Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Titlematchnetwork dot Com.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Come to another edition of the RF Video Shoot Interview series.
Today we're joined by a true superstar in the sport
of professional wrestling, Eddie Garrow. You've basically wrestled all over
the country, including Japan, Mexico, uh ECW, WCW, or the
World Wrestling Federation. In my opinion, you're probably one of
the greatest workers you know in this country, and you
brought the innovative style of luchaly right here to America
(00:24):
and stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Now, you don't have to tell me that you basically
my first question.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
You know, everybody knows that you're from a wrestling family background, father,
your brothers and stuff like that. At what age did
you decide that you wanted to become a pro wrestler?
Speaker 1 (00:39):
On you Since since I could remember, it's been my
dream and my life. You know, I grew up in it, obviously,
everybody knows. You know, everybody had jungle gyms in the
back year and I had a wrestler, right, you know,
it just for me, wrestling It's always been a part
of my soul, right, you know, it's not my soul,
(00:59):
but it is a part of it.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Now, Like, did you have any pressure from your family
to become a wrestler or to enter the business at all.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Or god. I was never pressured to enter the business,
but I was. There was a lot of pressure on
the name, holding the name, wrestling with the name. That
was a big pressure on me. And it's not that
they put it on me. I put it on myself.
You know. You take my dad and who's a legend,
you know in Mexico, not only in Mexico. I mean,
(01:28):
he's very well respected amongst the wrestlers, you know, the
older ones and his generation wrestlers and also promoters, you know,
and then my brothers also, which you know, all of
them child Mondon Haggard, they all held up the name, right,
So yeah, you know I had a lot of pressure.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
What was like growing up watching your father wrestle?
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Uh? Well, I never really caught my dad in his prime.
You know, the age difference between me and my older
brothers is obviously just quite a bit, you know, nineteen
years between me and Charlie senior. You know, I kind
of got my dad towards the end of his wrestling Europe,
and even then it was you know, it was my dad.
It was very exciting to see him wrestling. Who helped you?
(02:16):
You well, Well, years ago, I was wrestling. I had
a wrestling scholarship in New Mexico, and I got hurt
and I came back home. They red shirted me, and
then when I was going to go back, they canceled
the wrestling program. I didn't want to go look for it.
I was tired of dieting and all that. So my
(02:36):
brothers had already all left the house. So I had
I had one friend which is my best friend, which
was interesting in getting into the into the business, and
it was Art Floyds. He was with me in the LWO.
You know. He used to call Spider and another friend
that lives in Paso, Texas, uh using the wrestling team
(02:58):
with me in high school. His name was Hector and
he wrestles and how pastor he does independent shows and
he wrestles. It's Hurricane Hector.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
Right.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Yeah, So was your brother's helpful to you at all?
Or Well? What happened is I trained with those two
friends with the guidance of my dad. My dad had
just had a stroke, so he really couldn't get in
the ring, so he would just guide me with my
friends and tell me what to do and you know,
exercises and all that, which is basically I knew him
because I used to practice with my brothers when I
(03:29):
was smaller. I do you know professional restence style, you
know practice, and so I knew what he was talking about.
It's just you know, when we got into more technical stuff,
that's when he would even get up in the ring
and show me. He couldn't physically be there, but he
was there orchestrating me. And my brothers helped me out,
you know, here and there, I got a lot of
(03:52):
I got a lot of knowledge, and a lot of
my psychology comes from my brother child Senior. I just
agree on this his psychology. That's not taking nothing away
from my brother Hector and Mondo. I mean I have
a little bit of everybody, everybody, you know, even a
little bit of my dad. And that's what I did.
(04:14):
I just took a little bit of everybody's style, my
brother Hector, my brother in Chowel, my dad, and I
just kind of incorporated it to my own.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Were they tougher on you because you were a relative
or did they take it easy.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
On you or yeah they're tough. You know, my brothers
are perfections. You know, we're all perfection. That's when it
comes to the sport, because, like I said, it's fed us,
you know it. My dad came from a very poor family,
you know, and he went into a gym to learn
how to box. There was no boxing, it was wrestling.
That's how he got into wrestling, right, you know. And
(04:49):
by the grace of God, he got out of that.
He got out of that, you know, the poverty that
one was able to provide a good living for his
family and you know through through wrestling with you know,
it's fed all our families. It's fed me since the
time I'm born, and it's feeding my children.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
Now did any of the other wrestlers around that time?
Is that the break that you got because your family?
Were they jealous of you at all?
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Or I don't think they were jealous of me. And
I never feel that my family was jealous of me.
I just feel that brothers or.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Any other wrestler's jealous that you got to, you know
into the bad.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Oh yeah, there was a lot of jealousy. There was
a lot because they pushed me, you know, being going
into Mexico, which is where I started. They had me
already in the semis you know, in those high matches
without even paying my dues. So naturally. I mean like
the first three months I wrestled in watt Is. I mean,
I'm not kidding you. It was literally almost a fistfight
every time I went into the ring with the other wrestlers. No,
(05:50):
what college did you go to again? New Mexico Highlands University?
Speaker 2 (05:54):
What was it like trying to be a wrestler while
going to college?
Speaker 1 (05:56):
That was hard. It was real hard. That wasn't readily home.
I'm a mom's boy, right, Yeah, Yeah, I was real close.
I'm real close to my mom and my dad. Well,
I got rest is soul. I was very close to me.
I just wasn't ready to leave, right you know, so
it was real difficult for me. Were you able to
finish college or did you know? I didn't finish the business? Yeah,
went into the business. What would you recommend to young
(06:17):
wrestlers about going to college rust training and wrestling? Well,
one thing, uh, if you finish your college, man, you're
always going to have something to fall back on. Period over. Now,
you know, education doesn't mean you're going to go out
and be a millionaire, but what it does, it does
make you a better person. You know. I know people
(06:39):
that have degrees in certain areas and they don't even
do that. They're they're working in something else, you know.
But you know, in college, it's very good, you know.
Like I said, you know, I didn't I focused all
my efforts on wrestling, you know, because I just I
really didn't have that. It wasn't for me, right, you know,
so is young wrestlers. Yeah, naturally, the right thing to
(07:04):
say is go to college. But I'm going to tell you,
from my point of view, follow your heart because if
you work where your heart is, you're going to give
it one hundred percent. And if your heart's not into
what you do, you'll never be.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
A true Let's talk about your parsling debut. I believe
you'd be in nineteen eighty seven for em that'd be
right right.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
Yeah, in Mexico City, Right, I had debut before.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
But let's talk about some of your first matches and
stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
How'd you prepare and you know, what was it? Like?
What was really difficult for me because growing up in
the States, you know, Yeah, I speak Spanish to my mom, right,
but I'd speak English to my dad. Basically everything was English.
Now you know, so I really couldn't. I could understand
Spanish fluently, but I couldn't speak it fluently because I
didn't have to practice it. So when I first out there,
(08:01):
I had a lot of problems communicating with the boys
on eye spots, on finishes and stuff like that. And
they tell it to me in Spanish, and I was
having a hard time because I would try and change
it in my mind to English and just doesn't work.
You're gonna speak in Spanish, you gotta think Spanish. How
did you basically learn the language just by being there?
(08:22):
You know, I'm talking talking with my family. I got
family in Mexico. I mean just just started to talk.
I picked it up again. You know, Spanish was the
first language that I learned. Anyway. Yeah, who did Who
did you wrestle on your debut match em Yeah? Jeezy Okay.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Basically that was your first major promotion that you worked
for besides like the little tourerson, Right, what was the difference,
you know, as far as working for the smaller groups
and going to mL.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
When in Mexico that time. Just I guess the organ
is being organized, That's about it. And knowing you are
going to get a paycheck instead of wondering if you
get to get paid or not.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Right, What are some of your memories of winning the
w w A Trios title with a Chavo Mondo?
Speaker 1 (09:14):
Wow? Man that that was a great experience for me
being a treat woman, all right, Man, I learned. That's
probably where I learned a lot. I learned a lot
about the business. I learned a lot about wrestling. I
learned a lot about psychology. My brother child taught me
a lot about psychology when we're there. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Now, I believe one of your first gimmicks that you
used was my star magica.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
How did you come up with that gimmick?
Speaker 3 (09:44):
I didn't.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
That was that's when TRIPLEA had broken off and uh,
Poco you know em l I was just they're hungry,
you know, they wanted personalities and stuff. So they had
a an artist, you know, come up with all these
designs and started that. That was one of them. That
(10:07):
was one of them.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
Who are some of the guys that you worked with
around this time period as far as you.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
The right, Well, the ones that haven't had a big
influence on me were Negative Cossa is number one, uh
and Dandie had a lot of influence on me. You know,
obviously tag team when I first abut a tag team
with my cousin I but he had an influence on
me too. But as far as resting as Nato, Cassas
(10:33):
and Dandie, who else did I Atlantis and you know
these guys that took me in and befriended me when
not a lot of people would, and they didn't care
who my dad was. You know, it was a good feeling.
(10:53):
And not only that, a lot of them. No, Mexico's
are a lot of politics. And the dressing rooms, so
everywhere you go in the business or is a lot politics.
What you say everywhere and anywhere you go there's politics.
Some it's just more abrupt than others, but everywhere you
go there's politics. No.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
Eventually emlple A they split, they formed two different companies
and you left the mL I believe to go on
Triple A. What made you leave the mluh? I didn't
see Pacola doing anything with me. He promised me a
lot of stuff and yeah, we're gonna do this, Yeah
we're gonna do that. And you know, I was hungry, man,
I'm very hungry at that time. I wanted to do stuff,
(11:34):
you know, and I just felt wasting away there. I
didn't feel I was going anywhere there. And when I
confronted it with him, he was just, well, you know,
I can't do nothing right now. And that's when I
went to to Triple A Plus. You know, they offered
me more money, of course, but I mean I at
that time, there wasn't a few I didn't see.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
They didn't Triple A didn't promise me nothing but more money, right,
So I said, well, if I'm gonna be here, might
as well make the best that I can out of it.
So I jumped over there and I took a shot.
You know, I was really scared too. I was really
scared too, because I've never done anything like that, never
rebelled against promoter or or done business that way. You know.
(12:17):
It was always very loyal and until I found out
this business, you know, it's it's it's a very independent business.
Unfortunate being, you know, you can only have certain so
much loyalty. I mean, look at Brett hard Look how
long he was loyal, right, and what happened unfortunately, maybe
it was a misunderstanding of both parts. That's not in
my business. I don't know the whole story, and I'm
(12:39):
just saying, you know, things happen in this business. You know.
Bottom line is I got to feed my family, right,
period over. Now, Yeah, how would you compare the two companies,
EMLO and Tropoy m l E. MLLL was very well
organized and it was more like a WWF. They were
(13:02):
had a boss what he said when, and may have
gotten switched. I'm not saying this doesn't happen in WWF,
but I know it happens. What does a little bit
not as bad, but in human all, you know, as
the orders go down the rinks, you know, that's where
the politics comes in, right, Triple A there was a
lot of guys that had a lot of pull. Obviously
(13:25):
it was an outlaw promotion if you look at it,
you know, so basically when I was there, it was
more like a team, like a family. When I was
there with Art, because we're all striving for the same thing,
you know, I wanted to get the thing over and
it was getting over. Everybody was happy. So, you know,
as far as that aspect, you know, business aspect, I'd
(13:49):
say EMOL was more organized and Triple A was, you know, jumpy,
but there was a lot more family orient you know,
around the dressing room and everybody wanting to work and
wanting to do the right thing. In Tripoli, That's what
I found there.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
As far as road schedule in Mexico, what was that
like as far as shows and what was a daily
routine for you in Mexico?
Speaker 1 (14:12):
Man, once I got gone. You know, when I was
first in Mexico, wrestled maybe three four times, you know,
and then later it got more five times, six times
all over the world. You know, basically almost like this
just here's a lot of flying right over there, A
lot of bus right you know, when it really got
(14:36):
heavy for me, not have it just real busy. I mean,
I loved what I was doing. I was very happy
when I was doing Japan and Mexico because I'd be
in a tour in Japan and then I'd come home
maybe a day or two and then shoot off to
Mexico because I was living in a Passo, Texas. So
was just boom I was in in Mexico's and in Japan.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
That's one of my next questions. How did New Japan
first contact you? It was easy to negotiated deal with them. Well,
the way they did was Negro Costas was going over there,
right and he black cat, you know, black cat.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
He They were looking for somebody for the junior tournament,
and Negro Costas recommended me, and that's how my door
opened over there, you know. And then they called me
and I went and and from there, you know, it's
his sister.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
What are your memories of going to Japan for the
very first time and how different was the style compared
to what you, you know, you were used to working.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
My brother traveled and my brother scared the head out
of me, and they said, man, you better get in shape,
and you better do this and that. So I was
running three to about three miles a day in the desert,
you know, not even in the road, in the desert,
through the dunes and stuff, and working out every day
like a mad man, you know, in the weights. And
then I'd go to the ring, you know, so I
(15:53):
got and then working too. So I was doing all
that and I was prepared. So my memory of Japan
first memories I got to Japan is meaning Chris ben Wall,
which is at least like a brother to me. Now.
He knocked me out in our first match together, but
(16:14):
didn't gary kick. But those are my memories meeting h
Fit Finley, which is another great person, a good friend
of mine. Just the people that I met, their black cat,
you know, those are people masal Hati, Masa Saito, you know,
people that that have been good to me.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
Was it hard to get in the ring with some
of the Japan guys and working a style?
Speaker 1 (16:39):
Uh? You know, me and Koto we had a we
have a chemistry. I guess it wasn't hard getting with him.
You know, I don't know why. I had good chemistry
with him and Tani. It was harder with the other boys.
You know, they just want to kill you, kill Gaiji. Yeah.
What did New Japan think of you after your first tour?
(17:00):
Do you think they were happy? I mean, well, I
guess they hadn't seen the jump to the third rope
and jump out of the ring and stuff and drop
kicks and stuff. You know from the middles they're rope
and I went in with that, so I had that
to offer at least because I was a lot benner
too when I went the first time, a lot lighter.
I guess they were impressed with that. And then when
(17:21):
I started going back, you know, gained some weight, gone
on weight, and I was able to work with their
with their boys and their style, you know, I adapted
to their style. Now.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
I believe it was around nineteen ninety four. I guess
you were in the New Japan Junior's Tournament as yourself. Actually, yeah,
I don't think you were anything not Black Tagger.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
Right, how was that tournament?
Speaker 2 (17:43):
What are your memories of that tournament?
Speaker 1 (17:47):
The memories of that tournament were that me being Chris
fit Finley and two Co Scorpio and X Pop. Yeah,
we went out and read nine of that tour. And
that's a harsh tour because you're resting singles every night,
going fifteen to twenty minutes at least, you know, and
beating each other. And we were out every night, so
(18:09):
it was like training on both ends and then we'll
still get up and go work out in the morning.
I don't know how we did it, but I guess
we're a lot younger than but that's my memory. It
was a good tour. It was a fun tour, right, Yeah,
then you went back over to our Triple A you're
talking about before you go back and forth between next
to Japan.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
You went back over and you turned on al Jo
del Santo and you joined forces. I believe with park
Bar right, what are your memories of that.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
I couldn't stand Dart Bar I hate him. I didn't
hate him. I shouldn't, they said, you know, God forbid.
I didn't like him. I didn't like like. We just
butted heads at first, you know. I remember when they
told me, you know, that he had this idea and
(18:57):
I was like, I don't know, are you know? And
then and he finally convinced me and I said okay.
Then we talked to Tonio, and Tonia liked the idea
of Pina and you know the deal where he puts
on the mask. That's my memory, you know, where he
puts on the mask. You know, I get the power
of the eyes, and he puts on the mask and
(19:19):
I just see the faces sound to him. That was
my brother Mondel's idea from a long time ago. I
just told it from no I told him about it.
He said, yeah, So we did that and it got old,
you know, and from there, you know, I just remember
how things between me and Art just totally not because
(19:42):
things went good in the ring, you know, because we
struggled there, you know, first month or so, tag Tevy
but I mean it just even before that, his attitude
with me and my attitude with him, I shouldn't say him,
I should say me. I guess my attitude towards him
was changing pop because you know, first of all, what
(20:03):
might have judged, you know, and I found myself being
judgmental and and being wrong in the way I was
portraying him, you know, because I was just looking at
the outside when when in reality, he is one of
the most beautiful persons I've ever had, you know, inside,
I was going.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
To ask you what your initial thoughts of Art was
when you first met him, that those were okay, it's
just a beautiful person. Did you initially think that both
of you would make such a great take Tam or
you had your doubts?
Speaker 1 (20:30):
You said, I didn't even I wasn't even thinking about
the tag team. It's just little by little, I guess.
And he read me like a book, and I was
able to read him. You know. The chemistry was there, definitely,
you know, it was a good chemistry. What do you
think of Conan do when you're on in Mexico? Conan?
(20:51):
I love Conan, you know. Conan started about a year
after I did, and we worked out, We worked wid
is to get Dijuana together, right, you know, a lot
of that I think I was mentioning to you before that,
you know, I guess I don't agree with a lot
of his business methods. But as far as a friend,
(21:16):
he's always been a true friend to me, you know.
Business wise, well, he's out for himself. And he even
told me one time he goes, well, you know, it
means whether I go to Japan or you well, I'll
see when I get back, you know. And that's the
way this business is. You can't hold that against him,
you know, because the bottom line is, like what I
said before, he's got to feed his family, and he's
(21:37):
got to pay his bills, you know, and I got
to do that. And what I don't agree in, which
he never did to me, is snaking somebody out of
a you know, a job. But he never did that
to me, and I've never seen him do that to
other people I've heard about. I've never seen that. But
as for me, Carlos has always been a true friend
and he's been a lot of fun to be around.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
Who came up with the name and the gimmick of
all those locals.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
The people did fans, fans, because we were originally going
to be called American Machine, right because love machine. You know,
we're doing the American gimmicks, so it was going to
be the American machines, you know.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
And uh, when I.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
Guess when we started about them, I think it was
about almost two months into that, well we just started.
It was really Art, you know, because I had no
charisma back then anyway, not that I do now, I
don't know, but the thing is that he just blossomed.
His charisma just came out, you know. And that's when
(22:44):
I was into superplexing and all that. So I just
supplexes everybody and their mother. And he was the charisma
and you know, the really the our entertainment part of it.
I was the workhorse. He was the entertainment part of it.
And uh uh, little by little, I guess Art brought
(23:04):
out the people were calling out a bunch of crazy gringos,
you know, Los gringos locals, and it stuck in Tonio
being you know, smart though he is man, he got
that put it.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Honestly, what did you think of the amazing heel heat
that you guys received by the fans, The amazing.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
Hell heat, Oh, God. Wow. For me, it was easy
because in Mexico was a Mexican that was raised in
the States, born and raised in the States, so right
that right there is natural heat. And then me using
the American flag, you know, knowing that my heritage is Mexican.
(23:45):
Oh man, they because you get that was easy because
Mexicans are very proud, very proud people. And Art well,
Aret just just lit it up with that too. Was
I didn't think we're gonna get that much heat, but
we wound up getting a lot of heat, you know, especially,
I think a lot of our heat came from that.
(24:07):
Nobody would beat up Octagon and sound of the way
me and Art used to be them. And I remember
those first matches too. Man, we literally had to stretch
them and shoot them because the mentality in Mexico. Oh no,
I'm a superstar. I can't sell. And me and I
were like, okay, you don't want to sell.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
Were there any incidents ever with the fans, you know,
trying to.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
All it all the time. Then I was mased twice,
pists thrown at me, bags of piss, pampers full of shit,
pestles thrown at me, you know, in the head, almost
in the eye rocks name it right.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
Memories about Luis Polly, who wrestled at.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
The time, Louis Man, Yeah, I remember I had a
match with him about a year before that and two
years before that, and uh Ar wrestled with them in
a small arena up in La and we had a
good little match. I have good memories of Lily Man,
good memories.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
Did you like working better as a baby face or
a heal Mexico? You describe the differences.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
I'm a heal. I don't know. I can work babyface,
I guess, but I don't feel it as much. It's
when I work at heel.
Speaker 3 (25:25):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
My dad always brought that aggression in me, you know,
when you train me he to be aggressive, and I
got a lot of that aggressiveness. That style is what,
you know, like I said, with the grace of God,
is what allowed me to be successful in Japan. As
(25:47):
far as the difference between being a baby face and
the hell, nowadays, you can be aggressive as a heel,
you know, and just focused your aggression towards your opponent,
like you know Stone Cold does and Rock and all that,
which is that's the near era of the babyface heel.
You know, but it wasn't still then there, you know,
(26:08):
as a baby face back then, you didn't have to
hold back, you know, as far as here in the States.
I wouldn't know how to be a big face here
in the States. The only reason I was kind of
a baby face with China, I mean as Latino, he
was because of China. They wanted it like China, but
they wanted to hate me, right, you know?
Speaker 2 (26:28):
So how are you an art approached about losing your
hair at the win World's fly paper view?
Speaker 1 (26:34):
Were Actually it was just gonna be mean in something
and I couldn't come to an agreement. And then Art
talked to Ron Scholar at that.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
Time and.
Speaker 1 (26:50):
Suggested a different angle, and we both came up on
this and it was really, I don't know, brainer because
we already had the few so it was really Art's idea,
and uh, you know, we're all able to be happy
with the funny stipulations. Were you happy with the paper
(27:11):
either the way it turned out? Yes? The match? Yes?
Speaker 3 (27:16):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (27:17):
Was there any plans to split the team up? Art
and yourself up?
Speaker 1 (27:21):
There were already that night we were supposed to I
guess have a little bit of a right tease it
and tease it, and from what I understand, we're going
to get back. But me and Art never had plans on,
you know, going against each other, if anything, if we
were just getting wrong and it was too sooner doing
it right. What do you remember about the deal for
(27:42):
you and Art to come to ECW and feud with
public enemy Art. I never talked to Paulie directly about it,
but I talked to Art, and I think Art was
talking on Paulie about it, and I knew we were
supposed to come in and work something, uh or there
was talk of it, but it never materialized. And obviously
(28:03):
he passed away, you know, after that. But Art had
suggested it to me, and he told me that, you know,
there was talk about it.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
Did anybody else express interest in you guys, as far
as other promoters w CW or No?
Speaker 3 (28:18):
No, no, okay.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
I guess how did Art change? I guess from the
time as time went on after you first met him.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
I don't know, man, just I think it was me
change and Art didn't have to change. You know. One
thing I found out through my experiences in life is
that if I don't like something, usually it's me that
has to change. Right. You know, it's very easy for
me to point the finger at somebody and say, well
(28:48):
you did this. This is the bottom line is I
have to change because that's life and that circumstances and
it can either wine and bitch and home and I
can't change myself and make the best of the situation.
How did you find out that Art passed away? Oh?
Speaker 4 (29:16):
Yeah, h.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
I got a call in Japan when didn't have it.
It was in Japan, I think, I'm not sure it
was the beginning of the tour. Was towards the middle
of the tour, and this my soon to be ex wife.
(29:53):
She called me in. She was crying and I said,
what's the matter, And she was Art's dead. I said,
she's at art. Well, I didn't know which art she
was talking about, but my best friend from All passal
or Art Bar And I thought she was talking about
the guy from All Pastor because you know, so what
happened was.
Speaker 5 (30:14):
In a car accident one he is no your Dina,
So what are you talking about? Because I think it's
an no dean. I said, what are you talking about?
And she was Art and Danny's house important that art,
barn I mean, just get chills today and I said, no,
he's not dead.
Speaker 1 (30:33):
I couldn't believe it. It's a call the hospital right
now and tell me who's that he's dead. No, he's not.
And I couldn't accept it. It took me about about
a good hour to accept it and just couldn't believe it.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
How did his death affect you personally and also affect
you professionally?
Speaker 1 (30:58):
Well personally mhm.
Speaker 3 (31:03):
H m.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
I still think about it today. A new art didn't
want to die. He wanted to do for a boy
at that time, he was gonna have another one, you know,
I know he didn't want to die out. I asked
myself that question for a long time, you know, while
(31:28):
he died. How it affected me? H made me more
appreciative of my life at that time at that time,
(31:50):
scared me off a lot of things at that time.
One thing I did affect me business WISEO was that
it even let more of a fire under my ass too.
(32:13):
I guess make money. I don't even want to say
be successful, because success is measured in different ways. Make money.
It lit a fire under my ass and make money
just in case anything ever happened to me. You know,
my children would have you know, my family would have something.
(32:37):
That's what I did, you know, and it scared the
hell out of me at that time.
Speaker 4 (32:49):
Scared the hell out of me with pills, with drugs,
it really did. We'll talk about that later on side
have questions about that, and sure future you went back
to New Japan and you wrepposed to Black Tiger? Did
the Black Tiger gimmick?
Speaker 2 (33:04):
Who came up with that gimmick?
Speaker 1 (33:06):
Well, at that time they were having kind of Monto
do the Tiger mask, and they just wanted to bring
back some of his old rivals. So I wasn't supposed
to be the original, I mean, the other Black Tiger.
They wanted Fit Friendly to do it, but I think
he refused because of his obligations up in Germany at
that time. So they offered it to me and I said, yes.
Speaker 2 (33:29):
Now, did you mind wrestling with the mask in Japan?
Or did you want to wrestle as Eddie Garrew? Hey,
I just want to work. I just want to work.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
You gotta understand, before that in Japan, about a year
and a half before, i'd been blackballed out of Mexico
for about close to a year, So I was at
that time before I went to Japan. That's what opened
the doors up. God opened it up through that. How
did you get black Ball in Mexico? And the booker
at that time, me and Jim just couldn't I don't know,
(34:00):
he just didn't like me or and I just couldn't
yet along with him. And I asked permission to come home,
you know, go back to a passer for the holidays,
and he said yeah. I called back to get my
dates to go back. And one month turned into two,
two months into three, and then I kind of got
the picture that wasn't going back. Members are working with
(34:22):
the al Jushan Lager. Awesome, awesome, I'm dream come true,
I'm drink come true. Hollow worker, total business. Has a
great heart, you know, and he works for the match,
not for himself. He taught me a lot with his character.
(34:42):
That taught me at he works for the match, not
for himself. Right, it's a big difference outside doing what
is he like? Gentle? Funny? Right, very funny character, funny
and gentlem And I believe you also teamed with Great Sake, Yeah,
(35:04):
and team to them and also wrestled. Oh that's right,
we team to do that. The tag tournament. That's right.
Phenomenal athlete, you know, and also very humble and wanted.
He worked for the match.
Speaker 3 (35:16):
You know.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
It was easy with him because he can do all this,
so it was just why don't you do one of
these things here? Yeah, the flip thing? Yeah, not today.
Speaker 2 (35:25):
And in wrestling, everybody still talks about the very first Jacob.
It's probably one of the greatest wrestling tournaments of all time.
And you were involved with the very first Jacob from
New Japan.
Speaker 1 (35:33):
What was that like? It was neat? Ah, it was
very neat. You're talking about that one day tournament, right,
it was a super superj is that that one day? Yeah?
It was really exciting because they sold out the Sumol
(35:53):
Palace like in the day or two days or something
like that, and with nothing but junior heavyweights. That was
a big breaking player for the junior heavyweight division for
us because we were showing him, hey, guys, we can
draw too. It's not just the big guys and the
start that the hard ware, all the hard work that
(36:14):
all the junior guys put into Chris being Laiger any
work his asshole for that junior belt, you know, and
to bring back the junior division back to what it was,
you know, and the other people like Saskia and and
other wrestlers that are probably going to forget that did
a great deal for the junior you know, that was
(36:37):
a big, big day for all the junior years right
now in Japan.
Speaker 2 (36:43):
Who did you like to work with the most and why?
Like what guy stood out that you were doing?
Speaker 1 (36:47):
Oh well, I'll work with him as far as Japanese
Japanese talent layers, ultimate professional.
Speaker 2 (36:56):
What made you finally decide to use the frog splash?
Speaker 1 (37:01):
See the frog splash? Art stole that from me. I
was doing that way before I got all. I got
that from he was a wrestler in La Fierra. His
name was La Fierra in Mexico. Hell hell of a wrestler.
I got that from him. He did it one time,
but in a different way, probably the most beautiful one
(37:24):
I've ever seen him and Rob Bland and probably do
the best ones, you know, as far as pretty heighth
and all right. I just took it and adapted to
my status. That's what I did. Art got it and
he used to do it with the legs out and
he looked like actually a frog in the air. That's
(37:45):
how they got the name of the Frogs Flash and
it was two Cold Scorpio that came out with that
because it was originally the Jackkna Splash and two Cold
started naming it then.
Speaker 2 (37:54):
And it caught on. Speaking of told debut for e W,
I guess what are your memories of your initial match
at the c Wren against tu Coold Stubia.
Speaker 1 (38:05):
Chills. It was one of my first matches after the
art's death, and I still had him really deep in
my heart, and I knew that we were supposed to
be there as a tag team. And you know, it
was neat because I got to work with Tusco two Cos,
which is great and me and him have always gotten along.
He's a good guy. I was surprised that the how
(38:30):
the fans took me, I really was. I wasn't expecting that,
so I was real good. Plus, were you surprised that
you were giving the TV title so quickly? Yeah, because
I didn't know what. I thought. I was just going
to go into Wressell matches. I beg to come back. No,
I think what happened left the week before and that's
(38:53):
that was the original match. I think really they built
up Okay, I didn't know that.
Speaker 2 (39:00):
What are initial puts about the building, the are ina
and the fans in that building, all the fans.
Speaker 1 (39:05):
I love. That's an experience I will never forget. E
c W oh Man, awesome, awesome, just the fans, even
the hardcore matches, which I just just shake my head,
how can these guys do that? But I mean just
that whole experience was it was one of my best experiences.
(39:27):
Let me put it to that way. So the most
memorable and best experiences I've had in wrestling.
Speaker 2 (39:32):
What were initial parts of Paul human? Because I think
this might have been the first time that you guys
worked together.
Speaker 1 (39:37):
Uh, Paul always treated me right, So I have nothing
bad to say against him. You know, I know when
he first got to WWF and you got in the
writing position, I know he was looking out for me,
you know. You know, Paul's Paul's promoter. You know, I
know He's got a lot of bad blow with a
lot of people, as far as with Eddie Guerrero. With me,
(40:00):
he always treated me right and thankful, thankful of God.
Into what was the CW locker room like? And how
did the d c W talent treat you? Everybody treat
me with respect and how was it wild? Wild? Yeah,
it was wild.
Speaker 2 (40:17):
Memories of your matches with Demiko, which are still talking
about today.
Speaker 1 (40:21):
Diana, I love Dean. Dean's a good friend, great friend.
He's a very caring friend. Just to show you, you know,
I've been going through a lot of personal stuff and
he's there man, you know, calling me, making sure I'm right.
And that's the type of friend Dinas and then want
to But as far as my memories with naturally him,
(40:42):
it's just awesome because he's him and Chris and uh uh,
people like Ray my stereo, people that you have that
that extra little charism. I don't know how to say chemistry.
You know that that just like not only a great match,
but an awesome match. You can have them, you know,
(41:04):
just like everything goes right and the way you want
it and picture and sometimes better than when you expect
it to come out, you know, and you're so disappointed
when you have us what people will call good match
and it didn't come out the five star match, as
I could say. Dean's one of those guys man, it
(41:25):
just clicked with them. I feel, you know what he
wants to do. He doesn't even have to tell me
sometimes I just know what he's going to do now.
Speaker 2 (41:34):
It was twenty six, I believe nineteen ninety five, you
guys had your classic twelve three falls match.
Speaker 1 (41:39):
What are you remembers of the final East W match
with chills, chills everyone at the end. I knew I
was needing something special. I knew I was in a
moment that doesn't last forever. I knew that then that
when we were standing in the ring at the end,
I knew that it was chills. That's my biggest man
(42:00):
found that match. And another memory is that just to
show you how much how good we flowed with each other.
We forgot half the stuff and we had prepared and
I just felt it out there and that was another
good thing for us.
Speaker 2 (42:16):
You know, how did you tell Paul Hyman that you
were leaving ECW and what was his reaction?
Speaker 1 (42:22):
I originally had told him I wasn't, and then about
a week later, I guess I got convinced. I don't guess.
I did get two minutes ago and I told him,
you know, I told him personally. His reaction was okay.
He was a little quiet about it, upset, but he understood.
Speaker 2 (42:41):
How were you initially contacted about going into WCW.
Speaker 1 (42:45):
Kevin Song was the first one to call me. Did
anybody there make any promises to you when you first
got there? I was just promised that I wasn't going
to get jobbed out like you know they had done
with all the you know, small arrests. I was really
fearful of that, and and they were promised. An opportunity
(43:07):
was promised. That's what was promised, an opportunity, and you
know that it was going to be given to us.
That's what was promised. Initially. Had a w c W
treat you awesome? Great? Couldn't expect it really good. That
first year was a dream year from me. Now did
(43:28):
you go to w c W. I believe while you
were there ninety six and top of the junior's tournament,
I think so, yeah, what do you remembers of that tournament?
Scott ivan Ja? That's what it was. Remember every match
was a title match and everybody got the belts together
for the Jake Rind was I there on that one?
Speaker 3 (43:53):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (43:53):
You were sasan okay me andres in the middle that.
Speaker 1 (44:00):
Yeah, Yeah, that was the story. I've flown my ex well,
I guess stopped saying that she's not my ex yet,
but we're in the process. But I've shown my my
wife her names Vicky. I'll just called VICKI for it.
Now I've flown her in. They flew her in New Japan,
flew her in because the tournament stopped and I had
(44:20):
to stay there a week before the next match. So
they flew her in and we had a good time.
But the night before we both got food poisoning and
we had to be taken in the hospital. And you know,
I had to wrestle, and I had this IB and me,
you know, and I just remember them pulling out this
(44:41):
big old shot, like this big horse shot with a
needle about that long. You know, they're walking with it,
you know, and there was this old man sitting next
to me, and I was thinking, oh man, poor old man,
look what they shooting him up with. And they started
coming to me, Yeah, shut me up with this big
old thing of vitamin, you know, because I guess I
had to wrestle stuff. But I remember I was so
(45:03):
drained when I went to wrestle. I mean, everything was
just you know, it's just grasping for air and anything,
you know. I was just trying to get through it. Now.
Speaker 2 (45:14):
It was Hogwild pay per view on ninety six that
you got to work without Flair. What are your memories
of that match?
Speaker 1 (45:21):
I screwed up. I wish it could have been a
better match because I had better matches with him on
Night Trip, right and stuff like that. There's a chance
to work with Claire, you know in the pay per
view match like, yeah, uh, not that I screwed up.
I just I guess I felt a lot of pressure
on me and I didn't produce what I wanted to produce.
(45:41):
And when I don't produce something that I put my
expectations to, I really get down. That's what I remember that.
Who did travel with at the time. I was always
with Dean and Chris always, I believe it was I
don't know what year it was, but probably ninety six.
Your feud with DP and you won the US title
(46:03):
all of him? What do you working with DP? And
how is he like in the right DVP is a
hard worker. He is a very hard worker. I admire
him when it comes to his work ethic, but I
don't admire What I hate is that he tries to
script every day thing in the match you can't do that.
(46:26):
I just don't believe in that. So every crowd's different.
Some people sometimes they react differently, even if you're in
the same reasons, they react different. You know, you can't
have going I don't believe in in scripting a match
all the way through. I never had. I believe in
improvisation and going by how you feel in your heart
and how you feel with people. Just the other day,
(46:49):
in the match, one of my first Indian matches, in
my mind, I was going to go out there and
start healing when the time was right, but there was
no need for it. You know, there's no need to
be heal in that match. So just wrestled through it
and that was a good It wound up being a
better match I feel, And if I would have healed it,
that's you know, that's the only thing I don't like
(47:10):
about DP is that he's got a script at all.
I didn't like the way I won, the way they
gave me the belt. I thought that was hogwashing. I
would have rather not win the belt at all because
they had Scott Hall come in and give him his finish.
Uh uh, Kevin Nash come in and give him his
(47:32):
finish and then still I get up, get up on
the top rope and give him my friend who looks
like the heel here near him. You know, I just
thought that was one that I did not agree with.
I'm coming off Florida and that was a bunch of bullshit.
That was total politics. Taking that match was to get
him over and not me over. And that's fine. I
(47:52):
don't mind getting anybody over. Just come on, shoot straight
up at me. It's for me to get over, Okay, fine,
then I'll do the job, but don't don't try and
do that. I felt that what was being pulled over
my eyes, even though I knew what was going on.
I just that's what I felt. Whether they meant it
or not, I don't know whether he meant it or not.
I don't know whether the office meant it or not.
I don't know right now.
Speaker 2 (48:14):
That was nw who sold out Aby on January ninety seven,
where you worked with Sean Waltman Xbox six. At the time,
there was a lot of match. What do you remembers
of that match?
Speaker 1 (48:24):
I was mad. I was mad because it could have
been a really good match, and I just think me
and Sean, first of all, we never got a chance
to go out and really work on it. Except for
that day before. I'd never been in a ladder match.
I didn't know what to do. It was my first
ladder match. I never I didn't know what to expect,
what to do, right. You know, everybody was telling me
(48:44):
this and suggesting this and that, and I just know,
I know it was a disappointment to the office and
to the boys, and to me too, to the fans
mainly you know, the other ones that paid the ticket.
I just wish I could have produced a better match.
Speaker 2 (48:58):
Also, I believe it was uncensored March ninety seven, where
you worked without demonco.
Speaker 1 (49:02):
On your tour or left for a muscle. Right, what
are you memories of that?
Speaker 2 (49:06):
Exactly happened?
Speaker 1 (49:09):
I was jumping off the third and Dean was supposed
to duck, you know my diving as he's duck can
shoot me into the fence. Well, they had moved them
the railing back like a foot and a half. I
forgot for what I think Castine was repelling that. I'm
not sure, but I don't remember why that moved the
(49:31):
railing back. But I said to Dean, I don't know
if I can make it or not, so just be
aware of it. Well, I forgot Dean with that back
neck surgery. You can't bends his neck down, so I know,
you try to get out of the way, but my
arm still caught the top of his head and as
he shoved me, and just all the upward. Four and
a half months.
Speaker 2 (49:54):
When you returned, it was the summer ninety seven. They
turned to heal. Yeah, what are your thoughts on that?
Speaker 1 (50:00):
It was right? I mean I told Kevin to turn
me here, because since that match with DDP, that's when
I started getting booed. Maybe a little bit before that,
I started getting boos You know, how did you help
your nephew, travel Gar Junior get into ww I did.
(50:20):
I just talked to Eric about him, and uh, I said,
can you give him an opportunity? And Stephen Riego wrestled
with him on his uh on, you know, his tryout match.
And you know Steven, you know he can move anybody
and work with anybody. Uh So he helped travel out
(50:43):
in that way. But you know Travels, you know he's
got a good look and Eric liked his look. Eric
liked that he was young and signed.
Speaker 2 (50:52):
Him to development of what was our mischeff like at
the time.
Speaker 1 (50:55):
Eric was always good. We we had obviously had some
you know, was how'd he say some follows that follow
us just disagreements, you know. But the bottom line is
he's always been straight up, you know, even when things
were bad, he was straight up. And you know when
(51:16):
I told him I wanted my release and he took
coffee at my feet and stuff, But uh, I don't
think it was really throwing at it. You're just hot
and he hit it and you know, got on me.
But you know, what did you do? No? I was like, okay,
he's mad. He thought he was coming at me. I
was getting ready to fight, but uh I can I
(51:37):
can now now. Back then I couldn't see it, But
now I can see his point because he probably felt
I was being ungrateful and all that. I wasn't ungrateful.
I was. I was. I would just have desire and
I wanted to do more and I was being held down.
And where were you going to go?
Speaker 2 (51:55):
If you left back to call Vince or I was
going to go back to Japan.
Speaker 1 (52:00):
He ended up staying. I believe well, he didn't let
me out. He wasn't all right. That's one thing I
liked a lot of people. No, no, well, yeah, I'll
tell you what. Man, he always treated me right and
with respect. He really did. Besides that time, he he
always did, you know, yelled at me a couple of times.
But hey man, we're human, we're emotions that get the
(52:22):
best of us. That chows his passion for his work.
Speaker 2 (52:26):
It was fall you have to work with our christ Jericho,
and you won the cruiserweight title.
Speaker 1 (52:31):
Right? How was that match good? It was a good
match around with Chris. Uh. I just remember we went
out there and built it up, you know, we didn't
try and high spot it to death. Went and then
we went and you know, did our thing. But I
like working with Chris, always.
Speaker 2 (52:50):
Have did the term cruiser We ever bother you No,
never has never has thought of ultimate Dragon and working
with him.
Speaker 1 (53:00):
To the Dragon is very talented wrestler. Ah. Hey, uh,
I knew him since Mexico and I always like to style,
you know, I always like to stop. I always liked
(53:22):
his mask and his chimmick. I really really that was awesome.
I've always liked that. I never have known him very personally,
so I can't say much more besides that he's a
professional work.
Speaker 2 (53:34):
He works hard, getting back to the cruiserweight term, did
you ever feel that the wrestling fans want to take
you seriously as a main eventor because of that term,
if you're branded with the term cruise a week.
Speaker 1 (53:46):
Well, yeah, that has crossed my mind. But I think nowadays,
you know, you got people that were cruiserweights or were
considered cruiser weights that are many ventors now, Ben Wall, Jericho,
you know those guys deserve it, man, They worked hard
liger wrestles in many events too. You know it just
(54:08):
cruise away for me, is a style. Chris Jercho said
it best. It's more. It's more than weight. It's it's
a style that can be done. Yeah, it's a style
of wrestling. I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (54:20):
You know him back in Mexico and Triple A and
stuff like that, and here.
Speaker 1 (54:24):
You guys are working together in w c W.
Speaker 6 (54:25):
Now.
Speaker 2 (54:26):
Uh, you had a great hair verse title match with
Right And what are your thoughts and your memories on
all the feud.
Speaker 1 (54:30):
Of mask versus title?
Speaker 3 (54:33):
Right? Right?
Speaker 2 (54:33):
Right?
Speaker 1 (54:34):
That's okay, that was a great match. I love Ray.
I love him like my little brother. That's how much
I think of Ray.
Speaker 3 (54:47):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (54:48):
He's a common causing man. He has no fear ah,
And I like that he has no fear with me
because it's a compliment to me because being a base,
you know, with all the stuff he does, I got
to catch him and I gotta support of him, you know,
do that stuff, base him for his moves and for
(55:10):
him to have that type of confidence with me, it's
it's a compliment to me. Man. I just love that guy.
He's just a great, great He's one of my favorite people.
Speaker 2 (55:22):
How did you see him evolved as far as his
style from Mexico into psychology college.
Speaker 1 (55:28):
Yeah, he learned psychology. That's how I see him involved.
I got mature with this psychology. He's not all about
spots now. You know. He can wrestle and that that
for me, is very admirable because he he won't he
wants to get better. His always looking to get better.
What are your thoughts on the GIMMI where child I
(55:49):
had to wear the shirt that said.
Speaker 2 (55:49):
Edie gar is my favorite wrestler, that he wanted to
kill me.
Speaker 1 (55:55):
That was some great stuff that he did. Yeah, he
was really defensive. He was really defensive at first. I
mean he was literally kicking around chairs and cussing me out.
And I said my shovel. This is good. You know,
at the end, you're gonna come out smelling like Roses.
(56:16):
I said, it's going to be very humiliating. But at
the end, I'm going to be the one who humiliated.
He couldn't understand it. He was very young, right, and naive,
and show you how much he developed. We all are
when we start. You know, we're trying to get over it.
We want to we want to be a part of
the team, you know, if not the part of the
(56:37):
we want to even want to be the captain of
the team. You know. That's how ambitious child it is,
you know. And that's great, and that's what he wanted,
you know. And but what really got me going was
when we did the hair versus hair match and he said,
I want to shave my head. And this was like
a month or two months before his wedding. I said,
(56:57):
are you sure it might not go back? For he
goes now man's business, he goes. Ever since this happened,
he realized a lot of stuff. And he's the one
that came out to me with that idea and presented
it to the office and they liked it. And that's
that showed me the change in child and how much
he had matured. I mean, same thing like with Ray.
Just you see these guys just coming and maturing and
(57:20):
changing their mentality and their attitude about the business. Makes
you feel good. How was ConA treated in a locker room?
Because I know he had power in Mexico? I mean,
was he humbled in w w Uh? It was humbled?
You know, Carlos is a survivor. Man. I'm sorry I
call him Carlos because I know it's Carlos. Uh, He's
He's a survivor. That's one thing I gotta I handed
(57:43):
to him. Man, talk about it. Knowing how to promote
yourself and how to get yourself in places and and
and in spots. Colin is one of the best. I've
seen him do it everywhere he goes man, And that's
a great quality in this business.
Speaker 2 (58:03):
Whose idea wasn't for the promo where you did on
Nitro promo saying that Ericshoff was holding yourself and all
the younger guys back.
Speaker 1 (58:09):
Was that an office decision? Or was that I kind
of ran it at Eric it was the last minute
thing and liked it. I think that if I would
have had time to prepare for it. It would have
been a lot better because I went out there scared
out of them, but I didn't know what to see him,
and everybody say this and say that I didn't know
what to say that. You know, that's another opportunity. That's
(58:29):
one one of the opportunities I wish I had back.
Speaker 2 (58:33):
Was hard to do my promos and stuff like that
because you weren't using to tell promos.
Speaker 1 (58:36):
Maybe if I had time to prepare for it, Okay,
all right, but yeah, I wasn't. I'm not saying I'm
good at it because I'm I don't know where I
stand on that. I never been really common. I don't
know evaluated on that. But I guess when I when
I got to uh w w F and I learned
(58:58):
a lot when it comes to that promos and vignettes
and stuff like that, I learned a lot, you know.
I learned a lot from my brother Mando, who's an
actor too. Yeah, haul Cogan. What was he like in
the locker room? How Cogan was to himself? You know,
I don't know him that well personally. He was always
to himself as stuff, you know, and say, Hi, do
(59:20):
you know it's about it with me? You know, he
never did anything wrong to me. How about Kevin Nashal
Scott Hall. They knew their position. Uh, they knew their
position at the same time, you know, Like I said,
(59:41):
you know, I saw man. Everybody's got so much different things.
You know, some people talk bad about him. I don't
like to talk bad about people. I really don't unless
they treated me that. They really never treated me that,
not when it comes to personal issues.
Speaker 6 (01:00:03):
You know.
Speaker 1 (01:00:04):
As far as the business issue as well, it's only hearsay,
you know, I heard, Uh, I heard. We were called
the Vanilla midgets, you know, me, ben Wan and Dean
because we had no flavor to our wrestling, you know,
we had no charisma, we had no no entertainment. Then
(01:00:26):
maybe that was I don't know, maybe it was true
to a certain extent, you know, maybe it was a
lot true, you know, but uh, you got to remember
the style we were taught. It was Japan, you know.
Really the only charisma I was taught was a little
bit in Mexico, and I really didn't have to worry
about that except for a high spot, right, And it
(01:00:46):
wasn't the type that lifted my hand after a high
spot for a class I was not never to do that. So, yeah,
that's maybe we were vanilla midgets at that time, not midgets,
but I mean to them obviously it was a lot short.
That's about the only negative thing I got to say
about that. Did you see a lot of politics speaking
the three against each other? Yeah? That sound little, not
(01:01:11):
a lot. I don't go in there looking, you know.
Really what I've always been taught go in there and
focus on what you gotta do, you know what I mean? Right,
and produce. That's what I was taught. You know, that's it,
you know, that's it. As far as that skins. Now,
(01:01:32):
the nWo was hot and stuff like that. They were running.
Speaker 2 (01:01:35):
Now, what did you think of the idea when they
came to you and they wanted you inform the Latino
World Order, the LWO.
Speaker 1 (01:01:42):
This was supposed to be for Conan, this Latino World
Order deal, except he had just became a part of
the wolf Pack, so they didn't want to take them
out of that. So they threw it on me.
Speaker 5 (01:01:55):
And how was that?
Speaker 3 (01:01:56):
Like?
Speaker 1 (01:01:56):
Well, I think they just threw it on me to
shut me up or to give me a bone.
Speaker 2 (01:02:01):
Now on for a while I was gonna ask you,
do you think it was intended.
Speaker 1 (01:02:04):
To push you guys. I know it was a bone.
I know it was a bone, but it took off
a lot better than what they thought it was going
to get, you know, until I have a car accident.
I was gonna ask you what happened on New Year's Eve.
It was, I believe nineteen ninety eight and me fall
asleep the wheel. That's when my drug problems were starting
to get out of hand. Well, any any drug is strong,
(01:02:27):
you know, but they were getting out of and really
wasn't any drinking or drugs. It was renewtrient, which is
a drug, right, That's what it happened. I had taken
some JHB before I left the house. I had taken
some and I got hungry, and I really wasn't thinking,
(01:02:47):
and I went to the store. It was New Year's Day.
I went to the store down the street and then
it's New Year's Day. It was close, so I went
down the convenience store about for about eight miles up
and on the way back it hit me. Fell asleep
at the wheel. Uh. They said it was one one
hundred and thirty miles. When I flipped, I flipped, well,
(01:03:07):
shout out through the t top over one hundred feet.
They thought I was dead. They didn't you know when
the police got there. There they left me for dead
until a person, a lady that was there which saw
me flip. She said she saw it. I met with
her later on. Uh, they saw me moving. Then they
realized I was alive, and they air backed me and
(01:03:32):
I was in nice CEU.
Speaker 2 (01:03:33):
You know a couple of days when you first woke up,
what did you did you realize what happened?
Speaker 1 (01:03:38):
Well, I woke up and they were telling you've been
in a car accident. We got to operate leg. That's
when they had to operate in my leg. He says,
do you know your number? That's my number, my name,
and I knew all man And then I fell back
to sleep and I woke up during the operation and
started fighting them and they strapped me down and next
(01:04:01):
thing I know, I woke up in ICU and I
was told they didn't know what was going on. My
liver was bleeding. It was a waiting game. Totally broken
hip socket. Yeah, did you feel at the time that
you wrestling curls over? Yeah. They said that they didn't
know if I was going to be able to walk normal.
(01:04:21):
Again because of the reconstructive surgery, because of the broken
hip socket, because of the back injuries, except for compressed
ver to brain you know, fractured at that time. Uh,
they didn't know. It's only by by God man, only
by by the mercies of God. How tough was it
(01:04:43):
the training made come back? It was real tough, you know.
I had a lot of a lot of pain still,
you know, but I was I wanted to get back
in the ring, you know, not only for the love,
but I wanted to start working from my money. You know.
I felt guilty and felt threatened, that threatened out of
the spot, right. I felt a lot of things which
(01:05:04):
pushed me to come back a lot sooner than what
I should have. And that a lot of the reason
would led to my problems with drugs, because that's one
night I lost my fear of drugs. I got a
lot of fear for pills and all that one art
dye and I really never touched them until I would
(01:05:25):
experiment with them here and there, you know, or use
them socially. But after that car accident, with the pain
that I had inside and all that, I just lost
fear of them and having an addictive personality. The way
I do it was very that was it. You know,
it came an addict. I was going to ask you
if it scared you off or obviously I lost my
fear for it. Pain does a lot of things for
(01:05:46):
person and at that time it was pain, right. But
once I got over the pain and I was still
taking those pills and still taking those pills, you know,
that's more pain, man, that's a that's an addictive personality.
You know. Maybe I don't. I don't say. Maybe there
was a lot of emotional pain and a lot of
issues I hadn't dealt with back then. A lot. Now
did anybody in business try to help you? So you
(01:06:07):
got to slow down? Yeah, there was warning signs all over.
I just never paid heed. I couldn't. I was I
was thinking right. And even when I did try and
think right, and even when I did try and get off,
I couldn't. I was already hooked, so hooked bad. Really,
the you know where I really started to wake up
(01:06:29):
was six months ago when they sent me to read right.
I'm gonna talk about that eventually. Now, what steps did
you take to get back into the ring As far
as training, I started real slowly my friend Art Art
Flores had moved like a couple of years, you know,
to before that, to Florida, maybe a year and a
half before the accident, to Florida, and he was a
(01:06:51):
big instrument in my comeback. He you would go, get me,
pick me up, and get my ass in the gym.
And it's a hard come back. It's all right, come back.
I mean, give you an example. You know. Let's say
I used to curl forty forty five pounds, you know,
and you're curling five pounds because everything hurts, and if
you go too quick, you know, too fast and just pain,
(01:07:14):
you know, and little by little you just got to
work your way up. And you're frustrated because you used
to be at a certain spot and you're not. You're
got to work your way back up to it. You know.
Did you return to your shoot injury?
Speaker 6 (01:07:28):
You think?
Speaker 1 (01:07:28):
I know, they told me to wait at least eight months.
I was back in the ring in six.
Speaker 2 (01:07:34):
When you came back, they teamed you up with Conan,
Billy Kidman and Wright, I believe, and you form the
Filthy Animals.
Speaker 1 (01:07:40):
What are your thoughts on that?
Speaker 2 (01:07:43):
And the company really changed a lot too over the time.
A lot of the people involved in.
Speaker 1 (01:07:47):
It was exciting. It was an exciting time for me
because we're getting a chance and opportunity with Vince and
and for you know, Vince Roussel. You know that was
it was great, was a great opportunity and I was
really looking forward to that. When you took time off,
I guess for your elbow surgery. Did you think your
(01:08:08):
w CW crow was over? No? And I guess what
led to you.
Speaker 2 (01:08:16):
Along with Chris Benwaile being Milanco and party satn't asking
you for you release in January of ninety.
Speaker 1 (01:08:20):
Nine, what led to it? Well, I was already ready
to last for my release before Vince, Russ and Ed
came in. When they came in, I said, well, all right,
we give another shot. You know, maybe things might different now.
You know, things look a little bit different when I
(01:08:44):
heard that, you know, things were changing back to kind
of the old with Kevin Sullivan. And you know, it
wasn't so much Kevin, you know what I mean, even
though I do think maybe there was some personal vendettas,
I don't know, you know, I just it wasn't so
much Kevin. It was the structure of things that I
(01:09:07):
didn't like. I really did not like the structure as
far as what going. It was the old structure, and
I saw the same bullshit coming up, the same bullshit,
and I just felt it and it didn't feel right.
I want it out. So when Chris and Dean approached
me and Perry and the other guys that, you know,
(01:09:29):
I was a shoeing already. I mean, they didn't even
have to ask me. There's a joke. It's not a joke,
but it's a truth. You know. When Perry and Dean
and Chris were talking about it, they said, well, should
we call Eddie and let him know? They said, oh,
he's in. Don't worry about it. You know, I'm loyal
to until you screw me, maybe four or five times,
(01:09:52):
I don't know now it's probably less. But once I
get screwed over, then I don't go and bury you.
But I won't let myself be buried with you. You
know what I mean? What was the allmatium that you
guys went to WW with. We just wanted to change
the structure, a structure that we could work with. Who
(01:10:13):
did you approach?
Speaker 3 (01:10:14):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (01:10:15):
Dad? Who's the president who had taken Eric's place? What's
his name?
Speaker 2 (01:10:19):
Bill?
Speaker 1 (01:10:20):
Bush. That's who we approached and we just talked him
straight up, and I think he saw it as a threat.
He definitely saw it as a threat. It wasn't a threat.
We're just a you know, we weren't happy with that structure,
you know. And I know those personal issues between Kevin
and some of the boys. Whether he had him with me,
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (01:10:40):
Yeah, how did w CW manager act to you guys saying.
Speaker 1 (01:10:43):
This management we've got threatened? In one way? They totally
treated us like we had like we were the enemy,
you know. Ah, Yeah, it was pretty mu like that.
Not all of them.
Speaker 2 (01:11:01):
I'm also we did an interview with Kevin Salivan.
Speaker 1 (01:11:04):
He was here. He did a shoot interview, and in
his shoot he said that he helped Chris ben Wall
by pushing.
Speaker 2 (01:11:08):
Him and giving him the title.
Speaker 1 (01:11:09):
Do you agree I think he helped us all. I
do agree that he did help us all, you know,
But you got to remember one thing, Okay, right, you
can help me all you want, but if I don't
produce that helped me ship, you got to be able
(01:11:30):
to produce, one way or another. Chris Benwalll produced. He's
one of the best workers in the world and I'm
not saying that because he's one of my best friends,
but he is whose work speaks for itself. Look at
the fruits, you know. And and Kevin, Yeah, he did
give us an opportunity. He gave me an opportunity. He
(01:11:52):
gave me a hell of a chance. If it weren't
for him, we would we wouldn't have had this opportunity
as far as the junior everyways to have Kevin Sullivan
fought for the junior heavyweights, and I will always be
grateful to him for that. You know, his personal thing
with Chris, that's his deal. And Chriss, do you think
that you got to let personal issues getting away of
business at all or no? And I felt they did,
(01:12:13):
whether he wanted to or not. I'm sure they did. Unfortunately,
I don't think they got in the in the way
once they stepped into the ring, because in the ring
both of them were totally professional. But I think it
did get in the way in very minutes. Way. You
got to understand there's a lot more to the story
than it's sick. Do you want to talk about it
or no, because it's not my place to talk. Was
(01:12:36):
there a chance of you going to back or actually
returning to ECW instead of going to the russelling federations.
Was there ever talks about you going back to ECW
at this time? No, well yeah there was, I take
you back. There was we wanted out. Yeah, it was
already a while that we wanted out. Uh when when
when we come front the Bush Bill Bush? You know,
(01:12:57):
we had already wanted out, like I don't know how
many months before that, and we were even me and
Dean went to talk to PAULI when they wrestled up
in Florida. Were there? So? Yeah, I mean there was
we wanted out, and we didn't care if it was
going to Japan and e c W again or if
it ultimately went to WWF. You know, we weren't sure
(01:13:18):
if they were gonna watch.
Speaker 2 (01:13:19):
Did you guys get heat for going to that show
in Florida or did you guys do it to say
maybe hey, the office will find out.
Speaker 1 (01:13:25):
No, we didn't do to. We really want to see
your options. That's what it was. Now, how did you
guys contact the World Wrestling Federation at this point about
your guys?
Speaker 2 (01:13:35):
Jumpings just called? How interested were they about? They were interested?
Very interesting?
Speaker 1 (01:13:44):
What happened? Sheene Douglas. I know he was supposed to
be part of you guys and their stories going around
that I don't think. Look, you gotta understand one thing
about it. You know. Yeah, we're united and we stand.
But the bottom line is everybody's got to pay their bills,
and everybody's got a family because I got let go
of w w F. You don't see Chris and Dean
saying well, I'm leaving too. No, they got their lives.
(01:14:07):
They got to pay their bills. You know. Besides, this
is something that I did. But even though you know,
I think that's a big misconception. Maybe Shane doesn't understand.
I love Shane. He's a great person. You know. Our deal, Yeah,
we're gonna stick together. But the bottom line, when when
the bottom line comes to it, we all got bills
to pay. Now, I can't say to my you know,
(01:14:29):
to my creditors and all that, well, can you guys wait,
because Shane doesn't have a good situation with w w F. No,
I can't. I can't tell my kids that. Wait, you know,
but I gotta get money in you know. You know,
I'm only talking for myself, you know, And there was
(01:14:50):
nothing ever, never, ever, towards personal to Shane. But I'm
sure Shane knew where he stood with w w F.
What about Conan? Was there ever playing I'm going to
join you guys too. I know he wanted to.
Speaker 6 (01:15:03):
I know he was.
Speaker 1 (01:15:03):
He went out with this, I know he But the
bottom line is, you know, and I will say this
in camera. You know I've talked. I talked to him
a couple of times over the phone, and he said
the only guys they were interested were him and Chris
Banwall because they were tailored made for w w that
we had to you know, I had to call for
myself and stuff like that. So I did. What are
(01:15:24):
your memories of making your WF debut? I believe it
was January thirty first, I'm at wrong. My memories slipping
on the rope in the front smash, that's my big memory.
Was it the next night? No, that was the first night.
The next night that's when I dissocated my animal. Okay,
that's right, that's right.
Speaker 2 (01:15:46):
Did you have any pressure on you to get back
in the ring before you were ready? Then again, because
it's a big opportunity, put in the big spot, it.
Speaker 1 (01:15:53):
Was in pressure they asked me to come in. I
told him I wasn't gonna be ready for another three
four weeks to wrestle, and they asked me if I
could go, and I said, yeah, you know, I'm not
going to put it all on them because it wasn't
I said yes, could have told them now and I
said yes.
Speaker 2 (01:16:10):
How different was it as far as the locker rooms
going after the World Wrestling Federation and being compared WCW.
Speaker 1 (01:16:18):
Tremendous difference night and day. Unfortunately the last time I
went back, hm, it wasn't as bad as back then,
but it was a little bit of it there. Right.
What was like entering I guess the w F in
the middle of the company being so hot. It was
(01:16:40):
really neat, you know, so professional, very professional. It just
blew me away. I was very happy when I got there.
Speaker 2 (01:16:51):
What was your reaction in the locker room to you
guys when you all came in together?
Speaker 1 (01:16:54):
Did the other guys?
Speaker 3 (01:16:55):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (01:16:56):
I think we were the ones that could that were quiet.
You know, we didn't know how to act around them.
You know, guys used to come to us and say,
listen up, guys. We thought were you know, we didn't know, man,
We had our guards of it. You know from where
we came from. Our garden was up all the time.
You know, we didn't know if a person was smiling
at us because he's saying yeah, guys and getting ready
(01:17:16):
to get you, or something's happening or hight you know,
they really meant to smile. So our guarden was a
big time. How much effect do you feel that you
guys had jumping head on the downfall of w CW.
I don't know. You think fans sol the product. I
(01:17:41):
don't know how to comment on that. I think if
I were to comment on that, it be very boastful.
I'd be very confident. You know. Let me speak for
Dean and Chris, because I can't speak for myself. I
don't like to talk, you know, I don't like to
and so everything I have is from Christ and I'm
(01:18:03):
grateful to Christ. I can speak for, you know, my
opinion on Chris and Dean. My opinion on Chris and
Dean and Perry is that they're war courses, nice, solid,
strong war courses. They bring a quality of wrestling to
the show that not a lot of people have. Very
(01:18:24):
few people have it. You know, we we create a doubt,
they create a doubt whether it's real, what hurts, what
doesn't you know? And that's what a Chris bin Will
brings to an organization. That's what a Dean Malinko brings
to an organization. That's what a Perry Saton brings to
(01:18:45):
an arganization. You know, guys like that, you know, and
there's very few and very selective. You know, you have
a lot of guys there with a lot of talent,
but there's very few guys that have that whole package
in there now.
Speaker 2 (01:19:00):
As the WW eventually went out of business, So did
you see that coming?
Speaker 1 (01:19:06):
I never thought they'd go out of business. I thought
it would get down for a while, but I never
thought they'd go out of business the way they did.
Speaker 2 (01:19:13):
What are your memories of your six fan tag at
or some eighty two thousand?
Speaker 1 (01:19:19):
Uh, just excited, another dream come true. Never thought I'd
be an Urestling and I was an Urestling.
Speaker 2 (01:19:32):
Was there anybody at the time you think trying to
hold you guys back when you came in.
Speaker 1 (01:19:37):
I can't really comment on that because we're so new.
I really you know, Bence wants to push somebody who
pushes them, no matter what the politics are. That's why
I believe unless I see it different. What are your
thoughts on them pairing China with you? I thought it
was great, you know, and I know it did me
(01:19:57):
a lot of good. Yeah, with all the exposures she had,
as you know, we had good chemistry together, real good chemistry.
It just worked. You know, it was there. They saw it,
they took advantage. I thought they were great. What was
she like to work with? I didn't understand her, But
(01:20:18):
now that I've been going through my own personal problems,
I can understand her more. I wish I could have
understood her back then. At first, it was really neat
and a lot of fun all the way up towards
kind of towards the end where we broke up, you know,
they had this this gid break up there towards the end.
(01:20:39):
It was really hard because she was going through a
lot of personal things and and I think I know
that they was taking a toll on her work like
it did with me, you know, took a toll on
her work. Not that her work ethic or work didn't work.
Became bad at the attitude that that, you know, it
(01:21:02):
was just hard to she was mad at the world,
you know, and I was part of the world. And
it was hard because I like her so much and
I know what a great person she was. It was
hard for me to take to have her mad, not
that she was mad at me, but just mad all
the time. It was hard to work with that style,
(01:21:22):
you know what I mean. I understand that now because
I've gone through it and I'm going through it, but
I didn't I couldn't back then.
Speaker 2 (01:21:32):
Do you think that the rumors of China was difficult
to work with toward the end of her they were true?
Speaker 3 (01:21:36):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (01:21:37):
Yeah, Like I said, you know, there was She didn't
just get big headed. It was a lot more behind it.
And that's where a lot of people don't realize it.
Did you like the Latino heatchemmick and the Mama's na gimmick? Yeah?
(01:21:58):
And who came up with it? Obviously the office? Yeah, yeah,
that one was mine. I Uh, that Latino heat I
kind of got from the bird cage that moved the
bird cage, No, no, the Robin Williams the bird cage
and uh, you know the guy that serves he was
(01:22:22):
like the housemaid and he would trip over his feet
and you know, he couldn't wear sho as well. He
told he was asking Robin Williams why he wasn't on
the show. You know, ronins as well. You're saying that's
this and this, because that's not true. You're just afraid
of my what the money heat? So instead of saying
what the money here, I just took Latino heat, and
(01:22:42):
I did in an interview we were getting ready for
the WrestleMania with China. I did it in an interview
in Texas, I remember, and it got a hillacious pop. Yeah,
you know, because exactly I know what it is. You're
just gearing my Latino heat. Baby. You know, boom got
a big pot pop and the office got ran with it.
(01:23:03):
And the mama seat the man, that's a regular word
that that all the Latinos use, especially Chicanos, see a
good looking baby mama seat that you know, Vince?
Speaker 2 (01:23:16):
Look, man, what your initial initial impressions of Vince.
Speaker 1 (01:23:20):
Vince is a professional. He's a businessman, you know. Uh,
I got nothing to say bad of than man. He
uh you know, even though they let me go, but
that was my doing. You got to realize one thing
that was my doing. It's not like I went. I
planned it, and so I'm gonna go get a d
ui after rehab, I didn't do that. Yeah, I'm gonna
(01:23:43):
ask you about that.
Speaker 2 (01:23:43):
Actually, go ahead as good questions. We'll get up to
that in a second. Do you think anybody or do
you think anything of China ever went too far? Like
when you're caught in the shower with the Godfather shows No,
because it was the breakup.
Speaker 1 (01:23:56):
I thought that was kind of funny.
Speaker 2 (01:23:57):
Did you enjoy taking partner skits or did you rather
would you rather stick to straight at wrestling?
Speaker 1 (01:24:05):
I was, I was feeling the skits. You know, that
was a character that really got into that, you know,
so you know, it was getting a lot of good reviews.
You can say, good, good, good pr So I enjoyed it,
you know, I enjoyed that. Now you're working with Chris
ben while here in the world Russelly Federation. What was
that like? Chris my brother? I love that. I love
(01:24:27):
working with Chris, against him, with him anything, just Chris,
He's a like Glagger, works for the match, not for himself. Well,
seeing what a lot of guys don't realize is by
working for the match, you're making yourself. Even that works better,
(01:24:47):
especially now that everybody knows it's entertainment. All right. You know,
Triple H, what would you like to work with? Great? Awesome? Awesome?
Speaker 2 (01:24:58):
Did you see him getting any special treatment since he
was sort of Stephanie or.
Speaker 1 (01:25:04):
You guys can say anybody can say anything they want
about him. Look at his work as look at the
fruit of his work. He can't he can't take that away,
you know, whether you know he could be. He was
always very respectful and very nice. You know, just look
at his fruits, look at his work, and look what
(01:25:24):
he produces, you know. And that's not if he did
get special treatments because of his work, you know, anything
personal from that, well, that's something different. You know, that's
none of my business.
Speaker 2 (01:25:36):
What are your memories of some of your matches you
had with Kurt Angle?
Speaker 6 (01:25:38):
What was he like?
Speaker 1 (01:25:40):
Kurt's Kurt's hungry man. He's always hungry. He can be
an Olympic gold medal this, he can be the World
Wrestling Federation champion, he can be all the champions in
the world, and he'll still be hungry. I admire that
of them, because he's got that fire in him, you know.
And as far as working with him, it was nice.
(01:26:01):
It was nice, intimidating and nice. I didn't want Tom
go stretch. My man. Now what happened?
Speaker 2 (01:26:07):
I guess they put Stacy Carter with you? I guess
just China and then she didn't appear with you again.
Speaker 1 (01:26:13):
Oh yeah, that was just the thing. It was just
one time deal. Yeah, China get there right? Yeah? JND
like that. Now, why did they decide to put the
radicals back together because you guys separated for a little bit.
I think I think they just did that to I
think they were stuck on how don't go from A
to D? Right? And they used us as A and C,
(01:26:35):
I mean as B and C, you know what I
mean on certain storylines, and I think that's what we're
used for.
Speaker 2 (01:26:41):
No Way Out two thousand and one yourself, Chris Jarco
Chris Ben on Xbox, You guys did a great four
weight match.
Speaker 1 (01:26:46):
What are your memories of that match? The memories of
that match where we were all talking talking stuff over
and to do get things situated and organized, We're all
doing interviews, we're all doing this and that when they
(01:27:07):
had like five minutes to prepare before we went out,
and it worked out best that way because even the
stuff that we had, we wound up changing it before
just before we went out and everything was more. It
worked out best because, like I said, everybody wrestled with
their heart and how they felt, and it came out
to be a better match.
Speaker 3 (01:27:25):
You know.
Speaker 1 (01:27:25):
Yeah, we had their finishes in certain spots, but I
mean everything just flowed on that.
Speaker 2 (01:27:32):
What are your thoughts on a few they were starting
to build with yourself and the heartys of Aleda.
Speaker 1 (01:27:37):
It was neat, It was good. I didn't understand a
lot of it, but a lot of it I did.
Speaker 2 (01:27:44):
What were the plans, I guess were Where were they
going to go?
Speaker 1 (01:27:47):
I don't I don't know where they were going to
go with that. I have no idea. How was your
relationship with Jim Ross Jim Man, he's the president, you know.
I don't know. Yeah, I got along, just certain things
(01:28:08):
that I didn't like, you know, but he had every
right to say them, I guess. You know. When I
went to rehab, there was some comments that that he
threw let me over the phone that I really didn't like.
And I'll always remember that from him. I got I
(01:28:29):
gotta get over because it really pissed me off, probably
because it was the truth. What made you go to rehab?
Speaker 3 (01:28:35):
Ah?
Speaker 1 (01:28:37):
It was an ultimatum, go to rehab, I'll be fired.
You know. I didn't want to go in, and I
want to kicking and scream that. It's probably one of
the best things that's happened. How do things go at rehab? Great?
You know, I did what I was supposed to do,
got through the program. Were you one hundred percent ready
to return? Obviously I wasn't because I went out again.
Speaker 2 (01:28:58):
I was gonna ask you if you could describe incident
where he got the UI charge.
Speaker 1 (01:29:04):
Man, I don't want to play my violin here. I've
been doing that for seven months now. I'm just feeling
sorry for himself. I don't want to feel sorry for
himself anymore. I want to take responsibility for what I did.
You know, I got hooked on the pain killers. I
want to rehab. They gave me an opportunity. They paid
all the rehab. They paid my bills while I was gone,
(01:29:26):
never stopped saying to check. W W was very faithful
to that, and they even gave me a chance to
come back. I was working out, you know, the already
had staring lines. I think I was going to start
going with Lita and Jeff again, and Matt. You know
into that same storyline. It just what took me out,
(01:29:47):
I guess, you know, just a lot of personal issues,
A lot of personal issues that I've been dealing with
for a long time. This is really the first time,
second time I went you know, I did anything after rehab.
You know, I was clean six months, five months, and
(01:30:10):
I drank one night and then I stopped and I
went back, and then that night, the second night, I drank.
You know, obviously I'm got caught with a d too.
Just I guess the divorce issues had a big strain
on being rejected. I guess because it wasn't me either
(01:30:35):
wanted the divorce, sir. A lot of financial issues that
I don't care to go into because they I'm not
so much at fault on that, Like three big things
(01:30:55):
at once. You know, you're not to rehab, trying to
stay sober, going through divorce, financial issues, living alone. When
I've been living, you know, had eleven years of marriage,
and before that I was living with my mom and dad.
You know, I really was never alone. The thing of
(01:31:15):
not being able to see my kids a lot, which
I'm very close to is had a bit of a
big effect on me. And I can give all the
excuses in the world and try and justify what I did,
but the bottom line is it was wrong. Obviously.
Speaker 3 (01:31:33):
You know.
Speaker 1 (01:31:33):
There's no excuse to get dropped the snow, excuse to
get out of myself. You know, that's what a natic does.
You know, that's what we do best, is trying numb
the pain with somebody else. It was something else, and
I guess at that time in my state of mind,
that's what I wanted to do, was just get out
(01:31:54):
of myself. And obviously I can't do it normally. I
gotta take it to the extreme, which is my addative personality,
you know. So yeah, you know, no excuses. I screwed
up that and now I'm paying the consequences. And I'll
(01:32:14):
tell you something, it's that DUI and me being let
go from WWF. Sometimes I kicked myself in the ass,
and sometimes now I'm realizing it's probably the best thing
that happened to me for my personal site and insight
on it, and especially for my spiritual insight, because I've
(01:32:38):
always been a spiritual person, and maybe since ninety eight
ninety nine I just totally was withdrawn from my spirituality
with I believe in Christ. And you know, I'm a
Christian and I've always had a relationship with and I
got away from that during those years. But it's unfortunate
(01:33:01):
that it takes these bad things in my life to
get back to where I am and spiritually, but I
haven't had this kind of peace in a long time,
you know. And there's no money, no materially, no person,
not even my children, that can cure that pain and
(01:33:23):
that emotional distress that I was in. Just just the
understanding of my God, you know, the understanding of Christ
and that I believe in, and that's the only thing
that that that where I find peace, and that's where
I'm back at, you know, right, And you know one
(01:33:45):
you know, when I got fired, man, I thought I
was gonna be the end of the world. I didn't
know what I was gonna do. Man, I didn't know
I was gonna pay the bills, right, I didn't know
I was going to pay the bills. I didn't know
what I was gonna do. I didn't know if there
was those still gonna be would make a living wrestling,
you know. And God's opening the doors up in so
many ways, you know, And it's just it's just a
(01:34:09):
big experience for me. Man, But I'll tell you something.
W w F isn't the world. There's a lot more
out there than that. And I'm seeing that again. Now.
Did you did you think that the w F would
let you go? I knew they were I've always had
a sixth sense. You can ask child with Junior about
(01:34:29):
this one of these days. He'll tell you. Even when
when I talked to one of the agents, I don't
want to name names, but I talked to one of
the agents and they said, no, you're not gonna be fired,
but this is it. You got to really straighten up.
And I was in Cincinnati that Monday and I got
a message from that certain agent and they had talked
(01:34:52):
to the people on top, obviously, and they called back
the a message on my phone while I was at
the gym, and I knew it. I knew it when
I got the message. So I called back and sure
enough they said they were as terminating. And it was hard, man,
it's hard to hear. It was just thill my mind.
Speaker 2 (01:35:15):
Don't they leave the door open? Because obviously Steve Riegal
had his problems in the past, and he had to
go back and prove himself. Went to Memphis and stuff.
Speaker 1 (01:35:22):
Do you think it the doors left open for you
to return? I don't know. Never say never. You know what, though,
I'm not gonna put my hopes and ambitions on them,
no way, because that's what I did before, you know.
And like I said, it's not Damn that screwed this up.
It's me. This is my doing. I'm not blaming them
(01:35:43):
at all. Whether I'm go get or ever go back
to them maybe, but you know what, I don't have
to prove nothing to them. I've heard that, well, if
you prove yourself, you can come back. You know where
I got to prove it to God in myself. I mean,
I'm staying sober right now because there's nothing holding me
back now. I got no no job issues, no legal
(01:36:05):
issues except the d UI. You know that that can
keep me from going out this time right now, as
of today, and since the d UI, I've been staying sober,
first of all, one step at a time, one day
to time, but the graces of God and with a
lot of help from from friends and a program, you know.
(01:36:28):
And I'm doing it this time because I want to
stay sober for me, for me. I've noticed that when
I can't speak for anybody else. I'm just speaking for
any girl. When I do these things, bad things happen.
Even when I don't. I don't mean to go hurt anybody,
(01:36:48):
because you know, thank god I didn't. I don't want
to hurt anybody. Even when I just wanted to do
just to be on my own and just do it
by myself, bad things happen. I don't know why, just
bad things happening to me. That's God telling me, hey, dummy,
I don't want you doing this. So it's more now,
(01:37:09):
not just for job issues and stuff like that. Yeah,
all that ties into it, But the main thing for
me right now is me. Now, it's for me, now
forgotten me. That's it.
Speaker 2 (01:37:20):
Do you think the business puts a lot of strains
on a person like yourself?
Speaker 1 (01:37:23):
Well, I can say that and it does. There's a
lot of pressures, but that's what we're professionals. We're expected
to deal with these pressures. We're professionals. That's who are
getting paid for. And it can be done. Look at
all the guys that have more pressure than I've had,
you know, maybe different situations and different stuff, you know,
(01:37:44):
and they handle it, you know, they handle it. Without boothes.
They handle it without drugs. You know, look at Steven Stephen.
You know, he's a great example. Look at how much
he's come back, you know, and even then, you know,
he still has to watch it because it's one day
at a time.
Speaker 2 (01:37:58):
You know, are you negotiating right now with any other groups?
Speaker 1 (01:38:04):
I've gotten a hold of Japan. Uh, it looks like
I'm going back to Japan. Ah x x w F
talk to them. They say they're interested. I don't know,
and just a certain thing and right now, just independent work.
Speaker 2 (01:38:23):
Man, what about Mexico Juniors down? The movie's done.
Speaker 1 (01:38:26):
I wouldn't mind going back to Mexico, even if it's
to see family.
Speaker 2 (01:38:29):
You know, I didn't really get to talk to you
about movie. What are your thoughts on human dude?
Speaker 1 (01:38:35):
It's a very talented nut. I love him, man, He's
got a great heart. He's he's wild at heart, and
he reminds me a lot of me. All right, well, yeah,
he's wild, he's a wild Obviously he's got a great talent.
Speaker 2 (01:38:54):
But it was like working on I guess with less
that you're a h I love less, total gentleman.
Speaker 1 (01:39:01):
I mean with me, he's just awesome. That's why I
respect them so much.
Speaker 2 (01:39:06):
Patch Friday, you worked for Indie Promotion up and on
your w C I and you worked without Loki.
Speaker 1 (01:39:14):
How did that go?
Speaker 2 (01:39:15):
As far as your first match.
Speaker 1 (01:39:16):
In the Surprisingly, it was good for me. I needed
to know if I could still do that type of match.
And maybe I wasn't as quick as I usually was,
but I haven't been in really that type of a
match for seven months. I haven't really even been in
the ring for that long, you know, at one time,
So it was good. I'm a little out of shape,
but I'm working my way back towards the shape I
(01:39:39):
need to be in. How do people treat you? Awesome? Awesome?
Did your elbow pretty much?
Speaker 3 (01:39:44):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (01:39:45):
I did the frog splash, you know, brace. You gonna
see me working without the brace now. It feels great.
You know. That's another one. Another good thing from all
this time office, my body's had time to really heal.
You know. This is the best injury free my body's
been since ninety nine.
Speaker 2 (01:40:02):
At what point in your career did you say, well,
I made it. I'm in the business. I am where
I want to be. Where did you reach at level?
Speaker 1 (01:40:09):
Yet? I never read it's not where I want to be.
I always want to I always want to strike, try
to achieve the most I can. You know, I want
to be many better on these days in a paper.
That's that's my goal.
Speaker 6 (01:40:28):
You know.
Speaker 1 (01:40:29):
Whether it happened or not, I don't know. All I
can do is just keep trying. You know. I know
I'm successful because I'm happy with what I can do
in the ring, right That is success to me having
the boys having I guess respect of some of the boys.
I don't know why they all respect me, but you
know I mean being treated right by the boys in
(01:40:51):
the dressing room, that's success. You know, success to me
now is more than money and is more than fain
and being on TV. You know, success for me is
different now. And like I said, it's taken a lot
of bad ship to happen to me for me to
realize this, right, but success for me right now and
(01:41:14):
probably from now to my dad died, I'll always measure,
you know, my performance in the ring, how I can
please the true wrestling fans and the new wrestling fans,
and you know, respect of my comments and what I do.
As far as businesses, the real success comes in personal life,
(01:41:35):
which is my biggest battle right now.
Speaker 2 (01:41:37):
Do you have any regrets?
Speaker 1 (01:41:39):
Yeah, I got a lot of regrets. Got a lot
of regrets and the wrong decisions that I mean, I
got a lot of regrets. I wish I could have
done a lot of stuff over, but I can't. What
I can do is learn from the mistakes. Done a
(01:42:00):
lot to this day. What is your fondest memory in
the ring or in the business.
Speaker 3 (01:42:11):
H m hmmmm.
Speaker 1 (01:42:30):
I don't know. Well, that's hard to say. You know,
I've had a lot of good memories in the ring,
a lot of them. I think that there are moments
after a match standing in the ring and feeling that high,
that natural rush, right, that adrenaline high, uh of the people,
(01:42:55):
Like after the ECW match with d Like after Matchural
Ray Mystery and uh and in Holland Habit, after that
match with Chris Benoi h in the semi finals and
in the Junior tournament. You know, a lot of matches
(01:43:15):
with Chris have been like that, though, you know that
those are my memories man standing in the ring and
feeling that that that's that's what I love in there.
You know, I got a little taste of that this
past week again, and I felt good. I don't have
done it a long time. You know, I'm not. I'm not.
(01:43:36):
There's still a little bit in the cast tank.
Speaker 2 (01:43:40):
Is there anybody out there that you haven't worked with
yet that you want to work with?
Speaker 1 (01:43:46):
Well, there's a lot of people. There's a lot of
good talent out there. I'd like to work against Rob
and then you know who else, super crazy talented kid.
I got to work with low Ki. I wanted to
work with him. You know there there's a lot of
(01:44:08):
talent out there there. I'd like to work with. You know,
if you I'd like to give Jeff Hardy in a
single any good We always asked that, so on myself
taken in or m hmm, see if I I can't,
(01:44:28):
I can't tell on us and they're not ribs. I
can tell how they shaved my eyebrows, the nasty voice
thanks to them. Oh yeah, they got me good which time? No,
it is this personal, that's great. Just in the plane
(01:44:51):
drinking drugging. Yeah, they gimmick my beer and I was
out man, and they shaved my eyebrows. Not only that
I heard, I don't remember this, but they told me that.
Speaker 6 (01:45:09):
And my dick out in my hands. That the stewardess
is you can't be like that. Chris got a blanket
about it. But uh, it's just stuff like that, you
know that. I remember they left a little Hitler mustage.
Speaker 1 (01:45:28):
They shaved my eyebrows and cut my bangs and cut
a little triangle on my head. Shaved the triangle on
my head, so you can imagine I looked like Frankenstein.
And then they left a little Hitler mustache on me.
Oh that's great. She's gonna mention some names and you
just one word comment or one sentence strong, some of
the guys sting. He's influenced me spiritually, laclure great body
(01:46:00):
the Rock mhm h. Strives for perfection, hard work, Steve Austin.
Oh wait, I gotta throw this into some of the
best interviews I've ever seen her is from the Rock.
But yeah, he knows how to do it. Steve Aston
(01:46:24):
save w W s as he's a he's a workhorse.
Oh phenomenal. You can't do it all complete package, she McMahon.
How you say he wants man, he's driven, driven, and
(01:46:55):
he's a perfectionist and he's driven. You know, I don't
know how to put that out. Person wants to be
successful in business, perseverance.
Speaker 3 (01:47:05):
Man.
Speaker 1 (01:47:06):
Talk about a guy that man, he's cool. Man. I
wish I had that. It's his great quality.
Speaker 2 (01:47:14):
Stephanie mcmahn.
Speaker 1 (01:47:18):
Intelligent.
Speaker 2 (01:47:21):
I guess in closing, is there anything you want to
say to your fans out there that you're never given
the opportunity to stay before that.
Speaker 1 (01:47:26):
Might be watching this videotape. Thanks for your support, HM.
I hope I can keep bringing a satisfaction to I
hope I can continue to produce. I know I wanted
it more. If there weren't for the fans, not only me,
(01:47:51):
but all the rest in business, that wouldn't be so.
I'm always grateful to the fans. Whether you yell at me,
you know, whether you cheer Eddie eddie or Eddie sucks.
As long as you don't stay quiet, I'm happy. Thank you,
Thank you very much. M Yeah. Titlematchnetwork dot Com MHM.