword of
doing too well in this territory in this era. Yes,
just like we talked about the idea that Ron Fuller

(18:13):
didn't want the photographers from the national wrestling magazines covering
this stuff while we have such a dearth of pictures
of Terry doing his thing down there. It's because that
would spread national awareness of how much money they were
actually making and cause all kinds of fucking headaches when
people start adding up how much they should be owed,
or their promoters start salivating at the prospect of stealing
these wrestlers who are filling buildings in this sort of

(18:34):
low key territory. And this is part and parcel. I
think of that same psychology of like, yeah, we want
to go big, but I mean Ron Fuller refers to
it its podcast. It's always been the kiss of death
to have a huge crowd and a new location like that.
Can you imagine doing a crowd like that and the
first way you choose to describe it is the kiss
of death. Yes, I wonder hull Kgan doesn't remem this fondly,

(18:55):
you know, you know, no wonder people didn't talk about
this for years and years and years because all this
intrigue swirling around, these wrestlers breaking off and running opposition,
everyone bitching and covetching about the size of the crowd
and if they're getting screwed in the payoff, alleging people
skimming money off the gate. It's all this negative shit,
you know. It's like everyone's succeeding despite themselves. And the

(19:18):
second you do something really big, my god, do you
have a headache on your hands? Right? He said? The
wrestler's eyes get big when they see crowd like that,
And so Ron trying to put this fire out, gets
Charlie Platt and the phone and they ask himate how
many people are on the field. It's one thing to
say how many people are in the seats and the bleachers,
how many people on the field, but four hundred, and
they said that stadium would have been full if they
were sitting out there. Gordon Soley actually came to the show,

(19:41):
if you can believe that. Wow. Gordon Soley had done
about a year on television in the territory, working side
by side with Charlie Platt, kind of in an interregnant
period before he became again the voice of a WTBS
superstation wrestling for Georgia Championship, and he had presented Charlie
Platt during the show with an award from the National
Wrestling Alliance as the best new television wrestling commentator in America.

(20:02):
So that was certainly a proud moment for Charlie Platt
and one for the Alabama wrestling fans to remember fondly.
It doesn't get any more through and through Alabama than
Charlie Platt. He spent his whole life in that state
and working in television and radio. So he was one
of those you know, sort of like Dave Brown and
Lance Russell and Memphis so many other examples Bob Coddles
we talked about. These are people who were part of

(20:23):
the community above and beyond the fact that they were
the wrestling announcer part of the local news station, for example,
or the local news radio station above and beyond the
fact that they were wrestling announcers. And Ron Fuller says
in his podcast This Night, Hogan Harley should have catapulted
the territory into one of the best in the country.
Should have caught us on fire. But instead this controversy
over the size of the crowd did just the opposite. Yep,

(20:46):
did just the opposite. What lessons being learned here? Boss?
Do you think for a young Terry bolea browler, I
don't know who to trust me more? Dude, right? I
mean I filled this house too definitely not fill the house,
but that I'm told I didn't fill a house, brother,

(21:06):
and I filled the house too much, dude, or a
stand brother. You want me to sell out, Dude, I
sold out. That's a lot too much. Kind of freaked
me out. Freaking me out as and felt this betrayed
since Eddie Graham told him it was fake and that

(21:27):
Matt Tudor broke his leg for no reason. I don't
say any or or when Mike Graham did anything. I
know hadn't been this betrayed since Mike Graham didn't call
him on his birthday every year since nineteen sixty five.
So yeah, fuller'sa's. Call after call came in from wrestlers
after the show, all with the same complaint, and finally

(21:48):
Ron just had to stop taking their calls around midnight
because it's just getting so ridiculous. And Ron said, you know,
looking back, I shouldn't have worked a wrestling show in
Knoxville that night. I should have taken myself off that card,
put the war to the side for a minute, and
I could have been down there in person and Dothan
and straightened a lot of this out instead of you
know the fact that his absence seemed to make things
even worse because nobody feels like they're talking to the

(22:09):
person that can make it right. You know, they're just
dealing with middlemen like Louis Tillette. Looking back round, Fuller
simply said the Knoxville War cost him everything and that
this match was the high point of Gulf Coast Wrestling,
the Knoxville War, the Knoxville Five. That's right, but's a go.
As for Harley, he would go on, He would go

(22:31):
on to continue raining, I think we know this. Harley's
got a ways to go before starr K eighty three
when he really passes the torch. Here's how he looked
and sounded. This is Harley late August, Okay, just a
month after doing this match with Terry Bulla and Dothan Alabama,
back with the Strap making the towns, including this promo

(22:52):
that survives from nineteen seventy nine down in Houston for
Paul Bosh, I think.

Speaker 5 (22:57):
He told you off.

Speaker 6 (23:00):
Telling somebody off and doing something about It's two different things.
I happen to be World's heavyweight champion. You don't win
this by garbage. You don't win this by standing here,
running your big mouth and proving to everyone that you
can talk louder than they can. The talk ends and
the action begins in that squared circle. Now you get

(23:23):
your big overstuff carcass in there anytime you feel fit, Daddy,
because this is on the line to any living human
being and wrestling. And I think you know what I'm
talking about, mister Bosh. I just proved it all over again.
I am now three times World's heavyweight champion, and I

(23:44):
can truthfully say I can beat any man in the world,
and that includes that big over stuffed water buffalo.

Speaker 3 (23:52):
Well, the over stuff to wall of the Buffalo. Evidently
such a point on World's champion Harley Race. But it
is true that Bruce of Brody is better than he's
ever been. But Harley Race looks like he is in
top condition right now.

Speaker 2 (24:09):
And of course coming off an angle where Bruiser Brodie
called him out and they were working a program. But
that's what Harley sounded like in seventy nine. That's some
swag right there. Oh yeah, he's singing. He's wrapping the
whole thing about being the top guy and the top dog.
Right after just thinking back, thinking back to yes, the
people that Terry Boleya may have rubbed the wrong way

(24:32):
inadvertently coming up in Florida. Guess who got his ass
right in line to work Harley for the championship after
Terry Bowlea did this kind of business with Harley and
doth And guess who all of a sudden was right
at the front. Mike Graham, Dusty Rhodes. That all come

(24:53):
on within a month, within a month and a half,
within a month and a half of Hogan selling the
show out with Harley, Dusty Rhodes defeats Harley Race to
become NWA World Heavyweight Champion August twenty first, nineteen seventy nine,
in Tampa, Florida for the first time. Baby, I'm going

(25:13):
through around waiting, Daddy. I gotta get my I think
ione else was doing some business. Baby, I gotta take
care of bet to my fail you say, oh, don't
overextraplate that. That's ridiculous. It was just his time the rate.
No yet he lost the belt five days later. Back
to Harley's Oh, Dustin's I refuse to not connect those
dots because Dusty sent You know, Dusty was pretty much

(25:36):
running the territory with Mike Graham. I'm part of me,
Eddie Graham. They sent Jack and Jerry Briscoe to that show.
They worked underneath Hartley versus Rays, Hartley versus bolea Boulder.
Can't claim they didn't know, can't claim Dusty didn't know
that Terry was doing this kind of business. Here's maybe
some reconnaissance. Maybe the brisk Goes engaged in some kind

(25:56):
of reconnaissance, maybe engaged in some kind of you know,
retroactive you know, damage control around letting this guy slip
through their fingers in seventy seven. I don't know. I'm
just thinking out loud here, boss.

Speaker 7 (26:09):
I mean, look that they knew what they had though,
you know they knew what they had. What it is, yeah,
you know, they just they you know, they're just just
a coincidence, is what it is. It's not there's no
all right, I'm glad you know what, Why are you
putting conspiracy theory?

Speaker 2 (26:24):
It's not conspiracy theory. I'm just glad you reached the
reasonable conclusion. It's just a it's just a happenstance. And
you know, and and and you know, Dusty, it was
it was just time, you know, for five for five days.
Well you got to get that first time, and you
know that's what matters. Just get that first time in
the bag. Talk to me, Talk to me, daddy. How

(26:45):
did they do down in and Well, I'll tell you, gosh,
I really was. I couldn't believe it. I mean this
Tury Bowley and we had come through this stadium like
I hadn't seen. The people were up. They wanted to
see a being Harley. I couldn't believe it, Dusty, I
gotta tell you, wait, wait, what do you think the

(27:06):
bull thought? I was saying, Daddy with his who he is?
I mean you he didn't hesitate to make sure he
never worked the Armory. There has truly Armory Wall. Then
fucking Jimmy Stewing on the phone, Jimmy stew what are
you doing on the phone, baby, I'll be talking about

(27:27):
the Brith Goes. Daddy, I'm asking you to elevate your
game and do a Dusty that's passive aggressive about Terry
Boley doing this kind of business and making his way
to negotiating a world title run.

Speaker 7 (27:40):
Well, I just got you know, if I'm the daddy,
he's the thing, baby, but the Terry Bully if he
hits the problem with Terry Boulet. You know what I'm saying,
the thing if you see what he's trying to do,
he's trying to take things to a different level. Baby,
that we're not that that that that that's going outside
n w A.

Speaker 2 (27:56):
You see what I'm saying. It's a it's a territor.

Speaker 5 (28:00):
It does.

Speaker 2 (28:01):
But what he did it he's taking under the own hands, Baby,
that he wants to take that belt and take out NBA,
make it own Terry Bowley promotion. Baby, trying to do Daddy,
he's turned with the t B A all right, baby,
Terry Bowl affociations. All right, So the baby, I gotta

(28:23):
we gotta play it faith, Baby, we gotta play it faith.
And I'm telling you right now, the best way we
do things, okay, the best way we do things right now,
we give people what they want, the American Bean broth
the road, NWA World Heavyweight Champion. Your only thing at
the time is now to call our favor in a
barnette of all time. Now, I'm just saying, daddy, because
you look, you look, baby, I'm concerned about the NBA.

(28:45):
You consider out the NBA. We got Terry Bowley doing
things that ain't never been done before because they shouldn't
be done, right, Why why not? Why shouldn't they be done?
Because Daddy, he's he's breaking traditional. Baby, Well about NBA,
it's all about tradition, and that's not that we can Yes,
we can evolve tradition, Baby, New traditions come and go

(29:08):
every Christmas. There's a new tradition in the road. Half, Baby,
that's what happened. But the thing is deaddy when don't
break ranks like.

Speaker 8 (29:17):
Terry Boley, because pretty soon it's not gonna be the
NWA Championship, It's gonna be the Terry Ballet Championship.

Speaker 2 (29:31):
The TBA Championship by t BD is more like it.
I can't. I mean, the Dream immediately plugs himself in,
immediately pulls rank Oh and gets the strap. I'm sorry,
I just have to connect the dots.

Speaker 4 (29:46):
I have to.

Speaker 2 (29:47):
That's tremendous. I mean, that is absolutely I mean, listen,
you think about you think about Dusty at that time, right,
and that's what he was all about. He was all about,
you know, taking advantage of that kind of stuff. He
was he was all about getting ahead of somebody else

(30:07):
that might become the top babyface. Yes, you know, and
that's that's survival instinct and wrestling. But he was you know,
especially you know Crocket Television. The country saw it in
late eighties, mid to late eighties, particularly mid eighties when
when Flair started to become more popular in those TBS
studios than him, and he was a fucking basket case.
He didn't know what to do when people we were

(30:29):
cheering the flash right and the heeled mannerisms of Flair,
and he starts, Dusty starts desperately wearing like fur coats
on TBS, like mink fur coat to try to like
out out glisten Ric Flair when he's supposed to be,
you know, when the straight bunk house cowboy, you know,
counter image to Ric Flair's playboy image, was supposed to

(30:51):
be his whole bread and butter, and now here he
is trying to wear like Louis Vuitton bags on TBS.
It's too mud so so Dusty wasn't the only one
that Terry Bullay is starting to leave in the dust.
Back in Florida. We cannot forget that Bob Rup, who
were on Fuller would say is the architect of this
whole Knoxville exodus, even though you know, Ronnie Garvin was
was double the star. Roup was in the area and

(31:14):
in fact held Ron Fuller's belt. Ron Fuller later sued
Ronnie Garvin to get back possession of the Southeastern Championship
belt that he had. We'll have some fun with that
a little later. But but Bob Roup too, and certainly
it's going to be difficult for Hope to stick around.
He you know, is he gonna go? Does he have
any loyalty, any affinity for for Bob Rup, who was

(31:36):
who was certainly around then a top guys in terms
of a shooter and a trainer as well as a
wrestler in Florida when he first started to break in.
I don't know, I mean, fortunately for us, mister Rup
not too long ago started podcast The Wrestling Stoop, and
I would like to play now for you. Wrestling Stoop
correct his recollection looking back on first encountering Terry bully

(32:00):
Uh and how it all ended up as it regards
their relationship and why let's say Knoxville was not was
not going to be Terry Bullay's choice over Ron Fuller,
and why pretty much skipping town uh seemed probably like
the best decision for him during this promotional war.

Speaker 5 (32:17):
So one day I came out, I was getting ready
to leave, and Uh, this guy, this big bond guy
with long hair and wearing a tank top and beds,
had a necklace of bees and bes do his wrists
and came right up to my car and uh knocked
on the window. I put my wonder down and says,
hey man, he says, I'm going to be I'm going

(32:39):
to be here Tuesday to work out with you. Yeah.
I just talked to Eddie Graham. He's gonna he's gonna
have me work out with you. And uh, uh I said, okay,
uh yeah, I said, I have an idea that let me.
Let me get back to you on that hang around
here a minute. So I went back inside. I asked
Eddie about it. I said, what's that about? And h

(32:59):
He's said yeah, he said that guys are hippie. He said, uh,
hair and everything. He said. I hate him. He said, h,
you know, I want you to I want you to
stress him. So uh, okay, I went back.

Speaker 2 (33:13):
I went back.

Speaker 5 (33:13):
I told Terry he had addition himself as Terry Boulet.
I said, hey, uh, I just checked.

Speaker 3 (33:20):
Oh.

Speaker 5 (33:21):
He wants me to do is discourage you. He's not
ready to give you a break of any kind. He
wants me to stress the hell out of you. I said,
I'm not going to be here, so if you come
down here, I'm not going to be here. Well, he
seemed to appreciate that he was working at Terry Dad.
He was working in a band. He was a bass
player in a band, and he was working there in

(33:41):
Tampa at the time. And and over the next couple
of weeks, I actually went h once. I went by myself.
Another time I took my girlfriend and later became my wife,
and we went out and listened to him play, and
we danced a few times to his music. Another time
he played in Sarasota, I went out there on a

(34:03):
weekend night that we were we weren't wrestling. I went
out and listened to him play. So, you know, I
had some little association with him, and then I left.
When I left Florida a few years later. A couple
three years later, he had been broken into the business. Uh,
and I was working. I was booking in Knoxville. I
got a call from a guy named Terry Gibbs who

(34:25):
had worked for me.

Speaker 2 (34:26):
And I used to talk to Terry a lot in
the late nineties, right.

Speaker 5 (34:30):
And Terry called me and he says, hey, Bob, He said, uh, Terry,
Terry Bully is looking for work. He said, he's been
working out. He took a year off. He's been working
out with the waist. He's enormous, you know, he's amongers.
Said he look great. He said, can you book him?
And I said no, I said, Terry, Uh, I said, Now,

(34:51):
Terry was down in Tampa at the time. He took
a week off. I said, Terry, do you want me
to do you want me to give you your notice?
He said, know, why would you do that. The only
way I can hire somebody else is I have to
get rid of somebody. I said, we don't have any
wrestlers on it our programmed that don't work every night,

(35:11):
so you know, if you want to, I don't have
room for him, I says. What I'll try to do, though,
Louis to Leette was booking pasta Cola, and so I said,
what I'll do is I'll call Louis and see if
Louis can get a man down there. And I did
call Louis. I told him about him. Then apparently I'm

(35:31):
not sure, but I think that he actually worked there
for Louis.

Speaker 2 (35:36):
So Barbara doesn't even know while he's doing what he's
doing in Knoxville that Terry Bulay, this guy he remembers,
you know, showing mercy to when Eddie Graham wanted to
stretch this hippie out of the business. Is not only
working for Louis to Lett on the other side of
Ron Fuller's territorial map, but he's also fucking wrestling Harley
Race for the world title. And Barbrup has no idea.

(36:00):
He didn't even know that Louis to Lay took him on.
So that's even that's even more dramatic that people even
within the business didn't know necessarily what Terry Bullay was doing.
It's wild. So add that to the soup of the
origin stories of how Terry ended up down there. You know,
apparently Bob Rup was offered first DIBs with Terry Gibbs,
of all people, being the intermediary that was, you know,

(36:22):
testing the waters to see if Rupe might book this guy.
And and no, he didn't really have a spot. And
so he according to Bob Roup, I mean, he doesn't
like pat himself on the back for this, So I
feel like he kind of probably is telling the truth
because I don't think he realized the significance of this.
He doesn't know what Terry Blay did in the territory.
He ends up referring Bolea instead to Louis Tillette, Hogan

(36:44):
has mentioned. In prior episodes of The Khalet Hulk, Cogan
and his book gives credit to superstar Billy Graham for
the referral. Other times it seems to be Bob Orton
that had something to do with it, or Bob Rup,
I think, if I remember correctly from that episode, Ed
Leslie in his book does give credit to to Bob
Rupe in some way for making the connection, But I
mean that's wrestling, man. Like you're just when someone becomes

(37:05):
a big enough deal that everyone's going to ask you
about them for years and years and years, you end
up concocting a story that's probably sixty percent the truth,
that you repeat so often that you forget where you
took liberties with the truth. Just put yourself, you know,
kind of in a position to not, like we talked
about with Jerry Briscoe, to not be seen as someone
who missed this, can't miss starr And so it's so crazy. Yeah,

(37:30):
that's first frustrating. It's like it is you think Terry's
the only one fabricating things. Fabricating is a strong word,
but you know, just not caring enough to remember like
who called who first? Because at the time he's a nobody,
you know, why would you remember it. But now that
he's so big, you're being asked about him so many times,
and the truth is you weren't paying anywhere near enough

(37:51):
attention to recall the precise details because he wasn't a
big enough deal, right, So we're stuck with these stories
that contradict each other about who called who first, but
it's possible. It's no different than when you did under
the cinemat for Rocky three, right, And it's like who
actually gave Hogan the fucking phone call to come to be.

Speaker 7 (38:07):
On the movie exactly? And not only that, but everyone
else said they were going to be in the movie first. Right,
you know there's all that, Yeah, exactly. Everyone wants to
take credit and everyone wants to have been there first.

Speaker 2 (38:18):
Well, since we're here, I mean, let's get Bob RUP's
perspective on the whole hero matsuita thing. He was one
voice that we didn't really include in what happened between
Hogan and Metsuda, and Rupe has an interesting angle on
it because he was somebody that did He gramm used
in much the same way to try to discourage people
they didn't think would have the heart to respect the
business from coming back and trying more. And I think
Bob Roop as a shooter, as a high level Olympic

(38:40):
caliber wrestler in his own right, has a pretty interesting
perspective on why you would do something like this to
a young wrestler or a young hopeful.

Speaker 5 (38:49):
Right, Well, the one about Hu Boll Terry, whatever you
want to call it. And he didn't come back right away.
He stayed. He smartened up. He realized they weren't you know,
he wasn't, so he came back later. But that ankle thing,
that ankle thing that the Hero did with him, he
did it with me too, the first thing, the first
time we worked out. Uh, he did it with me

(39:11):
and I where I'm down in the referee position, where
I'm on my knees and my hands on the mat
like it's an amateur U referee posis and it's called
and Hero stood behind me. And then one when he
to go, he dropped his knee on the back of
my ankle, like on the Achilles tendon, which the bat
in itself could have break the Killes tendon. Then what

(39:34):
I turned sideways with it because in wrestling, one thing
you learned to do is you go, you know, you
go with the pressure. You don't go against it, you
go with it. So I had I turned so they
didn't hurt my ankle. He reached down, I grabbed my toe. Well,
I had turned to facing by this time, I mean
the face backwards. My body was between us. But he
was close enough, I reached out and grabbed his hair.

(39:55):
I struck my thumb on his eye and I didn't
press hard, but I him know, if you fall up
a mincle, you're going to have a different outlook, and
at a very near future, if you're going to have
a very different outlook on things. And he let go
immediately and within five seconds he started teaching me how
to hook. That was the last thing that he ever tried.
That was that was like initiation, and that's what he

(40:19):
did to hook and see if he could defend himself. Okay,
and he couldn't. If you know how to defend yourself
at all, you know how to avoid that when when
they do that, you know what to do. If you
don't know how to defend yourself, well then you get hurt.
And so that's what the test was. Also there's another
part to it. Terry had no value to them at

(40:39):
the time. You know, they know they had a lot
of big muscular guys that never did, you know, never
did anything. But what is another test to see if
he was hurt, will he come back? And so that
was it was like a double test. Can you defend himself?
And if he can't, if you want to come back
and learn how to defend himself.

Speaker 2 (40:59):
And that's what was going That's what was going on.
He's wrestling podcast.

Speaker 1 (41:28):
He's the Lapsed Fan Wrestling podcast with Jack and Carno,
JP Soro.

Speaker 2 (41:33):
And as big as he was in seventy seven or
seventy six, whatever we're talking about, he was nowhere near
as big as he would be by the time. You know,
Ron Fuller and Louis Tillette can't deny that this guy.
You got to put this guy in front of people.
Look at the size of this motherfucker. Yeah. Right, of course.
It's about the Royds, brother, It's about the Royds, way
before Vince McMahon Junior decided that this is what a

(41:55):
wrestler looks like. A brother, I never did Royds, dude,
I've never. I don't abuse steroids. I don't do steroids
deal currently. I don't deal steroids. I certainly don't. I
certainly don't inject steroids. You bock to seven a corner
on that one, man, What I do? How do you

(42:17):
take them? Then? If you don't inject them? What eat?
I don't do them? So how could I What are
you saying? Brother? Well, I'm saying Plan B. I'm saying
since last time we were with you, when we talked
about the Plan B tape, I hope that's still ringing
in your head, as they call the business fraud, and
it's been bringing my head every everything you fucking played it.

(42:39):
She can't believe your ears when you when you hear it.
It's like when they say when they say that, I like,
I've never been in a in a legitimate match. Everything
that I've done has been fraudulent. So good it's it's
it's absolutely it's it's amazing. It's absolutely amazing. A little
more color on that from Bob Roops podcast in terms
of explaining why they did that, which I didn't really

(43:02):
appreciate it first. So this isn't something that they're doing
to counteract Ron Fuller stopping them from going independent like
a sort of damicles. This was a little later. This
is like nineteen eighty and they did this because the
NWA had marshaled so many resources to crush them when
they try to run their shows, you know, bringing in
big time star power from around the country to do

(43:24):
shows on the same night in the same city that
Bob RUP's Upstart group was trying to run and just
doing all kinds of things to fuck with them that
they thought, according to Bob Rupe, that doing a tape
like this was almost like a last ditch effort, like
the last bit of leverage they possibly could have to
stop the NWA power structure from fucking with them, you know,

(43:44):
like maybe, if worse comes to worse, if we tell
them there's a tape where we all say it's vague
and when give it to the news, you'll back off
and let us actually try to survive here running our
own wrestling operation. It didn't happen, but was That was
the mentality of the tape was they were all ready
on an island. These guys had already failed in their
attempt to break off and run opposition, so it doesn't

(44:07):
mean the battle is over in the court room. However,
of course, this goes well beyond Terry Bolea departing the
Gulf Coast, but eventually, if you can believe it, Ron
Fuller sues Ronnie Garvin over a lot of the fallout
from this, including the fact that ron Garvin had taken
that the Southeastern Belt is mentioned, and also the idea

(44:29):
it's so convoluted and We don't need to get into
all of it because it has nothing to do with bolea,
but it's just too delicious that basically, like Ronnie Garvin
wanted money to buy another boat, and so concocted a
thing where they did like a the winner of a
television tournament they used to call it the Bayliner Boat
tournaments would win a boat, and he's booked to win it,

(44:50):
and Fuller is in court having to testify about predetermining
the matches. Ron Garvin used to like to tell a
story that Fuller, you know, basically let him win the
case and go home with the be yeah, because he
didn't want to admit in court that wrestling was fake. Meanwhile,
there's a great book out there called Professional Wrestling in
the Law, Legal Battles from the ring to the courtroom

(45:10):
where he pulled the filings, and Ron Fuller is totally
in court saying that it was completely predetermined and that
Ron Governor was booked to win the whole thing. But
I just want to give you a little flavor because
this is sort of like the fumes of all of
this intrigue that's happening while Terry Bullay is in the
territory up in Knoxville, and this is like, this is
sort of like a whiff of the absurd end it

(45:32):
all came to. This is from nineteen eighty at a
Knoxville boss that sent you a clipping. I think you
ought to just start reading that headline loud and proud.
I think we know who is editing this paper. Oh brother,
hold on, Oh should have forgot that picture. There, there
we go, Judge pins fake wrestling scheme? Fake wrestling scheme?

(46:02):
Is that redundant? Yes, it's not redundant if you have
such a fucking disdain for wrestling that you have to
let it drip through your headline. Read come on, put
it in. Put it in right there. How about Judge
Penn's wrestling scheme? Just no, no scheme gets across the

(46:22):
idea that no, it does not, No, it does not.
The word has to be in the headline, Boss, it's
gotta be fake to be in the headline. It's gotta
be fucking fake, your stupid fuck chancellor, Chancellor. Yeah, that's
the Corederick Boss. Frederick D. McDonald today denounced from the

(46:46):
bench what was described in his court as a fixed
wrestling tournament with the winner of a luxury boat determined
before the tournament. I forbid, I love this.

Speaker 7 (47:03):
His ruling came in a complaint brought by NWA Southeastern
Wrestling Incorporated against wrestler Ronnie Garvin. Ronald Welch, who wrestles
under the name ron Fuller, is a principal stockholder in Southeastern,
which promotes wrestling here.

Speaker 2 (47:21):
Which, as we talked about, Ron Fuller absolutely did not
want in the local press the disclosure that he was
in fact the owner. The question is the question here
is should the court to Tennessee be used to carry
out contracts for fixed wrestling matches? Chancellor McDonald said, sounds
good to be I'd love to spare witness to that.

(47:44):
We don't think the court should be a part of
such arrangements. The public will lose all confidence in us
if we decide this case between two phony wrestlers. The
public will assume we're a work, I'll say, and then
the whole justice system in the whole world is gone fuck.

(48:06):
The issue in the suit was twelve thousand dollars, which
Welch said he gave to Garvin as a down payment
on a twenty seven foot bay liner boat and trailer.
Southeastern filed suit June sixth, nineteen seventy nine for recovery
of the twelve thousand dollars from Garvin, and asked that
the boat be seized for it by the court. The
order was issued by the court. Evidence today showed that

(48:29):
Southeastern entered in an agreement with Garvin in which there
would be a wrestling tournament with the boat and trailer
as a prize, yes and in which it was further
agreed that Garvin would win the tournament and the boat.
Testimonies showed that Garvin had agreed to repay the twelve
thousand dollars when he had sold another boat but not
sold the Headlock. Apparently, Southeastern contended when it got the

(48:53):
court order to seize the boat, that Garvin was going
to Tokyo to wrestle. Garvin's attorney argued, quote the doctrine
the doctor in the Unclean hams Unclean Hands of Stone,
saying Southeastern should not come to court with a complaint
resulting from an illicit agreement. Chancellor McDonald said Garvin's agreement

(49:14):
was to win the tournament and win the boat. He
said the plaintiff argue that the tournament was Garvin's idea.
We will leave the parties exactly where they were before
the lawsuit. Chancellor McDonald said the doctrine of unclean hands
applies to the plaintiff as well as the defendant. He
ruled that Garvin would gain possession of the boat. I

(49:41):
don't give a shit. Was this a w I mean,
I gonna know probably what you all do is so
so so what you all do is fake? All right,
it doesn't exist. It's not a real thing. So I
don't give a shit. Who gets what? Just fucking let
this Garvin bastard take the damn boat. Judge Mischler, it
was hardly the first, hardly the first. Judge Mitchler is

(50:03):
an archetype. He's not an individual. Okay, I'm a I'm
a Chancellor of this court. I do not need to
be handled with fake, fake lawsuits. Okay, how do I know?
I know y'all ain't gonna get together and have a
big steak dinner and a big laugh about this when
I'm a big done wasting the court time?

Speaker 7 (50:20):
How do I know you're not wasting my time? How
do I know that this is all a real complaint?
How do I know that I'm not being dragged into
one of your bullshit wrestling starlines.

Speaker 2 (50:33):
You got cameras here? I don't know, but I'll tell
you I will not be abused. I will not be abused.
Who is that again? When they said that, oh yeah,
it was the judge in the Ron Fuller Ron Garvin lawsuit?

(50:53):
What episode the complete holl cokein episode three thousand or
whatever it is? And now bailiff, excuse me? Who who
do I see over there listening up against the courtroom door?
Who's silhouette? Is that?

Speaker 1 (51:04):
Is that?

Speaker 2 (51:05):
Mister? Is that mister Bolea? Is that a Bowley over there?
Is that that I heard about him? Bring him into
this courtroom, sir, standing here? You can't be standing outside.
He's dropping on proceedings. What business do you have before
this court? And this issue?

Speaker 1 (51:21):
What?

Speaker 9 (51:23):
I said?

Speaker 1 (51:23):
What?

Speaker 2 (51:24):
Who are you? He says, He says what. Terry says
what and the judge goes what.

Speaker 5 (51:33):
The judge.

Speaker 2 (51:37):
Answer the question, mister Bola, well.

Speaker 1 (51:41):
What do you?

Speaker 3 (51:41):
What do you?

Speaker 2 (51:42):
What are you asking me? I'm sorry, did you not
hear me?

Speaker 9 (51:46):
I said?

Speaker 2 (51:47):
Who the fuck are you? He's already gone to New York,
but he comes back for this trial because he's terrified
of what might be said. Brother, I'm just I'm just
I just happened to be walking through. Brother. You're walking
through where the build the building to the territory, territory.
I'm just on my way out, Brother, I'm on my
way out. I'm going to New York. Dude, No way,

(52:09):
you're going to New York right now. You are in contempt, sir,
You are in contempt of this court room. I didn't brother,
I just was walking through. Dude, I was walking through. Brother.
You just think you could just roll up here and
just you know, well, brother, what you say? Roll up? Dude?

Speaker 10 (52:27):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (52:28):
Brother? Who you rolling up? Dude? No? I you rolled
up your dumb bitch from the bench because of the
dumb bitch tremendous. Ron Fuller's like laughing. Arrest that son
of a bitch and you put him in handcuffs and
you get him in jail now where he.

Speaker 9 (52:47):
Can be pinned down?

Speaker 2 (52:49):
What what you'll be pinned down? He doesn't get rock
getting the rest, and he cares about taking a fall
because he doesn't. He's he thinks this court could very
well be another put on from Ron Fuller. You know
you're gonna be you, sir, are gonna be pinned down
by the law. Brother, Dude, I've never bro Dude, I

(53:11):
don't understand clearly he's looking left to right. It's like
these these these like court officers have their hands on
their handcuffs, on their belt. I'm just walking through. Dude. Well,
when to live on the beach again, I can and Boss,
the brilliant thing of it is, he would only be
the first Terry to put his ear up to a
courtroom door. You damn fucking right. And it all came

(53:34):
full circle, Boss for Bob Rup and Terry bolea some
time later and here he uh some parting thoughts, I
guess you could say on this little extra snippet of
the Bob Roop Terry Bowleio dynamic.

Speaker 5 (53:45):
We were there. We went out clubbing. Uh maybe later
that night, or maybe it was a night before. I
went out to club to get a beer and I
saw him and, uh, you know, you look great, humongous.
I walked up to him, you know, and like I say,
I known him. I for as far as I knew,
everything I'd done for him had been positive. I walked
up to him to like to say hi. He just

(54:06):
stubbed me. He was talking to some girl. He just
stubbed me like I was invisible, you know, So I
just turned around walked away. And I've never had any
use for him ever since. I mean, you know, that's fine.
You know, when I think about it, I thought that
perhaps he didn't want to be remembered before he'd become

(54:28):
a star by this time. Sure, yeah, so he didn't
want to be reminded of his days when he wasn't
a star.

Speaker 2 (54:35):
I think that's a very very key insight from Bob Rup, right,
I think group, yes, it's only fair, right if you
don't see a star in Terry Boleo when he before
he became a star. He doesn't want to give you
the satisfaction of acting like you saw that. It's funny.
It's funny, like right, it's the exact opposite of those

(54:57):
who didn't see it, you know, it's like it's ugh,
it such a fucking yeah, they're also fucking phony. It's
so annoying, it is. It is really annoying. And I
just just delight in the fact that at some point,
after hitting a big hulk ran into Bob Roup after
you know, cow towing to him at the Imperial Room
when he was in the band trying to get into wrestling,

(55:18):
and now Hulk is in the position of acting like
Bob Roup doesn't exist. And exactly, I think he kept
a very strict and very carefully attended to tallly of
people who fit that category. Did our subject to joor
Terry Bulay, Absolutely he did. He is not he is
not letting anyone off the hook. It was well boss,

(55:40):
a hell of a way to make a living. As
the Pensacola Journal here so adequately and aptly chronicled, we
always like when we visit a new territory on the
lapsed fan and get a flavor of it to pull,
you know, the prototypical people come to the matches and
these parts, and yeah, here are three old ladies describing

(56:03):
why they come to this thing. And here's us asking
them if they know it's fake. And here's us asking
a wrestler if it's fake in the locker room and
taking a picture of someone lacing their boots. In this case,
Austin Idel Hogan's a foe at the time in the
territory gets the honors. But as we wrap up the
Alabama leg of our journey and the Alabama leg of
Terry Boley's journey. It's perhaps extremely appropriate that we bring

(56:27):
you this article from the Sports section of the Pensacola
Journal on June twenty eighth, nineteen seventy nine, just as
Terry Bolea was ramping up to challenge for the World Championship.

Speaker 7 (56:39):
Hell of a Way to Make a Living by Jerry Shreiver.
I remember one time these two guys were wrestling in
a car about a car about the winner would receive
a new car. It was real physical, bloody match, and
the winner was really battered up. After the fight, he
threw himself on the hood of the car and was

(56:59):
laying they're bleeding. I saw people go up to the
car and run their fingers through the blood and lick
it and then say, Ha, that's not blood. He's faking it.
He's using a blood capsule or something. It really hurts
these guys when you when people yell fake.

Speaker 2 (57:15):
Just months before, this person said the same thing in
the court of law. Mister Roy welchlch professional wrestler and consultant.
So Welch not run Oh sorry, Roy Welch. Sorry now Roy?
Is is he a professional wrestler and a professional consultant?
Or is he a professional wrestler consultant. I don't know.

Speaker 7 (57:36):
That's a great that's a great question. Just a consultant
is like, does he consult outside of wrestling?

Speaker 2 (57:41):
That's the question. Tells me, probably not, But we're about
to find out. Roy Welch is worried, and for good reason.
In just an hour until the main event on Tuesday's
professional wrestling card at the Municipal Auditorium, and Welch has
learned that The Hulk, a crowd favorite who was supposed
to challenge Beautiful Austin Idol for the Gulf Coast Championship,

(58:02):
has canceled out Brother leg Injury. Brother What due to
a leg injury sustained the night before. Nervously running his
fingers through his shiny black hair, the man in charge
of the night's festivities confronts this latest slipped gear in
the pro wrestling Merry Go Round. Well, these are things
that set your program back, but it can't be helped,

(58:25):
he says, disappointedly. Welch is one of the men committed
to the success of pro wrestling in Pensacola, and he
feels he is just on the brink of attaining it.
So he's on the brink of attaining success. Yes, apparently
it's been the opposite so far, I guess okay, But
there are always the setbacks, skepticism, skepticism, skepticism from sports purists,

(58:53):
rival outlaw promoters. Yeah, sure, injuries. The crowd tonight is respectable,
but many seats are given out as charity to the underprivileged,
and there is always the rent. I've got to go
see if I can round somebody up. I usually bring
my wrestling out there with me just in case, but

(59:13):
I didn't tonight. I might have to send somebody for it,
he says. The crowd takes the announcement of the cancelation well,
except for a persistent course of boo birds in the
back who chant give us her money back. Yes, this
veteran crowd knows that unexpected lineup changes are part of

(59:34):
the carnival like atmosphere of pro wrestling. They also know
that whoever is in charge of the entertainment tonight will
come up with some behemoth for the idol to bounce
off the ropes and slam onto the plywood with a
banchy cry. After all, that's what they came for. Professional wrestling.

(59:54):
It's rough and tumble, it's melodramatic, bordering on farcical. It's
more authentic than some people give it credit for. It
ordering on bordering on bordering on farcical. It's inconsistent. It's fun.

Speaker 7 (01:00:13):
There is money to be made, and because of that,
it's a serious business and the hell of a way
to make a living. Take Charlie, not his real name,
but a feature on the Tuesday Night Card, a professional
wrestler for thirteen plus years who has been here and
back and looks it. The hairline is receding and the
middrift bulge is slowly advancing on his still powerful frame.

(01:00:36):
At thirty six, he's won his share of titles and
now he's hoping to squeeze maybe five or eight more
years out of his body. Then he wants to hang
it up and go back to being a chemical salesman. Oh,
this is definitely sales. This is definitely hell co good.

Speaker 2 (01:00:54):
My name's Charlie. Dude, chemicals you're talking about? Dude, I
don't you know chemicals? So you know, well, it's a
it's a it's a Well then what I don't I
don't sail things. That's something I mean by sail is
the same kind of round up chemicals that said uh

(01:01:15):
got involved with after.

Speaker 7 (01:01:18):
He's just starting on his second marriage, after his hectic
lifestyle finally caved in his first marriage, which lasted nineteen years.
I'm gonna go different page here to continue.

Speaker 2 (01:01:31):
Yeah, next file. It does say the works in the
top left, which I think is just hilarious and it's
very funny.

Speaker 7 (01:01:41):
Traveling around all the traveling around all the time, it
started to get a little aggravating, especially with this gas thing,
he said, as he held tightly against his stomach. It
puts a strain on a marriage trying to keep two households.

Speaker 2 (01:01:58):
What well, that's another way of saying it puts a
strain on a marriage to have two wives. I guess.
I guess.

Speaker 7 (01:02:06):
Surveying the crowd, which hasn't changed much over the years,
he observes ninety percent of people are blood Thursday. You know,
after thirteen years, you just sort of ignore them when
they scream at you and holler nasty things. I just
go out there to win matches and put money in
my pocket. My advice is something starting out good luck.

(01:02:27):
I wouldn't steer anyone away from it.

Speaker 2 (01:02:29):
Though. It gets in your blood and the more you wrestle.
The more you want to wrestle, it's a hell of
a way to make a living. Now, then there's Austin Idel,
a sweetheart of a guy who is the top bill tonight.
He uses Las Vegas cool from every pore of his
granite superstructure, even though he's from Tampa and indeed that's

(01:02:53):
where he was born. All some folks.

Speaker 7 (01:03:00):
A man who cultivates the image of a superstar, he
is not all that arrogant, simply secure in the knowledge
that he has made it as intelligent, physically, tough and
disciplined as most other pro athletes. He is living somewhere
in the one hundred fifty thousand dollars plus annual income bracket,
yet he has virtually unrecognized outside his profession.

Speaker 2 (01:03:22):
No matter he quote worked my hide off to get
where he is, and now he reaps the rewards. Everybody
loves the idol. He stays flexed, actually really good twenty
one in biceps. It's a very glamorous life I lead,
but it's also tough metally and physically. I thrive on
glimmer and glamour. I'm single and I wouldn't have it

(01:03:45):
any other way. Man, I can just about pick what
I want. It's hard to let that kind of thing go.
And I go to Vegas about once a week, walk
down the strip, play with the girls, pull a few handles.
You know, there is no form, no theory to get
into the top. Either you have the ability to put
fannies in the seats or you don't. Everybody loves the idol,

(01:04:08):
his body, the glib tongue, whatever you know, Babe. Sometimes
I yearn for the media exposure that other pro athletes
are getting. If I could just get on the damn
Tonight Show, I know I could make it boom one
shot on Johnny Carson and everybody would know the idol
that maybe if Johnny quits, I can take his place.

(01:04:30):
N When I quit, I'm going back to Vegas and
follow and follow the sun. Finally, there is Rick Field,
still trying to get out Joe Rogan today to this day.
By the way, o Ustin, I will remember you saying,
why doesn't Joe invite the real deal on if Hogan's
going to a show and give me credit for all
the gimmicks.

Speaker 7 (01:04:47):
Finally, there is Rick Fields down to the bottom of
the hill, a relative youngster on his way up waiting
and waiting for a shot at the top. I've been
in wrestling about five years professionally, but it's been in
the family for years.

Speaker 2 (01:05:01):
I got my schooling from my father. I didn't go
to the AAU route like most of the guys, and
it hasn't been an overnight thing. I swept floors, put
up signs, took take its referee, you name it, I'd
done it.

Speaker 7 (01:05:14):
I'm in this thing to win the world championship. That's
my goal. That's what everybody wants. You have to keep
building up wins. The main thing for me. You gotta
keep building up houses so people can say, oh, you
know this guy's a draw, then I'll give them the title.

Speaker 2 (01:05:30):
The main thing for me is to keep my nose
clean and and keeping God in good condition. Watch and
learn and something will come my way. Is it worth it?
Nothing's worth it unless you love it. You gotta remember
we don't get unemployment or workmen's compensation, no retirement. We
have our health and our bodies. I wrestled with broken ribs,

(01:05:53):
pulled muscles. I remember one time I was working on
my car and the radiator blew up and scalded me.
I get some second and third degrees burns on my
ribs and chest. The next night I wrestled before thirty
seven thousand people in the New Orleans super Dome. It
was great.

Speaker 7 (01:06:11):
Roy Welch's calmer. Now a replacement has been found for
the Hulk, and the show will go on as planned.
But people will get their kicks, the wrestlers will pocket
their earnings, and everyone will go home satisfied tonight, next
week and the next fifty weeks after that, the pro
wrestling Merry Go Round never stops.

Speaker 2 (01:06:30):
Everyone will pocket their earnings. That's right. How wild is
that that this reporter shows up on a show that
Terry just not going to make that one brother and
Austin Idols left there with no opponent, yep, pretending to
be the A side when the first, the first sentence
of the whole article is about how the Hult couldn't
make it, and people are chanting refund in the back
of the building. I think I don't know, man, if

(01:06:53):
my math is right. As far as when this happened,
this would have been shortly after Terry Bullay made it
very clear to Louis Toilllett and run Fuller that he
was going to Memphis and he wasn't happy, and you
know he's going to do the Harley match, but it
would be after a bit of an extended absence, or
at least relative to how frequently he was working a
prolonged absence. So this is probably one of those leg

(01:07:14):
injuries of convenience boss, if nothing else, it's being captured
in this article. Yep, I imagine that. So we got
a flavor of the locker room and the talent and
the logistical rigamarole that went into making Gulf Coast Wrestling.
We also have a little sidebar here in the fans,
as promised. So let's get a little bit more acquainted
with the vox popular eye of Gulf Coast. Oh yes, indeed,

(01:07:35):
let me go back here. Got start from the beginning
here because that was the other one too, right, starts
the yeah for fan attics. It gets rid of their frustration.
They come to the matches because they want to blow
off some steam, that's right. The large woman in the
lavender tent dress was seated front row center in the

(01:07:57):
for the Tuesday Night wrestling card. She frequently was up
and out of her out of her chair during every match,
trying her darnedess to call the referees attention to the
dirty work going on behind his back. Oh damn bad
wrestlers them, those main ones, disdained. Barbara Williamson referred to
the mass Gladiator's tag team the obvious bad guys.

Speaker 7 (01:08:19):
Wrestlings are sparked. They shouldn't hurt one another. Oh she's
my mom, This is my mom.

Speaker 2 (01:08:27):
Every region has one. Yep, she exclaimed, still rot up
over the bloodshed of the previous match. Williamson of Pensacola
was just one enthusiast among the large crowd at the
Municipal Auditorium where professional wrestling packs the men every Tuesday night.
I do this every week. I got carried away during
Williamson said during one of her calmer moments between falls.

(01:08:49):
A mother of eight, she had three of her younger
children in tow I've been coming to the wrestling matches
off and on. Where did she have the rest of
the hospital. I hope ah.

Speaker 7 (01:09:10):
I just pictured a fucking carving toad by yeah, and
I watched it on TV whenever it down. She said
her favorite wrestler is the Hulk and almost unanimous favorite
with the women in the audience. Listen to that, you've
never seen him, she asked.

Speaker 2 (01:09:28):
In surprise. He's just big. He has got big shoulders,
she said, cupping her hands over above her own. And
he's good looking, and in plain English, he's a gentleman
a wrestling in plain English. I thought she was gonna
say he's hot, you know, I know, right, So hey,

(01:09:53):
there there goes my whole theory that no one ever
saw Terry Bulea as a sex symbol. Ever, Uh huh,
this woman did. And she's packing it in, Barbara Williamson,
She fucking she loves it. She needs it. Is that
her with the extra larch coke in her hand? I
think so, yes, it is? And is Barbara Williams look
at her, Oh my god, looks she looks on my

(01:10:13):
aunt Martha. She looks like she's in for a scump,
like a legit character. Yeah.

Speaker 7 (01:10:18):
Absolutely, a wrestler who's a gentleman. The true terms seem
to conflict, so Williamson explained, he's so considering it. If
someone gets hurt in the ring, he'll come out and
help him. As the lights went down and the next
match was introduced, Williamson pointed to the Platinum Blonde entering
the ring, Austin idel watch this guy, she said. He

(01:10:40):
thinks he's great, but he's too conceited. He bleaches his hair.

Speaker 2 (01:10:44):
I hate to break it to you. Yeah right, Barbara,
but uh so does the Hulk. My lady Idols seem
to be getting into early trouble with Ron Slinker, his
behemoth of an opponent. The flashy blonde was down on
his knees, begging Slinker for mercy. I am that.

Speaker 7 (01:11:02):
I imagine some of this is fake, Williamson conceded her eyes.
All they do it just to get the fans going,
but I still enjoy it. The whole family enjoys that.
It gets rid of frustrations. All this hollering and carrying
on takes it all out of you. The weekly wrestling
is something she can get truly involved in, keeping up

(01:11:24):
with the flamboyant personalities, the grudge matches, the title contenders.
If you go to a movie, you go to it
and it's over with. But this is every week. Williamson said,
So it's like television then, right, Yeah, who's ever heard
of that format?

Speaker 2 (01:11:37):
Yeah? Right. Surveying the crowd, the wrestling fans seem to
span the generation gap. Two slender girls from Mobile one
a frosted blonde. The other brunette positioned themselves early in
seats on the aisle right next to the wrestler's entrance.
They were dressed to kill, as a male observer put it,

(01:11:58):
decked out in tight blue jeans.

Speaker 7 (01:12:00):
Sleeky bleff I think we know I they're there. Yeah, exactly,
and an over abundance of eye makeup. They would blend
right in and at a rock concert, but among the
Tuesday night wrestling crowd, they stood out. The girls sat
sipping cokes and snorting coke and throwing occasional anxious glances
over their shoulders to the dressing room entrance as they

(01:12:21):
answered questions.

Speaker 2 (01:12:22):
Imagine slipping that in the article to see if the
editor noticed sipping and snorting coke? Yes, can I just
take a second? Two boss, if you don't mind. Yes, Yes,
we don't talk enough about this. This is a Tuesday night. Yes,
they went to work and they're going to work. Yes,
not always the weekend, like you said, it's right. Can
you imagine being in a routine in your life? Ever,

(01:12:44):
as long as we've been wrestling fans wherever, there's a
school night every week where you go to the matches.
I would I would, I would have lost my mind
as every week. I would have loved it. Such a
different experience of pro wrestling than we got to have. Yep, yep, Oh,
it'd be fucking amazing. I used to come all the time. Yeah,

(01:13:07):
I know, and then you had eight kids, said Robin Waltman, seventeen.
But I've just started to coming here again. She and
her friend have made the hours drive every week for
the past five weeks. We had to use my daddy's call,
she said, but he doesn't mind as long as we
feel it up. A referee for the night's program who

(01:13:31):
used to date Waltman's sister, introduce them to their family
their favorite wrestlers. He put in a good wood for me. Oh,
Waltman said, with a giggle. The girls were hoping for
a brief chat with one of them when the competitors
came to the dressing room door to watch the match
is preceding their own. It's more interesting when you know

(01:13:52):
the guys, said Waltman. You don't want to get you don't.
You don't want them to get hurt. Last week, a
blonde hair dude, one of her favorites, came out to
the ring came out of the Ring of Redhead all bloody.
I didn't want to watch, but she did along with
the rest of the crowd, because blood and guts time

(01:14:13):
is the most exciting time for the fans. Yes, I
get excited about this. Oh my god, it really makes
me mad when the bad guys beat up on the
good guys. I tell you what, you don't want to
be around when I get that excited. Oh my arms,
my arms, a swinging, a holler, and I slap whoever's

(01:14:33):
next to me. What we're slapping to fill her up?
What exactly?

Speaker 7 (01:14:44):
Waltman's companion, eighteen year old Kathy Welch, nodded in agreement,
having been on the receiving end of her of her
friend's excitement more than once eighteen ye but she's been
lucky to get away with just a few bruises. One
wrestling fan was let fortunate. A few months ago. I
threw a coke on a guy and a mobile, Waltman said,

(01:15:05):
with a grin. I didn't mean to, but I get
too excited. I guess the cup just flew out of
my hand. I didn't soak him, but share got him wet.

Speaker 2 (01:15:19):
They found a fucking gem in this crowd. Jesus Christ,
she's fucking money. Well, Jo seemed a bit more reserved,
but the whole thing acknowledged that some of the action
in the ring is fake. Again, go to the arena
and just ask these people if they know it's fake.
Please come back with quotes. Yeah, most of it is
sat up, but it's still a lot fun, she said.

(01:15:42):
I sit around and watch the people. It's really fun.
They go crazy. Among the more passive spectators was Eric Chaffin,
an eight year old clad in a Superman T shirt
clutching his autograph book Bigpen and thirty one Cents, was
at the wrestling matches for only the second time. He

(01:16:02):
paused in the midst of a dash to the dressing
room door to catch a retreating wrestler. I've only got
two autograss but I want them all, he said enthusiastically.

Speaker 9 (01:16:14):
I tell you secret, I start backstage to get auto grasps.

Speaker 7 (01:16:19):
As the crowd roared to the action in the ring,
Eric struck his fingers in his ears. But though it
hurts my ears, he explained, nevertheless, he enjoys watching the sport.
I like it when they have to double team matches
and I like it when the Hawk jumps in the ring.

Speaker 2 (01:16:36):
I'm not I'm jumping. I'm not jumping, dude. I wonder
what he meant when the Hulk jumps in the ring.
He wants me to make a safe Yeah. Would he
want to join them when he gets bigger?

Speaker 4 (01:16:46):
Nah?

Speaker 2 (01:16:46):
Huh, he said with conviction.

Speaker 9 (01:16:48):
I'm not going.

Speaker 2 (01:16:49):
I'm not getting punch in the nose. But I might
join the fire department square and burn my ass off.
What the doesn't ask? No, no, it doesn't say that.
But I might join the fire.

Speaker 7 (01:16:59):
Department and squad bloring boring, yep, Annie made Lucer of Pensacola,
who gave her age as seventy one.

Speaker 2 (01:17:08):
I gave her age as you know, another way of
writing that is just seventy one. Yeah, right, exactly. But
apparently someone doesn't believe that she's save one, but he
believes that other girl's eighteen.

Speaker 7 (01:17:19):
Interesting exactly was that with her personal lap and her
cane by her side.

Speaker 9 (01:17:28):
You're not seventy one, you're seventy, Saven.

Speaker 7 (01:17:31):
Interjected her companion, Katie Goldsby, also Pensacola.

Speaker 2 (01:17:35):
A couple of tricks from the wrestlers.

Speaker 7 (01:17:37):
Yeah right, we identified herself as being seventy six and
soon to be seventy seven.

Speaker 2 (01:17:43):
I love what I love wrestling, said Lucer quietly. I'm managining.
I've been coming to see it for ten to twelve years.
I get so nervous before man, she's she continued, holding
up her hand to show how it was shaking. I'm
afraid those we'll get all broken out right, but I'll
get over it.

Speaker 7 (01:18:05):
It doesn't make me nervous, her friend said with pep,
I've seen it all happen there. As the next match
got underway, Goldsby bounced on the edge of her seat,
clapping and laughing, while Lucer sat calmly. I couldn't tell
you if they were hurting each other, but it looks
like they some that they come up hurt sometimes, that's

(01:18:27):
the idea. I couldn't tell you if they're hurting each other,
but it looks like they come up hurt sometimes, said Lucer.
She leaned over and spoke confidently, pointing to the masked
man in the ring. He pulled something out of his pocket.

Speaker 2 (01:18:40):
Right sure enough, the.

Speaker 7 (01:18:41):
Gladiator had hidden something hard, an illegal puller, in his
knee pad, and he proceeded to mangle his opponent using
unfair using this unfair advantage. But the good guy's triumphed
in a wild and wooly finish.

Speaker 2 (01:18:58):
I that's why, that's why I like about this, said
the sprightly Goldsby.

Speaker 9 (01:19:04):
I just like anything that's exciting, Just like that was.

Speaker 2 (01:19:08):
It looked like it would.

Speaker 9 (01:19:10):
Turn out one way, and it turned out the other way.

Speaker 2 (01:19:13):
Luca's thirty seven year old daughter walked over to see
if her mother wanted a hot dog. A hardcore wrestling fan,
Carol Margallis and her husband often drive to Dothan for
the wrestling in addition to catching the weekly event in Pensacola.
It is a good, clean sport, Margallis said, and it's exciting.
You never know what will happen next. Some of it's

(01:19:36):
put on, some of it, but sometimes the wrestlers get
mad and go to it. Like last week when the
Hulk got hurt. That was real blood. I tasted it myself.
I rubbed it all over my pussy because I love
the Hulk. This isn't an amazing He's not even on
the show, and every single quote is about the Hulk.

(01:20:00):
He was ninety four, remember, no shit. I know this
guy's over like a motherfucker and as a beloved babyface. Yep, exactly, exactly.
He is already the only guy anybody cares about. It's amazing. Yep.
The daughter was suffering from a cold, which impaired her
hollering ability. Fortunately we don't have that problem. Yes, you

(01:20:21):
damn right. I have to admit. It takes with the
thut out of it not being able to holler. She said.

Speaker 7 (01:20:27):
She takes her wrestling seriously, having been a student of
it since about the age of thirteen. I get excited,
but I try to control it, she said, nowt to do.
About six weeks ago, there was a boy who got
so excited he had a heart attack and died right here,
just sixty years old. Margolis said, shaking her head at

(01:20:49):
in amazement. It was when the Hulk was wrestling.

Speaker 2 (01:20:53):
Although the tragedy, Although the tragedy, Although that tragedy, plus
another story she related about an older man suffering a
stroke and dying on the spot at a match, seemed
to have shaken her up and hasn't dimmed her enthusiasm.
I love it as long as I could come. I'll
be here, excuse me, And that's as long as I

(01:21:17):
come in the morning.

Speaker 7 (01:21:18):
I get off, I'll be here and then seem not
And that seems to sum up the spirit of the
wrestling fans.

Speaker 2 (01:21:29):
Damn, oh god, that's fucking funny. I just yeah, I mean,
it's it's all there. I mean, that's that's pretty much
the story of the territory. That's the story of the
people that Hulk so appealed to, so appealed to from
the very very beginning. And it's it's really too much
to handle to think that one of those people that
you were just reading about Boss would later be sitting

(01:21:50):
in front of their televisions in nineteen eighty four and
see that guy that they remember. Yeh be Madison Square
Garden Toast of the Town MTV. What a legited position
to be in, Oh for sure. So, as mentioned, Bob
Armstrong is making his way back into the territory. He
was kind of in and out. This will be relevant

(01:22:10):
when we talk about how Hulk's final days and the
territory went. So, you know, a couple of weeks before
he wrestled Harley, this appeared in the Press Register. Professional
Wrestling takes place Wednesday, Mobile's Expo haul opening bell sounding
eight thirty pm in the main event. Popular Bob Armstrong
returns to Mobile to challenge for the Gulf Coast Wrestling Championship.
He'll meet the current champion, Austin Idl. Terry the Hulk

(01:22:32):
Boulder beat Idle last week, but it was on a
disqualification and the title cannot change hands on that kind
of decision. The King of the Cobra Hold from Atlanta
makes his first appearance in the city, taking on Terry Latham.
The bonus money in this match will be a one
thousand dollars and more details. Doors open at seven pm.
How about this From the Mobile Register of June twenty seventh,
nineteen seventy nine. A star Studed card will be featured

(01:22:54):
Wednesday night when wrestling is held at Expo Hall, Bell
time eight thirty main event Gulf Coast Championship match sending
Austin Idl the champion against challenger Bob Armstrong, a great
favorite in Mobile. I do wonder and Ron doesn't knock
about this if maybe Bob Armstrong's returned to the territory
was accelerated by word coming through that Terry Boulder wasn't
long for the area. They seem to be a coincident.

(01:23:17):
Things that are happening here. In a thousand dollars match,
the King of the Cobra Hold from Atlanta will take
on Terry to Latham. If during the bat Latham can
break out of the Cobra hold at any time, he
will win the one thousand dollars. And in a five
hundred dollars half the price challenge match, Terry the Hulk
Boulder will battle Herb Calvert. That's definitely a step down.
That's definitely the match you booked Terry. Then after he
tells who he's leaving yep. If Culvert wins, he picks

(01:23:40):
up the five hundred dollars offered in Boulder's challenge. About
this from the Mobile Press. June twenty seventh, Austin Idol,
the Gulf Coast Champion, will meet Bob Armstrong in a
title bout to highlight Tonight's wrestling program at Mobile's Expo Hall.
Other matches on the card, which starts at eight thirty,
will have the Superstar taking on Terry Latham, Terry Boulder
battling Herb Calvert, the Gladiator screting off with Ron Slinker,

(01:24:00):
Rickey Fields meeting Eddie Sullivan, and Peter Bonet tangling with
Roy Welch. Here's a nice print ad Wednesday ex bohon
Gulf Coast titled out It'll be Bomb Armstrong versus Austin Idol,
King of the Cobra Hold meets Terry Latham. That is
a picture of Ox Baker, but it does not say
Ox Baker, so I don't know what that's about. That's
fucking wacky. There's the five hundred dollars challenge. Instead of

(01:24:22):
being referred to as Terry Boulder as he is in
the print article, in this ad, he's still referred to
as the l Hulk El Hulk. That's exactly right. Let's
fast forward a bit here. It's a Pensacola and it's
actually Panama City, Florida. This is June twenty eighth. Idol
defends wrestling title Austin Idol, who bills himself is the
world's highest paid wrestler. We'll defend his Gulf Coast back

(01:24:44):
in their Gulf Coast Southeastern Championship Belt against Ron Slinger
tonight at bowl Are Wrestling Arena. Starting time of the
program has been changed to eight thirty PM. Terry the
Hulk the Hulk in parenthesis this time. Boulder six foot six,
two hundred ninety five pound giant will wressell Herb Calvert,
who has challenged everybody within shooting distance. Pardon me shouting distance.
Just want to see if you were paying attention there, brother.

(01:25:05):
The Simoons will take on Terry Latham. What we'll take
will take on the Infernos. Rather in a tag team battle,
Terry Latham will wrestle Letty Sullivan and Rickey Fields will
face the newcomer Pierre Billy Spears, who has managed first
one tag team and then another, has fallen out with
his latest proteges. So it's Splitsville between the Samoans and
Billy Spears Boss. That's big news down a Gulf coast.
Big news. That's absolutely big news. Now finds himself. The

(01:25:26):
article reads, in the unemployed ranks. Wow, he will be
on hand tonight to get another team or wrestler to manage.
So that's presumptuous intrigued down there as Austin Idol starts
to take kind of I don't know, some more top
billing more than anything else. What does become of Billy
Spears boss? Let's take a look at this nineteen seventy

(01:25:46):
nine July twenty sixth article. This appeared in the News Herald,
Northwest Florida's Watchful newspaper. I don't know what this is about,
but it sounds like we got some caf is abe
into the piz apern. Mister unemployed is getting a little
death in down in golf coaches. Wrestler charged in case.
Billy Spears, a well known professional wrestler, was arrested Thursday

(01:26:07):
afternoon for allegedly hiring an undercovered deputy sheriff to have
a fellow wrestler named Sheriff Tullus Easterling, said Spears, whose
real name is William Fletcher Spearman, thirty seven of two
hundred and two oh one Pensacola Beach Road Golf Breeze,
paid the deputy one hundred.

Speaker 7 (01:26:27):
And fifty dollars in cash and told him that he
and unnamed associates wanted wrestler Austin Idel beaten severely enough
to be unable to work.

Speaker 2 (01:26:36):
I do not know how to interpret this article. I
don't know either. I mean, his full addresses in there,
his real name is in there. I mean, did they
work an angle and just the cops arrested him like
they took it seriously. I don't know. Maybe did he really?
I mean, Austin Idel had a ton of enemies, so
most people hated the fucking guy. Did he really? Maybe
try and get someone to fuck him up? I don't know, Billy,

(01:27:02):
I don't know. What do you say? Spears?

Speaker 7 (01:27:10):
Spears, Ashling said, agreed to pay the undercover deputy two
hundred dollars more after the attack on Idol. According to
the sheriff, Spears specifically mentioned breaking one of Idol's arms
or legs and damaging his face. Both Spears and Idol
were scheduled to wrestle in Panama City Thursday night, not
necessarily against each other. Spears, who will appear in county

(01:27:34):
court today, was being held to the county jail late
Thursday and missed the match. Easter Link said Spears is
charged under a Florida law making it illegal for a
person to solicit or conspire with someone to commit an offense.
Spears is charged with conspiras aspiring to commit an aggravated
assault and could face up to five years in state prison.

(01:27:56):
The wrestler was arrested at six pm and the Panama
City Mall parking lot moments after allegedly.

Speaker 2 (01:28:01):
Giving the cash to the deputy. I love it. That
sounds somewhat legit. I love it. I love the fact
that I can't tell. Yeah, me too, I mean, what
the fuck is going on here? Yeah? William? Are you
that on here? Bill? Are you that forlorn about losing
the Hulk as a client? Billy spears action continues. Go

(01:28:23):
over to this Southern Exposure article here, Boss. This is
from a magazine nineteen seventy nine, October First Together. Just
as Terry the Hulk Boulder decides to split, they run
a full glossy article here. You can scroll up from
probably what appears to you until you see Terry Boulder
with his mushroom cloud chest here and a picture of
Ox Baker there at the top. Southern Exposure Tonight the

(01:28:45):
Hulk versus Ox Baker? Can you reforce the quote from
professional wrestling fan Mike Broughton right there in the poll
quote from the Tomka Alabama.

Speaker 7 (01:28:53):
From Tatanka Alabama's or you said, That's what I said? Yes,
I love action, I love fighting. I just say big enough.
If I was, I'd be a mad with him. I
believe it's mostly fake.

Speaker 2 (01:29:05):
About seventy five percent they get mad at each other
every once in a while, but I think a lot
of it is strictly put on. But I just like
the action, so just to see him get whipped the
bad ones. I'm here every week. This is my reserved
seat right here. This article originally appearing in Southern Exposure,

(01:29:26):
volume seven, number three. I love action, I love fighting,
Mike said, eightline. Dothan. This is the Wiregrass region, gently
rolling farmland with sandy soil and a tropical sun. The
Gulf of Mexico is only ninety miles away. Peanuts are
the main crop, and the National Peanut Festival. Did you

(01:29:48):
know this, boss? The National Peanut Festival is in Dothan. Yes,
we talked about it actually as we did. Good thing
and when I good memory, Yep, when I when I
looked up Dothan on Wikipedia, that's when we're going to remember.
That's when we're going. Yep, that's right, exactly. Every fall
many of the regions people still make their living farming,
and on Friday nights they may come into town to
the Houston County Farm Center for an evening of entertainment.

(01:30:10):
The center is a giant barn, windowless, unair conditioned, and
hot on two sides, banks of concrete bleachers reach to
the roof. The center of the arena is open with
a dull red dirt floor modeled by tobacco spit and
spilled cokes and littered with cigarette butts and peanut holls.
A layer of blue smoke drifts across the room. Why
is the smoke blue? Several rows of folding metal chairs

(01:30:31):
are arranged in a square out in the dirt floor.
As much of the setting is drab concrete, dirt and metal,
all the color is concentrated in the middle of the
arena and a wrestling ring of blue canvas and red,
white and blue ropes brilliantly lighted by a row of
television lamps red white and blue ropes boss from the
very beginning for Terry bullamb Wow. For eighteen years, the
farmers from the Dothan area have been coming to this

(01:30:51):
ring on Friday nights to watch professional wrestling. In the
years before that, reaching back to the nineteen thirties, they
came to older arenas part athletic competition, in part soap
proper wrestling is the honest, yeah, really early, way to
really early to be making that connection. Pro wrestling is
the only sport many of these fans know to our
point earlier, and they are intensely loyal and enthusiastic. The

(01:31:11):
Farm Center will see about five thousand fans, and on
a May night earlier this year, fifteen hundred more who
wanted in to see the Andre the Giant seven four,
four hundred and eighty five pounds were turned away at
the door by fire marshals. I wonder who his opponent
was that night, bomm The fans had come to that
night to cheer Andre, who some call the Gentle Giant
because he is a good guy and the wrestling ring,

(01:31:32):
good and eveler are distinct, and the fans pour into
the arena to cheer the good guys in a jeer
and curse the back ones. Generalizations are dangerous at MISS
Wrestling promoter Dick Stein, born of Montgomery, but quote, it
is mostly your blacks and your poor whites who come
out here wow. On a given night, the audience may
include a handful of white collar types such as Houston
County Probate Judge R. J. Stembridge, a front row regular,

(01:31:52):
and the two women from Panama City, Florida, who drive
up every Friday night come in the ringside wearing evening
dresses check into the motel where some of the wrestler's
study and spend center a poolside chatting with the behinders
who were pounding opponents in the ring the night before
and pounding them in the hotel the night before. Ring
rats getting pounded breathlessly, full mount.

Speaker 9 (01:32:12):
They're all whore.

Speaker 2 (01:32:13):
You open the fucking hotel door and it looks like
someone's drilling for oil. That is that a wrestler? Is
that a wrestler mounted on a ring rat? Or is
that an oil? Derek? You getting that ass, Larry. These
are exceptions, and the average wrestling crowd is made up
of the kind of working keybom whose peopbops in the
parking lot where bumper stickers with messages such as I

(01:32:33):
fight poverty, I work BROTHERER what. Dothan's fans are probably
typical in these respects, and nationally millions more share their passion.
The National Wrestling Alliance claims that for the six years
from nineteen seventy two to nineteen seventy seven, professional wrestling
drew two hundred and nineteen million paying customers, and that
same period, the NABA says college football drew one hundred

(01:32:54):
ninety eight million, Major League Baseball one hundred ninety five million,
Pro football eighty three eighty three million, and basketball fifty
seven million. The wrestling season, of course, is fifty two
weeks long. I'm sorry what I know. I mean also,
you know it's kind of funny, I mean, taking consideration
this though. Okay, professional wrestling is going every week. Yes, okay.

(01:33:18):
College football has like a couple months in the season.
That's why they draw more people exactly the wrestling season.
Our season never ends. Matches are promoting countless towns and
cities so small other sports would never give them a
second thought. And estimated sixty percent of the national attendance
is in the South and arena's like dopans. The price
of an average wrestling ticket is four dollars, and the

(01:33:38):
annual paid gate for the industry is estimated between one
hundred and million and one hundred and fifty million. Whether
sport or entertainment. Wow, this guy's progressive with the word
choice here. Professional wrestling is big business. It is also
a closed business in many ways of family business. At
one time, promoters in almost every city in North Alabama
and Tennessee were related by blood or marriage, and you
don't say at Many of the wrestlers and promoters active

(01:34:01):
today got into the business through their families or in laws.
Dick Steinborn, for example, is the son of Milo Steinborn,
who was a living legend in the wrestling world. A German,
Milo went to see as a young boy and was
in Australia in World War One began. He was interned
there with other German nationals and a prisoner of war camp.
There was nothing else to do, so the men organized
themselves in a prison intramurals. Every day, the prisoners wrestled
and lifted weights. When the war was over and Milo

(01:34:22):
Steinborn was released, he was a perfectly proportioned and perfectly
developed young man of tremendous strength. In nineteen twenty, he
stowed away on a ship for New York City and
eventually made his way to Philadelphia, penniless and friendless. In Philly,
one day, Milo visited a gym where a weightlifting contest
was in progress. Brother Milo realized he had been picking
up more weight in the pow camp than these world
champions were handling, so he entered the competition and astounded

(01:34:45):
the other lifters, the spectators, and the press, which had
a field Day with the man off the streets with
the superhuman strength. Sounds like Terry Bowley to me, I
don't know. Yep, yep, Milos Steinborn was discovered. We go
through the twenties, we go through promoters hitting new markets.
We go through through Milo having two sons, with Vivian
Henry and Dick Steinborn. We talk about Dick being the

(01:35:05):
son who loved wrestling, the stink and the sweat of
filthy dressing rooms, and then we quote Ox Baker, God
help us, who says the following. A wrestling fan is
not like a football fan. They are more vicious, more sadistic.
They want to see the bad guys out there, ranning
and raving. They won't come to see anything else. You
can have the NCAA finals and college wrestling and you
can't even get a crowd. It won't even make the papers.

(01:35:26):
In most places. People want action, and we're professionals. We're
geared to it, so we give it to them. When
there's blood out there, it's real blood. That is something
they could say, that's a funny one. That is something
they could say. Yep, they could say that. I didn't
say how it was drawn, but it's our blood. I've
had teeth knocked out, my knees are boogered up, my
wrist has been broken. But when there's blood out there,
it's real blood. It's our blood. I've taken razors and

(01:35:48):
just running across my fast Wait, you said, what again?
Stick take?

Speaker 7 (01:35:53):
I take rusty metal and I stick it in my
face to give you blood.

Speaker 1 (01:35:58):
Yes, you do.

Speaker 2 (01:35:59):
How does that make you feel? Well? Still, Baker acknowledges
that there are limits to the slugging wrestlers can do
to one another night after night. We do have agreement
amongst ourselves. This is an interesting one. Wow, this is
Bot Baker talking. Wrestlers know they have to restrain themselves.
Wrestlers say this means not that matches are pre arranged
and rehearsed, but that to fit the schedule and to
please the crowd, the wrestling may be mixed with soap opera. Quote.

(01:36:22):
Say we're on TV and it's an hour program. Now
I can beat my opponent in forty five seconds, but
the promoter may tell me, okay, ox, I need seven minutes,
So I'll entertain the people for seven minutes before I
put the man down. It's a good one. Wrestlers also
have an incentive to win consistently and to build up
a reputation because their earnings depend on it. A wrestler
who can do preliminary bouts every night may earn as
much as forty thousand dollars a year if he is

(01:36:42):
willing to travel enough, but a main event wrestler like
Ox Baker will earn three to three hundred to seven
hundred dollars for fifteen minutes of work at the Houston
County farm Center before a bigger crowd is evenings, pay
may run as high as two grand. It is the money,
Baker says, that is in the back of every wrestler's
mind when all the ranting and raving and posturing for
the crowd has ended. That's why wrestlers don't get tough
together after matches. We're like except you, Oxy, according to

(01:37:04):
ed Leslie, were fucking pal around with Terry Bullay and
the wide open public. We're like Magawity challenge coming at
each other, and the fans wouldn't understand it if they
saw us later being friendly. At the farm Center, for example,
there are two dressing rooms with the word white painted
out but still visible over the door to each Wow
look at that hadn't been too long since segregation there, boss, huh,

(01:37:25):
I guess, oh yeah. The word white still. And the
good guys use one and the bad guys use the other.
The wrestlers who stay at the sherit and motor in
and doth and I'll take rooms on the same wing.
But a good guy generally will associate only with other
wrestlers of the same image. Some wrestlers then work out
and stay in shape and try to get stronger so
they can be more effective in the ring and at
the bank. Some work out because they like it. Back
at Gary's gym, Steinborn's face is twisted with pain as

(01:37:48):
he finishes a set of reps and leaps up. The
body wants it. The body says thank you every time
you do it. The body loves it. He says wow.
And Jesse Ventura isn't even in the territory yet. Across
are you ready for this? I want you to read this, okay,
across the room, Terry the Hulk Boulder Bold are by

(01:38:10):
the way, not like he's actually spells it is in
pain too. He's already in pain. He's in pain. He
is sitting on a bench with his arms on a
little padded shelf built for curling. Terry has reached the
sixth of ten repetitions in his set of curls, and
he is almost crying in the effort to finish. Wrestler
Ron Slinker, Boulder's friend and road roommate, is counting, yelling encouragement,

(01:38:34):
and standing ready to take the weight if needed. Weightlifting
can be done to increase strength to or to increase
what bodybuilders call definition or the prominent appearance of the muscles.
Boulder does a little bit of both. Steinborn's chest, arms
and thighs ripple with hardness and power, but Boulders body
bulges and swells with knots of muscle. During his workout,

(01:38:57):
Boulder constantly watches himself in the mirrors which lines the
gymnasium walls. He flexes his great tan brother, he noticed
dude tanned body and studies at deciding which exercise he
needs to do to next next to bring out some
muscle not quite as defined as the rest. His body
and his ring nickname the Hulk, are Boulder's trademarks, and

(01:39:17):
they have made him the crowd favored and a main
event wrestler in only four years. The sign outside the
farm Castle flashes with his name Center Farm Center flashes
with his name tonight. The Hulk versus ox Baker Terry
is six' three and weighs three hundred. Pounds his blonde
hair's shoulder, length and he wears a sweeping. Mustache the

(01:39:38):
hair on his chest is shaved into a geometric, pattern
which tapers to a point and disappears into his wrestling.
Trunks what what are? You geometric? Power what's going? On
is a geometric Pat what are you talking? About you
telling my thermos shaped? Cock?

Speaker 7 (01:39:54):
Brother in the arena before his, Matches terrible stand in
the corridor near the dress, rooms surrounded by young, women
some of them girls, really who flirt with him and
who sometimes reach out furtively to stroke the muscles in
his arms and back and.

Speaker 2 (01:40:09):
Crotch young girls come up and, say how CAN i
marry a? Wrestler they think the wrestlers are, Gods they really,
do Says Sheila. Steinborn you wonder if your husband pays
attention when these women get dressed up in their son
to best week after week and sit at ringside hoping
to be. Noticed but that's just part of the. Business
the older guys are used to. It it's nothing to,
Them so they let the young guys get the. Glory

(01:40:29):
but the ones who are just getting in the business
sometimes it goes to their. Heads you wonder how well
they can handle. It wrestling wives must also cope with
the pressures of frequent moves and the regular absences of their,
husbands sometimes as much as four or five days a.
Week the wives of athletes and other sports, baseball for,
example frequently band together for. Support but miss stein now
that's not going to happen with wrestling, wives no. Way

(01:40:51):
Miss steinborne says that rarely happens with the wives of.
Wrestlers so they outline so much of the rigors of the,
road despite the fact that these guys barely have to
travel anywhere between towns relative to what the business is
about to. Become three nights, later In, Montgomery calvert will
demolish two more challengers and progrest the wrong, slinker a
crowd favorite will show up at ringside with five hundred

(01:41:11):
dollars of his own, money Asking calvert why if he's
so tough he won't take on another. Wrestler but that's
In montgomery and doth and three. Challengers despite the ease
with which they are defeated or congratulated by others in the.
Crowd Joey matthews joins his buddies in the, stands and,
one grinning, broadly speaks of, hell, boy why didn't you call.
Me i'd have thrown you my knife or pistol or. Something.

(01:41:32):
Shit we could have used that five hundred dollars in
the race, car could have bought a new. Radiator you're
gonna try him again next. Week i'm seriously considering, It joey, Says,
Well i'll work you out all week so you'll be
in shape this.

Speaker 4 (01:41:42):
Time.

Speaker 2 (01:41:42):
Boy, Shit i'm thinking about trying that mother. MYSELF i
like the the s bombs in. Here that's this is
a real fucking uh. Magazine. Yep so they go, through you,
know kind of the promotional structure of, things and how
the matchmaker will try to bring in outside wrestlers Like
Ox baker because of his size and strength and why
he's well. KNOWN i was not the best looking guy

(01:42:04):
in the. World, see so the fans were going to
dislike me from the, beginning AND i figured why not
take advantage of. It so he shaved his, head grew a,
mustache which makes him look even, fiercer and he cultivated
an image as a. Killer AND i noticed how through
all this and all the descriptions Of Terry boulegh And,
boulder he's not interviewed at. All he doesn't have a
word to. Write he's not. There he's not. There baker

(01:42:24):
probably couldn't change his image if he wanted, to because
it is so well set in the minds of the.
Fans melan frightening and he's. Frightening, yeah good luck ever
being anything but a fucking killer with that look on your.
Face Melanie kaepner Of daleville is sixty seven and has
been in an institution and in an. Institution she has
been an institution at The Dothan arena for two. Decades

(01:42:47):
in an institution at The Dothan, arena she Gives Ox
backer howl from the minute he enters the. Arena she
gets up from a ringside, seat walks right next to the,
ropes Calling baker profane names names she would never order
outside this arena until he over the ropes and shakes
this giant fist at. Her the site is almost, comical
the huge man towering over the little white haired. Women,
Later Miss kaepner is telling some other people what she

(01:43:09):
thinks Of Oz. Baker you, know he's killed two. Men she, says,
Yes terry is about to kill his future In, alabama
but not before making these. Articles this is The News,
Herald Panama. City this is flash forwarding all the way
To october, now so there's basically like a period between
the race match and the fall Where boulder kind of

(01:43:31):
disappears and works primarily In, memphis which is the next
leg of our journey here on The Complete hulk. Cogin
but By october he's back around and articles like this are.
Running Wrestling Slate, HIT a ten round boxing bout Between
Eddie mansfield And Kevin sullivan will feature tonight's professional wrestling
card At Bowl Air Wrestling. Arena the two wrestlers have
a feud going and decided to settle it by donning.
Gloves each will have a second in his. Corner the

(01:43:52):
main event will Pitt Owk's baker against the HEF D
terry The Hulk, boulder who is six six and weighs
two Hundred now he's two hundred eighty five pounds? Boss
what was he? Last? Yet he's? ALL i, mean he's
he was three hundred. Pounds he was north of. Three,
Yeah baker has had things his own way here in
The hull copes to change that and a special tag team,
event The assassins will team up Against Roy welch And Jerry.
Stubbs the opening matches EIGHT pm pits The hunter against Newcomer.

(01:44:15):
Billiteo no idea who that?

Speaker 5 (01:44:17):
Is?

Speaker 2 (01:44:18):
So what is the? Name? Beltio B I L L
I T.

Speaker 9 (01:44:21):
O i don't.

Speaker 2 (01:44:22):
Know, Yeah i've never heard of that. One no. Clue There's.
Nolitio There's Terry bolidio right there with The now he's
got rid of the single at now look at. Him
he's got the chest here, going but he's got the straight.
Tights Sunday Night southeast title match The Hulk champ sixty,
seven three hundred. Pounds now he's three hundred pounds, First
Ox baker coming to The Municipal. Auditorium. Wow ten rounds

(01:44:44):
of boxing Between sullivan And mansfield on the car is.
Well now by this, point as you flash forward Here
boss To october thirty, first nineteen seventy, nine thing gets
things get very confusing because to Hear Ron fuller tell
at a big part of the Reason Terry bolea bolted
From memphis was because he wasn't belted in the territory
and he took that is something that was significant and
something that if this promotion had a future in mind for,

(01:45:04):
him they would have given a belt a long time.
Ago so we leaves, yeh according To Ron fuller's kind
of chronology of, things and admittedly he may talk more
about the fall as the year goes on in his.
Podcast but all of a, sudden not only Is Terry
boleya back In southeastern but he is The Golf Coast.
Champion let's read this article here From halloween of seventy
nine in The Press. Register hulk defends wrestling title Against

(01:45:27):
Professor Toro tanaka and, yes one Word saka is one
word Lowercase Tanaka. Tartonaka oh my. God Professor Torotonaka wrestling
returns To mobile for the first time Since Hurricane Frederick
wednesday night of The Expo Hall. Wow bell time is eight.
Pm maybe that's why they weren't. Shows Hurricane frederick wrecked

(01:45:48):
the whole fucking. Area there we.

Speaker 10 (01:45:49):
Go THE Huk Golf Coast champion will Be Professor. Taratanaka
in the main, Event Taratanaka googles for the title against
the six seven three Pound hulk and a special six
man challenge about with a no disqualification rule of. Effect
The assassin And Tom shaft Meet Jerry, Stubbs Barb armstrong
And Robert fuller in a single. Feature Eddie, mansfield who

(01:46:13):
has come a long way and the wrestling, world will
Meet Kevin. Sullivan Jimmy, golden who hasn't been In mobile
for a, while will meet the Super, pro And Norville
austin Meets Bob. Owen's Roy welch Meets Troy graham in
a one fall. About Expo hall opens at six thirty.

Speaker 2 (01:46:31):
Pm my, God So Toro tanaka is in the territory
with one, name never seen anything like, it and there
he is The Hulk Gulf Coast, champion smiling with the
with The Terry bulaya, hair with the chest hair going
the mushroom cloud look ye and, Yes Hurricane frederick was
vicious just looking it. Up now called one of the

(01:46:53):
most destructive storms ever Hit alabama on The Central Gulf,
coast made Landfill september of that. Year over ninety percent
Of mobile lost, power no shit some for. Weeks it's
sort of like a Before frederick and After frederick thing
for folks from that. Area twelve on the death toll
two point three billion dollars in nineteen seventy nineteen seventy

(01:47:16):
nine dollars in. Damage that's, catastrophic to say the very,
least and just just threw everything into a. Tizzy so
we'll see if The hulkster can get the area back
on its. Feet there it Is Gulf Coast Title, Match
Wrestling Expo, hall EIGHT, Pm Gulf Coast Title match The
Hulk champion Versus Professor Toro. Tanaka now again to my
point on an earlier, episode remember HOW i was saying
that Those bible like title match histories never Had hulk

(01:47:39):
winning this belt or anything like. That, YEAH i don't
know who he want it. From he must have want
it From Austin, idol because the last thing the newspaper
clippings told us Was hulk Beat Austin idol in a
non title, match and that was pissed him. Off, honestly
that must have. Been it's not Unlike awkwinkle in eighty. Three, yeah,
YEAH i. Know it's seriously the same type of thing

(01:48:00):
into a situation where his reign is supposed to begin
and they get cute with, it and pretty soon he
wants to fucking. LEAVE i, mean you, know can you blame?
Him you, know he wants he wants to win a
fucking world title and there and they're denying. Him there's
wrestling set tonight at Ex Bo. Hall wrestling comes back
To Mobile wednesday night At Expo, hall with the starting
time set for eight. Pm mobile promoters have strived to

(01:48:20):
Bring mobile fans a top notch card and. Wrestling due
To Hurricane frederick has been absent From mobile for over two,
months but it's set to. Return The Halt Gulf Coast
wrestling title holder puts up his belt against the challenge
Of professor all In caps all In Caps professor Towards
naka in a title, match with both men battling for

(01:48:40):
the coveted. Championship in a special challenge, match The assassins
And Tom shaft will face the popular favorites Mob Up
Bob Armstrong Robert. Fuller So robert's, back that's. Interesting the
brother Of Ron, Fuller Colonel Rob, parker is done Booking memphis,
apparently And Jerry, Stubbs Eddie mansfield Will, Mee Kevin salvan
and a few bout another, Matches Jimmy golden will meet

(01:49:02):
the Super pro in a single. Match NorVa austin Wrestled
Bob owens in a one fallbout And Roy welch Faces
Troy graham in a singles. Encounter and there was some
storm damage that hit the auditorium. Itself it wasn't just you,
know the city environs that took, damage in, fact the
building where the territory would have their matches and mobile.

(01:49:23):
Damage here's an Article boss from The Mobile Register november,
second nineteen seventy. Nine Go ahead.

Speaker 7 (01:49:31):
Damaged storm damaged roofs on The Mobile Meansial auditorium complex
leaked badly during heavy Rains wednesday, night compounding problems for
the staff and probably causing more interior. Damage auditorium MANAGER. W.
C buddy cluis.

Speaker 2 (01:49:50):
Just the guy you want in. Charge it sounds like
his name is clueless where you got him on the?
Horn guess is the combined impact Of Hurricane, frederick which
tore parts of roof off the main, arena the theater
And Expo hall and the rains will cost more than
one million dollars to. Repair on top of, that cluis

(01:50:11):
noted the entertainment complex will lose revenue by having to
cancel some events and turn down. Others severe roof damage
has forced the staff to Close Expo hall until repairs
can be. Completed he.

Speaker 7 (01:50:21):
Said events and the other sections of the entertainment complex
will be held as scheduled unless inclement weather forces and impromptu,
cancelation he. Said hours after rains Ceased, thursday water continued
to drip from numerous points inside the. Buildings clewis appeared
most concerned about the central sound system ceiling title to ceiling,

(01:50:43):
TILES a number of seats and four four hundred thousand
dollars worth of. Drapes four hundred thousand dollars worth of
Drape that's a lot of, drapes, buddy that's a lot
of fucking drapes in the. Arena all the drapes were
soaked and may have to be, replaced he, specked and
water dripped from the sound system's, cage which is suspended

(01:51:04):
from the arena.

Speaker 2 (01:51:05):
Ceiling get the, Point just read. That read the caption
here on the. Photo, okay oh, god it's a catch
can it's a Water it's a bucket catching water from
the leaky. Ceiling it's a can catching. Catches you got that,
Right but they push ahead In mobile Come. November professional
wrestling will Return wednesday night At Mobile's Expo Hall Bell

(01:51:27):
time eight. Pm program was scheduled for last week but
was washed out by a. Storm they had a lot
pressure Toward. Tonaka now it's two, words The Gulf Coast Wrestling.
Champion you reading What i'm reading? Here mm. Hmm Wasn't
hulk the? Champion? Yep apparently not. Anymore Did hulk lose
The Gulf Wow Coast championship again and he's Wrestling Tony

(01:51:52):
Atlas in the main event Is, tanaka, which of Course
Ron fuller said in his podcast is the guy they
rushed to bring in when the big muscle man The
hulk had given him. NOTICE a fifteen man Battle royal
is also on the. Program Last man in The ring
earns a twenty five hundred dollars bonus six man taged.
Him elimination bout sends The assassins And Tom shaft Against Robert,
Fuller Kevin sullivan And Jerry stubbs notice. Qualifications other. Bouts

(01:52:14):
Roy welch Meets Jimmy gold And Troy. Graham i'm gonna
try to do My Ron. Fuller here all bouts Of
Royal welch Meeting Jimmy, Golan Troy graham square and off
with a super pro And Bob owens facing The. Mongolian
the doors opened EX Ba hall six point thirty p.
M as noted, here last week's Canceled halloween daycard at

(01:52:34):
Ex Ball hall due to the storm had A hulk
as The Gulf Coast champion defending Against Toro. Chanaka why
Does tanaka now have the? Belt what? Happened that's the.
Question where are the? Answers? YEP i mean the fact
that title histories are incomplete For hulk Fucking hogan doesn't

(01:52:55):
say a lot for title. Histories according to not the
WAY i see, THINGS i don't know about, You, ALABAMA
Nwa Southeastern Championship Civic, coliseum here's a card for, you
taped fist. Match now we're starting to see this Is.
Knoxville this is this is not Only. Knoxville this appears
to be, yes this is their answer to the Outlaw knoxville. Group.

(01:53:19):
Hmm But Hulk hogan has already left and gone To,
georgia which of course will cover in focus on a
future leg of The Complete Hulk Cogan journey and gone
on A tbs working For Olie anderson And Jimmy barnett
and Renamed Sterling golden because look who appears right here
on This knoxville, card right Whe Ron fuller ran all

(01:53:41):
those months That Terry boulder was. There Special Attraction Sterling
golden The Wrestling hall Versus Pierre Lefevre Lefevre Lefevre la
Freev The Wrestling. HULK i see that as being quite.
SIGNIFICANT i think you stopped calling him The hulk and
start calling him the Wrestling hulk because a certain letter

(01:54:03):
On Marvel masthead arrives at the. Office, yes SO i
definitely whenever they say, that pay very close. Attention but
elsewhere it's a tape fist, match Brass knuckles, Rules Dick,
Slater Paul orndorf Versus Ox baker and The angel managed
By Gorgeous George, junior who is back in From memphis
about a thousand dollars. Challenge look who's back in the.
Area David schultz and the Future Midnight express Wrestler Dennis,

(01:54:26):
Condrey Robert, Ronfuller MISTER, Usa Tony, atlas And, yes special
attraction Startling golden right here In. Knoxville but boss. Come
On november, eleventh this article hits The Knoxville News. Standard
looks like we have a new owner in. Town In Southeast.
Wrestling this reminds me of that period on the lamentable

(01:54:46):
tragedy Of World Class Championship. Wrestling we're suddenly Like Bo
bright and these like Random dallas. People we're in the
paper buying interests From fritz Fim. Eric that tells you
there's not much time. Left that tells you a drain is.
Circle tell us About Bob. Polk, oh, yes he's the
Lap Fall wrestling.

Speaker 1 (01:55:05):
Podcast he's The Lapsed Fan wrestling podcast With jack And

(01:55:33):
carno AND Jp.

Speaker 7 (01:55:34):
SORO i THINK i read part of this article on
The Incredible hulk episode, actually But i'm glad to revisit.

Speaker 2 (01:55:43):
Here Bob polk buys Se.

Speaker 7 (01:55:48):
Wrestling Bob, polk who has a background in the sporting goods, business,
coaching and, insurance has accepted a new. Challenge the former
web schools standout in football and. Basketball together a group
of investors to Buy Southeast Wrestling incorporated From Ron welch
And Don, Curtis, Jacksonville, florida key investors Are Fred ward

(01:56:09):
And James.

Speaker 2 (01:56:11):
Barnett you got, it so he sticked the front person
And Jimmy. Barnett Fred ward was the one of The
atlanta area. Promoters you mean Actor Fred ward From Tremor's
you got to redo that joke, too SUCCESSFUL tv wrestling
promoters In. Atlanta the new group will be known As
Southeastern Wrestling. Corporation so it went From Southeastern Wrestling incorporated

(01:56:35):
To Southeastern Wrestling. Corporation you, know to avoid, Confusion, yes you.
Know there are two THINGS i hope to accomplish in the,
broways Said polk thirty, three nineteen sixty EIGHT ut graduate
and history masters in nineteen seventy. One, first said we
should bring to the top wrestling town across the Country Tony,

(01:56:58):
Atlas Stirling, Glodin, sterling Gold, Stirring golden three twenty pounds
and known as The Wrestling hulk And Harley. Race, SECOND
i hope to return something to the community through civic
work myself and the. WRESTLERS a new wrestling group will
have an office On. MAGNOLIA i forgot's, sakes no hold, on,

(01:57:23):
SORRY i accidentally close. It we're seeing. Here if you're
not picking it up is the group That Ron fuller
Sells knoxville. Too he throws up his hands and says
fuck this and sells the you, know not Just. Knoxville
he sells his company To Jimmy, barnett, who of course
was the big power broker and as we've discussed on

(01:57:44):
The Black saturday, episodes a strong shareholder and kind of
a in some ways before he clashed With, oli sort
of like a controlling. Shareholder he was THE nba secretary
and he booked the. Champion you. Know he was the
one you called to get dates on the world. Champion
he was the one that elected the ten percent champions
fee and parceled it out. Respectively and now he And

(01:58:06):
Fred ward have Taken Ron fuller's. Territory they've bought it from,
him and so it starts to connect a little. Bit
while all of a sudden in The, Fall Terry boleya
is coming back around the. Area while this article hadn't
hit the press, yet and perhaps the sale hadn't been fully,
consummated wouldn't surprise me to know that it was pretty
well understood and in the air on the fall of
seventy nine That ron was looking to get out and

(01:58:27):
in fact sell to somebody That Sterling golden had gone
to work, for Or Terry boleya had gone to work
for and been renamed a re Christened Sterling. Golden and
now all of a sudden in this part of the,
territory the newspapers or chocol block with mentions Of Sterling golden.
Again so it comes back. Around that's kind of Why
boulder's first exit from the territory is a bit of
a head. Fake it's more like he Leaves Louis toillette

(01:58:48):
than he Leaves. SOUTHEASTERN i got. You let me see.
Here so the New Rusting group will have an office
On Magnolia avenue Near sh'll how Chill Howie. Park let's
Let's THATCHER Tv productions and Public, relations And Charlie bauer
promoter will continue with the organization. Quote he goes there

(01:59:12):
will be no change in admission prices or location of m.

Speaker 7 (01:59:16):
Matches for a moment, THERE i thought he said there
will be no charge in admission.

Speaker 2 (01:59:20):
Prices good thing that wasn't a. Typo. Man you imagine
the fucking confusion caused by that, one.

Speaker 7 (01:59:26):
Said, polk former assistant coach and football and basketball at
BIT a lot other. Keep every time they Say, polk
they fucking list another like accomplishment that.

Speaker 2 (01:59:34):
Another right you? Know and web school before establishing a
sporting good. Store, ah, YES i can do sports BECAUSE
i run a sporting good. Store Tara matsuda thought so.

Speaker 7 (01:59:46):
Ye, polk who has worked part time in wrestling in
the past few, years was employed By Brotus Clay anderson And.
Associates Bortus clay Aren't anderson And associates before embarking on
his new.

Speaker 2 (02:00:02):
Well how Fitting it's holidays and The Territory boss look at. This,
Thursday november twenty, Second Knoxville New, Sentinel Hartley race is
coming back to. Headline there will be no turkeys on
The Thanksgiving night wrestling card At Civic coliseum Because Harley
race will take On Dix slater in the main. Event
slater won a local elimination tournament for the right to Meet.
Race Ron fuller continue to Meet. RACE i don't, Know

(02:00:24):
Dick slater And race don't really tend to make it a.
Combination Ron fuller continues his feud With sterling The Wrestling,
Hulk Golden sterling The Wrestling hulk in Parenthesis golden and
another match In David Schultzen Dennis condrey take On Pierre
Lea feyere And Jerry roberts in the tag team. Highlight
the other two matches complete the eight thirty. Cards there

(02:00:44):
it is, tonight eight thirty, Pm Civic Coliseum Fan Appreciation,
night no increase in. Prices the posters, says, wow what
a special treat for. Us of course has mentioned race
For slater with special Ref Don curtis and in the
special grudge Match boss in my eyes deceiving. Me It's
Ron fuller versus who The Wrestling Hulk? Golden but another

(02:01:13):
fucking Type oh for the. Ages can you Pronounce stertlewig
s t e r L i W g ster slug
the Wrestling? Golden this is a combination Of Jim hellwig

(02:01:33):
And Sterling. GOLDEN i guess The Wrestling Hulk golden Versus
Ron Fuller southeastern tag, Titles david Schultzon Denz Condre champions
Versus Jerry roberts And Pierre la. FIV i can't say
the name And i'm just gonna deal with. It Sterling
golden still. HERE i wonder if there was like A
i wonder if they got a, refund if they misspelled
the wrestler's, name AND i wonder and, uh you, know

(02:01:56):
the promoter figured out like a kickback to the to
the person who wrote the ad so they would get
a piece of the refund so they could get a
discount on the. Ad because there's way too many spelling
area it's really, bad just about every time there's one of.
Them Knoxville News, Sentinel november twenty. Eighth All Star Championship
wrestling Now All, Star, yes was the name of the
group That Bob orton and The Knoxville five split off and.

(02:02:19):
Created and look who they're attracting to the. Territory makes
sense out of this for? ME i guess it's because
they're still running As All Star, wrestling even Though barnett
now is pretty much consolidated power and they're on their
absolute last. Legs but you don't hear a lot about.
This they're still going to market As All star at
the W Knox. Auditorium But Sterling golden's on the, card,

(02:02:42):
Yes and not only is he on the, card he's
Wrestling bob Rup that's, right in A hulk. Challenge, now
you tell me if there's A hulk challenge for five
Grand bob rup and The hulk Sterling. Golden how is
The southeastern title match list that above also? HAPPENING i don't.
KNOW i Guess bob is working double duty and who's

(02:03:02):
he wrestling besides The hull Working All star? Risks and like?
IT i like. IT i like it a. Lot he
don't do your right, Now Bob. Roop you're looking at one,
man one man coming in taking care of a, business
doing it the way THAT i, do because that is the.
Way uh. Huh The Macho, Man Windy savage likes. IT

(02:03:24):
i do like. That he started with you're looking at one.
Man he was always big on not stating the. Obvious
that's one thing we can say About Rainy. Savage BUT i, can't,
OKAY i, mean this has got to be. It this
has got to be the first, time maybe In, memphis
but That Hulk hogan And Macho Man Ready savage are
on the same. Card. Yeah Hers, Day november twenty, ninth

(02:03:46):
nineteen seventy. Nine knox that it's crazy because The outlaw
group is kind of fading away and kind of getting
subsumed By. Atlanta another thing that happens in nineteen seventy,
Nine absolutely, right but there's still secial traction still tells
you where they, stood as The NO Dq No Time
limit tag match puts the five hundred Pound Man Mountain
dean And Ronnie garvin Versus Bob Orton junior And Professor Boris.

(02:04:10):
Malenko we of course in The, Malanko orton And garvin
part of The Knoxville, five but the See Bob roup
Versus Sterling golden on the card is. Amazing Terry Terry,
gibbs that supposed intermediary getting a book down there Facing Barry,
Oh Barry. Orton. Wow no FROM Wwf STARS wwf shows to,
Come Southeastern Friday Night, coliseum The Don, show and the

(02:04:32):
absolutely The Donna Hue. Show most, specifically most Memorably november,
thirtieth seventy, Nine Friday, night eight Thirty, Coliseum Southeastern heavyweight
Titled Dix Slator champion Versus Ernie Ladd, Challenger Tony atlas
Versus Sterling Golden mass in nineteen and seventy nine and
the return match for The southeastern tag Titles David, Chelton
Dennis Condrey champions Versus lathiev And Jerry. Roberts take a

(02:04:56):
look at the next. Damage there's a big Old Dick
slater throwing a heavy elbow terry bowlet slash sterling. Golden
you know it's sterling golden for the most. Part if
he's now wearing long trunks but not a single et
right right chest hair is, shaved but it's skin tight,
pants not, trunks and no straps over the. Shoulder but
he's got the white wrist tape dialed. In yes he.

(02:05:19):
Does he's Working Dix slater and we're turning to seehim.
Melding and what's most amazing is that we haven't talked
about the Last Hulk hogan Versus, andre The giant match
In Gulf Coast. Southeastern take a look at. This here
we are by the end of nineteen seventy, Nine andrea
And hulk are mixing it up, again And hulk is

(02:05:40):
he's got a different coat of pain. On take a
look at The, hulk the state of The hulk here
it appears not that we can tell why he's got
the belt. Back, yeah he has the belt that's The
Southeastern championship with the, red white and blue color designed to.
It hulks in skin tight white long, pants red knee,
pads red boots And i'm not sure how to feel about.

Speaker 7 (02:06:01):
THAT i, mean you, know it's definitely an uncomfortable. Feeling, yeah,
WHY i, mean he. SHOULDN'T i, mean actually it kind
of looks like two thousand and Two Hulk, hogan it,
does you, know he almost you, know it's too bad
that there's not the The Strawberry banana frapp going.

Speaker 2 (02:06:18):
On so this is Not terry The Hulk. Boulder this
as The Knox One New sentinel tells Us december, eighth
nineteen seventy, Nine sterling The Hulk golden won by. Disqualification,
yes That's roondre The giant and the main event Of
Friday Night wrestling at The Civic. Coliseum so that's Why
Ron fuller talks about the two matches That hulk had
With andre in the spring of nineteen seventy, nine as

(02:06:38):
there were only two meetings in the territory because by
the time they hook it back up In, knoxville you,
Know fuller's out and so much has. Changed, yeah The
giant had dumped The. Hulk the article reads from the
ring When Dick, slater who was upset by The hulk last,
week charged from the dressing room and began to beat
The hulk with a, chair resulting in The giant's disqualification
due to outside interference and other. Matches Jerry roberts Beats Terry.

(02:06:59):
ORRANGE i don't think It's Terry. ORNDORF i could be.
Wrong that's WHAT i haven't heard. Before, yeah that was
him when he turned baby face After WrestleMania won nothing
DO i. THINK i just bear with, me. BROTHER i
think what you should, do, dude is instead of a
WHOLE maniai, brother not your baby. Face he shouldn't Be

(02:07:20):
paul Or. DWARF i think you should Be terry On.
ORNDWARF i am. DUDE i, mean come, on you, KNOW
i think it's a good way to, go. Brother it
does say later here in this. Article so later In
Paul oorendwarf Beat David, Scheldt Stennis condrey and the. Grappler.
Wow SO i don't. Know maybe there was A Terry
orndorff THAT i don't know. About could have been knocks
only a. Sentinel here's another article from the same programs
of the day Before Andrea Wrestling hulk meeting main. Event

(02:07:43):
the biggest man in wrestling seven foot, four four hundred
and eighty five Pound andre The giant And hulk. Begins
by the, Way boss undoubtedly reading these articles his LIFELONG
i don't want to say, phobia but his lifelong you, know,
obsessive compulsive thing about try to do everything he can
to overtake his rival's. Numbers Headlines Friday night of The Civic.

(02:08:06):
Colisseum his opponent is six foot, six three hundred ten
Pounds sterling the Wrestling Hulk golden AND i can't wait
to get more into this time period because After hulk
leaves and then kind of comes back, around they take
The Hulk Andre show on the road The Wow, yeah
Consider dothan AND i think it Was, montgomery the other

(02:08:27):
match The Maris, pensacola The Petri. Dish, okay they figured it.
Out this thing draws, well this thing draws, big And
Ron fuller was not the only promoter to notice this
be prepared for way Before WrestleMania three and before Even Shay,
stadium The hulk Versus andre to headline major cities all

(02:08:47):
Over North america and Eventually. JAPAN i can't handle that
ride and out of The. Coliseum battle of The giants
seven foot, four forty five pound under The, giant big
ass picture Of andre to his massive mit versus six foot,
six three hundred ten pounds sterling gold in the Wrestling.
HULK i mean you're looking at you're looking at the

(02:09:08):
raw material of The WrestleMania three promotional. Campaign it absolutely
is right. Here, seriously it's seventy nine they're already promoting
it is sort of a a special. Attraction it's not even,
like you, Know terry the Hult, boulder who's risen to
prominence here, locally is going to welcome the international superstar
under The giant and see if he can test his.
Will he's not the local, boy you. Know terry is

(02:09:31):
the other side of The this marquee sort of freak
show that when it comes to town is kind of
a special attraction match on the order of AN nba title.
Match so now he's kind of elevated a little bit
visa dere and that he's not the underdog hoping to
prove himself Against. Andre he's the guy that you want
to see Test andre in your. Town and, man are

(02:09:52):
they learning their lesson about this being the money? Match
And i'm Sure Vince junr wherever he's, sitting is paying
very close attention to this as. Well here's a card
that was dug out by The Homie matt From december,
thirteenth seventy. Nine Southeastern Championship wrestling In. Knoxville Southeastern Tag Team,
Title schultzen contry Versus Orn dwarf An Atlas Southeastern title,

(02:10:14):
Match Sterling golden Versus Dick. Slater some wow is The
southeastern title that he has there on his waist and
you see it off to the right as. Well Sterling
golden Versus Dick. Slater here's a post from The Wrestling
Classic sport mentioning how the title switched around around this
point in. Time this fan Remembers hogan Is Sterling golden

(02:10:36):
won The southeastern title From Dick slater On december, first
nineteen seventy, nine worked his FIRST wwwf matches a few weeks,
later and went back and dropped the title To Bob
armstrong On Christmas. Night so we're worthy about to see

(02:10:58):
to cap off The alabama leg of the Complete Hull Cogan,
journey Is hogan coming back to do The Christmas day
honors after he's already gone To New york and been
on their. Television that's, Insane really is. Wild you don't
really think of their being kind of a anything except

(02:11:20):
The awa In japan on the other side of Hul
cogan leaving For New. York but there is a lot
more to say than you might, think Because Southeastern Championship
wrestling presents a Card Christmas, day and how as we
ride up on Our christmas here in twenty twenty. Five,
Boss i'm sure they never could have guessed Back Christmas
night nineteen seventy nine to The Civic coliseum And knoxville

(02:11:42):
that we'd be doing something called a podcast about.

Speaker 9 (02:11:44):
It i'm sure.

Speaker 2 (02:11:46):
Not but what A christmas night that must have been
at THE. AH i can't. Imagine that must have been.
Crazy three thirty Pm bell. Time you like that On Christmas?
Day a three thirty? START i, do. WELL i don't.
Know now too early, early you gonna Have christmas dinner?
FIRST i see that's. True maybe be home For christmas? Dinner? Maybe,
yeah maybe that's that could. Be that could be. True

(02:12:08):
Southeastern Heavyweight title, Sterling Golden Wrestling hulk and Quotes Wrestling Hulk.
Champion they must be saying wrestling Because marvel got. Pissed
they have to be all of a, sudden they must
they have to. Be in, fact he's probably Called Sterling
golden because when he got To NATIONAL tbs they were,
like we, can't, no we can't call you The. Hulk that's.
Ridiculous it's so obviously Versus Bob, armstrong as well as

(02:12:33):
A Texas Death match falls count anywhere in the. Building
dick's later teams Of Paul arndoor Versus David schuls And
Dennis condrey a seven girl over The Tarboro Battle royal
fifteen hundred bucks to the, winter and in a special challenge,
match It's Buzz sawyer with one ze Versus Ox. Baker
snippet if like, task that's, right here's little sippet from
The Knoxville New, Sentinel december twenty, Fifth Christmas, day nineteen seventy.
Nine wake, up open the presence with the, kids have

(02:12:55):
your uh your a chicory coffee or, whatever and fried
squarel down, there whatever, else whatever. Else Truman capote used
to eat his a young boy when he woke up
And Bob, armstrong, GEEZ i can't BELIEVE i missed the
Whole christmas memory. Connection there's you, Know Truman Capote's Christmas
memory one of the Great christmas short. Stories ever written

(02:13:19):
all about A christmas that these wrestling fans attending the
arenas in nineteen seventy nine in this part of the
country would have would have remembered and identified earth the
smell of fruitcake wafting through the coming out of the
chimney amazing. Times Bob armstrong is back For christmas. Wrestling
the headline reads local Favorite Bob, armstrong or as it,

(02:13:41):
Reads Arman strong arm n another check cashed has returned
To knoxville to Challenge sterling the Wrestling hulk in Parenthesis
golden in a special wrestling Show christmas afternoon At Civic.
Coliseum Dix slater And Paul orndorf Meet David, Chulton Dennis,
contry and the main event Of Texas Tag Team deathmatch

(02:14:01):
seven lady Wrestlers lyne And over The Tarborough Battle, royal
with the loan survivor taking home the fifteen hundred dollars.
Prize In, Ox baker Faces Buzz all You I'S thna
call Him Buzz lawyer in a challenge. Match so here
it is fast forward one tick. Oh this is the

(02:14:22):
only other match that survivest the f out of. Here
they have this. Match they have this match we have
to bring to a conclusion The Gulf coast. Section so
much has, happened we're going to push back the timeline
a little. Bit BUT i figured With christmas right around
the corner and this match happening In, christmas this Is
Terry bulat saying goodbye to The rings Of alabama against

(02:14:45):
the stalwart of the area in none other Than Bob.
Armstrong my, friend are you? Ready i'm ready. NOW i
don't know how and why this one. Survived i'm pretty
sure we're hitting a time period where George Championship WRESTLING
tbs would air highlights from other affiliated. Territories knoxville having

(02:15:08):
been bought By Jim barnett And Fred ward would definitely
be one of. Them AND i think what we're seeing
is not some match, that like The Hogan andre arm wrestling,
match happened to survive in the personal collection of some.
Guy man if only some podcast out there one day
could get to the bottom of that, one, yeah, Seriously
but in, fact this was a match that happened to
be from the, area that aired on another television show

(02:15:30):
that while you, know Complete Georgia championship doesn't exist as. Either.
Before of, course the proliferation of. VCRs there is a
fair amount Of georgia from nineteen. Eighty we watched a
bit of it In getting The essence Of Austin idol
earlier on The Complete Hull. Cogan and now because of,
THAT i believe we are the. Beneficiaries we get to
See Terry boulder mix it up with the Old Man

(02:15:51):
Christmas night nineteen seventy. Nine what a year it's been
For Terry bolat and what a way it ends playing
in three two.

Speaker 4 (02:15:59):
One and you, KNOW i think the key to this
film is We i've looked at this film a couple
of times and watched the.

Speaker 2 (02:16:05):
Watch let's that're on the. Call look At, hogan look at,
him look at. Him he's on film clearly long yellow
trunks and pressed collar and, elbow AND i think slow
methodical working of the arm by the jew frowed bottomed Arm.

Speaker 5 (02:16:19):
Sean he couldn't man handle Larm strong the way he.
Has other restaurers are in The southeastern area Farm.

Speaker 2 (02:16:24):
Strong armstrong wearing a single major, yes is looking like
Fucking Richard. Simmons he really.

Speaker 4 (02:16:30):
Does the bomb has that, speed that and he has
it the bird and when in that respect to the
extra eighty or.

Speaker 2 (02:16:36):
Ninety he was.

Speaker 4 (02:16:37):
Spotty The Big man was used against, him opposed to being.

Speaker 2 (02:16:41):
His compress lock to the arm Wringer hogan digging knees
and elbows in the corner.

Speaker 4 (02:16:46):
The whole by surprise on the whole boom Driving armstrong
into that fla in the corner of the.

Speaker 2 (02:16:52):
Buckling and The.

Speaker 4 (02:16:53):
Big man was, tough was very cautious Of armstrong.

Speaker 2 (02:16:57):
Elbow brother here comes No brody drop and cover By
Sterling golden gets too a.

Speaker 4 (02:17:02):
Way But bob is still in the ball. Game you,
know you can never Yet bob in the position for that.

Speaker 2 (02:17:09):
Golden. Squeeze he's got red and. Yellow it's just not
where it has to. Be you, Ready, wow drops the.
LEGS i was able to stay away from. IT i
think the cover uh And Bob armstrong cans leg drop
in nineteen seventy. Nine you want to mention That bob
was unable To he hasn't perfected the.

Speaker 4 (02:17:25):
Movie definitely back and back in a big way as
you're going to.

Speaker 2 (02:17:28):
See on this, bill and landed more with the back
of his uh calf on the face than the Figh
and when he came and he had one thing In
Wow championship ducks the. Line bob throws a big, right
bringing the Sterling golden down all.

Speaker 4 (02:17:42):
Fours top wrestling talent that we've seen in The southeastern
area over the. Years bob has been the champion in the.

Speaker 2 (02:17:46):
Past golden is. Reeling look at himself in the.

Speaker 4 (02:17:49):
Area and you can see one because mister perpetual, Motion
bob is always in gear and it's always high.

Speaker 2 (02:17:54):
Gear oh grabs the Where?

Speaker 5 (02:17:58):
Armstrong Because armstrong had been stuff in my.

Speaker 2 (02:18:00):
Finger he had things his way olden. Thought he had
things his own. Way indeed less.

Speaker 4 (02:18:04):
Across the back of the.

Speaker 2 (02:18:05):
Neck there he can vantage throw his arms strung over
the top. Rope look how the lights come up?

Speaker 4 (02:18:11):
There, no, YEAH i, agree was unable to save the whole.

Speaker 2 (02:18:14):
Tide right, back O'Connor roll, up Fun strong rolls up
for the free body.

Speaker 4 (02:18:26):
Press so we Have southeast.

Speaker 2 (02:18:30):
Jauary how Happy bob is he as.

Speaker 4 (02:18:33):
That belt high in the, air kisses his glades around
the coliseum with. It so we'll be Having bob on
the program next. Week you'll be you'll be seeing him
in a reaction for quite some time now because we've
got a new, champion a great one and he's back
and ready to.

Speaker 5 (02:18:46):
Go i'm.

Speaker 2 (02:18:46):
Sweet wow so Long Sterling golden just thoughts there overall
on seeing him mixing it Up Christmas night seventy, NINE
i mean it's it's it's. WILD i, mean there there
are he's still a little you, know he's not there,
yet but there's still a lot of elements of Of,
hogan you, know you besides the, leg besides, that you,

(02:19:08):
know even the way you know when he loses and,
stuff and it reminds me of how he would lose
as a, heel you. Know and he kind of liked
his oh, brother and he gets down on his knees
and he's like looking into the, crowd, like why, BROTHER
i didn't do? It. Dude, yeah he had reserves to
call on when he Was. Hollywood, yeah, yeah, yeah for.
Sure and the punches and stuff like there were just

(02:19:30):
there's a lot of. It there's a lot of it.
There he just there was like a little bit of
a lack of follow through that he would develop the
punches and. Stuff, WELL i think of the back elbows
and stuff that he did, There like there was it
just kind of was a little it didn't feel, Complete,
yes unlike a certain, JOURNEY i could, mention but if

(02:19:52):
you think we're, complete my, friend we've only just. Begun
look At Terry. Boulder it was nice knowing the THE
Nwa southeastern heavyweight. Champion it was nice knowing as chest.
Hair it was nice knowing. Him and look at look
at those yellow trunks on That southeastern. Belt too, little too,
late but we certainly Get Terry bully strapping himself up

(02:20:16):
a little. Bit we even get us and mentions in
the paper as somebody that's interacting with some of the local.
Athletes here from The News journal In, Pensacola gainesville Date.
Line Danny, fike sophomore Tackled university Of, florida spent last
summer lifting weights with a couple of theatrical athletes own

(02:20:38):
As Ron slinker And terry Foldat Jesus. Christ so he's
now officially a theatrical athlete in their prof As Danny
fike says from The university Of Florida. Tackle they're professional
WRESTLERS i worked out with at The Pensacola Health, club Said,
fike who played On Pine Forest High School state for
a runner up from seventy to seventy. EIGHT i know

(02:21:01):
they act kind of crazy in the, ring but they're
pretty down to earth guys out of the. Ring AND
i know one THING i wouldn't want to mess with
them in the. Ring slinker And boulder must be the
hiss and boo bad guys who'll do anything, mean dirty
and low down to gain an unfair. Advantage otherwise they
wouldn't want to mess With Danny. Fike this Columnist Billy mitchell,
writes so last vestiges perhaps of the Name Terry, boulder

(02:21:25):
and it's traveling in an area that he LEFT i
think way more of an imprint on than he had
any right to. Expect M Ron, fuller it's off to
court to try to get the belt back and the
boat if he's lucky From Ron. Garvin and it's really
never going to be the same in this part of
the countries it regards professional. Wrestling but for the last
few months that it was the same for the last

(02:21:47):
few months where you could go down there Typical. Hugan
he comes in and he gets built up to be
on this, megastar and then when he, leaves it's, like oh,
shit like the whole thing goes to. Shit lessons being,
Learned lessons being, learned For Terry boleya and all who
employ and book him going, forward and there will be

(02:22:10):
a litany of said. Folks but the raw material is.
Here we've done our level best to bring it to
life for you here in The Complete Hulkoke and never
let it be said That Terry Boleya's Gulf coast history
is under documented. Anymore it Was, andre it Was, harley
it Was Ox baker And Austin. Idol it was so

(02:22:33):
much of the. Signatures the first hint and whiff of
the signatures that would define his career was the beginning
of The andre. Feud it is the beginning of calling this,
man This Terry. Boleya from The Infinity's end band In,
tampa The, hulk As Lou forigno lights up television screens

(02:22:54):
across the country with his portrayal of The Incredible. HULK
i think things are. SET i Think Hulk Cogan boss
is prepared to be. Born let the new year bring
that to you and yours here on The Complete Hulk
hogan and The Lapsed. Fan we've got a couple of
more legs of the nineteen seventy nine journey to get acquainted.

(02:23:17):
With Because terry The Hulpe boulder made imprints In, memphis
he made imprints In, atlanta and yes he would soon
make imprints In New. York we leave you for, now
coming off The Christmas night victory Of Bob, armstrong and
wish you and yours a happy holiday two thousand and twenty.
Five And i'm left, Wishing boss that ALL i want

(02:23:40):
to get under the tree this year is someone that
can help me see what these fans In, dothan In
montgomery And mobile And, pensacola and in so many other
areas on The Gulf coast we're able to witness As
terry The Hulk boulder morphs Into Hulk. Cocain don't know

(02:24:01):
who that could, be but maybe they'll be under the
tree this, Year god willing you, Know Charlie, Platt, yes,
sir how are? You? Sir next time on The Complete
Old cogan