May 17, 2022 • 28 mins
Anonymous phone calls from Wrestling Fans all over the world.
Curated by AEW Wrestler, Colt Cabana.
Be a part of the show by calling:
87-CABANA-34 (872-222-6234)
or sending a voice memo to:
87CABANA34@gmail.com
Two Bonus Shows A Month:
www.Patreon.com/ColtCabana
www.ColtMerch.com
www.ColtCabana.com
Music by:
twitter.com/MattKoonMusic
Podcast Art by:
instagram.com/Donna619
Curated by AEW Wrestler, Colt Cabana.
Be a part of the show by calling:
87-CABANA-34 (872-222-6234)
or sending a voice memo to:
87CABANA34@gmail.com
Two Bonus Shows A Month:
www.Patreon.com/ColtCabana
www.ColtMerch.com
www.ColtCabana.com
Music by:
twitter.com/MattKoonMusic
Podcast Art by:
instagram.com/Donna619
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Wrestling Anonymous. Please hold Welcome toWrestling Anonymous, the pro wrestling hotline show
where callers call in their stories fromin and around the wrestling world, and
I, your host and professional wrestlerCold Cabana, curate through them all,
(00:21):
edit them up, produce them up, and put them out as this podcast
for everyone to listen to. Wedid take a little bit of a break,
but the show will go on aslong as the calls come in.
They're coming in a little bit slowerthese days, but they still do come
in, so I will still putout the podcast. Stay subscribe if you've
(00:43):
been missing the show. I'm stilldoing two bonus shows a month over on
my Patreon, and I've recently startedto have a guest with me while we
listen to the calls. You cango back in those archives too and hear
me listen to calls with my friendsMarty de Rosis, Do Stone, Sarah
Shaky and more. Patreon dot com, slash Colt Cabana that tier. It's
only five dollars a month. It'sa great way to support. You can
(01:07):
also stay subscribed to this podcast.Rate, review, tweet out, share
on social media. Tell your friendsto call in that crazy story they've always
talked about, or what about you. Maybe you were a huge wrestling fan
from Australia and you got booked asBruce Pritchard on the television show The Young
Rock, the same show where Iwas booked as the Brooklyn Brawler. It
(01:30):
made some new wrestling friends. Imean, that's got to be a crazy
story from your vantage point. Andif that was you, there's two very
easy ways to share that story withthe world. Email a voice memo to
eighty seven Cabana thirty four at gmaildot com or pick up the phone dial
eighty seven cabana thirty four. That'seight seven two two two two sixty two
(01:53):
thirty four. Eighty seven cabana thirtyfour is the number. Give it a
call, leave a mess after they'llbe wrestling anonymous. Please hold. The
(02:21):
other day, I'm having dinner withmy father, who comes from the hometown
of Amielo, Texas, and hestarts to tell me some stories about his
experiences with the Funk family manly TerryFunk. The first story he shares with
me is of a time when he'sabout four or five years old, and
this is the mid fifties. Mydad grew up incredibly poor. So he
(02:45):
came from the Badio, which isa Mexican ghetto, and on weekends him
and his older brother and cousin wouldjust go and hang out at the movie
theater. And one time they're thereand his brother and cousin and my dad's
kind of wondering what's going on,and they point and there's this big,
(03:05):
huge guy. They go, oh, my gosh, that is Dorry Funk
Senior. They might not have saidthe senior part, but he's ordering tickets
and he has four little kids withhim. So my dad just runs over.
You know, he's not afraid,he's just incredibly impressed with this gigantic,
larger than life figure. So mydad's just standing with this group of
(03:28):
kids and looking up at this wrestler, and you know, sure enough,
Dorry Funk Senior turns around with ahandful of tickets. He has four tickets
in his hand, and when heturns around, he sees five kids looking
back at him, and so hejumps like he startled, and he slowly
cocks his head over and narrows hiseyes and looks at the tickets he's holding,
(03:49):
and he counts four tickets. Helooks back at the children and does
a head count one, two,three, four, five, and goes
back to looking at the tickets.He counts four tickets, looks back at
the kids, does another head countfive kids, and then he looks over
at my dad, this little tinybrown kid. Now you have to understand,
(04:11):
this is the mid fifties. Integrationof white kids and Mexican American children
wouldn't happen for another ten years.For the most part, a lot of
whites did not interact with the MexicanAmerican culture at the time. This moment
was incredible because Dorry funds me anda dad just looks over at my dad
(04:31):
and laughs, big belly laugh,and then rubs his hands through his hair,
tousling his hair and messing it up, and then walking off with the
four kids to go see their movie. And it was hilarious because nearly seventy
years later, my dad was stilllaughing himself to tears shooting this speary with
me. Well, that's a feelgood story to start off. Feel good
(04:57):
because it's nice to know that ourheroes in wrestling aren't all pieces of shit.
So you can think of a timewhen the Mexican Americans were shunned by
the white men of Texas, andit takes the wrestling community to know that
all people shall be trinity equal,especially a little kid, cute little kid
(05:17):
to not care about any of thosethings and have appreciation for Allso shout out
to Dory Funk, Senior, andthat makes sense too. Terry Funk seems
to love all. I think.I don't know if there's a bad thing
about Terry Funk. I hope Isaid this, and I don't go looking
back, and there's a lot ofbad things, but I gotta assume that
(05:39):
he was a good human all around. Still is a good human, still
hanging in there, Terry Funk.So I love these kind of stories.
There's like some old, grainy,old footage of old time wrestling, but
it's not that often that we getto make a picture of old time wrestling
outside of the wrestling ring, injust a situation where they're going to the
movies, and we get to playthat picture in our head of the Funk
(06:00):
family and this caller's father retelling thestory that was just one story from the
caller, and they then continued onwith another one, which I think we'll
go through right now. So innineteen sixty nine, my dad actually joins
the army and gets sent to Germanyin the height of the Vietnam War,
(06:23):
where my dad decides to end upbecoming a hippie after being enlightened by the
music of Jimmy Hendrickson led Zeppelin inconcert. So upon his return to Amarilla,
not only is he a Mexican American, but now he's a hippie,
which is even more strange than youknow, anything anyone can understand nowadays.
(06:44):
But my dad's first job outside ofthe army once he left is he actually
worked advertising, said amarillocal Oape News, and his main customer was Terry Funk.
And my dad's job was to goto Terry Funk's home and each and
every time his wife would be theone that would answer the door and she
(07:05):
would let my dad in and mydad would be taken to a side room
and then the very next lamb wouldbe Terry Funk, Delly Folks Junior,
and Ricky Romero. Painstakingly, atleast to my dad's you planning out matches,
what moves we're going to be done, what the storyline needed, but
(07:26):
very professional, going through it bitby bit by bit and then after a
bit, Terry Funk would excuse himselfand come into the room with my dad
and look over proofs for samples thatneeded his approval to be run as an
advertisement. And you know, TerryFunk is very concise and would go through
what talk about. Oh, well, I don't like the funt Oh can
(07:48):
you make this bigger? Can youmake it curves more? I don't like
the photo you used? What aboutthis photo? And my dad worked with
him for several years for the emmerLogalo newspaper before subsequently leaving to pursue a
dream and working an ambulance and mydad would later on become a MS chief
(08:09):
of the town he ended up movingto. But he always loved those memories
that said he could never share themwith anyone. Even with this, he
wouldn't make the phone call to youbecause he was afraid of Terry Funk retaliating
against him. I was thinking,well, you should just have your grandpa
call. He probably has so manygreat stories. And then we bust out
(08:31):
Grandpa's still keeping cafe, not evenkeeping cafee. He's scared of the funks.
The seventy eight year old Terry Funkor whatever he is the eighty year
old Dory Funk. He's afraid ofgetting that spinning toe hold or stretched.
I would be too. Terry Funkis a scary, scary man. I
guess something that repopped into my headafter listening to both these causes. I've
(08:54):
never been to Armarillo, so Idon't know how big or small it is,
but this phone called seems kind ofsmall. That in your youth you
run into the family at the movies, and then you go off to war,
you become a hippie, you comeback now you're doing sales for the
family over the TV station. It'sso wild that he just assumed wrestling was
(09:15):
so real for so long. Butthere were so many people just like this
guy who were involved in the littlethings where you have to be like,
yeah, it's it is what itis, you know what it is,
or they're not afraid for someone tooverhear. I mean, we hear about
Hako biting off a nose. Yethere's Terry Funk, who believes in it
just as much as Hakko, happyto go over matches while the ad sales
(09:39):
guy is in the other room.And I kind of wonder, like,
was he a giant wrestling fan ordid he just kind of know because the
Funks are always in Texas and theirlegendary kind of like the von Erics in
Dallas, if you will, Becausewhat a great job if you were a
wrestling fan and then you got todo the ad work or the marketing for
the television that they're doing. Andremember this is the territory, so it's
(10:01):
not just like the Funks. There'slike seventy of these all over the country,
if not more. Everybody has ajob like this where they're just talking
to the wrestling people figuring stuff out. Well, I'm glad your grandpa has
so many great memories of the Funks. Please let him know that he's free
to call in. I have afeeling Terry or Dory or Dorry's wife isn't
(10:22):
listening to this podcast, And evenif they do, I'll make sure he's
protected. Nineteen eighty seven, Iwas five years old and my dad took
me to see a WWF house showthat the Oakland Arena, and we got
four seats really close and it waspretty close to the aisle way too.
(10:43):
It's like I could touch all thewrestlers. Was great time. Ricky Steamboat
had a match and he was leadinga gusher in that match. It was
pretty cool to see. So whenhe's coming back to the dressing room,
he's kind of hunched over and justtripping blood everywhere. And I remember these
two older kids, probably twelve andthirteen. They had a bunch of tissues
(11:05):
with them, and they were overthere sopping up all the blood that Ricky
dropped on the floor. And Iwas so confused. I was like,
what are you guys doing and like, oh, well, we're going to
take this blood back to our houseand look at it under a microscope to
see if it's real or not.And I was very confused by the whole
situation. And they had a fewdifferent tissues and they hinted me one and
(11:26):
they're like, oh, you wantfun, So I got to take it.
My dad's standing right behind me,just going no, no, no,
he doesn't want to take it.Leave that shit alone. To this
day, every time I see RickySteamboat on TV, I always have this
regret and remorse that I didn't takea tissue of his blood. I mean,
that would have been really cool souvenir. All these years later. I
(11:46):
would love a world where you goto a wrestle con with a framed tissue
of his nineteen eighty seven blood,and then he signs it, and then
that is on your wall in oneof the weirdest memory abilia collections of all
time. You know what, Ibet there's weirder out there. There has
to be weirder out there, butthat is a weird one. Something about
(12:07):
that call also said so much nineteeneighties that these kids were going to go
back and put it under a microscopeand dissect it in some way very weird
science. I wonder if they wantedto make their own Ricky steamboat. I
get what they were doing. Isthis blood fake or is this real?
But I would have enjoyed a sexyRicky steamboat being made an honor of weird
(12:31):
science and the two kids have brason their head and Kelly Lebron could play
Miss Elizabeth. Okay, I mightbe going too deep into this. This
call is a one of a kind. By the way, I don't think
we'll ever get a call like that. That's why I love this podcast so
much. This is so fucking weirdthat that happened, and I love it.
(12:52):
It's so great. I don't knowif I would do that or not.
I feel as a kid I wouldn'thave, but I feel as so
one of my forties now wishing myselfas a kid then would have. So
I'm almost there with you. Edwith them wrestling Anonymous, please hold for
sponsors. Ten years ago in FountainSquare, Indiana. So in the heart
(13:18):
of Indianapolis, Fountain Square, SalvationArmy Jim believe it was a CZW show.
I think they came into town.Tommy Dreamer was actually on this card,
and I honestly don't remember who Tommywrestled. It was a great card,
but Tommy was I think near themiddle came out. I had a
great match. Intermission goes by,and at one point after intermission I look
(13:41):
over in the concession stand and TommyDreamer is working a serving food and drinks
to all the wrestling fans. Soof course I look at my wife.
She shakes her head. I grabbedthe money and I can't wait to go
get a hot dog from Tommy Dreamer. And sure enough I get up there
as one person in line. Iget a hot dog from Tommy Dreamer.
Tom I'm a huge fan, andof course shake his hand, so I
(14:05):
got a hot dog and a handshakefor I want to say, like four
dollars well done on the phrase hotdog and a handshake, and yes,
of course you go and buy ahot dog from Tommy Dreamer. If you
ever see that, I might startdoing that, start working the concessions out
of boredom. I can picture itnow. I mean I've been on a
thousand of these independent shows, sohas Tommy Dreamer, and you just get
(14:30):
so bored and you kind of havefree range to do whatever you want that
you just start selling hot dogs.I'm sure Tommy was stealing hot dogs.
I know Tommy well enough at thispoint that he was just taking hot dogs
and then either he got caught andthey're like, how are you going to
pay these off? And he's like, oh, I'll sell him for you,
or he got caught and they're like, what are you doing. He's
(14:50):
like me, oh, selling hotdogs for you. I'm making you money
meanwhile, while he stuffs three hotdogs into his mouth. But Tommy Dreamer
one of the legends of independ andwrestling. He's part of the furniture,
as we would say, and forhim to be integrated into that world wrestling
promoting commentating or even selling hotdogs.He's welcome to the show, and he's
(15:13):
a welcome part of it, andyou had a great experience by doing that,
and hopefully others got to experience somethinglike that as well. It was
a year of twenty fifteen. Afriend and I were at a comic con
and Ristler was a guest. I'mnot a fan of this, but my
friend was, so we went aheadand stood in line. In front of
(15:35):
us was a fan and he hadthis beautiful painting of him and Charlotte.
He went up to him and hetalked to him. Whatever he got done,
and it was my friend's turn,so I stepped out of mine because
obviously I don't like him. Oncemy friend got done, he came back
to me and he was like,you will never guess what happened. I'm
(16:00):
like what? And he always said, Rick Flaire just tried to sell me
that guy's painting for two ducks,to which I responded with, I'm not
surprised, and I'm not either JesusChrist. I mean, it's no surprise.
(16:22):
He's such a carney. And he'sadded again now you know, recently
it's been announced that he's gonna wrestleone more match. It's just bless this
guy. I love your attitude bythe way, I love your energy towards
him. Good for you, andthat's Rick. Those those conventions. He
couldn't give a fuck about you,about that person or the person next to
(16:44):
you. But he's always working.And you know, I bet he would
have turned around and sold your pictureto the next person. I wouldn't be
surprised. He's got some new adventurescoming. So keep your ear to the
ground, keep the stories coming.So it was Wrestling Lady a weekend and
just Spy and we were hanging outat one of the local KNEE shows.
(17:07):
So we go too, and we'resitting and we're sitting with some NXC wrestlers
that we know, and here comesJacob fi two. Jacob fi two says
high to the wrestling talent, andhe says, what's up to us?
Very very humble, awesome guy.We're sitting kind of like in a bar
section, so I guess the producersshaw him come up to us, and
since we're all kind of like largebrown fellows, kind of looking kind of
(17:30):
samoan, they assumed we were partof Jacob's family. So how to know
where we get both into VIP.We're getting free food, drinks, They're
taking care of us, and we'rejust sitting there like, wait a minute,
I think they think we're related toJacob. So producer comes up and
to say, guys, if youneed anything else, will take care of
you in the family, and toon and so for us. But we
(17:52):
just died a liveing. So werolled it out to come back the next
day to the next day of taping. Jacob says it was up to us.
Again. We still load to himin everything because the producers, Hey,
make sure we got you the samesection you want to take care of
you in the family. You know, thank you guys for coming in watching
the show. Do they happen tohave you here? So we just mut
our heads. Then I guess nowI'm related to Jacob Fatu family. I
(18:17):
mean not only Jacob, but Romanthe Rock And now essentially you're my friend
because I work with the Rock nowobviously on the show. So welcome to
the team and welcome to the family. I like how you said you wrote
it out. Of course you ridethat out. Yes, you don't not
ride that out. Hey, ifthey're just gonna be given things to you,
(18:40):
you take it. And also thatspeaks volumes for the respect that professional
wrestling has for the Samohan family.That this producer, even if it's kind
of racist, he was showing hisrespects. You can take full advantage of
that right place, right time.That's a great sneak into the super Bowl
kind the story, and I'm gladit happened to you, and I'm glad
(19:02):
you had a great experience wrestling.Anonymous, pleasehold for sponsors. A number
of years ago, I lost mydad and this is one of the great
memories with him. Growing up,I had a path into pro wrestling that
I think was different from a lotof wrestling fans. I know, I
just kind of discovered it myself throughplaying video games with my brother and through
(19:27):
going on the internet. And throughgoing on the internet this is early two
thousand, I spent a lot oftime on a website called Declaration of Independence,
which was like a dirt sheet,but even more it was still of
so many rumors, a lot ofdrama, a lot of chaos, and
(19:51):
through that I got to know abouta number of wrestlers that I wasn't seeing
on TV, on WWE or inmy local indies. And one of them
was virgin You know, the thingthat was kind of prevalent from me Virgil
is that I just I just knewto avoid this guy. And so when
I finally went to my first convention, this is two thousand and five,
(20:11):
it was Wrestling Reunion. There wasa long line wrapping around for me to
meet a number of wrestling stars,and Virgil had a table along the line
there. I am maybe twelve yearsold, standing with my dad. Virgil
sees us, sees my dad alarge black man, which I think is
relevant, and starts talking with him. And immediately I'm starting to freak out,
(20:34):
like, why don't talk to Virgil? And talk to Virgil? I
started pulling on his pant leg andtrying to them to stop, and Virgil
tried to convince my dad, whowas not a wrestling fan, to buy
a Polaroid, and so I'm kindof pull them away, and my dad
turns to me and says, whydo not you you get a Virgil?
You get a pull ride from Virgil? Why not get a headshot from Virgil.
(20:56):
In the back of my head,I'm thinking this is the most awkward
situation that I could pop. Webeat in Virgil's holding up the action figure,
he's holding up the headshot trying tosell them. Basically, I'm standing
there with my dad kind of pullinghis pant like, trying to pull him
away, and there's Virgil. Iheard him throw out a few brothers,
which I know is like a thingwhen it comes to wrestlers, that's also
(21:18):
the thing in the black community.And I just kind of felt like Virgil,
like my dad was kind of fallingfor in gravitating to him. It's
never ended up buying a headshot oran action figure or a polaroid from Virgil,
and I think a lot of thatwas because of the stories that I
read in the dirt sheets in theDeclaration of Independence. But in retrospect,
(21:40):
why did I get a head shot? Why did I get a polaroid with
Virgil? I haven't met him since, I haven't run into him since,
but it makes me think, like, should we just have given him the
twenty dollars to support him? Notonly to support him, but it's Virgil.
He was on the television, hewas a superstar. And it's sites
(22:00):
like the DOI the Declaration of Independence, which I remember very well, that
would change your mind about a guylike that, that would put you almost
too much into wrestling. Sometimes weneed to be outside of wrestling and just
our heroes are our heroes. ButVirgil was known to take advantage, and
I do feel he needed to beput in check at some point. There
(22:23):
has to be a yelp of wrestlingconventions, who's scamming, who's not scamming,
whatever it might be. So I'mboth ways on that. I find
it so funny that you were soinfluenced by the d I, like so
many others were. There was theDOI, there was the Death Valley Driver
Board, there was CZW fans,there was WO Wrestling, there was all
(22:44):
these sites scoops. I mean,you know, I went to a lot
of them. They formed a lotof my opinions the same way that you
did. And you're right, Imean Virgils and hard health right now.
But besides that twenty bucks, it'sa good deal. He was a legend.
I know he would have hustled youhard, but you could have had
that Virgil story like a lot ofpeople who've called in Anne had a picture
(23:08):
from him, and you're right,supported the man directly, which is something
he's always wanted but maybe hasn't explainedto the people the best he's looking.
He was kind of always looking tograb it all as supposed to be,
like hey, this is my livingnow, please help, which might have
been the best way to do it. But I don't think that's the way
(23:29):
that Virgil knew how he had oneway. He has one way. He
does it that way, and that'swhy we love him. I love During
nineteen eighty four, yell Tom ranAll start wrestling out to Vancouver and one
of the trips that he used totake was in Cloverdale on a Saturday as
(23:51):
part of the circuit. I livedin Cloverdale, so I attended the wrestling
matches quick regularly. After one show, I went home and my wife,
who happened to be pregnant, hada craving for a slurpy, so she
sent me to seven eleven. Iwent there and got to slurpee. As
they came back out, I lookedat this guy working on his car and
(24:11):
it happened to be moved afready,a wrestler who was just I just watched
him at Chloridal. That's why Iasked him what he was doing and just
having a real problem with the lightsand the limited tools he had so I
said, well, look, I'mthree blocks away on which you follow me.
You can get in my driveway andthen you could do whatever you have
(24:32):
to do, which he did.I brought the slurpie and to my wife
and then went back out and chattedwith him for a bit. He managed
to get the part off. Ihelped him put a new part on,
and he said he had to takeoff to go to Portland because he had
the show the next day and thenhe would be back. Well, this
(24:52):
is some exciting news. We're findingout clues about wrestling Grandpa that we didn't
know, had a child as achild, was once married, could be
still married. I like through anonymousphone calls, we'll find out a little
bit about him every now and then. And there's something about just how involved
he is with the wrestlers. Iam assuming at this point, like he
was saying, he wasn't doing thepictures, so he was just a guy
(25:17):
going to the wrestling show. Andin that era, I don't know,
like a wrestler is just willing totrust anybody because they're in trouble and just
go to another man's house and parkin another man's driveway. I was trying
to picture in my head. It'sso odd, but I feel at that
time in the world, it justwasn't that odd, you know, like
(25:37):
hitchhiking was a thing. That's nota thing anymore. Being at seven eleven
and then just going over to someone'shouse seems like it was just a thing.
Like nobody flinched at that. Includingwrestling, Grandpa's wife pregnant wife,
I love a wrestling Grandpa is intertwinedin wrestling, no matter what. Wrestling
Anonymous. Pleasehold for the credits.Hey, thanks so much for listening to
(26:03):
this week's episode of Wrestling Anonymous.Today's show was edited and produced by myself
in my studio apartment in Chicago,Illinois. Music is by Matt Coon Music
on Twitter, podcast cover art byDonna six one nine on Instagram. Voiceover
work by at Sarah Joy Shockey.I'm also on social media Twitter, Instagram,
Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube.Everything is at Colt Cabana Go download
(26:29):
all of the Pro Wrestling Fringe episodesfor free wherever you listen to podcasts,
and also the past archives of Artof Wrestling, including the brand new ones
from the current season, including mytalk with the actual Brooklyn Brawler. Just
days after I played him on television. Those are available on the Art of
Wrestling podcast feed wherever you can downloadthem with ads for free, or grab
(26:53):
them ad free on my Patreon,Patreon dot com Slash Colt Cabana. Line
up now at the ten dollars tierand I'll get you a vinyl sticker sent
to your house. I'll also personallywrite your address and give you a fun
nick name. Or sign up atthe twenty dollars tier, where I can
send you an autograph square word everymonth and you could collect them all plus
(27:15):
the first and the fifteenth of themonth, new different bonus calls hit the
Patreon and I do those bonus callslive to subscribers of my twitch twitch dot
tv slash Cold Cabana Join me fora very fun community of video games and
other fun stuff. All of myshirts and custom video messages are available over
at pro wrestling tis dot com,Slash Cold Cabana and coltmrch dot com is
(27:38):
where you could buy all your otherCold Cabana merch including signed upper deck Colt
Cabana cards from my personal collection andall the usual goodies. For information on
me and updates on live independent shows, just like this week for PPW and
Pennsylvania Terminus in Atlanta or Pro WrestlingHall of Fame and Waterloo, Iowa later
this summer. Coolcabanta dot com fordetails and hey, call the show.
(28:04):
Eighty seven Cabanta thirty four is thenumber. That's eight seven two two two
two sixty two thirty four, oremail a voice memo to eighty seven cabant
at thirty four at gmail dot com. The show. It only works if
you give it a call, Sogive it a call please and thanks,
(28:38):
thank you for calling. Goodbye,
Wrestling Anonymous. Please hold Welcome toWrestling Anonymous, the pro wrestling hotline show
where callers call in their stories fromin and around the wrestling world, and
I, your host and professional wrestlerCold Cabana, curate through them all,
(00:21):
edit them up, produce them up, and put them out as this podcast
for everyone to listen to. Wedid take a little bit of a break,
but the show will go on aslong as the calls come in.
They're coming in a little bit slowerthese days, but they still do come
in, so I will still putout the podcast. Stay subscribe if you've
(00:43):
been missing the show. I'm stilldoing two bonus shows a month over on
my Patreon, and I've recently startedto have a guest with me while we
listen to the calls. You cango back in those archives too and hear
me listen to calls with my friendsMarty de Rosis, Do Stone, Sarah
Shaky and more. Patreon dot com, slash Colt Cabana that tier. It's
only five dollars a month. It'sa great way to support. You can
(01:07):
also stay subscribed to this podcast.Rate, review, tweet out, share
on social media. Tell your friendsto call in that crazy story they've always
talked about, or what about you. Maybe you were a huge wrestling fan
from Australia and you got booked asBruce Pritchard on the television show The Young
Rock, the same show where Iwas booked as the Brooklyn Brawler. It
(01:30):
made some new wrestling friends. Imean, that's got to be a crazy
story from your vantage point. Andif that was you, there's two very
easy ways to share that story withthe world. Email a voice memo to
eighty seven Cabana thirty four at gmaildot com or pick up the phone dial
eighty seven cabana thirty four. That'seight seven two two two two sixty two
(01:53):
thirty four. Eighty seven cabana thirtyfour is the number. Give it a
call, leave a mess after they'llbe wrestling anonymous. Please hold. The
(02:21):
other day, I'm having dinner withmy father, who comes from the hometown
of Amielo, Texas, and hestarts to tell me some stories about his
experiences with the Funk family manly TerryFunk. The first story he shares with
me is of a time when he'sabout four or five years old, and
this is the mid fifties. Mydad grew up incredibly poor. So he
(02:45):
came from the Badio, which isa Mexican ghetto, and on weekends him
and his older brother and cousin wouldjust go and hang out at the movie
theater. And one time they're thereand his brother and cousin and my dad's
kind of wondering what's going on,and they point and there's this big,
(03:05):
huge guy. They go, oh, my gosh, that is Dorry Funk
Senior. They might not have saidthe senior part, but he's ordering tickets
and he has four little kids withhim. So my dad just runs over.
You know, he's not afraid,he's just incredibly impressed with this gigantic,
larger than life figure. So mydad's just standing with this group of
(03:28):
kids and looking up at this wrestler, and you know, sure enough,
Dorry Funk Senior turns around with ahandful of tickets. He has four tickets
in his hand, and when heturns around, he sees five kids looking
back at him, and so hejumps like he startled, and he slowly
cocks his head over and narrows hiseyes and looks at the tickets he's holding,
(03:49):
and he counts four tickets. Helooks back at the children and does
a head count one, two,three, four, five, and goes
back to looking at the tickets.He counts four tickets, looks back at
the kids, does another head countfive kids, and then he looks over
at my dad, this little tinybrown kid. Now you have to understand,
(04:11):
this is the mid fifties. Integrationof white kids and Mexican American children
wouldn't happen for another ten years.For the most part, a lot of
whites did not interact with the MexicanAmerican culture at the time. This moment
was incredible because Dorry funds me anda dad just looks over at my dad
(04:31):
and laughs, big belly laugh,and then rubs his hands through his hair,
tousling his hair and messing it up, and then walking off with the
four kids to go see their movie. And it was hilarious because nearly seventy
years later, my dad was stilllaughing himself to tears shooting this speary with
me. Well, that's a feelgood story to start off. Feel good
(04:57):
because it's nice to know that ourheroes in wrestling aren't all pieces of shit.
So you can think of a timewhen the Mexican Americans were shunned by
the white men of Texas, andit takes the wrestling community to know that
all people shall be trinity equal,especially a little kid, cute little kid
(05:17):
to not care about any of thosethings and have appreciation for Allso shout out
to Dory Funk, Senior, andthat makes sense too. Terry Funk seems
to love all. I think.I don't know if there's a bad thing
about Terry Funk. I hope Isaid this, and I don't go looking
back, and there's a lot ofbad things, but I gotta assume that
(05:39):
he was a good human all around. Still is a good human, still
hanging in there, Terry Funk.So I love these kind of stories.
There's like some old, grainy,old footage of old time wrestling, but
it's not that often that we getto make a picture of old time wrestling
outside of the wrestling ring, injust a situation where they're going to the
movies, and we get to playthat picture in our head of the Funk
(06:00):
family and this caller's father retelling thestory that was just one story from the
caller, and they then continued onwith another one, which I think we'll
go through right now. So innineteen sixty nine, my dad actually joins
the army and gets sent to Germanyin the height of the Vietnam War,
(06:23):
where my dad decides to end upbecoming a hippie after being enlightened by the
music of Jimmy Hendrickson led Zeppelin inconcert. So upon his return to Amarilla,
not only is he a Mexican American, but now he's a hippie,
which is even more strange than youknow, anything anyone can understand nowadays.
(06:44):
But my dad's first job outside ofthe army once he left is he actually
worked advertising, said amarillocal Oape News, and his main customer was Terry Funk.
And my dad's job was to goto Terry Funk's home and each and
every time his wife would be theone that would answer the door and she
(07:05):
would let my dad in and mydad would be taken to a side room
and then the very next lamb wouldbe Terry Funk, Delly Folks Junior,
and Ricky Romero. Painstakingly, atleast to my dad's you planning out matches,
what moves we're going to be done, what the storyline needed, but
(07:26):
very professional, going through it bitby bit by bit and then after a
bit, Terry Funk would excuse himselfand come into the room with my dad
and look over proofs for samples thatneeded his approval to be run as an
advertisement. And you know, TerryFunk is very concise and would go through
what talk about. Oh, well, I don't like the funt Oh can
(07:48):
you make this bigger? Can youmake it curves more? I don't like
the photo you used? What aboutthis photo? And my dad worked with
him for several years for the emmerLogalo newspaper before subsequently leaving to pursue a
dream and working an ambulance and mydad would later on become a MS chief
(08:09):
of the town he ended up movingto. But he always loved those memories
that said he could never share themwith anyone. Even with this, he
wouldn't make the phone call to youbecause he was afraid of Terry Funk retaliating
against him. I was thinking,well, you should just have your grandpa
call. He probably has so manygreat stories. And then we bust out
(08:31):
Grandpa's still keeping cafe, not evenkeeping cafee. He's scared of the funks.
The seventy eight year old Terry Funkor whatever he is the eighty year
old Dory Funk. He's afraid ofgetting that spinning toe hold or stretched.
I would be too. Terry Funkis a scary, scary man. I
guess something that repopped into my headafter listening to both these causes. I've
(08:54):
never been to Armarillo, so Idon't know how big or small it is,
but this phone called seems kind ofsmall. That in your youth you
run into the family at the movies, and then you go off to war,
you become a hippie, you comeback now you're doing sales for the
family over the TV station. It'sso wild that he just assumed wrestling was
(09:15):
so real for so long. Butthere were so many people just like this
guy who were involved in the littlethings where you have to be like,
yeah, it's it is what itis, you know what it is,
or they're not afraid for someone tooverhear. I mean, we hear about
Hako biting off a nose. Yethere's Terry Funk, who believes in it
just as much as Hakko, happyto go over matches while the ad sales
(09:39):
guy is in the other room.And I kind of wonder, like,
was he a giant wrestling fan ordid he just kind of know because the
Funks are always in Texas and theirlegendary kind of like the von Erics in
Dallas, if you will, Becausewhat a great job if you were a
wrestling fan and then you got todo the ad work or the marketing for
the television that they're doing. Andremember this is the territory, so it's
(10:01):
not just like the Funks. There'slike seventy of these all over the country,
if not more. Everybody has ajob like this where they're just talking
to the wrestling people figuring stuff out. Well, I'm glad your grandpa has
so many great memories of the Funks. Please let him know that he's free
to call in. I have afeeling Terry or Dory or Dorry's wife isn't
(10:22):
listening to this podcast, And evenif they do, I'll make sure he's
protected. Nineteen eighty seven, Iwas five years old and my dad took
me to see a WWF house showthat the Oakland Arena, and we got
four seats really close and it waspretty close to the aisle way too.
(10:43):
It's like I could touch all thewrestlers. Was great time. Ricky Steamboat
had a match and he was leadinga gusher in that match. It was
pretty cool to see. So whenhe's coming back to the dressing room,
he's kind of hunched over and justtripping blood everywhere. And I remember these
two older kids, probably twelve andthirteen. They had a bunch of tissues
(11:05):
with them, and they were overthere sopping up all the blood that Ricky
dropped on the floor. And Iwas so confused. I was like,
what are you guys doing and like, oh, well, we're going to
take this blood back to our houseand look at it under a microscope to
see if it's real or not.And I was very confused by the whole
situation. And they had a fewdifferent tissues and they hinted me one and
(11:26):
they're like, oh, you wantfun, So I got to take it.
My dad's standing right behind me,just going no, no, no,
he doesn't want to take it.Leave that shit alone. To this
day, every time I see RickySteamboat on TV, I always have this
regret and remorse that I didn't takea tissue of his blood. I mean,
that would have been really cool souvenir. All these years later. I
(11:46):
would love a world where you goto a wrestle con with a framed tissue
of his nineteen eighty seven blood,and then he signs it, and then
that is on your wall in oneof the weirdest memory abilia collections of all
time. You know what, Ibet there's weirder out there. There has
to be weirder out there, butthat is a weird one. Something about
(12:07):
that call also said so much nineteeneighties that these kids were going to go
back and put it under a microscopeand dissect it in some way very weird
science. I wonder if they wantedto make their own Ricky steamboat. I
get what they were doing. Isthis blood fake or is this real?
But I would have enjoyed a sexyRicky steamboat being made an honor of weird
(12:31):
science and the two kids have brason their head and Kelly Lebron could play
Miss Elizabeth. Okay, I mightbe going too deep into this. This
call is a one of a kind. By the way, I don't think
we'll ever get a call like that. That's why I love this podcast so
much. This is so fucking weirdthat that happened, and I love it.
(12:52):
It's so great. I don't knowif I would do that or not.
I feel as a kid I wouldn'thave, but I feel as so
one of my forties now wishing myselfas a kid then would have. So
I'm almost there with you. Edwith them wrestling Anonymous, please hold for
sponsors. Ten years ago in FountainSquare, Indiana. So in the heart
(13:18):
of Indianapolis, Fountain Square, SalvationArmy Jim believe it was a CZW show.
I think they came into town.Tommy Dreamer was actually on this card,
and I honestly don't remember who Tommywrestled. It was a great card,
but Tommy was I think near themiddle came out. I had a
great match. Intermission goes by,and at one point after intermission I look
(13:41):
over in the concession stand and TommyDreamer is working a serving food and drinks
to all the wrestling fans. Soof course I look at my wife.
She shakes her head. I grabbedthe money and I can't wait to go
get a hot dog from Tommy Dreamer. And sure enough I get up there
as one person in line. Iget a hot dog from Tommy Dreamer.
Tom I'm a huge fan, andof course shake his hand, so I
(14:05):
got a hot dog and a handshakefor I want to say, like four
dollars well done on the phrase hotdog and a handshake, and yes,
of course you go and buy ahot dog from Tommy Dreamer. If you
ever see that, I might startdoing that, start working the concessions out
of boredom. I can picture itnow. I mean I've been on a
thousand of these independent shows, sohas Tommy Dreamer, and you just get
(14:30):
so bored and you kind of havefree range to do whatever you want that
you just start selling hot dogs.I'm sure Tommy was stealing hot dogs.
I know Tommy well enough at thispoint that he was just taking hot dogs
and then either he got caught andthey're like, how are you going to
pay these off? And he's like, oh, I'll sell him for you,
or he got caught and they're like, what are you doing. He's
(14:50):
like me, oh, selling hotdogs for you. I'm making you money
meanwhile, while he stuffs three hotdogs into his mouth. But Tommy Dreamer
one of the legends of independ andwrestling. He's part of the furniture,
as we would say, and forhim to be integrated into that world wrestling
promoting commentating or even selling hotdogs.He's welcome to the show, and he's
(15:13):
a welcome part of it, andyou had a great experience by doing that,
and hopefully others got to experience somethinglike that as well. It was
a year of twenty fifteen. Afriend and I were at a comic con
and Ristler was a guest. I'mnot a fan of this, but my
friend was, so we went aheadand stood in line. In front of
(15:35):
us was a fan and he hadthis beautiful painting of him and Charlotte.
He went up to him and hetalked to him. Whatever he got done,
and it was my friend's turn,so I stepped out of mine because
obviously I don't like him. Oncemy friend got done, he came back
to me and he was like,you will never guess what happened. I'm
(16:00):
like what? And he always said, Rick Flaire just tried to sell me
that guy's painting for two ducks,to which I responded with, I'm not
surprised, and I'm not either JesusChrist. I mean, it's no surprise.
(16:22):
He's such a carney. And he'sadded again now you know, recently
it's been announced that he's gonna wrestleone more match. It's just bless this
guy. I love your attitude bythe way, I love your energy towards
him. Good for you, andthat's Rick. Those those conventions. He
couldn't give a fuck about you,about that person or the person next to
(16:44):
you. But he's always working.And you know, I bet he would
have turned around and sold your pictureto the next person. I wouldn't be
surprised. He's got some new adventurescoming. So keep your ear to the
ground, keep the stories coming.So it was Wrestling Lady a weekend and
just Spy and we were hanging outat one of the local KNEE shows.
(17:07):
So we go too, and we'resitting and we're sitting with some NXC wrestlers
that we know, and here comesJacob fi two. Jacob fi two says
high to the wrestling talent, andhe says, what's up to us?
Very very humble, awesome guy.We're sitting kind of like in a bar
section, so I guess the producersshaw him come up to us, and
since we're all kind of like largebrown fellows, kind of looking kind of
(17:30):
samoan, they assumed we were partof Jacob's family. So how to know
where we get both into VIP.We're getting free food, drinks, They're
taking care of us, and we'rejust sitting there like, wait a minute,
I think they think we're related toJacob. So producer comes up and
to say, guys, if youneed anything else, will take care of
you in the family, and toon and so for us. But we
(17:52):
just died a liveing. So werolled it out to come back the next
day to the next day of taping. Jacob says it was up to us.
Again. We still load to himin everything because the producers, Hey,
make sure we got you the samesection you want to take care of
you in the family. You know, thank you guys for coming in watching
the show. Do they happen tohave you here? So we just mut
our heads. Then I guess nowI'm related to Jacob Fatu family. I
(18:17):
mean not only Jacob, but Romanthe Rock And now essentially you're my friend
because I work with the Rock nowobviously on the show. So welcome to
the team and welcome to the family. I like how you said you wrote
it out. Of course you ridethat out. Yes, you don't not
ride that out. Hey, ifthey're just gonna be given things to you,
(18:40):
you take it. And also thatspeaks volumes for the respect that professional
wrestling has for the Samohan family.That this producer, even if it's kind
of racist, he was showing hisrespects. You can take full advantage of
that right place, right time.That's a great sneak into the super Bowl
kind the story, and I'm gladit happened to you, and I'm glad
(19:02):
you had a great experience wrestling.Anonymous, pleasehold for sponsors. A number
of years ago, I lost mydad and this is one of the great
memories with him. Growing up,I had a path into pro wrestling that
I think was different from a lotof wrestling fans. I know, I
just kind of discovered it myself throughplaying video games with my brother and through
(19:27):
going on the internet. And throughgoing on the internet this is early two
thousand, I spent a lot oftime on a website called Declaration of Independence,
which was like a dirt sheet,but even more it was still of
so many rumors, a lot ofdrama, a lot of chaos, and
(19:51):
through that I got to know abouta number of wrestlers that I wasn't seeing
on TV, on WWE or inmy local indies. And one of them
was virgin You know, the thingthat was kind of prevalent from me Virgil
is that I just I just knewto avoid this guy. And so when
I finally went to my first convention, this is two thousand and five,
(20:11):
it was Wrestling Reunion. There wasa long line wrapping around for me to
meet a number of wrestling stars,and Virgil had a table along the line
there. I am maybe twelve yearsold, standing with my dad. Virgil
sees us, sees my dad alarge black man, which I think is
relevant, and starts talking with him. And immediately I'm starting to freak out,
(20:34):
like, why don't talk to Virgil? And talk to Virgil? I
started pulling on his pant leg andtrying to them to stop, and Virgil
tried to convince my dad, whowas not a wrestling fan, to buy
a Polaroid, and so I'm kindof pull them away, and my dad
turns to me and says, whydo not you you get a Virgil?
You get a pull ride from Virgil? Why not get a headshot from Virgil.
(20:56):
In the back of my head,I'm thinking this is the most awkward
situation that I could pop. Webeat in Virgil's holding up the action figure,
he's holding up the headshot trying tosell them. Basically, I'm standing
there with my dad kind of pullinghis pant like, trying to pull him
away, and there's Virgil. Iheard him throw out a few brothers,
which I know is like a thingwhen it comes to wrestlers, that's also
(21:18):
the thing in the black community.And I just kind of felt like Virgil,
like my dad was kind of fallingfor in gravitating to him. It's
never ended up buying a headshot oran action figure or a polaroid from Virgil,
and I think a lot of thatwas because of the stories that I
read in the dirt sheets in theDeclaration of Independence. But in retrospect,
(21:40):
why did I get a head shot? Why did I get a polaroid with
Virgil? I haven't met him since, I haven't run into him since,
but it makes me think, like, should we just have given him the
twenty dollars to support him? Notonly to support him, but it's Virgil.
He was on the television, hewas a superstar. And it's sites
(22:00):
like the DOI the Declaration of Independence, which I remember very well, that
would change your mind about a guylike that, that would put you almost
too much into wrestling. Sometimes weneed to be outside of wrestling and just
our heroes are our heroes. ButVirgil was known to take advantage, and
I do feel he needed to beput in check at some point. There
(22:23):
has to be a yelp of wrestlingconventions, who's scamming, who's not scamming,
whatever it might be. So I'mboth ways on that. I find
it so funny that you were soinfluenced by the d I, like so
many others were. There was theDOI, there was the Death Valley Driver
Board, there was CZW fans,there was WO Wrestling, there was all
(22:44):
these sites scoops. I mean,you know, I went to a lot
of them. They formed a lotof my opinions the same way that you
did. And you're right, Imean Virgils and hard health right now.
But besides that twenty bucks, it'sa good deal. He was a legend.
I know he would have hustled youhard, but you could have had
that Virgil story like a lot ofpeople who've called in Anne had a picture
(23:08):
from him, and you're right,supported the man directly, which is something
he's always wanted but maybe hasn't explainedto the people the best he's looking.
He was kind of always looking tograb it all as supposed to be,
like hey, this is my livingnow, please help, which might have
been the best way to do it. But I don't think that's the way
(23:29):
that Virgil knew how he had oneway. He has one way. He
does it that way, and that'swhy we love him. I love During
nineteen eighty four, yell Tom ranAll start wrestling out to Vancouver and one
of the trips that he used totake was in Cloverdale on a Saturday as
(23:51):
part of the circuit. I livedin Cloverdale, so I attended the wrestling
matches quick regularly. After one show, I went home and my wife,
who happened to be pregnant, hada craving for a slurpy, so she
sent me to seven eleven. Iwent there and got to slurpee. As
they came back out, I lookedat this guy working on his car and
(24:11):
it happened to be moved afready,a wrestler who was just I just watched
him at Chloridal. That's why Iasked him what he was doing and just
having a real problem with the lightsand the limited tools he had so I
said, well, look, I'mthree blocks away on which you follow me.
You can get in my driveway andthen you could do whatever you have
(24:32):
to do, which he did.I brought the slurpie and to my wife
and then went back out and chattedwith him for a bit. He managed
to get the part off. Ihelped him put a new part on,
and he said he had to takeoff to go to Portland because he had
the show the next day and thenhe would be back. Well, this
(24:52):
is some exciting news. We're findingout clues about wrestling Grandpa that we didn't
know, had a child as achild, was once married, could be
still married. I like through anonymousphone calls, we'll find out a little
bit about him every now and then. And there's something about just how involved
he is with the wrestlers. Iam assuming at this point, like he
was saying, he wasn't doing thepictures, so he was just a guy
(25:17):
going to the wrestling show. Andin that era, I don't know,
like a wrestler is just willing totrust anybody because they're in trouble and just
go to another man's house and parkin another man's driveway. I was trying
to picture in my head. It'sso odd, but I feel at that
time in the world, it justwasn't that odd, you know, like
(25:37):
hitchhiking was a thing. That's nota thing anymore. Being at seven eleven
and then just going over to someone'shouse seems like it was just a thing.
Like nobody flinched at that. Includingwrestling, Grandpa's wife pregnant wife,
I love a wrestling Grandpa is intertwinedin wrestling, no matter what. Wrestling
Anonymous. Pleasehold for the credits.Hey, thanks so much for listening to
(26:03):
this week's episode of Wrestling Anonymous.Today's show was edited and produced by myself
in my studio apartment in Chicago,Illinois. Music is by Matt Coon Music
on Twitter, podcast cover art byDonna six one nine on Instagram. Voiceover
work by at Sarah Joy Shockey.I'm also on social media Twitter, Instagram,
Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube.Everything is at Colt Cabana Go download
(26:29):
all of the Pro Wrestling Fringe episodesfor free wherever you listen to podcasts,
and also the past archives of Artof Wrestling, including the brand new ones
from the current season, including mytalk with the actual Brooklyn Brawler. Just
days after I played him on television. Those are available on the Art of
Wrestling podcast feed wherever you can downloadthem with ads for free, or grab
(26:53):
them ad free on my Patreon,Patreon dot com Slash Colt Cabana. Line
up now at the ten dollars tierand I'll get you a vinyl sticker sent
to your house. I'll also personallywrite your address and give you a fun
nick name. Or sign up atthe twenty dollars tier, where I can
send you an autograph square word everymonth and you could collect them all plus
(27:15):
the first and the fifteenth of themonth, new different bonus calls hit the
Patreon and I do those bonus callslive to subscribers of my twitch twitch dot
tv slash Cold Cabana Join me fora very fun community of video games and
other fun stuff. All of myshirts and custom video messages are available over
at pro wrestling tis dot com,Slash Cold Cabana and coltmrch dot com is
(27:38):
where you could buy all your otherCold Cabana merch including signed upper deck Colt
Cabana cards from my personal collection andall the usual goodies. For information on
me and updates on live independent shows, just like this week for PPW and
Pennsylvania Terminus in Atlanta or Pro WrestlingHall of Fame and Waterloo, Iowa later
this summer. Coolcabanta dot com fordetails and hey, call the show.
(28:04):
Eighty seven Cabanta thirty four is thenumber. That's eight seven two two two
two sixty two thirty four, oremail a voice memo to eighty seven cabant
at thirty four at gmail dot com. The show. It only works if
you give it a call, Sogive it a call please and thanks,
(28:38):
thank you for calling. Goodbye,
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!